USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 24
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 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
A short history of the Ohio canal system might be made interesting here, would space only permit; but to give the reader a bird's-eye view of it, its origin, rise and progress, its final triumph, the excitement it produced in the political world, the success and defeat of men aspiring to office depending upon the way they stood on the canal question, the railroads finally driving the canals into the back ground, etc., would make a small volume by itself. A short synopsis, and extracts from reports and papers pertaining to the history of the Ohio canals, must here suffice.
"In any true history of the early settlements and material progress of the Maumee valley, the two important canals-the Wabash and Erie, and the
Dlgszed by Google
219
CANAL SYSTEM.
Miami and Erie-which unite near Defiance. and thence reach the Maumee bay by a common trunk, must fill an important page," says Knapp. "How- ever valuable may be the railroads built long afterwards, it is still true that the canals have prepared the way, settled the country, and laid the founda- tion of its cities, of which Toledo at the month, and Fort Wayne at the source of the river. are the chief."
In 1816, Hon. Ethan Allen Brown, of Cincinnati, had a correspond- ence with DeWitt Clinton, who was then the head of the board of canal . commissioners of the state of New York, upon the subject of the proposed canal to connect the waters of lake Erie with those of the Hudson river.
The legislature of Ohio, in February, 1820, passed an act under which three commissioners were appointed to locate a route for a nav- igable canal between lake Erie and the Ohio river. The act also proposed to ask of Congress a grant of one or two millions of acres of land for the purpose, but nothing was accomplished under this act.
In his inaugural address, December 14, 1818, Gov. Brown says :
If we would raise the character of our state by increasing industry, and our resources, it seems necessary to improve the internal communications and open a cheaper way to market for the surplus produce of a large portion of our fertile country.
During the next three succeeding sessions attention was called to the subject of canals.
In 1822, Micajah T. Williams, of Cincinnati, a representative from Hamilton county, in his report as chairman of a committee, to whom the matter had been referred, discussed elaborately the propriety of connecting lake Erie with the Ohio river. A short extract from that report will show the condition of the state and its industries at that period :
It is a well established fact, that man has not yet devised a mode of conveyance so safe. easy and cheap. as canal navigation: and although the advantage of easy and expeditions transportation is not likely to be perceived when prices are high and trade most profitable, yet the truth is familiar to every person of observation. that the enormous expense of land carriage has frequently consumed nearly, and sometimes quite, the whole price of provisions at the place of embarkation for a distant market. This is essentially the case in relation to all commodities of a cheap and bulky nature, most of which will not bear a land transportation many miles and consequently are rendered of no valne to the farmer, and are suffered to waste on his hands. The merchant who engages in the exportation of the produce of the country, finding it a losing commerce, abandons it or is ruined: and crops in the finest and most productive part of the state are left to waste on the fields that produced them, or to be distilled to poison and brutalize society.
Dig izedby Google
220
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
On the 31st day of January, 1822, a bill was passed appointing Benj. Tappan; Alfred Kelley, Thomas Worthington, Jeremiah Morrow, Isaac Miner and Ebenezer Buckingham, Jr. commissioners, "Whose duty it shall be to cause such examinations, surveys and estimates to be made by engineers, etc., to ascertain the practicability of connecting lake Erie with the Ohio river, from the Ohio river to the Maumee river by a canal through the following routes, viz :- from Sandusky bay to the · Ohio river, from the Ohio river to the Maumee river, from the lake to the river aforesaid by the sources of the Cuyahoga and Black rivers and the Muskingum river, and from the lake to the sources of Grand and Mahoning rivers to the Ohio river."
On the 27th day of January. 1823, a supplementary act was passed with a view of connecting the lake with the Ohio river, and also of ascertaining whether a loan could be secured for that purpose, thus making in fact the canal commissioners also the fund commissioners.
DeWitt Clinton, in a letter to Williams, says :
The state of Ohio, from the fertility of its soil, the benignity of its climate and its geographical position, must always contain a dense population, and the products and consumptions of its inhabitants must forever form a lucrative and extensive inland trade, exciting the powers of productive industry and communicating aliment and energy to extend commerce. But when we consider that this canal will open a way to the great rivers that fall into the Mississippi: that it will be felt. not only in the immense valley of that river, but as far west as the Rocky mountains and the borders of Mexico; and that it will communicate with our great inland seas, and their tributary rivers : with the ocean in various routes: and with the most productive regions of America. there can be no question respecting the blessings that it will produce. the riches it will create, and the energies it will call into activity.
In 1824, a survey was made for a canal from Cincinnati along the Miami valley to the Maumee river at Defiance, thence along the left bank of the same to the bay, and an estimate thereof reported to the legislature. Mr. Williams directed the survey and for ten years there- after was the leading spirit of the enterprise. Samuel Forrer was the head of the corps of engineers. More than one-half of this route was through a dense forest ; there was not one house between St. Marys and the mouth of the Auglaize.
On the 28th day of May, 1828, the President of the United States approved an act of Congress, granting to Ohio a quantity of land equal to one-half of five sections in width on each side of the canal, from Dayton to the Maumee river at the mouth of the Auglaize, reserving each alternate section to the United States, and the lands thus
Digazed by Google
.
221
CANAL SYSTEM.
reserved were not to be sold for less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre.
The summit division was put under contract in 1831-2, and a loan of $200.000 authorized on the credit of the state. Jeremiah Sullivan, Nicholas McCarty and William C. Linton were appointed the first board of fund commissioners of the state.
Just in time to save the land grant from dying under the limitation by Congress, the first ground was broken with great ceremonies on the ist day of March, 1832, at Fort Wayne, then a little town of about four hundred inhabitants. At the close of that year only $4, 1So.oo worth of work had been done. The division uniting the waters of the Wabash with those of lake Erie was completed in 1835, and on the 4th day of July in that year the first boat passed through it. This was the begin- ning of canal navigation in all that vast region lying north of Dayton and west of Cleveland. Its cost was $7,177 per mile.
C'anals in other parts of the state were' agitated and prosecuted dur- ing this time, but all these works suffered from the same two great causes, viz: sickness and want of funds. The Ohio portion of the Wabash and Erie canal was finally finished in 1843, and at the celebra- tion of the event, on the Fouth of July of that year, at Fort Wayne, Lewis Cass delivered the oration. The Miami canal extension, now called "Miami and Erie," was opened for business in 1845. This com- pleted the continuous line between Maumee bay and the Ohio river at Cincinnati.
For the history of other canals the curious reader is referred to the · proceedings pertaining to the Hocking canal, the Walhonding canal, the Muskingum improvement, the Ohio and Pennsylvania canal, the Mohickon branch, etc.
Seneca county commenced paying taxes in 1826, and among her first assessments was a canal tax, which was continued and increased for many years. This chapter will close with a statement of the amount of taxes Seneca county paid to the treasurer of the state, as canal tax, from 1826 to 1835, both inclusive:
In 1826, $14.97.7; 1827, $147-49.6; 1828, $191.65.2; 1829, $310.88 1; 1830, $400.83.6: 1831, $470.92.3 : 1832, $553.64.6 ; 1833, $466.14.0; 1834, $282.88.7: 1835, $167.77.8.
Agazedby Google
CHAPTER XV.
SANDUSKY RIVER-THE WOLF CREEKS-SILVER CREEK- HONEY CREEK- ROCKY CREEK-SPICER CREEK-MORRISON CREEK-SUGAR CREEK-GEN. ERAL DRAINAGE-TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.
A HISTORY of Seneca county would be an utter failure without a record of the nature of its soils, its sub-stratum, its drainage, etc. It requires a mind learned in the science of geology to enable a person to speak intelligently on the subject. Fully conscious of his inability in that respect, the writer has drawn largely upon the "Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio," made under a law passed by the General Assembly of Ohio, in March, 1869, by which the Governor of Ohio was authorized, by and with the advice of the Senate, to appoint a chief geologist, and one or more assistants, not exceeding three in number, who were to constitute a geological corps, and whose duty was to make a complete and thorough geological, agricultural and mineral- ogical survey of each and every county in the state. The second section of said act defines the object of said survey, viz: To ascertain the geological structure of the state, including the dip, magnitude. number, order and relative position of the several strata, their richness in coals, clays, ores, mineral waters and manures, building stone and other useful material. To secure accurate chemical analyses of the soils, etc. To ascertain the local causes that produce variations of climate in the different sections of the state. To collect specimens of rocks, ores, soils, fossils, organic remains, etc., and to make report of same, etc.
The expenses were paid by the state, and considerable sums must yet be appropriated to finish the work, and to pay for the printing and binding of the unfinished reports.
The survey was to commence about the first of June, following. J. S. Newberry was appointed chief geologist, and E. B. Andrews, Edward Orton, and J. H. Klippart assistant geologists. Some ten other persons were appointed as local assistants.
These reports are, and will be, published in limited numbers only,
Digiized by Google
223
LATITUDE-LONGITUDE-DRAINAGE.
and but few of the readers of these pages will be the owners of them. They will be very large and bulky, and require a considerable research to find the material desired for our purpose. The friendly reader will long since have been called to his fathers, before the state of Ohio will again appoint a corps of geological engineers to make a survey of Ohio at an expense of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That part of these reports referring to the agricultural department, has not been distributed as yet.
In view of all these facts, the larger portion of this chapter is devoted to this interesting subject. Let us look at Seneca county from this standpoint.
It is stated in a former chapter (Chap. X.) that the base line forming the south line of Seneca county is the forty-first degree north latitude. Find on the map section thirty-one in Eden township, and run your finger up to section nineteen in Clinton, due north, which is seven miles from the base line, and you have the latitude of Tiffin, 40°, 7' N. of the equator, and longitude 6°, 8' W. of Washington. ' Tiffin is there- fore 86 miles north of Columbus, and 34 miles southwest of Sandusky. There are just twelve ranges between the west line of Seneca and the State of Indiana, being 6x12=72 miles.
Seneca county is bounded on the south by the counties of Crawford and Wyandot; on the west by Hancock and Wood: on the north by Sandusky, and on the east by Huron. Its length and width are described in Chap. X. Its shape is a rectangular parallelogram, con- taining fifteen townships.
NATURAL DRAINAGE.
The Sandusky river, running through the county from the south to the north, divides it into two nearly equal parts, and is the principal stream in the county. The left bank of the river, in its general bear- ing, is higher ground than the east, or right bank, and the country west of the river descends almost immediately as it recedes from the river, shedding the waters from near the river bank into the east branch of Wolf creek. The result is, that there is not a single stream or creek that enters the left bank of the Sandusky river in Seneca county. A little brooklet that runs a short time after a rain, called Bell's run, enters at the Spooner farm, a short distance south of Lugenbeel's dam (formerly so called). Tymochtee and Wolf creeks are tributaries of the Sandusky at its left bank, but the former enters the river in Wyan- dot, and the latter in Sandusky county.
The river, in its northward course, enters section 36 in Seneca town- ship, and immediately turns into section 31 in Eden, and returns again
Digitizedby Google
224
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
into Seneca, where it keeps on its course along the eastern tier of sections in Seneca township, and enters section 36 in Hopewell; taking a straight northward direction, it turns northeastwardly and enters section 19 in Clinton, passes through Tiffin, runs through sections 17, 9 and 5 in Clinton, enters section 32 in Pleasant, where it makes many turns in all directions, and finally leaves the county in the northeast corner of section 5 in Pleasant.
The various branches of Wolf creek start near the southern line of the county, west of the river, the eastern branch running almost par- alel with the river throughout the county. A short distance north of the north line of Seneca county the several branches of Wolf creek unite, and, taking a short turn eastwardly, immediately enter the river.
There seems to be a water shed all along the east line of the county of Seneca that sends its waters westward into the Sandusky. Honey creek and Rocky creek both run in a westerly direction about twelve miles, without taking into account their meanderings, when they run southwest about six miles, then turn northwest, and in that direction enter the river. Honey creek takes up Silver creek near the northeast corner of section 24 in Eden, from an easterly direction, and enters the Sandusky in section 36 in Hopewell. Rocky creek enters the river at Tiffin in section 19, in Clinton; Willow creek and Morrison creek flow into the Sandusky in section 17, in Clinton; Spicer creek mouths into the Sandusky in section 28 in Pleasant, and Sugar creek in section 22 of the same township. In this township two small brooks-rain water creeks-each about one mile long, enter the river from the left bank. Six creeks enter the river from the east, within fifteen miles from the base line. Thus it is seen that Seneca county is well watered.
This peculiarity in the southern bends of both Honey creek and Rocky creek is not confined to this county, and may be due to the halt- ing retreat of the glacier, when throwing down the unmodified drift with which that portion of the country is covered. The divides between these creeks, along their upper waters, would in that case be the moraine accumulations, which further west and at lower levels, were not sufficient to divert the drainage from the general course of the main valley. They may be compared to the extended moraine which shut off the St. Marys and the Wabash rivers from their most direct course to lake Erie, along their upper waters.
SURFACE FEATURES.
The county presents more diversity of surface than Sandusky. The northwestern part, including the townships of Jackson, Liberty and
Dig izedby Google
225
GEOLOGY-SOIL AND TIMBER.
Pleasant, the northern half of Hopewell, and a small part of Loudon, present the peculiar features of the lacustrine region.
The Niagara limestone rises, in wide undulations, above the surface of the drift, and is as frequently supplied with sandy accumulations and bowlders as in counties further north. The surface of these town- ships, otherwise, is very flat. The remainder of the county, west of the Sandusky river, as well as the townships of Clinton and Eden on the east, is entirely without such limestone exposures, and the surface, when not broken by drainage valleys, is gently undulating. The eastern part of the county is considerably more elevated than the middle and western, and the surface is characterized at once by longer and more considerable undulations, which have the form, very often, of ridges, evenly covered by drift, running about northeast and southwest. This greater elevation is due to the greater resistance of the Corniferous limestone to the forces of the glacial epoch, not to upheaval, as many fancy; while the original inequalities in the drift surface have been increased by the erosion of streams. There are still, even in the east- ern portion of the county, flat tracts where the drainage is so slow, that the washings from the hill sides have leveled up the lower grounds with alluvial and marshy accumulations. In such cases the elevated drift-knolls are gravelly, and show occasional boulders; but in the level tract which has been filled, no boulders, or even stones of any kind, can be seen.
The streams are bounded by a flood plain and a single terrace. The latter, in case of the smaller streams, is not well defined, especially where the general surface is not flat. The following heights of this terrace, above the summer stage of the river, were ascertained by Locke's level:
Sugar creek, N. W. 14 Sec. 27, Pleasant township, 42 ft. 2 in.
Honey creek, Sec. 20, Eden township, 58 ft.
Sandusky river, Sec. 24, Seneca township, 63 ft. 3 in.
SOIL AND TIMBER.
The soil, consisting principally of the old drift surface, is what may be termed a gravelly clay, with various local modifications. The principal exceptions are the alluvial flats, bordering the streams, where the soil consists largely of sandy marl, with varying proportions of vegetable matter, the depressions in the old drift surface, which have been slowly filled by peaty soil, and the sandy and stony ridges, in the townships of. Jackson, Liberty and Hopewell. With the exception of the marsh known as Big Spring Prairie, in the southwestern part of 15
edby Google
226
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
Big Spring township, the whole country is in a tillable condition. Hence, it is settled with a class of intelligent and prosperous farmers, who keep the land generally under constant cultivation. The original forest, which is now to a great extent removed, embraced the usual variety of oak, hickory, beech, maple, elm, ash, poplar and walnut.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
The rocks that underlie the county have a general dip towards the east. Hence, the Niagara limestone, in the western portion of the county, is succeeded by the higher formations in regular order in trav- eling east. They are the water limestone, the Oriskany sandstone, the Lower Corniferous, the Upper Corniferous, the Hamilton shale, and the Huron shale, or black slade. The eastern boundary of the Niagara enters the county a little east of Green Spring, in a south- westerly direction, and crossing the Sandusky river at Tiffin, it turns westward nearly to the center of Hopewell township, where it again turns southwest, and leaves the county at Adrian. All west of this line is underlain by the Niagara, which is not divided into two belts, as in Sandusky and Ottawa counties. The strip of the waterlime which separates it in those counties, probably just indents the northern line of the, county in Pleasant township. The out-cropping edge of the Upper Corniferous is the only other geological boundary that can be definitely located. Those on either side are so obscured by the drift, that their located positions on the map must be regarded as conjectured. In general, however, the waterlime underlies a strip along the eastern side of the Niagara area, about five miles in width on the north, but widening to nine miles on the south. The Lower Corniferous underlies the western part of Bloom and Scipio townships, and the eastern part of Adams. The Upper Corniferous occupies the most of Thompson and Reed townships, the western portion of Venice, and the eastern portion of Bloom and Scipio. The Hamilton and the Black shale have not been seen in out-crop in the county, but are believed to underlie a small area in the southeastern portion of the county. The Black shale may be seen in the valley of Slate Run, Norwich township, in Huron county.
The Niagara shows the following exposures:
IN JACKSON TOWNSHIP,
S. W. 14 of section 36, in a little creek. No dip discoverable. In section 22, a prominent ridge is crossed, and slightly excavated by the railroad. The ascent is so gentle the grade rises over it. N. W. 14 of section
Digiized by Google
227
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.
31, of the Guelph aspect, shows numerous fossils, used for making roads, and for lime.
IN LIBERTY TOWNSHIP,
S. W. X4 of section 4, in west branch of Wolf creek; dip 6 or 8 degrees west of the S. E. 14 of section 5.
Section 3, half a mile west of Bettsville; frequent exposures along the west branch of Wolf creek. When observable, the dip is to the west.
Section 10-Along the east line of the section, in the form of ridges. N. E. 14 of section 28, N. W. 14 of section 2, horizontal; in the west branch of Wolf creek, setting back the water nearly a mile. N. W. 14 of section 24, considerably quarried for foundations and abutments of bridges. S. W. 14 of section 30, by the roadside. N. E. 14 of section 36, in Wolf creek. S. W. 14 of section 34, S. W. 14 of section 31, in thick beds, used by Mr. George King in the construction of his house; dip 5º N. F. N. W. 14 section 29.
IN PLEASANT TOWNSHIP,
Northwest quarter of section ro, in the bed of Wolf creek, dip north- east, glacial scratches, south 56° west, northwest quarter of section 20. In the bed of the river at Fort Seneca, just below the dam, a fine grained, bluish limestone has been a little quarried for use on roads. But owing to its hardness and the unfavorable location, it was not regarded suitable. It probably belongs to the Niagara, although the opportunities for examination were too meager to determine exactly. Center and southeast quarter of section 28, in thick beds, in Spicer creek.
IN HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP,
Northeast quarter of section 22. Has the aspect of the Guelph on the land of Henry W. Creeger; surface exposure, section 16, where the road crosses Wolf creek.
In these surface exposures very little opportunity is offered for ascer- taining the lithological characters, or the mineralogical and fossil contents of the formation. The chief exposure of the Niagara within the county is in the Sandusky river, between Tiffin and Fort Seneca.
From Tiffin, descending the Sandusky river, rocks show constantly to within half a mile of the line between Clinton and Pleasant town- ships. Throughout the most of this distance, the dip of the formation (Niagara) is from five to ten degrees toward the southwest, but with various flexures and undulations in all directions. The thickness of bedding exposed is between fifty and sixty feet. The following minutes
Dlgazed by Google
228
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
on this exposure will show the undulations in the dip of the beds, and the manner of the occurrence of the fossiliferous beds, which have by some been regarded as a distinct member of the Upper Silurian above the Niagara. They make, here, a sudden appearance within the form- ation, having horizontal continuity with the more usual hard, gray, and thick-bedded Niagara, which contains fewer fossil remains.
Ascending the river from section 29, in Pleasant township, glacial . furrows, S. 44° W., the dips of the Niagara were observed, together with the water lime formations to some distance southwest of Tiffin, varying from three to eighteen feet in all directions, and resulted thus:
Total southwest dip 87 ft. ro in. Total northeast dip 33 ft.
Actual southwest dip of the formation 54 ft. 10 in.
From this it appears that the Niagara limestone, especially the uppermost, fifty-five feet, is, in general, a gray crystalline, rather fine- grained, compact, or slightly visicular and unfossiliferous mass; and that the fossiliferous parts are rough and visicular, of a light buff color, apt to crumble under the weather, and not horizontally continuous.
The green shale, which in Sandusky county represents the Salina, has nowhere been seen in Seneca county. The only place within the county where the junction of the Niagara and waterlime has been observed, is in the quarries at Tiffin, within the corporate limits. A few rods above the iron bridge on Washington street, a quarry has been opened in the left bank of the Sandusky which may be designated as quarry No. 1. The Niagara shows in a broad surface exposure, over which the river spreads, except in its lowest stage. The quarry has not penetrated it, but the overlying water lime beds have been stripped off, showing a section of 12 feet in their beds, belonging to phase No. 3. This lies conformably on the Niagara, so far as can be seen, the sepa- rating surface presenting no unusual flexures or irregularities. The only trace of the Salina is in the tendency of the color and texture of the Niagara towards those of the water lime, visible through its last three or four inches. It is bluish-drab, porous, crystalline, with some indistinct greenish lines and spots. It contains much calcite, and some galena. From this character it passes immediately into a bluish-gray crystalline rock, in thick, firm beds, with spots of purple, heavy and slightly porous, the cavities being nearly all filled with calcite.
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.