Lorain City (part 1 of 77)

With

N tlie preparation of this History, accnrafv has lieen the aim of the publishers. They have endeavored to confine themselves within the limits of aseei'tained facts and reliable (hita, and while they have not published every item of history belDngino- to the county of Lorain, all tliat is realU' important is given, and that which is published may l)e regarded as authentic.

(ientlemen of experience, as writei-s, liave assisted the author in the production of this book: and it is believed that the subjects, which eacli writer luxs severally dealt with, have been treated \\ith care and thoroughness. In the general history department, A. G. Riddle, of Washington, D. C contributed the cliapter on "Pioneer Life:"' Jay Terrell, the "Geology" and "Fossil Fishes:"" P. H. BoYNTON, the "Bar of Lorain County:"" George G. Washburn, the "Press of Lorain County;"" K. Baker, the "Lorain Agricultural Society." The history of "Elyria" was mainly prejiared by Dr. L. T>. Griswold; that of "Russia,"" including "Oberlin," by Rev. Henry Matson; that of '- Wellington,"" by Hon. J. H. Dickson, while iSL-s. Nesbett contributed the greater part of " Grafton."" To the pen of President Fairchild, the publishers are indebted, in the main, for the history of " Brownhelm,"" and the biography of "Father Keep."' They are also under obligations to many others who have aided them greatly in collecting and furnishing data for this history.

The publishers feel that they have done the work, they undertook to do, faithfully; and while the book may not be found entirely free from blemishes, they are confident that none of a serious character Avill be discovered.

Hitherto the publishers have had their county histories published in Philadelphia, by J. B. LiPPiNCOTT & Co., but this volume is from the press of the Leader Printing Company, Cleveland, who have done themselves credit by the high degree of typographical excellence shown in the printing of this book. Every inhabitant of the Western Reseiwe has cause for congratulation in the fact, - of which this Histoi-y of Lorain County is proof, - that Cleveland is al)le to maintain successful rivalry with Philadelphia, New York and Boston, in the publication of books whose beauty of typography is of the highest standard attained by the " art preservative."

Contents

X. - Civil Organization Xr. - Civil List . XII. - The Bar of Lorain County XIII. - The Press of Lorain County XIV. - Lorain Agricultural Society

Page

Scenes in and around Elyria (Frontispiece) Outline Map of Lorain County . Dentition of Dinichthys Terrelli (Front View) . " " " (Side View) ,

Portrait of Solomon Whittlesey . Residence of Cyrus L. Whittlesey Portraits of William Sayles and Wife Portrait of Mrs. Sarah C. Sayles (deceased) Residence of William Sayles

Portraits of George, Catharine, and Maria B. Wells The Amherst Mill .... Residence of John H. Ileymann Portraits of John II. Ileymann and Wife

Carlisle

Residence of the Heirs of David Bennett Portraits of David and Jane Bennett . Residence of Lorenzo Clark Portrait of William Patterson " Chauncey Prindle

Sheffield Pack

Portraits of Crispin and Duke Mcnnell Residence of A. W. Nichols (double page) Portraits of A. W. Nichols and AVife . Birthplace of A. W. Nichols, York, N. Y. . Residence of Dr. C. B. Knowlton Portrait of " " . .

Residence of Samuel Kendeigh . Late Residence of Geo. Dudley . Residence of Casper Dute . Portraits of Casper Dute and Wife . Residence of Captain E. P. Frink Portraits of Captain E. P. and Aurilla Frink

Discovery

The year 986 signalizes the first visitation of white men to the New World. Then it was that Herjulfson, a Xorse navigator, in sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was driven by a storm to the coast of Labrador, or, as some historians claim, to that of Newfouu-dlaud. The uninviting character of the coasts of the new land deterred him from landing. What Herjulfson first saw, it was reserved for other discoverers to expore. The Norsemen returned to Greenland, and there related wonderful stories of the land they had seen, but made no further attempts at discovery.

Fifteen years later Lief Erickson, a brave and daring Icelandic captain, with mind inflamed with the fabulous accounts of his brother Norseman, resolved to extend the discovery of Herjulfson, and in the year 1001 set foot upon the shore of Labrador. He directed his course southwest along the coast, and finding the country pleasant and attractive extended his explorations, and finally reached the territory embraced within the present State of Massachusetts, where he and his companions remained one year. They proceeded along the coast bordering upon Long Island Sound, and it is claimed that the persevering band even found their way to New York harbor.

That this early discovery of American soil may not be deemed a myth, we will say, that while ujitil recently historians have been incredulous, they now almost universally concede the fact; and by way of trustworthy information we quote fi'om Humboldt's "Cosmos," as follows: "We are here on historical ground. By the critical and highly f)i"a'ise worthy efEorts of Professor Rafn and the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Copenhagen, the sagas and documents in regard to the expedition of the Norsemen to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Vinland, have been published and satisfactorily commented upon. The discovery of the northern part of America by the Norsemen cannot be disputed. The length of the voyage, the direction in which thev sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting, are accurately given. While the Caliphate of Bagdad was still flourishing America was discovered, about the year 1001, by Lief, the son of Eric the Red, at the latitude of forty-one and a half degrees north."

Nor did the explorations of these intrepid Icelanders cease with the ex2)edition of Erickson and his companions, but in the following year - 1002 - Thorwald Erickson, brother to Lief, stimulated with a desire to see the new and beautiful country, made a voyage to the coast of Maine. He is said to have ended his days in the vicinity of the present town of Fall River, Massachusetts. In 1005 still another brother, Thoi'stein Erickson, with a baud of adventurers, made a similar voyage, and was followed in 1007 by Thorfinn Karlsefne, a celebrated mariner, who sailed southward along the coast as far as Virginia.

The Norsemen must be regarded as a band of roving adventurers, who effected no settlements, and of whose discoveries but few imi^ortant records have been preserved. The enthusiasm which the first discoverers excited gradually subsided, and as there were no spoils in the wilderness which might fall prey to the Norse freebooters and pirates, further occupancy of the country was not attempted. The shadows which had been for a moment dispelled began to darken over the shores of the New World, and the curtain was not again lifted for nearly five hundred years. Then came the achievement of Columbus, in the year 1492. Born of a holy faith and an inflexible purpose, it was the greatest maritime enter25rise in the history of the world. He touched upon an island subsequently called San Salvador, and planting there the banner of Castile, formally claimed jjossession of the land in the name of Isabella, Queen of Spain. Marvelous were the results of discovery and exploration which followed. England and France vie with Spain and with each other for the mastery in the New World. The Spanish nation, led on by an insatiable thirst for gold, pushed forward her explorations in America with such energy and spirit that in less than fifty years from the time of the great discovery of

Columbus, she liad explored and laid claim to nearly one-half of tlie present territory of tlie United States. Her adventurers had visited the pi-osent States and Territories of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, the Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.

France likewise made large acquisitions of American soil, though of later date. Tlie discoveries and explorations of James Cartier, of tlio patriotic De Monts, of Samuel Chami)lain, of Marquette, of Joliet, and of the gallant La Salle, secured to France, before the close of the Sixteenth century, claims to North American territory greater than those of any other European power. At the time referred to, her sovereignty in America embraced Newfoundland, Acadia, Nova Scotia, Hudson's Bay, all the Cauadas, more than half of Maine, Vermont, and New York, the whole valley of the Mississippi - including its eastern tributaries - the great chain of lakes at the north and Texas at the south, as far as to the Rio Bravo del Norte.

England's dominions in America lay along the Atlantic seaboard. The thirteen original colonies skirting the Atlantic from Florida to the verge of Nova Scotia were the planting of the English people, and constituted that nation's possessions up to tiie time of the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. By virtue of this treaty England obtained large concessions of territory from France. The entire possessions of the Bay of Hudson and its borders; of Newfoundland, subject to the rights of France in its fisheries; and all of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, according to its ancient boundaries, passed from the dominion of Fra^.ce to tliat of England. And now the strife in America for the possession of colonial monopolies and territorial sovereignty was confined to these two great powers. France still maintained lier claim to much the larger extent of territory, but her poi)ulation, scattered over tiiis immense area, numbered only eleven thousand two hundred and forty-nine persons in 1G88, while that of the English colonics in tiie same year exceeded two luindred thousand. A contest of fifty years' duration between these two great powers for territorial acquisition in America foHowed, resulting in the Treaty of Paris, in 17fi:?, by virtue Of which France lost and England gain(>d the whole foiintry between the Allegheny mountains and tiie Father of \A^aters, except a small tract lying at tlie montii of the gn^at river. The valley of the Ohio, foi- wliose special conquest a seven years' war li:iil Ixtm Ix^gnn, tJnis passed to the possession of Britain.

Strangely enough, for the success of tiiis undertaking the English nation was mainly indel)ted to the very hero, who, a few years later, as Commander-in- Chief of the American armie's, was eiiffasfed in wresting it - in common witli tlie territory of the whole country - from British rule, in order to transfer it to the free jieople who should make for humanity a new existence in America. In less than a decade the dominions which England took from France were in turn taken from her, and the United States of America obtained a place among the nations of the world, and undertook the glorious work of tilling a territorial continent with commonwealths.

Chapter Ii

The Western Reserve of Connecticut lies l)etwecn the panillels of 11'" and 12° 2' of north latitude, commencing with the western boundary line of Pennsylvania, and extending thence one hundred and twenty miles westward. The entire tract embraces an area of seven thousand four hundred and forty square miles, nearly one-third of which is water. If the whole were land, there would be four million seven hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred acres. It is composed of the counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Portage, Geauga, Lake, Cu3'ahoga, Medina, Lorain, Huron, Erie, Summit (except the townships of Franklin and Green), the two northern tiers of townships in Mahoning, the townships of Sullivan, Troy, and Ruggles, in Ashland, and several islands lying north of Sandusky, including Kelly's and Put-in-Bay. This is the land portion of the Reserve. The portion consisting of water lies between the southern shore of Lake Erie and the forty-second degree of north latitude, and is bounded on the east and west by the same parallels of longitude that form the east and west boundaries of the land ])ortion.

There liave been numerous claimants to tlie soil of the Reserve. In addition to the red man's title. France, England, the United States, Virginia. Massachusetts, New York, and Conneccicnt have all, atone time or another, asserted ownership. The claim of France arose by reason of its being a portion of the territorv which she ])ossessed by right of discovery. England laid claim to all territory adjoining those districts lying along the Atlantic seaboard, whose soil she jiossessed by right of occupancy, asserting ownershiji from sea to sea. The greatest ignorance, however, prevailed in early times as to the inland extent of the y\merican continent. During the reign of James I.^ Sir Francis Drake reported that, from the top of the mountains on the Isthmus of Panama, he had seen both oceans. This led to the belief that the continent from east to west was of no considerable extent, ami (hat the South Sea, by which appellation the Pacilic then was known, did not lie very far removed from tlie Atlantic. As late as 1710, the Duke of Newcastle addressed his letters to the "Island of New England." This ignorance of the inland extent of America, gave rise, as we shall see, to conflicting claims of western territory. Eiialand's valid title to the great west was obtained through conquest, conipelliiig France, in 1713 and 1763, to surrender nearly the wiiole of her American possessions. The United States succeeded Great Britain in her riglits of ownorslii[) in American soil, and tiius came to have a claim to tlie lands of the Reserve. Tiie claims of Virginia, .Massaciiusetts, Xcw York and Couueeticut were obtained by virtue of charters granted to English subjects by English sovereigns. The tract of counti-y embraced in the London Company's charter, granted by James I. in 1009, whence arose Virginia's claim, commenced its l>onndaries at Old Point Comfort, on the Atlantic, and extended two hundred mdes south, and two hundred north from this jioint. From the southernmost l)oint, a line drawn dne west to the Pacific formed the southern boundary; from the nortliernmost point, a lino running diagonally northwesterly through Pennsylvania and Western Xew York, across the eastern portion of Lake Erie, and terminating finally in the Arctic ocean, formed the nortliwcstern boundary; and the Pacific Ocean, or what was then called the South Sea, the western boundary. Tlie vast empire lying within these four lines included over one-half of tlie North American continent, and embraced all of what was afterwards known as the Northwestern Territory, including of course the lands of the Keservc.

The claim of Massaciiusetts rested for its validity uiion the charter of 1630, granted by James I. to the ('ouncil of Plymouth, and embraced all tlie territory from (lie Atlantic to the Pacific lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude. This grant comprised an area of more than a million sipiare miles, and included all of the present inhabited lii'itisli possessions to the north of tiie United States, all of what is now New England, New York, one-half of New Jersey, very nearly all of Pennsylvania, more than the nortliern half of Ohio, and all the country to the west of tiiese States. In 1630, the Earl of Warwick olitained a grant to a part of the same territory, and in the following year assigned a portion of his grant to Lord Brooke and Viscounts Say and Seal.

In 1061, Charles II. ceded to his brother, the Duke of York, and afterwards King James II. of England, the country from Delaware Bay to the River St. Croix, and afterward it was insisted that the granted territory extended westward to the Pacific. This constituted New York's claim to western territory, of which the lands of the Reserve were a jiortion. In 1662, the same monarch granted to nineteen patentees an ample charter, from which Connecticut derived her claim to a territory bounded by Massachusetts on tiie north, the sea on the south, Narragauset Bay on the east, and the Pacific on the west. This grant embraced a strip of land sixty-two miles wide, extending from Narragansett Bay on the east to the Pacific ocean on the west; and the northern and southern boundaries of this tract were the same as those which now form the boundaries at the north and south of the Reserve.

Thus arose conflicting claims. The extent of territory to which Virginia insisted tiiat she was rightful owner was the largest, and included all the other claims. That of Massachusetts was next in size, and included the whole region claimed for Connecticut, as did the territory embraced in New York's claim.

The United States did not appear as a contestant until the time of the Revolutionary war, when she, with good reason, insisted that these disputed lands belonged of right to Great Britain's conqueror; that a vacant territory, wrested from a common enemy by the united arms, and at the joint expense and sacrifice of all the States, should be considered as the jiroperty of the conquering nation, to be held in trust for the common benefit of the people of all the States. To show how groundless were the claims of these contesting States, it was pointed out that the charters upon which their titles were founded had in some instances been abrogated by Judicial proceedings, and the companies to Avhom they had been given dissolved; that the charters were given at a time when much of the territory, to which ownership was claimed under them, was in the actual possession and occupancy of another power; that all the various grants were made in the grossest ignorance of the inland extent of the American continent; and that George III. had cither repudiated the charters of his royal jiredecessoi's, or denied to them the right of sovereignty over territory of so vast extent, by issuing a proclamation forbidding all persons from intruding upon lands in the valley of the Ohio.

Popular feeling ran high. Contentions between conflicting claimants frequently resulted in bloodshed. The prospects of the American Union were darkened; the ratification of the Articles of Confederation was retarded; the difficulty and embarrassments in prosecuting the war for independence were greatly augmented. Mainland would not become a member of the Union unless the States claiming western territory would relinquish to Congress their title. In the midst of these gloomy and foreboding events, in which disaster to the common cause was more to be feared at the hands of its friends than of its enemies. Congress made a strong appeal to the claiming States to avert the approaching danger by a cessation of contentious discord among themselves, and by making liberal cessions of western territory for the common benefit. New York was the first to resjiond, and in 1780 ceded to the United States the lands she claimed lying west of a line running south from the western bend of Lake Ontario, reserving an area of nineteen thousand square miles. Virginia, in 1781, relinquished in favor of Congress her title to lands lying northwest of the Ohio, reserving a district of land in Ohio lying between the Scioto and Little Miami, which came to be known as the Virginia Military District, which reservation was made in order to enable Virginia to fulfill pledges to her soldiers in the Revolutionai-y war of bounties payable in western lands. In 1785, Massachusetts ceded the western territory to which she had been a chiiniiint, reserviiiE; tlic same nineteen thousand square miles reserved by New York, which disputed territory was afterwards divided equally between tiiese two States. Connecticut was the most reluctant and tardy of all the contesting States iu sacrificing State pretensions for the common benefit. Ilowever, on the 14th day of September, 1786, her authorized delegates in Congress relinquished all the right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim that she possessed to land within her chartered limits lying west of a line one hundred and twenty miles west of and parallel with the western boundary line of the State of Pennsylvania. The tract of laud and water lying west of Pennsylvania for one hundred and twenty miles, and between latitudes 41° and 42° 2' north, was not conveyed, - hence reserved by Connecticut, and hence was called the Western Reserve of Connecticut.

As Connecticut's claim included nearly the whole of the northern half of the present State of Pennsylvania, it infringed upon the rights of the jseojile of the latter State or colony, who alleged ownership by virtue of the charter to William Penn. granted by James II. of England, in 1681. Both States strove for the occujiancy of the disputed soil, and Connecticut sold to certain individuals seventeen townships, situated on or near the Susquehanna river, organized the tract into a civil township, called it Westmoreland, and attached it to the probate district and county of Litchfield, in Connecticut. Westmoreland representatives occupied seats in the Connecticut legislature. Pennsylvania protested, and, when the Revolutionary contest closed, sent an armed force to drive the intruders from the lands. The shedding of blood resulted. The controversy was finally submitted to a court of commissioners appointed by congress, upon the petition of^ Pennsylvania, as provided in the ninth article of the Confederation, which gave to congress the power to establish a court for the settlement of disputed boundaries.

This court sat at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1787, when the case was tried, and decided against Connecticut. The title to lauds lying west of Pennsylvania was not involved in this adjudication, and Connecticut still insisted upon the validity of her claim to lands not ceded by her to the United States.

At a session of the Connecticut legislature, held at New Haven, in 178G aiul in 1787, it was resolved to offer for sale that part of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga, the Portage path, and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum, and a committee of three persons was appointed to cause a survey to be made and to negotiate a sale. Nothing, however, was immediately done. On the 10th of Feln-uary, 1788, however, certain lands lying within the limits of the Reserve were sold to General Samuel H. Parsons, then of Middletown, Connecticut. This was afterwards known as the Salt Spring tract. No survey had been made, but in the description of the land conveyed the numbers of the ranges and townships were designated as if actually defined. General Parsons had explored the country, and had found the location of a salt spring near the Mahoning. He selected his tract so as it should include this spring, from which he expected to manufacture salt and to make his fortune. The entire number of acres thus sold and conveyed to Mr. Parsons, as afterwards determined by the survey made by the (!onnecticut Land Company, was twentyfive thousand four hundred and fifty. The descri))- tion in the deed is as follows:

" Beginning at the northeast corner of the first township, in the third range of townships; thence rnnning northwardly on the west line of the second range of said lands to forty-one degrees and twelve minutes of north latitude; thence west three miles; thence southwardly parallel to the west line of Pennsylvania two miles and one-half; thence west three miles to the west line of said third range; thence southwardly parallel to the west line of Pennsylvania to the north hue of the first township, in the third range; thence east to the first bound."

In 1795 Connecticut sold all the Reserve, except the "Sufferers' Lands" and the Salt Spring tract, to a number of men who came to be known as the Connecticut Land Company, The "Sufferers' Lands'' comprise a tract of five hundred thousand acres, taken from the western end of the Reserve, and set apart by the legislature of the State on the 10th of May, 1792, and donated to the suffering inhabitants of the towns of Greenwich, Norwalk, Fairfield, Danbury, New and East Haven, New London, Richlield and Groton, who had sustained severe losses during the Revolution. Upwards of two thousand persons were rendered homeless from the incursions of the British, aided by Benedict Arnold, and their villages pillaged and burned. To compensate them for this great calamity this donation was made to them. The lands thus given are boundel on the north by Lake Erie, south by the base-line of the Reserve, west by its western line, and east by a line parallel with the western line, and at such a distance from it as to embrace one-half million of acres. The counties of Huron and Erie and the township of Ruggles, in Ashland, comprise these lands. An account of each sufferer's loss was taken in pounds, shillings and pence, and a price placed upon the lands, and each of the sufferers received lands proportioned to the amount of his loss. These lands finally took the name of '' Fire Lands," from the fact that the greater part of the losses resulted from fire.

The resolution authorizing the sale of the remainder of the Reserve, adopted at a session of the General Assembly, held at H;irtford, in May, 1795, is as follows:

" Resolved, By this Assembly, that a committee be appointed to receive any proposals that may be made, by any person or persons, whether inhabitants of the tTnited States or others, for the purchase of the lands belonging to this State lying west of the west line of Pennsylvania as claimed by that State, and the said committee are hereby fully authorized and empowered, in the name and behalf of this State, to negotiate with any such person or persons on the subject of any such proposal. And also to perform and complete any contract or contracts for the sale of said lands, and to make and execute, under their hands and seals, to the purchaser or purchasers, a deed or deeds duly authenticated, quitting, in l)ehalf of this State, all right, title, and interest, juridicial and territorial, in and to the said lands, to hira or them, and to his or their heirs, forever. That before the executing of said deed or deeds, the purchaser or purchasers shall give their note or bond, payable to the treasurer of this State, for the purchase-money, carrying an interest of six per centum, payable annually, to commence from the date thereof, or from such future period, not exceeding two years from the date, as circumstances, in the opinion of the committee may require, and as may be agreed on between them and the said purchaser or purchasers, with good and sufficient sureties, inhai)itants of this State, or with a sufficient deposit of banlc or other stock of the United States, or of the particular States, which note or bond shall be taken payable at a period not mrre remote than five years from the date, or, if by annual installments, so that the last installment be [layable within ten years from the date, either in specie, or in six per cent., three per cent., or deferred stock of the United States, at the discretion of the committee. That if the committee shall find that it will be most beneficial to the State, or its citizens, to form several contracts for the .sale of said lands, they shall not consummate any of the said contracts apart by themselves while the others lie in a train of negotiation only, but all the contracts which taken together shall comprise the whole quantity of the said lands shall be consummated together, and the purchasers shall hold their respective parts or proportions as tenants in common of the whole tract or territory, and not in severalty. That said committee, in whatever manner they shall find it best to sell the lanils, whether by an entire contract or by several contracts, shall in no case be at liberty to sell the whole quantity for a principal sum less than one million of dollars in specie, or if the day of payment be given, for a sum of less value than one million of dollars in specie, with interest at six per cent, per annum from the time of such sale."

The following were appointed a committee to negotiate the sale: John Tread well, James Wadsworth, Marvin Wait, William Edmonds, Tliomas Grosvenor, Aaron Anstin, Elijah Hubbard, and Sylvester Gilbert. These eight persons were selected, one from each of the eight counties of the State. They effected a sale in separate contracts with forty-eight different individuals, realizing for the State the sum of one million two hundred thousand dollars. Most of the purchasers made their bargains each separately from the others, although in some instances several associated together and took their deeds jointly. The contracts made were as follows: with

The State by its committee made deeds to the several purchasers in the foregoing amounts, each grantee becoming owner of such a proportion of the entire purchase as the amount of his contract bore to the total amount. For example: the last-named individual, Pierpont Edwards, having engaged to pay sixty thousand dollars towards the purchase, received a deed for sixty thousand twelve hundred thousandths of the entire Reserve, or one-twentieth part. These deeds were recorded in the office of the Secretary of the State of Connecticut, and afterwards copied into a book, commonly designated as the "Book of Drafts."

The individuals above named formed themselves into a company called the Connecticut Land Company, a brief history of whose doings will be presented in the succeeding chapter.

Chapter Iii The Connecticut Land Companit

The members of this company etiected an organization on the 5th day of September, 1795. This was done at Hartford, Connecticut. They adopted articles of association and agreement, fourteen in number. Their first article designated the name by which they chose to be known. Article number two provided for the appointment of a committee, consisting of three of their number, - John Caldwell, John Brace, and John Morgan, - to whom each purchaser was required to execute a deed in trust of his share in the purcliase, receiving in exchange a certificate from the.se trustees showing that the holder thereof was entitled to a certain share in the Connecticut Western Reserve, which certificate of share was transferable by proper assignment. The form of this certificate is given in Article IX. Article III. provides for the appointment of seven directors, and empowers them to procure an extinguishment of the Indian title to said Reserve; to cause a survey of the lands to be made into townships containing each sixteen thousand acres; to fix on a township in which the first settlement shall be made, to survey the township thus selected into lots, and to sell such lots to actual settlers only; to erect in said township a saw-mill and a grist mill at the expense of the company; and to lay out and sell five other townships to actual settlers only. Article IV. obliges the surveyors to keep a regular field-book, in which they shall accurately describe tiie situation, soil, waters, kinds of timber, and natural productions of each township; said book to be kept in the office of the clerk of said directors, and open at all times to the inspection of each proprietor. Article V. provides for the appointment by the directors of a clerk, and names his duties. Article VI. makes it obligatory upon the trustees to give to each of the proprietors a certificate as named above. Article VII. imposes a tax of ten dollars upon each share to enable the directors to accomplish the duties assigned to them. Article VIII. divides the purcha.se into four hundred shares, and gives each shareholder one vote for every share up to forty shares, when he shall thereafter have but one vote for every five shares, except as to the (juestion of the time of making a partition of the territory, in determining which every share shall be entitled to one vote. Article X. fixes the dates of several future meetings to be held. Article XI. reads:

'*And whereas, some of the proprietors may choose that their proportious of said Reserve should be divided tu them in one lot or location, it is agreed that in case one-third in value of the owners shall, after a survey of said Reserve in townships, signify to said directors or meeting a request that such third part be set off in manner aforesaid, that said directors may appoint three commissioners, who shall have power to divide the whole of said purchase into three parts, equal in value, according to quantity, quality, and situation; and when said commissioner's sliall have so ilivided said Reserve, and made a report in writing of their doings to saiil directors, describing precisely the boundaries of each part, tlie said directors shall call a meeting oE said proprietors, giving the notice required by these articles; anil at such meeting the said three parts shall be numbered, and the number of each part shall be written on a separate I)iece of paper, and shall, in the presence of such meeting, be by the chairman of said meeting put into a box, and a person, appointed l)y said meeting for lluit purpose, shall draw out ipf said box one of said numbers, and ihe part designated by such number shall be aparted to su h person or persons requesting such a severance. and the said trustees shall, ttpon receivmg a written direction from said directors for that purpose, execute a deed to such per-ion or persons accordingly; after which, such person or persons shall have no power to act in said conq)aii.y."

Article XU. eniiiowt^Ts the company to raise money by a tax on tlie ]iroi)rietor.s, anil to disiio.se, iiiioii certain eoiulition.s, of so niiicli nf a |ii-o[irietor"s interest, in case of (leliiii(iHincy,, as shall be necessary to satisfy tlie as.sessment. Article XIII. provides for the apiiointiiu'iit liy tlie comiiaiiy of a successor to a trustee who may have caused a vacancy in the ofilce by deatli. Article .\i\'. places the directors in the transaction of any business of the company under the control of the latter "by a vote of at least threefourths of the interest of stiid company."

The following gtqitlemen were chosen to constitute the board of directors: Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion ("-Jnd), Moses Cloaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, KiihraJm Kirby, Saiimel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newbury. At a meeting liehl in April, 17!)U, Ephraim Root was made clerk, ;ind continued to in act this capacity until the dissolution of the company in 1809. A moderator was chosen at each meeting, and changes of directors were made from lime to time.

The following arc Ihe names i.if the persons who subscribed to the " .Vrticles of Associtilion and Agreement constituting the Connecticut Land Company:''

William I.,aw, James Johnson, Elisha Hyde, Uriah Tracey, William Lyman, Daniel Holbrook, Ejihraim Root, Solomon Griswold, Tliaddeus Levvett, Ebenezer King, Jr., Roger Newbury, Elijah White, Eliphalet Austin, Joseph C. Yates, and Samuel Mather, in behalf of themselves and their associates in All)any, State of New York.

Before this organi/.ed body of men lay the important work of obtaining a perfect title to thciri)urchase; of causing a survey of the lands to be maile; of making partition of the same; and then of inducing colonies of men to undertake tlie settlement.

To these tasks tlie purchasers addressed themselves in right good earnest. In order to make sound their title they must obtain from the United States a release of the government's claim, - a very just and formidable one, - and to extinguish the title of tlie Indian, who.se right to the soil rested upon the substantial basis of actual occujiancy. Whatever interest \'irgiiiia, Massachusetts, and New York may have had in the Western Reserve had jiassed to the United States, and if none of the claiming States had title, the dominion ;ind ownership were transferred to the general government by the treaty made with Gretit Britain at the close of the Revolution. There was, therefore, a very reasonable solitutude ujion the [lart of the Connecticut Land ('omi)any, lest the claim of the United States Would, if issue were made, be proven to be of greater valiilily than that of Connecticut, the company's graiitor. Another difficulty made itself felt. AViien an attempt was made to settle the Reserve, it was discovered that it was so far removed from Connecticut as to make it impracticable for that State to extend her laws over the same, or to make new ones for the government of the inhabitants. Congress had provided in the ordinance of 17S7 for the government of the Northwestern Territory; but to admit jurisdiction by the general government over this part of that territory would be a virtual acknowledgment of the validity of the government's title, and therefore an indirect proof of the insufficiency of the company's title. The right to siu;h jurisdiction was therefore denied, and Connecticut was urged to obtain from the Unitetl States a release of the governmentid claim. The resultwas that congress, on the :J8th day of Ajiril, ISOO, authorized the President to execute and deliver, on the part of the United States, letters i)atent to the governor of Connecticut, releasing all right and title to the soil of the Reserve, upon condition that Connecticut should, on her part, forever renounce and release to the United Sttites entire and complete civil jurisdiction over the Reserve. Thus Connecticut obtaine(l from the United States her claim to the soil, and transmitted iind confirmed it to the Connecticut Laml ('onn),-iny and to those who had purchased from it, and jurisdiction for the purposes of government vested in the United States.

At the close of the Revolution the general government sought by peaceable means to acquire the red man's title to the soil northwest of the Ohio. On the 2 1st of January, 1785, a treaty was concluded at Fort Mcintosh with four of the Indian tribes, the Wijnnihts, Ddaiiidrcx, C/iijjpewa.s, and Ot fawns. By this treaty the Cuyahoga and the portage between it and the Tuscariiwtis were agreed upon as the boundtiry on the Reserve between the United States and the Indians. All east of the Cuyahoga was in fact ceded to the United States. The luditms soon became dissatisfied, and refused to comply with the terms of the treaty. On January 0, 1789, another treaty was concluded at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, between Arthur St. Clair, acting for the United States, and the Wyandots, Dclawares, Clivppeioas and Siac

Nations, l)y which the terms of tlio former treaty were renewed and confirmed. Bnt only a short timeehipsed before the Indians viohited their pompact. Peaceful means failing, it became necessary to compel obedience bv the use of arms. Vigorous means for relief and protection for the white settler were called for and enforced. At first the Indians were successful; ])ut in 1794, General Wayue, at the head of three thousand five hundred me:), encountered the enemy on the 2()th (lay of August, on the Maumee, and gained a decisive victory. Nearly every chief was slain. The Treaty of (h-eenville was the result, (ioneral Wayne met in grand council twelve of tlie most powerful northwestern tribes, and the Indians again yielded their claims to the lauds east of the Cuyahoga, and made no further effort to regain them.

We quote as follows from Judge Boynton's Historical Address, to which we are chiefly indebted for the facts given in this and the preceding chapter:

"The Cuyahoga river and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas, as between the United States and the Indians, constituted the western boundary of the United States, upon the Reserve, until .July 4th, ISO.j, On that day a treaty was made at Fort Industry with the chiefs and warriors of the iVyaiidot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Munsee, Delaware, Skawnee and Pottawatomie nations, by which the Indian title to all the lands of the Reserve lying west of the Cuyalioga was extinguished. By this treaty all the lands lying between the Cuyahoga and the Meridian. one hundred and twenty miles west of Pennsylvania, were ceded by the Indians for twenty thousand dollars in goods, and a perpetual annuity of nine thousand five hundred dollars payable in goods at first cost. And although this annuity remains unpaid, l)ecause there is no one to claim it, the title to the laud on the Reserve west of that river was forever set at rest."

Survey Of The Western Reserve

The title having been perfected, the comjiany made preparations to survey the portion of the Ileserve lying east of the Cuyahoga. In the early part of May, 17'JC, the company fitted out an expedition for this puri)ose, of which Moses Cleaveland was the leader of a company - all told of about fortv men - - live of tlieni surveyors, one a physician, and the rest cliaiumeu and axemen.

By i)revious arrangement they met at Scheiiectadv, New York, at which point they commenced their journey, ascending the Mohawk in four flat-lioMomed boats, proceeding by the way of Oswego, Niagara and Queenstown to Buffalo, reaching the soil of tiie Reserve on the -Itli of July.

The names of this surveying-jjarty, a company of fifty-two persons, all told, are as follows: Moses Cleaveland, the Land Company's agent; Joshua Stow, commissary; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor; Setli Pease, Mo.ses Warren, Amos Spafford, Milton Holley and Richard M. Stoddaid, surveyors; Theodore Shepard, ])hysician; Josepii Tinker, principal boatman; Joseph Mclntyre, (feorge Proudfoot, Francis Gray, Samuel Forbes, Elijaii Uunn, wife and child, Amos Sawtel, Samuel Hungerford, Amos Barber, Stephen Benton, Amzi Atwater, Asa Mason, Michael Coffin, Samuel Davenport, Samuel Agnew, Shadrach Benham, William B. Hall, Elisha Ayers, George Gooding, Norman Wilcox, Thomas Harris, Timothy

It is a noteworthy coincidence that this advanceguard of the army of civilization that was soon to people the territorial limits of the Reserve, first touched her soil on the anniversary of America's independence. Thus, in this signal manner, did a new colony, destined to play so important a part in the future of the nation, l)cgin its existence on the same day of the same month in which the nation itself began to exist. Nor were these sons of Revolutionary fathers oblivious of the day which not only commemorates the birth of their country's freedom, bnt should henceforth be to them and their posterity the anniversary of the day on which their pilgrimage ended, and on which Ijegan their labors, toils and sufferings for the establishment, in the wilderness of Ohio, of homes for themselves and their children. Animated with emotions appropriate to the occasion, these Pilgrim Fathers of the Western Reserve celebrated the day with such rude demonstrations of patriotic devotion and joy as they were able to invent.

They gathered together in groups on the eastern bank of the creek now known as the Conneaut; the}' pledged fidelity to their country in liquid dipped from the pure waters of the lake; they discharged from two or three fowling-pieces the nati(nial salute; they ate, drank, and were merry, blessing the land which many of them had assisted in delivering from British oppression; and they may have indulged in glowing predictions as to the future greatness and glory of the colonies they were about to plant. Could one of their number who shared their fancies, bnt who lived to see no part of them realized, behold today the changes wliich have proceeded in so wonderful a manner, we think that he would admit that the boldest anticipations of the little party of 179G were but a feeble conception of the reality. However difficult it might be for him to understand the stages of the process by which so great a transformation has taken ijlace, the actual truth would still present itself for his contemplation, Wliat would astonish him most would be, not the conquest of forests, but that they have been succeeded by the numerous thriving cities and villages and the multitudinous homes of the prospering farmei', established on nearly every quarter-section of land in this county; that distance has been annihilated by the use of steam and the consequent acceleration of speed; that wealth and population have been so rapidly cumulative; that the community is so opulent and enlightened; that education is fostered by so admirable a system of free schools; that intelligence is universally diffused by so many representatives of a free press; that moral oi^iuion has gained such ground; that religion is sustained by the

They christened the place where occurred these demonstrations of patriotism and joy. Fort Independence, and the following are the toasts which they drank:

The surveyors proceeded to tlie south line of the Reserve, and ascertained the point where the fortyfirst degree of north latitude intersects the western line of Penn.sylvauia, and from this line of latitude as a base, meridian lines five miles apart were run north to the lake. Lines of latitude were then run five miles apart, thus dividing the Reserve into townships five miles S([uare. As the lands lying west of the Cuyahoga remained in possession of the Indians until the Treaty of Fort Industiy, in 1805, the Reserve was not surveyed at this time farther west than to the Cuyahoga and the portage between it and the Tuscarawas, a distance west from the western line of Pennsylvania of fifty-six miles. Tlie remainder of the Reserve was surveyed in 1806. The Land Company made a contract with Abraham Tap})an and Anson Sessions, in 1805, for the survey of the lands of the Reserve between the Sufferers' lands and the Cuyahoga. The limited width of range nineteen, emliracing in Lorain county the townships of Brownhelm, Henrietta, Canxden, Brighton and Rochester, is proof of the fact that the Reserve is less than one hundred and twenty miles in length. Judge Boynton says:

"This tier of townships is gore-shaped, and is much less than five miles wide, circumstances leading the company to divide all south of Brownhelm into tr.acts, and use them for purposes of equalization. The west line of range nineteen, from north to south, as originally run, bears to the west, and between it and range twenty, as indicated on the map, there is a stri]) of land, also gore-shaped, that was left in the first instance unsurveyed, the surveyors not knowing the exact whereabouts of the eastern line of the "half million acres '" belonging to the Sufferers. In 1801), .\mos Spafford, of Cleveland, and Alnion Ruggles, of Huron, were agreed on by the two companies to ascertain and locate the line between the Fire Lands and the lands of the Connecticut Company. They first surveyed off the "half million acres " belonging to tlie SulTerers, and, not agreeing with Seth Pease, who had run out the base and west line, a dispute arose between the two companies, which was finally adjusted before the draft by establishing the eastern line of the Fire Lands where it now is. This left a strip of land east of the Fire Lands, called surplus lands, which was included in range nineteen, and is embraced in the western tier of townships of Lorain county."

.M'ler this survey was completed, the Land Com- ]iaiiy, in cn-iier tlutt the shareholders might share eipiitabiy as nearly as possible tlie lands of the Reserve, or to avoid the likelihond of a part of the .shareholders drawing the best and others the medium and others again the poorest of the lands, appointed an eijualizing committee, whose duties we will explain.

The amount of the purchase-money, one million two hundred thousand dollars, was divided into four hundred shares, each share value being three thousand dollars. The holder of one share, therefore, had one four-hundredth undivided interest in the whole tract, and he who held four or five or twenty shares had four or five or twenty times as much interest undivided in the whole Reserve as he who held but one. As some townships would be more valuable than others, the company adopted, at a meeting of shareholders at Hartford, Connecticut, in April, 1796, a mode of making partition, and ajipointed a committee of equalization to divide the Reserve in accordance with the company's plan. The committee appointed were Daniel Holbrook, William Shepperd, Jr., Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease and Amos Spafford, and the committee who made up their report at Canandaigua, New York, December 13th, 1797, were William Shepperd, Jr., Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease and Amos Spafford.

The directors of the company, in accordance with Article III. of the Articles of Association, selected six townships to be offered for sale to actual settlers alone, and in which the first improvements were designed to be made. The townships thus selected were numbers eleven, in the sixth range; ten, in the ninth range; nine, in the tenth range; eight, in the eleventh range; seven, in the twelfth range; and two, in the second range. These townships are now known as Madison, Mentor and Willoughby, in Lake county; Euclid and Newburgh, in Cuyahoga county; and Youngstown in Mahoning. Number three, in the third range, or Weathersfield, in Trumbull county, was omitted from the first draft made by the company owing to the uncertainty of the boundaries of Mr. Parsons' claim. This township has sometimes been called the Salt Spring township. The six townships above named were offered for sale before partition was made, and jiarts of them were sold.

Excepting the Parsons claim and the seven townships above named, the remainder of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga was divided among the members of the company in accordance with the following

Mode Of Partition

The four best townships in the eastern jiart of the Reserve were selected and surveyed into lots, an average of one hundred lots to the township. As there were four hundred shares, the four townships would yield one lot for every share. When these lots were drawn, each holder or holders of one or more shares participated in the draft. The committee selected township eleven, in range seven, and townships five, six and seven, in range eleven, for the four best townshijis. These are Perry, in Lake county, Northfield, in Summit county, Bedford and Warrenville, in Cuyahoga county.

Then the committee proceeded to .select from the remaining townships certain other townships that should be next in value to the four already selected.

which were to be used for equalizing purposes. The tracts thus selected being whole townships .and parts of townships, were in number twenty-four, as follows: sis, seven, eight, nine .and ten, in the eiglith range; six, seven, eight and nine, in the ninth range; and one, five, six, seven and eight, in the tenth range; and sundry irregular tracts, as follows: number fourteen, in the first range; number thirteen, in the third range; number thirteen, in" the fourth r.ange; number twelve, in tlie fifth range; number twelve, iu the sixth range; number eleven, in the eighth range; number ten, in the tenth range; number six, in the twelftli range; and numbers one and two, in the eleventh range. These tracts are now known as Auburn, Newbury, Muusou, Chardou, Bainbridge, Russell and Chester townships, in Geauga county; Concord and Kirtland, in Lake county; Springfield and Twinsburg, in Summit county; Solon, Orange, and Mayfield, in Cuyahoga county. The fractional townships are Conueaut gore, Ashtalnila gore. Saybrook gore, Geneva, Madison gore, Painesville, Willoughby gore, Independence, Coventry and Portage. After this selection had been made they selected the average townships, to the value of each of which each of the others should be brought by the equalizing process of annexation. The eight best of the remaining townships were taken, and were numbers one, five, eleven, twelve and thirteen, in the first range; twelve, in the fourth range; eleven, in the fifth range; and six, in the sixth range. They are now known a« Poland, in Mahoning county; Hartford, in Trumbull county ; Pierpout, Monroe, Conneaut, Saybrook, and Harpersfield, in A.sh tabula county; and Parkmau, in Geauga county. These were the slamlard townships, and all the other townships of inferior value to these eight, which would include all the others not mentioned above, were to be raised to the value of tlie average townships by annexations from the equalizing townships. These last named were cut up into parcels of various sizes and values, and annexed to the inferior townships in sueli a way as to make them all of equal value in tlie opinion of the committee. Wlien the committee had performed this task, it was found that, with the exception of tlie four townships first selected, the Parsons tract, and the townships that had been previously set aside to be sold, the whole tract would amount to an eipiivalent of ninety-three shares. There were, therefore, ninety-three ecpialized townships or parcels to be di-awn for, east of the Cuyahoga.

To entitle a shareholder to the ownership of an equalized township it was necessary for him to be the ])roprietor of twelve thousand nine hundred and three dollars and twenty-three cents of the original purchase of the company. This division by draft took place on the 29th of January, 1798.

The committee appointed to make partition of the lands west of the Cuyahoga divided the entire tract into forty-six parts, for the purchase of one of which the sum of twenty-sis thousand six hundred and eighty-seven dollars was required. This draft took place April 4, 1807, and the mode of procedure was the same as in the first draft. The townships were numbered from one to forty-six, and the numbers on slips of paper placed in a box. The names of shareholders were arranged in alphabetical order, and in those instances in which an original investment was insufficient to entitle such investor to an equalized towusliip, he formed a combination with others in like situation, and the name of that person of this combination that took alphabetic precedence was used in the draft. If the small proprietors were, from disagreement among themselves, unable to unite, a committee was appointed to select and classify them, and those selected were compelled to submit to this arrangement. If after they had drawn a township they could not agree in dividing it among them, this committee, or another one appointed for the purpose, divided it for them. That township which the first number drawn designated belonged to the first man on the list, and the second drawn to the second man, and so on until all were drawn. Thus was the ownership in common severed, and each individual secured his interest in severalty. John Morgan, John Cadwell, and Jonathan Brace, the trustees, as rapidly as partition was effected, conve3'ed by deed to the several purchasers the lands they had drawn.

" The lands of Lorain county, that were taken for the purpose of equalizing townships of inferior value, were those of Rochester Brighton, Camden, Black River, and that pai't of Henrietta that did not originally belong to Brownhelni. Tract eight in range nineteen, being partly in Brighton and partly in Camden, consisting of three thousand seven hundred acres, was annexed to LaGrange, to equalize it. Tract number three in LaFayette township, Medina county, consisting of four thousand eight hundred and ten and one-half acres was annexed to Penfield. Tract one, in gore four, in range eleven, consisting of two thousand two hundred and twenty-five acres, was annexed to Eaton. Tract two, in gore four, range eleven, consisting of two thousand six hundred and fifty acres, was annexed to Columbia; one thousand seven hundred acres, in tract four, in Rochester, were annexed to Huntington; two thousand seven hundred and sixty nine acres, in fraction number three in range eleven, in Summit county, were annexed to Ridgeville; tour thousand six hundred aci-es in tract nine, in Camden, were annexed to Grafton ; four thousand acres, tract seven, in Brighton, were annexed to Wellington; four thousand three hundred aeres, iu tract three, gore six, range twelve, were annexed to Russia; fifteen hundred acres iu tract fourteen, in Henrietta, were annexed to Shefflekl ; three thousand acres in tract eleven. In Camden, were annexed to Pittsfield ; tract three consisting of four thousand and fifty acres, in Rochester, was annexed to Elyria ; four thousand acres in tract two, in Black River, were annexed to Amherst; Bass Islands, numbers one and two, and Island number five, lying north of Erie county, consisting of two thousand and sixtjthree acres, were annexed to Avon; and Kelley's Island, consistmg of two thousand seven hundred and forty -seven acres, was annexed to Carlisle."

The Various Drafts

The first draft was made January 29, 1798, and was for that portion of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga. In this draft the lands drawn were divided into ninety-three parts, each representing twelve thousand nine hundred and three dollars and twentythree cents.

The second draft was made iu 1802, and was for such portions of the seven townships omitted in the first draft as remained at that time unsold. This draft was divided into ninety shares, representing thirteeen thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents of the purchase-money.

The fliivd ili'iift was maile in ISO?, and was for the hinds of the comjiany lying west of the Cnyalioga, and was divided into forty-six parts, each representing twenty-six tliousaiid .six luuKlrcd and eiglity-seven dolhirs.

A fourth draft was made in 1809, at which time the snrphis hind, so called, was divided, including sundry notes and claims arising from sales that had heen effected of the seven townships omitted in the first drawinjr.

Geography

Lorain county is bounded on the north by Lake Erie, on the south by portions of Medina and Ashland counties, on the east by Cuyahoga and Medina, and on the west by Huron and Erie. Its capital town is Elyria, which is situated in longitude 83° C 49" west from Greenwich and in latitude 41° 22' 1". It is divided into twenty-one townships, most of which are five miles square, whose names ai'e as follows: Columbia, Avon, Ridgeville, Eaton, Grafton, Sheffield, Elyria, Carlisle, LaGninge, Penfield, Black River, Aiiiherst, Russia, Pittsfleld, Wellington, Huntington, Brownhelm, Henrietta, Camden, Brighton and Rochester. The principal towns and villages named in the order of their population arc Elyria, Oborlin, Wellington, Amherst, Kipton, and Grafton. The population of the county in 1S70, by town.ships, was as follows:

There is perhaps no subject at the present- time that excites a deeper interest among thinking and .scientific minds than the science of Geology. Several reasons may be given for this, one of which is that it is the newest among all the sciences; another is tliat it upsets all of our old preconceived notions as to the age of the world. Whereas we had been taught tliat it was almost horc-'y to believe that the world was more than six thousand years old, and that Moses' account of the creation in its six solar days of twenty-four hours each was literally correct, geology has proven beyond a doubt that it has been as many millions or even more years in existence, and that it was countless ages before it was jirepared for, or even was jiossible for man to have lived uj)on it. Hence at first many divines were found opposing this new science with its new theories.

These controversies have been fraught with very much good. They have laid the fouiuhition for deeper thought and investigation, and now, instead of lifting up liands with holy horror at the teachings of this great geological book, we find onr most eminent divines quoting it as authority to substantiate just what at first they supposed it disproved.

We have neither space nor time to go back over these old controverted grounds, whose errors, like cobwebs, are fast being brushed away by the hand of time as new light lireaks in upon the intelligent mind. Neither have we time to open out this grand old book of nature, and commence at the beginning, every page of which shines like letters in gold, telling of the great Creator's power and goodness; how that, stej) by stej), for millions of years, the earth was being fitted and prejiared for the al)odc and ha])piness of man. (We use the term "millions of years" not that geological time can be counted or expressed in years, but this term, perhaps, gives us the best idea of the lapse of ages.) But we must begin almost at the very ending and only study a portion of that chapter that relates to onr immediate surroundings.

We do not propose, therefore, in this brief chajiter, to take the reader all over the world to teach geology, but shall confine ourself to Lorain county and that which jiertains to and a£Fe(;ts it.

Nearly every farm in the county has material enough upon it to fill pages with interesting matter, and if the geology of Lorain county was fully written up it would more than fill every page of this beautiful history. I shall, tlierefore, merely give an niitline, and confine myself to what I have seen and what the rocks teach us. This will of necessity take us back into the far-away ages of the past when there was no human eye to behold the heauties in the morning dawn of creation (no less lieautiful then than now), nor human hand to record their history; and yet the everlasting rocks have left their record as plainly and distinctly marked as if "graven with an iron pen." The geologist reads these " footprints of the Creator " with clearness and just as much assurance as the astronomer marks the course of the stars, or the historian records the events of a nation.

our leiuliiiij scientists will have to be abandoned as new liyli( breaks in with the lapse of time. It would indeed sliow but little progress and be very strange if this were not the case. It behooves us, therefore, to lie very careful about adopting new theories until we are well assured that they are based upon solid foundation, or rather solid rock. I hold it as a cardinal l)rinciple that theories can always afford to wait until fully tested and facts are brought to prove the validity of their claims. There ai-e, however, some theories in geology that must of necessity be founded on negative proof. For example: the great Ohio fossil fishes are said to have had no scales from the fact that none have ever yet been found with their remains. This, coupled with the fact that their structure was such that they seemed not to have needed scales, is deemed sufficient to establish the theory that they had none, although it is based upon negative testimony.

In some respects the study of geology has been with me a life work, and for manyyears some portion of each year has been devoted to jiractical field work. In Canada, and on the islands of Lake Erie; in Ohio, and other States; in summer, under broiling suns; in rain and storms; in winter, amid snow and ice, - have I tried faithfully to work out these grand problems of nature; and yet how little do we know of the great Creator's power and 2)ur2JOses. Evidently the world has passed through a thousand changes, all seemingly for the benefit of the last crowning act of creation - man.

We will now take up the geology of Lorain county in detail, beginning with the clay drift, the first formation or surface deposit, and so step by step, along down to the Huron shale, the lowest exposed deposit in the county.

The mechanical force which distributed this widespread drift, we will sjieak of further on, under its proper head, "Glaciers." The soil which rests immediately upon this drift, or clay-bed, and which we plow and cultivate, is of vegetable origin and produced by the slow process of the decomposition of vegetable matter. It is usually only a few inches in thickness over the surface except where it has accumulated on the lower lands, either by the wash from the higher lands or water standing a sufficient length of time to collect leaves, mosses, etc., which eventually became swamps.

This soil although rpiite thin, nevertheless bears the evidence of having been ages in its accumulation, ere it was able to sustain the first scanty growth of forest trees. .Just what tliat first growth of forest trees in Lorain county was, we are unable definitely to determine; Init from drift-wood which is more or less found under all our ridges, and some other "foot-prints," we are led to conclude, that our first forest trees belonged to the pine or cedar family.

For several years I have been led to believe tiiat one race of trees succeeded another in the cycles of time; that is, they came in the order in which the climate and soil are prepared for, and adapted to receive them. This we know to be true of animals ; one race becomes extinct and another follows in its course and takes its place. As changes are constantly going on in the world, new beings are created to meet these changes, and the old ones, that can no longer exist under the new order of things pass away. These climatic and other changes, humanly speaking, are very slow: so slow, that to us they are not percci^tible. To us there seems to be a profound rest; but these changes are just as sure and certain as summer and winter; sunrise and sunset.

The evidence of the succession of tree-growth is very clearly shown on Point-au-Pelee, one of the islands of Lake Erie. All over the higher lands, the soil is literally filled with red cedar roots, showing conclusively that there once existed on this island a dense groAvth of this species of conifers. These roots, lying as they do, intermixed with the hard clay drift, are as nearly imperishable as almost any thing can be, except it be the "everlasting rocks."

In all probability this was the first tree or shrub (it could only have been a shrub in its incipient stages) that took possession of the soil, and it must have held complete possession for a long period of time, until their slowly decaying leaves, with other scanty vegetation ultimately produced a soil sufficient for the sustenance of other trees, and a more rank vegetation. Around the margin of the island, on the almost barren sandy beach, I found the red cedar still flourishing where scarcely anything else could grow. These cedars must have been "nionarchs of all they surveyed" for tens of thousands of years, until they slowly gave jilace to the growth of another class of trees, for which the accumulated soil of ages became especially adapted.

The next growth in the succession we find were truly " nionarchs of the forest," great oaks. No such trees are now growing upon the island, nor indeed have been for many generations in the past, but their prostrate decaying bodies lie half buried beneath the soil of centuries, and are scattered here and thei'e over the surface, among the thickly wooded timber of the present forest. As I stepped upon some of these trees, they would sink beneath my feet, as nothing but their moss-covered bark holds them together. Probably within the present generation they will entirely disappear, leaving no trace behind them as evidence of their having once existed.

No doubt there is many a missing link in the long chain of geological events, which, if we had them all connected together, we could read the sequences of time much plainer than we can now. Nevertheless there is still enough left to give us a tolerably correct idea of the progressive stages in the earth's history since the dawn of creation. A mixed growth of timber now covers the island, such as oak, hickory, ash, maple, etc. I give this as an illustration, to prove the succession of forest trees and the ages of time that must have elapsed, from the dejjositiou of these drift clay-beds, until they accumulated a sufficient soil to sustain such a mass of vegetation as that whicli now everywhere meets our gaze. I am of the o]iinion that the earth is, and always has been occuliicd at each successive period with the liighest type of life, both uiiiiual and vegetable, that the conditions will allow.

The drift formation of Lorain county, is mostly the product of the Huron and Erie shales, intermixed with other material that has been transinorted long distances by the action of ice. These shales have been plowed, torn uj), crushed, and massed together, by the plow-share of the Almighty: an agency that the All-wise Father has used to tit and prepare this part of his heritage for the habitation of man - a power that has plowed and ])laned down mountains into valleys, and leveled the whole into vast plains. Such a power is, and only can be, immense fields of ice in the form of glaciers.

That these glaciers existed on the North American continent at one period in the far-away-past, and that they were the direct cause of the distribution of our clay-beds there can now be no reasonable doubt. These clays are more or less filled with fragments of lime, granite, fjuartz, gneiss, green stone and other pebbles, all foreign material, brought down from the mountain-side, and transported hundreds of miles from their place of origin - mixed and intermixed with these shales which were so evenly distributed over the underlying rocks.

The dairy-farmers of Lorain county owe to these shales, which were thus ground up and mixed together, their peculiar clay soil, - hai-d, tenacious, unworkable when wet, but when well drained, and seeded, nothing can excel it for grazing and dairying purposes. Along the border of tiie lake, especially in Avon and Sheffield, this soil is jieculiarly adapted to grape culture; and here may be seen nuiny beautiful vineyards, from which hundreds of tons of grapes are annually gathered and shijjped to all parts of the country.

There is perhaps no part of the county where the di'if t is so well shown as on the lake shore in Sheffield township. Here commences a long line of beach which extends almost to Vermillion. Tlie direct cause of this beach is that the glacier dipped deeper into the rock here than farther east, tearing up the hard shale to a considerable depth below the present surface of the lake, leaving the clay banks to come down to the water's edge. Farther east the shale being above the water, forms a bluff bank (we call it iron-bound shore) against which the waves almost constantly dash. At the eastern end of this beach the banks are about eighteen feet high. About half way from top to bottom the clay drift lies directly upon the Huron shale; the line of demarkation between the two is as well defined as would be one board lying upon another. Farther on we find the shales torn from their bed and the upper portion thoroughly mixed and incorporated with the lower stratum, or base of the clay. The lower portion of the shale that was torn from the rock, was broken up, ground and shoved along, but still remained unmixed with the clay above, and unexposed to atmospheric changes; it therefore remains a stratum of broken shale between the clay and the solid rock l)elow.

Still farther on we find where, in some way, the icefield got a foot-hold in a seam in the rock and moved the whole mass bodily to the west several feet, making quite a large fissure; then, passing on over, filled this fissure to its very bottom with clay-mud and gi-avcl. This great ice-field was working westward, and all through Sheffield it was on a downward grade: that is, working deeper into the rock.

Just before it reached the point wliere Lake Breeze is now situated, (it wasn't Lake Breeze then,) it plowed still deeper into the rock and soon dipped below the surface of the lake (it wasn't lake then either), and did not rise again above the present water level until it reached almost to Vermillion in Erie county.

The glacial action in this drift formation is as readily traced along this lake shore beach as may be the course of a river, and its "foot-prints" are as plain and unmistakable as those of a man or a horse. No written record can be plainer or more easily studied, than can be the drift along tliis lake line. Wliilo so many scientific facts are left in sucli obscurity that it takes a long life of patient toil and research to comju-ehcnd only a few facts, here tlie drift which has been so little understood in the past is laid bare before us like a panoramic view, so that we may study it at our will.

Tlu^re is no dei)artment in the science of geology that has tieen heretofore so little understood as the drift formation. Tliis is accounted for by the fact that it was produced by ditferent causes and at widely separated periods of time. We are now coming to the light, and as we learn to classify these periods and depositions of drift, instead of massing them together into one general deposit, we are better able to understand their formations.

The erratic rocks, wliich we call boulders or " hard heads," that are so profusely distributed over the clay soil of Lorain county, are from beds of different deposits. They are composed of granite, quartzite, diorite, crystalline lime-stone, gneiss, silician slate, etc. Although of different formations and deposits, they are all classed with and belong to the Eozoic age of the world. It was called Azoic (that is, " without life ") until within a few years. Although there have been no fossils found in tiie Eozoic rocks, it is now very generally believed among geologists and scientific men that even in this very remote period in the earth's history there did exist some of the lower forms of animal and vegetable life. This, we think, is clearly proven by the abundance of graphite, iron and limestone that is found in these rocks, each of which is the direct product of either animal or vegetable organisms: graphite and iron are the products of the carbon of plants. When you pick up a piece of native ii-oii ore to examine it, beiir in mind tliat it was not l)ro(lnco(l like lava, by passing tliroagli a melting process, bnt that it is of vegetable origin. Although it may have, as all our Lake Superior ore has, passed tiirougii this metamorphio process, yet heat has nothing to do with its origin as iron, but was merely an after result of internal disturbances.

Limestone is almost wholly made up from the shells and minute skeletons of marine organisms that have the power of secreting the carbonate of lime which forms their shells. We have no reason to believe that iron or limestone were produced in the Eozoic age by any different process than it is now.

We find these rocks stratified, an:l tint they were originally deposited in even horizontal bods, l)ut have since been metamorphosed by heat, and are now much displaced and broken up by upheavals and internal forces. They are divided into two groups - upper and lower - called Huronian and Laurentian: lluronian, from their fine exjiosure ou the north of Lake Huron; Laurentian, from the lower St. Lawrence region, where these rocks abound. They are the surface rock over a broad belt of country, extending from Labrador, on the east, to Lake Superior, and then stretching away northward to the Arctic Sea.

The Adirondac Mountains, although outside of this belt, belong to the same epoch and formation, and were raised above the oceen at the same time. They are called the oldest rocks in the world, and deservedly so; for they are the oldest surface rocks now known, and never have been submerged since they were first raised above the old eozoic ocean. While most parts of our continent have been raised above the sea, only to be submerged again, (and this occurring many times, as each stratified formation plainly testifies.) yet these old eozoic rocks have proudly held their giant heads above the surrounding ocean almost from the time that the sun first penetrated the thick cloud of darkness that surrounded the eartli, wlien God said, " Let there be light; and there was light."'

We call the eastern continent the Old World; but the Adirondac mountains of New York, the region around Lake Superior and the Ozarks, of Missouri, are ages older than any land on that continent. The igneous rocks which nnderly these metamorphic rocks are of course much older than they; but all that we know about them is by their being thrown to the surface by eruptions, as they are nowhere found exposed on the surface. They have jiassed through inconceivable heat, first in the gaseous and then in the molten state, and were the first rocks formed by the cooling of the earth's surface, and are therefore not stratified. They belong to that age of the world of which they are the only record. We find these fused rocks frequently among our erratics of the * iceberg drift.

Sir William Logan, an eminent Canadian geologist, estimates the eozoic rocks in Canada to be about fortyseven thousand feet in thickness. When we consider that all this vast rock formation was the accumulation from the destruction and slow wearing away process of an older continent, and that older continent perhaps from the debris of one still older, we can form but a faint conception of the myriads of ages that have passed away since "in the lieginning, God created the heaven and the earth."

The boulders were broken and torn from these old eozoic rocks by glaciers coming down from the mountainous region of the north. As they shoved themselves out into this great inland sea of fresh water, which had been formed by the scooping out of the lake basin, they were lirokcn up and floated out to sea. No longer traveling by land and grasi)ing in their icy arms massive boulders and all other material that lay in their course; now they are icebergs, traversing the sea and carrying their boulders, sand, gravel and ot\\Qv debris whithersoever the wind drives them. We therefore call the boulders a part of the iceberg drift, as they were deposited by icebergs and not by glaciers.

The surface clay of Lorain county is glacial drift, and was deposited at the time the Lake Erie basin was formed. This was long before the period of which we are now speaking. At this time the clay had already been deposited, the glacier had passed on and left the basin which was now filled with water to the brim, from the summit on the south to the Canadian highlands on the north, and extending east and west from the Adirondacks to Lake Superior. We sjTOke of the mountainous region of the north from whence the glaciers which produced the icebergs came. Nothing now remains but the bases of these mountains to tell of their long ag<i existence, as they were eroded and worn away by these immense fields of ice.

Glaciers are being formed at the present time in the monntainous region of the interior of Greenland, and as they push their way to the ocean, the foot is shoved out into the sea, is broken np and rises to the surface. They are no longer glaciers, but icebergs. Floating away to the southward, they are often stranded on the banks or sand-bars of Newfoundland, and there perform the same work that these did here in the drift age, depositing large quantities of their debris over the floor of the ocean. In ages to come, when the bottom of the ocean shall have again been raised above the water, the same conditions will lie found to exist there that we now find here.

The northern border of this great inland sea was along the base of the highlands in Canada, called by geologists Laurentian highlands. They are about three hundred miles north of Lake Erie. As these icebergs pushed out into the water from this northern shore, they were driven hither and thither by every stormy change of wind. They deposited their debris wherever and as fast as they melted. Sometimes being driven into shallow water, they stranded. Here they slowly melted away until they were light enough to clear themselves and float again. At such points they dropped larger quantities of boulders than elsewhere.

These places may readily lii.^ i)i(jke(l out all over the (-(Mint rv, and many of our farms are made less valuable by the iiiimenjus boulders ou some of their lields.

That these boulders were dropped from floating ice- I>ergs, is very clearly proven by their position as we now find them in our lields. Almost every farmer knows that these big boulders, or "hard-heads," are very dillicult to get out of the ground, for the simple reason that the largest end is always in the ground. This of itself is almost conclusive evidence, aside from any other, that they must have fallen S(jme distance through water, and in falling the larger end would naturally go down. We can account for this phenomenon by no other theory. We find no boulders in or upon the sand ridges, for the reason that the ridges were deposited at a later period, and conse((uently whatever boulders may have been on the surface are now buried beneath the sand.

'I'he reader will observe that we have spoken of three different and distinct drift de])osits, which occurred at different periods in the earth's history. We will therefore place them in the order in which they occur: 1st. Glacial drift - clay, sand, gravel, etc. 2d. Iceberg drift - boulders, sand and other deln'is. 3d. Water drift - Hood-wood and sand ridges. The great ditiiculty in studying the drift has been in not keeping the different periods and causes separate: this will enable us to do so. I am aware, however, that good authority dilfers with me on some of these ])oints: but after great care and research, I think the evidence will beai- me out in my drift theory.

It may be askeil, how do we know that these boulders came from this northern region beyond the lake? In the first j)lace, we Jiave no evidence of glaciers pushing themselves into this great body of water from any other direction than on the north; and then, too, we find that these boulders exactly correspond with the rocks found in place along this northern belt, so that now we may readily trace some of the erratic rocks found here back to their original beds of deposition. 1 have lying before me a jiieee of granite, that is filled witii graphite (black h^ad we call it, though there is no lead about it). Tiiis fragment I broke from a lioiildrron my father's farm, in Ridgeville, nearly forty years ago. We can now trace this graphite directly back to its home on the Georgian Bay, in Canada. Copper is not unfrenueutly found in the boulders of our county, plainly showing their Lake Superior origin.

Tims, by iUc composition of these boulders, and the minerals they carry with them, we are able to tell where they came from; and l)y the position in which we find them, ami the grooves and markings on the surfiK-e rocks, we are enabled to tell how they came here.

Ancient Forest Beds

Beneath the sand ridges there are nu)re or less of the remains of forest trees, called "flood- wood." It was drifted into its present resting place when the lake was from one to two hundred feet higlier than it now is, and covered beneath the sand when the ridges were formed. About forty years ago my father, in digging a well (on the ridge), one mile east of the center of Ridgeville, came upon trees altoutone foot in diameter, at a depth of fifteen feet below the surface. This wood, although changed, was not fossilized, but was soft and yielding, and could easily be cut with a sharp spade. I very well remember the men examining it very closely by whittling, tasting, smelling, etc., and after much deliberation pronounced it cedar wood. Their decision was probably correct, as all the timber, so far as I know, found beneath the ridges, is coniferous (cone-bearing trees). We have the record, however, in some localities, of hickory, sycamore, willow and some other kinds of wood being found beneath the drift. An old forest bed was very widely distributed over the northern half of our continent. To give some idea of its nnignitude and extent, I (juote from different authorities the following:

"All through Southern Indiana. - Ancient soil, with peat, muck, rooted stumps, trunks, branches and leaves of trees, sixty to one hundred and twenty feet below the surface, called *Noah"s Cattle Yard.' Wells spoiled by them. " - JoAh Collvtt.

" Iowa. - An old soil, with buried timber from forty to fifty feet beneath the surface, struck in sinking wells in several counties." - 3/orris Miller.

*' Wadsworth County', Wisconsin. - Timber resembling white cedar, from a well eighteen feet deep in the prairie region, and about two hundred and fifty feet above the surface of Lake Michigan." - J. A. Lapham.

'- Grand Sable, South Shore of Lake Superior. - Layers of roots, and timber of trees, sometimes twelve or fourteen feet thick, resting on clay, inter-stratified with gravel, three hundred feet thick." - Sir Wm. Lf>tjan, in Geology of Canada.

"Montgomery County, Ohio. - Beds of peat, from twelve to twenty feet in thickness, containing qu.antities of coniferous wood, with twigs, branches and berries of red cedar ; also containing bones of the elephant and mastodon, and teeth of the giant beaver; the whole covered with ninety feet of sand." - Pro/ Ortoti.

"Toronto, Canada. - Trunks and branches of trees, embedded m yellow cla.y, at a depth of from ten to twenty feet from the surface." - Prof. Hind.

We do not wish it understood that these remains of trees and animals were all buried beneath a drift deposit at one and the same time; but we do say that all over this wide extent of country there once existed a heavy growth of forest trees, with animals of huge dimensions roaming through tlieni. both of which have become extinct, and are now deeply buried beneath a drift deposit. From all the light that we can gather from these and other facts, it is evident that our continent has been raised and again submerged beneath the ocean several times since the eozoie age, at least all of it except the few localities heretofore mentioned.

Mastodons And Elephants

Not only forest trees, but the remains of large animals have been found in many localities in Northern Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. These remains ai'e mostly found in deep marshes and peat bogs, which were, when these animals lived, small lakes. In some instances, the leg and other lower bones of the mas- todon and elephant have been fi)uiid in a standing position, sliowing that in going to these places for water, they mnst have been mired, and their great weight and clnmsiness prevented their extricating themselves. These lakes have now become peat marshes by the continued accumulation of leaves, mosses and other vegetation which now cover their bones many feet deep. No remains of these animals have been fo>ind in this county, but it is ])ossible that there might be. upon proper search for them in and about the swam])s of Brighton and Camden; as, fi-om the location of these swamps, I have no doubt that those places were favorite resorts for these animals.

A few yeai's since, some of the ribs, vertebrsp, a jiart of a tooth, the tusks and some other bones of a mastodon were found in Montville, Medina county. The bones were more or less broken, and were supposed to belong to a young animal. The tusks were broken off at tJieir points, and were about four feet long, largest in the middle and tapered towards the point and base; the ribs, which were somewhat broken, were five inches wide.

In Cleveland the remains of a large animal were found in excavating a cellar on Ontario street. The knights of the spade and pick, not knowing what they were, or not caring, carted tlie most of them off, and they were dumped away, broken and destroyed. However, a few teeth and vertebra? were saved, and are now in the Western Reserve Historical Society rooms in that city. Dr. E. Sterling called my attention to these bones at the time. Upon examination they were found to be the remains of a very large elephant. (Elcphas Americanus.) These bones were not found as nsual in a low marshy place, but on high land, in sand and gravel. It is altogether probable that they were washed in and covered up when the lake stood at that level. These huge animals roamed over all of northern Ohio for a long time after the accnmnlation of its ancient soil and great forests, up to a recent period, geologically sjieaking, that is up to aliout the time of the formation of the sand ridges. Whether they became extinct about this time, by some sudden climatic or otlier change, or gradually died out, we are unable to determine. The only record we have of them is their bones and the location in which they are fonnd. Their bones not being fossilized arc liable to decay on exposure to the atmosiihere, except the teetli and tusks, which being enameled are usually well preserved. There are, however, a few well l>reserved whole skeletons of these great American animals of our primeval forests.

We now come to the last e}>och or ]ihase in the series of drift deposits: "Terraces and Sand-ridges." These belong to our present geological time, that is, there have been no great changes since their deposition, or rather they are the result of the last change in the Lake Erie basin. Although we speak of them as of a recent formation, or the last, }'et we mnst i-emember that they were formed ages before man came into being. This was the last act in the geological drama that was performed to fit and prepare the earth for man's abode.

At no time previous to this epoch could man have lived upon the earth for a single year, but now all is changed, the right conditions have been reached as to soil, climate, and the class of animals suited to his wants; all is prepared and ready for his advent; and in his own good time the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

Of the terraces I can only give a very meager description, having given them but a passing thought among my other researches in the county until about two years ago, when I became convinced that they held a very conspicuous place in the topogrophy of the county; I then commenced regular field work upon them and have traced out and located two of them quite satisfactorily. The last terrace now visible I found about one and a half miles from the present shore line, and at an altitude of forty feet above lake level. It follows nearly the present contour of the lake shore. It is very evident that the water receded to a broad river after these terraces were formed, and now by gradually wearing its way back inland, its shore follows nearly the same lines that it left in its recedonce. I have traced this terrace most of the way from the Vermillion to Black River, and all the way from Black River east fifteen miles into Dover, Cuyahoga county. I have no doubt but that it can readily be traced the whole length of the lake shore. At Avon Point it does not make the sharp angle of the shore, but merely makes a gentle curve to the north. The soil is clay, with its surface somewhat mixed with gravel. The timber upon it is mostly hard maple, beech and hickory, and that upon either side of it, is black ash, soft maple, elm, &c. Its rise from the north is very perceptible, and upon the farms through which it passes it is usually selected as the building spot if at all convenient, as it is the dryest land. These terraces were formed by the natural wearing of the water against the shore, at which level the water stood for a considerable period of time, and then by a sudden recedence caused liy the breaking away of the Ijarrier at the outlet, the water dropped away from this line leaving it a natural terrace. Should Lake Erie, by the sudden breaking away of Niagai-a, be drained forty feet lower than it now is, its present shore line would form Just such a terrace as the one now under consideration was when it was left by the retreating waters. Its many years of weather-wear since, has given it its present appearance and sloping condition. There is a succession of these terraces, each one higher than the last, as we go south through the county, one south of Wellington has an altitude of three hundred and sixty feet above lake level. Please remember that I reckon all altitudes from lake level, - that when I speak of any height, it is so many feet above the level

These terraces no doubt continue on up to the summit, tjiat is, tlie hi<;h-lands or divide, between the waters of the Oliio river, and Lake Eric, which here have an altitude of seven hundivd and seventy-tliree feet. The liighest land in the State, whicli lies southwest from here in Logan county has an altitude of nine hundred and seventy-tive feet. Wellington stands at two liundred and eigiity-six feet; Oberlin, two hundred and lifty-three feet; Elyria one liundred and fiftytive feet, and Amherst one hundred and twenty-two feet, gradually sloping away to the lake. These different altitudes are caused, partly by the glaciers plowing dee]>er into the rocks in its center, and partly by the formation of these terraces by the retreating waters. The next terrace south of the one above described is the largest and most distinct of all of them. This was undoubtedly caused by the water standing at this level for a longer period of time than clsewdiere. It lies about four miles back from the lake, at an altitude of about one hundred and five feet. In Amherst, Sheffield, Avon and a i>art of Dover, the old sandbeach, called the North ridge, rests directly upon it, but in some places in Cuyahoga county, as in Dover, liockport and Euclid, east of Cleveland, it is separate and distinct from the ridge, and very marked in its character.

I hardly deem it necessary to go back farther and trace out others of these shore line terraces, a dcscription (if these two being sufficient to give us all tlie knowledge we need as to their formation and character.