History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 24

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Ohio > Summit County > History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio > Part 24

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Let us see how Ohio compares with other States and with Europe: In 1870, Ohio had 8,818,000 domestic animals ; Illinois, 6,925,000 ; New York, 5,283,000; Pennsylvania, 4,493,000; and other States less. The proportion to population in these States was, in Ohio, to each person, 3.3; Illinois, 2.7; New York, 1.2 ; Pennsylvania, 1.2.

Let us now see the proportion of domestic ani- mals in Europe. The results given by MeGregor's statistics are : In Great Britain, to each person, 2.44; Russia, 2.00; France, 1.50 ; Prussia, 1.02; Austria, 1.00. It will be seen that the proportion in Great Britain is only two-thirds that of Ohio; in France, only one-half; and in Austria and Prussia only one-third. It may be said that, in the course of civilization, the number of animals diminishes as the density of population inereases ; and, therefore, this result might have been ex- pected in the old countries of Europe. But this does not apply to Russia or Germany, still less to other States in this country. Russia in Europe has not more than half the density of population now in Ohio. Austria and Prussia have less than 150 to the square mile. The whole of the north of Europe has not so dense a population as the State of Ohio, still less have the States of Illinois and Missouri, west of Ohio. Then, therefore, Ohio showing a larger proportion of domestic ani- mals than the north of Europe, or States west of her, with a population not so dense, we see at once there must be other causes to produce such a phenomenon.

Looking to some of the incidental results of this vast agricultural production, we see that the United States exports to Europe immense amounts of grain and provisions ; and that there is manufact- ured in this country an immense amount of woolen goods. Then, taking these statistics of the raw material, we find that Ohio produces one-fifth of all the wool; one-seventh of all the cheese; one- eighth of all the corn, and one-tenth of all the wheat ; and yet Ohio has but a fourteenth part of the population, and one-eightieth part of the sur- face of this country.

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Let us take another-a commercial view of this matter. We have seen that Ohio raises five times as much grain per square mile as is raised per square mile in the empires of Great Britain, France and Austria, taken together. After making allow- ance for the differences of living, in the working classes of this country, at least two-thirds of the food and grain of Ohio are a surplus beyond the necessities of life, and, therefore, so much in the commercial balance of exports. This corresponds with the fact, that, in the shape of grain, meat, liquors and dairy products, this vast surplus is con- stantly moved to the Atlantic States and to Europe. The money value of this exported product is equal to $100,000,000 per annum, and to a solid capital of $1,500,000,000, after all the sustenance of the people has been taken out of the annual crop.

We are speaking of agriculture alone. We are speaking of a State which began its career more than a quarter of a century after the Declaration of Independence was made. And now, it may be asked, what is the real cause of this extraordinary result, which, without saying anything invidious of other States, we may safely say has never been surpassed in any country ? We have already stated two of the advantages possessed by Ohio. The first is that it is a compact, unbroken body of arable land, surrounded and intersected by water- courses, equal to all the demands of commerce and navigation. Next, that it was secured forever to freedom and intelligence by the ordinance of 1787. The intelligence of its future people was secured by immense grants of public lands for the purpose of education; but neither the blessings of nature, nor the wisdom of laws, could obtain such results without the continuous labor of an intelligent people. Such it had, and we have only to take the testimony of Washington, already quoted, and the statistical results I have given, to prove that no people has exhibited more steady industry, nor has any people directed their labor with more in- telligence.

After the agricultural capacity and production of a country, its most important physical feature is its mineral products; its capacity for coal and iron, the two great elements of material civiliza- tion. If we were to take away from Great Britain her capacity to produce coal in such vast quanti- ties, we should reduce her to a third-rate position, no longer numbered among the great nations of the earth. Coal has smelted her iron, run her steam engines, and is the basis of her manufactures. But when we compare the coal fields of Great

Britain with those of this country, they are insig- nificant. The coal fields of all Europe are small compared with those of the central United States. The coal district of Durham and Northumberland, in England, is only 880 square miles. There are other districts of smaller extent, making in the whole probably one-half the extent of that in Ohio. The English coal-beds are represented as more important, in reference to extent, on account of their thickness. There is a small coal district in Lancashire, where the workable coal-beds are in all 150 feet in thickness. But this involves, as is well known, the necessity of going to immense depths and incurring immense expense. On the other hand, the workable coal-beds of Ohio are near the surface, and some of them require no ex- cavating, except that of the horizontal lead from the mine to the river or the railroad. In one county of Ohio there are three beds of twelve, six and four feet each, within fifty feet of the surface. At some of the mines having the best coal, the lead from the mines is nearly horizontal, and just high enough to dump the coal into the railroad cars. These coals are of all qualities, from that adapted to the domestic fire to the very best qual- ity for smelting or manufacturing iron. Recollect- ing these facts, let us try to get an idea of the coal district of Ohio. The bituminous coal region de- escending the western slopes of the Alleghanies, occupies large portions of Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. I suppose that this coal field is not less than fifty thousand square miles, exclusive of Western Mary- land and the southern terminations of that field in Georgia and Alabama. Of this vast field of coal, exceeding anything found in Europe, about one- fifth part lies in Ohio. Prof. Mather, in his report on the geology of the State (first Geologi- cal Report of the State) says:

" The coal-measures within Ohio occupy a space of about one hundred and eighty miles in length by eighty in breadth at the widest part, with an area of about ten thousand square miles, extending along the Ohio from Trumbull County in the north to near the mouth of the Scioto in the south. The regularity in the dip, and the moderate incli- nation of the strata, afford facilities to the mines not known to those of most other countries, espe- cially Great Britain, where the strata in which the coal is imbedded have been broken and thrown out of place since its deposit, occasioning many slips and faults, and causing much labor and expense in again recovering the bed. In Ohio there is very

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little difficulty of this kind, the faults being small and seldom found."

Now, taking into consideration these geological facts, let us look at the extent of the Ohio coal field. It occupies, wholly or in part, thirty-six counties, including, geographically, 14,000 square miles ; but leaving out fractions, and reducing the Ohio coal field within its narrowest limits, it is 10,000 square miles in extent, lies near the surface, and has on an average twenty feet thickness of work- able coal-beds. Let us compare this with the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland (England), the largest and best coal mines there. That coal district is estimated at 850 square miles, twelve feet thick, and is calculated to contain 9,000,000,- 000 tons of coal. The coal field of Ohio is twelve times larger and one-third thicker. Estimated by that standard, the coal field of Ohio contains 180,- 000,000,000 tons of coal. Marketed at only $2 per ton, this coal is worth $360,000,000,000, or, in other words, ten times as much as the whole valuation of the United States at the present time. But we need not undertake to estimate either its quantity or value. It is enough to say that it is a quantity which we can scareely imagine, which is tenfold that of England, and which is enough to supply the entire continent for ages to come.

After coal, iron is beyond doubt the most val- uable mineral product of a State. As the mate- rial of manufacture, it is the most important. What are called the " precious metals" are not to be compared with it as an element of industry or profit. But since no manufactures can be success- fully carried on without fuel, coal becomes the first material element of the arts. Iron is unquestion- ably the next. Ohio has an iron distriet extending from the mouth of the Scioto River to some point north of the Mahoning River, in Trumbull County. The whole length is nearly two hundred miles, and the breadth twenty miles, making, as near as we can ascertain, 4,000 square miles. The iron in this dis- triet is of various qualities, and is manufactured largely into bars and eastings. In this iron dis- triet are one hundred furnaces, forty-four rolling- mills, and fifteen rail-mills, being the largest num- ber of either in any State in the Union, except only Pennsylvania.

Although only the seventeenth State in its admis- sion, I find that, by the census statistics of 1870, it is the third State in the production of iron and iron manufactures. Already, and within the life of one man, this State begins to show what must in future time be the vast results of coal and iron,

applied to the arts and manufactures. In the year 1874, there were 420,000 tons of pig iron produced in Ohio, which is larger than the prod- uct of any State, except Pennsylvania. The product and the manufacture of iron in Ohio have increased so rapidly, and the basis for increase is so great, that we may not doubt that Ohio will continue to be the greatest producer of iron and iron fabries, except only Pennsylvania. At Cincinnati, the iron manufacture of the Ohio Valley is concentrating, and at Cleveland the ores of Lake Superior are being smelted.

After coal and iron, we may place salt among the necessaries of life. In connection with the coal region west of the Alleghanies, there lies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, a large space of country underlaid by the salt rock, which already produces immense amounts of salt. Of this, Ohio has its full proportion. In a large section of the southeastern portion of the State, salt is produced without any known limitation. At Pomeroy and other points, the salt rock lies about one thousand feet below the surface, but salt water is brought easily to the surface by the steam engine. There, the salt roek, the coal seam, and the noble sandstone lie in successive strata, while the green corn and the yellow wheat bloom on the surface above. The State of Ohio produced, in 1874, 3,500,000 bushels of salt, being one-fifth of all produced in the United States. The salt section of Ohio is exceeded only by that of Syracuse, New York, and of Saginaw, Michigan. There is no definite limit to the underlying salt rock of Ohio, and, therefore, the production will be proportioned only to the extent of the demand.

Having now considered the resources and the products of the soil and the mines of Ohio, we may properly ask how far the people have employed their resources in the increase of art and manu- facture. We have two modes of comparison, the rate of increase within the State, and the ratio they bear to other States. The aggregate value of the products of manufacture, exclusive of mining, in the last three censuses were : in 1850, $62.692,000; in 1860, $121,691,000; in 1870, $269,713,000.

The ratio of increase was over 100 per cent in each ten years, a rate far beyond that of the in- crease of population, and much beyond the ratio of increase in the whole country. In 1850, the man- ufactures of Ohio were one-sixteenth part of the aggregate in the country ; in 1860, one-fifteenth

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part; in 1870, one-twelfth part. In addition to this, we find, from the returns of Cincinnati and Cleveland, that the value of the manufactured prod- ucts of Ohio in 1875, must have reached $400,- 000,000, and, by reference to the census tables, it will be seen that the ratio of increase exceeded that of the great manufacturing States of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Of all the States admitted into the Union prior to Ohio, Pennsylvania alone has kept pace in the progress of manufacture. Some little reference to the manufacture of leading articles may throw some light on the cause of this. In the production of agricultural machinery and implements, Ohio is the first State ; in animal and vegetable oils and in pig iron, the second; in cast iron and in tobacco, the third ; in salt, in machinery and in leather, the fourth. These facts show how largely the resources of coal, iron and agriculture have entered into the manufactures of the State. This great advance in the manufactures of Ohio, when we consider that this State is, relatively to its surface, the first agricultural State in the country, leads to the inevitable inference that its people are remarkably industrious. When, on forty thousand square miles of surface, three mill- ions of people raise one hundred and fifty million bushels of grain, and produce manufactures to the amount of $269,000,000 (which is fifty bushels of breadstuff to each man, woman and child, and $133 of manufacture), it will be difficult to find any community surpassing such results. It is a testimony, not only to the State of Ohio, but to the industry, sagacity and energy of the American people.

Looking now to the commerce of the State, we have said there are six hundred miles of coast line, which embraces some of the principal internal ports of the Ohio and the lakes, such as Cincinnati, Cleve- land, Toledo and Portsmouth, but whose commerce is most wholly inland. Of course, no comparison can be made with the foreign commerce of the ocean ports. On the other hand, it is well known that the inland trade of the country far exceeds that of all its foreign commerce, and that the larg- est part of this interior trade is carried on its rivers and lakes. The materials for the vast con- sumption of the interior must be conveyed in its vessels, whether of sail or steam, adapted to these waters. Let us take, then, the ship-building, the navigation, and the exchange trades of Ohio, as elements in determining the position of this State in reference to the commerce of the country. At the ports of Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky and Cin-

cinnati, there have been built one thousand sail and steam vessels in the last twenty years, making an average of fifty cach year. The number of sail, steam and all kinds of vessels in Ohio is eleven hundred and ninety, which is equal to the number in all the other States in the Ohio Valley and the Upper Mississippi.

When we look to the navigable points to which these vessels are destined, we find them on all this vast coast line, which extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Yellowstone, and from Duluth to the St. Lawrence.

Looking again to see the extent of this vast in- terior trade which is handled by Ohio alone, we find that the imports and exports of the principal articles of Cincinnati, amount in value to $500,- 000,000; and when we look at the great trade of Cleveland and Toledo, we shall find that the an- nual trade of Ohio exceeds $700,000,000. The lines of railroad which connect with its ports, are more than four thousand miles in length, or rather more than one mile in length to each ten square miles of surface. This great amount of railroads is engaged not merely in transporting to the Atlantic and thence to Europe, the immense surplus grain and meat in Ohio, but in carrying the largest part of that greater surplus, which exists in the States west of Ohio, the granary of the West. Ohio holds the gateway of every railroad north of the Ohio, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and hence it is that the great transit lines of the coun- try pass through Ohio.

Let us now turn from the progress of the arts to the progress of ideas; from material to intellect- ual development. It is said that a State consists of men, and history shows that no art or science, wealth or power, will compensate for the want of moral or intellectual stability in the minds of a nation. Hence, it is admitted that the strength and perpetuity of our republic must consist in the intelligence and morality of the people. A re- public can last only when the people are enlight- ened. This was an axiom with the early legislators of this country. Hence it was that when Vir- ginia, Connecticut and the original colonies ceded to the General Government that vast and then un- known wilderness which lay west of the Allegha- nies, in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, they took care that its future inhabitants should be an educated people. The Constitution was not formed when the celebrated ordinance of 1787 was passed.

That ordinance provided that, " Religion, mor- ality, and knowledge being necessary to good

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government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever en- couraged;" and by the ordinance of 1785 for the survey of public lands in the Northwestern Terri- tory, Section 16 in each township, that is, one thirty-sixth part, was reserved for the maintenance of public schools in said townships. As the State of Ohio contained a little more than twenty-five millions of acres, this, together with two special grants of three townships to universities, amounted to the dedication of 740,000 acres of land to the maintenance of schools and colleges. It was a splendid endowment, but it was many years before it became available. It was sixteen years after the passage of this ordinance (in 1803), when Ohio entered the Union, and legislation upon this grant became possible. The Constitution of the State pursued the language of the ordinance, and de- clared that "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision." The Governors of Ohio, in successive messages, urged attention to this subject upon the people ; but the thinness of settlement, making it impossi- ble, except in few districts, to collect youth in suf- ficient numbers, and impossible to sell or lease lands to advantage, caused the delay of efficient school system for many years. In 1825, however, a general law establishing a school system, and levy- ing a tax for its support, was passed.

This was again enlarged and increased by new legislation in 1836 and 1846. From that time to this, Ohio has had a broad, liberal and efficient sys- tem of public instruction. The taxation for schools, and the number enrolled in them at different pe- riods, will best show what has been done. In

1855 the total taxation for school purposes was $2,672,827. The proportion of youth of school- able age enrolled was 67 per cent. In 1874 the amount raised by taxation was $7,425,135. The number enrolled of schoolable age was 70 per cent, or 707,943.

As the schoolable age extends to twenty-one years, and as there are very few youth in school after fifteen years of age, it follows that the 70 per cent of schoolable youths enrolled in the pub- lic schools must comprehend nearly the whole number between four and fifteen years. It is im- portant to observe this fact, because it has been inferred that, as the whole number of youth be- tween five and twenty-one have not been enrolled, therefore they are not educated. This is a mistake; nearly all over fifteen years of age have been in the public schools, and all the native

youth of the State, and all foreign born, young enough, have had the benefit of the public schools. But in consequence of the large number who have come from other States and from foreign countries, there are still a few who are classed by the census statistics among the "illiterate;" the proportion of this class, however, is less in propor- tion than in twenty-eight other States, and less in proportion than in Connecticut and Massachusetts, two of the oldest States most noted for popular education. In fact, every youth in Ohio, under twenty-one years of age, may have the benefit of a public education ; and, since the system of graded and high schools has been adopted, may obtain a · common knowledge from the alphabet to the classics. The enumerated branches of study in the pub- lie schools of Ohio are thirty-four, including mathematics and astronomy, French, German and the classics. Thus the State which was in the heart of the wilderness in 1776, and was not a State until the nineteenth century had begun, now presents to the world, not merely an unrivaled de- velopment of material prosperity, but an unsur- passed system of popular education.

In what is called the higher education, in the colleges and universities, embracing the classics and sciences taught in regular classes, it is the pop- ular idea, and one which few dare to question, that we must look to the Eastern States for superiority and excellence; but that also is becoming an as- sumption without proof; a proposition difficult to sustain. The facts in regard to the education of universities and colleges, their faculties, students and course of instruction, are all set forth in the complete statistics of the Bureau of Education for 1874. They show that the State of Ohio had the largest number of such institutions; the largest number of instructors in their faculties, except one State, New York; and the largest number of stu- dents in regular college classes, in proportion to their population, except the two States of Connect- icut and Massachusetts. Perhaps, if we look at the statistics of classical students in the colleges, disregarding preparatory and irregular courses, we shall get a more accurate idea of the progress of the higher education in those States which claim the best. In Ohio, 36 colleges, 258 teachers, 2,139 students, proportion, 1 in 124; in Penn- sylvania, 27 colleges, 239 teachers, 2,359 students, proportion, 1 in 150; in New York, 26 colleges, 343 teachers, 2,764 students, proportion, 1 in 176; in thesix New England States, 17 colleges, 252 teach- ers, 3,341 students, proportion, 1 in 105; in Illi-

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nois, 24 colleges, 219 teachers, 1,701 students, proportion, 1 in 140.

This shows there are more collegiate institutions in Ohio than in all New England ; a greater num- ber of college teachers, and only a little smaller ratio of students to the population ; a greater number of such students than either in New York or Pennsyl- vania, and, as a broad, general fact, Ohio has made more progress in education than either of the old States which formed the American Union. Such a fact is a higher testimony to the strength and the beneficent influence of the American Government than any which the statistician or the historian can advance.

Let us now turn to the moral aspects of the people of Ohio. No human society is found with- out its poor and dependent classes, whether made so by the defects of nature, by acts of Providence, or by the accidents of fortune. Since no society is exempt from these classes, it must be judged not so much by the fact of their existence, as by the manner in which it treats them. In the civil- ized nations of antiquity, such as Greece and Rome, hospitals, infirmaries, orphan homes, and asylums for the infirm, were unknown. These are the creations of Christianity, and that must be esteemed practically the most Christian State which most practices this Christian beneficence. In Ohio, as in all the States of this country, and of all Christian countries, there is a large number of the infirm and dependent classes; but, although Ohio is the third State in population, she is only the fourteenth in the proportion of dependent classes. The more important point, however, was, how does she treat them? Is there wanting any of all the varied institutions of benevolence? How does she compare with other States and countries in this respect? It is believed that no State or coun- try can present a larger proportion of all these institutions which the benevolence of the wise and good have suggested for the alleviation of suffer- ing and misfortune, than the State of Ohio. With 3,500 of the insane within her borders, she has five great lunatic asylums, capable of accommodat- ing them all. She has asylums for the deaf and dumb, the idiotic, and the blind. She has the best hospitals in the country. She has schools of reform and houses of refuge. She has "homes" for the boys and girls, to the number of 800, who are children of soldiers. She has penitentiaries and jails, orphan asylums and infirmaries. In every county there is an infirmary, and in every public institution, except the penitentiary, there is a

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 24

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104