History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 42

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427

USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 42

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This soil, lying so as to drain away water, and not of a nature to absorb and retain it, became covered slowly with vegetation. But it always lacked that rankness and exuberance of vegetation which lower and moister places possessed. Still many, countless generations of plants and unknown crops of trees have grown and decayed here without leav- ing behind them much vegetable matter commingled with the soil. What has become of the substance of plants that it has not accumulated in the soil? The answer must be that the growth upon this soil have passed back to their original elements-have gone as they came-in the form of water and gases. The bulk of vegetation is composed of water (oxygen and hydrogen), carbonic acid (carbon and oxygen ), and nitrogen. When vegetation decays these materials are evolved, and pass off into the atmosphere. It is when decay is impeded that vegetable matter accu- mulates in the soil. Mould is partially decayed vegetation. When vegetable products are protected from the atmosphere by water their decay is retarded and impeded, and certain compounds are formed of a complex character, which do not so readily undergo decomposition. . This is what we call vegetable mould, mixed with clay-loam. In dry situations, exposed to the action of the atmosphere, logs, grass, leaves, straw, utterly disappear and leave no trace behind. The same material heaped together, in wet situations, does not entirely decay, as every one must have observed, but gradually disintegrates, and becomes a uniform

mass of dark-colored matter. A cool situation makes this process more sure and complete. Partially decayed vegetation becomes mould, muck or peat, according to the material, the location and extent of the process of decay. These vegetable compounds do not decay readily, but do gradually, and hence results a common experience in the use of muck as manure. Until a dissolution of the muck occurs, it will not nurture vegetation, hence it is often necessary for it to be exposed a season or two to the action of the atmosphere before it becomes sufficiently ad- vanced in decomposition to give up its elements of fertility to vegetation. My conclusion is that this light-colored soil, not being a good absorber of water, and being so situated as to drain it off readily, the vast amount of vegetation, in different forms, which has grown upon it has entirely decayed and passed off in the forms in which its elements first came to it, namely, as gases.

Here is the place to speak of one of the most interesting features of this upland soil in the county -the fine beds of peat which mark the line of the water-shed. Peat is a vegetable product-it is an accumulation of vegetable matter in circumstances in which decay is arrested. A cool climate and a moist situation are the conditions in which peat is formed. On the scarcely sloping tract, lying just where the drainage, being both ways, was effective neither way, and where the surface was formed of a soil quite impermeable to water, we find to-day several extensive beds of peat of good quality. They lie in Van Buren Township, and near the line of the new Kettler turnpike. Mr. William Kettler owns about one hundred and forty acres of peat; in section ten of the same town- ship are one hundred and forty acres more; in section fourteen, ten acres ; in section twenty-two, about thirty acres, and smaller quantities in one or two other places, being over three hundred acres in all. It is not certainly known how deep these beds are; it is supposed they will average at least ten feet. I did not learn the facts upon which this belief rests, but, from the character of the men from whom I obtained the information, I feel that the statement can be relied upon. Where I exam- ined the peat, on Mr. Kettler's farm, although large ditches had been conducted through it to drain it, there was no place where the bottom could be seen, nor the distance to it from the bottom of the ditch be ascertained, by such explorations as we could make with a fence-stake.

On this water-shed the effect of continued washing is seen in a slight furrowing of the surface into broad and shallow troughs, leading toward the drainage of Loramie Creek. Suppose that at a time when all the region was densely covered with forest and protected from the sun's rays, the falling of a tree, or the erection of a dam by beavers should have cut off the passage of the water, bogs of greater or less extent and depth would have been formed. In these vegetation would soon flourish suited to such localities-plants which flourish in and near moisture-coarse grasses and vines, luxuriant ferns, and particularly the sphagnous mosses which are known to compose so large a proportion of peat-beds. We can hardly conceive of the rapidity with which the accumulation of vegetable material takes place in such circumstances. The remains of beaver dams are still confidently pointed out by residents there, and the traditions of the county are numerous, and corroborative in regard to the existence of these ingenious animals at a time not long antedating the memory of the "oldest inhabitant." In complete confirmation of this general conviction, I have in my possession teeth of the beaver found in the county.

The peat is of a uniform consistence and of a drab color, where freshly exposed. On the surface, where it has been drained, it is sufficiently decomposed to nourish the most luxuriant vegetation which I saw in the county-vines, grasses, briers, bushes, and ferns, and, where under cul- vation, the finest of corn crops. The beds are purely vegetable; neither on the surface, nor beneath it, could there be distinguished a particle of earth mixed with the peat. Being about at the Summit, there was no source from which earth could have been washed into the formning peat. When dry it burns readily with a cheerful blaze and rather strong odor, glowing like the embers of leaves in a draft. It is not, however, used as fuel, on account of the great abundance of wood in that region and its distance from any market, and doubtless the day is remote when it will be in demand as fuel on account of the abundance of coal even more convenient to the great markets than these beds of peat. The great pro- ductiveness of the porous, friable upper crust, where the beds have been

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drained, suggests a use for this material of great interest. It is con- tiguous to these great beds of peat that the thin, light-colored soils, 80 destitute of vegetable mould, abound. Here is a supply, not easily exhausted, of the very material which that soil needs. If these beds average ten feet in thickness, there is enough vegetable matter in them to cover, to the depth of one-half a foot, nearly ten square miles of land. I pointed out to Mr. William Kettler a danger which threatens the destruction of those beds which are perfectly drained. He has dug large trenches through his extensive beds for the purpose of drying them to bring them into cultivation. Where the peat becomes dry it is porous, light, and friable. It requires no breaking up to receive the crop, but is only furrowed out to secure precision in the rows of corn that it may be worked with the plough. The process of drying must continue from year to year where the system of drainage is complete. The result may be disastrous if such a bed of inflammable matter is exposed, as it must be, to the malice or carelessness of any one who might set fire to it in the extremely dry weather of our late summer seasons. Already, imper- fectly dried out as the beds are yet, where persons have carelessly allowed fire to catch in the surface of the peat, deep holes have been burned, extending, doubtless, to the undried substratum. No means that could be brought to bear in those regions would be effectual in quenching a fire in one of those peat beds if they are once thoroughly dried out. The remedy I would suggest is one of prevention-it is to close up the system of drains during the winter, allowing the water to stand in them, saturating the beds completely. The drains being opened in the spring, the beds of peat would not become fully dried out during summer. By retaining moisture they will bring better crops and be safe from con- flagration.

THE RAIN-FALL.

This county is near the border of the area marked in the " Rain-Chart" of the Smithsonian Institution in which the average of rain-fall is forty inches. In the absence of other reliable data, any indefinite impressions that the amount is less than this must be disregarded. We are apt to judge by the effects ; for example, the state of the erops, whereas the larger portion of the rain-fall is at a season when no visible influence can reach the crops from it. Plainly, all the rain and snow-water, which runs off the frozen crust of the ground in the winter, does not affect, one way or the other, the crops of the ensuing summer. The same can be said of the most of the rain, which runs off as soon as it falls, at any season.

An interest attaches to the amount of water which falls, in various forms, in this and the adjoining counties, particularly to the northeast, on account of the requirements of the canal. Data are wanting for determining the amount of water carried off by the canal and the river from the area above the summit-level of the canal in this and the adjoin- ing counties on the northeast. The nature of the soil is such that it will shed as large a proportion of the water which falls upon it as any other soil in the State. An immense quantity flows from above the highest level of the canal without any advantage to the canal. It is equally true that a much greater proportion of it could be utilized than actually finds its way into the canal-enough, certainly, to remove the question of the supply of water out of the discussion concerning the abandon- ment of the canal.

THE LORAMIE RESERVOIR.

This body of water, covering at present but little over 2000 acres of land, lies wholly in Shelby County, and although not one of the largest of the State reservoirs, nor the most important, still it is exceedingly valuable to successful navigation in the summer and early fall. The bottom of the reservoir is about eight feet above the summit-level of the canal. It is supplied by the drainage of about sixty-five or seventy square miles. Being near the water-shed, the surface from which water can be collected into the reservoir is limited, and less water comes from springs than would be the case in many other localities not so high. While the main reliance is on drainage from a limited surface, still such is the nature of the surface-soil, that a much larger proportion of the water which falls upon the surface runs off at once than would run from soil of a more porous character, or one underlaid by large beds of clean

gravel, or sand, or porous rock. The construction of roads, drains, and ditches, as well as the clearing away of the timber and the cultivation of the soil, cause a more rapid flowing away of the water which falls upon the surface. Formerly the reservoir received more water from the gradual draining of the surface; this maintained it at a good stage for a longer time, and enabled it to furnish a greater supply during those months of the dry season when water is usually low in the canal. If the capacity of the reservoir could be increased so as to hold more of the water which falls in the winter months, its usefulness might be greatly increased, for instead of being maintained in good stage until late in the summer by the gradual running out of the water from the extensive swamps of an early day, it is now filled up by the rapid surface drainage, and to furnish as much water when most wanted, must have a capacity to hold at once all that comes into it in the winter and spring. In 2000 acres of land there are 87,120,000 square feet. If it is filled, during the year, with eight feet in depth of water, there would be 696,960,000 cubic feet ; allowing that one-half is lost by evaporation, soakage, and waste from imperfect bulkheads, there would remain 348,480,000 cubic feet for the uses of the canal-enough to lock down, with the present size of locks, eighty boats from the summit level every day of the year. With sixty-five square miles of drainage, from which the reservoir must receive its supply, how much of the forty inches annual rain-fall would be neces- sary to furnish this amount? Less than five inches. A much larger proportion of the forty inches than this certainly flows from the surface of the ground.

It is but justice to the people of the county to call attention to some facts connected with the history and present condition of Loramie Res- ervoir. As it is, the people of the county do not feel kindly disposed toward it. The ground covered by the water of this reservoir was covered in part by the original forest when it was constructed. The forest was not removed, but the trees surrounded by water died, and in the course of time fell down, and now lie in great numbers beneath the water when the water is high, and partly out of it when the water is low. This exposure of the timber to the air in the late summer and the autumn months causes, it is believed, the generation of a miasm which pervades the whole region, rendering it unhealthy. The exposure of the logs to the atmosphere, it is believed, also, has been the cause of the destruction of many tons of fine fish during the past two seasons. It seems, and who will not say with justice, to the people of the county, that the State should do something to remedy the evils which they suffer from the causes just mentioned. They think that the reservoir should be an attractive rather than a repulsive body of water, that it should be a benefit rather than an injury to the interests of the county. Now, when it is borne in mind that there are hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of logs and other sediment in the reservoir, and that all displaces as many cubic feet of water, it is after all a question worthy to be con- sidered, whether it would not be economy to remove all this rubbish to have its room occupied by water every year. How many hundred, per- haps thousand, times would the water-soaked forest which lies beneath the reservoir, with the other vast accumulations of vegetable matter and mud, fill one of the locks of the canal? This would be the measure of gain each year resulting from the removal of all this material from the reservoir-for every lock-full of logs a lock-full of water would be gained. This would remove a nuisance from the county, and in some degree com- pensate for the withdrawal of so large an area of land from cultivation, from improvement, from tax paying. The importance of the reservoirs of the State as sources of supply of fish, deserves to be mentioned here; not only the actual amount of fish for the table to be procured from them, but as sources from which the waters of the State may be restocked and kept supplied with young fish. The reservoirs are at the head-waters of our principal rivers, and, with the present knowledge of artificial fish- breeding, could be made of immense value to the State as sources of supply of fish for the rivers of the State.

The amount of water which could be made available for the canal depends upon the area of land which is above the level of the canal. All that part of the county, embracing about nine townships, which lies on the east and northeast of the main canal, and west and northwest of the Sidney feeder, is above the highest "level" of the canal-it will average about seventy-five feet above the canal. Of course it would be possible

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to gather many times more water from this area than could be contained in Loramie Reservoir. While all this area could not be made available, yet there must be much of it which could be, were it considered a matter of sufficient importance to have it done. Considering, then, alone, the great area, both in this county and in the counties above this, about the head-waters of the Miami River, there should be no question as to the abundance of the supply of water above the summit-level of the canal to continue it as one of the most important avenues of commerce of the State.

THE DRIFT.

The level of the canal at Sidney is about thirty feet above the rock surface. Add to this distance the ascertained elevation above the canal of any point in the county, and it will give approximately the thickness of the drift or clay, gravel, and bowlder deposits. This would make the greatest thickness of the drift on the Tawawa turnpike one hundred and sixty-four feet above bedded rock. Within about two miles of Sidney, on the turnpike to St. Marys, the elevation measures one hundred and twelve feet above the canal at Sidney. Add to this thirty feet and we have one hundred and forty-two, which may be very confidently con- sidered the depth of the drift at this place. It is true these figures may not be the exact measure of the distance from the surface down to the solid rock. Other formations which are known to occur north of this county, and which overlie the formation which occurs here, may underlie the deep drift of the northern part of this county, but this is not certainly known to be the case. On the south, at the line between this and Miami County, on the Infirmary turnpike, the grade falls forty feet below the level of the canal, which is ten feet lower than the top of the rock near Sidney. By the course of the river it will be seen that there is a dip on the surface of the rock as we go southward. The canal rises one hun- dred and fifty-two feet from Tippecanoe (below Lock 39) to the feeder at Sidney. While accurate measurements were not taken of the difference in elevation of the top of the Clinton Stone in the neighborhood of Tippecanoe, and the surface of the canal, yet some measurements which I recorded make the distance about sixty feet. Taking this from one hundred and fifty-two makes this formation about ninety-two feet at Tippecanoe below the level of the Sidney feeder; whereas the top of the Clinton, where this formation is last seen above Bogg's mill-seat, near the end of the bridge over the river, as before stated, is near sixty feet below the canal, these figures would give to the Clinton a rise in level with the horizon of about thirty feet in that distance.

The surface of bedded rock underlying the drift in Shelby County is doubtless worn unevenly, in some places rising above the level indicated by the top rock, on the Miami, below Sidney, in others sinking more or less below that level-perhaps, in places, greatly below.

Rising sometimes to one hundred and sixty-four feet, maintained gen- erally at a level ranging from figures but a little lower than this, down to seventy-five feet (seldom going lower), we may conclude that there is an average depth of drift in the county of one hundred feet. This depth of drift is not equalled in any of the counties which lie south of this. We are here on the line which bounds the deep drift on the south.

The opportunities to ascertain the nature of the drift are numerous in the excavations made in constructing the canal and railroads, especially the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine branch of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis Railroad, which runs at a considerably lower level than the Dayton and Michigan road, which runs through the county in a north and south direction. At the point where the east and west road runs below the track of the Dayton and Michigan, on the western border of Sidney, a good opportunity is afforded of seeing the nature of the drift for a distance of thirty or forty feet below the sur- face. About one mile east of the bridge over the river, on this road, is a still deeper cut. There is little stratification observed in the deposit as seen through these deep cuts. Sand and gravel largely predominate in the composition of the drift as seen here, mixed with clay and nume- rous granitic or quartz bowlders, varying in size from mere pebbles to masses containing from ten to twenty cubic feet. The gravel, sand, and bowlders are distributed through the clay, and all are lying in confusion. It seems to me safe to say that fully twenty-five feet in thickness of clear gravel, were it separated from the clay, would be found in the drift throughout this county-a quantity so inconceivable great that I will

not undertake to express it in figures, more than to say that it would yield twenty-five million cubic yards to the square mile. But this gravel is too much commingled with clay to make it available, in general, for ballasting or road-making, and with all this the county is not abundantly supplied with good gravel for such uses, well distributed in different localities. Enough has, however, been found to construct a system of free turnpikes not surpassed, in extent or excellence, by those of any county of similar size and situation in the State, although the material has had to be hauled, in some instances, for inconvenient distances. I will make special mention of one of the roads, constructed by Mr. D. W. Pampell as engineer-I refer to the one called at Sidney "the St. Marys road," on the line of an old road formerly projected to connect Sidney with the town of St. Marys. This road, of excellent width, careful and full grading, and well gravelled, is carried on a perfectly straight line for a distance which falls short by but a few rods of thirteen miles, wholly in this county. The numerous excellent roads which have been recently constructed through all portions of the county must have an important influence on its future development.

The total number of miles of turnpike roads in Shelby County, at the .present time, is one hundred and fifty-nine, of which only eighteen miles are toll-roads. The free turnpikes extend to all parts of the county and intersect nearly every important neighborhood, and are the means of the development now seen in progress of the material, moral, and intellectual interests of the county. The cost of these roads I ascertained, from the county auditor, Mr. Guthrie, who kindly furnished me with the state- ment, to be about $4000 per mile, or an aggregate of $564,000 for the one hundred and forty-one miles of free turnpike road within the county. While there has been found an abundance of gravel for these roads, it has not always been convenient, and the distance it has been necessary to haul it has enhanced the cost considerably. But for this expense the people of the county have obtained good roads, carefully laid out, and well graded and drained.

Washed gravel .- Wherever the drift has been washed into troughs or valleys, more or less gravel has been deposited in heds, generally at the junction of two such valleys. Usually these depressions are far from any water-course that could in the least affect them at present. They are on the higher levels where no streams of water exist now, and show the effect of the washing of the water which once covered over the whole surface as it ebbed and flowed when it was gradually subsiding, or they are more visibly related to the water-course of to-day and serve to mark the stations where the water stood successively during the time in which the deep valleys, in which the streams now flow., were being excavated. In this county, the gravel of the higher beds is less abundant, is not so coarse or so free from clay. This must have resulted from the condition of the higher deposits of the drift, in which a gravel of a smaller grain was found; as if there had been coarser gravel in this portion of the drift, not it, but the finer, would have been the sooner washed onward, and the coarser would have been left in the higher beds. Above and separated from the portion of the valleys of the water-courses, particu- larly of the river, affected by the action of the water at any stage, at the present time, are some fine beds of washed gravel, showing the effect of moving water in varying circumstances of force and velocity. Near Port Jefferson is the best example of gravel beds of this description in the county. It occurs at the junction of two valleys now threaded by two brooks, the shrunken successors of broad streams of former remote ages. Here are the wide channels which they cut, wide compared with the small paths of the creeks which now meander by a struggling course to reach the river channel. At the point of land where these two waters joined, and where their streams mingled with that of the Miami, is a grand deposit of alternating layers of gravel and sand, heaped up thirty or forty feet deep and exposed now, by the removal of the extreme point to a width of about one hundred feet. When one or the other, or both, the streams which excavated the unequal channels (for one greatly ex- ceeds the other in magnitude) which join at this point, were swollen and were carrying onward a load of sand and gravel, as well as clay, and meeting here, and one spreading over the valley of the other, if un- swollen, or both widening as they entered the broad valley of the river and losing a part of their momentum and carrying power, they deposited a portion of their freight at the point of junction where the rapidity of

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History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 42

Author: R. Sutton & Co. Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Number of Pages: 427

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427