USA > Illinois > Clay County > History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois > Part 36
USA > Illinois > Wayne County > History of Wayne and Clay counties, Illinois > Part 36
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The Devonian age is distinguished for the introduction of vertebrates, or the fourth sub-kingdom of animal life, and the beginning of terrestrial vegetation. The latter appeared in two classes, the highest of the flowerless and the lowest of the flowering plants. The Lepidodendron, a noted instance of the former, was a majestic, upland forest tree, which, during the coal period, grew to a height of eighty feet, and had a base of more than three feet in diameter. Its description is quite poetical, and is as follows: Beauti- ful spiral flutings, coiling in opposite direc- tions and crossing each other at fixed angles,
290
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
carved the trunks and branches into rhom- boidal eminences, each of which was scarred with the mark of a falling leaf. At an alti- tude of sixty feet, it sent off arms, each sepa- rating into branchlets, covered with a needle- like foliage destitute of flowers. It grew, Lot by internal or external accretions, as plants of the present day, but, like the build- ing of a monument, by additions to the top of its trunk. Mosses, rushes and other diminutive flowerless plants are now the only representatives of this cryptogamic vegeta- tion, which so largely predominated in the early botany of the globe. Floral beauty and fragrance were not characteristic of the old Devonian woods. No bird existed to enliven their silent groves with song; no ser- pent to hiss in the fenny brakes, nor beast to pursue, with hideous yells, its panting prey.
The vertebrates consisted of fishes, of which the Glanoids and Placoids were the principal groups. The former were the fore- runners of the reptile, which in many re- spects they closely resemble. They embraced a large number of species, many of which grew to a gigantic size; but, with the excep- tion of the gar and sturgeon, they have no living representative. The Placoids, struct- urally formed for advancement, still remain among the highest types of the present seas. The shark, a noted instance, judging from its fossil remains, must have attained 100 feet in length. Both groups lived in the sea, and if any fresh water animals existed, their remains have either perished or not been found. So numerous were the inhabitants of the ocean, that the Devonian has been styled the age of fishes. In their anatomical struct- ure was foreshadowed the organization of man, reptiles, birds and mammals being the intermediate gradations.
The Carboniferous age opened with the
deposition of widely extended marine forma- tions. Added to the strata previously de- posited, the entire thickness in the region of the Alleghanies, now partially elevated, amounted to seven miles. The most promi- nent feature of the Carboniferous age was the formation of coal. Being carbonized vegetable tissue, the material furnished for this purpose was the vast forest accumula- tions peculiar to the period. The coal fields of Europe are estimated at 18,000 square miles, those of the United States at 150,000. In Illinois, three-fourths of the surface is underlaid by beds of coal, and the State con- sequently has a greater area than any other State in the Union. The entire carbonifer- ous system, including the coal beds and the intervening strata in Southern Illinois, is 27,000 feet in thickness and in the northern part only 500 feet.
The Reptilian age came next, and it is distinguished for changes in the continental borders, which generally ran within their present limits.
The Mammalian age witnessed the increase of the mass of the earth above the ocean's level threefold, and next in regular succes- sion was the age of Man, which commenced with the present geological conditions. These are the order of the earth's formation, or as it is sometimes called, its growth, sim- ply given to the time of the coming of man. Though the absolute time of his coming can- not be determined, he was doubtless an in- habitant of the earth many thousand years before he was sufficiently intelligent to pre- serve the record of his own history.
The present age still retains, in a dimin- ished degree of activity, the geological action we have briefly sketched. The oscillations of the earth's crust are still going on, perhaps as they ever have. As an evidence of this, it is a well-known fact that the coast of
291
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
Greenland on the western side, for a distance of 600 miles, has been slowly sinking for the past 400 years. Thus constantly have the bottoms of the ocean been lifted above the waters and the mountains sunk and became the beds of the sea. In the science of geolo- gy, this solid old earth and its fixed and supposed eternal mountains are as unstable as the waves upon the water.
Clay County embraces a surface area of about 466 square miles, and is bounded on the north by Effingham and Jasper Counties, on the east by Jasper and Richland, on the south by Wayne, and on the west by Marion and Fayette. The Little Wabash River runs diagonally across the county from northwest to southeast, and with afflu- ents -Elm Creek on the south and Muddy Creek on the northeast-drains nearly the whole of its area. The surface of the county is nearly equally divided into prairie and timber land, the latter forming wide belts along the streams, and the former occupying the highest areas between them. The differ- ence of level between the creek bottoms and the adjacent highland is not very great, probably nowhere exceeding fifty to seventy-five feet.
Locally the streams are bordered with pre- cipitous bluffs from forty to fifty feet in height, and at other points there is a grad- ually sloping surface from the bottoms up to the level to the adjacent prairie.
The bottoms along the Little Wabash vary in width from one to three miles, and are subject to overflow during the annual spring freshets, and hence have not been brought under cultivation, but are still covered with primeval forest of excellent timber. The alluvial soil of these bottoms is exceedingly rich, and if subdued and brought under cul- tivation would produce abundant crops of corn and all the cereals usually cultivated in this latitude.
Drift Deposits .- The uplands are covered with blue and yellow drift clays, ranging from ten to forty feet in thickness, and pos- sibly along the bluffs of some of the streams they may attain even a greater thickness than that above indicated. The surface of the bedrock was often eroded into valleys of con- siderable extend before the drift was deposit- ed, and being subsequently filled with these gravelly clays the deposit is not uniform, but is much thicker in some places than in others.
In the borings at Xenia and Flora, the bedrock was struck at the depth of thirteen or fourteen feet, and generally upon the prairie in sinking wells the drift clays and gravel beds are found to range from ten to twenty feet. In the bluffs at Elm Creek, south of Flora, and some other points in the county, they attain a thickness of thirty to forty feet. The upper part is generally a brown or buff gravelly clay, with occasional bowlders of a foot or two in diameter, and the lower part, where the deposit attains its greatest thickness, consists of bluish or ash gray clay, or hardpan, as it is usually de- nominated, from its being more compact and harder to penetrate than the brown clay above it. Bowlders of granite syenite, greenstone and quartzite are not uncommon, and occa- sionally nuggets of native copper and small specimens of galena are to be met with in these gravelly clays in this county.
Stratified Rocks .- The rock formation proper in this county all belong to the upper coal measures, and the only seam in this county that has been worked to any extent is No. 16 of the general section, and the high- est seam but one known in the State. There have been three borings made in the county, one at Xenia and two in the vicinity of Flora, but none of them were carried down far enough to reach the main workable coals of
292
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
the lower measures. The flax mill boring on the eastern edge of Flora is reported as fol- lows:
Feet. Inches.
Soil and drift clay 13
0
Sandy shale and gray sandstone. 47 0
Black shale and Coal No. 14. 3 0
Hard sandstone. 84 0
33
0
Bluish gray sandstone.
1
0
Blue shale. .
64
0
Hard rock.
1
0
Blue shale No. 12.
9
0
Sandstone 12
0
Blue Shale
14
6
Coal No. 11
4
0
Fire clay
0
6
Sandstone
15
0
Pebbly rock.
2
0
Shale .
2
6
Blue Sbale. ..
29
0
Micaceous sandstone.
4
0
White sandstone 4
1
0
Coal No. 10.
1
6
Fire Clay.
2
6
Sandstone.
11
6
Blue shale.
4
0
Sandstone.
2
0
Black shale.
15
0
Flint rock.
10
0
Soil and drift clay
13 0
Sandstone
40
0
Clay shale, soapstone.
7
0
Hard gray sandstone.
38
0
llard rock, probably sandstone. 3
0
Sandstone . 47
4
0
Impure limestone.
8
0
Limestone.
8
6
Clay shale, soapstone.
37 0
205 6
These borings commence at least forty or fifty feet below the coal and limestone north- west of Louisville, and were discontinued before reaching the horizon of any workable coal. The boring at Xenia was carried to the depth of 450 feet, passing through three thin coals, one of which was reported to be four feet thick. The following is the section of this boring as furnished by Capt. Dyer:
Feet. Inches.
Soil and drift.
14
0
Clay shale, soapstone. 92
0
Bluish gray sandstone. 31 0
Coal No. 13. 0
9
Crevice, probably soft fire clay 1
Clay shale, soapstone.
3
0
Limestone.
1
6
Conglomerate
3
0
Clay shale, soapstone.
3
0
6
Shale limestone.
7
3
192 9
A shaft was commenced near where this boring was made, and carried down to a depth of 115 felt, mainly through sandstone and sandy shale. The flow of water in the shaft was so strong as to seriously interfere with the prosecution of the work, and finally filled it to within about five feet of the sur- face of the ground, where it still remains. The shaft terminated in the heavy bed of Sandstone No. 4 of the preceding section. Another boring two miles to the westward of this, near the fair grounds, was reported as follows:
Feet. Inches.
23
0
Hard rock
4
0
Shale
11
0
Sandstone
7
0
Clay shale
6
0
Sandstone
14
0
Blue shale. 6
14
0
Gray sandstone.
444 9
So far as it is possible to correlate this section with what is known as the upper coal measure strata of Central Illinois, we are inclined to believe that the ten-foot bed of hard rock described in the boring as flint is the limestone of Shoal Creek and Carlinville, which is usually a very hard rock, and that the succeeding coals are 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the general section. The small coal outcrop- ping north of Hoag's quarries about two
0
Rock with few fossils.
Shale
0
0
Black shale.
6
Black shale.
Coal, No. 13.
& W. Westcott
295
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
miles, at Jacob Spiker's place, is probably No. 15. and the next succeeding seam would be the Nelson coal of Effingham County, which outcrops in this county about two miles northwest of Louisville, and at several points northwest of there in the bluffs of the Little Wabash and its tributaries, and will be more particularly described further on in this chapter.
One mile north of Xenia, a fine, evenly- bedded freestone is extensively quarried by Mr. Hoag. The rock is a rather fiue grained sandstone in even layers, from two inches to two feet in thickness, and can be easily quar- ried in large slabs. It is partly brown and partly of a bluish gray color, dresses freely and hardens after being taken from the quarry, and is the best building stone known in this portion of the State. The rock is as evenly-bedded as the magnesian limestone of Joliet, and the thin layers make good flag- stones, while the heavier beds afford a fine quality of cut-stone for ashlars, window- caps and sills, lintels, etc. A large quantity of this stone is furnished to the city of St. Louis, where it bears an excellent reputation as a superior building stone. About eight feet in thickness of this freestone is worked in this quarry. the heaviest beds ranging from one foot to thirty inches in thickness. This sandstone is overlaid in the vicinity of this quarry with twenty to twenty five feet of soft brown shale, with numerous bands of iron ore, closely resembling the shales on the waters on Raccoon Creek, southwest of Flora, and described in the report on Wayne Coun- ty. The waters of a well sunk in this shale, about half a mile south of Hoag's quarry. has the same taste as that of McGannon's spring, near the north line of Wayne County, and no doubt the shales are identical. The shale here contains numerous bands of iron ore of good quality, and several points were
observed on the small branches northeast of the quarry, and not more than a mile distant, where from twelve to sixteen inches of good ore could be obtained from a vertical thick- ness of four or five feet of shale. The thin coal at Spiker's place overlies this shale, and the beds exposed there gave the following section :
l'eet.
Bituminons shale. 4
Hard blue limestone-septaria. .6 inches to 1}
Blue shale. 1 to 1}
Coal.
Fire Clay and elay shale.
A few well preserved fossils were found in the septaria over the coal, among which were Nautilus occidentalis, Macrocheilus primi- genious, Productus pertenuis, Spirifer ca- meratus, Myalina subquadrata, Chonetes, joints of Crinoidea, etc. All the beds ex- posed from Hoag's quarry to this point are probably above those passed through at the Xenia bore.
At Mr. John Lampkin's place, about two miles northwest of Louisville, on the north- west quarter of Section 20, Town 4, Range 6, there is an outcrop of gray limestone, under- laid by a coal seam, with ranges from twelve to eighteen inches in thickness, and is worked by Mr. Lampkin in a limited way, affording a coal of fair quality. The limestone over the coal is a compact, hard, gray rock, rang- ing from three to four feet in thickness, con- taining numerous fossils that may be ob- tained from the calcareous shaly layers asso- ciatod with the limestone in a fair stato of preservation. The section here is as follows: Buff shale with iron bands. .5 to 8 feet.
Compact gray limestone .3 to 1 feet
Calcareous shale. .2 to 3 feet
Coal 1 to 14 feet
('lay shale or fire clay 1 to 2 feet
Sandy shales. ?
The fossils observed here include the fol- lowing species: Orthis Pecosi, Fusulina 17
296
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
cylindrica, Spirifer cameratus, Spiriferinu Kentuckensis, Lophophyllum proliferum, Pro- duclus longispinus, P. costatus and P. punc- tatus.
On Section 10, Town 4, Range 5, this limestone is found on Crooked Creek, but lit- tle above the creek bed, and the coal, if found at all, would be below the water level.
On the southwest quarter of Section 25, Township 5, Range 5, about two miles east of Larkinsville, the coal and the overlying limestone outcrop in the bluffs of Dismal Creek. The limestone is here from four to five feet in thickness, and the coal is reported to be about the same as at Lamkin's place.
There are here from ten to twelve feet of sandy shale exposed in the bluffs of the creek below the coal.
On Section 16, Township 4, Range 5, near the northwest corner of the section, a bed of hard shaly sandstone outcrops in the bank of a small branch, overlaid by slaty bitumi - nous shale of a foot or more in thickness, con- taining lentienlar masses of a black limestone or septaria.
The shaly sandstone was about three feet in thickness, and it probably overlies the limestone and coal at Lamkin's place, though the exact connection between them was not determined.
On the southeast quarter of Section 21, Township 4, Range 6, a sandstone quarry has been opened where the rock shows a per- pendicular face from four to six feet in thickness The sandstone is overlaid by a buff-colored shale, succeeded by a black laminated shale containing concretions from black or dark-blue limestone or septaria, containing a few fossils.
On Section 16. in the same township, a hard sandstone is found in the bluffs . of Crooked Creek, which resembles the rock at the quarry on Section 21, and it is here un-
derlaid by shaly sandstone and shale to the water level. If these sandstones are identi- cal, the section here would show the follow- ing order of succession:
Black laminated shale, with septaria ... 5 to 6 feet
Buff or drab shale 6 to 8 feet
Sandstone quarry rock. 4 to 6 feet Sandy shale-partial exposure. 12 to 15 feet
Just below the mouth of Crooked Creek, in the bluffs of the Little Wabash, we find the following section:
Soil and drift clay. 12 to 15 feet
Soft shales-partly argillaceous. 15 feet
Irregularly bedded sandstone. 3 to 4 feet
Sandy shales. 12 to 15 feet
These beds outcrop at intervals along the bluffs of the stream from the mouth of Crooked Creek to Louisville, and at the old mitl dam we find nearly a repetition of the above section, as follows:
Black laminated shale. 2 to 3 feet
Coal. { foot
Buff and blue shales-partial exposure 6 to 12 feet Irregularly bedded hard sandstone. .. 4 to 6 feet Sandy shales extending below the river bed. 10 to 12 feet Buff and blue sbales-partial exposure 6 to 12 feet Irregularly bedded hard sandstone ... 4 to 6 feet Sandy sliales extending below the river bed. 10 to 12 feet
The thin coal in the above section is local- ly overlaid by a few inches of chocolate colored shale, passing into a hard blue lime- stone containing a few fossils, among which we were able to identify Produclus Pratte- mn mus, Chonetes granulifera, Lingula myti- loi es, Pleurotomaria carbonaria, Macrochei- lus, etc. This thin coal is probably identical with that of Mr. Spiker's, three miles north of Xenia, and is either of local seam or else represents Coal No. 15 of the general section. The beds on the Little Wabash at Louisville underlie the limestone and coal at Lamkin's place and on Dismal Creek, but the expos-
297
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
ures were too isolated to obtain a complete section of the strata.
Four miles southwest of Flora, on a branch of Raccoon Creek, sandstone and sandy shales outcrop along the bluffs of the stream for some distance. The bed is alto- gether some ten or twelve feet in thickness, the upper part a sandy micaceous shale pass- ing downward into micaceous sandstone interstratitied with the shales. The sand- stone strata vary in thickness from six to fourteen inches, and when freshly quarried the rock is rather soft, but hardens on ex- posure and becomes a durable building stone. The quarry opened here belongs to Mr. John McGannon, and is located on Section 3, Township 2, Range 6 east. In the same township, a massive sandstone outerops in the bluffs of Raccoon, in an appar- ently solid bed. projecting in some places several feet over the bed of the stream by the wearing away of the lower strata.
On Bear Creek, another tributary of Elm Creek, just over the line in Wayne County, on Section 21, Township 2 south, Range 6 east, this massive sandstone is found in per- pendicular cliffs of twenty to thirty feet in height, above the bed of the stream. This is probably a part of the sandstone passed through in the shaft and borings at Flora, and it forms a bed-rock over a considerable area in the south part of Clay and the north- ern part of Wayne Counties.
On Willow Branch, about six miles south- west of Flora, a blue argillacoous shale is found containing several bands of urgilla- ceous ore of good quality. The exposure of shale is twenty feet or more in thickness, with a streak of smutty coal or bituminous shale near the top of the exposure. The water that percolates through the shale be- comes highly impregnated with salts, and acts as an effective cathartic on those who use
it freely. This shale probably overlies the massive sandstone on Raccoon Creek, but no continuous outerop is found that will deter- mine definitely their true relations.
The following notes of localities are re- ported from the notes of Prof. Cox: On a branch of Skillet Fork, on Section 32, Town- ship 4, Range 5, found the following beds:
Feet.
Drift clay. .4 to 5
Blue argillaceous shale. 8
Bituminous shale and limestone in the bed of
the creek. ?
Crystals of selenite (sulphate of lime) of small size were found disseminated through the shale, and are reported to be abundant at many points on this branch, and also on the main creek.
On Mr. R. T. Roberts' place, two miles and a half south of Clay City, a thin coal is found underlaid by fire clay and argillaceous shale. The section of exposure here is as follows:
Feet. Inches.
Soil and drift. 10 0
Shale
6
Coal. . 0
6
Fire clay 0
4
Argillaceous shale 1 0)
Siliceons shale. 2 0
In digging a well on the top of the hill about a quarter of a mile from this outcrop, Mr. Roberts went through from four to six inches of fossiliferous limestone, which prob- ably belongs above the coal.
Three-quarters of a mile south of Mays- ville is a sandstone quarry owned by Hugh Miller. The rock is of a yellowish gray color, and the exposure from seven to eight foot thick. The so-called " salt pond " is on the south half of Section 1, Township 3, Range 8, and is u bog surrounded by high ground. Sticks may be thrust into it through the spongy mass to the depth of ten or fif- teen feet, and cattle, and formerly wild ani- mals also, resorted here for water.
298
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
At Moore's quarry, on Section 14, Town- ship 4, Range 6, there is a fine-grained buff sandstone that was used in the founda- tion and also for caps and sills for the Ma- sonic Hall building in Louisville. There are three layers of the rock exposed from eight to ten inches thick, overlaid by two feet of siliceous shale.
At J. Elkin's place, on Section 36, Town- ship 5, Range 5, the following section was found:
Feet
Soil and drift 2
Gray argillaceous shale. 8
Limestone in the bed of the creek ?
Down the creek, the limestone is two feet thick, the upper part full of encrinite stems and fusulina cylindrica. The limestone is quite compact, and will take a good polish. Still lower down on the creek, there is a thin coal below the limestone. This limestone is again seen on Limestone Creek, on Section 34, Township 6, Range 4, near the north line of the county. The limestone above mentioned is undoubtedly the same as that found over the coal at Lamkin's mine near Louisville, and on Dismal [Creek, east of Larkinsburg, and a limestone very similar in appearance is found on Muddy Creek near the northeast corner of the county, where it is quarried both for lime and building stone.
Coal .- The only coal seam in the county that promises to be of any value for mining operations is that on Mr. Lamkin's place, northwest of Louisville, and this is so uneven- ly developed that there are probably but few localities in the county where it will prove to be of any practical value. At some points, it affords from eighteen to twenty inches of good coal, and possibly may thicken at some localities to a little more than that, while at others it thins out to a few inches or is want- ing altogether, and its place is only indicated by a thin streak of bituminons shale. Where
well developed, it affords a very good quality of coal, and may be worked to advantage in a limited way to supply the local demand. We believe it to be the same as the Nelson coal found in the southwest corner of Effing- ham County, which is No. 16 of the general section, and the highest workable coal in the State. The main coals of the lower coal measures are probably from eight hundred to a thousand feet below the surface in any part of the county, and borings or shafts should not be encouraged unless parties are prepared to go to that depth. The coal seam reported to have been found four feet in thick- ness in the boring at Xenia could not have been lower in the series than No. 11 or 12, and if its thickness was correctly ascertained, it is probably only a local thickening of one of these upper coals. The lower coals offer no serious impediment to their being mined successfully, whenever the demand for coal shall be such as to justify such an expendi- ture of capital as will be required to open up a mine at this depth.
Building Stone .- Sandstone of fair quality for building purposes is found at several lo- calities in the county and the quarries near Xenia, described on a preceding page, afford a freestone of superior quality that is ex- tensively quarried for exportation to St. Louis and other points where a stone, suitable for architectural display, may be required. This rock had a very even texture, dresses freely and can be casily cut into elaborate designs for ornamental work. A rock similar enough in texture and general appearance outerops on Raccoon Creek, south of Flora, which probably belongs to the same bed, as the gen- eral trend of the strata appears to be from northwest, to southeast. Other sandstones that afford a fair quality of building stone outerop in various parts of the county, as has already been noted in the preceding pages.
299
HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.
The limestone over the eighteen-inch coal seam in the northern part of the county will afford a very hard and durable stone, but re- quires a greater amount of labor to quarry it and prepare it for use thau the sandstone found in the same neighborhood, and hence has been but little used.
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