Stark County, Illinois - Chapter 1: Topography and Natural History, 1887

Chapter 1: Topography and Natural History

TAPvK COUNTY is Iwunded on tlie north hy nenrvand Bureau counties, on the south b\' Peoria county, on the west by Henry and Knox counties and on the east by Bureau and Marshall counties. The area is 288 square miles or 184,820 aci-es, of which 1S2,B5!) acres were snrveyed, and 180,125 acres assessed. The population in 1S8<» was 11,207, increased in 1885 to over 12,000. Toulon, the seat of justice, is 14 miles from the southwest corner, 8-| miles from the northwest corner, t>-| from the extreme northwest corner, 20|^ from the northeast corner, 20 miles from the southeast corner, and 8 miles from the south line, on tlie line of the R. I. & P. R. R. Wyoming, the leading commercial town, is equally outside the geograpliical center, l)ut has the advantages of two railroads, the R. I. & P. and the C. B. it Q. bi-anch between Buda and liushville. Lafayette is situated near the western county line, and Bradford near the east line, each having railroad facilities. Duncan, Castleton and Lombardville are villages on the C. B. ife Q., while Wady Petra and Stark are on the R. I. Oc P. R. R. The villages of Elmira, Osceola, Pleasant Green, Modena, Waldron, Camp Grove, Valley, Slackwater, Starwano and West Jersey are without railroad facilities.

The surface of the county is undulating, except in the neighbor hood of Spoon river, where it is decidedly broken. Of the entire area, no less than 173,711 acres were under cultivation in 1885, and it may be said with truth that the total area offers one great fertile field of wealth to the cultivator. Along the streams and around old Osceola the primeval forest still stands, a reminder of the past. South of Toulon, too, the old, old woods continue sentinel, but throughout the county, the trees of fifty years ago have given place to ornamental grove's of walnut, elm, maple, and, in a few instances, red and white ])ine. Osage orange hedges guard each field instead of the old rail fence ; large and elegant residences have taken the place of the pioneers' homes ; Avell-kept floAver and vegetable gardens are common in the towns and villages, and are often seen in the country districts, wliile the mown lawn, always jileasing to the eye. greets the traveler in both town and country. Within tifty years this wilderness of waving prairie has been transformed into one of the most beautiful garden s]wts of Illinois. A few groves and the streams remain as landmarks of the olden time.

Rivers and Streams. Spoon river has its head waters in Xeponsett township. Bureau county, where the stream known as "East Branch" rises, and in Kewanee township, Henry county, where the "West l)ranch has its source. The east fork entere Stark" county in three divisions, so to speak, the central stream being known as Silver creek. The streams unite in section

10. Osceola, forming the East Branch. Hall creek flows into it in the northwestern Cjuarter of section 22, and Cooper's Defeat creek in the northeastern quarter of section 31. A confluence with the West Branch is formed just north of the village of Modena in Toulon township and thence to its estuary, the name Spoon river is applied. In Essex township it receives the united waters of two creeks, flowing westward, known as Mud Run and Camping Pain and near the village of Slackwater receives the waters of West Indian creek. From this Spoon river flows through a tortuous channel to the parent Illinois, Avhich it entei*s at Point Isabelle, opposite Havana. In the days of the Indians it was known as " Feather River '" or Maquon. Its present name is said to have Ijeen given by Dr. Davison, the hermit, on account of a bayou resembling a spoon in the formation of its shores near what is now the village of Waterford in Fulton countv.

Walnut creek has its source near Xekoma in Henry county, whence it flows southeast to West Jersey township, and thence to its confluence \vith Spoon river, just north of Rochester. Peoi'ia county. To the character of the trees founl along this stream is to be attributed its name.

Camping Run rises in Marshall county, east of Camp Grove, and dates its name l)ack to ante-railroad days, when prairie schooners anchored there, while their crews feasted round the camp flres.

Indian creek rises just northeast of Galva, winds like a trail through Goshen. Toulon and Essex townships, and enters Spoon river in section 2S, Essex. Prior to the negotiation of the treaty of Chicago, a few Pottawattomie and mongrel Indian lodges were scattered along its banks, owing to which fact the pioneers of the county gave it this name. This creek is not to be confounded with Indian creek. La Salle county, where the massacre of settlers, by the British Indians, took place in 1832.

Cooper's Defeat creek may be called the east Ijranch of the East Foi'k of Spoon river. It is a tributary of that stream, rising near Milo in Bureau county, and flowing east through Osceola townshi]). except for two miles where it wanders, as it were, through the nortiiern sections of Penn township. The name is credited to a leamster of the surveying party, who never failed before to drive his hoi*ses across or through a creek, until tliis point was reached, as related in sketch of Penn township.

Topography And Natural Historv

Muddy Run parallels ram])ino- Tlim. It also rises in Mai'shall county, flows through the southern sections of Vallev townshi]) and forms a confluence with (Janiping Run, near the nioutli of that stream

Jack creek is the name given to a small stream I'li lining eastward to Spoon river, which it enters in the northwest quartei- of section 12, Toulon township.

Fitch creek rises in Grove township, Knox county. Its various feeders flow generally eastward, forming the main stream near the west line of Goshen township, and watering the northwestern sections of that township.

There are found in every division of the county numerous small streams, some of which flow from springs. As noticed in the historv of the townships, many ponds or miniature lakes are found throughout the county.

Altitudes^ soil and tree^. - The altitudes are not very marked, vet it is stated that in the neighhorhood of Lawn Ridge the highest elevation in the State is reached. At Bradford, too, a decided elevation occurs. Prof. E. W. Claypole's ])a])er on Buffalo and Chicago, read some time ago before the American Association for the Advaiu'ement of Science, contained a suggestion which goes to show what nari-ow margins nature sometimes makes in her geogra})hical and geological ai'rangements. It also shows what a narrow escape Ghicago has had from a flood that would have revealed no friendly Ai-ai-at and that would have discouraged the most resolute of doves on its quest for terra-firma. The professor's statement in brief is tiiat the great lakes are banked u])on a table land about r»00 feet above the sea, and that the drainage flows over the dam at Black Rock, the lowest ])oint. Hence a dam twenty-five feet high across the river at Black Rock would be sufficient to tlii-ow the waters of the upper lakes into the Mississippi by the Illinois river. The professor complacently stated that the result of this would be to annihilate the St. Lawrence river, make Buffalo the head of navio'ation. aiul Ghica<>'o the outlet. In other words, the conditions of Chicago and Buffalo would have been reversed had the rim of the basin at l)lack Rock been originally a few feet higher.

A large portion of the county is prairie, but on account of the numerous intersecting streams, the prairies usually contain but few square miles of area. There are, however, some large prairies in townshi])s 12 and 13, range 7. The soil is a common dark-colored loam, and when properly drained and cultivated is everywhere ])roductive, except the '' barrens," a small ti'act of sandy soil. The subsoil is usually a brown or yellow clay. The soil of* the timber lands along the water-courses is usually of less depth and lighter in color. Along the water courses comuKm oak, hickory, ash, maple, black walnut, butternut, cottonwood, sycamore, coffee tree, buck-eye, box-elder, red bud, wild ])lum, cherry and crab ajjple trees abound.

Eeonoiide (Jeologji. - Let us fancy ourselves visiting Stark county, away back in the days when the foundations of the present coal beds were made. What do we behold? An immense marsh stretching to the horizon - a wilderness of reeds and weeds, and mosses, inhabited, if we iimv SO speak, with amphibians, alive with ten thousand species of re])tile ; but not a man in tlie whole great waste - not even a bird flew hither to look in upon the loathsome wilderness. How manv years this stagnant sea required its drying ])rocess to continue cannot now be cU'termined with certainty. Tliere ai-e at least five to eight feet of vegetable debris requii-ed to form one foot of coal, and since there are thi-ee feet, representing the seam in this county, it must have required t went v-f our feet in depth of rich vegetable debris to form our ])resent coal bed, and the suljsequent growth or carriage hither of sufficient material to make that natural hydraulic j)ress which pressed this coal into its shape and texture. Volumes might be written on the formation of oui' ])rairies. of our coal beds, of tlie great trains of sand and rock and forests which the drift brought hither to press down the original stagnant mass of vegetable matter, water and the animal life which they supported ; hut where is the use of speculative wi'iting { Our reason points out one natural method l)v which our rich prairie soil and everything beneath it were formed, namely, an immense lake, gradually filling up of the same by sediment and shore growth, slow lifting- up of lake bottom and annual decay of vegetable debris ; slower drainage and tlien the jirairie.

The quaternary divisions of the county are the alluvium and drift, the former com|)rising all the bottom lands or stream valleys from a few rods to 6,000 feet in width ; the latter comprising a series of brown and blue clays with sand or gravel mixings with granite bowlders of ancient rock - the uplands. This drift varies in dejith from twenty to sixty feet. Through this formation an abundant su]i])ly of good water is reachefl before the bed-rock is tapped. Tliroughout the county there is no exposure of rock other than the lower series of coal measures. Of this series No 7 shows on the north line of section 10, township 14, range 7, along the east branch of Spoon river. In this section the S. C. Francis shaft shows sixty-four and onefourth feet. This was sunk in 1868, and from the record shows the following formation :

Yellow clay, 2 feet; red sand, 2 feet; limestone (nodular), 2-^ feet; clay, light- colored, 7 feet ; clay shale, 2 feet ; sandstone, 8 inches ; blue clay shale, 8 feet ; dark colored clay shale, 5f feet ; coal, 2 inches ; blue clay shale, 12 feet ; impure limestone, 3 inches ; clay shale, 8 feet ; impure limestone, 2 inches ; blue clay shale, 1^ feet ; dark colored clay shale, 3 feet ; coal, 2 feet, 7 inches ; clay (penetrated). If feet.

In section 32, townsliip 1<>, range 7, the exposure was worked. In section 21, Townshi]^ 14, range 7, series No. 6 is far below the surface Mithout a sign of outcro}).

In the southeastern part of section 3, township 14, range 10, No. 6 coal appears in the l)luft of West Branch, along the creek to the southeastern corner of section 16. This series has been worked along the western ])lateau, where there are several outcrops above water level of over four feet in depth with a regular clay pai'tition of two inches in thickness.

southeastern corner of section 16, this series has been worked along the western plateau, where there are several ontcro])s a])()ve water level of over four feet in depth with a regular clay partition of two inches in thickness.

The mine of No. 6 series in township 14, range 7, section 28, on the east bank of the East Branch, ])i'esents a shaft of over ninetv feet, of which eighty-nine and two-thirds feet i)resent the following strata: Vellow clay, 8 feet; limestone, 4 feet ; light colored clay, 4^ feet ; light colored clay shale, S-Jfeet ; limestone 2|feet ; clay shale, 1(» feet ; coal, 2 inches ; soft black slate, 4 inches ; clay, 4^ feet ; sandstone, 22^ feet ; clay shale, 0 feet ; limestone, 4 feet ; light colored clay shale, 0 feet ; green clay shale, 2i feet ; dark colored clay shale, 3 1-6 feet ; impure limestone, H foot ; dark colored clay shale, 2i feet ; coal vein, 3 to 6 feet, with a clay ])artition of 3 inches in de])th. The slips or " horsel)acks" peculiar here tend to retard miners' enterprise ; but with the coming of the coal cutter and other modei'u ap])liances this o1)stacle will vanish.

In the northern portion of section 1, township 13, range 6, a few shafts have been made to the depth of several feet. Near Modena, at a depth of ab<^ut thirty feet, a 1-foot vein was struck. Westward, on section 4, the Jack creek beds have been worked, and in sections 2, 11, and 12, the out-crop appears in the banks eight to ten feet above watermark, ^

Near the north line of section 14, Toulon townshiji, about twelve feet above the water of a little rivulet, the following formation may be seen: Sandstone ; clay shale, 15 feet ; im})ure limestone, clay shale, black slate, coal, average 3 feet ; clay partition, coal, 1^ foot ; clay shale, partial outcrop of sandstone. The strata above the three feet vein of coal is replete in its deposit of imperfect fossils, such as the rardin ia fragilis^ pleurotomaria grayviUensis, and fossils of fish. On the section coal and a strata somewhat similar to that given above, are outcropping. From section lo along the courses of the river and tributary rivulets to sections 25 and 26, where the seam is over twent}" feet above watei*-mark, the miner has left traces of his work, and backward from tlie stream on section 26, coal has been found at a depth of sixty-nine feet in solid strata, four to five feet in thickness, wdiile just east the miners had to sink a shaft to a depth of ninety-six feet to reach the seam.

In Essex township, section 23, the following strata- a])])ears in a shaft sunk a few years ago : Clay, 21 feet ; cla\' shale, 8 feet ; limestone, 1 foot ; clay shale, interslated. If foot ; coal, 2^ feet, with thin clay partition. Although this belongs to series No. 6, horsebacks or slips render mining for moi'e than local use, un})rofitable. A seam of series No. 2 coal is found on section 17, at the base of the bluifs of Indian creek, which was very little woi-ked u]) to four years ago.

In West Jersey township, on section 11), coal of the No. 4 Illinois series has been struck at a depth of fifteen feet. Here the vein is from four to six feet deep, underlaid by about ten inches of im[)ure cannel coal, and this by a clay l)ed. Fish and ])lant fossils abound here, including one almost perfect form of iha palaa>)iiscii-'<. The teeth and imperfect form of a diplodus have also been exhumed. The coal ohtained is very gootl. On section 17 a one and one-lialf foot vein of the Ts'o. 2 series was found at a depth of fiftN^-nine feet. It lies in the bed of the creek, and is woi'kable only at low water. On section No. 10, Toulon, a ([uany yields al)un(hintly of building stone of more than fair (jualitv. On Wahiut creek, in West Jersey townshij), a quari-y on section 20 produced a fair hard sandstone, very well ada])ted to buildei's' uses.

The rock in sections 21 and 22, Osceola townsliip, is a limestone six to twelve feet thick, of thin layers. This is an uneven, (Iral)-colored. weatiier-proof stone, found in tiie first section, its lower strata resting thirtv-nine feet above a two-inch coal seam and sixt^^-three feet above a two-feet seven inches vein of No. 7 series coal. As a stone for building purposes, or for lime for building j)ur})oses, it cannot be excelled.

The sandstone measures of Elmira township ai'e f)utcropping, and hidoen beds of this valuable rock abound. In section 1<> is found a light-colored soft rock about twelve feet above a measure of No. 0 series coal. In Toulon township, section 14. tiie sandstone is l)elow No. i) series coal, but of a very superior quality, and approaching the Parma stone of Michigan in compactness.

In Essex townshij), section 14, a sandstone quarry of the finest grade has been worked for some years, wliile that on section 17 (from which the stone was taken fo^* l)uikling the first stone house in the neighborhood years ago) yields plenty of good material for ordinary

Osceola, Elmira. Toulon, and West Jersey furnish the greater part of the coal su})ply ; Essex furnishes a little, and A'alley less ; Penn and Goshen are reported non-productive m the matter of coal ; but what future exploration may credit these townships with in this connection must be left to the future.

The miners' estimate of coal deposits is l.OOU.UOO tons of coal to every section or square mile per foot of thickness of seam, which, it ])laced at an average of a three-feet seam, as in this county, would give 108.000,(100 tons to each township, or 864,000,000 tons to the entire county of No. 6 series coal alone, exclusive of series Nos. 1, 2, -1 and 7. some (^f which have not yet l)een ex])lored at all, and others only })artially. Allowing five tons per annum to each voter in the county in 1885, or 12,000 tons annually, there is a supply of No. 6 coal here to viehl them fuel for 72,0(>0 years.

ArcJuHjhjgy - The general prevalence in IlUnois of the existence of ancient mounds has excited no inconsiderable interest in the mmds of scientists since their discovery was first made. Nearlv every county has these interesting vestiges of a numerous people long since gone to rest, about whose history there pends a veil - an impenetrable mystery - of whom the later Indian tribes possessed neither knowledge, myth nor tradition. Those in iStark county are as numerous as elsewhere, for s})eai' and arrow-heads, human l)ones, and sometimes pottery have been found here. They are so ccmimon as to excite little interest among those who have resided in the county for any length of time, and are driven over and plowed up as if Ijut a rise in the ground, not all that remains of the history of a past race. A piece of native copper AA^as found in blue clay, twenty-five feet below the surface, on Samuel Sturm's farm, one mile south of Bradford. In other places several evidences of the drift, as well as of prehistoric settlements, have been uiieai'thed. T. M. Shallenberger, now of Nebraska, W. II. Adams, of Eochester, Peoria county, and others, have given the study of arehfeology some attention; but their research in this county has been limited to surface, I'ather than excavatorv work. Prior to the removal of the Indians, thev visited all tlieir old camp-grounds and villages, and leveled even with the ground all the little mounds denoting the graves of their dead.

W. II. Adams, in a pa])('r addressed to the regents of the Smithsonian Institute, and pul)lished in 1885, on the mounds in the valley of Spoon river, says : " On the north side of Si)oon river, seventvfive yards distant, eighty rods west of the east line, and twenty rods south of the north line of section 12, townshi]) 11 north, vange 4;^ east of the fourth ])rincipal meridian, is a round numnd about thirty feet in diameter, called l)y those in the neighborhood a '-hogl)ack.''' On the highest of this hogback, at the surface, is some evidence of fire. The evidences of a former hi'e increase very rapidly. At a depth of twelve to sixteen inches I found live skeletons, nearly all the bones of which were calcined by hre, and numy of them entirely consumed. One of the skulls lay to the north, one to the northwest, one to the southwest, one to the south, and one to the northeast. With the bones were fragments of sandstone bui"ned red. At or near each skull, and neaiiv on a line between the point of the shoulder and ear, was a water-worn ])ebble, excei)t in one instance, and that was an angular piece of flint. The ])el)b]es had not l)een acted u])on by the lire, so that they evidently must have been placed there after the intense heat of the "tire had ' subsided. From the appearance of the earth one would be strongly inclined to believe that the Are in this instance had been one of unusual intensity. From the position of the skulls to each other, the feet of one body would reach to his neighbor's head, if laid at full length. One of tlie skulls was rather thinner than those we usually And in other mounds. Some of the teeth evidently belonged to' a person of great age; others of the teeth were very small, but I cannot say that they belonged to an infant. The skulls were in fragments, the' largest piece obtained being about t\vo inches scjuare. On another hogback, east of the one described, commencing on section 12, township 11, range 4 east, extending across the northwest corner of section 7, township 11, range 5, and also some distance on section *), township 11, are thirteen common round mounds, varying in height from eighteen inches to live feet. As far as examined these are burial mounds, and in one I found nineteen skeletons. ^ Tiiis one was forty-five feet in diameter and five feet in height. The l)ones were in a fair state of ])reservati()n. I o})ened four or five of this grouj), and in each were found pieces of trap rock from one and onehalf to two inches square ; ])ieces of Imrned sand I'oclv, small watei'- worn pebbles, and in the largest mound a very small IVagment of red

Toulon by E. S. Kincade. It was foiiiKl while digging- a well in the eastern part of the coimt3% twenty-eight feet. below the surface. While placing a sewer across'^Main St., Toulon, in June, 1SS4, one of the two trees, cut near the site of the court house, and placed there l>v Oliver Whitaker over forty years ago to bridge the slough, was unearthed. The piece taken out is about three feet in length. This was smoothed off and is held as a relic of the early years of the county.

StofiH , Flood a Jill JJrouyht. - The big snow of 1 830 will be vividly remembered l)y all the old settlers. The snow began falling on the night of the 29th of December, and continued to fall for three days antl nights, until it reached an average depth of about four feet, but drifting in ])laces as high as from eighteen to twenty feet. Great suffering was ex})erienced in consequence. The settlers relied for their daily food upon Indian corn which they were enabled to raise, together with wild game which was abundant "at that time. Plenty of the former was raised to su])ply the wants of all until the next season's cro]); but when the snow fell very little had been gathered. Game could not l)e had. The great depth of snow was a barrier to all ti'avel. and it may be well imagined the sufferings of the people were very great indeed. This was the heaviest snow that ever fell in Illinois within the memory of the oldest settler of this part of the State. According to the traditions of the Indians, as related to the })ioneers. a snow fell from fifty to seventylive years before the settlement by the white people, which swept away the numerous herds of buffalo and elk that roamed over the vast prairies at that time. This tradition was verified by the large numl)er of bones of these animals found in different localities on the prairies when first visited by the whites. The deep snow is one of the landmarks of the pioneer.

The cold winter of 18-t'2-3. commenced on Xov. 7. 1842, and continued until May. 1843. This season of ice may be said to end the days of profitable hunting in Illinois.

The storm of June, 1877, swept across West Jersey, Elmira, and j)arts of Goshen, blowing off house i-oofs and rooting \\\) trees. The county is not in tlie storm trail.

The greatest flood ever known in the county was that of February 16, 1883. xVs a general rule bridges were swept away, and in the wreck of the l)rid"-eon the Toulon and Wvomino- road three men nearlv lost their lives. In the s])ring of 1831 there was a great flood conse- ({uent on the break of the "Big Snow." and in the fall of 1835 another flood.

The drought of 188() has no pai'allel m the history of the county. It was broken on August 12th. 13th, lltli and 15th. On the night of the 15th a rain and thunder storm swe])t over the county, but at nine o'clock the moon ])eered down from a l)right blue sky, while a rainbow of peculiai'ly bi'illiant colors illumined the west. The average rainfall during the fifteen years, including 187"). for the months of April, ^lay, June and July, was 15.(59 inches, the minimum 8.59 (in 1884) and the maximum 22.16 inches (1883). For the corresponding period of 1886 the average was 4.82, or less than one-third of the average of the fif-

Zo()h)(jy. - Of the s])ecies of native animals that once roamed the flowery prairies and wild forests of the county, but few of the smaller remain, and none of the larger. Of the latter we cannot even find a specimen preserved in taxidermy. The buffalo which grazed u])on the verdant ])rairies has been di'iven westward. With or before it went the ])eaver, elk, badger, panther, black wolf and black bear. Some animals which were quite numerous have become very rare, such as the gray fox, the catamount, otter, lynx, coon, and the Virginia deer.

There still remain many of tlie different species, mostly inhabiting the country adjacent to the Illinois and Spoon rivei's and a few of the other larger streams. These are, however, fast disappearing, and before long will be known only in history, as are the deer, the beaver, and the l)ison. Among those still to be found here, as tra-mps, are the gray wolf, the opossum, raccoon, mink, muskrat, the common weasel, the small brown weasel, skuidc, woodchuck, or Maryland marmot, prairie mole, common shrew mole, meadow and deer mouse, and the gray rabbit. Of squirrels there are the gray timber sijuii-rel. the fox, chi])munk. the large gray prairie squirrel, the striped and the spotted prairie squirrel, and the beautiful flyiug scjuii'rel. The dai'k-brown and the reddish bat are common. ( )ther small animals have been fouiul here which have strayed from other localities. A.n American eagle, weighing eleven j)ounds and measui'ing seven feet from tij) to i\\) of wings, was killed by Robert (-iiurch, in October, lS(iT, neai' Indian creek bridge, on the Toulon and Lafayette road. The bii-ds common to Illinois find a home in this county, and between residents and visitors, show themselves in multitudes. On Ueceml)er 18. 1S84, a large wolf was killed by Jason Oziah, on the Nowlan farm, west of Toulon. On May 23, 1885, E. H. Bates, of (Xsceola, presented County Clerk \/alker with fourteen young wolf scalps, and received $24 bounty. In S])oon river and tributary streams the fisherman is sometimes rewarded for skill and patience ; but like the wikl aniuuds the fish have almost disappearet