History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois, Part 2

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 826

USA > Illinois > Clark County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 2
USA > Illinois > Crawford County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 2

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stone, with fossils, two feet; No. 3, bitumi- nous shale and thin coal, No. 12, one to two feet; No. 4, sand shales and sandstone, forty- five to fifty feet: No. 5, bitum nous shale, with numerous fossils, two to three feet; No. 6, coal No. 11; No. 7, hard, dark gray bitu- minous limestone, two to three fect; No. 8, shale, sixteen to twenty feet. The shelly brown limestone, No. 2 of the foregoing section, contains numerous fossils among which were recognized Spirifer camratus, Productus cortatus, P. punctatus, P. putten- iunus, P. longispinus, Chonetes Flemingii, joints and plates of Crinoids, Ordis Pecosi and some undetermined forms of bryozoa. Further west in the county, and in Lawrence also, No. 12 coal is overlaid by a buff calear- eous shale, in which Orthis Pecosi and Lo- phophyllum proliferum are conspicuous.

"The bituminous shale, No. 5 of the above section was found well exposed at the bridge on Lamotte Creek, on the road from Palestine to the landing, and the following group of fossils were obtained from it at this locality: Pleurotomoria, Aphourlata, B. percariuta, P. tabulata, P. Graynlleuris, Bellerophon carbonavance, etc., corresponding with the beds at Lawrenceville and Grayville. Nu- merous bands of carbonate of iron oceur in the shales at the base of the above section, both on Lamotte Creek and in the river bank at Palestine Landing.

" Robinson is located on a sandstone de- posit overlaying all the rocks found in the bluffs at Palestine Landing, indicating a de- cided dip of the strata to the westward. The outcrops of sandstone on the small branch of Sugar Creek, which drains the section on which the town is built, show from fifteen to twenty feet in thickness of soft brown rock, in which a few small quarries have been opened. This portion of the bed affords shales, and thin-bedded, rather soft brown sandstone, with some thicker beds toward the

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

base of the outcrop, which are rather inacces- sible from the amount ot stripping required to reach them, as well as from the fact that they are partly below the water level in the branch. At Isaac C. Hole's place, north of Robinson, on the northeast quar. er of Section 16, Township ?, Range 12, more extensive quarries have been opened in this sandstone, and a much greater thickness of strata is ex- posed. The quarries are on a branch in the timber, but there is almost a continuous out- crop along the branch, nearly to the prairie level, showing the following succession of strata: Shaly sandstone, becoming thicker- bedded and harder toward the bottom, and containing broken plants, thirty to forty feet; massive brown sandstone. (main quarry rock) eight to ten feet; ferruginous pebbly bed, three feet. The massive brown sandstone quarried here is locally concretionary, the concretions being much harder than other portions of the bed, and afford a very durable stone. This sandstone, with the shales usually associated with it, probably attains a maxi- mum thickness of sixty to eighty feet, and fills the intervening space between coals Nos. 12 and 13 of the general section. It has been penetrated in sinking wells on the prairie in many places north and northwest of Robinson. Law's coal bank, formerly known as Eaton's bank, is on the southwest part of the north- east quarter of section 12, township 7, range 13. The coal is a double seam, about three feet thick, with a parting of bituminous shale from two or three inches to two feet in thick- ness. It is overlaid here by shale and a hard, dark, aslı-gray limestone, destitute of fossils. One mile up the creek from this mine the coal is said to pass into a bituminous shale. The coal obtained here is rather soft, and subject to a good deal of waste in mining; but as the mine was not in operation there was no opportunity of judging of its average quality. A section of the creek bluff at the

mine shows the following order: Gravelly clays of the drift, ten to fifteen feet; hard, dark, ash-gray limestone, one to one and a half fret; hard, siliceous shales, with nodules, half a foot; coal, with shale parting, three feet. A boring was made here by the propri- etor, and a thicker seam was reported to have been found some forty feet below; but if this report is correct, the sandstone usually inter- vening between coals Nos. 12 and 13 is here much below its average thickness, and no such coal is known to outcrop in the county. However, local coals are sometimes developed which only cover very limited areas, and this may be a case of that kind.

" Four miles southwest of Robinson, a bed of hard, dark-gray bituminous limestone out- crops in the bed of Turkey Creek, and has been quarried for building stone, for which purpose it is but poorly adapted, as it splits to fragments after a limited exposure to the elements. The rock occurs in a single stratum about eighteen inches thick, overlaid by a brown calcareous shale, filled with nod- ules of argillaceous limestone. The shale contained numerous specimens of Lopho- phyllum proliferum, associated with joints Lennoidea. The foundation stone for the court house at Robinson was obtained here. This limestone may overlay a thin coal, but it could not be learned that any seam had been found in this vicinity. In the western portion of the county outcrops are rare, and so widely separated that no continuous sec- tion could be made.

" On section 4, in Hutsonville township, at W. D. Lamb's place, a bed of limestone is found underlaid by five or six feet of blue shale and a thin coal. In a well sunk here the limestone was found to be five feet in thick- ness, a tough, fine grained, dark-grayish rock, containing no well preserved fossils. On Mr. Evans' place, just over the line of Clark County, on section 34, township 8, range 12,

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

heavy masses of limestone are to be seen along the creek valley. It is a massive, gray, brittle rock, and contains Athyris subtilita, Spirifer cameratus and Productus longispri- nus. A mile and a half further up the creek this limestone is found in place, and is burned for lime by Mr. Drake. These lime- stones belong, probably, below the sandstone, which is found at Robinson and at Hole's quarry. At Lindley's mill, on the northwest quarter of section 7, township 8, and range 13, a hard, dark gray limestone was found in the bed of the creek, only about two feet in thickness of its upper portion being exposed above the creek bed. A quarter of a mile south of the mill, at Mr. Reynolds' place, coal is mined by stripping along the bed of a branch. The coal is from 15 to 18 inches, overlaid by two or three feet of blue shale, and a gray limestone filled with large Producti, Athyrus subtilita, etc., Productus costatus, with its long spines, seemed to be the most abundant species. This limestone, and the underlying coal, it is believed, represents the horizon of the upper coal in the bluff at Palestine landing, and No. 12 of the general section.

" At Martin's mill on Brushy Fork, near the south line of the county, the limestone and shale found at the Lamotte Creek bridge, and also at Lawrenceville, representing the horizon of coal No. 11, is well exposed. The upper bed is there about a quarter of a mile from the creek, and at a somewhat higher level ap- parently, than the sandstone, No. 2 forming the top of the bluff; but the intervening space could not be more than ten to fifteen feet. Pockets of coal were found here in the con- cretionary sandstone; but although dug into for coal, they proved to be of very limited extent. The micaceous sandstone No. 3 of the section, affords some very good building stone, and some of the thin layers are distinctly ripple-marked. The calcareous shale afforded

numerous fossils of the same species found at the Lamotte Creek bridge.

" At Mr. Nettles' place, on the northeast quarter of section 24, township 5, range 12, coal has been mined for several years. The coal is about eighteen inches thick and has a roof of fine black slate, resembling cannel coal, nearly as thick as the coal itself. The black slate is overlaid by two or three feet of cal- careous shale, containing Orthis Pecosi, Ret- zia Mormoni, and joints and plates of Len- noidea. This coal is probably the same as that near the top of the hill at Palestine land- ing, and No. 12 of the Illinois section. Prof. Cox reports the following outcrop in the county: In the hill east of the Shaker mill, section 32, township 5 and range 12, a soft yellowish massive sandstone, forming cliffs along the ravines, and in places wethering into rock houses, or over-like cavities. Sec- tion here is as follows: soft and covered space, five feet; flaggy sandstone in two to eight inch layers, eight feet; solid-bedded sand- stone, thirteen feet. Sandy shales, flagstones and an occasional showing of massive soft sand- stone, form the prominent geological features of the southern and western portions of the county. Around Hebron, four miles south of Robinson, massive sandstone forms cliffs fif- teen to twenty feet high, probably a contin- uation of the rocks seen at the Shaker mill. Two miles and a half southeast of Bellair is the following section, at Goodlin's coal bank: Slope of the hill, twenty feet; liard blue argil- laceous shale, ten feet; coal breaks in small fragments, one to one and a half feet. This mine is worked by a shaft. A quarter of a mile below, on Willow Creek, the same seam is worked on Mr. Matheney's place by strip- ping, where the coal is of the same thickness. This coal must be as high in the series as No. 13 or 14 of the general section and may be the coal mined near Newton and New Liberty, in Jasper County.

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

Coal .- "As stated in a preceding page, all the stratified rocks in the county, belong to the upper coal measures, extending from coals No. 11 to 14 inclusive; and as these seams are usually too thin to be worked in a regular way, no valuable deposit of coal is likely to be found outcropping at the surface in the county. The seam at Mr. Law's place northeast of Robinson, is said to attain a lo- cal thickness of three feet, and may be suc- cessfully mined, when the coal is good. When the demand for coal shall be such as to justify deep mining, the lower coals may be reached at a depth of from four to six hundred feet. Their nearest approach to the surface is along the valley of the Wabash river, and the depth would be increased to the westward by the dip of the strata and the elevation of the surface.

Building Stone .- " The best building stone to be found in the county comes from the heavy bed of sandstone above coal No. 12, which outerops at various piaces in the coun- ty, and especially at Mr. Hole's quarries, north of Robinson. At some locations, a fair arti- cle of thin bedded micaceous sandstone is found between coals 11 and 12, as at Mar- tin's mill, on Brushy Fork, near the south line of the county. These sandstones afford a cheap and durable material for foundation walls, bridge abutments, etc. The limestone four miles west of Robinson, that was used in the foundation walls of the court house, is liable to split when exposed to the action of frost and water; and although seeming hard and solid, when freslily quarried, will not withstand exposure as well as the sandstone, if the latter is carefully selected. The lime- stone at Reynolds' coal bank, near Lindley's mill, stands exposure well, and will afford a durable building stone.

Iron Ore .- " The shales associated with coal No. 11 usually contain more or less car- bonate of iron, and at the locality below the

bridge on Lamotte Creek, near Palestine landing, the quality seemed to be sufficient to justify an attempt to utilize it. The shale in the bank of the creek shows a perpendie- ular face of fifteen to twenty feet, and the bands of ore toward the bottom of the bed would afford from twelve to eighteen inches of good ore in a thickness of about six feet of shale. At the river bank just below the land- ing, this shale outerops again, and the iron nodules are abundant along the river bank, where they have been washed out of the easily decomposed shale. Good brick elay can be found in the sub-soil of the uplands, and sand is found both in the Loess deposits of the river bluffs, and in the beds of the streams."

Soil and Timber .- From Hutsonville south there is a belt of alluvial bottom and terrace land, from one to three miles in width, ex- tending to the mouth of Lamotte Creek, a distance of about ten miles. This is mostly prairie, and the soil is a deep, sandy loam, and very productive. The upland prairies have a chocolate-colored soil, not so rich as the black prairie soils of Central Illinois, but yielding fair crops of corn, wheat, oats, elover, ete. On the timbered lands the soil is some- what variable. Where the surface is broken the soil is thin, but on the more level portions where the growth is composed in part of black walnut, sugar tre, linden, hackberry and wild cherry; the soil is very productive, and yields annually large erops of all the cereals usually grown in this latitude.

The varieties of timber observed in this county are the common species of oak and hickory, black and white walnut, white and sugar maple, slippery and red elm, honey lo- cust, linden, hackberry, ash, red bireh, cotton- wood. sycamore, coffeenut, black gum, pecan, persimmon, pawpaw, red thorn, crab apple, wild plum, sassafras, red bud, dogwood, iron wood, etc., etc.

CHAPTER II .*

PRE-HISTORIC OCCUPATION OF THE COUNTRY-THE MOUND BUILDERS-RELICS AND WORKS OF THE LOST RACE-THE MEROM MOUNDS-EARTHWORKS AND MOUNDS AT HUTSONVILLE-OTHER RELICS. ETC .- THE INDIANS-DELAWARES AND KICKAPOOS-THEIR POSSESSION OF SOUTHERN ILLI- NOIS-HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THEIR TRIBES, ETC .- LOCAL FACTS AND TRADITIONS.

" The verdant hills Are covered o'er with growing grain, And white men till the soil Where once the red man used to reign."

L ONG ago, before this country was pos- sessed by the red Indian, it was oceupied by another race-the Mound Builders-whose works constitute the most interesting class of antiquities found in the United States. These relies and works of a lost race, ante- date the most ancient records, and their char- aeter can only be partially gleaned from the internal evidences which the works them- selves afford. Of the strange people who reared them, we know absolutely nothing be- yond conjecture. If we knock at their tombs, no spirit comes back with a response, and only a sepulchral echo of forgetfulness and death reminds us how vain is the attempt to unlock the mysterious past upon which ob- livion has fixed its seal. How forcibly their bones, moldering into dust in the mounds they heaped up, and the perishing relies they left behind them, illustrate the transitory character of human existence. Generation after generation lives, moves and is no more; time has strewn the track of its ruthless march with the fragments of mighty empires; and at length not even their names nor works

have an existence in the speculations of those who take their places.

Modern investigations have thrown much light upon the origin of the human race. A writer upon the pre-historic period, says: "The combined investigations of geologists and ethnologists have developed facts which require us to essentially modify our pre-exist- ing views as to the length of time during which the human race has occupied our planet. That man lived at a time far too re- mote to be embraced in our received system of chronology, surrounded by great qua Iru- peds which have ceased to exist, under a elimate very different from what now prevails, has been so clearly demonstrated that the faet must now be accepted as a seientific truth. Revelations so startling, have been received with disquiet and distrust by those who adhere to the chronology of Usher and Petarius, which would bring the various mi- grations of men, the confusion of tongues, the peopling of continents, the development of types, and everything relating to human history, within the short compass of little more than four thousand years.

" Those great physical revolutions in Eu- rope, such as the contraction of the glaciers within narrow limits, the gradual change of the Baltic from salt to brackish water, the submergence and subsequent elevation of a

* By W. H. Perrin.

IIISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

large portion of southern Russia and northern Germany, the conversion of a portion of the bed of the Mediterranean Sea into the desert of Sahara, the severance of France from En- gland, Europe from Africa and Asia from Europe, by the Straits of Dover, Gibralter and the Dardanelles, and the dying out of the volcanic fires of Auvergne-all these great physical changes which geologists, by univer- sal consent, admitted were infinitely older than any authentic history or tradition, must now be comprehended in the Human Epoch."

Says Sir John Lubbock: "Ethnology is passing through a phase from which other sci- enees have safely emerged, and the new views in reference to the Antiquity of Man, though still looked upon with distrust and apprehension, will, I doubt not, in a few years, be regarded with as little disquietude as are now those discoveries in astronomy and geol- ogy which at one time excited even greater opposition." However strange these new views may appear, they but prove the origin of man at a time, as previously stated, far too remote to be embraced in the "received sys- tem of chronology." Speaking of the ruins of the magnificent cities of Central America, Davidson says: " The mind is almost startled at the remoteness of their antiquity, when we consider the vast sweep of time necessary to erect such colossal structures of solid ma- sonry, and afterward convert them into the present utter wreck. Comparing their com- plete desolation with the ruins of Baalbec, Palmyra, Thebes and Memphis, they must have been old when the latter were being built."

The relics and ruins left by the Mound Builders-the lost race which now repose un- der the ground-consist of the remains of what were apparently villages, altars, temples, idols, cemeteries, monuments, camps, fortifi- cations and pleasure grounds. The farthest of these discovered in a northeastern direc-

tion was near Black River, on the south side of Lake Ontario. From this point they ex- tend in a southwestern direction, by way of the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, New Mexico and Yucatan, into South America. Commencing in Cattaraugus Coun- ty, N. Y., there was a chain of these forts and carthworks, extending more than fifty miles southwesterly, and not more than four or five miles apart, evidently built by a people "rude in the arts and few in numbers." Particularly in the Ohio and Mississippi Val- leys are located many of these works, and some of the most extensive known to exist. "One of the most august monuments of re- mote antiquity," says Foster, " to be found in the whole country, may still be seen in West Virginia, near the junction of Grave Creek and the Ohio River. According to actual measurement it has an altitude of ninety feet, a diameter at the base of 100 feet, at the summit of forty-five, while a partial examination has disclosed within it the ex- istence of many thousands of human skele- tons." In the State of Ohio, at the mouth of the Muskingum, among a number of curious works, was a rectangular fort containing forty acres, encircled by a wall of earth ten feet high, and perforated with openings resein- bling gateways. In the mound near the fort were found the remains of a sword, which appeared to have been buried with the owner. Resting on the forehead were found three large copper bosses, plated with silver, and attached to a leather buckler. Near the side of the body was a plate of silver, which had perhaps been the upper part of a copper scabbard, portions of which were filled with iron rust, doubtless the remains of a sword.

The earthworks which seem to have been erected as means of defense, usually occupy hill-tops and other situations easily fortified, to put it in modern :erms. In Ross County, Ohio, is a fair illustration of this class, and is

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

thus described by Squier and Davis, two emi- nent archæologists: "This work occupies the summit of a lofty, detiehed hill, tw Ive miles westward from the city of Chillicothe, near the villige of Bournevide. The hill is no, far from one hundred feet in perpendicular height, and is remarkable, even among the steep hills of the west, for the general abrupt- ness of its sides, which at some points are ab- solutely inaccessible. * * *

* The de- fenses consist of a wall of stone, which is carried round the hill a little below the brow; but at some places it rises, so as to cut off the narrow spurs, and extends across the neck that connects the hill with the range beyond." Nothing like a true wall, however, exists there now, but the "present appearance is rather what might have been expected from the falling outward of a wall of stones, placed, as this was, upon the declivity of a hill." The area inclosed by this wall was 140 acres, and the wall itself was two miles and a quarter in length. Trees of the largest size now grow upon these ruins. On a similar work in Highland County, Olio, Messrs. Squier an 1 Davis found a large chest- nut tree, which they supposed to be 600 years old. "If to this we ald," they say, " the probable period intervening from the time of the building of this work to its abandon- ment, and the subsequent period up to its invasion by the forest, we are led irresistibly to the conclusion that it has an antiquity of at least one thousand years. Bit when we notice, all around us, the crumbling trunks of trees, half hidden in the accumulating soil, we are ind iced to fix on an antiquity still more remote."

At Merom, Indiana, are works of a very interesting character, which have been thoroughly investigated and described by scientists. These works have yielded a num- ber of skulls, which, says Foster, "will form the basis of certain ethnic speculations as to

the character of the Mound Builder, and his affiliation with other distinct and widely disseminated peoples." Mr. F. W. Putnam thus describes them: "The fort is situated on a plateau of Loess, about 120 feet in height above low water, on the east bank of the river. On the river side, the bank, which principally consists of an outerop of sand- stone, is very steep, and from the western line of the fortification, while deep ravines add to its strength on the other side; the weak points being strengthened by earthworks. The general course of the work is from the north, where it is very narrow, not over fifty feet, owing to the formation of the plateau, south along the river bank about ?25 feet to its widest portion, which is here about 375 feet east and west. From this point it follows a deep ravine southerly about 460 feet to the entrance end of the fort. The bank trav- ersed by the entrance road is here much wider than at other portions, and along its outer wall, running eastward, are the remains of what was evidently once a deep ditch. The outer wall is about thirty feet wide, and is now about one and a half feet high; a de- pressed portion of the bank, or walk-way, then runs parallel with the outer wall, and the bank is then continued for about twenty feet further into the fort, but of slightly less height than the front. Through the center of these banks there are the remains of a dis- tinct road-way, about ten feet in width. From the northeastern corner of this wide wall the line continues northwesterly about 350 feet, along the eastern ravine, to a point where there is a spring, and the ravine makes an indenture of nearly 100 feet to the south- west. The mouth of the indenture is about 75 feet in width, and the work is here strengthened by a double embankment. The natural line of the work follows this indent- ure, and then continues in the same northerly course along the banks of the ravine to the

HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY.

narrow portion of the plateau, about 550 feet, to the starting point. There is thus a con- tinual line, in part natural and in part artifi- eial, which, if measured in all its little ins and outs, would not be far from 2,450 feet. Be- sides the spring mentioned as in the indent- ure of the eastern ravine, there is another spring in the same ravine, about 175 feet to the north of the first, and a third in the south- western corner of the work. Looking at all the natural advantages offered by this loca- tion, it is the one spot of the region, for sev- eral miles along the river, that would be se- lected to-day for the erection of a fortification in the vicinity, with the addition of the pos- session of a small eminence to the north, which in these days of artillery would com- mand the fort. Having this view in mind, a careful examination was made of the eminence mentioned, to see if there had been an op- posing or protective work there, but not the slightest indication of earthwork fortification or mounds of habitation was discovered. * * On crossing the outer wall, a few low mounds are at once noticed, and all around are seen large, circular depressions. At the southern portion of the fort, these de- pressions, of which there are forty-five in all, are most numerous, thirty-seven being located on the northern side of the indenture of the eastern ravine. These depressions vary in width from ten to twenty-five or thirty feet, and are irregularly arranged. One of the six depressions opposite the indenture of the eastern ravine is oval in shape, and is the only one that is not nearly circular, the others varying but a foot or two in diameter. Two of these depressions were dng into, and it was found that they were evidently once large pits that had gradually been filled by the hand of time with the ac- cumulation of vegetable matter and soil that had been deposited by natural action alone. In some instances large trees are now grow-

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History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois, Part 2

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 826

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 826