USA > Indiana > Cass County > History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I > Part 5
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The Wabash river runs from east to west through the center of the . county, while Eel river runs from northeast to southwest, and empties into the Wabash at Logansport near the center of the county. Twelve Mile, Spring creek, Tick creek, and Horney creek flow from the north into Eel river; Cottonwood and Crooked creeks flow from the north into the Wabash river; Blue Grass and Indian creeks in the northern part of the county flow northwest into the Tippecanoe river. South of the rivers we have Pipe creek in the eastern part of the county, flowing northwest into the Wabash.
Also Minnow creek, Keeps creek, and Prairie branch flow north into the Wabash river in the central and western part of the county, while Rock creek and Deer creek flow from east to west in the southern part of the county and empty into the Wabash in Carroll county.
Lake Cicott, Cass county's only lake, is situated in the western por- tion of the county and is about a mile in length and one-fourth mile wide
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
and is beautifully situated, being surrounded by high sand banks on all sides except to the east, its natural outlet into an adjoining marsh. It thus appears like a sparkling gem in the sand hills of Jefferson township. The lake has a depth of about 65 feet and sun, cat, pike, and other species of fish are found in its waters.
In the early settlement of the county there was quite a body of water known as Twin lake, situated in sections 28 and 33, Bethlehem township, consisting of two lakes connected by a narrow strait. The length of the two lakes was nearly a mile and about one-quarter of a mile in width and was supplied with several species of fish, but the contiguous land owners thought more of fertile lands than lakes of water, and in the drainage of the surrounding county the lake gave up its waters to advanc- ing civilization, was completely drained, and now what was once the bed of this little lake is converted into a beautiful meadow.
ON THE BANKS OF THE WABASH, LOGANSPORT
The average annual rain fall is about 40 inches and the variations of temperature range from 30° below zero to 100° above (Fahrenheit).
CIVIL DIVISIONS
Cass county is divided into fourteen civil townships, to wit: Adams, Bethlehem, Harrison, Boone, Jefferson, Noble, and Clay townships lying north of the rivers, Miami township between the rivers, Eel township, including the city of Logansport, lies between and on both sides of the Wabash and Eel rivers at their junction, and Clinton, Deer Creek, Jack- son, Tipton, and Washington townships lie south of the Wabash river.
Cass county was originally covered with heavy timber of oak, wal- nut, poplar, beech, hickory, ash, elm, sycamore, and other woods, but these primeval forests have given way to the ax of the pioneer, and today only here and there may be seen small groves of original forest trees.
The writer well remembers when such valuable woods as black walnut and yellow poplar were ruthlessly cut down, rolled into log heaps and burned up in order to clear and prepare the land for the farmer's plow. If those giant trees had been left standing until this day and age, they could be sold for many times the value of the land which they occupied, even at the present high price of farms in Cass county which range from $100.00 to $250.00 per acre. The bottom land along the river has a rich loamy, alluvial soil and is very productive. The townships south of the
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
river are generally level with a black alluvial soil well adapted to corn, oats, and hay. That section lying north of the Wabash, as a rule, is more undulating and hilly, and the soil is a sandy loam better adapted to wheat. The principal products are corn, wheat, oats, timothy, clover, and potatoes, with all kinds of fruits and vegetables adapted to a tem- perate climate.
Large numbers of sheep, hogs, cattle, and horses are also raised by our prosperous farmers. Of recent years, the increased demand for poultry, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables have prompted many of our farmers to devote their entire time and attention to these productions.
According to a recent report the average corn crop of Cass county was 55 bushels per acre, which is larger than any other county in the state.
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CHAPTER III
GEOLOG
Geologists divide the time that has been aquired to develop the earth to its present state of perfection into cycles or ages, and each age is known by certain kinds of rocks containing foss. I, remains whereby each geologic age can be known and definitely ascerta. ned wherever the rocks out-crop or can be examined.
The rocks out-cropping in Cass county belong to the upper Silurian and lower Devonian age as shown by the fossil remains found in the quarries and out-cropping ledges along our rivers and cre eks. To enumerate the various fossil remains in these rocks would be out of place in a work of this character.
Cass county and all Indiana was once an inland sea in the remote in ages of the past and the rocks underlying this county were formed the bottom of this sea. These solid beds of limestone underlie the whor of Cass county, but covered over with drift from a few feet to two hundred and fifty feet deep, deposited thereon during the Glacial period of geologic history. Far northward, the mountains of Canada were covered with snow and year by year a boreal temperature was creeping southward on account of the withdrawal of the deep seas and great changes in the climatic controlling currents. These great glaciers moved southward bearing sand, gravel, boulders, clay and deposited the same all over the state. The advancing and receding of these glaciers with their burdens of conglomerated till or drift at different periods of geologic time completely covered the underlying strata of limestone, and giving us the varied soil and strata of sand, gravel and boulders found in different parts of our county.
Moraines consist of large masses of debris shoved forward by the glacier or melted out of it along its front, thus forming the hills and ridges found in Jefferson, Noble, Clay, Adams and Miami townships.
After the melting of the glaciers and the deposit of the drift the water washed channels in it, thus forming our rivers and leaving the underlying rocks out-cropping along their banks.
CONNECTED SECTIONS
Quaternary.
Recent period. Soil. 5 feet
Drift period. Glacial clay, sand and gravel. 0 to 150 feet
Devonian age.
Upper Helderberg group.
Amorphous dove-colored stone. 0 to 25 feet
Buff quarry-stone. Casparis quarry, etc. 0 to 50 feet
Blue limestone, Lux's quarry (Shultztown) 0 to 10 feet
Stromatopora beds. Keeport's limekilns, 4 miles east. 10 feet
Schoharie grit 0 to 5 feet
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Silurian age. Upper Silurian division. Lower Helderberg group. Water strata. Pipe creek falls
0 to 10 feet
Niagara. Limestone
0 to 10 feet
Total 275 feet All the stone in Cass county is referred to the Devonian and Silurian systems.
In the vicinity of Logansport and west, including the quarries at Georgetown, the rocks belong to the Upper Helderberg group of the Devonian age. The lowest member of this group, the Schoharie grit, is only seen on Deer creek in Jackson township. The next member in descending order of the geological scale is the Waterlime formation of the Lower Helderberg, which out-crops in the bed of Pipe creek at Pipe Creek falls, in Tipton township. Below the Waterlime strata comes the Niagara limestone in the channel of Pipe creek in the bed of the Wabash river, east of Cass, at Cedar island, immediately south of the old Keeport lime kilns in Miami township, and at Miller's falls, west of Lewisburg. Because of the general dip to the west, the Niagara stone disappears under the bed of the Wabash before it reaches Logansport.
All the rocky strata of the county lie as they were deposited at the bottom of the ocean, other than the changes wrought by continental up- heavals that made the interior of North America dry land.
The general dip is to the west, a few degrees south. This is true of the entire Wabash valley, and in fact of the whole state. Some sections in different parts of the county are given below.
Talbott and Parker's limekiln near Dunkirk, west of Logansport: Soil 2 feet 6 inches
Hard dove-colored concretionary limestone 11 feet 10 inches
Rough-bedded, dove-colored limestone. 10 inches .
Rough-bedded, dove-colored limestone. 8 inches
Total 15 feet 0 inches The concretions seen in the quarry vary in size from that of a hulled walnut to that of one's fist, and are cemented together by a greenish- white material that weathers black.
Sections of Wm. Talbott's quarry, three miles west of Logansport on the south side of the state line division of the Pennsylvania railroad in Eel township :
Soil and covered slope
12 feet 0 inches
Thin fissile, buff limestone
3 feet
0 inches
Heavy-bedded, buff limestone
1 foot 3 inches
Soft, buff limestone. 0 feet 7 inches
Hard, buff limestone, in two strata.
2 feet 6 inches
Irregularly-bedded, fissile limestone.
4 feet 4 inches
Even-bedded, buff limestone.
1 foot 2 inches
Irregularly-bedded, gray limestone.
0 feet
8 inches
Rotten buff limestone.
0 feet 2 inches
Vermicular buff limestone.
1 foot 0 inches
Hard, buff limestone, in four strata.
2 feet 10 inches
Total 29 feet 6 inches The bottom of this quarry shows an arenacious limestone stratum. No fossils, except some obscure casts were seen here, in fact, this is true
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
of all equivalent exposures of this rock in the county. This stone lies horizontally bedded in every out-crop, except one, that at Georgetown, where it has a slight dip to the west. A few rods south of this quarry in a gravel pit, limestone boulders were seen corresponding lithologically with the stone at Talbott and Parker's limekiln quarries and these boulders, no doubt, were derived from stone that capped the quarry before the glacial action removed it.
Sections of Casparis quarry, north bank of the Wabash river, three and a half miles west of Logansport, Eel township on Kenneth quarries: Soil and covered slope. 10 feet 0 inches
Rough bedded dove colored limestone, 3 strata. 4 feet 0 inches Hard dove colored limestone with chertbands. 12 feet 0 inches
Massive heavy bedded, dove colored limestone, even bedded
10 feet
0 inches
Rough bedded dove colored limestone, 3 strata.
4 feet
0 inches
Irregularly bedded fissile, gray limestone. 4 feet
0 inches
Fissile, buff limestone
2 feet 10 inches
Silicious, dove colored limestone to bottom of valley.
5 feet
0 inches
Total
47 feet 10 inches
Below the farm house and just west of Fitch's Glen the dove colored stone has thinned to fifteen feet as shown in the perpendicular face of the bluff; but the buff stone, owing to its softness, was covered in the greater part by soil of the slope. The thickness of the latter is here esti- mated at thirty feet. Fitch's Glen, one of the most romantic views in the county shows the cutting and wearing processes of the water or the geologic forces making a narrow gorge in the limestone as well as the glacial drift above, through which runs a small rivulet.
H. M. Whistler's quarry on Pipe creek, one mile south of the Wabash river in Tipton township :
Soil
1 foot
8 inches
Buff-gray limestone that splits in thin layers. 6 feet
0 inches
Even bedded gray limestone in five strata 10 in. each 3 feet 10 inches
Total
11 feet 6 inches This so far as seen is the best building stone in the county. The iron contained in it being thoroughly oxidized, it is not affected by atmos- pheric changes.
Section of Pipe creek near the schoolhouse :
Soil and slope
5 feet 0 inches
Buff magnesian limestone, obscurely bedded. 11 feet
0 inches
Heavy bedded buff limestone in five strata 8 feet 11 inches
Rotten amorphous stone to water's edge
1 foot 8 inches
Total
26 feet 7 inches On the bank of Pipe creek in the rear of the schoolhouse there is a . twenty foot exposure of unstratified buff stone with sand holes and minia- ture caves in it.
Section at Adamsboro, east of the bridge over Eel river :
1 foot 2 inches Soil
Hard gray magnesian limestone, containing many
fossils, corals and polyzoa to water's edge .... 10 feet 0 inches
Total
11 feet 2 inches
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Sections at Miller's falls, one mile west of Lewisburg, Miami town- ship :
Rough-bedded gray limestone, containing Stromato- pora and Favosites
12 feet
0 inches
Rough-bedded (Niagara) limestone to bottom
3 feet
0 inches
Total
15 feet 0 inches This little stream occupies a preglacial channel that starts north from the Wabash river opposite the mouth of the Mississinewa, above Peru and runs in a western direction to about a mile west of Waverly, then turns south and intersects the Wabash river a half mile west of Lewisburg.
Section at Cedar Island, Washington township :
Roughly weathered white limestone.
4 feet
6 inches
Irregular amorphous limestone 14 feet
0 inches
Thin bedded silico magnesian limestone
4 feet
6 inches
Heavy bedded silico magnesian limestone·
11 feet
6 inches
Banded limestone with petroleum
1 foot
6 inches
Total
26 feet 0 inches This stone is referred to the Niagara group on lithological grounds, alone, as no fossils could be found. The dip is five degrees west and the strata seems to thicken rapidly in the same direction. At Keeports lime- kiln a mile or so to the north this stone underlies the Devonian and can be traced one half mile east along the Wabash railroad where it disappears dipping to the east. West from Keeports it dips at about the same rate along the river until it finally disappears under the bed of the Wabash.
Section at Keeports limekilns, four miles east of Logansport in Miami township :
Gray limestone, bedding irregular
4 feet
0 inches
Blue limestone, bedding obscure, (Upper Held-
.erberg)
4 feet
0 inches
Blue limestone to bottom of quarry
4 feet
0 inches
12 feet 0 inches The two upper members of this section contain numbers of "Stroma- topora," some of them a foot in diameter.
Sections on W. H. Tyner farm opposite Georgetown in Clinton town- ship :
Soil
14 feet
0 inches
Limestone
51 feet
0 inches
Total
65 feet 0 inches
This stone is very hard. At the bottom of the bore, colored slate was struck which was probably the Niagara shale which is often found under- . lying the Upper Helderberg Group of Devonian Age. Crinoidal remains and many coral were found in the upper members of this section but too poorly preserved to be identified.
Section in Jefferson township, one-half mile above Georgetown : Soil
3 feet 0 inches
Dark limestone-full of crinoidal remains. 2 feet
0 inches
Dark limestone-full of crinoidal remains.
0 feet 3 inches
Fissile, light colored-full of crinoidal remains, rest- ing on hard blue silicious stone (Firerock). 2 feet 0 inches
' Total
7 feet 3 inches
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY .
Section of well on Marian Kreider farm-section 31, town. 28, range 3 east, Adams township :
Soil-sandy loam
15 feet
0 inches
Blue Clay
25 feet
0 inches
Gravel .
3 feet
0 inches
Blue Clay
46 feet
0 inches
Water bearing gravel
7 feet
0 inches
Total
96 feet
0 inches
GRAVEL PIT
Section 31, town. 28, range 3 east, Adams township : Soil 3 feet
Good coarse gravel
6 feet
Gray sand
3 feet
Total
12 feet
This gravel is fine for road material and the sand is excellent for plastering purposes.
General section at Lucerne, Harrison township : Soil
1 foot
Yellow clay with occasional sand parting. 6 feet
Blue .clay
25 feet
Total
32 feet
Section Samuel Brown's well, section 21, township 28, range 2, east, Bethlehem township :
Soil
3 feet
Yellow clay
10 feet
Gravel
2 feet
Blue clay-to water bearing gravel 115 feet
Total 130 feet
Section gravel pit on farm of D. Calvert, section 33, township 28, range 2, east, Bethlehem township:
Soil
10 feet
Good gravel 20 feet
Total 30 feet
This pit furnishes gravel for road making and was used on the Michigan pike.
Section of gravel pit near Jacktown, Harrison township:
4 feet
Good coarse, gray gravel with pockets of 'sand. 10 feet
Total 14 feet
This bed of gravel outcrops for two miles along the bank of Big Indian creek, in the northern part of the township.
Section of well in Royal Center, Boone township : Soil 3 feet
Sand 2 feet
Blue clay-to water bearing gravel 12 feet
Total
17 feet
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
The south half of Boone and the northeastern parts of Jefferson town- ships are traversed by parallel sand ridges varying in height from ten to thirty feet. The sand is yellow and the ridges have a general trend from northeast to southwest and are evidently the remains of the great glacial moraines.
Section of well at Lake Cicott, Jefferson township :
Sandy soil
8 feet
Yellow clay and gravel 8 feet
Fine gravel 5 feet
Blue glacial clay 5 feet
Water bearing gravel
2 feet
Total
28 feet
Section gravel pit east of Curveton, Jefferson township : Soil and sand 18 to 24 feet
Good coarse gray gravel 15 to 30 feet
Total 33 to 54 feet
Section gravel pit on Robinson farm, Noble township : Soil
3 feet
Gray gravel with sand strata 10 feet
Total 13 feet
Ten feet of gravel was exposed here but it evidently extends much deeper. In Clay township the soil has a depth of from one to ten feet under which lies ten to twenty feet of gray hard pan clay with sand partings. Along the hills are numerous springs where the sand partings of the hard pan come to the surface.
Section of Owen Engler's well, Walton, Tipton township : Black loam 1 feet 6 inches
Yellow clay, changing to clay sand. 15 feet 0 inches
Total 16 feet 6 inches David Englin in digging a well at Walton reports that at a depth of seven feet the earth sounded hollow and on breaking through the crust a never failing supply of water was found.
Section of M. H. Thomas' well, Galveston, Jackson township :- Soil, gravel and clay 58 feet
Limestone 5 feet
Total 63 feet
Section of gravel pit, Jackson township, on Samuel Wallace's farm, section 34, township 25, range 3, east : Soil 3 feet Coarse, yellow gravel 20 feet
, Total 23 feet This is on Deer creek. The gravel is alternated with strata of sand and clay.
Section of well, farm of Oliver Baughman, Washington township: Yellow loam 6 feet Gravelly loam 16 feet vol. 1-2
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Blue clay 3 feet
Water bearing gravel 2 feet
Total 27 feet
There is no available gravel beds found in Washington township for road making purposes.
Section of wells in sections 15 and 16, township 26, range 1, east, Clinton township : Soil, black rich loam 2 feet 3 inches
Yellow glacial clay 8 feet 10 inches
Blue glacial clay to water 6 feet 10 inches
Total 17 feet 11 inches The general level of the water in Cass county has been gradually lowered during the past 40 years owing to the general drainage of the land. Formerly surface wells were dug to a depth of only 10 to 30 feet and an abundance of water was found, but since the county has been so thoroughly drained the water rapidly flows off after each rain, instead of settling into the earth and former, old wells, are drying up and our farmers have to sink wells to a depth of 50 to 150 feet into the deep glacial gravels.
NATURAL GAS
During the natural gas excitement in 1887 to '90 several wells were sunk in different parts of Cass county but no gas was obtained. The gas, according to the best geologists, is generated in the Trenton lime- stone which is a porous rock of the Lower Silurian age. It is supposed to be formed from animal remains that were enmeshed in the formation of the Trenton limestone many millions of years ago, and where there was impervious super-strata of rocks the gas remained and could be tapped by boring, but where the rocks above were cracked by geological upheavals or seismic disturbances, the gas escaped and none would be found by sinking wells into the Trenton limestone, as was the case in Cass county.
Section of gas well on Barnett farm, west side, Logansport : Soil-gravel and clay 80 feet
Blue hard limestone 70 feet
White limestone 335 feet
Gray shale slightly gritty 200 feet
Coffee colored shale 240 feet
Trenton limestone
Total 925 feet No gas was found but a flow of water was obtained which has some medicinal virtues. All the other wells struck salt water in the Trenton limestone.
Wells were drilled on Toledo street, near the Pennsylvania railroad shops, near Morgan hill, Washington township, at Galveston, Walton and Royal Center, but all were failures. The wells at Royal Center pro- duced a good quality of mineral oil but not in sufficient quantity to pay for the expense of drilling although two or three barrels of oil flowed daily from the wells for sometime.
Section of oil well at Royal Center:
Soil and drift 109 feet
Limestone 486 feet
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Hudson river and Utica shale
330 feet
Oil in Trenton limestone
15 feet
To salt water
26 feet
Total
966 feet
ALTITUDES
The elevation above sea level in various parts of Cass county are as follows :
Pennsylvania station, 4th street, Logansport
585 feet
Anoka
688 feet
Walton
768 feet
Galveston
789 feet
Onward
758 feet
Gebhart
747 feet
Royal Center
727 feet
Lake Cicott
695 feet
New Waverly
673 feet
Summit-2 miles east of Clymers
729 feet
Clymers
720 feet
Hoovers
682 feet
Adamsboro
658 feet
Lucerne 799 feet
Metea, Bethlehem township, highest point in the county over 800 feet. This is the highest point in the county and the waters flow north- west through Blue Grass into the Tippecanoe river, southeast into Twelve Mile and Spring Creeks thence into Eel river and southwest to Crooked Creek and the Wabash river.
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CHAPTER IV FLORA AND FAUNA
Cass county and all northern Indiana has a very rich and varied soil which has been largely modified by the abundant deposits of "drift" which, bringing material from widely separated localities and frequently from the best soil making rocks of the north, has rendered very fertile much land that otherwise would be extremely unproductive.
This variation in soil will necessarily give Cass county a large and varied flora. The county being covered by glacial drift, the rocks cannot be examined except along the rivers where they outcrop. Here we find but few specimens of fossilized plant or animal life, and we will not attempt to relate the "paleontology" of Cass county, but refer the stu- dent of this subject to geological reports and special works. We will only speak of the flora and fauna of the present age. It will be impos- sible even to mention a complete list of all the plants and animals of the county, and we expect to confine these notes, largely, to the changes occurring and the causes producing them.
Maurice Thompson, state geologist, assistedby Prof. John M. Coulter, in his annual report of 1886, page 281, reports 1,191 different plants in the state, a large number of which are found in Cass county.
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MIGRATION OF PLANTS
Scientists tell us that Dame Nature always has placed each species of plant in one locality. If we find the same plant in America and Europe, we know that it has been transported. This opens up a very interesting field of investigation how plants or their seeds are carried from place to place.
Gray in his manual mentions 342 distinct species of plants that are found to be common to northeastern United States and Europe, which would indicate that there was at some geologic age a land connection between northwestern Europe and northeastern America, by way of Ice- land and Greenland and that those northern latitudes, by certain seismic disturbances, possessed a temperate climate. Ocean currents carry seeds long distances and may be the means of transporting them from one continent to another.
Darwin proved by experiments that many plants may be floated 924 miles by sea currents and these germinate under favorable circum- stances.
Rivers-About the greatest carriers of seeds within a county are streams. During floods seeds are carried by them in countless numbers and deposited in the rich alluvial soils along our river banks where they germinate.
Wind-The seeds of some plants have hairy outgrowths as the thistle, others as the maple, have a winglike appendage so that they may be car- ried long distances by the wind. Storms and hurricanes, however, may carry the heaviest seeds great distances.
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
Birds are often the carrier of seeds. They may eat them and carry them in the alimentary canal, on the feathers, or in mud adhering to their feet and legs. Birds migrating hundreds or thousands of miles may thus carry seeds from one section to another.
Railroads bring in many new plants and distribute them far and wide. The various fruits, vegetables and other commercial plant products of the world are being constantly shipped from point to point all over the world, and seeds are thus widely distributed. The changed conditions in Cass county have driven out many plants that were found here by the pioneer. The forests have been cut down, and many plants whose habitat is in the shade cannot survive and have become extinct. The draining of wet places, swamps and bogs have driven out many other varieties that only grow in wet soil. The old-time rail fence has furnished a home for many species to which the wire fence gives no protection. These and many other changed conditions and environments with the onward march of civilization have exterminated many species of plant life in Cass county, but these changes have also opened the way for new plants and weeds, brought in by various means above related, and it is interesting to observe the many new weeds and plants throughout the county. The writer well remembers fifty-five years ago of gathering medicinal plants as spignet, yellow root, ginseng, may-apple, snake-root, etc .; wild fruits as grapes, plums, paw paw, wild cherries, black and red haws; nuts as wal- nuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, hazel nuts and acorns. Many of these · have become extinct and others a rarity. The land is rapidly being denuded of its timber, and if measures are not soon taken to prevent its further destruction many of our native forest trees will become extinct.
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