CHAPTER XVIII.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

Soil—Surface—Timber.

LOOKING at the county as it appears now, covered with fields and meadows, orchards and woodland, yielding rich support to vegetable and animal life, all contributing to and culminating in the support of an intelligent and orderly population of men, women, and children, in the full tide of plenty and prosperity, and enjoying all the delights of social life, it is difficult to realize that this region was once the bottom of an ocean. Yet science says it was so, and spreads out before the mind many and convincing facts to prove the assertion. The granite boulders which are found thickly scattered in various parts of the county, testify that they have been transported from some granite shore, and rounded into the form we find them by some of nature's forces. They bear no relation to any strata of rock found in the vicinity, but correspond with rock found in the highlands in the Northern and Western mountains. The best solution of the presence of the boulders, is that vast glaciers were formed in some remote period of unnumbered years, on the sides of the granite mountains North and West of this locality. That the action of frost and water had first detached large and small pieces from the mountain side, and they had tumbled down to where the action of the waves rolled them against each other until the sharper angles were worn away. Then, in the colder seasons, these huge masses of stone were grappled by the frost, in icy holdings, and when the glacier was full formed the whole mass was by its own gravity precipitated down themountain side into the deep waters, when it floated away to a southern shore, or shallow water, where it grounded and dissolved, leaving at the bottom its mass of debris. This debris consisted not only of the loosed stone, but also of the finely ground particles which had been worn from them, which were left to the action of the waters, washed from place to place to finally settle in the deeper and therefore calmer portions of the sea, and formed the clay beds so frequently met with in this part of the State. The coarser particles were not held in solution, but like the sand we see on the shores of our present lakes, were with pebbles washed to the shore lines and left as the water subsided.

Another proof of the assertion that this region was submerged is found in the rocks of the period. When uncovered these rocks show stria, or grooves, in parallel directions, which geologists trace directly to the action of glaciers, icebergs, and water.

Still another proof may be seen in the sea shells (mollusca), which are found in the lime rock at the highest point on Kelley's Island, in Lake Erie.

By some process of nature the waters, as generally stated in Genesis, subsided, whether by upheaval of some part of the earth, or by the depression of another part, is matter of speculation which does not properly form a part of this work. The subsidence of the water was slow, and the geological survey of Ohio, especially the district including the Maumee Valley, reveals several distinct shore lines of the re-

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ceding waters, one of which sweeps through a part of Michigan and Indiana, as far west as Fort Wayne, thence down through Van Wert, Allen, and Hancock, and including Sandusky county; another sweeping southward only as far as Defiance, but also including Sandusky county. By this we see that the land in Sandusky county, and all north of it to the lake, was amongst the latest to appear above the waters in this region of country.

Finally, after the lapse of ages, the sea, which once covered this goodly land, subsided into the confines of the Atlantic Ocean, and the trough of its bottom formed the chain of great lakes, with their tributary rivers draining the fresh waters from the rains and snows of nearly half a continent.

FORMATION OF THE SOIL.

As the water receded, the land, thrown under the direct influence of the rays of the sun, produced vegetation, which decaying upon the surface of the clay, gravel and sand deposited by the water, formed our soils. West and north of the sand ridge, called York North Ridge, north of Clyde, and Butternut Ridge, south of it, so much of this vegetable deposit had accumulated that the land would not produce wheat for the first white settlers. It was too rich for wheat farming. This was the case especially with that portion of the county lying in what has been known as the Black Swamp, which usually designated that level portion of the county west of the Sandusky River and to the Maumee.

The soil in this part, now including the townships of Scott, Madison, Woodville, Rice, and the west part of Sandusky, was of this character. The township of Riley and a part of Townsend was similar in formation and soil to the Black Swamp proper.

On these soils when first plowed, especially the Black Swamp proper, corn, grass, and potatoes were produced in wonderful abundance; but wheat and oats would overgrow, fall down and blast, and sometimes rot before harvest time. It was found, however, that after from five to ten years of tillage and drainage, this same land produced such crops of wheat as made the heart of the farmer glad, and now, this once forbidding and often condemned Black Swamp, ranks as one of the most productive portions of the State for all kinds of grain, grass, roots, and fruit.

It was no holiday amusement, however, to make a good farm in the Black Swamp. Real stalwarts were required to contend with water and mud under foot, while leveling and burning great tall trees, which spread out their branches overhead, almost entirely excluding the rays of the sun from the earth.

The horse was little used in the clearing of the Black Swamp; that animal was too fiery, nervous and thin skinned to endure the mud, brush, flies, and mosquitoes which hindered, fretted, and tortured horses.

The more patient, stolid, and thick skinned ox was preferred, and almost always used to drag the logs together for burning, and drawing the loaded cart or wagon through the mud and water.

For many years of the early settlement the Black Swamp was the favorite locality for the fever and ague and intermittent fever, then so common in all parts of the West, and was a bonanza for the physician. Now, however, an ox team can hardly be found; horses are universally used, and this once sickly locality is as healthy as any other portion of the county. The first lands entered and settled upon in the Black Swamp were those along the creeks and Portage River. Between these streams lay level land and shallow swails, where

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the water stood from the fall rains until July or August annually. These were considered of little value for some time afterward. Excepting the courage, industry and perseverance of the settlers, nothing has contributed so much to the reclamation of the Black Swamp as the system of public ditches, introduced into the county in 1859, under an act of the General Assembly of that year. This act gave the county commissioners of all the counties in the State, on the petition of inhabitants, the right to locate and cause ditches to be constructed, and have the expenses charged upon the land according to the benefits conferred on the several tracts.

William Driftmire, of Madison township, a native of Germany, has the distinction of first petitioning for a ditch under the law. The system of ditching which followed this first experiment of Mr. Driftmeir may be noticed more in detail in this work under the head of improvements.

The eastern portion of the county, especially that part lying south and east of the sand ridge on which Clyde is situated, presented to the earlier settler a more inviting soil, not so heavily timbered, and most of it well drained by reason of its undulating or rolling surface. The sandy soil quickly absorbed the surface water, or collected it into limited spaces, connected frequently with what were commonly called sinkholes, where the water was conducted by a natural funnel down into the fissures of the lime-rock underlying that part of the county for a considerable distance east of Bellevue, which is situated on the east line of Sandusky and west line of Huron county, which divides that enterprising and wealthy village.

These features of the eastern portion of the county account for the fact that that part was settled and developed much earlier than the western part. This eastern portionwhen first settled, unlike the western, was good wheat land from the first breaking up and tillage of the soil, and by proper farming is still producing superior crops of wheat, in both quantity to the acreage and quality of grain. For fruit, no better region can be found than the eastern portion of the county.

There is, perhaps, less poor and waste land in Sandusky county than in almost any other county of like dimensions in the State. On the whole, then, it may be said, that for richness of soil, and capacity for agricultural and horticultural productions, the county takes high standing among the best counties of the State.

GENERAL INCLINATION OF THE SURFACE.

The general inclination of the surface is from south to north, while the most authentic measurements of altitude indicate also a descent from west to east. Bellevue is stated to be one hundred and ninety-one feet above the average level of Lake Erie, Clyde one hundred and twenty-seven feet, and Fremont, at the site of the courthouse, where it is presumed the measurements were taken, only sixty-two feet above the surface level of the Lake. Notwithstanding this result of measurements, which are probably correct, the Portage and the Sandusky River bear strongly to the east or north as they flow, the former into the lake and the latter into Sandusky Bay, and all the creeks have the same general direction. This apparent difference between the altitude, ascertained by measurement, in indicating the general inclination of the surface, can no doubt be reconciled. Various causes may be assigned for the direction of a creek or river differing somewhat from the general inclination of the surface—as a ledge of rock, the tenacity of the soil, and especially minor inclinations of the surface in a direction opposite to that of the general inclination.

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TIMBER.

The county when first formed included nearly all of what now composes the county of Ottawa, the territory of which was part prairie land. Ottawa county was organized in the year 1840, and left Sandusky with its present boundaries. The county, as now formed, was originally timbered land. In the south part of York township were found oak openings where the timber was not heavy, but all the other parts, saving a little prairie in Scott and Rice townships, were heavily timbered. Among the trees were found white, black, red, yellow, pin, and burr oak, white and red elm, shellbark and smoothbark hickory, black, white, and blue ash, poplar, cottonwood, black walnut, butternut, some mulberry, maple, honey locust, beech, ironwood, dogwood, and in two localities, one about three miles north of Fremont, on the east side of the river, the other on the ridge south of Clyde, in Green Creek township, a few chestnut trees ; occasionally was found a tree of pepperidge. Of all these kinds of timber the black walnut is now the most sought for as well as the most valuable. The primitive forests along the streams, especially along the Sandusky River and Green Creek, were largely made up of grand black walnut trees. On the river, in the vicinity of the mouth of Wolf Creek, in Ballville township, on quite a scope of land, this was the only, or nearly the only, timber. The farmers who first settled there used the best and straightest of these grand trees for rails with which to fence their farms. The timber split easily, and the rails were durable, it is true, and there was then no market in this region for either the logs or the lumber made from them, and besides, at the time of the earlier settlement, there were no sawmills to make the logs into lumber. Therefore, what of this now valuable timber was not used for rails was burned up or girdled in clearing the land. No doubt the walnut timber thus destroyed, if standing now, would buy the land and fence many of the farms in that locality with costly iron fences. But the settler must have bread, bread must be raised by tilling the earth, and the land to be tilled must be cleared, and so the timber, whatever it was, gave way to the necessities of the time. But that necessity is now past, and the now great value of timber, if it was here again, admonishes the people to wisely care for what is left, and guard against future costliness of timber by preserving what is left, and also looking to a judicious reproduction of it for future use.

The history of the county, without some mention of its geological structure, would be incomplete. This science, which has done so much within the half century last past to reveal and interpret to the present age the various forces engaged, and the different periods occupied in the formations of the earth's present surface, presents some subjects of interest n almost every locality. In fact, it may be said that the geological structure of the United States, and that of Canada also, was a sealed book until visited by Sir Charles Lyell, the British geologist, in 1841, when he made many interesting observations which he published on his return to England. He again visited America in 1845, and made further investigations. The publication of Mr. Lyell's works awakened so much interest in the public mind, especially those fond of that line of study, that it stimulated investigation, and the investigations revealed the utility of the science, not only in solving theories about the earth's formation, but for practical purposes, in discovering the location of valuable mineral deposits, wherever located. Especially has this science been of great service to mankind in determining the

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locality of coal deposits, so necessary for the comfort and business of the people of the present day. It is worthy of remark that since Sir Charles Lyell drew attention to this geology, in 1841, the efforts made under its teaching and practical application have been such that almost all our States and nearly all civilized nations have prosecuted investigations under its teachings, with great results to wealth and comfort for the world at large. At present no State is satisfied without a thorough geological survey, by which the people are almost as well and as certainly informed of what is hidden deep down in the earth, as they are of the geography or topography of their surroundings on the surface. This grand science has of late years been well and thoroughly applied to every county in the State with results which make Ohio proud and rich in mineral resources.

So far as the geological survey of Sandusky county is involved, it may be said that it presents not so many remarkable features as some other parts of the State. But some particulars are interesting and worthy of notice, among which are, that this survey and report convinces the careful reader that the clays and gravels of our soil are what is called in geological phrase, drift, that is, the matter brought first in the ice period by glaciers, and then afterwards supplemented with the deposits from icebergs, and the remainder of the soil is either vegetable matter which grew upon and decayed on this drift, or deposits by the succeeding waters which prevailed ; that Lake Erie at one time covered the lands of the county and from its waters came further deposits; that the sands and gravel found in heaps and beds in the southeastern part of the county, in parts of York, Townsend and Green Creek townships, were washed and heaped there by the action of the waters of the lake after the sea had subsided; that the prairies in the southwestern part of Scott township were formed by undulations in the surface of what is denominated the limestone, which underlies the soil a little below the surface. This rock is called by geologists the Niagara limestone. A depression of this rock, with a raised rim on the northern inclination, held the water in pools, so that vegetation grew and decayed until it became ,a wet prairie. The prairies north of Fremont, beginning six miles north on the road to Port Clinton, and on to the north line of the county below Big Mud Creek, must have been of a different origin.

The soil of these prairies is but little above the still waters of the mouth of the river and Sandusky Bay, and no doubt emerged from the water at a comparatively late period; hence the soil, being a wet, tough, bluish colored clay, was unfavorable for the growth of timber. This prairie, as you travelled down the river, made its appearance about the present residence of Grant Forguson, esq., on the north half of section two, township five, range fifteen. At this point the traveller going north, as late as 1825, perhaps later, emerged from the heavy timberland south of it into an open prairie, with a few scattering trees of burr oak and elm, and occasionally a limited grove or single tree. The grass was thick and tall, much of it what was called blue-joint, rising above a horse's back, and almost walling in the narrow wagon way for the greater part of the distance from Lower Sandusky to the present site of Port Clinton. The present county line of Sandusky, next to the south line of Ottawa county, crosses this road now about half a mile below Mud Creek bridge, and does not include a very large portion of this once prairie land.

OF THE ROCKS IN THE COUNTY.

It has often happened that persons travelling through the western part of the

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county would find localities where in the forest they would see water and rock on the surface, and the same surface covered with a growth of trees whose roots seemed to draw nourishment out of the crevices and depressions in the surface rock. This rock was coarse limestone, and the surface of it rough and seamed by the action of the elements and frost. Such persons would generally remark that they never before saw such trees growing on rock which was almost bare, nor such a formation of land. Several such spots were found in Woodville township, some in Washington, Madison, and Jackson; but those most marked by the characteristics mentioned were probably found in Woodville, where many were deceived in the selection of their land when there was snow on the ground. The timber, often sugar and beech of good growth, indicated a good soil, but in fact, the land when cleared was of little value and could not be tilled.

Geology, though it does not make such land valuable for farming, explains how these tracts came by this deceptive peculiarity. First, there is limestone, called the Niagara group, which underlies a large portion of the county. Second, the drift which had been deposited on this rock in former ages by the sea, when it prevailed over the land and subsided, was eroded or worn and eaten away by the action of the waters of Lake Erie, and in many places the rock left bare. There are out cropping of this rock in the townships of Woodville, Madison, Washington, Ballville, and Jackson. The most conspicuous exhibition of this outcropping is at Moore's Mill, a little above the village of Ballville, at the southern termination of the dam of Dean's woollen factory in the village. These outcropping rocks, however they may, in some degree, impair a small portion of the land for tillage, are not without a compensating benefit when fully considered. Immense quantities of superior white lime and good building stone, especially for foundation and cellar walls, also stone for paving and for macadamizing roads are conveniently distributed over the county. Mr. J. S. Newberry expresses the opinion that quarries could be opened into this Niagara limestone, in the west part of the county, and stone taken out equal in value for building purposes to the famous Dayton stone. If this be so, the time may not be far distant when the advancement in the requirements of business and improvements, and the increase of permanent structures at Toledo, Detroit, and other cities of the country around will demand the opening of these quarries and show them to be beds of immense value.

HARDPAN.

This substance, the great dread of those who dig wells, underlies deeply a large portion of the county. People often wonder what it is made of, and how it came where they find it. Geology answers by informing us that the finely ground particles of rock were pulverized and deposited by the glaciers and icebergs during the period when the sea covered the land, a part of which time this latitude was subjected to an arctic temperature. This debris was most probably brought from the highlands of the Canadas, and being ground into extreme fineness settled to the bottom when the ice which brought it melted away, leaving the fine sediment to compact into a solid mass. Excepting solid rock, we find no portion of the earth's element so impervious to water and so well adapted to resist the action of it as hardpan. Over this lies the deposits of the lake, which together form the drift.

This drift, the geological survey informs us, covers the whole county with nearly a uniform spreading, but thicker in the eastern than in the western part, because

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the rock in the western part was more stripped or denuded by the action of the waters of Lake Erie. The average depth of this drift, or these deposits, it is estimated, would not be more than one hundred feet.