CHAPTER I


TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY


LOCATION AND BOUNDARIES-AREA-TOPOGRAPHY-THE MAUMEE RIVER-A POET'S WIT-GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY-THE GLACIAL EPOCH-DRIFT AND MORAINES- SOIL AND CLIMATE


Lucas County, of which Toledo is the seat of justice, is one of the northern tier of Ohio counties. It is irregular in form ; bounded on the north by the State of Michigan ; on the east by Lake Erie and Wood County ; on the south by the counties of Wood and Ottawa, and on the west by the counties of Fulton and Henry. According to Rand & McNally's Atlas; the area of the county is 342 square miles.


TOPOGRAPHY


Like that of most of the counties bordering upon the Great Lakes, the surface presents but few undulations, rising in a gradual slope from Lake Erie to the western border. The highest point is near the northwest corner, 140 feet above the lake. As Lake Erie is 580 feet above the level of the sea, the greatest altitude of Lucas County, in Richfield Township, is 720 feet.


The principal watercourses are the Maumee and Ottawa rivers, Swan and Ten-mile creeks. The Maumee forms part of the boundary line between Lucas and Wood counties. From the foot o fthe rapids to the Maumee Bay it divides Lucas County into two unequal portions, leaving Oregon and Jerusalem townships on the east. It has its source at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it is f ormed by the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers. From Providence, near the southwest corner of the county, to Maumee it falls about sixty feet in a series of cascades, forming what are known as the "Maumee Rapids." From the foot of these rapids to Lake Erie the river is navigable for boats of considerable size. The largest lake steamers easily ascend the Maumee to Toledo, giving the city one of the best harbors on the Great Lakes.


The Ottawa River is formed in Sylvania Township by the junction of Bear and Ten-mile creeks. At first it flows in a southeasterly direction, then turns toward the northeast, and empties into the Maumee Bay near the boundary between Ohio and Michigan. The name "Ten-mile Creek" is sometimes given to that portion of the stream flowing through Adams and Washington townships and the northern part of the City of Toledo.


Swan Creek rises in Fulton County and follows a southeasterly course until near the Village of Whitehouse, in Waterville Township. It then runs almost parallel to the Maumee to the western boundary of Adams Township, when it turns more to the eastward and falls into the Maumee near the foot of Monroe Street in the City of Toledo. This creek, with Ten-mile, Bear, Sibley and Jacob creeks and a few smaller streams afford fairly good drainage for that part of the county lying north


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16 - TOLEDO AND LUCAS COUNTY


west of the Maumee River, though in some localities it was found necessary to resort to artificial drainage before the land could be profitably cultivated.


Most of that portion of the county southeast of the Maumee lies in what is known as the "Black Swamp" district. This section is drained by small streams that empty into Lake Erie. The most important of these are the Crane, Cedar and Wolf creeks and the "Big Coolee."




THE MAUMEE RIVER


On the early French maps of the Great Lake region, the name of this stream appears as "Miami du Lac," the English translation of which is the "Miami of the Lake." In early Indian treaties and other old documents relating to this section of the country, frequent reference is found to the "Miami of Lake Erie," or the "Miami of the Lakes," these terms being used to distinguish the river from the Miami which empties into the Ohio River near the southwest corner of the State of Ohio. There can be no doubt that the name was derived from the Miami Indians. The word was pronounced by the French as though spelled "Mee-ah-mee," with the accent on the second syllable. During the War of 1812, the American soldiers, unfamiliar with the French language, slurred the vowel in the first syllable and broadened the sound of the "a" in the second. This resulted in the pronunciation of the word as though spelled "Mau-mee," which in a short time became generally recognized as the name of the river.


On November 7, 1855, an effort was made by some of the citizens of the City of Toledo to change the name of the river. A public meeting was field on that date, with S. J. Kuder as chairman and W. M. Scott acting as secretary. A resolution was introduced, the preamble of which set forth that the early associations of the river, "aided by a poet's wit," had given the river, the bay at the mouth thereof and the valley "an unjust and unfavorable reputation." It was therefore "Resolved, that the Maumee River and the Maumee Bay be hereafter known as the Grand Rapids River and the Grand Rapids Bay, and that the local press of the Grand Rapids Valley be requested to publish the proceedings of this meeting."


The meeting proved to be as barren of results, however, as that of the tailors of Tooley Street. The name Maumee was too firmly established to be changed by a resolution adopted by a few individuals. It is quite probable that the "poet's wit" alluded to in the resolution related to some verses published in the "Maumee City Express" of June 24, 1837. There are no doubt old residents who may be able to recall the meeting of 1855 and the rhymes referred to, but for the benefit of the present generation the poem is here reproduced :


"On Maumee, on Maumee,

Potatoes they grow small ;

They roast them in the fire

And eat them—tops and all.


"There's Bass and Mullet, too ;

They run from Spring till Fall ;

They take them by the tail

And down them—scales and all.


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"There's 'possum, coon and fox,

So poor they scarce can crawl ;

They catch them in a trap

And eat them—fur and all.


"There's crow upon the bank,

So lean they never squall ;

They shoot them through the eye

And take them—down and all.


"The soil is rich and black,

The corn it grows quite tall ;

They take it from the field

And eat it—cobs and all.


"On New Year's holiday,

The chaps they have a ball ;

'Tis whiskey in a gourd ;

They drink it—gourd and all.


"The girls are plump and fair,

The babes know how to bawl ;

The boys they always court

The girl, mam, dad and all.


"On Maumee, on Maumee,

'Tis Ague in the Fall ;

The fit will shake them so

It rocks the house and all.


"There's a funeral every day,

Without a hearse or pall ;

They tuck them in the ground,

With breeches, coat and all."


GEOLOGY


The first geological survey of Ohio was authorized by the Legislature of 1837 and Prof. William W. Mather, formerly connected with the geological survey of New York, was appointed state geologist. His work was abruptly terminated before Lucas County was reached and no report was ever published. By the act of April 3, 1869, the Legislature provided for a complete geological survey of the state. Prof. J. S. Newberry was appointed chief of the survey. Under the provisions of this act the first reports on the geology of Lucas County were made in 1870 and 1871.


From these reports it appears that the oldest rocks in the county are those belonging to the Helderherg series of the Lower Devonian age. Between Provi-


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dence and the foot of the rapids the Maumee River flows over ledges of the Lower Helderberg formation. At Maumee, the head of slack water, a ledge of this limestone forms what is known as the "Rock Bar" across the river, only a few feet below the surface at low water. From this bar to Lake Erie the bottom of the river is composed of clay and sand.


At Roche de Boeuf, about a mile above Waterville, a Waterlime exposure forms a bluff about thirty feet in height. Here may be seen the remains of an old channel, which makes a detour from the left bank of the river around a portion of the bluff. This portion was no doubt at one time an island. Two miles below 'Waterville similar phenomena are to be seen. At this point the isolated portion of the bluff is known as Presque Isle—a name given to it by the early French.


Outcrops of the Niagara limestone, of the Upper Silurian age, in Ottawa County near the Lucas County line, have led geologists to believe that this stone underlies a large part of Oregon and Jerusalem townships, southeast of the Maumee River, but no exposures occur in the county. Concerning the Lower Helderberg series in Ohio, Prof. Edward Orton, of the Ohio Geological Survey, says :


"The interval that exists between the Niagara and the Devonian limestones is occupied in Ohio by a very important formation. It is filled with a series of beds, which are in part at least the equivalents of the Waterlime of New York. The name is unhappily chosen. Strictly applicable to only an insignificant fraction of the beds of this series in New York, we are still obliged to apply the designation Water-lime, with its misleading suggestions, to all deposits of the same age throughout the country. Though the last to be recognized of our several limestone formations, the Waterlime occupies a larger area in Ohio than any other, its principal developments being found in the drift-covered plains of the northwestern quarter of the state. . . . The surface of many successive layers at numerous points is covered with sun-cracks, thus furnishing proof of having been formed in shallow water .near the edge of the sea. In such localities the beds are usually quite thin, and are also impure in composition. In these respects it suggests the conditions of the Onondaga salt group of New York. It is frequently a nearly pure dolomite in composition and accordingly it yields magnesian lime of high quality, and is extensively burned in the state, rivaling in this respect the Guelph beds of the Niagara group."


In Lucas County this so-called Waterlime is exposed in a number of places. Besides the ledges forming the bed of the Maumee River, already mentioned, it is exposed in the bed of Swan Creek at the village of Monclova, in the northern part of Monclova Township, in the Ten-mile Creek in Sylvania Township, on the plain near Maumee, and at several other points. At Maumee, Monclova and Waterville it has been utilized to some extent in the manufacture of lime, the Geological Report for 1870 stating that 40,000 bushels had been burned in 1869. It consists of two layers, the lower of which is designated as Waterlime and the upper as Corniferous limestone. Through the townships of Monclova, Springfield, Sylvania and Water,. ville, the surveyors found a bed of Oriskany sandstone underlying the Corniferous and resting upon the Waterlime.


From an economic standpoint, the Helderberg limestones constitute the most important geological formation in the county. All the members of this group are exposed in a rocky ridge about two miles west of the village of Sylvania. A section here shows the following arrangement—from the top downward


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SERIES


 

FEET

1. Soft cream or buff limestone

2. Friable white sandstone (Oriskany)

3. Arenaceous and fine-grained gray limestone,

4. Drab limestone

5. Buff limestone, with white chert

6. Dark, bluish gray limestone

12

20

52

50

25

5

Total

164




No. 1 is of massive formation, rather soft in texture and easily worked. It has been used as a building stone in structures of inferior character. No. 2 is not suitable for building purposes, but affords a pure, white sand, well adapted to glass manufacture. As early as 1.863 the firm of Card & Hubbard began shipping this sand to the glass factories of Pittsburgh, where it found a ready market at from $15 to $18 per ton. The enterprise was abandoned upon the death of Mr. Card. No. 3 has been quarried in the northern part of Monclova Township and near the village of Whitehouse. It has been used extensively for building purposes. No. 4 is found in beds varying from six to ten inches in thickness and has been used for making lime. No. 5 can be quarried in large blocks, is easily worked when first taken from the quarry and is considered the best building stone in the county. It has been used in the construction of bridge abutments and foundations where strength and durability are required. No. 6 has been used to some extent as a build-ing stone, but chiefly for the manufacture of lime. Fossils are found in all the numbers, but are most abundant in Nos. 1 and 6.


In Richfield, Spencer, Swanton and Providence townships the surveyors found the Huron shale, a hard, bituminous, black shale. The Hamilton group, of the Middle Devonian age, is not exposed in Lucas County, but evidences of its exist-ence were found in a bed of soft, gray shale outcropping in a narrow band along the edge of the Huron shale. In the eastern part of Fulton County, near the Lucas County line, in boring for oil about 1885 or 1886, the Hamilton beds were found to be twenty feet in thickness. It is quite probable that the formation extends into Lucas County, at least as far as the Huron shale.


THE GLACIAL EPOCH


Far back in the geological past, at the close of the Tertiary period, came the Pleistocene or "Ice Age," during which all the central part of North America was covered with a vast sheet of ice, which extended from the Appalachian Mountains on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west. This ice sheet, or glacier, was formed in the northern part of the continent by successive falls of snow, the weight added by each snowfall aiding in compressing the mass below into a solid body of ice. As the temperature rose the entire glacier began to move slowly southward, carrying with it clays, great bowlders and other substances, to be deposited in locali-ties far distant from those where they had been originally placed by the hand of Nature.


In the onward march of the glacier the bowlders and other hard substances, being heavier than the ice, sank to the bottom and left scratches or striae upon the


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bed rocks. From these marks geologists have been able to determine the course and extent of the glacier. Striae have been found near the top of the White Mountains, 6,300 feet above the present sea level, and high up in the Alleghany Mountains, indicating that the sheet of ice must have been several thousand feet in thickness. Regarding the course of the glacier in the Maumee Valley, Grove K. Gilbert, of the Ohio Geological Survey, says :


"The peculiar, planed and scored rock surface, that marks so unmistakably the passage of a glacier, is found, without exception, wherever the drift is freshly removed and there is no reason to doubt that it exists throughout the entire district, save only in a few spots where it has been exposed to modern denuding agencies. . . . . Through the western portion of the trough occupied by Lake Erie, the ice moved nearly westward, bearing, however, a trifle to the south. Farther west, in the broad Maumee Valley—the prolongation of the same trough—it swerved still more south, moving west-southwest in Ottawa and Lucas counties, southwest in Defiance and Paulding, and south-southwest in Van Wert and Allen."


How long the glacial epoch lasted, or how long since it occurred, is largely a matter of conjecture. Some geologists have estimated the duration of the Ice Age as half a million years, and that the last of the ice disappeared more than eight hundred centuries ago.


DRIFT AND MORAINES


When the glacier reached a latitude where the rays of the sun were of sufficient strength to melt the ice, it rapidly disappeared. With its disappearance the solid materials carried by it were deposited upon the bed rocks or preglacial soil in the form of drift. Where the drift was deposited in a ridge at the edge of the glacier, the elevation is called a "lateral moraine." The ridge formed where two glaciers, or two sections of a great glacier moving in slightly different directions, came together is called a "medial moraine:" The ridge marking the point where the last of the ice was dissolved is known as a "terminal moraine."


In the Upper Maumee Valley there are two well defined moraines. The first, or inner moraine, begins near Adrian, Michigan, strikes the Maumee River near Defiance, where it turns eastward and passes near the towns of Ottawa and Findlay. The second, or outer moraine, runs from a point near Hillsdale, Michigan, to Fort Wayne, Indiana, thence eastwardly passing a little south of Van Wert and Lima. Just west of this moraine are the St. Joseph and St. Mary rivers, which unite at Fort Wayne to form the Maumee. In the valley between the two moraines are the Tiffin and Auglaize rivers, which empty into the Maumee near Defiance, the former from the north and the latter from the south.


Within the inner moraine the surface of the deposit, or drift, has been somewhat modified by the waters of Lake Erie, which at one time covered half of the Maumee Valley. The deposit left during this period consists of the Erie and Lacustrine clays. The former was deposited as the glacier retreated and is distinguished by the bowlders, gravel and disintegrated matter created by the friction of the glacier upon the surface of the bed rocks. The latter consists of strata formed in the lake, which later became dry land. This clay is free from bowlders and has been extensively used at Toledo in the manufacture of bricks. The greatest depth of the drift in the Maumee Valley is near Wauseon, Fulton County, where it is 166 feet.