USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Century history of Delaware County, Ohio and representative citizens 20th > Part 2
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123
Utley. Dr. John
360
Van Deman, Rev. Henry .. 540
Van Deman. Hon. John D ...
540
Van Deman, Dr. Joseph H.
352
Van Kirk, Dr. Charles C. 366
Veley. John
851
Vergon. Frederick P.
519
Vergon, John G.
708
Waldron. DeLacy 779
Wallace, John
624
Wallace, John C.
811
Wallace, Robert 624
Warren, John H.
773
Wasson. W. McC.
714
Watkins. Charles
527
Watkins, Edward
527
Watkins, John W.
777
Watson. Hon. Cooper K
303
Watts Dr. Wmn.
365
Wejant. Thomas 872
Welch. Dr. Calvin
372
Welch, Dr. Ella D 365
Welch, Rev. Herbert, A. M., D. D., LL. D. 545
Weller, Dr. G. B. 376
Weller. Victor B., M. D. . 832
Westbrook, Solomon.
613
Wherry. John
638
Whipple. Edward
740
Whipple. Frank E.
664
Whipple. James Clark
859
Whipple. Lewis 740
Whipple. Noah 664
Whitacre. Dr. F. R.
375
White. Arthur J
335
White, Geo.
747
White. Dr. Horace
365
PAGE
White, Dr. J. H .. . 353
White, Zenas Leonard 747
Wickham, Asa 650 Wickham, Emmett Al. 3333 Wickham. Hon. Emmett Mel ville 649
Wickham, Kitridge 11 651
Wigton, Elmer A
6.43
Wigton. Sylvester
64.3
Wigton. Thomas. 043
Wiles. Capt. Clifton W 619
Willey. Dr. Arthur J
374
Willey, Dr. Perry W.
367
Willey, Perry W., M. D 205
Williants, Edson R. 339
Williams. Hon. Hosea
852
Williams, Dr. T. B.
350
Williams. Dr. Thos J.
366
Williams, Victor Arnold
(26
Williams, William
626
Williams. William W
599
Willis Dr. P. A.
349
Wilson, Austin B.
849
Wilson, Dr. Eugene
375
Wilt. J. F.
729
Wintermute. A. P. 682
Wintermute, Dr. J. C. 367
Wintermute, J. Perry 500
Wintermute, Dr. Robert
C.
360
Winston. Thomas J.
515
Wise. Dr. L
367
Wolfley. George T
682
Wolfey, Leo 683
Woodworth. Dr. John B 357
Woodworth. Dr. William 11 ..
357
Wornstaff. Chesley
553
Wornstaff, Lewis
553-752
Westbrook. Dr. Albert Ernest
613
Wornstaff. Lloyd K.
514
Wornstaff. Sperry
752
Wright. David
707
Wright, Hiram
707
Wylie. Abraham P
648
Wylic. J. K.
sty
Yates Henry D. 751
Young. Henry Clay
Ziegler, Frederick
738
Ziegler. William
738
=
PAGE
Illustrations
PAGE
Asbury M. E. Church 304
Baptist Church, Ostrander 812
Baptist Church, Radnor
320
Baptist Church, Sunbury
tot
First Presbyterian Church, Delaware
208
Methodist Episcopal Church, Ashley 304
Methodist Episcopal Church, Sunbury 304
Old Stone Presbyterian Church, Scioto Town-
ship
812
Presbyterian Church, Ostrander
812
Presbyterian Church. Radnor. 320
St. Mary's Catholic Church and Parochial
Residence
304
St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Delaware. 2018
St. Paul's M. E. Church, Delaware.
2018
William Street M. E. Church, Delaware
268
SCHOOLS.
Crystal Spring Farm
68
Delaware Children's Home. 168
Delaware City Hall. 112
Delaware City Library
168
Delaware County Court House. 112
Delaware County Infirmary 168
Delaware County Infirmary-Insane Ward. 168
Delaware County Jail.
112
GIRLS' INDUSTRIAL HOME.
Administration Building 176
Assembly Hall. 176
Central School Building 170
Cottage No. 8. 176
Honor Cottage.
176
Home for Aged People, Delaware 168
Jane M. Case Memorial Hospital, Delaware. 168
Knights of Pythias Hall, Sunbury. tot
Masonic Temple, Ashley 158
Moore's Masonic Temple, Delaware
112
OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
Art Hall. 230
Charles Elliott Slocum Library 230
Elliott Hall 230
Gray Chapel and University I'll. 200
John Edwards Gymnasium
230
Monnett Hall. 230
Perkins Observatory 200
Surges Hall. 230
Old Barnes Homestead, Delaware 158
CHURCHES.
PAGE
President Hayes' Birthplace, Delaware. I12 Public Square Looking North, Sunbury 464
RESIDENCES.
Residence of Allison E. Goodrich, Liberty Township 68
Residence of Clay W. Barton, Berkshire Town- ship 792
Residence of F. P. Hills, Delaware. 320
Residence of V. T. Hills. Delaware.
158
Residence of Mrs. Silas J. Mann, Harlem Township 68
Residence of Dr. Herbert Welch, Pres. O. W U. 200
Residence and Barn of Hiram Wright, Scioto Township 706
Sandusky Street Looking South, Delaware
112
High School, Ashley 158
High School, Delaware. 200
Public School, Ostrander 812
Public School. Radnor 320
Public School, Sunbury
tot
West School Building, Delaware.
200
Sunbury Co-operative Creamery
464
Three Dollar Bill Issued by Bank of Delaware, 1818 158
Town Hall. Sunbury. fot
Y. M. C. A. Building, Delaware. 364
PORTRAITS.
Atherton Lee. 716
Baxter, George W 866
Bevan, David 666
Bevan, Mrs. Eliza D. 666
Bush, Mr. and Mrs. David 818
Cole, Capt. Elias. 838
Conklin, Ashton Stover 686
Courtwright, Fleetwood. 622
Crawford. Col. James M 590
Crawford, Mrs. Sarah H 591
Crist, Rev. A. C ..
Curren, Capt. J. F. 784
Dunlap, Mr. and Mrs. Calvin and Family 8.30
Eulenburg, Count Botho. 656
Eulenburg Countess Nelly ( Lytle) 656
Fowler, Silas W., M. D. 5,38
Gardner, Mr. and Mrs. Seth
776
INDEX
15
PAGE
PAGE
Can drich, Aaron S.
873
Mann, Mrs. Julia S.
856
Gor Irich, Mrs. Sarah H.
874
Miller, Martin.
548
Hilton, Mr. and Mrs. Wain and Daughter
814
Moore, Sidney
405
Healy. Erem J.
0,6
. MeMaster, Benjamin
726
Hills, Fred Palmer
506
McMaster, Lyman P.
726
Hill-, Chauncey
507
Nash, John Washington
766
Hodges. James B
578
Stark, Cepter.
750
Hodges, Mrs. Mary H
579
Steyle, Rev. Philip
820
Huntley, Albert.
802
Stokes, George. 632
Iones, Mr. and Mrs. William W. and Family
568
Uchtritz, Baron Edgar von 696
Kohler, Charles 7.36
L'chtritz, Baroness Viola ( Lytle) von 696
Lyon, Rev. Aaron J., D. D.
526
Lytle, James Robert, .1. 31.
Frontispiece
Lytle, Mrs. Cornelia Chase
Frontispiece
Lytle. James William.
602
Wigton, Elmer A
642
Maddox. Henry C
882
Young. Henry Clay
888
' Mann, Silas J.
856
Young, Mrs. Emma 11
889
Vergon, Frederick 518
Westbrook, Dr. Albert Ernest 612
White, Zenas 746
history of Delaware County
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Bed Rock Geology-The Ice Age-Water Supply-Soils-Surface Features-Timber- Agricultural Products-Mineral Springs.
GEOLOGY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
Geology is the history of the earth as that , history is read from the rocky structure and surface configuration of the earth itself. To- day we find changes constantly taking place over the land about us. Every shower and every freshet leaves the surface changed and sweeps toward the sea land waste. The min- eral content of such springs as the Odevene shows that material is being removed from below the surface, that changes are going on there, though concealed from our direct in- spection. The study of geology teaches us that we live on a constantly changing earth, that in a very real sense this earth is not dead but living. We should be prepared to expect that a study of the geology of Delaware Coun- ty would show us that past conditions here were very different from those today-indeed that several different kinds of conditions have held at successive epochs of the long period of our county's history, geologically considered.
BED ROCK GEOLOGY.
The oldest rocks of the county are the beds of limestone, shale and sandstone which make what we may call the bedrock, the solid rock, as contrasted with the unconsolidated surface deposits of clay, sand and gravel which over- lie and conceal them. They run in north and south belts across the county. West of the Olentangy River the surface rock is practically all limestone; between the Olentangy and Walnut Creek it is black slate; on Big Wal- nut the Berea sandstone outcrops, and this formation or an overlying formation of sandy shales forms the surface east to the county border. These rock formations are not hori- zontal but drop or dip to the east at the rate of twenty feet to the mile, so that the lime- stones which are at the surface on the western boundary of the county are some 800 feet be- low the surface on its eastern boundary. The succession of rocks which one would pass through in going down below the surface on
2
18
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
the eastern border of the county would be as follows :
Formation
Rock Thickness in feet
Cuyahoga.
Sandy Shales
Sunbury
Black Shale
10
Berea.
Sandstone
30
Bedford. Red and Gray Shale. 75
Huron.
Black Shale 275 to 300
Olentangy
BIne Clay
30
Delaware.
Blue Limestone
30
Columbus
Gray Limestone
80
Monroe
Magnesian Limestone
Several of these formations are of econ- omic importance. The Columbus limestone. on the Seioto, and near Radnor. is burned for lime. The Delaware limestone on the Olen- tangy and especially at Delaware is used for road-metal and for building. The Olentangy clay at Delaware is used as one of the mate- rials in the manufacture of tile. The Berea sandstone is the extension into central Ohio of the great sandstone formation of Berea and Amherst, and was formerly quarried at Sun- bury.
These bedrock formations point to geo- graphic conditions very different from those existing today. The rocks are all old sea-bot- tom deposits, the lime muds, muds and sands of an interior sea. Their composition shows this. The Berea sandstone layers are marked by the ripple marks made by the currents of the shallow sea of that time. The limestones consist in large part of the fragments and sometimes whole shells and skeletons of the animals then living. What the exact limits of that sea were no one knows. It extended be- yond the present Ohio basin in all directions. to an extensive land mass in eastern and cen- tral Canada and to a land mass which we de- nominate Appalachia, stretching along the At- lantic coast east of the present Blue Ridge. For uncounted centuries sands and muds were swept into this inland sea and organic deposits ( first limestone and later coal ) accumulated. until forces which had been long gathering head ' were able to make themselves felt, and the area between the Ohio and the Atlantic, crowded together as in an immense vise, was
pushed up above sea level and in part thrown into great folds. The strongly folded area was in central and eastern Pennsylvania: the Ohio region was raised above sea level but was subjected to only slight fokling. This period of uplift was the Appalachian Revolution; it closed the earliest and longest of the geologic periods. the Paleozoic period. In Ohio it marked the passage from water conditions and rock deposit to land conditions and land sculp- ture by atmospheric agencies and streams.
The land conditions thus inaugurated have lasted on until the present. Little is known definitely of the conditions in central Ohio during this long period. It is a fundamental teaching of geology that streams will cut their beds to near sea level, and that then the inter- stream areas will be lowered by valley-side wash until the whole land area is not far above sea level-a lowland plain produced by ero- sion. It is another fundamental teaching of geology that broad areas are slowly uplifted through the action of internal forces; and in this case a lowland plain formed by erosion might by uplift be again exposed to erosion. might ultimately be reduced a second time to a lowland plain. It is likely that this process of uplift and subsequent reduction of the land surface to a lowland plain has been several times repeated in central Ohio. A large part of the surface of central Ohio today stands be- tween 900 and 1,000 feet above sea level. It was probably formed by stream action and near sea level. 'Since its formation it has been raised to its present altitude. In southern Ohio it has been dissected by streams since its uplift so that the Ohio River region is a hilly country. In central Ohio this plain does not seeni to have been cut up to the same degree and what inequalities it did possess have been largely concealed beneath a mantle of glacial drift.
THE ICE AGE.
This long period of normal land conditions was closed by the Great Ice Age and the de- velopment of the Canadian ice sheet. There were two centers of accumulation. one east and one west of Hudson's Bay. These two ice
19
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
fields grew and merged into one which ex- tended north to the Arctic, west in British Columbia nearly if not quite to the foot of the Rockies, east to the Atlantic and south to the line of the Ohio and Missouri Rivers. At the time of its maximum extent its margin crossed the Pennsylvania-Ohio boundary in central Columbiana County, extended west to Mans- field, then south to Lancaster, and from there southwest through Chillicothe to the Ohio in Brown County, the ice sheet thus covering about two-thirds of the State.
The Ice Age is sometimes spoken of as if it were the time of the formation, development and disappearance of a single continental gla- cier. In reality it was much longer and much more complex than this. Several times did the ice sheet form, advance south from its Cana- dian home, retreat and then readvance. How long the whole story was, no one knows, but reasonable estimates make it several hundred thousand years.
As the ice sheet moved south into Ohio it found a surface deeply covered with residual soil formed from the age-long decay of the underlying rock. The ice pushed this before it or dragged it under it; it pushed away the more or less rotted rock which lay between the soil and the sound rock, and it slowly ground away the upper portion of the sound rock, for wherever we find the bed rock under the later glacial deposits it is today sound and un- weathered. The upper surface of the bed rock was polished and scratched. The polishing was done by the finer material, the clay, which was dragged along between the ice and the bed rock. Coarse particles and corners of rock made the scratches characteristic of such sur- faces, and from the study of which the direc- tion of ice motion can be known. These gla- ciated surfaces are often well shown on the limestone and sandstone, but are poorly pre- served on the shale surfaces. They show well about the limestone quarries near Radnor.
The ice during its advance was thus erod- ing. During its retreat it was depositing the bowlder clay or till, which now lies on the bed rock. As its name implies, the bowlder clay consists of two parts, a brownish yellow, oc-
casionally blue, clay in which are scattered bowlders of different kinds of rock up to sev- eral feet in diameter. The clay is in part com- prised of the "rock flour" made by the glacier as it ground away the underlying rock surface or rubbed together the rocks which it was car- rying beneath it. With this rock flour was mixed the soil which the glacier found over the surface when it invaded the region. The bowlders were torn by the glacier from the sur- face over which it came. In all except the eastern part of the county a large percentage of these bowlders is limestone ; they agree then with the bed rock of the county and need not have been carried far by the ice. In the eastern part of the county where the bed rock is sand- stone the bowlders are in large part sandstone. A considerable portion of the bowlders are crystalline rock, granite and other rocks and belong to types not found in the county or even in the State; those have been brought from north of the Great Lakes, from the gathering ground of the continental ice sheet.
The whole surface of the county is covered by this mantle of glacial drift, a covering vary- ing in thickness up to a hundred feet and aver- aging from twenty-five to forty feet. At the time of ice occupancy this was spread out to make a nearly level plain, concealing inequali- ties in the rock surface much as the mason's trowel spreads over a rough brick or stone surface a coat of mortar to give an even sur- face. When the ice retreated from the region this glacial plain probably extended continui- ously across the county. Since that time the larger streams have cut their valleys below this surface to a maximum depth of fifty to seven- ty-five feet, but that surface still is largely un- touched back from the rivers, and makes the present upland surface and the most conspicu- ous feature in the scenery of the county.
The general drift surface back from the streams is level or gently rolling. There are, however, two belts of more rolling character. some two to three miles across, which run from northeast to southwest across the county. These tracts are seen only back from the streamt lines ; they may rise to a height of fifty feet above the upland south of them and they have
20
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
a steeper slope to the south than to the north. , continuous sand ridges (eskers) rising above These belts of higher country are belts of ex- | the general level. This is the origin of the series of ridges which are found in the tri- angle between the Scioto River and Hocking Valley Railroad, for six miles south of Pros- pect. When such streams ended their sub- glacial course at the ice margin they deposited more or less sand and gravel among the knolls of the moraine itself. The most con- spicuous area of such origin lies south and a little east of Radnor. cessively thick drift deposits, and mark po- sitions where the front of the melting glacier stopped in its gradual retreat north across the State. They are the moraines of recession of the ice sheet. One, the Powell moraine, ex- tends from Jerome, through Powell, south of Orange and then runs northeast to Big Wal- nut at Galena. From Galena its front follows the west side of the Big Walnut to beyond the county line. This is the better developed of the two moraines and all the railways be- WATER SUPPLY. tween Columbus and Delaware have cuts where they pass from the plain north into the The water supply of the county is chiefly from wells, the supply of the city of Delaware being drawn from a gravel well and from rock wells sunk in the bottoms of the Olentangy some three miles above the city. moraine. The other moraine is well shown about Ostrander, makes the high country east of the Scioto due west from Delaware, but is less conspicuous near the Olentangy. It again shows clearly east of the Olentangy some four miles northeast of Delaware and thence con- tinues northeast through Ashley to Mount Ver- non, where it unites with the Powell mo- raine.
It is interesting to consider what was hap- pening when the stop was made by which the moraine through Ostrander was made. The northwestern part of the county was covered with ice, reaching southeast to within two miles of Delaware. The remainder of the county, but recently abandoned by the ice, was covered with glacial deposits, probably but poorly concealed with vegetation. The melt- ing of the ice produced large streams flowing away from the ice front. It was these streams which laid down the coarse gravels which are now found in the upper bottoms but which at that time made a level floor, twenty to thirty feet above the present stream beds. These grav- els were laid down along the Scioto and Olen- tangy Rivers and Delaware Run.
A considerable part of the drainage re- sulting from the melting of the ice surface found its way through cracks in the ice to the bottom of the ice sheet and then followed a subglacial course to the ice margin. Along such courses beneath the ice gravel deposits were laid down and these, when the ice re- treated to the north, were left as more or less
The geology of the wells is simple. On the uplands all wells commence in the gla- cial clay. If after reaching the ground water, a vein of sand is reached in digging the well, either above or at the surface of the bed rock, water may be obtained; if not, the well must be carried down into the bed rock until a supply is reached. The clay will not furnish water, for while it may stand below the sur- face of the ground water, its texture is so close that water will not flow fast enough from it into the well to make an adequate supply. In the bottoms the problem of obtaining water is simpler. The ground is so low that water is everywhere near the surface while the open texture of the sands and gravel gives a good well as soon as ground water is reached. It is only where an excessive amount of water is needed, as in the case of the supply for the city of Delaware, that the gravel wells are inade- quate and that it is necessary to eke out this supply by other means, in this case wells to the rock.
The most important matter connected with the water supply of a family or city is its purity. There is a great underground sheet of water filling the openings between the rock and soil particles. This is the ground water. The surface of this ground water rises in times of rain and sinks in times of drought and
21
AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS
comes to the light only where it makes the sur- face of ponds and permanent streams. This under-ground supply comes, of course, from the rainfall. All the rainfall which does not join the immediate run-off soaks through the loose up- per rock until it reaches the surface of the ground water. In so doing it runs danger of infection. The rainfall is itself nearly pure. On and immediately below the surface it gathers more or less impurity, either organic or inor- ganic. Such impurities may not be harmful ; generally they are not, but at the same time that the chance is offered for the water to take up these harmless impurities, the water has the opportunity to take up disease germs, especially those of typhoid fever. Fortunately. the water which is thus always impure and occasionally infected is usually naturally puri- fied. It is known that the upper layers of the soil are inhabited by countless bacteria and these microscopic forms of plant life feed on the organic matter which is in the soil work- ing its way from the surface to the ground water. By this agency, this organic matter is destroyed, is reduced to simpler and harmless forms and any disease germs which may have been in the water are either destroyed or else die from lack of food or from other unfavor- able external conditions. As wells draw their supply from the underground water which is normally thus "filtered." or better "disin- fected" in passing below the surface. they are usually pure. They may, however, become contaminated in two ways. If they are im- properly made, water from the surface may get into the well either at the top or through the sides. Or if wells are sunk in the neighbor- hood of cess-pools, they are liable to infection. In that case infected matter may work directly along a buried sand vein from cess-pool to well, and the well become a source of disease. In such cases the natural disinfection by the soil bacteria is impossible, while mere filtra- tion through sand, apart from the action of organisms, does not purify. By dilution with the ground water and by unfavorable environ- ment the disease germs may have their strength impaired, but it remains true that wells in the neighborhood of cess-pools are unsafe.
A large part of the rainfall never gets be- low the surface. It makes the wet weather run-off and goes at once to the streams. In dry weather the stream flow is maintained by the ground water contributions. In so far as river water is made of run-off it is liable to in- fection. Surface water is not suitable for drinking purposes. Exceptionally it may be, in the case of small streams whose whole drain- age area is known to be free from sources of contamination. But in the case of a stream of any size, no individual can know that the drain- age basin above a certain point is free from sources of infection. The Olentangy River has been condemned as a source of water sup- ply at Delaware because in time of low water it is exposed to contamination from the sew- age of Galion and from private sources, while in time of the spring freshiets it is probably quite as dangerous by reason of the washing which the rains give the frozen land sur- face. sweeping to the streams the winter's wastes, which may be easily infected by reason of cases of disease.
One of the most interesting things con- nected with the water supply of the county is its sulphur springs. These are so named from the hydrogen sulphide contained in the water and which gives it its characteristic odor. Quite as interesting as this gaseous constitu- ent. is the mineral content of the water. An- alysis shows that the water of the Odevene spring* in Delaware contains 361 grains of mineral matter per gallon and nearly one-half of this is common salt. The water of these springs is really salt water. The composition of the impurities carried suggests that the wa- ter has followed a long and deep underground course. reaching levels much lower than those touched by the water of ordinary springs. In
*In 1849 Truman Thomas of Sunbury hired a man to dig a well. This well, which resulted in the Odevene spring. was drilled for gas or oil. The man got down about twenty-four feet, when he was over- come by gas and had to be pulled out. Thinking it was damp, a light- ed candle was sent down in a bucket, but it had not descended more than six feet when it ignited. sending a column of flame up for forty feet with an explosion like a ten-pound cannon. The well burned about forty- eight hours with a flame about two feet high, when wa- ter seeped in and put it out.
There is a gas well on the farm formerly owned by O, 1). Hough. Inside of Sunbury corporation limits. that Is about 2400 feet deep. bat Which is now plugged. It is supposed by oil and gas men that this territory is on the outskirts of the gas and oil belt .- [Ed.]
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.