USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > History of Stephenson County, Illinois : a record of its settlement, organization, and three-quarters of a century of progress > Part 3
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Mr. Hershey lists the following gorges in Stephenson County: One mile north of Freeport is a gorge of a small stream. The length of the cut is 950 feet; depth, 30 feet; breadth, 140 feet; cubic yards removed, 140,000. An- other, five miles northwest of Freeport, is 850 feet long, 240 feet wide, 44 feet deep and displaces 330,000 cubic yards. Three miles south of Freeport is a 2,050 foot gorge, 235 feet wide, 36 feet deep, having removed 640,000 cubic yards. Three miles west of Freeport is a gorge 950 feet long, 100 feet wide, 25 feet deep, with a displacement of 88,000 cubic yards. Four miles west of Freeport is another 1,100 feet in length, 165 feet in breadth and 30 feet deep, with cubic contents of 202,000 cubic yards. Hershey says the Cedarville gorge is the best illustration in Stephenson County. Just north of Cedarville, Cedar Creek was forced out of its preglacial valley which runs around to the south, by the sand ridges of the glacial era and was forced to cut through the Galena limestone, a gorge 3,250 feet in length, 160 feet broad, 57 feet deep, having cut out and removed 1,100,000 cubic yards of limestone. Mr. Hershey be- lieves that these gorges were cut for the most part prior to the deposition of the loess of the time of the Iowan drift sheet. Near Freeport, a gorge cut out- was later abandoned by the stream because of the large amount of loess fill- ing in, and the stream took a new course.
These gorges in Stephenson County cut through limestone by small streams, afford an excellent opportunity for the study of the tremendous power of ero- sion.
The power of erosion by a stream of water or a sea is very great. One au- thority states that Niagara Falls has cut its way back from Queenstown, seven miles, at the rate of about one foot a year. The falls of St. Anthony cut back five feet per annum. At Cape May, the coast is worn back at the rate of nine feet per year. The Church of Reculver, on the coast of Kent near the mouth of the Thames, stood at the time of Henry VIII, one mile inland. In 1804, a portion of the church yard fell into the sea and the church was abandoned. The Appalachian Mountains have lost as much by weathering as now remains.
Chamberlain and Leverett agree that in an early part of the glacial period, the Rock River flowed into the Illinois River. Then came the kettle Moraine, which filled up part of its channel and the river set to work to cut its way to the Mississippi.
SOIL.
Soil is that part of the solid surface of the earth which supports plant life. The basis of soil is fragments of pulverized rock, to which are added the remains of plants and animals (organic matter) and water. The quality of any soil may be determined by the kinds of rock from which it is produced and
Scene on Cedar Creek
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Pecatonica River, Freeport
Globe Park
Globe Park
LIL MARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
the amount of water and organic matter it contains. Plants affect the soil in three ways. The roots exert a mechanical force breaking up the soil. The roots also have a chemical action, taking out of the soil certain elements, thus weakening it. The plant at last dies and adds something to the soil. Animals add to the soil by their excrements and by the decay of their bodies .. Burrow- ing animals aid in weathering and transportation. Earth worms eat earth which when excreted contains more or less of organic matter and aids in preparing the earth for agriculture. Decaying organic matter forms mold and is called humus. The humus gives "heart" or "life" to soil, as its body is furnished by pulverized rock, or the mineral elements. Humus provides plant food and also improves the physical condition of the soil. It lessens extremes of tempera- ture, gives greater water holding capacity, opens up air passages and aids the chemical activity of the soil. Humus with clay, forms clay loam; with sand, a sandy loam. Exhausted soil is the result of a lack of humus, rather than a lack of mineral qualities. Humus is obtained (1) by crops grown for the purpose and plowed under; (2) by roots, stubble, sdo, refuse, etc., left on the soil; (3) by compost and stable manure directly applied.
In addition to the above elements of soil, fertile soil is infested by myriads of microscopic organisms peculiar to it and without which its various chemical purposes could not be carried on. Adametz has calculated that a single grain of fertile soil contains 50,000 germs of various kinds. These germs aid in the formation of plant foods by assisting in breaking down the soil particles and hastening the decay of organic materials. Three factors of soil life must be cared for if fertility is to be secured, (1) soil physics; (2) soil chemistry, and, (3) development of germ life and germ activity.
The soil contains a vast amount of plant food. It has been calculated by many analyses, that on average agricultural lands the surface, 8 inches on each acre, contains over 3,000 pounds of nitrogen, almost 4,000 pounds of phos- phoric acid, and over 1,700 pounds of potash. The farmer considers chiefly these three elements in maintaining or increasing productivity. This plant food is developed in proportion to the excellence of the tillage.
The soil is indeed a wonderful agency, a mixture of physical and chemical forces and a full complete life within itself. As Mr. Bailey says, "It must no longer be thought of as mere dirt."
THE SOIL OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
The soil of this county has not as yet been worked by the Bureau of Soils, so our knowledge of it is not so great as in the adjoining counties of Winnebago and Jo Daviess. Its eastern half is very largely Marshall and Miami silt loam, the former being found on prairie and the latter on timber areas. In those localities where the surface soil is the product of the disintegration of the Cin- cinnati shale, as in the southern part of Erin Township and the immediate vicin- ity, we have our poorest soil. This being a locality of little glaciation, the soil is of fine granulation and inclined to "bake," as it is technically called. This soil is also quite badly exhausted of its humus, and needs large additions of or- ganic matter.
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
Most of the land in Harlem, Erin, Jefferson, and the northen part of Flor- ence Township is rolling to a marked degree and thinly covered with glacial material. Indeed, the northern slopes and the tops of the hills are in many places almost entirely denuded of soil. Here weathering is producing a soil which, if underlaid by limestone, is fairly productive, and would be exceedingly so if it had a deeper subsoil, for it is sure to be sweet, and rich in mineral plant food. Some of these residual soils are red in color, owing to the presence of oxide of iron, and loose in texture, owing to the presence of sand, for the lime has slaked away, leaving these iron silicates more abundant than in our glacial soil. The amount of slaking resulting in the lowering of the crest of the hill can be judged by the number of flinty fragments present. These are the remains of the chirty layers between the former strata of the limestone. These spots are marked by finer crop growth in the spring, owing to their open texture and freedom from acidity, affording a favorable field for soil bacteria, but later the crop is cut short because of want of depth in the soil.
North of Freeport, largely in Harlem and to some extent in Lancaster Town- ship, is located a strip of sandy soil three or four square miles in area, which is evidently a dump or out-wash of the glacier, composed of soil from the St. Peter's formation of Wisconsin. This soil does not retain the fertilizers ap plied as well as does most of Stephenson County land, and tends to leach out again quickly. In the northwestern part of the county, including West Point and Winslow, with part of Kent, is a fine fertile soil, largely prairie, and yield- ing fine crops of corn, oats, wheat, and hay. Although lying along the western boundary of the glacial lobe, this land is level enough to prevent heavy loss by erosion, and in consequence is blacker than the south central part of the county.
Along the Pecatonica River in Winslow, Waddams, Harlem, Lancaster, Sil- ver Creek, and Ridott lie wide stretches of alluvial lands of great fertility, the upper benches of which yield large crops of corn, while the lower levels suffer in times of high water, both in consequence of actual overflow, and also in the attempts of owners to farm when the land has been too wet. This has resulted in great deterioration in the physical condition of the land. Here is a great op- portunity for conservation of resources, for by cooperation or by government help the water could be held out by dyking, and hundreds of acres of the best land in the county reclaimed. The same is true in a lesser degree of the valley of the Yellow Creek. Where there is fall enough for proper outlet, tiling has been or is being done, to the great improvement of these lands. In the northern third of Ridott Township is a light, gray soil on ground formerly covered by oak timber, that is rather too thin and light for corn, as it tends to dry out in Au- gust and September. Moderate crops of grain and hay are raised here, but the soil washes easily and cannot be heavily manured.
As the land immediately to the north of us from which our drift material came, had but lately emerged from the Silurian seas, and had not as yet pro- duced terrestrial life to any large extent, our glaciation was rich in marine and poor in animal remains. Hence, as shells produce the carbonate and bones the phosphate of lime, the former predominates in our soil to a greater extent than in the counties to the east of us. So the limiting factor of our soils is phos-
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
phorus, an element which is fast being exhausted on our most productive farms. Potash we have in abundance, as the Azoic or crystalline rocks of the Lake Superior region as found in the drift are rich in potassium. Another peculiarity of our drift is that it is almost wholly composed of till or stiff clay, and not nearly so sandy and friable as farther east and north. This renders much of the mineral plant food unavailable, and leads to washing, but these soils respond to good treatment and are capable of great productiveness when skilfully handled, because owing to their heaviness large amounts of straw and other coarse organic matter can be plowed in without danger of drying out.
In the center of Lancaster and in Rock Grove Townships are bodies of silt loam that were formerly elm, walnut, and ash timber. This land when well farmed will equal the Marshall silts of Ridott or Silver Creek in corn and ex- ceed them in small grain production, but require more skill to conserve the moisture and prevent erosion. Clover, both medium and alsike, grow readily, and offer the farmers an opportunity to replace their lost nitrogen at little ex- pense. Experimental tracts of alfalfa do well, and will be easier to start when the farmers understand the innoculation of the soil better. Much damage to the soil of the county has resulted from defective methods, among which may be mentioned shallow plowing, the burning of organic matter, as corn stalks, straw, and leaves, fall plowing on rolling land, working land when too wet, failure to rotate crops, failure to sow clover, hard pasturing of stubble fields, and many others. The worst of all is the penuriousness of the absent landlord who rents from year to year for money rent.
SOIL.
When we trace life and all its concomitants back to their origin we come to the soil for therein grow the roots of the plants that feed the world. This soil is comprised of several elementary substances, the principles ones of which are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, iron, calcium, magnesium, so- dium, phosphorus and potassium.
The first four constitute by far the larger bulk of all plant food but the others are equally essential. The limiting elements in all soil, that is those that are likely to be deficient in quantity, are nitrogen, phosphorus or potas- sium. The former, the farmer can buy at 15 cents per pound in nitrole of soda or raise it in clover at a nominal cost of I cent per pound. Owing to the great amount of feldspathic rock in our glaciation potassium will never give out in the life of this generation. This reduces the limiting element to phosphorus- which element is constantly sold off the farm in a greater degree if grain is sold and to a lesser degree if animal products are marketed. Many of the soils of this county are infertile because of an acidity which presents the proper development of soil bacteria, which introduces a new feature in soil study.
Nitrogen enters into all plant food as nitrates of the other elements as sodium, potassium, etc. This nitrifying of the crude soil elements, which in the ground are generally oxides and silicates, is the work of certain minute plants so called though they very strongly resemble animals in many parts, called bacteria. These must be present in any soil in enormous number to make a soil fertile and oxi-
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
gen breathing. So an open loose soil is necessary to growth, hence watering on the surface during a time of drouth without a frequent subsequent stirring of the soil is detrimental in consequence of the fact that a crust is formed, but if shallow plowing is done, ditches are allowed to form and hay and straw as well as grain are sold, then the black soil grows less and finally disappears. Then we have a soil that is unproductive and in which bacteria are helpless, and the moisture can not be retained during the period of drouth.
Some of our soils, especially along the western side, where glaciation was thin are formed of slaked limestone. These are never sour and although quite red and lacking in humus are friable and very fertile but generally fail to pro- duce as much at harvest as they promised in the spring because of the nearness to rock and lack of a stiff subsoil. This kind of red clay with cherty flints in it is called residua and is formed by the slaking of the limestone, leaving the sand, iron (which oxidizing colors it red) and the flints that are the cherty white layers that separated the strata in the rock before its disintegration.
Soils that produced walnut, elm or maple far exceed those that bore oak and poplar in fertility. The presence of hazel on land is a good sign, while the ad- vent of certain weeds indicate a loss of nitrogen most marked of which is the horse sorrel (Rumex Acetosella). This plant springs up in old timothy mead- ows when they have exhausted the nitrates.
Besides the reclamation of overflow lands, to which allusion has already been made, other things remain to be done for the conservation of our resources and the prevention of the loss of our present fertility, among which are : The pur- chase of rock phosphate to replace the loss of phosphorus of which mention has been made; better cultivation, to allow aeration of the soil and by means of a dust mulch to conserve the moisture until it is needed; proper rotation is also essential, as it is evident that in the selection of plant food the plant leaves in the soil something toxic to itself that is of no injury to other plants so the more perfect the rotation and the oftener the return to some leguminaceus plant, as clover, and the more thorough the cultivation before and after planting the greater will be the return in dollars and cents to the agriculturist. And the greater the prosperity of the farmer the greater that of everybody.
WELLS AND WATER SUPPLY.
.The rock surface of Stephenson County is for the most part covered with glacial drift. This deposit of clays, alluvium, loess, sands, gravel and silt has an average depth of 32 1-3 feet. The drift is not thick enough to conceal the main preglacial valleys. In these old valleys and in ridges, eskers and knolls, the drift is often over 100 feet in depth. In such places the drift affords a sufficient water supply.
A large number of wells in the county reach down into Galena limestone. A few of the deeper wells pass through Galena limestone and find their water supply in the St. Peter's sandstone, which, at Freeport, is 110 to 130 feet below the Pecatonica flood plain. The Baier and Ohlendorf well is 186 feet deep, and draws its supply from St. Peter's sandstone. It passed through 86 feet of drift. The Stover Manufacturing Company has a well through 100 feet of
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
drift into St. Peter's sandstone. A well at the vinegar works penetrated 85 , feet of drift. Wells in East Freeport 30 to 50 feet in depth do not reach the Galena limestone.
The following wells will give an idea of the depth of drift and its value as a source of water supply in different localities :
Sec. 12 T 26 R7E depth 100 feet. Drift. 98 feet.
Sec. 14 T 26 R7E depth 100 feet. Drift 100 feet.
Sec 12 T 26 R7E depth 192 feet. Drift. 17 feet.
Sec. 14 T 26 R7E depth 248 feet. Drift 65 feet.
Sec. 36 T 26 R7E depth 186 feet. Drift. 46 feet.
St. Peter's sandstone is a good source of water supply. The principal in- take of this formation is in southern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota. The principal source of our water supply is in the cranberry marshes of Wis- consin where the St. Peter's and Potsdam sandstones outcrop. There in twenty counties in large part, the water is near the surface, and is absorbed by the sandy soil. The tilt of the sandstones is in this direction, being about 150 feet below the surface here. The water filters its way down into this county and rises through faults and crevices in the Trenton limestone, especially the Galena. The quality of the water is good, and its quantity copious. The up- per Trenton or Galena limestone is a magnesian limestone of more porous char- acter and yields an abundance of good water, but is occasionally highly charged with hydrogen sulphide, which renders it disagreeable to the taste and lim- its its use as a potable water. The Freeport Water Company gets its supply from wells in the drift along the Pecatonica and from deep wells 65 feet into St. Peter's sandstone. The wells are 201 feet deep, passing through 100 feet of the Trenton limestone, the Galena, the Blue and the Buff.
In 1895, the water of the Freeport Water Company acquired a bad taste and odor. After considerable investigation, Supt. O. T. Smith discovered that the cause was. a growth of floating matter in the mains, known as well thread or Crenothix Kuhmiana. Mr. Smith also found that such growth required about 30% per million of iron solution in the water. The only remedy was to prohibit the growth by reducing the amount of iron in the water. The com- pany then put in a filter plant, in which lime water, two to four grains of lime per gallon, was used. In an address before the 24th annual meeting of the American Water Works Association at St. Louis, June, 1904, Supt. Smith stated that the result of the filter plant was that the iron was reduced to an average of about .04 parts per million, while the carbonic acid gas was re- moved and the water softened 13 to 15%. In six months the growth in the mains had absolutely stopped.
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FOSSILS OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
A fossil is any evidence of the former existence of a living being. Strati- fied rocks are sediments accumulated in ancient seas, lakes, deltas, etc. Shells were imbedded in the shore deposits. Leaves, logs" and bones of land animals were swept into swamps and buried in mud. Tracks were formed on muddy
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
shores by animals. These marks, shells logs, etc., have been preserved in stratified rocks.
In the Niagara limestones at Waddams, are found the Cyathophyllum, two or three species of Favosites and some imperfect Halysites. In the Cincinnati limestones of this county, but few fossils are found. Near Loran are found the Orthis Testitudinaria and the Orthis Occidentalis. In the Galena limestone is found the characteristic Receptaculites Oweni, commonly called "lead blos- som" and "Sunflower Coral." This fossil is found in large numbers at Cedar- ville and Freeport. It crumbles readily and good specimens are difficult to secure. Receptaculites orbicularis is also found in the Freeport quarry. The fossils most commonly found are species of Murchisonia, Orthocera, Orthis, Plentomaria, small Bellerophons and Ambonychia. Some of the thin shaly strata of the blue limestone are full of small sized Orthis. Fragmentary stems of encrinites are found. A specimen of Receptaculites Oweni was found in the blue limestone at Rock Run bridge. Many well preserved casts of fossils are found in the Buff limestone: Pleurotomaria subconica ; Orthoceras, five or six inches in diameter, and some six feet long; Oncoceras pandion ; two species of Tellinomya.
Hershey collected the following loess fossils which were identified by Dr. W. H. Dall of the United States Geological Survey: Vallonia Costata Mull; Vallonia perspectiva Sterki; Zonotoides arboreus; Vitrea hammonis; Indentata ; Pyramidula Alternata; Pyramidula Striatella; Helicodiscus lineatus; Polygyra hirsita ; Strobilops virgo; Bifidaria Contracta ; Bifidaria Corticaria ; Bifidaria Ar- mifera; Bifidaria holzingera; Vertigo tridentata; Succinea avara; Carychium exiguum; Carychium exiguum; Carychium exile. All the above are Terristial species. The following are Fluviatile species (gill bearing) : Pleurocera subu- late; Campeloma decisa; Bytliinella termipes; Armicola Cincinnattiensis; Arn- nicola porata ; Somatagyrus depressus; Valvata tricarinata.
The Fluviatile bivalves (some occasionally in ponds) ; Pissidium compressum ; Pissidium Cruciatum; Pissidium fallax; Pissidium punctatum; Pissidium Vari- able; Pissidium risginicum ; Pissidium walkeri ; Spaerium starninaeum ; Sphaerium striatinum; Sphaerium simile; Sphaerium solidulum. Of the pond species, ait breathing (some Fluviatile) : Planobis parous; Planobis bicarinatus; Physa he- terostropha ; Segmentina armigera; Limnaea humilis; Ancylus tardus; Ancylus rivularis; Ancylus parallelus.
SUMMARY.
Quaternary Deposits .- The Quarternary deposits cover the county to an aver- age depth of 32 1/3 feet. Along the narrow bottoms of the Pocatonica there is a strip of Alluvium proper. In places it is two miles in width. Alluvium is also noticeable along Yellow Creek and some of the smaller streams. Along some of the hills and bluffs there is to be found the loess marls. The Alluvium and the loess are found in small quantities, the main part of the superficial detritus consisting of sands, silt, clays and gravels of the drift period.
Where the rock surface is near the top of the ground, a part of the deposit is of the nature of the underlying rock. In such cases after passing through
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HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY
the black soil, there is a clayey subsoil, then reddish brown clay, mixed with flints and pieces of cherty limestone, then clay and limestone in regular stratifica- tion, the limestone becoming more regular, thicker and harder in the descent till solid rock is reached. The clays above the Cincinnati shales are of chocolate color, finer in texture and freer from sand. These are evidently residuary soils.
The county, however, is practically overlaid by the work of the ice sheets of the drift period. The prairies north and east of Waddams Grove are marked by numberless boulders, some black, some flame colored and others combining the colors of metamorphic rock. Many of these boulders are beautiful and many colored. These boulders were torn out by the ice sheets in Wisconsin or in Canada, and carried along, being finally deposited here. Elsewhere are to be found the silt deposits, the eskers, and boulder clays above described.
NIAGARA LIMESTONE.
The Niagara limestone is found only in the western and southwestern part of county. It, no doubt, at one time covered a large part of the county but was broken up and carried southward by the great ice sheets. Waddams Grove, a high tract of land two or three miles long and a mile or two wide, is capped by the Niagara formation. Here quarries have been worked twenty-five feet deep, into the Cincinnati shales. The top layers of Niagara are thick, irregular, speck- led and porous, but the bottom layers are compact and solid. A slender, rotten fossil, Cyathofillum, was found in these quarries.
Niagara also outcrops in the southwestern part of the county. It is the under- lying for most of that part of the county, south of Yellow Creek and west of the Illinois Central Railroad. Small streams flowing into Yellow Creek cut through Niagara into the Cincinnati shales. At Big Springs, in LaShell Hollow, consid- erable Niagara stone has been quarried. Quantities of some of the rougher Niagara corals are found strewn over the hills about Loran. These are Favosites and Halysites.
THE CINCINNATI LIMESTONES.
The Cincinnati limestones are found just beneath the Niagara at Waddams, and is about 40 feet thick. Eleroy hill is covered by the Cincinnati layers. Here a quarry outcrop is over 40 feet deep. The Catholic church is built out of the stone of this quarry. On the north side there is a bold and steep escapment, a marked feature of the landscape. The hills about the village of Loran are covered to their tops by this formation. Many quarries are opened in the face of the hills and fair building stone is secured. Like the Niagara, a large part of the Cincin- nati was eroded and carried away by the ice sheets. Just north of Baileyville, Crane's Grove, occupying several sections, is underlaid by Cincinnati. Quarries afford foundation stone. About Loran the fossils Orthis testutdinaria and Or- this Occidentalis are found.
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