USA > Iowa > Marion County > History of Marion County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 2
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
taining shells of land snails of fresh water species, is called loess. Underneath these is the blue, yellow or buff bowlder clay, with asso- ciated gravels and sands, often containing granite or other foreign species of rock. This blue, compact clay is known to geologists as the till, or "lower till" of the glacial deposits.
The drift of Marion County is that formed by what is known as the Kansan ice sheet, though the pre-Kansan glaciers may have been responsible for some of the deposit. Formerly the mantle of drift covered the entire county and was probably quite evenly dis- tributed. Since the close of the glacial period, the erosion of the streams has been active in cutting through it, leaving an unequal distribution. The drift is clearly exposed on most of the hillsides, but is covered on the uplands by the loess and on the bottoms by the alluvium. Large bowlders are frequently seen in the bottom of ravines, but are seldom found elsewhere. A ravine about five miles southwest of Knoxville and a short distance south of the White Breast Creek is fairly filled with these bowlders, some of which are two feet or more in diameter. Many of these bowlders are striated or polished, sometimes on one side, sometimes on two sides, almost parallel to each other, showing plainly that they had been carried to their ultimate destination by the glacier.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS
During the years 1847 to 1850 Dr. D. D. Owen, acting under the authority of the United States Government, undertook a geo- logical survey of the mineral lands of the Northwest. In 1849 he made an examination of the outcrops of stone along the Des Moines River and described several exposures of the Coal Measure rocks in Marion County, the most important of which were those at Elk Bluff, near the western line of Polk Township, and at Red Rock. His report, a "Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minne- sota," was published in 1852 and contains the earliest mention of Marion County geology.
In 1856 A. H. Worthen, then an assistant on the Iowa Geologi- cal Survey and afterward state geologist of Illinois, made a more extended and detailed study of the Des Moines Valley. The result of his researches was published in Volume I, Geology of Iowa, in 1858.
Dr. C. A. White, then state geologist, in 1870 published in his report for that year the first description of the coal beds of Marion County and gave some analyses of the same. This subject was more
9
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
fully treated in the report of the lowa Geological Survey for 1894 by Dr. C. R. Keyes. Until the publication of this report geological investigation had been confined to the district lying along the Des Moines River, but Doctor Keyes took into consideration the coal deposits of the entire county.
In 1898-99 B. L. Miller made a complete geological survey of the county and prepared a geological map to accompany his re- port. Both report and map were published in the report of the lowa Geological Survey for the year 1900, and it is from this source that many of the facts in this chapter have been taken.
ECONOMIC GEOLOGY
While the student of geology would doubtless find a great deal to interest him in the scientific discussion of the geological struc- ture of Marion County-its groups, stages, systems, faults, synclines and anticlines-the average reader will be far more likely to de- velop an interest in the subject of economic geology-that branch of the science which treats of industrial and commercial importance of the various mineral deposits within the county. Foremost among these deposits is
COAL
Probably the first mention of coal in the State of Iowa was made by the English tourist, Featherstonhaugh, who voyaged down the Mississippi in a canoe in 1835 and noticed indication of coal in some of the outcrops along the river. Later in the same year Albert Lea, an agent of the United States Government, who was sent to ascertain the extent and resources of the mineral deposits of the Black Hawk purchase, reported "large coal deposits between the mouth of the Des Moines River and Raccoon Forks."
Doctor White, in his report of 1870 above referred to, says: "Marion is, without doubt, one of the best coal counties of the state. Indeed, except in the immediate valley of the Des Moines and in the lower portions of some of its tributary creeks, a shaft of two hundred, or three hundred feet depth at most, could hardly fail to pass through one or more coal beds."
He also mentions the natural exposure of the two coal beds near the old town of Coalport, in Polk Township, and the mines in various parts of the county. The samples analyzed by Doctor White were taken from Bousquet's mine at Coalport, a mine four
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
miles east of Knoxville, and a mine near Marysville. The value of coal as a fuel depends upon the quantities of moisture, fixed carbon, volatile combustible material and ash that it contains. A coal with a large amount of moisture and ash and poor in fixed carbon and volatile combustible matter is a poor coal, and vice versa. In none of the samples analyzed by Doctor White did the moisture exceed 7 per cent or the ash 8 per cent, while the fixed carbon ranged from 43 to 53 per cent and the volatile combustible matter from 34 to 48 per cent, showing the Marion County coal to be of good quality.
Park C. Wilson, who was state mine inspector from 1880 to 1886, in speaking of Marion County coal, said: "In regard to Marion County as a coal county, I will say that while traveling over the different coal counties for almost four years in the capacity of mine inspector, I have made a careful study, so far as possible, of their deposits, to determine their extent, and I am now firmly of the opinion that Marion County has the largest deposits of coal of any county in the state.
"In my opinion the greatest difference there is in Iowa coal is in the hardness of the coal, as the softer it is the more it is damaged by being handled, and in a practical point of view I consider that the most important question in regard to the condition of Iowa coal in different localities, and one which can be readily answered by those who are shipping. The harder the coal, the better condi- tion it is in when delivered to the consumer, and the better price it will bring in the market. And the hardness of the coal does not add to the cost of production, but, on the contrary, lessens the cost of mining, does not require the care in handling, stands exposure better, and is better for steam purposes than softer coal. In the above particulars, Marion County coal stands second to none in the state."
Mr. Miller, in the report of his survey of the county, divides the coal deposits of the county into three districts: (1) the district north of the Des Moines River; (2) the district between the Des Moines River and English Creek; (3) the district south and east of English Creek. The principal mining centers noted by him in the first district were at or near Pella, Otley, Dunreath and Morgan Valley. In the second district he visited and examined the mines at Swan, Coal Creek, White Breast Creek, Coalport, Knoxville and Flagler. His report of the mines in the third district deals with the mines of the O. K. Coal Company and those at Hamilton and Marysville.
It is not the purpose of this chapter to give a history of the mining industry of the county, but merely to treat the coal deposits
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
from a geological point of view, showing their extent, etc. A more complete account of mining as an industry will be found in Chapter XIV. In closing his remarks upon the coal fields of Marion County, Mr. Miller says :
"No attempt is made to correlate the various coal seams situated in different parts of the county, as it is impossible to trace any de- posit for any considerable distance, yet something may be said in a general way concerning the deposits. It seems certain that the Dun- reath coal is older than that now being mined south of the Des Moines River, and that those deposits, or other deposits of the same age, have been carried to considerable depth in the southern part of the county by the dip of strata in that direction. It is not meant that the coal beds north of the river are continuous, for this is known not to be the case, but merely that there are beds of the same age in the southern part of the county. If this supposition be true, the coal supply of Marion County is vastly greater than is usually supposed, and when the upper beds are exhausted in the southern half of the county there will yet remain a large supply of good coal at a depth probably not exceeding four hundred feet. Half a dozen accurate deep well records in this region would be sufficient to prove or dis- prove this supposition, but unfortunately these are altogether lacking."
BUILDING STONE
The building stones of the county are the limestone of the St. Louis and the sandstone of the Des Moines formations. As previ- ously stated, the former outcrops at various places along the Skunk and Des Moines rivers, Cedar Creek and some of their tributaries. The Geological Survey has divided the St. Louis limestone into the Pella and Verdi beds, both of which have been quarried to consid- erable extent. The oldest and largest quarry noted by Mr. Miller in his survey of the county is the one on Cedar Creek, about two miles southwest of Tracy. This quarry is not far from the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, with which it is connected by a short switch. Says Miller: "Although hundreds of carloads of stone have been removed and shipped to all parts of the state, the quarry has been worked only a short distance back into the hill. The principal beds in this quarry are the 16, 17 and 19-inch ledges. From the latter, blocks measuring 3 feet 3 inches by 5 feet can be easily obtained, and occasionally even larger pieces are removed."
The geological map of the county prepared by Mr. Miller shows
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
quarries at various places in the St. Louis limestone. Several of these quarries are along the Skunk River and Thunder Creek, in the northeastern part of the county. Rees' quarry is located in sec- tion 1, township 75, range 19, about a mile east of Flagler on the north bank of English Creek. Mr. Rees formerly operated a quarry near the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, a short distance northeast of Durham, and shipped considerable stone from there until the new quarry near Flagler was opened. Quarries have also been worked in the St. Louis stone on Walnut Creek, northwest of Tracy; near Howell station on the Wabash Railroad; about a mile and a half southwest of Pella, on the road to Knoxville; and on the south bank of the Des Moines River about a mile and a half below Harvey.
Although much better than the stone of the Coal Measures, the St. Louis limestone found in Marion County is not of superior quality. The different layers or ledges vary greatly in texture and durability, some being little affected by atmospheric action, while others disintegrate in a few years when subjected to alternate warm and cold weather. Foundations fifteen or twenty years old; when constructed of the better quality of the stone, present almost as fresh and solid appearance as the day they were laid, while those of the inferior quality of stone begin to crumble in a comparatively short time.
The great drawback to the quarrying of the St. Louis limestone in Marion County is the thickness of the overlying drift. The ex- posures are all in the valleys and ravines and as the outcrop is fol- lowed back into the hill the drift becomes thicker, so that the ex- · pense of "stripping" in time becomes so great that the business be- comes unprofitable. For this reason it is quite certain that the quarries of Marion will never be able to compete with those of some other counties where the exposures are more easily worked.
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Besides the sandstone of the Des Moines formation, some lime- stones and conglomerates have been quarried in the Coal Measures for building purposes, but they are confined to such limited areas and are of such inferior quality that they scarcely deserve more than a passing mention. In fact, if it were not for the scarcity of good building stone in a large part of the county, the Coal Measure limestone would hardly be considered worth quarrying. It is a heterogeneous stone in composition, breaks irregularly and. cannot be dressed without great waste. The surface quickly becomes rough when exposed to the weather. It is used for foundations and for
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
walling wells, but in recent years it has been almost entirely sup- planted by cement.
The sandstones of the Coal Measures have been extensively quarried and the stone was formerly shipped to Des Moines and St. Louis, as well as to other cities in and out of the state. Although comparatively soft, this stone does not crumble and resists the action of the weather as well as some sandstones of much harder composi- tion. In the early days of quarrying this rock it was blasted, but this shattered it so badly that the plan of channeling was substituted. While this process is somewhat slower, it yields greater profits in the amount of good stone saved for use. At Red Rock there is a vertical face of almost ninety feet exposed, and as there are no joint planes, or ledges, present in the formation it is possible to secure blocks of any size desired. Owing to the variation in color of the various parts of the rock, it is quite difficult to get blocks of a uniform color throughout, especially blocks of large dimensions. In order to work the quarry with profit it is necessary to remove large quantities of the stone and then assort it according to the dif- ferent tints. These colors vary from a light gray to a brick red. The amount of "stripping" is small, the stone is of good quality, and the supply is almost inexhaustible.
CLAYS
Marion County is well supplied with clay suitable for brick and tile making, as well as some of the finer grades, well adapted to the manufacture of ordinary pottery, etc. The clays are obtained from the loess and the Coal Measure shales, the former being used most extensively. There are three different kinds of the loess clay --- the gray surface material, the yellow clay and the blue clay. Often these are used separately, but better results can be obtained by using a mixture of the different varieties. As carly as 1871 W. P. Fox noted clay beds near Knoxville, concerning which he said: "Within three-quarters of a mile southwest of the courthouse in Knoxville, a heavy bed of fire clay can be worked to good advantage and made to pay handsomely. Also within a mile of the courthouse, to the northwest, another bed of fire clay and potter's clay exists, which it will pay heavily to work. In other places heavy beds of these clays exist in close proximity to the City of Knoxville, and pottery ware men should make a note of this. Large quantities of brick clay also exist within a short distance of the city."
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
In almost every case the coal veins of the county are underlain with beds of fire clay, varying in thickness from a few inches to fifteen feet. Though very little use has been made so far of these deposits, tests show that the clay possesses all the essential qualities for the production of fire brick of the first class.
The principal clay working industries mentioned by Miller, in his report in 1900, were the Pella Brick and Tile Company, located in the eastern part of the City of Pella; the Wright brickyards, about two miles north of Knoxville and a short distance northwest of Bussey, and the King brickyard, in the northern part of Section 17, Township 75, Range 19, about a mile southeast of Knoxville. At the last named yards Coal Measure shale was used, sometimes alone and sometimes mixed with the clays of the loess. By mixing shale and loess it was found that the brick could be dried much more rapidly without danger of cracking, and that they could be burned much harder than those made exclusively from the loess. Mr. Miller noticed that brick taken from the kiln next to the furnace showed indications that led him to believe that a good quality of vitrified brick could be produced.
A great deal of drain tile has been used in the county, most of it having been manufactured in connection with the brick at the different plants. Loess is used exclusively for making tile, being better adapted to that purpose than to the manufacture of brick, as tile can be dried without cracking under conditions where it is im- possible to dry brick, and the loess clay burns to vitrification at a temperature not exceeding 2,300° Fahrenheit. Most of the tile made are of the smaller sizes, ranging from three to eight inches in diameter.
Pottery was formerly made at the King brickyard, at Coalport, and at Attica, where potter's clay of good quality for the manufac- ture of the common grades of earthenware is found in abundance in the Coal Measures. A Mr. McPheeters was one of the pioneers in this industry, conducting a pottery at Knoxville and turning out an excellent quality of earthenware. A similar plant was operated for years by Jehu King, on the grounds now occupied by King's brickyard, about a mile southeast of the city. Jugs, jars, churns, flower-pots, etc., were formerly turned out at these places in suffi- cient quantities to supply the local demand, and much of the product was shipped to Iowa and Missouri cities. The largest clay deposits are near Attica, where a number of small potteries were once oper- ated, but on account of the great reduction in the prices of earthen-
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
ware in recent years all the works of this character in the county have been discontinued.
There are now two large clay-working plants in operation in the county. One of these is located at Harvey, where immense quan- tities of terra cotta blocks, brick and tiling of all sizes are turned out, and the other is conducted in connection with the State Inebriate Hospital in the western limits of Knoxville.
MISCELLANEOUS MINERALS
Some years ago specimens of stone were obtained from the Coal Measures in the southeastern part of the county that were pronounced by lithographers to be a lithographic stone of good quality. Other finds of this stone in different parts of the county have also been reported from time to time, but it is not known whether the deposits are of sufficient extent to justify working or not. Nearly all the stone of this character used in the United States comes from Germany. If the beds of lithographic stone in Marion County are of any consider- able size, they may in time be developed into a profitable industry.
In early years lime was burned at various places in the county, especially in the eastern part, and was used to supply the local demand. While not of the finest quality it was quite durable and was used by the people of the county for a number of years. In recent years, however, the finer grades of lime, made from the gray magnesian limestone, have been introduced and the old limekilns have been abandoned. Some of the St. Louis marls are believed to be suitable for the manufacture of hydraulic cement, but no attempt has been made to utilize them for that purpose.
Near Hamilton there is a deposit of yellow ochre, which, judging from the outcrops and well borings, seems to be rather extensive. It has been detected in well borings two miles or more from where it outcrops and it is believed to be continuous between the two points. Samples of the ochre were sent to a paint manufacturing company for examination and test, and while the company reported that it con- tained the necessary constituents for paint, the samples showed so many impurities, principally calcium carbonate and sand, it was upon the whole unprofitable to undertake its use in the manufacture of paint. Notwithstanding this unfavorable report, it is believed that at least portions of the deposit may be free from the impurities and that at some future time the beds may be developed. A house at Hamilton was painted with the ochre several years ago and it has proved its durability as a pigment.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Small copper nuggets have been found at different places in the county, and this has caused some persons to believe that somewhere, sometime, a copper mine will be discovered. The nuggets vary in weight from a few ounces to about four pounds. In every instance they have been found in the glacial drift and it is quite probable that they were carried by the glacier from the Lake Superior region in the same way that the glacial bowlders were transported and deposited.
Reports of the presence of lead and zinc were made to Mr. Miller while he was engaged in making his survey of the county. Concern- ing these rumors he says in his report: "Whenever the exact location of these supposed deposits could be ascertained, the strata were care- fully examined, but no evidence of the presence of either of these metals was found. With respect to the zinc, it is probable that the iron carbonate, siderite, which is found in the large septarial concre- tions in the black shale, has been mistaken for zinc blende. It closely resembles it in color, so that it is not surprising that such an error has been made."
Gypsum, in the form of diamond or needle-shaped crystals, has been found in the black shales of the Coal Measures. But the crystals are too small to be of any economic importance. The same is true of iron pyrites, which are found in the coal and Coal Measure shales, but not in sufficient quantity to be of any commercial value.
WATER SUPPLY
The water supply of the county comes from the running streams and wells. There are a few springs but the flow is usually so small that they cannot be depended upon to furnish a constant supply of water. Throughout the county water-bearing strata are seldom exposed, and where they lie near the surface the drift or loess absorbs or conceals the seepage, thus forming boggy places rather than springs.
As most of the water is found in the drift the wells are generally shallow, the water frequently being found in small sand-filled pockets or veins. Two wells, only a few rods apart, may frequently be of different depths, owing to their obtaining their supplies from differ- ent sources. In the eastern part of the county water is obtained from the St. Louis formation. It is generally of good quality, though in a few instances is rather "hard," on account of the large amount of calcareous matter held in solution. Water is found in the Coal Measures, but it is nearly always too strongly impregnated with min- eral substances to be suitable for domestic purposes.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Some years ago a number of deep wells were sunk on the uplands between the Skunk and Des Moines rivers. These wells vary in depth from one hundred to three hundred feet. A few-those that pierce the sandstone-afford a bountiful supply of pure, wholesome water, but in most of them the water comes from the Coal Measures and is of poor quality.
Before the beginning of the present century several artesian wells were sunk in the northern and eastern parts of the county, though in none of them is the pressure sufficient to force the water to any con- siderable height above the surface, nor is there a strong flow at any time. The well at Flagler, which is 752 feet deep, is said to produce a water that possesses great curative properties for certain human ailments. All the water from the artesian wells is strongly impreg- nated with minerals, chiefly iron and sulphur. Two of these flowing wells, located in the Des Moines River bottoms near Red Rock, are about two hundred feet deep and apparently draw their water supply from the Coal Measures. So far as it has been tested, the water from the artesian wells has been found to be unfit for use in steam boilers on account of its corrosive action.
Within the last few years many persons have found it necessary to deepen their wells that draw water from the drift, on account of the great decrease in the supply. No one has been able to account for this phenomenon except upon the theory that, while the average annual rainfall has not changed materially, it is not as uniformly dis- tributed throughout the year as formerly, and drouths are more fre- quent, which has an effect upon the shallow wells. Since the great drouth of 1911, drillers have been busy sinking deep wells in all parts of the county, invariably obtaining inexhaustible supplies at depths varying from one hundred to three hundred and fifty feet. Some of these wells on private farms have been sunk to a depth of over four hundred feet. In the summer of 1914 a well at the State Inebriate Hospital was sunk to a depth of over twelve hundred feet, when it was temporarily abandoned by the contractor. Members of the State Board of Control say that it will be sunk to a depth of 2,000 feet in 1915, unless a sufficient supply of water is sooner obtained.
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