USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 5
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 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
A constant demand at this point for loco- motive coal has led to comparatively uniform output for many years, and has gradually de- veloped a permanent and prosperous com-
munity of miners, many of whom possess comfortable homes and surroundings. The average price of mining is $1 per ton, sub- ject to such variations as the seasons may cause, or as sometimes affected by contracts agreed upon. Disaffection among the men is unusual, and few efforts at strikes have occurred in years.
The next mine of importance is in the southeast corner of the county, near Peru. The formation here corresponds with that at Peru and La Salle. The shaft is about 300 feet deep. This vein is No. 2, and is about three feet thick, of superior quality. The Hollowayville Mine is 385 feet deep, to the same seam. In the southwest corner of the county, near Kewanee, is a shaft 186 feet deep, to the seam worked both at Kewanee and Sheffield. Outcrops of coal are also found in the ravines and along the bluffs of Bureau Creek, which have been the local source of supply to the village of Tiskilwa and the surrounding country for many years.
The most noticeable, however, of the mines in the county removed from railway connec- tions, are those near Princeton , from which this town secures its supply chiefly. In this mine are found two seams, No. 7 being about two and a half feet thick, but of inferior quality; while the lower one is a bright, hard coal, four and a half to five feet thick, and about 150 feet below the surface. This is No. 6, the same as the seam at Sheffield. The mines in this locality are free from water, and the deposit is of considerable local ex- tent, and the coal is sufficiently free from the sulphuret of iron to be used in the man- ufacture of gas at Princeton.
Thomas Elliott, Inspector of Mines, reports the following for Bureau County mines for 1882:
38
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
Name of owner or operator' of mine.
Postoffice address.
Number of acres of workable coal
Number of acres worked out
Geological number of seam
Thickness of vein in feet
Depth of coal below surface in
How mined-by drift, slope or
Kind of power employed in bring-
ing out or hoisting coal
Number of persons over 16 em-
ployed in mine
ployed in mine
Number of months operated dur-
Number of tons of coal produced
Average value of coal per tou at
Amount of capital employed
Capacity of production anually in
tons
1 Number of places of egress
Sheffield Mining & Trans- portation Co.
Sheffield
100
80
6
41/2
40 Slope
Mules ..
58
12 23,741
81 75 $30,000
26,605 4
Wictom & Fleming.
20
3
6
41/2
45
Horses .
9
12
840
2 25
1,500
5,000
2
James M. Wood
Buda.
30
3
6
416
47 Shaft 1 horse gin
S
12 1,200
2 25
700
10,000
A. Lyford.
Sheffield
20
10
6
41.2
28
48
60
3
6
600
2 25
1,000
1,200
2
John Vanvelzer
KewaneeHenryCo
300
6
160
Steam. 2 horse gin ..
12
10
3,000
1 75
5,000
14,000
1
Elizabeth Foster.
40
15
6
150
Steam.
5
6
950
1 75
8,000
14,000 1
George H. Locey
LaSalle, LaSalleCo
60
10
2
3
300
48
12 16,500 6
1 75
600
1,200'
1
A. W. Walton
Princeton.
80
10
6
150
12
1
12
2,431
2 00
5,000
8,000
2
Joseph Vanes
40
5
6
200
2
6
12
1,250
2 00
4,000
4,000
1
John Nichols
20
1
6
412
151
=
4
2
12
1,089
2 00
5,000
7,000
2
Seaton Bros.
Ifollowville
80
2
2
3
385
Steam
8
6
1,085
2 00
7,000
1,800
1
Totals ..
1010
181 ...
225
5
61,454
$2 03 898,000 214,287 ...
From this mention of the different coal- seams and their outcrops, it will be seen the county is possessed of important mineral resources, which materially augment its man- ifold advantages of soil and climate. The output of coal for 1881, in spite of very un- favorable season, was 61,454 tons, of an av- erage value of $2.03 per ton, at the mines, or a total value of $124, 751. Of this amount about $75,000 were paid out in wages to about 225 men.
The extent of the coal-deposits and their value in the county can only be ap- proximated, owing to the irregularities pe- culiar to the strata on the outer edges of the coal-measures, but there is little doubt that coal will continue to be discovered, especially in the southwest part of the county, for years to come, at least as fast as the demands of the country require.
VII.
The Prairies .- Having dwelt at some length upon the subject of rocks, and the
S
12 1,000
2 25
3,000
35,000
*2
James Sprague ..
Mineral
80
4
6
10
6
41
5
1
5
1,000
2 00
500
10,000'
1
21
12 4,800
1 75
15,000
23,475 2
Fletcher Bros.
Princeton
40
25
6
135
2
11
1
P. Weisenberg ...
Peru, LaSalle Co ...
40
5
135
1 horse gin ...
3
7
800
. 25
500
7,112
4
Peter Duncan
9
5
868
2 25
1,200
6,220
1
W. H. Forest.
30
412 2
415
11:
feet
shaft
iug the year
during year
mine
land
30
6
6
..
A. B. Ashley, Supt.
2 00, 16,000
23,475
300
=
..
formations therefrom, and the soil. it is in the proper order that this chapter should conclude with that crowning work of the sur- face of our great and rich State-the prairies. Their history is now being, for the first time, investigated. Many years ago man looked upon their enchanting beauties, and specu- lated upon how they came to be. One of the earliest writers who referred to them at any length was Gov. Reynolds. The summing up of his conclusions was, they were increased and kept free from timber by the annual fires, and, he says, that the evi- dences of this are abundant in the fact that since the fires have been kept out and the tall prairie grasses have disappeared, the timber has encroached upon the prairie limits in each instance where it was not prevented by culti- vation or otherwise. But we incline to the belief the Governor was mistaken in his facts ; that the instances where hazel and brier thickets, when not visited by fires, have
Number of persons under 16 em-
39
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
eventually changed to timber growth, were in every case spots where the surroundings differed materially from the general prairie soil. More than thirty years ago Judge W. B. Scates wrote and delivered a lecture upon the subject. In 1856 Prof. Whitney, geolo- gist of Iowa, and soon after Prof. Winchell, in Silliman's Journal, created a wide interest and drew much attention to the subject, by their investigations. A clear understanding of this subject is of vast importance to our large agricultural community, as indicating the best management and cultivation of the peculiar soil they present. The ablest thoughts, probably, on this subject, are well summarized by Prof. Leo Lesquereux, whose observations were published in Silliman's Journal, in 1857. Before summarizing what he has to say, it is proper to state that none of the given deductions are accepted as con- clusive, and that some of them are ably dis- puted by eminent investigators.
Prof. Lesquerenx believes that prairies are still in process of formation, going through the identical process that has formed sub- stantially all prairies. These may be seen on the shores of Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and along the Mississippi and its affluents, especially the Minnesota River. The forma- tions of those prairies differ from the prime- val only in extent, and each bears a strong analogy to the peat bogs. Where the lake waves or currents strike the shore on the low grounds, and there heap materials-sand, pebbles, mud, etc.,-they build up more or less elevated dams or islands, which soon become covered with trees. These dams are not always built along the shores ; they do not even always follow their outline, but often enclose wide shallow basins, whose waters are thus sheltered against any move- ment. Here the aquatic plants, sages, rushes, grasses, etc., soon appear, these
basins become swamps, and, as can be seen near the borders of Lake Michigan, the waters may surround them, even when the swamps became drained by some natural or artificial cause. Along the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers the same phenomena is observable, with a difference only in the pro- cess of operation. In time of flood the heaviest particles of mud are deposited on both sides of the principal current along the line of slack water, and, by repeated deposits, dams are slowly formed and upraised above the general surface of the bottom land. Thus, after a time, of course, the water thrown on the bottoms by a flood is, at its subsidence, shut out from the river, and both sides of it are converted into swamps, some- times of great extent. Seen from the high bluff bordering its bottom land, the bed of the Minnesota River is in the spring marked for miles by two narrow strips of timbered land, bordering the true channel of the river, and emerging like fringes in the middle of a long, continuous narrow lake. In the summer and viewed from the same point, the same bot- toms are transformed into a green plain, whose undulating surface looks like a field of green wheat, but forms, in truth, impassible swamps, covered with rushes, sedges, etc. By successive inundations and their deposits of mud, and by the heaping of the detritus of their luxuriant herbaceous vegetation, they become, by and by, raised up above the level of the river. They then dry up in the sum- mer, mostly by infiltration and evaporation, and when out of reach of floods they become first wet and afterward dry prairies. The lowest part of these prairies is therefore along the bluffs. In that way were the high locations for river towns and farms built up along the shores. In that way were made the sites for Prairie du Chien, Prairie la Fourche, Prairie la Cross, etc. These
40
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
patches of prairie, though of a far more recent origin than the immense plains above them, are, nevertheless, true prairies. Bor- dered on one side by the high, timbered banks of the bottoms, a fringe of trees sepa- rates them still from the actual bed of the river; nevertheless the trees do not invade them.
This peculiarity of formation explains, first, the peculiar nature of the soil of the prairies. It is neither peat nor humas, but a black, soft mold, impregnated with a large propor- tion of ulmic acid, produced by the slow de- composition, mostly under water, of aquatic plants, and thus partaking as much of the nature of the peat as that of the true humas. In all the depressions of the prairies, where water is permanent and unmixed with parti- cles of mineral matter, the ground is true peat.
It is easy to understand why trees cannot grow on this kind of land. The germination of seeds of arborescent trees needs the free access of oxygen for their development, and the trees especially demand a solid point of attachment to fix themselves. Moreover, the acid of this kind of soil, by its particular an- tiseptic property, promotes the vegetation of a peculiar group of plants, mostly herbace- ous. Of all our trees, the tamarac is the only species which, in our northern climate, can grow on peaty ground, and this, even, happens only under rare and favorable cir- cumstances, that is, when stagnant water, remaining at a constant level, has been in- vaded by a kind of moss, the Sphagnum. By the power of absorption, their continuous growth and the rapid accumulation of their remains, these mosses slowly raise the surface of the bogs above water, and it is there, in this loose ground, constantly humid, but ac- cessible to atmospheric action, that the tam- arac appears.
An examination of the prairies, according to this idea of their formation, shows that from the first trace of their origin to their perfect completeness, there is nothing in their local or general appearance that is not ex- plained by it, or does not agree with it.
The Bay of Sandusky is now in process of transformation to prairies, and is already sheltered against the violent action of the lake by a chain of low islands and sand banks, most of them covered for a long time with timber. All these islands are built up with the same kind of materials, shales, with la- custrine deposits, either moulded into low ridges under water, or brought up and heaved by waves and currents. Around the bay, especially to the southwest, there are exten- sive plains, covered with shallow water.
In Western Minnesota especially, the process of prairie formation is plainly to be | seen at this day. Here are various sized lakes, some small and circular-true ponds -- others thirty or forty miles in circumference, and in this case shaping the outlines of their shores according to the undulations of the prairie, dividing into innumerable shallow branches, mere swamps covered with water plants, and emptying themselves from one to the other, passing thus by slow degrees toward the rivers, not by well marked chan- nels, but by a succession of extensive swamps. These are the sloughs which separate the knolls of the prairies, or so to say, the low grounds of the rolling prairies. They are nearly dry in summer, but covered in the springtime by one to three feet of water. Their vegetation is merely sedges and coarse grasses. Wherever the borders of the lakes are well shaped, not confounded with or pass- ing into swamps, they rise from five to six feet above the level of the water, and are timbered mostly with oak and hickory. This elevated margin is more generally marked on
41
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
the eastern side of the lakes, a record of the action of the waves under the prevailing winds.
From such facts the conclusion is drawn that all the prairies of the Mississippi Valley have been formed by the slow recess of sheets of water of various extent, first trans- formed into swamps, and eventually drained and dried. The high and rolling prairies, as well as those along the wide bottoms of the rivers, are all the result of the same course, and form an indivisible system.
The surface of the prairies is rolling and not continuously level as are the bottoms of swamps, because of the action of water, in the process of its natural drainage, as the waters in the arms of the lakes passed from one to the other. The bend of all our prai- ries is toward the rivers that furnish the drainage. The bottoms of the great lakes and oceans are marked by swells and depressions.
That the prairies have been originally cov- ered with water to their highest points, is a fact well known to geologists, and proved by traces of submergence and deposits left along the course of our rivers to the highest point of their sources, in places at an alti- tude of 5,000 feet above the sea level. The Glacial epoch, followed by the oscillations of the earth's surface, -submergence and upheavals-the Champlain epoch, are still active, especially the latter, working in great activity upon our continent. The records of this movement are marked in de- nudations, deepening of channels, moulding of terraces along the lakes and rivers, and in the prairies formed-the prairies being the places covered by vast sheets of shallow water, during the process of slow emergence.
The growth of certain mosses under shal- low, stagnant water in swamps and lagoons, forms in decomposition the peculiar clayey sub-soil of our prairies, a fine, impalpable
substance when not mixed with sand or other substances. In the lakes of the high prai- ries the phenomenon presents sometimes a peculiar character. At the depth of from one to three feet the mosses, Conferrea and Charas, form a thick carpet, which hardens, becomes consistent, like a kind of felt, and floating about six inches above the bottom, is often nearly strong enough to bear the weight of a man. This carpet is pierced with holes, where fishes pass to and fro; and the bottom under it is that fine, impalpable clay, evidently a residue of the decomposi- tion of its plants. This never extends into deep water, aud near the shore the carpet of mosses, etc., begin to be intermixed with some plants of sedges, which become more and more abundant in proportion as the depth decreases. As soon as the blades of these plants reach above the water, they ab- sorb and decompose carbonic acid, trans- form it into woody matter, under atmos- pheric influence, and then their detritus is, at first, clay mold, and then pure black mold, the upper soil of the prairies.
These are the leading principles which ac- count for the presence of the prairies upon the American continent, around the lakes, and of the broad, flat bottoms of the south- ern rivers; of the plattes of the Madeira River; of those of the Paraguay; of the pampas of Brazil, or the desert plains of the Salt Lake region; the low natural meadows of Holland, the heaths of Olden- burg, the plains on the shores of the North and the Baltic Seas and in Asia, and the steppes of the Caspian, are presented every- where the same evidences, the same results of a general action, modified only by local causes.
The roots of trees absorb a certain amount of oxygen. This is essential to their life. Hence you must not plant a tree too deep.
42
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
Most of the roots of trees will perish when covered with clay impermeable to air, or un- derlaid by clay impermeable to water. Water standing constantly over the roots of trees kills them; even running water will kill trees when its movements are slow; and the bald cypress of the South or the tupelo will soon die if the water around them is protected from winds producing waves, or currents that carry always more or less air. De Can- dolle, in his Vegetable Physiology, holds that the constant irrigation necessary for the rice culture in Lombardy has a great incon- venience, because the water penetrates the ground of the neighboring properties, and kills the trees; that "water left stagnant for a time on the ground rots the trees at their column, prevents the access of oxygen to the roots, and kills the tree;" that "in the low grounds of Holland they dig, for planting trees, deep holes, and fill the bot- tom with bundles of bushes, as a kind of drainage for surplus water, as long as the tree is young enough to be killed by humid- ity;" that "the true swamps and marshes have no trees, and cannot have any, because stagnant water kills them."
But trees will grow on the prairie when planted. Would they grow, though, if plant- ed without properly preparing the soil ? The clayey subsoil, when dug and mixed with the mold, forms a compound lighter than the clay, admitting air and giving the roots all nutritive elements. Did any in- stance ever occur of oaks growing in the prairies from acorns being scattered over the surface ?
The prairie soil, or humas, is generally much deeper than the soil in the timber, and, as said before, more peaty. It contains ulmic acid, as is shown by the slow decomposition of the sod when turned. It is this acid that makes what you will sometimes hear called a
sour soil. Ulmic acid is a powerful pre- server, an antiseptic. and it holds, therefore. longer than any other soil, all fertilizing ele- ments mixed with it. Under the influence of stagnant water, and the remains of ani- mals which have inhabited it while the soil was in process of formation, silica especially, with alumina, ammonia and other elements, have entered it in sufficient proportion, and caused its great and inexhaustible fertility, especially for grasses ; for by the impermea- bility of the under clay the fertilizing ele- ments have been left in the soil. As natural meadows our prairies fed for centuries great herds of buffalo, deer, etc., which roamed over them, and now they will feed and fatten our herds of cattle for as long a time as we may want it, as well as indefinitely produce the wonderful crops of the cereals, etc., as great as the deep alluvial lands of the river bottoms. Even if by successive crops of the same kind, the upper soil should become somewhat deprived of its fertilizing elements, especially of the silica, lime and alumina, so necessary for the growth of corn, the subsoil is a mine that deep plowing will reach that will return the primitive wealth to the soil and restore the ancient bounteousness of the crops.
For the culture of trees these explanations of the prairies are equally useful. They tell the horticulturist that to plant fruit trees-a tree that never likes humidity-dig deep holes, pass through the clay to the drift and thus establish a natural drainage. Fill, then, the bottom of the hole with loose materials, pebbles, bushes, sod or mold, and then you will have the best ground that can be pre- pared for the health and long life of trees.
The prairies are sources of even greater wealth than are the immense coal-fields and their rich deposits, and like those sources of combustible materials, they point out the
43
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
great future of the race of men which is called to inhabit them and profit by their rich stores ; while one of these formations is destined to furnish an immense population the elements of industrial greatness, the other is ready to provide it with both the essential elements of life-bread and meat. Hence the prairies have their place marked in the future history of mankind. They foretell, not of idle luxury and indolent ease, laziness and dissipation of life, but hard work, abund- ance, and the development of freedom and true manhood.
CHAPTER III.
PREHISTORIC PEOPLES THAT WERE HERE.
TILF. REMAINS OF GREAT CITIES-THE MOUND BUILDERS-THE INDI- ANS-WINNEBAGO WAR, CAPTURE AND DEATH OF RED BIRD- BLACK HAWK WAR-FIRAT BLOODLESS CAMPAIGN IN 1831- BLACK HAWK ENTERS INTO A TREATY-STARVED ROCK, TILE FIRST SETTLEMENT IN ILLINOIS-JOLIET AND MARQUETTE-LA SALLE'S COLONY AND FORT ST. LOUIS -Two HUNDREDTH ANNI- VERSARY OF THE DISCOVERY AND POSSESSION OF THE COUNTRY- FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST, MADE 1682, AT STARVED ROCK-CAPTS. WILLIS, HAWS AND STEWART'S COMPA- NIES AND MEN FROM BUREAU COUNTY, IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR, ETC., ETC ETC.
"He sleeps beneath the spreading shade, Where woods and wide savannahs meet, Where sloping hills around have made A quiet valley, green and sweet." -JOHN HI. BRYANT.
I.
THE investigations of archaeologists show that there have been several distinct races of people here prior to the coming of the present inhabitants. By this enumeration are placed the founders and builders of those great cities of Central America, whose exten- sive remains have been found, as one race, the Mound Builders as another, and then the Indians, who were here when America was discovered. But many suppose from the va-
riety and characteristic differences in what are known as the Mound Builders, that is, in the marked differences in the mounds found, that there were distinct races among these, which, for convenience, we now designate as one.
The crumbled walls, fallen columns, the debris of great temples and pyramids, and perhaps palaces, that cumber the ground in profusion, in places, for a circumference of miles, give evidences which cannot be mis- taken, of great and splendid cities, "whose lights had fled, whose garlands dead " ages before were laid the foundation stones of Balbec or Troy. The mind is dazed with the idea of the remoteness of their antiquity. The slow crumbling of these colossal walls of hardest stone tell of a people whose civil- ization had reached far beyond any race of whom we can find any living evidences. and that ante-dates the coming of the Anglo- Saxon. In fact, so long has been the sweep of time since they lived, built their great cities and wholly passed away, that some eminent antiquarians believe they were here and had gone before the coming of the Mound Builders, and they do not hesitate in the expression of the judgment that this continent is truly the Old World, and that the crowning act in the creative energies that brought man first into existence, were mani- fested here ages and centuries before a sim- ilar development in the East.
Probably the mounds are the oldest records obtainable of the works of man, and there- fore these remarkable antiquities are intensely interesting. Within the limits of the United States are the great majority of them, and so varied and widely scattered are they over the continent that they may well be considered of chief interest to the antiquarian and edi- fying to students of history everywhere. The oldest records of the works of man in the
44
HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.
world! How they extend the horizon of the past; how eloquent they are! Here the faintest tradition is at fault, and the oldest human bones yet discovered are modern com- pared to these mute monuments of man's thought and patient, combined labors. Sir Charles Lyell concedes that certain human bones found in California must have lain there 80,000 years.
These mounds and other works of the Mound Builders consist of remains of what were apparently villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, battle-fields, forts, camps and pleasure grounds, etc. And they enable us to tell something of the civilization and industries and habits of a people, every vestige of whose physical bodies has long since dissolved into its original elements. One system of mounds is traced from Lake Ontario in a southwestern direction by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the Gulf, Texas, New Mexico and Yucatan, into South America. In New York is a chain of forts, not more than four or five miles apart, and extending more than fifty miles in a southerly direction. Further south they increase in magnitude and num- ber. In West Virginia, near the junction of Grove Creek and the Ohio, is one of the most interesting monuments found in the whole country. It is 90 feet high, diameter at the base 100 feet, and at the summit 45 feet. Many thousands of partial human skeletons were found in it. At the mouth of the Mus- kingum, in Ohio, is a number of curious works, among others a rectangular fort con- taining forty acres, encircled by a wall ten feet high, in which are openings resembling gateways. At Circleville on the Scioto, there are two forts in juxtaposition, tho one an ex- act circle 60 rods in diameter, and the other a perfect square, 55 rods on each side. The circular one was surrounded by two walls,
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.