St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-03-18

"
which prevail in warm and newl,
opened countries. By medical writers
1t is ranked as second only in health
OF all the States in the Union-Nortl
Carolina being the first.
In its general character, Iowa ma,
be called rolling country, prairie
diversified with moderate undulations
and its streams run over beds of san,
and gravel, while its soil, as high a.
420 3O', is described by DR.. Owens as
presenting body of land, which, ia
ken as whole, for richness and or
ganic elements, for amount of salin,
matter and a due mixture of earth,
silicates, affords a combination whicl
belongs only to the most fertile uplant
plains; while the general levelness o
its surface admits the introduction o
the labor-saving machinery which S,
much diminishes the cost and Difficult
ties Of harvesting the abundant crops
This region is one of the most tcrtil
in the world. With the exception o
the mining of lead in the vicinity o
Dubuque, but little has been done
towards developing our minera
wealth, but it is known that copper
and iron ore are found in various parts
of the State, that it's coal fields EN-
brace an area of $4,000 square miles
and that hydraulic limestone, marble
quartzte clays aud gypsum abound in
narrow localities, and will prove an
ultimate source of great wealth to the
State. But it is perhaps fortunate fol
Iowa that the handspring of hel
prosperity and increase has been found
in her agricultural resources. Hence
it is that, while no overgrown ac.
cumulations of wealth have been made
in particular hands, there has been q
general enrichment of the population
They are all comfortable and prosper.
Gus, with the certainty of good homes,
good livelihoods, and of leaving good
estates to their children. And the
last men to be affected by panics and
revulsions was this rural population
the substantial strength and support
of the state All who have embarked
in mercantile enterprise have exposed
themselves, but the hundred thousand
homes that have been made in the
State, have not been disturbed. Bu
notwithstanding all this, Iowa ha;
suffered in good reputc, from the fac
that when the recent panic commenced
there was a general outcry agains
the West and western speculations
as if the irregular absorption of money
in western enterprises had been the
main cause of the existing troubles
This outcry the lecturer proceeded tc
show, was entirely unfoundcd. He
also showed, at length, that invest
mcnts in new lands always were
profitable in the end and quoted from
DR.. Franklin's writings in proof of bis
position. Franklin knew companies
of large tracts to buy for Gl0 PEI
hundred acres, and after 90 years t.
sell again for thirty times as much
AS long ago as 1894, the emigration
from the settled to the unsettled parts
of America was computed at from
forty to fifty thousand persons annual.
ly. Good loan soil was selling at
from So to 50 per acre, eighty miles
from market, and here labor was
worth So to Sc per month and few
miles from Reading woodland was
held at $25 to $50 an acre, and cleared
Sll0 to $3.50 The cheapest land in
Pennsylvania sixty years ago, cost
the settler from II, 90 to S25 am acre,
before it was ready for cultivation
In 1879, land in Kentucky near popu.
lous towns was worth from $40 to $40
an acre, and choice tracts in Illinois
were purchased from the Government
at sc an acre.
In the State of Iowa there are gov
ernment lands outside of the six miles
on either side of the contemplated
railroads, tracts that may be taken up
by pre-emptors at government prices.
but these tracts are very limited in
extent and not the most desirable
perhaps in quality, the best of which
have been culled by settlers, or by
parties who hold them at an advance
to sell to actual settlers In the more
populous counties, near the Mississip.
pi, lands entered twenty years ago at
$l.25 an acre, are held at from $40 to
$50, and if in the vicinity Of q grow
ing town, at from $50 to 500 an acre
Twenty miles west of the Mississippi
river lands, within two to six miles OF
the railroad station, vary in price
from $40 to $40 an acre, and III the
interior counties west of Iowa City,
lands that have been entered some
five or ten years, may be bought
within few miles of a growing vii,
lage at from s. to SIS.
There is nothing speculative in all
this. 1t was the natural and nccessa
ry order Of things, as observed by Dr.
Franklin and others since him, though
at that time the emigration was no
thing compared to that of our day
In los years from its settlement
Pennsylvania contained 434,373 peo
pie; Iowa has been settled but abou
twenty years, and contains 6O0,OO
whites. In 20 years from this day
the whole tceming soil.of the West
on the borders of her rivers or hel
railroads, will be as valuable, acre foI
acre, as the richest farms in Pennsyl
vania, and those who acquire at pres
ent prices and work their farms, will
have become wealthy. The West il
the land of labor.
There is every reason to believ
that the first finished railroad t
the Pacific will pass through tha
State from Davenport to Counci
Bluffs. The Rock Island Bridge give
this route decided advantage owe
any other. For the continuation Q
this line Iowa presents rolling
prairie without any serious obstruction
for 800 miles. Thirty miles in Ne
braska has been explored for its con
tinuation beyond the Mississippi, ant
government surveys have established
the fact that the difficulties of the lin'
between Council Bluffs and San Fran
cisco are less than any other route ex