The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1873-10-02
Letter from Kansas-RcpIy 10
ssT. RaVeling..
WIcHIrA. kansas. Sent. 81. 1S13.

WICHITA, Kansas, Sept. Is, 1873.
EDITOR News Your paper came to my
desk this week, as welcome as an old neigh
bor ''Shake." And after reading local
and county news found st. Raveling'
cuss in Kansas who, don't know Dc
you p speaks discouragingly of Kansas and
the West generally. True, if You have q
''soft thing" East, or anywhere, keep it
They are good things to have. Few have
them. But let's see how many young men,
growing and grown to the age of manhood,
can do as well by staying East as coming
West and selecting good location, similar
to the one we possess in this part of the
State of Kansas, of which 1 will give a
slight description, that win be strictly true
and not overdrawn.
We have city (wiehita) of $500 souls,
and the city is only 81 years old. 1t is stu
ated at the junction of the Little and Big
Arkansas rivers, and is the terminus of the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe r. R., 15O
miles southwest of Topeka. While thus
speaking for our young city, the first of her
age in the State, in point of trade and loca-
ton, 1 would more particularly speak of
the county and its advantages.
Sedgwick county is about 80 miles square,
being divided almost equally by the Arkan-
saG river from northwest to southeast, which
drains and waters almost every section in
the county, so that you find but little land
that is not fit for cultivating or grazing
purposes. As for grain-growing country,
it equals any in the United States, (not ex-
cepting Highland county,
The season here has been very good, and
crops of all kinds are all ''par excellence.
The soil is pre-eminently desirable, from its
peculiar adaptedness for all kinds of cereals
Cotton, which awhile ago was an expert
ment, is proving far more successful than
the most sanguine hoped for. This whole
valley 81 years ago was owned by the Usage
Indians, and was the range of the buffalo
and the Indians hunting ground. Now it
is fully one-half under cultivation. Yet
this country was not found ready and fit
home for the Pioneer, and those only who
have had to go fifty miles to the nearest
P. O., who were 100 miles from a market,
can fully appreciate and know what it is
that makes the people of this valley think
it the best valley in the State. CA dinner
earned is better than one that is paid for by
somebody else's money
The reason why this valley possesses at
fractions over other parts of the State, is,
that it offers advantages to men in all sta
tions of hfe-the merchant and lawyer, the
farmer and stock-grower. The climate is
mild in winter, and but few very warm days
in summer, (few above ''11O deg.")
To young men, and men of ordinary
means, who wish to procure for themselves
a home and a competency, I say, "Come
and bring, if you have nothing more, a
good and honest character, and firm resolu-
tons. Set your stakes, work to them,
grow up with the country, and in years to
come you will be to this county what your
wealthiest pioneers are to Highland county
to-day.
In three years experience here, you will
have learned what dollar is-its proper
value, and the best use to apply it to, and
it will not matter under what circumstances.
you will still always find that ''where there's
a will there's way" For my part 1 am
willing to take your correspondents ad-
vice, and not to do any more "T. Ravel-
ing" Yours,
A. S. & L. R. WEST.