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History of Auglaize County CHAPTER I. GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY. Cut, as they were, from the earlier organized counties of Allen and Mercer, the boundaries of Auglaize county are about as irregular as those of any county in the state, its greatest length, from east to west, being about thirty-nine miles and its width, from north to south, varying from seven and one-half miles to twenty-three miles The county contains 394 square miles, comprised within fourteen townships, as follows : Wayne, Moulton and Logan, twenty-seven square miles ; Union and St. Marys, thirty-six; Goshen and German, eighteen; Pusheta, Noble, Washington and Clay, thirty; Jackson, twenty; Duchouquet, forty-two, and Salem, twenty-four. Extending into the county from the west for about two miles is the Grand Reservoir, or Lake St. Marys, created in the '30s as a "feeder" for the Miami and Erie canal, a body of water covering at flood something like 17,000 acres of land and declared to be the largest artificial body of water in the world. In a monograph on the Topography and Geology of Auglaize county written in 1880 by the late Prof. C. W. Williamson, formerly and for years superintendent of schools at Wapakoneta, and amplified by him for publication in his "History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County" (1905), this eminent local authority pointed out that Auglaize county lies at the southern extremity of the region commonly known as the "Black Swamp." It is only the northwestern portion of the county, however, that possesses the characteristics peculiar to that noted region. The county is situated on (2) - 33 34 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY the watershed sloping toward Lake Erie, except a small portion in the eastern and southeastern sections which is drained by the Sciota river, this division of the watershed being plainly marked in the vicinity of St. Johns; and the lower part of Jackson township, which drains into the Miami. The situation of the county being near the summit of the great divide in Ohio, it necessarily contains no large streams. The Auglaize river rises in the northeastern portion of the county, just north of Waynesfield, and flows in a southwestern direction through Union and Duchouquet townships to Wapakoneta and from thence, in a northerly direction, through the townships of Moulton and Logan and thence on to its confluence with the Maumee at Defiance. The St. Marys river rises in Pusheta township and flows north through the townships of St. Marys and Noble, thence westerly through Salem township, passing out of the county in section 30 of this latter township and thence west until it joins the St. Joseph river of the Maumee at Ft. Wayne. Springs flowing from the gravelly deposits in the ridges afford a sufficient quantity of water for stock and the irrigation of the low lands along the streams. With the disappearance of the forests and the systematic drainage of the land, the volume of the streams has diminished to the point that there no longer is sufficient power for mill purposes. There are three main ridges extending through portions of the county, each having its gravelly lateral moraines and knolls. The older one crosses German township, the northwest corner of Shelby county and Pusheta, Clay and Union townships. The villages of New Bremen and St. Johns are situated upon it. Owing to its remarkable development at the latter point it has been named St. Johns ridge. Black- hoof Mound, in the southern part of the village, is a huge pile of well washed gravel. Other extensive gravel deposits throughout the county have been of incalculable value in road construction. The second ridge, called the Wabash Ridge, enters the county west of the town of St. Marys, passing through St. Marys, Moulton and Duchouquet townships. HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 35 The Auglaize river cuts through this ridge at Wapakoneta. The third passes through the northern part of Salem township. This is simply a broad undulation, or thickening of the drift, and is composed of coarse, heavy clay. REVIEW OF GEOLOGICAL CONDITIONS. The details of the geology of Auglaize county have become better known since the discovery of petroleum in the local field. The rock exposures are confined to the bed and banks of the Auglaize river, in sections 22, 27 and 35, in Logan township. With these exceptions, the rock underlying the county is covered by heavy beds of drift, varying in thickness from a few feet (in the sections noted) to 150 feet in other localities. The waterline formation underlies/ nearly the whole county. If the drift deposits were removed the rock would exhibit ridges, hills, gorges, glacial scratches, boulders and other glacial debris scattered over its surface. The pre-glacial drainage of the county is represented by a deep gorge, commencing on the county line in section 34, Duchouquet township, and extending in a southwesterly direction, through Wapakoneta, to section 12, in Washington township. From that point it extends near a 45̊ line to section 34 in St. Marys township, from which point it takes a more southerly direction to section 28 in Jackson township. From this latter point the gorge has been traced through Mercer county and for a considerable distance into the state of Indiana. The direction of the glacial striae, direction of pre-glacial drainage and arrangement of drift deposits are so striking in Auglaize county as to add weight to the glacial theory advanced by the state geologists, namely : That at some period in geologic time the northern half of North America was subjected to an elevation of many hundred feet above its present level. The elevation is believed to have been followed by an arctic climate reaching as far south as the 40th parallel of latitude. During the prevalence of the 36 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY long arctic winter, vast deposits of ice and snow accumulated on the long inclined plane, extending southward from the Arctic circle. When the accumulation became sufficiently great a movement down the plane commenced, and extended as far south as the Ohio river. The history of the movements and effects of modern glaciers go far toward establishing the theory of an ancient glacial period. The ice period, or coldest epoch, was followed by a period of higher temperature and a subsidence of the rocky floor south of the Great Lakes. During this period of warmth the glaciers retreated to the northern line of the Great Lakes, and was replaced by an inland sea of fresh water. As the glacier melted the boulders imbedded in it sank to the rock floor. The waters discharged at the base of the glacial wall carried with them a fine material composed principally of pulverized shales and limestone that settled and covered the bottom of the inland sea. This deposit, called boulder clay, or blue clay, varies in thickness, from five to forty feet, in different sections of the county. The blue clay encountered in digging wells belongs to this deposit. The flour ground by the glacier was held longer in suspension, but in time settled in laminated layers on the boulder clay. The upper stratum is called the Erie clay. This division contains no boulders. GREAT FOREST BEDS SUBMERGED. After a period of perhaps thousands of years, a subsidence of the area south of the Great Lakes took place, sub:- merging the forest beds and destroying the animal and vegetable life of the era. During this period of submergence the forest beds were covered with clay, sand and gravel, carried and distributed by icebergs, from the retreating glacier on the north. The great moraines and their laterals exhibited in the county mark the direction of the ocean currents of that period. The well washed condition of the gravel in the Auglaize ridges may be attributed to the strength of the cur- HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 37 rents carrying the icebergs. The finely ground materials floated away and were discharged into waters having less motion, and deposited as beds of clay, whereas the gravel and larger fragments of detrius sank rapidly to the bottom of the current line. Along the summit of the watershed extending through the county accumulations of drift material occur, which are peculiar in character and position. The deposits consist of sand, gravel and boulders, with a little admixture of clay. During the period of greatest submergence the larger part of the summit of the watershed was under water and was swept by breakers and shore waves, by which some of the beds of sand and gravel were formed. Along this line of shallows numerous icebergs stranded and as they melted away deposited their cargo of debris in the form of mounds, banks and circular inclosures, or "kettles." Currents cut through the watershed at St. Marys and near the southeastern corner of the county. All the lines of drainage leading to the south from these passes are marked by deeply excavated channels, now more or less permanently filled by accumulations of rolled or transported material. The surface indications at the source of the Sciota river exhibit the magnitude of the strait or channel connecting the glacial waters of the North with the warmer waters of the South. In the course of time the Sciota channel filled to such an extent that icebergs stranded on the submarine ridges and mounds, where they melted away, depositing their clay, sand, gravel and boulders around the circumference. The numerous circular, bowl-shaped ponds on the summits of ridges and mounds in different sections of the county mark the localities of stranded icebergs. They constitute one of the most noticeable features of the eastern part of the county and vary in depth from ten to sixty feet. The deeper ones are filled with water the year round. A number of them of late years have been converted into fish ponds. A second surprising feature is the large number of boulders located on the summits of the highest ridges in the county. 38 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY These boulders vary much in composition. Specimens of gray granite, diorite, trachite and carbonate of lime are most common. In a ridge near Freyburg in Pusheta township boulders of bituminous coal are found. Specimens of quartz boulders containing copper and iron are common in certain localities. ROCK STRUCTURE UNDERLYING AUGLAIZE COUNTY. The county rests upon what is known in geology as the Silurian Age. This age is generally regarded as the lowest system of fossiliferous rocks and is named from that part of England and Wales which was inhabited by the ancient Silures, where this system is well exhibited and where it was first carefully studied. Were we to descend deep enough below the surface we should reach the limit of the stratified deposits of this age. At this point the great foundations of the continent are reached. The thickness of this underlying floor is unknown. The Silurian Age consists of two great divisions, the Upper and Lower, and each of these is divided into well marked formations of rocks, the Upper Silurian consisting of the Lower Helderberg, the Niagara series, the Clinton series and the Medina shales, and the Lower Silurian of the Hudson river series, the Utica shales, the Trenton limestone and the Potsdam, the latter being supposed to underly the Trenton limestone. The depth of the Trenton period below the drift surface is generally from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet. The seas of the Trenton period were densely populated with animal life. Many of the beds are made of the shells, corals and crinoids, packed down in bulk. Fragments of Trenton stone thrown from a well near Cridersville analyzed as follows: Carbonate of lime, 92.88 per cent; carbonate of magnesia, 3.90 ; insoluble matter, 3.22. The immediate cover of the Trenton limestone is a stratum of black shale 300 feet in thickness (Utica shale), crumbling and mostly of a dark blue-black or brownish-black color and frequently bituminous or carbonaceous, and is sparingly fossiliferous. The forma- HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 39 tion of the Hudson river series in Auglaize county consists of a soft blue shale, becoming darker as it approaches the Utica shale. The thickness of the formation varies from 500 feet to 600 feet in different localities in the county. This period is of special interest to paleontologists from the great variety of fossils which it contains. The Medina group in this county is represented by a stratum of red shale or red clay from two to ten feet in thickness, and is chiefly represented in the northern part of Duchouquet township. The Clinton group, a highly crystalline limestone, varies in thickness in this county from fifty to one hundred feet. The Niagara group, or Niagara limestone, varies from 200 feet to 300 feet in thickness in this county and is known to underly the drift in the townships of Wayne, Goshen, Clay, Pusheta, Washington, Jackson, German. and St. Marys. This series is exceedingly rich in fossils. The exposures of the Lower Helderberg rocks (called water lime by the state geologists) is thin bedded, of a dark blue color, and contains a large percentage of organic matter, sometimes as high as thirty per cent of asphaltum. This stone is not well adapted to lime burning and shales too much, when exposed to the air, to be of much value as a building stone. NATURAL STORAGE OF GAS AND PETROLEUM. In connection with his survey of the topographical and geological conditions in this county, Professor Williamson dwelt at some length on the natural gas and oil development hereabout, referring to the intense interest aroused by the discoveries of gas and petroleum in the Findlay and Lima territories in the middle '80s and pointing out that following those discoveries explorations presently were begun in Auglaize county, and that every township in the county had been tested by the drilling of one or more wells. After reviewing various theories concerning the origin of petroleum the professor pointed out that rocks of all stratified series may be divided into two classes, permeable and porous strata. The 40 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY permeable strata are close grained and resist the passage of water or gas through them. Strata composed of the coarser grained material, such as sandstone and conglomerates, are of the second class or porous rock. Wherever the Trenton limestone is of this porous character, and is not over 400 feet below sea level, it is never found empty. It is either found filled with gas, oil or water from the old Silurian sea. If the porous rocks be found within 400 or 500 feet of the surface the water is usually fresh. If found at a greater depth it is brackish. The porous oil- and gas-bearing rock of Ohio is underlaid by several hundred feet of impermeable shale. The underlying porous strata may be composed of undulations and troughs, or—in geological language—of anticlines or synclines; the gas occupying the summits of the arches and the oil filling the troughs. An arch of the kind described extends through the southern part of St. Marys township, with valuable oil troughs or pools on either side of it. The gas pressure above and around these pools varies in new fields from fifty pounds to 350 pounds to the square inch. (Written in 1905.) When the drill touches the oil pool the pressure of the gas forces the oil to the surface, producing a flowing well. It is seldom the case that the flow of oil continues for any considerable length of time. Usually it is intermittent. Ordinarily each flow of oil is followed by an escape of the gas that lifts the column of oil from the well. After the force of the gas is spent the oil is again forced forward by another volume of gas of high tension, when a second flow occurs. Each flow of oil diminishes the gas tension until in time the well ceases to flow, when it must be pumped. AUGLAIZE COUNTY GAS AND OIL WELLS. In 1885 a stock company was organized at Wapakoneta and a test well was drilled for gas in the southern part of the town. Much delay was experienced in driving casing through a continuous bed of gravel. Two attempts were made that failed. In the first well the pipe was driven 150 HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 41 feet, when a boulder was encountered, preventing further progress. The derrick was then moved a few feet to the west, where a second attempt was made. At a depth of 180 feet at this location the casing collapsed and the attempt in this locality was abandoned. Since that time it has been discovered that a great gorge in the rock passes through the southern part of the town, filled with a drift deposit to the depth of nearly 400 feet. A third location was selected half a mile north of the first ones. Here the drift was found to be ninety-six feet deep. The upper limestones were 192 feet thick. The red Medina shale was fifteen feet thick and possessed all the characteristics peculiar to that formation. Trenton rock was reached after passing through 632 feet of Hudson shale and 300 feet of Utica shale. The total depth of the well to Trenton limestone, therefore, was 1,235 feet, or 348 feet below tide. The drilling was continued to a depth of 1,600 feet without finding either gas or oil. Salt water was found at that depth, which ended the search. A fourth location was selected two miles north of No. 3, where a well was drilled. This reheated the history of the first three. The stockholders of the company became so much discouraged that nothing further was done in the way of drilling until 1888. The next well drilled in the county was located at St. Marys. Early in the year 1886 a company was organized, consisting of one hundred stockholders; shares, $20, each member holding a single share. A well was drilled and completed on July 24. The well head was 883 feet above tide and the surface of the Trenton, 313 feet below. The record of the drill revealed the following: Drift, 121 feet; upper limestones, 194 ; shales, 880; Trenton struck at 1,195 feet and the well was cased at 310 feet. A contemporary account of the operations at this first well in the county has it that "the Trenton was found hard and dry when struck. Under a cap of one and one-half feet a flow of gas was reached, which was presently followed by oil. The gas was in force sufficient to lift the oil. A production of several barrels a day 42 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY was delivered from the well, with some salt water. On August 5 the gas escaping from the separator was measured and the volume was found to be 58,080 cubic feet a day. The well was torpedoed in October with forty quarts of nitroglycerine, when the flow of gas was increased 200 per cent. The oil had a gravity of 35̊ B. The fact that there was a sufficient amount of gas pressure to lift the oil from the well had its natural effect on the oil speculators of the new field and land was largely leased, in consequence, for drilling purposes." Two other wells were drilled in the same fall. One, known as the Hopkins well, was brought in on October 9, and the other, known as the Hopkins & Gordon well, was brought in on November 24. A state of great activity prevailed in St. Marys township during the following winter and summer. On March 23, 1887, a great gas well was drilled in section 30. The elevation of the well-head was 900 feet above tide. The Trenton limestone was reached at a depth of 1,138 feet below the surface, or 238 feet below tide. The volume of the well, measured on April 14, showed a daily production of 2,042,864 cubic feet. The Kellermeyer well, located in section 22, was drilled in soon after the well in section 30. In August of the same year the Hauss well, one-half mile east of St. Marys, was drilled in and continued profitable for years. In the fall of 1887 a natural gas company was organized at St. Marys and a gas main was laid along the principal street, extending to the Hauss well. A year later the city council took over the control of the plant, which meanwhile had been extended to cover all parts of the city, and bonds were issued to the amount of $100,000, to cover the expense of the municipal undertaking, and by October of that year no fewer than 800 stoves, besides the mills at St. Marys, were using the new fuel. The use of gas soon became so general that more wells were needed and the city acquired leases on 1,100 acres of land lying to the south and east of the town at an annual rental of about $1 an acre. The drilling of oil wells in close proximity to the arch on which the gas wells were located HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 43 diminished the gas pressure to such an extent that at the end of four years it became necessary to drill additional wells. Two years later (1894) the plant was sold to the Indiana Gas and Fuel Company for $50,000, and since that time gas has been supplied from outside fields. A local gas company was organized at Wapakoneta for the purpose of supplying the townspeople with gas in the fall of 1887, the enterprise starting with a capital stock of $100,000, on which an assessment of 60 per cent was made preparatory to the establishment of the plant. Two hundred and eight acres of land in sections 14, 15 and 22 of St. Marys township were leased and three wells were drilled that fall. In the following spring and summer pipe lines were laid into Wapakoneta and the city piped for gas, the initial exhibition of the "magic fuel" being made in that city on the evening of July 19, a general merrymaking marking the event. When cold weather came 800 stoves in Wapakoneta were equipped with gas burners and the industrial concerns in the city also were utilizing the new fuel. For six years this local company operated the Wapakoneta gas plant and then sold the plant to the Indiana Gas and Fuel Company for $40,000. In the fall of 1888 the people of New Bremen also organized a gas company and the town was piped with gas from the southern part of St. Marys township, the plant being ready for operation in the fall of 1889. This proved a remunerative plant and ten years later was sold to Toledo parties. In the days of plentiful supply gas was used pretty generally throughout the county, many farmers having individual wells, and some few are still thus fortunately equipped. In neither St. Marys nor Wapakoneta did the supply of gas produce anything like the industrial "boom" that marked the use of this convenient and cheap fuel in certain of the other towns in the gas field and there consequently was none of the depression in these cities such as was suffered in some of the "boom" towns upon the failure of the gas field. The St. Marys gas field was tapped by the Lima Natural Gas Company in the summer of 1888 and in 1894 another pipe 44 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY line was laid from this field to Lima, which was thus supplied from that source for a number of years or until the field became exhausted. Wapakoneta and St. Marys are now (1922) supplied with gas from the Medina (Ohio) field and the supply of the fuel is ample for ordinary domestic uses, though the days of the old cheap gas long since passed. New Bremen and Minster are without gas. OIL WELLS OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY. The first oil and gas lease executed in Auglaize county, according to the records in the county recorder's office, was that of July 19, 1886, by and between John N. Shipman and Louise Shipman, whose lands in the south edge of Noble township adjoined the town of St. Marys on the north, and Frank Cass and B. J. Wilson, of Lima, Ohio. This lease was for the use, for gas and oil purposes, of lands in the west half of the southwest quarter of section 35, township 5 south (Noble), range 4 east, and also the south half of the southwest quarter of same, and the consideration involved was 850 a year for each gas well brought in on the lease and a royalty of one-eighth of all oil produced. It is proper to note in passing that this first lease was a productive and profitable one for both parties to the same. A GOOD DEAL OF “FEVERISH" SPECULATION. With this successful opening of the local field other leases followed in rapid succession, and before the end of May following more than three hundred leases had been recorded, the consideration by that time having increased to as much as $200 for each gas well brought in and a royalty of one-sixth of all oil. Since that time thousands of oil and gas leases have been executed in this county, fourteen books of records now being on file in the recorder's office. A review of these records reveals a good deal of what perhaps at the time, in the early days of the oil field hereabout, was regarded as "feverish" speculation in these leases and many of the HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 45 transactions of course were quite profitable. Leases filed in the spring of 1922 have been executed on a basis of $100 a year for all gas wells brought in, besides use of gas to the landowner, and a royalty of one-sixth on the oil produced. Wells are still being brought in, particularly in the northern and northwestern part of the county, the oil being turned into the pipe lines of the Standard Oil Company and pumped to the tanks at Lima. The old days of the flowing well, however, seem to have gone forever and a ten-barrel well is now regarded as a profitable operation, at the present price of the crude product, and a five- or six-barrel well workable. A bit of comparison in this connection will prove interesting. Professor Williamson's observations (1905) had it that "in the Auglaize county fields a well is rated large which starts at a flow of 200 to 250 barrels per day, and at the end of a month or so has only settled to fifty or seventy-five barrels." HOW IT ALL CAME ABOUT In his review of the oil and gas development the professor pointed out that "the public interest, aroused by the discovery of gas at Findlay, induced some drillers engaged in drilling for water at the Lima paper mill in 1885 to continue their work until they should reach Trenton rock. They were rewarded by a flow of oil and a small amount of gas. "The news that Lima had 'struck oil' attracted speculators and oil operators from all the oil producing centers of the country. Soon after the Faurot well was drilled an organization was effected at Lima under the name of the Citizens Gas Company, the specific object of which was to ascertain the actual facts as to the existence of gas and oil in Trenton rock. A well was sunk near the Ottawa river in the city of Lima, which served the purpose for which it was drilled. It was the second pioneer well in the territory and began its course as a forty-five-barrel pumping well. Other wells were drilled in rapid succession. In December, 1886, the daily oil production was 9,500 barrels. In 1886 the great oil pools in the vicinity of Cridersville (Auglaize county) 46 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY were tapped on the Delong and Sellers farms. The Duchouquet township pools are a continuation of the Allen county field. The oil bearing rock of Auglaize county underlies portions of Duchouquet, Logan, Salem, Noble, St. Marys, Washington, Moulton, German and Jackson townships. "The oil bearing rock attains a maximum thickness of twelve feet and an average thickness of eight to ten feet. It is generally covered by a hard, nonproductive cap, previously described in the first well drilled at St. Marys. Salt water is found at a depth of from fifteen to seventeen feet in the Trenton rock. If the quantity of salt water is not excessive it does not detract much from the value of the well. There have been numerous instances in which the salt water has been temporarily exhausted and followed by copious flows of oil. Ultimately, however, as a rule, it gains upon the oil in the well in which it originally appeared, and finally overcomes it. "The maximum output of a well occurs, as a rule, soon after it is drilled in. If the yield of oil is great nothing further is done with it except to convey the product through pipes into receiving tanks. If the product of oil should be small the well is 'shot' to open up fissures in the oil- or gas- bearing rock and thereby increase the flow. * * * Each well is provided with one or two 250-barrel wooden tanks. The oil flows into the tank through the cover from the pipe leading from the well. Ten inches above the bottom is inserted the two-inch pipe through which the oil is pumped into the line of the transportation company. Close to the bottom is a wooden plug to let out any water coming in with the oil from a pumping well. * * When the oil has been run into the lines of the Standard Oil Company the exact amount is calculated from the gauger's memorandum, allowance being made for sediment and temperature, if necessary, and the amount is credited on the books of the company to each person having an ownership in the oil ; that is, the royalty (usually one-eighth) is first taken out and placed to the credit of the owner of the mineral right, then the balance is HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 47 distributed in the designated proportion to each individual, if several parties are operating together, or to the firm as a whole, according to the wishes of the persons interested. The large iron tanks of the Standard Oil Company into which the Auglaize county oil flows are called working tanks. They are usually in pairs. When one is full the new oil is turned into the other, the first being meanwhile gauged and then emptied. From the working tanks the oil goes to the storage tanks, located within two or three miles of the Standard Oil refinery near the city of Lima. The storage tanks vary in capacity from 22,000 to 37,000 barrels." In the days of oil plenty back in the late '80s and during the '90s oil was profitably produced at 15 cents the barrel. Now (1922) the price is $1. Hope of reviving the field by explorations beneath the Trenton rock has not been abandoned and in the spring of this year there was organized at Wapakoneta a company of oil enthusiasts with a view presently to a sub-Trenton exploration of the fields north of town. A similar exploration was made during the summer of 1921 in one of the formerly most productive fields in Indiana, but without success. ARTESIAN WELLS OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY. Before dismissing the subject of local geological formation it will be proper to notice briefly the numerous artesian wells throughout the county. In his admirable review along this line Professor Williamson noted that these artesian wells "are confined mainly to localities through which pre-glacial gorges extend. Nearly every deep well drilled in the gorge extending from Wapakoneta to the southwestern part of the county was a fountain well until the water was shut off by casing. The immense volumes of water, sand and gravel that flow from the wells in St. Marys township are impediments encountered by drillers in the gas and oil fields of that township. "The wells differ much in depth. The water supply at Wapakoneta is derived from fourteen artesian wells having 48 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY a depth of forty feet. The same is true of the wells at St. Marys. In both villages the water from the wells is piped into receiving wells and is pumped from there into standpipes. The flow from wells having a depth of forty or fifty feet does not rise above two or three feet above ground. In most instances the water rises from a bed of gravel lying between two beds of impermeable blue clay. "The great underground reservoir tapped by oil drillers varies in depth from 250 to 300 feet. The underlying bed of the shallower wells rests upon a bed of hardpan usually 200 feet in thickness, underneath which there is a second bed of gravel forty or fifty feet in thickness, resting upon a bed of impervious blue clay. The location of the fountainhead of these great wells is unknown. It is a well known fact that the water in artesian wells may come to the surface scores of miles from the place where it entered. In this county the flow is in a southerly direction. If therefore, we desire to locate the fountainhead, search must be made for it in the Canadian highlands, at a distance of several hundred miles from Auglaize county. The long distance that the subterranean current must traverse has led many people to doubt the truth of the general hypothesis. The theory has been advanced that the flow has been produced by a high pressure of carbonic acid and other carbonaceous gases. The water from these wells is highly charged with carbonic acid, which, by its solvent power, holds lime, gypsum, magnesium and iron in solution. Soon after exposure to the air the water loses its acid, which is immediately followed by a deposit of a portion of the minerals held in solution. "The large flowing wells of the county are not wholly confined to the gorges passing through it. Many wells have been drilled on each side of the great gorge that have tapped the same reservoir. The following altitudes above sea level of wells located from half a mile to a mile back from the gorge present data of much interest to students of this subject : The John Mosier well, one mile east of Wapakoneta, 926 feet; the Charles Shafer well, southeast quarter of section 26, HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 49 Washington township, 1,025 feet; the M. Walter wells, southeast quarter of section 26, St. Marys township, 885 feet ; the W. H. Koop wells, southeast quarter of section 15, St. Marys township, 887 feet; the L. Doenges wells, southwest quarter of section 30, St. Marys township, 880 feet. It will be observed that the water is lifted ninety-nine feet higher in the Charles Shafer well than in the Mosler well, and that the difference between it and the wells in St. Marys township are 140, 130 and 145 feet, respectively. It is difficult to account for the difference of hydrostatic force exerted except upon the hypothesis that each well has a source differing correspondingly in elevation. The differences in the chemical character of the water flowing from different wells are evidences in favor of the latter view of the problem. The water flowing from the Mosler well contains a small percentage of magnesium and iron, whereas the Shafer well yields water heavily charged with lime, iron and much carbonic acid. Differences of a similar character also occur in the wells of St. Marys township. "In considering the difference of hydrostatic pressure in the different wells it is reasonable to suppose that it is augmented by the accumulation of gases along the flowing lines. The accumulations may result from decomposition of the sulphate and sulphide of iron. There are also reasons for belief that the pressure is augmented at points along the line by hydro-carbon gas from the Hudson shales that has forced its way upward through fissures in the overlying rocks. It is no uncommon thing for farm wells, when dug, to fill with carburetted hydrogen. When the ordinary lamp test for carbonic acid (commonly called damps) is applied the gas takes fire. It is frequently the case that the well is abandoned and a new location selected. Such instances were of frequent occurrence in localities in which oil and gas have since been discovered. Many wells have been dug in Auglaize county that have yielded large volumes of carbonic acid. Within the last thirty years (written in 1905) seven persons have been asphyxiated in wells of this class. In 1869 a well (3) 50 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY was dug on the lot of the Freyman school house, located two miles north of Wapakoneta, that yielded copious volumes of this gas. The water was kept in a state of great agitation for several weeks. When the writer visited the well the noise of the agitated water was plainly audible at a distance of twenty rods from the well." FLORA AND FAUNA OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY. In his admirable survey of the flora and fauna of Auglaize county published in 1905 in connection with his all too brief History of Western Ohio and Auglaize County, Prof. C. W. Williamson, to whose unselfish researches along this line the people of this county owe so much, observes that "up to 1845 Auglaize county was unsurpassed for its stately trees of many valuable varieties. The splendor of its flora was displayed by its oaks, black walnut, butternut, poplar, hickory, ash, wild cherry, linden, tulip trees, with almost endless varieties of trees of minor values. Underneath these monarchs of the forest varieties of smaller growthed timber grew in great abundance. Many species of plants once common in the county have disappeared, or are found at rare intervals. The yellow lady's slipper and showy orchis, the wild orange red and Turk's cup lilies, the yellow puccoon and blue cohosh, the ginseng and squill, the white water lily, and yellow poplar, will in a few years be stricken from the flora of the county." The review then given by the professor revealed enough to show that the botanical resources of this county are not inferior to any part of northwestern Ohio. In the list of forest trees there are set out ten varieties of the oak, four of the ash, three of the walnut, five of the hickory, four of the beech, the sycamore, seven of the maple, five of the poplar, five of the elm, two of the linden or basswood, the buckeye and a number not so common, including the hackberry, the sugar berry, red mulberry, honey locust, the wild cherry, the coffee tree and the cucumber tree, besides a long list of bushes HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 51 and trees of smaller size, including the ironwood, redbud, Judas tree, buckthorn, wild plum, bladdernut, box elder, dogwood, red osier, leatherwood, common elder, prickly ash, blackthorn, thorn apple, black haw, red haw, spice wood, wild gooseberry, fetid currant, pawpaws, hazel nut, sumach, poison ivy, poison oak, crab apple, and four varieties of willow. Of the flowering plants there are enumerated the dog's tooth violet, the rose colored cress, the bloodroot, blue flag, boneset, bluebell, chicory, yellow lily, deer's tongue, sweet William, white violet, yellow violet, blue violet, the yellow pond lily, the yellow puccoon, bellwort, rose anemone, pepper root, barren and wild strawberry, sunflower, elecampane, meadow rue, hound's tongue, spikenard, everlasting, wild potato vine, Jacob's ladder, cow parsnip, cowslip, dandelion, Dutchman's breeches, wild primrose, golden rod, liverwort, horse mint, ironweed, Jack-in-the-pulpit, Jamestown weed, twin leaf, lady's slipper, lily of the valley, cardinal flower, great lobelia, May apple (mandrake), yellow wood sorrel, spring beauty, white eardrop, skunk cabbage, touch-me-not, wake robin, birthroot and the large white trillium. In the list of pestiferous weeds there are enumerated the dogweed, the foxtail, ironweed, pigweed, horseweed, bindweed, cocklebur, white top, lamb's quarter, common thistle, purslane, burr grass, beggar's ticks, crab grass, smartweed, burdock, wild lettuce, wheat thief and the milkweed, while of the fern family there are enumerated no fewer than twenty-two varieties, these being set out with acknowledgement to a catalogue prepared by Prof. James E. Yarnell, formerly principal of the Wapakoneta high school, and including the silvery spleenwort, the bladder fern, the maiden hair fern, narrow leafed spleen- wort, lady fern, the brake, the cinnamon fern, the sensitive fern, royal fern, beech fern, long beech fern, New York fern, crested fern, Goldie's fern, spinulosa shield fern, moonwort, the ternate grape fern, the rattlesnake fern and the adder's tongue. 52 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY THE ZOOLOGY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY. Concerning the former presence of great numbers of wild animals in this county, Professor Williamson observes that "the dense wilderness of Auglaize county, like the other counties of northern Ohio, was stocked with all the animals, reptiles and birds peculiar to the western wilderness. So numerous were the deer, elk, bear, turkey and ducks that they constituted the main part of the sustenance of the Indians. Up to the time of the departure of the Shawnee Indians (in 1832) the larger animals were so numerous that deer, bear and wolves were killed within half a mile of Wapakoneta." The professor then sets out that the American black bear was an inhabitant of the county as late as 1850. No other species of the bear is known to have inhabited this section of the state. The skin of the animal was highly prized by the Indians and the pioneers for robes and wearing apparel, and his flesh was considered a great delicacy. When cooked it has the flavor of fresh pork. Further details along this line have it that the wolf was formerly quite common in this and adjoining counties and so annoying were these creatures that a bounty was paid by the state for their scalps, this bounty at different times varying from S3 to 86. Until the bears and wolves were exterminated the pioneers found it difficult to raise hogs or sheep. The wolf disappeared from Auglaize county about 1854, the settlement of the county by that time having pretty effectually routed him from his dens and fastnesses. The fox is still occasionally found here. Formerly and for many years fox hunting was a favorite sport throughout this region and even yet a fox drive occasionally is "staged" in the eastern part of the county where Reynard finds precarious refuge in the hollows, but his day is about over. It is the gray fox that is the survivor here. The red fox, formerly quite numerous, was more noted for his depredations upon the poultry yards of the pioneers. His fur was of considerable value and led to an additional interest in the chase which eventually HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 53 wrought his local extermination. The gray fox is a near relative of the red fox and is noted for the craftiness with which it seeks its prey. The last panther in this county was killed about 1850. These animals were quite numerous hereabouts in the days of the wilderness, when the forests were almost impenetrable, and were greatly feared by the Indians and the settlers. Its hunting habit was to hide upon a branch of a tree and launch itself upon whatever prey might pass beneath. The weird, human-like quality of the "painter's" cry at night, like that of a child in distress, made its screech a fearsome thing and when one was heard anywhere near a settlement a hunt would be organized and the "varmint" exterminated. It is narrated in the older chronicles that two panthers were slain in Pusheta township in 1833 ; one in Wayne township in that same year, and one in Salem township in 1835. The crafty lynx was much valued for his fur and one of the most popular of the winter sports of the pioneers was lynx hunting. These animals were quite numerous throughout this region and were a source of considerable revenue to those who made a business of hunting and trapping. It is said that the last lynx in this county was killed in Washington township in 1867. The wild cats (also of the lynx family) were not wholly exterminated until somewhat later. They formerly were quite numerous hereabouts and during the pioneer period large numbers of them were slain by hunters or taken by trappers. They were not so large as the lynx, more slender in build and lighter in color and their fur was not as valuable as that of their cousins, the true lynx. Though the native lynx long ago passed from this region, a "stray" member of this offensive branch of the cat family was killed in Auglaize county as late as in the winter of 1918. Where he had come from and whither bound are matters of conjecture, but old hunters gave it as their opinion that he had wandered down from Michigan. The carcass was taken to Wapakoneta, whence it was sent to a taxidermist to be mounted and was for some time on display in an 54 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY Auglaize street shop window, where it attracted the interested attention of many. This Canada lynx (felis Canadensis) was killed on the John Burk farm in Moulton township on January 4, 1918, by a party of hunters numbering twenty or more, among them having been the following well known farmers of that community : Albert Adams, T. L. Ramsey, Wesley Brorein, Albert Brincefield, Nate Brincefield, John Ramsey and Charles Wheeler. The details of the capture of this feline straggler were set out in the issue of the Auglaize Republican of Thursday, January 10, 1918, as follows: "When a report came to this office last Friday from Buckland that a Canada lynx had been killed in the woods near Glynwood few people credited the story. It has been forty years or more since an animal of that character has been killed in this county and it seemed incredible that one could have strayed this far south of the northern woods without being seen by hunters. However, the carcass of the lynx was brought to Wapakoneta Friday afternoon by Albert Adams, who is credited with having shot the animal out of a tree in the John Burk woods. The lynx weighed only twenty-four pounds, but this gives very little idea of its size, as it was little less than skin and bones. It measured six feet in length and twenty inches in height. Its color was gray, with black stripes along the back, and it had the general appearance of a huge cat with the exception of the tufted ears, which gave it the distinctive mark of the lynx. With its long and sharp teeth and ferocious appearance, even in death, it would have given the stoutest heart a tremor of fear to have met it alone in the forest." The animal's carcass was put up at auction and was sold to the highest bidder, Charles Wheeler, who sent it to a taxidermist at Brookville, Ohio, to be mounted and he now has it at his home near Buckland. According to the story of the hunters, the track of the "varmint" was first seen by a number of persons in Logan township after some neighboring farmers had reported the loss of poultry, but it was not until. Wesley Brorein had discovered that some animal had HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 55 taken toll of his flock of geese that chase was given. The lynx was first seen and shot at by Alva Brincefield on the Charles F. Herbst farm. Although wounded it ran into the Burk woods, where it sought refuge in a scruboak tree. There, a few minutes later Albert Adams shot the animal. Atwater, in his History of Ohio, says that "we once had the bison and elk in vast numbers all over Ohio." The bison, or buffalo, had been driven from this region by the Indians before the coming of the white man, but the elk persisted until the days of settlement, and many specimens of the antlers of the elk have been turned up in excavations for ditches in this county. Deer formerly were so numerous throughout this region that the flesh of the animal constituted a large part of the sustenance of the Indians and pioneers. The variety most common to this section was the red deer, the weight of which varied from 150 to 200 pounds. With the settlement of the country they naturally sought safer feeding grounds and early in the '60s were wholly absent from this county. Of other creatures of the wild common to this section in the days before the clearing of the forests and the cultivation of the land deprived them of their natural habitat, Professor Williamson names the weasel, the mink, the otter (the last of which was taken on the Auglaize two miles below Wapakoneta in 1872), the sunk, valuable for his fur and still persisting in small numbers here ; the beaver, which was quite common to the waters hereabouts in other days, but which became extinct in the section now comprised within this county about 1833 ; the porcupine, quite common in pioneer days hereabouts, but now extinct here ; the groundhog, or woodchuck, which still persists ; the squirrel family, five varieties of which are named, these being the fox squirrel, gray and black squirrels, the red squirrel, the ground squirrel and the flying squirrel, numbers of which still persist here, the red squirrel probably being the most numerous. During the days of the pioneers the great woodlands of this county literally swarmed with squirrels and even up to as late a period assithe '50s there were summers when apparent squirrel "in- 56 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY vasions" menaced and sometimes utterly destroyed the corn crops of the settlers, all sorts of measures and expedients being resorted to to frighten the rodents away, for the mere gun of the hunter was powerless against the veritable hordes of the voracious creatures. The wood hare, or gray rabbit, persists in numbers here, though of course not offering anything like the field for the huntsman offered in former days and hunting for the market is no longer a lucrative practice. The muskrat still persists along the Auglaize and St. Marys rivers and about the Grand Reservoir, but the value of its fur has been its undoing, and trappers have practically exterminated the creature in this county. The opossum, the common mole and rats and mice are mentioned as other creatures common to this region. A game preserve of 1,100 acres in St. Marys and Washington townships, southeast of St. Marys, has been closed against hunting of all sorts. The landowners within this area have leased their lands as a preserve to the state department of conservation, and the preserve is being maintained under the direction of Ora Hinton, local game protector. BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS AND REPTILES. In a list compiled from an official catalogue, Professor Williamson's review carries also the name of nearly every resident or migratory bird of Auglaize county, including the robin, the wood thrush, the olive-backed thrush, catbird, brown thrush, bluebird, gnatcatcher, tufted titmouse or chick, white-bellied nuthatch (sapsucker), brown creeper, long-billed marsh wren, brown lark, prothonotary warbler, summer warbler, black-throated green warbler, caerulean warbler, blackburnian warbler, yellow red-poll warbler, water wagtail, redstart, scarlet tanager, summer redbird, barn swallow, eave swallow, martin, red-eyed vireo, yellow throated vireo, butcher bird, song sparrow, snowbird, tree sparrow, chipping sparrow, field sparrow, English sparrow, fox sparrow, indigo bird, cardinal redbird, chewink, red-winged black- HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY - 57 bird, orchard oriole, Baltimore oriole, crow blackbird, raven, common crow, blue jay, kingbird, bee martin, great-crested flycatcher, pewee, wood pewee, whippoorwill, nighthawk, chimney swift, ruby-throated hummingbird, belted kingfisher, black-billed cuckoo, hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, yellow-bellied woodpecker, flicker, barn owl, great horned owl, screech owl, long-eared owl, short-eared owl, great gray owl, barred owl, snowy owl, saw-whet owl, pigeon hawk, chicken hawk, sparrow hawk, bald eagle, turkey buzzard, wild pigeon, Carolina dove, common wild turkey, pheasant, quail, kildeer plover, American woodcock, great blue heron, white crane, coot, white-fronted goose, wild goose, mallard, pintail, widgeon, blue-winged teal, wood duck, redhead, pochard, canvasback duck, dipper duck and pied-billed dabchick. Some of these varieties will be recognized as now extinct here. From the official state zoological report the following catalogue of the fishes of Auglaize county has been compiled: Mud-eel, gar pike, yellow catfish, blue catfish, white sucker, club sucker, stone roller, blunt-nosed minnow, carp (German), hickory shad, common sunfish, blue sunfish, rock bass (goggle eye), large-mouthed black bass, yellow perch, ringed perch and blue pike. The state maintains an extensive fish hatchery in the Grand Reservoir. Under the head of reptiles there are listed the several varieties of the four orders of reptilia, turtles, lizards, serpents and frogs, with the observation that "the reptiles of Auglaize county at the present time are not nearly so numerous as they were in 1830. Many species have entirely disappeared since that time." There are four varieties of turtles mentioned, the snapping turtle, the mud turtle, the box turtle and the soft-shelled variety, of which latter it is said that it is "the most delicious and nourishing of the freshwater varieties." Of snakes there are mentioned the rattlesnake, the massassauga (a variety of the rattler), the constrictor or racer, the milk snake, the common gray garter snake, the striped garter and the water snake. Three varieties of lizards are enumerated, the ground lizard, or ground 58 - HISTORY OF AUGLAIZE COUNTY puppy; the blue-tailed skink and the water dog. Six varieties of the batrachea are mentioned, the bull frog, the green spring frog, the common spring frog, the wood frog, the common tree frog and the American toad. With reference to the entomology of the county a list of the insects of the county is given, with credit to the catalogue of such creatures compiled by William Kayser, entomologist, this list setting out the scientific names of no fewer than twenty-eight of the varieties of the hymenoptera, 300 or more of the lepidoptera, about forty of the diptera, 400 or more of the coleoptera, fifteen of the orthoptera and thirty of the neuroptera. Before passing from this subject it is worthy of mention that numerous evidences have been revealed within the confines of this county of the existence here in prehistoric times of the mastodon, fossil remains of this gigantic creative having been turned up in several different localities in the county. The first skeleton was discovered in the fall of 1870 by laborers who were excavating a ditch through Muchinnippe swamp, two and one-half miles east of St. Johns, in Clay township. The bones were found in a posture natural to a quadruped when sinking in the mire and some of them were in an excellent state of preservation. Similar remains have been found in Washington, Duchouquet, Wayne, Union, Salem and Pusheta townships. In 1889 a head of the prehistoric giant beaver (Castoroides Ohioensis) was uncovered on section 29 of Washington township while workmen were draining a bog there. An investigation revealed a bed of humous resting on a bed of gravel of excellent quality for road making and in later excavations the ancient habitation of the giant rodent was disclosed, a "house" about eight feet square and between three and four feet in height.