The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1904-05-14
GEOGRAPHY OF EARLY DATE
Gazetteer of 1907 Gives Surprising
Information Regarding
Some States.

| The old volume of Morse's American
| Gazetteer, bearing the date OF January
/, 1897, is yellow with age. but It's paper
is still firm and its printing admirable,
black and distinct and perfect, to the
| last quaint long s. The seven inclosed
maps are marvels Of fine steel engrav-
| ing, such as one would not find in
modern map, says the Indianapolis Jour-
| nal
One finds surprising statements on
every page of the old book. 1t is mar
yelous to see how much they knew then
and how little they understood the sig
nificance of their knowledge. One Is
impressed more and more as one studies
the book, with the great Transforming
power of railroads On the old maps
every tiny water course is laid down
with precision and care. In the text,
every little stream that would carry a
canoe, every water route, every port
age, is described as feature of the ut
most importance, No present-day geog-
raphy contains map of the West In
dies that would bear comparison for
completeness and accuracy. Any spot
that could be reached by water was so
important!
New York, at that time the second
city in the country in population, is de-
scribed as one mile wide, and, on the
East river side, two miles long, was
esteemed the most eligible situation for
commerce in the United States. 1t i'm
ports most of the goods consumed be-
tween a line 80 miles east of the Con-
necticut river and 20 miles west of the
Hudson, strip 100 miles wide. extend
ing north to Canada" Think of that
now! And it commanded the trade Of
half of the state of New Jersey, too!
The coast line of the United States at
that time was only on the Atlantic, and
stopped at the southern end of Georgia.
Spain still owning east and west Flor
ida, which, together, covered all the gulf
coast to the Mississippi. West of the
Mississippi, Of course, all belonged to
Spain.
Indiana. at that time, was territory
in Virginia, lying between Pennsylvania
and the Little Kanawha, and containing
100000 acres. 1t had been ceded by
certain Indian tribes to number Of
private gentlemen, as reparation for de-
stroying the property of said gentlemen,
to the amount Of fS5,000.
The present state of Indiana was an
unnamed part of the great northwest
territory, but Is laid down on the map
with about its present boundaries as the
H. State. That portion of its lands to
which the Indian title had been extin-
guished, congress had named Knox
county. There were five counties in the
northwest territory, organized with
Settlement of the region had been de-
layed on account of Indian troubles,
which had been finally settled. it was
hoped, by Gen. Wayne's treaty In 1895.
1t is significant, however, that all the
| towns in Indiana at that time were forts
Fort Wayne, Fort Adams, Fort Oniat-
avian. Mosquito Fort, Fort Jefferson,
Fort st. Clair and Fort Vincents Win
. cennes). The White river figures as the
east fork of the Wabash, The Wabash
i Is beautiful navigabe river, possible
for bateaux and barges drawing three
feet of water, 412 miles, to Oniatawan
and for large canoes 1877 miles further
where carry Of nine miles lin high wa
teri connected with the Miami, thence
with the great lakes and the. world
"The land on this river is remarkably
fertile. A silver mine has been discov.
cred about % miles above Oniatawan
on the north bank of the Wabash. The
| copper mine on this river is perhaps the
richest vein of native copper in the bow
els of the whole earth"
Fort Vincents was erected In 1887, tc
repel incursions of the Wabash Indians
at has four small brass cannon and is
garrisoned by major and two compan-
les The town contained, in 1892, about
1,500 souls. They raise Indian corn and
wheat, and tobacco of extraordinary
good quality" Hemp grows wild. All
through this region the settlers make all
the wine they can use of wild grapes
1t is said. to be of excellent quality
lacking only age to make 1t equal to the
best wines of Europe!
Indiana is described as being partic-
ularly adapted to the culture of rice, and
also an excellent country for raising
cotton The beautiful forests on the
White and Wabash rivers are well de-
scribed, with pretty accurate list of the
principal trees. OF these 'the sugar
maple is the most valuable. BY reserv-
ing ten trees, every family can supply
themselves with excellent sugar in per.
| petuity," as each tree will produce ter
pounds of sugar year, and the labor Is
trifling.
That the forests could ever disappear
and timber become scarce and precious
or that any family could be so luxurious
and extravagant as to use more than
100 pounds of sugar in a year. were prob.
ably equally inconsiderable ideas in
1796.
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