History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 31

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 31

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Impressed with these opinions, it is proposed to present the citizens of Summit County with an authentic and impartial history ; one which may be implicitly relied on in its calcula- tions and statistical details, and which shall present as accurate and faithful a survey as can be obtained from any data known to the writers of the different departments, or attainable by them. With all the care that may be exercised, however, the record will no doubt be found im- perfect ; incidents and names be left out, and matters escape notice which many will deem unpardonable omissions. This is one of the things which detract from the pleasure of writing local annals. But it is more or less unavoid-

* Contributed by W. Il. Perrin.

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

able, as no one can know and remember every- thing, and both the time and space allotted to us are limited.

Summit County lies in the northeastern part of the State, with but one county between it and the lake, and is bounded on the north by Cuyahoga County, on the east by Portage, on the south by Stark, on the west by Medina, and embraces within its limits seventeen town- ships (including Cuyahoga Falls). It is sit- uated on the highlands, or the "summit " (from which it derives the name of Sum- mit), which separate the tributaries of the Ohio from the waters flowing north into Lake Erie, and has an average elevation of about five hundred feet above the lake. "The Cuya- hoga River, rising in the northern part of Geauga County, runs for forty miles in a southwesterly direction, then in the center of Summit County turns sharply to the north, and pursues a nearly straight course to the lake. In Geauga and Portage, the Cuyahoga flows on the surface of a plateau composed of the ear- boniferous conglomerate. At the town of Cuyahoga Falls, in this county, this plateau is cut through in a series of cascades which give rise to much beautiful scenery. The river here falls 220 feet in two miles, so that from the vi- cinity of Akron to the north line of the county, it flows through a narrow valley or gorge more than three hundred feet deep. At frequent in- tervals, the Cuyahoga receives tributaries, both from the east and the west, and the valleys of these streams contribute their part to give va- riety to the topography of the central portion of the county." *

In the geological and physical features of the county, we shall draw our information prin- cipally from the State Geological Survey. It is the official report of the State on these sub- jects, and may be relied on as substantially correct. And as there were but a limited num- ber of them printed, and they are even now be- coming scarce, the extraets from them incorpo- rated in this work will be found of interest and value to our readers. We quote further, as follows :

" The highest lands in Summit are the hills most distant from the channels of drainage, in Richfield, Norton, Green, Springfield, Tallmadge, and Hudson. In all these townships, summits rise to the height of 650 above the lake. The

bottom of the Cuyahoga Valley, in the north- ern part of Northfield, is less than fifty feet above Lake Erie, so that within the county we have differences of level which exceed 600 feet. The altitudes in Summit County are thus offi- cially given : Tallmadge, Long Swamp, above Lake Erie 470 feet ; Tallmadge road, east of Center, 543 feet ; Tallmadge, Coal No. 1, New- berry's mine, 520 feet ; Tallmadge, Coal No. 1, D. Upson's mine, 492 feet ; Tallmadge, summit of Coal Hill, 636 feet; Akron, door-sill of court house, 452.65 feet ; Akron, railroad depot, 428.13 feet; Akron, summit level, Ohio Canal, highwater, 395 feet; Akron, P. & O. Canal, 370.64 feet ; Cuyahoga Falls, rail- road depot, 428.13 feet ; Monroe Falls, road before Hiekok house, 460 feet ; Hudson Station, 496 feet ; Hudson town, 547 feet ; Boston, Ohio Canal, 94.66 feet ; Peninsula, Ohio Ca- nal, 125.66 feet ; Yellow Creek, Ohio Canal, 180 feet ; Old Portage, Ohio Canal, 188 feet ; Green, summit of Valley Railroad, 532 feet ; New Portage, street in front of tavern, 400 feet ; lake, between New Portage and Johnson's Corners, 399 feet ; Wolf Creek, below Clark's mill, 390.74 feet ; Wolf Creek, in Copley, one mile west of north-and-south center road, 419- .78 feet ; Little Cuyahoga, Mogadore, 477 feet ; Little Cuyahoga, at Gilchrist's mill-dam, 457 feet ; Little Cuyahoga, old forge at trestle, 439 feet ; Richfield, East Center, 531.80 feet ; Rich- field, highest land (over), 675 feet; Yellow Creek, one-fourth mile west of Ghent, 371 feet.

" The soil of Summit County is somewhat varied. In the northern part, even where un- derlaid by the conglomerate in full thickness, the soil derived from the drift contains a great deal of clay, and Northfield, Twinsburg, Hudson, ete., are, as a consequence, dairy towns. The southern half of the county, however, has a loam soil, and the attention of the farmers has been directed more to grain-growing than stock- raising. This difference of soil was clearly in- dicated by the original vegetable growth. In Hudson and Twinsburg the forest was com- posed, for the most part, of beech, maple, bass- wood and elm, while in Stow, Tallmadge, and southward, the prevailing forest growth was oak. In Franklin and Green, the soil is decid- edly gravelly ; the original timber was oak, in groves and patches, and these townships form part of the famous wheat-growing district of Stark, Wayne, ete. In the central part of the

* Geological Survey.

183

county, between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, a few thousand acres, called " The Plains," formerly presented a marked contrast to the rolling and densely timbered surface of all the surrounding area. This is a nearly level dis- trict of which the peculiar features are mostly obliterated by cultivation, but when in the state of nature, it had the aspect of the prairies of the West. It was almost destitute of timber, was covered with grass and scrub-oak (quercus banisteri), and, in spring, was a perfect flower- garden ; for a much larger number of wild flowers were found here than in any other part of the county. The origin of these peculiar features may be traced to the nature of the substructure of the district. This area forms a triangle between the two branches of the Cuyahoga and the coal-hills of Tallmadge ; the soil is sandy, and this is underlaid by beds of gravel of unknown depth. It seems that there once existed here a deeply excavated rock basin, which was subsequently partly filled up with drift deposits and partly by water ; in other words, that it was, for a time, a lake. The waters of this lake deposited the sand which now forms the soil. and. in its deeper portions, a series of lacustrine clays, which are well shown in the cutting recently made for a road on the north side of the valley of the Lit- tle Cuyahoga, near Akron. The sections of these beds are as follows :

FEET. INCHEN.

1. Stratified sand.

2. Blue clay. .. 10

3. Mixed yellow and blue clay, stratified 1

4. Blue clay. 10

5. Yellow clay. 10

6. Blue clay. 1

7. Red clay.

8. Yellow clay 1

9. Blue clay.

10. Red clay.

11. Blue clay.

12. Red clay.

13. Blue clay 1 14. Red elay.

15. Yellow clay. 1

16. Blue clay.

17. Red clay.

19. Yellow clay.

20. Blue clay.

21. Yellow clay 3

22. Blue clay. . 4

"In another section, exposed nearly in the valley of the Little Cuyahoga, the beds which have been enumerated are seen to be underlaid

by about sixty feet of stratified sand and gravel to the bed of the stream. To what depth they extend is not known. On the op- posite side of the Little Cuyahoga, on the main road leading into Akron, the banks of the old valley present a very different section from either of those to which I have referred above. There we find a hill composed of finely washed and irregularly stratified sand, quite free from pebbles. About ten or twelve feet of the up- per part is yellow ; the lower part, as far as ex- posed, white ; a waved line separating the two colors. East and north of the locality where the detailed section given above was taken, heavy beds of gravel are seen to occupy the same horizon ; from which we may learn that these finely laminated clays were deposited in a basin of water, of which the shore was formed by gravel hills. A portion of the city of _1k- ron is underlaid by thick beds of stratified sand and gravel. These are often cross-strati- fied. and show abundant evidences of current action. They also contain large angular blocks of conglomerate and many fragments of coal, some of which are of considerable size. We apparently have some of the materials which were cut out of the valleys that separate the isolated outliers of the coal measures which are found in this part of the county. Beds of gravel and sand stretch away southward from Akron, and form part of a belt which extends through Stark County, partially filling the old, deeply-cut valley of the Tuscarawas, and ap- parently marking the line of the southern ex- tension of the valley of Cuyahoga when it was a channel of drainage from the lake basin to the Ohio. This old and partially obliterated channel has been referred to in the chapter on the physical geography of the State, and it will be more fully described in the chapters on sur- face geology and those formed by the reports on Stark and Tuscarawas Counties. I will only refer to it, in passing, to say that the line of the Ohio Canal, of which the summit is at Akron, was carried through this oldl water gap, because it still forms a comparatively low pass. In the western part of the State, the

1 Miami Canal traverses a similar pass, and an- other, having nearly the same level with those mentioned, in Trumbull County, connects the valleys of Grand River and the Mahoning.

" The thick beds of gravel and sand which underlie the plain and stretch eastward up the

18. Fine yellow sand. 2

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

184

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

valley of the Little Cuyahoga, through Southern Tallmadge, perhaps form part of the great gravel belt to which I have already alluded, but may be of mere local origin. It seems to me quite possible that the Cuyahoga, in former times, passed eastward of its present course, from Kent or Monroe Falls to Akron ; that the falls of the Cuyahoga were then near the ' Old Forge,' and that this excavated basin beneath the 'plains' was scooped out by them. We know that the position of the falls has been constantly changing ; that they were once in Cuyahoga County, and have gradually receded to their present position. When they had worked back to the great bend of the Cuyahoga, they seem to have swung round the circle for some time before starting on their present line of progress. In this interval, the river appears to have flowed over a broad front of the con- glomerate, and, cutting away the shales below, to have produced the rock basin which has been described. When the falls of the Cuya- hoga were at the north line of the county, they must have had a perpendicular height of at least two hundred feet, for the hard layers in the Cuyahoga shale which produce the 'Big Falls' do not extend so far north. The entire mass of the Cuyahoga shale there is soft argil- laceous material, which must have been cut out beneath the massive conglomerate, producing a cascade at least equal in height to that of Ni- agara.

"The north-south portion of the Cuyahoga Valley seems to have been once continued southward, and to have been connected with the old valley of the Tuscarawas, which is ex- cavated far below the bed of the present stream. At the north line of the county, the valley of the Cuyahoga is cut down two hun- dred and twenty feet below the present river bottom, as we learn by wells bored for oil. The bottom of the valley of the Tuscarawas is, at Canal Dover, one hundred and seventy-five feet below the surface of the stream, and there are many facts which indicate that there was once a powerful current of water passing from the lake basin to the Ohio through this deeply ex- cavated channel. Subsequently, this outlet was dammed up by heavy beds of drift; and the Cuyahoga, cut from its connection with the Tuscarawas, to which it had been a tributary, was forced to turn sharply to the north, form- ing the abrupt curve that has always been re-

garded as a peculiar feature in the course of this stream. The courses of the tributaries of the Maumee are not unlike that of the Cuya- hoga, and are probably dependent upon the same cause, namely, the depression of the lake level and the diversion of the drainage from the Mississippi system, with which it was formerly connected, into the lake basin. The drift clays which underlie the northern part of Summit County are plainly of northern origin, as they contain innumerable fragments of the Huron, Eric and Cuyahoga shales, and no such mass of argillaceous material could be derived from the conglomerate and coal measures which underlie all the country toward the south. The direc- tion of the glacial stria in the county is nearly northwest and southeast, and these clays are plainly the result of glacial action. It is inter- esting to note, however, that in the drift clay at Hudson a large number of masses of coal have been found, some of which were several inches in diameter. This fact, taken in connection with the character and history of the drift clays, proves-what we had good reason to be- licve from other causes-that the coal rocks once extended at least as far north as the northern limits of the county, and that from all the northern townships they were removed and the conglomerate laid bare by glacial erosion. A considerable portion of the drift gravels in the southern part of the county are of foreign and northern origin. As I have elsewhere re- marked, these gravels and the associated lands show distinct marks of water action, and have apparently been sorted and stratified by the shore waves of the lake when it stood several hundred feet higher than now. The bowlders which are strewn over the surface in all parts of the county are mostly composed of Lauren- tian granite from Canada, and I have attributed their transportation to icebergs. In North- ampton, many huge bowlders of corniferous limestone are found, and these evidently came from the islands in Lake Erie.

"One of the most striking of the surface features of Summit County is the great num- ber of small lakes which are found here. These are generally beautiful sheets of pure water, en- closed in basins of drift, gravel and sand. They form part of the great series of lake basins which mark the line of the water-shed from Pennsylvania to Michigan, and they have been described, and their origin explained, in the

185

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

chapter on ' Physical Geography.' When a resi- dent of Summit County, I mapped and visited nearly one hundred of these little lakes within a circle of twenty miles radius drawn around Cuyahoga Falls. Aside from the variety and beauty which these lakelets give to the surface, they afford many objects of scientific interest. They are usually stocked with excellent fish, and many rare and peculiar plants grow in and about them. They also contain great numbers of shells, some of which are rare. Springfield Lake, for example, is the only known locality of Melania gracilis, and Congress Lake contains two species of Linnea (L. gracilis and L. stag- malis), both of which are found in few, if any. other, localities in the State. Many of these are being gradually filled up by a growth of vegetation that ultimately forms peat. In all those lakes where the shores are marshy and shake under the tread, peat is accumulating. We have evidence, too, that many lakelets have been filled up and obliterated by this process ; for we find a large number of marshes in which there is now little water, but the surface is un- derlaid by peat and shell marl, sometimes to the depth of twenty or thirty feet. Every town- ship contains more or less of these, and some of them are quite extensive. The larger ones are usually known as whortleberry swamps or cranberry marshes, sometimes as tamarack swamps, from the growth of larch which fre- quently covers the surface. Among the largest of these is that west of Hudson, on Mud Brook, in which the peat is fifteen feet deep. Another lies east of Hudson, near the county line. In Stow, on Mud Brook, is a long peat swamp, in which the peat is not less than thirty feet deep. In Coventry is one in which the peat is said to be thirty or forty feet deep, and from this con- siderable peat of excellent quality has been manufactured by J. F. Brunot. These peat bogs have excited some interest as possible sources of supply of fuel, and yet, where coal is as cheap and good as in Summit County, it seems hardly probably that peat can be profit- ably employed as a fuel. The best of peat, when air-dried, contains nearly 20 per cent of water and 20 per cent of oxygen, and has a heat- ing power not greater than half that of our coals, while it occupies double the space. Hence, unless it can be produced at half the price of coal in the markets of Summit County, it can hardly compete with it. Peat is, however, an

excellent fertilizer, and many, even of the smaller peat bogs, may be made very valuable to the agricultorist. In some localities, such deposits of peat have been cleared up and cul- tivated for many years, without a suspicion that there was anything of interest or value below the surface. Deposits of shell marl are frequently found underlying peat in ‘ cat swamps' and filled-up lakelets. This marl is composed of the remains of the shells of mol- lusks, which, after the death of the animals that inhabited them, have accumulated at the bot- tom of the water. In some instances, these marls are white, and nearly pure lime ; in others they are mixed with more or less earthy and veg- etable matter. Such deposits occur in nearly every township in the county, but they have attracted little attention. and their valuable fertilizing properties have been very sparingly made available. The deposit of shell marl on the road between Hudson and Stow, on land of Charles Darrow, is at least twelve feet deep and very pure. Similar marl-beds, though less extensive, are known in Hudson. Northampton and other parts of the county. Usually a sheet of peat or muck covers the marl, and it is not likely to be discovered, unless by ditching or special search. The simplest method of ex- ploring marshes for peat or shell marl is with au auger made from an old two-inch or three-inch carpenter's auger welded to a small, square rod of iron, on which a handle is made to slide, and fasten with a key. With this all marshes may be probed to the depth of eiglit or ten feet with the greatest facility.

" The Erie shale is the lowest formation ex- posed in Summit County, and is visible only in the bottom of the valley of the Cuyahoga, where it is eut deepest, in the township of Northfield. About one hundred feet of the upper portion of the Erie shale is exposed in the cliff's which border the river, being a continuation of the outerops which have been fully described in the report on the geology of Cuyahoga County. The same fossils have been found in the Erie shale in Northfield. as those collected in the valleys of Chippewa and Tinker's Creeks.

" The Lower Carboniferous or Waverly group is freely opened in the valley of the ('uyahoga, and we here find some of the most satisfactory sections of this formation that can be seen in the State. It has also yielded, perhaps, as large a number of fossils in Summit County as

186

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

have been obtained from this group in any other localities. The Cleveland shale is the bituminous shale which forms the base of the Waverly group, and has been fully described in the reports on the counties which form the northern border of the State. The outerops of the Cleveland shale which are visible in the valley of the Cuyahoga are continnations south- ward of those noticed in Cuyahoga County. As the dip of all the strata is here gently southward, and the valley gradually deepens toward its mouth, the Cleveland shale, though on the north line of the county more than 100 feet above the bed of the stream, sinks out of sight near Peninsula, less than ten miles from the county line. The average thickness of the Cleveland shale in Summit County is about fifty feet. and it presents precisely the same lithological characters here as farther north. No fossils have been discovered in it at the lo- calities where it has been examined in this county, but more careful search would undoubt- edly result in the discovery of the scales and teeth of fishes similar to those found at Bed- ford. As in Trumbull, Cuyahoga and Medina Counties, the outerops of the Cleveland shale in Summit are marked by oil and gas springs, which are plainly produced by the decomposi- tion or spontaneous distillation of the large amounts of carbonaceous matter it contains. The oil and gas springs which have been no- tired on the sides of the Cuyahoga Valley at and below Peninsula, are distinctly connected with the Cleveland shale, and have, as a conse- quence, misled those who have been influenced by them to bore for oil in the bottom of the valley.

" The Bedford shale, a member of the Wa- verly group, is not well exposed in the valley ! of the Cuyahoga, though visible at a number of localities. It outerops usually from slopes covered with debris. Where the limits of the formation are concealed, judging from the glimpses obtained of it, the Bedford shale is apparently about seventy feet thick in the valley of the Cuyahoga, and consists mainly of soft, blue, argillaceous strata, similar to those in the gorge of Tinker's Creek, at Bedford. In some localities it is more or less red, and has been here. as elsewhere, used as a mineral paint. In the valley of Brandywine Creek, below the falls. the Bedford shale is fossiliferous, and contains the same species found at Bedford.

Among these, Syringothyris typa is the most conspicuous and abundant, and slabs may be obtained here which are thickly set with this fine fossil, forming beautiful specimens for the cabinet.

" The Berea sandstone is well exposed in the valley of the Cuyahoga in the northern part of the county, and forms two lines of outerop- one on each side of the river-running from Peninsula to Independence on the west, and to Bedford and Newburg on the East. At Peninsula, the Berea grit has been extensively quarried for many years. The base of the formation is here from thirty to sixty feet above the canal, so that the quarries are worked with facility, and their product shipped with comparatively, little expense. The entire thick- ness of the formation in the valley of the Cuyahoga is about sixty feet. The stone it furnishes varies considerably in character in the different localities where it is exposed. At the quarries of Mr. Woods, at Peninsula, it is lighter in color than at Independence, resem- bling the Berea stone in this respect, as also in hardness. Some layers are nearly white, and a large amount of excellent building stone has been shipped from this locality and used for the construction of various public buildings at Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Oswego, etc. This stone is more firm and durable, but is harder and less homogeneous than that from the Am- herst quarries ; it is, however, so highly es- teemed, that a ready market has been found for all that has been taken from the quarries. During 1871, the stone shipped from Peninsula was equal to 2,800 car loads of ten tons each. Between Peninsula and the county line, the outerops of the Berea grit have been but imper- fectly explored. They are much obscured by the debris of the higher portion of the cliff's, and the examinations necessary to determine the value of the stone would require the ex- penditure of considerable time and money. There is every probability, however, that good quarries could be opened at a great number of localities, and I think that I am quite safe in predicting that in future years this portion of the valley of the Cuyahoga will be the theater of a very active industry growing out of the quarrying of Berea grit for the Cleveland mar- ket. Should the railroad, now proposed, be constructed through the valley, this, with the canal, will supply such facilities for transporta-

187

HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY.

tion, that, if the quality of the stone should be found suitable, this district will contribute as largely as any other to the market of the great lakes. From the differences which are everywhere exhibited in the quality of the stone in neighboring outcrops of the Berea grit, the banks of the Cuyahoga should be carefully examined, in order to discover such localities as will furnish stone of a superior quality. It is not too much to expect that some of these will have great pecuniary value. The Berea grit forms the solid stratum that produces the falls of the Brandywine at Bran- dywine Mills, and it is here considerably more massive than at the outcrops further north on the same side of the Cuyahoga. No fossils have been found in the Berea grit in Summit County. It is elsewhere, as a general rule, re- markably barren, and yet, at Chagrin Falls, fos- sil fishes have been obtained from it, and at Bedford a Discina, a Lingula and an Annularia. These, and perhaps other fossils, may hereafter be met with in the Cuyahoga Valley.

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 31

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