BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Marble Furnace, Ohio

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Bratton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 45660. It stands on Wolf Creek. The Survey maps it on the Peebles quadrangle.

Marble Furnace within Adams County

Then and now

1916 to 1991

The same ground, surveyed 75 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Marble Furnace, surveyed 1991
Topographic sheet of Marble Furnace, surveyed 1916

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

1,590 words on this township

A History of Adams County, Ohio, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the Country's Growth .., published 1900 names this settlement in its chapter on Bratton Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

MARBI.E Furnace - There was built up about the old Marble Furnace a little settlement of mechanics, tradesmen, and furnace men, which became known as the village of Marble Furnace, and was a flourishing place in early days ; but after the abandonment of the furnace in 1834, the village rapidly declined, anl now nothing remains but a few buildings and a mill. Marble Furnace postoffice was established here in 1822. It is now discontinued.

Passage source: A History of Adams County, Ohio, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the Country's Growth .., published 1900.

Just above old Marble Furnace was once the site of an Indian village, and here after the whites had settled in this vicinity and along Ohio Brush Creek, Indian families would come and camp to hunt and fish. While Thomas Davis, who resided on Brush Creek just above the Fristoe bridge, was away from home, an Indian squaw stole John and Katy Davis, two of his small children, and carried them to the camp on East Fork. The mother of the children gave the alarm, the squaw was followed to the camp, and the children were rescued.

Passage source: A History of Adams County, Ohio, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the Country's Growth .., published 1900.

In the cliff on the Sommer's farm near Marble Furnace in 1801, Jacob Wise discovered two cub bears in a den in the rocks. Fearing an attack from the mother, Wise got old Peter Platter to help secure the cubs. When Wise went into the den after the cubs, and while securing them, the old she-bear rushed past Platter and started in after Wise, piatter seized her by the hinder parts and held her until Wise crawled out at an opening in the side of the den. He and Platter then attacked the old bear and killed her, securing the cubs for pets. These soon grew so large and became so unruly that they had to be killed.

Passage source: A History of Adams County, Ohio, from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, Including Character Sketches of the Prominent Persons Identified with the First Century of the Country's Growth .., published 1900.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Bratton Township.

Fires near this place

36 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Marble Furnace between 2003 and 2020, burning about 146 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined13
Equipment and vehicle use3
Other causes1
Arson/incendiarism1
Natural1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
27 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources15275
23 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 August 2007Natural3.0 acresOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
26 August 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources8725
18 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resources15796
17 July 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 June 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
26 May 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOhio Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Adams County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 1,221 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 1,221 specimens collected within 10 miles of Marble Furnace between 1866 and 1975: 536 Fungi, 356 Animalia, 295 Plantae, 34 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. Braun, A. J. Sharp and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Puccinia lateripes Berk. & RavenelPuccinia lateripes Berk. & Ravenel1879A. B. SeymourAdams County
Specimen of Apiosporina collinsii (Schwein.) Höhn.Apiosporina collinsii (Schwein.) Höhn.1900W.A. KellermanMineral Springs
Specimen of Anchylopera brauni Heinrich, 1931Anchylopera brauni Heinrich, 19311927[Not Stated]Beaver Pond
A photograph of the species Asplenium ruta-muraria, not of this specimenAsplenium ruta-muraria L.1866C. B. Dyer
A photograph of the species Pleopeltis michauxiana, not of this specimenPleopeltis michauxiana (Weath.) Hickey & Sprunt1866C. B. Dyer
A photograph of the species Stigmella platani, not of this specimenStigmella platani Fuckel1892Kellerman W. A.Mineral Springs
A photograph of the species Phyllachora graminis, not of this specimenPhyllachora graminis (Pers.) Fuckel1900Kern W. A.Mineral Springs
A photograph of the species Puccinia smilacis, not of this specimenPuccinia smilacis Schwein.1900Kellerman W. A.Adams Co.
A photograph of the species Baeomyces byssoides, not of this specimenBaeomyces byssoides (L.) P.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb.1925Muegel, Harry R.Mineral Springs, Oak Ridge
A photograph of the species Cladonia amaurocraea, not of this specimenCladonia amaurocraea (Flörke) Schaer.1925Braun, E. LucyMineral Springs, Oak Ridge
A photograph of the species Cladonia cristatella, not of this specimenCladonia cristatella Tuck.1925Braun, E. LucyMineral Springs, Oak Ridge
Cladonia fimbriata (L.) Fr.1925Braun, E. LucyMineral Springs, Oak Ridge

All 1,221 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Marble Furnace: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Plum Run Stone Div Meigs QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Plum Run Stone Division QuarryLimestone, GeneralPast ProducerSedimentary

Every working recorded in Adams County

Storms near this place

1 since 2024

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Marble Furnace in 1 storm report between 2024 and 2024: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2024Thunderstorm WindMarble Furnace$1,000A tree was downed along Stoney Road.

Every storm recorded in Adams County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Peebles2.1 miles13
Louisville2.3 miles13
Locust Grove2.8 miles13
Lawshe3.3 miles13
Bacon Flat3.6 miles14
Louden3.8 miles16
Jacksonville4.7 miles13
Steam Furnace4.9 miles13

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Marble FurnaceAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22133947The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1065722. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.