History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1, Part 29

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904; Hungerford, Austin N., joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Richards
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 29
USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1 > Part 29

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The meeting was held at the time and place ap- pointed, Daniel Saeger being called to the chair as president, while Henry Yeager was chosen viec-pres- ident and Jacob Dillinger, secretary. An address was delivered by R. E. Wright, Esq. Edward Kohler, of the committee appointed at the previous meeting, re- ported a constitution, which, after being read, was adopted. Edward Kohler was elected president; fit- teen vice-presidents were chosen, one from each town- ship; Jesse M. Line was elected recording secretary ; Dr. David O. Moser, corresponding secretary; and Owen L. Schreiber, treasurer.

Arrangements were subsequently made for holding a fair on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of October. For this purpose the use of a plat of ground, containing about five acres, was secured from Messrs. Pretz & Wein- shimer. This was upon the corner of Fourth and Union Streets. The ground was feneed in a novel manner, posts being set firmly in the ground, and a muslin screen, about seven feet high, being carved from one to another entirely around the plat. Out- siders were thus prevented from seeing the exhibition. The fair was successful beyond the hopes of the most sanguine. A large number of articles were exhibited. and large crowd- of visitors attended each day. The premiums paid amounted to $163.50. One of the fea- tures of this fair was an address delivered on the grounds, October 6th, at "early candle-light," by R. E. Wright, Esq. George W. Toering, Esq., also ad- dressed the members of the society and others at the court-house, and on the Sth of October the closing address was delivered in German by Rev. Jeremiah Shindel.

So generally had the people been interested in the fair, that the managers felt warranted in taking steps towards making it a permanent institution. Accord- ingly they decided to purchase a traet of land in the northern part of the town, containing eight acres. This property, owned by William Mattern, was se- cured, at a cost of two thousand dollars, before the close of the year, and the deed was recorded Jan. 1.

Euros German

113

THE LEHIGH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

1856. To this was added three acres and five perches, bought for $1045.84 from Owen Saeger. In the spring of 1856 the grounds were fenced and the central build- ing and an office erected.

Preparations for the second exhibition were made on a liberal seale, and it proved a greater success from every point of view than the first. The succeeding fairs were all ereditable and well attended, and the society attained an excellent condition and reputa- tion. It was thought advisable in 1854 to reorganize the society as a stock company. The constitutions of many other societies were then obtained, and the managers compiled from them a constitution for the government of the Lehigh County Agricultural So- ciety, which embodied all of the most wise and de- sirable provisions. At the annual meeting in Febru- ary, 1855, the proposition for a change to the form of a stock company was laid before the society. The plan was to issue shares at ten dollars each, and to allow every person holding one or more to have one vote in the decision of all important matters concern- ing the society. The change was effected and the results have been very gratifying. On the 13th of August, 1855, the society was incorporated under a general act. Dividends on stock were prohibited by the constitution, and the receipts of the society have all been expended in the purchase of real estate, im- provement of the grounds, erection and repair of buildings, and in premiums. The purchase of addi- tional ground gives to the society fourteen acres. This is even in surface, with a slight slope southward, and forms one of the finest places for an agricultural ex- hibition imaginable. The buildings are commodious and tasteful structures, admirably adapted to their several uses, and the general arrangement is exceed- ingly convenient. The fame of the Lehigh County fairs has gone abroad throughout Eastern Pennsyl- vania, and they are annually attended by immense throngs of people. An idea of the large attendance and of the consequent flourishing condition of the society may be gained from the following table, show- ing the annual income from the date of organization to the present :

1852

$1,200

$6,930

1853

2,200

1870

5,118

1854

2,700

1871

7,359

1855

4,000

1872 8,000

1856

2,600

1873

8,862

1857

2,300 : 1874

7,813

1875 ..

7,185

1859

2,556

1876

1,465

1860

2,710

1877

5,781

1,883

1878

5,885

1862

No fair.

1879

6,93

1863

2,579

1880

7,207

1865

4,9-16

1882

8,05G

186G

3,868

1883

8,751

1867.

6,352

1848

5,869

Total $156,914

The following are the names of the officers of the society from 1852 to 1884 :

Presidents,-Edward Kohler, 1852; Hiram J. Shantz, 1855; Col. George Beird, 1859; Owen L.

Schreider, 1860; Hiram J. Shantz, 1869; Solonion |

Griesemer, 1870; Owen L. Shreider, 1871 ; Enos Erd- man, 1873 to 188-4.

Sceretaries .- Jesse Line, 1852; Augustus L. Ruhe, 1854; Joshua Stehler, 1856; L. P. Hecker, 1875; W. J. Hoxwerth, 1876; L. P. Hecker, 1877 to date.

Treasurers .- Owen L. Schreider, 1852; A. G. Renin- ger, 1855; J. P. Barnes, 1873; Ephraim Grim, 1875 to 1884.

Enos Erdman, the late president of the Lehigh i County Agricultural Society, was one of the best representative men of the county in all its varied interests. Born April 16, 1822, in Upper Saucon town- ship, the oldest son of Hon. Jacob Erdman, he was the proper representative of his family, whose history from the carly settlement of the township is sketched else- where in this work. Industry, integrity, energy, a spirit of social, business, and public enterprise, a large and fine physique were the prominent characteristics by which he was known. Primarily a farmer, he took a thorough and practical interest in agriculture, holding the position of president of the agricultural society for the last twelve years of his life. Ile also engaged in mining and manufacturing, was a bank director, and was frequently selected to manage important private trusts. He was one of the projectors of the Allentown and Coopersburg turnpike, and was presi- dent of the turnpike company from its beginning to the time of his death. Like his father, whose efforts in the Legislature in behalf of the public school sys- tem were recognized as largely effective of its adop- tion in Pennsylvania, he fostered educational institu- tions, publie and private, and was at one time a trustee of Muhlenberg College. In comparatively early life he was captain of a cavalry company-the Saucon Troop-in the volunteer military service. Ardent and influential in polities, he never sought for any office of emolument, but was often given places of distinction.

He was a prominent Odd-Fellow, Mason, and Knight Templar, and was one of the founders of the lodge of A. F. M., at Coopersburg.

Hle died on March 22, 1884, at his home at Centre Valley, while yet in the full prime of lite, and was buried under the same monument with his father at Woodland Cemetery, at St. Paul's Church (Blue Church), of whose Lutheran congregation he was a member, it being the same church and burial-place where his ancestors worshiped and were buried during nearly a century and a half preceding his death. His widow, Ann, a daughter of Solomon Keck, of Salis- bury township, and three sons, C. J. Erdman, Esq. (of Allentown, a prominent member of the Lehigh County bar), Preston K. Erdman, Esq. (a member of the Philadelphia bar), and Dr. Frank C. Erdman (residing at his father's house), survive him.

1861

2,870

1881

7,937

1858

2,479

114

HISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

CHAPTER XV.

GEOLOGY OF LEHIGH COUNTY.1

THE geology of Lehigh County, in common with that of Northampton and Berks Counties, is divided by geologists into three periods, representing three great divisions of time, called respectively-

1. Azoic or Eozoic.

2. Paleozoic.

3. Mesozoic.

To these may be added the Cainozoic (or new life) rocks, comprising all recent deposits up to the present day, though this division has never been recognized by the State geologists, and is only sparingly repre- sented in the muds and gravels along the Lehigh River and lesser streams of the county.

Of the other three divisions, the Azoic or Eozoic is the oldest, and comprises a great mass of rocks with- out-or, more properly, with but little-evidences of life, as their name suggests.

1. Azoic Rocks of Lehigh County .- To this age the whole South Mountain belt of rocks is to be re- ferred, extending from Easton, on the Delaware, un- interruptedly to Reading, on the Schuylkill, where they sink under a plain of the next highest division or Paleozoic rocks, which in this county constitute the limestones and slates of the Great Valley, and the sand rocks of the North or Kittatinny Mountain.

In other parts of the United States and in Canada this Eozoic formation, by all odds the thickest of the divisions above referred to, is capable of subdivision into at least six rock masses, of which the Lehigh Hills or South Mountains comprise only the lowest or Laurentian member, all the other five upper mem- bers, if deposited here at all, having been eroded and frittered away to build up the various formations of the palivozoic system.

The thickness of this mass of rock is unknown, for forming as it does, the base of our observed rock sys- tem, we can have no knowledge of how much of the formation is still hidden from ns.

Undoubtedly it took a much longer period of time in its formation than the overlying systems, and even since the palivozoie era it has undergone so many physical and chemical changes as to almost totally obliterate its original character and composition.

It must be remembered by the people of Lehigh and adjoining counties, that this South Mountain range, now averaging one thousand feet above sca- level, was, in past geological ages, an immense monn- tain system, rising to a height of at least five miles, covered by thirty thousand feet of newer rocks, com- prising the limestones and slates of the Great Valley, the sand rocks of the North or Blue Mountain, the shales, hydraulic limestones, and sandstones of the Stroudsburg and Lehighton Valley, the red and white

I By E. V. d'Invilliers.

sandstone of the Manch Chunk Mountain, and the coal measures to the north of it.2

The effect of the great pressure of this superincum- bent mass of roeks on the eozoie floor may be imag- ined, and such changes of constitution have been brought about by it as to secure for this Laurentian mass the name among geologists of crystalline or metamorphic rocks.

Remnants of the vast paleozoic system are still to be found in patches on the South Mountain crests, as at St. Peter's Church, near the Berks County line, and in the included valleys of limestone and slate in the very heart of the mountains.

A glance at the colored map of Lehigh County will show at once the extent of the Laurentian for- mation colored pink, and the frequency of the pala- ozoie patches still left in the mountain folds.

Of the character of these rocks it may be said, in a general way, that there are principally two kinds,-1. Distinctly stratified, thick-bedded, massive gneiss; a mixture of granular quartz and pink or white feld- spar, with a general absence of mica, corresponding to that variety of gneiss which Professor Dana has called granulite; 2. A stratified syenite, in which there is a preponderance of hornblende and asso- ciated minerals; a considerable proportion of fekl- spar, but little or no quartz.

Magnetic oxide of iron grains are abundantly dis- seminated through the hornblendie rocks, and much that has been called hornblende in these strata is really magnetite. It is also a constituent of the granulite rock.

Talcose, chloritie and micaceous slates, such as are abundantly found in the newer Hurouian gneisses in York, Adams, and Lancaster Counties,3 rarely present themselves among the Lehigh County gneiss rocks.

It would be impossible to classify these two prin- cipal members throughout the mountain range, for they imperceptibly grade into one another. The writer met the same difficulty in his survey of Berks County (D)", vol. i., part ii.), and there, as here. the only practical guide to their geographical distribution is the greater erosion of the hills made up of the softer granulite rocks, and the consequent higher ground occupied by the horablendie variety. The latter hills present rugged sides and erests, are sterile and rocky, and generally wooded. The former pre- sent rounded hills with considerable soil, and are those mostly enltivated in the mountain region.

In Lehigh County the mountain mass is split in two by the beautiful Sancon Valley, made up of newer palæozoie measures. The western half of the division formis more properly what is locally known as the Lehigh Mountain, a belt two miles wide, composed

2 Sce remarks of Professor .I. P. Lesley, Report D, p. 60, of The Penn- sylvania Geological Survey.

" See Reports ", CC, CCC, Penn. Geological Survey.

115

GEOLOGY OF LEHIGH COUNTY.

chiefly of the harder syenitie gneiss, and extending from the Lehigh River at Bethlehem southwest, through Upper Saucon, Saulsburg, and Upper Mil- ford townships.

The eastern division is mostly confined to North- ampton County, where it forms the well-known Morgan, Bougher, and Hexenkopf hills. Passing into Lehigh County from near Leithsville, it oecupies portions of Upper Saucon and Lower Milford town- ships, joining the western division in the latter town- ship, and forming with it a mountain area four miles wide along the Berks County line.

This second division, bordering the Mesozoie red shale of upper Bucks County, is the western extension of the great Museoneteunk Mountain range of New Jersey. But in Pennsylvania, along the Delaware, its summits are only from four hundred and fifty to five hundred and thirty feet above tide-level, which has given rise here to the name of Durham Hills for this New Jersey mountain range.

These mountain ridges are evidently made up of closely-folded antielinals, though the form of struc- ture can be actually observed at but few places. It is, however, a fact commonly accepted by all geologists who have worked in the region that they have both anticlinal shape and structure. The arches are almost everywhere bent over northwards, producing a steep dip in the north leg of the antielinal, and a gentler dip in the south leg, but both inelining towards the southeast. This fact will often confuse the student of structure here, but it in no way impairs the rule governing the structure of this mountain and valley area from the Delaware to the Schuylkill Rivers,-viz., of inverted or overturned anticlinals and synelinals. Within these Laurentian rocks are the magnetic ore mines of Durham, in Bucks County, Dillingersville, New Zionsville, Alburtis, and Lock Ridge, in Lehigh, as well as the recently discovered deposits of corun- dum near Shimersville.

Just north of the Lehigh Mountain, a synelinal trough, through which the river runs from Allentown to Bethlehem, divides the main mountain mass from two outlying patches of gneiss, que east of the river at Allentown, and the other on the Little Lehigh Creek, | of scolithus, a delicate, stem-like fossil.

in Sanlsburg township, in the heart of the Great Val- ley. They are important as evidences of the spread of this gneiss formation underlying the limestone belt of the valley, as it does the smaller Durham and Saucon Valleys. These little detached ridges must be looked upon as parts of underground mountains still covered with limestone.

2. Palæozoic Rocks of Lehigh County .- Tliese, the second division of the rocks of Lehigh County in point of age, are such as give evidence of the exist- enee of former life, and frequently such in abundance. In point of territory, they are more widely distributed in Pennsylvania than any other system, being succes- sively brought to the surface by repeated folds through the interior and castern part of the State. However,

they by no means equal in thickness the cozoie meas- ures from which they have been derived.

Potsdam Sandstone, No. I .- The lowest member of this division in the county is the Potsdam sandstone, usually a triple formation of lower and upper slate and a middle white sandstone or quartzite. This formation Professor Henry D. Rogers, in the first survey of the State, called primal, adding a fourth lower member of conglomerate, marking the base of the formation. Only the two upper members, the sandstone or quartzite and the upper slate, have so far been noticed in this county.1

The (primal) upper slate forms the transition layer between the sandstone and the overlying Siluro-Cam- brian limestone of the Great Valley. Its thickness varies greatly in different parts of the county, in some places thinning out entirely, and elsewhere at- taining a thickness of several hundred feet. This slate has been colored on the map as part of the lime- stone area, as it contains the range of the brown hematite ore banks, which oecurs between the lime- stone and sandstone nearly the whole length of the county. It is by far the most important member of the series from an economical point of view.

To the primal white sandstone, colored buff on the map, whose junction with the underlying gneiss marks the horizon of another very important class of ores, the red hematites or specular ores, is assigned a thick- ness of only thirty feet in the State Geological Re- ports, though going westward into Berks County it gains in thickness what the slate loses.

The two lowest members, so largely developed in the south, seem to have thinned out entirely before reaching Pennsylvania, and evidences of a non-con- formability between Potsdam and gneiss are frequent. One such typical occurrence is well seen south of Easton, on the Delaware.

The sandstone usually consists of a compact quartz- ite, gray to blue in color when freshly broken, and weathering to a yellowish brown, and becoming pock- marked from the dissolution of small specks of fel- spathie material contained in the rock. It is fre- quently characterized by well-preserved specimens

In Lehigh County this formation will be found everywhere flanking the north base of the mountains, and dipping northwest unconformably, on southeast dipping gneiss from the Lehigh River, at Allentown, to the Berks County line. It occurs similarly be- tween the gneiss and limestone in the Saneon and Durham Valleys, though apparently absent south of Saucon Valley P. O., where the gneiss and lime- stone are in direct contact. A small patch of it eovers the north flank of the ontlying gneiss ridge in Sanls- burg township, northwest of Emaus. Quite an exten- sive area of it still covers the Laurentian rocks in Upper Milford township, indicating the evident former con-

1 See Report Da, vol. 1. p. 210, of the State Geological Reports.

116

IHISTORY OF LEHIGH COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

eealment of the whole gneissic region by paleozoie measures, the subsequent wearing away of which covering has allowed extensive areas of the eozoic floor to be exposed. The mines of speeular ore, or red hematite, at Vera Cruz, Shimersville, and Zionsville, are generally referred to this formation.

Siluro-Cambrian or Auroral Limestone .- This di- vision of the paleozoie rocks, under the name Mag- nesian limestone No. Il., as is frequently used in the Pennsylvania Geologieal Reports, comprises the Calciferous sandrock, Chazy, Bird's-Eye, and Black River limestones of the New York geologists. The Trenton limestone, being non-magnesian, forms an upper distinct member of the formation, immedi- ately under the Hudson River (matinal) slates No. III.

The color, texture, and composition of the lime- stones vary greatly. Blue and dove are the most prevailing tints, but the limestones may be said to show all shades from pure white to black. The lime- stone along the foot of the South Mountain is not only hard, flinty, and compact, but even semi-crys- talline. It apparently everywhere lies conformably on the Potsdam sandstone No. I. formation beneath it. The thickness of the limestone formation in Lehigh County is uncertain, for the apparently regular sur- face of the valley conceals a very troubled and irregu- lar floor, from three to seven miles wide, so compli- cated and contorted as to defy accurate measurement or interpretation of dips.

Its general structure is a series of tightly com- pressed rolls and basins, some regular, some over- turned, twisted, and even snapped. One of the most distinct and longest basins is the synelinal extend- ing from Allentown, between the South Mountains and the line of Pine Knob, Quaker Hill, and Chestnut ITill, southwest toward Alburtis.

A second marked trough is bounded on the north by the great antielinal, which erosses the Lehigh River a mile above Catasauqua. A third synelinal borders the slate belt, and is deeper than the other two, because it holds the lower members of the overlying slate formation. The antielinal, north of this, brings up to the surface the limestone areas at Kreidersville, and the patch on Catasauqua Creek, two miles above Weaversville, in Northampton County.

The upper or Trenton limestone is probably best seen on the Lehigh River, at Siegfried's bridge. The beds of this member are much sought after by the farmers, as they are non-magnesian, and make a very pure and strong lime. On passing southeast from Siegfried's bridge the limestones become generally more maguesian until near the contact line of the two members of the formation, the hydraulic lime- stone occurs, so long and favorably worked at the Coplay Cement Quarries.

The extent of this limestone formation is shown on the map by a blue color. In general, its southern limit

usually outlines the northern border of the South Mountains, except at Bethlehem in Northampton County, where it continues south through a break in the mountains and joins the Saucon Valley basin extending through into Upper Saucon township. The north limit is the edge of the Hudson River slates of No. III.

The great majority of the ores in the limestone are limonite, more commonly ealled brown hematite. It is the hydrated ferric oxide, containing when pure 59.89 per eent. iron. The two most important and persistent ore horizons in the county occur at the con- tact of the Siluro-Cambrian limestone with the Pots- dam upper (damourite) slate, and the other at the junction of either the Magnesian or Trenton lime- stone with the slate of No. III. It is from the da- mourite slate occurring there that the great mass of iron ore is obtained for the Lehigh Valley furnaces.

Between these two horizons, usually carrying ore in situ, there are local deposits of ore spread through the centre of the valley. These partake of a pocketty, irregular nature, and are not usually to be relied upon as persistent ore mines.

The most important of the iron-ore mines of Lehigh County is the Ironton Mine, both from its size and the excellent quality of the ore it has furnished. 1 full analysis of its ore will be found further on. In addition to the brown hematite ores it would not be out of place in this short sketch to note the occurrence of a valuable zine deposit near Friedensville, in the Saucon Valley.

Hudson River States No. III. (Matinal of Prof. Royers) .- This is the third member of the Paleozoic series, and occupies all that portion of the Great Valley lying between the North Mountain and the edge of the limestone on the south, with a breadth of about eight miles on the Lehigh and twelve miles along the Berks County line. It is an irregularly accented low hill country, very greatly cut up by numerous streams and rivulets. The whole mass is one formation corre- sponding to the Hudson River slate formation of New York, though occasionally traces of a lower Utica black state formation intervene between it and the Trenton limestone. It may be divided into two members, the upper being more massively bedded and therefore supporting a more elevated country, constituting the southern slope of the North Moun- tain. The slate mass, like the limestone, is highly plicated with numerous loeal antielinal and syneli- nal rolls, and dips overturned; is greatly worn down, concealing exposures and rendering measurements difficult.

In Northampton County, along the west bank of the Delaware, Mr. R. H. Sanders estimates five thousand two hundred and forty feet as a conservative thickness for the formation, and suggests six thousand feet as a probable thickness.' He says, "These five or six

1 13, vol. i. p. 85.

117

GEOLOGY OF LEHIGH COUNTY.

thousand feet of rock consist of beds of slate varying in thickness from one one-hundredth of an inch up to at least thirty feet, being nearly all of a dark-gray, bluish-black color, fine and coarse grained, with oc- casional beds of sandstone, which are not persistent." Within this formation are frequently found important beds of roofing slates, and a full description of the various openings in the county will be found in D3, vol. i., of the State Geological Survey Reports.

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History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 1, Part 29

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904; Hungerford, Austin N., joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Richards Number of Pages: 948

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904; Hungerford, Austin N., joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Everts & Richards
Number of Pages: 948