Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 3

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Finally, in the retreat of the ice-sheet be- fore the victorious forces of the Sun. the great watershed of Ohio was reached. Summit County occupies a position on this watershed. Until Akron was reached all the water from the melting glacier had flowed toward the

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

southeast, as the slope of the land in the State south of this locality was in that direction. But as you go north from Akron, the slope of the land is northerly. Hence, when the ice- sheet had passed over the crest of the land here, the water from its melting was unable to find an outlet until it had risen high enough to flow over the height of land at Summit Lake and then pursue the usual and natural course toward the southeast. Al- though the slope of the land was toward the north, yet the water could not flow in that direction as a great barrier of ice 200 or 300 feet high effectually blocked the way. This barrier filled not only the old valley of the Cuyahoga, but covered the whole northern portion of the State. Thus the floods from the great ice-mass filled the whole valley be- tween the high land at Akron and the face of the glacier slowly retreating northward. By the time Cleveland was reached the whole valley, as we know it now, was one great lake extending fronr Cleveland to Akron. This lake had its outlet through a short river which flowed from North Akron, in the betl of the present Ohio Canal, to a point south of Sum- init Lake, where the Tuscarawas meets the canal. Professor Claypole gave to this river the name "Akron River." The great lake, which in its deepest part must have been al- most 300 feet deep, he called "Cuyahoga Lake." It is difficult to estimate the length of time this lake and the Akron River were in existence. It was probably many centuries. They existed until the ice-sheet was well be- vond Lake Erie, and the Niagara River and the St. Lawrence were open to the sea. When this happened, then the Cuyahoga Lake was drained rapidly into Lake Erie and the Akron River started to flow north and finally ceased to flow at all. except as a very small outlet for the lake on the summit now called Summit Lake. While Cuyahoga Lake existed it was a very muddy lake. The grinding of the sur- face by the movement of the glacier produced an immense amount of fine mud which was carried by the water from the melting ice into the lake. Here, after a time, it was deposited as a fine sediment upon the bottom of the

lake. The occasional deposits of boulders or gravel are accounted for by the fact that ice- bergs or floes, becoming detached from the face of the glacier, and bearing on their sur- faces a burden of gravel or boulders, floated out into the lake, and there melting, made the deposits referred to. In the "Geology of Ohio," volume 1, page 552, occurs the first mention of the existence of this ice-dam, which stopped the northward flow of all the rivers emptying into Lake Erie. The credit for the discovery must be given to Dr. New- berry.

A former Akron citizen who was professor of geology, Dr. E. W. Claypole, has written very entertainingly of this episode in the geo- logical history of Summit, and we will do well to listen to his own words as he describes it.

"As the conditions of existence of all these lakes were essentially identical, a description of all of them would be tedious and involve much useless repetition. My purpose here is not to present all the details of the retreat of the ice, but to show its general course and its inevitable results. I will therefore select one of these as an illustration, and merely name the rest. For this purpose I choose the Cuyahoga River, which I have carefully studied. This river rises in Geauga County, and, after flowing for almost 50 miles in a southwesterly direction, turns sharply to the north near Akron, and thence follows this course until it falls into the lake at Cleve- land.

"The cause of this sudden change of direc- tion in the channel of the Cuyahoga River, is the following: Along the earlier part of its course, it is flowing in a post-glacial chan- nel on the top of the plateau of Northern Ohio. As it approaches Akron it passes through a deep gorge in the lower carbon- iferous rocks cut by itself since the ice re- treated. This gorge is, in its lower part, not less than 300 feet below the level of the ad- joining country and its length is between two and three miles. At the lower end of the gorge the river escapes from its imprisoning walls of rock into a wide-open valley-its own pre-glacial channel-which retains it for

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

the rest of its course. This channel extends backward in a southeasterly direction above the point where the Cuyahoga now enters it for several miles, passing between Akron and the present river. It is occupied by a small branch stream-the Little Cuyahoga. It gradually rises and becomes less distinct, be- ing heavily clogged with drift, which has most likely been the cause of diverting the water that pre-glacially flowed along it into the present channel.

"Let us take our stand on one of the so- called hills overlooking the vale of the Cuya- hoga. between Akron and Cleveland, near Peninsula, for example. The broad valley lies about 200 feet beneath our feet. Through it the lazy stream slowly meanders in a chan- nel cut in one place through deep, soft de- posits of drift, and in another through solid rocks of the Cuyahoga shale. But the valley is a pigmy besides that deeper and older one in which the Cuyahoga used to flow before the Great Ice Age came on. The hill on which we now stand did not then exist. The plateau. or terrace, out of which it has been carved, is a deposit of drift, left here during the retreat of the ice. Over on the western side of the valley is another terrace on the same level and of the same age, also cut and scarred by water-courses. Deep under both, and in most places below the present level of the river. is the solid rock floor of the valley, not yet cleared of its cumbering load of gla- cial drift. The stream is now crowding the left or western bank of its pre-glacial valley. The ground there rises abruptly, and less than a quarter of a mile from the river the solid sandstone (Berea Grit) is quarried above the water level. Turn now and look eastward, and there, at a distance of about two miles. we see the massive carboniferous conglomerate in almost vertical cliffs rising at least 100 feet above the plateau on which we are standing, and forming the well-known 'Boston Ledges.' These are the old banks of the Cuyahoga, and mark the pre-glacial channel of the river. Between these on the east and a similar out- crop on the west was a valley deeper than the present. and nearly three miles wide. scooped

out by the river itself during post-carbonif- erous ages, and along this valley flowed the old Cuyahoga, not necessarily a larger stream than its successor, but one of vastly greater antiquity.

"Go back now in imagination to that period of the Ice Age when the edge of the retreat- ing glacier had crossed the watershed of Ohio on its backward march, and, extending across the country from east to west, was lying a little north of our present position : that is to say, between Peninsula and Cleveland. Our former point of view is now untenable; it is under water. But we can stand on the top of Boston Ledges and look across the valley to the westward. The whole is one lake of ice- cold water. If it is summer, the shores are clad with a hardy vegetation suited to an arc- tic climate and the neighborhood of the glacier. If winter, the landscape is covered with snow, and the glittering ice-front is plainly in sight. Soundings show us that the water in the lake is more than 200 feet deep. If we trace its margin we find it cut by deep fiords reaching back into the conn- try, and, of course, full of water up to the lake level. Its main course is due south until a point is reached about a mile north of Akron, where the bank turns slightly to the eastward and curves sharply around the head of an inlet which forms the real end of the lake. This point was near the 'Old Forge.' Returning to the west along its south shore we reach another deep bay stretching south- ward. in which the water rapidly shallows, and here we find the outlet of our lake through the valley in which now lies the city of Akron. A small stream is flowing south- ward along a channel where formerly was a tributary to the Cuyahoga. and passing over the edge of the watershed, which forms in reality the southern border of the lake. it reaches the Tuscarawas, by which its water passes into the Muskingum, and then to the Ohio, thus making the Lake Region tribu- tary to the Gulf of Mexico.

"Crossing this small river and returning northward along its western bank. we regain the main body of the lake. the shore of which

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

runs westward for a short distance. It then turns northward and, tracing it, we reach, after making several circuits around deep in- lets, a point opposite to our previous station at Peninsula.

"To this body of water, never seen by man, other than the carly paleolithic savage, the distinct ancestor of our present Esquimaux, clinging to the margin of the retreating ice- sheet, I propose to give the name 'Lake Cuya- hoga' in order to associate it with the exist- ing river, and to connect the present with that which has passed away.

"Lake Cuyahoga, then, was a body of water pounded back against the watershed by the retreating ice-front, and rising higher and higher, until it at last it found an outlet at the lowest point-the Akron Water Gap. Its dimensions varied from time to time. Now the glacier advanced under accumulating snow and ice in the cold winter, and pressed the water over the outlet. Now again it re- treated under warm skies and diminution of snow, and the water from its melting filled the space from which the ice had disappeared. Alternately receding and advancing, the ice- front determined the size of the lake. In sum- mer a furious torrent, white with glacier- milk, swept down the Akron Valley and through Summit Lake to the Tuscarawas River; the whole length of this stream was about four miles. In winter it flowed in si- lence, its sources frost-locked and its waters ice-bound.

"To this temporary stream, a product of the retreating ice-sheet, whose very existence would now be unknown save for the researches of geologists, I propose to give the name 'The Akron River.' * * *

"In all probability, a hardy vegetation of pines, firs, hemlock-spruce, and red-cedar fol- lowed close upon the retreating ice, and soon clothed the shores of the lake and the adjoin- ing country with a dark forest, under which various northern plants and animals found a congenial home. Man himself hugged the re- treating ice, withdrawing with it to the north.

"It is possible even now to find in the damp, cool gorges along the Cuyahoga Valley strong

organic confirmation of the probability sug- gested. Here linger many plants whose home is far north in Canada-survivors from a time when the climate conditions were such as suited a northern flora. The secular rise of temperature has exterminated them from the high lands, but in these shady moist glens they still find a congenial habitat, and main- tain a somewhat precarious existence. Among those plants may be mentioned the follow- ing:

Hemlock Spruce, Abies Canadensis,

American Arbor-vitæ, Thuja Occidentalis,

Canadian Yew, Taxus Canadensis,

Mountain Maple, Acer Spicatum,

Paper Birch, Betula Papyracea,

Red-berried Elder,

Sambucus Pubens,

Purple Raspberry,

Rubus Odoratus,

Pale Touch-me-not, Impatiens Pallida,

Calla,

Calla Palustris,

(caltha paulustris),

Swamp Saxifrage,

Saxifraga Pennsylvania,

Goldthread, Coptis Trifolia.

Mountain Shield-fern, Lasterea Montana,

Long Club-inoss, Lycopodium Lucidulum.

"All these, with other plants of northern affinity, may be found in or near the deep gorges of the Cuyahoga Valley, and give to them a character unlike that of other places in the vicinity. It is scarcely possible to explain their presence on any other theory than that above adopted-that they are relics of a similar flora that once covered the whole country, but which has been exterminated by change of conditions."

When the great cosmic forces which formed the continents had subsided and the last great upheaval had taken place, other natural forces began to operate toward the prepara- tion of the land lift by the receding oceans for the coming of man. We call it land in contradistinction to the water of the oceans; but the surface of the dry portions of the world disclosed no vegetation or soil and pre- sented no aspect save that of bare rock. Here it stretched away in the long billows of the plains; there it was heaved up in lofty, ragged mountain ranges. The atmosphere,

AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

the rains, the frost, and the sun then began the work of soil-making. Under their in- fluence the rocks began to disintegrate, and gradually the soil was formed. When the natural conditions became such as to favor vegetation, the forests and the grass took their places in the mundane system. In the pre- glacial era it is probable that the general sur- face appearance was much as it is today. Great rivers had eroded deep valleys and can- yons; the hills were forest-clad; luxuriant grasses abounded in the intervales; swamps like ours were common, and lakes diversified the topography.

Then the great ice-sheet pushed down from the frozen North. We may well believe that it was a destroyer. Of course, no vegetation could survive. The damage, if such it may be called, was more fundamental, however, than the destruction of the things growing in and upon the soil. The soil itself was de- stroyed. The great mass of ice, steadily mov- ing forward, pushed up the soil from the un- derlying rocks and washed it away in the great glacial floods which attended the melt- ing of the ice. Its melting also left the great moraines of gravel and stones upon the bare surface of the mother rocks. It did more than these things; it even planed and fur- rowed these constituent rocks themselves. Thus the hills were reduced in elevation and the valleys raised. The canyon eroded by the pre-glacial Cuyahoga was widened into the valley as we know it today. The river of that time flowed in a bed two hundred feet · below its present bed. It is flowing now upon the top of two hundred feet of glacial drift. We must look to the glacier for the reason why the northern portion of our county is covered with heavy clay, difficult to till, but very rich in desirable soil qualities: while the southern portion is sandy and gravelly. It must not be inferred from the foregoing that Nature had her work of soil-making all to do over again after the final departure of the ice. The glacial deposits and the sedi- ment of glacial lakes, left upon the surface of the earth, were a long step forward in the work of restoring the soil. As pointed out

by Prof. Claypole, our flora is considerably richer by reason of the Arctic conditions which attended the coming of the ice.

Fortunately for us, the erosion of the Cuya- hoga and the various deep borings made in this vicinity in the search for water and oil and coal make the determination of the geological structure of Summit County an easy matter. There are various out-croppings of the different strata, also, which greatly as- sist the geologist in this work.

The lowest formation in the county is the Erie Shale, which occurs in the upper part of the Devonian. It is almost homogeneous in its nature and is a soft shale of a bluish- gray color. It is sometimes varied with bands of calcareous sandstone and is occasionally found carrying fossils. It is exposed at Peninsula and -in some of the gorges opening into the Cuyahoga Valley. When the quar- rying for the improvement of the Arcturus Springs in the Sand Run Gorge was done, some beautiful specimens of the blue iron stone with bands of a rich brown color were broken off the Erie shale out-crop there.

Above the Erie shale is the Cleveland shale, which is black and highly bituminous. It is probably a lower member of the Waver- ly or subcarboniferous . It is rich in carbon and, upon distillation, gas and oil may be obtained from it. This shale may also be seen to good advantage in the steep cliffs along the Cuyahoga. The next formation is the Bed- ford shale, which takes its name from Bed- ford,in Cuyahoga County. It is exposed in Bed- ford Glens. One peculiarity of this stratum is the thin bands of sandstone, from which flag- ging for side-walks, etc., can be easily made. Above the Bedford shale is found the Berea sandstone, which comes to the surface in the southern part of Boston township. It also outcrops on the high land in Northfield town- ship. The large quarries at Peninsula are constituted of Berea sandstone. It is of a uniform white or gray color and its close texture and resisting qualities make it a splendid stone for building. It is capable of being quarried in large blocks. In the lower parts of the Peninsula quarries the

IHISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

sandstone is extremely hard and possesses a sharp grit which makes it especially valuable for the manufacture of mill-stones. Much of it is used for this purpose and also for making grind-stones. It is topped by a thin layer of black, bituminous shale. Below Cuyahoga Falls this sandstone may be seen exposed and the cascade in Brandywine Creek is over this formation also. Next above the Berea sand- stone comes Cuyahoga -hale, so called beeau-e of its fine exposure in the bluffs lelow Cuya- hoga Falls. In the main, it is composed of a soft argillaceous shale, but also contains a bed of hard, fine-grained sand-tone. The Big Falls at the Old Maid's Kitchen are due to this hard sandstone resisting the croding pow- ers of the river. It is formed on the surface in parts of Northfield township. A bed of limestone occurs near the top of this shale just below Cuyahoga Falls, from which quick- lime was made at the time of the construc- tion of the Ohio canal. as alluded to else- where in this history. A very good cement could doubtless be made from it. In Rich- field township a bed of fossiliferous limestone occurs, in which some very remarkable fos- sil plants and animals have been found.

Next above the Cuyahoga shale comes the most common rock formation to be found in the county. It is Carboniferous Conglomer- ate. It is well to remember the name, for it is the surface rock of the townships of North- ampton, Copley. Portage. Tallmadge, Spring- field. Coventry, Norton, Twinsburg, Hudson, Stow. Boston, Richfield and Bath. It is an extremely coarse sandstone and generally con- tains, thickly imbedded in it, small, round, white quartz pebbles. The stone is of a vel- lowish color, except where it has been stained red or brown by oxide of iron. This sand- stone is extensively quarried just above Old Portage at the plant of the Akron White Sand Company. After grinding and washing, the

product is shipped to various centers to be used in the process of glass-making. At Bos- ton Ledges and on the top of the bluffs about Old Maid's Kitchen it may also be studied to good advantage. This stratum averages about 100 feet in thickness. On account of its strength and durability it is much used for rougher construction purposes, such as foun- dations, bridges and culverts.

It is not possible to find coal north of the place of outerop of the Carboniferous Con- glomerate, for the coal measures all lie above it. Sometimes it is missing and the coal beds lie directly above the Cuyahoga shale. The rocks containing the coal measures all lie in the southern part of the county. In them are found four different seams of coal. The top and bottom seams are about 200 feet apart. The lowest, of course, is the best coal. In the Ohio Geological Reports it is called Coal No. 1. It is of the same grade as the best Ohio bituminous coal. It is found in basins or pockets which were the swamps of the coal- forming period. It occurs about twenty-five feet above the Carboniferous Conglomerate, or, when the latter is wanting, the Cuyahoga Shale. The next seam gives us coal No. 2. which is of little value. Coal No. 3 comes to the surface near Mogadore. It is a thin stratum and is of value only because of the under-clay, which is used in making sewer- pipe and coarse pottery. In the southeastern part of the county coal No. 4 is found. It is of little value, except for local consumption. A bed of lime-stone is sometimes found above both No. 3 and No. 4. This lime-stone car- ries a low-grade iron ore, of which use was made in the early days of Summit County. The last blast-furnace has long since drawn its fires, and the only use which can be made of this lime-stone bed at the present time would be the manufacture of lime, cement, or mate- rial for road-making.

CHAPTER II

SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION OF SUMMIT COUNTY

Pioneer Conditions-Indian Trading-Wild Game-Home-Made Garments-Pioncer Hos- pitality-Social Amusements-First Published Description of Summit County-Making of Summit County-Western Reserve-Organization of the County-County Seat Se- lected-County Seat Contrats-Adams' Reception-Territorial Changes.

Unfortunately for the purposes of the mod- ern historian, the early settlers of Summit County left no written record of their expe- riences in breaking the forest and founding homes in the wilderness. Only a few meager accounts contained in letters and recorded in journals, exasperatingly deficient in details, have been left to give succeeding generations an idea of how the pioneers in the land lived. Many oral traditions have survived, however, and many vivid stories are still being told which have never been seen in print.

In 1904 the total valuation of property in the State of Ohio was $2,113,805,168. The real wealth of Ohio in this year-1907-is probably not far from five billions of dollars. In respect to wealth, ours is the fourth State in the Union, only New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania exceeding it. It is difficult to realize that this has practically all been ac- cumulated within one century. Every nook and corner of the State has kept pace with the growth of American culture and refine- ment. Ohio is abreast of the times in every desirable respect. The humble-t today enjoy advantages which would have been extreme luxuries for their predecessors of only two or three generations back. Contrast the life of today with the following picture of the everyday experiences in the early years of the past century found in Carpenter and Arthur's

History of Ohio. It was written at an early time, when the first comers were still with us and were fond of relating their early hard- ships.

PIONEER HARDSHIPS.

The present residents of the now flourish- ing State of Ohio, living in the midst of plenty, can form but a faint conception of the hardships and privations endured by their predecessors. The first object of the pioneer, after selecting a suitable spot. was to build a log cabin of proper dimensions as a residence for his family. The walls of his cabin were constructed of logs piled one upon another, the space between being completely closed with tempered clay. The floor was made of puncheons or planks. formed by splitting logs to about two and a half or three inches in thickness, and hewing them on one or both sides with a broad-axe. The roof and ceiling were composed of clap-boards, a species of pioneer lumber resembling barrel staves be- fore they are shaved, but split longer, wider and thinner. The walls of the log cabin having been erected, the doors and windows were then sawn out: the steps of the door being made with the pieces cut from the walls, and the door itself formed of the same material as the floor. The apertures in the walls intended for windows were pasted over

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

with paper lubricated with bear's oil or lard, which was used as a substitute for glass. This paper resisted the rain tolerably well, and at the same time subdued the direct rays of the sun, and admitted into the rude apartment a light beautifully softened and mellowed.

The furniture of the log cabin corresponded to the cabin itself in simplicity and rudeness of construction. The bedstead was usually formed in the following manner. Two round poles were first fixed in the floor as uprights, at a distance from each other and from the walls of the cabin, equal to the intended length and breadth of the bedstead. A pole was then inserted into either post as a side rail, and two poles were also fixed in them, at right angles to the plane of the wall, their ends being wedged into the crevices between the logs. Some puncheons were then split and laid from the side-rail across the bed- stead, their ends being also inserted into the chinks of the log wall. This constituted the bottom of the bedstead. The skins of the bear, the buffalo and the deer formed the bedding. The shelves of the log cabin were made of clap-board, supported on wooden pegs driven in between the logs, and on these were displayed such wooden, pewter and earthenware plates and dishes as the pioneer was fortunate enough to possess. One pot, kettle and frying-pan were considered to be the only artieles absolutely indispensable, though some included the tea-kettle. The few plates and dishes on the clap-board shelf were sufficient for the simple wants of their owners, who relished their food none the less that it was eaten from common trenchers and from a puncheon table. The great scarcity of domestic utensils among the settlers often taxed their ingenuity to supply the want when an influx of visitors unexpectedly trespassed upon their hospitality.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 3

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150