USA > Pennsylvania > Susquehanna County > History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. from a period preceding its settlement to recent times, including the annals and geography of each townshipAlso a sketch of woman's work in the county for the United States sanitary commission, and a list of the soldiers of the national army furnished by many of the townships > Part 57
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The Vergent strata (the lowest of the three) consist of a body of bluish shales, and imbedded gray, argillaceous sandstones. Its characteristic fossils are Fucoids, or ancient sea-weeds.
The Ponent strata consist of a thick mass of red shales and a few pebbly beds of white quartz. There are in them all but few organic remains ; but these contain one or two remarkable fishes. No remains or footprints of reptiles have ever been discovered in the Ponent strata. They correspond to the old Red Sandstone of Great Britain.
The Vespertine is the lowest of the carboniferous strata ;1 and in this is remarked the suddenness of the change from marine to terrestrial forms, ex- hibiting amazing vegetation. The organic remains are fragments of coal plants, for the most part specifically different from those of the upper or true coal measures.
In the subdivisions also of the Paleozoic region, Susquehanna County comes in the fourth, or northeast district, comprising the country between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers, north of the coal-basin, and is of simple structure. The surface is that of a roughly undulated plain. The eastern half is more broken and hilly than the parts west of the Susquehanna -a circumstance partly attributable to their geological composition, the country east of the river consisting largely of hard, micaceous, flaggy sand- stones ; that west of it, of a larger relative proportion of argillaceous sand- stones and clay shales. Proceeding northwestward from Belmont, we see in the hill, on the east of the stream, the Ponent red shales and Ves- pertine gray sandstones on the summit, without much inclination or dip.
1 In the 'New American Cyclopedia,' both the Ponent and Vespertine are made to correspond to the Catskill group-the former to the red, and the latter to the gray sandstone. In the vicinity of Montrose, both varieties are obtained. The red crumbles after exposure, as is seen in stone walls and house founda- tions ; the gray is excellent material for buildings and flagstones. One of the largest specimens of the latter-twenty-four feet long by five or six feet wide- can be seen in front of the grocery of I. N. Bullard.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
The silicious seral conglomerate is not seen. This rock terminates at the point of the coal-basin, four or five miles to the south.1 On the hill west of the valley, little or no red shale is visible. Almost level strata of Vesper- tine flaggy gray sandstone occupy the hills nearly the whole way to Mont- rose. Belts of the underlying red sandstone do, it is true, sometimes appear ; for though, in the deep valley of the Susquehanna, the denudation has ex- posed the upper Vergent strata, in the high country the Ponent rocks unite across the arch, and the Vergent are no longer visible. In the vicinity of Belmont, the Ponent rocks are held up along the anticlinal to the level of all the lower plains and valleys. To the northwest of this belt is the syn- clinal range of mountain knobs and broken hills, along which flows the Tunkhannock Creek. This belt is but a continuation of the southeast table- land or basin of the bituminous coal region, and is composed of the Vesper- tine strata, gradually diminishing in breadth and thickness.
In the tract next northwest of the Tunkhannock hills, the Ponent rocks occupy the higher grounds ; but the whole series is thin, and the valleys dis- close the upper members of the Vergent series.
To this zone of country succeeds a more elevated synclinal belt, drained by the Wyalusing. It extends northeastward past Montrose, and is the prolongation of the second great trough or table-land of the bituminous coal region, and embraces, especially in the portion adjacent to the river, the lower strata of the Vespertine gray sandstones in a horizontal position. These rocks cap the more elevated tracts even in the vicinity of Montrose, the red Ponent rocks appearing in the beds of many of the deeper valleys.
Beyond the Wyalusing the Towanda anticlinal lifts the Vergent rocks to the general surface of the country, except in the very highest levels where . we find detached outlying patches of the thin Ponent series. This anticli- nal passes four or five miles north of Montrose, and is discernible in the great bend of the Susquehanna. Silver Lake is on its very gentle northern dip. This zone of country constitutes nearly the northern limit of the Ponent and Vespertine formations.
Few of the Appalachian rivers can boast a greater amount of attractive scenery than the north branch presents throughout its whole course, from the great bend near the State line through New York, and thence through Pennsylvania to the Wyoming Valley. It owes this eminence in part to the beautiful manner in which its terraces of northern drift or gravel have been strewed or shaped at the last retreat or rush of waters across the continent. The broad high table-land in which the Appalachian coal-field terminates, has evidently stopped the southward course of the nearly spent sheets of water which transported the drift, and turned southeastward and south- westward over the two northern corners of Pennsylvania.
Rev. H. A. Riley, of Montrose, says :-
" There are but few parts of the county abundant in fossil remains. At Montrose have been found in the green sandstone of the old red formation parts of vegetable branches. Some finely marked and some partially car- bonized ; as also fine specimens of Cyclopteris, some scales of Holoptychius, and fragments of other scales. Some specimens found in this locality are of special interest. Among these are a head and several caudal extremities of the Cephalaspis Lyellii. The head, although perfect in outline, does not present any organic structure. The caudal parts have distinctly preserved
! The limit of anthracite coal on the north is in the Tunkhannock Mountain, on the sources of the Lackawanna River, and on the confines of Susquehanna, Wayne, and Luzerne Counties. It extends along the valleys of that stream to Wyoming Valley, thence through to the hills near Berwick, on the Susque- hanna, making, together, a distance of eighty miles. Other coal-fields lie below .- Gordon's Gazette.
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
the characteristic markings of the fish. These are claimed to be the first and perhaps the only specimens of this fossil discovered in the old red sand- stone of this country. They were found perhaps fifteen years since, in the old quarry in the village of Montrose. Another specimen of interest from the same locality is the fossil plant Noeggerathia obtusa-a portion of the frond of which is figured in Dana's ' Geology,' p. 291, and of which Prof. Leo Lesquereux ('American Journal of Science and Art,' vol. 23) says :- "It shows the upper part of a frond with three oblique pinna somewhat reflexed from their base, and the pinnules or leaves, broadly oval or reni- form, the upper one flabellate, all narrowed to the base and pinnately attached on both sides of the rachis by a narrow decurring base. The point of attachment of the leaves is just as I have figured it in my report. This splendid specimen has evidently the general outline and the appearance of a fern, and at once puts aside Brongniart's surmise that the simply pinnate form of the leaf, etc., shows it to be analogous to the Zamiæ."
The frond measures 12 by 7 inches. These specimens were found by Mr. Riley, and are in his cabinet at Montrose.
MINERAL RESOURCES.
In a mineralogical point of view, the three formations which overspread this northeast district of the State are remarkably destitute of interest, however instructive as respects their organic remains.
Some very unimportant indications of copper have been ob- served in the Ponent red shales, but there is no evidence of veins or beds of copper ore of any magnitude or value. It is said the ferruginous sulphuret of copper has been found near the village of Brooklyn, seven miles southeast of Montrose.1 This discovery produced, in 1837, considerable local excitement, and the Hop- bottom valley acquired some newspaper notoriety. This was prior to the thorough geological survey of Professor Rogers, which failed to corroborate some of the floating rumors of the mineral wealth of the county. It had been said that iron, copper, paint, anthracite, and bituminous coal had been discovered-a bed of the latter being on the Susquehanna River near Great Bend. As early as 1823, it was asserted that " near the eastern line of our county there are extensive mines of stone-coal, lying on each side and near the Milford and Owego turnpike." At that time a com- pany was engaged in " sledding coal from these mines to Milford, on the Delaware, to be conveyed from thence to the Philadelphia market by the spring-tide." But the mines must have been some miles below the turnpike, and outside of the county, since the Moosic Mountain, our eastern border in that region, consists of the Vespertine strata at a low angle northwestward, and between the southern slope and Bethany the chief formation exposed is the Ponent red sandstone. And if we pass northward, we shall
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
find the Ponent red shales and sandstones predominating, though covered with the Vespertine green and gray rocks, in many places as far as the headwaters of Starucca Creek; where the horizontal position of the strata seems to change to a slight southern inclina- tion, and the red shale ceases to be observed, the underlying Ver- gent shales coming to the surface. Beginning to descend towards the Susquehanna River at Harmony, we find by the fossils in the strata, that we are in this formation. [Rogers.]
As already shown, not one of these three formations contains the true coal measures.
Whatever doubt there may be respecting the presence of other minerals within our county, that of salt will not be denied, since both the Ponent and Vespertine sandstones contain feeble springs of it in this section as elsewhere. It has not been found, how- ever, in quantities large enough to repay the expense of working it, unless very recently.
The earliest intimations of the existence of salt here appear to have been derived from the Indians by families living in the vicinity of Great Bend. J. B. Buck, of Susquehanna Depot, states as follows :-
" My great uncle was put with the Onondagas when they had their center two miles above where Windsor village now is, to learn their language, by his father Dean, at eleven years old. He staid ten years, and while he was there a few of the Indians went to get salt. They always went on one side of the river, and returned on the opposite side. He was considered one of them, but not in all things. One day he concluded to follow them, and did sò. He got down a little below what is called Waller's Brook, where he was caught by one of the Indians who was lying in wait. It was with much diffi- culty that his life was spared, and he never dared to venture again. When his time was up with them, he made a bargain by which they were to show him the spring on his bringing them five large kettles. With great difficulty he got the kettles as far as Unadilla, and then, hearing that the war had com- menced with England, he buried them. When the war was closed, he found that the kettles had been stolen, and things had so changed that he left the matter. In talking with my father, he said he was sure from appearances that he was near the salt spring when captured. One of the Indians told my father that he covered the spring and carried it so low into fresh water that no white man could find it. There has been much speculation for fifty years about this spring ; but if it is ever found, it will be probably above the Lanes- boro' Dam on the river bank."
Joseph Du Bois, Esq., of Great Bend, contributed the following to the 'Northern Pennsylvanian' :-
" When my grandfather, Minna Du Bois, first came to Great Bend (1791) there were a few Indians in the neighborhood. Grandmother said that the squaws used to come to her house in the morning and borrow her kettle, and the same day before dark, they would return it with two or three quarts of dirty looking salt in the kettle. If these squaws were followed, as they some- times were, they wandered about in different directions, well knowing that they were watched, and would return with an empty kettle. When they were not interfered with, they invariably returned with the usual quantity of salt. 'The time of their absence, and the amount of salt made, rendered it certain
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
that the spring was not far distant, yet the white settlers never succeeded in finding its locality. When I was a boy, I happened to be at the Log Tavern, then kept by Sylvanus Hatch, when a traveler-a stranger-stopped there, and, while there, he inquired of the landlord, Mr. Hatch, if he knew of three large Indian apple-trees, in this vicinity, standing on the bank of the Susquehanna River. Mr Hatch told him that they were just across the street. The stranger then said that an Indian, to whom he had shown some favors, told him that on the Susquehanna River stood three large apple-trees. planted by the Indians long, long ago ; that if he would go there and find the trees, by sighting the two trees lowest down the river, the line would strike the base of a big hill, and that if he would dig where the line struck the foot of the big hill, he would find a good salt spring. At this time there were quite a number of persons at the Log Tavern. The stranger went out to sight the trees, the crowd, including the writer, followed, and all sighted the two trees named. These two trees stood in relation to each other north and south ; the line south struck the base of a big hill, known to old hunters as Middle Hill, opposite the residence of the late James Clark, and the line north struck the base of a big hill on the east side thereof, known as Trow- bridge Hill. Here was a dilemma, for the stranger said that the Indian did not tell him whether it was the big hill north or south of the apple-trees. He said he would not dig on such uncertainties, and he proceeded on his journey."
In reference to the same spring the following is clipped from a statement of Rev. H. C. Hazard, whose father came from Otsego County to Susquehanna County in 1812 :-
"In Otsego County my father lived near neighbor to Johnam Vroman, who was said to be three-fourths Dutch and one-fourth Indian, and who was taken prisoner by the Indians and kept all summer at 'the Three Apple- trees.' His captors broke his hands off backwards to prevent his doing them any injury in case he escaped. He used to tell father of the Indians' salt spring within one mile or so of : the Three Apple-trees.' He said that when the sun was at 'midaugh' (mid-day) he must go directly towards, or from it ; but father, not supposing he should ever see this country, forgot which. He afterwards made search, but in vain."
The various statements respecting the salt spring in Franklin cannot easily be reconciled. The earliest date given for its dis- covery occurs in the statement of Mrs. Garner Isbell, of Montrose, now (1871), seventy-seven years old. She says :-
" Judge De Haert and brother were working at the spring in Franklin, all of seventy years ago, procuring their provisions. from my father, Rufus Bowman, then a storekeeper at Windsor, N. Y., taking enough each Monday morning for a week, and re- turning every Saturday night to Windsor."
She remembers that they talked of means for separating the salt from the fresh water, and that a dry goods box was proposed, and brought out as having something to do with this purpose. She believes this was in 1799, when she was little more than five years old. If this is correct, it was prior to Judge De Haert's residence in Binghamton, and only a prelude to his more per- sistent efforts after he left there.
Another statement is, that Abinoam Hinds and Isaac Perkins, who came to Bridgewater in 1802, were the discoverers of the
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
spring. It is situated on the south side of Silver Creek, near its junction with Fall Brook, and about a mile west of Franklin Forks. The stream had been turned from its course and made to run over the spring, the basin of which was hollowed out of the rock with a tomahawk. They found it covered with a large spoon, and a stone laid over it. They could dip but a little at a time, but succeeded in boiling salt.
A newspaper correspondent, in 1871, says :-
" There was a tradition from the time of the first settlement of the county that there was a salt spring there, which had been destroyed by the Indians by turning the creek over it.
"It is certain that previous to the operations of De Haert, Fall Creek as it left the gorge followed the base of the bluff on the south side of the flat, passing over the spring, and was changed by De Haert to its present chan- nel."
The following is taken from the 'Susquehanna Register,' under date of Nov. 28, 1828 :-
"Some fifteen years ago, a salt spring was discovered about six miles in a northeast direction from Montrose. It had been covered over, probably by Indians ; and, on removing the cover, we are told, a wooden ladle was found lying in the spring.
"The water is strongly impregnated with sulphur and iron, with a saline taste at first disagreeable ; and the gas, which is developed in large quanti- ties, is highly inflammable.
" As there was not enough water in the spring to render the making of salt from it an object of importance, Balthaser De Haert built a cabin and took up his abode in the wilderness; and, assisted by his brother, sunk a well about twenty feet, when they came to a rock. Then they commenced sinking a shaft into the rock ; but his brother died (in 1813), and Judge De Haert was left without much assistance, and with limited means. He con- tinued with a perseverance worthy of better success, progressing but slowly until he induced a number of capitalists to engage in the work with him. About five years ago-or in Jan. 1824-after sinking a shaft to the depth of 300 feet, it was supposed they had struck a fissure that would yield an abund- ance of salt water, but it proved a delusion. Judge De Haert soon after left the country, and the project was wholly abandoned."
The correspondent previously mentioned, in reference to this adds :-
" I had supposed that De Haert's operations were at an earlier date than would appear by the article from the ' Register,' and that he left the country before Mr. Biddle commenced. Mr. Biddle's operations closed in the winter of 1824."
About forty years later a writer in the 'Montrose Republican' made the following statement in regard to the operations at the same spring :-
" The first boring was done under direction of Judge De Haert, and about three hundred feet was accomplished, when the enterprise was given up for several years, and the lands passed into the hands of Colonel Biddle, who had the work renewed ; and about two hundred feet more was drilled, which made the total depth of the well, according to the best data which can now be had, about five hundred feet. The enterprise was given up about the 32
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY.
year 1825, and the land on which the spring is located was taken up by set- tlers, and improved and cultivated. The tools used by Judge De Haert and Col. Biddle for boring, were such, that several years were spent by both parties in getting down the distance which they bored. They used a spring pole worked by hand. The water from the drill-hole was always more sul- phury than salty, and often bubbles would rise to the surface which, if touched with fire, would flash like powder.
"In January last (1865), the well and fifteen acres surrounding, were bought by a company from New York city, for the purpose of boring for petroleum.
"This company, unlike Messrs. De Haert and Biddle, work with more power than a 'spring pole.' Their motive power is a fifteen horse-power engine, and their drills are of the most improved patterns. The old drill hole, which was three and a quarter inches in diameter, they are reaming to four and a half inches."
Either this writer was misinformed as to the object of the com- pany, or it appears now to be given up. The editor of the 'Mon- trose Democrat,' having in his possession the "Prospectus of the Susquehanna Salt and Mining Co.," a copy of which was handed him by the president of the company, F. J. Wall, N.Y., states, Jan. 1871 :-
" In 1865, the 'Susquehanna Salt Works Co.' purchased the property, and sunk a well to the depth of 650 feet, with a 4} inch bore, at an expense of $28,000, erecting buildings, tanks, and salt block, etc. Several veins of fresh and salt water were passed through at the depth of 380 feet; but from that time on until the present depth of 650 feet no more fresh water, but some ex- cellent veins of brine were found; the last, within a few feet of the bottom, was the strongest of any yet found. The company started their block, and manufactured about twenty tons of fine dairy salt. Feeling that the amount made was not sufficient to make it pay well for the investment, and being New Yorkers who had the matter on speculation, instead of parties locally inter- ested, they refused to pay any more assessments toward further developing the resources of the well, causing the project to be abandoned until pur- chased by the present company. The salt made was of the very best quality, and was so pronounced by competent judges in New York.
"The new company have purchased the entire title and interest to the property, and have secured a charter from the State of New York. The stock is fully paid up, and they have all the fixtures necessary for operation.
" They have determined to sink the well at least 200 feet below its present depth, which will make it 850 feet; which is the depth of the best wells both at Syracuse and Saganaw. The company being in the hands of parties in this vicinity, such as Alanson Chalker, of Corbettsville, gen. supt. ; John S. Tarbell, of Montrose, vice-prest. ; and others, our knowledge of the enter- prise of the men leads us to believe that whatever resources the well contains will soon be developed."
The same month, the company bored to a depth of nearly 800 feet, and found a vein of brine richer than any previously reached.
Dr. D. A. Lathrop, in order to test the strength of brine in the well, evaporated seventy-two pounds of brine, which produced ten pounds and nine ounces of salt.
The 'Gleaner,' published at Wilkes-Barre, by C. Miner, in 1815, stated, that-
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HISTORY OF SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY
" Three persons had come to Middletown from the State of New York, and told Mr. Brister they had reason to believe there was a salt spring on his farm, and if he would let them come in on equal shares with him they would endeavor to find it. He agreed, and they dug in the place directed (by the Indians, who formerly lived there, it is supposed), and were so fortunate as to hit upon the right spot. On digging through three feet, they came to a well five or six feet deep, laid up with logs and covered by a large flat stone. It had evidently been worked by the aborigines."
Nothing further is known of this spring, unless, as one has stated, it was near where Andrew Canfield began his clearing ; or, as another makes it, on his farm (the one now owned by Eg- bert Stedwell) and near the line of Ira Brister's. It was cer- tainly on the Stedwell farm that a chartered company began operations about fifteen years later.
January, 1831, the Hon. A. H. Read, then member of assem- bly from this district, reported a bill to incorporate the Wya- lusing Salt Manufacturing Company. In March following, it passed the House, and, a little later, probably the Senate; as, in October, of the same year, the commissioners who had been ap- pointed-Salmon Bosworth, Ira Brister, Jabez Hyde, Jr., Daniel Ross, Dimon Boswick-gave notice of a meeting of the stock- holders for the election of proper officers. Ira Brister was made president of the company ; Otis Ross, now living in Middletown, was one of the stockholders ; and his son Norman, now in Mich- igan, superintended the sinking of the shaft in this spring to the depth of four or five hundred feet, " but did not find salt water, and the bits were left in the shaft."
But this was not the first enterprise of the kind in Middletown. In 1825 R. H. Rose and Samuel Milligan had a well dug in the edge of the marsh, at the foot of the mountain, about half a mile above Middletown Center, on the farm formerly occupied by Silas Beardslee, and now owned by John Cahill; and where several previous attempts to sink wells had been made, by dif- ferent parties, though these had been in the marsh, and were un. successful, on account of quicksands.
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