History of Fayette County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the State of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources, Part 34

Author: Dills, R. S
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Dayton, Ohio : Odell & Mayer
Number of Pages: 1070


USA > Ohio > Fayette County > History of Fayette County : together with historic notes on the Northwest, and the State of Ohio, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and all other authentic sources > Part 34


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Drifted wood is found in the blue clay in all our district. The instances in which wood has been found in the clay beds, pene- trated in well-digging, are by no means few; nearly every neigh- borhood furnishing one or more. A kind of jointed grass or rush was obtained from a well near Reeseville, in Clinton County.


Bones .- The gravel, which lay so long hidden from the knowl-


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GEOLOGY.


edge of the present inhabitants, was almost uniformly made use of as places of interment by some former race of people. Scarcely a gravel bed has been extensively worked in either of these counties in which abundance of human bones have not been discovered. The skeletons are usually found within two or three feet of the surface. We are left to conjecture in giving any reason why this material was used to make interments for the dead. Trinkets of any decription are extremely rare in such graves, although not en- tirely unknown. In none, of which I have heard, were there any indications of unusual care or elaborateness in the interments. Possibly the ease of excavating a grave in such material may have determined the choice. But is it not a little singular that the in- habitants of a long-past age should have known the position of these gravel beds, covered, as they were, with a dense forest, while two generations of the intelligent people of this age had not any thought of their existence until within a half dozen of years ?


Stone implements .- Flint, arrow and lance-points, stone hammers, bark-peelers, hematite fishing bobs or sinkers, and other articles of this class are found especially along the water-courses. As no value and but a passing interest have been attached to these articles, they have not been preserved, but have been broken up or lost. Still many are found yet by persons engaged in working the soil. No one locality has furnished more than the borders of Deer Creek, but they are common on all the streams, and, indeed, over the whole surface of the county are they found. As the soil in Fayette and in parts of Clinton has not been subjected to the plow as much as in other places, and, of course, some of it not plowed at all, there perhaps remain more still to be gathered than have ever been here- tofore. Some persons, seeing in these articles a story of a former race of human beings, who have left but little else to tell of their manners of civilization, are gathering them up to preserve them from destruction. Nothing more amazes one in contemplating these relics of a people of a long past age than the immense num- ber of them scattered over the surface of the earth. Perhaps no single acre of ground in central or southern Ohio but has fur- nished at least one flint arrow-point; but the average would be much greater than one to the acre, and it is not too much to say that every farm, at least, has furnished sometime a stone hatchet or bark-peeler.


Hematite bowlder .- In Clinton County, near the residence of Sam-


374


HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.


uel Lamar, one of the county commissioners, I found a hematite bowlder weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds. This was extremely hard, and seemed to be of the same material from which the sinkers, referred to in the last paragraph, were made.


Flow-wells .- There are several wells in each county, from the mouth of which the water constantly flows. . The well at the fair ground, near Washington, is a good illustration of the principle of the artesian well. It was sunk through a stratum of blue clay to one of sand, from which the water rises and comes to the surface. About one mile distant is a well on the farm of Mr. D. Waters, in which the water rises to within six feet of the surface of the ground. The use of a level shows that the ground rises about the same number of feet between the fair grounds and Mr. Waters', and this person must dig as much deeper to penetrate to the water-bearing stratum of sand. The water stands on the same level in Mr. Waters' well as at the fair grounds.


THE BOUNDARY LINE OF CINCINNATI GROUP.


The line separating the blue limestone and the Clinton white limestone is easily distinguished. It may be distinguished in all the streams in the western part of Clinton County, which all cut abruptly through the Clinton and into the blue limestone. I shall here indicate where that line runs, beginning just without the county, or Anderson's Fork, near Ingall's Dam, where the upper beds of the Cincinnati Group and the Clinton formation are seen at one glance. To the west a mile or two, on Cliff Run, as well as on Buck Run, the Clinton stoue may be seen forming low cliffs, cut off from the main body of the formation; but the true line is on Anderson's Fork, as mentioned above. On Todd's Fork, just above the crossing of the Lebanon road, near the line which divides the surveys, 1554 and 1556 (H. Gates), the same formations are seen in juxtaposition. Further south, on Lytle's Creek, was not seen; but on the next stream, Cowan's Creek, the line of the Clinton sweeps around to the east and appears above the village of Antioch, on the farm of Mr. James Gregory, and does not here rise above the surface of the earth. The next point in the line is back to the west, about one mile northeast of Martinsville, where it is quarried, and then its next appearance is at a point about one mile south of Far- mer's Station, on the Cincinnati and Marietta Railroad, on a trib-


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GEOLOGY.


utary stream of the East Fork of the Miami. The last point at which the blue limestone is seen on the East Fork of the Miami, is near Pitzer's meeting-house, on the edge of White's survey. The very interesting fossils of the blue limestone of the Cincinnati Group will be figured in volumes of this survey, devoted to the sub- ject of paleontology.


THE CLINTON FORMATION.


This is seen on Anderson's Fork, at Oglesby's quarry, and in Todd's Fork from the point of its first appearance, near the Leb- anon road, to Babb's quarry in the base of the Niagara. At either of these localities the whole of the formation may be studied.


The lower strata have the distinctly sandy constitution character- istic of this formation, from which the stone is frequently called sandstone. These strata are good fire-stones, and resist the action of fire as a back wall in fire-places, for a generation, without soft- ening or crumbling. But the strata a few feet higher are burned into lime, and make a medium quality for building purposes, and, no doubt, a very good quality of caustic lime for softening straw in the manufacture of paper. Some part of the ten feet of massive stone furnishes good building material. This stone has been ob- tained in Todd's Fork, but is expensive on account of thickness of superincumbent stone of a poor quality which must be removed before good stone can be reached. On Anderson's Fork, at Ogles- by's quarry, the same stone is more accessible, and is the best build- ing stone obtained from this formation. The quality of this stone at Oglesby's has led some to refer it to the Niagara. But it has the hardness and gritty character of the Clinton, and on surfaces which have been exposed in the quarry to the action of atmospheric agen- cies for a period of several years, it is seen to be composed almost wholly of a solid mass of broken encrinitic stems. Aside from lithological characters, this stone at Oglesby's is in the Clinton horizon about midway from top to bottom, exclusive of the iron ore in the upper part. The twelve feet from the top of the Clin- ton is well seen from the under-strata at Babb's quarry, on Todd's Fork, down stream to the locality of the iron furnace formerly erected to work the ore. This twelve feet is highly fossiliferous throughout, but it is only in a few feet at the bottom where the proportion of iron is greal enough to entitle it to the name of iron


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HÍSTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.


ore. In this part the imbedded fossils are deeply colored by the iron. For some reason the furnace erected here about twenty- seven years ago did not prove a success, and was soon abandoned, although the quality of iron was regarded as very good. The rich- est ore is a brittle stone, mostly composed of small, exteriorily smooth and shiny lenticular grains, reminding one of flax-seed. The ore is easily crumbled in the hand, and contains numerous dis- jointed crinoidal disks, partially eroded. The species of fossils be- come more numerous as we approach the higher strata. Some- times the stone is highly granular or crystalline, while still crumb- ling easily in the fingers, and is less ferruginous, and the imbedded fossils become light colored. The iron ore occurs in considerable quantities, being exposed in an outcrop along the slopes for several miles, and large quantities could be obtained by stripping. If it were more convenient or nearer furnaces in operation, it might be- come valuable to mix with other ores in making certain qualities of iron, particularly if it should be found to serve likewise as a flux The fossils in the upper beds are better preserved than in the lower, but good cabinet specimens are difficult to obtain. That locality alluded to before as Grubb's quarry, in the southern part of the county, abounds in fossils, and I recommend it as a promising field for palæontological research. It was but little opened at the time of my visit, but as the stone obtained seemed to answer well for building purposes, it will doubtless be further developed and furnish many fossils, and possibly some that are new to science.


Feet.


Highly fossiliferous courses . 12


Massive courses, hard and gritty, showing crinoidal


stems on weathered surface, .


10


Strata alternating with clay, 5


Ferruginous clay, separating the limestone from the blue clay below


3


THE NIAGARA FORMATION.


This designation, as well as many others in our geology, includ- ing the subject of the last paragraph-the Clinton-are derived from the account of the geology of the State of New York pub- lished some years since, and are taken from the occurrence of these strata in well known localities in that state.


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GEOLOGY.


The Niagara formation is not exposed very extensively in Clinton County, and dips far under the surface in Fayette. It lies immedi- ately on the iron-stone or ore just referred to at Babb's quarry, on Todd's Fork. Here, proceeding from the upper strata of Clinton in the bed of the creek, near Babb's quarry, we find, commencing at the Clinton, thence upward :


Blue clay with purple tint, . . 4 inches.


Blue clay,


4 inches.


Stone stratum, . 1 inch.


Purple or red clay, unctuous feeling, 4 inches.


Blue clay, .


. 4 inches.


The best Niagara building stone in the county-smooth, fine- grained, even-bedded limestone-approaching in quality some sorts of marble.


The supply of this building stone, however, is limited and much below the demand. In the inferior strata no trace of organic re- mains were found, their fine, even texture suggesting that they may have been deposited as calcareous mud in quiet water. In no part of the twelve or fifteen feet here exposed were organic remains found, except in the most meager quantity, here and there occur- ring a small mass of coral which is completely incorporated in the substance of the stone, being unbroken and standing upright as it was formed, having been silted up by fine, sedimentary deposits. Above this building stone the system assumes that loose and porous character so often observed in this formation, full of casts of large Pentamerus oblongus and other fossils, with numerous small cavities stained with carbonaceous matter. At Port William the exposure on Anderson's Fork was perfectly characteristic of this formation, the jagged and cavernous masses being worn and corroded by the elements into fantastic shapes.


But the most interesting exposure of this formation in the coun- ty is that known as Black's quarry, near Snow Hill, where the strata belong to the upper portion of the Niagara. This is a highly fos- siliferous stone, but unsuitable for building purposes, as it is soft and porous, and can be crumbled in the hand. The stone used in constructing the Vienna and Wilmington Turnpike was obtained here. The fossils are difficult to obtain without being broken, but many of them are very good specimens, the most delicate markings


378


HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.


being preserved. The stone is so fragile that the specimens are greatly injured by handling, and can not be packed in the usual manner without detriment. Among those I brought away I find a Rhynchonella cuneata, an Athyris, a Polyporu and Striatopora, and a Faristella plumosa. The molluscous fossils obtained were casts of the shells, the interiors being entirely empty and showing the mus- cular impressions with great distinctness. It will doubtless repay the paleontologist richly to make a thorough exploration of this quarry. If there is any economic value in the product of this quarry, not heretofore discovered, I suggest that it may be as mate- rial for lime. The best quality of building lime is manufactured in other localities from stone obtained in this horizon of the Niagara formation. There may be a question of its practical utility for this purpose on account of the liability of the stone to break up. There were indications that in some portions of the quarry the quality of the stone might be less liable to this objection. So far as my observation extended, this portion of the Niagara occurs no- where else in our district. All the bedded rock eastward of the localities I have named, where the Niagara may be found, belong to the same formation, as all places where stone in position is found . along Anderson's Fork, near Wilmington, and also near Reeseville.


THE LOWER HELDERBERG, OR WATER LINE.


This formation occurs next above the Niagara, and overlies it in Fayette County. The Niagara dips to the east, and the Lower Helderberg overlaps it. On Rattlesnake, in Fayette County, about one hundred feet in perpendicular thickness of this stone are ac- cessable to observation. The exact locality where the greatest thickness can be observed, is on the Washington and Leesburg road, west of Rattlesnake Creek-the hill in the rear of the school house has an exposure near the summit. Going from the Falls of Rattlesnake, near Monroe, in Highland County, against the stream, after leaving behind the Niagara at the Falls, and some distance above, the next stone in position is the Lower Helderberg. The fine building stone of Lexington and Greenfield belongs to the lower strata of the water-lime. The same quality of stone has not been found on the Rattlesnake ; whether it occurs there or not, re- mains to be seen. Within the Fayette County line, along the creek, from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five feet, in


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GEOLOGY.


perpendicular measurement, are found. In the lower strata of this exposure, numerous bivalvular mollusks were found, which I have not identified. On Paint Creek, near Smith's Mill, a profusion of a small mollusk, in a broken and confused condition, was noticed. These I did not find on Rattlesnake. In the higher strata, no or- ganic remains were obtained. This stone, through the entire one hundred and. twenty-five feet, maintained strikingly the same char- acteristics.


When exposed to the air in masonry, this stone resists the wea- thering influences on the surface, but is liable to shell off and actu- ally becomes fissured, through and through, until massive blocks become nothing more than a tottering collection of loose splinters and fragments. This stone is not now approved as material for bridge abutments or foundation walls. If a slab, from eight inches to a foot in thickness, is struck a few. smart blows with a hand ham- mer, it not only fractures through and through, but breaks into pieces often not more than one or two inches in any dimension. The fracture is, in every instance, conchoidal. The stone is of an uniform texture, new fractures having a velvety appearance, with a fresh, brown color. It has been burned into lime, but I could not learn anything definite as to its quality. As the stone contains lime and allumina, there may be some portions of it adapted to the manufacture of hydraulic lime. Some of the higher strata resemble the Dittenhouse stone in the northern part of Ross County, which makes a good quality of water-lime. The striated rock on Paint Creek, near Smart's Mill, spoken of heretofore, is referred to this formation as the equivalent of that on Rattlesnake. There does not occur any more bedded rock on Rattlesnake above this develop- ment not referred to. But above the exposures near Smart's Mill, on Paint Creek, occur strata successively as one ascends the stream. In fact, all the bedded rock which occurs in Fayette county, except a limited exposure on Deer Creek, in the extreme eastern part of the county, is represented in that which is encountered on Paint Creek, from near the southern boundary line, to the vicinity of Rock Mills. To keep the continuity of strata, as we proceed in our investigations, we shift the scene from Rattlesnake to Paint Creek.


The next outcrop ascending this stream, above the striated rock in the vicinity of Smart's Mill, in Ross County, is above the bed of the creek, and one or two miles up stream from the last locality, on


·


380


HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.


the farm of Mr. Evan James. Here, we observe, a marked change has taken place in the lithological character of the bedded rock. I had no instrumental equipment which would enable me to ascer- tain whether or not this stone was conformable in dip with that of the last exposure. A considerable difference in altitude existed be- tween the two exposures, but the intervening formations were not visible. The stone at James' is a limestone, light in color, and fine grained ; a good quality of stone for building purposes. The quarry was but little worked where the building stone had been procured but a short distance further up the stream, the strata near the creek are very thin, often not more than one-half an inch thick, and none more than two inches thick, nearly white in color, and show finely sun and water cracks. These marks are delicate, but distinct, and roughen the surface but little. They seem to have been formed on the beach of a shallow, quiet water. The stone is fine in texture and soft to the touch. These strata are traced along the creek for about two miles, getting somewhat thicker in the up- per part of Rogers' quarry. In no part of this distance were any organic remains discovered, but on the Washington and Greenfield Turnpike, fifty or more feet higher on the horizon, and about west from the point of first appearance of the bedded rock in the creek, in the ditch, by the roadside, occur strata which show clearly mark- ed indications of a lamellibranch mollusk, less than a quarter of an inch in its longest measurement, also very distinct and beautiful fucoidal impressions. The fractures showed delicate markings of dendrites. This is perhaps the same stone which occurs west of this locality, at Mrs. Doster's, on Walnut Creek, and has a local reputa- tion as a fire-stone.


Another and more massive exposure, occurs two miles above Rogers', a harder stone than any found above Paint, and in some respects reminded me of the Clinton.


The locality of Rock Mills presents more points of interest to the geologist than any other in Fayette County. Below is a section of all the strata visible in this vicinity :


FEET.


Yellow clay, seen on ridge east of the creek, 5


Blue clay,


66 66 5


Shale or slate, 66 66 10


Strata of stone unconformable with those next below,


seen best just above " Lower Cedar Hole," contains a stratum of breccia 50


-


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GEOLOGY.


Fossiliferous, top strata at west end of bridge, thin


strata, one half an inch to six inches thick, said to be 10 These, with the eleven above, non-fossiliferous, . 15


" Fossiliferous ledge," all the fossils in the quarry ob- tained here, 1


To creek bed not seen 40


The fifty feet or more of strata, ncar "Lower Cedar Hole," did show about one foot in ten to the south. The upper strata con- tained no fossils so far as seen, but near the bottom occurs one stratum which is composed in part of breccia. The fragments are about one-eighth of an inch thick, and are clearly defined, and im- bedded in a matrix of a lighter color. A portion of one of the strata was almost wholly composed of what seemed to be internal casts of a small shell-probably Loxonema hydraulica .- HIall.


I shall add no further remarks to those which have been made above, except that the stratum marked as being fossiliferous above, contained many fragments of orthocerutites. No good cabinet speci- mens of any kind of fossils were secured here. The strata above the. fossiliferous one are nearly all water-marked, or rather sun- marked, as if dried or baked in the hot sun. They exhibit no signs of fossils, either animal or vegetable.


From this locality the building-stone, used in Washington and vicinity, is mostly obtained. The pavements are flagged with the thin sun and water-marked stones.


The only strata in the county, higher than those at Rock Mills, are found on Deer Creek, in the eastern part of the county. It would be difficult to assign these strata to their exact position with- out tracing them down stream on Deer Creek.


THE PAVING-STONES OF WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE.


We have so often been asked what caused the peculiar marking of these stones, that a brief explanation may be of some interest in this connection. It is a well-known fact that lime and sand stone are formed by successive sedimentary deposits, through the agency of water. Every one has noticed during dry weather the deep cracks in the earth, especially in the bottoms of ponds and creeks, after the water has all disappeared. When a heavy rain comes the ground is again overflowed, foreign matter is carried in, and


382


HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.


the cracks are filled with a different material from the original, thus presenting the same phenomenon at the present time as form- erly, when the rocks in question were formed. The water has receded, the exposed surface has been subjected to the intense rays of the sun, and in the rapid process of drying, cracks and crevices have been formed, which have been filled up by the overflow, as the process of rock-formation goes on from age to age.


FAYETTE COUNTY IN THE REBELLION.


The first gun discharged from the rebel batteries at the stars and stripes, floating over the ramparts of Fort Sumpter, resounded over the waters and through the valleys, reverberating from hill to hill, proclaimed to the patriots of this country the intelligence through- ont the vast Union, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, that the old flag was insulted, the government in danger, and that the brave sons of Ohio were called upon to protect the old ship of state. Ohio as a whole responded nobly to the call for volunteers. Fay- ette County, as a part of that glorious whole, sprang to the rescue. The fires of patriotism were lighted in every loyal heart, not only of her brave sons, but her noble women, who, with Spartan hero- ism, urged them to the tented fields.


FIFTY-FOURTH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.


Recruiting for this regiment began in the latter part of the sun- mer of 1861, the place of the rendezvous being Camp Dennison, where the regiment was organized and drilled during the fall of 1861. The men composing this command were from the counties of Allen, Auglaize, Butler, Cuyahoga, Fayette, Greene, Hamilton, Logan, and Preble.


On the 17th of February, 1862, the regiment went into the field with an aggregate of eight hundred and fifty men. The 54th reached Paducah, Kentucky, February 20, 1862, and was assigned to a brigade in the division commanded by General Sherman. On the 6th of March, the command ascended the Tennessee River, dis- embarked at Pittsburg Landing, and camped near Shiloh Church. On the 6th of April, the regiment engaged in the battle of Pitts- burg Landing, its position being on the extreme left of the army,


383


e


384


HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.


but on the second day it was assigned a new position near the cen- ter of the line.


In the two days' fighting the regiment sustained a loss of one hundred and ninety-eight men killed, wounded, and missing. On the 29th of April the regiment moved upon Corinth, skirmishing severely at Russell House, May 17th, and engaging in the move- ment upon the works at Corinth, May 31st. On the morning of the evacuation the 54th was among the first organized bodies of troops to enter the town. The regimental colors were unfurled from a public building, and the regiment was designated to perform provost duty, the commanding officer of the regiment being ap- pointed commandant of the post of Corinth.


The regiment moved with the army to La Grange, Tennessee, and from there to Holly Springs; from there to Moscow, Tennessee, and thence to Memphis, where it arrived July 21, 1862. During the summer the regiment was engaged in several short expeditions, and on the 29th of November it moved with the army toward Jackson, Mississippi, by way of Holly Springs. The regiment soon returned to Memphis, and with a portion of the army, under Gen- eral Sherman, moved down the Mississippi and went into position before the enemy's line at Chickasaw Bayou. It was engaged in the assault on the rebel works, December 28th and 29th, with a loss of twenty men killed and wounded. On the 1st of January, 1863, the regiment withdrew, ascended the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers, and engaged in the assault and capture of Arkansas Post.




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