HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY - 168
CHAPTER XVII.
TOPOGRAPHY.
THE CHANNELS CUT BY THE BRANCHES OF LICKING RIVER-THE LICKING VALLEYS-THE TABLE LANDS-THE EXTENT AND ACREAGE OF THE COUNTY-ITS PRIMITIVE SURFACE- PRAIRIES- SWAMPS-PONDS-LAKES-THE RESERVOIR- SPRINGS- RUNNING STREAMS - FLINT RIDGE LICKING NARROWS AND BLACK HAND ROCK.
"To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
The language of delight, of scenes most enchanting,
Of the odorous wealth of her charming floral treasures,
Of beauty most ravishing-of grandeur-of magnificence
Of tends musical with the far-away echoes of departing summer breezes.
THE same influences which shaped the topography of Knox and Richland counties, have left their impress upon ,that of Licking, have determined the direction of. the water-courses, and have divided the county into several well-marked topographical areas.
A deep pre-glacial channel from the north enters the county a little west of the Sandusky branch of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, extending southward to Newark, and is 'now occupied by the northern branch of Licking river,. At Newark it divides; one branch turning directly to the east, in the valley of Licking river, and one branch extending northwesterly, through what was evidently, at one period, a broad lake, and in which now flows the south branch of the Licking, with a reversed current to join the main stream at Newark. smaller channel, coming from near Martinsburgh, Knox county, passes through Eden township and the valley occupied by the Rocky fork o the Licking,. to its junction with the main stream This channel is marked by debris of adjacent bluff's, and has had less influence upon the topogra phy of the county than the others named.
The larger channels are now filled with water washed pebbles, resting, ordinarily, upon the old rocky bed, but in places upon the remains of the original drift clay, covered with alluvium, and sandy ridges marked by a succession of terraces and corresponding water-plains.
South and southwest of Newark these water plains expand, covering a large area. Borings for wells indicate that the rock has been here excavated to a depth corresponding to that of the old channels, and that in the latter part of the glacial epoch a lake of considerable size covered the surface. These old flood-plains are exceedingly fertile. The surface above them is divided into four topographical areas..
In the. district north-of the Licking and east of Rocky fork, including the townships of Perry and Fallsbury, are a succession of hills rising to the rocks above the third coal seam, and are separated by the deep and narrow valleys of the streams, which generally have a rock bottom and bluff banks.
The slopes of the hills are usually covered with the debris of the local rocks. North of the Licking, and between the North fork and Rocky fork, are similar hills in Mary Ann township, rising to a height sufficient to catch the lower coal, and, in Newton township, to the horizon of the carboniferous conglomerate, which is here mainly represented by a stratum of silicious iron ore.
166 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
In the southeastern part of the county are hills of like character; the surface diversified in a similar manner by a net-work of deep ravines, the channels of recent streams.
In the northeastern part of the county is a high, undulating table land, the rocks all Waverly, and in the northern and central part deeply covered with unmodified drift clay. The undisturbed, billowy surface of the original deposit still remains, except upon the borders of the streams and upon the southern slope, where the clay of the drift has all been carried away, and the evidences of its presence remain only in the pebbles of the streams and occasional erratics of the slopes of the hills.
In the southwestern part of the county an irregular series of low hills project into the old water plains of the valleys, in part covered with drift, the latter in places extending below the beds of the present streams.
The extreme width of Licking county is twenty-two and a half miles from north to south, and, in length, thirty miles from east to west. It contains six hundred and fifty-eight square miles, and was originally thickly covered with a great variety of huge forest trees, and a dense and almost impenetrable undergrowth of shrubs and bushes. The earth was also thickly clad with a luxuriant growth of indigenous grasses, weeds and trailing vines, with the exception of a very brief period during the winter months.
Of prairies, there were few and none contained more than a very limited number of acres.
Among the principal of these was the Bowling Green prairie, or rather. series of prairies, commencing about four miles below Newark and extending eastward along the Licking bottoms for a mile or more. Here it was that Hughes and Ratliff erected their cabins in 1798, and raised a crop of corn during that and a number of subsequent seasons, and which was the first corn ever raised by white men within the present limits of the county.
One mile below Newark, in the valley of the Licking, was another one, or more, on which Isaac and John Stadden raised corn in the year 1800. There were several prairies of smaller extent down the Licking valley.
There was a prairie in Washington township north of St. Louisville, called the Cranberry prairie, known, also, in early times, as the Warthen prairie. It was large compared with most of Licking county prairies, and in portions of it partook more of the character of a swamp than a prairie.
One of the most celebrated prairies in the county was situated a little over a mile west of Newark, and was generally known as Cherry Valley prairie. It was extensively used as a racecourse by the early settlers a number of years. Ultimately, most of its surface became measurably covered with water, and hence unfitted for tillage or horse-racing. In this condition it remained nearly thirty years, and until drained by ditching, when much of the area composing it became plough land, and most of the remainder good grass land for pasturage.
The "Little Bowling Green" situated between the National road and the Perry county line, in Bowling Green township, on the waters of the Moxahala, was a small prairie. It was first cultivated in 1802, and was well known by the early settlers. It gave name to the township in which it is situated, organized in 1808.
There were several prairies along the southern borders of Union township, one being of considerable magnitude; also one or two, separated by a narrow belt of timber, at the junction of the Bloody run and Brushy fork, in McKean township, called Plum prairie, and sometimes Plum orchard. It was famous for its abundant yield of prairie rattlesnakes.
Besides these there were a number of others in different sections of the county, but they were generally of very small size. The county may, therefore, be considered as belonging to the class known as wilderness, or, heavily timbered; the superficial area of prairie bearing too insignificant a proportion to the timbered land to be taken into account.
Of swamps there were many, but mostly small. Most of the prairies had the characteristics of swamps as much as of prairies, rendering their correct classification somewhat difficult.
Some of the most notable swamps were on the Bowling Green, five miles below Newark, and at several other points in the Licking valley; one a mile north of Newark, on the farm of Captain
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 167
Archibald Wilson, where he settled in 1806; also the Bloody Run swamp, near the Fairfield county line, as well as others in the same township, and those in the vicinity of the reservoir; besides many others of smaller size; one in the southeastern part of Lima, Wolf swamp in Liberty, and several in the southern portion of Hartford township.
Ponds were numerous but not of large size. The Goose pond, two miles northwest of Newark, covering from fifty to sixty acres, was one of the largest. The Deweese ponds in the southern part of Union township; the Log pond a mile northwest of Newark; and the famous pond that ornamented the public square of Newark as late as 1830, were among the principal ones.
Of lakes, there is but one, so small, however, that it should be called a lakelet. It is situated near the mouth of Lake fork, in Washington township, and covers fifty or sixty acres.
It abounded in fish, aquatic plants, some amphibious animals, as well as wild geese and ducks, and was the scene in early times of much sport for anglers and hunters. The water is of very considerable depth in places. It is generally known as "Smoot's lake," a gentleman of that name being owner of most of it.
If the reservoir may be included in the category of lakes, it makes the second, though only a portion of it is in Licking county. It is located in the southern portion of Licking and Union townships, and in the counties of Fairfield and Perry; and now embraces an area of pore than three thousand acres; probably one-third belonging to Licking county. Its limits were somewhat extended. in 1828 by the construction of the Ohio canal, of which it is a feeder, and made navigable to Thornport from the canal. The depth of water is considerable, and in early times it was regarded as a paradise by the sportsman.
Springs are numerous, but there are few of large size. The Big spring upon the farm originally settled by General John Spencer, in Newton township, in 1805, is among the most noteworthy. It is made up of the united waters of several springs, and the volume of water was sufficient to propel the machinery of a grist and saw-mill for many years after the first settlement of the county. It has yielded to the general law, and now discharges a reduced quantity of water, no longer furnishing motive power for machinery, although there is still sufficiency of water for that purpose on a more limited scale.
Among the large springs are several north of Centerville street, in Granville township; and another, or rather two that form one, on the Welsh hills, being the head or source of the Goose Pond run. The two rise within two feet of each other, and flowing together, make one spring. The one is what is called hard water, and the other soft water, thus presenting the anomalous feature of being hard water on one side and soft water on the other. It is on the farm of William Cramer in Granville township. It had a copious flow of water in early times, and was reckoned among the largest springs of the county.
One or two of the largest springs are situated about a mile north of Newark, near the North fork, on the farm first settled by Mr. Jacob Wilson. Of chalybeate or mineral springs, there are none of any note.
Of running streams the county is abundantly furnished. Nearly all the waters of Licking county flow into the Muskingum river, by way of the Pataskala or Licking river, and the Wakatomika. The exceptions are that the rains falling upon the southern portions of Hopewell, Bowling Green, Franklin, and Licking townships, run into the Moxahala or Jonathan's creek, which, after passing through a portion of Perry county, empties into the Muskingum three miles below Zanesville; and the rains falling upon the western portions of the townships of Hartford, Monroe, Jersey, Lima, and Etna flow, by way of the Black Lick and Big Walnut creeks into the Scioto river.
The South fork of Licking rises in the northwest corner of Jersey and runs through Lima, Harrison, Union, Licking and Newark townships, passing, in its meanderings, a short distance into Fairfield county, and unites with the North fork at Newark, the two forming the Licking river.
Hog run and Ramp creek are tributaries of the South fork, both entering that stream at nearly the same point in Licking township.
The former rises in Franklin township and runs westwardly; and the latter in Harrison township, running easterly through Union township.
168 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
The Raccoon or Middle fork, another tributary of the South fork, has its sources in the townships of Hartford and Monroe, and after passing through the townships of St. Albans, Granville and Newark, empties into the South fork half a mile above the junction of the latter with the north fork at Newark.
The Otter fork rises in Knox county, passing through Hartford and Bennington into Burlington township, where it, with other small streams .,from Knox county, flows into the North fork of Licking.
Lake fork rises in Bennington and Liberty townships, and after passing through Burlington township, discharges itself into the North fork two I miles south of Utica, in Washington township.
Clear fork and Brushy fork rise in Liberty township, and both find their way into the North fork, the former at Vanattasburgh, and the latter one mile further south, both in Newton township.
North fork rises in Knox county, and after flowing through the townships of Bennington, Burlington, Washington, Newton and Newark, unites at the city of Newark, with the South fork, the two forming the Licking or Pataskala river, the main stream of the county, which, after passing through Madison and Hanover townships, empties into the Muskingum river at Zanesville.
Brushy fork and the Clay Lick are both tributaries of Licking river. The former has its source in Muskingum, and after winding around through the valleys and rocky, mountainous regions of Flint ridge, passes through Hopewell and Ha nover townships, and empties, in the last named township, into the Licking. Clay Lick rises in Hopewell, and after passing through Franklin empties into the Licking at the township line between Madison and Hanover.
Rocky fork heads in Washington township, and after meandering through the deep gorges, precipitous banks, abrubt slopes and steep bluffs of Eden, Mary Ann and Hanover townships, empties into the Licking at the head of the " Licking narrows" in Hanover township.
Wakatomika rises in Knox county, and after flowing through Fallsbury and Perry townships empties into the Muskingum river at Dresden.
In addition to these streams there are many small tributaries, not necessary to mention.
The "Flint ridge" is a section of country of a mountainous character, situated principally in Hopewell township, extending entirely across it from east to west. It slopes. off into Muskingum county on the east, and on the west into Franklin township, Licking county: making its extreme length from six to eight miles, and its average breadth less than two miles from north to south, not counting the length of the spurs that diverge from both sides of it, into the more level land.
It is extensively covered with flints and buhrstone, the latter being largely. used by mill-owners, in pioneer times, as a substitute of .the French buhr, for making flour.
The Licking narrows, when the pioneers first settled here, was probably one of the most picturesque places in Ohio. It was a romantic, gloomy gorge, about two miles in length through which flowed Licking river.
Cliffs of enormous rocks lined the banks and presented a steep front on the south side, of very irregular height, covered with laurel and evergreen trees, and shrubbery or undergrowth peculiar to mountain regions. The north, or left bank of this dark ravine was formed by a line of nearly solid, sandy rocks, generally from fifty to sixty feet high, and varying in position but slightly from perpendicular, rising out of the water, which washed their base in many places, and no where left more than a narrow strip of land, of a few feet between this bank and the river. This stream had an average breadth of a hundred feet or more, and the branches of the trees which stood on its banks almost ran together: indeed in places they interlocked, carrying the grape-vines, growing on one side, into the branches of the trees which stood on the other, thus giving the Narrows, during the season of full foliage, a dark, gloomy, cavernous appearance. In places on the left bank, this bed of gray sand-rock stood in a position not perpendicular, but overhanging the water in a sort of semi-circular form. On the face or front of one of these overhanging rocks had been rudely drawn, probably by Indians, the outlines of various animals, and also the form of a large human hand; hence the name of "Black Hand Narrows," by which the place was known by the early time hunters and pioneer settlers. They found on the front
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 169
surface of this projecting rock, some ten or fifteen feet above its base, at the water's edge, the impression of a large hand and wrist, the thumb and fingers distended, and being in dimensions about double that of the hand of a common-sized man. It had been chiseled or scratched out, probably with .a sharp-pointed, or thin-edged flint wedge or chisel, and the hollowed grooves thus made had become blackened from the action of the atmosphere; or perhaps the growth of a coat of black moss had given it its color.
This curious black hand pointed east, and was destroyed by the blowing away of the rock on which it was inscribed; this touch-to-be-regretted act becoming a necessity in the construction of the Ohio canal; the river the whole length of the Narrows being made slack-water, by means of a dam at the lower end. The Black Hand rock was removed to make room for the towpath. This slack-water canal arrangement was effected by means of a lock at the upper end and a dam, as already stated, at the lower. The interest of the Narrows was also increased somewhat by a beautiful miniature cascade on the left bank of the river, formed by a small gurgling rill which fell over this perpendicular bank of rock, sixty feet in height, into the stream below.
The Licking Narrows was a spot abounding in interest to the pioneers, and was the scene of many an ancient legend-of wild hunting stories and thrilling, romantic adventures. The scenery in its primitive state, before man laid his heavy destructive hand upon it, was surpassingly grand, gloomy, picturesque and magnificent. Nature here presented such a splendid exhibition of her works as to command the admiration of all votaries, under whose observation they came. Here, indeed, is one of Nature's master-pieces-a deeply interesting manifestation of her power.
The pines bowed over, the stream bent under
The cabin cover 'd with thatches of palm,
Down in a canon so deep, the wonder
Was what it could know in its clime but calm.
Down in a canon so cleft asunder
By sabre-stroke in the young world's prime,
It look'd as broken by bolts of thunder,
And burst asunder and rent and riven
By earthquakes, driven the turbulent time
A red cross lifted red hands to heaven."
The presence of marine shells and other diluvial deposits, together with many other geological indications, seem to favor the opinion that these Narrows were formed by the waters of the valley to the west, which were believed to have been a lake or sea at some period of remote antiquity, the surface of which was on or above the level of the tops of the banks forming the Narrows, and discharged its surplus waters over them, gradually washing out and deepening the channel as time rolled on, thus ultimately draining the sea or lake, leaving only the stream that now flows through the gorge, as the outlet for the waters that accumulate in the valley above-a valley extending almost to the western limits of the county, and northward, beyond its limits, embracing an area of hundreds of square miles of most fertile and beautiful lands.
This may account for the sandy condition of the soil of the larger part of Licking county-it was once the bed of a lake. At what period of time this lake existed is unknown; probably many centuries have intervened.
Another deeply interesting locality in the topography of the county is the region of the Rocky fork, and especially, of Rain rock in Eden township. These localities will receive attention in the township in which they are located.
170 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY
CHAPTER XVIII.
GEOLOGY.
THE POSITION OF THE COUNTY GEOLOGICALLY-EVIDENCES OF FORMER EXISTENCE OF LAKES-BLUE CLAY-PEAT BOGS-COAL-HYDRAULIC LIME-FLIT RIDGE-GEOLOGY OF THE EASTERN PORTION OF THE CO
Search the mysterious recesses of
The great walled earth, and find the handiwork
Of God. Pile is heaped on pile, and shaped through
A million years. Rare on race of men, beasts
and vegetation, sink down, perish and
Are built upon; and countless ages hence, a
Race of pigmies, called men, will then, as now,
Drag up from hidden depths these other forms, and,
Chattering like monkeys, warm themselves by
The fire built of the debris of lost and
Forgotten ages. And they, too, shall perish,
Miserably, to fructify the world.
THE geologic record of this county is, for interest, second to few regions, if any, in the United States. The disturbed stratification of the Atlantic States, Missouri and Arkansas abound in interesting facts, but they are disconnected chapters in the history of creation, while the strata of Licking county furnish an almost unbroken narrative from the Silurian up to the Tertiary; and, to complete the panorama of the great past, the archaeological remains wonderfully continue the story down to the historic period.
The apparently missing chapter between the coal period and the great drift area is supplied to. the careful student by the basins in which the drift is deposited. These basins are as serviceable in teaching the student the features of the primeval world as are fossils. From fossils may be learned where plants grew, and animals lived; but those lakes which dotted the face of this country, and were the homes of life in various forms, when the world warmed by internal heat up to more than tropical temperature, are perpetual witnesses of the great and terrific revolutions which have changed the face of nature, and made this modern world so capable of supporting and developing man, the crowning work of the Creator.
The evidence of the former existence of these lakes is found throughout - the county- in the townships of Monroe, Hartford, Jersey, McKean, Etna, Union, Licking, Franklin, Newark, Madison, Hanover and Perry. In some places the proof is clear that the bottom of those lakes teas seventy feet below the present surface of the soil.
Blue clay is everywhere in this county the lowest drift deposit. It underlies all other drift. Consequently, wherever it is found, whatever lies above it is drift or earthy material brought froth a distance. It is believed that the blue clay has its origin in the black shales found in the western part of Licking county, and cropping out on Walnut creek, where it is crossed by the railroad. The decomposing and grinding up of those shales have formed the blue clays.
The peat bogs are an interesting feature, and worthy of careful study. The large ones were formerly cedar swamps, and it is probable that some would well repay the experiment of mining for cedar logs. The great peat bog along the North Fork feeder, in the out-lots of Newark, was a cedar swamp, and the logs lie beneath and upon its surface. It is a rare thing to find a peat bog in any country south of latitude forty degrees, and this circumstance makes the geology of this county still more interesting. East and west, moreover, the county is the limit of peat formation, and north and south of the drift. How long these cedar trees have lain buried in the bog may never be known, but each one is a record of the season while it was alive and growing.
Within two miles of Newark coal is found, not extensive, but limited in area. The western edge of the great coal fields of Ohio passes through the eastern part of the county. The coal formation extends only into the eastern tier of townships, and
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 171
in these it is only found to a limited extent. The field includes a large part of Fallsbury, a small proportion of Perry and Mary Ann; the larger part of Hanover and all of Franklin, Hopewell and Bowling' Green townships. It also extends into the southern portion of Madison.
In what is called Metcalf's hill there are two or three strata of coal, with intervening strata, abounding in the prints of coal flora; then of marine naida ; then of coal again, with other forms of flora, and finally capped by a lime rock, which seems to be a mere aggregation of sea-shells.
Farther east, passing other coal beds, is found a superior article of hydraulic lime, deposited at a different period, from a similar and less valuable material of Flint ridge. The ridge itself is an anomaly in Ohio geology, and its silicious masses were probably deposited by hot or warm water. In mining the cannel coal in its western spur, many proofs of disturbance are found in the level of that formation. The force which elevated it, probably heated the water, saturated with silica in solution, which was precipitated by cooling, and from which came those beautiful quartz crystals so much sought after. In the whole west and northwest there are but two formations to study,-the Silurian and Drift. In the eastern part of the State is the valuable coal formation alone, with neither the Silurian nor the Drift; but Licking county comprises them all.
In short, there are in the county all the various geological out croppings of the strata belonging to the States, with the exception of the cliff and blue limestone. These two make their appearance west of the Scioto river, and extend to the State of Indiana.
In the northwestern townships of the county is found the black shale; through the middle of the county north and south, the fine grained or Waverly sandstone; and east of Newark, at the mouth of the Rocky fork, the conglomerate rock appears in great abundance.
This rock lies immediately under the coal field. In the coal field there is the carbonaceous shale, the iron ore, the small veins of coal, each alternately with shale and sandstone.
Then comes the limestone where it appears on the top of what is called the McFarland hill, two miles southeast of Newark. Next and above this, and a mile south, is a coarse grained sandstone, with the beautiful fossil plants of the coal period. To the east of this there is the buhr of silicate of lime; and on Flint ridge is the crystallized quartz. Regarding the geology of Flint ridge, Hon. Isaac Smucker thus writes:
"The geology and geological manifestations of Flint ridge present some features which afford a high degree of interest to the student of nature. As has already appeared, its surface, when first settled, was largely covered with a compact silicious material known as quartz, or in common language, flint rock or buhr-stone. The late Dr. Hildreth, an eminent geologist of Marietta, and member of the first corps of geologists of our State, in his first annual report on the geology of Ohio, made in x838, observed that the quartz or buhr-stone was found on the surface of the elevation known as the Flint ridge, covering miles of its territory, and that, too, frequently in extensive masses, and that it had been an object of peculiar interest to the aboriginal inhabitants and pioneer settlers, as well as to the then occupants of the ridge, and of the surrounding country, who appreciated and utilized it on account of its commercial value.
"The geologist and mineralogist have found Flint ridge to be a rich field for investigation-rich in geological strata and in mineral deposits. I have already mentioned the buhr-stone of the surface-it is also found in liberal quantities beneath the surface. Professor E. B. Andrews, on page 105, of the "Preliminary Geological Report of 1869," represents it to be a deposit of variable thickness, attaining in places a maximum depth of eight feet. Dr. Hildreth said that sulphate of baryta, crystallized carbonate of lime, and crystals of quartz are all the mineral substances that have been associated with the buhrstone of the Flint ridge; the first being rare, the second not abundant, but that the last named was found in brilliant druses, with regular faces, in some portions of those deposits. Some of them he characterized as very beautiful, furnishing fine specimens for the cabinet, being occasionally tinged red or brown by some metallic oxyd. The striking similarity, he continues, between these crystals and those about the lead mines of Missouri; had led to some expensive, but fruitless, searches for lead and copper ores. Professor E. B. Andrews remarks, in his report of 1869, that it was found difficult to determine the exact stratigraphical position of the Flint ridge buhr, as it lies upon the top of the ridge, more like a blanket than like a rigid stratum, conforming more or less to the undulating surface of the general top of the ridge, and, therefore, many feet higher at some points than at others. He found the buhr of Flint ridge to be porous and often cracked, and that water had probably passed through it, carrying away the soft shale underlying it, and consequently lowering its stratum along its border.
"The late Colonel J. W. Foster, of the geological corps of Ohio, of 1837-39, makes the buhr deposit of the Flint ridge to range in thickness from two to six feet. He subjoins the following section to show the relation between the buhr and the associated rocks, at a point on the eastern half of the ridge; and I submit it to give the geological manifestations of the locality
172 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
1. Buhr ................................ .4 ft
2. Shale................................10 "
3. Hornstone ......................... 1 " 4 in.
4. Grey cherty limestone .......5 "
5. Shale--dark...................... 30 "
6. Shale-light blue .............. 10 "
7. Coal................................. 8 in.
8. Shale-light blue ............. 10 "
9. Slaty sandstone ............... 8 "
10. Yellow shale................... 15 "
11. Iron ore ore ...................... 8 in.
12. Shale-dark........................10 "
13. Iron ore............................. 1 " 4 in.
14. Limestone-brown.............. 5 "
15. Limestone-light blue ......... 6 "
16. Compact sandstone ..........40 "
157
"According to Mr. Leo Lesquereaux, there is a thin seam of coal of six inches, testing on two feet of fire-clay, immediately beneath the flint or buhr, on a section of Flint ridge, which he measured, and that said seam of coal had the stratigraphical position of the Nelsonville or Straitsville coal, being seventy-seven and one-half feet above the Putnam hill limestone, which is found in unusual thickness above the cannel coal, thereby giving the position of the buhr to be just over the Nelsonville coal.
"Professor M. C. Read, of the corps of Ohio geologists, who surveyed Flint ridge, also found a thin vein of coal resting upon a bed of fire-clay, immediately under the flint or buhr, as will appear, by reference to the third volume of Ohio Geology, page , 353, where he gives a general section of the rocks exposed in Licking county."
B. C. Woodward, in a paper read before the Pioneer Association of Licking county, gives the following regarding the geology of the eastern portion of the county, taken mostly from a publication by Mr. Dille:
"It would, perhaps, be difficult to find any equal territory containing so practical a summary of geology as Licking county. It embraces so many of the various formations of which that science treats, that whoever would investigate these subjects will find it a most desirable field to explore. In the western borders are found the carboniferous shales, with the sub-carboniferous; fine grains of sandstone and shales over which lies the drift, composed of the debris of all the older formations from the granite to the recent plutonic, with the spoils of the post-pliocene and intermediate types from the silurian up to the diluvian. The records of all ages during the organic series of the earth's progress, are kept in nature's great vaults in Licking county.
"The mineral resources of the eastern half of Licking county are more in place, and less disturbed by the drift, or covered by it, than the western; though there is scarcely a township in the county that has not been more or less invaded by the Great Flood.
"Wherever the drift extends the soil is improved by its deposits, but there are some places in which, instead of depositing, it denuded the original earth, and in such case it impoverished rather than fructified the soil. There are some such places in the eastern pan of the county.
"The supply of stone for all purposes of building is abundant, and the quality may be ranked among the best. The fine granite sandstone, called, by Ohio geologists, the Waverly rock, by those of New York, the Chemung, and, in Nova Scotia, the grindstone grit, when properly worked is among the most beautiful building stones in the United States. The stratum of this rock is about two hundred feet thick in this county, and its superficial face some twenty miles wide. Those who have examined the fine structures of this stone in Cincinnati must admit that no stone equals it as an architectural material. Its sober drab or neutral color, and smooth surface, has a most pleasing effect in a large house or block of buildings. When near the ground, exposed to wetting and drying, freezing and thawing, it does not weather well, and is liable to disintegrate: but when not thus exposed, if free from sulphur, it is one of the most durable of building rocks.
"The conglomerate. or coarse-grained stone, overlies the fine-grained; is a stratum of one hundred and twenty to two hundred feet thick, and of a superficial width from east to west of some thirty miles. It weathers well, and is a durable building stone: standing all temperatures and seasons. and is a favorite wherever attainable. Small cubes of galena and sulphuret of lead are occasionally found in this rock. but never in workable quantities. These occasionally last named formations are persistent and run regularly from north to south as a line of bearing with a dip to the eastward.
"There are occasional rock formations, like coal beds, that may have a value when properly developed and managed, of no little economical interest. The first worthy of the name is the carbonate of lime. This is found in Madison, Franklin, Hopewell, and one or two other townships. The nearest to Newark is on Metcalf's and Smith's hills, in the two first named townships. It nowhere produces the best lime, yet it is said to make a strong cement, and may be used as a fertilizer with good effect.
"Secondly, waterlime. This exists in at least two places, viz.: near the opening of the Flint Ridge cannel coal mine, and on the road from Hoskinson's to the National road, which crosses the latter some two miles west of Brownsville. I am not aware that this water-lime has been tested.
"Thirdly, sulphate of pyrites is found in small masses on Flint ridge.
"The fossil remains of the county are not equaled by any equal area in the Mate. These are nearly all confined to the eastern part of the county. They consist of plants and shells. The ubiquitous seas, with their myriads have rolled over the lands, which, under other conditions, rejoice under the green foliage of prismatic vegetation. Wherever the fine-grained sandstone is found, the shells of marine animals are abundant, and the occasional patches of limestone are full of them; but the coarse-grained sandstone, near many of the coal beds, are marked with beautiful impressions, or casts of plants of the coal period. The coarseness of the material is not favorable for he delicate impressions of the leaves, but the shales associated with the coal, frequently yielded the very finest specimens of the foliage of primitive time.
"The pipe clay so extensively used in the manufacture of stone-ware must not be overlooked. This almost universal associate of the coal bed is suggestive of the probability that each earth was a necessary sub-soil of the swamp or marsh in which the coal plants grow. If such was the fact this fine clay subserves a two-fold economy-first, giving that valuable fuel to the
HISTORY OF LICKING; COUNTY. - 173
world, and secondly, furnishing a material for a valuable manufactured article. The pipe or fine clay in the vicinity of Flint ridge, is a superior article, and with skill in the an, would probably produce an excellent and beautiful pottery.
"As a study, the theorist in geology would do well to consult the broad page of this county before he forms his conclusions.
"Professor Aggasiz, in maintaining his glacial theory, in opposition to the iceberg hypothesis, to account for the transportation of large masses of rocks and earth from such places, said: ' If icebergs were the floats upon which such burdens were borne, the drift would be found to be stratified, for each successive field of icebergs would deposit its load wherever it was stranded, and the next would drop its load over the other, soon, therefore, exhibiting a well defined stratification, which is never the case.' Had he visited Licking county, he would have found facts to overturn his objections. Nothing is more clear than the stratification of the drift in all parts of the county where the drift exists.
"This drift lies unconformably upon the older rocks everywhere. The older structure is the blue clay, and if it is examined carefully, we may come with a reasonable certainty to the source of this material in the black shales which crop out on Walnut creek, twenty-five miles west of Newark. Pieces of this shale are frequently found in the clay, and we can hardly be mistaken as to its origin. In the clayey earth, overlying the blue clay, the Cliff' limestone, in places just west of Columbus, is found in some places abundantly.
"Next in ascent is the blue limestone from the Cincinnati range. And in the upper, or last, is to be found the plutonic, primitive rocks of the great chain of the Rocky mountains, associated with the last drift. Small grains of gold are frequently found. A confirmation of this statement as to the stratified drift should be carefully made, as it is of scientific value."
From the foregoing glance at its geologic wealth, it is obvious that Licking county presents greater facilities for the practical study of this science, and of the causes which have contributed to form the prolific soil than any other single locality in Ohio.
The Flint ridge alone is one of the most interesting regions of-the State, either for the geologist or the antiquarian.
174 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY
CHAPTER XIX.
FLORA AND FAUNA.
BEAUTY OF THE LICKING VALLEY-VARIETIES OF TIMBER-WILD GRAPES AND OTHER FRUITS- GINSENG-THE ORCHARD OF WILD CHERRY TREES ANIMALS: BUY PANTHERS - BEAR - WOLVES - DEER - FOXES ITS, AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS-WILD TURKEYS - PHEASANTS - QUAILS, ETC. SINGING BIRDS-DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF FISH-SNAKES AND CREEPING THINGS-INSECTS. FTC.
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
THE territory of Licking county in its wilderness state, presented landscapes of a greatly diversified character, from the comparative tameness of a commonplace oak forest, without undergrowth, to that presented by the romantic wildness of such mountain scenery as the rough, almost impassable spurs and buhr-covered steeps of Flint ridge, and the high, rocky bluffs, towering peaks and dark glens of Licking narrows and the Rocky fork.
When seventy years or more ago Hughes and Ratliff, the earliest settlers, occupied Licking valley they must have been surprised at the variety and beauty of its vegetable productions. The silence of the primeval woods had until then been unbroken; the forest was here in all its native majesty and beauty; the gigantic size and venerable antiquity of the trees, the rankness of the weeds, grasses and trailing vines which formed a thick covering for the ground, the luxuriance and variety of the underbrush, the long vines that reached to the tops of the tallest trees, the parasites that hung in clusters from the loftiest boughs, the brilliancy of the autumnal foliage, the splendor and variety of the vernal flowers, the snowy whiteness of the dog-wood blossoms of early spring and the exuberance of the fruits that were maturing during the summer and autumn, were undoubted manifestations of the most vigorous vegetable life, and an encouraging proof of the quality of the soil. The yield *of nuts, berries, grapes, plums, and other wild fruits, was immense, and these for years, perhaps centuries, had been dropping and wasting, save, only, the few gathered by the red man. The surface of the country was beautifully diversified by hill and valley; by the rough, mountainous region of the eastern half of the county, and the level, beautifully undulating lands of the western half, varied by, here and there, a small swamp, pond, prairie, lakelet, spring or running stream-almost every variety of natural scenery appeared to the eye of the pioneer.
Along the streams, on the bottom land, and also on the more level or second bottom lands grew the walnut; butternut, sycamore, hickory, sugar, maple, hackberry, white, black and blue ash, linden, white and red elm, and the beech, which, however, prevailed principally in the central and western parts of the county; together with the box-elder, red and yellow plum, black-haw, crab-apple, red-bud, dog-wood, ironwood, American multi-flora, arrowwood, kinnakinnick, June berry, and a few others. These were found in various places on the above described lands.
The gum, cucumber and sassafras trees were found on the clay formation, while on the hills, the different varieties of oak abounded, with a small sprinkling of the tulip or yellow poplar, and, in limited numbers. most of the above mentioned as abounding in the level lands.
On Flint ridge the chestnut was the prevailing wood. At the Licking Narrows, in the glens of the Rocky fork- and on the tall peaks along that stream generally; and on the eastern bank of North fork, as well as on the south side of Licking river, cedar, pine, hemlock, laurel and other evergreens peculiar to mountainous regions, prevailed to a considerable extent.
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 175
Many of the grape-vines on the bottom lands were of enormous size, approximating in thickness a man's body. These sometimes spread themselves through the branches of half a score or more of the largest trees, completely shutting out the sun-light, and bearing immense quantities of fruit. The huckleberry, confined principally, to the hills, yielded fruit bountifully. Some other berries grew spontaneously, as the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, and, in a few localities, the cranberry. The prairie, or cranberry swamp in the eastern part of Washington township, and the swamp lands about the reservoir, some seasons yielded the cranberry in great abundance, which were, even in an early day, an article of traffic, participated in by the Indians as well as the pioneers. The early settlers laid up for use during the winter months, large quantities of these wild fruits, and also chestnuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, butternuts and hickory nuts. Paw-paws and May apples were plenty and were used to a considerable extent.
The ginseng plant abounded in most localities, in early times, and was an article of extensive traffic, both by whites and Indians, for many years after the first settlement of the county. Every merchant bought it. Beeswax, tallow, furs, hides, feathers, coon-skins and whiskey were not more general articles of trade and barter than ginseng. It disappeared as an article of commerce in the county about 1835, and has not since been known. The plant was exhausted. It was wholly of spontaneous growth and never an article of culture. It was a jointed taper root as large as a man's finger, and when dry was of a yellowish white color, with, a mucilaginous sweetness of taste, somewhat resembling licorice, accompanied with a very slight bitterness. It was exported to China, where it was in demand for its real or supposed medicinal virtues.
Between the Raccoon and South fork, near their junction, covering an area of a .number of square miles, and extending several miles west of Newark, existed, at the first settlement of the country, a grove of wild cherry, doubtless the growth of centuries, which for numbers, size and quality were hardly equaled in any section of the United States. They were thick, tall, of wide-spreading branches, tolerably clear#f knots, and generally sound, except those that gave indications of great age. The woodman's axe had been laid upon but few of these splendid trees, when first noticed in 1825; but not long after, their commercial value became known, and when the Ohio canal opened in 1833, they gradually disappeared, being shipped to Cincinnati and converted into lumber for furniture. But few of these trees now remain to mark the spot where once stood this famous orchard. The concentric circles of many of them indicated that they were centuries old; fixing the date of their origin in the pre-historic age of the country. Many of them stood on the works of the Mound Builders.
When the wave of white settlers first touched the borders of Licking county, a great variety of . wild animals contended with the Indian for supremacy. Some of the native animals of this primeval forest had gradually given way to the general westward movement of the white race. The buffalo was gone, probably never to return, at least in any number. A few years after the first settlement, probably about 1803, a small herd, six or eight in number, strayed from their usual haunts further west, and reached a point a short distance east of where Wills creek empties into the Muskingum. Here for a day or two they were pursued by the late John Channel, a famous hunter and pioneer, and perhaps by others, but without success so far as Mr. Channel was concerned. This information is given on the authority of Adam Seymour, who was here at that time, and Mr. E. S. Woods, who obtained the information from Mr. Channel himself. This was probably the last sight of wild buffaloes east of the Scioto.
The elk, too, was gone when the pioneers came, but the numerous wide-spreading antlers he once carried, were found profusely scattered in the forest, showing conclusively that he had once been here in considerable numbers, and at no remote period; but no living wild elk was ever discovered here by the pioneers.
Panthers were not numerous, but occasionally one was seen or heard, and a few were killed during the first ten or fifteen years after the first settlement. An Indian, early in 1805, killed one near the mouth of Brushy fork, three miles north of
176 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
Newark, which was supposed to have been the mate of one killed in the same year, near his residence, one mile north of Newark, by Mr. Jacob Wilson. Panthers disappeared from this section about 1812.
Bears were more numerous and remained longer; an occasional straggler being seen at intervals of many years, until 1846, when two were killed by Alpheus Channel. These were, probably, the last seen in the county. Lewis Farmer informed Mr. Isaac Smucker that he killed one in 1806, near Granville, that weighed four hundred pounds. Bruin was hard on young domestic animals, pigs particularly, he had a good appetite for, and it was with great difficulty that the pioneers were able to raise their own pork.
Wolves were found in great abundance, and long continued to be a great annoyance to the settlers. The legislature encouraged their extermination by laws which authorized the payment of liberal sums for wolf scalps, both old and young. The records of the county commissioners show that large sums were paid the pioneers of the county for wolf scalps; four dollars being the price for full grown and two dollars for those less than full size. They have long since disappeared.
Deer were very abundant, and for many years after the first settlement, supplied the pioneers with most of their animal food. The pioneers were mostly hunters, and the chase yielded them much profit as well as amusement. So numerous were the deer in early times that an hour's hunt was generally sufficient for securing a fine buck or the more palatable doe or fawn. So plenty and tame were they that they were killed frequently with a shotgun charged only with squirrel shot.
Gray foxes, raccoons and ground-hogs were plenty, and hunting them afforded fine sport. The two latter of these are yet found in limited numbers, but the first has, probably, entirely disappeared.
Red foxes, catamounts, wild-cats and porcupines, were found in large numbers, but they early disappeared, except the first named, which may, perhaps, even yet, be occasionally found.
Rabbits and squirrels, if not here before the settlement of the county, came soon after in great numbers, and still remain. They seem to follow rather than precede the settlements.
The beaver and otter were here in considerable numbers, and were much sought after by the trapper for their valuable furs. The former has long since disappeared, and the latter is exceedingly scarce, if indeed, any remain.
Muskrats were very numerous and have continued so, affording much profit to the hunter and trapper.
Wild turkeys were also very abundant in pioneer days, and so continued for many years, affording no inconsiderable portion of the food of the early settlers. They were so numerous and tame that they could be procured by the hunter on very short notice. They are yet occasionally found in the woods.
Pheasants were not so numerous as the turkey, and have almost wholly disappeared.
Wild geese and ducks were plenty around the little lakes and swamps, and along the streams. These are rarely seen at present.
Quails are not natives of the wilderness; neither are crows, black-birds, blue-birds nor turtle-doves, but they all became plenty after the settlement of the county, and still remain in moderate quantities.
Bees were plenty, and the tables of the pioneers were generally supplied with honey.
Cranes, woodcocks, woodpeckers and pigeons were plenty, and yet remain, with the exception of the first named.
Birds of prey, such as turkey-buzzards or vultures, hawks, ravens, owls and eagles, were very numerous, but have been slowly disappearing, par ticularly the eagle, which is now seldom seen.
Singing birds of various kinds became plenty soon after the settlement of the county, and yet remain.
The streams abounded in fish of large size. Elias Hughes once gigged or speared a pike, which, when suspended to the top of his cabin door reached to the floor. The pike were from two to five feet in length. Isaac Stadden once, in early times, shot a pike at "high banks" in the Licking, near his residence, that measured nearly six feet in length. He ran a stick through its gills, and when placed on his shoulder the tail of the fish touched the ground. The pike has almost, if not entirely, disappeared from the waters of the county.
The catfish was plenty and of large size, but
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 177
there were no eels. The white perch and sucker were numerous and of large size; the black jack and clear jack were here and grew large, but have long since disappeared. The streams, no less than the forests, contributed to the support of the early settlers. Indeed so plenty were game, fish, fur animals, and the fruits and other spontaneous productions that it was hardly necessary to till the ground to procure subsistence.
Serpents were of many varieties and in great abundance. Especially numerous were the rattlesnake, the copper-head viper, blacksnake, garter snake and watersnake. They were often found in the cabins of the settlers and even in their beds. It was not unusual for the settlers to be bitten by them, but few, if any, deaths occurred from this cause, as the settlers understood the treatment of snake bites.
There was a snake den on the south bank of Licking river, a mile below Newark, in the year 1803, which the settlers determined to break up. They accordingly procured a quantity of powder, and blew it up, the snakes flying high in the air, and in every direction, killing many of them; still the survivors were sufficiently numerous to be more or less annoying and troublesome.
For many years the people were troubled with snakes, but the venomous kind have long since disappeared. Scorpions and lizards abounded, and were not in high favor with the pioneers.
Insects of various kinds were numerous and troublesome. Spiders, particularly, were plenty and of large size. Gnats, hornets, yellow-jackets, mesquites and horse-flies were in great abundance and exceedingly annoying to man and beast.
The wolf and the more venomous serpents were the most formidable and annoying enemies of the early settlers. Panthers were much dreaded, but fortunately were not numerous. The fox, mink and pole-cat frequently made raids on the hen-roost.
Most of these animals, especially the more troublesome ones, have long since disappeared.
The distinct class known in pioneer times as the hunter, a class of which Elias Hughes and John Channel were fair representatives, has pretty nearly gone out of existence. So also has the class known as the trapper, represented by Billy Dragoo and Joel Williams. Those also known as fishermen, represented by John Sparks and John Scammahorn, have almost disappeared as a distinct class. People change, and conform their lives to the times in which they live.
178 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY
CHAPTER XX.
MINERALOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.
MINERALOGY OF FLINT RIDGE-PROFESSOR READ O\ THE FLINT OF FLINT RIDGE-COAL DEPOSIT-ISAAC SMUCKER ON THE FORMATION OF 'MINERAL COALS AND THE PALEONTOLOGY OF FLINT RIDGE.
"Arts perfect forms no moral need, And beauty is its own excuse;
But for the dull and flowerless weed
Some healing virtue still must plead,
And the rough ore must find its honors in its use."
-Whittier,
IN mineralogy there is much to interest the scientist and business man, within the county limits. Perhaps Flint ridge is one of the most interesting localities for the mineralogist. Hon. Isaac Smucker thus writes of it:
"Mineralogy has an admirable and extensive development in Flint ridge. There the mineralogical manifestations are not only diversified, but also highly interesting among the stones, rocks, ores, metals, clays, earths and minerals found on and in Flint ridge are the flint or buhr-stone, the sand-stone, the hornstone, the lime-stone, the oil-stone, the conglomerate rock, the iron ore, the granite boulder, fire-clay, blue-clay shale, slaty clay, potter's clay, slate, bituminous slate, bituminous coal, and cannel coal.
The economic value of some of the foregoing deposits has been considerable, at different times. To the aboriginal inhabitants the flint-stones of the ridge must have been of great value, as from them they made, during many passing ages, their knives, spear and arrow heads, and perhaps other implements and ornaments. The flint of the ridge was, for many years, extensively manufactured into mill-stones, or what millers called "buhrs," and liberal profits were realized, but of late years this branch of manufacture has been abandoned, the French buhr being found superior in quality. Moreover, the best quality of the flint of the ridge, which alone was suitable for buhrs, was mainly worked out, and what remains is not attainable, or, at least, is not so readily quarried as to justify the continued profitable prosecution of the aforesaid industry. In many mills, however, in early times in Ohio, and until a comparatively recent period, the Flint ridge buhrs were used, and found to be an economical and excellent substitute for the French buhr, particularly for grinding corn, rye and buck-wheat. It is also said that the purer portions of the flint made good oil-stones, and when crushed also served a valuable purpose in manufacturing glass, and, I believe, also fire-brick.
"The iron ore of Flint ridge has probably not been found sufficient in quantity, nor of such quality as to admit of extensive utilization, by the erection of furnaces; and it is too remote from such as are now in operation to pay transportation. The same may also be said of the building stones of the ridge, and for the same reason their use has been limited. But the fire-clay, as well as the potter's clay, has been brought into market in the form of fire-brick, and in the manufacture and sale, to a considerable extent, of the well-known stone-ware, long and extensively known in Ohio and in the west.
"Bituminous coal has not been mined on the Flint ridge to any extent, its seams being too thin to admit of it with profit. But the cannel coal of the ridge has been mined and marketed for a period of more than forty years, and continues to be thus mined and marketed, presumably with a fair profit. It is used to some extent for the manufacture of gas in Newark, as well as for fuel purposes there, and in the neighborhoods adjacent to the mines. For a time, says Professor Read (see volume three, Ohio Geology, page 356), it was extensively used for the production of coal-oil, the following average yield being obtained from the distillation of a ton of coal:
Crude oil, forty gallons;
Refined oil, seventeen and one-half gallons;
Lubricating oil, seven and one-half gallons ;
Paraphine, three and three-fourths to five pounds.
When crude petroleum was placed upon the market at two cents per gallon in 1861-62, this branch of industry was of necessity suspended, and has not since been resumed, owing to the impossibility of competing with the petroleum of the oil wells.
"The main entrance into the Flint ridge cannel coal bed is that of the Licking County Cannel Coal company, more than a mile from the western termination of the ridge, at a point, says Professor Read, about one hundred feet, by his barometer, and one hundred and four feet by other measurements, below Flint ridge, meaning, I'suppose, below its highest point. The professor found it 'capped' by a thick bed of lime-stone, presenting with the coals, shales and fire-clays, the following section:
Earthy lime-stone, two, and one-half feet;
Pure lime-stone, two and one-half feet;
Cannel coal, one foot;
Fire-clay, three feet;
Cannel coal, four feet;
Black shale, nine inches;
Cannel coal, ten inches;
Fire-clay, thickness not given.
An analysis of the Flint ridge cannel coal giyes, approximately, in round numbers, twenty per cent. of ash, thirty-seven percent of volatile matter, and forty-three per cent. of fixed carbon. President Orton, of the Ohio State University, pronounces it the best cannel coal in Ohio (as can be seen by reference to volume four, page 913, of Ohio Geology).
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 179
Professor Read, above quoted, says, regarding the flint of Flint ridge:
"Any one traversing this ridge for the first time would be surprised to find such a deposit on such a geological horizon. It simulates very accurately the broken-up debris of a vertical dike, the fragment often covered with perfect crystals of quartz, the rock itself being highly crystalline and often translucent. It is something of a puzzle to understand how such a deposit is found in a series of undisturbed and unmodified rocks The adjacent surfaces. of two blocks of the chert are often found covered with the quartz crystals of considerable size, as thoroughly interlocking with each other as if one were a cast and the other a matrix. I cannot imagine the conditions which would spread such a deposit over the floor of a sea or any other body of water. A substitution of silicious matter deposited from solution, in the place of a soluble limestone previously deposited, is the only plausible explanation. This substitution has taken place over large areas in this part of the State, and has left these silicious deposits only upon the horizons of the different limestones.
Professor Read continues, regarding the coal deposit in different parts of the county:
"Coal No. 1 is, in several localities in the county, of sufficient thickness to be mined for local consumption.. In some places it rests upon a thin bed of carboniferous conglomerate, in others upon the olive shales of the Waverly; a bed of fire-clay and a thin stratum of shale being sometimes interposed between it and these rocks.
"In Madison township, about two miles southeast of Newark, about two hundred tons of this coal have been taken from Dr. Wilson's mine. The coal, as far as worked, was of fine quality, and reached a thickness of thirty inches. Near this point, a shaft sunk through the coals disclosed the including strata as follows
"First-Shale, four feet.
"Second-Coal, two feet.
"Third-Conglomerate.
"On this hill the limestone of the cannel coal is, by barometer, one hundred feet above coal No. 1. On the southeast quarter of section one, Hopewell township, entries have been carried into the coal where it is reported to be from eighteen to twenty inches thick. On Lewis Bakers land, Mary Ann township, it is found near the top of the hill, and, when opened, ranges in thickness from one and a half to two feet. The Conglomerate here appears in a led a few feet below it.
"On Wesley Painter's land, in the west part of Fallsbury township, coal No. 1 has about the same thickness, and the including strata, are as follows:
"First-Gray shale, thickness undetermined.
"Second-Coal, one and a half to two feet.
"Third-Fire-clay, one foot.
"Fourth-Hard, white sand-rock, with Stigmaria.
"At an opening on Jacob Priest"s land, in Fallsbury township, this coal is from two and a half to three feet thick, in two benches; is bright and hard; a very good coal; but containing a rather large percentage of sulphur. On the whole this is the best exposure of coal No. r observed in the county, but as the roof is sandstone, it is more liable to be reduced in thickness as the entry is carried further into the hill.
"It will be apparent that the coal of the county is quite limited in quantity, and that, aside from the cannel, none of it is first quality.
"Citizens report that coal has been found on Alligator hill, a little east of Granville. Several excavations have been made into the hill, and one near the top. All expose shaly sandstone, which can be clearly identified as Wavetly, and the debris of the Waverly is strewn over the surface of the highest part. I think no coal can be found in the hills, in this part of the county. It is true that in several places on the western margin of our coal-fields coal is found, in one sense, below the Upper Waverly. It is found, topographically, below it, not geologically, in valleys, on the slopes of the Waverly hills, which, in this neighborhood, rose above the old coal marshes, and marked the original western limit of the coal-fields. My observations in this county, and northward, along the margin of the coal-field, render it very certain that the supposition sometimes made, that the Ohio coals were once continued westward over the Devonian and Silurian rocks to the Indiana and Illinois field, and that they have since been carried away by erosion, is untenable."
The following extracts are' from the address of B. C. Woodward:
"There is a directing and compensating Providence in nature. That which was denied to eastern Licking county by the benefits of the drift, was presented to it by the sweeping waste of waters. Stores of minerals laid up in prior periods were undisturbed and kept for the use of civilized man. Ohio geologists have conceded to this but a little corner of Bowling Green and Hopewell townships as included within the great Alleghany coal-field. Yet there are small lenticular masses of coal, some in workable beds, in Madison, Franklin, Bowling Green, Hopewell, Hanover, Mary Ann, Perry and Fallsbury townships. These small, isolated coal-fields present an instructive lesson, for though remote from each other, the quality is so similar, that it may, with a single exception, be called identical in kind and quality.
"That exception is the cannel coal of the flint ridge; all other beds afford that variety called by miners cherry coal. It is dry, bums without much flame, makes a hot fire, and is valuable fuel. The sameness of the coal in all the different beds, teaches that it was all produced under like conditions. This is shown, too, by the fossil plants associated with it in its several deposits. The cannel coal of Flint ridge is limited to a small district, perhaps not more than three hundred acres, is a workable bed, valuable for gas, oil or fuel. The working of this bed shows that active energies have operated here since the formation of coal. The fossil shells, especially the lingula, with other mollusks of the same age, indicate that it is an ancient deposit. The Flint ridge itself, being composed of silica in a greater or less crystalline state, enclosing, in many instances, fossil shells, indicate that heat, and perhaps hot water, impregnated with silica, has been active there, with a force sufficient to upheave it to its present level.
"The Hopewell coal, in the neighborhood of Gratiot, is of true bituminous variety. This is a deep stratum, and one of the best coal mines in the State.
"Although the early settlers were fully aware of these coal deposits, they, from force of circumstances, did not for some years, give much attention to them. The clearing of the land furnished an abundance of fuel, and hence they did not need the coal. But as the forests disappeared, its importance was
180 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
more appreciated, and its extent more fully developed. Wherever coal is found, iron is associated with it. The Mary Ann furnace, in operation some thirty-five years, produced thousands of tons of iron from the ores of the county. The Granville furnace was chiefly supplied with ores from the same coal region, and has produced several thousand tons of the metal."
The following extract from the address of Hon. Isaac Smucker, delivered at the Young Men's Christian Association rooms, January 2, 1880, regarding the formation, etc., of mineral coals, will be found interesting in this connection:
"It is one of the well established facts of geology and chemistry that all mineral coals are of vegetable origin, hence botany is enlisted to elucidate phenomena relating to them. They are composed of the strange, gigantic flora or herbaria of the past, the far past carboniferous epoch, innumerable specimens of which have been so faithfully preserved in our coal-beds. Geologists teach us that the different strata or layers of coal were, each one, originally deposited at or upon the surface, and that deposits were repeated at intervals, of variable distances or periods of time apart, being separated by parallel layers of sandstone, shales, limestone and other rock formations, ranging in thickness from afoot or two to an hundred feet, and sometimes more, the deposit or production of which, between the various strata or beds of coal must have required the lapse of many thousands of years, perhaps in most cases many times tens of thousands of years. The numerous deposits of coal, and the intervening layers of stones of different kinds are credited mainly to the indefinitely long geological period known as the carboniferous. I say mainly but not wholly, for I think it can be demonstrated that the process of coal production, or at least of the inferior kinds, such as peat and lignite is now going on in lagoons, marshes and bogs, and probably has been going on ever since the termination of the carboniferous or great coal age.
"That our coals, in all their varieties, embracing peat, lignite, brown coal, bituminous, cannel, anthracite coal, also coke, plumbago, or graphite, are of vegetable origin, seems to be a generally admitted fact, and if further proof were needed, it could be found by closely observing certain natural processes now going on; for in nature, coal, or at least peat and lignite, can be seen in various stages of formation where vegetable tissue is heaped up and accumulated in bogs. On digging deep down into these bogs where the woody matter is surrounded by moisture and other favorable conditions for gradual decomposition, it is, ascertained that the slow process of transforming said woody material into the combustible called peat is going on. And when peat becomes hardened by the lapse of ages, by diminished moisture, by evaporation, through the action of the elements, and otherwise changed by other causes, it becomes lignite. It is known that in the oldest peat bogs in Europe, at or near their bottom, a thin stratum of coal is generally found, and that there is reason to believe that the entire material composing those bogs, if undisturbed, would ultimately, under a combination of favorable circumstances develop into coal-beds, the afore-named stratum at or near the bottom of the bogs, being the incipient formation thereof. Those favorable circumstances are, in part, the continued full growth, for an indefinitely long period, of aquatic vegetation, the debris of whic would ultimately, by depression or sinking of the locality, an by water action, or by any other cause that resulted in inundation, which would by its sedimentary accumulations, form a covering for those beds of vegetable deposits. Most of those sedimentary accumulations are sand, pebbles, gravel, clay, mud, and other earthy matter. Where the sedimentary deposit is sand, and all favorable circumstances are present and continued in active operation for long ages, the present product would be a led of sandstone; when, by reason of a strong current, pebbles were carried along with the sand and intermingled with it, the result would be a conglomerate sandstone, such as is found at the mouth of the Rocky fork, and all along through the "Licking narrows;" where earthy matter, gravel and clay are the deposit, the products are, of course, different; and where the deposit consists of a combination of any or all of those materiels, there is no difficulty in arriving at a correct knowledge of the facts in the case; and finally, when the sedimentary deposit is what is popularly called a kind of a clayey mud, if the requisite constituent elements are present, such as silex, alumina, oxide and sulphate of iron, potash, magnesia and carbon, the product will ultimately be shale or argillaceous slates. These shale and slate deposits are often found in layers immediately above and below coal-beds, and generally contain more or less of carbonaceous matter, and possibly other constituent elements of mineral coal, in limited quantities. The amount of carbon they contain is so small as to preclude their use as fuel, although they are, in a sense, combustible, and by heat can be reduced to their original elements. This may be chiefly because they have been so long in proximity to the coal deposits, where they were placed by the action of water, and solidified in pursuance of the operation of nature's laws.
"Water action, let it be borne in mind, is an important agency, indeed an essential instrumentality in coal production, and I might add also in most other productions, as well as in giving shape and form to the surface of our globe, for it has assuredly been instrumental in floating into position the materials of .which the earth is composed. The processes of coal formation, and the production of numerous other inanimate things of this world, are in active operation now, as they have been through the almost interminable geological ages of the past, and will so continue through the long cycles of the coming future. Indeed the process of creation itself is, in an important sense, a continuity-thus far it has been a progressive work, is still going on, and may go on unceasingly. A day with the Lord, the Bible informs us, is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, that is, as one day of creation, by which is meant simply an indefinitely long geological day, age or period, as Hugh 'Miller, the author of "The Old Red Sandstone," also of "The Foot-prints of the Creator," and of "The Testimony of the Rocks," has maintained, making the six days of creation in Genesis to stand for six indefinitely long geological days or periods. In these views of the biblical bearings of geology he has the concurrence of Professors Silliman and Hitchcock and many other Christian scientists.
"Cuvier, the great naturalist, taught that the earth had been inhabited by a succession of different series of animals that ultimately became extinct, and that those of each period were peculiar-to the age in which they lived. And the same is true also of aquatic and marine animals. The extinction, from natural causes, of the huge animals that once existed in the Ohio valley, as their remains will show, such as the mastodon, the megatherium and the mammoth, and their substitution by others better adapted to existing atmospheric, climatic and
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 181
general conditions, fully corroborate the views here expressed. And the same is true of other animals, also of reptilian monsters now extinct, and of birds and insects, whose places have been taken by others.
"The main or essential factors in coal production, during the carboniferous period, were: first, an atmosphere so heavily charged with carbon as to preclude the possibility of the existence of warm blooded animals; , second, a huge growth of aquatic vegetation; third, heat; fourth, water action; fifth, moisture; sixth, decomposition; seventh, weight or pressure; eighth, a favorable climate; ninth, time. And when and where all the foregoing conditions and elements are present and in active operation, the elements being in proper proportions and combinations, and the climate is favorable for coal production, then, of course, the result will be coal. Chemists have, by chemical combinations and processes, manufactured coal, and therefore know all about its constituent elements, but the chemist with his retort charged with materials for manufacturing coal is at a disadvantage in competition with the production of nature's laboratory. Of course the formation of coal, or rather of peat and lignite, is now a much slower process than it was during the ages of more luxuriant vegetable growths, and when carbon was so redundant as to render warm blooded life impossible.
"' In Holland, Denmark and Sweden,' says Lesquereux, ' the thick deposits of peat are separated into distinct beds by strata of sand and mud, giving the best possible elucidation of the process of stratification of the coal measures.' ' For their formation,' says 'Maury, 'these bogs require a basin rendered impermeable by a substratum of clay and an active growth of aquatic or semi-xrial plants, having their roots in water, while their branches and leaves expand on the surface thereof, or rise in the air above it, constantly growing in the same place, whose debris, falling year after year, is heaped up and preserved against atmospheric decomposition by stagnant water or great humidity in the air.' It was during the carboniferous epoch, the geological age of gigantic vegetable growths, when our principal and most valuable beds of coal were deposited; and then it was when all the most favorable circumstances for the production of coal were in their highest development; when, in fact, the conditions which tended most to promote the rapid formation of coal, in the different varieties, were all present and in active operation.
"During the carboniferous age of the earth's history, water covered very much more of its area than it does now, and portions of the continents were so little raised. above its surface that a slight elevation or depression would change the lagoons, marshes and bogs into dry land, or sink them below the surface of the sea. When air passes over, or rests on oceans, lakes or rivers, it becomes laden with vapor, whose influence is very potent, as the power of vapor to absorb and retain is very many times greater than that of air; hence as water then preponderated so largely over land, the atmosphere was heavily charged with moisture, which, as well as heat, was essential in a coal producing climate. In fact the absence of annual rings or concentric circles, in carboniferous plants, found as fossils in our coal-beds, proves that there was no winter when and where our coal was produced; and as the same kind of coal-plants grew at the same time in Europe and America, as geologists have demonstrated, the same. climate, substantially, must then have prevailed on both sides of the Atlantic. During the carboniferous epoch the atmosphere was so largely charged with carbonic acid that; as already stated, warm-blooded animals could not exist in it; hence no fossil remains of such are found in our coal-beds, or in the earth or stone formations of an interior age.
"Early in the carboniferous age the coal-plants were doubtless of comparatively limited size, whose leaves floated on the surface of shallow marshes or lagoons. Gradually those aquatic plants grew larger and larger, the existing and steadily augmenting conditions for their better development being present, they naturally took root in increasing quantities and strength in those lagoons or marshes whose surfaces were partially covered with water, adding the growth of each year, slowly and silently, to the accumulating mass. As the age advanced these plants attained to a larger and still larger size, whose immense leaves and spreading branches would ultimately die and sink to the bottom, and thus form a bed for succeeding vegetable growths of such proportions and in such quantities as to throw into insignificance anything of the same species in our day! This process, repeated for an indefinitely long period, finally resulted in producing peat, lignite, coal of various kinds, coke and plumbago. The horsetail flag, fossilized in coal-beds, has been found fourteen inches in diameter, while now it seldom reaches a thickness of one inch. Club-mosses, even within the tropics, are now of small size, while in coal formation, petrified, they have been found as thick as a man's body and fifty feet or more in length. Our ferns are of diminutive, dwarfish size, but in carboniferous times they reached the height of more than fifty feet. 'Other coal-plants," says Maury, 'grew to the same wonderful proportions, and as they fell others sprang up, and thus the 'heaping' process continued until nature caused some subsidence of the ground, the water closed over it all, and the currents deposited mud or sand; if the former a laver of slate was the ultimate result; if the latter a stratum of sandstone would be formed; and if pebbles were intermingled with the sand, the result would be a layer of conglomerate sandstone, such as we have in great abundance along the banks of the Rocky fork and in the ' Licking narrows,' which, it is plain to be seen, was formed exactly as here suggested.' After this subsidence, and the inundation ceased, the water having formed another bed or channel, fresh growths sprang up and a new deposit was formed, to sink and be covered up in turn; and as often as these periods of test and submergence were repeated, so often would a new bed of coal come into existence, and in this oft-repeated process is found the simple, rational explanation why the coal measures generally consist of more than one seam or stratum; or in other words why there happen to be intervening or alternate sedimentary strata between the beds or layers of coal, the lower one of these coal strata, and its sedimentary covering, being, in many instances, found to be more than a thousand feet below the surface of the earth. This is undoubtedly more generally the known state of facts in Great Britain, where shaft-mining is the common method, than in the United States, where out-croping beds of coal are mainly utilized, and which in a sense is known as surface-mining. The thickness of those sedimentary deposits between the coal strata (sometimes a hundred feet or more), furnishes some idea of the immense duration of the uncounted ages or cycles of time that passed by, during the process of their formation. To accomplish a single revolution of the precession of the equinoxes, or what is known as a movement of the equinoctial points from east to west, requires but little less then twenty-five thousand years, and we are, told by geologists that very 'many of those revolutions were recorded on nature's
182 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
pages, during the progress of the accumulations of the sedimentary substances which formed but a single one of the layers, deep down in the earth, resting upon the surface of a coalbed below it, and under another above it.
"After the vegetable deposits which formed coal-beds were covered up, Maury says, ' a gradual decomposition took place, which consisted in an evolution of a portion of the carbon, and most of the hydrogen and oxygen, in the form of water and gasses from the woody tissue, leaving a larger and larger per- centage of the carbon of the plant behind, while the increased pressure of the accumulating strata above, served to compress and solidify the mass,' which before had been in a state of fusion, probably of about the consistence of tar in a mild climate.
"But before this solidification took place, as Liebig has proved by direct experiment, in the process of slow decomposition of vegetable matter in water, a softening had occurred, j and it is to this that we must ascribe the fact that no delicate fossils are ever found in the coal itself, as the tissue and form were destroyed by the softening and subsequent pressure, though cases are met with where solid trunks of trees have resisted this softening process, and are found standing erect in the seams while their roots are plainly traced in the clay slates below. In the shales and slates above and below, which it will be remembered, were originally- soft, plastic mud, naturally, therefore, the plant impressions therein are as sharp and clear is though they had been sketched with alt artist's pencil."
After citing various eminent authorities in proof of the correctness of his theory, Mr. Smacker continues:
"From the foregoing it will be seen that I have been dealing with a solved problem, a problem that scientists have often solved by the methods of the laboratory-by the microscope by critical investigation -by close examination-by careful observation and philosophical reasoning--by scientific and logical deduction-by intelligent experiment-by accurate inspection-by established data -is to causes and their effects by the concurrent belief and testimony of nearly all the eminent geologists of Europe and America, who have written upon the subject, and who are supported substantially by most of the learned professors of science in the principal colleges and universities of both the eastern and western continents, and no less by oft-repeated and unmistakable demonstration itself.
"I have expressed the belief in this paper that the process of peat, lignite and perhaps coal production is now going oil, as it has been going on through the slow-moving and well-nigh unending geological ages of the past, and probably will continue to go on through all future time! And I will take this occasion to express the belief that there is now in process of formation a led of peat, within the limits of Newark. The location of this bed of peat is between the North Fork feeder and the North Fork creek. If Locust street were extended due east over the feeder to the creek, it would pass near it.
"Again, I think peat could be found in the swamp between the Central railroad and the Cherry Valley road, a mile or more west of Newark. That swamp was largely a dry prairie, serving the purposes of a race-track until the earthquakes in the Mississippi valley, in 1811-12, when, by depression, it was transformed into a pond, and remained such until it was partially drained, some thirty years ago. The belief is not an unreasonable one that peat has been in process of formation there during many of the ages of the past, and that that process is still going on, and will certainly not cease as long as the conditions for the production of that material remain favorable.
"And there is but little doubt that the Cranberry marshes in the vicinity of the reservoir and also the Bloody Ran swamps, near Kirkersville, are peat-bearing localities. And finally, I refer to another locality within the limits of Licking county, where the surface or external appearances are equally promising indications of the existence and progressive growth of peat: I mean the Cranberry marsh, in early times called "Warthan's Prairie," and later, "Wilson's Prairie," situated a few miles southeast of Utica. And what is true of the above named localities is doubtless as true of many points .of similar external appearance and surroundings, found to a greater or less extent in every section of our country."
In another address :fir. Smacker says regarding the paleontology of Flint ridge
'The paleontology of the Flint ridge is as yet comparatively but little known. The earlier-time records of that locality were ineffaceably engraved there in fossil characters-its primeval history was written deep down in the earth by God and nature, in the unerring language of petrifaction; its old-time annals were indelibly inscribed in the unmistakable nomenclature of geology; upon its extensive beds of minerals, stones and rocks, its organic remains, imbedded in the limestone formations far down Beneath the surface. tell us of the great past, when this ridge was in its primeval condition. long ages before man existed or could exist upon it; its vegetation in petrifaction, imprinted with nature's graver, upon its coal and other deposits, tells us in the more than exactness and certainty of scientific language of the long geological ages and carboniferous epochs, now long gone by, when another and more luxuriant vegetation, one much more charged with carbon, grew and flourished there, and when marine organisms also were redundant there as well as in contiguous land and water localities, which, largely by water action, contributed the now fossilized vegetable and organic remains found in the coal, limestone and other mineral formations of the Flint ridge.
But although the lexicon of paleontology is given to us in petrified or stone characters, letters and words, and in well marked fossilized vegetation, such as plants and shrubs and trees, also of distinct and almost living organic forms that were once animate with life, engraved by nature upon our long Buried sedimentary stones and rocks and other mineral deposits; nevertheless the careful and persevering student of the alphabet in which that lexicon was written, soon learns to read, translate, interpret and understand it as if it were a matter settled as with the unerring certainty of demonstrated science itself. All this can be clone, has been done, and is being constantly- done by those who have untiringly and zealously devoted the requisite ! amount of time, labor and talents to its accomplishment.
"By the study of organic remains,' said the late Col. Foster, it has been discovered that each of the sedimentary deposits has its characteristic fossils. By this means we can determine the epochs of the different formations, identify the same formation at remote points, and throughout all its lithological changes, and even calculate with some degree of certainty the periods when the present mountain chains were lifted up. These fossils,' he continues, 'indicate a progressive development of organic life from the coral, closely allied to the vege-
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 183
table, up to man, the head of created beings. From them also we learn the various revolutions which the earth has undergone, the changes in the temperature of its surface, and the animals which peopled it in periods far remote.'
"The author of the foregoing paragraph (the late Colonel Foster), when a member of the Ohio corps of geologists, in 1837, explored Flint ridge, in the interest of paleontology, and reported that he found fossilized organic remains there in great perfection and beauty. The following he named as of most frequent occurrence
"First-Terebratnla, that is, a genus of bivalve mollusks of the class Brachiopoda, in which one of the valves is perforated for the transmission of a sort of tendinous ligament, by which . the animal fixes itself to submarine animals. This order of molluscous animals is also characterized by two fleshy arms or labial processes, which they can protrude or withdraw, and which serve for prehension.
"Second-Eanrini, a fossil belonging to the asteria or star-fish family, consisting of numerous pointed arms radiating from around a centre in which the mouth is situated, and is supported on a jointed stem, therein differing from all the recent asterias.
"Third-Anthophylla, described by Colonel Foster as a mineral of the horn-blende family, occurring in brittle fibers, or fibrous or bladed masses (primarily flower and leaf,) of differ. eat shades of dark brown, and with a semi-metallic luster. It consists chiefly of silica, magnesia and oxyd of iron, and is found abundantly in some varieties of primary rocks.
"Fourth-Spirifera, known as an extinct genus of mollusks, having a shell with two internal calcareous spiral appendages.
"Fifth-lnfusoria, described by Dana as microscopic animals habiting waters and liquids of various kinds, and having no organs of motion, except exceedingly minute hairs.
"Sixth - Trilobites, an extinct family of crustacea, found in the earliest fossiliferous strata, Colonel Foster reported, were also found in a limestone on the ridge, and remarked that its occurrence (it being a fossil not observed, generally, in the coal measures), indicated that it flourished there after it had ceased to exist in other countries.
"Seventh.-Lingula, which belongs to the grass family of fossils, with flat leaves, not including the stem or the sheath of the stem. One author speaks of some specimens of this class of fossils as having the form of 'a strap-shaped corrolla of flowers.'
"Eighth - Producta, which is an -extinct genus, says a late author, of bivalve shells closely allied to the living genus Terebratula (described as the first of this list), and which the writer says are found only in the older secondary rocks.
"Professor E. B. Andrews, who, as one of the geological corps of Ohio, explored Flint ridge in 1869, gives us some information in regard to the palentology of that locality. He says that the basins or depressions which contain the cannel coal were filled with water while the process of coal formation was going on, which is proved by the abundant presence of the marine shell Lingula. He also obtained a specimen of Stigmaria, made up of coal itself, which still retained its cylindrical form. It is a fossil coal plant, says Buck, and, having a large dome shaped stem or trunk. Both were found by Professor Andrews most abundant in the lower part of the coal. In the lower coal measures of Flint ridge he also found a specimen of Synocladia or Biserialis, that is, a double-rowed class of fossils, notched on the edge like a saw, or a serrate leaf, pointing to the extremity, some of them having the serratures toothed. It grows in very rapidly, spreading, funnel-shaped form, the stems seeming to radiate from the same point, and throwing off on each side lateral branches, which also give off, in the same way, lateral branchlets.
" Professor Andrews also found specimens of the Ptilodictya, or bifurcated ramose, the bifurcations occurring usually at rather distant intervals. They were branched as a stem or root, having lateral divisions, poriferous surfaces, six to eight longitudinal rows, separated by spaces of double the diameter of the spores."
Professor Andrews also found shells of the genus Placnnopsis, which were slightly oblique, with lengths and breadths nearly equal, cardinal margin nearly straight, not quite equaling the greatest breadth of the valves, beak small, depressed, and but slightly projecting beyond the cardinal margin, near the middle of which it is placed, with scarcely perceptible obliquity.
Another shell was found in the dark shales of the Flint ridge coal measures, described by Professor Andrews as obliquely subovate, compressed, very thin, posterior basal margin regularly rounded, and surface marked by regular concentric unduations. with intermediate parallel strife.
And still another shell was found on the ridge, which was described as of large size, of smooth surface, or showing only obscure lines of growth. A full description of most of the foregoing, found by Professor Andrews, is given in volume two, Ohio Paleontology, pages 326-37.
Professor Andrews also reported a bed of dark blue fossiliferous limestone, ranging in thickness from twelve to fourteen feet, situated four feet nine inches above the cannel coal at the mine, and separated from it by a deposit of blue clay slate of four inches of bituminous coal, and a stratum of five inches of bituminous slate. This limestone he found abounding in fossils, and he states that he utilized them so far as to make a hand some collection, but he did not furnish a detailed description of them. The shales and limestone of Flint ridge were found by Professor Andrews to have identically similar fossils. Further explorations would doubtless richly reward, with abundant success, the paleontologists' labors on the ridge.
184 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY
CHAPTER XXI.
ARCHEOLOGY.
MOUND BUILDERS AND INDIANS-ANTIQUITIES-THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF MOUNDS, EFFIGIES AND INCLOSURES: - SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS-SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS - TEMPLE MOUNDS-MOUNDS OF OBSERVATION-MEMORIAL OR MONUMENTAL MOUNDS - EFFIGIES OR ANIMAL MOUNDS - INCLOSURES - COVERED WAYS-SACRED INCLOSURES - LESSONS TAUGHT BY THESE WORKS - THE IMPLEMENTS USED BY MOUND BUILDERS AND INDIANS.
- back in the bygone time.
Lost 'mid the rubbish of forgotten things."
THE archaeologist has found the territory embraced within the present limits of Licking county- a most excellent one. It is probably the most interesting field for the scientist and antiquarian in the State or United States. When the wave of white emigration reached the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the discovery was made of strange looking mounds of earth, here and there, and, after a time, learning that these and other similar works were of pre-historic origin-the work of an unknown race of people-they- were called, in a general way, "Ancient Mounds," and in time the lost race that erected them came to be appropriately named the "Mound Builders." There is no authentic history regarding this people. The known records of the world are silent-as silent as these monuments that perpetuate their memory. There are many theories regarding them, but this is all that can be said -nothing of their origin or end is certainly known.
They probably antedate the various Indian tribes who anciently occupied and claimed title to the soil of Ohio. Probably many centuries elapsed between the first occupancy here by the Mound Builders and the advent of the earliest Indian tribes or nations, though this is only conjecture.
This county was once, and, peradventure, continued to be through many passing centuries, their most favored locality. The extent, variety, elaborate, and labyrinthian intricacies of their works, still found in many sections of Ohio, clearly indicate the plausibility of this view. Here they dwelt for ages, erected their works and made a long chapter of history, albeit it is yet unwritten-a history whose leading features and general characteristics can be gathered only from those of their works that yet exist. It must be collected scrap by scrap, and item by item, after a thorough examination and patient investigation of their works, and by careful, laborious, faithful study of their wonderful remains. The principal events and leading incidents in the strange career of this mysterious and apparently now extinct people, can be traced out and recorded only so far as they are clearly indicated by those of their works which yet remain, but which, it is to be regretted, are, to a large extent, in a state of mutilation and partial ruin, and rapidly tending to utter extinction under inconoclastic wantonness, and the operations of the plow; also from the devastating effects of the elements, and the destructive tendencies of the great destroyer-Time.
There is no reason to believe that the Mound Builders ever had a written language, and, if they had not, it must be manifest that very few authentic facts pertaining to their domestic and local history, can be verified by reliable testimony other than that deduced from their works, which are the sole memorials left by them to enable us to work out the problems of their origin, their history, habits, manners, customs, general characteristics, mode of life, the extent of their knowledge of the arts, of husbandry, their state of civilization, their religion and its rites, their ultimate fate, and the manner and circumstances of their final disappearance, whether by process of absorption from intermingling and intermarrying with other and more vigorous races, by dispersion or captivity, or by extinction through war, pestilence, or famine.
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 185
Although generation after generation of Mound Builders here lived and flourished, and, peradventure, reached the acme of their glory, then passed through age after age of decadence and decrepitude into "the receptacle of things lost upon earth," without leaving anything that may properly be called history; and though no records of their exploits have come down to this generation through the intervening centuries, yet their enduring works furnish the laborious student some indications, even though they be slight, of the characteristics of their builders, and afford some data as to the probable history they made during the unknown, perchance barren, uneventful cycles of their indefinitely long career as a nation or race.
As the history of the Mound Builders is yet unwritten, it is certainly a matter of gratulation that so many way-marks and traces of this people yet remain within the boundaries of Ohio. Their works in the State, still existing in a tolerably perfect condition, are approximately estimated at ten thousand, but they doubtless far exceeded that number at the time of the first permanent Anglo-American settlement here, in 1788.
Only such monuments, or remains of ancient works can be properly ascribed to the Mound Builders as were really regarded by the Indian tribes at the period of the first settlement at Marietta as antiquities, or as the ruins and relics of an extinct race, and "concerning the origin of which they were wholly ignorant, or only possessed a traditionary knowledge."
These-consisted of mounds, effigies and inclosures, which are known and designated as the three general classes of ancient works that can be appropriately regarded as belonging to the Mound Builders. Mounds are sub-divided into sepulchral, sacrificial, temple (or truncated); also of observation, and memorial or monumental.
Effigies are sometimes called animal mounds, sometimes emblematic, and frequently symbolical.
Inclosures are of several kinds, one class being known as military or defensive works; another as parallel embankments or covered ways; and the third as sacred inclosures.
Under the general title of inclosures, are also walls of circuinvalation or ramparts constructed for military or defensive works, while others were doubtless walls surrounding the residence of the reigning monarch; perchance others were erected for the performance within them of their national games and amusements, and perhaps many also served a purpose in the performance of their religious rites and ceremonies, and facilitated indulgence in some superstitious practices.
Most of the above named works were constructed of earth, a few of stone, and perhaps fewer still of earth and stone combined. The title each bears indicates, in a measure, the uses they are supposed to have served.
Sepulchral mounds are generally conical in form and are more numerous than any other kinds. They are of all sizes, ranging from a very small altitude, to about seventy feet in height, and always contain one or more skeletons, .or parts thereof, or present other plausible indications of having been built or used for purposes of sepulture, and were, unmistakably, memorials raised over the dead.
By some archaeologists it is maintained that the size of these mounds bears a certain relation to the importance, when living, of the person over whose remains they were erected.
In this class of mounds are often found implements and ornaments, supposed to have been buried with the person or persons there interred, under the superstitious and delusive notion, still entertained by some tribes of American Indians, who indulge in similar practices, that they might be useful to them in the happy hunting grounds of the future state.
The practice being one common to both the Indians and Mound Builders, apparently connects the former with the latter, and raises the presumption that the Indians may have descended from the Mound Builders.
That fire was used in the burial ceremonies of the Mound Builders is manifest from the fact that charcoal is, often, if not always, found in close proximity to the skeleton. The presence of ashes, igneous stones, and other traces of the action of fire in these tombs, renders it quite probable this element was employed in their burial ceremonies.
Mica is often found in proximity to the skeletons, as well as specimens of pottery, bone • and copper beads, and animal bones.
The name given to this description of tumuli
186 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
clearly indicates that they were erected chiefly for burial purposes. They generally contain but a limited number of skeletons, indeed, often but a single one; but Professor Marsh, of the Sheffield scientific , school, connected with Yale college, a few years ago opened a mound in this county, which contained seventeen skeletons in whole or in part. in Hardin county, in which were found
The most remarkable of all mounds in the State, was one m Hardin county, in which were found about three hundred skeletons. A doubt has, however, been expressed that these were all 'Mound Builders' skeletons-some persons entertaining the belief that they were Indian remains, as it is well known that the Indians frequently buried their dead on or near the mounds.
Sacrificial mounds are usually stratified, the strata being convex layers of clay and loam, alternating with a layer of fine sand. They generally contain ashes, charcoal, igneous stones, calcined animal bones, beads, stone implements, pottery and specimens of rude sculpture. These mounds are frequently found within enclosures, which were supposed to have been in some way connected with the performance of the religious rites and ceremonies of the Mound Builders. An altar of stone or burnt clay is usually found in this class of mounds.
These altars, which sometimes rest on the surface of the original earth, at the centre of the mound are symmetrically shaped, and are among the chief distinguishing characteristics of-sacrificial mounds. Upon these altars sacrifices of animals, and probably of human beings, were offered, the fire being used to some extent in that superstitious and cruel performance. Some of this class of mounds seem also to have been used for purposes of sepulture as well as sacrifice; the presence of skeletons, in some of them at least, suggest their sepulchral as well as sacrificial character.
In common with sepulchral mounds these likewise contain implements of war, also mica from the Alleghanies, shells from the Gulf of Mexico, obsidian, and in some instances porphyry from Mexico, as well as silver and copper articles, both for use and ornament.
Temple mounds are less numerous and generally larger than the preceding classes, and in form are oftenest circular or oval; but, whether round, square, oblong, oval, octangular, or whatever form, are invariably truncated, having the appearance of being in an unfinished condition. They are frequently surrounded by embankments, and many of them have spiral pathways, steps, or inclined planes leading to their summits. They are generally of large base and of comparatively limited altitude.
The supposition is that the summits of these mounds-were crowned with structures of wood that served the purposes of temples, all traces of which, however, owing to the perishable nature of the materials used in their construction, have disappeared. They were also used to a limited extent for burial purposes, as well as for uses connected with their religion.
Mounds of Observation are generally situated upon eminences, and were doubtless "observatories," "alarm posts," "watch towers," "signal stations," or "look outs," serving the purposes indicated by their title. They are said by some writers to occur in chains or regular systems, and that many of them still bear traces of the beacon fires that were once burning on them. They are sometimes found in connection with embankments and enclosures, forming a portion, though greatly enlarged, of the banks of earth or stones that compose said embankments and enclosures.
One of this description is situated two miles west of Newark, and though somewhat mutilated, is yet about twenty-five feet high.
This class of mounds is tolerably numerous in some portions of the State.
Memorial or Monumental mounds belong to the class of tumuli that were erected to perpetuate the memory of some important event, or in honor of some distinguished character. They are mostly built of earth, but some of the stone mounds found in some portions of the State probably belong to this not numerous class.
Effigies or Animal mounds are simply raised figures or gigantic basso relieves of men, beasts, birds or reptiles, and in some instances, of inanimate objects. They are on the surface of the earth, raised to a limited height, generally from one foot to six feet above the natural surface of the ground. Mr. Schoolcraft, an authority, calls
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 187
this class of ancient works Emblematic mounds, and expresses the belief that they were "Totems" or "heraldic symbols." Professor Daniel Wilson, the learned author of "Pre-historic Man," and other writers of distinction, call them Symbolical mounds, and hold the opinion that they were erected as objects of worship, or for altars upon which sacrifices were offered, or that they served some other purposes connected with the religious worship of their idolatrous and superstitious constructors.
Of the three most notable examples of Effigies in the State, two are situated in this county. One is the Eagle mound, near the center of what is known as the "Old Fort," near Newark; and the other is called the "Alligator mound," and is situated on the summit of a hill nearly two hundred feet high, near Granville. Both of these renowned works will receive more particular attention in the histories of the townships in which they are located.
Inclosures defensive and sacred, have been briefly mentioned. ?Most of them are earth-works, though a few are of stone. Defensive enclosures are of irregular form, are always on high ground, and in naturally strong positions, frequently on the summits of hills and steep bluffs, and are often strengthened by exterior ditches. The walls generally wind around the borders of the elevations they occupy, and where the nature of the ground renders some points more accessible than others,. the height of the wall and the depth of the ditch at those weak points are proportionally increased. The gate-ways are narrow, few in number, and well guarded by embankments placed a few yards inside of the openings or gate-ways, parallel with them, and projecting somewhat beyond them at each end, thus fully covering the entrances, which, in some cases, are still further protected by projecting walls on either side of them.
These works are somewhat numerous, and indicate a clear appreciation of the elements, at least, of fortification, and unmistakably point out the purpose for which they were constructed. A large number of these defensive works consists of a line of ditch and embankments, or several lines carried across the neck of peninsulas or bluff' head-lands, formed within the bends of streams-an easy and obvious mode of fortification, common to all rude peoples. To this class of inclosures belongs that situated on the summit of a hill one mile east of Alligator mound in Licking county.
Covered ways are parallel walls of earth of limited height, and are frequently found contiguous to inclosures, sometimes, indeed, connecting them by extending from one to another. One of their purposes, at least, seems to have been the protection of those passing to and fro within them.
Sacred inclosures are mainly distinguished from those of a military character by the regularity of their form, their different construction and their more frequent occurrence. They are of all shapes and forms, and where moats or ditches exist they areinvariably found in the inside of the embankments. They are generally in the form of geometrical figures of surprising accuracy, such as circles, squares, hexagons, octagons, ellipses, parallelograms and of various others. They are sometimes found within military inclosures, and evidently had some connection with the religious ideas and ceremonies of their builders. Frequently there is situated in the center of this class of works a mound, or elevation, supposed to have served the purposes of an altar upon which sacrifices were offered, or which was, at least, in some way, used in conducting their religious services. Within these sacred inclosures were doubtless celebrated religious festivals, and upon those central mounds or altars were undoubtedly performed, by priestly hands, the rites and ceremonies demanded by their sacrificial and idolatrous religion.
The very extensive works near Newark, known as the "Old Fort," and situated in the fairgrounds, evidently belong to this class, and receive particular attention in another chapter. Some archaeologists, however, maintain that many works called sacred inclosures were erected for and used as places of amusement, where these ancient people practiced their national games, and celebrated their great national events, where they held their national festivals and indulged in their national jubilees, as well as performed the ceremonies of their religion.
It may be that there are those (and there are many such) within which no central elevation or altar occurs, were erected for the purposes last named, and not exclusively (if at all) for purposes
188 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
connected with their religion, and are therefore erroneously called sacred inclosures.
Other ancient peoples, if indeed not all the nations of antiquity, had their national games, amusements, festivals and jubilees, and why not the Mound Builders? Without doubt they had, and congregated within their inclosures to practice, celebrate and enjoy them.
It is natural to indulge in speculations regarding these ancient works. Probably none of them have been constructed since Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492. About sixty years ago a tree which stood upon the bank of the inclosure last named, at a point where the bank was twenty feet high, was cut down, and its concentric circles ; numbered five hundred and fifty, thus proving conclusively that the said inclosure was constructed more than six hundred years ago.,
Authorities differ regarding many matters connected with the Mound Builders, but a few facts seem to be fully established by their works. There can be no doubt that they were a numerous people. Works so elaborate, so gigantic, could not have been erected by a people insignificant in numbers. This is the more apparent when it is considered that they were without iron or any suitable metal instruments or tools with which to perform their herculean labors.
It could scarcely have been otherwise than that they were also the subjects of a single strong government, because, under any other, the performance of such an immense amount of, probably, enforced labor could not have been secured. Very likely some sort of vassalage or servitude prevailed. There is' abundant evidence that they were a war-like people, and probably, like some savage nations now existing, they made slaves of their prisoners. The number and magnitude of their works, and their extensive range and uniformity, prove that they were essentially homogeneous in customs, habits, religion, and government. The general features common to all their remains identify them as appertaining to a single grand system, owing its origin to men moving in the same direction, acting under common impulses, and influenced by similar causes.
That they possessed military skill, and were not without some knowledge of mathematics, is quite evident. Building their defensive works in naturally strong positions, and constructing many of their other works in the form of various geometrical figures, show this. The construction of military works would indicate that they were, occasionally, at least, at war, either among themselves or with some other nation or tribe. If another nation, what other? Perhaps with the North .American Indian to whom the country may have belonged before the Mound Builders entered it: There are various scraps of history relating to the antiquity of the Indian. For. instance, in the annual report of the council of the American Antiquarian society, page 40, occurs this note from Sir Charles Lyell:
"A human cranium, of the aboriginal type of the red Indian race, had been found in the delta of the 'Mississippi, beneath four buried forests, superimposed, one upon another, implying. as estimated by Dr. Dowler, an antiquity of fifty thousand years."
Lyell, himself, estimated the age of the delta at one hundred thousand years. It may be conjectured from many historical facts, that the Mound Builders were a foreign people who invaded the soil of America, as there is but little evidence that they spread themselves over the continent, but much, that they passed through it from northeast to southwest, covering a broad belt, on which they erected their mysterious mounds. The time occupied by them in crossing the continent can only be conjectured. It is a well known historical fact that the Northmen reached the coast of North America from Greenland in 999, A. D. Perhaps the mysterious Mound Builders were no other than these-they came in great numbers, attempted to conquer the country, found the Indians too strong for them, but conquered a certain portion of the .territory, clung together, moved gradually southwest, protecting themselves on the way by forts and other earthworks, finally disappearing in Mexico, either conquering that country or intermingling with and becoming absorbed by that people.
The Mound Builders were doubtless a superstitious people, cherishing faith in some religious system. The amount of labor bestowed upon those of their works that were erected in the interest of their religion, shows a strong tendency
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STONE RELICS
190 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
toward a superstitious belief. They doubtless offered up animals in sacrifice, as a part of their ! religious ceremonies, and it may be that human sacrifices were not unknown among them. Prisoners of war are thus disposed of sometimes by peoples and nations who have attained to as high a grade of civilization as that reached by the Mound Builders. The sacrificial character of their religion is clearly established.
The late Dr. Foster hesitated not to say that they were worshipers of the elements; that they also worshiped the sun, moon and stars; and that they offered up human victims as an acceptable sacrifice to the gods they worshiped. He deduced this fact from the charred or calcined bones that cover their altars. Other high authorities also unhesitatingly assert that there is convincing proof that they were fire-worshipers.
It may be well in this connection to notice, briefly, the implements made and used by this people, especially so far as investigation has revealed their character in Licking county.
Very few copper implements have been found in this part of Ohio, owing partly to the fact o the unexplored condition of many of the mounds, and to the fact that little, if any, copper exists in this part of the United States. What does exist is in loose fragments that have been washed down from the upper lake region. When mounds are explored, great care is necessary lest these small utensils be lost, as they are commonly scattered through the mass, and not always in close proximity to the skeletons. The copper deposits about Lake Superior furnished the pre-historic man with this metal, and, judging from the amount of relics made of this metal now found, it must have been quite abundant. The population of the country, then, must have been quite numerous, as occasional copper implements, tempered to an exceeding hardness, are still found about the country. These implements are small, generally less than half a pound in weight, and seldom exceeding three pounds. There were millions of these in use during the period of the ancient dwellers. which must have been hundreds of years in duration. The copper implements left on the surface soon disappeared by decomposition, to which copper is nearly as liable as iron. Only a part of the dead Mound Builders were placed in burial mounds, and of these only a part were buried with their copper ornaments and implements on and about them. Of those that were, only a small part have been discovered, and, in many instances, the slight depth of earth over them has not prevented the decay and disappearance of the copper relics.
Articles of bronze or brass are not found with
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 191
the builders of the mounds. It is evident they knew nothing of these metals in the Ohio valley, nor did they possess any of the copper that had been melted or cast in molds.
Stone relics are very numerous and well preserved. Stone axes, stone mauls, stone hammers, stone chisels, etc., are very plentiful yet, and were the common implements of the pre-historic man in this part of the west. None were made with holes or eyes for the insertion of a helve or handles, but were grooved to receive a withe twisted into the form of a handle. Under the head of axes, archaeologists include all wrought stones with a groove, a bit and a poll. They are found unpolished, partly polished and polished. The bit was made sharp by rubbing, and the material is hard and tough, generally of trachyte, greenstone, granite, quartz or basalt. Most of them are straight on one edge. In Ohio, it is very rare that stone axes are found in the mounds, indicating that they are modern, or were not so much prized by the Mound Builders as to be objects of burial. Occasionally, axes of softer material are found, such as slate, hematite and sandstone, but these are small in size and not common. They appear to have been manufactured from small, oblong boulders, first brought into shape by a pick, or chipping instrument, the marks of which are visible on nearly all of them. They were made more perfect by rubbing and polishing, probably done from time to time after they were brought into use. A handle or helve, made of a withe or split stick, was fastened in the groove by thongs of hide. The bit is narrower than the body of the axe, which is generally not well enough balanced to be of much value as a cutting instrument.
192 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
It is very seldom the material is hard enough to cut green and sound timber. The poll is usually round, but sometimes flat, and rarely pointed. It is much better adapted to breaking than cutting, while the smaller ones are better fitted for war-clubs than tools. As- a maul to break dry limbs, they were very efficient, which was probably the use made of them. In weight they range from half a pound to sixteen pounds, but are generally less than three pounds. The very heavy ones must have been kept at the regular camps and villages, as they could not have been carried far, even in canoes. Such axes are occasionally found in the Indian towns on the frontier, as they were found in Ohio among the aborigines.. The Mound Builders apparently did not give them as much prominence among their implements as their savage successors. Double-headed hammers have the groove in the middle. They were made of the same material as the axes, so balanced as to give a blow with equal force at either end. Their mechanical symmetry is often perfect. As a weapon in war, they were, indeed, formidable, for which purpose they are yet used among the Indians on the Pacific coast.
Implements, known as " ''fleshers'' and "skinners," chisel-formed, commonly called "celts," were probably used as aids in peeling the skins of animals from the meat and bones. For the purpose of cutting tools for wood, they were not sufficiently hard, and do not show such use, excepting in a few flint chisels. They may have been applied as coal scrapers where wood had been burned; but this could not have been a general thing without destroying the perfect edge most of them now exhibit. The grooved axes were much better adapted to this purpose.
Stone pestles are not plentiful in this county, while stone mortars are rare, indicating that they were made of wood, which is lighter and more easily transported. Most of the pestles are short, with a wide base, tapering toward the top. They were probably used with one hand, and moved about in the mortar in a circle. The long, round instrument, usually called a pestle, does not appear to be fitted for crushing seeds and grain by pounding or turning in the mortar. It was prob-
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 193
ably used as a rolling-pin, perhaps on a board or leveled log, not upon stone. It is seldom found smooth or polished, and varies from seven to thirteen inches in length. In outline they taper toward each end, which is generally smooth, and circular in form, as though it had been twirled in an upright position.
There is almost an endless variety of perforated plates, thread-sizers, shuttles, etc. They are usually made of striped slate, most of which have tapering holes through them flat-wise, the use of which has been much discussed. The accompanying plate exhibits several specimens of these; but there are, doubtless, many other forms and styles. They are generally symmetrical, the material fine grained, and their proportions graceful, as though their principal use was that of ornamentation. Many of them may well have been worn suspended as beads or ornaments. Some partake of the character of badges or ensigns of authority. Others, if strung together on thongs or belts, would serve as a coat of mail, protecting the breast or back against the arrows of an enemy. A number of them would serve to size and twist twine or coarse thread made of bark, rawhide or sinew. The most common theory regarding their use is, how-
194 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
ever, lacking one important feature. None of them show signs of wear by use. The edges of the holes through them are sharp and perfect. This objection applies equally well to their use as suspended ornaments. Some of them are shuttle form, through which coarse threads might have been passed, for weaving rude cloth of bark or of fibrous plants, such as milk-weed or nettles. There are also double-ended and pointed ones, with a cross section about the middle of which is a circle, and through which is a perforation.
A great variety of wands or badges of distinction are found. They are nearly all fabricated from striped and variegated slate, highly finished, very symmetrical and elegant in proportion, evidently designed to be ornamental. If they were stronger and heavier, some of them would serve the purpose of hatchets or battle-axes. The material is compact and fine-grained; but the eyes, or holes, for handles or staves, are quite small, seldom half an inch in diameter. Their edges are not sharp, but rounded, and the body is thin, usually less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness.
The form of badges, known as "double-crescents," are the most elegant and expensive of any yet brought to notice. They were probably used to indicate the highest rank or office. The single crescent, perhaps, signified a rank next below the double. In Mr. John B. Matson's* collection there is a rough-hewn double one in process of construction, the horns of which turn inward. In nearly or quite all the finished ones the points turn outward. The finish around the bore of all winged badges and the crescents is the same, and the size of the bore about -the -same-from two-fifths to three-fifths of an inch. On one side of all is a narrow ridge; on the other, a flat band, lengthwise, like a ridge that has been ground down to a width of one to two-tenths of an inch. Badges
"Mr. Matson resides in Springfield township, Richland county, not far from Spring Mills. He has one of the largest and finest collections in that county.
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 195
and crescents are invariably made of banded slate, generally of a greenish shade of color. The other forms of wands or badges, such as those with symmetrical wings or blades, are also made of green striped slate, highly polished, with a bore of about one-half inch in diameter, apparently to insert a light wooden rod or staff. They were probably emblems of distinction, and were not ornaments. Nothing like them is known among the modern tribes, in form or use, hence they. are attributed to the Mound Builders.
In addition to stone ornaments, the pre-historic man seems to have had a penchant, like his savage successors, to bedaub his body with various colors, derived from different colored minerals. These compounds were mixed in hollowed stones or diminutive mortars"paint cups," - in which the mineral mass of colored clay was reduced to powder and prepared for application to the body. Such paint cups are not common in this county; in fact, they are quite rare, but one being known to exist, that in the collection of Dr. Craig, of Mansfield, Ohio.
The comparative rarity of aboriginal smoking pipes is easily explained by the fact that they were not discarded, as were weapons, when those by whom they were fashioned entered upon the iron age. The advances of the whites in no way lessened the demand for pipes, nor did the whites substitute a better implement. The pipes were retained and used until worn out or broken, save the few that were buried with their dead owners.
196 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
What was the ultimate fate of these can only be conjectured. In very few instances does an Indian grave contain a pipe. If the practice of burying the pipe with its owner was common, it is probable that the graves were opened and robbed of this coveted article by members of the sane or some other tribes.
It only remains to notice the "flints," in addition to which a few other archaeological relics of minor importance are found about the country, but none of sufficient import to merit mention, or to throw additional light on the lost tribes of America. Arrow and spear heads and other similar pieces of flaked flints are the most abundant of any aboriginal relics in the United States. They are chiefly made of hard and brittle siliceous materials; are easily damaged in hitting any object at which they are aimed, hence many of them bear marks of violent use. Perfect specimens are, however, by no means rare. The art of arrow w snaking survives to the present day among certain Indian tribes, from whom is learned the art practiced that produces them.
A classification of arrow heads is not within the scope of this work; indeed, it is rarely attempted by archaeologists. The styles are almost as numerous as their makers. In general, they are all the same in outline, mostly leaf-shaped, varying
197 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY
PERFORATORS - FLINT
ARROW AND SPEAR HEADS
198 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
according to the taste of their makers. The accompanying cut exhibits a few of the common forms, though the number is infinite. They may have been chipped-probably most were-and some may have been ground. Spear heads exhibit as large a variety as arrow heads. Like arrow heads, spear heads were inserted in wooden handles of various lengths, though in many tribes they were fastened by thongs of untanned leather or sinews.
Their modes of manufacture were generally the same. Sometimes tribes contained "arrow makers," whose business was to make these implements selling them to, or exchanging them with, their neighbors for wampum or peltry. When the Indian desired an arrow head, he could buy one of the "arrow maker" or make one himself. The common method was to take a chipping implement, generally made of the pointed rods of a deer horn, from eight to sixteen inches in length, or of slender, short pieces of the same material, bound with sinews to wooden sticks resembling arrow shafts. The "arrow maker" held in his left hand the flake of flint or obsidian on which he intended to operate, and pressing the point of the tool against its edge, detached scale after scale, with much ingenuity, until the flake assumed the desired form.
NOTE.-For more particular information regarding the (corks of the Mound Builders, located in different parts of this counts, the reader is referred to the history of the different townships in which such works are located.
CHAPTER XXII.
INDIANS.
CHARACTERISTICS-TERRITORY OCCUPIED BY THE DIFFERENT TRIBES- BOUNDARIES OF THE DELAWARE AND WYANDOT RESERVATION-INDIAN VILLAGES IN LICKING COUNTY - STRENGTH OP THE WYANDOTS AND SHAWNEES - TRAILS -HISTORY OF THE SHAWNEES, WYANDOTS, OTTAWAS AND DELAWARES-MANNERS, CUSTOMS, FEASTS, ETC. MAKING SUGAR- AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS - DOMESTIC LIFE-RELIGION-THEM: REMOVAL FROM OHIO.
"Through the land where we for ages
Laid our bravest, dearest dead.
Grinds the savage white man's ploughshare,
Grinding sires bones for bread."
-Joaquin Miller.
THE next inhabitants in the form of a human being to occupy the territory now embraced in Licking county, after the Mound Builders, were the American Indians. At least such is the generally received opinion, though whether the Indians and Mound Builders were not contemporaneous is, perhaps, an open question. The Indian history, as well as that of the Mound Builders, is a good deal involved in obscurity, and much of it largely dependent on tradition, yet much of it is authentic and reliable. The Indians themselves, however, can be allowed very little, if any, credit for this preservation of their history; it is almost, or entirely, owing to white occupation that they have any history at all.
The day is not far distant when the Indian race, as a race, will become extinct. Supposing that this extinction had occurred before white occupation of this country, what would the world know of the Indian race? Where are their monuments? Where are their works that Would' perpetuate their memory? In what particular spot on this great earth have they left a single indelible footprint or imperishable mark to tell of their existence? Not so with the Mound Builders. They left works of an imperishable nature, and from these something of their history may be learned; even though personally they do not appear to exist anywhere. They were evidently workers, and much superior to the Indian, viewed from a civilized standpoint.
Colonel Charles Whittlesey's map of the Indians of Ohio gives this territory to the Delawares, except the western tier of townships, which are located in the Shawnee country; it does not appear,
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 199
however, that the Delawares occupied it to any great extent. It was used as a hunting ground by the Wyandots and Shawnees.
During the latter half of the last century the Shawnees occupied the Scioto country, and sometimes spread themselves more or less over this section; but the Wyandots (also called the Hurons) and the Delawares mainly occupied the country between the Muskingum and Scioto rivers.
In 1785, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, it was stipulated that the boundary line between the United States and the Delaware and Wyandot nations, should "begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river and run thence up said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of Muskingum, thence down said branch to the forks (at the present town of Bolivar), thence westerly to the portage of the Big Miami, thence along said portage to the great Miami of the lakes (Maumee river), and down said river to its mouth; thence along the southern shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, the place of beginning." By this treaty, as will be seen, they ceded a large territory, including Licking county, to the United States. It is certain, however, that many of them continued to occupy this territory many years after the date of the above treaty, which they found little difficulty in doing, as there were then no white settlers to dispute the possession with them.
To the Shawnees was assigned, by the treaty of Fort Finney, in 1786, the country between the Big Miami and Wabash rivers. They also relinquished all claims to whatever territory they had in Ohio, but some of them also lingered here, even within the limits of this county, until the ;,close of the century, or later.
Previous to 1800 there were several Indian villages within the limits of the county. One of these was called "Raccoon town," and was situated on the Raccoon bottom, near Johnstown. This was a Wyandot village, and, in 1807, their possessions were purchased by Charles and George Green, who thereafter occupied these lands. Another was on the Bowling Green, near the Licking river, five miles below Newark. They also had some huts, wigwams, and some small villages on the Licking bottoms, which they occupied temporarily, a mile or two below the junction of the North and South forks, as well as at some other points. A few Shawnees camped for a time on Shawnee run, near or on the farm of Mr. P. N. O'Bannon, which circumstance gave name to the stream. One of the Indian tribes called the North fork "Pataskala," and the main stream below was, also, so called; but one or more of the Indian tribes also called the latter Lick-Licking. The latter name is supposed to have been given it from the fact of there being in early times some "salt licks," as they were called, upon or near its banks, which were much resorted to by deer and buffalo, and, subsequent to the settlement of the country, by domestic animals. Hunters were very successful, in early times, at these licks, in securing venison. The Indians in this territory were peaceably disposed toward the whites, and there is no record of any murders or outrages committed by them after the permanent settlement of the county. The shooting of a scout in the eastern part of the county, and the stealing of some horses from the first settlers by the Indians, is fully described in the chapter on the pioneers.
Mr. Hutchins, the United States geographer, estimated the number of the Wyandots and Shawnees in 1764, at eight hundred warriors-three hundred of the former and five hundred of the latter.
It appears these nations occupied this territory in limited numbers, only as a hunting ground, and that it was out of the line of all their great trails. One of their main trails-a "trunk line" as it were-crossed the Muskingum river in the vicinity of Zanesville, passing a little south of west across Perry and Fairfield counties, but wholly south of Licking. A branch trail, however, diverged from. this main trail, crossed the Muskingum in the vicinity of the present site of Dresden, and striking Licking county, about where Licking river passes out of it, on the east, passed up that river to the vicinity of Bowling Green, where it crossed, and bore southwest to the "Big" and "Little" lake§, or what is now the reservoir. This reservoir was a favorite resort for the purpose of fishing. This trail passed on from the reservoir to King Beaverstown, near Pickerington, or Lithopolis, in Fairfield county, near the head-waters of the Hock Hocking.
200 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
A brief history of these nations, their habits and customs, may be appropriate here.
Speaking of the Shawanees or Shawanoes, Colonel Johnston, a most excellent authority on such subjects, says:
"We can trace their history to the time of their residence on the tide-waters of Florida, and, as welt as the Delawares, they aver that they originally came from west of the Mississippi. Blackhoof, who died at Wapaghkonnetta, at the advanced age of one hundred and five years, and who, in his day, was a very influential chief among the Indians, told me that he remembered, when a boy, bathing in the salt waters of Florida; also that his people firmly believed white, or civilized, people had been in the country before them, having found in manv instances the marks of iron tools upon the trees and stumps."
Shawanoese means "the south," or the "people from the south."* After the peace of 1763, the Miamis removed from the Big Miami river and a body of Shawnees established themselves at Lower and Upper Piqua, which became their l-rincipal headquarters in Ohio. They remained here until driven off by the Kentuckians, when they crossed over to the St. Diary's and to Wapaghkonnetta. The Upper Piqua is said to have contained at one period over four thousand Shawnees. They were very warlike and brave, and often were quite formidable enemies.
In the French war, which ended in 1763, a bloody battle was fought near the site of Colonel Johnston's residence, at Upper Piqua. At that time the Miamis had their towns here, which on ancient maps are marked as "Tewightewee towns." The Miamis, Ottawas, Wyandots, and other northern tribes adhering to the French, made a stand here, assisted by the French. The Delawares,
Shawnees, Munseys, parts of the Senecas, residing in Pennsylvania, Cherokees, Catawbas, and other tribes, adhering to the English, with English traders, attacked the French and Indian. The latter had built a fort in which to protect and defend themselves, and were able to withstand the siege, which lasted more than a week. Not long after this contest the Miamis retired to the Miami of the lake, at and near Fort Wayne, and never returned. The Shawnees took their place, and gave names to many towns in this part of Ohio.
The northern part of Ohio belonged in ancient times to the Eries, who were exterminated by the
* Howe's Collections.
Five Nations in some of their wars.. The Wyandots, who, at the time the French missionaries came to America were dwelling in the peninsula of Michigan, were allowed by the Five Nations to occupy the land of the Eries, and thus came to dwell in Ohio. From Howe's Historical Collections, it is ascertained that the Wyandots once occupied the north site of the St. Lawrence river, down to Coon lake, and from thence up the Utiwas. The Senecas owned the opposite side of the river, and the island upon which Montreal now stands. Both were large tribes, consisting of many thousands, and were blood relations, claiming each other as cousins.
A war originated between the two tribes in the following manner: A Wyandot brave wanted a certain woman for his wife ; she objected; said he was no warrior, as he had never taken any scalps. He then raised a party of warriors and they fell upon a small part of Senecas, killing and scalping a number of them. It is presumed the Wyandot brave secured his wife, but this created a war between the tribes which lasted more than a hundred pears, and until both nations were much weakened, and the Wyandots nearly exterminated. The latter were compelled to leave the country, and took up their residence on the peninsula of Michigan, as before stated. They were often compelled to fight their old enemies even in this far off region, as war parties of Senecas frequently went there for that purpose. A peace was finally arranged, and the remnant of Wyandots came to reside in Ohio. The Ottawas, another conquered tribe, and one allowed existence only by paying a kind of tribute to their conquerors, the Iroquois, were also part occupants of this same part of Ohio. This nation produced the renowned chief, Pontiac, who ryas the cause of such wide-spread desolation in the west. The Ottawas were often known as "Canada Indians" among the early settlers. Their principal settlements were on the Maumee along the lake shore, on the Huron and Black rivers, and on the streams flowing .into them. These Indians were distinguished for their cunning and artifice, and were devoid of the attributes of a true warrior. They were often employed as emissaries, their known diplomacy and artifice being well adapted for such business. The Wyandots,
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on the other hand, were a bold, warlike people. General Harrison says of them: "They were true warriors, and neither fatigue, famine, loss, or any of the ills of war could . daunt their courage. They were our most formidable and stubborn enemies among the aborigines in the war of 1812." They, like all tribes in the west, were often influenced by British rum and British gold, and found, in the end, as their chiefs so aptly expressed it, that they were "only tools in the hands of a superior power, who cared nothing for them, only to further their own selfish ends."
Many of the Indians of all these tribes were friendly to all whites until the breaking out of the war with Great Britain, when they left the country to join. the forces of the king, and destroy the whites who occupied their country. They considered them then their enemies, and acted accordingly on all occasions, save where personal friendship, so strong in the Indian, developed itself, and in many instances, saved the lives of those in danger. Instances of this kind are frequently given, which appear in the narrative -as they occurred.
The manners, customs, feasts, war parties and daily life of these sons of the forest, form interesting chapters in aboriginal history. It will be well to notice such in these pages, as far as space permits. The character of the Indians was largely the result of their lives. They judged and lived by what the senses dictated. They had names and words for what they could hear, see, feel, taste and smell. They had no conceptions of abstract ideas until they learned such from the whites. Hence their language was very symbolical. They could see the sun in his brightness, they could feel his heat ; hence they compared the actions of a good man to the glory of the sun, and his fervent energy to the heat of that body. The moon in her brightness, the wind in its fury, the clouds in their majesty, or in their slow, graceful motion through a lazy atmosphere; the grace and flight of the deer; the strength and fury of the bear; the rush or ripple of water as it coursed along the bed of a river, all gave them words whose expressiveness are a wonder and marvel to this day. They looked on the beautiful river that borders the southern shores of our State and exclaimed "O-he-zo!" beautiful; on the placid waters of the stream bordering the western line of Indiana and ejaculated, "Wa-ba"-a summer cloud moving swiftly; on the river flowing into Lake Erie and said, "Cuy-o-ga" (Cuyahoga), crooked; and so on through their entire vocabulary, each name expressive of a meaning, full and admirably adapted to the object. At one time in the history of the Indians in the south, one tribe was driven from the homes of its ancestors, and in their flight they came to the green banks of a beautiful river. The spot was charmingly beautiful, and the chief, thrusting his spear into the earth, cried in a loud voice, "Al-a-ba-ma"-here we rest. A river and State now perpetuate the name and story.
The Indians in Ohio, the tribes already mentioned, had learned a few things from their intercourse with the whites on the borders of Western Pennsylvania, when they were first seen by the pioneers of Licking county. Their cabins or wigwams were of two kinds circular and parallelogram. The former, the true wigwam, was in use among the Ottawas when the whites came to their country. It was made of a number of straight poles driven firmly into the ground, their upper ends being drawn closely together; this formed a kind of skeleton tent. The squaws plaited mats of thongs, bark or grass, in such a manner as to render them impervious to water. These were spread on the poles, beginning at the bottom, and extending upward. A small hole was left for the egress of smoke from the fire kindled in the center of the wigwam. Around this fire, mats or skins were spread, on which the Indians slept at night, and on which they sat during the day. For a door, they lifted one end of the mat, and crept in, letting it fall down behind them. These tents were warm and dry, and generally quite free from smoke. Their fuel was nearly always split by the squaws in the fall of the year, and kept dry by placing it under an inverted birch-bark canoe. These wigwams were easily moved about from place to place, the labor of their destruction and construction being always performed by the squaws -the beasts of burden among all savage nations. The wigwam was very light, and easily carried about. It resembled the tents of to-day in shape, and was often superior in points of comfort and protection.
202 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
The cabins were more substantial affairs, and were built of poles, about the thickness of a small sized telegraph pole, but were of various sizes, and commonly, about twelve by fifteen feet in length. These poles were laid one on the other, similar to the logs in a cabin, save that, until the Indians learned that notching the point of contact near the end, from the whites, they were held by two stakes being driven in the angles formed in the corners, and fastened at the top by a hickory or bark withe, or by a thong of buckskin. The pen was raised to the height of from four to six feet, when an arched roof was made over it by driving at each end a strong post, with a fork at the upper end, which stood a convenient height above the topmost log or pole. A stout pole was laid on the forks, and on this was laid a small pole reaching down to the wall. On these rafters, small lath were tied, and over the whole pieces *of linn bark were thrown. These were cut from the tree, often of great length, and from six to twelve inches in width. They were then cut into proper lengths to cover the cabin. At the ends of the cabin split timbers were set up, so that the entire cabin was inclosed except a small aperture at one end, left for a door. This was covered by a deer or bear skin. At the top of the cabin an opening was left for the smoke to escape, for all Indians built their fires on the ground in the center of the cabin or wigwam, around which they spread skins and mats on which to recline and sleep. The cracks between the logs were filled with moss gathered from old logs. When made, the cabin was quite comfortable, and was often constructed in the same manner by the pioneers, while making improvements, and used until a permanent structure could be erected.
In regard to food, the Indians were more careful to provide for their future needs than their successors of the west are to-day. In the spring they made maple sugar by boiling the sap in large brass or iron kettles which they had obtained from the French and English traders. To secure the water they used vessels made of elm bark in a very ingenious manner. "They would strip the bark," says Dr. George W. Hill, of Ashland, "in the winte season when it would strip or run, by cutting down the tree, and, with a crooked stick, sharp and broad at one end, peel the bark in wide strips, from which they would construct vessels holding two or three gallons each." They would often make over a hundred of these. They cut a sloping notch in the side of a sugar-tree, stuck a tomahawk into the wood at the end of the notch, and, in the dent thus made, drove a long chip or spile, which conveyed the water to the bark vessels. They generally selected the larger trees for tapping, as they considered the sap from such stronger and productive of more sugar. Their vessels for carrying the sap would hold from three to five gallons each, and sometimes, where a large camp was located and a number of squaws at work, using a half-dozen kettles, great quantities of sugar would be made. When the sugar-water would collect faster than they could boil it, they would make three or four large troughs, holding more than a hundred gallons each, in which they kept the sap until ready to boil. When the sugar was made, it was generally mixed with bear's oil or fat, forming a sweet mixture into which they dipped their roasted venison. As cleanliness was not a reigning virtue among the Indians, the cultivated taste of a civilized person would not always fancy the mixture, unless driven to it by hunger. The compound, when made, was generally kept in large bags made of coon skins, or vessels made of bark. The former were made by stripping the skin over the body toward the head, tying the holes made by the legs with buckskin cords, and sewing securely the holes of the eyes, ears and mouth. The hair was all removed, and then the bag blown full of air, from a hole in the upper end, and allowed to dry. Bags made in this way, Dr. Bushnell says, would hold whiskey, and were often used for such purposes. When they became saturated they- were blown full of air again, the hole plugged, and they were left to dry. Sometimes the head was cut off without stripping the skin from it, and the skin of the neck gathered in folds like a purse, below which a string was tied and fastened with a pin. Skin vessels are not indigenous to the natives of America.. All Oriental countries possess them, where the traveler of to-day finds them the rule. They are as old, almost, as time.
The Indians inhabiting this part of Ohio were rather domestic in their tastes, and cultivated corn,
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potatoes and melons. Corn was their principal crop, and was raised entirely by the squaws. When the season for planting drew near, the women cleared a spot of rich alluvial soil, and dug over the ground in a rude manner with their hoes. In planting the corn they followed lines, to a certain extent, thus forming rows each way across the field. When the corn began to grow, they cultivated it with wonderful industry, until it had matured sufficiently for use. The corn-fields were nearly always in the vicinity of the villages, and sometimes were many acres in extent, and in favorable seasons yielded plentifully. The squaws had entire charge of the work. It was considered beneath the dignity of a brave to do any hind of manual labor, and, when any one of them, or any of the white men whom they had adopted, did any work, they were severely reprimanded for acting like a squaw. The Indian women raised the corn, dried it, pounded it into meal in a rude stone mortar, or made it into hominy. Corn, in one form and another, formed the chief staple of the Indian's food. They had various legends concerning its origin, which, in common with other stories, they were accustomed to recite in their assemblies.
The Indians were always fond of amusements of all kinds. These consisted of races, games of ball, throwing the tomahawk, shooting at a mark with the bow and arrow, or with the rifle after its distribution among them, horse races, and other sports incidental to savage life. Their powers of endurance were remarkable, and astonishing accounts are often now told of feats of prowess exhibited by these aborigines. Of the animals hunted by the Indians, none seems to have elicited their skill more than the bear. To slay one of these beasts was proof of a warrior's prowess, and dangerous encounters often resulted in the hunter's search for such distinction. The vitality of bruin was unequaled among the animals of the forest, and on this account, and because of the danger, attached to his capture, made him an object of special hunts and feats of courage.
"The Black or Canesadooharie river," says Dr. Hill, "had always been famous among the aborigines of Ohio for the number and largeness of it bears. Some of the pioneers yet surviving often visited this country in search of bruin, when they first settled in the country, and can relate astounding stories of their exploits at the time. The habit of these animals was to search out a hollow tree, or secure a warm clump of bushes late in the autumn, where they could remain three or four months, during the extreme cold of the winter, subsisting entirely on the fat of their bodies. They would emerge in the spring very lean, and when so were exceedingly ferocious: When searching out their places of winter solitude, they often left the impress of their feet on the bark of the tree they ascended, or on the grass in the lair they had found. The signs were easily discovered by Indians and expert bear hunters. They were then very fat, and were eagerly sought by the Indians for their flesh and fat. Sometimes they would ascend trees thirty or forty feet high, and find a good wintering place and take possession. Again they would ascend the tree, if hollow, from the inside, and, finding a good place, occupy it. Then the hunters would divide forces-one ascend the tree, and with a long pole, sharpened at one end, or wrapped with a rag or dry skin saturated with greese and set on fire, thrust the same down on the bear, and compel him to descend only to meet death at the foot of the tree from the arrow or bullet of the hunter below."
The skin of a fat bear was a great prize to an Indian. It made him an excellent couch on which to sleep, or a cloak to wear. His flesh was supposed to impart bravery to those who ate it, hence when dipped in sweetened bear's fat, it was considered an excellent dish and one often offered to friends. Venison, prepared the same way, was also considered a dish -fit for the most royal visitors; a hospitality always extended to all who came to the camp, and if not accepted the donor was sure to be offended.
The domestic life of the Indians was very much the same in all parts of America. Among the Northern Ohio tribes, marriage consisted simply of two persons agreeing to live together, which simple agreement among many tribes was never broken. Sometimes the young woman courted the young brave, much after the fashion of the white people during leap years. This custom was considered quite proper, and favorably looked upon by the braves. In some localities the chief gave away
204 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
the young woman to some brave he considered competent to support her by the chase, a part of the domestic economy always devolving on the man. When the game was killed, the squaw was expected to cut up and prepare the meat for use, and stretch and tan the hide. The marriage relation among the most of the tribes was held strictly by all, a variation from it on the part of the female meriting certain death. The Wyandots and Delawares prided themselves on their virtue and hospitality, and no authenticated case of the misuse of a female captive, except to treat them as prisoners of war, can note be ; quoted. They always evinced the utmost modesty toward their female captives. Respect for the aged, for parents and those in authority prevailed. When one among them spoke, all listened-never, under any circumstances, interrupting him. When he was done, then was the time to reply.
In theology, the natives were all believers in one Great Spirit. They firmly believed in his care of the world and of his children, though different theories prevailed among the tribes regarding their creation. Their ideas of a divinity, as expressed by James Smith, a captive many years among them, are well given in the following story, preserved in Smith's memoirs.
He and his elder Indian brother, Tecaughretanego, had been on a hunt for some time, and, meeting with poor success, found themselves straitened for food. After they had smoked at their camp-fire awhile, Tecaughretanego delivered quite a speech, in which he recounted how Owaneeyo (God) had fed them in times gone by; how He fed the white people, and why they raised their own meat; how the Great Spirit provided the Indian with food for his use; and how, though the prospect was sometimes gloomy, the Great Spirit was only trying them; and if they would only trust Him and use the means diligently, they would be certain to be provided for. The next morning Smith rose early, according to the Indian's instructions, and ere long killed a buffalo cow, whose meat kept them in food many days. This was the occasion of another speech from his Indian brother. This trust often led them to habits of prodigality. They seldom provided for the future, almost literally fulfilling the adage: "Let each day provide for its own wants." They hunted, fished and idled away their days. Possessed of a boundless inheritance, they allowed the white race to come in and possess their lands and eventually drive them entirely away. Their manner of feasts may also be noticed.
The following description is from the pen of Dr. Hill, of Ashland, Ohio. The Mr. Copus mentioned is the same who was afterwards murdered by the Indians.
"The ceremonies took place in the council-house, a building made of clapboards and poles, about thirty feet wide and fifty feet long. When the Indians entered the council-house, the squaws seated themselves on one side of the room, while the braves occupied the opposite side. 'there was a small mound of earth in the center of the room, eight or ten feet in diameter, which seemed to he a sort of sacrificial mound. the ceremonies began with a sort of rude music, made by beating on a small brass kettle, and on dried skins stretched over the mouths of pots, making a kind of a rude drum. The pounding was accompanied by a sort of song, which, as near as can be understood, ran: 'Tinny, tinny, tinny, ho, ha, ho, ha, ho,' accenting the last syllables. Then a chief arose and addressed them; during the delivery of his speech a profound silence prevailed. The whole audience seemed to be deeply moved by the oration. The speaker seemed to be about seventy years of age, and was very tall and graceful. His eyes had the fire of youth, and shone with emotion while he was speaking. The andience seemed deeply moved, and frequently sobbed while he spoke. Mr. Copus could not understand the language of the speaker, but presumed he was giving a summary history of the Delaware nation, two tribes of which, the Wolf and the Turtle were represented at the feast. Mr. Copus learned that the speaker was the famous Captain Pipe, of Mohican Johnstown, the executioner of Colonel Crawford. At the close of the address, dancing commenced. The Indians were clothed in deer-skin leggings and English blankets. Deer hoofs and bears' claws were strung along the seams of their leggins, and when the dance commenced, the jingling of the hoofs and claws made a sort of harmony to the rude music of the pots and kettles. The men danced in files or lines by themselves around the central mound, the squaws following in a company by themselves. In the dance there seemed to be a proper modesty between the sexes. In fact the Greentown Indians were always noted for being extremely scrupulous and modest in the presence of one another after the dance the refreshments, made by boiling venison and bears meat, slightly tainted, together, were handed around. The food was not very palatable to the white persons present, and they were compelled to conceal it about their persons until they had left the wigwam, when they threw the unsavory morsels away. No greater insult could have been offered the Indians than to have refused the proffered refreshments, hence a little deception was necessary to evade the censure of these untutored sons of the forest, whose stomachs could entertain almost anything."
A feast was held by these same Indians in 1811, a short time before the opening of the war of 1812. It is belived to be the last one held in this
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 205
part of Ohio, as the war took away all the principal Indian characters. It was conducted very much as the one described-held in the fall of 1809. John Coulter, an old pioneer, recollects it very well, and, through Dr. Hill, gives a full description of it. Mr. Coulter says, that, while the food was cooking, an occasional morsel was thrown in the fire as an offering to the Great Spirit. Also, while the supper was being prepared, the chiefs, a large number of whom, from all parts of Ohio, were present, commenced to move around the mound in the center of the cabin, sometimes singing and sometimes delivering short speeches in their native tongue. While this was going on, the balance of the audience was arranged in lines two or three deep around the inside of the council-house, which Henry Howe estimated, from narratives of pioneers given him in 1849, was sixty feet long, twenty-five feet wide, one story high, and inclosed by clapboards, or broad pieces of split lumber. This difference in size may be accounted for by the fact that two persons looking at a building will very seldom make the same estimate of its size. The singing of the Indians at this second feast was a low kind of melancholy wail, accompanied by a sort of grunt, contortions of the face and singular gesticulations of the arms. The Indians were dressed as those described in the feast of 1809, and, though Mr. Coulter could not understand their language, he thought it was either a recital of their history or portended war. The ceremonies lasted two or three hours, when the provisions were handed around, and general hand-shaking and congratulations followed, closing the feast. The Indians did not all disappear from this part of Ohio for many years after the advent of the whites.
They often came to Newark to trade. They would gather under the forest trees in the public square, and there talk, smoke, trade, or idle away their time as suited their fancy. Physically they were sometimes the finest specimens of mankind. Tall, straight as an arrow, unexceptional physique, clad only in leggins and breech-clout, they exhibited a physical body, one could not tire contemplating. Sometimes they would get drunk, when they were a little dangerous. They traded peltry for hatchets, powder and ball, and trinkets of various kinds. By practice they became as sharp in bargains as the white traders and peddlers. Experience taught them to rely on their own judgment in all such matters.
By the treaty of September 29, 1817, the Delawares were deeded a reservation on the south of the Wyandot reservation, both in Marion and Wyandot counties. When this was done, Captain Pipe, son of "Old Captain Pipe," was the principal Delaware chief. The Delaware Indians remained on their reservation until about 1829, when they ceded it to the United States for three thousand dollars, and moved west of the Mississippi. The Wyandots ceded theirs in March, 1842, and left for the far west in July of the next year. At that date they numbered about seven hundred souls, and were the last Indian tribe to relinquish its claims to the soil of Ohio.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FIRST WHITE MEN.
CHRISTOPHER GIST-" CHAPLAIN" JONES AND DAVID DUNCAN-SKETCH OF JONES LIFE-"BILLY" DRAGOO AND HIS ADVENTURES-CAPTAIN SAMUEL BRADY AND HIS SCOUTS JUDGE ELLIOTT-SKETCH OF ELLIOTT'S LIFE-AN INDIAN STORY, AND FIRST DEATH OF A WHITE MAN IN THE COUNTY
"How dolefully the night-hack
screams in the heavens,
How dismally gibbers the gray coyote."
-Joaquin Miller.
FOLLOWING the Mound Builders and the Indians came the superior race to occupy the soil of Licking county. The first permanent settlement of the county was made in 1798; prior to that, however, a few white men either passed across, or occupied, for a short time, this territory. These may be noticed so far as history gives any account of them.
Christopher Gist was the first, so far as known. This hardy pioneer first set foot on the virgin soil of Licking in 1751. He was exploring in the interest of a Virginia land company. Anterior to his advent, and during long ages of prehistoric times, the Indian was probably the sole and unmolested human occupant.
Two brothers of General Washington and other prominent Virginia gentlemen of that day were members of the land company represented by Captain Gist, and in whose interest his exploration was made.
This company had heard of the rich lands west. of the Ohio, but they knew little of this great dark wilderness, except that it was occupied by savage tribes.
Gist started upon the Indian trail at the forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh), and followed it to the forks of the Muskingum (Coshocton) and from there, by way of Wakatomika (Dresden), and King Beaverstown, which stood on the dividing ridge between the waters of the Hock-Hocking and Scioto, at a point about equidistant between the present cities of Lancaster and Columbus, to the old Indian towns near the Pickaway plains, on the Scioto, and from thence to the Indian towns on the Big Miami. This trail led to the reservoir, a portion of which is within the county of Licking. Captain Gist reached it and camped upon its border, as his written journal shows, January 17, 1751, and on "the next day," continues the journal, he "set out from the great swamp." This trail, in all probability crossed the Licking at or near the mouth of Bowling Green run, about four miles east of Newark. Mr. John Larabee, who settled on the south side of the Licking in 1801, near the mouth of Bowling Green run, and a few years thereafter purchased a farm three miles east of Newark, found said trail still traceable on his land.
Andrew Montour, son of a Seneca chief and of the famous Catharine Montour, a Canadian woman; also Mr. George Croghan, a commissioner to treat with the Indian tribes on behalf of Pennsylvania, joined Captain Christopher Gist at the Indian village of Muskingurn, situated between the Tuscarawas and Walhonding rivers, not far from their junction (Coshocton), and accompanied him to the old Indian towns on the Big Miami river.
From the latter point Gist passed into Kentucky. He was a noted character, a man of mark, a natural leader, and a heroic adventurer. The year following his passage through this county (1752), he with eleven other families established a settlement between the Monongahela and Youghiogheney rivers in western Pennsylvania. He was an intimate friend and companion of the then youthful Washington, and served as his guide while on the perilous mission under the authority of Governor Dinwiddie, to the French commandant on the Ohio and Allegheny rivers.
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Washington once recommended him as a proper person to appoint to the office of Indian agent, and said that he knew "of no person so well qualified for it as Captain Gist." And further "that he had extensive dealings with the Indians, is in great esteem among them, well acquainted with their manners and customs, indefatigable and patient-most excellent qualities where Indians are concerned. As to his capacity, honesty and zeal, I dare venture to engage."
Such, in brief, is the story of the first white occupation of the county.
Two-thirds of the average years of human life passed away after Gist's tramp across the county, before it was honored by the presence of a second white man. This was an eccentric character known as "Chaplain Jones," and he was accompanied by a man named David Duncan, an Indian trader. These two gentlemen, in 1773, traveled eastward from the Shawnee towns on the Scioto, along the Indian trail of the Licking valley which had been followed by Captain Gist.
Duncan was from Shippensburgh, Pennsylvania, and was on his way to Fort Pitt, probably for goods. Rev. David Jones was on his return journey to Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey, from the Indians on the Scioto, among whom he had been as missionary, by authority of the Philadelphia Baptist association, of which he was a member. He kept a diary of this journey, from which these facts are taken.
This diary shows that he followed a trail that led from the Indian towns on the Scioto, to "Standing Stone" (Lancaster), where, in the language of the diary, "was an Indian town consisting chiefly of Delawares, and which was situated on a creek called Hock-Hockin. It appears muddy, is not wide, but soon admits of large canoes." He .did not arrive at Standing Stone until nearly nine o'clock at night, and says "that his road was very small, and the night dark in this wide wilderness, which made traveling more disagreeable than can be easily expressed."
Wednesday, February 10, 1773, they "set out early in the morning-our course more northerly than northeast-the land chiefly low and level, and where our horses broke through the frost, it might be called bad road and good land. No inhabitants by the way. Before night, came to a small town consisting of Delawares and Shawnees. About a mile before we came to this town we crossed a clear large stream, called. Salt Lick creek [doubtless Licking river, four miles east of Newark] which empties into the Muskingum."
The town above mentioned was doubtless the Indian village situated on the Bowling Green, five miles east of Newark, which yet existed twenty years later, when judge Elliott, father of the late Benjamin Elliott, of Newton township, was located there as Indian trader. The diary says, "the country here appeared calculated for health, fertile and beautiful." Next day, "after paying a high price for the corn our horses consumed, we started for the Moravian towns on the Tuscarawas."
This "Chaplain Jones" was born of Welsh parents, on White Clay Creek Hundred, Newcastle county, Delaware, May 12, 1736. He was licensed to preach by the Welsh Tract church in 1761, and ordained at Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey, December 12, 1766, and remained pastor at that place until he started on his missionary tour to the Indians of the northwest.
In 1775 he became pastor of the Great Valley church, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, but resigned the following year on being appointed chaplain of Colonel (afterwards General) Arthur St. Clair's regiment, raised for service in the Revolution. He was on duty with his regiment at Ticonderoga, and served in two campaigns under Major General Gates. In 1777 he served as brigade chaplain under General Wayne. At the close of the war he retired to a farm in Chester county.
In 1789 he again visited the northwest, and January 13, 1790, preached the first sermon ever preached in the Miami country, at Columbia, six miles above Cincinnati. He was chaplain in Wayne's army during his campaign against the Indians, and in 1812, though seventy-six years old, he again entered the army as chaplain, and served under Generals Brown and Wilkinson until the close of the war. This ended. his public career. He was afterward a large contributor to the Philadelphia press on public affairs.
He officiated in public for the last time September 20, 1817, when he delivered an address at the dedication of the monument erected at Paoli,
208 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
Chester county, Pennsylvania, commemorative of the Americans who were massacred therein 1777. He died February 20, 1820, in his eighty-fourth year, and was buried at the Great Valley Baptist church.
He often visited his countrymen on the "Welsh Hills," near Granville, in his missionary tours. Howe states that "the first Baptist sermon was preached in the log church (in Granville), by Elder Jones in 1806." This was probably Chaplain Jones.
He is yet remembered by a few of the early pioneers as a kind, companionable gentleman, of rare eccentricities, who always wore the queue, the breeches, the shoe and knee buckles, the cockade and military toggery, of high rank chaplain in the service; and as a gentleman of the "Old School."
The third white man to press the soil of Licking, was "Billy" Dragoo, who afterward became a permanent. resident of the county. His first visit to this county was in 1786, under peculiar circumstances.
In October of that year, Mrs. Dragoo and her son, William, a lad of twelve years, were gathering vegetables in their garden in Monongahela county, now West Virginia, when a party of savages rushed upon them from an adjoining thicket, and made them prisoners. The mother was placed upon a horse that had been stolen in the neighborhood, and the party started in the direction of the Ohio river. On the third day of their captivity and before the river was reached, the horse rode by Mrs. Dragoo fell, and injured her severely, whereupon the Indians tomahawked and scalped her; and often during the remainder of the journey to the Indian towns on Mad river, exhibited the scalp as a trophy, before their heart-broken captive boy. At the Ohio they were overtaken by another party of marauders, who had a number of stolen horses, and thereafter the captive was furnished a horse on the march.
The Ohio was crossed three miles below Fishing creek, and the Muskingum, at the mouth of the Licking (Zanesville). They followed the Licking valley to the junction of the North and South forks of that stream (Newark), and then pursued the Indian trail up Raccoon creek, passing through Raccoon town, which, until 1807, was known as an Indian village, situated a mile or more above Johnstown, in Monroe township. Their route, it may be observed, passed through the Indian village on the Bowling Green, before mentioned.
Sometime after his capture, Billy Dragoo was adopted by an Ottawa chief, with whom he remained a number of years, enduring all the hardships and vicissitudes incident to Indian life. He became an excellent hunter, and was engaged as such while the chief with whom he lived, and the other savages of the tribe, were engaged in their victorious campaign against St. Clair. Subsequently Billy married an Indian woman, and became a thorough Indian in habits, customs and inclination. The bridge of his nose was bored, and his ears slit preparatory to wearing the usual ornaments. He lived with his Indian wife, until 1808, when there had been born to them four children, and for this family he had procured, up to that time, a precarious subsistence by fishing and hunting. About this time his brother, hearing of his whereabouts, visited him and obtained from him a promise that within forty days he would revisit his father and kinsmen, yet residing in Monongahela county. This promise was kept, and he passed through this county by way of the valley of the North fork, remaining over night in the small tavern kept by the first settler of the county, Captain Elias Hughes, on the farm afterward owned by William Weis, north of Vannattaburgh. The next day, accompanied by an Indian, his wife's brother, he passed through Newark, spending the night at the house of another of his brothers, who lived near the present site of Irville, Muskingum county. He then had suspended from his nose a half-moon silver ornament, wore large rings in his ears, and upon other parts of his person were other Indian trappings. He was at least half Indian, and could readily have laid aside the little remnant of civilization that yet adhered to him. Twenty-four years had elapsed since he was captured and carried away from the friends he was now going to visit. At Irville two brothers and a brother-in-law joined I him, and the four journeyed in company to meet his father. The latter, on hearing of his approach, could not await his arrival, but set out to meet him on the road. His friends and neighbors to the number of forty or more joined him, and the cav-
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alcade of excited and interested people traveled fifteen miles before meeting the long lost son. No pen or pencil can adequately picture such a meeting. Remaining two months with his father and friends, Billy returned again to his wife and half breed children, on his way again spending the . night with Elias Hughes.
Two years afterward (1810) Billy Dragoo resolved to abandon Indian life and its degradations, and spend the remainder of his days in the enjoyment of the blessings of civilization. Taking two of his children, aged two and ten, respectively, he j returned to Monongahela county and spent five tears with his father and brothers. These two children subsequently rejoined their mother.
Dragoo married again, in 1815, and raised another family of children. In 1823 he removed to Perry township, this county, where he resided until his death-about thirty years ago. Two of his daughters yet reside in Perry township.
He never wholly abandoned his half civilized habits and mode of life, but continued until his death to spend most of his time fishing and hunting. He was a quiet, peaceable, inoffensive man, and was greatly esteemed-for his many excellent qualities.
The next white man to enter the limits of Licking county was Captain Samuel Brady, the noted scout and Indian fighter, with a party of hunters and scouts under his direction. The exact date of this expedition has not been ascertained, but it must have been about 1792, or possibly a year later.
The facts here given, pertaining to this scouting party, are upon the authority of four gentlemen of credibility, namely: Messrs. Hamilton, Simms and Darrah, who afterward settled in Muskingum county, and Mr. Jonathan Evans, who located near the Ohio river, below Marietta, all four having been members of the expedition.
In interviews with the above named scouts, by Rev. C. Springer, more than half a century ago, as well as during subsequent years (the three firs named being. his near neighbors and friends), the objects or purposes of the expedition were declared to be "to ascertain the condition of the more or less hostile Indians of the Muskingum and some of its tributaries, to learn the state of their feelings, toward the border settlers, and incidentally to chastise such small hunting or marauding bands as might fall in their way."
The members of the expedition crossed the Ohio river at Wheeling, and directed their course to the forks- of the Muskingum, at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Walhonding rivers (Coshocton). From there they moved up the Walhonding to the mouth of Kokosing or Owl creek, now called Vernon river. This stream they followed until they came to a point north of and near the headwaters of the Licking (probably the present site of Mt. Vernon), when they turned south and followed down the valley of the north fork of Licking to its junction with the south fork at Newark.
From here they continued down the Licking four or five miles; until they reached the level plat of natural prairie, extending a mile or more along the river. Captain Brady was greatly enamored of the beautiful lawn which here presented itself to his view. To him it resembled a well-remembered spot in Virginia known as "Bowling Green." He therefore called it Bowling Green, and by this name it is yet known. The contiguous locality, in early times known as "Montour's Point," is now seldom mentioned, but "Bowling Green" is a very familiar name.
The expedition, being composed of frontiersmen who expertly used the rifle, provisioned itself from day to day upon the game of the forest.
On reaching the falls of Licking, four miles from the Muskingum, it was found expedient to spend a day in hunting.
"Near evening" writes Rev. C. Springer, "all the men had returned to camp but Jonathan Evans. After waiting in suspense for some time, they gave their usual signal for lost persons-firing their guns-but no response came from Jonathan; and as they had that day discovered fresh Indian signs, they had little doubt that he was captured. Apprehending danger to themselves, they, for greater security, passed around the hill immediately southeast of Dillon's old furnace, where they lay concealed during the night. In the morning they resumed their march down stream, not deeming it safe to remain longer, although Evans had not rejoined them, and soon reached the present site of Zanesville. They continued down the river, but before reaching the mouth of Moxahala
210 - HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY.
creek they, to their great joy, found Evans. He had strayed away, got lost, in fact, and remained all night upon an elevated point of land on the bank of the Moxahala, a few miles above its mouth.
This stream was therefore named by Brady "Jonathan's creek," and by that name it has generally been known since, and appears under that name in maps, gazetteers and histories.
After the restoration of Jonathan Evans to the expedition, they constructed bark canoes, in which they descended the Muskingum to Marietta.
In passing over the rapids, nine or ten miles below the falls of the Muskingum, the canoe of an Irishman named Duncan was wrecked and himself thrown into the stream, from which he was rescued with but little difficulty. Thereupon those rapids were called "Duncan's Falls," and have ever since borne that name.
Thus the men of Captain Brady's expedition nave names to two important places on their line of march, and its commander very happily named another interesting locality in . the vicinity of Newark, which names continue to be recognized by authors and historians.
So far as known, the last man to visit the present territory of Licking county, before the first settlement was made, was a gentleman afterward known as "judge Elliott."
The Indian village on the Bowling Green, several times referred to in this chapter, was the scene of judge Elliott's operations. He was a bold, adventurous, enterprising young Pennsylvanian, who brought with him a stock of goods and became an "Indian trader."
He was the father of the late Benjamin Elliott, who lived three miles north of Newark, in Newton township. The point of high land that juts out into the first bottom of the Licking valley, and upon which stands the mansion of Charles Montgomery, close by the Bowling Green run, was in early times known as "Montour's Point," named in honor of the half-breed, Andrew Montour, before mentioned. Upon this snot Elliott established himself in a hut, or wigwam, for moneymaking purposes, as a dealer in such goods as h might be able to trade to the Indians for fur an peltry. He might be called the first white settler within the limits of Licking county, although he was not allowed to remain, as will be seen.
Just what date Elliott became a resident of this Indian village is not known, but it must have been before Wayne's treaty of 1795, as will be manifest by the following account of the manner in which his mercantile venture terminated. After that treaty, Indian traders were not molested in their occupation.
One day a friendly squaw, in whose. veracity Elliott had the utmost confidence, informed him of a plot concocted by the Indians, to take his scalp and appropriate to themselves his effects. Realizing the situation at a glance, he hastily gathered up his most valuable goods, and secretly mounting his horse, made all possible speed on the most direct trail to the settlements beyond the Ohio river.
He had been gone but a short time when the discovery was made by the savages, who at once started in pursuit, and did not abandon it until they arrived at the Ohio river, reaching it just in time to see Elliott on the opposite bank, under the protection of the white settlers.
The Indians confiscated the goods he was compelled to leave behind at the "Point," but failed to get his scalp; albeit he was never afterwards very familiar with them, and never resumed his trading operations this side of the river. He was, probably, the first merchant within the county limits.
When in subsequent years the trader of Montour's Point was known, he was a citizen of Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, and a member of the county court. At least as early as 1805, Judge Elliott was a large land holder in what is now Newton township. Although a frequent visitor to the county, he never became a permanent settler here.
He laid out the second village in the county in 1805. It was located upon his land, where the Mt. Vernon road crosses the Brushy fork, three miles north of Newark, and on the south bank of that stream. He gave it the name of "Fairfield," but it ultimately became known as "Canonsburgh," in honor of Thomas Canon, the tavern-keeper of the village. It contained a few houses at one time,
but they were primitive in style. After a time, there being no prospect that it would become a
HISTORY OF LICKING COUNTY. - 211
town, it was vacated and the lots annexed to the contiguous cornfields.
Judge Elliott's village had its birth in Licking township, Fairfield county; its death took place in Newton township, Licking county.
He spent many of the years of his early life in the west, and in his business operations displayed much daring and enterprise. He owned lands convenient to the "Big Spring," sometimes called the "Spencer Spring;" and upon the stream that rises from the spring, and near its entrance into the North fork, he built a saw-mill in 1814.
Judge Elliott was one of a numerous family connection, composed of men of energy and more than ordinary ability. His brother, Colonel Robert Elliott,was a contractor in the army, was ambuscaded and killed by Indians near Cincinnati in 1794. Commodore Elliott, who participated, as second in command, in Perry's victory on Lake Erie, and was conspicuously identified with the American navy until 1845, was his nephew. In the war of the Rebellion, some of his descendants were conspicuous in the navy, acting an honorable part, and rendering the name famous.
The following incident is given on the authority of B. C. Woodward, esq., to whom it was related by Mr. Jennings Crawford, of Iowa, a son of the Crawford below mentioned:
Shortly after the treaty of Greenville, rumors of peace reached Wheeling, and to ascertain the truth, the commandant of the post at that place dispatched six men, belonging to Samuel Brady's company of scouts, in the direction of Sandusky. This party was made up of skilled backwoodsmen, among whom were Crawford and one of the Wetzels. They crossed the Muskingum at Dresden, came across to the Licking river, up which they traveled to the present site- of Newark. Here they turned north along the North fork, and after going a short distance beyond the site of Mt. Vernon, they became satisfied that Indians were watching them with hostile intent, and turned back. Following the route they came, they encamped for the night about fourteen miles west of the present site of Dresden, in the eastern part of what is now Licking county, and not far from the line of Muskingum county-probably on the farm owned by the late Jacob Frees. In this camp they were fired upon by Indians, in the night; one of the party killed and one wounded. They scattered and made their way separately, the best they could, to Wheeling. Mr. Crawford afterward returned, with a companion, and buried the dead man.
If the account of this affair be correct, this was probably the first death of a white man that occurred within the limits of Licking county.
The expedition ended the invasion of Licking county by white men until 1796-7, when the surveyors, in the employ of the government, came into Licking valley to "spy out the land." They were accompanied by Elias Hughes, in the capacity of hunter and guide, and it was at this time that he made the discovery of the beauty and desirability of the valley of the Licking. Two years after, in the year 1798, he returned to this valley with his family, and became the first settler of the county.