The Jackson Standard

Letter from Minnesota.

Spring Valley, July 28, 1869.

Ed. Standard:

I have long thought of writing to you, and no doubt you have as long been expecting to hear from us in the way of cash. I have not forgotten that I was behind with the Standard. We get it now regularly every week, and read it with much pleasure. The least item of news from Jackson County is interesting to us. I should be pleased to hear from you in a long letter, as we have no correspondence with any one from that place. Two years ago yesterday, I returned from a trip which I made to south-west Missouri. I have often thought of giving you a short account of a few things which I noticed by the way. It is now an old story, still you may not be entirely uninterested in a few things in addition to what you read almost every day of incidents of travel from the West. I was just getting over a severe spell of lung fever, and having heard often of the Ozark Mountains, and in hopes to improve my health and see the country, started on the 27th June, 1867, for Springfield. I passed through the north-west corner of Iowa by R. R., then by the river to St. Louis, then by the Pacific R. R. to Franklin, and by the South-West Branch to the terminus, (Jerome.) From there to Springfield traveled in a common carriage, had a very good chance to see the country, the most of which is broken thin land. Along the Gasconade the hills are very high and rocky. It is a timbered country most of the way. The timber is short and scrubby, as is generally the case in the west. Though the land is poor, it produces grass where there is not too much brush, and stock of all kinds looked well, and grain too on the bottoms was good. There is a great deal of Government land in this part of the State, and I think will be for years to come. Nearer Springfield, though that is said by Mr. Parker in his hand-book of Missouri to be near the summit of the Ozark Range, the country is more level, and some good land, and occasionally some fine springs, but no appearance of mountains. I took but little notice of Springfield, as I passed through it with the expectation of returning that way, but did not do so. I stopped for a week at Walnut Grove, in the north-west corner of Green County. There is some fine land here but there is much very poor land, and also brushy. Though this is an old settled place, there is considerable game here; yet there is so much brush that they can hide from the hunter. The soil is what they call "molatter" soil, the clay beneath is as red as brick. Grain does well when it is wet, but every other season is said to be a dry one, and I was told by men that had lived there 25 years, that it never failed. I think that Green County is one of the best fruit countries I ever saw; apples, peaches, cherries, grapes, and blackberries, were abundant. There is some prairie in this County, but it is not thought to be so productive as the timber land. Considerable of the fencing is done with rock, and the rails are generally shorter than is common in the east, owing I suppose to the shortness of the timber. I left Walnut Grove for Sedalia, a distance of over a hundred miles. Here too I found a rough country for the first half of the way. The effects of the war were yet to be seen along these roads. A great deal of crosswaying done by the soldiers, and in many places fields and orchards without fences, and chimneys without houses. To me much of this country seemed to be an isolated region, it taking teams about eight days to make a trip to the railroad. After I crossed the Osage River at Warsaw, the country had a much better appearance. There is some very fine prairie, much of which was still unimproved, between the latter place and Sedalia, but timber and water seemed to be scarce. I think they have some fever and ague along the streams. From Sedalia I traveled by railroad to Leavenworth, Kansas, but saw but little of the country, as I went most of the way by night. From Leavenworth to St. Joseph saw some very fine corn on the Missouri bottom, but the green scum on the water in many places on the bottom denoted fever and ague, as it looked almost thick enough to bear up a frog. From St. Joseph I went to Savannah, and into Gentry and Nodaway counties, back to St. Joseph, and by the railroad again to Quincy, Ill., took the cars again for Dunleith. I saw but little of the country between St. Joseph and Quincy, traveling most of the way in the night. From Quincy to Mendota traveled in daylight, went through Knox County for a distance of 180 miles between the two latter places exceeds anything I saw in my route for beauty &c. The country is in a very high state of cultivation, but it is no place for a poor man to get land. I arrived at home 27th July, well pleased with my trip, and much improved in health. Then I was only able to walk around a little. On returning walked 12 miles before breakfast, and waded a stream without feeling any the worse. Traveled in all near two thousand miles.

We are now in Minnesota thirteen years—have seen frost and snow to our heart's content—have had my nose and ears nipped with the frost, and eyes closed with ice; but still we stay. This country has changed some since we came here. At first we had sixty miles to market; now we have but fourteen, and soon hope to have it in one mile. We had no white clover, no blue grass, no quails, no turtle doves, no house-flies: now we have them all. Crops are looking well, except corn; that is late. Barley harvest is on hand. Wheat and oats will come on in 10 or 12 days. The season has been wet.

Please write.

John Mackley.