USA > Iowa > Calhoun County > Past and present of Calhoun County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress, and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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It was in this way that the surface of Iowa was formed. As the glacier moved forward it left a ridge at the edge ealled a "lateral moraine." Where two glaciers came together a larger ridge ealled a "median moraine" was formed, and at the terminus of the ice sheet, where all the residue carried by the glacier was deposited, the ridge thus formed is known as a "terminal moraine." Nowhere in Calhoun County can be seen a ridge having the characteristics of a moraine. This would indicate that this portion of the state was in the very heart
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
of the great central glacier, an indication that is further borne out by the almost uniform thickness of the drift, which is from 60 to 100 feet.
The boulders commonly called "nigger heads" that are to be seen in nearly all parts of the state, were deposited by the glacier. These boulders are found in large numbers all over Northwestern Iowa, particularly along the Little Sioux River, to which the Sioux Indians gave the name of Ea-ne-ah-wad-e-pon, which in their language means "Stone River." In the southern part of Cherokee County is a red granite boulder 40 feet wide by 60 feet long, and standing twenty feet or more above the surrounding surface. It is called "Pilot Rock." for the reason that it can be seen for a considerable distance and serves as a landmark "to guide the weary traveler on his way."
CHARACTER OF THE DRIFT
At the bottom of the drift deposited by the glacier is the till- sometimes called the lower till-composed of a blue elay, charged with boulders, with deposits of sand in places. At the place called "Yellow Banks" on the Des Moines River, the lower till consists of "twenty-five feet of sand resting upon blue clay and over this fifteen feet of silty clay, dark above and overlain by eight feet of yellow clay. which in turn is eapped by a thin veneer of loess."
Above the lower till comes the loess, which consists of a fine ash- eolored silt, or a porous elay, rich in the carbonate of lime. Very little loess is to be seen in Calhoun or any of the ad joining counties, unless it be Webster, but it is distributed all over the southern and eastern parts of the state, where it ranges in thickness from two feet to fifteen feet or more.
Above the loess lies the alluvium or soil, which is made up of the lighter materials carried by the glacier, to which has been added a large volume of decayed vegetable matter that has accumulated since the elose of the glacial epoch. As this portion of the drift consti- tutes the surface and is seen everywhere in Calhoun County, it is not necessary to go into any extended account of its character or eom- position.
THE WATER SUPPLY
Springs are searee in the county, as they are usually found in the moraines left by the great glaciers or in the limestone formations, both of which are wanting in Calhoun County. There are a few
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
springs in the bluff's along Coon River and some of the other streams. but their water is little used for domestic purposes. Most of the well water is obtained from the strata of water-bearing sand of the drift. Some of the deepest wells penetrate to the lower till, and a few have gone to the rock formations underlying the drift.
Rockwell City well No. 2, which was sunk for the purpose of obtaining a supply of water for the city, is the deepest well in the county. From the log, or record, of the drillers of this well, the geologieal structure of the adjacent territory may be ascertained. The section shows as follows:
1-Soil 3 feet
2-Yellow. sandy clay 20
3-Blue till 133
4- Yellow till 6
5-Dark drab shale
90
6-White sandstone 3
7-Dark colored shale 50
8-Dark pyrite bearing shale 5
9-Light drab shale 12
10-Dark buff dolomite 194
11-Coarse buff dolomite 85
12-Light blue shale 220
13-Limestone and dolomite 73
14-Gray dolomite
7
15-Buff dolomite 80
16-Blue-gray limestone (trace)
17-Brown crystalline dolomite 50
18-Brown compact dolomite 110
19-Blue-gray cherty dolomite 51
20-Light yellow dolomite 75
21-Buff crystalline dolomite 30
22-Cream-colored dolomite 43
23-Whitish limestone 75
24-Greenish shale 59
25-St. Peter sandstone 5
Total depth of well 1,479 feet
In the above table numbers 5 to 9, inclusive, belong to the Penn- sylvanian formation of the carboniferous era; numbers 10 to 12 to
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
the Mississippian formation of the same period; numbers 13 to 16 to the Devonian era, and the remainder of the well to the upper and lower Silurian.
Lake City draws its water supply from wells sunk to the bottom of the glacial drift. The record of well No. I is given below.
1-Soil 4 feet
2-Yellow elay 20
3-Blue elay 36
4-Water-bearing sand 6
5-Blue clay 20
6-Hardpan 6
7-Hard, dark colored clay 18
8-Variegated clay and sand 119
Depth of well 229 feet
No. 4 of the Lake City well-the stratum of water-bearing sand- is that which furnishes water to a majority of the so-called surface wells of the county. At Lake City this stratum was encountered sixty feet below the surface, but in many places in the county it has been . struck at a much less depth. Although the wells at the Lake City waterworks are not so deep as those of Rockwell City and Manson, they afford a bountiful supply of pure, wholesome water.
The Manson well shows a geological structure slightly different from that at Roekwell City, as may be seen from the following drill record :
1-Soil and yellow clay 23 feet
2-Blue elay 187
3-Water-bearing gravel 3
4-Blue elay 97
5-Variegated shale or slate. 740
6-St. Peter sandstone 170
7-Red shale 30
Depth of well 1,250 feet
In the Manson well the St. Peter sandstone of the lower Silurian era was first struek at a depth of 1,050 feet, which is 600 feet above the geologieal level of that formation at Fort Dodge and 424 feet
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
above the same sandstone in the well at Rockwell City. As the dif- ferenee in the elevation of these three places above the level of the sea is inconsiderable, the record of the Manson well indicates that during the preglacial days that portion of Calhoun County was situ- ated upon an anticline-that is, the summit of an arch formed in the bed roeks. Upon reaching a depth of 1,250 feet in the well at Man- son, the drill struck a hard, granite-like roek, which offered sueh stubborn resistance that further efforts were abandoned.
The Iowa Geological Survey has the record of two flowing wells in Calhoun County, but as they show a geological structure very similar to those already given, it is deemed unnecessary to reproduce them here. One of these flowing wells is located at Lohrville and the other at Somers. The Lohrville well is 180 feet deep. The water from this well is pumped to a large tank and distributed to the citi- zens of the town under a pressure of thirty-five pounds to the square ineh. The well at Somers was drilled in 1904 by C. A. Stickney, of St. Paul, Minnesota, for the Chieago & Great Western Railroad Company. It is next to the Roekwell City well in depth, being 1,470 feet deep, and flows 100 gallons of water per minute. Both the Somers and Lohrville wells are situated near small streams or sloughs, but the source of the water is not definitely known.
The Town of Pomeroy obtains its water supply from wells quite similar in depth and character to those of Lake City and there are a few other deep wells in the county. Most of the water from these wells is of that variety known as "hard" water, and in some of the wells it is strongly impregnated with iron.
CHAPTER II
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
THIE MOUND BUILDERS-PROBABLE USE OF THE MOUNDS-THEIR ARCHI- TECTURE-RELICS FOUND IN THEM-WORK OF THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY-THE UNITED STATES DIVIDED INTO DIS- TRICTS-THEORIES REGARDING THE MOUNDS AND THEIR BUILDERS- MOUNDS AND RELICS FOUND IN IOWA-THE INDIANS-GREAT GROUPS OF FAMILIES-DISTRIBUTION AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY-THE SACS AND FOXES-THEIR GREAT CHIEFS-THE IOWAS AND THEIR MIGRATIONS-MAHASKA-THE POTTAWATOMI-THE WINNEBAGO-THE SIOUX-INDIANS IN CAL- HOUN COUNTY.
Before the white man the Indian; before the Indian, who? The question is more easily asked than answered. From the time the first white settlements were made along the Atlantic coast, in the early part of the seventeenth century, nearly one hundred and fifty years elapsed before the discovery of indications that the interior of the continent had once been occupied by a peculiar race of people. These evidences were found in the numerous mounds and earth- works, fragments of pottery, stone weapons and implements, etc. A report issued by the United States Bureau of Ethnology says:
"During a period beginning some time after the close of the ice age and ending with the coming of the white man-or only a few years before-the central part of North America was inhabited by a people who had emerged to some extent from the darkness of savagery, had acquired certain domestic arts, and practiced some well defined lines of industry. The location and boundaries inhab- ited by them are fairly well marked by the mounds and earthworks they erected."
The center of this ancient civilization-if such it may be called seems to have been in the present State of Ohio, where the mounds are more numerous than in any other part of the country. Iowa
12
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
may be regarded as the western frontier of the domain onee occupied by this peculiar race, to which the name of "Mound Builders" has been given by archaeologists, and various theories have been advanced as to their origin, identity and the manner in which they became extinet.
Although no relies of the Mound Builders have been found in Calhoun County, it may be interesting to the reader to know some- thing of these theories, as well as the character of the works they constructed. Most of the mounds discovered are of conical forni, varying in height, and when opened have generally been found to contain human skeletons. For this reason they have been designated by archaeologists as burial mounds. Next to the burial mound comes the truncated pyramid-that is, a mound square or rectangular at the base and flattened on the top. The mounds of this elass are nearly always higher than the highest of the burial mounds. Their greater height and the faet that on the summit of several have been found ashes and charcoal, gave rise to the theory that they were used as lookout stations, the charcoal being the remains of signal fires. In some sections of the country may still be seen well defined lines of earthworks, sometimes in the form of a square, but more fre- quently of oval or circular shape, bearing every indication that they were ereeted as a means of defense against hostile invaders. Still another class of works, less numerous and widely separated, consists of one large mound surrounded by an embankment, outside of which are a number of smaller mounds. The smaller mounds in these groups are generally devoid of skeletons or other relies, and even in the large mound within the embankment but few skeletons. imple- ments or weapons have been found. The absence of relies and the arrangement of the mounds in works of this character have led anti- quarians to form the theory that such places were centers of sacrifice or religious ceremonies of some kind.
Among the earliest investigators of the mounds were Squier and Davis, who about 1850 published a work entitled, "Ancient Monu- ments of the Mississippi Valley." Between the years 1845 and 1848 these two archaeologists, working together, explored over two hun- dred mounds and earthworks, the description of which was published by the Smithsonian Institution. Following them eame Baldwin, MeLean and a number of other writers, practically all of whom held to the theory that the Mound Builders belonged to a separate and distinct raee and that many of the relies were of great antiquity. Some of these early writers took the view that the Mound Builders
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
first established their civilization in the Ohio Valley, from which region they gradually moved southwestwardly into Mexico and Cen- tral America, where the white man found their descendants in the Aztec Indians. Others, with arguments equally as plausible, con- tended that the people who left these interesting relics originated in the South and slowly made their way northward to the country about the Great Lakes, where their further progress was checked by hostile tribes. Upon only one phase of the subject were these early authors in accord, and that was that the Mound Builders belonged to a very ancient and extinct race. This theory was sustained by the fact that the Indian tribes with whom the first white men came in contact had no traditions relating to the mounds or the people who built them, while the theory of great antiquity was further supported by the great trees, often several feet in diameter, growing upon many of the mounds and earthworks.
Soon after the United States Bureau of Ethnology was estab- lished it undertook the work of making an exhaustive and scientific investigation of the mounds and other relics left by this ancient people. Cyrus Thomas, of the bureau, in analyzing and compiling the information collected, has divided the region once inhabited by the Mound Builders into eight districts, each of which is marked by certain features not common to the others. In making this division Mr. Thomas evidently did not adhere to any of the proposed theories as to the origin or first location of the Mound Builders, as he begins in the northwestern part of the country and proceeds toward the east and south. ITis classification is as follows:
1. The Dakotah District, which includes North and South Dakota, Minnesota, the northwest corner of Iowa and the State of Wisconsin. As a rule the burial mounds in this district are small, but what they laek in archaeological interest is more than made up by the beautiful efligy mounds, that is, mounds constructed in the form of some bird or beast. Near Prairieville, Wis., there is a mound resembling a turtle, and not far from the Town of Blue Mounds, in the same state, is a mound in the form of a man lying on his back. The turtle mound is fifty-six feet long and the efligy of the man is 120 feet in length. Some writers are of the opinion that such mounds were made to represent the totem of some tribe or clan, and others think they are the images of some living creature that was an object of veneration.
2. The Huron-Iroquois District ineludes the country once inhab- ited by the Iluron and Iroquois Indians, viz .: the lower peninsula
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
of Michigan, the southern part of Canada, a strip across the northern part of Ohio and the greater part of the State of New York. A few fortifications have been noted near Toledo and Sandusky, O., but by far the greater part of the relics in this district are the small burial mounds and the "hut rings," or foundations of ancient dwellings.
3. The Illinois District embraces the middle and eastern portions of Iowa, Northeastern Missouri, Northern Illinois and the western half of Indiana. Several mounds of the truncated pyramid variety have been found in this district, the great mound near Cahokia, Ill., being one of the finest and best preserved specimens of this class so far discovered. Burial mounds are numerous and a few fortifica- tions have been found, but they are greatly inferior, both in structure and dimensions, to those of the Ohio District. West of the Missis- sippi River the burial mounds gradually decrease in size as one pro- ceeds toward the south. Agents of the Bureau of Ethnology exam- ined a number of these mounds in Southeastern Iowa, but found only some decayed human bones, a few stone chips and some fragments of pottery.
4. The Ohio Distriet takes in all of the State of Ohio, except the strip already mentioned as belonging to the Huron-Iroquois Dis- triet, the eastern half of Indiana, and the southwestern portion of West Virginia. Here the Mound Builder flourished in all his glory. Burial mounds are to be seen in large numbers and are much larger than those found elsewhere, many of them having a diameter of one hundred feet or more and rising to a height of sixty to eighty feet. Over ten thousand mounds have been explored in the State of Ohio alone. The Grave Creek Mound, in West Virginia, is one of the largest lookout or signal mounds yet discovered. The earthworks in this district surpass those found in any other part of the country. Situated on a bluff in Adams County, O., is the "Great Serpent," an earthwork in the form of a snake nearly fourteen hundred feet in length. This is one of the best preserved and most perfect specimens of the Mound Builders' fortifications and the site has recently been purchased by the state with a view to its preservation. Near Ander- son, Ind .. is a circular fortification that is connected by a subterranean passage with the White River, evidently for the purpose of obtaining water in time of siege, and scattered over the district are many sacri- ficial mounds surrounded by embankments.
5. The Appalachian District, as its name indicates, includes the mountainous regions of Southwestern Virginia, Western North Caro- lina, Eastern Tennessee and the northern part of Georgia. Judging
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
by the structure of the mounds and the character of the relics found here, the inhabitants of this district differed in many respects from the Mound Builders in other sections of the country. Stone graves are numerous, the mounds are of different construction, and among the relics thus far found are a number of copper awls, needles, knives and other utensils: tobacco pipes molded of clay and baked, and a few pipes carved from a peculiar kind of stone have also been found.
6. The Tennessee District, which adjoins the above, includes Middle and Western Tennessee, the southern portion of Illinois, practically all the State of Kentucky, a small section of Northern Alabama, and the central portion of Georgia. Here pottery has been found in many of the mounds explored, a long-necked jar of graceful outline being especially abundant. A number of stone images, believed by archaeologists to have been objects of worship, have also been found in this district. Several well preserved forts are to be seen, a distinguishing feature of which is the covered or sub- terranean passage connecting the entrenchments with a near-by spring or stream, indicating that such works were constructed with a view of withstanding a siege.
7. The Arkansas District includes the state from which it takes its name, the southeastern corner of Missouri, and a strip across Northern Louisiana. The burial mounds of this district are small and few in number, though hut rings are numerous and several vil- lage sites have been noted. Pottery has been found in all parts of the district.
8. The Gulf District, which, as its name indicates, embraces the country bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, contains several fine trun- cated pyramids, some of them with terraces. Skeletons in bark cof- fins have been found in mounds and other skeletons without coffins have been found in caves. A distinguishing feature of this district is the use of obsidian for weapons. The entire district is rich in pot- tery and utensils of polished stone.
WHO WERE THEY !
Reverting to the theories concerning the age and origin of the Mound Builders, it is worthy of note that in more recent years arch- acologists, who have made extensive research among the mounds, and those who have made a careful and systematic study of the relics in connection with the work of the Bureau of Ethnology, are inclined to doubt the theory of great antiquity and are practically a unit in
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
the conelusion that the Mound Builder was nothing more than the aneestor of the Indian. That the theory of great age is erroneous, to some extent at least. is seen when it becomes known that the early French and Spanish explorers in the southern part of what is now the United States found that among the Natehez Indians the house of the chief was always built upon an artificial mound. As eminent an authority as Pierre Margry says: "When a chief dies they demolish his eabin and then raise a new mound, on which they build the cabin of the chief who is to replace the one deceased in this dignity. for the chief never lodges in the house of his predecessor."
How long this eustom has prevailed no one knows, but it may aeeount for the large number of small artificial mounds throughout the region once inhabited by the Natchez and their ancestors. It has also been learned that the Yamasee Indians of Georgia built mounds over the warriors killed in battle, and Charlevoix found among the Canadian tribes some who built earthworks quite similar to those described by Thomas as having once existed in the Huron-Iroquois Distriet.
Early investigators found in many of the small mounds burnt or baked elay and ehareoal, for which they were at a loss to aecount. Subsequent explorations have diselosed the fact that among eertain early tribes, particularly in the lower Mississippi country, the family hut was frequently built upon an artificial mound. This has led Brinton to advanee the hypothesis that the house was eonstrueted of poles. the cracks between which were filled with clay. When the head of the family died, the body was buried under the center of the hut, which was then burned. This eustom, which might have been fol- lowed for generations, would account for the burnt clay and chareoal. as well as the large number of small mounds, each containing a single human skeleton. the bones of which have sometimes been found charred.
Still another evidence that there is some relationship between the ancient Mound Builder and the Indian of more modern times is seen in the pottery made by some of the southwestern tribes. This pottery is very similar in texture and design to that found in some of the ancient mounds. In the light of these recent discoveries, it is not surprising that scientists are discarding the theory of a separate racc and great antiquity and proposing one of a vastly different nature, to wit: That the Mound Builder was nothing more than the ancestor, more or less remote, of the North American Indian. Some archaeolo- gists have even gone so far as to assert that the cliff dwellers of the Vol. 1 -2
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Southwest are the remnant of the once numerous and widely dis- tributed Mound Builders. However, the discovery of these evidenees connecting the ancient Mound Builder and the modern Indian have not lessened the interest in the subject of the aboriginal inhabitant. Says Thomas: "The hope of ultimately solving the great problems is perhaps as lively today as in former years. But with the vast increase of knowledge in recent years, a modification of the hope entertained has taken place."
MOUNDS IN IOWA
Along the Mississippi River from Dubuque southward mounds are numerous. One near Dubuque was opened some years ago and found to contain a vault divided into three compartments. In the central compartment were eight human skeletons sitting in a eirele, in the center of which was a drinking vessel made of sea shell. The chamber or vault in which these skeletons were found was covered with log's ineased in a sort of cement. Pipes, ornaments, and some other relies were found wrapped in a kind of coarse cloth.
Near Davenport were found two stone pipes, each carved in the image of a bird, one having eyes of copper and the other eyes of pearl. and still further southward mounds have been opened and found to contain skeletons, pottery and stone utensils of various kinds.
The mounds extend westward to the Little Sioux River, several of the most interesting specimens of this ancient architecture having been found in the Des Moines Valley. On a bluff overlooking the Des Moines River a few miles above the City of Des Moines are several acres covered with mounds. Near the same stream in Marion County Kimberling examined a mound in 1885 or 1886, which he describes as follows: "Two feet of soil: sixteen inches of hard baked elay, ashes and charcoal: five feet below the clay laver, a hearth, two feet by four feet and ten inches deep, full of ashes and charcoal; the walls of the furnace were glazed by heat: the arch is twelve feet in diameter and its height was such that a tall man might stand under it. In the center of the mound was a piece of eement with a crushed human skull below it."
Near Marysville, Marion County, is a great collecting ground for archaeologists and relie hunters. Hundreds of arrow and spear heads, stone axes and eelts, ete., have been found within a radius of two miles from the town. Among the curios found in this eounty is a
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
copper spear head about five inches in length. A large oval mound in Boone County-90 by 110 feet at the base-was explored in 1908. In the center of this mound were found about four thousand pieces of pottery. some of them of such size as indicated vessels three feet in diameter. Four or five human skulls, a few bones, a large amount of ashes and charcoal and a collection of shells were found mingled with the pottery. On the summit of this mound were two oak trees two feet or more in diameter.
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