USA > Illinois > Jersey County > History of Jersey County, Illinois > Part 2
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"PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN"
In the fullness of time, Christ was born at Bethlehem of Judea, and the angels proclaimed to the shepherds: "Peace on earth, Good will to men." Christ preached the fatherhood of God; and the brotherhood of man; and love to God, and love to man, to the common people; and their direct responsibility to God. This was pure democracy. He taught that God is no respecter of persons or classes, and that all men were upon an absolute equality before God; and that they all might be personally reconciled to Him, in exactly the same way, with no dif- ference in favor of, or against any. This new testimony of God's love to man, was taught by Christ to His apostles, and by Him and them to the people, and their diseases were healed. He was crucified, and rose again, and before His ascension, He gave to His apostles that great command. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
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living creature." Not simply to kings, princes, nobility or preferred classes or castes, but to all men everywhere, without preference to any or either of them. This command was obeyed by His apostles with such zeal and success, that at the close of the third century Christianity was accepted by Romans and spread thence to all nations of the old, or then known world, as the roads of the world then centered at Rome. As the years went by, this gospel was accepted by the other countries of Europe, but this did not bring about a condition of universal peace.
AUTOCRATIC FORMS
The absolute, autocratic forms of government with the so-called "divine rights of kings" to rule, and to apportion territory among princes and nobility, appointed by and subservient to them. The right of the lord of the manor to call to arms all of his vassals and serfs, upon the requisition of the king, or for any real or fancied pretext of his own, wholly ignored the rights and liberties of the common people, and kept them almost constantly engaged in wars with other nations, or with the tribes or clans of other lords of manors, or seigniories in their own vicinity. Added to this, the union of church and state, with the claim of the church of the sole right to interpret the scriptures, and to pre- scribe rules for their observance, and for the government of its ad- herents, led to the Reformation under Luther and his followers. This was met by the Inquisition and its resulting horrors and persecutions. For these and other reasons there were almost constant wars, conquests, turmoils, and a general feeling of uneasiness and unrest throughout the countries of the old world.
ADVANCEMENT IN CIVILIZATION
Notwithstanding these conditions, there was much advancement in the development of literature, art, science, commerce, and the general improvement of society and civilization above the plane upon which it stood at the opening of the Christian era, and markedly as compared with conditions following the flood, when God gave to man his second opportunity for development and reconciliation to Him.
THE NEW WORLD
While man was engaged in trying to solve and work out the problems of his destiny, and his relationship to God and his fellow man, the
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creator had held in reserve the western hemisphere, or as it will be herein denominated, the New World, whereon in the fullness of time, man was to be given his third opportunity to demonstrate and devise a form of government better adapted to the needs of his race, and free from the inherent defects of the systems of government in force in the old world. At the close of the fifteenth century, Columbus discovered the new world, but for two and one-half centuries thereafter, the nations of the old world continued to be too busily engaged in wars and contro- versies among themselves to allow them to give attention to affairs of the newly discovered world. In the interim, many thousands braved the ocean perils, and the dangers of the wilderness, to escape from tyranny, oppression and persecution incident to their life in the old world, and had made their homes in the thirteen colonies along the Atlantic coast of the new world. Adventurers and missionaries from France had made connection between the Atlantic ocean and the Gulf of Mexico by way of the St. Lawrence River, and the Great Lakes, and the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Finally, England, being pressed for means to meet the expense of her great wars, undertook to replenish her exhausted treasury by the levy of a tax upon the people of ler colonies, which was resisted by them, and resulted in the separation of the new from the old world, and of giving to civilization the immortal American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
THE RIGHTS OF MAN
This was the beginning of the third period of the development of man, and a system of government more nearly in accord with the gospel of the Prince of Peace, and for which the creator had held in reserve the new world from the beginning. In that declaration, among other things, there appears the startling statement "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men were created equal; that they are en- dowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." In 1787, these principles were in- corporated into the Constitution of the United States, in the preamble of which is said :
"We the people of the United States," not the separate colonies, "'in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure do- mestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the gen-
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eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America."
There were then but 3,000,000 people in the United States. They were scattered over a large extent of territory, were unskilled in the practice of war, and yet they had been successful in their contest against the skilled and disciplined armies and navies of the mother country. A democratic government was established. Three score and thirteen years later, when the population had increased to 30,000,000, the validity and stability of this government was challenged by the attempted witlı- drawal of several of the states, and their organization into another gov- ernment.
SECESSION
This secession led to the Civil War of 1861-5, between our own people. African slavery was the underlying cause of this conflict. In a number of the states, colored people were bred for the market, and bought and sold like horses, cattle or other live stock, which action was in direct opposition to the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, that all men are created free and equal. President Lincoln, in his address on the battlefield of Gettysburg, plainly stated the issue, saying :
"Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the propo- sition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any other nation so con- ceived and so dedicated can long endure. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from this earth."
THE RETURN OF PEACE
The nation survived that terrible ordeal. Both armies in the con- test were disbanded, returning to civil pursuits of life. Hundreds of thousands perished in the war, and their memories are cherished, and their resting places are annually decorated with beautiful flowers. Many other survivors still remain among us, and are loved, honored and cher- ished patriots of that war.
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LATER PROGRESS
The progress of this nation in learning, both religious and secular, and in all of the arts and sciences pertaining to civilized life, the de- velopment of the resources of the country, the accumulation of wealth and population since the termination of that war, are unprecedented within the same length of time, in the annals of history. Not only this, but woman, who was given joint rights of dominion with man at creation, is coming back into her lost estate.
THE MELTING POT
This nation has been termed a Melting Pot, an asylum for the down- trodden and oppressed of all nations, and to a certain extent this is true and the term is properly applied. There is not a nation in the world but has more or less representation among our population, and some of them by many thousands. The majority are substantially fashioned and moulded into our common or blended type of devoted and reliable citizens. They left their native countries and came here to enjoy the blessings of freedom and liberty, both religious and civil, and to better the condition of their families. A very large proportion of them have been successful in their efforts in the accomplishment of these ends. They and their children and grandchildren have become assimilated into our common citizenship, and imbued with its character and spirit as fully as are those descended from the old French settlers and the Pilgrims of the Mayflower.
TRUE DEMOCRACY
There is now no autocratic or monarchial government in the new world. Not only is this true, but the leaven of democracy has spread to and taken root in the old world, being adopted wholly by some na- tions, and by liberalizing and extending the rights of the common people in others. Realizing the danger to their ancient established systems of autocratic government, by the demands and encroachments of the people, and further realizing that these two forms of government are so in- herently antagonistic in their nature, that they cannot exist together for one or other will increase, while the other decreases in power and influence in the world, the autocratic nations of Central Europe have challenged all liberty loving people, citizens of liberal or democratic
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governments in the world, to arms to determine this issue, as to whether kings and classes, controlling immense armies and navies, shall control, or whether the peaceful, liberty loving common people, living under governments instituted by and suited to their happiness and well being, shall be permitted to exist and continue to enjoy the blessings of such governments.
THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHALLENGE
This challenge has been accepted by the people of the United States through their representatives in Congress and their great, patriotic president, and his advisors, and under this leadership, the people of this nation are, with all of the resources at their command, rallying to the contest in defense of the rights of the people.
THE MARK OF THE BEAST
All laws, divine, human, national and international have been ruth- lessly broken, trodden under foot. Dishonesty, deceit, treachery, bribery, murder and numerous other crimes have been unblushingly practiced by our enemies, who boastfully claim the approval of God therefor. The proclamation of the angels to the shepherds, "Peace on earth, good will to men," and the teachings of the Prince of Peace; the dying words of the Old Commander from the top of Mount McGregor, "Let us have peace," are all in full accord with the divine plans of the creator, whose guiding and controlling hand can readily be seen, for His dealings with this nation, in reserving this hemisphere from the control of the old world, and His fostering care in the organization of this nation, and His guidance and protection in the subsequent wars, are so plainly marked as to convince the mind of the most casual observer. Illinois and Jersey County claim a full share of the providence and care and protection of Almighty God in their establishment and development, and have supreme confidence that in the future, as in the past, His guiding hand will lead us along the paths our feet should tread.
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform."-Cowper.
CHAPTER II GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
BY HON. WILLIAM MC ADAMS
BOUNDARIES-GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE-DRIFT PERIOD-GEOLOGICAL GROUPS -QUARTERNARY SYSTEM-DRIFT-COAL MEASURES-BRIGHTON COAL VEINS-COAL SEAM NEAR DELHI-CHESTER LIMESTONE-ST. LOUIS LIME- STONE -- KEOKUK LIMESTONE-BURLINGTON LIMESTONE-KINDERHOOK LIMESTONE-BLACK SLATE-HAMILTON LIMESTONE-NIAGARA LIMESTONE -CINCINNATI LIMESTONE-TRENTON LIMESTONE-DIVINE PURPOSE- NATURAL RECORDS.
BOUNDARIES
Jersey County lies on the western border of the state, at the junction of the Illinois River and the Mississippi, and includes an area of about ten townships, or 360 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Greene County; on the east by Macoupin and Madison counties; and on the south and west by Madison County, the Mississippi and the Illi- nois rivers. The central and eastern portions are mostly prairie, and are comparatively level or gently rolling; while the southern and western portions become more broken as we approach the river bluffs, which are intersected by deep ravines, separated by narrow ridges, many of which are 100 to 200 feet in height. This portion of the county was at one time heavily timbered. The county is well watered by Macoupin Creek and its tributaries on the northern portions, and by Otter Creek and the Piasa and their affluents in the southern and western portions of the county.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
The geological structure of Jersey County presents, with the ex- ception of Calhoun, the most interesting and varied field for investiga-
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tion of any county in the state. The outcrops of stratified rocks include a thickness of over 1,000 feet of strata, ranging from the lower coal measures to the Trenton limestone of the Lower Silurian period. Some- time after the deposits of the carboniferous period were made, some great convulsion of the pent up forces of nature caused an upheaval of the strata, and a mountain or rather the half of a mountain, arose, whose highest point was in the southern portion of Calhoun County, with the foot of the elevation extending in a half circle from Alton through a portion of Madison, Jersey, Greene, and Calhoun counties, to the southwest corner of Pike County on the Mississippi River. This singular mountain doubtless presented on its southern and western side a mural wall, showing the whole range of the Paleozoic strata, from the St. Peter's sandstone of the Calciferous period to the coal measures, including over 100 feet of the latter formation. Jutting up against the base of this precipice, the rocks, with the coal measures on top, lie in their natural positions, though somewhat distorted, as they had been raised up and fallen back again. The lowest rock exposed in Jersey County is the Trenton limestone.
THE DRIFT PERIOD
This mountain was eroded away by the drift period, which, according to the theory of Agassiz, was an immense glacier, miles in thickness, and the finishing stroke in the earth's creation. The erosive forces of the 'drift period left the site of the mountain on a general level with the surrounding country. The stream known as Otter Creek, has its source over the coal measures, in the prairie near the city of Jersey- ville, and its course in a western direction for a dozen miles to its mouth, passes directly over the exposed edges of the rocks raised by the up- heaval, thus presenting nearly the whole series of the rocks in the county. This locality, from the number of strata exposed in so limited an extent, makes it the most interesting field for the study of geology of which I have any knowledge. Recently, in one day, with a class of graduating students, we passed over all these rocks, recognizing the different members, and collecting fossils from each.
GEOLOGICAL GROUPS
The following section will show the position and comparative thick- ness of the different groups in the county. The names of the groups
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HISTORY OF JERSEY COUNTY
given are some of them local, but are those by which they are designated in the geological report of the state of Illinois by Professor Worthen :
Drift, 100 feet, Quarternary.
Coal Measures, 200 feet, Lower Coal Measures.
Lower Carboniferous, 15 feet, Chester Limestone.
Lower Carboniferous, 60 to 75 feet, St. Louis Limestone.
Lower Carboniferous, 150 feet, Keokuk Limestone.
Lower Carboniferous, 200 feet, Burlington.
Lower Carboniferous, 80 to 100 feet, Kinderhook Group.
Devonian, 30 feet, Black Slate.
Devonian, 15 feet, Hamilton Limestone.
Upper Silurian, 120 feet, Niagara Limestone.
Lower Silurian, 40 to 50 feet, Cincinnati Limestone.
Lower Silurian, 50 feet, Trenton Limestone.
The total thickness of the geological deposits exposed is not far from 1,100 feet.
We shall now proceed to describe the strata represented in the fore- going section, taking them up in their order of sequence and giving some of the more prominent features that have attracted our attention.
QUARTERNARY SYSTEM
In the Quarternary System we include the Alluvial, Loess and Drift, comprising all the loose, superficial material that overlies the stratified rocks. The alluvial deposits of this county are the bottom lands bordering on the Illinois River, and on the Piasa, Otter and Mc- Coupin creeks. The bottom along the Illinois River is a deep, sandy loam, differing somewhat in localities, by being formed wholly from the sediment deposited from the annual overflow of the river, or mainly formed from the wash from the highlands of the adjacent bluffs. These bottom lands are exceedingly fertile, producing annually large crops of grain and vegetables, which are grown year after year on the same ground, with but little perceptible diminution in the value of the crops. These lowlands are gradually being elevated from year to year by causes already referred to; the swampy portions are filling up or being drained, and the arable area constantly increasing. The allu- vial lands of Jersey County, will, at no distant day, be very valuable.
That portion of the county bordering on the rivers has, adjacent to the bottoms, a range of high bluffs, cut up by deep ravines, and
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DELIA AYLWARD
JOHN R. AYLWARD
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HISTORY OF JERSEY COUNTY
narrow ridges. These bluffs are covered with a heavy deposit of Loess, varying from twenty to sixty feet in thickness. The term Loess is applied by geologists to certain deposits of partially stratified marly sands and clays, mainly restricted to the vicinity of our great river valleys. The deposit is in a finely comminuted condition, and contains the remains of fresh water and land shells as well as of some of the bones of the animals of that period. It was doubtless formed after the deposition of the true drift, and when the Mississippi River more nearly resembled a lake than a flowing river. Where the deposit of Loess is well developed, the bluffs usually present a series of bald knobs, which form such a marked feature in the topography of our county along the rivers.
This formation, from its peculiar nature, is easily manipulated by the farmer, and yields excellent crops. The Loess seems more especially adapted to fruits and vines, and some of the finest orchards and vine- yards in the county are on this formation. It does not extend far back from the river, except in the valleys of the creeks and streams, which are filled with the deposit in some instances three to six miles from the bluffs, an evidence that the valleys were excavated by other agencies than the water which now flows in them. In many places in the deposits of Loess in the county are found curious concretions, which go by various names, such as "petrified potatoes," "walnuts," etc. Some of these are very singular, but none of them are fossils, being simply secretions, and their presence is without doubt due to some chemical action among the materials of which the Loess is composed.
DRIFT
The Drift deposits are those accumulations of clay, sand and gravel which overlie the stratified rocks. The upper part of this deposit in this county is a yellowish, brown clay, furnishing an inexhaustible supply of material for the manufacture of brick. It is also used in the manu- facture of coarse pottery, by being mixed with the blue clays beneath it. The middle division of the Drift is usually a gravel bed, with clay or sand intermingled, and is the main supply of water for our wells. Boulders of granite, sienite, greenstone, quartz and porphyry are often washed out of these gravel beds, and are seen in all the courses of all of our streams. They are sometimes called "lost rocks," which name is quite suggestive, as they are indeed far away from their original ledges. The sand in the stream is all washed out of the Drift.
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The base of the Drift in this county is a blue, plastic clay, in which are often found fragments of the vegetation of the period. A large proportion of the materials occupying the Drift deposits have been de- rived from regions far beyond the limits of the state, and consist of water-worn fragments of primitive rocks from the Lake Superior region and beyond, and which have been transported southward by the com- bined action of ice and water, and were distributed over the valley of the Mississippi as far south as the Ohio River, where the whole valley was covered by a vast sea of water.
Sometimes fragments of valuable materials, such as gold, silver, copper and lead are found in the Drift, and have been the cause of leading many persons to give fruitless search for mines supposed to be hidden beneath. All over the county, in digging wells, pieces of coal are found that have been dragged away from the coal measures, and deceive the unwary by their presence. Occasionally, in digging wells, after penetrating the Drift deposits, an old soil is discovered. This is generally found in ancient valleys that existed previous to the Drift period. Otter Creek cuts through one of these old valleys not far above the "Iron Bridge," and there is plainly to be seen, below the base of the Drift, a curious black or dark-brown formation, almost wholly com- posed of the limbs, leaves and fruits mingled with a true soil. From a cubic foot of this old deposit we extracted perhaps a score of perfect cones, from an inch to three inches in length, that belonged to some old conifer tree. Of the vegetation of this period, but little is known; the same may be said of the animals. They were, without doubt, fitted to live in a cold climate. We have some remains of an animal found in the Drift deposits near Grafton. It was an animal as large as an ox, and had long tusks, very different, however, from those of an ele- phant. It is unknown to science. From the same locality we have the teeth of a mammoth species of an elk or reindeer, together with the remains of rodents of unknown species. We have also a tooth of some strange herbiverous animal, found in digging a well near the village of Elsah, a few miles below Grafton. On the Piasa, Macoupin and Otter creeks a number of the remains of the huge and peculiar mammals of the Drift period have been found. Relics or remains of this kind, found in digging wells or other excavations, should be carefully pre- served. They are fragmentary pages of lost history. As the Drift period did not leave its deposits over the entire continent, there were doubtless places where many of these animals, as well as their con- temporary man, survived to make new history.
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TERTIARY PERIOD
Although no beds of the Tertiary age have been identified in this county, certain indications have been observed that would go to show this formation exists, in local patches at least, in the valley of the Illinois River. While digging a well on the William's farm on the bottom, four miles from the mouth of the Illinois River, at a depth of twenty feet, a stratum of marl and sand was discovered, in which were fossils undoubtedly of the Tertiary age. One of these fossils, in our possession, is a well preserved shark's tooth, some four inches long. The river valley at this point is three or four miles wide, and seems to be filled with the true Drift deposits, beneath which was found the shark's tooth. Further research in this locality will no doubt reveal matter of great interest to science.
COAL MEASURES
The rocks that belong to the coal measures in this county have a thickness of about 200 feet, embracing three or more seams of coal of workable thickness. These coal beds underlie the eastern portion of the county. There is no coal of any value west of the Jacksonville and Alton Railroad, which runs through the county from north to south. On the western side of this coal region the measures, if any are found, are thin and of no great value, but as we proceed easterly the measures increase in thickness, and the seams of coal become more numerous. The following section is compiled from various local exposures, examined by the state geologist as well as myself, and given in his report, from which we draw largely in writing this paper. The section may be taken as the approximate thickness of the coal measures in this county :
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