Ashtabula County, Ohio - Chapter 4: The Geography Op the County, 1878

Chapter 4: The Geography Op the County

Ashtabula County occupies the northeast corner of the State of Ohio, and of the Western Reserve. Its territorial limits embrace both land and water. The land portion is bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the south by the county of Trumbull, on the east by the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, and on the west by the northern part of Geauga county, by Lake county, and by the waters of Lake Erie.

Its capital town is Jefferson, which is situated in the eleventh township of the third range, and is in latitude 41° 45' north, and in longitude 80° 45' 5" west. Its entire territory embraces a total area of nine hundred aDd seven square miles, two hundred and twenty of which are water. The land portion, in reference to which, as disunited from the water of the lake, it is more properly considered when regarding it as an organized county, contains an area of six hundred and eighty-seven square miles, and is larger, by about fifteen square miles, than any other county in the State.

Its position upon the map is in the shape of a quadrilateral, two of whose sides, the east and west boundaries, are parallel ; the other two sides are not parallel, the northern line being formed by the shore of the lake, which, in this locality, trends to the south of west, making the western boundary-line about eight miles shorter than the eastern. The county is divided into twenty-eight townships, whose names are as follows : Conneaut, Monroe, Pierpont, Richmond, Andover, and Williamsfield, in the first range ; Kingsville, Sheffield, Denmark, Dorset, Cherry Valley, and Wayne, in the second range; Ashtabula, Plymouth, Jefferson, Lenox, New Lyme, and Colebrook, in the third range ; Saybrook, Austinburg, Morgan, Rome, and Orwell, in the fourth range; Geneva, - Harpersfield, Trumbull, Hartsgrove, and Windsor, in the fifth range. Had each township been an exact square five miles in length or in breadth, there would have been just four hundred and forty-eight thousand acres. Some of the townships are irregular, and contain a few more than an average township of sixteen thousand acres, and others less than this amount, the whole number of acres being four hundred and thirty-nine thousand three hundred and eighty-six.

Two ridges, lying at a considerable distance of from one-half mile to two miles from each other, traverse the northern part of the county, following the trend of the lake-shore, the soil of which is a fertile sandy loam, especially of the northern ridge. This portion of the county is well adapted to the growing of cereals and of fruits. Between the ridges the soil merges into a darker and heavier mould, while the central and southern portions of the county have a clay soil, whose nature is admirably adapted to pasturage and dairy farming. Ashtabula leads all other counties in the State in the manufacture of butter and cheese, and in the tonnage of hay produced. The surface is of a slightly undulating character, and an excellent system of drainage extends throughout the entire county. Conneaut creek and Ashtabula river, in the northeastern part of the county, with their tributaries, Grand river in the western, and the Pymatuning in the southern part of the county, with their tributaries, make this one of the best-watered districts in the State.

From an examination of the map of the county, it will be seen that a portion of the streams flow northward, emptying their waters into the lake, while the Pymatuning and Mosquito creeks and their tributaries flow southward, pouring their waters through branches of the Ohio into that stream, and are thence carried to the Mississippi and finally to the Gulf of Mexico. The streams in the southwestern part of the county take this direction, and drain the territory of the townships of Williamsfield, Wayne, Colebrook, Cherry Valley, and Andover. The water which falls upon the soil of the other townships of the county is car- ried for the most part into the lake. This county therefore contains a portion of that water-shed that extends from the Allegheny mountains to the Mississippi, dividing the waters that flow north from those that flow south. This watersummit is of such slight elevation that it cannot be distinguished in most localities from contiguous territory. The portages are very short. In some places indeed the dividing ridge resembles a depression instead of an elevation. In the southeastern corner of Dorset township there is a remarkable instance of this kind. The head-waters of the Pymatuning and of Mill creek, the former stream flowing south, and the latter north, have their source in the same marsh, across the centre of which an artificial embankment, supposed to have been formed by the beavers, has been constructed. The waters which are emptied from the same cloud, upon this embankment, flow a part down its southern slope into the Pymatuning, and the other part down its northern slope into Mill creek. Two particles or drops of water that were in close and friendly proximity to each other in the same storm-cloud, being precipitated upon this beavers' dam, the one flowing in the one direction, and the other in the contrary direction, are soon as widely separated from each other as the mouth of the Mississippi is distant from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The principal towns and villages of the county, named in the order of their population, are as follows : Ashtabula, Conneaut, Geneva, Jefferson, Rock Creek, Andover, Orwell, Kingsville, and Austinburg.

Chapter

Ashtabula County is situated on the water-shed or the dividing ridge between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. The formation of this ridge belongs to the geological period. The description of the streams and forests, as well as soil and scenery in the county, depends upon a knowledge of it. It should be said, however, that the whole of this great continent is connected in every part. Each locality should be studied with relation to the whole system. As the bones and blood, nerves and arteries, form the bodily mechanism, and need to be studied before we properly understand any one organ, so the rivers and lakes, valleys and mountains, form different parts of the great continent, and need to be taken into view when we are studying even a small county. Any one who will take the map of North America and consider the physical peculiarities, as well as geographical divisions, will perceive that the inorganic world has its frame-work and circulatory system as well as the organic, the earth itself being a growth as well as the human body. We enter upon the province of geology as we would upon that of anatomy and physiology, and we plunge below the surface to find the bones of the continent, as we traverse the hills and valleys to discover its circulating system, and thus we hope to learn something of the art of world-making ; the contemplation of the minutest part leading on to the profoundest problems.

The great valley of the Mississippi, the long line of inland lakes, and the Ohio river, with its many branches, all have their origin in the geological structure of the continent.

In looking a second time on the map, we see the great system of mountains, - of the Allegheny range upon one side, and of the Rocky mountains and Sierra Nevada on the other, with the great valley of the Mississippi between them. The eastern portion of this valley is that with which we are concerned. Here we find two great valleys in a transverse direction, one filled with the chain of the great lakes, the other with the Ohio river. It is, however, but a single valley with two channels. A range of mountains or highlands, northward of the lakes, starts from the sea-coast to the northeast, and runs far into the interior. Opposite this, and south of the Ohio river and its tributaries, is another range of highlands, running from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi. Between the two valleys of the Ohio and the lakes is a slight ridge, which divides the waters of the one from the other. From this ridge to the northern highlands we find the deep valley, marked in green, running from the region of the Arctic ocean to the Mississippi river in a southwest direction, looking as if a wide sea had run the whole breadth of the eastern part of the continent from the cold regions of the north, and at last poured itself into the warm bosom of the Gulf of Mexico. Now, it is through this very valley, marked by the deep gorges of the lakes and by the green lowlands east of the Mississippi river, that geologists suppose a great sea of ice to have been situated, which, during the glacial period, rested upon the upper part of the Mississippi valley. By this great glacier, which thus ground its way, it is supposed that the basin of the lakes was gouged out of the solid rocks. By the grinding process of this great sea, too, it is supposed that the dividing ridge itself was formed, and by the trickling of the streams from beneath its sides the Ohio river and its tributaries were drawn. By the debris, also, which accumulated at its base the great alluvial plains and deep bottom-lands at the west were formed. By some means, however, the western part of this valley became obstructed. Either the accumulations of the soil became a barrier, or possibly a transverse ridge was raised in the centre of the lake, where now a dividing ridge stretches from Cincinnati northward. By some means the current of the great lakes was changed, and they, with their tributaries, began to flow the other way. According to this theory, we shall need to consider the ridge which we now occupy as only the edge of this great sea or basin of ice, and with the same theory shall we understand how the different ridges which mark the northern part of our county were formed. It is evident it would only require the gradual rise of the land or the subsidence of the sea of ice for the lake to be formed which would fill the valley, but deposit its bar of sand and clay upon the highest hills, and afterwards recede and form a second ridge, and so come to its present level. By this process the decline from the ridge to the lake was abrupt, and the streams were short. After the sea had disappeared a great lake remained, but its beach was far above the present one. The south ridge was thus formed, and contains within its depths not only the ground, clay, and stones, but the remains of logs, swamps, and other vegetation.

This ancient beach formed a barrier to the streams themselves, so that they * were obliged to make their way along its surface in either direction until they could find an outlet to the lake. For this reason do we find the course of streams on the south shores of the lake so crooked, and their mouths so turned from their proper place. It is interesting, in looking at the geography, to study this crookedmouthed family. Each stream, as it sets out, seems to go directly to the lake, but finally turns far to the westward, - the Ashtabula river emptying about where the Grand river should, and the Grand river, by mistake, making a harbor for our neighbors at Painesville. The course of these streams to the westward follows the dip of the strata or the incline of the great valley.

The North And South Ridges

The water-shed, then, and the terraces form the chief topographical features of the county, this insignificant rise giving character to the soil and variety to the surface and a free drainage for the streams, while the ridges or terraces, in their manner of being formed, would account for the difference of soil along the lakeshore and the interior of the county. That there are two ridges, called the north and south ridges, is a proof that thf decline or settling of the lake to its present bed was gradual or in successive stages. The character of the north ridge is entirely different from that of the south ridge. " The outer or higher terrace, where exposed by railroad-cuts," J. S. Newberry, State geologist, says, " is shown to be a ridge or wall of compact, unstratified clay, composed largely of the debris of the local rocks, but with many fragments of granite and other metamorphic rocks, not rounded by the action of the waves, but in irregular forms, - round, polished, and marked with striae and scratches on all sides." " This ridge contains beneath its surface the traces of an old swamp, with fragments of coniferous wood, the earth deeply stained with iron, and in places with deposits of bog-iron at the bottom. The whole is now covered to the depth of about six feet with drifted sand. This swamp has its origin in the causes which raised the clay ridge into its position, and was evidently filled with swamp-vegetation at the time the waters of the lake were resting upon the northern slope of this ridge, the winds gradually carrying the beached sands over the crest of the ridge into the swamp-basin, and in time burying it beneath the constantly-accumulating sandy deposit." " This ridge, with its mass unstratified and without rounded, water-worn pebbles, cannot be the slow accumulations of a water-washed beach, nor can the materials be deposited in water, which would rot and stratify them." There are some evidences that, even after this ridge was formed, great bodies of ice still existed in the lake. For instance, there are fractures or upheavals of the rock-shales, which are below the surface, which show the effect of a mighty force. Such fractures are found near the depot of the Lake Shore railroad at Ashtabula, and in the valley of the Hubbard run. Professor Newberry says, " It is manifest that such a local break in the shale could be caused by neither an upheaval nor the subsidence of the strata. A vast mass of ice moving on from the north, and impinging on the exposed strata of the shale with sufficient power to cause apart of the strata to buckle upwards at some point where the sliding motion was arrested, is alone competent to produce the condition of things here seen. The movement of a glacier, like a sheet of ice, is the only kuown force to produce such a result." The records of icebergs in the old lake at comparatively recent epochs are also left in the granite boulders scattered along the north slope of both of these ridges, generally not upon the surface, but so slightly buried that they are uncovered by the plow in cultivation. This south ridge, throughout Ashtabula County, appears, says Professor Newberry, " to mark the line where the outer margin of the ice scooped out of the lake-basin on to the strata which it had not force enough to remove." The yellow clay and the sand ridges to the north mark subsequent chapters in this, recent geological history. The ridges north of this are composed of sand and gravel. The spaces between the north and south ridge and the north ridge and the lake present to the eye the appearance of level terraces.

The rock which composes the substratum of Ashtabula County is designated by geologists as the " Erie shale." It is composed entirely of soft, blue aluminous slate, often weathering red on exposure, and finally decomposing into a stiff yellow clay. This shale gives a peculiar character to the topography of the county. South of the lake ridges the surface is one broad level plain of stiff clay, except as it has been eroded by water or covered by occasional deposits of gravel. Where the streams are rapid they form deep and narrow gorges, cutting down almost precipitously, sometimes one hundred feet into the shale. The stiff clay soil derived from the decomposition of this shale forms a fine and undulating grazing country, which, if properly under-drained, would be very productive.

Fortunately, the surface of the county is sufficiently undulating to render under-draining practicable. There is no county in the State where a systematic resort to this improvement would result in greater benefit. Such a soil, when drained, is not excelled by any for the cultivation of apples, pears, quinces, and grapes, and for this result the climate in proximity to the lake is especially favorable. The geological structure of the county in other parts is also the cause of the peculiarities of soil. There is a scarcity of building-stone in the north part of the county, in the south part it is more abundant. " In the east part of Williamsfield is a high ridge, capped with the conglomerate rock," which has supplied the largest part of the stone used in building in that vicinity. The Cuyahoga shales underlying the conglomerate are the surface rocks in the central part of Wayne, and the western parts of Hartsgrove and Windsor. The latter two townships are marked by long stretches of level tenacious clay soil. In Wayne these shales are more silicious, and so the soil is more gravelly. The Berea grit is found in Ashtabula County ; its outcrop extends through the centre of Hartsgrove and east of the centre of Windsor. Its position is marked by a ridge rising towards the west, covered with fragments of sandstone ; the best exposures are at Windsor Mills, where the stream has cut a channel forty feet deep, and where stone had been quarried for many years. The high ridge east of the stream is composed of the same rock exposed in the gorge. When systematic quarrying shall take place, and railroads are constructed, the whole county will be supplied with stone from this source, and the extensive region along the lake-shore will draw an abundant supply. The Bedford shale, underlying the Berea stone, is found in the western part of the county, and forms the basis of a tenacious clay soil. Thus we see the geological structure of the county is really at the basis of its topography, and gives character to its soil as well as direction to its streams.

Varying Altitudes Of The Dividing Ridge

The direction of the dividing ridge is a subject of interest. " The actual crest of the divide forms a singularly tortuous line, which exhibits at different points remarkable variations of altitude ; for example, beginning on the Pennsylvania line, east of Ashtabula County, the head-waters of the Chenango reach within ten miles of Lake Erie, and drain a surface which has an altitude of over six hundred feet above the lake. Thence the crest of the water-shed strikes southwesterly through Ashtabula County, and falling down to a level of three hundred and sixty-three feet at the summit of the A. Y. P. K. B., in Orwell ; thence it sweeps with a sharp curve nearly at the same horizon around the head-waters of Grand river, far down in Trumbull county. Here it turns almost due north, coming again within ten miles of the lake in the northern part of Geauga county, and attaining at Little Mountain an altitude of seven hundred and fifty feet. There is one peculiarity about this ridge, - that the wettest lands are upon its summit. The reason for this can be understood by a little thoughtfulness. The drainage of the county is formed by the sides of the ridge. As the streams make their way, they are likely to sweep off in their course all obstructions, but upon the summit of the ridge no such streams exist ; consequently swamps and the wet clay soil, with heavy forests, are here found. The Conneaut lake, near the Pennsylvania line, and the wet lands in Pierpont and Dorset, are formed in this way, while the swamps between Jefferson and Ashtabula are caused by the water which has been set back by the south ridge along the lake.

The high lands or hills which form the peculiarities of the southern part of the county, where wide valleys intervene, may also be understood by the geological history.

The climate of this county also deserves our attention. There is no doubt but that the advantages of the county in this respect are great. The proximity of the lake has an effect to prevent those extremes of cold and heat which are peculiar to some localities. It has been proved, by long experience in agriculture, that the more solid grains can be raised here with as much certainty as in colder regions ; but at the same time fruits which are dependent on a mild climate can be grown abundantly. Even in its wild state it was discovered that this county was distinguished for its variety of fruits and foliage. It was then indeed a wilderness, which showed how thick and strong 'the combined elements of soil and climate had served to make the native growth. At that time the ridges were covered with wide-spreading chestnut and walnut, and other trees which are peculiar to a sandy soil. The hills and gorges were overgrown with a dense mass of hemlock and pine, which rooted themselves strongly in the sand and rock. In the interior the land, more level and composed of clay and abundantly watered, was covered by a dense forest of beech, maple, oak and ash, elm and white woods. In the swamp there was a dense jungle of alder-bushes, mingled with red-elm, rock-maple, and black-ash. One can at this date form but a poor idea of the density of these forests and the massiveness of the great monarchs which dwelt amid their shadows. Occasionally a stump may now be seen where some gigantic chestnut stood, giving us a slight indication of the size to which they grew, but those who contended with them for the mastery of the soil knew best their strength. It is narrated that six men surrounded one great monster with axe in hand, and swung freely the glittering blade ; when at last the monarch fell twelve men mounted the stump and drank a bumper to the success of the owner.

Fauna

Animals which in other countries had long been extinct were, when first settlers arrived, the common habitants of this region, and their habits became familiar to those who early made their residence here. Bears and wolves were numerous, as indeed were deer and elk. The panther and the wild-cat were occasionally met with. Wild turkeys were also abundant in the forest, and wild geese and ducks in the streams, and poisonous serpents had their dens in various places.

Scenery

The scenery of Ashtabula County, notwithstanding the depth of the forest which covered it, was even at an early day attractive. The streams, which are for the most part small and gently-flowing rivulets, were attended with valleys, which gradually rose upon either side, that in the primitive wilderness were picturesque and beautiful. The variety of scenery and vegetation, soil and climate, was at this time correlated. Though different from New England in the absence of hill and valley, rock and rill, and a broken surface, yet the early settlers found even in the sullen forests and the hidden streams some deep, dark gorge, where steep precipices hung lowering over lonely glens, and the romantic element was not wanting. If there has never been the wide expanse of scenery which is peculiar to a prairie land, yet there are not wanting spots here where the vision stretches for miles away across intervening valleys, and the white form of house and the gleaming spire are mingled with the dark foliage of the distant prospect. The forest-clad region has been changed to fertile fields, the varied soil of sand and clay has been covered with grass and grain, the hills have been made the sites for houses and the level fields become the teeming place for harvests, and the inhabitants have found it a land of plenty, a home of comfort. Though at times there are storms which sweep over this belt of land, burying everything in a depth of snow, making travel in winter difficult and sometimes dangerous, yet these are of short duration. The earlier months of the year are generally introduced with long rains, and spring often proves deceptive. It is early to promise aud late to fulfill, and winter often lingers in the lap of spring. This delay, however, has its advantages, the promises for fruits and the prospects for the season becoming the better for the long delay. Taking it all in all, few regions are more favored than this. The hand of nature has from the beginning built up a structure here well adapted for the home of man. Each successive age has approached nearer and nearer to the completion of the designs of the great Creator, when man should come upon the stage.