History of Portage County, Ohio, Part 22

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 958

USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 22

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).

As the county increased in population new townships were organized, and prior to the erection of Summit County, in 1840, Portage contained thirty townships; with a combined area of about 740 square miles of territory, or 473,600 acres. The erection of Summit, however, left Portage County with but twenty townships (Garrettsville has since been formed from Hiram and Nelson), and an area of 490 square miles, or 313,600 acres, including streams and lakes; but the report of the Secretary of State for 1881 gives 312,487 acres as the amount of land contained in this county. Its present townships are Atwater, Aurora, Brimfield, Charlestown, Deerfield, Edinburg, Franklin, Freedom, Garrettsville, Hiram, Mantua, Nelson, Palmyra, Paris, Randolph, Ravenna, Rootstown, Shalersville, Streetsboro, Suffield and Windham.

The population of the county and the several townships by decades, since 1810 and 1850 respectively, is given in the following tables: County-1810, 2,995; 1820, 1,095; 1830, 18,820; 1840, 22,965; 1850, 24,419; 1860, 24,208; 1870, 24,584; 1880, 27,500.

TOWNSHIPS.

1850.

1860.

1870.

1880.

Atwater Township.

1,119

1,181

1,180

1,147

Aurora Township.

823

688

642

666

Brimfield Township

1,015

905

913

1,030

Charlestown Township.

809

835

675

633

Deerfield Township.

1,371

1,091

1,025

985

Edinburg Township

1,101

1,018

929

910

Franklin Township (including Kent).

1,758

1,557

3,037

4,141

Freedom Township. :

996

983

781

804

*Garrettsville Township.

969

Hiram Township.

1,106

1,306

1,234

1,058

Mantua Township

1,169

1,207

1,126

1,150

Nelson Township.

1,383

1,301

1,355

890

Palmyra Township.

1,093

1,031

848

1,105

Paris Township

1,018

909

691

666

Randolph Township

1,732

1,686

1,564

1,684

Ravenna Township (including Ravenna).

2,240

2,905

3,423

4,224

Rootstown Township.

1,308

1,283

1,169

1,217

Shalersville Township Streetsboro Township.

1,190

1,153

977

960

1,108

906

706

702

Suffield Township.

1,281

1,412

1,444

1,530

Windham Township

808

850

865

1,029

*Organized from lliram and Nelson July 6, 1874.

198

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

CHAPTER II.

PORTAGE COUNTY NINETY YEARS AGO -TIMBER AND FRUIT-BEARING TREES AND VINES-ROOTS AND HERBAGE-WILD ANIMALS, BIRDS AND REPTILES-BIG HUNTS-GENERAL TOPOGRAPIIY, STREAMS AND LAKES-GEOLOGY OF PORTAGE COUNTY-SURFACE FEATURES AND DEPOSITS-GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE-COAL MEASURES-COAL NO. 1-COALS NOS. 3 AND 4-FIRE CLAY-ALTITUDES IN PORT- AGE COUNTY ABOVE LAKE ERIE.

E RE the woodman's ax resounded, sombre and silent was the ancient forest, which, during untold centuries, had overshadowed the hills and valleys of this region. Beauty and variety marked the plants which grew and bloomed beneath the leafy canopy of the gigantic trees.

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Hill, dale and streamlet, with all the families of plants from the lofty forest tree to the creeping ivy, gave to the landscape variety and picturesque beauty. An unchanged progression of periodical decay had from time imme- morial been forming a rich vegetable soil, in preparation for the era when civilized man should take possession and become its cultivator. Oak of sev- eral varieties, chestnut, and hickory in all its species, were the principal growth on the dry gravelly lands; red and white beech, maple or sugar tree, linden or basswood, sumach, white ash, cucumber, poplar, white, red and slippery elm, walnut, ironwood, dogwood, sassafras and cherry, on the rich loamy soil; and on the wet lands hemlock, black ash, tamarack, sycamore, soft maple and birch; while there was a varying undergrowth of fruit-bearing trees and vines, such as the plum, crab-apple, white, red and black haw, alder, whortleberry, blackberry, raspberry, serviceberry, gooseberry, currant, cranberry and straw- berry, also nuts of several varieties, and hops, ginseng, bloodroot, chocolate root, together with innumerable kinds of other roots and herbage of valuable properties, were the spontaneous growth of Portage County.

A thick undergrowth gave an excellent covert to the wild animals that once abounded in this section of the State, viz. : the elk, deer, panther, wolf, bear, wild cat, fox, marten, otter, polecat, beaver, groundhog or woodchuck, opossum, raccoon, hare, rabbit, black, grey, red or pine, flying and ground or striped squirrels, muskrat, mink, weasel, porcupine, field-mouse, deer-mouse, common rat and mouse. Of these the elk, panther, wolf, bear, wild cat and beaver are extinct in this county, or if any are ever seen it is a very rare occurrence.

Among the birds which are natives of this county or visit it annually, either to build or touching it in their migration to a more northerly region, are the bald and gray eagle, rarely if ever seen; the hen hawk, fish hawk, pigeon hawk, shrike or butcher bird, the white, the cat and screech owl, the swan, wild goose, black duck, mallard, wood duck, shelldrake, teal, butter- bolt, loon, dipper, water hen or coot, plover, jacksnipe, sandsnipe, king- fisher, turkey, pheasant, partridge or quail, woodcock, rail, pigeon, dove, whip-poor-will, robin, thrush, catbird, cuckoo, lark, oriole, bluejay, fieldfare or red-breasted grossbeak, martin, the barn swallow, bank swallow, oven swal- low, bluebird, wren, cow bird, bobolink or reed-bird, yellow bird, redbird, blackbird, redwing, starling, black or large woodpecker, red-headed wood-

199

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

pecker, gray woodpecker, flicker, cedar bird or toppy, crookbill, green bird, humming bird, and a variety of small birds with whose species the writer is not familiar. Some of these members of the feathery kingdom have become very rare or altogether extinct, while others have come into the county. The white-breasted swallow is one of the later inhabitants, as is also the hardy, pugnacious English sparrow, which since his coming has driven many of the most beautiful songsters from the towns now inhabited by those little fel- lows in great numbers.

The snakes that were found in this locality are the black and yellow rattle- snakes, the former of which usually frequented the wet or swampy lands, and the latter the hilly or dry ground. Hundreds of those "yellow-skins," as they were commonly called, were killed, during the first few years of settlement, in nearly every township in the county. Regular hunting parties were some- times organized in the spring-time, to invade their dens among the ledges, and by this means those dangerous pests were rapidly exterminated. The water snake was a large black snake, often growing from five to seven feet in length; the small black snake or white-ringed viper, the brown or house snake, the garter snake and the green snake were plentiful. All of those mentioned are innocuous except the rattlesnake, and it is fortunately now nearly or altogether extinct.

The wild denizens of the forest roamed at will during the earlier years of the county's history, and many of the pioneers could tell of dangers and hair- breadth escapes from an enraged bear, a pack of ravenous wolves, or a treach- erous wild cat, which at one time were more plentiful in this region than cat- tle, sheep or hogs. To rid the country of these dangerous neighbors, big hunts were gotten up, when game of every sort went down in scores, before the unerring rifles of the frontier sportsmen. A whole township would be surrounded by a line of hunters, and at a pre-concerted signal all would begin the march toward the center, driving the game before them and shooting down any that tried to escape. Great quantities of valuable game were slaughtered in this way, and as there were premiums paid for the scalps of the more dan- gerous animals, these hunts usually proved a financial success. In a big hunt which took place in Freedom Township, in December, 1818, there were killed twenty-three bears, seven wolves and thirty-six deer, besides scores of turkeys and other game. On the 25th of December, 1818, another hunt took place in Windham Township, when twenty-one bears, sixty-eight deer, one wolf, one wild cat, with turkeys and other small game innumerable, were bagged. The same year at the close of a hunt in Edinburg Township, seven bears, five wolves, one hundred deer and four hundred turkeys were counted as the result of the day's sport. Another hunt occurred in Edinburg and Atwater Town- ships December 24, 1819, the result of which was twenty-one bears, eighteen wolves, one hundred and three deer, and more than three hundred turkeys. In 1819 a similar raid was made upon the game of Streetsboro Township, and five bears, four wolves and sixty deer were slain. Such hunts took place at different times in nearly every township in the county, but those given will fully illustrate the great amount of wild game which once inhabited the val- leys of the Mahoning and Cuyahoga. Those organized hunting parties soon had a telling effect in lessening the game, and finally becoming unpopular, met with a determined opposition from a large class of citizens and were abandoned. Long after the surrounding country was well settled, the tam- arack swamps of Brimfield Township afforded an excellent covert for wild game, and bears, wolves, deer etc., were quite numerous in that locality. Bears especially were so plentiful that the township was familiarly known as

200

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

"Bear Town." Streetsboro, Freedom, Paris and Edinburg Townships were also noted hunting grounds for some years after the game in the adjoining territory had been pretty well thinned out. The last wolf killed in Streets- boro Township was shot by Merrill Stanton, March 6, 1838, about which time the larger and more troublesome wild animals had, much to the relief of those settlers whose cattle, hogs and sheep often went to satisfy their voracious appetites, entirely disappeared from the forests of this county.

The general topography of Portage County is slightly rolling, the uplands usually of a sandy or gravelly nature, and the more level portions principally composed of a clay soil. Few counties in Ohio are better watered. The whole eastern half is drained by the Mahoning River, with its several local branches, Silver Creek being the most important, which rise along the central portions of the county, from north to south, and flow in an easterly direction, uniting before reaching Warren, Ohio; thence take a southeast course to the Shenango, with whose waters the Mahoning unites about two miles south of Newcastle, Penn., when the two streams become Beaver River. The word Mahoning is, according to Heckewelder, derived from either the Indian Mahoni, signifying "a lick," or Mahonink, "at the lick ;" but Lucius V. Bierce, in his sketches of the Western Reserve, says that it comes from the Indian word Ma-um-ing, meaning "the way to the market."

The Cuyahoga River takes its rise in Geauga County, and flowing south- west, enters Portage near the northwest corner of Hiram Township; thence crossing said corner and keeping the same general course across the southeast corner of Mantua, and the northwest corner of Shalersville Township, turns southward through the southeastern tier of lots in Streetsboro Township; thence winding diagonally across Franklin Township, from its northeast to its southwest corner, passing through Kent on its route, enters Summit County. It there makes a big bend, and turning northward empties into Lake Erie at Cleveland. This river receives its name from the Indian word Cuy-o-ga, mean- ing "crooked," a term significant of the stream, which is very winding. Its largest tributaries in this county are the Little Cuyahoga and the Breakneck. The former drains the southeast corner of the county, Fritch's Pond, in Suf- field Township, being one of its sources, and Springfield Lake, across the line in Summit County, the other. The Breakneck heads in Stark County, and winding northward through Randolph and Rootstown Townships, turns across the southwest corner of Ravenna Township, and thence northwestward through Franklin Township, discharges its waters into the Cuyahoga, about a mile and a half northeast of Kent. One branch of the Chagrin River heads in Aurora and Mantua Townships, and thence passing northward joins the main stream in Cuyahoga County.

Portage is also well supplied with small natural lakes and ponds. In Franklin Township we find Brady's Lake, Pippin Lake, Twin Lakes and Stewart's Pond; in Rootstown, Sandy Lake, Muddy Lake (which is partly located in Ravenna Township), Muzzy's Pond and Ward's Pond; in Suffield, Congress Lake (partly) and Fritch's Pond, and Long Pond in Aurora Township. Brady's Lake received its name in honor of Capt. Samuel Brady, of " Brady's Leap " fame, who fortunately escaped from Indian vengeance by hiding beneath its wa- ters. Pippin Lake was called after the apple of that name; Twin Lakes, because of their close proximity to each other, and connection by a small branch; Stew- art's Pond, after a pioneer of that name; Sandy and Muddy Lakes, from the character of the soil surrounding them; Muzzy's Pond, after Nathan Muzzy, a peculiar character who claimed to have discovered it; Ward's Pond, from a pioneer of that name; Congress Lake, from the lake bearing that name in

201

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

New York; Fritch's Pond, after John Fritch, a German who built a mill at the outlet, and Long Pond, from its long, narrow shape.

Geology of Portage County .*- Portage County lies entirely on the water- shed which separates the streams that flow into Lake Erie from the tributaries of the Ohio. Its central portion rises to an altitude of 685 feet above the lake, while the valleys by which its surface is diversified descend about 300 feet lower. The highest point of the county is near the line of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, between Rootstown and Atwater, while the lowest is in the valley of the Mahoning, below Garrettsville.

When first entered by the whites, the county was covered with an unbroken growth of primeval forest, consisting, on the lower and more level portions, of beach and maple; of oak, chestnut, etc., on the higher and drier lands.

Though underlaid by rocks of diverse character, the surface is mainly formed by a sheet of clay,which has given a peculiar character to the agricult- ural pursuits of the inhabitants, and has made this a portion of the great dairy district of the Western Reserve.

In some localities on the northern and western slope of the water-shed, but near its summit, are heavy beds of gravel, forming swells of the surface, or even-rounded hills of considerable altitude. Typical examples of these may be seen in Randolph, Rootstown, Suffield, Franklin and Brimfield, and near Earlville, on the lines of the two railroads which pass through the county. In the basins inclosed by these gravel hills and ridges lie most of the lakes and peat bogs of the county. These gravel hills constitute an interesting feature in the surface deposits, and will be found described in the first chapter of Vol. II, under the head of Kames. I have ascribed them to the action of waves on the Drift deposit of the shore and shoals which formed the margin of the great inland sea that once filled all the basin of the lakes.

In the northern part of the county the Drift deposits are generally of so great thickness as to cover and conceal the underlying rocks. Wherever exposed to view, the rock surface is found to be planed and grooved by glacial action, and usually the overlying clay may be designated as a bowlder clay, since it contains masses of rock derived from neighboring sources, with smaller and usually scratched and worn fragments brought from distant localities. This clay is unquestionably the material ground up by the great glacier which once covered northern Ohio, pushed forward by its advance, and left in an irregular sheet upon the rocky foundation in its retreat. In some places the clay is finer, without gravel or bowlders, and is accurately stratified by the action of water.

Immediately beneath the soil, or projecting above the surface, are found many transported bowlders, frequently of large size, composed of granite, greenstone, and other crystalline rocks, evidently of foreign origin, and appar- ently derived from the highlands north of the great lakes. These bowlders are rarely found deeply buried in the Drift, and, as I have elsewhere shown, must have been floated by icebergs from their place of origin, and dropped into their present position. Some of the superficial gravels which overlie the bowlder clay seem to have been transported by the same agency.

As a whole, the soil of Portage County is productive, and although, from its tenacious character, and the dense growth of forest by which it was cov- ered, it has required much patience and labor for its subjugation, this task has been well and thoroughly performed by the intelligent and industrious popu- lation into whose possession it came, and it has repaid their efforts by a con- stant and generous support through the last half century.

* By J. S. Newberry.

202

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

In common with the other portions of the great divide on which Portage County is located, its rolling surface forms numerous local basins, many of which have been, and some still are, occupied by lakes. Of these lakes Stewart's Pond, Twin Lakes, Brady's Lake, and Pippin Lake, in Franklin, Muddy Lake, Sandy Lake and Muzzy's Lake in Rootstown, and Fritch's Pond in Suffield, may be cited as examples. These lakes are supplied by springs which flow through the Drift gravels, and their water is usually clear and pure; they contain great numbers of fine fish, and are also interesting and beautiful feat- ures in the scenery. Some of these basins formerly occupied by water have been gradually filled up by the growth of vegetation, and now exist as swamps underlaid by peat. One of the best known of these is near Ravenna, where considerable peat has been cut and manufactured. There is another and still more extensive peat marsh in Brimfield, and small ones occur in nearly every township. Usually these peat bogs are occupied with Sphagnum (the peat- producing moss), cranberry vines, huckleberry bushes, and larches, and they are often known as tamarack or huckleberry swamps. The peat in these swamps is not unfrequently underlaid by shell marl, and both these are capa- ble of being used with profit by the farmers as fertilizers. It is also probable that the cranberry may be successfully cultivated on the swamp surfaces. In the Eastern States the cultivation of cranberries has proved to be highly remunerative to those engaged in it, and there seems no good reason why the same success should not be attained by the inhabitants of those portions of Ohio where the cranberry grows spontaneously, and where there are marshes which are well adapted to its cultivation.

Striking and typical examples of the glacial furrows which have been referred to above may be seen on the hill near the house of Mr. Theodore Clark, in the township of Edinburg. The direction of the striæe is here N. 60° E. The rock is a sandstone, overlying the lower seam of coal. Near the center of Palmyra is a still better exhibition of glacial marks. On the hill, three quarters of a mile west of the center, the bearing of the furrows is N. 30° E. In the town of Palmyra, on a surface of sandstone exposed in front of Mr. Wilson's store, the traces of glacial action are very conspicuous; the rock surface being planed down very smooth, and marked with scratches and furrows, of which the direction is N. 26° E. In many other parts of the county similar ice inscriptions may be observed, chiefly on the surfaces of the beds of sandstone, as they are better retained on this indestructable material than on the softer or more soluble rocks.

The bowlder clay which overlies the glaciated surface varies considerably in appearance in different localities, according to the exposure and drainage to which it has been subjected, and the local circumstances which controlled its formation. In the valleys it will be found to be of a bluish color through- out. On the higher lands the upper portion is frequently yellow, sometimes down to the depth of ten or twelve feet, while the lower portion is blue or gray. This difference I attribute to the oxidation of the iron contained in the clay, where it has been exposed to the air and to surface drainage. The num- ber and character of the pebbles and bowlders contained in the clay also varies much in different localities. In some places, as near Campbellsport, the Drift deposits are largely made up of angular or little-worn fragments of sand- stone, torn from their beds in the immediate vicinity ; while in places remote from such outcrops of the harder rocks, the stones contained in the clay are small, much worn, and many of them are composed of granite, etc., brought from the region north of the lakes.

On the highlands the gravel beds referred to above rest sometimes on the

Co.Co. Juller

205

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

bowlder clay, but perhaps oftener on the underlying rock, showing that the causes which produced the accumulation of gravel generally removed all the clay. Where the gravel beds overlap the bowlder clay, the materials which compose them seem to have been washed back from the higher grounds. It will be noticed that the pebbles in the gravel beds are well rounded and often irregu- larly stratified, while those found in the bowlder clay are sub-angular, scratched and worn, but rarely rounded. It is evident, therefore, that the gravels have been subjected to a triturating action quite different from that exerted by glaciers on the materials which they move. The facts show fur- ther that water, either in shore waves or in river currents, has been the agent by which the pebbles of the gravel have been rounded ; and as it is difficult to conceive of any currents which could leave beds and hills of gravel such as are found along the divide between the waters of the lake and the Ohio, I have been led to consider these deposits as the effect of shore waves, when the lake basin was filled to this height, on the bowlder clay and other Drift material which once covered the underlying rocks. It is possible, too, that the drainage from the glacier, when it filled the lake basin and was melt- ing along its southern edge, contributed to the washing of the clay and the rounding of the pebbles. In this view the gravel hills and sheets which cover so much of the great divide which crosses the State may be compared to the terminal moraines of existing glaciers, but in no moraine of which I have any knowledge are the pebbles and bowlders nearly so well rounded as in the deposits under consideration ; and I am sure all who will carefully examine these will agree with me that free and swift moving water, in large quantity, has been the chief agent in producing the phenomena exhibited. Along cer- tain lines leading from the summit of the watershed to the Ohio, both east and west of Portage County, there are belts of gravel and bowlders, which mark, as I concieve, broad and long-existing drainage channels, by which the surplus water of the lake basin flowed through certain waste-weirs cut in the water- shed and escaped southward, but the gravel hills of Portage County can hardly be referred to such a cause.

Geological Structure .- The number and relative positions of the strata which come to the surface within the limits of Portage County will be seen at a glance by reference to the section given below:

Superficial clay and gravel.

10 to 100

Shale and sandstone ..

Limestone. .

0 to

Coal No. 4.

1 to

Fire-clay

3 to

Shale and sandstone

25 to

Limestone

0 to

Coal No. 3.

1 to

Fire-clay

3 to

Shale .

20 to

Coal No. 2

0 to

Sandstone.

50 to 100

Shale .

0 to

Coal No. 1

0 to

Fire-clay

3 to

Shale and sandstone.

25 to

Conglomerate

100

All the rocks enumerated in the preceding section belong to the Carbon- iferous system, of which they represent two members, viz .: the Conglomerate and the Coal Measures. The area of the county is about equally divided be- tween the two formations. All the northern half has the Conglomerate for its surface rock, though it is generally deeply buried by Drift clays. It is

206

HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.

fully exposed in the valleys of the Mahoning and Cuyahoga. The trough of the latter stream is cut in the Conglomerate all the way from the point where it enters the county, in Hiram, to its place of exit, on the west side of Frank- lin. The Conglomerate is well seen in Mantua and Garrettsville, and still better in Franklin and Nelson. In all these localities it exhibits essentially the same characters, viz. : a coarse, drab-colored sandstone, in places thickly set with quartz pebbles from the size of a pea to that of an egg. In some places, as in Windham, the stone it furnishes is finer, whiter, and more homo. geneous, and would answer admirably for architectural purposes. As a gen- eral rule, however, it is rather coarse for all fine work, but furnishes a strong and durable stone, well adapted to bridge-building, cellar walls, and, indeed, to all plain and massive masonry.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Portage County, Ohio, Part 22

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 958

Author: Warner, Beer & co., pub. [from old catalog]; Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Norris, J. E. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 958