USA > Minnesota > Freeborn County > History of Freeborn County, including explorers and pioneers of Minnesota, and outline history of the state of Minnesota > Part 47
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1881. March 1st, Capitol at St. Paul destroyed by fire.
November. Lueins F. Ilubbard elected Gov- ernor.
263
IIISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY.
HISTORY
OF
FREEBORN COUNTY.
CHAPTER XLV.
LOCATION-TOPOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL FEA- TURES --- GEOLOGICAL -- COAL MINING.
Freeborn is on the southern tier of Minnesota counties, the fourth from the Mississippi, and next to Mower county; on the south it has Winnebago and Worth counties in Iowa; on the west it is the sixth from the Dakota line, and next to Faribault; and Steele and Waseca are the northern neigh- bors.
There are thirty or more lakes in its territory, the most prominent among which are Lake Albert Lea, Geneva Lake, Rice Lake, Freeborn Lake, Twin Lakes, and Pickerel Lake. It is well water- ed, being really on a divide, with waters flowing north and south. Among the more noted streams are the Shell Rock River, Cobb River, Goose Creek, Turtle Creek, Deer Creek, Bancroft Creek, Stewart's Creek, and State Line Creek, with sever- al others. These, with the lakes and other topo- graphical features, receive special mention in the geological sketch and in the town histories. 'The twenty townships all coincide with the govern- ment survey, and have corresponding political or- ganizations.
The following geological description is taken from the very able report of Prof. N. H, Winch- ell, State Geologist :
SITUATION AND AREA.
Freeborn county borders on the state of Iowa, and is very near the center of the southern boun- dary line of Minnesota. It lias the form of a
rectangle, having a length, east and west, of five government towns, and north and south, a width of four, making an area of 720 square miles, or 449,235.63 acres, after dedueting the areas covered by water.
NATURAL DRAINAGE.
With the exception of Freeborn, Hartland, and Carlston townships, the surface drainage is to- wards the south and southeast. The county em- braces the headwaters of the Shell Rock aud Cedar Rivers of Iowa, and those of the Cobb River which joins the Minnesota toward the north. Hence it lies on the watershed between two great drainage slopes. For the same reason none of its streams are large; the Shell Rock, where it leaves the State, being its largest. The streams have not much fall, but afford some water- power, which has been improved in the construc- tion of flouring mills. Such are found at Albert Lea and Twin Lakes. In these cases the body of water confined in the upper lake serves as the water-head and the reservoir, mills being con- structed near their outlets. There is also an available water-power at Shell Rock village, but its use would cause the flooding of a large body of land adjoining the river.
SURFACE FEATURES.
The surface of the county, althoughi having no remarkable and sudden changes of level, yet is considerably diversified as a rolling prairie, more or less covered with sparse oaks and oak buslies. The plats of the United States surveyors, ou file
264
HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY.
in the Register's office at Albert Lea, indicate considerably more area covered with timber, or as "oak openings," when the county was surveyed by them (1854), than is now the casc. The fol- lowing minutes are based on an examination of their plats, and will give a pretty correct idea of the distribution of the oak openings and the prairie tracts throughout the county.
LONDON .- The most of this township is prairie, a belt of oak openings and timber entering it from the north, about three miles wide, in the center of the town, and extending to the center, bearing off to the southeast, and terminating in section twenty-four. The magnetic variation throughout the town was, when surveyed, from 8 deg. 20 min. to 10 deg. 42 min., the greatest be- ing in sections thirty-three and thirty-four.
OAKLAND .- A little more than a half of this township consists of oak openings, an area in the eastern half only being prairie, with a small patch also in section thirty-one. Two Isrge sloughs cross the town, one throngh sections thirty, thirty- one, and thirty-two, and the other through sections four, five, eight, seven, and eighteen. Magnetic variation about 9 deg., varying from 8 deg. 12 min. to 10 deg. 8 min.
Moscow .- Nearly the whole of this township is taken up with oak openings and marshes. Turtle Creek crosses it from northwest to southeast. A large portion of the northern half of the town is a floating marsh, containing a great quantity of peat. Magnetic variation 8 deg. 20 min. to 10 deg. 20 min.
NEWRY .- There is a small patch of prairie in the north-east part of this town, in sections one, twelve, thirteen, and twenty-four, and a small area in sections twenty and twenty-one. There is an- other in the northwest corner, embracing sections six and seven and parts of five, thirteen, and eighteen. The rest is openings and marsh, par- ticularly in the northwest corner. Magnetic variation, 8 deg. 20 min. to 9 deg. 40 min.
SHELLROCK .- A belt about one and one-half miles wide along the west side of this town, ac- companying the Shellrock River, constitutes the only openings occuring in sections three, ten, and fifteen. The northwest part of the township is rolling, and the southeast is level and wet with marshes. Magnetic variation, 11 deg. 30 min. to 13 deg. 40 min.
ALDEN .- This town is all prairie, with scattered small marshes. Magnetic variation, 11 deg. 27 min. to 13 deg. 15 min.
CARLSTON .- This town is all prairie, except a narrow belt of sparse timber about Freeborn Lake. Long narrow marshes spread irregularly over the central and eastern portions of the town. In the southeast quarter of section thirty-six there is also a small area of sparse timber. Magnetic varia- tion, 11 deg. 13 min. to 13 deg.
FREEBORN .- In this town there is a little sparse timber about the north part. Magnetic varia- tion, 8 deg. 50 min. to 10 deg. 15 min.
BATH .- An area of openings comprising about half of this town, in the central and eastern por- tion, is nearly surrounded by a belt of prairic. Small marshes are scattered through the town. Magnetic variation, 8 deg. 45 min. to 10 deg. 35 min.
NUNDA .- This town is also mostly openings, but an area of prairie occurs in sections four, five, nine, and three, and another lies southwest of Bear Lake. Considerable marsh land is embraced within the area of openings. Magnetic varia- tion, 10 deg. 5 min. to 12 deg. 15 min., the latter in section thirty-one.
PICKEREL LAKE .- The west half of this town- ship is prairie, and the eastern is devoted to open- ings with lakes and marshes. Magnetic varia- tion. 9 deg. 45 min. to 11 deg. 50 min.
MANCHESTER .- About one-half of this town is prairie, the remainder being oak openings. The prairie lies in the northwestern and southern por- tions. Small marshes occur both in the prairie and openings. Magnetic variations, 10 deg. to 12 deg. 15 min.
HARTLAND .- This town is almost entirely com- posed of prairie, the only timber being about Lake Mule, and in the southern portions of sections thirty-four, thirty-five, and thirty-six. There is not much marsh in the town. Magnetic varia- tion, 9 deg. 45 min. to 12 deg. 25 min.
MANSFIELD .- This town is nearly all prairie. Magnetic variation, 8 deg. 45 min. to 10 deg. 15 min.
HAYWARD .- A wide belt of prairie occupies about two-thirds of this town, running north and south through the center. On the west of this is a rolling tract embracing a portion of Lake Albert Lea and some tributary marshes, while on the
265
PHYSICAL FEATURES.
east a large marsh covers sections twelve and four- teen, and portions of thirteen, eleven, fifteen, twenty-two, and twenty-three. There is also a prairie tract in section one.
RICELAND .- This township is about equally divided between prairie, openings, and marsh, the first being in the south central portion, the second in the northwest and central, bordering on Rice Lake, and the marsh in the northeastern part of the town. Magnetic variation, from 8 deg. 45 min. to 10 deg. 30 min.
GENEVA .- There is but little prairie in this town, the southern portion being comprised in a large marsh which is crossed by Turtle Creek, the outlet of Walnut Lake. The central portion is occupied by oak openings which also extend to the northwest and west boundaries. The prairie is in the northern and eastern portions. Mag- netic variation, 9 deg. 10 min. to 10 deg. 23 min.
FREEMAN .- This township contains no prairie. It is mostly devoted to oak openings, but a series of marshes, drained by the tributaries of the Shell Rock that crosses it toward the southeast, take up a considerable area in the central and eastern portion. Magnetic variation 9 deg. to 10 deg. 40 min., the greatest being in section thirty-one.
ALBERT LEA .- This township is nearly all taken up with oak openings, but a few small marshes, trending northwest and southeast., are found in different portions. There is also a small patch of prairie in section six, and another in the south east corner of the county. The western arm of Albert Lea Lake, through which the Shell Rock River runs, is in the central and eastern part of this town, and adds greatly to the variety and beauty of its natural scenery. Pickerel Lake is also partly in this township. Magnetic variation 8 deg. 46 min. to 10 deg. 8 min.
BANCROFT .- A little more than one-fourth of this township is prairie, situated in the center and southwestern portions. The rest of the town is covered with oak openings. The source of the Shell Rock is in the northwestern ends of Free- born and Spicer Lakes, and a little adjoining Spicer Lake on the east. There are also some openings in section twenty-six, where the arms of the marsh protect the timber from the prairie fires. The rest is of prairie with spreading marshes. Magneitc variation 11 deg. 55 min. to 12 deg. 50 min. North and west of Albert Lea is a very broken and rolling surface of sparse timber.
This tract consists of bold hills and deep valleys wrought in the common drift of the country. On some of these hills are granitic boulders, but the country generally does not show many boulders. The drift is generally, in this broken tract, a gravel-clay. In some of the street-cuts for grad- ing, a gravel is found, containing a good deal of limestone.
A great many of the marshes of the county are surrounded with tracts of oak openings, a fact which indicates that the marshes serve as barriers to the prairie fires. Such marshes are really filled with water, and quake with a heavy peat deposit on being trod on. They are very different from those of counties further west, as in Nobles coun- ty, which, in the summer, are apt to become dried, and are annually clothed with a growth of coarse grass, which feeds the fires that pass over the country in the fall. As a general rule, but little or no grass grows on a good peat marsh.
The county contains some of the highest land in the State. Some of the counties farther west, particularly Nobles and Mower counties on the east, rise from one to two hundred feet higher. There is also a high and rolling tract in the north central portion of the State, covering Otter Tail county, which rises to about the same level, as shown by railroad profiles. The greater portion of the State, however, lies several hundred feet lower than Freeborn county.
SOIL AND TIMBER.
Throughout the county the soil depends on the nature of the drift, combined with the various modifying local circumstances. There is nothing in the county that can properly be designated a limestone or a sandstone soil. The materials of which it is composed have been transported, per- haps, several hundred miles, and are so abundantly and universally spread over the underlying rock that they receive no influence from it. The sub- soil is a gravelly clay, and in much of the county that also constitutes the surface soil. In low ground this, of course, is disguised by a wash from the higher ground, causing sometimes a loam and sometimes a tough fine clay ; the latter is particularly in those tracts that are subject to inundation by standing water. On an undulating prairie, with a close clay, or clayey sub-soil, such low spots are apt to leave a black, rich loam or clayey loam, the colored being derived from the annual prairie fires that leave charred grass and
266
HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY.
other vegetation to mingle with the soil. The same takes place on wide tracts of that prairie. En these may be, but rarely, a stone of any kind-in- deed that is usually the case-but below the im- mediate surface, a foot or eighteen inches, a gravelly clay is always met with. This at first doubtless formed the soil, the disintegrating forces of frost, rain, and wind, combined with the calcin- ing effects of the prairie fires, having reduced the stones and gravel to powder, leaving a finely pul- verized substance for a surface soil.
In a rolling tract of country, while the low ground is being filled slowly with the wash from the hills, and furnished with a fine soil, the hills are left covered with a coarse and stony surface soil. For that reason a great many boulders are sometimes seen on the tops of drift knolls. Along streams and about the shores of lakes, the action of the water has carried away the clay of the soil and often eaten into the original drift, letting the stones and boulders tumble down to the bot- tom of the bank, where they are often very nu- merous. Along streams they are sometimes again covered with alluvium-indeed are apt to be-but along the shores of lakes they are kept near the beach line by the action of the winter ice. After a lapse of time sufficient, the banks themselves become rounded off and finally turfed over or covered with trees. These lakes sometimes extend their limits laterally, but slowly become shallower. . This county is furnished with a number of bean- tiful lakes. These are generally in the midst of a rolling country, and some of their banks are high.
In the survey of the county the following spec- ies of trees and shrubs are noticed growing native:
Burr Oak. Quercus macrocarpa. Michz.
Red Oak. Querens rubra. L. (This species is not satisfactorily indentified.)
Aspen. Populus tremuloides. Vichr. Elm. Ulmns Americana, ( Pl. Clayt. ) Black cherry. Prunus serotina. Ehr. American Crab. Pyrus coronaria. L. Bitternut. Carya amara. Mutt. Black Walnut. Juglans nigra. L.
Wild Plum. Prunus Americana. Marsh. White Aslı. Fraximus Americana. 1 .. Butternut. Juglans cinerea. L. Hazlenut. Corylus Americana. Walt. Forest Grape. Vitis cordifolia. Michr. Bittersweet. Celastrus scandens. L. Smooth Sumach. Rhus glabra.
Red Raspberry. Rubus strigosus. Michx. Rose. Rosa blanda. Ait.
Wolfberry. Symphoricarpus ocdidentalis. R. Br.
Bass. Tilia Americana. L.
Prickley Ash. Zanthoxylum Americanum. Mill.
Cornel. (Different species. )
Willow. ( Different species. )
Gooseberry (prickley.) Ribes cynosbati. L.
Thorn. Crataegus coccinea. L.
Hackberry. Celtis occidentalis. L.
Sugar Maple. Acer saccharinum. Wung.
Cottonwood. Populus monilifera. Ait.
Soft Maple. Acer rubrum. L.
Cockspur Thorn. Cretaagus Crus-galli. L. Slippery Elm. Ulmus fulva. Michr.
Black Ash. Fraximus sambucifolia. Lam. High-bnsh Cranberry. Niburnum Opuvus. L. Choke Cherry. Prunus Virginiana. L.
Shagbark Hickory. Crrya alba. Nutt. On M. L. Bullis' land in Moscow township, near the county line .- A. A. Harwood. )
Besides the foregoing, the following list em- braces trees that are frequently seen in cultiva- tion in Freeborn county:
Spruce.
Red Cedar. Juniperus Virginiana. L. Mountain Ash. Pyrus Americana. D. C.
Balsam Poplar. Populus balsamifera. 1 .. Var. candicans.
Lombardy Poplar. ditatata. Ait.
Locust. Robinia Pseudacacia. I. | The
Locust dies out in Freeborn county. | Hackmatack. Larix Americana. Miche. Arbor Vitæ. Thuja occidentalis.
THE GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
There is not a naturrl exposure of the underly- ing rock in Freeborn county. Hence the details of its geological structure are wholly unknown. It is only by an examination of outcrops in Mower county and in the adjoining counties of Iowa, to- gether with a knowledge of the general geology of that portion of the State, that anything can be known of the geology of Freeborn county. In the absence of actual outerops of rock within the county, there are still some evidences of the character of rock that underlies the county, in the nature and position of the drift materials. There is, besides, a shaft that has struck the Cretaceous
267
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
in the northwestern portion of the county, in ex- ploration of coal.
Although the drift is heavy it lies in such posi- tions that it shows some changes in the surface of the bed rock. It is a principle pretty well estab)- lished that any sudden great alternation in the rock from hardness to softness, as from a heavy limestone layer to a layer of erosible shales, or from shales to more enduring sandstone, each stratum having a considerable thickness, is ex- pressed on the drift by changes from a rough and rolling, more or less stony surface, to a flat and nearly smooth surface, or vise versa. It some- times happens that the non-outcropping line of superposition of one important formation with another, either above or below, can be traced across a wide tract of drift covered country by following up a series of gravel knolls or ridges that accompany it, or by some similar feature of the topography. Again, the unusual frequency of any kind of rock in the drift at a certain place, especially if it be one not capable of bearing long transportation, is pretty good evidence of the proximity of the parent rock to that locality.
Applying these principles to Freeborn county, we find throughout the county a great many bould- ers of a hard, white, compact magnesian limestone, that have been extensively burned for quicklime. These attracted the attention of early settlers, and before the construction of the Southern Minneso- ta railroad,supplied all the lime used in the county. Although these boulders are capable of being transported a great distance, their great abun- dance points to the existence of the source of sup- ply in the underlying bed-rock. In the drift also are frequently found pieces of liguite or Cretace- ous coal, which cannot be far transported by glacier agencies. This also indicates the existence of the Cretaceous lignites in Freeborn county. In regard to changes in the character of the natural surface, we see an evenly flat and prairie surface in the western tier of towns, and in the southeastern part of the county, and a hitly and gravelly tract of irregular shape in the central portion. There are two ridges or divides, formed superficially of drift, that occur in the central part of the county, one north of Albert Lea, and the other south of it, separated about eleven miles, as shown by a series of elevations from a prelimi- nary railroad survey by Mr. William Morin. What may be their directions at points further re-
moved from Albert Lea it is not possible to state with certainty, but on one side they seem to trend toward the northwest. Indeed there seems to be a northwest and southeast trend to the surface features of Freeborn county generally. Such rough surfaces, and especially the ridges of drift, are more stony and gravelly than the flat por- tions of the county. They mark the location of great inequalities in the upper surface of the un- derlying rock, the exact nature of which cannot be known.
In addition to these general indications of the character of the rock of the county, the shaft sunk for coal at Freeborn, reveals the presence of the Cretaceous in that portion of the county, and examinations of the nearest exposures in the neighboring county of Iowa, discloses the Hamil- ton limestone of the Devonian age. This lime- stone is exactly like that found so abundantly in the form of boulders in Freeborn county. As the general direction of the drift forces was toward the south, and as the trend of the Hamilton in Iowa, according to Dr. C. A. White (see his map of the geology of Iowa, final Report, 1870,) is toward the north west, there is abundant reason for concluding that that formation also extends under Freeborn county. The preliminary geologi- cal map of the state of Minnesota, published in 1872, indicates Freeborn county almost entirely underlain by the Devonian, the only exception being in the northwestern corner, How much farther toward the northwest these limestone boulders can be traced with equal abundance, the explorations of the survey have not yet revealed.
The northwestern corner of Freeborn county has been regarded as underlain by a limestone of the age of Niagara, belonging to the Upper Silurian, that formation in the northwest coming directly below the limestones of the Devonian. That may be correct; but it is certain that there is in the neighborhood of Freeborn an area of the Cretaceous, which must, in that case, overlie the Silurian limestones. This Cretaceous area is be- lieved to extend north and south across the west end of the county, and to be roughly coincident with the flat and prairie portion in the western part, in which case it overlaps the Devonian.
EXPLORATIONS OF COAL.
In common with many other places in Southern Minnesota, Freeborn township, in the northwestern
268
HISTORY OF FREEBORN COUNTY.
corner of the county, has furnished from the drift pieces of cretacous lignite that resemble coal. These have, in a number of instances, incited ar dent expectations of coal, and led to the ontlay of money in explorations. Such pieces are taken out in digging wells. The opinion seems to grow in a community where such fragments are found, that coal of the Carboniferous age exists in the rocks below. In sinking a drill for an artesian well at Freeborn village, very general attention was directed to the reported occurrence of this coal in a regular bed, in connection with slate rock. This locality was carefully examined, and all the information gathered bearing on the sub- ject that could be found. The record of the first well drilled is given below, as reported by the gentleman who did the work:
feet inches
1. Soil and subsoil, clay 15
2. Blue clay .35
....
3. "Conglomerated rock" (had to drill ) 2
4. Sand with water 5
5. Fine clay, tough, hard to drill, with
gravel and limestone pebbles .. . 60
6. Sand with water 4
7. "Slate rock," probably cretaceous 7
..
8. "Coal," 5 4
Total depth. 127 10
This indication of coal induced the drilling of another well, situated 100 feet distant, toward the northeast. In this the record was as follows, given by the same authority :
feet
inches
1. Soil and subsoil, clay. 15
1. Blue clay .33
. .
3. "Conglomerated rock". 2
4. Sand with water, and pieces of coal.12 . .
Total depth. 60 2
When the drill here reached the "conglomer- ated rock," it was supposed to have reached the "slate rock," No. 7 of the previous section. The amount of coal in the sand of No. 4 was also enough to cause it to be taken for No. 8 of the previous section. Hence the boring was stopped; and having thus demonstrated the existence of a coal-bed, to the satisfaction of the proprietors, the enterprise was pushed further in the sinking of a shaft. In sinking this shaft the water troubled
the workmen so that at thirty-five it had to be abandoned.
Three-quarters of a mile north of these drills a shaft was sunk 57 feet, but not finding the coal as expected, according to the developments of the last section above given, the explorers stopped here. In this shaft the overseer reports the same strata passed through in the drift as met with in the first well drilled, but the so called "conglome- rated rock" was met at a depth of 45 feet. The sand below the " conglomerated rock " here held no water, but was full of fine pieces of coal. Be- fore sinking a shaft at this place a drill was made to test the strata. These being found " all right " the shaft was begun. In that drill gas was first met. It rose up in the drill hole, and being ignited it flamed up eight or ten feet with a roaring sound. The shaft was so near the drill hole that it drew off the gas gradually, allowing the intermixture of more air, thus preventing rapid burning. From this place the exploration was redirected to the first situation, where another shaft was begun. This was in search for the "lower rock," so called, or the "slate rock," sup- posed to overlie the "coal." Here they went through the same materials, shutting off the water in the five foot sand-bed, and 60 feet of fine clay, when water rose so copionsly from the second sand-bed (No. 6 of the first section given) as to compell a cessation of the work. In this shaft were found small pieces of the same coal, all the way. These pieces had sharp corners and fresh surfaces. The total depth here was 106 feet, and the water seems to have been impregnated with the same gas a's that which arose in the drill at the point three-fourths of a mile distant. Such water is also found in the well at the hotel in Freeborn. With sugar of lead it does not present the reactions for sulphurated hydrogen, and the gas is presumed to be carbonated hydrogen. This account of explorations for coal is but a repetition of what has taken place in numerous instances in Minnesota. The cretaceous lignites have deceived a great many, and considerable ex- pense has been needlessly incurred in fruitless search for good coal.
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