of Supervisors that year, Germantown petitioned to be set off, and thus became an independent town. Thomas Y. Brown made the first actual settlement in Germantown Township in 1855. He came from Jefferson County, N. Y., and located as noticed above, in Germantown, where he lived until a few years ago when he retired from active business and removed to the village of Chatsworth. He still owns his farm in Germantown, which is cultivated by tenants, while he resides in the village enjoying the competence his life of industry and perseverance in business has won for him. A son of Mr. Brown's is engaged in the banking business at Chatsworth, and is one of the honorable business men of the place. The next year after the settlement of Mr. Brown in Germantown witnessed the arrival of Nicholas Fraoeb and P. Goembel, from the "Black Forests of the Rhine." They settled here in the Fall of 1856, and were soon followed by others from "Deutschland," until to-day, as stated a little space ago, nearly the entire town is settled up with Germans, many of whom cannot speak a word of English, and among whom the mellow accents of Germany alone are heard. Dr. R. B. Wilson, who came from Ireland, but lived in Washington, Tazewell County, owned a section or two of land in this township. He sold the most of it to Germans, who, through his instrumentality came here and made their settlement within a few years from the time of the first opening made by Brown. Hon. Samuel T Fosdick is from New York City, and was induced to come West by his physician, with a hope of restoring his feeble health. He settled in Germantown in 1858. At that time, he informed us, there were living in the town Thomas Y. Brown and a few German families; the remainder of the lands were unoccupied. A few years ago Mr. Fosdick removed into Chatsworth village, where he at present resides. He is a lawyer of merit, and a member of the State Senate, from the district composed of the Counties of Livingston and Ford. But a more complete history of him is given in the chapter devoted to Chatsworth. This includes the first settlements made in this township, and brings its history up to a period when immigrants came in, mostly from the "old country," with too much rapidity for the historian to keep trace of them. Germantown has no church edifices, nor a store or post office, within its territorial limits. There are, however, several church societies of the German Lutheran, Ormish and Evangelical Association, who hold their religious meetings in the school houses, and at the people's residences but of them, we were unable to obtain much definite information. Their mail is received from Chatsworth, Strawn and other offices around its borders, and their trading is likewise done at these places. The schools of Germantown are in a very flourishing condition, and well up to the standard of public schools in any other section of the county. The first school was taught in 1859, but the name of the teacher is forgotten. We find from the records that in 1866 there were three school districts in the county, and thirty-five scholars in attendance. White persons under 21 years of age were forty-five, and the school fund was $146. In 1873 there were five schools; 161 children between the ages of 6 and 21 years, and the number at school 101. Two male and six female teachers were employed, and the district tax levy for support of schools was $947. The following figures are taken from the last annual report of A. B. Minnerly, School Treasurer of the township, to the county superintendent of schools: Number of males in township under 21 years................. Total......... Number of males between 6 and 21 years.... 168 158 Number of males attending school............................. Total......... Number of male teachers employed......... Total........ Estimated value of school property..... Highest monthly wages paid any teacher....... Lowest monthly wages paid any teacher....... 10 $4,600.00 8,790.50 46.00 25.00 1,237.75 There are at present in the township, which is fractional, five school districts, in all of which there are good, comfortable school houses, and schools maintained for the usual term each year. We have stated that Germantown was without churches, stores and post offices, and we may add, without mills, railroads, mighty water courses or great forests. In fact it has little history beyond the settlement of its quiet citizens. It is well supplied with good roads; but these are of too modern construction to be an interesting matter of history. Its political faith is pretty evenly divided between the two great parties of the day, and indeed, it is stated that the Presidential contest in 1876 between Hayes and Tilden was a tie vote. The present township officers of Germantown are A. B. Minnerly, Supervisor; John Leggate and A. B. Minnerly, Justices of the Peace; F. C. Dassan, Town Clerk; Charles Roedel, Collector, and John Leggate, Assessor. This concludes our history of Livingston County, and to the patient reader, who has followed us through these pages, we kindly bid you adieu. The following Chapters were received too late for insertion in their proper place. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. [For the benefit of our patrons who are interested in the subject, we copy from the Geological Survey of Illinois that portion pertaining to the coal measures of Livingston County. The plates of this work were destroyed by fire at Springfield some time since, and hence no more copies will be issued, which renders this extract of great interest in the history of the county.] COAL MEASURES. The Big Vermilion River, from the north line of the county to Pontiac affords many exposures that help to determine the changes in the coal measures. A coal bank on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 1, Township 30 north, Range 3 east, shows the Streator coal, which is here divided by a clay seam fifteen inches thick, leaving thirty-three inches of coal above and twelve inches of coal below it. The coal here is a little below the bed of the river, and a quarter of a mile below it is at the river level. A quarter of a mile above the mine, the coal at Newtown Mill is in the bed of the river below the dam. A half-mile below the mine the clay parting is only oneeighth of an inch thick. Glenwood Mill, on the northeast quarter of Section 12, about the middle of the quarter section. The river runs north, 35° west, and the sandstone above the shale that overlies the coal at Sreator, shows here with a dip south, 35° east, one foot in ten. At the mill the dam rests upon the coal. One mile above the dam the coal appears again. It was worked in 1860 and 1861, said to be three and a half feet thick. and One hundred and twenty rods north of the south line of Section 18, Township 30 north, Range 4 east, the coal is four and a half feet thick on the east side of the river. At the south line of Section 18, the coal is under the river not more than eight feet. Further down the river a short distance, on the west side the coal is three feet thick. At the northwest corner of the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 19, Township 30, Range 4 east, a limestone nearly six feet thick appears where the river makes a bend west. This rests on a blue clay, and appears to be No. 12 of the general section of La Salle County. Fossils found in it were Productus longistinus, Spinifer cameratus, Sp. lineatus, Athyris subtilita and Cyathoxonia. The same limestone appears again in the elbow of the river, on the right bank, on the south part of Section 19, near the middle line; also in a detached mass, slipped down in the east part of the southeast quarter of Section 19, with the underlying greenish clay and shale forming the bank. Sandstone appears on the north line of Section 30, Township 30, Range 4 east, near the middle corner. This seems to be No. 49, of the general section of La Salle County. The base is shaly, discolored by wafer bands of coal and coal-plant fragments. This sandstone continues in sight to the mouth of Long Point Creek, on the left bank of the river, in the southeast corner of Section 29; then reappears on the right bank just above the mouth of Long Point Creek. The dip shows well here to the northeast, one foot in twenty. In the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 32, in the bend of of the river, the direction of the dip is a little more east, and the massive sandstone is overlaid by a bed of silicious and micaceous shale, on which rests a clay shale of a light blue color, the silicious shale being of a grayish light blue. In the clay shale are two bands of limestone somewhat like ironstone, irregular, separated by clay shale and each about one foot thick. The main sandstone appears again one quarter of a mile below the mouth of Mud Creek, on the left bank of the river, and at the mouth of Mud Creek is the underlying shaly sandstone. This is near the middle of Section' 32. Continuing up the river, this sandstone appears in the south part of Section 5, Township 29, Range 4, with five or six feet of the underlying shales. One quarter of a mile further up, and probably in the north part of Section 8, coal comes in suddenly, with section as follows: Sandstone...... Coal....... Fire-clay. Shale....... 6 This eighteen inches of coal is generally represented elsewhere, and in La Salle County are fragments and wafer seams of coal. The fire-clay is absent. A thin, shaly sandstone of eighteen inches is here found two feet thick below the coal. Southeast, three-quarters of a mile or less, in a straight line from this point, a coal seam appears in the bed of the river. Its thickness could not be determined, but is at least one and a half feet. The right bank shows argillaceous shales, with bands of nodules, and thin shales indicating the Streator coal. The dip is between southeast and east. This point is a little below the mouth of Scattering Point Creek, and is probably in the north part of the southeast quarter of Section 8. The shales in the right bank of the river, in the northwest quarter of Section 9, in that part of the river which runs near the west line of the section, appear to be the same just referred to. In the bend of the river at the middle of the northwest quarter of Section 9, the strata of sandstone and shale dip about west one foot in twenty. Ten rods further up the river, the dip is a little south of east at the same rate. Near the south line of Section 9, the same sandstone appears again, and dips southeasterly; in the bank of the river in the southeast quarter of Section 16, the southwest quarter of Section 15 and the northwest quarter of Section 22, limestone before referred to appears in loose masses, the banks formed of the underlying blue clay. A slippery bank, and the limestone slipped down, is everywhere, it appears, characteristic of this portion of the vertical section, often obscuring the details. Near the north line of Section 22, and a quarter of a mile east of the northwest corner, the limestone in place is down to the river level. The character of this rock to disintegrate into irregular fragments, is exhibited here in abundant loose, coarse limestone gravel, two to four inches in diameter. From this point to Allen's Mill, in the southwest quarter of Section 23, nothing noticeable is to be seen. This limestone appears again at the mill dam, and also at the ford, two miles and a half below Pontiac, and at Pontiac. The fossils are Spirifer cameratus, S. lineatus, S. planoconvexus, Productus longispinus, and Bellerophon. The branches of the river in this county afford no aid in determining the rock strata, excepting at a very few points, the drift concealing everything below. Above Pontiac, but little exposure is found. The details given of the tracing of the river up to Pontiac show the upheaval of the coal measures continued as in La Salle County, and also seem to indicate some slight local disturbances or parallel axial lines with the main axis. On Rook's Creek, in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 23, Township 28, Range 43, a sandstone is quarried. The section is as follows: Sandstone, in thin laminæ...... Feet. 5 2 1 ...1 in. to 1 Sandstone in thick beds, slightly micaceous, bluish color, fine building stone One hundred yards west, down the creek, it shows again. Two hundred yards west, on the left bank of the creek, a limestone comes in, stratified in masses, brecciated, about five feet altogether; no fossils. The sandstone shows again in the bed of the creek, about eighty to one hundred rods in the south east corner. Section of coal shaft at Pontiac, as furnished from the record of the com pany: |