St. Paul daily globe., 1888-06-16
A Hasty Glimpse Of It's Past,
Present, and Suggestions
of Its Future.
Snecial to the Globe

tSilSlfSly oOfOl ltlo0u VIC Clty, dnu III IL
only within year or two that the sew
eral roads centering here have accorded
to the town that distinction upon
their maps and timetables to
which her importance as a
commercial and railway point
fairly entitled her. This fact is re-
ferred to, not in spirit of criticism of
the railway companies, for the citizens
of Aberdeen recognize in the iron high
ways the secret of their prosperity, but
merely to emphasize the fact that the
city does not owe her reputation to a
syStemetic course of ''bOoming." The
sources of Aberdeen fame are what has
tranSpired, what has been accomplished
and achieved with her teeming pre-
cincts during the past eight years. Men
HAVE MADE FORTUNES,
fine and substantial business blocks
have risen, an important jobbing center
has been formed, a society as intelli-
gent, moral and elevated as can be
found anywhere in city of 5000 in
habitants has been established, all with
in the period named. From an unbroken
prairie to a well-founded city, with all
the features which that much misused
word originally implied, is Aberdeen's
record. Upon this rock-built history her
fame securely rests.
This article admits of no ancient his
tory. Yet it should be noted that July 6
will be the
EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY
of the arrival of the first rails and ties at
Aberdeen. That day-was her Alpha,
for only tents and uncertainty had pre-
ceded the Hastings & Dakota division
of the Chicago, Milwaukee & ST. Paul
fn nd ho, 80,
town plat'' of the present city of Aber-
deem. To-day with millions of tributary
acres stretching away from her free
walls in every direction, acres now
green with the promise of bountiful
crop, sits in plenty this mistress of
the agricultural seas. Seven lines
of railway, representing three
of the great competing systems
of the Northwest, and reaching out to
nearly every developed portion OF the
territory. Three other lines, one to the
Northwest, one to the Southwest, and
one to the Southern gateway of Dakota
upon the palisaded Sioux may fairly be
counted upon as among the certainties
Of the next two years. Aberdeen is
A NATURAL CENTER,
and the movements of the railways, by
which the milwaukee," the "Manf-
toba," the Northwestern and the North
ern Pacific, through its connections over
the last named road, have centered in
competition at Aberdeen for the busi-
ness of the great middle region of Da-
kota, have permanently fixed her rail-
way future.
Trade, fostered and built up by the
unusual shipping facilities enjoyed, has
grown and fiourished at Aberdeen.
Several men of enterprise, starting with
comparatively little capital. have estab-
lished important jobbing industries.
No city in Dakota has so large repre-
sentatiOn of Eastern manufacturers and
jobbers represented by branch offices
or agents making Aberdeen their head
quarters. This is especially true of the
lumber, grain and machinery trade.
Nearly ali of the leading manufacturers
Of farm machinery have warehouses
here. The commercial traveller finds at
the "Hub" his most convenient point
for reaching the trade of the region. In
word, the business features of Aber-
deem are apparent to the most casual
observer. The common remark of
strangers in the city, 'This is the
BIGGEST SMALL CITY
/ was ever in," well expresses the idea.
Aberdeen is rapidly becoming an i'm
portant financial center. This branch
of business is at present represented by
four substantial banking institutions,
which transact large business with
merchants and bankers of neighboring
Aberdeen also has three reale state
loaning companies, whose business
is rapidly extending to the leading coun-
ties of the territory. In nearly every
line of business the city has some repre-
sentation, yet in most fields excellent
openings exist. 1t has been the expert
ence here as well as elsewhere that trade
has kept full pace with competition.
Not less than two score of towns. most
of them small market and grain-shipping
points, are located within radius of
sixty miles upon the railways radiating
from the city. The business of these
towns naturally
FLOWS TO ABERDEEN.
Trade from this source has grown
steadily with the increase of Aberdeen's
is this fact which has shaped the clty's
policy in welcoming to it's business cir
cleS new firms and industries.
Attention has of late been frequently
called to the splendid openings here for
manufacturers in certain lines. Milling
has proved fine success, the flour
manufacturer enjoying an opportunity
to buy direct from the farmer at this
important grain point, and to choose the
finest and cleanest selections of the hard
wheat of the region. The great guam
tity of fax raised in Brown and neigh
boring counties offer inducements to
the establishment of linseed oil, linen
and kindred industries. The hemp
plant, which grows in perfection here,
should furnish the twine for the thou
sands of binders in the country now
using the product of Eastern factories.
The manufacture of starch, beet sugar,
canned goods, wrapping paper and
straw board, brooms and variety of
other products, the raw material for
which grows in abundance in unpro-
tected Dakota, could be profitably con-
Quoted at Aberdeen. The same situa-
ton and railway facilities, and the same
splendid agricultural region which have
brought the city to her present happy