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60 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY CHAPTER V GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY Situation and Boundaries of Shelby County—Its Elevation—TopographyDrainage and Soil—Rainfall—The Loramie Reservoir--The Drift Builders—Remains of Human Art—Extinct Animals—Bedded Stone —The Niagara Formation—Physical Features. This county is situated in the second tier of counties from the boundary line betwen Indiana and Ohio, and about half-way of the state from north to south. It is bounded on the north by Auglaize county, on the east by Logan and Champaign, on the south by Miami, and on the we by Darke and Auglaize. The county seat is Sidney. The water-shed between the Maumee and Miami river systems is partly in the northern part of this county. The road known as the Kettler turnpike, in a general way, may be regarded as marking the line of the water-shed, at least for some miles of its course, nearest the Loramie reservoir. The water-shed bears to the northeast, after leaving this county, into Hardin and Wyandot counties. ELEVATION OF THE COUNTY-At Cincinnati, low water in the Ohio river is 432 feet above tide-water, and the water in the Sidney feeder is 512 feet above low water in the Ohio, or 945 feet above tide-water. The greatest elevation yet measured in the county is 134 feet, on the Tawawa turnpike, east of the Miami river. The line between this county and Champaign, on this turnpike, is 121 feet above the water in the feeder. The greatest elevation on the line of the Stewart turnpike is 121 feet, and on the line between Shelby and Logan counties II1 feet above the water in the canal. On the Infirmary turnpike the greatest elevation is 87 feet, and at the end of this road, on the line between this county and Miami, it is 40 feet below the ;level of the canal. On the St. Marys turnpike, about two miles from Sidney, the highest point is reached at 112 feet above the water in the canal. The bottom of the reservoir is about eight feet above the water in the canal. The main canal extends entirely across the county, running in a northwesterly direction from a point on the southern boundary line about midway of the county, from east to west. The Sidney feeder is twelve miles in length, and extends from Port Jefferson to Lockington, and is the channel through which the water from the great reservoir at Lewistown reaches the summit level of the canal. The Sidney feeder and the main canal above Lockington are on the same level, and the water from the Lewistown reservoir flows indifferently north or south. The summit- - 60 - AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 61 level of the Miami and Erie canal is, therefore, the same as that of the Sidney feeder-944 feet above the level of the sea. The highest land in the county (so far as any measurements have extended) is 1,078 feet above tidewater, and 646 feet above low water in the Ohio river at Cincinnati. To aid in the comparison of the elevations in this county with other portions of the state, I will here give a few measurements taken from Prof. Orton's Report of the Geology of Highland county, in the volume for 1870, p. 258. At the head-waters of the Scioto and Miami rivers, in Logan county, an elevation is given, on the authority of Colonel C. Whittlesey, of 1,344 feet, which is 266 feet greater than any in Shelby county. A measurement AM greater is given of a summit in Richland county, 1,389 feet above the level of the sea. The highest land in the state, so far as known, is a point about three miles northeast of Bellefontaine. Its elevation above the sea, as determined by Prof. F. C. Hill, for the Geological Survey, is 1,544 feet. The summit-level of the canal in this county is 400 feet lower than the watershed between the Miami and Scioto rivers in Logan county. This statement will show the resources of the canal for water supply in this direction. The surface drainage and spring-water of a surface of about 900 square miles, must be available at the head-waters of the Miami as a supply for the canal above the summit-level—one-half of which, with other resources, would float a tonnage greater than was ever floated in the canal. Topography of the County—From the preceding statements it will be seen that the surface of the county is little diversified in regard to elevation. There are no hills or deep valleys giving variety to the climate or the productions, or producing picturesqueness of scenery. While the surface is everywhere rolling and well drained, the differences in level from the lowest to the highest point within the limits of the county is but little over 900 feet. The Water from the summit-level is locked down southward from Lockington altogether by six locks, an aggregate of 67 feet, in detail as follows, commencing at the lowest lock: No. 48, from the Ohio river, the lift is ten feet.; passing over the Loramie by an aqueduct, Lock 49 has a lift of eleven feet; the 50th and 51 st have each a lift of eleven feet; the 52d and 53d each twelve feet—in all 67 feet. If the water in the bed of the river at the county line is twelve feet below the level of the canal, that would make the lowest point in the county 79 feet below the highest level of the canal; add 134 feet for the greatest elevation of any point in the county above the canal, and we have the difference in level between the lowest and highest points in the county, which is 213 feet. This calculation includes the valley of the Miami. If we leave this out of the calculation, the variation in level of the upland, the larger part of the county by far, would not be more than about 125 feet. The surface of the county, excluding the valley of the Miami, would average about 75 feet above the water in the canal. Before the watercourses had worn their channels in the drift, the surface, nearly level, sloped gently toward the south from the dividing ridge; north of that line still less toward the north. 62 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY The drainage is very simple. The water which falls on the surface of the county is drained off by the Miami river and its tributaries, with the exception of a strip north of the Kettler turnpike, of a width of about two miles, and but little greater in the other dimension. This is drained into the Maumee. The Miami flows from the county on the south at a point about midway from east to west. Near this point it receives its most important tributary, the Loramie, coming from the northwest, along whose course in the county the Miami canal is conducted. This tributary, besides performing an important part in the drainage of the county, is immensely valuable in relation to the canal, the Loramie reservoir being formed in this stream. Coming into the county about centrally on the north, a small stream, it moves sluggishly over the flat district which forms the dividing ridge, and gradually moving its course to the west, reaches a point in its journey far to the western part of the county, where its course is turned to the south in connection with important accessions to its volume of water ; cutting a decided channel and receiving important accessions from both sides, it gradually returns eastward to midway of the county, where it debouches into the Miami. It is in the upper part of its course, just where it leaves its sluggish meanderings on the high land of the water-shed, that the important reservoir which receives its name from the creek is situated. There is a descent of 75 or 80 feet from the bottom of the reservoir to the mouth of the Loramie. The eastern part of the county is drained by other tributaries of the Miami. The Tawawa, formed by the junction of the Leatherwood and Mosquito creeks, is an excellent mill stream, and drains the principal part of the county east of the Miami river. From the appearance of this stream in the dry months of July and August, I conclude it is largely fed by springs, as the volume of water was kept up to a good stage when many other streams had failed. There are some copious springs in the county, but they do not form such a feature as they do in some other counties situated at a lower level. As might be expected, the high land west of the Miami has fewer and less copious springs than are found in less elevated localities in the county. In conclusion of this subject, the drainage of the county by natural channels is ample. The character of the soil out of the river and creek bottoms depends upon the nature of the underlying drift. The drift will be spoken of more particularly further on. The soil in the river bottoms is composed largely of partially decomposed vegetable matter. There is nothing peculiar about this class of soils in this county, except that on some of the tributaries of the Miami, as Plum creek, there is an unusual body of it compared with the size of the creek. The explanation of this seems to be that in the upper course of this stream especially, the fall in the bed of the creek is often very slight. and the drainage was very imperfect. Before the country was cleared the water was still more impeded by rubbish and undergrowth, and it stood on the ground for at least a portion of the year. Large accumulations of vegetable mould took place, which the size of the streams, as seen to-day, do not seem adequate to produce. This mould is not alluvium, but the result of AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 63 vegetable growth on the spot. It has not been washed thither by the water, but the vegetation which made it, grew up in the swamps which existed along this sluggish watercourse. The upland soil in the county is naturally divided into two classes, one called black soil, composed of the clay of the drift, mixed with a greater or less proportion of vegetable mould; the other is light-colored, "thin" soil, with little vegetable matter. The dark-colored soil is related in origin to that of the creek bottoms or flats, just referred to. Wherever the water formed swampy districts, there accumulated vegetable matter. Some of these places were yet swampy at the first settlement of the country, and were shunned as unhealthy localities ; but others, often extensive, were no longer swampy, but from channels being worn through them or out of them, were dry, and invited, not in vain, the early settler. The face of the country may have changed so that the land is readily drained at present, and this still be the true explanation of these black lands in this and adjoining counties. Moisture made rank and abundant vegetation, while it also impeded its entire decay. The partially decayed vegetable products accumulated, and mingling with the clay below, formed that rich, dark-brown loam. But there is unfortunately a large area of thin and light-colored soil in the county than of the soil just described. This thin soil is not peculiar to this county, but is found in other counties situated in like manner. Its color shows it to be quite destitute of the products of vegetation. It differs equally from the yellow clay soils of the uplands of Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties, and seems less capable of being made productive. The clay of this class of soils is impermeable to water, and is so situated that water has drained off readily, and has not stood upon it in natural swamps. The soil is composed of a fine-grained material and is compact, and sheds water like a roof. How the circumstances in which the fine-grained material was deposited differed from those in which other drift deposits were made, I will not undertake to state. This soil seems to have been exhausted rather than enriched by ages of primeval vegetation. What chemical analysis would show it to lack of fertilizing material, I cannot say, but the deficiency of limestone pebbles in it would indicate that it might be lacking in lime, and it has not had the advantage of being overspread with decaying boulders, which add to a soil potash and other fertilizing ingredients. It seems to have been the least fine sediment deposited from receding water—lifeless water. This soil, lying so as to drain away water, and not of a nature to absorb and retain it, became covered slowly with vegetation. But it always lacked that rankness and exuberance of vegetation which lower and moister places possessed. Still many, countless generations of plants and unknown crops of trees have grown and decayed here without leaving behind them much vegetable matter commingled with the soil. What has become of the substance of plants that it has not accumulated in the soil? The answer must be that the growth upon this soil have passed back to their original elements —have gone as they came--in the form of water and gases. The bulk of vegetation is composed of water (oxygen and hydrogen), carbonic acid 64 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY (carbon and oxygen), and nitrogen. When vegetation decays these materials are evolved, and pass off into the atmosphere. It is when decay is impeded that vegetable matter accumulates in the soil. Mould is partially decayed vegetation. When vegetable products are protected from the atmosphere by water their decay is retarded and impeded, and certain compounds are formed of a complex character, which do not so readily undergo decomposition. This is what we call vegetable mould, mixed with clay—loam. In dry situations, exposed to the action of the atmosphere, logs, grass, leaves, straw, utterly disappear and leave no trace behind. The same material heaped together, in wet situations, does not entirely decay, as every one must have observed, but gradually disintegrates, and becomes a uniform mass of dark-colored matter. A cool situation makes this process more sure and complete. Partially decayed vegetation becomes mould, muck or peat, according to the material, the location and extent of the process of decay. These vegetable compounds do not decay readily, but do gradually, and hence results a common experience in the use of Amick as manure. Until a dissolution of the muck occurs, it will not nurture vegetation, hence it is often necessary for it to be exposed a season or two to the action of the atmosphere before it becomes sufficiently advanced in decomposition to give up its elements of fertility to vegetation. My conclusion is that this light- colored soil, not being a good absorber of water, and being so situated as to drain it off readily, the vast amount of vegetation, in different forms, which has grown upon it has entirely decayed and passed off in the forms in which its elements first came to it, namely, as gases. Here is the place to speak of one of the most interesting features of this upland soil in the county—the fine beds of peat which mark the line of the water-shed. Peat is a vegetable product—it is an accumulation of vegetable matter in circumstances in which decay is arrested. A cool climate and a moist situation are the .conditions in which peat is formed. On the scarcely sloping tract, lying just where the drainage, being both ways, was effective neither way, and where the surface was formed of a soil quite impermeable to water, we find to-day several extensive beds of peat of good quality. They lie in Van Buren township, and near the line of the new Kettler turnpike. Mr. William Kettler owns about 140 acres of peat ; in section ten of the same township are 140 acres more; in section fourteen, ten acres; in section twenty-two, about thirty acres, and smaller quantities in one or two other places, being over 300 acres in all. It is not certainly known how deep these beds are; it is supposed they will average at least ten feet. I did not learn the facts upon which this belief rests, but, from the character of the men from whom I obtained the information, I feel that the statement can be relied upon. Where I examined the peat, on Mr. Kettler's farm, although large ditches had been conducted through it to drain it, there was no place where the bottom could be seen, nor the distance to it from the bottom of the ditch be ascertained, by such explorations as we could make with a fence-stake. On this water-shed the effect of continued washing is seen in a slight AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 65 furrowing of the surface into broad and shallow troughs, leading toward the drainage of Loramie creek. Suppose that at a time when all the region was densely covered with forest and protected from the sun's rays, the falling of a tree, or the erection of a dam by beavers should have cut off the passage of the water, bogs of greater or less extent and depth would have been formed. In these vegetation would soon flourish suited to such locali ties—plants which flourish in and near moisture—coarse grasses and vines, luxuriant ferns, and particularly the sphagnous mosses which are known to compose so large a proportion of peat-beds. We can. hardly conceive of the rapidity with which the accumulation of vegetable material takes place in such circumstances. The remains of beaver dams are still confidently pointed out by residents there, and the traditions of the county are numerous, and corroborative in regard to the existence of these ingenious animals at a time not long antedating the memory of the "oldest inhabitant." In complete confirmation of this general conviction, I have in my possession teeth of the beaver found in the county. The peat is of a uniform consistence and of a drab color, where freshly exposed. On the surface, where it has been drained, it is sufficiently decomposed to nourish the most luxuriant vegetation which I saw in the county ---vines, grasses, briers, bushes, and ferns, and, where under cultivation, the finest of corn crops. The beds are purely vegetable; neither on the surface, nor beneath it, could there be distinguished a particle of earth mixed with the peat. Being about at the Summit, there was no source from which earth could have been washed into the forming peat. When dry it burns readily with a cheerful blaze and rather strong- odor, glowing like the embers of leaves in a draft. It is not, however, used as fuel, on account of the great abundance of wood in that region and its distance from any market, and doubtless the day is remote when it will be in demand as fuel on account of the abundance of coal even more convenient to the great markets than these beds of peat. The great productiveness of the porous, friable upper crust, where the beds have been drained, suggests a use for this material of great interest. It is contiguous to these great beds of peat that the thin, light-colored soils, so destitute of vegetable mould, abound. Here is a supply, not easily exhausted, of the very material which that soil needs. If these beds average ten feet in thickness, there is enough vegetable matter in them to cover, to the depth of one-half a foot, nearly ten square miles of land. I pointed out to Mr. William Kettler a danger which threatens the destruction of those beds which are perfectly drained. He has dug large trenches through his extensive beds for the purpose of drying them to bring them into cultivation. Where the peat becomes dry it is porous, light, and friable. It requires no breaking up to receive the crop, but is only furrowed out to secure precision in the rows of corn that it may be worked with the plough. The process of drying must continue from year to year where the system of drainage is complete. The result may be disastrous if such a bed of inflammable matter is exposed, as it must be, to the malice or carelessness of any one who might set fire to it in the extremely dry 66 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY weather of our late summer seasons. Already, imperfectly dried out as the beds are yet, where persons have carelessly allowed fire to catch in the surface of the peat, deep holes have been burned, extending, doubtless, to the undried substratum. No means that could be brought to bear in those regions would be effectual in quenching a fire in one of those peat beds if they are once thoroughly dried out. The remedy I would suggest is one of prevention—it is to close up the system of drains during the winter, allowing the water to stand in them, saturating the beds completely. The drains being opened in the spring, the beds of peat would not become fully dried out during summer. By retaining moisture they will bring better crops and be safe from conflagration. The Rain-fall—This county is near the border of the area marked in the "Rain-Chart" of the Smithsonian institution in which the average of rain-fall is forty inches. In the absence of other reliable data, any indefinite impressions that the amount is less than this must t: e disregarded. We are apt to judge by the effects ; for example, the state of the crops, whereas the larger portion of the rain-fall is at a season when no visible influence can reach the crops from it. Plainly, all the rain and snow-water, which runs off the frozen crust of the ground in the winter, does not affect, one way or the other, the crops of the ensuing summer. The same can be said of the most of the rain, which runs off as soon as it falls, at any season. An interest attaches to the amount of water which falls, in various forms, in this and the adjoining counties, particularly to the northeast, on account of the requirements of the canal. Data are wanting for determining the amount of water carried off by the canal and the river from the area above the summit-level of the canal in this and the adjoining counties on the northeast. The nature of the soil is such that it will shed as large a proportion of the water which falls upon it as any other soil in the state. An immense quantity flows from above the highest level of the canal without any advantage to the canal. It is equally true that a much greater proportion of it could be utilized than actually finds its way into the canal—enough, certainly, to remove the question of the supply of water out of the discussion concerning the abandonment of the canal. The Loramie Reservoir—This body of water, covering at present but little over 2,000 acres of land, lies wholly in Shelby county, and although not one of the largest of the state reservoirs, nor the most important, still it is exceedingly valuable to successful navigation in the summer and early fall. The bottom of the reservoir is about eight feet above the summitlected into the reservoir is limited, and less water comes from springs than would be the case in many other localities not so high. While the main relilevel of the canal. It is supplied by the drainage of about 65 or 70 square miles. Being near the water-shed, the surface from which water can be colance is on drainage from a limited surface, still such is the nature of the surface-soil, that a much larger proportion of the water falls upon the surface runs off at once than would run from soil of a more porous character, or one underlaid by large beds of clean gravel, or sand, or porous rock. The AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 67 construction of roads, drains, and ditches, as well as the clearing away of the timber and the cultivation of the soil, cause a more rapid flowing away of the water which falls upon the surface. Formerly the reservoir received more water from the gradual draining of the surface ; this maintained it at a good stage for a longer time, and enabled it to furnish a greater supply during those months of the dry season when water is usually low in the canal. If the capacity of the reservoir could be increased so as to hold more of the water which falls in the winter months, its usefulness might be greatly increased, for instead of being maintained in good stage until late in the summer by the gradual running out of the water from the extensive swamps of an early clay, it is now filled up by the rapid surface drainage, and to furnish as much water when most wanted, must have a capacity to hold at once all that comes into it in the winter and spring. In 2,000 acres of land there are 87,120,000 square feet. If it is filled, during the year, with eight feet in depth of water, there would be 696,960,000 cubic feet ; allowing that one-half is lost by evaporation, soakage, and waste from imperfect bulkheads, there would remain 348,480,000 cubic feet for the uses of the canal—enough to lock down, with the present size of locks, 80 boats from the summit level every day of the year. With 65 square miles of drainage, from which the reservoir must receive its supply, how much of the forty inches annual rain-fall would be necessary to furnish this amount ? Less than five inches. A much larger proportion of the 40 inches than this certainly flows from the surface of the ground. It is but justice to the people of the county to call attention to some facts connected with the history and present condition of Loramie reservoir. As it is, the people of the county do not feel kindly disposed toward it. The ground covered by the water of this reservoir was covered in part by the original forest when it was constructed. The forest was not removed, but the trees surrounded by water died, and in the course of time fell down, and now lie in great numbers beneath the water when the water is high, and partly out of it when the water is low. This exposure of the timber to the air in the late summer and the autumn months causes, it is believed, the generation of a miasm which pervades the whole region, rendering it unhealthy. The exposure of the logs to the atmosphere, it is believed, also, has been the cause of the destruction of many tons of fine fish during the past two seasons. It seems, and who will not say with justice, to the people of the county, that the state should do something to remedy the evils which they suffer from the causes just mentioned. They think that the reservoir should be an attractive rather than a repulsive body of water, that it should be a benefit rather than an injury to the interests of the county. Now, when it is borne in mind that there are hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of logs and other sediment in the reservoir, and that all displaces as many cubic feet of water, it is after all a question worthy to be considered, whether it would not be economy to remove all this rubbish to have its room occupied by water every year. How many hundred. perhaps thousand, times would the water-soaked forest which lies beneath the reser- 68 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY voir, with the other vast accumulations of vegetable matter and mud, fill one of the locks of the canal ? This would be the measure of gain each year resulting from the removal of all this material from the reservoir—for every lock-full of logs a lock-full of water would be gained. This would remove a nuisance from the county, and in some degree compensate for the withdrawal of so large an area of land from cultivation, from improvement, from tax paying. The importance of the reservoirs of the state as sources of supply of fish, deserves to be mentioned here ; not only the actual amount of fish for the table to be procured from them, but as sources from which the waters of the state may be restocked and kept supplied with young fish. The reservoirs are at the head-waters of our principal rivers, and, with the present knowledge of artificial fish-breeding, could be made of immense value to the state as sources of supply of fish for the rivers of the state. The amount of water which could be made available for the canal depends upon the area of land which is above the level of the canal. All that part of the county, embracing about nine townships, which lies on the east and northeast of the main canal, and west and northwest of the Sidney feeder, is above the highest "level" of the canal—it will average about 75 feet above the canal. Of course it would be possible to gather many times more water from this area than could be contained in Loramie reservoir. While all this area could not be made available, yet there must be much of it which could be, were it considered a matter of sufficient importance to have it done. Considering, then, alone, the great area, both in this county and in the counties above this, about the head-waters of the Miami river, there should be no question as to the abundance of the supply of water above the summit level of the canal to continue it as one of the most important avenues of commerce of the state. The Drift—The level of the canal at Sidney is about 30 feet above the rock surface. Add to this distance the ascertained elevation above the canal of any point in the county, and it will give approximately the thickness of the drift or clay, gravel, and bowlder deposits. This would make the greatest thickness of the drift on the Tawawa turnpike 164 feet above bedded rock. Within about two miles. of Sidney, on the turnpike to St: Marys, the elevation measures 112 feet above the canal at Sidney. Add to this 30 feet and we have 142, which may be very confidently considered the depth of the drift at this place. It is true these figures may not be the exact measure of the distance from the surface down to the solid rock. Other formations which are known to occur north of this county, and which overlie the formation which occurs here, may underlie the deep drift of the northern part of this county, but this not not certainly known to be the case. On the south, at the line between this and Miami county, on the Infirmary turnpike, the grade falls 40 feet below the level of the canal, which is ten feet lower than the top of the rock near Sidney. By the course of the river it will be seen that there is a dip on the surface of the rock as we go southward. The canal rises 152 feet from Tippecanoe (below Lock AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 69 39) to the feeder at Sidney. While accurate measurements were not taken of the difference in elevation of the top of the Clinton stone in the neighborhood of Tippecanoe, and the surface of the canal, yet some measurements which I recorded make the distance about 60 feet. Taking this from 152 makes this formation about 92 feet at Tippecanoe- below the level of the Sidney feeder; whereas the .top of the Clinton, where this formation is last seen above Bogg's mill-seat, near the end of the bridge over the river, as before stated, is near 60 feet below the canal, these figures would give to the Clinton a rise in level with the horizon of about 30 feet in that distance. The surface of bedded rock underlying the drift in Shelby county is doubtless worn unevenly, in some places rising above the level indicated by the top rock, on the Miami, below Sidney, in others sinking more or less below that level—perhaps, in places, greatly below. Rising sometimes to 164 feet, maintained generally at a level ranging from figures but a little lower than this, down to 75 feet (seldom going lower), we may conclude that there is an average depth of drift in the county of T00 feet. This depth of drift is not equaled in any of the counties which lie south of this. We are here on the line which bounds the deep drift on the south. The opportunities to ascertain the nature of the drift are numerous in the excavations made in constructing the canal and railroads, especially the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine branch of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis railroad, which runs at a considerably lower level than the Dayton and Michigan road, which runs through the county in a north and south direction. At the point where the east and west road runs below the track of the Dayton and Michigan, on the western border of Sidney, a good opportunity is afforded of seeing the nature of the drift for a distance of 30 or 40 feet below the surface. About one mile east of the bridge over the river, on this road, is a still deeper cut. There is little stratification observed in the deposit as seen through these deep cuts. Sand and gravel largely predominate in the composition of the drift as seen here, mixed with clay and numerous granitic or quartz bowlders, varying in size from mere pebbles to masses containing from t0 to 20 cubic feet. The gravel, sand, and bowlders are distributed through the clay, and all are lying in confusion. It seems to me safe to say that fully 25 feet in thickness of clear gravel, were it separated from the clay, would be found in the drift throughout this county—a quantity so inconceivably great that I will not undertake to express it in figures, more than to say that it would yield 25,000,000 cubic yards to the square mile. But this gravel is too much commingled with clay to make it available, in general, for ballasting or road- making, and with all this the county is not abundantly supplied with good gravel for such uses, well distributed in different localities. Enough has, however, been found to construct a system of free turnpikes not surpassed, in extent or excellence, by those of any county of similar size and situation in the state, although the material has had to be hauled, in some instances, for inconvenient distances. I will make special mention of one of the roads, 70 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY constructed by Mr. D. W. Pampell as engineer—I refer to the one called at Sidney "the St. Marys road," on the line of an old road formerly projected to connect Sidney with the town of St. Marys. This road, of excellent width, careful and full grading, and well gravelled, is carried on a perfectly straight line for a distance which falls short by but a few rods of 13 miles, wholly in this county. The numerous excellent roads which have been recently constructed through all portions of the county must have an important influence on its future development. The total number of miles of turnpike roads in Shelby county, at the present time, is 159, of which only 18 miles are toll-roads. The free turnpikes extend to all parts of the county and intersect nearly every important neighborhood, and are the means of the development now seen in progress of the material, moral, and intellectual interests of the county. The cost of these roads I ascertained, from the county auditor, Mr. Guthrie, who kindly furnished me with the statement, to be about 4000 per mile, or an aggregate of $564,000 for the 141 miles of free turnpike road within the county. While there has been found an abundance of gravel for these roads, it has not always been convenient, and the distance it has been necessary to haul it has enhanced the cost considerably. But for this expense the people of the county have obtained good roads, carefully laid out, and well graded and drained. Washed Gravel—Wherever the drift has been washed into troughs or valleys, more or less gravel has been deposited in beds, generally at the junction of two such valleys. Usually these depressions are far from any watercourse that could in the least affect them at present. They are on the higher levels where no streams of water exist now, and show the effect of the washing of the water Which once covered over the whole surface as it ebbed and flowed when it was gradually subsiding, or they are more visibly related to the water-course of to-day and serve to mark the stations where the water stood successively during the time in which the deep valleys, in which the streams now flow, were being excavated. In this county, the gravel of the higher beds is less abundant, is not so coarse or so free from clay. This must have resulted from the condition of the higher deposits of the drift, in which a gravel of a smaller grain was found ; as if there had been coarser gravel in this portion of the drift, not it, but the finer, would have been the sooner washed onward, and the coarser would have been left in the higher beds. Above and separated from the portion of the valleys of the watercourses, particularly of the river, affected by the action of the water at any stage, at the present time, are some fine beds of washed gravel, showing the effect of moving water in varying circumstances of force and velocity. Near Port Jefferson is the best example of gravel beds of this description in the county. It occurs at the junction of two valleys now threaded by two brooks, the shrunken successors of broad streams of former remote ages. Here are the wide channels which they cut, wide compared with the small paths of the creeks which now meander by a struggling course to reach the river channel. At the point of land where these two waters joined, and AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 71 where their streams mingled with that of the Miami, is a grand deposit of alternating layers of gravel and sand, heaped up 30 or 40 feet deep and exposed now, by the removal of the extreme point to a width of about 1o0 feet. When one or the other, or both, the streams which excavated the unequal channels ( for one greatly exceeds the other in magnitude) which join at this point, were swollen and were carrying onward a load of sand and gravel, as well as clay, and meeting here, and one spreading over the valley of the other, if unswollen, or both widening as they entered the broad valley of the river and losing a part of their momentum and carrying power, they deposited a portion of their freight at the point of junction where the rapidity of the current was first checked. In these strata can be read the history of the currents which flowed here, and left their records, not in rocks, but in sands. There is first, in nearly horizontal layers, a succession of strata composed of clean gravel (the lowest exposed at the time of my visit, the lower had been covered previously), then one of coarse, gray sand; another next of fine sand ; then ten feet of sand finely stratified ; then to the top alternating layers of gravel and sand. After these layers now referred to were deposited, another deposit of clean gravel was made, not parallel with these, but covering the ends of all of them from the highest to the lowest. I will simply refer to another deposit of gravel, near the south end of the iron bridge over the river south of Sidney. This large accumulation is less available for road-making than it would have been had it not become so cemented together by a deposit of carbonate of lime. I distinguished from these beds of gravel that large accumulation, at a lower level, and underlying the "river bottom," or the "second bottom," exemplified by an accumulation of clean sand, used for building purposes, just below the west end of the railroad bridge, east of Sidney, over the Miami river, and perhaps underlying more or less the town of Sidney. The broad excavation made by the Miami river through the drift of this county and the counties above, has exposed to the transporting action of water countless thousands of perches of sand and gravel which have been removed down the course of this river, and even into the Ohio and far down it, strewing its beaches with these materials so useful to man. Perhaps no water-course in the state has borne so much sand and gravel along its course and lodged it in places where it is accessible to man. This is a striking peculiarity of the Miami river ; its broad terraces are underlain with a bed of the cleanest, finest gravel for road-making in quantities practically inexhaustible. I have but to cite the immense deposits beneath the alluvium at Middletown, on both sides of the river at Hamilton, and indeed along its whole course, culminating in that bed at Harrison junction, cut and exposed by the Indianapolis and Cincinnati railroad. Bowlders—while the transported rocks do not constitute a marked feature in Shelby county, still there are many of them. The largest bowlder, however, that has yet come under my observation in the state lies near the 72 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY railroad, one mile east of Sidney. It contains 1,250 cubic feet, and weighs about 103 tons. * * * * * * * Remains of Human Art—I did not see as many flint and -stone implements among the people in this county as I have in some others, though such articles are not uncommon even here. There may be ancient mounds in the county, though I did not see any. Along the Miami river and other water-courses are localities where a variety of flint arrow-points and spear-points in considerable numbers have from time to time been found, though but few seem to have been preserved. Other classes of implements, as stone hammers and pestles, seem not to be common, and I did not see any place where indications were found which would lead any one to suppose that these or other implements had been manufactured there. The most favored localities for arrow-points are along the water-courses and on the highest points in the county. But the larger number are found on the river and its tributaries. It is worth remark that the indications in the position of the flints do not point to an extreme antiquity as the time of their manufacture. There are many places along our larger water-courses in the west where extensive manufactories of arrow-points, stone axes, and pestles, etc., have existed, and where pottery ware has been manufactured and burned. These localities have never before been disturbed by the inroads of the rivers, but are now being undermined and washed down for the first time. The implements in all stages of manufacture are found in great numbers ; old hark peelers and pestles, which had been injured by use, or from some fault in original construction did not give satisfaction, were undergoing repair or remodeling; heaps of chips are found, and great numbers of lap-stones. hammers in connection with hearths, and remains of fire together with crockery, are found in these localities at no great depth below the present surface of the soil, where overflows are still a common occurrence. A very remote antiquity could not be ascribed to these remains of human art and industry from anything in their situation. In the course of a few centuries the rivers in the secular oscillations which they execute from bank to bank. a result of laws in constant operation, must disturb and redistribute, by the constant eating away of the bank, the whole of the alluvial deposit near its own level. Nothing is more constant, nothing more certain than the wear of an abrupt alluvial bank during high water, with a regularity which admits of calculation. The great number of such stone-tool manufactories, which are now disclosed along the course of the Ohio river, afford evidence that their age was not far back in gray antiquity. A few banks that are now crumbling might have escaped the erosion of the surging waters for a very long period ; but it is incredible that so many as are now delivering up their relics of human art, their evidences of human industry and ingenuity, places in which for the first time since the ancient workman finally laid down his tools or kindled his fire upon his well-made hearth of bowlder pebbles. for the last time, should have escaped for indefinite ages just such action of AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 73 Remains of Extinct Animals—A few bones of animals not now found in the state—as a few teeth of the beaver, and portions of the antlers of one or two elk, and some reports of discoveries of mammoth or mastodon remains—were all that came to my knowledge of fossils of this character. We may be prepared to hear of the discovery of such fossils in the peat beds, if they are ever much worked. Peat seems to possess the property of preserving the bodies of animals which become mired in it. Bedded Stone—We come now to speak of the underlying consolidated strata which are exposed within the county. The only bedded stone found within Shelby county, lies in a narrow strip bordering the river, extending from the southern boundary of the county to within a mile of the town of Sidney. From the county line to a locality known as Boggs' Mill, wherever stone is seen in situ, it belongs to the formation called by geologists the Clinton. It is the stone which immediately underlies the building stone in the suburbs of Piqua, in Miami county, and which is burned into lime so extensively just south of that town. It possesses, in the locality in Shelby county referred to, all the characteristics by which the stone of this formation is so surely detected. The physical characteristics of being unevenly bedded, highly crystallized, of sandy texture, and of a rust color from the presence of iron, and withal a hard stone, here show themselves. The fossils common to the Clinton in the vicinity of Piqua, are here abundantly seen - Halysites catenulata, Stromatopora; Asyringipora, and some species of Fovosites. These were exposed on the surface. No fossil shells were to be seen. Fragments of crinoid sterns seemed to compose a considerable portion of the rock, and several species of Fenestella abounded. This formation has never been quarried here, apparently, for any economical purpose. It is in the neighborhood of an excellent limestone belonging higher up, and which furnishes lime of the first quality. The Clinton formation furnishes no good building stone in this part of the state, and, while it makes the strongest kind of lime, it is hard to burn, and heats greatly in slaking, and sets rapidly when mixed. It is highly esteemed in paper-mills, where a strong lime is desired, as it more readily softens the material used in the manufacture of paper. The next formation ascending, is that known as the Niagara. It is not seen here in actual contact with the preceding, as the exposure is not continuous ; but within about a mile of the river, an outcrop of stone is observed on and near the banks of the river. A casual examination shows that a great change has taken place in the character of the stone. We have not only passed to a new formation, but into the upper strata of it. The stone is neither well stratified nor compact, and not suitable for building purposes. It is porous, comparatively soft, and very fossiliferous, and of a light blue color. It is burned here into an excellent lime, known locally as the Pontiac lime. The strata of the Niagara, so much prized for building purposes, found at Piqua, and also those found at Covington, Miami county, belong below this horizon. The superposition of this quality of stone upon that of the Covington quarries, is ocularly demonstrated on the Stillwater. 74 - HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY This river rises gradually up to the level of and above the stone of the Covington quarries above Covington. At the village of Clayton, on the Still- -water, about two miles north of Covington, the banks of the river are formed of the same strata as those from which the Pontiac lime is made, within about a mile of the last exposure of the Clinton, on the Great Miami. The last exposure of the Clinton on the Stillwater, is several miles south of Covington; and a familiar example of the Clinton stone may be given in the falls of the Panther creek. It will be seen that all that thickness of building stone about the town of Covington, and exhibited so well at the falls of Greenville creek, as well as that of the Piqua quarries, belongs above the Clinton and below the strata which first appear above it on the Miami, near where the "Pontiac" lime-kilns are situated. The inference follows, that if there is any good building stone within Shelby county, it will be found somewhere between Bogg's mill-seat and the Pontiac lime-kilns. The shortness of the distance, together with the slight fall in the river, would preclude the existence of any extensive strata in this locality. There may exist here a few feet of evenly layered rock, corresponding with the upper layers of the Covington stone ; but the hope of very much good stone, even if any is found, is too slight to encourage much expense in searching for it. It will be thus seen that the Niagara thins. out in this direction, especially the lower strata, while the upper strata maintain a considerable thickness. Indeed. it is possible that the upper strata of the Niagara lie here immediately upon the Clinton. The thickness of the strata is not known with certainty, but can be approximately made out. The Pontiac limestone is but little, if any. above the surface of water in the river in its lower layers, and a mile. south of Sidney the top of it is about 25 feet above the water. With a fall of 50 feet in that distance, there would be a thickness of 75 feet of this quality of limestone. I think there is as much as this. We do not know that this is its greatest thickness, for it may rise higher under the drift in some places. It is a soft stone, and has, no doubt, been ploughed down by the forces which deposited the drift. It would not retain any marks of wearing forces on its surface. Although not valuable for building purposes, it contains an inexhaustible store of the best quality of lime. The lime manufactured from this stone is of a pure white when slaked, and is suitable for all purposes for which lime is used. From a previous volume of this Survey (1870, p. 449) I make an extract, showing the composition of the limestone taken from one of the quarries of this county. I will add the remark, that the locality from which the specimen submitted to examination was taken, is about midway betwen the lowest and the highest strata. I will say also, that from the appearance of the weathered surfaces of the stone at Dugan's quarries, I concluded that there was a larger quantity of oxide of iron in the stone of this locality, than would be found either above or below, especially below. The rusty color indicated the presence of iron. From the porous nature of the stone, I supposed the iron may have been filtered out of AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS - 75 water which has run through it. There was an extire absence of that rust color in the Pontiac quarry, and the same might be said of the quarries near Sidney.