History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, Part 4

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1108

USA > Ohio > Clinton County > History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families > Part 4

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).

CONGRESS LANDS.

Some of the tracts of land already described were Congress lands, riz., the French Grant. the Seven Ranges and the Refugee Tract. Congress retained and sold all lands not specifically relinquished to land companies and established land offices for the purpose

Digitized by Google

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

at different times at Marietta, Cincinnati, Steubenville, Chillicothe. Zanesville, Canton, Wooster, Piqua, Delaware, Wapakoneta, bima and Upper Sandusky.

THE MORAVIAN GRANT.

The congressional grant to the Ohio Company in 1787 reserved ten thousand acres in what is now Tuscarawas county for the use of the Moravians and Christian Indians who had previously settled there, the title being vested in the Moravinn Brethren at Bethle- hem, Pennsylvania. A few years later two thousand acres were added to the original grant and in 1823 the territory reverted to the United States, with the exception of the cemeteries, churchyards and a few special leases.

DOHRMAN'S GHANT.

Congress granted all of township 13. range 7, in Tuscarawas county, to one Henry Dohrman, a Portuguese citizen, who rendered valuable services to the colonies during the Revolutionary War.

THE MAUMEE ROAD LANDS.

In 1823 Congress granted to the state of Ohio about sixty thousand acres for the purpose of constructing a road from the lower rapids of the Maumee river to the western limits of the Western Reserve of Connecticut.

THE TURNPIKE LANDS.

In 1827 Congress granted to the state of Ohio forty-nine sectious of Innd in Seneca, Crawford and Marion counties, for the construction of a rond from Columbus to Sandusky.

CANAL GRANT.

Between 1825 and 1845 Congress at different times made special grants of land to the state of Ohio for canal purposes, and a total of about one million acres were thus secured by the state. By the year 1842 the state had completed six hundred and fifty- eight miles of canals, at the staggering cost to the state of $14,688,666.97, although before they were all completed the railroads were in operation in the state.

S.M.T SECTIONS.

In the early history of the Northwest Territory salt was a commodity hard to secure and necessarily high in price. Congress reserved every place where it was thought salt could be obtained, and in this way helped the settlers to get salt at least expense. In Ohlo an entire township within the present county of Jackson was reserved, as well as about four thousand neres in Delaware county. In 1824 Congress relinquished its elalin in favor of Ohio.

THE ZANE SECTIONS.

Ebenezer Zane, one of the most prominent of the men in the early history of the state, was granted three sections by Congress in 1796 in return for his services in opening a road from Wheeling to Maysville. These three sections were loented at Zanesville, Chillicothe and Lancaster, Isane Zane was granted three sections in Champaign county by Congress for valuable service to the colonies during the Revolution. Isaac Zane had been enptured by the Indians when a small boy and spent the major portion of his life with them, and his Influence with the Indians was such that he proved to be of great assistance to the colonies in handling them.

THE MINISTERIAL LANDS.

These lands have been previously mentioned and were reserved only in two grants, those of the Ohio Land Company and the Symmes Purchase. The grants to both set aside section twenty-nine of each township for religious purposes.

Digitized by Google

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

SCHOOL BECTIONS.

Provisions for public schools were made in all states created by the United States after the adoption of the constitution. The Ordinance of 1787 had made specific mention of the value of schools and a wise Congress set aside section sixteen of every township. which was surveyed into townships six miles square. The United States military lands were surveyed into townships, five miles square, but Congress reserved one thirty-sixth of the whole area for school purposes. There are no reservations in the Connecticut Reserve and Virginia Military District for school purposes, but Congress made up for this by setting aside an amount equivalent to one thirty-sixth of the area in each tract from other lands belonging to the United States. As a mater of fact, one thirty-sixth of the whole state was reserved for school purposes as well as three townships for universities.

OHIO POLITICS.

The politics of Oblo presenta many Interesting features, but this brief summary can do little more than Indicate the more important landmarks in the political history of the state. The first governor of the Northwest Territory, Arthur St. Clair, was an ardent Federalist and undoubtedly his pronounced political views had something to do with his removal from the office on November 22, 1802. From that time until 1836 the Democratic party, or the Republican or Democratic-Republican, as it was at first called, controlled the state, and it was not until William Henry Harrison, a "favorite son." became a candidate for the Presidency, that the Whigs were able to break the strength of the Democratic party of the state. In 1836, 1840 and 1844 the Whigs carried the state for the President. The panic of 1837, the popularity of Harrison and the Texas question were largely determining factors in the success of the Whigs. The Democrats regained sufficient power in 1548 to carry the state again, and repeated their victory in 1:52. In 1856 John C. Fremont carried the state for the newly-organized Republican party and since that year there has been only one Democratic electoral vote in the state of Ohio. In 1802 Grover Cleveland received one of Obio's twenty-three electoral votes, but with this exception the state bas cast a solid Republican vote for President every year since 1856. Ohio has furnished five Presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield. William MeKinley and William H. Taft.

While the state has been registering Republican votes for the President, it has had eight Democratie governors, and has frequently elected them by large majorities. A complete list of the governors of the state, with the years of their tenure and their politics, is given at this point for reference :

Governor.

Tenure.

Politles.

Edward Tillin

18347

Democratie-Rep.

Thomas Kirker ( acting)

1.507-00

Democratic-Rep.

Samuel Huntington

1600-11

Democratic-Rep.

Return Jonathan Melgs

1~11-14

Democratie-Rep.

Othulel Looker (neting)

1814-15

Democratie-Rep.

Thomas Worthington

1815-19

Democratic-Rep.

Ethan Allen Brown

1519-22

Democratic-Rep.

Allen Trimble (acting)

1×22.23

Democratic-Rep.

Jeremiah Morrow

1823-27

„Democrat

Allen Trimble

1827-31

Democrat

Duncan MeArthur

1831-33

National Republican

Robert Lucas

1×3-37

Democrat

Joseph Vance

1837-39

. Whig

Wilson Shannon

1×39-41

Democrat

Thomas Corwin

1841-433

Whig

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

Governor.

Tenure.

Politics.

Wilson Shannon

1843-44

Democrat

Thomas W. Bartley (acting)

1844-15

Democrat

Mordecai Bartley

1845-47

Whig

William Bebb

1847-49

Whig

Seabury Ford

1849-51

Whig

Reuben Wood

1851-53

Democrat

William Medill (acting, 1853)

1853-56

_Democrat

Salmon P. Chase

1856-60

.Republican

William Dennison, Jr.

1800-82

Republican

David Tod

1862-64

Republican

John Brough

1804-65

Republican

Charles Anderson (acting)

1865-66

Republican

Jacob D. Cox

1866-68

Republican

Rutherford B. Hayes

1868-72

Republican

Edward F. Noyes

1872-74

Republican

William Allen

1874-76

Democrat

Rutherford B. Hayes

1876-77

Republican

Thomas L. Young

1877-78

Republican

Richard M. Bishop

1878-80

Democrat

Charles Foster

1880-84

Republican

George Hoadley

1884-80

Democrat

Joseph Benson Fornker

1886-90

Republican

James E. Campbell

1800-92

Democrat

William Mckinley

1802-96

Republican

Asn &. Bushnell

1896-00

Republican

George K. Nash

Republican

Myron T. Herrick

1904-06

Republican

John M. Putterson (died in office)

1906-

Democrat

Andrew Litner Harris

1906-09

Republican

Judson Harmon

1009-13

Democrat

James M. Cox

1913-15

Democrat

Frank B. Willis

1915-

Republican

The political history of Ohio can not be dismissed without reference to the amend- ments incorporated in the new constitution in 1912 which have made the constitution practically a new Instrument of government. The general tendency of the thirty-three amendments is to make a freer expression of democracy through the medium of the initiative and referendum, direct primaries and home rule for cities, A workmen's com- pensation Inw was enacted which provides for compulsory contributions to an Insurance fund by the employers of the state. Many changes were made In providing for improve- ments in social and industrial conditions. Oblo now has a constitution which is suffi- ciently flexible to allow changes to be made by amendment without the trouble of a con- stitutional convention.

BOUNDARY LINES.

The state boundaries of Ohio have been the cause for most animated discussions. not only In regard to state limits but county and township lines as well. In 1817, and again in 1×34, a severe controversy arose over the boundary between Ohlo and Michigan, which was settled only after violent demonstration and government interference.

In primitive times the geographical position, extent and surface diversities were but mengerly comprehended. In truth, it may be asserted they could not have been more at

(4)

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

variance with actual facts had they been laid out "haphazard." The Ordinance of 1787 represented Lake Michigan far north of its real position, and even as late as 1812 Ita size and location had not been definitely ascertained. During that year Amos Spafford addressed a clear, comprehensive letter to the governor of Ohio relative to the boundary lines between Michigan and Ohio. Several lines of survey were laid out as the first course, but either Michigan or Ohlo expressed disapproval In every case. This dispute came to a climax in 1835, when the party beginning a "permanent" survey began at the northwest corner of the state and was attacked by a force of Michigan settlers, who sent them away badly routed and beaten. No effort was made to return to the work until the state and various parties had weighed the subject and finally the interposition of the government became necessary. A settlement resulted in the establishment of the present boundary line between the two states, Michigan being pacified with the grant of a large tract in the northern peninsula.

Ohio Is situated between the 38º 25' and 42º north latitude, and 80º 80' and §4º 50' west longitude from Greenwich, or 3' 30' and 7º 50' west from Washington. From north to south it extends over two hundred and ten miles, and from east to west two hundred and twenty miles comprising thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and sixty-four square miles

The state is generally higher than the Ohio river. In the southern counties the surface is greatly diversified by the inequalities produced by the excavating power of the Ohio river and its tributaries. The greater portion of the state was originally covered with timber, although in the central and northwestern sections some prairies were found. The crest, or watershed, between the waters of Lake Erie and those of the Ohio Is less elevated than in New York or Pennsylvania. Salling upon the Oblo the country appears to be mountainous, bluffs rising to the height of two hundred and fifty to six hundred feet above the bed of the river. Ascending the tributaries of the Ohio, these precipitons hills gradually lessen nutil they are resolved Into gentle undulations and toward the sources of these streams the land becomes low and level.

Although Ohio has no inland lakes of importance, it possesses a favorable river system, which gives the state a convenient water transportation. The lake on the northern boundary, and the Oblo river on the south afford convenient outlets by water to important points. The means of communication and transportation are superior in every respect, and are constantly being increased by railroad and electric lines.

CHAPTER II. GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

Clinton county is located in the southwestern portion of the state of Obio. It Is bounded on the north by Greene and a part of Fayette county, east by Fayette, south and southeast by Brown and Highland counties, and west by Warren county. Its coun- ty seat, Wilmington, is only fifty-six miles, by rail, northeast of Cincinnati. Brown county only Intervenes on the south between Clinton county and the Ohio river, while on the west it is separated by two counties, Warren and Butler, from the boundary line between Oblo and Indiana. It lies on the dividing ridge between the Little Miami and Scioto rivers, waters draining from it into both of these streams. Clinton county Includes an area of four hundred square miles.

TOPOGRAPHY.

Clinton county, In its natural features, is greatly diversified. In the northern and southern portions of the county are large areas which are included in level and fertile plains, while along the numerous streams the topography is more broken. It becomes more or less hilly in some sections, and in many places even abrupt and bluffy. The greater portion of the drainage of the county is into the tributaries of the Little Miami river, which are also the principal waterways. Todd's fork, the greatest of these tribu- taries, flows west and southwest and was named previous to 1787, probably from some of the Todds who settled early in Ohio and were among its prominent pioneers and Indian fighters It has for its branches, East fork of Todd's fork, named for Its location ; Cowan's, named for John Cowan, who owned R. Campbell's survey No. 2249. on that stream ; Lytle's creek (named for Gen. William Lytle, also a surveyor of these lands), draining the central portion of the county; Caesar's creek, flowing across the extreme northwest corner, named for a favorite servant of some of the early surveyors, who died and was buried on its banks; Anderson's fork, rising in the northeast part of the county, flowing west and northwest and draining the northern portion of the county. deriving its name from Col. Richard C. Anderson, the principal surveyor; East fork of the Little Miami, flowing southerly from the Snow Hill locality and forming a portion of the boundary line between Clinton and Highland counties; Little East fork of the Little Miami, Silver creek, Stone lick and numerous smaller streams also assist in the drainage. Wilson's branch of Rattlesnake creek (named for Amos and Isaac Wilson, early settlers), drains Into the Scioto from the northeast part of the county-Richland and Wilson townships-while Lee's creek, also a tributary of the Scioto and named in honor of Peter Lee, a surveyor of Virginia military lands, drains a portion of Wayne township. The derivation of the names, Dutch creek, Buck run and Turkey run, can easily be understood.

Todd's fork of the Little Miami is the largest stream in the county, and, in the days of the early settlements, furnished fair water power, which was available most of the year. At present, owing to the lowering of the water line and the lack of steady feed from the head streams, there is little power except at seasons when the stream is swollen by rain or melting snow. Todd's fork was widely known at the beginning of the nineteenth century, for on Its banks some of the most prominent among the early settlements in the county were made. All the streams in this region are subject to sudden, and sometimes disastrous, fresheta, which subside quite as rapidly as they rise. The nature of the country is such that no great natural reservoirs exist, and the streama

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

are, therefore, without a reserve supply to keep them steady, for, with the clearing away of the timber, the swamps have been drained and this source cut off.

Anderson's fork runs in places upon strata of the Niagara limestone, and is gen- erally not much above bedded stone. This stream cuts through a portion of the pen- tamerous beds of the Niagara formation to a depth of from five to ten feet at Port William, in Liberty township. Above Port William and along this stream is a tract known as the "prairie." extending a number of miles and possessing a deep, rich, black soil. It was doubtless once the location of a swamp or shallow lake. Northeast of this prairie is supposed to be the highest point of land in the county, it being between seven hundred and eight hundred feet above low water mark of the Oblo river at Cin- cinnati. In the southern part of the county, at a place a short distance east of New Vienna, on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, the elevation is seven hundred and thirty-seven and one-half feet above the same comparative location. Anderson's fork receives but few tributaries in all its course, the tract which it drains being comparatively long and narrow. The bedded stone in Its channel is of the Niagara formation as far down as the Lumberton quarries, where it strikes and cuts very nearly through the formation known to geologists as Clinton, and, at a point further down stream. at Ingalls' dam, just outside of Clinton county, It cuts about four feet of purple red shale underlying the Clinton, and strikes the higher of the Cincinnati group, or blue limestone. The East fork of Todd's fork also penetrates the bine limestone, cutting Into It to a depth of nearly one hundred feet within three or four miles of Clarksville.

GEOLOGY.

Volume three of the state geological report contains an article of merit on the geol- ogy of Clinton county prepared by John Hussey, as follows:

"If we trace the line of outcrops of the various formations from the point in the western part of Clinton county, where Todd's fork leaves the county, we shall flud that the strata of stone seen under those we meet proceed to the east, and if a well were dug deep enough at Wilmington or Washington, it would cut through all the strata found to the west as far as Cincinnati. The great Niagara system lies immediately beneath Wilmington; next, the Clinton iron ore and stratified stone of this formation, about thirty feet in thickness; then, underlying this and underlaid by the blue limestone of the Cincinnati group, there is a thickness of some three or four feet of ferruginous clay.

DENUDING AGENCIES.

"After the deposition of the rocks now found in Clinton county, the surface was not Jong, at an early geological period, beneath the surface of the sea. While the deposit of sandstone which extends almost from the very border of Fayette county to the south indefinitely, and to the east, underlying the coal, was being made, the land to the north was above water, as well as when the deposits above the sandstone were made; at least, whatever material, organic or inorganic, was ever deposited here, has long since disappeared. We have some evidence, however, that the slate which immediately underlies the sandstone extended somewhat farther north than the sandstone itself has been found. . . . Where formations in Clinton county, which were formerly con- tinuous, have been partially removed, as on Cliff run, the Clinton formation is seen in its full thickness, while excavations show that its continuity is broken to the east of this locality, so that the exposure of white limestone on Cliff run is a mere island of that kind of stone. Besides the wearing away of the general surface and the removal of particular parts of formations, there were causes at work which have excavated channels far below the general surface. Ice, in the form of glaciers, is generally regarded as the means by which the denudation above alluded to has been effected. At this point it may be well to take up the ice age and its effects on this region in a more detailed form.

ed by Google

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO.

"Dr. G. M. Austin prepared an article in 1911 from which we have the privilege of taking extracts. 'As enrly as the middle of the Devonian age a long narrow strip of the ancient sea bottom, extending from central Kentucky to Lake Erie, near Sandusky, and including the territory of Clinton county, was lifted above the surface and has since then formed a part of the dry land of the earth.

"'On this new island, for such it then was, the rains soon gave rise to streams, and these, acting upon the surface through the countless ages that followed, cut deep channels into the strata and in time widened these, in many places, into broad valleys. Indeed, so extensive was this erosion that long before the beginning of the Ice age the land in these parts bad been changed from the comparatively level plain it was at first, Into a region of rough hills and deep, intersecting valleys such as we may now see in Pike county and other such eastern counties of our state which lle outside the aren of glacial action.'

"Wilmington is built over one of these ancient filled-up valleys, while the college stands on the high ground that then formed its eastern limit. Could one have stood at the latter point at the close of the Pliocene age and looked toward the west, his eyes would have bebeld an immense depression two-thirds as deep as the valley of the Miami at Ft. Ancient, stretebing away toward the south and east beyond the limits of rision. The area of this ancient valley must have been fully seventy square miles. The erosion caused by our modern streams and the use of the drill in sinking wells have shown that Its boundaries were about as follow: On the north beginning at Hawe's chapel, it follows an irregular course toward the southwest, passing a mile north of Starbucktown, near the Children's Home and parallel to Todd's fork to below Sligo; on the west, by way of Ogden and Villars' chapel to Midland City; on the south from Midland City, not far from the line of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, to the neighbor- hood of Farmers' Station: on the east from Farmers' Station, by way of Snow Hill and New Antioch. to Wilmington, including within its limits all of Washington town- ship, and large portions of Union. Adams, Vernon, Marion, Clark, Jefferson and Greene. A considerable stream, probably as large as the Little Miami, must have flowed through this valley, coming from the south and passing out of the county toward the northeast by way of Starbucktown and Bloomington. Many lesser valleys and ravines, ench furnishing an outlet for some rivulet or stream, must have opened into this great central valley, but most of these are now deeply buried under the drift and their location and extent will not be known until the drill has been sunk in every part of the county and the records of its Andings brought together and compared.

"Such, in brief, was the topography of our county in these ancient times, and yet, though it differed so greatly from the present that the two possess scarcely a single feature in common, the difference is no more extreme than exists between the climates and life forms of the two perlods.

"Authorities are agreed that even so late as the closing epoch of the Tertiary period a sub-tropical, or warm temperate, climate prevailed as far north as the latitude of the Great Lakes: a climate as now exists in Mexico and southern Florida. These con- clusions are based largely on the character of the flora and fauna that flourished in those early days.

"The land appears to have been as heavily forested then as in recent times, but, while we recognize among the fossil wreckage of those old foreste such familiar forms as the poplar. maple, hickory, beech and the sycamore, with them are the live oak, magnolia, cinnamon, wild fg and several species of palms, plant forms that are now restricted to the warm regions of the south.

"Yet varied and magnificent as was the flora that then clothed the land, it sinks into Insignificance when compared with the marvelous fauna of that day. For huge- ness of bulk and number of species, Its mammals have not been equalled in any other

Digitized by Googl

CLINTON COUNTY, OHIO,

THE DRIFT.

"Judging from the present evidences which we can find in the sinking of wells, this land was once covered with water. This was probably accomplished by the land sinking down beneath the surface of the water. Every indication poluts to water as the medium by which the deposits were made. Upon the stone everywhere are found traces of more or less loose material. The study of this material will prove that it is a sort of drift, composed of clay with varying proportions of sand and gravel, with occasional rounded blocks of granite rock, and with the remains of trees and, some- times, other vegetation. The greatest thickness of the drift in our district is in Clinton county, east of the "prairie," where a deposit of over one hundred feet is found. Whether the whole surface of the country was once covered as deeply as this limited area, may admit of doubt; but there are reasons for believing that the surface was once covered with a heavy drift deposit. In some places the soft material has been washed away, leaving large accumulations of sand and gravel; in other places, as the level region between the East fork of Todd's fork and Blanchester, the material of the drift was a finer sediment than is found in other places, and has not been removed or dis turbed to such a degree as in other portions of the county, and, consequently, even If sand and gravel exist in it, there are no such beds of these substances as are found where the sediment had a fine character or was subsequently washed Ju currents of water. The clays of the drift are both blue and yellow, the former apparently pre- railing in both counties, as shown in the excavations for wells. There was consider- able variation in reports of the strata penetrated in sinking wells, but blue clay-or, as It is frequently called, blue mud-from its appearance, was uniformly found, though there was no uniformity on the thickness of it. Sometimes it is but a few feet in thickness, and in other places, not a mile distant, it is no less than forty feet thick. It is generally interstratified with sand and fine gravel, but sometimes no such strati- feation is seen. Water is found very nearly everywhere within a few feet of the sur- face of the earth, so that it is seldom that excavations are farther than from ten to twenty feet below the surface, and our knowledge is limited of the material underlying

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 Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families, Part 4

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1108

Author: Albert J. Brown (A.M.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : W.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1108