Landmarks of Orleans County, New York, Part 2

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1084

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The summit of the county lies between the terrace and Tonawanda swamp, which extends east and west along the southern boundary of the county. The general elevation at the county seat is 521 feet above the sea. This " lake ridge," as it is termed is an interesting superficial deposit, extending from Sodus in Wayne county to the Niagara River, and forms the foundation for a traveled highway most of the distance. Throughout its whole extent in New York State it bears the marks of having been the boundary of a large body of water, is well defined most of its length, and indicates a process of formation similar to that of the elevated beaches bordering the ocean or the larger lakes. The ridge follows the general course of Lake Ontario, at a minimum distance from the shore of about three miles and a maximum of about eight miles. Its seaward side is usually covered with coarse gravel and often with large pebbles, resembling the shingle of the sea beaches. The top is generally of coarse sand and gravel, though sometimes of fine sand, as if blown up by the wind, similar to modern beaches. It is sometimes so contracted upon the top as to offer only space for a

ORLEANS COUNTY.

broad carriage road, and again expands to a width of two or three hundred feet, being scarcely defined on the inland side.

If anything were wanting in the external appearance of this ridge to convince the observer of the mode of its formation, every excavation made into it proves conclusively its origin. Fragments of wood, shells, etc., are found in digging wells, and cutting channels to drain the marshes on the southern side.

Trent A

ADIRONDACK MTS.

Toronto

LAKE

Ridge

Hamilton

Peed

Lewiston

ONiagara Falls OCeryville

Mohawk

Bnífalo

Syracuse

L. ERÈE

Cayuga Lake,

Map of Lake Iroquois.

Showing the line of the present lake shore, the original shore line, the former supposed outlet of the lake by the Mohawk River, and the situation of the great northern ice sheet.1

The elevation of this ridge above Lake Ontario has been variously estimated at from 100 to 200 feet. The following levels as well as the other information relating to the ridge, are from the State geological work of James Hall: the ridge road, opposite Lockport is below the bottom of the canal, 106 feet ; opposite Middleport, Niagara county, 79 feet ; opposite Albion, Orleans county, 76 feet ; opposite Brockport,

1" From The Niagara Book," Underhill & Nichols, Buffalo, 1893.

Rome

FRochtester

Uneida L.

SHEET

LANDMARKS OF

Monroe county, 76 feet. The bottom of the canal at Lockport is 264 feet above Lake Ontario, giving the elevation of the ridge road above the lake, 158 feet ; at Middleport, 185 feet ; at Albion and Brockport, 188 feet. The bottom of the canal at Brockport is about two feet lower than at Lockport. The difference in the elevation of the ridge road at these places is readily accounted for. The point opposite Lock- port is where the ridge declines towards the Eighteen-mile Creek, and is plainly much lower than the same a mile farther east. Middleport is ten miles east of Lockport, and the difference between the ele- vation at this place and the others still farther east, is little more than the difference in the elevation of the bottom of the canal. The meteor- ological department gives the elevation to the top of the canal at Albion as 521 feet above sea level.

Hall in his Natural History of New York says in reference to the falls at Niagara :

The conclusion seems inevitable, that the river has been the great agent in excavating its own channel from near the escarpment between Lewiston and Queenston to the present position of the cataract ; that the recession has been aided by the character of the rocks, presenting alternate hard and soft strata, and that the descent was overcome, not by one perpendicular fall, but by several. In support of this latter assertion, a single analogous case will furnish stronger evidence than a long argument. The course of the Oak Orchard Creek in Orleans county is over the same strata and exhibits the succession of falls and rapids, precisely in the manner I have just enumerated. The quantity of the water, however, in this stream is too small to produce anything like a degree of recession to compare with the Niagara River.

€

Section along the Oak-orchard creek.

I. Lower part of Medina sandstone. 2. Quartzose sandstone 3. Alternating, shaly and hard sandstone. 4. Greyband, termination of the Medina sandstone. 5. Green shale of Clinton group. 6. Limestone of Clinton group. 7. Niagara shale. 8 Niagara limestone, falls at Shelby.1

The Medina sandstone is the first underlying formation from Lake Ontario to a line running easterly and westerly through the county

I From Hall's Natural History of New York.

3 1833 02214 .6887

ORLEANS COUNTY.

about two miles south from the Erie Canal. Along this line runs the outcropping ledge of the Niagara limestone, which is the formation that underlies portions of Clarendon and Shelby, and nearly the whole of Barre. Between these formations occurs the Clinton group, which in this county is so thin and variable in its character that it is usually considered with the Niagara limestone, which is a more stable forma- tion. It is the group which furnishes the thin, flat limestone so abund- ant in some places for a short distance north from the Niagara limestone ledge, affording what has been manufactured into an inferior quality of hydraulic cement. Except a few transported fragments, it is only seen along the base of the Niagara limestone terrace.

The Medina sandstone is a formation of particular interest in this county, because the quarrying and exportation of it has grown to be so important a branch of industry ; it is also of much interest to those who have a taste for geological history

In the report of the geological survey of the State of New York, it is said that this formation has been found to have a thickness of 350 feet, and that it may be greater than that. It has since been found that at some points its thickness is 1,000 feet, and it is believed that it may be found to reach 1,500 feet of depth.

It is a sedimentary rock, and its upper strata were deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea, as the ripple marks which occur in all these strata show. Geologists make a fourfold division of this rock as it ap- pears in Orleans and Niagara counties. The lower division is a red marl and marly or shaly sandstone. In its structure it is very uniform . and evenly deposited, having never been disturbed by local uplifts.

The third division is a repetition of the first. The character changes from below upward, the shaly matter diminishing and the sandstone and quartzose sandstone increasing. The color, also, is mottled with gray and green lines and spots. This is without doubt due to an alteration in the oxidation of the iron which colors the rock.

Between the first and third occurs the second, which is termed the gray quartzose sandstone. It is not seen east from Orleans county. It becomes thicker toward the west till, at the Niagara River, it has a thickness of twenty-five feet. Between Lewiston and the Whirlpool it forms the projection that juts out between the softer rocks above and

LANDMARKS OF

below, which have been worn away. It forms a slight terrace through this county north from the mountain ridge or great limestone terrace, and is composed of layers which are variable in thickness, smooth on the surface, as though each had been water worn before the succeeding one was deposited.

The Medina sandstone is not rich in minerals. Iron, copper and manganese are the only metals known to exist in it, and these in very small quantities, combined with other elements. Carburetted hydrogen gas, in small quantities, is discharged from it in a few localities. The small amount of organic matter in it and the next rock below it pre- cludes the possibility of a large amount of carbon in any form in it. Salt water has been found in many places where borings have been made in this rock, and in some instances it has appeared at the surface, and salt has been manufactured from it.

Fossils are rare in this sandstone, the only one found being the Fucoides-the F. Harlani and the F. auriformis. The former is every- where typical of the Medina sandstone. It occurs in the third district at Fulton, Oswego county, and in the fourth district in Wayne county, at Rochester, Medina, and on the Niagara River. The F. auriformis is also found at Medina.

CLINTON GROUP .- Next above the Medina sandstone lies the Clinton group of strata, which is thinner in this county than it is east or west from it. In many localities just north from the escarpment of the , Niagara limestone terrace, it is found in thin layers or scattered frag- ments, and it is often called bastard limestone. In the bed of Oak Orchard Creek it is seen in thin layers with slate between them.

NIAGARA LIMESTONE .- This is the formation that underlies the whole of the county south from the escarpment or terrace spoken of, is constant and uniform in its character. It is better seen in Clarendon and at Shelby Falls than elsewhere in the county. It has a thickness of about 260 feet at Niagara Falls, and a little more than 200 feet in this county, as nearly as can be ascertained.

The bowlders which are found on and just beneath the surface of the earth in this county are of much interest. They are all of northern origin, and they are seen most abundantly deposited just south from the outcrop of the formations whence they were torn. Occasional

ORLEANS COUNTY.

bowlders of granite, popularly known as " hard heads," are found scat- tered over all parts of the county, more abunduntly in some localities than in others.

Bowlders of Medina sandstone also are found in all parts of the county south from where this formation crops out. The strata from which they were torn had less thickness than the granite, and the bowlders are smaller. Many of them are less rounded than the granite bowlders. Often their surfaces are flat and their angles sharp. Thin and flat bowlders of the Clinton formation are occasionally found south from its outcrop at the base of the limestone terrace, and in some local- ities these appear in large numbers. Bowlders of Niagara limestone appear in great numbers south from the escarpment of the limestone terrace, but never north from it. In some localities areas of several acres are found almost completely covered with them. These are moraines, or deposits by the melting away of the glacier. At a dis- tance of about six miles from Lake Ontario, is what is known as the " Ridge." There is every reason for believing that this was once the beach of the lake or of an arm of the ocean which filled the valley of the St. Lawrence. This ridge has an almost uniform height above the lake of 188 feet, and it is only interrupted by the passage through it of streams. Probably when the lake subsided, after throwing up this barrier, it left on its landward side many ponds which were fed by streams from the higher lands. At their points of outlet the waters of these ponds carried away the materials of this ridge, till in some cases wide chasms were excavated in it. The old level of some of these ponds is still traceable, though but small streams run at the bottoms of what were once their beds. In the case of Oak Orchard Creek the ancient pond extended several miles along the south side of the ridge from near Ridgeway to where it passes through, and terraces at different heights above the present banks of the stream are distinctly traceable.

The soil varies in character in the different parts of the county. Im- mediately north from the ridge it is sandy and thin, showing plain traces of the effect of the undertow when the waters beat against this ancient barrier. Farther north, sand ceases to predominate, and the soil becomes a clay loam. South from the ridge it is less sandy, and here, as on the southern limestone range, its character is influenced by

LANDMARKS OF

deposits which have taken place in former periods, and which, as before stated, were brought from the shales of the formation below. In the town of Barre is a tract including about 1,200 acres which consists of sandy elevations, and which, from the kind of timber which once grew there, is called Pine Hill.

Tonawanda swamp extends along the southern edge of the county, and covers portions of the towns of Clarendon, Barre and Shelby. It has its outlet on the west through Oak Orchard Creek, and on the east through the west branch of Sandy Creek. There are in the southern part of the county many other smaller areas of swampy or marshy land, some of which have outlets which discharge into this swamp. A few of these are known to have been small, shallow lakes which have gradually filled with peat or muck and changed to swamps or marshes.

The principal streams are Oak Orchard Creek on the west, and Sandy Creek on the east. Johnson's Creek runs from Niagara county across the northwestern part of Orleans. In some places these streams have worn away the strata over which they have passed, thus affording good facilities for studying their character.

These streams are not rapid, for the surface of the county is com- paratively level. Tonawanda swamp, at the southern boundary of the county, is about 350 feet higher than Lake Ontario, and these streams pursue a tortuous course diagonally from one to the other.

As before stated, salt springs have been found in different parts of the county, but always upon the Medina sandstone. "During the ex- treme drouth of the summer of 1841," according to Mr. Hall, "the wells situated upon this rock in many towns in Orleans county became dry, and they were in consequence, excavated or bored to a greater depth ; and in nearly all cases the water proved to be in some degree saline, and in one case so much so as to warrant the erection of fixtures for the manufacture of salt." Salt was manufactured in the town of Ridge- way, one and a half miles north of Medina, near Oak Orchard Creek, between 1820 and 1830. On lot 137 there is a spring where salt was formerly made; also in the town of Yates, near what were known as Scofield's Mills on Johnson's Creek, salt was made from a spring which was long ago filled up. A Mr. Bennett made salt from a spring in the

ORLEANS COUNTY.

east bank of Oak Orchard Creek, at the village of Oak Orchard. He bored to a depth of 140 feet and obtained a stronger brine, but the quan- tity was not increased. At Holley were three springs from which salt was made ; they were near together in the bed of Sandy Creek. "About the year of 1821," says Mr. Hall, "considerable salt was made at these springs and was sold at five dollars a barrel." The opening of the Erie Canal brought the Onondaga salt in this county at so low a price as to render home production unprofitable.

It occasionally happens that springs are characterized by the presence of free mineral acids, such as sulphuric and hydrochloric. The Rio Vinagre in South America, is sup- plied by such springs ; and it is stated that this stream carries to the ocean daily an amount of acid equal to 82,720 pounds of oil of vitrol and 69.638 pounds of concen- trated muriatic acid. There is a celebrated spring of this character in New York State known as the Oak Orchard Acid Spring, an analysis of which is here presented.1

Analysis of Oak Orchard water by Professor Porter :

One gallon contains :

Sulphuric acid.

133.312

Proto sulphate of iron 32.216

Sulphate of magnesia 8.491

Sulphate of lime

13.724

Sulphate of alumina. 6.413

2.479

Sulphate of soda.

3.162

Chloride of sodium 1.432

Silicic acid

3.324

Organic matter

6.654

Total grains. 211.207

About three and one half miles north of Albion is a small tract of from one quarter to one half acre where the salt comes so near the sur- face that no vegetation appears In early days this "salt lick," as it was called, was a resort for deer and Mr. Jedediah Phelps, formerly of Albion, now of Rochester, relates that he has sat in a tree with his rifle many times waiting for a shot at them as they came.

Bog iron ore has been found in several localities, but not in sufficient quantity to be extensively utilized. It has been found in solid masses a mile west of Albion. Small quantities are found a mile east of

1 From Johnson's Cyclopedia, vol. 8, p. 413. This spring is located a few rods south of Shelby, in the town of Alabama, Genesee county

Sulphate of potash

LANDMARKS OF

Ridgeway Corners and also about the same distance west of the Corners.

The principal streams of the county are: Oak Orchard Creek, John- son's Creek, and Sandy Creek. The first named stream received its name from the original oak forest along its banks. It has its source in the Tonawanda swamp, flows northward across Shelby and part of Ridgeway ; thence northeasterly across the town of Carlton, reaching the lake at Oak Orchard harbor. It receives the water of many small streams, among them being Otter Creek, which rises in Barre and flows north across the towns of Albion and Gaines, reaching Oak Or- chard Creek at Waterport in Carlton, and Marsh Creek which is formed by the union of several small streams arising in Gaines and Murray, enters the Oak Orchard. Johnson's Creek (see history of the town of Yates) rises in the eastern part of Niagara county, enters Orleans county in Ridgeway, whence it flows north and northeasterly across that town, Yates, and the northwest corner of Carlton to the lake. Sandy Creek comprises two branches, one of which rises in Clarendon and flows northerly; the other and larger one rises in the north part of Barre, flows through Albion village and thence northeasterly to the hamlet of Sandy Creek in the town of Murray, where the two branches unite ; thence the creek flows northeast and out of the county at Kendall Mills in the town of Kendall.

At the time of the first settlement of this locality by white men these streams abounded with fish. Salmon ran up Oak Orchard and John- son's Creeks in great numbers and Judge Johnson stated that they were caught once in a small stream in the western part of Gaines.

The territory of this county was originally covered with a thick forest of hard wood trees, such as oak, hickory, beech, birch and maple, with some hemlock, white wood, tamarack and cedar on the low lands. The cutting away of this forest by the pioneers was a task of great magni- tude; but it gave them a source of cash income at a time when there was almost no other, through the manufacture of potash from the ashes of the burned logs, and in later years from the timber and firewood. The forests were filled with wild animals-deer, bears, wolves, all of which were numerous, with such smaller animals as the beaver in very early years, the raccoon, hedgehog, squirrels, etc. While the bears and

ORLEANS COUNTY.

wolves were destructive of domestic animals, the former two and the numerous deer furnished an ever ready source of food to the settlers.

Parts of the southern tier of towns of the county are covered by the northern section of the great Tonawanda swamp, which extends down into Genesee county, and is drained by Oak Orchard Creek. The swamp originally covered about 25,000 acres. Most of its surface was too wet for tillage; but sections have been reclaimed. In 1828 the Holland Company, sold a part of the wet lands to an association who expended about $12,000 in enlarging the outlet. In April, 1852, the Legislature appointed Amos Root, John Dunning, Henry Monell, and David E. E. Mix, commissioners to lay out and build a highway across the swamp, on the line between ranges I and 2 of the Holland Purchase. This was done at a cost of about $2,700. The association finally sold out their swamp lands to various persons, nothing further being done to drain or reclaim the tract until April 16, 1855, when an act was passed by the Legislature appointing Amos Root, S. M. Burroughs, Ambrose Bowen, Robert Hill, John B. King, and Henry Monell, commissioners to drain the swamp. The commissioners were authorized to estimate the cost of their proposed work, which should be assessed upon the several owners of the lands to be benefited. When the estimate of $20,000 was made, such active opposition was manifested by the land owners that the law was repealed in the following winter.

Attempts were continued with partial success to drain the low lands of the county after the close of the war. On the Ist on May, 1865, an act was passed by the Legislature providing for the appointment of two commissioners " for draining certain low lands in the town of Barre." This act was framed by Judge Bessac, of Albion, and like the others of similar character, empowered the commissioners to construct ditches and drains, and assess the cost upon the owners of lands benefited thereby. Alvah Mattison and Floyd Starr were made commissioners under this act. Their labors were so successful that another similar act was passed in April, 1867, for draining a larger tract in the same town with Charles S. Allen and L. Grinnell, commissioners. The success of this enterprise was also quite marked. Further effort in this direction has been thus described :

LANDMARKS OF

On the 12th of May, 1869, the Legislature enacted a general drainage law, the essential features of which were almost identical with those of these foregoing special acts. This law, with some amendments, passed by subsequent Legislatures, is still in force ; and it is estimated that under its operation 4,670 acres of land have been reclaimed or generally benefited.

The right under the Constitution to confer upon the commissioners appointed under the law the powers with which it invested them, was predicated on the assumption that the drainage of such lands is conducive to the public health ; and it authorized them to assess municipalities through or near which drains were constructed. Accordingly in two among the five cases under the law the commissioners assessed a portion of the expense upon the town of Barre. An appeal was taken by the supervisor, C. H. Mat- tinson, and the cases were tried before the county judge and justices of sessions, who sustained the action of the commissioners, thus affirming the assumption upon which these powers were conferred.

Since the above was written, numerous proceedings have been had in this county under the general act and many farms and localities benefited.

Tonawanda swamp includes a large area in the southern part of the county, in the towns of Clarendon, Barre and Shelby ; a portion of this is covered with timber, of which cedar and black ash are the most valuable varieties. Other portions are what is termed open swamp or prairie. Hitherto this swamp meadow has been considered entirely valueless, but recently successful efforts have been made to utilize it for pasture. Large droves of cattle have been herded during the pas- turing season on portions of it, and the results of these experiments , have been so favorable that those whose farms include more or less of this hitherto useless swamp have enclosed it with such fences as the annual fires will not destroy, and are pasturing their cattle on it.

An act was passed appointing commissioners who were empowered to assess the lands benefited, to an amount not exceeding $20,000, for draining this swamp. So strong a feeling of hostility to the measure was aroused that the act way repealed. Subsequently an act was passed appropriating about $16,000 for excavating the outlet of the swamp on certain conditions, which were never complied with.

Oak Orchard Creek is the property of the State, owned as a canal feeder to the Erie Canal.

An artificial channel has been cut across from Tonawanda Creek in Genesee county to the natural channel of Oak Orchard Creek in the

ORLEANS COUNTY.

southern part of the town of Shelby. The swamp lands on Oak Orchard Creek cover an area of some 23,000 acres. The watershed drained by this creek is about 88,000 acres and is about seventeen miles long east and west and some nine and one-half miles broad at the widest part. The drainage of the swamp lands along the Oak Orchard Creek, through the swamp, is to the west, with the average fall of about one and eight- tenths feet to the mile.

The Legislature of 1893, appropriated $35,000 for the improvement of Oak Orchard Creek and canal feeder. The contract for the work was let in September, 1893, and the work, now well under way, consists of the excavation of a new channel in the bottom of the old bed of the creek, twelve feet wide at the bottom and about twenty feet at the top, with an average cutting of three and three quarters feet through solid rock, from a point three-quarters of a mile south of Shelby Center, up to the swamp; also the deepening and general repairing of the feeder leading from Tonawanda to Oak Orchard Creek.

The result of this work, when completed, will be that the spring high water in the Oak Orchard swamp, will continue for a much shorter period than it formerly did, and that the average condition of the swamp will be very much improved. The lowering of the channel will undoubtedly increase the summer flow from Oak Orchard swamp and the work on the feeder will greatly add to the advantage of the Erie Canal and water power of Medina. It is expected the work will be completed this fall (1894). The engineer in charge is D. D. Waldo, of Medina.

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Landmarks of Orleans County, New York, Part 2

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Signor, Isaac S., ed
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Syracuse : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1084