This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------F8753F3AEA08DF797D895C48 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Attached is an article clipped from a 1911 newspaper's special edition, obviously designed to attract new settlers to Desha County. I have several microfilm reels of older Desha County newspapers, and will try to post selected items from time to time. Hope you will find them interesting. Louis Reitzammer at Jackson, Tennessee < reitzamm@usit.net > --------------F8753F3AEA08DF797D895C48 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; name="Deshaco4.txt" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline; filename="Deshaco4.txt" DESHA COUNTY = by J. W. Dickinson (From Historical Edition of The Arkansas City Democrat, Arkansas City, Ar= k.--1911) Desha County contains 8,000 square miles and very little of waste land. = She is bounded on the East 100 miles by the greatest river of the world. = She is watered by the Arkansas, the White, Bartholomew and other smaller = streams. Railroads pass over the County in several directions and termina= te at Arkansas City, giving the people cheap, competitive rates of freigh= t. About one twentieth of the land in Desha is in cultivation, nineteen-twe= ntieths in valuable timber, mostly virgin. About half the land of the Cou= nty is valley land protected by enormous levees so high and base so broad= , that the Mississippi at high tide has capitulated and passes her floods= peacefully on to the sea; and gives us no trouble from overflows. The other half of the County is table land, all very rich and productive= , and will yield the greatest abundance of cotton, corn, rice, fruits and= vegetables and all the products of this climate. Many great saw mills, s= tave factories, shingle mills are now busy felling the forest, making the= finest grades of lumber, shipping it away at good profits. These lands c= an be bought at low prices, five to ten per acre for timber lands, small = cash payments, balance on long time and can be paid for by the sale of th= e timber. Cleared land, according to improvements, $15.00 to $50.00 per a= cre, small cash payments, balance long time and can be paid for by growin= g crops or by renting at the price of $6.00 per acre. It certainly is the= best County in the State for the capitalist to invest for large profits = and the plain farmer man to secure a good home for scarcely anything but = his energy. These facts ought to appeal to the man of moderate means to c= ome and secure a good home whilst the "light holds out to burn." Desha Co= unty has about 18,000 population; lands mostly owned by people who are in= telligent, energetic and prosperous and will gladly open their arms and w= elcome good people from anywhere, even though he should live North of the= Mason and Dixon line, in icy regions and where the price of land is so h= igh he can never secure a good home. Astonishment to the writer is why those people do not come in great drov= es, bringing their wives, children and dogs and become one of us, be happ= y and prosperous. We hear someone say in "God's Country", "Those people d= own South do not want us Northern folks, and more particularly if we are = Republicans." You say up North, "We would go down at once but we fear ost= racism in politics." To give you the truth we will briefly answer these o= bjections. Ex-State Senator Henry Thane, Ex-Mayor of Arkansas City, and E= x-Clerk of Desha County lives at Arkansas City. When a young man (about f= orty years ago) with his young wife he came from Indiana to Desha County = and settled among us. He is a Vestryman of the Episcopal Church, he talks= and votes his politics openly. We Democrats have not killed him yet. We = want more such men of sterling integrity. We care nothing for a man's pol= itics or his religion, just so he is a gentleman. We take him in without = probation, and he soon becomes one of us. Mr. Thane has prospered, he is = now president of five State Banks in this section: Desha Bank and Trust C= ompany, at Arkansas City; Bank of McGehee, at McGehee; Merchants and Farm= ers Bank at Dumas; Dermott Bank at Dermott; and Chicot Bank at Lake Villa= ge. These Banks are well managed but cautiously, and afford capital suffi= cient to aid all worthy enterprises, as well as the farmers, and furnish = money to each enterprise as much as each ought to have, they are common f= actors in the building up of the country. Under Mr. Thane's supervision a= thorough drainage system has been organized and partly completed. A cana= l of nine miles in length, thirty-three feet wide and twelve feet deep wi= th lateral ditches into this Canal the surplus water and excessive rains = are quickly drawn from the farms and a wonderful improvement can be seen = on the productions of the soil. Come and see, or write Henry Thane. You p= eople can believe what an Indiana man tells you. = The writer has lived in Desha County with his family for over thirty-six= years constantly, has made forty-three crops in the County. He is a Tenn= esseean, seventy-seven years old, his wife seventy-six. They have enjoyed= as good health as they did on the mountains of Tennessee. We have only t= wo doctors at Arkansas City, both graduates, excellent physicians and do = the practice for the city and surrounding country (about seven miles) a p= opulation of four or five thousand people and strange to say they are nea= rly starving for the want of patients. In traveling over the hill country= through towns of like population we find ten or more doctors all prosper= ing from their practice. This ought to settle any questions about health = care. = Desha County has a number of good towns: Arkansas City, the County Seat,= McGehee, a railroad town, and Dumas, and quite a number of towns along t= he railroad and rivers. At the County Seat we have a splendid brick Court House and Jail, and ar= e constructing a three-story brick high school building. The increase in = our schools demanded this improvement. We have four churches: Methodist, = Baptist, Episcopal, and Catholic. We have a prosperous little city standi= ng on the bank of the great Mississippi. The County also has plenty of go= od schools. = The morals of the people are good. Our courts thirty years ago were in s= ession at each term over a month and often an adjourned term as long. Exp= enses of the court were great. Now the Circuit Court meets twice a year a= nd clears the docket inside of two weeks. The Chancery Court convenes twi= ce a year and clears the docket inside of four or five days. The expenses= of the courts are a mere bagatelle. Arkansas is a great State. Desha is the best County, so come at once you= fellows whilst you are offered greater inducements than any other sectio= n can possibly offer. We will heartily welcome you, make you feel at home= , happy and prosperous, if you are a man that wants to become useful to t= he country and prosperous yourself. (End of article) COMMENT: J. W. Dickinson, co-founder of Arkansas City, was a former slave= -owner. Portions of the article which might be considered offensive have = been omitted.--LR --------------F8753F3AEA08DF797D895C48--