USA > Iowa > Marshall County > The History of Marshall County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men etc > Part 34
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 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
308
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
those who favored the innovation on time-honored customs were tabooed and looked upon with pitiful astonishment.
But more than all else, the pioneers who made the first bold strokes for homes in the lovely land of Iowa were poor, almost without exception. Had there been unlimited numbers of improved appliances for agriculture at their very doors, they could not have availed themselves of the opportunities, from lack of means. And therein lies the pith and marrow of the credit due the noble vanguards of the West. From nothing but that which nature lavishly supplied. they builded strong and well. They labored with the energy of heroes, and deserve the reward of veterans.
Marshall County differs again from many counties of the State, in respect to some of the incidents of its early settlement. The customary monotony of pioneer life, which consisted of making claims, taking possession of them, and quietly improving the lands, is widely deviated from.
The reader is carried far back, to a period remote from that at which the first trapper wandered over the Indian hunting-grounds of the Iowa Valley, in search for the causes which led to the erection of the first habitation for white men on the fertile lands which were destined some day to become the County of Marshall.
Before beginning the work of recording the coming of white men to this region, let us consider the material construction of the locality and the natural division of its acres into prairie and woodland, hilloek and valley.
In geographical position, Marshall County is one of the most fortunate of localities. Midway between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, east and west. and divided into nearly equal parts by the forty-second parallel of latitude, which is practically a dividing line of the State also, the county may be termed the pivotal county, with its capital for the central city of Iowa.
To add to this apparent centrality, two immense railroads traverse the county at right angles to each other in as near direct lines as it is possible to construct roadways, conveying to the mind of the observer who studies the map of Iowa the impression that Marshalltown is a hub, and that a pressure upon one of the long levers extending therefrom, might easily turn the State to suit the occasion.
Nature was lavish of her gifts upon this lovely section of Iowa. She be- stowed upon it fertility of soil, abundance and purity of water, inexhaustible quarries of valuable building stone, vast beds of clay for brick-making, areas of timber that are practically beyond the requirements of man, and, above all else, a most salubrious climate, where the farmer, the tradesman and the capitalist can not only pursue his respective vocation, but can also do so with impunity, fearing neither epidemie, malarial fever nor tornado.
Marshall County is divided into eighteen civil townships. An effort will soon be made to create another township, to be called Linn, of the territory now embraced in the civil Township of Marshall, leaving the municipal corporation of Marshalltown free from the township. At the present writing (September) the list of townships is as follows :
Vienna, Liscomb, Bangor, Liberty, Minerva. Marietta, Iowa, Taylor, Mar- shall, Marion, Le Grand, Timber Creek, Washington, State Center, Eden, Lo- gan, Jefferson and Green Castle.
The superficial area of the county is sixteen Congressional townships, or 368,640 acres.
The surface of the county is all that the farmer could desire. It is just sufficiently undulating to afford ample drainage, but is not hilly. In certain localities, near the larger streams, the elevations rise to altitudes which might
309
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
be termed hilly by prairie farmers ; but those settlers who came from the East- ern States found the rolling lands of Central Iowa a desirable compromise be- tween the rocky peaks of Eastern New York, Pennsylvania and New England, and the monotonous stretches of the prairie regions.
This is, of course, a prairie country ; but it is that most delightful of vari- eties which may be denominated diversified prairie. Along the streams there are bottom lands of considerable width and inexhaustible fertility ; but the ma- . jor portion of the soil is high and well drained, from fifty to more than a hun- dred feet above the water level, waving backward from the river beds in a grand panorama of richly cultivated farms, interspersed with belts of native forest timber.
The scenery from many an elevation throughout the county is worthy of the pencil of an artist. Could the peaceful pastoral scenes be transferred by skillful limner to canvas, and hung upon the walls of some metropolitan gal- lery, the critic and the connoisseur would pause with delight, to do honor to the vision. The grandeur of the mountain range which so enchanted Bierstadt, it is true, is not to be discovered in this State ; nor does the solemn stateliness of the forest, which Bryant loved so dearly, awe the observer with its sublimity. Nature seems to have wearied in her creation of the marvelous, and here rested her senses with a far more peaceful scene. The native groves allured the timid deer, nor offered them alarm by sudden change of view from pastoral to weird. The open lands, as though fresh from the hands of cultured floriculturist, bloomed forth perpetual flowers.
It needed no vivid imagination on the part of those who saw this region at its earliest settlement to persuade them of their entrance upon an Eden. There was that atmosphere of semi-cultivation pervading all things which inspired one with a belief that this county was once the home of industrious peoples, who had, from some unknown cause, suddenly retired from the spot, leaving their richly-tilled farms to become half wild again from lack of attention.
The pioneers were not poetic, as a general thing ; but there is scarcely one of them that does not speak to-day of the entrancing spectacle offered on their arrival here. It seemed to them that the bountiful hand of Nature had been opened with such prodigal generosity that no alternative was left them but to accept the invitation to remain and partake of the feast.
The soil of the upland prairies is deep and rich, composed of a black, allu- vial loam, with a small admixture of sand, is free from gravel or surface stone, and is adapted, in every respect, to the growth of all cereals, vegetables and grasses peculiar or possible to be cultivated in this latitude.
The fallacy that a perennial sod cannot be grown in this region has been fully exposed. The native grasses and the infinite varieties of the floral tribe become extinct, without cultivation, in the course of time; but where a more speedy process of extermination is desired, the ordinary methods of cultivation will soon place a sod over the rich bottom lands or hillocks that will afford the amplest pasturage for flocks and herds. This subject will be more fully treated in another chapter.
The county is one of the best watered sections of the State. The principal stream which flows through the county is the Iowa River. It crosses the north boundary about a mile and a half from the center, east and west, on Section 2, Town 85 north, Range 19 west, in the civil township of Liscomb, and flows in an exceedingly irregular manner, but in a general southeasterly direction, finally crossing the east line of the county, on Section 1, Town 83 north. Range 17 west, civil township of Le Grand.
310
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
About one quarter of the county lies on the northeast side of Iowa River. The lowa is a fine, rapid stream of pure water, which preserves its volume in all seasons of the year. The usual width at this point is about forty yards.
The main tributaries of the Iowa are as follows: From the north and east side. Asher Creek, which rises at the north line of the county and discharges its · waters nearly opposite the city of Marshalltown, being about eleven miles in length ; Dean's Creek, which rises in Liscomb and Vienna Townships and flows southward, emptying north of the county seat ; Nicholson's Creek, rises in Ma- rion Township, and empties about four miles east of Marshalltown.
The tributaries from the west and south are as follows : Honey Creek, ris- ing in Hardin County, and running southeasterly, empties into the Iowa in the southeastern corner of Bangor Township ; it is composed of two branches which unite about a mile from its mouth, the main stream being about ten miles in length : Minerva Creek, made up of a number of small streams rising in the extreme northwestern and western parts of the county, is a beautiful stream, en- tering the river in the southeastern corner of Marietta Township; the Little Minerva enters it about one mile from its mouth ; the main stream is about ten miles in length ; Linn Creek, rising near the west part of the county, runs very nearly east its whole distance, and empties into the Iowa two miles east of Mar- shalltown ; it is twenty-six miles long, and the longest stream in the county ; Tim- ber Creek, waters more than any other stream in the county, is made up of a great number of branches which traverse the whole south part of the county. and which, when united, form the largest volume of water discharged by any of the Iowa's tributaries in this county ; it empties into the Iowa about two and a half miles from the eastern line of the county : the main stream is about twen- tv-three miles long.
The southeastern portion of the county is well-watered by the branches of the Skunk River, three or four of which rise in the county and flow south ; Clear Creek is the most important, and runs through the west part of Eden Township for about eight miles.
The census of 1875 shows that there were at that time 15,687 acres of native timber in the county. To this must be added 5,526 acres of timber that has been planted since the region was settled, giving a total of 21,213 acres. This is exclusive of shade trees or orchards. The timber lands of Iowa are not so valuable as the original settlers anticipated they would become. In the days of first settlement, it was supposed that one-third of the farm must be woodlands. in order to provide against a dearth of fencing timber and fuel. This theory is completely exploded. Prairie lands are constantly increasing in price, while woodlands hold but an unsteady market value. Fuel is inexhaustible, and fences may be made on open lands much cheaper and more satisfactory from wire. This rule does not apply as markedly to Marshall as to some other counties : but the market is so controlled by other fencing materials that only a local trade can be secured by owners of timber. In wood regions, the supply is greater than the demand, as the growth of wood is probably equal to the consumption. Thus it is seen that the fears of the timid are not to be realized, but that the open country is far more valuable than the heavily-timbered localities. Mar- shall County will never suffer from a scarcity of woods.
This county is as well adapted to the growing of fruit as is any interior sec- tion. With proper care and cultivation, the apple, plum, cherry and grape may be successfully grown. The smaller fruits grow luxuriantly. as did the native fruits before man's advent on the scene.
311
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
The agricultural statistics show Marshall to be one of the foremost counties in fertility.
The county is rich in building stone, the quarrying of which forms a valu- able industry.
The topics of material development and business progress are treated in special chapters, in an appropriate manner.
GEOLOGY.
The history of Marshall County would be incomplete without a sketch of of its geology. The geological formation of the county involves a knowledge of many of the contiguous counties, and to some considerable extent, of the whole North American continent. Geology is a history of the formation of the earth and its changes, and, like all very ancient histories, its pages are often- times only fragmentary ; some of them lost and gone forever, while even whole chapters have totally disappeared. The early history of all nations is mythical and fabulous, and, to a great degree, unworthy of confidence ; but geological knowl- edge has been obtained by practical observations and the severest inductive reasoning, and should command our warmest admiration.
It is not intended to give a scientific and professional article on the geology of Marshall County, but only a short popular treatise, so as to interest every man and woman of good observation who shall peruse it, and to call their atten- tion, at least, to the superficial formation of the earth, so that in a few years there may be hundreds of observers of interesting geological facts where there is but one at the present time.
That geology commends itself to us as a truthful science, will be very readily elucidated by a very simple statement of a fact within the comprehension of all.
To illustrate : A certain kind of rocks are called Archæan or Laurentian. These are the most ancient rocks known to geologists ; at one time they were supposed to be destitute of fossils. In all the systems of rocks they occupy the lowest, and consequently the oldest, position ; but in whatever part of the earth found, they are always recognizable by the geologist. So the Devonian rocks are distinguished by certain fossil fishes that are found in them, and in them alone. The Carboniferous rocks are known by certain fossil mollusks ; the Cretaceous, by certain reptiles that occur in no other formation ; and so every geological period has its characteristic fossils, by means of which the formation and its comparative age may always be accurately determ- ined.
The geologist will always know the coal-bearing rocks from any other class ; and this knowledge ought to be possessed by every one interested in explora- tions for coal. Le Conte says : "It has been estimated that the money, time and energy uselessly expended in the State of New York in exploration for coal, when any geologist might be sure there was no coal, would suffice to make a a complete geological survey of the State several times over." Is the same not true of Iowa and of Marshall County ?
In sketching the geology of this county one is reminded of the supercilious old Fadladeen when criticising Feramorz's poetry. "In order," said he, im. portantly swinging about his chaplet of pearls, "to convey with clearness my opinion of the story this young man has related, it is necessary to take a review of all the stories that have ever-" "My good Fadladeen !" exclaimed the Princess, interrupting him, etc.
$12
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Even with the gentle admonition of the beautiful Princess, it must be said the geology of Marshall County is a small section of the geology of North America, and North America is the oldest continent of the earth, in spite of the misnomer, "New World." It is new only in civilization. Still, we are able to refer to the primary theories of geology only in the briefest manner. The oldest rocks, the Archæan, are not found in Iowa ; but the two next oldest groups. the Silurian and Devonian, crop out in the northeastern part of the State, and dip back west and southwest. Next come the Subcarboniferous formations, or those underlying the coal formations. In this group are comprised the Marshall County beds of limestone, called by Prof. White the Kinderhook beds, which are said by him to extend from Burlington north to Pocahontas County, a distance of more than two hundred miles. They crop out in Des Moines, Washington, Tama, Marshall, Hardin and Franklin Counties, and along the Des Moines River, in Humboldt County.
Next come. lapping on to the limestone beds of Marshall County in the south and west, thin beds of sandstone, of the Carboniferous age, upon which should have been, or some time may have been, formed beds of coal. Above the limestone, comes the bowlder or unassorted blue clay, the product of glacia- tion. hereafter to be described. Above the bowlder clay, the drift deposit of the Champlain period. The oldest formations of the Silurian and Devonian ages, which should occupy the lowest position, do actually come to the surface in the higher parts of the State, viz .: in the northeast; but their dip being south and southwest, they pass so deep under Marshall County as to entirely escape observation. It then remains for us to speak only of the limestone. the carboniferous formations, and the glacial and Champlain deposits. If the Cretaceous period made any formations here, they were all glaciated away.
FORMATION OF LIME BEDS.
Limestones have mainly been formed in the bottom of the ocean ; the older and purer kinds in the deep, still sea ; the more recent and less pure in a shal- low and disturbed sea. When the great limestone deposits were made in the Mississippi Valley, a deep salt ocean extended from the Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. This was the age of mollusks (shell fish), and the sea bottom swarmed with them. Many of the rocks seem to have been wholly made up of comglomerate shells. In this age of the world, there was no creature living with a spinal column or a brain ; but corals, a low order of radiates, as crinoidea, several varieties of mollusks, crustaceans, called trilobites (somewhat corresponding to the river crawfish), and some lowly worms!' These were the highest develop- ment of animal life when the earlier limestone rocks were being slowly formed.
This Silurian age was succeeded by the Devonian, characterized as the age of fishes, during which were deposited the Hamilton and Carboniferous lime- stones. Then came the Subcarboniferous period, during which were deposited the limestone beds of Marshall County. These were formed in a comparatively shallow sea, a fact proven by numerous ripple marks in the rocks, also by their sandy composition in some layers, and farther, by an occasional thin layer of clay intervening between the strata of rocks. These were uneasy times on the earth's erust, when it was given to upheavings and down-sinkings over large areas. Then it was that the whole northeastern and castern part of the State was upraised. All of Marshall County, but the southwestern part, par-
313
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
ticipated in the elevation. The State was a " down grade " all the way from Allamakee County to the southwest quarter of Marshall County.
THE GREAT COAL BASIN
was formed west and south throughout Iowa, reaching into Missouri and Kan- sas, and perhaps into the Indian Territory and Texas. Over this vast area there stretched a vast, dismal swamp.
On this great marshy plain grew the rank vegetation that was in the future to be pressed into coal. It was a wilderness of moss and ferns and reeds, such as can be found nowhere on earth at the present time. Prof. Gunning, in speaking of it, says: "To the land forest of coniferas and cycads, and the marsh forest of scale trees and seal trees and reed trees and fern trees, add an undergrowth of low herbaceous ferns, and you have the picture of a primeval landscape. Blot from the face of nature every flowering weed and flowering tree, every grass, every fruit, every growth useful to man or beast ; go, then, to the Sunda Islands for the largest club moss, to the East Indies for the largest tree fern, to the damp glades of Caracas for the tallest reeds, to the Moluccas for their cycad and to Australia for its pine, to the ponds and sluggish streams of America for their quillwort, and place them all side by side over a vast marsh and its sandy borders. and you will faintly realize your picture of a prim- eval landscape. Dwarf the cycad andthe pine, lift still higher the tapering column of the tree fern, multiply by two the bulk of the reed and by three the club moss, lift the quillwort from the water, and to its long, linear leaves add a fluted stem eighty feet high, and you would fully realize a Carboniferous land- scape-realize it in all but its vast solitudes. Not a bird ever perched on spiky leaf or spreading fern of a coal forest. No flower had opened yet to spread fragrance on the air, and no throat had warbled a note of music. Such poor animal life as the carboniferous world then possessed left its imprint on wave- washed shore and in the hollow stems of fallen trees."
This was the beginning of the age of amphibians. Then lived the progeni- tors of the loathsome alligator and lizard. La Conte says : "The climate of the cool period was characterized by greater warmth, humidity, uniformity and a more highly carbonated condition of the atmosphere than now. ob- tained." We may, therefore, picture to ourselves the climate of this period as warm, moist, uniform, stagnant and stifling from the abundance of carbonic acid.
Such conditions were extremely favorable to vegetable life, but not to the higher forms of animal life. Neither man nor monkey nor milk-giving animal of any kind lived for many cycles of time after the Subcarboniferous period : but that vegetation grew rank, scientific facts corroborate ; thus, Prof. Gunning says : " It takes between five and eight feet of vegetable debris to form one foot of coal. A Pittsburgh seam is ten feet thick, while one in Nova Scotia is thirty-five feet in depth. The Pittsburgh seam represents a vegetable deposit of from fifty to a hundred feet in depth, and the one in Nova Scotia between a hundred and seventy-five and three hundred and fifty feet in thickness. A four- foot seam in Jasper County would represent from twenty to forty feet of vege- table debris.
During the growth and decay of this vegetable matter, the surface of the earth did not sink; but this quiescent period was followed by one of submergence. " The surface, loaded with the growth of quiet centuries, was carried down beneath the sea, where it was swept by waves and overspread by sands and mud." It was in nature's great hydraulic press, where it remained until
314
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
another upheaval again threw it to the surface, and another long era of verdure succeeded the one of submergence.
Thus, emergence and submergence succeeded each other as many times as the coal seams and the shale, slate or sandstone alternate-in some parts of Iowa three times, in Nova Scotia, about forty times! Who can compute the centuries here recorded ?
Marshall County was only on a shallow margin of the great coal basin, con- sequently, no coal was manufactured within her borders, or so little as to be unworthy of notice. Let him that would prospect for coal in Marshall County be sure he does not bore into Kinderhook limestone or subcarboniferous shule, as the coal deposits must be found above and not below such formations.
The next higher formation above the coal-bearing strata is the cretaceous. or chalk. If there was ever a deposit of it in Marshall County, it was swept away by the Glacial or Champlain period. So we pass by this "missing link and come to the consideration of the
DRIFT PERIOD.
That the surface of Marshall County, and of Iowa, and, in fact, the whole of North America north of the thirty-eighth parallel, is covered by a material known as drift has become a popular opinion. Strewn all over the country, on the hills and in the valleys and on the level prairies, covering up the native rocks to a depth of from twenty to three hundred feet, is found this peculiar deposit. The well-diggers and the colliers, in their excavations, encounter it, and the quarryman has to strip it from the surface of his rock bed. It is not all alike ; first there are a few feet of surface soil, created by recent vegetable depos- its : then a variable depth of clay, or clay and sand intimately blended ; then water-worn gravel and sand, and then blue clay, resting upon the country rock.
Scattered over the continent are frequently seen "lost rocks," or bowlders. of various sizes and of different varieties, some of granite, others of gneiss or trap, and occasionally some of limestone. These bowlders are also frequently found in excavating the earth.
The blue clay which lies upon the country.rocks, or the original formation, is the oldest of the drift deposits. It consists of a heterogeneous mixture of dark blue clay, sand, gravel, pebbles and irregular-shaped stones and bowlders, of various kinds and sizes, unassorted and unstratified, and therefore could not have been deposited in water. Sometimes, an occasional piece of stone-coal and fragments of wood are found in it. This blue clay is bowlder or glacier clay. From whence it came and how formed is one of the most interesting subjects that scientific minds have investigated. The history of glacial phenomena is the history of the deposition of the blue clay formation.
Too much credit cannot be given to the late lamented Prof. Agassiz and Principal Forbes for their discovery of the laws regulating glacial action. These eminent sarants built a hut on a living glacier, in Switzerland, and studied it in all its relations to the past history of the globe.
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.