St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-15
Report of the Grand Jury on
the Killing Of Taylor
Combs.
DR.. Bowers and His AsSOci-
ates Not. Considered Re-
sponsible,
But Adjudged Guilty of Neg
lect in Omitting to Make
a Report.
Coroner MOsse Also Relieved
Of Censure and Fully Vim
dicated.

or CenSure ana Fully VIM
dicated.
Special to the Globe.
ROCHESTER,, Minn., June 14.-H any
one is of the impression that Southern
Minnesota is retrograding, visit to
Rochester will undeceive him. 1t is
Just three years ago when last visited
this queenly little metropolis of the
Zumbro valley in company with the
members of the st. Paul chamber of
commerce, who came down to celebrate
the opening of the Minnesota & North
western road, which brought Rochester
within six hours travel Of st. Paul.
To-day they go from Rochester to st.
Paul by way of the new road to Red
Wing in three hours and forty minutes.
and without change of cars. That does
not look like retrogression. But, more
than that, the growing good qualities of
the town are perceptible in the many
new buildings of modern design and
elegant finish, the new town hall and
county Jail being fair samples of what
has been done in the way OF Improves
ments within the three years since L
was last here. By the way. l am iu-
clined to think If the Ramsey county
commissioners could be induced to come
down here and take look at the new
disjusted with that miserable excuse
for Jail that we have in st. Paul, they
would go back home and order
THE OLD EYESORE
to be torn down Immediately and a new
one built on the style of the Rochester
prison. Even il 1t was relocated on
the present Jail site it would be an Orna-
ment to the city. The exterior of the
Jail here presents the appearance Of an
elegant private residence without any
thing on the outside to suggest that it
is prison house. Unlike most West
ern towns Rochester pins its faith to
brick and mortar. They have a
good brick clay in this locality
the city presents an exceptionally solid
appearance. Although it is an old
town, one of tile Oldest in the state, and
was once swept by cyclone, there are
no traces of dilapidatiOn. such as is SO
frequently seen in towns that boast of
their antiquity. There is delicious air
of freshness everywhere, and encOur-
aging symptoms of enterprise which in
dicate that the city still has a wide
awake population. Rochester makes no
pretensiOn to being manufacturing
city beyond the product of her roller
mill. and wagon and carriage factories:
1t is essentially commercial town, and
the banking center of one of the richest
agricultural districts to be found In the
world. This Zumbro valley IS very
of fortiIifu op6 lnua1jnncC and
Rochester is its metropolis. The retail
trade in this town is
SOMETHING PHENOMENAL.
By actual count 1 saw in the streets
to-day over 500 wagons and carriages
belonging to the farmers that had come
to town to trade, many of them bring
ing their families with them, and yet
the merchants told me that it was not
an extraordinary good day for trade
either. Saturdayiis the great trading
day for the farmers of the ZumbrO val
ley, and it must be a show W lrth seeing
to drop into Rochester on the last day
of the week. Repeated failures of the
whea crop in this section encouraged
the farmers to engage more extensively
in the dairy and live stock business.
Their wisdom in giving their atten-
ton to these new industries has already
been amply demonstrated. AS mar
ket for fine horses Rochester now has
reputation equal to the leading
Kentucky towns, and the Zumbr0
valley farmers are now getting
prices for these colts that would have
seemed fabulous ten years ago. The
famous creameries and cheese factories
in this region afford the farmers the
means of deriving great profit from
their rich pasture fields. And what
county these people have. AS l stood
this afternoon on an eminence in the
rear of Attorney Wilson's residence and
cast my eye up and down the Zumbro
valley, it occurred to me that Nature
must have tried
HER APPRENTICE HAND
on other parts of the earth and have re-
served her master stroke in the finish
ing touches of creation for this charm
ing spot. Human eye never rested Oh
lovelier landscape, nor human hand
never titled more fertile soil. 1t seems
to me mistake that Rochester was not
named Zumbro city, after the river that
flows through this valley. l am told
that it was named by a New
Yorker. who was an early settler here,
and because the falls in the river re-
minded him of the stream which runs
by his native city he thought it was the
proper thing to call it after the old town
of Rochester in York state. Zumbro is
all abbreviatiOn of the name the old
voyagers gave to the stream, which sig
nified 1.-The embarrassed river" so
named because of the number of bOul-
ders in the bed of the stream which in
terrupted the flow of the waters. Any
one who has an ambition to become a
gold digger can satisfy it any day by
scratching away the rocks in the bed OF
the Zumbro. There is gold in every
ledge, but it is in such small quantity
as to discourage human cupidity. By
steady weeks work person can
probably gather enough of the precious
dust to make dollar gold piece. There
is lady in this city whose wedding
ring was made from gold taken from
the ZumbrO. and others have small SOU
venirs of the rivers wealth. Like all
of our Minnesota towns, Rochester has
its old settlers, who still live to tell rem
iniscenceS of
THE DAYS OF '55,
when the town was first blocked out
and only one house, and very small
one at that. stood inside of the corpora
tion limits. These "reminiscences of the
old settlers are so much alike in quality
and Quantity and have been related SO
often one Iesitates to give an additional
repetition. But heard one to-day of b
Rochester pioneer that struck me as be-
ing somewhat exceptional, SO will ven
ture to speak of it. His name was
Lowry, frank. courageous, OPEN
hearted old fellow, and like every true
son of Ireland was ever ready for
fight and always the champion of the
weaker side. There were no PrOhibi
tionists in those days and every man
could take his grog under his own vine
%<> 10,
make him afraid, and thus it was
that this brave old niOnaer could get