History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 80

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton
Number of Pages: 878

USA > Ohio > Mercer County > History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 80
USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 80

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).

At the quarry the surface of the rock is not glaciated. The soil is not more than cigliteen inches, and of a black color, and the Drift is almost wanting. The rock is rounded and smoothed rather by the slow action of water and air than by ice.

A gray, close-grained limestone, that in hand-samples takes a good polish, is met also in S. W. + section Ii. Union, in surface exposure. It 'is in the Waterlime. On the N. W. } section 4, Ridge, stone was struck in digging a ditch. It is a drab-gray, crystalline Waterlime, in beds of four to six inches, or perhaps thicker.

The Drift .- The only exception to the generally unstratified and unassorted composition of the Drift in Van Wert County is seen in the Van Wert ridge, which crosses the county through Tully, Pleasant, Ridge, and Washington townships. The cities of Van Wert and Delphos are situated on it. It consists generally of gravel and sand, in varied and oblique stratification. In a few places it has been penetrated to the depth of over thirty feet without meeting much gravel. In those va-es it contains the common hard-pan Drift only. the same as that which pre- vails on either side of the ridge. This occurs in some wells at Van Wert. Water of excellent quality for domestic use is almost invariably found in penetrating the gravel of the ridge, and occasionally an artesian well is obtained, having a depth of but few feet. Such are usually on the northward slope. The underlying hard-pan clay being impervious to water, and the ridge lying in a slight depression of its surface, the water of surface drainage naturally gathers in the trough, and is held as in a reservoir by the gravel, by which it is also filtered and cleansed from impurities injurious to health, while it is apt to take up the salts of the protoxide of iron. _ Capillary attraction also serves to hold the water within the gravel, thus preventing it from completely draining off at the

low places, or into the streamy that intersect it. If wells find no water in this gravel, they are necessarily sunk below the hard-pan; and at Van Wert a second water-bearing stratum of sand and gravel is found lying on the bed-rock. From this a number of artesian wells are derived. Their head and source must be several miles further south, the descent being to the north, and the county being very flat. The confining stratum is the hard-pan Drift. In west Delphos wells are shallow. Some are in gravel, probably penetrating the Van Wert ridge. Such are eleven or twelve feet deep. Others are fifteen to eighteen feet, striking the rock. At Middlepoint, and southward, in Washington and Jennings townships, wells are twenty to twenty-five feet deep, frequently going to the rock. At Van Wert, in the central part of the city, some of the cellars which are dug in the gravel of the ridge have springs of good water. The fol- lowing is a record of a well drilled by the city corporation, at Van Wert, reported by Mayor Geo. C. Wells :-

Soil 14 ft. 21

Yellowish-brown clay ; traces of iron and sand .. 1L

Dark, bluish-gray sand 2

Sky-blue clay, little or no stone, including two inches of gravelly hard-pan . 5

Bowlders and gravel, with water which rose to within fifteen or eighteen inches of the surface 9

Limestone

Waxy. hght-blue clay

Crystalline. compert or slightly porous, dark-drab limestone, ap- perring a little granular

Fine-grained drab waterlime, very hard drilling

Blue-clay, very waxy; light blue ... G

Limestone, about

Blue clay, rather coarse.

Total depth 103

(Rock not entered again.)

Wells in the southeast part of Tully are eighteen to twenty feet. At Van Wert natural springs occur along the south side of the ridge. This is the first exception known to the observed location of such spring, in the " Spring Row," as in other counties, which is on the north side of the ridge. There are some others at Van Wert on the north side also. Four miles west of Van Wert is red soil, charged with protoside of iron, and other evidences of extinct springs, on the north slope of the ridge. In all deep wells (i. e., those that pass through the blue clay) at Van Wert, the water rises nearly or quite to the surface, and considerable effort has been put forth to secure such constant flow at various places in the city, although the shallow wells are unfailing and easily obtained.

These artesian wells which rise from the water-bearing gravel below the Drift clay, together with others in different parts of the country. prove the Drift to be about 40 feet thick in Van Wert County.

The Van Wert ridge is sometimes double. Such an instance may be seen north from Straughn. The first one lies within half a mile of that village, but the principal ridge road is half a mile further worth, located on the second ridge. Both rise abruptly from the adjoining far land. having descent in both directions. They seem to be perfectly identical in form and composition, although the former can only be traced two or three miles toward the west, when, turning a little more to the south. it slowly sinks away and disappears in the general Drift. A similar gravel ridge was noticed running northwest and southeast about half a mile in sections 21 and 22. Union Township, nearly parallel with the main gravel ridge, separated from it about three miles, and on the Lake Erie side. It is not known how far this might be traced. In section 24. Tully Township, the ridge on which the road from Van Wert is located runs out, or sinks away. The road then crosses a narrow helt of clay land and ascends within a quarter of a mile, another ridge lying further worth. which determines the location of the road further west. In section 14. Tally Township, the Van Wert ridge runs along the inner side of another ridge or bench in the general surface, its summit being ten feet lower than that of the bench. They are separated a quarter to a half mile. This bench consists of the common hard-pan clay of the country, and shows no descent toward the south. Further southeast it passes through Convoy, the Van Wert ridge running about a mile further northeast. and through sections 17, 1%, 22, and 23 in Pleasant Township. This bench rises about five or six feet above the level land to the north. in Pleasant Township, about ten feet in Tully Township, south of the Bear

298

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

Swamp, and thirty feet at New Haven, Indiana, to which place it may be followed, the "ridge road" between Van Wert and Fort Wayne pass- ing several times between those two cities, from the Van Wert ridge to the bench, and vice versa. The Van Wert ridge crosses the Maumee about three miles below Fort Wayne, where it is known as the Irish ridge.

Glacier marks were observed within the county at but one point. At Straughu they occur on the Waterlime(?) running north 15? east.

Wells and Springs .- Besides the foregoing observations on the phe- nomena of wells and springs in Van Wert County, the following minutes were taken. This list will afford a pretty reliable basis on which to predicate the thickness of the Drift in the county, since the water-bearing stratum, when not in the Van Wert Ridge, is generally that last member of the Drift, consisting of gravel and stones, which well-drillers often denominate hard-pan, especially if cemented along its upper surface by lime, and which, when so cemented, is often mistaken for the bedded rock itself.

Owner's name.

Location.

the rock.

Feet in the

Total deptb.

Through what.

Remarks.

Jos Osleudorf

Delphos

On the rock. ..

James Ward Evan Evans

N. E. 4 sec. 9 (N), Jenning- Middlepoint . .

1×

D. T. Cook

Blue clay

Albert Fife

Isaac Grusscost

Andrew Cook

Sec. I, Liberty Sec. 4, Ridge .

Soil and blue

clay

In bowllers.

Widow Gillen Dr. P. J. Hines

Sec. ? , Ridge . Van Wert ..

Gravel

On the ridge.

Gravelly, 12# .; ,

gravel, 1 ft. :

blue clay, 15

ft .: graveland

hardt-pan, & ft.,

Blue clay .

Just on S. edge of the ridge. Ou the ridge.

Reuben Frisbie.

Gravelly

Gravel. 12 ft. ;

Widow Buckingham Heinly and Hertz.

Bine clay

Artesian.

D. H. Clippinger ..

Blueclay, Soit .: bowlders, etc.,

W. F. Exline.

S. W. j sec. 17, Liberty

Good water.

Van Wert Woollen Mills Co ..

Van Wert

Blueclny.26ft .;!

bowlders, etc.,

2 ft.

Artesian.

David Bonewitz

Sec. 35, Tully.

Blue clay and

sand

Sulphury.

Pitts. Ft. Wayneand Chicago R. R. Co.

Vau Wert

141

201

Waterat bottom of Drift. Nonebelow Waterat bottom of

Fire Dep't well.

62 101

Drift, and 2 or 3 ft. below. Filled again.

O. P. Clark .

Blue ciny

M. Douer,

In bowlders ..

Slight dow.

E. R. Wells

N. W. t sec. 8. Pleasaut ....: 22

Blue clay nod quicksand ...

Good water rises within 6 feet of the top.

Rob't M. Thompson'N. E. + pec. 21. | Pleasant

359

Artesian.

MATERIAL RESOURCES.

The rocks of the county hold no minerals of economical value: They can only be used for quicklime and for ordinary foundations. The wealth of the county will always be largely agricultural. The soil is very fertile and enduring, but is rather heavy and wet for the quick growth of crops. The farms of the county are undergoing more or less thorough artificial drainage, and will be valuable in a corresponding ratio. The heavy forest with which the surface is largely covered is an important item of wealth, which, although retarding the opening of farins and the occupancy of the county, is yet destined to be of great benefit to the

county. Extensive stave manufactories are established at Van Wert and Delphos.

Lime .-- The lime-kilns at Straughn and on Section 8, Union Township, are the only important establishments of the kind in the county. They are of the old style, and have to be emptied after burning before filling again.

Brick and Tile .- The Drift clay of the county is well fitted for the manufacture of red brick and tile, many establishments of this kind being in operation in different parts of the county.

MERCER COUNTY.

Mercer County is bounded north by Van Wert, east by Auglaize, south by Parke County, and West by Indiana, and embraces fourteen townships, as follows: Black Creek, Dublin, Union, Centre, Hopewell, Liberty, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Butler, Recovery, Gibson, Granville, and Marion.

NATURAL DRAINAGE.

The natural slope of the whole county is toward the north, and the small streams which take their rise between the ridges run uniformly in that direction. Encountering the ridges, they unite to form one main stream along the upper or outer side of each ridge, which then flows diagonally across the general slope toward the west or northwest, follow- ing the direction of these barriers. Thus the small streams which form the Wabash rise in Darke County or the extreme southern part of Mercer, and run north till they meet the St. Johns Ridge, when they are diverted westward. Before the Wabash leaves the county it crosses this barrier near Fort Recovery, owing, probably, to the very gravelly character and the rolling surface of the Drift prevailing in that section, and then follows the natural, direct descent till it meets the Wabash Ridge. This it is not able to pass, but follows it into Indiana. It finally is carried in this way over the great watershed ; or rather, the great watershed verges so far north as to appear on the other side of this ridge, allowing the Wabash to join the Ohio toward the south. A number of other streams of Mercer County are in the same way diverted westward by the Wabash Ridge. On the north of this ridge the streams have a northerly direc- tion to their union with the St. Marys, when, with it, they are carried along the southern side of the St. Mary's Ridge till, meeting the St. Joseph at Fort Wayne, Indiana, their united waters have succeeded in passing the ridge.

SURFACE FEATURES AND SOIL.

The surface of the whole county is a continuous plain, and the changes of level in general are due to the inclination of the rocky floor beneath. Gentle undulations and local changes of level are, however, due to the condition of the Drift deposit. In no county in northwestern Ohio has that dependence been seen more perfectly exemplified. The whole county is underlain by the same member of the Silurian age, except a small area in the northeastern corner, which does not offer such ditfer- enees of character as to permit unequal erosion by the great glacier. Yet there may be seen crossing the county three successive ridges, or belts of thickening of the Drift deposit, which rise from ten to twenty- five or thirty feet above the general level. It is ouly necessary to say at this place that they are believed to be glacial moraines, marking periodical resting-places in the retreat of the glacier, which was pro- longed southwestward from the great St. Lawrence valley. In cross- ing these ridges in a southerly direction the face of the country is seen to change, not uniformly, but by successive stages, marked by the loca- tion of the ridges. That. part of the county north of the St. Marys Ridge is flat, and has a close, often damp, clay soil. That portion between the Wabash and the St. Mary's Ridges is also flat, but is charac. terized by several prairie tracts. It shows very rarely any gravel in the soil or stones on the surface. It is also, strictly, a portion of the Black Swamp, and has all its features. Between the Wabash and the St. Johns Ridges the surface has a very noticeably rolling contour, although with some flats. The soil is sometimes gravelly. The color of the clay is somewhat lighter, and in general it is more easily subjected

Stronglyartesian. Artesian.

Union Mills Co.

In gravel.

Davis Johnson

blue clay, 2 ft.

In the rock.

George Hlood

Feet above

rock.

Good water. On the rock.

4 ft.

OVER BOARD

BOAT HOUSE.

THE WEST BANK.

OLD RILEY HOMESTEAD, NOW RES. OF T. G. TOUVELLE , CELINA , OHIO. +

-1

WATER LILL

TE !

299-300.

A GOOD NESS

CELINA FROM THE RESERVOIR.

THE DIP NET.

·2-

301

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

to perfeet artificial drainage. That portion of the county south of the St. Johns Ridge is still more gravelly and rolling.

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.

The only rock seen in outerop within the limits of Mercer County belongs to the Guelph phase of the Niagara. These exposures, however, extend over the entire length of the county from north to south, and there can be but little doubt that that rock underlies the greater part of the county. It has not been seen in the eastern portion. Near Fort Recovery, section 19, it is slightly worked and burned for quicklime. It is taken from the bed of the Wabash. It is porous and fossiliferous, in beds of three to six inches. It is generally of a light blue color, with spots of a darker blue, weathering batt or white. It makes a white lime of great quickness and strength. The Niagara is again seen in the Wabash, N. W. ¿ section 33, in Washington Township, and near the same place at the junction of the Totti Creek with the Wabash. It appears again in the Wabash, N. W. { section 22, of the same township. It is also said to have been formerly taken from the Wabash at Monterey for quicklime. In sections 7 and $, Jefferson Township, the Niagara rises near the surface of the Drift and is seen in a number of exposures. The stone is here similar to that seen in the Wabash at Fort Recovery. The beds are about three inches in thickness, lenticular, vesicular. fos- siliferous, rapidly rusting with peroxide of iron. It finally weathers a light buff. Exposure, about three feet; dip, undistinguishable. On the S. W. { section S was opened to the depth of about four feet. On the N. W. { section 8 was a quarry in the same beds. The dip here is unmistakable, and about eight degrees toward the southwest. The beds are here exposed to the depth of about nine feet, without show. ; much variation. In the State survey of the Wabash for ditching purposes, the surveyor reports rock struck at thirteen different places, in all cases but one covered with alluvium or Drift, sometimes to the depth of eleven feet. As an instance, the fact may be cited that three miles west of Celina lime rock is found almost on a level with the surrounding country, yet in the town of Celina and east of it the drift has been penetrated to depths varying from 70 to 80 feet without reaching the underlying rock. It is said to have a dip to the south. On the N. E. { section 32, Liberty Township, they have taken stone from the bed of the Wabash. Near the State line they have quarries in the valley of the Wabash, on opposite sides of the stream. It is here of the same character as already described, and belongs to the Guelph of the Ningara. This character of the forma- tion prevails as far west at least as New Corydon, in Jay County. Indi- ana, where it is quarried and burned for lime. It is also met at Will-hire, in Van Wert County, where they have burned lime and taken out stone for foundations from the bed of the St. Marys and of a small stream tributary to it. ' The dip here cannot be made out with certainty. It is a porous and fossiliferous rock, in beds of about three inches, of a light blue color when freshly broken, but which soon weathers butf. On sec- tion 8, Dublin Township, within the limits of the Godfrey Indian Reserve, a quarry in the river bottoms of the St. Marys discloses the same char- acters of the Niagara. This quarry at the present time affords feeble opportunity to examine the formation, yet pieces which were gathered near the opening are porous, and bleached nearly white. This stone here affords a quicklime of superior quality. Stone was formerly taken from the bed of the St. Mary's at Mendos, but the place is now inaccess- ible, and no inspection of its characters could be made. It is, however, believed to be the same as that seen near Shanesville.

The Drift .- The characters of this deposit are such as prevail through- out the Black Swamp generally, although much of the southern part of the county is more broken and gravelly. Its chief constituent is clay, which, below ten or twelve feet, is blue, but to that depth is of a yellow- ish or light brown color. The original color of the whole was probably blue, the brown or yellow colors being due to oxidation from above. No distinet, constant characters, or line of demarcation separating the brown from the blue, indicative of different or successive origins or deposition, have been seen in the county, nor in northwestern Ohio. On the con- trary, the colors have been seen to gradually fade into each other in a great many instances. This clay is usually a compact, unstratified mass, impervious to water, and embracing stones and boulders of all sizes up to several tons weight. At Mercer, in Dublin Township, and throughout

a radius of four or five miles, it acts as the confining stratum for a num- ber of artesian wells which flow from sand at the depth of thirty-five or forty feet, the water rising from five to eight feet above the surface. Such wells may be seen near Celina, on the north side of the Big Beaver River. It has afforded a great number of bowlders of the Lower Cor- niferous, some of which have been worked into stone for building. They are met near the surface in ploughing the field. One was worked up on the land of Mr. Petre, which furnished eight or ten wagon-loads of good blocks, suitable for common building purposes. The ridges which eross the county consist of gravel and sand in glacial stratification, usually overspread by a few feet of this clay. The thickness of the Drift can- not be stated. A well at Shanesville was in the blue clay, at a depth of sixty feet, without water.

MATERIAL RESOURCES.

The soil of Mercer County will necessarily always be the source of its greatest material wealth. It will, however, reach its highest develop- ment and yield its greatest revenue only when it has been subjected to thorough artificial drainage, and to careful and skilful tillage. Much of the county is still covered with forest, while the soil of that which has been occupied by farmers is not infrequently too damp and cold to bear a high market price. The rock which underlies the county will answer for common use in foundations and walls, and will be a great convenience in the manufacture of lime for the local market. It will certainly compare favorably with any manufactured in northwestern Ohio. At the present time the quarries in the Niagara at Piqua furnish most of the building stone used in the county. Gravel and sand are taken from the St. Johns Ridge, near Fort Recovery, and from the St. Marys Ridge, near Shanesville.

For brick, tiling, and common red pottery, the surface of the Drift is generally well adapted, and a number of establishments of that kind are already in existence.

BOUNDARIES.

The county is bounded north by Van Wert County, east by Van Wert and Auglaize counties, south by Darke County, and west by the State of Indiana. It is thus situated in the west tier of counties, and oc- eupies the basin in which is formed the ". Grand" or " Mercer Reservoir," which is the largest artificial body of water in the world.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The surface of the county is generally level, in fact presents few vari- ations, and no undulations worthy of mention. The northern part of the county finds drainage through the St. Marys River, while the central and south part finds a water shed through the Grand Reservoir and its outlet, Beaver Creek, this stream flowing westward until it enters the Wabash River near the State line.

WATER SHED. Grand Reservoir.

This reservoir, which supplies the St. Marys feeder of the Miami Ex- tension Canal (from which it is situated three miles west ), is the largest artificial lake on the globe. It is nine miles long, from three to Give miles in width, and covers an area of seventeen thousand six hundred acres of ground, and of an average depth of ten feet.

It is bounded on the north by Jefferson Township, on the south by Franklin Township, on the west by Butler Township, Mercer County, and on the east by Auglaize County. One-third of the reservoir is in Auglaize County, and the remaining two-thirds in Mercer, its western end being in the corporate limits of Celma, the seat of Mercer County.

The reservoir was commenced in 1537. and completed in 1815 at an expense of six hundred thousand dollars. The west embankment way completed in 1843. The water filled in at the upper end to the depth of several feet, but, as the ground rose gradually to the cast, it overflowed for several miles to the depth of a few inches only. The inhabitants, to the number of about one hundred and fifty, fearing that this vast body of water, exposed to the rays of the sun, would if allowed to remain,

. 302

HISTORY OF VAN WERT AND MERCER COUNTIES, OHIO.

produce disease, with spades and shovels, made a passage for the water through the embankment. It cost several thousand dollars to repair it.

The reservoir abounds in fish of almost every variety, and wild fowl, which supplies the inhabitants of Celina at all times with a great variety of these luxuries.

A few years since, we are informed, a steamer twenty-five feet in length, under command of Capt. Gustavus Darnell, with a boiler of seventy gallons capacity and four feet in length, moved upon its waters. The question may well be asked, Why do not the people of Celina take measures to have a boat upon its water for excursions and pleasure parties ?

In 1850-51 Mr. Doyle, of Dayton, owned a steamboat, which ran be- tween Celina and St. Mary's on the canal and Grand Reservoir.

From the Mercer County Standard, of April, 1871. we learn the fol- lowing facts with regard to the Mercer County Reservoir :-

" Long before the location of this reservoir several adventurers bought and settled within the prairie, now forming the reservoir. Among these were Thomas and Joseph Coate, Messrs. Mellinger, Large, Hugh Miller, and others, all on the south side. On the north side were Messrs. Sun- day, Crockett, Bradley. Judge Linzee, Hollingsworth, Nicholls, Gipson, Hull, Kompf, Pratt, and Rev. Asa Steams, all good and true men, and noble specimens of the frontier.

Mr. Mitchell, an engineer, in 1830, ran the first line around the reservoir, and Samuel Farrer was the commissioner, who reported to the General Assembly, after they had examined the bank. that it would cost $90,000. Subsequently, in 1837, it was again run by Messrs. Barney nd Farrer. compassing a circumference of 18,000 acres. In the same year all the timber outside the prairie was let for dendening, which was done by the contractors of the several locations. When the left bank was let to Messrs. Giddings, Stepson & Hottsbecker, it was let from a point south of Celina, a distance of 120 rods, at thirty-seven cents per entire year, and was to be wharfed with good white oak plank, two inches thick. Henry L. Johnson, late sheriff of Mercer County, sawed the lumber.

Justin Hamilton, the member of the Legislature from this county, introduced a resolution into that body, which was adopted unanimously, declaring " that no water should be let into the reservoir before the same should be cleared of' timber and the parties paid for this land." An appropriation of 820,000 was made by the Legislature to pay the owners of the land, but it was squandered by the officers and land speculators.

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History of Van Wert and Mercer counties, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 80

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton Number of Pages: 878

Author: Sutton, R., & Co., Wapakoneta, Ohio, pub
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Wapakoneta, Ohio : R. Sutton
Number of Pages: 878