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 37
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Cedarville beds 22 feet.
Springfield stone West Union cliff
24
·
8
Niagara shales ·
30
Total
84
387
GEOLOGY.
The twenty-two feet of the upper division, are further re-enforc- ed in the higher ground adjoining the ravine. It gains ten feet, at least, in the land immediately to the westward, and may be safely taken as not far below forty feet in its total thickness here.
The identification of this stratum has been made complete by the discovery of a considerable number of fossils in it that are pe- culiar to the above named horizon. Of these the most prominent and characteristic are two great shells, the enormous and somewhat abnormal brachiopod Trimerella, and a lamellibranch shell of even greater bulk, Megalomos Canadensis. Trimerella is represented in these beds, not only by the species grandis (Billings), but also by the still larger form, Ohioensis (Meek). It cannot, however, be said that either of these forms is abundant in Greene County, but their pres- ence has been proved by a few specimens from both the Yellow Springs and Cedarville quarries.
The lithological characteristics of the formation in Greene County are quite marked. The lowermost ten or twelve feet consists of a massive rock almost destitute of the appearance of planes of strati- fication. When raised by blasting, it comes out in large and un- gainly fragments. In color, it is a very light gray, and the numer- ous cavities, large and small, which are found in it, are" all studded with minute crystals of lime. It is crowned with casts of fossils, of all the groups represented in the formation, but often the forms have been rendered obscure by partial solution, and nothing re- mains but a confused mass of the firmer parts of the structures. Nothing can exceed the beauty which fresh surfaces of the rock sometimes disclose, the faces of the fossils being frosted with crys- tals. The heavy bed of Pentamerus oblongus referred to in the pre- ceding section, is found in this part of the series.
The most interesting series of fossils thus far obtained from any one locality, was furnished by the quarry of My. John Orr, of Cedar- ville. Several specimens were yielded at this point, which have been found nowhere else in Ohio.
The upper portions consist of a very thin-bedded and fragile limestone, often sandy in texture, and either light gray in color or yellowish. The latter is the predominant tint at Yellow Springs, the former at Clifton, while both appear at Cedarville. This portion is no less fossiliferous than the lower part, and both contain the same forms, though the proportions in which the separate fossils oc- cur, vary somewhat in the two divisions.
388
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
In composition, the whole formation is very nearly a typical dol- omite. A few analyses are appended to show its constitution along the line of its outerop, the range represented, covering at least one hundred and fifty miles. The analyses were all made by Dr. Wormley.
No. 1. Bierley's quarry, Greenville, Darke County.
" 2. Dugan's Sidney, Shelby County.
3. Holcomb's Springfield, Clarke County.
4. Sroufe's Yellow Springs, Greene County.
5. Trimble's Hillsborough, Highland County.
1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
Carbonate of lime . 44.60
55.00
55.10
54.75
54.25
Carbonate of magnesia 50.11
42.92
43.05
42.23
43.23
Alumina and iron
1.60
1.70
2.00
1.80
Silicious matter
4.60
trace.
0.10
0.40
0.40
99.31
99.52
99.95
99.83
99.68
But a single economical application is made of the Cedarville limestone. The facts already stated, show how poorly adapted it is for use as a building stone, but as a source of quick-lime this stratum is without a rival in the markets of southwestern Ohio.
Lime is now burned in quantity, at but two points in Greene County,-Yellow Springs and Cedarville,-but equal advantages in every particular, except the all-important one of transportation, are furnished at many other points, and especially at, and below Clifton, on the Little Miami River. The business at the two points named, has attained quite important proportions, and is the source of a considerable income to the county. A few of the details are here appended.
At Cedarville, lime is now burned by the five following firms : Wesley Iliff, Satterfield and Son, Shrads and Gibney, Orr and Son, D. S. Ervin. The parties are named according to the order in which they took up the business. Wesley Iliff has been engaged in burn- ing lime at this point for thirty years. All of the firms but one use old-fashioned kilns, namely, those in which fifteen hundred to two thousand bushels of lime are burned at one time, the kiln being allowed to cool before it is emptied and re-filled. To carry on the business in a large way, each firm requires two or more such kilns,
GEOLOGY. 389
so that while one is burning, lime can be drawn from another.
Mr. D. S. Ervin, alone employs patent draw-kilns. The compar- ison of the two modes of burning, was made at length in the report on Clarke County. (Geology of Ohio, Vol. 1., p. 475.)
The production for the year 1874 ranges as follows: D. S. Ervin, two hundred and eighty car loads, or eighty-five thousand bushels ; Wesley Iliff, one hundred and thirty car loads, or forty thousand bushels ; Shrads and Gibney, one hundred and thirty car loads, or forty thousand bushels ; Orr and Son, seventy-five car loads, or twenty-three thousand bushels ; Satterfield and Son, forty car loads, or twelve thousand bushels.
The average cost of wood is three dollars per cord, and one cord is used in the burning of fifty bushels of lime in the old pattern of kilns. In the patent kilns, Mr. Ervin reports sixty-six bushels to one cord of wood. The lime finds market mainly along the line of the Little Miami Railroad. The price for 1874 was fifty-five dollars per car load, or eighteen and one-third cents per bushel. When retailed at the killis, it was sold for twenty-five cents per bushel.
The Cedarville lime has the reputation of being "cooler" than the limes with which it comes into competition ; that is, it does not give out as much heat in slaking, and slakes with more difficulty, or at least with less rapidity. Whatever differences of this sort exist must be referred to its physical state rather than to its chem- ical constitution, as it agrees in this respect perfectly with the Yel- low Springs, Springfield, and Sidney limes.
At Yellow Springs the business of lime-burning is extensively carried on by W. Sroufe, Esq. He gives the amount of lime produced at his kilns during the year 1874 as thirty thousand bushels. The cost of wood averages three dollars and twenty- five cents per cord, and one cord, as at Cedarville, is re- quired for the burning of fifty bushels of lime. The lime is sold at fifty-five dollars a car load, as is that manufactured at Cedar- ville.
The Yellow Springs quarries reach down to the building-stone courses that underlie the lime-producing stratum. Mr. Sroufe re- ports the sale of five hundred perches of building stone during 1874. The average price of building stone is one dollar and seventy-five cents per perch. No courses well adapted to cutting have yet been worked here.
25
390
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
The Cedarville beds impress a peculiar appearance on the valleys in which sections of them are disclosed. They generally appear in a smooth, vertical wall, bluish white in color, and overhanging the even courses of the Springfield stone. The latter are more easily eroded than the cap-rock, by reason of the shaly partings found between them. It therefore results that when a stream has once cut its way through the cap-rock the gorge becomes fully as wide. or even wider, at the bottom than at the top, as is the case at Clif- ton. As the work of erosion advances, large masses of the cliff are left unsupported, and are at last precipitated into the ravine, as is shown so abundantly in the valley of the Miami between Clif- ton and Grinnell's Mill. The present state of the valley at Clifton shows very clearly the manner in which the whole work has been accomplished. We can be certain that the valley has been grow- ing through the illimitable past by the same stages that we can mark so clearly at the present day.
The springs that issue from the Niagara series are very impor- tant and servicable, but attention will be called at this place to but a single point in connection with them, namely, the heavy deposits of travertine which some of them have made and are still making. The great fountain from which the village of Yellow Springs de- rives its name will be treated by itself, but all along the gorges in the. Niagara limestone voluminous springs are issuing, which are making extensive calcareous deposits, sometimes in dome-shaped stalagmitic masses under the dripping of the springs, but more frequently mingled with the earthy and organic products over and among which the waters flow in short slopes to the valley. The vegetable, and sometimes the animal, matters that the water meets with are often incrusted with the travertine, and are then said in popular language to be petrified. A specimen submitted to analy- sis gave the following result (Wormley) :
Carbonate of lime,
95.70
Carbonate of magnesia,
3.73
Alumina and iron,
0.50
99.93
Another specimen examined shows the following composition (Mees) :
391
GEOLOGY.
Carbonate of lime,
97.60
Carbonate of magnesia,
1.21
Silicious matter,
0.60
99.41
In this connection the very interesting fact is to be noted, that while the rocks from which the springs issue are dolomitic, con- taining nearly as much carbonate of magnesia as carbonate of lime, the travertine is almost purely calcareous. It therefore appears that in magnesian limestones permeated by atmospheric waters, the proportions of magnesia must be constantly, though of course very slowly, increasing. The varying proportions of carbonate of magnesia in the limestones of the Cedarville division may be, in part, accounted for in this way. By reference to the table of an- alyses, it will be seen that this substance in one instance makes fifty per cent. of the entire weight of the rock. A greater expos- ure than ordinary to carbonated waters will serve to explain this increased proportion. It may be added that the location of the quarry from which the stone yielding this result was obtained, in the flat-lying tract of Darke County, would seem to indicate the long-continued presence of such carbonated water.
Further, as far as the explanation above given applies, it ought to be found that the more highly magnesian the limestone the less should be its specific gravity. A few facts under this head are here given. The determinations of specific gravity were furnished by Prof. Mendenhall, of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege. The comparison is not limited to the different representa- tives of the Cedarville division, but various limestones of the state are included.
Locality.
Geological Horizon.
Carb. Mag. Sp.Grav.
Greenville, Darke Co.,
Top of Guelph, or Cedarville, 50
2.452
Yellow Springs,
Bottom of Guelph,
43 2.605
Greenfield, High'd Co. Yellow Springs,
Waterlime,
42
2.648
Clinton,
12
2.664
Columbus,
Corniferous,
30?
2.664
Cincinnati,
Cincinnati,
5
2.700
392
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
III. DRIFT.
The Drift of Greene County agrees closely in all particulars with that of the adjacent counties. All of the distinguishing features of this most interesting but perplexing formation are here shown with great distinctness. In other words, the materials for a perfect the- ory of the Drift are found spread over the rocky floor of Greene County.
1. In the first place, the face of the Niagara limestone has been universally planed and polished by glacier agency. It does not, it is true, show the marks of this agency everywhere, for the upper beds of the limestone have often been partially dissolved by the action of atmospheric waters infiltrating through the Drift beds; but wherever the surface has not been thus affected it exhibits the glaciated markings now under consideration. These markings. have been noted in every section of the county in which the cliff limestone is exposed; but they are shown most plainly in the un- covered surfaces of the Yellow Springs quarry, and of McDonald's quarry. The grooves and stria have a direction in most instances of ten to fifteen degrees west of north. In the Yellow Springs quarry their line of direction cuts the line of direction of the Glen, which is immediately adjoining, at an angle of about twenty de- grees, showing that even such deep furrows as this had no influence in changing the course of the abrading ice-sheet.
2. Over the polished surface of the rocks, as well as over those more extensive areas where the rocks retain no markings of this kind, lies, in deposits of varying thickness, a covering of bowlder clay. This is an unstratified mass, thickly set with pebbles and bowlders of small size, many of which have rubbed or striated faces, like that of the rock on which they rest. In its original state it is a very compact formation, as is shown in the deeper sec- tions of it; but where the deposit is shallow it has been considera- bly transformed by atmospheric agencies. The partial or complete solution of the limestone pebbles that make so prominent an ele- ment in it renders the whole bed more porous and permeable than the unaltered deposits are. With this transformation of texture a change of color is also connected, the lower oxides of iron in the bowlder clay being converted into peroxides by the presence of air and water, and the bed becoming a yellow clay instead of blue clay.
393
GEOLOGY.
The unaltered blue clay is often struck in wells, and is also shown in the banks of streams, where the weathered materials are re- moved as fast as formed.
As elsewhere, seams of sand and gravel are intermingled with the bowlder clay.
3. A third phase of the Drift formations is also abundantly shown in Greene County, in the beds of clean sand and gravel, which occur everywhere throughout its area, and especially on the highest lands of the county. These beds are distinctly stratified, oftentimes with conspicuous lines of false or uneven bedding, differ- ing in composition from the bowlder clay in this respect, namely, that they contain water-washed instead of striated pebbles, and that they present unmistakable indications of having been sifted and arranged under water. Examples of these high-level grades can be seen at various points, but at none more clearly than in Miami Township; as, for example, at the Yellow Springs gravel bank, at the banks of W. C. Neff, Daniel Jobe, and J. H. Little; and also in the Hamma neighborhood, along the Yellow Springs and Fairfield pike. All of these points belong to the high grounds of the county, and some of them constitute its summit levels. From some peculiarities in its structure, the Yellow Springs bank deserves a somewhat more extended notice.
It is located to the south of the village, about half a mile from the railroad track. It rises forty feet in height above a very flat- lying area, and thus makes a conspicuous feature in the topography. Its summit is not far from ten hundred and sixty feet above the sea. It embraces an area of somewhat more than two acres. It is com- posed of sand and gravel, with considerable quantities of clay, the three orders of materials being, however, quite well separated from each other. Some bowlders are met with, the largest one now ex- posed measuring seven feet in length. Like almost all of the largest-sized bowlders of southern Ohio, this one is composed of gneiss, conspicuously banded with rose-colored felspar.
The peculiarity of this gravel bank consists, however, in none of the facts already stated, but in the order of arrangement of the materials, which are aggregated in all sorts of irregular masses, while the bed-lines of the sand and gravel are curiously twisted and contorted, their section sometimes showing them to accomplish two-thirds of the circumference of a circle. The only satisfactory explanation of these facts would seem to be found in the deposit of
394
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
these materials from melting ice. An iceberg breaking loose from the northern water-shed of the state, and loaded with glacial detri- tus, if stranded and slowly melting here, might account for these peculiarities of structure.
As to several of the other deposits referred to above, it is impos- sible for any one to examine them without feeling certain that they were sorted and sifted and arranged under water, and that their presence where we find them now is proof conclusive of the sub- mergence of the country, at least to the elevations which they mark. The bank belonging to Daniel Jobe, Esq., and located near the intersection of the Grinnell pike with the Clifton and Oldtown pike, may be taken as a good representative of this class.
These high-level or bank gravels of the county furnish an inex- haustible supply of excellent materials for road-making; and, un- der the wise state legislation of the last ten years upon this subject, the county may be said to have been lifted out of the mud. This work of improvement is sure to go on with the increasing wealth of the country, until every public road is changed from a bed of miry clay-which, in its natural state, it becomes for about one- third of the year-into a solid and civilized highway all the year through.
The bottom lands of the county, in its western and southwestern portions, are considerable. They do not, however, demand ex- tended treatment here, agreeing as they do exactly with the simi- lar areas already reported upon. They consist of first and second bottoms chiefly, the third terrace that appears in the lower reaches of the streams being either wanting or but indirectly shown here.
IV. SOILS.
A brief discussion of the soils of the county will here find place. (a.) Origin. The soils of Greene County are, in the main, de- rived from the Drift. . There are small tracts, it is true, scattered through the county in which the bedded rock has lately formed the surface, and by its weathering has given rise to the thin stratum of soil that now covers it. Examples of this sort may be seen on Reed's Hill, in Bath Township, where the weathering of the Clin- ton limestone has furnished a very productive but shallow soil to quite a number of acres. Along the boundary of the Lower and Upper Silurian formations, again, little patches of these native soils
395
GEOLOGY.
are to be seen, as at Goe's Station, in Miami Township, and on the farms of Franklin Berryhill and Thomas J. Brown, of Sugar Creek Township; but the aggregate of all such cases is insignifi- cant, and the statement that the soil of the county is derived from the Drift scarcely requires qualification.
. There is a very important sense, however, in which the soils of Greene County may be denominated native soils. Naked beds of bowlder clay are no more soil than are raw shales or quarry spalls. All can be converted into soils by sufficient exposure to atmospheric influences. In point of fact, the shales that constitute so large a part of some Ohio formations, and notably of the Cincinnati series, are converted into soils far more rapidly than the bowlder clay. The soils of the county, then, have been formed where we find them by the same slow processes that are required to transform a stratum of limestone rock into soil. It is principally by the pro- cess that is termed " weathering" that the stubborn and impervious clays of the unaltered Drift are changed into the porous, light, and permeable layer that we call soil. The action of the atmosphere can be easily traced in such cases. There are always present in our Drift clays, grains, pebbles, and bowlders of limestone. In south- ern and central Ohio they constitute by far the largest proportion of the rocky fragments of the Drift beds. But limestone is soluble in rain and surface water. These fragments then, both small and great, are slowly dissolved, their lime being carried away in drain- age water, while the sand and clay and iron which made a part of their substance are left to contribute to the soil. Similar changes go on in other substances in the Drift bed, and the results of all are to open these stubborn clays to air and water, to change their color, to alter their texture, and thus, also, to alter their specific gravity. The incorporation of vegetable matter with the forming soil goes on through all the stages of its growth. Until the pro- portion of such matter reaches at least five per cent. of the whole mass, the clay is scarcely to be called a soil.
But in the final stages of its preparation, to another division of the living creation a very important office is assigned, one, however, which is seldom estimated according to its real value. The insect king- dom, beetles, ants, earth-worms, etc., bring up from below the surface, for very different objects in the economy of their several existences, particles of sand, clay, and vegetable mold. The whole substance of the soil is honey-combed by their agencies, and rendered vastly
396
HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
more permeable to air and water. To them, indeed, the fineness and homogeneity of the surface are largely due. Whoever thinks this agency an insignificant one, has but to examine carefully the surface of any square rod of ground in early summer, to be convinced of his mistake. Such an examination will show to any one who has eyes to see, that an enormous amount of mechanical labor, most useful in its results to man, is being performed by these despised insects. The porosity of the ground, which is partly due to these agencies, is illustrated in the well known fact, that the earth taken out from an excavation, will never fill the space from which it has been removed. But the porosity that nature gives to soils, is not produced in a day. It is the result of these seemingly insignificant agencies extended through periods of time sufficiently long.
This stratum of soil, thus prepared, is the sole dependence of the brick-kilns which are possible in almost every square mile of the surface of the county, and from it brick of excellent quality are cheaply produced.
Mention has thus far been made of the formation of soils from the bowlder clay alone, but processes precisely similar to those already deseribed, only far more rapid in their action, are going on in the beds of modified or stratified Drift, which makes so important an element in the surface of the county. The opening of every gravel bank, shows these processes with the greatest distinctness. The solution of the limestone pebbles, has been carried on for one or two feet below the surface, until most of them have entirely dis- appeared, the only pebbles that remain being the hard and stubborn greenstones, and granites of northern origin. Vegetable mold has been mingled with these weathering products, to the same depth to which the solution has advanced, and thus the boundary line between the soil and what it covers, is marked by color as well as texture. The incipient stages of the solution of limestone pebbles, can be seen below this boundary, in the softened and corroded surfaces which they show, but the mass below is, after all, a gravel bank and not soil.
(b.) Varieties The soils of the county may be divided into the following classes, which will be readily recognized by those familiar - with the area under consideration :
1. The valley soils, consisting principally of the first and second bottom lands.
2. The soils formed from the high level gravels.
.
397
GEOLOGY.
3. The yellow and white clays, the common upland soils of the county.
4. The black uplands or blue grass land, most largely shown in Ross, New Jasper, Silver Creek, and Jefferson townships. Each of these divisions will be briefly considered.
1. The soils of the first division are principally confined to the main valleys of the county, namely, to the Little Miami, Mad River, and Beaver valleys, but some of the minor streams have bottom lands of limited extent.
There is a notable difference in constitution between the first and second bottoms, the former being strictly alluvial in character and receiving fresh accessions of matter with every flood, while the second bottoms are gravel terraces, the surfaces of which have been transformed into soils according to the processes described above. The latter areas constitute the most attractive, but not, perhaps, the most durable, farming lands of the county. The Oldtown flats may be taken as one of the very best examples of this class. We know that portions of this beautiful plain were the favorite corn-grounds of the Indians before the occupation of the country by the whites, to say nothing of the still earlier tenure of the mound-builders, whose works abound in this neighborhood. Since the occupation of the country by civilized man, the whole area has been constantly under the plow. There are large parts of it which have not failed for at least fifty consecutive years to produce a crop either of corn or wheat, without any application of manure or fertilizers. No charge can be made against this particular area as lacking in dura- bility, for the average production is still very good, but other tracts of equal original fertility show themselves now to be in a state of incipient exhaustion. It is a disgraceful system of farming that brings lands like these to such a state within fifty years of the time when they were covered with primival forests.
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