USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 71
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98
Batrachians, reptiles, birds, and mammals or hair bearing animals all breathe air. They move more or less upon the land. The presence of batrachians and reptiles in the later rocks of Ohio indicates the vicinity of land. Their absence in the earlier rocks all over the world indicates that these forms of life were created later than the other forms living exclusively in water, chiefly in the sea.
675
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
The question arises: Were the seas receiving the earlier deposits within the state of Ohio, now known as rock, deep or shallow? Here, again, considerable evidence may be found near at hand. At numerous places in southwestern Ohio, the upper surfaces of the rock layers have been found covered with ripple marks. Sometimes these are large enough to suggest the action of tides, and are then known as wave-marks. Their presence indicates the existence of compara- tively shallow waters.
Other layers of rocks may be covered by small pits suggesting the fall of rain drops on a muddy shore during the ebb of the tide. Occasionally, the upper surfaces of the rock layers are cracked like mud recently exposed to the strong sun. Rain drop impressions and mud cracks suggest that, locally, the waters must have been shallow enough to permit the exposure of the sea bottom at least during low tides.
At some localities pebbles have been found imbedded in the rock. Pebbles, however, are merely fragments of rock, which originally were angular, but which since have been more or less rounded by the action of the moving waters. When a ship laden with brick founders near the shore, the cargo is tossed back and forth by waves and tides until a considerable part of the brick frequently is tossed up on the beach in the form of rounded pebbles. The barges of coal which sink in the Ohio river contribute the angular fragments which through a process of rolling down stream result in the perfectly rounded pebbles of coal picked up by the wagon load on some of the shoals when the river is lowest.
Currents of water sufficiently strong to break off fragments of rock and then to toss them about until they become rounded are known only in comparatively shallow waters, as a rule, probably not exceeding thirty or forty feet in depth. The presence of pebbles, therefore, again suggests the existence of shallow waters.
In some layers, the fossils are beautifully preserved. In others, their surfaces are worn and all of their edges are rounded. Before becoming completely im- bedded in the mud, these fossils evidently were tossed back and forth by the cur- rents near the sea shore.
No deep sea deposits ever have been found in the state of Ohio. For a long time, the area now included within this state was slowly subsiding, but was receiving deposits from other sources at such a rate that the waters at no time were of abysmal depths, although the total amount of subsidence and the total accumulation of deposits finally was very great.
The first land, in Ohio, to rise above sea level, now forms the southwestern part of the state. This connects with a similar body of land in the immediately adjacent parts of Indiana, and extends southward through central Kentucky and Tennessee to Alabama. This early axis of elevation is known as the Cincinnati geanticline. While it gradually rose, the land toward the east and west of this axis remained for a time above sea level. The continued rise of the land, along the axis, however, added more and more land to the dry part of the so-called geanticline, while farther out at sea the land still may have been subsiding.
The first evidence of land plants, in Ohio, are found immediately east of a line passing across the middle of the state from north to south. These evidences become very numerous in the coal bearing rocks in the eastern part of our state.
676
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Among these plants, ferns are the most familiar. Fossil ferns are numerous at some localities and are represented by many species. The other plants are not likely to be familiar to those who are not botanists. Only the lower forms of plant life were in existence as yet. Club mosses, now usually only a few inches in height, then were represented by forms fifty to seventy-five feet in height, and had trunks two to three feet in diameter. The plants known as horsetails, now only reaching three or four feet in height, then also attained tree-like growths. Various forms of cycads, distantly related to our modern pines, were in existence. But no trees such as we now find in our forests, and no plants which persons not botanists would be likely to call flowering plants then existed.
Since there were no flowering plants, there were no butterflies, or bees, or other insects which love to gather on flowers and collect honey or eat the pollen.
It must have been a wierd world which then existed. Not a single species of animal or plant now living was then in existence, although all of the lower forms then were represented by somewhat similar species.
Toward the close of the deposition of rocks, in eastern Ohio, great areas of land, although above sea level, must have been covered by vast swamps, support- ing a luxuriant growth of plants. The decaying vegetable matter here must have accumulated like that in the great peat bogs of the present day. Gradually this settled, was pressed together by overlying material, and eventually turned to coal. Now and then a fern leaf or some other plant fragment still may be recog- nized on the chunks of coal destined for the fire.
After the deposition of the last coal bearing rocks, in Ohio, the land remained permanently above sea level. Moreover, while certain areas may have been very swampy, and even may have been covered by large lakes, no rocks were de- posited within this state for a very long period of time. During this period, the types of life that we now know, both on land and sea gradually came into exis- tence. The evidences of this life, however, must be sought in the rocks of other states and in other countries.
Fortunately, a single glimpse of this intermediate life remains, a glimpse of the life immediately preceding the advent of man, or possibly contemperaneous with the earliest man. This life existed and disappeared thousands of years ago. But thousands of years ago is a date so recent compared with the entire age of the earth, that the life then in existence was closely similar to that still found on the earth, but not identical.
For instance, the bones, teeth and tusks of three species of elephants have been found in the clays and gravels overlying the rocks of Montgomery county. One of these, the northern mammoth, closely related to the elephant of India, attained a height of nine feet at the shoulder. Unlike the Indian elephant, it was covered with a thick coat of hair. The teeth are characterized by numerous paral- lel, transverse, more or less vertical plates of enamel. The southern mammoth, with a smaller number of vertical plates of enamel, attained a height of eleven feet. The third form of elephant, called the mastodon, had teeth whose grinding sur- faces were formed by large, blunt, more or less convex elevations, of which six to ten are found on each tooth. A beaver-like animal, about as large as a black bear, has been found at several localities in Ohio and Indiana. Nothing, how- ever, is known of its habits, and it may not have been an aquatic animal. A giant
677
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
sloth, called Megalonyx by the scientists, about as large as an average ox, once lived in this part of the country. The bones of its tail are so massive that this tail is supposed to have served as a third support when the animal stood on its hind legs in order to pull down the branches of trees for food. The form of bison commonly called the buffalo in this country, was represented in Ohio by a species fully one-third larger in size. Even the musk-ox is supposed to have been pres- ent. Two species of horses, now extinct, are represented among these bones in our clays and gravels, also fragments related to the South American tapir and to the peccary of the southwestern United States.
At about the same time that the animals mentioned above were living in Ohio and Indiana, a large species of lion, different from any now living, was in exist- tence in the southern part of the Mississippi valley, and a large sabre-tooth tiger was present in Pennsylvania.
This list is sufficient to indicate both the great difference of this fauna from that now living in southwestern Ohio, and the great similarity of this earlier fauna to that still found in other parts of the world. This, in fact, is the general rule, that the later deposits on the earth contain the remains most similar to those forms of life which still are in existence, while the earlier deposits con- tain the forms which are most dissimilar from those still living.
It should be noted that these later types of animal life all are found in clays. sands. and gravels, not in rocks. Sufficient time has not elapsed to permit the cementing of these materials into rock. Moreover, only the bones of these animals are found, not the complete animal. A fossil animal is merely the skele- ton of the animal, or in case of the lower forms of life, the shells or other hard parts of the animal. The fleshy parts decay and disappear long before fossili- zation can take place.
Between the fossil life of the rocks of Ohio and the fossil life of the uncon- solidated clays, sands and gravel of this state a long period of time intervened. What conditions favored the renewal of deposits preserving animal and vegetable remains ?
A change of climate had begun a considerable time before the period of renewal of deposition. The streams became swollen with water. The swamps spread over wider areas. Some of them turned into lakes. In the great Canadian areas between Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the summer's heat no longer melted all of the snow which fell during the winter months. The frequent alter- nation of thawing and freezing during the day and at night gradually converted this snow into ice. The land became covered with a sheet of ice which increased in thickness until owing to its own weight, it began to spread, very slowly but irresistibly.
The comparatively small glaciers in the Alps move at a rate varying from two to fifty inches per day in summer. The vastly greater glaciers of polar areas attain rates of seventy feet per day. During the winter, and on more gradual slopes, the rate of motion is much slower; slow, but irresistible.
The rate at which the ice moves forward is no index of the rate at which the southern margin of the ice sheet advances. If the ice at the southern margin melts back more rapidly than the ice sheet advances, the southern margin of the
678
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
ice sheet will retreat, notwithstanding the fact that the ice not yet melted is moving southward.
However, in this case, the glaciers continued to thicken. Their margins spread southward, continually southward. The ice edge was pushed over hills, across valleys, beyond the lakes. Finally it reached Long Island. It covered the northern half of New Jersey, of Pennsylvania, and of eastern Ohio. West of Newark, the glacier margin extended toward the area now occupied by the Ohio river, and followed the same direction as that now followed by this stream, from Cincinnati almost as far as Louisville.
Before the advent of the glacial ice age, a considerable part of the streams in western Pennsylvania, in West Virginia, and in eastern Kentucky flowed north- ward and entered the drainage channels now occupied by the Great Lakes. At that time, the Ohio river, as we now know it, was not present, and some of the streams of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, which now empty into the Ohio river, then continued their courses northward across the state of Ohio, using some of the drainage channels now occupied by streams flowing at present in the oppo- site direction. It is not necessary to state that the general slope of the land surface at that time must have been very different from that existing at present. The working out of the former history of streams has become a special field of geological inquiry. The methods used are peculiar, and the results are highly interesting. Several of the publications of the United States Geological Survey offer considerable information regarding the geological history of some of the more prominent streams and rivers of Ohio.
One of the first results of the southward progression of the glacial ice margin, after it had crossed the Great Lakes, was the holding back of the waters of these northward flowing streams. All the valleys were flooded, and their basins were turned into long lakes. All of the lowlands were completely covered. Deposition of the mud, sand, and gravel, brought in by the streams, again took place, and in these deposits are found the remains of many animals and plants which existed immediately before the advent of the ice age.
The waters from the immense regions of melting glacial ice themselves con- tributed considerably to the general inundated condition of all the lower lying lands.
But the glacial ice did not stop at the Great Lakes. It continued southward, over the area of deposition. Many of the materials once deposited were washed out from one locality and redeposited at another; in some cases probably repeatedly.
Moreover, the glaciers themselves contributed considerably to the deposits which now cover the rocks of this state. Wherever the glacial ice passed over a. hill it plucked out fragments of rock and pushed them southward. Often these were large boulders. Sometimes several acres of rock were pushed along by the ice bottom. The lower part of the glacial ice must have been filled with rock fragments of all sizes. Wherever the ice passed over bare rock, the fragments carried along by the very base of the ice, in scraping over the bare rock, tended to rub it smooth. During this process the boulders and rock fragments them- selves became more or less rounded. The material ground off from the bare rock and from the angles of the boulders furnished the ingredients for a consid-
679
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
erable part of the clays usually associated with glacial deposits. The smaller rock fragments, when rounded, became the pebbles of gravels, and the still smaller fragments formed the deposits of sand.
At the southern margin of the glaciated areas, the melting ice released the boulders, the pebbles, the sand, the mud and the clay. Sometimes these were left irregularly commingled, in the same hap-hazard manner in which they had dropped out of the ice. In other cases, these glacial deposits were worked over by the waters pouring out at the margins of the melting ice sheet.
Numerous evidences of former glaciation are to be seen in Montgomery county At some of the quarries, the upper surface of the rock exposures distinctly shows the numerous parallel scratches and grooves left behind by the scraping rock fragments. A considerable part of the rock fragments found in the worked over gravels, originally brought down by the glaciers, consist of materials not to be found anywhere in the ledges of solid rock found in this county. But many of these fragments could have come from the northern part of Ohio, and some of them could not have come from any source south of Canada. Some of these rocks consist of combinations of minerals so peculiar, that their areas of origin in Canada may be determined with confidence. All along the line of travel of the glaciers, materials were broken off, plucked out, and carried along.
The larger boulders often attract considerable attention on account of their beautiful colors, or their curious forms. Usually the more odd forms are due to the gradual decay of the rock, due to weathering. The more rounded boulders frequently show scratches similar to those found on the upper surfaces of rock ledges worn smooth by the glaciers. But the boulders were not always held rigidly in one position. On this account the glacial scratches on the boulders often cross each other in several directions, while those on the solid rock ledges are more nearly constant in direction.
Was there only one great glacial invasion of Ohio? For a long time this was thought to be the case, but the result of long, painstaking research has been to prove that there were several invasions. Two of these invasions certainly crossed Montgomery county, and between these invasions the glacial ice sheet retreated far enough to permit the growth of trees and numerous herbaceous plants.
The advance and retreat of the ice sheet, brought about by climatic conditions, was accompanied by other changes. All of the faunas and floras were more or less affected by the change. Plants and animals accustomed to more northern climates were driven southward, continually in advance of the immediate margin of the ice sheet. On the other hand, the plants and animals of Virginia, Kentucky, and other areas south of the glaciated regions, were driven still farther south. During the recession of the ice sheet, these exiles again could return.
The great variety of trees in our forest lands is due to the fact that in the eastern half of the United States there were large open areas along which both the animals and plants could advance and retreat. In a large part of Europe, the southward migration of plants and animals, during the ice age, was cut off by various transverse mountain ranges, and numerous species perished. This is believed to have been true especially of the trees, and accounts for the much smaller variety in the trees of European forests.
680
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Just when the elephants and other large or strange animals immediately preced- ing the advent of man disappeared is unknown. In Europe, in the caves of southern France, scratched sketches of the mammoth on ivory have been found associated with the bones of men, the mammoth, and the reindeer. In this coun- try, the mastodon appears to have continued existence to a much later date than the mammoth. In New York, the mastodon entered after the retreat of the ice sheet, and may have been contemporary with early man.
During the ice age great changes took place in Ohio. All except the south- eastern part of Ohio was covered by a mantle of glacial deposits, sometimes unaltered, sometimes more or less worked over by stream action. These glacial deposits frequently have entirely covered up the previous stream channels. In other cases they have at least dammed up their lower courses, and have forced them to seek new outlets. Two stupendous results have followed. One of these is the formation of the Ohio river, in the form in which we know it at present. The other is the reversal of a considerable part of the drainage which formerly found its outlet into the river basin now occupied by Lake Erie, or into the Wabash river. Parts of these former stream courses now are used by the streams which now flow southward into the Ohio river. A considerable part of the drainage of Ohio at present, however, bears no relation to the drainage which preceded the glacial ice epoch.
How long ago did all these things happen? Of course, no one expects a very definite answer to such a question. The facts are not recorded in books bearing definite dates, but in layers of rock which antedate the advent of man. The best we can say is that a lower layer of rock must be older than an overlying layer, since it must have been deposited before the latter. But is that all which we can say ?
Geologists have given this subject much attention. They know better than those who do not give attention to such matters, the insufficiency of the evidence. They differ from other people only in being more familiar with the evidence upon which at present such estimates must be based. When it comes to drawing con- clusions from these facts they must use the same laws of reasoning as other people, and are liable to the same errors.
The evidences are not of such a nature as to be of interest to those not scientists. This is true especially if any attempt be made to present this evidence with the exactness demanded by modern science. A glimpse of the nature of this evidence, nevertheless, may be given in two cases, which must serve to illustrate the fact that however imperfect the evidence may be, nevertheless such evidence is in existence.
Geologists know that the outlet of the basin now occupied by Lake Erie formerly was not through the Niagara river, but lay along an entirely different channel now covered up by glacial deposits. In fact, these deposits made neces- sary the formation of a new river channel after the retreat of the glacial ice. This new channel, the Niagara river, began its history, after the retreat of the ice, as a fall over the cliff at Lewiston, into Lake Ontario. Various maps and surveys of the Niagara river indicate that during a period of fifty years, the American Falls retreated at a rate of sixty-four hundredths of a foot per year. The Horse- shoe Falls retreated at a rate of over two feet. The waters of both falls com-
681
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
bined might easily have caused a retreat of three feet per year. The retreat of the falls results in the lengthening of the gorge occupied by the Niagara river. The present gorge is the result of the former action of the river. It began its history as a waterfall, when the river first plunged over the long hill escarpment near Lewiston, on Lake Ontario. If the length of this gorge, and the approximate rate of recession of these falls be known, some glimpse of the time which has elapsed in the interval may be secured. Other factors, not mentioned here enter the problem. The best we can say at present is that this interval probably is not less than ten thousand nor more than fifty thousand years.
Since the Niagara river began its history after the close of the glacial period, it is evident that the time at which Ohio was covered by the glacial ice must have been even more remote than the figures here given indicate.
From the amount of material annually carried by the Mississippi river into the Gulf of Mexico, it has been estimated that the entire area drained by this stream must have been lowered at an average rate of one foot in four thousand, nine hundred and twenty years. Most of this material, however, is deposited within two or three hundred miles of the coast. This area of deposition is less than the area from which the materials of deposition are drawn. Hence the rate at which the deposits increase in thickness must be greater than the rate at which the land surface is lowered. It is estimated that at present the area of deposition is about half the area of denudation. In this case, the average rate of increase in the depth of the deposits should be twice as great as the rate of erosion. This would amount to about one foot in two thousand, four hundred and sixty years.
At this rate, how long would it take to deposit all the rocks found in the state of Ohio? The same layers of rock do not everywhere have the same thickness. At some localities they are thicker, elsewhere they may be thinner. If only the thinner exposures be used in estimating the total thickness of all the rocks in Ohio, a minimum thickness of three thousand, six hundred and fifty feet is secured. The maximum thickness would be six thousand, three hundred feet. The equiva- lent rocks in Pennsylvania are much thicker, the rocks of Ohio constituting only a partial record of all the rocks deposited during the time which elapsed between the deposition of the lowest rocks exposed in Ohio and the latest rocks found within the borders of this state. Even the rocks found in Pennsylvania constitute only a partial record. Every corner of the world must be ransacked for the various miss- ing parts of this record, and numerous gaps still exist.
What about the great interval of time elapsing between the deposition of the latest rocks found in Ohio and the fauna immediately preceding the glacial period ? It is scarcely worth while to put down the figures. Those presented by different geologists vary so much. It is interesting, however, to note that all of these estimates are similar in one respect. They all run into the tens of millions. This suggests at least one thing. That the results of modern science favor the view that the age of the earth is very great; far greater than formerly supposed.
All of the recorded history of the earth, as we now know it, is only an insig- nificant part of the total history of the earth. The earth as we now know it is the result of countless ages of change. Changes of earth and sea ; and atmosphere ; changes of rivers and mountains ; changes of climate; changes of grass, of the herb yielding seed, and of the fruit tree; changes of the creatures that move in
682
DAYTON AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.