Notebook on Green Township and Smithville Area History by Daniel L. Kieffer

Notebook on Green Township and Smithville Area HistoryBold text by Daniel L. Kieffer

Dark and Fearful in aspect; deep beyond measure in magnitude; dense and unbroken in itself; and interwoven thickly with vines of venom, thorns and under-brush and high rankling weeds of every description, was the veil of forest which once covered the face of this country. Devoid of habitations of man, unsoiled in sheet, it lay over the entire field of Green township, up to 1811. Indians and wild beasts sporting through swamps and dusky avenues; serpents and reptiles hissing from their lurking places, abounded in swarming populaces all over the land; while the hawk and the buzzard in loud screams acclaimed dominion over the feathery tribe, which seemed to join in emission of uncouth notes from every tree-top. Amid this wild state of things, the first settlement was made upon the soil of Green.