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Welcome To Sullivan County, Indiana
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1884 History of...Sullivan County IndianaBY PROF. JOUN. W. SPENCER. GEOLOGY-EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF JOHN COLLETT-THE 420~1, MEASURES--ORIGIN OF ,ANIMAL LIFE-THE SULLIVAN OIL WELL-LIMESTONE AND SANDSTONE-NUMEROUS ACTIONS SHOWING STRATA-COAL N-CHALYBEATE SPRINGS-CRINOIDAL LIMESTONE-FIRE CLAY, OCHER, ETC.-FOSSIL PLANTS AND ANIMALS-SHELBURN SHAFT AND WELL-THE, DRIFT DEPOSITS-COAL DISTRIBUTION-EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF PROF. E. T. COX-ANALYSIS OF COALS-PROF. SPENCER’S REPORT. SULLIVAN COUNTY is bounded on the north by Vigo County, east by Clay and Greene Countiea, south by Knox County, and west by the Illinois State line at the channel of the Wabash River, embracing an area of 443 square miles, or 283,520 acres; Of this area, about one-fifth was originally upland prairie, one-fifth the bottoms and terrace prairies of the Wabash and its affluents, and the remaining three-fifths upland timber. The surface is generally level or gently undulating. Descending from the table-land to the valleys, the bluffs have become covered with drift or soil derived from disintegration of pnderlying rocks. The county is well watered by the Wabash River, Busseron, Turtle and Turman Creeks, and their many branches, which ramify into all parts. Numerous springs break out at the base of the bowlder clay, locally termed 'hard pan', and at the outcrop of impervious strata accompanying the coal seams. The coal measures are the only rock formations which occur in this county. The beds subject to invtistigation comprise a series of shales, compact and argillaceous sandstones, clays, and fossiliferous limestones; with four seams of coal. Deep boring has proven tlhe existence of at least two other seams, without reaching the lower coals usually found in connection with the conglomerate. These beds present the usual characteristics found in the coal measures of Europe and America, and, no doubt, their origin is due to the same causes. Without trenching upon the accepted theory for coal formation, we may remark that all the animal life represented by the fossils of the age of coal found in this county are of marine origin, so abundant that the individuals would amount to millions upon each acre. Part of these lived in the deep waters of the central ocean, for brachiopods, the culminating family, were long supposed to be extinct until dredging by Mr. E. Forbea (Lye11 El. Geol.), found their home at unexplored depths, and recently (August, lSSS), the British expedition is reported to have brought up a Productus from a depth of miles, near the coast of Cuba. These facts indicate the profound depths of that ancient sea adjoining or in whose bosom our coals were formed. Sullivan is by barometric measurement, ninety-two feet above low water in the Wabash at Merom. Wells in the north and east part of town usually are dug to or through a thin seam of coal. Often, the crinoidal limestone, forming the roof, is found in place or in disturbed fragments. During the petroleum excitement of 1864-66, a bore was made near the E. & C. R. R. depot, to a depth of over 500 feet, with the following result:
These measurments are given from the recollection of the Superintendent, no record having been kept East of Sullivan, a considerable stratum of limestone crop out on the Hamill farm. This stone,furnishes good materials for foundations. In an early day, it was burned, yielding a fair article of dark colored lime. Below the limestone, fragments of coal were observed in the bed of the branch, but no section could be obtained. It was evidently seam N in the bore. More characteristic outcrops of this coal are found on Conners land northwest quarter, Section 28, on R. Thornhill’s land, northeast quarter, Section 3 2, both Township 8, Range 9, and on Boon’s and Kelley’s, southeast quarter, Section 5, Township 7, Range 9, with a thickness varying from one foot to twenty inches. For local purpoges, sand rock has been quarried at Hamill’s quarry, Section 26; at Thornhill’s, Section 32, both in Township 8; and at Ferree’s, Section 4, Township 7, Range 9. A section at Ferree’s quarry, following up Buck Creek against the dip, shows the following strata:
Beyond New Lebanon, undulating knolls of the 'LOWS', here highly silicious, crown the bluff ridge. A valuable gravel bank of modified drift was observed near the center of the prairie. &horn is situated upon the crest of a bluff, whose altitude of one hundred and seventy feet above low water in the Wabash River, [By calculation (Charles Eilett’a report, Vol. II, Smithsonian Contributions), low water in the Wabash at Merom is 401 feet above the level of the ocean.] gives one of the most attractive views in the State.
+Three strata, a marly clay or shell marl, in the north parrt of the County, change at Msrom, Palestine and the Busseron section west of Carlisle, to a clay marl; eastward they become white, or blue clays.
Southwest quarter Section 8, Township 8, Range 10.
Coal M is here thrown up by a horseback, or rather exposed by the termination of a ridge, which enlarges to the north. The dip of strata southwest is about eleven feet to the mile, and to the south and east, forty feet to the mile. Kidney iron ore in considerable amount and good quality was noticed a few yards east of Turman’s Creek Bridge in Section 9, and also in a ravine in the northeast part of Ladd’s farm, supposed to be southeast quarter Section 9, both Township 8, Range 10, but not in quantity to justify mining at present.
This locality is interesting to the paleontologist on account of the number and good preservation of the fossils mentioned, especially leda and nucula inflata. The crinoidal limestone conneded with coal N frequently crops out along the Wabash bluffs, north of the mouth of Turman’s Creek, in thickness averaging three feet.
The Alum Cave, Section 24, Township 9, Range 8, is frequented by animals to lick the saline efflorescence on the rocks. It is beneath the hard sandstone, and its origin is due to the more rapid decomposition of fhe underlying pyritous soapstone at the base of the above section.
Throughout almost the whole of Township 9, three-fourths of Township 8, and the east half of Township 7, north of Range 8, coal M outcrops in many localities Four sections, selected, one from the southern,two from the middle, and one from the northern part of this area, which fairly present the strata accompanying this seam, will now be given: Southeast quarter Section 36, Township 8, Range 8:
The Glacial drift comes next in order of sequence. It rests immediately upon the rocks of the coal measures, and consists: First, of blue and gray clays, irregularly mixed with coarse and fine gravel ; Second, the same clays witb coarse gravel and bowlders of granite, gneiss, quartz rock and porphyry, with a very small quantity of gold, copper, lead and magnetic iron ore, and red garnets; Third, and last at the base, blue and white plastic clay, from two to five feet thick. A11 these materials are foreign, and have been transported during the great ice flow from the stratified rocks, Azoic and Metamorphic regions at the Northwest. From this deposit the bowlders and gravel found in 'the terrace' and beds of creeks and branches have been washed by rain and flood. The soil of the drift is tenacious and somewhat impervious to air and water, and without sufficient drainage cannot be relied upon for good crops. The natural timber, characteristic of this soil, is beech, sugar maple, white, red, black and water oaks, black and shell bark hickory, iron-wood, dogwood, ash and gum. Native grasses were sedges; introduced: timothy, red top and clover. No animal remains were found in this formation. It varies in thickness from little or nothing at the south, to fifty feet in the northern part of the county. The Loess succeeus the drift in order of time, and is a deposit of comparatively recent date. It consists of obscurely stratified marly clays of a reddish brown color, at the base, but becoming almost pure sand of a yellowish brown or gray ash color. It is sparingly exhibited in the northern part of the county, but is better developed northwest and southwest of Fairbanks, and southwest of Graysville, and at Merom it attains a depth of over thirty feet. Thence it may be traced, in an almost continuous ridge, to Busseron near Carlisle, and forms a sand ridge along the Wabash bluff, which, altbough circuitous, was adopted by the early settlers as the army, stage and wagon road between points in the upper and lower parts of the valley. The surface configuration presents a succession of mounds and low ridges. These are often. erroneously attributed to human agency. The red marl clay at the base of the Loess forms a rich soil, and is characterized by a heavy growth of poplar, walnut, sugar tree, and oak of large size; the upper and more sandy member is impervious to air and water, and bears a meager growth of oak, hickory, gum iron wood, dog wood, and grape vines, with some trees of Southern affinities - as sweet gum. The native grasses found on the Loes were sedges, blue grass and white clover. This is a stratum of sand and gravel resting aiainst or upon older deposits. It is sometimes elevated to a height of twenty feet above the present level of the streams. This material was evidently deposited under water, and its formation is due to circumstances antededent to the present condition of affairs. The Alluvial bottoms along river and creeks are due to cagses now in action. They consist rich, sandy clay or loam, formed mainly by the wash from the highlands, and the sediment deposited by the streams during annul 0verflow. The bottom prairies were originally covered rant growth of sedges and blue grass; the timber consists of burr hickory, elm, cottonw@, walnut, hackberry, birch and willow. The large admixture of clay in this soil admits and invites the construction a system of levees to give protection against summer floods. Coal N occupies a narrow belt along the Wabash River amd the southern part of the county. This seam is thin and cannot be worked except by stripping. It is genersliy sulpturous, but becomes purer and thicker toward the southeast, The average thickness is two feet. Area, one third of the county. Coal M underlies the whole county, with the exception of twelve sections in the northeast corner of Township 9, north of Range 8, and of about two sections at Section 13, Township 0, Range 8, where it has been eroded eo as to expose coal L. Along the Wabash, M has an average depth of three feet eight in&es. Going eastward, it first gradually becomes thinner, as at Dix's and Alkire’s, Section 35, Township 9, Range 10, until it resches a minimum of eight inches near the railroad at Currysville; continuing eastward, the coal again gradually increases to a depth of twenty-two inches in northeast quarter Section 6, Township 8, Range 9; thence at all points northeast and southeast it becomes a persistent thick seam, ranging from four feet to nine feet thick (on Pitt’s Farm, Section 3, Township 0, Range 8j, with an, average of five feet two inches for Townships 7, 8 and north 9, of Range 9, and for the whole county an average of three feet ten inches. East of the railroad this is a fat, coking coal, rich in gaseous matter, yielding good coke, and desirable for blacksmith’s use. The sulphur present in this seam is banded or confined to a single division, consequently can and should be separated from the coal at the mines. A practical test is said to have proved it superior to any Western coal for gas, and but little less valuable than that of Pittsburgh. Coal L, with the exception of a few acres at the northeast corner, underlies the whole county. It is a thick seam, averaging five feet two inches, and so persistent, that, contrary to all common maxims of prudence, miners shaft for it without a preliminary test bore. For fuel and engine use it is of choice quality. With less volatile matter than coal M, it is rich in carbon, burns with a small blaze, is free from soot and clinker, and leaves a gray ash. Coal K has been pierced by test bores at Terre Haute, Palestine, Sullivan, Currysville, and outcrops along the eastern line in Greene County (Cox’s Rep., 1869, fol. 104). These tests indicate a coal of great persistence. It Probably underlies the entire county, with an average thickness of five feet. At outcrops in Greene and Clay, K is often, splint or block coal. The residuum brought up from the test bores at Currysville and other points, it is believed, warrants the hope that in some part of Sullivan County this seam will prove block coal. The total thickness of the seams practically tested in Sullivan. County amounts to sixteen feet, and the area underlaid by these coals may be safely estimated at 430 square. miles, or 275,200 acres. Over this area, after making allowance for horsebacks, refuse coal, waste in mining, and every other coptingency, there exists fully ien feet of coal available for market. Every cubic foot of seam yields one bushel of coal, of 436,000 bushels per acre. This, at the usual royalty, one-half cent per bushel, gives $2,118 for one acre, and, for the entire area the bank value of ihe coal of Sullivan County amounts to $583,297,000.
The well was bored with a hollow drill, and gas pipes for poles, affording aa excellent opportunity for accurately determining the quality ana thickness of strata. The coal was brought up in cubes from a quarter b half an inch, square; compact, glossy, and to the eye of superior quality; that from M, was a fat coking coal affording much gas; that from the lower seam L was more laminatad, indicating a semi-coking, white ash coal. It will be observed that the double limestone so constantlymarking the space between coals L and M in Sullivan County, here divided by partings half to an inch deep, and is thickened by the addition of one or more bands.
In the report ou Sullivan County, Prof. Collett has shown that coal N, which, in the western part of Clay and the eastern part of Vigo, Counties, is of good quality, and from four to five feet thick, is only found in Sullivan County over a small area along the Wabash River, and in tho southern part of the county. The quality is, here, generally poor, and the seam too thin to be mined with profit, except where so situated that it may be worked by stripping. A specimen from the seam on. Mr. Chambers’ land, Section 8, Township 7, Range 8, proved, on analysis, to be a very fair coal. Specific gravity, 1.206; one cubic foot weighs, 75.37 pounds.
The coke has a metallic luster, and is so much swollen that the original shape of the coal is quite lost.
The coke is puffed, brilliant add porous. This is a good white ash coal, contains a large amount of gas and will make fair coke.
The coke is slightly swollen, amorphous, compact and glossy.
The coke is very much swollen, amorphous and lusterless. This seam is five feet two inches thick; the quality of the coal, as shown by the analysis, is very good.
The coke is puffed and vitreous. This coal is very similar to the above, but probably contains less sulphur.
The coke is puffed, somewhat porous, and has a brilliant metallic luster. This is one of the best coking coals that has come under my notice in the State. In appearance it is of a glossy, jet black color, vitreous fracture, and will soil the hands little more than cannel coal. The ash is white, and does not amount to one per cent. The coke is of fair quality, and the gas six and one-tenth per cent greater than I found in a sample of the best gas coal from Pittsburgh.
The coke is puffed, glossy and amorphous. This coal is from the fame seam as the above; is of very good quality, but contains considerable more ash, though not more than is commonly found in coking coal.
The coke is much swollen, amorphous, and has a metallic luster. This is a good, strong coal, and is referred to L, of the vertical section. Has a bright black color; breaks into cubes more or less coated with thin scales of semi-transparent talc spar. A cubic foot of this coal will weigh as much as a cubic foot of Pittsburgh coal, and gives a very fair coke and large quantity of gas.
The coke is dense, of a dull color, and but slightly changed. This is the same coal worked at the Pioneer shaft, and the two analyses correspond closely. The ash is white, but the quantity is rather greater than in the former, and the quantity of coke, is also somewhat greater. Altogether, this is a most valuable seam of coking coal, and ii well adapted for household and steam purposes. Another sample of coal taken from the upper seam, N, in the Standard shaft, was subjected to analysis, and the following result obtained:
The coke is slightly swollen with the form of the coal unchanged, and has a metallic lustre. FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PRESENT; TOGETHER WITH INTERESTING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, REMINISCENCES, NOTES, ETC. ILLUSTRATED. 1884, CHICAGO: GOODSPEED BROS. & CO., PUBLISHERS.
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