Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-06-26
Southern Kansas, Harper and Harper
County.
CHANurE. Kansas Inne l

CHANUTE, Kansas, June II, 1884.
This thriving little city is in the
northwest corner of Neosho county. on
the Mo. Pacific and Southern Kansas
Railroads; the Neosho river passes with
in about one and one-half miles of the
town on the east. Chanute is q place
of some two thousand people. and being
the centre of rich farming country. is
a good business point. 1t is as pleasant
a place as L have found in my wander
ings through Southern Kansas. Harper,
though large, is rev and has a raw ap-
pearance in comparison. The town is
rapidly growing, many very fine busi-
ness blocks going up and dozens of
private houses. There is good school
house, brick, and also one smaller frame
one. The school population numbers
some six hundred. But I set out to
write about Harper when I began this
letter, so guess it may be we'll to begin
or | wont get chance to say much.
Harper, the present terminus of the
Southern Kansas road is the liveliest
town of its age I have seen in Kansas;
1T is only five years old and only began
to grow about sixteen months since, vet
it claims three thousand people, ener-
getic, go-a-head, wideawake and alive
to the interests of the town. Harper is
unquestionably the best built town of
its age in the State. There are business
blocks which would be q credit to Law
renee OF Topeka, and some of the best
residences outside the large cities. J.
;. Rothwell, of the real estate finn of
RothWell d Skinner, is just completing
one OF the flnest opera houses in Kansas
at cost OF over thirty-one thousand
dollars; ne is also building very larpe
business block adjoining one side of f
and large three story hotel on the
other. building is going on every
where and property is rising in yalna
vely rapidly. They are Just finishino q
brick school house, which, though laroe
enough when the y began to bnild is
much too small now and they will have
to rent rooms for two or three depart-
ments the coming year. There are
three weekly and one daily newspapers.
all making money. Real estate il hard
to get unless one pays for it; farms near
town are worth from thirty to forty-five
dollars per acre, and range from that
price down according to location. The
soil OF that part OF Kansas is rich and
produces all farm crops in great abund-
ance. There are hundreds of acres of
wheat in Harper county that will weld
forty bushels to the acre; the farm crons ,S
in Southern Kansas are about m + tbree
weeks ahead of those in the northern
portions of the State. Corn ia esnaciallv I
good. Harvest has BEGAN and a ID nrom;sns
to be most rich one. The wheat ex.
ceeds in appearance anv 7 ever cow
s.anui,'s ss trnick I'M on the ground and well
lieaueu. Ane urn or Rothwell & Skin
iiec, lroin Whom L obtained most of my
19aofination I9aoln concerning Harper and
i1arpef county, is the heaviest real
esta'e @ urn IN mat part of the State. To
glve an iuea OF the activity ofreal estate,
splte OF tne prevailing high prices of
lana III comparison with that located
around oiuer put not livelier towns, 7
VIII WIZ state tnat that firms transactions
VIII VIII average ag at least twenty-five thous-
u anu aonaIS per month. In February
4 oeileve, snElr sales were over seventy
tiiousuli9 til uollars. in March over sixty
Iliousanu, ana their sales for May were
lnore thah iorty-five thousand. The
ABOVE SPEAKS well both for the business
staIoiis ol the firm, and the richness
=: Tf Soou quallUleS OF The lana
!h y HARPER county. But it must not be
tno9ght from what has been said re-
gardlng the price of land that it is going
ABOVE It's value; neither must it be sup
posed That such prices range all over
the county. Good land-good as around
Harpef-and in easy reach of markets
is to De had at very low prices in other
parts of Harper county; it is the rapid
growth of the town of Harper that has
made land high near that place; there
is no government land in the county,
however, SO the general price is not as
low as it would be if there was.
But when l am writing so often II
must make my letters short and to the
point, so I will close this one, and add
there to, "To be continued in our next y
C.L. e.