Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-11-26
ST. Louis Nov. 13.

One may obtain even in a twenty
five mile drive from Topeka, a very
good idea of the thinly settled part of
Kansas. as compared with the portions
contiguous to the great arteries of trav-
el. With a good spanking team there is
no difficulty in making seven or eight
miles an hour over the smooth though
primitive road, which stretches like a
black stripe over the brown carpet of
the prairie. Such an excursion one crisp
November morning not long ago, in
company with clever Buckeye Kan
san, who knows all about the country,
took me to the southern part of Wa
bauEsee county. Much of the co untry
on this route is quite broken and even
hilIy, the grey limestone formation
cropping out occasionally in bare pro-
iecting lodges. After the first eight
miles from Topeka it was rare thing
to discover a settlers dwelling, al
though the land was generally a very
good qaulity of high rolling prairie
But wherever this road descended from
the upland, as il did not unfrequently,
into the valley of a creek, the settle
ments reappeared and there were
farms in very ereditable state of i'm
provement: In all such neighborhoods
the people seemed intelligent and we'll
tO-do. and had generally provided
themselves with the advantages of the
church and schOOl-hOuse. In the val
ley Of Mission Greek, our destination,
a promising young settlement has iast
been started, and will receive several
aecessiOns from New England the
coming spring. The settler who was
to have been our MONDAY host had
gone some fifteen miles to mill. He
was recent conner from Indiana, and
had squatted on his very fine though
naked prairie farm, in a light frame
house--sO light as to require the protee
ton of heavy timber props on all sides
to keep the wind from blowing it over.
The prairie chickens not accustomed
TO being disturbed by humaD presence
frequently approached within pistol
shot of his door, the most frequent in
deed if not the most sociable of all bipe-
pal visitors. 1t seemed like lonely life
to lead away out here, apparently so re-
mote from the worlds throDged high
ways, and SO barren Of domestic com
fort OF social opportunity. aud yet a
prince of the blood could not have
baen more contented or hopeful than
this independent squatter sovereign.
His people were charmed with the eli
mate, and glad 10 the liberal promise
Of their rich creamy acres. The wild
grass grew around them, tall enough in
places to be tied over a mans head, and
seasons husbandry with such soil
would supply them abundantly with
all Of life's essentials.
1t is by means of such as these who
bear the temporary ineonveniences. of
the frontier, that they may after while
literally resp their reward from splen-
did farms made ten or twenty fold
more valuable by the settlement Of
the country, that Kansas is to achieve
her future greatness. They are the
sort of immigrants she needs, and
from the Mississippi TO the Kennebec
they are coming.
Sparsely settled as is the neighbor-
hood / have described, it already has
its indispensable school and its pros
pective railroad. There are some very
substantially and comfortably built
farm houses, and it will not be long
until the white walls Of such viii
shine all along this beautiful valley.
The prairie grass had generally been
burned off down to the very roots, ,leav-
ing the surface of the ground as bare
and as black as napless beaver. Yet