Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1886-02-18
ABRIEF REVIEW OF THE COUNTY
AND HER TOWNS.
AUDRAIN COUNTY.

l1C Ok ASSa{ GILL Si
lied December II, 1896, and named
in honor of Col. james H. Audrain,
of St. Charles county, Missouri, who
was a member of the legislature at
that time. 1t was the ffty-second
county organized in the state-the
space of twenty-five years having
interyened between the date when
the two first counties were formed
and the period of its organization.
Audrain county lies in about 80 IA
degrees north latitude, embracing
about 700 square miles of territory,
with population of about 10000
souls; the climate is healthful, with
short and mild winters. The springs,
summers and autumns are most de-
lightful.
The lands Of the county comprise
rich, rolling prairies and timber
lands, beautifully diversified and well
watered by running streams. All the
lands are of easy culture and largely
productive in all the cereal products.
As grass growing county it stands
unriyaled, even by the famous blue
grass regions of central Kentucky,
thus making this county one of the
best and most profitable stock grow
ing regions of the west.
Audrain county is also inviting to
the fruit grower. Apples, peaches
pears, plums and the small fruits
are grown with certainty, quantity
and of peculiar delicacy of flavor.
While the population of the county
is rapidly increasing there yet re-
mains large quantities of unimproved
lands, eligibly located fer new settle,
ments, which can be purchased cheap,
and improved farms at correspond
ingly low figures. The lands of this
county now on the market offer better
inducements for the investment OF
capital and selection of good, cheap
homes than any portion of the west
The financial condition of the
county is far superior to any in the
state, being entirely free of debt and
having greater number of miles Of
railroad, for the amount of capita
invested, than any other county il
the state. The rate of taxation j!
comparatively small, and she ha'
eighty miles of completed and vel
equipped railroads, carrying thei
products to competing markets east
west, north and south.
The population of the city ant
county are industrious, liberal, intel
llgent and progressive. Great inter
est is taken in our public school sys
tenn, which is equal to that of any o
the older states, and with an ampl
endowment is in successful opera
ton from six to ten months in til
year, throughout the county, in tast
and comfortable school buildings.
Audrain county has productiv
capacity enough to feed fourth c
Missouri, but before its wonderft
resources are developed to the max
mum it must have twenty thousan
more men to aid in the work Me
for the thorough cultivation of forty
eighty and one hundred and twent
acre farms; for the modern butte
and cheese dairy skilled fruit grow
ers to plant orchards and vineyard
and wine presses; hundreds OF ste
ling young men from the Norther
States, the Canadas and Europe, t
solve the farm labor problem in
country where reliable labor is scare
and wages high, and skilled artisan
to found hundred new mechanics
industries.
# We now have seventy-seven mile
OF completed railroad, consisting
the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific
entering the county about fourtee
miles southeast of Mexico, and pasi
ing through Mexico and thence nortf
westerly to Centralis in Boone cour
~. We have the Chicago C Alto
railroad, entering Audrain count
near the northeast corner of tt
county, thence running southwestel
" to Mexico, thence northwestern
and passing cut of the county on I'll
western limit. We have the Sout
Branch of the Chicago & Alton roa
seading TO Jefferson City throug
fulton, the location of the Stat
Ansane Asylum. These roads, the {