The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1881-08-25
Our Boom Coming.

Ii is the general remark, that while towns
here and there booming and prospecting night
along, Troy is doing almost nothing IN the way
of improving. Like people, towns must take
their turn, then wait until their turn comes
round again. Troy had boom, few years
ago, since when her growth has been little,
year by year, with scarcely PereePtible for
ward movement. But reactions follow booms.
by and by, towns that are now rushing ahead
will stop to recuperate, and Troy will start
again. This has been the experience of towns,
the country over But Troy will not have
boom until her own people pluck up home
spirit, and display some energy. We lie within
TOO easy distance of st. Joseph and Atchison.
As long as our people go away from home to
transact their business, there will he no indnee-
ment fer Troy to grow. The bulk Of the goods
and groceries used in Troy, are purchased III
St. Joe. Men who make every dollar they get
in Troy aud vicinity. do not purchase dollars
worth of goods here, il they can help it. They
take it to st. Joe, and purchase at wholesale
prices. No town County ever doomed under
such circumstances. 1t is similar to the land
lordisIn that has impoverished ireland, by
squeezing every dollar possible out of the peo-
pIe for rents, and taking the money TO England
and the Continent to spend IL.
DoniplIan County, too, has been barely hold
ing her own, while the new Counties in the west
have been filling up, and running ahead of her
in population But other causes have led To
this: and those causes, We imagine have about
run their course. People rushed west, because
there were homestead lands to be had there,
and a man who was able to own but a few acres
81,
have gone there. and have had their crops
burned mp with drOuth, year after year, until
they are neither able TO stay nor to come away.
That rush is now checked, if not turned on the
back track. Doniphan County has not suffered
in reputation, in these late years. While the
Counties west have burned up, she has raised
good crops. Now, while drouth is almost uni
versal, threatening whole Counties with starva-
ton, Doniphan County will raise considerably
more than enough to carry her through, while
there is large surplus of former crops yet on
hand.
We can now call to mind large number Of
men, who owned good farms in Doniphan Conn
ty, well improved and paid for, ranging from
70 to over 200 acres, but who became dissatisfied
because they wanted more land, where they
conld have wider range, and raise stock. We
have personally protested with and warned
many of those men that they were making n
mistake, but in every instance without effect
They sold out here, and went west. We have
been reckoning up this list, and comparing notes
with Others, and do not know of a single one Of
those persons but who has come TO poverty
Some have left their claims, and have gone off
in search of work to keep their families from
starving. Others are waiting, trying to sell
their claims for enough to bring them away.
We have heard of one man who actually traded
his possessions, consisting of a quarter section
homestead and timber claim, for diminutive
jackass; and another, who traded n quarter
section for shotgun. This is the way men
have accumulated wealth by selling ont in Don
iphan County and going west This is what is
going TO result in boom for Doniphan County,
which has already set in. Men are coming back,
hunting up places in this County, while others
from the East are also buying homes here. When
this homestead craze has had its run, and things
begin to move toward their proper level, Doni-
phan County will show up in population and
wealth with the foremost Counties in the State
This is why the people of Doniphan County have
no reason to despair because, while she has been
at a stand-still, other parts of the State have
been rushing ahead.