Lorain City (part 2 of 77)

Sand Ridges

Our beautiful ridges, running through the couiitv nearly parallel with the lake east, and west, are tlie last link in the geological chain. They are the last landmarks, or rather the last water-marks, that were left by the retreating waters. Upon these ridges the liioueer first built his log-cabin; along them ran the first wagon-roads. The first settlers all strove to build upon, and cultivate the ridges. Their light sandy soil, natural drainage, and easy cultivation, made them a very desiral)le location for the pioneer. There are several theories as to the cause of their formation: one is that tiiey are moral ns left by the retreating glaciers; (morains are the debris that is pushed out from under the glacier and left at its sides as it moves on over the suiface); another is that they are off-shore sand-liars; luit the one that is now most generally accepted is that they are old beach-lines left by the receeding waters in their successive stages of rest. There are three continuous lidges running through the county besides several local ones.

The liulltrnut RUlye was the first formed. At this level the water remained for a long period of time, until all the accumulation of that old beach was washed and binwn uji by the combined agency of the water and the winds; then a sudden breaking away of the barrier at the outlet cansed the water to fall thirteen feet, and then another period of rest that formed Chestnut ridge. A breaking away of twentyfour feet more and we have Sugar ridge; of seven more and we have Center ridge. Here was a longer period of rest, which formed a continuous ridge the whole length of the lake. Aiiotherrecedence of fiftytwo feet brought it to the line on wdiich the North, or last continuous ridge now rests. I have examined no less than ten of tliese sand ridges in our county and have taken their altitude in many places.

The fact that both terraces and sand ridges were the result of old shore lines, naturally led to the question why do we not find sand-ridges as far south as we do terraces? This question, to my mind, is easily answered. The ridges were formed from the sand that was worn from the rocks by the action of water; hence these ridges are only found within the limits of the horizon of sand-rock exposure.

It is evident that tliese rocks could be worn but very little, if at all, while submerged; but when the water receded and became low enough to expose them as cliffs and shore lines, then the ever-ceaseless waves of summer, of which no rock-bound shore can resist their slow but sure advance, and the frosts and grinding ice of winter commenced their destructive eroding process, which ground from these rocks large quantities of sand, which was taken up Ijy the undertow and waves and piled high upon the near shore beach .

We will now take uji the ridges in the order in which we find them, beginning at the lowest or last sand lieaeh formed, giving only their location, altitude and most interesting features:

North Ridge. - This ridge at Avon, one mile east of the center and four from the lake, according to my measui-ement in 1806, has an altitude of one hundred and six feet. At the centre it is some sixteen feet higher, composed of finer sand, blown up by the winds into a broad knoll, upon which the early settlers buried their dead, and upon which now" rests the beautiful Avon cemetery. This ridge bears nearer the contour of the present lake shore line than any of the other ridges. It runs through Avon, Sheffield, southeast corner of Black River, Amherst and Brownhelm. I shall only give the townships in our county in which these ridges are located.

Ceil/ re Ridfje. - In Ridgeville tliis has an altitude of one hundred and sixty-two feet. In the eastern jiart of Ridgeville, it takes the form of a double ridge, liuginning on the farm of Laurel Beebe and extending about a mile and a half to the farm of Ichabod Terrell, when it divides into two distinct ridges, and these continue on to the western part of the township, where, on the farm of John Cahoon, they unite again into one ridge. In this double ridge is remarkably well shown the part the winds played in the formation of these ridges. The north, and very much the lower half, is coarse sand and gravel, while tlie south and larger part is comijosed of fine sand, which, being lighter, was separated and blown up from the coarser by the winds, day by day and year by year, as it accumulated upon the beach, until it was piled high above the other. I can give no other theory for this phenomenon. This ridge was used as the first wagon road in the county, and as long as stage coaches were run, it was the old stage road between Buffalo and Detroit. It lies through Ridgeville, Elyria, Amherst, extreme northwest corner of Russia and Henrietta.

SoutJt, or Buttermd Ridge, in Ridgeville, has an altitude of two hundred and four feet. It runs through Ridgeville, northwest corner of Eaton and Carlisle. A description of either one of these three continuous ridges is a description of the other two, with the exception of its location and altitude. The balance of the ridges in the county are intermediate or local. Of these.

Chestnut Ridge is the longest. It lies between the center and south ridges. It commences in Olmsted, Cuv'ahoga county, and runs through Ridgeville, northwest corner of Eaton, and ends in Carlisle. Its course is northeast and southwest, its altitude one huiulred and eighty-one feet.

Siiijiir Ridge lies in Ridgeville, between the Chestnut and Center ridges; commencing a mile southwest of the center of Ridgeville; it runs due southwest two miles, and has an altitude of one hundred and sixtyseven feet.

Stonji Ridge is another of the Ridgeville ridges, and is rightly named, it is the stoniest ridge in the county, and the stoniest one I ever saw. It begins about a mile and a half northwest from the center, and runs west-northwest. From its peculiar location with reference to the other ridges, and the topography of the surrounding country, and also its formation being water-worn sandstones, many of them quite large, I am inclined to believe that this ridge was formed as an off-shore sand bar in shallow water, and not as a sand beach. These water-worn sandstones are from the shelly cliffs of the Ohio sandstone, and are so thickly scattered over the surface that in many places cultivation is impracticable until they are picked up and thrown into heaps. They are thin, flat, rounded stones, from the size of gravel to fifteen or twenty jMunds weight. It seems to me impossible that this ridge could have been formed as a beach line. I therefore give it as my opinion that it is an off-shore, shallow-water sand bar.

Murray Ridge is a short ridge two miles west of Elyria, in that township. Its course is ucfirly north and south; it branches off from the main or center ridge to the south; altitude, one hundred and ninetyeight feet.

Middle Ridge commences in the extreme southwest corner of Sheffield, runs through the northwest corner of Elyria, and through Amherst in a southwesterly direction; altitude, one hundred and forty-eight feet. Wltittlesfij Ridge is about two miles from the lake, and has an altitude of from ninety to one hundred feet. It extends southwest from Beaver creek in Amherst to the Vermillion river in Brownhelm. It is the nearest of all the ridges to the lake that runs parallel with it.

A ridge runs out from Elyria west of north through the township upon which is located the Black River road. Its altitude is about one hundred and fifty feet. It is a spur or offshoot from the Center ridge. Often while driving along this beautiful ridge, have I looked off across to the east and north over the well cultivated farms, and pictured to myself this arm of a great inland sea coming up to the very foot of this ridge and extending off to the east along the slope of the Center ridge, forming in this obtuse angle a beautiful bay. This was long before there was a human being upon the face of the earth to behold the beautiful things that God had created; and yet there were no less beautiful things then than now, with all the teeming millions of human eyes to behold with wondering admiration.

The main ridges all run parallel with the lake, and as a consequence presented a barrier to the natural drainage of the land. The water coming down from the higher lauds on the south, settled in behind these ridges, forming ponds or small lakes, which, as vegetation slowly accumulated, finally became swamj^s. Hence we find on the south side of all our ridges, these swamps.

Rock Formations

By the fossil remains of the fauna and flora, in the geological strata of past ages, the geologist is enabled to read with tolerable certainty the condition of the globe at any given period of its history. Fossils are the working capital of the geologist, for by these only can he tell equivalent rocks and their relative positions. No Silurian fossils are ever found above or below the Silurian age ; Devonian fossils are never found in the Silurian or carboniferous ages; but each distinctive age had its own peculiar animal and vegetable life for which it was then adajited; that is, the fauna and flora which belonged to that and no other age. This is also true of the different epochs and subdivisions of time. No fossils are found in the one that belong to the other. Hence, when the Silurian age closed, with it closed all the teeming millions of animal life that then existed; and so it is with each successive age. No bridging over from one age to the other; no connecting link between the two. But, on the contrary, the line of demarkation is very plainly drawn between each successive age of the world, by means of the fossils they contain.

I do not wish to be understood that we do not find fossils in one age that may not represent in some way those of another, for we know that we find trilobites which are a crustacean in the very lower Silurian, and we find living crustacean to-day but no trilobites. The farmer knows that he gathers apples from ajiple trees, and hickory nuts from hickory trees. Just as sure does the geologist know when he finds a fossil

The highest or first surface rock in Lorain county is called the Cuyahoga sliale, from its fine ex]iosui'e on the banks of the Cuyahoga river. It underlies all the souMiern ])art of the county, and is the first rock above ilic sandstone, having its out-crop along the streams through the middle and sontlieru portion of the conniy. It is a fine, hard, impervious, argillaceous, gray shale, with occasionally thin l)ands of pearly sandstone running through it, but is of no economic value. In its decomposition it produces a cold, wet, tenacious soil, of little value for tillage; and it is well for the farmers that they get but little of it. It is one of the most uninteresting of all the series. It holds no minerals of value and but few fossils of interest. Much of its upper portion has been removed hj glacial attrition, leaviug its average thickness about one hundred and fifty feet.

The Cuyahoga shale is tlie uppermost member of the Waverly group. The Waverly is of carboniferous age and is the lowest group of carbouifereous rocks. In Lorain county this group is subdivided into four members, namely: Cuyahoga shale, Oliio sandstone, Bedford shale, and Cleveland shale.

Sand Rock And Its Economic Valtte

In the fall of 1877 I made a tour of tlie rocks and quarries of Elyria, Amherst and Brownhelm. For years I have occasionally visited some one or more of these magnificent quarries, but never before made a tour of the whole. I was hardly prepared to realize the vast magnitude of the work going (ui licre. The stone annually handled is simply enormous. In nearly all these quarries work was being vigorously pushed although it was late and in the closing season. It was cheery and pleasant to hear the click, click of the pick, chisel and drill, as I went from quarry to quarry. 1 found more or less fossilized wood, apparently coniferous (cedar family), but no shells or other animal fossils. Althougli at Berea, in the same formation, tliere has been found shark's teeth {rJn- (liitlus), and a species of shells {lingiihi srn/ii-n).

In Clough's quarry I found a seam in tlie rock tliat deserves more tlian a passing notice. It was about two feet wide from top to bottom and nearly vertical, extending from the top to the depth they had quarried, fifty feet, and how much farther we cannot tell, but undou])ledly to the very bottom of the rock. There ai'e two causes combined which could have produced tiiis singular break, although tliey may have been long ages apart: an internal disturbance which raised the rock and opened tlie seam. But had the rock remained in its raised position the crevice would not have been of uniform widtli, but would have been V shaped, or widest at the top; or, had the rock settled back to its original level, the seam would have been closed. This last is probably just what was done, as we find it of the same width all the way from base to summit, filled with bluish clay and fragments of stone, some of them showing erosion. Now it hardly seems possible that this massive rock of millions of tons in settling back to position could have moved at its base sufficient to have left such a seam as this, and certainly it would not have been filled with such a mass of luird clay and other nuiterial that we now find in it.

But in the ice period there was another agency at work: tlie great glaciers, whicli passed over these rocks (for their marks are on them) from east to west, tearing down mountains and filling up valleys in their course. This jjower, and this alone it seems to me, was adequate to have separated this rock (the break having already been made) and moved it to the west sufficient to leave this crevice which we now find filled up with clay-mud and otiier debris.

I do not wish to be undei'stood tliat this is the only possible solution of this strange plienomenon. But after giving it careful study, this is the theory I have arrived at. I also found a similar break nearly in the center of the Worthington quarry.

We found upon inquiry at tlie different quarries that the number of men employed dui'ing the season is aboiit six hundred. And here let me say that the gentlemanly jiroprietors and their foremen laid us under many obligations for valuable information. They were all, without a single exception, willing to stop and show us through their quarries and machinerv, and also to give any information desired in regard to the quality of stone, shipments, etc. We found these foremen not only well informed, intelligent men, but some of them quite good geologists, who cduld talk about other rocks than Amherst sandstone.

In nearly all these quarries the rock is very massive but easily accessible; standing, as it does, in ledges, the stripping is comparatively light. None j of them have as yet gone to the bottom of the I'ock. At Worthington's they have gone down some eighty feet and not touched bottom yet.

There are many small (juarries scattered here and there throughout this wliole sand-stone district, mainly used for home consumption and local trade.

We will now try to give a description of this vast deposit, its distribution, composition, economic value, etc. It is the most valuable element in all our geological series, and reaches its greatest maximum of excellence in quantity, quality and accessibility in the quarries at Amherst and Brownhelm. These rocks underlie the wliole eastern half of the State, and have ' their out-crop from Brownhelm <hi the north and west, through the entire central ]iortion of the State to Portsmouth, on tlie Ohio river. Although dcei)ly buried in many places by drift deposits or the Cuyahoga shale, yet they are readily accessible in more than fifteen counties in the State: of which Lorain. Cuyahoga, Geauga, Trumbull, Medina, Fairfield and Pike are the most important.

These rocks have a gradual thinning out as they go east and south, so that in Tennessee and Kentucky there is but very little if any sandstone in the series, and in eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania argillaceous material enters largely into the composition of its beds. Its greatest thickness is ohtaiued at its very mn-thwestern out-crop. Here it attains a depth of eighty to one hundred feet or more. At Amherst and Brownhelm tlie topmost layers are removed as strippings, wlieu afew feet of flagging is generally obtained, and then the solid homogeneous rock is reached. At Independence, in Cuyaiioga county, nearly all the flagging material has been removed by glacial erosion leaving about twenty-five or thirty feet of massive sandstone. At Berea it is still different. Hero the flagging stone comprises nearly one half of its entire thickness, or about twenty feet of flagging to thirty feet of building stone; so that at Berea its entire thickness is only about half of that at Amherst. There are good ([uarries at Elyria, Ridgeville, Columbia and Avon. Tiie stone at Ridgeville does not come al)ovc the surface, but is of very suj)erior ([uality, fine in texture, very white, and free from iron and clay balls. The upper stratum of these ledges at Amherst and Brownhelm, stands about sixty or seventy feet above the natural drainage of the surrounding country, consequently there has been for ages, atmospheric moisture passing through these rocks, thoroughly oxydizing the iron they contain; thus leaving those cheerful mellow tints, so highly appreciated by the architect and builder. The prevailing color is a light warm bull or drab, changing as tlie rock dceitens below drainage, to a light gray or dove color, and at its base to a bluish tint, known as '' blue Amherst," and very highly prized in the New York market.

The texture of the stone is fine and homogeneous, usually without iron, and very few flaws or breaks, so that it is very readily worked into any desiraljle shape or size, working very easily under the pick or chisel, and yet retaining with faithfulness all its markings.

Its strength is equal to ten thousand pounds to the square inch, one thousand pounds more than the celebrated brown stone of Connecticut; four times that of the best l^rick, and much stronger than the best marble or granite.

Its durability is greater than any other known sedimentary rock; being nearly pure silex, it resists the erosive action of the atmospliere to a wonderful degree, and is not affected by weathering any more than the very best Scotch gi-anite. Its durability is beautifully shown on the I'ocks north of the Haiderman quarry, where there are very fine glacial grooves and markings, which have remained intact for ages. and also in the hierogly])hic markings on the surface rocks on the farm of J. J. Rice, in Amherst township. Here these markings must have lain exposed to the denuding agencies of the frosts and storms of a thousand years or more, and still the sharp markings of the pick are plainly visible to this day.

It is also very refractory and will resist the action of fire where limestone, marble and granite are entirely destroyed. This was very clearly demonstrated in the great Chicago fire. Its chemical analysis is as follows:

Thus it will be seen that the great beauty, strength and durability of this rock will command for it the highest price in any market. Hence, as a building stone, it is shipped to nearly every city in the Union, irom the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from Her Majesty's Dominion in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. From the Amherst quarries some of the finest buildings of Boston, New York, Chicago and St. Louis were constructed; as were also the Parliament buildings of Canada.

We have only spoken of it as a material for building purposes. Thousands of tons of grindstones and coarse whetstones are made and annually shipped to all parts of the civilized world, and in New England they come into competition with the best Nova Scotia stones; and for dry grinding they are not excelled anywhere.

The annual product of these quarries is quite large. We have the average figures before us, kindly furnished by the difl'erent companies, which show the annual shipment of block stone to be three hundred and eighty-five thousand cubic feet. Of grindstone, eleven thousand two hundred tons and of other stone large amounts. Total annual receipts over 1500,000, and the business is increasing from year to year. This great deposit so widely distributed over our State belongs to the Waverly series, and is of carboniferous age.

The question is often asked, how and why are tlie different names given to the different geological formations, and how divided. The equivalent of our Devonian rocks were first described and classified at Devonshire in England, hence the name Devonian. The Silurian from Siluria, in Wales. The Huron shale (which belongs to the Devonian) was determined and located, as to its relative position to the otlier rocks, on tlie Huron river, hence its name.

The Waverly sandstone was brought into note by the large quarries at the town of Waverly, in Pike county, from which this stone was taken to build the massive loelvs of tlie Ohio canal. Tlie first geological survey in 1837 gave these rocks the name of Waverly sandstone; but they have been called by so many local names since that we adopt the name "Ohio sandstone." Our present State geologist called them "Berea grit," from the fact that at Berea the first grindstones were manufactured from it and sent into market, which brought them into such a world-wide reputation. The name Waverly is retained and attached to the class of rocks to which this belongs.

The outcrops of these rocks at Amherst and Brownhclni, of which we have been speaking, were once liigh bhiffs against which a great, inland sea dashed its ever-ceaseless waves for countless ages, wearing away the softer portions and leaving those ledges like little islands amid a boundless ocean.

Bedford Suale

The next rock below the sandstone is the Bedford shale, which is about seventy feet m thickness. Its upper portion is of a reddish color, caused by the oxidation of iron from the sandstone lying immediately above. This is the only red shale in the country, and is a good guide to those in search of the sandstone. This red shale is well exposed in nearly all the creeks and gorges the whole widih of the county along the base of the sandstone. The l)est exposure of the Bedford, however, is shown on the Vermillion river in Brownhelm township, at and near the mouth of Chance creek. Here the banks are one hundred and thirty-two feet in height, and nearly the entire thickness of both the Bedford and Cleveland are shown together. The upper strata of the Bedford are red, the middle and lower portions a dull bluish gray.

The Vermillion river was so named from the color this shale gives to its banks. The upper strata being red, as it crumbles and dissolves, the storms wash it down from above thus giving the banks at a little distance the appearance of having been painted red. On Black river the Bedford is also well exposed, and here is shown its uneven upper surface which was cut away by currents of water while it was soft clay.

These channels were filled with sand which was eventually hardened into stone. This will account for the uneven lower surface of the sandstone at Grafton and other places.

Cleveland Shale

This is a black bituminous shale from fifty to sixty feet in thiclcness, which is well exposed beneath the Bedford shale in the valles'S of Black and Vermillion rivers. It contains over ten per cent, of carbonaceous matter, and this gives it a black color by which it may at once be recognized when freshly broken. Where long exposed, its carbon is burned out by oxidation and it becomes gray; hence its out-crops, taking the color of the other gray shales in the series, may not be identified without some excavation.

"The only fossils found in the Cleveland shale of Lorain county up to the present time, are rbomboidal enameled fish-scales. These belong to a ganoid fish, probably a species of Pakisoitiscus but no entire individual has as yet been obtained. The Cleveland shale has no economic importance, except that it is clearly the source of the petroleum found at Grafton and Liverpool."

Since the above description of this shale was written by Prof. Newberry I have made this shale an especial study, and have finally discovered in it the remains of some of the most remarkable jolacoderm fishes the

This shale is literally filled with sea-wee ds and nther carbonaceous matter. There are good exposures on nearly all the streams emptying, into Lake Erie, from the Vermillion, east; but the best are found on the Black and Vermillion rivers. Here may be seen its entire thickness at a glance, and the student in geology may use his pick, and chisel, with a fair prospect of success. There are thin bands of cone-in-cone lime running through it. From its i)eculiar structure at first it was taken te be fossiliferons, but ujion careful examination it was found to be mechanical, and not organic. Some of this cone-iu-cone takes the form of half a clam-shell, and as they slip out from the rock in this shape with their folds and serrated edges, it is ditlicult to persuade one's self that tliey are not fossils. We often find a group of these, very uniform in size, shape, and appearance; but mostly the cones are massed in together wedge-shape, and can only be taken out by breaking up the rock. At present the economic value of the Cleveland shale is but slight. There can be distilled from it about ten gallons of petroleum to every ton of shale, and the time may, and probably will come when, with improved machinery and better knowledge, this will be made an additional source of wealth to our county. It is impossible for us to even remotely comjirehend the vast resources of the earth. What wise provisions there have been made for the comfort and happiness of man! - "Treasures new and old" hid away in the great storehouse of nature, ready to be brought to light and use, as man needs tliem along down the course of time.

One of the most wonderful of all these productions of nature, is petroleum; and as the Cleveland shale is unquestionably the source from which the petroleum at Grafton is obtained, we will consider it in connection with these rocks. We shall speak of it only in general terms, but for a detailed account of the oil wells at Grafton, we refer the reader to the history of that township in this volume.

The early settlers of Grafton found along the creeks in that township sinkholes or pits, in which oil collected. In many places the soil was saturated with asphaltic tar, produced by the evaporation of this oil. These pits bear every evidence of having been made for the i)urpose of collecting the oil, by the ancient peojile who inhabited the country long before the white man trod the soil. AVhether it was the old Mound-Builders, or the red man of a later period, we of course cannot tell; but probably the former, as the whites have no knowledge of the Indians coming to these oil jjits, after they came into i)ossession. What use this ancient people made of this oil is of course all conjecture; but the most rational theory is, that they used it for its medicinal qualities. This also seems to have been the first use made of it by the i whites. "

These oil springs, as they were culled, extended from Grafton into Liverpool, five miles east. And here, as early as 1843, Harris Warner suuli a well in one of these springs down to the rock, from which he collected the oil and sold it as "rock oil," for the cure of burns, sprains, rheumatism, etc., for which it ac(|nired quite a reputation.

In 18G1, the oil excitement ran high, and wells were drilled in Grafton. Tlie Jones well, about a mile north of the center, was sunk to a deptli of six hundred feet, but drew its oil from a dejith of one hundred feet below the surface. The Rising well was sunk one hundred and fifty feet, but drew its oil from a point eighty-five feet below the surface. From these and other experiments, it was soon learned that it was useless to go below the base of the sand rock. The oil from these wells is a thick, heavy oil, of a specific gravity of 33° to 38° (Baum.): too heavy to jirofitably distill for illuminating purposes - the only use then made of petroleum. Since that time, it has becQ discovered that this heavy oil is an excellent lubricator, and consequently more valuable than the lighter oils.

The rock in which this oil is found is the "Ohio sandstone," which here varies very much in tliickncss, and consequently makes the production of oil more uncertain. In one place, it was found to V)e only one foot in thickness, and a few rods away one hundred feet thick. Now, we have before stated that this sand-rock is nearly pure silex, or quartz: it is tiierefore very evident that it cannot produce the oil - no, not one drop in a thousand tons. Then it may be asked, if it is found here, where does it come from, and how does it get into these rocks? And why don't we find it everywhere in the sand-rocks, as well as here? We will try to answer these questions satisfactorily by investigating these rocks at Grafton.

Now then, commencing at the turf, we go through a few feet of drift-clay into the Cuyahoga shale, hard argillaceous, of a bluish-gray color, and fine in texture. Its composition jjrecludes the idea of its being an oil-producing rock. Then we go down some forty or fifty feet to the sand-rock; tiiis we know does not produce it, although we find it here. And now, we remember that oil always works up, not down; and as we find it here, we must still go lower for its origin. So we go down again some eighty or one hundred feet to the next shale below the sand-rock; this is called " Bedford shale." A few feet of this is red, and then the color is light and dark gray. This is -not what we are looking for; so down we go sixty or seventy feet more, and we strike a hard, black, bituminous shale called the "Cleveland shale." Ah! this, we think, must be it: bituminous it is, iu every sense of the word. We will now take some of this shale to Prof. Wormely, at Columbus, and have him analyze it by distillation, and what is the report? Ten to fifteen gallons of oil to every ton of shale. We have now found where this oil comes from; and now we want to know what produces it. Prof. Wormely tells us, and our eyes can plainly see that these rocks (we call all the members of the series rocks) are literally filled with sea-weeds, and other fatty vegetable matter, so we conclude that it is a vegetaljle production, and not of aniuud origin.

The conditions under which oil is found a,re alike in all parts of tiic wdrld: whether in Oiiio, Pennsylvania, China, or elsewhere. It must be an open, porous sand-rock, which can absorb and retain the od; or broken up into crevices, as reservoirs for its accumulation, and a hard impervious shale resting immediately upon the rock to prevent its esca))e. These are the only conditions under whicli oil is found in quantity.

At Gi'afton we find that internal disturbanc(^s from far below the surface have 02)ened seams iu the rocks, from below the Cleveland shale up to the sand-rock, which permitted the oil to escape above; and as the sand-rock was harder and more compact tluin the other rocks, the shock was correspondingly greater, thus rending them into fissures, into which the oil flowed for ages by the process of slow distillation. The impervious Cuyahoga shale resting directly upon this rock, acts like the cover to a pot to hold tlie oil in these fissures and prevent its escape. Here it has remained foruntold ages, until man's inventive genius has probed the earth and brougiit this wonderful treasure forth. Tlie Cleveland shale is the lowest mendjer in the Waverly group, which belongs to the carboniferous age.

Erie Shale

We might almost pass the Erie rocks, without mention, so unimportant are they in our county. They have no fossils, and hold no minerals or other matter that can contribute materially to the wealth of the county. I only find the Erie a few feet tliick on the Vermillion near its mouth. A thin outcrop aiq)ears about a mile or so east, on the lake shore, and from this we find r.o more of it until we reach Avon point, where it forms the rocky cliffs of the shore. Here it has an exjiosure of twenty-six feet; and four miles east, of sixty feet, and continues to form the shore-line to Dunkirk.

In New York and Pennsylvania the Erie shale reaches a thickness of more than two thousand feet, so that we here in L(jrain county are on the extreme western edge of the basin of that old l-Crie sea, which in New York State was more than two thousand feet deep when this deposit was formed.

This shale may readily be distinguished by its color, which is a dull blue or greenish gray. There are tiiin bands of lenticular iron ore running through it, which were used in an early day for smelting botli at Vermillion and Black river, but since the Lake Superior and other iron mines have been made accessible, this kind of ore has been abandoned for the reason that it could not be obtained in any quantity, as it could only be gathered along the shore as it washed out from the cliff by the action of the waves; and also the expense and ditRculty of smelting. I luivc lieen told by those who iiave worked this kind of iron-stone that it prodiu-od aljoiit forty per eent. of iron. The Erie belon^^s to the Devonian and is the

We now come to the last or lowest rock that is exposed on the surface in the county. Like the Cleveland, it is a black bituminous shale filled with carbonaceous matter. The oil, of which it is the origin and of which it contains from ten to fifteen gallons to the ton of shale, is of a lighter grade than that obtained from the Cleveland shale. It is supposed to be the source from which is obtained all the oil of Pennsylvania. This rock underlies all of Ohio, has its outcrop in Kentucky, Tennessee and some of the western States. Its thickness here is about three hundred feet, but in the eastern part of the State it is nearly twice as thick. Aside from the petroleum production the most interesting feature of the Huron is its gigantic fossil fishes, fm' which see chapter on "Fossils."

Not only is the llur.m the source of petroleum, but it is the origin of the carburetted hydrogen gas which escapes from the ground at numerous points all through the county. Almost every township has more or less of these "gas-springs." All along the lake shore, in still weather, this gas may be seen bubbling up, and in some places the flow is so copious that they never freeze over in winter. Often have I touched a lighted match to the escaping gas as I have been sailing along, to see it flash. lu some parts of the county these gas-springs have been utilized for lighting and heating purposes, and it seems to me the time is not far distant when this gas will be used to a considerable extent.

I have now given as full a descrij)tion of these rocks and their economic values as it is possible to give in one short chapter in a work like this. I have given their relative position to each other, as laid down in the books. That this will be changed and very much modified hereafter I have do d(Uibt, but at present we leave them here.

I hardly think it necessary, or that the reader will wish me to go on and tell about the Hamilton group, that lies next below the Huron, and the coniferous groui), which is next, and the Oriskany which is the lowest member of the Devonian age. None of these rocks come to the surface in Lorain county, but are found as surface rocks in adjoining counties.

Chapter

ITntil a few years since it was sujiposed that the rocks of Lorain county were ban-en of fossils, except small fragments of wood found in ([uari-ying the sandstone at Amhei'st, Elyria and some other places. These, of themselves, are ([uite unimportant, except it be to sliow that in the ejjoch of the deposition of these sand rocks there existed coniferous trees.

In the year 186G I came to the lake shore and purchased the place now known as " Lake Breeze." In walking along the beach I found water-worn fragments of a new, and to me unknown fossil, of which Prof. Newberry, in the " Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio," says:

"About the time of Mr. Hertzer's discovery of fish remains at Delaware, Mr. Jay Terrell, of Elyria, found several large, water-worn fragments of lilack. mineralized bone on the beach of the lake west of Avon Point. These had evidently fallen out of the cliff of Huron shale which here forms the lake shore. On examining these bones when brought to

Cleveland by Mr. Terrell, I discovered that they were portions of the 'OS niedi'itm dorst ' of Dmichthys. This is a plate which covers the arch of the back immediately behind the head; and was, in some cases, two feet in length and breadth, and more than two inches thick at its central anterior portion. Since his discovery of the first of these interesting relics, Mr. Terrell has pursued the search for them with much enthusiasm and success."

These water-worn sjjecimens did not give me any cine as to where they might be found in place; still I made a careful, and thorough search for them whenever the lake was still and clear enough to admit of it, supposing them to be under the water, but near the shore, or they would not thus be broken up and thrown upon the beach.

I continued this search for more than a year, and had nearly given uji the hope of ever finding them in place, and as we often found pieces upon the beach, I had began to think that possibly they might have been brought here in the ice period.

About this time Park, one of my little boys, (who was then ten years old and wlio had been with me considerable in my researches, and had become much interested in hunting for "our fish-bed" as we had already begun to call it) went out alone one day and in hnntiug along the banks of shale found a specimen embedded in the solid shale. He immediately came to me to tell me of his success, and to show me where it was that I might get it out. This was the starting point, - -''our leader." From this we certainly could find others. It was not then a bed of bones massed together as I had supposed, but in detached pieces, scattered here and there through the shale. Enough was now known to tell us where to look for them; and a vigorous search was at once commenced. It was, however, three weeks before another single trace was found; and I had almost given up in despair, when one day, about a mile below our starting point, I found another specimen clearly defined in the rocky shale. My field of labor was now fully located, and a systematized search commenced in earnest. From that time to the present I have excavated more thau a thousand bones.

Sometimes I have had to work for days, and blast the rocks in order to reach them; others have been readily accessible by the pick and chisel. In one instance I worked five days, with several men, in blasting and clearing away the debris, bafore we reached the rocky floor in which these bones were embedded; but it was a grand find. Prof. Newberry, in speaking of it says:

"Since the publication of the first vohime of this report, a lar^e amount of interesting material, illustrating the structure of this genus, has been brought to light. In this material is to be found nearly the entire bony system of one large individual, which gives us a more complete representation of Dinichthijs than has yet been obtained of any of the larger fossil fishes of the (_>U1 World, These specimens we owe to the enthusiasm and intelligence of Mr, Jay Terrell, who found them near his home in Sheffield, Lorain county. Here the upper portion of the Huron shale forms, along the Lake shore, cliffs which are being constantly worn away by the waves. These cliffs have been Mr, Terrell's favorite hunting-ground, and as the erosion of the surface reaches here and there the projecting point of a bone, each indication has been followed up with care, and the bone taken out, perhaps in many fragments, but yet complete in all its parts, Mr. Terrell has carefidly preserved and united these fragments, and thus has been able to contribute to science some of the most interesting and valuable Paheonfological material ever discovered,"

"Some months since, while scanning the cliff near his house, his attention was attracted to a bone of which only a small portion w.as visible, the remainder being concealed in the rock. On taking this out, others immediately associated with it were revealed, which were, h<iwever, so deeply buried, as to be inaccessible by ordinary means. In these circumstances Mr, Terrell began operations on the cliff above, and excavated a spa;e about twelve feet square down to the locality of the bones. Here he found the ventral shield, before unknown, quite complete: one mandible, a "premaxillary" and two "raaxniary;"a perfect dorsal shield, two feet in diameter; two scapulo-coracoid*, with a large number of additional bones, including the ossified rays of a large fin. From the same locality Mr. Terrell had before obtained a cranium almost complete, and two supra-scapulas: thus giving, as has been said, nearly the entire bony structure."

" Since this important discovery Mr, Terrell has found a complete mandible and maxilLary of larger size than any before met with; the mandible (under jaw) being twenty two inches in length,"

They were armor-clad monsters of the old Huron sea, which rolled over nearly all of the North American continent, long ages before the formation of the coal measures. A thick, massive, bony coat of mail covered all the vital parts of their upper surface, while the plates that protected the under side of the body were large but relatively thin. No scales have as yet been found with their i-emains; hence it is inferred that the posterior portion of the body must have been covered witJx a thick, tough skin. It is evident that they were cartillagenous, from the fact that no bones of their internal structure have been found. Hence it is more difficult to calculate their size and shape, which has not yet been fully determined; but probably tliey were from fifteen to twenty feet in length, with very massive bodies. The head is composed of thick, bony plates, strengthened with massive internal arches, all firmly anch\dosed together, forming a bony bos which is two feet in length and thii'ty inches in breadth and in some places more than three inches in thickness.

" The joint itself is formed by a deep cylindrical socket, into which fits the condyle of the mtpra-ncaimlar, in such a way as to form one of the strongest and most complete articulations in the whole animal kingdom,"

" The dental apparatus of Dinichthys is its most remarkable feature. The massive jaws are themselves transformed into teeth more singular in their structure, and more formidable than any living fish. These powerful jaws terminate in four dense teeth, which aj-e five inches long and three broad. They have shining black enamel on their wearing edge. Back of these front teeth, the under jaw is formed into a sharp cutting edge of jet black enamel, one-third their entire length. An upper tooth with a thin, long, beveled edge (six inches long), fits and corresponds to the under jaw in such a manner that the two pla,y upon each other precisely like the blades of a pair of shears."

With such a pair of jaws as these, set in a head more than three feet and a half In-oad, it is easy to see that these great monsters were able to crush a much larger body than that of a man. I have one bone (middle plate of the back) which is twenty-four inches long and twenty-seven broad; is three inches in its thickest jiart, and weighs thirty pounds.

tlirec al)Ovc mentioncil, are sufficient for our present purpose. It is impossible in hmgiiiige, to give any correct idea of these specimens. Suffice it, therefore, to say, tliat they are the remains of the hirgest fossil fishes now known to tiie scientific world.

Such a lish as this must have had formidable enemies, or he would not have been clad with such a bony coat of mail; and then his teeth clearly indicate that he was carnivcrDUs, and therefore fed on other large animals of the deep. Hence, in all my researches for his remains, I have ever been on the lookout for something else; and my labors have been rewarded as follows:

In the rocks u)) Black River, which Prof. Newberry designates " Cleveland Shale," and as belonging to the W.averly series, T discovered the remains of very large placoderni fishes, nearly if not quite as large as those belonging to the Huron epoch, some of the bones weighing many pounds each. I am not quite satisfied that the location of these rocks is correct; at present, however, we leave them as they are placed by the geological survey.

I also found in the same locality the spine of a large denacanf/ius shark; dadodus. and other small sharks' teeth ; jugular and other plates, of different parts, of these little carboniferous sharks; together with the scales of other fishes.

In the Bedford shales below Elyria I have obtained shells of a small Llnijiihi, not yet described and named; also a shell, new, but proljably allied to the SpirifiTS, and (puuitities of mollusks, (Miirrndon- Haiiiilfoniu'); also a species of small shark, and some other fossils. These were all found in a baud of limestone, of about one foot in thickness, lying in the upper stratum of this shale and extending two or throe miles along its exposure on Black river.

I have obtained from the Huron shale at the lake shore, iu addition to those already mentioned, several bones and teeth of small, and as yet undescribed fossil fishes, some cones, apparently belonging to Lepidodendron, fruit pods and seeds, of sea weeds, and an undescribed species of Goninfites, (chambered shells). Broad, flag-like impressions of sea-weeds are very common all through this shale.

We now come to three classes of large fishes, that have recently been described and named by Professor Newberry. I give extracts from his descriptions, pulilished in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1878:

" Dentary bone of mandible (under jaw), about eigliteen inches long, by two inches in width, anterior half thickens as in Dinichthys. vising inU^ a prominent point anteriorly, which diverges from its fellow of the opposite dentary bone, to form a forked extremity to the under jaw. Upper margin of the anterior half of dentary bone set with strong, conical, smooth, acute, incurved teetii, which dimish in size as they ascend the elevated point. Four larger, conical, recurved teeth, are set on the inner side of the triangular extremity of the mandible, filling the space between the point and the symphysis. A broad, roughened depression or pit at the symphysis marks the place of attachment of a

" The remarkable stnictnre of the jaw on which the foregoing description is baseil. is without parallel, so far as known in the animal kingdom^ The dentary bones are produced forward into triangular divergent points, which are set with teeth on either margin; thus the extremity of the lower jaw forms a fork set with strong recurved teeth. This would form a very effective instrument for catching slender slippery fishes like eels .and was doubtless used for that purpose,"

" Dorsal plate four to five inches long, shield-shaped, terminating anteriorly in an obtuse, posteriorly in an acute point; the sides, irre^- larly rounded, f«)rin a feather-edge, probably btiried in the ii, tegument, U|iper surface gently arched, marked by several obscure longitudinal striic, anil by a peculiar transverse crape-like wrinkling. The under surface is uniformly excavated, and arched transversely on either side of the low and sharp central crest. This crest is prolonged into a narrow neck-like process, which projects forward and downward from the margin of the shield, and is excavated in v broad furrow on its upper surface.

"The supra-occipital bone is wedge-shaped and truncated fonvard, rounded behind, with a low point at the center of its margin. The upper surface is marked with characteristic transverse crape-like wrinkling; the under surface slopes backward from the middle, with a prominent ridge, which forms the terminal point; anterior to the slope is a semi-elliptical excavation, divided at the bottom in two by a longitudinal ridge,"

" An imperfect jaw found with the dorsal plate, and correspond ng in size, is about four inches in length, posterior extremely spatulate and thin; the anterior portion polished without, and terminating above in a sharp edge; the anterior extremity broken away,"

of medium size, perhaps six inches long, much compressed, by one inch and a half wide, strongly arched above; anterior margin smooth, posterior flattened with a well-marked rounded ridge along the central line. Upper half of posterior face thickly set with conical recurved teeth. Exposed portion wholly covered with fine longitudinal ribs, which are highly ornamentedby closely approximated transverse lines," " Pectination finest on middle and lower portion of sides," " From the Huron Shale, Sheffield, Lorain county, Ohio, Discovered by Jay Terrell."

I have now mentioned and described all the fossils, so far as I know, that have been discovered within the limits of our county. The Cuyahoga shale which is exposed along the streams in the southern portion of our county, has yielded in Medina and some other places crinoids, mollusks and other small shells, and no doubt these might be found here upon proper search made for them; and possibly new genera and new species.

Chapter Yi

A people, concerning whom nothing beyond the fact of their existence is known, are called Mound- Builders. This name was given them because of the earthworks, mounds and fortifications which they erected, - generally along the courses of streams. Some of the.se are works of defence, others burial places. These mounds and their contents furnish us the only information obtainable in reference to this strange people. That the period of time at which they existed reaches far back into the past is evidenced from the fact that the races of red men who succeeded them have been unable to furnish us any account of mIio they were, whence they came and whither they went. A veil of impenetrable mystery enshrouds their history. Their mounds are a proof of tlieir existence, for tlieir chai'acter and the place and mode of their erection attest the handiwork of intelligent beings, while the bones, weapons of warfare, stone implements and arrow-heads which have been discovered and are still found buried in these earthworks, furnish a still stronger proof of the existence of a pre-historic people. The skek'ton remains of lium m beings of such dimensions as to show that their one-time possessors were beings of almost gigantic proportions, were exliumed from their ancient cemeteries by the tirst settlers. The Indians, disclaiming them as kindred, could give no information in regard to them. These ancient earthworks are found in several t>laGes in Lorain county. We describe one or two of them. Professor Newberry says:

"The best preservf-tl fortifications in the county are on land owned by R. Burrell, Esq., in the angle formed by the union of French and Sugar creeks, in Sheffield township. The valleys of these two streams are quite deeply excavated, and inclose a narrow triangle of high land at their juncture, which is bounded by cliffs of shale forty-five feet in height and almost perpendicular. Across the base of this triangle, at the distances respectively of three hundred and fifty and two hundred and seventy-eight feet from the apex, are two deep, parallel trenches, each one hundred and thirty-five feet long, reaching from bluff to bluff. Mr. Burrell states that when the land was first cleared in 1816, these trenches were eight feet deep. They have been plowed over from year to year since, but are quite plainly discernible. The purpose of these trenches was evid<'ntly to defend from attack, a village or citadel situated on the level surface of the height. The plateau was evidently in habited for many years, perhaps centuries, as the soil which covers it is a ' made soil,' abounding in bones of animals, stone implements and arrow-heads. Probably the efficifncy of the trenches was increased by palisades or some other defence of wood, all trace of which has disappeared by decaj".

"An ancient fortification erected by the Mouad-Builders is discernible on land owned by Mr. Jacob Delker on a bench of the west bluff of the Vermillion river, where it makes a bend after entering the township from Henrietta, not far below the bridge. The descent upon this projection of land is quite rapid. About midway of the descent a trench was dug and breastworks were thrown up. They now stand out distinctively, but have been cut through in the middle to permit the passage of wagons. The trench has been mostly filled in by the washing down of the gravelly bluff above. A young peach orchard is in the old fortification.

** About seven acres are included in a large fort on Mr. Jacob Ennis's land, on the east bank of the Vermillion river, three miles above its mouth. The Mound-Builders must have considered this an important station, as shown by these extensive intrenchments, now sonipwhat obscured in outline on one side by reason of many years' plowing. The soil of this fort contains quantities of fragments of bone and potteiy and chippings of flint."

Chapter Vii The Indians

The aboriginal tribes that are known to have inhabited this region, together witli the entire conntry in Ohio lying to tlie south of Lake Erie, belonged to one (u- the other of two great families of Indians: the Algonkin, or Huron-Iroquois. The tribes whieh may l)e named as having been at one time or another dwellers upon the soil of what is known as the Western Reserve, are:

Of the Huron-Troquois family: The Erics, followed by the Iroquois proper, or tlie six nations - the Mohawks, the CaijHfjas, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Senccas and the Tuscarawas - and the Hurons proper, or the Wyandots. Of the Algonkin family: The Delawares, the Shawnces, the Ottawns, the Miamis, the Chippewas, the Pottaiuattomies and the Kicka2)Oos.

The Eries

The Eries arc the only red men, who as a complete tribe have inhabited the region bordering the southern shore of the lake that bears their name. They were known to the first French explorers and discoverers of the great west, and by them were called the FeJinns or the Cat nation. Why they received this name is not known, except it was that throngh the forests in which they dwelt there prowled great numbers of the animal known as wild cats. They have given to the lake near which they dwelt the name that designated their tribe. More than this, we do not know aught of this strange people, except the interesting information which the traditions of other tribes furnish us in regard to their overthrow and complete destruction. These traditions come from their conquerors, the fierce and powerful Iroquois, and by them we are assured that the account is accurate and trustworthy. AVe give herewith the narrative as taken from the lips of Black Snake and other venerable chiefs of the Senecas and Tonawandas, and published in the Buffalo Commercial of July, 1845. That i^aper says:

"Near the mission-house, on the reservation adjoining the city of Buffivlo, can be seen a small mound, evidently artificial, that is said to contain the remains of the unfortunate Eries, slain in their last great battle. The Indians hereabouts believe that a small remnant of the Eries still exist beyond the Mississippi, The small tribe known as the Qtoapaws, in that region, are also believed to be the remains of the Kankwas, the allies of the Er/cs/^

Destruction Of The Eries

The Uries were tlie most powerful and warlike of all the Indian tribes. They resided south of the great lake (Erie), at the foot of which stands the city of Buft'alo, the Indian name for which was Tu-slm-way.

When the Eries heard of the confederation which was formed between the Mohairks, who resided in the valley of that name, the Oneidas, Onondagas, Caytigas, and Senecas, who lived, for the most part, upon the shoi-es and the outlets of the lakes bearing respectively their names (called by the French the Iroquois nation), they imagined it must be for some mischievous purpose. Although confident of their superiority over any one of the tribes inhabiting the countries within the bounds of their knowledge, they dreaded the power of such combined forces.

In order to satisfy themselves in regard to the character, disposition, and power of those they considered their mutual enemies, the Eries resorted to the following means: They sent a friendly message to the Senecas, who wei'e their nearest neighbors, inviting them to select one hundred of their most active, athletic young men to play a game of ball against the same iinnilicr to be selected by the Fries, for a wager wliich sliould be considered worth)' the occasion and the character of the great nation in whose belialf the ofPer was made.

Tlie message was received and entertained in the most respectful manner. A conncil of the "Five Nations" was called, and the proposition fully discussed, and a messenger in due time dispatched with tJie decision of the council, respectfully declining the challenge. This emboldened the Erics, and the next year the offer was renewed, and, after being again considered was agaiji formally declined. This was far fi'om satisfying the proud lords of the great lake, and the challenge was renewed the third time.

The blood of the j'oung Iroquois C(mld no longer be restrained. They importuned the old men to allow them to accept the challenge. The wise counsels which had hitherto prevailed at last gave way, and the challenge was accepted.

Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which each tribe sent forth its chosen champions for the contest. The only difiiculty seemed to be to make a selection where all seemed .so worthy. After much delay one hundred of the flower of all the tribes were finally designated, and rhe day of their departure was fixed. An experienced chief was chosen as the leader of the party, whose orders the young men were strictly enjoined to obey. A grand council was called, and in the presence of the assembled multitude the party was charged in the most solemn manner to observe a pacific course of conduct towards their competitors and the nation whose guests they were to become, and to allow no provocation, however great, to be resented by any act of aggression on their part, but in all respects to acquit themselves worthy the representatives of a and great powerful people, anxious to cultivate peace and friendship with all their neighbors. Under these solemn injunctions the party took up its line of march for Tii-slni-waij. When the chosen band had arrived in the vicinity of the point of their destiiiation, a messenger was sent forward to notify the Eries of their arrival, and the next day was set apart for their grand entree.

The elegant and athletic forms; the tasteful, yet not cumbrous, dress; the dignified, noble bearing of the chief, and, more than all, the modest demeanor of the young warriors of the Iroquois party, won the admiration of all beholders. They brought no arms; each one bore a bat, used to throw or strike a ball, tastefully ornamented, being a hickory stick about five feet long, bent over at the end, an<l a thonsr netting wove into the bow. After a day of repose and refreshment, all things were arranged for the contest. The chief of the Iroquois brought forward and deposited upon the ground a large pile of elegantly wrought belts of wampum, costly jewels, silver bands, beautifully ornamented mocca.sins, and other articles of great value in the eyes of the sons of the forest, as the stake or wager on the part of his people. These were carefully matched by the Eries, with articles of

The game began, and, although contested with des])eration and great skill by the Eries, was won by the Iroquois, who bore off the prize in triumph. Thus ended the first day.

The IroqwAs having now accomplished the object of their visit, pi'oposed to take their leave, but the chief of the Eries, addressing himself to their leaders, said their young men, though fairly beaten in the game of ball, would not be satisfied unless they could have afoot-race, and proposed to match ten of their number against an equal number of the Iroquois party, which was assented to, and the Iroquois were again victorious.

The Kdukirus who resided on Eighteen-Mile creek, being present as the friends and allies of the Eries, now invited the Iroquois party to visit them before they returned home, and thither the whole jiarty repaired. The chief of the Erjes, as a last trial of the courage and prowess of his guests, proposed to select ten men, to be luatched with an equal immlier of the Iroquois party, to wrestle, and that the victor should dispatch his adversary on the spot by braining him with a tomahawk and bearing off his scalp as a trophy. This sanguinary proposition was not at all ])leasing to the Iroquois; they, however, concluded to accept the challenge ; with the determination, should they be victorious, not to execute the bloody part of the proposition. The champions were accordingly chosen. A Senecn was the first to step into the ring, and threw his adversary, amid the shouts of the multitude. lie stepped back and declined to execute his victim, who lay passive at his feet. As quick as thought the chief of the Eries seized the tomahawk, and, at a single blow, scattered the brains of his vanquished warrior over the ground. Ilis body was dragged away, and another champion of the Eries presented himself. He was ([uiekly thrown by his more powerful antagonist of the Iroquois party and as (|uickly dispatched by the infuriated chief. A third met the same fate.

The chief of the Iroquois party, seeing the terrible excitement which agitated the multitude, gave a signal to retreat. Every man obeyed the signal, and in an instant they were out of sight. In two hours they arrived at Tu-shu-waq, gathered up the trophies of their victories, and were on their way home.

This visit of the hundred warriors of the Fire Ay/- fions and its results only served to increase the jealousy of the Eries, and to convince them that they had powerful rivals to contend with. It was no part of their policy to cultivate friendship, and strengthen their own power by cultivating peace with other tribes. They knew no way of securing jK-ace to themselves but by exterminating all who might oppose them. But the combination of several powerful tribes, any of whom might be almost an e(|ual match for them, and of whose personal prowess they had seen such an exhibition, inspired the Eries with the most anxious forebodings. To cope wifli tliem collectively they saw was impossible. Tlieir only hope, therefore, was in beinjr able by a vigorous and sudden nioveniont to destroy tliuni in detail. With this view a powerful ])arty was immediately organized to attack the Seitecas who resided at tlie foot of Seneca lake (tiie present site of Geneva), and along the banks of Seneca river. It happened that at this period tiiere resided among tile Fries a Seneca woman, who in early life had been taken prisoner, and liad married a husband of the Erie tril)e. He died and left her a widow without children, a stranger among strangers. Hearing the terrible note of preparation for a bloody onslaught upon her kindred and friends, she formed the resolution of apprising tliem of their danger. As soon as night set in, taking the course of the Niagara river, she traveled all night and early next morning reached tiie shore of Lake Ontario. She jumped in a canoe, which she found fastened to a tree, and boldly pushed into the open lake. Coasting down the lake, she arrived at the mouth of the Oswego river in tlie night, where a large settlement of the nation resided. She directed her steps to tlie house of the head chief, and disclosed the object of her journey. She was secreted bv tiie chief, ami runners were dispatched to all the trilies, summoning them immediately to meet in councii, wliicli was held in Onondaga Hollow.

Wiien all were convened tlie chief arose, and, in tiie most solemn manner, rehearsed a vision, in wiiich he said that a beautiful bird appeared to him and told iiim that a great party of the Eries was preparing to mike a secret and sudden descent upon them to destroy tliem, and th.it notiiing could save them Init an immediiite rally of all the warriors of tiie Five Nations, to meet tiie enemy before tiiey siioukl ix^ aljle to strike tiie ijiow. These solemn annouucenieuts were heard in breathless silence. When the eliief had linisiied and sat down, tliere arose one immense yell of menacing madness. The earth shook wiien tlie migiity mass brandished high in the air their warciuljs, and stamped the ground like furious beasts.

No time was lost. A body of five thousand warriors was organized, and a corps of reserve, consisting of one thousand young men who had never been in battle. The bravest ciiiefs of all the triljcs were put in com mind, and spies immediately sent out in search of tile enemy, the whole body taking up their line of marcii in the direction whence they expected tlie attack.

The advance of the party was continued several days, passing through, successively, the settlement of tiieir friends, the Onondaijas, the Cayuyas, and the Senecas; but they had scarcely passed the last wigwam, now the fort of C'a-aii-du-f/ua (Canandaigua) lake, when the scouts brought in intelligence of the advance of the Fries, who had already crossed the Ce-nis-se-u (Genesee) river in great force. Tiie Eries had not the slightest intimation of the approach of their enemies. They relied on the secrecy and celerity

The two parties met at a point about half-way between the foot of Canandaigua lake, on the Genesee river, and near tlie outlet of two small lakes, near the foot of one of wiiicii (Iloncoye) the battle was fought. When the two parties came in sight of each otiier the outlet of the lake only intervened between them.

Tlie entire force of the five confederate tribes was not in view of the Eries. The reserve corps of one thousand young men had not been allowed to advance in sight of the enemy. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of the Fries at tiie first siglit of an opposing force on the other side of the stream. They rushed through it and fell upon tiiem with tremendous fury. Tiie undaunted courage and determined bravery of the Iroquois could not avail against such a terrible onslaught, and they were compelled to yield the ground on the bend of the stream. The whole force of the combined tribes, except the corps of the reserve, now became engaged. They fouglit hand to hand and foot to foot. The battle raged horribly. No quarter was asked or given on eitiier side.

As the fight thickened and became more desperate, tiie Fries, for the first time, became sensible of their true situation. What they had long anticipated had become a fearful reality. Their enemies hid combined for their destruction, and tiiey now found themselves engaged, suddenly and unex])ectedly, in a struggle not only involving the (jlorij, but perhaps the very existence of their nation. They were proud, and had hitherto been victorious over all their enemies. Their superiority was felt and acknowledged Ijy all tlie tribes. They knew how to conquer, but not to yield. All these considerations flashed upon the minds of the liold Eries, and nerved every arm with almost sujicrhuinan power. On the other hand, the united foi'ces of the weaker tribes, now made strong Ijy union, fired with a spirit of emulation, excited to the highest pitcli among the warriors of the dillcrcnt tribes, brought for the first time to act in concert, inspired with zeal and confidence by the counsels of the wisest chiefs, and led by the most experienced warriors of all the trii>es, the Iroquois were invincible.

Though staggered by the first desjierate rush of tiieir opponents they rallied at once, and stood their ground. And now the din of battle rises higher; the war-club, the tomahawk, the scaljiing-knife, wielded by herculean hands, do terrible deeds of death. During the hottest of tlie battle, which was fierce and long, the corps of i-eserve, consisting of a thousand young men, were, by a skillful movement under their exjjcrieiiced ciiicf, placed in tiie rear of tiie Fries, on tiie opposite side of the stream in ambush.

The Fries had been driven seven times across the stream, and had as often regained tiieir ground; but the eighth time, at a given signal from their chief, the corps of young warriors in ambush rushed upon the almost exhausted Fries with a tremendous yell, and at once decided the fortunes of the day. Hun- dreds, disdaining to fly, were struck down by the warclulis of the vigorous young warriors, whose thirst for the blood of tlie enemy knew no bounds. A few of tlie vanquished Eries escaped to carry the news of the terrible overthrow to their wives and children and old men that remained at home. But the victors did not allow them a moment's repose, but pursued them in their flight, killing all who fell into their hands.

The pursuit was continued for many weeks, and it was five months before the victorious party of the Five jYrt/('o«s returned to their friends to join in celebrating the victory over their last and most powerful enemy - the Eries.

Tradition adds that many years after a i)owerful war-party of the descendants of the Eries came from beyond the Mississippi, ascended the Ohio, crossed the country, and attacked the Senecns, who had settled in the seat of their fathers at Tu-slm-wmj. A great battle was fought near the site of the Indian mission-house in which [\\q Erics were again defeated, and slain to a man. Their bones lie bleaching in the sun to the present day, - a monument at once of the indomitable courage of the terrible Eries and of their brave conquerors, the Seneras.

The Iroquois

After their conquest, the Fire Nations became the undisputed owners, if not the actual occupants, of the soil bordering the southern shore of Lake Erie. They carried their incursions into the far west, and became sovereigns of an almost boundless territory. For many years succeeding the subjugation of the Eries this region was known as the hunting-ground of the powerful Iroquois. The Senecas which were the westernmost tribe of the Fii'c Nations were oftener the occupants of the territory than any other tribe. The rivalry between the French and English for title to American soil involved the Indians in innumerable wars, resulting in great decimation of their numbers. This struggle for rivalry ceased in 1703 with the treaty of Paris, when England came into the possession of France's title to the gi-eat west. From this time to the close of the Revolutionary struggle the Iroquois retained possession of the forests of Northern Ohio. In 1780 the number of the Iroquois

The peninsula enclosed between lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, had been the dwelling-place of the original llurons. After their defeat by the Five Nations they became widely scattered, some descending the St. Lawrence, where, in the region of Quebec, their descendants are yet to be seen; a part were adopted into the tribes of their conquerors; others fled beyond Lake Sujierior and hid themselves in the wilderness that divided the Chippewas from their western foes, while scattered bands took refuge iu the forests of Northern Ohio. They were probably more familiarly known to the pioneers of this region than any other tribe of Indians.

Remnants Oe Algonkin Tribes

The Algonkins, two hundred years ago, were by far the most numerous family of American Indians, and their domain reaching from the Atlantic to the Jlississippi river was the greatest in extent. The historian, Bancroft, fixes their number two centuries ago at ninety thousand, while the Iroquois family arc thought not to have exceeded seventeen thousand. A hundred years ago a numl)er of their tribes were quite numerously rej>resented on the soil of what is now Northern Ohio. The greatest numljer of these red men belonged to the Delaware, the Chippeioa, and the Ottawa tribes, although remnants of the Shawnees, the Pottawatomies, the Miainis, and the Kiekapoos were likewise present. In the wars between the Indians and the pioneer settlers of Ohio, preceding the treaties of Fort Mcintosh (1785), of Fort liarmar (1789), of Fort Greenville (1705), and of Fort Industry, (1805), the red men were completely subdued, and thereafter this region, instead of being the permanent dwelling-place of one or more tribes of Indians, came to be temporarily the common hunting-gi-ound of many tribes. Seeking permanent homes in the remoter west, they returned here during the hunting seasons to renew the sports of the chase and roam through the jjleasant forests where lay buried the dead of their forefathers. Such was the condition, for the most part, of the red men of this locality when first came hither the white settler.

Summary Of The Grants

The Indians cede all their claims east and south of the Cuyahoga, and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas to Fort Laurens l Bolivar); thence to Laramie's Fort (northwest part of Shelby county); thence along tite Portage path to the St. Mary's river, and down it to the Omee or Maumee river and the lake shore to the Cuyahoga.

These Indians did not own the land occupied by them on the Scioto, and are allotted a tract on the heads of the two Miamis anil the Wabash, west of the Chippewas, Delawares, and Wyandots.

Treaty of Fort Stanwix confirmed by the Irotptiu's. Treaty of Fort Mcintosh confirmed l)y the western tribes, - the Sauks and Pottairuttomies assenting.

through the Black swamp. Thi Chijjpewas. Ottaivas, Potttiuattomies, Wyandots, Delaivares, Senecas, Shawnees, and Miamis, wlo had engaged on the British side in the War of 1813,

The Moravian Missions

The earliest actual settlement made withiu the present limits of Lorain county, though short-lived, was effected by that zealous but persecuted sect known as Moravians, at the mouth of Black river in 1787. We deem it but just that a short chapter be devoted to this interesting people, aud believe no one will deem the space we accord them as unwisely granted.

The sect had its origin in Bohemia. Always insignificant as to numbers, and none of them remarkable for wealth, position or learning, no Christian people have shown more zeal or enthusiasm in extending their Master's kingdom. Considering their meager numbers, it may be confidently asserted that no other denomination of Christians has done so much for the missionary cause. Without extraordinary skill or ability in elucidating abstruse or difficult problems of l)e!ief, they have sought not to make ]iroselytes among those already well-grounded in the cardinal doctrines of Christian faith, but to teach the elementary gospel religion to those peoples aud tribes who had not yet been converted to Christianity. To the prosecution of this work they have freely devoted their lives and fortunes, and no country has been too remote, no shore too forbidding or inhospitable to prevent their planting there tlie banner of the cross aud seeking to bring under its folds the most savage and degraded of mankind.

In 1732, while their numl)ei-s were less than four hundred, they began tlieir missionary work, the first station estaljlished being at St. Thomas in the West Indies.

In 17-40 they established a mission among the Indians at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; but as the Indians were being gradually driven westward, a i)ermanent location was impossible.

Tlie efforts of the missionaries to civilize the Indians were not wholly successful. Their contact with the whites was always corrupting in its influence upon the red men. For the missionaries to have success it was necessary for them to keep in advance of the wave of emigration.

In 1768 a new location was sought near Oil City, Pennsj'lvania, and in 1770 they removed to tlie Beaver river, where they remained a year or more, and tlien turned their steps westward to tlie valley of the Tuscarawas, near New Pliiladelphia. Ohio. Here, in this pleasant and fertile valley, they tliouglit themselves so far in the wilderness that they hoped they might forever remain undisturbed. They built cabins, cleared

Though they exercised only the arts of peace and kept ah)of from war and strife, patiently suliniitting to wroiij,' without seeking to bestow punishnuMit, they could not escape persecution and marl yi'doni. They were distrusted by both the IJritish and the Americans. 'I'lie former took steps to break up their mission and bring I he iidiabilants to Detroit as prisoners.

It was a sad blow to the peaceful Christians to be forced to leave their homes and ungathered crops, and in a long journey through a pathless wilderness, sutfcring indignity, cruelty and untold hardships.

The following s|)riug, 1782, a few of them by |)ermission returned to harvest their corn; but no sooner were they arrived than a detachment of Americans came among them, and, seizing a favorable opportunity, rushed ui)on the defenceless Christians and slaughtered them in cold blood. It was one of the most cruel, unprovoked and bloody deeds known to the annals of border warfare.

Those that had remained at Detroit sought a home in Canada; but, after dwelling a few years among the C/ii/ipcwas, their hearts yearned for their old home in the Tuscarawas, and in 1780 they started thither.

Reaching a point on the Cuyahoga in Independence township, known as Pilgrims' Rest, they received intelligence that made them shrink from going further. They halted and remained here about one year and then journeyed westward until they reached the nu)uth of Bhick river (in 1787), and here they made a settlement. Their hope was to found here a permanent colony and to labor among the Indians, endeavoring to civilize and t'hristianize them. This cherished wish, however, could not be realized. But a few days had ela[)sed when the chief of the Delawares sent them a message commanding them to depart. This may be tei'uieil the lirst actual settlement eilected within the limits of Lorain county. Though these Moravians tarried but a few days, they had actually chosen a spot where they fully intended to permanently remain, and their withdrawal was obligatdry, not voluntary.

l)i-i\cn from Black river, tliese valiant Christian soldiers next souglit for themselves an asylum on the banks of the Huron, about two miles north of the j)resent village of Milan, in Erie county. Here they dwelt for five or six years; but, after suffering many jiersecutions, they were again driven away, and returne(l to Canada, settling on the river Thomas.

In 1797, Congress, mindful of their ])ast wrongs, made grants to them of their old lands on the Tuscarawas, whither a portion of them returned and prosecuted their missionary labors. However, their success was retarded by the influence of the white settlers, which was ever demoralizing upon the Indian, and some of them returned again to Canada, while others, among them Chai'les Frederich Dencke, came to the Huron river and established there a mission. This was in ISO-i. Here they continued to dwell for five years, until the Fire Lauds; having been surveyed, the white settler began to claim the lands upon which their cabin homes were erected. Then the missionaries and their Indian adherents sought their brethren in (ianada.

The mission village on the Huron was called Pequotting, or Paynothing. and consisted of a chap(d, mission house and a seoi'e or more of cabins, some of which were afterwards used Ijy the white settlers.

Their labors consisted in teaching the Indians not only religion, but the rudiments of education, and were successful in inducing them to a certain extentto procure their food by cultivating the soil, to live in cabins, and to leave off their paint and feathers and to clothe themselves in more civilized garbs.

Among the most noted of these missionaries may be named Charles Frederich Dencke, who was born in Iceland, his father being a missionary to that conn, try. Tradition states that he had a library which filled a space of not less than ten feet in length by six in height, and occupied nearly the whole of one side of his log cabin at Pequotting. Surely the man who took the pains to transport these books from place to place under so many ditliculties, could not have been uncultivated and unlearned.

These men were not the heroes of battles nor winners of renown in the noisy triumjih of civic strife. They cared not for the apjilause of man, but in a humble way, through years of hunger, toil, weariness and loneliness, sustained by an unwavering trust and faith, they sought out the rude savage of the forest and strove to elevate him to a higher, truer manhood. Is it not fitting that History spares, then, a page whereon to transfix their names and deeds?

Chapter Ix

It Would seem that the good old state of Connecticut never attempted, perhaps never intended, to exercise empire over her possessions in the west. She contented herself with mere ownership; was not very loth to part with her property, which she made haste to dispose of without any expenditure to develop or enhance its nuirket value. The Connecticut Land Comjjany purchased only to sell again. For the imrpose of division, it was obliged to survey its domain. This accomplished, the Company was immediately dissolved, and each with his allotment at once sought purchasers, and they, without concert, pushed off singly to their aeipusitions. Colonizing in America has been pursued on a somewhat different basis, under a different inspiration from that practiced in Europe. The state undertakes nothing. It is rare that there is organization or combination with us to effect this purpose. It comes to be known that some new unpeopled region is open or may be opened, and by a common impulse, hardy, enterprising men, with their wives and families, or without them, push off, undeteiTed by difKculties, and unappalled by obstacles or dangers even, and the next that the world hears, a new and thriving community, pcrliaps a lusty young state, demands recognition.

Perha]is no section of the country, of such an extent, had then been so rapidly peopled as the Connecticut Reserve. Witli not a score of occupants in 1800, twenty years saw it well settled, and those years cover all there was of pioneer life pro})er, although for twenty years more, the region was souglit ]>y men in search of new homes.

Planted mainly from Connecticut and Massachusetts, with a little sprinkle from the rest of New England, New York and Western Pennsylvania, most of immigrants had to traverse over six hundred miles, two-thirds or three-fourths of which was through a wilderness and over the rougliest of roads. The wliole was generally by land carriage, and usually by ox teams. Not until the construction of the Erie canal, did Lake Erie and water carriage make any considerable figure in the transit. Some of the earlier pioneers ventured up the lake in small open boats, landing each night, while many found its wave-beaten beach a smooth and level highway.

The crushing defeat of the western tribes of Indians by Wayne, in KTt-t, freed the Reserve from the fear of savage hostilities, and although numy small bands found homes and hunting grounds by her beautiful streams and splendid forests, they were not even a source of annoyance till the dark days of 1812. Save a few from western New York and Pennsylvania, most of the settlers were from older New England, where the hatreds and enmities against the Indians had died out, and where the memories of the Pequots of the Narragansetts, and of King Phillip, had become traditions. Her children carried no border animosities into the Ohio woods, and very few of them had any skill as hunters, or much knowledge of woodcraft. No American of that time but had the memory at lea-t of a hunter's and soldier's life; and men in a single day revert to the ways of barbarism if not savagery. Each man and woman from the old organized states of civilization, as their journeys led them deeper and deeper into the western forests, by so much plunged into the heart of primitive life, bearing all their civilized needs and wants with them, which could alone be supplied by the skill of the hunter, and of men who could draw all the elements of subsistence, at first hand, from unchanged nature. The great wave of pioneer life, whicli slowly rolled from the east to the west, followed by the fixed foot-prints of ever equally advancing refinement and civilization, gave birth, as it went, to a mode of life, manners and customs of a ])ioneer type, consisting of a few well marked peculiarities, of plainness, almost coarseness, in a stimulating atmosphere, in that fullness of unconventional freedom, which left individuals to develope, in a striking way, the diverse peculiarities and characteristics of their natures. On the Reserve, this phase of pioneer life, with its manners and customs, was of but a few years duration, and affected not more than two generations. There is scarcely a vestige of it now remaining. A cherished, a regretful memory: it is fast fading into a tradition, which genius, art, enthusiasm and the warmest imagination can never reproduce.

In the peopling of the Lorain woods, no state, nor powerful corporation, no strong combination of individuals had any hand. Few persons of wealth took any jiersoual part in it. No well constructed highway led from the old to the new, with convenient resting places. No common starting place, and no common point of arrival and settlement, where sujijdies wei-e gathered, and around and from which the new homes would be built. A hundred different points, remote from each other, were occupied at the same time, and the sufferings, privations and hardshijis of the first settler were repeated a thousand times, when by care and tact they might have been avoided.

The silence of the Lorain forests remained unbroken a few years longer than some of her neighboring regions. The incidents of their first occupation will be detailed, under the names of the different townships; only a slight general reference can here be made to them. As a general rule, the pioneers were men of courage and enterprise. Few others would have the hardihood to run the risk, and take upon themselves the labor and privation incident to a removal into the woods.

It is said that the Moraviatis were the first, of European blood, who attempted to make a permanent lodgment on the soil of Lorain, and that in 1787, they gathered a small baud of christian Indians at the mouth of Black river, where they intended to establish a mission for the conversion of the natives, but were compelled to depart by the maiulate of a chief, who claimed jurisdiction of that region.

One of the first efforts of a settlement, if such it may be called, was in 1807, by Nathan Perry, who established a trading post at the mouth of the same river. Actual clearers of the woods, and cultivators of the soil, first planted themselves at that point in 1810. They were said to have been natives of Vermont. This position was on the lake coast region, and quite central in the present county.

In the autumn of 1807, a strong and seemingly well cotisidered attem])t was made to colonize the present township of Columbia, the most eastern of Lorain, from Waterbury, Connecticut. The more prominent men were the three Hoadleys, Williams, Warner, and Bronson, most of whom had families; also, Mrs. Parker and five children. It is said tlie party were two mouths in reaching Buffalo, and undertook to navigate Lake Erie, which must have been extra hazardous at that season. They seem to have been wrecked near the present city of Erie, whence tliey made their way on foot to Cleveland, - one of the most disastrous of tlie early attempts to reach the then west. Most of the party spent the residue of the winter in Cleveland. Other immigrants reached Cohunliia iliiring tlic winter, and the ensuing season.

Ridgeville also received her first pioneers from Connecticut in ISld, and Amherst her first about the same time. Eaton was also first settled from Waterhury, Connecticut, in 1810.

Three of these points of occupation formed a sort of triangle, not remote from each other, in the eastern central portions of the county, while Black River and Amherst were quite distant to the northwest. The five seem to have lieeu tlie only settlements in the county, until after the dark days of the war of 1813, although some of them seem to have made accessions during that gloomy jieriod.

Hrownhelm, west of Black River, and Grafton, adjoining Eaton, on the south, were settled in 181G, as Avas Elyria. the future county seat, ;ind all three from Massachusetts. Elyria was most fortunate in being selected as the home of the Elys.

Carlisle, south of Elyria and west of P^aton, was first occupied in 1819, from Connecticut, and Hrigjiton, adjoining Wellington on the west, in 1830. Russia's first settler came from New York in 1818. Penfield, adjoining Wellington mi the east, in 18I',>, while Henrietta was settletl in 1817. The other townships, many of them, were first occujiied in the j'cars soon following these older sisters.

These pioneers were of one origin, language, religion, witJi political and jiatriotic sentiments mainly identical witii a common history and the same traditions. They were of the intelligent working class, having coniuiunity of puri)ose. wiiicli they pursued by the sanu' methods, and in the same lieli], with results not widely dissimilar. The journev, arrival, building, mode of life, fortune and career, of almost any one of these, resolute, vigorous, thrifty downcast families, was the couuterj)art of the histories of all the others.

The leading incidents of these will more properly be mentioned elsewhere. .This slight reference to the ]iei-iods of the first settlements of the older townships and the mention of their origin is merely to show that they were ijuite contemporaneous, and made by a jK'i'fectly limnogeneous ]>eople :ind under similar cnndit ions.