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of that month, fifteen additional ones. The first directors of the institution were elected October, 1874, and they were Hiram Hoatley, Jr., Robert L. Burns and Joseph Reasoner. On November 25, 1874, Andrew Scott was appointed superintendent. The first semi-annual report of the directors was made September 1, 1875. Mr. Reasoner, who had been elected for the full term of three years, resigned after a brief service, and his place was filled through the County Commissioners by the appointment of D. M. Webb, to serve until the next regular election. November 25, 1876, M. L. Mason was appointed superintendent, and yet retains the place. The number of monthly inmates of the institution, since its opening, has been about thirty, and highest number during any month, forty-nine, although the buildings would afford accommodation for about sixty, aside from the superintendent's family and employes. The Infirmary farm, consisting of 280 acres, cost $14,000, and was bought of John Hester. The original contract price for the building, exclusive of brick, which the county furnished, was $12,000. Since then, an administration department has been built at a cost of $2,000; a horse-barn, costing $700, and a laundry, twenty by forty feet, two stories, at an expense of $600, in addition to other necessary improvements. The situation of the ground could not have been one more favorably selected, had the county been searched over-the ground falling in every direction, and affording the best drainage facilities. The rooms are heated, when required, by furnace, and arrangements are most judiciously made for the escape of the inmates of the building in case of fire. The Infirmary board for 1882 consists of John T. Markel, A. Collie, and George Bible.

GEOLOGY, POLITICS AND THE COUNTY PRESS.

TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.

The soil of Williams County is generally clay, strongly impregnated with lime, but a portion of it is a sandy loam. The surface is sufficiently undulating for drainage, and by ditching and tiling it becomes as productive as the best lands in Ohio. There are no swamp lands in the county that may not be reclaimed at small expense, and when prepared for tillage are among the most productive acres in the State. All the cereals, large and small fruits of this latitude and garden vegetables afford ample reward to the intelligent and industrious husbandman. "In common with the adjacent counties north of the Maumee River, its surface has a general slope to the southeast, and the highest land in this portion of the State is in the township of Northwest, where the general surface lies from 400 to 450 feet above the level of Lake Erie, where a

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few hills rise fifty feet higher." On the Air-Line of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, Stryker has an altitude of 146 feet; Bean Creek, 125 feet; Bryan, 198 feet; Melbern, 270 feet; Summit, 304 feet; Edgerton, 270 feet; and Butler, Ind., 297 feet above the level of Lake Erie. [For these altitudes the public is indebted to Hon. Jesse L. Williams, of Fort Wayne, one of the most accurate, as well as most eminent, civil engineers in the Union.] The southeast corner of the county is 300 feet lower, the descent being gentle, and, with one notable exception, uniform throughout. This exception is occasioned by a ridge which crosses in a northeast and southwest direction just east of the St. Joseph River. Topographically, it is a mere swell on the surface of the plain, six or eight miles broad at the base, with a maximum height of fifty feet, and not differing in superficial characters from the adjacent country. All of the country west of this ridge is drained by the St. Joseph River, which flows southwestward and, by a junction with the St. Mary's at Fort Wayne, Ind., forms the Maumee. East of the ridge the water is collected by Bean Creek, which crosses the southeast corner of the county and flows southward to the Maumee at Defiance. The small streams rise in the main from perennial springs, and are lively and clear, and the beds of all the streams rest upon rock.

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.

For matter gathered for this department, the writer is indebted to Prof. G. K. Gilbert, of the Ohio Geological Corps. The indurated rocks, being everywhere covered by a heavy bed of drift, have been reached in this county only by boring, and this only at one place. A well drilled for oil at Stryker, on land of IIon. John Sheridan, Jr., after traversing 129 feet of drift, met the Huron shale, with a thickness of sixty-eight feet, and underlaid by limestone. Combining this record

with the railroad levels, the base of the Huron shale is shown to be here fifty feet below the level of Lake Erie. Comparing this, again, with the altitude of the same horizon at various points along the Maumee River, it appears that its dip is to the north, or northwest, at the rate of seven or eight feet to the mile. In adjacent portions of Michigan, the dip, so far as known, is in the same direction; and it is hence presumed to be continuous through the unexplored interval. There is reason to believe, too, that the gradual rise of the country toward the northwest is accompanied by a corresponding and equal activity of the rock surface. follows as probable that the higher land is underlaid by 500 feet of strata superior to the base of the Huron shale, and that the upper portion of this base belongs to the next succeeding base-the Waverly. The lower margin of the Huron shale is in every direction beyond the limits of

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Williams County. The stratagraphical data are so unsatisfactory that the map of the county has been made to represent, instead, the features of the surface geology, which in their relation to the distribution of soils are of more interest and importance.

The geology of the soils is independent of the underlying rocks, and referable exclusively to the drift; they are divided into two somewhat marked provinces by the upper beach ridge. This enters Defiance County at Williams Center, and, passing with a nearly straight course just west of Bryan and Pulaski and through West Unity, crosses into Fulton County a half mile north of the Fulton line. Its soil is sandy, and in some places objectionably light on the summit of the ridge, but the eastern slope affords everywhere a rich and highly prized sandy loam, which shades gradually into the clay loam of the plain. Easy drainage, easy tillage, and the advantage of building sites at once pleasant and salubrious, led to the early occupation of this land, and it now bears prominently the visible marks of prosperity. A second ridge, lying a little east of the other and running from the south line to Bryan, presents similar characters, and some sand ridges lying east of West Unity may be included in the same category. West of the upper beach the surface consists of unmodified Erie clay, and the soils present all the variety of that heterogeneous deposit. The major part is a yellow or buff clay, with enough sand and gravel to render it arable and permeable. Patches of unmixed clay are frequent, but small; and, though sometimes friable, are more commonly very adhesive and difficult of management. Except in swales, the accumulation of mold is inconsiderable, but the soil is retentive of vegetable manures, and gives a good return for their application. Carbonate of lime was originally very abundant, and remains on the more level portions, but appears to have been washed from the slopes. Sand is rarely predominant, but in Northwest a tract of two or three miles area is covered by a clean, yellow sand. It has for the most part a subsoil of clay so near the surface as to render the land valuable, but near Nettle Lake is deep and light. The country generally is rolling or undulating, and abounds with deep. marshes, in which are extensive deposits of marl, and peat or muck. Along the St. Joseph River, and appearing alternately on the opposite banks, is a strip of flat, sandy land, nearly identical in character with the bottom land that forms the immediate bank of the river. It is in fact an ancient bottom or flood-plain of the St. Joseph, formed when its current was checked by lake water standing at the height of the upper beach. At Edgerton this deposit has a depth of forty feet, and its extreme width is about one mile. It can be traced northward as far as Pioneer, but above there is not distinguishable from the present bottom.

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