The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1864-09-21

w w . SCtSiVu pOlIt tuuL NJ e
cor is the place where large quantities
goods are to be jobbed out to the interior
trade. The change from an immense retail
trade to superior wholesale business has
been ALMOST unheralded but very rapid
Indeed We have become SO accustomed to
rapidity in McGregor that nothing in the
way Of hugeness of commerce surprises
anybody here. Necessity, not art, made
the town; the wants and the convenience OF
the country back Of US have constantly added
to its unprecedented growth. To us who
have grown up with it from, its puny in
fancy the whole seems like dream of the
night which sudden awakening has i'm
pressed into solid fact. Twas yesterday,
as it were, when Jones & Bass and H. D.
Evans We're almost the only traders at a
little landing called McGregor's. No ferry
made its dozen daily tips nor long trains
of cars hurried passengers. and freight to
it from either way. From small beginnings
rapid strides of magic growth have quick
ened the landing to a city of teeming
life, whose warehouses groan with grain
and whose Trademarks are loaded with
goods. Merchants who but year or so
ago were busting with the smaller trade by
teams, now daily send off their la, ge sales
by dray loads, their trade being counted by
thousands when once it was by hundreds.
This is the way McGregor is being killed
by the Railroad. Many of our friends in
the country frankly confess that there is
every advantage in buying their stocks
here, because it is close by home and their
purchases can be made in small quantities
and often. The merchants here are we'll
with the peculiar wants Of the
country and have just the kind of goods
that customers want, the prices are gener-
ally cheaper than can be bought farther
east and landed here; especially is this true
Of all staple articles. We find that almost
the only complaint that our merchants
make is; that they cannot get goods fast
enough. We look at the heavy square
piles of prints and cloths, the crowded
counters and bending shelves, and wonder
what would satisfy them. The other day
we stopped in at G. G. Cones BROAD Axe"
it bad been some time since
we crossed his threshold, and curiosity
rather drew US there to see if he had any
complaint Of that kind. Telling him how
others grumbled, he also complained, not
but that Re could get goods enough, but
his customers took them away so fast that
bis assortment could not be kept up. From
front to rear the capacious store was crowd
ed, we might say ''massed," with iron and
its features, from the little rod / inch round
up to the heavy 6 K inch; every stand-up
place was filed and piles were lying on the
floor for which no other place remained.
We looked at the teeming shelves and at
his wareroom Of nails, spikes, horseshoes,
hubs, spokes, rims, and all the other what
nots Of wagon woods, and then again piles
and piles Of more iron. To US, one of the
original settlers, it seemed amazing. The
constant stream Of goods going out and
coming in would confuse poor printer like
US. Mr.. Cone, like the other merchants,
informed US that his principal trade was
jobbing, selling iron and other goods in
with Milwaukee and Chicago,
and even underselling those small towns
when freight was counted in. Verify, we
thought as VIC returned to our sanctum,
our merchants Of every class are alive and
McGregor is not in danger Of dying yet
awhile. . staa4.-. s.,a5 ,.- 81.