History of Richland County, Ohio : (including the original boundaries) ; its past and present, containing a condensed comprehensive history of Ohio, including an outline history of the Northwest, a complete history of Richland county miscellaneous matter, map of the county, biographies and histories of the most prominent families, &c., &c., Part 30

Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio : (including the original boundaries) ; its past and present, containing a condensed comprehensive history of Ohio, including an outline history of the Northwest, a complete history of Richland county miscellaneous matter, map of the county, biographies and histories of the most prominent families, &c., &c. > Part 30

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).

In Plymouth Township, about three miles southwest of Plymouth Village, there is a quarry in the Berea grit, showing something of a transition between this quarry rock and the coarse conglomerate. About twelve feet in thickness of the rock has been exposed, the npper layers yellow, thin. and much broken ; the lower ones more massive, blue in color and a sandstone grit. The dip of the rock is 5°

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

north, and the quarry is twenty feet below an opening in the same rock at Plymouth Village.

This is the southern exposure in this neigh- borhood of unmistakable Berea, and there is great difficulty in tracing its connection with the outerops of massive sand-rock to the north- east, and in the central and eastern parts of the county. The surface rises to the northeast, is gently undulating, sometimes hilly, every- where exhibiting a thick deposit of drift, which conceals all the rocks, until a little north of Rome, in Blooming Grove Township. On the banks of a small stream about fifteen feet of rocks are exposed, consisting of soft argilla- ceous shales, with hard, bhie, tesselated bands which weather yellow, affording poor stone, but furnishing the only supply in this neighborhood. These present somewhat the appearance of the Bedford shales. belonging below the Berea, while. topographically, they are by the barom- eter 170 feet above the Berea last described. In Weller Township, one-half mile northwest of Olivesburg. a well was sunk. passing through twenty-one feet of unstratified clay drift, then striking a hard, fine-grained, blue sandstone, underlaid with alternate bands of sandstone and argillaceous shales. These were penetrated to the depth of nineteen feet, when a small sup- ply of water was obtained, and the explorations ceased. Four miles west, at Big Hill, the same sandstone is quarried. South of this, and in the hills immediately north of Windsor Sta- tion. in Weller Township, the Waverly con- glomerate is quarried and exposed by outerops and bluffs in several places. It is here 100 feet thick, and its surface, by barometer, is 400 feet above the exposure of the Berea in Plymouth Village. It is a coarse, massive sandstone, in places white. in others covered with iron, con- taining many quartz pebbles, and presenting a strong resemblance to the ordinary conglomer- ate. In one quarry, about thirty feet of the structure of the ledge is exposed. It is much broken up, and, except at the top, has no reg-

ular stratification, and is all coarse. In places it is full of pebbles, and bears little resemblance to any of the northern exposures of the Berea. Glacial striæ are here observed. bearing south 32° east.

If this is a continuation of the Berca. its lithological characters here rapidly changed. and in the distance of about twenty miles it has risen about four hundred feet. This may be the fact, but, from a comparison of all the ob- servations made, it is pretty certain that it has no connection with the Berea, but is simply an ancient shore deposit of coarse material. hav- ing no great horizontal range, and not always to be found on the same vertical horizon. The Waverly rocks in passing northward become much more siliceous, and the sandy layers are generally composed of coarser materials. In places they consist entirely. so far as they are exposed, of thin, fragile layers of sandy shale, constituting the typical olive shales of the Waverly. These, in places, pass into a com- pact quarry rock, similar to the Logan sand- stone of Fairfield County, and often. at a dis- tance of from 120 to 250 feet below the coal- measure rocks, are succeeded by this coarse Waverly conglomerate. This, it is true. is about the distance below the coal measures at which the Berea is found at the north. But there is a great thickening-up southward of the Waverly rocks, and this conglomerate has neither the persistence nor any of the litholog- ical characters of the Berea. Its base, where well defined in Knox County, is shown by bor- ings to be over three hundred and fifty feet above the top of the red or chocolate shales. which there is a well-defined horizon, and ap- pears to be identical with the Cleveland shales of the Cuyahoga Valley, which are about seventy feet only below the Berea. These hor- ings disclose the fact that the Huron, Erie, and Cleveland shales extend northward through these counties with little change in their litho- logical characters-the Erie greatly reduced in

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

thickness ; that above them there is a marked thickening of the Waverly rocks, and such change in their mineral constituents and modes of deposition, as to make their subdivision into Cuyahoga shales, Berea grit, and Bedford shales, so clearly defined in the Cuyahoga, impossi- ble. The interval between this rock and the coal measures also varies greatly, and it is evi- dent that at different horizons the sandy shales of the Waverly pass into coarse conglomerate, which form long, narrow ridges, with a north- erly and southerly bearing, and nowhere ex- tending in broad sheets in an easterly and west- erly direction. The fact is of interest, in this connection, that the whole body of the Waverly here is composed of coarser material. and is generally more homogeneous than further south.

The following sections will show the general character of the upper members of the Waverly, and the local character of the Waverly con- glomerate :

Section from top of hill, near the southwest corner of Washington Township, to the "oil- well" on the banks of the Mohican, six miles south of Loudonville : Feet

No. 1. Coarse ferruginous, cherty conglomerate.

No. 2. Olive shales of Waverly. 270

No. 3. Alternate bands of sandstone and argilla- ceous shales. 100

No. 4. Argillaceous shales, with nodules of iron ore,

many fragments of crinoids, spirifers, etc. 20

An exposure half a mile west of No. 3 of this section shows a coarse and more massive sand- stone, approaching to the Waverly conglomerate.

Section three-fourths of a mile northwest of Lucas:

Feet.

No. 1. Red and yellow conglomerate ... 10 to 18

No. 2. Hard white sand-rock in three layers ... 19

No. 3. Covered. 160

No. 4. Sand and argillaceous shales at bottom of valley ..

The upper part of the Waverly conglomerate is represented by the upper part of this sec- tion. The rock shows occasional seams of peb- bles, and in places colored bands, not as marked,

but of the same character as the Mansfield quarry. It is firm and strong, splitting easily in the lines of stratification. and furnishes a very good quarry rock.

Section at Newville: Feet.

No. 1. Olive shales of Waverly. 160

No. 2. White sand-rock 10 to 15

No. 3. Coarse sandstone with pebbles and bands of gravel. 80 to 100

The lower 100 feet of this section compose the rock bluffs at Newville, which present a striking resemblance to some of the outcrops of the sub-carboniferous conglomerate. It splits more readily into thin layers, and its true char- acter as the Waverly conglomerate is apparent from its mineral composition, as well as from its stratigraphical position.

Section at Daniel Zent's quarry. Bellville:

Feet.

No. 1. Earth. to

No. 2. Coarse pebbles of drift. 8 to 10

No. 3. Sandstone in thin layers. 15

No. 4. Sandstone in massive layers. 8

No. 5. Sandstone in layers of one to four feet .... 15

The rock of this exposure is much like the Logan sandstone, contains few pebbles, but is on the same horizon as the Waverly conglom- erate. º It affords a large amount of excellent building-stone, most of which is taken by the railroad company. This rock forms all the hills in this part of the county, which rise rapidly to the north to the height of thirty feet or more. It is in the coves and gorges cut down in this rock, and opening southward, that most of the gold of this county has been found, which is obtained not only at the bottom of the gorges, but from the earth which covers the slopes to the top. These facts, coupled with that of find- ing many erratics of quartz in the tops of the hills to the north and northwest, indicate that this gold was brought in by the recent, and not by the Waverly drift.

Many layers in this quarry are conspicuously ripple-marked, and remains of fucoids are

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

abundant. Northward from this locality, on the road toward Mansfield, the hills rise through the olive shales of the Waverly to the height of 350 feet above the base of this quarry. The character of the rock is well shown in the hills ; is a yellow, fine-grained, shelly sandstone, and valueless as a quarry rock. Approaching Mans- field, it becomes coarser, more massive, and more highly colored with iron, and finally passes into a coarse, massive sand-rock, evident- ly the Waverly conglomerate, the top of which is 145 feet above the base of the quarry at Bell- ville. Ninety feet below this, in the bed of a stream, alternate layers of argillaceous and sandy shales are exposed.

The top of the quarry east from Mansfield is twenty feet below the top of this coarse sand- rock, and is a continuation of it, the town rest- ing upon this formation, which crops out on all sides of it. About sixty feet of the rock is here exposed. It is all much broken; the upper thirty feet in thin layers, the lower thirty feet in layers of from one to six feet thick. Much of the rock is beautifully colored in waved bands and lines of black, yellow and red, as delicately shaded as the best artificial grain- ing of wood. Very beautiful specimens can be obtained, and if it were harder it would make a very ornamental building stone. It dresses smoothly and endures exposure well, but is soft and easily worn away by abrasion.

On Brushy Fork, near Millsborough, about six miles west of Mansfield, and thirty-five feet above the Mansfield quarry, is the outerop of the same rock, of which the following is a sec- tion : Feet.

No. 1. Coarse, shaly sandstone in broken layers. 12

No. 2. Ferruginous sandstone, with waved lines of stratification 6 to 10

No. 3. Coarse, massive sandstone, with irregular veins of iron. 6 No. 4. Shelly sandstone. 8

No. 5. Blue argillaceous shale, with bands of hard, fine-grained sandstone, to bottom of exposure

The upper members are the thinning-ont of the Mansfield rock, the equivalent of the Wav- erly conglomerate. On the opposite side of the stream, the yellow sand-rock is about thir- ty-five feet thick, coarse, ferruginons, with black iron streaks. There are about ten inches of light-colored and firm stone. All the rest, so far as exposed, is worthless for building pur- poses.

The rock at the bottom is blue argillaceous shale, with hard, blue bands, bearing a close resemblance to the Erie shales ; no fossils dis- covered. In places, interstratified between the layers of the yellow sandstone, there is a layer of ten to twelve inches of white argillaccous shale, which, when disintegrated, bears a close resemblance to the fire-clays of the coal meas- ures. Outcrops of this rock are to be seen northward, near Lexington, and between Lex- ington and Bellville, containing quartz pebbles and many nodules of soft iron ore ; all the rock, in thin layers, extending to the tops of the hills, making the connection complete between the Mansfield and Bellville quarries. The Clear Fork here flows through a broad alluvial valley, bordered with heavy hills of modified drift, generally sandy, in places composed of coarse, water-worn pebbles and bowlders, the stream occupying the raised bed of the old channel, which passes west of Mansfield, and connects the waters of the lake with the Ohio.

Between the top of the argillaceous and sil- iceons shales, which very generally underlie the horizon of the Waverly conglomerate, there is au interval of something over three hundred feet, before the Berea, which is quarried in the extreme northwest corner of the county, is reached. The northern part of the county is comparatively level, the surface deeply covered with unmodified clay drift, except along the lines of ancient erosion, where the sand-ridges equally mark the geological structure. Hence there are very few rock exposures, and these so

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

isolated that the section cannot be constructed in detail. So far as seen, it is composed of alternate strata of argillaceous and siliceons shales having little economic value, though some of the layers afford a fair stone for ordi- nary foundation purposes.

Economic Geology .- From what has already been written, it is apparent that the mineral deposits of the county are not of very great economie value.

The heavy beds of the Waverly afford an inexhaustible supply of stone of good quality for bridge and foundation purposes, which would also make a very fair building stone, but not equal in value to the Berea north of it, or to the more homogeneous and finer-grained sandstones of the Waverly, further south. The peculiarly rich, but rather gaudy, coloring of the rock from the quarry near Mansfield and other places would, if properly selected, make highly ornamental window caps, sills. etc., and might be used for the entire fronts of buildings.

The Berea is too far beneath the surface to be accessible, except at the northwest corner of the county, and does not there present its best characteristics.

The iron ore of the county consists of the siliceous ore occupying the horizon of the conglomerate at the tops of the highest hills, nodules of elay-iron stone found here and there throughout the rock formations, and bog ore found in a few places on the surface. None of these are in sufficient quantity or of sufficient purity to pay for transportation to parts where they could be economically used.

Since the explorations of the county were made, considerable local interest has been man-

ifested in the reported discovery of coal by deep borings in the immediate neighborhood of Mansfield. Coal is exhibited, said to have been taken from the borings. It is a legitimate part of the work of a geological survey to expose and to prevent frauds of this kind so far as it can be done, but not to assert that any particu- lar individual has attempted or practiced a fraud. This is the province of the courts, upon a proper case being presented to them. It is enough to say here that there is some mistake in regard to these pretended discoveries. Thin seams of carbonaceous matter, or thick beds of bituminous shale may be reached by boring in this vicinity, but no coal seams will ever be found beneath the city of Mansfield or the adjacent country, and all pretended discoveries of them may at once be set down as either frauds or mistakes. The only place where coal can pos- sibly be found in the county is near the tops of the hills in the northeastern part. In none of the hills examined, were coal-measure rocks found, and the highest are capped with the carboniferous conglomerate, which is below the coal; so that the probabilities are that no coal will be found in any of the hills. Explorations in Holmes County have shown that hills of Waverly rock in places rose above the margin of the old coal swamps, and that coal is now found near them at a lower level. It is, there- fore, barely possible that some outlying deposit may exist in this part of the county, and that these have not been discovered in making the survey. It may be positively asserted, how- ever, that no extensive and valuable deposits of coal will ever be found west of the Holmes County line, in Richland.

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ARCHAEOLOGY .*

MOUND BUILDERS-MOUNDS CLASSIFIED-MOUNDS AND EARTH-WORKS IN RICHLAND COUNTY-RELICS-COPPER AND STONE IMPLEMENTS-AXES, MAULS, HAMMERS, ETC .- MORTARS AND PESTLES-PLATES, THREAD SIZERS, SHUTTLES, ETC .- WANDS AND BADGES-PAINT-CUPS, PIPES.

Before the white man, the Indian ; before the Indian, -?

THE archæology of any county forms one of its most interesting chapters. Who the ancient dwellers were, what they did, what lives they led, are all questions of con- jecture now. Their history appears only in their silent monuments, as silent as the race they perpetuate. The relics they left are the only key to their lives now possessed, and these give a history whose antiquity seems almost Adamic. The principal remains left in this part of Ohio consist of earthworks, mounds and parapets, filled with the rude implements of the people who built them, and with the bones of these lost portions of humanity. From their proclivities to build these earth- works, these people are known as "Mound- Builders," the only name that now fits their peculiar style of life. The mounds erected by them are of all sizes and shapes, and range in height from three or four feet to sixty or seventy feet. In outline, they are of equal magnitude, though none of great height were ever known to exist in the confines of Richland County. What have been discovered are generally small in size and irregular in outline. They have, in nearly all instances, been much reduced in height, as the hand of modern man demands them for practical purposes.

The earth mounds are classified as sepulchral, sacrificial, temple or truncated ; mounds of ob-

servation, symbolical or animal-also known as emblematie-and mounds of defense. The first named, sepulchral, are the most common of any. Emblematical or symbolical mounds are not known to exist in this county. If they did in the earliest days of the whites, all traces of them have been obliterated by that leveler of savage country-the plow. Sepulchral mounds were devoted to the purpose of burial, and were generally pyramidal in form, and usually con- tained layers of clay, ashes, charcoal, various soils and one or more skeletons, often very many.

Sacrificial mounds are usually stratified, the strata being convex layers of clay and loam, the layers alternating above a layer of fine sand. They also contain ashes, igneous stones, char- coal, calcined animal bones, beads, implements of stone, pottery and rude sculpture. They also have altars of burned clay or stone, rest- ing in the center of the mound upon the original earth, on which the people offered sacrifice, em- ploying fire for the purpose.

Mounds of observation-sometimes termed defensive-are found upon prominent eleva- tions. They were, doubtless, alarm posts. watch- towers, signal stations, or outlooks. They commonly occur in chains or regular systems, and still bear traces of the beacon fires that once burned upon them.

In addition to the division of mounds already made, some add monumental or memo- rial mounds, not numerous, supposed to have been erected as memorials to the distinguished dead among the Mound-Builders.

* The notes aud material of this chapter were prepared by Mr. Edw. Wilkinson, who has given the subject some study, and who has one of the finest private cabinets in the county. The chapter was written from his notes by Mr. A. A. Graham, the compiler of the history.

HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

177

But few of the mounds in Richland County have been properly opened. The examinations have rarely been systematic, and hence much has been lost. Commonly, the plow has been run over the mounds, regardless of the history a careful search would develop, until almost all traces of their existence have been obliterated. This ruthless leveling of the mounds has not been accomplished, however, merely to gratify the iconoclastic propensities of the plowman -their cupidity moved them. They wanted the

nothing of special interest was found. Numer- ous stone relies were found in and about the inclosure. It was, mayhap, a place of defense in the prehistorie days.

In that part of Polk Township, in Crawford County, formerly a part of this county, about one and one-half miles southwest of Galion. there is an inclosure of about one acre. It is shaped like a horseshoe, which would bring it under the head of symbolical mounds. This inclosure has never been well explored. Relics of

WEDGE-SHAPED IMPLEMENTS.

corn the mounds would produce. Running the plowshare through the mounds was not a very successful method of obtaining a knowledge of their contents. Of the mounds examined in this county in a systematic manner, mention may be made as follows :

In the southeast quarter of Section 15, in that part of Auburn Township formerly in this county, there is an inclosure of nearly four acres. There is a well-defined gateway at the eastern side, and near it a walled well. This well was dug out to a depth of nearly fifteen feet, but

stone have been found in it, indicating that at one time it was a resort of those who erected it.

About one mile southwest of this mound, is another, four or five feet in height, and about eighteen feet in diameter. It is supposed to have been a sepulchral mound. and has not, as far as is known, been opened.

In Springfield Township, on what is known as the Palmer farm, and just east of the Palmer spring, is a small mound, about five feet in height, and ten or twelve feet in diameter. It. also, has never been opened.

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

In Sandusky Township, near the line between Sandusky and Polk, exists a mound, six or eight feet high, and, originally. twenty feet in diam- eter. It has been greatly reduced by the plow.

Section 16, there is a double mound about thirty feet high. It is supposed to be artificial; but it has never been excavated. There is also a depression which the early settlers reported

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STONE AND CLAY PIPES.

It was undoubtedly a sepulchral mound, as relies are often found about it to warrant such a conclusion.

In Jefferson Township, on the farm of Mr. Reuben Evarts, on the northeast quarter of

as a walled well. On the Lafferty farm, in this same township, there is a large mound, seventy or eighty feet high, and as perfect as a sugar- loaf in form. It has never been excavated. but appears to be artificial. On account of its size,

HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

179

however, many have doubted the authenticity of the statements made concerning it. The pioneers say it was used by the Indians as a place of burial.

In Jackson Township, on John Palmer's farm (Section 29), there is a mound about four feet high and twenty feet in diameter. Dr. J. W. Craig took from this mound several spear-heads. There was also found burnt clay, with charcoal and bones, which evidenced that it was a sacri- ficial mound. A few miles to the east of this there is another small mound, which has not yet been explored.

Dr. William Bushnell remembers there was a mound in Mifflin Township, situated about fifteen rods to the east of Black Fork, just

east of the city of Mansfield. The work con- sists of a well-defined oval embankment with aged oaks growing thercon, and is 594 feet long, 238 feet wide, and contains two and two-thirds acres. South 75 degrees, and west 710 feet, is a living spring of considerable power, and it was evidently here that the prehistoric man, who made this place his home, obtained water. From the lower end of the embankment to the spring is a ravine, perhaps artificial, which made a very convenient path. On the way to the spring is a " furnace," an excavated place walled with uneut stone. Several years ago a portion of this "furnace " was excavated, and a con- siderable amount of charcoal, stone implements, paint, etc .. were discovered ; but the work

SCRAPERS-FLINT.

northeast of the A. & G. W. R. R. bridge. He thinks it may have been fifteen feet high and fifty feet in diameter. It had several large oak- trees growing on its top, showing it to have been of ancient formation. It has been almost entirely obliterated by the plow. and could hardly be located now. There is another mound in this township, on the farm of Solomon Bal- liet. It is about eighty rods southeast of Simpson's Schoolhouse. It is placed on a high

ridge, is of stone, and is about three feet high and fifteen feet in diameter. It was, doubtless, a mound of observation, a place of outlook, or, did it exist in use to-day, would be termed a " sentinel mound."

The most noted earthwork in the county is in Madison Township, about one-half mile north-

ceased in its incipiency, owing to a lack of funds. Leading ont from the embankment is a series of depressions, arranged geometrically, of va- rious widths and depths, some of which are four feet in depth, and some ten to twenty feet in diameter.

A partial investigation of this earthwork was made in September, 1879, by a few inter- ested individuals, and a survey made by Mr. John Newman, the County Surveyor. Owing to a lack of funds, the work was only temporaily made. One of the depressions referred to was excavated to the depth of eight feet. The in- dications were that the ground had been exca- vated by the prehistoric man, but for what pur- pose was not made apparent. It is hoped that a full investigation will in time be made of this

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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

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Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Mansfield, O. : A. A. Graham & co.
Number of Pages: 968