The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-07-06

each OF those lalxed districts were cou-
cealed separate riches of almost mex
haustible iron. Consequently the iron
of these three states makes an interna-
tional commerce with the coal at the
eastern end of the lakes in Ohio and
Pennsylvania. You can either send
1.-The iron down to meet the coal or send
| the coal up to meet the iron, and in
either case constitute a hardy navy of
mariners, and plant in the agricultural
states large and experienced mining
population.
Looking further, note that Chicago
stands on the latitude of Providence.
where religious federation was first
taught. and Of plymouth. where the
first Puritan colony landed, that ono
which did not hang Quakers or burn
witches, and on this line is Kingston,
N. Y, where John Jay and others
formed the original constitution of
| New York state, in the wess, or beyond
the Allegheny mountains, which con-
stitution lasted almost down to the
time of the Erie canal.
| Chicago is on the longitude of old
Pensacola, where Andrew jackson did
his hacking and hanging. In spite of
all that, Pensacola cuts no figure
among the ports of the country, while
the unknown Chicago, which was
marked in Jackson's presidency by
only a flag on the maps, showing that
it was block house, has become the
second port in the United States.
| When the Illinois Central railroad
was endowed by congress with three
million acres of land, the Mobile & Ohio
railroad was similarly endowed, from
Cairo, ILL.,, to Mobile. Mobile, a few
years prior to the civil war, filed as
much of the news, commerce and imag-
ination of the country as Chicago, but
the civil war, which was capitalized in
Alabama into a government, divided
the body of this giant into half, unless
it is to be forged together again by the
coal and iron of northern Alabama.
Eastern people suppose that Chicago
stands alone on the west shore of Lake
Michigan, but going north from Chica-
go you come to these respectable
ports, all thriving: Waukegan, Keno
sha, Racine, Milwaukee, Sheboygan,
Mapitowoc, Kewaunee and so on, to
the straits of Mackinaw, which are
about three hundred and twenty-five
miles from Chicago. These straits are
at the top of beautiful Moorish arch,
of which one end is at Chicago and the
other in the archipelago of Lake Erie.
| - Sc cs~
hundred and fifty miles, and the east
ern foot of it is some two hundred
miles from Buffalo.
If you glance at the great lakes as
they stand piesorially on the map they
| look like megatherium or pregeo1og-
ical animal, it's head in western Lake
Superior, it's feet Michigan and Huron
and its tail the Georgian bay.
In these days most people forget
that Chicago, like New York, was
make by canal, and in each case it
was canal to the lakes. The year the
Erie canal was opened by Dewitt Clin-
ton, 1925, a canal was surveyed and de-
vised to run from Chicago across to the
Illinois river and down that river to
the Mississippi. The principal agent
to secure this canal and land to endow
it was Daniel P. Cook, whose name
ends obscure1y immortal in the metro
politan county of Illinois, for Chicago
is in Cook county. They supposed the
canal would cost six hundred and
forty thousand dollars, but it cost
twelve million dollars, and it was
endowed with 1885, 900 acres of land.
When it was commenced there were
only three families in Chicago living
outside of the blockhouse of the fort,
in 1880. The commencement of this
canal caused Chicago to be laid out,
and at sale of lots in that place, in
1S46, it was thought to be stupendous
that the whole parcel realized 81, ,5O3.
Ground was Hot broken for this canal
until 1886, when pork was from $40 to
$50 barrel on the spot. flour from SO
to $12, salt $12 to $15, and labor $40 to
$50 month and board. The next year,
1887, the great panic broke the state,
but the canal kept enough people at
Chicago to keep it from relapsing to
stagnation and marsh. Interest ceased
on the state debt, which was S14,OOO,-
900, in 1e42, when all the banks broke,
and a reputation like that of Missis-
sippi was feebly agitated. The next
year, 1s43, there were but 1850 people
in Chicago, largely canal laborers.
The entire property of Chicago was as
sessed, in 1886, at $4,000. Reducing
the canal to shallow cut, it was final
ly opened in 1s4s, and by 1860 the canal
tolls had been 81 900, 900, and the canal
lands had brought near $500, 900, but
there was a canal debt of $4,000, 900.
The year the canal was opened, 1s4s,
the population of Chicago was less
than $1,000. By 1871 the honest COM
missioners turned the canal over to
the state with surplus of 1872, 900, and
when the great fire opened that year,
Illinois nobly let up it's lien of So, ,00O,-
900 on the canal, which they had