SPRINGS AS A GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCE 5°7 



few rods to the left, where the same horizontal distance involves only 

 half the grade; the original highway did follow the valley, connecting 

 the two houses. But log-haulers from the wooded upland located their 

 main road where it would command as much of the area as possible, 

 approaching it by spurs along contours. This traffic fixed the road 

 where it is, though it has never led directly to a dwelling; property 

 complications diverted the second house up the valley to it, the original 

 roadway being abandoned. A similar influence in highway-location due 

 to mining operations is seen one and one half miles west of Mary Ann 

 Furnace in the road trending southwest from the one leading to Wil- 

 kins Corners. Some fifty years ago a vein of coal on this slope was 

 worked for local use, and was approached from the west, thus opening 

 a highway that has -served little use since. 



It is evident also that so far as the intervalley roads are concerned, 

 the topographic factor made slight appeal to the locating engineers, an 

 ox-team and its driver. If the most direct line between houses, i. e., 

 between springs, crossed a sharp hill, the highway went directly over 

 rather than follow a contour, or take even a gentler, if slightly longer, 

 grade. I have noted several places where in the past decade these 

 sharp grades have been removed by a detour, but two generations had 

 dragged themselves wearily over the hill. 



The convenience of good water, or of rich bottom lands in the 

 valleys, factors that would seem to have much weight with the early 

 settler in choosing a location, is of secondary importance when opposed 

 to an inherited topographic proclivity. A man reared among hills, 

 however barren, has a latent tendency to plant his new home in similar 

 topography. This bias, developed through environment, whether in- 

 herited or acquired by the individual, is illustrated in the choice of 

 lands made by Welsh immigrants who came into Licking County, Ohio, 

 early last century; they passed by thousands of acres of lowlands, the 

 richest in the state, and selected farms in a rugged portion of the 

 county, still owned by their descendants, and even now designated " The 

 Welsh Hills." 



But in the region to which special study was given, the geographic 

 influence of springs is obvious. There are .203 houses in the township, 

 148 of which are built at springs; some of the fifty-five using wells 

 formerly depended on springs. Both the horizontal and vertical dis- 

 tribution of these dwellings is largely a matter of stratigraphy of which 

 the springs are a manifestation. It should be noted, however, that the 

 localization of houses near Mary Ann Furnace is due to the fact that 

 over sixty years ago iron ore, found in the neighboring hills, was 

 reduced here ; stoves also were manufactured at this place. The furnace 

 was destroyed in 1853, but the houses are still in use. 



Over fifty per cent, of the dwellings with springs are in the horizon 



