USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 17
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The mystery that surrounds the sudden presence of petroleum in that old allu- vial hole has never been solved. After boring in the Johnson well had ceased, a local company obtained permission and proceeded to excavate around the hole in an attempt to compel it to reveal the secret. After removing about seven or eight feet of minged clay and soil, limerock was encountered of irregular contour, the "uphill" side being the highest. This was blasted out to a total depth of about twenty feet. The soft mud near the hole was found to be perfectly saturated with oil, but the solid walls of the excavation showed no discolored seams or crevices which would indicate seepage of oil from the sides from either the earth or rock. At the bottom a cavity of several inches in height appeared, from which water flowed and drops of oil could be detected in the water dipped out. That, how- ever, might have been squeezed out of the saturated mud handled in excavating. It is possibly significant that no oil appeared in the hole in quantity sufficient to be dipped out after workmen arrived with the drilling outfit. If any evidence existed pointing suspicion to any one as having carried oil and poured it into the hole, the theory for such an origin for its appearance would account for every phenomenon in connection with it. But not a scintilla of such evidence has ever developed, and we can only pronounce its presence a scientific puzzle of remarkable perplexity.
The country rock is a hard, dense, dolomite (or magnesian limestone) of the Niagara series, in practically level strata, and two hundred and nine feet in depth. Next comes two hundred and fifteen feet of the Maquoketa shales of the Ordo- vician series, a large proportion of this being plastic clays, impervious to fluids,
117
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
whether water or oil. Professor Norton finds that the lower member of the Maquoketa formation, a chocolate brown shale, ten feet in thickness is petrolif- erous, "fragments burning with strong flame." He says in a letter accompanying the report : "You will note, what the drillers failed to discover in the oil bearing shale, ten feet thick in the Maquoketa at four hundred and thirty. If the surface oil came from below this apparently is its source. In this case, no large amount warranting drilling could be expected, since wherever the oil escaped from the source diffused in the shale, it would reach the surface of the ground for want of any cover to the reservoir rock, the Niagara limestone."
The greatest surprise in the geological formations disclosed by the well under- lies the St. Peter's sandstone of the Ordovician for two hundred and forty-one feet and is classified by Professor Norton with a question mark (?). He says in his letter : "The red sand below the St. Peter is an extremely interesting forma- tion, and while we have some reports of the same from other wells, we have nothing approaching the depth at Maquoketa." Farther east, near the shores of Lake Michigan, deep wells find a "red marl" underlying the St. Peter's sand, as described in W. C. Alden's report on the Milwaukee quadrangle. The deposit here seems to be of a more sandy nature than that in Wisconsin, but both indicate an unconformity, or erosion of the Prairie du Chien formation before the St. Peter's sand was laid down. It should be said that the seam of petroliferous shale found here lies in, or on top of the Trenton series which has proven so prolific of oil and gas in the Indiana and Ohio fields.
Following is Professor Norton's report :
(The quotations are from driller's log.)
Thickness
Depth.
29 Soil
I1/2
I1/2
28 Clay, hard yellow.
41/2
6
27 Dolomite, first water between 155 and 215 feet.
209
215
26 "Sand and shale in seam, second water".
1/4
2151/4
25 Shale and limestone shale, light blue and limestone blue gray, hard, close textured, slight effervescence in cold dilute HCL.
633/4
279
24 Shale, sample shale and limestone, limestone, dark gray subcrystalline, pyritiferous, with large clayey residue Sample also of shale from 279.
I31
410
23 Shale, blue
20
430
22
Shale, chocolate brown, fissle, rather hard, petroliferous, fragments burning with strong flame.
IO
440
21 Dolomite, porous, subcrystalline, gray, in log called "hard white shale."
46
486
20 Dolomite, light buff, crystalline; log, "mixed lime and shale, hard."
79
565
19
Dolomite, light buff, cherty, in angular sand.
I30
695
17
Shale, bright green, fissle, fossiliferous, with dark gray fossiliferous nonmagnesian pyritiferous limestone ... Limestone, gray, earthy, compact, nonmagnesian.
15
710
16
Limestone, brown, nonmagnesian, hard in flaky chips .. Limestone, light gray, soft, earthy.
28
750
14
Shale, blue, plastic with some brown limestone chips .....
6
756
13
59
815
12
Sandstone, clean, white, grains well rounded, moderately coarse, many grains being a mm. or more in diameter .. Sandstone, fine, brick red, with considerable red argilla- ceous or ferric admixture. When washed in hot water, drillings remain pink, owing to films of ferric oxide on grains. Grains rounded, many broken. Said by drillers to contain seams of red shale. 241
1,056
7
722
18
5
715
15
118
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
II Dolomite, light yellow gray, with much dark red shale and dark brown, hard, fine grained shale, some light green shale, a fine yellow quartz, a fragment of red, fine grained sandstone set with pieces of green shale, all except the dolomite probably from above, at ..
1,056
IO "Shale, soft gray." Sample consists of sandstone of St. Peter facies, but with an occasional grain showing secondary enlargement, rather fine, with considerable red and light green shale and some chert and chips of dolomite
54 I,IIO
9 "Sandstone, soft water" at 1,125, sandstone sample with some chert and dolomite, some grains with secondary enlargements. Sample said to represent the stratum, consists for the most part of angular sand of light gray dolomite with some arenaceous admixture
80
1,190
8 Dolomite, light yellowish gray
IIO
1,300
7 Dolomite, purple brown
20
1,320
6 Dolomite, light gray
68
1,388
5 Sandstone, soft white, grains well rounded, fairly uni-
form, maximum size of one mm. rarely reached ..... 208 Marl, in buff sand with facies of the dolomite, but seen under the microscope to consist of microscopic grains of crystalline quartz with dolomitic cement, with some fine rounded grains of quartz and some chlorite.
1,596
3 Sandstone, buff, hard, in angular fragments consisting of minute particles of crystalline quartz and small round grains, with imbedded grains of chlorite or glauconite. Samples contain some particles of green shale.
54
1,650
2 Sandstone, light buff, fine grained, chiefly in minute de- tached grains of quartz, with some angular fragments as above. Many grains stained with films of ferric oxide
45
1,695
I Sandstone, white clean, fine grains imperfectly rounded and from .OI to .0075 inch in diameter.
2I
1,716
No. Formation
Thickness.
Depth.
Above Tide.
29-28
Residual and recent
6
6
754
27
Niagara
209
215
545
26-22
Maquoketa
225
440
320
21-14
Galena Platteville
(19 Decorah shale, I5
316
756
4
St. Peter
59
815
- 55
I2
(?)
24I
1,056
-296
II-6
Shakopee, New Richmond and Oneota (or Prairie du Chien group)
332
1,388
-628
5-4 Jordan
208
1,596
- -836
3-I St. Lawrence
I20
1,716
-956
(No. I, in the new nomenclature of the Geological section of Iowa in Vol. XVII of the Iowa Geological Survey must be Dresbach sandstone. It seems pos- sible from the character of the rock that Nos. 2 and 3 are also Dresbach, leaving for the St. Lawrence an uncertain thickness below the Jordan, as described in No. 4 .- Reid.)
GLACIAL DRIFT.
One of the most remarkable, but one of the easiest studied, glacial deposits of the county is the bed of gravel which underlies the southwestern part of the townsite of Maquoketa.
1,596
4
.
SUMMARY.
Glenwood shale)
I3
119
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
A depression in the eastern part of the city proper, in which stands the depot of the Milwaukee Railroad, is proven by the wells which have been sunk in it. to be a buried river channel, filled by the blue till of the Kansan drift sheet. South and southwest of this depression stretch beautifully rounded hills formed entirely of the finely comminuted loess described by Dr. Calvin in his article. Cesspools and other excavations through the loess find it underlain at depths ranging with the hill elevations, with a bed of gravel of a nearly uniform depth of five to six feet.
The great age of this deposit is indicated by its reddish color due to the iron which it contains having become completely oxidized and by the fact that most of the granite pebbles with which it abounds having become so completely rotted that they may be crushed in the hands. Dr. Calvin in one of his visits to the locality, decided that the gravel bed came from the outrush of a great body of ice of the Kansan glacier as it was melting.
The first railroad cut west of the Northwestern Railroad depot exposes about five feet in depth of the red gravel where it is overlain by about fifteen feet of loess. A pile of this gravel thrown out upon the north side of the cut discloses that it contains so little of plant nutriment, that it has lain for forty years with- out affording sustenance to anything but a very meager growth of weeds. The exact area of this interesting manifestation of the presence here of the Kansan ice invasion, has never been traced.
In the early fall of 1906, a year later than the season in which Professor T. E. Savage made his studies which resulted in the report on the geology of Jackson county in the sixteenth volume of the Iowa Geological Survey, the county was visited by Frank Leverett of the United States Geological Survey. Professor Leverett (an Iowa man, by the way, born in Lee county), is a specialist in gla- cial geology, and has written the United States Survey monographtas on "The Illinois Glacial Lobe," and on "Glacial Formations and Drainage Features of the Erie and Ohio Basins."
His work for the season of 1906 had been the tracing of the exact boundary of the "Driftless Area." He had already followed that boundary on the west through the eastern border of Minnesota; across its northern limit near Lake Superior ; down through Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois on its eastern rim; and had now rounded its southern point and was completing the study of its western margin through Jackson, Dubuque, Clayton and Allamakee counties in Iowa.
He was so well pleased with finding in the Boardman Library at Maquoketa a more complete collection of geological reports than in any other library on his trip, that he left there notes of his conclusions in regard to what Jackson county discloses as to the different drift sheets which have invaded Iowa. As these notes were made at least four years before Leverett's report on the "Driftless Area" could be published, we present them here as new material of high scientific value.
It will be noted that Professor Leverett recognizes a greater extension of the Iowan drift sheet over Jackson county than had previously been reported. Calvin and other geologists have mapped a broad belt of Iowan that pushed down the Wapsipinicon valley to the Mississippi and probably beyond, and an extension of a narrow lobe from Dubuque county into Butler township, bowlders of which are found as far south as section 15.
Professor Savage in the Jackson County Report recognizes the bowlders in the valley near the village of Monmouth as undoubtedly Iowan, but believes they must have floated over the hills to the westward in icebergs. Professor Leverett agrees with other geologists that whatever Iowan ice may have invaded Jackson county, it contained and deposited very little till or other debris.
Notes by Frank Leverett, October 20, 1906, on results of his recent studies in Jackson and neighboring counties :
There is very little driftless area west of the Mississippi in the Peosta quad- rangle. Bowlders of all sizes up to several feet in diameter are found clear out
120
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
to the high bluffs bordering the Mississippi all the way from Sabula to Bellevue, but were not found in vicinity of the line of Jackson and Dubuque counties on the immediate bluffs. Till is found within three or four miles of the Mississippi above the mouth of the Maquoketa, but is presented only in patches for eight or ten miles back from the Mississippi. The bowlders and the till show great weath- ering and are at least as old as the Kansan.
Thick deposits of drift in which blue black till is present to considerable depth are present in northern Clinton county and extend into the edge of Jackson county in Monmouth township. This blue black till appears to be the same drift as appears at Muscatine and other places in southeastern Iowa, and is regarded by the several geologists who have visited Muscatine as of pre Kansan age.
Loess is present over much of Jackson and Dubuque counties and eastern Jones and northern Clinton counties. There are, however, several areas in which it is either absent or in patches. In these areas sand is conspicuous and bowlders are more numerous than in the loess covered areas. Some of the bowlders are fresh looking granites such as characterize the Iowa drift. Those on John's Creek and on the Maquoketa above Cascade open into the Iowa drift plains toward the west, and so do the Farley and one north of it. But the Bernard area is surrounded by loess except a very narrow strip along the gorge of John's Creek above Fillmore. The area running east from Maquoketa along the Chi- cago & Northwestern Railroad is also surrounded by loess, though the Iowa drift plain sets in not far to the west in Wyoming township, Jones county. The large area extending east from the meridian of Fulton and Maquoketa is sur- rounded by loess and has a few small patches within its limits. There is a simi- lar isolated area a few miles east in the northeast part of Fairfield and the western and southern parts of Van Buren township. The exclusion of the loess from these districts is thought to be due to the persistence of stagnant masses of the Iowan ice sheet during the loess deposition. The Iowan ice sheet is thought to have covered all the intervening country at its culmination and extended as far east as Butler, Farmers Creek, Perry, Fairfield and Van Buren townships, and it may have reached into Iowa, Washington and Jackson townships. It probably covered southern Jackson county from Preston westward. There was remark- ably little drift deposited at this time (usually only bowlders and sandy de- posits) in these isolated areas. The till found here is usually of the older drift and many of the surface bowlders are also. It is not an easy matter to detect the Iowan drift under the bordering loess covered tracts because it is such a meager deposit. It will probably be detected chiefly in the form of sandy ma- terial under the loess with fresh looking bowlders imbedded in it. A few such places have been seen within a mile or so inside the loess covered areas. In southeastern Minnesota there is Iowan till under the loess strips that lie between Iowa drift plains, thus showing that the Iowan ice sheet at its culmination was more extensive than the drift plains. The tracts free from loess in Jackson county though now isolated because of the loess around them may reasonably be considered as occupied by remnants of a much more extensive ice field. The manner in which the ice became broken up is well set forth in McGee's paper on Northeastern Iowa in the Eleventh Annual Report United States Geological Survey.
OCTOBER 24, 1906.
I drove from Preston Monday and found that the strip free from loess ex- tends eastward from Preston to Miles. The strip of sand capped by loess lies northwest of Miles as far as Elk River. I examined the country southeast from Miles to Andrew and found the old valley at Andrew is nearly free from loess and has gravelly and sandy material in form of low knolls much like those on the Iowan border near Epworth and Farley. So it is possible that the Iowan extended out to the Mississippi near the mouth of Elk River. I am wondering ; if it may not have crossed the Mississippi there and produced the sandy and
121
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
gravelly ridges northeast of Fulton that I dismiss as possible Iowan in Mono- graph 38, U. S. G. S.
I think I shall do more work near Fulton before I quit the field and see if I can connect the Illinois with the Iowa part of the Iowan through there. You will notice the peculiar appearance of the Iowa border on the Illinois side of the river in my map of the Glacial Formations in Mong. 38. It looks as if there ought to be a continuation toward Miles such as I have found. I knew of this in 1894 but did not then know the habits or places of the Iowan so well as I do now so did not color the Iowa side to match the Illinois. The features are really more pro- nounced on the Illinois side east of Fulton than on the Iowa side between Pres- ton and Andrew.
The blue till is present in the ridge in south part of Maquoketa under the red gravelly material.
I found that wells made in sags on the ridge south of Brown's Station find blue till as far east as section I Waterford. It appears on east side of the Goose Lake Valley as far north as Mr. Dierkes' well three-fourths of a mile north of Bryant and from there southeast toward Lyons on the high tract south of the Elk River basin.
There is a small Iowan area free from loess along east side of Goose Lake Valley extending south as far as the village of Goose Lake. It opens into the Preston Miles area at the north.
DEVASTATION.
MORE ABOUT THE DEADLY CYCLONE'S WORK-THOUSANDS OF HEAD OF LIVE STOCK BURIED-MEASURES OF RELIEF TAKEN.
About the time the Sentinel office was putting to press an extra, Thursday morning last, descriptive of the cyclone, hundreds of our people were hurrying over the muddy roads to the scenes of the disaster. Mayor Sanborn, Senator Hurst and many other good citizens turned out in large numbers to assist so far as possible in aiding the storm blasted farmers in the herculean task of skinning the dead cattle, killing the many crippled horses, cattle and hogs, and burying their carcasses. While this busy aspect was observed all along the black strip, many kodaks were in operation taking snap shots of the gruesome scene. Great large trees that had breasted the storms for forty years about many of these comfortable old farm homesteads, were torn from the ground like weeds and lay prone upon the ground near wrecked houses and barns. They were even stripped of their bark in many places.
No lives were lost west of Clinton county, though the storm started in Cedar county near Stanwood. Farm property was destroyed, however, from the very start. The storm cloud would at times shift in its course, but was seen at Lost Nation in its incipiency and was looked upon with dread until it passed south of that town and eastward. The first Clinton county house destroyed was that of Patrick Welsh. Twenty-eight persons took refuge in Mr. Welsh's cellar and the house was blown from over their heads, but no one was hurt. The party included Teacher Miss Spellacy and all the pupils of the Welsh school; the schoolhouse nearby being completely destroyed. Some damage was done to the Tim O'Boyle farm buildings. But for the first six miles in Clinton county and across Liberty township, only the Welsh house and schoolhouse were destroyed.
Moving northeasterly into Sharon township it destroyed the homes and prop- erty of Maurice Wolfe, Peter McAndrews (except house), building on the Wil- liam Rice Welch farm; from there it took a course almost direct east, passing just south of the home of J. D. Leinbaugh but striking and entirely destroying the beautiful property of William Ruggeburg, it completely demolished his large barns, house, etc., and killed nearly all of a large drove of fat cattle, most of his hogs and horses.
122
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
Passing on about two miles south of Elwood, the roaring element of destruc- tion swept George Teskey's house and barns away, leveled C. C. Ruus' barn and windmill to the ground, killing two horses. Claus Hagge had shed and part of the house destroyed. John Kegabine's large barn was destroyed and the house escaped destruction. Henry Hick's house was lifted bodily with the family in it and when it collapsed Mr. Hicks and wife were injured in the debris. A son and servant girl were carried some distance, but all escaped with their lives. The barns on the place were also destroyed. J. A. Hiner's farm, occupied by J. A. Purdy, was touched and the latter injured, while the house and barns were left in ruins. Mr. Hiner is a heavy loser of cattle, hogs and horses, besides the complete destruc- tion of buildings.
Elij Coverdale's extensive farm buildings were next in the storm's track and there everything was laid waste, and a great deal of live stock killed. Mr. Coverdale saw the storm coming and with a fast team drove his family away from it. His loss is heavy. Joseph Brady's place nearby was touched, but the damage was wholly to outbuildings and not severe, but it was on his farm in a field east of Coverdale's that Hildebrandt and Grieme, farm hands, recently from Europe, stood and looked at the approaching cloud with amazement until it caught and hurled them to death.
The next farm east of this was the William Cook place that was riddled in a thousand pieces and nothing is left but the cellar walls, debris and stripped and barked trees to mark the spot where the buildings stood. Their loss of live stock is very large.
On the hill half a mile east of Cook's is the wrecked property of Marvin Fin- ton and son, Bud. Two fine houses and several barns were completely swept away. Mr. Finton said he watched the black cloud from afar and declared that if it struck William Cook's house then he would go to the cellar and it was well he and his family did, for it undoubtedly saved the lives of all. They lost many household valuables besides their buildings, cattle and hogs. Also a tenant house and barns of Mr. Finton's was destroyed and his loss is ten thousand dollars. In this vicinity the bent and fallen trees all point westward, or toward the center of the storm path, indicating a whirling rotary motion with powerful suction. The eastward movement of the whirlwind played havoc with the Clark and James Davis places, the new house just built by Robert Brady on the old Decker. farm and many other places in the edge of the cloud were more or less damaged.
In the vicinity of Delmar it is impossible to tell of the loss and to describe the awful scenes which mark the place that a few hours before were the com- fortable and happy homes of the prosperous farmers along this storm track. About one mile west was the home of John Allison. He has' some two hundred and seventy-five acres of nice rolling land, with a fine house, barns, and every con- venience. He had a herd of seventy-six nice fat cattle, ready for market, a fine lot of two hundred head of hogs, and twelve head of horses; and the storm just wiped out of existence all of his worldly possessions. To see lying all along the road, cattle, horses, hogs, chickens, scattered everywhere, mixed up with barbed wire fencing and household goods, beds, bedding, cooking utensils, all in a mixed up rubbish, forms a picture that causes the stoutest of hearts to turn from, if possible to look upon something more inviting. It was here where Mr. Allison's son O. B. Allison, a boy of seventeen years of age, was killed, and Mrs. Allison severely injured ; but she is resting much easier, and hopes are entertained of her recovery. Mr. Allison sought shelter in a well in the field and escaped unin- jured. He had a boy who was out in the field, and seeing the storm approaching, lay flat and escaped with a slight injury to the back of his head. Mr. Allison's property loss will be in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollars and not a dollar of tornado insurance.
A little east of Mr. Allison lived his son-in-law, D. B. Banks. Mr. Banks was away from home and when he came home, after the storm, he found his home swept away and not a single thing left. All his wearing apparel save the clothes
123
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
on his back, and those of his wife and children, who had taken refuge in the cellar of a nearby neighbor, was lost. No insurance.
Across the road south from Mr. Bank's was the lovely residence of L. L. Harrington. He owns some two hundred and eighty acres of splendid land, all nicely improved, a nice young orchard and outbuildings, barns and cribs of corn, stock of all kinds, which was all laid low by the storm, causing a loss of over eight thousand dollars, and no insurance. Here, as at Mr. Allison's, fat cattle, fat hogs, are lying dead everywhere.
The same story may be told as to the homes and property of Dean Davis, Marvin Finton and William Cook, Jr., who lived in the track of the storm, also Mrs. Joseph Benjamin and Charles Goodall. Now these all live within two miles, and what can be said of the destruction of property to these people, the same can be said all along the track of the storm.
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