HANCOCK COUNTY. 365 



any rolling country where the finer materials of the Drift have been 

 partially washed out by the rains. North of the Van Wert Ridge — at 

 least north of the Blanchard River — the Drift deposits reach a greater 

 thickness. At McComb, a point on the Leipsic Ridge, wells are said not 

 to reach the rock at a depth of eighty feet. At Arcadia, also in the 

 northern part of the county, water is obtained, without reaching the 

 rock, at forty-seven feet. On the other hand, the average thickness of 

 the Drift south of the Blanchard, judging from the height of the river 

 banks, and the very frequent exposure of the rock in the streams, cannot 

 exceed thirty feet. This moraine-like thickening of the Drift must have 

 been the cause of the westward drainage of the southern portion of the 

 county through the valley of the Blanchard, instead of northward 

 through the valley of the Portage. 



MATERIAL RESOURCES. 



The underlying formations are not known to possess any minerals of 

 special economical value. The only uses to which they can be put is the 

 manufacture of lime, and stone-quarrying for building purposes and for 

 paving. For both of these purposes they are admirably adapted, and 

 some of their outcrops afford unusual facilities for acquiring the stone in 

 the necessary form and abundance. The lack of railroads has a discour- 

 aging effect on these enterprises, and at the present time but little more 

 is effected than the supply of the home markets. 



The Drift affords every where in the county abundant materials for 

 the brick-maker and the potter. The lack of sufficient sand for mixing 

 with the surface of the hard-pan clay in the manufacture of brick is the 

 principal difficulty in that branch of industry ; yet the brick made are 

 some of them of superior quality. Tile-making is also extensively car- 

 ried on at Findlay, and at other points in the county. The following 

 establishments of this kind may be enumerated : 



Martin Hirsher, Findlay Tiling and pottery. 



Louis Bruner, " Brick. 



Gates O'Hara, " 



John Karst, half mile west of Findlay Tiling. 



Eobert Dorney, Arlington Brick. 



William McKinley, S. W. J section 1, Orange township " 



Elias Wilson, section 4, Delaware township " 



Frank Brown, section 36, Pleasant " Brick and tiling. 



Davis Pendleton, " " " Brick. 



Andrew Powell, N. E. \ section 34, Liberty township " 



Matthias Markley, section 28, Union township " 



James Kelly, section 1, Washington " 



