(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MORGAN COUNTY - 157 CHAPTER XI. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MORGAN COUNTY. BOUNDARIES AND AREA OF THE COUNTY—TOPOGRAPHY—SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS --AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL RESOURCES—COAL--SALT MANUFACTURING—ZURIEL SHERWOOD, THE PIONEER SALT-MAKER OF MORGAN COUNTY—HOW SALT WAS CARRIED TO MARKET IN THE EARLY DAYS— NATURAL GAS IN MORGAN COUNTY—STONE'S WELL—PETROLEUM— EXCITEMENT CAUSED BY ITS DISCOVERY—THE EXTENT OF THE BUSINESS, 1860-1854—PROBABILITY OF FURTHER OPERATIONS. MORGAN is one of the southeast- - ern counties of Ohio, and is bounded on the north by Muskingum and Noble; on the east by Noble and Washington; on the south by Washington and Athens, and on the west by Athens and Perry. It contains an area of 400 square miles, or 256,000 acres. The county is divided into two nearly equal portions by the Muskingum River, which traverses it in a generally southeast direction to the eastern boundary of Windsor Township, and there turns abruptly north, forming the county line, and after flowing about five miles in that direction makes another bend, and a short distance farther passes into Washington County, which it crosSes on its way to the Ohio. The surface is hilly and broken, being deeply cut by the valleys of numerous small streams, tributaries of the Muskingum and Hocking Rivers. The scenery is diversified and picturesque. The soil is principally of limestone formation, and is strong, productive, and well adapted to a variety of crops. All the cereals of this latitude flourish, as well as grasses, tobacco and vegetables. Fruit is profitably grown in great variety and of excellent quality. The land is also well adapted to grazing, and stock-raising is carried on successfully. Mixed fanning predominates, and the returns received from cattle, sheep, poultry and swine form no inconsiderable part of the farmer's income. Though the country contains mineral resources they are as yet undeveloped, and the industries are mainly agricultural. Few communities can boast of a more prosperous, contented, intelligent and worthy rural population than Morgan County. Aside from economical features there is little in the geology of Morgan County to interest the general reader. The county lies within the coal measures and contains two principal coal seams, the lower that generally designated as the Pittsburgh coal; the other, known hitherto as Cumberland coal and by various other names, we will here style the Meigs Creek coal, as it is thug denominated in the latest geological report of the State. 158 - HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO. The Meigs Creek coal, which appears to be identical with the Sewickley coal of the Pennsylvania series, is the most important coal formation found in Morgan, Noble and parts of Muskingum and Guernsey Counties. It lies about 250 to 260 feet above the crinoidal limestone and from 80 to 100 feet above the Pittsburgh coal. The coal is of an inferior quality, containing much sulphur, and when burned leaves a large amount of ashes and clinkers. It contains but thirty-eight to forty-eight per cent of fixed carbon. MoSt of the coal seam has in it a tough streak from two to six inches thick, near the centre of the seam, which, if not carefully picked out, seriously injures the quality of the coal. In the western part of the county the Meigs Creek coal is so thin as to be of little economic value. In the southern part of Malta Township it is found on the highest ridges, but it has never been worked. The Pittsburgh coal is also thin in this township. In Union Township the Pittsburgh is 30 inches thick, and the Meigs Creek is found as a coal mark 90 to 100 feet above it. Between the two seams a small coal is found. In Penn Township traces of the Meigs Creek and other coals are found, but no mining has been done. The geologist discovered none of the Meigs Creek coal in Homer. In the southwestern part of Marion the seam has been opened and 28 inches of coal found. Near the southwestern corner of Section 2 in this township the Meigs Creek coal is Shown in the following section ; Sandstone, —; shale, S feet ; bone coal, called cannel, 3 inches ; slate, 2 inches ; Creek coal, 15 inches; slate 2 inches ; *Abridged from the report of the Geological Survey, 1884. coal, 6 inches ; clay. Traces of a higher coal are also found in this part of the township. In the southern part of Windsor TOWnship, along the Musking um, many banks have been opened for local Supply, and about 18 inches of mining coal found above the clay. Where the coal seam crosses the river at McConnelsville the Meigs Creek coal is from A to 3 feet thick, 250 feet above the crinoidal limestone and 82 feet above the Pittsburgh coal. The latter is here 28 inches thick. " The most important district of the Meigs Creek coal," states C. Newton Brown (Geological Survey of Ohio, Chap. XIX, Vol V), " includes that part of Morgan County east of the Muskingum River, Southeastern Muskingum, all of Noble and Southwestern Guernsey Counties. Through this area the Meigs Creek coal is the only coal above drainage that can ever be mined in a large way. There is a large area of coal in Eastern Morgan and Western Noble Counties, of 4 to 4 1/2 feet in thickness, that can easily be reached by railroads in the valleys of Meigs and Olive Green Creeks In Bloom Township this coal is found from 3 1/2 to A feet thick, with the before-mentioned "tough streak" in the middle of the seam. Here several small mines have been opened. In Morgan Township small banks have been worked for local supply. The coal is found in the eastern part of the township 3 to 3 1/2 feet thick, but is thin in the hills along the river. In the northwestern part of Windsor Township, at Hooksburg, the Meigs Creek coal is worked for the Supply of the village. The seam is found to be 3 feet thick, with some slate along The middle. The coal found PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MORGAN COUNTY - 159 here appears to be superior to that mined in Bloom and Morgan. In the northeast corner of Windsor, on Olney Run, and about the mouth of Meigs Creek, the coal is found quite low in the hills, and from 3 to feet thick. A small coal seam found in Lot 33 in this tOWnship the geologist pronounces " the best showing of an, upper coal found in this entire coalfield." It lies near the top of the highest ridges and is probably from 210 to 250 feet above the Meigs Creek coal. A section shows the following measurement : Clay, shale roof, very poor; coal, 16 inches ; slate and bone coal, 8 inches ; coal, 24 inches ; clay. This is the only opening found in the higher coals, and is probably a local thickening of one of the coals usually found as a mere mark or blossom. In the southern part of Meigsville Township the Meigs Creek coal appears to be a little thin and irregular, but in the northern part it is continuous and of the usnal thickness. In the northern part of the township two small seams are found below the Meigs Creek coal, one 55 feet below, from 12 to 20 inches thick, the other 81 feet below the Meigs Creek, and 20 inches thick. The lower is probably the Pittsburgh coal. On Charles Walker's land, Section 1, Meigsville Township, thiS coal gave the following section : Slaty coal, left for roof, 9 inches; clay, 3 inches ; coal, 26 incheS; slate or tough streak, 4 inches ; coal, 26 inches ; clay. The Meigs Creek coal lies high in the hills in Bristol Township. The creek valleys have cut out large areas of it. The seam iS from 3 to 42 feet, with the tough streak throughout. A 4-foot seam appears on the land of Webb Lawrence, Section 20, Bristol Township. Here the coal is in two benches, the upper 20 inches thick, and the lOWer 24, with 4 inches of tough streak between. The coal here leaves less ashes than the average of the Meigs Creek, but contains more sulphur. Over the coal, 55 feet below the Meigs Creek seam, there is frequently a sandstone capable of being utilized as a building-stone. The greater part of Manchester Township is underlaid by the Meigs Creek coal in its best development. It lies So low in the hills that not much of it has been cut away by the creeks. Here the seam is said to be 5 feet, though the geologist discovered no place where it. was over Q. 'A thin parting of clay takes the place of the usual tough streak. The creek valleys render the coal easy of access by railroads should the mines ever be developed largely. Centre Township contains a larger area of the Meigs Creek coal than any other township in the county. It has been opened on almost every farm about Centre Bend and on Olive Green Creeks. The coal lies low, and the creeks cut only narrow valleys through it. In Section 28, on John Wainwright's land, the coal is found in two branches, the upper one 6 inches and the lower one 24, with 3 inches of bone coal between. On L. Andrews' land, Section 30, the Meigs Creek coal is found to be a fair quality of cannel coal. Only 2 feet of coal, with no parting, is found here. In the southeast quarter of Section .19 the following measurement of the strata above the coal was obtained : Shale, exposed, 2 feet ; non-fossiliferous limestone, 4 feet ; hard, sandy shale, 9 feet ; non-fossiliferous nodular -limestone, 2 feet ; sandy shale, 2 feet ; sand- 160 - HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO. stone, 2 feet.; shale, gray at the top and blue at the bottom, 12 feet; coal, 15 inches; mixed bone coal and shale, 9 inches ; coal, 21 to 24 inches; clay. The bone coal and slack are here used for -burning lime in open piles. The coal is elsewhere mined for lime-burning. In this township (Centre), on the northeast quarter of Section 23, the geologist measured a section showing two coals, neither of which has been opened, lying above the Meigs Creek. The geologist says little about the Pittsburgh coal seam in Morgan County, evidently regarding it as unimportant. The Pittsburgh coal is mined at several points in Homer Township and in Marion. SALT. This primary staple of Morgan was developed at an early day in the history of this part of the State. Being one of the indispensable requisites at the time of the first settlement of the State, it was brought from the East on packhorses at the cost of 20 cents per pound. Dr. Hildreth says that the "great scarcity of it was a source of annoyance to the people. The animals suffered from its want, and when ranging the woods visited the clay banks which contained saline particles." And here necessity proved the mother of invention and pointed out the superficial source of the vast reservoir of that article so necessary for the healthful existence of animal life, of which the Indians from the earliest times had been cognizant, but had kept as an inviolable secret. In fact, all the saline sources first utilized were indicated by the swamps or springs of brackish water frequented by the deer and buffalo. It is said that the first salt produced in this part of Ohio was made by a party from Marietta, in 1794, on a branch of the Scioto, a short distance from Chillicothe, the locality having been pointed out by a person who had been a prisoner with the Indians. In 1795 a locality was discovered in a similar way on Salt Creek, in Muskingum County, and " in the summer of 1796 a company was formed at Marietta of fifty shareholders at $1.50 each, making a capital of $75. Twenty- four kettles were bought in Pittsburgh and transported by water to Duncan's Falls, and thence by packhorses about seven miles to the salt licks. A well was dug near the edge of the creek, fifteen feet deep, down to the rock which formed the bed of the stream, through the crevices in which the salt water came to the surface. The trunk of a hollow sycamore tree three feet in diameter was settled into the well and bedded in the rock below, so as to exclude the fresh water. A furnace was built of two ranges, containing twelve kettles in each, a shed erected over the furnace, and a small cabin for the workmen. The water from the well was raised by a sweep and pole. . . . By the aid of one man to chop and haul wood, with a yoke of oxen, they could make about one hundred pounds of salt in twenty-four hours, requiring 3,600 gallons of water. . . . Thus was made the first salt in the Muskingum Valley." * The company was kept up for three or four years, and afterward became the property of the State, and the works were leased out at a fixed rent, until no person would pay the rent, and they were abandoned. (In connection with these saltworks is the story of the Indian Silverheels, elsewhere related.) The length of time these saltworks PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MORGAN COUNTY - 161 were held and rented by the State is not known, but they were so held for some years after the saltworks on the Kanawha were operated Hence the inference that witnessing the process of salt-making in his vicinity, and the information of more extensive operations on the Kanawha, induced Nathaniel Ayres to go to the latter place about 1817, where, during a brief stay, he took lessons in "boring and boiling." On his return he bored a well on the bank of the river, near where the mill stands, at Duncan's Falls, and at the depth of 300 feet struck what has since been called the upper vein of salt water. The demand for his product being extensive, and without local competition, he was enabled to sell at high figures ; and he must have been a hard- money man, as nothing but specie would buy his salt. His success led others to engage in a permanent and lucrative businesS, which was no longer an experiment. Prior to the organization of the county an Englishman named Hill, in 1814, bored a well for salt water, where was afterward the village of Olive, but he " struck oil " and gas, which blended with his salt water, rendering it useless for the object in view. A peculiarity in this well is worthy of notice. The discharge of gas and oil, instead of being continuous, occurred at intervals of from two to four days. Salt was afterward made in this vicinity in 1821-22. William Sherwood, one of the pioneers of the county and an extensive manufacturer of salt, says that his father, Zuriel Sherwood, bored the first well and made the first salt in Morgan County, and including Ayre's the second on the river, in 1820, on the farm *Hildreth's "Pioneer History," page 475. 11 now owned by James Moore. Salt has since been continuously made. He was followed by William Selvey and others with an occasional failure, and thus in a few years, and up to 1836, the smoke of the salt-furnaces could be seen from three miles below McConnelsville along the river to the county line above. Until the commencement of the river improvement the manufacture of salt was the motive-power of trade. The value of salt made in 1834 was estimated at from $200,000 to $250,000. According to the cenSus statistics of 1840 more Salt was manufactured in Morgan than in any other county in Ohio. The depth of the wells corresponded with the dip of the salt basin, and this appears to increase to Pomeroy and recede thence to Charleston, W. Va. In the well two miles above McConnelsville, bored by Jacob Adams, the upper vein of salt was struck at 400 and the lower at 800 feet. At the Sherwood well, three miles below tOWn, the lOWer vein is 850 feet. In all successful instances the water is forced to the surface by gas in larger or smaller quantities, but the pump is required to furnish the quantity that the furnace will evaporate. If we. are incidentally indebted to Kanawha for the mode of obtaining the water and manufacturing salt, there are other sections which have profited largely by our success. A line drawn from the New York saline districts to Zanesville, and thence to Charleston, W. Va., will pass nearly central over the salt formation in Ohio, and in which are the counties of Muskingum, Morgan, Athens and Washington, and as all the chief developments in the other counties were subsequent 162 - HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO. to those in our own we might with propriety lay claim to be the pioneer manufacturers of the stable in the State. In fact, the first well in Pomeroy was the result of the energy of two of the citizens of this county. In 183-, William Hammond and James Blonden, under the impression that Pomeroy was within the limit of the salt formation, took a lease from V. B. Horton, and commenced on the old method of boring by horse-power, continuing until they passed the depth at which salt water was obtained in Morgan County, with a very limited success as to quantity and an exhaustion of means. One of the partners, becoming discouraged, insisted that the lease should be unconditionally surrendered, and the terms were reluctantly accepted by Mr. Horton. In a short time he put a steam engine to work and succeeded so satisfactorily in the development of salt water that after the death of Mr. Blonden he made out an account of the expenditures in time and money of the lessees, and at stated intervals paid to Mrs. Blonden her husband's proportion, with interest. The first principal market for our salt was Cincinnati, where it was transported in " flatboats " made from the tall poplars and oaks of the adjacent hills. These " salt-flats" were somewhat unwieldly crafts, without cover, and they were used for the one dOWnstream trip. They were kept in the current, or propelled, when necessary, by a sweep or long oar on either side, and steered by a longer one at the stern. It required about six men to manage one boat. A boat of from 80 to 90 or 100 feet in length, and 18 or 20 feet wide, would carry 400 to 500 barrels of salt. For the trip a freshet or rise in the river were requisite ; thus, June and October were each anxiously anticipated by the saltmaker and his numerous employes, and the proceeds waited for with as much solicitude by others equally interested. Wood was at first used for fuel to evaporate the salt water, and continued in use until the forests of the hills and vicinity were to a great extent exhausted. This called attention to the use of coal for that purpose, which was tried at first as an experiment and found more efficient and economical, requiring but a trivial change in the furnace. NATURAL GAS. In the successful results of boring for salt or oil the fluid was forced to the surface by gas more or less forcibly, but generally in diminishing quantities, so that the use of a pump was requisite. To this there was but one exception in this vicinity—the R. P. Stone salt-well, below Malta—a fact which, with other items of interest pertaining to the subject, has entirely escaped the observation of our State geologist, who tells us all about gas-wells in New York and Pennsylvania and " points along the lake shore," but this, although at one time a prominent feature from the deck of a steamboat, was not noticed. In 1830 Rufus P. Stone bored a well on the bank of the river below Malta, and at the depth of 400 feet struck the upper vein of salt water, and with it a volume of gas which was used for years as fuel to evaporate the water. The gas was sufficient to force out the boring apparatus, and coming in contact with a fire adjacent consumed the shed and derricks and frightened and drove off the men. Mr. Stone, although 163 - PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MORGAN COUNTY. a staid, puritanical moralist, expressed his opinion of the matter rather emphatically in the announcement of the event to a friend in town next morning : " The hands at the well last night struck hell, and burned up the whole concern, and it isn't worth twenty-five cents." He afterward changed his opinion, and yet sold it eventually for less than the real value. Some time in 1877 two gentlemen from Pennsylvania, Mr. Shields and Mr. Williams, commenced boring for oil two miles south of Malta, and at a depth of 400 feet their auger entered the reservoir of gas, which, in a volume greatly in excess of the Malta well, raised to the height of 50 or 60 feet, but with it no oil. The result was a disappointing surprise to, the proprietors, who, after a little reflection, regarded it as a better investment considering that it would furnish more heat and light than a flowing well " of oil without labor or cost. To demostrate this to the excited and curious crowds that visited the premises, Mr. Williams adjusted a guarded tube to the main pipe, and conducted a measurable quantity to his dwelling and used it as fuel in his grate and cooking-stove. A controllable quantity at the well was also used nightly to illuminate the adjacent hills for a circle of miles. Here parenthetically we place one or two items in regard to the salt gas-well. First, hOW the "whole concern " was not burned up, but blown up. Mr. Stone had been engaged in the manufacture of salt at two other furnaces, and desiring to quit had permitted this one to remain idle and out of repair until it was rented to a Mr. Scull, who put it in good condition, with a thorough repair of the furnace, etc. After this was done and the furnace ready for operation the evaporators were filled, and all was ready for the application of the match. In the meantime the tube which conveyed the gas to the furnace had been left to discharge its usual quantity, and when the lighted match was applied the concern was in a condition not dissimilar to Mr. Stone's first description, but, as the paragraphist would say, no lives were lost. Mr. Scull was disgusted to the extent of abandoning the manufacture of salt. The furnace Was afterward repaired, and with a change of proprietors salt was made there until 1879. Some years after the gas in the well below Malta was being used to evaporate the water, some one in McConnelsville proposed to the town council to purchase it, when it could have been bought at a low price, and use it in lighting both towns, for which purpose the quantity was ample, after furnishing a sufficient amount to evaporate all the water. The suggestion was, however, treated as a mere chimera. In support of the proposition the opinion was advanced that carbureted hydrogen gas, as well as petroleum, was the result of continuous natural chemical action. This being granted, there was no fear of a failure of either. In the case of the Shields Well there was a larger volume of gas, and the salt gas-well, having been continuous in undiminished discharge for a long time, afforded evidence that the opinion previously given was equally applicable to this. Here, then, was an opportunity, not for the village, but for a joint-stock company, to furnish fuel and light to the people, and make money thereby. Accordingly, in March or April, 1878, a company was formed, with an as- 164 - HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO. sumed capital of $30,000, and our denizens in anticipation already roasted their turkey with gas, sat by the bright, warm glow of their grates, unannoyed by dust, ashes or smoke, and traversed the streets of either town from " dewy eve till early dawn," with light sufficient " to guard 'gainst a post." But for some cause or other the scheme terminated in an aeriform fluid different from that discharged from the well. PETROLEUM. Another natural product at one time (1860 to 1864) created more excitement in Morgan County than did Jackson's removal of the deposits from the U. S. Bank, or the presidential election of 1840. Speculation in the matter ran wild, the furrow was left unturned, the merchant handed the yard-stick to the junior clerk, the banker added another column to his per cent account, the mechanic laid down his plane or sledgehammer and essayed with a big auger to bore for oil. And anon the doctor might have been Seen with his trocar joining with the lawyer in laborious efforts to " spect " the oleaginous fluid to the surface. The cause of this excitement was that it had been ascertained that there was money in an article hitherto considered of little value and not readily obtained, thus verifying an old axiom that great discoveries or inventions are not made or developed in a short space of time; and the practical observation of every day shows that incidental circumstances culminate in vast mechanical, mercantile and financial results. In this category petroleum may be placed, the discovery of which is not of modern date. It is said that away back in other ages it was used as a fuel by the fire worshipers on the shores of the Caspian Sea, also by the Peruvians, and that in the days of Pliny it was used and called Sicilian oil. One writer goes as far back as the building of the Tower of Babel, and says it was used by the brickmakers, and that the Egyptians used it for embalming purposes, obtaining it from the Island of Zanti. The first discovery of petroleum in America was made a few years after the landing of the Mayflower, or at least as early as. the time of the occupation of Fort Duquesne by the French. The product obtained the name of Seneca oil from its use by the Seneca Indians in Some of their ceremonies. William Corner, in his reminiscences, says that in 1804 an old Revolutionary veteran who called himself Dr. Evans, came up the Muskingum to the shelving rock at the oil spring on Oil Spring Run, and inclosed it for a dwelling, and lived under the rock for a year for the purpose of gathering the oil, which he took in his canoe to Cincinnati and sold as a superior medicine. In 1814 it was incidentally ascertained that oil could be obtained by boring. (See article on salt.) In 1819 or 1820 a spring of Seneca or rock oil was discovered near the northwest corner of Jefferson and Poplar Streets, McConnelsville, and another east of town on a small branch crossed by the Center Road, where during the excitement two or more wells were bored, but the yield was not in paying quantities. The number of wells successful or unsuccessful put down from ism to 1864 cannot be ascertained, but they were numerous, and every part of the country where there was the slightest geological indication of oil was dotted with der- 165 - PHYSICAL FEATURES OF MORGAN COUNTY. ricks. At a small locality on Buck Run were forty or more. The first, bored in 1861, had sufficient gas to force the oil some distance above the Surface, and was estimated previous to its failure to have produced 5,000 barrels of oil. Another pumped by a steam-engine yielded five barrels a day ; others from one to five. The average depth was 100 feet. On Federal Creek the wells were not so numerous. The average depth was about the same and the yield five to ten barrelS per day, some of which was first- class lubricating oil. While the McConnelsville refinery was in operation the Buck Run wells furnished the material, but after it was discontinued they were abandoned, If the supposition is correct—of which there is but little question—that petroleum, as well as carbureted hydrogen gas, is the result of continuous natural chemical combination, there is no fear of the failure of either to supply the demand. That petroleum exists in Morgan County in paying quantities is indisputable, and that in time this locality will again become the field for extensive operations is conceded by all who have given the subject close investigation. The old fields in Pennsylvania that for years supplied the world with the best and most economical illuminator ever known, are rapidly becoming exhausted and new fields are being eagerly sought for and the western portion of the county is being " wildcatted," and ere long some lucky speculator will tap the oleagenous reservoir and Morgan County's hidden wealth will be brought to the surface. " Wildcatting" operators at this time, however, are retarded by the low price of crude petroleum, which in sections without pipe age facilities is below the cost of production.