History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 2

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

USA > Ohio > Knox County > History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In addition, the following works have been consulted: Howe's Historical Collections, Annals of the West, Bancroft's History of the United States, Reports of the Secretary of State of Ohio, Agricultural and Geological Reports of Ohio, History of Richland County, Reid's Ohio in the War, and many others

The mechanical labor in compilation was largely performed by Mr. John W. White, an old resident of Mt. Vernon, Mr. Harry Hoover, and Mr. Leonidas McQuown-all faithful and intelligent writers. The chapters containing the history of Mt. Vernon and some other portions of the work were largely due to the labors of Mr. White, who has been for years interested in local history, and engaged in liter- ary work.

Many old, influential, and prominent citizens of the county have interested themselves in the work, have generously patronized it, and furnished much historical matter, among whom may be mentioned Hon. Henry B. Curtis, Hon. William Bonar, General G. W. Morgan, Rev. J. H. Hamilton, N. N. Hill, Dr. J. N. Burr, Isaac Hadley, Colonel Alexander Cassil, and others, of Mt. Vernon; N. W. Putnam and G. C. Scott, of Gambier; Lyman W. Gates, of Miller township, and W. B. Cox, of Fredericktown. The

PREFACE.

thanks of the publisher and compiler are due to the above named gentlemen, as well as to the auditor of the county, Mr. John H. Stevens, who kindly gave them the freedom of that office and its valuable papers.

Briefly, the book contains a history of Ohio, compiled by A. A. Graham; a general and detailed his- tory of Knox county; a separate history of each township, arranged in alphabetical order, except that Pike township is placed at the end of the township histories, for the reason that the manuscript was not received by the printers in time for insertion in the proper place. The Biographical Sketches and Addenda conclude the work. The Addenda contains several biographical sketches not received in time for inser- tion in their proper places.

About two and one half generations of men have passed away since the first settlement of Knox county; yet there are a few gray-haired sires left who knew the county in its infancy; who saw the wolf and the savage where are now the blocks of brick and mortar and the cultivated homes of wealth and luxury; who have watched its growth and development from its birth in the wilderness through the cycles of revolving years, but who are now leaning upon their staves, dim-eyed and looking always back in won- der at the mighty changes that they alone can fully realize. Not many years can now pass before the lods must fall upon the coffin of the last pioneer of Knox county, and with him will pass away the last link that binds the present civilization to the glories of that departed age. The object of this work has been fully accomplished if the picture that is imprinted upon the minds of these few tottering pioneers has been caught, faithfully portrayed and permanently held for the study of future generations.

N. N. H., jr.

KNOX COUNTY INFIRMARY.

HISTORY OF OHIO.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY -TOPOGRAPHY -GEOLOGY - PRIMITIVE-RACES -ANTIQUITIES -INDIAN TRIBES.

THE present State of Ohio, comprising an extent of country 210 miles north and south, 220 miles east and west, in length and breadth- 25,576,969 acres-is a part of the Old Northwest Territory. This Territory embraced all of the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and so much of Minnesota as lies east of the Mississippi River. It became a corporate existence soon after the formation of the Virginia Colony, and when that colony took on the dignity of State government it became a county thereof, whose exact outline was unknown. The county embraced in its limits more territory than is com- prised in all the New England and Middle States, and was the largest county ever known in the United States. It is watered by the finest system of rivers on the globe; while its inland seas are without a parallel. Its entire southern boundary is traversed by the beautiful Ohio, its western by the majestic Mississippi, and its northern and a part of its eastern are bounded by the fresh-water lakes, whose clear waters preserve an even temper- ature over its entire surface. Into these reservoirs of commerce flow innumerable streams of limpid water, which come from glen and dale, from mountain and valley, from forest and prairie-all avenues of health, commerce and prosperity. Ohio is in the best part of this territory-south of its river are tropical heats; north of Lake Erie are polar snows and a polar climate.

The territory comprised in Ohio has always re- mained the same. Ohio's history differs somewhat from other States, in that it was never under Ter- ritorial government. When it was created, it was made a State, and did not pass through the stage incident to the most of other States, i. e., exist as a Territory before being advanced to the powers of

a State. Such was not the case with the other States of the West; all were Territories, with Terri- torial forms of government, ere they became States.

Ohio's boundaries are, on the north, Lakes Erie and Michigan ; on the west, Indiana; on the south, the Ohio River, separating it from Kentucky; and, on the east, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It is situated between 38° 25' and 42º north latitude; and 80° 30' and 84° 50' west longitude from Greenwich, or 3º 30' and 7º 50' west from Washington. Its greatest length, from north to south, is 210 miles; the extreme width, from east to west, 220 miles. Were this an exact out- line, the area of the State would be 46,200 square miles, or 29,568,000 acres; as the outlines of the State are, however, rather irregular, the area is estimated at 39,964 square miles, or 25,576,960 acres. In the last census-1870-the total num- ber of acres in Ohio is given as 21,712,420, of which 14,469,132 acres are improved, and 6,883,- 575 acres are woodland. By the last statistical report of the State Auditor, 20,965,371ª acres are reported as taxable lands. This omits many acres untaxable for various reasons, which would make the estimate, 25,576,960, nearly correct.

The face of the country, in Ohio, taken as a whole, presents the appearance of an extensive monotonous plain. It is moderately undulating but not mountainous, and is excavated in places by the streams coursing over its surface, whose waters have forced a way for themselves through cliffs of sandstone rock, leaving abutments of this material in bold outline. There are no mountain ranges, geological uplifts or peaks. A low ridge enters the State, near the northeast corner, and crosses it in a southwesterly direction, emerging near the inter- section of the 40th degree of north latitude with

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

the western boundary of the State. This " divide" separates the lake and Ohio River waters, and main- tains an elevation of a little more than thirteen hundred feet above the level of the ocean. The highest part is in Logan County, where the eleva- tion is 1,550 feet.

North of this ridge the surface is generally level, with a gentle inclination toward the lake, the ine- qualities of the surface being caused by the streams which empty into the lake. The central part of Ohio is almost, in general, a level plain, about one thousand feet above the level of the sea, slightly inclining southward. The Southern part of the State is rather hilly, the valleys growing deeper as they incline toward the great valley of the Ohio, which is several hundred feet below the general level of the State. In the southern counties, the surface is generally diversified by the inequalities produced by the excavating power of the Ohio River and its tributaries, exercised through long periods of time. There are a few prairies, or plains, in the central and northwestern parts of the State, but over its greater portion originally existed im- mense growths of timber.

The " divide," or water-shed, referred to, between the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio River, is less elevated in Ohio than in New York and Penn- sylvania, though the difference is small. To a per- son passing over the State in a balloon, its surface presents an unvarying plain, while, to one sailing down the Ohio River, it appears mountainous. On this river are bluffs ranging from two hundred and fifty to six hundred feet in height. As one ascends the tributaries of the river, these bluffs diminish in height until they become gentle undu- lations, while toward the sources of the streams, in the central part of the State, the banks often become low and marshy.

The principal rivers are the Ohio, Muskingum, Scioto and Miami, on the southern slope, emptying into the Ohio; on the northern, the Maumee, Sandusky, Huron and Cuyahoga, emptying into Lake Erie, and, all but the first named, entirely in Ohio.

The Ohio, the chief river of the State, and from which it derives its name, with its tributaries, drains a country whose area is over two hundred thousand square miles in extent, and extending from the water-shed to Alabama. The river was first dis- covered by La Salle in 1669, and was by him nav- igated as far as the Falls, at Louisville, Ky. It is formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, in Pennsylvania, whose waters

unite at Pittsburgh. The entire length of the river, from its source to its mouth, is 950 miles, though by a straight line from Pittsburgh to Cairo, it is only 615 miles. Its current is very gentle, hardly three miles per hour, the descent being only five inches per mile. At high stages, the rate of the current increases, and at low stages decreases. Sometimes it is barely two miles per hour. The average range between high and low water mark is fifty feet, although several times the river has risen more than sixty feet above low water mark. At the lowest stage of the river, it is fordable many places between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The river abounds in islands, some of which are exceed- ingly fertile, and noted in the history of the West. Others, known as " tow-heads," are simply deposits of sand.

The Scioto is one of the largest inland streams in the State, and is one of the most beautiful riv- ers. It rises in Hardin County, flows southeast- erly to Columbus, where it receives its largest affluent, the Olentangy or Whetstone, after which its direction is southerly until it enters the Ohio at Portsmouth. It flows through one of the rich- est valleys in the State, and has for its compan- ion the Ohio and Erie Canal, for a distance of ninety miles. Its tributaries are, besides the Whet- stone, the Darby, Walnut and Paint Creeks.

The Muskingum River is formed by the junc- tion of the Tuscarawas and Waldhoning Rivers, which rise in the northern part of the State and unite at Coshocton. From the junction, the river flows in a southeastern course about one hundred miles, through a rich and populous valley, to the Ohio, at Marietta, the oldest settlement in the State. At its outlet, the Muskingum is over two hundred yards wide. By improvements, it has been made navigable ninety-five miles above Mari- etta, as far as Dresden, where a side cut, three miles long, unites its waters with those of the Ohio Canal. All along this stream exist, in abundant profusion, the remains of an ancient civiliza- tion, whose history is lost in the twilight of antiq- uity. Extensive mounds, earthworks and various fortifications, are everywhere to be found, inclosing a mute history as silent as the race that dwelt here and left these traces of their evistence. The same may be said of all the other valleys in Ohio.

The Miami River-the scenes of many exploits in pioneer days-rises in Hardin County, near the headwaters of the Scioto, and runs southwesterly, to the Ohio, passing Troy, Dayton and Hamilton. It is a beautiful and rapid stream, flowing through

HISTORY OF OHIO.

a highly productive and populous valley, in which limestone and hard timber are abundant. Its total length is about one hundred and fifty miles.

The Maumee is the largest river in the northern part of Ohio. It rises in Indiana and flows north- easterly, into Lake Erie. About eighty miles of its course are in Ohio. It is navigable as far as Perrysburg, eighteen miles from its mouth. The other rivers north of the divide are all small, rapid-running streams, affording a large amount of good water-power, much utilized by mills and man- ufactories.

A remarkable feature of the topography of Ohio is its almost total absence of natural lakes or ponds. A few very small ones are found near the water-shed, but all too small to be of any practical value save as watering-places for stock.

Lake Erie, which forms nearly all the northern boundary of the State, is next to the last or lowest of America's "inland seas." It is 290 miles long, and 57 miles wide at its greatest part. There are no islands, except in the shallow water at the west end, and very few bays. The greatest depth of the lake is off Long Point, where the water is 312 feet deep. The shores are principally drift-clay or hard-pan, upon which the waves are continually encroaching. At Cleveland, from the first sur- vey, in 1796, to 1842, the encroachment was 218 feet along the entire city front. The entire coast is low, seldom rising above fifty feet at the water's edge.

Lake Erie, like the others, has a variable sur- face, rising and falling with the seasons, like great rivers, called the " annual fluctuation," and a gen- eral one, embracing a series of years, due to mete- orological causes, known as the "secular fluctua- tion." Its lowest known level was in February, 1819, rising more or less each year, until June, 1838, in the extreme, to six feet eight inches.

Lake Erie has several excellent harbors in Ohio, among which are Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, Port Clinton and Ashtabula. Valuable improve- ments have been made in some of these, at the expense of the General Government. In 1818, the first steamboat was launched on the lake. Owing to the Falls of Niagara, it could go no farther east than the outlet of Niagara River. Since then, however, the opening of the Welland Canal, in Canada, allows vessels drawing not more than ten feet of water to pass from one lake to the other, greatly facilitating navigation.

As early as 1836, Dr. S. P. Hildreth, Dr. John Locke, Prof. J. H. Riddle and Mr. I. A. Lapham,

were appointed a committee by the Legislature of Ohio to report the "best method of obtaining a complete geological survey of the State, and an estimate of the probable cost of the same." In the preparation of their report, Dr. Hildreth examined the coal-measures in the southeastern part of the State, Prof. Riddle and Mr. Lapham made exam- inations in the western and northern counties, while Dr. Locke devoted his attention to chemical analyses. These investigations resulted in the presentation of much valuable information con- cerning the mineral resources of the State and in a plan for a geological survey. In accordance with the recommendation of this Committee, the Legislature, in 1837, passed a bill appropriating $12,000 for the prosecution of the work during the next year. The Geological Corps appointed consisted of W. W. Mather, State Geologist, with Dr. Hildreth, Dr. Locke, Prof. J. P. Kirtland, J. W. Foster, Charles Whittlesey and Charles Briggs, Jr., Assistants. The results of the first year's work appeared in 1838, in an octavo volume of 134 pages, with contributions from Mather, Hildreth, Briggs, Kirtland and Whittlesey. In 1838, the Legislature ordered the continuance of the work, and, at the close of the year, a second report, of 286 pages, octavo, was issued, containing contribu- tions from all the members of the survey.

Succeeding Legislatures failed to provide for a continuance of the work, and, save that done by private means, nothing was accomplished till 1869, when the Legislature again took up the work. In the interim, individual enterprise had done much. In 1841, Prof. James Hall passed through the State, and, by his indentification of several of the formations with those of New York, for the first time fixed their geological age. The next year, he issued the first map of the geology of the State, in common with the geological maps of all the region between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi. Similar maps were published by Sir Charles Lyell, in 1845; Prof. Edward Hitchcock, in 1853, and by J. Mareon, in 1856. The first individual map of the geology of Ohio was a very small one, published by Col. Whittlesey, in 1848, in Howe's History. In 1856, he published a larger map, and, in 1865, another was issued by Prof. Nelson Sayler. In 1867, Dr. J. S. Newberry published a geological map and sketch of Ohio in the Atlas of the State issued by H. S. Stebbins. Up to this time, the geological knowledge was very general in its character, and, consequently, errone- ous in many of its details. Other States had been

HISTORY OF OHIO.

accurately surveyed, yet Ohio remained a kind of terra incognita, of which the geology was less known than any part of the surrounding area.

In 1869, the Legislature appropriated, for a new survey, $13,900 for its support during one year, and appointed Dr. Newberry Chief Geologist ; E. B. Andrews, Edward Orton and J. H. Klippart were appointed Assistants, and T. G. Wormley, Chemist. The result of the first year's work was a volume of 164 pages, octavo, published in 1870.

This report, accompanied by maps and charts, for the first time accurately defined the geological formations as to age and area. Evidence was given which set at rest questions of nearly thirty years' standing, and established the fact that Ohio in- cludes nearly double the number of formations be- fore supposed to exist. Since that date, the sur- veys have been regularly made. Each county is being surveyed by itself, and its formation ac- curately determined. Elsewhere in these pages, these results are given, and to them the reader is referred for the specific geology of the county. Only general results can be noted here.

On the general geological map of the State, are two sections of the State, taken at each northern and southern extremity. These show, with the map, the general outline of the geological features of Ohio, and are all that can be given here. Both sections show the general arrangements of the formation, and prove that they lie in sheets resting one upon another, but not horizontally, as a great arch traverses the State from Cincinnati to the lake shore, between Toledo and Sandusky. Along this line, which extends southward to Nashville, Tenn., all the rocks are raised in a ridge or fold, once a low mountain chain. In the lapse of ages, it has, however, been extensively worn away, and now, along a large part of its course, the strata which once arched over it are re- moved from its summit, and are found resting in regular order on either side, dipping away from its axis. Where the ridge was highest, the erosion has been greatest, that being the reason why the oldest rocks are exposed in the region about Cin- cinnati. By following the line of this great arch from Cincinnati northward, it will be seen that the Helderberg limestone (No. 4), midway of the State, is still unbroken, and stretches from side to side ; while the Oriskany, the Corniferous, the Hamilton and the Huron formations, though generally re- moved from the crown of the arch, still remain over a limited area near Bellefontaine, where they

form an island, which proves the former continuity of the strata which compose it.

On the east side of the great anticlinal axis, the rocks dip down into a basin, which, for several hundred miles north and south, occupies the inter- val between the Nashville and Cincinnati ridge and the first fold of the Alleghany Mountains. In this basin, all the strata form trough-like layers, their edges outcropping eastward on the flanks of the Alleghanies, and westward along the anti- clinal axis. As they dip from this margin east- ward toward the center of the trough, near its middle, on the eastern border of the State, the older rocks are deeply buried, and the surface is here underlaid by the highest and most recent of our rock formations, the coal measures. In the northwestern corner of the State, the strata dip northwest from the anticlinal and pass under the Michigan coal basin, precisely as the same forma- tions east of the anticlinal dip beneath the Alle- ghany coal-field, of which Ohio's coal area forms a part.

The rocks underlying the State all belong to three of the great groups which geologists have termed " systems," namely, the Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous. Each of these are again sub- divided, for convenience, and numbered. Thus the Silurian system includes the Cincinnati group, the Medina and Clinton groups, the Niagara group, and the Salina and Water-Line groups. The Devonian system includes the Oriskany sand- stone, the Carboniferous limestone, the Hamilton group, the Huron shale and the Erie shales. The Carboniferous system includes the Waverly group, the Carboniferous Conglomerate, the Coal Meas- ures and the Drift. This last includes the surface, and has been divided into six parts, numbering from the lowest, viz .: A glacialed surface, the Gla- cial Drift, the Erie Clays, the Forest Bed, the Ice- berg Drift and the Terraces or Beaches, which mark intervals of stability in the gradual recession of the water surface to its present level.

" The history we may learn from these forma- tions," says the geologist, "is something as fol- lows:

" First. Subsequent to the Tertiary was a period of continual elevation, during which the topog- raphy of the country was much the same as now, the draining streams following the lines they now do, but cutting down their beds until they flowed sometimes two hundred feet lower than they do at present. In the latter part of this period of ele- vation, glaciers, descending from the Canadian

HISTORY OF OHIO.

islands, excavated and occupied the valleys of the great lakes, and covered the lowlands down nearly to the Ohio.

"Second. By a depression of the land and ele- vation of temperature, the glaciers retreated north- ward, leaving, in the interior of the continent, a great basin of fresh water, in which the Erie clays were deposited.

"Third. This water was drained away until a broad land surface was exposed within the drift area. Upon this surface grew forests, largely of red and white cedar, inhabited by the elephant, mastodon, giant beaver and other large, now ex- tinct, animals.

"Fourth. The submergence of this ancient land and the spreading over it, by iceberg agency, of gravel, sand and bowlders, distributed just as ice- bergs now spread their loads broadcast over the sea bottom on the banks of Newfoundland.

" Fifth. The gradual draining-off of the waters, leaving the land now as we find it, smoothly cov- ered with all the layers of the drift, and well pre- pared for human occupation."

" In six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and rested the seventh day," records the Scriptures, and, when all was done, He looked upon the work of His own hands and pronounced it " good." Surely none but a divine, omnipotent hand could have done all this, and none can study the "work of His hands" and not marvel at its completeness.

The ancient dwellers of the Mississippi Valley will always be a subject of great interest to the antiquarian. Who they were, and whence they came, are still unanswered questions, and may remain so for ages. All over this valley, and, in fact, in all parts of the New World, evidences of an ancient civilization exist, whose remains are now a wonder to all. The aboriginal races could throw no light on these questions. They had always seen the remains, and knew not whence they came. Explorations aid but little in the solu- tion of the problem, and only conjecture can be entertained. The remains found in Ohio equal any in the Valley. Indeed, some of them are vast in extent, and consist of forts, fortifications, moats, ditches, elevations and mounds, embracing many acres in extent.

"It is not yet determined," says Col. Charles Whittlesey, "whether we have discovered the first or the original people who occupied the soil of Ohio. Modern investigations are bringing to light evidences of earlier races. Since the presence of

man has been established in Europe as a cotempor- ary of the fossil elephant, mastodon, rhinoceros and the horse, of the later drift or glacial period, we may reasonably anticipate the presence of man in America in that era. Such proofs are already known, but they are not of that conclusive charac- ter which amounts to a demonstration. It is, how- ever, known that an ancient people inhabited Ohio in advance of the red men who were found here, three centuries since, by the Spanish and French explorers.

" Five and six hundred years before the arrival of Columbus," says Col. Charles Whittlesey, "the Northmen sailed from Norway, Iceland and Green- land along the Atlantic coast as far as Long Island. They found Indian tribes, in what is now New En- gland, closely resembling those who lived upon the coast and the St. Lawrence when the French and English came to possess these regions.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 2

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096