The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1859-01-06
Hotal Mditrrs.
Our TOWNS ProgresN.

Our Towns ProgresN.
Ep The financial depression under
which we have labored for over a year
past, has had the effect of testing the
vitality Of the many towns that sprang
up in our State during the speculative
era which we had previously experience
ed. and has served to demonstrate how
many, and which Of them, have the true
elements of progress within themselves.
One of the prominent, and we might
say, worst symptoms of that speculative
mania which but lately afflicted us, was
the reckless establishment of towns and
villages, all over the country, and the
employment of means too often eXcep-
tionable, to give them growth. All
kinds of representations were made to
induce investment in town property-all
kinds of wild projects entered into in or
der to make village lots the more attrac-
tive. Credulous men were induced to
invest their means in embryotic New
Yorks and San Franciscoes-in infantile
Lowells and Manchesters-in new born
Cincinnaties and Chicagoes-instead of
procuring for themselves, as they might
have done with the same money, a
homestead of broad acres whose cul.iva-
ton would eventually have enriched
them while it benefited the'country. The
genii who were to suddenly transform
the naked plat of their villages into pop
ulous and busy marts of industry and
commerce, no longer appear when bid,
and their star of brilliant promise grows
pale and dminutive in the distance.
Their towns have had a forced growth
kind of dollhouse vitality-and they
.tiud that the frost of financial pressure
has destroyed the bud of promise. they
so ardently hoped TO see developed, and
with it. in very many cases, have killed,
deep down to the roots, the parent stem.
All of these plants have not suffered
to this extent, however, and some of the
most hardy still stand crect--still prom
Use to blossom luxuriantly. Our own
town of independence is confesscdly one
of these. Though her vitality has been
somewhat impaired, she has suffered as
little as the hardest of her neighbors.-
We speak our deliberate conviction when
we say that Independence has stood the
test of the hard times even better than
any town of her size in the interior of the
State. The number of buildings erect
ed, we think, very nearly equals that of
any previous year, and these have been,
generally, of a more pretentious and sub
slantial character than formerly. Sever
al tasteful residences have been erected
ornaments to any town-and eight
stores put up on Main Street, several of
which, with their interior adornments,
are really handsome. We have, during
the past week, collected full list Of the
Improvements made during 1858, with
their cost, as near as we could procure
it. We have endeavored to make our
table as reliable as possible, and have,
in almost every instance, consulted the
owners in reference to the cost Labor
and materials have been much cheaper
this year than at any former period since
the settlement of the country, and there
fore. although the number is nearly equal,
and the style of buildings better, than
those erected during any former year,
yet the aggregate of cost does not sum
up near as much as last year. Some of
the buildings are yet unfinished, but We
give only the amounts at present expen-
ded. The list is as follows
EAST SIDE.
NJ d Smith, cut stone residence (unfn-
ished) So 900
Alex Smith, frame cottage 1000
ID s Lee, frame house Observation-Disclosures 300
G. Parsons, frame cottage (nnfnished) 1900