USA > Illinois > Mason County > Centennial history of Mason County, including a sketch of the early history of Illinois, its physical peculiarities, soils, climate, production, etc. > Part 5
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48
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
useless. Scientific agriculture has as yet received very little atten- tion from our farmers, and though we are happy to be able to re- cord the fact that a movement has recently been made by a few, which, if carried out, will tend greatly to improve the modes of op- eration in this, the most beneficial of all the branches of human in- dustry. Under the best system of management that science has yet discovered, the farmers of the older States are not able to com- pete with ours who have taken very little trouble in reference to the matter. How vastly more productive our virgin soil might be made by a practical application of all the knowledge that is attain- able on this subject."
STATEMENT OF THE FINANCIAL AFFAIRS OF MASON COUNTY,
JUNE 30, IS57.
By amount of cash in hands of the Treasurer of
county .. $2,691 71
Amount of county revenue for IS56. 5,466 55
$8,148 26
Amount paid by J. P. West, Col-
lector, as part of revenue for 1856. . $4,350 78
County orders unredeemed 1,952 21
Jury certificates 112 70
$6,415 69
Balance in favor of county $1,723 57
ADOLPH KREBAUM,
Clerk.
The progress of agriculture in this county and in the State has more than exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine. In the year 1867, we compiled from statistical reports the following, as to
TIIE CROPS IN ILLINOIS.
Our people have but little conception of the amount of produce raised in our State. They know the soil is prolific, and that in their immediate vicinity there is a great yield. Further than this, they have no idea of the aggregate of the crops of the State. It would astonish most of them to be told that last year there were in Illi- nois 4,931,783 acres of corn planted, and that the product from these acres amounts to 155,844,350 bushels; 2,195,263 acres were cropped with wheat, yielding 28,551,421 bushels; rye spread over
49
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
43,721, giving 666,455 bushels, enough to make whisky sufficient to demoralize the whole State. In oats there were S83,952 acres, producing 30,054,370 bushels.
Barley occupied 41,510 acres, giving 1,037,753 bushels. Buck- wheat, 16,250 acres, raising 273,010 bushels. Potatoes took up 58,982 acres, and yielded 4,102,035 bushels. The hay crop covered 1,591,880 acres, and turned off 2,340,063 tons, and 25,578 acres were in tobacco, yielding 17,546,981 pounds. The crops above enumerated occupied 9,788,920 acres, valued at $160,148,704. In this statement there is no account taken of the various fruit crops for which our State is so famous. With these counted in, the value of our products would be considerably swollen, and we should show a wealth of agricultural products which cannot be rivaled by any State in the Union.
It must be remembered that not more than one-sixth of our land is under cultivation, if there is more than one acre in seven. Truly, our State is a giant, rich in soil, and teeming with muscle and in- tellect. Running through five degrees of latitude, we present a climate and variety of soils which are truly the admiration of our sister States. From Galena to Cairo we present the various fruits and products raised in the temperate climates. Our grazing fields are not to be surpassed by any in the world. Our cotton grows luxuriantly, and our hemp, flax and tobacco are fast becoming staple articles.
In this showing no mention has been made of our sorghum crop. The number of acres in this article has not been ascertained; yet, from all we can gather, a large surface must have been put in, and the yield highly flattering and remunerative. The root crops, too, have not been considered, and yet there can be no doubt but thous- ands of acres were devoted to them last year, and that the value of their products reached millions of dollars.
Who can say that the dwellers in our State should not be proud of her? Her broad and beautiful prairies, and her groves of luxu- riant timber, are objects over which we can feel a just pride. In all that goes to make up a great State, we can be excelled in but few, if any particulars. Our soil, our railroads, and other facilities, besides bordering on a great inland sea, peculiarly fit Illinois for the title of the Empire State of the great Northwest.
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50
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
From the Mason county Herald, December, 1854, we extract the following statement of the exports of Havana for the year 1854:
Exports. Bu. to Chicago.
Bu. St. Louis.
Total bu.
Wheat.
57,386
57,386
Corn
323,518
3S,Soo
362,318
Oats.
4,800
20,000
24,800
Ryc.
3,500
3,000
6,500
Potatoes
3,000
3,000
Beans
1,000
1,000
Total bushels. . . 331,SIS 123,186
455,004
Exports.
To St. Louis.
Hides
500
Butter
6,000 lbs.
Rags
7,000 lbs.
Lard.
ยท 300 bbls.
Bulk meat 5,300 pieces.
Articles manufactured in Havana and sold in the year IS54: Cooperage, valued at $2,000
Saddlery, valued at.
5,000
Plows, valued at ..
5,000
Boots and Shoes, valued at. 6,000
Stoves and Tinware, valued at 10,000
Sundries, valued at.
4,000
Total $31,000
Lumber sold-1,500,000 feet; worth $33,000.
Exports of Bath for IS54. Reported by G. H. Campbell :
Corn
200,000 bu.
Wheat 25,000 bu.
Rye. 4,500 bu.
Oats 6,000 bu.
Pork slaughtered, over two thousand head. Bath has one steam flouring mill and two steam saw mills.
The population of Mason county in 1845 was 3,135; in 1850 in was 5,921 ; in 1854 it was estimated at S,000.
In IS48 Havana contained 151 population.
In 1850 Havana contained 462 population.
In 1854 Havana contained Soo population. (Estimated.)
51
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
From the books of the State Auditor we get the following as to the number of domestic animals on the first of May, 1876, and the number of acres in grain last year.
In Mason county there were of-
Horses 6,131
Cattle . . .
S,334
Sheep 640
Hogs
15,SS3
Total horses in Illlinois
924,044
Total cattle in Illinois
1,861,278
Total sheep in Illinois
S26,077
Total hogs in Illinois
2,670,363
Wheat in Mason county S,083 acres
Corn in Mason county
96,542
Other grains in Mason county 16,458
Orchards in Mason county
1,509
Total wheat in Illinois
2,005,262
Total corn in Illinois.
S,218,299
Total other erops in Illinois 2,277,615 66
Total orchards in Illinois
312,902
4
GEOLOGY OF MASON COUNTY.
BY H. M. BANNISTER.
[The Geology of Mason county being reported by the above author in connection with Tazewell, McLean and Logan, we are compelled to give data from those counties; also from Menard and Cass, from the fact that the geological formations of these six counties are so uniformly the same that a description of one is nearly a description of all. It is also true that the geological sur- veys of these six counties have been very superficial and neglected. Our State Geologist, Prof. A. H. Worthen, being only remarkable for giving little attention to the important work which the State employs him to do. We shall extract from the work of Mr. Ban- nister, done for the Geological office of this State, and add such per- sonal investigations as we have been able to make.]
" The surface of the country over a great portion of the district composed of the counties of McLean, Logan, the greater part of Tazewell, and the eastern part of Mason, is a high, undulating prai- rie, with here and there groves and belts of timber.
The soil is generally a rich brown mould, varying somewhat in different localities in the proportions of clay, etc., which it contains, some portions being more argillaceous than others. In the timber, however, which occupies scarcely more than one-fifth or one-sixth of the entire surface, and the broken country along some of the principal streams, the soil is somewhat of a different character, the lighter colored and more argillaceous subsoil appearing at or near the surface.
In the greater part of Mason county, and over considerable tracts in the southwestern part of Tazewell county, the surface configuration varies from that which we have described. The
53
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
prairies are low and comparatively flat, and in many places were originally overflowed, or marshy, at some seasons of the year. The soil of these prairies is a rich alluvium, generally more or less ar- enaceous, which forms, when sufficiently elevated or drained, one of the best producing soils in the State.
Along the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, in this region, we find rather extensive sandy tracts of river formation, and on the Sanga- mon river in Mason county, and on the Illinois in Mason and Tazewell, the bold bluffs of the Loess are, in some localities, con- spicious features of the general landscape.
The principal streams occurring in this district, besides the Illi- nois and Sangamon rivers, which form a portion of its borders, are the Mackinaw, in Tazewell, Mason and McLean counties; Salt Creek, in Mason and Logan counties; Kickapoo and Sugar creeks, in Logan and McLean counties. These, with many minor streams and nameless tributaries, drain nearly the whole surface of this entire district. With the exception of the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, none of the streams have extensive tracts of bottoms adjoin- ing them, and even along these rivers the bottoms are either of in- considerable extent or wanting altogether.
The geological formations appearing in this district are almost entirely of the drift or later formations, the older rocks outcropping only at a comparatively few localities in Tazewell and Logan counties. The underlying rock, as far as can be ascertained from these outcroppings, as well as from artificial exposures, by shafts, etc., in various parts of the district, consists entirely of the different beds of the coal measure series.
The Loess, the uppermost of the more recent geological forma- tions, appears only in the vicinity of the Illinois and Sangamon rivers, and consists here, as elsewhere, of buff or ash colored marly sand, containing fresh water shells of existing species. It is not everywhere equally well developed, and in various localities along the Illinois river, in Mason and Tazewell counties, it either does not appear at all, or is inconspicuous. It may be well seen, how- ever, in Mason county, where it appears in the bald, rounded bluffs, with occasional mural-appearing escarpments covering their sum- mits, which forms so characteristic a feature of the landscape along the river below. In the northern part of Tazewell county, although this bluff marl sand appears to some extent in the bluffs along the Illinois river, it is not by any means as well exposed or prominent as farther south, in other counties.
54
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
The drift formation which covers the older rocks in almost every part of this district, is here composed of beds of blue and brown clay, sand and gravel, and varies in thickness in different portions from fifty feet in the western part of Tazewell county, to two hun- dred and fifty in the Bloomington shafts. It has been penetrated however at but comparatively few points, and over the greater part of this region, its depth can only be approximately estimated. It seems probable indeed that it may be of this thickness over a con- siderable portion of, McLean county, as boring at Chatsworth in the adjoining portion of Livingston county, was reported to have penetrated to a depth of two hundred and fifty feet before striking rock. The material of the drift in this region appears to be rough- ly stratified; alternating beds of sand, gravel and clay are frequently met with in wells and borings. The sand and gravel beds make generally but a small part of the total thickness, though sometimes single beds attain a very considerable thickness, as, for instance, at Chenoa, in the northern part of McLean county, where a boring for coal passes through a bed of sand and gravel thirty feet in thick- ness, overlaid by forty-five feet of the usual clays of this formation. Occasionally also a bed of black earth or vegetable mould, still containing pieces of wood, trunks of trees, leaves, &c., only partial- ly decayed, is met with, and a bed of quicksand containing the usual fossil land or fresh-water shells of existing species.
The following section of the drift afforded by a shaft sunk in the city of Bloomington, is of special interest, as showing both of these conditions at unusual depths. The shaft was sunk by the Bloom- ington Coal Mining Company near the track of the Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, half a mile north of the depot:
I Surface soil and brown clay 10 feet.
2 Blue clay. 40
3 Gravelly hardpan 60
4 Black mould with pieces of wood. 13 "
5 Hardpan and clay 89
6 Black mould, &c. 6
7 Blue clay . 34
S Quicksand, buff and drab color, containing fos- sil shells. 2 9 Clay shales (coal measures) Total . 254
55
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Another shaft a little over a mile distant from this one passed through materially the same succession of strata, with only local variations in the thickness of the different beds. The quicksand, No. S of the above section, resembling the sands of the Loess in general appearance, and the only species of the contained shells which could be identified, was Helicina Occulta, which is also not uncommon in the Loess of the river valleys of this State. Beds of black vegetable mould are met with at less depths than in this sec- tion in various places in this district, as, for instance, in the vicinity of Pekin, Tazewell county, where it is said in few instances to have tainted the wells which have penetrated it to such an extent as to almost render them unfit for use. Sections of the drift are also afford- ed by the borings for coal which have been made in various parts of this district. In all cases they show variations of the material from blue to yellow clay, sand and gravel, but do not generally afford sections of such especial interest as the shafts at Bloomington, nor is the depth of the formation as great. At Chenoa the thickness is found to be ninety feet from the surface to the rock; at Lexington one hundred and eighty feet; at Atlanta one hundred and twenty- six feet; at Lincoln seventy feet; at Cheney's Grove one hundred and twenty-two feet; and at several points in Tazewell county from sixty to one hundred feet and more. Its thickness is quite irregular, but seems to be greatest in the central and eastern portions of the district.
In Mason county we have no reliable data on which to base our estimates, but its average thickness in that portion I think may be set down at not less than fifty feet, and is probably much more. In the western portion of Tazewell county in the ravines and broken country along the Illinois river, I observed in a number of places at the base of the drift a bed of cemented gravel or conglomerate showing sometimes an irregular stratification similar to that of beach deposits.
A ledge of this material may be seen, nine or ten feet in thick- ness, in the northwestern quarter of section 7, township 25, range 4, west of the third principal meridian, up one of the side ravines which comes down through the Illinois river bluffs a little south of Wesley city, in Tazewell county, Illinois, and other similar ledges appear in various places in the vicinity of Fon du Lac, and also on the Mackinaw, in the eastern portion of this county. Another similar bed of cemented gravel, of, however, a comparatively in-
56
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
significent thickness, may be seen about half way up the bluff, at the steamboat landing in the city of Pekin, where it does not ap- pear to be more than a few inches thick.
I have not observed any similar deposits in the eastern portions of this district, either in Logan or McLean counties, nor have I heard of its having been met with in sinking the various shafts or borings.
COAL MEASURES.
All the stratified rocks that outcrop within the limits of this dis- trict belong, as has been already stated, to the coal measures, and the actual surface exposures are confined for the most part to a thickness of sixty or eighty feet in the middle portion of the forma- tion. In the whole district there is but one boring which affords an artificial section of the beds down to the base of this formation. This is one made by Voris & Co., on the bottom lands on the Taze- well county side of the Illinois river, and directly opposite the city of Peoria.
The first bed of the coal measure which is met with in the bor- ing is about forty feet below the lower coal seam, which is worked in this section, number four of the Illinois river section, as given by Prof. Worthen.
The following is a section of the first four hundred and fifty- nine feet of the boring. Below that depth the records kept by Mr. Voris & Co. are not complete, as to the thickness and material of all the different beds-
I Alluvial soil of river bottom. 4 feet
2 Sand .. 4
3 Gravel (boulder drift) 20
4 Clay shale 59
5 Bituminous slate 66
3
6 Fire clay. 15
7 Clay shale. 15
120 66
S Coal. 4
9 Clay shale. 3
Io Sandy or argillaceous shale (very hard) 34
II Sandstone. . 4
12 Nodular, argillaccous limestone 6
57
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
13 Compact, fine-grained sandstone 5 feet
14 Hard, dark-blue sandy shale. 25
15 Coal. 3
235 66
. 16 Sandy and argillaceous shale. 66
25
17 Bituminous shale, with thin beds limestone. 57
IS "Cherty rock" 44
19 Hard silaceous rock 33
66
20 Fine-grained sandstone. 65
459
As nearly as the limits of the formations can be made out from this section, I think that at least that portion between the base of the alluvium and drift, and the bituminous shale and limestone of this section, number seventeen, may be referred to the coal meas- ures. The remainder is Devonian, with perhaps some of the upper beds of the lower carboniferous. The exact equivalent of the two beds of the coal passed through, may, perhaps, not be stated with certainty. The lower one, however, is probably No. I, of the Illi- nois river section. The greatest depth reached in the boring was seven hundred and seventy-four feet, and the lowest rock was a gray porous limestone, the fragments of which, brought up by the instruments, were exactly similar in appearance to some of the up- per limestones of the Niagara group, exposed in the northern part of the State, with which this formation may doubtless be properly identified.
The coal seam which is worked in this immediate neighborhood is No. 4, as has already been stated. A good exposure of this coal may be seen near the track of the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw Railroad, at a point of the bluff where the road enters the valley of Farm creek. It is here immediately overlaid by loess and drift, and is about four feet in thickness, the same as its average in other localities thereabouts. It is worked in various places, both in the river bluffs and for a mile or more up the valley of Farm creek, by horizontal drifts into the hill sides, some of which, in their various branches, are of considerable linear extent. The beds overlying the coal are not exposed to the surface at any point north of Farm creek, but the seam is generally found to have a roof of sandstone or sandy shale in the interior portions of the drift. -8
.
58
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Along the Illinois river bluffs, between Fon du Lac and Wesley City, there are several points where coal is now, or has been, worked, and there are a few exposures of the overlying sandstones in the bluffs near the main wagon road. South of Wesley City there are scarcely any exposures on the river face of the bluffs, but up the side ravines they are more numerous. In one of these ravines, some distance from the road, on the land of Mr. Davis, I observed the following succession of beds in a vertical exposure for about sixty rods along the sides of the bluffs:
I Shale, passing downward into slate .. 25 feet.
2 Coal.
3 Fire clay, passing downward into nodular lime- stone 12
4 Limestone
5 Sandstone .. exposed only a few inches. 3
It seems to me that the vein of coal observed here is still above both the seams which are worked in this region. The distance between this and the next vein below it, I should judge to be not more than forty or fifty feet. The limestone which always over- lies the coal No. 6, is entirely wanting here, although, as may be seen by the section, a bed of limestone occurs below its under clay, and farther down the creek. Below the exposures from which the above sections were made up, numerous thin beds of limestone may be seen intercalated in the sandstone outcrops. These lime- stone bands seem to be somewhat fossiliferous, but no good speci- mens were obtained. In the northeastern part of section twenty- four, township twenty-five, range five, on a northern fork of Lick creek, I noticed a quarry in a ledge of soft, light gray and brown micaceous sandstone, generally thin bedded and shaly, but in some places with beds thick enough to answer for building purposes. The total vertical thickness of the exposure was less than twelve feet. Passing farther down the branch, in a general westerly and southerly direction, we find the hillsides along the banks strown thickly with fragments of similar sandstone, indicating the probable existence of the same beds but a short distance under the soil. At a point on the immediate bank of the creek, near the centre of the section, I observed an exposure of about twenty feet of sandy and argillaceous shales, containing a thin seam of coaly matter, not over one or two inches in thickness at its best development, and from that down to nothing. About half a mile farther east, near
59
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
the centre of the eastern line of the section, alongside of the road which crosses the creek at this place, and well up the bluffs, I observed the outcrop of a coal seam which had been worked to some slight extent, and which I take to be the upper workable vein of this region: No. 6 of the Illinois river section. The whole exposure of this point presented the following section :
I Shale 9 feet.
2 Limestone (light color). 2
3 Dark colored shaly beds 2
4 Blue shaly clay . I 5 Coal 3
Total .17
Farther to the eastward from this point, and higher in the bluffs, I observed limited exposures of reddish, shaly sandstones, or aren- aceous shale, which seems from its position to overlie the upper- most beds of the above section. In the vicinity of Pekin there are but few natural exposures of the underlying rocks, but the lower coal is mined at several points in the neighborhood of the city. The coal is generally overlaid by black slate. Above the slate there is generally from twenty to forty or fifty feet of sandstone, or sandy shales, according to the locality of the shafts, on the edge of the bluffs, or farther up towards the rolling uplands.
This sandstone may be seen in the bottom of the ditches at one or two points on the Fremont road, about a mile east of the city of Pekin, and in the vicinity of the principal coal mines. At Mr. Hawley's place, about five miles southeast of Pekin, a shaft was sunk, which passed through both the upper and lower coals, affording a section of the intermediate beds, which, as reported to me, were as follows:
I Argillaceous shale 4 feet.
2 Light colored limestone 3
3 Coal 4
4 Fire clay 8
5 Sandstone .50
6 Bluish-black slate 4
7 Coal 4
8 Fire clay 8
Total . 84
$
60
HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
About two miles east of Mr. Hawley's place, in the southwest quarter of section twenty, township twenty-four, range four, on a branch called Lost creek, there is said to be another exposure of brownish sandstone, of very limited extent. I failed to find the locality myself, but if sandstone occurs here, it may be that over- lying the lower coal, or possibly the higher bed not represented in the above section.
In the central and eastern part of Tazewell county there are few localities where borings, etc., have been made, but satisfactory re- cords of the variation of the strata could not in all cases be obtained. At Rapp's Mills, near the centre of the north line of section twenty, township twenty-four, range four, a shaft was sunk to the depth of eighty-five feet, but, as it was reported to me, it struck limestone at that depth. If this be the case, it is very possibly the limestone overlying the upper coal, but without more reliable data it is impossible to speak with certainty. The shaft was abandoned before completion, on account of the difficulty in keeping it free from water. At Delevan, in the southeastern portion of the county, a boring was made, which was reported to have passed through sixty feet of sandstone, and below that seventy-five feet more of arenaceous and argillaceous clay shales. No coal was re- ported in this boring.
In Mason county there are no natural exposures of the older rocks, and as far as I can ascertain, no good artificial sections af- forded in shafts, wells or borings. Passing eastward, however, into Logan county, we find along Salt creek, some distance above Middletown, a few tumbling masses of bluish limestones, which have evidently come out of the bluffs, but no good exposures. In southeast quarter of section thirteen, township nineteen, range four, a boring was made in the side of the bluffs by Messrs. Boyd, Paisley & Co., of Lincoln, which passed one hundred and thirty feet of alternating beds of limestone and arenaceous and argilla- ceous shales, passing through the drift and surface deposits at the depth of only fifteen feet.
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