USA > Iowa > Fremont County > History of Fremont County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistic, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Fremont County, constitution of the state of Iowa, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 40
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GEOLOGY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
The geological history of Fremont county is one of peculiar interest, and affords some very suggestive facts relative to its past vicissitudes. It extends in point of time over many thousands of years, and embraces periods of repose, and periods of remarkable change. Its history clima- tologically, has been one of deep interest, and embraces changes so radi- cal and so directly at variance with one another as to be almost incredible. There have been long ages when it basked under a torrid sun; and then these ages gave place to others equally as remarkable for polar frosts. Life, in all the variety and luxuriance of a tropical climate, gave place to the desert wastes of an arctic zone. Nor were these changes sudden. They are there, stamped in the very rocks at your door, and limned upon the landscape of your valleys, not as great and far-reaching catastrophes, but as gradual transitions, indisputably marked as such by the fossil forms that roll out from the rock you crush, or see traced with a delicacy no draughtsman can imitate. There have been times when Old Ocean, heedless of his doings, dashed against the rocky barrier that dared dis- pute his way, or rolled in solemn conscious might above its highest point; times when a beautiful and varied flora thrived on its surface; and times when there was naught save a waste of desert water. We strike our pick in the shales on the hill-side, and behold! there in the coal that gives us warmth and drives our engines, are the fairy forms that made the fern paradise of the coal period-beautiful arguments those of changes that thousands of years, as we measure them, would not compass. To trace briefly these changes, and to note their probable causes, is the object of this sketch.
THE LOESS.
The surface of the county is entirely covered with the deposit before referred to as the " bluff-deposit, " but perhaps more correctly the loess.
333
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
It lies next above the drift and varies in depth, in different parts of the county, from five to one hundred feet. In appearance the deposit is pe- culiarly characteristic, presenting substantially the same features in what- soever part of the globe it is found. Its material is of a slightly yellow- ish ash color, except where darkened by decaying vegetation, very fine and silicious, but not sandy, "not very cohesive and not at all plastic. " Along the Missouri bottom the formation is exposed in the most favorable manner for study. Those bold, high escarpments stand out as monu- ments-not very endurable, to be sure-to mark the great changes that have occurred in the surface features of this county. Mixed throughout this material are to be found various species of land and fresh water shells that seem to furnish the clue to a solution of the problem concerning its origin. Relative to this point, it is sufficient for present purposes to sim- ply indicate the more prominent points in the theories broached, of which there are two principal ones. The first, and, to speak within bounds, a most novel one, is the theory of Baron von Richthofen. The Baron's theory, based principally upon the study of the loess of China, is substan- tially this: " that loess, certainly in China and probably in all continents, is a sub-aerial deposit collected on dry grassy areas by the action of fierce winds. For the formation of such a region, he supposes a central un- drained elevated area, from which nearly all moisture is excluded by sur- rounding mountain chains. "*
To this theory is opposed what is called the sub-aqueous theory, which the reader will at once notice is diametrically opposite that of the Baron's. Without entering into the details of the various arguments advanced by those who maintain the last named theory, it is sufficient to say that their lacustrine origin is now a quite generally conceded point. Such an origin involves radical changes in our conceptions of the physical aspect of the county. We must conceive the present level of the land to be somewhat lowered, the waters of the Missouri barred on their way to the ocean, spreading eastward and westward until they assumed the proportions of a great inland sea, two hundred or more miles in length. Far away to the northwest the upper Missouri is plowing its way through the land, wearing away its boundaries and hurrying away with them to the com- paratively quiet waters below. The depression of the land meant also the northward extension of the Gulf of Mexico, which, then as now, be- came the final recipient of the waters of the Missouri. In the great lake Missouri the finely comminuted material held in suspension by its waters was deposited as a blanket of silt over the bottom of the lake-the former surface of the land. Then came those giant throes which lifted again the partially submerged continents, hurled the encroaching waves of the ocean back to their former dominion, and allowed the waters of the an-
*Prof. J. E. Todd, in Proc. A. A. A. S., Vol. XXVII, 1878.
334
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
cient lake Missouri to gradually reach the sea. Then began a period of erosion, not yet ended, by means of which the great river has plowed out its present valley through the land. The abrading process still continues, on a scale so enormous as to excite our wonder, and it is the immediate cause that renders so treacherous and uncertain the navigation of the stream. Through sediment of its own deposition in centuries far back in the his- tory of time the river is cutting its way, changing its channel ever and anon, and carrying in its turbid waters much of the land of Fremont to make fertile the broad acres along its lower course.
The lake the river formed in that far off past was not a lake of an hour, nor one of a season of floods, but for centuries reigned where now the farmer guides his plow. It contained life -- forms, many of which or closely allied ones, are living to-day. Among them flourished shells of the genera Physa, Limnophysa, Planorbis, and perhaps Ancylus. These are found throughout the Loess mingled with land shells of the genera Mesodon, Succinea, Zonites and others. Prof. J. E. Todd, in the Proceed- ings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. XXVII, reports twenty-seven species from the Loess of this county. Prof. Samuel Aughey reports a list of one hundred and twenty-three, of which seventy-eight at least are incorrectly determined. Not more than forty-five of all the forms he has listed in his "Sketches of the Physical Geography and Geology of Nebraska," p. 287, can possibly stand. Is it questioned how came these land shells here? They were brought down by floods from the higher and wooded sections forming the boundaries of the lake, and at length sinking to the bottom were covered with silt in a manner similar to that which entombed their allied brethren of the fresh water forms. These remains are in themselves almost conclusive proof of the fresh water origin of the Loess, and help to solve some of the questions of the surface geology of Fremont.
THE DRIFT.
Immediately beneath the Loess is found the Drift, though rarely seen in Fremont county, and then only in deep railroad cuts or in the valleys of those streams which have eroded their courses to a great depth. The term "drift," as it is commonly employed in geology, "includes the sand, gravel, clay and boulders occurring over some parts of the continents, 1 which are without stratification or order of arrangement, and have been transported from places in high latitudes by some agency which (1) could carry masses of rock hundreds of tons in weight, and which (2) was not always dependent for motion on the slopes of the surface." (Hall.) This
335
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
agency was ice, either in the form of an extensive glacier or detached masses called icebergs. The whole surface of North America, to the thirty-ninth parallel, bears evidence of the denuding and transforming power of this agency. This it was which rounded, in part, these hills, partially filled old valleys or dug out new ones, and which left at our very doors these masses of rock-large and small-or buried them in the hill- side, to excite our wonder and cause us to speculate as to their origin.
The exposures of the drift in this county are, as has been noted, quite inconsiderable, and it nowhere forms the surface soil. Its outcrops are seen in the deepest valleys, but its appearance is quite local. In the north- eastern part of the county it is seen along the course of the Nishnabotany and in numerous ravines in the vicinity of Sidney. Where it appears it is seen to be a compound of clay and gravel, with occasional beds of sand, and is deposited without much regularity of stratification. It usually contains many small and well-worn pieces of gneiss, porphyry, horn- blende, and other primary rocks, together with occasional small fragments of limestone, sandstone, and bits of slate, all of which have been transported from points more or less remote from their present locality. The bluffs along the Mississippi river are almost entirely composed of drift, a most striking difference between them and those along the Missouri, which are, superficially at least, composed of the Loess.
THE COAL MEASURES.
Of the coal measures only the upper coal measure strata have been ex- posed in this county, and, as would be naturally inferred, the thickness of the superincumbent loess and drift negatives the probability of either numerous or extensive outcrops. The following account of the coal measures of the county is taken from Dr. White's Geology of Iowa, 1870, Vol. I, p. 357 et seq :
" None [of the coal-measure strata] have been found in the valleys of either of the Nishnabotanys, and, with the exception of a slight one in the valley of Wal- nut creek, the only exposures are to be found at distant intervals along the base of the bluffs that border the Missouri river flood-plain. They usually extend only a few feet in height above the level of the plain, and are then lost from sight beneath the bluff deposit, or the slight intervening accumulation of drift; but in the northwestern part of the county a few exposures reach considerable height above the general level of the flood-plain.
On the land of John Wilson, section 23, township 70, range 43, there are some fine exposures of upper coal-measure strata, which reach the greatest aggregate thickness of any yet known within the state, westward from Madison county. It
336
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
is therefore a locality of great interest and importance in the study of that formation in southwestern Iowa. The strata observed there are represented by the following:
SECTION NEAR WILSON'S
No. 29-Yellowish gray, impure limestone, in thin layers .. 2 feet No. 28-Limestone in two layers, with a three-inch marly parting 23 66
No. 27-Yellowish shaly marl . 14 66
No. 26-Black carbonaceous shale. 14
No. 25-Bluish clayey shale. 14 66
No. 24-Black carbonaceous shale.
1
66
No. 23-Bluish, marly shale, with numerous fossils.
1₺
66 No. 22 -- Impure coal. 10-12“ No. 21-Light bluish, fossiliferous, shaly clay. 2
No. 20-Compact, bluish limestone with shaly partings. 4
66
No. 19-Marly clay, with calcareous concretions. 6
66
No. 18-Light gray limestone 4
66
66 No. 17-Unexposed . 6
No. 16 -- Compact limestone 12
No. 15-Light yellowish indurated marl. 1
No. 14 -- Yellowish silicious limestone with flinty concretions 2}
66
No. 13 -- Yellowish, marly shale, with concretions of impure limestone 3
66
No. 12 -- Compact limestone 1
No. 11-Yellowish marly shale. 2
3
No. 8-Yellowish silicious limestone
66
No. 7-Compact gray limestone, with marly partings.
16
66
No. 6-Bluish, shaly clay 12
66 No. 5-Compact layer of limestone
66
No. 4-Bluish, shaly clay 23
66
No. 3-Compact, bluish limestone. 2
66
No. 2-Bluish clayey shale. 4
No. 1-Fine grained, micaceous sandstone 1
Total
80 10-12 ft.
The lowest member of the foregoing section, No. 1, is only a few feet above the general level of the flood-plain, and many of the other members appear suc- cessively above it in the face of the bluff that fronts the flood-plain near Mr. Wilson's residence, while the higher members are found in the bed and banks of a small rivulet that comes down from the uplands through the bluffs at this point. Along the base of the bluffs above this point, as far as the north bound- ary line of the county, frequent exposures are seen of strata which are equivalent - to a large part of those that constitute the lower half of the section at Wilson's.
66
No. 10-Gray limestone in thick layers
No. 9-Bluish clayey shale . 1}
337
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Southward from Wilson's, along the base of the bluffs, several exposures of the lowest members of that section are seen at long intervals, always holding about the same relative position above the level of the flood-plain, all the way to the town of Hamburg, in the southwestern part of the county. The fine-grained micaceous sandstone of No. 1, of the foregoing section, is seen at the village of Plum Hollow, a couple of miles below Mr. Wilson's, and also at Hamburg, and several intermediate points. A few strata were found resting upon it at all these points, but none were observed beneath it. It is therefore stratigraphic- ally the lowest stratum found in southwestern Iowa, if we except the lowest strata of Madison and Decatur counties. It is regarded as equivalent with No. 1 of the section in the valley of the Tarkio, in Page county; with No. 2 of the section at Winterset, in Madison county, and with No. 2 of the section at Davis' Mills, in Decatur county. It will thus be seen that the lowest stratum exposed in Fremont county is regarded as equivalent with strata that further eastward are known to be near the base of the upper coal-measures. It is, of course, inferred that that stratum is also near the base of the same formation, unless those beneath it have thickened very greatly in their westward extension.
No doubt is entertained that the thin bed of impure coal represented by No. 22, of the section at Wilson's, is identical with the bed of coal that has been opened at various points along the valley of the Nodaway, from the center of Adams county to the southern boundary of the state. The horizon of this coal is referred to near the base of the series of limestone strata exposed near Win- terset, in Madison county. If this reference is correct, it will be seen that there is a greater aggregate thickness of limestone strata in Fremont county, beneath the horizon named, than there is in Madison county, which seems plainly to indi- cate a thickening of the strata of the upper coal measures to the westward."
There is, therefore, no probability that workable beds of coal will be found in Fremont county. In borings made some years ago in the vicin- ity of Nebraska City the drill is said to have penetrated four hundred feet, and then only reached the middle coal measures, which must first be pierced before the coal bearing strata are reached-in this state the base of the lower coal-measures. Wood must continue to be the main reliance for fuel until transportation rates shall have been so reduced as to make the introduction of coal economical.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
So far as the existence of coal is concerned within the limits of this county, it is effectually settled in the negative by the reasons and facts above adduced. The only available material of an economical nature, aside from the fertile soil, are the limestone out-crops along the Missouri bottom in the northwest part of the county, and a few minor ex- 2
338
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
posures of fair building material in the immediate vicinity of Hamburg. The soil, -- though its fertility and richness is absolutely inexhaustible from an agricultural point of view for many feet down, or, in other words, throughout the entire bluff formation,-may be successfully used in the manufacture of an excellent quality of brick. Occasionally along the bluffs good deposits of clay are found, and their value and usefulness are sufficiently attested by the numerous fine dwellings and business houses constructed of native brick. Yet it must ever be true of Fremont county that its wealth is in its broad acres, as being so well adapted to agricul- ture, rather than in any hidden'sources of mineral wealth. The crack of the whip rather than the hum of wheels, the sturdy arm of the farmer rather than the pick of the miner must be its almost sole reliance.
Thus briefly has been given all that is definitely known of the geology of this county. It presents many features of interest to the student, and will abundantly reward the earnest worker who shall complete a task so urgently pressing.
A word as to the forms of life found imbedded in the rocks of the county. The fossils characteristic of the upper coal-measure strata may be obtained at every point where the rocks are exposed, and these expo- sures promise a rich harvest to the student of ancient life- the paleontolo- gist as well as to the mere curiosity hunter. Here are found the now extinct and remarkable trilobites (Phillipsia)-a genus of fossil crustaceans alliec to the modern "horse-shoe crab" of the Atlantic coast; a very beautifu and curious form of coral (Campophyllum torquium), a silent witness to ‘ once tropical climate. Among the articulates are found several species o Productus, once classed-and still by many-with the mollusca, but now beginning to be recognized as closely allied to the worms. Others of the brachiopods are Chonetes granulifera and C. glabra. Among the "flowers of the carboniferous world" were crinoids-stemmed echinoderims-o which the living Pentacinus asteria of the West Indian seas is a type; no flowers at all, though popularly called "stone lilies," but an animal These all point to a time when the ocean covered the county and the rocks in which they are found were being formed. They are full o instruction for those who will carefully study them.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY .*
The natural history of this county is almost the exact counterpart of tha of all prairie countries. While its forms of life present an infinite diversity only a few of the many are found to be predominant. With the single
*Exclusive of the fishes and insects.
339
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
exception of the insects, the birds will be found most numerously repre- sented. The time was, however, when the larger forms of life abounded; when the deer, the elk, and the buffalo made these prairies their home. The coming of the white man, attended by all the circumstances of pro- gress, has driven these larger forms from the county, and now the smaller kind alone retain a footing.
There is no record of any attempt at any time made to determine the relation of the flora and fauna of this county to the rest of the state. Prof. J. E. Todd, of Tabor College, has, however, done a large amount of local work, and in his specialties -- geology and botany-has published much val- uable information. In no counties but those in the eastern portion of the state has such a work been done, and there chiefly in the interests of science and by private individuals. It is to be hoped that the time is not far dis- tant when the state will order and sustain to completion an intelligent and exhaustive survey of her great domain-a survey the value of which will become more and more apparent with the growth of years. Twice has the state instituted a geological survey, and twice has it failed to support the same, and brought both to a close while yet their work was in its in- fancy. All that is valuable, all that is best known, of its natural resources has been contributed by the pens and at the expense of men in private life. The following resume of the natural history of the county is by no means a complete representation of its forms, and is to be considered only as in- dicative of the nature of its resources, both animal and vegetable. In the lists following as much information has been incorporated as is consistent with a simple catalogue of forms. This is especially true of the trees and shrubs. It is manifestly impossible to give either descriptions or life- histories of a single species in a work of this nature. For the sake of in- suring accuracy in the reader, both scientific and common names are given.
AVIDÆ-BIRDS .* TURDIDÆE-THRUSHES.
1. Turdus migratorius, Linn-Robin.
2. (?) Turdus nacvius, Gmelin-Varied Thrush.
*In the following catalogue the general arrangement of Coues' " Birds of the Northwest" is adopted as being the one most consistent with the great mass of observed facts, and is the one approved by the leading ornithologists of the country. The arrangement is by fami- lies. A few species are included which have not been observed in the county but are known to occur in the counties surrounding. Such are marked with an asterisk (*). Species doubtfully referred to the county are indicated by a question mark (?). Many of the fol- towing list have not been observed in this county, but are admitted from the fact that they are known in the state, and on the authority of the work above mentioned, which places hem here.
340
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
3. Turdus mustelinus, Gmelin- Wood thrush .
4. Turdus pallasii, Cab-Hermit thrush.
5. Turdus Swainsonii, Cab-Swainson's thrush.
6. Mimus carolinensis, Cab-Cat bird.
7. (?)Mimus polyglottus, Boie-Mocking bird.
S. Harporhynchus rufus, Cab -- Brown thrush.
SAXICOLIDÆ-BLUE BIRDS AND STONE-CHATS.
9. Sialia sialis, Haldeman-Blue bird.
10. (?)Sialia mexicana, Sw .- Western blue bird.
PARIDÆE-TITMICE.
11. Parus atricapillus, Linn-Chickadee.
12. Parus atricapillus var. septentrionalis, Allen-Long-tailed chicka- dee.
13. Lophophanes bicolor, Bonap-Crested titmouse.
SYLVIIDÆ-WARBLERS.
14. Regulus satrapa, Licht-Golden-crested kinglet.
15. Regulus calendula, Licht-Ruby-crested kinglet.
16. Polioptila corulea, Sclat-Blue-gray gnat-catcher.
CERTHIADÆ-CREEPERS.
17. Certhia familiaris, Linn-Brown creeper.
SITTIDÆ-NUTHATCHES.
18. Sitta carolinensis, Lath .- White-breasted nuthatch.
19. Sitta canadensis, Linn-Red-breasted nuthatch; very rare.
TROGLODYTIDÆE-WRENS.
20. Salpinctes obsoletus, Cab-Rock wren.
21. Anorthura hyemalis, Coues-Winter wren.
22. (?) Telmatodytes palustris, Bonap-Long-billed marsh wren.
23. (*)Cistothorus stellaris, Cab-Short-billed marsh wren.
24. ( ?) Thryothorus ludovicianus, Bonap-Carolina wren; a " rollick ing " singer.
25. Thryothorus bewickii, Bonap-Bewick's wren; an odd bird.
26. Troglodytes aedon, Vieill-House wren; pugnacious.
MOTACILLIDÆ-WAG-TAILS.
27. Anthus ludovicianus, Licht-Tit-lark.
341
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
SYLVICOLIDÆ-WOOD-WARBLERS.
28. Mniotilta varia, Vieill-Black and white creeper.
29. Parula americana, Bonap-Blue-yellow-backed warbler.
30. Prothonotaria citraea, Baird-Prothonotary warbler.
31. * Helminthophaga ruficapilla, Baird-Nashville warbler.
Helminthophaga celata, Baird-Golden-crowned warbler.
(?) Helminthophaga pinus, Baird-Blue-winged yellow warbler.
32. 33. 34. * Dendroeca striata, Baird-Black-poll warbler. 35. Dendroeca palmarum, Baird-Merely a bird of passage. 36. 37. (?) Dendroeca virens, Baird-Black-throated green warbler. 38. Dendroeca caerulescens, Baird-Black-throated blue warbler.
Dendroeca pinus, Wilson -- Pine-creeping warbler; a fall loiterer.
39. Dendroeca coronata, Gray-Yellow-crowned warbler.
40. Dendroeca blackburniae, Baird-Blackburnian warbler.
41. Dendroeca castanea, Baird-Bay-breasted warbler.
42. ( ?) Dendroeca pennsylvanica, Baird-Chestnut-sided warbler.
43. Dendroeca caerulea, Baird-Blue warbler.
44. Dendroeca aestiva, Baird-Yellow warbler.
45. Dendrocca maculosa, Baird-Black and yellow warbler; prairie warbler.
46. Dendrocca discolor, Baird-Yellow red-poll warbler.
47. Dendroeca Dominica, Baird-Yellow-throated warbler.
48. Seiurus aurocapillus, Swain-Golden-crowned wagtail.
49. (*) Seiurus noveboracensis, Nutt-New York water wagtail.
50. Seiurus ludovicianus, Baird-Long-billed water thrush.
51. (*) Geothlypis trichas, Cab-Maryland yellow-throat.
52. Geothlypis philadelphia, Baird-Mourning warbler.
53. Oporornis formosus, Baird-Kentucky warbler.
54. Myiodioctes pusillus, Bonap-Green black-capped warbler.
55. Myiodioctes canadensis, Cab-Canada warbler.
56. Setophaga ruticilla, Swain-Red start.
57. Icteria virens, Baird-Yellow-breasted chat.
TANAGRIDÆ-TANAGERS.
58. (*) Pyranga rubra, Vieill-Scarlet tanager.
59. Pyranga aestiva, Vieill-Summer red-bird
HIRUNDINIDÆ-SWALLOWS. .
60. Hirundo horreorum, Barton-Barn swallow.
61. Petrochelidon lunifrons, Sclater-Cliff swallow.
62. Tachycineta bicolor, Cab-White-bellied swallow. very rare.
342
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
63 Progne purpurea, Boie -- Purple martin.
64. Cotyle riparia, Boie-Bank swallow, sand martin.
64. (?)Stelgidopteryx serripenn s, Baird-Rough-winged sand martin.
AMPELIDÆE-WAX-WINGS.
66. Ampelis cedrorum, Gray-Cedar bird, wax-wing.
67. Ampelis garrulus, Linn-Northern wax-wing.
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