USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Minnesota (Volume 1) > Part 2
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Fillmore county, unsurpassed by no county in the state for the fertility of its soil; its bountiful supply of timber and pure water; its numerous water powers; its diversified surface of hills, valleys and rolling prairies, and its adaption to every variety of agricul- tural product; has furnished to the citizens material wisely improved by them for substantial wealth, good homes, and sound public institutions, economically and prudently administered;
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where law and good order, industry and sobriety, have always been upheld and observed; where the comforts and provisions for enjoyment of life are evenly distributed, and where, in the future, as in the past, "peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, will be established throughout all generations."
Location and Area. Fillmore county is on the southern border of the state of Minnesota, the second west from the Mississippi river. Olmsted and Winona counties are contiguous on the north, Houston county on the east, Iowa on the south, and Mower county on the west. It has twenty-four government townships. Jordan, Chatfield, Arendahl, Rushford, Fillmore, Fountain, Norway, Bloomfield, Forestville, Carimona, Preston, Amherst, Preble, Beaver, York, Bristol, Harmony, Canton, and Newburg coincide with the outlines of the original congressional surveys. The inclusion in Carrolton of the southern halves of sections 33, 34 and 35, township 104, range 10, and all of sections 6 and 7, township 103, range 9, causes a corresponding curtailment in Pilot Mound and Holt, respectively. The same may be said of section 6 and the west half of section 5, township 103, range 13, a curtailment of Spring Valley being caused by the inclusion of this tract in Sumner.
The county lies between the forty-third and forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and between ranges 7 and 14 west and town- ships 100 and 105 north. The principal stream is the Root river, which comes into the county from the west about six miles from the northern boundary, and meandering toward the east crosses the line about three miles south of the northeast corner. It has several branches coming in at various points, the largest of which is the south branch, which vies with the main branch as to size, and arises outside of the county on the west and unites in the northeast part of Carrolton with the main stream. This branch also has other branches quite important coming generally from the south. The South fork of the Root river, which becomes an important stream in Houston county, arises in the southern cen- tral part of this county and leaves it near the center of the eastern boundary. The various rivers and the topographical features are more fully described in the geological sketch and in the separate township delineations.
The county is four townships wide from north to south, or twenty-four miles, and six from east to west, or thirty-six miles; its area being about 864 square miles, or 553,081.77 acres. It has very few acres not suitable for tillage, and unlike many other counties to the north and west, it is a lakeless region.
Preston is the county seat, and the geographical center of the county is but a few blocks from the courthouse, as the village is in the northwest corner of the township of the same name and
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touches the corner of three other towns. The other principal centers in the county are Lanesboro, Spring Valley, Chatfield, Rushford, Canton, Harmony, Mabel, Fountain, Wykoff, Peterson, Whalan, Ostrander and Prosper.
Natural Drainage. Root river, with its tributaries, drains nearly the whole of the county. The Upper Iowa river, which meanders about the state line in this county, receives a few small streams from the southern tier of townships. Root river, flowing toward the east, spreads out its tributaries north and south, crossing the entire county, from west to east. Many of the branches of the Root river rise in the counties next west and north of Fillmore county, in a tract of country covered with northern drift. After entering Fillmore county, they soon enter canon-like valleys, and the drift becomes much lighter. They then converge toward the main valley, following deeply cut rocky valleys, and leave the county in one volume at Rushford, in the northeastern corner of the county. These streams furnish fre- quent water power privileges, and a number of them have been improved at various times in the erection of mills.
Surface Features. That portion of the county which is cov- ered with a thick deposit of foreign drift presents the usual monotony of surface, characteristic of the drift latitudes. This includes the most of the western range of townships across the western end of the county, and some portions of the next range east. There are, however, even within the drift area, a number of narrow, deeply cut valleys, with precipitous, rocky bluffs, having very much the nature of canons, like those of the driftless territories of the west. Toward the east these deeply cut valleys are more numerous. All little streams, and a great many narrow valleys that have no running water in them, have high, rocky bluffs along their whole course. These valleys and streams, con- stituting the drainage system of the county, converge toward the valley of Root river. The valley of this stream, with its principal tributaries, presents some of the most remarkable and instructive phenomena of erosion to be found in the state. It passes nearly at right angles across the strike of the formations. These are alternating limestones and sandstones, with an occasional bed of soft shale. The Trenton limestone, underlaid by the easily eroded St. Peter sandstone, the same as at the Falls of St. Anthony, although about 160 feet in thickness, is eaten into by the retro- action of the water as it plunges over the falls at the point where the streams cross the line of its superposition over the St. Peter, until they have each excavated in the Trenton a deep channel from fifteen to thirty miles in extent. Through the line of strike of the St. Peter these valleys are widened out, the surface of the low ground within the bluffs being usually one of rich meadow
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with undulating surface, from 100 to 200 feet below the general level. The Lower Magnesia Formation is entered upon by the streams while they are as yet a good many miles within the gen- eral area of the Trenton. As this formation consists of three members (two limestones, separated by a sandstone thirty feet in thickness), it repeats the succession of phenomena witnessed in the erosion of the Trenton and St. Peter. As the water leaves the Shakopee limestone and enters upon the Jordan sandstone, it passes over a series of rapids or a fall of several feet perpen- dicular, which falls or rapids undergo a process of recession under the same causes as produce the recession of the Trenton- St. Peter falls. Again, when the stream passes from the St. Lawrence limestone upon the St. Croix sandstone the same con- junction of circumstances causes another rapid or waterfall. Thus by a series of steps, more or less evident, the branches of the Root river descend from the area of the Galena limestone to the St. Croix sandstone. The valleys widen in the sandstone areas, and become abruptly narrow in the limestone belts. In passing down a stream, within a sandstone area, where the valley is perhaps half a mile wide, with tilled farms in the bottom land, the high bluffs being remote from the stream, the first indication of an approaching change in the formation is the rise of a terrace along the immediate river bank, with an occasional exposure of lime rock facing the water. This terrace, which becomes almost continuously rocky, rises slowly till it exposes the full thickness of the rock which causes it. On the other hand, the first evidence of a change from limestone to sandstone, visible in descending the stream, is the occurrence of a waterfall or rapid. Such changes produce water-powers, many of which have been im- proved. Hence, the location of a mill, on one of these branches, is an intimation to the geologist that at that point one of his boundary lines crosses that stream. Around these points gathered the first village settlements. Preston is located where the water- power formed by the descent of the river from the Shakopee on to the Jordan induced the construction of mills. The water- power at Chatfield is formed in the same way. Near Fillmore the branches of Root river, known as Deer and Bear creeks, afford good water-powers by their descent from the lower Trenton to the St. Peter. On the south branch of Root river, above Forest- ville, the stream leaves the Trenton, and the waterfall has been improved in the same manner. The same fact is illustrated by a large number of eastward flowing streams, in the eastern border counties, between Fillmore county and the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis. Of course, rapids are also likely to be formed, especially in small streams, when passing through the areas of
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rock of uniform hardness. Such water-powers, and others that are formed by the construction of dams, do not fall into this class.
While the immediate valleys of Root river and its tributaries are apt to be rocky, the country that spreads out in either direc- tion, after leaving the valleys, is not rough. It is rolling, or undulating. In the eastern portion the rocks are covered by a heavy deposit of rich, clayey loam, known as the loess, which fills up many depressions, and lends a uniform and remarkable fertility to the soil. It constitutes the soil. The farms are all well drained, naturally. The county contains no lakes. In York township there is a slough which on some maps is represented as a lake. It is about a quarter of a mile across. The Trenton area is distinctly separated, topographically, from that of St. Peter and the lower formations. From the Trenton to the Lower Magnesian the surface descends by a step or terrace about 125 feet. Some of the Trenton areas are isolated from the main area, and constitute small tables or mounds, which are well known as "Trenton mounds" in the early reports. These geologic mounds should not be confused with the artificial mounds which are mentioned elsewhere. From some of the elevated Trenton areas overlooking the river valleys, magnificent views of landscape may be had. From the elevated Trenton area in Newburg township, the eye looks over the valley of Root river, and can almost discern the Trenton bluffs on the opposite slopes of Root river in the northern part of the county. From the peninsula of the Trenton running north between Camp and Willow creeks, in Preston town- ship, the village of Fountain is plainly discernible across the valleys of the south branch of Root river and Watson's creek, with a wide expanse of alternating timber and prairie between, while on either side is a broad, undulating valley of prairie land. On the east is Camp creek valley, and on the west is that of Willow creek. These valleys are deep and wide, but owing to the thickness of the loess loam, the slopes are gentle and broad. Another magnificent view may be obtained from the Trenton peninsula on sections 10 and 15 in Carrolton. From here the view extends north over the valley of Root river to the Trenton bluffs along the north boundary of the county, a distance of over forty miles, and toward the south over the valley of the south branch of Root river, looking over Preston and Lanesboro, which are situated within the river bluffs, so far below the general level of the country that they can be seen but a short distance before reaching them. Further down Root river valley, the gorge in which the river runs becomes wider, being at Rushford about two miles in width, with fine farm lands in the bottoms. The bluffs are rounded off with age, and have a thin soil, generally turfed, though showing frequent rock exposure. The river is there 565
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feet below the tops of the bluffs, as measured by aneroid. At Whalan, in Holt township, the river is, by the same measurement, 470 feet below the top of the Trenton terrace on section 20. Whalan's Bluff is 250 feet high above the river. At Lanesboro, in Carrolton, the river is 285 feet below the immediate river bluffs, which consist wholly of the Lower Magnesian formation, and about 440 feet below the top of the Trenton terrace on sec- tion 20, Holt. At Preston the river at the stone mill is 335 feet below the Trenton terrace, which forms the general level about a mile south of the village. At Isinours station the river runs 145 feet below the top of the Shakopee limestone, which forms there the brow of the immediate river bluffs. At Forestville, the height of the country, north of the village, above the river, is 285 feet. The immediate river bluffs are 190 feet above the mill pond. At Chatfield, the river is about 222 feet below the general level of the country. At Fillmore, the prairie upland is 200 feet above the river level. From Fountain to Isinours station, the track of the Southern Minnesota railroad descends 401 feet, pass- ing from the upper Trenton to the St. Lawrence, and entering the latter formation about twenty-five feet, the rocks all lying nearly horizontal. On Deer creek, section 11, Spring Valley, the river is 205 feet below the general level of the country. There is here a little drift, but the cut is mostly in the Galena and Trenton limestones. The village of Fountain is about 350 feet higher than the terrace, at Preston, on which the Tibbetts House stands. These measurements might be multiplied, but enough have been given to show the unevenness of the surface, due to erosion. The rocks lie everywhere nearly horizontal. The varied topography of the county is due to the influence of running water and atmospheric forces, on the rocks, combined with their alternations of limestone with soft sandstone. The limestones are firm, and resist these forces much longer than the sandstones. They alter- nate in the following manner, in descending order: Trenton lime- stone, St. Peter sandstone, Shakopee limestone, Jordan sandstone, St. Lawrence limestone, St. Croix sandstone.
The limestones form the prominent features in the topography. They have the most frequent outcrops. They project along the summits of the bluffs, and constitute the brows of benches or terraces that diversify the county. The sandstones never, or very seldom, appear in the tops of the bluffs. They outcrop in sheltered nooks, or below the line of the limestone exposure. They are more likely to be hid by soil and turf. The lower Trenton con- tains, besides about twenty feet above the St. Peter sandstone, a layer of easily eroded green shale, which, outcropping by road- sides, introduces a series of springs and muddy spots, being impervious to water, that invariably follows that boundary line
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wherever it goes. It withstands the disintegrating action of the elements even more successfully than the limestones themselves. For that reason it protects that portion of the Trenton which lies below it, long after that which lies above it has been entirely denuded. The strike of the upper Trenton is often driven back several miles from that of the lower Trenton. The lime rock which lies below this shale is about twenty feet thick. The singu- lar Trenton mounds, which have already been mentioned, are composed of the lower Trenton protected by a greater or less thickness of the green shale, and a portion of the St. Peter sand- stone. Instances of the wearing down of the Trenton and St. Peter formations are seen in almost every square mile in the loam- covered area along the outrunning strike of the Trenton.
Sink Holes. Throughout the Trenton area are found a great many depressions that are well known as "sink holes." These consist of broken down spots in the drift or loam, where it had been spread over a pre-existing canon in the rock. In some places they are very numerous, but are confined, so far as known, with but a single exception, to the Trenton areas. They throw some light on the condition of rocky surface prior to the period which witnessed the spreading of the drift. The rock was wrought, at least in Fillmore county, in very much the same manner as we now see it along the river gorges. The immense valleys of erosion which we see, not only in Fillmore county, but also throughout the tract that has been denominated the "Driftless area," were excavated before the glacial period. When the streams of the present time run in such gorges they have been so located by the exigencies of surface drainage and erosion since the glacial epoch. That these gorges antedate the glacial period is shown by their existence beneath the glacial drift. These "sink holes" some- times occur in lines, and with increasing frequency and size toward a large valley, and at last coalesce so as to form a con- tinuous valley, though frequently without running water, that becomes tributary to the larger gorge. These gorges under the drift can sometimes be traced for some distance by a series of successive "sink holes." Sometimes streams are lost in them, and reappear at lower levels. There are several well known sub- terranean passages in the county. Lost creek, in Jordan town- ship, and the Brook Kedron, in Sumner, both have underground passages for several miles. Canfield creek, south of Forestville, runs underground about twelve miles, and, finally, the south branch of Root river sinks on the northeast quarter of section 19, Forestville, and runs underground, except in high water, to about the center of section 21, where it reappears again. These underground passages are in the area of Trenton. They indicate the corrugated surface the country presented prior to the over-
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spreading of the drift and loess loam. The Trenton cannot be supposed to have been any more subject to such causes as pro- duced this channeling in the rock than the other formations of the Lower Silurian. There is some reason, however, why these gorges are found almost entirely confined to that limestone. As has been said, the rest of the Lower Silurian consists of alter- nating sandstones and limestones, which conduces to their break- ing down laterally, the sandstones easily crumbling out. The Trenton limestone, on the other hand, while it has a thickness of 160 feet, more or less, has, near its base, a bed of impervious shale, which prevents the downward infiltration of surface water, and protects the underlying sandstone. Hence the erosions that operate laterally, in tearing down the other Lower Silurian forma- tions, are occupied, in the Trenton limestone area, in cutting narrow perpendicular gorges. For this reason the Trenton area is everywhere the highest in the county. From the eastern boundary of the Trenton, looking east, one beholds a broad land- scape lying several hundred feet, in some places, below him, the effect of the more rapid denudation of the rocks of that portion of the county. Into such narrow gorges neither the drift nor the loess loam, however deposited, would enter with such compactness as to close up the pre-existing water courses; and when partially closed up, as they were wherever "sink holes" have since appeared, they have been undergoing ever since a process of re-excavation. This process is revealed in the occasional col- lapsing of the surface soil, and the formation of a new "sink hole," and in the enlargement of others, since the settlement of the county.
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Elevations. The general elevation of the county above the sea may be judged from the following figures: Rushford depot, 711 feet; Lanesboro depot, 831 feet ; Isinours station, 888 feet ; Foun- tain depot, 1,289 feet ; Grand Meadow, Mower county, 1,325 feet.
The Soil. The soil of the county is generally very fertile. The immediate surface is a loam. This varies in color and com- position, as well as in origin. That portion of the county covered with the northern drift has primarily a drift soil, which consists of gravelly clay. Where this forms the immediate surface, which is the case only on knolls and on the brows of the river bluffs, it affords a soil of an ashen color, if dry. In timbered belts it is more stony, or gravelly. In the open prairies, and in low grounds, it is covered with a loam. This is believed to have resulted from the natural decomposition of the coarse materials of the drift, under the calcining influence of the prairie fires, and the frosts of ages. It has never been seen stratified, or arranged with any regularity that would indicate its having been deposited either
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by standing or running water. In most cases, especially on the open prairie, it is nearly black. As it is mingled with the drift clay it becomes lighter colored. In the low grounds it is much thicker, and also of a black color. Overlapping the drift area, in a belt about five miles wide, is a soil formed by the mingling of the loess loam with the drift. The loess loam is later than the glacial drift, and in the process of deposition it is modified by contact with the drift clay. The loess loam is indistinctly strati- fied, though it usually appears massive, and consists of fine, often clayey sediment. The soil derived from it, usually sandy and light colored, or rusty, is sometimes so clayey as to make, when wet, a fine and very slippery mud. The soil derived distinctively from the loess loam covers at least one-half of the county, and is supposed to extend to the Mississippi river. It makes a rich and apparently a strong soil. It is impossible to define its western limit. If it were derived from a long-standing inland lake, some beach lines would be found indicating its western boundary. No beach lines have been found. That it was deposited from stand- ing water can hardly be questioned. It thins out westwardly gradually, passing through a confused or mixed condition, result- ing from the mingling of the drift materials with the sediment, or by its overlapping the drift. While the essentially loess loam soil of the eastern part of the county can be distinguished easily from the drift soil of the western, no line of demarkation sepa- rating them has been noticed. A line drawn from the southeast corner of Bristol to the northeast corner of Jordan would roughly set off the area that has a distinctively loess loam soil. West of that is a belt five or six miles wide, in which the loess loam soil mingles with the drift soil. The rest of the county toward the west is occupied with a distinctively drift soil, or drift loam soil.
Native Trees. The following list embraces such native trees and shrubs as were seen in the survey of the county. The trees are arranged in the estimated order of frequency :
Burr oak. Quercus macrocarpa. Michx.
Red oak. Quercus rubra. L. (!) [This is the oak that is abundant as underbrush, and small trees. It often forms thickets skirting the outlines of a prairie.]
Aspen. Populus tremuloides. Michx. [Generally small, and on the borders of prairies.]
White oak. Quercus alba. L. [Common in the timber in Spring Valley and Jordan townships, and generally along the valleys of the principal streams.]
Wild Plum. Prunus Americana. Marsh.
Great-toothed Poplar. Populus grandidentata. Michx. [Very frequently mistaken for the American Aspen.]
American Elm. Ulmus Americana. (Pl. Clayt.) Willd.
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Bass. Tilia Americana. L.
White Ash. Fraxinus Americana. L.
American Crab. Pyrus coronaria. L. [Common along the margins of prairies and in open valleys.]
Iron Wood. Ostrya Virginica. Willd.
Red Maple. Acer rubrum. L.
Sugar Maple. Acer saccharinum. Wang. [Common in the heavy timber in Spring Valley and Jordan townships.]
Cottonwood. Populus monilifera. Ait.
Black Cherry. Prunus serotina. Ehr. [Trees generally small.] Black oak. Quercus tinctoria. Bart. (?) [Found in the heavy timber in the northwestern portion of the county.] Bitternut. Carya amara. Nutt.
Butternut. Juglans cinerea. L. [Seen most abundant in the heavy timber in the northwestern part of the county.] Wild Red Cherry. Prunus Pennsylvanica. L.
Thorn Apple. Crataegus coccinea. L.
Cockspur Thorn. Crataegus Crus-galli. L.
White Birch. Betula alba. Var. populifolia Spach. (?) [Trees small ; generally on stony soil, or along rocky river banks.] Black Walnut. Juglans nigra. L. [In the heavy timber of the northwestern part of the county.] Box Elder. Negundo aceroides. Mænch.
Small Cedar. Juniperus Sabina. L. Var. procumbens. Pursh.
(!) [Along the rocky river bluffs.]
White Pine. Pinus Strobus. L. An occasional large tree is seen along the river bluffs; but the most of it suitable for lum- ber has been cut.
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