USA > Illinois > Grundy County > History of Grundy County, Illinois > Part 12
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of fossiliferous nodules of carbonate of iron. for which this locality has become famous. Besides a large variety of ferns mentioned in the State Geological report, these nodules also contain a large number of fossil insects, marking this as one of the richest deposits of Carboniferous Articulates ever discov- ered, if not the richest. These nodules range from about two to abont ten feet above the main coal seam of all this region, the intervening space being occupied by the soft, blue clay shales, filled with fossil plants, whichi, at most points, overlie this seam.
About a mile farther up this stream coal has been dug in the beds and banks of the stream, bnt is now abandoned. Still further sonth, near the southeast corner of section 19, township 33 north, range 8 east (Felix), a shaft was sunk upon the creek bottom, starting at about twenty-five feet below the general level of the prairie. The section is as follows:
Feel.
Inches.
1. Bluc clay and sandy shale, with ferns. ..... 20
2. Coal ..
20
3. Soft black shale. 6 to 8
4. Fire clay with rootlets. 6 to 8
8
6. Fire clay 2
6
At this place the coal is about eight feet below the bed of the creek. Near the water level, an offshoot from the main seam, abont seven inches thick, is exposed in the bank; the shales immediately over it af- forded a few plants.
Near the center of section 18, township 33 north, range 8 east (Felix), Mr. John IIolderman's artesian well furnishes the following section:
Fcet.
1. Gravel
15
2. Sandstone
24
8. Coal
9
4. Sandy shale.
5. Limestone
105
9
2
5. Ilard, sandy clay
106
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
It will be noticed that this section gives the sandstone as immediately overlying the coal. This condition of the seam has been elsewhere noticed, so far as I can learn, only in a shaft sunk near the southeast corner of section 9 of the same township, and in one shaft in the adjoining part of Will County.
On the north side of the Illinois River, in the neighborhood of Morris, the coal out- crops in the bank of the canal, and in the stretch of low land, about one mile to the northward. The overlying beds are here mostly blue elay shales, with occasional ir- regular layers of sandstone. The iron nodules, above mentioned, oceur here at the same level, but not in so great numbers as at the Mazon locality. The shales immediately above the coal frequently yield magnificent specimens of fossil ferns and other plants. In the north part of township 33 north, range 6 east (Erienna), the shaly sandstones overlying this seam are exposed in the bottom of every little run which ents away the soil from the edge of the second terrace, and fragments of them are found scattered just below the surface over the whole lower flat.
It has long been a favorite theory with miners that another seam of coal could be found by sinking shafts in the bottom of the present working. This is not impossible, at points distant from the outcrop; but at Morris, and to the eastward, the coal lies directly upon lower Silurian rocks, with only four or five feet of firm clay to sepa- rate them. This is shown at several points.
It was supposed that the coal scam ex- tended, in its full thickness, much further northward; but two wells, one in section 27, and the other in section 13, township
34 north, range 7 cast, (Saratoga) after passing through fossiliferons shales which overlie the coal, met with only about ten inches of soft coaly shale, underlaid by a few inches of greenish clay shale, with small rounded grains of calcareous (?) matter, (probably belonging to the Cincinnati group) which rested upon the solid limestones of the Trenton. From these and similar facts is derived the conclusion that the present line of workings corresponds very nearly with the original outline of deposit of the true coal seam, while beyond this line, only occasional small outlying patches will ever be found, though thin layers of coaly shale may be met with some miles further north- ward. On the Au Sable Creek, a few miles north of the county line, small quantities of coaly shale and cannel-coal have been found, but they are probably of no practical value, and have no direct connection with the Morris seam.
Upon the lower part of the An Sable, however, in the southeast quarter of section 19, township 34 north, range S east (An Sable), there is a peculiar outerop of prob- ably the lower seam. We have here a seam of coal twenty-eight inches thick, with a floor of fire clay at least six feet thiek, and a roof of black shale, which is, at the ontcrop, quite solid and a foot thick, but at the shaft, perhaps fifty yards distant, it thiekens to between five and six feet and becomes quite soft. This shale has yielded a few small Discinc Lingulæ, and a few
fragments of fish scales; but these are not sufficient to determine its position in the series. The bed seems to be but a small outlier, covering only a few acres, as borings to the southward and westward have failed to find any continuation of the bed in these
107
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
directions, while to the northward and east- ward the shales and limestone of the lower Silurian outcrop within a few hundred yards. It seems to be still uncertain whether this is a locally peculiar condition of the main seam, or lies above or below it. If it be the main seam, the black roof shales are probably the equivalent of the bed mentioned in the La Salle County section, as lying there about eighteen feet above the coal; but no other outerop of it has been seen in this part of Grundy, though it appears in a shaft in the southeastern corner of the county.
Another peculiar ontcrop of uncertain connections is along the Kankakee, from the east line of the county to the " Head of the Illinois," in section 36, township 34 north, range S east (An Sable), where the river has cut through some fifty feet of shales and sandstones of the coal measures, including a thin seam of coal, and has reached the underlying shaly limestone of the Cincinnati group. A few in- distinet plants have been met with in the sandstone, but in too poor condition for specific determination. In conelusion, the ontline of the Coal Measure in Grundy County may be roughly stated as a line running from near the northwest corner of the county, with some variations in an east-southeast course to the mine on An Sable Creek, just above the railroad; thence southeasterly to the Goose Lake slough, and easterly to the east end of the lake; thence northerly to the mouth of the Kankakee.
The shales and shaly limestones of the Cincinnati group outerop in the north- eastern part of the county, showing most prominently upon the high ground between
Goose Lake and the head of the Illinois. This outerop consists of coarse granular, highly fossiliferons, ferruginous limestones, readily disintegrated by the weather, which have been used, to some extent, for fences. This outcrop continues southward for about a mile, and forms the bottom of the north half of Goose Lake, the south half being underlaid with coal. At the ford of the Kankakee, in the northwest quarter of sec- tion 36, in Au Sable township, beds of soft blue shaly limestone, which probably lie near the base of this group, onterop in the bed of the river, but show little upon the bank, and contain but few and indistinet fossils.
From the bed of the canal, a half mile west of Dresden, there were thrown out considerable quantities of a heavy, but rath- er cellular ferruginous limestone, in heavy layers, probably belonging below the beds mentioned. The outerop at this point did not quite reach the surface. Over most of the country, north of the Illinois, the al- luvial and drift deposits cover the country so as to allow of onterops only along the streams. In ascending the An Sable Creek from the railroad, the scattered fragments of the shaly limestones of this group are frequently seen, but no outerop is met until the middle of section 3 in Au Sable township is reached, where small quanti- ties of stone have been quarried for wells and foundations. From this point there is a nearly continuous onterop to some dis- tance above the county line.
A small outerop of rock of this age is exposed in the bed of Collins' run, a branch of the Au Sable, in the southwest quarter of section 18, of the same township. The roek here is a rather more solid limestone, breaking irregularly, and containing but
.
108
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
few fossils. It is reported that similar small outerops occur further up this run, but they have not been opened, so as to know whether stone of any valne can be obtained. Similar ontcrops were observed in the bottoms of ditches near the middle of the north line of Saratoga township. In the borings about Morris, only a few feet of beds which can be referred to this group are found between the Coal Measures and the underlying Trenton limestone, and to the northward of that place no such beds have been found.
The two remaining ontcrops of rock in this eonnty are limestones of the Trenton group, probably near its top. The principal one is near the center of section 24, township 34 north, range 7 east (Saratoga); this roek has been quarried for building purposes and for making lime. The toplayers of thequarry are thin, and somewhat stained with iron. Below these, the rock is heavily bedded, gray or light drab, fine grained, clinking limestone, not very riel in fossils, bnt yield- ing some good specimens of several varie- ties. This roek has been penetrated to the depth of twenty feet without exposing any other layers; but it is said that at one point the drill passed into a pocket of a softer black material. Possibly this may have been a small deposit of carbonaceous mate- rial analagons to the petroleum which this roek has yielded in small quantities in the adjoining county of La Salle. These beds contain small portions of pyrite (sulphide of iron) disseminated through the whole mass. There were also occasional streaks of soft clay. The quarry has exposed two sets of crevices, one trending south 45° west, and the other south 35° east. These crevices are filled with a fine clay of very nearly the
same color as the limestone, through which are sparsely disseminated small crystals of blende (sulphide of zinc) with occasional pyramidal crystals of pyrite; no galenite has been observed. The remaining ont- erops of this rock are in the bed of the An Sable, on the two sides of the yoke like bend of the stream, in the east half of the northeast quarter of section 19, in An Sable township, and consists of small patches of a thin bedded, fine grained limestone, con- taining but few fossils. In the Morris bor- ing, the Trenton limestone is two hundred feet thiek.
St. Peter's sandstone has been struck at the railroad station in Morris, at a deptli of 370 feet, and here, as elsewhere in this re- gion, has furnished a constant and abundant supply of artesian water.
The economic geology of this county is quite an important feature, coal, brick and potters' elay, building stone and sand, lime and water being found in abundance, be- side hydraulic lime and iron ore in smaller quantities. Coal underlies fully three fourths of the county, the seam averaging abont three feet, except on the borders of the field. It has been very largely worked in the inunediate vicinity of Morris, upwards of one hundred openings having been made, though a larger part of them at this writing have been abandoned. These are prinei- pally shafts from thirty to sixty feet deep, though there are several extensive strippings. Some of the latter uncover coal thirty inches thick, which is abont the average thickness in this neighborhood; while others on the borders of the outerop, find not more than eighteen inches. A smaller cluster of shafts and strippings is found to the sonth and west of Goose Lake, with average thickness of full
109
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
thirty inches. At a stripping in the south- west corner of section 12, in Felix town- ship, the bed is locally thickened to over four feet, but contains, near its center, a heavy band of crystalline carbonate of iron and lime, with mueh disseminated pyrite.
This seam is also worked at Braceville, by a shaft ninety-eight feet deep, and in section 26, of the same township, by a shaft of 110 feet. At Gardner, it is worked by a shaft 160 feet deep. In the southeast corner of this township, three or fonr shafts, of about sixty feet each, work this seam in its usual condition; but one in the northeast corner of section 25, finds a roof of black slaty shale, with heavy ironstone coneretions cov- ering abont three feet of a very pure " block coal," with much mineral charcoal in the partings. Both the coal and the aecompany- ing beds, at the mine on the Au Sable Creek, closely resemble the conditions found here; and at both points the indications leave it uncertain whether they represent a local change of the main seam, or are por- tions of a lower seam which is only occa- sionally present. The weight of opinion seems to favor the former view.
The upper seams, which have been worked upon the Waupecan Creek, and upon the Mazon, near the mouth of Johnny run, ap- parently oeeur over only small arcas at either locality; and elsewhere, wherever met with, they have proved to be irregular seams, locally quite thick, but of the running out to a mere streak of coaly matter, and even disappearing altogether. The Mazon seam is, apparently, the equivalent of a stream, which, on the eastern side of the coal field, in the Wabash valley, is usually too thin to work, except at a single point, where it reaches twenty-two inches.
The outcrops are not sufficient to give any exact data as to dips, but there seems to be no reason to believe that the main seam lies at a greater depth than 230 fect in any part of the county, if indeed it be anywhere so deep. Whenever, therefore, any portion of the southern part of the connty beeomes so thiekly settled as to cre- ate any considerable demand for coal, it can be obtained on the spot without much diffi- eulty. This seam is of pretty constant thickness, at every point where it has been opened, and the miner can rely upon find- ing a paying thickness of coal at almost any point in this part of the county. At many points, also, one or more of the upper seams would be found much nearer the surface, with from two to nine feet of coal.
In the openings of this county, as else- where, the miner is often troubled with "faults" and "rolls," which interrupt the regularity and even the continuity of the seam. Upon the outer edge of the field, near Morris, and to the eastward, the dip of the seam is very variable and irregular, which greatly interferes with the drainage of the mines in many cases. Much of this seems to have resulted from the irregulari- ty of the denuded surface of the Silurian roeks upon which the coal was deposited; but in one or two eases, thie indications seem to prove that these contortions are the result of the removal of the subjacent limestone by solution in subterranean streams after the deposition of the coal. This seems to be the only explanation of the condition of the seam, in a shaft a short distance east of the Jugtown pottery. In this neighborhood, the seam is generally about twenty feet below the surface; but in the shaft referred to, it was found forty
110
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
feet down, and after yielding about 300 bushels, the coal ceased abruptly, on all sides.
So far as known, all coal mined in the county contains more or less pyrite-"sul- phur" of the miners-and streaks of ealeite; but this is so variable, even in neighboring portions of the same mine, that it would be useless to attempt to discriminate between the products of the various localities. As a whole, the produet of the main seam is a fine steam and grate coal, and is largely shipped to the Chicago market, the distance being only sixty-two miles.
The best elay for brick making is not found here, though there are several large briek yards in the county. The materials nsed are the decomposed shales which over- lie the lower coal. As these beds contain considerable calcareons matter, the briek are not very firm and do not stand the weather well. It would appear probable that the fire elay below the coal would make a better artiele. This has been tried with some sue- cess at Gardner. The fire elay, and soft clay shales underlying it, are said to be thirty-five feet deep and so mnehi of these beds as may be convenient, in mining the coal, is dug out and used promiscuously. Without thorough grinding, therefore, in the pugmill, the bricks are variable in chiar- acter and irregular in burning.
The only bed of Potter's elay known and worked is that near the west end of Goose Lake, and extensively nsed at Jugtown, in the manufacture of a fair grade of domestic earthernware, together with drain tile and sewer pipes. The bed consists of more or less thoroughly decomposed elay shale and tire clay of the Coal Measures, containing many fragments of coal, thoroughly mingled
and deposited in a low part of the old river channel, which contains Goose Lake. by the current of the river which formerly flowed there. The bed has been worked to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet, but the mixed character of the materials has given mneh trouble to the potters.
The principal source of building stone in this county is the quarry of Trenton lime- stone in Saratoga township, about four iniles northeast of Morris. This yields an abun- danee of light gray or drab massive lime- stone, which has been extensively used for foundation walls, and in a few cases also for the superstructures. It appears fitted to stand the weather as well as any ordi- nary stone, and is said to dress well. The Cineinnati group along the Au Sable Creek near the county line, yields small quanti- ties of stone for wells and foundations, but nothing suitable for superstructures. Beds of the same group upon the northern side of Goose Lake, have been quarried slightly, for similar purposes. Upon the bank of the Waupecan Creek in the southeast quar- ter of seetion 18, in Wanponsee township, small quantities of a very solid limestone -- N.o. 6, of the Waupecan section-have been quarried. A sandstone, representing Nos. 1 and 3 of the same sectiou, has been quarried to some extent for foundations on the upper part of the stream, at "Hog Grove Quarry," and has given good satis- faction; though when exposed to the weather it crumbles rapidly. The same defect exists in the sandstone of Pine Bluff.
Lime is obtained from the Saratoga quarry, where considerable quantities of the stone are annually burned, thongh some care has to be exercised to exclude from the kiln the ferruginous layers. The
111
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
only hydraulic . limestone found in the county occurs in nodules along the Kan- kakee River, and in small quantity. The abundant supply from an adjoining county renders these deposits of no commercial value.
Builders' sand is obtained in unlimited quantities from the sand ridges of the river valley. From one of these ridges, about one mile south of Morris, large quantities of road gravel are also obtained.
Iron ore is found in form of ironstone nodules (carbonate of iron) on the Mazon and Wanpecan Creeks, but not in sufficient quantities to supply a furnace. Bog ore is found near the quarries in Saratoga, but its quality or quantity has not been tested.
The natural supply of water through this county is quite variable. In a dry season, large portions are very seantily sup- plied. In ordinary seasons, however, wells running ten or fifteen feet into the top of the drift in the eastern part, supply all needs. In the western part of the county, reliable wells can be obtained only by pass- ing through the boulder elay to the under- lying quicksand. The lower seam of coal is everywhere accompanied by an abun- danee of water, which is pure and good, until the working of the coal exposes the accompanying pyrite to decomposition. A well bored at the tile factory in Jugtown some years ago, struck coal at about thirty feet, and gave exit to a strong stream of water, highly charged with sulphurated hydrogen. Small springs of similar char- acter are said to accompany the supposed line of outcrop of this coal seam, along the foot of the first terrace, from Mazon Creek, nearly to the Morris bridge. A very strong spring of this character flows from beneath
the drift gravel, over the black shale, No. 3, of the upper Mazon section, in the south- west quarter of seetion 6, in Braceville township, leaving a heavy white deposit of sulphur on the surface of the shale.
The artesian boring on the northeast quarter of scetion 3, in Felix town- ship, brings to the surface a small bnt constant supply of slightly sul- phurous water from the upper part of the Trenton limestone, at a depth of about 137 feet. On section 18 of the same town- ship, a boring of 325 feet failed to secure flowing water, after penetrating 185 feet of the Trenton limestone. The boring for the railroad well at Morris, shows this lime- stone to be 200 feet thick, and that in this county the underlying St. Peter's sandstone is full of pure water, which is ready to flow to the surface wherever it is tapped. This abundant supply can be reached anywhere in the northern part of the county at about 400 feet, and in the southern part, at prob- ably nowhere more than 600 feet, and in part of it much less than that.
"Gas" wells in the boulder elay are known at two localities. Near the north- east corner of section 3, in Vienna town- ship, a well at twenty feet, gave off so much carbonic acid gas, as to prevent farther ex- cavations. Probably this flowed from some ancient soil, like the muck beds enconn- tered in Livingston and other counties. On section 35 in Nettle Creek township, a well at forty-seven feet, gave off' light ear- buretted hydrogen with so much noise as to be heard at a considerable distance, and in such quantity as to blaze " as high as the house," for some minutes after being approached with a lighted eandle. The gas still flows freely, though it is several years
112
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY.
since the well was dng, and a load of gravel has been thrown in, to act as a filter for the water, which was at first filled with quick- sand, brought up by the ebullition of the gas. Similar phenomena have been ob- served in other wells in this vicinity. A large spring on section 22 of the same township, constantly gives off bubbles of
this gas. Springs of similar character have been found along the outcrop of the lower coal seam in the adjoining county of La Salle, and it is generally accepted as a partial indication of the coal outline, when the depth of drift prevents actual observa- tion.
CHAPTER II .*
PREHISTORIC RACES-EARLIEST TRACES OF MAN-MOUND BUILDERS AND THEIR REMAINS-INDIAN TRIBES-RELATIONS WITH THE WHITES- WAUPONSEE-SIIABBONA-NUCQUETTE.
R OBINSON CRUSOE'S unexpected discovery of a human footprint upon the sands of his solitary island, was hardly more startling than have been the discover- ies of antiquarians in Europe within the past twenty-five years. Scientific followers of Usher and Petarins, had placed the vari- ons migrations of men, the confusion of tongnes, the peopling of continents, the de- velopment of types-the whole evolution of human society, within the narrow compass of little more than four thousand years, when the discoveries of the geologist and ethnologist developed the trace of human existence dating back to a possible period, 30,000 years ago. Nor are confirmatory evidences to the truth of these discoveries entirely wanting in the new world. The gold-drift of California has supplied abun- dant testimony to the high antiquity of man, and notably the " Pliocene Skull," the pop- ular conception of which is derived more widely, perhaps, from a characteristic poem by Bret Harte than from scientifie publications. Explorations in Illinois, Mis- souri and South Carolina, have yielded simi- lar testimony, and while it should be stated, that in many cases these evidences rest upon the testimony of single observers, and that there is not that recurrence of "finds "
which would render "assurance doubly sure," yet there seems to be no doubt in the minds of scientists that the "elder man " was also an inhabitant of this new world.
Descending to a later time and one prob- ably falling within the historie period,* we find the more tangible traces of an early race of men. Of this race, named from the character of their remains, the Mound Builders, we find the evidences vastly mul- tiplied, and of such character as to afford means of forming a reasonable conjecture as to their mode of life, their advancement in civilization, and final destiny. These evidences, though first accepted with great distrust, have been so amplified and con- firmed by more recent researches, as to leave no room for reasonable doubt as to the former existence of this race. The remains upon which this conclusion is based, " consists," says Mr. Foster, "of tumuli symmetrically raised and often en- closed in mathematical figures, such as the square, the octagon and cirele, with long lines of circumvallation; of pits in the solid rocks, and rubbish heaps formed in the proseention of their mining operations, and of a variety of utensils, wrought in stone or copper, or moulded in clay."t To the
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