USA > Iowa > Louisa County > History of Louisa County, Iowa, from its earliest settlement to 1912, Volume I > Part 2
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Elm Grove townships. The best stone is taken from what is called the Upper Burlington bed and all of the present working quarries use this stratum. For- merly the lower beds were worked on the farm of J. D. Anderson south of Elrick Junction, but it appears that the weathering of this rock has lessened materially its value for building purposes. The principal quarries of the pres- ent are located near Morning Sun on Honey Creek, and on Long Creek and its tributaries in Columbus City and Elm Grove townships.
The quarry of Charles B. Wilson in section twenty-eight, a mile and a half east of Morning Sun, furnishes rock from the Burlington bed as named above. This quarry extends for approximately a quarter of a mile on either side of Honey Creek, and from the excavations now made, one may judge that a large amount of stone has been removed. There is a small amount of waste material in comparison to the amount removed and many acres of land are yet available for working ; while the labor of opening the quarry is not heavy. Just across the railway tracks in section twenty-nine is the quarry of W. C. Bryant, where more than seven feet of pure limestone is available "for heavy foundations, bridge piers and other masonry work, besides walls and finishings." The analy- sis of rock found in these quarries commends it for the manufacture of Port- land cement, and also for an excellent quality of white lime. These two quar- ries appear to be limitless in the material available, and are moreover conveniently situated for shipping.
In section twenty-seven of Morning Sun township the "Ackenbaum" quarry is located. This lies on Gospel Run and when the face of the rock is exposed there is a light covering of soil similar to what is called "loess." Quarries of less importance are found in other parts of Louisa County, especially along Buffington and Long Creeks. There is the old Wasson quarry, later controlled by C. J. Gipple, located in a low terrace along the south branch of Long Creek in section twenty-three. The same rock is found in other parts of the same vicinity on Long creek and in section fourteen of Elm Grove on Buffington Creek. In section three of Columbus City township J. E. Gray and J. M. Marshall have opened the white rock found there. As one moves farther west- ward in the county the rock are less frequently exposed, because of the heavy "drift" in that portion.
The names of those conducting commercial quarries with the kind of stone and means of handling it as it has been reported are mentioned here; all the work is described as "hand work." The product is building, macadam, rip rap, and rubble stone, of a gray subcrystalline limestone nature. The owners are, as found in reports, Mrs. Churchman at Cairo; J. M. Marshall, J. E. Gray and J. H. Jones, Columbus Junction : W. C. Bryant, W. A. Steele, and Chas. B. Wil- son of Morning Sun ; and John Ackenbaum at Newport. Stone from the Wilson quarry has undergone engineering tests in the department at Ames. The Churchman land now belongs to Frank P. Brown and the Ackenbaum property is owned by D. L. Morris.
The Clay products from Louisa County for the year 1908 amounted to about eight thousand dollars. Institutions for such manufacture have been in operation at Columbus Junction, Morning Sun, and across the river east of Wapello.
Brick and tile in sufficient quantity to supply local demand have been made at these three points, but there is no work being done at the Wapello institution
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
just now. Some brick products have been used in sidewalks, notably that of the Morning Sun factory. The clay used in the plant at Columbus Junction is taken from a low terrace-like extension of the upland lying between the Iowa River and Short Creek, the loess formation here consisting in part of a calcareous element. Brick made from this formation have an especially fine texture according to the judgment of men versed in such matters.
Coal measures, according to signs remaining, were once deposited over a large part of the county, either in independent sections or more or less contin- uous sheets. These, however, have been almost entirely removed by the con- tinual and heavy denudation through the years of erosion subsequent to that deposit. Nearly all that remains to indicate the former deposit is found within four hundred acres. The region so described is located chiefly "in the west bluff of the lowa River in the adjoining corners of sections sixteen, seventeen, and twenty-one in Union township." Here, it is said, a few inches of coal appear in the rock formations of grayish white sandstone, and dark shale. In digging wells also signs of coal have been found. The only recorded output of coal is given as "forty bushels in 1862." Small quantities have been found and used for fuel, yet no indications have suggested a profitable development. Money has been spent, and wasted in prospecting, where no coal could be found.
We find in the Wapello Republican of January 30, 1866, the following item in regard to coal: "We are informed that a vein of coal some four feet in thickness has been found on the farm of Judge Springer, south of Columbus City, in this county."
And in an issue of the same paper published in September of that year, it is said that J. F. Schill reported that he had discovered a vein of cannel coal, twenty inches thick, on Long creek, six miles northwest of Wapello. These reports were not borne out by the facts.
Down near Morning Sun, in the fall and winter of 1868-9, a Mr. Price Hughes did a great deal of digging for coal. According to the newspaper reports he went down something over 220 feet and spent all of his own spare change, and some six or seven hundred dollars that was contributed by people who relied upon his claims that he could get coal at less than 200 feet. When he had gone down about 130 feet, and was confident that coal was but a few feet away, his work was written up in glowing fashion by a correspondent of the Wapello Republican. In response to that communication we find the following in a sub- sequent issue of the same paper, dated at Iowa City, January 6, 1869: "In your paper of last week I observed that some correspondent gave you the progress of Mr. Hughes in his search for coal near Morning Sun. This reminds me that I had promised some of the Morning Sun citizens to call on Dr. White, State Geologist, and get his opinion on coal matters in Louisa county. I have called on the Doctor. and I assure you he does not flatter coal mining in that region. He says that Louisa, Johnson and Des Moines counties have no coal, for this reason : that during the Glacial period they were passed over by an immense glacier moving in an almost direct north and south line, which entirely stripped these counties of all deposits of coal. He says that the rock on the surface in Louisa county is the bed rock for all the coal in the state, and if any coal is found in your county, it will be on top of the rock, in some basin or hollow where it was protected from the moving mountain of ice. I remarked to the
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Doctor that Mr. Ilughes warranted coal at less than two hundred feet. 1Ie remarked: 'Tell your people at Morning Sun that I will warrant them none at any depth.' W. E. B."
These initials look very much like those of the Hon. W. E. Blake, who was then going to law school at Iowa City. Mr. Hughes "came back" at Dr. White and "W. E. B." in a communication from Morning Sun, dated February 26, 1869. in which, among other things, he said: "A few weeks ago I noticed a let- ter in your paper from Iowa City giving the opinion of the State Geologist, and so far as I can learn I believe I know more about the indications of coal than Mr. White does about making tin cups. I have found the indications of coal here the same as I have found elsewhere where I have found coal, and I intend to test the matter Let me say, Mr. Editor, that I believe there is coal in this county, and I do not think the ice of Tinman White swept it quite all away."
The allusion to Dr. White as "Tinman White" was doubtless due to the fact that the Doctor, many years before that, had been a partner with his brother in a hardware store in Burlington. However, some weeks after the above com- munication, Mr. Hughes had thoroughly convinced himself that in fighting against "mother nature" and "father science," he was engaged in an unequal combat, and he wrote an article acknowledging his mistake, and making some amends for his former flippant and sarcastic reference to our worthy and emi- ment State Geologist. Since then there has been very little coal prospecting in Louisa County.
There is a tradition that at one time the Indians secured lead from some- where on Long creek and we find in the Wapello Republican of June 7, 1860. an item of interest on this line under the heading of Lead Ore. "We under- stand from Mr. Jesse Vanhorn, of Marshall township, that a fine specimen of this ore was found near the mill he formerly owned in the Long creek timber a few days ago. It is known that the Indians used to get plenty of lead in this neighborhood years ago but we believe the exact locality was not known to the white men." It is not known, yet.
More than twenty years ago natural gas was first discovered in this county. It was early in December in 1890, according to Mr. F. M. Witter, who made some study of the matter, that Mr. F. L. Estle, who lived in section three, town- ship seventy-five north, range four west, sunk a well on his farm. At a depth of one hundred feet he struck a flow of gas which readily burned, but in two or three days it ceased to flow. About the same time, Mr. R. M. Lee at a point just west of the first well, a half mile or more, bored for water. At one hun- dred feet he failed to find a flow of water and stopped boring. In the evening he began to remove his casing and succeeded in raising it several feet. During the night he heard a great roaring, and on approaching the abandoned well with a lantern the gas suddenly took fire and shot high into the air, making a fright- ful noise. In course of time the flame was extinguished and the gas was piped into the house where it was used for fuel and light. Later it was used in the same way in neighboring houses, one being more than a mile away. The gas was carried over the ground in common pipe of different dimensions. The well at one time supplied twelve fires and sixteen lights. More than a score of wells
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
have been found to furnish gas, some furnishing a supply for many years. The pressure has been measured in at least fifteen of these and found to be from four to ten and one half pounds, the higher pressure being in the deeper wells. A short distance below the gas area a good flow of water is obtained. Many interesting facts are related concerning these wells, and the results of such discoveries.
CHAPTER II.
THE MOUND BUILDERS.
The first people to inhabit Louisa county were the Mound Builders. This ancient race disappeared before historic times and is known only by such of its works as have survived the destructive elements of time. Whence it came, and when, how long it remained in the land and whither it departed, may never be known.
Earthen walls, mounds, figures, ditches and pits, implements of war and of art, of the chase, of husbandry and the honie, made of stone, metal, bone and shell, point to a people far in advance of savagry, a people of fixed habitation and living under something akin to government.
Louisa county had its full share of this ancient race. The high bluffs of the Mississippi and the Iowa rivers were their favorite dwelling places. The rich valleys below may have been their fields and the adjacent streams and forests their hunting grounds.
Toolesboro must have been a place of some importance among them, for here are found some of their most extensive works. It required the labor of man for many days to construct the great mounds and walls, still in evidence on the river bluffs about this village. There was also an ancient work, now oblit- erated, called a fort, adjacent to these mounds. A description and sketch of this interesting work will be found in connection with some observations taken from Mr. Newhall's "Sketches of Iowa." As there are no pits in evidence to indicate the place whence the earth was taken, we can only infer that it was loosened with a flint hoe, or other crude tool, and borne in baskets to the place of deposit, as fragments of such baskets made of bark, have been found in mounds at other places.
Modern civilization tends to level and obliterate these evidences of an inter- esting past. The spade of the curiosity seeker, and the plow of the farmer grad- ually remove these traces of our ancient inhabitants. It is greatly to the credit of the people of Toolesboro to preserve one and the chief of these great ruins. The fine mound on the border of this village is the largest known to exist in Iowa, and its sacred contents have never been disturbed. Many of its sister mounds have been opened and destroyed, and the earth walls near by have been almost leveled by the plow.
But scientific exploration is not to be condemned. Without such aid history would have no record of primeval people. The Davenport Academy of Science has for many years conducted many well advised explorations of the ancient mounds and works found in the valley of the Mississippi river. Its collection of Mound Builder antiquities is the finest in the United States. In conducting
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
its field work it has been careful to preserve all relies discovered, giving to each locality due credit for all contributions and being especially careful to restore the disturbed works to their former condition. Its museum is open to the public. It is known throughout both our country and Europe, and many antiquarians visit it for study in this interesting field.
Many years ago the academy opened some of the Toolesboro mounds, and secured, in addition to the usual stone axes, flint spears and arrow heads, etc .. a number of axes and implements made of native copper. Nearly a dozen cop- per axes were secured. In size they range from five to eight inches long. having a cutting edge of two to three and a half inches and are from a half to one and a quarter inches thick. They are made of native copper and were beaten and ground into shape. The outside of each was heavily coated with the green oxide of copper, on removal of which the pure metalic copper appeared. This collec- tion of copper axes is unique and valuable because some of the axes were wrapped in a coarse cloth with an outer wrapping of bark. This cloth is fossilized by the copper salts but it shows the fibre and the weaving with remarkable dis- tinctness. The texture of the cloth was about as coarse as very heavy huck or linen toweling. The threads of both warp and woof were the same size and tightly twisted.
Extensive Mound Builders works are also found in the eastern part of Grand View township, on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. The most noticeable of these works is an area of about two acres enclosed by two parallel walls of earth, five to six feet high, and a ditch nearly as deep, and a circular excavation at the west side about a hundred feet in diameter and twenty feet deep. At the foot of the bluff below this pit are two natural flowing springs, one of sulphur water and the other pure.
The Davenport Academy of Science is famous among antiquarians, for two specimens of ancient art found in this vicinity. These are the "Elephant Pipes." One of these was taken from a mound on the farm of P. Haas, by Mr. Haas and Rey. A. Bhummer, a zealous member of the academy, and the other was picked up by a farmer, whose name is unknown, and given to Mr. Blumer. These are now preserved in the museum of the academy. These pipes are made of a dark brown stone, quite hard and well polished. The bowl of the pipe is carved out of the back of the elephant, and the base of each is convex upward. They are each about four inches long, two and a half inches high and one and one-eighth inches thick. The body is comparatively large. The feet, tail and proboscis are well formed, but there is an absence of tusks. Other pipes similar in material and form were found here, representing mostly some beast. bird or man.
Mounds are to be found in many of the prominent bluffs of the county. Implements of war and the chase are quite uniformly scattered over the county. Many stone axes are found and flint arrow heads, spear heads, knives, scrapers and hoes have been very common. The number and size of these earthworks, and the abundance of these works of art representing both war and peace, attest the uniformity with which these people inhabited the county as well as their number and the length of time they lived in possession.
Taking the whole country, the most extensive earthworks are found in the level river valleys and not on the bluffs. The most extensive series of embank-
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
ments, figures and mounds, are to be found in the state of Ohio. Wisconsin contains an embankment representing an elephant. The largest mound in the United States is the Cahokia mound in Illinois, a few miles above St. Louis. This is a stupendous pile of earth .- a parellelogram, 700 feet by 500 feet and 90 feet high, and covers six acres ; and a causeway 150 feet wide and 300 feet long leads to the top. A similar but smaller pyramid is near Saltzertown, Mis- sissippi .- 600 feet by 400 feet, and 40 feet high, covering about five acres. The "great serpent" in Adams county, Ohio, is 700 feet long, and the "alligator" in Licking county, Ohio, is 250 feet long. Near Wheeling. West Virginia, is a huge mound 900 feet in circumference and 70 feet high.
We cannot certainly know the purpose for which these works were erected. Ditches and embankments were probably for defense. Animal figures for Deities and mounds were sepulchral or sacrificial.
The Mound Builders can only be mentioned in the most general terms. It was an ancient race. It had disappeared before the Columbian discovery ; the modern Indian had no tradition of it, and great trees showing an annuilar growth of many centuries have grown and fallen on its works. It was numerically strong : for the huge masses of earth piled up in its great pyramids, and count- less mounds and embankments point to united effort of a numerous people covering a large period of time. This people had permanent dwellings, for a nomad people would have neither motive nor ability for such construction. They cultivated the soil. The sites of their settlements were adjacent to rich valleys, instruments adapted to husbandry are found in the locality, and people in such numbers could not otherwise exist. They attained to a fair degree of civilization, for they used implements of stone, metal, shell and bone and wove cloth. They had commercial relations with most regions, for their copper came from the Lake Superior region, where their ancient mines are still to be seen : their mica from New Hampshire or the Carolinas, and their obsidian from Nevada or Mexico, and sea shells must have come from the gulf or the Atlantic.
They were largely given to pursuits of peace. for otherwise they would not have been driven from their homes by the savage tribes, who later possessed the land. They were under no general government, for if they had been they could have successfully opposed the invading foe. They were under some form of local government, for their mighty works could only be accomplished by a power compelling united effort.
Such numbers would hardly desert the vast territory by common consent. and it is hardly possible that a pestilence carried them away. We may infer that most of them were destroyed by an invading tribe or tribes. Their savage foes would naturally covet their granaries and stores and would find this docile race easy victims of their savage greed, and might have no use for slaves except for torture. They may gradually have been driven south for there was an old tradition among the Toltec Mexicans that their ancestors came from the north- land.
One of the most entertaining and instructive works on early lowa history is Newhall's "Sketches of Iowa," published in 1840. Mr. Newhall was at that time a resident of Burlington and was a writer and speaker of some prominence : was at one time interested in the town site of Florence in this county, and was a frequent visitor to the county ; and we shall have frequent occasion to use
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
extracts from his work. He was much interested in the Mound Builders and his work contains the only description we have been able to find of the old fort. near Toolesboro. It is found in an article on "Antiquities and Mounds." After indulging in some speculation concerning who the Mound Builders were and from whence they came, he speaks of having examined this old fortification at Black Hawk on the north side of the Iowa river, and then says: "The site of the town itself is marked and striking. A portion of the village is located under a high precipitous bluff. Upon ascending this, the country sweeps off in a very gradual descent of beautiful prairie. Upon the margin of this bluff ( which is of great height, and nearly perpendicular towards the river) there are eight conical mounds, averaging from twenty to thirty feet in height, and about eighty feet in circumference at the base, with a small area or terrace upon their sum- mits. From the top of these mounds the view is almost boundless, embracing every point of the compass. Indeed from the Falls of St. Anthony to the mouth of the Ohio, I know of but few panoramic views so extensive and so varied. Overlooking the broad Mississippi, and the wide and extended prairies of Illinois in the east, the 'Flint Hills' in the south, and the high bluffs of Bloomington in the north, I was particularly struck with the different points that could be brought to bear upon each other by a line of telegraphs or beacon lights upon a wide extent of country. A few feet in the rear appear indistinct vestiges of the old fort. now almost obliterated by the work of time. The embankment is of earth, and, in many portions, can be distinctly traced, enclosing an area of five or six aeres, the angles and bastions exhibiting the form of an octagonal crescent. It evidently appears to have been constructed for the purpose of defense, the points of the angles and intervening flanks showing, conclusively. a knowledge of the engineering and military science. Opposite the mounds and upon the western side of the fort. the early settlers of the place informed me that, previous to the grounds having been plowed up, a distinct lane or covert way was visible, formed by two parallel embankments, and leading some eighty or ninety feet to a spring: although at the present time, this embankment is scarcely perceptible, the work of the plow having obliterated nearly every trace of its outline. Within the fort I have discovered detached fragments of pottery, pieces of pitcher handles, urns, etc., unlike anything of the present day, also several flint spears, or javelins. Some of the pottery bore the visible marks of being glazed, and the distinct impression of diagonal marks forming diamonds and fluted rims, evincing much skill and workmanship. Many of the neighbors informed me that, on excavating some mounds, a few miles distant, several well formed furnaces had been discovered; in fact, all the ware discovered in the fort, bore conclusively the process of heat, i. e., of having been baked. Many of the most aged Indians of the Sac and Fox tribes have been interrogated upon the subject and history of this fort, but they have no tradition more than a sort of innate reverence for the neighborhood of mounds, viewing them in the light of consecrated places."
On page 234 Mr. Newhall gives a diagram or sketch of this ancient work and in order that our readers may have a better idea of it than can be given otherwise, we have procured a cut of it. After this cut was made we caused it to be published in the Wapello Tribune, accompanied by a request for any one who was familiar with the matter to locate the point where the spring used
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B
F
G
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E.
REFERENCES.
B Bottom lands between the Mississippi and łowa rivers.
E E Embankments of the fort.
F Insule of the fort. G G Gateways.
H. B.
S Former spring. I. R. Iowa River. M. R. Mississippi River.
H. B. High bluff.
OLD FORT AT TOOLESBORO
= PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS L
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
to be, as shown in the sketch: after seeing the sketch Mr. Anson Kimball designated the place where in his opinion the spring undoubtedly was, at one time, and this place is on the lands now owned by C. L. Mosier, and would seem to be at about the proper distance and in about the proper direction from the mounds which are still standing on the bluffs. Mr. Newhall also makes some interesting observations upon the similarity between the works at Tooles- boro and some that are found in Ohio. We quote again: "The reader must observe the striking similarity between these works and those described on the banks of the Muskingum. The situation of those works is on an elevated plain, above the present banks of the Muskingum on the east side, and about half a mile from its junction with the Ohio. They consist of walls and mounds of earth, in direct line, and in circular form. On each side are several openings resembling gateways. Allusion is also made to a covert way of two parallel walls of earth, leading toward the river.
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