HISTORY OF FAIRFIELD COUNTY

CHAPTER X.

FLORA AND FAUNA.

FLORA.---Almost the entire growth of timber over the whole area of the county is of the hard wood kind, including hickory in all its varieties, black walnut, sugar tree, hackberry, beech, water beech, iron wood, wild cherry, swamp beech, and oak. Of the querous, or oak family, there are a great many varieties, including white oak of four or five kinds---black oak, red oak, jack oak, pin oak and burr oak (the latter being perhaps the least abundant in the county), dog wood and laurel. Of the soft woods may be mentioned chestnut, white and pitch pines, poplar, cottonwood, silver leaf, sassafras, and soft or swamp maple. In some of the northern townships the beech predominates suf- ficiently to have acquired the appellation of the beech woods. South and southwest of Lancaster are the principal pine groves, mostly among the sandstone hills. The hills skirting the State Farm road are partic- ularly characterized by thick groves of both the white and pitch pines. The oak family is distributed everywhere, as are the different varieties of hickory. Black and white walnuts are found in certain localities, and occupy generally the bottom and richer lands, as does also the wild cherry, The sugar tree is found on all varieties of soil, but chiefly on the most fertile. The oak family, as a rule, loves best the hills and clay soil. Chestnut timber is most abundant in the vicinity of Lancaster, and on the hills to the south and southwest. The hackberry, iron wood and water beech prefer low, rich lands. The burr oak is also indigenous to the low and rich lands. Pines flourish best among the hills and sandy soils, and in this county they are most abundant along the sandstone hills skirting the Hocking Valley. Poplar, cottonwood, and silver leaf belong to rich soil, but none of them are very abundant in Fairfield county. Sassafras grows on all varieties of soil. Swamp or soft maple is not very abundant in the county, though it is a native, and occupies the lowest lands. Dog wood grows everywhere, but best in good soil. The laurel is limited to the sandstone hills along the Hocking, and in the vicinity of Lancaster. Hazel has never been much of a growth in Fairfield county, and only a few dwarfed bushes here and there are to be seen. The hazel seems to have refused the friendship of civilization. The little clusters of the bush that are still to be found seem sickly and pining away. The paw-paw, however, still flourishes well on the rich flats along the water courses in some parts of the county. The ash and elm were quite abundant in the county at an early day, but have become rather scarce. Of the former there were three varie- ties---the white, gray and black; of the latter two, the red or slippery elm and the white elm. Both the ash and elm belong to good land, 12

especially the elm. The slippery elm has been chiefly valuable for the medicinal virtues of its inner bark, used as a soothing mucilaginous remedy. The wood of the white elm has been used in the mechanical arts, on account of its hardness when dry. Neither of the elms will burn when green. Ash wood burns well green or dry. Ash wood is valuable in the arts, especially the white. The elm has been largely destroyed on account of its general worthlessness, while the ash has been cut down for firewood and lumber. The white elm bears domes- tication, and flourishes well along the margins of solid city pavements. But if the slippery elm be transplanted it, after a,while, becomes sickly. The same is true of the black locust; it decays if planted in town. In some parts of Fairfield county the black locust originally grew luxuriantly in a wild state; it is now very scarce. The honey locust still flourishes on the low lands along the streams and flats. Buckeye was at no time abundant, and is now scarce. The spice-wood bush, in the pioneer age, very abundant on the low rich lands, is now almost extinct. It would not survive in juxtaposition with civilization. The twigs of the spice-wood, decocted, formed a highly agreeable beverage of an aromatic flavor, and was much used by the first settlers of the country. Teas made from the spice-wood and the bark of sassafras root, when trimmed with maple sugar and cream or milk, was liked by nearly everybody. The whortleberry (commonly called huckleberry), is a very abund- ant growth on the sandy hills of the south part of the county. The fruit comes every year, and ripens in June and July. There are thou- sands of bushels of the berries marketed every summer. Blackberries and dewberries are likewise abundant annual crops, mostly in the south part of the county. The surplus crop is shipped beyond the county. Both the blackberry and the dewberry seek waste fields and fence corners, or along the margins of prairies or the jungle of fallen timber. But they also flourish under cultivation.. The ginseng plant was recognized by its unpretentious trilobed single stem, of six or eight inches in height, surmounted by a cluster of three or four red berries in August and September. During, perhaps, the first twenty years alter the settlement of the county commenced the ginseng was found in great abundance on the low, rich lands. It grew in clusters, or patches, like the podofillin, or May apple. For many years extensive raids were made upon the ginseng patches by the diggers, because it had a market. It was supposed to possess valuable medicinal qualities, and was bought up by speculators and shipped out of the country. Its virtues resided in the root, which was a tribulb, resembling in shape the radish, usually one large central bulb, flanked by two smaller ones. The digging season was in the latter part of August and early September, and was indicated by the ripening of the berry and the yellow color of the leaf. One might search the wild low lands now a whole day without finding perhaps a single ginseng plant. The sanguinaria lanadensis, or poocoon root, was of two varieties--- the red and the yellow, and was very plenty in the early years of the county. It grew on the same kind of soil as the ginseng, which it very much resembled. It seemed, however, to prefer a limestone surface. 13

The roots of the sanguinaria, especially the red, sometimes called blood root, were valued for their supposed medicinal properties, and were a good deal sought after. It was claimed to be an Indian remedy. This plant has, likewise, nearly entirely disappeared. It seems, with the wild man of the forest, to have been indigenous to a condition of undisturbed nature. The snake root, known as Seneca snake root, Virginia snake root, and black snake root, so abundant once, and so much used during the pioneer age as teas and bitters by infusing them in whiskey or cherry bounce, are now difficult to find. The black snake root was indigenous to sandy, rich soils, and was recognized by its stalk of eight or ten inches in height, and its lanceolated leaf. Its virtues resided in the root, which was a small, dark brown tuber, giving off a profusion of dark, hair-like fibers. It was classed among the tonics. The other snake roots grew on higher lands, as a rule. The Seneca snake root sent up a stalk sometimes attaining three or four feet in height. Its root was tuberous, and of a light yellow color. It was also supposed to be used by the Indians as a medicine. These snake roots were used both as tonics and diaphoretics, or sweating medicines. They were found quite profusely around Mount Pleasant, and the low lands along Hocking and the other water streams. An isolated plant of either of them can now and then be found yet in some out of the way place. There were, likewise, in the wild and new condition of the country almost innumerable varieties of stinking weeds, grasses, and plants that are scarcely to be seen at all now, while hundreds of varieties not found here at first have taken their places. The wild nettle was a native of the soil of the Northwest. It grew very luxuriously in certain sections of Fairfield county. It was a rather majestic weed, and rose up usually from two or three to five feet in height, standing very thick on the ground. Its fibre resembled that of common flax, and when treated in the same way was capable of being wrought into fine linen, and was so wrought. A nettle patch is rare now. The May apple was found in immense patches, even in acres, both on the high and low lands. It also appears to be failing with each year, so that at the present very small patches are found, probably less than a tenth of what the woods afforded seventy years ago, and these in the least frequented spots. The wild plum will not tolerate encroachment, nor can it be domes- ticated and still maintain the full development and richness of its fruit. It is strictly a forest plant. To cut away the forests about a wild plum thicket is to consign it to decay and ultimate death. And there are none of the luscious, large wild plums any more to be found, that seventy years ago were so abundant along the Hocking Valley and in other parts of the county. The few trees that remain are dwarfed, and yield small, sour plums. Black haws, of which the valleys once so abounded, have shared the same fate with the plum. The crab-apple bears the acquaintance of man better. It seems even to be improved by culture. FAUNA.---The wild animals found in the Hocking Valley, when the first settlers arrived, are referred to in more than one place in other 14

chapters of this work. A more particular notice of them may be proper under this head. Wolves, bears, panthers, wild-cats and deer, were native denizens of the forest long before man came. They did not remain long; even those that escaped the rifle ball and the snare took their way farther back into the depths of the still wild forests. The grey and red fox lingered longer among the craggy recesses of the hills of the southern part of the county. The grey squirrel was too much attached to the farmer's corn field to readily part company with his newly formed acquaintance, notwithstanding the continual crack of the cruel rifle, to which they become such easy and frequent prey. The raccoon and black mink have become scarce, mainly owing to the hunter's art and to the marked value of their pelts. The opossum, ground hog and hedge hog, are also becoming rare, while the rabbit multiplies and burrows about, both on high and low lands, an easy prey to the boys and the sportsman's shot gun. There was a class of wild birds that have mostly fled before the face of man, but which were very numerous in every part of the country, at its first settlement. Of these may be mentioned the owl, of all varieties, the great and small hawk, the kite, sometimes called the swallow tailed, or forked tailed hawk, the bald, grey and black eagle, the turkey buzzard and the raven. The most of these have entirely disappeared. Buzzards are occasionally seen hovering over the hills, remote from towns and populous settlements. Black birds and black crows are not one five hundredth part so numerous now as in the early years of the country, while a solitary raven is occasionally seen. Of wild singing birds, there seem to be fewer now than in the former age, though they still continue to make the grove merry with their melody. This seems strange, when it is remembered that that class of birds are known rather to follow than lead the advance of civilization. It is the opinion of naturalists that the chief of the singing birds were not here at all before the white man came, and that they followed the sound of the woodman's axe, and the tinkling cow bell. Space will not permit special reference to the various kinds of singing birds of the woods. Wild geese and ducks were, likewise, far more numerous than now. The pheasant, once so numerous through the hills of Fairfield, and whose drumming was so familiar to the ear of the pioneer families, is still about the thickets on the hillsides, but in greatly reduced numbers, owing, doubtless, to the constant raids made upon them with the shot gun and rifle. There were two or three varieties of the crane that often lit down in the ponds and marshy lands, such as the blue crane, the stork and the sandhill crane, but they are now seldom seen near the habitation of man, except in their elevated flights from north to south, and back again, with the changing seasons. The county, in its native state, was infested with such poisonous rep- tiles as were common to the country, including the viper, copperhead and rattlesnake, besides all the varieties of snakes less harmful. The prairie rattlesnake, and the spotted or mountain rattlesnake, were mostly dreaded. The former inhabited the prairies and meadows, the latter hid themselves about the hills and rocky crevices. Mount Pleasant furnished homes for many hundreds of them, in its fissures and recesses. 15

The bite of either of these reptiles was dangerous, and always fatal. The copperhead and the viper have sometimes been confounded, but they were distinct varieties. The black snake, garter snake and water snake were harmless. The mountain rattlesnake is probably now extinct in the county, but the prarie variety is still occasionally found in the low lands along the Hocking and other localities. The big flood of 1873, washed them out by the dozen, and they were slaughtered by the boys, as they attempted to make landings. The early settlers were greatly annoyed by the various kinds of insects that filled the air in countless millions everywhere. The princi- pal torment was from the gnat and musquito. Their numbers in modern years are comparatively small. The black hornet and yellow jacket were numerous enough in the early years of the settlements to prove exceedingly annoying. The beaver and otter, once valuable for their rich furs, are now about extinct, especially the former. An occasional otter is still found along the water courses, where they inhabit. The musk rat still burrows himself in the banks of creeks, ditches, and along the canal, and is ready, on the slightest alarm, to sink instantly to the bottom. 16

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