History of Houston County, Minnesota, Part 4

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1919
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1343

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1892. June 7, national convention (Rep.) held at Minneapolis. The Australian system of voting used at the November general election.

1893. The legislature authorizes the appointment of a capitol com- mission to select a site for a new capitol, and providing a tax of two-tenths of a mill for ten years to pay for the site and the erection of a building. A great financial crisis causes the failure of several banks and many mer- cantile and manufacturing establishments in the larger cities of the State.

1894. September 1, forest fires start in the neighborhood of Hinckley, in Pine County, carrying death and destruction over nearly four hundred square miles of territory, destroying the towns of Hinckley and Sandstone, causing the death of four hundred and seventeen people, rendering home- less and destitute twenty-two hundred men, women and children, and entailing a property loss of about one million dollars.

1895. A census of the State was taken during the month of June, and the total population of the State was found to be 1,574,619.

1896. The Red Lake Indian reservation was diminished to about a quarter part of its former area, and on May 15 a large tract of agricul- tural and timber lands formerly belonging to that reservation was opened for settlement.

1897. July 2, the monument at Gettysburg to the First Minnesota Regiment was dedicated.

1898. July 27, the corner stone of the new capitol was laid. Minne- sota supplied four regiments for service in the Spanish War, being the first State, May 7, to respond to the President's call. October 5, the Pillager Indians attacked United States troops near Sugar Point, Leech Lake.

1899. Semi-centennial of the Territory and State celebrated by the old Settlers' Association, June 1, and by the Historical Society, November 15.

1900. Population of Minnesota, shown by the national census, 1,751,394. Death of Senator C. K. Davis, November 27.

1901. In the Pan-American Exposition, at Buffalo, N. Y., the superior exhibits of wheat, flour, and dairy products of Minnesota caused her to be called "the Bread and Butter State."

1902. August 23, the fortieth anniversary of the Sioux War cele- brated at New Ulm. Monuments and tablets erected there and at other places in the Minnesota Valley.

1903. Tide of immigration into Minnesota, particularly in northern and western sections. April 22, death of Alexander Ramsey, first territorial governor, later governor of the State, United States senator, and secretary of war.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

1904. Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Minnesota exhibits win many first prizes for flour, butter, fruits, iron ores, work of pupils in schools, etc. 1905. January 3, legislature convenes in the new capitol. The popu- lation, according to the State census, June 1, was 1,979,912.

1906. September 3, Live Stock Amphitheater on the State Fair ground dedicated, with address by James J. Hill. Attendance at the Fair on that day, 93,199; during the week, 295,000.

1907. Folwell Hall, the new main building for the College of Science, Literature and Arts, of the University of Minnesota, completed at cost of $410,000 for the building and its equipment. The total number of students of this university enrolled in all departments for the year was 4,145.

1908. The fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Minnesota to statehood was celebrated in connection with the State Fair, its attendance during the week being 326,753.

1909. Death of Gov. John A. Johnson after an operation at Rochester, Minn., Sept. 21, 1909. Lieut. Gov. Adolph O. Eberhart sworn in as Governor by Chief Justice Start, in the Supreme Court retiring room, at 11 o'clock the same day.

1910. Population of Minnesota, shown by the national census, 2,075,708. Death of State Treasurer Clarence C. Dinehart June 8. E. S. Pettijohn appointed to succeed, June 11. Forest fires in northern Minne- sota during the second and third week in October result in death to about thirty people and the destruction of about '$20,000,000 of property. Spooner and Baudette wiped out.

1911. The legislature ratified the proposed amendment to the United States Constitution for election of U. S. senators by popular vote, October 18. George E. Vincent was inaugurated president of the University of Minnesota.

1912. The legislature in special session enacted a new primary elec- tion law and "corrupt practices" act. October 19, the statue of Governor Johnson on the capitol ground was unveiled.

1913. February 5, former Governor Hubbard died in Minneapolis. June 16-20, the American Medical Association held in Minneapolis its sixty-fourth annual session.

1914. The total mileage of main line railways operated in this State was 9,002 miles, on June 30, an increase of 54 miles from the mileage of 1913. July 4-11, the National Education Association held its annual con- vention in St. Paul.

1915. In November, the last bonds of indebtedness of the State re- sulting from the Five Million Loan Bill for railroad building, enacted in 1858, were paid and burned. December 30, Governor Hammond died of apoplexy in Clinton, La .; and on the same day Lieutenant Governor Burnquist took the oath of office as his successor.

1916. In February, iron and steel manufacture and production of Portland cement, each on a very large scale, were begun at Duluth. May 29, James J. Hill, railway builder, organizer of the Great Northern Railway 2

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

system, died at his home in St. Paul. July 19-21, the National Prohibition convention was held in St. Paul for the presidential campaign.

1917. April 6, the United States entered the World War, which began in the last days of July, 1914. During nineteen months until the war closed, Minnesota gave over 80,000 men in the army service, 13,000 in the navy, and 6,000 in the marine corps, an aggregate of over 100,000 troops. July 1, Marion LeRoy Burton began presidency of the State University.

1918. May 11, dedication of the building of the Minnesota Historical Society, erected by the State at a cost of $500,000. September 25, Arch- bishop John Ireland died. Oct. 12-13, forest fires after a long drought, driven by a great wind, spread over a large area in Carlton County and the south part of St. Louis County, inflicting loss of more than 1,000 lives of agricultural settlers and residents in many villages with destruction of property exceeding $30,000,000. November 11, signature of an armistice terminated the World War and opened a new era of reconstruction. The people of Minnesota own 222,222 automobiles.

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CHAPTER II

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Houston county is situated in the southeastern corner of the State of Minnesota and has for its neighbors, Winona county on the north; the Mississippi River with Wisconsin beyond, on the east; Alamakee county in Iowa on the south; and Fillmore county on the east. It is about twenty- four miles from north to south and nearly that from east to west, with a land area of about 334,120 acres, lying between the Mississippi on the east, and the line between Ranges 7 and 8 on the west, and between the Iowa State line on the south and the line between Townships 104 and 105 on the north. Aside from the irregularities caused by the winding course of the Mississippi River, the county consists of sixteen government townships.

There are seventeen political townships. Along the Mississippi from north to south they are named La Crescent, Hokah, Brownsville, Crooked Creek and Jefferson. The next row west is Mound Prairie, Union, May- ville and Winnebago; the next, Houston, Sheldon, Caledonia and Wilming- ton; the next, Money Creek, Yucatan, Black Hammer and Spring Grove. Of these only five, Black Hammer, Caledonia, Spring Grove, Wilmington and Winnebago correspond with the lines of the government survey.

The Mississippi River has several sloughs winding through a swampy belt of varying width, which is broader near the southern boundary of the county. The largest tributary of the Mississippi in the county is the Root River, which comes into the county from Fillmore county on the west, and flows in an irregular eastern direction through the southern part of the northern tier of townships. Thompson's Creek from the south joins the Root River at Hokah, while the South Fork joins the main Root River at Houston. From the north Root River has several tributaries in this county, the largest being Money Creek and Silver Creek. The principal creeks emptying into the Mississippi are Pine Creek, finding its outlet in La Crescent township; Crooked Creek, finding its outlet in Crooked Creek township; and Winnebago Creek finding its outlet in Winnebago town- ship. Mills have existed along these waterways since the earliest days, but the waterpower has never been made use of on an extensive scale.

The portion of the county along the Mississippi and other streams has a rugged and picturesque appearance, with irregular bluffs and oval crests with rock-capped summits. These, with alternating hills and valleys, extend back into the country several miles, and then gradually assume the form of a rolling prairie which still further on becomes a level prairie. The upland surface of the much dissected plateau which forms the county is from 1,150 to 1,300 feet above the sea level, and more than 500 feet above the valley of the Mississippi River. The sink holes, due to the caving of the subterranean drainage channels are a common feature, and in some places their linear arrangement is very noticeable.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

If the valleys excavated by drainage were filled up the county would be very nearly flat, the highest part being in the southwestern corner, in the area of the Decorah shale and Platteville limestone. The great diversity of surface that appears arises entirely from the effect of erosion by streams and atmospheric forces on the rocks, which consists of alter- nating sandstones and limestones. This effect would be still greater, or still more apparent, were it not that the loess loam, which is very thick in this part of the State, tones down, with its overspreading canopy, the roughness which the rocky surface really possesses, leaving it actually one of an undulating or rolling character, except along the immediate river bluffs, and cause precipitous or steep hillsides.

The valleys excavated by the streams are remarkable and instructive. Not only have the larger streams cut out gorges of enormous depth in the rocky floors in which they run, but every little creek and tributary runs in a gorge which shows the same rock sculpture. Even the freshet creeks and the rivulets born after every summer shower, dry entirely the greater part of the year, find their way to the main valleys through rock-bound, canon-like valleys. This makes the country present the usual characters of southern latitudes where the northern drift sheet has not been spread. There is nothing more evident than that these valleys antedate the glacial epoch.

In other portions of the northwest where the drift does prevail larger streams than those found in Houston county have generally worn their channels only through the drift sheet. Even the Mississippi River itself, above the Falls of St. Anthony, has no rocky bluffs. It very rarely there even strikes the rock. It is occupied still in dissolving and removing the ma- terials of the drift which covers that portion of the State. It would require a good many inter-glacial periods, or pre-glacial periods, to excavate it as deeply as the same valley is wrought in the southeastern portion of the State.

In the limestone area the Houston county valleys are narrow and more generally rockbound; they widen out so as to include good farm lands on the bottoms here in the sandstone areas. This is illustrated in the upper portion of many of the tributaries of Root River. In descending one of these valleys from the upland, the first descent is very rocky and very impracticable. This is caused at first by the cut through the Sha- kopee limestone. The Jordan sandstone that underlies the Shakopee some- times relieves this ruggedness a little, but its thickness is so small com- pared to that of the whole Lower Magnesian that it is barely observable in this way. Through the underlying St. Lawrence limestone the descent is also rough, and the valley narrow, with little or no arable land in the valley. On reaching the horizon of the top of the Dresbach sandstone, the change introduced into the aspect of the valley is very noticeable. It widens, the rock is seen exposed in a nearly continuous escarpment along the tops of the now more distant bluffs, the descent is easy, the stream flows with a winding course, and is perhaps fringed with a small shrubby growth, the lower slopes of the bluffs on either side are turf-covered, and, finally, a rich alluvial soil, spreading out over the bottoms show considerable

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

areas that has been cleared and cultivated. This character then extends to and follows the whole course of Root River to its mouth, the valley con- stantly increasing in width and showing a terraced condition, where ancient floods or periods of high water have stood, and whence, after vast accumu- lations of alluvium, have retired, reducing the river at last to its present insignificant dimensions.

This is the general character of the valley tributory to Root River, but this succession of changes can be seen within Houston county only in those tributory valleys on the south side of Root River. Those on the north side enter on the St. Croix sandstone before reaching Houston. The best agricultural portion of the county is in the center and southwest quarter. The valleys throughout the county were originally wooded, and in the eastern part of the county a great deal of the upland was also wooded, and much timber still remains. Taken altogether, the county may be denominated rolling, broken and hilly, though there are also some fine prairies that are simply undulating. All the farms are well drained naturally.

The following measurements by aneroid will show the depth of some of the valleys below the immediate upland at the points named: Section 17, Caledonia, three miles south of Sheldon. Beaver Creek, at the great spring, is 230 feet below the tops of the bluffs, which embrace the Shakopee lime- stone, Jordan sandstone and a part of the St. Lawrence sandstone. At Sheldon the bluffs are 420 feet high. At Houston the bluffs north of the city are 520 feet above the level of water in Root River in summer. At Hokah, Mount Tom rises 530 feet above the flood plain of Root River. On Section 11, Union, the ridge between Thompson's Creek and the railroad, at the sculptured rock, rises 355 feet above the highway directly south of the ridge. At Brownsville the height of the bluff above the flood plain of the Mississippi is 495 feet. Fred Gluck, of Brownsville, measured the same by triangulation in the winter season and obtained 486 feet as the height above the ice. Railroad surveyors are said to have obtained 483 feet as the height of the same bluff. The most of this height is made up of sandstone, there being but 105 feet of limestone in the upper part of the bluff belonging to the St. Lawrence formation.

The soil of the county is formed by the loess loam. It is very fertile and apparently very enduring. It is mainly a clayey deposit, without stones or gravel, but yet in some places becomes arenaceous, the sand grains being very fine. The loess is hardly pervious to water. Many farmers resort to the expedient of retaining the surface water, after rains, in open reservoirs, produced by throwing a low dam across some of the shallow drainage valleys that intersect their farms, thus forming with the common loam a small pool or lake for the use of their stock. Except on the brows of the bluffs which enclose the valleys this loam is thick enough to make a reliable subsoil as well as surface soil. In some of the valleys it is very thick, but here it is apt to be influenced by the causes that produced the river terraces, and to mingle with the ordinary alluvium. On the uplands, generally, where it may not have been reduced by wash, its average thickness might reach thirty feet, but in some of the valleys

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

material of the same aspect is sometimes encountered to the depth of over 100 feet.

In the valley of the Root River, and also along the Mississippi, the soil of the alluvial terraces, greatly resembling that of the loam in the uplands, is apt to be more sandy, and sometimes very light and very poor. These materials are generally seen to be obliquely stratified layers, and to em- brace, in the Mississippi Valley, small gravel stones of northern origin. The immediate flood plain of these rivers presents still another variety of soil. While it is generally sandy, and often very light, it is also a very rich soil, and is apt to be enduring by reason of the Nile-like overflows to which it is subjected, and the decomposition of large quantities of vegeta- tion. This variety of soil sustains some of the heaviest forests to be found in the county.

It is noticeable that many of the valleys, particularly those running east and west, as Crooked Creek valley, have the bluffs along the north side of the creek, destitute, or nearly so, of timber, but are heavily tim- bered along the opposite bluffs, on the south side. This may be due to warm days in winter or early spring, when the sap may have started in the trees on the north bluffs, followed by severely cold weather, before the actual setting in of steady warm weather. Of course the sun's heat would be quickest felt on the bluffs facing south. This process repeated for a good many years would injure and at last destroy the timber on the north bluff, if it were ever possible for trees to come to maturity there, while timber on the south bluffs would escape these sudden changes, owing to the shaded condition of the bluffs during the warmest portion of the day, and would only experience a steady increase of warmth due to the progress of the season. Now, however, there are many valleys with the hills on both sides more or less heavily wooded.

Rock outcrops occur everywhere along the cliffs of the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, affording abundant opportunity for the de- termination of the character and thickness of the successive beds. The rock formations outcropping at the surface are all Paleozoic.

The green Decorah shale is represented by a thickness of 25 feet, and is underlain by a massive bed of Platteville limestone, averaging 15 feet in thickness. Because of resistence to erosion, together with geologic position, these formations, as already stated, constitute the highest land in the county, capping the high areas in the southwestern corner. They yield small supplies to shallow wells, but are of little value as a source of water. Some springs occur at the margins of their areas, but most of the water sinks through the crevices of the formations into the underlying sandstone.

The St. Peter sandstone here is about 80 feet thick, or only half the thickness of the same formation in Hennepin county. It occurs beneath the Platteville limestone in the southwestern part of the county and under- lies a large area of the uplands south of Root River. Although cemented by iron and somewhat resistant in places, a condition due to surface alter- ation, it does not generally give rise to rock exposure, the outcrop areas commonly being flat and covered with grass and trees. It yields moderate

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

supplies of water to shallow wells, but owing to the free escape of its water to the adjoining lowlands, it does not afford amounts sufficient for industrial or public supplies.

The Shakopee dolomite is about 75 feet thick, occurring beneath the uplands above the river valleys. It carries some water in joints, bed- ding planes, and solution passages, and gives rise to a number of springs, but it does not generally afford supplies adequate even for domestic and farm purposes.

The New Richmond sandstone, which ranges up to 35 feet in thickness, is exposed beneath the Shakopee in the uplands several hundred feet above the stream. It affords little water along its outcrops, but where it is covered by younger rocks, as in the southwestern portion of the county, it may furnish supplies of considerable importance to moderately deep wells, though generally the amounts will prove insufficient for industrial or public supplies.

The Oneota dolomite, which is approximately 150 feet thick, outcrops in the upper portion of the cliffs bordering Mississippi and Root rivers and their tributaries and forms conspicuous bluffs and pinnacles. The upper portion is often broken and characterized by the presence of chert and other concretions. It contains some water in joints, bedding planes, and solution passages. Along the borders of the valley springs of considerable im- portance issue from this formation, a few yielding sufficient quantities for industrial or public supplies and even for water power.

The Jordan sandstone, a coarse buff sandstone about 100 feet thick, outcrops below the Oneota in the cliffs bordering Mississippi and Root rivers. In the greater part of the county it yields abundantly, the public supplies for several villages being derived from it. Near the outcrops, however, the yield is greatly reduced because of the escape of the water into adjacent valleys.

The St. Lawrence formation consists of green and gray calcareous shales with some green sand and occasional sandstone layers, having a total thickness of about 175 feet. It outcrops in the lower portions of the cliffs of the Mississippi and underlies the bottom of Root River and the lower portions of its tributaries to the western border of the county. It contains considerable water in the sandy layers and is said to yield flows at a few localities in the valleys. It has, however, little value as a water zone, its yield being materially less than that from the overlying Jordan or the underlying Dresbach sandstone.

The Dresbach sandstone is a massive, crumbling sandstone about 60 feet thick, with occasional cemented layers. It outcrops along the cliffs of the Mississippi and beneath the alluvium of Root River. Its base is approximately at the level of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway along the Mississippi. It is a strong water-bearing formation, and in the valley of Root River yields abundantly, the water being used for industrial and public supplies. Beneath the upland it contains large quantities of water, but there is generally no advantage in sinking to it, as the supplies are not materially larger than those from the Jordan except near an outcrop of the latter.

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HISTORY OF HOUSTON COUNTY

Underlying the Dresbach are several hundred feet of shale and sand- stone, which lie almost entirely below the level of the flood plain of the Mississippi and are encountered only in deep wells. The upper portion consists of blue and green shale and the lower of porous sandstone. The shale furnishes an impervious cap, which confines the water in the sandstone thus giving rise to splendid flows from the sandstone in the valleys of the Mississippi and Root rivers. The yield is generally sufficient for all purposes, including industrial and public supplies.

Beneath the last-mentioned sandstone are the red shales, sandstones, and quartzites of the red clastic series, which rests upon the granitic rock. Neither the red clastic series nor the granite will yield much water.

Houston county lies in what is called the Driftless Area, a tract of about 15,000 square miles, occupying nearly all the southwestern quarter of Wisconsin, and extending into southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and northwestern Illinois. Unlike the vast stretches around it cover- ing more than half of North America, this comparatively small tract, about as large as the country of Denmark, contains no deposits indicitive of having been left by melting ice sheets. Houston county, therefore, con- tains no drift clay or boulders brought here by ice action, in the Glacial Age. There is a thick deposit of foreign gravel in Riceford, in the extreme southwestern part of the county, and there is a terrace along the Mississippi River that is made up of sand and gravel, evidently brought here from the north. It is possible that these deposits may have been brought here by small isolated glaciers in the raging waters which flowed from the receeding ice sheets, but the existence of such small flating glaciers in the driftless area is not yet agreed upon by all geologists. At any rate the county wholly escaped the operation of those forces which spread the well-known drift clay and boulders over most of the State.

There is a marked alluvial terrace; that is, a terrace made up of de- posits left by the waters of the past geologic periods, that accompanies the Mississippi and Root rivers, and ascends their lower tributaries, but it does not seem to be true that all the streams are terraced before reach- ing the level of that terrace. This indicates that the high water which produced that terrace was due to backing up from the Mississippi, and that possibly the country itself in general was not more wet than at present; in other words, that the amount of surface drainage that passed down the valleys was no greater than now. Root River was simply wider and deeper, with a sluggish current, due to the greater volume of the Mississippi. The highest point at which the terraced condition of the Root River has been observed is Preston, in Fillmore county, but it must certainly extend several miles further up that valley. By aneroid measurements, united with the levels of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, the height of this terrace at Preston is found to be about 300 feet above the Grand Crossing of the Southern Minnesota Railroad near the mouth of Root River, while the same terract at Hokah, likewise near the mouth of Root River, is only about 100 feet above the flood plain. It is also probable that the loam terrace, as seen at La Crescent, is the same continued to and coalascent with the Mis- sissippi terrace; and there it is 90 feet above the Mississippi flood plain.

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History of Houston County, Minnesota, Part 4

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1343

Author: Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge
Publication date: 1919
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1343