OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 35 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 05 : Issue 35 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Tid Bits part 26 ["Ohio Archives EV1" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <084201c5364c$cd25fb40$0300a8c0@margaret> Subject: Fw: Tid Bits part 26 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" To: Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 2:20 PM Subject: Tid Bits part 26 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley March 28, 2005 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - part 26 from notes of S. Kelly +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ part 26 Major General James B. McPherson Major General James B. McPherson was one of the idols of the Civil War. Perhaps he may have been one of the most popular in the Western Reserve. He was a native of Sandusky, Erie County and was born November 14, 1828, and was killed in action July 22, 1864, while at the head of the Seventeenth army corps on the eve of the fall of Atlanta. His life had been a brave and faithful fight from boyhood, where by the death of his father, the support of mother and younger children depended on him. After attending Norwalk Academy, Huron county, for two years, he entered West Point, in 1853. graduated at the head of his class, taught in the academy, and until the outbreak of the war, served as a military engineer on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. He entered the war as lieutenant of engineers and was on Grant's staff at Forts Henry and Donelson. General McPherson was in the front of the fiercest and grimmest fighting at Shiloh, Corinth, and Iuka, and commanded a corps at Vicksburg and before Atlanta. It was during the reorganization of Grant's army in 1863 that he was appointed to the command of the Seventeenth corps, which held the center of the Union army at the siege of Vicksburg, and at the surrender of that city, so conspicuous had been his part that he was appointed one of the commissioners to arrange terms with the enemy. He was now brigadier general within a year and a half. When Grant turned over his command in the West to General Sherman, McPherson succeeded the latter as the head of the army of the Tennessee; and when General Sherman set out on his Atlanta campaign. McPherson followed him in person with about 25,000 of the 60,000 comprising the command. Shermans army was before Atlanta and he was extending his left flank, commanded by McPherson , to envelop the city. In the mentime the Confederate general Hood had passed completely around this division of the Union forces, and on the morning of July 21 the unexpected storm broke while Sherman and McPherson were conferring as to the advisability of occupying Atlanta. What followed is told in these words: " With the first scattering shots in the direction of his rear, McPherson was off--- riding with his soldierly instinct toward the sound of battle. He found the Sixteenth corps in position, struggling manfully against an assult of unprecedented fierceness; the Seventeenth still holding its ground firmly, but danger threatened at the point where the distance between the position of the corps, lately reserve and that on the front, had left a gap not yet closed in the sudden formation of a new line facing left flank and rear. Hither and thither his staff were sent flying with various orders for the sudden emergency. Finally the postion of the Sixteenth army corps seemed assured and, accompanied by a single orderly, he galloped off toward the Seventeenth, the troops as passed saluting him with ringing cheers. The road he followed was almost a prolongation of the line of the Sixteenth; it led a little behind where the gap beween the two corps was, of which we have seen that he was apprised. The road itself, howver, had been in our hands-- troops had passed over it but a few minutes before. As he entered the woods that stretched between the two corps, he was met by a staff officer with word that the left of the Seventeeth -- the part of line to which he was hastening-- was being pressed back by an immensely superior force of the enemy. He stood for a moment of two closely examining the configuration of the ground, then ordered the staff officer to hurry to General Logan for a brigade to close the gap, and showed him how to dispose it on its arrival. And with this he drove the spurs into his horse and dashed up on the road toward the Seventeenth corps. He had scarcely galloped a hundred and fifty yards into the woods when rose before him a skirmish line in gray! 'Halt!' rang out sternly from the line, as the officer in general's uniform, accompanied by an orderly, came in sight. He stopped for an instant, raised his hat, then, with a quick wrench on the reins, dashed into the woods on his right. But the horse was a thought too slow in doing his master's bidding. In that instant the skirmish line sent its crashing volley after the escaping officer. He seems to have clung convulsively to the saddle a moment, while the noble horse bore him further into the woods-- then to have fallen, unconscious. The orderly was captured. In a few minutes an advancing column met a riderless horse coming out of the woods, wounded in two places and with marks of three bullets on the saddle and equipments. All recognized it as the horse of the much beloved general commanding; and the news spread electrically through the army that he was captured or killed. Then went up that wild cry, ' Mcpherson and revenge.' The tremendous assault was beaten back; the army charged over the ground it had lost, drove the enemy at fearful cost from its conquests, and rested at nightfall in the works it had held in the morning." The body of the dead general was found about an hour after he disappeared in the woods, and the official announcement of his death by General Sherman was a paper of mingled tenderness and eulogy. " History tells us," he says, " of but few who so blended the grace and gentleness of the friend with dignity, courage, faith, and manliness of the soldier." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Major General Quincy A. Gillmore Major General Quincy A. Gilmore was born in Black River ( now Lorain ), Lorain county, February 25,1825; was a West Point graduate and earned an international reputation as an organizer of seige operations and a revolutionizer of naval gunnery. His greatest achievements were at the siege of Charleston and Fort Pulaski. At the final operations in Virginia he was in command of the Tenth army corps. General Gilmore died at Brooklyn, New York, April 11, 1888. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Major General Jacob D. Cox Major General Jacob D. Cox was a native of Montreal, Canada, born of American parents 1828. The following year the family removed to New York. The young man graduated fron Oberlin college in 1851; in 1852 removed to Warren, Trumbull county, as superintendent of the high school and in 1854 began the pactice of the law at that place. In 1859 he was elected to the lower house of the state legislature, Mr. Garfield, at that time, representing Portage county in the senate. They were both young men and intimate friends; both close students and fine speakers, and acknowledged leaders in politics, as they were soon to be in military matters. General Cox assisted in the organization of the Ohio state militia; at the commencement of the war, he was commissioned brigadier general and commanded Camp Denison until July 6, 1861, when he was assigned to the command of the Brigade of the Kanawha in West Virginia. After clearing the state of Confederates, he was assigned under Pope, serving in the Ninth corps, to whose command he succeeded when General Reno was killed at South Mountain. He led the corps at Antietam, and in April. 1863, was placed in command of the district of Ohio, as well as of a division of the Twenty-third corps. He fought bravely under Thomas around Franklin and Nashville; was dominant at the battle of Kingston, North Carolina, and in March, 1865, united his troops with Sherman's army for the final campaign of the war. General Cox was elected governor of Ohio in 1865: was appointed secretary of the interior in 1869, but resigned a few months afterward and returned to Cincinnati to resume his law practice. He was sent to congress in 1876 and died in 1900. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Major General William B. Hazen Major General William B. Hazen was a native of Green Mountain state, born in 1830, whose parents moved to Huron, Portage county, when he was three years od. He went to West Point, from which he graduated in 1855. Soon afterward he was made a brevet second lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry and joined his regiment at Fort Reading, on the Pacific coast. He served throughout the Indian troubles in Oregon, and in 1856 built Fort Yamhill. As second lieutenant in the Eighth Infantry, he next served for four years in Texas and New Mexico, earning a fine name for bravery and ability during the Indian campaigns of that period. In 1860 he was brevetted a first lieutenancy, but was not allowed to enter active service in the Civil war until January, 1862, as he had not recovered from severe gunshot wounds received in a hand to hand encounter with a Comanche brave in Texas. At the time named, General Hazen took command of the Nineteenth brigade, Army of the Ohio, and in that succeeding April, while leading his command at Pittsburg Landing, captured two Confedrate batteries and a large number of prisoners. Later, he participated in the siege of Corinth, and his brigade especially distinguished itself at Mursfreesboro, which led to his rise to te rank of brigadier general. At Chickamauga his brigade was the last of the Union troops to leave the field. Transferred to the Army of the Cumberland in 1864, by his capture of Fort McAlister,while in the command of the Second division, Fiftheenth army corps, he became major general and was acknwledged to be among the ablest of Sherman's commanders. After the war General Hazen continued many years in the miitary service of the government, holding rank of brigadier general in the regular army. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Major General Mortimer D. Leggett. Mortimer D. Leggett, identified with both Geauga and Trumbull counties before he entered the army to start an upward path towards the stars of major general, has the honor of being one of the creators of the Akron School law, under which Ohio's present system of popular education was established. When sixteen years of age he came from his home at Ithaca, New York, and with other members of the family settled on a farm at Montville, Geauga county. He was a student in the Teacher's Seminary at Kirtland, Lake county, and was admitted to the bar in 1844, but did not commence to practice for six years thereafter.During this period he labored unceasingly in all parts of the state, with such men as Dr. A.D. Lord, Lorin Andrews and M.F. Cowdry for the establishment of a broad ad practical system of public education. With the earnest cooperation of such legslators as Harvey Rice, of Cleveland, Mr. Leggett saw his brightess hopes realized in the Akron School law. When twnty-eight years of age he commenced practice at Warren, Trumbull county, but in the fall of 1857, moved to Zanesville, where he not only practiced law but served as city superintendent of schools until the fall of 1861. In the following December he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the Seventy-eighth Ohio Infantry, and arrived with his regiment during the hard fighting at Fort Donelson of February 1862. Upon the surrender of the fort he was appointed provost marshal, and earned Grant's warm admiration and friendship for his services in that capacity. He was wounded at Pittsburgh Landing; participated at the siege of Corinth, and after the evacuation of that place ws placed in command of a brigade, which effected an important capture of the enemy's troops and stores at Jackson, Tennessee. At Bolivar, that state, he is said to have defeated seven thousand Confederates with his eight hundred men, so skillfully had he chosen his position and so unflinchingly did he defend it. As brigadier general,to which he was promoted in November, 1862, he fought command at the siege of Vicksburg and at the battle of Champion Hills, being wounded at both engagemants. On July 4, he was honored with the advance in entering the city. General Leggett commanded the Third division of the Seventeenth army corps from the seige of Vicksburg to the close of the war, except when he was at the head of the corps itself, which was not infrequent. The battle of July 22, before Atlanta, was fought principally by his division. General Leggett was on Sherman's march to the sea; was brevetted major general July 22, 1864; appointed full major general January 15,1865, and resigned from service July 22nd of that year. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ to be continued in tid bits part 27. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:54:26 -0500 From: "Ohio Archives EV1" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <084801c5364c$f8b5de10$0300a8c0@margaret> Subject: Fw: Tid Bits - part 27. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" To: Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 6:44 PM Subject: Tid Bits - part 27. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley March 30, 2005 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Tid Bits - part 27 from notes of S. Kelly. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ part 27. Lake Erie's " Lost Atlantis." Strange as it seems and not impossible is the story told by Ignatius Donnelly of a " Lost Atlantis. " It is a question, whether the average dweller of the present gereation realizes that within the ninteeth century a Lake Erie " Atlantis " has disappeared, neck and heels beneath the waves. " Through local reminiscence and scientific record," states Theresa Thorndale in 1898 from Sandusky, Ohio, " we are informed that an island more than a mile long, one half mile wide and from twenty to twenty-five feet high, formally exended across the mouth of Sandusky bay. Fertile meadow was seen and trees measuring two and one-half feet in diameter. But where once flourished the island and its products now roll the billows of Erie. >From this and other circumstances, naturally leading to such a conclusion, Professor Moseley of Sandusky, who has thoroughly studied the lake region, deduces the theory that the lake bed is gradually becoming tilted, or elevated at its eastern extremity, causing a rise in the average level of its head waters and corresponding submergence as indicated. Since, however, old navagators and others are inclined to ascribe this island's disappearance to the wear of strong currents and beat of storms, Prof. Mosley seeks to establish his theory by the results of further investigation, calling attention to the well known fact that in the caves of Put-in-Bay, the subterranean waters of which rise and fall with the lake, stagagmites not only but stalacites are found attached to the floor and roofs of submered caverns; the latter five feet below the present lake level. For these to form in water would be an impossibility and their position as indicated show, according to Prof. Mosley, a rise of the water, though other theorists might ascribe the circumstance to a shifting and settling of the honey combed rocks. Large quantities of submerged timber found in the extensive marshlands bordering the lake shores in the vicinity of the islands likewise indicate a rise of at least eight feet, and the submerged channels of rivers and streams in the same vicinity show a rise of at least thirty-two feet. These facts are given by Prof. Moseley as proofs of a gradual rise of the waters. If the above theory is correct, then instead of wearing away and draining Lake Erie to the compass of a stream, as certain other theorists have predicted, Niagara Falls may become tilted to such a degree as to finally preclude the egress of the lake waters, which in consequece will continue rising and extending, submerging the lowlands along its shores and the islands at its center until, filled to overflowing, they will seek an outlet southward from the lake basin to the valley of the Mississippi. This then seems the fate in store for both island and mainland at the head of Lake Erie, unless averted by a change in the earth's structural program. However, in the event of such a calamity; it is safer to infer that the present inhabitants will not be there to suffer from the consequent drowning out. Concerning the lake archipelago, Prof. G. Frederick Wright, the noted scientist of Oberlin college, refers to the region as " one of the most interesting on the American continent, " forming as it does a most important geological boundary. Prominent among features of interest may be noted the fact that the islands are what remain above the present lake level of a long narrow upheaval known as the " Cincinnati Anti-Clinal," which appeared when all the rest of the United States was still under the ocean. Further concerning this formation, an authority states as follows: " A local and peculiar upheaval in this ridge, of which Put-in-Bay is near the center, brought up a formation of the rocky structure geologically lower than the surrounding portions of the ridge. The portion thus brought up and which constitutes the under rocks of Put-in-Bay island, is known as the water line of the Niagara group, and is literally honeycombed with caves. It is no exaggeration to say that under almost every acre of this island exists one of these cavernous places. The upheaval-formed arches and the settling down of unsupported strata formed rooms with roofs and floors." Since in the past the lake islands have fomed the center of subterranean disturbances of a local character, so they may and probably do form such, as evidenced by a slight, but very perceptible earthquake shock which visited them only a half dozen years ago. On this occassion the disturbance proved local, centering as near as could be asertained at Isle St. George, but extending across the lake and touching the shores on both sides. In view of these condtions, residents of the more nervous and imaginative sort have at times fancied themselves dwelling over Tophet and have lived in fear of an early collapse of the islands and submergence beneath the waters of Erie. The caves of Put-in-Bay are a never ceasing wonder alike to the scientist and lover of adventure, both of whom seek from time to time to explore their mysteries and whole chapters might be written of the thrilling experiences in the Plutonian darkness of chambers and passages leading-- nobody knows whither. All, or nearly all, of these caverns contain minature lakes and channels of cold, clear water, connecting the Lake Erie and are generally conceded to be ancient water courses. The subterranean drainage of the island is remarked in the caverns not only, but in the cellars and wells, the former becoming flooded when the wind is east and then lake level high; the latter regularly rising and falling with the lake. So far as reveled by exploration, Perry's cave is the largest on the island. This cave is nearly forty feet below the surface. It is 200 feet long, 165 feet wide, and has an average height of seven feet. Though spanned by a single arch the interior has standing room upon its floors for 8,000 persons. The roof was formally studded thick with stalactites, but these have nearly been broken off and carried away by specimen collectors and venders, but the stalagmite floor--formed by century droppings of water holding in solution calcium carbonate-- forms a study of interest. At the further extremety, and extending back under cleft and cavened rocks, stretches a lake of crystal clearness and viewed by torchlight the scene at this sight is weirdly beautiful. For a number of years Perry's Cave has been regularly opened each season to summer visitors, thousands of whom annually view it. An annex to this cave in known as " Perry's Bedroom." " Crystal Cave," newly discovered and opened to visitors, is now attracting attention. Though not as large as the former, " Crystal Cave" combines so much of noveltry and interest that even the oldest inhabitant now wonders how it kept so long in the dark. Its discovery in connection with extensive strontia deposits, of which it forms a part, is a matter of especial comment. During the winter of 1897 and 1898 newpapers all over the country recorded an important item the discovery ofstrontia at Put-in-Bay and quite a wave of interest was sent through the country, setting on the "qui vive" mineralogists, chemists, ad scientists generally. As a matter of fact the discovery is now only new to the outside world, as it was originally made in 1859 and the existance of strontia deposits has since been generally known to the islanders. Much interest was manufested by visitors of scientific trend, among whom was State Geologist Newberry, whose attention was attracted thereto while visiting the island. In 1882 a European tourist, Lieut. Emiel Vanador, then on leave of absence from his post in the German army, chanced to visit the archipelago. He was a man of extensive learning and while at Put-in-Bay made the acquaintance of the late Capt. John Brown, Jr., of whom he became an intimate friend. Both being interested in geological research, they together explored the rocks and caves of the island, and in this way the distinquished foreigner soon learned of the strontia deposits. He began prospecting on his own account, ending by leasing for a period of twenty five years grounds near Perry's Cave. A shaft was sunk and mining at once begun. About seventy five tons of the product were dug out, but on learning that the shipment to Germany via Atlantic ports would be heavy, Lieut, Vanador decided to abandon for a time his enterprise, especially as the company which he represented was then working a strontia mine in Italy at less cost for transportation. That at Put-in-Bay was therefore closed, until the Italian deposits should have become exhausted. A rude, but strongly built structure was erected over the mine, the tools enclosed and the door securely barred. A power of attorney was committed by Venador to Captain Brown together with the keys to the mine, and the stranger took his departure leaving the islanders in a state of wonder as to the purpose of his visit, his movements having been somewhat mysterious. Since for a number of years nothing was heard of Venador, and as the lease had not been paid up to time, the present owner of the land finally adoted legal measures to have the contract annulled and in this way gained possession. For the first time since its closing the mine was thrown open to the light, and the shipping away of several tons of strontia formed the agency which spread aboroad the supposed new discovery. The strontia vein struck by Venador in 1882 isof a great thickness, and the mineral is remarkable for its purity. In close connection with the mine is " Crystal Cave." It was at first difficult of access, and little was known on the island concerning it, until fully opened up by new owner, Gustav Heinemann, during the winter and spring of 1898. The cave is 22 feet below the surface, and is now descended by a flight of stairs, and viewed under electric lights by which it is illuminated and the place resembles a " fairy grotto." It has also been referred to as " a jewel casket of the nymphs." The interior comprises of several chambers and the side walls of each are of solid strontia-- dazzling, flashing, in their crystalline whiteness. The ceilings are arched and hung with prismatically formed crystals, emitting all the colors of the rainbow with a fasinating brillancy not unlike that of the clearest cut diamonds. The owner, who up to this present time has earned his bread as a common day laborer, possesses, evidently a fortune in Crystal Cave, and in the mine connecting therein. In the dim past, the islands were alternately submerged or drained according to existing conditions of the earth's formative forces. Says Prof. Newberry: " We have evidence that the country about the islands was once all dry land, and a large river then flowed down the present bed of the lake and emptied near New York City," Prof. Moseley observes as follows: " If there were dwellers on Marblehead at the time of the building of the pyramids, they might have walked to Kelley Island or Put-in-Bay at anytime of the year." At that period the island cave passages were supposed to be a tributary to surface streams entering into the river above mentioned. A period concerning which notable evidences exist on the islands was that of the great ice age, when glaciers 1000 feet high scooped out the bed of Lake Erie and left their ineffaceable grovings upon the lime rock. In very many places at Put-in-Bay, Kelley Island, Middle Bass, Isle St.George, "Starve," and other islands, scoring the flat rocks and extending under the water of the lake, are seen these glacial marks, too indelibly graven to be mistaken. There course runs uniformly from Northeast to Southwest, and the scratched stones and granite boulders left behind are heaped in terminal moraines, or scattered promiscuously over the land. Especially famous are the glacial rocks of Kelley Island, which forming the terminus of a line of bluffs over looking " North Bay," represent on of the island's greatest attractions. " Glacial Rocks " comprise a reservant on rescued from a quarryman's pick and derrick, and set aside a gift of the late Mr. Younglove, of Cleveland, to the Western Reserve Historical Society, for preservation as a scientific marvel. As an example of the stupendous carvings wrought by the " granite chislels " of the drift period, these rocks have probably no parallel in the United States, and the regular outlines and polished smoothness thereof suggest the idea and produce the effect of some gigantic piece of sculpture. To view them, parties representing members of scientific circles, classes from our universities, curio hunters and adventurers make special pilgrimages to the island. The geological formation of Kelley island is distinct from that in Put-in-Bay , being of Corniferious limestone, blue in tint and laying in strata of varied thicknesses. The Kelley Island quarries are productive of many rare fossils, those of extinct fishes being especially numerous. The fossilized jaws of the Onychodus a foot long, and studded with sharp pointed teeth, have there been unearthed with other interesting relics of by-gone ages. An ancient shore line, which angles across the island, forming a zigzag wall of precipitous and waterworn rock, and overlooking wide levels where once rolled the waters of Erie, forms also an interesting geological feature of Kelley island. " Oh the Wonderment of our Ohio " +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid bits to be continued in part 28. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V05 Issue #35 ******************************************