History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 31

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 31

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Owing to the peculiar relation of the Reserve to the General Government in early years. the history of its public school fund is exceptional. By the ordi- nanee of Congress in 1785, it was declared that Section 16 of every township should be reserved for the maintenance of public schools in the town- ship. The ordinance of 1787, re-affirmed the policy thus declared. The provisions of these ordi- nances, in this respect, were not applicable to, nor operative over, the region of the Reserve, because of the fact that the United States did not own its soil ; and, although the entire amount paid to . Connecticut by the Land Company for the terri- *Trumbull County then included the whole of the Reserve.

tory of the Reserve was set apart for, and devoted to, the maintenance of public schools in that State, no part of that fund was appropriated to purposes of education here. There was an inequality of advantages between the people of the Reserve and the remainder of the State, in that respect. This inequality was, however, in a measure removed in 1803, by an aet of Congress, which set apart and appropriated to thic Western Reserve, as an equiv- aleut for Section 16, a sufficient quantity of land in the United States Military Distriet, to compen- sate the loss of that section, in the lands lying east of the Cuyahoga. This amount was equal to one- thirty-sixth of the land of the reserve, to which the Indian title had before that time been extin- guished. The Indian title to the lands of the Re- serve west of the Cuyahoga, not then having been extinguished, the matter seemed to drop from public notiee, and remain so until 1829. At this date, the Legislature, in a memorial to Congress, directed its attention to the faet, that, by the treaty of Fort Industry, eoneluded in 1805, the Indian title to the land west of the Cuyahoga, had been relinquished to the United States, and prayed in recognition of the faet, that an additional amount of land lying within the United States Military District, should be set apart for the use of the publie schools of the Reserve, and equal in quan- tity to one thirty-sixth of the territory eeded to the United States by that treaty. The memo- rial produced the desired result. In 1834, Con- gress, in compliance with a request of the Leg- islature, granted such an additional amount of land to the Reserve for school purposes, as to equalize its distribution of lands for such purpose, and in furtheranee of its ob- ject to carry into effeet its determination to donate one thirty-sixth part of the publie domain to the purposes of education. The lands first allotted to the Reserve for such purpose, were sit- uated in the Counties of Holmes and Tusearawas, and in 1831, were surveyed and sold, the proceeds arising from their sale as well as the funds arising from the sale of those subsequently appropri- ated, being placed and invested with other school funds of the State, and constitute one of the sources from which the people of the Reserve derive the means of supporting and maintaining their common schools.

MEDINA COUNTY COURT HOUSE

PART II.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY-PHYSICAL FEATURES-GEOLOGICAL SURVEY *- MATERIAL RESOURCES-AGRI- CULTURAL SYSTEM-IMPROVEMENT IN STOCK, ETC.

T HE relation of the physical features of a country to its history is an important one, and he who would learn the hickden causes that make or mar a nation at its birth must seek in these "the divinity that shapes its ends." Here is found the spring whencc flow the forces that on their broader current wreck the ship of state, or bear it safely on to its appoint- ed haven. In these physical features are stored those potent industrial possibilities that make the master and the slave among the nations. From the fertile soil comes fruit-ladened, peace- loving agriculture ; from the rock-bound stores of mineral wealth springs the rude civilization of the Pacific slope, or the half-savage clashing of undisciplined capital and labor in the mining regions of Pennsylvania ; from the river rises the commercial metropolis, which, " crowned with the glory of the monntains," and fed with the bouuty of the plains, stands the chosen ar- biter between the great forces that join to make a nation's greatness. The influence of this sub- tile power knows no bonnds. Here it spreads the lotus plant of easc, and binds the nation in chains of indolent effeminacy ; here, among the bleak peaks of a sterile land,

" The heather on the mountain height Begins to bloom on purple light,"

*Compiled from the report of Alfred W. Wheat, in the State Geological Survey.

type of a hardy and unconquered race ; here, it strews the sands of desert wilds, and man, with- out resource, becomes a savage.

These manifestations are scarcely less marked in the smaller divisions of the State, and in them is found the natural introduction to a con- sideration of the civil, political and military his- tory of the county.

Medina County is situated a little west of the middle line of the Western Reserve, which forms the northeastern corner of the State, and lies upon the broad summit of the water-shed that divides the drainage of the State. It is bounded on the north by Lorain and Cuyahoga, on the east by Summit, on the south by Wayne, and on the west by Lorain and Ashland Counties. Its form is nearly that of a rectangle, lying east and west. Its northwestern boundary is broken by its wanting one township in the 16th and two in the 17th Range. Its area given by the Auditor's summary of the decennial assess- ment of 1880, is 262,208 acres, of which 101,- 997 acres are arable, 106,381 acres in meadow and pasture land, and 53,630 acres are uncul- tivated or wood land. The average value, ex- clusive of buildings, $25.38 per acre. The whole connty is somewhat rolling, the eastern part being especially marked in this respect. Here it is even hilly, reaching in Wadsworth

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HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

Township an altitude of 700 feet above Lake Erie. The western part is more level, the land in the uorthwesteru parts not having au eleva- tion of more that two hudred and fifty or three hundred feet above the lake. In the western part is found a considerable extent of swamp, a body of some two thousand acres lying in Har- risville Township, which gives rise to the Black River, flowing in a generally northward direc- tion through Lorain County and finding its out- let into Lake Erie at the village of Lorain, in the couuty of that name. The Rocky River, the more important of the streams of this couuty, finds its source in Montville at the foot of the high lands in the southeast part of the township, and, flow- ing in a general northward direction, empties into the lake in Roekport Township, in Cuyahoga County. The drainage southward is through the Killbuck, Chippewa and Styx Creeks, that eventually find an outlet in the Muskingum River, and thence to the Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico. None of these streams reach any importanee within the limits of the county, though ample for the purposes of an agrieult- ural community, and furnish motive power for a few mills. The bulk of the natural drainage is northward, though the few couuty ditches that exist in tlie county find an outlet south- ward. A single lake is formed in the eounty, situated on the boundary line between La Fay- ette and Westfield Townships. This is a pleas- antly situated body of water, aud is made a place of considerable resort by picnic parties, considerable capital having been employed to adapt it to this purpose. It is a mile and a half long, and has been made au outlet for a county diteh. It discharges its water through the Chippewa River.

The soil of the eounty presents considerable diversity-clay, loam, gravelly and sandy mixt- ures and muek being found. The western por- tion is generally clay, but not of the stiff, una- dulterated quality found in many parts of Lor- ain County. In Litehfield and York Townships,

however, which border on this county, the soil is the nearest to that deseribed, the surface be- iug rather flat. In Hinckley Township is found a loamy soil, producing a growth of chestnut, walnut, hiekory and oak timber. In Harrisville Township is found elay, sand and muck.

Bowlder clay is found in many parts of the county, containing mauy pebbles of crystalline rock, granite, quartz, etc., brought from the far North, and more and larger stoncs derived from some neighboring loeality. Of these, the lar- gest bowlder iu Ohio, with possibly one or two exeeptions, may be seeu in a field at the cross- roads one mile and a half from Lodi, and a lit- tle east. This mass of erratic rock is that va- riety of granite known as syenite. The feld- spar is a dark flesh color. It shows two per- pendicular sides, the highest of which measures twelve feet above the sod. One of these sides measures fifteeu feet across the face, and the other is teu and a half feet across. The sloping side rests against a grassy bank, and gives ac- cess to the top of the mass. The depth of the bowlder below the soil cannot be stated ; ap- parently, it is considerable, and perhaps the larger part of it is out of sight. If half of the mass is below ground, as can fairly be inferred, then the weight of the bloek may safely be put at about 165 tons' weight. Two rods dis- tant from this block is auother bowlder of the same character, evidently broken from it. This second bloek is nearly covered with the drift, the exposure being simply one eorner, presenting three triangular surfaces. It pro- jects about seven feet above the sod. Another large mass of this rock lies near the two al- ready described, nearly covered with the drift. The exposure measures ouly three by six feet, though it can be struek with au iron probe some distance from this point. These speci- mens are of especial interest to those who uu- derstand what were the transporting forces which brought these masses so far from their original beds.

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

183

The timber varies noticeably with the change in soil. Chestnut in considerable quantities is found along the ledges and sandy traets in the eastern part, while another quarter is made up of beech, sugar maple, oak and ash. The ten most abundant varieties of timber found in the county are in the following order : Beeeh, ma- ple, oak, elm, ash, whitewood, hickory, bass- wood, black walnut and butternut. Other va- rieties are found, in limited quantities, as fol- lows: Sycamore, ironwood, buckeye, willow and poplar-the first being found generally on the alluvia. lands of the river bottoms.

Glacial markings are showu wherever the rock is exposed and is of such a nature as to retain them. The general trend of the striæe is southeast. A well-marked glaciated surface is shown at the quarry of Henry A. Mills, in Wads- worth Township. The stria run southeast and northwest, the general dip of the glaciated sur- face being nearly ten degrees to the northwest. There is quite an extent of rock exposed along the road, affording an unusually good opportu- nity to see a contiguous, well-marked, glacier- planed surface. There are a few short, single striæ, which strike fifteen degrees more east- wardly, and were, perhaps, made by icebergs suceeeding the glaciers, which made the greater portion of tlie linings. The last-mentioned set are generally far apart, and, usually, but three to four feet long, while the glacial markings proper are continuous throughout the exposure, and are as true as " chalk-lines." There is a fine glaciated surface on the rock exposure in the northeastern part of Medina Township.

The general section of the rocks exposed in the county is as follows :

FEET.

1. Coal measures 100

2. Conglomerate. 135

3. Cuyahoga shale (Waverly group). 250

The record of a boring in Litchfield Town- ship in 1860, by Mr. J. V. Straight, gives the following section :

FT. IN.

1. Clay. 15

2. Shale. 180

3. Hard slate. 2

4. White flint. 2

5. Coal. 2

6. Shale. 1

7. Sandstone 25

Of the above series, No. 1 is drift clay ; Nos. 2 to 6, Cuyahoga shale ; No. 7, Berea grit. No. 5, coal, is not true coal, but either a layer of carbonaceous shale, or a local accumulation of vegetable matter, such as is sometimes met with in the Waverly rocks. In Liverpool Township, a number of wells were bored, for various pur- poses, to a considerable depth, some to a depth of over 500 feet. No reliable record was kept of any of these borings, but, from a general statement, it is learned that the deepest one was put through the sandstone (Berea grit), the Bedford, Cleveland, Erie and Huron shale, some flinty layers (Ham fton), and then 500 feet into limestone (corniferous, water-lime and Niagara) -a total depth of 1,450 feet.

The coal measures reach into the southeast- ern part of the county, and coal No. 1 is worked with profit in three mines which are located in Wadsworth Township. The succession of rocks in this region of the coal measures, according to Mr. Julian Humphrey, the senior partner of the Diamond Coal Company, and a man who has had thirty years' experience in drilling for coal, is as follows :

FT.

1. Drift 20

2. Coarse sandstone 40

3. Dark soft shale 6

4. White clay 4 to 6

5. Gray shale 16

6. Chocolate shale. 16

. 7. Dark shale 16

8. Coal 3 to 5

9. Fire clay 1 to 6

10. Fire stone, " bottom rock."

The last stratum, a quartzose sandstone, was not drilled through, as it is extremely hard.

184

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

The couglomerate is supposed to be below the fire stone. Mr. Coleman has put down some seventy-five drill-holes in this section of the State, and says that this, his ideal section, is always essentially encountered where coal is found. The roof of shales of the Wadsworth coal mines are generally mazes of fossil eoal plants, all pressed into thin sheets and printed upon the shale as distinctly as if photographed. The thickness of the coal is in some eases over five feet, but it is generally thinner, the larger portion of the township affording only thin coal. This coal lies in poekets, and, as it is the lowest in the eoal series of Ohio, and forms the margin of the great eoal basin, it is more irreg- ular than the seams of coal which were depos- ited subsequently. The coal measures extend into Sharon Township, which lies directly north, and borings in the southeast and southwest cor- ners of this township have shown the presence of eoal, though not in quantities to justify min- ing operations. The eoal question has agitated the community of Guilford Township-adjoin- ing Wadsworth on the west -- to a considerable extent, but borings which have been made at several points, have not resulted in finding auy coal.

The carboniferous conglomerate is exposed in seven townships, all in the two eastern tiers save Guilford. But most of this conglomerate regiou shows the Cuyahoga shale of the Waverly group in the deeper ravines ; in fact, the pre- vailing rock in Medina County is of this older division. Some fair building stone is quarried from the conglomerate, but a great proportion of this rock is unfit for building purposes. The character of this rock varies materially in the several places when exposed. Iu general, the pebbles contained in it are quite small, and compose no eonsiderable part of the formation, sand constituting the bulk of the material. The estimated thickuess of this formation in Medina County is 135 feet. This division appears fur- ther west in Brunswick than in any other

township of the county, the extreme limit being about 100 rods west of the uorth and south center road, in the upper part of the township. It is here nearly a pure sandstone, the quartz pebbles being comparatively rare. The produet of the quarries in the rocky ravine two miles north of the center is variable, some of the stone being a fine white grit, while much of it is badly stained with large, dark patehes. In Hinckley Township, the conglomerate is more abundantly exposed than in any other town- ship. Immense perpendicular ledges, haviug curiously worn sides and caves, from which is- sue fine springs of never-failing water, are found here. The observant stroller over thesc extended rocky ledges sees many astonishing passages in the rock, made by the falliug-away of large masses, consequent upon the under- mining of the softer rock below. The small stream running northwardly through the township, was once a powerful wearing tor- rent that filled the valley, iu tlie bottom of which it now so quietly flows. These ledge exposures of the conglomerate are fouud, also, in the perpeudicular bluffs along Spruce Ruu, iu Sharon Township. This rock is found also in the eastern half of Montville. Here, the grains of the rock are about the size of bird shot, with quartz pebbles as large as blue bird's eggs, seattered sparingly through the mass. In Wadsworth, the exposure is fouud one and three-fourths miles south of the eeuter, by thrce- fourths of a mile west. A coarse-grained sand- stoue, loeally a conglomerate, is quarried some- what extensively at a place one mile north of the center of the village. The dip at the quarry as made out at the most northwesterly out- eropping of the ledge is toward the northwest, and would seem to be a local exception to the general dip. This is explicable on the suppo- sition that here was the limit of this deposit, and the slope was naturally to the shore, the dip being in the opposite direction or southeast. The conglomerate overlying the coal would ap-

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

185

pear to be the result of the washing in of peb- bles, derived from the true and older conglom- erate. This rock is quarried to a greater or less extent in Brunswick, Granger, Montville and Wadsworth Townships.

The Waverly series, or the upper division of it, now named Cuyahoga Shale, is the third and oldest group of rocks found in Medina County, the greater portion of the drift being immedi- ately underlaid by this formation, which is ex- posed in a majority of the townships. Roughly estimated, the Cuyahoga shale in this county may be said to have a thiekness of 250 to 300 feet. This group is exceedingly rich in fossils The lithologieal character of the Cuyahoga shale is quite variable, ranging from very soft shale to a hard, argillaceous saudstone. Some of it, by exposure to weather, separates into thin, tough sheets, but the greater part erumbles down into clay. A few beds contain lenticular concretion of lime and iron. The rock is usu- ally of a gray color, but in shade, as well as in composition and hardness, it differs very greatly in sueeessive layers. This roek is quarried for various purposes in Homer, Montville, Harris- ville, Guilford and Medina Townships. The roek in Homer is a soft, gray shale, with inter- spersed layers of hard, sandy shale, of a lighter eolor. The latter is occasionally worked out of the river bed and used for foundation stone for bridges, ete., but it is too hard to be cut well, and long weathering will eause it to dis- integrate or split into thin slabs. Quarrying along the Whetstone Creek, about a mile south- east of Lodi, has been carried on in numerous plaees since 1840. The rock is chiefly an ar- gillaceous sandstone, most of the beds being only a few inches thick, and the thickest not twenty inches. Large crevices run through all the rock, which is badly broken up. One inile west of Bridgeport, the town just aeross the county line in Wayne County, there is a large quarry on the south side of the Killbuek River. At this exposure, the roek lies in thieker beds

than it does along the Whetstone Creek. This rock is also quarried in the ravine of Fall Creek, oue and a half miles east of Seville. Whet- stones and grindstones have been extensively manufactured out of this rock in the northeast corner of Guilford Township, by David Wilson. The grit is coarser but not so sharp as that found in the stone of this group iu Wadsworth. In the latter township, whetstones have been manufactured quite extensively from rock taken from the bed of Mineral Run, on land loeated ou the north border of the township, and 160 rods east of the Guilford line. These stones were mauufactured by Reynolds, Sisler & Com- pany, of Manchester, Summit County, and are known as an "oil and water stone." It was worked into all shapes required by the market, some of it meeting the demands of surgeons and dentists. The three layers of stone found at this loeality vary in fineness and softness, the lower ones being eoarser and harder than the upper one, which was worked principally into hones, ete. The average thickness of the three layers is four inches. In Montville, there is a sandstone quarry, situated about forty rods south of the Medina liue, and east of the La- fayette line about a mile. The stone is unreliable in quality, however, as it often splits into thin sheets after continued weathering. Judge Cas- tle put this stone into the foundation walls of some business blocks in Medina Village, and, in the course of twenty years, it had disintegrated so much that he was obliged to have it replaced with new stone. The quarry at Weymouth af- fords a fine-grained, drab-colored stone, valua- ble for monuments. A slab of this stone, iu the cemetery, at Hinckley, has stood weathering over thirty years, and now appears to be in better condition than a majority of the marble slabs in the same cemetery. This bed of stone is nearly two feet thick, but to be worked out, a large amount of superimposed soft shale has to be removed.

There is no difficulty in getting water for

186

HISTORY OF MEDINA COUNTY.

domestic or other purposes. In some places, wells are sunk to a considerable depth before a permanent supply is seeured, but there are no localities where water cannot be procured by boring. In Brunswick, the wells are generally deep, especially about the eenter. James Wood- ward makes this statement about a well which he dug fifty rods north of the center : Below the alluvium there were twelve feet of yellow clay, and below the yellow clay the well was dug forty-two feet into blue elay, which con- tained a little gravel throughout. This may be called a sample of the wells in this vicinity. In Hinckley Township, there are a number of fine springs ; in Litchfield are several " flowing wells " that afford large, unfailing supplies of good water, and along the border of the princi- pal streams are found these never-failing sources of supply. In the western part of the county gas-springs and wells are frequently found. One in Medina Township, a mile northwest of Weymouth, is the most easterly one discov- cred. In this ease the gas comes from a spring of water which has never been known to freeze over. Another spring of this character is found in the bed of the west branch of Rocky River, three miles north of Medina Village, and west of the turnpike bridge. Similar springs are known in Spencer, Litchfield and Harrisville Townships, but in no ease has this gas been utilized.

The economic geology of Medina County makes no great show. The mineral wealth of the county lies chiefly in coal. Of ironstone there is but little, and that contains only a small per cent of iron, and of lime there is a notable lack. The absence of limestone sig- gested to the residents of Westfield Township the substitution of the marl which is found there in a swamp of some twenty acres. This material is like a whitish clay with minute shells, and when burnt, the lime produced is a shade between the white and gray lime in the markets, but the strength is not nearly equal

to that of ordinary lime. Many of the houses in the township were formerly plastered with this marl lime. No effort has been made to turn this deposit to account as a fertilizer. Peat is found in considerable quantities in this township, over 300 acres being covered with this material. A much larger area, however, of this material is found in Harrisville Town- ship. Here over two thousand aeres are cov- ered with this material. One-half of this terri- tory has the deposit not over eighteen inches deep, the underlying clay being heavy, yet light colored. The average depth of the peat on 1,000 acres is about five feet. This large deposit of peat has as yet no economic value, but the time may come when such material may be worth the preparing for fuel. Salt is indicated in the wells and springs which are found on a narrow belt of land running west- wardly, and about eighty rods north of the cen- ter road of Spencer Township. The percent- age of salt in the water is small, yet it was enough to interfere with the working of a steam boiler, producing saline incrustations upon it. Salt licks are known in the township along this belt of salt territory and in Harris- ville Township also.

The discovery of coal oil in neighboring parts of Lorain County set parties at work boring for oil in Litchfield Township in 1860. Some 225 feet was penetrated and oil brought up by pumping, but not in any great amount. During the drilling gas escaped with a clear whistling sound, and when set on fire it blazed up from twenty to thirty feet, the ontlet being eight inches square. There are three other similar gas-springs in the township, of which, however, no use is made. In Liverpool Town- ship, the search for petroleum was somewhat more successful, though failing to warrant the expense of prospecting. Nine of the wells bored yielded small quantities of oil; two others failed to afford any. Some wells which were sunk only 100 feet "struck oil." One

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History of Medina county and Ohio, Part 31

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