The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1911-06-01
RANKIN COUNTY AS
seen BY N0RTHERNER
SOUTHERNERs SPENDING MON
EY FOR GOOD ROADS.
Visit With Former Harding Resi-
dents Land Investments Will
Bring Good Returns-Politics is
Lively.
Will

Brandon, Miss, May ~, 19ii-Dear
Leader Readers:-Just a few lines
more before starting for home.
A splendid visit with spendid peo-
pie is driving to a close and we
will be ready to go to work again
after the short vacation.
Some of you may think of this
section is slow and non progressive,
but LET me tell you osmething!
Brandon Beat has just voted $4,000
to be used in lettering the roads
and the town of Brandon has voted
$1,000 to improve her streets. A
Beat here corresponds somewhat
to our townships. 1t includes more
territory however, but is more
sparsley settled. For instance-Earl
township probably has three times
as many people as Brandon Beat
and the Earl valuation is probably
twenty times as much. So you see,
these people are ''gOirS some" when
they decided to spend such a sum
on their roads. Believe me, the inn
provement bug" seems to have
gotten amongst them and there IS
no telling what they will do when
they get started One thing certain
they will have the best roads of
any Beat in the state if that money
is rightfully expended.
Want to know what started
them? Well, two or three years
ago United States Senator McLaur-
in, whose home was in this town,
got government aid to build road
from the town to the depot, a dis
lance of about a mile and a quarter.
For sixty years or more they had
been hauling their freight and sup
plies up a steep, sandy hill. An
expert came and showed them
how to build good substantial
road out of the material on the
ground. They never would have
believed it. They were from Mis-
souri," to a man. But when the
thing was zone and they saw that
a team could haul almost as much
up that hill on the new road as it
could haul down hill in the old sand
bed, they became enthusiasts for
good roads, and now they are 60
ing TO reap the benefits.
/ Recently a system of water works
has been put in and now they are
talking of electric lights and ce-
ment sidewalks. And you must re-
member that Brandon is town Of
less than 800, and that nearly half
the people are negroes. There are
some of the whitest folks in that
town, however, that ever lived any
where.
Speaking of buying lands for in
vestment or for homes. Here you
find a climate that is all any one
could ask and soil that will re-
spond easily to intelligent cultiva-
ton. A man with a few thousand
dollars or a few hundred, for that
matter, can get a home and pay for
it as easily as in any country on
earth. In the past ten years land
values here have about doubled
and land is remarkably cheap yet,
as measured by land values in the
north.
We visited yesterday at the home
of Chas. L. Martin, who in 1871 left
the place in Freedom now owned
by Duncan Dunn and went to Sac
county, Iowa. In 1891 he went to
Brandon and bought a place on the
edge of town. Mr.. Martin has had
the misfortune recently to lose his
eye sight. A piece of steel pene-
trated one eye some years ago, de-
stroying the sight and the other eye
has gradually failed until now he
can only see the shadow of objects,
but cannot recognize persons. He is
70 years old and takes his afflictiOn
very philosophically. He said he
would like to come up here and
visit the old home, but the loss Of
his sight would take away much Of
the pleasure of such trip, SO it
is not probable that he will un-
dertake it.
Mrs. Martin is spry for a woman
of her age. She was Henderson
and her fathers family were In
dian creek settlers before the mas
sacre in 1923 They took the warm
ing of old Chief Shabbona and went
to Ottawa on the fateful occasion.
Col. T. J. Henderson, of Princeton,
who died the past winter, was her
uncle. They remember the older.
settlement about Harding and in
CURED after many of them. Mr..
Martin said he remembered Duncan
Dunn as young unmarried man.
while he is now one of the substaIl-
stial citizens of this section and
grandfather. But forty years makes
many changes everywhere. Mr..
and Mrs. Martin have four children.
Two daughters are happily mar
ried and the third is a trained nurse
who lives at home. The baby is
now man grown. One married
daughter lives in Oklahoma and
one in the Mississippi delta.
Northern people think that poll
tics get lively up there sometimes.