USA > Ohio > Darke County > History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 2
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DARKE COUNTY
southward along the line of least resistance, filled up the de- pressions occupied by the Great Lakes, and then moved on over the divide until arrested and counteracted by the in- creasing heat of lower latitudes. As in the case of modern glaciers, this vast sheet advanced and retreated in obedience to meterologic agencies, carrying on its surface or within its mass broken fragments and debris from its native granite ledges, scraping and pushing forward immense quantities of the eroded surface of the limestone rock over which it moved. grinding, mixing, kneading, rubbing, polishing, sorting and finally depositing this material where it is now found.
Terminal Moraine.
The southern boundary of this great ice sheet has been carefully traced from the New England states, across New York, Pennsylvania, the northern Ohio Valley states, and the states north of the Missouri river. Roughly speaking. this glacial boundary fine, in its central and western por- tion, parallels the Ohio and Missouri ribers. It enters east- ern Ohio in Columbia county, continues in a westerly direction to Canton in Stark county, and thence a few miles beyond Millersburg in Holmes county; here it turns abruptly southward through Knox, Licking and Fair- field counties and into Ross county ; thence it bears south- westward through Chillicothe to southeastern Highland county and northwestern Adams county, reaching the Ohio river near Ripley in Clermont county. Following the north bank of the river to Cincinnati, it here crosses over into Boone county, Kentucky, makes a short circular loop and re- crosses the Ohio river into southeastern Indiana, near Ris- ing Sun. It now follows approximately the north bank of the Ohio to the neighborhood of Louisville, Ky., where it turns northward to Martinsville, in Morgan county, in the south-central part of the state. Here it turns west and south and crosses the Wabash river near New Harmony. It con- tinues this course to near the center of the extreme southern part of Illinois, then bends in a northwesterly direction and crosses the Mississippi just south of St. Louis, Mo. The most productive soil lies north of this line and within the gla- ciated area.
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DARKE COUNTY
Local Glacial Phenomena.
(1) Surface Boulders.
Striking evidence of glacial action is found in Darke coun- ty in the rounded and sub-angular granitic boulders that were encountered in large numbers, scattered over the surface in certain well defined sections of the county, and still encoun- tered within a few feet of the surface when making shallow excavations.
A very noticeable streak of these boulders, three or four hundred yards in width, formerly extended from the northern part of Van Buren township in a southwesterly direction, crossed the D. & U. railway a few miles south of Jaysville, then turned to the southeast through Twin township near Ithaca, and followed along Millers Fork of Twin creek into Preble county Boulders from eight to twelve feet in diam- eter were encountered in the northern part of this ridge. Most of these have been blasted and the smaller ones picked up and used in constructing foundation walls for houses and barns or to fill ravines and depressions, so that only slight traces now remain of this distinct moraine. The underly- ing tract of land is now under active cultivation and pro- duces fair crops.
These boulders, as well as those found in other localities, are largely colored granites, greenstones, quartzites and con- glomerates, are quite distinct in color, texture, etc., from the Niagara limestone and are not found in ledges above the sur- face within a radius of several hundred miles.
In the museum of Oberlin College the writer once saw fragments of various colored rocks from the ancient Lauren- tian and Huronian ledges, beyond Lake Nipissing and Geor- gian Bay, matched with corresponding fragments of various surface boulders found in Lorain county, Ohio. These frag- ments consisted of granites, gneisses, metamorphic and trap rocks, similar to those found in Darke county, and bore in- disputable evidence of glacial transportation.
(2) Glacial Till.
Another source of striking evidence is the immense de- posits of unstratified clay and sand, intermingled with scratched stones and worn rock fragments. In the days when wells were dug in Greenville careful observations were made
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DARKE COUNTY
of the various deposits encountered before reaching bed rock and the following very interesting table was prepared to in- dicate an average section from many wells :
Inches to feet
Sod or loam
6
1号
Red clay
0
4
Yellow clay
12
15
Yellow sand or gravel
6
20
Blue sand or gravel
8 30
Blue clay with pebbles
3
18
Fine compact blue clay
0
Hard pan alternating with blue clay
10
20
Blue clay
3
9
Boulder clay
10
20
1
A well at the corner of Fourth and Broadway, Greenville, O., passed through ninety-five feet, and one near the P. C. C. & St. L. passenger station through about one hundred and thirty feet of this glacial till. Such deposits are best accounted for as the result of glaciation.
(3) Kames.
Glacial phenomena of a distinct and unusual character ap- pear along the prairie stretching from the mouth of Mud Creek at Greenville for about ten miles in a southwesterly direction toward New Madison. Near Greenville one first notices isolated conical knolls containing stratified deposits of sand and gravel appearing above the surface of the sur- rounding prairie. One of these, known as Bunker Hill, for- merly appeared about a mile southwest of Greenville near the tracks of the C. N. R. R. It was once about forty feet high but has since been almost entirely removed. A section of this hill showed the following phenomena : red clay three (3) feet ; fine yellow sand, four (4) feet ; unassorted gravel. twenty-four (24) to thirty (30) feet. About four miles fur- ther south along the east side of the prairie, in the vicinity of Fort Jefferson, a series of elongated knolls, with axes running generally northwest and southeast, are encountered. They were formerly covered with a beautiful growth of large tim- ber, mostly oak, and were known as the Hills of Judea. Gravel pits were opened in these hills about thirty years ago by the C. N. R. R. and vast quantities of material re-
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DARKE COUNTY
moved to ballast the tracks and improve the pikes of the counties in northwestern Ohio. The Greenville Gravel Com- pany commenced operations here in 1905 and have removed probably more than fifty thousand carloads of sand, gravel and boulders in that time. It is estimated that some twenty million cubic yards of gravel, etc., are still available from these hills. An analysis of some of these deposits shows about sixty per cent of granitic material, thirty per cent. of lime, and eight per cent. of trap. The sand and gravel ex- posed in these vast pits appear in well defined but irregular shaped strata, which bear evidence of the action of running water. Quite a number of granitic boulders, mostly from six to eight inches in diameter, and similar in color and va- riety to those found on the surface, are scattered in these deposits. Such elongated gravel hills are a rare phenomenon in Ohio, and are known as kames. Careful observation indi- cates that they were formed upon the melting of the ancient glaciers and mark lines of drainage, which commenced under the vast ice mass and continued until an opening had been made through the upper surface. In this manner the ma- terial enclosed within the ice mass would be sorted and de- posited as it is now found. The trend of the knolls indi- cates the probable direction in which the subglacial stream discharged, viz: to the southeast.
A fine specimen of black diorite boulder about four feet in height and weighing some seventy-six hundred pounds was found in the bed of a rivulet on the Meeker farm, just north of Greenville creek, and has been used by the Greenville His- torical Society in marking the site of the Wayne's Treaty in 1795.
Moranic Belts.
(1) Miami Moraine.
The geological survey made by the U. S. government in- dicates three distinctively defined moraines crossing Darke county. The southernmost moraine crosses the southwest- ern section of the county and is a part of the Miami lobe of the main moranic system of the late Wisconsin stage of glaciation. This lobe, which is practically continuous be- twcen Lynn and Richmond, Indiana, divides into three mem- bers near the state line. These three members run south- easterly in parallel lines to the Miami Valley, then tend to
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DARKE COUNTY
unite and turn northeasterly and continue between the Mad river and the headwaters of the great Miami. Traces of this moraine may be seen near Troy, Harrisburg, Pyrmont, Air Hill, West Sonora, Fort Jefferson and New Madison. The ridge of boulders formerly noted as running through Van Buren and Twin townships seems also to be a part of this system as well as the isolated gravel hills in the Mud creek prairie, and the remarkable ridges at Fort Jefferson, which formerly rose from fifty to sixty feet above the prairie. The surface of the country to the eastward of this belt is more level than to the west. Just east of Fort Jefferson this moranic belt turns abruptly southward and follows the valley of Miller's Fork of Twin creck, passing near Ithaca, West Sonora and Euphemia. At Arcanum, near the inner border of this moraine, the glacial drift is about fifty feet deep and in the valley near New Madison, on the outward border, the debris is as much as seventy-five feet in depth.
(2) Union Moraine.
A distinct moraine crosses the central part of Darke county and is described as a part of the Maumee-Miami lobe of the late Wisconsin stage of glaciation. It is a minor moraine and has been traced from near Muncie, Indiana, to the headwaters of the Great Miami river, near Lewistown, Ohio. It enters Darke county at Union City, follows the north side of Greenville creek in a southeasterly direction to Greenville and thence runs eastward to Bradford. Its high- est points are near Union City, where it reaches an altitude of 1,125 to 1,150 feet above tide. Its lowest point is between Greenville and the Miami river, where it descends to about 1,000 feet. This deposit is known as the Union Moraine, and it appears in Darke county as a bow shaped ridge with a gently undulating surface. The presence of this ridge ac- counts for the fact that there are no important branches en- tering Greenville creek from the north and suggests that this stream has been forced to seek a channel to the south of its original bed by these immense glacial deposits. The thickness of drift along this moraine is seldom more than fifty feet and some rock exposttres occur along its outer bor- der in the neighborhood of Baer's Mill. However, a depth of 165 feet to rock is reported near the Union City pike just west of the township line in Washington township, and 117
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DARKE COUNTY
feet on the Ben Chenoweth farm one mile west of this point. At the Children's Home, on the north side of this moraine, the drift is about 110 feet deep. Along the south side of Greenville creek for a distance of about three miles east of Greenville, are knolls which contain much assorted material and some till. These probably belong with the drift of the main moranic system. From these hills eastward to the county line small and well rounded boulders were formerly found in large number, while many large angular boulders are scattered over the plains to the south through Poplar Ridge, as before mentioned.
"Greenville creek has a narrow gorge up to Greenville Falls, about one-half mile above its mouth. Its bed above the falls is mainly in the drift and its valley is less restricted and varies considerably in width. A gravel plain extends up the creek two miles or more and remnants of glacial gravel are found almost the entire length of the creek, but they are less conspicuous than the gravel plain near its mouth. The phe- nomena seem to indicate that the creek adapted its course along the outer border of the moraine because of a valley opened by glacial waters."
(3) Mississinawa Moraine.
A third moranic belt enters Darke county at the northwest angle, trends south of east to the vicinity of Versailles, and then turns northeasterly into Shelby county. In Indiana this moraine follows the north bank of the Mississinawa river for the greater part of its length and, therefore, is called the Mississinawa moraine. It also belongs to the Maumee- Miami lobe, before mentioned. This ridge is about six miles wide where it enters the northwest corner of the county. At the headwaters of Stillwater creek, near Lightsville, a broad swampy plain skirts the southern border of this moraine. The Stillwater follows the southern border of this ridge for several miles to the neighborhood of Beamsville. Low grav- elly knolls mark its outer border. Just north of Versailles a gravelly plain extends southward along Swamp creek from this point and passes through Versailles. This plain is about half a mile wide and stands about twenty-five feet above the level of the creek. Borings at Versailles show this gravel bed to be about thirty-four feet through and the distance to rock, through gravel and till, from 120 to 140 feet. At
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DARKE COUNTY
Yorkshire the drift is less than one hundred feet in depth. The tract of land lying between this moraine and the Union moraine consists mainly of a smooth surfaced till plain on which the drift has nearly as great a thickness as on the latter moraine, in which it merges on the south. The isolated gravel cairns, before mentioned, are sometimes accounted for on the theory that at the period of greatest depression during the ice age the water shed itself was submerged and great icebergs from the north became stranded on the southern slope. Here they melted and deposited their loads of debris in the interlocking wedge shaped layers of sand, gravel and yellow clay.
Preglacial erosion of the ancient limestone left a very un- even surface with gorges here and there of very great depth. A noticeable effect of glacial action was the leveling up of . the area which it covered. The vast deposits of clay, sand and gravel just noted filled up the old valleys and in many cases formed new drainage basins, some of which were quite distinct from the ancient systems. The erosion of new chan- nels through these deposits has taken a long time, roughly estimated at six or seven thousand years, on the basis of the size and velocity of the eroding streams and the amount of material removed. The finding of roughly chipped argillitic implements beneath gravel river terraces near Trenton, N. J., and near Cincinnati, Ohio, have led some to the conclu- sion that man lived before and during the glacial period. One might readily conceive that a type of man similar to the modern Eskimo could have lived in some degree of comfort during that far off age. Perhaps he had as his companion those massive animals of the elephant type known respec- tively as the mammoth and mastodon.
Extinct Animals.
Remains of these huge animals have been found in Darke county from time to time, mostly in the muck or peat de- posits near the headwaters of small streams. A tooth of a mammoth and parts of several mastodons are exhibited in the museum in the basement of the Carnegie library at Green- ville. One huge mastodon jaw measuring 33 inches in great- est length was found near the headwaters of Mud creek in Harrison township. Mr. Calvin Young describes the ex- cavation of the remains of a mastodon in a peat bog on the
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DARKE COUNTY
farm then belonging to Absalom Shade along Crout creek on the site of a former lakelet in the southeast quarter of sec- tion thirty-four, Washington township, in 1883. Some of the bones were spread out on the original gravel bed of the pre-historic lake and covered with about four and a half feet of peat and blue mud. The lower jaw contained the full set of teeth, which, when first exposed to view, were glistening white, but soon became dark. Almost a complete skeleton of mastodon was found in Neave township on the Delaplaine farm near the head of Bridge creek. The remains were well preserved and are now on exhibition in the public museum. The femur of this animal measures forty inches in length and has a circumference of thirty-two inches at the knee and seventeen inches between the knee and hip ball. The hu- merus is thirty-two inches long and thirty-four inches around the largest joint. Some of the bones of another well-pre- served specimen were found on the farm of Hezekiah Woods, on the northwest corner of section nine, Brown township, near the upper Stillwater.
The mammoth is described as having been a third taller and nearly twice as heavy as the modern elephant. He was covered with long shaggy hair and had a thick mane extend- ing along his neck and back. His coat of hair comprised coarse black bristles about eighteen inches long and shorter under coats of finer hair and wool of a fawn and reddish color which fitted him for residence in cold climates. No doubt he ranged northern Europe and Asia as well as America in large herds for his frozen carcass has been found in Siberia near the Artic ocean and large quantities of his curved ivory tusks have been gathered and sold by the natives of Alaska. His molar teeth sometimes had an extreme grinding surface of four by twelve or thirteen inches with corrugations enabling him to masticate the branches and foliage of northern ever- green trees, birches, willows, etc.
The mastodon was even larger than the mammoth, at- taining a height of twelve to thirteen feet, and an extreme length, including his huge tusks, of twenty-four to twenty- five feet. His tusks curved downward and forward while those of the mammoth curved upward in a circle. His hair was of a dun brown color and probably half as long as that of the mammoth. His teeth were rectangular in form, with a grinding surface of large conical projections, which enabled
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DARKE COUNTY
him to feed on the twigs of trees and coarse vegetable growths.
In hunting such food he was often tempted into marshy places where he became mired, and was unable to extricate his ponderous body, as evidenced by the attitude in which remains are sometimes found. The mastodon seems to have become extinct near the close of the glacial period, while the mammoth lingered into post glacial times. The remains of a giant beaver were found in the Dismal Swamp at the head of Dismal creek, the most western branch of Greenville creek, about seven miles southeast of Winchester, Randolph county, Indiana, and only a few miles from the Darke conn- ty line. This animal was about seven feet in length and the remains are now on exhibition in the museum of Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. This animal has been long ex- tinct and its remains are rare. The proximity of this locality suggest that the giant beaver frequented the streams of Darke and adjoining counties at an early date.
Peat Bogs.
Peat bogs are found in various localities in Darke county. The Mud creek prairie was, no doubt, at one time submerged from the source of the creek near New Madison to its junc- tion with Greenville creek at Greenville, forming a shallow lake. Peat beds of considerable size were formed in this marsh, notably near the C. N. station at Fort Jefferson and near the crossing of the C. N. and P. C. C. & St. L. R. R., some two miles southwest of Greenville. These deposits run about two or three feet in depth and in dry seasons have been known to catch afire and burn several days. Shortly after the C. C. C. & St. L. R. R. was built and operated a con- siderable section of track disappeared in Brown township some distance west of the crossing of the Fort Recovery pike. A small branch of the Stillwater drains this district and a peat bog had formed in the marsh over which the railway made a fill of loam and gravei. The weight of this material broke through the crust of peat and revealed a lakelet, which had been filled with logs, aquatic plants, etc., and finally cov- ered with a deposit of peat formed from the rank vegetable growths of long years. Similar deposits are found along Bridge creek, southeast of Greenville, and small areas are found near the headwaters of small streams in various parts
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DARKE COUNTY
of the county. Some of these peat bogs have probably been formed in what are known by glacial students as "kettle- holes" resulting from the gradual melting of great masses of ice which had been kept almost intact for a long time by the thick covering of glacial debris. Other bogs may have been formed in shallow lakelets which had been caused by the ob- struction of shallow drainage lines by glacial deposits.
CHAPTER II.
ARCHEOLOGY.
It is always interesting to the local archeologist and his- torian to know when man made his first appearance in his locality. Thus far we have no evidence that he appeared in Darke county before the ice age. The earliest indications of his appearance are the few small mounds, the vast quanti- ties of finished and unfinished stone implements, and the spawls scattered profusely over the surface of the county. Scientists now incline to the view that the ancient American, commonly called the Mound Builder, was the ancestor of the copper colored Indian, who greeted the first European explor- ers of our continent, and whose descendants are still with us. The coarse black hair, the high cheek bones, the swarthy complexion, the general facial expression, the cunning handi- craft and the nomadic habits of the Indian combine to indicate a close relationship with the Mongoloid tribes of northern Asia, and lend color to the conviction that America was peo- pled across Behring Strait at a remote date. The Mound Builder made his home in the Mississippi valley and con- structed some of his most remarkable works within the limits of the present state of Ohio, especially in the southern part. The most noted of these are the Serpent Mounds in Adams and Warren counties ; Fort Ancient on the Little Miami river in Warren county ; large conical mound near Miamisburg and geometrical earth works at Chillicothe, Marietta and New- ark. It will be noted that. with the exception of the Ser- pent Mounds, which seems to have been secluded sites of ancient worship, these works are located along the principal northern tributary streams of the Ohio. In the valley of the Great Miami we find a great profusion of geometrical works in Butler county, and isolated mounds and burial sites near Franklin, Miamisburg. Dayton and Piqua. As we ascend to the headwaters of the tributary streams the works diminish in number and size and are confined largely to isolated altar mounds, camp sites and burial places. This was probably due largely to the swampy and inaccessible condition of the
(3)
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DARKE COUNTY
country near such small streams, and we are, therefore, not surprised that few mounds or earth works of consequence appear in Darke county. The ruthless plow of the settler and pioneer have practically obliterated even these few and for the limited knowledge that we have of them we are largely indebted to such men as Mr. Robert M. Dalrymple (de- ceased) of Baker's store, and to Mr. Calvin Young, of Wash- ington township. Several years ago Mr. Young opened a mound on his farm, about a mile west of Nashville, and found a few spears, arrows and slate implements but no pipes. Just east of Nashville, in the isolated gravel cairns on the Cable and Crick farms, several skeletons and implements have been found, also a Queen conch shell which had been buried a depth of some sixteen feet. On the Martin farm, just west of Greenville, two conical elevations, about twelve feet high, resembling mounds, formerly appeared, but have been oblit- erated by the plow and gravel excavations. Near New Madi- son an altar mound, originally about twenty feet high, was found. This was opened at the center in early days and re- vealed a hard, baked clay altar, on the surface of which were found bone needles, ivory beads, slate relics, etc., with traces of iron rust. This mound has also been leveled by the plow which still turns over ashes when passing over this place. It is situated near an ancient burial ground and on the extrem- ity of a ridge overlooking a prairie. In this connection we herewith quote from the pen of R. M. Dalrymple, who wrote several interesting articles on local archeology for the Greenville Journal several years ago.
"The ancient Americans believed in a future state of exist- ence, also that the character of the life beyond the grave was very much like the life they had led here, so when they buried their dead the implements, ornaments, etc., possessed by the deceased in life were buried with them, and the cere- monies preceding burial were, doubtless, more or less elab- orate, according to the rank of the dead.
"The Mound Builders, as a general rule, buried their dead in the gravel banks throughout the country, in graves which were generally three feet deep, but in some cases much deeper. Their remains have generally been found either in a sitting or standing position.
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