Preble County, Ohio - Chapter 2: Geology and Topography, 1915

Chapter 2: Geology and Topography

the heaven be gathered together unto one place, .and let the dry land appear, and it was so." Thus in general terms, does the Bible describe the process of world-making, and science has so far found no contradition to that general statement.

The Glacier Period

In regard to that particular part of the earth's surface with which we have to deal, the latest geologists substantially state the case to be, as follows: That in the process of world-making the great Laurentjan, or sometimes called Labradorean, and the Kuwatin ridges of Canada heaved their granite backs above the ocean waves^, and as the ages merged into the vast cycle of time, they extended their borders southward, well across the United States, and they became covered with sand and vegetation, and the dying vegetation added its mould and matter, making what we call soil, which furnished life and substance to a profusion of various vegetation, which, as the ages slipped by, became peopled and teemed with animal life varying from the mite to the mammoth; and streams flowed down the slopes of the land to the sea; but there came a time, brought about by the shifting of the earth's poles, or some other great cataclysm of nature, when those two great ridges, the geological backbone of the North American continent, became covered with mountains of ice, variously estimated to have been from three to eight miles thick at the central point of the ice masses, and as ice is known to be fluid when of great depth, it flowed south and southwest down the general slope of the land, and paused not in its onward march until it had crossed the line of the Ohio river, and brought up against the high lands of Kentucky opposite southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana, and rendered the Ohio river a lake, extending perhaps to beyond Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Then the ice sheet receded a part of the way, and again advanced, until it is claimed there were no less than six periods of advancement and reces- sion, with long periods of hundreds of years between the recessions and the advancements. So long were some of them that great forests again covered the land, only to be swept down and destroyed by the ruthless icy wave; but, finally, nature adjusted conditions and the great ice sheet retreated to its northern home permanently, melting away before the rays of the sun.

This period of ice is called the glacier period. That vast moving body of ice ground and pulzerized the underlying earth, stone and sand, leveling 'hills and piling up other hills, and brought down other material from the north; then the melting of the ice resulted in great floods of water, which washed and distributed the earth material and drifted and piled it up in many places many feet thick, and the material so left is called drift. Preble county lay right across the path of that great ice machine and the erosive process of its melting floods ; and, generally stated, the soils of the county, so wonderfully fertile, were then deposited and have so remained, except as changed by deposits of decaying vegetation, or the washing effect of our streams. The many boulders scattered over our county, and especially those of our great boulder belt, the greatest in Ohio, on account of their structure and composition, are mute witnesses that they were a part and parcel of that invading wave of northern ice. The scouring of the great ice sheet, followed by the floods of water that swept down from the face of the melting and retreating ice mass, have eroded the three main valleys of the county, to wit: Big Twin creek, Seven Mile creek and Four Mile creek, which with their tributaries drain the whole county and form part of the Great Miami valley, except the northwestern corner of the county is drained by Whitewater and its tributaries, and a part of southern Gratis and southeastern Somers township are drained by Elk creek, which flows into the Great Miami.

The Stone Crop

Three groups of stone crop out in the county. The Cincinnati group (blue limestone), covering the greater part of Israel, Somers, Gratis and Lanier and Twin townships, and the eastern half of Gasper township, with a long finger of that stone extending up Twin creek to beyond Euphemia. The balance of the county is covered with the Niagara group, with the Clinton limestone showing as cap rock several feet thick. Along the junctions of the two great groups named above, except at West Elkton, there seems to be an island of Clinton extending northeast and southwest some five miles long by about two miles wide.

there being no elevations of the county that would properly be designated as hills, except along Whitewater in Jefferson township and along Seven Mile in Somers, and along Four Mile in Israel township, and the Morning Star hill in Lanier township at the junction of the Cincinnati and Niagara groups, and is covered with the heaviest cap of Clinton in the county. And even those hills, while they seem big to us in comparison with the balance of our land, are not what geographers designate as hill land, because they are not of great heights, and can generally be cultivated and cropped from base to summit. And it is noticeable that along the juncture of the two great groups of stone numerous springs of most excellent water are found, and they materially affected the early settlement of the county. One known as the Royer spring in Twin township is one of the largest springs in the state, flowing no less than one hundred and seventy-five thousand gallons per day, summer and winter, and in the early settlement of the county was utilized to run a small mill for over forty years. While this is the largest, there are several others that flow from five thousand to fifty thousand gallons per day.

The tremendous erosive force of the floods that in ages past have swept down our streams can not be adequately described; but let me tell where it may be seen, and then the observer can turn his imagination loose. About half a mile west of Camden, Paint creek cuts across what is known as Devil's Backbone hill, and by going down stream below the hill and looking north may be seen the saddle cut across the hill, that at one time certainly must have been the bed of the creek, but which is now some fifty feet or more above the present bed. By some weakness in the rampart of stone, the waters found a lower outlet and have cut and quarried away the stone, leaving a sheer bluff some sixty to eighty feet high as a monument of its lormer power. A similar demonstration on a smaller scale may be seen where little Four Mile breaks through the hills to join the main stream in Israel township.

A Belt Of Boulders

The great boulder belt of the county deserves more than a passing notice, because it is the largest in Ohio, and one of the most remarkable in the United States. Its central line begins about a mile east of Gettysburg. There the belt swings in a great band one to three miles wide southeast to about two miles north of Eaton, and there curves eastwardly and runs east by south, passing out of the county east of Enterprise, and extending to about or beyond Farmersville in Montgomery county. There are many boulders scattered over the county outside of this belt, but they are separate and not form- ing a distinct body. In the boulder belt they range from pebbles to stones weighing many tons, mostly granite, syenite, quartzite, etc. One measured "by the writer in 1888, on the farm of Wilson Frank about one and a Tialf miles north of the courthouse, was elliptical in form, over fourteen feet long by eleven feet wide and rose three and a half feet high, and the ground was probed three and a half feet deep without finding the bottom of the stone. The top was oval in form, and the outside lines were regular, the stone of a dark color and a very dense and hard formation. These are the measures, and its weight can be approximately figured.

In the boulder belt where they are undisturbed they are so thick as to render cultivation very tedious, and in some places well nigh impossible. They are all azoic stone ; that is, they belong to the stone of that age when no life existed in the world. There are no cliffs or layers of stone like them, showing on the surface to the north, probably nearer than the north shore of Lake Superior, and it is claimed that for some of the boulders there are no localities known to the north with similar surface rock. Some of them plainly show that they have been worn and rubbed and grooved by the glacier action. It is known that when two glaciers in their descent crowd against each other, that the heavier and stronger bends the weaker somewhat, and then they flow side by side to the lower levels and often carry great bands of stone clustered along the junction line, which bands of stone are called moraines. Does this band of stone across our county mark the line of such glacier action during the process of world making? These boulders have been largely gathered from the surface of the land and piled or built into fences, or crushed and spread on the roads, and they form most excellent road material ; but while the surface of the land appears clean, the plow and ditches encounter many boulders beneath the surface. There are yet some large boulders left, but the farmers have been industriously clearing them off, and they are fast disappearing. The method adopted by the early settlers, and up to about thirty years ago, was to build a fire around and over a big boulder and get it very hot, then throw a few buckets of cold water on it, and it would crack off slabs of stone, if it did not break into pieces ; and two or three fires generally softened its heart so that it could be hauled away ; but when dynamite came into use it made the biggest boulders yield quickly.

Nature Kind To The Soil

The soil of the county is generally warm and fertile and adopted in an eminent degree to nearly all crops raised in this latitude, and our farmers have learned to utilize its generous nature in the raising of those crops which it produces best, until they have made the county, if not the wealthiest county of the state per capita, as shown by the tax duplicate of the state, certainly not lower than second place on the list. The drift formation has been modified by other agencies in many parts of the county, and scattered through it, and between the boulder clay and the modified drift, exist seams of sand and gravel sometimes in large deposits, and through these seams water percolates, and in sinking wells generally the striking of one of these seams or beds of gravel leads to an abundant supply of excellent water being found; most notable of which are the wells at Eaton, where at a depth of one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet is found the supply of water for the Eaton water works; while at West Alexandria, at about one hundred feet, is found a supply of most excellent water that will flow out of pipes several feet above the surface of the ground, and it furnishes the water for the village water works.

In the central part of the county the boulder clay is at the surface and lies directly on the sheet of limestone beneath, while in the northern part of the county the boulder clay is covered by a modified drift some twenty feet in depth; while at Camden the gravel bed comes nearly to the surface and extends downward to a depth of one hundred and eighty feet before reaching the limestone sheet beneath, as shown in the drilling of two oil wells at that village some twenty-five years ago. The gravel depth at Camden is the greatest of any gravel bed known in this part of the state, and at a depth of a few feet the gravel bed is found to be filled with water, so much so that in a large section of territory wells sunk fifteen to thirty feet furnish a neverfailing supply of most excellent water.

The Niagara stone and, to a lesser extent, the Cincinnati group, has been extensively utilized in the past in making lime, of which it makes the highest quality, and for many years there were large and prosperous lime kilns near Lewisburg and New Paris, and their product was in much demand, not only at home, but was shipped to many points in Ohio and neighboring states ; but recently it has been discovered that the stone crushed makes one of the most valuable of our road-making materials and for concrete, and large crushers have been erected at those places, and their product finds a ready market in many counties and cities, while the burning of lime, being less remunerative, has been practically abandoned. In these groups of stone are found many fossils of the former ocean bed, bivalves, corniculums, trilobites, etc., notably at Eaton, where many forms are found in greater abundance and perfection than in any other known locality. /

Striking Oil

In the limestones of these groups and the Clinton, many places show and smell of petroleum deposits, and this fact has caused three oil excitements in the county, separated by intervals of ten to twenty years, when wells were sunk, three at Eaton to a depth of some sixteen hundred feet or more, and two near West Alexandria were drilled over twelve hundred feet, and two at Camden to a similar depth, but no paying oil found, but pockets of gas were encountered, but of no great amount, except at Camden one well struck and obtained a considerable supply of gas that was utilized to some extent, until the seapage of water shut off the supply, and where the watej was pumped out the supply of gas was resumed, and it would be of some use if some means could be found to cut off the inflow of water. During each oil excitement many oil leases of land were made, and are recorded in our deed records, thus, at least, the oil crazes had the effect of benefiting the county recorder.

The Clinton limestone in this locality resembles sandstone and resists fire better than any other formation, and during the early days when fireplaces furnished nearly all the heat for the house, it was much sought and used for the backs and sides of the fireplaces and chimneys.

Hills And Hollows

The exact geographical position of the county and the elevation of the various places of the county, and as to highest and lowest points, have been much discussed, and it seems that no more fitting place could be found than in closing this chapter. The figures given are those of the United States Geographic Survey, and show the elevation in feet above the sea level. But first the geographic location:

Intersection of Main street, Eaton, and the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati & St. Louis railroad. Longitude 84 degrees 37 minutes and 47 seconds. Latitude 39 degrees 44 minutes and 39 seconds.

Intersection main cross streets, West Alexandria. Latitude 39 degrees 44 minutes and 41 seconds. Longitude 84 degrees 31 minutes and 54 seconds.

The elevations above sea level are given in feet for the towns as those of the general level, as that of West Alexandria is in road at west corporation line, northwest comer section 3, township 5, range 3 east.

Water Seven Mile creek at south line of county, 750, lowest in county; Camden, 841 ; top of hill east of Camden on West Elkton road at the crossroads, 1,003; Devil's Backbone hill, 1,000; Morning Sun, 1,000; West Elkton, 1,040; Elk creek at south line county in section 36, Gratis township, 800; hill one mile north of West Elkton, 1,093; Gratis, 876; Twin creek at east county line, 776 ; Enterprise, about 900 ; Ingomar, 929 ; Dadsville, 945 ; Sugar Valley, 1,094; Muttonville, 950; Wheatville, 967; Greenbush, 926; top of hill about a mile northeast of Sugar alley, about 1,140; West Alexandria, 900; east county line on Dayton pike, 941 ; Eaton, 1,050 ; top Harris hill, five miles west of Eaton, 1,200; Dayton pike, top of hill, one mile east of Eaton, 1,038, highest point between Eaton and Dayton ; New Lexington, 899 ; New Hope, 1,154; New Westville, 1,185; top watershed west of Orangeburg road on Eaton and Richmond pike, 1,211; state line on pike west of Westville, 1,085; New Hope Station, 1,170; Pleasant Hill, 1,105; county line north of Pleasant hill, 1,068; Lewisburg and Euphemia, 989; Verona, 1,027; Georgetown, 1,028; road center northeast quarter section 18, Jefferson township, 1,195; Sonora, 1,050; West Manchester, 1,090; Eldorado, 1,140; Gettysburg, 1,177 ; Orangeburg, 1,193; t°P hill one and a half miles west of Orangeburg on National road, 1,230; Brennersville, 1,009; Oklahoma, 1,070; Brinley, 1,130; county line north of Brinley, 1,207; New Paris, 1,036; top of hill one and a half miles from New Paris on Eaton road, 1,225; top Morning Star hill, about 975; top water in Royer spring, 1,014; Four Mile creek at south county line, about 800.

The maps for the west three and one-half miles of the county are not yet available. As information to those who wish to pursue this matter further, I will add that the United States Geographic Survey publishes maps showing the territory fifteen miles square, showing the elevations of the country for each' variation of twenty feet. The maps are named for some town in that square. Two maps, Miamisburg and Brookville, show the east mile of this county, and two maps, Oxford and West Manchester, show the central part, and two maps, Liberty and Richmond quadrangles, show the west three and one-half miles of this county, and the interior department at Washington mails them to any one for ten cents per map.