USA > Pennsylvania > Beaver County > History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and Its Centennial Celebration, Volume II > Part 56
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The excuse for this was, that Pennsylvania had provided for a com- mission to ascertain and locate the early forts. But every one of
"For full discussion of boundary controversy, see vol. i., pp. 131-143; of land titles, Chapter V.
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reflection knew that the State would not erect monuments, and do the work necessary to mark these important war memorials. And so the result proved. The commission did a good work, in finding and locating over two hundred forts, blockhouses, and other defences of that early day.' But no money was reported to build monuments or memorials, and, indeed, could not be, for the expense would have risen to a million or more dollars. But so it often is; the short-sighted and self-interested, leave Time to bury our memorials beyond recovery.
* See note p. 47, vol. i.
Appendires
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APPENDIX No. I THE GEOLOGY OF BEAVER COUNTY
WITH the exception of small deposits of glacial materials, probably confined to the northern portion of the county, and of the beds of sands, gravels and clays, we find along the valleys of the larger streams, the surface of Beaver County is entirely carved from the rocks of the lower- middle portion of the Carboniferous strata.
The lowest rocks exposed are found in the gorge of the Conoquenessing which forms the natural boundary of the county on the north, and in the gorge of the Big Beaver; the highest are found in Hanover township, the vertical distance between the extremes being about 1275'. The lowest rocks are the Conoquenessing Sandstones and the Mercer Group, and the exposed thickness of these formations is about 150'. Next overlying is the Homewood Sandstone, of varying thickness, but averaging about 75'. It derives its name from its abnormal development at Homewood, this county, where, cutting out the formations overlying, it reached a thickness of 150'. It reaches from the Lawrence County line down the Big Beaver to its mouth, and thence, at about ordinary water level, down the Ohio, to the State line. It is the rock in which the gas wells at Beaver Falls were started, it is seen at water level at the mouth of Brady's Run, and is the rock on which we find the rude carvings1 at Smith's Ferry, here being exposed at low water in the Ohio. The Conoquenessing Sandstones, the Mercer Group, and the Homewood Sandstone belong to the Pottsville Sandstone found farther east, and in the early reports are designated as XII. These rocks occasionally have traces of oil, and are very similar to the "oil sands" as their structure has been revealed to us by the drill and excavations.
The Carboniferous strata above the Homewood have been divided into several general groups or series, the three lowest of which are found in Beaver County. Passing upward, we find immediately overlying the Homewood, a series known as the Allegheny (lower Productive) Series. This series is in Beaver County about 325' in thickness. Overlying this we have the Conemaugh (Lower Barren) Series, about 600' in thickness, and over this we find in Hanover township, about 126' of the Mononga- hela (Upper Productive) Series.
The lowest point in the county is low water in the Ohio at the State
1 See pp. 933, 934.
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line, about 670' A.T." the highest point is the summit of Big Knob, about 1450' A.T .; so the extremes of elevation are within about 800'. The elevation of the Conoquenessing, where the lowest strata are exposed, is about 800' A.T. and of the summits of Hanover township where the highest (geologically) strata are found, is probably about 1350' A.T., an absolute difference of about 550'. Thus there is an evident dip in the rock formations, in a line with a general southwesterly direction, of some 700' to 750', or an average of about 30' per mile, a dip so small that it affects erosion only where there are strong local variations.
There is no reason to think that any great thickness of strata was ever deposited over the present surface of the county, although it is of course quite evident that the general level at the time of maximum deposition was above the top of the highest knobs now remaining. These high knobs have been preserved by the hard stratum capping them, or have been saved by their position from general erosion by the currents that swept over the land surface. It is probable that a few hundred feet, or even less, above the top of the present high knobs, would be all the strata that were deposited in the Carboniferous Age.
Immediately upon the surface rising above water level, erosion began. It is of course utterly inconceivable that the surface at the close of the deposition period was absolutely level. It would be what we might denominate a plain. The eye might call it a uniform plain, but the presence of water shows it is irregularly rolling. Again, whatever cause raised the surface above the level of deposition, it is evident that some portions would be raised more than others. For these reasons, when the surface first rose above water level, the first rain would start erosion. The water falling upon the higher parts would drain off into the lower places, it would accumulate in these until it would overflow into an adjoining basin, and thus, gradually, a line of erosion would form which would in time become a river.
It is impossible for us to follow the earliest drainage, but the main lines probably followed the same courses as the present streams. Since first Beaver County rose above the level of deposition, during the latter part of the Carboniferous Period, it has never been the seat of any general deposition but most of it has experienced continuous erosion. The only exceptions to this are the small deposits of ice-borne material during the Ice Age, and the alluvial deposits we find in the larger valleys.
Although we do not know the lines of the earliest drainage, yet we have the records of three distinct systems of drainage, but each of these systems occupying the same lines.
The earliest system preceded the Ice Age. It was a very old system. Its valleys were well rounded and smoothed, it had few gorges or falls, but the streams ran in wide, level valleys, bounded by gently sloping hills. This system of drainage was at a higher level than the present one,
1 In the absence of good maps it is impossible to give with accuracy the location or eleva- tion of any point in Beaver County. This much needed work is now in progress under direction of the U. S. Geological Survey, and topographic maps of most of the county will soon be ready for distribution.
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flowing over what was called in the Second Geological Survey of Penna. the Fourth Terrace. The main stream had its origin at the headwaters of the present Monongahela, and at the site of Pittsburg it was joined by a stream which drained a portion of the present Allegheny basin (the upper Allegheny basin at that time drained northward, through the "Carll River," into the "Erigan River" which then occupied the valley now filled by Lake Erie). From Pittsburg this stream flowed northward, by the present valley, and at Beaver it was joined by a stream coming from highlands of Ohio and West Virginia, beyond Wheeling, and the combined stream, then a mighty river, flowed northward by the way of the present Beaver valley and formed a large tributary of the Erigan River. The bed of this old stream has all the marks of old age and had approached, if indeed it had not reached, the condition of a base level stream, a time when erosion is reduced to a minimum. There is no question of the direction of this stream's flow. The fall of the old bed, as shown by the fragments still remaining, clearly points out the direction of the stream's flow, and in addition thereto we have near Clinton the absolute evidence shown in a number of "pot-holes" that have been preserved in the Homewood Sandstone. "Pot-holes" are a sure indication of the direction of a stream's flow, and here they plainly show that the forming stream flowed northward, up the present valley.I
This stream had endured for a long time, it began before the Allegheny Mountains were formed, it saw them raised to an elevation of over five miles and then gradually eroded, by the falling rain, to their present diminutive size. It passed through all stages of river life. It began a small rivulet, it grew until it was a mighty stream, draining a vast area; it reached old age, when it ceased to erode its bed any deeper-then came extinction. In the revolution of time another great change was coming on in North America, and a vast elevation of the northern portion of the continent began.
This elevation continued until it reached some 1200' to 1500' above the present surface, and with it came the extinction of the earlier drainage systems, and in many cases a permanent reversal in the direction of their flow.
The elevation of the land to the northward resulted in the Glacial Period, with its accumulation of snow and resultant ice, many hundreds of feet in thickness. Just as we find is the case to-day, so it was then, the accumulation of ice resulted in a flow in all directions where unob- structed. Ice is in many respects a fluid, and obeys many of the laws of fluids, and this flowage of ice is one of the well established facts of physics.
As the ice progressed it filled up the valleys, it plowed up the soils and
1 At that time the Great Lakes had not been formed. The beds of the present Lakes were great valleys drained by large rivers. The Huron basin drained into the Ontario basin by a stream crossing from the Georgian Bay basin, under Lake Simcoe. The Erie basin was also drained into the Ontario basin (at the western end) by the "Erigan" River, which carried the drainage of a very large area. The "Carll River," above mentioned, draining the upper Allegheny basin; the stream carrying the drainage of our own county; and also the drainage from Kanawha basin, which then crossed Ohio and emptied into the Erie basin near its western end, all flowed into it. VOL. 11 .- 37.
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loose portions of the surface rocks it found in its path, and pushed a vast accumulation of the debris thus collected before and along with it, and much of this accumulated material, in turn, helped to scratch and cut the surface of the rocks successively covered by the ice in its further progress.
By most Glacialists in America, the Ice Age has been divided into several stages or periods. There was in the region north of us a first advance of the ice, then a withdrawal to an undetermined distance and then a readvance, followed by a final withdrawal and disappearance. Beaver County was only reached by the ice at the time of its greatest development, and only the northwestern corner of the county, reaching but a few miles east of the Beaver, was covered by the last advance, and hence the direct action of the ice had but little effect in Beaver County.
Following this elevation of the land to the north came a period when the streams had much more fall, and perhaps a time of less rainfall. During this period a second system of drainage was formed.
This system lies at a lower level than the present streams. It was of short duration, for only the main lines of drainage have been cut down from the level of the beds of the earlier system. Of this system of drain- age we really know but little, for the depths of the now buried channels can only be revealed to us by the drill and the data are therefore very slow in accumulating, nor is there any one to collect and keep the scattered records. Pennsylvania seems to be too poor to maintain a permanent survey, nor has it been possible to maintain a voluntary association of those interested in the study of history and science in this county.
The gorges in which these streams flowed are quite narrow and gener- ally they flowed under the present streams, but at some points departed from present lines, and in these cases were generally straighter than the present streams. In the cutting of these gorges, as is always the case in river sculpture, many shelves or benches were left, lining the sides of the gorges at various heights. The exact age of the cutting has been a some- what disputed question. It is now admitted, however, that it was during the time of the retreat of the ice and was brought to a close by the last advance of the ice sheet. North of Beaver County the gorge of the Big Beaver is filled at places with true glacial material, that has not been rehandled or moved by the water since its deposition. In this county, however, there have not been any true glacial deposits found in the gorges. Throughout the county, however, all the streams within reach of the last ice advance were filled with gravel, sand, clay, and stones that were carried by the ice from some more northern point. This filling reaches from the bottom of the buried channels up to about 125' above present stream level, covering almost completely many of the rock benches that had been left in the cutting down of the inner gorge, so that the total amount of this alluvial deposit, while very great, is not nearly so large as at first would appear, or as it was supposed to be until a few years ago. Examples of these alluvial covered benches are seen at Eastvale, upper Beaver Falls, upper New Brighton, mouth of Brady's
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Run, Rochester, mouth of Two Mile Run, and at the mouth of Raccoon Creek. It is probable that not the whole of the valleys was filled to the 125' mark, but it is quite evident that all were filled much above the present stream level. A peculiar feature of the filling is that it is coarsest near the surface, becoming successively finer as the filling is penetrated toward the bottom of the buried channel. The filling material in the bottom of the trough is not clay, however, but an exceedingly fine silt, not formed by the decomposition of rock materials, but by friction of particle on particle, another indication of its glacial origin. It effervesces strongly under the action of acids.
One phase of the river's history deserves special mention. Preceding the Ice Age drainage was northward, but as the ice advanced it blocked this open line of discharge and dammed back the waters until they over- flowed across some of the divides between this early drainage and the portion of the present Ohio basin that adjoined it on the west, and the cutting down of the divide, in connection with the elevation to the north- ward, determined the southern line of discharge that had since endured. This body of water, thus dammed back, has been called Lake Mononga- hela, and the bed of this lake is marked throughout its length with characteristic deposits.
ECONOMIC
Iron .- Iron ores have been worked in a small way at several places in the county. On the Conoquenessing (Bassenheim Furnace), where the ore was obtained from nodules in the shales between the Darlington and Lower Kittanning Coals.
At Homewood Furnace, near Rock Point, on the Beaver, the ore was mainly derived from shales immediately underlying the Homewood Sandstone. It was here mined both by stripping and drifting.
At Beaver Falls some ore was taken from "pockets" in the terrace gravel, a very inferior ore and very little of it.
Iron ore is sometimes found replacing a portion of the Ferriferous Limestone, but as the limestone generally is not available in Beaver County, the ore underlying it is equally unavailable.
At several other horizons nodular ore is found, sometimes locally in apparently good quantities. The value of it is, however, small wherever examined, as it soon runs out when followed any distance.
Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, etc .- It is useless to look for minerals of this class in Beaver County. The character of the entire formations forbids any workable deposits. Minute quantities of zinc are found in some nodular formations. Small crystals of galena (lead) have been found scattered in some of the shale strata.
It is, however, possible to find small quantities of various metals as constituents of some of the boulders found in the gravels of the river terraces and moraine material. Tin has been reported from this source, and it is entirely possible that gold may be found, especially in the lower portions of the filling of the buried channels. The source of such minerals is of course to be found north of Lake Erie, where are the rock ledges which were the original source of the alluvium.
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Coal .- Coal is found generally over the county, there being some five or six veins that can be worked at different points. So far as developed, however, there is little coal in the county that will justify mining for shipment. The veins generally are thin and irregular.
Clays .- A number of fire clays have been worked, and Beaver County has at least six workable clays. The best known is the Lower Kittanning vein, which is mined extensively at a number of points, and is probably the most valuable mineral deposit in the county.
Prehistoric Man .- It has been pretty well proven that man existed in the United States at the time of the close of the Glacial Period, and it is altogether possible that we may at any time find remains of prehistoric man in the reworked gravels of our river terraces, as has been done at other places. The value of such finds is in most cases problematical, as competent Geologists are not generally present at the time the discovery is made. There are also some small remains of the so-called "Mound Builders." These, however, are now admittedly the work of Indians.
Fossil Remains .- The various strata have their characteristic fossils, but except in the plant bearing shales, underlying the Darlington Coal at Cannelton, there has been no study of them to any extent. It is also possible that the terrace gravels may contain remains of the animals co-existent with early man, but since extinct; or such remains may possibly be found in the swamps that we find connected with the Morainic deposits in the northwestern portion of the county.
APPENDIX No. II FLORA OF BEAVER COUNTY By IRA F. MANSFIELD
WITH reference to its flora, Beaver County may be divided into two great divisions-the warm and the cold lands; one representing the Appalachian flora, and the other, the Canadian. As might be expected, the general flora is much alike throughout. Probably three fourths of our species are common on the north and south sides of the county, though by no means equally distributed; some being very abundant in one township, and rare in another. The soil of the whole county is a deep drift of alternating sands, clay, and gravels from the Glacial Age, and the flora of any section depends chiefly on which of these happens to lie uppermost. In the Ohio River valley, with its low altitude and warmer influences, we find many flowers, ferns, and orchids common to our Southern States. Along the terraces of Mill Creek, the Raccoon, Service, and Travis creeks, we find the Moss Pink, White Erythroniums, Twinleaf, Silene rotundifolia, Physostegia, and one variety of Orchid, Liparis Læselii, not common to the north side of the county. The climate of the range of hills along the Little Beaver River, with its high altitudes and pine swamps, makes the flora in many respects like that of the Great Lakes and Canada. Here we find Veronicas, Mertensias, Utricularias, all three of the royal Osmundas and climbing Ferns, and over twenty varieties of the beautiful Orchids. The Orchidaces are the most interesting class of plants to every student in botany, not only having qualities that please the eye in beauty and delicacy, but showing development and closely imitating objects of the animal kingdom, as bees, flies, spiders, doves, and pelicans. The line of demarkation in our flora runs across the county from Black Hawk to Beaver Falls and Union- ville, and gives us the honor not only of having two classes of flora, but the largest number of species of any county in Pennsylvania. Exclud- ing the names of trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, and our common weeds, the check list now on file numbers over five hundred.
The student in botany must be enthusiastic and a lover of nature in order to find flowers and unravel the significance of their color, form, and fragance, as they perform the higher objects of a flower's life in the continuance of their kind.
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APPENDIX No. III THE MAMMAL AND BIRD FAUNA OF BEAVER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
By W. E. CLYDE TODD
(Custodian, Department Mammals and Birds, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, Pa.)
INTRODUCTION
UNTIL within comparatively recent years western Pennsylvania figured very little in zoological literature, and indeed, despite its economic importance and the advancement of its people along general educational lines, the character of its fauna remained more a matter of supposition and inference than of positive knowledge. The earlier naturalists either did not, from its inaccessibility at that time, visit it at all, or passed it by with but slight mention, a few unimportant notes scattered through their writings constituting all that is now known of their observations. The last fifteen years, however, have witnessed a new interest in the study of natural history: observers have multiplied; numerous notes and papers have appeared in scientific periodicals and elsewhere; and system- atic work along certain lines has been carried forward until now, in 1904, the fauna of the western part of the State is even better known than that of some adjacent regions. True, the encroachments of civilization, always disastrous from a naturalist's point of view, have wrought many changes in the last hundred years, and not a few species which once, abundant and unmolested, roamed the vast wilderness of "Penn's Woods," have retired before the clearing of the forest and the unreason- ing greed of the thoughtless white settler. Some, as the Buffalo, Elk, Wild Pigeon, and Carolina Paroquet, have disappeared utterly, while others, as the Virginia Deer, Black Bear, Bay Lynx, Wild Turkey, and Raven, still find a refuge for the remnant of their number in the secluded mountain fastnesses, where, if protected by an awakening public senti- ment and judicious legislation, they may continue to exist for a long time to come. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that the settlement of the country, and particularly the great increase in the area of open and cultivated land, has been accompanied by a corre- sponding increase in the number and kinds of such forms of life as are
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partial to these situations. The gradual eastward extension of the range of such prairie-loving species as the Lark Sparrow and Prairie Horned Lark, as noted within recent years, seems to substantiate such a belief.
In Beaver County the development of the natural resources, having progressed farther than in most of the mountain counties, has been at the expense of the native fauna of the region. The presence of large mammals is always incompatible with the settlement of the country, and all such were long since exterminated. Even the Beaver, from which the county originally took its name, has been extinct for a hundred years. The decrease in the numbers of waterfowl and large birds in general is noticeable even within the last fifteen years. The smaller species of both mammals and birds, however, being subject to but little persecution, have held their own fairly well, and some have actually increased in numbers. Indeed, it is the writer's judgment that there will be no dearth of song birds so long as an enlightened public senti- ment, recognizing their value both from an economic and æsthetic standpoint, affords them adequate protection, and, what is equally im- portant, ceases to permit the indiscriminate destruction of the remaining forest areas where so many of them find congenial haunts.
With respect to its zoo-geographic position, Beaver County is in- cluded within what is known as the Carolinian Fauna or Life Zone, although it is very near the southern boundary of the Alleghanian Fauna lying just to the northward, as is apparent from the intrusion of several species more characteristic of the latter zone. The Carolinian Fauna constitutes the northern limit, among mammals, of the Opossum, Georgian Bat, etc., and, among birds, of the Turkey Buzzard, Red-bellied Wood- pecker, Acadian Flycatcher, Cardinal Grosbeak, Rough-winged Swallow, Worm-eating Warbler, Blue-winged Yellow Warbler, Cerulean 'Warbler, Louisiana Water-Thrush, Kentucky Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Hooded Warbler, Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, and Blue-gray Gnat- catcher, all of which are found in more or less numbers in the county. The Alleghanian tinge comes from the presence of such species as the Jumping Mouse, Cooper's Lemming Mouse, Smoky Shrew. Least Fly- catcher, Bobolink, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
The appended lists of the mammals and birds are based on the obser- vations of the writer from 1886 to 1891 inclusive, and again from 1899 to the present date, with occasional notes in the intervening years. In addition there have been utilized the records, published and otherwise. of Mr. H. H. Wickham, of Beaver, Mr. Karl D. Wilson, of Industry, and Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads, of Audubon, New Jersey, to all of whom acknow- ledgments are due. Owing to their unscientific character, no attempt has been made to collate the records pertaining to a number of local collections scattered through the county, which will account for the omission of a number of species which might otherwise be included. However, the list of mammals is believed to be reasonably complete, but to the bird list many additions will undoubtedly be made, particularly among the water birds and birds of prey. The area covered by the present paper comprises the town of Beaver as a center, with the townships of
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