GEOLOGY.
In briefly describing the geological features of the county, only the leading points can be noticed.
The attempt will be made to treat the subject in such a manner that it can be understood by any
intelligent reader, although unacquainted with the technicalities of geological science. Free use
will be made of the information contained in the reports of the two Ohio geological surveys, and
especially of Prof. Edward Orton's papers on the Southwestern Geological District in the report
of the last geological survey. The line of jnnction between two geological formations passes
through several counties in Southwestern Ohio, of which Warren is one. The physical features of
the county are thus very similar to those of Preble, Montgomery, Miami, Clinton, Greene and
Clark. Warren County shows better than any of the others the uppermost beds of the blue
limestone formation, called the Lebanon beds.
The blue limestone strata are the floor of the county. Over these strata there are four or five
outliers of the Cliff limestone, occupying in all not more than ten square miles of the area of the
county. Over both blue and Cliff limestone formations are spread the deposits of the Drift period,
consisting of superficial clays, sands, gravels and bowlders. The geological strata of the county,
beginning with the lowest, are the blue limestone, called the Cincinnati group, the Clinton
formation, the Niagara formation and the Drift. In a chart of geological history, the formations
constituting the stratified rocks of the county belong to the Palaeozoic era, the blue limestone
belonging to the Hudson River period, of the Lower Silurian age, and the Clinton and Niagara
limestones belonging to the Niagara Period and the Upper Silurian age. The beds of drift belong
to the Human era and Glacial epoch.
From the lowest exposed rocks in the county to the highest, there is a vertical scale of about 500
feet divided among the three formations as follows:
Niagara Limestone, 50 feet; Clinton Limestone, 16 feet; Blue Limestone, 434 feet.
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 399
The Blue Limestone, is the principal formation of the county, as well as of Southwestern Ohio.
The strata of this formation are surprisingly level in an east and west direction, but dip from a
height of 450 feet, at Cincinnati, to that of 275 feet at Lebanon, or an average fall northward of
about six feet to the mile; and, from the central part of Warren County, northward thirty-five
miles, to the central part of Miami County, the average descent is four feet per mile. The
formation is supposed to have a total thickness of about 800 feet. The Ohio Geological Survey
divided the entire blue limestone strata into three beds, the Lebanon beds, or the highest, having a
thickness of about 300 feet, the Cincinnati beds, 450 feet, and the Point Pleasant beds, 50 feet.
The greater part of the blue limestone found in Warren County belongs to the Lebanon beds. The
name was given by Prof. Orton to the series of rocks for the reason that the entire bed is better
exposed, and can be more readily studied, in two places east of Lebanon than any other locality.
The Lebanon beds are found in the northern parts of Butler, Warren and Brown Counties, and
make up the whole of the blue limestone formation of Preble, Montgomery, Miami, Clark,
Greene and Highland Counties. In the Great Miami Valley, they are found from Hamilton to
Troy, and, in the Little Miami Valley, from Morrow to Xenia.
The name blue limestone indicates the color of these strata of rocks. The bluish tinge of the rocks
is due to the presence of an oxide of iron. Exposure to the weather frequently changes the color
to a light gray or drab. The layers of this stone in Warren County range in thickness from three to
eight inches. Between the layers of limestone are beds of shale, commonly called blue clay. Both
the limestone and the blue clay contain numerous well preserved fossils of ancient living forms
inhabiting the seas, at the bottom of which these beds were formed.
The Clinton and Niagara formations have been popularly known as the Cliff limestone, and were
so called in the first geological survey of Ohio. The valuable building stone known as Dayton
stone, belongs to the Niagara formation. On the geological map of Warren County, four outliers
of the Cliff limestone are marked. The largest of these includes a part of Clear Creek and Wayne
Townships, and has its center nearly midway between Mount Holly and Franklin. The next in
size is at Spring Hill, in Washington and Massie Townships. The other two are quite small, one
being on a hill on the farm of William Morris, one mile east of Utica, and the other on the east
side of the Little Miami, near Freeport. The last-named outlier embraces about three- fourths of
an acre, and is about sixteen feet thick. Prof. Orton, perhaps without sufficient evidence to
warrant the conclusion, regarded it as a gigantic bowlder which must have been transported from
the highlands west of the river. His reason for the conclusion is that the outlier overlies drift
material of clay and gravel, and is at least 125 feet below the elevation required at this point for
the formation. Spring Hill is interesting from the fact that it is the most southern of the outliers of
the Clinton limestone in Ohio.
The Niagara formation is found in Warren County over the largest of the four areas of the
Clinton formation just referred to. Some valuable quarries of Dayton stone are here found. The
formation is here at least fifty feet in thickness and the highest land in the county is believed to
be found in this locality.
The Drift beds are spread over almost the entire county. They consist of clays, sands, gravels,
bowlders and buried vegetable remains, all of which have been transported by glacial action or by
glaciers and icebergs, a greater or less distance from the places of their origin. These beds vary
much in depth, an the materials of which they are composed and in the order in which the
400 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY,
layers of different materials are arranged. Fragments of wood are frequently found deeply buried
in the drift. There is hardly a neighborhood in which instances of buried wood have not occurred
in digging wells. The wood is generally coniferous, but ash, hickory, sycamore and grape-vines
are said to have been found. The wood is found at any depth at from ten to fifty feet.
Considerable quantities of clean sand and gravel are found in these beds. In many parts of the
county gravel-banks are numerous, and, in connection with the gravel found along the streams,
have furnished excellent materials for the turnpikes which traverse the whole county in every
direction.
Bowlders are scattered irregularly over the county as well as other portions of the Miami country,
and constitute an interesting feature of the surface geology. They are termed erratic rocks,
hardheads or grayheads. They are universally recognized as of Northern origin. They are
composed of rocks foreign, not only to the county, but to Ohio. All geologists agree that many of
them were brought from the Lake Superior region and the Canadian highlands, and that far the
greatest number have been brought from beyond the great lakes. Prof. J. S. Newberry, late Chief
Geologist of Ohio, believes that these bowlders were deposited at a later date than the most
recent stratified beds of drift, and that they were floated to their present resting-places by
icebergs, just as icebergs are now known to transport great quantities of rocks, gravel and sand,
sometimes in the case of a single iceberg, amounting to 100,000 tons. The largest bowlder in
Southern Ohio yet described is found about three miles southeast of Lebanon, and has given the
name to the Rock Schoolhouse. It measures, above ground, seventeen feet in length, thirteen feet
in breadth and eight feet in height. As it is found to slope outward in all directions under ground,
it is fair to suppose that at least one-half of it is buried. It weathers rapidly, and must have been
formerly considerably larger. Estimating it to weigh 160 pounds to the cubic foot, the weight of
the bowlder must be not less than 275 tons. The composition of this and most other large
bowlders of the region, is gneiss, in which reddish feldspar is a large element. Not only the
bowlders, but the gravels of the drift beds, are of Northern origin. Among the pebbles found in
the drift gravel are representatives of all the formations found to the northward in Ohio, Blue
limestone, Clinton. Niagara, Water lime, corniferous and black slate, and the granitic rocks found
beyond the lakes..
Fossils of great beauty and variety are found in abundance throughout the county. Perhaps no
locality in the world furnishes superior facilities for the study of the fossils of the upper beds of
the Lower Silurian. They occur in such numbers and are so perfectly preserved that the most
careless observers have their attention directed to them in the stones by the wayside and in the
pavements of streets. They are oftimes so crowded as to constitute the chief substance of the
rocks. Longstreth's Branch in Turtle Creek Township, which empties into the Little Miami
opposite Freeport, has given several new fossils to science, among them two new crinoids, both
discovered by J. Kelly O'Neall, Esq.. and one of which bears his name—the Glyptocrinus
O'Nealli. A fossil seaplant found near Waynesville, and now in the cabinet of Israel Harris, has
been named Fueoides Harrisi.
The soil of a great part of the county is of foreign origin; that is, it has not been derived from the
decomposition of the underlying strata of rocks and shale, but has been transported by the drift
agencies from northern sources. As the underlying rocks are limestone and the gravels of the drift
largely composed of the same kind of rock, the soil is calcareous and of wonderful fertility. It is,
in fact, an extension of the famous Blue Grass Region of Kentucky, and its equal in fertility and
beauty of scenery. As fine fields of blue grass are to be found in Southwestern Ohio as in
Kentucky. In the lower valleys of the
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 401
streams the soil is a deep black alluvium, which yields year after year abundant crops of Indian
corn. Still more desirable farming lands are found in the in- tervales of an earlier epoch, which
are now in part filled with the beds of drift. The valley of Turtle Creek in its combination of
richness, beauty and healthfulness, probably is not excelled on the continent. There are also
broad areas of uplands of great strength and fertility of soil, equaling in productiveness
the best m
Most parts of the county have a fair supply of good water. Spring Hill derives its supply from the
Clinton limestone, with which it is capped. The main water supply of the county, however, is
derived from the drift beds, in which good water is generally obtained for wells at a depth of
from fifteen to twenty-five feet. The most noted string in the county is near Springboro, and has
long been turned to account in running one or more mills. This spring, or, rather, series of
springs, uniting in one current, has its origin in heavy beds of drift. Near Harveysburg, in a
beautiful grove, is the collection of springs known as the " Fifty Springs." At Lebanon are two
chalybeate and one sulphur spring. Where the blue limestone formations are not covered with
drift beds, the water supply is inferior. The rainfall cannot penetrate the compact clays of this
formation, and is consequently turned to the streams by surface drainage. There are
comparatively few farms in the county upon which an adequate supply of water for domestic
purposes and farm animals cannot be obtained, even in the dryest seasons, either from rivulets,
springs or wells.
ANTIQUITIES.
Very interesting archaeological remains abound in the county and throughout the region of the
Miamis. The extensive and elaborate ancient earthworks show conclusively that this region was
in the distant past occupied by a dense population, not of nomadic tribes, but dwelling in fixed
communities, probably devoted to agriculture, and having certain peculiar laws, customs and
religious rites. Some of their works required an immense amount of labor and considerable
engineering skill. What race of people built these remarkable and interesting earthworks is
unknown, and, in the absence of positive knowledge, their origin is referred to a people called
Mound-Builders. Both tumular and mural remains of this extinct race are found in almost every
portion of Warren County Many of the less important archaeological works have been obliterated
by the cultivation of the soil; others remain to-day among the largest and most interesting ancient
works in the Mississippi Valley. One of the largest mounds in the United States is found near the
Great Miami at Miamisburg; it is 65 feet high and 800 feet around the base. Fort Ancient, on the
Little Miami, is one of the largest, strongest and most important of the defensive works of the
extinct race on the continent. The following description of this remarkable work is from Caleb
Atwater, and was published in the Archoelogia Americana:
" The fortification stands on a plain, nearly horizontal, about two hundred and thirty-six feet
above the level of the river, between two branches with very steep and deep banks. The openings
in the walls are gateways. The plain extends eastward along the State road, nearly level, about
half a mile. The fortification on all sides, except on the east and west, where the road runs, is
Surrounded with precipices nearly in the shape of the wall. The wall on the inside varies in its
height, according to the shape of the ground on the outside being generally from eight to ten feet;
but on the plain, it is about nineteen and a half feet high, inside and out, on a base of four and a
half poles. In a few places, it appears to be washed away in gutters, made by water collecting
402 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
"At about twenty poles east from the gate, through which the State road runs, are two mounds,
about ten feet eight inches high, the road running between them nearly equidistant from each.
From these mounds are gutters running nearly north and south, that appear to be artificial, and
made to communicate with the branches on each side. Northeast from the mounds, on the, plain,
are two roads, each about one pole wide, elevated about three feet, an which run nearly parallel,
about one-fourth of a mile, and then form an irregular semi-circle round a small mound. Near the
southwest end of the fortification are three circular roads, between thirty and forty poles in
length, cut out of the precipice between the wall and the river. The wall is made of earth.
" Many conjectures have been made as to the design of the authors in erecting a work with no
less than fifty-eight gateways. Several of these open. ings have evidently been occasioned by the
water, which had been collected on the inside until it overflowed the walls and wore itself a
passage. In several other places, the walls might never have been completed.
"The three parallel roads near the southwest end of the fortification appear to have been designed
for persons to stand on and annoy those who were pass- ing up and down the river. The Indians,
as I have been informed, made this use of these roads in their wars with each other and with the
whites. Whether these works all belong to the same era and the same people, I cannot say, though
the general opinion is that they do. On the whole, I have ventured to class them among 'Ancient
Fortifications,' to which they appear to have higher claims than almost any other, for reasons too
apparent to require a recital.
"The two parallel roads outside the fortification running from two mounds northeastward are
very similar to modern turnpikes, and are made to suit the na- ture of the soil and make of the
ground. If the roads were for foot-races, the mounds were the goals from which the pedestrians
started, or around which they ran. The area which these parallel walls inclose, smoothed by art,
might have been the place where games were celebrated. We cannot say that these works were
designed for such purposes; but we can say that similar works were thus used among the early
inhabitants of Greece and Rome."
The extreme length of these works, in a direct line, is nearly a mile, but, following the angles of
the walls, they reach probably a length of six miles.
On the river hill on the west side of the Little Miami, at Foster's Crossing, is an ancient work
composed of burnt earth. The inclosure contains about twenty acres, and the embankment,
although nearly leveled by time in some places, can be traced around the whole area. As a work
of defense, it had a position of great strength. It could be attacked with advantage only from a
narrow space of level land on the north. At this place the wall was highest and strongest, and is
now about ten feet high and fifteen feet wide at the base. Here, too, was the gateway, defended by
an elliptical mound on the outside. The peculiarity of this work, however, is the burnt earth of
which the embankment is composed. There does not seem to be a handful of clay in the remains
of the ancient wall which has not undergone the most intense heat. The rocks, too, show the
marks of fire. Even where the embankment is highest, excavations by the hand of man, by water,
or the uprooting of large trees, show that the earth is as red as brick-dust down to the level of the
ground. The burnt clay was not molded, but is found pulverized, or in large or small
irregular-shaped masses.
There were other works of defense in the county of less size and importance which have never
been surveyed or platted, or accurately described. It cannot be said that any law governing the
arrangement of either the tumuli or fortifications has been discovered. Both appear to be more
numerous along the rivers than elsewhere. It has been thought by some writers that the
archaeology of
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY - 403
the Miamis has for its distinguishing feature a system of strong fortifications along the two
rivers, and that the numerous mounds on the headlands and in interior points may have been
signal stations, commanding the whole region and binding the country together as the seat of one
united nation. A more com- mon view is that the mounds were places of sepulture and memorials
raised over the dead, the largest mounds being erected in honor of distinguished personages. The
notion that they contain the remains of vast heaps of dead fallen in great battles is wholly
unsupported by the facts obtained from excavations and examinations. But one or two skeletons
are usually found in these mounds, and where many are found it is probable that the later Indians,
and, in some cases, Europeans, have buried their dead in them. The New American Cyclopedia
assumes, from facts and circumstances deemed sufficient to en able us to arrive at approximate
conclusions concerning the antiquity of the Mound. Builders' records, that we may infer, for most
of these monuments in the Mississippi Valley, an age of not less than two thousand years. "By
whom built whether their authors migrated to remote lands under the combined attraction: of a
more fertile soil and more genial clime, or whether they disappeared be neath the victorious arms
of an alien race, or were swept out of existence bl some direful epidemic or universal famine, are
questions probably beyond the power of human investigations to answer. History is silent
concerning them and their very name is lost to tradition itself."
Among the most interesting archaeological relics are the utensils, implements, weapons and
personal ornaments of pre-historic times. It should b borne in mind that, while most writers on
American antiquities make a distinction between the Mound-Builders and the tribes the whites
found in pos session of the, country, such a line of demarkation cannot well be drawn wit]
accuracy with respect to the stone, flint and copper relics. Some of these re] ics maY belong to a
pre-historic race of the distant past, some to the early Indian tribes inhabiting the country, and
others to later Indians, whose mechanical arts may have been modified by contact and trade with
the whites. is, therefore, impossible to separate the relics of the Mound-Builders from those of
the later races. We cannot refer the copper implements to any particular epoch, nor can we
determine when the stone age began or ended. Stone implements have been found associated
with the remains of animals long since extinct, yet these implements are not different from those
known to have been in use among the savage tribes when first seen by the whites.
The relics now under consideration have been found in as great quantiti in Warren, perhaps, as in
any county in Ohio. With respect to the purpos for which they were designed, they may be
divided into utensils for domestic use, implements for handicraft, weapons and ornaments. With
respect to t materials from which they were fabricated, they are stone, flint, slate, copper, pottery,
bone, horn and shell.
The most common relics are the flint arrow-heads, spear-heads and daggers. Thousands of arrow
and spear heads have been picked up in the coun Other flint implements, such as knives and
cutting tools, scrapers and bore have been found. Of stone relics, the most common are axes and
hammed grooved so that a forked branch or split stick could be fastened for a hand balls more or
less round, probably used as hand-hammers; pestles for crushing grain, and many ornaments—
among them, flat, perforated tubes of higl polished slate, and various forms of flat stones,
polished and perforated. St( Pipes are found of various sizes and construction. Specimens of
ancient p tory have not been often found in the county.
Charles Rau, the author of several valuable papers on American antiquities, has shown that there
was an extensive trade or traffic among the pre-his-
404 - HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY
-toric races of America. This is rendered evident from the fact that their manufactured articles
consist of materials which must have been obtained from sources in far-distant localities. The
materials of which many relics found in the Miami country are composed can only be found at a
distance of hundreds of miles. The term "flint," used to describe the material of which various
chipped implements are manufactured, is used to include various kinds of hard and silicious
stones, such as hornstone, jasper, chalcedony, and different kinds of quartz. There have been
found in the United States places where the manufacture of flint implements was carried on.
There was a great demand for arrow-heads among the primitive tribes, and in places where the
proper kind of material could be found, there were work-shops for their manufacture. An
important locality to which the aborigines resorted in Ohio for quarrying flint is now called Flint
Ridge, and extends through Muskingum and Licking Counties. Dr. Hildreth says of this ancient
flint quarry:
"The compact, silicious material of which this ridge is made up seems to have attracted the notice
of the aborigines, who have manufactured it largely into arrow and spear heads, if we may be
allowed to judge from the numerous circular excavations which have been made in mining the
rock, and the piles of chipped quartz lying on the surface. How extensively it has been worked
for these purposes may be imagined from the countless number of the pits, experience having
taught them that the rock recently dug from the earth could be split with more freedom than that
which had lain exposed to the weather. These excavations are found the whole length of the
outcrop, but more abundantly at 'Flint Ridge,' where it is most compact and diversified with rich
colors."
The greenish, striped slate, of which variously shaped tablets are made, is believed to occur in no
parts of the Union except the Atlantic Coast district, and to have been transported, either in a
rough or worked condition, from that region to the different parts of the Mississippi Valley in
which the relics are found. The copper used by the aboriginal tribes was probably obtained
chiefly from the northern part of Michigan.
As comparatively few copper relics are found in the mounds, an account of the excavation of a
mound in which were found a number of copper articles is here given. The mound was situated
on the farm of J. S. Couden, on the south side of the Little Miami, between Morrow and South
Lebanon, and near the terminus of a series of ancient works extending for nearly a mile in length.
It was a small mound, only about four feet high, and not different in appearance from several
others near by. It was opened in the spring of 18'78. The explorers made an excavation three and
one-half feet by five feet, and eight feet deep. In digging, stones were found promiscuously
arranged and bearing the marks of fire. At a depth of eight feet were found a skeleton, a large
sea-shell, and a number of copper implements and ornaments. The skeleton was lying on its
back, with its head toward the northeast. The shell was large enough to hold a gallon of water.
On the skeleton were found ten copper axes, the largest being found on the head, the smallest at
the feet. The axes varied in size from seven to four and one-half inches in length, and from four
to three inches in width. They were only about one-half an inch in thickness. As is usually the
case with Mound-Builders' axes, none of them were perforated for the attachment of a handle.
One of them was flat on one side and rounded on the other, and was probably intended for use as
an adze, with a handle fastened at right angles to the side. In the mound were found a thin copper
crescent, perforated with four holes, and several other copper pieces, which were supposed to
have been ornaments.
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