The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-01-16
ARGUMENT FOR VALLEY
One Interested in the Proposed New
County Presents Some
Facts.
People of South Dawson Are Will
ing to Assist in the Move
ment.
The New County Would Start OR with /"
Total AsseSsabie Wsnlth OF
- Over 81, 100000.

Among the county division bills presented
to the Legislature for consideration thls
winter, that OF the proposed Valley county
il ono OF the most meritorioua. Ihis
county Ia to ba formed by dividing Dawson.
with the Missouri river as the southern
boundary says one Of the gentlemen in
tefostsd in this bill. The residents of the
proposed county are now compelled TO
travel a distance OF over 300 miles by rail,
or 2333 miles by rail and stage to reach the
county seat. Tho people residing in south
Dawson realize the injufy done the north
side in preventing q more rapid develop
mont OF that %seotion. under existing cir
cumstnnces. Us we'll as the disadvantages
their northern nsiRhbots are lsborinR
under by reason OF their remoteness from
the county seat. Therefore they favor q
division of the county and are willing TO
assist in the movement TO create the county
of Valley. The proposed county will nave
sssessable property to the value OF over
81, 600, 600, and this is immense wealth
when the fact 10 taken into consideration
that in tho year 1877 Custer county had
only $523G, 900 and Choteau only S545, UOO OF
assessable property, and that only four
counties in the state had over fl .00O,O 900 of
aEsessable property in that year.
Madison is one of the oldest counties,
yet in 1892 its nssessab.a property was less
than ;s3,o O 900, and over $iO0, 600 less than
the assessment of Dawson. one OF the
lounges counties. in the same yea.
Beayernead is also one of the Oldest
counties, and ia assessment was less than
the young county of Dawson i'll 1892. In
1889 the assessment Of Dawson county was
ST, 742, 900. Three years after, in 1892, the
assessment was So, 392, 600, or almost doub-
ling within three yea q. IAeso facts indicate
the rapid growth and development Of the
| eastern counties of the state, and demon
strate that new counties of the present time
devel op and z ow more rapidly than in ear
lier years.
Dawson county is larger than any county
! in any other stAte in the union, and III
larger than the state of Massachusetts,
Rhode Island and Connecticut compiued.
The new county Of Valley Will bnvs an area
of ovar $4,000 square miles. Forty per cent
of the votes cast in Dawson county last
| November were polled within the limits OF
the proposed county of Valley.
OF the licenses collected by Dawson for
the quarter ending Dec. l. 1892, AZ per cent
was collected from within the limits Of the
proposed NO. county. or those who paid
taxes OF owe 800 each to Dawson county.
45 per cent, or taxes on property to the
value Of ISL, 562. 000, WIS paid by those re-
siding in the proposed Valley county.
These figures prove tue fact that She
wealth of Dawson county ia worry nearly
equally divided between what is called the
north and south side. or between Valley
and Dawson counties.
A committee appointed to ascertain how
much property had been brought into the
proposed county during the past summe ,
or since the last assessment, after careful
inquiry reported that cattle, horses and
sheep to the value of over $7i0.0GO bad been
located within the boundaries OF the pro-
posed Valley county since the assessment
Of 1892 had been made.
The new county has 2GO miles of railroad.
assessed at $4,000 per mile, within its
limits, a value alone of 1886, 600.