Menominee Township (part 1 of 2)

Menominee Township

About the same time Mr. Simmons built the first grist mill in the township. Soon after the Black Hawk War, Simmons and Shipton moved over on the Little Menominee, near the western edge of the township, where Mr. Shipton lived until the time of his death. Mr. Simmons afterwards moved to Iowa. Jacob Drablebis broke land and built a cabin, in 1833, on a claim in the southeastern part of the township which he afterwards sold to Harvey Mann, and moved to Iowa. James Hughlett, Benoni R. Gillett and Adolphus Hamlin were the first mineral smelters in this township. Their furnace was located near the

Warren Tr Hi8Toey Of Jo Daviebs County

The second smelting was done by Harvey Mann, in the Spring of the year following. His location was about one half mile south of the other furnace, on the northwest quarter of section 8.

In 1838, Gratiot and Purdivil built a blast furnace south of Mr. Simmons' farm, using the water-power of the Menominee River. This continued but a short time.

In the same year, John Shipton moved to the township, but soon sold out and went to Iowa, and Thomas Prouse settled on the lower Dubuque road. From this time settlers appeared more rapidly, so that Menominee, may be considered among the older townships of the county. It had a population, in 1850, of 720, and in 1860, of 853, while the inhabitants in 1870, numbered 593.

The Excelsior Mills were built on section 28, in 1860, by John Moore and John R. Gray. Mr. Moore afterwards moved to Iowa, since which time Gray has been sole proprietor. The mill was originally run entirely by water-power of the Sinsinawa River, but an engine has since been put in, both powers being now used. A post-office has been established in the mill for many years, Mr. Gray being postmaster. About 1860, a post-office was established at the house of Thomas Prouse, called " Alvina,'' but it continued only a few years.

When the railroad was built from Galena to Dubuque, along the river, a side-track and flag-station was established in the township, on section 1 8, called Menominee.

The first preaching remembered was about 1840, at Mr. Morton's house, on Buena Vista Farm, by a minister from Galena. There is now a school-house and Catholic church on the northeast part of section 30.

Mining has always been carried on in this township to some extent, the land, however, is rich, productive and well watered by numerous springs and streams.

Supervisor - John A. Gaffney ; Town Clerk - B. Monneman ; Assessor and Collector - Henry Arts ; Commissioners of Highways - B. H. Wubben, Wm. H. Mann and Wm. Kanol ; Constables - John Monneman and Wm. Rooney ; Justices of Peace - Bernard H. Wubben and William Powers.

Mrs. Virtue's father (Adam Virtue) was born in Ireland in 1809; he embraced religion in 1832, when he identified himself with the M. E. Church, of which he remained a faithful member; he came to this Co. in 1836, thus becoming one of the pioneers of Jo Daviess Co.; he worked earnestly for the establishment of schools and churches in the community in which he lived; his wife was Margaret Boyd; they were married in Ireland ; he died in this Co. on Sept. 12; 1863.

ARTS HEXRY, Farmer; Sec. 21; P. O. Excelsior Mills; has 100 acres; born May 6, 1842, on same farm on which he now lives; married May 1, 1862, to Miss Augusta C. Gotiea; had six children : Julia A.. Mary A., Louisa S., Catharine J., Gusta M., Rose C. ; held office of Constable 6 year? ; held office of Assessor and Collector of Menominee Tp. for 6 years, which he now holds.

It! l>l)l \ GERARD H. Farmer; Sec. 30; P.O. Excelsior Mills; 140 acres; born in Kingdom Hanover, Prussia. Jan. 6, 1818; came to this country and Ohio in 1842; came to this Co. in 1843; settled on his present farm in 1846 ; married in 1846 to Miss Mary Hobbman, of Galena; had six children: Clemens, John H., Bernard, Harmon, Jacob and Catharine.

CORDING JO«3f F. Farmers; S^c. 5; P. O. Gilena; C. F. Cording was born in Garmauy May 16, 1853; John F. Cording was born in Germany Sept. 2,

1855; they came to this country and Co. in 1869; they purchased the larm in partnership in 1875; they have 152 acres of land, valued at $6,000; their parents are still living in Germany; the brothers are not married. Coyn Wm. farmer; Sec. 17; P. O. Galena.

FENLEY MRS. EMILY, Farmer; Sec. 17; P. O. Excelsior Mills; born in Kentucky May 1, 1814; came to Missouri in 1821, to Wis. 1835; settled on present farm in 1837 ; married to Mr. Joseph Fenley Feb. 26, 1831; bad ten children: Mary J., Eliza, Caroline, Sarah E., Drusilla, Emily, John H. Mordicai, Squire, Joseph J.; Mr. Fenley died July 6, 1876; John H. and Mordicai enlisted in 96th Wis. V.I.; John H. died in the army Ausr. 31, 1863; Mordicai died in the army Nov. 11, 1864.

owns 174 acres land; born in Galena Tp., July 21, 1848; settled on his present farm in 1850; married to Miss Mary Bruening of Grant Co., Wis., in 1872; had three children: Clemens A., Mary L., Theresa.

GAFFNEY JOHN A. Farmer; Sec. 5; P. O. 'Galena; has 160 acres land; born in Ireland Jan. 6, 1843; came to this country and Co. in 1849 and settled on his present farm; married to Miss Sarah E. McGinnis, Feb. R, 1863; who was born in this Tp. ; names of children now living: John M., Andrew T.. Esther E., William B., one not named just born; held office of School Director 12 years ; held office Supervisor past 3 years.

GRAY JOHN R. Miller, Farmer, Postmaster; Excelsior Mills, Menoininee Tp; Sec. 28; born in Cornwall Co., England, June 11, 1820; came to this country and Penn. in 1841; came to Shullsburg, Wis., in 1842; spent 1850 in California; returned to Wis. in 1851, where he followed mining and engineering until 1860; he settled in his mill and on his present farm same }-ear; married Isabella Brodwell in Oct. 1848; had seven children : John J., Curtis B., Agnes A., Henrietta, Isabella, Lincoln H., Cobden G.; Henrietta dead ; he has held the office of Postmaster 12 years; Justice of Peace 4 years; he has 200 acres of land.

Hesmng Mrs. Margaret

Farm on Estate; Sec. 18; P. O. Excelsior Mills ; born in Prussia in 1815 ; came to this country in 1844; settled on their farm same year; she married Henry Snyder in 1846; he died in 1850; she married Henry Healing in 1851; she had four children: Mary A. and John Henry by Mr. Snyder, and William J. and Annie C. by Mr. Hesliug; her son John H. works the estate, 60 acres; Wm. J. works his own farm of 117 acres; Sec. 25.

HORAN MARTIN, Farmer; Sees. 1 9 and 25; P. O. Excelsior Mills; born in Ireland in 1813; came to this country and Detroit in 1834; settled on his present farm in 1835; married Catharine Dunlavey of Ireland in 1848; had eleven children : Mary A., Michael, Bridget E., Thomas J., Bernard P., Mark P., Martin F., Katie S., James O., Margaret T., Julia A.; Mr. Horan has 240 acres land; he is the oldest settler now living in Menoininee Tp.

Ix. Sees. 25 and 26; P. O. Excelsior Mills ; born in Luxembourg, Nov. 11, 1846; came to this country and Co. in 1869; settled on this farm in 1871 ; married Mary Brummer April 18, 1871 ; she was born in Meuominee Tp., Dec. 8, 1848; had three children: John, Francis, Harmon; he owns 160 acres land.

BERNARD H. Farmer. Blacksmith and Wagon Maker; Sec. 20; P. O. Excelsior Mills; born in Prussia, Sep.t. 29, 1844; came lo this country and this Tp., March 1, 1846; married to Miss Mary Ann Muller, Grant Co., Wia., June 25, 1867;liad six children, one dead ; held office as School Treasurer 2 years; Tp. Clerk 10 years; his father Clemens Maneman, born in Prussia, Oct. 30, 1813; lives with him and does the wood work ; his brother John Mauernan is partner in the business, and also, held office Tp. Constable 2 years. Maneman C. farmer; Sec. 20; P. O. Excelsior Mills.

man Menominee Parish; Sec. 30; P. O. Excelsior Mills; born in Holland in 1828; came to this country and Wis. in 1855; settled in this Co. in 1864 and was settled over this Parish same year; he has officiated 13 years; his Parish numbers about eighty families Irish and German; he assisted in organizing a new Church and in erecting their new and beautiful edifice, which is 96 by 44; it was commenced in 1875 and finished in 1876.

WEST JOSEPH, Farmer; Sec. 28; P. O. Excelsior Mills; born in Kingdom Hanover, Prussia, Jan. 31,1844; came to this country and Lyons, Iowa, in 1860; moved to Grant Co., Wis., in 1863 ; settled on his present farm in 1866; married to Miss Christine Fleege in 1866; she was born in Menominee Tp. in 1848; had five children: Philo M., Clemens A., Mary J., Frances M., Joseph Leo; he has 185 acres land. White Pat. farmer; Sec. 19; P. O. Dunleith.

WHITE WILLIAM, Farmer and Miner; Sees. 19 and 25; P. O. Dunleith; born in Ireland, Wexford Co., in 1808; came to this country and Vinegar Hill Tp. in 1846; settled on his present farm in 1847 ; he has 119 acres land ; married to Miss Margaret Furlong in 1837; she was born in Ireland in 1812; had eight children; Moses E., Ellen, Alice, Esther, John H., Richard, Patrick H., William W. ; Patrick H. lives with his father and mother and carries on the farm.

WUBBEN BERNARD H. Merchant and Justice of Peace; Sec. 21 : P. O. Excelsior Mills; born in Prussia, Nov. 9, 1834; came to this country and Ohio in 1850; enlisted in 15th Kentucky Regt. in 1861 ; promoted to sergeant in 1862, mustered out in 1865; settled in this Co. in 1865; married to Elizabeth Hargrafen, Menominee Tp., in 1867 ; had five children : Henry, Mary, Anna, Bernard, Theresa; held office of Justice of Peace 10 years.

WlTBBEtf JOHN O. Farmer; Sec. 19; P. O. Excelsior Mills; boru in Amt. Friern, Prussia, Jan. 7, 1837; came to this country and Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1854; came to this Co. in 1855; settled on his present farm April, 1864; he owns 141 acres land; married to Mary T. Fleege Feb. 3, 1863; she was born Sept. 18, 1840 in Amt. Friern (Hanover) Prussia; had five children : Regina H., Mary A., Clemens A., Annie C., Annie Louisa; held office of School Director 6 years.

Physical Geography

This large and important county is situated in the extreme northwest corner of the state. It is bounded on the north by the State of Wisconsin ; on the east by Stephenson County, in the State of Illinois; on the south by Carroll County; and on the west by the Mississippi River. From north to south it extends twenty-one miles; from east to west, along the south line, twenty miles, and along the north line, thirty-six miles.

Physical Features And Configuration

These are more diversified and interesting than are to be met with in any other county in this part of our state. The whole county is a part of the side of an extensive water shed, with a slope to the southwest. The county is excellently well watered. All the streams flow in nearly the same direction ; from the northeast to the southwest. The principal of these streams, commencing at the eastern part of the county, and going westward, are: Plum River, Camp Creek, Rush Creek, Apple River, Small Pox Creek, Galena or Fever River, Sinsiuawa River, Little Menominee and Big Menominee Rivers. Apple River and Fever River are considerable streams; the latter, in high stages of .water in the Mississippi River, will float the largest steamers from that river to the City of Galena. Most of the others afford abundant mill sites for light mills and manufactories. At Hanover, on Apple River, there is quite a heavy power used, for the purpose of driving the machinery in an extensive woolen mill. Along the southwest part of the county there is some alluvial bottom land, made up of deep, black Mississippi mud bottoms and sand prairies; but these are not extensive. Some of the smaller streams have narrow and fertile alluvial bottoms. These are walled in in most cases with bluff ranges, more or less precipitous and rocky. The trend of the bluff line along the Mississippi River winds and bends with the general course of that stream. These bluffs are high, and gently rounded along the northwestern part of the county, but assume a more picturesque and castellated appearance as they enter Carroll County ou the south.

It is almost impossible to give a correct description of the surface of Jo Daviess County, without a minute reference to almost every township in it. In general terms, there are all varieties of surface found in the northern part of the state. JLevel prairie, rolling and undulating prairie and oak openings, uneven, hilly, rocky, and bluffy timbered and form land tracts, may all be found in almost any portion of the county. The eastern and northeastern townships are generally prairie; soil rich, warm and deep; some of its regular level Illinois prarie land; some of it, towards the centre and south of the county, undulating, uneven, partly covered with scattering and scrubby timber. The southern tier of townships is uneven, sometimes hilly, sometimes rocky, with some prairie in Berreman, Pleasant Valley and Hanover. The western and northwestern townships are generally timbered, hilly, rocky, and even bluffy. The central townships are generally uneven and partly timbered.

The prairies of Jo Daviess County are not' excelled in fertility by any upland prairie in the state. The soil of the rough, uneven and hilly land, when cleared of its timber and underbrush, and laid open to the genial influences of good cultivation, is quick and fertile, being composed of a clayey, somewhat marly base. Numerous farms, some of them quite large, open in the rough lands in every part of the county, attest the truth of this statement, and amply repay their owners for the labor of putting them under cultivation. Some of these reddish clayey soils might not look fertile to the husbandman used to the blacker prairie soils, but the large yield of cereal grains and grasses would soon convince him that their producing powers were almost equal to the vegetable molds and humas-charged soils of the leveler portions of the state. Indian corn, of course, is not so heavy a staple crop here as in other portions of the state farther south; still, good crops are raised with reasonable certainty.

Stock raising is also an important element of wealth in the county. The range is good, and sheltered situations for the Winter are abundant. The citizens of the county, many of them, are largely engaged in this very remunerative business.

The agricultural resources, stock raising capabilities, and mineral wealth hidden away in the underlying rocks, are all leading elements of wealth in this county.

The county has an abundant supply of timber, for its own consumption, for many years to come. The oak family is largely represented among its trees; basswood, hickory, walnut, and, in short, all the trees, wild fruits and shrubs, catalogued for this part of the state, may be found in the bottom timber, barrens and groves.

Fruitgrowing and vine raising may both be carried on successfully. The hills about Galena, and in many other portions of the county, produce the hardy fruits and grapes in great abundance. The business has not been gone into extensively, but there is no reason why wine making might not be made to pay in favored localities. On the Galena hills I have seen grape vines purple with thick hanging clusters, while apple trees near by bent beneath their ripened fruit. The garden fruits attain also to great perfection.

A prominent feature in the landscape of portions of the county, is a number of natural mounds, rising to a considerable height above the general surface.

Pilot Knob is the most conspicuous of these. It is about three miles south of the City of Galena, arid about two miles from the Mississippi River. It is a conspicuous landmark to tourists and river men. passing up and down that stream. Towering above the surrounding high bluffs, it reaches an altitude of 429 feet above ordinarj^ water mark in Fever River, according to barometrical measurements, made by Whitney.

There is a chain of some half dozen of fhese mounds, running northeast of Pilot Knob four or five miles, among them Waddell's and Jackson's Mounds, well-known local elevations. Around the City of Galena there are several mound-like elevations and ridges, the most conspicuous of which terminates in a group of castellated rocks, near the residence of Mr. Hallett. These rocks overlook the city, and crooked valley of Fever River, for some distance.

Charles' Mound, near the north line of the county, is supposed to be the highest point of land in the state. Its ridge-like, rocky backbone is 295 feet above the Illinois Central Railroad track, at Scales' Mound station; 951 feet above low water in the Mississippi River, at Cairo; and 1226 feet above low tide in the Gulf of Mexico. These are the figures given by Whitney.

History Of Jo Davie88 County

Scales' Monnd, about a mile south of the last, is a well-known locality. Around this latter, and within a fadius of two or three miles, there are several o'her similar but smaller mounds.

East and southeast are Woods' Mounds, in the south part of Apple River Township; Bean's Mound, near Apple River; Powers' Mound, in the northwest corner of Rush Township; Paige's Mound, near the south line of Courtland Township; Simmons' Mound, near the northeast corner of the Township of Stockton; Benton's and Rice's Mounds, a little north and west of the latter; one or two mounds or mound-like elevations east of Elizabeth, whose names I did not ascertain; an elevated, mound-like plateau of several miles in extent, commencing about two miles north of the V illage of Elizabeth; and several other such plateaus in various parts of the county.

The geological structure of these mounds gives them the appearance of gentle sloping hills, for a part of the distance up their sides, crowned by abrupt, fancifully weathered, castellated rocks, of a reddish-brown or whitish-yellow appearance. Some of these views, from a distance, have a great resemblance to old mural walls and baronial towers, and vividy recall to memory the wild architectural structures of the middle ages.

These same Niagara Rocks outcrop in long mural escarpments along the Mississippi and Apple River Bluifs, and along many of the smaller streams in those portions of the county where this geological formation is heavily developed. The ledges and exposures, and-some of the abrupt outliers of the Galena rocks, also present the same picturesque, wild appearance. Some of them present scenes almost as attractive as any in Jackson County, about the Devil's Backbone and the Mississippi Bake Oven.

Surface Geology

Alluvium. - The small water courses of the county have the usual narrow alluvial bottoms. In some places these spread out wide enough for small farms. Pleasant Valley, along the north branch of Plum River, extends from Morseville to the Carroll County line, a distance of some ten miles; it is from a quarter of a mile to almost a mile in width, and contains some of the very best farming lands in the county. These narrow alluvial bottoms are composed of a rich, brown, marly soil, made up in great part from the wash and detritus from the hills on either side. In but few places can there be noticed the black silt or mud or washed sand of river alluvium. The valleys are all ancient valleys of erosion, floored or built up by recent detritus from the hills, not transported to great distances, nor greatly mixed, and belonging to very recent Quaternary deposits.

The Mississippi River bottom, in the upper part of its course along this county, is very narrow - in fact that stream almost washes the rocky base of the bluft's for many miles. There is, however, a chain of sloughs opposite Galena, and along the mouths of Fever River and Small t*ox Creek, where there is a low alluvial bottom, timber grown, and made up of Mississippi mud and sand. This is the flood plain or flood bed of the stream, over which the annual overflows of high water extend. Farther down the river this bottom spreads out to several miles in extent. In the western part of the Township of Hanover, bottom timber land, alluvial grass

'land, and table land high and dry, and susceptible of cultivation, exhibit all the characteristics of ordinary Mississippi alluvial bottoms.

Loess and Modified Drift. - The regular marly loess of the Mississippi bluffs, such as is found opposite Fulton City, at Warsaw, and at other localities further down, is not a marked feature along the western limits of Jo Daviess County. Its bluffs are mostly composed of massive rocky formations. The bald bluffs, composed of whitish, partially stratified sands and clays, were not observed ; but there are mound-like elevations, and masses of brown, marly, sandy clays along, among, and overcapping some of these chains of bluffs, which undoubtedly owe their origin to the same agencies which deposited the loess of the bluffs, lower down the stream. These brown deposits are loess marls and clays, slightly modified by local conditions. Within the limits of the City of Galena, and at other points in Fever River Valley, and forty or fifty feet above ordinary water level of Fever River, there are heavy outcrops of a well marked, distinctly stratified clayey deposit, which shows every characteristic of the most marked and well defined loess of the lower Mississippi bluffs. Thin seams of reddish clayey marls alternate regularly with thin seams -of a whitish, tough, unctuous-feeling clay. The seams are from one to four inches thick; the stratification is complete; the lithological character seems to be identical; the thickness is from ten to eighteen feet; and the extent into the hills indefinite, but probably limited. In the marly seams I found great quantities of a fluviatile shell, in a fair state of preservation. These shells are quite small, running from the size of a wheat grain to that of a large barley corn. I have several times, within a few years, noticed the same shell, or a closely allied species, strewn thick over the silt and mud after the floods of the Mississippi had subsided, and the flood bed had become overgrown with a dense growth of grass. Beneath the shadow of the grass the damp ground looked as if it had been thickly sown with large wheat kernels. Subsequent overflows no doubt imbedded these, and where antiseptic properties mingled with the silt, they will no doubt be preserved, and present an appearance exactly identical with those picked out of the outcrop near the Illinois Central Railroad depot in Galena. It will thus be seen. I think, that the evidences of the desposition of loess deposits in this county are incontestible.

In the Fever River Yalley, within the City of Galena, a mile or two above the city, and at several places between the city and its confluence with the Mississippi River, there are well defined river terraces of modified or river drift. These are about twenty feet above ordinary water mark in that stream. Similar traces were observed by Professor Worthen at the mouth, and up the valley of the Small Pox Creek; and a broad, distinctly marked river terrace maybe observed in the lower part of the Mississippi bottom, extending down into Carroll County.

Drvft Proper. - The productive lead field has been written down as " a driftless region; 51 and to some extent this is true of that part of it within Jo Daviess County. But in attempting to account for this supposed absence of the drift in the lead region, eminent geologists have fallen into a controversy, or difference of opinion.

Whitney contends that when the lead region was uplifted from the Silurian seas, no subsequent submergence ever took place; and that all the changes which have since taken place on its surface have been produced by agencies, such as we now see producing dynamical results upon dry land. When the broadly extended drift forces - whether broad creeping and grind- ing glaciers, or broad water currents, or ice-bergs and water acting together - moved the drift on its southwest course, according to this theory, the lead region rose as an island in the midst of the moving forces, and the drift stream was divided - thrown to the east and west - and united again after passing the obstruction. Such being the case, the lead basin, supposed then to have been elevated above the surrounding country, escaped the action of the drift forces. During all this time, more peaceful geological causes are supposed to have been at work over the uplifted island, whose action has produced all the geological changes supposed to have taken place. Atmospheric and chemical agencies disintegrated the hard Silurian rocks. The surface rocks changed slowly into the clays now overlying the bed rocks, except so far as Vains and winds may have transported these clays and subjected them to a mixing process. This being true, the superficial deposits of the driftless lead region are substantially in situ, at the very places where they were formed by the decay of the parent rock.

Percival believed that the high water shed, extending from the mouth of the Wisconsin eastward, rose as a reef in the drift epoch waters, and turned the drift to the west, through Iowa, and to the east, round the lead region. This reef may have permitted a sheet of shallow water to flow over it, and submerge the lead basin. In this way the action of the drift forces would be greatly modified.

My own observations upon the drift phenomena in this county have not been altogether satisfactory. In the first place, I do not think it a driftless region. In addition to the drift pebbles and copper nuggets referred to by Professor Worthen, as having been found at the California lead diggings, I have observed numbers of large boulders lying over the prairie land in the eastern and southeastern portions of the county; and 1 am credibly informed that, on the high upland some three miles north of Galena, many boulders of a sort of buhrstone, whose parent outcrop is far north in Wisconsin, are strewn over the ground. Many of the clay deposits covering the very lead veins themselves, do not differ materially from the buff and yellow clays treated, and recognized every where else in the northwest, as true drift clays. The river ten-aces and stratified loess deposits, above spoken of; the lithological character of the clays just referred to; the few '* nigger heads " and lost rocks found in several places in the county, show unmistakably, I think, that the drift forces, especially towards the close of the drift epoch, had much to do in cutting down, carrying away, and arranging the great rocky formations which once existed, but which have now disappeared over large portions of the county. Over more than half its area, perhaps, the whole thickness of the Niagara limestone and the Cincinnati shales have disappeared, except the mounds left standing as sentries, at long intervals; and the very galena bed rocks below where they used to stand have had their surfaces denuded, to a considerable extent, in the operation. To one standing upon one of these mounds, and looking over the valley-like expanses between them, with the eye of a geologist, the conviction that he is standing upon the old Silurian level of the country grows into a certainty. Eroding and denuding influences have removed from three hundred to three hundred and fifty feet of Magnesian limestone and shales. It is impossible to suppose that simple atmospheric or chemical causes, acting no matter how long, could produce such gigantic results. Many submergencie:s and upheavals may have taken place; the dynamical powers of heavy bodies of water and water currents, and other drift forces, must have acted long and powerfully in bringing them about. 44

While these things all appear to be true, it can not be denied that the superficial deposits covering the bed rocks are, in part, derived from their disintegration, by rains, frosts and other atmospheric and chemical agencies. I have examined many clay banks through the lead mine region which bore unmistakable evidences of this. Those peculiar red clays, characteristic of the lead region, if dug into, show, first, the clays and hard pan, without rocks of any description, but, as the deposits are penetrated, rocks begin to appear in detached pieces, becoming more abundant at a greater depth, until the regular strata of the bed rocks are reached. Now, these pieces are unworn by atmospheric influences; they lie in horizontal beds, parallel to the strata below, and are evidently the harder portions of the mass, which resisted the influences that changed a rock bed into a clay bed. Nearly all the float mineral, or clay bed mineral now found, is, also, nothing but the ore which has settled down from the decayed rocks, in which it was once held in veins-, and mineral-bearing lodes.

This is also true of the clays covering some of the Niagara and Cincinnati outcrops or bed rocks, for they partake largely of the underlying rocks, from which they have probably been derived. I think a chemical analysis of these clays would show a great similarity or exact identity with the rocks under them.

Professor Whitney's theory of atmospheric agencies, and no submergence of the lead basin since its upheaval from the Silurian ocean, explains well these unmixed clays, in situ apparently, at the very places where formed ; but it does not explain the great erosion and denudation which has taken place through the productive part of the lead basin, and is utterly inconsistent with the terraces, loess and drift phenomena plainly manifest in almost every part of this county. If we knew exactly what the drift forces were, and how they acted, we would probably have no difficulty in seeing what influences modified their force in the lead basin. That such a modification did take place in some way, there can be no doubt.

The blue plastic clays, which lie near the bottom of the drift in other parts of the state, are sparingly developed here, so far as I have been able to observe. The boulder drift and coarse gravel drift, which lie near the top of the true drift, except the few loose boulders already noticed, are, also, substantially wanting in this region. The yellowish brown clays, red clays, and hard-pan are developed here to a considerable extent; but the average depth of the superficial deposits covering the rocks in Jo Daviess County is a good deal less than in portions of the state farther east and south, 'ilie great denudation which took place here seems to have been followed by transporting agencies, which bore away a large portion of the materials thus disengaged to other regions.

The phenomena here observed are probably best explained by supposing two epochs, when causes somewhat different in their results were at work. The first was the epoch of erosion and denudation, accompanied by vast transporting agencies of some kind, probably flowing water or modified drift forces. During this epoch the Niagara limestone was worn down, and the Cincinnati shales suffered disintegration, and most of the detritus thus formed was removed. The second epoch was one in which the waters or modified drift forces had partially or wholly subsided; chemical and atmospheric agencies worked upon the comparatively naked rocks, and the lead basin clays settled down in the places where the underlying rocks had decayed. Such a condition of things would, I think, explain all the phenom- ena observed in the lead region of this county. How far it might apply to other portions of the northwest lead region, I am unable to state.

The Niagara Limestone. - All the mounds, mound-like ridges, and plateaus mentioned in speaking of the topography of the county, are capped by massive irregularly-bedded dolomitic Niagara limestone, ranging in thickness from about fifty to one hundred and seventy-five feet. Tapestried with lichens and mosses, of a dull brown or red color, with castellated and fantastic forms, these rocks at once attract the attention of the most careless observer. In addition to the mounds, they cover other portions of the county in the south and southwest; and their ledges and exposures all round the edges, along the bluffs, and where the streams have cut deep channels into theft* midst, show the same massive, ragged and picturesque appearance observable on the mounds; except that they resemble more, long, irregularly shaped reddish-brown mural escarpments or walls, carpeted with soft green mosses and feathery ferns.

The probable extent of the county covered by this formation, is a little less than one third. There are many places throughout this extent where the eroding streams have cut down through the Niagara, into the Cincinnati shales, and even reached the Galena limestone below both.

Such is the superficial area covered by this rock, stated approximately. Its lithological character has been so often written that it seems superfluous to speak of it here. The rock is generally massive, irregularly bedded; tough, of a yellowish color on fresh fracture, but weathering to a reddishbrown. It is full of chert bands; and some of the Niagara hills are macadamized with a thick floor of finely broken, dendrite-speckled flints, which remain from the decay of the strata formerly enclosing them. These flint hills, or flint covered hills, are characteristic of the Niagara limestone formation. The maximum thickness of the Niagara limestone in this county can not be accurately stated. The denudation which has taken place on its top, and the difficulty of ascertaining the bottom, make it almost impossible to measure its thickness correctly. Its heaviest outcrop is probably along Small Pox Creek, where it reaches a thickness of over two hundred feet. As developed in this county it is exceedingly homogenous in character - the varieties observed at Racine, LeClare and Cardova, being wanting. In chemical analysis, lithological character, and general appearance, it is very similar to the Galena limestone. If a difference can be detected, it is less sandy and crystalline, and tougher than the latter formation. Its type or characteristic fossils are also different.

These are chiefly Pentame'rus oblvngus; Favosites favosa; Halysites cateukiria; Astrocerium venustum, and one or two species of Stromapotora formed corals. The Pentamerus are the traditional " petrified hickory nuts," so often spoken of by the miners and well-diggers. Huge blocks of the stone, in places, are sticking full of them. On the silex sown hills, bushels of rough weather-stained specimens of the Favosites can be collected. These old Niagara seas swarmed with the coral builders; and many of the Niagara beds of rock were little else than coral reefs.

The Cincinnati Group. - The green and blue shales and limestones of the Cincinnati group underlie the Niagara limestone wherever the latter is developed in the county. There are not many natural outcrops of these shales, and they never stand out in ledges or rocky exposures, unless where quarries are opened into the covered rocks. Even where quarries are opened into this formation and then abandoned for a few years, the rapid disintegration soon covers up the rocks with a gently sloping talus.

The parts of the county underlaid by this formation can be told at a glance. All around the mounds and mound-like elevations; all around the outer boundary lines of the Niagara formation, up either side of all the valleys of erosion which have cut through it, the gentle slopes extending from the general level of the country up to the base of the bold Niagara exposures, are underlaid by rocks and shales of the Cincinnati group. These slopes may be represented by a narrow band two or three hundred yards, more or less, in width, encompassing all the Niagara fields and outliers in the county, and running up either side of all the valleys that are cut through it. When this is said, the superficial area underlaid bty the Cincinnati

At the northern terminus of Terrapin Ridge, near Elizabeth, the milky looking clays and shales are washed and furrowed out by the rains, exposingmany line specimens of the hemispherical-shaped coral Choetetes petropohtanus. I have found dozens of good specimens of this coral in the claywashed road at this locality.

East of Scales Mound the track of the Illinois Central Railroad is laid for several miles almost upon the top of the Galena limestone. Several rather heavy cuts in that locality show good exposures of the overlying Cincinnati shales. These beds contain in certain layers a very great abundance of minute fossils, principally a small Nucula.

The general character of this group in Jo Daviess and Carroll Counties is almost identical. The upper layers are thin-bedded argillaceous and silicious shales, of a light buff or creamy color. Where thick-bedded enough to quarry, the stones have a kiln-dried, dusty appearance. Lower down, the shales become blue or greenish in color, sometimes separated by thin bands of green, marly clay; still lower, some massive strata of a deep ultra-marine blue color may be found, exceedingly hard, and giving out a clear ringing sound when struck with a steel hammer; below these there is found in some localities a black carbonaceous shale, so highly charged with carbon as to burn with a bright flame as though impregnated with oil, and the bottom of the deposit is made up of thinner strata of alternating yellow, blue and green shales and clays. Wherever the rain cuts through the soil into these shales, or the little streams wash them, the wet clays have a greasy look, and the trickling waters a creamy and greenish color. There are no gradual beds of passage into the overlying Niagara or the underl}'- ing Galena limestones; but the formation preserves well its distinctive characteristics. The beginnings of its foundation stones and its cap rocks are always easily recognized.

The thickness of the deposit can not be accurately stated. A true section, as developed in the Mississippi River bluffs, from Bluffville, in Carroll County, to the mouth of Fever River, would run from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet. In the interior of this county it nowhere, perhaps, reaches to one hundred feet, and in some places it is only from forty to sixty feet.

The deposit is full of well preserved fossils. The Orthoceratite beds in Dubuque County, Iowa, have long been famous for the number of well preserved Orthoceratites with which they are crowded.

The Chcetetes petropolitanus is a characteristic fossil, and is found in great abundance at Elizabeth, and in the washes and ravines at other places.

Fragments of a branching coral, and the small bud-like heads of an euerinite, are generally found in the same localities. In a few places I observed immense numbers of the fragments of Isotelus gigas; also several species of Orthis, among them Orthis lynx\ associated with Ambonychia radiata, Strophornena alternata, fragments of two or three species of Orthocera, and one or two of the new fossils described in the Third "Volume of the Illinois Geological Reports, Strophomena unicostata and Tentaculites sterling ensis, were also observed.

The Galena Limestone. - This is the great bed-rock of the county. From Dunleith to about the mouth of Small Pox Creek it forms th e rocky bluffs on the Mississippi River. All the northwestern, northern and northeastern part of the county, except a few of the mounds heretofore named, is underlaid by it. The eastern part of the county, extending a short distance south of Morseville, is also underlaid by the same rock. All the larger streams in the county, including Sinsinawa, Fever and Apple Rivers, Rush, Small Pox and Plum Creeks, with their principal tributaries, flow along the surface or cut into this formation. It immediately underlies the surface deposits of something like two thirds of the county.

The maximum thickness of the Galena rocks in this county is not known. It is probably not far from three hundred and fifty feet. At Elizabeth, shafts are sunk one hundred and fifty feet deep, and what is known as the flint strata among miners was not reached. At the places of these shafts the Galena had been considerably denuded. Tlie flinty strata generally is characteristic of the middle of the formation. It may be, however, that the estimate from this basis is too great. No outcrop observed was over about two hundred feet thick.

Its lithological and stratigraphical character is too well known, and has been too often given in these reports, to require an extended notice here, as all into whose hands this report will be likely to fall will probably have access to those descriptions. The rock is a thick-bedded, sub-crystalline, compact, cream or chrome colored dolomitic or rnagnesian limestone. It weathers out into forms almost as fantastic and picturesque as the Niagara above it. Along the streams its weathered out ledges present the same castellated and mural appearances; and some of its outliers rise into towers and chimneyed shapes of the most striking outlines.

Fossils are not so numerous in the Galena limestone of this county as in that of Carroll, Stephenson, or Winnebago. At Morseville. among the stones and debris thrown out from the lead diggings, I obtained several fine specimens of Bellerophon, the only fossil there observed. Illaenus crassicaiida and /. taurus have both been found at Galena; a large species of Cypricardites is also frequently found, especially in the quarries in Carroll County. Murchisonia bellicinta and Receptaculites Oweni, two of the most characteristic Galena fossils, are found less frequently here than in any other portion of the formation in neighboring counties. A section of the largest Ort/iocera ever discovered in the lead region, perhaps, was found in the Galena limestone at Morseville, some two years ago, by some of the miners. It was eighteen or twenty inches long; a siphuncle nearly three inches in diameter projected about four inches at one end; the septa, somewhat loose, looked somewhat like a ribbed human body with a projecting neck. Of course those who saw it supposed that a petrified human trunk and neck had been discovered.

Trenton Limestone. - This limestone is only met with in two localities in the county. At Dunleith, and a little above it, there is a low outcrop along the banks of the Mississippi River. It is here a light bluish -gray rock, regularly and rather thinly bedded, with shaly partings, showing many of its characteristic fossils. These layers are near the top of the formation and have some of the characteristics of the superincumbent Galena. They, in fact, begin to partake of the nature of beds of passage into that rock.

Other exposures of this limestone may be seen along the north branch of Fever River, commencing about three miles northeast of Galena, and continuing until the "Wisconsin line is reached. The outcrop attains a thickness of about twenty-six feet at its heaviest exposure, at Tuttle's mill.

This is the lowest formation any where outcropping in the county, or that can be regarded as belonging to a section of Jo Daviess County rocks. We are now prepared to give that section, naming the approximate average thickness of the formations:

Niagara Limestone. Heavy-bedded reddish-brown dolomitic limestone, weathering into cliffs and castellated exposures, similar in lithological character and appearance to the Galena limestone 40 to 200 "

Galena Limestone. Heavy-bedded, cream-yellow dolomitic - limestone, the lead rock of the Northwest; somewhat granular,, and crystalline, and showing beds of passage into Trenton below 100 to 275 "

Economical Geology

Building Stone. - There is the greatest abundance of good building stone in this county, so distributed as to make it of easy access to all its citizens. All the formations are cmarried. In Pleasant Valley a number of good quarries are opened in the Cincinnati group of rocks. These quarries are in the brows of the hills, on either side. The stone obtained is sufficiently thick-bedded and compact to make a good building stone. It has a dry, dusty, kiln-dried appearance. Several farm houses are built of this material in the valley. So far it seems to answer well for farm uses, without exhibiting a tendency to disintegrate. The best of it would, I think, be unsafe for massive and long-enduring masonry, but for light masonry it seems to answer well.

The blue limestone outcrops, along the north branch of Fever River, afford some good building stone. This is a light-gray limestone, rather thin-bedded, and of enduring properties. The outcrop at Dunleith also splits into a conveniently handled stone, and is used extensively for economical purposes.

The massive ledges, exposures, and natural outcrops of the Niagara and Galena limestone along nearly all the streams, in the brows of all the bluffs and hills, and in all those parts of the county where these heavy deposits are the bed rocks, furnish an inexhaustible supply of a coarse, enduring, valuable stone, suitable for all sorts of heavy masonry, such as bridge piers and abutments, foundations, cellar walls, and even public buildings, and private residences. They require considerable dressing for these latter purposes, but when dressed into good shape, their rich, warm, brown and cream colors, and the fact that they season into almost the hardness of a granite, and have an enduring, solid, substantial appearance, mnkes them prominent among the materials of economical value in the county.

Lime. - The abundance of timber and the abundance of good magnesian limestone, afford all the facilities for manufacturing large quantities of good, coarse, strong lime.

Clays and Sand. - The clays associated with the Cincinnati shales are sufficiently pure to furnish a potters' clay, good for the manufacture of common crockery ware. At Elizabeth I noticed several outcrops of this potters' clay in some of the streets and lots of the village. Four or five miles south of Elizabeth, on the Mount Carroll and Galena road, the Jenkins' pottery is located. This establishment has been in operation for quite a number of years, and has built up quite a remunerative business. The clay is obtained near by. It is not altogether pure and free from foreign substances; but these difficulties seem to be mostly overcome by the processes through which it is put in manufacturing. The result is, aware largely used in this part of the state, as the Jenkins' pottery wagons are well known in all the neighboring towns, villages, and cities.

Common yellow and red clays, for ordinary brick, exist everywhere in the greatest abundance. Sand, suitable for building purposes, is not so universally distributed, neither 'is it so scarce as to be a matter of serious inconvenience.

The Associate Minerals. - Associated with the galena, and deserving a passing notice before that important mineral deposit is referred to, are several other mineral substances well known in the lead region. The most important of these is the sulphuret of zinc, blende, or "black jack" of the miners. This is a useful ore of zinc, but is quite difficult to reduce. The carbonate of zinc, smithsonite or "dry bone " of the miners, is considered a more valuable mineral. Iron pyrites also occur in connection with these minerals, in considerable abundance. At the celebrated Marsdens' lead, all these associate minerals may be seen associated with each other and with the galena, with the Galena limestone, and with spar and other substances. This mine has offorded the best cabinet specimens of these minerals in combination to be found any where in the lead regions. Brown hematite, and several other mineral substances, occur in occasional small quantities, but they are not of interest, in an economical point of view. None of these associate minerals have become articles of commerce, except, perhaps, the carbonate of zinc; and it is doubtful if even that exists in sufficient quanti ties to make it an article of value in the economical resources of this county.

Galena or Lead Ore. - The great mineral interest of the county, as every one knows, is lead. Indeed, it is second to mineral interest in the state, except that of coal. The leading ore of this metal has given its name to the great and important rocky formation in which it is chiefly found in this part of the country, to an important city in the midst of its heaviest deposits, and to the township in which that city is located.

The scope of this county report doos not embrace a very extended essay upon the mining or metallurgy of lead, or a topographical survey or description of the crevices, leads, lodes and diggings, nor a scientific discussion of the modes of occurrence and phenomena observed in its workings. It is rather the province of this report to present the geological formations of the county, and some general remarks upon the extent of its mineral and other 'resources. The " Lead Region " has been closely examined and ably written upon by Professor J. D. Whitney, for the three States of Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. It will be unnecessary to repeat here what he has presented so well in the first volume of the Reports of the Illinois Geological Survey. That volume wrill be as accessible to the common reader as this, and to that volume we refer the reader for surveys and descriptions of the crevices and leads, and a detailed account of the different diggings, their positions, peculiarities of form, extent of working, amount of ore produced, and facts collected in regard to them. 'A brief resume of some of the facts and history of lead and the lead region may not however be out of place.

Galena, or the sulplmret of lead, called in the common speech of the lead region "mineral," when pure, is composed of 86.55 pure lead and 13.45 sulphur. It crystallizes in the form of the cube and its secondaries, has a perfect and easily obtained cleavage, and a bright, silvery, metallic luster on fresh fracture. The lead ore obtained in this county is nearly pure galena. It sometimes contains faint traces of silver.

From 1827 the mines rapidly grew in importance and multiplied in numbers. From 1840 to 1850 the greatest degree of prosperity was reached in the mines, about midway between those years being the very acme of mining prosperity. Galena became the mining metropolis of the Northwest. Thousands of rough miners swarmed through her streets. All sorts of moving vehicles were seen in her thoroughfares, and every language was spoken, every costume worn. The'miner generally spent all he made, was poor, and held his own remarkably well. And that reckless spirit, bred of all uncertain pursuits, was abundantly manifested among the miners who assembled in the lead region. Card playing and whisky drinking, quarrelling, and that rough desperate life developed among adventurers of all classes garnered about Galena, was characteristic of those of all other mines. But in the midst of it all, the City of Galena grew to unexampled prosperity and wealth, and for hundreds of miles round was the centre of commerce and trade for the whole country. Treasures came up out of the ground, flowed into the city, and there remained and built it up. The discovery of the California gold mines swept from the lead mines all that floating part of its population ready for a new excitement, and also much that was of a more permanent nature. The lead mining interest rapidly decreased in importance, until the financial troubles of 1857 drove many back to mining as a matter of necessity. At the present time considerable attention is paid to mining, and it is probably a fact that mining labor generally is better and more uniformly paid now than at any period in the history of the mines. With all the vast amounts of mineral found, it is also a fact that but a very small proportion of the ground has been proved.

We can not arrive at even an approximately accurate amount of the mineral mined in Jo Daviess County. According to Mr. Whitney, the amount of lead received at Chicago and St. Louis, as per records of the Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, from 1853 to 1859, including both years, was about 181.000,000 pounds. This was from all sources. Of this amount, he thinks about one sixth was derived from the mines in Illinois, almost exclusively in this county. This would give about 30,000,- 000 for this county for that period, which period was the least prosperous time for mining known to exist for many years. From the detailed descriptions given of particular leads and ranges, by the same gentleman, in the first volume of the geological report of Illinois, we find that he gives the produce of certain enumerated mines up to that time at about 64,000,- 000 pounds. The Apple River diggings are supposed to have produced from one half to one million of pounds. The Elizabeth group of mines are stated, by Henry Green, Esq., an old miner and smelter, to have produced from 60',000,000 to 75,000,000 pounds. Mr. Green is probably below the amount actually produced. The Vinegar Hill diggings, being a group of about forty lodes or mines, are supposed to have produced 100,000,000 pounds. This statement is made upon the authority of Mr. Houghton's pamphlet upon the Marsden lead. From the same authority we learn that the maximum production of the Jo Daviess County mines, in 1846, was 56,000,000 pounds. The Council Hill mines are supposed, by D. Wilmot Scott, Esq., to have produced 19,000,000 pounds. The Morseville mines are stated to have produced from one quarter to one half million pounds. Captain Beebe stated a few years ago that five furnaces were in operation in the county, smelting annually 8,750,000 pounds of pure lead, some of which was obtained outside of the county. The Marsden lead is said to have produced 3,000,000 pounds of mineral..

From these figures - and they are imperfect enough - it can be seen that the mineral interest of this county in the past has been a matter of great magnitude. Together with Shullsburg, Mineral Point and Dubuque, this Northwestern lead basin has been, and yet is, one of the greatest mining localities in the world.

The superficial area of the country underlaid by productive lead deposits, so far as known at the present time, is limited, embmcing but a small fraction of the area of the Galena limestone. The lodes or ranges are principally located in groups. The diggings, mines or workings are in patches; but seem to have many features in common. The most southern productive mines in the county are on the great east and west range of mineral passing through, and just north of Elizabeth. This mineral range commences at the mouth of Yellow Creek, a few miles southeast of Freeport, in Stephen - son County, where an old shaft exists, which used to be heavily worked a good many years ago. The next group of mines on this range to the west is at Morseville, in the southern part of Jo Daviess County. Here lead has been mined more or less for many years.

The next heavy mines westward, on this same mineral range, is the group at Elizabeth and Weston. About 2,500 acres here are prospected over and mined in. It is an irregularly shaped tract of land, about six miles long from east to west. The Village of Elizabeth is located upon its southern edge, a little east of its centre.

The Elizabeth mines were discovered at a very early day, and worked to some extent. In 1846 more than 800 miners are stated to have been engaged in mining about Elizabeth and Weston. At this time one ninth of all the mineral raised in the lead region is supposed to have been obtained here.

Leaving the Elizabeth lead fields, the next heavy mines are found a few miles west, on the east and west slopes of the bluff range, bordering the Mississippi River. These are the New California mines, discovered accidentally only a few years ago, by a fisherman, who resided in a wild glen on the Mississippi River. At this point the rocky bluffs rise abruptly. The ranges are found by drifting into them a little above water level, going in where a crevice is noticed rising vertically through the rocks. The min- eral found is heavy mineral, existing in large cubes or cogs in some instances. It resembles the large bodies of mineral found in the Marsden lead. On the east slope of the bluff range, where the hills fall away gradually to the level of the interior, several lodes are struck by sinking shafts down to the ranges. The following ranges have been struck in these mines, and perhaps a few others, the names of which I did not learn: Wise Range, McKenda & Graham, Davis & Brownell, Bernard & Co., Lester, Sanders & Hony, Felt &Clymo, Wakefield & Co., Marble & Young, Dye & Co., Samuel Taylor. Other valuable ranges will doubtless be discovered, when all the crevices are examined.

This range is celebrated not only for the amount, but for the variety and beauty of its mineral deposits. Large cubes and diamond-shaped masses of lead ore have been found here, perfectly coated with a beautiful covering of iron pyrites. Galena, black-jack, spar, and iron pyrites, are found in wonderful combinations, furnishing the finest cabinet specimens found any where in the lead region.

The Marsden lead, the New C;ilifornia diggings, the Ambruster & Co. lode, recently discovered, and most of the mineral found along the western limits of the lead field in this county, have certain resemblances, both in the character of the lead ore and its associated minerals, not observed in the mines in the eastern part of the county.

These ranges and diggings are situated within a circle of about three miles in diameter, of which the City of Galena would be the centre. They are principally on the west half of section 21, the northwest quarter of section 16, the west half of section 9, the northwest quarter of section 28, east fractional section 8 - all in township 28, range 1 east, 4th P. M.; and on the east half of section 12, the east half of section 23, the south half of section 13, the north half of section 26, and the east part of section 27 - all in township 28 range 1 west, 4th P. M.

These are located principally on the fractional sections 14, 15 and 16, on fractional sections 20 and 29, on sections 21, 22 and 23 - all in township 29, range 1 east, 4th P. M.; and on the east part of sections 24 and 25, township 29, range 1 west, 4th P. M. On the west part of the last section named, on the northeast corner of section 35, and on the north half of section 23, in the township and range last aforesaid, there are also groups of diggings not enumerated in the foregoing ranges. The Vinegar Hill mines are among the heaviest in the lead region, if we consider the amount of mineral they have furnished, but they are not now worked to a very great extent.

About three miles east and a little south of Vinegar Hill Diggings, the Council Hill ranges are located. The heaviest ones are situated on the north half of section 25, and the south half of section 24, township 29, range 1 east. They are known as the North Diggings, and cover a tract of about forty-seven acres, on which are over one hundred veins running northeast and southwest. The principal, medium, and smaller shafts, number nearly one thousand. The South Diggings, on the south of the Hill, are of small importance. The east half of section 36, township 29, range 1 east, and the west half of section 31, and the south half of section 30, township 29, range 2 east, have upon them diggings, the most important of which is the Kocky Point and Bolt's Lots.

Price. - The following table shows the price of mineral per thousand pounds, for the last sixteen years, as delivered by the miner to the purchaser, at the mouth of the shaft. The ore was always paid for in gold, until the greenback era drove gold out of circulation:

Modes of Occurrence. - The crevices, veins and caverns in which the lead ore is found, are all, perhaps, cracks of shrinkage, into which the lead subsequently became deposited.. The most common and widely disseminated form in which lead ore occurs, is known among miners as "float mineral." In many places the beds of red ferruginous and orchery clay have scattered through them galena in considerable quantities. It is generally found in small, irregularly-shaped pieces; sometimes in small grains, and sometimes in good sized crystals and chunks. Although widespread in its occurrence, no heavy bodies of mineral are found as float mineral. This form of mineral deposit results from the decomposition of the overlying Galena limestone, and in many cases it has settled down almost in the exact spot where the rock containing it once existed.

The mineral in the rocks occurs in what is known as " gash veins," and takes the forms of cog, dice, chunk, sheet, float, or fibrous mineral, as modified by circumstances. The predominant forms of deposit are the vertical crevices, and their modifications into the flat sheet and flat sheet openings. A crevice is a perpendicular or nearly perpendicular opening in the rocks, of varying width and depth. When filled with galena, the deposit is called " sheet mineral." The sheet varies in thickness, from a mere seam the thickness of a knife blade, up to three inches or more in thickness. The vertical crevices have a certain well-marked parallelism to each other, and. an approximate north and south and east and west direction. The east and west are, by far, the most fully developed, and contain, by far, the largest deposits of mineral. These crevices are known by the various names of "leads," "lodes," "cracks," "veins," "ranges," and "diggings." The predominant form of mining in this county is that of the working of the vertical crevices. These are, by far, the most productive, and are characteristic of the upper and middle of the Galena limestone. The modifications of the vertical crevice are the crevice opening, pocket opening, chimney opening, and cave opening. They are all produced i>y the same causes. The crevice opening is an expansion of the crevice to the width of several feet in some instances; the cavity is often filled with red ocher and ferruginous clays, intermixed with loose stones and heavy masses of galena. The pocket openings are a succession of irregularly-shaped small openings in the crevices; the chimney opening is a rather large expansion of the crevice, extending upwards to a point resembling a chimney; and the cave opening is a large crevice opening, widening out into cave-like proportions.

floored often with stratified clays. In these openings the galena is found lying over the bottom, mixed with the materials with which they are filled, crystallized in blocks or cubes over the walls, and hanging pendant from the roof. Some of the masses of mineral weigh thousands of pounds, and it is said one mass was found in the mines of Captain Harris weighing half a million of pounds, and worth thirty-five thousand dollars.

These various openings are caused by the decay or disintegration of the rock on the sides of the crevices, osving to chemical agencies working round the mineral deposits. If the dirt remains where it was formed, the mineral and nodular masses of the rock will be found imbedded in it; sometimes the dirt has been removed and the lead alone remains. Sometimes these openings extend to the surface clays; sometimes they are covered by a cap rock. They often extend into the flint strata, characteristic of the middle and lower portions of the Galena limestone. There are often several crevices, or sets of these various openings, one over the other; often three, sometimes as many as five; but one opening or set of openings is usually larger than the others, and contains the heaviest bodies of mineral.

The flat sheets or flat sheet openings are similar to the vertical, both as to themselves and their modifications, except that they lie flat in the rocks, parallel to their stratification, inst3ad of standing upright. The saddleshaped openings and pitching openings are but the transition openings from the vertical to the flat. These fiat openings are characteristic of the lower parts of the Galena limestone and of the underlying blue and buff limestone, and are not found extensively developed in Jo Daviess County. The "green" or " calico '" rock, below the flint beds; the "brown rock" and the ''glass rock" are characteristic of the lower Galena limestone, their beds of passage into the blue, and the blue itself. In these occur the pipe clay openings; and in the buff limestone the "lower pipe clay opening " is found. These are flat openings, tilled with shaly limestone and a peculiar clay, from which they take their name. These lower flat openings are also peculiar in having more of the associate mineral deposits, such as tiff, blende, the ores of zinc/etc., than the upper vertical openings.

In this connection, I do not intend to say much as to the origin of the lead ore in the Northwest, nor to speak of the various theorfes as to the origin and deposition of mineral peposits in general. The question as to the origin of our lead is unsettled, perhaps. J. D. Whitney, the best living authority on the Galena lead basin, believes the galena and its associate minerals were deposited in the aqueous or humid way in the crevices of the rocks, and that the veins were filled from above downwards. This theory supposes that the metals were held in solution in the waters of the primal ocean, in the form of sulphates, and were deposited in crystalline forms in the shape of the sulphurets. The decomposition of organic vegetable or animal matter throws off a sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which, acting upon solutions containing sulphates, is supposed to cause a reduction and precipitation of the metals in the form of sulphurets. The decay of sea plants and the abundance of organic life in the Trenton Period are thought to have been sufficient to produce the great precipitation of lead ore found in these rocks. The writer argues his theory with ability, and it may now be considered as the one generally received. I hazard the suggestion, however, that electrical action may have had much to do with the precipitation, crystallization and arrangement of these minerals.

Early and Recent Mining Processes. - The primitive mining processes in the Galena lead basin were of a very simple character. Two men selected the spot where they wished to try their fortunes. They were generally guided by certain signs in making the selection, such as depressions in the ground, unusual luxuriance in the growth of vegetation, color of the clay, or ravines supposed to indicate crevices in the rocks below. A shaft was sunk through the clay, and cribbed by building up timber, until the rock was struck. A rude windlass, bucket and rope, a few shovels, picks, and pieces of tallow candle constituted all the tools needed, to which was sometimes added a few blasting tools. If a crevice was struck, it was followed down, and drifts were driven from it in various directions. The man at the top laboriously hoisted with his windlass the material necessary to be removed. The digging was abandoned when worked down to the water, or a pump is put on, driven by horse power. The mineral is brought to the bottom of the shaft or rude car, running on wooden rails. Instead of sinking a shaft, an inclined plane or drift is run into the hill, in case the outcrops of the rock show lead crevices. If a heavy body of mineral is found at any considerable depth, a whim is put on. This is a large wooden wheel or v barrel, revolving at some height above the ground, propelled by horse power, and containing coils of a strong rope, to which are attached rude cars or tubs, so arranged, in many instances, that one goes down as the other comes up. With the whim and the horse-power pump, a range can be worked considerably below the water level.

The first attempts at smelting were also quite rude. The Indian squaws melted the ore by roasting it in a rude stone furnace, in.which they were able to melt out but a small portion of the lead. The log furnace succeeded this when the white men began to work in the mines. A " reverberatory furnace," in which the ore was melted in an oven, where the blaze passed over and through the charge, was next tried, and was a great improvement in smelting processes.

But they have all been superseded of late years by the Scotch Hearth or Blast Furnace, now universally used throughout the lead region. The following detailed description of the Scotch Hearth is taken from an article in Harpers Magazine, and is understood to be the production of a lady of Galena, whose name I do not know:

"The hearth consists of a box of cast iron, two feet square, one foot high, open at top, with the sides and bottom two inches thick. To the top of the front edge is affixed a sloping shelf or hearth called the work stone, used for spreading the materials of the 'charge' upon, as occasionally becomes necessary during smelting, and also for the excess of molten lead to flow down. For the latter purpose a groove one half an inch deep and an inch wide, runs diagonally across the work stone. A ledge, one inch in thickness and height, surrounds the work stone on all sides except that towards the sole ot the furnace. The hearth slopes from behind forward, and immediately below the front edge of it is placed the receptable or ' melting pot.' An inch from the bottom, in the posterior side of the box, is a hole two inches in diameter, through which the current or ' blast ' of air is blown from the bellows.

The furnace is built under an immense chimney thirty to thirty-five feet high, and ten feet wide at its base. Behind the base of the chimney is the bellows, which is propelled by a water-wheel, the tuyere, or point of the bellows, entering at the hole in the back of the box. The fuel, which con- sists of light wood, coke, and charcoal, is thrown in against the tuyere and kindled, and the ore is placed upon the fuel to the top of the box. The blast of air in the rear keeps the fire burning, as the reservoir or box is filled with molten lead, the excess flows down the grooved hearth into the ' melting pot,' under which a gentle fire is kept, and tho lead is ladled from it into the molds as is convenient. Before adding a new ' charge ' the blast is turned off, the k charge' already in is turned forward upon the work stone, more fuel is cast in, and the ' charge,' is thrown back with the addition of fresh ore upon the wood. The combustion of the sulphur in the ore produces a large amount of heat required for smelting. The furnace is thus kept in operation sixteen hours out of the twenty-four.

The ore is of different degrees of purity, but the purest galena does not yield on an average over sixty-eight per cent of lead from the first process of smelting. The gray slag is very valuable, though the lead procured from it is harder than that of the first smelting. There is left about 75,000 of gray slag from each 1,000,000 pounds of ore. The slag furnace is erected under the same roof with the Scotch Hearth, and has a chimney of its own a few feet from that of the hearth, and the ' blast ' is secured from the same water power by an additional blast pipe driven by the same wheel. It consists of a much larger reservoir, built of limestone, cemented and lined with clay, with a cast iron door in front, heavily barred with iron. It will burn out so as to require repairs in about three months. Open at the top, the slag and fuel are thrown in promiscuously. Under the iron door is an escape for the lead and 'black slag.' In front of this escape and below it is the ' slag pot.' It is an oblong iron basin about a foot in depth, with one third of its length partitioned off to receive the lead, which sinks as it escapes, while the slag, being lighter, flows in a flame-colored stream forward, and falls into a reservoir that is partly filled with water, which cools the slag as it is plunged therein. As the reservoir fills, a workman shovels the scoriae into a hand-barrow and wheels it off. The scoriae is black slag, and worthless, the lead having now been entirely extracted. The smelter now and then throws a shovel full of gray slag into the furnace, which casts up beautiful parti-colored flames, while the strong sulphurous odor, the red-hot stream of sJag, with the vapor arising from the tub wherein the hissing slag is plunged, the sooty smelters, and the hot air of the furnace room, suggest a thought of the infernal regions. Outside, the wealth of ' pigs,' not in the least porcine, gives one a sort of covetous desire that, if indulged in, we are taught, leads directly to said regions. The Scotch Hearth requires less fuel than any other furnace. It "blows out' in from six to twelve hours, while the Drummond Furnace was kept in operation night and day."

After examining the process of smelting, I concluded the above description could hardly be improved on, and hence give it a place in this report.

Lead And Lead Mining

The immense deposits of lead ore, or " mineral," as it is called, in the mining region, have long been known and have extensively worked for nearly sixty years, and are far from being exhausted yet. The old leads known to the early settlers were " worked out " and abandoned, long ago, but the hills of Jo Daviess County undoubtedly contain enormous deposits yet undiscovered. The ore is principally of the species termed "galena," or sulphuret of lead. This mineral is usually found in crevices or leads, running either north and south, or oast and west. Sometimes, but not often, the mineral lies close to the surface, as was the case in the famous " Buck Lead," and the " Marsden Mine," but generally the prospector must dig or sink a shaft from six to thirty feet if the lead is on level ground. At the " New California Diggings " about nine miles south of Galena, the miners "drift" into the bluff horizontally. Experienced miners say that in the Spring when the grass first begins to start, they can determine the location of "crevices" from the fact that the grass starts more luxuriantly over them, but they can not tell whether mineral exists below until they "prove " them by digging. -

Lead ore, in the form of galena, is usually found crystallized. The primary form is the cube, sometimes truncated but never in any other than that form, or its modifications, and the cubes broken, break into smaller cubes. The carbonate of lead occurs occasionally, mingled with the sulphuret, but in irregular lumps or masses, never crystallized. It is nearly or quite as rich and smelts easily. Mineral is taken from the "wash-dirt" in which it is embedded, in masses from one or two, to hundreds of pounds weight. In the cr}7stalline form these "junks " look like masses of cubic crystal partially fused together and suddenly cooled. These cubes are of all sizes, from minute specks to several inches square, and weighing from a single grain to 80 or 100 pounds. Native or pure lead has never been found except in a single locality, in Vinegar Hill Township, but pure sulphur occasionally occurs. " Wash-dirt " is a yellowish, clayey substance in which the mineral is embedded, and is full of small pieces of mineral. It is washed to separate these from the sulphurous earth, and generally the product of the " wash-dirt " will pay expenses of mining. Zinc ore, or " blende " occurs in this region in immense quantities. It is called " black jack " by the miners and in former times was considered worthless, being used for the streets and roads. " Black-jack " appears generally to underlie lead deposits. This was the case in the Marsden Mine, now extensively worked for zinc. At the New California Diggings, there are apparently inexhaustable deposits of blende under the mineral.

Sulphuret of iron, or pyrites occurs in great abundance in connection with both lead and zinc. The crystals of mineral are often covered with a coating of crystallized pyrites, as if the mass had been dipped in a liquid solution and suffered to remain until coated. Capt. D. S. Harris, in his extensive and valuable cabinet has some exceedingly rare and beautiful specimens of pyrites that look as if they might be small branches and twigs changed, in the mysterious and wonderful alchemy of nature, into this beautiful but useless mineral. These are of various sizes, from the size of a large knitting needle to an inch in diameter. In this cabinet are also some most beautiful specimens of crystallized galena taken from the Marsden mine and other localities.

In some localities, particularly in the u New California diggings" in Rice Township, there is overlying the heavy deposits of mineral a stratum of very fine white clay. The miners call it " pipe clay." It is plastic when first taken out, but hardens when exposed to the atmosphere.

The lead ore of Northwestern Illinois and Southwestern Wisconsin is very rich, yielding under modern appliances 90 per cent pure lead, and the combustion of the sulphur it contains is made to aid the smelting process.

Prior to the arrival of the white miners in 1821-'2, mining in this region was done exclusively by the Indians, although traces of early operations by Dubuque's men were discovered. The natives, however, only skimmed the surface. The work was done by the old men and squaws, the braves considering it beneath their dignity to "raise " mineral. It occurred, therefore, that all the rich leads discovered and worked at least until 1824, were these Indian diggings struck anew and effectually worked by the whites. Wherever the miners could find a place where the Indians had worked, they were almost certain of valuable '- discoveries." - The windlass and bucket and other methods employed by the miners were unknown to the Indians who operated before them. They sunk no shafts, and did they not understand the use of gunpowder. "When the mineral was near the surface, as in the " Buck lead," and they could raise it easily, they did so. Some times they "drifted " into the sides of the bluffs for some distance, and when they reached the " cap-rock," which overlies mineral, surrounds or encloses it, they kindled fires on it, and when the rock was thoroughly heated, they threw water upon it. This was the Indian method of blasting. Their tools were buck-horns, with which they removed the rock partially crumbled by the action of fire and water. Early settlers have found these horns in old Indian " drifts." In later years they used hoes, shovels and crow-bars, obtained from traders to whom they sold lead.

After the old Indian leads were exhausted, new and enormous deposits were found by the enterprise and energy of the miners, and the amount of mineral " raised " in this region is simply fabulous. Sometimes it was necessary to sink shafts through twenty or thirty feet of rock before arriving at the openings or " leads" containing the mineral, but when ''struck" it was found in large quantities. At the Sanders' lead, a mile and a quarter from Galena, it is said that three men dug and raised 56,000 pounds of mineral in one day, valued at $21 per thousand at that time. This lead was an east and west opening, in a cave, long since "worked out," but one to one and one half millions pounds of mineral were taken from it.

Valuable mines of lead ore are being wrought within the city, and within the compass of six miles the number that has been discovered is very large. They are all comparatively shallow diggings. Some of them have been worked out, as is generally supposed, and others are still yielding large returns for labor.

The proportion of land that has been " prospected " on, is insignificant compared with what has never been molested by a miner. The reader will find below the names by which a number of these lodes are designated. They are written from memory, and are very far from comprising a full list, nor "can we form an estimate of the quantity of mineral they have yielded.

Vinegar Hill Diggings

These mines are located some three or four miles northeast of Galena. The following are some of the ranges or mines that have been discovered there, to-wit:

At this date (1878) there are some mining operations near Galena, but these are trifling in comparison with former years. The West diggings, 2f miles west of the city, the Pilot Knob diggings, recently discovered, and a lead on what is called the old Buck Hill, near the old Buck lead, are among the principal in the immediate vicinity of Galena. At Elizabeth, Vinegar Hill, Apple River, mining is still carried on to some extent. The best digf'ngs now, however, are what are called the " New California," or Sand rairie Diggings, about 9 miles south of Galena, in Rice Township, first*

Mississippi. At that point the high bluffs approach very near the river, leaving in many places only a narrow roadway between the cliffs and the water. Here also some years ago the work of grading for the Illinois Central Railroad, which it was then proposed should reach Galena by that route, under the old charter, was commenced. Here the miners drift horizontally into the bluffs for thousands of feet, following the crevices or leads, taking out the mineral and wash dirt as they proceed. In the tunnel so made, sometimes so small that the miner must almost creep, and at others expanding into caverns several feet wide and ten to thirty feet high, a wooden railway is laid, and the mineral and debris are brought to daylight in tubs, or miniature cars pushed by the men. Some of these tunnels are hardly ten feet above low water, and in very high water would be likely to be flooded. There are several good mines or leads now being worked in that locality, but the most extensive here, and in fact in all Jo Daviess County, is that of J. H. Burrichter, Esq., and Capt. D. S. Harris, on the Kamphous estate, on the south side of a little creek that pierces the bluffs at this point. This is said to be one of the largest deposits of mineral ever discovered in the mining region. It was discovered in January, 1875, and up to January, 1878, over 3,000,000 pounds of mineral had been taken out, and there appears to be an almost inexhaustible quantity still remaining.

The author visited this mine January 29, 1878, accompanied by Mr. John Dowling, of Galena, and it may not be uninteresting to the future reader if here is recorded a brief

Description Of A Lead Mine

At the foot of the bluff stands the engine-house, a rude shanty, in one end of which we found one of the owners, Capt. Harris, who personally superintends the operations, and who received us very cordially. The engine is kept constantly in operation, to keep the mine free from water, as the workmen are below the level of the river. Nye's vacuum pump is used for this purpose, which, although it raises less water than some o I hers, is less liable to get out of repair, and is, therefore, the " best and most economical," Capt. Harris thinks, " for miners' use." A short distance from the engine-house is a door, not unlike the door of a root-house, in the side of the bluff. This is the entrance to the tunnel. Above, on a little bench, and perhaps forty or fifty feet higher than the engine-house is another small building containing a windlass, worked by horse power. Here is the mouth of a shaft, sunk to the bottom of the mine, seventy or eighty feet or more, and here all the mineral, wash-dirt and debris are raised. The wash- dirt is dumped on the side of the bluff, where a huge heap of yellow dirt is accumulated. This is washed, and "from it," says Captain Harris, "we get mineral enough to pay expenses of mining." At the side of the building built over the mouth of the shaft, lie three or four hundred thousand pounds of mineral ready for smelting.

Borrowing rubber coats from the engineers, and each furnished with a miner's lamp, we are now ready to descend into the mine, with Captain Harris for our guide and instructor. Entering the door above mentioned, we find ourselves in a tunnel, perhaps thirty inches in width and about four feet high. In the middle, in an open wooden aqueduct, runs quite a little stream of water, raised by the -pump from the galleries below. Stooping *low and stepping on each side of the aqueduct, we slowly make our way perhaps a hundred feet; here the tunnel enlarges and we are able to stand erect, and a short distance further we arrive at the perpendicular shaft. Here, on a rudely constructed, but strong, ladder, we descend, one by one, about twenty -five feet, and find ourselves in a gallery stretching away several thousand feet into the heart of the blufh At the bottom is laid the little wooden railway before described, by means of which the miners transport the mineral, etc., to the shaft. In some places, for some distance this gallery is so narrow and low that it is only with difficulty that the inexperienced visitor can make his way; at other parts it expands and we are able to walk erect. This tunnel or gallery is simply the fissure or vein from which the mineral has been removed. At the sides are pockets or side leads, from which have been taken large quantities of mineral. In several instances, the gallery opens into natural caves of considerable size. " Some of them," says our guide, " were open, and others full of mineral when we reached them." Ever and anon we find ourselves walking on the narrow track over a black abyss or chasm from which the mineral has been removed. In one of the caves the cap-rock has been shored up with timbers. Slowly we grope our way along by the dim light of our lamps - above us, beneath us, all around us, the yellow clay the miners like to see, glistening with mineral. Ever and anon we must stop and stand close to the walls to permit the passage of the "miners' trains." After traversing several hundred feet, we descend by a ladder sixteen or eighteen feet, to still another and larger gallery below. We are nearly a hundred feet below the surface, and 1,000 or 1,500 feet from the entrance. "We are in the midst of one of Nature's mysterious laboratories, where for ages she has been accumulating lead for the use of man. Her processes are beyond his knowledge. He can only witness the results. Who shall say that these processes are not still in active operation, and that in these hills, in this strange yellow earth, crystallization of mineral is still going on ? It can not be that all this mineral wealth stored away was created in a moment, and if it be the result of slow processes and these have stopped, what stopped them ?

Following this lower gallery for some distance we arrive at a cave of respectable dimensions. Clambering up its sides on a ladder and creeping around a jutting point, on steps cut in the clay, we suddenly come upon the miners at work, picking the lumps of mineral from the yellow, sulphurous earth, in which, and perhaps from which, it has been formed. These lumps are of all sizes, from the little crystals that can only be obtained by washing the dirt, to large masses of aggregated cubic crystals weighing hundreds of pounds. The miners are working by the light of tallow candles. The air is tolerably pure, for a little distance away, a hole has been bored from the surface to admit fresh air. The miner's pick strikes a mass of mineral and in a moment he throws out a lump weighing, perhaps, 150 pounds. We break off a piece as a souvenir of our visit. We have seen the mineral in its native bed, we have seen it removed by the sturdy miner, and now we start on our toilsome journey to the world of sunlight above. Returning to the upper, or rather the first mineral gallery, our guide informs us that this stretches away for about 2,000 feet beyond us and terminates in a large cave, the bottom of which is covered ^rith water, and which has not yet been explored. Here Capt. Harris picked from the wall of the gallery a bit of the " pipe clay " that overlies the heaviest deposits. It is white, plastic, cuts like a piece of old cheese, and doubtless may be valuable for pottery. Why it should be spread over the chemical laboratory below, is a< problem for the scientists to solve. " In this mine," said Capt. Harris, "we have found pure sulphur, both in powder as it is sold in the shops, and in crystallized form." But we must not tarry here to speculate upon the mysterious and wonderful processes of nature, the results of which only we have witnessed, and we soon find ourselves again in the sunlight of heaven.

From seven to twenty men are employecf in this mine. Ten are now at work raising about 25,000 pounds of mineral per week. Beneath the lead, we are informed by Capt. Harris, are immense deposits of sulphuret of zinc, blende, or " black jack," as it is called by the miners, and in the future, when the lead is exhausted, this may be profitably mined.

Miners seldom smelt the ore they raise. Mining and smelting are separate and distinct occupations. The miner sells his mineral to the smelter, and this custom prevails at the present day. Mineral is sold by the 1,000 pounds and at this time is worth $18. This is considered low and miners are holding for better prices.

The Indian furnaces for smelting were simple affairs. They were constructed of stones and sand on the side of a hill or bluff, so built that the lead could run off on the smooth inclined plane of earth below. In this manner, rude as it was, they succeeded in obtaining a larger percentage of lead than the whites obtained" in their log furnaces at the first smelting, it is said, because the latter applied too much heat at first. These old Indian furnaces were rich "finds" for the early miners. The ashes were rich in lead, and the banks of earth over which the molten metal flowed from the furnaces were full of pure lead. The heat cracked the earth in innumerable places, and these "cracks" were full of metal.

The first furnaces employed by the early smelters were the " log furnaces," and the ashes, etc., from that, were re-smelted in what they called an " ash furnace." These furnaces went out of use when the " blast " and "cupola" furnaces were introduced. The first or primitive log furnaces were simply heaps of logs properly piled on the hill side, the largest logs on the down -hill side. On these logs was piled the mineral and this covered with smaller wood, a hole was excavated on the lower side which received the lead as it run down from the burning pile. Later, these furnaces were constructed of stone and mud. The following description is given by Harvey Mann, one of the early smelters:

Selecting a proper spot near the foot of a hill sloping down at an angle of about forty-five degrees, a wall about two feet thick was built along the line of the hill, ten feet long and about eight feet high. At each end a wall of same thickness was built up the hill" another of same thickness was built in the centre, dividing the furnace into two compartments or pits, each four feet wide, and from the surface of the ground at the top to eight feet deep at the bottom. These "pits" were paved with flat stones on the bottom, and at the sides were placed stones about six inches high to keep the logs from resting on the sloping floor down which the lead ran. Through the head wall, at the bottom was made a hole in the centre of each pit. These holes, or "eyes," served the double purpose of giving draft for the fire and for the escape of the melted lead which ran down the inclined plane through these, and by channels was conducted into a basin excavated in the earth below, and from which it was dipped with iron ladles into the rruoulds and .converted into "pigs" or bars weighing seventy-five or eighty pounds each. Smelters usually had at least two of these furnaces, so as to charge one while the other was burning and cooling off.