Crawford County, Ohio - Chapter 1: Geological History, 1912

Formation of the Earth, Including Crawford County, Together with the Discovery of the Oldest Known Inhabitant - Age of the Earth According to Sir William Thompson's Calculations - Prof. Tait's Views - Thickness of the Earth's Crust - Different Theories - Age of Crawford Geologically Considered - The Order of Creation - Geological Strata and Sub-Strata - The Glacial Period and Theories Concerning It - Ancient Animal Life - Plant Life - Pre-Glacial Man - Mastodonic Remains Found at Bucyrus - Our Early "Settlers" - The Mound Builders and Indians.

In studying the geological history of Ohio, it is a pleasure to know that Crawford county is very old. Although the county was settled less than a hundred years ago, it ranks equally in age with the older portions of the earth. It is difficult to decide as to what that age is, as eminent geologists differ by many millions of years. Dr. CroU places the age "at not less, but possibly much more, than sixty million years." The stratified rocks of the earth's crust give abundant proof that the whole fauna and flora of the earth's surface have passed through numerous cycles of revolution - species, genera, families, appearing and disappearing many times in succession. On any supposition it must be admitted that these vicissitudes in the organic world can only have been effected with the lapse of vast periods of time. The argument from geological evidence is strongly in favor of an interval of probably not much less than one hundred million years since the earliest form of life appeared upon the earth, and the oldest stratified rocks began to be laid down.

the earth on three different lines. First the internal heat and rate of cooling of the earth : He holds that estimating from the known rate of increase of temperature downward and beneath the earth's surface, and the rate of loss of heat from the earth we have a limit to the antiquity of the planet. He shows from the data available, that the superficial consolidation of the globe could not have occurred less than twenty million years ago, or the underground heat would have been greater than it is. Neither could it have occurred more than four hundred million years ago or the underground temperature would have shown no sensible increase downward. The distinguished scientist admits that a difference of 380,000,000 years as to the age is considerable latitude, but says that a wide limit is necessary. He inclines to the theory that the lower, rather than the higher, figure is nearer correct and places his estimate as to the age of the earth, judging from heat, at one hundred million years. Second, the tidal retardation of the earth's rotation: He argues that owing to the friction of the tidal wave, the rotation of the earth is retarded, and is therefore much slower now than it must have been at one time. He contends that had the globe become solid some ten thousand million years ago, or indeed any antiquity beyond a hundred million years, the centrifugal force due to the more rapid motion must have given the planet a much greater polar flattening than it actually possesses. Third, the origin and age of the sun's heat: He proceeds upon calculations as to the amount of heat which would be available by the falling together of masses from space, which gave rise by their impact to our sun.

The vagueness of the data on which this argument rests may be inferred from the fact that in discussing this Prof. Tait places the limit of time during which the sun has been illuminating the earth, as, "on the very highest computation, not more than about fifteen or twenty million of years," while, later on in the same volume, he admits that "by calculations in which there is no possibility of large error, this hypothesis (the origin of the sun's heat by the falling together of masses of matter) is thoroughly competent to explain one hundred million years of solar radiation at the present rate, perhaps more." It is safe to say, therefore, the age of the earth, of which Crawford county is an important part, can be placed at a hundred million years. To those inclined to criticise wise scientists as to their wide divergence as to the age of the earth, their attention is called to the fact that an equally wide divergence frequently exists in the result of an election, based on the fact as to whether the figures are given out before or after the votes are cast and counted.

Another important point on which scientists differ is the thickness of the earth's crust. Naturally all are interested in the solidity and substantiality of this county. Early writers were of the opinion the center of the earth was a seething mass of fire, demonstrated by the volcanoes belching forth their molten lava; and the thickness of the crust was ten to twenty miles, shown by the fact of earthquakes bursting this crust where it was thinnest. Three theories also are advanced as to the interior of the earth. First, that the planet consists of a solid crust and a molten interior. They hold that the ascertained rise of temperature as you go into the earth from the surface (about one degree for every sixty feet) is such that at a very moderate depth the ordinary melting point of the most refractory substances would be reached. At twenty miles the temperature, if it increases progressively, as it does in the depths accessible to observation, must be about 1,760 degrees Fahrenheit, and at fifty miles, about 4,600 degrees, about 1,500 degrees hotter than the fusing point of platinum. This school holds that all over the world volcanoes exist from which steam, fire, and molten lava burst forth. Many as these active volcanoes are today, they form but a small proportion of the volcanoes which have been in existence since early geological times. It is held, therefore, that these numerous funnels of communication with the interior could not have existed and poured forth such a vast amount of molten rock, unless they had some inexhaustible base of supplies. Also, the product of these eruptions from Europe, Asia, Africa, America and the islands, from widely separate regions, when compared and analyzed, are found to exhibit a remarkable uniformity of character, which can only be accounted for from the fact that they come from one common source. The abundant earthquake shocks, which affect large areas of the globe, are maintained to be inexplicable except on the supposition of a thin and somewhat flexible crust.

The second school holds that with the exception of local hollow spaces the earth is solid and rigid to the center. In 1839 Prof. Hopkins, of Cambridge University, advanced the theory of a much thicker crust, and perhaps a solid interior. He held that the revolution of the earth on its axis, and its revolution around the sun, could not possibly be as they are if the planet consisted of a central ocean of molten rock surrounded with a crust of twenty or thirty miles in thickness; that the least possible thickness of crust, consistent with the existing movements of the earth, was from eight hundred to one thousand miles, and that the whole might even be solid to the center, with the exception of comparatively small spaces filled with molten rock. Sir William Thompson took the same view, saying that the assumption of a very thin crust requires that the crust shall have such a perfect rigidity as is possessed by no known substance. The tide-producing force of the moon and sun exerts such a strain upon the substance of the globe that it seems in the highest degree improbable that the planet could maintain its shape as it does, unless the supposed crust were at least 2,000 to 2,500 miles in thickness.

The third school holds that while the great mass of the earth is solid, there exists between the crust and a solid interior a mass of molten rock. This suggestion was advanced by Rev. O. Fisher as a harmonious solution between' the two schools, but, geologically considered, there was no foundation for any such solution of the problem.

It has now been shown as reliably as possible that the structural area of Crawford county is practically a hundred million years old, and whether the crust of the earth at this point is 2,500 miles thick, or less, it has certainly sufficient thickness to sustain the weight of any increase of population which the most optimistic figurer might desire.

Next comes the formation, the building up, of the earth. There are two accounts of the formation of the earth, and both fairly agree. The shorter is given first :

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

Second Day - God created the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.

Third Day - God gathered the waters under heaven unto one place and created the dry land, and caused the land to bring forth grass and herbs and trees.

occupy the land, and then he made man after his own image and gave him dominion over every living creature, the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air, and the animals of the earth. And He said, "I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life. I have given every green herb for meat."

The other account is the geological, showing the earth is built up of several distinct strata, deposited in the different ages, and by the fossil remains found in the different strata scientists are able to trace the eras in which the earth became habitable to different animals. The Ohio Geologist, Prof. Edward Orton, commences the strata underlying Ohio with the Silurian. The fossil remains show there were two such distinct deposits of this era that geologists call it the Lower and Upper Silurian, the Lower Silurian being the first deposit. On top of the Upper Silurian came the Devonian, and on this the Carboniferous. Above came the Glacial deposit, a rearrangement of the exterior of the earth, the other strata having been built up from the interior.

Scientists and archaeologists differ as to what caused the great glacial period which swept down from the frozen north some eternities ago. There are several schools. One accounts for it by the precision of the equinoxes, holding it was due to the laws of gravitation and celestial mechanics, and that the earth's ecliptic or ecliptical revolutions around the sun have been constantly changing, so that what was once the equatorial climate was in the Arctic region and vice versa, thus accounting for the fact of remains of tropical animals and plants being found in the Arctic regions.

The Annular School holds that when the earth was forming it was surrounded by a series of annular belts, the results of igneous fires raging during the ages of the earth's formation, solidifying, as the centuries passed, into the rock which eventually formed the solid surface of the globe. From the intense interior fires gases forced their way, and followed the earth's movements, and although thousands of miles away, still within the earth's attraction. This vapor separated into strata, the heaviest nearest the earth, but they all revolved around the earth similar to the present rings of Saturn. The question was whether these great belts would break away into space, or whether the attraction of gravitation would attach them to the earth. After any number of millions of years the attraction of gravitation slowly but surely conquered, and the gases, solidified by ages, became a part of the earth, changing its form, and each succeeding attachment marking a geological epoch, accounting for the changes in vegetable and animal life, and the appearance of new types in both the vegetable and animal kingdoms. In the great fight which raged between the elements endeavoring to escape, and the earth endeavoring to hold them, it can be readily seen that as the earth obtained the mastery, and finally, by the attraction of gravitation, brought them nearer and nearer, increasing in speed as the earth's power of attraction became stronger, they would be attached with great force, producing powerful shocks and violent convulsions of the entire earth. For some reason the attraction was strongest at the poles, lessening in force-as it reached the equator, and it was one of these violent convulsions, which caused the glacial epoch, driving, pouring, hurling, all the frozen north down toward the equator. Geology shows, so far as Ohio is concerned, this great belt of ice and snow, rocks and boulders, earth and debris was forced southward until it covered all the great lakes, and practically all north of the Ohio river. The geological formation shows it covered Ohio from a point north of where the Ohio river enters Pennsylvania, extending thence southwesterly to the Ohio river a few miles above Cincinnati, Crawford county being covered by this glacial deposit.

Under whatever circumstances the earth was formed the first deposit on the surface was the Silurian, and some ages later another deposit or solidification, called the Upper Silurian, to distinguish it from the first or Lower Silurian. In the Silurian deposits are found cellular marine plants and the lower order of fish, while in the Devonian there are a few specimens of cryptogramic ferns of vascular plants and trilobites with abundant fish. Humboldt states in his Cosmos that: "The oldest transition strata contain merely cellular marine plants, and it is only in the Devonian system that a few cryptogramic forms of vascular plants have been observed. Nothing appears to corroborate the theoretical views that have started regarding the simplicity of primitive forms of organized life, or that vegetable preceded animal life, and that the' former was necessarily dependent upon the latter."

The carboniferous deposits were next, and in the lower strata saurians are found, together with fish in abundance and occasional specimens of land plants. The upper carboniferous strata contain plants in abundance, some sixty feet high, and these, in the coal deposits, show that the earth was thick and dense with plants and trees. Here the saurians show diminution in size, and monster land animals make their appearance, these animals showing through the different strata of the carboniferous deposits that while all lower strata were water animals, as the world was building these water animals became half land and half water, and it is only in the upper carboniferous strata that the land monsters of the past were found; and after animals came the birds. In all these strata, commencing with fish, followed by reptiles, animals and birds, no trace of man is found.

In the Lower Silurian, Ohio is underlaid with the Trenton, Utica, and Hudson river limestones in ascending order. In the Upper Silurian come the Medina, Clinton, Niagara and Heidelberg layers. It is in these Silurian strata oil and gas are discovered, geologists advancing the theory that oil is formed from chemical action on the fish that abounded in that age. In the Devonian are the Devonian limestones and the Hamilton and Ohio shales. Then come the carboniferous, the lowest bed being called the Waverly, and this divided into the Bedford Shale, Hamilton Shale and Ohio Shale, the latter again divided into the Huron, Erie and Cleveland Shale. On top of these is sub-carboniferous limestone, covered with a layer of conglomerate series. From this to the glacial drift are the coal series the strata in which coal is found. The strata underlying Ohio is taken from the celebrated Ohio geologist, Prof. Edward Orton. ^he carboniferous strata was formed millions of years ago (more or less) by the deposits of vast forests, which some chemical action turned into coal. It is probable that during the carboniferous period the atmosphere must have been warmer and with more aqueous vapor and carbonic acid in its composition than at the present day to admit of so luxuriant a flora as that from which the coal seams were formed. The vast beds of coal found all over the world, in geological formations of many different ages, represent so much carbonic acid once present in the air.

In different sections of the state the various strata occur at varying depths, due to the different upheavals of the earth in the ages long past; the strata also vary in thickness in different localities.

The sub-strata of Crawford county, or any other section of the earth, shows that this globe was millions of years in forming. It was originally decidedly liquid in character, the fires of the interior contending with the waters of the surface for the mastery, the interior throwing out vast masses to be attacked and disintegrated by the waters which covered the earth. Through long ages the battle between the two elements - fire and water - continued, and the interior won, and a foundation for the earth was laid; true it was soft, spongy and marshy, but still a foundation. The geological strata show, at this time, no specimens except those of the lowest order of water animals, practically only threads with life. In what is known as the Silurian deposits, as the ages advanced these water animals became firmer, and instead of being merely threads of life, they had some body and the trilobite appears. Of the deposits of these earlier forms of marine animal life. Dr. Buckland draws the conclusion that "the eyes of the trilobites carries to living man the certain knowledge, that millions of years before his race existed, the air he breathes, and the light by which he sees, were the same as at this hour and that the sea must have been, in general, as pure as it is now."

the water animals, until finally the monsters of the deep held full sway of the globe. Some of these sea animals showed there was land, their construction being decidedly reptilian, but the land was low, marshy and boggy, as the remnant of no strictly land animal was found. The world was in the possession of the water animals, reptiles, and the indications are it was in their possession many thousand times longer than it has been in the possession of man. Dr. Buckland, the English naturalist, says : "When we see that so large and so important a range has been assigned to reptiles among the former population of our planet, we cannot but regard with feelings of new and unusual interest, the comparatively diminutive existing orders of that most ancient family of quadrupeds with the very name of which we usually associate a sentiment of disgust. We shall view them with less contempt, when we learn, from the records of geological history, that there was a time when reptiles not only constituted the chief tenants and most powerful possessors of the earth, but extended their dominion also over the waters of the sea; and that the annals of their history may be traced back through thousands of years, antecedent to that latest point of progressive stages of ani- .mal creation, when the first parents of the human race were called into existence."

It was from the remains of these innumerable fishes and reptiles that through some chemical action the oil fields came and through them the gas fields.

Later deposits of the earth showed stronger and higher land plants ; and commencing with the lowest order of land animals, these animals showed increasing solidity of structure, evidencing the fact that the earth was becoming habitable. All this took ages, the interior constantly throwing out great masses until it finally established a foundation, which the almost universal sea failed to sweep away ; on this it builded. The geological structure further shows the air was not yet habitable, the atmosphere too light, as no remnants of bird life are discovered, everything lived either in the water or on the earth. And it is only on the last deposits of the Carboniferous strata that birds appear. Traces of fish, reptiles, plants, animals and birds are

The nearest approach to the human form is in the topmost drift of all, just before the glacial period when fossils of the quadrumanna (four handed or monkey tribe) were found; one, three feet high, contained four incisor teeth, two canine, four false grinders, and six true grinders in a continuous series. So we have the progression. "The earliest animals and plants are of the simplest kind. Gradually as we advance through the higher strata, or, in other words, as Ave proceed through the record of progressive creation, we find animals, and plants of higher and higher structure till at last we come to the superficial strata, where there are remains of kinds, approximating to the highest of all animated tribes, namely, man himself. But before the above discoveries there remained one unmistakable gap in the series. The quadrumanna, or monkey, who forms an order above common mammalia, but below the bimana, or human tribes, \vere wanting. Now, this deficiency is supplied; and it is shown that every one of the present forms of animated existence, excepting the human, existed at the time when the superficial strata was formed. The only zoological event of an important nature subsequent to that period is the creation of man; for we may consider of a lesser importance the extinction of many of the specific varieties which flourished in the geological ages, and the creation of new."*

The earth was now created, inhabited by everything - except man, and then came the glaciers from the north, rearranging and shifting the entire universe.

The Glacial drift, the geologists divide into six parts, the lowest being the Glacial drift, above this the Erie clays, the Forest bed, the Iceberg, drift and the Terraces or Beeches which mark intervals of stability in the gradual recession of the water surface to its present level. f

The geologists say the Glacial period was one of continual elevation, during which the topography of the country wzs much the same as now, the draining streams following the lines they now do, but cutting down their beds until they flowed sometimes two hundred feet lower than they do at present. In the latter part of this period of elevation, glaciers, descending from the Canadian islands, excavated and occupied the valleys of the great lakes, and covered the lowlands down nearly to the Ohio river. Next, by a depression of land and elevation of temperature, the glaciers retreated northward, leaving in the interior of the continent, a great basin of fresh water, in which the Erie clays were deposited. This water was drained away until a broad land surface was exposed within the drift area. Upon this surface grew forests, largely of red and white cedar, inhabited by the elephant, mastodon, giant beaver, and other large, now extinct, animals. Again comes the submergence of this land and the spreading over it, by iceberg agency, of gravel, sand and boulders; the gradual draining off of the waters, leaving the land as we now find it, smoothly covered with all the layers of the drift, and well prepared for human habitation.

In not one of any strata prior to the glacial deposits have the fossil remains of man been found. Fishes, reptiles, animals and plants, are shown to have existed, prior to the glacial period. Prof. Frederick Wright mentions a stone instrument found by Dr. C. L. Metz near Cincinnati which scientists are confident was made by man. And Prof. Wright obsen,'es from all the circumstances connected with the discovery that it shows "that in Ohio, man was an inhabitant before the close of the glacial period. We can henceforth speak with confidence of pre-glacial man in Ohio. It is facts like these which give archaeological significance to the present fruitful inquiries concerning the date of the glacial epoch in North America. J When the age of the Mound Builders of Ohio is reckoned by centuries, that of the pre-glacial man who chipped these palaeolithic instruments must be reckoned by thousand of years." Again he says: "It is not so startling a statement as it once was, to speak of man as belonging to the glacial period. And with the recent discoveries of

Dr. Metz we may begin to speak of our own state as one of the earliest portions of the globe to become inhabited. Ages before the Mound Builders erected their complicated and stately structures in the valleys of the Licking, the Scioto, the Miami and the Ohio, man, in a more primitive state, had hunted and fished with rude instruments in some portions at least of the southern part of the State. To have lived at such a time, and to have successfvilly overcome the hardships of that climate and the fierceness of the animal life, must have called for an amount of physical energy and practical skill which few of this generation possess. Let us therefore not speak of such people as inferior. They must therefore have had all the native powers of humanity fully developed, and are worthy ancestors of succeeding races."

From the geological structure of Crawford county we find the first known inhabitant of the county, and it is a pleasure to know he or it was one of the prominent occupiers of the earth. On August 13, 1838, in digging a millrace, Abraham Hahn came upon the bones of a mastodon in a swamp just east of the Toledo & Ohio Central shops at Bucyrus.* It was found at a depth of only six feet. This animal was a forest monster, which existed in the carboniferous era. The mastodon also existed after the glacial period. This section of Ohio has a formation of several hundred feet of glacial drift, overlying the carboniferous, so the mastodon may have roamed this county after the glacial drift, or in that drift was swept down from the north, incased in the ice and rocks and debris, and had lain there undisturbed for centuries. Other remnants- of mastodon have been found

Mastodon - Land animal; twelve feet tall, body thirteen feet long; similar to Megatherium but heavier. Tail different, being like an elephant's tail.

Plesiosaurus - Water animal, about forty-five feet long; head and neck like a snake, about seventeen feet long; body perhaps six feet in diameter and fourteen feet long, tapering to a point. Formed of vertebrae from head to tail, with ribs in body. Lived on fish and sea grasses.

in Holmes township. However they came here, they were the first known occupiers of the county. Crawford county, therefore, has definite proof that it was in existence, and habitable, in the ages- long ago.

As to when man first inhabited this section the geological indications are that prior to the Glacial drift there were none here, and none anywhere else on the face of the globe - man as he exists today. When the country was discovered and the Indians inhabited this region, they were not the first settlers. Indian lore shows that legends had descended to them of a prior race being in this section ; how many hundreds or thousands of years prior is an indeterminable question. Practically all over the state are elevations, the work of what are called the Mound Builders. The line of the Glacial drift, geologically considered, is pronounced, and both inside and outside of this line the work of the Mound Builders is found. The glacial drift rearranged, shifted and covered everything, so the Mound Builders and their work probably followed after the glacial drift. What became of the Mound Builders is a problem. Physical geography gives five distinct races of men, and among them is the Indian. If the Mound Builders of centuries ago became the Indians of the present the problem is easily solved. But the tendency of creation has ever been upward, and thousands of years should have produced more of advancement in civilization than the nomadic wanderers through our forests. It took millions of years to develop water into the lowest order of animal life; more millions to develop a more solidly constructed marine animal. The same is true of land, and millions of years passed before

Dinosaurus - Half reptile; half animal; four legs; hind ones' strongest; sixty to eighty feet long; head like a giraffe, with neck twenty-five feet; body twenty-five feet and about eight feet in diameter; tail, starting same size as body and thirty-five feet long, tapering to a point.

Iguanodon - Reptile; fifty to sixty feet long; front legs small, hind legs strong; could walk on two feet similar to a kangaroo; length mainly in neck and tail, similar to dinosaurus.

Megatherium - Land animal; twelve feet tall, body thirteen feet long, including tail eighteen feet. Lived on roots and branches of trees; tail large at body.

the incipient tendrils of watery ground became plants and trees, and the delicate animalculae developed into the higher order of brute life. The Mound Builders leave behind them crude implements, and earthworks showing they were a constructive race, living in communities, and with indications of civilization. The Indians were the reverse, and from the indications of what the Mound Builders were and the known facts of the Indian, it is difficult to conceive any connection between the two races. While the Indians were anything but a peaceful people, even before the advent of the white man, it is but just to them to say they only developed the highest' and most insistent and persistent ideas of cruel savagery after they came in contact with a superior order of civilization.