The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1866-08-23
Written for the STANDARD.
JACKSON COUNTY.
A Prospective View.

always attract attention. l never fail
to read your Random Thoughts"
which are generally instructive and con-
vey useful suggestions. Mr.. Hughes
department, on the fourth page, is con-
Quoted with fine taste and conscientious
perspicuity, adding to the value of your
publication. With all its salient and
estimable points, it is pleasant to observe
that your circulation is increasing, and
that the Standard is planted on firm
basis.
As an old acquaintance, too, am
gratifed to learn that your town is grow
ing with a rapid and healthy increase
and that Jackson county generally is
prosperously developing, As one who
has watched its progress for thirty years
and more, with especial reference to its
mineral and sylvan riches, | beg to state
that l always had faith in "the outcome.
of your county, and believe now it offers
some of the most attractive inducements
to emigrants to be found in the West.
A long tour and sojourn in the South,
and close observation of the state of
society in even one of the most loyal
districts of that section of our country,
have taught me to place high value on
the degree of security and Difference to
law, which is noticeable in all portions of
the State of Ohio. While arson, horse
stealing, manning, burglary, and
even assassination, are frequent occur
rences, even in the most favored parts
of the States lately in rebellion, the most
lonely and sparscly settled portions of
Ohio are secure and peaceable, in the
Difference universally paid to municipal
and moral law, as well as in the public
spirit of your people. Citizens who are
jealous Of the good name and steady in
crement of their respective towns,
counties and districts, are never guilty
of mobocratic or other outrage, and
seek, by every means in their power, to
render their places of residence attrac-
tive.
The county of Jackson occupies, geo.
graphically and geologically, a very de-
sirable position; and her elements Of
wealth and physical advancement are
of those varities which, if of slow de-
velopment, will prove nevertheless sure.
The northern and northwestern sec
tions. though rugged and forbidding;t to
the "dwellers of the plains" are clothed
with excellent timber, and the highest
hills abound in veins of workable coal.
Warm, low valleys,-penetrated by
streams of clear, soft water. aud covered
with groves Of poplar, sugar, maple,
walnut, and other rich-land trees, in
dictate the sites of future plantations.
Lofty pines and oaks tower over even
the most gigantic escarpments of sand
stone, inviting the hardy lumberman to
enter and possess the land.
In a strip of country lying south
eastwardly from the above, the iron ores
and huxing Goals of your immediate
locality are found. The mining interest
of Jackson is in its infancy. Every
season something new in regard to it
will be developed. The areas covered
by good ores, and underlaid by non
sulphurous Goals, will be extended, by
the discovery OF the scientific explorer,
Good roads will be made, and neighbor-
hood facilities multiplied Population
will rush in to fill the ranks of profitable
employmenti and manufactures will ex-
pand, lostered by the cheapness and
abundance of raw materials.
The iron and coal region of Jackson
comprises a large portion Of its super
ficial extent; but the more strictly ag-
ricultural section, in the south western
part of the county, is deserving of notice.
This district is underaid by the carbon
aceous black slate, which out-crops in
Ross and Pike counties, and in the
closely-laminated strata of which those
jets of gas and petroleum have been
pierced, which so excited the eXpecta-
tions Of oil-hunters year ago. If any
of your readersin the western and north
western portions of Jackson county, dis
cover a locality in which the rocks ap-
pear MTown about in confused mass, or
where the uniformly horizontal deposi-
ton is inclined at an angle, let them drill
there for oil cavities. Last August,
while riding along theroad, in the north
east corner of Liberty township, neal
the saw mill on Pigeon creek, saw, in
the bed of a small clear stream, re-
markable ebulIition of gas, proceeding
from crevice in the rock, demonstra.
ting to my mind the near neighborhood
of rock -oil-whence arose the carboniC
gas. The surface of the agricultural
section alluded to, is undulating rather
than precipitous, affording inviting
ranges of stock and grain farms. The
use of lime as a fertilizer, and a careful
observance of progressive cropping
will some day bring up this section to .
degree of fertility rivalling that of tho
rich valley of Scioto, AT present, how
ever, competitive excellence in farming
is but lightly appreciated.
The eastern and southern parts o
your county are destined, for many
years, to produce large quantities o
charcoal pig iron, and the farming in.
terest in those districts also to feel thu
stimulating effects of the near neigh
borhood of industrial consumers whC
are not farmers.
Sheep growing, tobacco culture, ant