The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 32

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

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tected by drift. The soil is inclined to be thin, and consequently liable to be affected with drought, but is extremely fertile and alike adapted to grass and grain. The richest and best portions of Jefferson county, if not in the State, are underlaid by this rock. Running streams, when small, do not wear ravines, but fall down the slope of the terraces in pretty cascades, broken into foam, and noisy from the numerous points of resistance which they meet. The Burrville cascades, in the southwest border of the town of Rutland, are among the most romantic and picturesque which the county affords.

The calciferous sandstone presents a flat country, with few valleys, and those but a few feet below the level of the adjacent plains. The rock is covered with a very thin soil, derived from its own decomposi- tion, but one of much richness, from the presence of lime. It seldom descends by a gentle slope into the valleys, but presents a shelving ledge, very peculiar to this rock in this section of the State.

The Potsdam sandstone generally presents a level surface, but more liable to upheavals, and is covered with soil entirely brought from other formations, and varies in quality with the sources from which it has been derived. This rock never presents a fertile slope into the valleys, but is bordered with abrupt precipices, at the foot of which are piled huge masses that have tumbled from the face of the ledge.

The primitive rocks of the county present a constant succession of abrupt, rounded edges, scantily covered in a state of nature with timber, and, when cleared, with a thin soil, with intervening valleys of consider- able fertility, that have received their soil from the wash of the hills. The nature and amount of soil varies with the rock, and is abundant and fertile where limestone and feldspar abound as its constituents, but much less so where the chief element is quartz. The fact is observable that the south slope of the hills is more abrupt than the north, as if they had been more up- heaved.

Drift deposits 'occur promiscuously over rocks of every age, and when occurring in hills, present that rounded and conical out- line often seen in snowdrifts. These de- posits may be distinguished from soil un- derlaid by rock, by the endless variety of rounded outline which they present, and are invariably covered by vegetation. Several remarkable valleys occur in the county, that must be attributed to causes that have long since ceased to operate. That of Rut- land Hollow, parallel with Black river, continues across the towns of Watertown, Houndsfield and Henderson, by way of Smithville, to the lake, having both its sides covered with Trenton limestone. It is considered by some authorities to be one of the abandoned beds of Black river. Evidences of the drift period are promiuent

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GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

in this valley, the surface of the rock often presenting a polished and grooved appear- anee, and at no locality is this more won- derfully shown than at the railroad bridge below Watertown village. The grooves are here widened and deepened into tronghs, that obliquely eross the bed of the river, having their surfaces polished and scratched. showing that the rock was then as firm and unyielding as now.

MINERAL LOCALITIES.

Anthracite has been observed in minute quantities in the Trenton limestone at Watertown, and also in the Utica slate in the southwestern border of the county. Apatite (phosphate lime) is found in small erystals near Ox Bow in massive form on Butterfield lake, and near Grass lake, in Theresa. Azurite (blue carb. copper) is found on an island in Maskollonge lake, in Theresa. Calcite (carbonate of lime), oe- curs at Ox Bow and on the banks of Vroo- man lake. Tufa is found in a few lime- stone springs, and agarie mineral abounds in the eaves on the north side of the river in Watertown. Marl occurs in Pleasant lake, and satin-spar near Ox Bow, not far from Pulpit Rock. Celestine (sulphate of strontia) is said to occur in Trenton lime- stone. Chalcodite, a very rare mineral, is frequently obtained at the Sterling iron mine in Antwerp. Chondrodite has also been observed in Antwerp. Chlorite has been detected in bowlders, but is not com- mon. Copper pyrites has been found in Antwerp, adjacent to Vrooman lake and near the Ox Bow, and also about three miles from Natural Bridge, in Wilna. Dolomite occurs in white limestone. Pearl- spar is found at Ox Bow. coating erystals of calcite. Epidote is of frequent occurence in bowlders of greenstone. It has not been found in its original situation in this county. Feldspar (orthoclase), besides forming a common ingredient in gneiss, often occurs, highly crystallized, in Antwerp and Theresa, near Grass lake, etc. Fluor spar oceurs on the east bank of Maskollonge lake, in Theresa, and is one of the most remarkable localities of this mineral in the State. Graphite (black lead) occurs in minute seales, to a small extent, in the white lime- stone of Antwerp. Heavy-spar is found on Pillar Point, in Brownville, on the shore facing Chaumont Bay and Cherry Island, in a vein of Trenton limestone, and in Antwerp, about a mile east of the Ox Bow, in a vein of white limestone. It also occurs in Theresa, on the banks of Maskollonge lake, and in Adams. Hornblende, of the tremolite varie- ty, is found in bowlders of white limestone, and occasionally in small quantities in Ant- werp and in Wilna, near Natural Bridge. Amphibole (basaltic hornblende) is found in bowlders in crystals, firmly imbedded in trap and greenstone. Dillage is rarely found in bowlders of chloritic slate. Par- gasite, in beautiful green crystals, occurs in

white limestone at numerous localities near Ox Bow, and in a neighborhood known as New Connectieut. in Antwerp. Amianthos and asbestos are found in minute quantities in bowlders of serpentine. The latter also occurs near Theresa village. Idocrase, in small brown crystals, occurs occasionally on the banks of Vrooman lake, near Ox Bow. It has been found in larger crystals in bowlders in Antwerp. Iron pyrites (sul- phuret of iron) oceur in Antwerp, Wilna, Theresa and Alexandria. Labradorite (opalescent feldspar) is occasionally found in bowlders. Limonite, or bog iron, is eom- mon in the swamps of Wilna. Ochre occurs in Champion and other towns in small quan- tities. Magnetite, or magnetic iron ore, has been found in Alexandria. Malachite (green carbonate of copper) is found invest- ing other minerals at Maskallonge lake, Theresa. Millerite (sulphuret of nickel) occurs at the Sterling iron mine, in Ant- werp. in delicate needle-shaped prisms, in cavities of iron ore, associated with spathic iron, chalcodite, and iron pyrites. Museo- vite (mica) occurs rarely in bowlders of granite.

Phlogopite .- This miea oeeurs frequently in the white limestone, but not in sufficient quantity or in plaits of a size that give it value. It is found on an island in Mill Seat lake in small quantities, and at a few localities near Ox Bow. At Vrooman lake a highly crystallized variety occurs, in which sharply-defined prisms and groups of erys. tals are found in great abundance. Py- roxene is common in our primitive rocks. On Grass lake in Theresa, it is found white and crystallized, in groups. Near Ox Bow it has been found in small quantities, and near Natural Bridge in large hlack crystals, with sphene, ete. Cocolite occurs in the same vicinity. Quartz, while form- ing the greater portion of primary rock, and almost the sole material of sandstone, is rarely found crystallized. On Butterfield lake, and at several localities in Antwerp, it is found in crystals. At Natural Bridge, chaleedony occurs in nodules in white lime- stone. Flint is a common associate of the Black River limestone. Agate in small quantities is found in Wilna, near Natural Bridge. Jasper and basanite are very rarely found as pebbles in the drift formations. Scapolite in detached crystals is rarely found imbedded in white limestone, in Antwerp. Adjacent to, and perhaps within, the town of Wilna, near Natural Bridge, the variety Nuttallite, in fused crystals of a pearl gray color, occurs with pyroxene and sphene. It is sometimes massive, and admits of cleavage. Serpentine is of frequent occurrence in no- dules, in white limestone, in Antwerp, but it is far less abundant than in St. Lawrence county. It is various shades of green and its weathered surface becomes white. A mineral allied to this, and named by Prof. Emmons, Rensselaerite, but by other authors Steatitic Psendomorph, occurs in great

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

abundance in Antwerp and Theresa, where it assumes various colors, varying from white, through gray. to black, and a texture from finely granular to coarsely crystalline, and cleavable. An extensive locality of the the jet-black variety occurs on Butterfield lake.

The red oxide constitutes the principal specular ore of iron in Antwerp, Phila- delphia and Theresa, and may be said to be the principal ore of northern New York. It is invariably associated with brittle, variegated mineral; which has been named Pysyntribite, but which recent analyses indicate to be a rock of indefinite composition, closely related to Agalmoto- lite. and varying much in its proportions of alumina, magnesia, lime and tbe alkalies. In some form or other this mineral is asso- ciated with the ore in every locality where the latter has been noticed in this county, as if it were a necessary associate. Besides this nondescript mineral, specular ore is associated with Calcite. Spathic iron, Chal- codite, Quartz, Millerite, and, more rarely, Heavy-spar. In Theresa, this ore was pro- cured during the working of the furnace near Redwood, and has been found on an island in Maskollonge lake. In the edge of Philadelphia. adjoining Theresa, there occurs a body of specular iron ore between the gneiss and Potsdam sandstone. When wrought alone it makes an iron known to founders as " cold short," and from its mix- ture with lime is found to be very useful as a flux in assisting in the reduction of other ores. The mines which have been wrought with most profit in northern New York are those in the southwest corner of Gouver- neur, and adjacent in Rossie. In this same range, in Antwerp, a deposit of iron ore was discovered in 1837, and was developed and wrought by George Parish. Adjacent to, and forming a part of this, is the Thompson mine. Sterling mine, in Antwerp, was dis- covered in 1836, its location being in the same range and geological relation as the last. There are seven or eight mines in a range, including those in Philadelphia, ap- parently coeval in age, and produced by a common cause. About two miles from Ox Bow, in Antwerp, occurs the Weeks ore bed, once owned by George Parish.

Sphene (scilecio-calcareous oxide of tita- nium) is found in white limestone with pargasite, in Antwerp, near Ox Bow, and near Natural Bridge. Spinel, of a pale red color, has been observed in crystals at Vrooman lake, near Ox Bow, and four miles from that place towards Theresa. Talc occurs in small quantities in bowlders. Tourmaline is occasionally found in gneiss in Antwerp and Theresa. Wad (earthy manganese) has been noticed in swamps in Watertown and elsewhere. Wollastonite (tabular spar) occurs with Augite and Coc- colite at Natural Bridge. Delicate, fibrous varieties have been found in bowlders in Wilna .:

THE ICE AGE.

There are little or no evidences of intense glaciation previous to the tertiary period: it was not until the quartanary was ushered in that glaciation assumed its grand propor- tions here. The fact that gneissoidal and granitic rocks are the surface rocks in the northern portions of the county. is evidence that the territory was among the earliest portions of the earth to rise above the waters of the primeval ocean, without sub- sequent prolonged subsidence. There are many theories concerning the causes that have produced and ushered in the glacial period. among them the most plausible, changes of level of land surface. Visitors to all mountain lands observe snow and ice upon each considerable elevation, and per- haps it is sufficient in this connection to cite the fact that glaciation seems to have been one of the finishing processes of world- making: fitting the surface and soil condi- tions for their capabilities, to maintain and sustain the higher and more important forms of animal existence. The countries that are the most thickly inhabited are the ones that have been submitted to the most intense glaciation. The scenery of lake and forest, the formation of hills and valleys, have in most instances been sculptured and shaped by glaciation.

Professor Agassiz was the first to study the glaciation of the Alps; that of Greenland, Alaska and other countries has since been studied by others. It has been found that ex- actly a similar wearing away and scoring of the rocks, the transportation of detritus, and other forms of ice action may be observed all over the north part of the continent, and this is now the accepted explanation of the same phenomena and conditions here. They can be accounted for in no other rational manner. It has been thought that there has been inore than one period of gla- ciation, but a study of the local conditions seem to reveal but one period here. This section seems to have been in the center and track of the most intense denudation. The movement of the ice lobe seems to have begun upon the shores of the Atlantic, per- haps as far north as Greenland, and slowly crept southward year by year, always most intense upon and near the ocean, or other large hodies of water, and to have extended as far south as central New Jersey, then following an irregular line north westward to near the east end of Lake Erie, thence southwestward to Cincinnati, Ohio, thence northwestward to central Iowa, and con- tinuing via Bismarck, Dakota, to an un- known distance over the Saskatchewan. There was at the same time another lobe moving from Alaska, on the Pacific, extend- ing as far south as northern California, and another extending from north to central Europe, upon the eastern continent. Ice seems a solid and rigid body, but is really a solid with some of the characteristics of a liquid.

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GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY.

These semi-solid movements have been most carefully studied and measured in Greenland. It has been found that ice moves over that continent wherever there is a slope of forty feet to the mile; and in the Alps over a like slope, the distance of 70 feet a day where there was an ice front of not more than a half a mile. On steeper slopes and wider fronts, the movement is several hundred feet a day. The power of ice to tear away and transport rock masses from one place to another, seems to lie in the fact of congealation at night, and thawing during the day time. Ice expands in freezing. This is the force that loosens and rends the solid mountains. These detached masses, falling upon the ice, are carried to lower levels, or frozen fast to the bottom ice, and carried onward with the mass, scoring and grinding the rocks, over which they move with prodigious energy.

GLACIAL STREAMS.

It was not until the closing scenes of the glacial period, when these great masses of ice were thawing and wasting away, the slow accumulations of many thousands of years, that the systems of glacial rivers, seen all over the county, were formed. The more prominent ones came down from the direction of Cartage, trending south west- ward, and emptying into Lake Ontario. What is known as Rutland Hollow, and the swamp in the towns of Rutland, Watertown and Houndsfield, was one of these old glacial river beds, dividing just east of the city of Watertown. One hranch flowed along its bed through the Cemetery, the other through the Fair ground, thus making the site of Watertown an island at that time. Where it crosses the present river, near the new engine works, deep striæe may be seen in the heavy bedded birdseye limestone. Later on, and nearer the close of glaciation, this channel in Rutland was filled or dammed with ice, and a lower one, the same as the one now occupied by the present river, formed. The old geologists, before glaciation was much studied, believed that the present river channel from Watertown to Dexter, is later and denuded by causes now in action ; but the better explanation seems to be that the present river-bed is the old channel of preglacial erosion, tempo- rarily dammed with ice during the glacial period, and that, upon the ice thawing, the present channel was again re-occupied. It is readily observed and apparent that while the ice-sheet overlaid the whole coun- try, all previously existing streams became filled and dammed with ice, and new ones established. flowing southward, or, as in the case here, more to the westward.

The St. Lawrence was turned back upon itself ; the waters of Lake Ontario forced to find an outlet into the Hudson, through the channel of the Mohawk ; then the channel of the Mohawk was damined with ice, and the whole watershed reversed and turned

westward into the Ohio and the Wabash. The old shores of Lake Ontario, 200 feet above their present level. may be seen in many places and upon different levels, as the suc- cessive channels were closed and opened. The theory of a molten condition of the earth's center, obtains some confirmation from these old lake shores occupying elevations. They suggest that the vast masses of ice tempo- rarily depressed the portions of the earth that they covered.

Local conditions, to some extent, deter- mined the directions of the streams and rivers. The Adirondack mountains, being a center of local glaciation, forced all out- flows of water and ice in a south westerly direction. The glacial scratches, the sculp- turing of the hills, and the direction of the valleys show this.

The Potsdam sandstone, the strata of the birds-eye limestone, and that of the Hudson river group. probaby extended further north than at present ; but over all the northern and western portions of the county, the edges have been denuded and carried away. An examination of the sands that now lie upon the western slopes of the mountains, shows them to have been made up from the calciferous and Potsdam sandstone mainly. These same red sands now fill the bottonis of the channels of the old glacial streams. and they overlie considerable stretches of the surface of the county. The " pine plains," above Great Bend. once densely covered with pine forest, are made up of this sand, so little intermixed with sedi- ment and glacial clays, common over most other portions of the territory, that there is no fertility in the soil, it being almost pure sand.

The southeastern portions of the county seem not to have been so much disturbed by glaciation. The streams are usually old channels of erosion, and the general face of the country, though deeply scored in places, appears more like unglaciated regions. There was undoubtedly the same covering of ice there, but the land being higher, and a little outside of the center of glacial ac- tivities, the ice melted more slowly. There is a fine natural exposure of the edge of the Utica slate, where it thins out in the bed of Sandy creek, a short distance from Whites- ville, perhaps the only natural thinning-out exposure left in the county, readily found. It was this natural thinning out of the strata that presented the opportunity for the great displays of local dynamic energy ; the ice, following the harder gneiss and granite, easily displaced the edges of the stratified rocks, until it met the heavy bedded birds- eye limestone in the central portions of the county. Genuine " hogs backs " are seen at Carthage, upon the carved and worn beds of gneiss that form the country rock there.

Perch lake, and nearly all the other small lakes in the county, are what are termed by glacialists, kettle holes. They were formed

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THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

by glacial detritus, being dropped at the lower ends of depressions, and there has not yet time intervened for their filling up, or the wearing down of their outlets. It is in these respects that the county has been benefited by glaciation : but taking the county as a whole, there may be doubts of any benefits arising out of former glacia- tion. In too many places the fine preglacial soils have either been covered up or re- moved to Central and Southern New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, too little time since intervening for the reformation of fertile soils by natural causes. Judging by the data we have in the wearing away of streams, it is scarcely ten thousand years since glaciers were floating to Lake Ontario

from the Adirondack region, past the site of the city of Watertown.

The heavy-bedded clays in the central and western part of the county, underlaid by gravel and bowlders, are true glacial clays, deposited while the lake was at a higher level. In some beds there are intermixtures of blue elay. These have been derived from the denuded Utica slate and Lorraine shale.

Bowlders of gneiss, hornblende, granite, Labradorite, marble, mica schist and other minerals from the Laurentian roeks of Canada, and the highlands of the Adiron- daek, some of them weighing an hundred tons, are common and indiscriminately dis- tributed upon and below the surface in nearly all parts of the county.

HON. ORVILLE HUNGERFORD.

THIS distinguished eitizen, so well remem- bered by the earlier settlers of Watertown. was born in Farmington, Conn., in 1790, and eame into this town in 1804 with his father, who was one of those hardy settlers that came into the Black River country to find a home. Young Orville was regarded like the other boys of those early days, for though his parents were never designated as "poor," yet all the children of that era were taught habits of self-reliance, and they looked upon honest labor as the only true means by which respectability, wealth, and even honor were to be attained. To be an idler in those days would have been a synonym for "loafer" or " tramp" as we now use those terms. Young Orville early mani- fested an inclination towards mercantile life. and when quite young he became a clerk in the store of Jabez Foster, then located at Burrville. but removed to Water- town in 1808. In that store he began as sweeper, duster, office-boy and care-taker, for boys in those days cheerfully took humble positions where a chance to work upward was apparent. Long before he was 21, Mr. Hungerford began to display the abilities which were to make him so con- spciuous in mercantile and political life, and as soon as he was of age he became a part- ner in the business, the firm being Foster & Hungerford. The war of 1812 enabled this firm, the most prominent in the county, to enter upon an extended trade in supplying the troops at Sackets with needed provis- ions and other supplies. They were success- ful, and respected in all their dealings with the government. In 1815 Mr. Hungerford, then in his 25th year, began mercantile business for himself, and so continued until 1842. His success was assured from the start, for his integrity, his business capacity and his breadth of character had made him the best known and perhaps the most re- spected man in Jefferson county.

HIS BUSINESS CAREER.

In the promotion of the railroad from Rome to Cape Vincent, Mr. Hungerford en-

gaged with great ardor, laboring with zeal and energy that knew no weariness or dis- conragement, and the citizens of Jefferson county will have reason to be grateful to his memory for the efficiency of his efforts. He held the first office of presi- dent of the company at the time of his death.

Mr. Hungerford was for many years a di- rector and at his death was president of the Jefferson County Bank, where his integrity and promptness in busi- ness had perhaps a wider field than in his mercantile pursuits. But whereever placed, and however surrounded, he proved himself equal to any emergeney and fully "justified the honors he had gained."

As a man of business he was prompt, de- eided. active and correct. His judgment was clear and sound, and he possessed the faculty of obtaining for his plans the entire confidenee of his business associates. If in his private affairs be was exact, he was also rigidly honest. No deceit or guile ever found utterance, but manful uprightness characterized all his transactions. As a politician he was a conservative, a man of but few words, but many thoughts, The Democratie party achieved many victories under his leadership and were beaten but seldon. His plans were carefully laid and vigorously executed, his influence was exer- cised with ease, and he controled without an effort. In his private character he was exemplary, generous, and friendly. In his public bestowments, munificent. Institu- tions of learning received liberal endow- ments from his generosity.

As POLITICIAN AND STATESMAN.

During the few weeks he has been en- gaged at Watertown in preparing some of the details of this History. the writer heard a remark made by a very clear-headed and observing gentleman of mature age, in which he declared that Jefferson county had developed several able " politicians," but not one " statesman." He was certainly in error in the last portion of his remark, for

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The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 32

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