Bartholomew County, Indiana - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read), 1888 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read)

2\ARTHOLOMEW COUNTY comprises an area of f^^-i about four hundred square miles, two hundred and fiftj'-six thousand acres. In the early histoiy of the State it formed a part of Delaware Count}', and was organized as Bartholomew Count}- under an act of the Legislature, approved January- 9, 1S21. Originall}- it included most of the territory now embraced in the County of Brown. Johnson and Shelby counties bound it on the north, Decatur and Jennings on the east, Jennings and Jackson on the south, and Jackson and Brown on the west.

The monotony of an otherwise generall}'' level country is diversified by man}' a hill and valley in the west part of the county, especially that portion of the county lying west of Columbus, forming the western parts of Ohio, Harrison and Union townships, and locally known as the " Brown County edge of Bartholomew." An eastern continuation of the central ridge of the Brown County knobstone enters the county at the southwest corner of Harrison Township, and reaches its greatest altitude at Taylor Hill, in Section 36, Township 8, North, Range 4, East. Taylor Hill, the highest point in the county, is 1,003 f^^t above tide level, and 360 feet above Columbus. From its summit magnificent views of the surrounding country may be had. On a clear day when the air is pure the unaided eye can trace for miles, as a blue line against the horizon, the eastern boumlary of the great Drifhvood-White River Valley. The observer may see Georgetown to tlie northwest in lirown County, Edinburg in Johnson County, and Columbus and AValesboro in liaiMiolomew. From Taylor Hill the Wall ridge, as Prof. Collett has named it, tiends to the north, tln'ough Union Township, thence west througli Nineveh Township to the Brown County line. It is not a continuous ridge, but a series of high points intersected lyy numerous \ alleys and gaps, that fall awa}' to the lower lands of the east and west, north and south. The central and northern parts of Nineveh Township, while broken bv outliers and foothills of the Wall ridge, are generally what may be termed rolling lands. Low hills and ridges, ranging from twent}'- five to fifty feet in height, occupy much of the country between the knobstone summit and the bottoms of Driftwood, AVhite River, and to the south of the ridge in Ohio and Jackson townships. The central portion of the count}^ is level, much of it below and in the vicinity of Columbus being White River bottoms, ranging three to four miles wide. North of the county seat sets in the Hawpatch plateau, extending from White River to the Shelby County line, renowned as an extensive tract of arable land, level and fertile as any prairie, primevally covered with a magnificent forest of great trees, devoid of undergrowth.

The eastern parts of the county are usually rolling, and some parts spoken of as hill^^, but the application of the term hill, /. e. - an elevated mass of land - is a misnomer. The so-called hills are not elevations above the level of the country, but valle3^s cut from twenty to seventy feet below the general surface. This distinction is important, as will further appear when we come to discuss the geology of the Drift period. Especially are the valleys marked in the vicinity of Hartsville, and in the northeast part of Clift}-- Township, on Fall Fork and Middle Fork creek-s.

Drainage. - What is given as the east fork of White River on the State and School maps, is locall}^, and it is claimed, correctly known as Driftwood from Edinburg down to the mouth of Flat Rock Creek, from that point south as White River; but as the term " Driftwood " is indiscriminately applied to any portion of the river in the vicinity of Columbus, and is not used generally out- side of the county, we sliall ch'op the name Driftwood and use tlie name White or East White for all parts of the east fork of White River below Edinburg. Above Edinburg the same misapplication of terms recurs in calling East White Ri\er Blue River.

White River crosses the northern boundary of the county near Edinburg, and bears thence in a general course east of south through the central part of the county. From Edinburg the river follows and runs throuffh the foot hills of the wall ridire of Knobstone till it reaches the sand and gravel bottoms below the mouth of Catharine's Creek. Above this the river flow^s through a ston)- bed of black shale, and is not subject to great overflows; below the banks are low, the bed gravelly, shifting and frequently overflown. According to the table of altitudes of the main line of the J., M. & I. railroad, the bed of the stream, Blue River, is fifty-three feet higher at Edinburg than the bed of White River at the Columbus bridge. From the same tables we find the fall in the river from Columbus to the Rockford bridge to be thirty feet, showing that the fall per mile is 100 per cent, more above than below the city. Advantage has been taken of this fall and utilized to run the extensive flouring mills at Lowell and the Valley Mills west of Taylorsville. The permanent banks and swift current of the upper river invite further investments in manufactories. Messrs. Stansberry and WiUiams give the mouth of Flat Rock Creek at 602 feet above the level of the ocean, and that of CHft}^ Creek at 596 feet above, inaking the fall six feet in five miles as compared with a fall of fift3'^-three feet in fifteen miles of the river above the mouth of Flat Rock. ^ The fall in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Louisville to the Gulf of Mexico is less than four inches to the mile. The difference between high and low water at Columbus is given at fifteen feet.

A few rivulets and brooks that rise west of the Wall ridge flow into an arm of Salt Creek that cuts the northw^est corner of Harrison Township, and finally unites with East White River below Bedford, in Lawrence Count3^ With this exception all the streams of Bartholomew Count}' empty into White River within the county or soon after it enters Jackson Count3\ The general course of the creeks is east and west, with the surface of the countr}-, and to the south of the center of the greatest depression of the White River

Valley. White Creek, and its tributaries, leaves the county in a more southern direction, and unites with White River below Seymour. The creeks of the west side of the river, beginning in the i^oj-thwest, are Big Nineveh Creek, Muddy Branch, Catharine's Creek, Wolf Creek, Denois Creek, and White Creek and its tributary the East Fork of White Creek; on the east are Flat Rock River, Haw Creek, Clift}- Creek and Little Sand Creek and their tributaries, Little Haw Creek, Fall Fork, iSliddle Fork, Otter Creek, Brush Creek and Bear Creek, together with other snudl streams, named and not named on the map. The banks of the creeks on the west side of the valley, after reaching the low lands, are cvit in the clay and mud without proper first or second bottoms, in appearance very much like artificial ditches, and hence overflows are common. The creeks flowing through the Hawpatch have low banks in the gravel with well marked second banks. Those of the limestone region of the east are deep and rock}^ and the present beds are never filled b}^ rain storms to their full carr}-ing capacity.

The Drift Period. - \n order to a proper understanding of the wonderful forces that came into pla}' during the Glacial and Terrace epochs of the Drift period, we will first consider the clays, sands,, gravels and bowlders that go to make up the mass of these groups, and their distribution over the surface of the stratified rocks, and then discuss the theory and dynamics of their origin. In general terms we ma}^ say that the whole of the surface of the county is covered with drift materials, except the top of the w^ali ridge, and the hills to the west of it in Harrison and Union townships, and doubtless these high hills have been subjected to the action and influences of the waters of the Terrace epoch, that have so greatly modified and re-arranged the ancient glacial deposit.

The upland gravel beds are collections of pure sand, clean gravel and small bowlders, found only on the high grounds and ridges^ that I believe to be identical "hog's-backs" of the Ohio survey, and the kamcs and cskcrs of the authors; especially are these beds of gravel identical in only being found on the high lands, and in being much less modified and re-arranged by the action of water subsequent to the Glacial epoch. In stratification the beds are very irregular and seldom conformable one with another; more frequently 00 indications of stratification are seen, the beds when oi:)ened showing sand at one end and coarse gravel at the oilier; the strata frequentl}' interlock and alternate in cross sections without reference to the underlying beds. This want of uniformity of stratification is in marked cjntrast with that of the low land gravel as seen in the Ilawpatch. The town of Hartsville is built on a rolling elevation, ranging from forty to fifty feet above the valleys and facing to the southwest. It is bounded on the west by the deep bed of Clifty Creek, and on the south b}^ the gorge, through which flows Boner's branch. In the south part of town, capping the bluff that forms the north bank of the Boner's branch gorge, there is a typical bed of upland gravel. It has a steep, rounded head at the east end, on which the Hartsville University building stands, and trends thence west in a low ridge that slopes to the north, terminating in an abrupt bluff at the west, with a spur to the south. The high bluff w-est of Jackson Street is also capped with gravel, that in an irregular way, is connected with the bed found in the University campus. The gravel beds that occur on the farm of William J. Herron, near the Tarr hole of CHfty Creek, and that on the farm of R. B. Kent, near Hartsville, are very similar in structure to the one above described, and are all peculiar in presenting on one side at least, a very bold, abrupt face. The upland gravel found on the farm of Mrs. Amy Wiley, west of Anderson's Falls, in Clifty Township, is another extensive bed that, like the preceding examples, seem to be some way connected with the drainage of the country at the close of the Drift period. Other beds of upland gravel are those on the farm of Mi's. E. Jones, near the Haw Creek Baptist Church; on the farm of Mrs. M. Marlin; on the farm of E. Reed, near the village of St. Louis, in Haw Creek Towmship, and the "back-bone" ridge, as it is called, on the farm of J. Remy, west of Burnsville, in Rock Creek Township.

The Hawfatch glacial gravel and sand, one of the most extensive and peculiar beds of gravel in the State, is roughly bounded by Flat Rock River on the northwest, and Haw Creek on the southeast, and reaching from the White River bottoms to the Shelby County Hne, a continuous bed of gravel covered with a gravelly black soil, twelve miles long In' three miles in average width. The actual limits of the Hawpatch gravel are to be found in the range <jf foot hills of the Knobstone on the west of White River, extending from below the Lowell mills to the northeast of Taylorsville, and the sand ridges and dune like hills on the east, running north from the Clift}' Creek bridge. Another element that has entered into the formation and largely .determined the uniformity and evenness of the surface of this gravel plateau lias been tlie smooth top of the underlying black shale; the shale unlike the other strata of Indiana, is a stony formation of great uniformity of structure that does not weather into rough escarpments of valleys and ridges. An exemplification of this may be seen in the bed of White River, in the vicinity of the Valley mills.

All the beds, whether upland or lowland, have a large per cent, of chert and limestone fragments, not so much worn as the other materials, of a brownish color on the outside from staining with oxide of iron. The bowlders are frequently in a state of decomposition, and specimens measuring more than a few inches in diameter are seldom or never found. The following section, taken south of Columbus and Greensburg pike, on Haw Creek, is very characteristic:

The top of this section reaches the surface and includes the soil of the second bank of the creek. On the west of the point at which the section was taken, the strata have a uniform thickness; on the other hand the stratification dips sHghtly to the east, but is everywhere comformable. The following section in the second bank of Clifty Creek north of the pike shows the same general arrangement of the strata as the preceding :

What is seen at these sections will be found true for the balance of the Hawpatch. Wherever examined on the banks of Flat Rock River, or in digging Avells, the same evidence of stratification was found, and it will be noticed that while there is occasional evidence of stratification in the upland gravel, such is not by an}- means the rule, thus placing the two in marked contrast. We can form no very correct estimate of the actual thickness of the Hawpatch^ gravel as the underlying stone was not seen, nor has it been reached in sinking wells in the deeper parts. Wells have been put down to the depth of fifty and sixty feet in the A'icinity of Columbus, and no stone struck. That the bed was once much deeper than now is shown by the mound on the farm of Judge Tunis Quick, one and a half miles west of Clifford, and the Tipton mound in the city of Columbus. The first is twent3^-five feet above the surface of the surrounding plain and the second twent}' feet. They are the monuments left by the currents of the Terrace epoch, and ineters by which we can in part measure what was once the thickness of this great gravel bed. The soil of the Hawpatch has an average thickness of five feet, is dark or black in color, and free from admixture with an}'- but alluvial clays - no glacical clay intervenes between the soil and gravel.

The following section east of the broad ford on Clift}' Creek shows the stratification and arrangement of the gravel, sand and pebbles of the gravel beds that form the connecting link between that of the uplands and lowlands:

Here the stratification is ver}"- marked and distinct, and the strata more largely mixed with limestone fragments and chert, than at other places.

Bozulders, or erratic rocks, locally known as " nigger heads " and " blue heads," of the largest size and in greatest numbers are found on the eastern boundary line of the county. A line of bowlders extending from the vicinity of Milford, south into Jennings County, was noted in the early history of the country-, and was supposed by some to have been the work of the Indians, who had placed them as some sign or memorial. . The largest one seen was on the land of Knox Smiley, just over the Decatur County line. It is of gray granite, and measures six by eleven feet on the surface, and is bedded deep in the earth. Another, on the farm of Henry Mobley, in Cliffy Township, measures 8x10x6 feet. Bowlders two and three feet in diameter are common, but grow less frequent toward the west, but are rather common in Nineveh Township and in the clay banks of White River down to Lowell mills. In composition they are identical with the mass of stones found strewn over the Drift regions of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and the northwest.

Geology

when diy and inclined to be sticky \vlien wcl. Internatcly mixed with the clay are fragments of chert and limestone, torn from the iinderl^-ing Niagara and corniferous strata, together with a large per cent, of metamorphic jiebblesof northern origin. In the banks of the creeks and bluffs the clay never shows evidence of stratification, but not infrequently beds of sand and fine gravel are pierced in digging wells and cisterns. A bed of sand two feet thick was found in the Paul Sheets well in Columbus, below fort3--five feet of white and bluish cla}-. These beds of sand are local, occurring in pockets that soon thin out, or are replaced by clay and gravel. The average thickness of the glacial clav, as determined from the average depth in a number of wells, is put at twent3--five feet, and varies from a few feet to many. The top soil, free from gravel-, ranges from one to five feet in thickness. The clay is thinnest when subjected to the wash and action of the currents of the Terrace epoch, as in the vicinity of Otter Creek, where the water once flowed across the creek south.

The terrace clays that cap the Knobstone foot hills west of White River, are largely made up of the fine, impalpable sands and alumina arising from the decomposition of the adjacent and underl3'ing aluminous shale. Frequently underlying the terrace clay are beds of glacial origin; especiall}'' may they be noticed in the bluffs and hills west of Columbus. Seven feet of red or 3'ellow clay, containing quite a number of specimens of glacial gravel, was exposed in a well at Henr3^ Gross' farm, in Harrison Township, at an elevation of 100 feet above Columbus, and glacial clay has been found near the top of the Wall ridge, but, as a rule, the clay of this region is of a much later date. The teiTace cla3's are %vhite, sticky and form a retentive cold soil, known as " crawfish land."

The blue bowlder cla3^, recognized everywhere as of glacial origin, has not been seen by us in the county. Perhaps the conditions favorable to the formation of a blue cla3'^ did not exist in this immediate vicinit3'. The 3^ellow glacial cla3''s of Bartholomew Countx' are doubtless in the main the result of the disintegration of the Niagara and corniferous group rocks and the black shale, together with the materials of a foreign origin, without the usual admixture of llie protlucts of the blue shales, so common in the lower Silurian and sub-carboniferous formations, neither one of t\'hich is crossed by the line of denudation that has formed our 'cla3's. Blue clays are said to be found south of this county, and probably owe their origin to the base of the Knobstone.

Tclloxv Saud. - Moulders or ferruginous sand forms an important feature in the surface geology of the county, not only on account of the quantity, which is considerable, but more particularly^ as the cap of the extreme outl^'ing bluffs on the east and west of the White River Valle}-, and as being the most recent formation and deposits in the succession of time of the Terrace epoch. This deposit of sand marked the close of the Drift period. In physical appearance, where pure as left by the receding waters, and unmixed with humus, carbonaceous clay and other foreign matter, it is always loose and mellow, with a rough feel to the touch - not impalpable - in the vast majority of instances of a yellowish or ocher}' color, with occasional pockets of white sand, so clean that a shovel full of it will not render a pail of water turbid. The clean yellow sands are those that cap the bluffs and form the higher sand ridges, that have not been disturbed since the}' were deposited. Examined under the microscope, the fine particles show that the}' are of metamorphic origin, identical with the coarser sands of the Hawpatch, but without sharp points of crystallization, indicating that they have been water worn and rolled as the other glacial sands have. On the low lands and bottoms, where mixed with the products of the soil and mud of the flood plains and overflows of the rivers, they are dark, in many places after cultivation, black; in others, where much washed, of a hght color.

The central line of sand ridges of the county commence at the northwest corner of Clay Township, and trend thence south to the north bank of Clifty Creek, following the bluffs of the south and west bank as a mande over the clay to the bridge on the Columbus and Burnsville pike, southeast to the Lutheran Church, thence in a general course south between Elizabethtown and Azalia, crossing the county line and connecting with the chain of sand ridges and hills of Jackson County. Through Sand Creek Township are found parallel ridges ranging north and south, with a spur to the

\vest that is cut by tlie Azalia and Mineral Spring road. By barometric measurement this spur was found to be t\vent3-five feet above thsj river bottoms, and is probably forty feet above high water in Wliite River; Elizal:>ethtown by railroad level is .seventeen feet above Columbus. The top of the bluff north of the Clifty bridge on the C. & II. pike is b}^ the barometer seventy-five feet above the bed of the creek. These sands modified form the surface soil of Sand Creek, and a large part of Wayne Township. An isolated, and apparently an anomalous accumulation of yellow sand unmodified is found on the east bluffs of Fall Fork Creek, and on both faces of the valley locally known as the "no-head-hollow," a sharp gorge running north and south from the banks of Middle Fork to Fall Fork, above their junction. These bluffs are estimated to be at least 120 feet above the bed of the White River Valley. A branch of the "no-head-hollow," is known as "fox hollow," here with little labor the fox and ground hog dig their habitations, safe places of retreat in the loose sand. On the farm of Dr. Biddinger, south of David Anderson's mill, is a low sand ridge in the bottom, showing that at one time overflows must have been much higher than an}^ of the present day. In the bends of Clifty Creek below Fall Fork, especially below Newbern, in the vicinity of Bush's mill, are points and broad accumulations of mixed sand and soil. On the w-est side of the great White River Valley the range of hills between Ta3dorsville and the Valley mills are covered on the west with yellow sand; in the vicinity of the Lowell mills the same range of hills show only a deposit of clay and clay gravel. The foot hills of the Knobstone west of Walesboro, and again in Wayne Township, are sand3^

Buried Timber. - In digging wells all over the eastern townships of the county at an average depth of twenty feet a bed of black earth is pierced. In appearance it is identical with a productive surface soil. This soil bed is found as a rule, not alwa3'S, and rests generally on the underlying limestone, but occasionall3'^, as in the neighborhood of Hope, is reported to have a substratum of sand and gravel. In thickness it ranges from one to six feet, and is not so much mixed with gravel and pebbles as the overlying cla3^ Where this black soil is penetrated, quite frequentl3' pieces of wood, roots, masses of deca3'ecl leaves, and a thick muck are found. A large piece of timber was taken from a well on the farm of John E. Galowa}', just east of Ilartsville; from tlie well of Francis Galbraith, on the county line east of town; from the well of Prof. Lewis Moble}^; from the well of Mr. John Chisler, in Ilartsville, and from»a number of other wells in Clifty and Rock Creek townships. So common are the remains of an ancient forest that an inquiry in an}' neighborhood will elicit the fact of leaves and wood being found buried near by. A root is reported to have been taken 'from the Taylor well, in Columbus, fift}- feet down, but such things are not common in the central valley region. No fact connected with the history of the Drift has more indelibly fixed itself on the minds of the masses, and no fact more conclusiveh' convinces the average mind that the whole country on the east line of the county has been subjected to the violent action of water or some other force, at a time long past.

It is a well known geological fact that at the foot of the ice sheet, all over the northwest, great valley and river beds have been cut very much beyond the capacity to accommodate the streams now flowing through them; some of these ancient river beds have been silted by accumulations of sand and gravel, and the rivers flow at a higher level than they once did; others still find their old rocky bed. To the latter class belong Clifty Creek and its tributaries, Fall Fork and Dutch Creek. The Clifty Creek Valley and bed is cut through from twent}^ to forty feet of corniferous, and from ten to twent3'-five feet of hard crystalline Niagara limestone, and the same is true of Fall Fork Creek. Perhaps nothing connected with the surface geology of the county is more singular than the beds of these creeks, great valleys eroded in the solid stone, through which now flow insignificant rivulets that are dry for almost half the year. The Duck Creek Valley has a capacity to carry a volume of water as great as that flowing down White River at flood tide. It is evident that the foot of the cross flow or cross glacier, as we may call it, must have rested for a long time on and near the banks of Clifty Creek, alternately advancing and receding, with the heat of summer and cold of winter, across Haw Creek, Clay and Clifty townships, while at the foot ran mighty rivers of ice

No other hypothesis offers an explanation of the vast amount o^ local erosion and denudation that has here taken place. It is probable that the ice flow down the glacial valley was continued long after the cross glacier foot ceased to exist, as an ice tongue of the decadent period, shorn of its moraines, but still laden with metamorjihic gravel and recent limestone pebbles. It was the long continued action of the direct vallc}^ glacier that cut awa}^ from forty to fifty feet of corniferous limestone down to black shale, Avest of Clay Township, planing and polishing the broad, smooth floor of the valley, now covered by the Hawpatch and lower White River bottoms.

As the general glacial sheet receded to the north, the ferruginous glacial clay and remodified upland gravel beds were left on the higher lands. The decadence of the valley glacier left vast quantities of gravel that was more or less modified and stratified by the great rivers of ice water, that the increased heat of summer sent down from the melting snow and ice.

Of the various theories that have been proposed in explanation of the occurrence of buried soil and timber, " ancient forest beds," found at many places in the western drift, that one is adopted provisionally by the writer which seems best to agree with the facts. It is well known that the glacial clay of this vicinity where exposed to the sunlight and air, will soon support vegetable fife. The ice sheet receding through the influence of a warmer climate, the exposed ridges were soon clothed with a soil and growth of vegetation that had continued to exist further south through the chmax of the cold period. Along with the forest growth came the mammoth, mastodon, reindeer, great beaver and other animals now extinct. After the geaeral ice sheet had disappeared from a comparatively narrow strip of territory on the southern edge of the Drift region, through changes in the climate, about the exact nature of which it is not necessary here to speculate, there was a recurrence of the extreme cold, the retreat of the glacier was arrested ; over the exposed drift,' on which a forest was growing, eame an extension of the ice flow of the north, the glacial clay was rearranged, the so-called ancient soil and forest buried in some places, and wholly obliterated in others. A few things connected

the liistory of the forest bed seem to lend color to the above theory: First, the buried soil and timber is covered with glacial cla}' and gravel, and is strictly a phenomenon of the Drift period, \ve have .no reports of buried timber outside of the Drift area. Second, the forest beds of Indiana and Ohio, except where possibly buried under the old deltas of Lake Erie, are found only over a narrow strip of country confined to the southern limits of the Drift. These facts militate the theory of a general submergence. "By a submergence all the forest territory south of the Drift would have been buried. A local central lake, devoid of currents, could not have rearranged the glacial chi}', and it is hard to comprehend how a local lake was confined to few counties on the southern border of Ohio and Indiana, no barrier has been pointed out sufficient to dam up a lake whose currents and eddies could have swept over the lower Silurian hills. An inter-glacial period of a general forest growth certainly would have left scattered remains all over the Drift region, so far as Ohio and Indiana are concerned, with the exceptions mentioned, no such remains have been reported.

That the great body of water flowing from the foot of the receding recurrent glacier, further modified the lowland gravel beds of the glacial valley and washed vast quantities of it further down the valley, is shown by the so-called Indian gravel mounds on the farm of Judge Tunis Quick, and Tipton hill in Columbus, gauges that mark what was once the depth and extent of the deposit. The Judge Quick mound having an elevation of twent3'^-five feet above the general surface of the surrounding country, presents a sharp bluff to the north, a gently sloping talus to the south and a swale for surface drainage on the east, all showing that the eroding power has been water, and that the currents that have cut away the gravel and left the hill standing, came from the north down the Glacial Valley.

When the glacier had retreated to the water divide, six hundred feet above Columbus, of Randolph and Henry counties, and covered the highlands with melting ice, the collected waters found an outlet through the White River Valle3\ Down the valley of the east fork came sweeping currents and floods carr^ang quantities of yellow sand, that was left on the plains and hills where the flood current was broken and deflected to the ricrht or left. The bluffs of Clifty Creek on the Clay Township line formed the base of an eddy of slack waters al/oir, that gave origin to the ridge of sand hills that extends north from the vicinity of the Columbus and Greensbur T pike bridge. The retardation of the current of the flood caused the deposition of sand on the bluff sides and in the valle}*) of Middle Fork Creek, on the hills east and north of the ^^alley mills, in German Township, and on the bluffs west of and below Walesboro. But the great mass of sand was carried beyond the points mentioned, b}^ the torrent and left in the hills and ridges of Sand Creek Township, in the slack water formed below the Clifty Creek bluffs. Like influences together with the change in the course of the valley to the west through Jackson Count}^ caused heavy deposits east and south of the more modern bed of White River. Doubtless much of the sand found over Sand Creek and Wayne Township has been spread since the close of the Terrace epoch by the rains and floods of more recent times. ' The location of the terrace clay, on the west side of the valley and in the White Creek slashes, gives a clue to their origin, and point to the conclusion that they are the products of the impalpable sand and finer materials, deposited from the sluggish waters of the glacial river, while the coarser materials were carried further to the east, where the main current flowed. This clay has been added to and modified by materials derived from the adjacent Knobstone hills. It is not necessary to invoke the existence of a great lake, the protecting influences of the Wall ridge were sufficient to favor the formation of baj^ous, great pools, and slashes beneath which the fine, whiteish, sticky clay was deposited.

The Glacial period closed with the Terrace epoch. That the deposition of the yellow or ferruginous sand was the last record made b}'- the floods of the glacial valley that reached from the bluffs of Fall Foi'k Creek to Knobstone hills of the west is shown b}' the sand resting on and above the glacial clay. In depth the flood must have exceeded 150 feet, and that the flow was from the north to the south, a great rushing torrent, is shown by sand ridges only being left in the retarded current above and bclozu the bluffs of Chfty Creek. Such must have been the closing scene of many winters of ice and snow, the opening of spring that lias ever since «been followed by a perennial climate of summer as compared with that of the preceding age*.

Alhivium. - The alluvial deposits of the East White River Valley are made up of the varied clays, sand and gravel which are further cominuted b}- the action of the water, together with great stores of organic matter that are swept down by the rain storms and carried by the floods and overflows over the fat acres of the first river bottoms; thus foreveV adding to their perennial greenness, at the expense of hills and valleys east and west. The alluvium of the creeks of the east part of the county, is unimportant as their rocky banks are seldom or never overflowed; that of the creeks of the west can not be separated from the mudd}^ terrace clay banks through which the}' flow. An overflow of the mud banks of these creeks is but the addition of an other layer of sticky clay and impalpable sand, a rearranging of the old materials and the addition of decaying vegetable matter. The calcareous soil of the Hawpatch is of local origin, from the decomposition of the contained limestone pebbles and metamorphic gravel, to which has been added ages of vegetable growth, carbonaceous matter that has imparted a dark color to the whole mass.

Di^ and Connected Section. - Starting with the datum, derived from railroad surveys, that the bed of Clifty Creek at Hartsville is 112 feet above the mouth, we find the top of the Niagara group limestones ninety-four feet below the same horizon at St. Paul, eleven miles north, and that the dip to the south is near eight and one-half feet to the mile. We find the level of the Niagara Hmestone eight miles east, at Adams Station, to be 156 feet above that of Hartsville, which gives the dip to the west at nineteen feet to the mile. From these measurements we estimate the general dip to be to the southw^est at the rate of fifteen feet to the mile.

* The reader in studying Dr. Elrod's valuable and interesting report, will observe that in some cases his observation differs from conclusions heretofore given. The subject of the drift will require much study, years of labor, and a wide area for observation. The opiX)Sing deductions are here given to arouse study and investigation. - CoLLETT.

presents at one view the various strata and their average thickness. The numbei-s in the first cohimn are referred to in the following pages by the abbreviation, C. S., No. - , and will enable the reader by reference, to see just what age, period, epoch and stratum, where not more fully given, is under consideration in the local details.

Local Details. - JViagara Groiip. - In lithological characters the blue quarrjf^ stones of the Niagara group vary from massive to thin bedded crystalline magnesian limestone with local bands of chert. Wherever it is exposed, it has been found very free from shaly or claj'-partings and breaks with a square angular fracture. In physical appearance and composition, it is subject to change, in some localities being an even bedded homogeneous i^ock, and at others, only a few hundred feet removed, irregular, and the mass made up of chert bands and nodules. At the top of the Niagara hlnestone the beds change in most places by imperceptible degrees, and at others, abruptly into a hard refractor}- ocher3'-colored pseudolimestone that occurs in thin or massive la3'ers, generall}- shelly, with a conchoidal fracture. In color or structure, it seems to be persistent, showing in all the out-crops, in appearance it is veiy much like the base of the lower member of the corniferous group overl3'ing the carcareous shale, nodules of calcite, crystallized carbonate of lime, of great beauty are common to both. The calcareous shales, No. lo, C. S., is not always found in place, is very variable in thickness, and composition. Where not too much exposed to the air the color is blue, where mixed with the surface soils and weathered, is a yellowish cla}'. It is thin bedded, sphtting into thiner lamina;, uniform in structure, where non-fossiliferous sometimes a sticky plastic cla}^ and at other places intercalated with plates of fossihferous limestone and nodules and cubes of pyrites, ferrum sulphide. The surface of the blue limestone is not a uniform level; at the foot of the Farr and Stucker holes in Clifty Creek, the top of the outcrop is just above low water mark, while at the bend of the creek between the two, below Hartsville, a ridge is cut through twenty-five feet in thickness. There is no evidence that these irregularities are synclinal or anticlinal axes, but slight ridges left at the bottom of the ocean before the overlying corniferous was deposited, hence there is probably a slight want of conformability between the two groups of stone.

The Niagara group stones were formed from the sediment of an interior ocean, whose eastern shore line was formed by the hills of Franklin and Ripley counties, hills that were then and have ever since reared their heads above the tide level. The nearest outcrop of the lower Silurian is seen in the vicinity of Westport, a few miles east of the Bartholomew Count}'- line. As the average thickness of the strata decrease as we go east, thinning out to a knife blade deposit, we have evidence that the waters of the ocean were shallow, but must have been very pure and quiet to favor the formation of crystalline rocks; the process of formation must have been slow and long continued to allow the growth of life, the frag- ments of whose remains are here found cntomhed in the Hving rocks. *\s the Niagara group limestone emerged from the shallow seas, a change in the purit\' of the water and irregularit}- of the limestone bed caused deposits of argillaceous clay sediment to take place in the pockets and depressions, hence the calcareous shale is variable in thickness within a few feet and occasionally ewholly wanting, where the conditions were not favorable to the accumulation of a muddy sediment. A very perfect specimen of Eiicaly cmssus found in the calcareous shale, lying horizontally with the root and stem of another individual growing at right angles from the cal3'x, a Platyostonia iiiagxiroisc covered over with the delicate tracery of Palesc/tara, and on this the roots of a crinoid, together with the great number of fossils taken from these beds, show that the accumulation v/as xQvy slow and that more than one generation of animal life passed before the last was covered b}'' sediment.

All the members of the Niagara group are fossiliferous and the calcareous shale, highly so. The cephalopod shells, Orthoccras crebesccns, H., O., annulatum, Sow., and Gyroceras clrodi. White, by their size, form and members are the most conspicuous, and are characteristic of the Niagara blue limestone. They are found in greatest abundance near the top of the group in the thin flagging stone. Occasional specimens of Atrypa reticularis^ Linn., Stro- ^hostylus cyclostoinus, H., Meristina iiitida, H., Eucalyftocrimis crassus^ H., and a few very small Stcfhaiiocrinus gcmiforniis^ H., are found in the upper members, but not in abundance, nor are the corals or trilobites common; Calyniene niagaraisis, H., has been found. No attempt will here be made to give a list of the fossils of the calcareous shale, suffice it to sa}'^ that all the above named species are common, except the cephalopods and stephanocrinus.

The Niagara group limestone outcrops in the bed and banks of Clifty Creek from the southwest corner of Section 2, Township 9, North, Range 7, East, to the Decatur County line at Possum Glory, up Fall Fork Creek to Anderson's Falls, up Middle Fork to Long's Falls, in Boner's branch to the cemetery road east of the college, up Hiner's branch to the bluffs on the south, and up the valle^-s and ravines for a short distance on either side of Clifty Creek. No

Other outcrops are to be seen on Duck Creek or Haw Creek, and but for the vallc}' of Clifty Creek all the members of the Niagara group would be buried out of sight by the superincumbent corniferous limestone.

As the Oriskany sandstone period has been referred to the upper Silurian rather than the Devonian age by most modern geologists, perhaps a word may not be out of place as to its occurrence or non-occurrence in Bartholomew Count}'. If it occurs it should be found between what has been recognized universally as the Niagara and corniferous groups of limestone. On lithological grounds it is excluded if we look for it as a sandstone. No sandstone occurs on Clifty Creek where the two groups are in contact, 'the one above the other. In Southern Illinois the Oriskan}"- is described as a " silicious limestone," in Ohio as a " coarse saccharoidal sandstone," neither of which can apply to any of our rocks. The presence of the calcareous shale settles the age of the limestone below it. The stone above is used down to the ver}' base, at the Arbuckle kiln, near Hartsville, as a lime rock, good specimens of Conocardium trigonale^ H. Zafhrantis gio^antea^ Raf., and other well known corniferous corals have been found in the stone resting immediately on the calcareous shale. It is true the lower member of the corniferous group has a " rough and hard dirty look, especially after weathering" (Dana), but no other characters in common with the Oriskany.

feet, and on the outside has a "hard and dirty look" where covered with minute growth of Hchens; here the characteristic appearance of the lower division of the corniferous ma}'^ be seen in the rough bed of the stream caused by the weathered and rounded tops of the square and irregular blocks reminding one of a pavement of huge cobble stones. The Anderson Falls are remarkable as being in a small way the geological equivalent of the Niagara Falls shale and limestone. Here, as well as at the great Falls of Niagara, may be seen the same processes in action, that in the one case has carried the falls back from Queenstown, Canada, seven miles, and in the other two or three hundred feet by the more rapid erosion of the soft underlying shale and breaking down of the harder superincumbent rock, great blocks of which lie in the channel below the falls, and in both cases the streams cut across or against the dip. From the foot of the falls to the mouth of the Middle Fork, the creek runs north and apparentl}' toward a C3'lindrical axis, that is due to an irregularity in the surface of the top members of the Niagara group, that are slightly unconformable with the strata above. At the falls the creek bed is over thirty feet wide with sharp overhanging mural front over which the water pours at flood height with a great roar, falling twelve or thirteen feet into the pool below, presenting a pleasing if not a grand spectacle. All the elements are present, of a first class picturesque resort, especially in summer, when the surrounding valleys are covered with verdure, but one, the lack of water to bring out the beauties of the falls, just at the time people feel most inclined to seek such places. During ordinary summers, Fall Fork dwindles to a lazy rivulet, playing hide and seek with the rocks of its stony bed, in very dry seasons it vanishes into thin air. But while the dilettante pleasure seeker might be disappointed, not so the geological specimen hunter whose work would be favored by the absence of water, and the shale that the bed of the creek left bare. Good specimens of Eticalyptocrimis crassus, H., Glyf taster inornatiis^ H., Rhodocrinus melissa, H., and very fine crinoid roots are not rare, and an occasional perfect triro bite has been found. All the various species of brachiopods common to the calcareous shale are abundant. Picnic parties will find one of the finest chalybeat springs in the

These falls are in a small way the counterpart of the Anderson Falls, and such cascades, rather than falls, are common to nearly all the valleys and ravines where the calcareous shale forms a part of the outcrop and has weathered so as to leave unsupported the overl3ang corniferous rock, that has a tendency to break in huge blocks with a square precipitous front. Examples of the square fracture may be seen on Boner's branch south of the college and on Webber's branch. No better evidence of the resistance, to the action of air and water of the blue limestone can be seen than is here presented, the running water more or less mixed with gravel and sand has scarcely left a ripple mark on the surface, level as a barn floor or rounded the square edge of the exposed strata.

In the east bank of Fall Fork Creek at David Anderson's mill the upper members of the blue Niagara limestone, are replaced by bands and nodules of white chert, that breaks into smaller fragments on exposure, in appearance not unlike an imperfectly slacked lime rock.

Devonian Age. - Corniferous Group. - Tlte corniferous group limestones form the surface stone and underlie the Drift of nearly the whole of the eastern upland portion of the county. It is the

Stone struck in digging wells in Rock Creek, Clifty, Cla}' and Haw Creek townships. It is the bed rock and stone exposed in the banks ot Beaver Creek, Little Sand Creek, Duck Creek, Otter Creek, Haw Creek, and their tributaries, and on top of the bluffs on Middle Fork, Fall Fork and Clift}' creeks. From its lithological characters, we have divided it into three subdivisions, upper, middle and lower corniferous. In relative thickness the}' stand in the proportion ten: twelve: forty, but the outcrop in the county is not in the same ratio. The upper division, blue limestone, equivalent of the North Vernon quarry stone, was seen at but three places; James Manle3''s Limekiln or Little Sand Creek, and at the Everrode and Yaley quarries in Clay Township. In thickness it is variable; at Manley's kiln it does not exceed three feet, and at the other outcrops scarcely reaches ten feet. The middle division is only found in force on Little Sand Creek; other exposures of thin plates were seen on the bluffs east of Robert Ketner's place in the road from Hartsville to David Anderson's mill, and at John E. Robbin's farm. The lower member near Hope has a much, greater surface exposure and thickness from having been protected by the others from the general denudation to which they have been subjected.

In lithological characters the upper corniferous. North Vernon stone, is a hard, 'sometimes refractoiy, dark blue cr3-stalline, massive, even bedded, magnesian limestone, of uniform structure that weathers well. The middle is a light blue, crystalline massive or thin bedded, shelly magnesian limestone, of variable structure, banded and mixed with amorphous chert-geodes and weathers to thin plates and shelly fragments. The lower corniferous is a grayish, dark, dirty colored rock, never truly crystalline to the unaided eye, but showing, under a magnifier, very fine sand like specks, massive or thin, even bedded limestone of tolerably uniform structure, except where mixed with or replaced by chert or pockets of calcite, that weathers into large angular blocks and rotten stone. At many points the lower division might be termed a true argillaceous limestone and is everj'^where mixed with a considerable per cent, of alumina, and the manner in which it resists the action of water, and atmospheric influence is variable; where covered by a thin soil or kept clamp the outside crust is a dirty rotten stone in appearance like sand, that tested with mineral acids and the microscope is found to be free from silex, at other places where exposed t(5 air and rains alone, the face of the bluffs and detached block are eroded into holes and crannies, as if long subjected to the action of waves and running water. That such has been the case seems probable from many of the blocks standing alone and away from the adjoining bed rock. On the west side of Clifty Creek north of John Graham's land are isolated masses with perpendicular fronts that measure from nineteen to twenty-six feet in height. On the outside these blocks and bluffs present to the eye a hard, gra}^ or blueish appearance in contrast with the soft and lighter colored interior. On the north side of Hiner's branch, a hundred 3'ards or more above the mouth, the lower division limestone is replaced b}^ a coral reef in which the fossils are not only silicified, but are imbedded in a silicious matrix, the counterpart of what is mentioned by Professor Borden, in his report on Jennings Count}^, as a buhr stone, locally called " millstone grit," from its very great resemblance to genuine French buhr. Whether the bed reaches down to the top of the Niagara group stone it was impossible to tell as the lower part was covered, but that such is the case, is probable. The cellular buhr stone was seen at a number of places, and is doubtless peculiar to the lower division of the corniferous group. At the base of the corniferous, overling the calcareous shale or Niagara limestone, frequentl}^ occurs hard, refractbr}^ ochery-colored stone, that in appearance and lithological characters is identical with the top strata of the Niagara, both are equally persistent, and one or both may not show in the outcrop. Careful testing with acid and examination with the microscope fails- to detect the presence of silex in either.

All of the corniferous group members are fossiliferous, especiall}*^ the silicious cherty poi'tion, in this last respect differing from the chert of the Niagara that seldom contains organic remains. Scattered all through the upper and middle divisions of the cr^-^stalline stone, fragments and occasional perfect specimens are found, and abundantl}', in the chert. We have not found any of the Brachiopods and only one Conchifer Couocardiiim trigonalc, H., that is common and seems to be peculiar to the lower corriiferous division. At many places a part of the corals are replaced* by calcite, but as a rule the stony frame work of carbonate of lime has been replaced by silex, hard and durable as the everlasting hills, that, resisting the weathering process, are found mixed in the glacial clay and gravel, and scattered over the soil; geological records and monuments that have been torn from their settings, all that remains of the once massive stone that has yielded to the ravages of time. From the short time given to the study it is not yet possible to say with certainty what fossils are peculiar to each of the divisions, but enough is known to indicate in a general way the range of some of the more common species. No perfect specimens of crinoids could be had, but fragments of the base are not uncommon, and huge stems, some of them ver}'^ singular in having prolongations, wings, growing from every fourth or fifth ossicle, are abundant and found only in the upper blue limestone. The fragments of crinoids are referred to the genera Mcgistocrhms, Synbathocrinus and Rhodocj-inus; DahnanUes ohionensis. Meek, was found only in these beds. The various species of Strop/iodonta have a wider range through all the upper and middle strata. Probably the lower division is best characterized by the absence of all higher forms of life than the corals, except Cotwcardhim^ which is common in some places.

A general subsidence of the ocean level took place at the close of the Silurian age, and that the lower coniferous was deposited from shallow^ water, more or less contaminated with impurities, seems evident from the per cent, of alumina contained in it; that it was a sea filled with coral reefs and islands is shown by the great beds of zoophites found in masses of so-called millstone grit; corals grow and form limestone only when they are in reach of the waves (Dana). The thin laminag of stone seen on Haw Creek and Duck Creek near Hope are the result of gentle wave action. These conditions were somewhat changed near the close of the Corniferous epoch, there must have been a sHght subsidence of the interior continent, an increase in depth and clearing of the water favorable to the growth of higher forms of life, and the formation of pure crj'Stalline limestone.

Hamilton Period. - Black S/ialc, Gciicscc Efoch. - The stone of this epoch is locally known as black slate, but as it is slate onl^^ in appearance, we use the better term shale. It is the equivalent of the New Alban}'^ and Louisville black slate; Delphi, Ind., black slate; Huron shale of Ohio; Devonian black shale of the west; Genesee shale of New York, and the authors generally.

The eastern boundary of the outcrop is defined by the exposures in the banks of Little Sand Creek, one mile east of James Manley's lime kiln, at the Yeal}' and Everroad quarries in Clay Township, at the Manley lime kiln, and at the old saw mill near the residence of Martha Russell, in Rock Creek Township. At the latter place the dip has gained on the base of the creek, so that the shale forms the bed of the stream. It is reported to have been struck in digging a saw mill well south of Elizabethtown, and in a well at Petersville. West of these points no outcrop is seen till it is exposed b}-^ the bed of White River at the Valley mills west of Taylorsville, and down the river to the Catfish Falls below Lowell mills. The black shale was found and penetrated to a depth of thirty-one feet in digging a well at Krusee's garden in West Columbus.

The shale, where protected or unaltered by contact with the underlying rock, is a jet black stone, where exposed and weathered changing to lighter shades and splitting into thin foliaceous scales and plates. Imbedded in it, at the outcrop on White River are frequent nodules and masses of iron pyrites, ferrum sulphide, that rust and combine with the oxj^gen of the atmosphere. When quarried in large blocks they soon break and slack, the line of fracture being as often across the lamination as with it. It is said to contain ten or more per cent, of bituminous matter and by distillation to yield from ten to twent}'^ gallons of oil to the ton. Taking the per cent, of organic matter at ten, the beds of this county contain enouoh bitumen to form a coal seam seven feet thick. Thrown on a iire it burns for a few minutes Hke stone coal, but the bulk of stone never grows less, the oil}- matters is burned out, leaving the carth}'^ residue undiminished and not a true ash. From this many persons are led to think that deeper in the hill or by boring, coal might be found, aside from geological evidence; frequent borings show that this is not the case; it is not even a sign of coal. Attempts have been made to utilize it, and at one time great hopes were had of its being useful as a roofing material, spread on felt, but expensive trials made by grinding it at Lowell mills, in this county, and at New Alban}', proved financially disastrous to the experimenters. It has been recommended as a road material, but its tendenc}^ to slack w^ill preclude its use for this purpose. If of any practical value, other than as a part of the great mass of rocks necessar3' to the formation of the crust t)f the earth, we have not heard of it. In this age of cheap petroleum its distillation can not be made profitable.

The black shale at points south of this count}-, and especially in Ohio, has been found to be fossiliferous. Nothing of the kind has been found by us, but may be, as large masses of hard rock, probably limestone, are reported, that frequently contain remains of fish.

While the crystalline limestone strata of the latter part of the Comiferous epoch teach us that they were formed under deeper and purer waters than had prevailed earlier, the great thickness of the black shale, stratification and homogeneity of structure, all point to its formation under shallow seas of impure water, conditions favorable to the deposition of sediment mixed with mud, and that these conditions w^ere unchanged for a long period.

The question as to the origin of the bituminous matter can not be satisfactorily answered, but the paucit}^ of the lower forms of vegetable life that had as yet come into existence and limited extent of dry land, would seem to show that it was derived from the organic remains so common in the preceding epoch, and not wholly w^anting in this.

Smock, who lives in the immediate vicinit}' of the bore, has kindly furnished a record of the strata passed tlirough. The section is given in Mr. Smock's own language, our comments in parentheses:

Deducting ten feet of earth and two feet of hard rock, we have seven^ feet as the thickness of the black shale, which, compared with the estimated thickness from dip and bores made by Dr. Arwine and others in Brown County, we think the measurement rather below than above the maximum. The presence of the base of the Knobstone series resting directly on the shale below Catharine's Creek show that the deposit in this vicinity has not been much reduced by erosion. If borings are ever made in the southwest part of the county it will doubtless be found to increase in thickness, as most of our formations outcrop in greater force on the south.

We decide that "the stone resmbling soapstone,". is black shale mainly from stratigraphical position. No other than the black shale has been reported as occurring anywhere in the State, between the corniferous limestone and Knobstone group.

The persistence of the " appearance of coal," at this bore, and at both bores in Brown County, the " soot " of the latter and the occurrence of soft black stone that could not be " picked " at the bottom of Krusees' well in West Columbus, at a depth of thirty-one feet, point to the conclusion that the black shale may be divided into two divisions, and that each of these may be of a different epoch, having fossils peculiar to each.

and shales of this group, as the great mass of the rocks are covered b}'^ detritus and soil on the hillsides, and the clay banks of the creeks and tributary branches never expose the stone so far as we saw, but by repeated measurements where an opportunitv offered and the lithological characters of the strata, enough is known to determine the general averages with a good degree of accurac3^

At Catfish Falls, between Columbus and Lowell mills on the White River, the blueish gra}' calcareous shale, the ecjuivalent of the Rockford Goniatite bed, has a vertical exposure of a few inches. The outcrop is fossiliferous and shows in thin even bedded, smooth homogeneous stones with a fracture at right angles to the bedding.

The blue aluminous shale, the equivalent of the New Providence shale of Prof. Borden, the next member of the Knobstone group in ascending order, has a thickness ranging from twenty-five to eighty-five f^t. It is locall}^ known as a soapstone, and' is the underl3nng stone of the whole of Jackson Township and the low hills of Wayne, Ohio, Harrison, Union and Nineveh, between the Wall ridge and the White River bottoms.

In structure, the blue shale is tolerable uniform, with a tendency to become ferruginous, near the base. In places it resists the action of the atmosphere and water better than the higher drab colored shales. Where weathered it forms a blue pk'^stic cla}', and cold subsoil.

. This hill is said to be the highest above the average level of any in the township. The iron ore nodules of this section were in good shaped masses that readily shelled and broke under the hammer, but in amount were insufficient to be of any practical value.

a blue to a drab, from argillaceous to yilicious, from friable, coarse sandstone, banded with iron ore to smoulh homoireneous even bedded quarry stone. It is evident the}' were formed on the eastern shore and bed of an ocean generally quiet, whose currents came from the north or northeast burdened w ith sand and muddy sediment, derived from the wasting disintegration of some other land than the non-silicious limestones of the Devonian and Silurian ages of Indiana. The changing, fitful currents of this epoch that left sand at one time and mud at another, and, again, both mixed together, were not favorable to the preservation of fossil remains, -even if marine life existed to an}' extent under such conditions.

The outcrop of the quarry stone at Taylor hill has not been worked sufficiently to develop the true character of the rock, but enough has been taken out to show that it is a beautiful even freestone, with a square sharp angled fracture, and will split well. Whether this range of stone is the exact geological equivalent of the celebrated Berea grit and flagging of Ohio or not, it is found in the same geological group, and both were formed under similar if not identical conditions, and it should be f ullv developed. If once put on sale in quantities the demand for^it would soon grow; it is a superior stone for many architectural purposes. Unlike many sandstones it does not retain dampness and become moss-grown. The exact equivalent of this bed has been extensively used in Brown County, and has been found a durable stone that witlistands heat and cold. Monuments and tombstones cut from it fort}- years ago show sharp corners and chisel marks untarnished by the ravages of time. It is not the province of a geological survey to open coal mines or develop stone quarries, but to point out where capital ma}' be invested with the prospect of a fair return for time and money expended ; a reasonable experiment in opening the quarry sandstone of the Wall ridge and putting the stone in shape for use would certainly prove a financial success. For water tables, window sill and caps, the rapid growth of Columbus and demands of the surrounding country would furnish a good local market. It is a persistent bed, outcropping on all sides of the Wall ridge. Great blocks were seen on the south and north in crossing the ridge from John Ault's place to Bethan}'. The Dowell hill quarries are in the same range and show the same stone. Mr. M. Powell, near the Brown Count}^ line, has eighty acres of quarry that can be worked at almost any point. To multiply outcrops would be to give a list of the land owners of nearly the whole west half of Harrison Township.

would add thirty-five feet more. Tlie two feet nine inches stratum is a rather coarse grained dark sodden looking stone that is worked Plainly for foundations, and is remarkable for uniformity of structure and evenness of bedding for the whole length of tlie quarr}'.

HartsviUc Fossils. - - As no attempt Avas made in the body of this report to give a list, even of tlie more common fossils of the calcareous shale, the following is liere inserted and embraces all the species exxept Br3'Ozoa, that have been identified. An examination will show that it compares very favorably with the celebrated and well known Waldron localit}^

All the above species were found on Clifty Creek and tributaries, near Hartsville. Probably the best places for collecting are the Tarr hole and Anderson's Falls. The north bank and bluffs of Little Sand Creek, above Manly's limekiln, is the best place for getting corniferous group fossils; the corals are frequently very fine. The corals from the lower beds are found scattered over the fields and woods, mixed with the surface soil.

Antiquities. - That the East White River valley was once inhabited by a race of people superior to the Delaware Indians, the last tribe to disappear before the "star of empire," is shown by the number of stone implements, axes, hatchets and fragments of pot- tery, found scattered over the soil. Some of tliese relics are very fine, especially a highly finished dark stone pipe in the shape of a third's head and bill, owned by Mrs. Dr. George Remy, found near Newbern, and an oblong double, greenstone hatchet and llesher, found and owned by Mr. VanBlaricuni, near Burnsville. A number of elevations are pointed out as the work of the mound-builders, but we failed, wherever they were examined, to lind any of the so-called Indian mounds of any other than natural origin. The mound on the Hacker farm, just above the Manley limekiln, is clearly proven to be a part of the high bank north of Little Sand Creek, b}^ an excavation made in the side, that exposes the rock of the mound and shows it to be continuous with the strata of the adjoining bluff. The Indians' burial place on the farm of Mr, James C. Remy, near Burnsville, is a natural ridge of upland gravel. That the Judge *Tums Quick Mound, in Flat Rock Township, is not artificial, has been indicated in the discussion of the Drift period. In structure it is identical with the Hawpatch gravel, and shows no evidence whatever of being the work of man. It is not a mound but an irregular hill that slopes to the south. We did not have an opportunity to examine the Tipton hill in Columbus, but from what we could learn the same is true of it. Artificial mounds ought to show peculiarities in stratification different from that of the surrounding plain. The finding of bones only proves that advantage was taken of the higher points to locate a cemetery. Bones have been taken from the bluff between the junction of Clift}^ and Fall Fork creeks, from the Remy gravel bed, and the so-called Hacker mound, but nothing else, so far as we could ascertain. If, in opening these mounds, beds of ashes, buried soil, broken bones of animals, water jugs, pottery, pipes, beads or ornaments were found, the proof would be conclusive that they were the work of the extinct race race of mound builders, but as onl}' bones have been found they are probably the "last resting places" of the modern Red man. In expressing the above opinion, we know we run counter to the traditions of the mass of the people, and if our adverse opinion shall be the means of inducing some one to hunt up proof that our so-called mounds are artificial, or the burial place of the mound builders, we shall be pleased and have done a good work.

County Orgamzatiox

County Organization - Legislative Enactment - First Board and Its Doin(;s - Locating the County Seat - - Sale of Lots - -Changes in the Board - Finances - County Poor - Public Buildings, Court Houses and Jails - Avenues of Travel - Ferries and Bridges - Public Officers - Elections - ^Organization of Townships - Agricultural Societies - Medical Society.

'NE of the purest and most patriotic of Indiana pioneers was General Joseph Bartholomew, for many years a distinguished citizen of Clarke County. He was the descendant of a Puritan family that emigrated from London to the Massachusetts colony in 1634-5, and whose members figured prominentl}^ in the General Court of the colony. But the luster of his name was not borrowed from the achievements of his antecedents. By the strength of his heroic character he placed it on the lips of men. He was selftaught, modest, brave, and honest. Solely by his merits as a man and a soldier he obtained distinction. In the frontier Indian troubles he was ever foremost in times of danger. Rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he commanded a battalion of infantry at the battle of Tippecanoe, where he was severely wounded. Death closed his eventful and honorable career in 1840. He was a State Senator from 1821 to 1824. When in Januar}^, 1821, a new county was formed out of Delaware, Samuel Merrill suggested that it be named in honor of General Bartholomew, and the motion to that effect was made by General John Tipton, whose influence on the new organic body was subsequently far more potent than that of the man whose name it bore. A likeness of General Bartholomew, reflecting his sturdy manliness, was recently' obtained for the county through the efforts of Mr. George Pence and other prominent citizens, and now hangs in the east court room.

Tlie act of the General Assembly creating the count}' was passed January 9, 1821. Several changes in the extent of the count\-\vere ^bsequently made by the formation of new counties and in that natural shifting of Iwundary lines incident to new States. The organization of Brown Count}-, Februar}' 4, 1S36, took a large strip of territor}-^ from the west side of Bartholomew Count}-. Originally the county was bounded on the north by Morgan, Johnson, and Shelby, on the east by Shelby, Decatur, and Jennings, on the south by Jennings and Jackson, and on the west by Monroe. At present it is bounded on the north by Johnson and Shelby, on the east by Decatur and Jennings, on the south by Jennings and Jackson, and on the west by Jackson and Brown.

Organization and Early Official Acts. - On Thursday the 15th day of February, 1821, WiUiam Ruddick, Jesse Ruddick, and Solomon Stout met at the house of Luke Bonesteel and each producing a certificate of election as County Commissioner from under the hands of the Count}- Sheriff, with a certificate of quahfication endorsed thereon, organized the first Board of Commissioners for Bartholomew County, The appointment of Edward Ballenger as Clerk of the Board " until the Clerk of the Circuit Court shall be commissioned and qualified " was the first business transacted after organization. The adoption of a seal followed, and then the report of the Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to select and establish a permanent seat of justice for the county was received. These Commissioners were: William P. Thomason, Eb. E. Morgan, John E. Clark and James Hamilton. They selected the present site of the city of Columbus and contracted with John Tipton for thirty acres of land in Section 24, Township 9, of Range 5 east, for $1,000, and with Luke Bonesteel for thirty acres in Section 25, Township 9, of Range 5 east, for $2,000. The town was to be called Tiptona. The following allowances were made to the Commissioners for services rendered: To W. P. Thomason, $30; Eb. E. Morgan, $30; John E. Clark, $24; James Hamilton, $18.

The Board then di\-ided the county into three voting districts, to be designated as Northern, Middle, and Southern. The Northern District comprised all that part of the county lying north of the line dividing congressional townships 9 and 10; the Southern, all that lyin<^ south of the line dividing congressional townships 8 and 9; and the Middle, all that lying within the two lines named. An election in each of the several districts named was ordered for the purpose of electing Justices of the Peace: in the Northern District, at the house of John Pence, with Samuel Chappell as Inspector; in the Southern District, at that of William Stowers, with James Vanzant as Inspector; and in the Middle District, at that of Luke Bonesteel, with James McCowan as Inspector. The County Agent was directed to emjiioy John Vawter to lay off the count}^ town, and Elijah Sloan was appointed Superintendent of the school section in Township 9, north of Range 6 east. The Board then adjourned until Februar^^ 26, when it again assembled with all the members present. Most of that day was consumed in the appointment of officers. John Lindsey was appointed County Agent, Luke Bonesteel, County Treasurer, and Joseph Pownal, hster of taxable propert)' in the county. The Sheriff was directed to summon nineteen Grand Jurors and twent3'-four Traverse Jurors to appear at the house of Luke Bonesteel on March 12 next thereafter, and .the Board adjourned. Edward Ballenger, who was appointed to act as Clerk of the Board of Commissioners temporarily at the first meeting as above noted, was subsequently elected Clerk of the Circuit Court and thus became ex-officio Clerk of the Board of Commissioners, but died soon thereafter and was succeeded by Joseph McKinney. Though a seal was formally adopted February 15, 182 1, as indicated, a description of it is not given, and it was not in fact obtained till late in 1822. In November of that year, James Goodwin, then a Commissioner, was allowed $3 for a seal and $4.75 for traveling expenses in obtaining the same.

The conveyance of the land contracted for as a site for the seat of government as recited above, was not made by Mr. Bonesteel until August 9, 1 82 1, at which time he and his wnfe Julia for the sum of $2,000 "good and lawful money," conveyed to John Farquar, County Agent, the thirty acres named. The payment for this land was made in town lots which this agent conveyed to Bonesteel, naming the same amount, $2,000, as the consideration. The deed for the additional thirty acres was not

On the day next following the adjournment last named, that is, on Februar}' 27, 182 1, the Board of Commissioners re-convened and proceeded to appoint constables for the several districts, and Superintendents of certain school sections. Elections were again ordered in tlie Northern and Middle Districts for the purpose of electing additional Justices of the Peace, to be held on the following loth day of INIarch, the houses of Joseph Robertson on Clift}', and James Goodwin, respectively, being designated as polling places. It was then ordered that the town lots in Tiptona be laid off 60 feet front by 120 feet deep, with four streets eighty feet wide and with alleys twelve feet wide. (These divisions were subsequently changed.) The Count}' Agent was directed to surve}' Tiptona as soon as possible and advertise the sale of lots in the Corydon, Indiana, papers, the Chilhcothe (Ohio) Supporter^ and the Louisville (Kentuck}-) Corresfondcnt. The center of the public square was fixed at the stake dividing fractional Sections 24 and 25. Luke Bonesteel was allowed $50 for his house in Tiptona which had been purchased to be used as a court house.

On March 19th following, the Commissioners again met for the transaction of public business. The records now show that they assembled at the cottrt hotisc, no longer " the house of Luke Bonesteel." Seth Lockwood and Daniel Hutchins were appointed Constables for the Middle and Northern Districts, respectively, and being present with their bonds, were duly qualified. James Quick was appointed Inspector of elections in the Northern District. The Board of Commissioners then proceeded to consider the first contested election case. The ofUce of Justice of the Peace had not then been shorn of its power and glor}- as in after years happened . to it. The Squire clothed with the honor and dignity of his office, was a man of considerable influence, giving character to the neighborhood in which he lived. In the Middle District the election for Justice of the Peace was a livel}'^ one, and there was some doubt as to who should get the prize. John S. McEwen was returned as elected, but his right was contested. After hearing the whole matter the Commissioners confirmed the election, holding that proper and lawful notice of the contest had not been given. On March ^th, following, the Commissioners rescinded their former order, directing the Count}' Agent to la}- off Tiptona. The town had been named in honor of Gen. Tipton, and now the Commissioners were considering the propriety of making a change and a short order without assigning reasons therefor was entered of record, directing that the town be designated and known as Columbus thereafter. The size of lots in " Columbus, alias Tiptona," as the records have it, were ordered to be laid out with a frontage of seventy-five feet, and a depth of 150 feet. Eight lots were to constitute a block, and the public square was to be one block of lots. . June 15th w'as fixed as the time for the sale of lots. The County Agent was directed to advertise at Columbus, Brownstown and Vernon for proposals, and to sell to the lowest bidder, contracts for cleaning the public square, for building a stra}-- pen or pound, to be thirty-five feet square of " hughed " logs, with a door, a lock and a ke}'^, and for building a jail. The stray pen was to be erected on the northeast corner of the public square. The jail is elsewhere mentioned in detail. At this meeting of the Board, elections were again ordered to be held on March 31st, following, in the Middle and Northern Districts, at the court house, and the house of James Goodwin, respectively, for the purpose of electing Justices of the Peace. On May 15th, Samuel Downing was appointed County Agent, and a new township, to be known as Sand Creek Township, was organized.

On the 14th da}'^ of June, 1821, the County Agent, Samuel Dowling, was directed to commence the sale of lots at lot No. 86, and to continue as long as the}' " shall sell well," or until further ordered by the Board, reserving, however, lot No. 119 from sale. He was directed to r^eive " nothing but specie, or paper money at par with specie, unless the purchasers will make the usual discount in Indiana on any other paper money so as to make it equal to specie." The terms of the sale were one-fifth cash and the balance in two equal payments, due in one and two years, satisfactoril}' secured. A rebate of eight per cent, per annum was to be allowed on cash payments of the whole sum due. Claims already acted upon and allowed by the Board of Commissioners for Nvhich parties held unpaid orders upon the Treasurer were to be received ifi payment for lots, not, however, until a sutlicient amount of specie had been received to liquidate certain preferred claims, namely: those of the Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to establish the permanent county seat, and the Sheriff of Jackson County, who had notified them of their appointment, amounting to $112; that of John TSlcEwen, "first payment on the jail," $S^; that of a Mr. Kelley for building the stray pen, $27; that for clearing the public square and la3-ing out the town, '$^6.62 ^4, and that of Luke Bonesteel for his house, $50. The sale occurred on the day fixed for it, and the first lot sold - No. 86 - was bought by David Stipp for $211. No other lot brought quite so much, though several sold for upward of $175. The cheapest lots were Nos. 94 and 115, selHng for $11 each, and being purchased by Thomas Harron and John McEwen, respectively. The largest purchaser - and indeed the onl}^ one who bought a considerable number of lots - was Abraham Fr}-, who bought between ten and twenty lots at from $30 to $160 each. Among the other buyers were Joseph McKinney, Jacob Kelley, Jesse Ruddick, James McEwen, WiUiam Eeard, Charles DePauw, John Vawter, John Parker, Benjamin Irwin, Samuel Chappell, Joseph VanMeter, John Young, Isaac Le- Masters, Solomon Stout, Matthew Pace, David Dietz and others. On August 13, 1822, the County Agent was ordered to sell the rest of the town lots, except the one on which the court house stands (presumabl}^ the same as reserved at the first sale) and the sale was held on the 22d day of October, 1822. On the following November 8th, the Commissioners sold to John Farquar, then County Agent, lot No. 36 and fractional lot No. 21 for the sum of $34.

The proceeds of the sale of lots and the- various financial transactions of the County Agents are recorded under the head of Finance, and subsequent important actions of the Commissioners are classified and narrated under the various subjects to which the actions related. The Board of Commissioners was at the organization of the count}', composed of three members. The ^crsoiDicl oi the Board was from time to time changed, but the original form remained as at iirst until September, 1S24, when the Justices of the county, pursuant to an act of the Legishiture, came together in a body and were tx-officio Commissioners for the transaction of the count}' business. When tlie Justices first assembled and organized theA-^ elected Joseph Hart as President of the Board. He -was succeeded in 1825 h\ Benjamin Crow, and he subsequent!}' by William S. Jones. In September, 1830, Thomas Hinkson was chosen President, but in the following May, the county was re-districted for the purpose of electing Commissioners, and in September of that year Lewis Singleton, Hiram Wilson, and Nathan Kyle qualified as Commissioners and organizing, proceeded to the transaction of business. In 1836, the duties of Count}' Commissioners were again assigned to the Justices of the Peace, who continued in their performance until 1839, when the old system was again resorted to. William Singleton was the first President chosen by the assembled Justices and he was succeeded by Moses Joiner. On February 18, 1839 they re-districted the county as follows: ist Commissioners' District, comprising Haw Creek, Flat Rock, German and Nineveh townships; 2nd District, Columbus and Clifty townships; 3rd District, Wayne, Sand Creek, and Rock Creek townships.

jFtnaiices. - The growth and development of a governmental institution are nowhere better shown than in its financial history, and no subject can be of greater interest to an individual tax-payer than that which relates to the disposition of a fund to which he annually contributes. For a time after the organization of Bartholomew County there was, as a matter of fact, no pressing need for a County Treasurer. One was appointed in February, 1821, but he did not qualify until the following August. The sources of revenue were limited; at first confined to a tax on polls and personal property, and one ferry license. In 1821 the Board of Commissioners made the following levy:

In 1S23, 584 poUs were taxed at 50 cents each and the rates as above were continued on personal property-. In 1824, bank stock, brass clocks, licenses to vend liquor or foreign merchandise (at $10 per $1,000 worth) lawsuits, and town lots were made subjects of taxation. By law, lands were exempt from taxation for five years after entr}-. In May, 1826, land sold at the first rates became subject to taxation and was assessed at 50 cents per 100 acres for first rate; 40 cents for second rate; and 30 cents for third rate. At this time the rates on gold watche^ and brass clocks were raised to $1, on pleasure carriages to $1.50, but silver orpinchback watches were allowed to remain at 25 cents. In 1821 and 1822, the town lots in Columbus were sold, the purchase money arising from the sale amounting to $5,865 up to October 15, 1821, and to a very small amount after that date. The business of the county was transacted principal!}' by the County Agent. John Lindsey was the first to hold the office. He was succeeded in May, 1821, b}^ Samuel Downing, who filed a $20,000 bond with John Young, William Gabbard, John Lindse}', John Parker, Joseph McKinney and Ebenezer Ward as sureties. Before the year expired, John Farquar was appointed, vice Downing removed, but he died in 1823, and on October 14th of that j-ear, his administrator turned over to James Gabbard, who had been appointed in September, $4,263.59 in notes and accounts belonging to the county. In the following- November the same papers were delivered to John C. Hubbard who brought them into court and delivered them to the Commissionei's in Ma}', 1824. Farquar had been allowed %66^ and Gabbard $12.50 for services. In May, 1825, Hubbard was charged with $107.04, money received as agent, and various sums followed as collections could be made. In November following he reported cancelled notes, papers, receipts, etc., to the Commissioners to the amount of $279.52, leaving a balance in his own favor of $19.12. In July, 1827, he resigned, brought all his papers and documents into court, which were inspected and found to be correct. lie was released from liis bond and his personal note for $13 which tlie count}^ held, was surrendered to him. James McAchran succeeded to the oflice but was remoAed, and Joseph L. Wasliburn held it temporaril}'.

In July, 1828, George Lyon was ajipointcd and directed to call on McAchran for all papers belonging to the county, and to bring suits on all accounts where there was a probability of collecting. These were liard iiii/cs. It is elsewhere narrated how for years efforts had been made to build a court house, how contractors, not paid in money, were unable to complete the work, how Newton Jones at last in a manner completed it and took as the greater part of his pa}' a judgment against Ruddick, and how the Legislature early in 1829, came to the count3''s relief with an act authorizing a poll tax io be -paid in specie only. Jones was a candidate for the Legislature. Among the local issues discussed probabl}' " tax or no tax" was prominent. He was elected but died before the House assembled. In September, 1829, Ephraim Arnold was appointed agent, received from Lyon $5.91, and in May following was charged with $124 "means placed in his hands."

To show more clearly what led up to such hard times a step backward must be taken. The town lots had brought in October, 182 1, as before stated, $5,865. According to the terms of sale but one-fifth part of it was paid in cash, /. c, $1,173. By law 10 per cent, of this amount was set apart and reserved for the use of the Public Seminar}^ fund. This left $1,055.70. There ma)'^ be added to this $42.50, the amount paid by Richard Fansher for two lots, he being the only man who paid all cash for his purchase. The agent as instructed by the Commissioners loaned to Joseph Pownall $112.50, and other small amounts to others on personal security. He paid the Treasurer $654.61, and was directed to hold the balance subject to the call of the Commissioners. At length the Commissioners called but called in vain. They removed Gen. Downing and ordered suit to be brought against him, but at length settled the matter by taking his personal notes Jiggregating about $500. These notes passed into the hands of Gabbard as a part of the $4,263.59 above mentioned. The money that was paid to the Treas- iirer was little more than enouj^Ii to pay the preferred elaims incident to organization and the cost of running the county the iirst year. The amount of taxes collected was not lar<re and was materially diminished by the depreciated currency in which theN' were paid, as will be shown by the following order passed in Noyemlier, 182 1, "ordered that Joseph McKinney be allowed to change the paper money of this State, being $146, for specie at fifty per cent, if it is law for the Counl:^^ Treasurer to receive the State paper for taxes due the count}-." In February, 1822, a similar order was made as to $46, but it Avas to be discounted on "the best terms possible." Hence the almost entire absence of specie in the treasury.

The earfy Treasurers were somewhat careless in their methods of doing business. Each one at the close of his term made a satisfactory showing to the Board of his own transactions, but they were in the dark as to the exact state of affairs. In 1825, therefore Samuel W. Cowan was appointed to " examine, the situation of the county from its organization to the present," and in December of that 3'ear a special session of the Board of Commissioners was held to receive his report which was as follows :

Thus showing from 182 1 to 1824, inclusive, a deficit of 796.27, and m 1825 a balance in count3^'s favor of $142.00 j^^. In 1825, Philip Sweetzer became Treasurer, and in Jul}', 1827, reported receipts since appointment $494.30; expenses $20.48; balance $473.81. Resettled satisfactorily, and in Jul}^ 1828, A. A. Wiles, his successor, reported receipts $385.29. In the following November he was credited with $409.55 (presumably for county orders paid and cancelled), and in January, 1829, he was removed. On settlement the Board found due from him $6.24, " which he is bound to account for in specie or its equivalant when called for." But in justice to him be it said that in March following he was allowed $6.58

The following issues of bonds have been made: .June, 1872, $60,000 for the court house; June, 1878, $32,000 for the poor asylum and to redeem $20,000 of outstanding bonds; August

The county holds in trust for the use and benefit of the public schools a common school fund of $38,273.96, and a congressional township fund of $55,115.83, the latter fund representing the sales of the sixteenth section in each congressional township originally set apart as a "school section." One of these sections, containing 640 acres, in early days sold for $1,311, while another in 1882 brought $37?572-77- This fund was for many 3'ears managed b}' a School Commissioner and afterwards by the County Auditor.

Gideon B. Hart, for nineteen years was the trusted agent of the count}' in charge of the fund, and his successor was W. H. H. Terrell, who served until the duties of the office were assigned by law to the County Auditor.

The County Poor. - One of the chief objects of social organization among civilized people is mutual protection. ' Incidental thereto is the care of the unfortunate poor Avho have become unable to support themselves because of age, natural defect, disease or unavoidable misfortune. " The poor shall be with you alwa3-s," is true of all places. The rehef of this class is a public duty than which few are more worthy an honorable and conscientious performance. It is gratifying to know that Bartholomew Count}' has never been thoughtless or negligent in this regard. The means adopted at first, perhaps, may not accord with advanced ideas that pertain among humanitarians of to-day, but the}' were the best permitted by the times and the circumstances. The laws of the State provided for the appointment of Overseers of the Poor whose duties were defined by the statutes, the chief of which was to cause all poor persons who became public charges to be farmed out annually on contract in such manner as was deemed best calculated to promote the public good. Minors were bound out as apprentices : males until twenty-one years of age, females until eighteen years of age. An act approved in January, 1828, authorized the execution of indentures of apprenticeship by the Overseers, which were entered of record in the Rijcorder's oflice, and the apprentice was provided with hnvful means for the maintenance of his natural rights agi^inst the oppressions of tlie "master." jNlay 15, 1S21, the Board of Commissioners appointed the first Overseers of the Poor, who were for tlie Nortliern District, James Goodwin and Abdiel Parsons, for the Middle District, Joseph Cox and Robert Wilkerson, for the Southei-n District, Richard Wall and John Ruddick, for Sand Creek Townsliip, Samuel Richardson and Samuel Arnclt. Among other early Overseers were: Joseph Vanmeter, Joshua McQueen, Henry Saunders, David Hager, James Quick, John F. Jones, Samuel Crittenden, A. A. Wiles, C. Edwards, James McEwen and Jacob Gabbert. They were paid for the time actuall}^ employed at a small fcr dicui. The total sum paid prior to 1^33 was $81.49.