Butler County, Ohio - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1905 (part 1 of 2)

Early Conditions

More than a hundred years elapsed after Christopher Columbus had discovered the Western continent before any permanent settlement was made in North America. The first was the colony of Virginia in 1607, by the English, apd in the following year the French founded their first colony in Canada. For a number of years the English confined their settlements along the Atlantic coast, and gradually the French extended theirs up the St. Lawrence river and the lakes.

No man ever explored the western country until 1673, when Marquette, a French missionary, went from Mackinaw, at which place his countrymen had established a post, two years previous. He explored the country by the way of the Arkansas river to the Mississippi. Being satisfied that the lastnamed river discharged itself into the gulf of Mexico, he thought it imprudent to proceed further, but returned to Lake Michigan, where he resided among the Indians until his death, in 1675.

fin," and having sailed over half way along its south coast, disembarked, sending back the vessel, which was never heard of afterward. By marches southward, his party struck the headwaters of the Great Miami -river, passing down this stream to the Ohio river; thence to the Mississippi, which he descended to the gulf of Mexico, and from there took passage to France. Subsequently he returned, and while ascending the Mississippi river, he was murdered by one of his own party. Father Hennepin, a missionary, accompanied La Salle in his voyage. The French made several settlements on the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Ohio. In T735 one was made at Vincennes,, on the Wabash.

Subsequently, in the same year, a number of persons of note in Virginia, Maryland, and also in England, formed, an association and obtained a grant from the crown of England for six hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio, together with very extended privileges as a trading company, which assured them an almost entire monopoly of the traffic with the Indians. This company soon commenced operations, by sending out surveyors and traders, by some of whom a post was established on one of the branches o the Great Miami river, the first known establishment made by white men within the present bounds of the state of Ohio. This fort was taken, in 1752, by the French, who carried the traders prisoners to Presque Isle, now Erie, in Pennsylvania, at which place they had, shortly before that time, built a fort.

In this same year the governor general of Canada sent a party to deposit medals at the mouths of rivers, and other important places in the disputed territory, asserting the right of the king of France to all the , country watered by the river Ohio and its branches.

In t 753 George Washington was sent by Governor Dinwiddie, with a letter to the French commandant, remonstrating against their proceedings, as an infringement of the rights of the king of Great Britain. The French disregarded the remonstrance, and in 1754 built Fort Du Quesne, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, where Pittsburg now stands. The war between France and England then ensued ; the French evacuated Fort Du Quesne in 1758: and in 1763, at the conclusion of peace! France surrendered Canada and renounced all her claims to any part of the country east of the Mississippi.

Between the peace of 1763 and the commencement of the American Revolution the settlements were extended across the mountains, into the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, but none were made north of Ohio. Soon after the commencement of the war, questions were started with regard to the unappropriated lands belonging to the different colonies and in consequence of the different views of tbe subject taken by congress, and by the government of Virginia, the legislature of that state passed a law to prevent settlements on the northwest side of the Ohio river, in order to obviate any difficulties or jealousies that might arise before the question was finally determined.

In 1785 and 1786 Virginia and the other colonies relinquished their claims to the territory north of the Ohio river to the congress of the United States, and by the adoption of the ordinance of 1787 the Northwest territory was organized, and then began in earnest' the settling of the territory. At Marietta a settlement was made on April 7, 1 788. and a fort was built for the protection of the settlers. General Arthur St. Clair was appointed governor in September, 1788. About this time Judge Symmes established a settlement at North Bend, and in December of that year Cincinnati was settled. The Indians were now becoming restive under the apparent determination of the whites to make large and permanent settlements in the territory, and it devolved upon the national government to extinguish the Indian title and protect the inhabitants from a merciless warfare. Forts were erected and attempts were made, first by treaty and afterward by military expedition, to secure peace. All proved unsuccessful until General Wayne s victory over the combined forces of the Indians at the battle of Fallen Timbers, in August, 1794. On August 3, 1795. he concluded a treaty of peace at Greenville and thereby opened up the territory to the blessings of civilization.

Thomas Hutchins, of the British army, between 1764 and 1775, and published in London in 1788. Captain Hutchins says that "The Little Miami is too small to navigate with bateaux; its high banks and gentle current ^prevent its much overflowing the surrounding lands in freshets. But the Great Miami river, or Rocky river, has a very strong channel, a swift stream, but no falls. It has several large branches, and is navigable with boats a great way up."

It is difficult to determine who was the first white male settler hereabouts. In a graveyard on the farm of Peter W. Shepherd, of Liberty township, there are two stones bearing these inscriptions :

Aged 66 Years

Here the intimation is plain enough that there was but one white woman in this valley before Mrs. Gregory. The late Benjamin Sweet, of Liberty township, whose parents brought him to Butler county in the year 1813, stated that he remembered that there was a Mrs. Potter, who was in the early days acknowledged as thef first white woman. Whether her husband was the first white man is not certain. Probably Mr. Gregpry was not the first, for by a comparison of the ages of himself and wife it will appear that she was thirteen years his senior. Had he lived until the time of her death in 1821 he would have been but fiftythree years old while she was then sixty-six.

After a lodgment had been made in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, the attention of the pioneers was turned in this direction. This was due to two causes. First, the quality of the land and the beauty of the country. Second, that the region between the Ohio and Big Miami was a comparatively quiet one as regarded Indian depredations or warlike sallies. Kentucky was too near, and the Indians on this side were too close to the adventurous fighters like Boone and Kenton on the south side of the river. They preferred to get farther back from the line, and there meet their enemies, as is evident from the locations of Harmar's, St. Clair's and Wayne's battlefields. The first settlement of the Miami region was by Major Benjamin Stites, of New Jersey, just above Cincinnati, in 1778; the second was in December of the same year; and the third in 1790 by Judge John Cleves Symmes. The headquarters of the last settlement was at North Bend, which it was intended should be the principal city of the Miami purchase. Every school boy knows how this plan was changed, through the commandant at North Bend becoming smitten by a 'fair dame at Fort Washington, in consequence of which the North Bend military post was abandoned.

There was at that time a blockhouse near where Carthage is now. John Reily, who had taught school at Fort Washington, and who was the first schoolmaster in the territory, started with a companion to come to Hamilton. When near Carthage they were fired upon by Indians in ambush. Reily s comrade was killed, and he barely escaped with his life. This is thought to have been the last white slain by the Indians in this

Between Harmar's defeat in 1790 and Wayne's success in 1793, the Miami valley was not regarded as desirable ground for settlement. No Indian incursions of moment occurred; but St. Clair's defeat had created apprehension, and settlers were slow in coming hither. After Wayne's victory, and the treaty of Greenville, which broke the Indian power, emigrants came in large numbers, and the valley began to put on the tokens of civilization. Many who had gone to Kentucky moved here, of whom one was the late William Shafor, of Middletown. Some of the soldiers who received discharges remained here, and married, and the increase through such unions helped rapidly populate the valley. The class of emigrants who came from the eastern states was of excellent stock, industrious of habit and moral of tone, as the times went, so that society quickly assumed a favorable condition. The change from a state of alarm and uncertainty to one of security and order was rapid and thorough.

Qn April 30, 1802, congress passed a law enabling the formation of the state of Ohio, and by an act of February 19, 1803, the state was formally recognized by congress. The first legislature of Ohio, which met on the 3d day of March. 1803, enacted such laws as seemed most needed by the people. They organized, by a special act, eight new counties on March 24, 1803, as follows: Butler. Columbiana, Franklin, had suffered much for the want of organization into counties. Governor St. Clair had on every occasion arbitrarily refused the creation of these new counties, and he had the power to prevent it. In 1804 Highland and Muskingum counties were organized These new counties were all well populated at the date of this creation, considering the great distance from the older states; mills were built, bridges erected, and roads cut through dense forests.

A few general remarks on the manners and customs of the people at this period seem appropriate. The presiding judge and the lawyers traveled their circuits. When they arrived at the shiretown, the judges and lawyers were generally thrown together in one room in a log tavern, and slept under the same roof, and some of them very near it. Their food was generally prepared out doors; and frequently the court house was a log cabin in the woods, without a flooi .

It was not uncommon to see a constable with a grand jury sitting under a tree, warding off the spectators, so as to prevent them from hearing the testimony of witnesses; another constable was guarding a petit jury under some other tree, while they were deliberating upon their verdict. The people were happy and contented with their lot; the farmer kept many dogs to guard his sheep, hogs and fowls. Hogs became numerous in the woods, many of whom became wild and rapidly multiplied. When the war of 1812 broke out the hogs were killed and sold to the government for its soldiers. Horses and cattle increased rapidly, then the people began to drive them over the mountains to the western markets.

table; they wore moccasins and shoes made of deer skins, which material was also used for hunting shirts and pantaloons. Dressed in this fashion and equipped with a rifle and large knife, the men pursued their daily vocations.

Butler county comprises about four hundred and eighty square miles and contains thirteen townships. By the following decrees of court five townships were laid out.

At a Court of Quarter Sessions holden at Hamilton, in the County of Butler, on Tuesday, the tenth day of May, 1803, before James Dunn, John Greer, and John Kitchel, esquires, Associate Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the county aforesaid, pursuant to the statute entitled *an act to regulate the election of Justices of the Peace and for other purposes,' ordered that the following townships be laid out: Fairfield township, Liberty township, Lemon township, St. Clair township, Ross township.

Thus it will be seen that there were but five townships in Butler county in 1803, and so they remained until December 2. 1805. Fairfield, as it now is, embraced the second, third and fourth wards of Hamilton ; Lemon embraced Madison ; Liberty embraced Union: St. Clair embraced Wayne, Milford, Reilv, Hanover and Oxford, and Ross embraced Morgan.

Wayne and Milford were made townships December 2, 1805, and their territory was taken from St. Clair; Reily was created from St. Clair, December 8, 1807, and named for John Reily ; Madison was erected from Lemon, May 7, 1810; Morgan was taken from Ross, March 4, 1811; Oxford from Milford, August 5, 1811; Hanover from Reily and St. Clair, December 2, 1811 ; and last, Union was taken from Liberty in 1823.

The duplicate embraces twelve pages of foolscap, bound in paper back and carefully stitched together. The duplicate of 1805 was the first duplicate ever made in the county. It was prepared by John Reily, whose bold, old-fashioned clerical characters, traced in honest black ink, are today, after a lapse of nearly one hundred years of exposure, clearer and more distinct than many of the county records not one-third so old. Mr. Reily had a partiality for only the best quality of paper for his records, and a strong detestation for any but the purest and most enduring writing fluids. The result is that the records of John Reily, - in the clerk's office, auditor's office and commissioners' minutes. - from 1804 to his retirement. are as clear and readable today as when first written.

The duplicate for the year heretofore referred to is arranged in alphabetical order and not by townships. The reason for this is that the township boundaries were not clearly divided; and another, that the list of land owners was not large. On the back of the duplicate, in the bold handwriting of John Reily, is this endorsement: "A Duplicate of Taxes on Land for the Year 1805. Amounting to Dolls. $871.64.2." The duplicate was divided into two parts, the first part containing the registry of non-resident land owners, and the second part the registry of those who were in possession. Of land owners the duplicate shows : Non-residents, 64, owning 29,727 acres; residents, 310, owning 87,398 acres; total, 374, owning 117,125 acres.

Among the largest non-resident landowners were Elias Boudinot, after whom Boudinot street, now called Park avenue. in the first ward of Hamilton,

Lemon township; Elijah Brush, 1,0 5 acres in sections 8, 9, 16 and 17, Lemon township; John N. Cummins, 1,240 acres m Fairfield; William H. Harrison, afterward President of the United States, 640 acres, all of section 33, Union township; Henry Ray, 1,895 acres in St. Clair township ; Benjamin Scudder, who held 640 acres in sections 27 and 33 in Liberty township, which is still held in great part by his heirs ; John Cleve Symmes, 640 acres in Fairfield; Jonathan Dayton, 2,130 acres in Liberty and Fairfield.

Of resident land owners, David Beatty held 885 acres in Fairfield and Hanover; Daniel Doty, 295 in Lemon ; Samuel Dickey, of Prairie, 400 acres, and Samuel Dickey, of Elk Creek, 370 acres; Ralph W. Hunt, of Lemon, held 2,600 acres in Lemon; Matthew Hueston, father-in-law of Robert Harper, held 1,543 acres in Fairfield; Thomas Kyle held section 28, Lemon township; Solomon Line held 834 acres in Fairfield ; Enos Potter held 640 acres in sections 23 and 27, Lemon; Celadon Symmes held 4,631 acres in Fairfield, and Joel Williams held 2,505 acres in St. Clair and Ross.

Land at that time was divided for taxation into three grades. What was called first quality \^as taxed one dollar per one hundred acres; second quality, seventy-five cents per one hundred acres, and third quality, fifty cents per one hundred acres. There was of the first quality, 21,914 acres; second quality, 78,709 acres; third quality, 16,502 acres; total, 117,125 acres, and the total taxes assessed on this land amounted to the enormous sum of $871.64.2.

The smallest tax on the duplicate is assessed against John Reily, who was no landgrabber, but held a few lots m Hamilton, Williamsburg, Cincinnati and Deerfield. His lots in Hamilton embraced one acre of ground, and is the property formerly occupied in part by Colonel Campbell as a residence, and the entire tax on all of Mr. Reily's property for 1805 was two cents and seven mills. The largest resident taxpayer was Celadon Symmes, $21.67.9; after him, Joel Williams, $18.64, then Samuel Dick $18.07 on 3,703 acres in what is now Ross; next, John N. Cummins, $15.81.

Originally Butler county contained four hundred and eighty square miles. After its line was straightened on the south between Butler and Hamilton counties, and a strip taken from the northern part and added to Warren county, reduced its size to a considerable extent. At the present time it embraces a territory twenty-five miles east and west, by nineteen miles north and south, its average limits being not far from twentyfour and one-half miles by eighteen. This land lies in the valley formed by the divergence of .the Great and Little Miami rivers. It presents many interesting topographical features. There was at some time in the unrecorded past a terrific struggle of natural forces in this valley. During the period of glacial action, the ice mountains wound their slow course, and cut a path on their way to the seat. The evidences of this are abundant, and are to be seen in the outcroppings on the banks of the numerous streams which find their outlet in the Great Miami river.

twelve miles. The eastern divide skirts the borders of Warren and Hamilton counties; the western divide runs nearly parallel with the eastern, beginning with the high lands of Montgomery county, and attaining its greatest elevation toward the north. The boundaries of this valley are sharply defined, and can be easily traced by the unassisted eye. This fact will recur to any one, who, from the crest along which the Big Four Railroad passes, has cast a glance westwardly, or who, from the height between Millville and Darrtown, has looked eastward to the ridge which separates the Ohio and Little Miami rivers from the Great Miami valley. A view from either of these vantage points is one of surpassing loveliness. In spring the verdure is refreshing in its tints, the slopes have enough of forest to relieve the monotony of a dead landscape, while the fields of starting grain, to use a rounded period of Edward Everett, "appear as if nature had spread a carpet fit to be pressed by the footsteps of her descending God." If one seeks natural beauties he has not far to go, and yet it is probably true that most people have given scarcely a thought to the riches of beauty so lavishly spread around them. If one will take his stand on a summer evening on the hills southeast of Hamilton, looking over the valley toward Port Union, and survey its fields of ripening grain, he will see a picture such as no artist could transfer to canvas. On the road between Hamilton and Middletown. on the east side of the Miami river, there are several points of observation from which the prospect is equally beautiful. Among these may be mentioned the views near the residences of the late Philip Hughes and Peter Shafor, looking westward, or from Kennedy's farm, about two miles from Hamilton, on the west side of the river. The traveler by the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Indianapolis Railroad to Oxford, if observant, will, just before arriving at McGonigle's Station, catch a swift glimpse of the peaceful vale in which Millville rests like a gem in a setting of rare excellence.

From the heights around Oxford the forest and the cleared upland rise and swell or fall away in graceful undulations that fill the eye and the heart with a sense of graceful beauty and perpetual delight. If the old saying be true, that "an undevout astronomer is mad," then it will be equally true to assert that he who has lived among such beauties and has been unobservant, is unworthy the gifts so freely spread before him. If the reader will consult the map of Butler county he will see that the Miami river begins its course in the extreme northeastern border, and thence cuts diagonally through, leaving the county at its southwestern border. As the crow flies this distance is thirty miles, but in the meanderings of the river it is probably forty -five to fifty miles. A glance at the general lay of the land within this valley shows it to be in harmony with, the general pitch of the surface south of the great divide which separates the waters that flow into the lakes, and thence to the north Atlantic ocean, from those waters which seek the warmer clime of the south, and thence flow northward through that greatest of all rivers, the Gulf stream, to again meet after a long separation. The observer will also note that the courses of all streams flowing into the Great Miami is from northwest to southeast on the westward side of the river. This direction is likewise in conformity with the slope of the country, but on the east side of the river we find an anomalous hydrographic condition. While on the westward side Cotton Run, Seven-Mile, Four-Mile, Indian creek, and other tributaries of the Miami flow in a natural course, the largest tributary on the eastward side within Butler -county, in defiance of all natural laws, appears to run up hill. Gregory's creek has its sources in the lands of Union township, and thence flows northwestwardly and empties into the Miami near Lesourdsville. So also Pleasant run, which has its source beyond the borders of Hamilton county, makes what is apparently an up-hill detour, and finds its way into the Miami at a point nearly abreast at Symmes Comer. One who never followed the course of these two streams, save on the map, would be at a loss to account for this strange contravention of physical laws, but a following of the streams themselves affords an explanation of the seeming contradiction. Gregory's creek and Pleasant run both pass through gorges and ruts scooped out for them bv glaciers that must have separated from the main ice mountain as it moved down the valley. These smaller glaciers being less powerful than the parent glacier were compelled to yield obedience to the character of the land over which they passed, while the larger glacier, by its great weight, was able to carve its way in the general direction which is shown on the westward side of the river. On the eastward side the adventurers cast adrift were compelled by their weakness to pick out the softest and easiest road in their journey to the Ohio valley.

Within the memory of people living, there have been great changes in both the climatology and the physical features of the county. In the course of the river there have been changes within the recollection of people who belong to the present generation. The Miami and Erie canal was begun in 1825, and so late as 1845 Hamilton shippers to Cincinnati by canal relate that it was no uncommon thing for the horses to flounder from the towpath breast deep into a lake which covered most of the ground which lies east of the old Chase farm, now owned by Dr. Thad. Reamy, near Jones's Station. Drainage, both natural and artificial, has reclaimed all this waste land and made it as valuable a tract as there is in the county. With regard to the river, the number of its tributaries, and the immense rain-fall at its sources, make it a stream remarkable for the suddenness of its floods, its volume of water, and the uncertainty of its changes in course. The cut-off above Hamilton, which took place in 1805, and the flood of 1866, which swept away the old Hamilton bridge, and that of 1898, which destroyed the Columbian bridge, are in vivid recollection. Those floods carried several thousand acres of valuable land from its owners, and in some instances worked almost financial ruin. This was notably the case at the bend of the river, where the Alston farm is situated, also below Middletown on the Dr. J. L. Thornton farm. It is doubtful, however, from the testimony of old residents, whether the floods of the present generation equal in volume or in destructiveness those which were common at the beginning of the present century. It is certain that they are not so regular in their

Hamilton between the years 1810 and 1825 did a large trade with New Orleans and with the Indian Territory. That trade was carried on by flatboats, some of which were built on the banks of Four-Mile creek, near Oxford, and were there loaded with provisions suitable for the southern markets, and the flood never failed to come and bear them along their way.

There is not such certainty in the returns of these freshets now, and it would be impossible to establish a trade on the chance of such conditions as made those ventures at that time perfectly sound from a business point of view. It would appear as if rainfalls and snow-falls were greater in those earlier days than now. Whether this change is due to the denudation of the valley by cutting off the timber, it would, perhaps, not be profitable to take time in inquiry. It is probable. however, that as the land became clearer and broken up in settlement that the rain and snow falls are now absorbed, where formerly they ran to the river, and that thus, instead of the annual average of rain being less than it once was, we are misled by its effect, being less apparent in great floods. It is the opinion of at least two engineers, who have had great experience in the measurement of water volumes, that the flood of 1866 was probably not exceeded in quantity of water by any that preceded it within the written history of the valley.

With regard to the soil Butler county compares favorably with the average of the state. It shows but a small proportion of what is called poor or waste land. In this class but 10,468 acres are returned to the secretary of state, leaving 189,539 acres as either wood or pasture land, or as susceptible of tillage. This is the report as given by the Ohio agricultural board in 1900. There is wide diversity in the fruitfulness of different portions of the county. It embraces as rich land as there is in the state, and some exceedingly poor. It has been found by experiment, however, that the lands which are considered poor possess hidden elements of strength, and some as good farms as there are in the county were originally purchased at cheap figures, in view of their poverty of production. Intelligent tillage has shown that this seeming poverty was easy of remedy, that there was inherent virtue in the soil, which needed only waking to activity by simple artificial means. The average composition of the upland soil is a sandy loam. In the highest uplands this changes to a clay. I11 the bottom where the Miami river has made its deposits the character of the soil changes to a deep black - what are termed the bottom lands of the Miami valley.

-It mav be questioned, however, whether the term bottom land is rightly applied, since the fertility of the uplands for certain crops fully equals that of the low land. Bottom lands are peculiarly adapted to corn, the upland to wheat and barley. No county in the state is traversed by more small streams. The bridges under county supervision number more than one thousand, and the loss on bridges by flood in 1898 was more than one hundred thousand dollars. This is mentioned in connection with what has already been said about the Miami river and its tributaries, to impress upon the reader the significance of a natural system of irrigation and drainage. The uplands abound in springs, and in seasons of drought give out the hoard of water they store during seasons of plentitude. In seasons of extreme rainfall the inclination of the land toward the river readily conveys away the hurtful surplus. It has been found necessary in but few portions of the county to resort to artificial draining - nature has so well provided for the wants of the husbandman. There is no doubt that if artificial means were used the productiveness of the county could be largely increased, for wherever drainage experiments have been tried the results have been exceedingly satisfactory. A good illustration of this natural drainage can be seen along the bank of the canal, just north of Hamilton, or on the rocky road between Heno and Miltonville. Where the rock crops up from the cutting it will be found that there is a sufficient depth of soil from deposits of verdure to insure richness and stability, while the underlying rock prevents too great evaporation in drought, and at the same time acts as an underground roof to turn excessive water into the Miami river. We have tried in this way to briefly explain the most striking feature that pertains* to the general outlet of the county.

A wrong impression is abroad with respect to the fertility of the Miami valley. We have endeavored to show that the uplands are good for wheat and for barley, while the low lands are good for com. The exceeding richness of production is, therefore, not due to natural fertility of soil so much as it is due to a plan which in nature appears to have been provided for the continual renewal of the land. In the bottoms this renewal of land comes from the annual overflows of the river. In the uplands it comes from the absorption by the soil of nitrogenous elements from the atmosphere.

It would be hard between the Lakes and the Gulf, or between Portland, Maine, and the Rocky Mountains, to find the same number of acres better adapted to general purposes of cultivation. It would appear as if all the elements, both in soil and in climate, had combined in the Miami valley to make the labor of the farmer successful. On ever)' side come fructifying rills, the snows of winter cover the sleeping grain, the warm breath of spring breathes nowhere more gently, and above are no more benignant summer skies.

The Great Miami at some former period diverged from its present route 'and bent to the east. The larger and more plainly marked of these channels is that which divides just below Hamilton, and follows the line of the present Mill creek through Fairfield and Union townships. This valley is in the neighborhood of a mile wide, and the gravel and bowlders show plainly where its waters once flowed. The other channel of the Miami began in Lemon township, and followed Dick's creek through this and Warren county until it finally debouched in the Little Miami. The canal follows the vallev first mentioned, while the Lebanon canal once followed the other. It is probable that these depressions, as well as those of the various creeks, owe much to glacial action.

the rock foundation, and so do those of Seven-Mile creek and its affluents. But Twin creek and Indian creek have the evidences of greater antiquity, as their beds are entirely alluvial, so far as is visible to the eye, and the rock is buried beneath. In each valley there is a little extent of level ground, varying from a few yards to upwards of three miles wide in the Miami at Hickory Bottom, in the south part of Madison township and north part of St. Clair. These bottoms are known as prairies, and were partly without wood at the beginning of the settlements, and where free were covered each year with an excellent growth of grass. These low-lying alluvial districts cover an area of not less than eighty square miles, or between one-fifth and one-sixth of the total surface.

This county is one of blue limestone. Most of this is not of a high character for the quarry ; but there are several beds that make excellent building stone. Orton's geological survey, which we shall follow in this description, says one of the best sections in the county can be found at or near Hamilton. In the quarries just west of the river, the section can be begun at a horizon about two hundred and seventy-five feet above low water at Cincinnati, and it can be followed in frequent outcrops to the summit of Heitzman's hill, on the Millville pike, where many of the characteristic fossils of the Lebanon division are found.

The bedded -rocks of Butler county belong, with the exception of the very limited area of one or two square miles, to the Lower Silurian or Cincinnati group of Ohio. The exception named is found in the northeastern comer »of Oxford township, where a spur of the cliff limestone crosses the county line, and covers a section or two of the county. Both the Clinton and Niagara formations are shown here, but the area is so small, and is known to so few residents of the county, comparatively, that it may be dismissed from further consideration.

The Butler county scale begins at about two hundred feet above the base of the system, and extends to the summit of the series. In Cincinnati this system is about eight hundred feet in thickness, making the Lebanon beds about three hundred, the Cincinnati division proper four hundred and twenty-five, and the Point Pleasant beds fifty feet. Thus in this county it gives about six hundred feet of bedded rocks. There are few points of interest in the formation at large that are not found in Butler county, and on the other hand there are few peculiarities of stratification or fossil contents that deserve special mention as differing from other portions of the Cincinnati group.

The streams in the vicinity of Oxford, Four-Mile, and its tributaries, furnish very prolific although not very extended exposures. The horizon is quite definitely fixed .by the presence of Orthis Retrorsa (Salter) ; Orthis Carleyi (Hall). This shell is found on the banks of Four-Mile very near to the water's edge, directly east of the village of Oxford. The vertical range of this fossil is very limited, while its horizontal range is wide, so that it serves an excellent purpose as a landmark on the system. Its latitude is a horizon about four hundred and seventyfive feet above low water at Cincinnati, or about three hundred and forty-five above low water in Hamilton.

tion. The early geological work of David Christy, Esq., was done in this field, and through him collections of the fossils found here were distributed among eastern and foreign geologists. The name of Oxford is, accordingly, very widely known as one of the typical localities of the blue limestone or Cincinnati group of southern Ohio. The original cabinet of Mr. Christy is now in possession of the Miami University. It contains a number of interesting fossils.

Wayne and Madison townships, and especially the latter, furnish unsurpassed exposures of the Lebanon beds on the banks of the smaller streams that drain theii highlands. Kemp's run, near Middletown Station, furnishes excellent ground for the collector, as do several branches that flow from Loy's hill to Twin creek, on the north line of the county.

The lowest ground in the county is to be found on its southern boundary in the Miami valley. Its approximate elevation above the level of low water in Cincinnati is fifty feet. The alluvial division represents the valleys of both ancient and modern - the eroded regions from which the rocks have been carried away to a depth at least below existing drainage courses. These areas could be appropriately described as the portions of the county that have an elevation of not more than two hundred and fifty feet above the Ohio river. The uplands embrace the lands above this level. A large proportion of them, however, lie at an elevation between four and six hundred feet above the Ohio. This division of the surface of the county is much less definite on the east side of the river than it is on the west, for the reason that the drift deposits are heavier in the first-named district. In other words, the lines of the valleys are here harder to be traced. There are areas of unmistakable uplands, but they are connected with the valleys by slopes of considerable extent, which completely obscure the true outlines of the rocky floor.

The uplands proper are remnants of the blue limestone plateau which once occupied all of southwestern Ohio, but so much of which has already been removed by aqueous and glacial denudation. They are almost universallv covered with shallow deposits of drift, but over very large areas the character of the underlying rock shows through, giving its peculiar features to the topography, to the agricultural capacity, and to the water supply of the districts occupied. These upland drift deposits are in considerable part derived from the waste of blue limestone land to the northward, so that a closer bond of connection exists between the soil and the underlying rock than is usually found in drift-covered regions.

The lowest of the drift deposits, or that which rests directly upon the bedded rocks, is the bowlder clay. This formation is shown with great distinctness and in very numerous exposures in Butler county. Almost every stream in some portion of its course discloses it. A particular feature of the bowlder clay in Butler county is that of ancient vegetable growths, branches, trunks, and roots of trees in large quantities. Examples can be seen in following almost any stream to its source, but one or two points may be named which are specially noteworthy in this respect. Collins's run, near Oxford, a small tributary of Four-Mile creek, shows in its banks very numerous exposures of these pre-glacial and inter-glacial forest growths. The vegetation is imbedded in the clay very often, and part of it shows that if has been subjected to rough mechanical agencies. The frequent presence of leaves and roots in or upon the deposit serves to show, however, that the source of the vegetation was not very far removed. The north bank of Elk creek, opposite the mill at Miltonville, also gives a fine exposure of the clay. At this point a peculiar modification of the bowlder clay is found that deserves particular mention. It is a clay distinctly green in color, and as shown by a single analysis or a specimen obtained at this point, is very rich in potash and -soda. This green clay has been more frequently met with in Warren and Butler counties than elsewhere.

The vegetable matter that is intermingled with the bowlder clay is to be distinguished from that which is borne upon its surface. The presence of a buried soil of inter-glacial age has been noticed frequently in other counties. An interesting example is recorded bv David Christy in his "Letters on Geology." published in 1848. In the last letter of the series, page 5, he says :

The vellowf gravelly clay that makes the main element of the drift in all of this region is very abundant in this- county. It is not formed from the weathering of the upper portions of the bowlder clay in place. The action of the atmosphere upon an exposed bed of blue clay changes its color and also its texture, it is true, but much more than this is required to account for the surface clays in southern Ohio. They have been w'orn away from their old places of deposit by water, and have been redeposited.

The bowlder clay is always unstratified ; the yellow' clays are generally distinctly stratified. The uplands of the county, especially of its northern and central portions, are almost universally covered with deposits of this kind. There are no elevations in the county that escape the deposits of the modified drift.

The sand and gravel that make a third element in the drift of this region do not deserve a place by themselves. They form a phase only of the second order of deposits, and must be referred not only to the same general line of agencies, but also approximately to the same time. As has just been stated, the highest elevations in the county give clear proof of having been involved in the submergence, by which alone these, facts can be explained. Bowdders are found at all elevations, and some of the largest size are found at the greatest altitude. One lying on the highest land of the west side of Ross township measured one hundred and thirty feet above ground.

It is to be noticed that the bedded rock has been cut out to a greater depth than existing agencies can account for throughout most of the area of the Miami valley. The rocks' floor is very seldom laid bare by the river, and is as seldom struck in any excavations or borings tint are made in the valley.

The valley is filled with immense accumulations of gravel and bowlders. These gravel beds undoubtedly overlie deposits of bowlder clay in many parts of the valley. Indeed, these deposits are occasionally, though rarely, struck in wells and similar excavations, and sometimes they even approach very near the surface. The gravel is of various sorts and sizes, and indicates various degrees of strength in the currents that have transported it. Large quantities of sand are scattered through it. In composition it is principally limestone, thus agreeing with the pebbles and bowlders that fill the drift clays of the country; but, unlike the true drift pebbles, it has lost the marks of the previous stage in its history, the shaping which it received under the glacial sheet. Its pebbles no longer show the polish and striation due to this stage, but, on the other hand, bear unmistakable marks of having been fashioned in running water.

The gravel beds are in all cases covered with considerable deposits of loam and sand, which form the present sources of the valley. These deposits are arranged in three natural and well-marked divisions, thfc first bottoms, the second bottoms, and the gravel terraces, sometimes called the third bottoms. Of this series, contrary to the general order in geology, the lowest member, the first bottoms, is the newest, and the highest member, the gravel terraces, is the oldest. In other words, the first and second bottoms do not extend beneath the gravel terraces, and consequently do not result from the denudation of portions of the valley. The gravel terraces are at least one hundred feet above low water of the river now. They are generally left in small and isolated fragments on the margins of the valleys, but sometimes they are found to hold considerable areas. In the vicinity of the village of Trenton they can be seen and studied to considerable advantage, as also in the vicinity of Poast-town, on the Banker and Lucas farms.

To follow their history we must go back to the Champlain epoch of geology - to the period of submergence that followed the glacial period. The level of this portion of the country was at that time four hundred feet lower than at present. Stratified deposits, on a large scale, of sand, gravel, and clay are found four hundred feet above the present drainage of the country. At the period of greatest submergence there could have been little or no current throughout the valley, but during the slow advancing movement of depression the valley was filled with immense accumulations of rearranged drift. We may suppose, then, that the gravel terraces are a part of the old floor of the valley, and that they once extended with a degree of uniformity throughout the wide basins in which we find the remnants of them today. As the continent emerged once more and slowly regained its present elevation, the river channels would he cut deeper and deeper into these deposits, the former surfaces of which would he left one hundred feet or more above the present river beds.

Little needs to he said in regard to their composition, as the name by which these deposits are known, the gravel terraces, indicates the main element in their making up. Gravel, sand and loam, variously intermingled, constitute the whole series. The sorting and arranging of materials could only have been accomplished in long extended portions of time. There are no indications of tumultuous deposition in any portion of the series. ~ The soils formed from the weathering and decomposition of the surfaces of these beds are kind and productive.

1 lie second bottoms, like the terraces, must be referred to causes and conditions not now existing in the valley. They lie above the reach of the highest floods, being thirty feet or more above low water in the main valley. They consist of loams from two to six feet in thickness, overlying gravel. They seem to owe their origin to an arrest of the upward movement of the continent, which continued for a considerable period.

The first bottoms are the most recent of the series. They are, indeed, very closely connected with the present state of things. They occupy the deeper part of the valley, and are covered by all of the higher floods. To these floods they owe their origin in part, being made up of the sediments deposited from high water. An arenaceous deposit filled with land shells is a common and characteristic member of the formation. The shells must have mainly grown upon the regions where we now find them, and were buried by the deposits of annual floods. The clearing of the valleys and their drainage basin has introduced many elements of change, and the formation of these bottom lands may almost be said to have been interrupted. This sandy bed, to which reference has been made, is akin in composition and character to the loess of European geologists. An excellent example of the formation may be seen on the river banks within the limits of the village of Middletown.

Butler county, says Professor Orton, stands scarcely second in productive power to any equal area in the state. No qualification certainly would be required if the valley of the Great Miami and that portion of the county lying east of the river were alone to be taken into account. This region might put in an unquestioned claim to be styled the garden of Ohio. It is made up of the broad and fertile intervales of the streams that now traverse the valleys or of the still more desirable areas that were the valleys of an earlier epoch, but which are now deserted by streams, and which are evenly filled with the beds of theJater drift, together with uplands rising by gentle slopes to an altitude of four to five hundred feet above the river, and whose surfaces are hardly less productive than the areas first named.

The soil of all this district consists, in great measure, of decomposed limestone gravel, and exhibits every excellence of limestone land. A single area may be noted here as furnishing a unique line of facts in the native vegetation of the county. A chestnut grove i$ to be found in the southeast corner of Union township, in section 14. It is well known that the chestnut confines itself generally to the slate and sandstone soils of the county. Indeed, the boundary between the slates and the limestones in southwestern Ohio could be defined with satisfactory precision by noting the line where the chestnuts begin as one passes eastward. Isolated trees are known in the gravels and sands of limestone districts. it is true, but they are very rare. Dr. John A. Warder has called attention to one growing near Milford, in the Little Miami valley, and another is known in Greene county, but in the area to which attention is now invited a forest growth in which the chestnut is a large element is found. The trees have attained a diameter of four feet in some instances, and in others stumps, long dead, are seen with large trees growing from them. The trees fruit well here and reproduce themselves abundantly. Chestnuts (the fruit) were sold to the amount of forty dollars from a single farm a few years ago.

The soil does not betray any peculiarities upon a superficial view, but the wells in the vicinity all show' a great deposit of yellow sand beneath the surface. Many fruitless attempts to secure wells in this neighborhood are on record, the sand proving to be a quicksand, and caving in so rapidly as to prevent the sinking of the shaft to water. It has been thought that the sand would prove to be a molding sand, but no trials of it have been made. The bed of sand is anomalous, and it is interesting to note that the native forest growth which covers it is also exceptional. There are no peculiarities in the remaining drift soils of the county that require mention.

The poorest of them, like those covering the uplands of the northern and western townships, if handled with skill and subjected to a rational system of agriculture, would take high rank when compared with even the strongest lands of the Atlantic border. Measured against the fruitful valleys and slopes just mentioned, and tilled under a system which even these noble tracts can not much longer endure, they seem somewhat stubborn and sterile.

There are no native soils on the uplands of the county, but the beds of drift grow thinner as we pass to the southward, and occasionally they disappear for limited areas from the slopes of the hills. The soil that is there formed from the waste of the shales and limestones of the Cincinnati series is of unusual excellence. The famous blue grass land of Kentucky, it will be remembered, is derived from this same system.

The fact that the boundary of the drift is being rapidly neared as we approach the southern line of the county explains certain points in the topography of the four southwestern townships. They are much rougher and more broken than the remaining areas. This arises from the failure of the drift to cover the irregularities here as it has done elsewhere. There is certainly no reason to suppose that the contour of the rocky floor is more irregular in one district than in another. What Butler county owes to the drift can be seen by comparing Liberty and Union townships of the southeastern corner with Reily and Morgan townships of the southwest.

The views furnished by the uplands, especially as we approach the Great Miami valley from either side, are many of them very wide and attractive. Several can be named that are not to be surpassed in quiet pastoral beauty by anything within the limits of the state.

From Snively's hill, near Jacksonburg, a wide and beautiful expanse of country is shown of the main valley on the east and south, and of the valley of Seven-Mile creek on the west.

A still more commanding outlook is furnished on the farm of Randolph Meeker, near Pisgah. It comprises nearly one-fourth part, and that the richest corner, of Butler county.

Such elements as these are not to be overlooked in making out the catalogue of the attractions that a county possesses for human occupation.

The water supply of Butler county can not be said to be good. The geological formation from which the county is built is universally and necessarily poor in this respect. lhe rain-fall can not penetrate the fine grained clays of the Cincinnati series, and is consequently turned outwafds in surface drainage. Wherever the rock is heavily covered with drift beds the supply is improved, both in quality and quantity; but in the thinly covered uplands reliance can not be safely placed on wells. There is no excuse, however, for a defective supply for either man or beast in a district which has so generous a rain-fall as southern Ohio enjoys. It is only necessary to save the roof water in properly constructed and properly guarded cisterns.

The highest land in the county is not more than six hundred and fifty or six hundred and seventy feet above the Ohio river at Cincinnati. The highest land measured is in the western portion of Madison township, the ground now owned by Hampton H. Long. Another very high spot is two miles west of Jacksonburg, Wayne township, on the farm of Colonel Phares. Its elevation bv barometer is six hundred and fortytwo feet above the base above named. Locke gives the elevation of a point of cliff limestone that barely enters the county on the north line of Milford township as six hundred and one feet. Two miles due west of Oxford, on the Fairfield turnpike, an elevation, determined by the level, occurs of six hundred and ten feet above the Ohio river at Cincinnati. The elevations of a few of the prominent points in the county are appended :

The Mound Builders By Stephen D. Cone

While we will endeavor to give the exact facts, as they can be gleaned from authentic records, it will be sought to divest this article of sameness by weaving in the traditions which form so large a part of unwritten history, in its romantic beauty not excelled in the stories of Homer or Virgil, telling of the valor and skill of Tamenund.

He was an Indian chief, ages before Columbus or Cabot made their ventures, or the Pilgrims their stormy landing on Plymouth Rock. His home was in New York state, near its central point. At first the ruler of but few tribes, his influence gradually extended, and other tribes put themselves under his leadership, their chiefs willingly taking subordinate positions. Brave in war,' wise in peace, sagacious in counsel, a generous foe and a trustworthy friend, it was not long until he was the acknowledged head of an Indian confederation which embraced all the tribes from the Penobscot to the Allegheny. A feud, of long standing, existed between the Indians east of the AHeghanies and those to the westward of the mountains. Tamenund's increasing power was viewed with apprehension by the chiefs of the Ohio, Miami and other western valleys, and a consultation was held which resulted in a coalition of all the tribes between the AHeghanies and the Mississippi. The object of this combination was not so much defensive as offensive, the purpose being to so defeat Tamenund in war as to destroy his influence with the tribes which had yielded to him allegiance, or that possibly in the fortune of battle he might fall. For a time success favored the scheme of the allies, and the over- throw of the great chieftain appeared inevitable. He was driven to desperate extremities, which taxed both his valor and his prudence. Seeing at last that he could not hope to overcome his powerful adversaries in the field of open warfare, he conceived a daring strategical plan. Leaving enough warriors in intrenched positions to defend his frontiers against incursions, he made his way with a large force to the region which now forms the watershed whence the Delaware and the Susquehanna flow toward the North Atlantic, and the Allegheny and Monongahela take their course to form the Ohio, and so to the southern gulf. These rivers had then no existence, and Tamenund s scheme was to dig immense channels in diverse directions, into which the waters of the northern lakes could he readily turned. While his enemies were in wonderment at his actions, his own followers were not less in the dark as to his ultimate purpose. When the work was completed, and the beds of the vast svstem of western rivers had' been dug as we now have them, Tamenund with his army of patient toilers retraced their steps to the highlands where gather the floods which in our day roll unresisting to the seas. His adherents having been placed in positions' of safety, the barriers which penned the waters were broken, the wave surged down the Ohio in relentless might, a vast army gathered in the neighborhood of Cincinnati was overwhelmed, and Tamenund' s foes were annihilated.

It is not difficult to trace in this romantic legend, so hastily sketched, vestiges of history. Whether the Indians are descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel or not. in the above tradition there is something marvelously suggestive of the destruction which buried the hosts of Pharaoh beneath the waters of the Red sea. The narrative preserved to us in the sacred writings appears to have been no less imperishably embalmed in the imaginative story handed down through unnumbered generations of the aborigines. A triumphal song is also spoken of as having been composed by the victorious chieftain, in which there is rude similarity to the exultant dignity with which Moses chanted -

In all this there is too much in common with the Indian legend to be merely accidental. Authentic history has preserved the story of a great event in one place, and tiadition has just as certainly handed down the same storv with romance added and date and scene of action changed. The fortifications which exist to the present day throughout our western valleys tell a tale of fierce resistance against a powerful foe. We have evidences of this almost within the corporate limits of Hamilton itself, in what is known as the "Devil's Back Bone," above the old river bridge on Campbell's Island; and while it was never built as a dam against Tamenund's loosened waters, it was doubtless erected to break the attack of an aggressive northern enemy.

No territory of equal extent in the West has more frequent examples of the work done by the mound builders-than the Miami valley, and in Butler county they are especially numerous. At least twenty distinct ev- idences of their labor are clearly traceable in this county, though possibly their existence has been overlooked by even the present possessors of the land whereon they stand. Time and the elements have obliterated those features which centuries ago would have made these works prominent marks for the eye. It is but a few years since some very interesting ancient rock inscriptions were discovered upon the farm of J. J. Rice, in Lorain county. He had been the owner of the land twenty-five years before his attention was attracted by the strange hieroglyphics, although he is spoken of as a very intelligent gentleman. The rock exposures in this instance written upon "are in the form of low flat domes, on which at the center there is no soil, the bare places embracing one or two square rods of surface each." It would scarcely appear possible that such palpable traces of pre-historic work could have remained so long in plain sight and yet have passed unremarked. In another instance near Independence, in the northern part of this state, a rock covered with drawings was disclosed while workmen were stripping the earth from a quarry. The overlying soil was from five to eight inches thick, and was composed of decayed vegetation. Directly over the markings stood a tree more than one foot in diameter, while within a few feet from the spot was an oak tree over four feet in diameter. This last instance tells a story of vast antiquity, and the two cases show clearly how the venerable pages of history may lie beneath our eyes either unread or unopened.

Perhaps these illustrations have little to do with the Miami valley. They are cited only to enforce the remark made above, that here in Butler county possibly the existence of relics, equally as valuable and interesting as the Lorain and Independence ones, has been overlooked by the present possessors of the land. As stated, there are twenty clearly defined irfstances of mound builders' work in Butler, of which the following is a list : the report of the Ohio centennial commissioners, and is given in the hope that it may stimulate investigation on the part of those who now own the soil where these ancient works are located. A very few years hence, in all probability, the process of destruction will have been so far accomplished that the mute narrative will be entirely lost. Every minute fact should be now searched out and preserved ere it be too late. For many years the Egyptian inscriptions were regarded as undecipherable, whereas now the skillful archaeologist can read theirfmeaning and record the events which they were intended to perpetuate to remote generations. So, too, with regard to the flinty writings left by this ancient people. Some one gifted with the keen sight and the instinct necessary to the task will surely be born, who will piece together the scattered fragments of a wonderfully mysterious history, and present in intelligible form that which is to us meaningless.

It is interesting to note in this connection how, in all ages and under all conditions, whether civilized or uncivilized, there has ever existed in man a strong desire to be remembered by those who shall come when he is gone. He does not wish to be forgotten. and seeks to leave some lasting evidence that he has had an existence, even though his name should perish. With those nations so far advanced in art as to have written characters in which deeds may be told to posterity, this desire takes form in pyramids, obelisks and monuments, commemorating great events or reciting the virtues of those who in their time were eminent among their fellows. With the Aztec and Peruvian race, this desire took shape in massive temples, blazing with a golden refulgence scarcely less dazzling than the sun, in whose honor they were erected. The early dwel - ers in the' Ohio region, devoid of a knowledge of letters, ignorant of mechanical powers, unskilled in the secrets of the craftsman and the working of the metals, sought to hand down in burial and religious mounds the evidences that they had lived.

While the waters have worn the stones of Thebes, and the silent air has crumbled the marbles of Troy and Babylon, the rude work of the mound builders, wrought from the yielding earth which even the dew dissolves, remains to tell of their life mayhap thousands of years since the last of their race lay down to his last rest in these peaceful valleys. Strange that such perishable labor should so outlast that which would appear most enduring.

That this singular race had undisputed possession of the territory included in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, there can be little doubt. They were probably most numerous in Ohio, however, as is indicated by a larger number of earthworks than can elsewhere be found. A marked difference is observable in the material of the relics discovered in the lake regions and those unearthed in Ohio. On the lake border the mound builders had vast stores of copper, easily accessible, and often to be found in solid nuggets, which a little skill combined with patience could fashion into tolerable hammers and axes. They were ignorant of smelting processes, and could not therefore use the copper ore except when it came to hand in sizes suitable to their use. It is also certain that they had no knowledge of the secret by which copper may be tempered to a hardness equal to steel - a secret known to the Peruvians, and now among the "Lost Arts." Had they understood this, they would have turned quarrymen, and left masonry instead of earthworks. Owing to the greater abundance of copper in the Lake region, a larger number of metallic relics have there been found than in Ohio. The specimens of copper utensils discovered and preserved in this state to the present time does not exceed one hundred. This remark refers to implements of a larger class, such as axes, adzes, chisels, knives and plates. Of these and like articles only seven or eight have been found in all the works of the mound builders in Butler county, and the spots where they were discovered is uncertain. Beads and small ornaments have been found in much greater abundance, and still the entire list of separate copper relics so far known in the state is less than eight hundred. If their knowledge of the working of copper was imperfect, their ignorance of the working of iron was absolute, for in the Hocking valley and other iron regions of the state nodules are not infrequently found as large as the fist, which could have been put to some domestic or warlike use had not the metal been too refractory for their manipulation.

While but few traces of metallic relics can be found hereabouts, stone implements of all sorts abound. It is but natural that this should be so. No section of the country was so densely peopled by the mound builders as this, if the number and extent of their works may be taken as an indication of their populousness; and the material from which to fashion their domestic utensils or warlike weapons was abundant. Wherever relics of this ancient people are found, there is a marked similarity in their handiwork. That is to say, the discoveries made with respect to the stone workers in Europe show many features in common with the remains found in America. Here, too, the relics dug in New Jersey have a general resemblance to those of the Miami valley, Illinois or California. Locality had something to do with the fashion of their ornaments or tools, just as it has in our day. Now, Paris sets the costumes of the world. Dresden is the standard in ceramic art, and Sheffield establishes the grades in cutlery. So in their times, it may be possible that certain localities were notable for particular fashion or kinds of stone work, and this would be determined by the advance made by the workers toward civilization, and by the stone material most accessible. It is noticeable that the general outline of their implements is the world over the same, however they may vary in the details of finish or the elegance of workmanship. Not a little appreciation of graceful forms and lines of beauty is observable in their craft. Even the implements of common sorts, designed for everyday use, were fashioned with a painstaking almost incredible. In a very interesting paper by Charles Rau, on the subject of "Drilling in Stone without Metal," the labor which was necessary to the shaping of their tools is shown in an exceedingly forcible manner. Mr. Rau conceived the theory that the perforations made by the stone workers were done with a stick, to which a rotatory motion was given by a bow string, of which a familiar example may be seen at any time in a jeweler's store. Sand and water were also to be used, as in the case of the toothless saws employed in marble yards. To test this theory he conducted an experiment, choosing "a flat oval piece of diorite, of great hardness, not quite seven inches long, about five inches wide, and in the middle part one inch and three-eighths thick.' He describes the process by which he finally succeeded in piercing the stone, and states that he could never endure the drilling more than two hours in succession - not so much on account of the physical exertion as because the task was a monotonous one. His experiment demonstrated "that two hours of constant drilling added, on an average, not more than the thickness of an ordinary lead pencil line to the depth of the hole." It required two years to complete the perforation, the hole being made half way through, and then reversing the stone to meet the first drilling from the other side. The result was a piece of work which in every respect resembles the specimens taken from mounds, the openings on each side tapering toward the center. He also showed how the drilling might be done by a tube of copper, used in the same way as his drill stick, the difference being that in the latter case the lx>re throughout was of uniform diameter while in the other case the hole resembled two cones united at their apices.

This instance is cited to show the wonderful patience exercised by the stone workers. Mr. Rau was two years in accomplishing his work, which was a simple affair in comparison with many of their ornamental productions. Lafitau says that "a North American Indian sometimes spent his lifetime in making a stone tomahawk, yet without entirely finishing it." In the collection of relics- owned by Dr. J. B. Owsley, of Jacksonburg, Butler county, Ohio, are several specimens which must have required long time and great labor to perfect. One is of very dark, close-grained stone, of intense hardness. When entire it was about four awl one-half inches long by two inches in width, and say two-thirds of an inch thick. Laterally a hole was drilled through, and when found the stone had been broken with a clear-cut fracture exactly at the place of perforation. This stone is finely polished on its exterior, while the bore is as smooth and true as could be made by the finest modem turning lathe. This relic was without doubt the property of some chief of high rank, and was an ornament or badge of distinction. as the nobility of our day wear the stars and emblems of their orders. It was certainly never intended for any practical use, and the refractoriness of its material precludes the idea that it was ever part of a stone coat of mail, such as it is pretty certain the men of that day were wont to use as armor. It is reasonable to suppose that it was suspended from the neck as an adornment, and from its high polish one would be led to infer that it may have descended from sire to son through generations.

Dr. Owsley's collection numbers about four hundred separate relics. His largest stone hatchet weighs nearly fifteen pounds, and the wear upon the cutting end indicates manv years - perhaps centuries - of use. A most singular stone is shaped not unlike the brass knuckles used by the rowdies of this day in their brawls. It has no perforations, but is hollowed in such a manner as to allow the hand to grasp it firmly, grooves having been made at each end into which the little and index fingers fit perfectly. If this were the purpose of the instrument, it was made for a large and powerful man, as its length in entire condition was not far from six inches, its breadth about two inches, and its thickness a little less than one- inch, the general contour being that of a parallelo-

From the workmanship displayed in the relics found in the Miami valley and Ohio, it is pretty certain that the mound builders who dwelt here were of the more advanced class in artistic excellence. It is as natural that this should have been so as that they should have been more numerous here than anywhere else. In sparsely settled countries the people are generally ignorant. With growth in numbers comes competition in all manner of work, and increased skill and intelligence. Here there were all the conditions to invite settlement and to make life pleasant. A land well wooded and abounding in game; fructifying rains, and streams which made communication with other parts of the country possible; a sun, whose geniality warmed into hearty growth their cereals while it gave to them health and strength ; scenery to entertain the eye and appeal to the semi -barbarous imagination - all these elements conjoined to invite the rpound builders to this location as their home. If pleasant to our sight, who have so many sources of enjoyment that they did not possess, how many more attractions must it have had for a people who were so keenly alive to external impressions. It must have been to- them a paradise.

It appears not a little singular, when the extent and interesting character of the subject involved is considered, that no more systematic plan of investigation has been pursued with the view to gleaning aH the knowledge possible respecting the mound builders. Through this lack of system much that might have helped to solve the mysteries which surround their existence is lost beyond recovery. Relics priceless to the archaeologist have been destroyed, lost, or have so wandered from the locality in which they were found that they are looked upon by their present owners, who know not even where they came from, as conveying no intelligible story. So, too, with the mounds and other ' earth-works in which relics abound. They will be changed beyond recognition, or so altered as to be of no value to the student, within a very short time. Even a generation suffices to effect such a result.

This is notably true of the works whose wrecks are traceable in Butler county. In the foregoing account the argument was made that from the superior workmanship displayed in the relics found, it is* fair to conclude that this valley has been the residence of a race above the average of their time. From the number of their earthworks between the Big and JJttle Miamis it is likewise fair to make the deduction that here the aboriginal tribes must have been more populous than elsewhere. Travelers, whose observation has been wide and judgment acute, have said that nowhere have they seen a section capable of supporting a denser population than the Miami valley. Here are to be found the largest works of the strange race after whose history we are groping. At Miamisburg is one among the great mounds of the country, sixty-five feet high by two hundred and sixty-five feet in diameter at the base, while Fort Ancient in Warren county presents a line of embankments four miles long by from ten to twenty feet high. In Butler county these works are so numerous, and show so plainly by their positions relatively to one another that they were built upon a system which had a definite object in view, that it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the region must have contained a dense population, and likewise must have been directed by leaders who possessed no inconsiderable engineering skill.

Beginning in the southern part of the county, on the line of the Miami river, embankments can be traced throughout the course of that stream into Montgomery county. They may have been in remote times even more numerous than we now judge them to have been, for the late Montgomery P. Alston, Esq., stated that the one on his farm near Symmes' Comer has been to a very great extent washed away in his lifetime. It was much longer in his boyhood tlian now. Others may have been entirely removed by encroachments from the river before the white man came to this region. George F. Elliott said during his lifetime that a mpnnd near his farm in St. Clair township has been carted away piecemeal, until its proportions are very perceptibly diminished. This mound is on an eminence which overlooks an extensive stretch both up and down the river. Upon the opposite side of the river, a mile or more below, are the traces of an earthwork which, when the two were of full size, must have been within sight of each other. Taking the relative position of these two works into consideration, the presumption is strong that the one was built as a complement to the other; the mound a vantage of observation, from which warning could be given to those behind the embankment upon the other side, in case of hostile approach.

and the author of these sketches presents his suggestions with much diffidence, lest he be deemed presumptuous. Many authorities regard embankments of the kind referred to as merely inclosures, the uses to which they were put of course being conjectural. It would appear more natural to view them as defensive works, rather than to seek some mysterious significance in their presence. From the scriptures, and also from authentic profane history, we learn that men in the early days of our race everywhere exhibited the instinct to erect fortifications. The phrase "He built a walled city," or its equivalent, is frequently met with in ancient writings. The walls of that time were walls of stone, because their builders possessed the knowledge of working in iron, and could fashion tools suited to the hewing of stone. The walls of the mound builders were of earth because they did not possess that knowledge, and where embankments are found it is certainly not a stretch of imagination to look upon them as the defenses of a city. If two or three thousand years hence, our race and history having perished, explorers of that age should find on some of our . late battlefields the evidences of earthworks, and should find also that these works bore such a relation to one another in their positions as to show unity in design, how would the archaeologists of that day be most likely to interpret their discoveries? Would they seek , some financial meaning in what they discovered? Or would they view the relics time had spared as the mementoes of a strife between warlike peoples ? In questions surrounded by so much obscurity, the simplest solution is the most likely to be the correct one; and as before said, the relation to one another of the earth- works in Butler county and its vicinity are in the nature of a chain of fortifications. What the river may have been in the time of the mound builders we do not know. It may have been fordable in certain seasons at the very places where these embankments were built, and their purpose may have been to repel incursions from a hostile tribe. Where our best information is only theory, this explanation appears as plausible as any.

All earthworks belonging to the period treated of in this article may be classified under a very simple nomenclature. The mounds were for purposes of religious worship, for burial, for monuments in perpetuation of the memory of the dead, and for observation. Still another class, few in numbers, symbolized the superstitious faith of their builders. Two or three illustrations of the latter kind are found in Licking county, Ohio, and have been described at length by learned writers. It is noteworthy that this sort of mound is always in the likeness of some creature other than human. One near Newark is in the form of an eagle in flight, two hundred feet long, and about the same from tip to tip of wings. It is said that search in this effigy mound revealed an altar with traces of charcoal and ashes. Another in the same county is in the shape of a crocodile, two hundred feet long by a breadth varying from twenty feet at the widest to the tips of the tail and nose. The largest yet discovered is in Adams county, is in the form of a serpent, and is more than one thousand feet long. We have in these instances of ancient works something strangely like the forms carved by the Egyptians and other races four thousand years ago. with the difference that the one is in earth and the other in stone. The crocodile was an object of worship among the Egyptians, the serpent was venerated as the type of wisdom, and the body of a lion with the beak and wings of an eagle is among the common forms. of sculpture brought to light by explorers in that part of the world where the human race had birth.

The fact that nations so widely separated as were the mound builders from the dwellers in Egypt should have had a common veneration for the same beasts, reptiles and birds, hardly to be explained by the argument that human nature is in all climes and ages the same, and that therefore man, ignorant of a knowledge of the true Maker of all things, will everywhere single out the same objects for his adoration. It would perhaps be difficult to prove that the mound builders of the Miami valley had never seen a crocodile ; but it would be equally as hard to demonstrate that they had ever seen one, for the probabilities are against the existence of such a creature in Ohio, at the period when it is supposed they flourished. Yet his form was delineated in earth in such plain fashion as to give an unmistakable likeness. The similarity between the objects worshiped here and under the suns of Africa is most readily explained by the common origin of mankind. The mound builders but perpetuated the traditions of their fathers.

But to return to the Miami valley, from ' which we have somewhat strayed. The mounds in Fairfield township, near Symmes Corner, are six in number, and the embankments two. One of these embankments incloses a mound. - It is the same referred to as having been to a considerable extent washed aw?ay by the river, and presents a horseshoe shape, with the ends toward the w^ater. The mound was for burial purposes.

Many years ago M. P. Alston assisted John Maxwell in some investigations of this work. A skeleton was taken out, apparently that of a very large man, but the bones were long since lost. The boys of that day treated the skull with little veneration. and used it as a football on the green. Other relics not now remembered were also unearthed. Among other things there was a very good parrot, fashioned of clay and apparently dried in the sun. The resemblance to that bird was so plain as to make clearly evident what it was intended

Directly east of the works just mentioned, in section No. 9> *s a mound one hundred and fifty feet in circumference by twelve feet high. This work had an entrance in its base large enough to admit a man in creeping posture. Charcoal has been found in its interior, and two copper plates, pierced, were taken out which are still in the possession of the heirs of Robert Cooper, the owner of the land. They are parallelogram-shaped, and have the appearance of ornaments to be worn about the neck. Still further to the east, and on very nearly the same line, in section No. 3, is another mound, having a similar entrance large enough to admit a dog. and rabbits have been frequently chased into and out of it. Perhaps as singular a discovery as any was in the case of the Emerson mound. This, within the recollection of persons now living. was twelve feet high, though not more than eight feet now. Excavations several vears ago revealed ten or twelve good-sized flat stones, set on edge like curb stones, and surrounding a central stone larger than its fellows. The figure formed by the stones was a square, and a large number of bowlders were close by. The research was not prosecuted, however, and the hole has since been filled. In section No. 10 the remains of the second fortification are clearly discernible, though much reduced in height since thev were first observed. This work is on the bank of a creek which runs into the Miami river. In incloses perhaps eight acres, is oval in shape, and on the face presented to the creek has an opening or gatewav, as if a passage to the water had been left. All of the works above referred to should be systematically explored, and it is probable the task will lie attempted ere long, if the co-operation of the property owners can be gained.

A peculiarity of many earthworks is that they are composed of material which evidently does not l>elong to the locality where they are found. In such cases the works are usually of a memorial nature, or investigation discloses human bones. From these facts it has been conjectured that mounds exhibiting such peculiarities are the graves of persons who held high rank among the tribes, and that at their death their subjects brought earth, each from the locality to which he belonged, as a mark of respect to the dead. Such a custom would not be strangely at variance with the manner of our own time, when frieilds send from remote parts of the county floral offerings in tribute to the memory of the nation's departed great. The correctness of this view is substantiated by the fact that in many instances, as is the case with some of the mounds near Symmes' Corner, there are no hollows or depressions in the immediate vicinity of the mounds, as would be the case had the material of which they are built been taken from the neighborhood. Where the mounds, by the presence of altar stones and charcoal, as mentioned before, indicate that their purpose was of a religious nature or for the offering of sacrifices, the material is usually of the same kind as that near the works. This is also true with regard to embankments of a defensive or warlike character, so that the distinction between tumuli commemorative of the dead and those erected for other purposes is pretty clearly defined.

In many instances, where stone relics are found in great abundance, there are no traces of earthworks remaining. If such works did exist in those localities, they have been washed awav to such extent that the plow now brings their contents to view. It may be, however, that such places were extensive encampments, and that the stone implements were left behind in the hurry' of flight from an enemy, or in the confusion of removal to a new abode. A collection of this nature is owned by Robert Livingston, who lives in Fairfield township, close by the Hamilton county line and not far from the Miami river. His specimens were all found on or near the surface, in the course of ordinary'farm operations. Among them are some forms not frequently seen. One is a flat piece of copper, an inch and one-half broad by three inches long, and about one quarter of an inch thick. One end is hammered to a shape somewhat resembling a common ax, while the other end shows nearly a straight line; its sides are parallel. It is but little oxydized, and at the end shaped for cutting - if that was its purpose the metal exhibits an appearance much like what we see when a blacksmith makes a faulty weld, the metal being scaled up so as to show two layers. This was probably done by excessive hammering in fashioning it to the desired form. What its uses were would be difficult to say. It must have been grasped in the hand of the user, for there is no groove by which a handle could be attached, nor perforations for suspension from the neck as a badge or ornament. It may have served for removing the flesh from the skins of animals, as has been conjectured was the purpose of similarly constructed stone implements.

Another relic is curious in its form, and is of a grayish sandstone. It is in almost exact likeness of the lead plummets which we see every day in the hands of bricklayers, or suspended from a surveyor's tripod. It is smaller than the plummets, is finely polished, and has close to its apex a neatly cut groove entirely around its circumference. This groove is scarcely deep enough to allow a string to be securely tied in it, otherwise the relic might be classed among ear bobs or pendants. Possibly its maker lost it before the groove was cut to a depth necessary for such a use.

Of arrow and spear heads, Mr. Livingston's collection has some fine specimens. They are polished with a skill which modern art can not surpass. Some of the arrow heads are as clear as white agate, while others are as brilliant as cornelian. He has also an almost perfectly preserved specimen of an oval flat stone with a double perforation, such as has been heretofore described. This was the work of an unskilled artisan, however, as in drilling through from both sides he has failed to make his perforations meet exactly in the center.

specting that remarkable race. The purpose of this article has been to stimulate investigation by those who have within reach means of examining the works of a people who have passed away, leaving no history save that which the surface of the land where they dwelt presents. If each farmer in Butler county upon whose property are the traces of that race would devote a little of his idle time to the probing of the works, he would soon find himself interested, and possibly a valuable contributor to archaeological knowledge.

Leaving for the present investigations respecting the mound builders, let us look very briefly into the condition of the race found here by the early settlers of the continent.

The Indians

What the Indians were whom Captain John Smith found in 1607, and the Pilgrims met in Massachusetts during the winter of 1620, we know something about. Their counterpart exists to this day, so far as the character of the race goes. Like white men, there was a difference between one Indian and his brother. The one might be kindly disposed, and the other implacable and unforgiving, as witness the contrast shown by a comparison of Uncas with King Philip.

> Uncas held out the ear of corn, as a symbol of peace to the pale-faced stranger, while King Philip had nothing but the tomahawk and the firebrand for the intruder.

It should be borne in mind that while the inter-tribal communication of what we now call news was slow and uncertain, that news was not likely to lose any of its intensity by transmission. A race by nature inclined to imagination and hyperbole would not suffer a story of wrong to lose force on its journey. It may be doubted whether the right of the contest between the early settlers of Massachusetts and the Providence plantations with the Indians has ever been told. But among the Indian tribes of that time it is only natural to suppose that the outrages perpetrated by lawless adventurers traveled faster than the good deeds of honest emigrants, in verification of the adage that a lie will travel a league while the truth is getting its boots on. So it happened that while the fight was going on along the Atlantic coast, the news of that contest was conveyed toward the west. As the increase in numbers of the whites and their modes of warfare, with which the Indians were unable to successfully contend, forced back the tribes from the seaboard, the chiefs found their influence waning and manv of them sought death voluntarily in hopeless battle rather than survive to live under the disgrace of lost prestige. But a stand must be made somewhere, and the region which comprises Ohio and Kentucky afforded the best vantage ground for a desperate stand. They afterward took part with the parent country in its struggle against the colonies. That fight was lost, and they had nothing to hope from the favor of their quondam allies, and naught but retribution to expect from the white dwellers. Following the war of the Revolution came the Wyoming massacre, and minor events of a similar nature which further roused the blood of the settlers, and the contest was finally brought for final arbitration to the section where we live. The wager was at last decided in favor of the whites, at the expense of St. Clair's defeat and many contests of minor note, until the

If one asks what this has to do with the transition period between the records which the mound builders have left and the times when our fathers found the Indians here, the answer is not far to seek. The Indians of 1620 showed no civilization beyond that found the world over in common where the savage state exists. They recognized marriage in a rude sort of shape. The old commanded respect, and their counsel was heeded. But with regard to art of any sort, they exhibited a far less development than the race of. mound builders of which we have treated in the above. They had flint arrow heads, and iron points to their spears. They cultivated maize, and were familiar with woodcraft in the pursuit of game and the dressing of their prey for food and clothing. These are matters which man, in such conditions as they were placed, learns of necessity, for without such knowledge he must die. But in the works of the mound builders, coupled with the evidence of their numbers, we have proof of nations possessing no mean attainments in military engineering, with energy and force enough to complete their plans. Now in the Indian, as he was found in the settlement of this continent, there is no evidence of any such intelligence. He was brave, and even his bravery was that of cowardice. He fought from behind trees and stumps, but never ventured battle in the open field if the risk could be avoided. He had no system of fortifications or defensive lines, the one covering the other, that in case of defeat he might fall back to a refuge, as we find was the case with the race which preceded him. In many such points does he show that while he might have retained the courage of his ancestors - if the mound builders were the fathers of his race - he had degenerated in industry and the arts which tend to make a people great. He had become lazy, and could no more build the mounds of his fathers than the indolent Egyptians of today could rear the pyramids of four thousands years ago, the mausoleum of a single king. The mound builders may not have been illustrious sires, but certainly their sons had no reason to complain of the loins whence they sprung. Such was the character of the tribes, or the bands which occupied this valley when the white man sought here a home.