History of Benton County, Iowa. From materials in the public archives, the Iowa Historical society's collection, the newspapers, and data of personal interviews, Part 2

Author: Hill, Luther B; Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago (Ill.)
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 900


USA > Iowa > Benton County > History of Benton County, Iowa. From materials in the public archives, the Iowa Historical society's collection, the newspapers, and data of personal interviews > Part 2


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Hagen. Fred, 803 Half-Breed tract, 29 !lamain. Fred, 719 Hanford, Rush R., 808 Hanna, Alexander H., 397. 836 Hanna, Jolm W .. 841 Hanna. William H., 842 Hamnen, William M., 884 Hansen, Thomas, SS3 Harder, Heniy, 787 Harper. Mexander. 410 Harper. Charles S., 758 Harper. J. Wilson, 762 Harper, Robert A., 343, 834


INDEX


Hardwell, Myzon ( VII)


Harper family, 410 Harwood, James, S4S Harrington, C. O., 342, 527


Harrison Township Christian church, 275 Hayward, Horace. 586 IFeinrich. Christian A., 443


Heinrich. Gustav, 552 Henkle. Henry C., 453


Ifenkle, Merritt C., 747 Herring, George, 362


Hevener, H. S., 156


Ilill, Clyde S., 523


Ilill. James M .. 520


Ilite, David, 402 lite, Jacob. 819


Hite, John W., 532 Hogan, John. 278 Homer township-First settlers, 410


Horridge. George, 342. 425


Honghton. John A .. 409, 702


Houghton, William A., 705


Humphrey, George, 707


Humphrey. Hugh, 409. 792


Humphrey, Joseph, 409


Inman, Orville, 574


Towa Canning Company. 425


lowa Protection Company, 258 łowa township -- First settlers, 121


Indians, last of, 34


Indian treaties, 28


Towa Union Medical Society, 310 Irving Institute, 165


Jackson township-First settlers, 411 Jewitt, William. 441 Jolmson, Alexander, 409 Johnson. David K., 409, 799 Johnson. David M., 731 Jolison, George, 482


Johnson, James, 896 Johnson family, 414 .Tones, J. W .. 598 Jones, Millard W., 835


Kahler, James., 632 Kane township -- Early settlers, 120; pioneers of. 412; origin of name, 412 Kearns, Hiram W .. 764 Kearns family, 416


Keith, Samuel E .. 344, 528


Kellogg, Alonzo S., 686 Kellogg, Cora W., 723 Kelbag. Guy. 244, 339, 723 Kelly, Charles. 517


Kelly, John, 449 Kelly, Michael, 416, 477


Kenyon, Mary, 401 Keokuk, the Indian chief. 26, 51 Kerr, Steward J .. 852 Keystone, St. John's German Lutheran


1


xviii


INDEX


church, 279; present town, 382; banks, 382; Mercantile Company, 353; seeret societies, 383 Kirk, Richard, 516 Kirk Dry Goods Company, 516


Kluss, Frederick Hf., 670


Knapp, George R., 111, 340 Knapp, John, 111, 340 Knapp, S. A., 184, 257


Knupp, L. C., 852


Knuth, William, 453


Kolsto, Iver C., 383


Kolsto, L. A., 563


Koopman, O. A., 839


Kramer, Emma K., 617


Kramer, Henry C., 614


Kroehuke, Herman D., 885


Kroehnke, John P., 463


Kruse, H. G., 157 Kuen, Mathias, 570 Kuhn, Henry, 651 Kulm, Peter, 406


Lamb, Henry J., 358, $11 LaRue, Chambers C., 734


LaRne, Eliza S., 737 Le Roy township -- First settlers, 11G Leonard, Frank. 473


Little, Alexander II., 773 Lockhart, Samuel M., 89


Loizeaux, J. J., 343, 638 Loizeaux. Leon S., 638 Long. Cornelius P., 599 Long. Della S., 590


Long, William J., 813 Lorenz, John, 728 Lormor, Frank, 752


Lormor family, 404


Lowe, Frank, 5S4


Lowe, Frederick, 407


Luzerne -- German Lutheran church, 279; past and present, 384 Lyman, Frederick, 144


Mang. Mathias, 691 MeCandless, Thomas B .. 196 MeColley, Engene W., 683 MeCune, Thomas F., 156, 470 McElroy, George D., 535 Me Elroy, Hays H., 534 MeGranahan family, 408 MeLaughlin, Thomas, 886


McMillan, Robert F .. 741


Mall, William A., 776


Marietta, John E., 258, 260, 345, 434 Martin, David E., 474 Means, W. W., 346 Mease, John P., 732 Meredith, Marion, 308, 430 Meredith, Sarah L., 450 Methodism, 255 Meyer, Henry J., 744


Meyer, William L., 360 Miller, Henry Sr., 887 Miller, John A., 374 Miller, Levi S., 344 Miller, William, 624 Mitchell, James, 284, 285


Mitchell, James R., 490


Mocller, John D., 513


Morrow, E. H., 389, 543


Mosnat, J. J., 299


Mount Auburn-Savings Bank, 143; Christian church, 273; early history, 358 "Mount Auburn News, "' 159 Murphy, Bernard, 147 Myers, G. M., 152


Narber, Homer, 678


Nell, Jacob, 857


Newhall --- Town of, 389


Newspapers (sce Press)


Nichols, Clarence, 780


Nichols, Jolm D., 779


Noble, Andrew L., 693


Noble, C. A., 151


Noble, Isband, 415, 602


Noble, James A, 602


Northport-The county seat, 73; re- christened Vinton, 74 Norway -- Benton County Savings Bank, 141; First National Bank, 142; St. Michael's Catholic church, 276; vil- lage, 376; founder, 376; societies, 378 Novak, Frank A., 303 Novak, John, 802


Palmer, George L., 399, 501


Palmer, H. N., 344


Palmer, Walter S., 897 Palmer, T. S., 344 Parker, John, 394


Parzybok, Samuel F., 542 Patrons of Husbandry, 50


People's Savings Bank of Shellsburg, ??


People's Savings Bank of Vinton, 330 Phelps. Stephen, 266


Physicians-The country doctor, 305; first physician of Vinton and Belle Plaine, 30S Pickart, John H., 761


Pickering, Isaac, 411 Pleasant Hill Presbyterian church, 268 Pohlmann, Henry, 517


Pohlmann, Jacob. 793 Polis township-Early pioneers. 124, 414 Population, 14 Press, 144 Property valuations. 39 D'yne, D. B., 150 Pyne, John F., 155 P. M. Coder Post, G. A. R., Vinton. 233


xix


INDEX


Radeke, Henry A., 336 Radeke, Otto L., 660 Radeke, William A., 666 Railroads-Cedar Rapids & St. Paul Co., 130; Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Minnesota Railroad completed, 131; enters Vinton, 132; Shellsburg branch 132: Rock Island road, 132; Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, 133 Rail-back, John, 817 Railsback, Sanmel E., 818 Ralyea, Frank R., 246 Ralyea, L., 245 Ravenscroft, J. H., 896 Ravenscroft, J. T., 351 Ray, Frank G., 424


Reiss, George, 725 Reisser, Henry, 445 Religions history, 254 Remington family, 414 Rice, James, 395 Rice, Moses W., 400 Richart, John, 404, 554 lieke, Charles, 750 life, A. K., 786 Til. y. William A., 781 Robertson, Andrew, 411, 749 Robinson, George W., 5SU Bore, William G., 766 Rosenberg. Daniel S, 611 Royce, Roderick, 819 Rozema, John II., 433


Saes and Foxes, 31. 32 St. Clair, Archibald, 515 St. Clair Brothers, 404 St. Clair, John M., 775 St. Clair, William M., 791 Sanders, David .A., 642 Sanders, John B., 405, 637 Savage, Thomas E., 11 Sebild, Andrew W., 411, 663 - child, John. 538 Soild. Henry J., 511 Schirm, Henry, 658 Senluntz, Ferdinand, 724 S Kridt, Otto B., 875 . hvor, Nicholas, 605 School districts, 164 S-trorder, Henry, 700 Schroeder, John' II., 780 Schwab, Henry, 831 Scolion, James, 832 Ik, Christian, 879 S.D :. Johu. 869 S.dock, James L., 402 Shane, John. 293 shellsburg-The Halberts, bankers, 137; People's Savings Bank, 141; Metho- dist church, 261; Presbyterian church 267: Baptist church, 270; origin of name, 367; present town, 368; first


church, 369; first railroad, 369; & village, 371; first bank, 372; secret societies, 372 "Shellsburg Call,"' 158 Sherman, Buren R., 297 Shuck, James. D. 502 Shutts, Lewis D., 399, 707


Shutts, Peter, 399, 706


Slack, Harvey, 152 Sinith, Spencer, 492


Smythe, Williams, 284, 287, 292


Spanish-American War, 243


Spanish-American War Veterans, 245


Spencer, Charles II., 415


Spencer, Victor G., 415, 635


Springer, Jacob, 110, 182, 239, 874


Squatter "defined,'' 112


Stage lines, 125


State Bank of Vinton, 433


State roads, 128 Steamboats-' 'Export, " 126; "Black Hawk, " 127 Stewart, William A., 408


Stickney, David H., 798


Stickney, George E., 799


Stickney, William W., 797


Stocker, Eleazer W., 412, 752


Stookey, Charles F., 591


Struve, Carl, 648 Struve, John, 495


Stuckenbruck, Herman R., 845


Summers, J. C., 371


Sweet, Charles A., 441


Sweet, Sidney S., 436


Tannehill, George W., 186, 466 Tannehill, Jennie G., 466


Tatge, August F., 413, 738


Tatge. Conrad, 113


Taylor township-Early settlers, 415


Thompson, Edward C., 737


Thompson, Frank L., 860


Thompson, James M., 861


Thompson, John, 713


Thompson, Samuel, 871


Thompson, W. L., 457


Thompson. William, 408


Tiedemann, Fred, 517


Tilson, David, 412 Tilson, Everett, 412, 579


Tilford, John S., 169 Tilford Collegiate Academy, Vinton, 168


Titus, Calvin P., 245


Tobin, M. J., 298, 303


Tobin, Thomas. 169


Tobin, T. F., 171


Town, Wellington, 767 Townships-Organization of, 39; order of creation, 392 Traer, James C., 135, 145. 679 Traer, James F., 134, 679 Traer, William M., 157


INDEX


Trojovsky, Charles. 833 Turner, C. G., 390 Tuttle, Osman. 376 Twogood, Charles, 410


l'nion township-First 416


settlers, 122:


Urbana-Savings Bank, 142: founded as "Hoosier Point."' 386: Marysville becomes Urbana, 386; its most stir- ring events. 387 Urmy, Jonathan L., 541


Van Deusen, M. B .. 400


Vandike, H. W .. 413


Vandike. John P .. 862


Van Horn, Walter B .. 344, 469 Van Horne-Methodist church, 263:


Evangelical. Association,


man Lutheran 279; Ger-


church,


279:


its


godfather, 379: Farmers' Co-operative


Company. 380; Grain & Live Stock


Company. 350: banks. 381: light, power and telephone companies, 381; sorieties, 382


Van Horne. William C .. 379


Van Horne "Enterprise, " 159


Van Horne "Meteor, " 15S


Van Metre. Isaac, 105. 150, 151


Vannice, A. V .. 39S


VanSkike, Nehemiah, 410, 619


VanSkike, William N .. 410. 619


Vinton- Oldest bank. 137; Farmers ' National Bank, 139; State Bank, 140: Vinton Savings Bank, 140: People's Savings Bank. 140; public schools. 172: New School Presbyterian church 264: Presbyterian 201:


United Presbyterian church, OST : 1.inst Baptist church. 251: United Brethren church.


273: Christian church. 276; St. Mary's Catholic church. 277: increase in population. 311: first settler, 313: pioneers, 314: Fremont becomes Vinton, 316; mani. cipal oficers (1869.1910). 319: finn department and water works, 327; electric light plant and free public library, 328: telephone companies. 329: scoret societies, 332: Booster Cinb. Vinton, 330: world's largest corn canning factory. 331: Vinton Pearl Button factory, 331; Minne Estema Park, Vinton. 332: Epworth League. Vinton. 335; leading citizens, 336


Vinton Canning Company. 331 "'Vinton Eagle, " 144 Vinton Public Library. 328 Vinton "Review. "' 156 Vinton Savings Bank. 140


Wagner. W. D., 274


Walford-Farmers' Savings Bank, 142;


town of. 3 9 Walker. C. N .. 404


.


Walker. Fred, 85S


Wallace, Bruce, 731


Wallace, Elmer E., 693


Wallace, Orr A., 519


Waller. William H., 810


Walter, Joseph. 855


Walter. Peter, 576


Walther, Frederick Jr., 35S


Walther, Frederick G., 557


Wandschneider, Charles; $24


Ward, F. Marion. 868


Warner, Peter, 669


Watkins-Town of, 290


Way, Thomas. 90, 282. 283, 291, 292


Wehrman, August, 545


Wehrman, Henry, 395, 526


Weichman, Christian A., 622


Wyichman. Frank, 631


Weichman. John. TOS


Welton. Henry E .. 720 Werner, Henry. 742


"Western Tolophone Journal. " 137


Whipple, Cyrenins T., 339, 721


Whipple, Milo E .. 891


Whipple. S. T .. 628


Whipple. William P .. 298. 339. 419 Whiteis. U. B., 872 Wilkinson. Charles, 11S Williams. John T., 617


Williams. Stephen D., 618


Williams. W. F .. 340


Wilson. Adam IL, 486


Wilson, Henry M., 62, 889


Wilson. James N .. 773


Wyckoff. Elijah. 415


Young. John, 343. 558


Young. JJob D., 660


Yonng. James F .. 336 Young, Robert N .. 423


Zornig, Marks H., 757


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CHAPTER I.


PHYSICAL FEATURES OF BENTON COUNTY.


BY PROFESSOR THOMAS E. SAVAGE, FORMERLY ASSISTANT STATE GEOLOGIST OF IOWA.


LOCATION AND FORM-CHIEF TOPOGRAPHIC AND . GEOLOG- ICAL. FEATURES-GREAT IOWA ICE FIELD -- BROKEN AND PIC-


TURESQUE FEATURES-PICTURESQUE BENTON COUNTY-EVI- DENCES OF PREHISTORIC MAN -- DRAINAGE OF THE COUNTY --- THE IOWA RIVER- - THE CEDAR RIVER -- PRAIRIE CREEK --- WATER SUPPLY OF BENTON COUNTY-BELLE PLAINE ARTESIAN AREA-BELLE PLAINE'S "JUMBO"-BUILDING MATERIALS-CLAYS AND COAL --- TIMBER AND GROVES.


The physical charactersties of Benton county. as of any other section of the United States, largely determine its history in a material sense -- the nature and progress of its agriculture. its standard erops. its value as a livestock country, the location of its towns and cities, the variety if its manufactures and, to a great extent, the very character of its people. A simple and clear delin- cation of them indicates the raw material from which have evolved prosperous and advanced communities. A consideration of this topie has therefore been made introductory to the human history of the county. Natural history. in its every form, is the real basis of human or political history.


LOCATION AND FORM.


Benton county is located in the east-central portion of Iowa. Iving across the middle line of the state from north to south. while its rastern border is about seventy-two miles from the Mississippi river. Its extreme southwestern portion is out by the channel of


Vol. I-1


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2


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


the Iowa river, and the northern part is crossed diagonally by the valley of the Cedar. The county is rectangular in form, thirty miles in a north and south direction and twenty-four miles in width embracing an area of 720 square miles. It embraces twenty con- gressional, as well as twenty civil townships; fifteen of the latter are of the usnal size. while the other five-Cedar, Harrison, Polk. Taylor and Benton-which are located towards the northeast cor- ner, are more or less irregular in size and form. owing to the fact that their boundaries are in part determined by the winding chan- nel of the Cedar river.


Benton county is pre-eminently an agricultural region. The


1


TYPICAL LAKE SCENE IN BENTON COUNTY.


larger portion of this beautiful area lies within the section covered by the lowan ice sheet of Pleistocene time. The drift of this age has furnished a soil that is surpassed in depth. fertility and pro- duetiveness. The beautiful homes of the people. the large and commodious farm buildings, the herds of high grade cattle, hogs and horses, evidence the prosperity which springs from a produc- tive soil.


Benton county lies outside of the main area of the Coal Meas-


3


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


ures of Iowa, and consequently the history of the early exploitations of that mineral did not involve this particular portion of the state. No valuable mineral deposits of any kind have attracted the practi- val students of geology to this region. The problems of the superficial deposits did not appeal to workers in the science of geology until recent years; hence, the chroniclers of carly explor- ations in Iowa rarely give to the county even passing notice.


The pioneer geologist, Dr. D. D. Owen, does not mention the county by name in his report of 1852, but he might well have re- ferred to her billowy surface when he thus described the rural beauty of a portion of the state: "Undulating prairies interspersed with open groves of timber and watered with pebbly or rocky- bedded streams, pure and transparent; hills of moderate height and gentle slope; here and there, especially toward the heads of the streams, small lakes as elear as the rivers, some skirted with timber and some with banks formed by the greensward of the open prairies: these are the ordinary features of the pastoral land- scape."


CHIEF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.


The county as a whole embraces topographic phenomena of exceeding interest. for the reason that the surface features over one portion of the area have been developed through the destructive processes of erosion, while those over another part of the region have been moulded by the constructive agency of ice.


The entire surface of the county is drift-covered, with the ex- ception of small areas of fluvial deposits along the flood plains of the larger streams. The drift of the county has been derived from two different ice sheets, which, in tine, are separated by an exceed- ingly long interval. The two topographie areas mentioned above are coincident with the areas over which the drift of these respective ice sheets are spread out at the surface. The older portion of the region, that over which the uppermost till is of Kansan age, en- braces a little more than the south half of Iowa township. the south part of Leroy and a small area near the south side of the township of Saint Clair.


The history of this ancient surface is one of long continued exposure to the processes of weathering and the agents of erosion. It is recorded in the chemical and physical changes that have been accomplished in the superficial portion of the drift. It is revealed in the deeply carved and thoroughly dissected divides. It is re-


4


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


flected in the depth of the stream channels and in the great width of their flood plains. In general, it is depicted in every feature of the landscape, which is typical of a water-sculptured region approaching the conditions of topographie .maturity.


The area over which the later, or lowan, drift was spread embraces the most of the county, with the exception of the older portion outlined above. That the topography of this area was im- pressed upon it by the ice is shown by the gentle curves and slight inequalities in the surface; by the seant development of definite stream channels and the absence of any widely extending series of secondary branches; by the presence of innumerable swales or saueer-like depressions which lie between low, rounded elevations. and which have not yet been obliterated either by filling or by drain age, or by both of these means combined. The above are glacial phenomena, and they clearly testify to the recent retreat of the ice mantle and to the extreme topographie youthfulness of this portion of the county.


GREAT TOWAN ICE FIELD.


It was these two forees -- the wearing away of the water, and the bearing and deposition of drift by the ice sheets-that deter- mined the characteristics of the topography of Benton county. The limits of the southern extension of the Jowan ice sheet are indicated by a sinous line of irregular elevations extending across the south- ern part of the county, and roughly corresponding to the route of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, or perhaps more properly. Prairie creek. The area in Benton county that was covered by the Iowan ice sheet includes most of that portion lying to the north of the bordering line of hills mentioned. its physical features being an undulating prairie over which gentle swells and grassy swales alternate in almost endless succession.


The portion of Benton county over which the superficial drift is of Kansan age embraces about forty square miles in its extreme south and southwestern portions, its northern horder being approxi- mately abont five miles from the channel of the Iowa river. As would be expected from its proximity to the river, the Kansan plain is here deeply gashed and trenched by an intricate system of stream channels so that no large undissected upland areas are left in this portion of the county. The wagon roads have in many places no relation to the section lines, but follow the channels of the streams, or wind in a zigzag manner along the tops of the narrow divides.


5


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


From these ridges the traveler looks off on either side over an al- most endless series of hills and ravines. The tops of the elevations rise sixty to eighty feet above the deeper valleys. The slopes are quite steep. The bottom of the smaller runnels are open and their sides are sharply angular. testifying to the activity of erosion at the present time.


BROKEN AND PICTURESQUE FEATURES.


Although the bulk of the area of Benton county, which was covered by the lowan ice sheet, is generally an undulating prairie. solitary bowlders of light colored granite are not infrequent. being most numerous in Iowa, Kane, and Leroy townships, near the south- western border of the lowan drift area, where the country is quite broken; and in the northeastern portion of the county, near Cedar river. In the east-central portion of Monroe township, in the north- Past quarter of Big Grove township, and so on, to the northeast varrer of Florence township, is a broken chain of hills or "island areas." covered by deep deposits of loess devoid of bowlders. The hill tops stand about forty feet above the ravines and some sixty above the prairie surface. All geological indications point to the explanation that the ice which moved over that partienlar area was so thin that it failed to completely overflow these island areas. When the early settlers came to Benton county they found these elevated areas covered with forests, and groves of native finiber still remain on some of the steeper hillsides. The pres- ence of such a woodland area within its borders. in the midst of the treeless prairie. suggested for Big Grove township its


In the northeastern portion of the county. in the proximity of the Cedar river and its larger tributaries, there is an area over which the present topography has been largely determined by the agency of wind. The surface is here quite broken. The hills in many places are crowned with fine-grained materials. and rise to a height of fifty to sixty feet above the lower lands. This region is embraced in the Towan drift plain, but its surface is modified by exceptional erosion, and by the presence of abun- dant deposits laid down by the winds. In many places numerous large, gray, granite bowlers, are scattered quite thickly over the lower lands and on the flanks of the hills. Bowlder-strewn f-Ids are more conspicions topographie features over this por- tion of the Jowan drift plain than at any other points in the


6


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


county. These large granite masses appear incongruous among the trees that still cover the steeper slopes. The timber groves of white oak and red oak. of ehn. hickory. basswood, and butter-


SECTION OF BOWLDER-STREWN FIELD.


nut, seem to thrive not a whit less perfectly over this portion of the Jowan plain than on the clay ridges over the rougher portion of the Kansan.


PICTURESQUE BENTON COUNTY.


The area embraced between the bend of the Cedar river and the abandoned valley of Sand Prairie is pre-eminently the svenie portion of the county. For purposes of tillage the land cannot be compared with the deep. black soil of the wide prairie that surrounds it at some distance on every side. The steep hillslopes and sand covered crests should never be deforested. nor should the plow of the too enterprising farmer be allowed to convert these uniform slopes into angular trenches and rain washed gulleys. If the more densely wooded portion of this area, so convenient to the towns of Vinton. Shellsburg and U'r-


.


7


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


bana, could be preserved as a picnic ground or publie park. accessible to all for purposes of pleasure and recreation and for the beneficent influence which objects of natural beauty so grac- iously afford, it would prove a constant source of satisfaction and enjoyment to the enlightened people of Benton county.


EVIDENCES OF PRE-HISTORIC MLIN.


It is also within this picturesque area that many evidences of pre-historic man are found, chiefly in the form of cireular mounds and oblong earthworks. Numerous stone hatchets, flint arrowheads, scrapers and other implements of early man have been found over the region by Thomas Carver, of Shellsburg, and by other enthusiastic collectors. Near the northwest corner of sec- tion 15, of Benton township. there is a glacial lake that covers an area of three and one-half to four aeres, and which formerly was of much larger size. It is surrounded by low, forest-clad hills, and is situated one hundred feet above the flood plain of the Cedar river and twenty rods south of the bluff that borders the valley. About three-fourths of a mile southwest of this lake there are a munber of mounds composed of rather fine-grained sand. and disposed in a line along the erest of a divide that is bordered on either side by a drep ravine. Another group consisting of ten or twelve virenlar mounds arranged about an oblong ridge six or seven rods in length. occurs a short distance to the south- cast of the lake mentioned above. Excavations in these mounds have furnished a few poorly preserved fragments of human bones. The mounds are probably tinnuli where men of a departed race. with a keen sense of the beautiful withal, built the graves of their fathers beside the quiet waters of this charming lakelet. and overlooking the valley of the river where picturesque bluffs of woodland and scarped cliffs of limestone make beautiful its bordering banks.


North of Urbana, in Polk township. the level surface of the Iowan drift plain stretches unbroken up to the northern border of Benton county. South of the Cedar river there is a rugged area lying between that stream and the main line of the old Burlington. Cedar Rapids and Northern railroad. embracing a part of Taylor township. the whole of Benton and the northern portion of Canton. The tops of the sand or loess crowned hills rise fifty feet above the marshes, basins or valleys that lie between


8


HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY


them. In many of these deposits the loess contains fossils. A good exposure of such a fossil bearing bed may be seen in the east-central part of section 34, Benton township.


DRAINAGE OF THE COUNTY.


The chief topographie features of the land of Benton county have been described, with the geological and other natural causes by which they were developed. In noting the causes for its general drainage, it is evident that the main determining intiu- ence is the comparative altitude of different points, or, in popular parlance, the "slope of the land." Observations taken in the northern sections give the altitude of Mount Auburn at 863 feet above sea level, and Vinton as 808 feet. In the southern part of the county, Keystone has an elevation of 883 feet and Atkins. of 841; Belle Plaine of 824, and Norway of 792. Without going into further details, it may be inferred that the slope in the north- ern part of the county is toward the southeast and in the south- ern part, almost due east. And if the most conclusive proof were to be given, it would be the general directions of the streams which drain the surface.




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