USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, from the earliest times to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, etc. > Part 2
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ash. Both varieties of upland yield good the coal measures, later the limestones de- crops of corn, wheat, oats, and meadow posited in the bed of an ancient ocean which grass. The hills and high ridges are ex- overspread the region after the coal was in empt from sudden changes of temperature the first stages of formation, and more recent and are admirably adapted to the culture of than all this, overlying it and the cause of tender fruits and vines. Consequently the many beautiful features of landscape, the wide-awake agriculturists have extensive
Merom sandstone. Without treating of the and profitable orchards and vineyards, which formation of coal, of which much has been are sure sources of income. The bluff soil written, and which is very likely identical in different localities, nor of the limestone, let us consider more at length the Merom sand- stone, and then the later phenomena which caused the present configuration of the country. is the American equivalent of the Loess of the Rhine, which produces the generous wines of France, and with the same care will as richly reward. The climate is in the neutral zone, between uncomfortable warmth and cold, not subject to the extreme changes which renders culture hazardous further north. The tender peach, apricot and grape
The Merom sandstone is well developed in Vanderburgh and adjoining counties, capping the tops of the highest hills in the northeast- may be grown to perfection along with the ern and forming the surface rock in all the uneroded parts of the central and western regions. In deep, narrow gorges, with pre-
sturdier apple and quince. The vineyards yield wine rich in bouquet and spirit. The walnuts and hickory nuts are produced in cipitous and overhanging sides, it gives a ro-
19
GENERAL FEATURES.
mantic boldness to the scenery, and also affords good exposures for its study. In Section 17, Scott township, this massive sandstone overhangs the brook which flows by the base, and the softer rock has disap- peared below, leaving a rock house which was once a favorite resort of the Indians. The rock is always ferriferous, containing small partings and veins of iron, which being harder than the sandy matrix, fret the sides and over- hanging arches of the gorges with an irreg- ular tracery of network in relief. In this county the stone is regular in sequence, un- interruptedly covering the coal measures. But in the relation of proximity to the coals, it is regular only in irregularity. Sometimes all the coal seams are below it, elsewhere all the older rocks down to the Ingleside coal have been cut away by ancient floods, and then the sandstone lies directly upon that coal, and sometimes includes in its lower layers, rounded pellets and pebbles of coal, which reveal the extensive action of the water which preceded the deposition of the sandstone. There is therefore good ground for the belief that it is the record of a geo- logical era far subsequent to the carbonifer- ous. Fossils are rare or entirely absent, being confined to specimens of Acrogens, a lower order of plant life. The Merom sand- stone is near the surface of Babytown hill, nearly 200 feet above low water in the river, and from this eminence that the rock has preserved, a splendid view is enjoyed of the teeming city and the river dotted with the steamers carrying the commerce of the val- ley states. West of Germantown, the mas- sive part of the rock is well exposed, and it is 20 to 40 feet thick, composed of sharp sand, small veins of hematite iron, and a few trunks and stems of plants. The sand is so slightly coherent that it may be removed with a shovel, the iron is easily removed, and the product is remarkably good for plaster-
ing and building. Southwest of there, across the county line, the rock is on the other hand admirably adapted to quarrying, and along Big creek, good stone is obtained. In the prime agricultural region of the northwest- ern high level of the county, the rocks are deeply covered, and the only outcrop noted is in Section 23, Armstrong township. On the George Graff farm a shaft was once put down through this solid rock in search of silver ore, but of course, with no success. Subsequent to the period when this sand- stone was laid down -it would be idle to attempt to measure the time which elapsed - vast glaciers overspread the country, mainly to the north of this latitude. These left no deep beds of drift, with boulders showing the grinding action of ice and water, in this county, but their record is nevertheless plain. We refer now to the sets of ancient valleys which traverse the county, from 100 to 150 feet above the river, having a course from north 18° to 24° west. These are not continuous now, but are often cut across or partially silted up by a second, more recent set of valleys, running from northeast to southward. In either sets of valley thorough- fares, after a rain, may be seen in the ditches the fine white quartzose and black sand or magnetite, from the Laurentian rocks of Canada. The hardest material of the glacial drift reached here only in the form of powder, but is easily recognized, and seems to point unmistakably to a glacial origin of these val- leys, the primary having been made at the beginning of the era, before the Wabash valley had been excavated by the great flood of ice water. The secondaries prob- ably date to the time when the water, which sought sluice-way in the summer months, by the White and Patoka valleys, after ex- cavating the great basin of South Patoka, overflowed to the west and south, cutting away softer rock and leaving the harder
20
GEOLOGY.
knobs and hills which now beautify the land- scape. The Lake regions were then, it is believed from well investigated phenomena, eight hundred or nine hundred feet higher than now, and the summer melting of ice caused more violent action of the water than would now appear possible. Thus were cut the valleys of Pigeon and Black creeks, and the like, so much wider than could be accounted for by the action of these small water courses. Not only wider are they than the creeks can account for, but it is a remarkable fact that these creeks flow in beds considerably above the former bed of the water which cut the valleys.
When these mighty glaciers passed away, receding to the north on account of some vast change in the continental conditions, a great lake covered a large area of the in- terior of the continent, including southwest- ern Indiana, and regions adjoining south and west. Its high water line is now seven hun- dred or eight hundred feet above the level of the ocean. The deposits of this era are called loess or lacustral, and consist of reddish yellow loam, sandy, below that gray and buff siliceous loam, and at the bottom, in valleys which were filled up in this era, black quicksand, muck with much vegetable matter. This deposit varies in depth from fifteen to one hundred and fifteen feet. In that era, the extreme cold of the ice age was suc- ceeded by the other extreme, and tropical trees and plants, and animals of South American type, flourished in this region. In the muck deposit, or just above it in a flinty gravel, have been found in this and adjoin- ing counties the bones of monstrous tropical animals, the Megalonyx and other great sloths, the Mammoth, or Elephas Ameri- canus, and the great beaver Casteroides Ohioensis. In sinking the Avondale shaft at Evansville, a bed of animal and vegetable remains was encountered, containing an im-
mense quantity of fresh-water shells. When these were studied by naturalists and com- pared with existing types, it was found that some were wholly extinct and others were to be found now only in the southern states. " These shells, wholly extinct, or barely ex- isting as survivors from our ancient sub-tropic climate, reveal in their story a hitherto un- known chapter of past events, indicating a change of climate nearly equivalent to 10° of latitude, and which, according to Mr. Hopkins' paper before the British Scientific Association, must have taken place within from twenty thousand to seventy thousand years." From the time when this tropical life prevailed here, the climate changed gradually to colder, and vegetation and fauna changed with it. Still, the change has not been so vast that we have not relics to-day of those distant times. In such shel- tered spots as seem to be the last lagoons of the ancient sea, and there are such in Union township particularly, the cypress lingers, and the cane, as well as in the other division of life, the paroquet, cotton-mouth and grass snakes, and red-mouthed salamander. The persimmon, pecan, smooth honey-locust, catalpa and thorny sumac, are also relics of a period whose main features have long since disappeared.
The " tooth of time," since the age above spoken of, has been confined in its work to the formation of the alluvial flats by the con- tinual eating away of older deposits. So have been formed the river bottoms, com- posed of sand, gravel and smooth stones, clay and much vegetable matter, comprising sticks and trunks of trees found buried even more than one hundred feet below the pres- ent level of the river beds, and fluviatile sand-bars and gravel-beds as high as one hundred to two hundred feet above the high water line.
The following is a connected section of
21
GENERAL FEATURES.
the rocks and other deposits of Vander- burgh county arranged in the order of their sequence in age, beginning with the more recent and the superior :
Ft. Ft. In.
15 to 29 0
Ft. Ft. In.
I. Buff, brown, red and mottled slabs.
2 to O O
29 to 8 o
2. Merom sandstone, soft, shaly, upper division. . 20 to 25 0 3. Merom sandstone, mas- sive, in quarry beds. . IO to 30 O IS. COAL N, choice, gassy, caking 2
19. Fire-clay,
at
bottom
shaly, with iron balls.
5
8
4. Flaggy on thick bedded sandstone, ripple marked
9 to
4 0
21. Gray or white shale, with nodules of iron- stone and bands of sandstone
30 10 40 0
5. Hard, clinky, gray lime- stone, at bottom irreg- ular and sometimes flinty, passing to the west to a calcareous shale.
2 to
6 0
60 to 71 0
6. Argillaceous shale and shaly sandstone .
34 to O
O
7. Black slate with fish spines and fossils . .. . I12 to
S. SECOND RASH COAL .
o to
O
3
9. Fire clay
I to
O
O
10. Gray shale
6 to O
O
1 0
II. Limestone, yellow fer- ruginous 3 to I2 0
26. Fire-clay, with pyrite
8
27. Siliceous shale
II 9
12. FIRST RASH COAL, and black slate
o to
O S
28. Argillaceous sandstone.
5 o
13. Fire-clay.
I to
2
6
29. Gray shale and soap stone
6.4 5
30. Soapstone, with plant re- mains O 3
14. Soft, flaggy, blue, buff and gray sandstone, with much gray shale and beds of clay iron- stone and nodules. ...
60 to 121 O
15. Yellow and gray sand-
O
0
24. INGLESIDE COAL M : lam- inated coal, I ft. 4 in .; parting 2 in. to o; solid cubic coal 2 ft. S in. .. 25. Fire-clay.
II. Gray shale
98 to
0 O balls 3
31. COAL L: impure cannel coal, I ft. 6 in .; pyrit- ous argillite, I ft. 4 in. ;
stone, often giving good quarry beds ... . 16. Gray and buff alluvium, arenaceous or shaly, or flaggy sandstone, with iron stone nodules and shaly concretions 17. Black slate or clod, with fossils I O
4. Dark gray or buff shales and flaggy sandstones with clay iron stone. . 3. BROWN IMPURE COAL, 3rd rash coal. ....
IO to 20 O
20. Buff or gray limestone with Chœtetes . .....
1 14 to
0 0
8 to 5 0
22. Siliceous shale, passing to massive sand rock to south and west; al- luvial rock? of Les- quereux and Owen ... 23. Black slate or clod, with many alluvial and veg- etable fossils . 2 to I 8
3
GEOLOGI.
Ft. Ft. In. |
slaty cannel, I ft. 2 in .: free burning coal, I ft. 3 in .
32. Fire-clay. .
(Extra-limital. )
34. Siliceous shales and coarse massive ferru- ginous sandstone .... 35. Best limestone and black slate
90 to 120 0
2 to
S
O
36. COAL K, caking, pyrit- ous .
o to I
6
37. Laminated fire-clay .. . .
2 to I
4
IO to 30 0
39. Conglomerate sandrock 110 to 180
0
40. Coal A.
3 to O 0
41. Dark or black shale,
with iron ore.
30 to
5
0
42. Chester sandstone and sub-carboniferous lime- stone.
o to O
O
Total
837 8
The beds Nos. 3 to 14 of the above sec- tion, including two or three thin seams of rash coal, and two strata of limestone, each of two to eight feet thick, occupy the hill-tops in the northeastern parts, and thence dipping to the southwest are found at or near the level of the streams in that part of the county. These beds are a notable geologic horizon. Besides the advantage of the stone, which is burned for the lime, they form an unmis- takable directrix from which to measure down to the probable level of the lower workable coals. The limestones Nos. 5 and II, at their northeastern outcrop, are hard and clinky, and are frequently brought close together or found in contact. They are found in such contact in the sides of the bold
5
3
2
6
38. Siliceous and black alu- minous shales, with rich bands and pockets of nodular iron ore ...
bluff on the north of the Pigeon valley. In Perry township there are several limekilns, at which the stone has been quarried and burned. On the West Franklin road there is outcrop of flinty limerock, which has been a noted curiosity with geologists who have made this region famous by their labors. It seems here that the whole thickness of the lime- stone had been transformed into clinky horn- stone or flint. Near there are three sink- holes, such as are common in the region of sub-carboniferous limestone, ten to thirty feet in diameter, the only sinks seen in our coal measures. A large spring discharges the water collected by them. Near Baby- town hill, crinoid stems, and many other fos- sils, mostly compressed and broken, are found in profusion. This double limestone forms the elevated foundation of the beautiful site of Mechanicsville, which, 150 feet above the city, has an unbroken view of the rich broad valley, the rolling river, and the dis- tant hills of Kentucky. It outcrops in the ravines a little east of there, and the stone is used for curbing and stoning the streets of the city. This stratum rises at the rate of fifteen feet per mile to the northeast, and is a surface rock two miles east of the village. In Section 20, Center township, it shows a face of seven or eight feet, and in cavities beneath its disturbed edges, rattlesnakes and other serpents were accustomed to gather for miles around to hibernate. The lime- stone caps a bald peak on the Mccutcheon farm in the northeast corner of the county, which commands one of the finest outlooks in the state, embracing the hills and knobs round about at a distance of fifteen to twenty miles. In all adjoining regions, these lime- stones contain a multitude of fossils in great variety, the assignment of which to the proper geological period has given rise to bitter personal quarrels between eminent scientists. The dispute is as to whether
23
GENERAL FEATURES.
they are Permian or Carboniferous, and equivalent beds in the West have been named Permo-carboniferous as a sort of compromise. In this county these limestones, though often crowded and almost wholly composed of fossils, as Athyris, Spirifer lin- eatus and Lophophyllum proliferum, do not afford good cabinet specimens.
The coals, Nos. 3, 8, 12, are generally ab- sent and never persistent over considerable areas. They are impure, thin, and of no importance.
The thin fire-clays, Nos. 9, 13, are of much greater value, as they are unctuous and plastic, and work well for pottery and terra cotta.
No. 14 is a soft sandstone found in the upper part of Ingleside shaft, in the beds and bluffs of Pigeon creek, and thence northeast along the brooks and creeks. It is some- what quarried for rough masonry. The yellow and gray sandstone, No. 15, is ex- posed only in the east and northeast and is well down the Evansville shafts. There is an extensive bed in the northeast corner of Knight township, from which excellent stone is taken.
Coal N, No. 19 of the section, is the next stratum of commercial importance, and it is a choice, gassy coal, of excellent quality. This is equal to the best western coal for gas and coking, and though the seam will aver- age but little over two feet, yet its purity and richness in volatile matter will justify mining it. The seam is uniformly persistent throughout this region, and is locally known .as "Little Newburg coal." The chemical analysis of this coal shows 53 per cent. of fixed carbon, gas 41.5, water 3, ash 2.5. Coke, 55.5. Heat units, Sogo. Specific gravity, I.242. Weight of one cubic foot, 77.62 pounds.
No. 20, a limestone, is not exposed in the county, but along the county line in Warrick
it outcrops, and is remarkable for the won- derful size of the fossil Lophophyllum pro- liferum and the great profusion of the coral, Chœtetes. The siliceous shale and sand- stone, No. 22, is not seen at the surface, but is important along Green river. No. 23 carries a large number of beautiful and well preserved fossils, a list of which would be too lengthy for space here.
No. 24 is the Ingleside coal M, or " Main Newburg," the chief mineral resource of this region. This seam has been pierced at many places, and at almost every station it has shown a thickness of not less than four feet. It is a strong coking coal, burns to gray or red ash, and is an excellent fuel for steam or grate use, and commands a ready market. It drives the wheels of commerce, pulls the mighty railroad trains, and gives energy to the thousand arms and fingers of iron which manufacture, with the strength of a million giants, the wealth of this favored city and county. It underlies two-thirds, if not the whole county. Such a mine of wealth will endure for ages, and assures for this county an enviable prosperity and progress. From it can be produced a coke of great value.
An analysis of a specimen from the middle of the Ingleside seam shows: fixed carbon 48.5 per cent., gas 42, water 3.5, ash 6. Coke 54.50. Heat units, 7772. Specific gravity 1.275. Weight of one cubic foot, 79.68 pounds.
Nos. 25 and 26, are fire-clays, and will be extensively used for terra cotta. Below coal M we find the noted phenomenon of massive limestones in the coal measures. They are highly argillaceous, little more than clay shale, even the tough blue sand- stone readily yields to air and moisture. No. 30 is the " fern bed," a deposit rich in leaves and stems of the plants of the coal age. llere are found kidney ironstones, en- closing plants and fruits,
24
GEOLOGY.
Coal L, No. 31, is a characteristic Indiana coal. It is a laminated, semi-caking or free burning coal, rich in carbon, and yielding a gray or white ash, with little or no cinder. It is the most persistent coal of the Wabash basin in thickness, regularity and good quali- ties. Here it is found when pierced to be of an average thickness of only two feet, which will hardly justify mining at present. It is admirably suited for rolling mill, loco- motive and stove use.
Below Coal L a hard, ferruginous sand- stone has been pierced by bores, fills a con- siderable space, and below it is the limestone superimposing Coal K, sometimes flinty, but on the Kentucky side carrying the usual fos- sils.
Coal K, magnificently exhibited in Pike county, is not seen here. In bores along the Ohio river it never develops a thickness of two feet, and is generally thinner. Below K are beds of black shale often called coal in the reports of bores, but no thick or worka- ble seams may be expected at this depth. No. 39, a coarse, red sandstone conglomer- ate, forms the bottom rock or bed of the Coal measures. It is only pierced by the Crescent City Park bore. The sub-con- glomerate coal A, is only known by report, and its existence here is quite doubtful. It is certain that the deepest bores report beds of sandstone and limestone which are re- ferred to the Chester beds of the sub-car- boniferous period. This closes a connected view of the surface phenomena and rocky structure of the county.
Near Evansville the surface rocks are the soft blue, buff and gray sandstones passing into argillaceous shales, No 14 of general section. In this bed the Ingleside shaft in the west suburb of Evansville was begun, piercing in its depth the lower rash coal and shales, and N, M and L, in succession. The following is the section in detail:
SECTION IN INGLESIDE SHAFT.
Ft. In.
I. Clay and alluvial sand. 29 0
2. Clay and shale. 61 0
3. Slaty coal and fire-clay 3 º
4. Sandrock . +
6
5. Siliceous clay shales I2 9
6. S Shale and iron stones Fire-clay . 5 IO
7. Ferriferous sandstone. 7
9
S. Fire-clay with sand and iron 12 3
9. Sandstone (ferriferous) 12 I
IO. Shale I O
II. Sandstone 5 7
I2. Coal N, ( Little Newburg) 2 II
13. Fire-clay with iron balls 5 8
14. Limestone . 5 0
15. Fire-clay parting 2 6
16. Limestone 4 6
17. Gray shale, black at bottom 83 10
Coal M, (Main Newburg) 4 2
Fire-clay 4 0
Fire-clay with pyrite. 3 8
21. Siliceous shale. II 9
22. Argillaceous sandstone 5
23. Gray shale (soapstone) 64 5
24. Soapstone (fern bed) 3
25. Coal L: Impure cannel, I ft. 6 in .: pyritous argillite, I ft. 4 in .: slaty cannel, I ft. 2 in .; semi-caking coal, I ft. 3 in .. 5 3
0
26. Fire-clay 2 6
362 8
In the black shale which forms the roof of this mine, are fine fossils including Pro- ductus, three species, Bellerophon, two species, Aviculopecten, two species, Pleuro- tomaria, two species, Macrocheilus, two species, and a Goniatite. The coal in the mine and accompanying rocks is as follows:
Argillaceous limestone, pyritous. I ft. 4 in. Black slate (shale) I ft. 4 in.
18.
19.
20.
25
GENERAL FEATURES.
Laminated coal. I ft. 3 in.
Parting 2 in.
Solid caking coal . 2 ft. II in. 4 ft. 2 in.
6 ft. 10 in.
This coal ranges from three feet eight in- ches to four feet four inches, and averages nearly four feet at this mine. It is remark- ably uniform in thickness and persistence. In other regions of the Indiana basin, the coals are not so regular, or the seams nar- row and unworkable. One uninterrupted seam is equal in avails to several unreliable coals, and gives more certain returns. When coals become scarce, as in England, the upper seam (N) may and will be worked. The dip of lower coals, L, M, N, from New- burg via Evansville, along the center of the trough which gives direction to the lower Ohio valley, is eighteen feet nine inches a mile, with many irregularities. Dip to south, from northern line of the county, is about twenty feet per mile, decreasing to eight or ten feet, until it passes the central synclinal, where the dip is reversed, ascending to the south.
THE SALT WELL.
In December, 1868, the boring of a well was begun in what is now called " Artesian Springs Park," in the Fourth ward, and in view of the recent gas-well developments it is interesting to recall that there was a strong flow of burning gas from the upper part of the well. This continued until salt water was struck at less than three hundred feet, and it is now a flowing, artesian well. The section of this well is as follows:
SECTION OF ARTESIAN WELL.
Soapstone 31
Gray sand stone. 2 1/2
Soapstone and shale. 37
Hard gray sandstone
I
Slaty coal 2
Shale
6
Gray 44 12
Soft shale II
Soft gray sandstone 18
Hard gray sandstone
5
Gray flint?
Dark gray sandstone
62
Saltwater
..
Hard black shale (coal?) 73
Gray sandstone 65
Flint .
6
Hard gray shale. 5
Hard argillaceous sandstone 34
Gray shales (soapstone) 55
Coal (L?) .. I 12
Gray shale and sandstone. I34
Dark sandstone, with salt water
flowing seven gallons per minute. 5
Hard pure sandstone conglomerate . 50 Coal and slate 1/2
Soapstone
IO
Coal (A?) and slate 1 1/2
Fire-clay
1/2
682
Surface
I7
Total. 699
At Avondale, the preliminary bore, be- fore the sinking of the shaft, showed the following section:
SECTION IN AVONDALE BORE.
Ft. In.
Surface
9
6
Blue clay 30 6
Gray sand 2
6
Blue mud, quicksand 22
3
Gravel, sand and shells. 6
0
Fire-clay and sand. 28
3
Gravel and sand
I
O
Sandstone
2
0
Fire-clay
2
9
I 1/2 Sandstone II O
2
26
GEOLOGY.
Fire-clay 7
9
Sandstone
7
O
Fire-clay with pebbles
2
8
Siliceous clay .
I
0
Sandstone with iron balls
72 O
Concretion
I IO
Sandstone
36 10
Rock slate
6 0
Black slate.
2 IO
Coal
4 0
256 9
Clay for bricks is found abundantly throughout the county, and the quality is good. The modified clays of the valley lands, and the under clay of the coals furnish an article suitable for crockery, terra cotta and stone-ware. Iron ores are found
throughout the coal measures. Nodular iron of good quality occurs just above and below the horizon of coal N. But it will not pay to work. The largest deposit is at Priest's bluff, where several car loads are exposed at low water. Very minute scales of gold and nuggets of copper are sometimes found, but they are importations of the glacial drift. Sand of an excellent kind is pro- duced by the disintegration of the Merom sandstone. There are no gravel beds like those of Northern Indiana here, but in the bed of the Ohio, and below low water generally, are extensive deposits of ferruginous chert, brought down from further up the river, and this material is one of the best known for metaling pikes and streets. It forms a compact, smooth and slightly elastic surface.
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