USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; from the glacial period to the present time > Part 3
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formed its last fiendish act, and removed the trophy of his crime from the head of the slain.
The stature of the Indian was about that of the ordinary European. He was lithe but not strong; his carriage was erect and graceful. His head was strikingly square; forehead flat; cheek-bones prominent; eyes deep-set and black; skin dark brown; hair glossy black and wavy, resembling the mane of a horse; beard scant. The women were slightly smaller than the men, and in youth, the emblem of symmetry and grace. In age, they inclined to obesity. The expression of the Indian was sinister and grave. A smile seldom played upon his countenance. A noble expression was seen rarely. The coun- tenance of the orator in his address presented the feelings and emotions he gave vent to, in almost as striking and intelligent a manner as the words he used. Scholars who could not un- derstand a single word spoken, entered into the spirit of his addresses, drawn only by the fascin- ating expressions of his countenance.
The language of the Indian was very imper- fect. While his thoughts were laden with elo- quence, and his heart throbbed with a depth of feeling unknown to the volatile passions of other barbaric nations, yet his power to express them was limited.
What language he had was compact and full
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of meaning. With him a single word consti- tuted a phrase or even a sentence. By the use of a limited number of words, he was enabled to express quite a variety of actions. When he attempted to express one abstract thought, he could only express it indefinitely by a labored circumlocution of words. He had no science and no technical language. His language was too barren to give expression to the finer shades of thought, or color to his solitary dreams.
The Indian language is divided into many dialects, which, while they bear a common rela- tion to each other, have no connection, either in mode of construction or similarity of words, to any of the known Asiatic or European lan- guages. From what is known, it would seem that the primitive inhabitants of America are as distinct from other races of men as the fauna or flora of the continent.
The words were monosyllables, but several were often joined together forming one word, to express abstract or difficult ideas. In a la- bored effort to express an abstract idea or a diffi- cult concrete description for which he had no word, his words were drawn out to an inordinate length. In this, his language resembles that of some nomadic tribes of northern Asia. The In- dian had no alphabet. His writing consisted of hieroglyphics worn in the surface of the rock, or
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carved in the bark of trees. The study of the Indian language does not present to the student the interesting field that is usually found in the study of the language of a people. The noble thoughts and beautiful visions of the orator and poet are not preserved in the recesses of his lan- guage. The language itself, having taken no form except that of the waves of air, has van- ished.
The Indian women were husbandmen. Un- aided by domestic animals, they prepared fields, planted and cultivated corn. The implements used by them were very simple and rude. In the autumn they gathered the corn into piles, and during the winter they made meal by pounding it in a rude stone mortar. If the Indian's corn was destroyed, he subsisted on meat alone. Mili- tary expeditions were prosecuted against the Shawnees and Miamis for the purpose of de- stroying their villages and cornfields. The de- struction of both submitted him to but little in- convenience. He could build a village in a night. Inflamed by his passion for war, the richest heritage left him by his ancestors, he could subsist for months upon meat alone. The Indian woman was a slave, a mere drudge. She was obedient and never grumbled, and strange to say, talked but little. If the squaw was not agreeable, the Indian discharged her and chose
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another one. The Indian was constant, and possessed a high degree of martial virtue. Acts of inconstancy that go unpunished by our law, were felonies with the Indians.
The Indian rarely engaged in any kind of sports. Their dance was not a social gathering, but a savage ceremony of religion and war. In their war dances, they portrayed the cruelty and torture of savage warfare. A chief took his place in the center of the assembly and began beating time. The warriors rose to their feet, one by one, until the entire assembly were en- gaged in the ceremony. They would throw their bodies into hideous contortions, and added to the barbarous effect by the hideous expressions on their countenances. Throughout the stamp- ing and writhing they kept up a continual whooping. In the execution of the war dance, the Indian did not handle the one who played the part of the captive, with much gentility. He was fortunate if he escaped with his life. The religious dances were grave and melancholy. The men and women danced around the chief or medicine man who beat time in the center of the circle. The young men led often in the dance, followed by the old men of the tribe, and they in turn by the women and children. There was no music connected with the dance. In fact, the Indians had no musical instruments,
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with the exception of a kind of a drum made from skins of animals.
In religion the Indian was superstitious and sincere. They held to their religious creeds and sacred rites with unswerving faith. Their re- ligion did not impose upon them the duty of love and gratitude that is enjoined by the religion of civilized people. It held out to those who obeyed its injunctions, as promulgated by the perverted conscience of a savage, a future life. He termed his future home "The Happy Hunt- ing Ground," and his God was the "Great Spirit." They were Deists, and never wandered into the ways of idolatry. The six nations to this day, meet annually on their reservations in New York, and perform their sacred rites. It was a custom with them, when any of the tribe became sick to isolate the patient, where, with a nurse whose chief business was to see that he passed to the "Happy Hunting Ground" with dispatch, he remained until his spirit fled. After death, his body was brought to camp, and a funeral, at which all the members of the tribe were welcome, was given him. The friends of the deceased placed tributes of food upon the grave to nourish the spirit on its journey. Other useful articles were often left upon the grave, and strange to say, the Great Spirit, or some
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prowling Indian never failed to appropriate them.
The Indian was intemperate in everything he did. His passions were so strong, and his will so comparatively weak, that his appetite and passions held complete control over all his ac- tions. He was intemperate in war; intemper- ate in peace. When in company with the kin- dred of his tribe, rather than engage in profli- gate conversation, he lighted his pipe, and seated upon the floor of his wigwam, mused with the circling rings of smoke that painted visions for his solace. He smoked to excess, weakening his body and enfeebling his will. His excessive use of tobacco had much to do with his peculiar for- mation of character.
His eloquence, the depth of his emotions, in- tellectual superiority, sedate and unsocial de- meanor, when uninfluenced by passions, indicate that he is the degenerate offspring of a once noble race. Europeans, when in company with the Indians, quickly assimilated with his char- acter. Whites, after remaining in Indian cap- tivity for a time, often became so attached to the Indian character that they refused to return to civilization. It is an easy matter for a white man to become an Indian, but an Indian never becomes a white man.
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The introduction of intoxicants among the Indians, offered another opportunity and pre- sented another temptation to indulge his exces- sive appetite. In the use of intoxicants, as in all other things, he was intemperate. It was impossible for him to deny himself his "whisk," if it were in the neighborhood. His passion for revenge, quickened by drunkenness, made him a fiend. When under the influence of liquor, his passions burned with an unquenchable flame. He became a terror to all who saw him. The amount he drank was not measured by what he could hold, but by what he could get. He would finish it if it occupied the remainder of his life. No race was ever given up so completely to drunkenness as the American Indian.
Two great families occupied the state of Ohio. The Huron-Iroquois occupied the terri- tory south of the lake extending almost to the Ohio river. The Algonquin family occupied the western part of the state and a narrow strip of country along the Ohio river extending to the mouth of the Muskingum. These families were divided into numerous tribes which at different times formed strong confederacies. Their con- federacies, as well as their governments, rested only upon the common consent of the warriors and chiefs, and were composed of a people who hated even the appearance of authority. The
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confederacies grew out of what they deemed their necessities, and as soon as their mutual necessi- ties ceased to require united action, their con- federacies crumbled.
The confederacy consisting of the six Iro- quois nations, namely, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Tuscarawas, Cayugas and Senecas, was the most durable. These nations were in- habitants of New York and Pennsylvania, but in their retreat to the west they became sojourn- ers in the territory now comprising the state of Ohio, and consequently, they are a part of the state's history. They presented the Indian character in its best light; were social and kind to the whites, although they felt keenly the loss of their hunting grounds.
They made treaties with the whites whom they respected more than the whites respected them. They also assisted the whites in making peace with the warlike nations in the west.
The Algonquins, living to the south and west of the Iroquois, were more powerful and more brutal. In 1763 the Algonquin tribes formed a confederacy for the purpose of destroying the English traders west of the Alleghanies. The confederacy was planned and consummated by the sagacious chief Pontiac, and was the first Great Northwestern Confederacy. It consisted of the Ottawa, Potawatamie, Miami, Chippewa,
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoo, Onantanon and Pinankashaw tribes, and was able to muster an army of 8,950 warriors. The consummate skill with which Pontiac layed and executed his plans shows him to have been the peer, intellectually, of the leading men of his time.
The second confederacy, formed under the leadership of Brandt, was no less formidable. In this confederacy the Six Nations were also joined. This confederacy was formed during the Revolution, and was continued, after its close, by Little Turtle. The third confederacy was formed by the able and venerated chief, Tecumseh, during the war of 1812.
The Indians had learned to love the French traders, as the Jesuit missionaries had been among them and taught them lessons of peace. The French made no attempts to form settle- ments among them, or to deprive them of their lands; they simply carried on a fur trade that was profitable to the Indians as well as to them- selves. The French traders intermarried with the Indians and, in a measure, became a part of them. The ties of kindness and the mutual in- terests between the French trader and the In- dian warrior, cemented a friendship that had grown up between them. The French furnished them arms and ammunition in exchange for the
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rich furs from the animals of the forest. The Indian looked with a jealous eye upon the Eng- lish settlers which were slowly moving westward and depriving them of their hunting grounds. They were slow to exchange the French trader for the English exterminator.
Pontiac saw the future of his race. Saw his people decline, and the forests of the fathers swept away by the industry of the English. He resolved to make an effort, worthy of as great a chief as he was, to resist the onward march of civilization. He determined to exterminate in a single night all the English traders that had been presumptuous enough to enter the country west of the Alleghany mountains. The confed- eracy was consummated in secrecy. The In- dians collected at all the northwestern forts on that fatal night on the pretense of trading. After massacreing all the English traders in their villages they made a simultaneous attack upon the forts and were in a great measure suc- cessful. The task undertaken by Pontiac and his warriors was one which God alone could ac- complish, and to-day civilization with her grand and solemn tread is still marching on over the graves of this fallen race.
Chapter IV
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GEOLOGY OF OHIO
T HE surface of Ohio, though more appro- priately discussed under the head of geography, consists of an undulating plain with its highest elevation (1550 feet) near Bellefontaine, in Logan county. The south- eastern portion of the State, though badly broken by erosion, still contains numerous ridges which are fragments of the old plain. The relief forms to be seen at the present day, are the result of valleys carved out of the original plain.
The most important feature in the topogra- phy of Ohio, is the great watershed extending from the northeastern corner of the state to about the middle of the western boundary. The state is thus divided into two unequal slopes which are drained into the Atlantic ocean. The northern slope, which is much the smaller, is drained through Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence river, while the southern is drained through the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The average eleva- tion of this watershed is little more than a thou- sand feet, being greatly reduced by three gaps cut by the Tuscarawas, Scioto and Maumee riv- ers, respectively.
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
The canals which formerly occupied these gaps, have in a great measure given place to the railways, which play such an important part in the vast commercial interests of the state. In each river system of the state there is one main trough which is deepened and broadened as the stream advances, and its tributaries form count- · less valleys which in turn are fed from smaller streams and brooks. Most of the rivers, throughout their entire course, flow either north or south down one of the main slopes. Occa- sionally a smaller river will flow for a number of miles against the main slope, causing a crooked and sluggish stream. Examples of these are Wills creek, which flows into the Mus- kingum, and Connotton creek, a tributary of the Tuscarawas.
The rock series of Ohio throughout its entire extent, are formed of stratified deposits, with the exception of a few granite boulders in the glacial drift, but no igneous or metamorphic rocks are found. The surface rocks, as well as the base, are 'of oceanic formation, and no evi- dence is found that they have ever been subjected to excessive heat. On the other hand, they show unmistakable evidence of being in exactly the same condition in which they were formed. The countless remains of animals found in the rocks give positive evidence that they are of marine
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GEOLOGY OF OHIO.
formation. The water in which these rocks were formed, was no doubt a continuation of the Gulf of Mexico, which must have extended as far north as the Great Lakes.
When the rocks were lifted above the sea under which they were formed, they were left in a horizontal position with about the same eleva- tion. No folds, or faults, are found in the un- derlying rocks, and no pronounced anticlines or synclines are discernable, except the Cincinnati anticline. The time required in the formation of these rocks must have included countless ages, and the few thousand years of human history would make no noticeable change in them.
The earth's crust, within the boundaries of Ohio, has only been penetrated to a depth of five thousand feet, and the quartz rock, which is known to exist deeper, has not yet been reached. The lowest strata that has been examined, is the Trenton limestone. It is one of the most important formations of the continent, and ex- tends from the New England states to the Rocky mountains, and from Hudson Bay to the south- ern extremity of the Alleghany mountains. In various regions of the state it is exposed in out- crops, and in its decaying condition forms a fer- tile and productive soil. The Trenton limestone varies in color from a dark blue to a light gray- ish-blue, and is invariably covered with about
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
three hundred feet of Utica shale. £ composition in general is :
Its chemical
Carbonate of lime 75 to 85%
Carbonate of magnecia 1 to 5%
Alumina and oxide of iron 2 to 8%
Insoluble residue
10 to 15%
In some localities, as at Findlay, it is por- ous and forms vast reservoirs which are filled with oil and gas.
The black shale covering the Trenton lime- stone in northern Ohio has a uniform thickness of about three hundred feet, and contains char- acteristic fossils showing it to be the Utica shale of New York. In the deep wells of central and northern Ohio, the Utica shale is ever present, but farther south it thins rapidly, and as it ap- proaches the Ohio valley it is entirely replaced by the Hudson shale.
The Berea Grit, the second element in the Waverly group, is by far the most important strata in the geology of Ohio. Above ground it is very valuable, being the finest building stone in the state, and is also the finest grindstone material in the United States. Its greatest value, however, is below the surface where it is a repository for vast quantities of petroleum, salt-water and gas. It was first discovered in Cuyahoga county near Berea, where the largest quarries are located at present. It ranges in
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GEOLOGY OF OHIO.
thickness from five feet to one hundred and sev- enty feet, and covers an area of about fifteen thousand square miles. In central and northern Ohio, its grain is medium in size, while in the southern portion of the state, its grain is very fine. It represents an old-time shore line, being fringed with ripple-marked edges, and in some places worm-borrowed portions are found. It is the most important oil rock of the Macksburgh field, and is also the gas rock of Wellsburgh and the Ohio valley.
The Berea Grit is covered with a black shale from fifteen to fifty feet thick, and is named from the rock it covers. This Berea shale is rich in fossils and bituminous substances, and is in itself a source of petroleum on a small scale, and contributes an invaluable guide in submarine geology.
The bituminous coal deposits of Ohio cover an area of ten thousand square miles, and rank second in the production of coal in the United States, being surpassed by Pennsylvania alone. In the entire southeastern portion of the state, coal is found at a slight depth, and outcroppings of coal are frequent. The veins are approxi- mately horizontal and have about the same ele- vation. The average thickness of the coal veins is about five feet, and but little coal is mined from veins less than three feet. The coal veins
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
are usually unbroken except by valleys, but oc- casionally, as in the southern portion of Coshoc- tion county, a fault is found which entirely elim- inates the coal veins.
The coal which is now being used is taken from the following named veins: Upper Free- port, Lower Freeport, Upper Kittanning, Lower Kittanning, Upper Clarion, Lower Clarion, Up- per Mercer, Lower Mercer, Quakerton and Sharon. All of these veins belong to the bitu- minous divisions, and are worked from a horizon- tal entrance at the outcrop. The Upper Kit- tanning vein is of most importance and is known elsewhere as the Hocking Valley coal, the Nel- sonville coal, the Coshocton coal, etc. The Up- per Freeport vein ranks second in value and is mined on a large scale at Cambridge, Dell Roy, Salineville and many other places. The Sharon coal is the purest, and is used as a standard of comparison for all the open burning coals of the Alleghany fields. Both the Upper Kittanning and the Sharon are used in their raw condition for the manufacture of iron.
In the remaining divisions of the coal, there are perhaps ten veins which are, in some places, of workable thickness.
Only one of these, the Pittsburgh vein, is of much importance. It is especially valuable in the manufacture of gas and the production of
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GEOLOGY OF OHIO.
steam. Its northern outcrop passes through nine counties and its approximate length is nearly two hundred miles, underlying an area of more than three thousand square miles. It has only been tested, however, in a small part of the above area. Coking coals of the first grade are not found in Ohio, and its best coals are used for open burning.
The Ohio coal fields are also rich in iron ore and fire clay. The quality of the iron from the Hanging Rock district, is not surpassed by any, and is used for the manufacture of car wheels and machine castings. The Blackband ore vein of Tuscarawas, and other counties, reaches a maximum thickness of twenty feet, and is per- haps the richest vein in the state. Other veins are worked in different parts of the state, and the production of iron is an important industry.
The clays of the coal region are a very valu- able deposit from which fire bricks, sewer pipes, paving bricks, earthenware and numerous other articles are manufactured. Ohio stands far in advance of any other state in the Union in the manufacture of articles made from clays.
How was coal formed? This is a question many have asked, and in earlier times but few could answer. With the advancement of sci- ence, the answer has come as true as the fact that coal itself exists. The coal formation in
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
Ohio was in no way different from that formed elsewhere, and the following discussion will be a general one.
The formation of the coal now used, began long before man's appearance, and many mil- lions of years elapsed during its formation.
The earthquakes and volcanoes which so vio- lently jar the earth at the present day, are al- most as nothing compared with the disturbances which took place in the remote past, when the newly formed unstable earth was more suscept- ible to both external and internal forces. At the beginning of the Carboniferous Age, the tremors incident to the upthrow of a new belt of land, had strewn the submerged continental slope with the fertile ruins of older lands. Over all this breadth of bog and marsh sprang up vegetable growth, trees and herbs, ferns and rushes. This luxuriant vegetation was sus- tained by the carbonic acid of the atmosphere which was greatly in excess of the oxygen. It made the air irrespirable and no terrestrial ani- mal could live. But terrestrial animals were to constitute the next step of progress. The highest type of aquatic animals had been reached and nature paused for the purification of the air for the next class.
The power which had called matter and force into existence, could have made other disposi-
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GEOLOGY OF OHIO.
tion of this difficulty. The carbonic acid could have been combined with lime and fixed in the limestones. It could have been banished from the earth. But carbon is precious, being the basis of all combustion. It blazes and warms in coal, petroleum, peat and gas. Though the age then passing had no use for it, its preserva- tion was necessary for the future. Man was yet far off, but was anticipated and involved in the plans of the world. So vegetation was chosen to do the work and preserve the material. This explains the presence of the coal-making trees at the beginning of the Carboniferous Age.
Unlimited supplies of nutriment pervaded the atmosphere. The marshes exhaled abundant moisture, while the earth, in its comparative new- ness, retained the warmth to stimulate the growth. So tree-fern and herbaceous fern, sea- weed and grasses, began work. Atom by atom, they selected the carbon from the atmosphere and fixed it in their tissues. Every bud, stem and root treasured up the fuel. Generations of plants succeeding each other fell prostrate at last, and added their substance to the growing bed of peat. Standing water in which the vege- tation grew, protected the peat from decomposi- tion. But this vegetable kingdom was not to continue longer. Some stay of the long pressed crust of the earth, gave way under the accumu-
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HISTORY OF OHIO.
lated strain, and the ocean rolled forward, freighted with mud and sand which was spread over the entire vast peat-bed. Thick layers of clay and sand shut up from the atmosphere the expanse of peaty matter which was to consoli- date and form coal.
The reign of the ocean was only temporary, and but few centuries elapsed before another change took place. Again occurred a collapse of some stay or support of the earth's crust. The ocean receded, leaving the sea-bottom again ex- posed to the sunlight. Soon another scene of verdure was spread where the waves of the ocean had so lately tossed. The forests again resumed their work of selecting and storing the impuri- ties of the atmosphere, and soon some advent- urous and hardy types of air-breathing animals had made their appearance.
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