USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the Juniata Valley and its people, Volume I > Part 2
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( Hudson River,
1,000
Slates and shales.
III
Utica,
500
Dark shales.
Trenton,
500
Limestone.
II
Chazy,
Calciferous,
5,000
Limestone.
Į
Potsdam,
2,000
Sandstone and slate.
Total thickness. 32,725 feet.
In the above table No. I belongs to the Cambrian age; Nos. 2 and 3 to the Lower Silurian; Nos. 4 to 7, inclusive, to the Upper Silurian; group No. 8 to the Devonian, and Nos. 9 to 13 to the Carboniferous. The Potsdam sandstone of No. I, the Chazy and Calciferous limestones of No. 2, and Nos. 12 and 13 are not found in the Juniata district, except in the Broad Top coal fields of Hunting- don county. Commenting upon the table, the report from which it is taken says:
"All the formations vary greatly in thickness in the different coun- ties, and even in different parts of a county ; and in some places were not deposited at all; so that the thicknesses assigned to them in the table must not be taken as exactly correct, but only as general indica- tions. It appears then that more than six miles of material accumulated in middle Pennsylvania while it was the bed of a sea; so that in places where these rocks exist in full thickness a bore-hole would have to be sunk to that depth to reach the Azoic rocks on which they lie."
In all the counties of this district the lowest rocks are of the Trenton formation. The highest rocks in Huntingdon belong to the Coal Measures and are found in the Broad Top field. In Mifflin and Juniata the highest rocks belong to the Chemung shale, and in Perry county the highest formation is the Mauch Chunk red shale. Near Duncannon, and at a few other places in Perry, are found narrow belts of a dark, tough rock, called "trap-rock." This rock, which is easily recognized by its color, weight and toughness, is thought by some authorities to be a form of lava, forced from the earth's interior in some ancient era. Quartz, the basis of sandstone, exists in all the counties and geodes, hollow bowlders studded on the inside with quartz crystals, have been found in Perry county. Berite (sulphate of barium),
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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
a heavy spar used chiefly to adulterate white lead, has been found in veins of limestone in Mifflin county, but the deposits are too small to be of any commercial value.
To describe in detail the varied geological features of the Juniata valley would require a large volume, and as economic geology-that is, the study and description of the mineral deposits that may be turned to industrial or commercial advantage-is the most important and in- teresting branch of the science, the remainder of this chapter will be devoted to that phase of the subject. Mention has already been made of the belief of a century ago, that the mountain ranges along the Juniata were full of mineral wealth. So strong was this belief at one time that large sums of money were expended by optimistic individuals in boring for coal, especially in Perry county. Small deposits of this mineral have been found in the Devonian rocks near Duncannon in two veins-one ten and the other thirty inches in thickness. In Berry mountain, in Buffalo township, and at some other points in the county there are shallow veins, but the coal is soft and contains a large propor- tion of ash, so that the deposits cannot be worked with profit. As the great coal mines of the world are found only in the upper forma- tions of the Carboniferous age, the geological survey of Pennsylvania proved beneficial to those seeking coal in the Juniata region by showing that no coal measures were to be found in that part of the state. Since the survey no further expenditures have been made in the district, except in the Broad Top field in Huntingdon county. Concerning this field, R. A. Ramsey, of Wilkinsburg, in an article on the "Economic Geology of Pennsylvania," published in January, 1913, says :
"The Broad Top Mountain in Huntingdon, Bedford and Fulton counties contains the eastern or isolated basin, and covers an area of fully 100 square miles. Coal was known to exist in that region at the beginning of the last century, and mines were worked over one hundred years ago. The operations were on an exceedingly small scale until the completion of the Huntingdon & Broad Top and the East Broad Top railroads. The shipments from this region exceed 3,000,000 tons annually."
In this connection it is of interest to note that the first coal mines developed in the United States were in the bituminous fields of western Pennsylvania. As early as 1760 a coal mine was in operation across
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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
the Monongahela river from old Fort Pitt; the first shipment of coal from Pittsburgh was made in 1803; and the consumption of coal in 1910 was over 85,000,000 tons. Concerning the deposits of iron ore in Pennsylvania, Mr. Ramsey says :
"The iron ores of our state may be grouped under four classes : magnetite, brown hematite, red hematite and carbonate. Means are not accessible by which the output of the different kinds can be given. There are six different iron ore fields in Pennsylvania: The Cambria field includes part of Somerset, Cambria, Bedford and Blair counties. The center field is composed of parts of Huntingdon, Centre and Clin- ton counties. The Lebanon field includes parts of Cumberland, Perry, Dauphin, Lebanon, York and Lancaster counties. The Schuylkill field embraces parts of Schuylkill. Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties. The Scranton field is made up of parts of Wyoming, Lackawanna and Luzerne counties, and the Clarion field of parts of Clarion, Jefferson and Forest counties."
According to this arrangement of ore fields, Huntingdon and Perry counties are the only ones mentioned as belonging to the ore-bearing districts. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Ramsey failed to include the other counties in the Juniata valley, iron ores have been found at various places in the valley, the principal ones being hematite or fossil ore, block ore and limonite, also called brown hematite. Iron ore is seen in most all the geological formations, but the most profitable deposits are found in the Clinton, Marcellus and Hamilton beds, which furnish practically all the fossil ore in the four counties.
The first geological survey of the Juniata valley was made in 1839-40 by the state geologist. H. D. Rogers, assisted by Dr. A. H. Henderson. The latter's investigations were made along the east side of Shade mountain, on Jack's mountain and Sideling ridge and ex- tended south to Blue mountain. This survey determined the existence of a fossil ore belt, the eastern end of which was in the east end of Jack's mountain and the western terminus in the Black Log moun- tain. Outcrops were observed all along the south flank of Jack's moun- tain, in the east end of Shade mountain, at several places in the Blue ridge, in the Black Log mountain, along the west side of Shade mountain, and in the ridges on both sides of the Juniata river. The discovery of these deposits of ore turned attention to the iron industry, and ore banks were soon opened at a number of places in the four counties.
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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
In 1874 a more complete survey of the fossil ore belt in the Juniata district was made. This second survey determined with greater ac- curacy the extent and limits of the ore deposits, noted pockets of hematite in the Oriskany shale and discovered outcrops of the Clinton formation in the Tuscarora mountain in Juniata county.
The summary of the final report of the state geologist for 1892 (p. 750) says: "The fossil iron ore industry of Pennsylvania has centered at Danville and Bloomsburg on the N. Branch Susquehanna, at Frankstown and Hollidaysburg on the upper Juniata, at Orbisonia in southern Huntingdon, and along the Lewistown valley in Mifflin and Snyder counties."
In Perry county the outcrops of formation No. 5 are numerous and arranged in zigzags. The upper fossil ore and the lower iron bearing sandstone are plainly indicated by ridges upon the surface, and several good beds of ore occur in the Clinton sandstone and shale. The iron sandstone, with its block iron ore, is found on the lower Juniata and at other places in middle Pennsylvania. At the Susquehanna gap and along the crest of the Blue mountain it is eighty feet thick; twenty-five feet thick at Mifflintown; seven feet at Lewistown, and three feet at Mount Union. The report of 1892 describes the base of this sand- stone on the Juniata as a "hard, block iron ore, about twenty-five feet thick. of good quality, but nowhere worked except near Millerstown."
Shade mountain, Blue ridge and Black Log mountain are sur- rounded by Clinton and Onondaga outcrops containing fossil ore beds, which have been worked to some extent along the south side of Shade mountain in Juniata county, and more extensively worked on the west side of the Black Log from Newton Hamilton southward to the Augwick valley. Orbisonia, Huntingdon county, is the center of the mining industry in this field.
Brown hematite ore deposits follow the outcrops of the middle Onondaga in the Huntingdon valley, which lies between Standing Stone and Tussey's mountain. A sample of this ore taken from an outcrop near Marklesburg showed nearly 45 per cent. iron and another sample nearly 60 per cent. Ten analyses of samples taken from the Danville ore beds in Penn and Walker townships of Huntingdon county showed from 49 to 55 per cent. iron. The Greenwood Furnace district in the northeastern part of Huntingdon county has been for years a mining
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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
center of the Danville ores. The Danville beds were first worked in 1839 and the first furnace in that field was built by Chambers, Biddle & Company in 1843. The Saltillo fossil ore bed appears at places in the shales of the Onondaga formation along Tussey's mountain and is mined at Saltillo, near the south end of Jack's mountain.
In the middle Juniata valley in Mifflin county there are numerous deposits of fossil ore which were formerly profitably worked, when iron was reduced from ores by means of charcoal furnaces, but in recent years most of these workings have been discontinued. In this field, Joseph Snyder's ore bank, about four miles southwest of Yeager- town, was opened in 1845 in a vein of ore about eighteen inches thick. Some of the ore was taken to Lewistown, where it was pronounced good, but owing to lack of transportation facilities the deposits there were never fully developed. Keever's ore bank was located in a ravine in Ferguson's valley, about two miles southwest of Yeagertown. Six miles southwest of Yeagertown was John Cupple's ore bank. A mile farther southwest was McKee's bank, and a mile west of McKee's was John Sheehan's ore bank. In the first ravine west of Sheehan's were the McCord and Rothrock banks. Near Three Locks Wakefield & Cavenaugh operated an iron mine from 1853 to 1873, and during that time about 45.000 tons of ore were taken from the deposits. The Mineheart bank, four miles southwest of Lewistown, was opened in 1859 or 1860 by John Mineheart, who later transferred it to the Glamorgan Iron Company. Several thousand tons of ore were taken from this bank.
Dr. Henderson, in his report of the survey of 1839-40, mentions a bed of "brown, cellular hematite ore from eight to ten feet thick," belonging to the Marcellus formation south of Newport on the Juniata river. Professor Claypole, in his report on the geology of Perry county in 1885, says the Marcellus ore had then been mined in Limestone ridge south of Newport, near the old Juniata furnace and a mile north of New Bloomfield; in the iron ridge south and west of the old Perry furnace; in the Mahanoy ridge at New Bloomfield and three miles west of that town; in Bell's hill near Little Germany; in the Pisgah hills near the Oak Grove furnace; near the town of Landisburg and at a few other places in the county. Ore of the same character has been mined at Lewistown and McVeytown, in Mifflin county, and in the
I2
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
from four to seven feet thick and lie immediately below the Marcellus vicinity of Orbisonia, Huntingdon county, where the deposits range black shales. The outcrop of this ore in the Huntingdon valley runs from Three Springs by way of Saltillo through the Hare valley and north to the Juniata at Mapleton.
Limestone has been formed from organic remains at some period in the remote past. Some of it is of coral growth, but most of the earth's great limestone deposits are fossiliferous and have been pro- duced by sea animals. The fossil shells, etc., so frequently found in lime- stone bear witness to the fact that where such stone now exists was once the bed of a sea. The limestone of the Juniata valley belongs to either the Trenton or lower Helderberg formations. As early as 1870 the latter was quarried near Lewistown, and for this reason some authorities have conferred upon it the name of "Lewistown limestone." It lies under the Oriskany shale, and the deposits at Lewistown are about 140 feet in thickness. When burned, this limestone produces a fine quality of lime which has been extensively used for fluxing at iron furnaces. Some layers or ledges, rarely over one foot thick, consist of a hard blue limestone, excellent for building purposes. Below the Lewistown limestone lies the "water-lime," which in the Lewistown valley is from 450 to 470 feet in thickness. Much of it is hydraulic in character and some of it makes a fair grade of cement. In Perry county it is known as the "Bossardville limestone." and at Clark's mill in Center township it has been used in the manufacture of lime. The Marcellus limestone has also been burned in Perry county, especially in Madison township, and yields a good quality of lime. There are some pure limestone layers near Barree, Huntingdon county, but they are overlaid by 175 feet of shales. This formation may be seen in the Pennsylvania railroad cut a short distance east of Barree station.
Sandstones of different ages and varying qualities are found in every county in this field, though most of them are too soft for use as building stones. Oriskany sandstone is seen near the tops of the ridges. Bridgeport sandstone along Sherman's creek in Perry county has been used as rough building stone and similar deposits are known to exist near Landisburg in the same county. The Delaware flagstone series of the Catskill period furnish some good quarries near Liverpool, and the Hamilton sandstone has also been mined to some extent in
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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
Perry county. The Medina sandstone has been used extensively by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as ballast.
Clay suitable for brickmaking exists in nearly every valley in the Juniata district, but the deposits have been only partially developed.
Two kinds of ocher-red and yellow-are found at various places. These are iron ores, more or less impure and capable of being easily reduced to powder, the red ocher being in composition the same as hematite and the yellow a limonite. Overlying the Oriskany sandstone in Perry county is a bed of iron ore of this character which has been utilized for mineral paint and is similar to the paint ore found in Rocky ridge at the Lehigh water gap.
Galena lead ore has been found in small quantities in the Onondaga shales and the Lower Helderberg limestone. The geological report for 1892 says: "A mile northeast of McConnellstown shafts were sunk and tunnels driven into the lowest hard limestones in Warrior's ridge, but only lumps of lead ore were found inclosed in veins of calcite ramifying through the lime rock, amounting in all to not a ton of lead ore. It is quite safe to predict that neither lead nor zinc will ever be profitably mined from this horizon in this district, nor in any other district of this formation in the State of Pennsylvania."
One of the most valuable mineral deposits in the Juniata valley is the glass sand found in the vicinity of Lewistown, Vineyard and McVeytown in Mifflin county, near Mapleton, Huntingdon county, and in some other places. The sand is the product of some of the rocks belonging to the Oriskany formation and is especially rich in silica, oxide of iron and alumina, which elements render it particularly avail- able for the manufacture of glass. Large quantities of this sand are shipped to Pittsburgh and other glass-making centers.
(Further information regarding the development of the mineral resources of the four counties may be found in Chapter IX.)
CHAPTER II
ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS
The Mound-builders-Speculation Concerning Them-Relics in Juniata County- Description of by Professor Guss-Indian Groups at the Close of the Fifteenth Century-Their Distribution and Principal Tribes-The "Five Nations"-The Susquehannas-Their Prowess in War-Their Overthrow by the Iroquois-The Juniatas-Origin of Their Name-The Standing Stone-Its History and Tradi- tions-The Tuscaroras-Driven to the Juniata Valley-The "Six Nations"- Indian Names of Natural Features.
W HO were the first inhabitants of North America? The question is more easily asked than answered. When the white man came he found here the Indian, with his past shrouded in tradition and mystery, and in various parts of the country there are curious relics of a more ancient race known as "Mound Builders," the most noted specimens being found in Wisconsin, Ohio and Tennessee. Much speculation has been indulged in with regard to the period when the Mound Builders were here. Some writers have maintained that the race was one of great antiquity. On some of the ancient earth- works great trees have been found growing-trees that were old when Columbus discovered America. Because of this fact, together with other evidences, the earliest investigators of the mounds advanced the theory of great age. More recent investigations, particularly those con- ducted under the auspices of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, have led to the conclusion that the Mound Builders were the immediate ancestors of the Indians, and that the time when they inhabited the country was not so remote as formerly supposed. Probably the most celebrated mound so far discovered is the Great Serpent, in Adams county, Ohio. This mound, which is in the form of a serpent, was once an ancient fortification and has been deemed of such importance to the study of archaeology that the state has purchased the site in order that the ruins may be preserved.
There is very little evidence that the Mound Builders ever inhabited the Juniata valley. Flint arrow and spear heads, stone axes and other
14
15
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
implements have been found in a few places, but it is quite probable they represent the work of some ancient Indian tribe. Professor A. L. Guss gives the following account of a mound and fort found in Beale township, Juniata county :
"At Bryner's Bridge, two miles above Academia, there are the remains of an ancient Indian mound of human bones, and near by there was once an Indian fort. The mound is on the creek bottom, about one hundred yards from the north end of the bridge, on the upper side of the road, and now ( 1886) consists only of an unplowed spot, thirty feet long and twenty wide, grown up with wild plum bushes. Originally it was a huge sepulchre. Octogenarians living near informed the writer that they conversed with the original settlers con- cerning it, and were told that when they first saw it, it was as high as a hunter's cabin (fifteen feet), and that its base covered an eighth of an acre. Other old folks describe it as having been twelve feet high and one hundred feet in diameter, with an oval base. Ninety years ago there stood upon it a large elm tree. Some eighty years ago this property was owned by George Casner, who, with his sons, Frederick, Jacob and John, hauled out the greater portion of the mound and scat- tered it over the fields. An old lady says she saw the bottom all white with bleaching bones after it had rained. Even after this spoliation the mound was six feet high; but afterwards it was plowed over for a number of years until it became nearly level. Students from the acad- emy frequented it for teeth and other relics. Quite a number of stone axes and flint arrow-heads, pipes and other relics were exhumed, all of which have been lost sight of and carried away. It is believed by intelligent old citizens that this mound was the result of some terrible battle between two hostile tribes, who thus summarily disposed of their dead.
"At the lower end of the bottom, Doyle's Mill Run enters the creek. Its bank on the side next the mound, for some distance, has a perpendicular cliff about twenty-five feet high. Between this cliff and the high bank bordering the bottom, at the edge of the swamp, there is an elevated flat of perhaps twenty acres, of triangular shape, extend- ing on the west to a high ridge, the end of which is opposite the mound. This elevated point between the run and swamp is called the Old Fort Field. The point of the Fort Field is down the creek and about three hundred or four hundred yards below the mound. No one knows how long the name Old Fort Field has been in use. There are three things about this field that deserve notice, and, as in the case of the mound, it is a pity that they were not described by a competent scholar before they were obliterated.
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HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
"I. There was an earth-work thrown up, from the cliff on the run to the creek bottom bank, enclosing about three acres of the elevated point, which, by nature and art, was thus rendered perfectly inaccessi- ble. Persons yet living saw this earthen bank when it was three feet high. It was semicircular in form, with the concave side next the point of the elevated land. It was composed entirely of ground and had clever saplings growing upon it. By frequent plowing and cultivation it has now become almost entirely obliterated.
"2. Within this enclosure Mr. Milliken, some years ago, plowed up an old fire-hearth or altar, composed of flat, smooth creek stones, on which rested a quantity of charcoal and ashes, articles which are almost indestructible. Such altars among the Ohio mound-builders are not regarded as mere fire-places, but probably connected with the council- house or sacrificial devotions.
"3. One of the most interesting remains of this fort or ancient fortified village is a series of 'steps' cut in the rock, near the point of the enclosure, leading down to Doyle's Run. These steps were very distinct to the first settlers, and are, in fact, yet well defined. Neighbor- ing children used to go to 'play at the Indian stone steps.' These steps could not have been formed by any process of nature, such as the crumblings of alternate seams of the strata, for the rock here is tilted on its edge and admits of no lateral cleavage.
"We have here the earth-work, the hearth and the carved steps, and their proximity to the mound certainly links their history together. Was this a military fort. and are the bones the result of a battle fought there, or was it simply a fortified village and the bones the natural accumulation of successive burials ?"
The Black Log valley, in Huntingdon county, was once a favorite hunting ground for the Indians. On Sandy ridge, about two miles north of Orbisonia, may still be seen faint traces of an old burial ground, while not far distant is a cave in which there is a chamber supported by pillars, and which once contained many bones, imple- ments, ornaments of teeth, etc. A burial ground used by the natives at a more recent date is located on a knoll near the town of Orbisonia. Here flint arrowheads, stone hatchets or tomahawks, pieces of flint and other relics have been found in abundance.
At the time Columbus made his first voyage to the New World the continent of North America was inhabited by four great groups or families of Indians, each of which was composed of a number of subordinate tribes. In the far north were the Eskimo, a sluggish people
17
HISTORY OF THE JUNIATA VALLEY
who lived in huts of ice or snow and subsisted largely upon fish. South of the Eskimo were the Algonquian group, or Algonquins, occupying a large triangle roughly bounded by the Atlantic coast, a line drawn from Labrador to the western end of Lake Superior, and a line from that point to the coast near the mouth of the Savannah river. South of the Algonquins and east of the Mississippi river were the Muskhogean tribes, the principal of which were the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles. To the west of the Mississippi and occupying the great valley of the Missouri river lay the Siouan group, which included the Sioux, Iowas, Pawnees, Blackfeet and Sauks and Foxes, the wildest of all the North American Indians. In the far west were the Shoshonean and Athapascan tribes, the best known of which were the Shoshones, Snakes and Comanches.
The members of the central, southern and western groups all possessed the same physical characteristics-the red or copper-colored skin, coarse, straight black hair and high cheek bones. They were rarely corpulent, strong, athletic and enduring, swift on foot and skillful in handling a canoe. Keen-eyed and observant, they could follow a trail through the forest, where a civilized man could hardly see that a leaf or a blade of grass had been disturbed. As friends they were true and faithful, but as enemies they were cruel and treacherous. A few practiced the art of agriculture in a primitive way, raising a limited quantity of corn, beans, etc., but the majority lived by the chase. In some tribes the people built log huts, but the wigwam or tepee was the most common form of dwelling. This was constructed by arranging poles in the form of a circle, lashing them together at the top and then covering this rude framework with skins. A flap of one of the skins formed the door, and the only method of warming the interior was to build a fire upon the ground in the middle of the wigwam, allowing the smoke to escape through a hole at the top. Frequently a number of wigwams would be erected close together, the whole surrounded by a stockade, thus constituting a village. Their implements and weapons were of the most primitive character, usually of flint or other stone, and their clothing was generally composed of the skins of animals slain during the hunt, though some wove blankets of buffalo hair.
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