USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan > Part 48
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In 1854 he took an active part in politics, and was prominent in forming and organ- izing the Republican party of Michigan. In the spring of 1856 was elected mayor of the city of Adrian, and in the fall of same year was elected judge of probate of Lenawee county and presidential elector of the State on the Republican ticket. In 1860 was chosen mem- ber of Congress, and afterwards by large ma- jorities was re-elected for four succeeding terms, thus serving in the House of Represen- tatives of the United States ten years. Every measure of the administration of President Lincoln having reference to the vigorous pros- ecution of the war and the abolition of slavery, received his hearty support. On his return from Washington in 1871, he was soon after appointed judge of probate, to fill vacancy oc- casioned by the death of his former partner, Judge Beecher. To this office he was elected by the popular vote in 1872, and re-elected in 1876.
Judge Boaman was married at Lockport, New York, in 1841, to Miss Mary Goodrich. They had two children - one son, who attained manhood, but died soon thereafter, the other a
married daughter, now residing in Adrian. He was always distinguished for a high sense of honor and rectitude of purpose.
HON. EDWIN WILLITTS
Was born in Otto, Cattaraugus county, New York, April 24, 1830. He removed with his parents to Michigan in September, 1838. He attended the public schools, and graduated from the Michigan University in June, 1855. In April of the following year he removed to Monroe and entered the law office of Isaac P. Christiancy. He was admitted to the bar in 1857, and carried on an active and successful practice. In 1869 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Monroe county, and held the office until 1873. In 1862 he was also elected a member of the State Board of Education, and was re-elected in 1866, serving in all twelve years. From 1855 to 1865 he was editor of the Monroe Commercial. In 1873 he was chosen one of the board of commissioners to revise the constitution of the State. He was appointed postmaster of Monroe by President Lincoln in 1863, and was removed by President Johnson in October, 1866. He was elected to the Forty-Fifth Congress on the Republican ticket by more than two thousand majority over the Democrat, Greenback and Granger candidates, and again to the Forty-Sixth and Forty-Seventh Congresses. In 1883 he was appointed principal of the State Normal School, where he remained until his appointment to the presidency of the State Agricultural College in 1885.
As before stated, he was a member of the State Board of Education, and was admirably qualified by his tastes and his deep interest in the prosperity of our educational institutions, together with his culture and aptness in teach- ing, and being appreciated by his associates soon became a prominent member of the board. He radically changed the policy in the man- agement of the Agricultural College, which resulted in the establishment of the State Board of Agriculture and the reorganization of the Agricultural College. To Mr. Willitts should be accorded the credit and honor of greatly adding to the prosperity of the college, and well was he entitled to the place accorded him when appointed at the head.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
283
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
For many years Mr. Willitts was one of the prominent members of the Republican party in the State of Michigan, and has held many responsible positions in the party.
He resigned the position of president of the Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan, to the regret of the officers of that institution, to ac- cept the presidency of the State Agricultural College, under whose management the college attained great popularity, which office he re- signed in March, 1889, to accept the appoint- ment of assistant secretary of agriculture by appointment of President Harrison, and now resides in Washington.
He married the daughter of Judge Ingersoll, of Dundee, Monroe county ; has two children, one danghter (married) and one son, George Willitts, a lawyer of prominence in the city of Chicago.
NATHANIEL B. ELDREDGE,
Born at Auburn, Cayuga county, New York, March 28, 1813, has been a resident of Michi- gan forty-seven years. He received an academ- ic education ; studied and practiced medicine fifteen years ; then studied and practiced law thirty years ; and finally settled down to farm- ing. While a resident of Lapeer county, he was elected engrossing and enrolling clerk of the State Senate in 1845 ; representative in the State Legislature in 1847 ; and judge of pro- bate in 1852. Having entered the Union army June 18, 1861, he served as captain and major of the Seventh Regiment, and lieutenant-col- onel of the Eleventh Regiment, Michigan In- fantry, in the War of the Rebellion. Having removed to Adrian, his present home, in 1865, he was elected sheriff of Lenawee county in 1874. In 1882 he was elected Representative to the Forty-Eighth Congress on the Union ticket, receiving 15,251 votes to 14,709 for John K. Boies, Republican, 1,238 for A. J. Baker, Greenback, and 387 for A. F. Dewey, Prohibi- tionist. He was re-elected in 1884 by 17,710
votes to 17,656 for Edward P. Allen, Republi- can, and 2,418 for Charles Mosher, Prohibi- tionist.
EDWARD PAYSON ALLEN,
Of Ypsilanti, was born in Sharon, Washtenaw county, Michigan, October 28, 1839 ; worked on a farm until twenty years old, attending school and teaching during the winter; graduated from the State Normal School in March, 1864 ; taught the Union School in Vassar, Michigan, for three months following, when he enlisted and helped to raise a company for the Twenty- Ninth Michigan Infantry ; was commissioned first lieutenant in that regiment in the fol- lowing September, and went with it south west, where the regiment was engaged in active campaigning until the 1st of April ; in Septem- ber, 1865, was mustered out of the service with his regiment as captain; entered the law school at Ann Arbor, graduating in March, 1867; formed a partnership with Hon. S. M. Cutcheon; upon the removal of Mr. Cutcheon to Detroit, in 1875, he continued the practice alone at Ypsilanti; was elected alderman of Ypsilanti in 1872 and 1874 and mayor in 1880 ; was pros- eenting attorney of Washtenaw county in 1872; was elected to the lower house of the Legisla- ture in 1876, serving as chairman of the Com- mittee on Education ; was again elected in 1878, at which time he was elected Speaker pro tem .; was appointed Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenne in 1869; was United States Indian Agent for Michigan in August, 1882, which office he held until December, 1885; ran for Congress in 1884, and was defeated by Colonel Eldredge, Democrat, and was elected to the Fiftieth Congress as a Republican, and re- elected to the Fifty-First Congress, receiving 19,660 votes to 18,096 votes for Willard Stearns, Democrat, 2,010 votes for C. M. Fellows, Pro- hibitionist, and 143 votes for John H. Hobart, Union Labor.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE GEOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY.
THE reader who glances at Rominger's geo- logical map of the lower peninsula of Michigan will be struck with the wide areas of similar formations which it portrays. Hang. ing like a soap bubble from a pipe, appear the coal measures, with the Saginaw Bay as a starting point. From Alabaster, on the north shore of the Bay, they sweep in a wide circle as far west as Grand Rapids; thence circle around to the southeast to a point slightly south of Jackson, thence trend around to the north- east again, striking Saginaw Bay on its south side, a little east of Caseville. On each side of Saginaw Bay, skirting the northern edge and with a greater development in the vicinity of Grand Rapids, the carboniferous limestones appear, and in these lies the wealth of gypsum, which at one time formed an important part of the manufactures and shipments from the city of Monroe; the crude rock being brought from Alabaster by boat and prepared for ship- ment at mills located on the navigable waters of the river.
Sweeping entirely around the coal measures and the carboniferous limestones, extending from Lake Huron on the east to Lake Michi- gan on the west, and from Otsego county on the north to the State line on the south, appears the Helderberg group of limestones. In an- other concentric circle beyond this is a thin line of black shale, while between the shales and Lake Erie the Helderberg group is exposed. Monroe county is composed almost entirely of the Helderberg limestones, with a narrow band of shales extending diagonally across its north- west quarter, while the extreme northwest corner is again in the belt of Helderberg lime- stone.
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ing ages in its geologic history swept detritus, and this was superposed upon the rock forma- tion in varying depths, from a few feet in the southwestern corner of the State, where ledges of solid rock are sometimes found at six feet beneath the surface of the soil, to hundreds of feet further inland.
The comparatively undisturbed position of the various strata also indicates an absence of volcanic upheaval during the long ages which intervened between the time when the earth " was without form and void," and the time when the " peninsulam amoenam " emerged and began to take on its abundant forest growth.
In the southern portion of the lower penin- sula evidences of that period when the gradual drainage of the great area of water which covered it set in, are plainly manifest to the most casual observer. Fifty years ago streams which now, during the protracted heats of summer, are but little threads of water brawl- ing over gravelly beds, were water-courses of respectable size. Their present condition may be attributed to the rapid denudations of the forest growth. But if one will follow the wind- ings of any of these streams, taking his place of observation far enough inland to reach that point where the drift deposits are of consider- able depth, on either side of the present chan- nel bank, and at distances varying from a few rods to half a mile or more, he will discover a line of bluffs following the general course of the stream, and in some cases a hundred feet or more high. Though now either covered with trees or under cultivation, the sides of these bluffs yield sweet water fossiliferous stones and shells, plainly indicating their submergence at some time in the past ; and undoubtedly at some former age these valleys were the beds of the present diminished streams and were full from bank to bank.
The general configuration of the entire Lower Peninsula seems to show that at one time it was a lacustrine bed, a portion only of a large lake extending over areas of Wisconsin, In Monroe county, as we approach the de- Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Over this at vary- . bouchure of these streams, the bluffs sink to
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285
THE GEOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY.
the general level, and the water-courses flow sluggishly in a shallow bed, eroded frequently, as in the case of the River Raisin, to the rock formation beneath the alluvium or drift. In the western and northwestern portions of the county, however, the character of the bluffs is plainly discernible along the courses of the Macon, the Saline, and the Huron.
But while the underlying rock of this section is uniform, the character of the soil is various. Beginning at Lake Erie, which is 565 feet above the level of the sea, the land gradually rises to a point in the axis of the highest elevation of the southern part of the lower peninsula, near the western boundary of Hillsdale county, where railroad surveys give the elevation as nearly 600 feet above the lake. Yet so gradual is the ascent that it is not noticeable to the traveler. It is not till he approaches the western portion of the county that the land begins to assume a rolling and diversified charac- ter, almost the entire eastern portion of the county being a dead level, destitute of hills or elevations.
At several points in the county the prevail- ing character of the rock changes, as well as the nature of the soil. Six miles west of Monroe City well-defined beds of sandstone exist, which, when the superposed alluvium is cleared off, show the well-defined striations of glacial action. In some sections of the southern portion of the county slight swells of land ex- tending east and west seem to mark the lo- cation of glacial moraines; and in apparent corroboration of this theory, in the same vicinity the surface of the soil is thickly strewn with such bowlders as a moving or dissolving glacier would deposit, and these bowlders are likewise found beneath the present surface.
While glacial action may account for these phenomena, it fails to account for the varying character ofthe alluvium or sedimentary dep- ositions, and in endeavoring to offer any ex- planation of these the domain of evidence is left and that of theory entered. It is suggested that the great lakes were at one period much larger than at the present; that their recession was not .uniform ; that after falling some feet they became for a long period stationary. The streams flowing into them, as well as the move- ment of their own waters, held in suspension alluvium, which in the course of years became a sedimentary deposit. This period was fol-
lowed by another recession, exposing acres of the bottom, which became dry land, and the process of deposition was again begun. The character of the deposits is evidence that the whole area was submerged at some time in the past. Of this fact we may feel assured; the balance is but conjecture- scientific conjec- ture, it is true, but conjecture nevertheless.
The interior of the lower peninsula is thickly dotted with small lakes of surpassing beauty. Generally with clean, sandy or gravel borders, though sometimes of a marshy character, their waters are very pure, cold and clear, evidently fed by springs. Though Monroe county has none of these, the counties adjacent have many, and such lakes abound as the land gradually ascends from the level of Lake Erie. Upon the high plateau in Hillsdale and Jackson counties, within the radius of a few miles are the headwaters of the Grand, St. Joseph, Kala- mazoo and Raisin rivers, one flowing south- ward, two westward, and one, the Raisin, cast- ward. The Raisin, by its northern branch, and its tributaries, the Macon and the Saline, drains the central and northwestern sections of the county, and by its southern branch a portion of Lenawee county. The Huron river enters its northeastern corner, and there empties into Lake Eric; several erceks enter the lake between the mouths of the Huron and the Raisin ; and a larger number between the mouth of the Raisin and the State line.
The characteristic soil of Michigan, which gave the State a high reputation as a wheat- producing country, is a gravelly clay. This is the prevalent soil of nearly all the southern portion of the lower peninsula, south of the sand upon which grow the pine forests. It contains in itself all the qualities of a good soil and the chemical constituents for the growth of the plants it so prolifically pro- duces. Its particles are of all sizes, from an almost impalpable clay mud, entirely grit- less or nearly so, up to bowlders of consider- able size. One great advantage produced by the varying size of the molecules comprising this kind of soil, is the facility with which surplus moisture drains off, yet its porosity is such as to retain sufficient moisture for the healthy growth of vegetation. Some of these lands are apparently so full of bowlders as to render their cultivation seemingly hopeless to inexperienced farmers, yet they generally pro-
286
HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
duce good crops of cereals. It is only in the extremo western and northwestern portions of Monroe county, along the borders of Lenawee and Washtenaw counties, that this class of soil is found.
Lying to the eastward of this, and apparently once the sandy shore of the lake at some remote period previous to the recession which established the present shore line, extends an area of light sandy soil, which requires careful and intelligent cultivation to develop its agricul- tural resources. At various other points in the county areas of sandy soil are found, possibly islands or sandbars of the lacustrine period.
The low lands immediately contiguous to the present shore line of the lake, were prob- able within comparatively recent time a portion of the bottom of the lake. These arcas were covered with a stiff clay soil, overgrown with ash, elm and kindred trees. Of this nature is the principal portion of the soil of Monroe county. Rominger says of this: "Properly drained, it is the richest soil in the State, giv- ing larger crops and bearing the practiced system of exhaustion better than any other." Yet this very fact tended to retard the settle- ment and agricultural growth of the county. When settlers from the East landed here, deterred by the heavy forest growth and the clay soil they pushed westward, settling the lands to the westward and north westward, and it was not till, as may be said, the " ebb tide " of emigration began to flow that its lands be- came appreciated at their true worth, and in- telligent systems of drainage and cultivation demonstrated the excellence of the county for agricultural purposes.
The following technical geological particulars are condensed from the report of the " Geo- logical Survey of Michigan," Vol. III., 1873-76, by C. Rominger, State Geologist :
" Rocks of the Helderberg group compose the surface of a restricted area in the south- east corner of the State, comprising Monroe county, the southeastern part of Wayne county, and the same part of Lenawee county. This triangular segment is the northern terminus of a large body of the formation, which covers the northwestern part of Ohio and is continued through the State of Indiana.
" In Monroe county the beds of nearly all the creeks present exposures of the ledges; . the surface of all the rock-beds in this
region which lie on top is worn smooth and scratched by drift marks.
" The lower division of the Helderberg series identical with the strata forming the base of Mackinac Island, and with the water-lime group of the Ohio Reports, has a much greater surface extension in the district under con- sideration than the upper division correspond- ing with the limestones of Sandusky. This upper division is well uncovered in the quar- ries of Trenton Village, in Wayne county, and likewise in the quarries on Macon Creek, for- merly owned by Judge Christiancy.
" The quarries on Macon Creek open in the same strata as the Trenton quarries. The rock there is more porous, absorbing water rapidly when dry, and considerably impregnated with rock oil, which exudes from its crevices and often collects on the water pools of the quarry in a thick scum. In humid state the rock is of a dusky drab color. The surface layers are rich in fossils identical with those of the Tren- ton quarries; certain seams are perfectly crowded with Chonetes yandellana, and others with Tentaculites scalaris. Below these fossilif- erous beds, the useful ledges of the quarry, about six or seven feet in thickness, follow ; they are of the above mentioned porous character. The better quarry-stone furnishes sills, door steps, etc., but most of it is used for the production of lime. Its composition is :
Carbonate of lime 84.0
magnesia 13.0
Iron oxide hydr. 0.4
Quartz and bitumen 2.2
99.6
" The deeper strata of the quarry become worthless from a copious admixture of white, cherty concretions. The exudation of rock oil from the crevices induced some persons, a num- ber of years ago, to form a company to bore for rock oil at this locality. A drill-hole was sunk to the depth of 700 feet, but without the hoped-for success. I was informed that not many feet below the rock-beds opened in the quarry, a bed of sand rock was struck. The sand rock deposit seems to be a very con- stant stratum found at that horizon, not only in Michigan, but all over the Helderberg area of the State of Ohio. Natural outcrops of this sand rock can be observed in the bed of River Raisin, six miles above Monroe; it is there
287
THE GEOLOGY OF MONROE COUNTY.
hard and compact, rich in calcarcons cement ; several fossils, casts of spirifer, etc., are en- closed in some blocks of the rock, but they are too imperfect for specific determination. The sand rock stratum, in a soft, friable condition, and occasionally perfectly white, is found in the northeast corner of Raisinville township, on the ' Bond farm,' where it forms the surface rock over a good many acres of ground; in places it is overlaid by dolomitic limestone about eight feet in thickness, which contains the casts of numerous fossils, Zaphrentis, Favosites, sev- eral forms of Bryozoa, Atrypa reticularis, Orthis Livia, Conocardium trigonale, Phacopsbufo, Dalmania selenurus. Quantities of this sand, which is almost pure quartz without admixture, have been shipped to Pittsburgh for glass manu- facture, for which purpose it is said to be of excellent quality. The thickness of the deposit is not seen in this place ; only six or seven fect are denuded in the digging. In section six- teen of Ida township, a sand rock of about six feet in thickness forms the top layers of a lime- stone quarry. The upper strata are friable and soft, their calcareous cement seeming to have leached out, while the deeper-sited strata are hard, and rich in calcareous matter.
" The rock contains some casts of bivalve shells, and of gasteropods; its fissures and druse cavities are filled with strontianite, cœles- tine, and calespar. The sand rock reposes on a hard, compact dolomite rock, mottled with light and dark blue cloudy specks resembling castile soap. The dolomite is composed of
Carbonate of lime 54 per cent.
magnesia 42
4 66 Quartz sand
Thelower hard cemented sand rock beds contain
Carbonate of lime 46 per cent.
White quartz sand 54
" Sand rock ledges of a somewhat different character from those mentioned, but evidently equivalent with them, are exposed on both sides of a road passing the north end of Ottawa Lake. The rock is hard, fine-grained, of dark bluish, or, in weathered condition, of ferruginous brown color, and contains sixty-five per cent. of calcareous matter by thirty-four per cent. of quartz sand. It is quarried for building purposes; intermediate between the harder layers are seams of a coarse-grained, softer sand rock, with only a small proportion of cal-
careous cement. Enclosed in these softer seams I found dermatic plates of macropetalichthys. South from there, across the State line, near Sylvania, in Ohio, a similar seam of sand rock is found intercalated between the upper and lower Helderberg limestones ; and from a geo- logie report of Ohio we learn that throughout the entire Helderberg area of that State a sand rock deposit is constantly found in such posi- tion. In some localities the sand rock seems to be replaced by an oolith. In the quarries of Plum Creek, near Monroc, and near Little Lake, in Bedford township, the mottled dolo- mite rock, which lies at the base of the sand rock in the Ida quarries, section sixteen, is found in the same characteristic form, but in- stead of sandstone, in the two mentioned lo- calities, oolithic rock-beds are superimposed. Their chemical composition is: Carbonate of lime, sixty-one per cent., and carbonate of magnesia, thirty-seven per cent. The thick- ness of this sand rock stratum has, within the State of Michigan, never been found to exceed eight or ten feet, and in Ohio, also, it forms only a comparatively thin seam. No fossils are known to have been found in it except the few fragmentary specimens which I men- tioned, but . . its equivalency with the Oriskany sandstone of New York be- comes very probable. The rock series below the sandstones, which have been identified with the water-lime group of New York, is altogether composed of dolomite, and contains entirely different fossils from those found in the strata above the sand rocks, which have more of a true limestone character, and rarely contain a high percentage of magnesia. This lower water-lime division has a much greater surface extent within this southeastern corner of Michigan than the higher beds. All the ex- posures of River Raisin, in Plum Creek, be- long to the lower rock series; the quarries in the townships of LaSalle, Ida and Bedford are worked in the same beds, and the out-crops on Point-aux-Paux, at Gibraltar, in Swan Creek, and Stony Creek, all represent this water-lime series. The upper strata of this group are frequently but not always found in a brecciated condition, the fragments of various ledges intermingled and recemented. The lower, non-brecciated beds have evidently the same lithological characters as the fragments com- posing the breccia.
288
HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, MICIIIGAN.
" A natural section through the whole thick- ness of the water-lime group is nowbere in the district exposed, and the artificial excavations by quarrying generally comprise virtually only a small series of beds, and they are nearly always of one and the same horizon. Of deep artesian borings several have been made within the city limits of Monroe to a depth of from one hundred and fifty to three hundred feet, and the boring records of some have been noted down. Such notes are very useful for comparison of strata, if we were only before- hand informed of the geological structure of a locality in its details ; but to learn these details by the results of borings alone is very unsatis- factory.
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