USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. I > Part 4
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Northwest quarter of section 29. Noah Einsel has a hand- some quarry. in beds which dip east, northeast.
Northwest quarter of section 20. Reed township. The Upper Corniferous is quarried by Mr. Armstrong.
Throughout the county, the drift lies as it was left by the glacier. The mass of it is an unassorted hardpan, but it shows locally the glacial stratification incident to streams of water arising from the dissolution of the ice. Such cases of stratification are most common in the great valleys where the waters necessarily accumulated. They are by no means common, nor uniform in their location in the drift vertically. In some cases the stratifica- tion arises nearly or quite to the surface. or prevails to the depth of thirty or forty feet ; in others it embraces one or more beds of hardpan, which have irregular outlines; in section 20, Eden town- ship, the banks of Honey creek were particularly noted, and may be described as follows :
No. 3-Talus of round pebbles and stones mostly limestone, and frequently stained with iron oxide.
The thickness of the drift cannot be stated with certainty. At Attica, in the township of Venice. wells penetrate it to the
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depth of sixty feet without striking the rock. This is the highest point within the county, and the general surface is rolling.
Next to the products of the soil, the most important resources of Seneca county consist in the products of the quarries. Through- out most of the county there is no difficulty in obtaining good build- ing stone, although the best quarries are situated a little unfavor- ably for the townships of London. Big Spring. Seneca. Eden, Pleasant, Venice and Reed. The quarries at Tiffin furnish stone throughout a radius of many miles, while those in Bloom town- ship supply a great tract of country south and east. The quarries in Thompson township, although located in the Upper Corniferous. are affording one of the best qualities of stone in northwestern Ohio; they are favorably exposed for working, but less developed than similar openings in Bloom township. This is doubtless due to the superior advantages of quarries further north, and at Belle- vue. in Sandusky county, for reaching market and for shipment by railroad.
For lime the Niagara and waterlime formations are chiefly used. They are more easily quarried and more cheaply burned than the Upper Corniferous. Both are burned at Tiffin, but the kilus are rude and the expense of burning is greater than where the improved kilns are employed.
Clay for brick and red pottery is found in suitable quantities in all parts of the county. Many establishments for the manu- facture of brick employ the surface of the ordinary hardpan, in- eluding even the soil; others reject the immediate surface, which contains roots and turf. and burn the hardpan from the depth of a foot or two. This material, although liable to contain pebbles of limestone, which injure the manufactured article, generally has it in such small quantity and in so comminuted a state, as to re- quire no other flux for the silica. The tile, brick and pottery made in this way are suitable for all purpose, where no great degree of heat is required. J. M. Zahn, of Tiffin, after many careful experiments, has succeeded in making a good quality of hydraulic cement by mixing the finest of the drift clay, in proper parts, with ordinary carbonate of lime or tufa. He has also pro- duced from the drift clay near Tiffin, by making proper selections. a very fine pottery, some of which cannot be distinguished from the terra cotta ware used for ornaments and statues. It has a very vitreous fracture, a smooth surface and a dark red or amber color. From the drift clay near Tiffin. HI. W. Creeger also ob- tained a fine material for pottery and for glazing with salt.
Before the development of the Lake Superior and Missouri iron mines, one of the principal sources of iron in the northwest was the bog ore deposits, which are scattered over much of the country. In northwestern Ohio, the numerous furnaces which
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were employed on these deposits along the south shore of Lake Erie, and in counties further south and west, rendered bog ore an important item of mineral wealth. It produces an iron known as "cold short" owing to the presence of phosphorus, which cannot be used for wire or for sheet iron, but is valuable for castings. On the contrary iron from the ores which contain sulphur as an im- purity, or silicon, is friable or brittle when hot, and is distinguished as "red short." When these two qualities occur in close proxi- mity, or in circumstances favorable for transportation. they may be mixed in the process of smelting, and the resulting iron is greatly improved. The Lake Superior ores, which are the only ones smelted in the furnaces of northwestern Ohio, are quite free from sulphur, and henee at the present time the bog ores possess but little commercial value. It will be only in connection with the sulphur ores of the coal measures in the southeastern part of the state that the bog ores can be made of any mineral value.
In Seneca county bog ore occurs in a number of places. It is not in sufficient quantities, usually, to invite expenditure of capital, and in the absence of abundant fuel. it will probably never be of any economical value. It was met with on the farm of W. B. Stanely, about two miles southeast of Tiffin, where it underlies a peat hog, covering irregularly perhaps fifteen or twenty acres.
It also occurs on the land of Mr. Foght, southeast quarter of section 27, Seneca township. It has been taken out here in large blocks, roughly cut while wet, and set up for back walls in rude fire places. On being exposed to the air or especially to fire, it becomes cemented and very hard. There is also a deposit in sec- tion 11, in Clinton township, exactly on the south line of the Seneca Indian reservation.
Seneca county being adjacent to the famous oil and gas region of Hancock county, oil and gas have been found here. Gas was first struck in Seneca more than twenty years ago, but so far the wells do not hold out. The gas used in Tiffin is furnished by the Logan Natural Gas Company, and is brought from the southern part of the state. Wells are now being drilled here with good results, but the permananey of the flow so far cannot be depended upon.
The best productions have been found in a narrow slip of territory one mile wide and ten miles in length, extending north and south through Tiffin. Many of the wells were at first large producers.
The well on Melmore street, Tiffin, which has just recently been struck is the largest oil producer in the history of the Tiffin fields.
The following concerning the well is clipped from the Tiffin Tribune : "The well rivals any of the big Seneca county pro-
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ducers. The Van Nette well lies just south of the site of the new producer and oil men are confident the same vein of the greasy fluid which supplied this once famous well has been struck. It is impossible to tell whether the phenomenal flow will continue for any length of time. The Baker well, which created a great sen- sation in the north Tiffin field, flowed at the rate of thirty barrels per hour, just half the amount of oil the new well puts forth hourly. The Baker well dropped from the gusher class. after a few days, but is still one of the best wells in that field."
The climate in Seneca county at the present does not vary much from what the pioneers experienced upon coming to the county, as has been gleaned from the following records made by one of the early settlers :
January 26. 1826, 21 degrees below.
April 10, 1826, snow five inches deep.
April 23, 1826. maple buds green.
January 20, 1827. 31 degrees below.
Squirrels destroyed wheat and corn. in 1827.
October 30, 1827, snow fell six inches.
March 29. 1828, great flood.
April 25, 1829, two inches of snow.
· December 22. 1830. 41 degrees below.
February 7, 1831. 42 degrees below. Y
April 8. 1831. 2 feet of snow fell. May 3, 1831. apple trees in bloom.
July 25. 1831, river very high ; wet summer.
October 10. 1831, high flood,
November 21. 1831. winter commenced.
January, 1832. great thaw.
February 14, 1832. high water; corn three shillings; wheat six shillings ; rye four shillings.
May 8, 1832, apple trees in bloom ; some had to plant corn two or three times.
June 1, 1832, very cold summer ; corn hardly got ripe.
January 5. 1833, wild geese went toward lake; very forward spring.
April 11 to 26. 1834. heavy frosts.
February, 1835. hay $10 at Tiffin ; coldest weather ever known here.
March 13, 1836, snow fell 12 inches.
May, 1836. high water.
February, 1837, snow fell 15 inches; great sugar year.
May 11, 1837, corn rotted in ground.
January 2, 1838, weather very warm.
January 6 and 7, 1838, John Morrison plowed two days.
CHAPTER II
THE ABORIGINES
MOUND BUILDERS OF SENECA COUNTY-SACRED TO THE DEAD -- HONEY CREEK AND PLEASANT TOWNSHIP-ABORIGINAL RELICS ELSEWHERE-INDIAN RESERVATIONS AND TREATIES -- PROMINENT SENECA CHIEFS-SENECA JOHN-SQUAWS EXECUTED AS WITCHES BLUE JACKET-BLACKFOOT-ROUNDHEAD-LOGAN-EXECUTION OF SENECA JOHN -- WHITE CAPTIVES- BRITISH BOUGHT SCALPS.
"Here stand mounds, erected by a race
Unknown in history or in poets songs."
In Seneca county are evidences of a pre-historie people whose origin and fate are unknown. We know of them only by the monuments they reared in the form of earth-works, and as these principally are mounds, we call the people who made them "Mound Builders." The term is not a distinguishing one. for people the world over have been mound builders, more or less, from genera- . tion to generation.
In no other country are earth-works more plainly divided into classes than here in America. In some places fortified hills and eminences suggest the citadel of a tribe or people. Again. em- bankments. circular or square, separate and in combination, en- closing perhaps, one or more mounds, exist.
What connection. if any, existed between the mound builders and the Indians is yet unsettled. But it seems certain that many years before Columbus discovered America, the mound builders had settlements here in Seneca county, as these ancient earth-works attest. That the people were not unacquainted with war is shown by their numerous fortified enclosures. These mounds and other antiquities give us some knowledge of a people that lived here when civilization was but in dawn in Europe. The history of our own country is at least as interesting as that of the land of Pharoahs. or of Greece, for here we see evidence of an ancient culture, as well as the footprints of a vanished people.
It is claimed by some writers that the mound builders were of Asiatic origin and were as a people, immense in numbers and well
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advanced in many arts. Similarity in certain things indicate that they were of Phoenician descent. Of the mound builders we have speculated much, and know but little.
When looking at the past, let us recognize the fact that nations as well as individual pass away and are forgotten.
Some mounds were used as sepulchers for the dead, and should not to be desecrated even in the interest of historical research and investigation.
An old-time poet wrote :
"Oh Mound ! consecrated before The white man's foot e'er trod our shore, To battle's strife and valour's grave, Spare ! oh, spare, the buried brave !
"'A thousand winters passed away. And yet demolished not the clay, Which on von hillock held in trust, The quiet of the warrior's dust.
"The Indian came and went again ; He hunted through the lengthened plain ; And from the mound he oft beheld The present silent battlefield.
"But did the Indian e'er presume. To violate that ancient tomb ? Ah, no! he had the soldier grace Which spares the soldier's resting place.
"It is alone for Christian hand To sever that sepulchral band. Which ever to the view is spread. To bind the living to the dead."
Some say, why attempt to roll back the flight of years to learn of a pre-historic people. for the search light of investigation makes but little impression on the night of time_ We have no data on which to base an estimate as to the antiquity of man. but we can comtemplate the great periods of geological times, and the infinite greatness of the works of creation, as disclosed by astronomy, with man's primeval condition. as made evident by archaeology, and exclaim. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him."
The erroneous ideas of persons, otherwise well informed con- cerning archaeological matters would amaze one who could attain to any considerable knowledge of the science without previously
.
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becoming familiar to some extent with the many absurd theories and notions promulgated by authors ignorant of their subject and writing only to strike the popular mind and pocket. The tendency of most of these works and exceptions are not to be found among those of greatest fame and widest circulation, is to indulge in senti- ment without much regard to facts; to appeal to the reader's emotions instead of to his reason; to induce a state of melancholy over the mournful and mysterious disappearance of a numerous and interesting people, instead of furnishing any information about them ; to adroity rehash old matter and present it in a new and attractive form, thereby gaining for the compiler the reputa- tion of being a great and learned man.
It may seem harsh thus to characterize them, but a milder phraseology scarcely seems admissible ; even allowing full honesty of purpose as the rhapsodies of ill-informed enthusiasts are as harmful as the deliberate misstatements of intentional deceivers; and one cannot resist a feeling of indignation that the wide-spread desire for accurate information on a most interesting subject is met and perforce satisfied with such trash as forms the bulk of our archaeological literature.
Heckwelder records a tradition of the Delawares that the Mound Builders came from a place far to the west. and after journeying for a long time came to a river, beyond which dwelt a people called the Tallegwi. These gave the Delawares permis- sion to pass through their county, but when the migrating party divided the Tallegwi attacked that portion which had crossed the boundary river, and drove them with great slaughter. A long and bloody war followed; the Tallegwi made strong fortifications of earth and defended themselves with great bravery, but were gradually driven backward, building forts and other defenses as they went, until they finally passed beyond Ohio. Heckwelder identifies the Detroit as the river where the two tribes met, and says that some of the defensive works of the Tallegwi were pointed out to him, as well as a mound, or mounds, beneath which lay the bones of some of the slain.
Skeletons show that the Mound Builders were much beyond the average men of today in size, and it is claimed that they had double teeth all around, as a peculiarity which separates them from all other races.
There are eight thousand. two hundred and thirty-pre-historie earthworks in Ohio. of which number only three are credited to Seneca county on the State Archaeological map. although others are locally reported.
Concerning the discussions and controversies about the Mound Builders the Secretary of The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Vol. 1-2
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Society, in reviewing Mr. Fowke's recent work on the "Archaeo- logical History of Ohio," says: "Mr. Fowke's volume is well cal- culated to 'stir the bones' of the Mound Builders and their modern investigators. It is of course distinctly understood that the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society does not stand sponsor for Mr. Fowke's archaeological views, much less for his personal animadversions. We perused the advance sheets of Mr. Fowke's book and insisted upon the elimination of much detraction of other authors and we advised the expurgation of much more. It is to be regretted that Mr. Fowke could not have presented his facts and fancies in a less kantankerous style. His pages are all 'sickled o'er' with the lurid cast of sarcastic dogmatism. The subjects of his remarks, however, take him much too grievously. His intoler- ance is his own condemnation. His book is a vast storehouse of research, study and conjectures concerning the mysterious people known as the Mound Builders and of their extant pre-historie works. . His volume, moreover, is a veritable encyclopedia of the literature heretofore produced on the subject.
"No such book has ever appeared and no other State could furnish the material for such a production. Of the technical merits of the 'history.' its opinions and statements, we do not pre- sume to speak. The archaeological students are speaking for them- selves and somewhat unrestrainedly as they are justified in doing.
"This disputation is rather discouraging to the 'layman.' The saying 'in a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom' does not hold out in this case. In a crowd of critics there is an irrepressible conflict, and when doctors disagree who shall decide? A dis- tinguished American jurist remarked 'the past, at least. is secure.' If that be true, archaeology is to be regarded as a 'dead sure thing.' But Fowke's emanations, and, indeed, the mass of arch- aeological bibliography (American) forces the unsophisticated to the unalterably agnostic conclusion that the Mound Builder was a successful disciple of that classic motto 'Mum's the word.' Some wag has related that when Ralph Waldo Emerson visited Egypt and stood speechless in awe on the Sahara sands before the Sphinx. he suddenly saw the lady's graven mouth begin to move and ap- proaching the immobile features, silent for centuries. he placed his ear to the stone lips and heard a sound like a subdued murmur. 'you're another.' As Artemus Ward would say of this controversy of the critics, 'it would be funny if it were not serious.' The Mound Builders of Seneca county, as elsewhere, often builded better than they knew. Their works are food for thought and subjects for study. Certain it is, that they were a vast and enter- prising and interesting race, whence and whither and why, we evi- dently have not learned. Archaeological 'history' is largely arch- acological speculation, and with speculation one man's guess is as
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good as another's. unless it happens to be your own, and then of course it is a good deal better than some one's else.
"But first I would remark that it is not a proper plan For any scientific gent to whale his fellowman,
And, if a member don't agree with his peculiar whim
To lay for that same member. for to 'put a head on him.' "
The old fortifications of Honey creek, in Eden township, near the Mohawk road embrace an area of about two acres. They are attributed to the' military genius of the Hurons, or Eries, in their war with the Iroquois invaders; but there is nothing in his- tory or archaeology to warrant a statement that the Eries were builders. That the position was defended since the introduction of the shotgun or rifle is told by the fact that leaden bullets of every size have been found in the vicinity. Joseph Swigart pass- ing through Honey creek in 1819 stopped at the spring about a mile northwest of the present village of Bloomville, and, while there. noticed two circular stone works, each about one hundred vards south of the spring. A well-beaten path led from the spring to the entrance of each work. The spring and each work formed & corner of a perfect triangle. Stone hammers. flints, etc. have been found there. There were remains of the walls as late as 1830, when they were removed. and burned for lime.
In 1850 a few of the ancient mounds in Pleasant township were opened; although for years prior to this date several small mounds were plowed over, and bones, pottery, and other relies of a past age, brought to light. The exploration of 1850 resulted in the discovery of a number of burned sand-elay pitchers. pipes. stone pitcher and other curios. many of which are still to be seen in the county.
The remains of fish and reptiles are very common. Human remains are uncommon in this strata. though in other parts they have been found mysteriously commingled with some of the first formations. In all the townships east of the Sandusky there are hilloeks visible, none of which have been explored systematically, if at all. Throughout the county relies of the aborigines have been found ; stone and clay pipes, volcanic glass spear-heads, arrow · heads. and in some instances copper articles have been brought to light. all in evidence of the fact that a people dwelt here long before the immigration of the Indians, who inhabited the Sandusky coun- try when the first settler arrived.
There were several mounds on the Culver place, from which . have from time to time been plowed up bones and ancient crockery. In 1850 one of these mounds was opened and in it was a large skeleton, with a full shaped skull. And among other things a stone pitcher which seemed to have been made of sand and clay,
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
and smaller vessels filled with clam shells were found therein. These seemed as strange to the Indians as they did to the whites.
"The Senecas of Sandusky," as the Indians who occupied the country of which Seneca county is now a part were called were a miscellaneous tribe. a number of remnants of inter-tribal wars grouped under one name; the Cayugas, the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, Tusearawas and a mixed breed of Wyandots, with a few Mingoes, relies of Logan's tribe. The Mingoes were a branch of the Cayugas. They fled before the incoming tide of iinmigration, locating in the Scioto and Olentangy valleys, and later to the Sandusky, of which Seneca county is now a part, where they resided until placed on their reservation in 1817-19. Here they remained until 1831, when civilization again forced them to resume their westward movement, and placed them in Neosha country. In 1831 the Senecas numbered about five hundred.
The Senecas of Sandusky, as the Indians here were called, occupied forty thousand acres of choice land on the east side of Sandusky river, being mostly in this and partly in Sandusky coun- ty. Thirty thousand acres of this land was granted to them on the 29th of September. 1817, at the treaty held at the foot of Maumee Rapids. Hon. Lewis Cass and Hon. Duncan M'Arthur being the commissioners of the United States. The remaining 10,000 acres, lying south of the other. was granted by the treaty at St. Mary's. concluded by the same commissioners on the 17th of September, in the following year. By the treaty concluded at Washington City, February 28, 1831. James B. Gardiner being the commissioner of the general government, these Indians ceded their lands to the United States, and agreed to remove. southwest of Missouri, on the Neosho river.
The treaty of the Maumee Rapids, negotiated with the Indians commonly called Senecas (Cayugas. Mingoes. Mohawks, Onondagas, Tuscarawas, Wyandots and Oneidas). and the Wyandots, Dela- wares, Shawnees. Pottawattomies, Ottawas and Otchipwes, was the first which affected the district now known as Seneca county. Takaw-ma-do-aw, Josef, Tawg-you. Running-about. Coffee-house. Wiping-stick, Capt. Harris, Capt. Smith, Is-ahow-ma-saw. chiefs of the several bands, were signers. The 40,000 acres set aside for the Senecas comprised, in Seneca county. the territory within the following boundaries : From a point eighty rods south of the south line of section 7 in Clinton township, east on the line running parallel with the south section line of section 7 to section 13. Clin- ton; thence to a point south of section 10. Scipio township; thence north, through Scipio and Adams townships, to the north boundary line of county, west on that line to the Sandusky river, and south along the river to the point of beginning, in Clinton township.
After the hunting season of 1818 was past, those Indians set-
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
tled on this reservation cleared their garden patches and erected their cabins. The agency provided for in the treaty was estab- lished in 1819, when a Methodist preacher was appointed agent. with power to feed and teach this red flock. This agent was James Montgomery, who settled with his family in one of the block houses `at old Fort Seneca, November 19, 1819. Five years and two months later, Seneca county was organized, and within nine years the Indian title was relinquished. The cession was made at Wash- ington, D. C., February 28, 1831, when the Cayugas accepted a reservation in the Neosho and Cowskin river country, southwest of Missouri.
In this treaty with the Senecas, a provision was made for the
OLD FORT SENECA.
Van Meter family as follows : "To John Van Meter, who was taken prisoner by the Wyandots, and who has ever since lived amongst them, and has married a Seneca woman, and to his wife and three brothers, Senecas, who now reside on Honey creek, one thousand acres of land, to begin north 45 degrees west, 140 poles, thence and from the beginning, east for quantity." This was in Eden township. The lands were sold to Lloyd Norris in 1828, and the Mohawks left in 1829.
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