History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 12

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840

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the cost is about $1,800 an acre, which in an ordinary season will yield about 3,000 bushels of salt. The cost and space required are disadvantages which are fully met by the cheapness of the manu- facture when once the works are in operation.

Formerly this salt was kiln-dried and ground in common flouring mills for dairy purposes, at con- siderable expense, but more recently mills have been invented which grind it without any drying by fire. Well drained in the store-house, it is put through the mills and ground to any desirable fineness for dairy or table use at a cost of not more than one cent a bushel. In a document presented to the Constitutional Convention in 1867, Hon. George Geddes, then Superintendent of the Salt Springs, reported six mills for the grinding of salt, owned and valued as follows :

James P. Haskins' Mill, estimated to be

worth. $40,000

John W. Barker & Co's Mill 40,000

Henry B. & Wilmot E. Burton's Mill 16,000

Timothy R. Porter's Mill 16,000

Ashton Salt Company's Mill. 16,000

H. White's Mill 10,000

Total $138,000

The first, fourth and fifth are the only ones now used for grinding dairy and table salt. The Haskins Mill, enlarged to four times its origi- nal capacity, is operated by the Excelsior Dairy Salt Company. This and the Ashton Company's Mill, and that owned and operated by Mr. Timothy R. Porter, are of sufficient capacity to grind all the dairy salt required for the market.

The " Factory Filled," or Dairy Salt, is made from both solar and common salt by a patent ma- chine process whereby not only mechanically mixed impurities are removed, but also the small quanti- ties of obnoxious chlorides of calcium and magne- sium are decomposed in a very careful manner. The largest factory filled establishment, the property of the Excelsior Dairy Salt Company, is at Salina, and known under the name of "Excelsior Mills." They consist of two immense wooden structures with about five acres of flooring.

The salt is crushed between two sets of stones to the proper size, and gradually fed into two patent washing machines, wherein the salt moves in the opposite direction to the chemically prepared salt- brine employed, and becomes, by repeated washing with the fresh salt-brine, perfectly purified.

After proper drainage the salt is dried in large re- volving iron cylinders. A powerful blast of hot air carries the moisture into the chimney. The ex- haust steam from the hundred-horse power engine

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

serves for concentrating the salt-brine employed in washing the salt. The dried salt is now elevated ou the upper floors, where five sets of stones are in constant motion grinding it to the desired fineness, while a suction blower removes the dust.

There is one other mill of about the same capaci- ty situated in Geddas, owned by the Ashton Dairy Salt Company, in which the salt is made in the same way as in the " Excelsior Mills."

The purity of the various salts made at Onondaga is unquestioned, reference being made to many an- alyses furnished from time to time under the direc- tion of the General Government and other author- ities. In regard to the dairy salt, the tests made by the Butter and Cheese Exchange of New York prove the superiority of the F. F. salt made at Syracuse over any other, as is shown by the fol- Jewire Analysis :

English.

Onondaga.

Wate

0.7880

0.6280

Insoluble matter

0.0564

0.0264

Sulphate of lime

1.2272

0.7217

Sulphate of magnesia

0 0769

Chloride of calcium

0.0473

Chloride of magnesium

0.0:91

0 0346

Sulphate of soda.

Chloride of sodium

97.7598

98.5242

99 9674

99 9822

The Superintendent of the Salt Springs, Hon. A C. Powell, appends the following remarks :

" This report is of especial interest at this time when the old prejudice against the use of home salt is beginning to give way, because it emanates from an association which has never been accused of any special partiality for Onondaga salt, but, on the contrary, from their local and commercial training, have been inclined to defend the use of the foreign article. In fact so far have their preju- dices governed them that in making contracts with dairy farmers for their butter and cheese, they have frequently inserted a clause binding them to the use of the Ashton salt. This entailed upon the farmer an a lditional expense of from one to one and a half dollars upon each sack used. Many of the farmers doubting the necessity of these requirements and restive under their enforcement, unless there was good reason for it, demanded of the association an authoritative opinion as to the comparative value of the different brands used by them. The only reli- able proof was the scientific test, and the matter was accordingly given in charge to two analytical chemists of high standing in the city of New York, who entere I upon their duties without any confer- ence with parties at Syracuse, and without any knowledge of the localities where the several samples were prepared. These were given them by numbers and not by name, and the result was the above report, which I have copied in their own language and figures. This report is certainly

gratifying to the friends of the home article, as showing a larger percentage of the pure chloride of sodium or salt, and a less aggregate of impurities in the two samples of Onondaga salt than in either of the eight samples of foreign salt analyzed."

The following is a statement of the number of bushels of salt made at the Onondaga Salt Springs since June 20, 1797, which is the date of the first leases of lots, with the Superintendents and their respective terms of office :

Date

S per tendent

S 'ar

William Steve

shel ni can,

-5,00℃

153.

W'm. Kirkpatrick, d .

154,01

134, "1

p> 11 Ran m,

Nathan Stew rt.

John Rt hard n.

125,282

W'm. Kirkpatrick,

1813

25.

322. 15

345,440

+55.324

18:1

$20. +

+ 1,50%

1421.

14:1

1525

18:4.

152%

1,124),2

1,119,25%

1.415.44'

1,434, 44'ı

1,514, 3"

1,514. 3

1.751. 7 5

1,43 ,04

1,941, 15:

1.743.251

Kial Wright,

1,5,12,55

1. 12,55%

2.1' -.: \"

1.5-5, 13

2.5-5. 33

2, 4,-14

2,7 ::. 3 5

2,7:2,1 5

1548.

3,12 ,91

3.34 .1-

1 43

Kal Writ.

332,41

16 45.

331 .- 5

3,7 8,4-1

3.374,734

14 %

1.5

3-4. 11

3+ 3+ 4, 14-

+. 215.15

4 14.11-

1912.

llen Kl

145%.

1 54

34.4"4

47,144

5,5 4. 6 8

195".

3.83 .44'

4. 312, 126

1.345, 12

5,54 15

6, 4,2,1

1.4' 2, 5 5

1,9 4.0/

5.315.04

1. 53,44

IN 1.

(,5 4, 27

1 4

5.4 ","12

Ge The Liedd.

+4711"

P1. 3 5,93

IV-

1,:"1, 7:

-. 595.5F 5

15(2)

1.55.742

1, 5 ++ 21,5

8,7/1,11"

J hn MI Str ng

1,491,6 4

0, 49,321

,93 .925

5,008,47 5

-. 45℃.35

15-5.

1,4 55,955

4,523.491

1976

2,3 4,00)

Total since 1"9;

$1,369.51

208, 1,60° 249,84-, 24 5

4.3 .554 3. / 1,15% 3.535.551 3.951,355

345+7"

4 .~ 5.454

5. 3.50 .

١٥٬٠٠

4. .. €™

5.4 4.524

5,593,14

1, 17,47

5.4/1 .471

$,34 .. 50

5.05.,124

-,155.5 1

1414

4.41,54

54%.3-4

548.3-4

IS1.).

-26,4 44

-57,2 3

1505.

112,577

1-3.445

319.4.15

1411.

935,41 1.14 ,3%8

Th ma spencer,

353-455

1.514.5 4

5.514.0 5

1,2 ,1.9 1

. Previ us to 1841 the solar salt was not reported separate, but included in the aggregate production.

4.371,911

أ١٠= ٢٠٠

:5.4-4

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

CHAPTER XIII.

TOPOGRAPHY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY.

T HE county of Onondaga is nearly in the geographical center of the State. It is bounded north by Oswego, east by Madison, south by Cortland, and west by Cayuga county. Its general form is that of a rectangular parallelogram, having its lines in conformity with the cardinal points of the compass, the northeast corner being somewhat rounded by Oneida Lake and the south- west by Skaneateles Lake. From north to south the average width is thirty miles, from east to west twenty-six miles ; having an area exclusive of lakes of 459,229 acres. The county is divided into the towns of Lysander, Clay, Cicero, Elbridge, Van Buren, Salina, DeWitt, Manlius, Camillus, Geddes, Skaneateles, Marcellus, Onondaga, Pompey, Spaf- ford, Otisco, LaFayette, Tully, Fabius, and the City of Syracuse.

Most of the surface of this county slopes to the north and is drained into the River St. Lawrence, but the summit of the highlands that divide the waters that flow north from those that run south, and find their way by the Susquehanna River to the sea, is within this county, though near the south boundary ; but a small part of the whole area being drained to the south, and that chiefly in the towns of Fabius and Tully.

About two-fifths of the whole surface of the county is flat and barely rolling enough to permit drainage. This flat land constitutes a part of what is known as the " great level," which extends along the south side of Oneida Lake to the base of the slope of the spurs of the Alleghany Mountains. The Erie Canal runs along the south side of this level land. That part of the county lying south of the canal, constituting about three-fifths of the whole, is embraced within the northernmost spurs of the mountain ranges, being uneven and com- paratively broken in its surface. A traveler cross- ing Onondaga county from east to west, or from west to east, if his route is on the plain, north of the highlands, will meet only slight hills and hollows, or rather mere undulations crossing his course, and streams that have their surface nearly level with the surrounding land. But if his route be across the line of the hill slope, he will descend into deep valleys, whose dividing ridges are many miles apart, and he will have one constant succes- sion of toilsome descents and ascents, enlivened and rendered pleasant by ever-recurring points of observation, from which the most splendid scenery

lies pictured before him. Hillside, mountain top, wide valleys, lakes framed with forests and fields of living green, meet his gaze from the top of every eminence he passes. If he sees little of the grand- eur of rock-ribbed mountains, he is greeted with landscapes more mild, and of a softer tone, that bespeak more fitting residences of men, and he is delighted with the reflection that, of all he sees, there is nought but combines the useful with the beautiful.

The slope of the highlands is divided into five distinct ridges, all having a general north and south direction. The most eastern of them enters the town of Manlius from the east and extends north to the Erie Canal. The second ridge lies between Limestone and Butternut Creeks, and forms the highlands of Pompey, part of those of Manlius, LaFayette and DeWitt. The third range, between Butternut and Onondaga Creeks, comprises the highlands of the central part of LaFayette, the west part of DeWitt, and the east portions of Tully and Onondaga, and extends to the city of Syracuse. The fourth range, between Onondaga and Nine Mile Creeks, comprises the highlands of Otisco, the west part of Tully, LaFayette and Onondaga, and the east parts of Marcellus and Camillus. The fifth range, lying between Nine Mile and Skan- eateles Creeks, and Otisco and Skaneateles Lakes, comprises the highlands of Spafford, the west parts of Marcellus and Camillus, and the east parts of Skaneateles and Elbridge.

The summits of the valleys between these ranges are in the towns of Pompey, Fabius and Tully, or south of the county line. The highest peaks of the ranges of hills are in Spafford, Pom- pey, Otisco and and LaFayette. The streams that drain these valleys to the south, are the head branches of the Tioughnioga River, one of the tributaries of the Susquehanna. Limestone and Butternut Creeks unite their waters and flow into the Chittenango, a few miles before that stream en- ters Oneida Lake. Onondaga and Nine Mile Creeks run into Onondaga Lake. The Skaneateles crosses into Cayuga county just before it discharges its waters into the Seneca River. Seneca River enters the west part of the county from Cross Lake, flowing between the towns of Elbridge and Lysan- der, and along the northern bounds of Van Buren and Geddes, to within less than half a mile of On- ondaga Lake, where it receives the outlet of that body of water ; then turning north, it runs along the west line of Clay to Three River Point, where it receives the Oneida River. At this place the combined waters take the name of Oswego River,

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

which empties into Lake Ontario in the city of ! Oswego.

These various streams and bodies of water, with their tributaries, are so evenly distributed over the surface that the whole county is wonderfully well supplied with water for use and with power to drive machinery. Seneca River has a dam giving a fall at Baldwinsville of eight feet, and another at Phoenix, either of which would give sufficient power for a large manufacturing town. The several streams that flow through the valleys in the south part of the county, fall, on an average, not less than eight hundred feet ; after they are of sufficient size to be useful in driving machinery, and at the northeast corner of the county, the united waters of the Limestone, Butternut and Chittenango make the valuable water power at Bridgeport. Many beautiful waterfalls are formed by the branches of the principal streams as they flow down the sides of the ranges of hills to the valleys. The most noted of the cascades is known as Pratt's Falls.

Such is a general outline of the county of Onon- daga. When it was first seen by the race of men who now cultivate its soil and manage its vast in- dustries, it was covered with one dense forest of giant growth, excepting the few fields that the natives had subjected to their rude cultivation. What a series of struggles with the wilderness and with savage unsubdued nature, is implied in the contrast between that primitive condition and the present cultivated state of the country.

" Through the deep wilderness where scarce the sun Can cast his darts, along the winding path The Pioneer is treading. In his grasp Is his keen ax, that wondrous instrument, That like the talisman transforms Deserts to fields and cities. He has left The home in which his early years were passed, And led by hope, and full of restless strength, Has plunged within the forest, there to plant His destiny. Beside some rapid stream Hle rears his log-built cabin. When the chains Of Winter fetter Nature, and no sound Disturbs the echoes of the dreary woods, Save when some stem cracks sharply with the frost ; Then merrily rings his ax, and tree on tree Crashes to earth ; and when the long, keen night Mantles the wilderness in solemn gloom, He sits beside the ruddy hearth, and hears The fierce wolf snarling at the cabin door, Or through the lowly casement sees his eye Gleam like a burning coal.""

CHAPTER XIV.

GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY - CLINTON GROUP - NIAGARA LIMESTONE-ONONDAGA SALT GROUP -WATER-LIME GROUP-ORISKANY SANDSTONE.

O NONDAGA presents more features of inter-

est to the geologist than any other county of the State, or, perhaps, any like extent of country in the United States. Its rocks range east and west ; the order of succession being constant ; the lowest being at the northeast corner of the county, and the most recent at the southwest.

Of the New York system of rocks, there outcrop in this county, the Clinton Group, Niagara Lime- stone, Onondaga Salt Group, Water-lime Group, Oriskany Sandstone, Onondaga Limestone, Corni- ferous Limestone, Seneca Limestone, Marcellus Shales, Hamilton Group, Tully Limestone, Genesee Slate, and the lower measures of the Ithaca Group.

These rocks are best observed by commencing at the northeast corner of the county and moving to the southwest, crossing their outcrop nearly at right-angles and in line of the greatest dip of the stratification. The starting point will be Oneida Lake, where the Clinton Group outcrops ; the end of the journey, Skaneateles Lake. The elevation of the starting point above tide is 369 feet ; the highest point passed over, Ripley Hill, the summit between Skaneateles and Otisco Lakes, and the highest land in the county, being 1,9822 feet above tide. The distance, in a direct line from Oneida Lake to Ripley Hill, is thirty-two miles.

The dip of the system of rocks in this direction, is very nearly twenty-six feet to the mile, giving for the distance 852 feet. It is very uniform, and is greatest in a line a little west of southwest, while the general line of the outcrop is nearly cast and west. These rocks were deposited in that vast sea that once overspread this part of the Continent, all of them being sedimentary and filled with evi- dences of an abundant animal life. When they were lifted above the sea by those vast internal forces that were constantly changing the form of the crust of the earth, they were tilted from the level position in which they had been deposited. The point of greatest upheaval being far to the northeast of this county, only part of one of the slopes comes under our observation.

The hills rise in a direction opposite to that of the dip of the rocks. The surface rising, in the thirty-two miles, over sixteen hundred feet, the bot- tom of our lowest rock falling in the same distance more than eight hundred and fifty-two feet, a sec- tion of these formations would show a wedge 2,465

* Alfred U3. Street.

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

feet thick at the southwest end, regular on the lower side, but on the upper broken by unequal steps, due to the varying thickness of the different strata. The surface waters run northerly, while those un- derneath flow in the opposite direction. Springs are not to be looked for along the unbroken line of the outcrop of the rocks, but in the sides of the various valleys that cut this slope, at, or nearly at, right angles, or on the north sides of such valleys as are parallel with the line of the outcrop. Any attempt to procure water by flowing artesian wells would probably prove unsuccessful.

The rocks that outcrop in this county once extended over the present surface far to the north, but by the action of glaciers and water, they have been broken down, ground up, and strewn along the valleys that have been scored out across the line of their present outcrop, and those with which they connect, far beyond the southern limits of the county and State. This point will be more fully discussed hereafter, a description of the rocks being first necessary.

CLINTON GROUP .- The northernmost and lowest rock is known as the Clinton Group. It is seen in the counties east and west of this, underlies the whole north line of this county, and appears on both sides of the west end of Oneida Lake. " This group is characterized by its iron ore beds and its marine plants."* The iron appears in this county, only in small quantities, the rock being covered with alluvium except at a few points. The best place to observe it is near the west end of Oneida Lake, at Brewerton. There the shale appears along the bank of the outlet and in the hill in the village. The north part of the towns of Lysander, Clay and Cicero lies on this rock, and the soils of these towns are to some extent made up of the materials of which it is composed. Prof. Emmons says of it that its most interesting feature " consists in the rapid changes in the strata which enter into its formation, and which taken together form a most heterogene- ous assemblage of materials ; for this reason the group was called in an early stage of the survey, the Protean Group. The formation consists of layers and beds composed of green, blue and brown, sandy and argillaceous shales, alternating with greenish brown sandstones, conglomerates on peb- bly beds, and oolitic iron ore. These different kinds of material rapidly succeed each other. The parts of this formation which are most persistent are the green shales, whose color, however, inclines more to blue than green where they have not been exposed to weathering. The sandstone, which is rather harsh, in consequence of the preponderance of

sharp, angular grains, is also greenish or greenish gray."* It rests on the Medina sandstone, which in turn rests on the gray sandstone of Oswego, " which," according to Emmons, " is identical with the gray, thick-bedded sandstone of the Hudson River series." These rocks furnish the material for much of the drift which covers the north part of the county.

The Clinton Group is found in Ohio, Pennsylva- nia and Canada. In this State, according to Mr. Hall, it is not more than eighty feet thick.

NIAGARA LIMESTONE .- Resting on the Clinton Group, and next in order, we find the Niagara Limestone, so called from its being the rock which forms the famous cataract of that name. In Onon- daga this is a thin rock, thinner at the east side than at the west. It crosses the east line of the county at Bridgeport, forming a bar across Chitten- ango Creek and thus creating a valuable mill power. It outcrops at various places in the town of Cicero, and on Mr. Whiting's farm, where it is extensively quarried for the valuable building stone it affords, it presents a surface of fifteen acres, but thinly covered with soil. It has been used to a limited extent for burning into lime. The layers are respectively fourteen, seven, three and four inches thick. Below these the courses are thin and of no value. The whole thickness at Whiting's is three feet. The seams are frequent, making the quarry easy to work.

This stone has been quarried at several other points along its outcrop to the west line of the county. The most important openings are north of Bald- winsville and near the northwest corner of the town of Lysander. This rock contains " some geodes, lined with rhombic crystals of carbonate of lime, and gypsum, in small globular accretions, at Whit- ing's quarry."+ " It differs so much in its appear- ance here from the western geodiferous limestone of the lower falls of the Mississippi that it would hard- ly be recognized as the same rock, if it could not be traced almost uninterruptedly in its western route ; but it marks the termination of the Ontario division, of the State Reports, and is the upper measure of a distinct era in geological history, whose importance cannot be well estimated."#

THE ONONDAGA SALT GROUP rests on the Niagara limestone. The lower part of this formation is the Red Shale, upon which, and in some cases ming- ling with it is placed the Green Shale, the two con- stituting the whole group. Embraced within the Green Shale are the Gypsum beds, and the ver- micular, or porous lime rock. This group is very

* Emmons. + Vanuxum.

# Emmons.

* Vanuxum.

HISTORY OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

extensive, reaching from near the Hudson River quite across the State. WII the Gypsum masses of Western New York are found in it, and from it flows all the salt water used for making salt in On- ondaga and Cayuga counties.

The Erie Canal runs near the line of division between the Red and Green Shales for the whole width of the county. The level district north of the canal and south of the Niagara outerop, is nearly all based on the Red Shale, while the slope reaching from the canal to the Water-lime range, on the south, is principally made up of the Green Shale. The average width of the Red Shale is about seven miles, that of the Green about three. The Red Shale, as computed from the dip and elevation, is three hundred and forty-one feet thick at the line of the Eric Canal south of Onondaga Lake; the surface of that lake being very nearly three hundred feet above the Niagara limestone. It is generally covered with drift, composed of lime, gravel, sand, and small stones, made up mostly of the Medina sandstone, and the gray sandstones of Oswego county, with occasional beds of clay.

The Red Shale is described by Prof. Emmons as properly a red marl, soft throughout, except a few thin strata of sandstone near the top, but even these fall to pieces and cannot be employed at all for pur- poses of construction. Wherever it erops out it is covered with its own debris. He determined that one hundred grains of the most sandy part, and the same amount of the softer kinds, were combined in the following proportions :

Sandy.

Marly. GS.SG

Silex 68 25

Peroxide of iron and alumina

625

14.98

Magnesia

5.75

0.40

Carbonate of lime.

10.25

9.89

Phosphate of alumina, and phos-

phate of peroxide of iron 00 00

0.1.4

Organic matter

6,00

4.50

Water

1.00

6.48

99 50

99.25

In some places this Red Shale is so soft that it is extensively manufactured into brick ; in others, the sand is in layers, having thin strata of clay between them. "Nowhere has a fossil been discovered in it, or a pebble, or anything extraneous, except a few thin layers of sandstone and its different colored shales and slate.".

Owing to whirls and eddies in those surges which beat down and ground up these rocks, numerous conical shaped hills, generally somewhat longer from north to south than from east to west, and differing in size from a few acres to several

hundred, have been dotted over the surface of the western part of this formation like hay cocks in a meadow. The largest one is north of the valley of Nine Mile Creek. The Erie Canal passes around it on the south and the Central Railroad on the north. It is two hundred feet in height, containing about a thousand acres of drift, and so level is the plain on which it stands, that a canal without a lock might surround it. These drift hills also abound in the district embraced by the Green Shales, but the transported stones which cover them have a greater proportion of granite boulders of large size.

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History of Onondaga County, New York, Part 12

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford) Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 840

Author: Clayton, W.W. (W. Woodford)
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 840