Fillmore County, Minnesota - Chapter 37: Political History (1 of 2 so headed), 1912

Chapter 37: Political History

Story of the Political Movements in Fillmore County - Original Democratie Influence Brought by Land Office Officials - Republicans Gain Control on Railroad Taxation Question - The Grange Movement - Greenbackers - A lliance - Men Who Have Been Prominent in State and National Politics - Edited by Samne]l A. Langum...............

Ctiapter Xxxviiti Agricultural Iistory

CTIAPTER XXXVIITI. AGRICULTURAL IISTORY. Pioneer Farmers - Breaking the Ground - Early Drawbacks - Census Report of Live Sitoek and Farm Products -

Chiapter Xxxin Creamery Interests

Rise of the Dairy Industry in Fillmore County - Early Farmers Kept a Few Cows for Home Use - <Attention Turned to Stock Raising- - The First Creameries - Farmers Benefit by Co-operation - The Present Creameries - Edited by KL; BabGotlicn awe cin Otew 4 cw Sou Par 2 ewe awe wens

Chapter Ni Bench And Bar

Judges Who Ilave Presided on the Fillmore County Beneh - Early Courts - Sessions at Winona, Chatfield, Carimona and Preston - Prominent Men Who Have P pamueed in Fillmore County - Notes of Some of the Early Lawyers - Fillmore County Bar Association.............5.+05055

Page Natural Phenomena

Introduction - Advantages - Climate - Location and Area - Natural Drainage - Surface Features - Sink Holes - Elevations - The Soil - Native Trees - The Geological Structure - Material Resources - Fuel - Quicklime - Building Stone - Brick- - Sand for Mortar and Concrete - Lead - Iron - Gold - Copper.

Situated near the extreme southeastern part of that sturdy commonwealth known in the galaxy of states as Minnesota, lies a favored county which has taken its name from sturdy old Millard Fillmore, of New York, who assumed the executive office of the United States Government on the death of Zachary Taylor, July 9, 1850, and was succeeded by Franklin Pierce, March 4, 1853, just one day before Fillmore county was created by the Minnesota Territorial Legislature.

A fertile country of rich blaek soil, its surface divided into hills and rolling land and prairies, cut with picturesque ravines, beantified by meandering streams, and interspersed with natural and domestic groves, the county has advantages whieh have placed it in the foremost ranks of Minnesota's agricultural and grazing distrieis. The elevation of this stretch of land above the sea, its fine drainage and the dryness of the atmosphere give it a elimate of unusual salubrity and pleasantness. Its latitude gives it correspondingly longer days in summer, and during the growing seasons about one and a half hours more of sunshine than in the latitude of St. Louis. The refreshing breezes and eool nights in suinmer prevent the debilitating effect of heat so often felt in lower latitudes. The winter climate is also one of the attractive features. Its uniformity and its dryness, together with the bright sunshine and the electrical condition of the air, all tend to enhance the personal comfort of the resident, and to make outdoor life and labor a pleasure.

Embracing, as the county does, so pleasing a prospect to the eye, and so fruitful a field for successful endeavor, it is natural that the people who from the earliest days were attracted here should he the possessors of steady virtues, ready to toil and to sacrifice, that their labors might be crowned with the fruits of prosperity and happiness. The cities and villages have had their part in the general commercial upbuilding of the state, and furnish excellent trading and shipping facilities for the rural districts. In these centers, milling and manufacturing are carried on to a greater or less extent, and the dairy and creamery interests are important.

The rural districts are the scene of peace, prosperity and contentment. The homes are substantially built, and furnished with the comforts and conveniences of modern life, stock is hnmanely housed and well pastured, the farm land is extensively tilled and productive, and the churches and schools which are seen on every side testify to an interest in the higher things of life hy a lawabiding, progressive and loyal people.

It is indeed in its men and women, rather than in its grains and vegetables, its live stock and fruit, its factories and commerce, that Fillmore county takes its greatest pride. From her farms, from her villages and from her cities have gone forth those who have taken an important part in the activities of the world, and who, whether in commeree or diplomacy, in the professions or in the trades, have maintained that steadfastness of purpose and staunchness of character that mark true Fillmore county men and '\yomen wherever they may be found.

Unusually blessed by nature with deep soil and abundant natural resources, and endowed with a wealth of prehistoric and historie lore, the county is a fitting home for the sturdy people who have here made their dwelling plaee. Ward-working, progressive, educated and prosperous, they have appreciated the gifts which nature has spread for them, and have added their own toil, and the fruit of their intellects, to the work of the elements, making the county one of ithe beautiful spots of the earth. On the slopes graze cattle and sheep, while the tilled lands respond to the efforts of the springtime sower and planter with a wealth of harvest in the summer and autumn. On nearly every quarter section is reared a comfortable home and commodious barns, while from the crest of every swell of land are visible the churches and schools wherein the people worship the Giver of all Gifts, and educate their children. Thus blessed by God and beloved by man, the eounty today stands for all that is ideal in American life and is forging ahead to still wider influence and more extended opportunity.

Fillmore county, unsurpassed by no county in the state for the fertility of its soil; its bountiful supply of timber and pure water; its numerous water powers; its diversified surface of hills, valleys and rolling prairies, and its adaption to every variety of agricultural product; has furnished to the citizens material wisely improved by them for substantial wealth, good homes, and sound public institutions, economically and prudently .administered ; where law and good order, industry and sobriety, have always been upheld and observed; where the comforts and provisions for enjoyment of life are evenly distributed, and where, in the future, as in the past, ''peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, will be established throughout all generations."

Location and Area. Fillmore county is on the southern border of the state of Minnesota, the second west from the Mississippi river. Olmsted and Winona counties are contiguous on the north, Houston county on the east, Iowa on the south, and Mower county on the west. It has twenty-four government townships. Jordan, Chatfield, Arendahl, Rushford, Fillmore, Fountain, Norway, Bloomfield, Forestville, Carimona, Preston, Amherst, Preble, Beaver, York, Bristol, Harmony, Canton, and Newburg coincide with the outlines of the original congressional surveys. The inclusion in Carrolton of the southern halves of sectious 33, 34 and 35, township 104, range 10, and all of sections 6 and 7, township 103, range 9, causes a corresponding curtailment in Pilot Mound and Holt, respectively. The same may be said of section 6 and the west half of section 5, township 103, range 13, a curtailment of Spring Valley being caused by the inclusion of this tract in Sumner.

The county lies between the forty-third aud forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and between ranges 7 and 14 west and townships 100 and 105 north. The principal stream is the Root river, which comes into {he county 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 west and unites in the northeast part of Carrolton with the main stream. This branch also 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 wore fully deseribed in the geological sketch and in the separate township delineations.

The county is four townships wide from north to south, or twenty-four miles, and six from east to west, or thirty-six miles; its area being 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 courthouse, 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 centers in the county are Lanesboro, Spring Valley, Chatfield, Rushford, Canton, Harmony, Mabel, Fountain, Wykofi, Peterson, Whalan, Ostrander and Prosper.

Natural Drainage. Root river, with its tributaries, drains nearly the whole of the county. The Upper Iowa river, which meanders about the state line in this county, receives a few small streams from the southern tier of townships. Root river, flowing toward the east, spreads out its tributaries north and south, 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 cation-like valleys, and the drift becomes muelh lighter. They then converge toward the main valley, following deeply cut rocky valleys, and leave the county in one volume at Rushford, in the northeastern corner of the county. These streams furnish frequent water power privileges, and a number of them have been improved at various times in the erection of mills.

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 1ownships across the western end of the county, and some portions of the next range east. There are, however, even within the drift area, a number of narrow, deeply cut valleys, with precipitous, rocky bluffs, having very much the nature of cafions, like those of the driftless territories of the west. Toward the east these deeply ent 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 their whole course. These valleys and streams, constitnting the 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 angles across the strike of the formations. These are alternating limestones and sandstones, with an occasional bed of soft shale. The Trenton limestone, underlaid by the easily eroded St. Peter sandstone, the same as at the Falls of St. Anthony, although about 160 feet in thickness, is eaten into by the retroaction of the water as it plunges over the falls at the poimt 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 bluffs being usually one of rich meadow with undulating surface, from 100 to 200 feet below the gweneral level. The Lower Magnesia Formation is entered upon by the streams while they are as yet a good many imiles within the general avea of the Trenton. -As this formation consists of three meinbers (two limestones, separated 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 cireumstanees 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 au 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 beeomes 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, 1s the occurrence of a waterfall or rapid. Such changes produce water-powers, many of which have been improved. Hence, the location of a 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 waterpower formed by the deseent of the river from the Shakopee on to the Jordan induced the constrnetion of mills. The waterpower at Chatfield is formed in the same way. Near Fillmore the branches of Root river, known as Deer and Bear ereeks, afford good water-powers by their descent from the lower Trenton to the St. Peter. On the south branch of Root river, above Forestville, the stream leaves the Trenton, and the waterfall has been improved in the same manner. The same fact is illustrated by a large number of eastward flowing streams, in the eastern horder counties, between Fillmore county and the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis. Of course, rapids are also likely to be formed, especially in small streams, when passing through the areas of

While the immediate valleys of Root river and its tributaries ure apt to be roeky, 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 rocks are covered by a heavy deposit of rich, clayey loam, known as the loess, which fills up many depressions, and lends a 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 slongh which on some maps is represented asa 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. These geologic mounds should not be confused with the artificial mounds which are mentioned elsewhere. From some of the elevated Trenton areas overlooking the river valleys, magnificent views of landscape may be had. From the elevated Trenton area in Newburg township, the eye looks over the valley of Root river, and ean almost discern the Trenton bluffs on the opposite slopes of Root river in the northern part of the county. From the peninsula of the Trenton running north between Camp 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 ereek, with a wide expanse of alternating timber and prairie hetween, while on cither side is a broad, undulating valley of prairie land. On the east is Camp ereck 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. Another magnificent view may he obtained from the Trenton peninsula on sections 10 and 15 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 sonth over the valley of the south branch of Root river, looking over Preston and Lanesboro, which are situated within the river bluffs, 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, though showing frequent.roek exposure. The river is there 565 feet below the tops of the bluffs, as measured by aneroid. <At Whalan, in Holt township, the river is, by the same measurement, 470 fect below the top of the Trenton terrace on section 20. 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 20, IIolt. 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 bluffs. 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 leve]. 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. On Deer ereck, section 11, 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 fect higher than the terrace, at Preston, on which the Tibbetts 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 horizontal. The varied topography of the county is due to the influence of running water and atmospheric forces, on the rocks, combined with their alternations of limestone with soft sandstone. The limestones are firm, and resist these forees much longer than the sandstones. They alternate in the following manner, in descending order: Trenton limestone, St. Peter sandstone, Shakopee limestone, Jordan sandstone, St. Lawrence limestone, St. Croix sandstone.

The limestones form the prominent features in the topography. They have the most frequent outcrops. They project along the summits of the bluffs, and constitute the brows of benches or terraces that diversify the county. The sandstones never, or very seldom, 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, outeropping 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 thiekness 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 loamcovered arca along the outrunning strike of the Trenton.

Sink Holes. Throughout the Trenton area are found a great. many depressions that are well known as ''sink holes.'' These consist of broken down spots in the drift or loam, where it had been spread over a pre-existing cafion 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 surfaee prior to the period which witnessed the spreading of the drift. The rock was wrought, at least in Fillmore county, in very much the same manner as we now see it along the 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 period. "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. These ''sink holes'? sometimes oceur in lines, 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, im Sumner, both have underground 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 19, Forestville, and runs underground, except in high water, to about the center of section 21, where it reappears again. These underground passages are in the area of Trenton. They indicate the corrugated surface the.country presented prior to the over- spreading of the drift and loess 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 these 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 water, and protects the underlying sandstone. Hence the erosions that operate laterally, in tearing down the other Lower Silurian formations, are occupied, in the Trenton limestone area, m 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 landseape 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 the 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 occasional collapsing of the surface soil, and the formation of a new '"'sink hole,'' and in the enlargement of others, since the settlement of the county.

Elevations. The general elevation of the county above the sea may be judged from the following figures: Rushford depot, 711 feet; Lanesboro depot, 831 feet; Isinours station, 888 feet; Fountain depot, 1,289 feet; Grand Meadow, Mower county, 1,328 feet.

The Soil. The soil of the county is generally very fertile. The immediate surface is a loam. This varies in color and ecomposition, 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 the immediate surface, which is the case only on knolls and on the brows of the river bluffs, 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 aloam. 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 eases, especially on the open prairie, it is nearly black. As it is mingled with the drift elay it beeomes lighter colored. In the low grounds 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 m 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 slippery 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. It is impossible to define its westeru limit. If it were derived from a long-standing inland lake, some beach lines would be found indicating its western boundary. No beach lines have been 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 mingling 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 be distinguished easily from the drift soil of the western, no line of demarkation separating them has been noticed. A line drawn from the southeast corner of Bristol to the northeast corner of Jordan would roughly set off the area that has a distinctively loess loam soil. West of that is a helt 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.

Native Trees, 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 frequency:

Red oak. Quereus rubra. L. (7) [This is the oak that is abundant as underbrush, and small trees. It often forms thickets skirting the outlines of a prairie. ]

White oak. Quereus alba. L. [Common in the timber in Spring Valley and Jordan townships, and generally along the valleys of the principal streams. ]

T2 History Of Fillmore County

In addition to the timbered areas, portions of the county are covered with brush. It seems to be the general history of southern Minnesota that after the prairie fires were stopped a species of low willow started to grow. After the willow grew, the hazel, oak and aspen came in, which in time, unless the land was broken and cultivated, gradually converted the original prairie into a bushy or timbered region.

Geological Structure. The rocks of the county belong to the Devonian and to the Upper and Lower Silurian ages. The Cretaceous also appears in Sumner township, in the extreme northwestern corner of the county. They oceur as arranged in the following order, with their approximate thickness:

1. Cretaceous. Thickness unknown, perhaps 100 feet, lying unconformably on the older rocks. 2. Upper Devonian. Hamilton, 100 feet (?). 3. Lower Devonian. Corniferous (?), 100 feet. 4. Niagara of the Upper Silurian, 200-250 fect. 5. Maquoketa (Cincinnati) of the Lower Silurian, 75-100 feet. 6. Galena, of the Lower Silurian, 75-100 feet. 7. Trenton, of the Lower Silurian, 160 feet. 8. St. Peter, of the Lower Silurian, 122 feet. 9. Shakopee, Lower Magnesian of the Lower Silurian, 75 feet. 10. Jordan, Lower Magnesian of the Lower Silurian, 25-40 feet. 11. St. Lawrenee, Lower Magnesian of the Lower Silurian, 200 feet. 12. St. Croix, of the Lower Silurian, exposed, 375 feet.

With the exception of the Cretaceous these formations have a ""strike'' aeross the county northwest and southeast. They have a gentle dip, at least theoretically, toward the southwest, though no general dip is perceptible. The oldest rock in the county is the St. Croix sandstone, which appears in the northeastern corner of the county. The latest, except the Cretaceous, is the Devonian, in the southwestern part of the county. The boundary between the Trenton and the St. Peter is the most accurately defined, owing to the terrace which marks it. The boundary between the St. Peter and Shakopee it is impossible to ascertain certainly, beeause of the universality of the loam. which acts, in that respect, just the same as a heavy drift deposit, and also because of the persistency of the Shakopee compared to that of the St. Peter. When the friable rock is below a hard and persistent one, as the St. Peter below the Trenton, the boundary between them can he 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 not 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 geological structure of the county, with a reeord of outcroppings and exposures, is fully treated in the ''Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota,'' prepared by N. H. Winchell and Warren Uphain, distinguished Minnesota savants, and published by the state of Minnesota. The article has appeared so many times that it will not be reproduced here. The student will find useful material for study in the scholarly work just mentioned. That work also forms the basis of the article here presented.

Material Recources. Fuel. In addition to the products of the soil, which will always be her chief source of wealth, Fillmore county cannot expect any important mineral discoveries to augment her material prosperity.

There is a marked absence of peat in this county. Some, however, occurs on the southeast quarter of section 26, Spring Valley, and is said to be about four fect thick, covering four or five acres. In other parts of the county there are scattering areas of turf-peat.

Quicklime. All the limestones of the county are suitable for quicklime, but by far the greater quantity is made from the upper Trenton. In the townships of Sumner and Spring Valley, all the circumstances necessary for the cheap and rapid production of qweklime of the best quality co-exist, viz: a suitable limestone, abundant exposure and plenty of fuel. The Trenton there forms some of its characteristic outcrops, constituting the bluffs of the streains continuously for many miles, and rising a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet above the valleys.

Some is still burned in Spring Valley. At one time many people were engaged in the business. The following list of limeburners in 1880, in one vicinity, will give some idea of the extent of the business then carried on: Palmer and Miller, Bear Creek, three kilns. N. E. Fetterly, Bear Creek, three kilns. L. G. Odell, Bear Creek, three kilns (one draw-kiln). Charles Gorton, Bear Creek, one kiln. Allen Brothers, Bear Creek, one kiln. J. Finley, Bear Creek, one kiln. Isaac Kegley, Bear Creek, one kiln. L. Stout, Bear Creek, one kiln. T. J. Hammer, Bear Creek, one kiln. Elder Cyrus Young, Bear Creek, two kilns. Harvey MeQuillan, Bear Creek, two kilns. Olds & Braley, section nine, Spring Valley, one kiln. I. N. Cummings, section eleven, Spring Valley, one kiln. J. H. Hall, section twelve, Spring Valley. These all burned the upper Trenton. Throughout the county, where

Building Stone. With this necessary article Fillmore county is well supplied, and it has been put to an extensive use. Probably three-fourths of the building stone which has been used in the county is derived from the Trenton, the other fourth being made up of the Galena and the St. Lawrence. The Lower Trenton is most frequently employed. This is largely owing to the prominent manner of its out-crops, as shown under the head of ''Drainage and Surface Features.'? The Upper Trenton has been used in the construction of several schoolhouses and private residences. At Spring Valley the Galena is principally used. At Lanesboro, Whalan, Peterson and Rushford, the St. Lawrenee. The Shakopee and Jordan are but rarely resorted to.

Near Fountain the Lower Trenton supplies the ''blue limestone.'' The beds are usually less than six inches in thickness, and they are easily broken to any desired size. It is a hard stone, not easily eut, but can be dressed if neeessary. It is not injured by disseminated shale, as much of the Lower Trenton is, and henee makes a very durable material. At Fountain are several buildings constructed of this stone.

From the St. Lawrence limestone a very fine building stone is obtained. It is a fortunate cireumstance ihat very much of this formation is in regular and often in heavy layers. These are also not so firm as to resist the nsual means for quarrying. When the beds are broken the blocks are found to possess often a finely vesicular texture. Their color is a very light yellow, or buff, resembling that of the well known ''Milwaukee brick.''

Brick. There is no lack of materials for making common red brick. In some places the surface of the drift clay is used, containing some fine gravel, and at others the loess-loam. Considerable brick has been made in the county at various times.

Sand for Mortar and Concrete. Wherever the St. Peter sandstone is aecessible it is employed for making mortar. It is equally good for hard finish, being, when taken from some depth, purely white and of very uniform fineness. There are, however, some portions of the county where it is much more difficult to obtain a sand suitable for common mortar. In the western part of the county a white sand, or one nearly white, is obtained from deposits referable to the Lower Cretaceous. They are found in the southeast quarter of section 8, in the northwest quarter of section 22 and in the northeast quarter of section 36 in Bloomfield as well as in section 17, Spring Valley. Besides these sources of mortarsand, the Jordan sandstone, which is often as incoherent as the St. Peter, can be. used to advantage, though it is rather more apt to be cemented by iron. There can be no question but that the compact and impervious nature of the green shales of the Lower Trenton has preserved the incoherency of the St. Peter, by preventing the downward percolation of ferriferous and calearous waters, which certainly would have left their impurities in the form of cement among its beautiful white grains.

Lead. While the Galena limestone, which is eminently leadbearing at Dubuque and Galena, passes, in its northwestern trend, across the southwestern portion of Fillmore county, it has not been discovered to afford the same amount of lead as in Iowa and Dlinois. Indeed, at points more remote from the Mississippi river, in Iowa, no remarkable deposits of lead have been obtained from it. There is not a total absence of lead from its layers, since a few localities are known to have afforded it in limited quantities. The same is true of the Lower Trenton; which seems to indicate that the presence of lead in the limestone of this region does not depend on the kind or age of the formation, but rather on some later, superimposed conditions that prevailed over the region, subjecting various formations to the same influences.

Tron. Throughout the western portion of the county there is a great deal of surface iron, manifesting itself generally in the form of a cement in gravel, forming a dark-colored ''crag.'' There is also much evidence of the existence of a heavy continuous layer or deposit of limonite iron ore a few feet below the surface, in Bloomfield and Beaver townships. This bed consists of a loose textured hydrated peroxyd, with ochery impurities, and bears a close resemblance to some bog-ore deposits; but its occurrence on high land, instead of in swamps, necessitates some other explanation for its existence than that ascribed to the occurrence of most bog-ore deposits. It may have originated during that swampy condition of southern Minnesota when the peat grew that is embraced in the drift deposits. It is not probable that it will ever be found valuable for the manufacture of iron. Before the opening up of the vast and richer iron ore beds of Michigan and Missouri, the bog-ores were considerably used in the production of iron, on a small seale, in several of the western states, but the small furnaces that smelted them have all ceased operations many years ago,

Gold, Copper. In small quantities gold has been washed, by rude methods, from the drift at several points in the county. It was found in gravel, in the northeast quarter of section twentysix, Spring Valley, and in section thirty-one, Jordan. There are accounts also of fragments of native copper having been found in the drift, It is hardly necessary to say that these discoveries do not indicate any valuable deposit of the kind in the rocks of the localities where they may be found, They pertain to the drift, and have been transported hundreds of miles along wiih the other foreign substanees in which they occur, from the northern part of the state. Such discoveries have sometimes awakened an interest that has culminated in stock companies formed for mining, and in the wasting of thousands of dollars. Similar small quantities of gold can be got by a minute washing of the drift at almost any place where the drift sheet is attenuated, or where the older glacial drift has been denuded, leaving the gold, which is indestructible, either by the lapse of time or by the chemistry of the elements, on the rock surface underlying. Practically every geological report in the country makes mention of them, and the evidences are common in all our neighboring states.