History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881, Part 31

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 854

USA > Ohio > Coshocton County > History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881 > Part 31

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Tuscarawas .- The lowest strata in this township are those near the blue limestone. It lies near the level of the railroad, and of the canal near the aqueduct to the north of Coshocton. Where the highway crosses Mill creek, in the northeast part of the township, the following section of 165 feet may be observed : At top of the hill, mas- sive sandstone, extending down about 100 feet; 125 feet below the top of this sandstone, gray limestone, four feet thick, with much chert inter-

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

mixed and overlying a coal bed, the thickness of which is not known. only about fifteen inches seen in the outerop; thence down to the level of the bridge over Mill creek (165 feet below the top of the sandstone), is a bed of shales, about thirty- five feet thick. The blue limestone was not seen in placc, but a loose piece of it was found below the level of the bridge and of the road. These strata produce no workable coal beds. The mines to the south and east of Coshocton are altogether in coal No. 6. Those of the Home Mining Com- pany, a mile southeast from the town, are situated on the west side of a high hill, near together, and are worked by means of twelve separate en- trances. The bed is about 150 feet above the level of the railroad; its thickness three feet eight inches ; the coal is very free from sulphur, bright, hard and compact, and breaks with clear and brilliant, smooth faces; is better adapted for steam and domestic purposes than for black- smith's use, not having the melting and coking qualities to the extent they require; still, it is in demand for this purpose, and is, in fact, the best this part of the country affords. It is worked by large chambers, the roof being strong. A thin seam of shale divides the bed into two benches, and the upper bench supplics the best coal. It is overlaid by gray shales and sandstones; and 115 feet above it is the outcrop of another coal bed (No. 7), not opened, overlaid with limestone and some iron ore-the position in which to look for the black-band iron ore. The gray limestone is about sixty-five feet below coal No. 6.

In the hill northeast from the last deseribed locality, toward the coal mines worked on that side, and discharged on the railroad, the following section is obtained from coal No. 6, down :

I. Coal No. feet.

2. Fire.clay.

3. Sandstone. 30

4. Black marble 6

5. Gray shale. 10

6. Gray limestone 3

7. Coal outcrop.

8. Fire.clay.

9. Blue shale.

10. Blue limestone. 7

11. Cannel coal, thin and poor. ..

12. Fire-clay ...

In the central part of the township, the sum- mit level is, for the most part, high above the plane of No 6 coal; the tops of the hills full 200 feet higher. Indications of the black-band ore were looked for in these higher strata, but none were met with that can be considered encour- aging. No. 7 coal must occur considerably below the general summit level, but the only bed worked appears to be No. 6.

Sections southeast of Coshocton :

Nodular calcareous iron-ore. Gray limestone.

Coal outcrop (No. 7).

Ft. In.

Gray shale and sandy shale 115 0

Coal No. 6 (Home company's). 3

Fire-clay. 20

Gray shale. 45

Gray limestone. Coal outcrop 3

O Shaly sandstone and shale (railroad at Co-

shocton) 80 O

Blue limestone. Coal outcrop. 3

Fire-clay 5 0

Shale, to low water in river 15 ª0

Lafayette .- The greater part of this township is alluvial bottom land. No coal openings were encountered in the township. The higher parts of it, however, must contain. what appears to be the only important bed of this region, viz : No. 6. The ancient valley or river bed, extending through it from northwest to southeast, has already been noticed.

Oxford .- A considerable part of this township also is bottom land in the broad valley of the Tuscarawas. Coal beds, however, are worked in the northwest corner of the township, which were not visited. They are probably on the same bed (No. 6) as the workings in Adams, not far to the north, and those on the same side of the river, and as near to 'it at Newcomerstown, in Tuscarawas county. The valley of Mill's creek, on the south edge of the township, is on the level of the blue limestone, and a small seam of cannel coal is seen directly under it in this vicinity; and under the gray limestone, twenty-five feet higher up in the same run, is a coal bed not well exposed, the upper part of which is cannel. Coal No. 6 must be in the hills in the southwest part of the township, but no openings of it were scen.

13. Shale to railroad, three miles from Co- ... shocton .. 30 From Coshocton to the east linc of the county,

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

the dip has not continued in an easterly direction, but appears to be reversed. At Coshocton. coal No. 6 at the Home company's mine is about 148 feet above the railroad, which is there about 138 above Lake Erie; and at Newcomerstown, the same bed is 130 feet above the railroad, which is there 163 feet above the lake, making the bed seven feet higher at Newcomerstown. The direc- tion is about due east. The effect of this flatten- ing of the dip is to keep the same series of strata near the surface, and give a monotonous char- acter to the geology. There appears to be no southern dip, either, in the southeast part of the county, judging from the barometrical elevations in Tuscarawas and Mill's creek valleys.

Pike .- This township is altogether near the bottom of the coal measures. The gray limestone is seen very frequently in the high grounds, ac- companied by its coal bed No. 4; and as we see no evidence of the coal being worked, it is probably of little importance. At West Carlisle, the sand- stone just under the gray limestone contains numerous specimens of what are probably fu- coidal stems, in a variety of unusual forms, some bearing a curious resemblance to the fossil sau- rian foot-prints. On the west side of the village, is a large outerop of slaty cannel coal, probably belonging to the gray limestone, but of no value. No particular change is observed in the strata from this point to the southwest part of the township, where the land soon descends down to the Waverly.

No considerable deposit of iron ore was found in place in Pike township, but a number of nodules of ore, of fine quality, were noticed in the valleys of the streams, doubtless washed from the hills in the vicinity. The excellence and abundance of this ore render it highly probable that the important deposits of Jackson town- ship, Muskingum county, extend northward into Coshoeton.

Washington .- The only coal mine of import_ ance seen in this township is Parks, in the north- east corner. The bed is No. 6, three and a half to four feet thick, the coal of superior quality, very brilliant, of waxy luster, giving a brownish red powder, and purplish ash. It is a good cok- ing coal, melting easily. The pyritous seams it contains are small and easily sorted out. The

coal finds a ready sale over a considerable region around. The bed lies high up near the top of the hill, but probably may be found in many other places in the eastern part of the township

The following is a section of the strata asso- ciated with Park's coal :

Ft.

1. Slope covered. 100

2. Coal No. 6 (Park's) 3 to 4

3. Fire-clay.

4. Sandstone 80

5. Gray limestone. 4

6. Coal No. 4. I

7. Gray shale 30

8. Blue shale

9. Blue lim stone

Io. Coal outcrop, No. 3 ..

Virginia .- Coal No. 6 is pretty generally worked throughout the north and east parts of the township-in the northwest part, by Joshua Cornell, half a mile north from Moscow. The bed is here about three and a half feet thick, the coal in sound blocks, with very little waste of fine coal, and very little sulphur. When burned it shows the purple-colored ash peculiar to this bed. This, as well as Park's coal, is in good demand through the neighborhood. From Moscow, east to Franklin, there are numerous openings worked in this coal bed, and thence south nearly to the canal and the railroad. At Michael Zimmer's, two miles northwest from the canal, the bed is about ninety feet below the top of the hill, and overly- ing a bed of sandstone ninety feet thick, under which is the gray limestone. The roof of the coal is black shale. The coal bed is four feet thick, the coal very hard, black, compact, highly bituminous, melting easily and of excellent qual- ity altogether. What sulphur is found is in heavy lumps and easily separated. A small seam of shale runs through the bed, a foot above the bottom. The elevation of this bed above the canal is about 170 feet.

Two miles south from this, and near the south line of the township, is the mine of James Scott, in coal bed No. 3, under the blue limestone. The locality is near the canal and not far above its level. The coal bed is four feet thick, divided into two benches by fire-clay parting, the upper bench from six to twelve inches thick. The

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

mine was opened in 1833 and has produced a large amount of semi-cannel coal of good quality. The roof of the bed is a black, calcareous shale, two feet thick, abounding in fossil shells. The blue limestone resting upon this is from four to five feet thick. The gray limestone is seen about forty feet higher up the hill, and under it a bed of slaty cannel coal, fifteen inches thick.

Section of hills, near Scott's coal mine, Vir- ginia township:

Slope covered .. 90 feet.

Coal No. 6 (Zimmer's)

Fire-clay.

Sandstone .. 90

Gray limestone ... 4 66

Coal No. 4-poor I

Fire clay.

Covered 40

Blue limestone. 3

Coal No. 3 (Scott's) 4 66

Fire-clay.

Franklin .- The western half of this township is chiefly bottom land along the valley of the Muskingum. The eastern half rises, for the most part, above the plane of coal No. 6, which bed is worked near both the northern and southern line of the township and in the eastern part. On the north line, by the mouth of Rock run, three miles below Coshocton, the coal bed is four feet thick; the coal in cubical blocks, very black and brilliant, with frequent flakes of charcoal scat- tered through it. The coal bed is here 110 feet above the railroad, and the railroad 125 feet above Lake Erie, which proves the coal to be fifty-one feet lower than at the mines of the Coshocton Coal Company, three miles east of Coshocton. Section at Roek run :

I. Black shale.

2. Coal No. 6. .4 tu 6 feet.

3. Fire-clay .. 3 to 6 "

4. Massive sandstone 75

5. Spring and probable horizon of coal seam

6. Shaly sandstone. 30

7. Black shale and covered space. 40

8. Blue limestone .. 3

9. Covered to river IO

Near the southern line is a coal bank, one mile above the bend of Will's creek, on the east side,

and ninety feet above its level. The bed is four and one-half to five feet thick, and yields very sound and black coal of apparently excellent quality. Near the bottom is a thin seam of sul- phury shale, which can be easily separated. It has a thin roof of shale, and over this is sand- stone. Below the coal is sandstone thirty feet thick, and under this a large bed of shale.

Linton .- Except in the wide bottoms of Will's creek, the greater part of the surface of this township is above the plane of coal No. 6. The road from Coshocton comes down to it near the northwest corner of the township, where an old opening is seen by the run, to the right-hand side of the road. At the school house near by, and below the level of the coal, is a display of iron- ore in oxydized ·blocks, that might be supposed to indicate a considerable quantity; but these outerops are little to be depended upon.

The road continues to descend toward the east, following the valley of the run, and in the bed of this, two miles before reaching Jacobsport, the blue limestone is seen, well exposed, over three feet thick. At Jacobsport, over the bridge across Will's creek, the same roek lies ten or fifteen feet above the creek, in a bed measuring four feet ten inches thick. Great blocks of it, of reet- angular shape and weighing many tons, have fallen down and lie by the side of the creek. The rock abounds in fossil shells, which, how- ever, are obtained with difficulty. A little seam of slaty cannel coal, four inches thick, adheres closely to the underside of these blocks. The underlying strata down to the creek are shales, with nodules of kidney ore. A gray lime- stone is twenty-five fect above the blue, and under it is a coal outerop. A mile south from the bridge, toward Linton, is an opening in No. 6 coal; and others, also, are seen along the road. At Linton the same bed is found on the land of Mr. Heship, where it presents its usual features. At this place another coal bed is found fifteen fcet below No. 6, and has been worked to some extent, but it appears to be of little value. The shales in this neighborhood contain balls of iron- ore of good quality, sufficient in quantity to in- spire hopes of their being of value, but little de- pendence, however, can be placed upon them. They are seen in the road a mile or more northi-

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

west from Linton. Deposits of bog iron, also, are said to occur in the bottom of the ereek.

This locality is interesting from the discovery of bones of mastodons, found in the banks of the creek and in the alluvial bottoms. One of these bones was found a few years ago in excavating the bank for the mill dam at Linton. One large joint, supposed to be a cervical vertebra, with a eavity through it, as large as a man's arm, was taken out, and more bones were thought to be be- hind it. Search can be made for these whenever the water is drawn down at the dam, at Jacobs- port. This baeks the water up eight feet, which is all the rise for fourteen miles by the ereek. Another discovery was made a mile below Lin- ton, at the mouth of White Eyes creek, of a large and sound tooth, which now belongs to Mr. W. R. Johnson, of Coshocton.

A third discovery was made about fifty years ago, two and a half miles above Linton, near Bridgeville, in Guernsey eounty, on the farm now owned by George Gay Mitchell. His father, at that time, in digging a well on the terrace, fifty feet above the creek bottom, found, at the depth of forty-two feet, some large bones in a bed of blue mud. Only two of these were taken out, one described by Mr. Mitchell to be a hip bone, and the other as a shin bone, weighing eight pounds. The well was then abandoned, and the rest of the skeleton is supposed to be still there.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ARCIL TOLOGY.

Mound Builders and Indians-Antiquities-The Different Classes of Mounds, Effigies and Inclosures-Lessons taught by These Works-Implements used by the Mound Builders and Indians.

THE archaeologist has found the territory em- braced within the present limits of Coshoe- ton county a most excellent one. It is probably one of the most interesting fields for the scientist and antiquarian in the State. When the wave of white emigration reached the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the discovery was made of strange looking mounds of earth, here and there, and, af- ter a time, learning that these and other similar

works were of pre-historie origin-the work of an unknown raee of people-they were ealled, in a general way, " Ancient Mounds," and in time the lost race that erected them came to be appropri- ately named the " Mound Builders." There is no authentic history regarding this people. The known reeords of the world are silent-as silent as these monuments that perpetuate their memo- ry. There are many theories regarding them, but this is all that ean be said-nothing of their origin or end is certainly known.

They probably antedate the various Indian tribes who anciently occupied and claimed title to the soil of Ohio. Probably many centuries elapsed between the first oceupaney here by the Mound Builders and the advent of the earliest In- dian tribes or nations, though this is only eonjee- ture.

This eounty was once, and, peradventure, con- tinued to be through many passing centuries, one of their most favored localities. The extent, va- riety, elaborate, and labyrinthian intricacies of their works, still found in many sections of Ohio, clearly indicate the plausibility of this view. Here they dwelt for ages, erected their works and made a long chapter of history, albeit it is yet unwritten-a history whose leading features and general characteristies ean be gathered only from those of their works that yet exist. It must be collected scrap by scrap, and item by item, after a thorough examination and patient investigation of their works, and by careful, la- borious, faithful study of their wonderful re- mains. The principal events and leading inci- dents in the strange career of this mysterious and apparently now extinet people, ean be traeed out and recorded only so far as they are clearly indicated by those of their works which yet re- main, but which, it is to be regretted, are, to a large extent, in a state of mutilation and partial ruin, and rapidly tending to utter extinction un- der ieonoclastic wantonness, and the operations of the plow; also from the devastating effeets of the elements, and the destructive tendencies of the great destroyer-Time.

There is no reason to believe that the Mound Builders ever had a written language, and, if they had not, it must be manifest that very few authentic facts pertaining to their domestie and

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

local history, can be verified by reliable testimony other than that deduced from their works, which are the sole memorials left by them from which to work out the problems of their origin, their history, habits, manners, customs, general char- acteristics, mode of life, the extent of their knowledge of the arts of husbandry, their state of civilization, their religion and its rites, their ultimate fate, and the manner and circumstances of their final disappearance, whether by process of absorption from intermingling and intermar- rying with other and more vigorous races, by

some data as to the probable history they made during the unknown, perchance barren, unevent- ful eyeles of their indefinitely long career as a nation or raee.

As the history the Mound Builders is yet un- written, it is certainly a matter of gratulation that so many way-marks, and traces of this peo- ple yet remain within the boundaries of the State. Their works in the State, still existing in a toler- ably perfect condition, are approximately esti- mated at ten thousand, but they doubtless far exceeded that number at the time of the first

WEDGE-SHAPED INSTRUMENTS.

dispersion or captivity, or by extinction through war, pestilence, or famine.

Although generation after generation of Mound Builders have lived and flourished, and, perad- venture, reached the aeme of their glory, then passed through age after age of decadence and decrepitude into "the receptacle of things lost upon earth," without leaving anything that may properly be called history ; and though no records of their exploits have come down to this genera- tion through the intervening centuries, yet their enduring works furnish the laborious student some indications, even though they be slight, of the characteristics of their builders, and afford

permanent Anglo-American settlement here, in 1788.

Only such monuments, or remains of ancient works ean be properly aseribed to the Mound Builders as were really regarded by the Indian tribes at the period of the first settlement at Marietta as antiquities, or as the ruins and relies of an extinet race, and "concerning the origin of which they were wholly ignorant, or only pos- sessed a traditionary knowledge."

These consisted of mounds, effigies and inclos- ures, which are known and designated as the three general classes of ancient works that can be appropriately regarded as belonging to the

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

Mound Builders. Mounds are sub-divided into sepulchral, sacrificial, temple (or truncated); also of observation, and memorial or monumental.

Effigies are sometimes called animal mounds,

Under the general title of inclosures, are also walls of circumvallation or ramparts constructed for military or defensive works, while others were doubtless walls surrounding the residence

STONE AND CLAY PIPES.

sometimes emblematic,and frequently symbol- ical.

Inclosures are of several kinds, one class being known as military or defensive works; another as parallel embankments or covered ways; and the third as sacred inclosures.

of the reigning monarch; perchance others were erected for the performance within them of their national games and amusements, and perhaps many also served the purpose in the performance of their religious rites and ceremonies, and facil- itated indulgence in some superstitious practices.

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

Most of the above named works were con- structed of earth, a few of stone, and perhaps fewer still of earth and stone combined. The title each bears indicates, in a measure, the uses they are supposed to have served.

Sepulchral mounds are generally conical in form, and are more numerous than any other kinds. They are of all sizes, ranging from a very small altitude, to about seventy feet in height, and always contain one or more skeletons, or parts thereof, or present other plausible indica- tions of having been built or used for purposes of sepulture, and were, unmistakably, memorials raised over the dead.

By some archeologists it is maintained that the size of these mounds bears a certain relation to the importance, when living, of the person over whose remains they were erected.

clement was employed in their burial cere- monies.

Mica is often found in proximity to the skele- tons, as well as specimens of pottery, bone and copper heads, and animal bones.

The name given to this description of tumuli clearly indicates that they were erected chiefly for burial purposes. They generally contain but a limited number of skeletons, indeed, often but a single one ; but Professor Marsh, of the Sheffield Scientific School, connected with Yale College, a few years ago opened a mound in Licking county, which contained seventeen skeletons in whole or in part.

The most remarkable of all mounds in the State, was one in Hardin county, in which were found about three hundred skeletons. A doubt has, however, been expressed that these were al

FLINT SCRAPERS.

In this class of mounds are often found imple- ments and ornaments, supposed to have been buried with the person or persons there interred, under the superstitious and delusive notion still entertained by some tribes of American Indians, who indulge in similar practices, that they might be useful to them in the happy hunting grounds of the future state.

The practice being one common to both the Indians and Mound Builders, apparently con- nects the former with the latter, and raises the presumption that the Indians may have descended from the Mound Builders.

That fire was used in the burial ceremonies of the Mound Builders is manifest from the fact that charcoal is often, if not always, found in close proximity to the skeleton. The presence of ashes, igneous stones, and other traces of the action of fire in these tombs, renders it quite probable this

Mound Builders' skeletons-some persons enter- taining the belief that they were Indian remains, as it is well known that the Indians frequently buried their dead on or near the mounds.

Sacrificial mounds are usually stratified, the strata being convex layers of clay and loam, alter- nating with a layer of fine sand. They generally contain ashes, charcoal, igneous stones, calcined animal bones, beads, stone implements, pottery and specimens of rude sculpture. These mounds are frequently found within inclosures, which were supposed to have been in some way con- nected with the performance of the religious rites and ceremonies of the Mound Builders. An altar of stone or burnt clay is usually found in this class of mounds.

These altars, which sometimes rest on the sur- face of the original carth, at the center of the mounds, are symmetrically shaped, and are among

1844

HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

MISCELLANEOUS RELICS.

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HISTORY OF COSHOCTON COUNTY.

the chief distinguishing characteristics of saeri- ficial mounds. Upon these altars sacrifices of animals, and probably of human beings, were offered, the fire being used to some extent in that superstitious and eruel performance. Some of this class of mounds seem also to have been used for purposes of sepulture as well as sacrifice; the presence of skeletons, in some of them at least, suggest their sepulchral as well as sacrificial character.

In common with sepultural mounds these like- wise contain implements of war, also mica from

The supposition is that the summits of these mounds were crowned with structures of wood that served the purposes of temples, all traces of which, however, owing to the perishable nature of the materials used in their construction, have disappeared. They were also used to a limited extent for burial purposes, as well as for uses connected with their religion.

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History of Coshocton County, Ohio, its past and present, 1740-1881, Part 31

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co. Number of Pages: 854

Author: Hill, Norman Newell, jr., [from old catalog] comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A. A., & co., Newark, O., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Newark, Ohio, A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 854