The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1869-06-10
DUR ANT.

The handsome village Of Durant
comes SO near being in some other coun
ty, that we often almost forget that il
one day last week, revived our recollec
ton of the fact, and made us very glad
that it was such.
The Township of Pennington, in
which Durant is situated, undoubtedly
contains more first class arabic land
than any other in the county; and. in.
deed, as much as any township of six
miles square in any county-east OF
west. Not only is this the case, but il
is also true that it is almost entirely
fenced and under cultivation. Through.
out this thirty-six square miles Of farms,
the places where buildings, fences, crops
everything does not show careful and
successful farming with a liberal use OF
the best machinery and improvemen hts
in fencing, drainage, &C., are the ex-
ceptions. And, perhaps it would not
be amiss to note, just here, the miles
after miles of Usage hedge fences which
may be seen in all stages of growth,
from the safe and perfect fence against
almost everything firm an elephant to
a ground squirrel, down to the shoots of
last Springs setting. Among tho young
hedges, those in every case looked best
that showed signs of having been care
! fully protected against the Winters
vengeance; and among the older ones,
those that had been trimmed and train
ed looked etiicacious just in proportion
to the care that they had apparently re-
ceived. 1t was also very noticeable, in
this section of country, what an amount
of tillabe land had been reclaimed and
good meadows made by the drainage of
otherwise horrible sloughs. The drains
used appeared mostly to have been made
10y the machines known AS "open ditch
ers."
The items just INDUCED in, seem for
eign to the subject announced at the
beginning of this article; but they are
! not entirely so from the fact that it is
right in the midst of this agricultural
wealth and prosperity that our town of
Durant Is situated. For, although not
near the center of Pennington town
ship, the portions of Scott aud Musca-
tine counties that adjoin it upon the
east and south are probably its inferior
in no respect. We say adjoin, because
one can stand within the corporation of
Durant, in Cedar county, and toss
stone into either Of the others named,
! as the town Is in the south half of tho
! southeast section Of the southeast town.
ship in Cedar cottnty-south J section
SO, township 70, range |. 1t was laid
out upon land belonging to Geo. b. Sar-
gent in 1856, >onAthe line of the Chicago,
Rock Island 4 Pacific, then the NJ. &
NJ, Railroad. The plat of the town
contains 90 blocks the; lots in five of
which are SO by $50, in ten "a by 100
and in the remainder Ga by $50 feet
Streets are 50 and alleys 90 feet wide.
The character of the land selected for
the village is admirably adapted to such
use, being sufficiently roliin. to give
easy drainage and not SO broken that
much work is necessary to make a near
ly uniform grade for the streets and
buildings.
For IA number of years, after the inn
petus Of its first send-off had been ex-
hausted, Durant, Was almost at a com
piete stand still. One store, containing
"a niiseellaneous assortment of goods,
was sufficient for all demands, and the
Inhabitants only occasionally awakened
to a realization Of the fact that they
We're living in town; and then, felt
rather sorry for it. But this did not
last? The point was one offering too
many and too evident advantages to
capital and enterprise to remain for any
great length of time without sufficient
OF the latter to improve the former.
Within the last three years, the inn
.provement has been marked; the pop
ulation having fully doubled, and the
business transacted, probably, much
more than doubled during that space of
time. Now, according to the census
justtaken the corporate limits of thetown
Include 81 dwellings, 10 families and
3i6 Inhabitants, among whom are, 81
voters and 81 liable to military duty
Doubtless quite large addition would
be made to these figures were those
counted who live without the corpora-
ton, but who still consider themselves
as belonging to the town. The last as
sessed valuation of the town was up-
wards Of sos, 900.
In the matter of schools and churches
the people of Durant are showing them
selves to be no whit behind the spirit of
tho times. Two comfortable and suffi-
GENTLY commodious churches, Congre-
gational and Episcopal, seating re-
spectively about three hundred and two
hundred and fifty persons, already grace
the town by their presence. The Con-
gregational society, of which Rev. E.E,
Webber is the pastor, is perhaps, little
the larger of the two but the Episco-
palians, under the ministerial care of
Rev. w. Il. Curry, are fully alive. as is