The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1878-03-03

GROOMING III Nh ''''''
tur ana Aurora ~ Businoss Points
Churches ana sch0oIs-law ana
DECATUR, WISE COUNTY. TEXAS,
February %, 1875.
Editor OF The Horald'
Thinking you might like to hear
something from Wise county, ! write
YOU this to be published or thrown into
the waste basket, as you think ITS
merits deserve. Although Wise 8 still
included in the list of frontier counties,
and the people are NJ liberty to carry
deadly weapons, no population is more
peaceable and law>abiding, Only one
homicide has occurred in the county
in the last ten months. Personal renr
counters are so rare that they are noted
as remarkable events. The great ma
jorty of the people are recently from
the older states, and having been acN
customed to regular attendance at
church and Sunday school, they take
great interest in building up and sup
porting such institutions here. In
every community, not entirely settled
in the last year or two there is church
and school have been in number
of counties in the last two years, out
have seen none where the immigration
il 80 large and so uninterrupted Oar
farming lands are so varied as to meet
the wants of the majority of immigrants,
We have prairie and timbered lands
and prairie and timber combined, Our
prairie is not so fertile as that in Collin
and our timbered lands do not equal
those of the Bra2os bottom. Chills and
fever rarely visit us, and lands are
cheap enough for those who, unable to
buy land in the older states, have spent
most of their capital il getting here
Land in this county princlp lily school
land and one is certain OF good ute
and long time in which to pay for IT.
In the timber good well water is gen
erallv easy to procure, and a number OF
streams flowing through the county ais
ford an abundance Of stock water,
these inducements have caused tres
mendous inflow of immgratlon--they
are coming by twos and threes and tens
and fifties Of families. We have a
colonyof lllinoisans six miles square; we
have, too, colonies OF Kentucklans,
Alabamnians and Tennesseeans. FIJI
teen families of Alabamnians have re-
Gently settled in body in the south
eastern part of the county. The people,
are poor and buy land in tracts OF
forty eighty, and one hundred ana
sixty acres. The acreage in cultivation
is increasing at an amazing rate. Rld-
ing lately from northwest to southeast,
was truly astonished at the extent oil
improvements going forward. Large
clearings could be seen on every haho'
and the sound of the axe was unceas'
ing. Wise bids fair in few years TO be
one of the most populous and produc'
tive counties in the state. Its traue
will be worth an immense amount 10
the city that controls it. We have two
very pretty country towns Decatur II,
the center and Aurora in the east ana
several other towns in embryo. Aurora
is beautifully situated in the edge OF
the timber, near the line of Tarrant. IL
has ten or fifteen business houses, ana
some of the stores seem pretty wen
stocked for the country retail trade ~
has good frame academy building and
at the present time has an excellen.
high school. | noted seven or eigh'
new dwellings in process OF erection
There is but one obstacle toprevent Au'
rora from becoming o fast country town
and that is her business men like those
of Decatur seem to be penny wise ano
pound foolish" and by their extortion'
ate prices literally drive to Fort WORTH
half of the trade that naturally beiohg'
to them. All who are able take theil
wives and cotton every fall and buy tn'
bulk of their supplies at Fort worth
But few of the farmers have yet formed
any intimate business acquaintance
there; but woe to Decatur and Auror'
when they do Decatur is situate'
upon high prairie knob, which com
mands view of the surrounding coun
try for twenty or thirty miles. 1t has
good high school, two hotels and aoou
thirty other business houses. Farmer
have sown good acreage in wheat Thu
year, and it promises fair yield.
Ten days ago two young men name,
Roberts were arrested, charged wit
burglary of small amount OF money
wearing apparel, etc, from the saloon
Johnston & Jones, of this place, and re
leased upon giving bail for S5OO A fe'
days later their two brothers were ar
rested for robbing traveller OF aoou
eighty-five dollars in money, three mile
from Decatur. RosrlcVs'