The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 31

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098

USA > New York > Jefferson County > The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894 > Part 31

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Appropriations have been received from the State from time to time in years past, which, being judiciously invested, yield an income which, added to the receipts from

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

the county charges, and some others who are able to pay a portion of the expense of their board, suffices to pay the expenses of the institution. A school is taught in the asylum throughout the year. It affords, too, a home for the children of working women at a small expense, when they can pay at all, and gratuitously when they can- not. It is also a temporary refuge for moth- ers and their children, while the former are seeking employment,-nine mothers having been so accommodated the past year. The committees of the board of supervisors ap- pointed from year to year to visit and in- spect the asylun speak invariably, in their reports, in terms of high commendation of the humanity and watchful care displayed in the management of the institution."

The asylum is very ably conducted, has a fine building, and is one of the most deserv- ing and popular charities of Watertown.

Referring finally to the subject of chari- ·

ties, as developed in one way and another in Jefferson county, but more particularly in the present city of Watertown, it may be said that the work had never been judi- ciously conducted until Mrs. Lansing began to systematize efforts in bringing to public notice the claims of the Orphan Asylum. Such work had, from the earliest settle- ments, been given over largely to the churches and to the sporadic efforts of char- itable individuals. In that way much real strength was wasted, because there was no concentration of effort. It was like treating a disease by several mild yet inefficient pal- liatives, instead of a skillful effort to affect the malady itself. While the Orphan Asy- lum reaches only one class of the poor, it takes hold of the very young and therefore helpless waifs of the community, and car- ries them along those early years when there is the greatest possibility of forming correct ideas of life.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

JEFFERSON county once formed part of the original county of Albany, the line of evolu- tion from the latter being as follows : Albany county, formed November 1, 1683; Tryon, formed from Albany, March 12, 1772; Montgomery, changed from Tryon, April 2, 1784; Herkimer, formed from Montgomery, January 16, 1792; Oneida, formed from Herkimer, March 15, 1798; Jefferson, formed from Oneida, March 28, 1805.

This county is situated in the northern part of the State of New York, in an angle formed by the St. Lawrence river and Lake Ontario, the superficial area, accord- ing to the latest statistics, being 733,585 acres, equivalent to 1,146 square miles. It is bounded on the northwest by the St. Lawrence river, on the northeast by St. Lawrence county, on the west by Lake Ontario, on the south by Oswego county, and on the east by Lewis county. The southwest part is marshy, but at a short dis- tance from the lake the land rises in gentle undulations, and, farther inland, by abrupt terraces to the highest point, 1.200 feet above the lake, in the town of Worth. A plateau, about 1,000 feet above the lake, spreads out from the summit, and extends into Oswego and Lewis counties. An ancient lake beach, 390 feet above the present level of the lake, may be traced through Ellis- burgh, Adams, Watertown and Rutland. North of Black river the surface is generally flat or slightly undulating; in the extreme northeast corner it is broken by low ridges parallel to the St. Lawrence. With the ex- ception of a few isolated hills, no part of the region is as high as the ancient lake ridge mentioned. An isolated hill in

Pamelia formerly bore a crop of red cedar; and as this timber is now only found upon the islands in the lake and in the St. Law- rence, it is supposed that the hill was an island at a time when at least three-fourths of the country was covered by water.

The main water features of the county are Ontario lake and St. Lawrence river. The main indentations of the lake are Black River bay, Chaumont bay, Henderson bay and Griffin's bay. Black River bay is accounted the finest harbor on Lake Ontario. The largest islands attached to Jefferson county are Wells, Grindstone and Carleton, in the St. Lawrence, and Grenadier, Galloe and Stony islands in the lake. Besides these there are innumerable smaller ones, including several in the month of Black river, a number in Black River and Chan- mont bays, and a portion of the archipelago known as the " Thousand Islands." Among the most prominent headlands and capes are Stony Point and Six Town Point, in the town of Henderson; Pillar Point, in Brown- ville: Point Peninsula and Point Salubrious, in Lyme, and Tibbett's Point, in Cape Vin- cent.

There are about twenty small lakes in the county, of which ten are in Theresa and Alexandria, two in Henderson, four in Ellishurgh, two in Antwerp, and one each in Orleans and Pamelia, Champion and Rut- land. The largest of these is Butterfield lakc, lying between Theresa and Alexandria, which is about four miles in length. The other more important ones are Perch lake, lying between Orleans and Pamelia, nearly three miles in length, and Pleasant lake, in Champion, about two miles long.

GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

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GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

BY D. S. MARVIN.

A KNOWLEDGE of geology lies at the base of physical geography, and is essential to the skillful prosecution of mining and other useful arts. The geological his- tory of the earth is ascertained by a study of the successive beds of rock which have been deposited on its surface, and of the masses which have been forced up in a liquid state from within its crust, together with the fossil remains of animals and plants, which certain of the beds contain, As thus established, it is usually divided into four great periods, the names of which are taken from the progress of animal life, as this at present affords one of the best criteria for geological classification. They are: I., the Eozaic, or " period of the dawn of life; " II., the Paleozoic, or " period of ancient life:" III., the Mesozoic, or " middle period of life;" and IV., the Neozoic, or " recent period of life."

Each of these admits of subdivisions, which may stand as follows beginning withi the oldest: Eozoic-Laurentian and Huron- ian ; Palezoic - Cambrian or Primorial, Si- luro Cambrian, Silurian, Devonian, Car- boniferons, and Permian; Mesozoic- Trias- sic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous ; Neozoic - Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Post-pliocene, and Recent.

In the oldest condition of the earth, shown by the most ancient of the rock formations above referred to, its surface was covered with water more generally than at present, and sediments were then, as now, heing de- posited in the waters. The earth must, however, have an earlier history than this, though not represented by distinct geologi- cal monuments. This primitive condition of the earth is a subject of inference and speculation rather than of actual knowledge: still, we may begin with a consideration of a fact bearing upon questions which have long excited public attention. It is the ob- served increase of temperature in descend- into deep mines and in the water of deep artesian wells - an increase which may be stated in round numbers at one degree of heat of the centrigrade scale to every 100 feet of depth from the surface. These ob- servations apply, of course, to a very con- siderable depth, and we have no certainty that this rate continues for any great dis- tance toward the centre of the earth. If, however, we regard it as indicating the ac- tual law of increase of temperature, it would result that the whole crust of the earth is a mere shell covering a molton mass of rocky matter. Thus a very slight exercise of imagination would carry us back to a time when this slender crust had not yet been formed, and the earth rolled through space an incandescent globe, with all its water and other vaporizable matter in a gaseous state.

Astronomical calculation has, however, shown that the earth, in its relation to other heavenly bodies, obeys the laws of a rigid ball, and not of a fluid globe. Hence it has been inferred that its actual crust is very thick, perhaps not less than 2,500 miles, and that its fluid portion must therefore be of smaller dimensions than has been inferred from the observed increase of temperature. Further, it seems to have been rendered probable, from the density of rock matter in the solid and liquid states, that a molton globe would solidify at the center as well as at the surface, and consequently that the earth must not only have a solid crust of great thickness, but also a solid nucleus, and that any liquid portions must be a sheet of detached masses intervening between these. Still this would merely go to show that the earth has advanced far toward the entire loss of its original heat. Other con- siderations, based on the form of the earth and the distribution of variances, lead to similar conclusions. It must be observed, however, that there are good reasons for the belief that the products of volcanoes arise chiefly from the fusion of portions of the stratified crusts. Such considerations, how- ever, lead to the conclusion that the former watery condition of our planet was not its first state, and that we must trace it back to a previous reign of fire. The reasons which can be adduced in support of this, are no doubt somewhat vague. and may, in their details, be variously interpreted, but at present we have no other interpretation to give of that chaos, formless and void, that state in which " nor aught nor aught existed," which the sacred writings and the traditions of ancient nations concur with modern science in indicating as the primi- tive state of the earth.

In the Eozoic time we have actual monu- ments to study. The Laurentian rocks, more especially, occupy a very wide space in the northern part of America. These rocks stretch along the north side of the St. Lawrence river from Labrador to Lake Su- perior, and thence northwardly to an un- known distance. In the Old World the rocks of this age do not appear so exten- sively, although they have been recognized in Norway and Sweden, in the Hebrides, and in Bohemia. Geologists long looked in vain for evidences of life in the Laurentian period, but its probable existence was in- ferred from such considerations as the abundance of carbon, limestone, iron, etc. - materials known to be accumulated in the newer formations by the agency of life, In addition to the inferental evidence, how- ever, one well marked animal fossil has been found in the Laurentian of Canada - Eozeon Canadense, a gigantic representa-

152b

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

tion of one of the lowest forms of animal life, that of the Protozoa, and a type still extant in the ocean, and remarkable for its power of collecting and secreting calcareous matter.

Geologists divide rocks into two great classes, primary and sedimentary or second- ary; the first, from their crystalline charac- ter and mode of occurrence, often exhibit evidences of having been subjected to the agency of heat, while the latter appear made up of materials derived from the former, broken up and deposited in water. and usually contain fossil remains of ani- mals and plants that lived at the period of their foundation. Both primary and sec- ondary rocks occur in Jefferson county; the former of which, with the dividing line be- tween them, affords only rational prospects of valuable metallic veins and deposits, as well as most of the crystaline minerals. Of the latter we are not without localities that vie with the most noted, and the primitive region of the county will abundantly repay the labor of mineral collection. The rock constituting the primary is mainly composed of gneiss; a mixture of quartz, feldspar and mica, which are regarded as elementary or simple minerals, and make up by far the largest part of what is known of the earth's surface. In gneiss these usually occur in irregular stata, often contorted, never hori- zontal, and seldom continuing of uniform thickness more than a few feet. It forms by far the largest part of the surface rock throughout the great northern forest of New York, embracing nearly the whole of Ham- ilton, and a part of Lewis, Herkimer. Ful- ton, Saratoga, Warren, Essex, Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, and in Jefferson this rock constitutes the greater part of the islands in the St. Lawrence, he- tween French creek and Morristown, and appears in Clayton, Orleans and Alexandria on the river bank; in the latter town it ex- tends back a mile or two from the shore. It forms a strip extending up both sides of Indian river to Theresa village, and the shores and islands of most of the lakes of that town and Antwerp, and much of the country within the node of Indian river, toward the village of Philadelphia, where it forms the surface rock and extends to Ant- werp, the greater part of which it under- lies. From this town it extends along In- dian river to to the village of Natural Bridge, and thence to Carthage, where it forms the islands among the rapids of the Long Falls, and thence follows up the river, keeping a little west of itschannel, through Lewis and Oneida counties. In this area there are occa- sional ledges of white or primary limestone, especially in Antwerp, with limited quanti- ties of serpentine, and superficial patches of sandstone.

Lying next above the primitive, and form- ing a considerable amount of surface rock, in Alexandria, Theresa, Clayton, Orleans, and Antwerp, is the Potsdam sandstone, so

named from the fine manner in which it is developed in that town. It is the oldest of sedimentary rocks, and contains (but rarely) the forms of organic bodies that were created at the dawn of the vital prin- ciple. Two genera, one a plant, the other a shell, have been found in this rock, but so rarely that it may be almost said to be with- out fossils. Its principal constituent is silex, in the form of sand, firmly consoli- dated, and forming, where it can be cleaved into blocks of regular shape and uniform size, a most elegant and durable building material.

In the vicinity of Theresa, Redwood, etc., there occurs in numerous places in this rock the cylindrical structure, common at many localities in St. Lawrence county, and apparently produced by eddies acting upon the sands at the bottom of shallow water. This formation is generally in thick masses, often disturbed by upheavals, al- most invariably inclined from the horizontal, and seldom in this county so evenly strati- fied as to admit of that uniformity of frac- ture that gives value to it as a building material at Potsdam, Malone, etc. It is, however, extensively used for this purpose, and forms a cheap and durable, but not elegant wall. This rock has two appli- cations in the useful arts, of great im- portance -the lining of blast furnaces, and the manufacture of glass. The quarry that has been most used for lining stone, is in Antwerp. where the rock occurs highly inclined, but capable of being di- vided into blocks of uniform texture and any desirable size. The edges of the stone, when laid in the furnace, are ex- posed to the fire, and become slightly used, forming a glazing to the surface. For the manufacture of glass, the stone is cal- cined in kilns, and crushed and sifted, when it affords a sand of much whiteness, and eminently suitable for the purpose.

This rock is generally overlaid by a fertile soil, but this is more due to the accidental deposition of drift than the disintegration of the rock itself, for such is its permanence that it can scarcely be found to have yielded to the destructive agencies that have cov: ered may other rocks with soil. The pol- ished and scratched surfaces given by diluvial attrition, are almost uniformly preserved, and wherever this formation ap- pears at the surface it presents a hardness and sharpness of outline strongly indicative of its capacity to resist decay. A very pe- culiar feature is presented by the margin of this rock, which, by the practiced eye, may be detected at a distance, and which strongly distinguishes it from all others. The out- line is generally an abrupt escarpment, sometimes extending with much regularity for miles, occasionally broken by broad, ragged ravines, or existing as outstanding insular masses, and always presenting, along the foot of the precipice, huge masses of rock that have fallen from above. The

152c

GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

most remarkable terrace of this kind begins on the north shore of Black lake, in Mor- ristown, and extends through Hammond into Alexandria, much of the distance near the line of the Military road ; other in- stances are common throughout the region underlaid by this rock.

Next in the ascending series is a rock which, in this part of the State, constitutes a thin but level formation, and from its be- ing a sandy limestone, has been named a calciferous sandstone. This rock appears as the surface rock between Antwerp and Carthage ; between the Checkered House, in Wilna, and Natural Bridge, between Antwerp and Stirlingville ; and in Theresa, Alexandria, Orleans and Clayton. In many places it is filled with fossils, and is value- less as a building material.

Next above this rock is the chazy lime- stone, which occurs highly developed, and abounding in organic remains, but, accord- ing to Professor Emmons, does not appear in the Black River valley. The next rock there is the Birds-Eye limestone, which in- cluded the close-grained, hard and thick- bedded strata, in which the layers of water limestone occur in LeRay, Pamelia, Orleans, Brownville and Clayton. Its color is usually bluish and light gray, weathering to an ashen gray; its fracture is more or less flinty, with many crystalline points ; and its fossils few and seldom obtained except on the weathered surface. Its characteris- tic fossil. in the manner in which its verticle stems divide and interlace with each other presents features totally distinct from any known analogy, either in marine plants. or the zoophites. These stems are filled with crystalline matter and often make up a great part of its mass. When polished, this rock presents an appearance which has given it the name, and in quarrying it readily breaks into regular masses. This forms the surface rock over a considerable extent of Cape Vincent, Lyme, Brownville, Pamelia, LeRay and Wilna. The part that overlies the yellowish water-lime strata, abounds in nodules of flint that everywhere stand in re- lief upon the weathered surface. These are thought to be the fossil remains of sponges, or other form of animal life analogous. These masses of flint often contain shells, corals, crinoidea and obscure traces of other organic bodies.

The Black River limestone, in the classifi- cation of Professor Hall (the Isle LaMotte marble of Professor Emmons) is interposed between the rock last named and the Tren- ton limestone. It is a well-defined mass of grayich blue limestone. in this county not exceeding ten feet in thickness, but in its fossils clearly distinct from the strata above and below it. Five genera and `six species of corals, and five genera and ten species of cephalopoda, are described in the State Paleontology, as occuring in this rock. It is the formation that contains the caverns of Watertown, Pamelia and Brownville.

It is to be observed of the strata that intervene between the water-lime and the Trenton limestone, that from their soluble nature the natural seams have generally been widened into open chasms, and that from this cause streams of water often find their way under ground in dry seasons. Although generally horizontal, the strata are occasionally disturbed by upheavals, as is seen at several places along the line of the railroad between Chaumont and Cape Vin- cent.

The next rock above those described, is named the Trenton limestone, which mostly constitutes the rock underlying the soil in Champion, Rutland, Watertown, Hounds- field, Ellisburg, Adams, and a part of Rod- man and Brownville. In extent, thickness, number of fossil remains, and economical importance, it far surpasses the others. It underlies extensive districts in the Western States, where it is recognized by its charac- teristic fossils. Its color is usually gray, and its fracture more or less crystalline, oc- curing usually in strata nearly or quite horizontal, and often separated by thin layers of shale. Many of its fossils are common with the slates above.

Fossil plants of the lower orders are some- what common, but are limited to a few species. Of corals the number is greater: twenty different species of zoophites are found in this rock. Of that singular class of animals called trilobites, of which there are at present but few living analogies, the Trenton limestone furnishes several species. Of shells this rock affords a very great variety. Its stratification is generally nearly horizontal, and disturhances. when they oc- cur, are usually quite limited. In some places it contains veins of calcite, and of heavy spar, the latter, in Adams, being asso- ciated with fluor-spar.

Resting upon the Trenton limestone, with which, in the bed of Sandy creek, in Rod- man, it is seen in contact, is a soft, black slate, readily crumbling to fragments under the action of frost, and divided by vetical parallel seams into regular masses. From its appearance in the hills north of Utica, it has been called Utica slate. It has not been found applicable to any useful purpose, al- though experiments have been made to test its value as a lithic paint. Where sulphuret of iron could be procured, the manufacture of alum might be attempted with prospect of success. Fossils are common, but less numerous in this rock than those below it. Several of these are common in the rocks above and below this. Only one species of trilobite is found. though they occur both above and below it.

Sulphur springs are of frequent occur- rence in this rock, and native sulphur is sometimes noticed incrusting the surfaces in ravines, where waters, charged with sulphuretted hydrogen, have been exposed to vegetable action.

Covering this formation, and constituting

152d

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

the superficial rock of Lorraine, Worth and a part of Rodman, is a series consisting of alternating layers of shale and slate, some of which are highly fossiliferous and others entirely destitute of organic remains. From the remarkable developments of this rock in Lorraine, it has received the name of Lorraine shales. For a similar reason it is known elsewhere as the Hudson River group, from its formning the highly inclined shales that occur, of enormous thickness, in the valley of the Hudson. This rock is nearly worthless for any useful purpose, although at Pulaski and elsewhere, layers are found that are adapted for building. The mineral springs of Saratoga arise from this rock. Having thus briefly enumerated the leading geological features of the county, some generalizations of the several rocky formations may be made.

TOPOGRAPHY AND SOIL.

To one accustomed to careful observation, the features of a country and the contour of its hills afford a reliable means of opinion on the character of the adjacent rock. There pertains to each of these in this county a peculiarity of profile. when ex- posed on the brow of hills, that is as con- stant and as unmistakable as any class of phenomena offered to the observation of geologists ; and these distinctive features arise from the greater or less facility with which the several rocks yield to disintegrat- ing forces. The shales and slates being easily decomposed, and offering little re- sistance to the action of running water, pre- sent a rounded outline ; running streams have here worn deep winding gulfs, through which the channels meander, washing al- ternately the right bank and the left, afford- ing a succession of crumbling precipices, often of romantic beauty, and spreading over the plains, where they issue from the hills, the broken materials brought down from the ravines. The rock is everywhere covered with soil, derived from its own dis- integration, and is inclined to clay, from which cause, when level, there is a tendency to the formation of swamps, from the im- permeable character of this material. The soil is generally fertile. and especially adapted to grazing. Wherever diluvial action has existed it has worn, with little difficulty, broad valleys, and removed im- mense quantities of the detritus to other places.

These shales form a ridge of highlands, extending from the county through Os- wego, Lewis, Oneida and Herkimer coun- ties, being known in Lewis as Tug Hill. The margin of this elevated tract is worn into deep ravines, but when the head of these is reached, the country becomes level and sometimes swampy.

The limestone occurs in terraces, with steep but not precipitous margins, the whole of which is covered with a soil derived from its own decomposition, where not pro-

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The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 31

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823- Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company Number of Pages: 1098

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098