History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 75

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 75
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 75

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).

MISCELLANEOUS.

The following is a list of recruits and veteran volunteers mus- tered into West Virginia organizations and credited to Belmont county, Ohio, since January 1. 1864 :

FIRST W. VA. CAVALRY.

Jesse Chamberlain, Calvin C, Hasson, John C. Majors, John Cass, Joseph P. Burdett, Adam Coss, William Heskett, Josiah Hatcher, George W. Jeffries, Wm. D. McKirahan, James Mar- tin, Jonathan Milburn, Curtis B. Stedd, Jacob Watson, William Gill, John Estep, Patrick Menehan, Robert Armstrong, W. H. Brown, Renben H. Lucas, Aaron Moore, John N. Elliott.

FIRST INFANTRY.

William Humphreyville, John Barton.

FIFTH CAVALRY.

William Fowler, Stephen G. Jones, William Clark.

FIRST ARTILLERY.

Erasmus F. Baily.

CO. C, 116th REGIMENT O. V. I.

This company was composed of Monroe county men, with the exception of five from Belmont county. It was mustered into service under Capt. Frederick H. Arckenoe on the 19th of Sep- tember, 1862. The company was mustered out of service at Richmond, Va., June 14, 1865. The following named gentle- men were from Belmont county :

Abel C. Barnes, wounded at Cedar Creek; Franklin Barnes, mustered out at expiration of service; Miller Brown, three months' extra pay as a prisoner of war confined in Libby prison ; Samuel Dobbins, three months' extra pay as a prisoner of war, confined in Libby prison; Walter Theaker was appointed cor poral June 15, 1863.

CO. H, 86TH REGIMENT O. V. I.

Abraham Porter and Campbell K. Smith, of Bellaire, Ohio, were members of this company. It was mnstered into the ser- vice of the United States for six months at Camp Cleveland, O., July 14, 1863. Mustered out February 10, 1864.

CO. K, 78th REGIMENT O. V. I.

William E. Barnes enlisted December 11, 1861. Mustered out with company at Louisville, Ky., July 11, 1865.

COMPANY C, 60TH REGIMENT O. V. I.

Captain B. Kyle's company was mustered into the service at Camp Chase, April 5, 1864. Belmont county contributed about twenty-five men to this company, as follows :

PROMOTIONS.

John R. Merrill, promoted to sergeant, June 1. 1865. Adam Stewart, promoted to corporal, November 5, 1864. Oliver C. Torbet, promoted to corporal, February 1, 1865.

PRIVATES,-Oliver C. Jones, John T. Skinner, James W. Skin- ner, George A. Shry, Joseph G. Snade, Allen B. Thomas,

DISCHARGED ON DISABILITY.

Jeremiah Horton, July 4, 1865. James A. Barnes, May 13, 1865. Joshua Fred, April 27, 1865. Wm. W. Clark, January 13, 1865. W. C. Manning, Philip S, Williams, June 21, 1865.

DIED,

Jesse E. Berry, killed in action at Petersburg, Va., June 17. 1864. Joseph Mayhugh, killed on duty near Petersburg, Va., June 28, 1864. John D. Bryan, killed in action at Nye River, Va,, May 12, 1864. Charles W. Carter, died in Camp Chase of disease, April 10, 1864. John M. Johnson, died at Baltimore, M.d., October 8, 1864, of disease. Wm. W. Kyser, died July 22, 1864, of wounds received while in action. Tillman Nichols, died of wounds received in action at Cold Harbor, Va., July 2, 1864. Milton H. Shry, died October 6, 1864. John S. Summers, died September 2, 1864. Thomas Stephenson, killed in action, Oct. 27, 1864, at Hatcher's Run, Va.

Company mustered out at Delaney House, D. C., July 28, 1865.

COMPANY D, 60TH REGIMENT O. V. I.

This company was composed of men from different counties in the state. Those from belmont county are indicated below, The company was organized by Captain W. W. Robbins and went into Camp Chase, April 6, 1864. It was mustered out at Delaney House, D. C., July 28, 1865.

PROMOTIONS.

Joseph E. Lewis, sergeant. Wm. J. Parsons, sergeant, DeL. Eckels Marquis, promoted to sergeant, May 1, 1865. Corporals -Samuel W. Gordon, Hemy S. Barnes, Ellis Brill.

PRIVATES .- John Alwood, Owen Delong, Wm. S. Dyer, John H. Ellis, George W. Gebhart, Calvin N. Malone, Anthony B. Shimp, Cornelins Stidd, Israel A. Thompson, George H. Till- man.

DISCHARGED.

John W. Hays, April 17, 1865. Wm. H. Barnes, February 9, 1865. Evan Dickison, May 19, 1865. G. W. Hance, June 7, 1865. Wm. M. Nace, January 17, 1865.

DIED.

James A. Vance, died December 30, 1864, in Salisbury, N. C., in rebel prison, while a prisoner of war. James Barnes, died May 10, 1864, in ambulance, caused by a gun shot wound in hip. received May 9, 1864, at Nye River. John W. Crew, died Octo- ber 10, 1864, in Alexandria, Va., of chronic diarrhea. Samuel Griffith, May 12, 1864, killed at Spottsylvania, Va .; shot through head in a charge against the enemy. John H. Moore, died August 28, 1864, in Andersonville, Ga., of dysentery, while a prisoner of war. Charles O. Morrow, died December 26, 1864, in Salisbury, N. C., prison. Dewitt Steel, May 9, 1864, in Fredericksburg, Va., of measles.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

The historian, in making out the above record of Belmont county, has endeavored to give as complete a list of the volun- teer soldiers who enlisted from said county, as was possible for him to do. It may be that there yet remains some names which are omitted, of persons who enlisted from this county at remote points in this and other states, and which were not disclosed to the author. There were four companies of "Departmentals," from the county, the rosters of which were not on file in Colum- bns. An effort to get them from Washington City was unsuc- cessful.

Belmont county has borne a conspicuous part in the suppres- sion of the rebellion. Many of its noble patriots fell in defend- ing the Union. It early responded to the President's call for three months' men, and sent three companies into the field- most of whom subsequently re-enlisted. Over two thousand served in the three years' sevice, many of whom became veter-

213

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

ans. The 170th regiment of hundred day men were all from this county, and like those who preceded them, did good service and acquitted themselves like men.

But, alas ! many who left the county as brave soldiers, full of hope and patriotic zeal, never returned again. Some may ask where are they ? Ah! their lives have gone out on the memora- ble battle fields of Shiloh, Corinth, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Nashville, Cheat Mountain, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, McDowell, Greenbrier, Second Bull Run, Little Rock, Jonesboro, Wilderness, Monoca- cy, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and many others.

Belmont also contributed to the long list of starved soldiers of the horrible prisons of Andersonville and Libby.

Its war record is a good one, and is well worthy the space it occupies in this history.

CHAPTER XX.

GEOLOGICAL SKETCH OF BELMONT COUNTY.

BY T. W. EMERSON.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

It is thought proper to introduce this geological sketch of Belmont county by a brief outline of such of the general prin- ciples of geology as will enable those who have given little or no attention to the subject to read the sketch with interest and profit. Only such of these principles will be introduced as are necessary to a full understanding of the subject, and those in as brief a manner as is consistent with clearness, the use of scientific terms being avoided so far as it is possible to do so without sacrificing scientific accuracy. Yet, as the work is in- tended to be useful rather than merely readable, the use of technical terms will, ot necessity, be resorted to, especially in the general articles on sandstone, limestone, and coal.

Geology is sometimes poetically called "the story of the rocks." It might be more logically defined to be the history of the earth as determined by the rocks. Imperfect, as all human sciences must necessarily be, it can not properly be called a complete history of the earth ; but, so far as it goes, it is a clear translation from the rocky records of at least an outline of the world's history : a chroniele of the perpetual changes and suc- cession of great events which have wrought out of the gray vague of chaos the varied and beautiful world of to-day. It is a history without dates; written, not in the mutable language of human speech ; not in the perishable and infinitely varied characters which represent human thought; but in the plain picture-language of Nature-a language without idiom or in- flection, perfect, simple, and universal ; the same in Europe, India, and the islands of the sea. True, geology, like other sciences, has become more or less involved in technicalities ; but that arises from the imperfection of human language; from the inability of the translators of Nature's book to express in their own dialect that which is plain and simple in the original. The literal translation sacrifices half its beauty for accuracy; the free translation loses its accuracy in attempting to reproduce the beauty. There is but one way to preserve both : that is to read the simple record from the original. "To him who, in the love of Nature, holds communion with her visible forms," there need be-there can be-no difficulty in understanding the "va- rious language" which she speaks.

KINDS OF ROCKS.

"The geologist is accustomed to regard the earth's crust as con- sisting of masses and layers of rocks miles in thickness, covered generally with a thin robe of soil at most a few inches deep. It is his business to divest each locality of its thin garment of soil, and to study the solid structure beneath, This he cannot do literally ; but by studying the exposures of solid rock here and there, and comparing and collating the various results, he can arrive at length at a very satisfactory knowledge of the whole structure. The nature and method of formation of cach kind of rock being known, we have only to determine the kinds of rock of a certain locality, and the order in which they occur, and we

are then enabled to reproduce the entire geological history of the locality.

It is hardly necessary to state that there is no great variety in the kinds of rocks of Belmont county. To treat of the nu- merous kinds of minerals that may be found among the pebbles and river stones of the Ohio river basin, or of other similar de- posits, would be foreign to our subject. The framework of our hills consists mostly of deposits of sand stone, lime stone, and clay in their various forms, interlaid with seams of coal. Of these four minerals, therefore, it is necessary to treat somewhat in detail. The names and character of other minerals will be introduced only so far as they are connected with these.

SANDSTONE AND CLAY.

In our every day experience we are accustomed to think of sand as pulverized sandstone, but it would be more strictly cor- rect to regard sandstone as consolidated sand. The sand we see along our roads has of course been worn off from the stones of the road-bed by travel and weather, and washed into beds by rains. A bed of sand thus collected, mixed with quantities of iron in small particles, would, if undisturbed, solidify in the course of years. The iron would rust, and the oxide thus formed would cement the sand into solid rock. The sands at the bottom of the sea are often found hardened into stone, where lost anchors, cannons and other articles of iron have lain for several years. The same result is sometimes produced where springs containing some of the forms of lime in solution flow among sand-beds ; the calcareous matter acting as a cement to the loose grains of sand. There is considerable proportion of iron in the sand- stones of our higher formation. The yellow color of the higher soils and clays is due mostly to the yellow oxide of iron, or rust. The red color of bricks is due to another oxide of iron, formed by the union of the oxygen of the air with the iron which the clay contained. It is not uncommon in this county to find sand- stones containing blue iron ore ; but most of the iron at the sur- face of the ground, when the air and moisture can reach it, is in the form of yellow oxide.

Sandstone, then, being composed of grains of sand cemented to- gether by forms of iron or lime, it is worth while to inquire further into the nature of sand itself. Pure sand is rarely, if ever found in the interior. It may be seen along the seashore and on the shores of lakes, where it is washed clear of the mud and clayey particles, which form so large a part of our interior sands. Pure sand is perfectly white. It is called silica, and substances containing it are said to be silicious. Silica, or pure sand, consists of little irregular-shaped particles of a mineral, called quartz. Quartz exists in a great variety of forms ; but all the different kinds may be grouped into two classes, the crystallized and uncrystallized. The uncrystallized forms are flint, jasper, chalcedony, hornstone and sandstone. In its crys- tallized form it takes various names according to its color. The crystals are regular six-sided prisms, as shown in Fig. 1 .* When it is free from coloring matter it is transparent as the most per- fect glass ; in which case it is called pellucid, or limpid quartz. Some of the pellucid quartz found near Hot Springs, Arkansas, are so pure and hard, that they are called "Rocky Mountain diamonds." The amethysts used for sets in jewelry are violet- colored quartz-crystals ; and the agates so common in jewelry stores, are half-pellucid quartz, with dark bands, or with figures of the appearance of moss. Opal is another form of quartz, nsu- ally containing a little water in composition. Quartz is one of the hardest of all minerals ; it is so hard that it cannot be scratched by the hardest steel point. It does not melt in the hottest fire ; it will not dissolve in water ; and neither aqua fortis, muriatic, or sulphuric acid, produce any effect upon it. Yet stubborn and unrelenting as this mineral is, it may easily be dissolved by pulverizing it into sand and heating it with potash, lime, (quicklime), or soda (not the substance commonly called soda, but that chemically so called). It is by this process of heating quartz, in the form of sand, with potash, lime or soda, that glass is made.

So we see that our common, coarse, and too often unvalued sandstone comes of a good family, and has many eminently respectable relations. It would be an easy matter to show him near of kin to the great family of granites, and to many other families less useful but more highly appreciated than himself; but want of space forbids.

There are usually other clements besides quartz and and iron in sandstone. The most conspicuous ofthese is mica. The little, glittering scales which school-boys call "isinglass," are mica scales

"Ser illustrations Geological Essay.

214

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

Like the quartz, with which it is associated, it has been bro- ken up into very small fragments, and pretty thoroughly mixed up with the general mass. In its native state, mica consists of large thin plates or scales, sometimes as much as a yard in di- ameter. Specimens of native miea may often be seen used as windows in the doors of parlor stoves. Still another substance called alumina is usually present in sandstone, of which it is proper to speak here, since it is the principal ingredient of clay -a substance pretty generally known in Belmont county. Alumina in its pure form is the hardest of all minerals, except the diamond. The only pure form are the ruby and the sapphire, both of which are well known gems of great value. The gar- net consists of alumina and silica colored with oxide of iron. Emery is composed mostly of alumina. Alum is another well known mineral having alumina for its base-whence the name. When sulphur exists in connection with alumina, it sometimes, by a curious chemical process, absorbs oxygen from the air, and is thereby changed into sulphuric acid; this unites with the alumina, and thus forms basic alum, which is chemically ealled sulphate of alumina. These facts may help to explain the pres- ence of alum in connection with some of our Belmont county sandstoues : notably, the well-known "Alum Rocks" of Wayne township. Alumina is composed of oxygen united with a bril- liant white metal, called aluminum, which possesses more than twice the strength of iron.

Thus we see that clay, being a silicate of alumina, also comes of good stock, being respectably connected on both sides.

When sands containing elay consolidate into sandstones, they make what are called flagstones. A great deal of the sandstones of the higher formation of Belmont county are of this nature. Some of these make very beautiful paving stones. Those quar- ried near Badgersburg, in Goshen township, can scarcely be excelled for that purpose.

LIMESTONE.

Limestone, marble and chalk are but different forms of the same substance. Limestone is chalk broken up and redeposited by the action of water, and hardened by pressure, heat, or other agencies, Marble is limestone with a crystalline structure pro- duced by the action of beat. When we speak of limestone in its broadest sense, therefore, we include all grades of calcareous rocks, from the hardest marble of the hills of Carrara to the soft chalk we use on our black-boards in school. Only the interme- diate form, or limestone proper, is found in this county; and it is in reference to this form alone that the word will be used ; but it may be necessary to speak of the other forins, chalk and marble, in order to explain the true nature of limestone.

Limestone is often found crystallized ; that is, turned to beau- tiful glassy crystals having a cleavage in three directions, at such angles that the substance always splits into rhomboidal blocks, of the shape of Fig. 2. These crystals, ealled in general cale spar, have various specific names according to their charac- ter. If the limestone contains certain impurities the crystals are of a muddy color, and are called simply rhomb spar, in allu- sion to their shape ; but this name would apply equally well to any other variety of calc spar. If it is pure, the crystals are as elear and transparent as the most perfect glass, and are known as Iceland spar. In this county, however, the limestones are generally uncrystallized. Occasionally one may be seen which, when broken, shows small " blossoms," and not unfrequently we find beautiful specimens of calc spar in iron concretions. But no large masses of glistening spar are found, such as may be found in eastern Indiana or northern Kentucky, for example. Our lime- stones consist of beds of gray, blue, or yellow calcareous rock, usually arranged in layers of hard stone alternating with softer deposits of the same substance; that is the appearance, at least, presented by the outcrops of the Limestone Series along our larger creeks. But the soft, earthy deposits which separate the harder layers are produced by the weathering of stone con- taining a larger proportion of carbonate or sulphate of magnesia. This variety is consequently called magnesian limestone by ehem- ists. The yellow variety, of which there are two conspicuous beds in this county, owes its peculiar color to the yellow oxide of iron. Those varieties with little or no magnesium or silica make excellent quick lime, and are valuable as a flux or slag in iron smelting. The higher beds of our region are used very extensively for both these purposes.

Origin of Limestone .- It is by the study of chalk that we are enabled to go back farthest in the history of limestone. A piece of chalk examined under a microscope will be found to be com- posed of the shells of minute sea-animals, ealled foraminifers. The remarkable little ereatures which form these shells are de-

scribed as "animals that have no organs of sense, and, in gen- eral, not even a mouth to eat with. When a particle of the de- sired food touches the body, and is perhaps held there by its power of stinging, that part of the body begins to be depressed, and continues to sink inward until the food is in a eavity inside made for the occasion; then the food is digested, and any part of it not digested is thrown out by restoring the body to its former state."-(Dana.) Some of the shells of these animals are represented in Fig. 3. (from Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. IX,) all highly magnified. They are so small that they make a fine-grained rock. An ordinary chalk-mark destroys hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these little shells. One variety called the globigerina is by far the most common and best known. The scientific expedition sent out a few years ago by the British Government, in Her Majesty's ship Challenger, to study the minute life in and at the bottom of the sea, made some very in- teresting discoveries concerning the globigerina. The observa- tious made on the sea-bottom by this expedition, together with those made by the Coast Survey of our own country, and oth- ers, enable us to say positively that limestone formation is go- ing on to-day at the bottom of the sea by the deposition of globigerina shells. Not only that, but we have now positive in- formation as to the life and habits of these animals. They live in the sea at all depths, but chiefly at the surface. "They are more abundant and of a larger size in warmer seas."-(Prof. Wyville Thompson's Report to the Royal Society.) The shells of the living animals are clear and transparent, differing from the dead shells found at the sea-bottom, much as a living snail- shell differs from a dead one. Within a zone extending fifty or sixty degrees on each side of the equator, the seas at present swarm with these little creatures; and at the bottom is formning a bed of soft calcareous mud, usually spoken of as globigerinæ ooze, which serves as a elue by which we may trace out the whole his- tory of limestone. This history may be briefly told: Chalk is formed at the bottom of the sea, of the dead shells of globigerina and other foraminifers ; limestone is formed by a breaking up and redepositing of chalk, together with other shells, corals, and crinoids. Says Prof, Huxley : "A hundred years ago the sing- ular insight of Linnaeus enabled him to say that 'fossils are not the children but the parents of roeks,' and the whole effect of the discoveries made since his time has been to compile a larger and larger commentary upon this text. It is, at present, a per- fectly tenable hypothesis that all silicious and calcareous rocks are either directly, or indirectly, derived from material which has, at one time or other, formed part of the organized frame- work of living organisms. Whether the same generalization may be extended to aluminous rocks, depends upon the con- clusions to be drawn from the facts respecting the red elay areas brought to light by the Challenger. If we accept the view taken by Mr. Wyville Thompson and his colleagues-that the red clay is the residuum left after the calcareous matter of the Globigerinc ooze has been dissolved away-then elay is as much a product of life as limestone, and all known derivations of clay may have formed part of animal bodies." -- [Popular Science Monthly, May, 1875.

This is indeed a broad generalization ; but it is warranted by ample evidence, which it is not within the province of a sketeh like this to consider. It is enough that our Belmont county limestones contain sufficient evidence, both in their arrangement and in the fossils they contain, of their having been deposited in uniform layers as sediment at the bottom of the sea, or other vast body of water. Hundreds of minute marine shells of the family of gasteropoda may be seen, even with the naked eye, in the limestone quarried on the farm of Mr. Porterfield, north of St. Clairsville, and used for macadamizing. Many larger species, both of gasteropods and brachiopods, are found in our limestones ; to say nothing of the still more minute species which the micro- scope may reasonably be expected to reveal.

As to the silicious rocks, including sand, there is unquestion- able evidence, that materials for such rocks are accumulating at . the bottom of the polar seas of to-day, and these materials are the remains of plants and animals. There is reason, also, both in fact and by analogy, to believe that our clay material is of smilar origin ; but while the organie origin of sand- stone and limestone is considered by geologists to be estab- lished, the origin of clay from organic remains, is not satisfac- torily proved.

Limestone Chemically Considered-It is well known that if a piece of pure limestone be subjected to great heat, in other words, burnt, it will become a substance of entirely different na- ture, quicklime. Whence this change? What has really hap- pened to so change the nature of the substance? The change is

0.0

0:0

0 0

0.0

Fig. 6, Original. Sigillaria reniformis. (Bt.)

Fig.14

Foraminifers. Fig.3

Calamites

Cannœ formis (Schloth.)

Fig.10

Fig. 8

Dancites Emersoni. (Lesqx.)

Annularia Sphenophylloides, Zenk, var. minor.

Fig.12

Fig.4 Extremity of a branch of Lepidodendron .

Neuropteris hirsuta. (Lesqx.) Original.

Fig. 13 Rhabdocarpus carinatus. (Nwby.)

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.

History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 75

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728