USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
No one section can claim a monopoly or even a controlling interest in Ohio's greatness. This is the more apparent when we examine the scroll of her famous men. It will be found that they have arisen from all quarters and conditions. Of the thirty-three governors of Ohio, up to 1890, twelve
9
O
6
3
1
-
-
THE MANSFIELD CENTENNIAL COMMISSION
No. 1. Hon. Huntington Brown No. 2. Charles H. Voegele. No. 3. R. G. Hancock. No. 4. Capt. A. C. Cum- mins. No. 5. Hon. M. B. Bushnell. No. 6. Peter Bissman. No. 7. Capt. T. B. Martin. No. 8. Rev. F. A. Schreiber. No. 9. A. J. Baughman.
15
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
came from the South, twelve from New England, three from Pennsylvania and six were born in Ohio of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Further, it can not be established that any section produced the great men of any particular profession or pursuit, which disproves Howell's generalization that "The South gave Ohio perhaps her foremost place in war and politics; but her enlightenment in other things was from the North."
Rawlinson has claimed "that it is admitted by ethnologists that the mingled races are superior to the pure ones." This is perhaps true with the qualification that the law acts within the limits of a similar origin, as in the case of the Greeks, the Romans, the British, and above all the Ameri- cans. Thus Tennyson sings, "Saxon and Norman and Dane are we," and he might have added, Celt and Gaul, French, Huguenot and German. One of our own poets recited, on the Nation's century, these elements of our new type: Scottish thrift, Irish humor, German steadfastness. Scandinavian patience and English moral worth.
A writer has put the case thus: "Southern men of the old regime were not given to the writing of books," and when the man of New England strove forward, pen in hand, and nominated himself custodian of our National archives and began to compile the record nobody seriously contested the office. Thus it happened that New England got handsome treatment in our National histories. She deserved good treatment. Her record is one of glory. No patriotic American would detract from her merit, but her history is not the history of the whole country, and it may be added that her point of view is not the only vision for estimate.
In the early settlement of Richland county different parts were settled by people from certain places in the East, for instance the Big Hill locality in Weller township was settled principally by English people; the south- western part of Jefferson township was settled by Yankees from Maine; a certain locality in Washington township and another in Sharon were settled by Germans. But those distinctions are now matters of the past and we have but one people, one country, under one flag.
THE ORIGINAL MAN FROM OHIO.
For the past fifteen years many expeditions and elaborate investigations in various parts of the world have been made in search of possible or probable proof of the location of the cradle or birthplace of the human race. From reports made of such expeditions and investigations of the problem of how the red man got here (America) and where he came from are elaborately treated of. A brief resume of the conclusions arrived at in these reports appeared recently in the Cosmopolitan magazine. The result is, says the magazine writer, "that the evidence shows that the first American was not an Asiatic emigrant," and that from the study of both ethnological and archaeological conditions in Northwestern America and in Northeastern Asia. it seems most probable that man did not come from Asia, but that he crossed over into Asia from America. We can not even give a resume of the facts and reasons put forth by the distinguished scholars whe for years have giver.
16
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
their time and thought to this intensely interesting question. Can only state that their conclusions are a reversal of the theory, so universally accepted heretofore, that Asia was the birth place of the race that later found its way into the American Continent. Granted that the original American was "native and to the manor born," and not an importation, the logic is that, barring the ice man, who may or not have existed first, the Mound Builder was the first to put in an appearance, at least so far as any remaining evi- dences show. It is generally conceded that the Mound Builder, whether the ancestor of the Indian or of a distinct race, antedated the Indians, so-called. In other words, whoever he was and whatever his antecedents were, he, the Mound Builder, was the oldest inhabitant, and may be called the original American. The Mound Builders' domain was largely in the territory now called Ohio, and some of their works are within the limits of Richland county. May not then Ohio and possibly Richland county have been the Mound Builders' primitive birth place as well as his habitat. May not the original Adam and Eve along the banks of one of Ohio's rivers, rather than on the banks of the Euphrates, had their Eden.
The Rev. Landon West, a prominent and widely known minister of the Baptist church, has given much study and thought to the Serpent Mound in Adams county, Ohio, and advances the theory that it marks the site of the Garden of Eden, and with this a number of the "higher critics," the Egyptologists and Biblical students agree. They state that nowhere does the Bible claim that the Garden of Eden was in Asia, as has been generally believed. The Rev. Mr. West believes that the Serpent Mound is purely symbolical and has no significance relative to the religion or worship of any race of men, but that it was intended to teach the fall of man and the con- sequences of sin in the Garden of Eden.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.
STATE REPORT.
Richland county is situated on the highest part of the divide between the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio river. The surface on the north is comparatively level, but rises toward the south to the height, in places, of nearly one thousand feet above the lake. In the southeast part of the county there are chains of high hills, separated by narrow valleys, and exhibiting almost a mountainous character. The Black Fork of Mohican river, rising in the north part of the county. and passing through the townships of Bloom- ing Grove, Franklin, Weller, Mifflin, and Monroe, and thence into Ashland county, flows in a deep channel which connects on the north with the chan- nels of drainage into the lake. A similar channel, having a similar northern connection, passes as little west of Mansfield, and, now filled with silt and gravel, forms the bed of Owl creek. Between these valleys the hills rise in irregular chains, often quite abruptly, and in the southern and southwestern parts of the county to an elevation of from two hundred to five hundred feet above the valleys. In Jefferson township a long "chestnut ridge," tra- versed by the road leading west from Independence, reaches an elevation of
17
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
four hundred and fifty feet above the railroad at Independence. On my table of elevations this railroad station is given as six hundred and fifty-nine feet, but I suspect this to be excessive. If correct, the elevation of the ridge is ten hundred and fifty-nine feet above the lake, and it is one of the highest points in the state. Two and a half miles northeast of Bellville, and near the north line of Jefferson township, the hills reach an elevation of nine hundred and fifty-two feet above the lake. About two miles north, and on the direct road to Mansfield, the surface rises rapidly to an elevation of nine hundred and twelve feet, and at three and a half miles the summit between Bellville and Mansfield is nine hundred and thirty-two feet above the lake, or three hundred and seventy feet above Mansfield .* The descent from the top of this divide is much more gradual to the north than to the south, a characteristic of all parts of the watershed in this neighborhood; and one to which reference will be subsequently made when a few of the more prominent features of the surface geology of the neighboring counties are grouped together. The highest points to the north and towards Mansfield were, by the barometer, three hundred and twenty feet, three hundred feet, one hundred and ninety feet, etc., above Mansfield. About seven miles west of Mansfield, and near the western line of the county. is an isolated knob which is designated by residents in the vicinity as the highest land in the county and state. It is, however, by the barometer only two hundred and forty feet above Mansfield, or eight hundred and thirty-two feet above the lake, while two and a half miles further east the surface rises by a more gentle inclination thirty feet higher.
SOIL.
The soil over the greater part of Richland county rests upon the unmod- ified Drift clays, and takes its general character from them. It contains a large quantity of lime, derived mainly from the corniferous limestone, fragments of which are everywhere mingled with the Drift. The clay in the soil is also modified and tempered by the debris of the local rocks, which is largely mingled with the Drift, and is mostly silicious. This character, combined with a high elevation and thorough surface drainage, furnishes a soil which renders the name of the county appropriate, and secures a great variety of agricultural products.
While all parts of the county are well adapted to grazing, the land is specially fitted for the growth of wheat and other cereals, and to the pro- duction of fruit. The profusion of rock fragments in the Drift render the soil pervious to water, and prevents washing, even in the steepest hills.
In the southeastern part of the county the higher hills are, in places, capped with a coarse ferruginous conglomerate, and are so covered with its debris as not to be susceptible of tillage. Nature has designated a use to which these sand-rock hills should be appropriated, as they are generally
*The height of Mansfield above the Lake is, on the profile of the Atlantic & Great Western rail- road, five hundred and eighty-one feet; on the profile of the Sandusky & Mansfield railroad, six hun- dred and fifty-seven feet ; and on the profile of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne & Chicage railroad, five hundred and ninety-two feet; part of the difference being due to the different elevations of the local- ities passed by the railroads in the town. J. S. N.
18
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
covered with a dense second-growth of chestnut. This timber prefers a soil filled with fragments of sand-rock, and the second growth is almost as valu- able as red cedar for fence posts and other similar uses. If upon all similar rocky hills the inferior kinds of timber and the useless undergrowth were cut away, and the growth of the chestnut encouraged, these now worthless hill-tops would yield an annual harvest scarcely less valuable than that of the most fertile valleys. On the north side of the divide the slopes of the hills are covered by the debris of the local rocks, and the soil is much less productive.
There have been reports of the finding of coal in Richland county; the specimens exhibited consist of flat pieces of carbonaceous matter minutely fissured, and the fissures are filled with thin plates of sulphate of Baryta. The Huron shale is the great oil producing rock of Ohio and Pennsylvania. The slow distribution of the bituminous matter in it has resulted in the pro- duction of gas and petroleum, which along the outcrop of the strata have steadily escaped. The petroleum flowing into a fissure in the rocks where it was retained, parted with its volatile matter, leaving a residuum of asphal- tum, which by continued desiccation became minutely cracked and the fissures gradually filled with Barite, which led many to suppose that this formation indicated coal beds.
GOLD.
One of the most interesting surface deposits of the county, and one inti- mately connected with the discussion of the Drift, is the gold found about Bellville and other places in the southern part of Richland county. The origin of the gold has been attributed to an ancient Drift agency which brought in the pebbles of the Waverly Conglomerate; but I am quite con- fident that it should be referred to the surface Drift, and was brought in by the same agency that transported the granitic pebbles and bowlders. If referred to the Waverly Conglomerate, it should be found at the base of this deposit. It is, in fact, found most abundantly about on the level of its upper surface, and in perceptible quantities on the slopes of the hills fifty to one hundred feet above it. If it came from the Waverly Conglomerate, it should be most abundant where the quartz pebbles of this Conglomerate are the most numerous, while at Bellville and the immediate neighborhood, this Waverly rock is comparatively free from pebbles. The gold is found in minute flakes, associated with black sand (magnetic iron ore), small gar- nets, and fragments of quartz. It is most abundant at the bottom of gorges opening to the south, rising rather rapidly toward the north, terminating in various branches which start from the top of the hills two or three hundred feet high. On the table land above, large quartz bowlders are occasionally seen, and angular fragments of quartz are abundantly obtained in washing for gold. Pieces of native copper are also found, some of them of considerable size, occasionally copper ore, and very rarely minute quantities of native silver. In the stone quarry near Bellville an angular and partially decom- posed fragment of quartz was picked up, containing what the miners call "wire gold" interlaced through it. It had evidently fallen from the gravel
19
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
bed at the top of the quarry, which contained quartz fragments, mingled with the other erratics. The most plausible theory of the origin of the gold is, that the transporting agencies which brought in and deposited the surface Drift, passed over veins of gold-bearing quartz which were crushed, broken up, and transported with the other foreign material, and scattered along a line extending through Richland, Knox, and Licking counties. Over what is now the southern slope of the divide between the waters of the lake and the Ohio, a thick deposit of Drift has been washed away, the fragments of quartz broken up and disintegrated, the gold of the Drift concentrated prob- ably a hundred thousand fold, so that in these protected coves the "color" of gold can be obtained from almost every panful of earth. The first discov- ery of this fact caused much local excitement, and experienced miners and others prospected the whole region, in the confident expectation that these indications would lead to rich placer mining. One returned California miner spent the whole of one summer and fall in prospecting, a part of the time with one, and the rest with three hired assistants. The gross amount of gold obtained was between twenty-five and thirty dollars. In the richest localities about one dollar per day can be obtained by steady work. As no gold-bearing rocks are to be found in the state, the occurrence of gold here can have only a scientific interest connected with the theories of the Drift.
IRON ORE.
The rocks of Richland county include a few deposits of iron ore, but generally of little value, and the surface accumulations of this mineral are rare.
THE BENTLEY LAKE.
The Bentley Lake is in Mifflin township, seven miles east of Mansfield, a little south of what is called the north Mifflin road. This lake has been called by different names, locally, but the "Bentley" Lake seems to be the more appropriate name from the fact that General Robert Bentley, a pioneer settler of Mifflin township, owned land adjacent to the lake where he erected the first brick country residence in the county. General Bentley was a state senator and was an associate judge of the court of common pleas from 1821 to 1828. He was also a major general of the Ohio State Militia. General Bentley did not make the lake, but having lived in that locality so long is entitled to the honor of its name. The lake is about a mile west of the Blackfork and was formerly a swamp with a little pond of water in the center. In 1821, Jonas Ballyet entered the northwest quarter of section 15 (Mifflin township), and thinking to change the swamp into a productive field, "Uncle Jonas" as Mr. Ballyet was familiarly called, cut a ditch from the swamp to the Blackfork, with the view of draining the low land into tillable fields. His theory seemed quite plausible, but he was later confronted with a condition he had not anticipated. The ditch was opened on the 25th day of July, 1846, and was of sufficient depth to lower the surface of the little pond about eight feet, which was the amount of "fall" between the swamp and the Blackfork. On the day following the greater part of the
20
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
level land surrounding the pond, comprising about six acres, was engulfed- sank out of sight-leaving only the tops of the highest trees, with which the land had been covered, visible. In time the tree tops also disappeared. It was the opinion that the lake was of greater size beneath than was apparent on the surface of the land and that lowering the water by means of the ditch caused the ground to break off from the rim of hills and sink into the fathom- less water.
This sinking caused the earth to vibrate somewhat like an earthquake, and alarmed the people of that vicinity, some thinking the "end world," and the people prayed as they had never prayed before.
As this incident occurred during the Millerism period, some people were more prone to attribute the trembling and jar to heavenly than to earthly causes, for although there may not have been a Millerite in that neighborhood, yet the doctrine and teachings of the Rev. William Miller had been so universally disseminated and propagated that they doubtless in- fluenced many unconsciously. The time set by Miller for the end of the world, or as he put it, the second coming of Christ, was the year 1843, as he interpreted the prophecies, but as the expected event did not occur as pre- dicted other dates were given later, and the people were admonished to say not in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth His coming." The digging of this ditch outlet to the lake was a losing business for "Uncle Jonas." for instead of reclaiming land he had six acres engulfed, timber and all. A few years later, there was another sinking of land, the rim around the water caving in, increasing the lake to its present size of about nine acres, but as the low land has now all been engulfed, no apprehension is felt that any similar occurrence will take place in the future, and that no subterranean lake exists beneath the hills. Prior to this land-sinking episode, catfish, sunfish and other varieties abounded in the lake in great quantities, but they are not so abundant there now. The water of the lake when viewed as a body is an ocean green in tint of coloring, yet when dipped up seems pure and clear. The lake is circular in form and in its hill-framed setting is one of the most beautiful of the many attractive places in Richland county.
The lake is said to be bottomless, but the statement is doubtless made without authority. However, the lake is of great depth and in the various soundings bottom has been found at different depths, but seventy feet is given as the average, while at other places bottom could not be found even with a longer line. At the southeast is a gentle slope of ground studded with trees, making a shady grove in summer, from whose retreat one could imagine some Highland maid might appear and-
With hasty oar Push her light shallop from the shore."
To meet her Malcolm at the other side. But, alas, no Ellen comes in answer to the hunter's call.
The Bentley lake is not only beautiful in sunshine but is interesting in storms, when the thunder's deep reverberations roll like billows over its waters. And after the storms, the rainbow sheds its luster upon the placid
.
21
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
surface, no artist can sketch its beauty, while in the back-ground of the picture may be read by faith the eternal promise that the earth shall not again be destroyed by water.
LYONS' FALLS.
There are traditions that are not historically correct. For years past it has been generally believed in these parts that Lyons' Falls were named for the old Indian chieftain, Tom Lyons. It may seem like uncalled for iconoclasm to dispel belief in such a mythical personage as Lily Pipe. or to rob Lyons' Falls of Indian traditions. But history should be accurately given ; and its correct narration is more instructive than the erroneous one, and can be as entertainingly told as though its warp was woven with the woof of fiction.
Lyons' Falls are situated in Ashland county, about fifteen miles south- east of Mansfield. There are two falls, and the place, which has been a noted picnic resort for many years, is wild in its primitive forest and grand in its rugged picturesqueness. During the past summer a party of ladies and gentlemen, whose names are conspicuous on the list of Mansfield's "400." took a day's outing at these falls, and a grave was pointed out to them as that of "the noted Lyons;" and like many others they inferred that the Lyons buried there was the notorious Indian chieftain of that name. Upon their return to Mansfield they told entertainingly of the wooded hills and sylvan dells, of the overhanging rocks and of the eighty-foot leap of the waters from the edge of the precipice to the basin at the bottom of the chasm. casting its spray into the cool grottos which the hand of nature chiseled out of the everlasting rocks. And the further fact that the party had seen the grave of a great warrior lent additional interest to the story and to the locality.
With such allurements it was not long until another detachment of the "400" also visited these noted falls, and the gentlemen of the party fired volleys over the grave, danced a war dance and gave Indian funeral whoops and came home satisfied that they had held suitable commemorative cere- mony over the earthly resting place of the body of an Indian chieftain!
Tom Lyons, the Indian, who took a prominent part in the Wyoming massacre (1778). and was afterward a notorious character in the carly his- tory of Richland county, was killed by a young man named Joe Haynes. to avenge the murder of a kinsman, and he buried the old chief in Leedy's swamp in the southern part of Jefferson township. The Lyons buried at the falls was Paul Lyons, a white man. He was not a hermit. as one tradi- tion states, for he took to himself a wife, who bore him a son, and he did not particularly shun his neighbors, although he did not admit them into his confidence. What Paul Lyons' object and motives were for leaving the civilization of the East and seeking a home amid the rocks and hills of that wild and uninhabited part of the country are matters only of conjecture. for he never gave his antecedents, and refused to explain or to give reasons for hiding himself away in the forest and leading such a retired life. He had "squatted" on land too rough to till. and he never attempted to clear
22
HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
off the timber nor to cultivate the rocky soil. He simply built a cabin amid the trees and passed his time principally in hunting and fishing; but, as the country became settled around him and farmers needed help to harvest their crops, he often assisted them in such work. He never made any exhibition of money, yet always paid cash for what he bought. He has been described as a large man ; and that he had ability and education is shown by the state- ment of a lady now living, who says that he was an intelligent and enter- taining conversationalist and that at the funeral of a neighbor he read a chapter and sang a hymn, and that it was the best reading and singing she ever heard.
About 1856 Lyons, while assisting in hauling logs, met with an accident which resulted in his death, and he was buried upon the hill, between the two waterfalls. The late Rosella Rice had a headboard, painted and lettered, put up at the grave, but visitors shot at the board for a target until it was riddled into slivers by bullets, and later the body was exhumed and the skeleton mounted by a physician. A slight depression in the ground is now the only sign showing where the body had been interred.
Lyons' wife was not an intellectual woman, and it is said that she was sent away and died in an asylum. It is also reported that the boy was taken to an eleemosynary institution after his father's death, and that when he grew to manhood he went West and prospered.
The most noted personage for many years in the region of the falls was Lewis M. Lusk, who in his time played the fiddle for hundreds of dances. In past seasons there were dancing floors at the falls, and Lusk furnished the music with his "fiddle and his bow," while the dancers kept step to its enlivening strains. He is now deceased; but tourists will long remember seeing him sitting in the door or in the yard of his cabin, playing his fiddle, while the ripples of the waters of the Mohican seemed to echo the refrain of the music as the current of the stream swept around its graceful bend in front of the humble dwelling, the rugged rocks forming a rustic background to the picture framed by the encircling hills, all combining to impress the passers-by with the thoughts how sweet is music, how dear is home and how inspiring is all the handiwork of the Creator.
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.