Genealogy Trails
GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY.
DRAINAGE SOIL STRATA
FOSSILS
MINERALS EMINENT SCIENTISTS EARLY HEADQUARTERS AT NEW HARMONY.

Posey county, Indiana, is bounded on the north by Gibson county, on the east by Gibson and Vanderburg, on the south by the Ohio river, and on the west by the Wabash river and the State of Illinois. The Ohio and Wabash rivers meet at its extreme southwestern point and it is crossed by Black river, Big creek and a number of smaller streams. The surface is flat bottom land with the exception of a small area of bluffs commencing at Mt. Vernon and extending four miles below. The land is very low and formerly was subject to yearly overflows. This condition has been remedied since the land has been brought under cultivation. The interior is undulating or rolling prairie, with the eastern part somewhat hilly. The bottom lands comprise about one-sixth of the area of the whole county and that formerly covered with forest comprises three-fifths. There are no barrens or waste lands in the county.

The bottom lands are a rich loam formed by the deposits of the rivers. It is more or less sandy. The soil in the interior formed by vegetation is a dark, rich loam resting upon a substantial yellow clay sub-soil. Geologists have investigated in shafts and borings and classified forty- two different strata of soil and rock under the surface. These have been tabulated as follows:
1. Buff, brown, red and mottled shales, extending to a depth of two feet.
2. Merom sandstone, soft, shaly upper division, twenty to twenty-five feet thick.
3. Merom sandstone, massive in quarry beds, ten to thirty feet in thickness.
4. Dark gray or buff shales and flaggy sandstones, with clay iron stones, ten to twenty feet.
5. A poor grade of brown coal, third rash coal about a foot in depth.
6. Flaggy or thick bedded sandstone, ripple marked nine to four feet.
7. Hard, clinky, gray limestone, at bottom irregular and sometimes flinty, passing to the west to a calcareous shale two to six feet.
8. Argillaceous shale and shaly sandstone thirty-four feet in places and absent in other spots.
9. Black slate, with fish spines and fossils, narrow strata.
10. Second rash coal, very thin strata,
11. Fire clay, about one foot where it occurs at all.
12. Gray shale, six feet deep in places.
13. Limestone (yellow ferruginous), three to twelve feet deep.
14. Gray shale, ninety-eight feet.
15. First rash coal and black slate, very thin strata.
16. Fire clay, one to two feet.
17. Soft, flaggy, blue, buff and gray sandstone, with much gray shale and beds of clay iron-stone and nodules, sixty to 121 feet.
18. Yellow and gray sandstone, often giving good quarry beds, fifteen to twenty-nine feet.
19. Gray and buff alluminous, arenaceous or shaly, flaggy sandstone, with iron-stone nodules and shaly concretions, twenty-nine to eight feet.
20. Black slate or clod, with fossils one foot deep.
21. Coal, N, choice gassy caking, two feet.
22. Fire clay, at bottom shaly, with iron balls, five feet.
23. Buff or gray limestone, with Choetetes, eight to five feet.
24. Gray or white shale, with nodules of iron-stone and bands of sandstone thirty to forty feet.
25. Siliceous shale, passing into massive sand rock to south and west ; anvil rock of Lesquereux and Owen, sixty to seventy-one feet.
26. Black slate and clod, with many animal and vegetable fossils, two to one feet.
27. Ingleside coal M, laminated coal, one foot four inches; parting, two inches to nothing; solid cubic coal, two feet eight inches to four feet.
28. Fire clay, four feet.
29. Fire clay with pyrite balls, three feet.
30. Siliceous shale, eleven feet.
31. Argillaceous sandstone, five feet.
32. Gray shale and soapstone, sixty-four feet. 33. Soapstone with plant remains, very thin strata.
34. Coal L, impure cannel coal, one foot six inches.
35. Fire clay, two feet.
36. .
37. Siliceous shales and coarse, massive ferruginous sandstone, ninety to 120 feet.
38. Bituminous limestone and black slate, two to eight feet.
39. Coal K, coking pyritous, one foot.
40. Laminated fire clay, two to one foot.
41. Siliceous and black aluminous shales with lands and pockets of nodular ore, ten to thirty feet.
42. Conglomerate sandrock, no to 180 feet.
43. Coal A, three feet.
44. Dark or black shale with iron ore, thirty to five feet.
45. Chester sandstone and lower carboniferous limestone, depth of strata unknown.

The above general description applies to the whole county, with a few local variations and details. The following section was observed at the Harmony cut-off, which is, as the name indicates, a place cut off from the mainland by an arm of the river. It contains 2,000 acres of rich river bottom land, hence the first strata is described as:
1. Alluvium running from thirty to ten feet deep.
2. Loess, twenty to ten feet.
3. Clay, sand, gravel, etc., sorted from glacial drifts, thirty to thirteen feet.
4. Merom sandstone, massive in eastern parts, to the west laminated, fifty to twenty feet.
5. Limestone, four to twelve feet.
6. Black shale.
7. Upper rash coal, ten feet.
8. Shaly sandstone, ten to forty feet.
9. Concretionary iron balls, one foot.
10. Calcareous shale, with fossils, one to two feet.
11. Black, sheety shale, with coprolites and fossil remains, one to two feet.
12. Lower rash coal.
13. Gray shales with plant remains to low water in river, two to four feet.

The lower sandstones of this locality show casts of strong, growing plants representing the Permo-carboniferous age. This section extends to the depth of ii6l/2 feet and does not reach the bottom of the upper coal region and indicates that the horizon of workable coals lie from 200 to 500 feet below. A section was taken near the county line on the southwest quarter of section 32, township 6, range n, where the upper limestones were well developed. It ran as follows : Loess, loam, twenty feet; red sand loess, four feet; soft merom sandstone, twenty-six feet; shaly sandstone, twelve feet; blue limestone, three feet to one foot; calcareous argillite, three feet ; gray and buff limestone with fossils, eight feet; gray shale to brook, two feet.

Formerly the more compact of the merom standstone formed occasional "rock houses" which were used for shelter by Indians and wild animals. Very little of the coal found has been either sufficient in quantity or good enough in quality to justify mining, although in the early days a thin coal was worked for blacksmith's use on section i, township 6, range 12.

Six miles north of New Harmony the following section appears : Covered tops of hills, seventy feet ; limestone with fossils, two feet ; shaly sandstone, five feet ; soft shales with plants and stems, twenty- one feet ; coal, one foot ; fire clay, two feet. Coal occurs in two thin seams eight miles north of New Harmony, in a ten-inch bed on Big creek, near the New Harmony and Mt. Vernon road, and on Rush creek in a thin strata ten to eighteen inches thick. These beds are generally covered with soft shales exposing plant and fossil remains. The following is the section at Blairsville: (1) alluvial soil and loess, five feet; (2) shales and shaly sandstone, fifteen feet; rash coal, three inches; fire clay with broken plants, six feet ; sandstone, six feet ; fire clay and trace coal, three inches; shales and shaly sandstone to creek, one foot. The sandstone of this section has contained many remarkable specimens of fossil remains, which have been taken out and preserved. The following section was taken at New Harmony : Soil and sub-soil, one to six feet ; loess, six to thirty feet ; drift, yellow clay with small crystalline boulders, ten to twenty feet ; hard, blue clay, about one foot ; merom sandstone, seldom suited for building purposes, ten to fifty feet ; argillaceous and siliceous shales, five to ten feet ; coal, six inches to one foot; fire clay, one to three feet; limestone, about two feet; argillaceous, jointed and bluish gray shale, twenty to thirty feet ; schistose sandstone, highly micaceous, three to six feet ; banded limestone, several inches ; calcareous shale and limestone, full of fossils, two to twenty- five feet ; argillaceous shales with coal plants, two feet ; coal, six inches ; bluish under clay, full of fossil plants.

The most valuable geological feature of Posey county is the limestones. That on Big creek is black and very close grained. It admits of a high polish and can be used for table tops and decorative purposes. The limestone opposite Diamond Island is thick and very valuable. That found in Bethel township is earthy and destitute of fossils. At the New Harmony cut-off the lower part of the Kerom sandstones and the upper part of the shales are shown. About ten feet of the sandstone is coarse grained and reddish brown in color, underneath which lies five or six feet of argillaceous shale containing a seam of poor coal eight inches thick, underlaid with fire clay, beneath which is an earthy limestone. The next strata is shale and the next is a sandstone used for building purposes.

The remarkable feature of the geological deposits of Posey county is the plant and fossil remains, and in the past the soil has been the "happy hunting ground" for numerous eminent scientists. Beautiful fossilized ferns, trunks of upright trees, six inches to a foot in diameter and three feet or more high, remains of extinct animals, all have gone from this locality to enrich the geological and natural history collections of the country. One of the prominent early collectors was Dr. Richard Owen, who was appointed State geologist and who, with his brother, Dr. D. D. Owen, came to New Harmony in 1832 from studying in Europe. In 1837 Dr. D. D. Owen was made United States geologist, with headquarters at New Harmony, these headquarters being continued until 1856. With the two Owens, one in charge of the United States survey, the other in charge of the Indiana survey,, both at New Harmony, also Dr. J. G. Norwood, in charge of Illinois, the town became one of the most prominent geological centers of the country and all the leading scientists in that line frequented the place. Among those connected with the Kentucky survey under Dr. D. D. Owen were Major Sidney Lyon, Professor E. T. Cox, Leo Lesquereux, Mr. Nicholson, civil engineer and topographist. In the Arkansas survey were E. T. Cox, Leo Lesquereux, Dr. Elderhorst (author of Elderhorst on the Blowpipe) and Joseph Lesley. The Illinois survey was handled by J. G. Norwood, chief; Henry Pratten, J. H. Wolfers, Dr. Varner, A. H. Worthen and J. H. McChesney. In the Indiana survey Richard Owen was assisted by Leo Lesquereux.

Dr. D. D. Owen founded one of the best museums of natural history in the country, using as the foundation the vast and valuable collection of William McClure, who crossed the Alleghany mountains in the early days to study their structure, and located finally at New Harmony. He had traveled in many countries and his collection included specimens from Italy, Spain, Portugal, West Indies, Mexico and France. Dr. Owen had instructions from the government to locate the salt springs, mineral-bearing rocks previous to offering the lands for sale, and point them out for preservation. He covered that part of the Northwest which is now Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa in the short period of two months and laid his report before Congress. In order to do this he employed several hundred men. They were divided into companies, each with an intelligent head, and each allotted a district in which to gather specimens. At each camping place men were secured to hunt and provide food for the entire company. Dr. Owen himself visited each camp at stated points to give instructions and study the work accomplished. After the completion of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington the headquarters of the government surveys were established in that city. A. H. Worthen became State geologist of Illinois with headquarters at Springfield, and in 1869 Professor E. T. Cox became State geologist of Indiana and the headquarters for this State were removed from New Harmony to Indianapolis. The valuable collections were removed and many of them taken to the State University at Bloomington.

The archaeology of Posey county consists in the relics of the Mound Builders' period. Copper was beaten into thin plates for buttons, gorgets and tiny bells; hard flint was polished to a high degree; shells of the ocean were worked into ornaments ; beautiful vases and vessels were made into perfect symmetry, and the native pearls of the Wabash were prepared and pierced for beads. At West Franklin several good-sized mounds may be seen 170 feet above the Ohio river. A clump of mounds on the bluff overlooking New Harmony were explored by the early scientists. An analysis of the water shows an excess of magnesia, which, however, disappears to a great extent upon the water being exposed to the air. The river bottom lands are due to causes now in action. The solid rocks by exposure to the elements have become disintegrated and ground into sands and clays, the finer particles of which have combined with rich organic matter. This deposit is always above or against the sides or evacuated edges of older river beds. Evacuations at Evansville, Ind., and Henderson, Ky., show a bed of river shells which indicates an era when the Ohio was much lower than at present, and which tells a story of life and climate in a time far remote. The mollusks found at these points indicate a tropical climate and may be intimately connecte3 with the lasustral age, which was the epoch of warm climate succeeding the glacial period. The deposits indicate great lakes or slow moving lagoons by which this section was largely submerged at that time. Next in order was the ice age and the deposits indicate the youthful vigor of the Wabash. It sorted out. the different deposits and they lodged where the current left them, a ripple causing a deposit of gravel or boulders, a slower current leaving banks of sand and eddy currents making banks of clay.

The natural resources of the county may be summed up as being largely in the rich soil, which yields abundant crops of all varieties of grain, vegetables and fruits common to the temperate regions. The
wood which at one time covered the whole county has now largely disappeared and such coal as was workable has been mined out. There remain, however, the valuable limestones above mentioned. The Ohio and Wabash rivers furnish power for manufacturing purposes.
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