[Fayetteville, Ark.] The Arkansian, February 3, 1860
(1860 infomercial continued…)
“Now, friend, we are ready to hear you according to promise, finish your account of your country. We are much pleased so far with your answers to our queries, and think you endeavor to give us the truth concerning Arkansas.”
“I am much obliged to you for the interest you display in listening to my poor delineations of some of the characteristics of Arkansas, and the advantages which I consider my State is able to confer upon her settlers. Could you but hear some of her gifted sons portray the present and apparent future of Arkansas I know you would be charmed, and that many of you would seek homes in my beloved State.”
“How many towns are there in your vicinity? what is their population, facilities, privileges, and inducements to settlers of different avocations?”
“The chief towns in my region are Fort Smith, Van Buren and Fayetteville. There are besides pleasant little villages in the counties adjacent. Among these Bentonville, the county seat of Benton, is the more interesting. I will begin with Fayetteville, and though not able, in an ordinary conversation, to supply you with its complete statistics, yet I will essay to set before you some of its belongings. Fayetteville is the most beautifully situated town in our State, and, for that matter, can not be surpassed by any in the United States. Sun, shadow and the Ozark Hills have hung around the town the most enchanting and picturesque landscapes. No two of them are like; of the single town of Fayetteville one can get a thousand differing and equally charming views. Were the town and its surroundings to be carved out and placed on the Plains, midway to the Rocky Mountains, thousands would travel thither merely for the enjoyment of their beauties. The town is situate on a high hill, over-looked by others still higher; is not far from one branch of the “beautiful but neglected” White river; is healthy and salubrious as to climate; while from its hill sides gush living springs of the ‘first water.’ I rank the town as to population the third in the State; Fort Smith and Little Rock leading it. In point of education Fayetteville out ranks any other in the State, and it would be hard to find its superior in the West Mississippi Valley, outside St. Louis and the Great Towns. Should you desire to educate your children you may travel East and fare worse. The advantages with us are very great. We have a College of wide reputation, and one distant sixteen miles, also, which have already done much and bid fair to do very much more, to be first class schools. The College buildings are elegant and commodious, their professors able, library, apparata, &c., ample—especially for a new country and young institutions. Two female schools of the highest order are successfully established in our town, whose facilities for the education of girls, in all branches, are super-eminent. The buildings cannot be excelled by any like town in the United States, and hardly surpassed by the largest towns. Hundreds of youth have been educated in these schools and they are easily capable of educating 4 to 500 yearly. There are good primary schools, in our midst, also. Of course, with all these advantages of education, Religion is not neglected in Fayetteville. Four churches flourish there. In morals Fayetteville possesses the fame that always attends the means and advantages found in its midst. Handsome public, business and private buildings adorn the town. Business is great for a town of its inland character. There are eight stores, and some smaller establishments, where you may buy as good, cheap and elegant goods as fancy prompts. Our merchants are intelligent men. We enjoy the works of good lawyers, while doctors grow fat in keeping us healthy; they are weighed in the balances but not found wanting. We have finished mechanics of all kinds. A large Merchant Steam Mill puffs under the town hill, while water Mills, of the same class flutter in the vicinity. Lots, improved and unimproved may be bought at reasonable prices, and no better lot need a man desire than a home in Fayetteville. There are young ladies there, too, who can improve such lots. Good farms in the neighborhood may be purchased equitably. Some of the land is superb, and some not so good, and some yet again not worth much. Yet the greater portion is fit for cultivation of some sort, profitable cultivation, too. Our market is like unto that of all such towns. We are distant from the Arkansas river, at Van Buren, our port, fifty-four miles. Hereafter, we will possess larger facilities that way. For the South-west Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad cannot stop at the Missouri line. That would not pay; and as it will not reach California in a year or two, the only way to make it pay is ‘tap’ the Arkansas river at Van Buren. At that place they have already broken ground on the Fort Smith and Little Rock Railroad, which also will not pay unless it ‘taps’ the Missouri Road, and St. Louis leveys her portion of the Arkansas Valley commerce. The COTTON COUNTRY, too, begins at Van Buren and that must be ‘tapped.’ So you see our chances are tolerably bright for a railroad, and, consequently, a telegraph. We have now, however, running through our midst that triumph of Staging the ‘Overland Mail.’ If all the world’s a stage, surely the Overland Stages are the only ones that run across a world. This ‘institution’ is a blessing especially in these days of no mails [tear across corner] permanent privileges of Fayetteville. In politics, too, we are not behind our neighbors, and we possess a fair share of political influence. Our newspaper is equal to all occasions and would reflect credit upon a larger town than Fayetteville. Salt, pepper and spice are not stinted in its columns. If you subscribe for and read this paper, the ‘Arkansian,’ you may learn all about Fayetteville, much valuable information, besides many other things worth knowing.”
“Well, what of the other towns, Van Buren and Fort Smith? If they are as fine as your own we must acknowledge that you are indeed blessed; we will be compelled to admit that in the eager rush of emigration to Texas and California, Arkansas has been over looked and neglected.”
“It has been so indeed. ‘Silver and gold have we none,’ but we have that which brings them plenteously; our rich ores of zinc, lead, iron, manganese; our marbles, limestones, oilstones, coals; our vast forest of valuable woods and timber; our immense and inexhaustibly fertile cotton, grain and grazing lands, are riches whose wings are clipped. I have said so much of my own town that I shall not have time, now, to say what ought to be said of Van Buren and Fort Smith, which are strictly commercial towns. Fort Smith is the largest town in the State, has a population of say 2,500 inhabitants. A vast deal of business is done there. It is on the western confine of the State, borders on the Choctaw and Cherokee Ter. With its West it has a great trade. The inhabitants are very enterprising. There are many buildings within it, that would be noted in large cities, of stone and brick. You hear there the constant ring of the dollar, the clatter of the hammer and the roar of the bellows. The town is a miniature San Francisco. There unite the St. Louis and Memphis Overland Mail Routes. There they hope will be commenced the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad, to run along the 35th parallel. This parallel is very popular there—coiled all around the place. One newspaper and a steamboat are christened after it. Three newspapers are published there. Fort Smith is destined to be a city of no mean size; the people thereof are sanguine it will be a Great Railway Depot. Some folk even go so far as to think it the central city of the Union. It is the Queen of the Arkansas Valley. Should the Grand Trunk begin there a prophet might tell the result. I wish I could map before you the regions that naturally pour commerce into the laps of Van Buren and Fort Smith. First, there is the Arkansas main; then the Illinois, Grand, Verdegris and Upper Arkansas rivers; then the Red Fork of Arkansas; then the long Canadian, with its co-equal branch the North Fork, whose waters leap out from the Spanish Peaks. All these vallies of the richest land in the world are tributary to Van Buren and Fort Smith commerce. Besides this, the commerce from New Mexico and Texas will pass into and through these towns. To them naturally belongs the commerce of New Mexico; and when railroads connect them with Texas and the far Rio Grande you will see all Texan and Mexican merchants congregating at, or journeying through these towns, and thro’ them, also, will vast quantities of Mexican and Arizonian silver be carried. From the character of the inhabitants of these towns it is reasonable to suppose that some of this last mentioned commodity will ‘stick.’ Van Buren is a town of solid merchants and capital. It is improving according to time, not hastily but substantially. One newspaper is published there. The second newspaper, long time the exponent of the Frontier, ever published in North-west Arkansas, was the ‘Intelligencer’ of Van Buren. Its citizens, like all Arkansians, are liberal and hospitable, and their town is one of the pleasantest places in the world in which to live. In Railroad enterprise, Van Buren is going ahead, and from the known character of its people they will ‘do or die;’ they will have a railroad if any Arkansas people can get one. Be sure of that. Van Buren is just on the Cotton Line; in its very streets you can raise the plant. Like picking up gold in the streets of Sacramento, you may ‘pick’ cotton in the yards of Van Buren if there you wish to raise it. This cotton fact will have a hearing on the future of Van Buren. Thousands of acres of the very best of cotton land lie contiguous to the town; which land is now in the culture of cotton, or inviting the planter to purchase and occupy. I do not know any finer cotton section now open. Those who wish to buy land to produce cotton will not do themselves justice without examining it. Van Buren will be a cotton city some day, and the now silent ‘Cotton Factory’ will be put to labor and bring forth many other factories. In the vicinity of Fort Smith in Sebastian county, near Van Buren, is abundance of coal. Van Buren is four and a half miles distant from Fort Smith. Both towns possess the advantages common to all like towns; superior to many. They offer great temptations to settlers—merchants, lawyers, doctors, mechanics, workmen—and capital. Little Rock is the capitol of the State. It is what a town situate in the heart of a cotton region should be. It is the seat of elegance, fashion, and wisdom. There our legislators make laws; there our belles and beauxs shine as they do in Broadway; there congregate all on distinguished men, statesmen, lawyers, editors, poets, painters; and there you may meet planters worth their hundreds of thousands. Little Rock is a chivalric city and will become a stately capitol; more so it is to be hoped, than the present State House. All three of these towns are beautifully situated upon the banks of the Arkansas river. Little Rock is distant from Van Buren about 150 miles.
“Friend, it has commenced raining and it will probably be stormy all day. You had better not attempt to travel, but give us to night something more of your State. Say, how will it suit you? Here you are comfortable; outdoors ’tis violently uncomfortable, and were you to start you could not go far. Let us hear more of Arkansas.”
“Well as it rains rather hard for good travelling, and, as here I am dry in body and talk
also, I conclude to tarry another night. I am happy my account is considered, by you, worth
listening to, and shall be glad to continue it.”