History of Kossuth and Humbolt counties, Iowa : together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 10

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Union Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 898

USA > Iowa > Humboldt County > History of Kossuth and Humbolt counties, Iowa : together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 10

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All streams that rise in Iowa occupy, at first, only slight depressions of the land,

and are scarcely perceptible. These uniting into larger streams, though still flowing over drift and bluff deposits, reach consid- erable depth into these deposits, in some cases to a depth of nearly 200 feet from the general prairie level.

The greater part of the streams in West- ern Iowa run either along the whole or a part of their course, upon that peculiar deposit known as bluff deposit. The banks even of the small streams are often five to ten feet in height and quite perpen- dicular, so that they render the streams almost everywhere unfordable, and a great impediment to travel across the open country where there are no bridges.

This deposit is of a slightly yellowish ash color, except when darkened by decay- ing vegetation, very fine and silicious, but not sandy, not very cohesive, and not at all plastic. It forms excellent soil, and does not bake or crack in drying, except limy concretions, which are generally dis- tributed throughout the mass, in shape and size resembling pebbles; but not a stone or a pebble can be found in the whole deposit. It was called "silicious marl" by Dr. Owen, in his geological re- port to the Government, and he attributes its origin to an accumulation of sediment in an ancient lake, which was afterward drained, and the sediment became dry land. Prof. Swallow gives it the name of "bluff," which is here adopted; but the term, "la- custrine" would have been more appro- priate. The peculiar properties of this deposit are that it will stand securely with a precipitous front 200 feet high, and yet is easily excavated with a spade. Wells dug in it require only to be walled to a point just above the water-line. Yet, com-

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pact as it is, it is very porous, so that water which falls on it does not remain at the surface, but percolates through it; neither does it accumulate within it at any point, as it does upon and within the drift and the stratified formations.

The thickest deposit yet known in Iowa is in Fremont county, where it reaches 200 feet. It is found throughout a region more than 200 miles in length, and nearly 100 miles in width, and through which the Missouri runs almost centrally.

This fine sediment is the same which the Missouri once deposited in a broad depression in the surface of the drift that formed a lake-like expansion of that river in the earliest period of the history of its valley. The extent of the deposit shows this lake to have been 100 miles wide and more than twice as long. The water of the river was muddy then as now, and the broad lake became filled with the sediment which the river brought down. After the lake became filled with the sediment, the valley below became deepened by the con- stant erosive action of the waters, to a depth sufficient to have drained the lake of its first waters; but the only effect then was to cause it to cut its valley out of the deposits its own muddy waters had formed. Thus along the valley of that river, so far as it forms the western boundary of Iowa, the bluffs which border it are composed of that sediment known as bluff deposit, forming a distinct border along the broad, level flood plain, the width of which varies from five to fifteen miles, while the orig- inal sedimentary deposit stretches far in- land.

Chariton and Grand rivers rise and run for twenty-five miles of their course

upon the drift deposits alone. The first strata that are exposed by the deepening valleys of both these streams belong to the Upper Coal Measures, and they both continue upon the same formation until they make their exit from the State, (the former in Appanoose county, the latter in Ringgold county,) near the boundary of which they passed nearly or quite through the whole of that formation to the Middle Coal Measures. Their valleys deepen gradually, and 15 or 20 miles from the river they are nearly 150 feet below the gen- eral level of the adjacent highland. When the rivers have cut their valleys down through the series of limestone strata, they reach those of a clayey composition. Upon these they widen their valleys, and make broad flood plains or "bottoms," the soil of which is stiff and clayey, except where modified by sandy washings. These streams are prairie streams in their upper branches and tributaries, but flow through woodland farther down. The proportion of lime in the drift of Iowa is so great that the water of all the wells and springs is too " hard " for washing purposes, and the same substance is so prevalent in the drift clays that they are always found to have sufficient flux when used for the manufac- ture of brick.

Platte river belongs mainly to Missouri. Its upper branches pass through Ringgold county. Here the drift deposit reaches its maximum thickness on an east and west line across the State, and the valleys are eroded in some instances to a depth of 200 feet, apparently, through this deposit alone. Th . term " drift deposit " applies to the soil and sub soil of the greater part

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of the State, and in it alone many wells are dug and our forests take root. It rests upon the stratified rocks. It is composed of clay, sand, gravel and boulders, promis- cuously intermixed without stratification, varying in character in different parts of the State.

One Hundred and Two river is repre- sented in Taylor county, the valleys of which have the same general character of those just described. The country around and between the east and west forks of this stream is almost entirely prairie.

Nodaway river is represented by east, middle and west branches. The two for- mer rise in Adair county, the latter in Cass county. These rivers and valleys are fine examples of the small rivers and valleys of Southern Iowa. They have the general character of drift valleys, and with beautiful undulating and sloping sides. The Nodaway drains one of the finest agricultural regions in the State, the soil of which is tillable almost to their very banks. The banks and the adjacent nar- row flood-plains are almost everywhere composed of a rich, deep, dark loam.

Nishnabotany river is represented by east and west branches, the former having its source in Anderson county, the latter in Shelby county. Both these branches, from their source to their confluence, and also the main stream from there to the point where it enters the great flood-plain of the Missouri, run through a region, the surface of which is occupied by the bluff deposit.

The West Nishnabotany is probably without any valuable mill-sites. In the western part of Cass county, the East

Nishnabotany loses its identity by becom- ing abruptly divided up into five or six different creeks. A few good mill-sites occur here on this stream. None, how- ever, that are thought reliable, exist on either of these rivers, or on the main stream below the confluence, except, per- haps, one or two in Montgomery county. The valleys of the two branches, and the intervening upland, possess remarkable fertility.

Boyer river, until it enters the flood- plain of the Missouri, runs almost, if not quite, its entire course through the region occupied by the bluff deposit, and has cut its valley entirely through it along most of its passage. The only rocks exposed are the upper coal measures, near Reed's mill, in Harrison county. The exposures are slight, and are the most northerly now known in Iowa. The valley of this river has usually gently sloping sides, and an in- distinctly defined flood-plain. Along the lower half of its course the adjacent up- land presents a surface of the billowy character, peculiar to the bluff deposit. The source of this river is in Sac county.

Soldier river -The east and middle branches of this stream have their source in Crawford county, and the west branch in Ida county. The whole course of this river is through the bluff deposit. It has no exposure of strata along its course.

Little Sioux river .- Under this head are included both the main and west branches of that stream, together with the Maple, which is one of its branches. The west branch and the Maple are so similar to the Soldier river that they need no sep- arate description. The main stream has

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its boundary near the northern boundary of the State, and runs most of its course upon drift deposit alone, entering the region of the bluff deposit in the southern part of Cherokee county. The two prin- cipal upper branches near their source in Dickinson and Osceola counties are small prairie creeks within distinct valleys. On entering Clay county the valley deepens, and at their confluence has a depth of 200 feet. Just as the valley enters Cherokee county it turns to the southward, and be- comes much widened, with its sides gently sloping to the uplanda. When the valley enters the region of the bluff deposit, it assumes the billowy appearance. No ex- posures of strata of any kind have been found in the valley of the Little Sioux or any of its branches.

Floyd river .- This river rises upon the drift in O'Brien county, and flowing south- ward enters the region of the bluff deposit a little north of the centre of Plymouth county. Almost from its source to its mouth it is a prairie stream, with slightly sloping valley sides, which blend gradually with the uplands. A single slight exposure of sandstone of cretaceous age occurs in the valley near Sioux City, and which is the only known exposure of rock of any kind along ita whole length. Near this exposure is a mill-site, but farther up the stream it is not valuable for such purposes.

Rock river .- This stream passes through Lyon and Sioux counties. . It was, evi- dently, so named from the fact that con- siderable exposures of the red Sioux quartzite occur along the main branches of the stream in Minnesota, a few miles north of the State boundary. Within the

State the main stream and its branches are drift streams and strata are exposed. The beds and banks of the streams are usually sandy and gravelly, with occasionally boulders intermixed.

Big Sioux River .- The valley of this river, from the northwest corner of the State to its mouth, possesses much the same character as all the streams of the surface deposits. At Sioux Falls, a few miles above the northwest corner of the State, the streams meet with remarkable obstructions from the presence of Sioux quartzite, which outcrops directly across the stream, and causes a fall of about 60 feet within a distance of half a mile, pro- ducing a series of cascades. For the first 25 miles above its mouth, the valley is very broad, with a broad, flat flood-plain, with gentle slopes, occasionally showing indistinctly defined terraces. These ter- races and valley bottoms constitute some of the finest agricultural land of the re- gion. Ou the Iowa side of the valley the upland presents abrupt bluffs, steep as the materials of which they are composed will stand, and from 100 to nearly 200 feet high above the stream. At rare intervals, about 15 miles from its mouth, the creta- ceour strata are exposed in the face of the bluffs of the Iowa side. No other strata are exposed along that part of the valley which borders our State, with the single exception of Sioux quartzite at its extremne northwestern corner. Some good mill- sites may be secured along that portion of this river which borders Lyon county, but below this the fall will probably be found insufficient and the locations for dams in- secure.

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Missouri River .-- This is one of the muddiest streams on the globe, and its waters are known to be very turbid far toward its source. The chief peculiarity of this river is its broad flood-plains, and its adjacent bluff deposits. Much the greater part of the flood-plain of this river is upon the Iowa side, and continues from the south boundary line of the State to Sioux City, a distance of more than 100 miles in length, varying from three to five miles in width. This alluvial plain is esti- mated to contain more than half a million of acres of land within the State, upward of 400,000 of which are now tillable.

The rivers of the eastern system of drainage have quite a different character from those of the western system. They are larger, longer and have their valleys modified to a much greater extent by the underlying strata. For the latter reason, water-power is much more abundant upon them than upon the streams of the western system.

Des Moines River .- This river has ita source in Minnesota, but it enters Iowa before it has attained any size, and flows almost centrally through it from northwest to southeast, emptying into the Mississippi at the extreme southeastern corner of the State. It drains a greater area than any river within the State. The upper portion of it is divided into two branches, known as the east and west forks These unite in Humboldt county. The valleys of these branches above their confluence are drift valleys, except a few small exposures of subcarboniferous limestone about five miles above their confluence. These ex- posures produce several small mill-sites.

The valleys vary from a few hundred yards to half mile in width, and are the finest agricultural lands. In the northern part of Webster county the character of the main valley is modified by the presence of ledges and low cliffs of the subcarbonifer- ous limestone and gyps ım. From a point a little below Fort Dodge to near Amster- dam, in Marion county, the river runs all the way through and upon the lower Coal Measure strata. Along this part of the course the flood-plain varies from an eighth to a mile or more in width. From Amsterdam to Ottumwa the subcarbonifer- ous rocks pass beneath the river again, bringing down the Coal Measure strata into its bed; they rise from it in the ex- treme northwestern part of VanBuren county, and subcarboniferous strata re- sume and keep their place along the valley to the north of the river.

From Fort Dodge to the northern part of Lee county the strata of the Lower Coal Measures are present in the valley. Its flood-plain is frequently sandy from the debris of the sandstone and sandy shales of the Coal Measures produced by their removal in the process of the forma- tion of the valley.

The principal tributaries of the Des Moines are upon the western side. These are the Raccoon and the three rivers, viz: South, Middle and North rivers. The three latter have their sources in the re- gion occupied by the Upper Coal Measure limestone formation, flow eastward over the Middle Coal Measures, and enter the valley of the DesMoines upon the Lower Coal Measures. These streams, especially South and Middle rivers, are frequently bordered by high, rocky cliffs. Raccoon

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river has its source upon the heavy surface deposits of the middle region of Western Iowa, and along the greater part of its course it has excavated its valley out of those deposits and the Middle Coal Measure alone. The valley of the Des Moines and its branches are destined to become the seat of extensive manufac- turies, in consequence of the numerous mill-sites of immense power, and the fact that the main valley traverses the entire length of the Iowa coal fields.

Skunk river .- This has its source in Hamilton county, and runs almost its en- tire course upon the border of the outerop of the Lower Coal Measures, or, more prop- erly speaking, upon the subcarboniferous limestone, just where it begins to pass be- neath the Coal Measures by its southerly and westerly dip. Its general course is southeast. From the western part of Henry county, up as far as Story county, the broad, flat flood-plain is covered with a rich, deep olay soil, which, in time of long- continued rains and overflows of the river, has made the valley of Skunk river a ter- ror to travelers from the earliest settlement of the country. There are some excellent mill-sites on the lower half of this river, but they are not so numerous or valuable as on other rivers of the eastern system.

Iowa river .- This river rises in Han- cock county, in the midst of a broad, slightly undulating drift region. The first rock exposure is that of subcarboniferous limestone, in the southwestern corner of Franklin county. It enters the region of the Devonian strata near the southwestern corner of Benton county, and in this it continues to its confluence with the Cedar

in Louisa county. Below the junction with the Cedar, and for some miles above that point, its valley is broad, and especi- ally on the northern side, with a well- marked flood-plain. Its borders gradually blend with the uplands as they slope away in the distance from the river. The Iowa furnishes numerous and valuable mill-sites.

Cedar river .- This stream is usually understood to be a branch of the Iowa, but it ought, really, to be regarded as the main stream. It rises by numerous branches in the northern part of the State, and flows the entire length of the State, through the region occupied by the Devonian strata and along the trend occupied by that formation. The valley of this river, in the upper part of its course, is narrow, and the sides slope so gently as to scarcely show where the lowlands end and the uplands begin. Be- low the confluence with the Shell Rock, the flood-plain is more distinctly marked, and the valley broad and shallow. The valley of the Cedar is one of the finest re- gions in the State, and both the main stream and its branches afford abundant and reliable mill-sites.

Wapsipinnicon river .- This river has its source near the source of the Cedar, and runs parallel and near it almost its en- tire course, the upper half upon the same formation-the Devonian. In the north- eastern part of Linn county it enters the region of the Niagara limestone, upon which it continues to the Mississippi. It is 100 miles long, and yet the area of its drainage is only from 12 to 20 miles in width. Hence, its numerous mill-sites are unusually secure.

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Turkey river-This river and the Upper Iowa are, in many respects, unlike other Iowa rivers. The difference is due to the great depth to which they have eroded their valleys and the different character of the material through which they have worked. Turkey river rises in Howard county, and in Winneshiek county, a few miles from its source, its valley has attained a depth of more than 200 feet, and in Fay- ette and Clayton counties its depth is in- creased to 300 and 400 feet. The summit of the uplands, bordering nearly the whole length of the valley. is capped by the Ma- quoketa shales. These shales are under- laid by the Galena limestone, between 200 and 300 feet thick. The valley has been eroded through these, and runs upon the Trenton limestone. Thus all the forma- tions along and within this valley are Lower Silurian. The valley is usually narrow, and without a well-marked flood-plain. Water-power is abundant, but in most places inaccessible.

Upper Iowa river .- This river rises in Minnesota, just beyond the northern boun- dary line, and enters our State in Howard county before it has attained any consider- able size. Its course is nearly eastward until it reaches the Mississippi. It rises in the region of the Devonian rocks, and flows across the outcrops, respectively, of the Niagara, Galena and Trenton lime- stone, the lower magnesian limestone, and Potsdam sandstone, into and through all of which, except the last, it has cut its val- ley, which in the deepest of any in Iowa. The valley sides are almost everywhere high and steep, and cliffs of lower magne- sian and Trenton limestone give them a

wild and rugged aspect. In the lower part. of the valley the flood-plain reaches a width sufficient for the location of small farms, but usually it is too narrow for such purposes. On the higher surface, however, as soon as you leave the valley you come immediately upon a cultivated country. This stream has the greatest slope per mile of any in Iowa, and consequently it fur- nishes immense water-power. In some places where creeks come into it, the valley widens and affords good locations for farms. The town of Decorah, in Winne- shiek county, is located in one of these spots, which makes it a lovely location; and the power of the river and the small spring streams around it offer fine facilities for manufacturing. This river and its tributaries are the only trout streams in Iowa.

Mississippi river .- This river may be described, in general terms, as a broad canal cut out of the general level of the country through which the river flows. It is bordered by abrupt hills or bluffs. The bottom of the valley ranges from one to eight miles in width. The whole space between the bluffs is occupied by the river and its bottom, or flood-plain only, if we except the occasional terraces or remains of ancient flood-plains, which are not now reached by the highest floods of the river. The river itself is from half a mile to nearly a mile in width. There are but four points along the whole length of the State where the bluffs approach the stream on both sides. The Lower Silurian formations compose the bluffs in the northern part of the State, but they gradually disappear by a southerly dip, and the bluffs are con-

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1 ·I rand successively by the Upper Silurim, Devonian and Subcarbonferons rocks which are reached near the southeastern c rier of the State.

Considered in their relation to the pres- ent general sinface of the State, the rela tive ages of the river valley of Iowa date

back only to the close of the glicial epoch; but that the Mississippi and all the river. of Northeastern Iowa, if no others, hal .. t 'east a large part of the rocky portions of their valleys eroded by pre-glacial, or, per- haps, by pa de agonie rivers, can scarcely be doubted.

CHAPTER VIII

IOWA AND THE REBELLION.

By her record in the war of the rebellion Low i proved herself a truly Loyal State. The Presidential campaign of 1800 way an exciting one, and the fact that civil war might be inaugurated in www .Abrahan Lincoln was elected, was well modersound and daly considered. The people of Lava indulged in no hatred or il will towund ny section of the country, but were de ter- mined to hold such opinions upon que-tony of public interests, and vote for such feen as to them seemed for the general god, uninfluenced by any threat of violence or civil war.

The General Assembly of the State of Iowa. as early as 1851, had by joint re ol- tion declared that the State of Iowa w . " bound to maintain the union of these States by all the means in her power." The same year the State furnished a block

of marble for the Washington Monument at the national capitol, and by order of the General Assembly there was inscribed mjom its enduring surface the following: "Towa Iler affections, ike the rivers of her borders,'flow to an inseparable Union." The time was now approaching in her his. tory when the se declarations of attachment and fidelity to the nation were to be put to a practical test.

Carta ily the people of no State in the pation could be more vitally interested in the question of our national mi's han the propre of lowa. The older States of ilu I'ming, both North and South, were repre- sented in its poquestion Diwali with nearly al immigrants, bound to those n for

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ations of a personal character, there were others of the gravest political importance.

Iowa's geographical position as a State made the dismemberment of the Union a matter of serious concern. The Missis- sippi had been for years its highway to the markets of the world. The people could not entertain the thought that its navigation should pass under the control of a foreign government. But more than this was to be feared the consequence of introducing and recognizing in our national system the principal of secession or disin- tegration.

If this should be recognized as a right, what security had the States of the interior against their entire isolation from the com- merce of the world, by the future secession of the Atlantic and Pacific States? And the fact also remained, that secession or separation removed none of the causes of war. Whatever there was in the peculiar institution that created differences of sen- timent or feeling, or caused irritation, still existed after the separation, with no court or constitution as the arbiter of rights, and with the one resort, only, of the sword to settle differences. In secession and its logical and necessary results, we saw nothing but dire confusion and anarchy, and the utter destruction of that nation- ality through which alone we felt that our civil liberties as a people could be pre- served, and the hopes of our civilization prepetuated.

The declaration of Mr. Buchanan's last annual message, that the nation posssesed no constitutional power to coerce a seced- ing State, was received by the great majority of our citizens with humiliation

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History of Kossuth and Humbolt counties, Iowa : together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 10

Author: Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Union Publishing Company Number of Pages: 898

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Union Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 898