USA > Illinois > Pike County > Past and present of Pike County, Illinois > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99
DERIVATION OF THE NAME ILLINOIS.
The name of this beautiful "Prairie State" is derived from Illini, an Indian word signifying su- perior men. It has a French termination, and is a symbol of the manner in which the two races, the French and Indians, were intermixed during the early history of the country. The appellation was no doubt well applied to the primitive inhab- itants of the soil, whose prowess in savage war- fare long withstood the combined attacks of the fierce Iroquois on the one side, and the no less savage and relentless Sacs and Foxes on the other. The Illinois were once a powerful con- federacy, occupying the most beautiful and fertile region in the great valley of the Mississippi, which their enemies coveted and struggled long and hard to wrest from them. By the fortunes of war they were diminished in number and finally destroyed. "Starved Rock," on the Illinois river, according to tradition, commemorates their last tragedy, where, it is said, the entire tribe starved rather than surrender.
The low cognomen of "Sucker," as applied to Illinoisans, is said to have had its origin at the Galena lead mines. In an early day, when these extensive mines were being worked, men would run up the Mississippi river in steamboats in the spring, work the lead mines, and in the fall re- turn, thus establishing, as was supposed, a simili-
33
PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.
tude between their migratory habits and those of the fishy tribe called "suckers." For this reason the Illinoisans have ever since been distinguished by the epithet "Suckers." Those who stayed at the mines over winter were mostly from Wiscon- sin, and were called "Badgers." One spring the Missourians poured into the mines in such num- bers that the state was said to have taken a puke, and the offensive appellation of "Pukes" was aft- erward applied to all Missourians.
The southern part of the state, known as "Egypt," received this appellation because, being older, better settled and cultivated, grain was had in greater abundance than in the central and northern portion, and the immigrants of this re- gion, after the manner of the children of Israel, went "thither to buy and to bring from thence that they might live and not die."
STATE BANK.
The legislature, during the latter years of terri- torial existence, granted charters to several banks. The result was that paper money became very abundant, times flush, and credit unlimited ; and everybody invested to the utmost limit of his credit, with confident expectation of realizing a handsome advance before the expiration of his credit, from the throng of immigrants then pour- ing into the country. By 1819 it became appar- ent that a day of reckoning would approach be- fore their dreams of fortune could be realized. Banks everywhere began to waver, paper money became depreciated, and gold and silver driven out of the country. The legislature sought to bolster up the times by incorporating the "Bank of Illinois," which, with several branches, was created by the session of 1821. This bank, being wholly supported by the credit of the state, was to issue one, two, three, five, ten and twenty-dol- lar notes. It was the duty of the bank to ad- vance, upon personal property, money to the amount of $100, and a larger amount upon real estate. All taxes and public salaries could be paid in such bills; and if a creditor refused to take them, he had to wait three years longer be- fore he could collect the debt. The people imag- ined that simply because the government had is-
sued the notes, they would remain at par; and although this evidently could not be the case, they were yet so infatuated with their project as actu- ally to request the United States government to receive them in payment for their public lands ! Although there were not wanting men who, like John McLean, the Speaker of the House of Rep- resentatives, foresaw the dangers and evils likely to arise from the creation of such a bank, by far the greater part of the people were in favor of it. The new bank was therefore started. The new issue of bills by the bank of course only aggra- vated the evil, heretofore so grievously felt, of the absence of specie, so that the people were soon compelled to cut their bills in halves and quar- ters, in order to make small change in trade. Finally the paper currency so rapidly depreciated that three dollars in these bills were considered worth only one in specie, and the state not only did not increase its revenue, but lost full two- thirds of it, and expended three times the amount required to pay the expenses of the state govern- ment.
LA FAYETTE'S VISIT.
In the spring of 1825 the brave and generous LaFayette visited Illinois, accepting the earnest invitation of the general assembly, and an affec- tionately written letter of Governor Cole's, who had formed his personal acquaintance in France in 1817. The general in reply said: "It has been my eager desire, and it is now my earnest inten- tion, to visit the western states, and particularly the state of Illinois. The feelings which your distant welcome could not fail to excite have in- creased that patriotic eagerness to admire on that blessed spot the happy and rapid results of repub- lican institutions, public and domestic virtues. I shall, after the 22d of February (anniversary day), leave here for a journey to the southern states, and from New Orleans to the western states, so as to return to Boston on the 14th of June, when the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument is to be laid,-a ceremony sacred to the whole Union and in which I have been engaged to act a peculiar and honorable part."
General LaFayette and suite, attended by a large delegation of prominent citizens of Mis-
34
PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.
souri, made a visit by the steamer Natchez to the ancient town of Kaskaskia. No military parade was attempted, but a multitude of patriotic citi- zens made him welcome. A reception was held, Governor Cole delivering a glowing address of welcome. During the progress of a grand ball held that night, a very interesting interview took place between the honored General and an Indian squaw whose father had served under him in the Revolutionary war. The squaw, learning that the great white chief was to be at Kaskaskia on that night, had ridden all day, from early dawn till sometime in the night, from her distant home, to see the man whose name had been so often on her father's tongue, and with which she was so famil- iar. In identification of her claim to his distin- guished acquaintance, she brought with her an old worn letter which the General had written to her father, and which the Indian chief had pre- served with great care, and finally bequeathed on his death-bed to his daughter as the most precious legacy he had to leave her.
By 12 o'clock at night General LaFayette re- turned to his boat and started south. The boat was chartered by the state.
PIKE COUNTY.
1821
1 .
Pike county was established January 31, 1831, and then had all the territory west of the Illinois river and north to the Wisconsin line. It was named in honor of Hon. Zebulon Montgomery Pike, an American soldier and explorer. He was born in New Jersey and died near Toronto, Can- ada, in April, 1813. He served in the war of 1812, explored the headwaters of the Mississippi and the interior of the Louisiana territory, was the discoverer of Pike's Peak, whose summit is 14,200 feet above sea level. Pike county has 756 square miles as it now is and a population in 1900 of 31,595, with twenty-four townships, sixteen in- corporated towns and thirty-one towns and villages.
GEOLOGY.
A large proportion of the upland of Pike county was originally heavily timbered, but there are several small prairies in the central and north-
ern portions. It is a well watered county, and the valley of the Mississippi is from eight to twelve miles wide, most of it lying on the Illinois side. More than one-fifth of the area of the county lies in this valley. The general level of the uplands may be estimated at from 200 to 300 feet above the great water courses, with no very well de- fined water-shed. The soil on the timbered lands is generally a chocolate-colored clay loam, becom- ing lighter in color on the banks of the streams and in the vicinity of the river bluffs.
The geological structure of this county is some- what peculiar, and the strata exposed within its limits comprise the upper part of the Niagara limestone, the whole series of lower carboniferous limestones except the Chester group, and a limited thickness of coal measures, with the usual surface deposits of loess and drift. The most northerly outcrop of Devonian beds is in Calhoun county. The loess and drift measure is 40 to 100 feet in thickness in Pike county, the coal measures twenty to sixty, St. Louis limestone one to thirty, Keokuk group 100 to 125, Burlington limestone 150 to 200, Kinderhook 100 to 120, and the Niagara limestone one to fifty.
The Niagara limestone is found only in the southwest part of the county, where its main out- crop is at the base of the bluffs between Rockport and the south line of the county and for a short distance up Six-Mile creek. It contains a few fossils at the outcrop near Pleasant Hill, among which are trilobites and a few shells. At Mr. Wells' place, northwest quarter section 17, Pleas- ant Hill township, the buff-colored magnesia beds of this group are exposed about ten feet in thick- ness, and the rock has been quarried for building- stone. On the southeast quarter section 8 there is an exposure of about twenty-two feet of this lime- stone, the lower ten feet being a gray, even-bed- ded limestone, and the upper twelve feet a buff- colored magnesian rock, closely resembling the rock from the Grafton quarries. It is the prevail- ing rock at Pleasant Hill, where it forms a lime- stone bench about thirty feet high, above the road, at the base of the bluffs. Two miles north of . Pleasant Hill, on a branch of Six-Mile creek, the upper part of this limestone is exposed in the bed of the creek.
FIRST COURTHOUSE, 1821
LIBRARY OF THE - UNIVERSITY OF HI NAIS.
37
PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.
KINDERHOOK GROUP.
One of the best exposures of this group in this county is just above Kinderhook; whence the name. It is at the point of the bluff, and com- prises twenty feet of loess, fifteen of Burlington limestone, six of thin-bedded, fine-grained lime- stone, thirty-six of thin-bedded sandstone and sandy shales, and forty feet of clay and sandy shales, partly hidden. Fossil shells are found in the sandstone. This group is also well exposed at Rockport and two miles below Atlas, and some -. what exposed at the base of the Illinois river bluffs. Almost everywhere in the county the Bur- lington limestone overlies the group, which de- termines the topographical features of the region also underlaid by the shales and gritstones of the. group.
BURLINGTON LIMESTONE.
This limestone forms the bed rock over fully one-half the uplands. It is from fifty to 100 feet in thickness, and its best exposures are among the river bluffs. It is a rather coarse-grained, gray stone, interspersed with brown layers, and is largely composed of the fossilized remains of crinoids and mollusks. In the Mississippi bluff, near the north line of the county, forty feet or more of the lower portion of this limestone is ex- posed, forming the upper escarpment of the bluff, and consisting of alternate beds of gray and brown limestone, usually in regular and tolerably thick beds. It has fossils, and has been exten- sively quarried on Big Blue creek for. building purposes. On the eastern side of the county the most northerly outcrop of this limestone is near Griggsville Landing, where the cherty beds of the upper division of this rock are exposed at the base of the bluff. The outcrop here is about fifty feet thick. It appears about the same at Montezuma, and is seen exposed at points all along these bluffs. It is well exposed on Bay creek, forming the main portion of the bluffs along this streamn from near Pittsfield to the southeast corner of the county. It is the most important of all the lime- stones exposed in this county, both as regards ex- tent of exposure and its economical value. As a building stone it is not equal to the magnesian
beds of the Niagara group, as found near Pleas- 'ant Hill, but is nevertheless very durable. It can be found over half the county.
KEOKUK GROUP.
This group lies just above the Burlington lime- stone, and outcrops over a large portion of the northern and northeastern parts of the county, where it is frequently found immediately beneath the coal measures. The St. Louis group, which should properly intervene, was worn away before the coal epoch. It consists of light gray and blu- ish gray cherty limestones at the base, which closely resemble the upper beds of the Burlington limestone. Some of the limestone strata are as crinoidal in their structure as the Burlington, but they are usually more bluish gray in color. There is usually a series of cherty beds, ten to thirty feet in thickness, separating the main limestones of the two groups, which may properly be regarded as transitional. The upper division consists of lime-clay shales and thin-bedded limestones, con- taining geodes lined with crystallized quartz, chalcedony, calcite, dolomite, crystals of zinc blende and iron pyrites. The pyrites is usually in minute crystals implanted on quartz.
This division may be seen a mile and a half southeast of Griggsville, and where it first ap- pears beneath the coal measures the geodes are im- bedded in a ferruginous sandstone, which perhaps represents the conglomerate usually lying at the base of the coal measures. This indicates that be- fore or during the formation of this conglomerate the shales originally inclosing the geodes were swept away, and the geodes were then enclosed in sand which subsequently hardened. These geode- bearing limestones are exposed near Perry Springs, where the waters derive the mineral in- gredients from these beds. At Chambersburg, the limestones of this group form the bed of Mc- Gee's creek. Other prominent exposures of these limestones are at Griggsville Landing, on Hadley's creek, near Huntley's coal-bank, etc. From this stratum much good building stone has been quar- ried.
38
PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.
ST. LOUIS GROUP.
On the banks of McGee's creek only are indica- tions of the presence of this group. The beds ex- posed here consist of brown magnesian limestone and shales, twenty to thirty feet thick. A mile- and a half northwest of Perry quarries have been opened in these beds, and about three miles north of Perry Springs they are again exposed, overlaid by shale, the whole being about twenty feet in thickness.
COAL MEASURES.
The coal formation occupies but a limited area in the central and northern portions of this county, underlying the whole of New Salem township, and a portion only of the four sur- rounding townships. The thickness does not probably exceed sixty feet. The following are the principal points where coal has been dug in Pike county :
Huntley's, northwest quarter section 15, Had- ley township; coal sixteen to twenty-four inches thick, overlaid by about six inches of black shale.
Huntley's new bank, northwest quarter section 10, Hadley township; bed six feet thick, with a parting of clay shale in the middle, about two inches in thickness. The coal in the upper part of this seam is rather soft, and contains consider- able iron bisulphide. The lower division affords a harder and better coal and rests upon a gray fire clay two feet or more in thickness.
Three miles east of Barry coal has been dug on a small branch south of the Philadelphia road ; and a mile further south there is a blue clay shale twenty-five to thirty feet thick exposed along the creek which intersects the river bluffs near New Canton. It contains septaria and tuten-mergel, and closely resembles the shale over the coal at Huntley's mine.
From this point the western boundary of the coal measures trends southeastwardly to House- worth's coal bank, two miles and a half north- west of Pittsfield, on northwest quarter section 16, Pittsfield township. Coal about eighteen inches thick, overlaid by about three feet of dark blue shale, passing upward into sandy shale ten feet more.
Four miles west of Griggsville, coal is found on Mr. Dunham's place. It is fourteen to twenty inches thick, overlaid by about two feet of fossil- iferous black shale. This seam of coal outcrops on southeast quarter section II, same township, and in the ravines between Griggsville and Phila- delphia, via New Salem.
A half mile south of Griggsville coal has also been worked, the seam being eighteen to twenty- four inches thick.
On Lazarus Ross' place, a mile and a half northwest of Perry Springs, some indications of coal may be seen in the bluffs of the middle fork . of McGee's creek.
QUATERNARY SYSTEM.
A broad belt of alluvial bottom lands, six to twelve miles wide, skirts the whole western bor- der of Pike county. The deposit consists of alter- nations of clay, sand and loam, in quite regular strata, but of variable thickness. The soil is ex- ceedingly fertile, and where they are above high water, they constitute the most productive and valuable lands in the county. A large proportion of this land was originally prairie, but now there are many belts of heavy timber skirting the small streams intersecting these bottoms.
On the east side of the county there is very little bottom land from the south line of the county to the north line of Flint township, where it begins to widen, and thence to the north line of the county the Illinois bottoms are two to five miles wide; but they are too low and wet for cul- tivation. A portion of them is heavily timbered with cottonwood, sycamore, soft maple, elm, ash, hackberry, honey locust, linden, black walnut, water oak, hickory, etc.
LOESS.
The river bluffs on both sides of the county are capped with this formation, which ranges from ten to sixty feet or more. It always overlies the drift, where both are present, and hence is of more recent origin. It generally consists of buff or brown marly clays or sands, usually stratified, and often so coherent as to remain in vertical
39
PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.
walls twenty or thirty feet high when cut through. From seventy-five to eighty per cent of it is silica, ten to fifteen per cent alumina and iron per- oxide, three to four per cent lime, and one to two per cent magnesia. In the vicinity of Chambers- burg the loess is sixty to seventy feet thick. Ev- erywhere it furnishes a light, porous sub-soil, which is admirably adapted to the growth of fruit trees, vines and small fruits. In some places it contains a variety of fossil shells which present the usual bleached and water-worn appearance of the dead shells of our ponds and bayous. It also affords a variety of chalky lumps and masses which assume many imitative forms, as of pota- toes and the disks called "clay-stones" in New England. It also gives origin to the bald knobs so frequently met with along the river bluffs, and is often rounded into natural mounds which have been very generally used by the Indians as burial places. The bones of extinct animals are often found in the marly beds of this formation, along with land and fresh-water shells.
DRIFT.
This deposit consists of variously colored clays containing gravel and boulders. It underlies the loess, and hence is not visible along the bluffs. In the interior of the county it is often penetrated by well-diggers. It thins out toward the bluffs. At the base of the drift near Barry there is a bed of clean, yellow flint gravel, partially cemented by iron oxide into a ferruginous conglomerate.
ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY.
Pike county has an abundance of building stone. The Niagara limestone near Pleasant Hill furnishes a buff magnesian rock, in very regular beds, fully equal in quality to that of Grafton and Joliet. Part of the stone in the public-school building at Pittsfield was brought from Joliet, while stone just as good and beautiful was out- cropping within ten miles of that town. "A want of the knowledge of this fact," says Mr. Worthen, "has probably cost the citizens of Pike county far more than their proportion of the entire cost of the geological survey of Illinois."
The Burlington limestone, which outcrops over a wide area in this county, will furnish an unlim- ited supply of excellent building stone. It is probably not less than 150 feet thick. The more flinty portions are the best material for macad- amizing roads. Near Montezuma is a ten-foot bed of excellent dimension stone. Similar beds are exposed on Big Blue creek four miles south- east of Pittsfield, where they are forty feet thick, containing masses two to four feet in thickness. On the west side. of the county it forms an almost continuous outcrop, ten to forty feet thick, along the river bluffs ; and on the east side of the county it also forms a continuous outcrop in the bluffs from Griggsville Landing south.
The lower portion of the Keokuk limestone is fully as useful as the preceding. Excellent quar- ries are worked two miles north of Griggsville on the south fork of McGee's creek. The stone is composed almost entirely of the joints and plates of crinoids, cemented together by a calcareous paste.
The St. Louis group, although limited in ex- tent, furnishes some good building stone, mostly found in Perry township and vicinity, as already described.
The coal deposits in this county are all, except at Huntley's place, too thin for profitable work- ing. Where surface "stripping," however, can be done, it pays to mine the thinner deposits. Huntley's is probably a local deposit, a "pocket," which will soon be exhausted.
No mineral ore, except a little iron, has been found in Pike county.
The Burlington and Keokuk groups furnish the best of material for quick-lime. The St. Louis group, which is generally preferred, is very limited.
Good hydraulic limestone for cement can be obtained from the Kinderhook group.
Fire clay, which usually underlies the coal, can be mined with coal to advantage. The brown clays of the drift and the loess furnish superior material for brick.
For marble the bed of oolitic conglomerate of the Kinderhook group at Rockport furnishes a stone capable of a fine polish and makes a beauti- ful variegated marble ; but the bed, so far as ex-
3
40
PAST AND PRESENT OF PIKE COUNTY.
amined, is rather thin for profitable working. Some of the sub-crystalline beds of the Burling- ton limestone also receive a high polish and make a fine ornamental stone.
The Perry mineral springs, three in number, is- sue from the upper part of the Keokuk limestone which underlies the valley and outcrops along the bluffs. The principal ingredients of the water here are the bi-carbonates of lime and magnesia, the silicate of potash and soda and the carbonate of potash. For further account of these springs see history of Perry township in this volume.
There are a few small caves in Pike county, two near Barry, into one of which one can enter a distance of 550 feet and the other 400 feet. In early day panthers were known to inhabit these caves. In Pearl township, on land owned by Judge Atkinson, the railroad employes of the Chicago & Alton Company were blasting rock in 1871 or 1872, when they discovered a small cave in which were found lime carbonate drippings in the form of stalagmites and stalactites. Many of these are of imitative forms and can be imagined to be petrified human beings or aniamls. An ex- aggerated account of this cave was published in the Pittsfield papers at the time, which led many people to believe something wonderful was found at the place.
ARCHAEOLOGY.
Perhaps no district of country in the west con- tains more traces of that pre-historic people known to us only as the "Mound Builders" than the district between the Illinois and the Missis- sippi rivers. There is scarcely a township of land in this section which does not contain more or less of these traces, and in some of them are works which in extent and character will compare with any in the west.
The mounds in this county are evidently of three classes : sacred mounds, which were used for the sacrificial fires; burial mounds, which were erected over the last remains of important personages; and mounds which were used for domestic habitations. These were probably resi- dences similar to those of some tribes of our pres- ent Indians. First, poles or logs set up in a cir- cle, then covered with brush or grass, and the
whole with earth to a considerable extent. The sacrificial mounds always contained burnt earth, burnt bones, and frequently, too, the charred bones of human beings. In the burial mounds only the bones of a few persons are found, prob- ably of some chief and his immediate family, and usually near them are utensils of the kitchen, ar- rows, pottery, and such other articles as were most prized in life by the departed.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.