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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, ORIGIN OF NAMES, TIMBER,
ETC.
The lands are what are known as rolling
prairie and woodland, properly interspersed for farming
purposes, building and fencing timber. The landscape from
the higher ground is pleasing and attractive to the eye,
inviting the stranger to a closer examination of the view
before him. The abundance of streams, skirted with heavy
growths of timber, give a variety and richness to the prospect.
Along the larger streams, such as Checauqua (Skunk), Cedar,
Walnut and Competine, the lands are to some extent broken,
but none, or but a few sections at least, are lost to cultivation.
The central part of the county is the highest
ground, the water shedding toward the north, south and
east, while the sheds of each township are well defined
and reach to all parts of the land.
Few counties in Iowa are so favored as
to water and timber, almost all of the streams furnishing
sufficient water for motive power, as well as for stock;
while timber for building purposes is to be found in abundance;
black, white, burr
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and red oak, hard and soft maple, hickory,
elm, ash, walnut and birch, being the principal varieties.
The streams occupy a prominent position
in the topography of the county. Entering the county near
its northeast corner, in Section 1 of Walnut Township,
is the Checauqua River, which flows through the eastern
tier
of sections of that township, its course south; entering
Section 1 of Lockridge Township, it changes its course
westerly, touching Section 2; reversing its course, it
flows through Sections 12 and 13, leaving the county at
the half-section line of Section 13, watering ten sections.
Burr Oak Creek rising in Section 1 of Penn
Township traversing the town in a southeasterly direction,
empties into the Checauqua River in Section 2 of Lockridge
Township, watering twelve sections. The Indian name of
Skunk River was Che-cau-que, and in fact the early
white settlers sometimes applied that name to it. In the
proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners of this
county, January 2, 1843, "Che-cau-que River,"
is mentioned in connection with the location of a territorial
road, the orthography being as here given, written in the
bold legible hand of James T. Hardin,
Clerk of the Board at the time. The word, in the Sac and
Fox tongue, means Skunk. The white settlers of
a later period certainly evince no great poetical taste
by affixing to that stream the English translation. The
pride of the people, however, is somewhat gratified when
they call to mind that a certain great commercial emporium
of the West derives its name from no better source. Chi-ca-go and Che-cau-que are slightly different pronunciations of
a word said to mean the same thing.
Big Turkey Creek rises in Section 7 of
Lockridge Township, its course eastward, along the boundary
line of Walnut and Lockridge Townships, passing through
eight sections, emptying into Walnut Creek near the junction
of Walnut and Burr Oak. This creek was named by John
Huff because of his killing five large wild turkeys on its bank
on one hunt.
Little Turkey rises in Section 17, Lockridge
Township; enters Skunk River in Section 11, same township;
watering eleven sections.
Brush Creek rises in Fairfield Township
in Sections 1 and 2, flowing eastward across Buchanan and
Lockridge Townships, entering Henry County from Section
36 of Lockridge Township, watering twelve sections. This
creek was also named by John Huff, because of the thick
growth of underbrush found along its banks.
Walnut Creek has three prongs west of Section
23, of Penn Township. The north prong rises in Section
3; the middle prong rises in Sections 9, 17 and 21; and
the south prong in Section 29 of Black Hawk Township. The
north fork enters Penn Township in Section 7; the middle
prong in Section 18, and the south prong in Section 30,
watering nineteen sections in Black Hawk, ten sections
in Penn, nine sections in Walnut, and two sections in Lockridge
Township, emptying into Checauqua (Skunk) River in Section
2, Lockridge Township. Its general course is east. So named
because of the large walnut-trees along its course.
Big Cedar enters the county in Section
18, Locust Grove Township, passing through Locust grove,
Fairfield, Liberty, Cedar and Round Prairie Townships,
leaves the county from Section 35 of Round Prairie Township,
traversing thirty-one sections, and, in its windings, makes
about sixty-two miles in the county.
Lick Creek rises in Section 16 of Des Moines
Township, passes through Liberty Township, and makes its
exit from the county from Section 32 of Liberty Township,
watering eight sections. This stream derived its name from
saline spots along its course that were frequented by deer.
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The western branch of Crow Creek rises
in Section 24, Fairfield Township, and the eastern fork
in Section 20, Buchanan Township. These branches flow in
a southern direction and unite in Section 30, Buchanan
Township; thence south through Cedar Township, and empty
into Cedar Creek from Section 18. Crow Creek and its branches
waters eight sections. This creek was first known as Ballard's
Branch after the name of the first settler on its banks,
whose name is elsewhere mentioned as one of the "squatters"
of 1836. When the settlement and society began to encroach
on Ballard's domain, and he "pulled up stakes" and
moved on west, it came to be known as Dyer's Creek, but W.
B. Culbertson and John A. Pitzer rechristened
it and named it Crow Creek, from the frequent gatherings
of large flocks
of those birds in the timber skirting the course of the
stream.
Little Competine rises in Section 18 of
Polk Township, and empties into Big Competine in Section
6 of Locust Grove Township, watering five sections.
Big Competine enters the county in Section
31 of Polk Township, flows south through Locust Grove,
emptying into Cedar in Section 21, watering seven sections.
An old Indian, among the Sacs and Foxes,
of the name of Competine,* had a child
that died in the western part of the county, near where Daniel
Morris then
lived. The child was buried on the east bank of a small
creek which passes through Locust Grove Township, and from
this circumstance, and in honor of the Indian Competine,
the settlers called the creek Competine, by which name
it is still known. The meaning of the word Com-pe-tine,
in the Sac and Fox tongue, is—a small office.
Competine, however, had two other names—Ma-cul-wah and Mich-la-wam-pa-tine.
Coon Creek rises in Sections 7 and 9 of
Polk Township, flowing into Competine in Section 21 of
Locust Grove Township, watering thirteen sections. This
creek was so named because of the large number of raccoons
that were found along its course in early days.
Smith Creek rises in Section 24 of Polk
Township, flows south, emptying into Coon Creek in Section
3, Locust Grove Township, watering six sections. This creek
was named after the first settler on its banks.
Richland Creek rises in Section 18 of Black
Hawk, flows north, leaving the county from Section 5 of
same township, watering three sections. No origin for the
name of this creek is recorded, but it was probably so
named because of the exceeding richness of the land through
which its course is directed.
Rattlesnake rises in Section 13 of Cedar
Township, flows through Round Prairie Township, emptying
into Cedar Creek in Section 33 of Round Prairie Township,
watering seven sections. This creek was so named because
of the large number of yellow rattlesnakes that used to
den
among the rocks along its course. A son of Henry
Simcoe,
and early settler, was bitten by one of the reptiles, from
the effects of which he died soon afterward.
Wolf Creek rises in Sections 26 and 27
of Buchanan Township, flows eastward, crosses Section 1
of Cedar, passes through Round Prairie, and
_________
*After the Indians had removed
west beyond the boundary line, parties of them frequently
visited the eastern part of the county, for the purpose
of making sugar, and hunting along the Checauque River.
At one tim, in 1839, Competine and his wife were on their
way to the Checauque—the squaw mounted
on a pony, with camp-kettles and all their wick-e-up (tent)
paraphernalia. They stopped at the cabin of a settler
in the neighborhood of the present village of Salina,
where a white man's horse was tied to the fence. Mrs.
Competine, unable to guide her overloaded pony,
ran her wick-e-up traps against the white man's
horse, badly injuring him. This so enraged the owner
of the horse that he took hold of Competine's gun and
wrenched it from him by force. Competine went to the
Indian Agency and made complaint, and the white man,
learning that he was about to get into trouble, gave
a friend $5 to take the gun to its owner. The messenger
proceeded as far as Fairfield, where he took a spree,
lost all his money, and could go no further. In the mean
time, a squad of dragoons came on from the agency, and
finding Competine's gun in Fairfield returned it to him,
and let the offender off, a badly-scared man.
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makes its exit from the county from Section
1 of Round Prairie Township, watering thirteen sections
in its course. James McCoy, an early settler, spent much
of his time hunting wolves, his most successful excursions
being along a small tributary of Big Cedar, in the southeast
part of the county. He therefore called it "Wolf Creek,"
by which name it is still known.
Troy's Branch rises in Section 27, Buchanan
Township, flows south through Cedar Township, empties into
Cedar Creek from Section 28 of Cedar Township, watering
ten sections. Named after, Troy, the first settler on its
banks.
In the general history of the State which
is given in this volume, will be found a somewhat elaborate
description of the geology of Iowa, from a scientific standpoint.
It remains for us to limit the circuit of our work in
connection herewith to the actual boundaries of Jefferson
County. We shall attempt to popularize a most interesting
but not generally studied theme, and endeavor to explain,
in simple form, what is too often rendered obscure to the
uninitiated in scientific methods, by technical terms and
expressions. Since those who wish to do so can turn to
the general chapter and learn of the geologic structure
of the State, let us now bring to a focus the more practical
ideas relative to the subject of the recent or superficial
formations of Jefferson County. This is designed to be
only a short popular treatise, so as to interest every
man and woman of good observation who shall peruse it,
and to call their attention, at least, to the surface formation
of the earth, so that in a few years there may be hundreds
of observers of interesting geological facts where there
is but one at the present time.
That geology commends itself to us as a
truthful science will be very readily elucidated by a simple
state of a fact within the comprehension of all.
To illustrate: A certain kind of rocks
are called Achaean or Laurentian. These are the most ancient
rocks known to geologists; at one time they were supposed
to be destitute of fossils. In all the systems of rocks,
they occupy the lowest, and consequently the oldest, position;
but in whatever part of the earth found, they are always
recognizable by the geologist. So the Devonian rocks are
distinguished by certain fossil fishes that are found in
them, and in them alone. The Carboniferous rocks are known
by certain fossil mollusks; the Cretaceous, by certain
reptiles that occur in no other formation; and so every
geological period has its characteristic fossils, by means
of which the formation and its comparative age may always
be accurately determined.
The geologist will always know the coal-bearing
rocks from any other class; and this knowledge ought to
be possessed by every one interested in explorations for
coal.
The geologic history of Iowa is but a page
in the general history of the continent of North America.
This continent has been demonstrated to be the oldest portion
of the earth, notwithstanding the misnomer, "New World."
It is new only in civilization. The geologist reads is
the rocks evidences of age that are far more reliable than
those which are placed on perishable scrolls by the pen
of man. The oldest groups of rocks are not found in Iowa,
but are visible in the Canadas. The first system, underlying
all others, in this State, is the Azoic, seen only in a
small section of the northeast portion of Iowa. Next comes
the Lower and Upper Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous
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and the Cretaceous systems. Of the earlier
formations we shall say nothing, as allusion to them necessitates
a far more extended article than we desire to prepare.
FORMATION OF LIME BEDS
Limestones have mainly been found in the
bottom of the ocean; the older and purer kinds in the deep,
still sea; the more recent and less pure in a shallow and
disturbed sea. When the great limestone deposits were made
in the Mississippi Valley, a deep salt ocean extended from
the Allegheny to the Rocky Mountains, from the Gulf of
Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. This was the age of mollusks
(shell fish), and the sea bottom swarmed with them. Many
of the rocks seem to have been wholly made up of conglomerate
shells. In this age of the world there was no creature
living with a spinal column or a brain; but corals, a low
order of radiates, as crinoidea, several varieties of mollusks,
crustaceans, called trilobites (somewhat corresponding
to the river crawfish), and some lowly worms! These
were the highest development of animal life when the earlier
limestone rocks were being slowly formed.
This Silurian age was succeeded by the
Devonian, characterized as the age of fishes, during which
were deposited the Hamilton and Carboniferous limestones.
Then came the Subcarboniferous period, during which were
deposited the limestone beds. These were formed in a comparatively
shallow sea, a fact proven by numerous ripple marks in
the rocks, also by their sand composition in some layers,
and farther, by an occasional thin layer of clay intervening
between the strata of rocks. These were uneasy times on
the earth's crust, when it was given to upheavings and
down-sinkings over large areas. Then it was that the whole
northeastern
and eastern part of the State was up-raised.
THE GREAT COAL BASIN
was formed west and south throughout Iowa, reaching into
Missouri and Kansas, the Indian Territory and perhaps Texas.
Over this vast area there stretched a vast, dismal
swamp.
On this vast marshy plain grew the rank
vegetation that was in the future to be pressed into coal.
It was a wilderness of moss and ferns and reeds, such as
can be found nowhere on earth at the present time. Prof.
Gunning, in speaking of it says: "To the land forest
of coniferas and cycads, and the marsh forest of scale
trees
and seal trees and reed trees and fern trees, add on undergrowth
of low herbaceous ferns, and you have the picture of a
primeval landscape. Blot from the face of nature every
flowering weed and flowering tree, every grass, every fruit,
every growth useful to man or beast; go, then to the Sunda
Islands for the largest club moss, to the East Indies for
the largest tree fern, to the damp glades of Caracas for
the tallest reeds, to the Moluccas for their cycad, and
to Australia for its pine, to the ponds and sluggish streams
of America for their quillwort, and place them all side
by side over a vast marsh and its sandy borders, and you
will faintly realize your picture of a primeval landscape.
Dwarf the cycad and the pine, lift still higher the tapering
column of the tree fern, multiply by two the bulk of the
reed and by three the club moss, lift the quillwort from
the water, and to its long, linear leaves
383
add a fluted stem eighty feet high, and you
would fully realize a carboniferous landscape—realize
it in all but its vast solitude. Not a bird ever perched
on spiky leaf or spreading fern of a coal forest. No flower
had opened yet to spread fragrance on the air, and no throat
had warbled a note of music. Such poor animal life as the
carboniferous would then possessed left its imprint on
wave-washed shore and in the hollow stems of fallen trees."
This was the beginning of the age of amphibians.
Then lived the progenitors of the loathsome alligator and
lizard. La Conte says: "The climate of the coal period
was characterized by greater warmth, humidity, uniformity
and a more highly carbonated condition of the
atmosphere than now obtains." We may, therefore, picture
to ourselves the climate of this period as warm, moist,
uniform, stagnant and stifling from the abundance
of carbonic-acid gas.
Such conditions were extremely favorable
to vegetable life, but not to the higher forms of animal
life. Neither man nor monkey nor milk-giving animal of
any kind, lived for many cycles of time after the Subcarboniferous
period; but that vegetation grew rank, scientific facts
corroborate; thus, Prof. Gunning says: "It takes between
five and eight feet of vegetable debris to form one foot
of coal. A Pittsburgh seam is ten feet thick, while one
in Nova Scotia is thirty-five feet in depth. The Pittsburgh
seam represents a vegetable deposit of from fifty to a
hundred feet in depth, and the one in Nova Scotia between
a hundred and seventy-five and three hundred and fifty
feet in thickness. A four foot seam in Wapello County would
represent from twenty to forty feet of vegetable debris.
During the growth and decay of this vegetable
matter, the surface of the earth did not sink; but this
quiescent period was followed by one of submergence.
"The surface, loaded with the growth of quiet centuries,
was carried down beneath the sea, where it was swept by
waves and overspread by sands and mud." It was in
nature's great hydraulic press, where it remained until
another
upheaval again threw it to the surface, and another long
era of verdure succeeded the one of submergence.
Thus, emergence and submergence succeeded
each other as many times as the coal-seams and the shale,
slate or sandstone alternate—in some parts of Iowa,
three times, in Nova Scotia forty times! Who can compute
the centuries here recorded.
The coal-fields of Iowa are extensive.
A line drawn on the map of the State follows will about
define them: Commencing at the southeast corner of Van
Buren County, running to the northeast corner of Jefferson,
by a waving line slightly eastward through Lee and Henry
Counties; thence a few miles northward from Jefferson and
northwestward, keeping six or eight miles north of Skunk
River, until the southern boundary of Marshall County
is reached a little west of the center; thence three or
four miles northeast from Eldora, in Hardin County; thence
westward to a point a little north of Webster City, in
Hamilton County, and thence westward to a point a little
north of
Fort Dodge, in Webster County.
The coal-field in Iowa belongs to the true
carboniferous systems, and is, moreover, the outfield of
the vast coal-basin which partly covers this State, Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It is only in the Alleghenies
that subterranean action has converted any part of the
coal into anthracite. Everywhere else in the immense basin
it is strictly bituminous, varying, however, from the article
as first prepared by the economic forces of Nature from
the block coal of Indiana to the cannel coal found in certain
parts of Iowa.
384
It appears from the researches of Liebig
and other eminent chemists, that when wood and other vegetable
matter are buried in the earth, exposed to moisture and
partially or entirely excluded from air, they decompose
slowly and evolve carbonic acid gas, thus parting with
a portion of their original oxygen. By this means they
become gradually converted into lignite, or wood coal,
which contains a larger proportion of hydrogen than wood
does. A continuance of decomposition changes this lignite
into common or bituminous coal, chiefly by the discharge
of carbureted hydrogen, or the gas by which we illuminate
our streets and houses. According to Bischoff, the inflammable
gases which are always escaping from mineral coal, and
are so often the cause of fatal accidents in mines, always
contain carbonic acid, carbureted hydrogen, nitrogen and
oelfiant gas. The disengagement of all these gradually
transforms ordinary or bituminous coal into anthracite,
to which the various names of glance coal, cota, hard coal,
culm and many others have been given.
In Explaining the cause of the freedom
of coal from impurities of almost every description, Sir
Charles Lyell gives a paragraph which is interesting in
this connection. He says: "The purity of coal itself,
or the absence in it of earthy particles and sand, throughout
areas of vast extent, is a fact which appears to be very
difficult to explain when we attribute each coal-seam to
a vegetable growth in swamps. It has been asked how, during
river inundations capable of sweeping away the leaves of
ferns and the stems and roots of trees, could the waters
fail to transport some fine mud into swamps? ONe generation
of tall trees after another grew in mud, and their leaves
and prostrate trunks formed layers of vegetable matter
which afterward covered with mud and turned to shale; but
the coal itself, or altered vegetable matter, remained
all the while unsoiled with earthy matter. This enigma,
however perplexing at first sight, may, I think, be solved
by attending to what is now taking place in deltas.
"The dense growth of reeds and herbage
which encompasses the margin of forest-covered swamps in
the valley and delta of the Mississippi, is such that the
fluviatile waters, in passing through them, are filtered
and made to clear themselves entirely before they reach
the areas in which vegetable matter may accumulate for
centuries, forming coal, if the climate be favorable. There
is no possibility of the least intermixture of earthy matter
in such cases. Thus, in the large submerged track called
'Sunk Country,' near New Madrid, forming part of the western
side of the valley of the Mississippi, erect trees have
been standing ever since the year 1811-12, killed by the
great earthquake of that date; lacustrine and swamp plants
have been growing there in the shallows, and several rivers
have annually inundated the whole space, and yet have been
unable to carry in any sediment within the outer boundaries
of the morass, so dense is the marginal belt of reeds and
brushwood. It may be affirmed that generally, in the cypress
swamps of the Mississippi, no sediment mingles with the
vegetable matter accumulated there from the decay of trees
and semi-aquatic plants. As a singular proof of this fact,
I may mention that whenever any part of the swamps in Louisiana
is dried up, during an unusually hot season, and the wood
is set on fire, its are burned into the ground many feet
deep, or as far down as the fire can descend without meeting
with water, and it is then found that scarcely any residuum
or earthy matter is left. At the bottom of these cypress
swamps a bed of clay is found, with roots of the tall cypress,
just as the under clays of the coal are filled with stigmaria."
385
CRETACEOUS
The next formation above the coal was the
cretaceous, or chalk. This formation is not seen in this
region, being encountered only in the west and northwest
portions of the State. If any ever existed here, it was
carried away during the glacial period, which is hereafter
explained. The absence of chalk brings us to speak next
of the
Glacial Period
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