USA > Wisconsin > Dodge County > The history of Dodge county, Wisconsin, containing its early settlement, growth an extensive and minute sketch of its cities war record, biographical sketches > Part 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122
3. Subsequent to the glacial period, the wearing action of the streams was resumed, but under somewhat new conditions, and carved out a new surface contour, the features of which may be termed post-glacial.
To the agencies, ice and water, assisted slightly by winds, the topographical peculiarities of the county are chiefly due. There is no evidence of violent eruptions, upheavals or outbursts. There was, indeed, the gradual elevation and depression of the surface, and probably some little flexure of the crust ; but the region has been free from violent agitation, and owes none of its salient topographical features to such causes.
ELEVATIONS.
Having disposed of the salient features of the topography of the county, attention is nat- urally directed to the minor characteristics of the formations. The following list of elevations constitutes a more specific class of topographical data, which will be of great value in making estimates for artesian wells and in locating preliminary lines of railroad. The figures indicate the altitude in feet above Lake Michigan. By adding 589 feet to those of any given point, the result will be the elevation above the ocean: Beaver Dam Railway station, 340 feet above the water line of Lake Michigan ; Beaver Dam Lake, 282 feet; Burnett Junction, 299 feet ; Lake Horicon (that was), 277 feet; Loss Lake, town of Calamus, 291 feet; Clyman Station, 330 feet; Rock River, in the Sixth Ward of Watertown, 211 feet; Lake Emily, 312 feet; north- east corner of Section 11, town of Herman, 235 feet; south line of Section 26, same town, 105 feet; Lowell Station, 247 feet; Minnesota Junction, 348 feet; Rolling Prairie Station, 363
311
HISTORY OF DODGE COUNTY.
feet; Juneau Station, 335 feet; Seetion 32, town of Shields, 214 feet ; Wanpun Station, 314 feet; Horicon marsh, nearest Waupun, 280 feet.
A large number of well-defined moraines of stones and rubbish exist in different parts of the county. The most noteworthy of these occur in Sections 4, 5 and 6, in the town of Her- man, and in Sections 33 and 34 in the town of Theresa. The former consists of a narrow ridge, rising not usually more than twenty feet in height, and extending in a general easterly and westerly direction for a distance of about three miles, with occasional interruptions, where it is crossed by streams and "dry runs." Throughout Sections 5 and 6, the ridge lies upon an elevated table-land or plateau, formed of drift material.
GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS.
The northern part of the State is occupied by the oldest formations that are definitely known to geologists by observation, though theoretically there are older ones. These dip down beneath the sandstones and limestones that constitute the upper formations in the southern part of the State. They pass beneath Dodge County at a depth of more than a thousand feet, and may be looked upon as forming the great rock floor upon which the latter formations repose. There lies upon this floor first a great bed of sandstone, to which the name of Potsdam has been given. The thickness of this is somewhat irregular, but is sometimes nearly or quite one thou- sand feet. Upon this sandstone, there lies the lower magnesian limestone. This is likewise irregular in thickness, varying from about sixty feet to one hundred and fifty feet. The most southerly point in Eastern Wisconsin at which the lower magnesian limestone appears is at Waterloo, a short distance below the southern line of Dodge County. The outerop represents the upper portion of the formation.
Upon the lower magnesian limestone rests the St. Peters sandstone, which is also uneven in thickness, the average being perhaps seventy-five to one hundred feet. In some portions of this formation occur organic remains. It there has sufficient compactness to serve as building- stone, but usually it is too soft. The latter fact, however, permits its extensive use as sand for mortar and similar purposes. At most localities, it can be dug with pick and shovel-the mere handling being sufficient to reduce it to sand. On account of its clearness, it is much superior to most drift sand.
Upon the St. Peters sandstone lies the Trenton limestone, which appears near the surface of the earth in the towns of Shields, Portland, Elba, Lowell, Calamus, Beaver Dam, Westford, Fox Lake and Trenton, affording several valuable quarries.
Overlying the Trenton, and, indeed, forming the nucleus of the few prominent hills in the county, is found the galena limestone, so named from the double fact that, in the southwestern part of the State and in Northern Illinois, where it has its most characteristic development, it is the chief formation that bears the lead ore (galena or galenite). This rock is very imper- vious to water and atmospheric agencies. About two miles north of Watertown, in the southeast corner of Section 20, town of Emmet, is an extensive quarry of galena limestone. Similar formations, the material being somewhat coarser, appear and are extensively utilized near Juneau, and also at Waupun and near Fox Lake. At the two latter points, it under- goes a marked change in color, and is believed to be more durable than that found further south.
Another species of limestone, known to geologists as "Niagara," is found in the eastern part of the county. The lower strata of the Niagara series are named " Mayville beds," because they have their maximum development and finest exposure south of the village of that name. The white limestone that lies on the Mayville beds in the northern portion, is largely used in lime-making and for building stone and flagging. The Mayville rock is a rough, coarse, gray magnesian limestone, the average thickness of which is about sixty feet. The formation disap- pears southward beneath the drift, and is next seen in the town of Ashippun, where it forms a few ragged outlying ledges, the most noteworthy of which lies in the west halves of Sections 6 and 7.
1
-
312
HISTORY OF DODGE COUNTY.
THE GLACIAL FORMATIONS OR DRIFT.
Long after the above formations had been deposited by the Silurian ocean, and had been lifted from the water and eroded into hills and valleys by the elements, the region was subjected to the action of ice and glacial waters, by which a covering of elay, sand, gravel and bowlders was deposited over the face of the region, well-nigh concealing all the strata beneath. This eon- stitutes the drift, or glacial, or quaternary deposits that prevail at the surface. They are com- posed of rounded fragments and the ground-up material of various kinds of roeks. When carefully studied, it is found that all these fragments were derived from formations lying to the northward and northeastward, and that a great many of them came from the Lake Superior region and beyond, as, for instance, the copper that is occasionally found, sometimes in quite large lumps. Taken altogether, this is one of the most puzzling formations known to geologists ; and, although the explanations worked out by the recent geological survey are probably the most satisfactory that have ever been given, it would far transcend our limits to attempt to reproduce them here. The soil, the latest geologieal formation, was produced by the disintegration of the drift and of the rock where it approaches the surface.
SPRINGS AND ARTESIAN WELLS.
There are few localities in Dodge County at which an abundant supply of good water can- not be reached at moderate depths. The natural source of supply of the many excellent springs will first receive consideration. According to the report of the State Geologist, there are two general systems of springs : those that originate in the drift deposits, and those that flow from the roek. There are several reasons why spring water is more likely to be pure than that of wells. It comes from greater depths and passes through a greater extent of the deeper strata (which are comparatively free from organie impurities), than does the water of wells, which is usually drawn from the surface of the water-level beneath the location of the wells. The water of wells is usually stagnant, while that of springs is active, "living water." Artesian fountains are not here taken into account. In view of these facts, the study and utilization of springs become of much importance. The lowest noteworthy horizon from which springs arise is the vicinity of the junetion of the Potsdam sandstone and the lower magnesian limestone. These formations lie far beneath the strata composing the Trenton and galena limestones. The water from this souree usually has a temparature of 48° or 50°, and is clear and comparatively free from organie impurities, but contains a small percentage of the carbonates of lime and magnesia, and, in some cases, a very small percentage of iron, with usually some siliea, alumina and chloride of sodium. But the combined amount of these is generally small, and the water is soft and very pleasant to the taste. Asmall amount of free carbonie aeid is usually present, which enhances the grateful effeet of the water upon the palate and stomach. Above this horizon, springs oceur but rarely till we reach the junction of the St. Peters sandstone with the Trenton limestone. These springs are similar in general character to the last, but usually contain a more consider- able percentage of the several mineral ingredients, at least that portion of them derived from limestone, which still retains traces of many of the salts that we have reason to suppose were incorporated with it when it was formed beneath the ancient ocean. To this elass belongs most of the springs that issue from the roek in the western half of the county. A number of springs in the vicinity of Beaver Dam issue from near the junction of the Trenton with the galena limestone. The "Vita Spring," however, as is shown by the analysis of the water, derives it source from the "lower levels.'
The artesian wells in Dodge County vary in depth from 150 to 400 feet, usually terminat- ing in the lower levels of Trenton limestone, but occasionally penetrating that formation and tapping the upper erusts of the St. Peters sandstone. The following measurements will show the distance below the surface of the earth at which Prof. Chamberlin calculates the junetion of these two formations oeeurs, and the same figures are fair average estimates of the depth of the artesian wells in the county : Section 25, town of Elba, 254 feet; Sections 17 and 31, town
313
HISTORY OF DODGE COUNTY.
of Fox Lake, 294 and 368 feet ; Section 19, Lowell, 195 feet ; Sections 6 and 31, Portland, 296 and 248 feet ; Section 32, Shields, 214 feet ; Section 25, Westford, 266 feet.
THE WATER-POWER.
The western half of Dodge County is particularly rich in water-sites; especially is this true of the region about Beaver Dam and Fox Lake. The same could once have been said of that part of the county through which the Rock River flows ; but the varied interests of the inhabit- ants came into conflict, and the result was the tearing-away of Horicon dam, which confined a body of water spreading over an area of 25,000 acres.
Beginning at the northwestern portion of the county, Fox Lake, with vast water-sheds all about it, pours its volume through a narrow channel leading to Beaver Dam Lake, turning the wheels of numerous mills and factories on its course. Reaching the foot of Beaver Dam Lake, it is again utilized as it passes into and through Beaver Creek, having a fall of about forty-two feet to the village of Lowell. The Crawfish River, flowing through the towns of Elba and Port- land, furnishes a good power for the people of Danville and Portland.
As already stated, the utility of Rock River has been seriously impaired by the demolition of the dam at Horicon, whether to the general advantage or disadvantage of all those interested, remains a question to be answered by themselves. But the stream still affords many valuable and durable mill sites, both above and below Horicon.
Kekoskee and Mayville, in the town of Williamstown, and Theresa, in the town of Theresa, have their dams and water-wheels and mills and factories. Hustisford, however, may be considered the most favored point on Roek River within the limits of Dodge County at the present time. In the town of Rubicon, saw and grist mills are supplied with power from the Rubicon River at several points, while Ashippun River, as it passes through the southeastern corner of the town of Ashippun, is utilized in the same manner. Rock River passes out of Dodge County in Section 36, town of Lebanon, but returns, as if loath to leave so beautiful a spot, and makes its force felt again (in the town of Emmet) before winding its weary way to the mother stream. The entire area drained by Rock River and its tributaries in Wisconsin is 3,635 square miles. The collection area above Horieon is 436 square miles, npon which the annual rainfall is estimated at 30,387.456,000 cubic feet. Allowing one-half for evaporation, filtration and other sources of loss, the theoretical discharge at the outlet of Horicon marsh would be 15,193,728,000 cubie feet. Reckoned at the lowest rainfall in the last thirty years, this amount would be diminished about one-third. The fall from Horicon to the Illinois State line is 127 feet, less than 60 feet of which are utilized. Of the unused portion. there is more than thirty fect fall between Horicon and Watertown, corresponding to about 1.600 horsepower. But there is a very noticeable diminution in the volume of water passing down Rock River, and some of the "oldest inhabit- ants " predict that it is gradually "going dry," and that such a result is inevitable. They base their opinion upon the very natural theory of absorption, occasioned mainly by the cutting-away of forests from about its banks. Science not having, as yet, controverted this theory. it must be. and probably is. generally accepted.
THE IRON DEPOSITS.
There is one other feature of the geology of Dodge County, which forms an important part in its history, and that is the iron deposits found underlying the Niagara limestone (previously described) in the town of Hubbard. The main body is included in Sections 12 and 13 of that town. The locality is characterized by a north and south ledge facing the west and overlooking the lower land in that direction from a height of about sixty feet. The upper twenty feet or more of this ledge is composed of heavy, rough beds of Niagara limestone. Beneath this lies the ore bed, having a varying thickness averaging, perhaps, fifteen or twenty feet. The mine is situated a short distance west of the center of Section 13. Near it is the furnace, and a little further west is the village of Iron Ridge. Three-quarters of a mile north of this point is the Mayville mine, or what is known as the Mayville ore bed, though the village of Mayville is four
314
HISTORY OF DODGE COUNTY.
miles and a half distant. The ore in these deposits occurs in regular horizontal beds, varying from three to fourteen inches in thickness. Near the furnace it is northward ; at the Mayville ore bed it is southeastward, and north of this it is again northward. The water collecting in or issuing from the mines is colored to a bright scarlet, although a spring issuing from beneath is almost free from indications of iron, as, indeed, are all the springs in the vicinity. The ore consists of small lenticular coneretions, whose average diameter is about one twenty-fifth of an inch. The peculiarity of the various formations renders mining very easy. The prevailing color of the ore is a dark reddish brown. At certain points, it becomes purplish and even bluish, as at the Mayville ore bed, where the term " blue ore " is applied. What may have been the original extent of the ore deposit to the westward cannot now be ascertained, as that portion has been swept away by the denuding agencies which formed the valley lying in that direction. The deposit may be traced a mile and a quarter to the northward from the furnace, where it is lost under the hills that rise in that dircetion. It has been found in a thin deposit two miles further on to the west of north in the town of Williamstown, and also a mile to the east of the furnace. The position of the ore, outcropping along the face of a terrace at a convenient eleva- tion, rendering drainage, stripping, loading into cars or the furnace convenient ; the soft charae- ter of the ore, its horizontal bedding of medium thickness, the ease with which it may be bored or blasted, its situation in a rich agricultural and heavily timbered region, and its railway con- neetions, combine to render this locality unsurpassed in the advantages it presents for mining. redueing and shipping the ore.
Superintendent Sterling furnishes the following relating to the iron interests at this point : The whole amount of ore shipped from July 1, 1869, to January 1, 1872, was 173,842 tons : the amount in 1872, was 82,371 tons; in 1873, 48,706. Shipments were made to Chicago, Juliet and Springfield, III., St. Louis, Mo., Wyandotte and Jackson, Mich., Appleton, Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis., and Zanesville and Newburg, Ohio, as well as to various other points in small quantities. The cost of mining the ore in 1873, was from 50 to 75 cents per ton, but this has been decreased as the company brought their machinery to a more perfect state. The average furnace yield of metal from the ore is 45 per cent. The furnace at this point is forty feet high, nine and a half feet across the boshes, uses four or five tuyeres or forge bellows, as occasion may require, makes use of the hot blast, blown by steam-power, burns charcoal, and has a capacity of about three thousand five hundred gross tons yearly. No flux is used. The ' composition of the pig-iron product is shown by the following analysis, by Prof E. T. Sweet : Iron, 95.784 per cent : phosphorus. 1.675; graphite, 1.379; combined carbon, 0.849; silicon, 0.491 ; sulphur, 0.108: magnesia, small traces; total, 100.286.
In 1849, a blast furnace was established at the village of Mayville, for the reduction of this ore. In 1873, the capacity of this furnace was: Height, 40 feet (9 feet in the boshes), 4 tuyeres, the hot air blast, with steam and water combined as power. The charge was 700 pounds of ore and 16 bushels of charcoal. The ore used was from the north opening of the Mayville bed. Limestone and lean ore were sometimes used as flux. The yield was thirteen or fourteen tons per day, being about 42 per cent of the ore.
At the date of the compilation of this history and in a season when ore is not in the great- est demand, the company has, in its employ, one hundred and fifteen men, and is taking out about 4,500 tons of metal per month.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
Dodge County is composed of twenty-four townships, all, save Trenton, Beaver Dam, Lowell and Shields, being six miles square. The county is intersected in almost every direction with living streams, and is dotted here and there with springs and lakes. In the original sur- vey. the area of the meandered streams is not included in the acreage; nor are the townships exactly six miles square, as a matter of fact, though the theory of surveying. adopted by the Government, proceeds upon the hypothesis that they are. The town of Trenton contains an area of about 553 square miles of land ; town of Beaver Dum, 40 square miles ; town of Lowell,
315
HISTORY OF DODGE COUNTY.
5+ square miles ; town of Shields, 253 square miles. All the rest contain 36 square miles. The county comprises an area 30 miles square, equivalent to 576,000 aeres.
Admirable locations were chosen for the village sites in the county ; but the hand of nature, in designing the rivers and lakes, must share more of the credit than the hand of man. The famous Rock River passes from north to south through the second tier of towns in the eastern portions of the county, winding its tortuous way among the meadows and groves, watering the natural vegetation peculiar to that section, and furnishing power for numerous mills. In the western half of the county, Fox Lake, Beaver Dam Lake, the Crawfish and Beaver Rivers, occupy parallel importance with Rock River and its tributaries in the eastern half.
In general, the surface is rolling, there being but a very small proportion of the entire sec- tion, if we except the marshes, which is not cultivatable. Perhaps one half of the county was originally timbered ; the other half openings or prairie-very little of it, however, so free from brush as to be considered clean prairie.
PRODUCTIONS-POPULATION.
The soil is strong, rich and durable, and vast quantities of wheat and other small grains are produced each year. Fruits of the stronger varieties thrive and are abundant. Stoek- raising and dairying are extensive branches of industry, and have increased greatly in late years. In agricultural wealth, Dodge is perhaps surpassed by no other county in the State, and, in population, by only three or four. The German element is numerous, and about equals that of all other nationalities, predominating chiefly in the eastern portion. They are an industrious and saving people ; law-abiding and lovers of good and honest government. The town of Ashippun is chiefly settled by Scandinavians, while the Irish may be said to predomi- nate in the towns of Elba, Portland and Shields. A large proportion of the town of Calamus is Welsh. The Americans are most numerous in the central portion of the county.
DISTANCES.
Dodge is a county of convenient distances, and is exceptionally favored in the matter of good roads. Taking Juneau, the county seat, as the starting-point, the distances to the prin- cipal places of interest are as follows : Juneau to Beaver Dam, eight miles ; to Burnett Junetion. seven miles ; to Columbus, sixteen miles ; to Chester, fourteen miles ; to Danville, fourteen miles ; to Fox Lake, fifteen miles; to Horicon, five miles ; to Hustisford, six miles ; to Iron Ridge, eight miles ; to Kekoskee, ten miles ; to Lowell, seven miles; to Mayville, ten miles ; to Minnesota Junetion, three miles ; to Neosho, eleven miles ; to Oak Grove, three miles; to Randolph, seventeen miles ; to Reeseville, ten miles ; to Richwood, twelve miles ; to Rolling Prairie, four miles ; to Rubicon, twelve miles ; to Portland, twenty-one miles ; to Theresa, four- teen miles ; to Watertown, fourteen miles ; to Wanpun, fifteen miles.
TIMBER.
From the statisties of forestry, in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, for 1875, we quote the following concerning the wooded features of Dodge County : " The decidnous trees in Wisconsin correspond to those in Indiana and Illinois, except that there is much less of black walnut and more of basswood, and hemlock, cedar and tamaraek are found in considerable quantities. A noticeable feature is the extent to which land originally occupied with serubby oaks, known as 'oak openings,' is being covered with a dense and thrifty spontaneous growth of hardwood timber of different kinds. The forests left in Dodge County are confined to small lots on the farms for home use. Wood on the stump is worth $2 to $3.50 per cord. Great quantities of forest products have been converted into coal for smelting iron in the county. Much of the land from which this timber was carly cut off is now covered with a thick growth of young hardwoods, yielding twenty cords per acre.'
316
HISTORY OF DODGE COUNTY.
EARTH MOUNDS.
There seems to exist a diversity of opinion upon this subject. The theories of scientists, while generally pointing to the belief that the earth mounds found in Dodge County, which are not dissimilar to those in existence throughout the Rock River Valley, are the peculiar work of an extinct or pre-historic race, are frequently contradictory. The explanation of the history of these mounds, as accepted by those prominently connected with the State Historical Society. is that, " so far as the valley of this stream (Rock River) is concerned, throughout its whole extent, in Wisconsin, are to be found interesting relics of pre-historic man. There is nothing to distinguish these works," they say, "from others more within the proper region, as it were, * of the Mound-Builders. In one of the mounds, bones are said to have been obtained.
* Some of the mounds examined were of animal shape. There is a group of earth works about two and a half miles east of Beloit representing animals of different kinds."
The same species of mounds is found in Dodge County. Near the village of Horicon, until within a few years back, there was to be seen a large earth protuberance, taking the form of an elephant lying upon its side. Others in the same locality were found representing horses and cattle. Not far from the eastern limits of Beaver Dam existed similar formations ; while upon the apex of a knoll near the the present site of the Polish Catholic Church, M. Shafer, of Beaver Dam, tells of having seen a mound one hundred feet in length, and about two feet high, representing a lizard, with perfectly formed head, feet and tail. In the center, or about midway between the hind and fore legs, was a thrifty oak-tree, measuring eighteen inches in diameter, and supposed to be at least one hundred years old. Quite a group of mounds of various shapes dotted the ridge running north and south through the city of Beaver Dam, when Judge Hosmer came to the place in 1846. But these have long since disappeared, and the elegant residences of J. J. Williams, Ira Rowell, S. P. K. Lewis, Dr. Swan, and others, have taken their place. Another of these "mysterious formations " is still to be seen on the farm of Mr. Stevens, near the Beaver Dam railway station. It is about forty feet in diameter, and almost perfectly round ; rises abruptly to a height of four or five feet, and then sinks slightly toward the center.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.