Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 45

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916

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When this massive stone is viewed in close proximity it appears to lean in every direction, so that on whatever side an observer may be, it seems liable to fall on him.

There is a difference of opinion as to whether this rock can be made to vibrate or not. Some claim it is easy to vibrate it while standing on top. My own experience is that it cannot be made to vibrate with a pole from the ground, although it looks as if it could be done.

In 1820 a number of keel-boatmen, under the direction of Timothy Gates, gave out that on a certain day they were going to push it down into the river. Many of the early set- tlers gathered there to witness the proceed- ing. But the boatmen failed in their attempt to unsettle it, and the crowd was disappointed. Several attempts to overthrow it have since been made, notably one by falling a tree against it, but all resulted in failure.

Another remarkable stone formation in this picturesque valley of the Muskingum is the "natural bridge" on the Glenn farm, two miles south of Roxbury.

Natural Bridge .- It consists of a huge stone arch, spanning a hollow which forms a rocky channel, sometimes dry and sometimes swollen by rains. Over the arch a grapevine runs riot, and here and there dainty fringes of cool ferns cling to the damp earth near its extremities. Underneath, the walls are cov- ered with the initials of stragglers, who seek enduring fame after the manner of visitors to such spots. The bridge is perhaps thirty feet from end to end. fifteen feet high, and so wide as to allow a sleigh to cross with safe margin.

N. SHE PARD &

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

CENTRAL PART OF MCCONNELLSVILLE.

CHWAN TOBACCO COF 15

LAST NATIONAL DU

Photo. by E. Witherell in 1886.

CENTRAL PART OF MCCONNELLSVILLE, 1886.

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MORGAN COUNTY.

According to the United States statistics for 1840, more salt was manufactured in Morgan than in any other county in Ohio. It was procured by sinking wells. Its principal market was in Cincinnati, where it was called " Zanesville salt," although the far greater part of it was made in this county. The sketch of the salt region on the Muskingum, as it was then, we take from an article by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, in the twenty-fourth volume of " Silliman's Journal."

This is now history. The amount of salt now manufactured here and else- where in Ohio is very trifling, owing to the superior strength of the brines elsewhere, especially those of Michigan and Syracuse, N. Y.

The first attempt at procuring salt on this river was made by Mr. Ayers, in the year 1817, a few miles below, and at the foot of the rapids at Zanesville, in the year 1819, by S. Fairlamb. He, being a man of consider- able mechanical ingenuity, constructed some simple machinery, connected with a water- mill, which performed the operation of boring without much expense. Salt had been made for many years at the works on Salt creek, nine miles southeast of Zanesville, and some slight indications of salt on the rocks, at low water, led to this trial. Water was found, impregnated with muriate of soda, at about 350 feet. It afforded salt of a good quality, but was not abundant, nor sufficiently satu- rated to make its manufacture profitable. Within the period of a few years after, sev- eral other wells were bored in this vicinity, but generally lower down the river. It was soon discovered that the water was stronger as they descended, and that the salt deposit was at a greater depth.

At Duncan's falls, nine miles below, at the mouth of Salt creek, the rock had descended to 450 feet, and with a proportionate increase in the strength of the water, At the latter place, the owner of a well not finding a suffi- cient supply of water for his furnace, although it was of the desired strength, pushed his well to the depth of 400 feet below the salt rock. His praiseworthy perseverance, how- ever, met not with its proper reward. No additional salt water was found, although it is highly probable that other salt strata are de- posited below those already discovered, but at such a depth as to render it very difficult to reach them by the present mode of boring. As we descend the river wells are found, at short distances, for thirty miles helow Zanes- ville, gradually deepening until the salt rock is reached, at 850 feet below the surface. The water is also so much augmented in strength as to afford fifty pounds of salt to every fifty gallons.

Twenty-two miles below the rapids a stra-

tum of flint rock, from nine to twelve feet in thickness, comes to the surface and crosses the river, making a slight ripple at low water. This rock has a regular dip to the south, and at McConnellsville, five miles below, it is found at 114 feet ; and two and a half miles farther down, it is struck at 160 feet. Where wells have been sunk through this rock it affords a sure guide to the saliferous deposit, as the intermediate strata are very uniform in quality and thickness, and the practical operator can tell within a foot or two the actual distance to be passed between the two rocks, although the interval is 650 fcet. Above the point where the flint rock crops out, the rock strata appear to have been worn away, so that as you ascend the river the salt rock comes nearer to the surface, until, at the forks of the Muskingum, it is only 200 feet below. This flint rock is so very hard and sharp-grained that it cuts away the best cast-steel from the augers, nearly or quite as rapidly as the steel cut away the rock, and required three weeks of steady labor, night and day, to penetrate ten feet. With few exceptions the other strata are readily passed.

The lower salt rock often occasions much difficulty to the workmen from the auger's becoming fixed in the hole. The sand of this rock, when beaten fine and allowed to settle compactly about the auger in the well, becomes so hard and firm as to require the greatest exertions to break it loose, frequently fracturing the stout ash poles in the attempt. From the sand and small particles of the rock brought up by the pump, the salt stratum appears to be of a pure, pearly whiteness ; and the more porous and cellular its structure the greater is the quantity of water afforded ; as more freedom is given to the discharge of gas, which appears to be a very active agent in the rise of water, forcing it, in nearly all the wells, above the bed of the river, and in some to twenty-five or thirty feet above the top of the well.

OIL, GAS AND SALT.

The geological formation in the vicinity of MeConnellsville is such as to indi- cate prolifie sources of oil and gas, and recently steps have been taken toward the development of these interests. The Trenton limestone is at great depth ; about 1,000 feet above the Trenton the Clinton limestone is found, then above that the corniferous still higher, 400 or 500 feet, and the great Macksburg rock of Berca sandstone is about 1,700 feet from the surface. All these roeks afford supplies of

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MORGAN COUNTY.

gas and oil. Where gas and oil have been found near here at depths of 40 to 100 feet, crevices were struck which conveyed it near the surface. No doubt by upheavals these rocks are opened so the oil and gas escaped from rocks below, and they are found here in the Mahoning sandrock, and in some places oil came to the surface and is found on the water, which, years ago, was collected by the farmers, and used for cuts and bruises on animals. The oil found on this range of the oil belt, as marked by surface oil, is all heavy lubricating oil, of great valne compared with the lighter oils.

In 1830 Rufus P. Stone was boring near Malta for salt water, which he struck at a depth of 400 feet, as well as a flow of natural gas. Mr. Stone, being interested in other enterprises, permitted this well to remain idle for some years, when it was leased to Captain Stull.

Evaporators were soon in place, with pipes to convey the gas, and everything ready for commencing operations, when the entire plant was destroyed by fire. Mr. Stone, who was one of the old time puritanical moralists, ex- pressed himself on the destruction of the works in the following language: "The hands at the well struck hell last night and burned up the whole concern."

Later the furnace was repaired, different proprietors took charge, and salt made by

using the gas until 1878, when an attempt was made to get more salt water and the gas ceased to flow.

For years the illumination from this well by night was a prominent feature in steam- boat travel on the Muskingum at night.

In 1878 Messrs. Shields and Williams, while boring for oil some two miles south of Malta, struck gas at a depth of 400 feet. The gas was piped a distance of 800 yards, and used as a motive power for engines in place of steam. Two engines were ruo in this manner without any fire. In addition to the amount used in the engines, a blaze some 30 to 40 feet in height illuminated the hills for miles around, so that fine print could be read at night half a mile distant. Gas was also used for cooking and heating.

TRAVELLING NOTES.

One of the most enjoyable steamboat trips within my experience was that up the Muskingum from Marietta to Zanesville, which occupied parts of two days in May. In a direct line the places are a trifle over 60 miles apart, but by the winding of the river about 80 miles. The head of steamboat navigation is at Dresden, 15 miles north of Zanesville.

The river falls about 106 feet between Zanesville and Marietta, which was in its natural state a bar to steamboat navigation. Nearly half a century ago the State made it navigable by a series of dams, locks and short canals. Between the two places are ten dams, with a lock at each ; at five of the locks are canals. The falls are about 10 feet each. This is called the Muskingum River Improvement. John Sherman when a youth assisted in the construction, acting as rodman in the corps of engineers. Lately the U. S. Government has taken possession of the work, which renders it free to navigation, thus relieving the State of the expense of repairs and commerce from the heavy burden of tolls. These on a single trip, I am told, sometimes amounted to as much as one hundred dollars, depending upon the cargo. A railroad has recently been constructed up the Muskingum. But no one travelling by it could have any conception of the many charming pictures which greet the eye from the deck of a steamer moving on its waters.

The First Steamer, it is said, that ever went up the Muskingum was the "Rufus Putnam," owned and commanded by Captain Daniel Green. This was about the year 1824. Tra- dition says he was an old sea-captain and an excellent man. He had a deep base voice of tremendous carrying power. In a still summer morning on the Ohio his voice, they said, could be heard on shore two miles away. Yes, they added, sometimes when his steamer was rounding a bend out of sight the people, from the sound of Green's voice in conversation reaching them, knew it was the "Rufus Putnam " that was coming.

Thursday Night, May 13 .- Have just come aboard a steamer which starts up the Mus- kingum at daylight. Had a pleasant time at Marietta, and to-day was in at the birth of one of the best of puns. There have been heavy rains, and in the morning I went down to look at the Ohio, which I found very much swollen. On my return I entered an old- style house where was a valued acquaintance in the person of an old lady-fat, jolly and full of fun.

As I came in she was sitting by the window with a pleasant outlook upon green things. A newspaper was spread over her ample lap,

JEREMIAH MCLANE RUSK.

Sec. Dept. of Agriculture, and fraternally known as "Uucle Jerry."

E. Witherell, Photo. THE DEVIL'S TEA-TABLE.

EAGLESPORT.

This view was drawn by me in 1885 while passing up the river on a steamer, and re-drawn for en- graving by J. N. Bradford, Ohio State University. It is noted as the place (below the falls) where Morgan's troopers in their flight forded the Muskingum.

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MORGAN COUNTY.

and with spectacles on nose she was reading, when the following conversation arose :

Mrs. Z .- "This is what I call comfort."

Myself .- "Yes, it is. But I have been down to see the river, and I found it rising." Then after a pause, 1 added, reflectively, "though rather late in the morning-after eleven o'clock."

Mrs. Z .- "You must be mistaken; it can't be that the river is leaving its bed."'

Story of a Pair of Stockings .- Mrs. Z. then regaled me with one of her amusing stories. The subject was Lyne Starling, called in history the " Father of Columbus" -not of Christopher, the open-eyed discov- erer, who had the proud satisfaction of teach- ing mankind how to make an egg stand on end, but father of our Ohio hub. Starling was the head of the illustrious four who saw money in Columbus, laid it out for the State Capitol, and it soon sprouted with buildings, Ohio laws and many people. Starling was a Kentuckian, a bachelor, huge in person, full in purse, and eccentric every way, fond of Kentucky Bourbon, fast horses, etc., and so not exactly adapted to the role of a Cal- vinistic deacon-that is, of the Jonathan Edwards type.

When a young girl Mrs. Z., with another young girl like herself from Kentucky, was attending in Columbus a seminary for the polishing of young ladies. They boarded at the American House, which also was long the home of Lyne Starling, and wherein, well up in the sixties-in 1848 it was-he died as he had lived and unwedded, fully ripe ; that is, ripe after the old Kentucky type.

Mr. Starling was so immense that he used an extra-sized carriage.

His feet were also immense, and one day he complained to the young ladies that he could not find any stockings in the Columbus stores large enough for him. If they would each knit him a full capacious pair, he would pay them each twenty-five dollars.

The girls accepted the offer in glee. Neither had ever knit a stitch-the knitting of stock- ings was not in the curriculum of the polish- ing seminary-but they went at it all agog, took proper instructions from ancient dames, surmounted all the difficulties, such as turn- ing the heels and tipping the toes, and in due time had the pairs finished. These they sent by the hands of a colored waiter to the huge man's room-sent neatly wrapped in a napkin on a waiter with a note. In due time he re- turned with his waiter, on which were envel- opes addressed to each containing checks for $25. Without a moment's delay, feeling rich as Crœsus, the gleeful maidens made a foray npon the Columbus dry-goods men and mil- liners, and it seemed as though nothing was good enough nor rich enough for their tastes, and no bottom dollars to such a huge pile as twenty-five of them.

The great man's heart now warmed toward those maidens. In such a generous frame of mind had he been put through the in- fluence of those comfort-giving stockings that covered his Brodignag-like feet, that he then

made his will, leaving $8,000 to each of the knitting damsels. On later thinking over it he cancelled those items ; maybe the stock- ings were showing great holes. A big toe perhaps had cut its way through, and child- like he had given way to a feeling of revul- sion at the disaster, and so cut off the damsels. "We knew nothing of all this," said Mrs. Z., "until years after. But it then explained the sudden and extraordinary attentions to me of a young man, a fellow-boarder, to whom 1 turned the cold shoulder. He had been a witness of the will, and knew its con- tents. I sometimes fancy I can see, in case his suit had been granted and the knot tied, the expression of dismay that must have come over the poor young man's face when he came to learn that Lyne Starling had not left me a cent."

Friday Morning. May 14 .- The steamer I am on is the "Lizzie Cassel," Captain Lewis Myrick. Soon after starting I stepped up to the captain's office "to settle." He replied, "Nothing to you." On this answer I asked, " What dreadful thing have I done that you should treat me so ?" "Oh !" said he, "you are a gentleman-it is something to have a gentleman on board !" This shocked me ; it was such a hard reflection upon my fellow- passengers who had paid their passage. Luckily none were around to hear it. I was reconciled when he told me it was his contri- bution to the History of Ohio ; I now have my revenge-here embalm him-and he is now " part of the bone of that bone and flesh of that flesh " in that history. Strange the Captain has only recently come into the State, and is not what is usually called an Ohio man. but he has the qualities that go to make one, and will be soon full-fledged : perhaps the first of all the Myricks to get such feathers.

The Muskingum is about 180 yards wide at Marietta ; George Washington is my au- thority, for he so states in his tour into the Ohio country made in 1753. Here is the first dam and lock ; the river is full as wide at Zanesville, and a noble stream all the way up. It is now very much swollen by heavy rains, and the water, owing to the clayey soil, the color of coffee with a proper palatable in- fusion of milk.

The banks are largely lined with low wil- lows, a peculiarity I have observed of most of the streams of the central part of the State. The valley varies from half a mile to a mile in width, and is rich in cultivated farms and prospering people. The river has many long reaches, and discloses at every turn charming vistas. There is very little bold scenery, but on each side are hills some 150 to 300 feet in height, mostly gently slop- ing, and wooded to their summits. The effect as a whole is to fill one with the sense of peace and loveliness. There is almost an entire absence of islands.

I sat on the upper deck, and with a knot of others looked ahead with my eyes open to the unfolding beauties. It is a tendency of mankind rather to be prospective than retro- spective. So even travellers on steamboats

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choose their seats in front, to see what is coming, though often the scenery which they have passed may be the most entrancing.

Near the county line we passed on the right Beverly, a sweet little village on some low hills, embowered in trees, and connected by a bridge with Waterford, a sister village on the west bank.

These villages were among the first settled places in Ohio, and I longed to pause there, and see if I could find any curious inscrip- tions in their old graveyards. In the older States they are often very interesting, supply valuable historic items, and amuse by their quaintness.

Floating Saw-mills .- At Lowell, below Beverly, we had passed through the second lock. The roar of the falls there was, as elsewhere I afterwards found, very great. The entire body of the river, striking on the apron below, breaks into foam, and then uniting arries on with irresistible force. They have on the river travelling saw-mills, stern-wheel steamboats, which move from point to point and saw the trees of the farmers into boards. I was pointed out a travelling saw-mill at work in the river, which in the flood a few weeks before became unmanageable by a floating log entangled in its wheel, when it went over the dam at Luke's Chute, making a leap of 10 feet, and without harm to either boat or crew. Luke's Chute is a few miles above Beverly. Here is a long reach in the river, with beld bills on the right, and a view of surpassing grandeur looking up the stream. It seemed like the Hudson on a small scale, so straight the reach.

Some of the canals above the locks are a mile long. It takes about 15 minutes to go through a lock. It creates a curious sensa- tion to leave the river behind, go through a lock beside the roaring falls, and then enter a canal and pass in a steamboat through culti- vated fields and by farm houses and milch cattle, with often no sign of the river one has left anywhere.

It is impossible to go fast on the canals. They are so narrow that the water is thrown away from a boat. Lower the water, slower the boat ; if the water was twenty feet deep it would go as fast as in the river.

The salt industry was forty years or more ago a prominent feature on the river. There were twenty-five or thirty furnaces below Zanesville in operation, now less than half a dozen, and even these could not subsist were it not that they burned slack screenings, which cost but a trifle. This change is ow- ing to the competition with Michigan and Syracuse, where the brine is stronger and the salt can be more cheaply manufactured.

McConnelsville .- At 3 o'clock, P. M., the steamer left me at McConnelsville, where I made arrangements with a photographer to take views from the same point I made the pencil sketch in the long ago, and early the next morning resumed my voyage up the river.

Saturday, May 15 .-- Left McConnelsville after breakfast in steamer Olivet, Captain

Ed. Martin. As usual I sat in the midst of a group on deck looking alead. Four miles above, on the summit of a hill about 150 feet high, I was pointed out the Devil's Tea Table, elsewhere described.

About eight miles above McConnelsville, nestled in the midst of one of the most charming nooks at the foot of the hills on the west bank of the river, lies Eagleport. It is famous as the spot where and just be- low the dam across the river John Morgan with his troopers forded the Muskingum.

Comical Incidents of Morgan's Raid .- Those around me were full of the subject, taking it in its ludicrous aspects. At the news of his approach the whole country flew to arms; some who were full of courage at the beginning found it had all oozed away as the bold riders hove in sight. Among the comical stories a fellow-passenger told me was this of a poor wight who sought safety in a pig pen and laid down, as he thought, where he could not be seen, crouched behind a matronly specimen who was attending to the gastronomic requirements of a new-born progeny.

He had been seen to flee by one of the troopers, who, on coming to the pen, looked in and espying the poor frightened fellow, exclaimed with a grin : "Halloa ! how did you get here ? Did you all come in the same litter ?" Another, a stuttering man, had bragged what he would do when he met the foe. A few hours later he was suddenly sur- rounded by Morgan's raiders, who called out "Surrender ! you - rascal." He at once threw up his hands and exclaimed : "I-I-I s-s-sur-surrendered fi-fi-five minutes ago."

On hearing this last incident I was tempted to relate one not unlike it, which Captain Basil Hall calls, in his "Fragments of Voy- agesand Travels," "two-o'clock-in-the-morn- ing courage," that is, courage at the instant of unexpected peril, which is a rare quality. "Hence," he says, "mutiny on a vessel or a rising of prisoners is apt to be successful."

It was in the war time when I was in a train crossing the State, when I engaged in conversation about the war with a large man who sat by my side. He was a Union man from Kentucky, fat and merry. After hav- ing asked me if I was ever so scared I for- got my own name, I replied in accordance with the facts. "Well," said he in reply, "I was once. I was riding on a road down in the 'Blue Grass Country,' absorbed in thought, when my attention was aroused by the clatter of horses galloping up from be- hind me. In a moment I was enveloped in a cloud of guerillas, when one, presenting a revolver at my head, exclaimed : ' . you, what is your name ?' With that I answered : 'My na-na-name is-is-is,' and for the life of me I couldn't remember what my name was." Then on telling this my fat fellow-passenger shook all over like jelly with laughter, in which the listening travellers around heartily joined.

The Blue Rock Mine Disaster .- A few miles above Eagleport, on the side of

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the river, I was pointed to the spot of the Blue Rock Mine Disaster. The entrance to the mine is a short distance above the river bank. This event occurred on the 12th of April, 1858, and is detailed elsewhere.

Gaysport .- We stopped at a little hamlet on the east bank to take on the mail and a passenger or so. It was named Gaysport, but every thing about it was dismal enough, for

"Misty, moisty was the morning, And cloudy was the weather,'

while the buildings were dingy and brown. These were mainly on a single road fronting the river. Behind all were some low hills and above a murky sky. On the river bank stood a post some ten feet high, to which was attached a bell to call the ferryman from the opposite bank.

Our boat stopping was the one daily great event in the life of Gaysport. We had no sooner shoved a plank ashore than the village men, with the leisurely tread of country people who rise early, taking time by the forelock, left their various avocations, came loping down and arranged themselves in an irregular line on the bank about 14 feet above us and some 60 feet away. Then their postmaster came hurrying down through them with the mail bag on his shoulder, while a woman with a red shawl emerged from a house behind and without even deigning to look at us, turned a corner and vanished.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 45

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 916

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916