Forests

With but few exceptions the entire area of our county was covered with forests. The oak was the giant, found in every part of the county. It was then as now, the most plentiful of our trees. The oak was not a favorite among the settlers of the county, because, before the days of saw-mills, timber that could be split more easily was utilized. The tall, ar- rowy poplars or tulip trees, thus came to be the prime favorite for building purposes. There were "chestnut ridges" in every township. On the low lands, the pon- derous button-wood or plane-tree changed his coat twice a year. The walnut selected his habitat in the rich soil of the valleys. The shell-bark hickory annu- ally cast its fruitage on the ground. Grape vines threw their trellis work from bough to bough, and each year, paid their tribute to Mother Earth. Nestled in the coves of the hills were hundreds of sugars, through whose veins was coursing the saccharine fluid that had never as yet poured forth its fountain of sweetness. The buckeye grew along the creek banks in the southern townships. Cedars bastioned the rocky hill-sides of Madison where the Moxahala cut its way toward the sea. 40

The flora of the county was profuse. It is said that in the hills, west of Sugar Grove in Fairfield county are a greater number of plant species that can be found in any similar area in Ohio. Lying contiguous to that section, our county partakes of some of its abundance. Lily pads covered the Great Swamp, cranberries grew on its marshy banks, Jack-in-the-pulpits nodded be- neath their canopies, bulrushes grew on the creek bot- toms, while wild flowers bedecked the mossy ledges and sent out their "sweetness on the desert air." It was a dark, dense world, where only wild animals and wilder men could live. But through the uncounted ages, while empires and dynasties rose and fell, while men strutted about for their brief day on the stage of ancient civilization, the giants of our hills were making ready for the Pioneer's ax and the mould of the wood was gathering slowly for the plow of the Hero of the Forest, who, out of the experiences of the older times, should lay the foundations of a newer and stronger Commonwealth. THE BIG SASSAFRAS.-What is said to be the larg- est sassafras tree in Ohio, grows in Section 13 Pike township, near the Dean schoolhouse on the Moxahala road. Its shape is more that of an oak or chestnut than a sassafras, which usually grows tall and crooked. This tree has a girth of over fourteen feet. 41

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