USA > Iowa > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 22
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of the association. One of the principal objects of the association was the publication of a newspaper called Die Wage, to be printed in the German language, to induce Germans to settle in the county. The editor, H. Kompe, guaranteed that it would bring 200 Germans into Decatur County. Although the association did not, through lack of means, accomplish all it desired, yet it proved that the pro- jectors of the plan were enterprising and had the interests of the county at heart.
DECATUR COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND LIVE STOCK ASSOCIATION
The first two or three fairs in Decatur County were held in the years before the war, but none were held during the progress of the struggle. After the war was over the society was revived and fairs were held regularly. In 1875 a reorganization resulted in the forma- tion of the Decatur County Agricultural and Live Stock Associa- tion as a stock company. The capital stock was fixed at $6,000, with $10 shares. The property owned by the association consisted of eighty acres, finely improved for fair and racing purposes. It was located one mile north of Leon and was purchased from U. L. Shafer and J. B. Lunbeck.
THE DECATUR COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
By Heman C. Smith
The Decatur County Historical Society enjoys the distinction of being the second county society in the State of Iowa to be organized, and hence has been spoken of by the Iowa Journal of History and Politics as being "a pioneer among local organizations." (Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. V, No. 3, July, 1907, page 433.)
The society was organized in 1901, only a few weeks after the organization of the Lucas County Historical Society at Chariton, Ia., which was the first organized in the state.
The organization of the Decatur County society was due, to an extent, to the influence of the Hon. Charles Aldrich, deceased, in this way: As we remember it, it was early in the spring of 1901, while on a visit to Des Moines, that we paid our usual visit to this grand old man in Iowa history, as was our wont while in the City of Des Moines. And in talking over matters pertaining to the preservation of things historical, we asked him why it would not be a good plan to Vol. I-15
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organize county societies to work in conjunction with the state depart- ment. He at once told us of the organization of the Washington County Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and gave us a copy of the constitution adopted by that society, and he further urged us, at as early a date as possible, to perfect the organization of Decatur County.
Acting upon his suggestion, but delaying the matter somewhat, we organized, but, as before said, shortly after Col. Warren S. Dun- gan, now also deceased, had called together some of his friends and organized the Lucas County Historical Society. We called in four of our friends whom we thought would be interested in historical work, and organized ourselves by adopting the constitution of which you are all more or less familiar. It is a noteworthy fact that the entire membership, as represented at the first meeting, was given office. The writer was elected president; E. L. Kelley, Jr., seere- tary; Miss Carrie Judd, assistant secretary; R. C. Kelley and Israel A. Smith, eurators. At meetings held subsequent to this there were admitted to membership Mrs. F. M. Smith, Miss Mabel Horner and Dr. J. B. Horner.
Unfortunately for the cause of accuracy in getting the history of our early organization, our records have become lost or destroyed, we fear having been destroyed in the fire which destroyed the Herald office in Lamoni. The few organizers of the society were earnest, and they organized with the full intention of doing systematic and earnest work in the way of interviewing early settlers in the county, and getting a record of events which live only in the memory of the older settlers, and which are lost to us as these settlers pass away without being interviewed or enabled to write. But unfortunately for the work of the society, fate ruled that the membership was to be widely scattered, and at one time while the president was doing church work 'on the far eastern coast of Maine, the assistant secretary was teaching in the far-away Philippine Islands, while the secretary and one of the curators were doing educational work in Iowa City, and the other officer at work in Nebraska.
It was early appreciated that for the society to do its best work the organization must be county wide, and hence, a meeting held at the home of Doctor Horner, the president was authorized to enroll. as members any whom he deemed proper to become members. This authority was given him with a view to his making visits to Leon, Decatur City. Pleasanton and other places in the county to extend the organization. It was while acting under this authority that the
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president called a meeting in Leon of June 1, 1907, to arouse interest in Leon, and at which some thirty-odd members were enrolled, the newly enrolled members at once entering into business session and electing a new corps of officers.
After the society had been organized some three years, at the invitation of Dr. Benjamin F. Shambaugh, editor of the Iowa State Historical Society, the Decatur County Historical Society became affiliated with the state society, its certificate of auxiliary membership being dated August 3, 1904, we believe.
CHAPTER XX GEOLOGY OF DECATUR COUNTY
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The following detailed description of the geology of Decatur County is taken from the Iowa Geological Survey, Vol. VIII, annual report 1897, pages 255 to 314. The survey was made by H. F. Bain.
INTRODUCTION
Decatur County lies in the southern tier of counties, almost mid- way between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Ringgold bounds it on the west, Clarke on the north, Wayne on the east, and Harrison and Mercer counties, of Missouri, on the south. In area it includes 528 square miles, with some fractional pieces of land, the total being 343,910 acres. The townships run from 67 to 70 north, the southern tier being fractional, and the ranges from 24 to 27 west. The county is, as usual, divided into sixteen civil townships.
To the geologist Decatur County is of especial interest, because of the fact that running through it is the heavy limestone which forms the base of the Missourian series and which derives its interest to the economist from the fact that it divides the productive from the unpro- ductive coal measures. This limestone, or assemblage of separate limestones, is known as the Bethany or Bethany Falls limestone, a name first used by Broadhead. In Iowa the exposures have been mainly studied are in the vicinity of Winterset, and to the strata at that point White gave the name of Winterset limestone. The beds outeropping at Bethany, Mo., and Winterset, Ia., have for some time been believed to be identical, and the actual continuity of the two has, in fact, been recently proven. Between the two points mentioned, however, no detailed sections have been published, and it was mainly to supply this lack that the study of Decatur County was taken up at this time.
Previous to the present survey White seems to have been the only geologist who had worked in the county. His notes 1 include sec-
1 First and Second Ann. Repts. State Geologist, pp. 42-43. 1868. Also Geology of Iowa, Vol. I, pp. 318-327. 1870.
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
tions at a few points along Grand River and its tributaries, but the short time allowed for the work precluded anything like a detailed study of the area. The adjoining counties of Iowa were also described by him in the report cited. In Missouri, Harrison and Mercer counties, which adjoin Decatur on the south, have been visited by various members of the Missouri Geological Survey. The earliest notes are those of Swallow, descriptive of certain fossils collected in Harrison County .? The coal beds of both counties are noted by Winslow.3 The character of the surface deposits are noted by Todd,+ and the altitudes and topography discussed by Marbut.3 Broadhead has also published notes on the coal measures of the region, which will be more particularly referred to in the body of this report.
PHYSIOGRAPHY
TOPOGRAPHY
Decatur County lies well up on the Mississippi-Missouri divide. The streams belong to the Missouri River system, but the country belongs rather to the high land between the rivers than to the Mis- souri Valley proper. It is a broad, even, but much dissected plain, with little or no slope, and includes the northern continuations of the Warrensburgh platform and the Lathrop plain, defined by Marbut." In the country under discussion the two physiographic areas are not very distinct. The influence of the drift seems to have been such as to obscure the divisions which here may perhaps never have been so sharply defined as farther south. In a general way it is true that as one passes west from the Des Moines to the Missouri River the ascent is made by a series of steps. This is shown by the profile of the main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway. This road runs across the drainage lines of the region and accordingly crosses a series of intermediate upland stretches. These bits of upland are approximately level, but stand successively higher toward the west. The divide between the Des Moines and the Chariton runs from Maxon to Albia at 959 A. T. and is about three hundred feet above Ottumwa. The second upland is almost level from Russell, 1,037, to Chariton, 1,042; being ninety feet above the plain just men-
2 Trans-St. Louis Acad. Sci., Vol. II, pp. SI-101. 1863.
3 Missouri Geol. Surv., Vol. I, p. 99. 1896.
4 Missouri Geol. Surv., Vol. X, pp. 143-181. 1896.
5 Missouri Geol. Surv., Vol. VII, pp. 225-316. 1895. Ibid., Vol. X, pp. 45-19. 1896.
6 Missouri Geol. Surv., Vol. X, pl. ii. 1896.
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tioned. The third upland, from near Brush to Murray, has a slight rise to the west, being at Osceola, 1,132, and at Murray, 1,216. West of Murray the railway dips down into the Valley of Grand River, just touching the level of the top of the Bethany limestone (1,051) at Afton Junction. At Creston, 1,312, it is again on an upland which extends with slight slope to Hillsdale, 1,189, not far below the crest of the Missouri River bluffs. Into this latter plain the Nish- nabotna and Nodaway rivers have cut 200 to 250 feet, while the Mis- souri bottom land at Pacific Junction lies at 962 A. T.
From Creston west to the edge of the Missouri Valley there is a long gentle slope not broken by marked escarpments. To the east the country first drops down to the Osceola platform, 1,132 A. T., and then by a further drop of about one hundred feet to the Chariton platform. The Albia platform lies about one hundred and twenty- five feet still lower and from there the slope to the Des Moines is gen- tle. At Chariton, Osceola and Creston there is a great thickness of drift. At Chariton, as shown by drill holes, the rock is found at 882 to 897 A. T. At Osceola the top of the limestone quarried northwest of town lies 140 feet below the railway station. At Creston there are no exposures and the drift is known to be very thick. The nearest exposures lie 260 feet below the level of the town. The rock then rises between Chariton and Osceola from 882 to 1,092 feet, while from Osceola west present evidence seems to indicate that it maintains an approximately even surface. This would apparently indicate that in preglacial time the Bethany limestone formed in Iowa, as it does now in Missouri, a marked escarpment. The distribution of the drift, however, is such that this escarpment is almost wholly concealed.
The major portion of Decatur County, being underlain by the Missourian, would belong to Marbut's Lathrop plain. The portions of the Warrensburgh platform penetrating the county are confined to the river valleys, and hence form but an insignificant fraction of the whole. It is the general upland plain which is most obvious as one travels through the county. The valleys are all clearly erosional and the roughness encountered when one descends from the upland is indicative of the completeness with which the streams have dissected the area.
The major streams of the county have a north-south direction. Their tributaries follow the main streams and do not usually travel from far to the east or west. The result is that the original upland plain has been cut by a series of long, relatively narrow river valleys with high narrow ridges between. The resulting topography was
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
quite fittingly deseribed by the early settlers who spoke of the region as the "devil's washboard." An east-west traveler must cross a series of alternating ridges and valleys. The north-south traveler may usually find a ridge road. From the latter, looking off over the country, the tops of the successive flat-topped ridges appear rising to an even surface and restoring the old plain in which the valleys have been carved.
By examining the following table of clevations the position of this plain can be understood. Weldon and Van Wert, 1,147, are upon the upland. Leroy, 1,107, and Garden Grove, 1,114, occupy similar positions. Lamoni, 1,126, and Tuskeego, 1,175, in the southwest are on divides which form a portion of the plain. Decatur City, near the center of the county, at 1,111, is also on the plain. De Kalb, 947, Grand River, 957, and Davis City, 914, are all on flood plains. Blockley, 1,042, and Leon, 1,025, are on partially dissected land. Pleasanton, 1,173, on the extreme southern line of the county, again marks the upland. The differences in these upland levels are not important and may be to a limited extent due to errors arising from comparing different surveys. On the whole they indicate a very even surface with little, if any, slope.
For convenience of reference these elevations are put in tabular form.
TABLE OF ELEVATIONS
Station
Authority Feet
Blockley
D. M. & K. C. Ry. . . 1,042
Cainsville (Mo.)
D. M. & K. C. Ry .. . 936
Davis City
C., B. & Q. Ry. 914
Decatur City D. M. & K. C. Ry. . . 1,111
De Kalb H. & S. Ry. . 947
Garden Grove C., B. & Q. Ry 1,115
Grand River
H. & S. Ry. 957
Lamoni
C., B. & Q. Ry. 1,126
Leon
D. M. & K. C. Ry. 1,025
Le Roy
K. & W. Ry. 1.107
Pleasanton
D. M. & K. C. Ry. 1,173
Tuskeego
C., B. & Q. Ry 1,175
Van Wert
K. & W. Ry 1,147
Weldon
K. & W. Ry 1,147
Westerville
K. & W. Ry. 987
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
DRAINAGE
The streams of Decatur County are all tributary to Grand River, which flows into the Missouri in Chariton County, Mo. Grand River itself has two main branches coming together near Chillicothe. The eastern fork alone penetrates Decatur County, though certain of the tributaries of Big Creek, which is independent of this eastern fork, tap the southwestern portion. It is the eastern branch of Grand River proper which is known in Iowa as Grand River. In Missouri, when the term is used without qualification, the western or the united stream is usually referred to. Grand River in Iowa is an important stream having its headwaters in Adair County and crossing Madison, Union, a corner of Ringgold and the western part of Decatur County. As far south as Afton Junction in Union County there is no reason to believe that the stream is preglacial. Throughout its course in Decatur County it is quite certainly older than the Kansan drift, since the latter is found undisturbed in its valley, while the rocks rise in the hillsides a considerable distance above the flood plain. It has a broad valley whose width is suggested by the outline of the Des Moines formation where the river has cut through the Bethany. From Terre Haute to Davis City the Des Moines area shown on the map outlines the bottom land. It will be noted that the river runs close along the south bluff, where it has an east-west trend. On the north the slope is long and gentle and the bottom land is broad. The south bluff is abrupt, rising in section 28 of Burrell Township, 140 feet above low water. This is true again north of Westerville, where the south bank of the river is a sharp bluff, while the north side of the valley shows a long, gentle slope. Where the stream runs from north to south it shows no especial predilection towards either bank.
This tendency of east-west streams in Iowa to run along their southern bank has been noted by McGee," Tilton 8 and Calvin.ยบ The latter has suggested that it is due to the greater activity of weathering agencies upon a southward facing slope. McGee was evidently inclined to consider the phenomena as due to structural agencies. In Decatur County, however, there is no evidence of structural peculiari- ties adequate to account for the phenomena, and its almost universal presence throughout Southern Iowa, regardless of the character of the rocks, which the stream may be eroding, seems warrant for the
7 Eleventh Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., Pleistocene Hist. N. E. Iowa, p. 412. 1891.
8 Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. V, p. 307. 1896.
" Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. VII, pp. 49-50. 1897.
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
conclusion that the climatie cause suggested by Calvin is a true one. The phenomena cannot be due to individual tilted blocks of strata, as suggested by McGee, and any other structural agency competent to the task could only be a prolonged uplift to the north, which would induce a migragation of the divides toward the uplift, as has been shown by Campbell. 10 This would account for the larger number and longer course of the tributaries flowing from the north into an east-west stream, but would hardly account for the marked difference in the slopes of the valley sides proper. It is probable that while uplift to the north has been a potent factor in providing the phe- nomena, the climate factor is also to be taken into account.
That Grand River in this portion of its course is an old stream will be readily believed by anyone familiar with this valley. The size of the latter, and the fact that much of it is cut in rock, is alone con- vincing. The distribution and character of its tributary drainage lines afford additional proof. Still further evidence tending to prove its great age may be adduced from the great bend in the river in the northwest portion of Burrell Township. (See Fig. 1, Plate xxi.) This has originated as an upland meander and has been cut through the Bethany down to the Fragmental limestone. It is characteris- tically developed, but the tongue of rock running out into the bend has been very largely cut away. Only a low spur protrudes from a high bluff at the base of the bend. Such a spur would, in any case, be short lived, as it is exposed to vigorous erosion on three sides, but the fact that it has here been almost completely cut away seems to be of more than usual significance. Upon Middle River, in Madison County, and Raccoon River, in Guthrie County, as well as on other rivers which cross the Bethany escarpment, upland meanders are well developed,11 but in no case is the rock tongue so much eroded as in the Decatur County example. Here it has been so nearly cut away that at first it was thought to be absent. Upland meanders are devel- oped by a long and slow process,12 and where they have not only been developed, but almost destroyed, they indicate a considerable lapse of time. The meander and the stream valley are, of course, of later age than the peneplain, and they indicate that the time of stream cutting anterior to the drift was long, and that the peneplain is, rela- tive to the drift, old. Further than that it seems impossible, at pres- ent, to fix its age.
10 Jour. Geol., Vol. IV, pp. 567, 657. 1896.
11 Geol. Madison County, Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. VII, pp. 500-501. 1897.
12 Marbut: Mo. Geol. Surv., Vol. X, p. 98. 1896.
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
Within the county the most important tributaries of Grand River are Elk Creek from the west, and Long Branch from the east. Both are important streams, cutting through the drift and into the rock. Exposures of Carboniferous are found along the branches of Elk. Creek from sections 21 and 22 of Grand River Township to the mouth, and along Sweet Creek, a tributary, from section 23 of Bloomington Township to the main stream. The minor tributaries show exposures for corresponding distances. Elk Creek with its branches drains most of Bloomington and Grand River townships, but in addition to it Grand River receives from the west Sand Creek near Westerville, Bad Run near Grand River, Roaring Branch and Russell's Branch between there and the north of Elk Creek, Pot Hole Creek or Pot- ter's Branch near Terre Haute, Dickerson Creek near Davis City, and some minor streams between that place and the Missouri State line. These streams with their tributaries reach out into all that portion of the county west of Grand River, except portions of Bloom- ington and New Buda townships and all of Fayette, which are drained by Shane and Seven Mile creeks, streams having courses through Big Creek to the main branch of Grand River near Pattonsburg, Mo.
Long Creek, with its tributaries, Bee and Wolf creeks, is the most important stream flowing into Grand River from the east. It receives Short Creek near De Kalb, and at the latter place has cut 200 feet below the upland at Van Wert. There are rock exposures along the lower portion of its course.
Aside from Grand River there are two important rivers in the county, Weldon and Little rivers. Weldon River has its source in Franklin Township and flows east through Garden Grove, and thence almost due south to the state line, receiving Jonathan, Brush and Steel creeks with Turkey Run and List Branch. Little River has its source near Van Wert and a course from there south past Leon, Blockley and Spring Valley.
The streams of the county are almost entirely preloessial in age. Only the minor tributaries have had a later origin. The major streams, Grand River, Weldon River, and probably Little River, are preglacial, or at least pre-Kansan. Some of the tributaries are perhaps as old as the main streams; but most of them are merely pre- loessial.
It seems probable that the preglacial drainage of the county was in outline quite similar to the present. In contrast with most of Iowa the present streams seem to be working on a lower level than that which obtained in preglacial times. They are cutting in the
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
rock and usually show no important drift filling below low water. The bridges over Weldon River and Steel Creek in Morgan, Wood- land, and even sections 13 and 25 of High Point Township, rest on rock or shale foundations. The same is true of the Little River bridges in Hamilton Township and of the Grand River bridges as well as those over Long and Elk creeks. Yet in the valleys of Wel- don, Little and Grand rivers there are places showing undisturbed drift down to low water level. The entire absence of great drift- filled channels in this region as compared with that farther east 13 would indicate that in later glacial times, and perhaps in the present, the surface of Iowa has been warped, the west rising more than that to the east. This is in accord with other observed phenomena.
The effect of the varying hardness of the underlying rocks upon present valleys is shown in the alternate widening and closing of their valleys, though the latter is probably also due in part to other agencies, as already suggested. The effect is also shown in the pond- ing of the streams as each of the members of the Bethany is crossed; phenomena first observed and described by White.14
STRATIGRAPHY
GENERAL RELATIONS OF STRATA
The geological formations occurring in Decatur County fall into two series, differing widely in character, origin and age. The under- lying rocks are indurated. They include principally shales and lime- stones, and record the time when what is now a portion of a beautiful prairie plain lay beneath the waters of the Carboniferous Sea. They are the products of the destruction of an older land and were laid down by the action of marine agencies. Partially at that time and partially since, under the influence of circulating waters and slight pressure, they have been changed from relatively loose, unconsoli- dated sea deposits to the firm, hard rock now found.
Over these older rocks are the loose and unconsolidated gravels, sands and clays which form so common and conspicuous a feature of the surface. These are of very much later age than the indurated rocks, belonging indeed to the Pleistocene period, and have been in part deposited in present time. They are the product not of the sea, but of ice; an incursion of immense glaeiers or a sheet of land ice, which spread over much of the northern hemisphere. In part
13 Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., Vol. II, pp. 23-26. 1895.
Geol. Iowa., Vol. I, pp. 318-320. 1870.
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
these deposits were made by the ice itself, and in part by the waters from its melting. Some of the beds present were formed by the present rivers by ordinary processes, such as may even now be seen in operation. Some were laid down by waters of uncertain age and extent, and some perhaps by winds. The relations and ages of these beds are indicated in the subjoined table. Their distribution and character will be described later.
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