hills abound in coal, iron ore and fire clay, and quarries in different.parts furnish excellent building stone. The country was former' ly covered with dense forest which the hand of industry has cleared away to give place to finely cultivated farms. First White Men.—Perhaps the first white men in the county were English and French traders. In 1750 the Ohio Land Company sent out Christopher Gist to explore, survey and find the best land embraced in a grant of half a million acres lying on both sides of the Ohio River. Leaving the Potomac River in October. Gist crossed the Ohio near the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela. From there he traveled to the mouth of Beaver River and then crossed the country, reaching the Tuscarawas on the 5th of December, ata point near the site of Bolivar. On the 7th he crossed over to the Indian Town and found the natives to be in the interest of the French. He then followed the course of the river southward to where it unites with the Walhonding. Here he ound a town of about one hundred families, a portion of whom favored the French, and a portion of whom favored the English int< rests. Arriving in
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=