USA > Illinois > Stark County > History of Stark County, Illinois, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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The first official geological survey of the conditions existing in Stark County was made by H. A. Green, under the anspiees of the state geological survey, and published in the report for 1870. Mr. Green found in his investigations that all the stratified roeks of the county belong to the Coal Measures, including all the lower portion of the series from eoal No. 7 to eoal No. 2, inclusive. Coal No. 7 was observed in only a few places, the most notable of which was in section 16, township 14. range 7, where S. C. Franeis was engaged in oper- ating a mine near the east fork of the Spoon River. A seetion of the shaft at this mine, as given by Mr. Green. shows the following formation :
Ft.
In.
Yellow elay
2
Red sand
Nodular limestone
2
4
Light eolored clay
6
10
Clay shale 2
8
Blue elay shale
4
2
Sandstone
1
4
Blue elay shale. 8
Dark elay shale. 5
8
Coal
Blue clay shale.
12
Impure limestone
3
Clay shale 8
Impure limestone
2
Blue clay shale.
1
4
Dark elay shale. 3
Coal
Depth of shaft. 62
6
Sandstone
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Concerning the product of this mine and the coal deposits in the vicinity, Mr. Green says: "This coal appears to occupy the position of coal No. 7. and probably belongs to that seam. The coal worked at the Bradford shaft, which is but a short distance from here, in seetion 21, is thought to be some thirty or forty feet below, and is probably No. 6."
With regard to the coal deposits in general his report says: "Stark County has an abundant supply of coal, which is at present derived mainly from coal No. 6. It crops out along the West Fork in Elmira Township, along the Spoon River in Toulon, at intervals for about twenty miles, and can probably be found and worked along the streams and their tributaries for the entire distance. This coal varies in thickness from 216 to 6 feet, seldom reaching the extreme, but averaging from 312 to 5 feet. Immense quantities of coal have been taken from this seam at its outerops along the different streams. In Osceola Township one shaft has been sunk near the East Fork, and several others are partially completed. Shafts have also been sunk at Modena, near Wyoming, in Toulon Township and at Cox's Mill in Essex Township."
That was written in 1870. Since then several new developments have been made in the mining industry. Coal No. 6 is the principal seam worked in the county. It first appears in the bluff's along the West Fork, in the southeast part of section 3, township 14, range 6. From that point to the southeast quarter of section 16. in the same township and range, it has been worked at intervals along the west side of the stream. In section 16 a number of openings have been made and considerable quantities of coal have been taken out. Here the coal crops out of the bluff. some ten or fifteen feet above the level of the creek. The seam runs from four to five feet thick, with a elay parting of about two inches near the middle. No. 6 seam is also worked at what is known as the Bradford shaft, located on the east side of the East Fork in section 28, township 14, range 7. The shaft here shows as follows:
Ft. In.
Yellow clay
3
Limestone
1
Light colored clay 4 6
Light colored clay shale 8 4
Limestone 2 4 Clay shale 9 10
Coal 2
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Soft black slate ( fossiliferous)
1
Clay 4
3
Sandstone 22
2
Clay shale
6
Limestone 4
Light colored clay shale.
6
Green clay shale.
4
Dark clay shale. 3
2
Impure limestone
1
6
Dark clay shale.
2
6
Coal ( with 3-inch clay parting)
1
Depth of shaft 88 7
At Modena the vein ranges from 412 to 512 feet in thickness and is rarely more than thirty feet below the surface. Coal has also been noted in the bed of Jack Creek, in section 4, township 13. range 6. where some of the deposits have been worked a little. In sections 2. 11 and 12. of the same township and range. a short distance south of Modena, the coal erops out along the bluff from eight to ten feet above the bed of the creek and several mines were in operation in this part of the county at the time of Mr. Green's survey.
According to Green, coal No. 4 is found at only one place in the county. viz: in section 19, township 12. range 5. near Walnut Creek, about two miles southwest of the Village of West Jersey. Here he found a vein of coal 415 feet in thickness, below which was a layer of impure cannel coal, varying from six to ten inches in thickness and containing the fossil remains of plants and fishes. The vein of No. 4 coal at this point is only about fifteen feet below the surface. For- ther mention of the coal deposits and their development will be found in the chapter on Finance and Industry.
BUILDING STONE
When Mr. Green visited the county in his geological research in 1870, he found only a small quantity of building stone of vahuie. The best deposit of limestone worked at that time was in the quarries in sections 21-22, township 14, range 7. a short distance northwest of Bradford. This he pronounced the largest bed exposed anywhere in the county, being from six to twelve feet thiek, but in thin ledges.
19
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
none of which was over six inches thick. The stone from this quarry is of a light drab color, compact and of even texture, moderately hard and stands exposure to the weather. It can be burned into a lime suitable for masonry, but too dark in color to be used for plastering.
Near the Spoon River, in section 14, township 12, range 6, Mr. Green found a deposit of sandstone which he considered the best in the county. About three miles west of this, in section 17 and near Indian Creek, he found another sandstone deposit, which furnishes a fair quality of building material. An old house near the quarry, con- structed of this stone, shows that the weather has but little effeet upon it after years of exposure. Another bed of sandstone is in sec- tion 20, township 12, range 5, near Walnut Creek; a soft sandstone exists in considerable quantities in section 16, township 14, range 6. and a better quality is found in section 13, township 13, range 6, but neither of these deposits has been worked to any extent. The thick vein of sandstone (22 feet 6 inches) in the Bradford coal mine could be used for building purposes, but the fact that it lies from thirty-five to forty feet below the surface has prevented its development.
THE GLACIAL EPOCII
Far back in the geologie past, while the coal beds of Stark County were in process of formation, the surface was probably one vast marsh covered with tangled masses of vegetation and inhabited only by reptiles. About the elose of the Tertiary period came the Pleistocene or "Ice Age," during which the upper Mississippi Valley was covered by one vast sheet of ice called a glacier. This glacier extended from the country about the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains on the west, and southward to about the latitude of St. Louis. It was formed in the northern part of the continent by successive falls of snow, each of which added to the weight of the great mass below until it was compressed into one solid body of ice. After many years of the formative process, a change in the temperature started the glacier to moving slowly southward, carrying with it great bowlders, clays, soils. ete .. to be deposited upon the bed rocks of a region far distant from that where they were first placed by the hand of nature. As the huge mass moved slowly along. the bowlders and other hard sub- stances at the bottom of the glacier left scratches (called strix by the geologists) upon the bed rocks, and from these markings the course of the glacier can be determined with a fair degree of accuracy. Ex- aminations of the stria at various places in the Mississippi Valley,
20
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
where the bed rock is exposed, show that the general direction followed by the great central glacier was toward the southeast.
As the iee melted in the warmer latitude, the materials carried by the glacier were deposited upon the bed rock in the form of drift, composed of till, loess and alluvium. It was through this method that the great swamp above mentioned underwent a change. At the elose of the Pleistocene the earth's surface, over which the glacier had passed, was void of either animal or vegetable life. In time the action of the rain and wind gradually leveled the surface, the heat from the sun warmed it, and life in the most primitive forms made its appearance.
For the rich heritage of soil in Stark County, the region is indebted to the great glacier that once overflowed the country. In its slow march it ground up the rocks over which it passed, mixed the fresh roek flour with the granites of British America and Northern Minne- sota, with the pulverized limestones and shales of the more southern latitudes, and deposited these materials upon the rocks of earlier geologie periods. Everywhere the soil is the product of roek disinte- gration. In Stark County the glacial drift is from twenty to sixty feet deep, giving it one of the most fertile soils in the state.
It was through the action of the glacier that the surface of North- ern Illinois was formed. At the edge of the glacier, as it moved forward, it left a ridge called a "lateral moraine." Where two glacial bodies came together a larger ridge running parallel to the strix was formed and is called a "median moraine." At the terminus of the ice sheet, where all the remaining solid materials carried by the glacier were deposited, the ridge thus formed is known as the "terminal moraine." As no evidences of a moraine of any kind have been noticed iu Stark County, it is almost certain that this portion of Illinois was in the heart of the glacier, an indication that is further borne out by the almost uniform thickness of the drift when compared with those parts of the country where the moraines are known to exist.
CHARACTER OF THE DRIFT
At the bottom of the glacial deposits lies the till-called by some geologists the lower till-composed of a blue clay or a dark shale. charged with bowlders and sometimes mixed with sand. This till is seen in the strata immediately overlying the Coal Measures, as shown by the sections of shafts given in the preceding pages.
The loess is a fine ash-colored silt, or a porous elay, rich in carbon-
21
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
ate of lime. This substance was deposited very irregularly and so far as known no deposits of it have been found in Stark County.
Above the loess comes the alluvium or soil, which is made up of the lighter materials carried by the glacier, to which has been added a large volume of decayed vegetable matter that has accumulated since the elose of the glacial epoch. As this portion of the drift constitutes the surface, and is seen everywhere in Stark County, it is too well known to require further deseription.
The bowlders commonly called "nigger heads" that may be seen in greater or less numbers in all parts of the state, are unquestionably of glacial origin. They are of a different texture from the bed rock, a faet that sustains the theory that they are foreign to this part of the country. Most of them are found below the surface, but those left upon the higher portions of the glacial deposits have remained where they can still be seen. the lighter materials of the alluvium having been deposited around them without disturbing their resting places.
THE WATER SUPPLY
There are but comparatively few natural springs in the county. Most of the wells derive their supply of water from veins in the drift. only a few of them penetrating to the Coal Measures. The deepest well in the county is the one at Toulon, from which the town's water 'supply is taken. It is over fourteen hundred feet in depth. A further description of it. as well as of the wells at Wyoming and Bradford. will be found in connection with the history of those towns.
CHAPTER II ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
MOUND BUILDERS-FIRST NOTICE OF MOUNDS IN THE UNITED STATES- CHARACTER AND STRUCTURE OF THE MOUNDS-EARLY INVESTIGA- TIONS AND THEORIES-WORK OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY-DIS- TRICTS IN THE UNITED STATES-WHO WERE THE MOUND BUILDERS -- MORE THEORIES-RELICS IN THE COUNTY OF STARK-ADAMS AND SHALLENBERGER'S WORK.
For nearly a century and a half after the first white settlements were made along the Atlantic coast, in what is now the United States, the general belief was that the Indian tribes found here by the first Europeans were the original inhabitants of the country. Then evi- dences were discovered in the interior of the continent that led arch- aeologists to believe that the great valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers had once been occupied by a peculiar race of people entirely separate and distinet from the Indian. These evidenees were found in the numerous mounds and earthworks, fragments of pottery, stone implements, weapons, etc. A report issued by the United States Bureau of Ethnology says:
"During a period beginning some time after the close of the Ice Age and ending with the coming of the white man-or only a few years before-the central part of North America was inhabited by a people who had emerged to some extent from the darkness of sav- agery, had acquired certain domestic arts, and practiced some well defined lines of industry. The location and boundaries inhabited by them are fairly well marked by the mounds and earthworks they erected."
The center of this ancient civilization-if such it may be called- seems to have been in the present State of Ohio, where the mounds and relies are more numerons than in any other part of the country, though Illinois was well within the confines of the domain onee oecn- pied by this peculiar race, to which the name of "Mound Builders" has been given by arehacologists, and various theories have been ad-
22
23
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
vaneed concerning their origin, identity and the manner in which they became extinet.
It may be interesting to the reader to know something of these theories regarding the Mound Builders, as well as something of the character of the works they constructed. Most of the mounds are of conical form, varying in height, and when opened they have usually been found to contain human skeletons. For this reason they have been designated by archaeologists as burial mounds. Next to the burial mound comes the truncated pyramid-that is, a mound square or rectangular at the base and flattened at the top. Mounds of this class are nearly always higher than the highest of the burial mounds and upon the top of several such mounds charcoal has been found. The greater height and the charcoal gave rise to the theory that they were used as lookout or signal stations, upon the top of which signal fires had onee been lighted.
In some seetions of the country ean still be seen well defined lines of earthworks, sometimes in the form of a square, but more often of oval or circular shape, bearing every indication of having been erected as places of defense against hostile invaders. Still another elass of works, less numerous and widely separated, consists of one large mound surrounded by an embankment, outside of which are a number of smaller mounds. In such groups the smaller mounds are nearly always devoid of human bones or other relies, and even the larger mound within the embankment yields but few relies. The absence of skeletons, implements, weapons, ete., and the arrangement of the mounds in works of this nature have led antiquarians to form the theory that they were centers of sacrifice or religious ceremonies of some character.
Not for years after the mounds were first noticed was any sys- tematie investigation of the origin made. The earliest persons to examine the mounds were Squier and Davis, who, about 1850, pub- lished a work entitled "Aneient Monuments of the Mississippi Val- ley." Between the years 1845 and 1848 these two archaeologists. working together, explored over two hundred mounds and other earth- works, the deseription of which was published by the Smithsonian Institution. Following them came Baldwin, MeLean and a number of others, practically all of whom held to the theory that the Mound Builders belonged to a separate and distinet raee and that many of the relies were of great antiquity.
Some of these early writers on the subjeet took the view that the Mound Builders first established their civilization in the Ohio Valley,
24
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
from which region they gradually moved toward the southwest into Mexico and Central America, where the white man found their de- seendants in the Aztec Indians. Others, with arguments equally plausible, contended that the people who left these interesting relics originated in the South and slowly made their way northward to the country about the Great Lakes, where they were met and driven back by hostile tribes. Upon only one phase of the subject were these early authors in accord, and that was that the Mound Builders consti- tuted a very ancient and extinct race. This theory was sustained by the fact that the Indian tribes with whom the first white men came in contaet had no traditions relating to the mounds or the people who built them, while the claim of great antiquity was supported by the great trees, often several feet in diameter, that were found growing upon the mounds and earthworks.
Shortly after the United States Bureau of Ethnology was estab- lished it undertook the work of making an exhaustive and scientific investigation of the mounds and other relies left by the Mound Builders. Cyrus Thomas, who had charge of this branch of ethnolog- ical research, in his analysis and compilation of the information col- lected. has divided the region onee inhabited by the Mound Builders into eight distriets. each of which is marked by certain features not common to the others. In making this division Mr. Thomas evidently did not adhere to any of the theories advanced as to the origin or first location of the ancient people, as he begins in the northwestern part of the country and proceeds toward the south and east. His districts are as follows:
1. The Dakota District, which includes North and South Dakota. Minnesota, the northwest corner of Iowa and the State of Wisconsin. In this district the chief objects of interest to the archaeologists are the beautiful effigy mounds, constructed in the form of some bird or animal. Wisconsin is especially rich in mounds of this class. Near the Town of Prairieville is a mound resembling a turtle, fifty-six feet in length, and not far from the Town of Blue Mounds is a mound 120 feet long representing a man lying on his baek. Some writers are of the opinion that the effigy mounds were made to represent the totem of some tribe or elan, and others think they are the images of some living creature that was an object of veneration.
2. The Huron-Iroquois District takes its name from the country comprising the district, which was once inhabited by the Huron and Iroquois Indians. This district includes the lower peninsula of Mich- igan, the southern part of Canada, a strip across the northern part of
25
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
Ohio and the greater portion of the State of New York. Near Toledo and Sandusky, Ohio, a few well defined fortifications have been ob- served, but by far the greater part of the relies are the small burial mounds and the "hut rings," small circular embankments, which are supposed to have been the foundations of ancient dwellings.
3. The Illinois District embraces the middle and eastern portions of Iowa, Northeastern Missouri, Northern Illinois and the western half of Indiana. That part of Illinois lying within this district in- eludes about two-thirds of the state. Stark County lies within this distriet, in which the burial mounds are quite numerous and a few fortifications have been found, but they are greatly inferior, both in size and the manner of construction, to those of the Ohio District. In the southern part of the district several mounds of the truncated pyramid variety have been found, the great mound near Cahokia being one of the finest examples of this class known to students of American archaeology.
4. The Ohio District takes in all of the State of Ohio, except the strip across the northern part, which is included in District No. 2, the eastern half of Indiana and the southwestern part of West Virginia. Here the Mound Builder evidently flourished in all his glory. Burial mounds are larger and more numerous than in any other part of the . country, many of them having a diameter of one hundred feet or more and rising to the height of sixty or eighty feet. More than ten thou- sand mounds have been explored in the State of Ohio alone. The Grave Creek Mound, in West Virginia, is one of the largest lookout or signal mounds yet discovered. The earthworks of this distriet surpass those of all the others. The "Great Serpent." a fortification in the form of a snake, is situated on a bluff in Adams County, Ohio. It is nearly fourteen hundred feet long and is one of the best pre- served and most perfect specimens of the Mound Builders' fortifica- tions. Its site has recently been purchased by the state in order that the ancient fort may be kept intact. Near Anderson, Indiana, is a circular fortification, with a lookout mound inside the embankment. A peculiar feature of this work is a subterranean passage leading to the White River, some three hundred feet distant, indicating that the work had been constructed with a view to obtaining a supply of water in the event of a siege.
5. The Appalachian District takes its name from the mountains included within its borders. It embraces East Tennessee, the south- western part of Virginia, Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia. Throughout this district abundant evidences have been Vol. 1-2
26
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
found to show that the inhabitants were in many respects different from those of the other distriets. The mounds are differently con- structed : stone graves are numerous; copper awls, needles, knives and other utensils have been found; tobacco pipes made of elay and baked, and some pipes carved from a peculiar kind of stone are among the relies found here.
6. The Tennessee District, which adjoins the Appalachian on the west, ineludes the southern third of Illinois, nearly all the State of Kentucky. a small portion of Northern Alabama, Middle and Western Tennessee and the central part of Georgia. The distinguishing fea- ture of this district is its pottery, a long-neeked water jar of graceful outline being especially abundant. Fragments of pottery indicated that they were part of vessels from three to four feet in diameter and capable of holding several gallons. Several forts have been noted. a few of which are connected with nearby streams by subterranean pas- sages, and some of the mounds have yielded up stone images, believed by archaeologists to have been objeets of worship.
7. The Arkansas Distriet ineludes the State of Arkansas, the northern part of Louisiana and the southeast corner of Missouri. Burial mounds here are small and few in number. Village sites have been located by means of the hut rings and pottery has been found in abundanee.
8. The Gulf District includes the country bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. In this district are a number of fine truncated pyramids, some of them built in terraces: skeletons buried in bark coffins have been unearthed and other skeletons have been found in caves; the entire district is rich in pottery, and a peculiarity of this region is the large number of polished stone implements and weapons of obsidian.
WHO WERE THE MOUND BUILDERS?
Going back to the theories regarding the origin and age of the Mound Builders, it is worthy of note that in more recent years arch- æologists are inelined to doubt the idea of great antiquity. or that the Mound Builders differed materially in racial characteristics from the North American Indian. Those who have made extensive research among the mounds. or a careful and systematie study of the relies in connection with the work of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, are practically a unit in the belief that the Indians found here by the first white men are the descendants of the Mound Builders, but that the traditions of the latter have been lost. Even some of the earliest
27
HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
writers on the subject expressed the opinion that the Aztees were descendants of the ancient tribes who once inhabited the interior of North America.
That the theory of great age is erroneous, to some extent at least, becomes apparent when it is known that the early French and Spanish explorers in the southern part of what is now the United States, dis- covered that among the Natchez Indians the house of the chief was always built upon an artificial mound. Mention of this fact is seen in a mimber of the early French archives, and as eminent an authority as Pierre Margry says: "When a chief dies they demolish his cabin and then raise a new mound, on which they build the cabin of the chief who is to replace the one deceased in this dignity, for the chief never lodges in the house of his predecessor."
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