History of Kentucky, Volume II, Part 68

Author: Kerr, Charles, 1863-1950, ed; Connelley, William Elsey, 1855-1930; Coulter, E. Merton (Ellis Merton), 1890-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, and New York, The American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 680


USA > Kentucky > History of Kentucky, Volume II > Part 68


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Coal Field. The region between is studded here and there with knobs capped with a sandstone forming the base of the one on which he is standing. In this position, as remarked by Professor Shaler, it requires little imagination for the observer to restore over the intervening area this bed of sandstone, and on top of that the basal sandstone of the Coal Measures. In doing this he will realize that the Coal Measure areas, now separated, were once continuous, and he will also have gained some conception of the vastness of geologic time when he farther reflects that this removal, amounting in this instance to something like 2,000 feet of strata, has all been accomplished since the close of Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) time-and that, too, by the slow process of reduction to soil and removal by streams that is now accomplishing the levelling of the continents.


The pregnant conjecture of Professor Shaler has been amply con- firmed by subsequent discovery. It was the good fortune of the writer, while making a survey of the counties of Green, Taylor and Adair, in 1908, to discover some of the evidence supporting this view. On the highest ridges of that group of counties, and especially along the borders of Larue, Taylor and Green, he found gravel waste of the basal Coal Measure Conglomerate and even some considerable area-the Larue- Taylor-Green County area-where the conglomerate, amounting to up- ward of fifty feet in thickness, was yet little disintegrated. It was this latter area that, lying at an elevation of between 1,000 and 1,100 feet, had been maturely dissected into a rugged topography resembling that of Eastern Kentucky. And, most interesting fact of all, though separated from the nearest portion of the Cumberland Plateau by some seventy or eighty miles, its similar physiography had so reacted upon the same pure Anglo-Saxon stock of the type which peopled Kentucky as to re- produce here similar sociological phenomena. It need awaken no sur- prise, therefore, in the traveler traversing this region by the winding ridge roads through a forest of oak and chestnut, from openings in which he may look to the right or left down into deep coves, in which are one-room log cabins surrounded by small clearings, to learn that now and then a wild turkey may be seen, that the wildcat is not unknown, the feud not uncommon, and the moonshiner not entirely extinct. It was while the writer was in this country that a man of this class-a noted desperado-was hunted down and shot to death in his own dooryard by an officer of the law, assisted by a posse of citizens. It would thus appear that Coal Measure strata, wherever they are sufficiently high to be cut into rugged topography, carry a moonshine and feud fauna.


The Southwestern Cretaceous and Tertiary Embayment .- The part of the present states of Tennessee and Kentucky west of the Tennessee River formerly belonged to the Chickasaw Indians. In 1818 this district was purchased by the National Government from the Indian owners, and in 1820 was added to these two states-the dividing line being the par- allel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes. The two commissioners who nego- tiated the treaty with the Indians were Generals Shelby for Kentucky and Jackson for Tennessee. The name of Jackson, the more prominent statesnian, has become popularly associated with the transaction. to the exclusion of Shelby's-hence the name "Jackson Purchase." The part allotted to Kentucky has an area of 4,600 square miles. It comprises all the Mississippi embayment region lying within the state.


Between the time Kentucky became a state and when this area was added, the Government land survey had been adopted, so this portion of the state was laid off in accordance with its range-township-section sys- tem. In consequence of this the farms in the region are rectangular, in contrast with those of irregular shape in other portions of the state.


The purchase region is one of low relief, the general level sloping


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from 500 feet near the Tennessee River to about 350 feet near the Mis- sissippi. The bottoms along the Ohio and Mississippi range between 300 and 350 feet above the sea. The surface of the uplands in general is level, being a recent geological addition by uplift of the bottom of a portion of the northern end of a former Gulf of Mexico. Beginning in the Cretaceous and lasting till the close of the Tertiary period, this gulf or embayment extended up the Mississippi Valley to and a little beyond the mouth of the Ohio. The deposits left in this region to a depth of several hundred feet consist of gravels, sands, clays and loams. They form in general a level surface highly adapted to agriculture, though on account of their unconsolidated character some of the beds wash badly, especially in the neighborhood of streams in the eastern part. Here in some places the land is quite broken by the development of recent gullies.


Late Geologic Deposits Outside the Embayment Region .- Some ref- erence to these has already been made on pages one and two. Cretaceous, Tertiary, Quaternary and Recent deposits are not confined exclusively to the Jackson Purchase Region. Gravels of Tuscaloosa (Cretaceous) age have been detected in recent years covering the highest lands in Trigg County east of the Cumberland River. Lafayette gravels, sands and clays (Orange sand group of J. M. Safford) of Pliocene, or in some cases possibly of Pleistocene (Quaternary) age, extend up the larger stream systems which formerly entered this embayment. Here may belong the high level gravels found along the shoulders of the gorges of all the Kentucky rivers which were evidently deposited there before these gorges were cut. Of undoubted Pleistocene age are the loess de- posits found in the vicinity of the Ohio River as far up as Cincinnati, the granitic and quartzite pebbles of northern origin found skirting the same river from Campbell to Trimble counties, and certain clays in sim- ilar situations extending further down the river below Trimble County. All of these are of undoubted glacial origin. The first is explained as a wind blown "Glacial rock flour," the second as "outwash glacial clays," and the third as typical glacial deposits laid down during the latest or Wisconsin stage of glaciation.


The recent deposits in the state consist of river alluvium, such as the present streams are now laying down. On the lower reaches of the larger streams, such as the Ohio and Mississippi, these are often quite extensive in area, extending back from the present channel in a series of rising bottoms, separated by sharp inclines or terraces.


CHAPTER LXVIII


AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE KENTUCKY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (1838-1922)


By Willard Rouse Jillson, Sc. D., Director and State Geologist


EARLY INVESTIGATIONS


Beginning with the exploratory surveys of Dr. Thomas Walker in 17501 and Christopher in 1751,1 geological and mineral resource exam- inations in Kentucky have gone hand in hand with its settlement. The limestone-siderite iron ores of Bath County, and the adjacent coals of Eastern Kentucky had been discovered by the lone prospector and were in operation in 1790, two years before statehood. Petroleum was found in commercial quantity on the south fork of the Cumberland River, in what was Wayne County, in 1819.2 At the same time the eccentric, though talented, naturalist, Constatin Schmaltz Rafinesque, who had recently came down from Philadelphia to take a chair in natural science at Transylvania University at Lexington, was engaged in making and publishing the first professional geological observations of Kentucky.


These and other widely separated geological investigations, the results of both professional and amateur observations, brought to a completion the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Lacking a recognized medium of publication, such sporadic and individualistic work failed for many years to arouse public interest in the geological and mineral resources of the state. It was not until February 16, 1838, that an official State Geological Survey was authorized by the Acts of the General Assembly of Kentucky. This was accomplished through the approval by Governor James Clark of the resolution of Senator Cyrus Wingate, representing the Twenty-eighth Senatorial District of Kentucky, including Franklin, Anderson and Owen counties.


THE MATHER AND OWEN SURVEYS


Governor Clark, in fulfillment of the statutes, appointed Dr. William Williams Mather as state geologist, who immediately set about a sys- tematic state-wide survey. This was finished and the report, a pamphlet of forty pages, was presented to the Legislature in 1838. Although many recommendations concerning the development of the state resources were made by Doctor Mather, including "A Plan Suggested for Conducting the (proposed Kentucky Geological) Survey," no further action was taken on this matter until 1854, when a bill which had been prepared by Dr. Robert Peter, of Lexington, Kentucky, was approved on March 4. This bill was for a geological and mineralogical survey of the state, and Lazarus W. Powell, then governor, appointed Dr. David Dale Owen, of New Harmony, Indiana, state geologist of Kentucky.


1 First Explorations of Kentucky. J. Stoddard Johnson, Filson Club, Louisville, 1808.


2 Oil and Gas Resources of Kentucky, W. R. Jillson, Ky. Geol. Survey Series V., p. 2, 1919.


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The Owen Survey, which is designated as the first in the literature, but was actually the second,3 began to function immediately. Practically all of Owen's work was in the nature of original investigations and was carried on continually until 1857. when his assignment completed, Doctor Owen went to Arkansas to take up work there as state geologist of that state. His last manuscripts were left incomplete and, following his death in 1860, Dr. Robert Pe.er, state chemist, brought them to completion and took them through the printer. As an able assistant to Doctor Owen on this early survey and a large contributor to his printed (especially chem- ical reports ), Doctor Peter's versatile services before the Legislature, in the laboratory and finally as the acting head of the organization, can never be overestimated. The published reports of the Owen survey, totaling 2012 pages, consist of four volumes. Doctor Owen was assisted by Dr. Robert M. Peter, chemist; Sidney S. Lyon, topographer ; Leo Lesquereaux, paleobotanist, and Joseph Lesley, Jr., topographer.


THE SHALER AND PROCTER SURVEYS


During the Civil war the Kentucky Geological Survey ceased to func- tion, but was reorganized on March 22, 1873, Governor Preston H. Les- lie appointing Dr. Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, a native of Newport, Kentucky, and at that time professor of paleontology in the Lawrence Scientific School, of Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts, director and state geologist. Doctor Shaler, who was well equipped mentally, though but poorly from a physical standpoint, undertook imme- diately the reorganization of the survey. A development and detailing of all the work already started by Owen, coupled with many new in- vestigations, comprised the publications of the Shaler Survey, consisting of six volumes and totaling 2886 pages. Doctor Shaler has as his as- sistants the following :


Dr. Robert Peter, state chemist.


Dr. A. R. Crandall, geological assistant.


J. H. Talbutt, chemical assistant.


P. N. Moore, geological aid.


J. A. Monroe, C. W. Beckham and C. Schenk, assistants.


Later these were added to the survey :


C. J. Norwood. H. Herzer and W. M. Linney as geological assistants.


W. B. Caldwell as mineralogical assistant.


WV. B. Page, W. C. Mitchell, E. Underwood and J. B. Hoeing, as topo- graphical assistants.


A. C. Packard as ornithological assistant.


F. Sanborn as zoological assistant.


F. W. Putnam as ichthyological assistant.


L. Trouvelot as artist.


A. L. Jones and John Robert Procter as general assistants.


The Shaler Survey was terminated rather suddenly by an act of the Legislature in 1880, which passed a bill requiring the state geologist to live in Frankfort. Doctor Shaler resigned, preferring to remain as a teacher of geology at Harvard, and Governor Luke P. Blackburn ap- pointed John Robert Procter director of the Kentucky Geological Survey and commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, which latter bureau had been created and merged into the former. Mr. Procter, a native of Cedar Hill. Mason County, Kentucky, was an able organizer, but lacked the theoretical training in geology as equipment for his new position. He chose as his assistants the following :


Dr. Robert Peter, state chemist.


3 History of the Kentucky Geological Survey, W. R. Jillson. Register, Ky. State Historical Soc., Vol. 19, No. 57, Sept., 1921, p. 112.


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Dr. A. P. Crandall, William H. Linney, Dr. R. M. Loughridge, George M. Sullivan, Edward Orten and James M. Hodge, assistant geologists. Joseph B. Hoeing, cartographer and engineer.


Charles J. Norwood, geological assistant.


Charles Wickliffe Beckham, ornithologist.


During the duration of the Procter Survey, 1880-1892, nine bound volumes and a number of paper pamphlets were published, totaling about 3050 pages. Many of these reports were simply reprints of Doctor Shaler's publications, and did not represent original investigations. In 1893 Mr. Procter became somewhat entangled in a misunderstanding with Governor John Young Brown, which resulted in the abolishment of the Kentucky Geological Survey by legislative action.


THE NORWOOD AND HOEING SURVEYS


About the year 1900 the publications of the older geological surveys of Kentucky had become so thoroughly exhausted that it was regarded as necessary to reorganize the Kentucky Geological Survey. This was done by legislative action in 1904. the statutes giving the office of state geologist to the state inspector of mines, without additional salary. Prof. Charles Joseph Norwood, the then state inspector of mines, who was born in New Harmony, Indiana, September 17, 1853, thus became state geologist of the (Third) Kentucky Geological Survey. The publica- tions of this survey, 1904-1912, constitute a series of bulletins from 1 to 21, with the exception of 8 and 15, which were never published. Added to these are two county reports, several reports of progress, the whole series totaling 2635 pages and representing for the most part original investigations. Professor Norwood selected to assist him the following :


Joseph B. Hoeing, Arthur M. Miller, F. M. Hutchison, James M. Hodge, William C. Morse, L. C. Glenn, August F. Foerste, W. F. Pate, Albert R. Crandall, James H. Gardner, Samuel A. Denny, F. Julius Fohs, William M. Nichols and Harry D. Eastman, assistant geologists.


A. M. Peter and James H. McHargue, chemists.


James E. Wright, mining assistant.


Moritz Fischer, geological assistant.


Robert H. Barclay, mining aide.


George V. Triplett, Jr., aide.


Curtis L. Jones, secretary.


W. U. Grider, assistant secretary.


Joseph G. Lewis and Joseph S. Shaw, topographic assistants.


R. E. Moorman, draftsman.


Oscar Krouil, Hargis Hill, Boyme M. Simm, H. Kevil and William V. Shelby, Jr., aides.


Chas. R. Gilmore, W. C. Payne and John Goff, geologic aides.


A growing demand from several parts of the state for a reorganiza- tion of the Kentucky Geological Survey resulted, in 1912, in the appoint- ment by Governor James B. McCreary of Joseph Bernard Hoeing, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on March 27. 1855, as state geologist. The Hoeing (Fourth) Survey, which operated from 1912 to 1918, is responsible for the production of five separate volumes, each divided into two or more parts, and four miscellaneous volumes, all totaling 4280 pages, most of which represented new investigations. Mr. Hoeing was assisted by the following :


A. F. Crider, Arthur McQuiston Miller, August F. Foerste, F. Julius Fohs, James M. Hodge, J. Owen Bryant, Chas. Butts, W. C. Phalen, Wallace Lee, E. O. Ulrich, Iley B. Browning, Philip Russell, and Mal- colm H. Crump, assistant geologists.


S. C. Jones, soil technologist.


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Lucien N. Sellier, cartographer.


A. M. Peter, chemist.


H. D. Easton, clay technologist.


THE FIFTH AND SIXTH SURVEYS


The fifth geological survey in Kentucky was the result of legislative action on the part of the General Assembly in 1918, which combined the Kentucky Geological Survey and the Board of Forestry into the De- partment of Geology and Forestry. Governor A. O. Stanley appointed John Earle Barton, a native of Warren, Michigan, commissioner of geology and forestry and state forester, and Prof. Willard Rouse Jillson, of Lexington, Kentucky, deputy commissioner of geology and forestry and state geologist. The publications of the Department of Geology and Forestry, which existed for two years, fron1 1918 to 1920, total four volumes and three paper pamphlets, totaling in all 1567 pages. Professor Jillson had as his assistants the following :


Dr. Arthur M. Miller. A. M., Ph. D .; Chas. Butts and J. M. Hodge, assistant geologists.


The General Assembly of 1920 abolished the Department of Geology and Forestry and recreated the (Sixth) Kentucky Geological Survey. Governor Edwin P. Morrow, on April 1, 1920, appointed Dr. Willard Rouse Jillson director and state geologist of the new organization. The personnel of the present (Sixth) Kentucky Geological Survey during the past two years has been as follows:


Willard Rouse Jillson, Sc. D., director and state geologist.


Stuart Weller, Ph. D .; L. C. Glenn, Ph. D .; Charles H. Richardson, Ph. D .; Heinrich Ries, Ph. D .; Walter H. Bucher, Ph. D .; Chas. Butts, M. S .; L. W. Currier, M. A .; Floyd Hodson, A. B., and Stuart St. Clair, M. S., assistant geologists.


J. S. Hudnall, B. S .; Benjamin B. Cox, B. S .; John S. Carroll, A. B .; H. V. Tygrett, B. S., and R. A. Jones, B. S., geologic aides.


A. M. Peter, Sc. D., chemist.


C. S. Crouse, E M., draftsman and metallurgist.


J. M. Frasure, secretary.


SUMMARY


The first substantial geological work in Kentucky was done by the Owen Survey from 1854 to 1860. The Shaler Survey ( 1873-1880) fol- lowed, with many original contributions. The Procter Survey (1880- 1892) was not a particularly strong organization. The Norwood Sur- vey, from 1904 to 1912, and the Hoeing Survey, from 1912 to 1918, did much to unravel the mineral resource geology of Kentucky. This was continued by the Department of Geology and Forestry, and is being prosecuted with vigor by the present (sixth) Kentucky Geological Sur- vey. In the recent stupendous development of the mineral resources of Kentucky, the several Kentucky geological surveys have played a funda- mentally important part. Figures covering the value of the production of coal, oil and fluorspar in Kentucky during the three years 1918-1920 total $401,251,701. All of this new wealth may be traced back to the original investigations of the Kentucky Geological Survey. As in the past, the future mineralogical development of this commonwealth will be governed largely by the new scientific investigations of the Kentucky Geological Survey, which, if adequately maintained by the state, may be counted upon to point the way toward a great expansion and develop- ment of these basic industries of Kentucky.


CHAPTER LXIX THE ADVENTURES OF COLONEL DANIEL BOONE


FORMERLY A HUNTER; CONTAINING A NARRATIVE OF THE WARS OF KENTUCKY


Curiosity is natural to the soul of man, and interesting objects have a powerful influence on our affections. Let these influencing powers actu- ate, by the permission or disposal of providence, from selfish or social views, yet in time the mysterious will of heaven is unfolded, and we be- hold our conduct, from whatsoever motives excited, operating to answer the important designs of heaven. Thus we behold Kentucky, lately a howling wilderness, the habitation of savages and wild beasts, become a fruitful field; this region, so favourably distinguished by nature, now become the habitation of civilization, at a period unparalleled in history, in the midst of a raging war, and under all the disadvantages of emigra- tion to a country so remote from the inhabited parts of the continent. Here, where the hand of violence shed the blood of the innocent; where the horrid yells of savages, and the groans of the distressed, sounded in our ears, we now hear the praise and adorations of our Creator ; where wretched wigwams stood, the miserable abodes of savages, we behold the foundations of cities laid, that, in all probability, will equal the glory of the greatest upon earth. And we view Kentucky situated on the fertile banks of the great Ohio, rising from obscurity to shine with splendour, equal to any other of the stars of the American hemisphere.


The settling of this region well deserves a place in history. Most of the memorable events I have myself been exercised in; and, for the satis- faction of the public, will briefly relate the circumstances of my adven- tures, and scenes of life, from my first movement to this country, until this day.


It was on the Ist of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceable habita- tion on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucky, in com- pany with John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Monay. and William Cool. We proceeded successfully; and after a long and fatiguing journey, through a mountainous wilderness, in a westward direction, on the seventh day of June following we found ourselves on Red River, where John Finley had formerly been trading with the Indians, and, from the top of an eminence, saw with pleasure the beauti- ful level of Kentucky. Here let me observe, that for some time we had experienced the most uncomfortable weather, as a prelibation of our future sufferings. At this place we encamped, and made a shelter to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt and reconnoitre the country. We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of all sorts, through this vast forest. The buffalo were more frequent than I have seen cattle in the settlements, browzing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on those extensive plains, fearless, because ignorant, of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing. In this


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forest, the habitation of beast of every kind natural to America, we practiced hunting with great success, until the 22d day of December fol- lowing.


This day John Stewart and I had a pleasing ramble, but fortune changed the scene in the close of it. We had passed through a great forest, on which stood myriads of trees, some gay with blossoms, others rich with fruits. Nature was here a series of wonders, and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully coloured, elegantly shaped, and charmingly flavoured; and we were diverted with innumerable animals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. In the decline of the day, near Ken- tucky River, as we ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a thick cane-brake upon us, and made us prisoners. The


BIRTHPLACE OF DANIEL BOONE


time of our sorrow was now arrived, and the scene fully opened. The Indians plundered us of what we had, and kept us in confinement seven days, treating us with common savage usage. During this time we dis- covered no uneasiness or desire to escape, which made them less sus- picious of us ; but in the dead of the night, as we lay in a thick cane-brake by a large fire, when sleep had locked up their senses, my situation not disposing me for rest, I touched my companion, and gently awoke him. We improved this favourable opportunity, and departed, leaving them to take their rest, and speedily directed our course towards our old camp, but found it plundered, and the company dispersed and gone home. About this time, my brother, Squire Boone, with another adventurer, who came to explore the country shortly after us, was wandering through the forest, determined to find me if possible, and accidentally found our camp. Notwithstanding the unfortunate circumstances of our company. and our dangerous situation, as surrounded with hostile savages, our meeting so fortunately in the wilderness, made us reciprocally sensible of the utmost satisfaction. So much does friendship triumph over mis-


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fortune, that sorrows and sufferings vanish at the meeting not only of real friends, but of the most distant acquaintances, and substitute happi- ness in their room.


Soon after this, my companion in captivity, John Stewart, was killed by the savages and the man who came with my brother returned home by himself. We were then in a dangerous, helpless situation, exposed daily to perils and death, amongst savages and wild beasts, not a white man in the country but ourselves.




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