The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county, Part 84

Author: Union Historical Company
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company
Number of Pages: 1068

USA > Missouri > Jackson County > The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county > Part 84

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

620

HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

MEAN TEMPERATURE OF POINTS ON THE PLAINS AND IN THE MOUNTAINS.

" Fort Kearney, Nebraska, has a mean temperature of 50°, so has the whole North Platte region to the foot of the Black Hills.

"All the Missouri River, from Omaha to one hundred miles north of Fort Benton, has a mean temperature for the year of 45º Fahrenheit. All the country intervening between the North Platte on the south-the line of 59º temperature -- and the Missouri River on the north, has a temperature between 45° and 50°. There is no part of the country north of the Union Pacific Railroad and south the British line, north and south, and between the Missouri River on the east, and the Rocky Mountains on the west, that has a lower annual temperature than 45°. South of the Union Pacific Railroad, to the Rio Grande, the mean annual tem- perature varies from 50° to 60°. No single point has been found south of the Union Pacific Railroad, east of the mountains and west of the Mississippi, where the temperature is below 50°. Nor is there a point where it is higher than 65º."

THE RAINFALL.

The facts above stated concerning the prevalent directions of the winds ex- plain the mystery of the western rainfall. The southern winds coming up from the gulf in spring and early summer bear moisture which is precipitated into rain in the higher latitudes. In the latter part of the season the winds coming in the other direction their moisture is precipitated in snow upon the mountains, and they reach the great plains dry and cool. Owing to this fact, three-fourths of the annual rainfall in the country west of the Missouri River occurs in April, May and June-just the season when the growing crops and grasses need it, while in the latter part of the year, when dry weather is needed to mature the crops, it presents exactly the requisite conditions.

That is what manifestly gave rise to that popular myth of twenty years ago -" The Great American Desert." Travelers, voyageurs and emigrants crossing the great plains, leaving the Missouri River in May, reached the supposed locality of this great arid plain after the larger part of the rainfall of the year had been precipitated. They found it dry and covered with a short bunchy grass which was unknown to them, and which was, therefore, supposed to be a worthless, scrubby product, incident to an arid and desert region. Later experience and more adequate observation develops the facts that the rainfall is not so much less than in other districts, as had been supposed, but occurs at a particular season, and that the short bunchy and supposed worthless grass is the best grass in the world for all ruminant animals.

In this connection the following tables relative to the rainfall will be found interesting and valuable :

Names of Stations.

Lat . .

Long. .

Alt. .

Jan .

Feb .

March .

April. .

May . .

June. .

months.

T'1 for 6

Fort Riley .

39° 03'

96° 35'

1,300

0.44

0.54 0.65

1.11 2.30

1.01 2.86

2.30

4 22

9 62

Lawrence .

38° 58'

95° 16'

884

2.30

1.41

3.58

13.45

Mai hattan. .

39º 12'

96° 40'

1,800

1.40

2.98

4.31

9,89

Council Grove

88° 42'

96° 32'

1,000

3.50

1 35

1.70

2.30

2.70

5 65

17.20

Fort Leavenworth

32° 21'

94° 54'

896

1 44

1.07

1.50

1.40

1.00

3.55

9.96

Mean. .

1.65

0.82

1.42

1.79

2.09

4 26

12.02

The following table shows the rainfall at the stations named, west of sixth principal meridian, from January Ist to July Ist 1874 :

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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

Names of Stations.

Lat . .

Long. .

Alt. . .

Jan . .

Feb .

March.

April. .

May . .

June . .

months

|T'l for 6

Mean

0 .! 6

I 65

2.66

1.81

3.48

1.18

11.34

THE EXTENT OF THE FALL.

The Agricultural Department furnishes the following statement of the average fall of rain in the several States below named, in the months of May, June, July and August, for a period of ten years, which shows favorably for the New West :

Inches.

Kansas. .

19.19

Indiana

15.50

New Jersey

. 17.2I

Missouri .

15.37

Iowa. .

· 17.05

New York

15.25

Connecticut.

16.70

Nebraska

J4.96

Massachusetts

16.47

Vermont

14.69

Pennsylvania.

16.28

Illinois

14.68

Maryland.

16.12

Rhode Island

14.45

Kentucky

16.12

New Hampshire.

14.27

Minnesota

15.91

Michigan

14.01

15.75

Col. R. S. Elliott, late industrial agent of the Kansas Pacific Railway, made this subject a special study, and in his " Industrial Resources," says :

" Within a few years the rain-gauge has been brought into service at points distant from each other, but located at irregular intervals across the continent, and its record shows not only greater precipitation than was formerly believed to take place on the plains, but that the distribution is unequal in time, giving us the largest proportions in the growing seasons-spring and summer."

In his late work, "The Mississippi Valley," Prof. J. W. Foster, says: " The rains which water the Atlantic slope are equally distributed, the variations being very slight; while those which water the Mississippi Valley are unequally dis- tributed, those of spring and summer being greatly in excess-a fact," he says, "which has been overlooked by most meteorologists in reference to the geograph- ical distributions of plants." As we pass westward from the Atlantic the inequal- ity increases until we pass the Rocky Mountains. "Contrasting the two stations, New York and Fort Laramie," says Prof. Foster, " it will be seen that on the sea- board about forty eight per cent. of the yearly precipitations occurs during the fall and winter, while on the plains only twenty-five per cent. occurs during that period, and that, while on the sea-board the precipitation is nearly uniform during the four seasons, three-fourths of the precipitation on the plains occurs during spring and summer."

At Fort Riley about sixty-nine per cent. of the annual precipitation is in spring and summer ; at Fort Kearney, eighty-one, and at Fort Laramie, seventy- one per cent. From observations at Forts Harker, Hays and Wallace on the line of the Kansas Pacific, the same rule seems to hold good. Records have not been long enough continued at these three posts to give a long average, but the mean appears to be between seventeen and nineteen inches at Hays and Wallace, and probably more at Harker.

A popular belief exists in Kansas and Nebraska that since the settlement, the planting of trees and the cultivation of the soil, the rainfall has increased, and upon this is founded the prediction that within a brief period dry seasons will become unknown. Referring to this subject, Col. Elliot wrote to Prof. Henry a few years ago, as follows :

1.32

1.80 0.68 2.47

7.26 0.20 0.53

2 34 0.50 2 60

3.68 3.31

2.18 0.19

4.97

Fort Larned.

38° 10'

98° 57/

2,107 1,932

0.09

0.27

3 45

1.15

10.47

Fort Havs. .

38° 59'

99° 20'

18.58

Fort Wallace .

Maine

16.10

Wisconsin

14.15

Ohio. .

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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

" Facts such as these seem to sustain the popular persuasion in Kansas, that a climatic change is taking place, prompted by the spread of settlements, west- wardly, breaking up portions of the prairie soil, covering the earth with plants that shade the ground more than the short grasses ; thus checking or modifying the reflection of heat from the earth's surface. This fact is also noted, that where the prairie soil is not disturbed, the short buffalo grass disappears as the 'frontier' extends westward, and its place is taken by grasses and other herbage of taller growth. That this change of the clothing of the plains, if sufficiently extensive, might have a modifying influence on the climate, I do not doubt; but whether the change has been already spread over a large enough area, and whether our apparently, or really wetter seasons may not be part of a cycle, are unsettled questions.

" The civil engineers of this railway believe that the rains and humidity of the plains have increased during the extension of railroads and telegraph across them. If this is the case, it may be that the mysterious electrical influence in which they seem to have so much faith, but do not profess to explain, has exer- cised a beneficial influence."

Weston's Guide to the Kansas Pacific, published in 1872, commenting upon the statements of Col. Elliott, gives the observations of another gentleman who had devoted much attention to the subject. He says: "It is certain that rains have increased; this increase has coincided with the increase of settlements, rail- roads and telegraphs. If influenced by these, the change of climate will go on ; if by extra mundane influence, the change may be permanent, progressive or retro- grade. He thinks there are good grounds to believe it will be progressive With- in the last fifteen years, in western Missouri and Iowa, and eastern Kansas and Nebraska, a very large aggregate of surface has been broken up, and holds more of the rain than formerly. During the same period modifying influences have been put in motion in Montana, Utah and Colorado. Very small areas of tim- bered land west of the Missouri have been cleared-not equal, perhaps, to the areas of forest orchards and vineyards planted. Hence, it may be said that all the acts of man in this vast region have tended to produce conditions on the earth's surface to ameliorate the climate. With extended settlements on the Arkansas, Canada and Red rivers of the south, as well as on the river system of the Kaw Valley and on the Platte, the anneliorating conditions will be extended in like degree; and it partakes more of sober reason than wild fancy to suppose that a permanent and beneficial change of climate can be experienced. The appalling deterioration of large portions of the earth's surface, through the acts of man in destroying the forest, justifies the trust that the culture of taller herbage and trees, in a region heretofore covered - mainly with short grasses, may have a converse effect. Indeed, in Central Kansas, nature seems almost to precede settlements by the latter grasses and herbage."

From the writings of Dr. Latham we glean the following additional facts :

" From the same authority (Surgeon General Lawson) the rainfall for the whole year east of the summit of the Snowy Range, is as follows :

" All the country west of Omaha, on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, as far as Fort Kearney, is in this belt, where twenty-five inches of rain fall yearly.

" West of Fort Kearney, extending to the Sierra Madre, on this railroad line, including the Black Hills and Laramie Plains, is the belt where twenty inches fall annually, with the exception of a small portion of country in Texas called the Staked Plain. These two belts include all the trans-Missouri country west from the Missouri and Mississippi to the Snowy Range. This rainfall includes the snow reduced to water measure, twelve inches of snow making one inch of water. This water falls mostly in the spring in gentle rains, during the month of May, which is the rainy season of the country.

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HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

" This month of May's rain gives our grasses their growth, and by the first to the 15th of June they are fully matured. Our rains then come in short showers, and the fall for the summer is small. Our grasses begin to cure, and by the first of September they have become perfectly cured, uncut hay. This one fact alone is the key to the great superiority of this country for grazing.

" Our grasses cure instead of decomposing, as there is neither the heat nor the moisture, both of which are necessary for the chemical process of decomposi- tion.

" As you leave the Missouri River you enter the belt of country where two feet of snow falls. This belt extends like the first belt of rain to Fort Kearney. West of that point to the mountain's foot is the belt of eighteen inches. These two belts include all the country east of the mountains. The snow falls at a single storm are very light, three inches being exceptionally large, and this amount being dry and light, never lies on a level; in twenty-four hours from the time of fall the ground is bare."

SOIL.

The soil of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa is composed of what geologists call the Drift, Loess and Alluvial deposits. The first is of comparatively limited extent, and is mostly found combined with the Loess in what is known as Modified Drift. In this form it is very fertile, and yields sixty bushels of corn to the acre. The second embraces all the upland soil, and the third the bottom lands. Of the upland soils, Prof. Samuel Aughey, of Nebraska, says :

" As would be expected, from the elements which chemical analysis shows to be present in these deposits, it forms one of the best soils in the world. In fact, it can never be exhausted until every hill and valley of which it is composed are entirely worn away. Its drainage, which is the best possible, owing to the remarkably fine comminuted silica of which the bulk of the deposit consists. When the ground is cultivated the most copious rains soon percolate through the soil, which, in its lowest depths, retains it like a huge sponge. Even the un- broken prairie absorbs much of the heavy rains that fall. When drouths come the moisture comes up from below by capillary attraction. And when it is con- sidered that the depth to the solid rock ranges generally from five to two hundred feet, it is seen how readily the needs of vegetation are supplied in the driest seasons. This is the main reason why over all the region where these deposits prevail the natural vegetation and the well-cultivated crops are rarely dried out or drowned out. I have frequently observed a few showers to fall in April, and then no more rain until June, when, as will be considered farther on, there is generally a rainy season of from two to four weeks' continuance. After these June rains little more would fall till autumn ; and yet, if there was deep and thorough cultivation, the crops of corn, cereals and grass would be most abund- ant. This condition represents the dry seasons. On the other hand, the ex- tremely wet season only damage the crops over the low bottoms, subject to over- flow. Owing to the silicious nature of the soils they never bake when plowed in a wet condition, and a day after heavy rains the plow can again be successfully and safely used.

"For all purposes of architecture this soil, even to the most massive struct- ures, is perfectly secure. I have never known a foundation of a large brick or stone building, if commenced below the winter frost line, to give way. Even when the first layers of brick and stone are laid on top of the ground there is seldom such unevenness of settling as to produce fractures in the walls. On no other deposits, except the solid rocks, are there such excellent roads. From twelve to twenty-four hours after the heaviest rains the roads are perfectly dry, and often appear, after being traveled a few days, like a vast floor formed from cement, and by the highest art of man. The drawback to this picture is that sometimes during a drought the air along the highways on windy days is filled

624

HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY ..

with dust. And yet the soil is very easily worked, yielding readily to the spade or the plow. Excavation is remarkably easy, and no pick or mattock is thought of for such purpose. It might be expected that such a soil readily yielded to atmospheric influences, but such is not the case. Wells in this deposit are fre- quently walled up only to a point above the water line, and on the remainder the spade marks will be visible for years. Indeed, the traveler over Nebraska will often be surprised to find spade-marks and carved out names and dates years after they were first made, where ordinary soils would soon have fallen away to a gentle slope. This peculiarity of the soil has often been a God-send to poor emigrants. Such often cut out of the hill-side, a shelter for themselves and their stock. Many a time when caught out on the roads in a storm, far away from the towns, have I found shelter in a "dug-out" with an emigrant's family, where, cozy and warm, there was perfect comfort, with little expenditure of fuel on the coldest days. In summer such shelters are much cooler than frame or brick houses. I shall never forget one occasion in 1866 when, bewildered by a blinding snow-storm, I came to a " dug-out," and although all the chambers were carved out of the soil (Loess) they were perfectly dry. The walls were hidden and ornamented with Harper's Weekly, with the emanations of Nast's genius, made to occupy the conspicuous corners. My hostess, whose cultivated intel- lect and kindly nature made even this abode a charming resort, was a graduate of an eastern seminary. Her husband, after a failure in business in New York, came here to commence life anew on a homestead by stock-raising. To get a start with young stock, no money could be spared for a house. Eight years after- ward I found the same family financially independent and living in a beautiful brick mansion, but I doubt whether they had any more substantial happiness than when they were looking for better days in the old temporary "dug-cut." Thousands who are still coming into this land of promise are still doing the same thing. So firmly does the material of this deposit stand that after excavations are made in it, underground passages without number could be constructed with- out meeting any obstacles, and without requiring any protection from walls and timber."

Of the bottom lands-the alluvium-Prof. Aughey says:

"When now we bring into our estimate all the river bottoms, and the tribu- taries of these rivers, and reflect that all these valleys were formed in the same way, within comparatively modern geological times, the forces which water agen- cies brought into play almost appall the mind by their very immensity. So well are these bottom lands distributed that the emigrants can, in most of the counties of the State, choose between them and the uplands for their future home. In some of these new counties, like Fillmore, where bottom lands are far apart, there are many small, modern, dried-up lake-beds, whose soil is closely allied to that of the valleys. Not unfrequently is the choice made of portions of each, on the supposition that the bottom lands are best adapted for the growth of large crops of grasses. But all the years of experience in cultivating upland and bottoms in Nebraska leave the question of superiority of one over the other undecided. Both have their advocates. The seasons as well as the locations have much to do with the question. Some bottom lands are high and dry, while others are lower and contain so much alumina, that in wet seasons they are difficult to work. On such lands, too, a wet spring interferes with early planting and sow- ing. All the uplands, too, which have a Loess origin, seem to produce cultivated grass as luxuriantly as the richest bottoms, especially where there is deep cultivation on old breaking. Again, most of the bottom lands are so min- gled with Loess materials, and their drainage is so good that the cereal grains and fruits are as productive on them as on the high lands. The bottom lands, are, however, the richest in organic matter."

On the same subject we have the following from the annual report of 1864

625

HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

of Prof. Mudge, State geologist of Kansas. It applies equally to all the river bottoms from the Platte to the Red river :

" The alluvial deposits in Kansas are so similar to those of the older western States that no particular description becomes necessary. The river bottoms are usually broad and level, but well drained. The thickness varies from five to fifty feet. In various places in the valley of the Neosho, unaltered wood has been found at the latter depth in digging wells. The nature of this alluvium, or sur- face, is very rich in vegetable matter, and in many places furnishes a nourishing soil throughout its whole thickness, In some cases it is, in part, composed of modified drift. At the salt well in Brown county, a metamorphic boulder was found fifty-two feet below the surface. The humus, or vegetable mold, of the high prairie is from one to three feet in depth. It is the usual development of the prairie features, so common in the other western States. It is the same fine, black, rich loam which has become noted as the most fertile soil in the world."

J. B. Lyman, Esq., agricultural editor of the New York Tribune, after a tour of five thousand miles through the West, in 1871, read an article before the Farmers' Club at Cooper Institute, in which he made the following statements:

" The prairie is substantially unbroken and homogeneous in its character from the valley of the Wabash to Fort Kearney. It is by nature an immense grassy plain, sometimes quite flat, generally more or less rolling, and occasionally broken by bluffs and sharp acclivities, with a region not adapted to the plow. But I think four-fifths, and probably seven-eighths, of the Prairie States can be plowed with as little difficulty and with as ample returns as any part of the rich alluvial places of the East.

"Yet I speak advisedly and not without a full impression on my mind, of the exceeding attractiveness and fertility of land in southern Minnesota, when I say that the most attractive country that I saw is west of the Missouri River."

In 1868 Prof. Louis Agassiz visited Kansas. He declared that he never before had seen so good a soil as he had seen in Kansas and Missouri, and he declared its fruits to be equal to any he had ever tasted.

Edward Everett Hale, in a book on Kansas, quotes from another writer who says : " It is unrivaled for the fertility of its soil, the value of its timber and forest trees, the amenity and beauty of its broad prairies, the number of its crystal streams and the salubrity of its climate." Mr. Hale himself adds : " For nearly two hundred miles west from the Missouri, a rich vegetable soil, sufficiently wooded, is found throughout the whole of this valley (the Kaw). It is the region of which the eastern part has been principally occupied by the Shawnees, Dela- wares and Pottawatomies, whose indolent farming even produces them the most remarkable results. The soil produces wheat, corn and hemp in great abundance, and is to all appearances inexhaustible. Every variety of timber known in the western forests is found there in sufficient quantity to answer the purposes of settlers. *

* * The general appearance of the country is that of vast rolling fields inclosed with colossal hedges."

In a book entitled, " Irish Immigration to the United States; What it Has Been and Is," written by Rev. Stephen Byrne, and published by the Catholic Publication Society of New York in 1873, occurs the following statements relative to Kansas:

" The soil is very productive throughont, mostly presenting a rolling surface, thus affording superior drainage. Every kind of fruit and grain can be grown ; it is especially adapted to the growing of the grape. The rich, black soil is gener- ally from two to six feet and more thick.

"The climate is very salubrious throughout; new sections of the country are visited by intermittent fever in the spring and fall, which disappears with the progress of the cultivation of the soil. Vast numbers of people who have been in feeble health in the more Eastern States, contend that they have been greatly

40 ---

626

HISTORY OF KANSAS CITY.

benefited by the climate. The summer heat is rendered less oppressive and ex- cessive by a continual breeze, and the nights are very refreshing."

AGRICULTURE.

The foregoing facts concerning the climate, soil, and rainfall of the New West, leaves but little to be said concerning its agricultural resources, except to show what may be produced and what yields may be expected. But the smallest part of the agricultural land is yet in cultivation, and the aggregate yields, immense as they are, constitute but a moiety of what they will assuredly become.

No country could be better adapted to agriculture. The whole surface of the country, away from the timbered streams, is one vast rolling plain. All the agriculturist has to do, is to plow and plant it. It has been the usual experience of immigrants to Kansas and Nebraska, that their crops the first year paid for the first year's work, and it is not unusual that it is the only dependence of the immi- grant for support, and the means with which to make a second. That it usually suffices for this purpose is the highest testimonial to the agricultural capabilities of the country.

In western Missouri and Kansas, winter wheat and corn are the great sta- ples. In western Iowa and Nebraska, spring wheat and corn are the great staples. Besides these, rye, oats, barley, potatoes, sorghum. broom-corn, castor beans, flax, hemp, and all kinds of grasses, native and cultivated, flourish; and in southern Kansas and Texas, cotton and sweet potatoes are grown success- fully.

The following statement of yields will be found interesting. It is the aver- age of the States named, for nine years, from 1864 to 1872 inclusive :

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The History of Jackson county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens, Jackson county in the late warhistory of Missouri, map of Jackson county, Part 84

Author: Union Historical Company Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company Number of Pages: 1068

Author: Union Historical Company
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Kansas City, Mo. : Union historical company
Number of Pages: 1068