USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 6
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41
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
Thickness
Depth
fect feet
digestion in acid; drillings contain considerable hard green shale
2,405
Sandstone, buff, calciferous, glauconiferous; much hard green shale 5 2,410
Sandstone, buff, calciferous, glauconiferous ; much green and reddishı shale IO
2,420
Shale, hard, dark green and reddish, fissile; and sandstone, calciferous and glauconiferous ; in angular chips; grains minute and angular 10 2,430
The well of Iowa Soap Company has a depth of 509 feet and a diameter of 6 inches ; casing, 70 feet to rock. The curb is 540 feet above sea level. The original head was 33.5 feet above curb and the head in 1905, 4 feet above curb; the loss was due to the sinking of the Clinton-Copeland well. The flow in 1905 was 15 gallons a minute through 11/4-inch pipe. Temperature, 56 degrees Fahrenheit.
RECORD OF STRATA IN WELL OF IOWA SOAP COMPANY AT BURLINGTON
Thickness feet
Depthı feet
Pleistocene (70 feet thick ; top, 540 feet above sea level) :
Till
15
15
Till, yellow ; four samples.
35
50
Gravel, coarse, up to 11/2 inches diameter .
10
60
Gravel, fine
IO
70
Carboniferous (Mississippian) :
Kinderhook stage (210 feet thick ; top, 470 feet above sea level) :
Shale, blue, plastic, calcareous ; two samples.
58
128
Shale, olive-gray, fissile.
7
I35
Shale, light green-gray.
5 140
Shale, brown, hard, bituminous
15
155
Shale, blue and green-gray ; four samples.
45
200
Shale, light brown, bituminous ..
10
210
Shale, olive bluish and green-gray ; nine samples.
70
280
Levonian and Silurian (160 feet thick ; top, 260 feet above sea level) :
Limestone, gray, soft, argillaceous ; effervescence slow ; two samples
25
305
Shale, calcareous, hard, blue ; in large flaky chips. IO
315
Limestone, hard, gray, in sand; rapid effervescence.
IO
325
Limestone, light yellow ; rapid effervescence ; in fine sand and argillaceous powder
15 340
Limestone, yellow-gray; fossiliferous, with fragments of brachiopods ; soft ; in flaky chips.
IO
350
Limestone, yellow; rapid effervescence; in fine meal; two samples
IO
360
42
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
Thickness
feet
Deptlı fect
Limestone, strong blue ; fossiliferous ; hard, compact ; earthy luster, siliceous but not arenaccous.
IO
370
Shale and limestone in light yellow-gray concreted powder ; effervescence rapid
IO
380
Limestone, blue, dense, hard, in part of lithographic fineness of grain and conchoidal fracture ; rapid effervescence; in chips
IO
390
Limestone, compact, gray, in sand ; rapid effervescence. 5
395
No record
5 400
Limestone, blue-gray, rough ; slow effervescence ; some chert . Limestone, liglit buff and white, compact, fine-grained; rapid effervescence
410
IO
120
Limestone, light yellow-gray or white; rapid effervescence ; residue quartzose with minute grains and flakes and pris- matic crystals of quartz; in fine meal; four samples. . 20 Unknown; no samples. 69
440
509
The well of George Boeck at 2-8 North Fifth Street, has a depth of 450 feet and a diameter of 5 inches; casing, 74 feet. The head is 30 feet above bottom of cellar. The well flowed "a full 5-inch stream," with no decrease in 1905. Water was found in white limestone 150 feet below soapstone (Kinderhook) ; temperature, 60 degrees Fahrenlieit ; effect on boilers, not good.
The well of the Clinton-Copeland Company, at 100 South Fourth Street, has a depth of 465 feet and a diameter of 5 inches throughout ; casing, to 72 feet. The head originally was 28 feet above curb, and no change has been noticed. Water is said to have begun to overflow when well reached depth of 440 fect. The temperature, taken after flowing through 175 feet of hose, was 59 degrees Fahrenheit.
The well of the Moehn Brewing Company has a depth of 510 feet and a diameter of 5 inches. The original head was 30 feet above curb, but the well had ceased to flow in 1905, and the capacity under pump was small. Water was found in small quantity at 90 feet, but the main supply came from 500 to 510 fcet.
The well of the Murray Iron Works has a deptli of 831 feet and a diameter of 6 to 4 inches ; casing, 120 feet from surface into blue shale. The head is 92 feet above curb. The original flow of 300 gallons a minute had not diminished in 1905. The first water was in a gravel just above rock at 75 feet, and the first flow at 450 feet ; a strong flow came in at 500 feet and the drilling were washed away from 600 to 760 feet and from 800 to 831 feet. The rock from 800 to 832 fect said to be like granular sugar. The temperature at tap after water has passed through 300 feet of pipe in foundry was 63.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The water is too hard for use in boiler.
The well of the Sanitary Ice Company, near the intersection of Osborn Street and Central Avenue, has a depth of 852 feet and a diameter of 5 inches ; casing, 95 feet from surface. The head was 51 fect above curb, and the flow 500 gallons a minute. Water at 80 feet was shut off ; water at 430 feet rose nearly to the
43
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
surface : the first flow was at 700 feet, and the water from the 800-foot level rose 51 feet above curb. Temperature, 6472 degrees Fahrenheit. The water corrodes boilers and is used for condensing.
The well of the Sanitary Milk Company has a depth of 487 feet and a diameter of 6 inches. The original head was 15 feet above level of corner of Third and Court streets, but the head in August, 1905, was 31 feet below same level; the head lowered on completion of Clinton-Copeland well.
The well of Smith & Dalton has a depth of 460 feet and a diameter of 5 inches. The original head was 30 feet above curb. The original flow was estimated at 40 gallons a minute, but had decreased in 1905. Temperature reported as 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mediapolis-Mediapolis (population, 858) depends for its water supply on drilled and bored wells from 50 to 110 feet deep, all but 30 or 40 feet of which are in rock. The water heads 20 to 30 feet below the curb.
The well of D. Hutchcroft, two miles east of Mediapolis, has a depth of 600 feet and a diameter of 55/8 inches to 360 feet and 5 inches to bottom; casing to 360 feet. Water found at depth of 40 feet, in drift, was not cased out. Pumping capacity, 8 gallons per minute.
RECORD OF STRATA IN HUTCHCROFT WELL NEAR MEDIAPOLIS
Thickness feet
Depth fect
Clay, yellow, sandy, calcareous, arenaceous.
75
75
Shale, drab, or sandstone, argillaceous, in concreted masses
60
135
Shale, olive-green, hard, non-calcareous.
213
348
Limestone, blue-gray, argillaceous, minutely arenaceous.
22
370
Limestone, light gray, non-magnesian, argillaceous and slightly arenaceous
20
390
Limestone, light yellow-gray, granular, soft, fossiliferous, non-mag- nesian
22
412
Limestone, light blue-gray and white, soft, carthy ; in thin flakes.
18
430
Limestone, blue-gray and white ; earthy ; in fine chips
25
455
Limestone, light yellow-gray and drab, non-magnesian ; cherty
20
475
Limestone, light yellow-gray, non-magnesian ; in fine sand; drillings slightly arenaceons
25
500
Shale, dark blue, in chips ; calcareous and cherty .
100
600
The shale whose base is found at 348 feet is evidently the Kinderhook ; below it, the drill, as at Burlington, passed through about 150 feet of limestones, which may represent the Devonian and Silurian. The shale from 500 to 600 feet may be taken as the equivalent of the shale (Maquoketa) at Burlington which imme- diately .succeeds the limestones below the Kinderhook. The drift, therefore. seems to have passed through the water bed which supplies the less deep wells at Burlington and yet to have found very little water.
Mediapolis is 764 feet above sea level. If an adequate supply is not found in the Mississippian limestones, a well which adventures through the heavy dry shale of the Kinderhook, here at least 200 feet thick, will probably find water
44
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
in the Devonian or Silurian. Should the supply still prove insufficient, the drill should proceed through the next considerable shale, the Maquoketa, and tap what water may be found in the Galena dolomite and Platteville limestone. The water bed of the Saint Peter sandstone will be encountered at about 1,150 feet from the surface.
Minor Supplies-Minor village supplies are described in the following table :
VILLAGE SUPPLIES IN DES MOINES COUNTY
Town
Name of supply
Depth
Depth to rock
Depth to Head be- water bed low curb
Feet
Feet
Feet
Feet
Augusta . Wells
16- 24
. .
24
10
Danville. Bored and drilled wells.
16-125
. .
75
12
Roscoe. . Drilled wells.
60-100
10
. .
. .
ARTESIAN WATERS
The people of Des Moines County want to know from whence their under- ground water supply has its source, by which is fed so many deep wells in the county. Artesian wells are those whose flowing water rises to a considerable height within a tube under hydrostatic pressure. To constitute an artesian well it is not necessary, as some suppose, that the water should overflow at the surface of the ground. They are divided into two groups, those which overflow at the mouth are called flowing wells, the others non-flowing. The height at which the water stands is called its head. In Iowa there are certain beds of stone impervious to water. These beds dip southward from high lands in the North. These beds constitute a floor over which is supplied the waters of artesian wells. The higher the source, the higher will the water rise in the tube of any well under certain hydrostatic pressure. It is similar to stand pipe system of water works. The stand pipe furnishing the source of supply. The head on level at which the water will stand in any well depends upon the elevation of the source of water supply, together with the amount of rainfall which supplies the source. All the waters in and on the earth's surface come from the clouds, and where the area is large, where the water beds outcrop or come near the earth's surface the water supply will be great and the head level of any well is determined by distance from the source from which it receives its waters. The supply of the water beds of Iowa for its artesian wells comes principally from the Cambrian and Ordovician sandstone found mostly in Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Here it covers about fourteen thousand five hundred square miles at surface. This area differs greatly in its elevation above sea level. In some places more than twelve hundred feet above sea level. If we take the City of Burlington, which at low water mark of the Mississippi is 550 feet above sea level, and the head source of supply, say one thousand feet above sea level, it will be seen nearly what the head line of an artesian well will be in Burlington. The head of the well at Crapo Park is 136 feet above the line of the water in the Mississippi at low water. Above sea line, 657 feet. The true head line of any well cannot be determined unless all leaks have been closed to prevent escape.
45
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
PERMANENCE OF YIELD
This presents a question of great importance. There are many things which may interfere with the usefulness of a well. In drilling such wells, the well drill passes through many strata of rocks, some hard, some not so dense, and liable to crumble and fall in the orifice and the well becomes clogged. Besides, the supply may be cut off by the sinking of other wells in the same neighborhod. Perma- nency of water supply depends on, first, the construction and the care with which the well is taken; second, on the character of the water bed from which it is supplied and third, on the draft of other beds in the same vicinity. As to the drilling of artesian wells in Des Moines County when the Kinderhook group has been reached, if no water in sufficient quantities has been found, it is best to stop and drill at some other place (This is to the farmer). If the well goes down through the Kinderhook, and water is found, it probably will be so mineralized as to be unfit for household use, such as the waters of the Iowa Soap Company.
SPRINGS
A word about the springs in Burlington. The water coming from springs in Burlington should not be used till at least all outhouses and stables shall have been banished from the city. These springs come from the base of the Burlington limestone. This limestone is full of fissures, crevices and pockets which permits surface water to percolate till it reaches the impervious bed of the Kinderhook group, when it comes out in a spring. The mouth of the spring on lower Main Street is just above the top of the Kinderhook shale, and is nothing but an under- ground sewer for all that part of South Hill. We recollect some twenty years ago in the western part of the city occurred an epidemic of sickness among people who used the water coming from certain springs. Many people were dying, some said it was cholera, others gave it the name of the "West Hill" dis- ease. Doctor Henry at the head of a committee of physicians examined into the water supply of those taken sick, and it was found they used spring water. The City Council caused the springs to be closed, when the West Hill disease ceased to exist.
CHAPTER IN
PIONEERS OF OLD AND NEW DES MOINES COUNTY
In June, 1834, Michigan Territory was extended west of the Mississippi River and the part west of the river divided into two counties Dubuque and Des Moines, the boundary line being a line due west from the foot of Rock Island to the Missouri River. All south of this line constituted Old Des Moines County until December 7, 1836, when it was subdivided as shown in these pages. We will here note the settlements made in Old Des Moines County. The first of which we have any record is, that on the 30th of March, 1799, Zenon Tudeau, lieutenant- governor of Upper Louisiana, made the following order: "It is permitted Mr. Lewis (Teson ) Honori to establish at the head of the rapids of the River Des Moines, and his establishment once formed, notice of it shall be given to the governor-general, in order to obtain for him the commission of a space sufficient to give value to said establishment, and at the same time to render it useful to commerce of the peltries of this country; to watch the Indians and keep them in the fidelity which they owe to His Majesty." Annals of Iowa, Volume VII, 1869, page 229. Honori had improved his property "by building houses, plant- ing orchards and had placed a small piece in cultivation." Honori subsequently became involved in debt to one Robodaux, his property was seized March 27, 1803, under the Spanish law, and sold by the public crier of the town at public sale at the door of the Parish Church in St. Louis at the conclusion of high mass. This grant and sale constitutes the oldest legal title to lands in the State of Iowa. The validity of this Spanish Grant came before the Supreme Court, and patent for the same was signed by President Van Buren February 7, 1839. This is the earliest patent given by the Government to any lands in lowa. Henry W. Starr of Burlington, who had defended the title under the Spanish Grant, exhibited the same to the Rev. W. Salter of Burlington. (See account of this transaction in Volume X, Annals of lowa. in an address delivered by Mr. Salter before the Historical Society of Iowa.) In reference to the above matter, Hon. Daniel F. Miller (Saturday Post, October, 1891) says: "He was present in the court- house in Fort Madison, at a term of the District Court in 1841, when an aged witness, a Frenchman of the name of John M. Courville, testified in a case on trial, that he had planted the trees in 1793 under the employment of an Indian trader named Louis Henori Tesson." D. C. Riddle, Esq., of Montrose, an early settler, says: "Courville was mistaken as to the time of planting the orchard." Louisiana Territory subsequently passed to the French, who in turn sold it to the United States ; and our government sanctioned the grant to Tesson so far as to issuing a patent to those claiming under him, for a mile square of land which now includes the Village of Montrose, where the orchard stood. Parties claim-
46
47
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
ing title under the Indians or half breed reservation purchase made counter claim to the title of this land. On the trial, Tesson's claim was upheld and on appeal, the opinion of the lower court was sustained. The next white occupation in what subsequently became "Old Des Moines County" was the erection of a fort by the United States in 1808 on the site where is now located the City of Fort Madison. The erection of this fort was undoubtedly in violation of the treaty of 1804 made by the Government with the Sac and Fox Indians. Its erection provoked the hostility of the Indians who under the leadership of Black Hawk, then a young brave, attempted its capture on the 5th of September. 1812. The battle lasted from the 5th until the 8th of the same month, when the Indians withdrew. In 1813 the fort was again besieged, and in their attempts to take it were defeated and several soldiers killed. In August of the same year, a large force of Indians besieged the fort, entirely surrounding it, determined to starve its occupants. The garrison defended it, until exhausted by starvation, so much so, that to retain possession, was a hopeless task, and the only thing left for them to do was, to find some means of escape. In order to accomplish this, a trench was dug from the block house to the river where boats were landed. At mid- night, crawling on hands and knees through this trench or hole in the ground, they reached the boats and were carried away, the river being lit up by the burn- ing fort and building to which they had applied the torch on their departure. Colonel Johnson, an agent of the American Fur Company, had a trading post at Flint Hills in 1808. It was located near where Flint Creek empties into the Mississippi. He did a thriving business with the Indians. In August of that year, he received merchandise invoiced at $14,715.99, which he traded to the Indians for pelts. On the 28th of March, 1809, he reports he had bought by barter.
710 lbs. bear skins, valued $ 1,420.00
1350 muskrat skins, 25c each. 338.25
3585 racoon skins, 25 each 896.25
28,021 lbs. deer skins 7,256.45
Bear and otter skins. 426.00
Beeswax and tallow. I 41.00
$10,477.95
The above shows there must have been an abundance of beaver, coon, deer and some bear in this section in 1820. Dr. Samuel C. Muir, a surgeon in the army of the United States, settled and built a cabin on the ground on which the City of Keokuk is located. He married an Indian squaw of the Sac tribe by whom he had five children. Doctor Muir was a Scotchman by birth, and a grad- uate of Edinburgh University. He complained bitterly of his treatment by his brother officers because of his marriage to an Indian girl. When an order was made requesting all officers to abandon their squaw wives, he resigned his office. Such was his sense of right, he clung to the woman to whom he had pledged his love, and who gave him his children. Capt. James W. Campbell in his address to the Tri-State Old Settlers Association held at Keokuk October 2, 1884. states some very interesting history. He says: "In 1821 under the direction of Major
48
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
Marston, my father tore down the first and only house at the mouth of the Des Moines River; and floated the puncheon floor across the river to be used in the fort on the bluff. At Puck-e-chu-tuck, now Keokuk, he passed Doctor Muir's cabin. The Clyde Hotel now occupies the ground where it stood. One and a half miles further up, he passed Andrew Stautamonts, where is now located Rands Park. The next settlement on the west side of the river was by Le Moilese, a Frenchman, stationed at the town now called Sandusky. In the spring of 1830 and 1831 I attended a school taught by Beryman Jennings. Captain Galland, who is here today with us, was one of my school mates." Moses Stilwell settled at Puck-e-chu-tuck (Keokuk) in 1828. Dr. Isaac Galland settled at a place called by the Indians Sh-wip-etuck, now Nashville, in 1829. Nashville can boast of being the place where the first school was taught, as well as the place where the first white child was born in Iowa. Doctor Galland in his book describing Iowa, says: "As we passed up the river we saw the ruins of Old Fort Madison, about ten miles above the rapids, near a sand bluff rising perpendicular from the water's edge. On the second day after our keel boat reached Shoc-o-con, or Flint Hills. An Indian village of the Foxes stood at the mouth of Flint Creek; its chief was Timea." J. C. Parrott, an old pioneer, in a letter to Edward Johnston, of Keokuk, says: "I came to this county (Lee) in September, 1834, and was a member of Company 'I,' First United States Dragoons. There was a post at Camp Des Moines, now known as Montrose. This post was commanded by Lieut .- Col. Stephen W. Kearney, and the command consisted of Companies B., H. and I., commanded respectively by Capts. E. V. Sumner, Nathaniel Boone (son of Daniel Boone) and J. B. Brown. The only improvements on our arrival were a log house and a small field of corn; Capt. Jas. W. White being the occupant. The Government purchased the claim, and the house was used as a hospital for the post. There were a few citizens at this place in 1834, most of whom I will name: Campbell, John Gaines, Bill Price, Alexander Hood, Bill McBride, Thos. W. Taylor, Val. Vanorsdale, and a few others, some of whom, to use a common phrase, were 'hard cases.' From the camp to Fort Madison, there was but one cabin in 1834, which was situated near what is known as Websters Big Springs, and was occupied by a man by the name of Foster. Fort Madison con- tained a few cabins, and if my memory serves me correctly, Small, Cheney, and Horton were among the early settlers. John and Nathaniel Knapp made their purchases from them, I think, in 1835, and laid out the town, the western boundary of which was near where the McFarland house now stands. William Skinner, in 1834, made a claim or improvement on Devil Creek. This, I think, is the first claim made in Lee County off the Mississippi River. In 1835 several claims were made. Among them was Howard, who made a claim on Sugar Creek, which locality is known as Howard's Settlement. Thomas Clark made a claim, which is known as Clark's Point ; and Cruckshank, known as Cruckshank's Point. In the same year, several claims were made where South Augusta now stands, the noted Spurlock was one of those settlers. E. D. Ayres, John Box, Thomas Wilson, and Hugh Dunn made claims near Fort Madison. I was informed by Frank Labisner, United States interpreter for the Sac and Fox Indians, that the name of Skunk River was a wrong interpretation. The Indian name was Checaqua, which, in their language is anything of a strong or obnoxious smell,- such as onions. I think, that from the fact that the head waters of the stream
49
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
abounded with wild onions, the interpretation should be 'Onion.'" Charles Negus (Annals of lowa) writes: "In 1832, soon after the Black Hawk Purchase, Zachariah Hawkins, Benjamin Jennings, Aaron White, Augustine Horton, Samuel Gooch, Daniel Thompson and Peter Williams made claims at Fort Madison. In 1833. these claims were purchased by John H. and Nathaniel Knapp, upon which in 1835 they laid out the town." We will now cross Skunk River and come within the limits of the now Des Moines County and make known the pioneers of Old Des Moines County, their county before December 7. 1836. The Indian title to the lands included in the Black Hawk Purchase did not expire until June Ist, 1833, and no one had a right prior to this time to make settlements by taking up a claim. The lands were unsurveyed, and no purchase could be made from the Government until after survey. The only method, and the one adopted, was the claimant took actual possession of a certain quantity of land, marking its boundaries by the blazing of trees, the setting of stakes or doing something as an indication of the boundaries of the claim. These stakes, or whatever was done to mark the boundary line, bore the claimant's name. These claimants were called "squatters." There being no organized government existing at the time, they voluntarily enacted a code for their own protection, and to protect themselves in the right of occupancy. If in the temporary absence of a "squatter," anyone entered into possession of his claim, he was called a "claimjumper." To protect themselves against "claimjumpers" the squatters confederated and according to the rules adopted, they, as the saying is, "made it hot" for the claimjumpers. After the survey of the lands had been made, the proper method for the claim- ant was to make entry of the land desired to be purchased in the manner provided by law. If the survey did not correspond with the boundary of the claimants, they adjusted the matter among themselves. Among those who came to this part of Old Des Moines County was Dr. William R. Ross. Doctor Ross says he crossed the Mississippi River and landed on lowa soil one-half a mile below the mouth of Flint Creek. Prior to his coming in August, 1833, were Joseph B. Teas, Joseph Morgan, William Morgan, William Stewart, John Ward, Isaac Canterberry, Lewis Walters, Isaac Cranshaw, Benjamin Tucker, Ezekiel Smith and his two sons, Paris and Linias; John Ballard, Richard Larned, Thomas Donnell, David Tothero, S. S. White, M. M. McCarver, Beryman Jenkins, William Wright, John Harris, Charles Teas, with others who were in Iowa when I came in 1833. Sarah Hilleary, wife of Alexander Hilleary, came with her father, William Morgan, in February, 1832." Perhaps nothing will better show the condition of these early times than the following letter, written, undoubtedly, by William R. Ross, as it appears in the Iowa Patriot of June 6, 1839:
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