USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 4
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 4
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The annals of this county contain many interesting features and the record has been compiled from the best authority extant, and approved by men whose memory reaches back to almost the original settlement period. Each subject is properly classified and will be easily found by reference to the index. The personal sketches contained herein have all been submitted for approval to those interested, hence may be relied upon as correct.
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STATE HISTORY SECTION
The work before you contains several chapters concerning the general State History of Nebraska, which leads the reader in an intelligent and interesting manner, to the county's history, locally. The reader of any given subdivision of a state's history should first be posted about the geology, topography, discovery and early settlement of the state as a whole, hence the state section of this work is an invaluable addition to that promised in the prospectus, giving the reader even much more than was promised the patrons when they ordered the work, entitled "History of Dodge and Washington Counties."
CHAPTER I
GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES
GEOLOGICAL ERAS-COAL MEASURES-GLACIAL PERIOD-AGRICULTURAL
VALUE OF THE SOIL-SCENERY OF THE LOESS DEPOSIT-CHARACTER OF DEPOSIT ALONG THE RIVERS-FORMATION OF THE PLATTE VAL- LEY-BOTTOM LANDS-LAST BUFFALO HUNT-SAND CHERRIES- SOAP WEED-ALKALI LANDS-MODERN CHANGES-TIMBER-TOPOG- RAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES-EXTREME TEMPERATURES-MEAN TEMPERATURES-NEBRASKA WINDS-MOISTURE AND RAINFALL- RANK AMONG THE STATES IN THE UNION -- FORESTS - WILD FRUITS-STATE INSTITUTIONS-LEGAL HOLIDAYS-"BLUE BOOK" PARAGRAPHS-STATE SEAL-STATE FLOWER-STATE CAPITOL BUILD- INGS-VEGETATION-GRASSES OF NEBRASKA-WILD FLOWERS-GOV- ERNORS-ABSTRACT OF COUNTIES-COUNTY POPULATION-ALTITUDE AND AREA.
It has been said by one writer that geology is the poetry and romance of science. But it is far more than that. It reveals the causes that make the material prosperity of a region possible. No one can fundamentally understand his section or state unless he knows its geology. To the ordinary reader of local history it must be admitted that this subject is not of the most interesting character, yet no county or state history can in any sense be called complete without some article on the natural features of the country, be such article never so brief. Only such points as seem to the writer of importance to the readers of a history treating on Dodge and Washington Counties and the Platte Valley, in general, will be here treated.
GEOLOGICAL ERAS
Unfortunately the state geologists or the United States department of geology has never made a geological survey of these counties. Prof. Samuel Aughey, professor of natural sciences at the University of Nebraska more than forty years ago wrote extensively on the geological formation and on the topography of this state, and from this authority we are permitted to quote freely. He states in the outset of his work that :
As now understood from its rock memorials, there have been five great eras in geological history : The Archaean, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Psychozoic. During the early part of the first era our globe was com- panion star to the sun, and glowed by a heat and shone by a light of its own. The basaltic rocks are believed best to represent the physical char- acters of the earth's crust at the beginning of recorded geological his- tory. From such materials when our globe came to be sufficiently cooled
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down were formed by the asserting power of water the sediments that were subsequently metamorphosed into the gneissic, granitic and other rock masses that constitute the Laurentian and Huronian strata of the earth's crust. As the rocks of these epochs still left in Canada are forty thousand feet thick and at least as extensive in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras and still greater in Bohemia and Bavaria after being subjected to the numberless ages of erosion the time represented by their deposition was greater probably than the whole geological history since their close. So far as we now know during all this immensely long era there was no dry land in Nebraska. Then followed what geologists call the Paleozoic era, because of the antique or old life form of all animals and plants that appeared. The earlier portions are known as the Silurian ages during which invertebrate life was dominant and especially moluscan life and the continent was growing and extending southward from its Archaean nucleus. The next age, often called the age of fishes, and also known as the Devonian, followed, but neither in this nor the preceding age was there any dry land in Nebraska. Neither are there any known deposits of the next or sub-carboniferous period in this state. Even the millstone grit so common in the east under the coal, has not yet been found. We come now to the Carboniferous age proper.
CARBONIFEROUS AGE
During the progress of this age in Nebraska the first dry land appeared. It was one of the most wonderful ages in the history of the globe, for during its progress the thickest, most extensive and most valu- able of all the coal beds were formed.
The carboniferous deposits occupy the southeastern portion of Nebraska. Approximately, the western boundary line commences at a point a little above Fort Calhoun, eighteen miles north of Omaha and extends southwest, crossing the Platte near the mouth of Salt Creek; thence running southwest a little east of Lincoln and thence in the same direction crossing the state line near the middle of the Otoe Indian Res- ervation. All east of this line is mainly Upper Carboniferous period. The Dakota group cretaceous sandstone once covered this entire region but was removed by erosion and small patches of it are still found in isolated basins over this carboniferous area.
COAL MEASURES
Thus far only one marketable bed of coal has been developed in our carboniferous measures. The one referred to is in the western part of Richardson County, town 1, north of the 6th principal meridian. From the bank on section 33 during the years of 1880 and 1881 over 100,000 bushels of coal were taken. A great deal was also mined from the same bed three-fourths of a mile southwest of the last. The coal is of a fine quality giving but little ash. The bed ranges from eighteen to thirty inches in thickness. The coal was in demand for local demand. In 1882 when this article was compiled developments had not yet proven how far the coal hed extended by any actual shaft-borings. At a few other points in this area coal has been discovered but not in paying quantities.
GLACIAL PERIOD
The plains were desiccated before the Pliocene had entirely passed away. Following this condition of excessive dryness came one great
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period of humidity and a much lower temperature than the present or previous age. The snows of winter eventually accumulated too rapidly to be removed by the summer's warmth. This finally resulted in the glaciation of the plains of Nebraska. A thick mantle of ice extended south of the southern line of the state, and, according to Agassiz, at one time to the thirty-sixth parallel. Thus was inaugurated the Glacial epoch of the Quaternary period. The following is the order of the epochs of the Quaternary period in Nebraska: A Glacial, Forest Bed, Drift, Loess and Terrace epoch.
THE LOESS EPOCH
The loess deposits first received this name in America from Lyell, who observed them along the Mississippi in various places. The name was used previously in Europe to designate such materials in the valley of the Rhine and Danube. Hayden called them the Bluff Deposits because of the peculiar configuration they give to the uplands that bordered the flood plains of the rivers. This deposit though not particularly rich in organic remains, is in some respects one of the most remarkable in the world. Its value for agricultural purposes is not exceeded anywhere. It prevails over at least three-fourths of the surface of Nebraska. It ranges in thickness from 5 to 150 feet. Some sections in Dakota and other counties measure over 200 feet. Even at North Platte west of the Missouri, on the south side of the river, the thickness varies from 125 to 150 feet. From Crete, on the Burlington & Missouri Railroad, west to Kearney, on the Union Pacific Railroad, its thickness for ninety miles ranges from forty to ninety feet. Along the Republican the for- mation of various thickness extends almost to the west line of the state. It is generally almost homogeneous throughout and of almost uniform color, however thick the deposit or far apart the specimens have been taken. I have compared (says the geologist) many specimens taken 300 miles apart and from the top and bottom of the deposits and no difference could be detected by the eye or by chemical analysis.
CHARACTER OF THE LOESS
Over eighty per cent of this deposit is very finely comminuted silica. When washed in water left standing and the water poured off and the coarser materials have settled the residuum after evaporation to dryness is almost entirely composed of fine siliceous powder. So fine indeed are the particles of silica that its true character can only be detected by analysis or under the microscope. About ten per cent is composed of the carbonates and phosphates of lime. These materials are so abundant in these deposits that they spontaneously crystallize or form concretions from the size of a shot to that of a walnut; and these are often hollow or contain some organic matter or a fossil around which the crystalliza- tion took place. Almost anywhere when the soil is turned over by the plow or in excavations these concretions may be found. And often after the rain has washed newly thrown-up soil the ground seems to be literally covered with them. Old gopher hills and weather-beaten hill- sides furnish these concretions in unlimited quantities for the geologist and curiosity hunter. When first exposed most of these concretions are soft enough to be rubbed fine between the fingers but they gradually harden by the atmosphere. This deposit also contains small amounts of alkaline matter, iron and alumina. For the purpose of showing the
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homogeneous character and the chemical properties of the Loess deposits the geologist has made many analyses of these peculiar deposits, five of which are here given as sample: No. 1 from Douglas County, near Omaha; No. 2 from the bluffs near Kearney; No. 3 from the Lower Loup; No. 4 from Sutton, and No. 5 from the Republican Valley, near Orleans, in Harlan County.
AGRICULTURAL VALUE OF THE LOESS
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 is entirely worn away. Its drainage, which is the best possible, is owing to the remarkable finely comminuted silica of which a bulk of the deposit consists. Where the grout is cultivated the most copious rains percolate through the soil which in its lowest depths retains it like a huge sponge. Even the unbroken prairie absorbs much of the heavy rains that fall. When droughts come the moisture comes up from below by capillary attraction. And when it is considered that the depth to the solid rock ranges generally from 5 to 200 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 pre- vail, the natural vegetation and the well cultivated crops are rarely dried or drowned out. A few showers fall in April and little more rain until June 'when there is usually a rainy season of from three to eight weeks in duration. After these June rains little more falls until autumn ; and yet if there was a deep and thorough cultivation the crops of corn, cereals and grass would be most abundant. This condition represents the dry seasons. On the other hand, the extremely wet seasons only damage the crops on the low bottoms subject to overflow. Owing to the siliceous nature of the soil they never bake when plowed in a wet condition and a day after heavy rain the plow can again be safely and successfully used. In the interior away from the Missouri, the surface of the lowest deposits is in places gently undulating and in places rolling. Not unfrequently a region will be reached where for a few miles the country is hilly and then gradually becomes with all kinds of intermediate forms almost entirely level. The bluffs that border the flood plains of the Missouri, the lower Platte and some other streams are sometimes exceedingly precipitous, sometimes gently rounded off and sometimes in gentle slopes. They often assume fantastic forms as if carved by some curious generations of the past. At present they retain their form so unchanged by year to year affected by neither rain nor frost that they must have been molded into their present outlines under circumstances of climate and level very different from those that now prevail.
FRUIT OF THE LOESS DEPOSITS
In these loess deposits, says the geological writer above mentioned, is · found the explanation of the ease with which nature produces the wild fruits of Nebraska. So dense are the thickets of grapes and wild plums along some of the bottoms and bluffs of the larger streams that it is dif- ficult to penetrate them. Over twenty-two varieties of wild plums have been discovered. Two species of wild grapes have been distinguished but these have interminable varieties. The same remark applies to the wild strawberries. Raspberries and blackberries abound in many parts of
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Nebraska. The buffalo berry is common on the river bottoms of the state. Many other wild fruits abound and grow with amazing luxuriance. Of course this only applies where the prairie fires have been kept from them. It is also a paradise for many cultivated fruits. They luxuriate in a soil like this composed of such materials and with such perfectly natural drainage. No other regions except loess regions elsewhere can compare in these respects with Nebraska. The loess of the Rhine sup- plies Europe with some of its finest grapes and wines. The success that has already (1882) attended the cultivation of grapes in southeastern Nebraska at least proves that this state may likewise become remarkable in this respect. For the cultivation of the apple its superiority has been long since demonstrated. Though so young in years, Nebraska has taken the chief premiums in the pomological fairs at Richmond and Boston. There are obstacles here as well as elsewhere. What is claimed is that the soil, as analysis and experience prove, is eminently adapted to the cultiva- tion of the grape and the apple. The chief drawback, especially in the interior, is climatic. In mid-summer an occasional hot wind blows from the southwest and the young apple trees need to have their trunks pro- tected by a shingle until the top shades them. Any of the older orchard- ists can give the various methods by which this may be done.
SCENERY OF THE LOESS DEPOSITS
One writer says of this scenery: It has been remarked that no sharp lines of demarkation separate the kinds of scenery that produce the emo- tions of the grand and beautiful. This is eminently true of some of the scenery produced by the loess formations. Occasionally an elevation is encountered from whose summit there are such magnificent views of river bottom, forest and winding bluffs as to produce all the emotions of the sublime. One such elevation is Pilgrim Hill, Dakota County, on what was the farm of Hon. J. Warner. From this hill the Missouri bottom with its marvelous weird-like river can be seen for twenty miles. Dakota City and Sioux City, the latter distanced sixteen miles, are plainly visible. If it happens to be Indian summer the tints of the woods vie with the general hazy splendor of the sky to give to the far outstretched land- scape more than an Oriental splendor. I had looked at some of the won- derful canyons of the Rocky Mountains but nothing there more com- pletely filled me and satisfied the craving for the grand in nature than did this view from Pilgrim Hill. There are many landscapes everywhere of wonderful beauty along all the principal rivers. The bluffs are sometimes precipitous but generally they round off and melt into gently rolling plains. They constantly vary and in following them you come into a beautiful cove, now to a curious headland, then to terraces and however far you travel you can look in vain for a picture like the one you have just passed.
CHARACTER OF DEPOSITS ALONG THE RIVERS
If we go up the Missouri to its source and carefully examine the character of the deposits through which it passes, we cannot but be sur- prised at its character. These deposits being of Tertiary Cretaceous ages are exceedingly friable and easy of disintegration. The Tertiary and espe- cially the Pliocene Tertiary is largely siliceous and the cretaceous is both siliceous and calcereous. In fact, in many places the Missouri and its tributaries flow directly over and through the chalk beds of the cretaceous deposits. From these beds the loess deposits no doubt receive their per
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cent of the phosphates and carbonates of lime. Flowing through such deposits for more than a thousand miles, the Missouri and its branches have been gathering for vast ages that peculiar mud which filled up their ancient lakes and which distinguishes them even yet from most other streams. Being anciently as now very rapid streams as soon as they emptied themselves into these great lakes and their waters became quiet, the sediment held suspended was dropped to the bottom. While this process was going on in the early portion of this age, the last of the glaciers had not retreated further than a little beyond the northern boun- dary of the Loess Lake and then gradually to the headwaters of Platte, the Missouri and the Yellowstone. Aided by the erosive action of the ice these mighty rivers must have been vastly more rapid and energetic at that time than in their recent history. The following analysis of the Missouri River sediment, taken at high stage, will show by comparison with the analysis of loess deposits what a remarkable resemblance there is even yet between the two substances. In 100 parts of Missouri River sediment there are of-
Insoluble (siliceous) matter
82.01
Ferric oxide
3.10
Alumina
1.70
Lime, carbonate
6.50
Lime, phosphate
3.00
Magnesia, carbonate
1.10
Potassa
.50
Organic matter
1.21
Loss in analysis
,67
Total
100.00
This comparative identity of chemical combinations points to the remarkable sameness of geological conditions that have long periods existed in the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone regions.
After these great lakes were filled up with sediment (Missouri mud) they existed for a longer or shorter time as already remarked, as marshes and bogs. Isolated portions would first become dry land. As soon as they appeared above water they became covered with vegetation,, which, decaying from year to year, and uniting under water, or at the water's edge, with the deposits at the bottom, formed the black soil so character- istic of Nebraska prairies. For it is well known that when vegetable matter decays in water or a wet location, its carbon is retained. In dry situations it passes into the atmosphere as carbonate acid gas. After the first low islands appeared they gradually increased in size and numbers, until dry land conditions prevailed. The ponds and sloughs, some of which were left almost lakes, still in existence, are doubtless the last remains of these great lakes. The rising of the land continuing the rivers began to cut new channels through the middle of the old lake beds. This drained the marshes and formed the bottom lands as the river of that period covered the whole of the present flood plains from bluff to bluff. . It was then when the bluffs were new and more plastic that they were first sculptured by rains, frost and floods into their present unique forms. The Missouri during the closing centuries of the loess epoch must have been from five to thirty miles in breadth, forming a stream which for size and majesty rivaled the Amazon.
The Platte, Niobrara and Republican covered their respective flood plains in the same way. In the smaller streams of the state those that
Soda .22
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. originated within or near the loess deposits, such as the Elkhorn, Loup, Bow, Blue and the Nemahas we seen the same general form of flood- plain as on the larger rivers, and no doubt their bottoms were covered with water during this period. Hayden in his first reports has expressed the same opinion as to the original size of these rivers. Only a few students of geology will dissent from this view. The gradually melting glaciers which had been accumulating for so many ages, at the sources of these great rivers, the vast floods of waters covered by the necessarily moist climate and heavy rains, the present forms and materials and river bottoms are some of the causes which would operate to produce such vast volumes of water. The changes of level were not all upward during this period. The terraces along the Missouri, Platte and Repub- lican rivers indicate that there were long periods when this portion of the continent was stationary. Several times the movement was downward. Along the bluffs in the Republican Valley, at a depth of from ten to thirty feet from the top, there is a line or streak of the loess mingled with organic matter. It is in fact an old bed, where vegetation must have flourished for a long period. It can be traced from Orleans upward in places for seventy-five miles. It indicates that after this bed had, as dry land, sustained a growth of vegetation, an oscillation of level depressed it sufficiently to receive a great accumulation of loess materials on top of it. Other oscillations of this character occurred previously to and sub- sequently to this main halt. These have already been mentioned.
FORMATION OF THE PLATTE VALLEY 1
As typical of the river bottoms let us look at the formation of the Platte Valley. The general direction of this great highway from the mountains to the Missouri is from west to east. This valley is from three to twenty miles wide in Nebraska and over five hundred miles long. All the materials that once filled up this trough from the tops of the highest hills on each side have been since the present rivers were out- lined toward the close of the loess age transported by the agency of the water to the Missouri and the gulf. (See Hayden's Report for 1870.)
Here then are several thousand miles in area of surface and entirely removed by denudation. Now the Platte comprises a fraction of the river bottoms of Nebraska. The Republican alone for 200 miles has a bottom ranging from three to eight miles in breadth. The combined length of the main bottoms of the Blues, Elkhorns and the the Loups would be over a thousand miles and their breadth ranges from one to ten miles. The Nemahas and the Bows, and portions of the Niobrara, also add a great deal to the area of the bottom lands. All the rivers have numerous tribu- taries which have valleys in size proportionate to the main rivers and these more than double the area of the bottom lands. These Missouri bottoms in Nebraska are exceptionally high, so that a few of them have been overflowed since known to white men. The one element of uncer- tainty about them is, when located near the river, the danger of being washed away by the undermining action of the water. Sometimes during a flood time, when the current sweeps the bank, it is so insidiously undermined that for several rods in length and many feet in breadth it tumbles into the river. This cutting of the banks is greatest when the river commences to fall.
When we bring into our estimate all of the river bottoms of Nebraska, and the tributaries of these streams, and reflect that all of these valleys were formed in the same way, within comparatively. modern geological
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times, the forces which waterway agencies brought into play almost appall . the mind by their very immensity.
AGRICULTURAL VALUE OF THE BOTTOM LANDS
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So well are the bottom lands of this state distributed that the emi- grants can, and in most of the counties of the state, choose between them and the uplands for their future homes. ( This was written in 1882.)
In some of the counties like Fillmore, where the bottom lands are far apart, there are many small, modern, dried-up lake beds, whose soil is closely allied to the valleys. Portions of each are sometimes chosen, on the supposition that the bottom lands are best adapted to the growth of large crops of grasses.
But of all the years of experience in cultivating uplands and bottoms in Nebraska leave the question of superiority of the one over the other undecided. Both have their advocates. The season as well as the loca- tion 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 sea- sons they are difficult to work. On such lands, too, a wet spring inter- feres somewhat with early planting and sowing. All the uplands, too, which have a loess origin seem to produce cultivated grass as luxuriantly as the richest bottoms, especially where there is a deep cultivation on old breaking. Again most of the bottom lands are so mingled with loess materials and their drainage is so good that the cereal grains and fruits are as productive on them as on the highlands. The bottom lands, how- ever, are the richest in organic matter. The following analyses of these soils will give a better idea of their critical agricultural character. The samples were taken from what are believed to be average soils. The first is from the Elkhorn, the second from the Platte, the third from the Republican and the fourth from the Blue River. Number 2 analysis in the tables made by the state geologist, refers more especially to the Platte River valley and, of course, to Dodge and Washington counties.
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