USA > Illinois > Stephenson County > The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : containing biographical sketches war record statistics portraits of early settlers history of the Northwest, history of Illinois, &c. > Part 18
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Schuyler.
96,195 85,331
62.477 44,633
21,294
56,221
165.721
20,841
752,771
637.812
316,726
476,851
Piatt.
233.785 55,980
87,754
2,309
315,958
Pulaski.
222
195.735
Putnam
37,271
17,184
28,137
334,259
414,487
257,032
475,252 .
Marion
173.081
61,579
78.260
106,129
31,739
73,261
273,871
280,717
53,293
401,790
3,685
2.127,549
389,446
JoDaviess.
156,517
82,076
4,076 2,565
193,669
223.930
131,711
1,508,763
Gallatin.
49,572
68,750
83.093
512
509,491
27,164
Grundy.
193,999
6,256
4,505
577,400
415
1,051,313
64,029
Ford
141.228
2,996 3.994
63,976
Franklin.
Fulton ....
228,132
123.823
351,310
25.328
962,525
497,395
668,367
430,746
71.770
468,890
LaSalle
48,308
3,077,028
1,509.642
Lawrence
87,828
Lee ..
12,071 12,462
120,206
Logan.
Macon.
Macoupin
1,051,544
459,417
550 1,207,181
558,367
519,120
45,779
Kane ...
103,466
90.681
Jake
271,181
2,193
450.793
289,291
276,682
668,424
Ogle.
Peoria
31.843
334,892 338,760
Perry.
1.057,497 70.457 44,922
67,886 16,511 86,519
1,170
243,541
200
19,932
Scott
12,375 76,591 43.167
1,423.121
2,982,853 836,115
404,482
22,097
311,517
87,642
290,679
129,152
386.073
446,324
42,658
176 170,787
198.056
Chancellor Martin ( DECEASED.) FREEPORT.
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Is bounded on the east by Winnebago, on the south by Ogle and Carroll, on the west by Jo Daviess, and on the north by Green County, Wis. It thus lies in the northern tier of counties in the State, and is the second county eastward from the Mississippi River. It is twenty-seven miles wide from east to west, and about twenty-one from its northern to its southern boundary line, containing 573 square miles. The northern part of the county, according to surveys made by the Illinois Central Railroad Company, averages about 723 feet above the level of the Mississippi River at Cairo, about 415 feet above the level of Lake Michigan, and about 1,000 feet above the level of the sea. The southern part of the county averages some 250 feet lower than these averages. The general level of the country, it will thus be seen, presents a gentle slope to southern sunny skies. The general surface, or face of the country, is composed of gently undulating and rather rolling prairie land, interspersed with small groves and narrow belts of timber lands skirting the streams. A small portion of the county is made up of barrens and oak orchards or openings. The prairie soil is of unsurpassed fertility, and under a high state of cultivation and improve- ment. It is not so black and deep as the prairie soil further south ; but is drier, sandier, lighter or more chocolate colored, producing in great perfection all the staple crops of the northern part of the State. The oak openings and other poorer portions of the county produce the best wheat and other cereal grains, the best potatoes raised in the State, very excellent apples, and pears of the hardier varieties, and with proper care and cultivation will nourish the vine and ripen its fruitage to a greater extent than is now dreamed of by the grape-growers and wine-makers of the West. Indeed, the day is coming, when its gravelly hills and loess clay will not only blush with the purple clusters of such vines as best endure the cold climate, but will also become sources of profit to their cultivators, and of exquisite pleasure to those who delight in using healthful, invigorating, pure wines. The soil of this county, as of all these northern counties, also produces and ripens in great perfection the currant, gooseberry, strawberry, raspberry and other garden fruits.
The county is reasonably well watered with streams, which flow in various directions over its surface. Of these, the Pecatonica is the largest and most important. It enters the county about seven miles from its northwest corner, flows in a course a little south of east to Freeport, bends round to the westward at this latter place, and enters the county of Winnebago, not far from the center of its western boundary lines. Its waters are turbid and muddy as the " Yellow Tiber ;" its course is serpentine and crooked beyond comparison, winding and doubling upon itself in the most capricious manner ; its current slow-flowing, treacherous and silent, notwithstanding the general difference in
190
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
level between the northern and southern portions of the county, affording few water powers, and they of limited fall, but heavy and constant in their action. This is pre-eminently true of the six feet fall at Freeport, but hardly so true of the power at Martin's mill, just across the northern line of the county. Indeed, so far as a description of the stream is concerned, the dispute as to the Indian significance of the name "Pecatonica," "Muddy Water " and " Crooked Stream," might be well reconciled by adopting both meanings, and applying them with much truth to this tortuous body of flowing mud. Along portions of its course, its oozy banks and stagnant waters might breed miasms and fevers, were its influences not counteracted by the general healthfulness and salubrity of the climate of Northern Illinois. Yellow Creek enters the county almost at the center of its western boundary line, and flows into the Pecatonica two or three miles below and east of Freeport, its general course being a little south of east. Its waters have a yellowish, somewhat creamy color, and are slow floating like the Pecatonica. The color of its waters is derived from the Cincinnati shales along its banks, which dissolve and mingle with the water like yellow cream with muddy coffee. Its course is not so crooked as the Pecatonica. It wanders about in long, undulating swerves, instead of short, abrupt doublings. It affords few water powers, and they of limited extent. Cedar and Richland Creeks rise almost entirely within the county toward its northern and central parts, flow southward, mingle their waters together within a few miles of the Pecatonica, and empty into the latter stream a few miles above Freeport. Both these streams afford light but constant water powers. They are not mountain born, but are fed by prairie and woodland springs, almost entirely within the boundaries of the county lines. Rock Run enters the county about four miles from its northeast corner, and empties, after run- ning about four miles on an air line, into the Pecatonica, about one and a half miles west of where it crosses the western line of Winnebago County. This is a beautiful little stream, affording a few light water powers. It goes babbling and murmuring along through rich prairie farms and woodland groves, until within a half a dozen miles of its mouth. Here the banks rise to precipitous. brush-covered, timber-covered hills, and in a few miles further, the low alluvial bottom of the Pecatonica is entered, through which it seeks its way with less haste into the dirty waters of the latter stream. Cranes Creek is a small and short prairie stream or brook, flowing into the Yellow Creek nearly south of Freeport, coming in from near the center of the southern boundary line of the county. Besides these, there are many brooks, rivulets and little streams in various parts of the county, watering it reasonably well, both for agricultural and stock purposes. Nor should the mention of the bright, flashing, singing little Silver Creek be omitted ; this runs through the town of the same name, and finds its way into Yellow Creek not far from its mouth.
In comparison with most northern counties, Stephenson might be said to be well timbered. The Pecatonica is skirted, more especially along its eastern bank, with a body of rather heavy timber, spreading out northward into the town of Oneco, for a considerable distance. Yellow Creek is fringed, for a part of its course, with a scattering growth of white oak-groves and clumps spreading across from Mill Grove to Eleroy and Sciota mills, into oak openings and a somewhat rough soil. Part of the town of Loran, in the southwest portion of the county, is a regular white-oak barren, with scattering trees and some brush-wood. Crane's Grove, lying south of Freeport, is about three miles long and more than a mile wide. Lynn and walnut groves dot the broad expanse of prairie in the northeastern part of the county, with a grateful exchange in
191
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
the monotony of the prairie view. Cedar Creek has some good timber along its course. Richland Creek is shadowed by the heaviest body of good timber perhaps in the whole county.
The prevailing timber consists of white, black and burr oak, sugar maple, black walnut, butternut, pignut, shellbark and common hickory, slippery and water elm, yellow poplar, with occasional laurel, red cedar, white pine, paw- paw, and some of the rarer oaks interspersed; sumach and hazel also abound in and around all the groves ; wild cherry, honey locust, linden or basswood, ash, cotton-wood sycamore and some other varieties of timber are more or less to be noticed, and in some particular localities are found in considerable abun- dance.
. Such, in brief, are the topographical features of Stephenson County-a county whose agricultural resources are not surpassed by those of any county in Northern Illinois. Indeed, it would be hard to find an equal area anywhere in the State whose soil is so universally good, productive and teeming in every bountiful gift to the industrious tillers of the earth. No mineral wealth or peculiar manufacturing facilities will attract to this county the attention of the adventurous, but for those resources which are derived from a rich soil and abundant agricultural capabilities, this favored county may well claim a last- ing pre-eminence.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.
The geology of Stephenson County is of a very simple character. After leaving the surface geology, the first formation met in a descending order is the Niagara limestone, succeeded in regular order by the Cincinnati shales, and the three divisions of the Trenton period, namely, the Galena, Blue and Buff limestones of the old Trenton seas. The following sections show the actual worked exposures of these rocks as measured in the quarries by the Hon. James Shaw, of Mt. Carroll, from whose writings on the subject the preced- ing and following have been taken :
SECTION OF WORKED OUTCROPS.
Quaternary deposits, consisting of clays, sands, gravels, etc. 10 to 65 feet.
Niagara limestone. 23
Cincinnati group. 40
Galena limestone. 75 .
Blue limestone.
38 “
Bluff limestone.
40 «
Each of these groups or formations outcrops at some place or places in the county. Some of them are the immediate underlying rocks over large portions of the same.
As further illustrating the geological formations of this county, and more especially those which lie deep down in the earth, an imperfect section, obtained from the borings of the Rocky Farm oil well, is given. This well was com- menced in 1864, and continued on through a great part of the year 1865. At that time the oil fever was prevailing extensively. Some surface indications were noticed in a small brook running through the north part of Section 6, in the town of Lancaster. A company was formed, an engine obtained, and a hole six inches in diameter drilled into the earth for over 800 feet. No oil was obtained, no indications of oil noticed, after leaving the surface, and the enterprise was finally abandoned. Although very unprofitable to the company, this boring was not devoid of scientific interest. After boring about eight feet through the overlying soil and clays, the Galena limstone was struck. No
192
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
very accurate record of the material passed through for the first 120 feet was kept, but from the fact that the Galena limestone outcrops heavily at Cedarville, only a mile or two distant, being there seventy-five or eighty feet thick in the exposure on Cedar Creek, it is believed the well in this 120 feet passed out of the Galena limestone, and reached perhaps a considerable dis- tance into the blue limestones, immediately underlying. Commencing at 120 feet beneath the surface, a section of strata and materials bored through is given, until the depth of 608 feet was reached, as indicated by the detritus brought to the surface by the auger. No record of the last 250 feet seems to have been kept.
SECTION OF OIL WELL ON ROCKY FARM.
120 to 130 feet, blue limestone and mud veins .. 10 feet.
130 + 146 gray limestone, containing crevices. 16 “
146 " 168
shales of various kinds . 22 4 168 " 375 66 . St. Peter's sandstone, soft and very white. 207
375 “ 484 66 red sandstone, with tough, paint-like mud veins. 109 «
484 “ 487 66 yellow, sand-like surface sand.
487 " 491
quicksand and salty water ..
4 4
491 “ 494 66 bright yellow, fine salty sand.
494 “ 501
slate of chalky color and nature. 7 .
501 " 520 60 snuff-colored, slaty rocks. 19 **
520 “ 532 66 sharp, slate-colored sand.
12 .
532 " 564 dark red stone, like soapstone, with thin, flinty strata and iron pyrites. 32 .
564 “ 586 = bright red stone, slightly only. 22 “
586 " 608 66 dark reddish slate, with iron pyrites. 22 4
At the depth of about 60 feet from the surface, some dark-colored carbon- ferous shales were struck. These must have belonged to the Blue limestone underlying the Galena, and, perhaps, are near the dividing line between the two. From thence to the depth of 168 feet the blue and buff limestones of the Tren- ton period were undoubtedly the rocks passed through. The next 207 feet was the St. Peter sandstone. There could be no mistake as to this; the auger brought it up pure, white and crumbly. The next 109 feet, although it strongly resembled the St. Peter's sandstone, was stained by water holding iron in solution, and belongs, perhaps, to the calciferous sandstone, or lower magnesian limestone of the Northwest. The next 124 feet almost loses its identity, but, perhaps belongs to the lower calciferous sandstones, and to the Potsdam sand- stone. Chemical analysis of the materials brought to the surface, aided by a strong magnifying glass, may show these surmises to be partially untrue.
Some importance is to be attached to the above section, because it is a matter of much interest to the citizens of Stephenson County, and because it afforded an opportunity for making even a partial examination of the deep underlying foundations. It also settled another question for a long time agitat- ing the public mind in this part of the State. Before this experiment, geologi- cal science had foretold that no productive oil deposits could or would be found in this part of the country. It had predicted this from knowledge of the 'ınder- lying strata, and their inability to collect and preserve the oily treasures of the earth. But capitalists lacked faith in the teachings of science, and acquired in the school of experience the lessons which they would nowhere else learn. The experiment of this well had a wonderful influence in allaying the oil fever in this region.
The following is a description of the out-cropping geological formations, for which the heartiest acknowledgments are also tendered ex-Speaker Shaw :
193
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
QUATERNARY DEPOSITS.
The deposits cover unconformably the underlying rocks to a varying depth. At some places they are five or ten feet thick ; at others, they perhaps extend in thickness to sixty or seventy feet. To say that they average twenty-five or thirty feet all over the county, would, perhaps, be placing the figures safely within the bounds of truth. If all this accumulation of deposited materials could be removed, the surface of the underlying rocks would present a very rough and uneven surface, scooped-out depressions, extending through over- lying formations, and over large portions of the country, presenting, if filled with water, the phenomena of broad shallow lakes. The mounds, rising like watch-towers, over these prairies (resisting, on account of some local cause or hardness, the denuding agencies that carried away the rest of the formation), would appear like islands in the surrounding waste of waters. The rocky surface thus left, so far as can be judged by limited exam- inations, would be unsmoothed by water current and unscratched by glacier, but would be everywhere uneven, rough and covered with unworn fragments of stone.
Along the narrow bottoms of the Pecatonica may be noticed a strip of alluvium proper. At some places it is very narrow ; at others, it extends to one or two miles in width. The same deposit may be observed at a few local- ities along the Yellow Creek bottom, and also along the narrow bottoms of some of the smaller streams. The deposit, however, is of limited extent ; it is rich, fat and heavy as an agricultural and timber soil. Along some of these streams the low, bold hills are found to be composed of the loess marls and clays ; but this deposit is also of quite limited extent in the country. All the rest of these superficial deposits belong to the sands, clays and gravels of the drifts proper. These clays, and clayey sands, however, do not very strongly furnish the evidences of deposition or transportation. They seem, to partake, in part at least, of the nature and character of the rock formations lying immediately below them. Where the Galena limestone is the underlying rock, the appearance seemed, upon examination, to have been somewhat as follows: First, there was the prairie soil and clayey sub-soil, at most only a few feet in thickness ; this was succeeded by a reddish-brown clay, mixed with flints and pieces of cherty Galena limestone. Then came the clay and pieces of limestone, preserving their regular stratification, the limestone becoming more abundant in the descent until the solid rock strata were reached. In a few instances, this over- lying clay is creamy in color, and almost limey in texture ; but the prevail- ing color is reddish-brown or red, and in many cases it is more or less mixed with sand. The clays overlying the Cincinnati shades also bear a resem- blance to this formation, from which they are doubtless in part derived. They are of a creamy or more chocolate color finer in texture and freer from sand. These superficial clays and loams certainly have the appearance of being the residuem left after frost and water had pulverized and, by percolation, removed, the more soluble portions of the uppermost parts of the formaftions below.
But, aside from these deposits, the gravel beds and bowlders of the true drift period are not wanting in this county. That part lying west of the Illinois Central Railroad and south of Yellow Creek, being mostly low, level, prairie, underlaid mostly by the Cincinnati shales, and also that low, rich, level part between Waddam's Mound and the range of mounds running from the neighborhood of Warren toward the southwest, and underlaid by the
194
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
Galena limestone, may almost be denominated a driftless region. Few bowlders are seen over it, and few or no real gravel deposits can be found. The prairies north and east of Waddams' Grove have strewed over them num- berless bowlders, some black, some flame-colored, and some combining the vari- ous colors of the metamorphic rocks. At one place, about half-way between Waddams' Grove and Winslow, they are rolled into windrows along the road, and used in part for the lane fences. Many of these are exceedingly beautiful and many colored. They are the real "lost rocks," and must have been dropped from the slow-inoving icebergs, as they drifted along toward the south- west. All that part of the country north and east of the Pecatonica is char- acterized by these bowlders, and many deposits of gravel and gravelly clay are to be met with in almost any of the low ridges of land. The same may be said of the eastern portion of the county, excepting that the deposits are not so extensive.
Some other formations belonging to the surface geology, such as fire clay, peat, bog-iron ore, muck and the like, will be referred to in the economical geol- ogy of the county.
THE NIAGARA LIMESTONE.
The superficial extent of the county covered by this formation is quite small. Waddams' Grove, quite a high elevation of land, two or three miles long and a mile or two wide, and located a little northwest of Lena, is capped by the Niagara limestone. At French's quarry, near the top end of this eleva- tion facing toward Lena, there is an exposure worked to the depth of about fifteen feet. French's well, near the same spot, is forty-five feet deep, the upper twenty feet being sunk through this formation, and the lower twenty- five feet sinking through the underlying Cincinnati shales. At Blakesly's quarry, twenty-five feet of the same formation is worked into. This is about one mile west of French's, on the north face of the hill. Here they have worked down to the Cincinnati shales. The bottom layers in both these quar- ries are compact and solid ; the top layers are thick, irregular, speckled and porous. A species of slender, rotten Cynthophyllum was the only fossil observed in these quarries. From the latter quarry the prospect toward the north and west is beautiful beyond description. The low, level, rich prairie, with its fields and meadows, barns and farm-houses, skirted in the distance by the range of mounds, bending around like a distant amphitheater into Jo Daviess County, presents as fine a scene beneath a glowing June sun, as can be observed in any State.
Leaving this elevation, the Niagara is next found outcropping in the south- western part of the county. Its extent can be indicated by a line which should enter the county from the west in the town of Kent, some three miles south of Simmons' Mound, then following the general course of Yellow Creek, keeping distant from that stream two to five miles, until nearly opposite to Crane's Grove, then southward until the south boundary line of the county is reached, near it, bi-section with the Illinois Central Railroad track. This line would cut off that portion of the county underlaid by the Niagara rocks. And even in this, some of the small streams which come into Yellow Creek through this section cut into the Cincinnati group ; and a band of the Cincinnati group along Lashell's Hol- low, where the little village of Loharn is located, also discloses the shales and quarries of this group. * *
This formation is not much marred in this portion of the county. At Big Springs in Lashell Hollow, quite a quantity of stone has been taken out. Few
195
HISTORY OF STEPHENSON COUNTY.
fossils were to be observed, except that great quantities of some of the rougher Niagara corals lie strewn over the hills about Loharn, consisting of two or three species of Favosites and some imperfect Halysites.
Cincinnati Group .- The rocks and shales of this group cover but a lim- ited extent of this county. All that part of Waddam's Grove, between the level of the surrounding prairie and the capping Niagara, is composed of the shales and rocks of this group. The gentle slopes of the ascent, and the creamy, col- ored waters of the springs, are an unfailing index of this formation. No quar- ries are opened in it, but it is here, perhaps, forty feet thick. The broad belt south of Yellow Creek, crossing this stream in the township of Kent, extending up into the southwest corner of the township of West Point, as indicated on the general map, has been referred to sufficiently, perhaps, in speaking of the pre- vious formation. About the village of Loharn, the hills on either side of the creek, to their top, are composed of the Cincinnati rocks and shales. Many quarries are opened in the face of the hills, and fair building stone is obtained. The worked outcrops are here fifteen or twenty feet thick. Following the creek to the northward from here a few miles, the Cincinnati formation runs under, and the Niagara takes its place. In the half-township of Erie, just west of the village of Eleroy, there is quite an elevation of land, covering several sections, and crowned with a scattering grove, which is made up exclusively of the Cin- cinnati formation. On the west end of the village of New Dublin, there is a quarried outcrop some forty feet deep. A Catholic chapel is built out of the stones of this quarry.
The Trenton Limestone .- This formation as now recognized by geolo- gists embraces the Galena. The Trenton proper, or blue, and the buff lime- stones-these formations are well-marked and easily distinguishable, and will be referred to under their appropriate heads.
The Galena Limestone .- Nearly three-fourths of Stephenson County is underlaid by this well-known division of the Trenton rocks. And, inasmuch as the railroad cuts and the streams afford the best facilities to study the geologic formations of this county, they will be considered. The Illinois Central enters the county at Warren, near its northwest corner. It passes over a low, smooth prairie, without outcrop or stone quarry, to Lena. Waddam's Grove, which stands in this prairie, shows that the Galena limestone underlies it. At Lena, there is a quarry and a limekiln within a short distance of the town, reposing some fifteen feet in thickness. About two miles farther, there is another; both on a little stream toward the north. Passing on toward the southeast, the railroads exhibit several small sections in the top of the Galena beds, but do not afford any heavy section until Freeport is reached. Just west of the city, along the track of the railroad, and near the banks of the Pecatonica River, in a low range of hills, three extensive quarries are worked, furnishing stone for lime and for the large amount of building material needed. The first nearest the city is worked about eighteen feet deep. The rock obtained here is very soft, yellow, sandy and full of cavities the size of a walnut. Where heaps of it have been removed, a considerable amount of sand is left scattered on the ground. The top layers of this quarry are so friable and crumbling, that hand specimens will hardly remain in shape. The second quarry exposes an outcrop of about twenty-four feet. The third is exactly similar to the second. Both of them are somewhat shaly toward the top, but rapidly grow massive and solid as they are worked into. The Western Union Railroad enters the county on a line almost exactly south of Freeport, and passes out of it four miles south of its northeast corner. Three miles southwest of Freeport, it cuts through the
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