History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois, Part 2

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Globe Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 704

USA > Illinois > Clay County > History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois > Part 2
USA > Illinois > Wayne County > History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois > Part 2

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investigation of everything, immediate and remote, that can possibly bear upon the sub- ject, and still he doubts, or leaves room for possible doubts. The empiric is always very positive, and he loves to tell you how he hates a man who has no positive opinions. Educated empiricism may be a little better than downright ignorance, but it is not much, and mankind as yet has produced lit- tle else. It is said that the newspapers, the stump speakers, and the widespread discus- sions of political questions that precede our elections, make the best posted people on questions of political economy in the world. Is this true? There is no question but that Washington and his compatriots left us the best government in the world, and there is just as little question but that we have allowed it to retrograde to some extent. If this is true, it is a marvelous fact, an amaz- ing commentary upon our boasted civiliza- tion, a biting irony upon the election and Fourth of July hulabaloos that do so abound and are so like the plunging Niagara.

Last summer we dropped in for an honr and Listened to the proceedings of a teacher's institute. There were present 100 teachers. and we understood they were being taught how to teach school, how to teach the best possible school and in the best way. During the hour we were present, there was a teacher at the black-board, and he was elucidating the subject of the "Equation of Payments," when probably not a teacher present nor a single future pupil of any of them, no mat- ter what his business in life might be. would ever have a single occasion to use the rule or anything connected with it, except in case he or she should become a school teacher. Years and years are spent in the school room in this way, and not porhaps a graduate who could return to his father's farm and pick up a clod of earth, and give you any idea at all

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

about it. And yet in that simple clod are the destinies of all mankind and knowledge that is of endless and immeasurable value. Some gentlemen once applied to Agassiz for in- formation upon the subject of how to breed the best horse. " It is a question of rocks," was his sententious reply. The learned Professor was right. He knew the soil came from the rocks, and certain kind of rocks would produce a certain kind of vegetable growth and water, and that this determined not only the kind of horses that it would eventually produce, but the kind of people. In short, that he who understands the rocks and the soil will not only be the best farmer in the world, but he can tell the kind and quality of civilization it will eventually pro- duce and sustain. There is no witchery about this, but it is the simple result of knowledge, being really educated upon one of the most practical and important subjects of life. The proper teacher can soon teach the children of his school the necessary ele- ments of geology and botany, so that they would make men and women who would place farm life where it should be, in the front rank of social existence; take it out of what it now mostly is, a life of dull drudgery and poorly paid toil. The agricultural people should possess a full share of the world's wealth-an abundance to give them the ease and leisure for education, travel, culture and refinement that would make it the most invit- ing and enviable position in life. The pres- ent state of affairs is the result of mistakes in education, and a false political economy that enslaves and cruelly oppresses. Suppose that for the mostly foolish, if not silly, ques- tions that are now required to be answered by the School Superintendents, and which all applicants to teach school are required to be able to answer before they can get a certifi- cate to teach, there were substituted a few

common sense questions upon practical sub-

jects of life. For instance: Tell us about the rocks in the county; and certain rocks given, what kind of soil do they make? And what the plant food they give, and about the water? When cer- tain vegetation is seen, what kind of a soil does it indicate? An intelligent answer to these questions would indicate that the teacher could be able to take your children and ramble through the woods (to their in- finite delight and permanent benefit), and in the flowers, the trees, and babbling brooks, gather lessons they would never forget-that would be of inestimable value to them. Any ordinarily intelligent child can readily, be taught such lessons as these, and understand it much better than they can the "rule of three," or any rule of the English grammar. But it must be taught by a teacher who could do more than is now required of teachers in the school room, namely, to make the child memorize its lessons, and when this is done enough, give him a diploma and pronounce his education complete.

When we come to give an [account of the schools of the county, we may then take occasion to more specifically point out the faults that have found their way into, and permanent lodgment in the school systems. We only wish here to point out the importance of an un- derstanding of the geology of your immediate locality at least. or of that part of the geology that bears its vital and practical lessons of wisdom, and results in benefits to all man- kind. If our views upon the subject are at all correct, are we not right in saying that the chapter on the topography and geology of the county should be recognized by the reader as being one of the most important chapters in the book?

The world's history going back through

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

its millions, probably billions of years, of ex- istence, is written in the rocks to be read and interpreted with almost unerring accuracy. At one time it was so hot that everything in the world was not only melted, but fused into the original gases-the sixty-one element- ary substances which variously combining, produce every form and quality of existence. The simplest designation of the rocks are the stratified and the unstratified. The un- stratified are called igneous rocks, because they have been melted by intense heat and occur in irregular masses. The desintegra- tion of the elements carried a sediment from these igneous rocks, and the waters carried these into the earth's depressions, and here it settled in parallel layers and thus formed the stratified rocks. This process of building the stratified rocks commenced upon the earth's first surface and extended upward. In the silent depths of the stratified rocks are the former creation of plants and animals, which lived and died during the slow, drag- ging ages of their formation. These fossil remains are fragments of history which enable us to extend our researches into the past, and determine their modes of life. We find that such has been the profusion of life that the great limestone formations of the globe consist mostly of animal remains cemented by the infusion of mineral matter. A large part of the soil spread over the earth's surface has been elaborated in animal organisms. First, as nourishment, it enters the structure of plants and forms vegetable tissue. Passing thence as food into the ani- mal, it becomes endowed with life, and when death occurs, it returns to the soil and im- parts to it additional elements of fertility.

Wayne County forms the dividing line between the heavily timbered belt of Southern Illinois and the great prairie ranges of the central and northern parts of the State. The

true prairie is found here, but in small patches, and their whole extent in the county is only about twenty per cent of the area. How these prairies have been formed has long been one of the most interesting ques- tions for discussion among the scientific men of the country. Gov. Reynolds in his his- tory tells us how the caravan with which he came to Illinois was impressed with the view when the people first looked out upon the broad and undulating prairie, with its tall waving grass like the gentle roll of the waves of a great sea. He then proceeds to summarily settle these questions by saying there is no doubt but that they were formed by the annual fires that swept over the tall grass and burned up the young timber in its attempts to grow out over the prairies from all the edges of the timber. He thinks this is well demonstrated by the fact that since the fires have been subdued the timber has been rapidly encroaching upon the prairies. The "old ranger" was mistaken. There has been no extension of the timber where it has been left to nature's forces. There are two theories that find advocates, one con- tending that the amount of rainfall deter- mines the question of the growth of timber. and that always where there is the greatest rainfall there is always the heaviest timber growth. According to the other view, prairies are at present in process of formation along the shores of lakes and rivers. During freshets and in flowing rivers, the center of the stream is always the highest and the heaviest particles carried in the waters are deposted at the outer edges of the channel, and thus by repeated deposts the banks are formed and are elevated above the floods. These natural levees, when sufficiently high, are overgrown with timber, and inclose large areas of bottom land back from the river and form sloughs frequently of great extent. The

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

shallow and stagnant waters are first invaded by mosses and other aquatic plants which grow under the surface and contain in their tissues lime, alumina and silica, the constit- ments of clay. They also subsist immense numbers of small mollusks and other diminu- tive creatures, and the constant decomposi- tion of vegetables and animals forms a stratum of clay corresponding with that which under- lies the finished prairies. As the marshy bot- toms are by this means built up to the sur- face of the water, the mosses are then inter- mixed with coarse grasses, which become more and more abundant as the depth dimin ishes. These reedy plants, now rising above the surface, absorb and decompose the car- bonie gas of the atmosphere and convert it into woody matter, which at first forms a clayey mold, and afterward the black mold of the prairie. The same agencies now operat- ing in the ponds skirting the banks of rivers, originally formed all the prairies of the Mis sissippi Valley. The present want of hori- zontality in some of them is due to the ero- sive action of water. The drainage, moving in the direction of the creeks and rivers, at length furrowed } the surface with tortuous meanders, resulting finally in the present undulating or rolling prairies. The absence of trees, the most remarkable feature, is attributable first to the formation of ulmic acid, which favors the growth of herbaceous plants, and retards that of forests ; secondly, trees absorb by their roots large quantities of air, which they cannot obtain when the sur- face is under water or covered by a compact soil or sod; and, thirdly, they require solid points of attachment which marshy flats are unable to furnish. When, however. they become dry and the sod is broken by the plow, they may then only produce trees, but not otherwise.

This is a mere statement of the different

theories upon the subject of the formation of prairies, without any effort to give the argu- ments upon which either are based. So far as the writer now remembers, the discussion was commenced about twenty-five years ago by Judge Walter B. Scates, of this State, and has since been taken up and carried on by some of the most eminent scientists of the country. The discussion is interesting and full of facts and valuable information.

The surface of the county is generally rolling, and elevated from 50 to 100 feet above the bed of the streams. The bottoms on Skillet Fork and Little Wabash are rather low and flat, and are heavily timbered. The geological features are very similar to those of Wabash and Edwards, the drift deposits and the upper coal measures being the only formations exposed. In the southern portion of the county, the drift clays seldom exceed a thickness of fifteen to twenty feet, and in sinking wells the bed-rock is often found at a depth of ten or twelve feet below the surface. Toward the northern boundary of the county they are somewhat heavier, and on Elm Creek there are bluffs thirty feet or more in height that seem to be composed entirely of drift. Here the lower portion consists of the bluish-gray hard-pan, where it is sometimes found from fifty to seventy-five feet or more in thickness. The upper portion of these superficial deposits may be represented along the bluffs of the Little Wabash by a few feet of loess, but generally it consists of yellowish- brown gravelly clays and sands with numer- ous rounded pebbles, and occasionally bowl- ders, of metamorphic rock, of moderate size, Locally, the gravelly clays are tinged with a reddish-brown color, with the red oxide of iron, derived probably from the decomposi- tion of a ferruginous sandstone that forms the bed-rock in many places in the southern part of the county. The undulations of the

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

surface often take the form of long ridges from thirty to forty feet in height, with a direction nearly parallel with the course of the streams. These ridges usually have a nucleus of sandstone or shale, but their sides are so gently sloping, and the drift clay cov- ers then so evenly that the bed-rock is seldom exposed to view. The streams are sluggish, and meander through wide, flat valleys, sel- dom showing any outcrop of the bed-rock along their courses. This renders the con- struction of continuous sections very difficult, and the determination of the true sequence of the strata can only be made in a general way by the examination of isolated outcrops.

Coal Measures .- At the iron bridge on the Little Wabash, on the stage road from Fair- field to Albion, the following section is to be seen on the east bank of the stream:

FEET

Sandstone, partly in regular beds and partly massive . 25

Pebbly conglomerate, with fragments of coal and mineral charcoal. 2 to 4

Black laminated shale, with concretions of bituminous limestone. 3

Dove-colored clay shale, with fossil ferns. . . . 2 to 3 Shaly sandstone appearing some distance be- low. .3 to 4

No fossils are found here that would ena- ble us to fix the horizon of these beds, but they present nearly the same lithological characters as the outerop at Hamiaker's old mill on the Boupas, in Edwards County. At Beech Bluff, three or four miles above the bridge, the sandstone is more massive and extends to the river level, showing no out- crop of the underlying beds.

At Massillon, on the west bank of the Lit- tle Wabash, on the northwest quarter of Section 15, Town 1 south, Range 9 east, the bluff is composed mainly of sandstone and sandy shale, with a few feet of argillaceous shales near the river level, containing several bands of clay iron ore. This outcrop seems

to be identical with that at the old ford three miles above, in Edwards County, and it is quite probable the thin coal found there is a little below the river bed. A thin coal is found here in the sandstone some twenty feet or more above the river level; but it is prob- ably only a local deposit, or pocket, such as may be frequently met with in the sandstones of the coal measures.

Mill Shoals is situated on the Skillet Fork, just over the line in White County, but the section made in this vicinity is partly in Wayne, and is as follows:

Sandstone in thin beds, partial exposure of FEET.

about 6

Bituminous shale, with streak of impure coal near the top. 2} to 3

Sandstone and sandy shale. 40

to 50

Space unexposed. 15 to 20

Hard, shaly sandstone in the bank of Skillet Fork .. 3 to 4

llard, blaek laminated shale, passing lo- cally into clay shale. 6 to

Shale with a thin coal. 2 to

llard-grained limestone withont fossils .. 2 to 3

Greenish, pebbly shale. 2

Sandy shale. 1

The three upper beds in the foregoing sec- tion are found in Wayne County, about three- quarters of a mile northeast of Fairfield. Prof. Cox reports a section six miles south- east of Fairfield which seems to be nearly a repetition of that at Mill Shoals, as follows:

FEET.

Yellow elay and drift. 15

Sandstone, and locally some shale. 45

Gray silicious shale. 10

Thin coal 0

Limestone without fossils 2

These two sections will give a general idea of the prevailing character of the rocks in the south part of Wayne County. The fol- lowing is a section of a well bored for oil by Maj. Collins on Section 25, of Township 2, Range 7 :

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

FEET.

Soil and subsoil.

Sandstone.

Slate (shale?).

Coal ..

Clay and blue shale.

Hard, gritty rock.

IIard yellow rock.

Hard sandstone.

8 to 10

Dark slate (shale?)

White sandstone.

Black shale.

Total.

206

Reports have gone ont from this county, as they have frequently from other counties, of the discovery of oil wells. These are to be taken with due allowance, in consideration of the fact that the persons having the work in charge were seldom qualified to determine the true character of the beds through which their drill was passing, and we see in the above section that no attempt was made to define the character of two beds of hard rock, while the beds denominated slates were prob- ably shale, with possibly a thin bed of slate intercalated therein. In this way bituminous slate is often mistaken for coal, and where the substance is reduced to an impalpable powder by the drill no one but an expert can fully determine the one from the other by the material brought up in the sand pump. At Mr. Black's place, about two miles north- west of Fairfield, there is an outcrop of hard, dark bluish-gray limestone weathering to a buff color, which is overlaid by a clay shale, with a thin coal or bituminous shale inter- calated therein, as indicated by a streak of smutty material, to be seen a few feet above the limestone. A thin coal, sometimes as much as eighteen inches in thickness, occurs at an- other locality under a limestone similar to this, and the same may be possibly found here by digging a few feet below the rock. The limestone has been quarried here as well as on the adjoining farm for building stone and

for lime, and ranges from two to three feet in thickness.

On Mr. J. H. Thomas' place, on Section 7, Township 1 south, Range 8 east, a thin coal has been found below a limestone sim- ilar to that above mentioned. The coal was opened a few years since by sinking a shaft some fifteen or twenty feet in depth, and the coal is reported to have been eighteen inches thick, and the limestone two feet. The shaly portion of the limestone contained a few fos- sils, among which we identified Orthis peeosi, Spirifer cameratus, Chonetes vernenilianus and Lophophillum proliferum.

On Mr. E. Pilcher's land, in Section 20 of the same township, a bed of black shale crops out on a hillside, at an elevation consider- ably above the coal shaft above mentioned, and was penetrated to the depth of fifteen feet in search of coal, but without finding it. On the opposite side of the hill and below the level of the 'black shale, a calcareo- silicious rock has been quarried for building stone. It has a slaty structure, and is filled with fragments of broken plants, and appears to be the exact equivalent of the arenaceous limestone found at Mr. Boden's place two miles and a half south of Flora. The bitu- minous shale at Mr. Pilcher's place contains rounded bowlders of black limestone that weathers to a bluish dove color, and similar concretions were seen at the exposure south of Flora, which leaves no reasonable doubt of the identity of the beds at these points. A short distance south of Mr. Pilcher's land, limestone | was formerly quarried for lime. burning, but the outcrop is now covered up. The relative position of the beds above de- scribed is represented by the following sec- tion :

FEET.

Bituminous shale, with concretion of black

limestone. . 15 to 20

Shale partly exposed. 10 to 15

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

Slaty arenacious limestone with broken plants. 2, to 4

Dark limestone .. 2

Shale (thickness not determined). 0

1 Coal

On Mrs. Williams' place on northwest quar- ter of Section 29, Town 1 south, Range 7 east, about seven miles northwest of Fairfield, there is an outcrop of 15 to 20 feet of sandy and argillaceous shale, containing numerous bands of kidney iron ore of good quality. A thin coal has been passed through in digging wells in this neighborhood, and either under- lies these shales or is intercalated in them. This outerop closely resembles those at the McDaniel place, near the north line of the county, hereafter to be mentioned, and the well water in this neighborhood is impreg- nated with epsom salts, like wells and springs in the locality above mentioned. Between this locality and Fairfield, and about three miles a little north of west from the town, an. even-bedded sandstone is quarried for building purposes, similar to that at Hoag's qnarry north of Xenia. This sandstone probably underlies the shale outcropping at the Williams place, three or four miles to the westward, and the coal there is probably a local deposit.

On Section 21, Town 2 north, Range 6 east, in the bluffs of Bear Creek, near the north line of the county, a massive sandstone outcrops for a long distance along the course of the stream, in perpendicular cliffs from twenty to thirty feet in height. This sand- stone was struck in the boring at Flora, at the depth of about sixty feet, and was pene- trated to the depth of about eighty-four feet. The outcrops on Bear Creek probably repre- sent only the lower portion of the bed.

On Section 27, Town 2 north, Range 6 east, argillaceous and sandy shales with bauds of kidney iron ore crop out in the slopes of hills at various points, showing an aggregate

thickness of twenty feet or more, with a bi- tuminous shale or impure coal at the top of the exposure. A well sunk here struck a vein of water at the depth of twenty-two feet so strong that it soon rose to the surface, and has been flowing ever since. It has a strong taste of epsom salts, and produces an effect similar to that drug upon those who use it. At Eli McDaniel's place adjoining the above, a spring of the same kind of water is found, somewhat stronger in mineral properties than that in the well. The water here seems to derive its mineral properties from the bed of argillaceous slate which forms the bed rock in this vicinity, as the wells sunk in the over- lying sandstone afford pure water. The fol- lowing additional notes and sections are re- ported by Prof. Cox in this county: " At Lib- erty they pass through sandstone in digging wells from ten to forty feet, and obtain pure water. On Section 30, Town 2, Range 7, limestone is obtained for building and for lime bed three feet thick, upper part shaly contains Productus longispinus, Machrohei- lus primigenius, Athyris subtilita, Produc- tus costatus, and joints of Crinoidea. The same limestone is exposed at Whittaker's, on Section 25, of Town 2, Range 7. A thin coal is usually found beneath the limestone, and impure coal or bituminous shale is fre- quently seen in the shales above it. Clay iron ore occurs in a grayish shale, seven miles north of Fairfield, exposed by a wash on the hillside. On Section 34, Town 1 south, Range 9 east, the following beds are seen:

F.T.

IN.

Heavy beaded sandstone

Arenaceous shale.

10 0

Black slaty shale

Pyritiferous shale, with fragments of shells 10

Fire clay (good quality).

Clay shale. 0)

Shaly sandstone in river bed 2

From the foregoing sections and remarks,

HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.

it will be seen that there is but little divers- ity in the character of the rocks exposed in this county. They probably represent a thickness of 175 feet to 200 feet or more, com- prising mainly sandstone and shales, most of which decompose readily on exposure, and are therefore seldom found in bold outcrops.

Building Słone. - Sandstone of a fair qual- ity for building purposes, is tolerably abun- dant, and quarries have been opened in nearly every township in the county. Three miles a little southwest of Fairfield, an excellent sandstone is quarried on a small branch trib- utary to the Skillet Fork. The rock is in smooth, even layers, and resembles the sand- stone in Hoag's quarry, near Xenia. Along the Little Wabash, a heavy bedded sandstone is found throughout the course in the south- eastern part of the county, which, from the bold cliff it forms at many points along the bluff's of the stream. will no doubt afford a large amount of building material. Six miles southeast of Fairfield, a good flag. sandstone is quarried in large slabs six in- ches thick. Three and a half miles north of Jeffersonville, on Section 30, Town 1 north, Range 6 east, a grayish sandstone of good quality is quarried in large slabs from a foot to eighteen inches in thickness. A similar stone is also quarried by Mr. Philips, on Section 16, Town 1 north, Range 7 east. These are some of the most valuable quarries opened at the present time, but others equally good may be opened at various places in the county, as the wants of the people may re- quire. The; limestone over the eighteen- inch coal seam has been quarried at almost every spot where it outcrops, but the bed is thin and the supply to be obtained from it, without too great expense in stripping, is rather limited.

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History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois, Part 2

Author: Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Globe Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 704

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Globe Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 704