The emigrant aid journal of Minnesota. [volume] (Nininger City, Minn. Terr. [i.e. Minn.]) 1856-1858, 1858-03-17

Let US inquire next as to the Railroad Company in
which the Stock is to be subscribed. The Nininger aud
St. Peter Western Railroad Company was chartered at
the last Session Of the Territorial Legislature. Copies
of the Charter will be given, together with an Account
Book for their payments, to the subscribers FIR Stock.
The road proposed to be built will extend in its first
section from Nininger to Louisville, q distance of thirty
FIVE miles 1t will run through an extremely fertile and
rich agricultural country, already in a considerable de-
gree brought under cultivation. We can say without
hesitation that this section of country contains some of
the finest farms in Minnesota. What next ? This
road will terminate its first section at Louisville, at the
foot Of the rapids of the Minnesota River. 1t will thus
tap he trade Of the great Minnesota Valley, the greatest
artery Of the wealth Of this State. Who can doubt
that this road once built, the whole trade of that great
valley now tributary to St. Paul would defect eastward
to the Mississippi River at Nininger City. Why? Be-
cause by thirty FIVE miles of Railroad travel accomplish
ed in a few minutes more than one hour, it could save
itself a whole days boating, of more than seventy miles
along a shallow and uncertain river, and q tedious tran
shipment at st. Paul. Any person glancing at the map
will see that the rivers Mississippi and Minnesota form
together a peninsula; boating at present is around its
| whole length our Railroad on the contrary passes at
the base Of it, cutting off thus one half or more of the
distance, besides substituting the iron horse for the slow
steamboat.
Will this road pay? Its present section as we have
shown is through a fertile farming country, and its first
terminus taps the richest current Of trade in Minnesota.
What is beyond? Take the map. To the southwest
lies the winding length Of the Minnesota River with all
its numerous and rising towns. Can we doubt what the
future will call forth from such a region? Up beyond
the great bend, away into an almost untrodden country,
it continues the same outlet to present or future agri-
cultural wealth. Then again directly west Of Louis
vile, a magnificent country, Ohe Counties Of Carver,
Mcleod and those adjacent stretches out, already much
developed, and containing a most energetic and intelli.
gent population. Application has already been made to
the Legislature by the people Of Glencoe for a charter
for a branch road to their town. This region once opened
up, once offered an outlet for it's productions, and it will
food its wealth outward to the Mississippi. And then,
looking to the farther future, if the Nininger and St.
Peter Railroad Company are, as we think they will be,
able to construct the first Railroad IN Minnesota what
is to prevent their keeping the same advanced position,
and sweeping westward on the great line of the advance
of the country. y.
With all this, who can doubt that the Stock Of the
Company will be a safe and paying investment? Who
can doubt that it will yield a handsome return on it's
principal in semi-annual dividends? Who will doubt
that it will be a current and tangible evidence of so
much money-negotiable as bank notes.
But more than all this, in asking the public to sub
scribe for Stock in the Nininger and St. Peter Railroad
Company, we are offering them lots in the Town Of
Louisville, which will, by their certain rise, upon the
building of the Road, net them double, treble, quadruple
the vhole cost of their Stock, and that too before they
have half paid for it. Oh this fact there can be no
doubt. lots have already, before there was any pros
rect Of a Railroad, been sold in the town of Louisville
LOT Two 11uQurcu UOlldrS CaCu. we are ONerl0g equally
good lots for ten dollars each What we ask in return
is, that the purchaser shall pay his pro rata part towards
building a road that will UNNECESSARILY add to the value
Of his own property. What could be fairer? He is
putting money in no mans pocket but his own. He is
building his own Railroad in which he is as deeply in
terested as any other man, and in whose actions he will,
as a shareholder, have a voice.
Let US reduce this matter to details, first to demon
| strate it's feasibility, aud secondly to show its results as
to the individual purchaser.
The Road from Nininger to Louisville will cost it has
been estimated, at the rate of $40, 900 per mile, making
a total of 500, 600. OF this, it is a we'll known fact,
that if one half, or even one-third be raised in cash, the
remainder can be negotiated, by exchanging the Stock
with contractors, by discounting the bonds Of the Com
pany secured on the portion already built, and in various
other ways. We propose to raise very nearly the whole
amount in cash. We will offer for sale about six thou
sand lots in Louisville at Ten Dollars per lot, subject to
an average subscription of one share to the lot, in all,
six thousand shares, making at One Hundred Dollars
per share Six Hundred Thousand Dollars not one.half,
not %one-third, but STA. sevenths of the whole amount re-
quired to build the road and this too in cash, as it is
needed, in monthly instruments of thirty thousand dol
lrrs each. Now is it doubted that those lots can be
sold? 1t must be remembered by the incredulous who
will hang back to their own future loss, that one year
| ago a large number Of lots were offered for sale by
the Proprietors Of Niningsr, a town containing now with
its additions over seven thousand lots at Six Dollars
each, subject to an equally onerous condition. Not one
ILL VI duVcIu6Iuku C1dAuCU uCu ~ u uCW6pdpCA
pulled them, not one public meeting was held, and yet
t,centy-seuen days from the sale of the first lot every lot
offered was disposed of. What has been the result?
Nininger City in one year contains a population Of at
least six hundred, about one hundred and twenty-five
houses, two saw mills, a sash factory, and a grist mill
10 progress of erection. No town in the Territory OF in
the whole great West ever rose more rapidly or prom
Uses more brightly for the future. What are the lots
worth that were bought a year ago for six dollars each :?
Only a little while ago three Of them ,cere sold for one
thousand dollar, cash! Will the incredulous calculate
the rate of interest per month that will increase eighteen
dollars in one year into one thousand dollars.
Will not the same thing take place in Louisville +! If
such results have been attained in Nininger by a judi
cious combination of numbers and wealth, that will be
the results in Louisville when that combination Is bent
not to the erection of houses, which will rise of them
selves with the necessity for them, but to the bringing
to the heart Of the town that great avenue Of trade a
Railroad, that great desideratum Of modern times, with
out which commerce moves not, man travels not, and
cities grow not the all in all of progress and advance
ment.
That road once built who can doubt that lots in Louis
vile, be worth from five hundred dollars and upwards
to FIVE thousand. 1t would make Louisville the en-
porium Of the Minnesota River, collecting into it, folds
all the wealth and commerce of the region around it.
We will say A. b. buys ten lots for ten dollars each,
making in all one hundred dollars. He subscribes at
the same time for ten shares of Stock, on which he pays
fifty dollars per month, for twenty months, at the end
of which time he has paid up the full value of his Stock,
viz, 81, 900. In the meantime, month after month,
the Railroad has gone on, excavations have been dug,
rails have been laid, and depots have been built. What
are A. BIS lots worth? At a reasonable calculation
one thousand dollars each. If lots in Hastings, Shake
pee, and various other towns, are now worth that sum,
will not the lots in a Railroad terminus be equally
valuable ..atE
How then do A. BIS accounts stand.
Paid for lots in the town of Louisville, 100
" " Stock in the Railroad Company, 1000
el,l0O
CREDIT. t~s
Par value Of ten shares of capital stock in the Nininger
and St. Peter Western Railroad Company, 1000
Value of ten lots in the town of Louisville, 10000
10000
$l1, 900
Leaving a profit Of 1900 dollars.
Or say this is extravagant: say his lots average $500