History of Ross County CHAPTER I NATURE'S HANDIWORK THE OLD SCIOTO COUNTRY-DRAINAGE-GEOLOGY-DRIFT DEPOSITS -SOILS-BEASTS, BIRDS, FISH AND SNAKES-ITS FORESTS—FLORA OF THE SCIOTO VALLEY-FRESH FROM NATURE 'S HAND. The Valley of the and from the earliest explorations of the French missionaries and English traders, a century before the creation of the Northwest Territory, was recognized as a great and beautiful central garden, the head streams which watered it issuing from a region almost midway between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. Missionaries, traders, soldiers, travelers of the white race, and the warriors, the women and the children of the red man, were wafted down the bold stream of the Scioto to the Ohio, or wandered, lived, fought and adventured along its shores; and even before the known days of the Shawnee or the Delaware, some more primitive man lived out his span of existence in the Valley of the Scioto. THE OLD SCIOTO COUNTRY The Scioto River, about 175 miles in length, is only exceeded in length, among the natural waterways which flow within the bounds of the State of Ohio, by the Muskingum ; and as a convenient channel of communication between the Great Lakes and the broad Valley of the Ohio, the Scioto was always marked as the more important, since not far northeast of its headwaters were the old Sandusky plains, which gave rise to the stream of that name flowing in a generally northerly direction into Lake Erie. Long before Ohio assumed civil organization, the Valley of the Scioto and much of the adjacent region were designated by travelers and writers as the Scioto Country. This was generally understood - 1 - 2 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY to be the sections watered by the main stream and its numerous branches. The headwaters rise from a morass about twelve miles north of the old Greenville treaty line above the Logan County line, and flow northeast and southeast for some forty miles, where the main stream receives the Little Scioto from the northeast, whose waters have come from the Sandusky plains and joined the river about four miles north of what is now Marion County. From the point of that junction the main channel of the Scioto takes a southerly course and, after flowing 130 miles farther, empties into the Ohio at Portsmouth. Immediately above Columbus it receives Olentangy River from the north. Its other principal tributaries are Big Walnut, Little Walnut and Salt creeks from the east, and Paint, Deer, Darby, Mill and Boke's creeks, from the west. Salt, Paint and Deer creeks are all received into the Scioto in Ross County. The old Scioto Country was gradually divided into counties, through which the main river passed and generally divided them into fairly equal portions. Hardin, Marion, Delaware, Franklin, Madison, Fayette, Pickaway, Ross, Pike, Jackson and Scioto counties comprised that section of the state. The main Scioto River runs from north to south across and nearly through the middle of all the counties named, with the exception of Madison, Fayette and Jackson, which are situated on some of its tributary streams. The Scioto Country was therefore described as extending about 130 miles from north to south and 40 miles from east to west—"the northern parts (written in 1829) very level, fertile and peculiarly adapted for grazing farms. But that same quality of the ground which causes its fertility also renders it very bad for roads, unless considerable labor is bestowed upon them. The land in the middle parts, through Pickaway and Ross counties, is more elevated, dry and rolling, consequently extraordinarily well adapted for the production of grain of the various kinds. South of Ross County the lands are rough, hilly and comparatively sterile, excepting the meadows along the runs, and an inconsiderable portion of the upland, which is remarkably fertile." DRAINAGE The chief feature of the topography of Ross County is the broad and deep trough of the Scioto, which traverses the county from north to south, dividing it into two unequal areas—the western side exceeding the eastern in the ratio of two to one. The river cuts the north line of the county at very nearly the middle point, and flows thence almost directly south as far as Chillicothe. It is here strongly deflected to the eastward, and in the extreme south- HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 3 eastern corner of the county the main valley is not more than four miles distant from the Jackson County line. The western part of the county is deeply divided and subdivided by the valley of Paint Creek, and that of its principal tributary—the North Fork of Paint. Paint Valley is, next to the Scioto, the most important of the surface features of the county. East of the Scioto, and in the southeastern corner of the county, Salt Creek flows in an old and deeply excavated valley. These constitute the leading cases of erosion, although material modification is furnished by Deer Creek and Kinnikinnick on the western side, and by Indian Creek and Walnut on the east. GEOLOGY The limestones in Ross County form an important feature of its material wealth. A considerable area of these rocks is included in the western part of the county, and they are laid bare in the Valley of Paint Creek. This valley has been cut entirely through the Heidelberg series deep into the Niagara group, and the section thus exposes two Silurian limestones instead of one. This deep gorge of Paint Creek furnishes some of the most romantic scenery of Ohio. On the west line of the county, including Buckskin and Paint townships, the Valley of Paint Creek is hewn out of the heaviest section of limestones of the Heidelberg division known in the state. A few miles to the southeastward the Heidelberg disappears in places entirely, the Huron shales lying upon the Niagara strata. The uppermost member of this formation, at this point, is a peculiar sandstone, which has been described as the Hillsborough sandstone. There are a few exposures of this sandstone in Paxton Township in the vicinity of the caves of the Rocky Fork of Paint Creek. As Paint Creek turns, in the extreme southwestern part of the 4 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY county, abruptly to the northeast, the heavy easterly dip of the limestone soon buries them below the surface,, and their last appearance is opposite the Village of Bainbridge. An admirable general section of the rocks of the western side of Ross County is furnished by Benner's Hill, in the same neighborhood. Both of the limestones here shown are capable of furnishing an unlimited supply of lime of the highest quality. This is not, indeed, surpassed in whiteness, mildness, and durability, by any lime of the state. The Niagara rock is poorly adapted for building purposes, coming out of the quarry in massive and ungainly blocks, but the close proximity in this region of the fine courses of the Waverly quarries, renders it unnecessary to turn it to such uses. The Huron shales are perhaps the most characteristic formation of the western half of Ross County. They occupy a large area, and impress peculiar effects upon the soil, the vegetation, and the scenery. They afford, at Benner's Hill, above mentioned, the heaviest section yielded by the formation in Ohio, viz : 332 feet. The composition of the series, as shown in this and closely adjoining sections, has two points that deserve attention. The first is the occurrence of a large deposit of white and blue clays at the base of the series, and the second, which is much the more interesting observation, is the occurrence of a calcareous layer, richly charged with fossils, at the height of forty to fifty feet from the base of the series. The clays are shown on the west side of Benner's Hill. The limestone seam is best seen at Ferneau's Mill, one mile east of Bainbridge. J. H. Poe, of Chillicothe, first called attention to its existence, and to him, the survey made by the state, was under obligations for a very interesting fossil—the body of a hitherto undeseribed crinoid, obtained from this locality. The calcareous seam varies between three and six inches in thickness. Its interest lies in the fact that no other such seam has been reported at the whole extent of this formation. Taken as a whole, the Huron shales are almost destitute of traces of either vegetable or animal life. Two brachiopod shells have been found at various points in the system, and the great concretions which the formation holds have yielded the remains of some remarkable species of fishes; but throughout most of its extent it is utterly barren of palaeontological interest. One of the difficulties in settling the Ohio , geological scale, or at least of correlating certain of its upper members of the eastern geological series, has lain in the fact that fossils, the true labels of the rocks, are here wanting. The outcrop of the slates on the western side of Ross County promises valuable contributions to our knowledge of the life of the seas and shores during the long period in which these black shales were accumulating upon the floor of the ancient ocean. HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 5 The exposures of the slates along the course of Paint Creek are unsurpassed. The whole lines, except fifty or sixty feet of the lowermost bed, are shown in two nearly vertical sections—the first one occurring at the well-known locality, Copperas Mountain, and the second at the equally well-known, but less accessible locality, the Alum Cliffs. Copperas Mountain is situated about three miles east of Bainbridge. The Alum Cliffs are five miles southwest of Chillicothe. Paint Creek washes, with the full force of its current, the base of the slate hill known as Copperas Mountain, and thus secures a constant exposure of the formation, in a nearly vertical wall 150 feet in height. The hill rises to a height of 550 feet, so that the whole thickness of the slates is contained in it, and much besides; but the uppermost 125 feet of the formation are not shown as distinctly as the lower portions. At the Alum Cliffs sections, which is the new Valley of Paint Creek, the uppermost beds are shown in a wall very nearly vertical, to an extent of at least 100 feet. The Huron shales are here covered with the Waverly shales, and the Waverly quarries, and the section is for the most part closed by the Waverly black slates. The upper beds of this division are shown with great distinctness within the limits of the City of Chillicothe and upon all sides of it. The concretions by which the Huron shales are everywhere characterized, occur mainly in the lowermost 100 feet. Many of them possess remarkably symmetry. The smaller ones frequently consist of sulphuret of iron. The larger ones have either organic or crystalline nuclei, and in far the larger number, the latter. The Waverly shales of Ross County require no extended mention. They do not generally attain to the thickness which this division shows in Pike County (from the county seat of which they take this name), and on the western side of the county are considerably reduced. In Chillicothe they measure 83 67/100 feet in thickness. They indicate the same general history which the series elsewhere shows, their surfaces being covered with sea weeds, sun cracks, and ripple marks. Where exposed on Stony Creek, in Franklin Township, they afford the finest series of ripple marks known in the third geological district. Similar exposures are shown in the same township in the line of Indian Creek and its tributaries. A calcareous layer of remarkable compactness and evenness extends throughout all the outcrop of this division in Ross County. In the vicinity of Frankfort considerable account is made of it as a building and flagging stone. The Waverly quarry system continues to furnish in its northward extension, a large supply of excellent building stone. The character of the rock quarries agrees very closely in color, texture and composition with the stone derived from the typical exposures, 6 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY but a very much larger proportion of the series in Ross County is valueless than in the district below. The stone is quite frequently found in a peculiarly rough and ungainly condition known among the quarrymen as "turtle back" or "nigger head." In this state it has no possible use, except as a protection for river banks. In all the central regions of the county the division is very much lighter than at Waverly and Jasper, being frequently' found to measure five or ten feet only, against thirty feet in the Pike County quarries. In Paxton and Buckskin Townships there is a larger amount of stone again, but it is not found in as thick and valuable courses as to the southward. Ascending in the scale, we come next to that interesting stratum, the Waverly black shale. No finer exposures of this are possible than those furnished in hundreds of sections throughout the central regions of the county, upon both sides of the Scioto River. The greatest thickness yet observed in this formation is found in Franklin Township, near the mouth of Stony Creek, where it measures not less than twenty-seven feet. In a small run that crosses the old Marietta road, three miles above Chillicothe, interesting slabs were found. This slate contains sulphuret of iron in considerable quantity, and the water that descends through it is, consequently, charged with the products of the composition of this substance. Sulphur springs often mark its outcrops. A spring of this kind, quite well known in the northeastern quarter of the county, finds its way through the slate on the north side of Sugar-Loaf Mountain, near the south line of Green Township. The slates have a thickness of twenty feet at this point, and are overlain by a heavy and interesting section of the Upper Waverly. The last named division, including everything in the series above the Waverly black slate and below the carboniferous series, remains to be characterized. It constitutes a valuable element in the county geological scale. The extreme thickness of this division does not exceed 425 feet in any single section. A greater thickness of these beds may, perhaps, be found in the northeastern corner of the county, where the series is certainly quite different from that observed in the southeastern section. In Liberty and Jefferson townships the upper beds of the Waverly are reduced in thickness, and the place is supplied by a heavy deposit of carboniferous conglomerate, as in the adjacent counties of Pike and Jackson. Single sections of considerable extent and interest are found in Mount Logan, opposite Chillicothe ; in Sugar-Loaf, three miles above; in Rattlesnake Knob, Liberty Township ; and also in the highest points of Huntington and Franklin townships. But four points in the composition of the series demand consideration here. Its economical value lies principally in the fine development of the HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 7 Buena Vista courses in the southeastern part of the county, and especially in Franklin and Jefferson Townships. A great amount of most desirable and accessible building stone is exposed in the first named township, on the western bank of the Scioto. The stone is furnished by a single course, eight feet in thickness, though it can easily be split into two courses of equal thickness. It agrees in color with the Waverly brown stone, as well as in geological position. The brown color is due in both to a change in the oxide of iron, which the stone contains, and it is always limited to a few feet upon the exposed edge of the quarries. This has been shown and extended twenty miles along the Scioto Valley, on both sides of the river. A very interesting section of this portion of the geological series of the county is shown in the south bank of Stony Creek, very near its mouth. The uppermost twenty-five feet of the Waverly shales appear here. Above them the Waverly quarry courses, sometimes reduced to two in number and not exceeding six feet in thickness, are shown in a nearly vertical wall. It is overlain by twenty-seven feet of the Waverly black slate, the heaviest section of this strata yet reported in Southern Ohio, fifty feet above which comes in the Buena Vista, or the Gregg and Higby, quarry stone. Ascending still another fifty feet, a Waverly conglomerate is found. This is one of the very few points on the west side of the Scioto where this formation appears. Its outcrop here is within sight of the great wall of carboniferous conglomerate on the east side of the river, but it belongs to a horizon several hundred feet lower than that held by the latter. It is made up entirely of quartz pebbles, some of them having a diameter of four inches. The stratum is shown at several other points in the same neighborhood, at least by its waste, but it must be set down as an exception rather than as a normal element of the county scale. The remainder of the line consists, for 300 feet, of beds of shale, holding great quantities of flattish concretions which contain a clayey center covered with a thin blossom of iron ore. These concretions vary from an inch to a foot in their largest diameter, and are everywhere throughout this region characteristic of the Upper Waverly. Then courses of a light brown sandstone often find place, but there is scarcely the possibility of a quarry in this whole interval. But few fossils are found in all the series thus far traversed. The singular form, Spirophyton, is met with quite frequently through several hundred feet, but it is only at a height of from 350 to 375 feet above the Waverly black slate that a stratum comes in that may be called highly fossiliferous. It is shown in many sections in the county, but the best exposure of it yet noted occurs on the south side of Sugar-Loaf Mountain, about 8 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY 100 feet from the summit. The usual line of Waverly fossils is to be seen here—remains of crinoids, bryozoans and bivalve shells. The uppermost seventy-five feet of Mount Logan, and also of Rattlesnake Knob, show the same stratum, as do also all the highlands in the northeastern parts of the county, especially in Colerain Township. Comparatively little valuable quarry stone is found above the Buena Vista beds, but there is hardly any portion of the county that does not possess a fair supply within easy reach. DRIFT DEPOSITS The drift deposits of Ross County are much more important and interesting than those of any of the districts to the southward. A principal point of interest is found in the fact that the boundary which separates the regions, every foot of which has been covered with the drift formation, from those in which the high lands, at least, were never occupied by the glacial sheet, passes through the northern and central townships of the county. In other words a part of the county agrees in its later geological history with the northern part of the state and of the continent, while the larger portion takes its place with the regions to the southward, over which the northern ice never advanced. This boundary is perfectly distinct in several townships, while in others it is less sharply defined. Beginning on the eastern side of the county, it passes through the northern half of the Township of Colerain, in a southwesterly direction, not far south of the line of the Chillicothe and Adelphi turnpike. It leaves all of the Township of Green to the northward ; west of the river it coincides, in a general way, with the Chillicothe and Greenfield turnpike, passing, however, two or three miles below it on the west side of Buckskin Township. There are within the area, to the northward, and especially along its more southerly extension, occasional summits that stood above the glaciers, but the clay and bowlders that mark the drift overlie all of the ordinary high land of the country, as is well shown along the road above named, in the vicinity of Lattaville. This boundary is shown with great distinctness in Colerain Township. A very instructive view can be obtained by following the eastern road leading from Mooresville to Adelphi. Ascending a branch of Walnut Creek, the native rocks are shown in more or less extensive sections on every hand, and the soils are seen by all of these characteristics to have been formed, where they now lie, by the weathering and disintegration of these rocks. The banks of the stream approach each other more and more closely, until at last the road is shut within a narrow valley, above which rise, on either hand, steep hills of sandstone and shale. The gorge proves to be a pass, HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 9 and, after a rapid ascent, an open country is reached, which differs in a marked degree from that left behind. A broad valley filled with gravel and clay and dotted with bowlders, is found at a high level ; the native rocks are so well covered that no clue to their composition is furnished, and rounded outlines prevail in all of the scenery, instead of the angular contour exhibited before. The gavel and clay contain a ' considerable quantity of limestone pebbles and bowlders, and thus the land comes to be known as limestone land. Its natural vegetation and its agricultural capacities are as sharply distinguished from those of the lands on the other side of the hills, as is the scenery. The drift storm was stopped by this range of hills, against the northern slopes of which these heavy beds of clay and gravel were piled. In other words, these hills form, in their sinuous outlines, the boundaries of the true glacial drift. Sugar-Loaf Mountain, already referred to in another connection, forms the westernmost extension of this line of hills, on the east side of the river, and bowlders are found half way up its northern slope. The country north of this boundary has suffered a much greater abrasion and waste than that which lies south of it, and it is fair to refer the difference in this respect to the great difference in the later geological history of the two sections, respectively. It certainly could not be without result that a slowly moving mountain of ice should advance over the face of a country composed of soft sandstones and softer shales. 10 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY SOILS The soils of Ross County are of all the native varieties formed by the weathering of its rocks and shales, and in addition, there are large areas covered with the glacial and modified drift. These areas furnish far more varied and more fruitful soils than the native rocks afford from the products of their degeneration and decay. The lands of this general division in Ross County take their place among the best in Ohio. The valleys, too, are unsurpassed. The rich alluvial bottoms of the Scioto are not inappropriately called the garden of Ohio, and the Valley of Paint Creek is only inferior to that of the river, in area. BEASTS, BIRDS, FISH AND SNAKES It is not an unlikely supposition that the beasts, birds and reptiles and other forms of animal life lower than the human, established a habitat in Ross County before the advent of the Red Man or his forefather. When the history of the Scioto Valley commenced to be written the puma, or American panther, had all but disappeared from the region north of the Ohio, although it was infrequently encountered especially where there were sheep. It did not often attack the settler, but had an unusual thirst for the blood of the lower animals. It was reported that one puma had been known to kill fifty sheep in one night, drinking a little blood of each. When the tidings got abroad that a panther had been heard or seen in any district, the whole country turned out for a hunt, each man hoping to be the fortunate one to give it the death shot. This animal was the prince of beasts, though sometimes mastered and killed by a single dog. The American black bear was found in abundance all over the valley. It was rather timid, but had great muscular power. It usually fed on berries, seldom made an attack on man, but when attacked it was very dangerous. The bear was hunted for the value of its fur and oil. Bear-hunting was a chief pursuit in the early settlement of the valley, and a successful "bear hunter" was enrolled among the honorable. Bear meat was a great relish. The gray wolf was the variety usually found in the Scioto Valley, though now and then a black wolf was caught. The wolves roved in packs, and when very hungry disputed with the early settlers the right-of-way through the forests. Wolf hunts were quite common and very necessary. In early times deer were very numerous. Many families depended upon venison for the bulk of their meat supply and the HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 11 men made deer hunting their chief occupation. Among the smaller game were beaver, foxes, otters, muskrats, minks, hares, squirrels, porcupine, badgers and opossums—not to mention skunks in the same breath. As to the birds of the valley the eagle deserves first mention, both because of his majestic beauty and the frequency of his appearance among those who settled early in Southern Ohio. The species most numerous in the Scioto Valley were the white, or bald-headed and the forked-tail eagles. On almost any clear summer day the pioneer could discern the noble bird, with expanded wings immovable and forked tail, circling toward the sun with its piercing cry until it disappeared in the heavens. The bald eagle was not so ambitious, clinging more to the earth and doing much damage by carrying off pigs, lambs and other small animals. Then there were hawks galore and owls to match ; wild pigeons in dense clouds ; with all the water fowl, game birds of the land and the songsters of field, orchard, valley and household, which any region of interior United States can produce. The rivers and streams abounded in fish, the pike being perhaps the most prized for its food qualities. There were also the bass, sucker, salmon and cat fish, the last named being the most abundant in the waters of the Scioto. The snakes were not so pleasant to see or discuss, but had to be reckoned with as a natural feature of the region. Among the most common of the reptiles against which the early corners to the Scioto Valley were called upon to raise their hands in extermination, were the rattlers, copperheads, the racer and the black and striped snakes. The copperhead was the more dangerous of the venomous varieties, as he never gave warning of his deadly intentions, but sprung from ambush. The racer was not poisonous, but was swift in attack and attempted to crush his victim like a boa constrictor. The rattlesnake and the racer were mortal enemies, which was the cause of considerable congratulation among the early settlers and the cause of many a fierce and exciting combat between the hideous reptiles. Amid such setting of Nature did the man of history first enter the Valley of the Ohio and explore the riches of its great and beautiful tributary which stretched northward, like a graceful fan, toward the watershed of the Great Lakes. ITS FORESTS When the first pioneers of Ross County entered that beautiful and fertile section of the great Scioto Valley all its bottom lands were shaded by a very dense, high and heavy growth of trees com- 12 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY prising sycamore, poplar, black and white walnut, black and white ash, buckeye, beech, soft and rock maple, white, black, red and yellow oak. The hills were covered with a dense growth of oak, hickory, ash; here and there pine, poplar, maple and some few other species of forest trees. The ravines, slopes and plains were covered with a mixture of the bottom and upland growth. Most of these have gone into fuel, bridges, fencing and building materials. There was, however, a great waste of timber ; thousands of acres of choice timber were burned over. The "log rollings" of early times are sufficient testimony of the truth of the assertion. Could that choice timber have been sawed into lumber and have been protected, it would have supplied the wants of many generations; but where then were portable sawmills and the men to work them? Relative to the flora of the Scioto Valley something should be said as to its tree families, their location, growth and particular habits. Many families, each consisting of several members or species of trees, formed the vast wilderness of this valley. Sometimes miles were occupied by the members of a single family, such as the oak family; in other localities the family of hickories held almost exclusive possession ; in another, poplar; beech another, and so on through the catalogue of families, each family occupying the land that best suited it, forming all over the valley "little squatter" sovereignties. Other localities were covered with family mixtures. Not that they amalgamated, but that they were not exclusive in their habits ; they grew up quietly in the same beautiful grove. It has been suggested : "The seeds, through some agency, by the waters of the flood, by birds, or by some other means, entered the soils in every quarter of the globe, waiting there for favorable conditions of germination, each variety, or family, varying in its conditions. The ground is full of seed not sown by the hand of man; how long sown is not known. Seeds retain their vitality many centuries ; instances are given which would show that some varieties (grains of wheat about Egyptian mummies) have held their vitality forty centuries. Corn in the tombs of the Incas has vegetated. After the great fire of London in 1666, plants not previously common sprang up abundantly on the waste ground ; certain plants previously unknown there are sure to appear after a fire in the American forests, in deep trenching of land, or turning up of the soil, by railway or other operations, producing a crop of some kind of plants unknown or rare in the locality. The seeds then that have produced these families may have been in their localities ages before exposed to their various conditions of germination. The seed of the oak might germinate in one place ; of the HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 13 beech in another, and of the poplar in another, each variety of seed germinating in that locality best adapted to its growth. Thus we call one soil a beech soil, another oak, another walnut, because best adapted to that peculiar growth. These tree preferences and habits are well understood, and followed in the purchase of lands. "Each geological formation has its distinct flora. It is not our purpose to discuss fossil botany, but simply to give some account of what might be the origin of the forests. These forests sprang up among the debris of the lower coal measures, yet they are infants in age compared with the duration of those measures. To the cretaceous formation many of the genera now living are said to belong. They formed the forests of that period, and the fossil remains show that their 'appearance was much the same as now. Among the living genera represented were the oak, poplar, plane, willow, beech, sassafras, magnolia, fig, maple, walnut, tulip tree, etc. That the seeds were long in their various localities and were not therefore brought from the Old World will appear when we learn that many are natives of America, such as maize (Indian corn) and the potato." FLORA OF THE SCIOTO VALLEY The wild flowers of the Scioto Valley were exceedingly numerous and of many varieties. We have no data by which any botanical description can be given, neither will the limited space permit such a scientific notice. We simply describe it as the first settlers saw it. Wherever the sun was permitted to warm the earth, seeds of unknown plants germinating sprang up in profusion. The deep soils of the river and creek bottoms soon brought them into bloom. One of nature's flower gardens would extend many miles, showing every size, shape and shade of color. The rose, the pink, the violet, the tulip and the lilies—who could count the numbers or tell their varieties? We have flora exhibitions of our times, but they would not favorably compare with one of Nature's exhibitions in the Scioto Valley of those early days. Over hills, up ravines, along the slopes, on the plains, in the valleys, over a space of 2,000 square miles, from April till September, was this beautiful flower garden on exhibition. FRESH FROM NATURE'S HAND As the writer has endeavored to give a general picture of the Scioto Valley, with the region now known as Ross County in its heart, all from the standpoint of Nature, he will conclude with a bold etching of its birth : "The sections of Ohio known as the 14 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY Scioto and Hocking valleys were once an irregular block of mineral deposits, about 100 miles long by 50 to 60 miles wide, and 1,200 feet deep, resting horizontally on the Waverly group, composed of about six geological formations, viz. : Sandstones, shales, limestones, fire-clay, coal and iron ore, consisting of nearly 100 layers of strata resting upon each other horizontally, as they were deposited from the primeval ocean, and at that time, under its waters. Its upper surface was smooth, horizontal and level. That plain was some feet above the highest point of the eastern watershed, the hills being lowered by ages of erosion. When these strata were finished to the smooth surface of the last and highest stratum, a great geological change took place. The Cincinnati Arch and the Allegheny Mountains arose out of the bosom of the waters, carrying up with them the strata intervening to an elevation above the sea level, and inclining so as to form the longitudinal trough, the bottom of which is now occupied by the waters of the beautiful Ohio. Since that noted upheaval which extended over thousands of miles, there was no further submergence of these valley sections. The work of the valley formation by erosion then commenced. The Ohio River flowing in a channel 100 feet lower than its present channel made its tributaries and sub-tributaries erode very rapidly. The Scioto River then ran in a channel about 100 feet below its present bed. All of its tributaries near their mouths were 100 feet lower than now. This made their flow much more rapid, and the growing process was very active. Every flood carried out of the tributary valleys an immense amount of eroded debris. Thus was the valley HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 15 formed and fashioned into its present size and shape. One other modification of the depth and face of the chief valley deserves notice. A glacial epoch with a temperature of Greenland followed in the valleys and over the continent. Immense masses of ice were formed, binding up in their glacial fetters millions of tons of sand, gravel and boulders. This was followed by a sinking of the surface so far as to detach icebergs, which melting and floating south-southeast, deposited their drift, boulders, clay and gravel. All Western and Northwestern Ohio was leveled up with this drift. A large amount was deposited along the valley, through which the Scioto River has cut its modern channel. "Such is a brief sketch of the formation and shaping of the present valley. Had it not been for the upheaval there would still have been a sea to occupy its present site ; there could have been no erosion ; and without erosion the geological and strati-graphical formation of the valley would never have been known. This great upheaval gave birth to the valley, with all its living organisms. It was evidently elevated above the ocean waters and made and shaped by erosion for some wise purposes. The immense mineral deposits of the valley, exposed by the upheaval and erosion, are sufficiently indicative of the intention of its Creator." CHAPTER II STORY OF THE RACES PREHISTORIC REMAINS NEAR CHILLICOTHE-MOUND CITY-WALLED TOWNS-LIBERTY TOWNSHIP INCLOSURES-BIG HEAD OF PREHISTORIC MAN-RACIAL CONFLICTS-FRENCH COLONIZATION-CLAIM LOUISIANA-CLASH BETWEEN FRENCH AND ENGLISH TRADERS-THE SCIOTO DELAWARES IN 1751—FRENCH AND INDIANS CAPTURE ENGLISH TRADERS-THE SCIOTO SHAWNEES-COMMINGLING OF OHIO INDIAN TRIBES-BOUQUET'S EXPEDITION- LORD DUNMORE 'S WAR-BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT-CORNSTALK AND LOGAN-SHAWNEES LAST OHIO INDIANS TO SURRENDER--FIRST WHITES TO ATTEMPT HOME-MAKING IN THE SCIOTO VALLEY. The number and variety of prehistoric mounds and other remains within the limits of the present Ross County are silent, but impressive proofs of the popularity of that central section of the Scioto Valley with the primitive, shadowy inhabitants who have left no other records; and within that area the beautiful courses of Paint Creek were evident avenues along which these ancient representatives of humankind erected observatories, altars, forts, tombs and houses. In Ross County fully 100 prehistoric enclosures have been examined and many of them obliterated ; they have contained about 500 mounds of all descriptions. Without attempting to designate exactly which have disappeared by force of such events as the cultivation of fields, the building of railroads and highways, and the erection of factories, residences and other structures, this account of the ancient remains in Ross County will read as though all were in the condition in which they were left many years ago when first thoroughly examined by Messrs. Squier and Davis ; that course seems entirely legitimate, since the main purport of the article is to give a fragmentary illustration of the civilization of a people who lived before history was. PREHISTORIC REMAINS NEAR CHILLICOTHE As stated, the section of the Scioto Valley embraced within the county limits and the beautiful Valley of Paint Creek is most - 16 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 17 clearly shown to have embraced favorite localities of the ancient race, as they were at a later period of the Indians. Here was a seat of the Mound Builders densest population. A section of twelve miles of the Scioto Valley, having as its central point the City of Chillicothe, exhibits ten groups of large works, accompanied by a great number of mounds. Within one enclosure, "Mound City," there are twenty-four tumuli, and the whole surface of the country round about may he said to be dotted with them. Of the ten enclosures which appear in this comparatively small territory, four have 2 1/2 miles of embankment each, and two of them enclose an area of 100 acres apiece, while the others embrace areas of no small magnitude. A section of six miles of the Valley of Paint Creek exhibits three works about equal in size to those in the Scioto, and several lesser ones. We give brief descriptions of the most important of these works, and of the celebrated defensive enclosure in Highland County, generally known as "Fort Hill." One of the most singular of the remains is what is known as Dunlap 's, situated on the right bank of the Scioto, six miles above Chillicothe, and near the infirmary. It is lozenge shaped or rhomboidal, measures 800 feet on each side, and has an avenue 1,130 feet long, extending to the southeast, and also a short avenue leading from a gateway to the north and connecting with a small circle. Along the western walls runs the bank of a plain, elevated a number of feet above the level of the work, upon the brow of which is situated on outwork 80 feet wide by 280 in length. It overlooks Vol. I-2 18 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY the larger work and has a gateway leading to it, and the bank seems to have been graded to a more gentle descent. In a line with the avenue and within a distance of about three quarters of a mile are a number of mounds, one of which is about fifteen feet high, truncated and having an area at the top, the diameter of which is about fifty feet, the base being 100 feet in diameter. These are the only monuments known which are reached by the overflow of the river. The truncated mound was the place of refuge during the high water of 1832, of a family, with their cattle, horses and other stock, numbering about 100. This mound was opened by Messrs. Squier and Davis and an imperfect examination made by them before they had acquired the large knowledge of the subject which they afterwards exhibited in their splendid contribution to American Archæology. Many fragments of rude pottery and a few whole specimens have been found in the vicinity of these works. What is known as the Hopetown group of works is situated four miles north of Chillicothe, on the east bank of the Scioto. These works consist of a circle and in conjunction therewith a much more important enclosure, which appears at first glance to be a rectangle, though in reality it is an irregular octagon. The circle extends into the octagonal enclosure, instead of being connected in the usual manner. The octagonal enclosure measures 900x950 feet, and the diameter of the circle is 1,050 feet. The walls of the circle are now very slight, but, although cultivated for many years, can be easily traced. They were never more than three or four feet in height. Some portions of the wall of the octagonal enclosure have been, to a certain extent, modified in height and form by the plow. It shows upon this, the western side, a height of about twelve feet, and the crest of the embankment is sufficiently wide to accommodate a horse and carriage. In the center of the octagonal enclosure was, undoubtedly, a place of sacrifice, or an altar upon which, possibly, burned the perpetual fire that may have formed a feature in the worship of the ancient race. The stones which originally formed this floor or altar, now scattered by successive plowings over an area of several rods, show unmistakable signs of having been subjected to intense heat. Slight traces remain of two or three mounds that were within the enclosure. Two small circles are contiguous to the octagon upon the east side, and 400 or 500 feet to the north there is another circle 250 feet in diameter. There are parallel walls extending from the northwestern corner of the octagon towards the river to the southwest, and they terminate at the edge of the terrace where the river certainly once had its course, and, very probably, in the time of the Mound Builders' occupancy of the country. The walls were very slight. HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 19 Were these works surmounted by palisades, they would have formed no mean defence against any mode of assault known to barbarous or semi-civilized people, but their position and the shape of the works preclude the possibility of a serious belief that they were intended for such purpose, and they have been classed among the division of works commonly supposed to have been primarily designed as places for religious worship or other great public observances. About a mile northeast of the works we have just described is the "Cedar Bank" enclosure, situated upon the table lands and bordering the river. It consists of a wall and outer ditch, which constitute three sides of a parallelogram, of which the fourth side is protected by a bank or bluff seventy feet in height. The size of the enclosure is 1,050x1,400 feet. There are gateways, each sixty feet wide, at the centers of the northern and southern sides. Just inside of the northern entrance is an elevated square 250 feet long by 150 feet broad, and 3 or 4 feet high, with the remains of which were, doubtless, graded ways at each end. Parallel walls connected at the ends occur in connection with this work. The Columbus pike passes obliquely through them. About one-third of a mile south of these works there is a small circle, having a double wall, extending half of its circumference, and an elevated square or truncated pyramid of about 120 feet base. All around are minor works consisting of little mounds and circles, and small low terraces mostly obliterated by time and the ploughshare. MOUND CITY Mound City is in many respects the most remarkable collection of works in the Scioto Valley. It is situated upon the western bank of the Scioto, and between three and four miles north of Chillicothe. In outline the enclosure is nearly square, with rounded corners, and consists of a simple wall about three feet high. Its site is the level of the second terrace. The area of the enclosure is thirteen acres. Within the wall there are twenty-four mounds, nearly all of which were excavated previous to 1846 by Messrs. Squier and Davis, through the permission of the owner of the land, Henry Shriver. In many of these mounds were found altars and human remains, thus clearly establishing the fact that this enclosure has been one of the chief places of religious worship by the ancient people. The altars were found, in nearly all cases, to be low, dished-shaped structures of burned clay, symmetrical in form, though not of uniform size. All of these mounds containing altars were found to be stratified, the greater portion of their substance commonly being gravel, and the thin layers composed of sand. In 20 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY some cases evidence was offered that the altars had been heaped over while the fires were still burning. Mingling with the charcoal and bones upon the altars, quantities of broken pottery, various kinds of implements, shells, and other objects were found, and in one tumulus there was a regularly laid pavement in the form of a crescent, composed of plates of mica. The entire length of the crescent, from horn to horn, could not have been less than twenty feet. Besides the implements of stone, there have been unearthed from the tumuli in Mound City many copper axes, gravers, tubes, gorgets, and other articles. If we assume the hypothesis most commonly entertained—that the ancient people who built these earthworks were the predecessors or progenitors of the early Mexican race—we may reason that it is altogether probable these altars were once the scenes of human sacrifice, for as all students know this horrible practice was extensively carried on by the Mexicans at the time of the advent of the Spaniards among them. WALLED TOWNS Besides the large works already described, all of which lie north of Chillicothe, Messrs. Squier and Davis surveyed three others which were doubtless walled towns, all lying within eight miles of Chillicothe. In fact, there was an extensive group of works on the site of the city, which has been completely obliterated. Just east of the city, by the side of the river, there was a large enclosure, combining two circles and a square, and further south still remains what is known as the "High Bank work." It is just five miles from Chillicothe upon the third terrace, to the base of which the river has worn its way, leaving an abrupt bank seventy-five or eighty feet in height. There are many coincidences between these and the Hopetown works. They consist of an octagon and a circle in conjunction, the former measuring 950 and the latter 1,050 feet in diameter. The octagon, like that at Hopetown, is not regular. Another point of resemblance between the two groups of works is that of the height of the walls, those of the octagonal enclosures, in each case, being very much superior to those of the circles. Like the Hopetown work, the High Bank has, in connection with it, two small circles. At various places around the works are the usual pits, or " dugholes," some of them quite large. A number of small circles occur about 100 rods from the octagon, and a fourth of a mile below is a very large truncated mound. LIBERTY TOWNSHIP ENCLOSURES The Liberty Township work, intersected by the Chillicothe and Richmondale Road, is situated upon the third terrace and upon HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 21 the east side of the Scioto. It is an enclosure consisting of a great circle over 1,700 feet in diameter, enclosing an area of 40 acres; a square, 1,050 feet in diameter with an area of 27 acres, and a smaller circle, a fraction over 800 feet in diameter. The embankments throughout were even when surveyed in 1846, very slight for so large a work, being nowhere more than four feet high. There are some indications that they were constructed in great haste—for instance, the occurrence of dug holes interior to the work, whereas, in the great majority of the large enclosures the surface of the ground appears to have been carefully leveled. The great circle has numerous small openings, but the walls of the smaller one are entire throughout. The square enclosure has eight entrances, those upon the sides being covered by small mounds, while those at the angles are without this protection. There are several small mounds in and about this immense enclosure, and one large one which is over 150 feet long by about 20 in height. This mound, when excavated, was found to contain two enclosures of timber, and an altar upon which was a fine carbonaceous deposit, resembling burned leaves or straw, perhaps the residue of a vegetable sacrifice or the offering of the "first fruits" of the season. The timbers that had composed the enclosures had entirely decayed, but perfect traces or casts were found of decomposed materials. A skeleton, partly burned, was found in one of the enclosures, and with it a thin plate of copper, seven inches long and four broad, perforated as if for attachment to the dress, also a large porphyry pipe. The bones seemed to have been enveloped in a coarse matting, too much decayed to be distinctly made out. Stone enclosures answering the same purpose as those made of timber, have frequently been found, and within them crumbling human remains. One mound within the limits of Chillicothe, razed to the ground at an early day, covered a small enclosure formed by the setting upon edge of flat stones, across which others were laid. To give a full description of even the most important ancient monuments in Ross County is an undertaking too vast for the limits of such a chapter as this must necessarily be. We aim simply to give the general reader something of an idea of the occupation of the county by the prehistoric race. The specialist and student must avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by the perusal of elaborate works, and make original research in this fascinating field for observation. A ponderous volume could be written upon the earthworks of a twenty-mile section of the Scioto Valley and the interesting remains along Paint Creek, and still the subject would not of necessity be exhausted. We might give detailed descriptions of the junction group, southwest of Chillicothe and of the large works elsewhere on Paint Valley, between Chillicothe 22 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY and Bainbridge; of the stone fortified hill of 140 acres area, near Bourneville ; of "Clark's works," and those that occupied the site of Frankfort, on the North Fork of Paint; of the peculiar stone work upon Black Run, fifteen miles from Chillicothe; but the details would prove dry reading for those who have no especial interest in the subject, and entirely inadequate to those who are enthusiasts in this branch of archaeology. BIG HEAD OF PREHISTORIC MAN It is worthy of note that one of the most perfect skulls ever found in the mounds, and one which incontestibly 'belonged to the race who built the earthworks, was discovered in a singularly constructed mound upon the summit of High Hill, which overlooks the Valley of Scioto, and is situated four miles below Chillicothe upon the west side of the river. This skull, described by Professor Morton in his elaborate work, "Crania Americana," was of unusually large size, -and exhibited a facial angle of eighty-one degrees. The internal capacity of the skull was ninety cubic inches—seven inches greater than the mean capacity of the Mongolian skull, three inches greater than of the Caucasian, and eight inches greater than that of the American Indian. RACIAL CONFLICTS When interior North America first became known to Europeans the Indians who held and roamed the country seemed to have lost those habits of settled life which are partially evident in the structural remains and implements credited to another race. The Indians of North America had become nomads; the developments of civilization which require permanency, fixed habitation and the co-operation of family and communal institutions, had been shifted to Mexico and the Andean fastnesses of South America. When the white race came into conflict with the Indians of the North, who, among themselves, were continually fighting and crowding one another hither and thither, another disturbing and destructive element was added to their life as a race. What follows is designed to be a picture of these conflicts between the Red Man and the White; at least those which had a bearing on the discovery and development of the Valley of the Scioto and Ross County, as we know it today—in many respects the gem of the old Scioto Country. During the forty years preceding the close of the Revolutionary war the Valley of the Ohio was the great battleground between the French, English and Americans, with their respective Indian HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 23 allies. Although the French claimed the land by virtue of discovery and exploration and seventy years of occupancy, the English, as later adventurers, laid claim to the rich and beautiful valley through their powerful red allies, the Six Nations. This claim was of rather dubious strength, considering that the Ohio Valley and the vast domain included within its meshes were never in undisputed possession of the Iroquois. But the English point of contention was finally pressed home through force of English arms and diplomacy. The second distinct phase of the international contentions over the Ohio Valley and the territory to the northwest of it hinged on the conflict between Great Britain and her American colonies, with the result which is world's history. The writer will therefore first enter into certain essential details regarding the discovery, clashes at arms and uncertain occupancy of the country broadly designated as the Valley of the Ohio previous to the establishment of a civic body over the vast territory northwest of the Ohio River by the Ordinance of 1787. The explorations of Marquette, Joliet and La Salle from New France to the Mississippi Valley and gradually to its mouth were conducted for nearly a decade from 1683, but their routes from the great lakes to the Valley of the Great River were mainly by way of the Wisconsin, the Illinois and the Wabash—almost continuous waterways. There were no such feasible, fairly continuous and inviting courses through the interior of Ohio; the nearest approach to the virtual continuity of the more western waterways was formed by the Scioto and the Sandusky rivers. Actual settlements and even the appearance of the French voyageurs and fur traders were therefore of a later date in the Scioto and Muskingum valleys than like occurrences in regions further to the west. But the discoveries and explorations of these fearless French pioneers placed upon the map of the world the stupendous Territory of Louisiana, in which was included the smaller regions included in the Valley of the Ohio and its northern tributaries. FRENCH COLONIZATION After the tour of exploration by Marquette and Joliet and the unsuccessful effort at colonization by La Salle, the French, still ardent in their purpose of securing possession of the fertile lands east of the Mississippi, finally had the satisfaction of seeing a comprehensive scheme of colonization established by M. d'Iberville, who is considered the founder of French authority in Louisiana. He was sent with an expedition comprising four ships and 200 settlers to explore the mouth of the Mississippi. This he did, 24 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY erecting a fort on what is now the southern shore of the State of Mississippi, and which was afterward abandoned for one on the west bank of the Mobile River. Later, he built fortifications at a point corresponding to the City of Natchez, protected the settlers from the incursions of the English, and in other ways strengthened the French claim to the Valley of the Mississippi. Previous to the year 1725 the Colony of Louisiana had been divided into quarters, each having its local government, but all subject to the Council General of Louisiana at Quebec. One of these quarters included the territory northwest of the Ohio River. At this time the French had erected forts on the Upper Mississippi, on the Illinois, on the Maumee and on the lakes. Communication with Canada was chiefly through Lake Michigan, but before 1750 a French post had been fortified at the mouth of the Wabash, and a route of New France was established through that river and the Maumee of the Lakes. The French had now established a chain of forts from the mouth of the Mississippi up the valley, and its chief connecting waterways with the great lakes, along the shores of the lakes and up the Ohio Valley to the English settlements of the Allegheny region. CLAIM LOUISIANA The English became alarmed at this systematic occupancy of interior America, especially as the French took formal possession of Louisiana in 1749. This was done by the burial of leaden plates by the royal emissaries sent from New France, in command of Celoron de Bienville, their locations in the Ohio country, being at the junction of the river by that name with the Mississippi, and at the mouths of the main tributary streams of the Ohio. That found at the mouth of the Kanawha in March, 1846, nearly a century after it was placed there by the French commandant, has been translated as follows : "In the year 1749 of the reign of Louis XV of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la. Galissoniere, Captain General of New France, in order to re-establish tranquility among some villages of savages of these parts, have buried this plate at the mouth of the river Chi-no-da-hich-e-tha, the 18th August, near the River Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River, as a monument of renewal of possession, which we have taken of the said river, Ohio, and of all those which empty themselves into it, and of all the lands of both sides even to the sources of said rivers ; as have enjoyed, or ought to have enjoyed the preceding kings of France, and that they have maintained themselves there by force of arms and by treaties, especially by those of Riswick, of Utrecht and of Aix-la-Chapelle."