History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 2

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 2

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them, and but two hundred feet above Lake Erie.

Beneath the sand, gravel and loose material brought by the glacier, called drift, which everywhere covers the whole surface of Chau- tauqua county, lie the ancient rocks that forni its foundation. These formations belong to the Devonian Age, or Age of Fishes. They contain within themselves a faithful record of the earth's history during millions of years, a record which, when rightly understood, is found never false. The history that we read from these rocks tells us of the progress of life, the great cataclysms and the wonderful changes that have occurred in the ages of time during which they were formed.

The rocks that immediately underlie the drift in Chautauqua county belong to the Chemung Period of the Devonian Age. The character of the shells and fossil seaweeds found in them relate the circumstances of their creation. They inform us that the county, during the Chemung Period, was usually cov- ered by a shallow sea of muddy waters spread over great sand flats and salt meadows, swept by waves and tidal currents. The Chemung Period is made up of two epochs, the Portage and the Chemung. The rocks of the Portage are the oldest, and lie beneath those of the Chemung. As all the strata that underlie Chautauqua county incline to the south, the rocks of the Portage Group come to the sur- face and form the bed rock in the northern part of the county. Their exposure extends high up the northern face of the ridge. They are best observed along Lake Erie, where they form the high perpendicular bluffs that frown along its shores. Along the beds and sides of the channel worn by the Canadaway creek through the hills of Arkwright and along its west branch, these rocks may be seen to ad- vantage. Along the banks and beds of Silver and Walnut creeks and along the Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Little Chautauqua and Twenty Mile creeks, and at various places in the north- ern part of the county where smaller streams have removed the drift from the surface and exposed the underlying rocks, they are well displayed.

Above the Portage, formations coming to the surface in the southern part of the county lie the rocks of the Chemung Epoch. They are exposed to view along the streams and in the ravines of the southern part of the county, and are best seen along the upper waters of Chau- tauqua and Little Chautauqua creeks, the out- let of Chautauqua Lake at Dexterville, a part

GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, CLIMATOLOGY

of Twenty Mile creek, and at points along the Cassadaga and Conewango creeks, and along; the banks of their tributaries. There are many fossil shells and seaweeds in the rocks of the Chemung Epoch. Of the multitude of species peopling the waters in the Portage and Chemung Periods, they are all of ancient forms of life, and none has survived to the present time.

The streams that flow northward from the highlands have worn deep channels in these foundation rocks, which along the northern face of the Ridge are known as the Portage Shales. The east branch of the Canadaway near the western boundary of Arkwright flows through a deep, wide chasm, where its waters have cut in the rocks a still deeper but narrow channel. Here the bed of the stream is more than three hundred feet lower than the banks on either side. Concealed beneath the dense foliage of the trees are several fine cascades. But few, even of those living, have visited this beautiful glen, and some who have lived long in its populated vicinity do not even know that such wild waterfalls exist so near them. Hemlocks grow in profusion in and along the basin of this stream and along its upper waters. From this fact the stream derives its Indian name "Ga-na-da-wa-ow," "running through the hemlocks." The waterfalls, deep gorges and wild scenery of the east, and also of the west branch of the Canadaway are characteristic of all the streams that flow through the soft shales of the Portage formation. Chautauqua and Twenty Mile creeks are especially interest- ing in this respect. From the side of the can- yon in which flows the Chautauqua, and not far from the main highway between Mayville and Westfield, a spur of shaly rock projects at light angles for many rods into the gorge and slopes gradually from a great height at the brink of the canyon to the level of the stream. The sides of this ridge are very steep and the top is very narrow, not wider than a footpath, and is used as such to descend into the gorge. A similar ridge occurs near one of the princi- pal falls of the Canadaway and a number of others known as "hog's backs" occur near sev- eral other streams flowing through the Portage Rocks.

At Panama and on the tops of the highest hills remain fragments of conglomerate rocks, formed in the last part of the Chemung or early in the succeeding or Catskill Period, but which are partly torn away by the action of glaciers, and mingled with the drift, they here having partly formed the surface rock during the Ice Period. This formation and the underlying

sandstone is called the Salamanca and Panama Conglomerate. It constitutes the last strati- fied formation in the county. It is a shore formation made as the rocks of the Devonian Age began to appear above the surface of an ancient ocean that spread its waters there. A mass of pebbles, fine gravel and sand had gathered on the northerly shore of this vast Paleozoic Sea that once extended indefinitely southward and for time inconceivable had heaved its billows there. The gravel and peb- bles were brought into this ocean by rivers and streams, and then were washed shoreward by the surf and tide, and again seaward by the refluent waves, smoothing and rounding peb- bles of quartz and producing the collection and arrangement of material that make up the Panama Conglomerate. It here probably con- stituted the last contribution made by the sea to the continent of North America before it became dry land. Time cemented the pebbles, gravel and sand, into a hard and solid mass. The great openings that now appear in these rocks, dividing them into blocks as at Panama in Chautauqua county and Rock City in Catta . ragus county, are not the result of upheavals, but probably the quiet work of frost and ice, aided by the weight of the rocks-a silent process, imperceptibly going on, during that almost immeasurable period that has lapsed since the Devonian Age, slowly opening and widening these fissures into passages so that they have come to resemble the streets and avenues of a city.

The time that elapsed after the formation of these conglomerates is not represented by any stratified rocks in Chautauqua, for the reason that the county continued dry land after the Devonian Rocks arose above the sea, and left no record of events in the amazing period that followed. Of what vegetable growths and liv- ing creatures existed upon the surface during the millions of years included in the vast era of time from this event down to the Quater- nary, or Age of Man, the formations of the county afford no evidence. The rocks in other parts of the continent that during all that stretch of time were forming beneath the sea, continue the story of the earth's history down to that very recent era- the Ice Period. In the mantle of drift that was spread over the county in that period, is written a most inter- esting geological history; one that he who visits the banks of its streams, the excavations made for its railroads and trolley lines, or casually rides over the hills of the county, may read.

The coming of the glaciers swept away the

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

greater part of the Panama and Salamanca Conglomerate that so long had lain over the greater part of the county, before the basin of Lake Erie was chiselled out by the ice. Its thinnest edge was worn away by the action of glaciers. Great blocks of these rocks, however, still lay scattered over the hills of the southern towns, and smaller fragments in the drift and in the bed of the streams that flow southward.

The southern limits of this great glacier are well defined by a terminal morain which con- sists of immense accumulations of boulders, gravel, and loose material. North of this plainly marked line lie unbroken fields of drift, while south of it they disappear altogether. This terminal morain has been traced from the Atlantic ocean to a long distance west of the Mississippi river. It forms the backbone of Long Island. It enters New Jersey south of New York City, thence it extends westerly across that State and northwesterly through Pennsylvania and New York to a point near Salamanca, where it changes its direction so abruptly as to make an acute angle. It then proceeds southwesterly into Pennsylvania, crossing the Conewango between Warren and the New York line. Chautauqua county dur- ing the Glacial Period lay close to the "line of battle between the frosts of the north and the tropical winds of the south." At length the great glacier began to yield to the increasing warmth. It slowly withdrew its icy wall towards the northern borders of our county, exposing and leaving everywhere, over the southern portion, confused and unfertile heaps of loose carth, gravel and stones. Huge boulders, as we now see, were scattered at intervals entirely above the drift and more or less over the whole surface of the county. As the receding glacier withdrew, it paused for a while at the Ridge, as if stopped by some era of cold, turned back, and again pushed its glit- tering front a little way southward. The record of this movement appears in an exten- sive moraine that extends to a width of two or three miles along the south side of the crest of the Ridge, casily distinguished by the con- fused heaps of sand, gravel and boulders, by kames and kettle holes. This moraine enters the county from the east at the northeast corner of Villenova, and extends westerly along the borders of the town by East Mud Lake. Curving to the south, it passes out of Villenova at West Mud Lake, extends west to Arkwright Center, and southwest to the upper Cassadaga Lake in Pomfret, westerly by Bear Lake to Portland : then it curves south. About a mile north of Hartfield it turns northward,

crosses Westfield in an east and west direction, enters Ripley north of where the principal branch of Twenty Mile creek crosses the east line of that town. It then extends westerly along and north of that stream. Finally it crosses into Pennsylvania.

At last, yielding to the heat of a warmer era, the great glacier withdrew northward be- yond Lake Erie, leaving the record of its de- parture in the granite boulders thickly scat- tered along the northern slope of the Ridge. Four or five beach lines, one above the other, each at a fixed elevation above the lake, ex- tend in parallel lines along the lower lands that border Lake Erie. These beach lines mark the halts in the process of lowering the great sea or lake that extended northward from the county, while obstructions to its drainage were being removed. The great glacier gradually succumbed to the milder climate that intro- duced the Champlain Period and at last en- tirely disappeared, leaving the lake nearly at its present level. The process of lowering its waters is still going on. Niagara Falls has worn away seven miles of the twenty-two miles of rock that intervenes before Lake Erie will be reached and drained to its bottom, re- minding us again that the process of creation is to continue, with all its kaleidoscopic changes, until time shall end.

The topography of the county has much to do with its climate, and in connection with the varied character of its soils, with the varied character of its agricultural products also. It has given to different parts of the county dif- ferent weather conditions. The first of these distinct climates is found in a narrow strip of territory, in width from three to five miles, along the shore of the towns that border on Lake Erie. This part has the lowest elevation of any land in the county. Lake Erie is 573 feet above tide-water. This belt of land, from a level of about twenty feet above Lake Erie, gradually rises to the southward until at the foot of the hills it is about 250 feet above the lake. Although this portion of the county is subject to rigorous winters common to its lati- tude, its climate is much milder than that of other parts. Its lower altitude, and its proxi- mity to the waters of the lake, postpone the cold of winter ; its humid atmosphere protects against the frost of spring. It is, however, sub- ject to more severe droughts than the other portions of the county. The influx of the lake extends not only over this narrow border of land, but over the northern slope of the hills. All this part of the county is well adapted to

GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, CLIMATOLOGY

the production of cereals and fruit, especially the grape.

In the soils, and even in the products of the soil, may thus be read the striking and inter- esting story of the glacier. Extending in nearly a straight line from Pennsylvania to the Cattaraugus creek is a very narrow strip of coarse gravel called the "Dunkirk Gravel." It passes through the villages of Ripley, West- field, Brocton, Fredonia and Sheridan. Here the grape industry was first begun. This gravel is the best adapted to the production of the early grape, and also for the peach and plum. This narrow line of gravel marks one of the old beaches, and points out the lake's level at some time far back in the past. The dry soil and regular character of this natural formation has ever recommended its use to both the white and the red man. For centuries the great trail of the Indians leading from Buffalo to the West traversed it. The pioneers built the Main or Erie road upon it. Extend- ing the whole distance and parallel to this are other narrow lines of gravel, marking other ancient beaches of the lake. Between and on either side of these lines of gravel are strips of soil called "Dunkirk Gravel Loam," a soil adapted to the production of grapes and gar- den products. In the territory between these lines of old beaches and Lake Erie, the land is divided between what is denominated "Dun- kirk Sandy Loam" and "Dunkirk Clay." The former is said to produce the largest yield of grapes, and the latter a superior quality. Im- mediately south of these old beaches of gravel and gravel loam, and extending over nearly the whole northern face of the highlands, are wide areas of territory called "Dunkirk Shale Loam." The soil here is not made of miscel- laneous debris deposited by the ice sheet, as in most parts of the county, but is composed of the weathered products of the foundation rocks of the Chemung Period, left bare by the glaciers. This soil is barren and unfit for agri- cultural purposes other than the raising ot grapes, but here the grapes, though small in quantity, are of the best quality, the favorite of the consumer, and much esteemed in the manufacture of wine.

There is another and severer climate in the deep and wide valleys that extend through the highlands in the southern part of the county, from the Pennsylvania line to the northern face of the ridge or escarpment through which flows all the larger streams of the county. Cassadaga Lake, according to the survey of the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburgh railroad, and also the State topographical sur-

vey of the "Westfield Area," is seven hundred thirty-two feet above Lake Erie, and thirteen hundred five feet above the ocean. Chautauqua Lake, according to the survey, is but three feet higher than Cassadaga Lake. Bear Lake is substantially of the same elevation. These lakes all lie at the head of valleys which ex- tend with but little descent to the Pennsyl- vania line. These upland valleys converge and become one in the southeastern part of the county, where at Fentonville, the lowest point, it is but fifty to sixty feet below the Cassadaga Lake, so that all of these wide upland valleys, which include the Conewango, Cassadaga. Bear and Goose creeks, Chautauqua Lake, Stillwater, Brokenstraw, French creek and other lesser vales, have elevations of but little variation, and all exceeding twelve hundred thirty feet. and less than fourteen hundred thirty above the ocean. In consequence of the greater elevations of these valleys and other circumstances, a severer climate prevails there than along Lake Erie; the spring is longer delayed, winter comes earlier and the snow lies deeper : these circumstances and a different soil make the agricultural products of these upland valleys quite different from the coun- try along Lake Erie. The soil of these valleys in some places is designated as "Meadow" and in other places as "Cassadaga Sand." These soils are adapted to the raising of grapes when drained. Fruit, with the exception of the apple, and grain, are not so profitably raised. Stock raising and dairying chiefly occupy the atten- tion of the farmer.

A third and still more rigorous climate pre- vails among the hills that border these valleys and which occupy the principal area of the county. These hills often rise to the height of sixteen or seventeen hundred feet above the ocean, and three or four hundred feet above the neighboring valleys. In Cherry Creek, Char- lotte and Gerry the summits of some of these hills are two thousand feet above the ocean, and in Arkwright nearly as high. Two places near the boundary line between the towns of Charlotte and Cherry Creek, being points on lots 60 and 62 of the latter town, reach the elevation of 2,100 feet above the ocean, accord- ing to the late topographical survey by the State; an elevation of over 1,500 feet above Lake Erie, and over 800 feet above the neigh- boring valley of the Conewango. In the south- eastern part of the county, not yet surveyed. where the hills are prophetic of the moun- tains beyond, it is believed are located its high- est lands. The following villages and hamlets among the highlands are fifteen hundred feet

CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

or more above the ocean level: Ellery, 1,758 above the sea ; Summerdale, 1,639; Arkwright, 1,632; Mina, 1,600; North Clymer, 1,562; Vo- lusia, 1,560; Panama, 1,551 ; Stedman, 1,550; Sherman, 1,549; Charlotte Center, 1,530; and Centralia, 1,500.

The soil that covers the elevated parts of the county, according to the State soil survey, are "Volusia Loam" and "Volusia Sand Loam," principally the latter, which is adapted to the raising of grass, oats, potatoes and apples. Here among the uplands the snow comes earli- est in autumn, falls deepest in winter, and lies latest in spring. Sometimes in the spring, when the grass is green and fruit trees are blossoming along the shore of Lake Erie, the hills of Arkwright and Charlotte are white with snow. But what cares the tenant of those snowy hills? There he has passed his early years and breasted the storms of many a win- ter! He would not change his bleak highland farm for the pleasantest fields along the lake. Love of home is strong indeed! It can make the hills more beautiful and the fields more green. It can magnify beauties and remove blemishes. It can even make the rigorous sea- sons bear pleasant memories. Who reverts to the Chautauqua winters of his early years, inclement as they were, without a pleasing remembrance? In winter the drifts lie deeply around the farm houses, and bury the fields and fences from view. Travel is blocked upon the highway and the farmer for a while is im- prisoned by the storm.

Propitiously as the spring season opens, it is subject to chilly relapses. In Chautauqua county, winter lingers long in the lap of spring. The ice which gathers in Lake Erie during the colder months, loosened by the warmth of the advancing season, drifts to the foot of the lake, and sometimes remains unmelted until almost June, bringing raw and inclement weather to the adjacent shores. Nipping frosts often visit the farmer during the last days of May, and even in the month of June, cutting his corn and destroying his fruit.

In the summer time the trees are mantled with a mass of foliage. Abundant springs and leavy dews keep the meadows and pastures

green. In the northern part of the county the sultry air is tempered by refreshing breezes from Lake Erie bearing health and strength upon their healing wings. Cool nights and pleasing rural scenery invite thousands annu- ally to pass the heated term upon the shores of the lakes. Nowhere is the climate and scen- ery more pleasing than in our county in the summer time. An Italian sunset can scarcely excel the scene that may be witnessed from the hills of Chautauqua on a summer afternoon, when the broad red disk of the sun, slowly de- scending into the blue waves of Lake Erie, closes the day in fiery splendor.

The glory of the American forest in autumn has been often told, but nowhere does the woodland appear in greater splendor than among our Chautauqua hills. There nature seems to have spilled her choicest pigments upon the woods. At length, frosts and falling leaves point to the return of winter, yet among the hills of Chautauqua the season lingers for awhile; the year ripens into mildness and In- dian summer comes. The sharp contrasts of light and shade in the clear air of spring dis- appear in autumn. In the hazy atmosphere the line between sky and earth is dimly drawn, only the filmy outline of the hills is seen. The shades of the valley deepen in the murky light. In the distant vales they fade almost into dark- ness. While yet the air is soft and the heavens serene, wild geese begin their southward flight in long converging lines, as if moving runic characters were written in the sky foretelling the approach of storms and snows. Distant sounds seem near in the hollow air. From far in the upper sky comes the strange warning voice of their leader, startling and clear, guid- ing his brood in their wedge-like flight from the icy fields of Canada, high above the waters of Lake Erie and Chautauqua, in unerring course to the tepid lakes and rushy streams of warmer climes. Responsive to these warning signs, winter comes with all his blustering crew of chills and snows, freezing winds and pinching frosts, and at last the keen blasts of December howl him a fierce welcome to his ancient and favorite domain among the whiten- ing hills of Old Chautauqua.

CHAPTER II. The Mound Builders.

The pioneer of Chautauqua county found it an unbroken wilderness; yet often when ex- ploring its silent depths, where forest shadows hung deepest, they were startled at the dis-

covery of unmistakable evidences of its hav- ing been anciently inhabited by a numerous people. Crowning the brows of hills that were flanked by deep ravines, along the shores of its

INDIAN MOUNDS IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY

THE MOUND BUILDERS

lakes and streams, in its valleys at numerous points, were the plain traces of their indus- try-earthworks or fortifications, mostly circu- lar ; pits bearing marks of use by fire ; ancient highways and mounds in which lay buried mouldering skeletons ; and later, where forests had given place to cultivated fields, the spade and plow in the springtime made strange reve- lations of rude implements of war and peace, and oftentimes of the crumbling relics of an ancient burial place. At first these monuments were believed to be of European origin ; and patient research was made among early rec- ords for an account of events happening upon the Eastern continent, a little prior to and about the time of the discovery of America, that would afford an explanation of their exist- ence. But the great age of the forest trees growing above them, and other marks of an- tiquity, demonstrated this belief to be un- founded. A solution of the mystery was then sought among the traditions of the aborigines, but careful investigation has proved these ruins to be so old that tradition can throw no light upon them; and that they cannot be the work of the ancestors of the Indian found here.

Commencing near the centre of the State, they extend westwardly. Over Chautauqua county they were thickly strewn; farther to the west and south, in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi, these ancient remains were still more numerously found in larger dimen- sions, and, it is evident, of much greater an- tiquity. There for a long period of time must have dwelt a large and industrious people. The geometric precision with which their works were constructed; the fine workman- ship of their pottery ; their ornaments and im- plements of copper, silver and porphyry; the remarkable skill and the long period of time during which they must have worked the cop- per mines of Lake Superior-proved them to have possessed a considerable degree of civili- zation.

In the town of Sheridan, not far from where the Erie railway crosses the highway between Fredonia and Forestville, at an early day was plainly to be seen an ancient fortification, circu- lar in form, enclosing many acres. The evi- dence then existed that the land in that vicin- ity had once been cleared, but had since come up to timber of at least three hundred years' growth. Pestles, mortars and other stone im- piements were found, and numerous pits occur- ring at regular intervals were formerly ob- served there. These in every instance were found two together or in pairs. In this vicin- ity, from time to time many human bones have

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 2

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc. Number of Pages: 649

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649