Grant County, Indiana - Chapter 1, 1886

Chapter 1

GEOLOGY - SITUATION AND SURFACE CONFIGURATION - WATER COURSES - ALLUVIUM - DRIFT - -PALEOZOIC GEOLOGY - -SECTIONS AT' VARIOUS QUABRIES - F OSSILS - THE NIAGARA GROUP.

RANT COUNTY is situated not far northeast of the center of the State, about midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. It embraces 418 square miles in its area.

The surface was originally one vast plain, with only occasionally slightly rolling tracts to break the monotony; now, the valley of the Mississinewa River is the most marked topographical feature. On the east is a slight divide, separating the waters 'of Black Creek from the Mississinewa, while on the west is another, which turns the waters of Pipe Creek to the westward. Its course, after leaving the county, is nearly parallel with the Mississinewa. The drainage from Green Township is almost due west, Wildcat Creek having its source here. There are no hills, strictly speaking; the. broken surface along the river is due to erosion, as the summits of the so-called hills are not higher than the plain a few miles back from the river.

The fall of the Mississinewa is rapid. Throughout its entire. course in the county it has cut its channel from fifty to 100 feet below the level of the plain; as a result of this all the. small streams tributary to it have excavated deep gorges through the heavy clays, giving a very broken surface. The southern portion of Monroe Township is usually considered rolling, especially along Walnut Creek, but this is due, also, to erosion. Walnut. Creek may seem totally inadequate for the excavation of so deep. and broad a valley as the one it now occupies, but the explanation. is easy, after determining that it was crossed by a great glacial!

river flowing to the southwest. Overflows from this river, probably, contributed much toward the excavation of the valley and the erosion of the surface of the plain adjacent to it.

_ The Mississinewa River enters the county near its southeast corner, and after traversing it diagonally, leaves it on the north side, about six miles east of its:western boundary. Its valley is quite broad in places, though north of Marion it is narrow, owing to the river having cut its channel through limestone strata. No one, from the present size of the stream, would infer that it was ever navigable, yet such has been the case. In early times it could be crossed at Marion by ferry only, for nearly half the year; flat-boats carried the produce of the farmers, by way of the Wabash, to New Orleans, where it found a ready market, but with the clearing of the forests, the draining of the wet lands and the building of dams the river has dwindled until this is no longer practicable, and the construction of railroads has rendered it no longer a necessity. The river, however, at present affords valuable water-power, which is utilized to its fullest capacity.

Pipe and Grassy Creeks drain the western part of the county, and Black Creek the northeastern portion. The principal tributaries of the Mississinewa, from the east, are Walnut, Lugar's, Hummel's and Lake Creeks, and Barren Back, Deer and Boot's Creeks from the west. These are all small streams, and serve only to furnish a supply for stock.

Water is usually obtained in wells, at a depth varying from ten to forty feet, thirty feet being the average depth in the eastern part of the county, while in the west and south it is frequently obtained within fifteen or twenty feet of the surface.

In the southeastern part of the county, passing through Monroe, Jefferson and Fairmount Townships, with direction from north northeast to south southwest, is the partially silted up channel of one of those glacial rivers that were once so common in eastern Indiana. It is marked throughout its course by a series of swamps, lakes, beaver dams, and, near Section 18, Fairmount Township, by a deep gorge one-half mile long, unoccupied by any stream. The drainage of the swamps has made many of the prairies. Some of them are of considerable size, as Bird's Prairie, in Monroe Township. In Section 14, Fairmount Township, is quite a large lake; its area is now about ten acres, but formerly it covered nearly thirty. This is gradually filling up, but is still a favorite fishing place for people in that vicinity. In Section 12, Jefferson Township, is another large, but shallow lake, now nearly dry from drainage.

Upper Silurian

UPPER SILURIAN. Guelph, or Cedarville beds, yellowish, massive limestone, SEED COG is any coccrtindician-dinmonmdind aca aGaos opis ap op.ce 16 Springfield beds, bluish limestone, upper portion argillaceous, in places a calcareous shale, variable....... Motel eiedilensnsts aimlatckn Socotaeebesh Dian ¥. stress "261 Alluvium. - This deposit is necessarily limited in extent, for the valley of the Mississinewa is deep but narrow, and none of the tributaries, except Walnut Creek, have alluvial bottoms of any extent. Formed by the material left on the flood-plain during high water, it is composed of fine sand (silica), clay, and vegetable debris, finely comminuted. The uniformly good crops show that this deposit has high rank, judged from an agricultural standpoint.

Drift. - This name is given to all those beds of sand, gravel, clay and bowlders which have not been deposited by forces still in action. They are due to causes which have long since ceased to act in this latitude. They cover the whole county, the depth ranging from ten to 200 feet.

Gray clay is the principal surface deposit over the eastern portion of the county. Its thickness is about thirty feet. Beneath this is the water-bearing bed of sand and gravel; under this lies the blue bowlder clay, so nicely exposed in the bank of the river east of Marion. 'The bed of sand and gravel is not as constant as the clays. In the western and southern parts gravel and sand is found in pockets, as wells, sunk only a few feet apart, show in one nothing but clay, while the other may strike gravel within a few feet of the surface, and afford an unfailing supply of water. Many of the swamps, bogs and round sink-holes or ponds are underlaid with gravel and sand. At Jonesboro, the bluffs are composed of sand and gravel; elsewhere observed, they are formed of heavy blue and gray clays. In the southern part of the county, along the river, the gray clays have become yellowish or rusty colored from oxidation or the iron in the limestone, which forms a good portion of the drift, being thoroughly mixed with the clays. South of Marion is a deposit of gravel, below the old bed of the Mississinewa; but this was deposited by the melting glacier, not by the river. It supplies the city and railroads with an abundance of this valuable material. Bowlders, although common in the county, are not numerous, except in a belt near Jalapa, where are found many large ones. They are principally granites, gneiss, greenstones and quartzites. Limestone bowlders were once numerous along the river between Jonesboro and New Cumberland, and were burned for lime.

Paleozoic. - The only rocks exposed in the county belong to the Niagara Period, Upper Silurian Age. No outcrops occur between Jonesboro, and New Cumberland, though the rock is probably but a few feet below the bed of the river. North of Marion, the Mississinewa has cut its channel through limestone nearly the whole distance north to the county line. It is a magnesian limestone, varying in color, hardness and durability. In places the argillaceous layers have more resemblance to a shale than to a limestone, and indicate a muddy condition of the seas at the time of their deposition. The better layers produce good building stone, but they must be selected with care, as the strata are subject to great variation - a good layer frequently changing so in a few rods that it may be of inferior value. Sufficient stone is quarried to supply the wants of the county, and considerable is shipped away. Near Marion the quarry of Mr. D. R. McKinney gave the following: of a bluish green color, and rapidly disintegrates upon exposure to the atmosphere. All the strata given in the section become similarly changed, further down the river. The middle layers are the most durable, as the lowest strata are softer, and gradually change until they become worthless. ee the strata are liable to be split into two or more layers within-a few rods. The dip is to the northwest, and quite marked. Mr. McKinney sells, annually, from 6,000 to 10,000 perch, a portion of which is shipped to other counties.

In the upper portion, specimens of the trilobite (Calymene Niagarensis) have been found. In the lower part large cephalapod mollusks are the prevailing forms of life. The large coiled fossil is a Lituites (new species) ; the curved forms are Phragmoceras ellipticum. The larger ones are Phragmoceras Nestor. The long straight ones are Orthoceras crebescens and Orthoceras strix - the latter easily distinguished from the first by the longitudinal markings. The short form, with eight or nine transverse septa, is Gomphoceras subgracile. Occasionally, the half-coiled Cyrtoceras _Dardanus is met with. All the above are internal casts. Some of the strata contain cale-spar, chert and crystals of quartz; but it is an idle dream to expect to find silver or any other valuable mineral here. Silica, in one form, is soluble in waters slightly alkaline, and its presence here is due to its deposition from solution, either as quartz crystals or as chert, which is only another form of quartz. In some cases chert and flint, related forms, are probably due to aggregation around some foreign body as a nucleus of the solution of the spicula of sponges and the siliceous shells of infusoria, As sponges existed in the seas of the Niagara Period, they were probably one of the sources of the chert so abundant in some of the strata.

About 3,000 perch are quarried here, annually. Some of the thinner strata are in places quite slaty, and ring under the hammer like a clinkstone. Both these quarries yield some good flagging.

One and one-fourth mile below this point, on the east bank of the river, Mr. 8. Secrist quarries about 1,400 perch, yearly. The strata here are thicker than at McKinney's but softer, and the argillaceous layers haye been removed by erosion.

This rock hardens on exposure and becomes a durable building stone. Efforts have been made to produce a hydraulic cement, but without success. It is said, however, to make a very fair limestone.

A short distance below here Dr. Lewis Williams is working a quarry which corresponds to the one just given, except that the upper layers produce fine flags, their rough surfaces showing nicely the jointed suture.

Three and one-half miles below Marion Mr. C. W. Bowman is working an outcrop which resembles the one near Marion, but only about four and one-half feet of the lower strata are suitable for buildings. Portions of the upper layers are used for wells. The strata are quite cherty, and the stone from the lower beds hard and refractory. About ten feet is the depth to which this is worked.

A short distance north of here, near the summit of the hill, is an outcrop of a yellowish, massive limestone, very unevenly bedded and overlying the blue rock and argillaceous limestone. It forms the summit of the rocky series exposed in the county, and shows a change from the muddy sea, in which the strata beneath were deposited, to one of clear waters, filled with corals and other forms of life; but, like a coral reef exposed to the waves from a deeper sea, their forms have been reduced to a condition of fine sand, and then cemented, forming a massive lime rock. It is probable that the exposures near Mier and in Franklin Township belong to this rock, though differing in color at the place last named. Some lime has has been burned from this outcrop, but the kilns are all abandoned. Probably, with care in the selection, avoiding the chert, good lime might be produced. Here were found the trilobites Calymene, Niagarensis, and Illenus Ioxus, Receptaculites hemisphericus, Alveolites Niagarensis, Eridophyllum rugosum, Favosites Niagarensis, F. obliquus, Halysites catenulatus, Heliolites interstinctus, Atrypa reticularis, Meristina nitida, Meristina Maria. .

This place affords a complete section of the rocky series exposed in the county, for, across the river, is the best exposure of the blue limestone seen.

General Section

Yellowish limestone, unevenly bedded, siliceous............--- Yellowish-gray limestone, siliceous, massive, looking like a sandstone at a distance. ...... cee cece reece eee eee neces eer 10 Across the river, and beneath the last, a bluish argillaceous limestone, more properly a calcareous shale......-.-+++.+ee++es 15 Bluish-green limestone, strata from 2 inches to 3feet in thickness 10 Ist ale tetetae as Ate Oa indore oie any om opinitpaitns sa. ry.

The lower twenty-five feet, although representing the same strata that are exposed in the quarries near Marion, have their upper portion so heavily charged with alumina that they rapidly disintegrate upon exposure to the atmosphere. No marked line can be drawn separating the upper fifteen feet from the lower ten feet, as the change from the shaly upper strata to the lower harder and more massive beds is gradual. The lower portion has a conchoidal fracture, as shown in the talus. Certain of the strata would, no doubt, be desirable for architectural purposes, if it were not for the thickness of the overlying mass of worthless material. The current of the river is such that the talus is removed nearly as fast as formed, and a vertical face is thus presented.

in Indiana. It everywhere presents nearly the same characteristics - heavy, massive beds below, gradually changing to a calcareous shale or an argillaceous limestone above. The variations observed in the color of the different strata is due, in great part, to oxidation of the iron which they contain. The lower strata have almost invariably a bluish-green color; occasionally changed to a light drab or stained with iron, while the upper layers are of a gray or whitish color, only occasionally bluish. The upper portion has very little economic value, as only occasionally are the beds of sufficient thickness or of such a quality as to render them fit for even the lighter purposes of masonry. In Delaware County portions of the upper strata are sufficiently free from silica and alumina to make a lime of fair quality; in fact, all the lime burned in that county comes from the upper layers. The lower strata afford nearly all the building stone of eastern Indiana. They are undoubtedly the western extension of the famous Springfield beds of Ohio, and I have given them, in the general section, that name, 'as they are the same strata to which Prof. Orton assigned that name in Ohio. Everywhere throughout eastern Indiana these beds yield a good building stone, and in some localities in Marion, Decatur and Franklin Counties it is hardly surpassed, either in beauty or durability, by Indiana's famous oolitic limestone. It is almost an inexhaustible mine of wealth.

The upper portion of the section last given is the probable equiyalent of, at least, the lower part of the Guelph limestone of Canada, or the Cedarville beds of the Ohio geologists. Although cherty at this locality, this portion of the Niagara is as noted for the excellent lime which it produces as the Springfield beds are for building stone. It has not yet been identified south of Delaware and Madison Counties. In Decatur and Madison Counties the Devonian rocks immediately overlie the Springfield beds. Throughout northeastern Indiana, south of the Wabash River, it is the surface rock over a greater part of Randolph, Jay, Wells, Blackford, Grant, Huntington, Miami and Wabash Counties. This portion of the Niagara is its only true coral-reef formation. The change from the muddy sea, in which the upper portion of the Springfield beds was deposited, to the clear seas of this coral-reef epoch, is marked. The rock is one mass of broken and pulverized shells and corals. North of Grant County it is probable that this part of the Niagara

The last named forms the base of the Niagara group as determined by Dr. Elrod in his report of Decatur County, in the geological report for 1882. This section would, probably, require some modification in the construction of a general section of the whole Niagara group of the State, as the character of the strata varies somewhat along the Ohio River, and it is, at present, difficult to tell whether the Waldron shale belongs to the Springfield beds or to the Guelph. No exposure of the Niagara shale occurs in this county, as the bottoms of the quarries barely reach the base of the Springfield beds.

It will be of interest to most readers to learn that the quarry rock exposed north of Marion, along the river, is probably the westward extension of the strata over which the torrent flows at Niagara Falls (there ninety feet thick and the shales, below, sixty feet).

I have thought best to digress somewhat from the report of this county, in order to give an explanation of the relation the rocks of this county sustain to the Niagara group as a whole.

About one mile below Mr. Bowman's quarry Mr. John Mellott is taking out a fine building stone. The shaley layers have mostly been removed by erosion, and the thick and valuable beds are easily accessible. Stone from this quarry was used for the abutments of the bridge which spans the river at this point, and it shows no evidence of disintegration as yet. The fossils found here are the same as those at Mr. McKinney's quarry.

SECTION AT MELLOTT'S QUARRY. Feet. Inches. Gray argillaceous limestone, unevenly bedded, varying from 2 to 8 inches thick; breaks into irregular

About one-half mile south of Mier is an outcrop near Pipe Creek. It is here a yellowish limestone, in thin layers and unevenly bedded. Some of the lower strata furnish the principal building stone used in this vicinity. Rock is near the surface over quite an area, as it is frequently struck in digging wells. In Section 9, Franklin Township, is an exposure of a whitish rock, in strata from one to four inches thick. Preparations are now being made to work this quarry on an extensive scale, as the rock has proved durable. Trials show that it produces lime of an excellent quality. This is the purest limestone seen. Being free from silica and alumina, it would probably yield a superior lime, and there need be but little waste, as that not suitable for architectural uses could be calcined, and the quarry thus be very profitable.

Limestone is frequently found near the surface for a number of miles south of here. An exposure occurs about midway between Marion and Jonesboro, but it is the blue rock, and similar to that below Marion.

The drift has brought many Devonian and Niagara fossils here, either from rock which once covered the county or from the destruction of that formation to the north and east. Among them were <Acervularia Davidsoni, Cystiphyllum Americanum, Diphyphyllum cespitosum, Eridophyllum rugosum, Favosites Emmonsi, and Lyellia Americana. These corals are the petrified wasp nests, honey-combs, roots, ete., of common parlance.