USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 7
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CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, OHIO.
The main tributaries flowing into Mad river from the west are as fol- lows: Glady, Muddy, Anderson, Nettle, Storms and Chapman creeks. A number of smaller streams tributary to these cover the western part of the county in such a way as to provide easy natural drainage for practically all of the western half of the county. However, there is part of the western portion of the county which does not fall in the basin of Mad river. Approx- imately half of the three western townships-Jackson, Johnson and Adams- drain north, west or south into the watershed of the Great Miami. A glance at the map shows four streams in the northern part of Harrison and Adams townships which flow north, to-wit: Stoney, Grey, Lee and Indian creeks. About three and one-half miles of Indian creek have been dredged at a cost of thirty-five hundred dollars. Draining the northern part of Johnson and the southwestern part of Adams township is Mosquito creek, formerly a slug- gish stream which afforded a poor outlet for the watershed which nature intended it to drain. In the spring of 1917 a proposition to dredge Mosquito creek was placed before the landowners to be benefited by the improvement. While the improvement had not been ordered at the time this volume went to press, there is every reason to believe that it will be ordered. The engi- neer's estimate of the cost of the eleven and one-half miles to be dredged, six of which are in Champaign county and the remainder in Shelby, is about fifty thousand dollars. The amount of land affected amounts to about two thousand five hundred acres, about evenly divided between the two counties. The cost is seemingly high because of the depth which the stream will have to take in its lower course in order to provide a sufficient fall to drain the north- ern part of Johnson township, particularly what is known as Mosquito lake.
OTHER STREAMS IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Two streams in Johnson and Jackson townships, in about the middle of the western side of the county-Leatherwood and Lost creeks-flow west and empty into the Great Miami. The southwestern portion of Jackson town- ship is drained by Honey creek and its various tributaries, the water from the Honey creek basin finding its way into the Little Miami. The dredging of any stream on the western side of the county depends upon the action of Miami and Shelby counties through which the waters of the streams find their outlet.
Parts of Rush and Goshen townships are drained by streams which flow to the east and empty into the Scioto. In the northern part of Rush township Spain creek and Pleasant run empty into Big Darby creek, which cuts across the northeastern corner of Rush township.
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The preceding paragraphs have indicated in a general way the drainage systems of the county. Roughly speaking, the county is in the shape of a shallow trough with both ends knocked out, one end being laid over into Logan and the other into Clark county. The sides of the trough are prac- tically parallel with Mad river which forms the bottom of the trough. The basin of Mad river is divided into a series of levels, the first level on the im- mediate banks of the river ranging from a mile and a half to three miles in width. The broken land west of Mad river is found along the banks of many streams, but there is very little land so broken as to prevent its tillage. The most broken part of the county is found on the watershed which has a gen- eral southeasterly direction through Wayne and Union township. Wayne township contains more broken land than any in the county, while Rush to the east has about as little as any.
THE SOIL OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
There is a marked difference between the soils of the Mad river valley and that part of the county known as Ruffins Ridge. The river valley is a black sandy loam in large part, all underlaid with a thick stratum of gravel. Striking evidence of the gravelly subsoil of Mad river valley is furnished by a glance at the excavated material of Mad river. Practically every bit of the excavated material of the river is pure gravel and to the casual observer the levees on either side of the river may have been hauled from the finest grael bank in the world. There is enough gravel along Mad river to gravel every road in the county, furnish enough sand to plaster every house and have enough left to furnish similarly another county of the same size. There is considerable alluvial matter to be found in various places in the valley, in places approaching a peat structure. The highlands of the county show a drift clay formation with a loamy superstructure of from one to three feet and a gravelly subsoil in most cases. There are some hills of pure clay, but they are of rare occurrence. There have been a few brick and tile mills in the county, but they have never been numerous. There was formerly one east of Mechanicsburg, but it has been discontinued many years. In the vicinity of Urbana and St. Paris were formerly brick and tile factories, but they too have suspended operation. There is an outcropping of limestone in Jack- son, Wayne and Salem townships, but the stone has little commercial value. The stone is known as Monroe or water limestone, also called Helderbergian limestone. It is of little value because of the lack of lime in its composition, the absence of this necessary constituent making the stone too soft for either
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building or road-making purposes. However, the stone was quarried for several years in Jackson and Salem townships and used for building pur- poses, chiefly for foundations.
One other natural resource of the county which is worthy of mention is water of a medicinal value, which has been found in various parts of the county. When efforts were being made in Urbana to find gas one of the wells drilled hit a vein of water which is still running in 1917. This water has been proved to have certain medicinal qualities and at one time a com- pany was incorporated, a building erected and efforts made to place it upon the market. There are also wells of mineral water located in St. Paris, but no effort has been made to commercialize the water. Several attempts were made in the nineties to find gas, but little was found. In 1917 hundreds of acres were leased by parties interested in drilling for oil. A well was drilled and "shot" in May, 1917, but no oil was found.
VALUABLE FOREST TRACTS.
The greatest natural resource which Champaign county possesses, next to its soil, lies in its hundreds of acres of native forest trees. Formerly the county was practically one unbroken forest, but a century of farming has seen the disappearance of most of the forests of the county. It is probable that there are as many as one hundred varieties of trees and shrubs in the county, ranging all the way from the majestic oak to the humble chokeberry. In Mad river bottom once grew the stately poplar and the wide-spreading black walnut, but they have practically disappeared. Gone also are the oaks, the beeches, the hickorys, the elms, the ashes and many other varieties which a century ago were considered an obstacle to the development of the county. If all of the fine timber which was burned by our forefathers in the days gone by could be marketed at its present value it would bring enough money to provide the whole county with the finest roads in the world. It was nothing uncommon in the ante-bellum days to burn hundreds of logs of the finest timber, burning being the cheapest method of getting them out of the way. But in those days the word "conservation" was unknown, and the value of the bole of a sugar tree was not even equal to the value placed on a bowl of sugar.
The forests are composed nearly exclusively of deciduous trees, the only non-deciduous trees being the white cedar of the swamps and the red cedar of the hills, both conifers being indigenous to the county. A large tract of cedars in the southeastern part of Mad River township along Mad
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river was once the haunt of botanists and naturalists in search of the variable forms of faunal and floral life of this latitude. This was known as "Cedar Swamp," and a more inviting place for the lover of out-door life would have been hard to find. Today much of this same swamp of former years is covered with fields of waving corn and wheat, but there is still enough left of the tract to perpetuate the name.
SOME MOUNDS OF OTHER DAYS.
Any discussion of the topography of Champaign county demands a review of the artificial mounds which have been in the county for genera- tions untold. The scientists have never agreed as to when the Mound Build- ers lived, but all agree that there are evidences pointing to a distinct class of people, which, from the remains of their handiwork still extant, have been known as Mound Builders. Whence they came, and whither they went, are two questions which historians and scientists have never satis- factorily solved. But they lived-and in Champaign county. A number of mounds testify to their occupancy of portions of the county.
Professor Thomas F. Moses, a former member of the faculty of the University of Urbana, made exhaustive explorations into the mounds of the county and the information presented herein concerning them is based largely upon his researches. His data has been supplemented by geologi- cal reports and local articles in the newspapers contributed by those who have had first-hand information concerning the mounds. Most of the mounds in the county are found on the high banks fringing either side of the Mad river valley and were evidently so located as to command a view up and down the valley. Occasionally a mound was found located on the lower ground, but in such cases it was at the junction of Mad river with one of its tributaries.
The smaller mounds are usually circular in shape, thirty to fifty feet in diameter, and from three to five feet in height. Another group of mounds have a diameter of from seventy to eighty feet at the base with a maximum altitude of eight to fifteen feet; that is, this second group has a distinctly more conical shape than the group first described. The members of the first group are often confused with eskers, kames and drumlins. It is, as it always has been, a matter of speculation as to the means used by these inhabitants of this region in the far distant past to erect these artificial mounds. Some of them, those around Marietta, for instance, are of such a size as to leave one in doubt as to whether it could all have been done
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by hand, and yet there is no evidence to show that they had any mechanical assistance at all in their construction. In every instance the mounds have been proved to be constructed of the same soil as the adjacent territory.
The purpose of the mound has been conceived to have been two-fold: First, as a lookout station whereby the inhabitants could we warned of an approaching enemy ; secondly, as a funeral pyre, judging from the con- tents of many mounds that have been opened. Ohio is especially prolific in mounds and probably has more than any other state in the Union. There are at least two mounds in Champaign county which are worthy of special mention, Roberts and Baldwins, named from the owners of land on which they were found when they were opened.
ROBERTS MOUND.
Roberts mound is located in section 6 of Urbana township near the Urbana-Union township line. It is located on a hill of considerable size and its location was evidently chosen with a view to making it a signal station. The surrounding territory for half a mile is very level, with a height above sea level of 1,162 feet. In the summer of 1877 permission was obtained from the owner to open the mound and the work was begun by carrying an adit from the northwest side and then sinking a shaft four by eight feet into the mound. It was at first planned to open the top of the mound, but this was found impossible to do without entailing an im- mense amount of work, due to the fact that there was a heavy growth of timber over part of the surface of the mound. In sinking the shaft and running the adit nothing was found until the floor of the mound was reached, when a layer of white ashes was encountered. Strange to say, this layer extended nearly over the whole base of the mound and arched up over the center in such a manner as to present a concave surface. In thickness it varied from one-half an inch to one and a one-half inches. When the excavators reached the center of the mound the ashy layer was so flinty that it flaked off in good-sized chunks.
It is not necessary to go into detail to describe the successive layers of ashes and clay of which the mound was found to be composed. At one point a pile of loose ashes was found mingled with small fragments of calcined human bones, and in the same heap were also found a number of rudely fashioned flint arrow heads and a pierced ornament of stone. Other piles of ashes and arrow heads and bones were found at intervals during the excavating, indicating, probably, a succession of interments. As
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the central shaft, spoken of above, was dug into the center of the mound, fragments of human bones were unearthed from time to time. When a depth of about four feet was reached a complete human skeleton was found in a supine position. The head was toward the north and with the exception of a few bones in the ankle and wrist and the phalanges the entire skeleton -was found. The bones were unusually sound for bones to have been interred so long, and when weighed were found to scale exactly nine pounds. An aperture in the breast bone indicated that it had been pierced by an arrow head or a flint spear, the opening of the aperture to the front measuring an inch and a half while at the rear it was only three-fourths of an inch. A fragment of quartz rock, of some three inches in diameter, was found under the right thigh.
The finding of this skeleton encouraged the investigators to proceed with the excavation. A short distance below the first skeleton was found a second, but in such an imperfect condition that little of it could be removed. Renewed digging revealed a third skeleton, which presented an interesting study. Parts of the bones were very heavy and nearly petrified, part of them being covered with a thick incrustation as if they had been in the fire. The skull was very formidable; it had a low retreating forehead with a lower jaw askew, the whole capetial osseous structure presenting evidences of a very low specimen of humanity. The bones of the hands and forearms were missing, while but little of the spinal column was left. Further digging down did not reveal any more skeletons. Near the south end of the mound, about two feet from the surface, a pile of charcoal, with fragments of a large size, was encountered. In the midst of the charcoal a piece of a thigh bone, charred and petrified, and part of a forearm bone were found. This would seem to indicate that the bodies of the dead were cremated and that later the bones were covered over with dirt and successive cremations. At least, this furnished an explanation for the successive layers of clay and ashes. The Roberts mound would seem to indicate that it contained the bodies of the Mound Builders, disposed of by both cremation and inhuma- tion. It is known that some Indians cremated their dead and there is abundant evidence to show that the Mound Builders disposed of part of their dead in the same way. The Roberts mound with its tree-clad summit, is still an interesting object of attention and is well worthy of a visit by anyone interested in the lore of the ancient dwellers of Champaign county.
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THE BALDWIN MOUND.
The Baldwin mound is the most interesting mound in the county. Named in honor of Judge Samuel Baldwin upon whose farm it was standing when it was opened in 1877, it stands on a commanding hill at the confluence of the north and east forks of Buck creek. The farm is about eight miles southeast of Urbana and about three and one-half miles southwest of Mechanicsburg. When the mound was measured at the time of its opening in 1877 it was found to be nearly conical in shape, seventy-eight feet in diameter at the base and fifteen feet in height. Although this was forty years ago there was at that time oak trees of good size on the top of the mound, indicating that it had been hundreds of years since the Mound Build- ers had thrown the last shovelful of dirt. As early as the twenties clay had been taken from this mound to make brick, and, according to tradition, bones were found by those who made the brick.
The excavation of 1877 was started by sinking a shaft in the center of the mound and at the same time starting an adit which was to be carried from the base of the mound to the shaft in the center. Skeletons were found within two feet of the surface of the mound, but these were probably the skeletons of Indians. The sepulture of the Mound Builders was reached at a depth of twelve feet from the top of the mound and the discovery which was made in this mound constitutes one of the richest finds which has ever been made in any mound in the state. To quote from the original report of Professor Moses as to what was found:
First, a layer of bark was laid down, then the bodies placed upon this; the head of one being directly toward the east, of the next toward the west, and so on. Log+ were placed at the sides and between the bodies, dividing the grave into as many compartments as there were persons to be buried. The whole was then covered with a thick layer of bark, upon the surface of which was found a thin layer of charcoal. Bark. branches and bodies had, of course, reached the last stages of decay, only the ashes of the former remaining to show how they had been disposed; and long, hollow cavitles, filled with dirt, alone indicated the position of the logs. The whole mass had been pressed down and flattened by the weight of the overlying earth and most of the bones showed evidence of the great pressure, being crushed in and broken. The first skeleton reached was found with the head lying toward the east, and supposed to be that of a female; a small copper ring was found at the head. Further excavation disclosed a second skeleton, with the head toward the west. The bones of this skeleton were very large and strong, and those of the lower limbs In a remarkable state of preservation; near the hand, and lying across the body, were the flint heads of three spears or arrows. Their position seemed to show that they had been held in the hand by wooden shafts, now moldered away. The upper part of the body had been crushed and distorted to a great extent by the pressure above. It had apparently been placed on the left side, and the arrows grasped
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in the right hand. Removing the earth carefully from this, a third skeleton was seen. its head pointing to the east. This was lying upon its back, and measures from its toes to the top of the head nearly six feet. The teeth were thirty-two in number and perfectly sound. Around the neck was a string of bends, made of mother of-pearl, probably taken from the shell of the river mussel. This skeleton seemed to be that of a young woman of from eighteen to twenty years.
The skeleton next disclosed was that of a young man of about sixteen years. The hend was placed in the reverse position to that of the preceding one. The skull was remarkably well shaped. Over the heart were found several plates of mica cut in the form of a crescent. Plates of mica are frequently found in mounds, and the mica is believed to have been brought from Carolina. This, with the copper from Lake Superior and shells from Mexico, is an evidence of the commercial habits of the people. The next space was occupied by the skeletons of two small children, placed feet to feet. Near the head of one of these was a heap of small sea shells belonging to a species now found in the Gulf of Mexico. These were pierced at the ends. The succeeding skeleton was that of an adult person and near it was found a small Implement of banded slate, belonging to the class called "boat-shaped" Implements in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. An eighth skeleton was found belonging to this group, near which also lay a small quan- tity of shell beads like those last described. Following these, near the margin of the mound, were three others, thrown down apparently without regard to position, as they were disposed at various angles, with the limbs crossing each other, and no protection of logs had been placed around them, nor were any ornaments found with them. Of all the skeletons found in the mound. the eight first described were buried with especial care. and each of them had some mark of distinction or token of affection. The arrangement of the bodies was also somewhat remarkable. they being placed with great uniformity with the heads alternately toward the east and west, though the conjecture is that this arrangement was made simply with a view to economize space.
The skeletons above mentioned were taken from the northwestern quarter of the mound. In the northeastern corner of the mound ten more skeletons were found, but they had been thrown in promiscuously without any regard to the manner in which they might lay. Charcoal was found with the bones, but no ornaments, or implements of any kind. There was little effort made to examine the southern half of the mound, but it is probable that its contents were similar to those found in the north half of the mound. A word might be said about the general condition of the bones which were found. Covered with from twelve to fifteen feet of dirt, many of them had been bent by the weight of earth resting on them and this same weight may have been respon- sible for the peculiar shapes of some of the skulls. Another interesting feature brought to light by the opening of the mound is the fact that the bones were frequently amalgamated; that is, bones lying on each other had become soldered together, as it were. This amalgamation had been brought about by the long, continued weight on them and the exudation and disintegration of the constituent elements composing the bones. This account for the bones becoming coalesced. Many of these bones were
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brought to Urbana and exhibited as a part of the exhibit of the Central Ohio Scientific Association and are now in the collection of the University of Urbana.
OTHER MOUNDS IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
The publications of the Ohio Archaelogical and Historical Society con- tain in their volumes a description of hundreds of the mounds which have been opened in the state. In the last report of the society Champaign county is credited with having eight mounds worthy of being catalogued by the society. These were distributed as follow: One each in the townships of Mad River, Jackson, Wayne, and Johnson, and two each in Urbana and Union. There is nothing in any of these mounds, which have been exam- ined, any different from the mounds above described. The evidence of all the investigations seems to indicate that the Indians used the mounds after the Mound Builders, usually for burial places, and certainly for watch tow- ers. These mounds are gradually disappearing and in the course of time will be reduced to the level of the surrounding territory. Undoubtedly there are many mounds which had disappeared before any efforts were made to locate any of them, and the historian of the next century will probably have no mounds of any kind to record.
The topography of the county has not affected its division into town- ships. It might have been expected that Mad river would have been used for township boundaries, but such is not the case. As far as is known the configuration of the county has not figured at all in township boundaries. Neither has the Ludlow Line had any effect on township lines. A discus- sion of the Ludlow Line may very appropriately be given at this place.
THE LUDLOW LINE.
There is not a person who has ever lived in Champaign county who has not heard of the "Ludlow Line," but who Ludlow was, why such a line was drawn, where it started, where it stopped, or anything definite about it- these are many questions which have baffled the historian in times past and are still not satisfactorily answered. There are several dates given for the actual surveying of the Ludlow Line, ranging from 1801 to 1805; again there is a difference of opinion as to which line was run first, the Ludlow or the Roberts Line. A summary of the facts concerning these two lines takes the historian back to the year 1609.
Part of the present county of Champaign is included within a grant of
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land which was defined by the charter of May 23, 1609, granted by King James I, of England. This charter was the basis for the claim of Virginia to certain lands west of the Ohio river and it was this charter of 1609 which indirectly leads to the creation of the Ludlow Line of Champaign county. The story of .the connection of this old charter with the line through Cham- paign county brings in the story of the Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States, the Ordinance of 1787 and more immediately the desire of Virginia to provide a tract within the present state of Ohio where its Revolutionary veterans might locate. And it was to provide a definite tract of land in the state which led to the survey of the line which passes through Champaign county, now known as the Lud- low Line.
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