The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1867-08-29
Correspondents Ottnmwa Courier
DEAR COURIER

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DEAR COURIER
WE are in very bad humor having
suffered all day long with Neuralgia
in the face, and the "stubbs' of our
old grinders have panied us 80 much
that we are as s'cross as BEAR" and
would not allow anybody to say
three crooked words to us, and if we
should manifest too much of our ill.
nature in this rate, blame the man
that invented toothache and not US.
We left you at Savannah, and from
thence to ST. Joseph, County Seat Of
Buchanan county, and distant fif.
teen miles, our road was generally
through and along the skirts ofheavy
timber. The county is quite thickly
settled, and there are many very ex-
cellent farms, although rolling, but
the soil is rich and produces heavy
crops. The corn crops being exceed
ingly good.
st. Joseph is indeed quite city
already, and is growing very rapidly
enlarging' her borders. They claim
y population Of $4,000, and are hav-
inga fine trade. They are thoroughly
canvassing and agitating the matter
of building railroad at once to Des
Moines, Iowa, road much needed
and that would pay well, as it will
of course run through all the towns in
North Missouri, at least a stranger
might think so from the amount OF
gassipg he would hear in passing
through the County. There is a
large scope Of most excellent farming
country in Northwestern Missouri
that 10 very much in need Of rail-
road. We tarried at st. Joe very
short time andstruck out in North
easterly direction for Maysville,
County seat of DeKalb county, and
thirty miles distant, which we reach
cd a. the late hour of 9 o'clock p. M,
and found Lakes Circus in full blast,
and the town almost deserted. We
made application at one hotel, and
visited two other things that had
hotel signs hung out, but failed to
get place to lay our weary head,
and after retracing our steps hauled
up at good old farm houae, and had
the privilege of staying all night on
condition that we tied our ponies to
tho fence, to which proposition Of
course we acceded. This is the
hardest looking county town we have
seen and contains q population of
some two hundred, more or less. and
although, supposed to be loyal now,
was at one time in possession OF the
rebels, and while in their possession
the County Records were stolen and
by them buried in q box in the
ground, where they remained until
the war closed, when tho citizens
were informed by letter from some
unknown individual that they could
be found by digging at certain
place, bnt when found were of course
utterly ruined. The eastern portion
of the county is broken, brushy and
stony, and the crops do not compare
with the western portion. We next 60
to Gallatin, county seat ofDavis coun-
ty, and distant 20 miles, an old county
town, not very neat, and containing
about 1000 inhabitants. The accom-
modations here are very poor, but
the charges very good. There is but
one Hotel in the town. The con-
sentative element is strong and about
equal to the radical. The country
around is rather rough and broken,
but interpreted with good timber.
The corn crop in this county is very
poor, aud will hardly make half .
crop. There is . district Of country
including this county, the eastern
portion Of De Kalb and the western
portion of Livingston, in which there
has been bat little rain since some
time in June, and the consequence is
everything is almost dried up, and it
is almost impossible to get over .
bucket of water for. a team. The
dust and heat in travelling through
this section Of country, is almost in
tolerable. From Gallatin county wc
60 east 80 miles to Chillicothe, county
seat Of Livingston county. The
country as we pass through is con-
siderably broken and not very thick
" settled, but well supplied with
good timber. As we approach near
Chillicothe we find some very fine
and we'll cultivated farms, but this is
decidedly timber country. Chilli
cothe has splendid location for a
large town, and does already put on
city airs. They claim . population
Of between four and Eve thouaand.-
They have q great many fne large
business houses, many of them built