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History of Stark County - 1 CHAPTER I PHYSICAL BASIS OF DEVELOPMENT A GREAT WATER-SHED AND GLACIAL BORDER-DRAINAGE BASINS OF THE COUNTY GREAT PREHISTORIC RIVER-ANCIENT LINES OF DRAINAGE- PRESENT- DAY TOPOGRAPHY-DIVERSIFIED SOIL-ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION AND DRAINAGE-WOODLAND FARMS FIRST OPENED CARBONIFEROUS STRATA OF STARK COUNTY-THE MASSILLON COAL SEAM MASSILLON SANDSTONE-THE LIMESTONES-THE FIRE CLAYS-SOIL INDUSTRIES, THE GREATEST. In the course of the following narrative it will become evident that the section of Northeastern Ohio within which its political area now lies is a borderland of intense interest to the student, the scholar and the man of practical affairs. First comes Nature with her store-houses filled to bursting with raw materials, then the scientist who roughly charts them and analyzes them, and then the farmer and the manufacturer, who turns them to the sustenance, the comfort and the opulence of mankind. At this point in the historic narrative it is necessary to tell what the observer and the scientist have discovered as to Nature's work and methods in preparing the way for the advent of man in the section under review. ON GREAT WATER-SHED AND GLACIAL BORDER Stark County is on the great divide or water-shed between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, and the distinct terminal moraine marking the southern bounds of the prehistoric glacier which spread its soil accumulations over two-thirds of Ohio passes through Stark County just below Canton ; its general course is northeast from Brown County, in the val- 2 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY ley of the Ohio, through Stark and Columbiana counties into Western Pennsylvania. Not only is the edge of the moraine, or border of the great glacier, distinctly imprinted on the landscape, but special varieties of soils and vegetables indicate the southern boundary of its progress. More specifically, the moraine passes southwesterly through Columbiana, Stark, Wayne, Richland, Holmes, Licking, Fairfield, Ross, Highland, Adams and Brown, crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky, but returning to the north side of the river in Southeastern Indiana. As a result of this temporary obstruction of the Ohio, the waters of the incited glacier are believed to have been dammed so as to form a large lake, including the valley proper as far east as Pittsburgh. The barrier, or moraine, in Southwestern Ohio, appears to have given way in such a manner as to periodically reduce the level of the waters. Such a mode of retreat would explain the successive terraces that border the main streams of the Ohio at the present time. DRAINAGE BASINS OF THE COUNTY The notable drainage basin of Stark County is the valley of the Tuscarawas, which, as a branch of the Muskingum, is tributary to the Ohio. Only the northerly sections of the county are in the edge of the Lake Erie basin. In most parts the surface deposits are such as indicate that they have been transported from a distance, and it is only on the hills of the southern townships that the soil has been derived from the decomposition of the underlying rocks. GREAT PREHISTORIC RIVER There are numerous physical indications that the county was formerly traversed from north to south by a distinct line of drainage. This is imperfectly represented by the Tuscarawas River, but it is plainly written on the face of Nature that that noble stream is but a rivulet compared with the flood that once flowed from the lake basin into the ancient valley of the Ohio. The records of this great prehistoric river are seen in the deeply excavated channels now filled with gravel in the Tuscarawas Valley between Canton and Massillon. The borings for coal made in that portion of the county revealed the fact that that stream is running far above its former bed, and that it does not accurately follow its ancient valley. The old waterway is in many places filled with gravel and so thoroughly obliterated as to give to the untrained observer little indication of its original course. But a few facts which have developer; in the HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 3 surface geology of Stark County have traced it with fair accuracy. The borings made for coal east of the present river in Lawrence ar d Jackson townships were carried below its bed without reaching solid rock; instead, heavy beds of gravel were found to occupy a broad a id deep valley lying east of the present water-course. From Fulton to Millport, and thence to Massillon, these borings were continued, in some cases through more than one hundred feet of drift deposits. As the rock is exposed on both sides of the river at Massillon and Millport, it is seen that the river is running on the west side of its ancient trough, and though it has a rocky bottom at that point, real bed-rock has not been found at a considerably greater depth. Just how deep the ancient valley of the Tuscarawas was in that section of the county, it is difficult to even conjecture, but it is at least known that salt wells bored at Canal Dover, Tuscarawas County, have been sunk 175 feet below the surface of the stream before the rocky stratum was reached. ANCIENT LINES OF DRAINAGE Another, and perhaps the most important of the ancient lines of drainage runs between Canton and Massillon. Half way between these points, rock comes near the surface and coal has been worked in the vicinity. Explorations have shown that nearer Massillon is a ridge of rock which lies between valleys—that through which the Tuscarawas flows and another, completely filled with gravel, between Massillon and Canton. Between Massillon and Navarre, the main road or pike lies for the most part upon a terrace, or moraine, the surface of which is seventy-five feet above the river. This terrace is part of a plateau, which extends in some places more than a mile east of the Tuscarawas, and is composed of gravel and sand. On the other side of the river the rock comes to the surface and has been quarried. It is evident, therefore, that the ancient river channel passed under the terrace. Below Navarre, the river crosses to time eastern side of its primitive valley, striking its rocky border on the Wetmore tract. There the gravel beds, which fill the old valley, are on the west side of the river. PRESENT-DAY TOPOGRAPHY A large portion of Stark County is high and rolling, with an altitude of from 350 to 750 feet above Lake Erie, its eastern portion reaching up on the divide between that body and the Ohio River. Nearly all the streams run southward. After the Tuscarawas River, the largest stream in the county is the Nimishillen Creek, which, with its western and eastern 4 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY branches, drains the northern and northeastern portions of the county. The Sandy is a fine stream flowing through the eastern sections and the Tuscarawas drains the western townships. Ohio is a state deficient in small lakes, the counties which lie along the water-shed, like Stark, being the most favored in that regard. Among the little gems of water within the borders of the county are Congress Lake, which is cut by the northern line, and Meyer 's Lake, a few miles northwest of Canton, which also extends into Plain Township. The shores of both these lakes have been much improved within late years, so that they have become quite popular resorts for pleasure seekers and LAKESIDE COUNTRY CLUB HOUSE, MEYER'S LAKE clubs. In their vicinity are found not a few basins, now filled with peat and marl, which go to show that the present county was even more of a lake region than it is now. DIVERSIFIED SOIL Naturally, the soil is diversified. About three-fourths of the county, including the eastern, southern and western portions, may be called clay and gravel; the northeastern portion has a heavy subsoil of clay, while the Valley of the Sandy has a soil of sandy loam which is highly productive. The surface soil of the whole county is composed of vegetable mold. On the rolling or hilly portions of the county, the soil is thin and light. In the valley or bottom lands, the soil varies from a few inches to several feet in depth. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 5 ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION AND DRAINAGE Clay underlies the surface soil throughout almost the entire county, and varies in thickness from a few inches to two feet. It absorbs water slowly, and prevents the water from sinking too rapidly into the gravel subsoil ; it also retains the manures and other fertilizers, and is, in many ways, the basis of Stark County's agricultural wealth. Both artificial fertilization and artificial drainage have largely supplemented natural advantages. Lime, phosphates and the rotation of crops, as well as the introduction of cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens and other fowl upon deteriorated lands, are various means by which Stark County has maintained a high agricultural standard. As a large portion of the county lies high, with good natural drainage, artificial means have not been resorted to so generally as in more marshy districts. Most of the artificial drainage has taken place in the nothern sections, within the area of the Lake Erie basin. The old Cranberry swamp, or marsh, is the best known of the early lowlands. Tile draining, as a .rule, has been adopted as a means of carrying off the surface water, and not to improve the character of the soil. Within the past twelve or fifteen years considerable ditching has been done in such northern townships as Marlboro, Plain and Lawrence; so that now there are probable over 200 miles of established ditches in the northern part of the county. The longest and perhaps the most important work of that kind was the seven-mile ditch extending from Congress Lake, Stark County, to Randolph, just over the Portage County line, on the northeast shores of that body of water. The so-called Reed Ditch is also in Marlboro Township ; the Swartz Ditch at Middle- branch and the Zimmer ditch near New Berlin, are in Plain Township, while the Fox Lake Ditch is in the neighborhood of Canal Fulton, Lawrence Township. It is said the Congress Lake Ditch has already reclaimed some 2,000 acres of land. It is the joint charge of Stark and Portage counties. WOODLAND FARMS FIRST OPENED The first settlers in Stark County found a country thickly covered with a heavy growth of timber. As wood, both for building and fuel, was considered the prime requisite for permanent settlement, the forest tracts were the first to be settled ; but as the land had to be cleared before it would yield crops, the pioneer found that he could not depend upon a livelihood from his farm until some five years of hard work had been applied to it. In the meantime the fare furnished by the abundance 6 - HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY of game and wild fruit was eked out by small purchases of corn and wheat from the older settlements. With such an abundance of timber and the lack of foreign demand, the early tendency was to recklessly denude the land, in order to reach productive soil as quickly as possible. There was quite an extent of AN OLD-TIME RAIL FENCE prairie land in the county, known as the Canton plains, and running through the townships of Jackson, Perry, Canton and Bethlehem; but the plain county was long avoided as undesirable in comparison with the timber tracts, which were considered, when cnce cleared, as greatly excelling in "strong" and productive soil. Fortunately, the discovery of coal and its use as fuel as early as 1806 retarded the destruction of the timbered areas until such time as the settlers had come to realize their natural and economic value. HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY - 7 CARBONIFEROUS STRATA OF STARK COUNTY Below the surface of Stark County, below its soil and drift deposits, ranging frcm ten to 100 feet, and, when the regular strata are broken, sometimes coming to the surface, are various mineral riches, which have been quarried, manufactured and built into the growth and prosperity of the county. Nature laid them down in the following general order: