The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 37

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807

USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its. > Part 37

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In this county, it is very rich in fossils, which, owing to the softness of the rock, are generally preserved as casts, and only occasionally found in per- fection.

*The Historian is indebted to Prof. P. J. Farnsworth, M. D., for the chapter on Geology, and for other valuable scientific data.

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Certain strata appearing at the river at Lyons, and in places in the north- ern part of the county, are almost entirely made up of casts of the pentamer- ous ; in other strata, encrinites or sea-lilies are abundant. Othoceritites are found everywhere, and many specimens of trilobites and fragments of them appear, some of them being of large dimensions. Also, corals of many varie- ties are found, characteristic of the formation.

It has many outcrops, especially along the streams. The bank of the Mississippi, from Lyons to the northern line of the county, is a precipitous bluff, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the river. At the base of the cliff another and lower formation is exposed, called the Cincinnati group or formation, consisting of a bluish clay shale, and thin beds of fossiliferous limestone. This stratum is impervious to water and its junction is marked by a line of springs, some of them quite large. It has an exposure of from ten to twenty feet. As we go north, the Niagara has been entirely eroded, or washed away, and this formation caps the bluffs at Dubuque, beneath which lies the galena or lead-bearing rocks of Iowa. In places, there, it has a thickness of from sixty to eighty feet, so that only a small portion of it is exposed in this county. From Clinton, the river bears to the west, and the bluffs trend to the southwest, and are rounded and covered with soil, and raise more gradually to the prairie level. Some of the strata furnish excellent lime, and a very fair quality of building stone, but it is not very durable, being soft and porous, and disintegrates under the influence of air and moisture. It makes a very poor material for roadways, as it soon slacks and falls to pieces when exposed to moist- ure and wear. Streets macadamized with it show nothing but mud or dust in a year's time.

Over this uneven surface, in a later epoch, was again deposited, at a uni- form level, the drift, or the soil and subsoil of the prairie. When the water again receded, it cut numerous channels, sometimes coinciding with those in the. bed-rock, at other times not. These great floods have left their marks, so that the surface of the county, especially in its eastern portion, is very uneven. The material of the drift is the same as that over the greater part of the eastern slope of the State and of Illinois. A stratum of clay rests on the rock, then a sandy loam and clay, then the stratum composed of clay and sand, and the accumulated vegetable matter of long ages, making a soil surpassed in depth and fertility by none in the world.

It contains bowlders and gravel of granite, quartz and other. primitive rocks, with an occasional module of native copper, showing that the material came from the upper part of Dakota and the lower part of Lake Superior. In many places in the limestone there are found large caves, or pockets, filled with fire-clay, containing carbonaceous materials. This clay is white and pure, unless colored by vegetable matter. These caves are always connected with openings at the surface of the rock, and must have been filled during the period when the water swept over them and vegetation flourished elsewhere, but prior to the " Drift Period," as they are covered by that deposit, and hold nothing in common with it.

The lower bluffs, along the Mississippi, are another formation, called the. " modified drift," which is made up of materials that have been dissolved from the original drift and redeposited. These deposits are left on the banks of the present river, at a height of from eighty to a hundred feet, showing that at some not very remote geological period the river flowed at a much higher level, through which it cut its present channel. In these bluffs of " modified drift" are found pieces of wood, land shells and bones of extinct land animals,

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demonstrating that, at some time after the prairies became dry land, the river was obstructed and its bed filled up. Geologists refer to this as the "Glacial" or ice period, when this northern hemisphere had a climate like that of Green- land.

No mineral deposits have ever been found in this county. The Niagara limestone generally shows no indications of such. Another formation of eighty feet or more separates it from the "Galena," which contains the lead. Silver, iron or copper have never been found in such rock. The occasional pieces of lead ore, native copper, iron, and perhaps silver, found in the soil, have been brought from a long distance by the ice and currents, that deposited the other materials of the drift. It is evident that the bed-rock came to the surface, or was in a very shallow sea, for a long time, while the vegetable mat- ter was deposited to form the coal in the lower part of the State; and there are occasional basins, where the carboniferous formation rests on this rock. So that it is not impossible that indications of coal may be found, but there is no probability of anything more, as, generally, the bed-rock is near the surface, and no coal ever existed below that.

We have no space to discuss the question of the origin of treeless prairies. There is no doubt, however, but that the annual fires prevented the growth, or spread of forests. Along the alluvial bottoms of the rivers, trees flourished, and on the then clay soil of some of the bluffs, a hardy race of trees existed. The soil everywhere bears forest and fruit trees luxuriantly, when planted, and protected from fires. Most, or all of the prairie is now cultivated, but many of the old settlers can remember when annual fires swept over the uncultivated land. Oak openings, or groves of thinly-scattered trees of a hardy kind, existed in many places on the clayey knolls, which did not produce much grass. On the moist alluvial bottoms, a thick growth of silver maples, white birch, ash and elms flourished, together with willows, water-oaks and black walnuts. Next to the precipitous banks, especially of the Mississippi, a high, rocky soil was formed, where the hard or sugar maples are found, and a Flora common to high, stony land.

The geology of the county furnishes an interesting study of considerable variety, as we have briefly indicated. There is no promise of mineral wealth, but a deep, rich soil abounds, capable of bringing to perfection fruit and forest trees, and all the grains and vegetables of the latitude.

METEOROLOGY.

From railway surveys, it has been pretty accurately determined that low water in the Mississippi, at Clinton, is 587 feet above the sea level. It is fifty- nine feet higher than at Davenport, forty miles below. The level portions of Clinton and Lyons are from fifteen to twenty feet above low water, and from 150 to 200 feet lower than the prairie, so that the greater part of the county is from 600 to 700 feet above the level of the sea.

From meteorological records kept at Lyons and Clinton, since 1857, the mean yearly temperature of three daily observations, is a little over 45.5 degrees Fah., varying from 45.5° to 45.75°. The lowest recorded temperature was during the last days of December and the first weeks of January, when, for three of the years observed, the mercury fell from twenty-four to thirty degrees below zero, Fah. These were exceptional years, usually 10°, and often zero is the lowest mark noted. July is the warmest month, and in several seasons the thermometer has reached 96°, or even higher. Many thermometers have recorded temperature various degrees above 100°; but, of course, they were

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either cheap and unreliable instruments, or so located that they were valueless for scientific purposes. Many seasons, the July heat has not ranged above 85°. The daily mean recorded from 1860 to 1872, for January, was 21°, for July, 72.6°. Several points of coincident low temperature have been observed dur- ing a period of fifteen years. One occurs about the middle of May; another, usually producing frost, happens during the last days of August, or the first of September. In 1863, the corn was greatly injured by this latter cold snap. Since then, there has not been one so severe. Snow makes its first appear ance in the week of the 20th of October. It disappears, and is followed by a long period of "Indian summer," sometimes lasting into December. Ice forms in the Mississippi in some seasons by the 10th of November, but only in a few sea- sons has it been frozen across before December, when it is almost always frozen over ; sometimes, however, to again open and re-close during the cold days above mentioned, of the last of December and first of January. The Mississippi generally opens by the first of March. Some seasons it has scarcely closed, and in a few the ice has remained until the first of April. The latest frost noted, was May 26, the earliest September 1, except in 1863, when frost occurred in every month of the year, except July.

Generally the climate is warmer than in the same latitudes in the Eastern States, and also more equable. For about half the time observed, March was a fine spring month, the others were cold and blustering. December has about the same record. For some seasons, the fall of snow was very slight. In 1862, 1864 and 1870, the fall was only from seven to ten inches. In other years is has been as much as sixty inches, but it rarely remains long, so that sleighing it quite uncertain. In only two of the years noted did it last for one hundred days. The rainfall, including melted snow, ranges from twenty-eight to forty- eight inches. At Iowa City, 74.49 inches of water are reported to have fallen in 1851, and, in 1854, but 23.35 inches. Probably the amount of rainfall in Clinton County did not vary greatly from the above record during those years. The heaviest rainfalls on record were in August, 1866, and July, 1879, when fully three inches of rain fell in as many hours.

The proximity of the county to the Great Lakes modifies its climate and prevailing winds, as well as the rainfall. It has been shown that the isothermal line passes in a southwesterly direction across the county. While it is on the parallel of Chicago, the easterly winds and storms came from the direction of Milwaukee or Racine. An atmosphere charged with moisture comes with a north-of-east wind, which is precipitated by a cool northwest current. East winds bear moisture ; northwest winds are dry. Violent winds and rain-storms with tornadoes, come from the southwest, changing to west and northwest. Northwest winds, after the moisture is condensed by them and precipitated as rain, are dry and oftentimes cool. The lowest temperature of winter is usually ushered in by a fierce northwest wind, blowing from one to three days, and called an Iowa " blizzard." There are occasional periods of drought during the latter part of summer. when it is noticed that the upper current of air blows constantly from the northwest. This wind is healthful and stimulating to the human system, and during its prevalence there is always a marked improve- ment in the public health.

The absolute difference in temperature or average moisture between the different portions of the county are, contrary to general opinion, very slight ; but in localities sheltered from the northwest wind, the apparent cold is much less and heat considerably augmented. The meteorological disturbances known as tornadoes have been the worst enemy with which dwellers in Clinton County

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have had to contend. Not only have they done vast pecuniary injury, and caused an amount of personal suffering, immeasurable in money, but by exag- gerated reports of their terrors and frequency, both investments and immigrants have been to a certain extent frightened away from the State and county. Not only has this been the case but the tradition and recollection of the "rushing, mighty winds " of '44 and '60, fully discussed elsewhere, has always sufficed to throw the timid and nervous into a panic, and sometimes intimidate those usually brave enough, whenever a summer wind and thunder storm arises of unusually threatening appearance. The advance of scientific knowledge, though as yet unable to suggest any way of preventing or neutralizing such storms has, by increasing popular knowledge into their laws, somewhat shorn them of their pristine terrors, as positive knowledge always lessens the terrors of the vague and unknown. It is now pretty well established that any such visitation as that of 1860 is altogether exceptional, and that tornadoes, so far from being a peculiarity of Iowa, or even the plains of the Mississippi Valley, prevail at cer- tain seasons of the year in every State in the Union, and that it is a popular error to suppose there is any tendency for them to increase in frequency or violence. A good barometer will always give sufficient warning of any severe storm.

The cause of tornadoes is not definitely understood, but they are probably due to counter-currents of air, caused by unequal heating and rarefication, con- joined with the meeting of ærial currents flowing in the same direction, result- ing in the same spiral whirl or funnel as may be observed in similar currents of water. Possibly the science of the future will show their intimate correlation with electric conditions.

BOTANY.

The botany of Clinton County is rich in species both of exogens-plants having a true wood and bark, and increasing in size by the growth of outside layers, and endogens-plants having no true wood and bark, and growing from within. The cryptogamia are also quite numerous, the musci, filices and fungi being quite plenty. As a list of all the plants would occupy too much space we shall only enumerate the principal species. That the forest-trees are so comparatively insignificant in size and variety of species, except along the bluffs, and in certain timber belts by the margin of streams, is evidently due to the prevalence of prairie fires before the period of white occupancy began. . Judicious tree-planting has done much, and promises to do much more toward replenishing the following rather scanty catalogue of native trees :

The forest trees and shrubs embrace the cottonwood, yellow poplar, quaking asp; oak-white, black, yellow, chestnut ; black walnut ; coffee bean, gymno- cladus ; elms-ulmus Americana and ulmus fulva ; willows, several species; mulberry, morus rubus ; box elder, negundo aceroides; soft maple, acer rubrus ; hard maple, acer saccharum ; sycamore ; plane-tree, platanus occi- dentalis ; ash, black and blue; basswood, or linn tree ; honey-locust ; three- thorned acacia, gledithschia tricanthus ; sassafras, sassafras officinale ; plum ; crab-apple; wild cherry, cerasus serotinus ; witch-hazel ; dogwood, cornus ; shadberry ; Juneberry, amalenchier canadensis ; thorn, crategus tomentosus and crategus crusgalli ; sumac-rhus glabra, rhus typhina, rhus radicans, climbing ; staff-tree; false bitter-sweet-celastrus scandens, climbing ; birch, hazel ; elder ; button-bush, cephalanthus ; black alder ; red cedar, juniperus Virginiana. A noticeable feature of this list is that the finest timber trees of the East are wanting here. Neither the tulip nor cucumber are present, and the linn is of less size. The oaks are more scrubby and less valuable. The hard maple is found in a few places only ; the beech, not at all.

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Of the herbs and small shrubs the number is very great, many of them worthy of notice on account of the beauty of their foliage and flowers. From early spring, when the anemone nuttalliana appears upon the sandy hillsides, until the chill wind of winter browns the foliage with its icy breath, there is a constant succession of floral beauties. Several species of ranunculus enliven pastures and roadsides, and are known to all under the familiar. name of crow- foot or buttercups. Liverwort, hepatica triloba ; spring beauty, claytonia ; cowslip, caltha palustris ; Dutchman's breeches, dicentria cucullaria and cana- densis ; dentaria diphylla, or pepper root ; cardamine rhomboidia ; Arabis can- adensis, or wild cress ; barbarea vulgaris, or water-cress ; viola pedata ; viola cucullata ; dodecatheon media, or prairie points ; prairie pink, or Mead's cow- slip; thalictrum cornuti ; geranium maculatum, or crane's-bill ; sanguinaria canadense, or bloodroot; oxalis violacea, or purple sorrel; spirea ; phlox, macula- tum and several other species make up a constant succession of flowers from spring to midsummer, while the composite through the spring are represented by but few species-dandelion, leontodon taravensis and troximon, with cirsium pumilam, a large, beautiful thistle. Lilies now begin to appear, and two species-L. superbum and L. Philadelphicum, are quite common. Resin-weed, silphium of three species ; sunflowers, helianthus, of six species ; coreopsis, of four spe- cies ; rudebeckia, four species ; solidago, golden-rod, of six species ; vernonia fasiculata ; liatris, four species ; aster, ten or twelve species ; cirsium thistle, four species ; lepachys ; echinacea purpurea, purple cone-flower ; parthenium; heliopsis lovis ; erigeron, three species ; eupatorium, boneset or thoroughwort, four species ; dysodia, dog-fennel ; cacalia ; Cynthia Virginiana and several other genera make a splendid display of composite flowers until frost. Lobelia, four species ; cardinalis, red cardinal-flower ; syphilitica, blue cardinal-flower ; leptostachys-slender lobelia, inflata, lobelia; campanula Americana; C. rotundifolium, in rocky ground ; lysimachia stricta ; L. longifolia ; gerardia auriculata ; the curious and beautiful castilleja coccinea-painted cup ; C. se8- sifolia ; dasystoma flava ; gerardia ; pentestemon grandiflorus ; mimulus ringens, monkey-flower ; eryngium yuccacefolium ; petalostemon violaceum ; dalea-alopecuroides ; lespedza capitata, bush clover ; cassia baptisia, two species ; Lathem's wild pea, three species ; desmodium, four species; podo- phyllum peltatum, may-apple, mandrake, are some of the most common ; sev- eral species of asclepidiacec, or milkweeds, among them the lovely butterfly weed, with its large scarlet heads of flowers, is a very conspicuous object by roadsides and in fields ; the calystegia sepium, usually called " morning-glory," a great pest to the farmers from its creeping roots and spreading vines of rapid growth ; ipomea panduratus, man-root, "man of the earth," a splendid plant, with large, morning-glory-like flower, having a purple tube and white border, and large, fleshy root, very difficult to kill-is frequently met with and cannot fail to attract the attention of the lover of nature. The curious euphorbias are not generally striking in foliage or flower, but E. carollata is very common in dry fields and, from its large white umbellate heads, is a very conspicuous object. The remainder of the species common in the county are creeping plants, and cover plowed lands, if not frequently stirred, with a web of varigated green or red. Of course, a number of plants and grasses have been introduced that have become practically indigenous. The Canada thistle is sometimes seen, but, fortunately, has not become the pest that it has in some other portions of the country. The tame grasses have found a congenial home in the rich prairie soil, and afford the most luxuriant pasturage possible for all kinds of live stock. But space is lacking to speak of the wild and tame grasses in detail, and the

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filices, or ferns, very luxuriant and beautiful in shaded dells, the musci, or mosses, and liverworts must, for the same reason, be omitted.

ZOOLOGY.

The natural history of Clinton County deserves to be studied with more care and scientific accuracy than has yet been bestowed thereon. As far as known there now exists no complete collection of its animals, birds, reptiles, fishes and insects. This is to be regretted, as species once common are becom- ing extinct or scarce, and others not native here are appearing year by year and taking the place of those that are disappearing.

The principal mammalia found in the county by the early settlers were the gray wolf, the prairie wolf, lynx, wildcat, raccoon, skunk, mink, weasel, bea- ver, otter, muskrat, hare (rabbit), gray squirrel, fox squirrel, striped and gray, spermophile or ground squirrel, improperly termed gopher, chipmunk (probably an immigrant), mice and moles of several species. Rats were so early an importation by steamers that it would not be surprising to see some gray veteran, with the impudence of his race, appear and claim a share of the banquet at a pioneers' meeting. Since white men settled in the county, its prairies have been shaken by the tramp of the herds of bison or buffalo (bos Americanus) as they emigrated in search of pasturage. In 1839, the tide of these majestic animals for two days, just north of the county limits, obstructed the march of a United States convoy. Such prairies as those of Clinton County were then congenial transitory feeding-grounds, but not the proper lat- itudes for their breeding. The bear was also an occasional resident of the tim- ber thickets along rocky margins of streams, but within the county there is but little broken ground suited for the lair of Bruin. Elk and red deer were found at first very plentifully for many years after the country was settled, though they have long been extinct.

The birds of Clinton County are those of a large section of North America. Several species are only occasional visitors ; many others go southward dur- ing the winter, to return in early spring, while a small number remain here the year around. Among the birds of prey (raptores) the bald eagle (Halictus leucocephalus) holds the first place, and may still be seen perched in solitary state on lofty trees surmounting the river bluffs. The buzzard, sparrow-hawk, goshawk, snowy owl, barn-owl, screech-owl, butcher-bird or shrike, kingbird, kingfisher, bluejay, woodpecker, yellow-hammer, meadow- lark, snowbird, wren, redstart, chipping-bird, bluebird, brown-thresher, tom- tit, yellow-bird, Baltimore oriole, robin, peewee, Phoebe cheewink or ground- finch, cuckoo, plover, snipe, wild goose, several varieties of duck, crane, heron, gull, brant, swan, partridge, prairie-chicken or pinnated grouse, quail, turkey, nighthawk, whip-poor-will, barn-swallow, chimney-swallow, martin, dove, pigeon, crow, bittern or pump-thunder, blackbird, woodcock, rail and humming-bird are found at some seasons of the year within our borders. Some of them are now seldom seen, while others are constantly met with. The prac- tice once too common, but now, happily, abolished in Clinton County, of ruth- lessly shooting everything with feathers and wings, has tended to greatly diminish the number of birds, and several species, for this reason, have, in this region, verged upon extinction. That king of game-birds-the wild turkey-was abundant for many years after the county's settlement.

Reptiles are now neither very numerous nor formidable, though, when set- tled, several sections of the county were considerably infested by more or less dangerous specimens. Of the ophidians-the serpents-the yellow rattlesnake

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(crotalus horridus), and the prairie rattlesnake were frequently encountered, and sometimes attained great size. The former found a most congenial habitat in the rocks along the line of bluffs, and there are traditions of dens of these hideous reptiles, similar to that described by Dr. O. W. Holmes in " Elsie Venner," inhabited by monsters of fabulous number and size. But, except where the ledges are inaccessible, the snake family have been practically exter- minated by their natural cnemy, the hog, whose method of destroying them is too well known to require description. Very large rattlesnakes have, how- ever, been quite recently killed by excursionists on the bluffs above Lyons, and their real or supposed presence is still, to the timid, a terror in those otherwise delightful dells that break through the bluff wall. The water-snake survives in the streams, though its range has been greatly narrowed by the draining of sloughs and lowering of lakes and ponds. The blow-snake-a kind of viper- the blue-racer, the ground-snake and garter-snake-the most common-com- prise the other species. They are, every year, decreasing in number, owing to the land of the county being so generally arable, thus depriving them of their lurking places. Of the turtle, there are four species, two of which attain considerable size. The newts, or Tritons, are represented by one or two species. The monstrous mennobranchus inhabits the still water of sloughs. Frogs are numerous in their usual aquatic homes. The tree-toad (katydid) is often heard, if not seen, and the crawfish is a well-known denizen of the lowlands.

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The History of Clinton County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its., Part 37

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 807

Author: Western Historical Co , Western Historical Company
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 807