USA > Indiana > Whitley County > History of Whitley County, Indiana > Part 4
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streams in this region, here cuts transversely. In the north-west half of Columbia and the east half of Richland townships, the fourth moraine assumes a character which words are powerless to picture. The coun- try is entirely occupied by deep, irregular, elongated valleys with narrow sharp wind- ing ridges between, all in inextricable, in- describable and almost unmapable confusion. In a somewhat extensive study of the great morainic belts of North America, by per- sonal observation and published reports, .Prof. Charles Dryer says he has never seen or found described anything nearly resem- bling this area. It covers in all about forty square miles and the greatest distance of level probably does not exceed 100 feet, yet this little patch of the earth's surface is unique. The roads through it were origi- nally very crooked to avoid the marshes and, though somewhat improved by drainage and good graveling. will always remain of the crooked type. In whatever direction one travels, it is one continuous succession of steep descents and ascents. The ridges are composed of rather barren clay and the val- ley's occupied originally by marshes and tam- arack swamps. The relief might be imitated by taking a block of plastic clay and gouging it with some blunt instrument in the most irregular manner possible. somewhat as the ancient Babylonians did their bricks. It is one of nature's cuneiform inscriptions, and as difficult of interpretation as those of the Euphrates valley. This type of topography may be called chasmed. It is now impossi- hle to imagine with any definiteness of de- tail the process by which this little bit of the face of the earth was put in its present shape. Another strange peculiarity, is that
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a country which so abounds in depressions is almost devoid of lakes. This condition continues to and beyond the west line of Richland township to about the center, north and south, or the entire west side of town- ship 31, range 8.
Black lake. section 27, and Wilson lake. section 35, township 32, range 8, lie upon the north-western border of this region. The former originally covered about forty acres, is shallow and almost free from vege- tation. An unusually high and precipitous ridge separates the two. From these lakes Spring creek flows southward through the chasms to Eel river near South Whitley. North of the middle of Richland township. the surface smoothes out, decidedly retain- ing similar features in a much milder form, and may be called gently sloping. This comparatively smooth interval extends west- ward nearly to the county line, and to the north occupies the greater part of Troy and Etna townships. Although the contrast be- tween the precipitous chasms on the east and the gentle undulations on the west is very strong, it is impossible to draw more than an approximate line. The village of Larwill is situated upon this boundary, which extends thence south-ward and south- west and toward the north-east, passing be- tween Loon and Crooked lakes. On the west side of the interval and in Kosciusko county, the surface becomes again tumbled and broken, assuming the usual characters of a moraine. This type of typography, which may be fitly designated as crumpled. touches Whitley county near Robinson lake, section 18, Troy township. This lake with an original area of about 150 acres has an average depth of thirty feet and a maximum
of fifty-two feet near the south-west end. It is drained north-westward into the Tip- pecanoe. Etna township and the northern part of Troy have the appearance of an elevated tableland, a smooth plain, not level, but slightly inclined to the west. Ridges and gorges are wholly absent. It is a coun- try of long, gentle slopes and wide vistas, from which woods beyond fields may be seen stretching away to a horizon dim in the distance. It is remarkable that this com- paratively level interval should be found upon the very crest of the Saginaw-Erie interlobate moraine, the slopes on either side being much more rough and irregular. Like the valley of Upper Pigeon creek in Steuben county, and a portion of north-western De Kalb county, it looks as though it once might have been a wide and deep valley, subse- quently filled by overwash from either side. This impression is made stronger by the fact that in both cases the interval is found to contain extensive sand streams. The one described as lying south of Fremont, Steuben county, is matched by the deposits of sand south and west of Loon lake, sections [ and 2, Troy.
In Whitley county the interval contains several lakes. Cedar lake, sections 10 and II, Troy, originally of about 150 acres, has been lowered ten feet by a ditch and has a sand beach nearly all around it, in some places ten rods wide. The deepest place found is forty-five feet. Goose lake, in sec- tion 12, resembles Cedar, but is only about half as large. In this region also is Loon lake, one of the largest in the county. It occupies parts of sections 36, Etna ; I, Troy ; and 6, Thorncreek; and about one-half its area is comprised in Noble county. It is
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WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.
broadly bottle-shaped, with a short neck to the north, one mile and a quarter long by a half mile wide. The shores are low but clean, without marsh except at the north and south ends. The water is so clear that the bottom can be distinctly seen at depths of thirty or forty feet. Between the south shore and a small island, depths of thirty- five or forty feet are found. From the island a gravel bar covered with small boulders extends westward. The main body of the lake has a depth varying but little from seventy feet. One sounding north-west of the island reached the very unusual figure of 102 feet, thus placing Loon lake among the list of the deepest lakes in the state. Tribu- tary to Loon lake are Old lake and New lake, each of about eighty acres, the latter interesting from the fact that within a few years it has been drained and diminished to one-half its size. The wide beach of sand and shells are almost bare of vegetation, but the little lobelia Kalmii is rapidly taking possession, with only Lysiwachia ciliata and Cassia Marilandica for competitors. The country around these lakes is moderately uneven, but its irregularity is not at all com- parable with that of the regions on the east and west of it. The lake basins are great depressions in a surface otherwise compara- tively smooth.
The remainder of Whitley county, in- cluding the townships of Thorncreek and Smith and the portions of Columbia and Union, present the usual features of crumpled moraine topography in moderate strength and great variety. It is divided diagonally from north-east to south-west by the valley of Blue river, which here serves to separate the third and fourth Erie mo-
raines. The latter contains a group of lakes .. which for beauty and general attractiveness. may challenge comparison with any of their Indiana rivals. Shriner, Cedar and Round in Thorncreek, are as pretty a trio of lakes as one can wish to see. They occupy paral- lel valleys separated by slight ridges. On these ridges are several cottages, and the whole is one of the most picturesque regions to be found anywhere. Shriner is a mile and a quarter long by a quarter wide. Its level was lowered many years ago by a ditch cut through the ridge to Round lake. The stream connecting the two rivals the most beautiful trout streams of the mountains. The cutting of this ditch was the occasion for one of the early cases of litigation in the county. The present shores of Shriner lake are remarkably clean and present many most beautiful landing places. The water from the shores deepens rapidly and is very clear. At either end the banks are low, at the east very sandy, at the west marshy. while along the central part on either side are beautiful high bluffs covered by native forest trees. The depth varies from forty- five to seventy feet.
Cedar is much like Shriner but more ir- regular. The lower fourth is separated from the main body by narrows. Its level was raised by a dam at the same time Shrin- er's was lowered and the shallow space thus gained is entirely occupied by aquatic vege- tation, chiefly nuphar. These two lakes furnish an illustration of the law that lower- ing a lake leaves clean shores and raising it results in the formation of a marshy border. The depth of Cedar lake varies from forty- five to seventy-nine feet in the center of the upper basin. Round lake occupies an area
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of about 160 acres, lies at the same level as Cedar, connected by the strait or ditch already described. Its axis is at right angles with that of Cedar and its depth thirty-five to sixty feet. These lakes are drained through Thorncreek into Blue river.
Separated from the west end of Cedar by a divide a quarter of a mile across and twenty-five or thirty feet high is Crooked lake, which empties westward into the Tippe- canoe river. Its axis continues the general direction of Shriner and Cedar, south-east and north-west, but it is nearly as large as the other two and much more irregular in outline and bottom. The upper basin is small and partially separated from the central by a narrow gravel ridge. The central basin is half a mile in diameter and near its center is found among the deepest soundings ever made in an Indiana lake: 107 feet. The lower end extends into Noble county. The shores are clean and gravelly and the hills on either side probably form the highest ground in Whitley county. The group of lakes comprising Shriner's, Round, Cedar and Crooked, furnish five or six miles of boating and offer attractions for the camper, sportsman, fisherman and artist, such as are equaled by few places in the state.
Blue River Valley contains one lake which is distinguished as being inter-mo- rainic rather than intra-morainic. Blue River lake, in sections 9, 10, 15 and 16, Smith, has a basin one-half mile by a mile and a half, with low shores and a very uni- form depth of forty to fifty-five feet. Aquatic vegetation in great variety and pro- fusion furnishes a botanist's paradise. The shores are nearly surrounded by a broad belt of plants arranged in distinct zones, accord-
ing to the depth of the water. On ap- proaching the shore, the first zone appears at depths between six and eight feet and con- sists of Brasenia, Potamogeton, species with filiform leaves being very abundant, Utricu- laria and Myriophyllum. At a depth of four feet, Nuphar covers the water with its leaves, the spaces between being filled with a dense mass of Chara covered with a mantle of Lemna. Here navigation becomes diffi- cult. At a depth of three feet Pontederia appears with Polygonum Amphibium. At two feet the water passes gradually into a jungle of Decodon. Typha, Polygonum nodosum, Phragmites and Salix, passable only by birds and reptiles. This lake is the only locality in north-eastern Indiana where the splendid Nelumbo lutea occurs, and here it is as abundant as Nymphæ. Flowers are difficult to procure because they are gathered by numerous visitors as fast as they open, but the leaves rolled up and rock- ing like a boat, or expanded into an orbicu- lar shield twenty to thirty inches in diameter and flapping in the wind, present an inter- esting and attractive sight. The water in mid-summer has the appearance of muddy coffee, and through the whole season teems with plant and animal life. Such a lake as this would repay a thorough and pro- longed biological examination and would furnish the naturalist with material enough for several years' study. Here also the artist finds a rich and unworked field. He would transfer to his sketch book the dark, glossy green, triangular leaves and showy purple spikes of the pickerel weed, the sym- metrical oval crimson shields of Brazenia, the boat-bell shaped saucers of the Nelumbo, the Victoria regia of the North, the grace-
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WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.
ful dignity of the reed grass, the swaying stems and densely whorled capillary leaves of the water milfoil and numberless forms of Chara, pond weed, and bladderwort, which would be new to decorative art, and in place of the conventional cat-tail and pond-lilly, would astonish and delight not only the natives but the world.
The lakes of Whitley county are not nu- merous, but they include some of the bright- est gems of their class; delightful to the sportsman, the naturalist, the artist and the lover of nature in her most charming aspects.
The surface of Smith township and the greater part of Union is greatly undulating, of a subdued morainic type. The long slopes, large fields and open forests, give to many portions of it the appearance of an English park. Around Coesse it is more ir- regular, with sharper ridges and numerous tamarack swamps. Southern Union, north- ern Jefferson and north-eastern Washington are very flat. Mud creek is very nearly the dividing line between the flat and the crumpled country. One feature of this re- gion, not in itself obtrusive, is of special significance to the geologist. A mild boulder belt can be traced from section 34. Smith, in a south-west direction to section 32, Union, beyond which it is lost in the thickly wooded swamps. It is about seven miles long and from a half mile to a mile in width, with well defined edges and as un- mistakable as a highway. The boulders are chiefly granite, rounded and sub-angular, averaging two or three feet in diameter, and the largest twice that size. This belt bears directly toward the divide in sections 35 and 36, Washington, where also boulders are large and numerous. This line extended
southward would pass near the city of Huntington where the immense accumula- tion of boulders has long been a puzzle to geologists. Whether a distinct boulder belt exists in northern Huntington county has not yet been determined.
The drainage system of Whitley county does not conform, except in the most general way, to the chief topographical features. The great divide between the tributaries of Eel river and the Tippecanoe, in the north- western part of the county, is a compara- tively level table land; in fact an interval between the Saginaw moraine in Kosciusko county and the fourth or outer Erie moraine. Through the valleys and gorges of the latter flow the north-western tributaries of Blue and Eel rivers. The principal drainage line of the region of Blue river, which rises near Avilla, Noble county, and passes through a tortuous and varied course to its junction with the Eel, in section 23, Columbia. Most of the way it has occupied a channel much too big for it, bordered by a marsh a quarter of a mile wide, but in some portions, as at Columbia City, the valley is no wider than the stream. The dredging of this river through the north-eastern part of the county recently and the completion of the same at this writing, to its mouth, has left Blue river but a big ditch and much straightened. The wide parts of this valley are undoubted frag- ments of a once continuous glacial drainage channel, or system of channels, from one to another of which the present river has cut its way in past glacial times. In doing so, it has left here and there an old bayou at one side, the largest of which is the marsh extending from the bend of the river in section 17, Smith township, southward two
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WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.
miles. The valley of Blue river marks the interval between the third and fourth Erie moraines.
Eel river rises in the interval between the second and third Erie moraines in north- western Allen county and flows across the third moraine to the mouth of the Blue. Thus far it is geologically a younger and less important stream than the latter. Three miles below their junction in section 32, Columbia, the united streams turn west- ward and cut directly through the fourth moraine, after passing which, they resume their original south-westerly direction.
The following is from the seventeenth report of the Indiana state geologist : "The first and second Erie moraines have already been described in a previous report under the name of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph and Wabash-Aboit moraines. Since that report was submitted, two more morainic lines have been distinguished north of the Wabash river, as belonging to the Erie sys- tem and corresponding to similar lines south of the Wabash. The existence of these moraines, and the general plan of the system. was indicated and outlined in the previous report (Sixteenth Report, P. 123-4). A private letter from Mr. Frank Leverett, of the United States geological survey, who is engaged upon an extensive examination of the drift of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, con- firms and supplements the predictions there made in a very gratifying manner. The third or Salamonie moraine follows the right bank of the Salamonie river through the counties of Jay, Blackford and Wells into the south-eastern part of Huntington county. According to Leverett its features are weak, irregular and discontinuous. The fourth or
Mississinewa moraine follows the right bank of the Mississinewa river through the coun- ties of Jay, Delaware. Blackford and Grant into the eastern part of Wabash, where ac- cording to the same authority it is very strong, crossing the Wabash river at Lagro and passing northward to the south-east cor- ner of Whitley county. The counties of Steuben, Lagrange. Noble, Dekalb, Whitley and Kosciusko have long been known to be occupied by a broad and strong-featured mass of drift, the joint product of a tongue of ice proceeding from Saginaw Bay and another thrust forward from Lake Erie and known as the Saginaw-Erie interlobate mo- raine. From this great mass it has been the privilege of the writer to distinguish and separate two morainic lines, forming continuations of the Salamonie and Missis- sinewa ridges. While the work of differ- entiation and correlation has been in some places difficult, in others it has been so easy as to leave no doubt in regard to the general conclusions. South of the Wabash river. the Erie moraines are separated by intervals of ten to fifteen miles, while north of that river, owing to the obstruction offered by the Saginaw glacier, they are so crowded together as to be almost contiguous. While it is thus rendered impossible to fix their exact dividing lines throughout their whole extent, certain features here and there are so obvious and suggestive as to be unmistak- able. The third moraine extends from the north-eastern corner of the state through eastern Steuben and north-western Dekalb. the south-eastern corner of Noble, the north- western corner of Allen and the eastern part of Whitley counties. In the south-eastern part of the latter county, it ceases to be a
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WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.
prominent topographical feature, but is rep- resented by a mild boulder belt. The in- terval between the third and fourth moraines is, in Steuben county, from three to six miles wide, but in Dekalb county the two moraines are contiguous and undistinguish- able. In Noble and Whitley counties they: are very close together, but separated by the valley of Blue river. The fourth moraine is very strong in north central Steuben and the line of demarkation between the Erie and Saginaw drift is very distinct. In south- western Steuben and in Noble county. this line, if it exists, has not been determined. In Whitley county a level interval of three or four miles bounds the outer Erie moraine on the west. The present divide between the basins of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan lies in Steuben county, between the third and fourth moraines, in Dekalb and Noble coun- ties, along the crest of the fourth, while in Whitley county the divide between the Eel river and the Tippecanoe lies in the interval outside of the fourth. The following tables, gleaned from various sources, give a general idea of the elevations of these moraines :
Elevations of the Salomonie or third Erie moraine :
Altitude.
One mile north of Reading, Hillsdale county, Mich. 1,220
Ray (Michigan and Indiana line) . 1,073 Fish Lake, Steuben county, Ind. .
887 Summit Station, Dekalb county, Ind. 1,001 Summit west of Corunna, Dekalb county. Ind. 991
Swan, Noble county, Ind. 905
Potter's, Noble and Allen counties, Ind. . 88 1
Churubusco, Whitley county, Ind .. . 899
Summit near Coesse, Whitley county,
Ind. 877
Huntington, Huntington county, Ind. 741
Plateau south of Huntington 813 Keystone, Wells county, Ind. 895 Summit west of Portland, Jay county. Ind. 955
New Bremen, Mercer county, Ohio. . 1,038 St. John's, Auglaize county, Ohio. . 1,063
Elevations on the Mississinewa or fourth Erie moraine :
Altitude.
Fremont, Steuben county 1,142
Angola 1,052
Summit, three miles south of Kendall- ville 1,017
Columbia City. 837
South Whitley. 805
Divide between Eel and Wabash
rivers, Wabash county 829
La Gro, Wabash county
698
A confusion of these elevations with those of the first and second Erie moraines given in the sixteenth report of the state geologist, pages 115 to 122, shows the same general descent in each, from the extremities toward the apex and a progressive eleva- tion of the extremities and a depression of the apices from the first to the fourth. The first and second are composed of the same material as the general ground moraine of the region, a stiff, gravelly clay, kettle holes. lakes, domes, peaks and the usual features of moraine topography being almost wholly absent. The third and fourth, north of the Wabash river, contain large masses of sand and gravel and present all the peculiar mo- rainic characters in strong development.
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In north-eastern Indiana the story of the advance, the struggle and the retreat of the glaciers is written in characters so plain that he who runs may read.
The borings for gas or oil at Larwill and Columbia City are as follows :
Columbia City .. 224 526 400 217 Larwill .220 565 512 250 82
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No gas or oil were found in either. At Columbia City a strong flow of excellent water with a temperature of forty-five de- grees F.
EARLIEST HISTORY.
ORGANIZATION AND CHANGES IN COUNTY AND TOWNSHIPS.
BY S. P. KALER.
The early claims of European monarchs to large portions of the western continent were based upon first discoveries by their subjects, and were maintained upon very slender threads of fact interwoven with su- perstitious fancy. Boundaries were hardly approximately defined, and such terms as headwaters, portage, tide water, fort, Indian villages and residences of white or red men, were described in early records as monuments from which lines ran. Many of them were run by parallels, extending in- definitely into the undiscovered, unexplored and unknown. The country was so vast, wild and unknown, lakes, rivers and mountains so mythical and indefinite, that there were no facts upon which to base contentions and no one to raise dispute. It will never be known to a certainty when the foot of white man first pressed the soil of Whitley county, or who that white man was.
La Salle established himself as a trader with the Indians in Canada, in 1669. As grew his business, so grew his ambitions as an explorer. He conceived the plan of seeking a northwest passage to the Pacific.
that is, to a sea he felt must lie beyond the land, and he believed not far off. He sup- posed Lake Superior near that sea, if indeed not an arm of it extending into the land.
Frontenac, governor-general of Canada, joined in the golden dream, and gave en- couragement to an exploring expedition to find the sea, but before it had gotten under way the west shore of Lake Michigan was discovered and explored as far as present Chicago. Marquette discovered the Missis- sippi and navigated it far to the south, re- turning by way of the east shore of Lake Michigan, in 1673. These things caused explorations to be made into the interior, and La Salle found and descended the Ohio, and we have reason to believe was in north- ern Indiana in 1671. Marquette ascer- tained by his voyage that the Mississippi emptied into the sea far beyond the claims of Spanish territory, and that it could be reached by way of Green Bay and the Wis- consin river by a short portage or by way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river by way of the Chicago portage. La Salle learned also that it could be reached easily
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WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA.
by the St. Joseph and Kankakee rivers, by means of a short portage at South Bend, and believed other streams could be found by way of the tributaries of the Ohio much farther east. He was dazzled with the hope of a vast and magnificent realın added to the French crown. His dream of empire was great, of federation of and control of Indian tribes, of wealth and honor, of a line of French military posts girdling this great area. There is no doubt that if indeed La Salle did not traverse this region in person, he did by his couriers and explorers, from 1679 to 1683. In 1679, he crossed the South Bend portage and descended the Kankakee to the Illinois, and some mem- bers of the party explored every river and stream that would carry a canoe, at least as far east as the Manmee. In the public archives at Paris is an ancient map, a copy of which may be seen in the public library at Detroit. It purports to have been made by d-Anville, in 1686, and to show La Salle's explorations. It represents remarkably well most of our Indiana streams. The inscrip- tion claims it was drawn under the personal direction of La Salle himself. The Wabash is given its true course, as is also the Tip- pecanoe and Kankakee. Almost as accu- rately as shown on our maps to-day, is the location of both Blue and Eel rivers, Blue river the largest and most prominent. This accords with the theory of geologists that Blue river was originally the larger and ' most important of the two streams. A portage is drawn from the Maumee forks at Kekionga (Fort Wayne) to Blue River lake. Perhaps the first fort he established was Maumee City, on the Maumee river, in 1680, and in the same year La Salle him-
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