USA > Indiana > Huntington County > History of Huntington County, Indiana : from the earliest time to the present, with biographical sketches, notes, etc., together with a short history of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the State of Indiana > Part 26
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*Adapted to this volume from the State Geological Report for 1875, by Prof. E. T. Cox.
308
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
Wabash in the southeast corner of Huntington County and fully as broad as the St. Joseph at Fort Wayne. That the latter stream and St. Mary's River once formed a part of Little River and constituted the main source of Wabash river may be further inferred from their general parallelism to the courses of the streams that enter the Wabash from the southeast and north- east; Salamonie and Mississinewa on the one side and Eel and Tippecanoe rivers on the other.
The only well marked evidence of terminal moraines in this county lies along both banks of Little and Wabash rivers. The large boulders which mark their boundaries are forty to fifty feet above the beds of the streams. These boulders are very con- spicuous above and below the town of Huntington. This county was named in honor of Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Huntington is the county seat and is situated on Little River, two miles above its junction with Wabash River. It is built on the boulder terrace fifty-two feet above Wabash River and Erie Canal, which is here, by engineers' levels, eleven feet lower than Fort Wayne.
The only rocks exposed, in place in this county, are of paleozoic age and belong to the Niagara epoch. The erratic ma- terial composing the glacial drift, rests immediately upon the Niagara, and is succeeded by clay, without organic remains, which may or may not belong to the loess. On this clay we have the recent soil accumulations.
The most eastern out-crop of the Niagara, in the county, is at Markle on the Wabash River. The rock here is quarried from the bed of the river. It has a blue-gray color, irregular fracture, is in four to six inch layers, and in this part of the county is a favorite building stone. The section exposed in the river bank at Markle, is :
Ft.
Drift
6
Buff magnesian limestone, schistose and cherty, and
contains a few Niagara fossils 10
Blueish gray thin bedded limestone, in bed of Wabash River 3?
19
The strata have a local dip of 20° southeast. The crop may be followed for two or three miles up and down the stream. The analysis of this stone shows it to be composed of :
Moisture
.75
Carbonic acid and combined water
48.50
Insoluble matter 2.25
Iron and alumina 2.50
Lime 37.56
Magnesia 7.58
Sulphuric acid. .27
99.37
309
GEOLOGY.
The beds used for masonry can only be quarried during periods of low water when the current can be turned from it by inexpensive temporary dams. Another crop of this stone is seen along the Salamonie at Warren and at points above and below. Half a mile east of Warren, John A. Lewis has a lime kiln situated in a shallow ravine on the crop of the porous, buff mag- nesian limestone. In quarrying he has gone down only six feet. The stone is schistose and false bedded, which gives it the appear- ance of having a strong dip to the southwest. Analysis of
Limestone from this quarry gives :
Moisture
.75
Carbonic acid and combined water 50.25
Insoluble matter 1.50
Iron and alumina 3.20
Lime .
30.80
Magnesia
10.45
Sulphuric acid
.06
97.01
One mile below Warren, Elisha Christman has a lime kiln, and is using the stone from a crop on the bank of the Salamonie River. Six to eight feet of stone is seen above the bed of the stream. Similar rock is seen again near the grist mill at Bell- mont. At the bridge over Wabash River, one and a half miles south of Huntington, there is a crop of Niagara exposed, sixteen feet above the bed of the river. This stone was used in the bridge abutments, but already shows signs of rapid decay by crumbling under the influence of water and frost. The principal part of the bed is an earthy limestone, and presents the appear- ance of a very good hydraulic stone. Its composition in 100 parts is :
Moisture
.40
Carbonic acid and combined water 35.10
Insoluble silicates 32.50
Iron and alumina
1.90
Oxide of manganese
.40
Lime
24.92
Magnesia
4.32
Sulphuric acid.
.04
99.68
It will be seen that this stone differs from the Markle stone in the large amount of insoluble silicates which it contains, 32.50 per cent., the former only having 2.25 per cent. As before stated, it will make a very good hydraulic cement but is totally unsuited for masonry where durability is desired.
The greatest development of the Niagara is seen along the banks of Little River above and below Huntington. The most easterly crop is on Section 18, Township 28, Range 10, about three and a half miles from Huntington. From this point east it remains covered by drift and is penetrated at the depth of eighty-
310
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
eight feet by the Fort Wayne well. Lime kilns have been estab- lished all along the crop and the burning of lime constitutes one of the chief industries of the county. Thirty-one kilns were in active operation making caustic lime at the time of my visit. Eight of the number are perpetual kilns, the remainder are occasional kilns which require to be completely discharged and cooled before re filling.
This lime is held in high estimation and meets with a ready market not only in Indiana, but in Ohio and Illinois, as well. The composition of the stone used at the respective kilns on Little River in 1875 is given in the following table :
TABLE OF ANALYSES OF LIMESTONES FROM HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
NAME OF OWNER.
Moisture at
212 degrees,
Carbonic acid
and combin-
ed water.
Alumnia with
some oxide
of iron.
Lime.
Magnesia.
Sulphuric
acid.
Irsoh:ble
matter.
Oxide of
Maganese.
Fort Wayne Co., lower quarry .
No. 1
.25
45.55
18.00
28 90
3.95
.27
3.65
Hawley Bros
No.
2
50
49.52
8.25
31.92
9.58
.54
.50
One mile below Markle .. No. 3
.75
48.50
2.50
37 54
7.56
.27
2 25
Hawley'
No.
4
.30
4.20
2.50
33.44
12.61
.34
1.50
Warren road, near bridge. No.
5
.40
35.10
1 90
24.92
4.32
.14
32.50
.40
Amos Bowers
No.
6
.35
45.15
18.50
31.08
4.32
.30
.50
Berry Bros
No. 7
.80
47.20
9.00
29.12
12.43
.27
1.00
McCarty
No. 8
.60
50.90
11.50
27 44
8.28
.00
1.25
Drover
No. 9
1.00
58 00
4.50
17.64
18.20
.00
.co
John A. Lewis
No. 10
.75
50.25
3.20
30.80
10.45
.05
1 50
F.
The quality of the burnt lime is mainly due to the constitu- ents of the limestone from which it is made. When the stone is principally composed of carbonate of lime the resulting lime is what is called by the masons "fat lime" or quick setting. But if the stone is a dolomite, composed of equal equivalents of car- bonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia, the resulting lime forms a short, thin pulp with water and is termed " poor." For ordinary mortar, fat lime is objectionable on account of the rap- idity with which it sets and becomes too hard to enter into close combination with the brick. Therefore, a medium quality of lime, termed "slow setting," is sought for, since it will yield a mortar that when spread over a large space will give the mason an opportunity to adjust a number of bricks before it commences to set. This property is found in lime where the magnesia does not form too large a per cent.
From the table of analyses, it will be seen that the composi-
311
GEOLOGY.
tion of the limestones in this county varies as regards the amount of insoluble silicates, alumina and magnesia, which they contain, nor is it fully understood why these substances, when present in quick-lime in proportions that are quite variable, give to it hy- draulic properties, so that, with our present chemical knowledge of the subject, one is at a loss, in the absence of actual practical tests, made of its binding qualities, to decide where the mortar ceases to be air-setting and becomes hydraulic or water-setting.
Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, yield good but slow air-set- ting caustic lime. Number 5 will undoubtedly give a lime that. will have hydraulic properties, or set under water.
The limestone, which is considered the best for making quick- lime, is a buff, porous stone containing large quantities of casts of Pentamerous oblongus, Amphicoelia costata, Rhynchonella sp?, Orthis annulatum, O. crebescens, Chonophyllum niagarensis, Fa- vosities niagarensis, Halysites catenulata, Fenestella sp ?. These fossils are particularly abundant at McCarty's quarry. Pentam- erus oblongus is especially conspicuous and gives the stone the appearance of a breccia.
The stone lies so close to the surface that very little stripping is required in order to reach the layers suitable for lime.
The rock at some of the quarries lies in waves, and is peculiarly characterized by false bedding, which sometimes gives the appearance of a disturbed strata, dipping in various direc- tions at a high angle. There are quarries on the left bank of the river, where the buff magnesian limestone, so famous for the good lime which it yields, is mixed with, and sometimes replaced by, a bluish earthy hydraulic limestone, resembling the stone at the bridge over Wabash River. Considerable money has been spent in trying to make of it a marketable lime, and to introduce it as a building stone, but in both instances it has proved com- paratively worthless; it may, however, by judicious selection, be used for the manufacture of hydraulic cement.
Just along the west edge of Huntington, quarries have been opened at several places, running north from the river, for flag- ging and building stone. At the most southern opening, about one hundred yards from the river, we find:
Loose chert 6 feet.
Blue flag-stone, beds in three inch layers 6 feet.
The dip at this quarry appears to be 8° in the direction of 40° east of south. The chert is in large detached masses and mixed with buff magnesian limestone. North, seventy yards, at an- other quarry, the buff magnesian limestone is free from chert, but is schistose and false bedded, with an apparent dip of 20° at the south part of the quarry, but going back some ten yards, the apparent dip is 37° south 40° east. Half a mile down the stream, the rocks at the river edge dip about 80° south 70° east. At the Drover quarry, a large opening has been made by quarrying stone for lime. The rocks are false bedded and appear to dip in every direction from the centre of the quarry. The surface rocks, where excavations commenced and went to the depth of twenty
312
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
feet is buff magnesian, coral bearing limestone. In some parts of the quarry there are masses of Favosites niagarensis so large as to lead at once to the belief that the entire bed of stone was de- rived from an ancient coral reef. The great disorder of the strata, mainly due to false bedding or peculiar arrangement of the material constituting the present rocks, has led many to infer that this irregularity was due to earthquake or volcanic action. This is the more deceptive since the apparent elevations have their surfaces capped with enduring beds of chert or impure flint, and along the local waves in the strata stand in elevated knobs which fancy has construed into volcanic cones. Huntington is located on one of these flint ridges and the locality was known to the Indians by the name of "We-pe-cha-an-gan-ge" or flint place. The flint of this locality was of great value to the Indians as the material of which they fashioned their arrow points, spear points and flint knives.
At dam No. 1 across Wabash River, two miles below Hunting- ton, the Niagara rock appears along the left bank of the stream and served for one of the abutments of the dam. The beds are thin, cherty and much weathered on exposed edges. The rock forms the bed of the river and presents a vertical face ten and a half feet in height on the left shore, while in the bottom on the opposite side of the river it is entirely replaced by the drift. A few feet below the dam there is a slight anticlinal axis, the dip being 4° south-east on one side of the crown and 4º north-west on the other.
Col. Milligan's quarry, just below Huntington on the bank of Little River, has yielded some of the best looking stone for flagging and mason work to be found in the neighborhood. The stripping is quite light, and the section obtained, shows:
Soil.
Ft. In. . 1 00
Buff, rubble, chert, mostly loose.
1 06
Buff, rubble, good 2 06
Flagstone 0
02
Flagstone
0 05
Building stone. 0 08
Building stone. 0 09
Bed of Little river.
7 00
On Wabash River, about one mile northwest of Andrews, Joseph Leedy opened a quarry to procure stone for the abut- ments of a new bridge to be built across the river where the road leading north from Andrews crosses it. The stone is quarried at a crop in the river bank, and furnishes the following section:
Ft.
Earth stripping. 1
Buff, schistose, magnesi limestone. 3 Flint strata. .1 to 2
Buff, magnesian limestone, some blue spots and bands, principal rock used. 15
Bed of Wabash river.
313
GEOLOGY.
The beds are very irregular, with an apparent dip of 8º to the southwest. On the opposite side of the river and at Loon creek, similar rock is seen. The entire thickness at the crop is twenty feet, and the apparent dip is 20° northeast. This stone was quarried and used in the construction of locks on the canal, but can not be considered a durable stone. Near this old quarry and on Section 22, Township 28, Range 8, there is a strong chaly beate spring. It rises up above the surface of the ground and flows over the side of the gum curbing in a bold stream; it is strongly charged with iron, and is cool and pleasant to the taste. The water possesses valuable medicinal properties, is close to the thriv- ing village of Andrews, on the Wabash Railroad, and might be made a place of resort for invalids who require a mild tonic. An additional attraction may also be found in the saline sulphur water, on Section 14, Township 28, Range 8, scarcely a mile dis- tant from the chaly beate spring.
The sulphur water flows from an artesian well bored for coal oil on the bank of Silver Creek. No record could be found of this bore, but it is supposed that the water comes from a depth of about 600 feet, and flows out at the top of a wooden pump stock, four or five feet above the surface. Judging by the taste, it is strong in chloride of sodium and other mineral salts, and emits a strong odor of sulphureted hydrogen mixed with marsh gas, carbureted hydrogen. The existence of the latter gas in the boggy places along the creek, led to the selection of this locality as one most likely to furnish oil, from the well-known fact that carbureted hydrogen usually accompanies the oil in the famous wells on Oil Creek, in Pennsylvania. In this case, however, no oil was obtained. Anywhere in the marsh near the well, if a stick is run down into the mud and vegetable matter, carbureted hydrogen will escape, and if touched with a lighted match takes fire and burns. This well is peculiarly interesting, since it lies almost mid-way between Fort Wayne, where a well was bored to the depth of 3000 feet, and Wabash, where a well went to the depth of 2270 feet, neither of which found water that would rise to the surface.
It will be seen from the foregoing remarks, that the only strat- ified rocks found in the county crop in a few localities along the streams, and that while they are eminently suited for the manufacture of quick-lime, it is only in rare instances that layers are found at all suitable for masonry, where durability is consid- ered of prime importance. The Niagara, in this State, is not metalliferous, it does not even furnish notable quantities of iron- ore. Nevertheless, some years ago there was considerable excite- ment raised about the reported existence of gold in the rocks at the Drover quarry. Specimens of the reported gold ore were taken to New York, by Mr. Backus, and they were reported by some one to yield $158.00 to the ton. Stock to the amount of $10,000 was sold and with the money thus raised, the company erected a mill and purchased the necessary machinery for crush- ing the rock and saving the precious metal. Unfortunately for
314
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
the success of the enterprise, the rock, as any intelligent geologist could have told them at a glance, proved totally barren of precious metals, and all the company could realize after spending much money, was the value of the, to them, useless machinery. It proved to be iron pyrites partly decomposed on the surface and filling isolated cavities in the cherty, magnesian limestone.
The drift covers the entire county, and can not be less than 100 to 130 feet thick over a great portion of the table-land. The upper portion is composed of irregular beds of sand, clay and gravel. Boulders and hard plastic clay lie at the base. The larger boulders, "Roches moutonnees," lie along both shores of Little River and Wabash River at an elevation of forty to fifty feet above the streams. They are particularly abundant above and below Huntington on the right bank of Little river. Their sur- faces are scratched and grooved, but I was unable to find glacial scratches on the stratified rocks where they are exposed to view. This may, in part, be due to the fact that no fresh surface of the upper layers were seen, and the readiness with which the Niagara weathers, would soon obliterate all traces of such marks. From the manner in which the boulders lie along the borders of Little River, one is led to the conclusion that the stream has cut its way between two lateral moraines. A very large granite boulder, weighing many tons, lies in the bed of Little River three and a half miles above Huntington, which from a fancied resemblance in shape to a saddle, has received the name of "Saddle Rock." This boulder rests immediately on the Niagara which is here seen in the bed of the river for the last time as you ascend the stream, and is not again found above the surface in an easterly direction before reaching the borders of Ohio. The large beds of sand found in the upper part of the drift are particularly valuable in this part of the State since they furnish the only source from which this essential ingredient of good mortar can be had. There is a very large deposit of sand in the northwest border of Hunt- ington. It is ten or twelve feet thick and the lines of deposition present the characteristic features of what is termed in rock strata "false bedding." The sand from this pit is held in high estimation by the masons and plasterers, and finds a ready market.
The recent excitement throughout the northeastern portion of Indiana, caused by the finding of natural gas in many places, has had some effect in Huntington County. Up to this writing, however, all efforts to find that uncertain quantity have proved futile. It is more than probable that the southern and especially the southwestern portion of the county will under the proper drilling yield this much desired article. Thus far natural gas has not been found in what is known as the Wabash Arch in any part of the State. This arch is the outline of certain expos- ures of rocks and follows very closely the course of the Wabash River. It is the theory of some, that the disturbances and upheav- als of former ages, which have left the strata of the rocks along this ach tilted in so many directions, that the gas has all escaped
315
INDIAN HISTORY.
in that portion of the country. It seems at least plausible that this is the case, and on any other ground it is hard to explain why this subtile compound of the earth so persistently refuses to mani- fest itself north of this Wabash Arch. The citizens of both War- ren and Huntington, have made attempts at finding it, but failure has followed in each case, the result being, a brackish water at the bottom of each well. In several instances a strong odor of the gas was obtained, and for a time the hopes of the investors ran high. Other efforts will doubtless be made and it is possible that some of them will succeed.
CHAPTER II.
BY THOMAS ROCHE. :
INDIAN HISTORY - THE QUAKER MISSIONARIES - EARLY INDIAN TRIBES - MIAMI CHIEFS - EARLY REMINISCENCES - AN ADOP- TION DANCE - SUPERSTITIONS - PREHISTORIC.
N reference to the Indians of this county, it would seem I as a part of their history that white men were inseparably connected with them. About 1805, or near that time, there set- tled on the banks of the Wabash, about four miles west of the city a colony of Friends or Quakers, whose object was to convert the Redmen and teach them habits of industry; they cleared quite a large farm, upon which they remained for several years, and when subsequent wars broke out these people were apprised of what was coming by some friendly Indians in time to get out of danger; they never returned; and in the course of years the farm was covered with a grove of timber, while on the ground the corn rows could be easily traced. The Indians occupying the country at that time were a part of what was at that time known as the Miamis, or Twightwees, as they were one time called, and in later years the tribe became divided and a number of other tribes branched off, the Weas (or according to French orthogra- phy, Ouias), Kaskiaskas, Piankeshaws and Peorias were known as different tribes, though speaking the same language, and a treaty made between the several Indian tribes and the United States, at Fort Wayne, in 1803, the treaty was signed by Richer- ville and Me-she-ke-wah-quah (or Little Turtle), on behalf of themselves, the Weas, Piankeshaws, Eel Rivers and Kaskas- kias, whom they represented. In the early settlement of Hunt- ington County, the Miamis were the only Indians known as a tribe, the Eel Rivers and Potawattomies were north and west, while in western Ohio the Wyandots resided. The government
316
HISTORY OF HUNTINGTON COUNTY.
of the Miamis was like nearly all Indian tribes. Being governed by chiefs, the head man was principal chief, and the tribe was subdivided into bands or parties, each of which had its chief, and in their councils those chiefs were the representatives of their respective bands. The office of principal chief was elective (al- though in some other tribes it is hereditary), and the chief when elected held his position during life. Little Turtle was the prin- cipal chief of the Miamis at the time of Gen. Wayne's expedition to the west; he died about 1812, and was succeeded by Pishewa (Wild Cat), but known by white people as John B. Richardville, who died near Fort Wayne on the 13th of August, 1841, at the age of eighty .*
In the fall of the same year Francis La Fontaine (To-pe-ah) a son-in law of Chief Richardville, was elected principal chief of the tribe, and the excitement attending the election was very much like similar occasions among white folks - excitement ran high between the different members of the tribe working for their friends to secure for them the grand position. There were even threats of war to the knife. There was talk of putting some of the candidates out of the way, and a certain clique had gone so far as to make arrangements to "do up" La Fontaine; but a friend of his who learned of the affair rode nearly all night to apprise La Fontaine of the plan. He being thus put upon his guard, the scheme was not worked. There were a number of candidates for the position of chief; the principal competitor of La Fontaine was Brouillette, a man majestic in appearance, quite tall, as straight as an arrow, wore his hair in queue not like the Indians, but after the style of white men of one hundred years ago. Had he been schooled in politics, as his white brethren usually were, he would have made a good politician. He was shrewd, active and cunning, and, although he may not have un- derstood addition and division, he fully understood the import- ance of silence when occasion required it. La Fontaine went west with the tribe in 1846, at which time they ceased to exist in Indiana as a tribe. He died at La Fayette, on his way home, on the 13th of April, 1847, at the age of thirty-seven, and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Huntington. Before he became chief he lived in Allen County, but afterward removed to the Forks of the Wabash, where his family lived at the time of his death, and where his daughter, Mrs. Engelman, now resides.
La Fontaine was a very large man, weighing over 350 pounds and tall in proportion, but when a young man was slender, and prided himself upon his ability to outrun any member of the tribe. Among his particular friends was a member of his tribe named Ke-la-co-mo-que-ah, who though not as tall as the chief, was about one hundred pounds heavier, and it is quite probable that his over size saved his life. As he was known to be a friend of La Fontaine, some other Indian whose name the writer has
* See Knapp's History of the Maumee Valley, in which is a very interesting account of both Little Turtle and Richardville.
317
INDIAN HISTORY.
forgotten, think it was Black Raccoon, came to the conclusion that this friend of La Fontaine's must be disposed of, but not daring to make open attack upon him, resorted to the treacherous mode so common among Indians. He pretended to be his friend and engaged in conversation with him, and became so " friendly " that he put one arm around his fat friend's neck, and with the other arm stabbed him. Had he been a man of common size no doubt the blow would have been fatal, but in this case the wound did not get inside the ribs. The Indian was speedily punished for his treachery. As soon as he struck the fat man he found himself held as though in a vise, by the man he tried to kill, who held him with one hand while with the other he drew from his pocket a knife which he opened with his teeth, and proceeded to perfor- ate his assailant, which he did in such a manner that immedi- ately there was an addition made to the list of what Gen. Sheridan calls good Indians.
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