Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1872-07-09
NUMBER Al.
For the Spectator

| TOT the spectator.
Adair County, Northern Missouri, contains
an area of FIVE hundred and sixty-seven square
miles, is bounded on the North by Schuyler
county, East by. Knox, South by Macon, West
| by Sullivan. 1t is diversified by prairie and
timber. The county is we'll adapted to agricul-
tural and stock-raising purposes. Streams of
water course nearly every part of the county.
On the West the Charlton River, and East
| Salt River, flowing from North to South, along
whose banks and tributaries an abundant sup
ply of good timber of almost every variety
common to this section of the country, can be
had adjacent to nice rolling prairies, an advan-
| tage not shared by many other counties in the
| State. Three-fourths of the land in the coun-
tyI is susceptible of cultivation. The taxable
wealth of the county is over three millions of
dollars. A number of veins of coal of good
quality have been opened short distance from
| klrksville. Large quantities of coal exist In
nearly every part of the county Stone is plen-
| ty.d There has been opened quarries of both
lime and sand stone, which prove valuable for
building purposes kirksville is fourishing
| town, two hundred and FIVE miles Northwest Of
| st. Louis in Central Northeast Missouri, with
about two thousand inhabitants. 1t is the
county seat of Adair county. situated on the
Grand Divide between the Mississippi and Mis-
souri, Rivers, on the line of the North Missouri
Railroad, which road connects st. Louis and
Kansas city with Ottumwa, Iowa. at which
point it taps the Burlington and Missouri Riv-
er and Des Moines Valley Railroad. Kinks
vile is seventy-two miles South of Ottumwa,
at the crossing of the Quincy, Missouri & Pa
cifc Railroad, which road connects Quincy, IL
inois, and ,Brawerville, Nebraska, being the
completing link of the shortest grand thorough
| fare between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
This road will be completed from Quincy to
kirksville, by September, 1872. i9 eEaI07 81
kirksville is thus situated between the two
great rivers of the nation, Mississippi and Mis-
sour, and at the crossing of two of the great
est Railroad thoroug hfares of the nation, viz
One North and South connecting st. Paul. st.
Louis and New Orleans, and the other trayers-
ing the continent East and West, from Ocean
to Ocean.
The usual amount OF business houses, benev~
olent societies, printing Offices, &c., are found
In Kirksvllle, doing good business. Good
water can be had in inexhaustible quantities for
steam and other purposes-can be had by dig
ging from fifteen to thirty feet.
| The following religious denominations have
church buildings completed viz Baptist, Epis-
eopalian, Presbyterian and Methodist, and 9TH
ers are In contemplation. o,.s. ,,,, a. -Ie,.-r
Common Schools, in Adair county, which are
required by law to be kept open four months in
a year, and may be kept open ten months, and
supported By general taxation, and in which all
persons between the age of five and twenty-one
years are admitted free, already compare IA
vorably with the older countries, and will soon
be found actually in the vanguard in the great
educational interests of the State There are
between sixty and eighty schoolhouses, in the
county. In addition to the common school, a
State Normal School has been in successful op-
Grafton in Kirksville for the past four years,
and has recently been adopted as O State Insti-
| tute, and is to receive constant support from
the State. A building worth one hundred aud
fifty thousand dollars has been commenced for
this School, and the three hundred and twenty
FIVE students now in attendance, is confidently
expected to soon reach four hundred Tuition
in this school is free.
Fruits of all kinds usually found in this lati-
tude do well. Apples and peaches are cul-
tivated. with marked success, The grape does
well and can be made very profitable.
There are as good openings in Adair county
for enterprising men, as IN any other part of
the State. a @
Kirkvlle is in direct Railroad eomnunica-
ton with St. Louis-ths great metropolis of
the State-Guinoy, Chicago, Cincinnati, and
in short almost all the cities of the Middle and
Eastern States. N. A. B.