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Only a century ago, the territory known as
Deerfield Township was clad in its native wildness. Not an open space
could be found which would let the mellowing light of the sun pass to
the then undisturbed soil. The forests stood an impenetrable wilderness
and, with not a tree amiss from their number, defied any transformation
of nature's unexplored solitude. Heavy underbrush formed itself into one
continuous mat, only broken by the winding trails along which the native
red man was wont to wander.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Already had the streams penciled their courses between the rounded and
rock-ribbed hills and the many springs had an easy outlet at all times
by which their chilled waters were carried oceanward. The springs and
streams are to-day as they were centuries ago. The names they bear were
given to them by the early settlers. They were so given on account of
local causes.
The Little Muddy Creek is the pride of the Northern part as it courses
its way toward the Little Miami. Then comes Muddy Creek, the largest stream
of the township, taking up the waters ''that become unclasped from the
folds of the ground," near Socialville, then forwarding its way diagonally
across the township in a northeasterly way. Spring Run carries the waters
away from the many springs in the southwestern part. The Little Miami
scallops the eastern boundary and coaxes the waters from Espy's Creek
(now Simpson's) and Cat, or Monger's Run. The township is well watered
throughout. The wells are of the best, being from twenty to thirty feet
in depth, and limy in nature, owing to the limestone strata that exist
throughout our territory. The lowlands at the source and along the streams,
in the earlier period, were covered with water, which places, in later
days, have been tiled and drained and now form some of the richest farms
in Southwestern Ohio. Swamps and marshes were numerous at an early date,
but they have become valuable fields by the ingenuity of man.
The character of the soil in the north is of that rich black quality
generally found in bottom lands, which is so well adapted to the raising
of corn and heavy-yielding barley; in the south it assumes a more clayey
nature, better known as wheat-and-oats land. This difference in the soil
makes the season for the farmer two weeks earlier in the northern part
than in the southern. The forests are so far cleared away that not more
than one-eighth part of the township is now covered with woodland.
The land originally was well timbered with oak, elm, ash, hickory, wild
cherry, maple, sugar-tree, black and white walnut, sycamore, cottonwood,
etc., etc.; but the forests have so yielded to man's longing for cleared
land, that the scarcity of certain kinds of timber is so great that many
trees now are sold for $50 as they stand in the woods. The monarch oaks
seem troubled as their bald and dying tops indicate, owing to the stealing
away of the moisture from the ground, by the thorough draining of the
land and the destroying of the underbrush.
Rich deposits of gravel are found in the northern part, supposed to have
been cast there by the melting of icebergs in a very remote period, when
the oceanic waters rolled over our surface. These icebergs holding this
gravel
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wended their way through what we now term valleys, until
they reached this latitude, where it, is supposed the temperature was such
as to melt them, thus depositing the gravel and forming inexhaustible knolls
from which the necessary material has been obtained for the numerous improved
roads of the township.
In early days, the country contained many ''deer-licks," being springs
tainted somewhat with saline substances, and to these many deer were wont
to go. It is from this cause that the name Deerfield was given to the
township. This name was given to one of the townships of Hamilton County
about 1796, which included nearly all of what is now Warren County. There
were three noted licks—one was north of Mason, on Dodd's place,
where the early settlers went to capture game. The men had planks placed
in the trees upon which they rested while awaiting the coming of the deer.
Another was known as the Deer Park and was south of Mason. This consisted
of a spring and grounds within an elevated ridge. Upon the ridge, the
settlers had placed a barrier of logs leaving an open place through which
the deer could enter in order to reach the spring. When once within this
inclosure, the hunters, closing the opening, would take all within captives.
This was an attractive place for sportsmen and many deer were killed here.
The third lick was south of Socialville. Around these springs to-day nothing
is seen but cultivated fields. |