The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-08-04
Correspondence.
Far tas Asruld 4 Freedom
Letter fora South Kansas.

FIR fas H-ruld n F5redosa.
Letter frorz South Kansas.
MouTHoF CoTFoEwooD, on tle 1ieosao,l
July %. 1865. {
Nh. BRows:-In compliance with alie
of many ofmy friends. and some
of your patrons IN Illinois. ! sit doHn teI'
say a.few things about this Territory at /
the mouth of the Cottonwood onethe
Neosho river. 1 arrived here on the 18th I
day Of April, with my family, and am
much pleased with these parts The /
Neosho, at the mouth of Cottonwood I
Greek, is on the 38th parallel ofnorth lat
itude, seventy five miles west Of the Mis- |
sour line, one hundred and twenty miles |
little north of east from the Big Bend |
of the Arkansas river, where the Santa /
Fe road crosses it, twenty miles south OF /
Council Grove, and on straight line
from the Big Bend to Independence. in
Missouri. There IS town laid out ON
the Cotton wood, six miles above Its
mouth, called Columbia, in which there
will be sale of lots on the 18th of Au-
gust. This region is perhaps the best
part of the Territory now open to settle
ment, for fafmiug aud grazing. The bot
toms are about five miles wide, with a
rich. allnFial soil, from eight to twenty
feet deep, with a sufieieucy of timber in
the bends of the river to fence all of 1t in
ten-acre fields, and plenty left to supply
fuel for:all who may locate within Eve
miles of the river.
The bluffs which skirt the bottoms,
rising sometimes gradually, sometimes
abruptly, are filled with rock, and the
tributaries which head up in the prairie
and run through the bottoms, are geuer-
ally we'll supplied with rock OF various
kinds, such as lime stone, sand and slate
stone, DC The timber consists of wal
nut, buroak, hickory, puFcen, hackelber-
ry, white maple, coffee bean, paw paws,
mulberry. and sycamore, and OF the
largest size. The timber land abounds
in wild rye, pea vine, aud grass, peculiar
to itself, which affords pasture all winter.
The bottoms are high, and in some places
trolling, but generally too rich 10 produce
good wheat crop the first year, but VIII
produce, IN good season, from seventy
i've to one hundred bushels of.corn to the
acre. Potatoes, peas, cueambers, toBa,
toes and MELONS grow as, large asI have
4 generally seen them. Cattle, with good
shelters, will live all winter without feed;
| but by feeding, say two months, will be
fine in the spring. There are few springs,
but there is an abundance of waerin the
Neosho, Cottonwood and their tributaries,
with the greatest number offalls sufficient
to turn machinery | ever saw on any Fiy-
er. I suppose mills of large size might
be put up within every lourmiles of each
tother on the river, with sufficient fall
and water bo run them the year round |
can see no oapparentloeal cause for disease,
| there being no sloughs or stagnant water
on the bottoms, and the river so.Tapid as
to- be continually in motion, and abounds
in various kinds of fish. The weather is
not excessively hot Though the thcr-
mometor has fora few days ranged from
eighty eight to ninety-six de9rees,) as
there his been cool breeze, which has
rendered it much pleaSanter than in more
4 northern latitudes where the tlernlome7
ter has not stood so high.
| The timber is nearly all claimed-
There are some of the ultra pro-slavery
boys from Missouri who have made as
many as twelve or fourteen claims, en-
bracing two quarter sections in each
claim, and they have no families. This,
with the fact that but little has been said
in the papers about this part of the Ter
ritory, (prehaps because little known,
has SO far compelled some of US to live
without the comforts and privileges ol
f thickly settled nsighborhoeds. There
are many claims TO be taken YET sad
some of those claimed will run out in 9
few months according to their own ar
r arrangements.
We have no ultra abolitioaists Oh tilt
river, but some fifty or sixty freesoiler:
who appear fully satisfied that Kansa:
will be free State This region mus
be, at ne distant day, densly populated
as nature has combined everything here
for the most extensive agricultural opera
erations, and the facilities for grazing are
> almost unlimited.
| would say to all my friends who IN
tend to settle in this Territory, before
: you make permanent location, visit tht
: Neosho at the mouth of the Cottonwood
F7FTheFe is good road from Lawrence cit!
a to the Willow Springs, on the Santa r
: road also from Westport and Indepei
. denee, on the Santa Fe road, 10 One Hun
dred and Forty-two Mile Greek on sait
2 road, where they leave it for the Cotton
a wood. A Mr.. Wilmington lives at thi
+ Creek, and is a gentleman, who will Civ
: all necessary information toenable per
d sons to find the way here.
Il THOMAS j. ADDS.