USA > Wisconsin > Waukesha County > The History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources; an extensive and minute sketch of its cities, towns and villages etc > Part 48
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SOILS OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
The soil is the latest and most important geological formation. To make a report at once accurate and intelligible to the general reader is as difficult as the subject is important. Scien- tific farming is rapidly taking the place of the blundering, hap-hazard manner of tilling the soil
322
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
which has been the rule for so many years and to such great cost in this country ; and farmers, therefore, desire to understand the value of soil ingredients, that they may till and sow accord- ingly. The difficulty in presenting an intelligible article on soils arises partly from the vagueness of the descriptive terms used by different persons. People speak of "light " and "heavy " soils, the majority of them supposing reference is had to the actual weight or specific gravity of them. This is a great error. For example : localities are described as composed of a "heavy clay," and "a light sandy " soil ; but literally the sand weighs almost twice as much as the clay, measure for measure. Light and heavy, as commonly used, are terms intended to describe adhesiveness, power of holding water, comminution-in short, the manner in which the soil " works." Again, purely scientific persons generally suppose that sandy soils are com- posed of grains of quartz-globules of hard igneous rocks-and are, therefore, barren. This is not always true, as sandy soils may contain grains of limestone and be very fertile.
The leading elements of soils are derived from the original rocks, which were broken into fragments by internal forces, and ground, pulverized and transported by water mostly, eitber as ice during the glacial period, or later by streams and lakes. These elements were, however, generally not left by these agencies in such a state as to be fertile. Ages of leeching, weather- ing and wearing, by such agencies as winds, sun, rain and frosts, prepared the beds of soil which were afterward self-enriched for ages by vegetation. It will now be clear that the char- acter of a soil will depend upon (1) the nature of the rock from which it is derived; (2) the manner and degree of its reduction ; (3) the amount lost by leeching and otherwise, and (4) the amount gained from vegetation above, or capillary attraction from beneath. Or, to put the mat- ter in simpler terms, a soil depends upon (1) the chemical nature of the material and (2) its physical state, or degree of fineness to which it has been reduced.
Prairie Loam .- This soil owes its origin to the decomposition of underlying limestone ; to the disintegration of limestone gravel, or to the deposits of ancient lakes. The true type may be described as a black, light soil, that works like an ash heap when dry ; rolls into little pellets when wet and refuses to "sconr," except with the very best steel plows. It is a very warm soil, but not so rich as its dark color might lead some to suppose. It is very responsive to fertilizers. This soil is easily penetrated by the humus of vegetable matter, hence its dark color. The apparent absence of the carbonates of lime and magnesia is owing to the fact that this soil is the residue of rocks from which the lime and magnesia have been dissolved. The necessary mineral substances, however, will always be found in the subsoil. There are only a few small patches of this soil in the county.
Clayey Loams .- These are sometimes called marly clays, and are drift soils derived chiefly from calcareous or limey clay, formed by glacial agencies. The top is composed largely of lime and magnesia, but the subsoil is more marly. The plow frequently turns up a reddish or yel- lowish subsoil, which contains but very little decayed vegetable matter. It is a fertile soil, and stands floods and droughts well. The marly clay soils are light and heavy, but their origin and character are essentially the same. The latter is apt to contain "hard-heads," and works heavily at first, but more easily afterward. Thus, crops which at first were failures, finally produce well upon it.
Red Clay .- This does not appear to any extent in Waukesha, although it is prominent in Milwaukee, and counties along the lake shore. It is hard when dry, and always requires a great amount of working. It is easily distinguishable by the tendency to crack, the cracks occasion- ally widening into large fissures in dry weather. Such a soil is not the true clay; it contains some lime and magnesia, silicious matter and hematite. The hematite, or sesqui-oxide of iron, may be easily found by drawing a magnet through a handful of the dust, and is the substance which aids in giving the color to the clay.
Silicious Sand .- This forms a small portion of the soil in Waukesha County. It needs no description. Without mixtures of other soils it is sterile. It is hot and dry, and, when mixed with adjoining clays, produces certain crops in abundance. It is also wonderfully
323
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
prolific when heavily and continually enriched by artificial means. The western portion of the county has some of this soil.
Limestone Loam .- This is an improper term, used to designate a soil composed of decom- posed limestone, unmixed with much drift matter. It is easily worked, and supports a heavy growth of hard timber. It produces excellent wheat, and is one of the valuable soils of the county.
Calcareous Sand .- This is a drift soil, having its origin in the reduction of the dolomitic beds of the Niagara group of limestone, mixed with silicious sand. It is the principal soil of most of the towns in the county, though found in various slightly modified forms. It will, and generally does, support a heavy growth of hard timber, being well adapted to the growth of maple. It is light, warm and arenaceous, but has little appearance of fertility. This is owing to the fact that the sand has been left by decomposition and bleaching on the surface. The sub- soil, being essentially dolomitic, adds 100 per cent to the value of the land for agricultural pur- poses. Being a drift soil, it is found pure in but few localities, being modified, for better or worse, by mixture of the substances which compose other soils.
Humus Soils .- These are chiefly peat and swamp muck, or vegetable mold. They are generally very rich, though sometimes thorough drainage is necessary to make them productive, and sometimes the acids of the decomposed vegetation render them too " sour " for the profita- ble growth of cereals. They generally produce grasses, but do not contain mineral ingredients enough for cereals. Some of the finest pastures in the county, as well as many of the best meadows, are humus swamp muck.
Economic Considerations .- Prairie loam is generally covered with such grasses and plants as the virgin prairies presented to the first settlers-the light, marly clays are covered with oaks ; maples grow in heavy, marly clays; red clays have about the same growth of trees ; limestone loam is generally covered with oaks in this zone; maple, oak and beech grow on cal- careous sands ; conifers, pine, hemlock, etc., on silicious sands ; swamp vegetation on humus soils.
The natures of soils may be also known by the following tables, the plant growing most rapidly and thriftily in soil where its principal ingredient is found in the most liberal quan- tities :
Magnesia.
Lime.
Magnesia.
Lime.
Wheat
12.2
3.1
'Winter-wheat straw.
2.6
6.2
Rye.
10.9
2.7
Rye
3.1
7.7
Barley
8.3
2.5
Barley
2.4
7.6
Oats
7.3
3.8
Oats
4.0
8.2
Maize
14.6
2.7
Maize
5.5
10.5
Buckwheat
13.4
3.3
Pease
7.7
37.9
Flax.
13.2
8.4
Field beans
7.8
23.1
Beet.
18.9
15.6
Garden beans
5.2
27.4
Turnip
8.7
17.4
Buckwheat
3.6
18 4
Carrot
6.7
38.8
Oak, body wood.
4.8
73.5
Pease
8.0
4.2
Oak, small branches, with bark
7.5
54.0
Field beans
6.7
5.2
Poplar, young twigs.
7.5
58.4
Garden beans.
7.5
7.7
Elm, young twigs.
10.0
37.9
Clover seed
12.2
6.2
Elm, body wood.
7.7
47.8
Linden (basswood).
4.2
29.9
Apple-tree
5.7
81.0
Apple-tree, entire fruit.
8.8
4.1
Beech
45.8
16 8
White pine
5.9
50.1
Larch.
24.5
27.1
Potatoes.
4.5
2.3
These tables show that lime is concerned more in the formation of fiber of all kinds, and magnesia in the growth and production of the fruit. This accounts for the excellence of Waukesha County wheat, and may be of value to farmers in sowing their various crops on proper soils.
1
324
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
ELEVATIONS OF DIFFERENT LOCALITIES.
To know some of the different elevations of the surface of Waukesha County may be of value, and will certainly be of interest. The Government and State surveyors will be given as authority for these figures, which are undoubtedly correct. However, the State Geologist's report, page 126, contains a statement, which, if correct, is certainly astonishing. It places Fox River, in Section 17, town of Waukesha, eighty feet higher than at the depot in Waukesha Vil- lage, two miles up the stream. It has been testified in court that Waukesha mineral water will " flow up hill ; " but the Fox River is generally considered too much of a sluggard to climb a hill, even to bear out the statements made in a public document. More seriously, this may be considered the only error in the official elevations of the county, only a few of which will be given, beginning with the highest.
FEET.
FEET.
Government Hill, Section 29, Delafield. 611
Merton, North Lake. 309
Menomonee River, at Verbryck's mill. 144
Lake Keesus.
376
Big Meadow, Brookfield. 252
Fox River at Big Bend, Vernon 268
Poplar Creek, old Prairieville road 240
Vernon, east line of Section 10.
359
Hills between Poplar Creek and Waukesha. 329
Vernon, valley, Section 28.
291
Fox River, at Waukesha. 211
Oconomowoc, station.
283
Pewaukee Summit (M. & R. R. Canal) 316
Oconomowoc, La Belle Lake
273
Railroad station at Waukesha. 225
Section 21, New Berlin
291
Public school at Waukesha. 243
Saylesville pond, Genesee.
232
Northeast quarter of Section 13, town of Waukesha .. 336
Genesee, southwest quarter of Section 25 ..
223
Creek on Section 17, town of Waukesha. 805
northwest quarter of Section 35
367
Silver Lake, Summit. 278
creek on Section 21
315
Pewaukee Lake and Station
263
station
325
Section 1, Pewaukee.
262
Eagle, Section 22 365
66
12, 368
66
"
19
266
. 32,
66 26, (railroad crossing) 248
305
Delafield, Lakeside Station: 292
304
Section 14, Mukwonago
335
Pewaukee Lake.
263
Muskego Lake ..
191
Brookfield, Elm Grove Station 170
205
Junction.
246
6. northwest quarter of Section 9. 431
66 northeast quarter of Section 11. 219
Forest House Station. 240
238 Genesee Lake 281
Duck Lake 283
Otis Lake.
283
east of Pine Lake. 384
Hill at Nehmabin Spring.
397
NATIVE VEGETATION,
The plow, the ox, and herds and flocks have driven much of the native vegetation of Wau- kesha County out of existence. A list of the prominent products of the virgin soil, before the march of civilization had wrought her wondrous artificial change, may be of interest and value. There are (a) upland, (b) marsh, and (c) intermediate groups of vegetation, and each has its groups of representatives in Waukesha County.
Upland Vegetation .- This is comprised in what is technically termed the prairie group, consisting of prairie grass and prairie blossoms, and plants of all kinds, and the various arbor- eous or tree groups. The oak group comprises the burr-oak (quercus macrocarpa), white-oak (quercus alba), and pin-oak (quercus palustris), which are the prominent species, and give name to the whole. With them are found poplar or aspen (populus tremuloides), shell-bark hickory (carya alba), pig-nut or bitter-nut hickory (carya glabra), crab-apple (pyrus coronaria), choke- cherry ( prunus Virginiana), black cherry (prunus serotina), wild plum (prunus Americana), sumac (rhus typhina), hazlenut (corylus Americana), sugar-maple (acer saccharinum), red maple
·
66
66 14, northeast quarter. 370
66
68 21. 355
Marsh on Section 6, Mukwonago ....
Mukwonago Village.
276
66
Nagawicka
Section 13, Muskego
south line.
227
Menomonee, northeast quarter of Section 2
193
Section 8. 334
Falls
66 Section 17. 314
Merton, valley west of Pine Lake, 318
Prospect Hill, New Berlin
344
Hill, west of Pewaukee Lake. 393
330
A. VIEAU MUSKEGO CENTRE (SEE PAGE 347)
327
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
(acer rubrum), elms (ulmus Americana and U. fulva), basswood or linden (tilia Americana), ironwood (ostra virginica), black ash (froxinus sambucifolia), butternut (juglans cinera).
Marsh Vegetation .- Waukesha County has not much marsh, but its vegetation is the same as that of larger marshes. The grasses are luxuriant and indicate a soil that may be easily reclaimed. The sedges (cyerdcec), occupy marshes that usually cannot be easily reclaimed.
The heath family (ericacec), comprises some important plants. The most characteristic ones, the leather leaf (cassandra calyculata), cranberry (vaccinium macrocarpon), willows, larch, mosses and erratic plants. The existence of native cranberry plants in Waukesha County is a matter worthy of some attention, as it indicates a condition of soil and climate which will insure the cultivation of the plant as an industry of profit. The simple presence of that plant alone, in a wild state, is not all-sufficient ; but when leather-leaf, gander-bush and feather-leaf abound also, cranberry culture is sure to be a success. Native cranberries are found in Eagle, Section 31 ; Ottawa, Sections 28 and 32; Summit, Sections 9 and 12; Delafield, Sections 34 and 27; Oconomowoc, Section 4. Next in importance in marsh vegetation is the tamarack group, so far as this county is concerned. It is the American larch (larix Americana). A few white cedars (thuga occidentalis), and black spruces (abies nigra), are found in some of the swamps. The rosin plant (slilphium laciniatum), or compass weed as it is sometimes called, grows in Mukwonago, on Dr. Youman's farm. It was a popular belief that its broad leaves always point north and south, thereby furnishing travelers in uninhabited countries a sure guide by which to keep their proper course.
Intermediate Groups .- These are of very little importance in this county. They com- prise stray witch-hazel clumps, black alder, yellow birch and cohosh.
Miscellaneous .-- There have been discovered and classified, in Waukesha County, over six hundred different plants, not including mosses. Many of them are valuable for their medicinal properties, and others as articles of food. , Among the 600 may be mentioned cowslip (caltha palustris), gold thread (coptis trifolia), golden seal, bloodroot (sanguinaria Canadensis), prickly ash (zanthoxylum), snake root (polygala Senega), tea (ceanothus), grape (vitis œstivalis), wild pea-three varieties-which, in early days, were considered of great value as food for stock ; wild bean, Indian potato (apios tuberosa), used not only by Indians but by the early white set- tlers as a substitute for potatoes ; strawberry (fragaria Virginiana), red and black raspberry, prickly gooseberry (ribes cynosbati), wild red and black currant (ribes floridune and R. rubrum), spikenard (aralia racemosa), sarsaparilla (A. nudicaulus), wild coffee (triosteum perfoliatum), high-bush cranberry (vibernum opulus) Indian tobacco (lobelia inflata), popularly called Thomp- son's physic ; "ginseng " (genitiana), wild hop (humulus lupulus), Indian turnip (arum tri phyllum), wild asparagus* (A. officinalis), sweet flag (acorus calamus), wild rice (zizania aquatica), and fifty species of wild grasses. Many of these are gone, but they, with the carices, which were used for hay, formed a most valuable wild product in early times, as farmers could cut fod- der enough without waiting to make "tame " meadows.
FOSSIL REMAINS.
The most noticeable fossils in the limestones of Waukesha County are to be seen in great numbers in the paving stones of the village of Waukesha, and are the remains of those old species of cuttle-fish which are provided with chambered shells-either straight, when they are termed orthoceratites ; somewhat curved, called cyrtoceratites, or voluted, like the shell of the nautilus, when they receive the name of gyroceratites. These petrified shells may be found by hundreds, visible to the casual pedestrian along the streets of Waukesha, and are from one to two feet in length, ordinarily. The pentamerus, a shell bearing some resemblance to the oyster, but thicker and smoother, is common in the Pewaukee limestone, and various forms of trilobites are to be found in both places, though not so plentifully. Of stone corals, the halysites and
* There is little doubt that this is a degenerated plant, introduced as asparagus by the French settlers. None is known to exist in this county now. Solomon Juneau pointed out a few plants near Muskego Center, years ago.
B
328
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
favosites are to be found almost everywhere in the county where limestone appears on the sur- face, either in quarries or as drift, and crinoid specimens are also quite numerous.
For the benefit of those who desire a more particular knowledge of the fossils to be found in the limestones of Waukesha County, a more detailed list is here subjoined.
At Pewaukee, of crinoids : caryocrinisooratus, encalyptocrinus, crassus and colatus; of trilobites : Illanus ioxus and pterocephalus, and several corals.
At Johnson's quarry in Genesee the same and several brachiopods, including the orthis flabellula and spirifera plicatilla.
At Waukesha, besides those mentioned above, there are more than twenty species of coral, ten of cystidea, three of bryozoa, twenty of brachiopods, five of lamillibranchiata, nine of gas- teropods, and ten of crustacea.
At Menomonee Falls, the fossils are principally corals and brachiopods.
MINERAL SPRINGS.
Nothing ever gave Waukesha County so great a notoriety as her numerous mineral springs, whose waters are drank everywhere for the restoration of health. The providential discovery of the virtues of these springs at once gave the entire county a reputation world-wide in extent ; springs wholly invaluable to the thousands afflicted with several fatal diseases for which their min- eral properties are a specific. The elements of all of them throughout the county are very similar, the mineral substances and curative properties being nearly the same in each. They may be found, too, almost anywhere, but only a few springs, compared with the number known to exist, have been improved, advertised and their waters sent abroad. They are nearly all of astonishing size, almost any one being large enough to furnish as much water as could be shipped with ordinary railway facilities ; and the flow from all the springs in Waukesha County would be sufficient to more than slake the thirst of all the inhabitants of the Union. Thus, nature has provided, free and delicious, a remedy so unlimited that every person in the civilized world afflicted with the peculiar diseases for which it is a specific, can have an abundance of it. The existence of good, pure springs in Waukesha County has been known, it is true, ever since the country was first settled by whites ; but their wonderful curative properties were never fully understood, probably not known at all to the whites, until 1868. The Indians, however, had 'one of their oldest and largest trails leading to Mineral Rock Springs, another to Bethesda and another to the springs at Pewaukee ; and their Medicine Man told some of the first settlers that the water of the two springs at Waukesha was " sick." It may be judged from these facts that the aborigines understood the peculiarities of them and drank of their waters with that understanding.
In fact, George Washington Featherstonhaugh, now of Milwaukee, sent out nearly fifty years ago as a surveyor and geologist by the English government, and as the commander of the party referred to in the extract, furnishes the following :
"In 1834, a party was dispatched by the Topographical Burean to survey and fix a road from Port Lawrence and Vistula to Fort Armstrong, Rock Island on the Mississippi, nearly opposite to the mouth of the Rock River.
"The survey was arrested at the confluence of the Fox River with the Illinois, opposite to the town of Ottawa, Illinois, by the illness of the men. Fourteen or fifteen had complication of fever and ague, and many other bad consequences resulting from exposure and bad water.
" At this time the whole region from Portage City to Chicago was purely an Indian terri- tory and the Indians outnumbered the whites by immense odds. A half-breed guide informed the commanding officer that at the head of the Fox River was a spring of great virtue well known to the Indians. Having some faith in the information thus obtained, a small party was detailed to follow the Fox River and endeavor to find this healing water.
" By following up the main water-course they arrived at the present site of Waukesha and encamped on the bluff. No less than 100 Indians were engaged in drinking the waters, using them as external applications and pouring them into rude vessels for transportation.
329
HISTORY OF WAUKESHA COUNTY.
" On the historical branch of this vitally interesting question it is a work of supererogation to dwell any longer. A cloud of living witnesses can at any moment be summoned before the tribunal of public opinion."
In handling the waters of the various springs in this county as a business enterprise, a rivalry sprang up between their proprietors. This may have misled the public somewhat ; but there was no occasion for it, as the published analyses of several chemists of unblemished repu- tation demonstrated that there is but very little difference in the mineral properties of the various springs. The chief difference, discovered by careful observation, is that the waters of most of them are more strongly impregnated with mineral substances in dry weather than during the wet periods of spring and late autumn ; but all are subject to exactly the same con- ditions and changes, river over flow alone excepted. Their similarity renders them unusually valuable, for abounding in various portions of the county as they do, ample room is furnished for all who may come-the great annual influx of pleasure-seekers, as well as afflicted, not being compelled to crowd around one little fountain.
The source of the curative properties of these waters has never been satisfactorily explained. The use, by the most skillful physicians, of the substances found in Waukesha water would have very little effect in curing diseases for which these springs are a specific. When all other remedies failed in the attempt to overcome retention of urine among the victims of yellow fever in the South in 1878 and 1879, Waukesha water " acted like a charm," in the language of Dr. Broaddus, of New Orleans, " and numerous cases of recovery can be attributed alone to its use." This was an invaluable boon to the fever-stricken South, as the water loses none of its curative properties by transportation.
The flow of the Waukesha Springs has no peculiarities. Their temperature remains the same throughout the year. A beautiful and interesting phenomenon was thus described by a Milwaukee chemist in 1873:
"Every one who has observed any of the springs in this vicinity, may have noticed small white particles constantly bubbling up with the water. They vary from the size of a grain of sand to that of a pea, and are of irregular shapes and very white. They are tossed up by the action of the water and fall back again ; they are rolled out and roll back again, appearing and re-appearing, and performing all kinds of pretty and curious revolutions. If you endeavor to keep your eyes upon one particular particle, you will find your strictest watch evaded, and in the course of one or two pretty parabolas it will give you the go-by in spite of yourself.
" Taken in the fingers, one of these little globules is quite soft and smooth, giving no indi- cation of grit, and rather soapy when rubbed between the fingers. They are regarded by many as being composed of magnesia, but this is not strictly true. Their composition is about one- fourth carbonate of magnesia and three-fourths carbonate of lime. They, moreover, undoubt- edly have their origin in the course of the water which evidently comes from the limestone. How they should consist of so large a per cent of carbonate of magnesia may be explained in this way.
" The limestone of this place is to some extent magnesian (carbonate of lime and carbon- ate of magnesia, the latter being in a very small proportion). The water, percolating through the strata of the stone, disintegrates the carbonate of magnesia more easily than the carbonate of lime, bence the greater proportion of magnesia is found in the water, and the solid substance which it carries with it.
"If the course of any one of the numerous springs of this place were traced to the limestone bed, there would perhaps be found, near the outlet of the water from the strata, considerable quantities of the same substance as the little moving particles alluded to. In the Waukesha Mineral Rock Spring, which flows directly from a spur of Mr. A. Hadfield & Co.'s quarry bed, this substance exists in bulk. Pounds of it may be taken out in a fine condition, soft and pasty and white as snow.
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