USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene 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 36
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The same general order of facts described as occurring in the section at Goe's Station will be found at each of the localities here named.
The Cincinnati series in Greene County furnishes a small amount of building stone of fair quality, and this is, at present, its only economical application.
2. The Clinton limestone comes next in order, and its exposures in Greene County leave nothing to be desired. The fine displays of it along the Little Miami valley, from Goe's Station to Yellow Springs, have already been noted. In addition to the section near Mr. Goe's residence, the stratum can be seen to excellent advantage on the farms of Mrs. Bell, Messrs. J. H. Little, F. Grinnell, A. V. Siver, and Wm. C. Neff, and in the cuttings for the Grinnell pike at the Little Miami bridge, and near the house of Dunmore McGwin. In Xenia township, it is well shown in the banks of Oldtown Run and Massie's Creek, and also near the head springs of Ludlow Creek, on the farms of James Collins and others. In Bath town- ship, however, there are miles of outerops in which the whole for- mation is displayed with the greatest possible distinctness. Reed's Hill may be especially named in this connection. It is a promon- tory of cliff limestone, overlooking the broad and fruitful valleys of Mad River, Beaver Creek, already described, and the Great Miami valley. From its summit, one of the most extensive, and beautiful landscapes of south-western. Ohio is shown. The Clinton formation is seldom found, except as a narrow margin to the Niagara group, by which it is overlain. There are, however, a few outliers in the southwestern part of the county, from which the Niagara rocks have been entirely removed, and where the Clinton has thus been left to form the surface for two or three square miles.
The Clinton limestone at all these points, as elsewhere, is mainly
377
GEOLOGY.
a semi-crystalline, crinoidal limestone. In its bedding, it is uneven and interrupted, occuring in lenticular masses. A course can sel- dom be followed for twenty feet. Within this distance it is almost sure to terminate in a feather edge. In composition the limestone is quite uniform, consisting of about 85 per cent. of carbonate of lime, and 12 per cent. of carbonate of magnesia. Even the lower- most layers, which are distinctly sandy in texture, and which are locally known as sandstone, do not deviate from this general for- mula. A notable percentage of peroxide of iron is of very frequent occurance in the limestone, giving to it a deep red color. This is the nearest approach to the famous Clinton ore which the formation shows in Greene County. Just south of the county line, on Todd's Fork, near Wilmington, a considerable deposit of this peculiar and valuable limestone ore is found, and occasional outcrops of it are found all the way to the Ohio River, the most important, thus far noted, occuring near the north line of Adams county, in the vicinity of Sinking Springs. It will be remembered that this same stratum rises into immense economical importance as the Dry-stone ore of Eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. The more common colors of the formation in Greene County are, however, light gray, yellow, and pinkish, the latter tint being specially characteristic. Its crystalline character is so well developed that much of the for- mation can be counted a true marble. It is susceptible of a high polish, and when some of the red varieties of the stratum are sel- ected, it makes a highly ornamental stone, the sections of the white . crinoidal stems, giving a beautiful relief to the darker ground. It will, however, be seen from the facts already stated that the lime- stone can have no great value for any such application on account of its lenticular bedding.
The base of the Clinton limestone, or rather the summit of the Cincinnati group, is a notable water-bearer, as is shown by the fine line of springs that issue from this horizon wherever the drainage allows. It has already been remarked, that the lower beds of the Clinton are sandy in texture. At many points they are extremely friable, and are, consequently, very easily removed by the under- ground streams that are flowing at this level, and, as a consequence, small caves frequently occur at the base of the series. In other , cases sink-holes are found, which are due to the same general cause. By the solution of the rocks along the lines of the divi- sional planes or joints that traverse them, free way is opened from
378
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
the surface to the water-bearing shales of the Cincinnati group, and streams of small volume sometimes drop suddenly to this hori- zon to emerge again along the outerops of the formation, perhaps at a distance of miles even from the point of descent. One of the best known of these sink-holes is found very near the intersection of the Xenia and Fairfield Pike with the Dayton and Yellow Springs Pike. The stream that here drops from the light of day to these subterranean recesses comes out again a mile or more to the southward, re-enforced, doubtless, by others that have shared a like fate, as the head spring of Ludlow Creek-one of the finest fountains in the county. These sink-holes have been sometimes deserted by the water-courses that have helped to fashion them, in which cases they have frequently been construed, in the neighbor- hoods in which they occur, as abandoned "lead-mines." Some portions of the county are full of circumstantial traditions of lead veins being worked by the Indians here. It is scarcely necessary to say that the civilized occupants of Greene County know a vast deal more of its geological structure and mineral resources than any of their uncivilized predecessors have done. There is not a shadow of reason for believing in the existence of metallic veins of any sort within its area.
The limestone terminates at its upper limit variously. The most characteristic mode is in a foot or two of fine-grained, light blue clay or marlite. This is the usual mode in Montgomery County, where the horizon is found to be one of great palæontological in- terest. In Greene County, however, when the marlite occurs it is sometimes destitute of fossils. It can be seen at the base of Mc- Donald's quarry, south of Xenia, and at a few points along the Grinnell pike, near Yellow Springs.
When the blue clay is not shown there is no change in the com- position of the limestone for its uppermost ten or fifteen feet, but there is always s very marked transition in passing to the lowest beds of the Niagara group.
The uses of the Clinton limestone are much less important now than they were in the earlier history of the county. It serves a very fair purpose as a building stone, but occurring, as it so gener- ally does, in close proximity to the Niagara series, which yields some of the finest building rock of Ohio, it comes to be but little thought of when quarries of the 'latter are made accessible. In earlier times, however, the higher degree of accessibility of the Clinton beds caused them to be largely drawn upon.
379
GEOLOGY.
In like manner the manufacture of quick-lime from the Clinton formation has been wholly abandoned. For many years the out- crops of this stratum on Reed's Hill supplied the Mad River Valley and the western side of the county quite largely with lime. Lime was also burned from this horizon in Xenia Township twenty years ago. It has, however, been fully established, that in the manufac- ture of quick-lime none of the numerous varieties of calcareous rocks in southwestern Ohio can enter into successful competition with the Guelph or Cedarville beds of the Niagara series, where the latter occur. The economy with which lime can be produced from this formation, and the manifest and decided superiority of the product, have ruled out all other sources.
In the vertical scale of the rocks of the county a thickness of fifty feet was assigned to the Clinton limestone. This measure is to be obtained in the first section described, namely, that from Goe's Station to Yellow Springs. It is, however, to be remarked that it is an exceptional thickness, and that the formation rapidly thins out to the southward, being reduced in Spring Valley Township to less than half this measurement.
3. The last element in the geological scale of the county is now reached, viz .: the Niagara series. It takes precedence among the formations of the county on several grounds. It oceupies a some- what greater area than the Cincinnati group, and it impresses much more distinct features upon the district in which it occurs than does the latter formation. Several of the more noticeable facts in the topography of the county are referable, as has been already inti- mated, to the presence and characteristics of the eliff limestone, of which the Niagara is the leading element. Its outerop is a roeky wall, very often uncovered, and generally reached by quite an ab- rupt ascent, at least one hundred feet above the level of the adja- eent county. The picturesque gorges of the Little Miami and its tributaries are due to the order of stratification of the Niagara beds, and to the same order must be referred the water supply of a considerable part of the county. The building stone and quick- lime of the county are almost wholly obtained from the Niagara beds; and, in addition to these home supplies, large amounts of each are exported to surrounding cities and towns.
The divisions of the Niagara group are well marked, and several of the individual members outrank in importance the last forma- tion treated. A tabular view of these subdivisions is here appended :
380
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
SUBDIVISIONS OF THE NIAGARA GROUP.
Feet.
5. Guelph or Cedarville beds, . 0-45
4. Springfield beds, 30
3. West Union beds, 10
2. Niagara shale, . 30
1. Dayton stone, 0-10
Total,
125
The separate elements will be briefly noticed.
(a.) The Dayton limestone, which forms, wherever it occurs, the very base of the Niagara system, is an exceptional formation. It occupies isolated areas through three or four counties of the Third Geological District. Its place in the series throughout the district generally, and the country at large, is occupied with widely differ- ent kinds of deposits. The typical locality, as the name of the formation denotes, is Dayton, Montgomery County.
The Dayton stone is found in great excellence, and in considera- ble quantity, in Greene County. Beginning on the western border, we find it capping the outlier of cliff limestone that lies southwest of Harbine's Station, in Beaver Creek Township. Owing, how- ever, to the greater accessibility of contiguous deposits-especially those of the Dayton district-these beds have been but little devel- oped. Neighborhood supplies have been drawn for a long time from the farms of Moses Shoup, Archibald Huston, and others; but within the last two or three years larger quantities have been taken out and distributed from Harbine's Station, by the Dayton and Xenia Railroad. The stone, as here found, has all the charac- teristic excellence of the formation in thickness, homogeneity, du- rability, and color; but its value is somewhat reduced by the abundant crystals of sulphide of iron (known by the quarrymen as sulphur), which weather on exposure, and disfigure the surface by dark-brown stains. The area underlain is considerable, and every foot of the deposit is sure to come into demand with the increasing age and resources of the surrounding country.
The next outcrop of it is found on the farm of Mr. James Col- lins, Xenia Township; but though the stone is unmistakable here in its general character, it is much reduced in thickness and, con-
381
GEOLOGY.
sequently, in value, and evidently marks the limit of the deposit in this direction. A mile or two beyond, to the east and north, the horizon of the Dayton stone is shown in many exposures with per- fect distinctness ; but its place is occupied by light-blue shale, or soapstone, as it is popularly called, and a worthless, shaly limestone, yellow in color, and generally covered with fucoidal impressions, which are frequently rendered green by the presence of silicate of iron. This phase is well shown on the Grinnell pike, opposite the farm of Mr. A. V. Sizer, a mile below Yellow Springs.
By far the best known deposit of the Dayton stone in the county, however, is found on the McDonald farm, three and a half miles south of Xenia. The rock was originally exposed here along a tributary of Cæsar's Creek. When the quarries were first opened, but a light covering of glacial .Drift, or bowlder clay, was found; but as the lines have been extended the stripping has become heavier. The surface of the rock has been planed and polished by glacier agency. From four to eight feet of workable rock are here found, divided into courses varying from four to twenty inches in thickness. The stone finds market in Xenia, being quite widely distributed from that point by railroad.
The composition of the stone from the McDonald quarry is seen in the following analysis made by Professor Wormley :
Carbonate of lime, . 84.50
Carbonate of magnesia,
11.16
Alumina and iron,
2.00
Silicious, 2.00
99.86
(b.) The Niagara shale directly overlies the Dayton stone where the latter stratum is found, and the Clinton formation, in case the Dayton stone is wanting. It is a normal constituent of the general geological scale of the country. Eighty-five feet of it are found at. the Falls of Niagara, and along the Appalachain Chain it is thick- ened to one thousand five hundred feet. Its maximum develop- ment in Greene County can be seen in the "Glen," at Yellow Springs, on the land of W. C. Neff, Esq., and at the locality already noted, in the cutting for the Grinnell pike, opposite the old water- cure grounds. It here attains a thickness of thirty feet. This
382
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
member of the series increases rapidly as it is followed southward through the state, measuring in Adams County one hundred and six feet.
In composition it is not perfectly uniform, the two elements that enter into it being found in varying proportions in different sec- tions. These two elements have been already named-a light-blue calcareous shale, and thin-bedded, yellowish shaly limestone. The shale is much the more constant and abundant of the two, the lime- stone layers coming in, as a rule, near the bottom of the series, at the same horizon where the Dayton stone is found when it occurs.
In other words, the Dayton stone, in exceptional instances, re- places these shaly layers. The last-named phase of the formation is shown very distinctly in the section on the Grinnell pike. The composition of the shale proper is shown by the following analysis made by Professor Wormley :
Carbonate of lime, .
34.40
Carbonate of magnesia,
30.87
Silicate of lime,
8.48
Alumina and iron,
8.40
Silica,
12.21
Water, combined, .
5.40
99.78
There are occasionally found in the shale numerous crystals and nodules of sulphuret of iron. In some of the sections shown in the Glen at Yellow Springs such nodules abound. They are often construed by the ignorant as indicating mineral treasures in the rocks which are here shown. A pit near the mouth of the Cascade Branch, six feet in diameter, and certainly more than twenty feet in depth, walled with timber, and now partly filled with rubbish, the origin of which is unknown to the oldest inhabitants, seems to ·show that such deceitful expectations were awakened in the minds of the earlier occupants of the country. Such unsuccessful experi- ments serve to show that our predecessors knew less than we now know of the contents of the strata, rather than more, as the credu- lous sometimes believe. The excavation was carried down into the Clinton limestone, the whole thickness of which might have been seen and studied by passing down the valley for half a mile.
383
GEOLOGY.
The surface of the Niagara shale is a very important water- bearer for this whole region, giving rise to a line of strong springs along its outerops, and supplying the largest number of the drilled wells of the table-land.
(c.) The next element in ascending order is the formation termed West Union Cliff. This stratum would certainly not be erected into a separate division from any facts in its occurrence in this part of the state; but in Adams County it attains a thickness of ninety feet, and constitutes, in several of the southern counties, a very marked and important element in the Niagara series. In Greene County, as in Clarke, it does not exceed eight feet in thickness, and the principal interest in its existence here is a stratigraphical in- terest, namely, in the recognition of the constancy of the elements found in the expanded sections to the southward.
It is to be identified principally by its containing a fossil known as an elongated form of Atrypa reticularis. On the ground of its occurrence in Ohio strata, a distinct designation ought certainly to be given to this form, for it is never found above the horizon of the West Union cliff. The stratum is cliffy in its structure, generally showing but few lines of bedding, and weathering in a rough and ungainly form. The "Cascade" at Yellow Springs reveals this formation, the water of the stream being precipitated over it, while it in turn overhangs the easily eroded shales of the underlying di- vision. The same elements-geological and physical-occur here that are to be found at the Falls of Niagara; and more truly than most waterfalls, the humble cataract here mentioned can be termed a miniature Niagara.
This element is also to be noted in Cedarville Township, on the southern line.
(d.) The fourth element is economically more important than any yet mentioned in the geology of the county. It is the division from which the building stone of the county is largely supplied. The Dayton stone, on account of its high degree of excellence as a cutting stone, commands too high a price for all common uses, and finds its market, not in the country distriets, but in the cities and larger towns of the state, and even of adjoining states. The new Chamber of Commerce in Chicago is built in part of Dayton stone. For all ordinary uses the stratum now under consideration is the principal dependence. In Clarke County it received the designation of the Springfield stone, and by this name it will here be
384
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
recognized. It furnishes all the building rock raised at Springfield, but does not, perhaps, make the most characteristic formation shown there, as the cap-rock from which the well-known Spring- field lime is so extensively burned, belongs to a different division, namely, the Cedarrille, or Guelph beds.
The Springfield stone has a broad outerop in Miami and Cedar- ville townships. It is much more largely quarried at Yellow Springs than at any other point in the county, but on Massie's Creek and its tributaries, west of Cedarville, it is also quite exten- sively worked, and the aggregate product of neighborhood quar- ries is also large. A description of this stratum at any one point applies very well to all other exposures. In the section at Yellow Springs twenty-four feet of rock are found that are referred to this division, though not more than twelve feet are ordinarily worked.
The courses vary in thickness from four to fourteen inches. Those which are most valued for building stone generally range between these extremes. Several of the courses answer a fair pur- pose for cutting stone. The same qualified commendation can be given to them for flagging. In neither of these respects has there been, as yet, sufficient inducement to fully develop the capabilities of the beds. But for general masonry they leave little to be de- sired. Easily raised and dressed, of convenient thickness, and of ample surface, they are not surpassed by any stone in the state in economy of use.
In color they are either blue or drab. The blue courses fre- quently weather to drab on their exposed edges.
The composition of the Springfield stone has been incidentally alluded to. A sample of the blue rock taken from the quarries of W. Sroufe, Esq., of Yellow Springs, gave the following result. (Wormley.)
Carbonate of lime,
51.10
Carbonate of magnesia,
41.12
Sand and silica, .
5.40
Alumina, with trace of iron, . 1.40
99.02
A magnesian limestone of France, cited by Vicat, as furnishing an excellent hydraulic lime, was, by chance, noticed to have an al-
385
GEOLOGY.
most identical composition. Experiments were instituted with ref- erence to hydraulic properties in the stone now under considera- tion, and it was found to have great energy as a cement. It can scarcely be doubted that these home supplies will come to be util- ized at no distant day. Attention is called to the fact that Greene County possesses an ample supply of hydraulic limestone fully equal in quality to the cement which serves a district of France most satisfactorily. The great obstacle to the introduction of a new cement lies in the fact that masons, after becoming used to one particular product, are very loth to adopt the changes in prac- tice which a new article renders necessary. The product here fur- nished is a hydraulic lime, and not a hydraulic cement.
The silicious concretions and nodules often replacing fossils, and the silicious layers which are so abundant in the quarries of Clarke County, are almost entirely wanting here.
Shaly partings are occasionally found between the courses. At a depth of eight or ten feet below the surface of the stratum, a layer of shale, several inches thick, occurs, which, from its impervious nature, becomes an important water-bearer.
There is not the same paucity of fossils in this stratum which marks the Dayton stone or the Niagara shale, but compared with the limestones of the Clinton and Cincinnati groups, and also with the overlying division, it may yet be said to be poor in this respect. The most striking forms by far that it contains, are the casts of the monstrous brachiopod shell, Pentamerus oblongus, which sometimes completely cover the surface of the layers. This interesting and characteristic fossil begins its great development in the rocks of the Mississippi valley at this particular horizon. At the east it charac- terizes the Clinton group, but it has never yet been found in the Clinton limestone of Ohio. A single overgrown specimen was ob- tained from the bottom of the Niagara series by the late Col. Greer, of Dayton, and a few specimens have been found in the West Union cliff of Adams County, but throughout the periods represented by this, and the succeeding formation, it had a wonderful expansion, literally paving the ancient sea-floor for hundreds of square miles through uncounted centuries. It often constitutes the substance of the rock for eight or ten feet in thickness. No more perfect internal casts of this shell, seem possible than the quarries of W. Sroufe, Esq., of Yellow Springs, have furnished.
A few other brachiopod shells are occasionally met with in this
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY. 1
division. Among them may be named Pentamerus ventricosus, Orthis biforata, Atrypa reticularis (shorter form,) and Mcristella Maria. None of these, however, are confined to this division. The Niagara tri- lobite, Calymene Blumenbachii, var. Niagarensis, is also of frequent occurence.
(e.) Overlying the Springfield stone, there is found in southern Ohio the representative of a formation, the place of which was a subject of much discussion in the earlier days of American geology. The discussion has terminated in its being assigned, without dissent, to the Niagara series. It forms the crowning member of this series in the northern, and western portions of its widely extended field. It has received the names of various localities where it is distinctly shown, being styled the Guelph formation in Canada, the Racine beds, or Milwaukee beds, in Wisconsin, and the Bridgeport beds in northern Illinois. In southern Ohio, no local name can be selected so appropriate, and free from ambiguity as the Cedarville lime- stone, constituting, as it does, the only member of the Niagara series shown in the extensive quarries opened at this village. There is not, however, as great a thickness of the limestone shown at Cedar- ville as at Yellow Springs. The exposure of the Niagara rocks at this last named place has been repeatedly referred to, and now, since all the elements that enter into it have been given, a somewhat more detailed account will be supplied. It is decidely the best section of the Niagara series shown in Greene County, and is but little inferior to the section at Holcomb's lime-kilns, below Springfield.
The Clinton limestone follows up the Yellow Springs branch, to a point nearly opposite the extensive quarries of W. Sroufe, Esq. Starting from this well-settled base, eighty-four feet of the Niagara rocks are traversed in a very steep ascent. The uppermost thirty feet are shown in the quarries before referred to; the lowermost thirty feet are well shown in the adjacent banks of the Cascade Branch. Exposures of the intervening beds are not wanting in the immediate vicinity. The thickness here given is thus divided:
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