USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > Athens > A history of old Tioga Point and early Athens, Pennsylvania > Part 3
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"As the lines now run, the township is about six miles square. It is bounded on the east by Litchfield, on the west by Ridgeberry, south by Sheshequin, Ulster and Smithfield, on the north by Barton, Waverly and Chemung, New York State. It contains the boroughs of Athens, incorporated 1831,4 South Waverly, incor- porated January, 1878, and Sayre, incorporated January, 1891. The natural divis-
4 An act, approved March 29, 1831, erected the village of Athens into "a Borough with the following bounds, to wit, beginning at Satterlee's Landing or Ferry on the Susque- hanna River (Ferry Street, 1906), extending down to Henry Welles' line, including all that is between the rivers. The electors are to meet at the house of D. A. Saltmarsh to elect one Burgess, Five Town Council, one High Constable, Two overseers of the Poor, one super- visor, one assessor and two assistant assessors." As originally incorporated the borough of Athens included all the land from the old white gate or north line of Point farm to Ferry and Paine Streets, and north line of Herrick plot on Chemung. The limits were first ex- tended on the south to confluence of rivers; next north to Mile Hill, or boundary of old Ulster, and again extended, 1886, to include the old Tozer farm and new cemetery.
TIOGA POINT VALLEY, FROM ROUND TOP ( PLATE 3)
7
ATHENS TOWNSHIP
ion by the rivers is into three unequal parts; the broad flat on the east, with the high hills of Litchfield behind; the level triangular plain between the rivers; and west of the rivers a belt of level, alluvial land, from half a mile to a mile and a-half in width. To the west and south of this the surface rises into hills and broken lands.
"The township is now divided into four parts, exclusive of the borough, with acreage as follows: East of the river, 4,344 acres ; northeast corner between rivers, 693 acres; adjacent to Sayre and South Waverly, 824 acres; west of rivers, 20,264 acres; Athens Borough, 1,214 acres; Sayre, 1,420 acres; South Waverly, 478 acres; total, 29,437 acres. The township is surveyed as follows : Beginning on the west bank of the Susquehanna at State line, 110 rods east of the 57th milestone; thence along State line N. 88° 10' W., crossing Chemung River three times, eight miles and 110 rods to 65th milestone; thence south 64 miles to the original old line of Athens; thence east six miles to centre of Sus- quehanna River; thence northerly in said river one mile, crossing to the east side, to the northwest corner of J. Hancock tract; thence on north line of said tract S. 434° E., one mile 31 rods; thence east 314 rods; thence north five miles 72 rods to the south bank of the Susquehanna River ; then up said river, crossing to west bank, 196 rods to beginning. The Chemung River receives Orcutt Creek from the south, Tutelow Creek from the west, and Murray Creek from the west. The Susquehanna River receives Cayuta or Shephard's Creek from the west, one mile below the State line. Wolcott's Creek from the east, one-fourth mile below the State line; Satterlee's Creek from the east, four miles below; Frank- lin's Creek from the east, one-half mile below the south line of old village plot ; Reddington's Creek from the west, a little below the junction, and Buck's Creek from the west, near the south line of the township.
"The high hills and rolling lands were once covered with a dense growth of White Pine, Hemlock, Beech, Birch and Maple, which, if now standing, would be worth millions of dollars. The peninsula, except the Indian meadows, was timbered on the flats with Buttonwood, Black Walnut, Butternut, Hickory and a few oaks and white pine. The higher ground, called the "Pine Plains," was covered with a dense growth of Pitch pine, with some Yellow pine and scrub oak; was a great resort for deer and other wild animals, and was not considered worth clearing. The flats along the river had a dense growth of various trees, including Elms and Maples."-Walker.
Some Observations on the Physiography and Geology of the Valley.
It is a fact, as the late James McFarlane" has said, that while every one is taught geography ; geology, which is just as well worth know- ing, is neglected; and while every child can give the name of town, county and state in which he lives, few grown persons know even the names of the geological formations on which they have spent their life- time. A familiarity with the physical geography and geology of his location would be invaluable to every farmer, and could be easily ac- quired with a little book knowledge to guide him. For geology is a science which must be gathered by observation, both of rock forma- tions and fossils.
The region about Tioga Point is one deserving careful study from geologists for various reasons. It is perfectly apparent that Tioga Point is at present the focus of the drainage system of the country north of it," although it may not have been 'so in the past, and probably was not. A geological observer traveling northward from the Point to the range of hills north of Waverly might well be astounded at the varying conditions discovered within the area.
5 Commissioner of Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania.
6 Roughly estimated as 5,000 square miles of southern New York and northern Penn- sylvania.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
The proximity to the coal fields, and the absence of that mineral ; the wealth of fossils, showing that the tops of the highest hills were covered by the ocean ; and certain other remains and conditions have led to many conjectures among the uninformed. In digging or drilling wells, excavating for cellars, etc., observations have been made as to the varied soils in different parts of the valley. For instance, from Mile Hill down to the Point there is a fine fertile soil with gravel underneath. Yet all over the Plains there is a gravel top, varying in depth from 10 to 40 feet ; also there are great beds of sand, curiously irregular in stratification, with quicksands, clay, etc. Throughout Sayre (as is now, 1907, most evident in laying sewers) there is no bed rock, the gravel being underlaid by a heavy deposit of fine silt, some- times to a depth of one hundred feet or more. There are many clay beds in the valley ; there is a curious conglomerate, cemented with a carbonate, which is held in solution in hard water, and deposited when the water evaporates, which underlies the Point from river to river, sometimes three feet thick, and of an unusual hardness. The pebbles in this are whole and round; the workmen call it "cement gravel." It shows on the Chemung bank back of the residence of W. H. Allen, and on the Susquehanna a little farther north, and appears, in a diag- onal streak, at intervals to the property recently occupied by Charles Kellogg. Repeated efforts were here made in past years to drive a well near Main Street. Occasionally great masses of this crop out in the big sand bank northeast of Sayre, which cannot be broken with the pick.
Said sand bank is one of the curiosities of the valley, its peculiar, varied stratification showing the action of many currents in a stream flowing northward.
While ordinarily gravel seems to underlie the soil on the Point, in digging a well some years ago on the present property of Mrs. L. M. Park, great masses of marine shells alone, with no surrounding shale or cement, were brought to light, almost as white as coral. Just west of Athens on the old Tannery site, perhaps one hundred and fifty feet from the base of the hill, some years since, vain efforts were made to find water. A well ten feet square was dug to a depth of eighty feet through a solid bed of blue clay in which were imbedded very hard rocks or boulders from two to six feet in circumference. No water being found, drilling was commenced a little nearer the hill. A very little fresh water was struck at a depth of two hundred feet, and salt water at a depth of three hundred feet. Very close to the foot of the hill a well was driven, when, at a depth of one hundred feet, fresh water flowed, but not sufficient to complete the well.
Great granite boulders brought from the far north, such as marks Fort Sullivan, are occasionally found on the hills ; and many huge lime- stone boulders lie on the mountains north of Sheshequin. Then there are the many pond holes near Hayden's Corner, and the millstone grit cropping out on Round Top and Sutliff Hill, which is known to under- lie the coal measures only twenty or twenty-five miles south of here. In view of all this it has been thought wise to give our readers the bene-
9
PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
fit of the observations of local geologists, as well as some theories (proven or partially so) of Ralph S. Tarr, the well-known Cornell pro- fessor, who has come to be regarded as an authority on the physical geography of adjacent territory in New York, as well as on glacial con- ditions and influences.
The great age of the earth, even to millions of years, is now a generally accepted fact, made evident by geological investigations. Prof. Tarr says that rocks form the pages and chapters of the history of the globe, and the rock record has been made by a careful study of the fossils found in them. While there is no basis for division into periods of years, the history of the crust of the earth has been divided into ages or stages, each of which may represent perhaps hundreds of thousands of years; but about the number of years there is no certainty, nor that the periods were of equal length. Professor Tarr's so-called Time Scale or Table of Geological Ages is here introduced to assist in the explanation of the Devonian Age or Chemung period. This table reads upward :
Groups.
Periods.
Epochs.
Quartenary or Pleistocene.
Age of man. Glacial period.
Cenozoic Age of Mammals.
Tertiary or Neo- cene and Eocene.
Mammals develop, and to great size. Reptiles diminish.
Cretaceous.
Birds begin, reptiles continue, higher mammals begin, also land plants and insects.
Mesozoic Age of Reptiles.
Jurassic.
Reptiles and lower mammals continue prominent.
Triassic.
Reptiles develop remarkably. Mammals of low form appear.
Carboniferous or Coal Age.
Land plants assume great importance.
Paleozoic Age of Inverte- brates, i. e., bone- less animals, as shellfish.
Devonian.
Chemung and Catskill formation. Fishes begin to be abundant.
Silurian.
Invertebrates prevail (of most import- ance ).
Cambrian.
No forms higher than invertebrates.
Azoic Age.
Archean.
No fossils known.
Studying the sedimentary rocks now being deposited in the ocean, we find but a few feet are laid down in a century ; yet in the Appalach- ian Mountains there are fully 40,000 feet of these, and they were all formed in the Paleozoic age. How many scores of centuries do these
10
OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
represent? It is by such evidence that the geologists have been driven to the conclusion that the age of the earth is great and incalculable.
Wherever the formations are found they occur in the same order as above, but the series is never complete, and in almost every locality some numbers are wanting.
According to the fossils and other remains, there are in this re- gion no evidences of the Mesozoic age, but many of the Paleozoic and Cenozoic. The Chemung rocks, noted in every geology, are here ex- hibited in abundance. This is a widespread shale rock formation, with layers of coarse sandstones and conglomerates, and a wealth of invertebrate fossils, thus plainly locating the formation in the Devonian age, underlying or simultaneous with the Catskill group. This forma- tion extends over nearly all of the southern tier of counties of New York and a portion of northern Pennsylvania. An occasional fish fossil has been found in the quarries, an additional evidence of De-
CRINOIDS BRACHIOPODS
SPIRIFER
vonian. At least twelve or fifteen varieties of marine invertebrates may be found among the fossils, a few of which are pictured in the accompanying plates. The most notable and rare fossil is the star fish found by Miss J. F. Carner on the bank of the Susquehanna not far below the old Academy.' This fossil retains not only the form, but the original color of the star fish. The others shown are all found on the top of the highest hills.
What were the conditions under which the fossils, boulders, etc., were deposited? Unfortunately, geology is yet largely a science of theories, and though great advancement has been made in recent years, and many localities have received careful attention, Prof. Tarr says :
"There are no publications relating to the conditions in the upper Susque- hanna and its tributaries."
This being the case, the student's attention can only be directed to the best books of reference, many of which are in the Athens Public Library : Winchell, Geike, Wright and others, but before all Prof. Tarr's, because he has worked so close to us. The Chemung rock layers give evidence of having been deposited in shallow seas, whose tides made sandy and pebbly beaches, which now appear in the sand- stones and conglomerates, the overlying layers having been washed away by ages of rainfall and other agents of erosion. The most no- ticeable conglomerate is the one cropping out on Round Top and Sutliff Hill, containing white pebbles of varying size (see large plate). This
VVVV ....
11
TIOGA POINT FOSSILS
MILLSTONE GRIT SPIRIFER CRINOIDS
CORAL STAR FISH
12
OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
has always been supposed to be "millstone grit," although Mr. I. P. Shepard, the most active local geologist, defines it more closely as "Olean conglomerate." Whatever its exact name, it is well known that it underlies the coal measures, observable at Barclay, not twenty miles away. (The dip of the formation here is about one foot to four miles.) A good sized quarry of millstone grit was opened fifty years ago on Sutliff Hill, from which was taken material for the great canal locks on the Chemung ; it can also be seen now in our bridge piers. Specks of coal were observed in this, and there was a temporary excitement. Thos. R. Davies and others prospected for coal and made extensive excavations in vain. Finally, the State geologist was sent for, who reported the manifestations to be too slight to consider. Very small beds or pockets of coal have occasionally come to light since. There are also slight indications of oil, enough to torment the venturesome ; and, in a small area two or three miles southeast of the town there is a limited flow of natural gas.
It seems easy to understand the Chemung formations, as they were deposited under salt water as sedimentary rocks are to-day. Along the Atlantic, east of the Appalachian Highland, in what is called the coastal plain, well-preserved salt water shells are generally found as fossils. The explanation is that the sedimentary rocks were formed underneath the ocean while this part of the continent was still sub- merged, being afterwards raised to present level, and not, as has been conjectured, that the ocean here covered our highest hills in any age. The hills bordering the Susquehanna appear to belong to the Appalach- ian system. But all the other deposits noted do not belong to the Devonian age. As Mr. Shepard says :
"The geological ages succeeding the Devonian have left no evidences in this region until the latter part of the Tertiary, when this part of the continent seems to have had a greater elevation above sea level, which condition was fol- lowed by a very extensive subsidence of the eastern part of this continent. There are evidences that the subsidence reached 1,500 feet or more in this region. In the latter part of the tertiary the rivers occupied probably much narrower and deeper gorges than at present, and probably came together between Athens and Waverly."
Mr. Shepard further theorizes thus :
"At that time the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers above Tioga Point became deep tide water streams. The main valley above Athens, during a large part of this time, probably presented the appearance of a large land-locked bay, it now showing traceable shore lines; one of these shore lines in particular cor- responding exactly in elevation with the level top of Spanish Hill." This inun- dated condition continued for a long period of time, as is evidenced by a heavy deposit of fine silt covering the bottom of the old river gorges to a depth of at least one hundred feet, having been penetrated in recent borings at Sayre (near Station Park). This silt is known locally as 'blue clay,' 'quicksand,' etc."
Mr. Shepard bases his opinions on his personal observations, with the aid of works of Dawson, Wright, Shaler and McFarlane as refer- ences.8 No work has ever been done in this valley by the United States
7 To an observer on Spanish Hill these shore lines or terraces are distinct on many hills in sight, the line being just below the Sayre reservoir.
8 If the shells found in digging wells mentioned are recent marine shells, as supposed, it is proof that the material in which they were found was deposited in salt water, and Mr. Shepard's theory seems corroborated.
13
GEOLOGY, GLACIAL PERIOD
Geological Survey, and, as there are many conjectures and some con- flicting theories, it is hoped more thorough investigations may be made in the near future, for it is evident that the conditions in this little valley are of somewhat unusual interest. Until such investigations have been made the best guide doubtless is Prof. Tarr's Physical Geography of New York State, to be found in Athens School Library. Speaking of the upper Susquehanna and its tributaries, Tarr says: "Having worked to some extent in this valley, I have seen that there are problems of importance connected with the changes in the river's course." He tells the student how streams at first cut steep-sided valleys, which by weathering, especially in our moist climate, became rounded hills and broadly sloping valleys such as environ us to-day.
Unquestionably the Susquehanna, and probably the Chemung, thousands of years ago, ran in deep gorges now buried out of sight. It is also possible that the Susquehanna flowed toward the north, perhaps in the valley now occupied by Shepard's Creek, or farther west, as Prof. Tarr says it is not improbable that some of the drainage found its way northward to Lake Ontario through the valley of Seneca Lake. While evidence is not complete, the silt or drift is much deeper near the lake than a few miles farther south. The change of drainage must have been brought about by glacial action, for the Tertiary period, with its mild climate, was succeeded by the Glacial period, with arctic cold, at which time sheets of ice forming great continental glaciers extended down into the present temperate zone. The cause of this great change is not known, but it is a fact, first discovered by Agassiz, that, fed from some centre in the far north, possibly Labrador, the ice sheet or glacier advanced irregularly over the eastern part of the continent, at which time the watershed of the North Branch of the Susquehanna and its tributaries was covered with creeping ice, its most southern tongues or points extending about as far south as Wilkes-Barré.
Ice is a solid, but in great masses it can flow or move over surfaces, carrying in its lower layers a load of rock fragments, varying in size from boulders to clay particles, and pushing ever before it an increas- ing ridge of boulders, fragments of stone and sand.9 For the moving glacier naturally swept off the top soil and all loose rock fragments and ground them fine; it also grooved the bed rock, scratched or polished the pebbles, and it can easily be seen that the finer particles would settle down, ready to form sand or clay beds when the glacier halted, which it did just at the head of the valley. At that time, from Labrador to Penn- sylvania, no land appeared above the ice, except an occasional moun- tain peak, for the depth seems to have been greater than a mile in some places.10 Near the southern margin the ranges of hills separated the projecting tongues of the glacier front, and when the sun grew warm the ice melted somewhat, and vast floods of water poured upon the hillsides and thence into the valleys. Naturally the drainage was now southward. Some of the St. Lawrence system then entered the
9 While few can visit a modern glacier to see and understand this, all can see the ex- cellent plate from a Greenland photograph, Fig. 55, p. 113, Tarr's Physical Geography, N. Y., which represents just the condition which once existed in this valley.
10 Tarr's Phys. Geog., N. Y., pp. 108 et seq.
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OLD TIOGA POINT AND EARLY ATHENS
Susquehanna, bringing not only water but much rock material, some of which settled to the base of the ice. The time when the great glacial streams carried off the water from the melting ice, bearing also large quantities of sediment, was called the flooded river epoch. At this time the Chemung evidently filled the whole valley from Big Flats to Horseheads, covering the present site of Elmira, and making what Tarr calls an "Overwash Plain," the one mentioned being one of the best in- stances observed by him.
The two great streams in this valley doubtless combined to give it the appearance of a great lake, the old channel to the north choked up by glaciers, and to the south very likely dammed by floating bergs in the narrow gorge at Ulster, so that the water ran over the tops of surrounding hills. As the ice melted the land appeared strewn with boulders from the far north, of limestone and granite. Our own plain from Mile Hill to the hills back of Waverly would doubtless be given the name of a "gravel-filled valley plain," the slope being too slight to allow the great floods to carry off all the sediment, the result of which would be to fill the old river beds and allow the streams to flow over the plain in numerous channels. Naturally, the retreat of the ice was intermittent,11 and the halts formed terminal moraines in irregular lines or masses of the solid material which had been pushed in front of the tongues of ice. A terminal moraine12 is a system of hummocky knolls, saucer or kettle shaped basins, and hills circular, elliptical or ridge like, compared to the wind-blown sand deposits seen in a sand dune region, as at the seashore in some localities. The moraine can be easily recog- nized in the gravel ridges of Ellistown, the kettle holes near Hayden's Corners, the Heights of West Sayre and Spanish Hill.
Doubtless in the flooded river epoch the whole valley was filled with silt or river drift as high as the top level of Spanish Hill. As the water subsided it has been thought not improbable that the two streams met just where the great sand bank is northeast of Sayre, as this has every appearance of having been formed when there were opposing currents. But recent investigations show a great bed of gravel south of the sand bank, indicating a delta deposit from a stream flowing to- ward the north.
The general opinion of Prof. Tarr's students differs from Mr. Shepard's theories. Both are given as an incentive to further investi- gation. The Tarr theory is that it was glacial drift which filled and buried the old river valleys, and that the "shore lines" are the top of the drift or silt. One of the best evidences of this is the till or boulder clay already spoken of as found near the old tannery site. This is made up of material that was on, in or under the ice,13 the clay being a rock flour, its color due to the undecayed particles. This was made by the grinding of the rocks as the glacier dragged them along. The boulder clay may be termed the first product of the terminal moraine, deposited with the fine silt, and sometimes washed out later by the flooded streams. At the point mentioned it was doubtless protected
11 Some geologists believe that there were two or more glacial periods or epochs, and Prof. G. E. Rogers thinks some phenomena of the valley might thus be more easily explained. 12 See Tarr's Phys. Geog. 13 Idem, p. 139.
·
15
PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY
by the proximity of the rock wall of the old river gorge, being seldom found elsewhere in the valley. The Susquehanna and, doubtless, the Chemung are flowing high above the old rock bottom of their pre- glacial valley.14 This would easily account for the absence of bed rock in Sayre, although showing a great change in position of river beds. Doubtless the buried valley of the Chemung lies under the blue clay in West Athens ; and the same conditions as in Sayre, near N. F. Walk- er's residence, give evidence there of the buried valley of the Sus- quehanna.
The kettle-shaped depressions known as the pond holes of the plains are easily understood by geologists, similar kettles being in pro- cess of making in Greenland. They were sometimes caused by irreg- ularities of deposits, or through the influence of currents swirling about, forming eddies here and there. In the majority of cases, how- ever, the kettle has been made because when the sediment was being deposited that particular point was occupied by an ice fragment or a stranded iceberg.15 Drift was deposited all around the stranded ice, and, finally, over it. Naturally, when the ice melted the sediment must settle down, forming the kettle hole. A vivid imagination can possibly. picture Oak Grove Park occupied by a good sized iceberg ten thousand years ago.
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