Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1862-12-12

THE PROGRE ESS or IOWA BETWEEN
1850 AND $50.
INCREASE IN WEALTH.

1850 AND $50.
INCREASE IN WEALTH.
In 1850, the value Of the real and personal
property in Iowa was S23,714,63S. In 1860,
ii was $247 ,33S, ,265, having increased in ten
years 1929, ,623 ,627, or at the rate of nearly
943 per cent.--a ratio of increase higher by
nearly 100 per cent. than that exhibited bv
any other State in the nation, more than 900
per cent. higher than that Of Massachusetts,
and Vermont. and about 400 per cent. high.
er than that of the most prosperous OF the
| Slave States. The absolute increase of our
wealth for the ten years alone. was greater
than the entire wealth, in 1860, of either
| Arkansas, California, Delaware. Florida, Kan
sas, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Or
egcn, Rhode Island, or Vermont. Florida
older than Iowa as State by nearly two
years, and with greater area by more than
| four thousand square miles, augmented her
wealth during The decade hut $50 .239, ,23O-
Iowa could. today. buy out Florida, bag, bag
gage and niggers, and still have nearly $75,.
000, 900 worth Of property left. The rate Of
| increase in the wealth Of Wisconsin was 55l
per cent, and in Illinois 45s.
GROWTH IN POPULATION.
| Such rapid acquisition of wealth as the
above figures show, would indicate intense
energy, or rapid increase, or both, among our
population. Doubtless our people are as en-
crgetic as any other. Certainly we have
grown most rapidly in population. The num-
ber of inhabitants in our State in 1850 was
2,2l4; in 1860, 673, ,94S, beirg an increase
Of 251,l4 per cent.-a very much higher
rate than that Of any Safe, which was a
lincmber Of the Union when the census of
1850 was taken. AS regards rapidity of
growth in both wealth and population, Iowa
stands first among the States whose inhabit
ants were enumerated like hers in 1850 and
1860. California. Minnesota and Oregon
Territories in June, 1850, seem to show a
greater rate of increase in population. In
1850, Iowa was the twenty seventh State in
the Union in point of pspulaton--in 1862
the twentieth. During the decade she over
took New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, Texas.
Arkansas and New Hampshire, and came
within twelve thousand of reaching Mary
land, the sixth State in 1890, and having
one Of the large cities Of the cluntry. We
already have about nc, 900 more white peo
pie than Maryland, and in the next Congress
| will have one more representative.
| In 1850, the inhabitants Of forty-nine
counties were enumerated, that being the
number then practically organized in the
State. In 1860, nll OF or ninety nine coun.
ties, except the two extreme northwestern
ones tOceola and Buncombc) we're inhabited
In 1850, there were but four counties in the
State te-DesMoines, Dubuque, Lee and Van
Buren-which contained more than 10000
inhabitants each. In 1860 there were tween
ty.nine, of which four contained more than
10000 each, our rapid growth in population
l,na IA ,,> all A.
largest ty-Dubuque--contain but IL, 900
inhabitants. Thus there has been no com,
mercml emporium in Iowa, as Chicago, in
Illinois, or st. Louis, in Missouri, about
which trade has centered, and toward which
immg mgraton would be largely attracted -
For the extraordinary increase in our popu-
lation we are indebted, mainly to the fertility
OF our soi and the health ulness of our cll.
mate, and not to any special advantage of 10
cal commerce. Nor will the State ever need
any particular commercial centre. Washed
by the Mississippi on one side and the Missou-
ri on the other, we have natural outlets for
our surplus productions greatly superior to
those which Ohio had during the forty years
in which she was gradually pressing from the
eighteenth to the third rank among the States
| RAILROADS.
Until the year 1865, we did not have n
mile of railway in operation in the State
In June 1860, we had $50 miles, whose con
struc'ion had cost l0,494 ,633. We: built
in five years Of the decade more than one
hundred miles more of railroad than Ken
tncky built during the whole period. The
railroads partly completed at the census con
nected the interior Of the State with the east
with five different points on the Mississippi
river, at two of which freight could he pass
ed forward to market without breaking bulk
But we are now much more intimately con
nected with the great American railway sys.
TEN, than we were, even so recently as $3.50,
and it may safely be said that five years
hence nearly every town in the State will
have home market of it's own, by reason
OF that same system under the operations OF
which the east and the west have become
next-door neighbors. ....
THE ANDANTE Of NATURE-It was an Au-