Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical., Part 2

Author: Blanchard, Charles, 1830-1903, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : F.A. Battey & Co.
Number of Pages: 982

USA > Indiana > Clay County > Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical. > Part 2
USA > Indiana > Owen County > Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical. > Part 2

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).

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

merce, including all its meanderings, cannot be accurately estimated, though it may be approximated at 300 miles. A straight line from the source in Boone County, to the confluence with White River, will meas- ure about 100 miles. Counting from the source of Mill Creek, the dis- tance is less. In its course it crosses the county twice. At a point just below Bellaire, it approaches within half a mile of the Owen County line, at the Old Hill, within two miles of the Vigo County line, and as it flows out of the county it touches within half a mile of the Greene County line. It divides the county into two very irregular and unequal sections; the territory on the east side being to that on the west as 1 to 2}. In its circuit from the Rhodes Rock to the Owen County line, a distance of ninety miles, it forms a remarkable triangular shaped bend, presenting numerous equally remarkable horseshoe crooks all along its course. The distance between these two points direct, which lie on the same meridian, is twelve miles.

Eel River has not much fall in its course through the county, hence it is not a rapid stream. From this feature we deduce the following conclusions: 1. It does not abound in numerous valuable water privi- leges for milling purposes. 2. It readily overflows and inundates the lands bordering on it. 3. It affor ds facilities for navigation. There are several flouring mills on the stream, but at times in the dry and in the wet season of the year, the stage of the water is such as to render them inoperative. The overflowing of the stream is both an advantage and a disadvantage. It contributes largely to the productiveness of the soil, but is detrimental to health and to crops. The river bottom proper, which varies from a half mile to three miles in width, has been over- flowed frequently to a depth varying from a few inches to six feet. Naturally, this overflow accumulates a great deal of drift, which tends to the channel as the water recedes. As a consequence, in the earlier history of the county, there were big drifts in the great bend, the most noted of which were near the Greenwell place and New Brunswick. The former became so dense and formidable as to divide and change the chan - nel of the river. These obstructions were removed by firing and burn- ing them during the dry seasons. In the big drift at New Brunswick, cedar logs were taken out, which had floated down from the vicinity of Cataract, 200 miles above. To show that Eel River ranked among the navigable streams of the State, in the estimation of the pioneer legisla- tor, we cite the fact that in 1829 the General Assembly passed an act authorizing the Board of Justices for Clay County to remove obstruc- tions from its channel as far up as Croy's Mill, for purposes of naviga- tion.

The tributaries of Eel River on the east are Knob Creek, Jordan, Six Mile, Prairie Creek, Big Creek, Lick Branch, White Oak and Pond Creek; on the west, Croy's Creek, Tighlman, McIntyre, Hog Creek, Tur-

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

key Creek, Birch Creek, Clear Branch, Splunge Creek, Briley's and Ba- ber's Creeks. The principal of these are Jordan, Six Mile and Big Creek, on the east, and Croy's, Birch and Splunge Creek, on the west. Jordan rises in Jackson, Jennings and Morgan Townships, Owen County. The main source is near Cataract. The three branches flow together one mile north of Jordan Village, a mile and a half east of the county line. The main stream then flows west and empties into Eel River, at Bowling Green. This bears the most memorable name of all the water-courses of the county. It was named by David Thomas, the first settler on the river, who came here a number of years before the organization of the county. On reaching the creek, as he came from the east, and behold- ing the stately timber, the beautiful verdure and the fertile soil of the plain lying between the creek and the river, he thought of the Land of Promise, and, as he passed over to take possession, christened the stream Jordan. It is about twelve miles in length. The surface which it drains is uneven and rugged, some places precipitous and hilly. Six Mile rises in Morgan Township, Owen County, at two points a mile and a half dis- tant from each other. The two branches come together in the southeast corner of Washington Township, and flow almost directly west into the river at Bellaire. This stream derives its name from the circumstance that it is just six miles from its source to the mouth. Big Creek rises at different points in the northern, eastern and central parts of Harri- son Township. The basin of this stream blends with that of the river, forming one common plain. At some places, the bed of this stream is so superficial that it almost loses its identity, its waters being diffused promiscuously over the bottom. However, that part of it known as The Lake, more than a mile in extent, lying two miles northwest of Clay City, is a marked exception. Its well-defined banks, depth of channel and volume of water would seem to indicate that it might have been at one time a section of a much more pretentious stream. This and The Lake, at Howesville, were undoubtedly sections of the former Eel River. At ordinary water stage, Big Creek courses its way to Eel River through two channels. The natural one lies from The Lake to the southwest, entering the river a short distance below Woodrow's Mill. The artificial one, known as The Ditch, begins at a point one mile north of the Kos- suth road, is about five and a half miles in length, and opens into the river near the Brunswick bridge. This channel was cut by the State in 1855, to drain the swamp lands, when the channel of the stream was also cleared as far up as the Cromwell place. Ordinarily, this is not a large stream, as its name would indicate, but in the wet seasons it spreads to such an extent as to mingle with the waters of the river, in- undating the common bottom. At such times, the observer could scarcely suggest a more appropriate name.

Croy's Creek rises in Madison Township, Putnam County, about three

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

miles northeast of Lena, flows southwest across the corner of Parke County, crosses the Clay County line half way between Lena and Cal- cutta, flows south through Van Buren Township, intersects the northeast corner of Jackson in a southeast direction, crosses the southwest corner of Washington Township. Putnam County, and empties into Eel River on the county line, at Carpenter's mill. A west branch rises near Ben- wood, runs southeast and makes the junction with the main stream in the northeast corner of Jackson Township. The valley of this creek, like that of Jordan, is very narrow, bordered by short and rugged hills, the rocky bluffs approaching each other so closely at places as to leave but gorges for the passage of the stream. It is about fifteen miles in length, and bears the name of a family of pioneer settlers. Birch Creek drains the central part of the county. The creek proper is formed in the southwest part of Jackson Township, just above the iron bridge on the Brazil & Bowling Green road. The east branch rises near Knights- ville, the middle branch, near Brazil, and the west branch, at several points in the vicinity of Staunton and Newburg. These have smaller tributaries from different directions, which do not bear distinct names. From the junction, Birch Creek flows southwest, emptying into the river about three miles northeast of Splunge Creek Reservoir, opposite the Dan Harris place. The length of the creek from source to mouth is about eighteen miles. The principal tributaries of this stream are Wolf Creek on the east and Brush Creek on the west. The valley of this creek is wider and the surface of the lands bordering on it milder, than those of other streams which we have described. The valley is frequently flooded by sudden rises, as the middle and lower courses of the stream are sluggish. In very dry seasons it ceases to flow entirely. It owes its name to the abundance of birch timber found along its course. Birch Creek is historic from its immediate connection with the Wabash & Erie Canal, having been dammed to form a feeder at the present site of Saline City, and crossed by the aqueduct less than a mile above its confluence with the river. Splunge Creek rises in the southeastern part of Vigo County, flows east and empties into Eel River at the Old Hill. This stream, too, was made historic in the construction of the canal. By throwing up an embankment of two miles, reaching from the foot of the Old Hill to the junction of the side-cut canal with the trunk line, Splunge Creek Reservoir was made. This stream was named from a circumstance in the adventure of a pioneer merchant of Rockville, who used to make horseback trips to Louisville to buy his goods, fording the creek on the Terre Haute & Louisville road. Once, on the return trip, coming to the bank of the creek, the waters having swollen,, his faithful horse missed the ford, stumbled and plunged him headlong into the channel, hence, named Splunge (or Plunge) Creek.

That part of the county drained by Otter Creek, including all of Dick

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Johnson and parts of Van Buren, Brazil and Posey Townships, about one-tenth of the area of the county, does not belong to the basin of Eel River, but lies tributary to the Wabash. The main creek rises in Jack- son Township, Parke County, crosses the Dick Johnson Township line three-fourths of a mile west of the northwest corner of Van Buren, and flows across the township into Vigo County. A second branch rises south of Carbon, and forms the junction with the north branch near Lodi. A third branch rises south of Calcutta, flows southwest, intersect- ing the north part of Brazil Township and the south part of Dick John- son. A considerable branch of this stream rises near Staunton, crossed by the National road near Williamstown, and forms the junction with the south branch at the point of its crossing the Vigo County line. In the southwest corner of Nevins Township, Vigo County, Otter Creek proper is formed, and flows into the Wabash. This stream is named from the otter. There is, also, on the extreme western border of Lewis Township, a small area drained by the Rocky Fork of Busseron, a trib- utary of the Wabash.

Of the smaller streams we may name a few, specially, to show how local geographical names are acquired: Tighlman, in Cass Township, which empties into the river at the Poland bridge, bears the name of Tighlman Chance, one of the pioneer settlers of that locality, a promi- nent merchant at Bowling Green at an early day; McIntyre, which rises in Jackson Township and flows into the river above the Thomas Ferry, perpetuates the family name of the first sheriff of the county; Scamma- horn, in Sugar Ridge Township, hands down to succeeding generations the memories of the pioneer hunter and the pioneer fiddler of the cen- tral part of the county; the Briley Branch and the Baber Branch, in Lewis Township, flowing from the west side into Eel River, bear the names of James Briley and Robert Baber, who were among the first to locate in the respective localities of these streams.

The surface of Clay County presents a variety of soil, from the deep, black muck of the sloughs and marshes to the thin, gray and yellow clays of the uplands. On the small openings, or prairies, the low sur- face is a dark muck, and the high, a black sandy loam. The bottom land on the margin of the streams, is a rich clay loam, with a clay sub- soil. These loamy soils of the prairies and the first bottom are the most productive lands in the county, yielding bountiful crops of wheat and corn, vegetables and grasses, with but little attention to fertilization. That part of the bottom farthest from the stream and skirting the hills is, mostly, a tough, gray clay, with a surface deposit made by successive overflows. Between these extremes is a belt of second bottom, variable in composition. The clay soil of the flat uplands is, mostly, tenacious and wet, but rendered porous and abundantly productive by proper cul- tivation, aided by alkaline and manurial applications. It yields all the products adapted to this particular climate.

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

Much the larger area of the county, in its primal state, is! heavily timbered. On the bottoms the principal growth is the oaks-white, burr and water-shellbark hickory, ash, beech, gum, elm, etc .; on the margin of the streams, sycamore and cottonwood; and on the highest .banks, black walnut and burr oak of the largest size. On the uplands are the red, black and white oaks, smooth hickory, sugar maple, beech and some ash, and on the strongest uplands an abundance of stately poplars. The undergrowth is redbud, sassafras, dogwood, papaw, black haw, hazel and other varieties. In the western central part of the county are two small openings, called Clay Prairie and Christie's Prairie, and in the southern part, a third one, called Puckett's Prairie. The first of these covers an area of ten, the second, twelve, and the third, fifteen, miles. Besides these, there are several smaller areas, skirting the sloughs, which have the characteristics of the prairie. Bordering all these sections, the growth of timber is a scrubby oak, with persimmon, the latter being found also in clumps in the interior.

GEOLOGY.

The rock and coal strata fully attest the fact that the territory of Clay County has been above the ocean level from a period anterior to the close of the coal age in the annals of our planet. Its place is well down in the geological basin of the geographical plane drained by the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Alternating strata of sandstone, shales, coal, etc., occur west to the center of the basin in Illinois. A boring at Knightsville gives about 2,000 feet of strata to the Lower Silu- rian formation, which crops out in the southeast corner of the State. The geological strata have an inclination to the horizontal plane, dipping from east and northeast to west and southwest, from twenty to thirty feet to the mile. No signs of violent upheaval or violent rupture of the strata is perceivable, excepting that slight " faults " and " horsebacks " occur occasionally in the coal mines. In the untold ages which have in- tervened since Old Ocean retired from the long, vacillating contest so persistently maintained after the fiat of the third day of creation, the retreating waters have been scooping out valleys and deepening channels and rivers, and ravines have a maximum depth of a hundred feet. Eel River, Croy's Creek and Jordan have cut a wide and deep channel from a point in the northeast part of the county, breaking over the upturned rocks, wearing them down far to the southwest, then rebounding, cut their way back, and leave at the southeast corner. Many undulations and valleys are perceptible in the higher planes of the county, showing the denudations of the waters as they sought the new level of the retir- ing ocean, where now the heaviest rains scarce show a rivulet. Some grand records of the slow, persistent work of the waters and the gnaw- ings of the "tooth of time " are well preserved in rock volume of geo-

1892 William Travis

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

logic time, in which Eel River has been carving out her present devious and sluggish bed. For example, we may point to the grand and bold escarpment in the great sand rock ledge at the base of the coal measures on the present lands of James Carrithers, above Bowling Green. Here is the rock grandly and wonderfully cut, the unmistakable work of water, a hundred feet above, and nearly half a mile distant from the bed of the river. In its bold and massive front, its cavern-like recesses, its inimita- bly fine filigree chiselings, and its great cavernous gorge cut in the northeast angle of the bluff, are enough of the curious, the grand and the sublime to compensate one for a visit of observation and close inspec- tion. Near this site, at a quarry, the rock is distinctly out as a former shore line of the river, yet so far interior and so high above, that the river is not now visible from the quarry. The joint work of Eel River and Jordan is visible in the knobs, the sand deposits of the old eddies, the sand knoll and deep gulches at Bowling Green. The bluffs at Bell- aire and at Rhodes's show well the work of carving out rivers on the bosom of Mother Earth. Whilst Eel River was cutting down these rocks by her falls and her cascades, her floods carved out the valley between the heights at Center Point and the Sugar Ridge, and cut out the broad valley of Birch Creek to the south. The work is no less marked, curious and interesting, as we go south through the county. Since the river channels were cut thus broad and deep, some wondrous deluge filled gulches, valleys, pools and lakes with a dark mud, drift of coniferous forests, rocks, both native and foreign, fragments of coal, and yet other matter, varying in thickness from a very slight covering to many feet, usually called " hardpan," a kind of enigma on the scroll of time, little discussed and yet less understood. Yet later, came the glacial avalanche of ice and rock, and the wreck of animal and vegetable life, called the " bowlder drift." Its deposit is the yellow clay with rounded pebbles and bowlders of granite, gneiss, trapp and other foreign rocks. Its course is marked on the rocks where the surface was ground off by its action. Its course in this county was 32° 30' 10" east of south. The rocks thus marked are well exposed on the Frump and the Rhodes farm, below Bowling Green, on the Cullen farm, half mile east of the same place, and, also, at the stone quarries north of the town, heretofore named. The lines on the planished surfaces are exactly parallel, and the course indicated by them is very nearly uniform in the different locali- ties. These rocks may be appealed to as undubitable evidence of the irresistible movement of some wonderful agency over the face of the earth from the far Northwest to the regions of the Ohio and Kentucky. and from the lakes down to Tennessee. In this drift is found the same- ness of forest and lesser vegetation-the sameness of agricultural worth uninfluenced by the strata beneath. Eel River and Jordan cut and ex- pose the subcarboniferous limestone on the northeast. Next in the

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

ascending scale is a heavy bed of black slate, or shale, with nodules of iron ore. Two thin beds of coal occur. On these strata is imposed a heavy bed of sand rock, variable in character. In the north part of the county, on Croy's Creek, it is massive and conglomerate; at Bowling Green, it is irregular in its line of cleavage, and only fit for rubble walls. At the points named, where planed by glacial action, the rock is fine grained, cleaves well, cuts or saws readily into caps, lintels, copings, etc. In color and texture it excels the far famed Waverly Rock of Ohio. Some forty feet above this rock occurs the first bed of "block coal," so named by the miners, and adopted by State Geologist Cox. This bed of coal is usually about four feet in thickness. From seventeen to forty-five feet above this is the second bed of block coal, about three feet in thickness; and from thirty to fifty feet higher in the series is a vari- able bed of coal, usually bituminous, varying from one and a half to two and a half feet in thickness, and next in the series comes a seven feet bed of bituminous coal, in many instances composed of three slightly di- vided beds of equal thickness; but unlike each other, and still higher in the series is another bed of bituminous coal, about five feet in thickness. The line of strike indicates, also, that a four or five feet bed, known in Vigo County, crosses Lewis Township, of this county. The workable block coal beds are dry, finely laminated, horizontally, free from sul- phur, and having frequent vertical seams. It burns with a bright, cheer- ful blaze in the grate, maintaining its block form almost as well as hick- ory chips, leaves no clinkers, and gives about three per cent of ashes. This remarkable coal deposit has been traced on the eastern edge of the coal field from the Wabash, near La Fayette, to the interior of Kentucky, and is without a rival, perhaps, on the globe. The bituminous coal beds are almost equally persistent and extensive.

Having sketched this subject briefly in the scientific sense, it is now in order to treat it in the economic and practical sense. The past quar- ter of a century has demonstrated that the market value of the surface products of Clay County is but nominal in contrast with the immense treasury of wealth beneath the surface. In practical utility and value, the mineral resources of the county may be classed thus: First, the coals; second, the building stones; third, the plastic clays. The qualities of the block coal fit it alike for the grate, the forge, the foundry, the fur- nace and the mill. Its successive use in all these capacities has been tested effectually, not only in Clay County, but in all the cities from St. Louis on the west to Dayton and Cincinnati on the east, and from the lakes on the north to Kentucky on the south. The available block coal area of the county may be estimated at twenty-five miles in length and six miles in width, with an average depth of six feet. These dimensions will give, in round numbers, as the product of one acre, 10,000 tons, which, if estimated at $2 per ton delivered on the railroad within the

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

county, will amount to $20,000 an acre. On the same basis of estimate, the total market value of the block coal deposit of the county is $2,000, . 000,000, a much greater value than it is possible for the surface of the county, with all of its improvements, public and private, ever to attain, and a sum double the present assessed value of the property of the State, both real and personal. At 6 cents a ton in its native bed, this coal is worth $58,000,000, equal to the value of the total agricultural products of the county for a period of twenty-five years. The extent and value of the bituminous and cannel coals, principally the former, are scarcely less than of the block coal. Each of these has its peculiar adaptability in the economy of the useful arts. With block coal for the smelting of ores and the production of iron and steel, bituminous coal for the pro- duction of heat and steam, and cannel coal for the production of gas, we have here, imbedded in the bowels of Mother Earth, within the limits of our county, in almost inexhaustible quantities, the most potent agencies of civilization known to the human family. The order of development and utilization in the progress of the county was, first, the bituminous; second, the block; third, the cannel -- an order more natural than for- tuitous.

Forty years ago, Michael Combs, of Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, removed to this county, locating on the site of the town of Staunton. Then the owner of lands here, felling timber by heavy and well-directed blows, then wrestling with huge and stubborn roots until patience and muscle were exhausted, pursued his daily routine of toil, stimulated by the hope of a livelihood, perhaps reaping a little surplus by way of reward, wholly unmindful of the rich storehouse of wealth and power garnered but a few feet beneath his beaten track. But Mr. Combs was a close observer, and to him belongs the honor of having made the first discovery of coal in Clay County, as well as that of having shipped the first car-load on the Vandalia Railroad, in the fall of 1852. He will be remembered by many of the citizens of the county as one of the early and able ministers of the Christian Church, and as a member of the State Senate from 1852 to 1856. From the time of mak- ing this development up to 1850, aided by his son, Alexander C. Combs, at present a coal dealer at Terre Haute, he mined and wagoned to that city the supplies for the smiths and the only foundry then there.

Block coal was first developed in the West in the vicinity of Brazil, but to whom belongs the honor of having first discovered it there are several claims and a diversity of opinion. It was claimed by Dr. A. W. Knight, of Brazil, one of the most intelligent men of his day, that a Prof. Lawrence, a man of some scientific attainments, from the East, came to Brazil in the spring of 1853 and engaged in making brick, giv- ing his attention, also, to the supposed mineral resources of that section, and that in the same year he located the sites for the two prospective

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY.

coal shafts, one near the present woolen factory, the other near the de- pot, both immediately on the line of the Terre Haute & Richmond Rail- road. In the spring of 1854, he began operations and sunk the one near the factory, but never completed it so as to hoist any coal. In the latter part of the summer of the same year, John Andrew, William Campbell, James Kennedy and David Thomas put down the excavation for the one near the depot, hoisting all the dirt by hand power. From the lack of means, or from some other cause, the work was abandoned. Several years later, about 1858, David C. Stunkard resumed operations by the ap- plication of horse-power machinery, and began hoisting and shipping coal. But at an earlier period than this, John Weaver opened and oper- ated a slope a short distance northeast of Brazil, and shipped the first coal sent over the Terre Haute & Richmond Railroad to Indianapolis. The deposit of cannel coal is but limited, as at present known. The only point at which it has developed and is now operated is on the Phipps or Cooprider place, within a mile of Clay City. The first car- load of this coal was shipped by Eli Cooprider to the Terre Haute gas works in the latter part of the year 1881.

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Counties of Clay and Owen, Indiana : Historical and biographical., Part 2

Author: Blanchard, Charles, 1830-1903, ed Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : F.A. Battey & Co. Number of Pages: 982

Author: Blanchard, Charles, 1830-1903, ed
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : F.A. Battey & Co.
Number of Pages: 982