USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 65
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One of the most interesting and the most noted of all the earth-works of Butler County is that known as " Fortified Hill," located on section 12, Ross Township, on the farms of Clarke Lane and David Descompas, three miles south of the town of Hamilton. The work occurs on the summit of the most elevated hill in that vicinity. The hill is a short distance from the river, surrounded on all sides, save a narrow space at the north, by deep ravines, and rising to a height of two hundred and fifty feet above the stream. It juts out into the valley. thus constituting a spur, which, with its steep sides, makes it an inviting place for a stronghold to a primitive people. From the line of fortification the hill is sloping, but becomes gradually steeper as the bottom of the ravines is reached. The embankment, composed of a stiff clay mingled with stone, aud having a height
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ARCHAEOLOGY.
of five feet by thirty-five feet base, skirting along the brow of the hill, and generally conforming to its outline, ineloses an area of a little over sixteen aeres, the interior of which gradually rises to the height of twenty-six feet above the base of the wall. The wall has no aceompa- nying diteli, the material composing it having probably been taken up from the surface, or else from the "dug- holes" which occur at various points within the walls. The line of wall has four gateways-as may be seen from the accompanying engraving-each twenty feet wide, one at the northern division, and the others at the south, but respectively facing the four points of the com- pass. These gateways are all faeed or protected on the interior by dug-holes or ex- cavations, some of which TOUND are sixty feet over, and now filled up with mud to a ANKMENT depth of ten or eleven feet. EMBANK Three of the gateways are completely covered with inner lines of embankment, the most intricate one being the one at the north,-and marked N in the engrav- ing. This part of the fort has long been under eulti- - vation, while the southern portion is still covered with EMBANKMENT forest-trees. Notwithstand- DUCHCLE ing the fact that the plow has been doing its work, all STONE MOUND the lines at the north are distinctly visible. The wall beyond the north gateway, yet covering it, is now lev- eled, although not a weed or blade of grass will grow upon it, thus apparently shaming man for this un- necessary act of vandalismi.
Within the main lines, and covering the gateway, are four other walls, thus not only protecting the gateway, but also rendering this point in the fortification almost impreguable against the assault of an enemy. The gateways E and S belong to that imethod of fortification known as Tlascan. The former opens upon a parapet, and the other was partly protected by a stone mound. Within the gateway, at W, was formerly a stone mound eight feet in height, which was removed by the farmers iu that vicinity for building purposes. Thirty rods north of gateway N is a mound seven feet high, composed of mingled earth and stone. In 1836 this mound was ten feet in height. Since then it has been several times partially excavated, and a
quantity of stone taken out, all of which showed the action of fire. The mound was probably used as a signal station ; and indientions prove it had been frequently used. A mound also oceurs at the south, in close prox- imity to the wall. It has never been disturbed, is finely rounded, and hidden by the underbrush.
The outlines, as well as the position, deelare the dis- tinetive character of this work. That it was constructed as a place of defense needs no elaborate argument; for every detail of its structure fully shows it. The method of fortifying shows wonderful military skill; for every avenne is thoroughly protected, and the principal ap- proaeh is guarded by four walls, with the addition of two supplementary walls. Should the exterior eres- EMBANKMENT cent wall be successfully assaulted, and even the gateway carried by an en- emy, still the fortress is yet protected by a system of defense which would more or less confuse an enemy, thus giving advantage to the defenders. Add to this the fact that the walls are so arranged that but very few could pass between the lines abreast, which in a hand-to-hand encounter would be of disadvantage to the assaulting party. If these walls were addition- ally strengthened by means wwuns of palisades, then the for- midable character of the work would readily appear. MOUND To be appreciated, the fort should be seen. From the summit of the hill near the southern part of the in- elosare the chieftain could take his stand and behold! - every movement of the en- emy without. Thus he could guard and direet his forces according to the movement of the foe. He conkl also cast his eye, aud, by means of certain siguals, communi- cate with the people belonging to six other inelosures, all in full view.
FORTIFIED HILL.
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Traces of the Indian are numerous, but there is no positive knowledge of his villages, although two encamp- ments in Ross Township are known. Indian graves are frequently met with in excavating for gravel.
An Archaeological Society was formed in Hamilton in 1879, but is not now in active existence. Its cabinet is in the rooms of the Lane Library.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Wrinry its extreme limits Butler County embraces a territory twenty-five miles east and west, by nineteen miles north and south, its average limits being not far from twenty-four and one-half miles by eighteen. The secretary of state's report for 1878 gives the acreage of the county at 291,990, which is 5,500 acres more than the average of the other eighty seven counties of the 'State. This land lies in the valley formed by the diver- genee of the Great and Little Miami Rivers. It presents many interesting topographical features. There was at some time in the unrecorded past a terrific struggle of natural forces in this valley. During the period of gla- cial action, the iee mountains wound their slow course, and cut a path on their way to the sea.
The evidences of this are abundant, and are to be seen in the outcroppings on the banks of the numerous streams which find their outlet in the Great Miami River.
The average breadth of this valley is twelve miles. The eastern divide skirts the borders of Warren and Hamilton Counties; the western divide runs nearly par- allel with the eastern, beginning with the high lands of Montgomery County, and attaining its greatest elevation towards the north. The boundaries of this valley are sharply defined, and can be easily traced by the unassisted - eye. This fact will recur to any one, who, from the crest along which the Dayton Short Line Railroad passes, has cast a glance westwardly, or who, from the height between Millville and Darrtown, has looked eastward to the ridge which separates the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers from the Great Miami Valley. A view from either of these vantage points is one of surpassing loveli- 'ness. In Spring the verdure is refreshing in its tints, the slopes have enough of forest to relieve the monotony of a dead landscape, while the fields of starting grain, to use a rounded period of Edward Everett, "appear as if nature had spread a carpet fit to be pressed by the foot- steps of her descending God." If one seeks natural beauties he has not far to go, and yet it is probably true that most people have given scarcely a thought to the riches of beauty so lavishly spread around them. If one will take his stand on a Summer evening on the hills southeast of Hamilton, looking over the valley toward Port Union, and survey its fields of ripening grain, he 1 will see a picture such asgno artist could transfer to can- yas. On the road between Hamilton and Middletown, on the east side of the Miami River, there are several .points of observation from which the prospect is equally beautiful. Among these may be mentioned the views near the residences of Philip Hughes and Peter Shafor, looking westward, or from Kennedy's farm, about two miles from Hamilton, on the west side of the river. The traveler by the Junction Railroad to Oxford, if observant,
will, just before arriving at MeGonigle's Station, eatch a swift glimpse of the peaceful vale in which Millville rests like a gem in a setting of rare excellenee.
From the heights around Oxford the forest and the cleared upland rise and swell or fall away in graceful undulations that fill the eye and the heart with a sense of graceful beauty and perpetual delight. If the old saying be true, that "an undevout astronomer is mad," then it will be equally true to assert that he who has lived among such beauties and has been unobservant, is unworthy the gifts so freely spread before him. If the reader will consult the map of Butler County printed in this volume, he will see that the Miami River begins its course in the extreme northeastern border, and thence cuts diagonally through, leaving the county at its south- western border. As the crow flies this distance is thirty miles, but in the meanderings. of the river it is probably forty-five to fifty miles. A glance at the general lay of the land within this valley shows it to be in harmony with the general pitch of the surface south of the great divide which separates the waters that flow into the lakes, and thence to the north Atlantic Ocean, from these waters which seek the warmer elime of the south, and thenee flow northward through that greatest of all rivers, the Gulf Stream, to again meet after a long separation. The observer will also note that the courses of all streams flowing into the Great Miami is from north-west to south- east on the westward side of the river. This direction is likewise in conformity with the slope of the country, but on the east side of the river we find an anomalous hy- drographie condition. While on the westward side Cotton Run, Seven-Mile, Four-Mile, Indian Creek, and other tributaries of the Miami flow in a natural eourse, the largest tributary on the eastward side within Butler County, in defiance of all natural law, appears to run up hill. Gregory's Creek has its sources in the lands of Union Township, and thence flows northwestwardly and empties into the Miami near, Lesourdsville. So also Pleasant Run, which has its source beyond the borders of Hamilton County, makes what is apparently an up hill detour, and finds its way into the Miami at a point nearly abreast at Symmes Corner. One who never fol- lowed the course of these two streams, save on the map, would be at a loss to account for this strange contraven- tion of physical laws, but a following of the streams themselves affords an explanation of the seeming contra- diction. Gregory's Creek and Pleasant Run both pass through gorges and ruts scooped out for them by glaciers that must have separated from the main iee mountain as it moved down the valley. These smaller glaciers being less powerful than the parent glacier were com- pelled to yield obedience to the character of the land over which they passed, while the larger glacier, by it. great weight, was able to carve its way in the general direction which is shown on the westward side of the river. On the eastward side the adventurers cast adrift
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TOPOGRAPHY.
were compelled by their weakness to pick out the softest and easiest road in their journey to the Ohio Valley.
The reasonableness of this theory could be abundantly demonstrated did space permit, but it is merely alluded to here for the purpose of drawing the attention to a physical curiosity which has few parallels.
Within the memory of people living, there have been great changes in both the elimatology and the physical features of the county. In the course of the river there have been changes within the recollection of people who Lelong to the present generation. The Miami and Erie Canal was begun in 1825, and so late as 1845 Hamilton shippers to Cincinnati by canal relate that it was no un- common thing for the horses to flounder from the tow- path breast deep into a lake which covered most of the ground which lies east of the old Chase farm, now owned by Amor Smith, near Jones's Station. Drainage, both natural and artificial, has reclaimed all this waste land and made it as valuable a tract as there is in the county. With regard to the river, the number of its tributaries, and the immense rain-fall at its sources, make it a stream remarkable for the suddenness of its floods, its volume of water, and the uncertainty of its changes in course. The cut off above Hamilton is within the memory of people now living, and the flood of 1866, which swept away the old Hamilton bridge, and of which a description is elsewhere given, is still in vivid recollection. That flood carried several thousand acres of valable land from its owners, and in some instances worked almost financial ruin. This was notably the case at the bend of the river, where the farm of M. P. Alston is situated. It is doubtful, however, from the testimony of old resi- dents, whether the floods of the present generation equal in volume or in destructiveness those which were com- mon at the beginning of the present century.
It is certain that they are not so regular in their return, and can not be so surely counted upon.
Hamilton between the years 1810 and 1825 did a large trade with New Orleans and with the Indian Ter- ritory. That trade was carried on by flat-boats, some of which were built on the banks of Four-Mile Creek, near Oxford, and were there loaded with provisions suitable for the Southern markets, and the flood never failed to come and bear them along their way.
"There is not such certainty in the returns of these froshets now, and it would be impossible to establish a trade on the chance of such conditions as made those ventures at that time perfectly sound from a business point of view. It would appear as if rain-falls and snow-falls were greater in those earlier days than now. Whether this change is due to the denudation of the val- by by cutting off the timber, it would, perhaps, not be profitable to take time in inquiry. It is probable, how- wer, that as the land became clearer and broken up in Mitlement that the rain and snow falls are now absorbed, where formerly they ran to the river, and that thus, in-
stead of the annual average of rain being less than it once was, we are misled by its effect, being less apparent in great floods. It is the opinion of at least two engi- neers, who have had great experience in the measure- ment of water volumes, that the flood of 1866 was prob- ably not exceeded in quantity of water by any that pre- ceded it within the written history of the valley.
With regard to the soil Butler County compares fa- vorably with the average of the State. It shows but a small proportion of what is called poor or waste land. In this class but 9,410 aeres are returned to the secretary of state, leaving 282,580 acres as either wood or pasture land, or as susceptible of tillage. This is the report as given by the Ohio Agricultural Board in 1879. There is wide diversity in the fruitfulness of different portions of the county. It embraces as rich land as there is in the State, and some exceedingly poor. It has been found by experiment, however, that the lands which are con- sidered poor possess hidden elements of strength, and some as good farms as there are in the county were orig- inally purchased at cheap figures, in view of their por- `erty. of production. Intelligent tillage has shown that this sceming poverty was easy of remedy, that there was inherent virtue in the soil, which needed only waking to activity by simple artificial means. The average compo- sition of the upland soil is a sandy loam. In the high- est uplands this changes to a clay. In the bottom where the Miami River has made its deposits the character of the soil changes to a deep black-what are termed the bottom lands of the Miami Valley.
It may be questioned, however, whether the term bottom land is rightly applied, since the fertility of the uplands for certain crops fully equals that of the low land. Bottom lands are peculiarly adapted to eorn, the upland to wheat and barley. No county in the State is traversed by more small streams. The bridges under county supervision number more than one thousand, and the loss on bridges by flood three years ago was more than $40,000. This is mentioned in connection with what has already been said about the Miami River and its tributaries, to impress upon the reader the significance of a natural system of irrigation and drainage. The up- lands abound in springs, and in seasons of drought give out the hoard of water they store during seasons of plen- itude. In seasons of extreme rain-fall the inclination of the land toward the river readily conveys away the hurtful surplus. It has been found necessary in bnt few portions of the county to resort to artificial draining- nature has so well provided for the wants of the hus- bandman. There is no doubt that if artificial means were used the productiveness of the county could be largely increased, for wherever drainage experiments have been tried the results have been exceedingly suitis- factory. A good illustration of this natural drainage can be seen along the bank of the canal, just north of Hamilton, or on the rocky road between Madison City
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
to Miltonville. Where the rock crops up from the cuttings it will be found that there is a sufficient depth of soil from deposits of verdure to insure richness and stability, while the underlying rock prevents too great evaporation in drought, and at the same time acts as an underground roof to turu excessive water into the Miami River. . We have tried in this way to briefly explain the most striking feature that pertains to the general outlet of the county.
.. A wrong impression is abroad with respect to the fertility of the Miami Valley. We have endeavored to show that the uplands are good for wheat and for barley, where the low lands are good for corn. The excecdiug richness of production is, therefore, not due to natural fertility of soil so much as it is due to a plan which in nature appears to have been provided for the continual renewal of the land. In the bottoms this renewal of land comes from the annual overflows of the river. In the uplands it comes from the absorption by the soil of nitrogenous elements from the atmosphere. From these two sources, widely apart as they are, spring the sources of Butler County's wealth.
It would be hard between the Lakes and the Gulf, or between Portland, Maine, and the Rocky Mountains, to find the same number of acres better adaptel to gen- eral purposes of cultivation. It would appear as if all the elements, both in soil and in climate, had combined in the Miami Valley to make the labor of the farmer successful. On every side come fructifying rills, the snows of Winter cover the sleeping grain, the warin breath of Spring breathes nowhere more gently, and
- above are no more benignant Summer skics.
GEOLOGY.
As we have noted in our article on the topography of the county, the main stream runs south-west, while all its tributaries have south-east valleys. Even the Great Miami at some former period diverged from its present route and beut to the east. The larger and more plainly marked of these channels is that which divides just below Hamilton, and follows the line of the prescut Mill Creek through Fairfield and Union Towu- ships. This valley is in the neighborhood of a mile wide, and the gravel and bowlders show plainly where its waters once flowed. The other channel of the Mi- ami began in Lemon Township, and followed Dick's Creek through this and Warren County uutil it finally debouched in the Little Miami. The canal follows the valley first mentioned, while the Lebanon Canal once followed the other. It is probable that these depressions, as well as those of the various creeks, owe much to glacial action.
In the earliest map of this region the Miami is indi- cated as Rocky River. Its bed in many places shows the rock foundation, and so do those of Seven-Mile Creek and its affluents. But Twin Creek and Indian Creek have the evidences of greater antiquity, as their beds are entirely alluvial, so far as is visible to the eye, and the rock is buried beneath. In each valley there is a little extent of level ground, varying from a few yards to upwards of three miles wide in the Miami at Hickory Bottom, in the south part of Madison Township and north part of St. Clair. These bottoms are known as prairies, and were partly without wood at the beginning of the settlements, and where free were covered cach year with au excellent growth of grass. These low-lying alluvial districts cover an area of not less than eighty square, miles, or between onc-fifth and one-sixth of the total surface.
This county is one of blue limestone. Most of this is not of a high character for the quarry ; but there are several beds that make excellent building-stone. Orton's geological survey, which we shall follow in this descrip- tion, says one of the best sections in the county can be found at or near Hamilton. In the quarries just west of the river, the section can be begun at a horizon about two hundred and seventy-five feet above low water at Cincinnati, and it can be followed in frequent outerops to the summit of Heilsman's Hill, on the Millville pike, . where many of the characteristic fossils of the Lebanon division are found.
The bedded rocks of Butler County belong, with the exception of the very limited area of one or two square miles, to the Lower Silurian or Cincinnati group of Ohio. The exception named is found in the northeastern corner of Oxford Township, where a spur of the cliff limestone crosses the county line, and covers a section or two of the county. Both the Clinton and Niagara formations are shown here, but the area is so small, and is known to so few residents of the county, comparatively, that it may be dismissed from further consideration.
The Butler County scale begins at about two hundred fect above the base of the system, and extends to the summit of the series. In Cincinnati this system is about eight hundred feet in thickness, making the Lebanon beds about three hundred, the Cincinnati division proper four hundred and twenty-five, and the Point Pleasant beds fifty feet. Thus in this county it gives about six hundred feet of bedded rocks. There are few points of interest in the formation at large that are not found iu Butler County, and on the other hand there are few peculiarities of stratification or fossil contents that de- serve special mention as differing from other portions of the Cincinnati group.
The streams in the vicinity of Oxford, Four-Mile, and its tributaries, furnish very prolific although not very extended exposures. The horizon is quite definitely fixed by the presence of Orthis retrorsa, Salter; Orthis
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GEOLOGY.
Carleyi, Hall. This shell is found on the banks of Four- Mile very near to the water's edge, directly cast of the village of Oxford. The vertical range of this fossil is very limited, while its horizontal range is wide, so that it serves an excellent purpose as a landmark on the sys- tem. Its latitude is a horizon about four hundred and seventy-five feet above low water at Cincinnati, or about three hundred and forty-five above low water in Ham- ilton.
The Oxford sections are of interest from the fact that they yielded thirty-five years ago many of the type fossils of the formation. The early geological work of David Christy, Esq., was done in this field, and through him collections of the fossils found here were distributed among eastern and foreign geologists. The name of Ox- ford is, accordingly, very widely known as one of the typical localities of the blue limestone or Cincinnati group of Southern Ohio. The original cabinet of Mr. Christy is now in possession of the Miami University. It con- tains a number of interesting fossils.
Wayne and Madison Townships, and especially the latter, furnish unsurpassed exposures of the Lebanon beds on the banks of the smaller streams that drain their highlands. Kemp's Run, near Middletown Station, furnishes excellent ground for the collector, as do several branches that flow from Loy's Hill to Twin Creek, on the north line of the county.
The lowest ground in the county is to be found on its southern boundary in the Miami Valley. Its approx- imate elevation above the level of low water in Cincin- nati is fifty feet. The alluvial division represents the valleys both ancient and modern-the eroded regions front which the rocks have been carried away to a depth at least below existing drainage courses. These areas could be appropriately described as the portions of the county that have an elevation of not more than two hundred and fifty feet above the Ohio River. The up- lands embrace the lands above this level. A large pro- portion of them, however, lie at an elevation between four and six hundred feet above the Ohio. This divis- ion of the surface of the county is much less definite on the east side of the river than it is on the west, for the reason that the drift deposits are heavier in the first named district. In other words, the lines of the valleys are here harder to be traced. There are areas of unmis- takable uplands, but they are connected with the valleys by slopes of considerable extent, which completely oh- sure the true outlines of the rocky floor. .
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