The political history of Ohio can not be dismissed without reference to the amendments incorporated in the new constitution in 1912 which have made the constitution practically a new instrument of government. The general tendency of the thirty-three amendments is to make a freer expression of democracy through the medium of the initiative and referendum, direct primaries and home rule for cities. A workmen's compensation law was enacted which provides for compulsory contributions to an insurance fund by the employers of the state. Many changes were made in providing for improvements in social and iwithoutl conditions. Ohio now has a constitution which is sufficiently flexible to allow changes to be made by amendment without the trouble of a constitutional convention.
BOUNDARY LINES.
The state boundaries of Ohio have been the cause for most animated discussions, not only in regard to state limits but county and township lines as well. In 1817, and again in 1834, a severe controversy arose over the boundary between Ohio and Michigan which was settled only after violent demonstrations and governmental interference.
In primitive times the geographical position, extent and surface diversities were but meagerly comprehended. In truth, it may be asserted they could not have been more at variance with actual facts had they been laid out "haphazard." The Ordinance of 1787 represented Lake Michigan far north of its real position, and even as late as 1812 its size and location had not been definitely ascertained. During that year Amos Spafford addressed a clear, comprehensive letter to the governor o f Ohio relative to the boundary lines between Michigan and Ohio. Several lines of survey were laid out as the first course, but either Michigan or Ohio expressed disapproval in every case. This dispute came to a climax in 1835 when the party beginning a "permanent" survey began at the northwest corner of the state and was attacked by a force o f Michigan settlers who sent them away badly routed and beaten. No effort was made to return to the work until the state and various pares had weighed the subject, anfinally the interpsition of he government becam
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necessary. A settlement resulted in the establishment of the present boundary line between the two states, Michigan being pacified with the grant of a large tract in the northern peninsula.
Ohio is situated between the 38̊ 25' and 42̊ north latitude, and 80̊ 3o' and 84̊ 50' west longitude from Greenwich, or 3̊ 30' and 7̊ 50' west from Washington. From north to south it extends over two hundred and ten miles, and from east to west two hundred and twenty miles—comprising thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and sixty-four square miles.
The state is generally higher than the Ohio river. In the southern counties the surface is greatly diversified by the inequalities produced by the excavating power of the Ohio river and its tributaries. The greater portion of the state was originally covered with timber, although in the central and northwestern sections some prairies were found. The crest or watershed between the waters of Lake Erie and those of the Ohio is less elevated than in New York or Pennsylvania. Sailing upon the Ohio the country appears to be mountainous, bluffs rising to the height of two hundred and fifty to six hundred feet above the bed of the river. Ascending the tributaries of the Ohio, these precipitous hills gradually lessen until they are resolved into gentle undulations and toward the sources of these streams the land becomes low and level.
Although Ohio has no inland lakes of importance, it possesses a favorable river system which gives the state a convenient water transportation. The lake on the northern boundary, and the Ohio river on the south afford convenient outlets by water to important points. The means of communication and transportation are superior in every respect, and are constantly being increased by railroad and electric lines.
CHAPTER II.
GEOLOGICAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.
Champaign county lies in the valley of Mad river in the western part of the state of Ohio, being bounded on the north by Logan and Union counties, on the east by Union and Madison, on the south by Clark, and on the west by Miami and Shelby. It is crossed by the fortieth parallel of latitude and is therefore in the same latitude as Indianapolis, Indiana, and Madrid, Spain. The climate is variable to an extreme, but the variability is not such that it works a hardship. When it is said that the temperature has a range of more than a hundred degrees, it might he thought that the weather was not conducive to good farming, but this does not necessarily follow. There are very few winters when the thermometer does not fall as low as fifteen degrees below zero, and twenty-five to thirty has been recorded on more than one occasion. Each summer sees the thermometer climb to about 100 degrees above zero and frequently a few degrees more are recorded sometime during the summer.
AVERAGE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.
Rainfall is fairly even from year to year, but as every inhabitant whose memory covers half a century can testify, there are some wet seasons and some as distinctly dry. Occasionally there is a year when the average rainfall for a year mounts to nearly sixty inches, while other years receive only half as much. In 1872 a rainfall of only 28.53 inches was recorded and this stands as the lowest record since statistics on rainfall have been kept. The heaviest rainfall on record was in 1852 when it amounted to 58.84 inches. The famous flood of 1913, the most disastrous which ever swept down Mad river, was due to a rainfall of 3.7 inches. People are wont to say that we have colder winters now than half a century ago, or not so cold, or that we have more or less rainfall, or that the climate is so much different than it was in the "airly days." The facts are that there is no difference in climatic conditions, taking them on an average, and that our grandfathers of seventy-five years ago had no more nor no fewer frost-bitten ears than we of today ; and it is just as hot in the summer time—and just as cool—as it was fifty, or
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seventy-five, or a hundred years ago. It is undoubtedly true that the cutting down of the heavy forest which covered much of Ohio has had its effect on the climate, but not to the extent, nor in the way, that has gained popular impression. Certainly the denuding of the hillsides and slopes has been a large contributing factor to the floods which have been coming with ever increasing frequency down the Mississippi valley. The dredging and straightening out of rivers and streams and the installation of countless thousands of ditches to facilitate the rapid carrying off of the water, has been another factor to be considered in trying to explain the destructive floods of the past few years.
As before stated Champaign county lies largely in the valley of Mad river and practically all the surface water falls directly into this river, one of the chief tributaries of the Little Miami, and flowing into it at Dayton. There is little of Champaign county that is not drained into Mad river and with the dredging of the river within the last few years there is not a county in the state with a better system of natural drainage than is provided by Mad river and its various tributaries. Mad river has played such an important part in the life of Champaign county that it deserves a special chapter by itself. It has cost the county thousands upon thousands of dollars, and the farmers as many thousands more.
MAD RIVER.
History does not record when the river which runs southward through the middle of Champaign county first became known as Mad river. He who first applied the name must have seen it in the spring at a time when it was on one of its annual rampages, but it is certainly no more subject to annual overflowing than hundreds of other rivers in the country. But be that as it may, someone more than a century ago applied the name "Mad" to it—and Mad it will remain as long as it wends its ordinarily peaceful and quiet way down through the placid fields of Champaign county. Certainly the casual observer of the river who stands on its banks at any other time than a few days in the spring would never imagine that it could do the damage it has clone in the past in its annual overflowing. But man has called it "Mad" and Mad it will forever remain.
The geologist tells us that thousands of years ago, and probably hundreds of thousands, there swept down from the north a gigantic mass of snow and ice reaching from the Arctic regions beyond the Arctic circle and southward into the Temperate zone. It was this sheet of ice and snow, covering
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the earth to the depth of hundreds of feet, which crept slowly southward covering all o f the present area o f Canada and sweeping as far south as the present central part of Indiana and Ohio, which left behind, when it retreated, the gravel beds we have in Champaign county today, the numerous stock ponds scattered here and there, and Mad river with its many tributaries.
And thus was Mad river born thousands of years ago. A long time ago, centuries before man had called it Mad, it wended. its way southward between the water sheds where it has since had its local habitation. It was like the housewife who tried to clean her house each spring, only to have things in a more cluttered condition than when she started in. How many times it has -changed its bed, no man knows, but it has been out of its bed many times and wandered hither and thither over a stretch of from three to five miles. In many places it made a bed one spring only to forsake it another and returned to its bed of the previous year still another.
And thus Mad river wandered down and over the wide basin which it had been making for these many centuries. In places its bed was so shallow that a small freshet caused it to overflow its banks. So conditions were in 1805 when Champaign county was organized, and so they continued until 1910, a period of 105 years. Then the commissioners of the county, the county surveyor and his staff, and the residents of the Mad river valley rose in their might as had the river itself risen in its might. They decided that the wandering Mad river should be placed in a bed where it should stay. It was the most extensive bed Champaign county has ever bought—it cost nearly $100,000.
DREDGING MAD RIVER BED.
In 1910 the first step was taken toward dredging Mad river. A contract was let in the spring of that year for the dredging of the river from where it is crossed by the Pennsylvania railroad to the Clark county line. The contract called for a bottom width varying from twenty to thirty-six feet with a top width in proportion, the dirt thus excavated to be placed twenty-six feet from the top of the river bank. This stretch was about five miles in length and cost the county $22,950.30, an average of $5,737 a mile. The river was full of meanders and it was straightened as much as possible, every effort being made to do the work in such a manner that it would be a permanent improvement. It was hoped that the excavated material would form a levee of such a height that there would be no danger of the river overflowing the valley in the future.
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In the following year that part of the river from the Pimtown bridge, about half a mile south of the Logan county line, to the Pennsylvania railroad crossing, was placed under contract. The dredging of this section of about twelve miles occupied the greater portion of 1911 and the fore part of 1912. Its width was proportioned to the width of the part dredged in 191o, it being narrower as it approached the headwaters.
FARM LAND VALUES AFFECTED.
With the completion of the dredging of the river throughout its entire length in Champaign county there was a sudden rise in farm value in all that part of the county affected by the improvement. There were thousands of acres which had been of little use up to this time; still other thousands of acres which were not tillable in wet years. This improvement made it possible for the land to be tilled along the valley to the very edge of the river itself. By lowering the mouths of all the tributaries flowing into the river in this county it was possible to reclaim hundreds of acres which were several miles from the main channel of Mad river. Kings creek was dredged from its mouth for about three hundred feet and this resulted in a very appreciable difference in the amount of water carried from the headwaters of Kings creek. This section cost $38,700.
Another interesting result of the dredging of the river was the fact that a large number of the shallow wells up and down the valley went dry, while others were left with only a small amount of their former capacity. It was necessary to deepen all the wells several feet in order to insure a permanent supply of water. The lowering of the river bed had been the cause of the well phenomenon. Interesting as this was it is paralleled by the experience of the farmers in the valley with tile ditches. The lowering of the river bed rendered thousands of rods of tile ditches useless for the reason that the water level was lowered to a depth below the level of the tile. It would be impossible to compute the value in dollars and cents which has accrued to the county as a result of the dredging of Mad river. Hundreds of acres of land which had only a nominal value before the improvement are now worth from one hundred to three hundred dollars an acre.
THE FLOOD OF 1913.
The county had hardly realized the full benefit of the new river before the flood of March, 1913, swept down and within a few hours caused thou-
(5)
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sands of dollars of damage to the newly made river. After the flood had subsided it was seen that it would be necessary to re-dredge the river practically the entire distance. The work was begun in January, 1915, and continued without interruption until February, 1916, before it was completed. The cost of repairing the damage amounted to $34,975, considerably more half the cost of the entire original dredging. The dredging in 1915 began in section 6 in Harrison township on the farm of Isaac N. Yearian and continued south to the Clark county line. One more point may be mentioned with the dredging of the river. It was necessary to tear out the thirteen bridges across the river in the county and replace them on new abutments.
BRIDGES OVER MAD RIVER.
The question, of providing bridges for Mad river has been an expensive problem since the first bridge spanned the river. In 1917 there were thirteen public bridges and four private bridges over the river. When the river was dredged in 1910-13 it was necessary to remove all the bridges in order to allow the dredging machine to pass and the second dredging of 1915 necessitated the same procedure. The 1913 flood took out some of the bridges and swept away the approaches to several others, but these were temporarily fixed and made usable until such a time as the river could be redredged. When the second dredging was completed in 1915 all of the bridges were put in good condition and the experience of the past two years seems to indicate that there is no danger of high water ever taking them out again.
The public bridges are located at the thirteen highway crossings and are all of steel except one wrought iron bridge at Quinn Yocum's, in Salem township. There are three private steel bridges and one private wooden bridge. Quinn Yocum has two steel bridges on his farm, one in Concord and the other in Salem township. J. E. Wagner has a steel bridge on his farm in Concord township, while Wilson Baker has a wooden bridge across the river on his farm in Mad river township. Baker bought his bridge from the county and had put it in place before the 1913 flood. It was swept from its abutments at that time and carried some distance down the river, but he hauled it back and put it in place again, where it has since been doing serviceable duty. The three steel bridges of Wagner and Yocum, bought from the Bellefontaine Bridge Company, are sixty-foot span bridges and cost four hundred and eighty dollars each. The concrete abutments on which they are placed cost about one hundred and twenty dollars to the bridge, making the
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total cost of a bridge about six hundred dollars. Since all the Mad river bridges in the county are practically the same length it may be seen that the expense for bridge construction is no small item in the county.
DREDGING OF TRIBUTARY STREAMS.
The dredging of Mad river has been followed by the dredging of most of the tributary streams for a few hundred feet from the point of their confluence with Mad river. This has naturally been of direct benefit to all the land in the watersheds of these several streams tributary to Mad river. These streams along the east side of Mad river, beginning at the north are as follows : Machachee (or Mack-a-cheek, or Macochee, or Mackachee), Kings creek, Town branch (or Dugan run or ditch), and Buck creek.
The Machachee, the name being of Indian origin, with as elusive spelling as the Indians after whom it was named, rises in Logan county near the old Indian village of that name, flows south in the same general direction as Mad river, and empties into Mad river about a mile below the Harrison-Concord township line. Kings creek traverses the south central portion of Salem township, coursing nearly due east and west, finding its sources in the central part of Wayne township. It is a stream with an unusually stable flow of water, with well defined banks in most places, and with a sufficient fall to make it a good natural drainage agent, especially since the lowering of the bed of Mad river. It furnishes an ample supply of water the year around for a flouring-mill at Kingston, where a mill has been in continuous operation since 181i. The stream variously known as the Town branch, Dugan run and Dugan ditch is an artificial watercourse which dates back to the latter part of the twenties. It was first called the Reynolds ditch, the name being bestowed in honor of Judge John Reynolds, the first postmaster of Urbana, who was instrumental in getting the Legislature to pass a bill in 1827 providing for its construction. It rises in the southeastern part of Salem township, courses west to the Pennsylvania railroad and follows the track into and through the city of Urbana and nearly to its union with Mad river. The other stream on the east of Mad river in the county is Buck creek, which, although it does not empty into Mad river in Champaign county, yet is an important feature of the drainage system of its southern part. The several forks of Buck creek find their sources in the southern part of Wayne and Rush townships and the northeastern part of Urbana township. The main branch of Buck creek leaves Champaign county near the Union-Goshen township line.
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The main tributaries flowing into Mad river from the west are as follows : Glady, Muddy, Anderson, Nettle, Storms and Chapman creeks. A number of smaller streams tributary to these cover the western part of the county in such a way as to provide easy natural drainage for practically all of the western half of the county. However, there is part of the western portion of the county which does not fall in the basin of Mad river. Approximately half of the three western townships—Jackson, Johnson and Adams—drain north, west or south into the watershed of the Great Miami. A glance at the map shows four streams in the northern part of Harrison and Adams townships which flow north, to-wit : Stoney, Grey, Lee and Indian creeks. About three and one-half miles of Indian creek have been dredged at a cost of thirty-five hundred dollars. Draining the northern part of Johnson and the southwestern part of Adams township is Mosquito creek, formerly a sluggish stream which afforded a poor outlet for the watershed which nature intended it to drain. In the spring of 1917 a proposition to dredge Mosquito creek was placed before the landowners to be benefited by the improvement. While the improvement had not been ordered at the time this volume went to press, there is every reason to believe that it will be ordered. The engineer's estimate of the cost of the eleven and one-half miles to be dredged, six of which are in Champaign county and the remainder in Shelby, is about fifty thousand dollars. The amount of land affected amounts to about two thousand five hundred acres, about evenly divided between the two counties. The cost is seemingly high because of the depth which the stream will have to take in its lower course in order to provide a sufficient fall to drain the northern part of Johnson township, particularly what is known as Mosquito lake.
OTHER STREAMS IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
Two streams in Johnson and Jackson townships, in about the middle of the western side of the county—Leatherwood and Lost creeks—flow west and empty into the Great Miami. The southwestern portion of Jackson township is drained by Honey creek and its various tributaries, the water from the Honey creek basin finding its way into the Little Miami. The dredging of any stream on the western side of the county depends upon the action of Miami and Shelby counties through which the waters of the streams find their outlet.
Parts of Rush and Goshen townships are drained by streams which flow to the east and empty into the Scioto. In the northern part of Rush township Spain creek and Pleasant run empty into Big Darby creek, which cuts across the northeastern corner of Rush township.
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The preceding paragraphs have indicated in a general way the drainage systems of the county. Roughly speaking, the county is in the shape of a shallow trough with both ends knocked out, one end being laid over into Logan and the other into Clark county. The sides of the trough are practically parallel with Mad river which forms the bottom of the trough. The basin of Mad river is divided into a series of levels, the first level on the immediate banks of the river ranging from a mile and a half to three miles in width. The broken land west of Mad river is found along the banks of many streams, but there is very little land so broken as to prevent its tillage. The most broken part of the county is found on the watershed which has a general southeasterly direction through Wayne and Union township. Wayne township contains more broken land than any in the county, while Rush to the east has about as little as any.
THE SOIL OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
There is a marked difference between the soils of the Mad river valley and that part of the county known as Ruffins Ridge. The river valley is a black sandy loam in large part, all underlaid with a thick stratum of gravel. Striking evidence of the gravelly subsoil of Mad river valley is furnished by a glance at the excavated material of Mad river. Practically every bit of the excavated material of the river is pure gravel and to the casual observer the levees on either side of the river may have been hauled from the finest grael bank in the world. There is enough gravel along Mad river to gravel every road in the county, furnish enough sand to plaster every house and have enough left to furnish similarly another county of the same size. There is considerable alluvial matter to be found in various places in the valley, in places approaching a peat structure. The highlands of the county show a drift clay formation with a loamy superstructure of from one to three feet and a gravelly subsoil in most cases. There are some hills of pure clay, but they are of rare occurrence. There have been a few brick and tile mills in the county, but they have never been numerous. There was formerly one east of Mechanicsburg, but it has been discontinued many years. In the vicinity of Urbana and St. Paris were formerly brick and tile factories, but they too have suspended operation. There is an outcropping of limestone in Jackson, Wayne and Salem townships, but the stone has little commercial value. The stone is known as Monroe or water limestone, also called Helderbergian limestone. It is of little value because of the lack of lime in its composition, the absence of this necessary constituent making the stone too soft for either
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building or road-making purposes. However, the stone was quarried for several years in Jackson and Salem townships and used for building purposes, chiefly for foundations.
One other natural resource of the county which is worthy of mention is water of a medicinal value, which, has been found in various parts of the county. When efforts were being made in Urbana to find gas one of the wells drilled hit a vein of water which is still running in 1917. This water has been proved to have certain medicinal qualities and at one time a company was incorporated, a building erected and efforts made to place it upon the market. There are also wells of mineral water located in St. Paris, but no effort has been made to commercialize the water. Several attempts were made in the nineties to find gas, but little was found. In 1917 hundreds of acres were leased by parties interested in drilling for oil. A well was drilled and "shot" in May, 1917, but no oil was found.
VALUABLE FOREST TRACTS.
The greatest natural resource which Champaign county possesses, next to its soil, lies in its hundreds of acres of native forest trees. Formerly the county was practically one unbroken forest, but a century of farming has seen the disappearance of most of the forests of the county. It is probable that there are as many as one hundred varieties of trees and shrubs in the county, ranging all the way from the majestic oak to the humble chokeberry. In Mad river bottom once grew the stately poplar and the wide-spreading black walnut, but they have practically disappeared. Gone also are the oaks, the beeches, the hickorys, the elms, the ashes and many other varieties which a century ago were considered an obstacle to the development of the county. If all of the fine timber which was burned by our forefathers in the days gone by could be marketed at its present value it would bring enough money to provide the whole county with the finest roads in the world. It was nothing uncommon in the ante-bellum days to burn hundreds of logs of the finest timber, burning being the cheapest method of getting them out of the way. But in those days the word "conservation" was unknown, and the value of the bole of a sugar tree was not even equal to the value placed on a bowl of sugar.
The forests are composed nearly exclusively of deciduous trees, the only non-deciduous trees being the white cedar of the swamps and the red cedar of the hills, both conifers being indigenous to the county. A large tract of cedars in the southeastern part of Mad River township along Mad
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river was once the haunt of botanists and naturalists in search of the variable forms of faunal and floral life of this latitude. This was known as "Cedar Swamp," and a more inviting place for the lover of out-door life would have been hard to find. Today much of this same swamp of former years is covered with fields of waving corn and wheat, but there is still enough left of the tract to perpetuate the name.
SOME MOUNDS OF OTHER DAYS.
Any discussion of the topography of Champaign county demands a review of the artificial mounds which have been in the county for generations untold. The scientists have never agreed as to when the Mound Builders lived, but all agree that there are evidences pointing to a distinct class of people, which, from the remains of their handiwork still extant, have been known as Mound Builders. Whence they came, and whither they went, are two questions which historians and scientists have never satisfactorily solved. But they lived—and in Champaign county. A number of mounds testify to their occupancy of portions of the county.
Professor Thomas F. Moses, a former member of the faculty of the University of Urbana, made exhaustive explorations into the mounds of the county and the information presented herein concerning them is based largely upon his researches. His data has been supplemented by geological reports and local articles in the newspapers contributed by those who have had first-hand information concerning the mounds. Most of the mounds in the county are found on the high banks fringing either side of the Mad river valley and were evidently so located as to command a view up and down the valley. Occasionally a mound was found located on the lower ground, but in such cases it was at the junction of Mad river with one of its tributaries.
The smaller mounds are usually circular in shape, thirty to fifty feet in diameter, and from three to five feet in height. Another group of mounds have a diameter of from seventy to eighty feet at the base with a maximum altitude of eight to fifteen feet; that is, this second group has a distinctly more conical shape than the group first described. The members of the first group are often confused with eskers, kames and drumlins. It is, as it always has been, a matter of speculation as to the means used by these inhabitants of this region in the far distant past to erect these artificial mounds. Some of them, those around Marietta, for instance, are of such a size as to leave one in doubt as to whether it could all have been done
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by hand, and yet there is no evidence to show that they had any mechanical assistance at all in their construction. In every instance the mounds have been proved to be constructed of the same soil as the adjacent territory.
The purpose of the mound has been conceived to have been two-fold : First, as a lookout station whereby the inhabitants could we warned of an approaching enemy; secondly, as a funeral pyre, judging from the contents of many mounds that have been opened. Ohio is especially prolific in mounds and probably has more than any other state in the Union. There are at least two mounds in Champaign county which are worthy of special mention, Roberts and Baldwins, named from the owners of land on which they were found when they were opened.
ROBERTS MOUND.
Roberts mound is located in section 6 of Urbana township near the Urbana-Union township line. It is located on a hill of considerable size and its location was evidently chosen with a view to making it a signal station. The surrounding territory for half a mile is very level, with a height above sea level of 1,162 feet. In the summer of 1877 permission was obtained from the owner to open the mound and the work was begun by carrying an adit from the northwest side and then sinking a shaft four by eight feet into the mound. It was at first planned to open the top of the mound, but this was found impossible to do without entailing an immense amount of work, due to the fact that there was a heavy growth of timber over part of the surface of the mound. In sinking the shaft and running the adit nothing was found until the floor of the mound was reached, when a layer of white ashes was encountered. Strange to say, this layer extended nearly over the whole base of the mound and arched up over the center in such a manner as to present a concave surface. In thickness it varied from one-half an inch to one and a one-half inches. When the excavators reached the center of the mound the ashy layer was so flinty that it flaked off in good-sized chunks.
It is not necessary to go into detail to describe the successive layers of ashes and clay of which the mound was found to be composed. At one point a pile of loose ashes was found mingled with small fragments of calcined human bones, and in the same heap were also found a number of rudely fashioned flint arrow heads and a pierced ornament of stone.. Other piles of ashes and arrow heads and bones were found at intervals during the excavating, indicating, probably, a succession of interments. As
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the central shaft, spoken of above, was dug- into the center of the mound,. fragments of human bones were unearthed from time to time. When a. depth of about four feet was reached a complete human skeleton was found. in a supine position. The head was toward the north and with the exception of a few bones in the ankle and wrist and the phalanges the entire skeleton was found. The bones were unusually sound for bones to have been interred'. so long, and when weighed were found to scale exactly nine pounds. An aperture in the breast bone indicated that it had been pierced by an arrow head or a flint spear, the opening of the aperture to the front measuring an inch and a half while at the rear it was only three-fourths of an inch. A fragment of quartz rock, of some three inches in diameter, was, found. under the right thigh.
The finding of this skeleton encouraged the investigators to proceed. with the excavation. A short distance below the first skeleton was found a second, but in such an imperfect condition that little of it could be removed. Renewed digging revealed a third skeleton, which presented an interesting. study. Parts of the hones were very heavy and nearly petrified, part of them being covered with a thick incrustation as if they had been in the fire. The skull was very formidable ; it had a low retreating forehead with a lower jaw askew, the whole capetial osseous structure presenting evidences. of a very low specimen of humanity. The bones of the hands and forearms were missing, while but little of the spinal column was left. Further digging down did not reveal any more skeletons. Near the south end of the mound,. about two feet from the surface, a pile of charcoal, with fragments of a. large size, was encountered. In the midst of the charcoal a piece of a thigh bone, charred and petrified, and part of a forearm bone were found. This would seem to indicate that the bodies of the dead were cremated and that later the bones were covered over with dirt and successive cremations. At. least, this furnished an explanation for the successive layers of clay and ashes. The Roberts mound would seem to indicate that it contained the bodies of the Mound Builders, disposed of by both cremation and inhumation. It is known that some Indians cremated their dead and there is abundant evidence to show that the Mound Builders disposed of part of their dead. in the same way. The Roberts mound with its tree-clad summit, is still an interesting object of attention and is well worthy of a visit by anyone interested in the lore of the ancient dwellers of Champaign county.
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THE BALDWIN MOUND.
The Baldwin mound is the most interesting mound in the county. Named in honor of Judge Samuel Baldwin upon whose farm it was standing when it was opened in 1877, it stands on a commanding hill at the confluence of the north and east forks of Buck creek. The farm is about eight miles southeast of Urbana and about three and one-half miles southwest of Mechanicsburg. When the mound was measured at the time of its opening in 1877 it was found to be nearly conical in shape, seventy-eight feet in diameter at the base and fifteen feet in height. Although this was. forty years ago there was at that time oak trees of good size on the top of the mound, indicating that it had been hundreds of years since the Mound Builders had thrown the last shovelful of dirt. As early as the twenties clay had been taken from this mound to make brick, and, according to tradition, hones were found by those who made the brick.
The excavation of 1877 was started by sinking a shaft in the center of the mound and at the same time starting an adit which was to be carried from the base of the mound to the shaft in the center. Skeletons were found within two feet of the surface of the mound, but these were probably the skeletons of Indians. The sepulture of the Mound Builders was reached at a depth of twelve feet from the top of the mound and the discovery which was made in this mound constitutes one of the richest finds which has ever been made in any mound in the state. To quote from the original report of Professor Moses as to what was found :
First, a layer of bark was laid down, then the bodies placed upon this; the head of one being directly toward the east, of the next toward the west, and so on. Logs were placed at the sides and between the bodies, dividing the grave into as many 'compartments as there were persons to be buried. The whole was then covered with a thick layer of bark, upon the surface of which was found a thin layer of charcoal. Bark, branches and bodies had, of course, reached the last stages of decay, only the ashes of the former remaining to show how they had been disposed; and long, hollow cavities, tilled with dirt, alone indicated the position of the logs. The whole mass had been pressed down and flattened by the weight of the overlying earth and most of the bones showed evidence of the great pressure, being crushed in and broken. The first skeleton reached was found with the head lying toward the east, and supposed to be that of a female; a small copper ring was found at the head. Further excavation disclosed a second skeleton, with the head toward the west. The bones of this skeleton were very large and strong, and those of the lower limbs in a remarkable state of preservation ; near the hand, and lying across the body, were the flint heads of three spears or arrows. Their position seemed to show that they had been held in the hand by wooden shafts, now moldered away. The upper part of the body had been crushed and distorted to a great extent by the pressure above. It had apparently been placed on the left side, and the arrows grasped
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in the right hand. Removing the earth carefully from this, a third skeleton was seen, its head pointing to the east. This was lying upon its back, and measures from its toes to the top of the head nearly six feet. The teeth were thirty-two in number and perfectly sound. Around the neck was a string of beads, made of mother-of-pearl, probably taken from the shell of the river mussel. This skeleton seemed to be that of a young woman of from eighteen to twenty years.
The skeleton next disclosed was that of a young man of about sixteen years. The head was placed in the reverse position to that of the preceding one. The skull was remarkably well shaped. Over the heart were found several plates of mica cut in the form of a crescent. Plates of mica are frequently found in mounds, and the mica is believed to have been brought from Carolina. This, with the copper from Lake Superior and shells from Mexico, is an evidence of the commercial habits of the people. The next spare was occupied by the skeletons of two small children, placed feet to feet. Near the head of one of these was a heap of small sea shells belonging to a species now found in the Gulf of Mexico. These were pierced at the ends. The succeeding skeleton was that of an adult person and near it was found a small implement of banded slate, belonging to the class called "boat-shaped" implements in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. An eighth skeleton was found belonging to this group, near which also lay a small quantity of shell beads like those last described. Following these, near the margin of the mound, were three others, thrown down apparently without regard to position, as they were disposed at various angles, with the limbs crossing each other, and no protection of logs had been placed around them, nor were any ornaments found with them. Of all the skeletons found in the mound, the eight first described were buried with especial care, and each of them had some mark of distinction or token of affection. The arrangement of the bodies was also somewhat remarkable, they being placed with great uniformity with the heads alternately toward the east and west, though the conjecture is that this arrangement was made simply with a view to economize space.
The skeletons above mentioned were taken from the northwestern quarter of the mound. In the northeastern corner of the mound ten more skeletons were found, but they had been thrown in promiscuously without any regard to the manner in which they might lay. Charcoal was found with the bones, but no ornaments or implements of any kind. There was little effort made to examine the southern half of the mound, but it is probable that its contents were similar to those found in the north half of the mound. A word might be said about the general condition of the bones which were found. Covered with from twelve to fifteen feet of dirt, many of them had been bent by the weight of earth resting on them and this same weight may have been. responsible for the peculiar shapes of some of the skulls. Another interesting feature brought to light by the opening of the mound is the fact that the bones were frequently amalgamated ; that is, bones lying on each other had become soldered together, as it were. This amalgamation had been brought about by the long, continued weight on them and the exudation and disintegration of the constituent elements composing the bones. This account for the bones becoming coalesced. Many of these bones were
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brought to Urbana and exhibited as a part of the exhibit of the Central Ohio Scientific Association and are now in the collection of the University of Urbana.
OTHER MOUNDS IN CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
The publications of the Ohio Archaelogical and Historical Society contain in their volumes a description of hundreds of the mounds which have been opened in the state. In the last report of the society Champaign county is credited with having eight mounds worthy of being catalogued by the society. These were distributed as follow : One each in the townships of . Mad River, Jackson, Wayne, and Johnson, and two each in Urbana and Union. There is nothing in any of these mounds, which have been examined, any different from the mounds above described. The evidence of all the investigations seems to indicate that the Indians used the mounds after the Mound Builders, usually for burial places, and certainly for watch towers. These mounds are gradually disappearing and in the course of time will be reduced to the level of the surrounding territory. Undoubtedly there are many mounds which had disappeared before any efforts were made to locate any of them, and the historian of the next century will probably have no mounds of any kind to record.
The topography of the county has not affected its division into townships. It might have been expected that Mad river would have been used for township boundaries, but such is not the case. As far as is known the configuration of the county has not figured at all in township boundaries. Neither has the Ludlow Line had any effect on township lines. A discussion of the Ludlow Line may very appropriately be given at this place.
THE LUDLOW LINE.
There is not a person who has ever lived in Champaign county who has not heard of the "Ludlow Line," but who Ludlow was, why such a line was drawn, where it started, where it stopped, or anything definite about it—these are many questions which have baffled the historian in times past and are still not satisfactorily answered. There are several dates given for the actual surveying of the Ludlow Line, ranging from 1801 to 1805 ; again there is a difference of opinion as to which line was run first, the Ludlow or the Roberts Line. A summary of the facts concerning these two lines takes the historian back to the year 1609.
Part of the present county of Champaign is included within a grant of
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land which was defined by the charter of May 23, 1609, granted by King James I, of England. This charter was the basis for the claim of Virginia to certain lands west of the Ohio. river and it was this charter of 1609 which indirectly leads to the creation of the Ludlow Line of Champaign county. The story of the connection of this old charter with the line through Champaign county brings in the story of the Revolutionary War, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States, the Ordinance of 1787 and more immediately the desire of Virginia to provide a tract within the present state of Ohio where its Revolutionary veterans might locate. And it was to provide a definite tract of land in the state which led to the survey of the line which passes through Champaign county, now known as the Ludlow Line.
When Virginia relinquished her claims to the land north of the Ohio, it reserved certain tracts of land known as Virginia Military Lands and that part of Champaign county east of the Ludlow Line falls within this military land. According to the agreement with Congress Virginia was to have the right to reserve a tract of land lying between the Scioto on the east and the Little Miami on the west. The northern boundary of the said tract was to be a line drawn from the headwaters of the Little Miami to the headwaters of the Scioto.
This line was surveyed by Israel Ludlow in 1802 and it bears his name of this day. It had been ordered surveyed by Congress in the act of May 10, 1800. The map of the state of Ohio issued by Rufus C. Putman, surveyor general of the United States, in January, 1804, has this line drawn from the headwaters of the Little Miami northwesterly to the Greenville Treaty Line of 1795. The southern terminus of the line is in Clark county, in the southwest half of section 30, township 7, range 8 (that is, near the boundary between Clark and Madison counties, about three and one-half miles east of South Charleston.) The line bears about twenty degrees west of north, or it was supposed to; and passing in that general direction through the remainder of Clark it runs through Champaign county and into Logan until it reaches the Greenville Treaty Line. The line in Logan county passes through Bellefontaine, the county seat, about three squares east of the court house, and meets the Greenville Line one-half mile west of the northeast corner of Harrison township.
The Ludlow Line as originally surveyed was run too far to the east ; in fact, instead of being twenty degrees west, it was only about seventeen. It was found that the source of the Scioto was several miles further west
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than it was designated by the Congressional Act and then run by Ludlow. In other words, the state of Virginia was not getting as much land for its Revolutionary soldiers as it was supposed to get. The line which was supposed to connect the headwaters of the Little Miami and Scioto bore too far to the east and thereby deprived the old soldiers of a considerable tract through Champaign, Logan and Auglaize counties to which they were rightfully entitled. The Ludlow Line of 1803 was known to be inaccurate, but it was several years after it was surveyed before an attempt was made to have it corrected.
CORRECTION OF THE LUDLOW LINE.
The demand for a corrected line was brought to the attention of Congress and it was finally ordered resurveyed. The second survey was run by a man by the name of Roberts and that part of the resurveyed line north of the Greenville Treaty Line has since been known as Roberts Line. The old Ludlow Line from its southern point in Clark county to the Greenville Line in Logan county was not changed, but subsequent acts of Congress straightened out the title to several tracts of land which lay beween the Ludlow line as it was incorrectly drawn and the corrected Roberts Line to the west. Two acts of Congress are referred to in the Champaign county records—May 26, 1824, and May 26, 1830—as having been passed to quiet titles to land "between the Ludlow and Roberts Lines. As a matter of fact, the maps of today recognize the Roberts Line graphically only above the Greenville Line; that is, from that line to the headwaters of the Scioto. For the purposes of survey and for the description and definition of all township lines, roads, etc., the old Ludlow Line is still used from the Greenville Line southwesterly to its beginning in eastern Clark county, notwithstanding that it is known to be incorrect. This is done because practically all the surveys of the county had been established in relation to it before it was definitely known that it was not a true line. It was felt that it would be unnecessary to resurvey all the land, roads, etc., to conform to the corrected line ;, and instead, Congress was asked to pass special acts to straighten out such difficulties as might ensue from defective titles to land in the narrow strip between the Ludlow and Roberts Lines.
The resurvey of land between the old and new lines is responsible for an endless amount of litigation which has not disappeared even to this day. Many of the surveyors were paid in land warrants, others in land and in some
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cases the surveyors may have been paid in tobacco. The testimony of an old surveyor, E. L. Morgan, may be brought forward to substantiate the use of tobacco in paying for surveying.
FEES PAID SURVEYORS IN THE OLD DAYS.
In 1793 Virginia passed an act which set forth the fees which might be charged by surveyors. To quote from this act (Henry's Statutes of Virginia, p. 353) : "For every survey by him plainly bounded, as the law directs, and for a plan of such survey, after the delivery of such plat, where the survey shall not exceed four hundred acres of land, two hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco ; for every hundred acres contained in one survey above four hundred, twelve pounds of tobacco; for surveying a lot in town, twenty pounds of tobacco ; and where the surveyor shall be stopped or hindered from finishing a survey by him begun, to be paid by the party who required the survey to be made, one hundred and twenty-five pounds of tobacco ; for surveying an acre of land for a mill, fifty pounds of tobacco." The act gives details for the paying of the tobacco, but does not specify the kind of tobacco, the presumption being that it was plain leaf tobacco. In case the tobacco was not in hand the surveyor was to receive "tobacco notes or specie at the rate of twelve shillings and six pence for every hundred pounds of gross tobacco."
That this law of old Virginia was still in force in Ohio when land in Champaign county was being surveyed is testified to by E. L. Morgan, one of the first surveyors in the county. In speaking of the Ludlow Line in 1872 he remarked that "Jim Armstrong and I had been paid such fees for our services as surveyors, and all in tobacco, and could we have kept it until now (1872), we would he able to supply the upper and lower ten and their little boys with cigars for a month or more, besides poisoning all the potato bugs in the county." The "Jim" Armstrong referred to was county surveyor, later county treasurer, still later the organizer of a bank and eventually became the president of the first national bank in Urbana.
A DETAIL REGARDING ISRAEL LUDLOW.
That Israel Ludlow's activities throughout this section of the country had their beginning even as early as territorial days is evidenced by the following letter written by him and which is copied from a volume of Cist's "Cincinnati Miscellany, or Antiquities of the West," published in 1845
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Pittsburgh, December 2nd, 1795.
Dear Sir—The hurry of business, while at Mad River, prevented my enclosing you a .power of attorney, to transact my business in my absence. I now write you and fully signify my approbation to such sales and conveyances of lots, in the town of Cincinnati, as you may think proper, and at such prices as you can agree upon. I would pen the request and authorize you, should I not be at Cincinnati early next Spring, to lease to the best advantage my out lots there. Our journey from Mad River to this place was long and tedious, arising from high waters ; some detention on account of the Indians; we were obliged to have a talk with all that fell in our way, and had also a very bushy country to travel through—but have the pleasure to inform you, that a good road may be had from Cincinnati to this place, the distance less than three hundred miles—would be under particular obligations to you, if you would endeavor to prevent the destruction of fences around my out lots. Am, sir,
With due respect and esteem, your obedient servant,
MR. JOEL WILLIAMS.
ISRAEL LUDLOW.
It will be remembered that in 1795 Congress concluded a treaty with the Indians following the battle of Fallen Timbers. This treaty was signed at Greenville, Ohio, and is known in history as the Greenville treaty and the line marking the division between the Indian lands and those relinquished by them to Congress was known as the Greenville Treaty Line. From the :above letter o f Ludlow, it would seem that he might have had something to •do with the establishment of this line. Certainly, this letter shows conclusively that he was surveying in Ohio several years before he laid out the line which bears his name to this day.
CHAPTER III.
COUNTY ORGANIZATION.
The first appearance of Champaign county in the annals of history was made when the Legislature of the state of Ohio passed the act of February 20, 1805, which provided for the creation of a county bearing that name, its formal organization to take place on the first of the following month. The first limits of the county were much more extensive than the county has today, as may be seen by the wording of the act creating the county. There is so much geographical ambiguity in the act describing the original limits of the county that it is impossible to delineate with any certainty the limits of the county as set forth in the act of February 20, 1805. The difficulty in defining these original limits arises from the fact that the framers of the act described the bounds not by township, range and section lines, neither by reference to natural features, but solely with reference to counties previously established. To quote the act :
ACT ESTABLISHING THE COUNTY OF CHAMPAIGN.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc., That so much of the counties of Green and Franklin, as comes within the following boundaries, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate and distinct county, which shall be known by the name of Champaign, viz: beginning where the range line' between the eighth and ninth ranges, between the Great and Little Miami, intersects the eastern boundary of the county of Green, and to continue six miles in the county of Franklin; thence north to the state line; thence west with said line until it intersects the said eastern boundary of the county of Montgomery; thence to the place of beginning.
Sec. 2. That from and after the first day of March next, the said county of Champaign, shall be vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities of a separate and distinct county; provided, always, that all actions and suits which may be pending on the first day of March next, shall be prosecuted and carried into final judgment and execution, and all taxes, fees, fines and forfeitures which shall be due, shall be collected in the same manner as if this act had not been passed.
Sec. 3. That the temporary seat of justice for said county, shall be at the town of Springfield, at the house of George Fithen, [Fithian] until the permanent seat of justice be fixed according to law.
Sec. 4. That this act shall commence and be in force, from and after the first day of March next.
(6)
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CONFUSION REGARDING ORIGINAL BOUNDS.
It would take an expert cartographer to delineate on the map of the state the limits above described. First, it is necessary to determine the location of the eighth and ninth ranges and the limits of the Montgomery county of. 1805; secondly, the limits of Greene and Franklin as they existed at the same time. In fact the only definite line described in this act of 1805 is the northern boundary and yet even this line is not given definite eastern and western limits. Again, while the act specifically states that the northern limit in 1805 was the state line, it seems certain that the men who framed the act did not take into consideration the Greenville Treaty line of 1795. As a matter of fact the state Legislature had no right to organize counties out of territory to which the Indians had not yet relinquished their title. Since the land immediately north of this line of 1795 was still in the possession of the Indians in 1805, it follows, perforce, that the limits of Champaign county in 1805 could not have extended farther north than the Greenville Line of 1795.
The addition of all this extensive tract north of the Greenville Treaty Line to the Champaign county of 1805 was in pursuance of the policy of the Legislature to add to each regularly organized county of the northern tier certain portions of Indian or unorganized territory, the territory so attached to be under the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the organized county. In 1805 Champaign was the farthest county to the north in the western part of the state and it was necessary to attach all the territory north to the state line to it in order to give the protection of the state to the few settlers who might have settled within the territory in question.
There is nothing in the local commissioners' records to indicate that there was any attempt to organize townships in the portion north of the Greenville Line. On the other hand the fact that Champaign county did have some kind of jurisdiction over the tract north of the present limits of the county and to the state line is shown by records of townsites in the region in question. There is a townsite recorded in the local records which stood on the present site of Toledo, and there can be no question that Champaign county once had civil and criminal jurisdiction over the territory now within the present city of Toledo. There are other fugitive references to land titles in the section north of the Greenville Line, but it cannot be said that the history of Champaign county had much more than a sentimental connection. with Toledo.
The county commissioners organized township after township between
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1805 and 1817, but in no one of the twenty-five townships is there any indication that they considered the northern limits of the county extending beyond the Greenville Treaty Line.
The best evidence in proof of this statement lies in the fact that the commissioners in the townships they organized in what is now Logan county recognized the 1795 line as the northern limit of the county and in the townships of Jefferson, Lake, Harrison, Miami and Zane, no part of any of these five townships lay north of the 1795 line. Additional refutation of the tradition that Champaign county extended north of this line is found in the description of Zane township as set forth in the commissioners' records of Champaign county in 1814; "Beginning at the southeast corner of Jefferson township; thence north to the Indian boundary ; hence with said boundary to the Delaware county line; thence south with said line to Wayne township ; west to the place of beginning." This description gives Zane township the limits of the present Perry and Zane townships of Logan county.
LIMITS OF COUNTY PRIOR TO 1818.
There seems to be no way to define the limits of the Champaign county of 1805 and the uncertainty which existed one hundred years ago in regard to county lines has not entirely disappeared even to this day. In 1888 the surveyor of Champaign county made a detailed survey of the line between Champaign county on the one side and Madison and Union counties on the other. The line which he determined does not coincide in all particulars with any of the various lines established in preceding surveys. Even since that year other attempts have been made definitely to establish the eastern line of the county—but in vain. The best local authorities today agree that the southeastern corner of the county is not definitely established and furthermore there does not appear to be any means of establishing it. Five different stones, established by as many different surveyors, mark this uncertain, wavering southeastern corner of the county.
The difficulty which has attended the orientation of the eastern limits of the county is due, of course, to the fact that it falls within that portion of the state which is surveyed by metes and bounds. In that part of the state where the rectangular system of surveying does not obtain there is, and always has been, an endless amount of confusion and litigation due to the inability of surveyors to follow with any degree of exactness the surveys of the first surveyors of the state.
The Ludlow Line traverses Champaign county from the southeast to
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the northwest and all that part of the county east of it falls in the old metesand-bounds system of surveying, while that to the west is all surveyed according to the rectangular system. Little difficulty is experienced in the surveys of that part of the county surveyed by the latter system. It has already been mentioned that the local commissioners' records are missing from the organization of the county in 1805 up to 1818 and this fact renders it impossible to trace the formation of the townships, define their boundaries or set forth with any certitude the limits of the civil divisions of the county prior to 1818.
Prior to the creation of Champaign county in 1805 the following counties had been defined by the governor of the Northwest Territory (between 1788 and 1799) and the Legislature of the Northwest Territory (between 1799 and 1803) :