USA > Ohio > Pioneer history : being an account of the first examinations of the Ohio valley, and the early settlement of the Northwest territory ; chiefly from original manuscripts > Part 39
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On the uplands, the principal growth of forest trees con- sisted of the various species of oak, poplar, hickory, and chestnut. In some districts were found extensive woods of yellow pine, and in tracts remote from the older settlements it is yet found in abundance. On the bottoms, or alluvions, and on the north sides of rich hills, the beech, sugar maple, ash, and elm, were the prevailing growth; while the syca- more lined the borders of the rivers, where its roots could be refreshed by the running water. Along these streams
486
CHARACTER OF CLIMATE.
the red man pushed his light canoe, rejoicing in the wild freedom of the forest, and happily unconscious of the ap- proaching fate which threatened his race, and was soon to banish all but his name from the face of the earth.
Along the borders of the Ohio river the climate is sup- posed to be more mild, than in the same parallel east of the Alleghany mountains. This difference may in part be oc- casioned by the prevalence of southerly and south-westerly winds, and from there being no very high lands between us and the Gulf of Mexico, to reduce their temperature. The soil also, being of an argillaceous and loamy quality, radi- ates less rapidly the free caloric, than a rocky, or gravely, surface of country. The annual temperature at the mouth of the Muskingum, in latitude thirty-eight degrees, and twenty-five minutes, is found to be about fifty-three degrees of Fahrenheit. The temperature of the water in wells cor- responds with the thermometer. The climate is very va- riable; and subject to sudden and great changes. These extremes are of short duration, very cold or very hot weather continuing for a few days only. The mercury has been known to rise to ninety-nine degrees in summer, and sink twenty-two degrees below zero in winter; making a range of one hundred and twenty-one degrees. On Tues- day the 3d of February, 1818, snow fell to the depth of twenty six inches, and lay on the ground for nearly three weeks. On the 9th of that month, the mercury in the morning was at twenty degrees below zero. On the 10th it sunk to twenty-two, but by the 12th the weather was quite mild. On these two cold mornings, a thick vapor, like steam from boiling water, rose from the Ohio river, and soon congealing, fell in large flakes of snow, all over the adjacent bottoms, affording the novel spectacle of a shower of snow from a clear and cloudless sky. All the peach trees, except in some sheltered spot, were killed down to the surface of the snow, and many shrubs and trees of the forest perished from the effects of this uncommon degree of
7
487
CLIMATE.
cold. In winter the mercury does not often fall below zero, and seldom so low as to destroy the embryo buds of fruit trees.
In December, 1796, about Christmas, there was an exces- sive cold spell of weather. The rivers were frozen over to the depth of nine inches, soon after which there fell two feet of snow. In February, 1799, the cold was nearly as severe, and the snow quite deep. As the country becomes more cleared of its forests, there is no doubt it will be sub- ject to greater extremes of heat and cold, with sudden transitions of temperature, than it was when covered with trees. Had we an ocean on the west and north-west, with no intermediate ranges of mountains, it is probable that cultivation would ameliorate our winters, as it has done in Europe. But the Rocky Mountains, and elevated prairie country on the west, will ever render it liable to be visited with dry, cold, westerly winds, during the winter and spring months, similar to those of China, blowing over the ranges of the Caucasus and elevated plains of Northern Tartary.
Another serious difficulty we have reason to fear will fol- low, as the effect of cutting away the forest, and that is ex- cessive droughts in summer. The regularity and frequency of the summer rains will in a manner cease, and the prin- cipal falls will be in the spring and autumn; this has been the fact in other countries remote from the ocean, from the same cause, and must be so here; more especially in a flat country removed from mountain ranges, which act as con- ductors in drawing water from the clouds. Our rivers and creeks already feel the effects of cultivation, and afford a less uniform and steady flow of water in the summer months, than they formerly did.
At the first settlement of Marietta, a small creek which passes through the southern half of the town, called "the Tiber," rose from springs within two miles of the city. During the few first years, it was a steady stream all the year, and the early settlers thought would be permanent,
488
TEMPERATURE.
and when collected in a reservoir, furnish them with water by means of an aqueduct. But of late years the bed of the stream is often dry in the month of May. The springs which supplied it, whiles heltered by the forest, were peren- nial; but as soon as the trees were cut away, letting in the sun and air, they failed.
From an average of twenty-seven years, twenty-two of which were noted by us, it is found there are twenty- seven days in the year on which the thermometer rises to eighty degrees, and above; and the same number in which it sinks to thirty, and below. This distribution, however, varies greatly in different years, as will be seen in the fol- lowing table, embracing a period of twenty-seven years. It also exhibits the amount of rain and melted snow, the mean temperature of each year, with the highest and low- est grades of heat, and the mean of the summer and winter months. It is deficient in portions of the years 1823 and 1824. Joseph Wood, Esq., late Register of the United States land office at Marietta, furnished the data up to the year 1823. Although this table occupies but a small space, yet in it there are embodied the results of not less than thirty-three thousand observations on the temperature and rains. Those on the winds and barometer, amounting to nearly as many more, are not here exhibited : 1
ยท
489
METEOROLOGICAL TABLE.
A condensed Meteorological Table, kept at Marietta, Ohio, from the year 1818 to 1846.
Year.
No. 1 |
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
No. 6|
No. 7
No. 8
1818
51
74.00
-22
99
50.92
1819
54
68
38.22
74.33
13-
90
55.62
36.30
1820
58
51
35.50
73.70
-0
90
53.68
39.71
1821
82
50
32.78
73.80
-20
90
53.14
43.32
1822
66
54
31.19
75.90
- 2
86
54.87
43.38
1823
29.10
- 7
*40.00
1824
64
75.80
14-
94
1825
52
96
36.32
72.51
- 1
95
54.00
41.60
1827
55
98
33.30
76.67
. 2
95
54.92
41.48
1828
55
84
42.97
72.06
10-
94
55.22
49.50
1829
87
81
32.88
71.49
2-
92
52.38
39.52
1830
61
91
36.57
72.88
. 5
94
54.93
37.26
1831
99
72
30.75
71.44
-10
90
51.00
53.54
1832
78
70
29.30
69,31
9
92
52.42
48.33
1833
76
85
36.00
68.37
6
95
54.56
40.37
1834
75
100
35.83
72.42
0
95
52.40
34.66
1835
82
57
31.95
68.90
15
89
50.65
42.46
1836
107
81
29.84
71.55
-18
88
50.03
36.09
1837
107
63
31.13
69.25
4
89
51.57
43.75
1838
78
102
30.42
74.23
10
96
50.62
35.48
1839
84
75
34.11
69.88
4
92
52.54
33.27
1840
85
73
33.27
70.78
4
90
52.35
39.08
1841
73
89
35.33
67.45
4
94
52.83
42.07
1842
67
56
36.66
67.28
5
90
52.18
42.80
1843
102
89
32.33
71.15
0
92
50.77
41.76
1844
78
84
34.21
70.97
0
90
53.25
36.64
1845
88
79
36.60
71.16
- 2
92
52.75
33.90
1846
52
91
29.91
71.05
3-
92
53.64
46.27
-
6
94
1826
68
111
32.25
-
-
-
-
-
* 1823, was an uncommonly wet year, and as only eight months are noted, it is probable the amount of rain was at least fifty inches.
Column No. 1, indicates the number of days in each year on which the mercury fell to and below thirty degrees. No. 2, the number of days on which it rose to and above eighty degrees. No. 3, the mean temperature of the winter months. No. 4, the mean of the summer months. No. 5, the greatest degree of cold. No. 6, the greatest of heat. No. 7, the mean temperature of the year. No. 8, the amount of rain and melted snow, in inches and hundredths ; the mean amount of which for twenty-six years is forty-one inches; while the mean for the last seven years is only thirty-eight inches, showing a falling off of three inches in
-
490
BLOOMING OF FRUIT TREES.
the annual amount. Whether this may be all attributed to the cutting away of the forests, or to some other cause, is yet uncertain, until the country is still further opened and future observations made. The warmest part of the day in summer is between three and four o'clock, P. M .; the coolest just before sunrise. February is usually the coldest month, although our winters vary much in this respect; it sometimes being December and then again January. In the former month we have the greatest depressions of tem- perature, probably from there being in that month the greatest falls of snow. In common winters the snow is only a few inches deep, and lies on the ground but a short time. The greatest snow storms are usually accompanied with wind from the north-west. In cold and dry winters the rivers are obstructed and sometimes closed with ice, but if the winter is wet they remain open, and sometimes entirely free of ice.
From the 1st of April to the last of May, in the early settlement of Ohio, the weather was usually mild and fine, so that the planting of Indian corn was finished by the 7th of April, that day being for many years a holiday, in com- memoration of the landing of the forefathers at Marietta; but of late years the spring months are changed, so that we have severe frost in May. This was remarkably the fact in May, 1834, when there were hard frosts every morning from the 13th to the 18th of the month. It had been quite an early spring, all the forest trees were in full leaf by the latter part of April, and the peach in bloom on the Sth of that month. To show the variations of the seasons and the capricious habits of the climate, the blossoming of the peach tree may be noticed in different years. In 1791, this tree was in bloom at Waterford, sixteen miles north of Marietta, the last of February. In 1806, at Belpre, ten miles south on the 25th of February, and in 1808 on the 28th of that month. In 1837, it bloomed on the 28th of April, and the apple on the 5th of May, a difference of sixty-two days.
491
GREAT FROSTS.
In 1843, it was retarded to the 25th of April, and the apple to the 5th of May. The most usual period of late years is about the middle of April, while formerly it seldom was later than March.
When the Ohio company settlers first landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, on the 7th of April, 1788, the grass, pea vines, and other herbage, were a foot high on the bottoms and hill sides, so that their cattle and horses found an abundant supply of food. Untimely frosts did, however, visit the country, at a very early period, but more rarely than of late years. On the morning of the 16th of June, 1774, it is stated by Henry Jolly, Esq., formerly an associate judge of this county, that there was a frost in the country about Washington, Pa., where he then lived, which cut down the corn, and killed the leaves on the forest trees, but it sprang up again so as to make a crop. It was the year of Dunmore's Indian war. The country in the Ohio com- pany's purchase is at a much lower level, and probably did not feel the effects of this frost. On the 5th day of May, in the year 1803, there was a fall of snow at Marietta, and over the western country, four inches deep, followed by hard frosts on two or three nights. All the fruit was killed, apples at the time being of the size of ounce bullets, so that the trees must have bloomed early in April. This event was the more remarkable from its great extent, em- bracing all the middle and eastern states from Ohio to Massachusetts, where we then lived, and well remember the curious appearance of the apple trees in full bloom and covered with snow. It may be noted as a general rule, that very early springs are more liable to late frosts, than those which are more backward.
While the earth was defended from the rays of the sum- mer sun, and protected from the cold blasts of winter by an impenetrable covering of fallen leaves, and a thick growth of forest trees, there can be no doubt of the winters being milder, and the summers more temperate, than at present.
492
CHANGES IN SEASONS.
It was especially noticed in the summer nights, which were so cool as to render a blanket both a pleasant and desira- ble covering to the sleeper. On the alluvions the earth, when protected by the forest from the influence of cold winds, and covered with a thick coat of fallen leaves, never froze ; while in an adjacent cleared field it froze to the depth of several inches. The warm vapour constantly rising from the earth, served to temper the atmosphere and render it more mild than at present. There was also, more or less uniformy, back of the bottoms, strips of wet land, called slashes, or swamps, which kept open during the winter, and discharged a steady supply of vapor of the same temperature of the earth, thus aiding in keeping up the warmth of the surrounding atmosphere. It is true there were some very cold winters and deep snows, but they were not so changeable as now; nevertheless it yet remains certain, that the winters are much more uniform, while a country is covered with the forest, and not subject to such sudden changes of temperature as they are in an open re- gion. In New England, since the forests were cut away, they have much less snow than they had one hundred years ago.
The summers are as much changed as the winters ; fifty years since, they were more humid, and there was more generally that condition of the atmosphere which we call sultry, and now experience in warm weather after a heavy rain. This constant humidity of the air was occasioned by the regular evaporation of moisture from the leaves of the trees, shrubs, and plants, that clothed the face of the earth, and shut out the drying influence of the sun and air.
The same causes kept the surface constantly moist, and afforded a regular supply of water to the springs, during the summer as well as the winter, protecting the tender roots of the grasses and other plants from the cold, caused them to vegetate early in the spring, and bring forth a plentiful supply of herbage for the wild animals of the forest, and the domestic cattle of the new settler.
493
CHANEGS IN SEASONS.
In October, and fore part of November, the weather is usually serene and delightful, rivaling in the mellow and balmy state of the atmosphere, that of Greece, or Italy. It is in fact the most poetic season of the year. The various hues imparted to the forests by the advance of autumn, which daily changes and deepens their rich and gorgeous tints, when seen through the light mists of our "Indian summer," gives a charming and romantic view to the land- scape, which few portions of the world can equal and none surpass.
The mean heat of July is found to be greater than that of any other month, but in August the mercury for a few days is usually higher than in July. The hottest days were sometimes followed by cool nights, more so than of late years. The morning is comparatively cool in the hottest season of the year, probably owing to the humidity of the atmosphere absorbing the free caloric and descending in dews and fogs ; the latter being confined to the vicinity of water courses. The great abundance of forest trees is doubtless one cause of the greater humidity of the climate in this region of country, than in the same parallel east of the mountains. The quantity of rain which annually falls there, varies from twenty-four to thirty-six inches, while here on an average of twenty-six years, the mean amount is forty-one inches, varying from thirty-four to fifty- four inches. The humidity of the air, and long continued heat of summer, acts on the human frame much like a tropical climate, causing langor and a general debility, during the heat of summer, and lessening the muscular power both of man and beast.
The condition of the atmosphere also lessens its density, indicated by the settling of the mercurial column in the barometer. As to the general range of this instrument, it is not known to sink any lower, at the same elevation above tidewater, in the valley of the Ohio, than it does on the east side of the Alleghany range, although this has been
494
RANGE OF BAROMETERS.
formerly intimated. At an elevation of six hundred feet above tide water, its mean annual hight at Marietta is twenty-nine inches and fifty hundredths. Rising in clear cold weather, with the wind from the north-west, to thirty inches, and in great changes sinking to twenty-eight and a half inches. The greatest range is during the winter months and the least in summer, often standing for several days in succession without varying the fiftieth part of an inch. In winter the fluctuations are daily, and sometimes almost hourly, independent of the diurnal ebbing and flowing of the atmosphere. The seasons vary very considerably as to the distribution and quantity of rain, some being more wet, and others extremely dry, but seldom so much so, in either extreme, as to destroy the crops entirely. The years 1805, 1838, and 1845, were noted for excessive drought-especi- ally 1845, when nearly all the crops of grass and grain were destroyed in the northern counties of the state.
The larger portion of the rain falls in moderate showers, though we sometimes have heavy rains, especially at or near the summer solstice. This was the case in the year 1837, and again in 1844. Hail storms are more common in May and June, than at any other time. They are of rare occurrence, and much less destructive to crops than in more mountainous countries. Those terrible electric phenomanas called " tornadoes," seldom visit this portion of Ohio. For the last thirty-five years, not one has traversed this county, and from the rarity of those unerring marks left in their train for many years after, in the wide furrow of up turned forest trees, it is probable they were never very frequent in this part of the state.
The prevailing winds are from the south, south-west, and west; but also blowing many days in the winter from the north, and north-west. There are few winds from the east. The course of the winds regulates the temperature of the year, and the amount of rain. Westerly and northerly winds bring cold and drought, while the southerly and south-
495
INFLUENCE OF THE WINDS.
easterly, bring warmth and rain. A full demonstration of this axiom was seen in the spring of the year 1845, so notable for the cold drying winds from the west, and the excessive drought, which prevailed until the middle of June. By noticing the course of the winds in different years, we arrive at the cause of the variations in temperature. This is more especially true of the spring and winter months. Westerly and northerly winds being invariably accompa- nied with cold backward and dry springs; while early ones are ever attended by southerly breezes, and plenteous showers of rain. The westerly and north-westerly winds traverse elevated and dry regions of country, deficient both in caloric and moisture, the two main principles in the support of vegetable life; while southerly breezes come charged with humidity and warmth from the valley of the lower Mississippi, bringing in their train the charms of Flora, and the rich bounties of Ceres. With the early vernal zephyrs of the south, the northerly migrations of the feath- ered race commence, along the westerly base of the Cumber- land ranges of mountains, and up the valleys of the easterly tributaries of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Sometimes their journeys are begun too early, as in the years 1816, 1834, and 1845, when thousands of birds whose food is fur- nished by insects, perished by the sudden transition of tem- perature, from the warmth of summer to the frosts of winter. It has been observed that our most healthy seasons are ac- companied with northerly winds after rain, and that in the more sickly, they blow from the south, but in great epi- demics, it is probable the winds have little or no influence on the source of disease. Sudden changes from heat to cold, in August and September, often produce sickness, when earlier in the season, before the body is debilitated by the heat of summer, the transition is borne without apparent harm.
496
WILD ANIMALS.
Wild animals.
Before the landing of the Ohio company, wild game was very abundant in the vicinity of Marietta, deer and turkeys, with occasionally elk and buffalo. In the winter of 1792, Hamilton Kerr and Peter Nighswonger killed six or seven buffaloes on Duck creek, near a place called the "cedar narrows," in the present township of Fearing. They were fat, and of the first quality of meat. Judge Gilman, a nice connoisseur, thought them better than any beef he had ever eaten. Their food, altogether of the wild grapes, no doubt flavored and enriched their flesh. In the fall of the year 1790, after the famine, beech mast abounded in the forest on the bottom lands, which brought in the turkeys in such countless numbers, that the inhabitants were obliged to gather their corn before it was fully ripe to save it from their ravages; and to cover their stacks of grain with brush. One man killed forty in a day with his rifle. They were caught in pens, killed with clubs and dogs by the boys, until a turkey would not sell for six cents, the people being cloyed, like the Israelites with quails. They were very fat ; and full grown ones weighed from sixteen to thirty pounds.
" In the winter of 1792-3, Kerr and Nighswonger went from Marietta to the oak flats, ten miles west of the Mus- kingum, in the morning, and killed that day forty-five deer, and hung them up; came home at evening, and the next day went out with horses from Fort Harmer, and brought them all in.
"The migration of the grey squirrel is a very curious phenomenon, and not easily accounted for. In the autumn of certain years, they become itinerant, traveling simulta- neosuly in millions from the north to the south; destroying whole fields of corn in a few days, if not immediately gathered, and eating every thing in their way, like the locusts of Africa, while traveling forward without stopping long in any place ; swimming large rivers; and perhaps before winter, return again by the same route toward the
497
BEARS - WOLVES.
north." As the country has become more cleared of the forest, their numbers have greatly diminished. " Bears and panthers were common in the hills, but not so abundant as in many other portions of the country, neither were they so numerous or daring as the wolf and wild cat. They were all fond of hogs and pigs, but the two former were more shy, and did not repeat their visits with the pertinacity of the wolf, to the sheep fold and pen of the farmer."
- " As an evidence of their strength, a panther killed a hog, belonging to Isaac Barker of Belpre, in the winter of 1794, or 1795, and carried him through the snow, nine inches deep, a considerable distance, without leaving any trail of the hog, and buried him by the side of a log. He was pur- sued in the morning, and killed on the hills two or three miles distant. Wolves were the most annoying and des- tructive; sometimes pursuing men who were unarmed, and forcing them to take shelter in a tree, to avoid their attack. The early settlers, to preserve their hogs, were obliged to build pens so high that the wolves could not jump or climb over them; or if in a low pen, covered with logs too heavy for them to remove. Large gangs of hogs in the woods, could defend themselves by placing the young and feeble ones in the center of a ring, formed by the old and stronger animals. If a wolf came within their reach, they all fell upon him, and tore him in pieces with their tusks and teeth." (Colonel Barker's MSS. notes.)
The wolf, for thirty years, was a great hindrance to the raising of sheep, and for a long period the state paid a bounty of four dollars on their scalps. Neighboring farmers often associated, and bid an additional bounty of ten or fifteen dollars, so as to make it an object of profit for cer- tain of the old hunters, to employ their whole time and skill in trapping this ferocious and villainous animal. At this period the race is nearly extinct, in the Ohio Company's lands, and sheep range at large, unmolested, except by dogs, now their worst enemy. The beaver disappeared, in 32
498
PRODUCTIONS OF THE RIVERS.
a great measure, from this part of the country, with their friends and admirers, the Indians-at least few remained after they left here. The last seen on the Muskingum, was near Captain Devoll's mill, about the year 1805, and was trapped by Isaac Williams.
Natural productions of the rivers.
While the banks of the streams were covered with trees, they were plentifully stored with fish. This was especially so, when the Ohio was first occupied by the whites. There was then a great abundance of insects and food suited to their nature, and fewer enemies to destroy them. The white man had but just begun to disturb the finny tribes in these quiet waters, while the red man had for a long time nearly deserted their shores. Ignorant of the devices of man to insnare them, they were easily taken by the single hook, the " trot line," or " the spear." "The black cat and the pike, were the largest among the aquatic races. The yellow cat, white perch, salmon, spotted perch, sturgeon, and buffalo, were all fine fish, weighing from five to fifty pounds. A black cat was caught by James Patterson, a professed fisherman, in 1790, which weighed ninety-six pounds. He anchored his canoe at the mouth of the Mus- kingum, just at dark, threw out his lines, and wrapping himself in his blanket, lay down in the boat for a nap of sleep. This fish got fast to one of his hooks, and had strength to drag the canoe and light stone anchor from the edge of the shoal into deep water, and then float down to near the head of the island, where he found himself on awaking. These fish, when fat, make fine eating, espe- cially if lightly salted and dried."
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