The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-08-22

IUOrTespUuuoHUe UI tne NeWB
Letter from Our Travelling
Correspondent.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo-, Aug. l, Y

time to write from the different
points we touched as we pursued
our journey from the Capital. We
passed through Sedalia, quite large
and thriving city, in rich agricul-
turaI region. Clinton, on the Mo-,
Kansas and Texas Railway, is a No.
l town, of 1000 or 5000 inhabit'
ants-building up substantially with
brick, and with the prospect of an
other railway, which would have
been finished by this time if those
officials of Cass county had not
met with such a sudden end at the
hands of the citizens they were at
tempting to rob, by the fraudulent
issue of several hundred thousand
dollars of county bonds-a fate the
folks in Clinton say they richly de-
served.
Fort Scott came next on our list.
Here we swapped horses and took
the Mo. River, Fort Scott and Gulf
R. R.-Joy's Railway-to Baxter
Springs, Kansas.
Although trade is at present
"dead," Fort Scott will grow, and
in the future is sure to become a big
city. Extensive coal mines are be-
ing worked near the city, and coal
beds are found in great abundance
all along the line of this railroad.
The question is before the Su-
preme Court yet in regard to the
rightful ownership of $4,000 acres,
lying between Fort Scott and Bax-
ter Springs, which Joy bought from
the Secretary of the Interior for
100000. Ikis said the land was
held in trust for the Cherokees and
sold for them, but hundreds ofparties
have settled on these lands and
claim that the sale was illegal, and
insist upon having a title from the
U. s. Government. Joy asks from
five TO twenty dollars per acre, and
the settlers refuse to pay it. Proba-
bly, the matter will be settled next
December. The unsettled state of
affairs is working greatly to the
injury of the country-retarding the
settlement and Improvement of two
whole counties.
Baxter Springs is situated upon
strip of land three miles Vide, that
in the e,survey was found on the
southern borders of these "Cherokee
Neutral Lands" and the "Quepan
Nation" Baxter is built near the
eastern end of this strip; settlers
here obtaining titles from the United
Estates.
Baxter Springs has the disadvan.
tage of being bounded on the south
by the Indian Territory-unim-
proved and likely to remain so as
Hong as the lazy red man retains the
title. The line is well defined between
the "Nation" and the grounds of the
white man-fences, houses, orch
ards, and cultivated fields on the
one side, and an unbroken sea of
prairie, with groves of timber like
islands of the ocean, on the Indians
side. Could this land only be thrown
into market, and the white settler
allowed to occupy it, Baxter would
soon reap a great advantage from
the improvement. The Indians at
present are much like the dog in
the manger.
, Col. VIM. March, real estate agent,
, and publisher of the "Index," very
, kindly offered to take me around
. and show me the place. So I took
a seat with him in his new buggy
and we visited the "Nation," Spring
: River, that washes the eastern bord.
ers of the city, and a number of the
t suburban residences of the totOn oi
J Baxter Springs.
Not the least interesting place was
the Coils own beautiful grounds
occupying one of the highest point:
! on the river, and overlooking the
3 icity-a place of five acres, covered
] with a beautiful grove of native
: trees, with native grapevine tt
almost every tree and shrub, anC
: these loaded with fine large grapes
nearly as large as the Catawba. Th'
, gardener is a native-a sOhite native
). and appears to be the Coils omar
q Friday"
$ These beautiful grounds are un
4 equaled by any about Baxter, ant
t show what an eye for the beautiful
e the Col. possesses. The fine brown
i stone mansion which he design
Y erecting shortly will no doubt max
+ this much the handsomest will
r property in this section of country.
1 will only add, that the Colone
a dresses plainly, and makes no pre-
a tensions; although he edits ant
!. publishes the "Semi. Occasional Rea
" Estate Index" His friends thinI
v he ought to put on more style. Som
4. of them advise his getting a West
colt.
] have a much-to. o.be-endured stag
ride in prospect-tires me to thin
of it. I do hope railroads will sool
r supercede that old style of
e T. RAVELING.