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NEW FEATURES OF PRESENT-DAY TRAFFIC There has been a marked change in the character of the Ohio's freight traffic in recent years. Sand and gravel shipments have vastly increased owing to the greater use of concrete. Steel barges carrying iron and steel products down stream from the upper reaches of the river are also a feature as are the extensive shipments of gasoline in steel tank-barges. The existing Ohio River packets also carry a very considerable amount of freight as well as passengers. As an indication of the place which these steamers still hold upon the Ohio we give a statement made by the Marietta wharfmaster in October, 1927, to the effect that the steamer Senator Cordell passed (or left) that port every Wednesday for Charleston, W. Va ; the General Wood every Friday for Cincinnati and the Betsy Ann every Sunday for Cincinnati. The up-river service was rendered by the General Wood, which left Marietta every Tuesday for Pittsburgh ; the Betsy Ann which left every Thursday and the Senator Cordell, every Saturday, both bound for Pittsburgh; the Rainbow, which made trips three times a week to St. Marys and the Helen E. for Wheeling every Saturday. CHAPTER X MUSKINGUM RIVER AND VALLEY MELTING OF THE ICE CAP REVERSED THE STREAM'S COURSE-THE OLD MUSKINGUM AN EARLY HIGHWAY FOR CANOES, WITH A PORTAGE OF BUT EIGHT MILES BETWEEN LAKE ERIE AND THE OHIO-DRAINS 24 OHIO COUNTIES-GIVEN SLACKWATER NAVIGATION IN THE EARLY FORTIES-TAKEN OVER BY UNCLE SAM IN 1887-CARRIED VAST TRAFFIC TILL RAILROADS CAME-ABOUT FIVE MILLION DOLLARS SPENT ON IT-HAS SURPASSING SCENIC CHARMS. The reader who is thoroughly interested in the past of this river and valley will not be satisfied if we begin the story of that past at the boundary line which separates man-made records from those written by nature on the rocks and in the gravel beds. He will ask to be taken beyond the pioneer and his earliest settlements; beyond the Indian, his villages and hunting grounds; beyond even the Mound Builder, his forts, implements, utensils, and ornaments. He will want to know what changes the melting of the Ohio ice-cap wrought when its mighty masses of water poured into, and its liberated sand and Ravel terraced the sides of, our preglacial valleys. Briefly we shall summarize the findings of our state geologists on this score, then we shall quote their statements as a still better method of shedding light. THE OLD NEWARK RIVER The southern edge of that section of the ice-sheet which covered most of Ohio thousands of years ago, halted in the eastern part of territory now known as Licking County, and ran northeastwardly to the Ohio River. Under this edge of the ice lay the valley of what geologists call the Newark River, then the master stream of this area, a stream whose course lay westwardly beneath what are now the sites of Trinway, Frazeysburg, Nash-port, Newark, Buckeye Lake and Hadley Junction, and which - 103 - 104 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO found outlet in a still mightier stream, now the Scioto, at a point between Columbus and Circleville. As the ice became water, great masses of its sand and gravel were deposited in the bed of Newark River. ROCKS UNDER "Y" TELL THE STORY The deposit was so great that when all was over the Newark River was blotted out. Wakatomika Creek, which now traverses part of the wide valley west of Dresden, lies 150 feet above the rocks which formed the floor of the master stream ; and the filling of the bed of the latter was followed by a reversal of the course of the Muskingum and the Licking rivers. These streams were made to flow toward the south and southeast away from the Newark River, instead of info it; and their waters found continuous passage to the Ohio. That the old Newark River was the master stream of this section instead of the old Muskingum River is proven, according to Ohio geologists, by the rocky beds of the river that was and the river that is. The rocks in the bed of the Muskingum under the Y-bridge at Zanesville, are 100 feet farther above sea level than are those which formed the bed of the vanished stream. PIERCED EAGLEPORT DIVIDE The words "continuous passage to the Ohio," require a brief addition. The rocks and gravel at a point three miles above Eagleport, on the Muskingum River, in Morgan County, seem to show the existence there of a pre-glacial divide and it is supposed that the old river, which flowed northward over the site of Zanesville, had its headwaters at that spot. Acceptance of this points to the conclusion that when the glacial outflow poured up the old 'alley to the Eagleport divide its force sufficed to cut a way through the earth there and to make a bed for the reversed stream thence to the red man's "Oyo," the Frenchman's "Labelle Riviere," the English-speaking pioneer's "Ohio," at Marietta. One supposition is that drift from the ice dammed up the Muskingum until at the site of Zanesville a deep lake formed, which ultimately found an outlet southward, its waters cutting through the divide near Eagleport.
SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 107 MUSKINGUM LOOMED LARGE Thus it came to pass that when the founders of Zanesville reached the Muskingum while laying out Zane's Trace, they looked upon a river altogether worthy to found a city upon, the largest water-course between the Ohio and Lake Erie, the master stream of most of that area, and one destined to yield almost a hundred miles of slackwater navigation. In the fact that its waters entered the Ohio at Marietta there was a special reason for looking upon it with favor at the time referred to, for Marietta was then eight years old and of marked importance as an outpost of civilization and a center of pioneering influence. A DIVIDE AT ELLIS? Some geologists are in doubt as to the old river's course at the site of Zanesville. The stream may have flowed northward past the sites of Gilbert, Ellis and Dresden, or on the other hand, up what we know as the Licking Valley, to the geologist's Newark River. On this score, Mr. Frank Leverett, of the United States Geological Survey, writing several years ago, said : "It has not been decided whether the old drainage of the portion of the Muskingum south of the westward outlet led northward from Zanesville along the present stream (reversed) to the old outlet at Dresden, or took a northwestward course from Zanesville along a line followed in part by the Licking (in reverse direction) to enter the old outlet at Nashport. An old valley leaves the present Muskingum just below Zanesville and bears northwestward through the western part of the city, being separated from the present river by a prominent ridge known as Putnam Hill. It there connects with the old channel leading up the Licking. It also connects eastward with the Muskingum, but this may be simply the old line of westward discharge for the small drainage basin north Ind east of Zanesville. In case there was an old divide on the present line of the Muskingum between Dresden and Zanesville it is most likely to have been near Ellis." MELTING OF THE ICE CAP Bulletin 21 of the Ohio Geological Survey, which is devoted to reports on Muskingum findings, deals very fully with the marks 108 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO left on the county's two chief valleys by the melting of the ice sheet. One phase of the subject is thus referred to by Mr. Wilbur Stout, assistant state geologist : "The last great glacial stage recognized in Ohio is the Wisconsin. It did not enter Muskingum County, but extended as far east as Newark in Licking County and therefore had an indirect influence. The water from the melting ice sheet poured down the drainage lines, which were thus considerably modified. In places the valley walls were severely eroded, whereas in other parts the channels were filled with great loads of transported material. The deposition, of outwash glacial matter began as soon as the moving ice reached the rims of the drainage basins and lasted through its advance down these basins and through its retreat back to the drainage divide. The Muskingum River thus received material from streams heading within the glaciated area, the most import of which are Licking River, Walhonding River, Kilbuck reek, and Tuscarawas River. The gravel and sand in the main terrace along the Muskingum and Licking rivers in Muskingum County thus appear to be largely outwash from the Wisconsin drift sheet." ROLLING THE PEBBLES Certain characteristics of these deposits are thus discussed by Mr. J. A. Bownocker, Ohio State geologist : "The gravel of Muskingum County has been derived in part from the sandstone, limestone, and flint of the county and in part from rocks farther north. That of local origin is largely sandstone, because this rock is much more abundant than the others. Although the glacier, covered only a small strip along the western border of the county, the principal streams head on the drift-covered surfaces. Such areas contain pebbles from adjacent rocks, from sources farther north, and from Canada. Naturally the streams have carried part of this foreign material and deposited it along their valleys far from the areas covered with drift. It is in this manner that the granite, gneiss, and similar pebbles found their way to Muskingum County. As the pebbles were rolled along the stream beds they were eroded and hence reduced in size. The gravel in the southern part of the county is considerably finer than that in the northern part. Existing deposits SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 109 of gravel represent only a small part of what the valleys once contained and much the greater portion has been carried farther down the Muskingum and transmitted to the Ohio River." THE GREAT MUSKINGUM BASIN The historical treatment of this valley on these pages deals mainly with that portion of it extending from Coshocton to Marietta. For years after the advent of the white man in this section of the country, however, the Muskingum and the Tuscarawas were spoken of as one river. In times of great floods involving the master stream and all its tributaries the term "Muskingum basin" has been used. The writer used the words years ago in his booklet, "Zanesville in the Flood of 1913," and what was there said of the Muskingum basin is here copied in order to acquaint the reader with the importance of the main stream in its drainage functions: "Look at the map. Some of the Licking's headwaters rise in northern Perry and northern Fairfield. On the west others begin at the borders of Delaware and Franklin. Follow the line of this Muskingum-Licking watershed lakeward. It takes in the towns of Shelby and Galion. Its farthest north is at Medina, but 25 miles south of Cleveland. Akron is just outside of it. Near the Carroll-Columbiana border the Muskingum zone is within but 15 miles of the Ohio River. In the southeast it extends almost to Caldwell. TWENTY-FOUR COUNTIES DRAINED "To put it in other terms, this watershed includes a small corner of Perry and Fairfield counties; substantially all of Licking; the whole of Knox, Holmes, Tuscarawas, Wayne and Coshocton; nine-tenths of Richland; four-fifths of Ashland and of Stark ; one-third of Summit; one-sixth of Columbiana ; nearly all of Carroll; nearly half of Morrow, Medina, Harrison and Muskingum ; two-thirds of Guernsey; one-fifth of Belmont and of Noble and a small corner of Monroe. Here are 22 counties out of Ohio's 88 which contribute all or part of their rainfall to the two rivers which flow through Zanesville." The reader will note the words "the two rivers which flow through Zanesville." They show that in the flood story of 1913 110 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO it was meant to consider that section of the Muskingum-Licking basin lying north of an imaginery east and west line passing through Zanesville. In this history, however, it is desired to present the whole Muskingum Valley basin, that south of Zanesville as well as north of it. Hence to the counties named two more, Morgan and Washington, should be added and to the area drained, that whose creeks enter the Muskingum between Zanesville and Marietta, a distance of 75 miles—Wills, Symmes, Salt, Meigs and Bear on the east and Wakatomika, Licking, Moxahala, Brush, Wolf and Rainbow on the west. A RIVER OF THE WILDERNESS One who toward the close of the eighteenth century wrote about David Zeisberger and his Moravian mission on the Tuscarawas River (then by many called the Muskingum River) gave a word picture of the valley which presents it to us in all the wildness of nature. The old writer is speaking of the Tuscarawas, but we may be sure that the Muskingum looked substantially the same, allowing for such differences as the widening of the lower reaches of the stream would have brought about : "He (Zeisberger) was now in the valley which was to be the scene of his great work and severest trials. Blooming like the rose with its farms, its rich meadows, and gorgeous orchards it was in his day, though a wilderness, no less a land of plenty and abounded in everything that makes the hunting ground of the Indian attractive. "It extended a distance of nearly eighty miles, enclosed on both sides by hills at the. foot of which lay wide plains terminating abruptly in bluffs or sloping gently to the lower bottoms through which the river flowed. These plains that now form the fruitful fields of the second bottoms, as they are called, were then wooded with the oak and hickory, the ash, the chestnut and the maple which interlaced their branches and stood comparatively free from the underbrush of the forests. FRUITS OF THE FERTILE SOIL "The river bottoms were far wilder. Here grew walnut trees and gigantic sycamores, whose colossal trunks even now astonish the traveler, bushy cedars, luxuriant horse-chestnuts and honey-locusts, cased in their armor of thorns. Between these clustered SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 111 laurel bushes with their rich tribute of flowers or were coiled the thick mazes of the vine, from which more fragrant tendrils twined themselves into the nearest bough, while here and there a lofty spruce tree lifted its evergreen crown high above the groves. "These forests were generous to their children. They gave them the elm bark to make canoes, the rind on the birch for medicine and every variety of game for food. The soil was even more liberal. It produced strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, black currants and cranberries, nourished the plum, the cherry, the mulberry, the paw-paw and the crabtree and yielded wild potatoes, parsnips and beans. Nor was the river chary of its gifts but teemed with fish of unusual size and flavor." MUSKINGUM WHEN WHITES FIRST SAW IT A contributor to the publications of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, describing Ohio's streams as the makers of Zane's Trace found them in 1796-97, has told graphically the story of their unkempt condition. We may guess from it something of the Muskingum's appearance when Jonathan Zane, John McIntire and their fellow pioneers reached it after having blazed the Trace westward to the mouth of the Licking : "The streams of Ohio presented an almost even stage of water throughout the year. The timber was not cut, swamps were not drained, there were no dams, no canals, no utilization of water power. The streams were half choked (save in the deepest part of the channel) by logs, trees and drift. Innumerable small pools and swamps in the woods also held water. These discharged into sluggish creeks and rivers and they in turn, into the great waterways. It was possible to go in large canoes to the lake or come thence to the Ohio." E. L. Taylor in his "Water Highways and Carrying Places" states that aborigines and whites used the Cuyahoga and Muskingum as a practically direct line of canoe travel between Lake Erie and the Ohio with but an eight-mile portage at a point near where Akron now is. M'INTIRE'S EARLY VENTURE John McIntire, at Zanesville, made an early and ambitious effort to improve navigation on the Muskingum. 112 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Having led the campaign to place the seat of state government in Zanesville and having secured, instead, a handsome courthouse for Muskingum County—no mean success in that day of the county's lack of cash and credit—John McIntire planned to build something more than a mill race and a sawmill and something more than a wing dam such as his Putnam rival had constructed; he proposed a dam which should stretch from bank to bank at the Muskingum's upper falls and which, with a connecting canal, would, as he thought, line the river's eastern shore with manufactories. STATE'S REQUIREMENTS During the 1811-1812 session of the Legislature (in Zanesville) he asked for authority to build this dam and that was granted February 21, of the latter year, with the proviso that he construct a lock, to be kept at all times in good repair and to be opened for the free passage of all water craft, a condition made mandatory by the Ordinance of 1787 which had declared that the navigable streams leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence should forever remain public highways, free to all the citizens of the United States, without the payment of any tolls or duty. It was provided that the McIntire dam should be not more than five feet high, and that it should have a slope of thirty feet, the slope to be kept in repair for the passage of rafts; that the lock should measure 25 by 90 feet and permission was given to cut a canal to a point below Third Street and charge tolls for its use. PLANS DELAYED Man proposes, war disposes. The energy which John McIntire and his associates had previously exhibited was somewhat checked when, in 1812, England and the United States drew the sword in a conflict threatening to let loose the savage upon Ohio's frontier settlements. This held back organization for the construction of the proposed dam until January 25, 1814. The meeting for this purpose was held at Robert Taylor's tavern, when John McIntire, Robert Fulton, Seth Adams and William Reynolds were appointed a committee to draft articles of association for the purpose of carrying the act of the Legislature into effect. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 115 These men lost no time. Within three days they reported in favor of naming the new association "The Zanesville Canal and Manufacturing Company," and fixing its capital stock at $250,000, with shares of $500 each. In 1846 Daniel Conyers Goddard added to this statement the following. It clinched his remark made in the same connection, that "no more honest man ever lived than John McIntire" : "So much of Mr. McIntire's vast estate as was necessary for the operation of the new company was purchased at the price of $35,000 and Mr. McIntire received credit upon his stock account for that sum, being payment in full for seventy shares. I may as well here mention that Mr. McIntire became convinced that a quadruple price had been allowed him for his property and he liberally exonerated the other stockholders from paying more than one hundred and twenty-five dollars upon a share." Work on the dam began but after $2,000 had been expended the elements. became war's substitute in checking the venture's progress. A sudden rise in the river swept everything away and made it necessary to begin all over again. It is on record that all the projectors but Mr. McIntire were discouraged. He declared that the work "must not be abandoned," and this persevering spirit was conveyed to his associates. The dam was finished in 1815 but work on the canal was not begun until a year later. An account of this damage to the dam was printed in the Zanesville Express of August 31, 1814 : "On Saturday night last, a copious shower of rain fell in this part of the country which caused a very sudden and unexpected rise in the Muskingum River. Damages to the amount of many thousands of dollars have been sustained. The canal company had for some weeks been erecting a dam across the river—had thrown in an immense quantity of timber, all of which was swept away by the flood. Some of the timbers struck the false trestles or raising timbers, of the upper bridge and carried them away, to the great inconvenience and considerable loss of the proprietors. "The Springfield (Putnam) Bridge Company also experienced considerable damage. Their crane and machinery for raising stone and platform were carried away, together with their gin pole and apparatus." While the work of repairing the flood's damage to the upper bridge was in full progress Mr. McIntire died. 116 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO GREAT EXPECTATIONS Thus we see that Zanesville had taken a rather important step toward the Muskingum's improvement. The value of the river was expected to be much enhanced when it was found that the Ohio canal would be connected with it at Dresden and the trip made in January, 1824, from Marietta to Zanesville and return by the steamer Rufus Putnam quickened early expectations. More than a hundred years have come and gone since Zanesville was given her first sight of a steamboat. It was the Rufus Putnam that challenged our citizens' astonished eyes, a boat built in Marietta, in 1822, for Capt. John Green, and used in the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati trade in 1823. A DARING VENTURE Captained by her owner the Putnam pulled away from the Marietta landing at 10 o'clock on the morning of January 9, 1824 carrying many invited passengers and bound for Zanesville. The Muskingum was in flood. There was not, of course, at that time a lock or a dam. The current was swift, especially at each of the falls. As she passed the Marietta home of Gen. Rufus Putnam, founder of Marietta and one of the founders of our own Putnam, the old hero after whom the steamer had been named stood out on the bank and waved a godspeed. No stops were made to take on or let off passengers, but there was an occasional halt to replenish the supply of wood for use as fuel. Progress against the swift current was slow, but the passengers of both sexes were enjoying the novel experience and one another's company. The amazement of those who saw the Putnam from the shore was great. This was but natural. These settlers knew what a canoe was and some of them had seen the craft built by the whites as an improvement over the Indian canoe. This later craft has been described by Irven Travis, of McConnelsville, as having been made out of large trees "of the unmolested forest" * * their length being "from 75 to 90 feet, their diameter from 30 to 36 inches at the top," as having a shell from 1 1/2 to 2 inches thick (after removal of the tree's center) and capable of carrying ten to twelve tons of freight. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 117 A STRIKING OBJECT But here was something very much larger and very different in other ways. The Putnam puffed and breathed. It emitted smoke and steam. It seemed to have life. It was judged to have extraordinary power, else such progress against the current of the river at flood would be impossible. As Zanesville was approached Captain. Green decided that the Putnam should make a brilliant grand entry upon the scene, so the boat was brightly illuminated. His fair passengers helped to enhance the spectacle by putting on their red Scotch plaid cloaks (fashion's favorite wrap of the time) and standing out on the deck under the blazing lights. As a final demonstration, came repeated discharges from the cannon. In this wise the Rufus Putnam pulled up at Putnam on the memorable night. One of the passengers well described the situation : AMAZED AND ALARMED "There was the town, wrapped in almost midnight darkness—no gas lamps at that day. It was 10 o'clock Saturday night, dark and rainy. Many had retired to rest when the report of the guns and the unusual noise of steam pipes were heard on the river. `What is it?' was the cry from everyone. "There had been some reports of hostile Indians," adds the old writer, facetiously; "could it be possible they were coming upon them in that style? Others were fearful that enemies were coming to take the town. A few gentlemen who had seen steamers on the Ohio River appeared in sight and cried out, 'A steamboat, a steamboat !' which was echoed from shore to shore." WOMEN'S CLOAKS FOOL THEM But others cried, "British soldiers; look at their red coats." The Putnam looked like a ball of fire to those on shore. When she landed and the Putnamites found their Marietta friends on board, all was made plain and hospitable Putnam Village opened her arms. Carriages quickly were brought to transport the passengers to welcoming homes. Latch strings were out. Enthusiastic 118 - SOUTHEASTERN. OHIO throngs lined the banks on the eastern as well as on the Putnam shore of the river. Putnam may not have been called "Saints' Rest" as early as 1824, but the village bore the reputation of being extra conscientious in that day and some of her people "broke the Sabbath" by watching the Rufus P. and her passengers and crew long past the midnight hour. Captain Green had named Monday for the return trip, but the citizens would not have it so. They wanted to play the host to him and his. They wanted him to play the host also--to take them and some of their friends to Duncan Falls and back. Nothing loath the genial captain took a boatload down and back Monday morning and another that afternoon. Parties were given in honor of his passengers, on the Zanesville side as well as in Putnam. EVEN OYSTERS WERE SERVED "Fearing that this was not enough for our captain," says the passenger-historian, "the gentlemen must treat him to an oyster supper, after the parties were over, which was considered very complimentary, as oysters at that day were a very scarce article." But the captain "tore himself away" on Tuesday morning. The last gun was fired, there being no bells on boats at that time. At 11 o'clock the Putnam backed out into the stream, turned around and headed for home. There was loud and long cheering and waving of handkerchiefs on deck and on shore. The banks "and even the bridge" were lined with citizens bent on saying good-by to the departing guests. At 6 P. M. the Putnam landed in Marietta. MADE GREEN FAMOUS It was a proud day for Captain Green. He had accomplished a feat regarded at the time as heroic and wonderful. It had been predicted that the Putnam would run her prow into a bank, would be ripped open by a snag, would be blown up by the steam. Not one of the critics was given a chance to say, "I told you so." Captain Green had won fame and had given his Marietta friends five days of rich adventure and unusual pleasure. The Rufus Putnam was built at a cost of about $12,000. She SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 119 has been described as "a low pressure, side-wheel boat, 75 feet long and 18 feet wide. The cabin was built on the deck and the bunks were narrow beds fastened to the sides and concealed by curtains * * * the freight was carried in the hold." Her predecessors on the Muskingum had greatly varied in size and form. First, of course, came Indian navigation. The savage made canoes of bark, also out of solid tree trunks and hollowed logs. They ranged in length from 15 to 30 feet and had an average depth of 21/2 feet. PIROGUES, KEEL BOATS The white man followed with the pirogue—two or more canoes lashed together. They were employed to transport commodities. Some were twenty feet from stem to stern, others twice as long, with an average depth of 2 1/2, feet. They were propelled by poles, paddles and sails. Later the keel boat was introduced, with a minimum length of perhaps forty feet. Sometimes they were 100 feet long. The whites put cargo boxes on these boats and made them with running boards on the sides, on which from three to five men, with poles, would walk from end to end to propel the boat. The larger keel boats carried three masts, with gib booms and sails, for use when the wind was right. They were equal to caring for 100-ton cargoes. They made regular trips, carrying freights on the Muskingum, Ohio and other rivers. The broadhorn or New Orleans boat came next. It carried Zanesville stoneware, flour and other commodities all the way to New Orleans, where cargo and boat being sold, the owners walked back with the proceeds, a distance of 2,000 miles. A sort of cabin at the bow, also at the stern, housed the crew, consisting of eight or ten men. Propulsion came by the use of poles. Irven Travis is authority for the statement that between the date of the Rufus Putnam's trip to Zanesville and the opening of slack water navigation a number of steamers repeated the feat, generally in the spring and fall. RIVER PLAYING A GREAT ROLE Zanesville had become an important point on the Muskingum an originator of heavy flatboat traffic down the river to the 120 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Ohio and beyond, as well as being a considerable receiver and shipper up the river to the Ohio canal. It was natural that her people should rejoice when the first steps were taken to provide slack water navigation. We reprint here the writer's own story of the rejoicing, a story used in another connection and throwing other light on river data : The citizens of Zanesville illuminated their houses, paraded the streets and in other ways celebrated the General Assembly's action of March 9, 1836, authorizing the improvement of the Muskingum River by the construction of dams and locks. They soon had further cause for rejoicing, for in June of that year the state's engineers assembled in Zanesville and on the twentieth of the month their work began. The surveyors operated from a flatboat fitted out for their comfort and convenience, with office, dining and sleeping rooms and a kitchen. GOOD PROGRESS MADE The lower sill of the Symmes Creek lock was made the starting point for the levels. Thence the boat was permitted to float down stream from point to point where the engineers were working. On or near August 1, Marietta was reached and there the corps received welcome and entertainment expressive of her people's interest and appreciation. Returning to McConnelsville the engineers secured an office and there dams were located after estimates and calculations had been made. Contracts were let October 18. George W. Manypenny secured that for the dam at Zanesville; Josiah Spaulding, lock at Zanesville ; Hosmer, Chapin and Sharp, dams at Taylorsville, McConnelsville and Marietta, and locks at McConnelsville and Marietta; Lyon, Buck and Wolf, dams at Luke Chute and Lowell, and locks at Taylorsville and Lowell ; Arthur Taggart, dams at Eagleport, Stockport and Devol, and locks at Eagleport, Stockport, Beverly and Devol ; John McCune, canal and dam at Beverly. The twelve locks and eleven clams cost the state $1,627,018.20. One of the rodmen of the engineering corps was a young man who in later years became a famous United States Senator from Ohio and the Secretary of Treasury who restored specie payments—John Sherman. While the state was building these locks, dams, and canals on the Muskingum, construction of steamboats began at Zanesville.
SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 123 Traffic on the river and canal north of Zanesville was launched before the improvements were completed south of it. Canal boats were towed to and from Cleveland by small craft. Richard Reeves built the first steamer, a stern-wheeler with flat bottom which he called the Hope. It was quite a small affair. In 1839, the Zanesville dam being completed, traffic was opened to Dresden. The Symmes Creek dam was too small to enable the larger sized boats to pass that point. Between Zanesville and Marietta all the work was completed late in 1841. Tolls were collected from October 1, of that year. the Zanesville Gazette of June 7, 1837, carried an announcement which is very interesting in the light of what now is going forward at the "Falls of the Muskingum," the official name, in 1788, for the spot now occupied on one side of the river by Philo ( Taylorsville) and on the other by Duncan Falls. The vast enterprise of the Ohio Power Company at that spot lends interest to the fact that as early as 1837 landowners there foresaw in the falls great industrial opportunities. POWER THE GREAT PROSPECT THEN This was four years before the state rebuilt the old private dam and dug the mile-long canal, but the landowners knew the Muskingum was to have slack water navigation as early as in 1836, when the state began the improvement. In those days a descent of water such as existed at the point under discussion was regarded as of vast value because great power was thought to be there. Today we know that coal is used to furnish power for the new plant while the water's chief use is that of condensing steam. Such has been the change in point of view. The plan to make an industrial spot out of ground below the falls on the east side was indicated in the advertisement referred to, of 1837, which reads as follows: "The subscriber having laid out a town called Neffsport, at the mouth of Salt Creek, below Duncan Falls, offers the lots at private sale. With the lots the purchaser can have any quantity of land, from 100 to 500 acres. "The situation of this place is favorable for business, as a great part of the trade which now goes to Taylorsville, and all the travel of the road east of the river, from Zanesville to McConnels- 124 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO ville must pass through it, while the fall in the river affords great water power for hydraulic purposes. "Several lots have already been sold and there is one store in operation. Mechanics and men of enterprise generally are invited to examine the advantages of the place and to purchase whilst a choice can be made." The advertisement is signed "James Neff." Such records as have been consulted do not say anything about Neffsport but they do state that Duncan Falls is the site of an old Shawnee Indian town and that it was laid out in 1841 by John W. Foster and James Taylor of Taylorsville. PHILO'S BEGINNING The history of Taylorsville (Philo) also has new interest now that the spot is the home of a great electrical plant. In 1829 James Taylor built a dam across the river to the site of Duncan Falls and erected on the west bank a sawmill and a gristmill with six run of stones. He also conducted a ferry. The town was laid out in 1833. While the work on Muskingum River locks and dams was going forward the Ohio Canal and its connection with the river at Dresden were adding materially to Zanesville's transportation outlook. In a Zanesville newspaper of July 27, 1839, F. Cogswell and Company inserted an advertisement which reveals preparations made to take advantage of the new shipping opportunities between here and Cleveland. The announcement read : "F. Cogswell and Company will run a daily line of canal boats from Zanesville to Cleveland. Sensible of the disadvantages experienced by business men who have depended on other quarters for the means of transporting the produce and merchandise of our valley they have endeavored to establish a line from the resources of our district." BARGE OR BOAT A later Cogswell announcement pictures the steamboat Muskingum, a queer looking craft with many portholes and apparently no covered upper deck. But for the smokepipes the outfit would look more like a barge than a "steamboat." Here is the agent's description : SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 125 "This new steamer will be completed and commence running on or before the 10th inst. She will run daily from Zanesville to the canal locks at Dresden. Her accommodations for freight and passage are ample and charges reasonable. Apply to the subscribers at the Reeves Warehouse or at the upper dam." Another transportation announcement in the old newspaper has the picture of a canal boat and tow path at the top and is worded as follows : Buffalo-Line Erie Canal, Thaddeus Joy and Company, proprietors. Cleveland and Zanesville Line, Ohio Canal, Richard Winslow and Company, proprietors. NEW YORK TO PORTSMOUTH The announcement gives a .list of authorized agents, begin- ning at New York City and ending at Portsmouth, Ohio. It shows the full line to be : The Erie Canal to Buffalo; Lake Erie to Cleveland ; Ohio Canal and the Muskingum and Scioto Rivers to Portsmouth. These agencies were located along the route : At New York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Massillon, Dresden, Newark, Columbus, Portsmouth. There was, of course, a Zanesville representative of these lines, but strangely enough he is not named. The Cogswell statement that business men had experienced "disadvantages" by depending for transportation on "other quarters" than the company's Zanesville-Cleveland water line calls for comment. As the city's first railroad was then eleven years in the future and slack water navigation on the Muskingum between Zanesville and Marietta over two years away, the inference is that Cogswell was making the point that his water line was more dependable than the Ohio and Muskingum boats, which could be used only during good stages of water. TWO WEEKS IN TRANSIT There is a Zanesville advertisement in the old paper referred to which seems to warrant the Cogswell contention. D. Maginnis announces that he has just received "a large stock of drugs and medicines, paints, and oils" which came "in fourteen days from New York by the Buffalo line"—and the upper Muskingum. 126 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO George White Dial, writing for the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society publications had the following to say of Ohio Canal traffic : "After the completion of the reservoirs the canals entered upon the era of their greatest prosperity. For nearly twenty-five years they were the means of transportation and travel * * * At every lock there was a string of boats * * * patiently waiting their turns * * * Hundreds of sixty- and eighty-ton freight boats plied up and down between all points, while regular passenger packets, accommodating from forty to sixty travelers, connected with all stage and steamboat lines * * * These packets, often described as the 'Pullman cars of the fifties' bore more resemblance to the limited train, as each packet was diner, sleeper, smoker, parlor car, baggage, and mail-coach combined." OVER THE DAM The Mary Ann was the first steamer to make the trip from Zanesville to Coshocton. The start was made on the morning of November 19, 1829. The river was bank full and the current swift. She reached Dresden at 10 P. M. and on the morning of the second day left for the North. The current was too swift and not until the third day was Coshocton reached, at 10 A. M. It was Coshocton's first sight of a steamboat, and the Mary Ann got a noisy welcome. The Mary Ann, a small boat, remodeled out of a keel boat, was built by Jacob Sperry, a Zanesville merchant. She was 110 feet long with a 20 foot beam, and was a side-wheeler. Not enough traffic developing, she was sent to the river below Zanesville. The transfer has been thus described : "There being no canal at that time except a short one to supply water for the flouring mills, the Mary Ann was taken to the old dam (at the foot of Market Street) and preparations made to launch her over the dam. Night coming on, those engaged in the work concluded to postpone further work till morning. During the night there came a heavy rise in the river and when they came next morning to launch the Mary Ann over the dam it was their most agreeable surprise to observe the craft floating around immediately below the dam, perhaps more safely done than if the workmen had done it." SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 127 That there should have been at this time considerable opposition to Ohio's policy of pushing public improvements is worthy of more than passing attention. We have found no evidence, however, that Zanesville was pulling backward. It would have been strange, indeed, had her citizens aligned themselves with the objectors. Adam Peters, editor of The Ohio Republican (printed in Zanesville for many years) no doubt voiced local sentiment in an article which appeared July 27, 1839. He spoke forcefully against the tendency to make a political question of the prosecution of public works, moved, no doubt, by knowledge of the prosperity flowing into Zanesville via the National Road, the Maysville Pike and the Ohio Canal. RIVER TRAFFIC WAS IMMENSE By the middle of the 19th century slack water navigation was bringing great results along the Muskingum. The writer summed these up about two years ago in his "History of Zanesville and Muskingum County" and what is set down there will enlighten the reader of this volume as to conditions on the Muskingum before the railroads had much interfered with river traffic. We reproduce it here : Within ten years after the improvement of the Muskingum River Zanesville's steamboat traffic assumed a magnitude out of all proportion to her size. Her shipments to and from Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Marietta, Parkersburg, Cincinnati, New Orleans and many other points on the Ohio, Mississippi and Muskingum, during those early years are matters of history to most readers, but reports of the extension of that traffic to the Upper Mississippi and the Missouri have not been read as often. A Zanesville newspaper of the year 1849, spoke of the situation then in such terms as to indicate the greater things that were to come : "The business of our town seems to be steadily increasing. Steamboats arrive almost daily. Thus far since the opening of navigation there have been two weekly packets to Pittsburgh and back and other boats have been coming and going. The Enterprise returned last week from Independence, Mo., having made a speedy and prosperous trip. She brought some 200 tons of freight, mostly pig iron and groceries. On the North, to com- 128 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO municats with the Ohio Canal at Dresden, the steamers Ohio and Zanesville are running." WESTERN TRIPS On November 3, 1852, a steamer, which was destined soon to be blown to pieces in the Beverly, Ohio, canal, announced a Western trip thus in a Zanesville paper : "The new and staunch-built, fast running passenger steamer Buckeye Belle, Capt. James T. Hahn, will leave for St. Louis and all intermediate landings on the first rise of water. Passengers going through will find it to their advantage to take this boat, as it will save the expense and trouble of reshipping." In point of time the next Western trip advertised was one to be made by the J. B. Gordon. The announcement follows. It was printed February 16, 1853: "This popular steamer, which is now undergoing thorough repairs, will leave Zanesville, Ohio, for Keokuk, Iowa, on the first day of April, 1853. For information apply on board, of Capt. William Farris, or of Henry Beard, Esq., collector of the port of Zanesville. The Gordon can comfortably accommodate 100 passengers. First applying, first served." The next trip was advertised in the following words : "The steamer Julia Dean will leave Zanesville for Keokuk, Iowa, on the 10th of Octcber, 1853. For freight or passage apply on board or to N. W. Graham and Co., or Perry Smith and Co.—George Russell, Captain." We learn a few particulars as to this trip from an item taken frcm the St. Lcuis News of November 1, 1853 : "Immigrants—The stern-wheel steamer Julia Dean has arrived in port from Zanesville, Ohio. She took on board there about thirty families or 150 persons, with their effects, farm implements, etc. "They are from the Muskingum Valley and emigrating to the Des Moines River Valley, in Iowa. The Julia Dean will proceed with them to Keokuk, frcm where they will go to their destination by land." The next announcement, printed in February of the following year, reads : "The new and well-finished steamboat, Alice, Capt. William H. Farris, will leave Zanesville at 10 o'clock on the morning of SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 129 March 20, 1854, for Keokuk and Fort Des Moines, Iowa, touching on the way at all necessary intermediate landings. The Alice will run on the Muskingum until March 20." TWO BABIES BORN ABOARD The stork was heard from during the Western trip next recorded, as the following from a local newspaper of November 5, 1855, proves: "We learn from the St. Louis Democrat that during the late trip of the steamer Adella, from Zanesville to St. Louis, there were two births of male children on board. One was called King Henderson Caddo, after Captain Henderson and B. C. King, clerk of the boat; and the other named G. W. Graham. At latest accounts mothers and children were all doing well." In the spring of 1857 there was one of these long river trips, as the following notice indicates : "The splendid, fast-running steamer Cheviot, Captain Brown, will leave Zanesville for St. Louis, Keokuk, Rock Island, Muscatine, Davenport, Rock Island, and all intermediate points on Wednesday, April 1. This is the cheapest and most comfortable route for persons emigrating to the West." THE LIZZIE MARTIN "Ho for the West !" is the next notice preserved, which reads thus: "The new and staunch steamer, Lizzie Martin, D. T. Brown, master, will leave for St. Louis, Keokuk, and all intermediate points on Wednesday, April 1, 1858. This boat is new and offers great inducements to shippers. Her accommodations for deck passage are unequalled. This boat will make but one trip west this spring." At least one other steamer left Zanesville for the West before this trip was undertaken by the Lizzie Martin and after the departure of the Cheviot. The following clipping from a Zanesville newspaper dated September 18, 1857, tells about it : "We noticed a part of the cargo of the steamer Freighter, which left this port on Sunday last for the West-150 stoves, with their furniture, destined for the West. "They were manufactured at the foundry of Gilbert & Wheeler, of this city, and it is but a short time since the same en- 9—Vol 1 130 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO terprising firm built a boat, loaded it with their wares and sent with them men, horses and wagons for disposing of the cargo in the distant market to which it was consigned." THE CARRIE BROOKS How much of this traffic went on during the sixties is not stated, but we find a notice dated January 1, 1870, of a trip to be made by the Carrie Brooks to the "upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers," on the opening of navigation on Western rivers, and if a sufficient traffic were offered to justify the trip, as Agent A. P. Stults put it. That the Brooks did leave is proven by the following paragraph. It was printed April 7, 1870: "The Carrie Brooks reshipped her cargo at St. Louis on the third inst. and returned to the Ohio River, instead of going up the Missouri. It is said that this was owing to the regulation requiring all steamers going up the Missouri to bulkhead, that is to make the space below the water line into compartments, which no Muskingum River boat has done." During the past eighty years about 175 different steamboats have, during varying periods,, plied the Muskingum River. Some of them were large, handsome and staunch packets, and many were excellent money-makers. The tragic fate of two of them, the Buckeye Belle and the Belle Zane, has often been dwelt upon in Muskingum River lore, but the stories always bear retelling. THE BUCKEYE BELLE On November 12, 1852, the Buckeye Belle, making one of her regular runs from Marietta to Zanesville, landed at Beverly at 5 P. M. and was steaming into the canal when the boilers exploded. Everything on the boat back to the wheel house went into fragments, and the hull sank at once to the bottom of the canal. About ten of the forty-five persons aboard escaped ; twenty were instantly killed ; six died within a few days; the bodies of thirteen unknown persons were laid away in the Beverly Cemetery, in which also was buried a large box containing grewsome fragments of human flesh. When, startled by the explosion, people from the village and farms around came in haste to the spot, they saw heart-rending SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 131 sights. "The bank of the canal was covered with dead and mutilated bodies and fragments of the boat and cargo," says one account of the disaster. THE BELLE ZANE For the story of the Belle Zane's end we turn to the following account, given in J. Hope Sutor's History of Muskingum County : "The Belle Zane * * * was built on the Monongahela River, but was owned in Zanesville and was in the regular packet trade between the latter city and Pittsburgh. All her officers, except the captain, were Zanesville men, and in December, 1845, she was loaded for Louisiana ports with a miscellaneous cargo and en route took on large quantities of produce and cattle, so that her freight capacity was fully occupied and her cabin profitably filled. "The rivers were low and progress was much delayed ; sunken boats were sighted that had been snagged and unusual caution was exercised to escape disaster from such concealed sources. The weather was extremely cold. "At 2 A. M., December 19, with a crash and severe shock, the vessel suddenly turned over on her side and the boiler rolled into the river. The cabin was torn from the hull and floated several miles down stream, with many persons clinging to the wreckage. The crew acted heroically, but about twenty persons were drowned and the vessel and cargo were a total loss." ZANESVILLE BOAT BUILDING It was before this time that Gilbert Blue and Robert Hazlett began the construction of a steamboat which was destined to have a somewhat checkered career. A spot on the canal at the foot of Second Street was chosen for the building of the boat. Three brothers were brought from Cincinnati to do the work. They finished the hull and launched it in the canal in the fall of 1845. The cabin and other parts were completed in March, 1846. It was capable of carrying 850 tons. Ebert and Lowden built the boilers. It was a side-wheeler. "Black" Bob Hazlett became captain, Frank Lowery, of Pittsburgh and Thomas Griffith, of Zanesville (afterwards a member of the firm of Griffith and Wedge) were the engineers and Jesse Smith and John Boyd were the pilots. 132 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO The new steamer was named Putnam, in honor of the village across the river. The memorable day of departure came. Lines were hauled aboard and the Putnam steamed down the canal, locked through into the river and crossed over to the village landing. MIGHTY SEND-OFF When the Putnam left the wharf and steamed up the river several hundred feet and turned her prow down stream, Zanesville people were thronging the bank and all Putnam was there also on the other side. "The whole people seem to have closed their shops and stores," says an old writer, "and rushed to the river to see the new boat start upon her first trip. The river being high, the boat floated beautifully down past the Putnam landing amid throwing up of hats and waving of handkerchiefs and the shouts of people on both sides of the river." The Putnam made several trips to Pittsburgh and afterwards, for two years, was in the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati trade. Then new difficulties arose. These came from Captain Blue's stiff conscience and played havoc with the Putnam' s traffic. She was tied up fast every Sunday to observe the proprieties of the day as Captain Blue saw them ; card playing was not allowed on the boat at any time ; passengers were expected to conduct themselves as gentlemen in every particular. Because of these and other things the Putnam' s trade fell off. At length Captain Blue took her to St. Louis and later to New Orleans, but his plans continued to miscarry. Finally the Putnam was sold to a man who put her into the trade in the Tombigbee River. Soon she struck a snag, sank to the bottom and became a total loss. TRAFFIC CAPTURED BY RAILROADS AND LATER, THE AUTO When in 1887 the general government took over the Muskingum River it seemed that the stream's traffic would go to constantly rising totals for many years. The inroads made on that traffic by the valley's railroad and later by the auto and the truck reached a stage not expected. The government has steadily spent all that was needed to put and keep the river in good condition, SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 133 maintaining a six-foot channel in all the years since the change in control occurred. Taking note of the near abandonment of general traffic on the Muskingum River in 1925-1926, residents of the valley have asked themselves if the time was not coming when the government would cease to keep the river's locks and dams in repair and to maintain navigable channels. Writing from Washington City, August 17, 1926, Frederick J. Haskin, reporting the recommendation of army engineers to the effect that work on 123 inland waterways be abandoned and that work on sixteen others be curtailed, added : "Steam transportation or the motor truck have largely eliminated these 123 former highways of water-drawn trade from the marts of commerce, and the screech of the steamboat whistle is no longer heard upon their banks. Their day has come and gone." It was learned, however, on August 30, 1926, that this was not yet the fate of the Muskingum River, when Zanesville newspapers contained the following : "Additional allotments for river and harbor work for the fiscal year 1927 were made by the war department and include the Muskingum River locks and dams. The locations for the expenditures of the allotments are Zanesville, Ellis, Marietta, Devol, Lowell, Beverly, Luke Chute, Stockport, McC onnelsville, Eagle-port and Philo. The appropriation provided for river work in this district amounts to $80,000. This is in addition to an unexpended balance of $20,000. The announcement of the appropriation indicates that the government is planning to keep the Muskingum River navigable at all points and to improve the locks and dams over the entire courses of the river." It is noteworthy that in the year 1925 Muskingum River freight traffic was the heaviest carried on there for years, but a large part of the freight was simply coal sent from the stripping operations of the Zanesville-Blanchard Coal property near Ellis to the plant of the Ohio Power Company, at Philo. But while general traffic on the Muskingum River is declining, the Muskingum Valley's unsurpassed scenic charms are rapidly becoming better known throughout the land, owing to the increasing motor tourist travel brought about by the improvement of the River highway connecting Zanesville with Marietta. 134 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO WANTS WATER POWER USED The days of the excursion steamers carrying also freight of local wholesalers and merchants to down-river and Ohio River points, seem at present to be a thing of the past. The packet Milton, which plied on this river for several years made two trips early in 1926. Only three passengers were carried and the amount of freight handled was negligible. The result was that the Milton was taken to Parkersburg from which point it makes two trips weekly to Wheeling. Complete development of hydropower on the Muskingum River within the next five years is seen by the action of the government in renewing the lease of the Southern Ohio Public Service Company for a pericd of but five years. Three plants now use the Zanesville water power, the Hock-Aston Milling Company for the old Drone Mill, the Muskingum Coffin Company and the Southern Ohio Public Service Company. These combined plants are not capable of using all the power possible from the river and the government is anxious that scme means be found to utilize all this power. THE MUSKINGUM'S SURPASSING CHARMS There is no division of opinion that the writer has ever heard of regarding the scenic attractions of the Muskingum River. It has long been regarded as one of the most beautiful streams in America. James Whitcomb Riley's poem, written in 1883, has been widely quoted and the poetic tribute paid the river by Dr. James Ball Naylor, Morgan County's poet, novelist and historian, is equally appreciative. The latter's verses will be found in the Morgan County section of this work. Riley's follow here : "THE MUSKINGUM VALLEY" "The Muskingum Valley !—how longin' the gaze A feller throws back on its long summer days. When the smiles of its blossoms and my smiles was one- And-the-same from the rise to the set of the sun ; Wher' the hills sloped as soft as the dawn down to noon, And the river run by like an old fiddle tune, And the hours glided past as the bubbles u'd glide, All so loferin'-like 'long the path of the tide. SOUTHEASTERN OHIO - 135 "In the Muskingum Valley—it 'peared like the skies Looked lovin' on me as my own mother's eyes. While the laughin'-sad song of the stream seemed to be Like a lullaby angels was wastin' on me— Tel, swimmin' the air, like a gossamer's thread, 'Twixt the blue underneath and the blue overhead, My thoughts went astray in that so-to-speak realm, Wher' Sleep bared her breast as a piller from them. "In the Muskingum Valley, though far, far away, I know that the Winter is bleak there today— No bloom nor perfume on the brambles or trees- Wher' the buds ust to bloom, now the icicles freeze— That the grass is all hid long the side of the road, Where the deep snow has drifted and shifted and blowed And I feel in my heart the same changes is there, The frost in my heart and the snow in my hair." The late Anne Virginia Culbertson, Zanesville poet and author, thus referred to the Muskingum and its name in her beautiful poem "The Blue Muskingum :" "Deer-eye," so thy sweet name means, As above thy face one leans He can fancy long ago How some red man named thee so, While he paused above thy brink, Noting as he stopped to drink, That thy depths were soft and clear As the orb of startled deer, Therefrom christening thee first Ere he stooped to quench his thirst Gone the huntsman, gone the deer, Though the name yet lingers here, Full of music, still we ring them, Three sweet syllables, Mus-kin-gum. The United States Geological Survey No. 197, says that Muskingum "is an Indian word meaning Moose-eye river," other authorities say the name is Elk Eye and still others give "a town by the river side" as the real meaning of the word. Elk Eye probably is the favorite interpretation. 136 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO COST OF THE MUSKINGUM'S UPKEEP Col. C. W. Kutz, division engineer, with headquarters at Cincinnati, has favored us with the following interesting statement concerning the expenditures made on the river by the state and national governments : "The federal government has expended $3,553,279.96 upon the Muskingum. This stream was improved by the State of Ohio from 1837 to 1841 at a cost of about $1,500,000. The United States took over these improvements, consisting of twelve locks, eleven dams and three short lateral canals, in 1887, without payment to the State. Through navigation was suspended at that time as two of the dams were broken and the entire system was badly out of repair." THE OHIO CANAL A condensed story of this enterprise which did so much for the section of this state through which it passed will be found in the Muskingum County section of this history and pertinent facts about it will be found also in the Licking and Coshocton County histories. CHAPTER XI SOUTHEASTERN OHIO'S COAL WEALTH FIRST DISCOVERIES SOMETIMES ACCIDENTAL-BLACKSMITHS THE EARLIEST BUYERS-DOMESTIC USE IN OHIO RIVER TOWNS BEGAN 1833-PERRY COUNTY GREATEST PRODUCER 1885-90-JACKSON TOOK THE LEAD AMONG ALL OHIO COUNTIES IN 1895-BELMONT AHEAD IN 1905, 1910, 1915, 1920 AND 1925. Volume five of the Ohio Geological Survey reminds us of the importance of Ohio's coal fields in the following words : "The great Appalachian Coal Field, the largest in the world * * * extends through portions of nine different states, viz : Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia and occupies an area which has been variously estimated at from 50,000 to 58,000 square miles. From 10,000 to 12,000 square miles of this area are situated in Ohio. More than one-fourth of the state is therefore underlain with coal-bearing strata. "The western margin of the Ohio portion of the great coal field runs through the counties of Trumbull, Geauga, Portage, Summit, Medina, Wayne, Holmes, Knox, Licking, Perry, Hocking, Vinton, Jackson, Pike, Scioto and the coal measures are spread all over the territory lying east of this line of outcrop to the state line at the Ohio River." EARLY COAL DISCOVERIES A glance at the Ohio map interprets the meaning of this last paragraph as it relates to the counties dealt with in this work. Licking County's coal deposits are relatively light but the remaining eleven counties are exceedingly rich in them. From the same source as that referred to in the foregoing and from others we learn that a seam of coal was discovered to be on fire as early as 1755 near where Bolivar, Tuscarawas County, now stands. In 1803 Harris, the traveler, spoke of beds of coal on the banks of the Hocking. In 1810 coal was mined by strip- - 137 - 138 - SOUTHEASTERN OHIO ping near Talmadge, Ohio. In 1816 a flatboat was loaded with coal at Duncan Falls, Muskingum County, and shipped to Cincinnati. In 1820 coal was mined near Talmadge, but was used "exclusively for blacksmithing purposes." In 1825 H. F. Wright discovered coal at Coal Hill "while digging a ground-hog out of a stump" and the Talmadge Coal Company opened mines and transported the coal to Cleveland. In 1832 mines were opened near Massillon by Cyrus Mendenhall when "the Ohio Canal reached the coal fields." In 1845 David Tod, later governor of Ohio, shipped coal to Cleveland from the Brier Hill mines. (James A. Garfield was one of the canal-boat drivers at that time.) Coal was first mined in a systematic way on the Ohio River, below Wheeling, in 1833 and in that year coal was first used for domestic purposes in towns on the Ohio. TABLES FOR EXTENDED COMPARISONS In our county histories on later pages of this work readers will find much of interest as to the development of coal mining. As we write this, the strike which began April 1, 1927, is still on and most Ohio mines are idle, but this cannot continue indefinitely. There will be a revival of the industry in good time. The 1927 situation does not detract from the interest and value of Southeastern Ohio mining and development records and we are submitting here some tables which illuminate the subject and which refer not alone to the Southeastern Ohio coal counties but include all the Ohio coal counties, thus enabling the reader to compare the records of the "home" counties with those covering the others. The tables throw a strong light on development. They were compiled by the Bureau of Mines, Department of Commerce, at Washington. PRODUCTION OF OHIO COAL IN SHORT TONS |
