Miami County, Indiana - Chapter 1: Physical Features, Geology, Etc, 1914

Miami County - Location and Boundaries - Lines of Survey - Rivers AND Creeks - Underlying Rocks op the Upper Silurian and Devonian Periods - Quarries and Lime-kilns - -Along the Mississinewa - Bog Iron Ore - The Glacial Epoch - The Wabash River - Moraines - The Glacial Drift - Economic Geology - Clay's - Sand - Gravel - Natural Gas .and Oil - Primitive Forests and Their Destruction.

Miami county is situated north and east of tlie center of the state. It is bounded on the north by Pulton county; on the east by Wabash and (irniit counties; on the soutli by Howard, and on the west by Cass and l''ulton counties. The forty-lirst parallel of latitude crosses the northein part, about two miles south of the northern boundary, and the elKhty-sixth meridian of longitude lies four miles west of the eastern bounihiry. The main l)ody of the county is in the form of a parallelogram, twelve miles from east to west and thirty miles from north to sontli. Measured by the lines of tlic official survey, the northern boundary is the line separating Congi-essional townsliips 29 and 30, and the soutliern boundary is the line separating townships 24 and 25. A strip two miles wide along the western l)order of the county lies in range 3, east, tlien comes all of range 4 and four miles of range 5, east. At the soutlieast corner of this parallelogram lies the civil township of Jackson, which extends four miles farther east than the main portion of the county. The total area of the county is 384 square miles.

Flowing westward through the center of the county is the Wabash river, wiiicli separates the townships of Erie and Peru on the north from Butler, Wasliington and Pipe Creek on the south. Farther north is the Eel river, which flows in a southwesterly direction across the county throiigli the townships of Richland and Jefferson. The ]\Iississinewa river crosses the eastern border about the middle of Butler township and flows northwest, emptying into the Wabash a short distance above the city of Peru. The first white people to locate along this river pronounced the name " JIassissineway, " which it is said corresponded closely to the Indian pronunciation. The Indian name is "'Na-mahchis-sin-wa, " and means "much fall in the water," which indicates in a general way the character of the stream.

Big Pipe creek flows across the county in a northwesterly direction, touching every township south of the Wabash river except Deer Creek, and leaves the county in .section 11, township 26, range 3, where it enters Cass county. Its principal tributaries are Nigger, Walnut, Honey and Turkey creeks. The Nigger rises in Harrison township, near North Grove, and empties into Pipe creek in the northeast corner of Clay township. Walnut creek rises in section 21, in Harrison township, and flows northward until it discharges its waters into Pipe creek near the northeast corner of the same township. Honey creek is formed in the southeastern part of Harrison township by the east and west forks, then flows northward past Amboy and empties into Pipe creek in section 11, Jackson township. Turkey creek flows northward through the eastern part of Jackson township and finally empties into Pipe creek near the eastern line of section 18, township 25, range 6, east.

Little Pipe creek has its source in Butler town-ship, about halfway between Big Pipe creek and the ]\Iississinewa river. Its general course is toward the northwest, through the townships of Butler and Washington, until it joins the Wabash river near the lower part of the city of Peru.

Through the townships of Harrison, Clay and Deer Creek, in the southwestern part of the county, Deer Creek flows in a westerly direction, crossing the western boundary line into Ca.ss county three miles north of the southwest corner of Miami. Farther south is South Deer creek, and near the village of Miami the Middle Fork empties into the main stream.

North of the Wabash river the principal creeks are Flowers, Weesau (also written Wesaw), and Washoni's. The Big and Little Weesau creeks drain a large part of Union township and unite near the northwest corner of the old Weesau reservation, whence the main stream flows southward until it empties into the Eel river a little below the town of Denver. Flowers and Washoni's creeks both empty into the Eel river near Chili, the former just above and the latter immediately below the town. These streams, with a number of smaller ones, provide a natural system of drainage, which has been supplemented by a number of ditches, so tluit practically all the land iu iliaiui county lias thus been brought under cultivation and the soil rendered more productive.

In geoldgical formation, Miami county belongs to the Upper Silurian era, with traces of the Devonian in the western part. The former is represented by the Waterlime and Niagara groups and the latter by from thirty to thirty-tive feet of Coi'uifurous limestones. The surface of the county consists almost entirely of glacial depo.sits - clay, sand and gravel - varying in depth from a few feet to 300 feet or more, and the few rock exposures are at points where the glacial drift has been washed away by the action of the streams. In 1872, E. T. Cox, then state geologist, made a report upon the rocks of Miami county, in which he says:

"The rocks which were seen, and probably all the rock exposures of the county, are of upper Silurian age and seem to be equivalent to the silico-magnesia limestone mentioned in the description of Cass county, and the overlying limestones; the first mentioned beds much more argillaceous than in Cass couutj- - in some places becoming a magnesia argillite. ... The highest seam exposed is a limestone eiiuivalcnt to tile rock band at Delphi, in Carroll county. A light brown colored magnesian limestone, which, from false bedding, is often seen with strata dipping at every angle almost to a perpendicular. . . . This bed was formerly burned for lime at Dukes" t^uarry, adjoining Peru, the county town, but the kiln is not now in use. It is crowded with skeletonized fossils, yet still retaining a sufficient modicum of animal matter to prevent the lime from fully slackening in the short time usually allowed for that purpose by workmen. Hence, this lime is not suited for plasterers' use, unless the mortar is permitted to i-emain in damp vats for several months before being spread upon the walls of the houses. This is too slow a process for our fast age, yet the Roman architect, who built for ages, would use only mortar which had been prepared for a year or more before it would be needed by the artificer."

At Dukes' (juarry a surface opening was made into the beds of the "silico-magnesia" limestone mentioned by Cox, but the stone was not suitable foi- building purposes. The beds of light brown colored limestone, referred to in the report, are generally local and of small extent. About a mile north of Dukes' quarry, on the farm of E. H. Shirk, an outcrop was formerly worked, and it is probat)le that the stone exists through the entire intervening area between the exposure on the Shirk farm and Dukes' quarry.

In the lower beds along the Wabash river, at Lyde's quarry, two and a half miles west of Peru, Cox found a deposit "distinctly laminated, the seams being filled with clayey matter and pyrites." Upon examina- tion he decided that this stone might be used for foundations, oi- where protected from the weather, but upon exposure the clay and' pyrite matter would decompose and the stone become "shelly."

Similar beds of stone have been developed at Trippier's quarries, two miles east of Peru, on the south side of the Wabash river, and at Wallick's mill on Little Pipe creek, near the Lake Erie & Western Railroad. State Geologist Thompson, in his survey of 1888, classifies the rock exposures at these quarries as Niagara limestone. Concerning the lime burned at Trippier's, Cox said: "It is similar if not equal to the Delphi lime, slakes perfectly, works 'cool,' bears transportation well, makes a strong and almost hydraulic cement, and deserves a more extended market."

Near the mouth of the Mississinewa river there are extensive beds of Niagara limestone suitable for building purposes, the outcrop showing for over a mile. On the same stream, three miles east of Peru, are the "Pillared Rocks," interesting alike to the scientist and the lover of beautiful and romantic scenery. At this point the river is arrested in its northerly course by a solid wall of "cherty, silico-magnesia limestone" and makes a rather abrupt turn to the westward. The action of the rushing water against a stone wall composed of different textures, has caused an unequal disintegration of the rocks, carving them into pillars, rounded buttresses, alcoves, grottoes and overhanging shelves of beautiful and fantastic shapes. Cox says that in 1872 the summit of the bluff was covered with cedars. The "Pillared Rocks," with their celebrated picnic ground, form one of the beauty spots of Miami count}'. Locally, these rocks are known as the "Seven Pillars," but are often confused in name, by persons unfamiliar with them, with "The Cliffs" farther up the river.

Farther up the Mississinewa there is a precipice on the north side of the stream - part of the elevation known as "The Cliffs" - and at this point Cox took the only section in IMiami county in his survey of 1872. That section was as follows :

Sandy soil, 4 feet ; white glass and grit stone, 10 feet ; porous lime rock, 18 feet; cherty, laminated argillaceous limestone, to river, 35 feet; total, 67 feet.

Concerning the porous limestone here Cox says: "Blocks of large size may be obtained, and the unexplored beds, if found sufficientl.v compact, will prove valuable for quarry purposes, as well as for 'burning.' " At the time Cox made his survey he found that some fine, square blocks of stone had been taken from Thomas' (quarry, in the pool of the mill dam at Peoria. This stone was quarried at the water's edge, below the cherty stratum of the silico-magnesia division, but owing to its location was difficult to obtain, so that the quarry could never be operated at a profit, though the geologist pronounced it the best stoue he had seen in the county.

The stone for the pilaster coping in the ('atholic church at Peru was taken from a quarry near Brouillette's, on the Mississinewa river above Peoria, and lias stood exposure to the weather well. In appearance it is of a modest, neutral tint, that contrasts harmoniously with the red brick walls, and resembles the Delphos limestone, of Ohio. This effect has since been destroyed by covering the church walls with stucco work.

Cox's prediction tiial the porous liiiifslonc along the Mississinewa would valuable for (|uarry purposes, as well as for burning," has not hem rcali/ed, and the reason is explained by Thompson in his report on .Miami county in 1888. He found the Niagara limestones of the Mississinewa to be dolomitic, "hard and sub-crystalline in structure, only fit for foundation work or flagging, and difficult to work." Says he: "The Niagara limestones of Miami county do not possess the properties of valuable building stone, although they may be profitably used for foundations, or other rough work. The Waterlime rocks near Peru, however, are much better even for the roughest work, conse(|Uently there have been no special efforts made to develop a quarrying industry along the Mississinewa river. For the manufacture of lime the Niagara limestones furnish excellent material at many points along the Wabash and Mississinewa rivers, and several parties have made profitable use of the advantages afforded."

The Waterlime rocks are exposed along the Wabash river for a distance of about half a mile above the Lake Erie & Western Railroad bridge, and again about a mile west of Peru. Among the quarries opened in these outcrops perhaps the most important were the O'Donnell, Brownell and Kissell cjuarries, in the order named as one descends the river. The ledges or layers range from three to sixteen inches in thickness and maj^ be quarried in any desirable dimensions. The stone is a hydraulic limestone, of fine texture, bluish in color, and is well adapted to foundation work, bridge abutments, etc., the thin layers being extensively used for flagging.

The only rocks of the Devonian formation that are exposed in the county are along Pipe creek from the vicinity of Bunker Hill to the county line. North of Bunker Hill, on Big Pipe creek, for a distance of about three-fourths of a mile are almost continuous exposures of Corniferous limestone, the larger proportion of which is a bluish gray limestone, somewhat crystalline in structure, much of it being well adapted to rough masonry, such as foundations, bridge abutments and similar work. As a rule the Corniferous limestones of iliami county are too cherty and silicious to make good lime, though there are a few localities where fairly good lime has been burned from the gray, fossiliferous limestones that overlie the cherty deposits.

In the northern part of the county bog iron ore is found in considerable quantities at several places. Furnaces were operated along the Eel river in early days and an excellent quality of iron was produced. The collection of the ore was attended by rather heavy expense, however, and with the introduction of improved transportation facilities the Eel river furnaces were abandoned, owing to their inability to compete with mines more favorably situated. All over the county there are traces of iron in combination with the soil and also filtered into the limestone rocks. When these rocks become disintegrated and mixed with the glacial drift a soil is formed that is not exceeded in fertility anywhere in the state. (See State Geologist's Report for 1888, p. 177.)

Probably no phenomena have proven more perplexing to students of geology than those which brought about the destruction of vast beds of rock and the distribution of their fragmentary remains over large areas of territory far from their original location. For illustration: The large bowlders found in all parts of Indiana, commonly called

''nignrerlifads. " are of a grranitoid charactpr. belonging to beds tliat are nowhere represented in the state, and must have come from some phiee beyond lier boi'ders. \'ai'ious tlieories have been advanced to aecount for tliese eondilions, the most prominent of whieh. and the one most generally aeeejited by scientists, is the Glacial theory-. The Glacial epoch, or Pleistocene ])eriod of geologic time, sometimes called the "lee Age." comprises the earliest part of the Qiiai"ternary period. During the latter jjart of the Tertiary period, preceding, there was a gratlnal lowering of temperature throughout what is now termed the north temperate zone, until the entire surface of the earth in that region was covered with large liodies of ice called glaciers.' These glaciers were formed by pci'iddical oi' intermittent snows. During the periods between these I'alls of snow, that whieh Jiad already fallen became so compressed by its own weight that the entire mass was in time converted into one .solid body.

The pressure upon the yielding mass of snow imparted motion to the trlaciei-, which carried with it rocks, soil and other mineral matter. As it moved forward the grinding and equalizing work of the glacier ultinuitely wi'ought great changes in the topography and meteorological conditions of the earth. Not only were the mountain peaks in the path of the glacier woin down and the general leveling of the earth's. surface brought about, but also vast quantities of earth and sand were carried forward by the streams of wjiter formed by the melting of the ice and deposited in the ocean. In this way shores of the continent were pushed forward iluring a period of several centuries and the superficial area of the land was materially increased.

As a general rule, the course of the North American glaciers was toward the south. One of them extended over Canada and the northeastern part of the United States, reaching from the Atlantic ocean on the east to the slopes of the Rocky mountains on the west, and covering the entire basin of the Great Lakes. When the ice melted, the rocks and other debris carried along by the glacier were left to form what is known as the glacial drift, also called till, bowlder clay and older diluvium. As the glacier glided slowly along - probably not more than one foot per day - the bowlders and other hard ininerals at the bottom, pressed downward by the gigantic mass above, left marks or scratches on the lied rock, and from these marks or stris the geologist has been able to determine with reasonal)le aceuracj- the course of the glacier by noting the direction of the striic. Concerning the course of the glacier in this state. State Geologist Thompson, in his report for 1888, says: "In Indiana the general direction of the glacial movement was a little west of south. There are localities in the state where the striae or sand marks on the ice-ground rocks run from east to west, and in almost every other horizontal direction ; but by careful study these are found to be merely local exceptions to the general rule. . . . The glacial deposits of Indiana by their conformation, by the materials found in their mass and by the stria- underlying them, have come into the state from a direction almost north and south."

The accumulation of earth and stone carried by the glacier was sometimes heaped up along the margin, where it formed a ridge or deposit called a lateral moraine. When two glaciers came together, the deposit formed at the point of conjunction is called a medial moraine. The nearly level deposit under the body of the glacier is known as the ground moraine and the ridge formed at the farthest point reached by the glacier is the terminal moraine. The valley of the Ohio river was the terminus of the glacier that once covered Miami county and the channel of that stream owes its origin to the melting of the ice and the flow of water which always underlies the bed of a glacier. As the melting process w^ent on, the terminal margin withdrew to the northward, and wherever there remained undestroyed rock barriers or dams they gave direction to the waters of the terminal moraine. In this way the course of the Wabash river was determined, or modified, centuries before Columbus discovered the New World. To quote again from Thompson :

"From Wabash to Delphi the Wabash up-lifl (called the Wabash Arch) has determined the course of the Wabash river, just as it also determined the form of the drift mass immediately south of it. The river itself is runuiug along the general line of a wide fracture or system of fissures in the Niagara rocks from Wabash to Logansport. At the latter place it has cut through a spur of the Devonian formation, and at Delphi it curves around the ba.se of a curious conical up-lift of the Niagara limestone. To my mind it is plain that the river simply follows the example of the ice current which went before it plowing out the great furrow which we call the Wabash valley. At present evidence is wanting to prove any theory as to what particular part of the glacial age was devoted to the work of channeling out a groove for Indiana's greatest river, but it would appear that this must have been the first result of the glacier's contact with the low but compact and stubborn knobs of the Wabash Arch. Subsequently, as the ice field grew in weight and power it arose and surmounted this barrier, grinding away its conical peaks and tearing out of its hollows in many places the nonconformable Devonian and Carboniferous rocks."

in uortherii Indiana that marks the southern boundary of the Great Lake basin contains several mounds that are from 150 to 200 feet in height, and "the existence of a grand moraine lying across central Indiana has been fully demonstrated." Along the line of this great moraine the contoui- of tile drift mass is found to be comparatively regular, the glacial matter having been more uniformly deposited. In this territiiry lies Jlianii eouiity. where there is al)undant evidence of glacial action, though great local changes have taken place in the surface of the drift mass since it was first deposited. Upon the retreat of the ice the whole drift area was left bare and desolate, accompanied by an arctic teinpei-ature and without either animal or plant life. Rain and wind were active forces in leveling or modifying the surface during the period that elapsed before the northward migration of plant life began to clothe it with a garment of resistance and render it habitable. How long that period may have been geologists can only conjecture. It was by this method that the surface of iliami county was formed.

Concerning the depth of the drift in Sliami county, Thompson says: "South of the Wabash river the drift varies in depth from nothing to one hundred feet or more, though it is only along the streams where it has been carried away by the water that it is wholly wanting. At Bunker Hill, gas well No. 1, it is 58 feet thick; at Xenia (Converse) it is 50 feet thick, while at Amboy, midway between the two points, it is 35 feet thick. The alluvial matter in the Wabash river bottom varies from 5 to 50 feet in thickness. In gas well No. 2, at Peru, it is 10 feet thick; in well No. 1, Northside, it is 36 feet thick, while at the Bearss gas well. No. 4, bored on the high lands two miles north of Peru, the drift is 324 feet thick. It is quite likely that the maximum thickness of the drift north of the Wabash river in iliami county will approximate four hundred feet, even if it does not exceed that ilepth."

At widely distant places in the glacial iltil't of the United States have been found the remains of prehistoric animals of the IMiocene period, but which l)ecame extinct in the Pleistocene, or lee Age. The most common of these remains are the bones of the mastodon - so-called from the shape of its teeth - an animal closely allied to the elephant of modern times. Several times in making excavations in Miami county, a few bones of this great monster of a past era have been found, but it was not until the fall of 1904 that a complete skeleton was unearthed. Some men engaged in digging a ditch about twelve miles north of Peru, found a few bones, which were given to Pred Kite, a taxidermist of Denver. Jlr. Fite employed some helpers and continued digging in the locality until the entire skeleton, with the exception of a few minor bones, was found. He then spent some time in cleaning and articulating tlie parts of the skeleton, supi)l.viii£r the place of the missing bones with wooden substitutes, and in the spring of 1905 his mounted skeleton was finished. It stood nine feet high and measured eighteen feet in length, the tusks being nine feet long. In hauling the bones from the place where they were found to his laboratory two \vagous were used, the entire collection weighing over a ton. It was not long after he had the skeleton mounted until ]Mr. Fite received several offers for it. He finally sold it to a museum in Detroit, Michigan, for .$500.

The principal elements that go to make up the drift formation in Indiana are silica, alumina, lime and iron. Silica is found principally in the clays, sands and bowlders; alumina in the clays and bowlders; lime in the clays, marls, chalk and the peat-like bog deposits, and the iron is abundant in the swamps in the form of bog ore, or in the gravel dei^osits. In Miami county some of the drift deposits are of economic or commercial importance. Some years ago John E. ililliron, of Denver, began a systematic study of the county's mineral resources, especially the clay deposits. At several points near Denver he found clay suitable for a good article of pottery, and clays adapted to the manufacture of tile or brick may be found in nearly all parts of the county. ]\Ir. Milliron also found an ochreous kind of i-lay, of fine texture and strongly impregnated with iron, that makes a good quality of mineral paint when ground and mixed with oil. Paint made from this clay has been used at Denver and has been found to possess durability, and it is believed that a profitable industry might be built uji in lis manufacture. Four miles northwest of Denver, on Weesau creek, there is an extensive deposit of clay that burns to a light cream color, stands fire w'ell, does not warp to any great extent during the burning process, and could no doubt be utilized to advantage in the manufacture of brick, tile and pottery. (See State Geologist's Report for 1888, p. 176.)

Sand in abundance is found along all the creeks and rivers of the county, and in lenticular beds at various places in the drift. A large portion of the iliami county sand is valuable for building purposes and there are deposits that are well adapted for the grinding of glass or for molders' use, but these deposits have not been developed along those lines. ^lost of the sand used in the Indiana glass factories comes from distant points, much of it from outside of the state, and there is no question that the development of some of these beds would prove of great convenience to the glass manufacturer, as well as a source of profit to the owner of the sand-pits.

In his report for the year 1905, State Geologist Blatchley devoted considerable attention to the road-building materials of the various counties of the state. He found gnod gravel alnindant near ]\Iaey and at some other points in the glacial till plain in the northwestern part of the countj-, though most of the gravel in other portions north of the Wabash river was found only along the streams. The south half of the county, also a till plain, has a sandy clay as the surfaeo soil, with a coarse ([uicksand in places that is used for road-building and makes a fairly good highway. The Wabash river bluffs, ranging from twentyfive to forty feet in height, contain very little gravel, being generally composed of clay, but there are good gravel deposits along some of the other streams in the southern part of the county, notably at Bunker Hill and Amboy. At the latter place the upper deposit of clay has been removed along Big Pipe creek and there are half a dozen or more good gravel pits. Blatchley also found small gravel deposits at several places in the moraine south of the Wabash. From the information at his command he expressed the opinion that it would not be necessary to haul gravel more than three miles - probably not that far - anywhere in the county for the construction of roads.

Notwithstanding the statements of the state geologist, in the report above referred to, it is a well known fact that practically all of the Wabash river valley - that is, the river bottom and the bluffs which bound it on either side - is underlaid with gravel. These deposits are the most extensive, the most important, the most easily accessible and the most valuable in the county. In all other portions of the county, the deposits are scattered, less valuable, more expensive to develop and more difficult to render available for use. In the southern part of the county much of the gravel used on the roads is pumped from the bed of Pipe creek, or from other beds below the water level. It is of very inferior quality as compared with the Wabash valley gravel.

No account of the geology of the county would be complete without some mention of natural gas and oil, both of which have been found within tlic county limits. Natural gas is described as "a member of the paraffin series (hydrocarbons), a combination of carbon and hydrogen, about sixty per cent, as heavy as air and highly inflammable." It is composed of marsh gas, or methane, the gas fields in Ohio and Indiana having been formed by the decomijosition of animal matter, while the Pennsylvania field is composed of decaying vegetation. The decomposition, or chemical change, that generated the gas is believed to have taken place at a comparatively low temperature within the porous rocks of the Lower Silurian formation, the Trenton limestone especially serving as a reservoir for the aeeummulated gas.

It is quite probable that natural gas was first used in connection with the Delphic oracles, about 1,000 B. C, and it has been used for centuries by the Chinese in the evaporation of salt water. It was first used ill the United States in 1821, when a well one and a half inelies in diameter and twenty-seven feet deep was drilled near a "gas spring"" at Fredonia, New York, and the gas was iised for lighting the streets of the town. In 1838 the presence of gas was observed at Findlay. Ohio, and about three years later it was found in a well at Charleston, West Virginia. While developing the oil fields of Pennsylvania, in 1860, the gas was used vinder the boilers instead of coal, but the first systematic use of it as a fuel was at Erie, Penns.vlvania, in 1868.

Prior to 1884 little was known of the Trenton limestone, except from the outcrops in Canada and a few places in the United States. In that year gas was struck at Findlay, Ohio, in the Trenton limestone, which marked the beginning of an era of great prosperity for that city and led to prospecting in Indiana. On March 14, 1886, the first gas well in Indiana "blew in" at Portland, Jay county, where the gas was also found in the Trenton formation.

The people of Miami county were among the first in the state to undertake an active search for natural gas. Soon after the discovery of gas at Portland, the idea became prevalent that gas could be found almost anywhere in paying (|uantities by drilling down to the Trenton limestone, and prospecting became general throughout the central part of the state. The Peru Natural Gas and Fuel Company was incorporated on October 25, 1886, "for the purpose of prospecting for natural gas, coal, coal oil, or any other valuable mineral." The first gas well was drilled in the northern part of the city of Peru, at an altitude of 657 feet above the sea level. The following is the record of the strata passed through in drilling:

Alluvium - river drift, 36 feet ; Niagara limestone, 385 feet ; Hudson river and Utiea shales, 454 feet ; Trenton limestone. 30 feet ; total depth, 905 feet.

In this well a small quantity of petroleum was found at a depth of 880 feet, or five feet after the drill first entered the Trenton rock. At 900 feet a strong vein of salt water was struck, but no gas was found. A second well was drilled just south of the city of Peru, but with no better results. The third well was on the Y'onee farm, about seven miles southeast of Peru, and well No. 4 was on the Bear.ss farm, about three miles north of the city. Here the drill went to a depth of 1,041 feet, penetrating the Trenton limestone for thirty-one feet, but without finding gas.

Xenia (now Converse) was the first point in Miami county to secure gas. The Xenia Gas and Oil Company was incorporated on January 4, 1887, and the first successful gas well in the county was drilled the

Tiie altitude at the surface of the well was 815 feet and the Trenton rock was first struck at ninety-one feet below the sea level. A strong vein of water was struek in the Niagara limestone, but it was cased off and the drilling proceeded. Soon after piercing the Trenton i-ock water was reached, and this had the effect of weakening the flow of gas, so that the well was never a heavy producer. The second well at Xeuia was a strong one, yielding a suflicient quantity of gas to supply the entire town. Several strong wells were also found at Aralioy and in the immediate vicinity. At Bunker Hill tlie drill went down to a depth of 1,004 feet, or 12 feet into the Trenton limestone, where salt water was struck. This water raised in the bore of the well to within twenty feet of the surface and caused the drillers to suspend operations.

The People's Oil and Gas Company, of Peru, was organized by approximately one hundred citizens in the spring of 1897, but was not incorporated at the time. The fii-st well was bored on the B. E. Wallace farm, just east of the ^lississinewa river. It proved to be a "dry hole," but the members of the company did not lose hope and a second well was drilled in the northwestern part of Peru, on a tliree-cornered tract of land belonging to A. N. Dukes. Trenton rock was struck at a depth of 855 feet and on July 19, 1897, the well was yielding about twelve barrels of oil daily. The company was then incorporated, the well was tubed and pumped and the output was thus increased to 120 barrels daily. 'I' wo other wells in the same locality yielded 150 and 175 barrels, respect ively. By the close of the year over two hundred wells had been drilled. A more complete account of the development of the oil and gas fields of the county will be found in the chapter on "Finance and Industries.'"

When the Hrst white men raiiie U> what is now Miami county they found the surface covered with a heavy growth (jf tindjer. The great forests contained many beautiful .specimens of walmit, poplar, various varieties of oak, ash, maple, hickory and other valuable trees, and there were likewise a number of less important species, including sycamore, beech, locust, mulberry, wild cherry, elm and willow. At that time the soil was of more value for cultivation than the timber. Consequently many trees were cut down and burned that, if they were standing today, would be worth more than the land upon which they grew. Then no tliought of a timber famine ever entered the minds of the pioneers.

Far away to the westward stretched the boundless forest and to the frontiersman it seemed, if he gave it a thought, that there would be timber enough to supply the wants of the people for generations to come. The ax, the fire-brand and the saw-mill have done their deadly work so well that now, though less than a century has passed, the conservation of American forests is an engrossing subject. Possibly much of the timber might have been saved, but would the people of the present day act differently under the same conditions? Probably not.