USA > Minnesota > Goodhue County > History of Goodhue county, including a sketch of the territory and state of Minnesota > Part 22
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The Magnesian Limestone rises from the river in a perpendicular escarpment to the base of the Sandstone, at which point there is a talus
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or slope of some twelve feet to the foot of the sandstone escarpment, which rises perpendicularly in a bold wall sixty feet, where there is another slope extending to the base of the Shell Limestone.
The Magnesian Limestone, where the water breaks over it, the water having a descent of six feet, is a hard, compact rock, with no organic remains. The St. Peter Sandstone, at this point, owing to its exposure to the weather, and its containing a small per cent. of iron, is of a darker color than it is in the bluffs opposite the village, but is of the same structure and of the same materials-a mass of consolidated particles of globular quartz, like Castle Rock, in Dakota county, and White Rock, in Goodhue county, already referred to. On the very edge of this soft yielding escarpment of sandstone, nearly seventy feet from its base huge pine trees (Pinus Strobus) are growing, and the wall as square-cut as when the river receded to its present channel.
On Prairie Creek, in the township of Stanton, some four miles south- west of the falls of the Great Cannon, on section 32, there is an expos- ure of the Saint Peter Sandstone. It rises some seventy to eighty feet above the bed of the creek. It is in a grove of timber, and its color and structure are the same as that found at the falls of the Cannon. Both the valleys of Prairie Creek and the Little Cannon have been formed by the removal of the St. Peter Sandstone by erosion.
In the township of Belle Creek, on section 20, but a little above the bed of the creek, near the residence of the Rev. S. P. Chandler, a cellar was excavated in the St. Peter Sandstone. The Shell, or Trenton Lime- stone, caps it on both sides of the valley. Some remarkably large speci- mens of orthoceratites have been found in a quarry of Trenton Lime- stone at this locality.
At Hader this is the surface rock in the beds of the small streams. In fact, it is believed that it forms the rock underlying the soil and drift of the whole western, interior and southern portions of the county as far east as Zumbrota.
Four miles south of the village of Cannon Falls, at the old Freeborn farm, on section 6, in the township of Leon, the Shell Limestone, in place beside the road, exhibits the same organic remains as those found in the bluffs west of the village. The strata here dips to the south about two degrees, and conceals the sandstone long before reaching the head of the stream. The Trenton Limestone affords good building material, as well as supplying lime to the inhabitants in many localities in the county.
At Kenyon there is an interesting exposure of the Shell Limestone in the bed of the north branch of the Zumbro. The rocks in this
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vicinity are very rich in fossil organic remains. The strata lie in nearly a horizonal position. Eighteen feet below the surface the highest stra- tum is found-a hard, ash-colored limestone. In this stratum is found several species of orthis, a species of terebratula, an undetermined cystideon, two species of bryozoon corals, two radiate corals, and two species of cephalopods of the genera cystoceras and cryptoceras. There is also found fucoidal impressions of two varieties, the only vegetables that were known to exist in that age. In the top of the bed is found an individual criniod of the family of Cystidids, Callocystites Jewetti, with a section of the stem attached.
Immediately under the upper shell bed there is found a bed of bluish- green clay twenty inches thick, highly calcareous, and in many places calcareo-siliceous, closely resembling green sand. It is believed this would afford a profitable top-dressing for light soils. Under this clay bed is another layer of lime, and another of clay some six feet thick.
The second bed of clay reposes upon the blue limestone, the thick- ness of which cannot be seen. It is the lowest number of the shell beds here exposed, and is the bed rock of the river Zumbro. It is a stratum full of the remains of brachiopods, cephalopods, corals and crustaceans that inhabited the sea at the close of the Lower Silurian Period. The color of this rock is dark grayish blue, and has undoubt- edly taken this appearance from the organic matter of the animals that found their last resting place on the bottom of the ocean while the stratum was in process of formation. At this period the sea must have literally swarmed with animal life, as most of the stratum is but a com- plete mass of the exuviæe of crustaceans, molluscs, and radiates, cemented together by the calcareous mud that was deposited upon them.
The cephalopods, the orthoceratite and lituite evidently had their feeding ground in this section of Goodhue county when its surface was covered by the waters of a shallow ocean, and when surfeited with food, rising to the surface to sport in the warm, genial rays of the sun. The cephalopods were believed to be floaters, and probably spent much of the time on the surface, as does the nautilus of the modern seas.
In the township of Wanamingo, below the village, near the mills, two quarries have been opened on the north bank of the Zumbro. A sec- tion may be also seen just below the mill-dam. It shows twelve or fif- teen feet of ash-colored semi-crystalline shell limestone, resting con- formably upon the blue bed which extends below the bed of the river. This blue bed is of the same material as that at Kenyon. The upper bed contains the remains of countless numbers of orthoceratites of all sizes, from one foot to ten feet in length. The quarry above the dam
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is the most prolific place in these remains yet discovered in the county. This particular spot must have been a favorite resort for the huge monsters of the ancient sea. It seems as if this locality may have been a shallow bay, or arm of the ocean, where these lords of the ancient world became hemmed in, at the time of the subsidence of the waters, and left to perish in the locality where their tombs are now brought to the light of day by the picks and drills of the quarrymen.
The quarry in Belle Creek, before alluded to, presents the same quality of rock, containing the same species of fossils.
From this place eastward towards Zumbrota the strata rises, so that the same stratum found at Wanamingo mills in the bed of the river, may be seen at the quarry on section 15, in the township of Minneola, seventy-five feet above the bed of the river. Fine specimens of ortho- ceratites have been taken from this quarry.
THE SHAKOPEE LIMESTONE.
This is the upper stratum of the Lower Magnesian Limestone, and its first out-crop is seen as one descends the north branch of the Zumbro, at the village of Zumbrota. It forms the abutment and approach to the bridge, on the south bank of the river at that place. It takes its name from the village of Shakopee, on the Minnesota River, where its litho- logical character has been examined and described by Prof. N. H. Winchell, in his survey of that locality. In the valley of the Zumbro, below the village of Zumbrota, the Trenton Limestone and St. Peter Sandstone, seem to have been removed by erosion. The last vestige of the St. Peter Sandstone, in this direction, may be seen near the north bank of the river, just west of the village, in a conical-shaped mound, some hundred feet in height. The Shakopee Limestone, so far as examined in Goodhue county, contains very few fossils. Its bedding is much less regular than the lower strata of the Magnesian series of rocks. It is usually filled by cherty, concretionary masses, which, on the exposure of the bluffs to the rains and frosts, become detached and fall into the bottom of the valley, where they lie long after the non- siliceous portions of the rock have dissolved and disappeared. Such cherty lumps are often a foot, or even two or three feet, in diameter. They are roughened by cavities opening on the surface; by dissolution of the calcareous parts, and by natural openings and pores they acquired in the act of formation. These are the portions of the formation in which fossils are found. This same formation extends through Roscoe and Pine Island, into Dodge and Olmsted counties. It is overlaid in those towns by the Saint Peter Sandstone and Trenton Limestone.
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The Shakopee Limestone shows itself along the bluffs skirting the Zumbro, all the way to Mazeppa, and also in the bluffs in the township of Belvidere, till nearing the bluffs of the Mississippi, the lower strata of the Lower Magnesian become the surface rock.
In the township of Florence, on section 21, J. F. Tostevin has opened a quarry in the Magnesian Limestone. The stone is of superior quality, and is entirely free from the siliceous, cherty materials which charac- terize the stone in most of the other quarries in this formation, near the Mississippi. The stone is susceptible of being easily sawn into suitable shapes for water-tables, window sills and caps, mile-stones, flag-stones, etc. A mill has been erected at Frontenac station, on the St. P., M. and C. Railroad, where large quantities of this stone are sawed by steam, and shipped to various localities for building purposes. It is a very durable stone, and bears exposure to the frosts admirably.
G. A. Carlson, Esq., of Red Wing, has worked quarries in both Barn and Sorin Bluffs in the Magnesian Limestone for several years. The stone is of a light buff color, of a close, compact texture, capable of sustaining great pressure without crushing, and will stand exposure to the weather almost equal to granite. The stone for building the Epis- copal Church in Red Wing, the stone for the piers of the iron railroad bridge at Hastings, and the stone for the arch bridge across the east channel of the Mississippi, at Minneapolis, were taken from Mr. Carlson's quarries. Messrs. Seeback and Danielson have a quarry near by of the same material and quality. The stone for the foundation and lower stories of the Red Wing, Diamond and La Grange grist mills was taken from these quarries. Robert Berglund owns a quarry further south, in Sorin Bluff, of the same quality of stone, from which the material for the new Catholic Church at Red Wing, was taken. The stone from the last named quarry is of a darker color than that from the quarries of Carlson, Seeback and Danielson.
The supply of stone in these quarries is almost inexhaustible, and hundreds of tons are taken out annually for cellar and foundation walls, sewers, sidewalks, and for burning into quicklime. Particular layers of the Magnesian Limestone produce the best quality of mortar for masonry. Mr. Carlson has two perpetual kilns in which he burns 18,000 barrels of lime annually. Messrs. Seeback and Danielson manufacture nearly as much more. Goodhue county, in nearly every portion of it, is abundantly supplied with the most durable stone for building pur- poses. Lime is burnt in many localities in the county. Mr. William M. Philleo owns land in section 1, in the township of Featherstone, from which he obtains a superior article of clay, of which he manufac-
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tures large quantities of the various articles of pottery ware, vases, statues, terra cotta window caps, cornices and other ornamental work. Many of the finest residences and business blocks of buildings in Red Wing, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, have been adorned by terra-cotta, furnished from the kiln of Mr. Philleo.
The Red Wing Stone Ware Manufacturing Company have established a pottery in the city, where they carry on an extensive business in the manufacture of all kinds of stone ware and fire brick. The clay is procured from section 10, in the township of Goodhue. The fire brick made from this clay is said to be fully equal to the best fire brick from Ohio.
In several localities in the city of Red Wing there are outcrops of a white, siliceous, quartzose sandstone, belonging to the Lower Magnesian series. This formation so nearly resembles the Saint Peter Sandstone, as to be mistaken by many intelligent people as belonging to the same stratum. But at Red Wing it occupies a position at least two hundred feet below the geographical horizon of the Saint Peter Sandstone. It is believed to occupy the same position in the geological formation of Minnesota as the Jordan stratum of the Minnesota River valley. It is formed of globular grains of white quartz, so loosely cemented together that it easily crumbles in the fingers when rubbed. It is in some places locally stained with iron from surface water, when it presents a reddish, or rusty color, and is apt to be harder. In such cases it has a shell or thin coating of harder rock, about half an inch in thickness, on the weathered surface. On penetrating into the quarry beyond the influence of the weather, the grains are loosely cemented, and even crumbling; and is nearly as white as loaf sugar. One of the best exposures for examining this sandstone is at Twin Bluffs, in the city of Red Wing. Great quantities of it have been shipped from this locality to Rock Island, Illinois, to be used in the manufacture of glass. It is said to be superior to the sand used in the best Pittsburgh glass, or to that used in the manufacture of the celebrated American plate-glass, at New Albany, Indiana. The supply of this glass material is inexhaustible in Goodhue county.
DRIFT.
The northern drift covers the surface of nearly the entire county. Banks of clay regularly laminated, and in some localities interspersed with gravel and small boulders, occur in many places. Sand-banks, in the stratification of which the ripple-marks are to be plainly seen, are of frequent occurrence in the vicinity of the rivers and streams. Boul-
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ders composed of a great variety of materials, but usually of granitic, syenitic, quartzose or porphyritic character, and from the size of an ordinary orange to that of a moderate-sized dwelling-house, may be seen strewn over the prairies of the southern and western townships of the county. The writer recollects attempting to ascertain the size of a boulder that may be seen beside the road between Belle Creek post office and Hader, on section 29 of that township, by pacing round it. It was 42 steps in circumference, ten feet high above the ground, and twenty feet, or more, thick. This immense stone is of gray granite, and must have been transported to its present resting-place by the force of ice, either in the shape of a floating iceberg or moving glacier.
The limited space in this work to which the writer is restricted, will preclude his going further into detail in the geology of Goodhue county.
For the benefit of the scientific and technical reader, a list of the more common fossils found in the different formations of the county, are here appended :
IN BARN BLUFF .- Several species of Trilobite, Dikelocephalus Minne- sotensis, Lingulas, Orbiculas, Orthis, columns of Crinoidece, Fucoid.
Cephalopods .- Cryptoceras Undatum, Cyrtoceras Annulatum, found at Kenyon ; Trocholites Ammonius, at Cannon Falls and Kenyon ; Maclurea Magnus, at Wanamingo and Kenyon ; Endoceras Proteiforme, at Wanamingo.
Articulates .- Calymene Senaria, Tentaculites Ornatus, at Kenyon.
Gasteropods .- Murchisonia Bicincta, Murchisonia Belicincta, Beller- ophon Bilobatus, Pleurotomaria Lenticularis, Helicotoma Planulata, at Kenyon.
Bryozoan .- Fenestella Prisca, Reptopora Incepta, Ptilodictya Fenes- trata, at Cannon Falls and Kenyon.
Brachiopods .- Orthis Costalis Otestudinaria, Strophmena Alternata, Orthis Biloba, Terebratula (undetermined;) Strophmena Plaunumbona, Orthis Striatula, Atrypa Reticularis, at Kenyon and Cannon Falls.
Radiate Corals .- Petraia Corniculum, Columnaria Oveolata, Palaeo- crinus Striatus, Crinoid (undetermined,) Cystidea Calocystiles Jewettii, at Kenyon.
Radiates Acalephs .- Graptolithus Hallianus, Sertularia Abitiena, at Kenyon.
INDIAN NAMES.
Minneola: Min-ne, water; olah, much; meaning much water.
Wau-cou-tah : The Shorter, an Indian chief of the Sioux tribe. He is
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said to have been a fine specimen of the perfectly developed man. He was tall, well proportioned, straight as an arrow and as lithe and active as a cat. He was a good friend to the white people, and a promoter of civilization among his own people.
Hhoo-pah-hoo-doo-tah : Wing of Scarlet, Red Wing.
Wazee-wee-tah: Wazee, pine; wee tah, island ; Pine Island.
Hham-necha: Hill, water and wood, the name given to Barn Bluff and vicinity, which was a favorite camping place with the Indians, because of the abundance of wood and water within easy reach, and the elevated situation afforded for camping places.
THE MOUNDS OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.
THEIR ORIGIN-THEORY OF REV. J. W. HANCOCK.
These earth works have been the subject of much speculation. Many and different theories have been advanced concerning them. Some suppose them to have been the burial places of noted persons. Some that they are the altars upon which an ancient people once offered their sacrifices. Another theory is, that they were built for the pur- poses of defensive war. I presume that each of these suppositions may be true in respect to certain classes of ancient earth works found on this continent. I have seen some that were evidently built for fortifi- cations. Sepulchral mounds have been discovered in Ohio, and in some of the states bordering on the Mississippi. And there are those which bear evidence of having been once used for religious purposes. The last are most numerous in Mexico and South America.
But in regard to the mounds so common to the Upper Mississippi and its vicinity, I believe that neither of the above theories are true. I refer to the conical hillocks found generally in clusters, and rows of ten, twenty, and even fifty or sixty in some places, within the compass of as many rods. These are generally about twenty feet in diameter at the base, and rise to six or eight feet in the center; all of them having about the same size and shape.
It perhaps seems very strange to some that the Indians who lately left this country, did not pretend to be able to give any account of the origin of these mounds. But when we consider that the different tribes were almost constantly at war with each other, and that whole tribes were frequently driven from their territory, or perished by pestilence and famine, that circumstance will not appear so wonderful.'
There is seldom any depression in the earth near these mounds, which
1
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proves that they were not thrown up by human hands. My opinion is that they simply mark the places where human dwellings once stood. I have known of several being entirely removed and no appearance of any human remains found in any of them. They are largely made up of vegetable mould mixed with sand. In most of them ashes have been discovered on a level with the surrounding ground. In one case a bone, apparently from the leg of a deer, was found.
Those who have observed the place where a house once stood in a civilized country, the ground not having been disturbed since its fall, will remember that there is a depression in the ground, showing where the cellar was. But around this cellar hole is a ridge a few feet higher than the land adjacent. The material of the building of wood is all decayed, perhaps, and the cellar is more than two-thirds filled with earth. Whence all this accumulation of earth? It is evidently the result of time and natural causes. When an old dwelling falls it becomes a ruinous heap, from which springs up a thick growth of tall, rank weeds. Among this luxuriant growth the floating sands and dry leaves of autumn are lodged from year to year by the driving winds. After a score of years or more the weeds will have run out, and their place become occupied by grass or shrubs, and the accumulated process is done. We have only to apply this work of decay to houses once occupied by a savage people, who never build cellars, and we have a solution of the problem, Whence came these mounds ?
EARLY BEGINNINGS.
THE SWISS MISSION-DENTON AND GAVAN-SUSPENSION OF THE MISSION- REOCCUPATION BY THE AMERICAN BOARD-HANCOCK AND AITON-CONDI- TION OF THE COUNTRY-INDIAN TREATY-SPEECH OF WACOOTA-PIONEERS OF 1852-EXPERIENCE OF JOHN DAY IN CABIN BUILDING-BEAR HUNTING BY CANOE-SUCCESS OF THE CHASE-HEROISM OF MRS. DAY-THE FIRST MILLINER, ETC., ETC.
The honor of planting the standard of civilization and the influence of the Cross in what is now Goodhue county, properly and of right belongs to Rev. Messrs. Denton and Gavan, Swiss missionaries, who came out to the new world under the patronage of the Evangelical Society of Lausanne, Switzerland. The mission over which they pre- sided was first commenced at Mount Trempealeau, a few miles below Winona, on the Wisconsin side of the river. In 1838 the mission was
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THE HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY.
removed to Red Wing, where Messrs. Gavan and Denton continued to labor among the native people until Mr. Denton's health failed in 1846, when the work was given up to the American Board.
Denton and Gavan were accompanied by their wives, and it is safe to assume that if other white men had previously visited Red Wing's village, their wives were the first white women to disturb the shadows cast by the towering bluffs, in the midst of which the mission was established.
In 1848, the American Board of Missions appointed Revs. Joseph W. Hancock and John Aiton, of Vermont, to the charge of the work com- menced by Revs. Denton and Gavan. Mr. Aiton came on during the same year, but finding it quite lonely, he and his wife spent a part of the winter of 1848-49 at Kaposia, fifty miles above the mission, where Dr. T. S. Williamson, another missionary, was living with his wife.
The two log mission houses erected by Denton and Gavan remained undisturbed, and Mr. Aiton found them in a fair state of preservation, but it would be strange, indeed, if the Indians, in the two years the mission was suspended, had not partially fallen back into their old habits and wandered away from the beautiful precepts taught them by the pioneer missionaries from Lausanne, Switzerland.
Mr. Hancock did not arrive until June 13, 1849. At that time, the only signs of human presence between the foot, of Lake Pepin and Mendota, on the west bank of the Mississippi, were at Wells' trading place (twelve miles below Red Wing,) and at Red Wing. How long Wells had been located there we have not been able to learn ; long enough, however, to gain the confidence of the Indians, and to marry one of their women-a half-breed, the daughter of Duncan Graham, an . old-time trader.
James Wells was an uneducated man, comparatively speaking, and of peculiarly eccentric character and habits. He was a native of New Jersey, and finding his way out West, became a trader among the Indians, in which pursuit he was still engaged when the Territory of Minnesota was organized. Writing of that period in Minnesota's history, the condition of settlements, etc., in referring to the Lake Pepin district and Mr. Wells' trading place, Mr. Neill remarks: "The two unfinished buildings of stone, on the beautiful bank opposite the renowned Maiden Rock, and the surrounding skin lodges of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a rude but picturesque scene." Wells was elected a member of the first Territorial Legislature, at which time (the fall of 1849,) he gave his age at forty-nine years. He had lived so long among the Indians, and had so assimilated to their habits and
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customs, that he grew restless and uneasy under the encroachments of white settlements, and the consequent destruction of the Indian trade, and in 1854 he sold his buildings to Mr. Everet Westervelt, and removed to Faribault. He was killed by the Indians in 1863.
At Red Wing there was an Indian village of about three hundred, and two white families-the family of Rev. John Aiton, who came in 1848, and the family of John Bush, the Indian farmer, employed at government expense. Mr. Aiton and family moved away in the summer of 1850, and Bush went away with the Indians in 1853.
Indian wigwams and four log cabins made up the village. Two of the cabins were occupied by half-breed Indians. The other two were occupied for mission purposes. One of the mission houses stood in what is now Bush street, directly in front of the ground now occupied by the Hickman House. The other one stood near by, one corner of it extending out into what is now the street. The wigwams were built of poles and bark, and stood along on either side of the ravine (called 'Jordan " by the settlers of 1852-3,) between what is now Main street, and the river. Their occupants were divided into two bands, and were represented by two head men or chiefs. Those on the east side of " Jordan " were presided over by Wacoota, The Shooter, and those on the west side by Fmaza-washta.
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