Fillmore County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 32 of those read), 1882 (part 1 of 2)

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 32 of those read)

INDIAN STlfPATHIZEEtS - MEMORIAIi TO THB PBB3IDENT - ^THK HANQINO OP THIBTY-EIGHT - ANNXTIi- IiINQ THB TBBATIE3 WITH OEBTAIN SIOUX - BBHOVAIi OF WINNEBAOOES AND SIOUX TO THB UPPBB MISSOUBI.

After the campaign of 1862, and the guilty parties were confined at Camp Lincoln, near Mendota, the idea of executing capitaUy, three hundred Indians, aroused the sympathy of those far removed from the scenes of their inhuman butcheries. President Lincoln was importuned, principally by parties in the East, for the release of these savages. The voice of the blood of innocence crying from the ground, the wailings of mothers bereft of their children was hushed in the tender cry of sympathy for the condemned. Even the Christian ministers, stem in the belief that, "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed," seemed now the most zealous for the pardon of these merciless outlaws, who, without cause had shed the blood of innocent women and children in a time of peace.

Senator M. S. Wilkinson'and Congressmen C. Aldrich and William Windom, made an urgent appeal to the President for the proper execution of the sentence in the case of these Indians. From this appeal the following extract will be sufficient to indicate its character:

"The people of Minnesota, Mr. President, have stood firmly by you and your Administration. They have given both you and it their cordial support. They have not violated any law. They have borne these sufferings with patience, such as few people have ever exhibited under extreme trials. These Indians now are at their mercy; but our people have not risen to slaughter, because they believed their President would deal with them justly.

"We are told, Mr. President, that the committee from Pennsylvania, whose families are living happily in their pleasant homes in that state, have called upon you to pardon these Indians. We protest against the pardon of these Indians; because if it is done, the Indians will become more insolent and cruel than they ever were before, believing, as they certainly will, that their Great Father at Washington either justifies their acts or is afraid to punish them for their crimes.

-*We protest against it, because, if the President does not permit the execution to take place under the forms of law, the outraged people of Minnesota will dispose of these wretches without law. These two people cannot live together. We do not wish to see mob law inaugurated in Minnesota, as it certainly wiU be, if you force the people to it. We tremble at the approach of such a condition of things in our state.

"You can give us peace, or you can give us lawless violence. We pray you, as in view of all we have suffered, and of the danger which still awaits us, let the law be executed. Let j iistice be done to our people."

The press of Minnesota, without a single exception, insisted that the condemned Indians should expiate their dreadful crime upon the gallows, while the Eastern press, with some few exceptions, gave vent to the deep sympathy of the sentimental philosophers and the fanciftd strains of the imaginative poets. It seemed to our Eastern neighhoi's that Minnesotians, in their contact with savage life, had ceased to appreciate the that they had looked upon the modem race of savages in their criminal degradation until they had well-nigh forgotten the renoun of Massasoit, and his noble sons Alexander and Philip.

But two hundred years never fails to change somewhat the character and sentiments of a great people, and blot from its memory something of its accredited history. This may have happened in the case of our fellow-kinsmen in the Eastern and Middle States. They may not now fully enter into the views and sentiments of those who witnessed the outrages of Philip and his cruel warriors in their conspiracies against the infant colonies; in their attacks upon Springfield, Hatfield, Lancaster, Medfield, Seekong, Groton, Warwick, Marlborough, Plymouth, Taunton, Scituate, Bridgewater, and Northfield. They seem not fully now to appreciate the atrocities of the savages of these olden times. The historian of the times of Philip was not so sentimental as some of later days.

" The town of Springfield received great injury from their attacks, more than thirty houses being burned; among the rest one containing a 'brave library,' the finest in that part of the country, which belonged to the Rev. Pelatiah Glover."

''This,'* says Hubbard, "did, more than any other, discover the said actors to be the children of the devil, full of all subtilty and malice.*' And we of the present can not perceive why the massacre of innocent women and children should not as readily discover these Minnesota savages, under Little Crow, to be children of the devil as the burning of a minister's library two hundred years ago. Minnesotians lost by these Indians spiiXNDiD, not to say hrax>e libraries; but of this minor evil they did not complain, in their demand for the execution of the condemned murderers.

Indians are the same in all times. Two hundred years have wrought no change upon Indian ch:iracter. Had King Philip been powerful enough, he would have killed all the white men inhabiting the New England Colonies. **Once an Indian, always an Indian," is fully borne out by their history during two hundred years' contact with the white race.

Memorials To The President

try Bpoke and felt in regard to Indians very muoh 88 Minnesotians now speak and feel. When Weetamore, queen of Pocasset, and widow of Alexander, Philip's eldest brother, in attempting to escape from the pursnit of Captain Church, hnd lost her life, her head was cut off by those who discovered her, and fixed upon a pole at Taunton ! Here, being discovered by some of her loving subjects, then in captivity, their unrestrained grief at the shocking sight is characterized by Mather as *'a most horrid and diabolical lamentation!" Have Minnesotians exhibited a more unfeeling sentiment than this, even against condemned murderers ? Mather lived, it is tnie, amid scenes of Indian barbarity. Had he lived in the present day and witnessed these revolting cruelties, he would have said with Colonel H. H. Sibley, **My heart is steeled against them." But those who witnessed the late massacre could truly say, in the language of an Eastern poet,

Early in December, 1862, while the final decision of the President was delayed, the valley towns of Minnesota, led off by the city of St. Paul, held primary meetings, addressed by the most intelligent speakers of the different localities- An extract from a memorial of one of the assemblages of the people is given as a sample of others of similar import. The extract quoted is from the St. Paul meeting, drawn up by George A. Nourse, United States District Attorney for the District of Minnesota:

*To the President of the United States: We, the citizens of St. Paul, in the State of Minnesota^ respectfully represent that we have heard, with regret and alarm, through the public press, reports of an intention on the part of the United States Government to dismiss without punishment the Sioux warriors captured by our soldiers; and further, to allow the several tribes of Indians lately located upon reservations within this State to remain upon the reservations.

"Against any such policy we respectfully but firmly protest. The history of this continent presents no event that can compare with the late Sioux outbreak in wanton, unprovoked, and fiendish cruelty. All that we have heard of Indian warfare in the early history of this country is tame in contrast with the atrocities of this late massacre. Without warning, in cold blood, beginning with tliQ murder of their best friends, the whole body of the Annuity Sioux commenced a deliberate scheme to exterminate every white person upon the land once occupied by them, and by them long siuce sold to the United States. In carrying out this bloody scheme they have spared neither age uor sex, only reserving, for the gratification of their brutal lust, the few white women whom the rifle, the tomaliawk and the scalping-knife spared. Nor did thoir fiendish barbarities oease with death, as the mutilated corpses of their victims, disemboweled, cut limb from limb, or chopped into fragments, will testify. These cruelties, too, were m many cases preceded by a pretense of friendship; and in many instances the victims of these Uiore than murderers were shot down in cold blood as sooa as their backs were turned-, after a cordial shaking of the hand and loud professions of friendship on the part of the murderers.

"We ask that the same judgment should be pfissed and executed upon these deliberate murderers, thesa ravishers, these mutilators of their m irdered victims, that would be passed upon \vhit« men guilty of the same offense. The blood of hundreds of our murdered and mangled fellowcitizens cries from the groxind for vengeance. * /eogeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;' and the authorities of the United States are, we balieve, the chosen instruments to execute that vengeance. Let them not neglect their plain duty.

"Ncr do we ask alone for vengeance. We demand security for the future. There can be no safety for us or for our families unless an example shall be mada of those who have committed the horrible murders and barbarities we have recited. Let it b3 once understood that these Indians can commit such crimes, and be pardoned upon surrendering themselves, and there is henceforth a torch for every white man's dwelling, a knife for every white man's heart upon our frontier.

"Nor will even the most rigorous punishment give perfect security against these Indians so long as any of them are left among, or in the vicinity of our border settlements. The Indian's nature can no more be trusted than the wolf's. Tame him, cultivate him, strive to (Christianize him as you will, and the sight of blood will in an instant call out the savage, wolfish, devilish instincts of the race. It is notorious that among the earliest and most murderous of the Sioux, in perpetrating their late massacre, were many of the 'civilized Indians,' so called, with their hair cut short, wear-

"We respectfully ask, we demand that the captive Indians now in the hands of our military forces, proved before a military commission to be guilty of murder, and even worse crimes, shall receive the punishment due those crimes. This, too, not merely as a matter of vengeance, but much more as a matter of future security for our border settlers.

"We ask, further, that these savages, proved to be treacherous, unreliable, and dangerous beyond example, may be removed from close proximity to our settlements, to such distance and such isolation as shall make the people of this State safe from their future attacks."

Disappointment Of Thb People In Minnesota

The final decision of the President, on the 17th of December, 1862, ordering the execution of thirty-nine of the three hundred condemned murderers, disappointed the people of Minnesota. These thirty-nine were to be hung on Friday, the 26th of December.

It was not strange that the people of Minnesota were disappointed. How had New England looked upon her Indian captives in her early history? Iler history says:

" King Philip was hunted like a wild beast, his body quartered and set on poles, his head exposed as a trophy for tw(n'y years on a gibbet, in Plymouth, and one of his hands sent to Boston; then the ministers returned thanks, and one said that they had prayed a bullet into Philip's heart. In 1677, on a Sunday, in Marblehead, the women, as they came out of the meeting-house, fell upon two Inditms that had been brought in as captives, and, in a very tumultuous way, murdered them, in revenge for the death of some fishermen."

These Puritan ideas have greatly relaxed in the descendants of the primitive stock. But, as the sepulchers of the fathers are garnished by their children as an indorsement of their deeds, shall we not hope that those who haAe in this way given evidence of their paternity will find some palliation for a people who have sinned in the similitude of their fathers?

On the 24th of December, at the request of the citizens of Mankato of a previous date. Colonel Miller, (Ex-Gbvemor Stephen Miller, whose death at Woithington, Minn., took place in August, 1881 ), in order to secure the public peace, declared

On Monday, the 2 1st, the thirty -nine had been removed to apartments separate and distinct from the other Indians, and the death-warrant was made known to them through an interpreter - the Bev. Mr. Biggs, one of the Sioux missionaries. Through the interpreter, CJolonel Miller addressed the prisoners in substance, as follows:

" The commanding officer at this place has called to speak to you upon a very serious subject this afternoon. Your Great Father at Washington, after carefully reading what the witnesses Jiave testified in your several trials, has come to the conclusion that you have each been guilty of wantonly and wickedly murdering his white children; and, for this reason, he has directed that you each be hanged by the neck until you are dead, on next Friday, and that order will be carried into effect od that day at ten o'clock in the forenoon.

" Grood ministei-s, both Catholic and Protestant, are here, from among whom each of you can select your spiritual adviser, who will be permitted to commune with you constantly during the few days that you are yet to live."

Adjutant Arnold was then instructed to read to them in English the letter of President Lincoln, which, in substanc stated the number and names of those condemned for execution, which letter was also read by Bev. S. B. Big^s, in Dakota.

The Colonel further instructed Mr. Biggs to tell them that they had so sinned against their fellowmen that there is no hope of clemency except in the mercy of God through the merits of the Blessed Bedeemer, and that he earnestly exhorted them to apply to Him as their only remaining source of consolation.

The number condemned was forty, but one died before the day fixed for the execution, and one, Henry Milord, a half breed, had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for Hfe in the penitentiary; so that thirty-eight only were hung.

On the 16th of February, 1863, the treaties before that time existing between the United States and these annuit y Indians were abrogated and annulled, and all lands and rights of occupancy within the etate of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims then existing in favor of said Indians ware declared forfeited to the United States.

These Indians, in the language of the act, had, in the year 1862, "made unprovoked aggression and most savage war upon the United States, and massacred a large number of men, women and children within the state of Minnesota;" and as in this war and massacre they had "destroyed and damaged a large amount of property, and thereby forfeited all just claims** to their "monies and annuities to the United Slates," the act provides that "two-thirds of the balance remaining unexpended" of their annuities for the fiscal year, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, and the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars, being two-thirds of the annuities becoming due, and payable during the next fiscal year, should be appropriated and paid over to three commissioners appointed by the President, to be by them apportioned among the heads of families, or their survivors, who pufifered damage by the depredations of said Indians, or the troops of the United States in the war against them, not exceeding the sum of two hundred dollars to any one family, nor more thjm actual damage sustained. All claims for damages were required, by the act, to be presented at certain times, and according to the rules prescribed by the commissioners, who should hold their first session at St. Peter, in the state of Minnesota, on or before the first Monday of April, and make and return their finding, and all the papers relating thereto, on or before the first Monday in December, 1863.

The President appointed for this duty, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the Hons. Albert S. White, of the state of Indiana, Eli R Chase, of Wisconsin, and Cyrus Aldrich, of Minnesota.

The dutififj of this board were so vigorously prosecuted, that, by the 1st of November following their appointment, some twenty thousand sheets of legal cap paper had been consumed in reducing to writing the testimony under the law requiring the commi/iirioners to report the testimony in writing, anOL proper decisions made requisite to the payment '/f the two htmdred dollars to that class of suflfor/i/« designated by the act of Congress. Such di//patch in Government agents gives abundant evif?(}Ace of national vigor and integrity.

It no doubt, the object of this act of Congress io> make such an appropriation as would relieve Qifb sufferings of those who had lost aU presen « /Afans of support, and for the further purpose of fi3(y»rtaining the whole amount of claims for drjDfiges as a necessary prerequisite to future legieJy.h'oa. Regarded in this light, the act is one of wir/Iom and economy.

On the 21st of February following the annulling of the treaty with the Sioux above named, Congress passed "An act for the removal of the Winnebago Indians, and the sale of their reservation in Minnesota for their benefit." The money arising from the sale of their lands, after paving their indebtedness, is to be paid into the treasury of the United States, and expended, as the same is received, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in necessary improvements upon their new reservation. The lands in the new reservation are to be allotted in severalty, not exceeding eighty acres to each head of a family, except to the chiefs, to whom larger allottments may be made, to be vested by patent in the Indian and his heirs, without the right of alienation.

These several acts of the Gteneral (Government moderated to some extent the demand of the people for the execution of the condemned Sioux yet in the mihtary prison at Mankato awaiting the final decision of the President. The removal of the Indians from the borders of Minnesota, and the opening up for settlement of over a million of acres of superior land, was a prospective benefit to the State of immense value, both in its domestic quiet and its rapid advancement in material wealth.

In pursuance of the acts of Congress, on the 22d of April, and for the purpose of carrying them into execution, the condemned Indians were first taken from the State, on board the steamboat Favorite, carried down the Mississippi, and confined at Davenport, in the etate of Iowa, where they remained, with only such privileges as are allowed to convicts in the penitentiary.

On the 4th of May, A. D. 1863, at six o'clock in the afternoon, certain others of the Sioux Indians, squaws and pappooses, in all about seventeen hundred, left Fort Snelling, on board the steamboat Davenport, for their new reservation on the Upper Missouri, above Fort Randall, accompanied by a strong guard of soldiers, and attended by certain of the missionaries and employes, the whole being under the general direction of Superintendent Clark W. Thompson. By these two shipments, some two thousand Sioux had been taken from the State and removed far from the borders of Minnesota. The expedition of 1863, fitted out against the scattered bands of the Sioux yet remaining on the borders of the State, or still further removed into the D.ikota Territory, gave to the border settlements some assurance of protection and seou4ty

Ui8T0Ry Of Tub Sioux Massacre

On Friday evening, July 3, 1863, Mr. Lampson and his son Chaunoey, while traveling along the road, about six miles north of Hutchinson, discovered two Indians in a little prairie opening in the woods, interspersed with clumps of bushes and vines and a few scattering poplars, picking berries. These two Indians were Little Crow and his son Wowinapa.

Statement By His Son

**I am the son of Little Crow; my name is Wowinapa; I am sixteen years old; my father had two wives before he took my mother; the first one had one son, the second one a son and daughter;' the third wife was my mother. After taking my mother he put away the first two; ho had seven children by my mother - six are dead ; I am the only one living now; the fourth wife had four children bom; do not know whether any died or not; two were boys and three were girls; the fifkh wife had five children - ^three of them are dead, two are living ; the sixth wife had three children; all of them are dead; the oldest was a boy, the olher two were girls; the last four wives were sisters.

"Father went to St. Joseph last spring. When we were coming back he said he could not fight the white men, but would go below and steal horsss from them, and give them to his children, so that they could be comfortable, and then he would go. away off.

"Father also told me that he was getting old, and wanted me to go with him to carry his bundles. He left his wives and his other children behind. There were sixteen men and one squaw ih the party that went below with us. We had no horses, but walked all the way down to the settlements. Father and I were picking red-berries, near Scattered Lake, at the time he was shot. It was near night. He was hit the first time in the side, just above the hip. His gun and mine were lying on the ground. He took up my gun and fired it first, and then fired his own. He was shot the second time when he was firing his own gun. The ball struck the stock of his gun, and then hit him in the side, near the shoulder. This was the shot that killed him. He told me that he was killed, and asked me for water, which I gave him. He died immediately after. When I heard the

"A short time before father was killed an Indian named Hiuka, who married the daughter of my father's second wife, came to him. He had a horse with him - also a gray-colored coat that he had taken from a man that he had killed to the north of where father was killed. He gave the coat to father, telling him he might need it when it rained, as he had no coat with him. Hiuka said he hcd a horse now, and was going back to the Indian country.

"The Indians that went down with us separated. Eight of them and the squaw went north; the other eight went further down. I have not seen any of them since. After father was killed I took both guns and the ammunition and started to go to Devil's Lake, where I expected to find some of my friends. When I got to Beaver creek I saw the tracks of two Indians, and at Standing Buffalo's village saw where the eight Indians that had gone north had crossed.

"I carried both guns as far as the Sheyenne river, where I saw two men. I was scared, and threw my gun and the ammunition down. After that I traveled only in the night; and, as I had no ammunition to kill anything to eat, I had not strength enough to travel fast. I went on until I arrived near Devil's Lake, when I staid in one place three days, being so weak and hungry that I could go no further. I had picked up a cartridge near Big Stone Lake, which I still had with me, and loaded father's gun with it, cutting the ball into slugs. With this charge I shot a wolf, ate some of it, which gave me strength to travel, and went on up the lake until the day I was capfcured, which was twenty-six days from the day my father was killed."

Here ends this wonderful episode in our contact with the Indian race in Minnesota. It commenced with Little Crow, in this instance, and it is proper that it should end with his inglorious life. With the best means for becoming an exponent of Indian civilization on this continent, he has driven the missionaries from his people and become a standing example of the assertion: "Once an Indian always an Indian."

Little Crow has indeed given emphasis to the aphorism of Ferdousi, "For that which is unclean by nature, thou cans't entertain no hope; no washing will make the gypsy white."

History Chaiter Xliv

Fillmore county is on the sonthern border of tlie state of Minnesota, the second from the Mississippi River. Olmsted and Winona counties are contiguous on the north, Houston county on the east, Iowa State on the south, and Mower county on the west. It has twenty-four townships coincident with the government survey, and in' the political organization of the several towns the original bounds have been preserved, except in a few cases which will be noticed in the sketch of the towns where the variations occur.

The county of Fillmore was created on the 5th of March, 1853. Its area was much larger then than now, the present boundaries being established in 1855.

The county seat was at first at Chatfield, in 1865, it was removed to Carimona, and in 1856, a vot« of the people established it permanently in Preston where good substantial county buildings have since been erected.

The county lies between the forty-third and forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and between ranges seven and fourteen west and townships one hundred and one and one huadred and five north. The principal river is the Root River which comes into tlie CDunty from the west about six miles from the northern boundary, and meandering toward the east crosses the line about three miles south of the northeast corner. It has several branches coming in at various points, the largest of which is the south branch which vies with the main branch as to size, and arises outside of the county on the wast and unites in the northeast part of Carrolt<)n with the main stream. This branch also has has other branches quite important coming generally from the south. The South Fork of the Root River which becomes an important stream in Houston county, arises in the southern central part of this county and leaves it near the center of the eastern boundary.

The various rivers and the topographical features are more fully described in the geological sketch and in the separate township delineations.

The county is four townships wide from north to south, ort wenty-four miles, and six from east to west, or thirty-six miles; its area })eing about 864 square miles, or 553,081.77 acres. It has very few acres not suitable for tillage, and unlike many other counties to the north and west, it is a lakeless region.

Preston is the county seat, and the geographical center of the county is but a few blocks from the Court House, as the village is in the northwest corner of the township of the same name and touches the corner of three other towns.

The other principal villages in the county are Lanesboro, Spring Valley, Chatfield, and Rushford, and there are several other villages of more or less importance as elements of future growth which are described in the township histories. Tbe names and location of the several towns in the county will be, here given with brief mention of their surface peculiarities, beginning in the northeast comer, on the plan of the government numbering of sections.

RusHFORD. - Boot River crosses the central part of the town, in a valley several hundred feet below the level of the surrounding country. The prairie land is along the bottom land of the Root River, which is inclined to be marshy.

Arendahl. - The Root River goes through the southeast comer. A belt of timber skirts along the northern boundary, and on the east unites with the timber belt of the river. About one- half of the whole town is timbered. There is prairie in the northwest and center.

Pilot Mound. - The Root River crosses it in a southeasterly direction and lays in a deep valley with abrupt rock-bound bluffs several hundred feet high. The greatest part of the town is wooded, but in the northeastern part, and also in the northwestern, there are prairie tracts.

OhatfibijD. - ^This township is bi-sected by the Root River, which runs from west to east. The north branch of the Root River, with its several tributaries, has a rough and rocky character of surface in their vicinity, and there is but little prairie, though there are openings that are without timber.

Jordan. - This town is well covered with heavy timber, the principal prairie region being in the northwestern comer. The Root River runs through the southeastern corner, and also touches at two points iu the southwestern corner of the town.

Sumner. - The Brook Kedron runs southeast through this township to enter Root River, which, under the name "Bear Creek," meanders along the southern border. The southeastern part of the town is wooded, but most of it is fiat prairie.

Spring Valley. - This is the first township of the second tier, on the west. It has Bear Creek along the northern border, and Middle Creek and Deer Creek, which, uniting in Fillmore, the next town east, go to help form Root River. There is ft belt of prairie covering the soufchem tier of sections, and the rest is more or less heavily timbered.

Fillmore. - West of the middle branch of Root River there is a region of heavy timber. The rest of the town is prairie, interspersed with thickets and patches of oak brush and aspen. Three branches of the Root River unite in the northwestern part of the town.

Founta^in. - Watson's Creek, passing through toward the east, causes considerable diversity of surface. It has quite heavy timber along the streams, and small patches scattered over the

Carrolton. - The valley of the south branch of the Root River runs through the town from the southwest corner to near the middle of the eastern boundary, and is quite rough, but not everywhere wooded. In the northern part there is some prairie, with quite heavy timber in the northwest.

Holt. - The Root River, with its characteristic bluffs, crosses the northwest part. In the southeast there is prairie, and also some wet prairie between the bluffs, but with these exceptions the town is wooded.

Norway. - Tliere is a prairie belt entering the town from the south and west, which forms the divide between the tributaries to the South Fork of the Root River and that stream itself; this becomes narrow in the center, but expands toward the northeast. It is somewhat broken by bluffs along the little creeks.

Preble. - This township is crossed in a northeasterly direction by the South Fork of the Root River, and, with its tributaries, introduces a great diversity of surface. There is a limited praine pntch in the southeast corner.

Amher-st. - The South Fork runs through the southern part of this town, and a large portion is prairie, broken with patches of thicket and heavier timber.

PRE.STON. - The south branch of the Root River that sweeps into town at the village, flows around to leave it two miles away. It carries a deeply eroded valley, that gives a marked diversity of surface, with frequent changes from prairie to timber and thicket.

Carimona. - The northern part of the town carries, from east to west, the south branch of the Root River. Much of the township is covered with sparse timber with patches of heavy timber, and the **sink holes" are numerous.

FoRESTviLLE. - This has the same south branch cutting it across below the center from west to east. The central part has timber. In the northwest and in the south are tracts of prairie. It also has "sink holes."

Bloomfield. - The south branch passes through this township south of the center. It has an irregular area of timber and oak brush in the eastem and central parts and spreading northward from the valley; but about two-thirds of the whole is prairie with a few sloughs in the eastern part.

Geological

Beaver. - Slough Creek runs across the town from the northwest corner to the center of the southern boundary, and a strip of tira])er goes with it. Most of the rest is prairie, with several north and south sloughs.

York. - This has no large rivers. A track of wool and thicket cr«)s;>es its territory north and south about two milas wide, east of tlie center. Tlie remainder is prairie.

Brlstol. - This town is made up of prairie and thickets. The prairie crosses it from east to west widening to almost five miles on the west.

Newbctrg. - This town is mostly prairie, in the uortliwest corner near the river is a broken wooded tract. Small timber is also found in the central and southwestern portion, as well as in the northeast.

In the first political organization of the towns on the lltli of May, 1858, the town of Canton was called Elyria, and the towns of Holt and Norway were in one corporation called Douglass. The town of Rushford also embraced that of Areudahl. In other regards the towns remain {xs at first instituted.

Geology

This account of the geology and natural history of the county, is taken from the admirable report of the survey by Prof. N. H. Winchell, State geologist, who has a world-wide reputatitm as a scientific worker and writer, and it is commended to the careful perusal of the readers of this volume, as a knowledge of what we have under our feet Ls most valuable in an economic as well ai^in other regards.

N.ATURAii Drainage. - Root River, with its tributaries, drains nearly the whole of the county. The Upper Iowa Rlvjr, which enters tlie county in Beaver and Bristol townships, receives a few small streams from the southern tier of townships. Root River, flowing to word the east, sj^reads out its tributaries north and soutli, like the rays of a fan, crossing the entire county, from west to east. Many of the branches of the Root River rise in the counties next west and north of Fillmore county, in a tract of country covered with northern drift. After entering Fillmore county, they soon enter canon-like valleys, and the drift becomes much lighter. They then converge toward the main valley, following deeply cut rocky valleys, and leave the county in one voliune at Rushford, in the northeastern corner of the county. Those streams furnish frequent water power privileges, and a number of them have been improved in the erection of mills, which are scattered throughout the county and are elsewhere described.

At the Tunnel Mills, section thirty-four, Sumner, advantage has been taken of the winding course of Bear Greek. The creek is enclosed on both sides by high rocky walls. A timnel has been cut through the narrow neck, excavated in* the rock, admitting the water, which falls again into the river on section thirty-four, producing a fall of 25 feet in 600 feet. The cut in the rock is 600 teei long, for the tunnel, and 100 feet for the tail-race. At G. Weisbeck's Mill, a similar opportunity is offered. This is on section eleven. Spring Valley. By a tunnel of 70 feet, through the *'Hog's Back," a fall of 17 feet 10 inches may be secured; and at the lime-kiln of Mr. J. H. Hall, near Weisbeck's, a tunnel of 125 feet will furnish a power of 20 feet. About 20 rods from Weisbeck's, a tunnel of 450 feet will afibrd 64 feet head of watt r. The rock is limestone, in horizontal bedding.

Surface Features. - That portion of the county which is covered with a thick deposit of foreign drift presents the usual monotony of surface, characteristic of the drift latitudes. This includes the most of the western range of townships across the western end of the county, and some portions of the next range east. Tliere are, however, even within the drift area, a number of narrow, deeply cut valleys, with precipitous, rocky bluffs, having very much the nature of canons, like those of the ^riftless territories of the west. Toward the east these deeply cut valleys are more numerous. All little streams, and a great many narrow valleys that have no running water in them, have high, rocky bluffs along the'r whole course. These valleys and streams, constituting tlie drainage system of the county, converge toward the valley of Root River. The valley of this stream, with its principal tributaries, presents some of the most remarkable and instructive phenomena of erosion to be found in the State. It passes nearly at right aDgles acros8 the strike of the formations. These are alternating limestones nnd sandstones, with an occasional bed of soft flh^le. The Trenton limestone, underlaid by the easily eroded St. Peter sandstone, the same as at the Falls of St. Anthony, although about a hundred and sixty feet in thickness, is eaten into by the retroaction of the water as it plunges over the falls at the point where the streams cross the line of its superposition over the St. Peter, until they have each excavated in the Trenton a deep channel from fifteen to thirty miles in extent. Through the line of strike of the St. Peter these valleys are widened out, the surface of the low ground within the bluirs being usually one of rich meadow with undulating surface, from one to two hundred feet below the general - level. The Lower Magnesia Formation is entered upon by the streams while they are as yet a good many miles within the general area of the Trenton. As this formation consists of threa members, (two limestones, sepaiated by a sandstone thirty feet in thickness,) it repeats the succession of phenomena witnessed in the erosion of the Trenton and St. Peter. As the water leaves the Shakopee limestone and enters upon the Jordan sandstone, it passes over a series of rapids or a fall of several feet perpendicular, which falls or rapids undergo a process of recession under the same causes as produce the recession of the Trenton-St. Peter falls. Again, when the stream passes from the St. Lawrence limestone upon the St. Croix sandstone the same conjunction of circumstances causes another rapid or waterfall. Thus by a series of steps^ more or less evident, the branches of the Root River descend from the area of the Galena limestone to the St. Croix sandstone. The valleys widen in the sandstone areas, and become abruptly narrow in the limestone belts. In passing down a stream, within a sandstone area, where the valley is perhaps half a mile wide, with tilled farms in the bottom land, the high bluffs being remote from the stream, the first indication of an approaching change in the formation is the rise of a terrace along the immediate river bank, with an occasional exposure of lime rock facing the water. This terrace, which becomes almost continuously rocky, rises slowly till it exposes the full thickness of the rock which causes it. On the other hand, the first evidence of a change from limestone to sandstone, visible in descending the stream, is the occurrence of a waterfall or rapid. Such changes produce water-powers, many of which have been improved. Hence, the location of a flouring mill, on one of these branches, is an intimation to the geologist that at that point one of his boundary lines crosses that stream. Around these points gathered the first village settlements. Preston is located where the water-power formed by the descent of the river from the Shakopee on to the Jordan induced the construction of mills. The water-power at Chatfield is formed in the same way. Near Fillmore the branches of Root River, known as D »er and Bear Creeks, afford good water-powers by their descent from the lower Trenton to the St. Peter. Mills have been built at both points. On the south branch of Root River, above Forestville, the stream leaves the Trenton, and the waterfall has Ijeen improved in the same manner at Baldwin's Mill. The same fact is illustrated by a large number of eastward flowing streams, in the eastern border counties, between Fillmore county and the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis. Of course, rapids are also likely to b3 formed, especially in small streams, when passing through the areas of rock of uniform hardlicss. Such water- powers, and others that are formed by the construction of dams, do not fall into this class.

While the immediate valleys of Root River and its tributaries are apt to be rocky, the country that spreads out in either direction, after leaving the valleys, is not rough. It is rolling, or undulating. In the eastern portion the rooks are covered by a heavy deposit of rich, clayey loam, known as the loess, which fills up many depressions, and lends » uniform and remarkable fertility to the soil. It constitutes the soil. The farms are all well drained, naturally. The county contains no lakes. In York township there is a slough which on some maps is represented as a lake. It is about a quarter of a mile across. The Trenton area is distinctly separated, topographically, from that of St. Peter and the lower formations. From the Trenton to the Lower Magnesian the surface descends by a step or terrace, about 125 feet. Some of the Trenton areas are isolated from the main area, and constitute small tables or mounds, which are well known as "Trenton mounds" in the early reports. Some travelers have referred them to the agency of the ancient '-mound builders," and a good many of the residents, who are not aware of the geological causss that have produced them, still believe that they are artificial instead of natural. From some of the elevated Trenton areas overlooking the river valleys, magnificient views of landscape may be had. From the elevated Trenton area in Newborg township, the eye looks over the valley of Root River, and can almost discern the Trenton bluffs on the opposite slopes of Root River in the north Dm part of the county. From the peninsula of the Trenton running north between Camp and and Willow Creeks, in Preston township, the' village of Fountain is plainly discernible across the valleys of the south branch of Root River and Watson's Creek, with a wide expanse of alternating timber and prairie between, while on either aide is a broad, undulating valley of prairie land. Od the east is Camp Creek valley, and on the west is that of Willow Creek. These valleys are deep and wide, but owing to the thickness of the loess loam, the slopes are gentle and broad, and, in the fall of the year, when the industry of the farmer is exhibited in the plowing of his wheat fields, and the threshing of his last crop, in every direction may be heard the rattle of threshers, often running by steam, and may be seen a hundred teams preparing for the next harvest. Another magnificent view may be obtained from the Trenton peninsula on sections ten and fifteen in Carrolton. From here the view extends north over the valley of Root River to the Trenton bluffs along the north boundary of the county, a distance of over forty miles, and toward the south over the valley of the south branch of Root River, looking over Preston and Lanesboro, which are situated within the river bluflRs, so far below the general level of the country that they can be seen, but a short distance before reaching them. Further down Root River valley, the gorge in which the river runs becomes wider, being at Rushford about two miles in width, with fine farm lands in the bottoms. The bluffs are rounded off with age, and have a thin soil, generally turfed, tliough showing frequent rock exposure. The river is there 565 feet below the tops of the blufis, as measured by aneroid. At Whalan, in Holt township, the river is, by the same measurement, 470 feet below the top of the Trenton terrace on section twenty. Whalan's Bluff is 250 feet high above the river. At Lanesboro, in Carrolton, the river is 285 feet below the immediate river bluffs, which consist wholly of the Lower Magnesian formation, and about 440 feet below the top of the Trenton terrace on section twenty. Holt. At Preston the river at the stone mill is 335 feet below the Trenton terrace, which forms the general level about a mile south of the village. At Isinours station the river runs 145 feet below the top of the Shakopee limestone which forms there the brow of the immediate river blutTs. At Forestville, the height of the country, north of the village, above the river, is 285 feet. The immediate river bluffs are 190 feet above the mill pond. At Chatfield, the river is about 222 feet below the general level of the country., At Fillmore, the prairie upland is 200 feet above the river level. From Fountain to Isinours station, the track of the Southern Minnesota railroad descends 401 feet, passing from the upper Trenton to the St. Lawrence, and entering the latter formation about twenty-five feet, the rocks all lying nearly horizontal. At Weisbeck's Mill, on Deer Creek, section eleven, Spring Valley, the river is 205 feet below the general level of the country. There is here a little drift, but the cut is mostly in the Galena and Trenton limestones. The village of Fountain is about 350 feet higher than the terrace, at Preston, on which the Stanwix House stands. These measurements might be multiplied, but enough have been given to show the unevenness of the surface, due to erosion. The rocks lie everywhere nearly hoiizontal. The varied topography of the county is due to the infiuence of running water and atmospheric forces, on tlie rocks, combined *with their alternations of Umestone with soft sandstone. The limestones are firm, a4|d resist these forces much longer than the sandstones. They alternate in the following manner, in descending order.

The limestones form the prominent features in the topography. They have the most frequent outcrops. The project along the summits of the bliifis, and constitute the brows of benches or terraces that diversify the county. The sandstones never, or very seldon, appear in the tops of the bluffs. They outcrop in sheltered nooks, or below the line of the limestone exposure. They are more likely to be hid by soil and turf. The lower Trenton contains, besides about twenty feet above the St. Peter sandstone, a layer of easily eroded green shale, which, outcropping by roadsides, introduces a series of springs and muddy spots, being impervious to water, that invariably follows that boundary line wherever it goes. It withstands the disintegrating action of the elements even more successfully than the limestones themselves. For that reason it protects that portion of the Trenton which lies below it, long after that which lies above it has been entirely denuded. The strike of the upper Trenton is often driven back several miles from that of the lower Trenton. The lime rock which lies below this shale is about twenty feet thick. The singular Trenton mounds, which have already been mentioned, are composed of the lower Trenton protected by a greater or less thickness of the green shale, and a portion of the St. Peter sandstone. Instances of the wearing down of the Trenton and St. Peter formations are seen in almost every square mile in the loam-covered area along the outrunning strike of the Trenton.

Throughout the Trenton area are found a great many depressions that are well known as ^'sinkholes.** These consist of broken down spots in the drift or loam, where it had been spread over a pre-existing canon in the rock. In some places they are very numerous, but are confined, so far as known, with but a single exception, to the Trenton areas. They throw some light on the condition of rocky surface prior to the period which witnessed the spreading of the drift. Tlie rock was wrought, at least in Fillmore county, in very much the same manner as we now see it along th# river gorges- The immense valleys of erosion which we see, not only in Fillmore county, but also throughout the tract that has been denominated the "Driftless area," were excavated before the glacial ppriod. When the streams of the present time run in such gorges they have been so located by the exigencies of surface drainage and erosion since the glacial epoch. That these gorges antedate the glacial period is shown by their existence beneath the glacial drift. Thf se "sink hok»8*' sometimes occur in line^, and with increasing frequency and size toward a large valley, and at last coalesce so as to form a continuous valley, though frequently without running water, that becomes tributary to the larger gorge. These gorges under the drift can sometimes be traced for some distance by a series of successive "sink- holes," Sometimes streams are lost in them, and reappear at lower levels. There are several well-known subterranean passages in the county. Lost Creek, in Jordan township, and the Brook Kedron, in Sumner, both have imderground passages for several miles. Canfield Creek, south of Forestville, runs underground about twelve miles, and, finally, the south branch of Root River sinks on the northeast quarter of section ninetet n, Forestville, and runs underground, except in high water, to about the center of section twenty-one, where it reappears again. These underground passages are in the area of the Trenton. They indicate the corrugated surface the country presented prior to the overspreading of the drift and loe.'ss loam. The Trenton cannot be supposed to have been any more subject . to such causes as produced this

! channeling in the rock than the other formations of the Lower Silurian. There is some reason, however, why thesL' gorges are found almost entirely confined to that limestone. As has been said, the rest of the Lower Silurian consists of alternating sandstones and limestones, which conduces to their breaking down laterally, the sandstones easily crumbling out. The Trenton limestone, on the other hand, while it has a thickness of 160 feet, more or less, has, near its base, a bed of impervious shale, which prevents the downward infiltration of surface witer, and protects the underlaying sandstone, Hence the erosions that opt rate laterally, in tearing down the other Lower Silurian formations, are occupied, in the Trenton limestone area, in cutting narrow perpendicular gorges. For this reason the Trenton area is everywhere the highest in the county. From the eastern boundary of the Trenton, looking east, one beholds a broad landscape lying several hundred feet, in some places, below him, the effect of the more rapid denudation of the rocks of that portion of the county. Into such narrow gorges neither the drift nor the loess loam, however deposited, would enter with such compactness as to close up th? pre-existing water courses; and when partially closed up, as they were wherever "sink holes" have since appeared, they have been undergoing ever since a process of re-excavation. This process is revealed in the oc-

^ casional collapsing of the surface soil, and the formation of a new "sink hole," and in the enlarge ment of others, sines the settlement of the county.

In addition to the timbered areas, a great proportion or the county is covered with bushes which are composed of hazel, aspen, oak (two sorts ), an 1, where these are wanting, a species of low willow which seems to come up first after after the prairie fires are stopped. After the wil-. low, haz.?l and oak and aspen gradually come in, and in time convert the original prairie to a bushy or timbered region. Over a great deal of the county this process is going on. There are thousands of acres of young native timber not exceeding five or six inches in diameter.

Soil and Timber. - The soil of the county is generally very fertile. The immediate surface is a loam. This varies in color and composition, as well as in origin. That portion of the county covered with the northern drift has primarily a drift soil, which consists of gravelly clay. Where this forms tlie immediate surface, which is the case only on knolls and on the brows of the river bhiffs, it affords a soil of an ashen color, if dry. In timbered belts it is more stony, or gravelly. In the open prairies, and in low grounds, it is covered with a loam. This is believed to have resulted from the natural decomposition of the coarse materials of the drift, under the calcining influence of the prairie fires, and the frosts of ages. It has never been seen stratified, or arranged with any regularity that would indicate its having been deposited either by standing or running water. In most oases, especiaUy on the open prairie, it is nearly black. As it is mingled with the drift clay it becomes lighter colored. In the low groimds it is much thicker, and also of a black color. Overlapping the drift area, in a belt about five miles wide, is a soil formed by the mingling of the loess loam with the drift. The loess loam is later than the glacial drift, and in the process of deposition it is modified by contact with the drift clay. The loess loam is indistinctly stratified, though it usually appears massive, and consists of fine, often clayey sediment. The soil derived from it, usually sandy and light colored, or rusty, is sometimes so clayey as to make, when wet, a fine and very shppery mud. The soil derived distinctively from the loess loam covers at least one-half of the county, and is supposed to extend to the Mississippi River. It makes a rich and apparently a strong soil, as it supports a cropping of wheat from year to year. It is impossible to define its western limit. If it were derived from a longstanding inland lake, some beach lines would be found indicating its western boundary. No beach lines have l)een found. That it was deposited from standing water can hardly be questioned. It thins out westwardly gradually, passing through a confused or mixed condition, resulting from the minghng of the drift materials with the sediment, or by its overlapping the drift. While the essentially loess loam soil of the eastern part of the county can he distinguished easily from the drift soil of the western, no line of demarkation separating them has been noticed. A line drawn from the southeast comer of Bristol to the northeast comer of Jordan would roughly set off the area tliat has a distinctively loess loam soil. West of that is a belt five or six miles wide, in which the loess loam soil mingles with the drift soil. The rest of the county toward the west is occupied with a distinctively drift soil, or drift loam soil.

The following list embraces such native trees and shrubs as were seen in the survey of the county. The trees are arranged in the estimated order of fre(]^uency. The area covered by native timber is steadily increasing :

Red Oak. Quercus rubra. L. { ?) [This is the oak that is abundant as nn(lerbrush, and small trees. It often forms thickets skirting the outlines of a prairie. ]

White Oak. Quercus alba. L. (Common in the timber in Spring Valley and Jordan townships, and generally along the valleys of the principal streams. J

The (teolooicaij Structure. The rocks of the county beloDg to the Devoniau and to the Upper and Lower Silurian ages. The Cretaceous also appears in Sumner township, in tlie extreme northwestern comer of the county. They occur as armnged in the following order, with their approximate thickness:

With the exception of the Cretaceous these formations have a strike across the county northwest and southeaf>t. They have a gentle dip, at least theoretically, toward the southwest, though no general dip is porceptible. The oldest rock in the county is the St. Croix sandstone, which appears in the northeastern comer of the county. The latest, except the Cretaceous, is the Devonian, in the southwestiTQ part of the county. The boundary between tli(* Trenton and the St. Peter is £he most accurately defined, owing to the terrace which marks it. The boundary between the St. Peter and Shakopee it is impossible to ascertain certainly, because of the universality of the loam, which acts, in that respect, just the same as a heavy drift def)osit, and also because of the persistency of tlu^ Shakopee compared to that of the St. Peter. Wlien the friable rock is below a hard and persistent one, as the St. Peter below the Trenton, the boundary between them can be j traced out easily by the resulting topography; but when the soft one is uppermost it wedges out imperceptibly under the loam, or drift, and one cannot say when it is all gone. In the western part of the county the boundary lines are all obscured by the prevalence of the drift. The Maquoketa shales have Dot been seen in the county. They are visible in the bluffs of the Upper Iowa River, at Lime Springs, about three miles south of the State line,and very probably continue through Fillmore county, in the strike of the Lower Silurian.

The St. Croix Sandstone. - The area of the St. Croix sandstone is small. It only occupies the lower portion of the river bluflfe, and the bottom land included between them, from the county line, near Rushford, to near Lanesboro. This bottom land is sometimes two miles, or more, in width, but it is an alluvial deposit, and never reveals the rock. The only visible outcrops are on the slope of the bluffs. This sandstone also enters the county, in a similar manner, in the valley of the south branch of Root River, and extends about three miles west of the county line.

Its general lithological character is all that can be learned of this rock from its exposures in Fillmore county. The opportunity for examination is very unfavorable. The bluffs, over the interval occupied by it, are almost universally turfed, and a heavy talus rises nearly or quite to the lower level of the St. Lawrence limestone. It is in general a light colored sandstone, with alternations of limestone, and some shale, in its upper portions. The sandstone layers crumble easily. Some of the beds are of a very coarse grain, but the quartz is generally white, almost transparent. The limestone layers are like that of the St. Lawrence, and contain a few fossils, none of which have been studied yet with care sufBcient for a reliable specific identification. At Whalan, about 95 feet of the St. Cro|x sandstone are included in the lower slopes of the bluffs. This thickness of bedding disappears below the river level before reaching Lanesboro. At Rushford, the sandstone, and talus which is supposed to consist mainly of sandstone, rises 375 feet above the river. Near the upper portion of the sandstone, a conspicuous terrace or line of frequent exposure, producing a shoulder, may be seen along the creek in entering Rusliford from the south.

The St. Lawrence Limestone. - This is the lowest portion of the Lower Magnesian formation of Dr. D. D. Owen. In the annual Fv port for 1873, the geology of the Minnesota Valley is given. It is there announced that the great formation to which the name Loioer Magnesian has been applied, consists of three distinct members - two limeetones separated by a sandstone - and the names of the localities where these members have their characteristic outcrops, in that valley, were applied to distinguish them, as they will play an important part in working out the detailed gf ology of the eastern portion of the State. Since the publication of that report, a similar subdivision of the Lower Magnesian has been discovered in the state of Wisconsin, and it is announced in the American Journal of Science and Arts, for June, 1875, by Prof. R, Irving, of the University of Wisconsin. The county of Fillmore lies intermediate between the two points at which this similar alternation of parts in the Lower Magnesian has been identified, and may throw some light on the question of the parallelism of these principal members. Fillmore county is separated from the Mississippi River by one county, Houston, which is twenty -four miles in width, east and wt st, and borders on the state of Iowa.

The area of this limestone is embraced in that which is, in general, assigned to the Lower Magnesian. Along the river bluffs, nearly to Rushford, it is found only in the lower portion of the limt stone belt, as the Jordan sandstone and Shakopee limestone are both preserved, and overlie it; but toward Rushford this limestone begins to be the only one that is found in the bluffs, the other members of the lower Magnesian having a strike across the country some miles in either direction away from the immediate valley. There are places, even further east still, where the overlaying Jordan and Shakopee are preserved and appear in the tops of the river bluffs. The St. Lawrence extends in the bluffs of the Root River to some distance above Isinours station, and nearly to the lower mill at Preston. The Valley of Watson's Creek at Isinours station is cut about twenty-five feet into the St. Lawrence. At Lanesboro the amount of the St. Lawrence visible is about 195 feet. At Whalan 155 feet are seen in the upper portion of Whalan's bluff. At Rushford the uppermost 190 feet of the bluffs are of the St. Lawrence. The thickness of the formation is not far from 200 feet. It constitutes the principal portion of the Lower Magnesian.

The St. Lawrence, in Fillmore county, is a dolomitic UmeMone, with some of its layers distinctly arenaceous, and stained with green sand. In general, its bedding is regular and evident, but there is a thickness of about fifteen feet near the bottom of the formatiom in which the bedding is con- fused, or the layers are lost horizontally. Below this confused bedding are, however, about twentyfive feet of regular beds, which have a fine even grain, and though not plainly arenaceous, yet have a very fine grit. On fre^h surfaces it is of a buff color, varying to cream color. The upper portion abounds in patches of white calcite. There are also in the upper portion spots that show thin, concentric, though wavy, laminations, as if from concretionary f.»rce8, or the result of silicified masses of foraiuiniffny reminding the observer of the laminated masses of limestone from the Laurentian containing the Eozoon. Ctfnadcnse of Dr. Dawson. Though the most of the rock of this formation is vesicular, often coarsely so, it is much used for building, for which it furnishes both large blocks for the heaviest masonry, and fine-grained stone that can be cut into delicate forms. When cut for window caps or sills the cut surfaces are nearly white. The bedding varies in thickness from two ortliree inches to two or three feet, and sometimes embraces thin beds of shaly, light-colored, fine grained rock that is useless for all purposes.

At Clear Grit Mills, in the valley of the Root River, the St. Lawrence begins to show a continuous line of bare rock, in the river bluffs running along tbe lower slopes, and causes a shoulder or terrace in the general descent. A quarry near the mill-dam shows about fifteen feet of even layers. Above these are the layers represented in the railroad cut near tliat place. These are light colrred, dolomitic, vesicular, alx>unding in patches of calcite with some chert, and siliceous concretions, the latter sometimes covered with limonite pesudomorphous after pyrite. The cut exposed the following materials:

At Whalan the St. Lawrence is finely exposed in the bluff that stands in the valley about half a mile below the village. It has here been considerably quarried, and furnishes a very good stone for buildings. It lies in even layers, which ' are easily broken into desirable size and shape, furnishing a good cut-stone of close grain, without openings. Of the 155 feet that here overlie the St. Croix sandstcme, only the lower portion is well exposed. The exposed layers are separated from those seen at tl:e (piarry at C'e.ir Grit by an

5. Hard arenaceous, projecting, foBsiliferous with the remains of trilobites ... 5 feet At Lanesboro the St. Lawrence has been used in the construction of the principal buildings. The quarries are owned by the Lanesboro Company. The stone presents the usual characters, but has associated masses of pyrite, largely converted to limonite, showing octahedral forms of crystals, with combinations. In some of the cherty nodules are found small orthorhombic crystals of hydrated iron peroxide, formed by the conversion of marcasite into limonite. This iron ore is quite plentiful, but seems not to be a native of the rock. It embraces crag and bog-ore deposits, and is referable to the drift period.

The Jordan Sandstone. - This sandstone, lying next above the St. Lawrence limestone, is not so frequently seen along the river bluffs. It is most commonly embraced in that interval of slope that comes between the two lines of limestone outcrop, and which is mostly turfed over, as in the bluffs at Lanesboro, and at points between Preston and Lanesboro. Further down the river, where tlie strike of the Sbakopee runs back from the river a few miles on either side of the valley, it occupies the undulating surface betwecm the -immediate river bluffs and the boundary of the Shakopee, as at Rushford. This sandstone, in the Minnesota valley, has been mistaken for the Potsdam, the overlying Shakopee being supposed to be the lower portion of the lower Magnesias.

In Fillmore county the thickness of the Jordan is not so great as it is in the Minnesota valley. It seems to vary from 25 feet to 40 feet. At Mankato, in Blue Earth county, it is fully fifty feet thick. It is uniformly a coarse grained, qnartzose, crumbling and light, colored sandstone. It is sometimes locally stained with iron from surface water, when it presents a reddish or rusty color, and is apt to be much harder. It has in such cases a shell or thin coating of harder rock, about half an inch in thickness, on the weathered surfaces, on penetrating which the grains are loosely cemented, and even crumbling. In other places it presents internally a streaked appearance, due to the stoppage of iron filtering through its strata. No fossils have been found in it.

One of the best exposures for examining this sandstone may be seen at Preston, where it rises 25 feet above the level of the river opposite the stone mill, and is surmounted by about 35 feet of the Shakopee limestone. The bluff itself rises about 95 feet above the river, but the contents of the upper portion, though probably of the Shakopee, are not certainly known. The loam covers it. The bedding of the stone here is regular, though in some places a little wavy, and is of all thicknesses, from a foot to three or four inches.

At Lanesboro the Jordan exhibits, near the top, a finely concretionary structure. The balls vary from a few inches to nearly a foot in diameter. Some of them are elongated, and several are frequently united. The rock itself is generally friable, and crumbles out, leaving the concretionary shapes visible. They are often loosened, and roll down the bluff. They lie in approximate layers for a thickness of four or five feet. Some of them are pendant from the projecting shelf, and stud the whole under surface. They are generally spherical, but when they are lengthened perpendicularly they show the original lamination that ran through the rock, in the form of rings and furrows.

The Shakopee Limestone. - This is the uppermost member of the Lower Magnesian, and is so named from the village of Shakopee, in Scott county, on the Minnesota River, where it was first identified as a distinct and entire member of the great Lower Magnesian Formation. lu Fillmore county it is more frequently seen along the valley of Boot River and its tributaries than any other formation. As it lies between two sandstones, each of which easily crumbles away under the operations of the elements, it is made to have a prominent position in giving form to valleys and river bluffs. The north branch of Root River enters on it about six miles northwest of Ohatfield, in Olmsted county ; the middle branch near the town line between Ohatfield and Jordan, and the south branch but a short distance below Forestville. South Root River strikes it near Henry, in Amherst township. Thus, throughout about twothirds of the county, it is the constant companion of the traveler along the river valleys, «nd it meets him often in the uplands, and in the valleys of little creeks. Its effect on the topography is to render the valleys narrow, rocky, and abrupt. Within the general area of the St. Peter sandstone and the Trenton limestone, it produces a shoulder in the descent from the uplands to the valley. A diagram taken at Ohatfield along the northern boundary of the county, would show the strata superimposed in this way :

The descent from the general level of the country at Ohatfield to the river is about 222 feet, of which about 30 feet are of the Shakopee, the descent from the Shakopee to the river being at the river. The broad terrace on which Ohatfield stands is constituted of the Shakopee overlain by irregular thicknesses of the St. Peter, with some drift and loam. The lithology of the Shakopee is very much the same in Fillmore county as it has been described in former reports at Mankato and Shakopee, in the Minnesota valley. It is very similar to the St. Lawrence, with much less of green sand. It contains at Ohatfield considerable disseminated sand, and nodules of calcite. The calcite is sometimes purely transparent, so as to exhibit the double refraction of Iceland spar, parting into large rhombohedrons, but the most of it is opaque. It is sometimes interspersed with sand grains taken up in the process of crystalization. These are so abundant as to make, of some crystalline masses, a sandstone which is then nodular and hard, with warty projections.

abutmeDts being of the Shakopee stone taken out near the ford, on Mrs. Doyle's land. At the ford the river is on the Jordan sandstone. There has been considerable stone cut oif the bluffs, in the Shakopee, for use in the railroad bridge near the same place, and laid up in heavy blocks; but much of the Shakopee is in irregular and thin layers, unfit for such use.

At almost any point east of Chatfield and Oarimona, the Shakopee can be seen by one crossing the valley of Root River, exhibiting its peculiar tendency to narrow the valley, and forming a conspicuous bench or shoulder. At Preston the rooks show a dip to the south.

At Isinours station the battlements of rock that enclose the valley, rising about 30 feet above the water, are of the Shakopee. There is an undulating ascent tbenoe over the St. Peter to near the Trenton terrao, which rises nearly perpendicular about 50 feet. Beyond this is a flat, running sometimes but 8 or 10 rods, but not infrequently a quarter of a mile, when a further gradual ascent begins, covering the Green Shales and the Upper Trenton. This last ascent, with the loam that hero covers the country, generally makes about 175 feet.

The St. Peter Sandstone. - The thickness of this well-known formation in Fillmore county does not vary much from its reported thickness in the central portion of the State. It has been taken at 125 feet. At Ohatfield, it measures, by aneroid, 122 feet. In lithological characters it is also the same, consisting of clean white sand that easily crumbles. Near Fountain, an exposed section near the top of the formation afforded fragments of an unknown species of Linf/tUepiH, the first and only fossil of any kind that has ever been found in this rock. The following section was taken at this place. It includes the overlying lower Trenton, and the Green Shales, as seen at the quarry of Mr. Joseph Taylor, section thirteen. Fountain. No. 1. Green shale, mixed with fragments of limestone that are eminently

No. 2. Limestone, of a bluish- gray color, in l)eds from four to six inches thick, free from Shale, though the layers are sometimes thinly separated by shaly partings. ... 10 feet

The species of lAngnlepis mentioned is found in the St. Peter of the foregoing section. The remains are exceedingly fragile, and as the grains of sand in which they are embraced are feebly cemented together, it is nearly impossible to transport, or even to handle them without their falling to pieces. These fragments, for no entire specimens were obtained, are arranged promiscuously in the coarse sand, and are all confined within three feet of the top. They seem to have suffered the attrition and friction incident to coarse sedimentary transportation. They dispel the idea, which has been suggested, of the possible chemical origin of the St. Peter sandstone, as an oceanic precipitate.

Description, - Shell conical or elongate-oonicad, with anterior angles rounded; depressed; the apical angle not seem perfect; the front margin gently convex; sides nearly straight, but converging at an angle of about 26 degrees; greatest width is near the front and at a distance from the anterior margin of one-third the greatest width. The surface is smooth and shining, marked with very fine concentric strite, visible especially in the anterior portion, and with more distant, dim, undulations of growth. Color of the shell light brown, with spots of brown. The smaller speoi- men has flattened, or slightly concave margins, for nearly two-thirds the length from the apax. This species in general contour resembles Lingulepis Briseis^ of Billings, (Palteozoic Fossils, Vol. 1, p. 48,) bat differs from it in not having its sides parallel.

The remarks that have already been made on the topography of the county will sufficiently elucidate the nature of the St. Peter, and its important part in the causes that have diversified the surface of Fillmore county.

The Tbenton Limestone. - This formation is the most important one in the county, both on account of the great superficial area it embraces, and because it appears in numerons places under the most favorable circumstances for working for quicklime and for building stone. It is likewise the mo3t conspicuous of all the formations, especially along the line of its strike, where it gives way, a ad the surface falls rather suddenly oq to the lower level of the St. Peter sandstone.

The term Trent^yu linwHtom is here made t-o cover a thickness of rock of about 160 feet, and to embrace, within the limits of Fillmore county at least, three distinct members, of which the uppermost is the principal portion.

The transition from the St. Peter sandstone to the lower Trenton is quite abrupt. There is no commingling of qualities from the Trenton downward into the St. Peter, although a shaly layer of about two feet separates them. The limestone always projects boldly beyond the sandstone, and the sandstone becomes immediately white and friable, with a vary slight calcareous cement. The lower Trenton plays the most important part in producing the marked topographical characters of the central portions of Fillmore county, since, by its superposition over the crumbling St. Peter, it oonstitubai the edge of the shoulder or tarraca that marks their hue of superposition, and not unfrjqueatly spreads out on the top of an isolated table or mound, thinly overlain by the lower layers of the green shale. Under the head of Surface Features, this point has been mentioned already, and the reader is referred to that nec^^ion.

In Fillmore county, the lower Trenton, known sometimes as the " Bluff limestone," which corresponds in horizontality with the limestone quarried at St. Paul and Minneapolis, is much less affected by disseminated shale than in those cities, and hence makes a much more desirable building stone. The color is light blue, and in quarrying, the layers rarely exceed five inches in thickness. On weathered bluffs, the bedding appears even thinner than that, being apparently not more than two inches. When these layers are opened and considerably quarried they combine, and produce layers tluit are from four to six inches in thickness. They are generally tough and hard, though when broken they often fracture conchoidally, and in unexpected directions. The fossils they hold are - undergoing careful examination. The most striking are species of Orl/ufc^rn^, often regarded by the quarrymen as the remains of huge snakes, though really oceanic shell-fishes, and a beautiful species of Linyulepis,

The interval covered by the gresji s/toJe (fifteen feet ) is not often seen well exposed. The uppermost layers have not been seen at all in Fillmore county, but the lower layers are visible in many places where the lower Trenton is quarried. When wet constantly this shale becomes a plastic clay. Along the brow of the Trenton terrace it colors the earth in nearly all roadways that cross it, and produces, by shedding the surface water, very muddy spots, in which teams are sometimes mired. One remarkable spot of this kind is near the top of the bluff a mile and a half west from Chatfield^ in the southwest (juarter of section one, Jordan. Tliis shale always lies in thin layers, and sometimes embraces continuous beds of blue limestone which are exceedingly fossiliferous. It also sometimes holds fragments of limestone, of the same kind, in the form of slabs. A great many fragments of Ohaetetes Ly coper chm accompany this shale and roll down the face of the weathered slope, besides crinoidal fragments and species of Ort/u's, Lepiaena and StrophoDwna.

The Upper Trenton, sometimes known as the Blue limestone in the northwest, which is about 125 feet thick, consists of a bluish or grayish, evenly bedded limerock, varying from fine-grained and compact, in layers of a few inches, to more vesicular, sometimes arenaceous, and in beds of one to two feet. It contains but little shale in Filloaore county - and that is near the base and near the top. This rock forms a great many pret t oipitous bluffs. It appears in the form of mural faces along a great many creeks and canons in the central portion of the county. It generally rises nearly perpendicularly ^om the top of a short talus to the summit, exhibiting a continuous section of tlie bedding. Its area is pre-eminently the region of *'8ink-lioles." The canons that are so frequent in it run out in ascending the valleys, and disappear in a succession of "sink holes" which become smaller and smaller, and more and more distant, till the general prairie level is reached. While in general the lithologieal characters of this part of the Trenton are quite uniform, near the top the layers begin to alternate with layers that exhibit ttie characteristic lithology of the Qalena, and are accompanied with some thin layers of green shale. It seenis to pass gradually into the Galena, or rather to assume the features that have been ascribed to that formation.

At Weisbeck's Dam, on Deer Crt ek, in the southeast quarter of section eleven. Spring Valley, the face of the bluff, which rises perpendicularly about a hundred feet, is wrought into a series of majestic pilasters running from the bottom to the top of the escarpment.

The weathering and erosion of the Upper Trenton have left many scenes of picturesque beauty ! in the county, some of which have been photographed by Mr. Bumham, and some of them were engraved and presented in the original report.

Chimney rock is a crevice, originally due probably to a plane of jointage, enters the rock at ' a small angle with the face of the bluff, and has been widened by frost and water till it will admit a man. The detached, wedge-shaped mass, has been broken through ne-ir the foot of the bluff, and by the falling out of repeated fragments an opening, having a fancie l resemblence to an oven with a low chimney, has re6ulted.

Southeast quarter of section twenty-three. Spring Valley, quarry of John Kleckler. The rock here is a gray limestone, with interlaminations of shale. This is very different from the Galena, as seen at Spring Valley village. It is compact, and, with the exception of the thin laminae of shale, consists entirely of limestone. Exposed about 10 feet.

Spring Valley, Joseph Lester has a quarry in the valley of the middle branch, very similar to Kleckler's. That of Henry Prosser occurs on the southeast quarter of section fourteen.

North part of section twenty-five. Spring Valley. At Mr. H. Perkins' saw-mill the same rock is visible,' and has been wrought. From this point the banks of this creek become continuously rocky.

G. W. Knight's quarry is near Fillmore, section ten. The stone is hard, gray, compact, brittle, and fossiliferous, in beds of all thicknesses, depending on the weathering and exposure, up to eight or more inches. It is situated along the ravine, approaching Fillmore.

Geo. Shepherd's quarry is also near Fillmore^ on the northeast quarter of section nine, and seems to consist mostly of isolated even layers in the shale that so frequently accompanies the Trenton. In this shale are Chaetetes^ Ithynchomlla, and Strophomena. The stone is not of much account, owing to its being encumbered so heavily with the shale, but is very desirable for the uniformity of its thickness. S. 0. Pettit has a quarry of the same kind on the northeast quarter of section ten.

At Chatfield, the lower Trenton appears in the highest bluffs on the north side of the village. It is made up very largely of shale, but a^ords also some even layers, that are wrought. These have the same strati graphical horizon as the stone at Minneapolis and St. Paul, but do not contain so much argillaceous matter. They are much firmer and more compact, though not so thick in the aggregate. Below these layers the St. Peter sandstone is seen. The Trenton at this point has a gentle dip northeast, while the Shakopee at the mill by the river dips northwest. The brachiopod Lepfaena deltoidm, so common at the Falls of St. Anthony, is here seen in great numbers, and an occasional specimen of Lingvlepis (fuadrata. The section at the quarry of Dennis Jacob is made up of seven feet of limestone and shale, crumbling away, underlain by about eight feet of limestone.

Extensive workmg and burning of the upper Trenton into quicklime is carried on along Bear and Deer Creeks, the banks of which are continuously rocky, rising perpendicularly from one to two hundred feet from the water, in Sumner and Spring Valley township. These quarries are described under the head of Economiml Geology.

This is particularly the case on the north half of section thirty -five, Sumner, where an opening in a long- weathered "hog's back" reveals a very lightcolored limestone, in beds of about three inches, of a fine grain and compact texture; not much crystalline, and evidently impure with argillaceous and siliceous qualities.

The quarry of Mr. Joseph Taylor, section thirteen, Fountain, has been mentioned already under the head of the St. Peter sandstone, and the exposed section given. At this quarry very large cephalopods have been taken out, and some fragments of Galena have been encountered, though the opening is in the lower Trenton.

The quarry of Mr. Enoch Winslow is on the same horizon as Mr. Taylor's. It is situated on the bank of Sugar Creek, in the southwest quarter of section four, Fountain. Another on the same horizon is that of John Johnson, two' miles south of Fountain. The Trenton is also wrought at Forestville and near Carimona, presenting no exceptional features. At Forestville it contains lieceptaculites and Strophom^mi^ and exposes a thickness of about 140 feet.

The upper Trenton appears in the southwest quarter of section six, Forestville, along a little ravine, and is slightly opened by John Hipes. It also appears tit other points between there and Spring Valley.

Southeast quarter of section thirty, Forestville. In some fragmenls thrown out in the digging of a well can be seen a fine grained rock, resembling the fine shale seen in the race at De For's mill, which crumbles to pieces in the weather. It here lies below some heavy Galena beds, seen in the hills enclosing the valley, and contains doubtfully species of GniptolUcH, QrthU^ and Orthonota.

At Granger the ^Trenton only occupies the bluffs; but at two miles west of Granger, where the river enters the State for a short distance, the bluffs are high, and are made up of the Trenton, with a topping of fifteen or twenty feet of Galena.

Northwest quarter of section thirty-six, Bristol. Hiram Andrews has a quarry in the Trenton, which alone occupies, ^t this place, the river banks, though the beds of the quarry arc apparently in the upper portion of the formation. The layeis are thicker than usual, somewhat vesicular, and present some of the aspects of the Galena.

The Galena Limestone. - The only separating horizon between the Trenton and Galena limestones is a lithological change in the rock. There is no unconformability between the layers of the formations, and there is no known difference of fossil contents. Near the upper portion of the Trenton ot'casional layers appear that are much more porous, and have a light buff color. They are also much heavier than the layers of the Trenton, reaching, after the change is fully established, a thickness of for or five feet. Mingled with these heavy magnesian layers are thinner layers of green shule. When these heavy magnesian beds are near the top of a bluff, they give it a roughness, but at the same time a persistence of outline which the thinner beds of the Trenton alone do not possess. This rock is- generally sharply crystalline, It contains numerous cavities of irregular shape, some due to the weathering out of carious material, and same to the absorption of fossils. It holds considerable masses of calcite, and sometimes lumps of Galena, from which it has derived its name. Although the Galena limestone near Dubuque, in Iowa, is stated by Prof. J. D. Whitney to be about 250 feet, (Geology of Wisconsin, vol. 1, 172,) it enters Minnesota with a thickness much less than that. Fnmi all that can be seen of it in Fillmore county, it appears to be less than 100 feet thick. The Trenton, on the other hand, is given, by the same authority, at 70 feet average thickness, at Dubuque, while it has a thickness of 160 feet in Fillmore county.

The characters that distinguish the Galena are not constant. In Fillmore county the *'lead fossil," ReceptnculiteH^ pervades the Trenton as low as the green shale, at least - although regarded as characteristic of the Galena; and the TAngula quadrata, also said by Prof. Whitney to not appear in the lead region, in the "blue" nor the "buff," is found throughout both. A very fine specimen was obtained, of the latter, at Mr. Taylor's quarry, near Fountain, from the lower Trenton, (**buff limestone" of Prof. Whitney,) and another from Chatfield, from the same horizon. Lithologically also the two formations appear to merge into one another. The compact, hard blue limestone, characteristic, of the Trenton, gives place near the top of that formation, to a lighter colored, slightly vesicular, even grained, more heavily bedded rock, that is very useful for an prmm. -

Damental cut-stone. Tbis is seen in some of the quarries a mile or two east of Spring Valley, where it is difficult to assign the beds either to the Galena or to the Trenton. A short distance farther east the well characterized Trenton appeal's, while at the village of Spring Valley, unmistakable Gralena features pervade the rock exposed, to the depth of ten or twenty feet. The lead ore, moreover, wbieh has given name to the Galena, is not confined to that formation. It is found to some extent both in the Galena and the Trenton, though in neither to that extent that will warrant sanguine expectations.

The Galena, where not hid by the Cretaceous in the northwestern part of the county, is within the drift area. Hence it has not been so fully observed as is desirable. The line separating its superficial area from that of the Trenton is defined with tolerable acciu'acy on the map accompanying this report; bu^ the line of its western boundary is very uncertain.

The principal exposures of the Galena in the county are on Bear and Deer Creeks, and at Spring Valley on the middle branch of Boot River. At the latter place quarries are worked to a greater or less extent by Mr. Willard Allen, Thomas Thayer, Emylas Parsons, and Nelson Smith. These openings are on the south side of the valley, and are all in about the same kind of stone. Some of them furnish, as yet, only rough large pieces, water worn and rusty, dislodged from their original places. The rook has undergone long weathering and erosion at Spring Valley, and is disintegrated and changed to a considerable depth. Along the road near the public school, a small cut in the shattered, crumbling layers has exposed a great number of detached Ct'ist-s of a brachiopod resembling that of Atrypa retindaris. These were regarded with great curiosity by many as '^little turtles" petrified. At J. Shumaker's quarry, one mile east of the village, about eight feet of the bedding are exposed. The layers here are of a finer and more uniform texture, and are associated with shale. When cut for building they are much whiter than the stone obtained at Mr. Allen's at Spring Valley. No systematic exploration, however, has been undertaken, the pieces found being at or near the surface. It has been found at a number of other points in the county, sometimes well within the Trenton area.

In ascending the south bluff of Lost Creek, large loose pieces of Galena Limestone are seen in the road, but the Trenton is in outcrop at the creek. Similar pieces appear on section thirty one, Jordan. These are on the most eastern limits of the Galena area, and belong to the lowest layers of the formation.

quarter of section twenty-six, Sumner. Thia outcrop fairly presents the typical lithological features that characterize the formation. By the Galena characters are meant a yellowish, or buff, limestone, vesicular, crystalline, in heavy layers, even on weathered bluffs, having usually a very rough exterior, in consequence of atmospheric destruction of the looser portions. When these looser portions are removed, the surface of ' the rock presents a pitted aspect, being covered with thimble holes, and depressions of all shapes, with angular knobs and excrescences separating them, the whole overgrown with lichens. The exposure here shows perpendicularly about twelve feet, in layers from one to four feet thick, piled up on either side of the road in detached mounds, like bridge abutments, from which the roadway has been removed. The "lead fossil," Eecsptaetdites ^ appears in these layers.

At the crossing of the south branch of Boot River, in the northeast quarter of section twentyone, Bloomfield, there is no cut in the rock visible. The river is but about twenty feet below the level of the country, which is in a broad, shallow valley; bat in the road are a few pieces of Galena, showing fossils and lithology like the rock at Spring Valley, though the layers must be near the top of that formation. The country here, and toward the southwest, is a broad, level prairie, gently rising toward the west.

Northwest quarter of section twenty-six. Bloomfield. The south bank of the river, near the west side of the section, has a rock bluff exposed about twenty feet above the river. This is massive, or in heavey layers, and is doubtfully assigned to the Gralena, as it has some of the features of the Niagara. It is firm, but porous; of a buff color and a coarse magnesian grain, with superficial cavities, due to the weathering out of fossils. It is on the land of Mrs. Annie Postle. The crossing of the survey of the Winona, Green Bay & Grinnell railroad is at the head of the bluff. A similarly doubtful exposure, slightly quarried, is owned by

Dora Wright, near tbe center of section fourteen, Bloomfield, by the roadside. Wm. B. McVee has also taken out the same stone near his barn, in the northwest quarter of section fouiteen, and used it in his bam foundation. It here holds considerable calcite.

At Etna, Mr. S. S. Belding has a quarry in the Galena. This is a soft, porous stone, in heavy beds, which once held fossils, but which have been lost bj absorption, le«ving the roek porous, and finely vesicular. Mr. Belding states that this limestone has a hydraulic quality, but as near as can be ascertained it makes simply a quick-lime, which endures well under repeated wetting. An old foundation at De For's mill was laid with it nineteen years ago, and stands firm yet, though submerged by every freshet. It has not yet been subjected to the test of setting under waln\ which is the essential property of water lime. The rock here seen amounts to eighteen or twenty feet. Other quarries, similar to Mr. Belding's, are owned by O. M. Postle in the northwest quarter of section thirty-six, Bloomfield, by Geo. Hoy and Mr. De For in the northeast quarter of section twenty-five, and by H. T. Odell in the southeast quarter of section thirty-six.

At De For's Mill in the northeast quarter of section twenty-five, Bloomfield, the rock exposed is fine and even-grained, belonging probably to the lower portion of the Galena. It embraces one thin layer of a shaly limastone which has turned white. It makes a good quick-lime. It is in heavy beds of about eighteep inches, and holds a coarse coralline form seen also at the quarry of Mrs. Postle already mentioned. Below these heavy layers is a bed of shale which was exposed in the digging of the mill-race, having a thickness of five and a half feet. Below that thickness the shale becomes arenaceous, and in the weather crumbles to pieces. Among the crumbled fragments are indistinct remains of the buckler of a small trilobite.