Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1895-06-05
Ex-Mayor Disbrow,s Letter.
st. Joseph, Mo-, May 81, 1895


Mr.. EDIToR:-According to my promise
in former communication, | will try to
give you little description of st. JOS
eph. The town is not a very old one.
he first settler came here in 1888 and
settled at the mouth of Blacksnake Creek
at the foot of Black Snake Hill (Which
is still standing not over a mile from
where | am now writing). He started a
trading post trading with the Indians,
giving them fire water, fire arms and am
| unitiOn for their furs. (This information
got from one of the old settlers) This
town Tor city it is now) is situated on
the bend of the Missouri river on the east
side. The authorities claim now to have
a population of $4,000. Next to the
river is fiat which is mostly occupied
by the railroads and their shops. There
are nine railroads that center here which
makes this busy place and when one
stands on the hills and looks down on
the flat above spoken of you will see
freight cars by the thousand which are
brought here on the different roads.
Then you will see the little yard locomo-
tives which seem to be as busy as bees
making up trains (Which are sometimes
very lOng) some going east, some west,
some north and some south. Some are
labeled 'BOstOn, Mass and Others are
marked ''San Francisco, CAL" There are
also several quite large manufactures of
different kinds. There are several large
wholesale stores which seem to be doing
quite large business. I was informed
that one firm had one hundred statesmen
travelling all over the country and sew
eral other firms have more or less on the
road, so think this is quite busy little
town. | think the chance tor common
or free school educa ton is excellent. The
school buildings are good, and / am in |
formed there are nearly two hundred
teachers in the public schools and they |
ore now building high school which |
will cost when completed over 100000,
but am sorry to say there are at pres |
ent at least some drawbacks, and it is |
the same old story-dishonest treasurers
and of course the school funds had to |
suffer the most. The children of our col |
ored citizens are looked after too, and |
they need not go without an education |
unless they are SO minded. As to the |
morals of the town may give my opin-
ion some other time. expect some are
are asking how ia your hum
BILE servant getting along. l am
very well at present. Nothing to do;
you know that suits me. Plenty to eat |
and don't have to go naked. Sleep well
at night and rheumatism seems to have
left me. Sometimes it is so dusty you
can hardly see and at other times when
it is wet it is muddy, and the stickiest
kind of mud too. The soil here is clay.
You can make brick Of it most anywhere,
but it makes very poor roads in wet |
weather. Some may ask; Do you like
the West as well as you do Jersey? In |
answer ! would say no. The soil is |
better and you can raise more crops, but
they have not got the markets. Truck |
here is what l call cheap, and would
have been cheaper if it had not been dry
Wheat was selling here two months ago
at 40 cents per bushel but now they are
asking rs cents per bushel. We had a
splendid rain here yesterday, and last
night and today the papers say the
farmers faces are getting rounder in con-
sequence oft.
Yours respectfully,
n DISBROW.