50 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY While the name Springfield is enduring, in turn it has been designated : "Mad River City," "Champion City," "City of Roses," and "Home City," and when its future rests on such enthusiasm as was displayed by a caddy en route to the golf links, who exclaimed : "The best town of 60,000 population in the United States of America. It's the city of roses," it seems destined to be a "Continuing City." There are four Springfields of local significance, Springfield, Massachusetts, having a population A. D. 1920, of 129,563, while Springfield, Ohio, stand second, having slightly outgrown its "slogan" population, and Springfield, the capital city of Illinois, had 59,183, and Springfield, Missouri, ranks fourth with 39,620 inhabitants, and yet on first blush very few Clark County people accord their own Springfield second place in the comparison, nor do they think of it as less than half the population of any other Springfield. A number of persons were asked the relative question. While starting the year 1922 right in the First Congregational Church, the Rev. Harry Trust quoted from Joshua : "For we have not passed this way heretofore," and that had special significance to James Demint and his wilderness contemporaries along Mad River. While taking stock, and placing a milestone along the highway of time—the history, Springfield and Clark County, it develops that Springfield has had its definite existence longer than the county—that for two years its location was uncertain, and that it has been in Greene and Champaign counties before the organization of Clark County—that like vinegar, Springfield is older than its mother. In his New Year sermon, the aforesaid minister said that the fascination of exploration fastens its grip upon the individual, and when those Kentuckians ventured in separate groups to cross the Ohio soon after the Greenville treaty was heralded abroad, they established a goodly heritage. Be it remembered that when the original survey of Springfield was made, all were Kentuckians who were interested in it. While Demint and Daugherty were on the ground first, in the light of later developments Griffith Foos was the man of vision among them. He was the man who opened the door of Springfield to the wilderness world, and who is best known to posterity. While there are times of inertia, a standstill condition is not in accord with the laws of nature. While the key-note of the New Year sermon was, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow," there is quite as much sanctity in retrospect. It becomes a sacred duty to establish the connecting links between yesterday and today in local history. The first published account of Springfield extant is found in the Ohio Gazetteer of 1816, which says : "It is a flourishing post town containing eight mercantile stores, and the mechanical shops usual in such towns, besides an extensive woolen cloth factory," while the latest directory says : "Springfield is without natural boundaries and, therefore, has numerous manufacturing sites with proper railroad sidings that can be procured at a reasonable cost," and beside suitable sites the city offers transportation, stable labor market and power, with satisfactory living conditions. Its proximity to the sources of raw material, and the markets for the finished products ; its commission-manager form of government ; its fair distribution of taxes ; its healthy climate ; its hospitals ; its schools ; its play grounds ; its churches, musical advantages, parks, boulevards, mar- SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 51 kets, streets, banking conditions—an attractive convention city, local boosters ever enthusiastic about the City of Springfield. When R. C. Woodward was writing Springfield Sketches, published in 1852, he said : "There are three old men now living in the community—John Humphreys, David Lowry and Griffith Foos ; they are all men of respectability," and from them he gleaned many facts used promiscuously in this review of the community. All were early and all were permanent citizens ; two of them represented agriculture, while one was a citizen of Springfield. The squatter is defined as the link between the Indian and the white settler, and he was encountered in some localities ; wherever his hat was off he was at home, and he cared little for progress. He camped on the border line between savagery and civilization, and he knew little of the laws regulating society. His occupation was hunting and trafficking in furs, and when civilization crowded him he moved to the frontier again. These three venerable citizens had encountered the squatter in the early days of Clark County history. The pioneers were compelling forces, and they did not rest on their oars ; they were their own ancestors, and the "sons of their fathers" sometimes do not accomplish more with all their superior advantages. However, men and women still start at the bottom and climb to the top of the ladder of personal achievement ; they do it unaided by tailor or druggist—they are self-made in the fullest meaning, and it is because of them that Springfield forges ahead today. Among them some still linger who knew the spirit of the pioneer community builders, and the difference between yesterday and today—the changed environment has wrought a changed civilization. It is said that indifference stops the clock in any community, and while Springfield has its problems, the men of today are maintaining the high standards of civilization established by the fathers. Some versifier writes : "The biographer strives, in recording the lives Of America's forefathers, to hand His particular dad all the virtues that's had, And with faint praise the rest of them brand. "Now I take it that they, in a sort of a way Worked together this nation to found ; They put over the deed, and there's surely no need To carp and cavil and scoff. Their collective endeavor was sound, And there's glory enough to go round." While the pioneers were unequalled for honesty and hospitality, some who followed in their wake have been noted for their morality and their intelligence. The chief object of the settler was the care of his immediate family, and when there was a surplus product he supplied others, and thus agriculture has supported commerce and manufacturing, and Springfield is the most noted city in the world in its manufacture of the implements of agriculture. A recent platform speaker viewed with alarm the modern tendency toward the use of machinery, calling it a shadow on civilization and saying that it "takes the creative joy out of life," and yet who would want to "backward, turn backward," to the days of the stage coach and the spinning wheel in local industry ? 52 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY No less distinguished personage than Lord Northcliffe, who was England's and perhaps the world's most traveled citizen, said that the United States has been transformed within the last generation—thirty years a generation in the above estimate—and Springfield has advanced with the rest of the world. Lord Northcliffe said : "The United States is now almost another country, although the basic element of American character is the same ; while I go to the United States often, and have watched the gradual changes, other countries and especially those which have only lately been affected by the newspaper, the moving picture, the professional propagandist and the automobile have changed much more suddenly. While many of the changes are superficial, and the superficial is what meets the eye everywhere, there are certain vast world movements beginning to show themselves." THE SPINNING WHEEL-GRANDMOTHER'S PIANO While it is alleged that the Mother Shipton prophesy appeared in pamphlet form in 1641, and has been reprinted frequently, its every detail except that couched in the last two lines : "And this world to an end shall come In eighteen-hundred-eighty-one," has all been verified, and the street activity is like the country woman who seldom quit her home, said of the bustle and rush : Springfield is just like meeting broke all of the time. In his 1921 annual report, Fire Chief Samuel F. Hunter says under the heading of recommendations : "The first and foremost thought that we should always keep before us is the fast and constant growth of our city, such as the industrial plants that are expanding with larger buildings, and the finished and unfinished products therein that must be protected ; then our mercantile establish- SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 53 ments are getting larger and more numerous, with larger stocks to be protected ; there are more school buildings being built to take care of the increased number of children ; our hospital is being built larger to take care of the increased demands ; there are new additions and others being laid out for residences ; these dwellings are being built principally of wood construction, and there are demands for more houses to take care of the industrial development. "There are 20,000 buildings of all kinds, principally of wood construction ; there are valuable contents, and all are combustible ; the city is growing and new buildings are being erected, thus increasing the fire hazards," and few men keep closer in touch with city developments than the chief of the fire department, who stands ready at all times to "give an account of his stewardship." While in many ways Springfield is a modern city, there is still something of the old aristocracy—pride in ancestry. Among the older residents is a degree of familiarity—they know each other by their Christian names, and they still say John and Mary. While society is letter perfect in many things, Springfield is past its transition period, and is recognized as a city. OUTSTANDING DATES It was on St. Patrick's day, 1801, that Springfield first claimed "its place in the sun," but not until January 23, 1827, did the State Legislature recognize the "incorporated town of Springfield," and not until May 14, 1850, was Springfield incorporated as a city. While it has had city manager-commission form of government since January 1, 1914, under the original form of government James L. Torbet was mayor. It is said that the coterie who developed the community made enough money to serve their needs—that they were able to say : "Here it is," rather than "Where is it ?" and yet they did not manifest any ambition for great wealth. LOCAL CELEBRITIES There was a time when there was as much social prestige in the rural as in the city homes in Clark County ; before the Civil war, New Carlisle and South Charleston shared social honors with Springfield, and the farm fireside was a voice in the community, and while the contact is different—they all have their influence today. The reconstruction period changed conditions, and since 1870 Springfield has been the business and social magnet, but the world is undergoing reconstruction again. Clark County names in the hall of fame are : Tecumseh, Mother Stewart and Gen. Frederick Funston, and many who know them as national characters, do not associate them with Springfield and Clark County. In the 1921 edition of "Who's Who" are the following Clark County names : L. E. Holden of New York, who also maintains a South Charleston residence ; Hamilton Busbey of South Vienna ; Dr. D. H. Bauslin, T. B. Birch, C. G. Heckert, Richard Hockdoerfer, Gen. J. Warren Keifer, L. S. Keyser, M. L. Millegan, Juergens Neve, Walter Tittle, V. G. A. Tressler, and Clarence S. Williams. This is recognition not purchased with money, but since the publication two names—Doctors Heckert and Bauslin, have been stricken from it by fate—the destiny that rules the world. In the past as well as in the present, many Clark 54 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY County citizens have been known beyond its borders, but the list appearing in "Who's Who" is corrected every year. SOCIAL RECOGNITION An old account says that in 1820 there were three leap-year bridegrooms in Springfield : John Bacon, Ira Paige and Charles Anthony, and all became active in local business affairs ; they all had children, and were active community builders. In 1836 Mr. Anthony is listed again as an attorney, contemporary with James L. Torbet and Samson Mason ; the doctors of that period were Robert Rodgers, Berkley Gillett, Isaac Hender- shott and Benjamin Winwood ; the ministers were John S. Galloway, Michael Morley and William N. Raper ; John Ludlow was the druggist ; John Wallace and Wolcott Spencer were the merchants, and William Werden was the hotel man of the town. Robert Lucas was governor of Ohio. Many people were then locating within the state, and Clark County was attracting its share of settlers. It was about the end of the Andrew Jackson presidential administration, and the country was rapidly adjusting itself. R. C. Woodward, who wrote "Springfield Sketches" anonymously, acknowledges having gained much information from Mrs. Walter Smallwood, who was the most active woman in the community. In 1804 there were eleven houses in the vicinity of Main and Market streets. Two Frenchmen, LeRoy and DeGrab, are mentioned as the first dry goods merchants. Foos and Lowry had taverns, and there was a brewery. Three of the houses, the Daugherty home, the Charles Stowe store, and the Lowry Inn, had ornamental stone chimneys, while stick-and-clay described the others ; sometimes the settlers said "stick-and-cat" in describing the cabin-clay chimneys. The home of Colonel Daugherty was spoken of as a mansion. It was the finest house in Springfield. While the Demint cabin was across Buck creek, the Griffith Foos hostelry was the first house built within the incorporated town of Springfield. THE PUBLIC SQUARE While the stranger in Springfield thinks of the Esplanade as the public square today, it was the plan of James Demint that the business should center about the county buildings nearer Buck Creek, and George Fithian, in whose home the temporary Clark County Court was held in 1805 and who had become interested in Springfield real estate, had the same idea about it. The four corners at Limestone and Columbia streets, occupied by the court house, county building, Clark County Historical Society and the soldier's monument, were designed to remain vacant, with the business interests centering around them ; it was to be a military square similar to the plan of surrounding towns, but other additions were laid out and business did not center in that locality. There was a reversionary clause, and to save the property from going back to the Demint ownership, the county buildings were located there. It is said the first Demint plat did not become a matter of record for some years, and the second one not until after his death, and when Sprigman and Lowry opened an addition they planned a market house, and business went in that direction. It was on higher ground, and offered better advantages to the community. SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 55 CHRONOLOGY. It is out of the question to correlate all of the facts, and give the exact chronology of early Springfield. There was a time when grain was carried on horseback to Lebanon, and thus the settlers had flour. Within a year or two, James Demint constructed a mill at the mouth of Mill Run that had the capacity of five bushels of grain every twenty-four hours, and then people had the home product—white bread when they wanted it, but the capacity was not long equal to the requirement. When Simon Kenton had a mill in Lagonda, the settlers talked about going to Kenton's mill, but his education was not sufficient to manage the milling PIONEER SUGGESTIONS business ; he said he was wronged by patrons, and he did not remain long in the community. However, mill sites are numerous in the vicinity of Springfield. For many years flour mills. were operated by water power, there being mill dams of both log and stone, and the tolls amounted to fortunes. In 1807 Robert Rennix built a flouring mill on Buck Creek which was "considered quite an addition to the comfort and convenience of the citizens," and in April, 1841, S. and J. Barnett built a fire-proof mill with iron gearing operating five burrs, and the product was 100 barrels of flour in twenty-four hours. What would James Demint do with such an indus- 56 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY try ? The Barnetts were their own millwrights, and they furnished power to other industries ; their mill gave an impetus to trade conditions in Springfield. It was a real asset to the community. While the Barnett mill was on Buck Creek, Mill Run furnished water power to many industries, a dozen mills in operation at one time. The Demint mill was the rift in the clouds—the settlers could have meal and flour without such long journeys. Water power is still available in Springfield's largest flour mill—Limestone Street and Buck Creek. As early as 1805 Cooper Ludlow operated a tannery and asheries were known to all pioneers ; the Ludlow Tannery was on Mad River until 1812 when it was moved to Springfield. In 1809 there was a powder mill built by John Lingle and Jacob Cook, but they did not have to contend with the disarmament sentiment broadcast in the world today. A number of pioneer tanneries were scattered about, some on Mad River and one at New Carlisle, and the sale of oak bark was a source of income to many settlers. Oak bark was tan-bark, and, skins of animals were tanned and made into clothing. Thomas Williams specialized on deer tanned and made into clothing. Thomas Baldwin was an early Springfield merchant—Stowe and Baldwin, and they had the first two-story frame business house in town. The first two-story log house was the hotel property owned by Archibald Lowry. Jonah Baldwin had part in the council with the Indians in 1807, when Tecumseh came to town for an adjustment, and for more than half a century he was a man of influence in Springfield. In 1812, Pierson Spinning came from Dayton, with a stock of goods that had been caught in a storm between Cincinnati and Dayton, by wagon, and because they would not sell well in the older community the damaged stock was brought to the Village of Springfield. It proved such a profitable venture that he continued the business till 1834, and at one time he was regarded as the richest man in Clark County. He made frequent horseback trips to eastern markets to buy goods, and because of a physical handicap—a perma- nent lameness, he used a side-saddle for the long journey. He would visit both Philadelphia and New York, and spend six weeks making the trip that is now accomplished in twenty-four hours. In Pierson Spinning's day the merchandise was brought over the mountains to Pittsburgh in wagons and it was shipped by the Ohio to Cincinnati and transported again by wagon to Springfield. The cost of transportation was about $6 per hundred, when wheat was worth 37% cents on the local market. Because of the canal, grain was worth more on the Dayton market than in Springfield. Mr. Spinning was a connoisseur, and while buying merchandise he supplied his own household with many costly treasures—the Spinning of Springfield today having many of them. The family had the first cookstove and the first piano brought into Springfield. Maddux Fisher was a community builder, coming from Kentucky in 1813 with capital amounting to $20,000; he was a man of unusual business ability, acquiring twenty-five lots at $25 each from Demint, and becoming a booster for the organization of a new county. Recognizing the possibilities of Springfield, Fisher went to the State Assembly in Chillicothe and urged that a new county be erected from Champaign, Madison and Greene counties ; his measure was opposed by Joseph Vance who represented him in the assembly, but the agitation was continued at his own expense ; he lobbied in the interest of Springfield until Clark 58 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY County became a reality, and then he met and overcame the rivalry set up by New Boston, now only a memory west from Springfield. When the news of his success reached Springfield there was a jollification ; tar barrels were burned in the street, and apple toddy was passed to all. While quick communication had not yet been established, within a week from that Christmas day, 1817, local government was established in Springfield. It had been almost twelve years in Champaign County. When Maddux Fisher was a Springfield business man the first pavement was in front of his store. Fisher's Corner was a landmark for many years. To the victors belong the spoils, and that long ago a "pull" was an advantage. He was postmaster himself, and he named personal friends for offices in the new county. Because of their activities, men are still rewarded with official positions—Maddux Fisher establishing the precedent in Clark County. While it has been recited that Springfield business went south from the original center because of the location of a market house near the Esplanade, one account says there was a time when it was along Main Street, with only scattered groups of houses on Columbia and North streets, between Spring Street and Lowry Avenue, the latter know as Mechanic Street while Wittenberg was then Factory Street, and the change of name from Market Street to Fountain Avenue is within the memory of men and women not yet grown old in the community. Main was once South, and Columbia was Main, but that change was made in order that Main Street might be the continuation of the National Road through Springfield. Main _and Market are intersecting streets in many towns—time honored names in many communities, and the sign Market Street may still be seen in Springfield. While the street corner signs in the pavements are permanent, strangers continue asking for information without seeing them. The name Fountain Avenue is seen in the pavement, while the name Market Street is still seen on some of the walls of buildings. Market Street became Fountain Avenue under conditions that no longer exist, Dr. T. J. Casper using his influence to effect the change because of the fountain erected by 0. S. Kelly on the Esplanade. It was while Mr. Kelly was mayor of Springfield. While the intent of the fountain was excellent, its construction was not well planned, the lower basin not being large enough to catch the water when enough force was used to display the cascade or spray, and it was always wet about it. When the Kelly Fountain was installed the, city beautified the Esplanade by planting trees—shade in the center of Springfield. Lawn seats were scattered about, and they were an invitation to idlers to while away their time in the beauty spot of the town. The mistake of the plan was apparent, and when the fountain needed repair it was torn down, and the seats were removed to Snyder Park. Instead of pointing with pride to the fountain Springfield citizens were disgusted with the loafers always assembled there, and it was not an attraction for visitors. The Kelly Fountain had a series of water basins, and in the sunshine the cascades were beautiful, but coupled with the f act that the pressure splashed the water beyond the basins, and the people attracted to the seats reflected discredit on the community, the fountain is now a memory ; the name of the street requires constant explanation, and some would gladly return to the time honored designation—Market Street. The names were not suggestive of the development along them, and SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 59 Factory. became Wittenberg because of the college, and Mechanic became Lowry to perpetuate the name of a settler. The industrial sections are fringed around the business center, the mechanics and factories still being component factors, although the early map-makers did not accurately forecast their locations. In 1839 some one said to P. E. Bancroft, who was the original Springfield furrier : "You can do no good out in the country," notwithstanding the later trend of business west on Main Street. However, business was checked in its westward trend owing to the class of citizens encountered; the first murder in Springfield was in a cellar under a saloon in that direction, and the account continues : "The town gradually grew around, until it enclosed the Bancroft business in the heart of the city." As Springfield increased in population and business interests, many substantial improvements were made in the town ; as the years passed by, the citizens were ready to expand their facilities to meet the growing demands of society. While there was a time when the people met regularly on Saturday afternoons to run their horses, and similar orgies—when moral welfare was not so much of a study as it is today ; when drunken sprees wound up in fights ; when black eyes and bloody noses were the regular accompaniments of sports ; when the Sabbath was spent in hunting, but there was always a moral leaven—among all the viciousness and depravity there were upright men who exerted an influence to stem the tide in the rapid progress of iniquity, and out of it all came the church and the school—such necessary adjuncts to the moral and intellectual development of any community. The same conditions that prevailed in the hamlet exist in the enlarged community, but more counteracting agencies ; more welfare movements offset the seeming vices today. It is said of the pioneer that his manner was agreeable in his relation with his family and his neighbor, but that he was stern and unyielding in discipline—when he said no he meant it. Notwithstanding the Bible injunction : "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds," there are men and women who do not read ; who do not contemplate the busy world programs at all. While men and women are marvelously constructed—fearfully and wonderfully made, they do sometimes get into ruts ; they do not live up to the growing intelligence ; they are influenced from without rather than from their own initiative, and they are a menace; know thyself and thy limitations does not describe them at all. President Warren G. Harding says : "Ours is a people with vision high but with their feet on the earth, with belief in themselves and faith in God," and the Rev. Hough Houston of Central M. E. Church declares : "A lack of vision is a waste of life. * * * There are not many great men compared with the mass. * * * Men of ability are few ; abilities are wasted by lack of vision. Riotous living brings individuals to grief, and causes the waste. * * * Right living enables a community or nation to live in perfect harmony with other communities and other nations." Civilization is based on the proposition that the good of the community is more important than the good of any individual in that community. THE SPRINGFIELD MARKET It seems that the public market is a time-tried institution; in the late '30s Clark County farmers attended the Springfield Market, where SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 61 they received 5 cents a dozen for eggs ; ; they received a "fip-and-a-bit" for butter in pound prints, and 6Y4 cents for a peck of apples. Not many vegetables sold as there were backyard gardens ; tin cups were used in measuring smearcase, and there were no small market measures. The modern way of putting up fruit and vegetables in tin cans, glass jars and paper boxes increases the cost to the consumer, but the advantage is in handling and preservation; the bread sold on the market was baked in Dutch ovens on the hearth, and the cooking was done in pots hanging from cranes. The market was in a shed located east from the Esplanade adjoining the site of the Arcade ; it was supported by posts and open on three sides ; to the south was a swamp, and to the east was Mill Run. Think of that market in contrast with the market of today, when the rental of stalls enters into the question—the price of the commodities. Butchers had stalls in the shed, and an old account says : "It would make the mouth of the modern buyer water to see the nice cuts of pork, beef or mutton which Leuty, Grant and Wragg spread out on their counters at the prices then in vogue," and the same writer says : "Another cause of high prices is an increased daintiness of appetite ; nothing satisfies but the best the world affords. We send to Tar Cathay' for tea ; to Java for coffee ; to Ceylon for spices, and. to Italy for almonds and sweet oil. The best oranges and grapes come from the isles of the sea," and all he enumerates may be seen on any -market day in Springfield. The market house today abounds with eating places, while the writer quoted continues : "When through selling, the marketers would refresh themselves at Granny Icenbarger's who made and sold ginger cakes and spruce beer in a two-story shack where the Fairbanks Building now stands. This woman is said to have been the first baker in Springfield. She was an industrious woman, and enjoyed a wide acquaintance both in town and in the country. Her cakes and beer were sold wherever the people gathered—camp meeting or military group, and everybody stood ready to befriend Granny Icenbarger. She came into the community in 1812, and in 1839 she died in Springfield. Granny Icenbarger had a drunken husband content to be known as the husband of such a remarkable woman ; she was diligent, and a woman of unblemished character ; her name was familiar to all. She was kind to all, and many a hungry man replenished at her board ; they all stood ready to patronize and befriend Granny Icenbarger. The husband was a small, thin man with crooked legs, and when under the influence of liquor he was very noisy and demonstrative. While he was so bowlegged he could not head a hog in an alley, he hopped around in the wildest manner, and he was the source of a great deal of trouble to this woman. She was used to seeing him drunk, but when he died and friends came in, she exclaimed : "La, me, the old man is dead, what a pity !" and when the candles were lighted, she talked about what it would cost her to bury him. It is said that making one's own living develops character, and this woman had supported herself and husband. In 1848, a better market house was completed in Springfield costing $7,800, including the bell and the necessary grading around the building; a town clock was purchased by the council, and the drift of business continued in that direction. Martin Cary, who was the first child born in Springfield, was the market master ; by ringing the bell he opened and closed the market. Springfield citizens came to market to secure sup- 62 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY plies for breakfast, and there were few idlers in the community. However, Samuel S. Miller, whose reminiscences have been drawn from, relates : "One night, while we slept, one of that kind reached under the cover and took father's stovepipe-Sunday hat away with apples in it, and he had to get another from Hubbel, the Main Street hatter." THE CITY BUILDING While Fountain Square is but a memory, the Esplanade is a reality, and the city building facing it was completed in 1890, at a cost of $250,000 to the tax-payers of Springfield. It extends from the Esplanade to Center Street, and is considered one of the finest office buildings in Ohio. It shelters the city market, affords office rooms for the city officials, and there is a commodious auditorium once used for many public meetings. The city manager and all the departments are on the Esplanade side, while the police department is in the Center Street side of the building. While the market has always been open three days in the week—two forenoons and all day Saturday, there has been an effort to increase the revenue by instituting a six-days' market, which it is argued would stop the country people from coming, and make of it a market for hucksters who get their supplies from the commission houses. While the increased rental would give the city more revenue, it would add to the cost of food sold on the market. Those who produce their own fruit and vegetables are opposed to the six-day market ; they need some of the time for production. With the original market in an open shed, and a market house built in 1848, and the present building erected in 1890, it is evident that Springfield always has patronized the public market. The market house built in 1848 had a hall for public meetings, but it was so close to the machine shops on the site of the Arcade, that if an orator attempted a speech his voice was drowned by the sound of hammers in the factory. Sessions held at night were not thus disturbed, and among the speakers were eminent men, Stephen A. Douglas and Fred Douglass, the noted colored orator, both having spoken from that platform. There was a wood and hay market to the west of the building, and for years more wood than coal was used in Springfield. In war times wood was supplied at $6 and $7 a cord, and afterward $3 was the price of the best beech and sugar f our-foot wood in this market. While soldier-blue overcoats were still worn, many loads of wood were sold in Springfield. There were hay scales, and lunch and hot coffee were supplied by the weigh-master. The creek—the Mill Run of the past, fed by the springs southeast of town—furnished water in abundance at this market house. There was a wooden bridge across it, and a quagmire prevented any streets being extended south of it. In the '50s there was a walk constructed to the site of the Pennsylvania station, and it was keep on the walk or mire in the swamp. In Civil war times the effigy of Clemency L. Vallandingham was submerged in that swamp, but such a feat could not be accomplished there today. When the country people would come into that market house, because the market master rang his bell at 4 o'clock in the morning, they had to be in readiness the night before ; of ter fixing their horses, and tightening their wagon covers, they would lie on bedding brought from their homes ; they would not sleep long until they were wakened by the clatter of the SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 63 butchers placing their quarters of beef, pork and mutton ready for the block when market opened, while visitors might inspect the market, selling did not begin until 4 o'clock when the bell released everything. There were Conestogas in Clark County then, and the farmers would come to market with a bushel of potatoes and a few pounds of butter ; they would bring apples, cherries and currants or gooseberries ; they packed their eggs in chaff because the roads were rough, and there were no springs to their wagons. The farmers who attend market today bring their products in automobiles, and there is constant demand for produce fresh from the country. When an aged man with unimpaired memory dies, it is like removing a book from the library ; many stories of Clark County development have been buried with the settlers because no record was made of them. S. S. Miller had written something of early Springfield market conditions that has been incorporated into the story. In giving a reason for the increased cost of living, he took into consideration the increased number of consumers, saying the population of the city has out-stripped the growth of the rural community ; the manufacturing industries deplete the number of soil workers, and lessen the production of foodstuffs ; they think shop work is less slavish than farm labor, and leave the country. The community always will have its economic problems ; it has been said : "Big fleas have lesser fleas, upon their backs to bite 'em, And lesser fleas have lesser fleas, ad infinitum," and why should Springfield constitute an exception? The outstanding feature in Springfield development is its tablets ; while shrines abound in some localities, the tablets erected about the city are the silent testimonials. The tablet at the entrance to the Warder Library tells the necessary story ; the tablet at the city hospital pays tribute to the founders ; there are tablets in the churches, and in Wittenberg College, seemingly an universal method of commemoration in the community. CHAPTER VIII GEOLOGY—ITS RELATION TO CLARK COUNTY The data used in the study of geology, and its relation to the history of Clark County, is adapted from a paper written by W. H. Rayner, from the Ohio Experiment Station Bulletin, and from an interview with Dean C. G. Shatzer of Wittenberg College, who has made personal investigation. Dean Shatzer defines geology as an effort to determine the history of the earth and the origin of its present surface features. The out-cropping limestone indicates that this region was once an arm of the sea. It was probably disconnected from the Gulf region. Such changes have occurred in the topography of the country. The surface of Clark County is a combination of two things—the breaking of bedrock from the action of the weather and the rising streams. This action gives rise to the residual soil. Existing conditions are the result of material carried down by glaciers. Attention is called to the terraces which everywhere mark the streams flowing south from the glaciated area, and that is the general direction of the stream in Clark County. Almost without exception the streams flowing southward from this area show marks of former floods from 50 to 100 feet higher than those of recent occurrence. Gravel deposits from 50 to 100 feet higher than the present flood-plain line the valleys of such streams within the glaciated region, and through much of their course after they have emerged from it. In the subjoined list of Ohio streams are mentioned the Big and Little Miamis and Mad River, and there are many terraces within Clark County. It is in terraces of this description that so-called palaeolithic implements have been found, which includes the earlier half of the Stone Age, the remains belonging to extinct animals and to human beings. There is no question but this class of terraces was formed by the floods which mark the closing portion of the glacial period ; the occurrence of human implements in their undisturbed strata connects the early history of man with the closing scenes of the glacial period. In the light of the above information any well-directed study of the glacial period is important as shedding light upon the condition under which man began his career and upon the time which has elapsed since the beginning of things. Scientific investigation reveals the fact that once upon a time this whole region was under a crust of ice ; it extended from the cold north across Ohio and Clark County to the Ohio River. When the glaciers melted the molten mass mixed with local materials and the result was the soil formation. It is an interesting study—molten ice mixed with clay and gravel, and the results are different in different places and under different conditions. Anything is soil that supports vegetation and that quality exists in water. The average tiller of the soil does not understand its chemical composition ; he only knows that the alternate freezing and thawing puts it into productive condition. The relief of Clark County is largely due to moraine deposits ; the knobs about Wittenberg campus cropping out again about Catawba in the northeastern part of Clark County are the results of terminal - 64 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 65 moraines. The market house in Springfield is at an elevation of 979 feet, while the greatest elevation within the county is found in Pleasant Township, where it ranges from 1,240 to 1,280 feet above the sea. The wayfaring man leaving the heights east from New Moorefield and facing the setting sun may overlook the whole of Clark County. As far as eye can see there is nothing to obstruct the view, and it is a glimpse not duplicated often in any part of the country, the whole contour sloping in one direction. While Recitation Hall in Wittenberg is at an altitude of 1,000 feet, and there are higher points on the campus, the aforesaid traveler looks above it all.   While the United States Survey conforms to base and range line established by the government, since the glacial period the erosive action of the water in the streams and of the weather have combined to shape the hills and have given them their present surface conditions. While man may defeat the action of the elements, nature's handiwork is more or less perfect, conservancy finally correcting its errors. The Ohio Experiment Station analysis describes the Clinton and Niagara formations, saying Clark County is covered with glacial drift derived chiefly from limestone. In the broad valleys of its streams this drift has been replaced by alluvium and . deposits of gravel, the predominating soils being silty and gravelly clay barns of the Miami and Bellefontaine series with considerable areas of alluvium, including both black and first bottoms of Wabash series. They are both first and second bottoms along Mad River.   The gravelly Bellefontaine soils covering the moraines are generally naturally drained with the underlying gravel, as are also some of the terrace and bottom lands, but the intermediate Miami soils are generally in need of more or less artificial drainage; the limestone derivation of all Clark County land has assured the soil of permanent fertility when properly handled, although farmers are now studying the chemistry of the soils and applying the necessary elements. The limestone cliffs so much in evidence promise the material when the soil requires such an application. Mr. Rayner writes that the geological formations underlying any locality have an influence not only upon the animal and vegetable life on its surface, but may contribute to the comfort, growth and development of the humanity inhabiting that section of the country.   This is specially true where ores, coal or minerals occur in the underlying. strata. But these influences will be found to exist in some degree where only ordinary geological conditions are found. In the past people have judged the productiveness of the soil by the preponderance of growth of certain kinds of trees and other vegetation. The soil of a beech ridge is readily distinguishable from that of a sugar grove or a section of swamp ash. Many people designate the quality of the soil by the kind of trees that are found growing out of it. In turn, vegetation influences and makes possible the animal life ; the soil and underlying geological formations have an influence upon the pursuits, development and ultimate condition of the human race. It holds true in Clark County as well as the rest of the world.   LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE   The fortieth parallel and the eighty-fourth meridian intersect about four miles from the northwest corner of Clark County and the average   Vol. I—5   66 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY   elevation is about 1,000 feet above the sea. While the surface is undulating and there is some swamp land, there is but little that will not ultimately be brought under cultivation. The surface formations are attributable to the drift period, while the underlying formations are classed within the upper and lower silurian periods. Beginning with the unstratified Guelph limestone which crops out with the Niagara at various places, and extending downward through the Niagara shales or Dayton limestone, the Clinton series and Medina shales of the upper silurian period, through the Hudson River series, Utica shales and Trenton limestone of the lower silurian period, all are found at points in southwestern Ohio and seem to be in evidence in Clark County.   The Niagara series which predominates in this locality takes its name from the outcrop at the Niagara River, where it was first carefully studied. It also extends under the Great Lakes and outcrops again in Wisconsin. It forms the principal underlying strata of the North Central States. It is rich in the following fossils : Pentamerus Oblongus, Pentamerous Ovatis, Crinoids, Trilobites and Orthoceras, the last frequently of enormous size. There are two methods of determining the underlying formation of a given locality. The usual method is to follow the outcrop of the various formations from some remote point where the lowest anticipated formation is exposed, and noting the depth and extent of each division. In this way there is reasonable certainty in determining the underlying geological formations. This method is not difficult as southwestern Ohio is like an open book to the trained geologist. Beginning at Point Pleasant and journeying northward along the Little Miami where the Trenton limestone is the surface rock, any one who is familiar with the fossils and other indications of the various series in the ascending scale will be able not only to determine the series, but to form a good estimate of the thickness of each general formation.   The other method is by analyzing the drillings of the deep gas and oil wells. This method has only become available since the developments in the '80s, but it has served to confirm the conclusions earlier formed by the older method. In 1885 a well was drilled west of Plum Street on the south bank of Buck Creek in Springfield, with record of the following formations : The surface soil and the Guelph rock had been removed in the process of quarrying, and from the floor of the quarry was found blue limestone, 15 feet ; white clay, 3 feet ; Niagara shale, 40 feet ; Clinton limestone, 42 feet ; Medina red slate, 12 feet ; shale rock, 226 feet ; gray shale, 37 feet ; gray shale, 305 feet light shale, 130 feet ; dark shale, 230 feet ; red sandstone, 76 feet, and black shale, 24 feet.   It is difficult to understand the conditions that existed in glacial period. Today the best examples are found in Alaska, Greenland and the Alps, but they pale into insignificance when compared with the great ice cap that forced its way from the north, overspreading this region. The moraines deposited by it, marking the line of its southward approach, may be traced from Long Island to the mountains in Idaho. It was a wall of ice thousands of miles long and hundreds of feet deep, its face melted into fantastic shapes, grottoed and pinnacled, disgorging untold volumes of water, as the rays of the southern sun held back and checked this frost king of the north. It has left in its retreat, not the disintegrated silt of the local rock formation that might or might not   SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 67   be available for plant growth, but the assimilation of the distintegrated granite of the North and the limestone beds of the Great Lakes in a reduced and prepared state, containing every essential element for the development of the highest standard of agriculture.   After penetrating the various formations as above indicated, the drill struck Trenton limestone at a depth of 1,140 feet, or about 190 feet above the level of the sea. A year later another well was drilled to a depth of 2,400 feet, passing through the Trenton limestone into the St. Peters sandstone, below which was found a light colored magnesian limestone, but as yet no drill in this locality has reached the igneous rock which underlies the constructive geological series. The accepted theory is that it is a sedimentary deposit laid down on the bed of the ocean at a time when the Gulf of Mexico extended to and included the Great Lakes. It is evident that an uplift came to this locality about the time of the completion of the Niagara series and from that time the region has been barren rock or dry ground. A topographical survey would have represented a level plain, later eroded and scored by the advancing waters of an approaching glacier of the drift period.   The rock-walled channel of the Great Miami extends to the western part of Clark County and at St. Paris, which is the highest point between the Great Miami and Mad rivers, this ancient river bed was shown by the drill to have been 530 feet below the present surface and of an extreme width. While the exact width has not been determined, it was wider than the valley now enclosed by the hills on either side of the Ohio. Imagine such a river, with almost perpendicular banks interspersed at intervals with islands which were monuments of limestone so firm as to withstand the eroding effect of the mighty current with its many caverns and whirlpools. It was a river vast in the stillness of creative times upon which the eyes of man have never looked, but which fulfilled its mission and ceased to be. However, one of its islands remains today, the top of which has long been operated as a quarry a few miles south of St. Paris.   LIMESTONE CLIFFS   The gorge of Niagara represents that type of river and the rocky gorge of Mad River west from Springfield was a feeder for this great river, just as today it flows into the Big Miami. In the fullness of time came the glacial period with its moraines that planed, crushed and ground the limestone, filling the rocky crevices with debris, and as the glacier receded leaving its surf ace covered with boulders from some foreign locality. They filled its rock-hewn river valleys and opened new water courses for the discharge of the melting floods. Thus over the limestone plains are scattered beds of sand, gravel and disintegrated stone that form the clays, layer upon layer, bed upon bed sometimes with exact regularity, and sometimes in most heterogeneous masses. As proof of these assertions every boulder-strewn field is a witness. The identical ledges from which these boulders were detached may be found in the Canadian quarries today.   In 1893 Mr. Rayner examined the Canadian Geological exhibits at the World's Fair in Chicago, confirming the theory that Clark County boulders are but the detached fragments of quarry stone, rounded and   68 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY   worn by the torrents of the receding glacier. Every gravel bank shows that each grain of sand was laid in its place by the icy current that deposited it. Many of the boulders and some of the pebbles are ground smooth and polished by their long journey, and some of the surface rock in Clark County is planed and grooved by the ice-clasped granite of the glacier. Some years ago when workmen were uncovering the surface rock preparatory to blasting for a waterworks trench in North Isabella Street, very distinct and definite markings were found, but they could not be preserved, as they were crushed by the blast.   When the glacier receded vegetation fastened itself upon the hitherto barren land, and it is believed by geologists that this section of the country was inhabited immediately. Evidence has been cited confirming the belief, and that animal life was represented ; the bones and teeth of the mastodon are encountered, and one complete skeleton found in Clark County is being exhibited at Ohio State University, Columbus. Others have been located that could not be excavated without destroying them, as related in the chapter on Moundbuilders. The musk-ox was a companion of the mastodon and a skull and horns were once found in the swamp in the Mad River Valley, however, in Champaign County. These skeletons were preserved because the animals mired in the swamps, and the water level remained above them. No doubt many others existed in the post glacial period, but skeletons left on the dry ground soon disintegrated and passed out of existence.   HUMUS IN THE SOIL   The summer rain and the frost of winter mellowed and disintegrated the virgin soil. The rank growth of grassy vegetation in the lowlands and the hardy pines and cedars in the uplands mingled their fallen trunks with the sands and clays of the moraines, as evidenced by the fragments of these woods that are often found in excavating and in digging wells. They added vegetable mold in ever-increasing proportions, producing a soil of variety and richness seldom excelled in the most favored localities.. However, it does not follow that all the soil is good in Clark County. While some of it holds an excess of certain elements they are lacking in other parts, but the knowledge of soil chemistry relieves the difficulty. Frequently the remedy is at hand and an analysis of soil constituents determines its needs. The geological resources are known and it remains for man to utilize this knowledge.   There are farms in Clark County having valley land so rich with vegetable mold that ordinary crops do not fully develop. They fire and die, while on the same farms are clay hills that would afford to this soil just the elements needed to make it productive and in turn the hills need the humus that is excessive in the valleys. The owners will benefit when they exchange part of the soil of each with the other. (In another part of the country an onion specialist had an understanding with his sons that whenever they hauled a load of clay and distributed it as they would manure on the muck, he would pay them for it.) Great changes have occurred in the soil and the contour of Clark County since the uplift in the latter part of the upper silurian period. Nature is the great assayer and assimilator.   SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 69   ACTION OF THE ELEMENTS   In some measure the northern half of the United States owes the continued and sustained productiveness of its soil to disintegration from freezing. Every particle of sand or soil that is susceptible to penetration by water is frozen each winter and is thereby disintegrated and rendered suitable for plant food. In the South, where frost is infrequent or non-existent, the change is readily discernible. Chemical action is constantly adding to the productiveness of the soil, but humus is the most active agent in soil nutrition. Not only does decayed vegetation return to the soil those elements received by its growth, but it takes from the air other elements which cannot be secured and combined in the soil by any other method. The roots of the plants penetrate the soil and some of them to great depth. As they decay they leave open avenues through which moisture may penetrate, where it is stored again against the drought. In a measure animal life also contributes to soil fertility.   The crawfish and burrowing animals add their part to the changes and usually to the improved condition of the soil. At the present time the bodies of fish and domestic animals constitute part of the commercial fertilizers. It is said that every particle of lime in the world has at some time or other formed the bone or shell of some living organism. Secondly only to the glacial activity, erosion changes the contour of Clark County more than any otHer agency, and at the 'present time the process is more destructive than for a long period in past history. The denuding of the land of the forest growth, the drainage of swamps and lakes, and the cultivation of the soil have aided the washouts on the hillsides and the formation of gulleys until land that was cultivated a generation ago is pasture land again.   This washout agency will continue its devastating work unless controlled by man. In many parts of the South hill lands are being terraced under the direction of engineers. Notwithstanding all the efforts of nature, it is a fair prediction that with sufficient man-and-horsepower —the tractor supplanting the horse, it is possible that the products of Clark County farms may be doubled and still leave the land enriched beyond its present condition, and without bringing a pound of commercial fertilizer into it. While limestone has been used from the time of the earliest settler, the future demands will be greater upon this recognized necessity. Lime has long been a production of Clark County. Stone crushers are busy today putting it into shape for fertilizing the soil of the locality.   ANALYSIS OF LIMESTONE   The Guelph rock of Clark County is analyzed as follows : Carbonate of lime, 54.13 ; carbonate of magnesia, 44.37 ; allumina and oxide of iron, .56 ; and silicious matter, .65, showing a 99.71 composition limestone, perfectly adapted to fertilizer requirements. This limestone lacks only one element necessary to the production of cement. The lower beds of limestone are stratified and have been used extensively for building stone. It represents the Niagara series. It is unsuited for street building purposes, being so soft that it soon grinds into dust, and is hauled off the streets in the form of slush and at an additional expense. Springfield has experimented with it, spending thousands of   70 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY   dollars building macadam streets of it. Mr. Rayner one time entered into correspondence with the department of agriculture in Washington relative to the advisability of using this stone in street building and was informed that it would be better to pay freight on suitable stone than to use it.   While there is an increasing demand for limestone as land plaster, it may be used as a flux in smelting. The Mad River Valley offers ideal conditions for an iron furnace. It is midway between the coal fields and the lake ore, and in the center of an iron-consuming territory —the valley west from Springfield. The Clinton limestone found in the southwestern part of Clark County is also lime producing, and better material for macadam roads than the cap rock and upper series tried out in Springfield. It marks the lowest series in the upper silurian period except the Medina shales, found in the extreme southwestern part of the county. The lime deposits are of hitherto unknown value because they have not been utilized in the past as they will be in the future. The use of lime as a fertilizer is a recent discovery and it offers commercial possibilities.   THE USE OF SAND   In the drift deposit Clark County is provided with valuable sand and gravel easily available for use. Sand of many kinds is found in abundance. While it is used in mortar and cement, there are good grades of molding sand in large quantities within a few miles of Springfield. While one of these banks is open, it is practically inoperative as it costs more to load it into wagons and haul it to town than to load the sand at the banks farther north where steam shovels are installed, and ship it to Springfield. Clark County gravel is used in concrete construction and makes excellent sidewalks. It is unexcelled for road building and there is local demand for it.   The Clark County clays are a sedimentary deposit of the glacial period. They constitute a large percentage of the underlying soil and crop out on many of the hills. A species of kaolin or white clay underlies the bogs and small lakes, causing them to retain the water. Doubtless some of these clays are suitable for manufacturing the cheaper grades of porcelain, but it is not known whether or not they exist in commercial quantities. Clay flower pots are manufactured within the county and brick and tile making are an important industry. No doubt terra cotta and clay conduits can be made to advantage.   Because of its geological formation, Clark County is well supplied with springs of good water. They have aided in the development of agriculture and the stock raising interests. These springs and spring-f ed streams may yet be utilized in supplying water for irrigation, when the vegetable gardens need it. There are many ponds and dry holes ranging in size from 50 to 200 feet in diameter, and from 2 to 20 feet in depth. These depressions were probably formed by the sinking of the surface, due to the melting of large bodies of ice which had been buried in the debris of the drift period. Where the ice was covered with clay the depression formed a lake, and where it was covered with gravel there was drainage and it became a dry cavity.   Sometimes the clay bed of a lake overlies a gravel formation, and by drilling through the stratum of gravel the lake may be drained and   SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 71   the land reclaimed for tillage. In 1886, when wells were being drilled for gas, one was sunk to the depth of 1,800 feet by the Champion Machine Company, when a vein of salt water was encountered and cased off, and the drill continued to 2,400 feet, the work prosecuted under difficulties because of the presence of salt water. What about drilling again and utilizing the water rich in salt? It stood at the level of the water in the soil and may be refined for its deposit of salt. No one recognized its commercial possibilities while drilling for natural gas or oil.   BOULDERS AN ASSET   There remains one geological product that has been regarded in the light of a detriment rather than an asset. It is the drift boulders so generally distributed, especially in the western part of Clark County. The smaller boulders were used by the pioneers in walling their wells, in building their chimneys and in foundations. In some localities they are utilized in ornamental construction—walls and chimneys and porches. Millwrights sometimes used them, but few such millstones are in existence. One said to have been used by Simon Kenton in his mill at Lagonda has been builded into a dedicatory monument in Snyder Park. The Clark County boulder is a long way from its home, and yet many who have encountered it thought it was a native.   Today the best roads in Clark County are being constructed from the crushed fragments of these granite boulders. The road builders have had transported over land and water and left at their doors the best possible material for building thoroughfares. The boulder also brought with it some of the semi-precious stones that otherwise would be unknown in Clark County. Two stones have been found near Springfield in which there were numbers of garnets. In many of them jasper is found, and in the drift gravel agates, porphyry and petrified wood is encountered frequently. They add to the interest in the study of Clark County's geological resources, and it remains for the generations to come to gather from the rocks, the sand and the soil those elements which nature has bestowed, and which by intelligent use may yet contribute to the comfort and prosperity of man.   WIND AND WEATHER   Mark Twain discredits the man who talks about the weather without doing anything for it, and John Kendrick Bangs sings :   "The sun and stars move on their way, In endless courses orderly ; They mark the passage of each day, In undisturbed serenity."   A local paragrapher commented : "The year 1921 was one of the warmest on record. It was about three degrees warmer every day than normal, and the New Year started out like it. The first thirteen days were ten degrees warmer than normal, and there was little zero weather. A window card in a Springfield business house reads : The climate is erratic. Do you know that all fur-bearing animals—domestic and wild —have unusually long coats of fur, indicating a hard winter?   72 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY   An old account says that on May 6, 1806, a disastrous storm took the upper story off of the first frame house built in Springfield. It was the property of Samuel Simonton and when he repaired the wreck he would not risk a second story. A number of log houses were damaged and much fence was destroyed. While the line of the storm was only about thirty yards wide, it singled out the one two-story house.   Springfield people were wrought up over Indian troubles as well as the storm, but of ter the conference with Tecumseh and others in 1807, the town moved along in the "even tenor of its way" until a freshet in 1809 disturbed conditions again. Buck Creek overflowed its banks and the inhabitants became alarmed, and some thinking it a judgment sent from heaven left the community.   In 1832 Clark County was visited by heavy rains again, and on February 11, that year : "Buck Creek dashed by proud of its haughty condition, and Mad River was full half a mile wide ; indeed, all the streams were higher than they had been since 1814," and who knows about that flood? The flood ninety-nine years later, 1913, is well remembered in Clark County and the Miami Valley, although the damage wrought at Springfield was as nothing compared with the flood at Dayton.   While there is mention of a meteoric shower November 12, 1799, there is nothing to connect it with the area now covered by Clark County, and it must be an error in print since the meteoric shower of 1833 occurred the same month and day, November 12, when the "stars fell." One account says : "They seemed to drop from all points straight down like rain when there is a perfect quiet." William A. Barnett, who came from Butler County to Springfield, describes this meteoric shower as witnessed there, saying : "We were early risers. Time was set at 4 o'clock, winter or summer. I was up and saw the wonderful shower of meteors or shooting stars. We were getting ready for an early start at corn husking," and since the meteoric display was widespread it was most likely witnessed in Clark County.   Old settlers in Ohio and Indiana discussed the time when the stars f ell and all were agreed about it. Mr. Barnett was later a miller in Springfield, originating the famous Golden Fleece brand of flour, and his story may be regarded as authentic. On April 11, 1833, a tornado passed near Springfield sweeping off the roofs of houses and laying waste the forest about the width of a quarter of a mile in its onward march. In March, two years later, there were three weeks of sledding, which is mentioned as unusual weather conditions. Good snows for sledding were frequent. Farmers kept two sleds, one for drags to the woodpile and logs to the saw mill, and the other having thinner runners with higher knees and cross pieces and standards, was used in hauling the limbs for firewood, and by adding a bed of loose boards it was used for general purposes. With straw in the bottom and with heated brick under the covers, people went everywhere in such sleds.   The above is taken from the reminiscences of S. S. Miller and he corroborated its accuracy by an interview with William N. Whitely, who had been caught in the storm riding home from Urbana. As yet there were no banks in Springfield and Mr. Whitely had gone to Urbana to procure the money with which to pay for some cattle. Samuel Lefler was one of a party who went- to Logan County to bring a drove of colts to be distributed among Clark County farmers and   SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY - 73   on the return trip they were caught in the storm. It was a deep snow and they had difficulty bringing the colts to Springfield. The weather turned cold and remained so, and it was an unusual thing for March.   In 1855-6 there was another snow that lay on an unusual length of time. Many weeks of sleighing were enjoyed, but the carpenters and blacksmiths had learned the art of making better sleds and sleighs and there was more pleasure connected with it. People. went on long journeys without fear of the snow leaving, and the vast expanse of white that covered field and forest gave promise of something more useful when spring came again. The water from a well on Limestone between High and Main streets was frozen into a mountain of ice, reaching the spout of the pump and remaining until warmer weather. When the fire department was called to Wittenberg College the men suffered from frost-bitten hands, feet and noses, but the coldest time was in 1861 New Year's day—the temperature being twenty-one degrees below zero in the morning, seventeen at noon and nineteen at night, but notwithstanding the severity, spring came early and many of the 100-day volunteer soldiers planted corn before going to Camp Denison in April.   FROST IN CLARK COUNTY   It was the night of June 4 and the morning of June 5, 1859, according to S. S. Miller, that "the most disastrous late frost during the lifetime of the present generation" visited the community.' William M. Cartmell submits the diary dated June 21, 1858, as kept by Charles Lofland of Catawba, saying: "We have had bad weather for a long time. It began to snow and rain about the middle of October last, and since then I have scarcely seen the sun, moon or seven stars. People are backward with their crops, and some have just finished planting their corn. The freshets have done a great deal of damage along the water courses by overflowing the bottoms and carrying off fences, but there is the finest prospect of small grain and grass that ever was seen in the country."   Daniel Printz said it was June, 1858, that this country had the disastrous frost that destroyed the corn. He was born that year and his mother told him it was the year the frost ruined the corn, but Mr. Miller is very definite in his recollection, saying: "Our folks had a guest that night. Just as I was making a fire he came down stairs and asked if there was frost. I told him to look out—that everything was white and stiff and there was ice that required an ax to break it. When the sun had thawed out things the disaster was apparent. The corn in the Donnels Creek bottom that was from twelve to eighteen inches high fell flat, and the forest leaves turned black. The full-sized pawpaw leaves dropped off like they do in October.   "Next day was Sunday. Nature wore a pall of grief and the farmers were the mourners. While some used sheepshears to trim off the frozen plants, in other instances nature did its own surgery and there was no dearth of corn at husking time. Those who furrowed between the rows and planted again had too .thick a stand of corn and it did not ear well. The best corn that year was planted late and was not through the ground at the time of the frost. Potatoes sprouted up again, but wheat in the bottoms was ruined, there being a light yield   74 - SPRINGFIELD AND CLARK COUNTY   on the high ground. While there were few thermometers then, there never has been such cold weather in June.   "The winter of 1881-2 was notable, snow falling on the night of November 15 and remaining throughout the winter. The oldest residents did not remember a winter of such steady low temperature. The snow did not melt at noon in the sunshine, and a Springfield milkman delivered his product from a sleigh for eighty consecutive days. There have been years without summers and years without winters, but there always has been seed time and harvest. While the last winter was the warmest on record, January 12, 1918, is admitted to have been the coldest day known in Clark County. There was snow, snow, snow, and traffic was suspended because of it. There were drifts, drifts, drifts, and the roads were impassable. Livestock walked from field to field unconscious of the wire fences separating them, and fences were opened that travelers might go around the drifts, all of which is within the memory of those who read about it.   "The heat of summer and the cold of winter, the cold, damp days are forerunners of the springtime. The old couples reads :   "March winds and April showers, Bring the pretty May flowers."