The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1869-02-10
NORTH CAROLINA.
Letter from Col. ]. W. Forney.
Correspondence Washington chronicle.l
RALEIGH, N. c., Jan. 26, 1863.

hons OF dollars, a factswhlch certainly dls-li
pels the idea of prolonged poverty, and re-
flutes the cruel accusation that the freedmen
will not work. North Carolina alone has
raised nearly fifteen million dollars worth
of cotton, and allher products for the same
period sum up forty millions At this rate z
tue South will be richer in few years
than she has ever been, -e4,, 5}J
Listening to the old shareholders whom
meet in the hotels and cars, it is compensa-
ting to separate their complaints from their
confessions, and then to contrast the one
with the other. They lament emancipation
and Suffrage, even as they admit that the
freedmen are orderly and industrious. They
declare.thenlselyes the poorest people in the !
wersS and solemnly recall the good. old !,
times, even while they say that the new,
which compels them to divide and sell por
.ions of their vast estates to Northern farm
ers. will make them wealthy and happy men.
The enormous sum produced by honest toll
in q single year will not be distributed and
wasted as it would have been it the peculiar
institution still existed. FormerIv, long be-
fore the cotton crnp was realized, it was hv-
pothecated to furnish means for foolish ex-
travagancies and luXures or held in a few
selfish and graspIng hands, But now it is
necessarily scattered among thousands, and
helps to swell the large aggregate of general
independence and comfort The surplus,
instead of being invested in more human
flesh, is cpnfided to the safe certaintcs of
business-to the improvement of the soil. to
the encouragement of railroads and public :
improvements, to home manufactures. and
to all those heretofore sighted agencies
which have been p ,ten;i ii north and west.
Our first days travel carried US into the.
widest parts of North Carolina, and have
not. perhaps, done justice to other counties,
where better farms and better buildings, and
a more athletic and intelligent race prevail.
This is certainly true of the route from Sal
ishurr to Raleigh, and of the neighborhood
IN and around Charlotte. A higher state of
civilization in all classes is evident here, and
yet it is remarkable how cheap landis Offered
everywhere, even in these quarters. in view
nf the fact that every moment is proving
North Carolina to lie as rich in natural re-
sources as any other State. Her cotton, to-
bacco, tar, turpentine, timber, rosin and rice,
and her mineral resources are well known,
but as yet not even partially developed
sources OF almost exhaustless wealth. 'a
Some of the prices asked and paid for
good farms in the hest neighborhoods
| (where such thing as hard winter is never
felt, and where nothing but enlightened ag-
ricnturc is necessary to produce eXtraordi-
nary crops and proits,) will startlc our
Northern people. My old friend Hon.
Burton Craigc, of Salisbury, who. notwith-
standing our strong differences in politics,
found glad to meet me, and who, l was
happy to see. is generally respected by the
Radical Republicans, has Just sold fine
farm of one hundred and fifty acres, within
a few miles of Salisbury. for fifteen hundred
dollars to gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr.. Craige while deplonng the circumstances
| that compelled him to sacrifice it, declared
that the property would he worth from fifty
to sixty dollars an acre within few years.
| if properly managed by its new owner. n'
| One of the best of the famous sulphur
| springs, with good building and out-houses.
and a thousand acres of land, ten miles from
Hickory Station, on the Western North Car
| olna Railroad, can he purchased for three
| thousand dollars and the Piedmont Sui
| phur Spring, near the adjacent Grandfather
| and Grandmother mountains, the celebrated
| Blowing Rock and Table Rock, is offered at
| the same figure. These have long been fash
| ionable summer resorts, and contain ample
accommodations. Another estate near Char
| lotte, fine plantation, has just changed
| hands at price that would scarcely pay for
| the buildings--f five thousand dollars. Many
| first rate cotton and tobacco lands are to he
had fahulnusly low /; and he who desires to
| invest securely has only to visit thriving
cities like Weldon, Henderson, Greensboro,
Raleigh, Wilmington, and Salisbury to real
ize how far a little money will go. A gen.
| tlemah in the car this morning told me that
he had just been offered a tract OF one hum
dred Thousand acres at twenty cents an acre,
covered with magnificent timber
| One of the most flourishing of the new
| settlements, however, and one that has al
4 ready attracted considerable Northern emf
grafton, is the town of Ridgewav, organized
under the auspices of Dr. W. j. Hawkins,
President of the Raleigh and CASTOR and
| Chatham railroads, Colonel Heck, Peter
| Davis, and Fl. T. Johnston, a citizen of the
/ State of Delaware, and born in Susauehanna
county, Pennsylvania, where his parents re-
sided lie is ON the Raleigh and CASTOR
road, about forty miles west of Weldon, and
one hundred and twenty from Portsmouth.
| They own u track of about six thousand
| acres consisting of several plantations,
| which has been suDdivided into small tracts
to suit purchasers, and extraordinary in
| ducements are held out. The company are
erecting large and handsome hotel, to he
completed by the first of March. 1t will be
a first-class establishment in all its appoint
ments, and will be conducted in tile best
style. Wide streets arc laid out, and some
| twenty rev houses already constructed. An
extensive wmili is in operation. and other
mills are also in process for the Manufacture
| of barrel slaves, axe handles, window sash,.
doors. &c. The company proposes to erect
dwellings for settlers on the easiest terms,
and TO this end have secured the services of
Mr.. George Fl. Applegate well known
architect from New Jersey. The soiE loca-
| tion, and climate are especially adapted to
| fruit. Twenty Thousand peach, ten thou
sand apple, five thousand pear trees, and
twenty thousand grape vines, besides small
| fruit trees and vines OF various descriptions,
| have been planted
| Ridgeway is only five miles distant from
Warrenton, the county scat Of Warren,
| where are said to he some of the finest male
| and female academies and colleges in the
State, and only few miles distant from the
celebrated Jones Sulphur and Shocco
| Springs. These long established watering
| places have complete accommodations for
more than one thousand visitors. They were
kept during the war, but were closed last
season on account of the scarcity of money
| One of General Lees daughters died there
during the war, and a handsome monu-
| nent has been erected to her memory from
the native granite, found in great quantities
in that vicinity The old planters of the
~vicinagc lived in state of almost princely
! magnifcence. Their residences and cut