History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 24

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Ohio > Medina County > History of Medina county and Ohio > Part 24

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The aggregate amount of grain and potatoes- farinaceous food, produced in Ohio in 1870 was 134,938,113 bushels, and in 1874, there were 157,- 323,597 bushels, being the largest aggregate amount raised in any State but one, Illinois, and larger per square mile than Illinois or any other State in the country. The promises of nature were thus vindicated by the labor of man ; and the industry of Ohio has fulfilled its whole duty to the susteuance of the country and the world. She has raised more graiu than ten of the old States together, and more than half raised by Great Britain or by France. I have not the recent statistics of Europe, but McGregor, in his statistics of nations for 1832-a period of pro- found peace-gives the following ratios for the leading countries of Europe: Great Britain, area 120,324 miles; amount of grain, 262,500,000 bushels; rate per square mile, 2,190 to 1; Austria-area 258,603 miles ; amount of grain, 366,800,000 bushels ; rate per square mile, 1,422 to 1; France-area 215,858 miles ; amount of grain, 233,847,300 bushels ; rate per square mile, 1,080 to 1. The State of Ohio-arca per square miles, 40,000; amount of grain, 150,000,000 bushels ; rate per square uile, 3,750. Combining the great countries of Great Britain, Austria, and France, we find that they had 594,785 square miles and produced 863,147,300 bushels of grain, which was, at the time these statistics were taken, 1,450 bushels per square mile, and ten bushels to each one of the population. Ohio, on the other hand, had 3,750 bushels per square uile, and fifty bushels to each one of the population ; that is, there was five times as much grain raised in Ohio, in proportion to the people, as in these great countries of Europe.

As letters make words, and words express ideas, so these dry figures of statistics express facts, and these facts make the whole history of civilization.

Let us now look at the statistics of domestic animals. These are always indicative of the state of society in regard to the physical comforts. The horse must furnish domestic conveyances; the cattle must furnish the products of the dairy, as well as meat, and the sheep must furnish wool.

Let us see how Ohio compares with other States and with Europe: In 1870, Ohio had 8,818,000 domestic animals; Illinois, 6,925,000 ; New York, 5,283,000; Pennsylvania, 4,493,000; and other States less. The proportion to population in tliese States was, in Ohio, to each person, 3.3; Illinois, 2.7; New York, 1.2; Pennsylvania, 1.2.

Let us now see the proportion of domestic ani- mals in Europe. The results given by McGregor's statisties are : In Great Britain, to each person, 2.44; Russia, 2.00; France, 1.50 ; Prussia, 1.02; Austria, 1.00. It will be seen that the proportion in Great Britain is only two-thirds that of Ohio; in France, only one-half; and in Austria and Prussia only one-third. It may be said that, in the course of civilization, the number of animals diminishes as the density of population increases ; and, therefore, this result might have been ex- pected in the old countries of Europe. But this does not apply to Russia or Germany, still less to other States in this country. Russia in Europe has not more than half the density of population now in Ohio. Austria and Prussia have less than 150 to the square mile. The whole of the north of Europe has not so dense a population as the State of Ohio, still less have the States of Illinois and Missouri, west of Ohio. Then, therefore, Ohio showing a larger proportion of domestic aui- mals than the north of Europe, or States west of her, with a population not so dense, we see at once there must be other causes to produce such a phenomenon.

Looking to some of the incidental results of this vast agricultural production, we see that the United States exports to Europe immense amounts of grain and provisions ; and that there is manufact- ured in this country an immense amount of woolen goods. Then, taking these statistics of the raw material, we find that Ohio produces one-fifth of all the wool ; one-seventh of all the cheese; one- eighth of all the corn, and one-tenth of all the wheat ; and yet Ohio has but a fourteenth part of the population, and one-eightieth part of the sur- face of this country.

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Let us take another-a eommereial view of this matter. We have seen that Ohio raises five times as much grain per square mile as is raised per square mile in the empires of Great Britain, France and Austria, taken together. After making allow- ance for the differences of living, in the working elasses of this country, at least two-thirds of the food and grain of Ohio are a surplus beyond the necessities of life, and, therefore, so much in the commercial balance of exports. This eorresponds with the fact, that, in the shape of grain, meat, liquors and dairy products, this vast surplus is con- stantly moved to the Atlantic States and to Europe. The money value of this exported produet is equal to $100,000,000 per annum, and to a solid capital of $1,500,000,000, after all the sustenance of the people has been taken out of the annual erop.

We are speaking of agriculture alone. We are speaking of a State which began its eareer more than a quarter of a ecntury after the Declaration of Independence was made. And now, it may be asked, what is the real cause of this extraordinary result, which, without saying anything invidious of other States, we may safely say has never been surpassed iu any country ? We have already stated two of the advantages possessed by Ohio. The first is that it is a compaet, unbroken body of arable land, surrounded and intersected by water- courses, equal to all the demands of commerce and navigation. Next, that it was secured forever to freedom and intelligenee by the ordinanee of 1787. The intelligence of its future people was sceured by immense grants of publie lands for the purpose of education; but neither the blessings of nature, nor the wisdom of laws, could obtain sueh results without the continuous labor of an intelligent people. Such it had, and we have only to take the testimony of Washington, already quoted, and the statistical results I have given, to prove that no people has exhibited more steady industry, nor has any people directed their labor with more in- telligenee.

After the agricultural eapaeity and production of a country, its most important physical feature is its mineral products; its capacity for eoal and iron, the two great clements of material civiliza- tion. If we were to take away from Great Britain her eapacity to produce coal in sueh vast quanti- ties, we should reduce her to a third-rate position, no longer numbered among the great nations of the earth. Coal has smelted her iron, run her steam engines, and is the basis of her manufactures. But when we compare the coal fields of Great

Britain with those of this country, they are insig- nificant. The coal fields of all Europe are small compared with those of the eentral United States. The eoal distriet of Durham and Northumberland, in England, is only 880 square miles. There are other districts of smaller extent, making in the whole probably one-half the extent of that in Ohio. The English coal-beds are represented as more important, in reference to extent, on account of their thickness. There is a small coal distriet in Lancashire, where the workable coal-beds are in all 150 feet in thickness. But this involves, as is well known, the necessity of going to immense depths and ineurring immense expense. On the other hand, the workable eoal-beds of Ohio are near the surface, and some of them require no ex- eavating, exeept that of the horizontal lead from the mine to the river or the railroad. In one eounty of Ohio there are three beds of twelve, six and four feet each, within fifty feet of the surface. At some of the mines having the best coal, the lead from the mines is nearly horizontal, and just high enough to dump the coal into the railroad cars. These coals are of all qualities, from that adapted to the domestie fire to the very best qual- ity for smelting or manufacturing iron. Recollect- ing these facts, let us try to get an idea of the coal district of Ohio. The bituminous eoal region de- escending the western slopes of the Alleghanies, occupies large portions of Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. I suppose that this coal field is not less than fifty thousand square miles, exclusive of Western Mary- land and the southern terminations of that field in Georgia and Alabama. Of this vast field of eoal, cxeeeding anything found in Europe, about one- fifth part lies in Ohio. Prof. Mather, in his report on the geology of the State (first Geologi- eal Report of the State) says:

" The coal-measures within Ohio oeeupy a spaee of about one hundred and eighty miles in length by eighty in breadth at the widest part, with an area of about ten thousand square miles, extending along the Ohio from Trumbull County in the north to near the mouth of the Scioto in the south. The regularity in the dip, and the moderate incli- nation of the strata, afford facilities to the mines not known to those of most other countries, espe- cially Great Britain, where the strata in which the eoal is imbedded have been broken and thrown out of plaee since its deposit, oeeasioning many slips and faults, and causing mueh labor and expense in again recovering the bed. In Ohio there is very

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little difficulty of this kind, the faults being small and seldom found."

Now, taking into consideration these geological facts, let us look at the extent of the Ohio coal field. It occupies, wholly or in part, thirty-six counties, including, geographically, 14,000 square miles ; but leaving out fractions, and reducing the Ohio coal field within its narrowest limits, it is 10,000 square miles in extent, lies near the surface, and has on an average twenty feet thickness of work- able coal-beds. Let us compare this with the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland (England), the largest and best coal mines there. That coal district is estimated at 850 square miles, twelve feet thick, and is calculated to contain 9,000,000,- 000 tons of coal. The coal field of Ohio is twelve times larger and one-third thicker. Estimated by that standard, the coal field of Ohio contains 180,- 000,000,000 tons of coal. Marketed at only $2 per ton, this coal is worth $360,000,000,000, or, in other words, ten times as much as the whole valuation of the United States at the present time. But we need not undertake to estimate either its quantity or value. It is enough to say that it is a quantity which we can scarcely imagine, which is tenfold that of England, and which is enough to supply the entire continent for ages to conie.

After coal, iron is beyond doubt the most val- uable mineral product of a State. As the mate- rial of manufacture, it is the most important. What are called the " precious metals " are not to be compared with it as an clement of industry or profit. But since no manufactures ean be success- fully carried on without fuel, coal becomes the first material element of the arts. Iron is unquestion- ably the next. Ohio has an iron distriet extending from the mouth of the Scioto River to some point north of the Mahoning River, in Trumbull County. The whole length is nearly two hundred miles, and the breadth twenty miles, making, as near as we can asecrtain, 4,000 square miles. The iron in this dis- trict is of various qualities, and is manufactured largely into bars and castings. In this iron dis- trict are one hundred furnaces, forty-four rolling- mills, and fifteen rail-mills, being the largest num- ber of either in any State in the Union, except only Pennsylvania.

Although only the sevent eenth State in its admis- sion, I find that, by the census statistics of 1870, it is the third State in the production of iron and iron manufactures. Already, and within the life of one man, this State begins to show what must in future time be the vast results of coal and iron,

applied to the arts and manufactures. In the year 1874, there were 420,000 tons of pig iron produced in Ohio, which is larger than the prod- uct of any State, except Pennsylvania. The product and the manufacture of iron in Ohio have increased so rapidly, and the basis for increase is so great, that we may not doubt that Ohio will continue to be the greatest producer of iron and iron fabrics, except only Pennsylvania. At Cincinnati, the iron manufacture of the Ohio Valley is concentrating, and at Cleveland the ores of Lake Superior are being smelted.

After coal and iron, we may place salt among the necessaries of life. In connection with the coal region west of the Alleghanies, there lies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, a large space of country underlaid by the salt rock, which already produces immense amounts of salt. Of this, Ohio has its full proportion. In a large section of the southeastern portion of the State, salt is produced without any known limitation. At Pomeroy and other points, the salt rock lies abont one thousand feet below the surface, but salt water is brought easily to the surface by the steam engine. There, the salt roek, the coal seam, and the noble sandstone lie in successive strata, while the green corn and the yellow wlieat bloom on the surface above. The State of Ohio produced, in 1874, 3,500,000 bushels of salt, being one-fifth of all produced in the United States. The salt seetion of Ohio is exceeded only by that of Syracuse, New York, and of Saginaw, Michigan. There is no definite limit to the underlying salt roek of Ohio, and, therefore, the production will be proportioned only to the extent of the demand.

Having now considered the resources and the products of the soil and the mines of Ohio, we may properly ask how far the people have employed their resources in the increase of art and manu- facture. We have two modes of comparison, the rate of increase within the State, and the ratio they bear to other States. The aggregate value of the products of manufacture, exelusive of mining, in the last three censuses were: in 1850, $62.692.000; in 1860, $121,691,000; in 1870, $269,713,000.

The ratio of increase was over 100 per cent in each ten years, a rate far beyond that of the in- erease of population, and nucli beyond the ratio of increase in the whole country. In 1850, the man- ufactures of Ohio were one-sixteenth part of the aggregate in the country ; in 1860, one-fifteenth

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part; in 1870, one-twelfth part. In addition to this, we find, from the returns of Cincinnati and Cleveland, that the value of the manufactured prod- uets of Ohio in 1875, must have reached $400,- 000,000, and, by reference to the eensus tables, it will be seen that the ratio of inerease exceeded that of the great manufacturing States of New York, Massachusetts and Connectieut. Of all the States admitted into the Union prior to Ohio, Pennsylvania alone has kept pace in the progress of manufacture. Some little reference to the manufacture of leading articles may throw some light on the eause of this. In the production of agricultural machinery and implements, Ohio is the first State ; in animal and vegetable oils and in pig iron, the second; in east iron and in tobaceo, the third ; in salt, in machinery and in leather, the fourth. These faets show how largely the resources of coal, iron and agriculture have entered into the manufactures of the State. This great advance in the manufactures of Ohio, when we consider that this State is, relatively to its surface, the first agricultural State in the country, leads to the inevitable inferenee that its people are remarkably industrious. When, on forty thousand square miles of surface, three mill- ions of people raise one hundred and fifty million bushels of grain, and produce manufactures to the amount of $269,000,000 (which is fifty bushels of breadstuff to each man, woman and child, and $133 of manufacture), it will be difficult to find any community surpassing such results. It is a testimony, not only to the State of Ohio, but to the industry, sagaeity and energy of the American people.

Looking now to the eommeree of the State, we have said there are six hundred miles of coast line, which embraces some of the principal internal ports of the Ohio and the lakes, such as Cineinnati, Cleve- land, Toledo and Portsmouth, but whose eommeree is most wholly inland. Of course, no comparison can be made with the foreign commerce of the ocean ports. On the other hand, it is well known that the inland trade of the country far exceeds that of all its foreign commerce, and that the larg- est part of this interior trade is carried on its rivers and lakes. The materials for the vast eon- sumption of the interior must be conveyed in its vessels, whether of sail or steam, adapted to these waters. Let us take, then, the ship-building, the navigation, and the exchange trades of Ohio, as elements in determining the position of this State in reference to the commeree of the country. At the ports of Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky and Ciu-

cinnati, there have been built one thousand sail and. steam vessels in the last twenty years, making an average of fifty each year. The number of sail, steam and all kinds of vessels in Ohio is eleven. hundred and ninety, which is equal to the number in all the other States in the Ohio Valley and the Upper Mississippi.

When we look to the navigable points to which these vessels are destined, we find them on all this vast coast line, whielt extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Yellowstone, and from Duluth to the St. Lawrence.

Looking again to see the extent of this vast in- terior trade which is handled by Ohio alone, we find that the imports and exports of the principal: artieles of Cineinnati, amount in value to $500,- 000,000; and when we look at the great trade of Cleveland and Toledo, we shall find that the an- nual trade of Ohio exceeds $700,000,000. The lines of railroad which conneet with its ports, are more than four thousand miles in length, or rather. more than oue mile in length to each ten square miles of surface. This great amount of railroads is engaged not merely in transporting to the Atlantie and thenee to Europe, the immense surplus grain, and meat in Ohio, but in carrying the largest part. of that greater surplus, which exists in the States. west of Ohio, the granary of the West. Ohio. holds the gateway of every railroad north of the Ohio, from the Mississippi to the Atlantie, and hence it is that the great transit lines of the eoun- try pass through Ohio.

Let us now turn from the progress of the arts to the progress of ideas; from material to intelleet- ual development. It is said that a State consists of men, and history shows that no art or scienee, wealth or power, will compensate for the want. of. moral or intellectual stability in the minds of a nation. Henee, it is admitted that the strength and perpetuity of our republie must eonsist in the intelligence and morality of the people. A re- publie ean last only when the people are enlight- ened. This was an axiom with the early legislators. of this country. Hence it was that when Vir- ginia, Connectieut and the original colonies eeded- to the General Government that vast and then un- known wilderness which lay west of the Allegha- nies, in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, they. took eare that its future inhabitants should be an educated people. The Constitution was not formed when the celebrated ordinanee of 1787 was passed.

That ordinanee provided that, " Religion, mor- ality, and knowledge being necessary to good

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government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever en- couraged;" and by the ordinance of 1785 for the survey of publie lands in the Northwestern Terri- tory, Section 16 in each township, that is, one thirty-sixth part, was reserved for the maintenance of public schools iu said townships. As the State of Ohio contained a little more than twenty-five millions of aeres, this, together with two special grants of three townships to universities. amounted to the dedication of 740,000 aeres of laud to the luaintenance of schools and colleges. It was a splendid endowment, but it was many years before it beeame available. It was sixteen years after the passage of this ordinance (in 1803), when Ohio entered the Union, and legislation upon this grant beeame possible. The Constitution of the State pursued the language of the ordinance, and de- clared that "schools and the means of educatiou shall forever beencouraged by legislative provision." The Governors of Ohio, iu successive messages, urged attention to this subjeet upon the people; but the thinness of settlement, making it impossi- ble, except in few districts, to collect youth in suf- fieient numbers, and impossible to sell or lease lands to advantage, caused the delay of efficient school system for many years. In 1825, however, a general law establishing a school system, and levy- ing a tax for its support, was passed.

This was again eularged and inereased by new legislation in 1836 and 1846. From that time to this, Ohio has had a broad, liberal and efficient sys- tem of public iustruction. The taxation for schools, and the number enrolled iu them at different pe- riods, will best show what has been done. In 1855 the total taxation for school purposes was $2,672,827. The proportion of youth of school- able age enrolled was 67 per cent. In 1874 the amount raised by taxation was $7,425,135. The number enrolled of schoolable age was 70 per cent, or 707,943.

As the schoolable age extends to twenty-one years, and as there are very few youth in school after fifteen years of age, it follows that the 70 per cent of schoolable youths enrolled in the pub- lie sehools must comprehend nearly the whole number between four and fifteen years. It is im- portant to observe this fact, because it has been inferred that, as the whole number of youth be- tween five and twenty-one have not been enrolled, therefore they are not educated. This is a mistake; ucarly all over fifteen years of age have been in the public schools, and all the native

youth of the State, and all foreign boru, young enough, have had the benefit of the public schools. But iu consequence of the large number who have come from other States and from foreign countries, there are still a few who arc classed by the census statistics among the "illiterate;" the proportion of this class, however, is less in propor- tiou thau in twenty-eight other States, and less in proportion than in Connecticut aud Massachusetts, two of the oldest States most noted for popular education. In fact, every youth in Ohio, under twenty-one years of age, may have the benefit of a publie education ; and, since the system of graded and high schools has been adopted, may obtain a common kuowledge from the alphabet to the classics. The enumerated branches of study in the pub- lic schools of Ohio are thirty-four, including mathematics and astronomy, French, German and the classics. Thus the State which was in the heart of the wilderness in 1776, and was not a State until the nineteenth century had begun, now presents to the world, not merely an unrivaled de- velopmeut of material prosperity, but an unsnr- passed system of popular education.

Iu what is called the higher education, in the colleges and universities, embracing the classics and sciences taught in regular classes, it is the pop- ular idea, and one which few dare to question, that we must look to the Eastern States for superiority and excellence; but that also is becoming an as- sumption without proof; a proposition difficult to sustain. The facts in regard to the education of universities and colleges, their faculties, students and course of instruction, arc all set forth in the complete statistics of the Bureau of Education for 1874. They show that the State of Ohio had the largest number of such institutions; the largest number of instructors in their faculties, except one State, New York; and the largest number of stu- dents in regular college classes, in proportion to their population, except the two States of Connect- ieut and Massachusetts. Perhaps, if we look at the statistics of classical students in the colleges, disregarding preparatory and irregular courses, we shall get a more accurate idea of the progress of the higher education in those States which claim the best. In Ohio, 36 colleges, 258 teachers, 2,139 students, proportion, 1 in 124; in Penn- sylvania, 27 colleges, 239 teachers, 2,359 students, proportion, 1 in 150; in New York, 26 colleges, 343 teachers, 2,764 students, proportion, 1 in 176; in the six New England States, 17 colleges, 252 teach- ers, 3,341 studeuts, proportion, 1 in 105; in Illi-

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HISTORY OF OHIO.

nois, 24 colleges, 219 teachers, 1,701 students, proportion, 1 in 140.

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 24

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Battle, J. H; Goodspeed, Weston Arthur, 1852-1926; Baskin & Battey. Chicago. pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1014