History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 2

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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Silica is the most abundant mineral.

Silica. It results from a union of oxygen and silicon, two elements that go to make up about seventy-five per cent. of the entire earth's crust. (Clarke, Science, Jan. 5, 1906, p. 16.) Sandstone, sand, flint, quartz and quartzite are but some of the common names under which it is every- where known. In addition to its preva- lence under these simple forms, it is often a chief constituent in a variety of very impor- tant compounds.

Silica combined with aluminum

Alumina. forms alumina, or clay. Alu- minum, after silicon, is the next most important element. It contributes about eight per cent. to the bulk of the earth's crust. Slate, argillite and shale are some of the common and widely dissemi- nated rocks of which it is an essential con- stituent.

Though less abundant than either

Iron. silica or alumina, iron in some of its compounds is universally repre- sented. It is nature's pigment. In some

is due to the presence of iron ; so is the less

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INTRODUCTION

prevalent green of the chlorites, shales and ing across the county in a southwesterly schists of the lower half.

. Carbon, oxygen and calcium roof-like floor, have been deposited the

Limestone. unite to form limestone. The determining constituent is cal- cium. Magnesia is another mineral often combined with it. The presence of car- bonate of magnesia, in varying quantities, gives to the local formation the name of dolomitic limestone. About three and one-half per cent. of the earth's bulk is cal- cium.

It is unnecessary to add to the previous list of minerals because the geological for- mations under discussion are almost wholly composed of silica, alumina, calcium and iron.

The geological formations of the earth, for convenience and study, are given appro- priate names. These placed in the order of succession, reading from below upward, follow :

Cenozoic Era. . Quaternary Period, or Pleistocene Epoch. Tertiary Period.

Mesozoic Era .. .

Cretaceous Period. Jurassic Period. Triassic Period.

Paleozoic Era ..

Permian Period. Carboniferous Period. Devonian Period. Upper Silurian Period. Lower Silurian Period. Cambrian Period.

Archean and Algonkian Eras.

The oldest rocks, those from

Algonkian. which, of course, have been de- rived all later formations, are Peach Bottom Township, with its roofing called Archean. They are essentially com- slate and related deposits. In fact all that remains of the county, with the exception of the Triassic area to be next located and the possible marl bed north of Dillsburg, probably belongs to the Cambrian.

plex, highly crystalline, and of more or less uncertain and varying structure. Whilst none of these come to the surface in this region, yet to the transition beds of clas- tic rocks, the Algonkian, lying immediately above, have been referred the oldest rocks of York County. These compose the un- derlying floor upon which all subsequent formations have been laid. The lowest beds of the series are exposed along the Susque- hanna river, just above McCall's ferry, in the form of a broad anticlinal arch, extend-

direction. Upon both sloping sides of this gneissoids, slates and schists characteristic of Upper and Lower Chanceford, Hopewell, Fawn and Shrewsbury townships.

Where the Susquehanna river crosses these beds of crystalline rocks, above and below McCall's ferry, they have remarkably withstood the eroding action of the water. Great irregular masses and huge bosses ob- struct the channel and make this part of the river exceedingly picturesque.

To the Algonkian formation also belongs a small area at the foot of the South Moun- tain in Franklin Township.

The next oldest rocks laid down Cambrian. on the Algonkian are the Cam- brian. They comprise a broad belt extending across the central part of the county on both sides of the included lime- stone ribbon passing through Wrightsville, York and Hanover. The northern limit of this belt is very conspicuous because of the red soil that marks the beginning of the Trias. On the south the Cambrian and the Algonkian so merge into each other and are represented by rock structurally so com- plicated as to make it difficult to draw the line of contact. It has not yet been sat- isfactorily determined.

The Cambrian belt, without attempting to give its insufficiently defined base, and naming from below upward as it spreads out over the county, is composed of chlorite schists, the Hellam quartzite, slates, sandy and calcareous layers, capped by the York limestone: (Walcott Bulletin U. S. Geol- ogy Survey, No. 134-The Cambrian Rocks of Pennsylvania. )

To it is also referred the greater part of

The Hellam quartzite, so called Quartzite. because it predominates in the township of that name, is the most durable member of the series. Owing to its great hardness and composition it is but little altered and decomposed either through mechanical or chemical action. Above it, on elevated ridges, the less en-

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

during shales, slates and limestones were of red shale, red sandstone and quartz con- long ago disintegrated and carried away, glomerate, characteristics of the formation leaving the quartzite boldly projecting, as in elsewhere, with extensive areas of trap. the Hellam hills. The same property is ex- Igneous rocks of unknown age, hibited in the rapids at Chickies, where the Susquehanna River forces its way through and over the obstructing ledges of quartz- ite.

The limestones are exceed-

Limestone. ingly variable in composition. Some sandy layers, on expos- ure, soon decompose, disintegrate and min- gle with the soil. Other layers are suffi- ciently durable to furnish good material for building purposes.

Igneous but certainly of a later period than Rocks. the rocks in which they occur, played an important part in the formation of York County. They occur sparingly in a few dikes in the older forma- tions. One of these, less than one hundred feet wide, is exposed just west of Stony Brook. in the railroad cut. The contact lines between the plutonic rock and the in- cluding limestone are well defined. A slightly raised ridge, covered with detached fragments, rounded and weathered "iron stones," marks the trend of the same dike southward. It can be traced to within a short distance of Glen Rock.

A peculiar and persistent member, ex- posed just east of the old fair grounds in York, at Stoner's quarry, Hellam township. in Wrightsville, between the pike and school house, and elsewhere as it extends Extensive dikes and sheets of plutonic rocks characterize the Triassic beds. Ele- vated ridges and hills denote the presence of trap because of its great resistance to dis- integrating forces. This is well illustrated in the steepness and prominence of the northern end of Hill Island, in the Susque- hanna River, just above Goldsboro; also in the picturesque and turbulent falls of York across the county, is a brecciated limestone conglomerate. Irregular blocks of lime- stone, more or less angular, and varying in size from a few inches to several feet in diameter, are cemented together in a lime- stone matrix. Charles D. Walcott. Chief of the United States Geological Survey, thinks the included fragments of the intra- formational conglomerate, as he names it, Haven, where the river cuts through a broad were largely transported and dropped by dike. shore ice.

After the Cambrian, il York Trias. County, there is a great break in the geological succession of formations. Chronologically speaking. between

the coal of Pennsylvania. Here the Trias lies immediately above the Cambrian, in un- conformable contact, and covers nearly the whole of the upper part of the county. The Northern Central Railroad cut at Emigs- ville exposes the oppositely inclined strata of the two formations as they come to- gether, strikingly presenting their uncon- formability. It is also shown, but less con- spicuously, at other localities.

To put it differently. York County, with its well baked lower and upper crusts, but with nothing between them, may be called appropriately a deceptive geological pie.

Scale of

Geological Time.

Various estimates of the length of time required to produce the different geological formations have been made by eminent geologists and physicists. Con-

the Cambrian and the Trias, or New Red Sand- clusions are drawn from many sources and stone, should come great deposits of the of course results widely differ. A recent Silurian, the Devonian and the Carbonifer- and very conservative estimate, fully as re- ous periods. They do occur elsewhere in liable as any other, is given in the follow- our State, and yield all the oil, the gas and ing table ( Walcott Am. Assn. Adv. Science,

Vol. 42, 1893) :

Period. Time Duration.

Cenozoic, including Pleistocene 2,900,000

Mesozoic

7,240,000

Paleozoic

17,500,000

Algonkian 17.500,000

Archean 10,000,000

According to the above estimates about 17,500,000 years elapsed after the Cambrian was elevated above the ancient sea before the Triassic deposits were made. The lower half of York County is older than the upper by just that many years. Then came

The Trias is essentially made up of beds the Triassic uplift, and, the red soil area,

INTRODUCTION

the remaining part of the county, appeared. In the shales are found the im- pressions of plants and trees repre- senting equiseta, ferns, cyads and During the entire period the Cambrian area Flora. was exposed to erosion and the changes due to the action of natural forces. The conifers. (Wanner and Fontaine, Triassic later formation, in like manner, though for Flora of York Co., Pa., 20th Annual Report a relatively shorter period, has been eroded U. S. Geological Survey, pp. 233-255.) Both and greatly modified. Strata that now ter- brackish and fresh water marshes extending minate in the surface, in some cases ex- over considerable areas of the upper part tended originally to an altitude of several of what is now York County, supported the miles. The formations least liable to de- strange and often gigantic forms of life that composition and disintegration, were less gave to this period the appropriate name of rapidly eroded. They crown the eleva- the Age of Reptiles.

tions.

In the older formations of the county, are occasional veins of white quartz. Some years ago, when the demand existed, a few

The soil and its fragmental stones, gener- Economic ally covering the stratified rocks beneath, Features. represent a very little of the detritus of the ancient surface. The rest was carried of these deposits were worked and the stone away; it went to add to the thickness of some other part of the earth's crust.

taken to flint mills and crushed. A larger supply of flint came from the fields and hills, from which the largest stones scattered about were collected.

Paleontology.

The characteristic Cambrian fauna is well represented by numerous specimens from

The Peach Bottom slate, from the . the limestones, shales and quartzites. (Wal- Slate. lower part of York County, is un- cott, U. S. Geological Bulletin, No. 134; excelled. It is known everywhere. The rock, owing to its composition, is what is called a mica slate. The beds originally marine deposits. cemented together, have been exposed to enormous pressure and have been so metamorphosed as to include in their texture overlapping scales. These make the slates not only strong but elastic. Slate, in order to be of commercial value, must not only be a fine grained rock of even texture, but must possess more or less perfect cleavage. These are structural requisites that exclude rocks possessing all the other properties of slate, such as compo- sition, color and hardness. Some of the schists in other sections of York County are essentially of the same composition as the Peach Bottom slate, but they lack the physical properties and are therefore value- Wanner, Proceedings Wash. Acad. Sciences. Vol. 3, pp. 267-272.) Trilobites, as proven by the abundance of fossil remains from nu- merous localities, were the most widely dis- tributed and well represent the predomi- nating type of life that animated the Cam- brian sea of York County. In addition to trilobites there were echinoderms, brachio- pods, gasteropods and pteropods. Their remains, or rather, the impressions made by their remains, in the rocks show that some parts, at least, of the ancient Cambrian sea during favorable periods, abounded in life. The macerated and fragmentary char- acter of the fossils often makes identifica- tion difficult and leads to the conclusion that the fauna will be further enriched with the discovery of better specimens.

The Triassic beds contain the less.

Reptile tracks of reptiles, together with

Tracks.

fragmentary remains

their

Around the borders of the

Iron Ores. limestone areas years ago nu- merous iron ore deposits, prin- cipally limonites, were extensively and prof- itably worked. Since then the discovery of equally good and better ores; easy of access,

bones and teeth. The tracks (Wanner, Penna. Ann. Geolog. Report, 1887, pp. 21-35) on a sandstone slab found west of Goldsboro have been referred by Hitchcock to birds, dinosaurs, reptiles and often in close proximity to coal, has so much amphibians. (Proceedings Boston Socy. cheapened the cost of the raw material as Nat. Hist., Vol. 25, 188, p. 123.) Occa- to render mining in this region unprofitable. sional fish scales and a few fossil mollusks testify to the presence of other forms of Dillsburg, yields better ores than the south- life.

The upper part of the county, around ern belt in the form of red hematites and

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

magnetites, but the same influences that tion which contains the celebrated brown have closed the ore banks elsewhere in the stone of Hummelstown, across the Susque- county. have operated against the mines in this section.

However the unprecedented increase in (U. S. Geological Report.)

the demand for iron will eventually exhaust present sources of cheap supply. Even should new localities yielding good ore easy of access, be discovered, the day of scarcity will be put off only a little longer.

The limestone, as previously Limestone. stated, on account of the pres- ence of magnesia, belongs to the dolomitic variety. Such limestone, when sufficiently rich in magnesia, is used as a flux in the reduction of iron ores. Changed into lime and used for building and other purposes, it sets slower than pure lime. Many prefer it for that reason. It furnishes the foundation walls of nearly all structures erected within the limestone belt, and is occasionally used for entire buildings. New quarries are being opened, old ones more extensively worked; and the erection of modern kilns and stone-crushers testifies to an ever increasing demand for the York County limestone. Elsewhere there seems to be the same increase. The out-put of limestone for 1904, in the United States,. was valued at $22, 178,964, and in 1905 at $26,025,210. The increase for the year was greater than that in the value of any other stone.

Good sand for building purposes, is ob- tained from different localities.

Clay and shales furnish an abundance of good material for the brick kilns.

Trap, notably at York Haven, has been

The vertical bank to the west of the track, cut to make way for the road bed, shows the geological succession for some thou- sands of feet. In it are several very insig- extensively quarried and used under the nificant coal deposits. The largest is a sec- name of "granite." Many abutments and tion of an elongated lens, visible for about 20 bridge piers in the county are constructed of this stone. The rounded surface fragments of trap, known as "iron stones," reveal the trend and width of the underlying dike.

Brown

The brown stone of the Trias is quite generally and effectively used Stone. in houses and barns throughout the red sandstone region, but it is not to any great extent sent elsewhere. Numerous quarries, some on an extensive scale, have been opened to uncover and de- velop a deposit of good color and uniform structure that could be relied on to furnish stone of different sizes in paying quantities. There is no known reason why this forma-

hanna River, should not carry similar or equally valuable layers in York County.

Deceptive and illusive stains on Triassic rocks, of both the green and blue carbon- ates of copper, serve to stimulate the search of the prospector for a paying deposit of the ores of that metal.

Likewise occasional traces of coal Coal. in the red shales and sandstones en- courage the belief that paying veins of that mineral may exist somewhere be- neath the surface. In some localities ex- ploitation pits have been dug always with disappointing results. A close observation of the numerous exposures, along roads and streams, particularly along the Susquehanna River, shows the folly of such expenditures. For there is no need to dig to ascertain the, character of the different strata. In the sections so exposed can be seen the succes- sive layers of the whole formation rising up to the surface, often at an angle of as much as thirty degrees, presenting fairly well the composition and peculiarities of the differ- ent strata.

A typical deposit exists, or did exist re- cently, just south of York Haven, between layers of standstone. It is in the section exposed to view from York Haven up the Conewago Creek to the railroad bridge and occurs not far from the latter.

feet. Its greatest thickness is three inches. But the occasional exhibits of such traces of coal, nowhere encourages the belief that larger veins exist. The reverse is the case.

In addition to references already given, other sources frequently consulted were United States Geological publications, the State Reports containing the geological work done in this section and the Geology of York County by Dr. Persifor Frazer, as published in The History of York County, John Gibson, Historical Editor, 1886. Dr. Frazer worked out the geology of this sec- tion and in the report just cited has pre- sented, with more or less detail, in a very

INTRODUCTION

complete manner, the results of his field panied by a delegation of strange Indians work. Analyses of minerals, ores, etc., to- gether with a geological map of the County, accompany the report and are invaluable for reference purposes.

THE INDIANS.

Indian implements, relics so-called, sug- gest at once the inquiry what tribe made them and how were they used? A knowl- edge of certain tribes which resided or had their villages in a locality answers in a gen- eral way the first question; the second is more difficult and may never be solved.

The Indians dwelling on the islands and east shore of the Susquehanna River adja- cent to York County, first known to the white men, were called by the Tucwaghs of Maryland, themselves being Nanticokes, Susquehannocks. The word Susquehan- nock was first heard by Captain John Smith. Philologists accept the meaning, applied to a people, as " Dwellers at the Falls." The Conewago, was Conois or Conoys. habitations of this tribe stretched along the Ganawese were first permitted to settle in lower part of the river from Harrisburg to the Octoraro Creek. About 1650-1665 they seem to have been driven from their sites of ancient occupancy. None of the Indians ever spoke of such expulsion, but historians refer to a battle or series of contests be- tween the Susquehannocks and an invading body of Massawomeks or Senecas and Cay- ugas. Their principal villages were at Conewago, Columbia, Little Washington, Pequa and Hill Island. There were also several villages used during the fishing sea- son only, as the Indian Steps village.

At the time Penn came to the Delaware, 1682, there were apparently no Susquehan- nock Indians residing on our part of the river. The Conestogas alone were men- tioned. The mystery of the Conestogas is that they were of uncertain ancestry as well as tribal name and described in early rec- ords as "Seneca-Susquehannock-Cayuga- Iroquois-Conestoga Indians." They dwelt back from the river, north of Conestoga Creek. They called their town the " New Town." This possibly was the remnant of the Susquehannocks which escaped the Sen- ecas when they invaded the shores of the lower Susquehanna at what is now Washing- ton in Manor Township, Lancaster County.

who 'called themselves Shawanohs. These besought the Penns to allow them to come into the Province and reside there. It was agreed that if the Conestogas would guar- antee their good behaviour and at all times have a watch over them, they would be per- mitted to occupy the "deserted posts along the Susquehanna River." The Shawanohs came and settled at the mouth of the Pequa Creek, and Decanoagah (Columbia) in then Chester County. They dwelt permanently at these points and also occupied the neigh- boring islands. In 1701 the Conestogas and Shawanohs again appeared in Philadel- phia accompanied by representatives of a strange tribe from the head streams of the Potomac, called in their language Kana- whas or Piscataway Indians. In ours, they were called Ganawese, the same word, and by contraction in the latter days of their residence, after they had made abode at The the Tulpehocken Valley, Berks County, the Conestogas and Shawanese jointly guaran- teeing their good behavior.

From the earliest times there seems to have been a close relationship existing be- tween the Susquehanna River Indians and those dwelling on the Potomac. In fact the country comprising York and Adams counties seems to have been if not a mutual at least a contiguous hunting ground. No large towns were seated in it. It was the wild range they roamed over during their hunting seasons. The route to these hunt- ing grounds, as stated by the Conestogas, Shawanese and Kanawha Indians in their complaints to Philadelphia lay along the York Valley from Wrightsville to the South Mountains. Obstruction of this route was the chief cause of Indian objection to Ger- man settlements in Hellam Township, and Maryland occupation at Conojehela (Five Mile Level). By reason of these extended hunting trips is accounted doubtless, the eventual incoming to Pennsylvania of the Shawanese and Ganawese. While York County had no large villages distant from the river there are, nevertheless, evidences that our larger streams and springs were all dwelt by. Three causes explain this. Indian polity frequently produced

In the year 1697 or 1698 the Conestoga Indians appeared in Philadelphia accom- outcast families. These separated from the

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

main tribe and secreted themselves remote County, February 26, 1903, treated local inland. Others from choice, there being stone implements found by him under the title "Aboriginal Occupation of York County," as follows : striking examples of varying moods among the Indians, withdrew from tribal fellow- ship and built their teepees in hidden places,

To what extent York County was inhab- apart from the beaten trails. Every tribe ited prior to its occupation by the first had a number of out dwellers. Furthermore the evidences of crude stone tools found around all springs along a water shed are the remains of night camps at halting spots on journeys to or from the hunt or warpath. white settlers, must always remain an open question. There is nothing under the head of tradition that will bear even the most superficial investigation. Historians for want of data can do little more than give us a glimpse of conditions prevailing at the time of first contact between the red and the white races-a situation. probably, very well summarized in the following from a History of York County: "It was, as it appears from the Indian complaints, pre- ceding its settlement, a hunting ground, or in the way to hunting grounds, nearly all woods, and claimed by the Indians to have been expressly reserved for them by Wil- liam Penn. The original settlers here found immense tracts of land entirely de- nuded of timber by the annual fires kindled by the Indians, for the purpose of improv- ing their hunting grounds."

The makers of York County stone imple- ments, such as arrows, spears, knives, celts, totems, hoes, axes, skinners, mortars, pes- tles, plummets, besons, beads, etc., were Susquehannocks, Conestogas, Shawnee and Conoy Indians. These relics are not dis- tinguishable from thousands of other speci- mens that exist in the Susquehanna Valley and deposited on its islands and bottoms by New York and Virginia aborigines, during that uncertain period of intercommunica- tion up and down the river before the white men came. It must not be lost sight of, that the Susquehanna was the high water way between the north and south. It must also be understood that the word Susque- hanna in one of its interpretations means " the stream which falls toward the south." Being a composite Iroquois and Lenape word, it is significant that the rivers of the Iroquois-the St. Lawrence, Mohawk and other streams of that country-flow north and east.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 2

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372