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HISTORICAL CHAPTER I. PREAMBLE - BOUNDARIES - TOPOGRAPHY - DITCHES - NATURAL HISTORY - GEOLOGY THE territory now known as Wood county, from the beginning of French exploration to 1713, formed a part of the original province of Quebec; from 1713 to 1764, it was a part of Louisiana; from 1764 to 1769, under the British Parliament Statute, it belonged to Quebec province; from 1769 to 1778, under authority of Virginia Legislature, it was attached to Botetourt county, Va., and from 1778 to 1787 it formed a part of Illinois county, Va. [Virginia's ownership during this time was more nominal than real, as the history of that time clearly indicates.] When the Territory northwest of the Ohio was established in 1787, Wood county was its wildest and most inhospitable part. The Ottawas, Wyandots and other tribes claimed it as their hunting grounds. Wood County is bounded on the north by Lucas county, on the east by Ottawa, Sandusky and Seneca counties, on the south by Hancock county, and on the west by Henry County. The area, as stated by local authorities, is 382,845* acres, distributed through, Congressional Townships3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 N., in Ranges 9, 10,12 and 12 east of the principal meridian. The county seat, which is near the geographical center, is in Latitude 41 degrees, 24 minutes, 30 seconds N., and Longitude 6 degrees, 44 minutes west of the Washington meridian. The population, according to the Census of 1890, was 44,395, or one inhabitant to each tract of 8,623 acres, or 74.23 inhabitants to each square mile. (2) The altitude at Bowling Green is 167 feet above the level of Lake Erie, or 739.9 feet above sea * The area is variously estimated. In one report it is given as 398,720 acres; in the " Hundred Year Book," 389.266 acres; in another report, 386,640 acres; in " Ohio Statistics," 385,970 acres; and by Surveyors Wood, Davis and Spafford, at about 382.845 acres. (1)(2) The total vote November 3, 1896, was 14,070, which on a basis of one vote to every five inhabitants (the usual estimate) would make the population today 70 350, which, no doubt, is an over-estimate as there are so many single men in the oil fields of the county. The population in 1896 might fairly be estimated at from 60,000 to 65,000.-EDITOR. Level; at the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, 634.9 feet above sea level; at Bloonldale 193 feet above lake level; at North Baltimore,77feet; at Weston, 164 feet; at Bairdstown, 184 feet; and at the north line of Section 17, Middleton township, 91 feet above lake level. Rivers and Streams.--The Maumee river flows along the northwestern borders of Grand Rapids, Washington, Middleton, Perrysburg and Ross townships, abolishing section lines, and making a natural boundary between the counties of Lucas and Wood, excepting 71 miles of the north line of Ross township. In early years, as early as 1671, it was called by the French, Miami du Lac. It is a river, which, could it speak, might tell of a thousand battles between the tribes, and of other sanguinary engagements between the Americans and their Indo-British enemies. The original name was suggested to the French by that of the tribe found near its head in the Fort Wayne neighborhood, just as they called the two rivers, flowing into the Ohio, "Big Miami " and "Little Miami of the Ohio." In after years, when the militia, under Wayne and Harrison, visited the valley, they caught the sound "Omee " or "Maumee" from Indians and English traders, and this rendering of the name has been attached to it down to the present day, notwithstanding the strong effort made, in 1855, to change it to "Grand Rapids River." The Portage river, Toussaint creek, Beaver creek and Tontogany creek, and their feeders, were the natural drains of the county, but since 1853 many artificial channels, known as "ditches," have been made, and the creeks named cleaned and deepened to form parts of the drainage system. Ditches. There are many old settlers of forty years ago who remember the ante-ditch period, and who may compare the county of that time with the present county, and tell of what good has been accomplished by the millions of dollars, drawn from the land owners, by special taxation, and expended in draining their territory. The 2 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO first practical work done, under the first ditch law, was in 1854. In December, 1853, the following named citizens were paid for their services in surveying and appraising swamp lands and laying out ditches on the same: S. Jefferson, surveyor, $96.25; Thomas Garrett, $72.25; John Russell, $74.75; L. L. Loomis, $36; Joseph Wagoner, $25; Lewis Goss, $24; Peter St. Clair, $22; and other small sums. The Act of the Legislature, approved September 28, 1850, providing for the drainage and reclamation of waste lands, was observed by the commissioners in 1853, and in December of that year they fixed the prices of such land at from $1.50 an acre to $3, and in one instance-the N. E. of Sec. 29, T. 4, R. 9-at $4 an acre. On the same date they authorized the construction of twenty-six ditches-eight in Center township, three in Webster, seven in Portage, four in Milton, three in Montgomery and one in Middleton-together with clearing out Johnson's creek, Swail run, West Branch of Rocky Ford, and Bull creek. S. Jefferson and S. H. Bell were the surveyors on this work. Advertisement was made in The Perrysburg journal and The Northwestern Democrat, and on January 25, 1854, Asa W. Douglass was awarded the contract on Ditches 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13 for $3.938, exclusive of $11.85 for finishing Ditch 24. William S. Hopper, Samuel Huffman, Daniel Shoffstall, John Mercer, John W. Woodbury, R. M. Shaver, Dean & Emmons, Jonathan S. Wheaton, Sylvanus Moorehouse, S. Swigert, William Johnston and Solomon Shoffstall, were the contractors on the other ditches, doing the work at from 20 cents to $2 a rod. The Act, entitled "An Act to more effectually provide for locating, establishing and constructing ditches, , drains and water-courses in townships, and to repeal certain Acts therein named," was passed April 18, 1874. This Act repealed that of May 6, 1868, and a former repealing Act of April 18, 1870, as well as the Act of March 13, 1872, without prejudice to rights acquired or liabilities incurred under the old acts mentioned. Prior to the Act of March 13, 1872, there were no less than 3,000 miles of main or county drains, and 2,000 miles of side or township drains. Of this mileage 371 1/2 miles were in Wood county. N. H. Callard, of Perrysburg, in a paper on this subject, says: "It will be remembered by the older classes of citizens that the conditions in nearly three-fourths of the area of Wood county was literally, during a considerable part of the year, either wholly or partially covered by water. To all intents and purposes it was a 'black swamp.' The change in its physical conditions have been almost phenomenal in the results. There are now 664 public highways intersecting the 389,600 acres which comprises the county of Wood. In collateral line with these roads are ditches which in most instances are of large capacity and carry off large bodies of water to their outlet in the river. The Jackson cut-off is but nine miles long, but in its depth, width and capacity it constitutes a veritable canal, and in a wet season would float a canal boat. Its construction cost $110,000 and effectually drains some 30,000 acres of what were very wet lands, but now are some of the most productive. The Toussaint ditch is 22 miles in length, the Rocky Ford 17 miles. Each branch of the Portage river has been cleared from obstructions, and made very effective for purposes of drainage. These items, important as they are, represent in part only the thorough and effective work which has been accomplished by Wood county in the line of drainage." The sum of $1, 500,000 was expended on roads and ditches from the fall of 1894 until the fall of 1881, or during Mr. S. Case's term as auditor. Messrs. Donaldson, Ames and Wood were the county surveyors; while W. R. Gillis was surveyor for the cut-off. This large sum is but a fraction of the total expended in making this county productive and habitable. The record of the work fills very many journals and account books, so that here, in addition to the beginnings of the ditch system, it may only be written that there are 896 ditches in this county. Zoology. For years after the organization of Wood county, it continued to be a great preserve for large game. The bear, wolf, red-deer, fox panther, wild-cat and lynx were regular inhabitants of the wilderness, and, as told in the pioneer chapter, were killed here even after the war. The wild turkey, prairie chicken, snipe, woodcock, quail, partridge, wild duck, wild goose, and all the birds belonging to this latitude were inhabitants of this forest. The rivers and streams were full of fish and., altogether, the district was the paradise of the hunter, even after the forest gave echo to the road and railroad builders, ditch excavators, lumbermen and farmers. What it was in the days of Indian occupation, before Nature's destroyer came to improve Nature, is only told in legends. Pontiac and Tecumseh looked upon it as the greatest of hunting grounds and the Iroquois, before them, battled for its possession. It is now given up to agriculture and oil and gas development, with the sites of old Indian camps to prosperous towns and pleas- WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 3 ant villages; white hunters, amateurs in their way, come to find a little sport, but not one of the aborigines, who revelled in Nature's lavishness here, comes back to behold the change. Forest Trees.-Of the 382,845 acres, forming the area of Wood county, 337,760 acres were covered with timber in 1853. In 1870, the forest covered 267,946 acres. The native trees, of the first order, included white elm, sycamore, cottonwood, black ash, white ash, hickory, burr oak and red oak; of the second order, white oak, beech, sugar maple, poplar, linn, soft maple, walnut and butternut; and, of the third order, yellow oak, pin oak, sassafras, red-elm, gum, mulberry, iron-wood and buckeye. All the shrubs and flowering plants, common to northern Ohio, grew here in profusion until the modern improver removed them as he did the forest. Large and small fruits find a favorite soil and climate here, while shade and ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers may grow to perfection within her boundaries. Sanitation.-The sanitary condition of the county was known to be so bad, that few had the courage to locate here. In 1850, the Census enumerators found only 9,157 persons within its boundaries, and but few of that small number escaped the fever and ague and other diseases common among inhabitants of low or swampy ground. The pestilence * of 1854 drove the people to a realization of the dangers which surrounded them, and the drainage of the territory was undertaken immediately-a great work which has been continued down to this day. In 1837, there appeared in the Maumee City Express nine doggerel verses which, while intended to be funny, helped to retard settlement. After describing the potatoes, fish, animals of the chase, birds, corn, whisky, girls, boys and the ague, the poet closes with the following lines There's a funeral every day, without a hearse or pall; They tuck them in the ground, with breeches coat and all. Other poets, too, had written so much on the unhealthy character of the Maumee Valley, that it was resolved, at a meeting held November 7, 1855, to call the river " Grand Rapids River, " and to give the bay and the valley the same name. It is worthy of note that Wood county took the initiative, in carrying out the resolution, by changing the name of the old town of Gilead to Grand Rapids. Though the residents of Maumee changed the name of their town to South Toledo, the new name was merged into the old, so that Grand Rapids town is the only survivor of the effort to induce a new nomenclature. The improvements known as ditches abolished the necessity of seeking a change of name; for not only have they contributed to render the soil of Wood county as fertile as that of any other division of the State, but also to render it as healthful as any county between the Alleghany range and the Rocky mountains. GEOLOGY. The clays, gravels and sands of Wood county are too well known to require any description here. They belong to what is commonly called the Drift, and form the basis on which the agriculturist builds up his fortune and, in turn, builds up the country. Geologists maintain that the territory now embraced in this county, with large areas adjacent, was submerged until the beach was formed on the line which extends from the Sandusky river, at Tiffin, westward to Defiance. Like their knowledge of the oil reservoirs, much of all they say is speculation; for all known about this planet on which we live is to all that is not known about it, as one grain of oil sand is to all the grains of oil sand in the Ohio field. On the rocks forming the crust or crown of the earth, in this section of Ohio, the quarryman and drill let in some light, and released from depths far below sea level specimens of sand and clay and rock to instruct us all. Of such Prof. Edward Orton has often written, and from his paper on the geology of this county the following descriptions of the strata are taken: "The Bedded Rocks. *-Leaving the unconsolidated materials that cover the surface of the county at present, let us inquire as to the rocks that make its ancient and real foundation. The strata that are exposed within its limits belong to two separate divisions of the geological scale. It is impossible to lay down on the map the exact boundaries of these divisions, because of the cover of drift already described. In but few instances can the bedded rocks be traced continuously from farm to farm, or from section to section; but advantage must be taken of every exposure, and the topography of the country can sometimes be used as a guide to the continuity of the underlying rock. The rock exposures are found in knolls and ridges and in banks and beds of the water courses, large and small, across the county. The two divisions already referred to as constituting the surface rocks of the county are named herewith, beginning with the lowest or oldest. "The Niagara Limestone constitutes an im *Cholera. * By Professor Orton, written for this work. 4 - WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. portant element in the rocky floor of Wood county. It occupies considerable areas in the central and southeastern portions of the county. Outcrops are found in Center, Liberty, Plain, Middleton, Webster, Troy, Freedom, Montgomery, Perry, Bloom, Henry and Portage townships. "The Lower Helderberg Limestone is next above the Niagara limestone. It is found in all the townships named above, and in the remaining townships of the county as well. Both the Niagara and the Lower Helderberg belong to the Upper Silurian division of the general geological scale. Each of these formations will be briefly characterized, beginning with the lowest or oldest. "The Niagara limestone is one of the best known formations of the continent. It gets its name from the famous cataract, where a magnificent section of it is disclosed. Its lithological character in Wood county is not in all respects the same as at the Falls. At the latter place the rock is a fairly pure carbonate of lime, while in Wood county, as everywhere else in Ohio, it is a magnesian or dolomitic limestone, nearly half of its substance being carbonate of magnesia. But the continuity of the stratum from the Falls to northern Ohio is established beyond question. It is altogether probable that the change from a calcareous to a magnesian composition is gradual, but as the formation is deeply covered by strata of later age across the intervening region, this point cannot be established by observation. In Wood county it is in the main a light-colored and porous rock, not more than twenty feet of which are seen in any single natural section. The Bowling Green quarries can be taken as fairly representative of the entire formation in the county. The upper beds are buff or cream-colored, the lowest are gray or light blue. But the difference in color depends largely on the degree of weathering to which the rocks have been exposed. In composition, the rock, like all the stratum in northern Ohio, is a remarkably pure dolomite, as is shown in the following analysis made for the State Geological Survey: Carbonate of lime, 53 98; carbonate of magnesia, 43.25; alumina and oxide of iron, .40; and silica, 1.53. The analysis was made from the Bowling Green stone The character of the lime produced by burning this stone is well known and highly approved. It is technically known as mild. or cool lime. There is no purer dolomite in the world than that which some portions of the Niagara limestone of northern Ohio yield. Opinions differ widely and radically as to the relative values of the limes made from these dolomites and from the true limestones of the Upper Helderberg group, as shown in.some portions of the Marblehead and Kelley's Island district. The Niagara limestone of Wood county occurs sometimes in rather massive beds, but generally it is quarried in thin and uneven layers. It is not well adapted to use as a building stone nor as road metal, but in the absence of better materials it is turned to some small account in both these ways. The stratum has been proved to have a considerable thickness in the county, though, as already stated, its outcrops do not exceed twenty to thirty feet. The record of deep wells show that the total thickness of the formation is not less than 250 to 300 feet. It reaches these figures in its outcrops in northern Ohio. Like all the other members of the geological scale of the State, this stratum had its origin in an ancient extension of the Gulf of Mexico to the line of the Great Lakes. Its most characteristic development is in western New York. But it can be traced from this center far to the northward, westward and southward. A. peculiar phase of it is found in Ontario (Canada), in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, where, as. already described, it occurs as a magnesian limestone. This composition of the stone seems to indicate that it was formed in an enclosed or isolated portion of the sea basin. Where the waters of the ocean had full sweep, true limestones were formed such as are found in New York, in southern Indiana and to the southward. This formation, as it occurs in Wood county, is rich in fossils, which occur, however, in almost every case, as internal casts. Several forms that are new to science have been obtained from the Risingsun quarries. Directly below the Niagara limestone, a bed of fine-grained shale or clay is always found. It is known in Wood county only through the records. of the oil wells. In them it attracts universal attention from the fact that it is almost generally found safe to set the casings of the oil wells in this bed. It is known by the drillers as the "break " in the limestone. It ranges in thickness. from five to thirty feet. This stratum is known in the scale as the Niagara shale. It is widely extended and vies in importance with the overlying beds. It reaches a thickness of 100 feet in Highland and Adams counties. It is only the uppermost division of this great Niagara formation that appears at the surface in Wood county. The Lower Helderberg limestone is the next and only formation above the Niagara limestone which is found in the surface rocks of the county. Of this surface it constitutes a far larger part WOOD COUNTY, OHIO. - 5 than the other element. Like the Niagara formation, it is also a predominantly dolomitic or magnesian limestone, having apparently originated under much the same general conditions as those assigned to the latter. It differs from the Niagara in its bedding and its other physical characteristics. It is destitute of, or at least poorly supplied with fossils. It has been found by the drillers to be several hundred feet thick (500 to 700); but entire sections of it are not found in the county. Its beds are generally thin, seldom exceeding six or eight inches, but as they are tolerably even and regular they furnish somewhat better building stone than the Niagara. There are, however, several phases of the formation in the county. In the upper part there is a remarkable band of conglomerate, the pebbles of which sometimes rise almost to the size of bowlders. The pebbles are themselves fragments of the same formation, but were broken loose from their native beds, and water-worn before being re-cemented here. This phase appears only in the more northerly exposures of the limestone, and it will no doubt prove to be one of our best guides in tracing the stratigraphy of the formation. On the geological map of the county, in Volume II, "Geology of Ohio," a band of the Salina formation is shown in Wood county, intervening between the Niagara and Lower Helderberg areas. This representation was based on a theory and not on observed facts. The Gypsum beds of Ottawa county are now known to be about the middle of the Lower Helderberg series, and not at its base, as was then believed. No considerable deposits of gypsum have been reported in the well records of recent years; but it would occasion no surprise to come upon such beds at any time, in future explorations. Another feature shown on the -map above named must be corrected. A formation locally known as the Grand Rapids sandstone, and found on the western side of the county, is referred to the Oriskany horizon. For this reference there is no good reason in the light of present knowledge. The Grand Rapids sandstone, so-called, is a magnesian limestone of average quality. It contains less than two percent of total impurities, only 1.25 per cent. being referable to sand. Under proper conditions this " sandstone " can be burned into fair lime, the popular impression to the contrary notwithstanding. It occurs in a massive bed fourteen feet thick, which can be easily split into courses of convenient size. It is light colored, and, while holding quarry water, it can be cut easily. It is strong and durable, and in fact can be counted a first-class building stone. It is exposed, however, only in the bed of the Maumee river at low water, in the vicinity of Grand Rapids, and it cannot therefore enter the market under favorable conditions. To be worked with proper advantage, it would be necessary to open quarries on the east bank of the river. The stripping would be excessive, and it would doubtless be found necessary to keep pumps running constantly to keep the quarries free from water. The time has not yet come forgoing to such expense in quarrying building stone in Ohio. Small balls of chert are occasionally found in the so-called sandstone. They carry obscure fossils, but none of the latter have been observed that establish or suggest the Devonian age of the beds. The direct economic products of the surface rocks are, as has been shown, magnesian limestone of the highest excellence, and building stone of not more than medium quality at best, the quarries of Grand Rapids alone being excepted. The many local quarries reduce, however, the cost of stone for cellars and ordinary foundations, to a considerable extent, and in this respect they render good service. In some districts, the granite bowlders of the drift are abundant enough to allow of their being utilized in foundations and walls. With skillful work on the part of the stone-mason they leave nothing to be desired in such uses, so far as appearance and durability are concerned. Ten years ago a chapter on the geology of Wood county would have stopped at this point. There would have been nothing to add with reference to the economic geology of the county, but every reader now knows that what has already been told is absolutely insignificant in comparison with what remains to be told, viz.: the production of oil and gas from certain of the foundation rocks of the county. The only factors of mineral wealth that would now come to mind in connection with the economic geology of the county would be the last named substances. [Prof. Orton's theory of the origin of petroleum is given in the chapter on the Gas and Oil fields of Wood county.] |