USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume I > Part 4
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
run in narrow ribbons of flood plains embosomed between precipitous, weather- beaten cliffs or bluffs, and high, loess-covered and steeply rounded hills. The divides are the rational valleys and lie lower than the hilltops bordering the streams.
The north fork of the Maquoketa River rises in the northern part of Dubuque county, within a few miles of the Mississippi River and within sight of the bluffs bordering that stream, and, flowing away from the main stream into which it must finally empty its waters, it runs down its rocky, water-worn gorge on the line between Dubuque and Delaware counties, and enters Jones county at Cascade, where it runs for a short distance through a comparatively level plain and falls over the perpendicular ledge of the underlying rock-bed and enters a rocky gorge again. The depth of the gorge increases below Cascade until the border- ing hills attain a height of over two hundred and fifty feet above the water, measured at a distance of a half a mile from the water's edge. Throughout its course in this county, and until it unites its waters with the south fork or main branch of the Maquoketa River, near the city in Jackson county which takes its name from these streams, the north fork buries itself deeper and deeper among the overhanging bluffs and forest-clad hills. Secondary valleys branch from the main gorge at frequent intervals. These are also bluff bordered for a distance varying from a few rods to a mile or more from the juncture with the river's channel. Down such a secondary channel the White Water Creek on the east side and other streams too small to receive even a local name, send their waters into the north fork. By far the greater number of the secondary gorges are dry excepting for short times after the periodical summer rains or during the time of the melting of the winter snows. The occasional streams of water that find their ways down these secondary gorges are often raging torrents, rolling detached rock masses towards the river, and often cutting deep channels at the bottom of the canyons in which they find their beds.
By far the greater number of secondary gorges are steep sided and narrow ravines, V-shaped at the upper ends and widening out and becoming bluff bounded and flat bottomed or U-shaped at their lower ends. These gorges and canyons are deep and forest covered and the sunlight never enters many of them. The slopes are wooded with a dense growth of deciduous trees and densely covered with an undergrowth of ferns and bushes.
The south fork of the Maquoketa is the second largest stream of the county and drains more of the surface than all other streams together. The Jordon and Farm creeks on the north take the waters of Richland and Washington townships from within a short distance of the north fork, and Deer Creek, Kitty Creek, Mineral Creek and Bear Creek encroach upon the rightful territory of the Buffalo and Wapsipinicon rivers. Bear Creek runs for a distance of twenty miles in a course parallel to the latter stream and within two to six miles of that stream, flowing for many miles on the Wopsipinicon side of te rounded loess-covered and forested hills of the divide which forms the highest land between the streams, then flowing through that divide on the south and east of Wyoming, it empties its waters into the Maquoketa which flows north of that natural divide. The south fork rises in flat sloughs of northwestern Delaware county one hundred and four miles from the point where it empties into the Mississippi. It enters this county
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
at the northwest corner of Lovell township. Above Monticello the narrow gorge- like valley widens out into an alluvial plain. Here the river appears to desert the high hills and it flows for a few miles through one of the three small alluvial plains of the county. Below Monticello, as if frightened at the unusually flat landscape, the river again seeks the higher lands and flows throughout its course in this county through a canyon that repeats in its general characteristics that of the north fork.
The Wapsipinicon or "Wapsi" as it is here called is the largest river of the county, but although it flows across the county from the northwest corner of Cass township to the southeast corner of the county, and although it receives the waters of the Buffalo, which is the largest tributary entering any of the rivers of the county, it drains a very small portion of the area of the county. The waters of the Buffalo join the waters of the Wapsipinicon after they flow but a short distance in the county, and no other stream of such importance as to receive a local name drains into that stream on the north. Walnut Creek gathers the waters from the territory on the south. The sluggish waters lying on the level, low divide between the Wapsipinicon and the Cedar rivers form sloughs and ponds in their hesitancy in determining which way to flow, and finally avoiding the former stream but a few miles to the north, they flow towards the Cedar River. Thus we find that a part of Greenfield township, which lies but a short distance from the Wapsipinicon, flow directly away from that stream towards the Cedar many miles farther away. The deep gorge and hill bordered banks of the Wap- sipinicon and Buffalo have the same general characteristics as those of the Maquoketa. Above Stone City, the Wapsipinicon flows through its narrow, rocky gorge with a narrow ribbon of alluvial flood plain bordering each bank at the foot of the canyon walls. At Stone City, the rocky bluffs converge, and the river occupies nearly all its narrow ribbon of bottom land. Below Anamosa the flood plain expands and at Newport it attains the width of a mile. The canyon disappears and the river flows for a few miles through the second alluvial plain of the county. Below Olin, the canyon walls rise again and repeat on a lesser scale the rugged scenery of the upper course. Again in Oxford township, the flood expands to a mile or more in width, and Oxford Junction and Oxford Mills stand in the midst of the third alluvial plain found in this county.
The low divides lying between the high hills bordering the streams are in many cases lower than the rounded and gently curved tops of those hills. The plain near Martelle, which divides the waters of the Wapsipinicon and Cedar rivers is lower than the hills along the banks of those streams, and the water, as it flows from this paradoxical divide into the rivers which cleave the axis of the highest ridge, flow in constantly deepening channels until they empty into those rivers between walls, approximating in character the gorges of those streams.
Southwest of Monticello are found low-lying ridges which diversify the drift plain all the way to the banks of the Buffalo River. Midway between Monticello and Anamosa, the drift plain forming the divide, which is at once a basin and the watershed that divides the waters to the right and to the left, is bounded on the north and on the south by forest covered hills from twenty-five to more than one hundred feet higher than the plain which separates the water of the drainage systems.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
This botton land divide is diversified by isolated, gracefully curved, elongated hills, like gigantic canoes lying inverted on the sea of prairie. True to its char- acter of paradoxies, this anomalous plain ceases to be the principal divide near Onslow, and the Maquoketa sends a tributary, locally known as Bear Creek, down the general slope to within two miles of the Wapsipinicon, and robs that stream of much of its drainage territory, and reduces the principal divide to a line of hills near the bank of that stream.
The divide between the two forks of the Maquoketa River is represented by the level region known as Bowen's Prairie, which lies on a lower plain than the hilltops along the banks of those streams. The country here presents anomalous formations of topography and deposits of soil found nowhere else in the world. It is a land of "upside-down." The rivers all rise in the lowlands and flow towards the highlands, where they occupy gorges between high hills whose tops are higher than the sloughs from which they drain their waters. The loess, which is elsewhere deposited in the valleys, is here perched on the highest points of the hills, spreading out and down with lessening depth until it disappears en- tirely before it reaches the valleys. These paradoxies mark this land as one unique among the countries of the world, and perplexing to the student who is unable to explain the conditions here found. We leave these contradictions of nature unsolved as we found them, a problem that can be studied with profit by the student of nature.
TORNADO HISTORY.
On Sunday, June 3, 1860, a most terrible tornado passed over Linn, a por- tion of Jones, Clinton and other counties of Iowa and Illinois, resulting in serious loss of life. It was the most disastrous windstorm in the history of the county. Greenfield and Rome townships were in the path of the whirlwind, in Jones county, where nine persons met their death.
The following account of the casualties was given in The Anamosa Eureka: "W. Allen's family, living in the house of William Robinson, were killed, and the house blown to atoms. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, one boy, seven years old, and two little girls, aged five and two years. John Niles of Cedar Rapids, had stopped at Allen's house a short time before the storm, and was also killed. Mr. Allen and Mr. Niles were alive when found, but died shortly after. The others were instantly killed and horribly mangled. Mr. Allen was found about five rods north from where the house stood. Mrs. Allen lay twenty-five rods to the southwest; one girl thirty-three rods southwest, and the other sixty-five rods to the southeast; the boy was about forty rods distant from the house in the same direction. One of the sills of the house, sixteen feet long and eight by ten inches, was found about thirty rods west, buried thirteen feet deep in the soil of the prairie.
"Here the storm was most destructive. The ground was literally plowed up, covered with rails, stakes, etc., standing upright, some of them buried half their length in the ground. The grass was cut shorter than it could have been with a scythe.
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"Nine head of horses, thirteen head of cattle and twelve of hogs were found dead on one eighty-acre lot, and nearly as many more were taken from the same land badly injured. Dead dogs, rabbits, cats, domestic and prairie chickens were also found.
"Charles Robinson's house was blown down, his property destroyed and his family injured to some extent. Andrew Pettit suffered the loss of his house. The family were saved by taking refuge in the cellar. Schoolhouses in subdis- tricts No. 6 and No. 4, in Greenfield township, were demolished. William Kohl lost both house and barn, though the family escaped with but slight injury.
"G. W. Lattimer's house was blown down and his family severely injured Jacob Cole was left homeless, and mourns the severe injury of his two children. E. M. Nickerson's dwelling was carried entirely from the foundations, but without injury to its inhabitants. M. H. Nickerson's house was carried away. The fam- ily were, fortunately, absent. Isaac Staffy's home was destroyed, and the family somewhat injured.
"In Rome township, Mr. Piper's house was swept from its foundations, and two of his children killed. Mr. Piper suffered a double fracture in his arm, and his wife experienced some severe bruises. His barn was unroofed and almost completely destroyed. A heavy lumber wagon near his barn was entirely demol- ished, and the iron work twisted and bent in almost every shape.
"Elisha Miller lost his house, crops, etc. His son, twelve years of age, was killed, and his wife badly injured. Samuel Cook, a young man living with Mr. Miller was severely maimed. N. Bernard's house was entirely destroyed, and his family more or less afflicted by physical suffering. The houses of Mr. Scoles, William May and William Brockelhurst were almost completely demolished."
THE TORNADO OF 1878.
The next destructive wind storm given in the records was in the northern part of the county in the year 1878. Considerable damage was done, but the record does not show that any person was killed. The meteorological report of the Monticello weather bureau by M. M. Moulton gives the following account of this tornado:
"The people of Monticello will have occasion to date back to Tuesday, Octo- ber 8, 1878, for the next two generations at the least. It was general election day for state, county and township officers, and just as the town clock in the schoolhouse tower indicated 5:30 in the afternoon, a destructive tornado struck the southwest portion of the town, and passing off in a northeasterly direction, totally destroyed ten dwelling houses, two churches, nine barns and stables, and one icehouse, and more or less damaging forty-two other buildings.
"The day opened with the temperature fifty-five degrees at 7 a. m., nimbus clouds and a fresh breeze from the south, with a little sprinkling of rain at 10 a. m., and also again at noon. The temperature at noon was seventy-three degrees, and there were nimbus clouds and a gentle breeze from the east. The temperature re- mained at seventy-three degrees up to and including the time of the tornado. The wind came from the east until the arrival of a stronger current of air from the southwest, when the weather vane backed around, via the north, to the southwest.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
For an hour previous to the arrival of the storm, a huge bank of nimbus clouds was seen piled up in the west and southwest, with occasional vivid flashes of light- ning, accompanied with loud peals of thunder; and when this ocean of nimbus clouds approached from the southwest, a light strip appeared at the horizon, and widened as the storm made headway in its course. The friction of the wind rolled up the under side of the black clouds, and they had very much the appearance of the waves of the ocean coming in from sea before a heavy gale of wind.
"The first damage done was the total destruction of E. R. Murdock's dwelling house, three miles west and one mile south of Monticello, in Castle Grove township. Then following a line northeasterly, it destroyed the dwelling house of Mr. Brunthaver, in this township, and damaging the school building in dis- trict No. 3. Then passing through the south portion of town, crossing Kitty Creek at Skelly's Ford, it totally destroyed James Sloan's dwelling, in section 23, two miles east of town. Then, crossing the Maquoketa River, it destroyed the German church in Richland township, section 19, four miles northeast of town.
"The storm was one-fourth of a mile in width, and lasted less than a minute in any one place, and traveled the whole course of eight or ten miles in a few moments. In the center of the track of the storm the ruins were mostly left in a northeasterly direction, but on either side of the center of the track, the debris was left at every point of the compass. A little hail and rain fell a few moments before and during the work of destruction. In all, it measured less than a quarter of an inch-not enough to wet through the plastering of the houses that lost the roofs. During the whole of the storm, there was a loud, roaring noise, like the roar of the approaching of a thousand trains of cars, or the noise of the ocean while being lashed by a furious storm."
SEVERE WINDSTORM OF 1898.
On July 19, 1898, a severe windstorm visited Jones county, and especially the northern part. The storm came up in the early evening. Monticello, Scotch Grove, Center Junction, Cass, Castle Grove and Wayne suffered the most de- struction, though there was more or less damage in all parts of the county. No person was injured so far as learned. Barns were blown down, crops injured and trees leveled. The windmills were blown down quite generally. One firm in Monticello alone as a result of the storm, erected over one hundred and fifty windmills.
This was the last destructive windstorm to visit Jones county.
EARTHQUAKE HISTORY.
Seismic disturbances are usually credited to mountainous regions, and future generations might not believe that the sensations peculiar to such disturbances have been experienced in Jones county.
The first earthquake disturbances experienced in the county of which any remark has been made, occurred about twenty years ago. It occasioned more than passing notice, though no injury resulted other than the shock to nervous people.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
The next earthquake experience occurred on May 26, 1909. In describing this we cannot do better than quote from two reports, one taken from The Mon- ticello Express ond the other from The Wyoming Journal, each published the day following the seismic disturbances.
The Monticello Express: "Monticello experienced a distinct earthquake shock, yesterday morning, the 26th inst., at 8:40 o'clock, which lasted several seconds. The direction of the disturbance was north and south. It was not generally ob- served by those on the street, but people in the second stories of buildings noticed the disturbance. At both the schoolhouses it was observed. In the second story of the Lovell block it shook the windows and produced the feeling produced by a strong wind blowing against a frame house. The typesetting machine in The Ex- press office gave its operators the sensation of strong movements. At the racket store some articles were shaken from the shelves, and from different parts of town came experiences that settled the character of the disturbances. During the day came the news that the earthquake was general throughout the upper Mississippi valley. No particular damage was done, aside from broken dishes, but in some places, particularly Dubuque and some Illinois points the movements were so strong that the occupants of factories and tall buildings rushed out into the streets in alarm. We had the same kind of an experience in Monticello a little more than twenty years ago, when the earthquake was credited with the cracking of cement lining of the city reservoir. Some amusing incidents were connected with the seismic movement. Dr. Hefner, who had just adjusted his furnace, supposed it had blown up and rushed into the cellar to find it behaving beautifully. George Guyan asked his partner to drive out the dog he thought was shaking the table. Over in Richland Lester Winner was eating his breakfast, and the table shook so violently he asked his wife to drive the cow away for he was sure she had got- ten into the yard again, and was rubbing herself against the house."
The Wyoming Journal: "An earthquake shock caused many of our people to sit up and take notice yesterday morning about 8:30. The seismic disturbance was of short duration, and did no serious damage to property, but the vibrations of buildings were startling in the extreme. The writer was in his office in the second story of the Williams block and the thought at the rumble and vibration of the walls was that a heavily loaded truck was being run over the floor of the store below, causing the effect noticed, but the fact that it was a new one in energy and never before experienced raised a question. Enquiry disclosed the fact that others had realized that the earth under them had been a little unsteady at the same time. Dr. E. N. Stoffel was standing in his office leaning against his office safe talking to a friend when the shock came. The safe rocked sufficiently to cause alarm and he got away from it. Glass cases rattled and things looked like a moving picture show for a time of a few seconds. In the Kettlesen store the crockery rattled and there was considerable vibration. At the lumber office of L. W. Butler, Mr. Butler was sitting talking to a traveling man and both were alarmed at the shaking the building received.
"Will R. Eldred, who was confined to his bed in the home of his mother on the hill by reason of an accident the previous day, says his bed shook so he thought there was some one under it giving him a scare and peeked under the bed for the trouble.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
"The quake was also felt at Onslow and north in the country as far as the home of James Hamilton in Clay township reports of the quake come in."
SOME EARLY FLOOD HISTORY.
Jones county has been more fortunate than some of her sister counties in the amount of damage done by storms and floods. The county can also feel just cause for congratulation that the elements and powers have not demonstrated their full destructiveness in our midst. This is especially so when history has been obliged to record such disastrous inflictions of the elements, not only in the mere loss of property, but in the loss of human life in other parts of the country, though far removed in point of miles from our favored and prosperous county. We have had some floods and storms, however, and in order to preserve the record, we give herewith the history as we find it written.
The first flood was June 7, 1851. After raining several hours, the water rose in the Maquoketa, overflowed its banks, and the low, flat lands on both sides of the river were inundated. Joseph Clark, at this time, was living in a log house on the bank of Kitty Creek, just north of lot No. 41 of the original plat of Mon- ticello, and southeast of the house later occupied by August Grassmeyer, on the road to Dubuque. The water came into Mr. Clark's house and put the fire out in the fireplace, and floated the partly consumed wood around the room, and the family had to seek other quarters for safety. At this date the Western Stage Company were running a daily line of stage coaches from Dubuque to Iowa City, and all passengers and the mails had to be transferred across the water in a row boat. The town lot where W. H. Proctor's brick and stone store stands was all covered with several feet of water, and the flood at one time reached Main street in front of the Monticello House. The water that fell in the rain gauge at this storm measured three and seventy-five hundredths inches.
The second flood occurred August 1, 1858. The water at this time was fully as high as that of the flood before mentioned. The west end of the then wooden bridge over the Maquoketa river gave way and dropped on the bank, and the planks of all three of the spans were floated down stream on their way to the Mississippi. The mail and passengers had to be transferred as heretofore, and were taken in at the foot of Main street, near Mr. Doxsee's residence, and landed at the foot of the sand-hill in East Monticello. Frequently, the through mail bags and paper sacks were enough to fill one boat load. There were six families living at East Monticello at this date, viz: Dewey, McDonald, Moulton, N. P. Starks, Houser and Eldredge, and they had to depend upon the ferry-boat for their mail and groceries for several days. A number of the emigrant teams were water-bound, and had to board with the families for a few days on the east side. Total amount of water-fall, four and fifty hundredths.
The third was June 28 and 29, 1865. At this storm, three and eighty hun- dreths inches of water fell in the two days, and the water in the river came into the third story of the East Monticello flouring mills. The wooden bridge on the military road was only saved by anchoring it to the large cottonwood trees above on the banks of the stream with ropes and chains. The planks of the second bridge did not escape the flood, but were swept down-stream by the water.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
The water was high enough to have run into the public cistern on Main street if the reservoir had been built there at that date. Monticello celebrated the 4th of July this year, and the committee had selected the bottom land on Kitty Creek, near the river, for the speaker's stand; but it was changed on account of the water to the vacant lots on the north side of town, where Mrs. Langworthy later lived. The orator of the day, Hon. O. P. Shiras of Dubuque, was obliged, on ac- count of the washout in the railroad, to come and return with a livery team. The approaches to the railway bridge north of town were washed away and dam- aged so that trains could not pass over the bridge for several days.
The fourth flood was July 4 and 5, 1876. There has perhaps been no rain storm during the entire history of the county which has been the subject of re- mark more than the 4th of July rain of 1876. In fact all storms even in the modern day are compared with the "Centennial rain." The rain commenced to fall on July 4th about 9 o'clock p. m., and the rain continued to fall for seven hours, although a large share of the three and one-half inches of water-fall was landed in about three hours. The water only came up to the junction of First and East Locust streets, near Petersen's residence, but it came with such violence as to wash away the approaches to the railroad bridge over Kitty Creek, just above the falls, and taking out the wagon and foot bridge between the two falls, root and branch, flooding all the stock yards, drowning several head of hogs be- longing to Mayor Wales and William Peterson. Both iron bridges over the Ma- quoketa stood their ground, although they were surrounded by an ocean of water, and were not reached for several days. The wooden bridge at the foot of First street, over the creek near Skelley's, was securely anchored to the heavy stone abutments, and stood the test admirably, although it was several feet under water for hours. The water had been as high in the creek and river a number of times, but not as destructive to roads and bridges as at this overflow. All four of these rainstorms were accompanied by the most terrific thunder and lightning, and more or less wind, and everything trembled before the onward march of the storm.
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