The History of Miami County, Ohio, Part 34

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1880
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1051

USA > Ohio > Miami County > The History of Miami County, Ohio > Part 34

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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

of them. The same remark applies to the Stillwater, which would be lined by a series of cliffs throughout its entire course in the county. But the drift, now smooth, in a great degree, the unevenness of the surface, and the transitions from one geological formation to another are only by gentle undulations of surface, instead of abrupt cliffs. The origin of this drift material is discussed at consider- able length in other portions of these reports, and no further allusion to it is required of me in this place.

It will be seen that the character of the surface depends upon the geological · formation of the region. And so geology determines, in no small degree, the occu- pation of the people of any land, and also the character of the people, in so far as character is dependent upon occupation. In one region, agriculture is indi- cated as the chief mode of livelihood ; in another, stock-raising ; in another, min- ing and manufactures. The full development of these natural conditions depends upon still other physical conditions-the direction and extent of a country's drain- age, the oceans, bays and gulfs, which give rise to commerce.

The character of the surface and soil is such that an average proportion of rainfall is retained in the soil, and there are numerous springs in the county which afford an ample supply of water throughout the year. The farms are generally supplied with an ample quantity of good water from the springs and water-courses, which abound in all sections. This county, lying on a lower level than Shelby, has a better supply of water from springs. The outcrop of the cliff limestone, whether concealed by drift or not, could be readily traced by the occurrence of fine springs of water, and those farms which lie along this outcrop have fine peren- nial springs. As the cliffs lie on a horizon about midway between the highest and lowest parts of the county, it happens that the places are very numerous where excellent water is obtained. There are some springs in the county whose supply of water is sufficient to be of service in propelling machinery for manufacturing purposes, taken in connection with the fall, which is available. The principal one of these springs is at the town of Milton, where considerable manufacturing is carried on. The question has been often asked, where such a large supply of water comes from ? The water falls as rain on the surface and is held in the porous rock and given out gradually. The idea, which is sometimes entertained, that there is an underground reservoir, is untenable ; the force of the issuing stream is so nearly the same for weeks and months together. In the case of the fine springs at Milton, there is a large extent of surface west and north, above the place where the spring issues. There is, indeed, but a very thin soil and little drift in the immediate vicinity, but the surface rises and the bedded rock thickens to the north- west ; while in the same directions, especially north, the drift thickens to nearly 100 feet. The upper portion of the Niagara, which is found north and northwest, may reach a considerable thickness, perhaps a hundred feet, and is composed of a very porous limestone. These springs, unlike the greater number which furnish water to the farms throughout the county, issue near the base of the Niagara formation, and not at the base of the Clinton, in which most of the cliffs are. When we consider the large extent of surface, which rises above the place of the springs, upon which falls throughout the whole year about thirty inches in perpen- dicular height of water, in the form of snow or rain, and the suitable character of the deep drift and porous rock for absorbing and retaining this, to be yielded gradually, we need not be surprised at the quantity of water which flows from these springs. The surprise, which is often expressed, has not been at the abso- lute quantity of water, for this is not great compared with many other springs, but at the quantity which should issue from a locality which seems to be so near the general level of the country immediately in the vicinity, whence the supply must apparently come. But the supply may be drawn, as I have endeavored to show, from a much greater distance than we might at first suppose.

Wells .- Where there are no springs, water is readily obtained by sinking wells, either in the drift or solid rock. The sinking of wells is a means of explor- ing the earth to a moderate depth, and some interesting facts are often obtained

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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

by inquiry into the character of the material penetrated. For example, in some places in the county no wells have ever penetrated beyond the drift, or, at least, reached bedded rock ; while on each side, sometimes at no great distance, other wells have to be sunk in the rock. Generally, perhaps always, it will be found that a line can be marked out by such excavations, within which no rock is ever reached by the deepest wells, while. the excavations on each side show bedded rock near the surface. Here, then, we have traced for us the channel of some ancient water-course which has been filled in with drift at some time in the past. There were rivers, and a river system, cut far deeper in the rocks of a former age. than any we now have in this region. The whole surface was sunk down under deep water and gravel ; sand and clay covered up all inequalities of surface When the surface emerged again, the drainage began to excavate channels, the general character of the surface remaining the same ; the streams would take courses in general the same as before, but from local causes would be deflected in places. The old, filled-up channels are now traced by means of excavations. will mention that at Mr. Murray's, on the Troy and Covington turnpike, no bedded rock is found in sinking wells, while to the east, within a half-mile, and to the west, stone in situ is encountered in well-digging.

The influence of the character of the surface on the soil can be noticed in various parts of the county. This may be illustrated by comparing the soil and surface on the east of the Miami River with that on the west. East of the Miami the surface is rolling, and gravelly ridges abound.

This gives a good drainage in general, and the soil is composed of drift mate- rial, with accumulation of mold, composed of vegetable substances, partially decomposed. There is a good proportion of clay mingled with the mold. Not only does this clay affect the character of the soil, but the free drainage and the gravel beneath also affect it. Where local causes obstruct the free drainage, there are local swamps, whose soil, when cleared and drained, is entirely different from that of the rolling land. Somewhat like the swamps is a wide scope of land between the Miami and Stillwater Rivers. Here the land was not rolling, and hence not naturally well drained, but was flat and moist. . The result was that a different vegetation sprung up here. Rough sedge grasses, mosses and kindred vegetation flourished in this region, growing and perishing successively, until several feet of deep, black soil had been accumulated. At a certain time, trees suitable to a wet region, such as elms, soft maple, and shrubs, such as button bush, and, finally, burr- oak and ash, began to grow. The vegetable material perishing, underwent a proc- ess of decay, or, rather, a process of preservation. The substance of the vegeta- tion broke down into a number of compounds, which, situated as they are, in moisture, do not undergo further decay. This material was arrested in a stage of decomposition different from that of the drier substances on the rolling drift land east of the Miami River. In the case of much of the vegetation east of the river, it passed back, by complete decomposition, into "thin air," into invisible gases, and left no trace behind. A certain other portion was arrested in the process of decay, and forms the mold, which, with the clay commingled, constitutes the soil. On this side flourish the oaks, beeches, walnuts, sugar maple, with an undergrowth of dogw ood, redbud, haw, pawpaw, with a peculiar vegetable growth which sprung up and perished annually. The most of the growths of the east side differ entirely from those in the swampy district of a former day, where the deep, fibrous, black soil is found, west of the Miami River. The moisture retained on the surface has a twofold influence-one to favor a vegetation, as I have said, of a peculiar clas's; the other to prevent its decomposition, in fact, to preserve it. The two classes of soils differ in four respects : (1) In the quantity of vegetable substances; (2) in the condition they are in as regards the extent of decay which they have under- gone; (3) in the character of the vegetable substances which make up the mate- rial, and (4) in the different proportion of clay they contain, that on the east being composed largely of clay, while very little clay is found in the swamp soil. The black soil, not being so completely decomposed, does not, at first, until exposed to

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air by being worked and drained, yield so well, while the mold of the upland woods is in condition at once to yield abundantly. I refer, in the foregoing remarks about the differences in the soils of the east and west sides of the Miami River, to the characteristic soils, and not to every part of each. On the east, there are swampy places, where the soil approaches in character to the black soil of the west side, while, on the west side of the river, as in the southern part of the county, the soil has the character of that on the east. There are some places west of the Stillwater where the drift does not exist at all, or very little of it is seen, ' but the soil, only a few inches or feet in depth, rests immediately upon the lime- stone of the Niagara formation. This soil is largely derived from the underlying rock. This is not usual in the region of the drift. In most places, our rocks have but little influence upon the surface soil, except so far as fragments of the rocks are mingled with, and, by decomposition, give their strength to the soil.

The Drainage .- All of the drainage finally reaches the Miami River. The county slopes from north to south, with two subordinate systems of drainage pour- ing the surplus waters into the two outlets, the Miami and Stillwater Rivers, to be united after they leave the county. The longest tributaries of the Miami come from the east, as those of the Stillwater come from the west. On three sides, the county receives accessions of water from other counties, while the streams from the general watershed on the north contribute the drainage of several counties, all together making a large and constant volume of water flowing across the entire county, furnishing water-power for great and profitable industries. The Miami Canal is a convenient conduit for the utilization of this immense power. The advantages of this situation are becoming appreciated in this county, and compa- nies have been formed, aided by municipal appropriations, to make use of this power, which has been largely allowed to pass by without making contributions to the wealth of the county. The success of the enterprises undertaken and partly completed at the time of my visit, are assured by the natural and physical advan- tages of the situation of the county, if no engineering blunders are encountered, or financial embarrassments delay the completion of the works. The breadth of country lying above the horizon of the northern boundary of Miami County will furnish a drainage ample enough for an immense water-power, if it is directed into proper channels. It may be necessary, as it is practicable, to detain the water in a reservoir on the Miami, in the southern part of Shelby County. The two State reservoirs, the Loramie and the Lewiston, could be greatly improved and rendered both more effective as a supply for the canal, and useful for holding a supply of water, especially the one on the Miami, for manufacturing purposes. There can be no question of the ability of the breadth of country drained by the Miami and its tributaries above the northern line of this county, to give a supply of water for the uses of the canal far beyond any demand which has ever been made upon it. This power, which has been going to waste, will some day be turned to good account, and Miami County will become known for its manufacturing industries, as it has been for its agricultural thrift. The foregoing remarks regarding water- power have referred to the Miami River. On the Stillwater we find water-power of no mean proportions. This river is fed, from source to mouth, by numerous fine, living springs, which keep up a constant flow of water along its channel. It has also several good mill streams tributary to it. In addition, its bed is deep, and large dams are practicable, both for giving a good head and holding water in reserve. This stream alone would be a fortune in many localities, and we may confidently anticipate the time when industries of great importance to the county will spring up on its banks. Taken altogether, Miami County has natural advan- tages superior to many, if not all its neighbors, for becoming a manufacturing center, since no power is so economical in application as water.

The Drift .- The entire surface of the county, as has been said, is covered with loose material, composed of gravel, sanded clay, with a great number of granitic and other rocks of similar origin, whose origin we must look for away from this region. The commonly received opinion is, that these materials have

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been drifted hither by the agency of water, either fluid or as ice, and the facts observed, all point to the north, mostly beyond the chain of great lakes, as the source whence it has been brought. In the several volumes of this survey, the reader will find the whole subject of the drift agencies discussed, and many inter- esting statements made as to the probable method of transportation, the relative age, the phenomena, and physical history of the drift. It so happens that our soil, where the drift exists, does not depend altogether-in general not at all, or very little-upon the nature of the underlying rock for its qualities, but upon material transported from distant regions. In some places, the thickness of drift, amounting to thirty feet or more, renders the influence of the underlying rock utterly without influence upon the soil. I have already referred to some soil west of the Stillwater, which is influenced by the underlying rock, lying, as it does, within a few feet of it. Much of the gravel is calcareous, and has been derived from rock broken up in the course of the movement of the drift. The sand is silicious, and has been derived from the grinding down of masses of igneous rocks.

This county lies south of the area of thickest drift, which may be regarded as extending no further south than about the latitude of Sidney, the county seat of Shelby County. Thence it begins to thin out southward. The Miami River, where it enters the county in the north, cuts through a perpendicular thickness of about seventy-five feet of drift-clay, gravel, and bowlders, and all the water-courses which intersect the northern portions of the county, but through the drift to a depth of from thirty to fifty feet. As might be expected, the material of the drift varies greatly in different localities. In some places, it is composed of blocks, whose nature and condition show them not to have been transported far, and commingled with them are gravel, sand, clay, quartz, and granite bowlders in varying proportions. Sometimes the drift is composed of sand and gravel, with a small proportion of clay, or none at all, arranged with more or less stratifica- tion. An illustration of this character of drift may be seen well developed on the new hydraulic works, two miles north of Piqua, where they form a bed some forty feet in thickness, cemented in great masses. The same formation is seen across the country on the Stillwater, about one mile from the town of Clayton. The drift being largely composed of gravel and sand, there is no deficiency of these valuable materials for all purposes. The streams wash out the clay, and leave the gravel and sand, assorted in beds, along their entire course. In other cases, the large accumulations, left by floods of former days, afford convenient material for road-making, in localities distant from water-courses. Advantage has been taken of the abundance of good material for road-making. The county is threaded in every direction with the finest of roads, most of which are entirely free of toll-houses.

Striated and Smoothed Rock-Surfaces .- At Piqua, on both sides of the river. where the quarries are exposed to view by the removal of the superincumbent drift, it is observed that the surface of the rock upon which the drift was lying. is worn smooth and polished, and variously striated and grooved. At no point, I understood from quarry-men, does this character fail to present itself. Lying upon the smoothed surface of the bedded rock, is a confused mass of yellow clay. with blocks of limestone, not worn, of various sizes and in great confusion of position, together with well-rounded gravel, both of limestone and granite, and other igneous rocks, with larger bowlders of igneous rocks distributed throughout the mass. All these have the appearance of having been arrested in the midst of' their course, in which they were grinding, marking and polishing the surface of the bedded rock, as well as each other. There are no indications of assortment according to specific gravity, or by any stratification. On the east side of the river, at French's " Old Railroad Quarry," at the time of my visit, an instructive observation could be made of the action of the drift on the bedded rock. The stripping of one portion was composed of drift clays, bowlders of quartz, granite and kindred rocks, and blocks of limestone, all commingled in a mass, and the surface of quarried rock beneath, here only four feet in thickness, was everywhere

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smoothed ; while in another portion of the same quarry, there is an additional four feet of the upper portion of the rock, not worn away by the same agency which was acting close to it, nor was the surface of this portion smoothed. Deter's quarry, near the mouth of Panther Creek, illustrates the character and condition of the drift which I have just referred to.

There are unworn blocks of limestone, rounded masses of the same material, rounded and smoothed bowlders of granite and quartz rock, gravel, sand, and clay, commingled without any kind of selection according to quality of material or specific gravity.

Bowlders .- While this class of detached rocks is to be found in all portions of the country, scattered here and there, there are some special belts of them extend- ing in a direction somewhat west of south, through the entire extent of the county. The finest collection, in a continuous belt, occurs in a line which passes within three and one-half miles to the east of Troy, passing through the farm of John Lefevre, on Lost Creek, where, as well as both north and south, in a line, it may be observed. It continues in a nearly direct line throughout the county. A fine locality to observe it is on the turnpike-road, leading from Tippecanoe to New Carlisle, between three and four miles from the former place. Here a portion of the bowlders have been removed from the field to make room for the plow, and, besides being ample for the construction of good fences, are heaped up in long rows, on each side of the road, reminding one of a region of igneous rocks. Here one may see nearly all varieties of granite and quartzose rocks. The variety is astonish- ing, as if gathered from a hundred sources, many of them of very brilliant colors. They have been removed to adorn the grounds of residences in the adjoining towns.

They vary in size, some of them reaching a weight of several tons. This line extends to and beyond the southern boundary of the county, passing about one mile east of Tadmor, where the Dayton & Michigan Railroad intersects the National road. The belt is fully one mile in width, and altogether contains a mass of bowl- ders to be greatly wondered at, whether we consider their combined weight, their variety and beauty, or their regular distribution and direction. There is another belt, either an independent one or a spur of the foregoing, which passes by the line of the new hydraulic works near Troy. This has many bowlders of great dimen- sions, and often those of unusual interest ; some composed of rounded quartz peb- bles, imbedded in a matrix of dark mineral ; some, again, formed of angular frag- ments of various colors, imbedded in like manner. Some of these have been taken to their private grounds as adornments by the citizens of Troy. Rev. D. Tenney has one of the finest marked bowlders I have ever seen, on his grounds. About one mile north of Troy some very large bowlders of this composite character may be seen. One bowlder in this locality measured about 640 cubic feet. The large bowlder, east of Sidney, mentioned in my report on Shelby County, is nearly in the line of this belt east of Troy. Another great belt of bowlders, but, perhaps, infe- rior to that in the eastern part of the county, occurs west of the Stillwater, where it may be observed in the neighborhood and north of the town of Milton. This belt is about 100 feet in altitude above the bed of the Stillwater. Here, also, are very large and beautiful specimens of ingenous rocks.

Remains of a Former Race .- It will be necessary to notice but briefly the remains which a former race have left. The usual stone and flint implements, which are so abundantly scattered over the country occur, also, here in about equal rate of distribution as elsewhere. Heretofore, those who have picked them up, when engaged in working the ground, have either broken them or lost them again, and but a very small number can be obtained. But as attention has been called to them, more care will be taken to preserve them, and collections of them will be made with greater ease hereafter. There are many persons in the county who take . an intelligent interest in these relics of a people who once dwelt upon this soil, and of whose history so little is yet known that everything which will reflect light upon them should be carefully treasured up. The cabinet of the public school of Troy

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contains a number of these flint and stone tools, and should be made a depository of many which, in private hands. are subject to all the vicissitudes of our uncertain lives. Many private collections fall into the hands of unappreciative persons when those who have gathered them pass away. This school cabinet is an admirable one for purposes of instruction. and will doubtless continue to receive from the friends of the schools in Troy additions of value from time to time.

Remains of Mammals .- These are by no means abundant in the county. A fragment of an elk horn, of about eight pounds weight, about ten inches long, and without the prongs. and six inches wide, which was found on the land of Mr. Isaac Sheets, I saw in possession of Mr. Ira L. Morris of Troy. This gentleman has many specimens of natural history in his cabinet, and some relics of a past race of men. I saw the tooth of a mastodon in possession of Mr. C. S. Coolidge, of Troy. The tooth was found on the farm of Mr. Abram Beddle, about north of Troy.

Public Improvements .- The account of these works does not properly belong to the purpose of this investigation. but as they depend largely upon the physical character of the country, it will not be out of place to speak of them. Reference has already been made in these pages to the admirable system of graded and graveled roads, which connect all parts of the county together. The Miami & Erie Canal passes through the county from north to south, near the right bank of the Miami River, and affords water-power for manufactories at Piqua, Troy. and Tippecanoe, and at some other points. At Piqua and at Troy there were in proc- ess of construction, at the time of my visit (1872), extensive works to make avail- able the large water-privileges of the canal and river for manufacturing purposes. While the actual success of these enterprises remains to be seen, there seems to be no reasonable doubt in regard to it. If success does crown these efforts, the result will show itself in greatly increased prosperity in all the interests of the county. The urban population must already be, as compared with the rural, rather beyond the average of that in the agricultural counties. The town population of Miami county is distributed among several prosperous cities and towns, instead of being collected into one larger city. To this report there is lacking the statistics of the cities as well as the figures of the comparative elevations of the various portions of the county, above the sea-level, or as compared with the Miami River, the canal, railroads, and the turnpike roads. I made several efforts to obtain these figures, but have failed. Those who have them, and have failed to furnish them, are responsible for the lack of fullness of the report in this respect.

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The History of Miami County, Ohio, Part 34

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1051

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1880
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1051