The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, towns military record;, Part 22

Author: Durant, Pliny A. [from old catalog]; Beers, W. H., & co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1254

USA > Ohio > Union County > The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, towns military record; > Part 22

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).

"The Hamilton, or Upper Corniferous. - This limestone occupies but a small area in the southeastern part of the county. It is hard and blue, and identical with the blue stone quarried at Delaware. Any favorable outerop in that section should be thoroughly opened for building stone. This part of the county, though, is mainly covered with a heavy forest, and the strike of the formation is not known. Hensell & Fox, near Frankfort, have the only quarry in the county in this stone.

" The Lower Corniferous. - The Delhi stone of the Lower Corniferous is quarried at a number of places in Mill Creek Township. The quarry of Thompson & Brown, six miles southeast of Dover, exposes about four feet of fossiliferous, sometimes erinoidal limestone, in beds of two to four inches. It is principally burned for quicklime, but is also sold for cheap foundation stone. The lime which it makes is like that already described made from the same beds at Delhi, in Delaware County. The fossils seen here are Crytoceras

219

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

undulatum, a handsome little Strophomena, a large cyathophylloid coral, the pygidium of a trilobite, and various remains of fishes. There are also com- mon a large Strophomena and a small Cyathophylloid. The quarry of John Piersol, about three miles east, of Watkinsville; that of William Hays, a mile north west from Piersol's; those of John S. Smart, near Piersol's, and that of Daniel Long, in the northeast corner of the angle of the county, are all in the Corniferous, and near the horizon of Thompson & Brown's.

"Oriskany Conglomerate .- The only proof that this, usually a sandy limestone or a clean quartz grit, has the character of a conglomerate in Union County, consists in the appearance of that character near the county line, in Mill Creek. It there contains water-worn pebbles of the underlying water- lime, which are sometimes two or three inches in diameter. The whole thick- ness is not more than two feet.

" Wells and Springs. - The following observations on the common wells of the county are of interest. They give some idea of the accessibility of water for domestic purposes, and of the composition of the drift, as well as of its thickness at various places: [Here follows a description of thirty-nine wells in various parts of the county, varying in depth from eleven to sixty - three feet. The shallower wells are sunk in gravel and afford good water, as a rule, while the deeper ones do not always do so, it having in several in- stances a sulphurous, irony or bitter taste. The deep wells were sunk througlı the gravel and penetrated at various depths into yellow, blue and brown clay, nowhere striking the rock. The shallowest and the deepest wells are both in Allen Township, according to Prof. Winchell's table, and are but two or three miles apart. ]

"The Waterlime .- This limestone is so named from its known hydraulic qualities, in other States as well as in some places in Ohio. It appears in out- crop in widely separated parts of the county. and probably is the surface bed- rock throughout the most of the county. The quarry of William Ramsey, in the bed of Mill Creek, in Mill Creek Township, although not now in opera- tion, is sufficiently developed to show the waterlime characters. Aaron Sew- ell burns a little lime here. The foundation for the old court house at Marys- ville was taken out here. The stone is in beds of about four inches, but is wavy. Some of it is brecciated. The creek las excavated about ten feet in this limestone along here, the overlying Corniferous receding from the stream on both sides. This narrow belt of waterlime extends northward and makes, probably, an isolated outlier of Corniferous which occupies part of Dover Township and crosses the Scioto, in Delaware County, from near Millville, southwesterly. The waterlime also is exposed on Ingham Wood's land, one mile northwest of Pharisburg, in Boggs [Boke's] Creek; also on John Gran- dy's, near Wood's, as well as on the next farm above Peter Jolliff's. It occurs again on John Gray's and Alfred Davis' land, half a mile north of Byhalia, in the bed of Little Rush Creek. At York Center, it appears on Aaron Shirk's and Hiram Watt's land, on the north side of Boke's Creek. On the south side of the creek it also affords good exposures on the land of Montreville Henry, John Timons, John Shirk and Finley Davis, where it has been burned some for lime for Mr. Shirk; but it is not now wrought. It is mainly a sur- face exposure in the beds and low banks of the creek. At Unionville, the

waterlime appears in Big Darby Creek. It was recently opened for lime by F. J. Sager and J. C. Robinson. The beds are from four to eight inches thick, and fine grained. This is said to be underlaid by a blue clay which is four feet thick. It also occurs two miles above Unionville, on James Martin's land; and a mile further down on land of Elijah Mitchell. It was formerly wrought a little on the land of Mr. Sager, three-fourths of a mile below the

220

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

village, where the beds were from four to eight inches. It is also seen on H. Pennington's land, just below Mr. Sager's.

"The Drift .- This deposit in Union County shows evidence of more re- cent dato than it does generally in Delaware County. It appears very similar to the drift in the northwest corner of Delaware County. This evidence is of

two kinds: (Ist), that which pertains to the rock: (2d,) that which pertains to the drift itself. (1) The streams of the county have not excavated channels in the rock, and but very rarely expose it in their beds. This is not strictly true in the southeastern part, in the area of the Corniferous, where there is some erosion in the rock, like that seen throughout the most of Delaware County. This indicates that in the southeastern corner the erosion by streams has been longest continued, although that part of the county has at the same time less elevation above Lake Erie-in other words, that the overspread of drift in the southeastern part of the county was earlier than in the rest of the county. The rock, where exposed in the southeastern part of the county, has the same long- weathered appearance, even when freshly uncovered by the removal of the drift, that is observable in Delaware County. The marks of glacial action are dim. The natural jointing and planes of separation are loosely filled in with the effects of oxidation and decomposition to a greater depth than in the rest of the county. (2.) If we revert to the appearance of the drift itself, the most striking contrast is presented in the general smoothness of the sur- face throughout the county, compared to the surface of Delaware County. This is partly due to the effect of less erosion on the drift by the streams, and partly to the evenness of the rock surface. With a single exception, the drift seems to have been very uniformly and gently deposited in Union County. The uniform direction of and the regular intervals between the main streams may all have been at first determined by slight differences in the thickness of the drift deposited. but such differences are now so obscured that they cannot be detected by the eye, except in the interval between the Big Darby and Mill Creeks. Besides this general flatness of surface, the vellowish color, caused by the formation and infiltration of hydrated oxides from above, does not extend so far downward in Union County as in Dela- ware. In the latter county. the light-colored clay extends downward to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet, and sometimes as much as twenty-five feet. In the former, the blue clay is usually met within ten feet. It sometimes rises within eight feet of the surface, and occasionally the yellowish color ex- tends to twelve or fifteen feet. The depth of such superficial coloring seeins to vary not only with the length of time the drift may have been exposed to the air and surface water, but also with the ease with which these agents find access below. A sandy or gravelly knoll is generally weathered deeper than one of clay, and a rolling surface is apt to be more deeply oxidated than a flat one. The drift ridge which separates Big Darby and Mill Creeks has already been alluded to under the head ' surface features.' Its exact form, limits and location, even within the county, have not been made out. . The time given to the county would not allow a careful survey of this ridge in detail. It is well known to the inhabitants of the county. It forms a belt of high and rolling clay land which shows bowlders and gravel somewhat more abund- antly than the surface of the rest of the county. It is believed to be of the nature of a glacial moraine, and was probably thrown down by the ice at a period when the retreating ice-foot was nearly stationary for a long time at about that place. It is very similar to those other very extended drift mo- raines that cross Northwestern Ohio, but is somewhat more clayey than they. Its connection with them is not known, but it was doubtless cotemporaneous in origin with one of them. The elevated region in Logan County, where

221

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

there is an island of Devonian rock which withstood the ice period, was a dis- turbing element in the otherwise very regular contour of the foot of the glacier. Union County seems to have been in the pathway of a spur or branch of the ice sheet, and to have suffered very extensive erosion thereby. After the actual withdrawal of the ice from the county, the drainage of a large tract of ice-covered surface would have passed principally through the same path - way. This path way is bounded on either side by a persistent barrier of Cor- niferous limestone. It is probable, also, that the Waverly overlaid this area, at least in the Logan County island, since fragments of the Berea grit are found in the drift in the southwestern part of Union County. The effect of this drainage over the county is probably seen in the near approach to the surface of heavy gravel beds in the drift over wide tracts, although the level of the county in the same tracts is now that of the general country, and is perfectly flat. This may be seen in the frequent gravel pits about Richwood and Essex, where the surface is outwardly comparable to that of the Black Swamp of Northwestern Ohio, but is so closely underlaid with gravel that al- most every cellar encounters it within three or four feet. This gravel belt runs southward toward Pharisburg, and is also penetrated on the farm of Mr. Josiah Westlake, a mile and a half north of Marysville, who avers that small shiner fish appear late in the summer, or in the fall of . nearly every year, in a shallow well curbed by a 'gum,' which is inserted in an excavation penetrat ing to the gravel, or to the water of a subterranean lake. This circumstance would not be mentioned had it not been frequently reported by others in reference to certain wells in Defiance and Fulton Counties. The facts are given with great circumstantiality and positiveness, and cannot safely be denied. "Material Resources .- The most of the county is poorly supplied with building stone. This necessary article is imported from Logan County, where the Onondaga quarries at Middleburg afford a good stone; from the quarries in the Hamilton, at Marion, in Marion County, and from the same at Delaware. The quarries in the limestone of the Devonian, in the south- eastern part of the county, would probably be better patronized if better roads intersected that section, and if the quarries themselves were energetic- ally developed. Not much lime is made in the county; the drift clays, how- ever, are freely used in the manufacture of red brick and tile. There is a great deal of standing timber yet in Union County. The natural features and the geological structure of the county will forever preclude the development of any other element of material wealth that will rank with that of agri- culture."

MAGNETIC SPRINGS.

A more complete account of these springs and the village which has grown up around them in two years' time, will be found in the history of Leesburg Township, in which they are located. There is no doubt of the won. derful efficacy of the waters in certain diseases. The appended analyses of the waters of two of the springs will give an idea of their medicinal virtues:

SULPIIUR SPRING.

Chloride of sodium.

1.084

grains.

Sulphate of potassa.

0.215

grains.

Sulphate of soda.

0.293

grains.

Sulphate of lime.

4.191

grains.

Bi-carbonate of lime.

20.419

grains.

Bi-carbonate of magnesia.

20.170

grains.

Bi-carbonate of iron.

0.815

grains.

Phosphate of soda.

Traces.

Silica ..

0.157 grains.

Organic matter.

0.343

grains.

Total to one gallon

53.087

grains.

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

MAGNETIC SPRING.

Chloride of sodium.

0.789

grains.

Sulphate of potassa.

0.223

grains.

Sulphate of sodium.

0.416

grains.

Sulphate of lime.

3.271

grains.

Sulphate of magnesia.

2.304

grains.

Bi-carbonate of lime ...

19.201

grains.

Bi-carbonate of magnesia.

17.014

grains.

Bi-carbonate of iron.

0.153

grains.

Alumina.

0.115

grains.

Silica. .

0.942

grains.

Organic matter.

0.569

grains.

Total to one gallon. 44.897

grains.

These analyses are copied from the published report given after they had been made by Prof. E. S. Wayne, of Cincinnati, in February, 1882. There are several other springs at the place, the waters being similar to these, and a new well is now being sunk which, when the writer visited the place in the fore part of November, 1882, had reached a depth of 513 feet, and was being then drilled through a hard flinty rock. having passed through numerous strata of blue clay. It is the only deep boring in the county.

CHAPTER II.

THE WESTERN BORDER.

INDIAN OCCUPANTS-BORDER WARFARE-TREATIES-FACTS AND INCIDENTS.

Shrill through the forest aisles the savage war-cry rung;

Swift to the work of strife the border huntsmen sprung;

Red ran the blood of foemen on countless fields of woe,

From Allegheny's shimmering stream to Maumee broad and slow.

On swift Miami's green-clad shores and by Sandusky's side,

And where Scioto's hill-crowned flood greets grand Ohio's tide;

From proud Muskingum's winding way to Cuyahoga's strand;

From Tuscarawas' border to bright Olentangy's land-

The armies of the past arise and file in grand review,

Wearing the mien of patriots, bold, steadfast, brave and true;

And, echoing down the fleeting years since savage strife was done,

The ringing story of their deeds goes ever speeding on. All honor to their memory! Brave hearts and true were they

Who fought for home and country in savage border fray. The battle smoke is lifted from off the forest trees,

And Freedom's starry ensign floats ever on the breeze.

THE above lines are an inspiration from the eventful days of long ago. From his boyhood the writer has been fascinated by the tales of olden times, and his pulses have ever quickened when reading of the struggles of the hardy men of the border, both as soldiers and pioneers. What desper- ate adventures were theirs! What blood- curdling scenes the solemn forests and beauteous plains of the Buckeye State witnessed in the years when the crowned monarchs of Europe fought for supremacy in the Western land; and again, what tales of distress and woe are told of the days when the Republic was young -yet how Herculean in its infancy! The dim and somber wilderness echoed to the shrill yell of the Indian warrior, scarcely less savage than the wild beast that with him tenanted the magnificent Western domain. The rifle shot, the stroke of knife or hatchet, the groans of the stricken victims, the sorrow of bereaved families whose stays were cut down in all the pride and strength of manhood, the wail of despairing captives, the glare of burning homes-all

223

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

the horrid reailties of a merciless savage warfare were known to the daring in- habitants of the Western border. History has recorded much that occurred in those dark and dubious days, but thousands of events that then transpired were known only to the actors and may never be spread before those of this and succeeding generations who shall peruse the pages of the past. Peace and plenty crowned the efforts of the early heroes, and their descendants enjoy the bounty provided for them after long and often doubtful strife, scarcely dream- ing of the secrets hidden behind the misty veil of years.

Sufficient for the scope of this work, it will be unnecessary to go farther back in the history of this region than the period of the war between France and England, from 1755 to 1760, when the immediate territory in which Un- ion County is included was peopled principally by the Indian tribes known as the Wyandots, Miamis, Delawares and Shawanese, the third named being the most powerful. About 1764, a French trader who had resided many years among the Indians, and who remained at Detroit after it passed into the hands of the British, drew up a statement showing the various North American tribes* and their fighting strength, which was as follows:

Tribes.

No. of Warriors. 200

Abenaquis, )

350

Michmacs,

St. Lawrence Indians. 550

Chalas, [ 130

( 400

Algonquins, S

Le Tetes de Boule, or Round Heads, near the above. 2,500

Six Nations, on the frontiers of New York, etc .. 1,550

Wyandots, near Lake Erie. 300

Chipwas, { near Lakes Superior and Michigan § 5,000

Ottawas, 5

900

Messesagues, or River Indians, being wandering tribes on Lakes Huron and Superior. .

2,000

Powtewatamis, near St. Joseph's and Detroit. 350

Les Puans, near Puans Bay $ 700

Folle avoine, or Wild Oat Indians, S

350

Mechecouakis,

250

Mascoutens,

500

Ouisconsins, on a river of that name falling into the Mississippi on the east side.

550

Christinaux,

Assinaboes, or Assinnipouals, S far north, near the lakes of the same names, § 3,000

Blancs Barbus, + or White Indians with Beards. ₹ 1,500

Sioux, of the meadows, }

Sioux, of the woods, toward the heads of the Mississippi. $ 2,500

1,800

Missouri, on the river of that name.

3,000

Grandes Eaux

1,000

Osages,

600

Canses,

1,600

Panis blancs, south of Missouri.

2,000

Panis piques,

1,700

Padoucas, 500

Ajoues, north of the same. .

1,100

Arkanses, on the river that bears their name, falling into the Mississippi on the west side.

2,000

600 Alibamous, a tribe of the Creeks.

[300

Chiakanessou,

350

Machecous,

unknown, unless the author means they are tribes of the

800

Caouitas,

700

Souikilas, (200

Miamis, upon the river of that name, falling into Lake Erie. 350

Delawares (les Loups), on the Ohio. 600

* The orthography of tribal names in this account does not often agree with that of a later date, as will be seen.

f First taken by the French for Spaniards. They lived in the Northwest.

Conawaghrunas, near the falls of St. Louis.

700

Amalistes,

Nipissins, living toward the heads of the Ottawa River ) 300

Sakis, south of Puans Bay 400

1,500

Ouanakina, r

Creeks.

224

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

No. of Warriors.

Shawanese, on Scioto.

500

Kickapoos,

( 300

Ouachanons, on the Wabash.

3 400

Peanquichas, )

250

Kaskasquias, or Illinois in general, on the Illinois River

600

Pianria. . .

800

Catawbas, on the frontiers of North Carolina

150

Cherokees, behind South Carolina.

2,500

Chickasaws,

750

Natchez,

Mobile and Mississippi

150

Choctaws,

4,500

Total.

56,500

Maj. Robert Rogers, a distinguished provincial officer in the French and En- glish war, ending in 1760, published in London, in 1765, "A Concise Account of North America," and in the chapter describing the course of the St. Lawrence River, includes the following sketch of Sandusky Bay and vicinity, written from notes made in 1760, when he led a detachment of troops to receive a sur- render of Detroit, pursuant to a treaty then recently concluded; the extract is from page 169 of his work:

"At the southwest corner of Lake Erie. the Lake Sandusky communicates with it by a straite of half a mile wide. The Lake Sandusky is thirty miles in length, and eight or ten miles wide. Into the southwest corner of this lake the River Sandusky, or Huron. flows. Upon the banks of this river, and round the Lake Sandusky, the Huron Indians are settled in several different towns in a very pleasant, fertile country. This nation of the Indians can raise from about 6 to 700 fighting men. They differ something in their manners from the Suties, any yet mentioned. They build regular framed houses, and cover them with bark. They are esteemed the richest Indians upon the whole conti- nent, having not only horses in great abundance, but some black cattle and swine. They raise great quantities of corn, not only for their own use, sup- ply several other tribes, who purchase this article from them. The country of the Hurons extends 150 miles westwardly of the lake, and is 100 miles wide. The soil is not exceeded by any in this part of the world; the timber tall and fair; the rivers and lakes abound with a variety of fish, and here is the great .. est plenty of water-fowl of anywhere in the country. The woods abound with wild game. In a word, if peopled, and improved to advantage, would equal any of the British colonies on the sea-coast."

The name, Huron, as here appplied by Maj. Rogers, is that given by the French to the tribe known otherwise as Wyandots. From the estimate of Maj. Rogers, made in 1760, and that of the French trader, made in 1764, as herein previously given, regarding the strength of this nation, it seems that the war they had just passed through at the latter date had reduced their num- bers very materially. The Wyandots had a tradition that their country was formerly in what is now the Dominion of Canada, on the north side of the River St. Lawrence, and that the Senecas, their blood relations, occupied the territory opposite them, on the south side of the same river. A war begun be- tween them over a trivial matter and was continued for many years, or until long after the settlement of Detroit. The remnant of the Wyandots moved west and located in the vicinity of Green Bay, afterward settling along the Detroit River and the northwestern shore of Lake Erie, and conquering a last- ing peace with their long-time enemies and cousins, the Senecas, in a bloody battle on the lake, wherein every warrior in the party of Senecas was slain and the Wyandots terribly reduced.

Details of the bloody French and English war will not here be entered into. It resulted in the English obtaining possession of a

Tribes.

John Blevats

227

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

large portion of the territory lying northwest from the Ohio River, previously held by the French by right of discovery. The Indian occupants had not been consulted regarding the future ownership of the region: it was entirely a war between foreign powers, in which the English were aided by the American colonists and the French by Indian allies. The might of the Brit- ish nation having been demonstrated. the Indians, probably more through fear than desire, became the allies of the latter, and thus continued through many years, the war between the United States and England in 1812-15 fi- nally establishing a foothold for a permanent government on the soil which had long been disputed over by rival European powers, and which the heroes of the Revolution finally won as a trophy of war.

With the close of the French and English war came indifference and neg- lect on the part of the British Government toward the Indians, and the "out- rages of fur traders, brutality of English soldiery, intrusion of provincial set- tlers upon lands of border tribes, fabrications and wiles of French trading companies -- all conspired to arouse their war spirit."* Pontiac, the great war chief of the Ottawas, and a masterly organizer and schemer, roused the various tribes to action, and inaugurated a terrible and bloody war. So well were his plans laid that every English post west of the Alleghanies except Ligonier and Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), in Pennsylvania, and Detroit, in Michi- gan, fell a prey to his prowess, and over the entire Western frontier swarmed a horde of yelling, painted, bloodthirsty, merciless foes. The red men had. however, reckoned too much on their own strength, and were, notwithstanding their terrific onslaught, soon conquered by the English and their colonies, who dictated terms of peace in 1764 which were not long afterward completed. Mr. Butterfield, before quoted, writes of this period in the following strain:

"At the close of Pontiac's war, there was not to be found any settlement in the upper Ohio country. Up and down the Monongahela and its branches every white settler had been expelled. From the head springs of the Alle- gheny to its union with its sister stream. there were no habitations other than the savages. At the junction of these rivers, where the city of Pittsburgh now sits enveloped in the smoke of it's thousand industries, there was very little to indicate the presence of civilization save Fort Pitt. Outside that post there was not an inhabited hut of even a trader. Down the Ohio on the left was an uninhabited region; so, also, on the right-up the Beaver, the Muskingum, the Scioto, and down the parent stream to its mouth. Settlements upon the waters of the Monongahela by adventurous Virginians, begun before the com- mencement of the contest between England and France for the Ohio country, had but an ephemeral existence. Houses and corn-fields of English traders, which then dotted the margin of the Ohio and its tributaries in a few places, were destroyed by the French in this war for supremacy; and though others afterward appeared, nearly all vanished before the devastating hand of the foe in 1763. Pittsburgh, dating its origin from English occupation of the head of the Ohio in 1758, attained, by the spring of 1761, to the dignity of a population numbering 332, occupying 104 houses. Doubtless, both had considerably increased by May, 1763, when most of its log cabins were leveled to the ground and the occupants of all driven into the fort for protection against the wild warriors of Pontiac's confederation."

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The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, towns military record;, Part 22

Author: Durant, Pliny A. [from old catalog]; Beers, W. H., & co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1254

Author: Durant, Pliny A. [from old catalog]; Beers, W. H., & co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1254