A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 3

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612

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I. The Berea Grit in No. 11, in the table, in Eastern Ohio.

2. In the Ohio shale in Northern and Central Ohio. This is in No. 10 in the table.

3. In the Clinton limestone in Wood, Hancock and Fairfield Counties. This is in No. 5 on the table.

4. In the Trenton Limestone in Northwestern Ohio. No. I on the bottom in the table.

In Lancaster, in Southern Ohio, the largest pressure of gas ex- ists. At 2,000 feet wells have yielded 1,000,000 cubic feet of gas per clay when first struck, but wells there cannot be sunk for less than $3,000 to $4,000 each. Gas and oil were discovered at Findlay, in November 1884. There were surface indications of gas and oil at Findlay long before it was found. In one instance the gas had been used to light a dwelling for forty years before the discovery. The first flow was at 1, 100 feet, but the great find was in November 1886, when the great Karg well showed a daily yield of 14,000,000 feet. In the Findlay field, oil was discovered first and after that gas. The substance of the matter is that in 14 of the North-western Counties of Ohio, under the black swamp, at a distance of 1,000 to 2,000 feet be- low the surface, the Trenton limestone has a different chemical com- position from what generally characterizes that stratum. The lime- stone is of a dolomite character. In these rocks the lime is 50 to 60 per cent. In the usual and ordinary Trenton formation the lime is 80 and 90 per cent: In other words, in the latter case, the rocks are unfit

HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

for the storage of oil and it will not be found. The salt water, the remains of ancient seas which covered the earth, is universal. It will be found everywhere at varying depths. The gas and oil are above the salt water and in the arches of the Trenton rock. Where the strata of the covering rock is uniform, oil and gas will not be found. There must be a change in the porous rock to find it. Natural gas is a stored power and nature will not renew it as rapidly as it is now used. Some day it will be and must be exhausted and by that time we shall have an artificial substitute.

The Soils and Forests.

'The soils of Ohio are divided into those affected by glacial action and non glacial. A map of the glacial and of the non glacial and of Ohio is shown on page 91, Ist Volume of Howe, before referred to. In this map Adams, Pike, Scioto, Jackson and the South-eastern por- tion of Ross are non glacial. Like Neptune they rose out of the sea and were'seaborn. The non glacial soils are especially adapted to for- est growth, and in the primitive state, were covered with dense for- ests. The forests have been destroyed to an almost entire extent and it seems shameful and wasteful to find how the forests in Clermont, Brown, Adams, Scioto, Pike, Jackson, Lawrence and Gallia Counties have been destroyed. They do not exist and have disappeared in the past fifty years. These soils are fit for the growth of lumber, for rearing sheep and cattle, for fruits and vegetables. They are no longer, generally, fit for wheat and corn. The upland clay land favors the white oak tree. White oak land is good, but requires intelligent treatment. The hills of Southern Ohio should never have been denu- ded of their forests, and nature will take terrible revenge for this for- est destruction. The generations now on earth will have to begin for- est planting and keep it up. First class land in Ohio was covered by the sugar tree and walnut, second class, by white oak, and third class, the swamps, by elm and red maple. The last class when drained makes the best of land.

Geological Report of 1870.

In this work on page 163, chapter V, Scioto County is treated of specially, but the examination was only partial.

Madison Township contains iron ore and coal.

Harrison Township has three feet of fire clay and two layers of iron ore, one guinea fowl, 18 inches seam, and one one foot seam. It was from the lands of Harrison Furnace that the clay now used at Sciotoville for fire bricks was first used. There is a vein of coal one foot four inches in Harrison Township.

In Bloom Township there is a vein of coal eighteen inches, and three feet of sandstone containing iron ore, and three feet of fire clay on the Henning farm. It is of good quality and is used at South Web- ster. There is three feet of fire clay in Joseph Spitnagle's place.

GEOLOGY.

On the Scioto Furnace lands there were ten inches of cannel coal, and one foot two inches of guinea fowl iron ore.

In Porter Township the principal geological deposit is fire clay used in the manufactories at Sciotoville. There is a six foot vein in the township. It is hard ard of a light ash color. The bricks made are in high repute and command a ready sale. An analysis of No. 1 clay from this Township is as follows :

Silicic acid

61.90

Alumina with trace of iron 22.80

Lime .05

Magnesia .70

Water

12.90

Potash and soda .90

Total,

99.25

The writer then compares these with the fire clays of Europe and Great Britain, and comes to the conclusion that the Scioto County fire clays will compare favorably with the best foreign clays. The ideal in a fire clay is pure silicate of alumina. It is almost infusible. The per cent of silica in the Sciotoville Fire Clay compares favorably with foreign clays. The per cent of impurities is small. The impurities, oxides of iron, magnesia and alkalies, which can be present without rendering the material useless for its finer applications, contain from 2 to 31/2 per cent of these bases. Sciotoville Fire Clay rises from .90 to 2.90 per cent. of these. In foreign clays, the aggregates are larger.

Clay Township has two feet of sandy iron ore. It has a vein of clay one foot seven inches thick.

In Vernon township there is three feet of a coal vein, a second of the same and a third of one foot. There is one foot of red black ore and another ore vein of six inches.

At Clinton Furnace the coal vein is two feet two inches in thick- ness.

Empire Furnace has an eight inch vein of ore, one foot and ten inches of coal.

Green Township has a three foot vein of coal, another of one foot and another of one foot and three inches.

The foregoing are the only Townships of Scioto County treated in the Geological Report of 1870.

Formation of Hills and Valleys. By Wilbur Stout.

As we look at the broad and beautiful valley of the Ohio, walled in by the rugged hills, we seldom stop to think of the powerful forces that nature has used in thus carving it out. This region at one time was the bed of the ocean. The internal forces caused it to rise slowly, and finally it became land. This upheaving with periods of rest and

HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

sinking continued for a great period of time but finally ceased and the land has remained nearly stationary since. From the time the land first appeared the powerful forces of weather and erosion have con- stantly eaten away at the land. These agencies have denuded the land from a level plain to its present irregular form. At first small chan- nels and streams appeared which gradually deepened as the land rose. Weathering and erosion widened and deepened these channels into val- leys and cut down and rounded their banks into hills. Our hills and valleys are the result of these forces. They were not formed from foldings of the earth's crust like the great mountain systems along the Atlantic and in the Western part of the United States. The strata of rock in this country are not distorted, but lie in approximately level planes. A stratum occuring in a hill on one side of a valley occurs in the hill on the opposite side and it will be in the same plane. Often the strata occurring low in the hills can be traced several miles. They clo not at any place vary much from a plane, but slight bends or rolls are common to all strata. No where in this country are the strata bent to conform with the outline of the hills and valleys. Along the hills facing the river, a certain stratum may be easily traced for several miles. However there is a general uniform dip, south of east. This dip has not been accurately measured but it amounts to several feet to the mile. The eastern dip is greater than 20 feet to the mile while the southern dip is not more than 10 feet . Before the glacier period, the land was higher and the valleys deeper than at present. The val- leys were filled up by the debris from the glacier. So the denudation here has been very great as our broad valleys and sculptured hills show. There is evidence that the tops of the highest hills do not rep- resent the surface of the original plain. Strewn about on the top of a very high hill near Sciotoville may be found pieces of a conglomerate which are not in place but which are the remains of a stratum that when in place was above the hill top. The surface of this plain was above the highest hill tops. The valleys were cut from it and many of the hills have been worn far below its original surface. The amount of material carried away has been very great.

Evidence seems to point to the fact that the Ohio river at one time took a different route from its present one. It flowed across Dogwood Ridge, up what is now the Little Scioto, down what is now Beaver Creek in Pike County. The large nearly level tract of land on Dog- wood Ridge, the appearance of the hills on either side, the presence of boulders of foreign materials, the kinds of clay, the size of the Little Scioto and Beaver Creek valleys, all point to this conclusion. At what period or for what length of time the river took this course is not known, but the valley seems to be very old. The lapse of time necessary to have produced such changes must have been very great. If we go to some high cliff and look at the large amount of sand and fragments fallen to its base, our ideas of time fade and become meaningless. We

GEOLOGY.

may be able to see where a few fragments have fallen off in the last year or where the rocks have been washed bare by the last heavy rains but no great change appears. Where the rocks are protected by soil or mold the changes are less rapid. Vegetation gives the rock a good protection from the elements. Only percolating water and roots affect it there. In a life time, the changes are so slight they furnish no means of comparison by which to arrive at the length of time required to form such valleys. The true glacier scarcely touched this county. The terminal morain lies north of it. Small portions of the glacier ice may have crossed into the county in the northern part, as we find deposits of gravel and boulders that would indicate the presence of ice. The most marked effect was on the water ways. The general courses were not changed to any extent but the beds were filled up from 100 to 200 feet which changed them from narrow to broad, fertile and beautifully terraced valleys. This is shown from the facts that trunks of trees, leaf beds, charcoal and coal are mixed with the deposits of pebbles and sand. The presence of these pebbles, being of foreign ma- terials, can be accounted for in no other way. The formation of this deposit in this country was accomplished by two things, one, the ice (lam across the Ohio above Cincinnati, the other, the washing down of material from the glacier ice sheet. The material was carried down by the water from the melting glacier. The Big Scioto, the only stream in this county extending past the terminal morain, was filled up by ma- terial direct from the glacier and consequently it is the only stream, excepting the Ohio, containing flint gravel in any quantities. The de- posit in the Ohio was carried down by the Scioto and other large streams east of here which take their rise beyond the glacier morain. The water was about 400 or 500 feet deep in the Ohio valley. This gave the smaller streams a way to fill up. The material in them was deposited from the water backed up from the Ohio. The soil of the Little Scioto, Pine Creek, and Turkey Creek valleys is fine sand and clay which settled from the still water. The gravel scattered through this clay was dropped by floating ice. The terraces on these streams were formed by the water at different stages of height subsequent to the highest formation. This soil was eroded by the water of the streams during the last stages of the glacier period. The flora and fauna were confined to the tops of the hills as the water covered all the low lands. Only the plants and animals that could withstand the cold existed; the others either became extinct or retreated south to more favorable localities.

Clays.

The clay deposit extends over the eastern part of the county from the Scioto river to the eastern line. Near the Scioto river the clay lies high up on the hills and gradually dips south of east till in the eas- tern part of the county it lies low down near the base of the hills. Along its western outcrop it lies only on the highest hills and only in

HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

small quantities. But litttle workable clay lies east of Munn's and Long Run. Some good clay has been worked west of these runs, but the supply is nearly exhausted. The region from these runs to the Little Scioto has furnished the most good clay. This section was well covered with fine clay. The clay of this region is of a very fine qual- ity. It is a hard flint clay, white or light colored, fine grained. and quite free from impurities. It compares favorably or even outclasses the finest clay from Fayette, Pa., Mount Savage, Maryland, or St. Louis, Missouri. It ranks high with the best German and English clays. The deposit is usually from 11/2 to 1I feet thick with an aver- age of about 31/2 or 4 feet. The thick deposits from 6 to HI feet are confined to small areas. The brick works at Sciotoville and the Star yard get their supplies from this region. The first brick plant in the county was at Sciotoville. Adams' yard at Portsmouth got clay front this region for a number of years. The clay on the front hills is large- ly exhausted, but farther back there are large undeveloped deposits of fire clay which can be obtained at small cost. The clay directly east 01 the Little Scioto is usually of a blue color and contains much sand. Some deposits contain enough iron to make the clay worthless for fire brick. Here the strata is lower in the hills and consequently there is greater clay area. Some good clay has been taken from the hills near the Ohio river. The deposit extends over the whole eastern part of the county and outcrops near the base of the hills. This clay is usually high in sand and contains too much mica to be of any value for brick. It is of a dark blue color and rather soft, having lost its flinty nature. Still the best of it makes good fire brick. There are large brick plants at Webster and Scioto Furnace. The Webster plant makes building brick principally. The Scioto Furnace plant makes fine brick largely for blast furnace purposes. These yards get their clay from along the Baltimore & Ohio railway and down Frederick. The Webster Blast

Furnace plant at Sciotoville gets clay from this region. They make blast furnace brick and some high grade fire brick. This clay region has been developed only along the Baltimore & Ohio track and down Frederick. The outcrop is low on the hills, making it easy to get by railroads as it is run from the bank and dumped into the cars. This makes the cost of hauling very low. Along the Ohio river. it out- crops near the base of the hills. It can be traced from Franklin Fur- nace to the Lawrence County line. The clay is very sandy and con- tains a large amount of mica. It is blue in color and quite soft in the outcrop. This region has never been developed. On Lick Run it out- crops but has never been opened to determine its quality. Out crop- pings also occur at Ohio and Junior Furnaces. Occuring with the hard flint clay called No. I is a soft clay called No. 2. This clay is very soft and has a fine grain. It generally lies above but may be found under or between two strata of No. I. The deposit is usually larger than that of the No. I. It occurs from a trace to 30 or even more feet.

GEOLOGY.

This is used as a bonding material in the manufacture of fire brick also in some paving and building brick. In the fire brick a certain part of No. 2 is mixed with the No. I to make it plastic enough to be moulded. In the paving brick made at Sciotoville and the building brick at South Webster, it is used as the bonding material. It alone will not make fire brick as it fuses easily and shrinks too much, but in paving brick it makes them more vitrified and durable .. This clay is easily dug, consequently it is obtained at a small cost. Clay was formed in low, wet marshes. In fact it is the mud of these old swamps. Plants growing in these swamps removed from this mud most of the minerals which would have spoiled it for fire brick. Sodium and po- tassium were the principal elements removed. The clay stratum con- tains impressions of roots, stems and leaves of carboniferous plants. Above the clay is a small deposit of coal which in some places is several feet thick. This layer of coal proves conclusively that the clay was the bottom of a swampy region as coal is only deposited in low wet ground and at no great depth as the plants would not have grown. The clay used at the Oakes' tile works at Haverhill and the Bell works at Wheelersburg is of glacier origin. It was deposited when the river valley was flooded with the water from the glacier. The clay was largely derived of foreign material. It is the fine sand and clayey material brought down by the glacier and deposited here by the water. It is taken from the low bottom land near the Ohio. The supply is abundant. It has a mottled appearance, varying in color from nearly white to a dark brown. Its general appearance is a light blue, when ground and mixed. It is fine grained and free from coarse sand and contains enough iron to make the tile and brick a dark red color. The ware is solid, durable and does not weather. In the hills on the West side of the Scioto west of Lucasville is a deposit of clay. This clay is in large quantities and has a fine appearance, being light colored, fine grained and free from iron. It has never been fully test- ed and resembles potter's clay.

Iron Ores.

The iron ores are in the lower coal measure. The ore strata are mostly small and are of the guinea fowl or a block type. They have been worked from the eastern part of the county to the Scioto river. But little is mined now as they run too low in iron. The lime ore in the eastern part has been worked up till recently at Ohio Furnace. This ore went to Hanging Rock. It is a better ore and more readily con- verted into iron than the other types found here, as it contains lime which causes it to flux easily. During and for several years after the Civil War, there were many small charcoal furnaces in the county, but after the Lake Superior and Missouri fields were opened, these furnaces shut down. It cost too much to make the iron as wood be- came scarce and the ores ran only about half as much iron as the Superior and Missouri ores.

HISTORY OF SCIOTO COUNTY.

Oil and Gas.

The Ohio Black Shale which underlies this county furnishes a large part of the oil and gas obtained in Ohio. The shale is rich in carboniferous matter, approximately 13 per cent. The deposit here is about 500 feet thick. The conditions for gas or oil fields are a carboniferous shale capped by a dome or cup shaped layer of some solid material as a heavy clay or limestone which is impervious to oil or gas. The oil and gas are found in a stratum of sand, or coarse grain- ed lime, beneath this solid impervious layer. Then as the oil and gas are distilled by the internal heat from the shale it collects beneath these come shaped layers as it tends to rise on account of its low density. After thousands of years, these cavities become filled and when pierc- ed by an opening furnish the flow of gas and oil. In this county we have the shale, but in the western part it outcrops. This exposure allows the oil and gas to escape as fast as generated. This shale out- crops on Stony Run, Turkey Creek and the Scioto. So all the oil and gas deposits derived from this shale in this county must be very small and local. The flow may last for a long time or continually, but it will be very small. A large flow may be obtained for a short time from some local deposit. The wells put down to this shale give a small flow of gas and oil. The wells at Munn's Run, Sciotoville, Wheelersburg and near Lucasville show gas and oil. If any large de- posits are struck here, it will be far down in the Silurian rock.

Places for Collectors and Observations.

Fossil ocean shells are on the George Arnold farm one and one half miles west of Rushtown. They are found in an old quarry northeast of his house. This is one of the best places in the county for research as the fossils are readily obtained and moderately well preserved. Near Sciotoville on the rock bar in the Ohio, above the mouth of the Little Scioto is a good location. The fossil ocean shells occur in con- cretionary deposits and are well preserved, making good specimens for study. They consist chiefly of brachiopods (abundant), lamelli- branchs, crinoid stems, gasteropods, cephalopods, corals (common) and trilobites (rare).

For plants, Reitz's quarry is a good place especially for fucoids. 'T'hese rocks are also ripple marked. The coal measure plants are found in the clay and in the shale above the clay. Nearly any clay deposit shows them. They also occur in the conglomerate which lies from 5 to 15 feet under the clay, but they are not very perfect, being derived from drifted plants. In a shaly sand above the clay in some localities occur conostichus and asterophycus and also calamites. These plants may be found on the Munn Hill, one mile north of Sciotoville. These fossil plants are abundant in many localities in the United States. At Patton's Run, three miles east of Wheelersburg, on the Ironton pike, is an old shore deposit. It is the beach of the old Carboniferous sea. Limestone fossils are not abundant in this county. A few

GEOLOGY.

species may be obtained from a chert deposit one mile south of Harri- son Furnace and also on Clinton Ridge near Clinton Furnace.

Ohio Black Shale.

The Ohio Black Shale is the lowest strata exposed in the county. It outcrops in the western part at Turkey Creek, Stony Run and along the Scioto. It is a black fine grained shale high in carbon. Some being nearly rich enough to burn. It underlies the whole county. This is one of the great oil and gas producing shales. It was deposited by a great sargasso sea during the later part of the Devonian age, but it may be said to mark the beginning of the great coal deposit which followed in the next age. In Kentucky during the early settlement of the country, kerosene was distilled from this shale, but now the products distilled by nature are obtained by boring and pumping the oil from the rock. It is then refined and utilized. The fossils are mostly marine, being shells and fish. Some fossil plants can be de- tected. The carbon was derived from floating plants from the shore and small marine plants.

Geological Observations in Scioto County, Ohio. By Thomas W. Hinney, Esq.

The reader of this article is supposed to have before him Volume : 2 of the Geological Surveys of Ohio, open to pages 80 and SI, which is an excellent illustration of the Geological formation of the State in the Carboniferous district.

There is a plain line of demarcation of the geological formations of Scioto County, at the Scioto river. The fire clay is the first direct evidence of tbe carboniferous system. It occupies the place and is closely lined to coal vein No. I, which is Jackson shaft. All measures in this district dip to the southeast, fifty to sixty feet to the mile. This dip gives us in the southeast, part of the county coal veins as high as No. 6. They are numbered from bottom to top. The coal more par- ticularly worked in Scioto County is No. 4, known as limestone. The next above that is No. 5. These coals are found in or near Bloom and Pioneer Furnaces and southeast from Webster. The deposit of lime lying between Nos. 4 and 5 veins of coal measures is known as Put- nam Hill, and is the lime being worked by Moses Morgan, at Eifort Switch. A section showing these coals will be found on Page 80 and SI of the Geological Surveys of Ohio, Volume 2. This section shows thirteen coals. The Pittsburg vein is coal No. 8, on that diagram, which crosses into Ohio in many points. This county is in the lower fertile coal measures and is shown in the diagram right below the lower barren coal measures.

The best of the fire clays of Scioto County are found in a position underlying coal No. I in the diagram. We have a very good fire clay underlying coal No. 5. This clay is worked at Oak Hill, Jackson County, Ohio. The fire clays in Scioto County are along the outcrop

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A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 3

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612