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NUCKOLLS AND FRANKLIN COUNTIES, NEBRASKA By REV. DENNIS G. FITZGERALD [A paper read at the annual meeting
of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January,
1912.] |
and returned the stones by registered mail. Following is the letter, in part, I received from them under date of January 23, 1908: "DEAR SIR:--The stones you sent us are chalcedony and jasper of value only as mineral specimens, and as such we could use a few for our collection. If you have any finer ones, we would be pleased to see them ........... "Very truly yours, Tiffany & Co." Guided by this information I continued my prospecting, picking up in each trip better stones, a collection of which I sent to Tiffany and Company. The reply I received very agreeably surprised me, for they offered to buy the stones. The following is their letter: "DEAR SIR:--We are in receipt of your stones and can give you $5 for the agates in the tin and paper box. The others we do not care for. Awaiting your pleasure we are, "Respectfully, Tiffany & Co." I wrote immediately accepting the five dollars for the stones. I continued my investigations and found a vast field containing many and various beautiful stones. I sent to Messrs. Tiffany and Company another collection in the early part of the following May, and here is their reply: "DEAR SIR:--What you send us are agate pebbles and agatized wood, interesting, but not of such color as to have a gem value. Some of the State Geological people at Lincoln, Nebr., might be interested in them. We return them by registered mail. "Very truly yours, Tiffany & Co." I wrote to the department of the interior, sending a small box of little specimens and stating that Tiffany & Co., of New York, had given me certain information relative to similar stones. The answer is as follows: "SIR:--In reply to your letter of March 25, transmitting a package of minerals for identification: I can add nothing to the information you have already received through Tiffany & Company. Their statement that the pebbles consist of chalcedony and jasper is perfectly correct. |
To what extent they might be used for ornamental purposes would have to be determined by some manufacturing jeweler. Most of the material of that kind used in jewelry is cut and polished in Germany where labor is very cheap. That fact seems to limit the usefulness of such minerals when found in small specimens like those which you send. "Very respectfully, Geo. Chas. Smith, Director." I sent only small specimens but with the request for their return at my expense. They were not returned, so I presume that the director of the department kept them and, I trust, classified them as specimens from Nebraska. Soon after this I got the address of lapidaries in Denver, and from them I got further information. The collection which I now possess were mostly cut and polished by the George Bell Co., of Denver, Colorado. They also classified the specimens as I sent them in to be cut or polished. About this time I made the acquaintance of Mr. Herman Brown, living near Upland, Franklin county, who became intensely interested in the finding of those semiprecious stones; and he now possesses a very fine collection of cut stones, many of which he has had mounted, making very beautiful pieces of jewelry. He was especially fortunate in the beautiful specimens of moss agate which he found in Franklin county, in the bed of the Thompson river [creek]. The coarse gravel was washed by heavy rains into the bed of the stream, and when the waters passed away the pebbles were left high and dry. Mr. Brown was in Red Cloud in December of 1909, and when he arrived home, he wrote me the following letter: "DEAR FATHER:--Thinking perhaps I might have a few items interesting to you at this time, I am writing this. So first of my return trip: I took it very leisurely, arriving Sunday, just at night. I 'interviewed' several formations, finding ever something new; one place was especially noticeable for a few really fine specimens of jasper. "At one place that I hunted over a man came out from a nearby house, and wanted to know if there was 'anything |
the matter with me'; then, when he came to understand something of what I was after, his tongue became loosened, and he proceeded to tell me all about it. I could not get a word in edgewise. He invited me into his house to see some 'rocks' he had. I was informed he had just returned from a trip about eighty miles east and eighty miles south from the state line into Kansas, where he had been visiting friends &c., and brought forth some peculiar specimens of clay, sand &c. and a specimen which really did interest me. He gave me a little piece I am sending you herein. He wanted to know if it was lava or petrified wood and said there was any amount of it, and in larger pieces, to be had. It was difficult to get an intelligent description of the formation. He said it was a very rough country where he was at. I am not sufficiently informed to judge, yet I thought it might be decomposed or partially rotted lava (?). If so, could it have come from 'Sappa Peak'? Perhaps, in the bounds of possibility. From his description I locate the place as approximately some eighty or more miles southeast of Red Cloud. He told me the county; I wrote the address on something which I am not able to find for you now. It was in the southwest corner of the county. Or is this only a piece of wood? "Well, I have only been able to extend my search upon one occasion, to a formation not before visited and situated northwest from Franklin. This locality was noticeable for some very beautiful and clear amber specimens of chalcedony found, and also some quite white and transparent. These have suggested to me a thought, in explanation say, perhaps many of these very light and transparent specimens of chalcedony were once the 'chrysoprase'. The 'International' is authority for this statement. I quote: 'Chrysoprase is a variety of chalcedony, the apple green color of which is due to the presence of a small quantity of nickel oxide .... Was much sought after as a gemstone, but as it loses its color if kept in a warm place-is no longer much prized. "You may perhaps recall my comment that with the abundance of chalcedony everywhere in evidence we should find a complete collection of all varieties. I have everything but the chrysoprase. If this authority is correct, we can |
not hope to find this stone in this exposed formation that has been open to many, many sun's heat. "I am sending in this mail a preliminary letter of inquiry to the Bell firm, Denver. A collection of some thirty-five really pretty specimens is tempting me to have them cut and polished, but there is one regret in that, with much diligent search, I have as yet not found the topaz stone. I am afraid it is not in the Franklin county formation ....  Yours
sincerely,H.
M. BROWN, Upland, Nebr."Since the writing of this letter Mr. Brown has found in his county many specimens of the Topaz stone, both white, smoky and a plum color. In March, 1910, 1 received the following interesting letter: "DEAR FATHER: It is now my endeavour to make answer to your interesting letter of February 9th, and chronicle many things passing by .... "I could only spend the one day at Red Cloud and left next morning for Naponee where I spent a day exploring for specimens and can now report in some detail of the question you at one time raised as to 'how far west this formation extends'. As to Franklin county, I can say the 'drift' is found at about eight miles north of Riverton in series of gravel outcrops; going west it trends more southward and the gravel pockets occur in a series of recurring points to about three miles north of Franklin, at Bloomington two to three miles, and at Naponee about five to six miles, but rather 'peter out'. I penetrated a mile or more west of the county line without finding anything, and the formation at this edge (Naponee) contained but few specimens worth picking up. They are more plentiful working eastward, and evidences of volcanic action, it seems to me, are plainer. However, in all of Franklin county's deposits there occurs nothing quite like the formation north of Red Cloud ... With
regards, your friend,"H.
M. BROWN, Upland, Nebr." |
The specimen that Mr. Brown describes in his letter is a triangular piece of chalcedony, resembling a triangle in its original formation, and is amongst the collection of cut-stones now on exhibition in the State Historical Society's rooms. His letter also is interesting in telling us how far west the gravel formation extends--as far as he knows--where those semi-precious stones may be found. I have traced the formation as far east as Hardy, near the point where the Republican river turns south into Kansas. From this place west to Naponee is a distance of some seventy miles, and so in this extensive territory is found the sand and gravel formation containing an interesting variety of uncommon stones. I do not on my own authority name these stones that I have found, but I rely upon the authority of Tiffany & Company, the geological department at Washington, the Geo. Bell Company, of Denver, and others. According to the official list of stones discovered in the states, Nebraska has only been credited with two, namely, chalcedony and pearl; but I have found many other kinds in the past few years, about which there is no uncertainty, and a great number of others about which I am uncertain. The first lot of stones I sent to Tiffany and Co. were described as chalcedony, jasper and agates. The Geo. Bell Co., of Denver, have called the stones I have sent them topaz, clear and smoky; moss agates, agatized and opalized wood; the amazonite stone; the feldspar; and the jasper pebbles in many varieties. Not being certain of many other specimens, I withhold giving them a name. Whilst writing this paper, Mr. T. M. Draper, of Humboldt, Nebraska, has called on me and shown me some very small and beautiful rubies or garnets, and sapphires of a delicate canary color, which he has discovered near Humboldt, in Richardson county, where he has also found traces of gold. It is a very easy matter to recognize precious or semiprecious stones when they are found in their original |
formation, and the text books on mineralogy are a very great help; but it is a very different proposition to recognize those stones in a changed condition and in formations foreign to their original surroundings. This leads me to observe two things: all the stones found, with very few exceptions, are fractured; and they are scattered over a very extensive distance. Sometimes one kind is found in one place and another in another place, and again many kinds are mixed together. Again, different kinds of stones are fused together and show the action of intense heat. I have found in certain places mica embedded in the stones and, in a few cases, pieces of mica so artistically arranged in pebbles as to rival the skill of the jeweler. Putting all these things together, I am forced to come to the conclusion that some great upheaval must have taken place in this territory in the very remote past. Most of us have come to the conclusion that volcanic action has been one of the causes that have brought together so many different specimens of an unusual quality. My investigation, I may say here in passing, has been confined solely to what I could pick up on the surface of the ground, never having dug or sought for any specimens below the surface. What may be found by digging and sifting is a matter which concerns the future, and which may reveal more interesting specimens than have been already found. In stating that this territory was volcanic at one time I wish to have it understood that it was a very, very long time ago, even before the great volcanoes of Mexico were ever heard of and Mounts Aetna and Vesuvius were dormant and still. This being so, we can readily understand why nearly all the stones found are more or less fractured and why so many show evidences of intense heat. It may have been that when the waters which once covered Nebraska poured into the volcanoes, resulting continued eruptions threw up from the bowels of the earth, softened |
by heat, shattered by the fall from a great height, but the parts adhering as they cooled, the fractured specimens which we find to-day. Or it may be the action of water, of which we have undoubted proof, that has gathered them into the formations of sand and gravel in which we find them to-day. But, no matter what the agency, they are there in vast profusion, and how long they have been there no man may say. They are the pages of nature's book, and we can, if we please, read between the lines. To many they may be of no interest whatever, but to many others the source of great pleasure or intense delight. Some may despise them because they are a Nebraska product, but there are others who prize them because they are some of the multitudinous products of our great state. They are perhaps, after all, only indications of more precious things that a keener search may reveal. The pursuit of them has been a mixture of some labor and keen delight, and the elixir of life and health. I do not wish to pose here as a deep student of geology or mineralogy--for I have found both studies exceedingly difficult--, but as one who has made some observations in both fields I give to those who are interested the fruits of my discoveries, if they may be so called. I have purposely avoided all scientific expressions and names--and they are very abundant in the fields of geology and mineralogy--, so that the simplest may be able to follow me in what I have written, and that they may, if they feel so inclined, hunt for themselves in the pure country air of Nebraska things beautiful in what appears to be her unproductive and useless sandhills. A small beginning has been made, and no man knows to what it might lead. The sands of the Ganges have yielded precious things, and the wastes of Africa and South America have done the same. The "great American desert" has |
become a garden, and her gravel walks may yield up a multiplicity of precious stones. "Gems are mineral flowers, the blossoms of the dark, hard mines. They are the most lasting of all earthly objects, the most beautiful as well as the most unperishable form in which matter appears. "Gold will wear away; silver will tarnish; wood will decay; the granite stone itself will disintegrate; but jewels will continue unchanged for thousands of years. "Symbols be they of eternal love and joy that is forevermore." |
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