USA > Iowa > Mills County > History of Mills County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
331
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
A further discussion of the history of the Missouri is reserved for another page.
There are within the limits of this county no bodies of water which could be properly designated as lakes. There is, however, a single one popu- larly called a lake, situated in sections 34 and 35 of Lyons township- Lake Wahbonsie .* This lake-or pond-lies partly in Fremont county, and is at the best not a very conspicuous feature. It differs widely from the clear blue waters of Lakes Ontario or Superior, and can nowhere be easily approached by reason of the dense growth of flags and marsh grass which grow even to the water's edge. It is properly a fluviatile lake, owing its existence to the change which has occurred in the course of the Missouri, and of the ancient bed of which it is a relict. The broad bottom land of the Missouri has been caused by the vibration of the great stream from side to side during which it alternately occupied and aban- doned all portions of it successively. During the last of these recessions to the westward the waters formed a bar or natural dike, and within this was imprisoned the waters, at first forming a "bayou" or pond. Annually overflowing its banks the supply of water was kept up until, in the course of time, from the circumjacent hills in times of flood caused by melting snow or storms the water supply was maintained. Resting, as Lake Wahbonsie does, upon alluvial material, there can be no reasona- ble doubt but that such has been its history. The time is not far distant when the lake, which has shrunk very largely from its former size, will cease to be; its site will be one vast slough, and, perhaps, in some distant day, where now its waters rest will be found fields of waving grain. It marks, to-day, where once the Missouri ran, and as an index to certain wonderful changes now occurring in the physical aspect of Nature is not without interest and value. The lake has no outlet, its waters being dissi- pated both by evaporation and by percolation through the soil.
Climate is one of those most important things about which men inquire least. Few realize the fact that all the changes in wind and storm, rain and drouth take place in obedience to fixed laws. It is important to every resident of the county to know at least their effects, even though they take little interest in the laws themselves. Climatic extremes in this county are few. The winters are not excessively cold, and the summers are not intolerably hot. Heavy falls of snow are of extremely rare occur- rence, and the annual fall of rain is somewhat less than that of the east- ern portions of the state in the same latitude. The prevailing winds dur- ing the winter are from the northwest, and are rarely of that bitterly cold
* There seems to be ro generally recognized-at least none has been adopted-way of spelling this name. Like all proper names it is purely arbitrary. Among the various orthographies may be mentioned " Wahboneey," "Wahaboncey," " Wahabonsy," and as will be seen from an interesting legal document on another page " Waubonchey."
332
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
nature which residents in the northern portion of the state denote the "blizzard." In the spring the character of the winds suddenly changes to that of a healthful and mellow nature. They then change their quar- ter, blowing from a southernly direction until the late fall months, when again they blow from the north. There never have been made any meteorological observations extending through a sufficient length of time from which may be gathered the statistics of the climatic conditions of the county since its settlement and organization. It differs but immateri- ally, however, from the conditions at Council Bluffs, where observations have been made through a long series of years, in pursuance of a plan devised by the general government, dating back to 1819. The following table of mean temperatures for each season, compiled from data gathered at the last named place, ranging from the year 1820 to 1843 inclusive, will aid in forming a general conclusion on the climate of this county:
Latitude.
41 degrees, 30 minutes 95 48
Longitude .
Elevation, in feet
1350
Mean spring temperature
49.3
Mean summer
74.7
Mean autumn
51.4
Mean winter 66
21.7
The year .
49.3
From this table it will be seen that the mean temperature for the year is exactly that of the spring.
A series of observations extending over a period of nineteen years, (1850-69), on the direction of the prevailing winds, give the following interesting facts:
DIRECTION
N. N. E.
E. S. E.
S. S. W.
W. N. N. W.
Spring
19.0|
19.9
22.2
28.8
Summer
15.3
23.1
53.1
18.0
Autumn
17.3
19.5
25.1
29.2
Winter .
17.0
14.4
24.1
37.8
Year
17.5
19.0
26.2
28.5
From this table it will be seen that for three hundred and sixty days of the year there are perceptible winds blowing in the county. To rightly estimate their value as climatic modifiers, there must be considered many
333
IHISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
important factors, such as the distribution of heat through their agency, the distribution of moisture, and their force, questions into which it is not the purpose of this sketch to enter. They are of the greatest benefit to the sanitary condition of the county, as they prevent the accumulation of malaria which arises from the decay of the rich masses of vegetation with which the prairies are covered. Another agent, active in preventing the origination and spread of disease by absorbing large quantities of noxious gasses, is the annual fall of rain, which for a period of twenty years (1850-69) gave the following in inches:
Winter, total .
117.29; mean 5.86
Spring
237.11; mean 11.85
Summer "
278.06; mean 13.90
Fall
216.93; mean. 10.83
From which it will be seen that both the total and mean fall in summer exceeds that of either the other three seasons. The deductions from these statistics, that the climate is a healthful one, is further strengthened by the general elevation of the greater part of the surface of the county. In all elevated lands the air is invigorating and bracing at all seasons, under the same conditions that prevail elsewhere. The human race has not only degenerated by dwelling in low, unhealthy places, but it is again and again decimated by the pestilences generated in them. As Dr. Farr well remarks, "it is destroyed now periodically by five pestilences-cholera, remittent fever, yellow fever, glandular plagues and influenza. The ori- gin or chief seat of the first is the Delta of the Ganges. Of the second, the African and other tropical coasts. Of the third, the low west coast around the Gulf of Mexico, or the Delta of the Mississippi, and the West India Islands. Of the fourth, the Delta of the Nile and the low sea-side cities of the Mediterranean. Of the generating field of influenza nothing certain is known; but * * *
"The history of the nations on the Mediterranean, on the plains of the Euphrates and the Tigris, the Deltas of the Indus and the Ganges, and the rivers of China, exhibit this great fact: the gradual descent of races from the highlands, their establishment on the coasts in cities, sustained and refreshed for a season by immigration from the interior, their degra- dation in successive generations under the influence of the unhealthy earth, and their final ruin, effacement or subjugation by new races of conquerors. The causes that destroy individual men, lay cities waste, which, in their nature, are immortal, and silently undermine eternal empires.
"On the highlands men feel the loftiest emotions. Every tradition places their origin there. The first nations worshipped there; high on the Indian Caucasus, on Olympus, and on other lofty mountains the Indians and the
334
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
Greeks imagined the abodes of their highest gods, while they peopled the low, underground regions, the grave-land of mortality, with infernal dei- ties. Their myths have a deep signification. Man feels his immortality in the hills." * While this may not be considered as bearing directly on the climate of Mills county, it is nevertheless a cognate theme. These are the things which have no little influence on mental and physical organ- ization, and through them modify all the conditions of national develop- ment. Health and intelligence, intelligence and good morals, good mor- als and excellent government are sisters three without which neither nations nor men may live and prosper; while it is true there are no highlands proper in this county, its whole surface is sufficiently elevated to outgen- eral disease and stay the ravages of pestilence.
GEOLOGY.
The geological history of Mills county is one of peculiar interest, and affords some very suggestive facts relative to its past vicissitudes. It extends in point of time over many thousands of years, and embraces periods of repose, and periods of remarkable change. Its history, cli- matologically, has been one of deep interest, and embraces changes so radical and so directly at variance with one another as to be almost incredible. There have been long ages when it basked under a torrid sun, and then these ages gave place to others equally as remarkable for polar frosts. Life, in all the variety and luxuriance of a tropical climate, gave place to the desert wastes of an arctic zone. Nor were these changes sudden. They are there, stamped in the very rocks at your door, and limned upon the landscape of your valleys, not as great and far-reaching catastrophes, but as gradual transitions, indisputably marked as such by the fossil forms that roll out from the rock you crush, or see traced with a delicacy no draughtsman can imitate. There have been times when Old Ocean, heedless of his doings, dashed against the rocky barrier that dared dispute his sway, or rolled in solemn, conscious might above its high- est point; times when a beautiful and varied fiora thrived on its surface; and times when there was naught save a waste of desert matter. We strike our pick in the shales on the hillside, and behold! there in the coal that gives us warmth and drives our engines, are the fairy forms that made the fern paradise of the coal period-beautiful arguments, those, of changes that thousands of years, as we measure time, would not com- pass. In presenting the following principal facts in the geology of Mills
* P. xciv., Report of Wm. Farr, Esq., to the Registrar-General of England, 1852.
335
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
county, enough only of the lithological characters of the various rock strata have been given to enable the interested reader to identify them. Many points of interest from a geological standpoint have necessarily been omitted; their introduction would have unduly lengthened the chapter, and scarcely possessed any general interest. To trace, briefly, the changes that have occurred, and to note their probable causes, are the main pur- poses of this sketch.
The surface of the county is entirely covered with the deposit before referred to as the " bluff deposit," but perhaps more correctly the loess. It lies next above the drift and varies in depth, in different parts of the county, from five to one hundred feet. In appearance the deposit is pecu- liarly characteristic, presenting substantially the same features in what- soever part of the globe it is found. Its material is of a slightly yellow- ish ash color, except where darkened by decaying vegetation, very fine and silicious but not sandy, "not very cohesive and not at all plastic." Along the Missouri bottom the formation is exposed in the most favorable manner for study. Those bold, high escarpments stand out as monu- ments-not very endurable, to be sure-to mark the great changes that have occurred in the surface features of this county. Mixed throughout this material are to be found various species of land and fresh water shells that seem to furnish the clue to a solution of the problem concerning its origin. Relative to this point, it is sufficient for present purposes to sim- ply indicate the more prominent points in the theories broached, of which there are two principal ones. The first, and, to speak within bounds, a most novel one, is the theory of Baron von Richthofen. The Baron's theory, based principally upon the study of the loess of China, is substan- tially this: " that loess, certainly in China, and probably in all continents, is a sub-aerial deposit collected on dry grassy areas by the action of fierce winds. For the formation of such a region he supposes a central undrained elevated area, from which nearly all moisture is excluded by surrounding mountain chains."*
To this theory is opposed what is called the sub-aqueous theory, which the reader will at once notice is diametrically opposite to that of the Baron. Without entering into the details of the various arguments advanced by those who maintain the last named theory, it is sufficient to say that the lacustrine origin of the loess is now a quite generally conceded point. Such an origin involves radical changes in our conceptions of the physical aspect of the county. We must conceive the present level of the land to be some- what lowered, the waters of the Missouri barred on their way to the ocean, spreading eastward and westward until they assumed the proportions of a great inland sea, two hundred or more miles in length. Far away to
*Prof. J. E. Todd, in Proc. A. A. A. S., Vol. XXVII, 1878.
336
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
the northwest the upper Missouri is plowing its way through the land, wearing away its boundaries and hurrying onward with them to the com- paratively quiet waters below. The depression of the land meant also the northward extension of the Gulf of Mexico, which, then as now, became the final recipient of the waters of the Missouri. In the great Lake Missouri the finely comminuted material held in suspension by its waters was deposited as a blanket of silt over the bottom of the lake-the former surface of the land. Then came those giant throes which lifted again the partially submerged continent, hurled the encroaching waves of the ocean back to their former dominion, and allowed the waters of the ancient Lake Missouri to gradually reach the sea. Then began a period of ero- sion, not yet ended, by means of which the great river has plowed out its present valley through the land. The abrading process still continues on a scale so enormous as to excite our wonder, and it is the immediate cause that renders so treacherous and uncertain the navigation of the stream. Through sediment of its own deposition in centuries far back in the his- tory of time the river is cutting its way, changing its channel ever and anon, and carrying in its turbid waters much of the land of Mills to make fertile the broad acres along its lower course.
The lake the river formed in that far off past was not a lake of an hour, nor one of a season of floods, but for centuries reigned where now the farmer guides his plow. It contained life-forms, many of which, or closely allied ones, are living to-day. Among them flourished shells of the genera Physa, Limnophysa, Planorbis, and perhaps Ancylus. These are found throughout the Loess mingled with land shells of the genera . Mesodon, Succinea, Zonites and others. Prof. J. E. Todd, in the Proceed- ings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. XXVII, reports twenty-seven species from the Loess of Fremont county. Prof. Samuel Aughey reports a list of one hundred and twenty-three, of which seventy-eight at least are incorrectly determined. Not more than forty-five of all the forms he has listed in his "Sketches of the Physical Geography and Geology of Nebraska," p. 287, can possibly stand. Is it questioned how came these land shells here? They were brought down by floods from the higher and wooded sections forming the boundaries of the lake, and at length sinking to the bottom were covered with silt in a manner similar to that which entombed their allied brethren of the fresh water forms. These remains are in themselves almost conclusive proof of the fresh water origin of the Loess, and help to solve some of the questions of the surface geology of Mills.
Immediately beneath the Loess is found the Drift, though rarely seen in Mills county, and then only in deep railroad cuts or in the valleys of those streams which have eroded their courses to a great depth. The
337
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
term "drift," as it is commonly employed in geology, "includes the sand, gravel, clay and boulders occurring over some parts of the continents, which are without stratification or order of arrangement, and have been transported from places in high latitudes by some agency which (1) could carry masses of rock hundreds of tons in weight, and which (2) was not always dependent for motion on the slopes of the surface." (Hall.) This agency was ice, either in the form of an extensive glacier or detached masses called icebergs. The whole surface of North America, to the thirty-ninth parallel, bears evidence of the denuding and transforming power of this agency. This it was which rounded, in part, these hills, partially filled old valleys or dug out new ones, and which left at our very doors these masses of rock-large and small-or buried them in the hill- side, to excite our wonder and cause us to speculate as to their origin. They were brought hither from some northern locality where the material from which they were derived may be found in situ. Often there are found, in the valleys of the deeper streams, and in "land-slides" along the "bluffs" on the Missouri" bottom large masses of Sioux Quartzite, and rocks of other kinds, from points still farther to the northward. The general direction of the glacial movement was southward. In section 16, tp. 71, r. 43 west, are found "two distinct sets of scratches upon the same surface and crossing each other," showing that the movement of the glacier changed while passing over this rock-which is one of the series of the upper coal measure limestone. The "one set has a direction south, twenty degrees east, and the other, south, fifty-one degrees east."
The exposures of the drift in the county are quite inconsiderable and always local. It is nowhere the surface soil, and is to be seen only in the deepest valleys or at the base of the loess along the bluffs. It is occasion- ally seen along the course of the Nishnabotna, and frequently exposed in the numerous ravines in the vicinity of Glenwood, and indeed wherever there are deeply eroded valleys among the bluffs. Where it appears it is seen to be a compound of clay and gravel, with occasional beds of sand, and is deposited without regularity-being what is technically termed unmodi- fied drift. It usually contains many small and well-worn pieces of gneiss, porphyry, hornblende, and other primary rocks, together with occasional small fragments of limestone, sandstone, and bits of slate, all of which are of much older ages, and have been transported from points more or less remote from their present locality. The bluffs along the Mississippi are
* In Shea's "Discovery of the Mississippi Valley," there is a note on this word, to the effect that "Pekitanoui," or Muddy Water, prevailed until Marest's time (1712), about which period it was called " Missouri," from the fact that a tribe of Indians known as Mis- souris inhabited the country at its mouth, the same country being now embraced within the limits of St. Louis county, Missouri.
2
338
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
almost entirely composed of the drift, a most striking difference between them and those along the Missouri, which are, superficially at least, com- posed of the loess.
There being no rocks of Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic age in this county, or indeed in the state, the series next met with belong to another period of geological time, older far than any yet considered-the lower Creta- ceous. They are the Nishnabotna sandstones and are named for the river along whose course they appear, and where they have been studied. Lithologically, the formation is a course-grained, friable, and ferruginous sandstone. The presence of a very large amount of oxide of iron gives the rock a sombre and displeasing color which, were it fitted in other respects, would greatly lessen its value for building purposes. In the north- eastern part of this county it has, however, been quite extensively quar- ried, and being of somewhat better quality than the same formation in other sections, makes a fair building stone. It has little economic value. There is, nevertheless, a fact that should not be overlooked. It lies uncon- formably upon the rocks of the upper coal-measures, and does not partake of the dips of the older formations, but has one of its own -- to the north of westward." The formation, being at the surface during the glacial epoch, suffered a most extensive denudation, but this is the very feature that has added value to it, for the sand thus derived has contributed greatly to the mellowness and warmth of the soil, and largely increased its productiveness.
Of the Coal measures, which lie next below the Cretaceous in Iowa, only the Upper Coal measure strata have been exposed in this county, and, as would be naturally inferred, the thickness of the superincumbent loess and drift negatives the probability of either numerous or extensive out- crops. There is so little difference in the geological and physical features of this and Fremont counties that the following accountt of the Coal measures of the latter will be of exact application here. There is, in ad- dition, the fact that no section of the measures indicated has ever been made in this county, so complete as that which here follows:
*White's Geology of Iowa, 1870; vol. 1, page 285.
+White's " Geology of Iowa, 1870, Vol. I, pp. 357 et seq. Frequent allusion to this sur- vey is made necessary from the fact that no other has ever been made of the western por: tion of the state. The survey of Dr. Hall was confined to the eastern portions, and to the Des Moines river valley, while the still older one of Dr. Owen was a merely preliminary reconnoisance. Dr. White's work was unfortunately brought to an end by legislative folly before the survey could be completed. Often condemned as inaccurate, it should be re- membered, in justice to Dr. White, that he was compelled to publish his work before com- pletion, and without the possibility of verifying his deductions. Future surveys will dem- onstrate the general correctness of most of his views as to the area and geography of the coal formations, and should his suggestions now be followed, money being spent in fruitless search for coal would be saved for more politie and rational purposes. R. E. C.
339
HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY.
"None [of the coal-measure strata] have been found in the valleys of either of the Nish- nabotnas, and, with the exception of a slight one in the valley of Walnut creek, the only exposures are to be found at distant intervals along the base of the bluffs that border the Missouri river flood-plain. They usually extend only a few feet in height above the level of the plain, and are then lost from sight beneath the bluff deposit, or the slight interven- ing accumulation of drift; but in the northwestern part of the county a few exposures reach considerable height above the general level of the flood-plain.
On the land of John Wilson, section 23, township 70, range 43, there are some fine ex- posures of upper coal-measure strata, which reach the greatest aggregate thickness of any yet known within the state, westward from Madison county. It is, therefore, a locality of great interest and importance in the study of that formation in southwestern Iowa. The strata observed there are represented by the following:
SECTION NEAR WILTON'S
No. 29-Yellowish gray, impure limestone, in thin layers. 2
feet. No. 28-Limestone in two layers, with a three-inch marly parting 212
No. 27-Yellowish shaly marl. 114
No. 26-Black carbonaceous shale. 131
No. 25-Bluish clayey shale. 114
No. 24-Black carbonaceous shale. 1
66
No. 23-Bluish, marly shale, with numerous fossils. 11% .. No. 22-Impure coal. 10-12 "
No. 21-Light bluish, fossiliferous, shaly clay. 2
No. 20-Compact, bluish limestone with shaly partings. 4
No. 19-Marly clay, with calcareous concretions. 6
No. 18-Light gray limestone 4
No. 17-Unexposed. 6
No. 16-Compact limestone. 112
No. 15-Light yellowish indurated marl. 4
No. 14 -- Yellowish silicious limestone with flinty concretions 212
66
No. 13-Yellowish, marly shale, with concretions of impure limestone. 3 No. 12-Compact limestone. 1
No. 11-Yellowish marly shale. 2
No. 10-Gray limestone in thick layers. 3
No. 9-Bluish clayey shale .. 11%
66
No. S-Yellowish silicious limestone
3 1
No. 7-Compact gray limestone, with marly partings. 16
No. 6-Bluish, shaly clay 112
No. 5-Compact layer of limestone.
24
No. 4-Bluish, shaly clay. 216
No. 3-Compact, bluish limestone. 2
No. 2-Bluish clayey shale. 4
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.