USA > Iowa > Jasper County > Past and present of Jasper County, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 3
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
THE COAL MINING INDUSTRY.
It is generally understood that coal in Jasper county was first discovered on the claim of Hugh Patterson, in 1847, it having been noticed cropping out in the bed of a small stream crossing his claim, since known as Coal creek. It was also found while digging a well near Vandalia soon after this.
In 1878 it was reported in a former history of the mining interests of the state that the best developed coal mine in Jasper county was that owned by the Jasper Coal Company, a half mile from the main track of the railroad. Several rooms were opened and work progressed rapidly. Fire damps were never known in these mines, but black damps, or carbonic acid gas, was sometimes encountered. Seventy-five cents a ton was paid for mining and the men made about three dollars a day.
Mines were also in operation in Palo Alto, operated largely by English miners, who clung to customs that had obtained in England for hundreds of years.
In the south part of this county the mines were being operated by Scotch- men, and there a large per cent. of the workmen were strict Presbyterians in their religious faith. These miners worked at coal mining winters and tilled the soil of their farms in summer time.
In 1874 the county had twenty-three "coal banks," as they were then styled. One hundred and ninety-five men were employed in such mines. Thirty-one thousand tons were mined and the value was placed at seventy thousand eight hundred dollars.
The coal inspector in 1876 reported twenty-eight mines in the county in operation, all well managed and lawfully worked. He reported the coal as being from thirty inches to four feet in thickness, the best grade being taken from the Fairview mines. Other excellent mines are named as being located in Palo Alto, Sherman, Mound Prairie, Poweshiek and Richland. One new mine was opened in 1877. At that date over three hundred miners were em- ployed in Jasper county, and four hundred tons of marketable coal were mined daily.
In 1877-78 the following mines were being operated successfully : Mound Prairie-Bear Grove, R. N. Stewart; Sherman-Bealier, Scott Slaughter ; Poweshiek-Adsit & Company, E. G. Fish; Fairview-R. S. Buckley, George Blount, James Hart, E. E. Edwards'. Marshall ; Palo Alto-Newton Coal Company. Isaac Morgan, John Riley, Jasper Coal Company, William Lister, Snook Brothers', Robert Davidson, Snook & Walker, James McAllister; Richland-F. L. Downie, A. Eastman.
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
In 1900 it was written of the coal business in Mound Prairie district : "Mound Prairie has made a very creditable showing in many respects. She has kept out of politics and built no cities. She can only boast of Metz and Seevers, but let's see what she has done. The Slaughter coal bank was dis- covered in 1846, by a young fellow stopping at Slaughter's. He was out hunting wild turkey one morning before breakfast, and in jumping off of a fallen tree, slid the earth from a chunk of coal. This, so far as I know, says the writer, was the first discovery of coal in Jasper county-a happy accident."
The state mine inspector's reports ending June 30, 1910, shows that there were mining operations carried on in Jasper at that date in the following order : "There was produced in this county 333,340 tons of coal during the year ending June 30, 1909, and for the year ending June 30, 1910, 334,186 tons of coal. Only one fatal accident has occurred in this county during the two years ending June 30, 1910, and seven serious accidents.
"This county is the second largest in coal production among the counties comprising (up to the present time) the third inspection district. Hereafter Jasper county will be reported among the counties of the second inspection dis- trict. Owing to the large development of mines in the third district and with a view to more evenly divide the inspection service it was deemed best to place Jasper county in the second district.
"Mining operations are, as heretofore, largely in the vicinity of Colfax and Seevers, and the usual success attend these operations."
At the date of this report there were the following mining companies operating in this county : Carson Bros' Coal Company, Newton; Hanson & Mead Coal Company, Prairie City; John Bruce Coal Company, Monroe; French Coal Company, Newton ; Lister Coal Company, Newton : Snook Bros.' Coal Company, Newton; Colfax Consolidated Coal Company; McAllister Coal Company, Newton ; Warrick Coal Company, with offices at Des Moines. The product of these mines is all consumed by the local trade except that of the four last named in the list, and these mines are general shippers.
The report shows that in the matter of accidents for the two years in- cluded in the report that in Jasper county there was one fatal accident, that of the falling and killing of Paul Binisse, a top laborer, who met death by falling from a shaft's mouth, while working in the Colfax Consolidated Coal Com- pany's mines. The other accidents were those of the serious injury of Gerald Rodgers, Frank Lipovach, George Shenton and V. Tomlonvich, the latter losing an eye and the others having broken limbs.
For the year ending June 30, 1909, the reports show that Jasper county produced from its eleven mines 333.340 tons of coal ; employed 519 miners ; other inside workmen, 191 ; outside men, 61 : total employed, 771.
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
In the year following, which was for the year ending June 30, 1910, the report goes on to show that the ten coal mines then in operation produced 334,186 tons of coal ; employed 493 miners : 194 other inside men : 70 outside workmen, making a total of 757 inen employed.
The figures show that in 1910 Jasper county stood fifth among the coal producing counties of Iowa. The list of counties included in the state in- spector's reports being in the order and rank here given : Monroe, Polk, Ap- panoose, Mahaska, Jasper, Marion, Boone, Wapello, Dallas, Wayne, Webster, Adams, Van Buren, Guthrie. Page, Keokuk, Taylor. Greene, Lucas, Warren, Scott, Jefferson and Davis.
WEATHER CONDITIONS OF JASPER COUNTY.
The government reports secured at the bureau at Des Moines, for Jasper county for the last third of a century, the figures are as follows, taking the month of January for a standard winter mouth. The warmest weather and coldest of these years has occurred since 1898, as will be observed by the table below :
Mean temperature.
1879-12 above zero. 1880-28 above zero. 1881- 8 above zero. 1882-21 above zero.
Highest and Lowest temperature. 1899-48 above. 20 below zero. 1901-51 above. 8 below zero. 1902-50 above. 22 below zero. 1903-45 above. 8 below zero.
1904-47 above. 22 below zero. 18 below zero. 1905-43 above. 1908-51 above. Io below zero.
1883-24 above zero. 1894-19 above zero. 1895-15 above zero. 1896-24 above zero. 1897-18 above zero. 1898-23 above zero.
19II-32 above.
1909-56 above. 16 below zero. 1910-40 above. 17 below zero. 5 below zero.
The average temperature at Newton since 1878 has been in the month of January, 18 degrees above : in February, 20 degrees above: March, 33 (legrees above : April. 48 degrees above : May. 60 degrees above; June, 70 degrees above : July, 75 degrees above : August. 72 degrees above ; September. 63 degrees above; October. 51 degrees above ; November, 34 degrees above ; December, 22 degrees above. The average for all years and all months is 48 degrees above zero.
Another table shows that the highest temperature in the county, as indi- cated by the Baxter reports, in the last thirty years, was in the month of July, 1001, when it reached 107 degrees above zero ; the next hottest was 99 degrees
(3)
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
in September. 1899, and August. 1900. was next with 93 degrees above zero. The coldest was reached in February. 1899, when it was 28 below zero; the next lowest was in December, 1901. when it was 22 below and the next lowest was in the months of January and February, 1900, when it registered 13 below.
The average annual rain and snow fall (precipitation as it's known in weather table parlance) at the Newton station from 1878 has been by years indicated, as follows: 1878, 28 inches: 1879. 28 inches: 1880, 33 inches; 1881, 44 inches ; 1882, 39 inches : 1893. 29 inches : 1894, 20 inches; 1895, 32 inches ; 1896. 45 inches ; 1897. 27 inches : 1898. 30 inches: 1899, 27 inches ; 1900. 40 inches ; 1901, 25 inches. The total average for these years is thirty- three and thirty-nine hundredths inches of water.
After reading so much about the "hard winters" of early days, it will be of interest to read the causes for a change to milder winters. The following is from a scientific standpoint, by the pen of Dr. Gorrell. of Newton. in 1911 :
CLIMATIC CHANGES.
By Dr. J. R. Gorrell.
Is our climate becoming milder and our winters less severe? If so, what is the cause. There exists a consensus of opinion among close observers of meteorological conditions that there has been a perceptible change during the last fifty years. We may, they say, be unable to discover any difference from winter to winter, but a comparison of our late winters with the winters of ten, twenty, thirty, forty and fifty years ago, appears to justify the belief that a gradual change is occurring in our climate.
There are those who believe that the artificial groves over Iowa and adjoining states have contributed materially to raising the temperature during the winter months. It is no doubt true that the rigor of the winds has been lessened thereby, but as the absolute temperature is unaffected even by bliz- zards, it appears improbable that the groves have any effect on the climate. There are others who attribute our milder winters to thermal regions in space through which our solar system as a whole is passing. The solar system con- sisting of the sun, the planets ( Mercury. Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune ), their satellites, the asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and all meteoric matter and comets that belong to our system. is rushing through space with a velocity of thirty-nine thousand six hundred miles an hour, and the direction is so near a straight line that it will require many millions of years to complete one revolution. It is therefore not impossi- ble that the regions in space through which we have been passing during the
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
last two, three, four or five decades has had a higher temperature than that through which we passed before, because we may have approached nearer to some other sun in the sidereal system to which our solar system belongs. The grove theory is unsatisfactory, and the effect of our movement through space is naught else than speculation.
The heat of the surface of the earth and the atmosphere is derived almost wholly from the sun. If the earth is a molten mass within, the heat from that source, in hot springs, geysers and volcanoes (if any of these have any con- nection with the central heat, which is improbable) is so small that it need not be considered in a discussion of climatic conditions and causes.
Some substances are transparent to light and heat that are opaque to heat without light. For example, if a pane of glass is held between the face and the sun, the heat passes through the glass and the face is burned. If the same pane is held between the face and an intensely hot cannon ball that is not incandescent, the glass acts as a perfect screen and no heat whatever is felt because the glass is opaque to dark heat.
John Tyndall was the first to call the attention of scientists to the fact that carbonic acid ( carbon dioxide, C O2) was partially opaque to dark heat. and to suggest its potency in producing a milder climate. The proportion of carbon dioxide now in the atmosphere is only about one-thirtieth per cent., but being opaque to dark heat it absorbs the heat of the earth that otherwise would be radiated into space, and thus acts as a blanket to keep the earth warm. The greater the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the thicker becomes the blanket, and the more heat it absorbs. The other con- stituents of the atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen, are transparent to dark heat and would therefore permit the radiation of the heat of the earth into space, and the result would be a cold and lifeless planet.
Prior to the carboniferous era all the carbon dioxide now stored in the coal measures of the earth, 200,000 square miles in China and Japan : 194.000 in the United States : 35.000 in India : 27.000 in Russia : 9.000 in Great Britain ; 3.600 in Germany : 1.800 in France : 1,400 in Belgium, Spain and other coun- tries, making a total of 471.800 square miles, was free in the atmosphere, and in consequence thereof there existed a tropical climate extending to the poles. as is indicated by the presence only of tropical plants in coal measures. It is estimated that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during that period was from fifty to one hundred thousand times greater than the amount now in the atmosphere, and as a result of the warm, moist climate, there flourished during that geological era the most luxuriant growth of vegetation the earth has ever known, and the succeeding glacial period was the logical sequence of the withdrawal of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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JASPER COUNTY, 10W.1.
Prof. Joseph LeConte, in his "Elements of Geology," on page 617, says : "On account of its heat absorbing properties, the carbon dioxide is vastly the most important element affecting the climate. It now only forms about one- thousandth part of the atmosphere. With its thermal potency it will be seen that comparatively slight variation in the amount would produce great climatic effects. Physicists have long recognized this fact. It is believed that doubling the present small amount of carbon dioxide, would produce a mild climate to the poles, and that halving the present amount would bring on another glacial period."
The rapid increase in the consumption of coal, and the inevitable increase in the amount of carbon dioxide thrust into the atmosphere becomes apparent from the following facts. The consumption of coal in the United States in the year 1845 was four and one-half million tons ; in the year 1864, twenty-two million tons ; in the year 1874. fifty million tons ; in the year 1884. one hun- dred and six million tons : in 1894. one hundred and fifty million tons; in 1899, two hundred and forty-three million tons. In Great Britain in the year 1845, there was consumed thirty-one million tons; in the year 1864, ninety million tons ; in the year 1874. one hundred and twenty-five million tons : in 1884, one hundred and sixty million tons ; in 1894, one hundred and sixty-four million tons ; and in 1899, two hundred and ninety-five million tons. And the rate of increase in other countries. China and Japan, India, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Austria-Hungary, is approximately the same. There is at present a concurrence of opinion among the highest authorities that the world's supply of coal would probably last two or three centuries, but the rapidly increasing rate of consumption is becoming ominous. "The state- ments of former years that the supply of coal was inexhaustible were not only false and foolish. but pernicious."
The process of combustion, and respiration, consumes oxygen and lib- erates carbon dioxide and aqueous vapor. The incalculable combustion of coal and oil is gradually restoring to the atmosphere the hitherto confined carbon dioxide which when free produced a mild climate the world over. and will probably again create the same meteorological conditions of heat and moisture that existed during the Tertiary period-a tropical climate from pole to pole.
CHAPTER III.
CHANGE FROM INDIAN TO WHITE MAN'S OCCUPANCY.
The date of the Black Hawk war was in 1832, and about one hundred years before that time the land within what is now Jasper county. Iowa, was the hunting ground of the Iowa Indians, the Sacs and the Foxes. At the time of the Indian war just mentioned, the whole territory east of the Mississippi river was taken from the control of the red man and given over to the author- ity of the white race. to whom the world is indebted for its wonderful develop- ment and present priceless value. The Fox Indians were mercilessly driven from Canada. the movement for that purpose being started in 1714. continuing with great vigor under De Louvigney, who gave them a terrible defeat on Fox river. In 1728 they were driven farther to the west, and in 1746 the most of the tribe ( those who had escaped with their lives ) had crossed the Mississippi. Subsequent to this the Sacs, who had formed a union with the Iroquois in New York state and had dislodged the Illinois tribes from their grounds. which extended as far west as the Des Moines river, crossed the Mississippi and also formed a close alliance with the Foxes.
The Towas were at one time identified with the Sacs of Rock River, but for some unknown cause they separated and started out as a band independent. The eight leading families of this tribe formed classes, or parties, known by the name of the different animals or birds, which they chose as types or symbols of their respective families-the eagle, the pigeon, the bear, the clk. the beaver, the buffalo and the snake-and were known severally in their tribe by the peculiar manner in which they wore their hair. The Eagle family was marked by two locks of hair on the front part of the head and one on the back left part : the Wolf family had scattered bunches of hair left, representing islands whence their families were supposed to have sprung : the Bear family left one side of the hair of the head much longer than the other : the Buffalo family left a strip of long hair from the front to the rear part of the head with two bunches on each side to represent horns : and so on through all the families.
For a time the Iowas occupied common hunting grounds with the Sacs and Foxes, but feuds eventually sprung up between them and they became greatly diminished in numbers and strength by the onslaughts of their more powerful enemies. The principal village of the Iowas was on the Des Moines.
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
in what is now Van Buren county, and on the site of the town of Iowaville. This was the scene of the great battle between the Iowas and Sacs and Foxes, in which Black Hawk, then a young man, commanded one division of the at- tacking force. The battle resulted in the crushing defeat of the Iowas, who were driven west of the Des Moines river in dismay, having lost, in killed and prisoners, a large portion of their former numbers.
INDIAN TREATIES.
North of the hunting grounds of the Sacs and Foxes were those of the Sioux, a fierce and warlike nation, which often disputed possession with their rivals in savage and bloody warfare. The possessions of these tribes were mostly located in Minnesota, but extended over a portion of northern and western Iowa to the Missouri river. Their descent from the north upon the hunting grounds of Iowa frequently brought them in collision with the Sacs and Foxes and, after many a conflict and struggle, a boundary line was estab- lished between them by the government of the United States in a treaty held at Prairie du Chien in 1825. But this, instead of settling the difficulties. caused them to quarrel all the more in consequence of alleged trespass upon each other's side of the line. These contests were kept up and became so un- relenting that in 1830 the government bought of the respective tribes of the Sacs and Foxes, and the Sioux, a strip of land twenty miles in width on both sides of the line and, thus throwing them forty miles apart by creating between them a "neutral ground," commanded them to cease their histilities.
The boundary line of this as surveyed by the terms of the treaty of 1825. was thus fixed : Commencing at the mouth of the Upper Iowa river on the west bank of the Mississippi, and ascending said Iowa river to its west fork; thence by the fork to its source; thence crossing the fork of Cedar river in a direct line to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines river ; thence in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet river and down that river to its junction with the Missouri river.
On the 15th of July. 1830, the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States a strip of country lying south of the above line, twenty miles in width and ex- tending along the line aforesaid from the Mississippi to the Des Moines river. The Sioux also ceded in the same treaty a like strip on the north line of the boundary. Thus the United States became into possession of a portion of Iowa forty miles in width and extending along the Clark and Cass line of 1825. from the Mississippi to the Des Moines river. This territory was known as the "neutral ground" and the tribes on either side of the line were allowed
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
to fish and hunt on it unmolested till the Winnebagoes were moved to it in 1841.
Thus the southern boundary of the "neutral ground" was established to pass through the northwest portion of Story county and Jasper became the possession of the Sacs and Foxes under the protection of the national govern- ment.
In 1832 the Sacs and Foxes relinquished a strip of country fifty miles wide bordering on the Mississippi, from Minnesota to Missouri, and accepted in exchange a reservation of four hundred sections lying along the Iowa river. In 1836 the Indians ceded a strip lying alongside the lands relinquished in 1832, twenty-five miles wide in the center and terminating in a point at each end. Another treaty was made with the allied tribes in 1837, by which they agreed to dispose of all their land lying south of the neutral grounds, but the bargain was not consummated.
The last treaty was made with the Sacs and Foxes October 11, 1842, and ratified March 23, 1843. It was made at the Sacs and Fox agency ( Agency City) by John Chambers, commissioner on behalf of the United States. In this treaty the Sacs and Fox Indians "ceded to the United States all their lands west of the Mississippi to which they had any claim or title." By the terms of this treaty they were to be removed from the country at the expira- tion of three years and all remaining after that were to move at their own ex- pense. Part of them were removed to Kansas in the fall of 1845, and the rest the spring following. In the fall of 1843. under the stipulation of this treaty, a line was surveyed northward from the Missouri state line by George W. Har- rison, which passed by the red rocks of the Des Moines about one mile west of the present town of that name. The extension of the line northward very nearly divided section 35 Fairview, through the middle. The western limit of the town of Monroe is one mile east of the line and the residence of what later was S. Zerley, in the same township, stands close to the line. This survey opened about two-thirds of Jasper county for settlement and left a strip ten and a half miles wide for the occupation of the Indians in this county.
INDIANS AND THE WHITES.
At the date of the first settlement in Jasper county the band of Indians still hanging around the country was under the leadership of Kishkekosh, who was strong enough to accompany Black Hawk when he visited Washington some years before. The work entitled "Pioneers of Marion County" is the authority for the following concerning this chief and his people :
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
Having endured much privation during the winter of 1844-5, the band visited the little settlement at Red Rock in quest of hospitality. In the band was Kishkekosh and his wife: Wykoma, son of Wapello, and two wives; Masha Wapetine and his wife, and children belonging to each family. They were entertained at breakfast by Mr. Mikesell. Kishkekosh. having learned the art of dining at the national capital. passed the dishes to his hungry com- panions with politeness, before helping himself; but when he had organized the meeting, so to speak, the voracious savage sat revealed-he had relapsed from civilization to barbarism and ate like all his mates. He managed five or six cups of coffee, with solids in proportion. When pressed "to have some- thing more," he drew his fingers across his throat, and then, in further ex- planation, crammed it down his windpipe.
The Indians who had received the strip of land off the west side of Jas- per county prepared to remove late in the autumn of 1845. Kishkekosh and his braves, twenty odd in all, had stored their heavy articles at Red Rock during the summer, not needing them while engaged in hunting. Prior to starting west, they repaired to Red Rock and hired Mr. Mikesell to haul the goods to camp. That night they camped where Monroe now stands. The weather was cold and a heavy snow fell during the night. The Indians huddled together as close as possible to keep warm, and upon opening out in the morn- ing a perfect cloud of steam arose. Part of Mikesell's oxen went astray dur- ing the night, and he followed them clear home, the snow still continuing to fall very fast. On returning he found the Indians all bewildered as to the direction they should take, and it took the chief some time to ascertain the course, when the journey was resumed and their village reached that night.
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