USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 29
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
ceding waters, one of which sweeps through a part of Michigan and Indiana, as far west as Fort Wayne, thence down through Van Wert, Allen, and Hancock, and including Sandusky county; another sweeping southward only as far as Defi- ance, but also including Sandusky county. By this we see that the land in Sandusky county, and all north of it to the lake, was amongst the latest to appear above the waters in this region of country.
Finally, after the lapse of ages, the sva, which once covered this goodly land, sub- sided into the confines of the Atlantic Ocean, and the trough of its bottom formed the chain of great lakes, with their tributary rivers draining the fresh waters from the rains and snows of nearly half a continent.
FORMATION OF THE SOIL.
As the water receded, the land, thrown under the direct influence of the rays of the sun, produced vegetation, which decay- ing upon the surface of the clay, gravel and sand deposited by the water, formed our soils. West and north of the sand ridge, called York North Ridge, north of Clyde, and Butternut Ridge, south of it, so much of this vegetable deposit had ac- cumulated that the land would not pro- duce wheat for the first white settlers. It was too rich for wheat farming. This was the case especially with that portion of the county lying in what has been known as the Black Swamp, which us- ually designated that level portion of the county west of the Sandusky River and "to the Maumee.
The soil in this part, now including the townships of Scott, Madison, Woodville, Rice, and the west part of Sandusky, was of this character. The township of Riley and a part of Townsend was similar in formation and soil to the Black Swamp proper.
On these soils when first plowed, es- pecially the Black Swamp proper, corn, grass, and potatocs were produced in won- derful abundance; but wheat and oats would over-grow, fall down and blast, and sometimes rot before harvest time. It was found, however, that after from five to ten years of tillage and drainage, this same land produced such crops of wheat as made the heart of the farmer glad, and now, this once forbidding and often con- demned Black Swamp, ranks as one of the most productive portions of the State for all kinds of grain, grass, roots, and fruit.
It was no holiday amusement, however, to make a good farm in the Black Swamp. Real stalwarts were required to contend with water and mud under foot, while lev- eling and burning great tall trees, which spread out their branches overhead, al- most entirely excluding the rays of the sun from the earth.
The horse was little used in the clear- ing of the Black Swamp; that animal was too fiery, nervous and thin-skinned to en- dure the mud, brush, flies, and mosqui- toes which hindered, fretted, and tortured horses.
The more patient, stolid, and thick- skinned ox was preferred, and almost al- ways used to drag the logs together for burning, and drawing the loaded cart or wagon through the mud and water.
For many years of the early settlement the Black Swamp was the favorite local- ity for the fever and ague and intermittent fever, then so common in all parts of the West, and was a bonanza for the physi- cian. Now, however, an ox team can hard- ly be found; horses are universally used, and this once sickly locality is as healthy as any other portion of the county. The first lands entered and settled upon in the Black Swamp were those along the creeks and Portage River. Between these streams lay level land and shallow swails, where
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
the water stood from the fall rains until July or August anbually. These were considered of little value for some time afterward. Excepting the courage, indus- try and perseverance of the settlers, noth- ing has contributed so much to the recla- mation of the Black Swamp as the system of public dilches, introduced into the county in 1859, under an act of the Gen- eral Assembly of that year. This act gave the county commissioners of all the counties in the State, on the petition of inhabitants, the right to locate and cause ditches to be constructed, and have the expenses charged upon the land according to the benefits conferred on the several tracts.
William Driftmire, of Madison town- ship, a native of Germany, has the distinc- tion of first petitioning for a ditch under the law. The system of ditching which followed this first experiment of Mr. Drift- meir may be noticed more in detail in this work under the head of improvements.
The eastern portion of the county, es- pecially that part lying south and east of the sand ridge on which Clyde is situ- ated, presented to the earlier settler a mere inviting soil, not so heavily timbered, and most of it well drained by reason of its undulating or rolling surface. The sandy soil quickly absorbed the surface water, or collected it into limited spaces, connected frequently with what were com- monly called sink-holes, where the water was conducted by a natural funnel down into the fissures of the lime-rock under- lying that part of the county for a consid- erable distance east of Bellevue, which is situated on the east line of Sandusky and west line of Huron county, which divides that enterprising and wealthy village.
These features of the eastern portion of the county account for the fact that that part was settled and developed much earlier than the western part. This eastern portion
when first settled, unlike the western, was good wheat land from the first breaking up and tillage of the soil, and by proper farming is still producing superior crops of wheat, in both quantity to the acreage and qual- ity of grain. For fruit, no better region can be found than the eastern portion of the county.
There is, perhaps, less poor and waste land in Sandusky county than in almost any other county of like dimensions in the State. On the whole, then, it may be said, that for richness of soil, and capacity for agricultural and horticultural productions, the county takes high standing among the best counties of the State.
GENERAL INCLINATION OF THE SURFACE.
The general inclination of the surface is from south to north, while the most au- thentic measurements . of altitude indicate also a descent from west to east. Belle- vue is stated to be one hundred and nine- ty-one feet above the average level of Lake Erie, Clyde one hundred and twenty-seven feet, and Fremont, at the site of the court- house, where it is presumed the meas- urements were taken, only sixty-two feet above the surface level of the Lake. Notwithstanding this result of measure- ments, which are probably correct, the Portage and the Sandusky River bear strongly to the east or north as they flow, the former into the lake and the latter into Sandusky Bay, and all the creeks have the same general direction. This apparent difference between the altitude, ascertained by measurement, in indicating the general inclination of the surface, can no doubt be reconciled. Various causes may be as- signed for the direction of a creek or river differing somewhat from the general in- clination of the surface-as a ledge of rock, the tenacity of the soil, and especially minor inclinations of the surface in a di- rection opposite to that of the general in- clination.
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
TIMBER.
The county when first formed included nearly all of what now composes the county of Ottawa, the territory of which was part prairie land. Ottawa county was organized in the year 1840, and left San- dusky with its present boundaries. The county, as now formed, was originally tim- · bered land. In the south part of York township were found oak openings where the timber was not heavy, but all the other parts, saving a little prairie in Scott and Rice townships, were heavily timbered. Among the trees were found white, black, red, yellow, pin, and burr oak, white and red elm, shell-bark and smooth-bark hick- ory, black, white, and blue ash, poplar, cottonwood, black walnut, butternut, some mulberry, maple, honey-locust, beech, iron- wood, dogwood, and in two localities, one about three miles north of Fremont, on the east side of the river, the other on the ridge south of Clyde, in Green Creek township, a few chestnut trees ; occasion- ally was found a tree of pepperidge. Of all these kinds of timber the black walnut is now the most sought for as well as the most valuable. The primitive forests along the streams, especially along the Sandusky River and Green Creek, were largely made up of grand black walnut trees. On the river, in the vicinity of the mouth of Wolf Creek, in Ballville town- ship, on quite a scope of land, this was the only, or nearly the only, timber. The farmers who first settled there used the best and straightest of these grand trees for rails with which to fence their farms. The timber split easily, and the rails were durable, it is true, and there was then no market in this region for either the logs or the lumber made from them, and besides, at the time of the earlier settlement, there were no saw-mills to make the logs into lumber. Therefore, what of this now val- uable timber was not used for rails was
burned up or girdled in clearing the land. No doubt the walnut timber thus de- stroyed, if standing now, would buy the land and fence many of the farms in that locality with costly iron fences. But the settler must have bread, bread must be raised by tilling the earth, and the land to be tilled must be cleared, and so the tim- ber, whatever it was, gave way to the necessities of the time. But that necessity is now past, and the now great value of timber, if it was here again, admonishes the people to wisely care for what is left, and guard against future costliness of tim- ber by preserving what is left, and also looking to a judicious reproduction of it for future use.
The history of the county, without some mention of its geological structure, would be incomplete. This science, which has done so much within the half century last past to reveal and interpret to the pres- ent age the various forces engaged, and the different periods occupied in the forma- tions of the earth's present surface, pre- sents some subjects of interest in almost every locality. In fact, it may be said that the geological structure of the United States, and that of Canada also, was a sealed book until visited by Sir Charles Lyell, the British geologist, in 1841, when he made many interesting observations which he published on his return to Eng- land. He again visited America in 1845, and made further investigations. The publication of Mr. Lyell's works awakened so much interest in the public mind, es- pecially those fond of that line of study, that it stimulated investigation, and the investigations revealed the utility of the science, not only in solving theories about the earth's formation, but for practical pur- poses, in discovering the location of valu- able mineral deposits, wherever located. Especially has this science been of great service to mankind in determining the
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
locality of coal deposits, so necessary for the comfort and business of the people of the present day. It is worthy of remark that since Sir Charles Lyell drew attention to this geology, in 1841, the efforts made under its teaching and practical applica- tion have been such that almost all our States and nearly all civilized nations have prosecuted investigations under its teach- ings, with great results to wealth and com- fort for the world at large. At present no State is satisfied without a thorough geo- logical survey, by which the people are almost as well and as certainly informed of what is hidden deep down in the earth, as they are of the geography or topography of their surroundings on the surface. This grand science has of late years been well and thoroughly applied to every county in the State with results which make Ohio proud and rich in mineral resources.
So far as the geological survey of San- dusky county is involved, it may be said that it presents not so many remarkable features as some other parts of the State. But some particulars are interesting and worthy of notice, among which are, that this survey and report convinces the careful reader that the clays and gravels of our soil are what is called in geological phrase, drift, that is, the matter brought first in the ice period by glaciers, and then afterwards supplemented with the deposits from icebergs, and the remainder of the soil is either vegetable matter which grew upon and decayed on this drift, or deposits by the succeding waters which prevailed ; that Lake Erie at one time covered the lands of the county and from its waters came further deposits ; that the sands and gravel found in heaps and beds in the southeastern part of the county, in parts of York, Townsend and Green Creek townships, were washed and heaped there by the action of the waters of the lake after the sea had subsided ; that the prairies
in the southwestern part of Scott township were formed by undulations in the surface of what is denominated the limestone, which underlies the soil a little below the surface. This rock is called by geologists the Niagara limestone. A depression of this rock, with a raised rim on the northern inclination, held the water in pools, so that vegetation grew and decayed until it be- came a wet prairie. The prairies north of Fremont, beginning six miles north on the road to Port Clinton, and on to the north line of the county below Big Mud Creek, must have been of a different ori- gin.
The soil of these prairies is but little above the still waters of the mouth of the river and Sandusky Bay, and no doubt emerged from the water at a comparatively late period; hence the soil, being a wet, tough, bluish-colored clay, was unfavorable for the growth of timber. This prairie, as you travelled down the river, made its ap- pearance about the present residence of Grant Forguson, esq., on the north half of section two, township five, range fifteen. At this point the traveller going north, as late as 1825, perhaps later, emerged from the heavy timber-land south of it into an open prairie, with a few scattering trees of burr oak and elm, and occasionally a lim- ited grove or single tree. The grass was thick and tall, much of it what was called blue-joint, rising above a horse's back, and almost walling in the narrow wagon way for the greater part of the distance from Lower Sandusky to the present site of Port Clinton. The present county line of Sandusky, next to the south line of Ottawa county, crosses this road now about half a mile below Mud Creek bridge, and does not include a very large portion of this once prairie land.
OF THE ROCKS IN THE COUNTY.
It has often happened that persons trav- elling through the western part of the
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
county would find localities where in the forest they would see water and rock on the surface, and the same surface covered with a growth of trees whose roots seemed to draw nourishment out of the crevices and depressions in the surface rock. This rock was coarse limestone, and the sur- face of it rough and seamed by the action · of the elements and frost. Such persons would generally remark that they never be- fore saw such trees growing on rock which was almost bare, nor such a formation of land. Several such spots were found in Woodville township, some in Washington, Madison, and Jackson; but those most marked by the characteristics mentioned were probably found in Woodville, where many were deceived in the selection of their land when there was snow on the ground. The timber, often sugar and beech of good growth, indicated a good soil, but in fact, the land when cleared was of little value and could not be tilled.
Geology, though it does not make such land valuable for farming, explains how these tracts came by this deceptive pe- culiarity. First, there is limestone, called the Niagara group, which underlies a large portion of the county. Second, the drift which had been deposited on this rock in former ages by the sea, when it prevailed over the land and subsided, was eroded or worn and eaten away by the action of the waters of Lake Erie, and in many places the rock left bare. There are out croppings of this rock in the townships of Woodville, Madison, Washington, Ballville, and Jack- son. The most conspicuous exhibition of this outcropping is at Moore's Mill, a little above the village of Ballville, at the south- ern termination of the dam of Dean's woollen factory in the village. These out- cropping rocks, however they may, in some degree, impair a small portion of the land for tillage, are not without a com- pensating benefit when fully considered.
Immense quantities of superior white lime and good building stone, especially for foundation and cellar walls, also stone for paving and for macadamizing roads are conveniently distributed over the county. Mr. J. S. Newberry expresses the opinion that quarries could be opened into this Niagara limestone, in the west part of the county, and stone taken out equal in value for building purposes to the famous Dayton stone. If this be so, the time may not be far distant when the advancement in the re- quirements of business and improvements, and the increase of permanent structures at Toledo, Detroit, and other cities of the country around will demand the opening of these quarries and show them to be beds of immense value.
HARD-PAN.
This substance, the great dread of those who dig wells, underlies deeply a large portion of the county. People often won- der what it is made of, and how it came where they find it. Geology answers by informing us that the finely ground particles of rock were pulverized and depos- ited by the glaciers and icebergs during the period when the sea covered the land, a part of which time this latitude was subjected to an arctic temperature. This debris was most probably brought from the highlands of the Canadas, and being ground into extreme fineness settled to the bottom when the ice which brought it melted away, leaving the fine sediment to compact into a solid mass. Excepting solid rock, we find no portion of the earth's element so impervious to water and so well adapted to resist the action of it as hard-pan. Over this lies the deposits of the lake, which together form the drift.
This drift, the geological survey informs us, covers the whole county with nearly a uniform spreading, but thicker in the eastern than in the western part, because
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
the rock in the western part was more stripped or denuded by the action of the waters of Lake Erie. The average depth
of this drift, or these deposits, it is esti- mated, would not be more than one hun- dred feet.
CHAPTER XIX.
IRON BRIDGES AND DRAINAGE.
Bridges-When Built-Cost of Bridges-Ditching-Underground Draining and Tiling.
THE preceding chapters give the reader to understand that the early settlers of the county, especially the western part of it, travelled through mud, and crossed the streams by ferry or fording.
The first method resorted to for over- coming the inconveniences resultin from a soft, wet soil, was the making of corduroy road over the portions where the swail or very deep inud made the passage most difficult. The corduroy road was made by laying round logs across the track, side by side, in contact with each other. The wagon was trun- dled over these logs, and the motion was healthy for dyspeptics. That formed the purely primitive corduroy, but the highly finished road of this kind was made by throwing a little earth or rotten wood over the logs, to break the jolt, in some meas- ure. These corduroy roads abounded in the west part of the county, and in parts of Riley and Townsend townships, as late as 1840, or say forty years ago. At the date mentioned the Greensburg road, the macadamizing of which we noticed in a preceding section of this chapter, consist- ed, in great part, of the corduroy.
But we were to give an account of the iron bridges in the county. As everyone would naturally expect, the county, as
soon as strong enough, began to bridge the streams where the roads crossed them. Sometimes the bridges were built by vol- untary labor, and contribution of mate- rials by those most deeply interested in the improvement. At other times, in the early settlement, the supervisors of roads would apply the two days' labor of each able-bodied resident of his district, which the law of the State required him to per- form, to the building, in whole or part, of a much needed bridge. The bridges thus built were of the simplest form and cheap- est construction, but they answered the purpose for a time. Then came the day of framed bridges, with stone work for abutments, which was a long step in ad- vance; but these would decay and require rebuilding every few years, often in conse- quence of flood, and if not by flood or fire, then from natural decay of the timber. Meantime the increase in the manufacture of iron, and the uses to which it was found to be economically applicable, were going on, while the price of iron was reduced by the development of the vast iron de- posits in the hills of Ohio; and iron bridges were one of the results of the con- sequent progress in the utilization of the wonderful substance. While the earth has stored away and preserved for unknown
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
ages, the evidence that a race of men in- habited its surface who did not know the uses of iron, and, although it was known to men, and utilized to a limited extent in times of great antiquity, the knowledge of it antedating the composition of the Old Testament writings, still, the uses to which it is applied, the facility with which . it is now found and produced, and the quantity used in the present age, entitles it to the just appellation of the age of iron. Happily for us, these advances in the manufacture and the uses of iron, evolved the iron bridge for common ways amongst the inhabitants of Sandusky county, and we record the erection of the
FIRST IRON BRIDGE IN SANDUSKY COUNTY.
The first iron bridge erected in the county, was built over Mud Creek near the village of Millersville, in Jackson township, in the year 1870, and on the macadamized road called the Greensburg road, described in a former chapter.
The stone work for this bridge cost about four hundred dollars, and the iron superstructure cost precisely eight hun- dred and seventy dollars. The bridge was put up by the King Bridge Company, of Cleveland. The length of this bridge is twenty seven feet span, and width about eighteen feet.
The county commissioners who are en- titled to the honor of first introducing the iron bridge into the county, were Benja- min Inman, Samuel E. Walters, and Henry Reiling.
The next iron bridge in order of time, put up in the county, was over Wolf Creek, near Bettsville, and on the line be- tween Seneca and Sandusky counties, June 26, 1872. This bridge was erected under a joint contract between the com- missioners of Seneca and Sandusky coun- ties on one part, and the Wrought Iron Bridge Company, of Canton, Ohio, on 26
the other part. The iron work alone cost eight hundred and thirty-eight dollars and fifteen cents, of which amount each of the above named counties paid one-half. John P. Elderkin, sr., was the agent of the Wrought Iron Bridge Company in the contracts with that company.
The third iron bridge in the county was built over Mud Creek, in Washington township, near the residence of Levi Fought. This was also put up by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company, of Can- ton, Ohio, at a cost of seven hundred and ninety-five dollars, for the superstructure alone, and was erected in the fall of 1874. The commissioners were John Morrison, Martin Longenbach, and William F. Sand- wish.
The same year, 1874, another iron bridge was put up over Mud Creek, in Scott township, near the residence of James Inman, at a cost of seven hundred and seventy-five dollars for the iron super- structure, contracted for between the same commissioners last above named, and Mr. Elderkin as agent for the Wrought Iron Bridge Company, of Canton.
In the fall of the year 1876 an iron bridge of the same make was erected over Mud Creek, where it is crossed by the road from Fremont to Oak Harbor, con- tracted for by the same commissioners, namely: John Morrison, Martin Longen- bach, and William F. Sandwish. The cost of the iron superstructure for this bridge was eight hundred and sixty-two dollars and fifty cents.
Another iron bridge was built over Sugar Creek, in Woodville township, completed and paid for January 3, 1876, at a cost of eight hundred and fifty dollars. Con- tracted for by same commissioners last above mentioned, with same bridge com- pany.
At the same time was completed and paid for the iron bridge over Toussaint
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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.
Creek, in Woodville township, at a cost of seven hundred and eighty-one dollars and twenty-five cents, by the same commis- sioners and company.
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