USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnston 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 44
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JOHNSON COUNTY.
GEORGE C. WILLIAMS was born in Union County, Ind., Sep- tember 21, 1842, and is the second son of James T. and Julia Williams, the father born in Ohio, and the mother on Blannerhassett Island, in the Ohio River. The parent were of Welsh and English descent, respectively, and raised a family of nine children, five now living. James T. Williams was by occupation a cabinet-maker, but in later life followed farming. He died in the year 1862, at the age of fifty years. His wife survived him fourteen years, departing this life in 1878, aged sixty-eight. The subject of this biography was raised in his native county, and at the age of eighteen began life for himself as clerk in a mercantile house in Waynesville, Bar- tholomew County. He continued in that capacity for three years, and then began farming and dealing in grain and live-stock, in Jackson County, which he followed with success and financial profit for a period of about twelve years. He subsequently clerked for some time in the town of Seymour, and in 1883, came to Edinburg, where for one year he was similarly engaged in the hardware store of Compton Bros. Severing his connection with this business, he accepted a position of traveling salesman, which, with clerking, formed his principal occupation for the succeeding three or four years, when he purchased an interest in a hardware stock at Edin- burg, with G. W. Tucker. He disposed of his interest in the win- ter of ISS8. and at this time is not actually engaged in any business. Mr. Williams was married December 21, 1869, to Miss Anna B. Rockstroth, a native of Clark County, Ind., and daughter of John L. Rockstroth, a leading manufacturer of lard, oil and candles, of Jeffersonville. Three children were born to this union, namely: John, Anna and Minnie. Mrs. Williams died February 12, 1878, and in April, ISSo, Mr. Williams married Miss Mary A. Hutchings, who has borne him one child, to wit: Lewis C. Mr. Williams' life has been one of great activity, and his various business ventures have proved quite successful. He owns good property in Jackson County, Seymour, Jeffersonville and Edinburg, and is classed among the progressive citizens of the last-named city.
A. W. WINTERBERG, manufacturer and dealer in boots and shoes, Edinburg, is a native of Hanover, Germany, and son of Diedrieg and Cathrina Winterberg. He was born on the 11th day of July, 1839, and until his sixteenth year remained in his native country, attending in the meantime an educational institution at the town of Grandorf, where he pursued his studies with the object of the priesthood in view. Thinking the new world offered better opportunities for a young man, than his native country, Mr. Wint- erberg, in September, 1855, set sail for the United States, and after a long and tiresome voyage of nine weeks, landed at the city of New
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BLUE RIVER TOWNSHIP.
Orleans. From there he came directly to Edinburg, Ind., for the pur- pose of joining an elder brother who had preceded him, and for about one year, after arriving here, worked with his brother at the painter's trade. September, 1856, he entered upon an apprentice- ship in Edinburg to learn the shoe-maker's trade, and after becom- ing proficient in the same, worked at the business in various places throughout Indiana and Ohio until 1864. In that year he opened a shop in Edinburg, which he operated until IS67, when he moved to his present well-known place of business on Main Cross Street, and began dealing in boots and shoes, in connection with their manufacture. From the above date his business increased rapidly, and he was soon obliged to enlarge his capacity in order to meet the increasing demands of the trade. He still manufactures boots and shoes, employing several skillful workman, and carries a full and complete stock for the gen- eral trade, representing a capital of from $6,000 to $S,000. As a business man, Mr. Winterberg ranks among the most successful in Edinburg, and as a citizen enjoys the esteem of all who know him. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs, and as a republican, was elected to the position of township trustee, the duties of which he discharged for a period of six years. He also served on the school board of Edinburg, and at this time is presid- ing officer of the city council. In 1861, he entered the army as a member of Company H, Seventh Indiana Infantry, for the three months' service, and was honorably discharged at the expiration of that time. He was made a Mason in 1862, aside from which order he belongs at this time to the I. O. O. F. and G. A. R. December 26, 1861, he married Elizabeth J. Fretrick of Cincinnati. Ten child- ren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Winterberg, the following of whom are living, viz. : Minnie E., Charles H., Ida, Edward, William, Jennie, Harry and Walter.
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JOHNSON COUNTY.
CHAPTER VI .*
GEOLOGY -SITUATION AND BOUNDARY -TOPOGRAPHY - CON- NECTED SECTION-RECENT GEOLOGY-PALEOZOIC GEOLOGY.
EOGRAPHICALLY, Johnson County lies south of the center of Indiana. It comprises an area of 320 square miles, or 211,206 acres of land. In form it is a true parallelogram, measuring, from east to west, sixteen miles, and, from north to south, twenty miles. This county is bounded, on the north, by Marion; on the east, by Shelby: on the south, by Bartholomew and Brown, and on the west, by Morgan County. Franklin, the county seat, is twenty miles south of Indianapolis. Originally, the whole county was an unbroken forest, with a dense undergrowth, much of it regarded as worthless, being wet and swampy. Other portions were supposed to, be so broken as to prevent successful cultivation. Under energetic and progressive agriculture, these clifficulties have been annihilated; every marsh has been made a marvel of fertility, and every hillside a mine of wealth.
Topography .- The surface features of Johnson County are very simple. A bird's-eye view of its whole extent would reveal a general outline as follows: A broad, high ridge, beginning in the northern part and gradually growing higher as it extended to the south, would be observed in the central part of the county. It would appear to be a sort of flattened ridge, in a crescent form, with the convex side westward. From this elevated center, a gentle slope would be observed on both sides, in the northern part of the county; but, as it extended toward Brown County, the slope would appear more abrupt and precipitous. On the eastern side, this descent, in places, as in Nineveh Township, would be quite abrupt, making the boldly escarped hills of that township. On the western side, the descent has caused the streams to cut deep chan- nels, rendering much of the land very broken. To the east and south, would be stretched away, as far as the eye could reach, a broad, alluvial plain, covering the whole area of Clark, Needham and Blue River townships. To the west and south, would be seen the bold bluffs of White River, running sheer up to the eroded
* Adapted to this volume from the State Geologist's Report for ISS3, by David S. McCaslin, A. M.
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GEOLOGY.
channel of its waters. West of the northern extremity of this ridge, would be seen a broad valley, extending to the White River, threaded by Honey Creek and Pleasant Run. This surface outline reveals the hydrography of the county.
The ridge is the watershed, and upon its summit all the streams originate. The flattened ridge, in the north, forms broad plateaus that were originally swamps, but now, thanks to thorough drainage, they are so no longer. These swamps are, really, the highest land in the county, and not the lowest, thus facilitating their reclamation. Many of the ditches made to drain them continue to cut deeper channels, instead of filling up. From this summit region the streams all flow either southwest or southeast, emptying into Blue River or White River, according to their relation to the ridge. White River touches the county on the northwest, cutting off about 1,000 acres, and Blue River touches the southeast corner, cutting off about 1,400 acres. It will be seen, thus, that the whole of Johnson County is a watershed, lying between these two rivers.
The streams that flow down its slopes, or plunge down its de- scents, are numerous and beautiful. Sugar Creek is the main stream of the eastern slope. It receives, in Needham Township, through Little Sugar Creek, nearly the whole of the drainage of Clark Township. Young's Creek, with its tributaries, Indian, Moore's, Burkhart's and Hurricane creeks, drain the concave side of the crescent ridge. Gathering, thus, the whole volume of water from this level basin, it finally empties into Sugar Creek, near Amity, in the northwest part of Blue River Township. From the southern and highest part of the ridge, Nineveh Creek sweeps down a narrow ravine, excavated by its plowing waters. Its chan- nel is simply a gorge, with high and precipitous clay banks. On the western side of this ridge, Indian Creek begins with its various tributaries. These streams, like all running in that direction, de- scend to the valley of White River, through deep channels, not all of them, however, of recent origin, for some of them have evidently adopted the channels of ancient glacial streams.
The other streams are, Stott's Creek, with its tributaries, and Crooked and Coot's creeks. These last streams are small, and, indeed, none on the western side of the county are large enough to afford mill power. Occupying, as they do, rocky gorges, they are quite dry during most of the year. Some, at points where there are springs flowing, make a rill, useful only as a supply of water for stock. Sugar Creek is the only stream of the county that fur- nishes adequate mill power, and along its banks a number of large mills have been erected. This topographical outline puts before us the various topographical features of this county. We have the
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JOHNSON COUNTY.
form, and are now ready for the structure and constituents. Ob- servations throughout the county, with measurements of many widely separated exposures and outcrops, give the following con- nected section :
Quaternary Age.
Alluvium oo ft. to 40 ft. Loess 00 ft. to 30 ft.
Lacustral silt. oo ft. to 25 ft.
Bowlder drift 25 ft. to 100 ft.
Total 25 ft. to 195 ft. Carboniferous .lgc .- Knobstone Group or Epoch.
Knob shales and sandstone 25 ft. to 150 ft.
Devonian Age .- Hamilton Group.
Black slate (Genesee shale)
00 ft. to 30 ft.
Grand total 375 ft.
Recent Geology .- It being the fact that all geological forma- tions are the results of successive depositions of material, the lower deposits, if undisturbed, are the older, and the rocks are later, suc- cessively, until we reach the surface, where the latest formations are found. These later deposits, as seen by the section given, are very heavy in Johnson County, and present many features of in- terest.
These formations present three varieties in Johnson County. The ridges of the southern part, in Nineveh and Hensley town- ships, are capped with Loess, a yellow or buff-colored sediment. It has much siliceous material, but little coarse sand, and is easily removed by currents of water. The hills are accordingly cut into gullies and gorges, with abrupt sides. The valleys in many places are filled up with the lacustral from the hills. . The loess bed ex- tends, in a wedge-shaped tract, almost to Trafalgar. In the west- ern point of Hensley and Union townships, a large extent of light gray soil was observed, which is also assigned to this period. Slight changes were observed in several localities, where these fine-grained sedimentary deposits are replaced by silt, a sandy de- posit made by slowly moving currents of shallow water. These lacustral deposits are simply fragments of a great area of loess that covered several counties of Indiana, thus cut up into isolated areas, in later transformations of surface, by erosion and denuda- tion. The ancient lake bed is thus the level of the highest ridges,
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GEOLOGY.
and the soil that caps them the sedimentary deposit of its quiet waters. Underneath these alluvial and lacustral beds, throughout the county, is found the glacial drift. It is either obscurely unstrat- ified or modified, and in one form or the other, or both, it covers the rocky substratum of the whole county. The alluvial of Sugar Creek valley rests upon modified drift. But the lacustral deposits of the high southern ridge as far as observed, lie above deposits of undisturbed drift, the latter being, in general, compact blue clays filled with angular, fragmental rocks. This formation is evidently the foundation of the primeval glacial deposits.
This glacial drift varies greatly in thickness, ranging from only a few feet to over a hundred, wells that deep not having reached its base. The probability is that its thickness over this region was quite uniform, and that what remains in place is the undisturbed portion of a great mass of drift material. As far as seen, this part of the drift, throughout the county, was quiet uniform. The variations of the surface are very marked, being lacustral, fluviatile, or alluvial, but the identity of this blue clay that superimposes the sandstone is clearly apparent. Dig where you will, on the great central ridge of this country, this blue clay will be found at varying depths. It, like the others, gets its name from its origin. The alluvial is formed by the wash and overflow of streams; the lacustral by the slow accumulation of sediment in quiet waters; the glacial drifts were formed by the action of great masses of moving ice.
The local details of the drift in Johnson County, furnish a good exposition of glacial phenomena. The primeval glacier extended over the whole of Johnson County, there being evidence that it covered the whole of Brown County, save the summit of " Weed- patch Hill," the northern ridge of Brown County became a great barrier in the pathway of the glacier. The changed climate came on slowly. The melting ice causes the gradual recession of the glacier. Its dissolution sets new agencies into operation. Tor- rents of water begin the re-assortment of the drift. As the glacier withdrew, its detritus of bowlders, sand, and clay is subjected to the action of these fluviatile floods. The original deposit of the glacier is unstratified bowlder drift: the foundation is of blue clav, or hardpan that underlies the surface deposits. The glacier did not recede uniformly. Its progress backward was varied with periodical advances. Nor was its retreat equal in every latitude. Surface elevation, and the nature of the underlying formations, would affect the dissolution of the ice mass. Tongues of the glacial ice would extend southward. Along elevated ridges, waters, rushing down, would conspire in the construction of deep,
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JOHNSON COUNTY.
broad channels, where the excavation was the easiest. That would be the locality where the surface was lowest and the underlying formations most susceptible of erosion.
This was the process of glacial action in Johnson County. The great central ridge of the county was covered with ice after it had wholly disappeared in the eastern side of the county. Indeed, it appears, from conditions observed, that the whole valley of Sugar Creek was a portion of what is now definitely known to science as "Collett's Glacial River." Through this region, comprising three townships, there is evidence of deep erosion. There is no outcrop of the substratum, save one exposure of the black shale. The depos- its are all fluviatile, modified bowlder drift, either as a pebbly clay, with pockets of sand, or large and wide-spread deposits of obliquely stratified sand and gravel. Throughout this region, large bowlders are rarely found. The western shore of this ancient channel is well defined. In the southern part of the county are boldly out-lined hills of the knobstone formation. Some of them are plainly ter- raced, as particularly one on "Montrose farm," in Section 34, Nin- eveh Township. From the top of this hill there is a magnificent view of this ancient valley. Its eastern shore, the highest lands in Shelby County, stands out in distant outlines. This hill is 140 feet above the valley at its base, and 207 feet above Edinburg, six miles to the east, and located on the alluvial and fluviatile deposits in the bed of this ancient river. In the northeastern part of the county, this outline is not less distinctly, though not so abruptly and grandly defined. On the map, it coincides almost exactly with the course of the Hurricane Creek. Observation revealed the striking fact that this stream, with an almost due south course, followed the eastern limit of the modified bowlder drift. This is seen in the fact that the western bluff of the stream is the higher for a distance of seven miles, and that this higher bluff, throughout this whole ex- tent, is full of bowlders, while none were observed on the eastern side. West of Hurricane, the bowlder clays are thick and undis- turbed: but on the east, the soil is sandy and loamy, with local gravel deposits, just as observed elsewhere throughout this ancient valley. This shore line, beginning thus in the northern part of this county, continues, with this general southern course, to the southern part of the state.
Prof. John L. Campbell has conjectured that at the time of greatest flow in this channel, the southern terminus of the glacier was not far south of Indianapolis. There is evidence of this, not only in the fact that the western shore disappears in this region, but that the crescent-like ridge of this county sweeps around to the east with a sharp curve, outlining to the observer, a mighty mass of
GEOLOGY. 467
drift material that is a notable feature in the northern part of Pleas- ant and Clark townships. It extends from Greenwood, eastward, with its axial line running a little south of east. It is a ridge well marked by the hundreds of bowlders that are strewn along its sur- face. Near Greenwood, the railroad crosses this ridge at an eleva- tion of 840 feet above the sea, this being the highest point on the railroad between Indianapolis and Louisville. The eastern termi- nus of this ridge is in Section 4, Clark Township, at which it is rounded by Leatherwood Creek. Throughout its course, no de- posits of gravel were seen. The bowlders are everywhere thickly studded in a solid matrix of clay. Near Rocklane, a multitude of unusually large ones were seen, sometimes hundreds of them in an area of a few acres, many of them ten to fifteen feet in length and weighing many tons. On the farm of Mr. W. F. Kimuck, in Sec- tion 36, Clark Township, one was measured, showing the follow- ing dimensions: Length over top, 18 feet, 1 inch; circumference, 41 feet, 10 inches; height above ground, 5 feet. Near this mon- ster were a number of immense proportions.
There are a number of localities where a heavy removal of clay is revealed by the abundance of bowlders exposed, notably in Nineveh Township, Section 16. The whole mass of undisturbed bowlder clays of the central part of this county are more or less filled with these massive, eratic rocks. Most of them are granitic. Occasionally a feldspathic or chistose bowlder is seen. A few large fragments of limestone, usually filled with Devonian fossils were noted; one weighing several thousand pounds was seen in a deep ravine, near Barnes' Creek, in Hensley Township, Section 17.
Proof that large volumes of water, at one time, flowed through these passage-ways of this glacial ridge, is found "in the fact that, in the deep channels of the creeks in Hensley Township, deposits of gravel are found. In many places they occupy positions with ref- erence to the clay and sandstone that show the direction of flow as being from the northeast. Two beds of gravel on Barnes' Creek were examined, having the usual oblique and alternating stratifica- tion of such fluviatile deposits. Both were on the west bank of the valley, the one in Section 17, facing a bluff with an exposure of sandstone capped by about 30 feet of clay. The current that cast up this sand-bank came down this valley from the northeast. Simi- lar conditions were observed in other valleys, many of the low points in these deep gorges being simply deposits of the post-glacial streams.
Where the region to the northeast of this central ridge is ex- amined, it reveals the fact that these fluviatile waters wrought won- ders in re-assorting the drift. North and east and south of Frank-
30
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JOHNSON COUNTY.
lin, extensive deposits of sand and gravelexist. In their arrangement there is a general trend to the southwest. The sand ridge begin- ning at Franklin runs southwest, without interception, for several miles, where it is intersected by a small stream, but it appears again in the west, in Sections 29 and 30, Franklin Township. The sand and gravel at Mount Pleasant Church is a continuation of the ridge south of Franklin.
Another conspicuous deposit of sand and gravel, and probably the most remarkable, is the "Donnell Mound," Section S, Frank- lin Township. It is an illustration of the effect of fluviatile waters, and it shows well their southwestern course. The northeast side of this mound is abrupt; and the southwest side, sloping gently toward Young's Creek, presents a talus, showing the direction of the current. The sand and gravel at Hopewell and vicinity is all of the same origin. The "Donnell Mound" presents a section of alternate layers of sand and clay and gravel, showing well the "flow and plunge" structure. The mound is about ninety feet above the bed of Young's Creek. From its rounded summit there is an interesting view of a region of wondrous fertility and beauty. While these floods were re-assorting portions of the glacial drift in the central part of the county, the eastern parts were wholly submerged. Clark Township was a broad flood-plain, and in Sugar Creek Val- ley the waters had more current; hence the casting up of the great sand deposits, characteristic of this region. The elevated portions of Needham Township, notably on the land of L. Waggoner, in Sec- tion IS, and of W. Duckworth, in Section 15, are excellent examples of these fluviatile deposits. They overlie large areas in Blue River Township. All of these deposits bear a marked resemblance throughout the county, and all are contemporaneous in origin.
The only departure from this rule, that was observed, was a gravel deposit in Section 20, Hensley Township. This formation is apparently near the base of the glacial drift, being overlaid by from thirty to forty feet of bowlder clay and loess deposits. From ob- servation, this bed of gravel is present through quite an area of drift, and is not a mere pocket of sand and gravel, as such deposits usually are in unstratified drifts. The formation is, on an average, about ten feet thick, and, as far as seen, shows a regular, horizontal stratification. The alternating layers of fine sand and gravel are from six to ten inches thick, and all are charged with various mineral solution, that gave the whole deposit a variegated appearance. The bands are reddish-brown, ash-gray, blue, and yellow, features of chemical discoloration not seen in any gravel deposits elsewhere in the county. In many, the ordinary coloring of red oxide of iron was seen, but nothing with these features of color and stratification.
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GEOLOGY.
This deposit, probably, antedates the general fluviatile modifica- tions of the drift, and was formed at the first advance of the glacier, under the action of the waters attending its periodic advance and retreat, and, as thus deposited, finally deeply covered with drift, when the glacier reachesits culmination. The contrast of condition between this gravel bed and the one on Barnes' Creek, just one mile west, is very striking. The one lies above the drift, with oblique strati- fications: and the other below it, with regular layers. The cover- ing of the gravel pit on Barnes' Creek, is black alluvium; of this one, the covering is of the most compact clay, so hard and firm that it could only be removed by blasting. The relative antiquity of these two adjacent deposits is thus suggested. An epoch of geolog- ical history probably intervenes them.
Along the bluffs of the White River, the peculiar phenomena of the glacial and post-glacial periods are observed. On this side of the central ridge of the county, the fluviatile floods apparently had not the advantage of long continued erosion. Instead of filling up a wide valley, already excavated, the great flood performed the Herculean task of cutting a channel through the sandstone ridge that extended, in bold outlines, across its course. This fluviatile erosion of the ancient valley of White River is thus seen to be a later event in geologic history than the formation of the " Collett Glacial River," which was the product of glacial ac- tion previously. This sandstone formation was probably capped with a heavy drift deposit. Through this barrier the water found its way, having, as the shore of its channel, the bold bluffs of White River, at Waverly and Far West. The bluffs mark the eastern limit of the Knobstone formation. Instead of following the outline of the outcrop, as in "Collett Gla- cial River " valley, the waters are compelled to cut directly across the barrier, because of the ridge on the east. North of Smith's valley there is a broad level plain, covered deeply with alluvium. Parallel with the present channel of White River, there are, in many places, detached ridges of sand and gravel, the axial lines of which lie northeast and southwest, coincident with the course of the ancient river. Some of these sand deposits are very thick. In several places they are piled directly upon the sandstone, all the clay having been removed. The sand and gravel gradually dis- appear as we go east from Far West, showing that these deposits were limited to that ancient channel. The high lands of Sections 9, 16. etc., of White River Township, are the eastern shore of glacial drift, of superimposing sandstone strata. From the county line, one mile south of Far West, this elevation affords a magnificent view of the ancient valley, now threaded by the comparatively diminutive and
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