USA > Indiana > Putnam County > Biographical and historical record of Putnam County, Indiana > Part 2
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WAGON AND RAILROADS.
There are in the county three toll roads, aggregating 47 miles, and 140 miles of free gravel roads, or in all 187 miles of roads that are good at all times of the year, reaching to nearly every part of the county. There are four railroads that cross Putnam County- the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago north and south, and the Indianapolis, Decatur & Springfield, Indianapolis & St. Louis, and Vandalia roads east and west. : The combined
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mileage of these roads in Putnam County is 89.99. These have twelve stations, affording convenient shipping facilities for every por- tion of the county.
CLIMATE.
Within the space allowed us in this work, it is impossible to give a complete analysis of this locality, and the various causes which modify it from year to year. In this region we are free alike from the Arctic blasts of a New England winter and the enervating heat of the Gulf States; but as often as once in eight or ten years we are visited by a Polar wave, which continnes for a greater or less length of time, sometimes giving ns for sev- eral weeks a fair exhibition of a Labrador winter; and about as often the current sets in the other direction, and we have for a season the isothermnal of the Tropics transferred to Putnam County.
This oscillation of temperature in different seasons- and in the same season is owing to the vast extent of a comparatively level land, unobstructed by mountain or large body of water, from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. The average temperature for twen- ty-five years past, during the winter months, ; at Indianapolis, was 35º Fahrenheit, or three degrees above freezing point. In Putnam County, owing to its greater elevation, the average must be somewhat less, about 32°. The mean annual temperature at Indianapolis, as obtained from fifteen years' observation, is 55°. ..
The number of days on which it rained or snowed in Putnam County in 1884 was 131. The average number of days in the year in which it rains and snows in Indianapolis is 128. The average annual depth of rainfall may be set at from forty-three to forty-five inches. The greatest number of rainy days occur in the month of March. The greatest
rainfall of the year is closely contested by March and June.
The prevailing winds of this region are from: southwest to northwest; the coldest are from a point between west and northwest, and the warmest from a little west to southwest.
This is very nearly a climate of latitude; its elevation of 1,000 feet makes it a little colder, and there is a greater rainfall and more fre- quent atmospheric changes than generally ocenr in this latitude in places so far from the sea. This is caused by the position of the county, on the line of interchange of winds between the gulf and the great lakes. The water of the great lakes maintains in summer time a anuch lower degree of tem- perature than the land, and the winds from the Gulf of Mexico, freighted with moisture and unobstrneted by mountain ranges, meet with no cooling surface to condense their va- pors, until they come in contact with the cool atmosphere in the lake region, when densation begins, and soon a storm is the re- sult, which backs southward until this region is favored with a thunder storm froin the northwest. For this reason long continued dronghts rarely occur in this region : and when they do occur they are generally ended by a storm from the northwest. produced by the above causes.
Thus it is seen that the position of Putnani County, is a fortunate one, and that to mur- mur. on. account of the frequent changes of weather, or at "cold snaps" in spring. is double blasphemy; for such are the results of these fortuitous climatic conditions. W nen droughts occur, it is when the wind comes from a point a little north of southwest, and has been deprived of its moisture in its passage over the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. The most steady and long- continued rains in this region are from the east and southeast.
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HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
Since the early settlement of the country changes have been taking place which have, "o a considerable extent, modified the climate, & d these changes will continue until a further ni dification of it will be observed. Dr. R. T. Brown, in his chapter on the climate of indiana, in the Historical Atlas of Indiana, says: " The greater portion of this State was originally covered with a dense forest, which, aided by the thick undergrowth of shrubs and weeds, completely shut out the earth from the direct rays of the sun, and greatly ob- structed the free circulation of the air. The great level plain which embraces the greater portion of the State, receiving the water from the melting of the winter's snow and ice, and from the spring rains, retained most of it through the spring and summer, the drainage being obstructed by driftwood, leaves, grow- ing vegetation, etc.
"This water, slowly evaporating, tempered the summer heat and gave a moist and cool atmosphere. In winter the sweep of the cold northwest wind was broken by forests, and the freezing of so large an amount of surface water as was retained from the fall rains gave off heat enough to sensibly modify the win- ter cold.
"The earth, covered with a heavy coat of autumn leaves and decaying weeds, scarcely froze during the winter, and as soon as the spring sunshine warmed the air, the earth was in a condition to respond by an early growth of vegetation. So, in the fall. the earth, not having been heated by the summer sun, soon felt the influence of the autumn winds and frosts, and winter came early.
"Now the forests have disappeared to make room for cultivated fields and the earth receives the direct rays of the sun, and the air circulates freely, obstructions have been removed from the streams, and artificial drainage has in many places been added.
The cultivated lands in many districts have been underdrained with tile, so that the melt- ing snows and spring floods are carried away directly, and but little moisture remains to temper the summer heat by evaporation.
"The earth, relieved by drainage of its re- dundant moisture, and stripped of its pro- tecting forests, is exposed to the direet rays of the summer sun. Before the fall months come it is heated to a great depth, and this heat, given off to the air, carries the summer temperature far into autumn aud postpones the advent of winter several weeks. But when the store of summer heat is exhausted and winter comes, the winds from the plains of the West come unobstructed, and the earth, now deprived of its former protection, freezes to a great depth.
"These conditions operate to render the springs later. the summers warmer, the antumns later and the winters more severe."
GEOLOGY.
For the benefit of the thousands of pupils who receive instruction in the excellent schools of Putnam County, and because the greater part of those who have come to ma- tare years are unacquainted with the subject of general geology. it is advisable, before saying anything of the special features of Putnam County, to describe the formation of the world as a whole and give such an account of the great periods of the earth's history that we may be able to find our place in that history, and thus. as in locating a place upon a map first, we may be the better able afterward to study it more satisfactorily and understandingly. Indeed, without this method of procedure all our ideas are vague and the entire work unsatisfactory and un- scientific.
Omitting the nebular hypothesis, which assumes the earth, together with all our
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bodies of the solar system, to have been in primeval times in the form of an incandes- cent gas of incomprehensible dimensions, and the second step derived from the former, through long cycles of whirling motion, radi- ation and condensation, the liquid or molten earth, with its wonderful processes of crust formation, we begin our brief description with the process of
ROCK-FORMATION.
The first or original rock is what was first formed as a crust, igneous rock, rock without form or strata -- a mere slag. The earth. losing heat by radiation and becoming smaller, the ernst, in accommodating itself to the smaller sphere, must necessarily rise in some places and sink in others, just as by the shrinking of an orange the rind becomes wrinkled. Then the water, having been pre- viously formed as the result of the great world formation, the residne, the oxh-heap of the great conflagration, obeying the law of gravity, is gathered together into the de-
pressed areas and thus the dry land, or rather of which is placed that of Putnam County the dry rock, appears.
Now, by the action of winds, rains, waves and the varions chemical and mechanical agencies. the exposed roek is decomposed, carried to the sea, and deposited in horizon- tal strata, which, in process of time, becomes stratified rock, just as is being done at the mouths of the rivers and the beach and hot- toni of the oceans of to-day.
BASEMENT ROCK.
and the cliff's of the sea-shore are portions of this roek exposed to view. Now, the various strata which compose the stratified rocks of the globe, with their included fossils. are the leaves of that great book which unfolds to us the history of the earth through its ineom- prehensibly long periods of time. The lowest strata, of course, furnish us the first chapter in that history. In uo part of the earth's surface is the record complete, but all have their long blanks-periods in which no strata ocenr. This is caused by the elevating of the ernst above the waters of the ocean, and, when this is continental, finis is appended to the chapter, and the history of the rocks is fin- ished forever.
In North America we have an excellent example of the unfolding and development of geological history, and as the continent gradually emerged from the ocean it left us the record almost complete. The following section is a representation of the successive geological ages, with the corresponding form- ations and periods of the globe, by the side with its many and immensely long blanks between the Devonian and Quaternary or Psychozoic ages.
Thus a glance at the section will show ns our place in the history of the formation of the globe, not the least interesting part of which is the long blank between the De- vonian and Quaternary ages, showing us conclusively that our soil rests upon the Devonian. At the close of the above named period all Northern Indiana and a strip ex- tending through the central part of the State to the Ohio River emerged from beneath the sea and the history of the rocks of Put- nam County was finished forever.
From the preceding we may conclude that there is everywhere beneath the waters and soil of the earth's surface a basement of rock, sometimes called bed-rock. The outcropping of rock above the surface, the rocky bluffs To enable the reader to grasp more readily the rock formation of the globe and of Put- forming the sides of many valleys, the ledges projecting from the sides of mountains, nam County during the six geological periods
i
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HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
of the earth's formation --- the Quaternary, Terti- ary, Reptilian, Carbonifer- ous, Devonian and Silurian -- we append the accompa- nying carefully prepared diagranı.
THE DEVONIAN FORMA- TION,*
so named by Sedgwick and Murchison, from Devon- shire, England, where it occurs well developed and abounds in fossils, and its age, the Age of Fishes, so called because in it the first known fishes are found. is in no part of the coun try exposed to view, neither has it been reached in the sinking of wells; hence all our knowledge of it must be gained from ex- posed areas and sections in other localities. Omit- ting the rock formation. becanse completely hidden from view, we come to the study of that which is apparent to all, that in which the farmer plows, ! upon which our wagon
* For a description of the rocks of this age, and also of its Life System, both animal and vegetable, the reader is referred to the three excellent works of Professor Dana, the "Geolog- ical Story," the "Text Book," and the " Manual," the masterly work of Professor Le Comte, and to the many and valuable Geological Reports of Ohio and Indiana.
VERTICAL SECTION OF THE ROCKS
OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
AGE.S.
OF THE GLOBE. ROCKS.
PERIODS.
ROCKS.
TERTIARY QUATERNARY.
25 Recent.
24 Champlain.
23 Glacial.
22 Pliocesse.
21 Miocente.
20 Alabama.
10 Lignitic.
REPTILIAN.
17 Jurassic.
16 Trats.ic.
15 1 cymian.
CARBONIFEROUS,
14 Carboniferous.
13 Sub, Carboniferous
12 Catskill.
11 Chemung.
10 Hamilton.
Old Kad Sand Stone
of Scotland and Wales.
UPPER.
SILURIAN.
5 Niagara.
J Trenton
3 Canadian.
-
DEVONIAN.
o Coniferous.
& Oriskany.
7 Lower Helderberg.
o Salina.
LOWER.
16 Cretaceous.
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roads and railroads are builded, and upon which we all depend for our daily bread- the immense superincumbent mass of soil known as
DRIFT.
The farmer boy, as he walks over the meadow with its carpet of green and wanders beside the babbling brook, or, as with sturdy hand he turns the grassy sward, uncultured though he be, asks himself the question: "From whence came all this that is spread ont so beautifully around me? These huge stones which I see lying npon the surface or imbed- ded within the soil, how came they here? Do they grow? . The hills, rock-ribbed and au- cient as the sun.' how were they formed ? and what is their history?" Ah! If they could speak and tell us what scenes they have wit- messed the story would be of far more inter- est than that of Bezoni's mummy, for it could tell us of the world not merely as it was " three thousand years ago," but stretching far back into the illimitable past, they could tell much of the Creator's plans in fitting up the earth as the abode of man.
All soil, with the trifling exception of the thin stratum of vegetable mold that covers the ground in many localities, is formed from the disintegration of rocks. Now, there are two great classes of soil, to one of which every kind of soil may be referred, that is, soil formed in situ- in the place where found and that which has been transported, when formed, to places more or less remote from the parent rock. It is to the latter of these that our soil belongs and hence that which we wish to treat.
Strewed all over the northern part of North America, over hill and dale, over field and plain, covering alike, in places, all the country rock to a depth of thirty to three , before ns.
the Rocky Mountains eastward, and south- ward to the fortieth parallel of latitude, is found this peculiar surface soil or deposit. It consists of a heterogeneous mixture of clay, sand, gravel, pebbles, sub-angular stones of all sizes, unsorted, unsifted, un- fossiliferous. The lowest part lying in immediate contact with the subjacent rock is often a stiff clay including sub-angular stones: hence this is often called the boubler clay or hard pan. "These included boulders," says Professor Geikie, "are scattered higgledy- piggledy, pell-mell, through the clay so as to give the whole deposit a highly confused and tumultuous appearance." On examining many of these stones they will be found to be angular in shape, but the sharp corners and edges are invariably smoothed away, their faces will be smoothed and frequently grooved with parallel scratches. Indeed in concretionary stones and others having an egg shape often one whole end has been ground off, showing conclusively its history. On the other hand, lying all over this drift soil, in clusters, in isolated rocks, and in belts varying in width from a single line to two or three miles, are found many boulders of all sizes; in some localities they are of huge dimensions and weigh hundreds of tons. These unscratched, or erratic, blocks, as they are sometimes called. have attracted the attention and excited the wonder of those in the humblest walks of life, and since they are composed of materials foreign to the local geology were regarded by them as foreigners which had been brought from a distance and strewed over the surface or perched upon deelivities in some incomprehensible way. It is now very appropriate to investigate the causes for all this phenomena spread out
Whenever the underlying rock is of antii-
hundred feet, thus largely concealing them from view, and extending in general from : cient hardness to retain an impression, and
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HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
for any cause is exposed to view. it is always found to be plowed and planed and grooved with long parallel stria. and ruts. Thus, these scratches, with the superincumbent drift, the boulder clay, and the surface boul- ders, furnish for us phenomena, the exact counterpart of which is found on a smaller scale in all the glaciated regions of the world to-day --- Alaska, Greenland, Switzerland, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the Antarctic Continent. Given identical phenomena, we must conclude there was an identical cause. Given identical phenomena in the one case on a much larger and grander seale. we must conclude there was a cause of far greater and grander proportions. There was, then, a time in the past when for hundreds of years the winters grew steadily both longer and colder; the equatorial current, being pressed southward at Cape St. Roque, was pouring more and more of its waters into the South Atlantic. The moisture was all precipitated as snow, and these all mutually reacting upon each other so that cach effect strengthened the cause, brought about the period known as the great Ice Age, and formed an immense continential ice-sheet or Polar Ice Cap which extended in general to the fortieth degree of latitude, with local extensions of its iey fingers down river valleys far to the sonth- ward.
In the beginning of the Archaan Age, at the time of the first known continental emergence in the history of the world, there was formed a high mountain range north of the great lakes, extending from Labrador to the Lake of the Woods and thence northward to the Arctic Ocean, the degradation of which has furnished the material for the stratified rocks that surround it, and, being especially active in the glacial period, it also furnished the greater part of our drift material. Thus through the lapse of countless ages down to
the present time, all the mountain peaks and chains of this Laurentian continent, as it is frequently called, have been removed and carried into the sea, and, as a result, there remain only the truncated bases of the vari- ous arches and folds to testify to their former existenee and magnitude. Thus we see that these arehaan mountains are the means, and the Ice Cap, together with what follows, the melting of the ice, are the agents in perform- ing the final work in fitting up this part of our earth-home. For with its ponderons mass of ice a mile in thickness and constantly increasing as it approaches the pole, moving southward. it ground the softer rocks to powder, brought hither onr soil, scooped out the great lakes and the multitude of smaller ones in their latitude, and by the retreating of the glacier, the immense floods and the consequent host of icebergs, the river valleys were hollowed ont, the hills and the gravel beds formed, and the surface boulders were dropped by the river's side and over the fields and plains.
The glacier in forming the Erie basin, as is indicated by the furrows made at different points. moved from east to west along the line of its way or axis. It plowed up the Huron and Erie shales, in the east end, to a great depth, but moving westward it came upon the hard floor of corniferous limestone and but a shallow basin was formed. Here the many beautiful and fertile islands par- tienlarly testify to the unyielding hardness of the rocks. Thence passing southwest to New Haven and Fort Wayne, and from New Ilaven down the Wabash Valley, it deter- mined the valleys of two rivers which would, in turn, one day, through long periods of time, drain the waters of Lake Erie to the gulf, and convey to itself all the waters of the great Maumee basin. Now, by a process the exact reverse of that which produced
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the glacial epoch, there was brought about a period of much warmer climate known as the
CHAMPLAIN. 1
This was characterized by melting of ice and snow. a far more extended and higher condition of the great lakes, by multitudes of icebergs floating southward over' these inland seas and dropping their loads of earth, sand, gravel and boulders, by namerous Hoods which broadened and deepened the river valleys and the pell-mell dumping of gravel and stones over hills and valleys, with the stratification of whatever was deposited by the water.
Proceeding from below upward in our in- vestigations, we arrive at last at the thin stratum of vegetable mold covering the drift, which has been formed by the annual coating of leaves for untold years. This, together with the pulverized and partially decomposed granitic rock, the enormous drift covering, furnishes for the farmer a soil that is at once fertile and inexhanstible: for if he will but "plow deep, while sluggards sleep. he will . have plenty of corn to sell and keep."
Thus, though we are not blessed with mines of the precious metals, nor coal, nor iron, nor copper, yet we have in our soil an inexhaustible mine of true wealth. the fonn- dation of a nation's true greatness, the basis, the hidden spring that sets in motion the wheels of trade and commerce throughout the world. And the farmer, in his high and time-honored calling, holds in his hands the electric key, by means of which he sends the thrill of life-giving pulsations throughout the whole world of human industry and sets in motion its countless spindles and wheels, the sweet musie of whose hum is heard in every clime.
ZOOLOGY.
within or near the borders of Putnam County it formerly had a respectable number of both species and individuals of the animal king- dom. It afforded the Indian and the pioneer an abundance of wholesome wild meats, and in great variety, as well as a splendid supply of useless or mischievous animals. Accord- ing to the rule the world over, the larger animals disappeared first before the advanc- ing tread of human occupation, and then the next in size, and so on, down to the raccoon, opossum, etc., which still exist, though in diminished numbers. The buffalo and elk were the largest, and they disappeared on the very first approach of the white man, with his deadly rifle and indefatigable hound.
ANIMALS.
The common deer, which was abundant in pioneer times, is now very scarce in Indiana, being occasionally seen in some of the wild- est portions of the State. The last one known to be in Putnam County was killed as much as four years ago.
The panther and two species of wild-cat used to infest the woods, and render travel somewhat dangerous to the carly settler, but the last seen in the county were about a third of a century ago.
The black bear, porcupine and beaver have not been seen here for a still longer period.
Minks, weasels and skunks, once common. are diminishing. Twenty or thirty years ago there was a brisk trade here in their furs and other peltry which perceptibly thinned out the fur-bearing animals.
Fox and gray squirrels keep up their pro- portion with the diminishing forest. The gray species is the most numerous, among which a black specimen is occasionally met with. Flying squirrels are still here, but as
Although no large body of water exists | they are entirely nocturnal in their habits
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HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
they are seldom seen. There are also ground squirrels in abundance.
Moles, rabbits and bats are of course still common.
No otters have been seen for many years, though they were frequent in early days. There are still a good many muskrats.
Occasionally there is a gray fox met with, but few red foxes have been seen for a long time.
Wolves, of the large gray " timber " species, were plentiful in early times, and more an- noying and mischievous than all other ani- mals put together; but they are now, of course, extinet.
Ground hogs, or " woodchucks," were never very plentiful, and are so scaree now that seldom can one be found.
" Wild hogs," or domestic hogs escaped and running wild, were abundant in pioneer times. In a few generations these animals : became as fierce and dangerous as wolves.
BIRDS.
Of the 250 species of birds found in Put- nam County, either constantly or occasionally in emigration, the group of singers exceeds in number all others, though the really ex- cellent musicians among them number but fifteen or twenty. The most numerously represented division, the wood warblers, are not fine singers. The best songsters of the forest belong to the thrush and mocking-bird family.
Thrush Family .-- The superior singing bird of Putnam County is the superior singer of the world, namely, the wood-thrush. It is really more entertaining than the famous nightingale of Europe. Its melodious, flute- like tones are " too sweet " for description. They are grouped into short tunes of eight, ten or twelve notes each, and there are six or eight tunes sung by this bird, with intervals
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