Smyrna times., 1886-04-28
For the Smyrna Times.
Letter From Wisconsin.
ITS ORIGINAL SETTLERS.

DEAR TIMES A little over two
hundred years ago the Spanish and the
French people were vieing with each
other for adventures and settlements
in the New World. The former took
a southern range, forming settlements
from the Ultamaha River, South on the
Atlantic and Gulf coast under the
leadership of Ponce De Leon and De
Soto founding what have since become
prominent towns of Fernaudina, St.
Augustine and Pensacola. The French
seemed to penetrate deeper into the
continent, taking the St. Lawrence
River as base, by which they found
their way in comparative safety from
the aborigines of the forest to the
great chain of Lakes in the Northwest.
Just three years after the Span
ish founded and fortified St. Ausgus-
tine in Florida, in 1865; the French
under La Sale, La Pierre and Father
Hennipin, in 1868 founded Green Bay,
and constructed a fertilization and
established a trading post.
This is the oldest town in the State,
but not by any means the most impor-
tant in these days. The English settle
ments for some reason did not seem to
penetrate very far into the forests and
embraced that region lying OH the At
lantic shore from the River MerrimaC
south to the Ultamaha river, dividing
that with the Dutch at New Amster-
dam and New Holland for period of
time.
The Survival of the littest" is what
has taken place since the sixteenth
century, and to-day in Green Bay but
little more is left Of the French and
their civilization than there is of the
Indians who have lurked behind foI
local attachments and have been caught
in the net Of our civilization.
The one jabbers his French and the
other his Indian, as l saw them to-day
in the streets of this town, having
come in on a trading expedition.
But the towns that the French set.
tied were numerous and prominent
among which are the familiar names Of
Fon Du Lac, Prairie Du Chieh, Ia
Crosse, Eau Claire, La Grange, and
Des Moines. All of those towns eX
cept the last have become numbering
centres and have grown wealthy of the
products of the forest and the farm.
THE GREAT LUMBER DEALERS.
Many of the citizens thus become
millionaires are looking over the field
for more 'stumpage" are turning theil
vision to far off Alaska, which has
hitherto been considered n Siberia, i.
pretty sure to turn out a prize for Oul
shrewd Northwestern SPECTATORS.
The spies have returned, the pleas
ant valleys where are balmy breezel
and budding flowers, where the pine
the spruce and the fir trees tower thei
trunks well up on the mountain peak
where the distance of 900 miles on tn,
Pacific tide will bring their product t
Portland, Oregon, from thence to tn,
worlds markets. This Congress ha
failed to pass the Alasba bill, but tn
next will do it, and valuable franchise
will be given for the first settlers OIL
the soil.
A timber syndicate recent,
bought up a million acres of timbere,
lands lying in Mississippi and LOuisan
and other purchases are contemplated
in the near future.
So exceedingly vigorous is our Amer
ican civilization whose demands II
Quire hundreds of millions of feet eac
succeeding year, that it is perfectly saf
to figure on timber becoming a yer
valuable product. 1t would require
wide stretch of the Imagination of you
readers to conceive the demands fO
lumber in one of those prairie state
like Dakota or Kansas and Nebraska
opening up with heavy stream of em
migration pOuringin at a thousand gate
Not only that, but every other con
modify known to human wants. \
wonder there are those who follow th
advance guard like suttlers follow tn
army. 1t is no trouble to sell the gOod'
the trouble is to get the money.
Homestead laws abound, and hig
rate of exemption from seizure 70
debt, but there are bonds so wOrde
that all these rights are signed away
Many merchants find themselves pos
sessed of more real and personal prOI
erty than money, but the country cor
trives to grow and prosper, and poe
men toll on and hold on to tht
ory that tenacity and time will max
them rich, and the day comes whe
they redeem their pledges and con
mencc to be proprietOrs of the land.
There is no other land that has s
much 'comeout" to it as the Yves
Citizens of European birth say there
no such country, nor such laws 70
poor men in all EurOpe-but little {
no hope of common poor ownin
any realty, and but little person;
property by dint of bordering on Sc
denial which but few can endure. TIL
day of homesteading is fast passin
away, unless Congress opens up som
new territory.
/ wonder what will be- done whe
cheap lands are all exhausted we a
luded to Alaska coming in, and W
think our civilization must touch oil
Mexico and slice after slice will |
procured in payment of her railroa
bonded debt They seem to be lih
the Turks, not self sustaining, an
what wonder that the more vigOrOl
nations assume control. Coming even
cast their shadows before.
RAMBLER.
Green Bay, Wis, AprH 2Oth 1856.