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PAGE - 18 - JOSEPH B. DOYLE AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 19 HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUTNTY CHAPTER 1. TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY Physical Features of the County - Formation of the Coals and Fire Clays - The Glacial Period and Its Work - Elevation and Climate. For the physical beginning of what is now Jefferson County we must go to a past so far distant that it cannot be counted in years, but must be estimated by ages. Could we see it there would be a far different picture presented from what is shown at present, or even when man made his first appearance in this valley. There was no valley then, because there were no hills There was no Ohio River, for the stream had not been born, much less christened. As far as the eye could reach, and it could not reach very far unless there had been the vantage of some artificial elevation, there was apparently a dead level. It was hard to distinguish the land from the waters. A tropical climate and steamy swamps encouraged a luxuriant vegetation, and immense ferns waved their fronds of dark green, while in the depths of the watery forests queer creatures, half fish and half reptile, disported, the vegetable kingdom preparing vast stores of coal for future ages, while the finny tribes, according to some authorities, were preparing to become the future producers of petroleum. (l) Where are now the rugged hills 19 and deep-cut ravines of Jefferson County was then an estuary of the Gulf of Mexico, a body of brackish water variously estimated to have an area of 6,000 to 13,000 square miles, dotted with an archipelago, on whose islands grew the great tree ferns of the Carboniferous Age, and on whose sandy shores the wavelets left their ripple marks, which are perpetuated to the present day. Then the islands slowly sank beneath the waters, the forests became coal beds, and deposits of clay, sandstone and limestone, in alternate layers, preserved the black fuel of the future. All this went on quietly year after year and millennium after millennium, disturbed, according to the -fish theory of petroleum, by an occasional cataclysm sufficient to destroy animal life, but not sufficient to make any general dislocation of the strata or serious interference with the process just described. It should be noticed, moreover, as will be seen later, that petroleum and petroleum gas are found below the, coal measures, indicating an earlier formation when fish life' was most abundant. 20 - HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY But the subsidence finally came to an end and the land began slowly rising. Then were formed the Allegheny Mountains, of which the western foot hills begin in this county. Then began the Ohio River to flow along the tops of the present hills, whose summits had not been worn down by the elements. Fully 400 feet above the present level it began that process of erosion which_ has worn its channel down to even below its present depths, fed by a mighty glacier that covered all the northern part of the state. As the river bed descended, the mouths of the streams flowing into it naturally kept going along with it, and hence we have the deep cross gorges starting at or near the western boundary of the county, and pursuing more or less directly an eastern course, continually increasing in depth until the stream which was doing the work mingled its waters with those of the Ohio. While this naturally made the county more rugged, yet by cutting through -the strata of fire clay, sandstone, limestone, coal, etc., it made these valuable veins easily accessible, a fact which has contributed not a little to the industrial development of the county, while in the creek and river bottoms the detritus of ages has produced some of the best farming lands in the state. The strata in this county have a general dip to the southeast, so that if it were not for the fact of the drainage being towards the east being somewhat greater than the dip of the strata we would expect the lowest stratum to come to the surface at the northwest corner of the county, but as Yellow Creek in the north end falls towards the east at a more rapid rate than the strata dip in this direction we must go to the mouth of that creek, seventeen miles north of Steubenville, to find the lowest exposed strata of the county. Were a shaft to be ,sunk there we might obtain from the remains of animal and plant life a geological history back at least to the beginning of the stratified rocks. At this point above the bed of the stream a short distance below the C. & P. Railroad we find a seam of coal three and one-half feet thick, known in the reports of the Ohio Geological Survey as the Creek vein, or No. 3. Nos. 1 and 2, mined in other parts of Ohio, are below drainage and are not exposed in this county. Coal No. 4, known as the Strip vein, occurs about twenty feet above the Creek vein at the level of the C. & P. Railroad, and is generally about two and one-half feet thick. The Roger vein, No. 5, is found about seventy-two feet above the strip vein, but in the railroad cutting north of the creek disappears to a mere trace, reappearing in paying quantity a few miles further north. Fifty feet higher we come to what is here known as the Big vein, one of the most persistent and important coal seams in the world, labeled in the survey as No. 6. Two hundred yards above the mouth of the creek the Diamond mine, now abandoned, was in this seam. The bone coal, six inches thick, under the main seam, proved a veritable mine of fossilliferous life, and largely through the labors and study of the late Sam Huston, county surveyor and afterwards state commissioner of highways, more than fifty new species of fossil fishes and batrachians have been discovered and described. There were parts of the mine where well preserved specimens were se: cured by the hundred, teeth by the thou-- sand, and the surface of almost every slab was covered with scales, showing the abundant life that thronged these lagoons and' swamps. Prof. Newberry, of the Ohio Geological Survey, in Vol. I, Paleontology, published in 1873, refers to the above described locality, with the fact that up to that time about twenty species of fishes had been obtained from that deposit with at least as many amphibians, all found here- for the first time, although two or three species have since been met with in this or adjoining states. Most of the fishes found here were four to eighteen inches long, some of them beautifully marked, and Prof. Newberry says : "We learn from a careful study of the deposit, that there was in this locality., at AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 21 the time when the coal was forming, an open lagoon, densely populated with fishes and salamanders, and that after a time this lagoon was choked up with growing vegetation; and peat (which afterwards changed to cubical coal) succeeded to the carboniferous mud (now cannel) that had previously accumulated at the bottom of the water. The fishes of this pool were mostly small, tile-scaled ganoids, belonging. to the genus Eurylepis. Though here extremely abundant, they have not been found elsewhere. There were also in this lagoon two, or perhaps three, species of Goelacanthus (one of which is so closely allied to C. Lepturus of the coal measures of Europe, that they should perhaps not be separated) and yet this genus has been nowhere else recognized on the American continent. There are also found here the thin scales from one to two inches in diameter, some ornamented and some plain, and also the lance-head teeth of the Rhizodus, and the teeth and spines of Diplodus. On the whole, this must be looked upon as one of the interesting localities of vertebrate fossils known on this continent, and it is even doubtful whether any other equals it in the number of new species or in their zoological and geological interest." Many of these specimens have found their way into prominent museums of the country, while quite a number remain in the late Mr. Huston's private museum, together with a collection of sigillaria, stigmaria, ferns and other flora of the coal period. From the fifty or more varieties of fossil fishes discovered in the cannel coal at Linton, many of which are found nowhere else, we have selected five typical specimens for illustration. No. 1, the Ccelacanthus Elegans, was six to eighteen inches in length, and a near relative of the C. Lepturus of the English coal measures. Nos. 2 and 3, Eurylepis Tuberculatis, were three inches long; and No. 4, the E. Corrugatus, slightly larger. No. 5, the Palaeoniscus Peltigerus, was five inches long. This coal seam extends westward to Perry County coal field and eastward through the state of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Railroad tunnel at the east of the Allegheny Mountains passes through this seam, the west end of the tunnel being above the coal, and the east end below it. At the Diamond mine the greatest thickness of the coal is about eight feet, sometimes less, overlaid by a solid ledge of sandstone, forming a model roof so that rooms were driven thirty feet wide for long distances without props. Formerly what is known as the Steubenville shaft coal was considered synchronous with No. 6, or the "big vein," at Yellow Creek, but a more thorough investigation has led geologists to place it with the Roger vein or No. 5, which would make it of more recent formation. However this may be, and the proposition is not undisputed, there is no doubt according to all the authorities that the limestone coal of the Wills Creek section (Lower Freeport) is plainly the shaft coal of Steubenville. It is exposed in the bed of the Ohio just above Wills Creek; was reached at a depth of seventy-five feet in the Cable shaft above Alikanna, eighty in the Bustard shaft at the north end of Steubenville, 221 feet in the Market Street or High shaft, 188 feet at the Jefferson (now La Belle), 210 feet in the 0. & P. or Averick, 240 in the Borland and 234 at Mingo, two miles below. All these workings have been abandoned except the High shaft and La Belle. The coal beds above enumerated, with their associated limestones, fire clays, sandstones and shales, form what are called the lower coal measures, because, so far as disclosed, there are no persistent seams below them that can be depended on over any great extent of territory. The combination has been the foundation of the industrial resources of this portion of the Ohio Valley, and the basis of all the manufacture of coke, steel, fire brick, pottery and other products of this region. From the heavy sandstone roof covering coal No. 6 coming upward 500 to 600 feet, we reach vein No. 8, popularly known as 22 - HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY the Pittsburgh coal. This interval includes the Lower Barren coal measures, because the seams therein are thin and not of workable thickness for any distance. While the coal may be anywhere from three to eight feet thick at a certain place, it is liable to thin out to a trace or disappear entirely within a few yards. These measures are, however, very rich in fossils, especially what is known as the crinoidal limestone, which in some cases is a compact mass of shells and other remains. What are known as pentacrinoids are found here in abundance. They were a low form of animal life, immured like the coal to the rock on which they grew, having a flower shaped mouth ready to take in their prey as it came along. This limestone is about half way up the series, and may be found in greater or less abundance in nearly all our valleys. This ledge seems to mark the limit of marine life, as the fossils found above it are land plants, insects and land and, fresh water shells, marking the last direct invasion of the ocean into this section. The Pittsburgh or No. 8 coal above this during the last seventy-five or 100 years has probably supplied three-fourths of the domestic. consumption of the county. Cropping out on the hilltops, it was so accessible that almost every farmer could have his own coal bank, while its comparative cleanliness and excellent burning qualities with freedom from .ash or sulphur made it a general favorite. Shafts were seldom needed to reach it, and the favorite method of mining was by means of entries or "banks" driven into the hillside with sufficient slope to secure natural drainage. This coal is the lowest stratum of what is called the Upper Productive coal measures, which include 200 or 300 feet of the rocks in this county. The seam is one of the most persistent and uniform coal seams known, and is always found of workable thickness and fine quality, where the earth covering is sufficient. It crops out along the hillsides in this and adjoining counties and is a leading product in West Virginia and western Pennsylvania,. The millions of bushels conveyed down the Ohio River with every rise are a striking exhibit of its commercial importance. In this county it shows itself in the highest hills of Ross, Knox, Steubenville and Salem Townships; and has a fair exposure in Island Creek, Wayne, Cross Creek, Wells and Warren. It underlies nearly all of Smithfield and all of Mt. Pleasant except a small area cut out by Short Creek and Long Run. At its exposures on these streams in Mt. Pleasant township it lies nearly 400 feet. above the Ohio River, or nearly 1,000 feet above the sea level. Science Hill, in the western part of Mt. Pleasant Township, rises over 1,300 feet above the ocean level, and consequently. 300 feet above the Pittsburgh seam. The overlying strata contain several unimportant coal seams and a large amount of limestone interstratified with sandstones and shales. No fossils have been found here, but although this is not the highest point in the 'county it contains the highest geological strata.. Above and below the Pittsburgh coal are. limestone strata whose disintegrations have contributed largely to the fertility of Jefferson County hilltop farms, by which they were able to rival the over lauded tracts within the limits of the drift period. The soil of all this section was at an early, date discovered to be better adapted to the raising of fine wooled merino sheep than any other section in the United States, and for many years this was a leading industry in the farming sections of eastern Ohio, West Virginia Panhandle and western Pennsylvania. It was a great boon to the county, otherwise its agricultural productiveness would have been largely confined to the bottom lands in: the narrow valleys While the work 'of erosion previously. mentioned had been gradually wearing off the jagged, summits of the hills and eating out the valleys, another geological era, known as the drift or glacial period, was approaching. The drift did not reach into Jefferson County, but indirectly at least it affected it very materially. Its influence PAGE 23 - VARIOUS PICTURES PAGE - 24 - BLANK AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 25 indirectly contributed to the formation of the latter part of the Ohio River canon by furnishing water for erosion, but later its more direct influence was felt in the deposition of gravel to a considerable depth and especially in the sand and gravel terraces of the Ohio Valley, which are very decided at Toronto, Steubenville and below Brilliant and Portland Station. During the construction of the Panhandle railroad bridge at Steubenville the original rock bed of the river was found to be 150 feet below the surface of the present gravel bed, and it was necessary to build the piers on cribs resting on the gravel, a circumstance which necessitated a reconstruction of several piers a couple of years since. How were these terraces formed, and how did the original bed of the river come to be filled up? Not by the ordinary action of the river, which was erosion rather than Riling, and which is now engaged in wearing a new channel through the accumulated gravel. Geologists are pretty well agreed that at the close of what is known as the Tertiary period there was a tremendous accumulation of ice and snow, similar to that now existing in northern Greenland, which covered a great portion of the northern hemisphere. Either propelled by its own weight as are the Alpine glaciers today, or by an elevation of the land, this vast accumulation moved slowly southward, grinding and scratching the rocks in its path and carrying huge boulders from their home in the far North, dropping Ahem on what are now the fertile plains of northern Ohio, where they are of interest to the traveler and a nuisance to the farmer. As we have said, this great ice sheet did not reach Jefferson county; but it came very near it. The southerly line of the glacier in the United States strikes Cape Cod in Massachusetts, following Long Island into New Jersey, thence across the northern end of that state and Pennsylvania if recedes back nearly to Lake Chautauqua, thence sweeping southwestwardly it enters Ohio at Achor, in Columbiana County, twelve miles north of the Ohio River, just touches the northern border of Carroll, takes in about one-half of Stark, passing just south of Canton, thence by a semicircular sweep including Millersburg, in Holmes County, curving around into Knox, thence south with a slight trend towards the west it reaches the Ohio River at Ripley, thence proceeding almost due west it crosses the river a short distance into Kentucky, twenty-five miles above Cincinnati. We need not follow it further westward. Had it not been for the crossing of the river Jefferson County's connection with the drift or glacial period would have been confined to its service as a feeder to the tributary streams which flowed into the Ohio and specimens of small boulders carried by water from the terminal moraines and scattered along the river beaches. But when the big glacier slowly crept into the river bed and climbed up the Kentucky hills, depositing its boulders more than 500 feet above the water level, one result was inevitable, a result that can be seen on a smaller scale every time the spring freshets break up the ice which has formed from shore to shore. An immense ice dam was formed at least 500 or 600 feet high. A little water might work its way through and under the ice, but the bulk would be retained, forming a long, narrow lake extending back into valleys of the Allegheny and Monongahela, and submerging the present site of Pittsburgh to a depth of over 300 *et. This theory of a great ice dam at Cincinnati has been vigorously attacked, but so far no other adequate explanation of these river terraces has been afforded. Of course, the first terraces with their sand and gravel holding small granite and other boulders with other foreign objects would be found near the present hilltops, but the rains of thousands of years have carried most of them into the lower valleys. Naturally all streams tributary to these upper rivers would be affected in similar manner to the main stream, and we find adjacent to them, as might be expected, terraces of smaller 26 - HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY size. As the waters receded, perhaps with long halts at intervals, successive terraces were formed down to the present flood levels. Probably the best example of these terraces to be found in this vicinity are at Holliday's Cove, W. Va., just opposite the upper end of Steubenville. That the high wooded hill which separates that valley from the present river was once an island is demonstrated by the most cursory examination, the terraces not only containing the usual sand and gravel, but fresh water shells and other evidence of fluvial life. With the disappearance of the Drift and change of climate the present era may be said to have begun, and to-day we owe our productive soil, well watered valleys, 'and rich farms to the erosive action of these streams long ago, and our alluvial bottom lands to the work of the Drift period. Like the remainder of the state, the climate of Jefferson County varies considerably, although as a rule without the intense extremes of heat and cold which mark some of the sections further west. Possibly the coldest weather ever registered here was in February, 1899, when the thermometer registered from 20 to 25 degrees below zero. Ten to twelve degrees below is,- however, considered extremely low, the thermometer seldom falling far below, the zero mark. Ninety-eight in the shade is considered extreme hot summer weather, so the range may be considered about 100 degrees. Hot summer nights are few in number, and the hilltops especially are generally subject to light breezes.. The summer heat enables corn to grow rapidly and make a paying crop, which a cool season would prevent, and thus offset any advantages of a mild winter. As to the average temperature a series of observations extending over six years gives the following: January 31 60 July 75.60 February 32.60 August 73.80 March 39.30 September 67.60 April 55 October ....... ..... 53.40 May 64.10 November .41.40 June 73.60 December 32.60 Annual mean for six years 54 Observations of inches of rainfall for thirty-seven years give the following, which insures safe and, as a rule, abundant crops. January 2 94 July 3 89 February 2 75 August 3 97 March 3 38 September 3 48 April 3 53 October 3 18 May 3 85 November - 3 16 June 4 01 December 3 34 Annual mean for 37 years 41.48 The early settlers of the county found not only the valleys but tops of the hills covered with an almost unbroken forest, including white and black oak, sugar and other maples, beech, poplar, black and white walnut or butternut, hickory, chestnut, locust, gum, honeysuckle, sassafras, mulberryowild cherry, wild cucumber, and other varieties too numerous to mention, in fact, a complete list would fill a volume. Of course, there were the native berries of various kinds, the pawpaw, wild grapes, etc., while the woods abounded with game,, the favorite being the deer and wild turkey, while the rivers and all the smaller streams abounded in fish. Here and there were Indian villages where maize or Indian corn was cultivated, with other vegetables - and a little tobacco, although for reasons, hereafter given there was little of this in Jefferson County. It was a primeval wilderness, the paradise of the hunter and the trapper. The hilltop farms of Jefferson County. average about 1,300 feet above tidewater. ' The highest recorded elevation in the county, and the highest in the state with one exception, according to the Ohio Geological Survey, is about one mile east of Bloomfield, in Wayne Township. It measures 1,434 feet above the sea, or 861 feet above Lake Erie, which is 573 feet above mean tide. What has''been taken as low water mark in the Ohio River at Steubenvile is 6401/, feet above mean tide, or 671/2 feet above the lake. This should probably be reduced several inches since the record breaking drouth of 1908, but the height is sufficient to demonstrate the absurdity of AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 27 a scheme once suggested of feeding the waters of the upper Ohio by means of a drainage canal from. Lake Erie. A few years since a force from the United States Geological Survey ascertained that the surface of the ground at the southeast corner of the court house in Steubenville was 715 feet above the sea, and inserted a plate in the foundation of the building with the following inscription. Other elevations at railroad stations in the county are given in part as follows,' the tracks having been possibly raised a few inches since these figures were ascertained : Cleveland & Pittsburgh R. R. Hammondsville - 688 Yellow Creek (Linton) - 694 Empire - 684 Toronto - 698 Steubenville - 663 Portland - 663 Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis. Steubenville - 728 Mingo - 667 Gould's - 679 Tunnel No. 1 (old) - 833 Smithfield Station - 773 Tunnel No. 2 (old) - 943 Reed's Mill - 811 Skelleys (Creswell) - 841 Tunnel No. 3 (old) - 1063 Bloomfield Station - 901 Unionport - 946 County Line - 991 The summit of this line is at old tunnel No. 4, about a mile west of Cadiz Junction, in Harrison, the measurements showing 1,178 feet. This is a divide, separating the headwaters of Cross Creek and other streams flowing eastwardly across Jefferson "County into the Ohio from the Conotton and other tributaries flowing west and southwest into the Tuscarawas and Muskingum. January 23, 1904 - 30.0 feet |