USA > Missouri > Ray County > History of Ray county, Mo. > Part 8
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The following are some of the most notable new features embodied in the organic law of the state, and will readily explain why there was such a large vote against its adoption: It established an oath of loyalty to the United States; and those who would not take the oath it excluded from the right to vote or hold any civil office whatever, or act as a teacher in any public school, or to solemnize marriage as a clergyman, or to practice law in any of the courts. It limited the amount of land which any church or religious society might hold to five acres of land in the country, or one acre in town or city; provided for taxing church property; and declared void any will bequeathing property to any clergyman, religious teacher or religious society as such. There was a section designed to prevent the state from giving public property, lands or bonds, to railroad compa- nies. It provided that after January 1, 1876, no one could become a law- ful voter who was not sufficiently educated to be able to read and write.
July 1, 1865, the governor, Thomas C. Fletcher, made proclamation that the new constitution had been duly ratified by a lawful majority of the people, and was thenceforth the organic law of the state. A few amendments have been since adopted; but in all important points it remains the same to this day.
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66
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
PART II .- PHYSICAL AND INDUSTRIAL.
GEOLOGY AND MINERALS.
The geological history of Missouri commences at the very bottom of the scale, or, in what may be termed the fire-crust period of geologic time. (See chart on page 67). Dana's " Manual of Geology" is the great standard work all over the United States on this subject. In his chapter on Archæan Time he gives a map and brief sketch of our North American continent as it existed at that remote period, which was, according to a calculation made for the Royal Society of London in 1879,* about 600,000,000 years ago. And as this is where Missouri first comes to light, we quote Prof. Dana's account of the very meagre areas and points of our continent which stood alone above the primeval ocean that then enveloped the entire globe with its bubbling, seething, sputtering wavelets-an enormous caldron of boiling, steaming silicious lye, rather than water. Dana says:
" The principal of the areas is The Great Northern, nucleal to the con- tinent, lying mostly in British America, and having the shape of the letter V, one arm reaching northeastward to Labrador, and the other north- westward from Lake Superior to the Arctic. The region appears to have been for the most part out of water ever since the Archæan era.t To this area properly belong the Adirondack area, covering the larger part of northern New York, and a Michigan area south of Lake Supe- rior, each of which was probably an island in the continental sea before the Silurian age began.
" Beside this nucleal area, there are border-mountain lines of Archæan rocks: a long Appalachian line, including the Highland Ridge of Dutch- ess county, New York, and New Jersey, and the Blue Ridge of Penn- sylvania and Virginia; a long Rocky Mountain series, embracing the Wind River mountains, the Laramie range and other summit ridges of the Rocky Mountains. In addition, in the eastern border region, there is an Atlantic coast range, consisting of areas in New Foundland, Nova Scotia and eastern New England. In the western border region, a Pacific coast range in Mexico; and several more or less isolated areas in the Mississippi basin, west of the Mississippi, as in MISSOURI, Arkansas, Texas, and the Black Hills of Dakota."-Dana's Manual, p. 150.
*See Popular Science Monthly, May, 1879, p. 137.
+The "Archæan era," as used by Prof. Dana, in 1874, (the date of his latest revision) included both the "Azoic Age," and "Age of Zooliths," as shown on the chart, p. 67. When Prof. Dana wrote, it was still an open question whether the "cozoon " was of animal or mineral origin; but the highest authorities are now agreed that it was animal; and Prof. Reid has, therefore, very properly given it a distinct place in his "Zoic Calendar."
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
67
GEOLOGICAL CHART;
Including the Rock Scale of Geological Periods and the "Zoic Calendar of Creation." Compiled from the works of Agassiz, Lyell, Huxley, Hæckel, Dana, LeConte, and other first rank authorities in Science at the present time. By HIRAM A. REID, Secretary State Academy of Sciences at Des Moines, Iowa. [Published by permission of the Author.]
EXPLANATION. - The side line at the left shows what portions of geological time are comprehended in the terms "eozoic," "paleo- zoic," etc. The first column shows the periods or "Ages" of geological time during which the different successive types of ani- mal life predominated, or were the highest types then in existence. And these two divisions form the "Zoic Calendar of Creation."
The second column shows the great general groupings of rock strata, in which are found the fossil remains of the corresponding ani- mal types named in the first col- umn. But, at the "Age of Rep- tiles" occurs a grand divergement, for it was during this age that an- imal life pushed out into its most wonderful developments; and there came Into existence strange and marvelous forms of swimming reptiles, four-footed and two-foot- ed walking reptiles, and two-foot- ed and four-footed flying reptiles. Here also the true birds began to appear, though with reptilian pe- culiarities; and likewise the mar- supial animals, which are a tran- sitional type, between reptiles that produce their young by laying eggs and the true mammals, that bring forth their young well ma- tured and then suckle them.
The third column shows the les- ser groupings of rock beds as clas- sitied by our American geologists ; but many minor subdivisions and local groups are omitted for want of space. At the top of this col- umn are shown the geological pe- riods of first appearance of races of man, so far as now anthentica- ted by competent scientific au- thorities .*
The fourth column shows the number of feet in thickness of the different groups of rock layers as indicated by the braces.
This Chart is the most compre- hensive and thorough in its de- tails, and yet the most systemati- cally and graphically presented to the eye, of anything in its line that has ever yet been published. Here is the whole story of geol- ogy and the ascent of life con- densed into the space of a few inches, yet so plainly set forth as to readily fix itself in the memory like an outline map. Scientific terms in newspapers and maga- zines often catch the reader at a disadvantage; but a reference to this chart will at once show the relative place or period in crea- tional progress to which the best authorized geological terms apply. It reaches, like a Jacob's ladder, from the lowest inklings to the highest ideals of life on the earth, as taught by modern science and the Christian Bible.
THIS CALENDAR IS TO BE READ FROM THE BOTTOM UPWARD.
AGE OF ANGELS.
See Psalma 8:5 Luke 20:36 Mark 12:25 1 Cor.15:44 Heb.2:2 to 9 Rev.22:8,9
HISTORIC PERIOD.
Spiritual Man of
MegalithicMan the BIBLE.
|Hunter Tribes.
Age of MAN.
Recent.
MYTHIC PERIOD.
Rude Agricul- ture.
Moundbullders.
Cave Man.
* Paleolithic Man.
MAMMALS.
TERTIARY.
Miocene.
8,000
Eocene.
AGE OF
Bipes-Alares.
Birds.
CRETACEOUS.
9,000
REPTILES.
Aquates --- Quadrupes ---
Marsupials.
JURASSIC.
800 to 1,000
TRIASSIC.
.3,000 to 5,000
AGE OF
CARBONIFEROUS
Coal Measures.
6,000 to 14,570
Sub-Carboniferous.
AGE OF FISHES.
Devonian.
Hamilton.
9,050 to 14,400
Corniferous.
AGE
Upper Silurian.
Helderberg.
Salina.
Niagara.
IN VERTEBRATES
Lower Silurian.
Canadian .
12,000to 15,000
AGE OF ZOOLITHS
Huronian.
.10,000to 20,000
"This Age alone was probably longer in dura- tion than all subsequent geological time."-PROF. LECONTE.
Eozoon Rocks.
Laurentian.
30,000
Primordial Vegetation
Graphite Beds.
Metamorphic Granites.
Unstrati- fied.
AZOIC AGE.
Igneous
350,000,000 years in cooling down to 200° F. at the sur- Depth face [PROF. HELMHOLTZ], a | un known. temperature at which very low forms of vegetation can exist.
Copyright 1879 :: H. A.Reid
Rocks.
FIRE CRUST.
* " The existence of Pliocene man in Tuscany is, then, in my opinion, an acquired scientific fact." -- Sae Appletons' International Scientific Series, Vol. XXVII, p. 151. "The Miocene man of La Beauce already know the nse of fire, and worked flint." - Ib. p. 243. See also, Prof. Winchell's "Pre-Adamites," pp. 426-7-8. " The human race in America is shown to be at least of as ancient a date as that of the European Pliocene."-Prof. J. D. Whitney. Similar views are held by Profs. Leidy, Marsh, Cope, Morse, Wyman, and other scientists of highest repute.
.. No Life .-- - Eozoic TIME ---- PALEOZOIC TIME .--- MESOZOIC TIME .-- CENOZOICTIME -- PSYCHOZOIC TIME ..... OF
Feet in thick ness of the geological groups of rock form- ations.
'Terrace.Epoch.
AGE OF
Quaternary.
Champlain Epoch.
500
GLACIAL EPOCH.
Pliocene.
PERMIAN.
AMPHIBIANS.
Catskill.
Chemung.
Oriskany
6,000 to 10,000
Trenton.
Cambrian.
68
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
Thus, then, with the very first emergence of dry land out of the heav- ily saturated and steaming mineral waters of the primeval ocean, we have Pilot Knob, Shepherd Mountain, and a few smaller peaks in their vicin- ity, forming an island in the vast expanse. The next nearest island was a similar one at the Black Hills, in Dakota. There is no reason as yet known for believing that any form of life, either animal or vegetable, had yet appeared in our Missouri region. The ocean water was still too hot, and still too powerfully surcharged with mineral salts, alkalis and acids to admit of any living tissues being formed; and the atmosphere was in like manner thickly loaded with deadliest acids in the form of vapors, which would partially condense as they arose, and fall upon the iron- headed islands to form a mineral crust, and then be broken and washed back into the sea. But this process being kept up and incessantly repeated for millions of years (see Prof. Helmholtz's estimate at bottom of the chart), both sea and air became gradually purified of its excess of minerals and acids; and the water sufficiently cooled to admit of living tissues being formed; and meanwhile the condensing and crust-forming elements precipitated from the vapor-laden air or deposited directly from the bulk waters of the shoreless sea, were busily forming the solid earth. The different incrustations would each be a little different in their com- ponent elements; and then being broken up and mixed together and recombined, partly in the form of rough fragments, partly in the form of dust or sand ground into this state by mechanical attrition, partly in the form of fluidized or vaporized solutions, and partly in the form of molten masses produced directly by the earth's internal fires, the process of com- bining and recombining, with continual variation in the proportions, went on through the long, dreary, sunless and lifeless Azoic Age.
But as soon as the great ocean caldron got cooled down to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit, it was then possible for a very low form of vegetation to exist; and although no fossil remains of the first existing forms of such vegetation have yet been found, or at least not conclusively identified as such, yet graphite or plumbago, the material from which our lead pencils are made, is found in connection with the transition rocks between the Azoic and the Zoolithian ages. Graphite is not a mineral at all, but is pure vegetable carbon, and is supposed to be the remnant carbon of these first and lowest forms of tough, leathery, flowerless sea-weeds. Some small deposits of graphite are reported to have been found in connection with the iron and metamorphic granites of our Pilot Knob island; and that would indicate the first organic forms that came into existence within the boundaries of what now we call the state of Missouri. Just think of it! All North America, except a dozen widely scattered spots or islands, was covered with an ocean that spread its seamy expanse all around the globe; no sunlight could penetrate the thick, dense cloud of vapors
69
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
that filled the enveloping atmosphere; according to our English author before cited, this was 600,000,000 years ago, a period which the human mind cannot grasp: but the Almighty Maker of worlds had even then commenced to make the state of Missouri and its living occupants.
The earliest known forms of animal life, a kind of coral-making rhizo- pod (root-footed) called Eozoon Canadense, are not found in Missouri, but are found abundantly in what are called the Laurentian rocks, in Canada and elsewhere. (See chart). It is not to be supposed, however, that the enormous period called the " Age of Zooliths " passed, with forms of ani- mal life existing in Canada, but none in our iron island region, unless we assume that the mineral acidity of the waters coming in contact with this island was so intense as to require all that vast period for its purification sufficiently to permit the existence of the lowest and most structureless forms of protoplasmic matter known to science. Prof. Swallow says, in writing on the Physical Geography of Missouri, "below the magnesian limestone series we have a series of metamorphosed slates, which are doubtless older than the known fossilifcrous strata; whether they belong to the Azoic, the Laurentian or Huronian, I am unable to say."
The labors of our different state geologists have not discovered any fossil remains in Missouri lower down in the rock scale than what is called the "Lower Silurian" formations, which form the first half of the " Age of Invertebrates " in the zoic-calendar portion of Prof. Reid's chart. The term "Invertebrates " includes all forms of animal life that do not have a back-bone, such as polyps, mollusks, worms, insects, crustaceans, infusoria, etc. By the time this age (Silurian) had commenced, our lone island had been joined by large areas northward, southwestward, eastward and northwestward, so that there began to be a continent; and several hundred species of animals and plants have been found fossil in the rocks of this period, but they are all marine species-none yet inhabiting the dry land. Our chart shows the Lower Silurian epoch sub-divided into Cambrian, Canadian and Trenton formations; but there are other local sub-divisions belonging to this period, the same as to all the other general periods named on the chart. The animals of this period were polyps or coral-makers; worms, mollusks, trilobites, asterias (star-fishes), all of strange forms and now extinct. The trilobite, some species of which are found in Missouri, was the first animal on the earth which had eyes, although there were likewise a great many eyeless species of them; but the fact that any of them had eyes during this age is considered by some scientists to prove that the atmosphere had by this time become sufficiently rarefied to let the sunlight penetrate clearly through it and strike the earth. On the other hand, others hold that this did not occur until after the atmos- phere had laid down its surcharge of carbonic acid and other gases, in the forms of limestone from animal life and coalbeds from vegetable life; that
70
· HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
is, there was nothing which we would now consider as clear sunshine until the carboniferous period. At any rate, Prof. Dana says of the Lower Silurian, "there was no green herbage over the exposed hills; and no sounds were in the air save those of lifeless nature,-the moving waters, the tempest and the earthquake." Having thus given the reader some idea of the beginnings of land and the beginnings of life in our old, old state, space will not permit us to linger with details upon the remain- ing geological periods. We have compiled the following table from vari- ous writings of our able state geologist, Prof. G. C. Swallow, of the State University :
ROCK FORMATIONS OF MISSOURI.
IGNEOUS ROCKS .- Granite, porphyry, syenite, greenstone, combined with those wonderful beds of iron and copper which are found in the Pilot Knob region.
AzOIc ROCKS .- Silicious and other slates, containing no remains of organic life, though apparently of sedimentary and not of igneous origin.
LOWER SILURIAN-
Feet thick.
Hudson river group (3 local subdivisions) 220
Trenton limestone. 360
Black-river and birds-eye limestone 75
1st magnesian limestone 125
200
Saccharoidal (sugar-like) sandstone
2d magnesian limestone.
230
2d sandstone 115
350
3d magnesian limestone.
3d sandstone 60
4th magnesian limestone. 300
Total thickness of Silurian rocks 2035
When the reader remembers that these were all formed successively by the slow process of the settling of sediment in water, he will get some idea of how it is that geology gives such astounding measurements of time.
UPPER SILURIAN -- Feet thick.
Lower Helderberg formation 350
Niagara group. 200
Cape Girardeau limestone 60
Total thickness 610
71
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
DEVONIAN-
Chouteau limestone. 85
Chemung group { Vermicular sandstone and shales. 75
Lithographic limestone 125
Hamilton group.
40
Onondaga limestone (extremely variable).
Oriskany sandstone (doubtful).
CARBONIFEROUS-
Coal measures, consisting of strata of sandstones, limestones, shales, clays, marls, brown iron ores and coal . 2,000
In this formation there are from eight to ten good workable veins of coal; and the Missouri basin coal-bearing area is the largest in the world. It comprises the following:
Square miles.
In Missouri
27,000
Nebraska.
10,000
Kansas
12,000
Iowa
20,000
Illinois
30,000
Total.
99,000
The Sub-Carboniferous in Missouri is subdivided into:
Feet.
Upper Archimedes limestone
200
Ferruginous (irony) sandstone
195
Middle Archimedes limestone
50
St. Louis limestone 250
Oolitic limestone . 25
350
Lower Archimedes limestone
Encrinital limestone. 500
Total sub-carboniferous 1570
CRETACEOUS .- The Triassic and Jurassic formations have not been found in this state; but Prof. Swallow has classed as probably belonging to the Cretaceous epoch, six different formations which comprise a total thick- ness of 158 feet. He says no fossils have been found to certainly identify these beds, but their geological horizon and lithological characters deter- mine their place in the scale.
TERTIARY .- The beautiful variegated sands and clays and shales and. iron ores, which skirt the swamps of southeast Missouri along the bluffs from Commerce to the Chalk Bluffs in Arkansas, belong to this system.
QUATERNARY .- In this Prof. Swallow includes what is separated under
72
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
the name of "Recent" by Prof. Dana and others, as shown in the chart. The Quaternary of Missouri is subdivided by Prof. Swallow into- Alluvium. 30 feet
Bottom Prairie. 35
200
Bluff ( Loess of other authors).
Drift (altered drift, boulder beds, boulder clay) 155
Total Quaternary formations. 420 66
That brings the succession of geological formations consecutively from their beginning up to the present time; and now our own eyes behold every day the processes of nature going on very much the same as they have gone along through all the unthinkable lapse of time that has passed since Pilot Knob first pushed its brazen brow up above the strange deso- lation of waters when "darkness was upon the face of the deep." And now our next consideration must be, the present aspects of the land sur- face of our state, together with its streams, its woodlands and its wonder- ful mineral wealth and resources.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
In the extent, variety, and practical value of her stores of mineral wealth, Missouri is not excelled by any other state in the Union. In the fall of 1880 the New York Economist published an article on Missouri, in which it said:
"The state of Missouri is one of the most remarkable pieces of this earth's surface. Surface indeed! Missouri goes far enough under the surface to furnish mankind with one hundred million tons of coal a year for thir- teen hundred years. Think of 26,887 square miles of coal beds-nearly half the state-and some of the beds nearly fifteen feet thick. With regard to iron, it is not necessary to penetrate the surface for that. They have iron in Missouri by the mountain. Pilot Knob, 581 feet high, and containing 360 acres, is a mass of iron; and Iron Mountain, about six miles distant from it, is 228 feet high, covers 500 acres, and is estimated in the last surveys, to contain 230,000,000 tons of ore, without counting the inexhaustible supply that may reasonably be supposed to exist below the level. There is enough iron lying about loose in Missouri for a double track of railroad across the continent.
" The lead districts of Missouri include more than 6,000 square miles, and at least five hundred points where it can be profitably worked. In fifteen counties there is copper in rich abundance. There are large depos- its of zinc in the state. There is gold, also, which does not yet attract much attention, because of the dazzling stores of this precious metal farther west. In short, within one hundred miles of St. Louis the following met- als and minerals are found in quantities that will repay working: gold, iron, lead, zinc, copper, tin, silver, platina, nickel, emery, coal, limestone, granite, marble, pipe-clay, fire-clay, metallic paints, and salt."
It can hardly be said that gold, silver, tin, platina or emery have been
73
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
found in paying quantity as yet, although they are known to exist in some of our mining districts, in combinations with other minerals. Our state board of immigration has published many well prepared and judicious papers on the various advantages and resources of our state, which care- fully avoid making any extravagant or overdrawn statements. They give the real facts as accurately as they could be ascertained up to 1879- 80, and form the most reliable body of knowledge on many matters of state interest, that is now accessible; and from this source we gather the more essential points.
COAL .- The Missouri coal fields underlie an area of about 26,000 square miles. The southern outcrop of the coal measures has been traced from the mouth of the Des Moines through the counties of Clark, Lewis, Shelby, Monroe, Audrain, Boone, Cooper, Pettis, Henry, St. Clair, Bates, Vernon and Barton, into the Indian Territory, and every county north- west of this line is known to contain more or less coal. Outside of the coal fields given above, coal rocks also exist in Ralls, Montgomery, War- ren, St. Charles, Callaway and St. Louis counties, and local or outlying deposits of bituminous and cannel coal are found in Moniteau, Cole, Mor- gan, Crawford, Lincoln and Callaway counties.
The exposed coal in Missouri includes upper, middle and lower coal measures. The upper coal measures contain about four feet of coal, in two seams of about one foot each and other thin seams and streaks. The area of their exposure is about 8,400 square miles.
The middle coal measures contain about seven feet of coal, including two workable seams, twenty-one and twenty-four inches thick, respect- ively, and one of one foot, which is worked under favorable circumstan- ces, and six thin seams. The exposure of the middle measures covers an area of over 2,000 square miles.
The lower measures cover an area of about 15,000 square miles, and have five workable seams, varying in thickness from eighteen inches to four and a half feet, and thin seams of six to eleven inches.
IRON .- It has been said by experts that Missouri has iron enough " to run a hundred furnaces for a thousand years;" and the ores are of every variety known to metallurgical science. Iron Mountain is the largest body of specular iron and the purest mass of ore in the world. It was forced up through the crust of the earth in a molten state during the Azoic Age of geology. The different ores of the state are classed as red hematite, red oxide, specular or glittering ore, brown hematite or limo- nite, hydrous oxide, magnetic ore, and spathic or spar-like ore (carbonate of iron). Many other names are used to indicate different combinations of iron with other minerals. Some of the iron deposits, instead of coming up in a fused mass from the bowels of the earth, as Pilot Knob, Shep- 5
4
74
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI.
herd Mountain and Iron Mountain evidently did, were formed by the steam that attended those fiery upheavals, carrying its load of gaseous matter until it condensed and settled down at different points, and gradu- ally cooled or crystalized. This would occur sometimes in water and sometimes in the air, thus producing the great variety of ferruginous or irony compositions which we now find and utilize. And this mineral steam method of depositing iron and other products from subterranean gases must have occurred in Missouri at different periods of geologic time, and not all during the Azoic. The red ores are found in 21 coun- ties; the brown hematite or limonite iron ores extend over 94 counties, and in 31 of them it occurs in vast quantity.
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