Ohio History Journal

THE PILLARS OF HARRISON COUNTY

BY JOSEPH T. HARRISON

There are three native pillars of stone, in Harrison

County, Ohio, which, if their age is reckoned from

the date when they first reared their heads above the

surrounding landscape, are older than Rome, older than

the Pyramids, and older than the Sphinx itself.

They are located in the north, central, and southern

parts of the county, the first two on the tops of hills and

the third well down from the top of the adjacent hill,

and appear to be portions of a continuous stratum of

said rock that spread above the entire present surface

of the county. If this be true, the present inhabitants

of the county are all living in basements of what was

formerly the land surface of Harrison and Carroll

Counties.  The stratified structure of these pillars

shows that they have never been disturbed by anything

to move them from their present location since they

were formed. They consist of nothing but water de-

posited sand in regular layers.

They stand erect like pillars, and had not the des-

ecrating hand of the white man removed, from the top

of the first two, about eight feet for building purposes,

their present height would be about twenty feet. Their

present isolated character is as much shown by the

erosion and the wearing away of the remainder of the

parent stratum in the great age of their existence, as

the teeth that remain in the human jaw, when the

neighboring teeth have disappeared, and the gums have

(120)

122      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

in the north edge of the county, and in full view on the

left of the road leading from Scio to Kilgore, just after

you pass the junction of the road that leads to New

Rumley (the birthplace of General Custer), and is on

the top of about as high a hill as there is in the

vicinity.

The third is in the southwestern part of the county,

about three miles northeast of Moorefield, section 6,

in Moorefield Township, and about one-fourth mile

north of the old Nottingham Church, on the T. R.

Crawford farm.

A popular error about these solitary pillars of

sandstone has long obtained, and it is my purpose to

give what, I believe, is a better explanation. Henry

Howe says in his Historical Collections of Ohio:

"About one and one-half miles west of Cadiz, on the

northern peak of a high sandy ridge, are the remains of what

is called 'standing stone,' from which a branch of Stillwater de-

rived its name. The owner of the land had quarried off its

top some eight feet. It is sandstone, and was originally from

sixteen to eighteen feet high, about fifty feet around its base,

and tapered from midway up to a cone-like top, being only about

twenty feet around near its summit. It is said to have been a

place of great resort by the Indians, and its origin has been a

subject of speculation with many people. It is, however, what

geologists term a boulder, and was brought to its present position

from, perhaps, a thousand miles north, embedded in a huge

mass of ice, in some great convulsion of nature, ages since."

Such an error should not be allowed to go uncon-

tradicted, and one cannot help feeling that it was little

less than sacrilege to remove the tops of these stones

or to deface them in any way. If they had been "em-

bedded in a huge mass of ice," the consequent stress

and strain would have destroyed their stratified struc-

ture; nor could it be explained how such a cause would

The Pillars of Harrison County    123

have put them down in their present locations in perfect

alignment with the underlying stone strata, its own

strata perfectly preserved, and in close proximity to

disintegrated sandstone material of similar character.

Southeastern Ohio was not affected by glacial ac-

tion. A glance over the hills of Harrison County shows

the tops to be on nearly the same level. The county

comprises high land, which makes a watershed between

the short streams that run eastwardly and directly to

the Ohio River, and the head waters of Connotton and

Stillwater Creeks, which flow westwardly to the Tus-

carawas River, and thence into the Muskingum and the

Ohio at Marietta.

The present broken surface of hills and valleys com-

prises simply the under side of a higher plain, and these

pillars we now see are simply the roots or bases of still

older and higher hills. This broken surface of hill and

valley is no more than the small elevations and gutters

in a grain field after a hard rain, but they are on a larger

scale, the result of the errosive action of the centuries.

The remains of the Glacial Era are found in the fringe

of deposits of earth and granite stone (moraines) ex-

tending northeastwardly from Cincinnati to Ashtabula,

with a great terminal moraine below and near Cincin-

nati. Our oldest hills of this state are to be found in

eastern Ohio. The period for natural erosion was much

longer in that locality and commenced long before the

glacial era. The deep valleys of the Ohio and Mus-

kingum Rivers are notable examples.

The undisturbed location of these "pillars" upon

high hills and long protected by the forest has saved

them from the undermining and disintegrating causes

The Pillars of Harrison County    125

leave it apparently longer than in the early life of the

individual. Indeed, upon the hillsides near these stone

may be seen the disintegrated portions of this ancient

stratum of sandstone. The layers of sandstone may

now be seen in these ancient pillars as distinctly as one

may count the layers of a jelly cake. And they have

the same natural dip towards the south and east as the

Berea sandstone, the oil bearing rock, which now lies

1100 feet below, but comes to the surface at Berea in

the northern part of the state.

In many of the valleys may still be seen broken

portions of lower rock strata, scattered along the

hillsides of Connotton and Stillwater Creeks and

their branches, which have rolled down to lower levels.

Remnants of the parent ledge may be seen sticking out

of the eroded hillsides.

These permanent portions are nearer the tops of the

hills in the northern part of Harrison County and those

of Carroll County which adjoins it on the north, than

that of the Nottingham stone in the south, and shows

about the natural dip of the strata of the south and east.

The Nottingham stone is newer. Its top was exposed

at a later date. The superimposed earth and rock were

eroded away at a later period.

The photograph of the Scio Stone on the Woods

farm shown in the illustration was taken September 2,

1920, by Mr. J. A. McKay, of Cleveland, Ohio. It

shows the outlines, stratified form and fallen particles

around it. It is about ten feet high, and on the top

its greatest length and width are eighteen and twelve

feet respectively. The figure of the writer in the picture

shows its relative height.

126     Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

The one at Cadiz, Standing Stone, shows thinner

layers of strata. It is about twelve feet high and its

greatest length and width on top are sixteen by eighteen

feet.

On September 3, 1920, we also saw the one near

Moorefield and the old Nottingham Church. Its photo

was taken in October, 1917, by William F. Compher, of

Moorefield, Ohio, and the pillar is locally known as the

Indian Watch Tower. It is about eighteen feet high,

ten by ten feet on top, and stands on a slender base

that cannot be over four by five feet. The greatest pro-

jection is towards the front, and the mass is so great

above it that in time the whole rock will fall in this

direction.

It is located on a hillside in a woods, at an altitude

of about fifty feet below the top of the nearest hill.

Large portions of the same ledge lie around it, and

ferns, moss, flowers and vines almost cover the top.

There is such a similarity between the Scio and

Cadiz pillars in color, strata, position and texture, that

they doubtless belong to the same ancient ledge of sand-

stone that once overlaid the country. Both show the

presence of iron, both alternate in color from the light

yellow of common sand to that of brick dust; both are

on the tops of high hills, and both are in grassy fields,

with no traces of the parent ledge about them, except

what may be found beneath the surface near the Cadiz

stone, for stone of the same character has been quarried

just beneath the surface in its vicinity. Not so with the

Scio stone, for it stands on its original foundation on

a peak of a hill and all remains of the parent ledge are