History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 50

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044

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The loss to the survey, though immeasurably less than the unspeakable affliction to the smitten family, is very great. Mr. Strong's careful notes, even up to the very hour of his death, were all recovered in a legible condition ; yet, though they were taken with that pains- taking care that so prominently characterized his work, they can never receive at the hands of another that fullness and completeness of elaboration which they would have received from their author.

As an appropriate, yet most sad and mournful appendix to the report, Prof. Chamberlin has added the following :

In Memoriam-Moses Strong-(June 17, 1846-August 18, 1877) .- The lapse si a geo- logic age is little to us save in the record it has left us. The infinitude of its days are of little moment if they form a " Lost Interval." The record is little to us save in its character. An eon of ages may have heaped up an immensity of sands, but if they have buried neither life nor treasure, it is but a barren interval. The years that formed the coal, the ore and the life beds, however brief among the eras of the earth's history, are more to us than all lost or barren intervals, however vast their cycles. So the eon of life. June 17, 1846-August 18, 1877. These are the limiting signs of human age. What is the record ?

The earlier period of Mr. Strong's life, the period of fundamental intellectual deposit and moral accretion, were spent where the basal strata of character are best laid, at home.

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His early training and instruction were largely received at the hands of an intellectual father and a pious mother, the combination which best matures thought and develops morals. To this was added something of the cosmopolitan culture of the public schools. In his thir- teenth year he entered the French and English school then located at Sauk City, where he acquired some knowledge of the rudiments of the versatile language of the French, A collegi- ate course had, however, been selected as an important feature of his education, and in his four- teenth year his studies were turned specifically in that direction under the tuition of the Rev. Mr. Skinner, then Rector of the Episcopal Church at Mineral Point. The last few months of these preparatory studies were passed at Delavan, in this State, whither Mr. Skinner had removed, and some of the citizens of that place will recall the quiet manner of the young student. Let it be noted that thus far, more than half the span of his life, he had been chiefly under the quiet but potent molding power of paternal and pastoral influence. Under these auspices the predominant traits of his character were formed, and the most important part of his education accomplished, the education that looks toward manhood.

But, though the home is wide enough for the boy, the world is none too broad for the man, and Mr. Strong now entered upon that wider culture which was to fit him for the still broader school of life. In September, 1863, he was admitted to Yale College, in whose classic atmos- phere he passed the succeeding four years. It was in our judgment a fortunate circumstance, in view of the fact that he subsequently turned his attention so largely to engineering and scien- tific studies, that so considerable an element of literary study entered into his course at this period. In the junior year of his college course, he selected the profession of mining engineer as his life pursuit, and during the remainder of his course his reading, outside of his class . studies, was mainly such as was germane to his chosen profession. Immediately after his grad- uation, he was offered an opportunity to engage in practical civil engineering in connection with the survey of a railroad line along the Mississippi, between La Crosse and Winona. This work, however, was cut short by sickness.

In the fall of the same year he returned to New Haven, and spent the year in the Sheffield Scientific School in the study of natural science, higher mathematics, drawing and kindred studies. In the pursuance of these studies he was much indebted to Prof. Brush, of the chair of mineralogy and metallurgy, who had completed his education in Germany, and by whom Mr. Strong's desire to complete his own education in that country was stimulated to its consummation.

Mr. Strong sailed for Germany in July, 1868, and returned in the same month of the year 1870. His first year was spent in the mining school at Clausthal, in the Hartz Mountains, and the second at the celebrated school at Freyberg, in Saxony. These two years afforded excellent facilities for the pursuit of his professional studies, both in the extensive mines aud the ample laboratories.

Soon after his return from Germany, Mr. Strong engaged in the practice of his profession -the survey of the extensive lead mines of Crawford, Mills & Co., at Hazel Green, being his first engagement. Upon the completion of this, he was entrusted by the firm with a financial mission to New York.

It was always the intention of Mr. Strong to pursue the work which he had planned for his life in the mines of the West, but his devotion to his parents, and his attachment to the home of his infancy and youth, and its domestic associations, were so great that he was reluctant to remove to so distant a field of labor, so long as he could be profitably engaged without perma- nently disturbing the ties and affections which bound him with such devotion to the scenes that had given so much pleasure to his earlier years.

Deeming a practical acquaintance with civil engineering, especially so far as relates to the location and construction of railroads, a valuable accessory to his profession as mining engineer, he became associated for varying periods, and in different capacities, in the location of the Northern Pacific, the Wisconsin Central, and several preliminary lines in the lead region.

On the inauguration of the geological survey, in 1873, Gov. Washburn, upon the recom- mendation of the late Dr. I. A. Lapham, then chief geologist, commissioned Mr. Strong as

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Assistant State Geologist. During the years 1873 and 1874, he was engaged chiefly in the examination of the lead region. In 1875, he extended his work, adjacent to the Mississippi, as far north as Trempealeau County.

The year 1876 was chiefly devoted to the copper-bearing series in the north western part of the State.

The history of Mr. Strong's work during the past year, and of its calamitous close, has already been given on a previous page. He fell in the midst of his work, in its active prosecu- tion. His last notes were recorded but a few moments before they were submerged with him beneath the fatal rapids. The life passed away, but its latest record remained. These last recordings are marked by blanks. The formation has been described, but spaces were left for the location, which was not then determined. These blanks may be filled, but he has left other blanks we may not fill. He fell pushing up the stream-in fact and in symbol-not floating down it. He stood at the prow, pressing onward and upward, with duty for his motive and truth for his aim.

Of his investigations in connection with the survey, I need not speak. "Let his works praise him."

In character, he was modest and unassuming, and commanded respect rather by the merits he could not conceal than by any that were assumed. His quiet manner never revealed the real executive strength which he possessed. He accomplished more than he seemed to be attempt- ing. His quiet self-possession gave steady and effective direction to his activities, and stood as a bar alike to the aberrations of mental confusion, the effervescence of merely emotional enthu- siasm, and the turbulence of illusive energy. Judiciousness in the application, rather than the absolute amount of energy displayed, characterized his efforts.

His retiring disposition excluded aggressive personal ambition, and his self-assertion was limited to that called forth in the discharge of his duties. His personal advancement was due to inherent merit or the efforts of others, rather to self-zeal and assurance on his part.

Candor and sincerity were eminent traits in his character, and honesty of expression marked alike his life and his language. His integrity was absolutely above question. No bond but his honor was requisite for the security of whatever trust was reposed in him. In attesta- tion of his attractive personal traits, he enjoyed the warm friendship of his associates, and, in an unusual degree, the esteem of the community in which he was so well known.

In harmony with his whole nature, Mr. Strong's religious convictions were of the practical rather than the emotional type. Conscientiousness in the fulfillment of every relationship of life was the fundamental stratum upon which was erected the temple of his faith. In outward recognition of his persuasions, he became a member and regular communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

If he could have chosen the form of his departure, and could have so molded it to best portray at once the soul of his ethical and religious views, he could perhaps have chosen nothing more fitting than that which the hand of destiny selected for him, to die from the perils that encompass duty, to die for his friend.

His domestic relations were most felicitous. Love given and received made his dwelling place a genial home. A kind father, a happy wife, and two lovely children, formed the hearth circle. The household penates always seemed to smile. That they are now broken and veiled, is the saddest thought of this sad story.

Obituary Notice of Knights Templar .- The following is a brief extract from the report of the Committee on Obituaries, to the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of the State of Wisconsin, at the Nineteenth Annual Conclave held at Madison, October 2 and 3, 1877.

After giving a statement of the events connected with his earlier life and education, the report concludes as follows :

"The unusual fine advantages that he had enjoyed in youth and early manhood had been faithfully used, and he had fairly entered on a career that, had his life been spared, would have secured him honorable distinction.

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"His character was one upon which his friends can look from any point of view with pride, with satisfaction and with love. To a mind trained by years of study and filled with valuable learning, he added a character of great moral excellence and of unsullied honor.

"Sir Knight Strong was initiated, passed and raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in Mineral Point Lodge, No. 1; became a Royal Arch Mason in Iowa Chapter, No. 6, in Mineral Point, and was received and constituted a Knight Templar in Mineral Point Com- mandery, No. 12; receiving all his degrees in the place of his birth, and the home of his life- time, and at the hands of those who knew full well that the honors he received were most worthily bestowed. His brethren mourn his loss with grieving and heartfelt sorrow. Such men as he it is who honor Masonry in their lives, and dying leave upon it the luster of a pure life and unspotted character."

THE DRIFTLESS AREA.

Again resuming the narrative of geologic fact, it is observed that the most interesting fact presented for the consideration of the general geologist, is the entire absence of " drift," or dilu- vium throughout the southwestern quarter of the State, and, while extending far to the north, still including the region referred to hercin. The lead district is driftless. About twelve thou- sand square miles are embraced in these boundaries. The investigations by Mr. Roland D. Irving and Mr. Moses Strong have resulted in much interesting information. From the official reports is quoted the following :

"In the driftless region, which occupies nearly one-fourth of the entire area of the State, the drift is not merely insignificant, but absolutely wanting. Except in the valleys of the largest streams, like the Wisconsin and Mississippi, not a single erratic bowlder, nor even a rounded stone, is to be seen throughout the district; whilst the exception named is not really an excep- tion, the small gravel deposits that occur on these streams having evidently been brought by the rivers themselves, during their former greatly expanded condition, from those portions of their courses that lie within the drift-bearing regions.'

Those readers of this work who have not easy access to the official reports, may be inter- ested to know the boundaries of the driftless region, and it is, therefore, here stated. The out- line is, for the most part, sharply defined, both by a more or less sudden cessation of the drift materials, and by a change in the topography, as the line is crossed, from one side to the other. This is more especially true of the eastern boundary, in which the reader is naturally most inter- ested. On this line are often seen heavy morainic heaps-that is, deposits of such bowlders and gravel as scientists have decided are carried under, or attached to the sides of glaciers, or to the center of glaciers which are formed by the union of two separate bodies of that nature. The effects of purely subaerial (or open air) erosion without drift, and the effects of glacial erosion with drift, are plainly distinguishable along these lines. The northern boundary of the region is mainly level country, the drift materials gradually diminishing to the south.

Mr. Strong defines the eastern line through Green County as beginning at the southwest corner, and waving irregularly northeast, until it crosses the county line on the north, about fifteen miles from the east line of Iowa County. Thence the line curves to the west, and crosses the Wisconsin about three miles east of the northeast corner of Iowa County ; thence, due north to Baraboo, curving as it crosses the Sauk County north line to touch Range 5; thence, with a gradual curve, it includes nearly all of Adams County, and swings to the northwest, touching Grand Rapids as its northeastern point ; thence, mainly west to the Mississippi River. This is now the accepted area, although Mr. Whitney differs somewhat from the definition as to the line through Adams and Juneau Counties. The report of 1877, by Mr. Irving, is referred to, for the benefit of those who desire a more detailed and argumentative description.

Mr. Irving says: "The nature of the topography of the driftless area, everywhere most patently the result of subaerial erosion exclusively, is even more striking proof that it has never been invaded by the glacial forces than is the absence of drift material. Except in the level country of Adams, Juneau, and the eastern part of Jackson County, it is everywhere a region of narrow, ramifying valleys and narrow, steep-sided dividing ridges, whose direction are toward

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every point of the compass, and whose perfectly coinciding horizontal strata prove conclusively their erosive action. * * * * Each one of the numerous streams has its own ravine, and the ravines are all in direct proportion to the relative sizes of the streams in them." [Reference is made to the contour maps drawn by Mr. Strong, displaying, with instructive plain- ness, the topographic phenomena of the region.]

"The altitude of the driftless area, as compared with the drift bearing regions, becomes a matter of some importance in any attempt to explain the absence of the drift phenomena. It has been stated by some writers that the driftless area is higher than the drift-bearing, and was, consequently, not subjected to glacial invasion. It is true that in general the eastern half of the State is lower than the western, but from what follows it will be seen that farther than this the statement is inaccurate. From the south line of the State, as far north as the head of Sugar River, in Cross Plains, the county west of the drift limit rises rapidly from 200 to 400 feet. Just north of the head of Sugar River the limit crosses high ground-the western extension of the high limestone and prairie belt of northern Danc and southern Columbia Counties-and the altitudes east of the limit are as great as those to the west; whilst in passing from the head of the Catfish River westward, a glacier must have made an abrupt ascent of fully 300 fect. North of Black Earth River the limit has the higher ground, by 200 feet, on the east. Sauk Prairie is crossed on a level, and though higher ground occurs west of the prairie, its topogra- phy and the absence of drift show that the glacier never reached so far. Where the quartzite range north of Sauk Prairie is crossed by the limit, it is higher (850 feet above Lake Michigan) than any part of the driftless arca except the Blue Mounds, whilst only a few miles east a great development of bowlders and gravel is found on one of the highest portions of the range (900 to 950 feet altitude). From the Baraboo north to the Sauk County line, there appears to be in relation between the position of the limit and the altitude of the country. From the north linc of Sauk County, in curving to the eastward and north ward around Adams County, the limit is on the very crest of the divide. From its position near the middle of the east line of Adams County, the country, for forty miles to the west, is from 100 to 200 fcet lower. From the northwest part of Adams County to the Wisconsin River the limit is in a level country; whilst from the Wisconsin westward, the country north of it is everywhere much higher than that to the south, the rise northiward continuing to within thirty miles of Lake Superior."

In his discussion of the glacial drift, Mr. Irving reaches certain conclusions, which are here reproduced only so far as they relate positively to the area devoid of drift. The negative arguments, or those that go to prove the absence of drift, because the region is not like the vast majority of the country, and of the Northern Hemisphere of the globe, are recited in brief :

"1. The drift of Central Wisconsin is true glacier drift. [See Report 1877, p. 630.]

"2. The Kettle Range of Central Wisconsin is a continuous terminal and lateral moraine. The mere fact of the existence of such a distinct and continuous belt of unstratified and mo- raine-like drift, which, in much of its course, lies along the edge of the driftless area, or, in other words, along the line on which the western foot of a glacier must long have stood, would go far toward proving the truth of the proposition [that this is true glacial drift], of which, however, a complete demonstration is at hand. In all the country just inside the Kettle Range, we find that glacial stria-channels-lines of glacial erosion, and lines of travel of erratics- bowlders, or minerals foreign to the locality where found-preserve a position at right angles 'to the course of the range, although that course veers in the southern part of the district from west to north. East of the Central Wisconsin district, the Kettle Range extends eastward and northeastward to the dividing ridge between the valley of Lake Michigan and the valley in which lie Green Bay, Lake Winnebago, and the head-waters of Rock River, and along this ridge northward, into Green Bay Peninsula. All along this part of its course, Prof. Chamber- lin has found the glacial striæe pointing east of south, and toward the Kettle Range, whilst along the middle of the Green Bay Valley he finds the striæe directions parallel to the main axis of the valley, or a little west of south. On the west side of this great valley, and along the eastern border of the Central Wisconsin district, the striae trend about southwest, whilst still

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further west, they gradually trend further to the west, becoming at last nearly due west, or at right angles to the western Kettle Rangc.

" We have then a most beautiful proof that at one time the Green Bay Valley was occupied by a glacier, which was not merely a part of a universal ice sheet, but a distinctly separate tongue from the great northern mass. The end of this glacier was long in northern Rock County, its eastern foot on the East Wisconsin divide, and its western on the summit of the divide between the Fox and Wisconsin River systems, as far south as southern Adams County, after which it crossed into the valley of the Wisconsin, and from that into the head-waters of the Catfish branch of Rock River, in the Dane County region. Whilst the main movement of the glacier coincides in direction with the valley which it followed, it spread out on both sides in fan shape, creating immense lateral moraines. Peculiar circumstances caused the restriction of the eastern moraine or narrow area, whilst that on the west, having no such restriction, spread out over a considera- ble width of country, the breadth of the moraine reaching in Waushara County as far as twenty- five miles. This width of moraine must have been due to the alternate advance and retreat of the glacier foot. Such an advance and retreat appears, moreover, to be recorded in the long lines of narrow sinuous ridges, each marking, perhaps, the position of the glacier foot, or a por- tion of it, during a certain length of time. The intersecting of these winding ridges, which have no parallelism at all with one another, appears to me to have been the main cause of the formation of the kettle depressions. Col. Whittlesey [Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge], has supposed . that these owe their origin to the melting of ice masses included within the moraine materials. and this may possibly be true with regard to more regularly circular kettles. The thickness of the great glacier we can only conjecture. It is easy to see, however, that it was at least a thou- sand feet, for it was able to accommodate itself to variations in altitude of many hundred feet. Morainic drift occurs on the summit of the Baraboo ranges over 900 feet above Lake Michigan, and on the immediately adjacent low ground, 700 below.

"3. The driftless region of Wisconsin owes its existence, not to superior altitude, but to the fact the glaciers were deflected from it by the influence of the valleys of Green Bay and Lake Superior. Some writers have thrown out the idea that the driftless area is one of present great altitude compared with the regions around it, and that, by virtue of this altitude during the Glacial period, it caused a splitting of the general ice sheet, itself escaping glaciation. This idea may have arisen from the fact that, in the southern part of the area, the district known as the ' lead region,' has a considerable elevation ; but the facts hitherto given have shown that, in reality, the driftless area is for the most part lower than the drift-covered country immediately around ; the greatest development, for instance, of the western lateral moraine of the glacier of the Green Bay Valley, having been on the very crown of the water-shed between the Lake Mich- gan and Mississippi River slopes, whilst the driftless region is altogether on the last-named slope. Moreover, to the north, toward Lake Superior, and in Minnesota, the whole country covered with drift materials lies at a much greater altitude. J. D. Whitney, in his report on the Icad region of Wisconsin, favors the idea that the driftless district stood, during the glacial times, at a much greater relative altitude than now, and so escaped glaciation. But it is evident that, in order that this could have been the case, either (1) a break or bend in the strata must have taken place along the line of junction between driftless or drift-bearing regions, or else (2) the drift- less region has since received relatively a much greater amount of denudation than the drift- bearing.

" That no break or bend ever took place along the line indicated, is abundantly proven by the present perfect continuity of the strata on both sides of the line, the whole region in Central Wisconsin being in fact one in which faults of any kind are things absolutely unknown. That no sensible denudation has taken place in Wisconsin since the glacial times, in either drift-bcar- ing or driftless areas, is well proven by the intimate connection with one another of the systems of erosion of the two regions. The valley of Sugar River, for instance, with its branches, is throughout its course worn deeply into the underlying rocks; on its east side it contains moraine drift, proving that it was worn out before the Glacial period, whilst on the west it

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extends into the driftless regions. We are thus compelled to believe that, during the Glacial period, the region destitute of drift had the same altitude relatively to the surrounding country as at present. Before the Glacial period, portions of the drift-bearing region may indeed have been somewhat higher, for in it a considerable amount of material must have been removed from one place to another by the glacial forces. The only satisfactory explanation remaining, then, for the existence of the driftless region, is the one I have proposed. We have already seen that the extent of this region to the eastward was marked out by the western foot of the glacier which followed the valley of Green Bay. That it was not invaded from the north, is evidently due to the fact that the glacier or glaciers of that region were deflected to the westward by the influence of the valley of Lake Superior. The details of the movement for this northern coun- try have not been worked out, but it is well known that what is probably the most remarkable and best-preserved development of morainic drift in the United States, exists on the water-shed south of Lake Superior. Here the drift attains a very great thickness, and the kettle depres- sions and small lakes without outlet are even more numerous and characteristic than in other parts of the State. The water shed proper lies some thirty or forty miles south of the lake, and 800 to 1,200 feet above it, but the morainic drift extends twenty-five to fifty miles further south- ward. On the east side of the State, the drift of Lake Superior merges with that of Central and Eastern Wisconsin, while west of the western moraine of the Green Bay glacier, it dies out somewhat gradually, until 125 to 150 miles south of the lake the drift limit is reached. Much of the country twenty-five to seventy-five miles north of the driftless region, though showing numerous erratics, is quite without any marked signs of glaciation, as, for instance, along the valley of the Wisconsin, from Grand Rapids north to Wausau. Further west, the drift extends more to the southward. The course of the Lake Superior glaciers conveyed them further and further southward as they moved westward.

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History of Grant County, Wisconsin, Part 50

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Butterfield, Consul Willshire, 1824-1899
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : Western Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1044