USA > Indiana > Hancock County > History of Hancock county, Indiana; its people, industries and institutions > Part 4
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WABASH SANDY LOAM.
One small area in the southeastern part of the county has been mapped as Wabash sandy loam. It lies chiefly in section 35. township 15 north, range 8 east, within a valley which is now drained by an insignificant stream, but through which a very considerable amount of water no doubt passed at about the time of the withdrawal of the latest ice-sheet. To the sediment deposited at that time has been added the wash from the adjacent hills, a kind of col- luvial deposit which, while not typically of the Wabash series, nevertheless, seems to be at least quite similar to what has been described under that name. The soil has a depth of from ten to eighteen inches, contains more fine to medium sand than is usually the case with the Wabash loam, is well drained. and for the most part works loose and mellow. The boundary between this type and the Carrington black clay loam farther up the valley is drawn arbi- trarily ; the change from the one type to the other is gradual and extends over a considerable distance. the color changing almost imperceptibly to a darker brown, then gray, and finally black, while the texture likewise shades off from the sandy loam through loam to typical clay loam.
MEADOW.
Following the usage of the United States bureau of soils, the term "meadow" is here applied to small areas which are at present too poorly
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GEOGRAPHY, SOIL SURVEY, ETC.
drained to be cultivated satisfactorily, and yet do not have the peaty, marshy character of the areas classified as muck. The composition of this soil can- not be stated accurately, but, for the most part, mineral ingredients seem to constitute a far larger percentage of the whole than organic matter. These areas are at present used only as pasture ground, but may in time become valuable for general farm crops.
MUCK.
In many places small areas of a few acres are found in which the soil is but little different from true peat. Only two of these areas are of suffi- cient size to be mapped, but the soil typc is of interest to a considerable num- ber of farmers because small patches of it occur in many places, and because soil of this kind has proven somewhat difficult to bring under profitable cul- tivation. The first difficulty is, of course, with the excess of water; and no method that can be applied will be successful until some system of drainage has reduced the water level to at least a foot, preferably much more than a foot. below the surface. The next difficulty usually becomes more evident in the second year of cultivation than in the first; that is, the looseness or lack of coherence, the "chaffiness" of the soil. The presence of a large percentage of partially-decayed vegetable matter, or, to state it on the other side. the absence of a sufficiently large percentage of finely divided mineral matter, causes the soil to dry out easily, so that corn, for example, after a short time of vigorous growth, suddenly turns yellow and either remains dwarfed or dies. Usually there is a considerable amount of organic acids present at a short distance below the surface, but if the drainage is good this does not last long in amount sufficient to damage the growing crops. The following methods of further treatment have been found to yield good results.
1. Most satisfactory results have come from a liberal application of stable manure. Several instances are recorded in the county in which one application was sufficient to bring about good crop-growing conditions.
2. Excellent results were secured in a few instances by mixing a con- siderable quantity of clayey soil with the muck. Where the muck consisted of but a thin layer, this was accomplished by very deep plowing. thus turning up to the surface a quantity of very finely divided mineral particles such as may usually be found below peat or muck. In another case, lines of tile ditches were run through the muck area, and the clay thrown up in the work was scattered as widely as could be conveniently done.
3. Log heaps and brush piles burned on peaty soils have in some cases remedied the trouble. This will not suffice in all cases, however, since some
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such soils will at such a time take fire; and where fires have burned over considerable areas the possibilities of profitable corn production has been postponed for an indefinite period.
4. The use of commercial fertilizers strong in potash has been reported as successful in one case. There is, however, some doubt as to the general efficacy of this method, since results reported do not in all cases agree.
SUGGESTIONS.
As a result of the work done in this county, the following suggestions are offered by the state geologist in his report in 1911, as pointing the way to what should be done as rapidly and as thoroughly as possible to increase the productiveness of the soil :
First in urgency is the need of more systematic and more extensive systems of drainage. This applies to practically all soils in the county ex- cept to parts of the Sioux loam; in only a few isolated instances are the farms in the county adequately supplied with proper drainage systems. It is not possible in the space properly allotted to this report to make clear the reasons for thus emphasizing a work which in some parts of the county has. it is true, been well begun. The following summary of the benefits of thor- ough drainage will, however, suggest the importance of the subject ; the sum- mary is taken in substance from Bulletin 254 of the agricultural experiment station of the College of Agriculture of Cornell University :
I. Drainage removes the excess of water from the surface and from the pores of the soil.
2. Drainage is directly operative to change an unfavorable physical condition into a desirable one : such as to change a puddled, impervious soil into a granular, more open one.
3. Drainage increases the amount of moisture available to crops. Well drained soil, instead of allowing so large a proportion of the rainfall to drain away, as is commonly believed, absorbs and retains a larger proportion than would be otherwise possible, and so makes it available in times of dry weather.
4. Drainage promotes the aeration of the soil; that is, the entrance into the soil of the external air, supplying the oxygen needed for the proper growth of living organisms in the soil.
5. Drainage permits the soil to maintain a higher average temperature than is possible in a wet soil, and thus, by making a warmer soil. lengthens the growing season for plants.
6. Drainage increases the available food supply by increasing the chemi- cal activity in the soil.
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GEOGRAPHY, SOIL SURVEY, ETC.
7. Drainage enables a plant to make a better use of the food and mois- ture supply in the soil.
8. Drainage greatly reduces the injury to winter crops resulting from the freezing of large amounts of water in the soil.
9. Drainage reduces or prevents the erosion or washing of soils on a slope.
IO. Drainage increases the yield of crops. It is known that the returns from cultivated land can be increased from ten per cent. to one hundred per cent. without any corresponding increase in other expenses.
Further particulars as to the best methods of putting in systems of drain- age, with estimates as to cost, etc., can be secured from the above-named bulle- tin, which may be procured by addressing the director of the experiment sta- tion at Ithaca, New York, or from Bulletin 199 of the agricultural experiment station of the University of Wisconsin, to be procured by addressing the di- rector of the agricultural experiment station of the University of Wisconsin. at Madison, Wisconsin.
II. What commercial fertilizers can be used to advantage, what metli- ods of culture are best, what rotation of crops to use, whether the sale or the feeding of grain is more profitable, and similar questions, can not be answered in a general statement. Detailed suggestions as to what is probably best to be done in each separate case can be obtained by addressing the director of the Indiana agricultural experiment station, Purdue University, Lafayette, In- diana. giving as fully as possible all particulars in regard to the kind of soil, kinds of crops raised, and the results obtained thus far.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE :- The above is taken almost verbatim from the state geologist's report of 1911, and, although included herein, it is not the in- tention to hold a copyright thereon.)
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CHAPTER II.
EARLY INFLUENCES.
Hancock county, named in honor of the immortal signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, John Hancock, is located in central Indiana. It lies be- tween the thirty-ninth and fortieth parallels of latitude, and between the eighty-fifth and eighty-sixth meridians of longitude west of Greenwich. The eighty-sixth meridian lies about three miles west of our western boundary line. The county is bounded on the west principally by Marion county : on the north by Hamilton and Madison counties ; on the east by Henry and Rush counties, and on the south principally by Shelby county. Greenfield. the county seat, i: located on the National road, twenty miles east of the city of Indianapolis.
In size it is an average county of the state, being composed of three hun- dred and seven square miles and containing 196,480 acres.
Before the white man took up his abode within its confines, charters were given, ordinances adopted, and grants made, in other parts of the world. whose influences reached this county, and determined, in a measure at least. its future land descriptions, its official records and its institutions. The first substantial claim to this region that became a matter of record was made by the English, following the discoveries of the Cabots and other English ex- plorers. As early as 1606 two companies were organized in England for the purpose of making settlements in what was then known as Virginia. and which then included all of the territory from Maine to Florida. In 1609 King James I of England gave to one of these companies-the London Company- an immense tract of land, reaching four hundred miles along the coast. It extended two hundred miles in each direction from Old Point Comfort, and "up into the land throughout from sea to sea west and northwest." This do- main granted by the King to the London Company included all of the cen- tral and southern part of what is now the state of Indiana. The King also gave "from sea to sea" charters to Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Caro- lina. South Carolina and Georgia. The remaining colonies had no such char- ters. Under these charters the first group of colonies claimed all the territory between the Appalachian mountains and the Mississippi river. The result was that when the Revolutionary War broke out and the exigencies of the times demanded that all the colonies unite under some form of government,
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EARLY INFLUENCES.
and that they raise money for the common defense, the colonies which had no "from sea to sea" charters refused to unite with the first group of colonies uncler the Articles of Confederation unless these colonies should cede this land to Congress, to be used by Congress to pay the costs of the war.
A serious question was also raised on the validity of the title of the col- onies to this land. because, it was argued, the Mississippi valley had been dis- covered, explored, settled and owned by France; that England had never owned the country until France ceded it to her in 1763, and that consequently the English Crown could not have made a valid grant before that time : that when England acquired this territory in 1763, the King drew his "proclama- tion line" whereby he turned this western territory into the Indian country and cut off all claims of the colonies to further ownership therein. Upon this argument the colonies which had no claims on this western land based their following conclusions : that these western lands were the property of the King : that since the colonies were at war with him, these lands ought to be seized by Congress and used for the common benefit.
The argument that this land ought to be used for the benefit of all the colonies finally prevailed and, one after another, those who had claims, ceded their land to Congress. On January 2, 1781, Virginia ceded to the Congress of the United States, for the benefit of all the colonies, all her right, title and claim to the territory northwest of the Ohio river, subject to certain condi- tions annexed to her act of cession. Virginia insisted that the other colonies should make cessions equally liberal with hers, and the conditions upon which she was willing to cede this territory were, that the territory so ceded should be laid out and formed into states containing suitable extent of territory, not less than one hundred nor more than one hundred fifty miles square, or as near thereto as circumstances would permit ; that the states so formed should be distinct republican states and admitted members of the federal union, hav- ing the same rights of sovereignty, freedom and independence as the other states : that the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by the state of Virginia in subduing any British posts, or in maintaining forts or garrisons within the territory for defense, or in acquiring any part of the territory so ceded or relinquished, should be fully reimbursed by the United States ; that one commissioner should be appointed by the Congress, one by the common- wealth of Virginia, and another by those two commissioners, who, or a ma- jority of them, should be authorized and empowered to adjust and liquidate the account of the necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by the state of Virginia, which they should judge to be comprised within the intent and mean- ing of the act of Congress of the 10th of October. 1780. respecting such ex-
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penses ; that the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, St Vincents, and the neighboring villages, who had professed themselves citizens of Virginia, should have their possessions and titles con- firmed to them and be protected in the enjoyment of their rights and liberties : that all the lands within the territory so ceded to the United States, and not reserved for, or appropriated for. the benefit of soldiers and officers of the Revolutionary army, should be considered as' a common fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as had become or should become members of the confederation or federal alliance of said states. Virginia in- clusive, according to their usual respective proportions in the charge and ex- penditure, and should be faithfully and bona fide disposed of for that purpose and for no other use or purpose.
Congress did not fully agree to all the conditions imposed by Virginia. buit came so nearly doing so in the act of September 13. 1783, wherein the terms were stipulated on which Congress agreed to accept the cession of this western land by Virginia, that Virginia, on December 20. 1783. passed an- other act, authorizing her delegates then in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled. all the rights of that commonwealth to the ter- ritory northwest of the Ohio river, "in full confidence that Congress will, in justice to this state, for the liberal cession she hath made, earnestly press upon the other states claiming large tracts of waste and uncultivated territory. the propriety of making cessions equally liberal for the common benefit and sup- port of the Union."
In conformity with the provisions of the latter act. all the territory therein alluded to, which included Hancock county, was, on the first day of March, 1784, transferred to the United States by deed signed by Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee and James Monroe, then delegates in Congress from the commonwealth of Virginia.
After the land had been conveyed to Congress it was found that its di- vision into states as stipulated in the terms of the cession was impracticable and that it would be attended with many inconveniences. Congress therefore recommended that Virginia revise her act of cession so far as to empower Con- gress to make such a division of said territory into distinct and republican states, not more than five nor less than three in number, as the situation of that country and future circumstances might require. In compliance with this recommendation, the commonwealth of Virginia, on the 20th day of De- cember, 1788, passed an act assenting to the proposed alteration, permitting Congress to divide the territory into states as above recommended, and as had been fully set out in the fifth article of the famous Ordinance of 1787.
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EARLY INFLUENCES.
As soon as this land was ceded to Congress, and as early as 1783, plans were submitted for dividing it by metes and bounds, in order that it might more readily be conveyed to purchasers. Several ordinances were introduced, and on May 20, 1785, Congress determined to have it surveyed into town- ships six miles square. The ordinance of May 20, 1785, sets out in detail how the entire domain, including the territory of which our county forms a part, should be surveyed. It is very clear, and explains fully the principal features of our system of dividing and locating land. For this reason, parts of it are given in full below. After providing for the appointment of sur- veyors and a geographer, the ordinance continues :
"The first line running north and south as aforesaid shall begin on the Ohio river, at a point that shall be found to be due north from the western termination of a line which has been run as the southern boundary of the state of Pennsylvania ; and the first line running east and west shall begin at the same point, and shall extend throughout the whole territory; provided, that nothing herein shall be construed as fixing the western boundary of the state of Pennsylvania. The geographer shall designate the townships or fractional townships, by numbers, progressively from south to north-always beginning each range with No. 1; and the ranges shall be distinguished by their pro- gressive numbers to the westward, the first range, extending from the Ohio to Lake Erie, being marked No. I. The geographer shall personally attend to the running of the first east and west line; and shall take the latitude of the extremes of the first north and south line, and of the months of the principal rivers.
"The lines shall be measured with a chain ; shall be plainly marked by chaps on trees, and exactly described on a plat ; whereon shall be noted by the surveyor, at their proper distances, all mines, salt springs, salt licks, and mill seats that shall come to his knowledge ; and all water courses, mountains, and other remarkable and permanent things, over or near which such lines shall pass, and also the quality of the lands.
"The plats of the townships, respectively, shall be marked by subdivisions, into lots of one mile square, or six hundred and forty acres, in the same direc- tion as the external lines, and numbered from one to thirty-six, always begin- ning the succeeding range of the lot with the number next to that which the preceding one touched. * *
* And the surveyors, in running the external lines of the townships, shall at the interval of every mile, mark corners for the lots which are adjacent, always designating the same in a different man- ner from those of the township.
"As soon as seven ranges of townships, and fractional parts of townships,
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HANCOCK COUNTY, INDIANA.
in the direction of from south to north shall have been surveyed, the ge- ographer shall transmit plats thereof to the board of treasury, who shall record the same, with a report, in a well-bound book kept for that purpose. And the geographer shall make similar returns, from time to time, of every seven ranges, as they may be surveyed.
"There shall be reserved the Lot No. 16. of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within the said township : also one-third part of all gold, silver, lead and copper mines."
This ordinance, adopted May 20, 1785. by the Continental Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, before there was a United States of America in the present sense, shows how our land came to be described as it is. Though Congress has passed other acts, changing the above ordinance as to location of base lines and principal meridians, and in fact, our land here in Indiana was surveyed under the act of Congress, 1802, yet the system or plan of dividing the land and locating it has remained practically the same as above set out.
In the survey of the public domain in Indiana, the east line of the state was used as the first principal meridian. The second principal meridian in Indiana passes through Lebanon in Boone county, and through Hendricks county about three miles east of Danville. The base line from which the congressional townships and the land in Hancock county are surveyed, passes east and west through the southern parts of Orange and Washington counties. The second principal meridian crosses the base line in the southern part of Orange county. Hancock county includes all or parts of townships 15. 16 and 17 north of the base line described above, in ranges 5. 6. 7 and 8. east of the second principal meridian. Any farm in Hancock county is thus located with reference to those two lines-the base line and the second principal merid- ian-as above described.
The original survey of Hancock county was included in the greater sur- vey of practically the entire state. From the reading of our land descriptions -for instance, section 10, township 15 north (of the base line ). in range 6 east (of the second principal meridian )-it is evident that the surveyors worked northward from the base line and eastward from the above described second principal meridian.
The survey was made by surveying parties, including the surveyor and his helpers. Augustus Dommanget, father of Adrian Dommanget, of near Gem, spent many days with the surveying gang in Hancock county. In the wilderness of central Indiana in the early twenties, the surveying parties were out for days and weeks at a time. The forest was dense and the swamps were
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EARLY INFLUENCES.
interminable. Roads had to be opened for the passage of the supply and equipment wagons, and at night the party sought rest on some high spot or knoll. For beds, rectangular nets or blankets with rings attached to the edges and corners were used. By passing ropes through the rings and fasten- ing the other end to young saplings or trees, the beds could be swung clear of the ground. As a protection against wolves and panthers, fires were us- ually lighted at night.
In this survey the land was divided into townships and then into sections. The corners of all sections and the half-mile points on all lines were estab- lished and marked. When a corner had been established, a hole eight or ten inches deep was dug at that point. The surveyor then placed a stone, or took a stake eighteen or twenty inches long and two and one-half inches in di- ameter, with two or three notches cut near the top as marks by which it could be identified, and drove it into the ground to mark the exact location of the corner. The stake was driven down into the hole so that it could be covered with eight or ten inches of soil to prevent rapid decay. At least two "witness trees" were then chapped or "blazed" and notched. and a careful record made on the surveyor's book of the exact direction of the stake from the trees. For instance, when a corner had been established. the surveyor made a notation on his record as follows :
Beech 18 S 8 E 20 Ash 6 N 39 E 12
This means that the "witness trees" for this particular corner are a beech and an ash. The beech is eighteen inches in diameter and stands south. eight degrees cast, and at a distance of twenty links from the corner. The ash is six inches in diameter and stands north, thirty-nine degrees east, and at a distance of twelve links from the corner. Some of the older people still living tell us that in measuring land many years after the survey, these stakes were found to be in a fair state of preservation.
The Ordinance of 1785 also laid the foundation for a school fund for each of the five states that were later formed out of the territory therein de- scribed. "There shall be reserved the lot ( or section) No. 16. of every town- ship for the maintenance of the public schools within said township." That provision was never repealed or stricken out after the federal government was organized. In fact. the clause was later adopted bodily in congressional leg- islation. The money accruing from this land by sale or otherwise was later denominated and is now known as the congressional township fund. In the income of this fund. Hancock county shares yearly.
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HANCOCK COUNTY, INDIANA.
It will be observed that section 16 of the congressional township was not to be sold by Congress, but was to be reserved for the maintenance of the public schools within the township. This section was to become the property of the township, and was to be used for the purpose designated in the ordi- nance. When the townships were settled, and a civil government was organ- ized, the control of this land was given to the township trustees. All the other public lands was sold by Congress and conveyed by a United States patent. The school section, however, was conveyed by school commissioner's deed. Any farmer in the county owning land in any section 16, and other land in another section, will observe this difference in the first conveyances on his abstracts of title.
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