We here in Scioto County live in the Scioto River Valley. It is a locale rich in natural resources and rich in American history. From the dramatic river confluence of the Scioto and the Ohio rivers in Portsmouth to the wide bottoms north of town, the valley – framed by lush native hills – offers a gorgeous landscape that should never be taken for granted.
A pertinent question for locals is “How much do you know about your homeland?” According to historian Andrew Lee Feight, the need to know is extremely important. He recounts a famous song that echoed that very notion:
“'Come all ye likely lads that have a mind for to range, Into some foreign country, your fortunes for to change; In seeking some new pleasures we will all together go, An' we'll settle on the banks of the pleasant Ohio.' So went the old song, which James Keyes used in 1880 as a preface to his collection of sketches detailing the lives of pioneer settlers near the mouth of the Scioto River.
“For many, the Scioto Valley was an American Promised Land and it filled rapidly with men, women, and children, a seemingly restless people who were chasing their fortunes in the newly opened lands of the Trans-Appalachian West.”
A pertinent question for locals is “How much do you know about your homeland?” According to historian Andrew Lee Feight, the need to know is extremely important. He recounts a famous song that echoed that very notion:
“'Come all ye likely lads that have a mind for to range, Into some foreign country, your fortunes for to change; In seeking some new pleasures we will all together go, An' we'll settle on the banks of the pleasant Ohio.' So went the old song, which James Keyes used in 1880 as a preface to his collection of sketches detailing the lives of pioneer settlers near the mouth of the Scioto River.
“For many, the Scioto Valley was an American Promised Land and it filled rapidly with men, women, and children, a seemingly restless people who were chasing their fortunes in the newly opened lands of the Trans-Appalachian West.”
The
Formation
The north flowing Teays River was dammed by glaciers, and damming of other rivers led to a series of floods as lakes overflowed into adjacent valleys. These Pre-Illinoisan (Early Pleistocene) glaciations brought an end to the Teays River.
The advance of ice sheets eventually dammed the Teays resulting in the formation of glacial Lake Tight. Glacial Lake Tight is estimated to have been two-thirds the size of modern Lake Erie. The lake extended into portions of Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky and covered approximately 7000 square miles. Valleys beyond the reach of glaciers were reorganized to create the Ohio River, and the Scioto River replaced the Teays River. The Scioto River flows through segments of the Teays River valley but opposite the direction the Teays River flowed.
Had it not been for the upheaval there could have been no erosion; and without erosion the geological and stratigraphical formation of the valley would not have occurred. This glaciers gave birth to the valley, with all its living organisms.
Here is a poetic view of the Scioto in the History of Lower Scioto Valley, 1884 ...
“Drainage is not the entire object of our river systems. Irrigation and exposure of deep and otherwise hidden treasures are evidently had in view by the Author of Nature with all is elementary combinations. He that makes eyeless fishes where no light can every penetrate would not upheave and plow down the earth's crust without having in view some special object. Scioto Valley is not, by any means, destitute of the foot-prints of the Deity, but is proof of his handiwork ...
“But, aside from the ancient denizens of the Scioto Valley, let us view the inhabitants of the valley when first seen by the Caucasian. Not a tree had yet fallen before the ax of the white man. Among the waving branches of the heavy timbered bottoms, and on the stately oaks of the hills, were heard the notes and cries of birds of various plumage, new and strange. The Indian whoop, the panther's cry, the hoarse growl of the bear, the howl of the wolf, mingled with thousands of notes of animated beings of a new world. Is he dreaming? Or, does he behold the animated beings of a literal country, like the ones left behind him?”
Yet, why, as a rule, did most early inhabitants of the Scioto Valley settle in the hills, some distances from the river instead of in the rich bottoms?
Andrew Feight wrote this about the event …
Not only did the river valley present threats of flooding waters, but also it harbored other serious health hazards.
According to James Emmitt, one of Waverly's prominent fathers ...
“Vegetation in the bottoms, in those days, was absolutely rank. Sycamore, black walnut and hackberry trees grew abundantly and to splendid proportions, and the vines of the wild grape clambered up in a dense and tangled mass to their very tops, interlacing their branches, and often uniting many trees in a common bond of clinging vines.
“The growth of weeds and underbrush was wonderfully dense, and when the floods would come and cover the bottoms, several inches of water would remain in those brakes of weeds for months after it had receded from less densely overgrown ground.
“As a matter of fact, the water would stand almost the year around, in lagoons, over a large portion of the bottoms, converting them into huge marshes, and causing them to closely resemble much of the swamp land now so abundant in the South.”
“Oh, what torture it was! After the terrible quaking ceased then came the racking, burning fever, that scorched the blood, parched the flesh, and made one pray for death. Torture more absolute and prostrating could not well be conceived of. And when it is remembered that no one who dared brave the dangers of the bottoms was exempt from ague, in some one of its many distressing forms, during the entire spring and summer seasons, and often year in and out, it is not surprising that the early settlers shunned what was to them a plague-stricken district.”
Thus, the hill country bordering the bottoms was first settled by whites. Then the bottoms were “gradually conquered” as residents worked from their outer boundaries clearing away timber, vines, and underbrush. Once the land was cleared, the sun converted it into “workable condition.” And, fever and ague grew less prevalent as the land was cleared up.
The pioneers turned up rich bottom lands since the debris – once an impediment that had kept floods from receding quickly – also produced a positive consequence. At every rise in the river, the water was held on the bottoms until “they had become enriched by a heavy deposit of the soil carried down from the hilltops.” However, once cleared, the bottom lands suffered more soil loss from the currents of flood waters. It seems nature provides and also takes away.
The Scioto River Valley remains one of the most fertile and beautiful areas of the country. Often people overlook the bountiful nature of their own environment, preferring to revel in memories and images of faraway places. The gem we in Scioto are intrusted to protect rivals any other natural wonder. Perhaps we should do much more to enjoy this gift and to enhance its being. These are promises that would benefit all who here dwell.
Sources:
James Emmitt.
Chillicothe Leader. 1886. Found at “Pike County” on
rootsweb.ancestry.com.
Andrew
Lee Feight Ph.D. “Lower Shawnee Town and the Flood of 1753. Lower
Scioto Blog. December 24, 2007.
Andrew
Lee Feight, Ph.D. “Settling the
Scioto Valley.” Tour curated by: Andrew Lee Feight, Ph.D.
sciotohistorical.org.
R.P.
Goldthwaite. "The Teays Valley Problem, a Historical
Perspective", pp. 3-8 in Wilton N. Melhorn, 1991, Geology and
Hydrogeology of the Teays-Mahomet Bedrock Valley Systems,
Geological Society of America Special Paper
Kay
L. Mason. History of Lower Scioto Valley Ohio.
usgwarchives.net.
Ohio
Statewide Files – History: Chapter 4, History of Lower Scioto
Valley. Chicago. 1884.
No comments:
Post a Comment