The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 44

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081

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The name blue limestone indicates the color of these strata of rocks. The bluish tinge of the rocks is due to the presence of an oxide of iron. Ex- posure to the weather frequently changes the color to a light gray or drab. The layers of this stone in Warren County range in thickness from three to eight inches. Between the layers of limestone are beds of shale, commonly called blue clay. Both the limestone and the blue clay contain numerous well- preserved fossils of ancient living forms inhabiting the seas, at the bottom of which these beds were formed.

The Clinton and Niagara formations have been popularly known as the Cliff limestone, and were so called in the first geological survey of Ohio. The valuable building stone known as Dayton stone, belongs to the Niagara forma- tion. On the geological map of Warren County, four outliers of the Cliff limestone are marked. The largest of these includes a part of Clear Creek and Wayne Townships, and has its center nearly midway between Mount Holly and Franklin. The next in size is at Spring Hill, in Washington and Massie Townships. The other two are quite small, one being on a hill on the farm of William Morris, one mile east of Utica, and the other on the east side of the Little Miami, near Freeport. The last-named outlier embraces about three- fourths of an acre, and is about sixteen feet thick. Prof. Orton, perhaps with- out sufficient evidence to warrant the conclusion, regarded it as a gigantic bowlder which must have been transported from the highlands west of the river. His reason for the conclusion is that the outlier overlies drift material of clay and gravel, and is at least 125 feet below the elevation required at this point for the formation. Spring Hill is interesting from the fact that it is the most southern of the outliers of the Clinton limestone in Ohio.

The Niagara formation is found in Warren County over the largest of the four areas of the Clinton formation just referred to. Some valuable quarries of Dayton stone are here found. The formation is here at least fifty feet in thickness and the highest land in the county is believed to be found in this locality.

The Drift beds are spread over almost the entire county. They consist of clays, sands, gravels, bowlders and buried vegetable remains, all of which have been transported by glacial action or by glaciers and icebergs, a greater or less distance from the places of their origin. These beds vary much in depth, in the materials of which they are composed and in the order in which the

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layers of different materials are arranged. Fragments of wood are frequently found deeply buried in the drift. There is hardly a neighborhood in which instances of buried wood have not occurred in digging wells. The wood is generally coniferous, but ash, hickory, sycamore and grape-vines are said to have been found. The wood is found at any depth at from ten to fifty feet.

Considerable quantities of clean sand and gravel are found in these beds. In many parts of the county gravel-banks are numerous, and, in connection with the gravel found along the streams, have furnished excellent materials for the turnpikes which traverse the whole county in every direction.

Bowlders are scattered irregularly over the county as well as other portions of the Miami country, and constitute an interesting feature of the surface ge- ology. They are termed erratic rocks, hardheads or grayheads. They are universally recognized as of Northern origin. They are composed of rocks for- eign, not only to the county, but to Ohio. All geologists agree that many of them were brought from the Lake Superior region and the Canadian highlands, and that far the greatest number have been brought from beyond the great lakes. Prof. J. S. Newberry, late Chief Geologist of Ohio, believes that these bowlders were deposited at a later date than the most recent stratified beds of drift, and that they were floated to their present resting-places by icebergs, just as icebergs are now known to transport great quantities of rocks, gravel and sand, sometimes in the case of a single iceberg, amounting to 100,000 tons. The largest bowlder in Southern Ohio yet described is found about three miles southeast of Lebanon, and has given the name to the Rock Schoolhouse. It measures, above ground, seventeen feet in length, thirteen feet in breadth and eight feet in height. As it is found to slope outward in all directions under ground, it is fair to suppose that at least one-half of it is buried. It weathers rapidly, and must have been formerly considerably larger. Estimat- ing it to weigh 160 pounds to the cubic foot, the weight of the bowlder must be not less than 275 tons. The composition of this and most other large bowl- ders of the region, is gneiss, in which reddish feldspar is a large element. Not only the bowlders, but the gravels of the drift beds, are of Northern origin. Among the pebbles found in the drift gravel are representatives of all the forma- tions found to the northward in Ohio, Blue limestone, Clinton, Niagara, Water lime, corniferous and black slate, and the granitic rocks found beyond the lakes.

Fossils of great beauty and variety are found in abundance throughout the county. Perhaps no locality in the world furnishes superior facilities for the study of the fossils of the upper beds of the Lower Silurian. They occur in such numbers and are so perfectly preserved that the most careless observers have their attention directed to them in the stones by the wayside and in the pavements of streets. They are oftimes so crowded as to constitute the chief substance of the rocks. Longstreth's Branch in Turtle Creek Township, which empties into the Little Miami opposite Freeport, has given several new fossils to science, among them two new crinoids, both discovered by J. Kelly O'Neall, Esq., and one of which bears his name-the Glyptocrinus O' Nealli. A fossil seaplant found near Waynesville, and now in the cabinet of Israel Harris, has been named Fucoides Harrisi.

The soil of a great part of the county is of foreign origin; that is, it has not been derived from the decomposition of the underlying strata of rocks and shale, but has been transported by the drift agencies from northern sources. As the underlying rocks are limestone and the gravels of the drift largely com- posed of the same kind of rock, the soil is calcareous and of wonderful fertility. It is, in fact, an extension of the famous Blue Grass Region of Kentucky, and its equal in fertility and beauty of scenery. As fine fields of blue grass are to be found in Southwestern Ohio as in Kentucky. In the lower valleys of the

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streams the soil is a deep black alluvium, which yields year after year abundant crops of Indian corn. Still more desirable farming lands are found in the in- tervales of an earlier epoch, which are now in part filled with the beds of drift. The valley of Turtle Creek in its combination of richness, beauty and health- fulness, probably is not excelled on the continent. There are also broad areas of uplands of great strength and fertility of soil, equaling in productiveness the best bottom lands.

Most parts of the county have a fair supply of good water. Spring Hill derives its supply from the Clinton limestone, with which it is capped. The main water supply of the county, however, is derived from the drift beds, in which good water is generally obtained for wells at a depth of from fifteen to twenty-five feet. The most noted string in the county is near Springboro, and has long been turned to account in running one or more mills. This spring, or, rather, series of springs, uniting in one current, has its origin in heavy beds of drift. Near Harveysburg, in a beautiful grove, is the collection of springs known as the "Fifty Springs." At Lebanon are two chalybeate and one sulphur spring. Where the blue limestone formations are not covered with drift beds, the water supply is inferior. The rainfall cannot penetrate the compact clays of this formation, and is consequently turned to the streams by surface drainage. There are comparatively few farms in the county upon which an adequate supply of water for domestic purposes and farm animals cannot be obtained, even in the dryest seasons, either from rivulets, springs or wells.

ANTIQUITIES.

Very interesting archeological remains abound in the county and through- out the region of the Miamis. The extensive and elaborate ancient earthworks show conclusively that this region was in the distant past occupied by a dense population, not of nomadic tribes, but dwelling in fixed communities, proba- bly devoted to agriculture, and having certain peculiar laws, customs and re- ligious rites. Some of their works required an immense amount of labor and considerable engineering skill. What race of people built these remarkable and interesting earthworks is unknown, and, in the absence of positive knowledge, their origin is referred to a people called Mound-Builders. Both tumular and mural remains of this extinct race are found in almost every por- tion of Warren County. Many of the less important archeological works have been obliterated by the cultivation of the soil; others remain to-day among the largest and most interesting ancient works in the Mississippi Valley. One of the largest mounds in the United States is found near the Great Miami at Mi- amisburg; it is 65 feet high and 800 feet around the base. Fort Ancient, on the Little Miami, is one of the largest, strongest and most important of the defensive works of the extinct race on the continent. The following description of this remarkable work is from Caleb Atwater, and was published in the Ar- chœlogia Americana :

" The fortification stands on a plain, nearly horizontal, about two hundred and thirty-six feet above the level of the river, between two branches with very steep and deep banks. The openings in the walls are gateways. The plain extends eastward along the State road, nearly level, about half a mile. The fortification on all sides, except on the east and west, where the road runs, is surrounded with precipices nearly in the shape of the wall. The wall on the inside varies in its height, according to the shape of the ground on the outside being generally from eight to ten feet; but on the plain, it is about nineteen and a half feet high, inside and out, on a base of four and a half poles. In a few places, it appears to be washed away in gutters, made by water collecting on the inside.

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"At about twenty poles east from the gate, through which the State road runs, are two mounds, about ten feet eight inches high, the road running be- tween them nearly equidistant from each. From these mounds are gutters running nearly north and south, that appear to be artificial, and made to com- municate with the branches on each side. Northeast from the mounds, on the plain, are two roads, each about one pole wide, elevated about three feet, and which run nearly parallel, about one-fourth of a mile, and then form an irreg- ular semi-circle round a small mound. Near the southwest end of the fortifi- cation are three circular roads, between thirty and forty poles in length, cut out of the precipice between the wall and the river. The wall is made of earth.

" Many conjectures have been made as to the design of the authors in erecting a work with no less than fifty-eight gateways. Several of these open- ings have evidently been occasioned by the water, which had been collected on the inside until it overflowed the walls and wore itself a passage. In several other places, the walls might never have been completed.

" The three parallel roads near the southwest end of the fortification appear to have been designed for persons to stand on and annoy those who were pass- ing up and down the river. The Indians, as I have been informed, made this use of these roads in their wars with each other and with the whites. Whether these works all belong to the same era and the same people, I cannot say, though the general opinion is that they do. On the whole, I have ventured to class them among 'Ancient Fortifications,' to which they appear to have higher claims than almost any other, for reasons too apparent to require a recital.

" The two parallel roads outside the fortification running from two mounds northeastward are very similar to modern turnpikes, and are made to suit the na- ture of the soil and make of the ground. If the roads were for foot-races, the mounds were the goals from which the pedestrians started, or around which they ran. The area which these parallel walls inclose, smoothed by art, might have been the place where games were celebrated. We cannot say that these works were designed for such purposes; but we can say that similar works were thus used among the early inhabitants of Greece and Rome."

The extreme length of these works, in a direct line, is nearly a mile, but. following the angles of the walls, they reach probably a length of six miles.

On the river hill on the west side of the Little Miami, at Foster's Cross- ing, is an ancient work composed of burnt earth. The inclosure contains about twenty acres, and the embankment, although nearly leveled by time in some places, can be traced around the whole area As a work of defense, it had a position of great strength. It could be attacked with advantage only from a narrow space of level land on the north. At this place the wall was highest and strongest, and is now about ten feet high and fifteen feet wide at the base. Here, too, was the gateway, defended by an elliptical mound on the outside. The peculiarity of this work, however, is the burnt earth of which the embank- ment is composed. There does not seem to be a handful of clay in the remains of the ancient wall which has not undergone the most intense heat. The rocks, too, show the marks of fire. Even where the embankment is highest, excavations by the hand of man, by water, or the uprooting of large trees, show that the earth is as red as brick-dust down to the level of the ground. The burnt clay was not molded, but is found pulverized, or in large or small irregular-shaped masses.

There were other works of defense in the county of less size and importance which have never been surveyed or platted, or accurately described. It cannot be said that any law governing the arrangement of either the tumuli or fortifica- tions has been discovered. Both appear to be more numerous along the rivers than elsewhere. It has been thought by some writers that the archaeology of

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the Miamis has for its distinguishing feature a system of strong fortifications along the two rivers, and that the numerous mounds on the headlands and in- terior points may have been signal stations, commanding the whole region and binding the country together as the seat of one united nation. A more com- mon view is that the mounds were places of sepulture and memorials raised over the dead, the largest mounds being erected in honor of distinguished per- sonages. The notion that they contain the remains of vast heaps of dead fallen in great battles is wholly unsupported by the facts obtained from excavations and examinations. But one or two skeletons are usually found in these mounds, and where many are found it is probable that the later Indians, and, in some cases, Europeans, have buried their dead in them. The New American Cyclopedia assumes, from facts and circumstances deemed sufficient to enable us to arrive at approximate conclusions concerning the antiquity of the Mound- Builders' records, that we may infer, for most of these monuments in the Mis- sissippi Valley, an age of not less than two thousand years. " By whom built, whether their authors migrated to remote lands under the combined attractions of a more fertile soil and more genial clime, or whether they disappeared be- neath the victorious arms of an alien race, or were swept out of existence by some direful epidemic or universal famine, are questions probably beyond the power of human investigations to answer. History is silent concerning them, and their very name is lost to tradition itself."

Among the most interesting archeological relics are the utensils, imple- ments, weapons and personal ornaments of pre-historic times. It should be borne in mind that, while most writers on American antiquities make a dis- tinction between the Mound-Builders and the tribes the whites found in pos- session of the country, such a line of demarkation cannot well be drawn with accuracy with respect to the stone, flint and copper relics. Some of these rel- ics may belong to a pre-historic race of the distant past, some to the earliest Indian tribes inhabiting the country, and others to later Indians, whose me- chanical arts may have been modified by contact and trade with the whites. It is, therefore, impossible to separate the relics of the Mound-Builders from those of the later races. We cannot refer the copper implements to any par- ticular epoch, nor can we determine when the stone age began or ended. Stone implements have been found associated with the remains of animals long since extinct, yet these implements are not different from those known to have been in use among the savage tribes when first seen by the whites.

The relics now under consideration have been found in as great quantities in Warren, perhaps, as in any county in Ohio. With respect to the purposes for which they were designed, they may be divided into utensils for domestic use, implements for handicraft, weapons and ornaments. With respect to the materials from which they were fabricated, they are stone, flint, slate, copper, pottery, bone, horn and shell.

The most common relics are the flint arrow-heads, spear-heads and dag- gers. Thousands of arrow and spear heads have been picked up in the county. Other flint implements, such as knives and cutting tools, scrapers and borers, have been found. Of stone relics, the most common are axes and hammers, grooved so that a forked branch or split stick could be fastened for a handle; balls more or less round, probably used as hand-hammers; pestles for crushing grain, and many ornaments-among them, flat, perforated tubes of highly polished slate, and various forms of flat stones, polished and perforated. Stone pipes are found of various sizes and construction Specimens of ancient pot- tery have not been often found in the county.

Charles Rau, the author of several valuable papers on American antiqui- ties, has shown that there was an extensive trade or traffic among the pre-his-

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toric races of America. This is rendered evident from the fact that their man- ufactured articles consist of materials which must have been obtained from sources in far-distant localities. The materials of which many relics found in the Miami country are composed can only be found at a distance of hundreds of miles. The term "flint," used to describe the material of which various chipped implements are manufactured, is used to include various kinds of hard and silicious stones, such as hornstone, jasper, chalcedony, and different kinds of quartz. There have been found in the United States places where the man- ufacture of flint implements was carried on. There was a great demand for arrow-heads among the primitive tribes, and in places where the proper kind of material could be found, there were work-shops for their manufacture. An important locality to which the aborigines resorted in Ohio for quarrying flint is now called Flint Ridge, and extends through Muskingum and Licking Coun- ties. Dr. Hildreth says of this ancient flint quarry:

" The compact, silicious material of which this ridge is made up seems to have attracted the notice of the aborigines, who have manufactured it largely into arrow and spear heads, if we may be allowed to judge from the numerous circular excavations which have been made in mining the rock, and the piles of chipped quartz lying on the surface. How extensively it has been worked for these purposes may be imagined from the countless number of the pits, ex- perience having taught them that the rock recently dug from the earth could be split with more freedom than that which had lain exposed to the weather. These excavations are found the whole length of the outcrop, but more abund- antly at ' Flint Ridge,' where it is most compact and diversified with rich col- ors."

The greenish, striped slate, of which variously shaped tablets are made, is believed to occur in no parts of the Union except the Atlantic Coast district, and to have been transported, either in a rough or worked condition, from that region to the different parts of the Mississippi Valley in which the relics are found. The copper used by the aboriginal tribes was probably obtained chiefly from the northern part of Michigan.

As comparatively few copper relics are found in the mounds, an account of the excavation of a mound in which were found a number of copper articles is here given. The mound was situated on the farm of J. S. Couden, on the south side of the Little Miami, between Morrow and South Lebanon, and near the terminus of a series of ancient works extending for nearly a mile in length. It was a small mound, only about four feet high, and not different in appear- ance from several others near by. It was opened in the spring of 1878. The explorers made an excavation three and one-half feet by five feet, and eight feet deep. In digging, stones were found promiscuously arranged and bear- ing the marks of fire. At a depth of eight feet were found a skeleton, a large sea-shell, and a number of copper implements and ornaments. The skeleton was lying on its back, with its head toward the northeast. The shell was large enough to hold a gallon of water. On the skeleton were found ten copper axes, the largest being found on the head, the smallest at the feet. The axes varied in size from seven to four and one-half inches in length, and from four to three inches in width. They were only about one-half an inch in thickness. As is usually the case with Mound-Builders' axes, none of them were perforated for the attachment of a handle. One of them was flat on one side and rounded on the other, and was probably intended for use as an adze, with a handle fast- ened at right angles to the side. In the mound were found a thin copper cres- cent, perforated with four holes, and several other copper pieces, which were supposed to have been ornaments.

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young July A.m. Worley.

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CHAPTER X. HISTORICAL NOTES AND COLLECTIONS.

ROUTES THROUGH THE COUNTY OF MILITARY EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE INDIANS.

TT is proposed in this place to state briefly what can at this day be learned from the best histories of the Indian wars concerning the routes of the ex- peditions against the Indian villages on the head-waters of the two Miami Rivers. Four of these passed through Warren County. The earlier expeditions were organized before settlements had been commenced northwest of the Ohio, and consisted chiefly of Kentuckians. The later expeditions of St. Clair and Wayne passed from Fort Washington up the Great Miami, and with them we are not here further concerned. In 1786, Col. Benjamin Logan destroyed the Mack-a-cheek towns in Logan County. His route seems to have been from Maysville, Ky., where he crossed the Ohio, thence to a point on Todd's Fork afterward called the " Deserted Camp," in Clinton County, thence to Mad River. The four expeditions which passed through Warren County all pro- ceeded from the Ohio River opposite the mouth of the Licking, the present site of Cincinnati.

The first of these was that of Col. John Bowman, who, in July, 1779, with 160 mounted Kentuckians, marched against Old Chillicothe, the Shaw- nee town, about three miles from the site of Xenia. It was in retaliation for atrocities then recently committed by the Shawnees in Kentucky. The fol- lowing particulars of this expedition are from the "Notes on Kentucky: "

" The party rendezvoused at the mouth of the Licking, and, at the end of the second night, got in sight of the town undiscovered. It was determined to await until daylight in the morning before they would make the attack; but, by the imprudence of some of the men, whose curiosity exceeded their judg- ment, the party was discovered by the Indians before the officers and men had arrived at the several positions assigned them. As soon as the alarm was given, a fire commenced on both sides, and was kept up, while the women and children were seen running from cabin to cabin, in the greatest confusion, and collecting in the most central and strongest. At clear daylight, it was dis- covered that Bowman's men were from seventy to one hundred yards from the cabins, in which the Indians had collected, and which they appeared deter- mined to defend. Having no other arms than tomahawks and rifles, it was thought imprudent to attempt to storm cabins well-defended by expert war- riors. In consequence of the warriors collecting in a few cabins contiguous to each other, the remainder of the town was left unprotected, therefore, while a fire was kept up at the port-holes, which engaged the attention of those with- in. fire was set to thirty or forty cabins, which were consumed, and a consider- able quantity of property, consisting of kettles and blankets, was taken from those cabins. In searching the woods near the town, 133 horses were collected.

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The History of Warren County, Ohio, Part 44

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1081

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1081