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"Lead has been found in several places in this county, and has been worked at Gray's mine and M'Kane's mine, the latter situated on Dry Creek, a stream running into Big river from the Jefferson side. It has also been found in several places on the banks of Plattin and Joachim Creeks. Iron ore is found in Big river township, and on Plattin and Sandy Creeks. Salt was formerly made at the works on the Merrimac, and also about twelve miles north of Herculaneum, of good quality, by the boiling process. There are a number of sulphur-springs, which are frequently resorted to by valetudinarians. The waters are said to be signally beneficial in affections of the liver, but I am inclined to believe that their virtues have been much overrated. They are, however, gently laxative and sudorific.

"From the number of fine mill-streams, and the many advantageous situations which are everywhere presented, there is no doubt this is destined to become a great manufacturing county. It already contains several grist-mills, shot-manufactories, and distilleries."*

HERCULANEUM, thirty miles below St. Louis, was formerly the seat of justice of Jefferson county. This is a place of business, and the landing is good at the extreme lower end of the town. There is a shot-factory on the towering cliffs near the lower landing.

SELMA is a good landing, and a place for shipment of lead and receiving merchandise. A shot-manufactory is carried on here on an extensive scale. There is likewise a mercantile house at Selma, which operates largely. This place is thirty-five miles below St. Louis.

MONTICELLO, in the centre of the county, is the seat of justice of Jefferson. It is new, but very rapidly improving. This town is fifteen miles from Herculaneum. Monticello is situated in a well-watered district, not far from Negro Fork of Merrimac or Big river, and the Joachim and Plattin Creeks flow to this town. Monticello is on the direct route from St. Louis to Belleview and the Iron Mountain, and the railroad must pass directly by it. This part of Jefferson is a portion of finely-timbered mineral re

*Beck's Gazetteer.

gion, and it is well adapted to wheat and other small grain. Monticello is in the vicinity of Big river mines, that now afford the finest prospects.

At one of the mineral springs of this county a company of capitalists of St. Louis are about to erect a house for the accommodation of visiters, 160 feet by forty, three stories high, with suitable out buildings. The grounds around the house and spring are to be tastefully improved and planted, with a view of making this summer retreat desirable for fashionable visiters, as well as valetudinarians. It will become a place of resort for families from the south, who are accustomed to travel northward during the most oppressive season of heat in summer. The great salubrity of the climate here will be attractive to those who contemplate, with the natural impulse of good taste, the picturesque scenery of the surrounding hills and woodlands, and soul and body will acquire a healthful tone on the undulating surface of this fine region. Children may enact their innocent gambols here, while the flocks that surround them will give a zest to the poetic pages they peruse in this sylvan retreat.

JOHNSON COUNTY boundaries begin at the southeast corner of Lafayette county; thence westwardly with the southern boundary of Lafayette to Jackson county line; thence south through the middle of range twenty-nine to the southwest corner of section twenty-seven, township forty-four; thence east to the range line between twenty-three and twenty-four; thence north to the beginning.

JOHNSON is a new county, cut off from the south end of Lafay ette, and bounded on the west by Van Buren. Four fifths of the land of this county is not only fit for cultivation, but exceedingly fertile. The proportion of prairie may appear greater than is desirable; but, with the frugality of practised prairie cultivators, and the care taken by them to keep out the fires in the autumn and spring, when the herbage is dry, the entire county is susceptible of dense settlement. The Black water rises in the county of Johnson, furnishing good mill-sites for country work, and power enough for merchant-mills. The branches that fall into the Black water, forming tributaries to it, water the county,

the heads of them being never-failing fountains of the good fresh element. There is likewise salt water in the county, which contributes largely to the interests of stock-raisers. Even hogs grow larger and fatten faster when allowed free access to salt water, than these animals can be made to thrive by any process of feeding. The tier of counties one remove from the banks of the Missouri are better adapted to stock-raising than grain-growing. The animals can be conveyed to market on foot with trifling expense, after having consumed the grain, which is profitably disposed of in feeding. This county would be the appropriate abode of wool-growers; and two or three wagons could convey the produce of a sheep-farm, amounting in value to several thousand dollars, to the river at a single trip. A sheep-farm on an extensive scale is begun in Johnson. Any defect of timber that might be apprehended in this county could be no way inconvenient, and the fuel for all the inhabitants could be drawn from the coal-banks, which are excellent, and the coal of good quality.

WARRENBURGH is situated near the centre of Johnson county, on the right bank of the main Black water above Post Oak fork, and is the seat of justice. Like most new country towns, it must be supposed in its infancy. The location, however, is considered judicious, and fountains of pure water in and near it promise cool milk and sweet cream as the accompaniments of strawberries, with which the prairies of Johnson are spotted every season in luxurious crimson. The name of this county, it is presumed, was given to do honour to some one of the distinguished Johnsons who have filled high places in the annals of the world. There was in England one Ben Jonson, contemporary with Shakspeare, and likewise a dramatist; and Samuel Johnson, the great miscellaneous writer and lexicographer. In our own country, at the period of the revolution, Sir William Johnson was a distinguished loyalist. The late Governor Johnson, of Louisiana, who was blown up in a steamboat on Red river, and Richard M. Johnson, the vanquisher of Tecumseh, are the most distinguished of our countrymen of that name. The latter gives name to Johnson county in Missouri. The Clear fork

of Black water puts in below Post Oak fork. There are two mills in Johnson, and another building. There is an excellent quarry of grindstone on Black water.

LAFAYETTE COUNTY boundaries begin in the Missouri river, opposite the termination of the line between ranges twenty-three and twenty-four; thence south to the southeast corner of section twenty-four, township forty-eight, range twenty-four; thence west to the line between twenty-six and twenty-seven; thence south to the corner between townships forty-seven and fortyeight; thence west to the middle of range twenty-nine; thence, north to the Missouri river, and down the same to the beginning.

Lafayette county was formerly called Lillard. It contains a rich farming country, of prairie and timber, almost every acre of which is arable land. The county has been rapidly settling for the last five years. The traveller going westward, after passing the plantations of Mr. Notley Thomas, and before reaching that of Mr. Webb, crosses the line dividing Saline and Lafayette. There is not in the mind of any human being enough of stoicism to repress the emotions that the scenery here creates. On the right hand, on the border of the prairie, is a grove of timber that crowns the river-bluff and stretches down through the bottom to the banks of the Missouri. Farms in the highest state' of cultivation are here spread out on the left hand; the prairie is extensive and gently undulated. It is in summer speckled with large herds of cattle, that crop the luxuriant grasses amid flowers of every colour and hue of the rainbow, which perfume the atmosphere, while they dazzle the eyes of the astonished stranger. It is impossible to dismiss the idea that these animals are trespassers on an artificial parterre, cultivated and carefully dressed by Eden's chief gardener. The Salt fork of Lamine heads above and runs through this part of Lafayette county; and the springs of fresh water afford large supplies on almost every tract of land suitable for farming. This beautiful country continues without change to the border of Terre Beau (beautiful land) grove, through which the main road passes. The new town of Dover, in the grove, is flourishing. Lexington, where the

land-office is located, is situated a little farther on the main road to Independence and to Fort Leavenworth, beyond the boundary of the state. The Terre Beau grove long ago attracted the notice of land-hunters in Missouri; and it is now filled with farms. There is in this grove a grist-mill, driven by water-power, in the immediate vicinity of the fountain whence it springs. There is also a grist and a saw mill on the Terre Beau Creek, a large stream that discharges its water into the Missouri within the county. At Lexington, the road to Liberty, through Ray county, branches and crosses the Missouri at Jack's ferry.

LEXINGTON is the seat of justice for Lafayette county, and a healthy, flourishing town. The location of the land-office at this place adds to the natural advantages of Lexington. These advantages consist in great salubrity of air, its vicinity to the richest lands of Missouri, and its elevated position. There is also a good landing opposite the town, and one lower down the river, at Webb's warehouse. As a grain and stock country, Lafayette is not inferior to any of the counties of Missouri. It may be here remarked, that in all parts of the state, as well, perhaps, in the southern sections as in the north, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, and all the garden vegetables are produced with only ordinary attention to the culture of the several varieties. The fruits of Missouri consist of apples, pears, peaches, and a variety of plums. There are found in the brush and copsewood, on the skirts of the prairies, in this and the neighbouring counties, a vast quantity of summer grapes, that are much esteemed by all who have tasted them. These clustering delicacies have been successfully pressed to fill the wine-cup, inspire the poet, and cheer the wedding-feast. The native grape of Missouri, the heath and golden peach, and a great variety of apples, may be esteemed luxuries unsurpassed by all the fruits of the tropical regions. The crab-apple and wild gooseberry are valuable productions, and, when preserved, are among the luxuries of the table. Lexington is one of the towns from which outfits are made in merchandise, mules, oxen, and wagons for the Santa Fé or New Mexican trade. The fur-traders who pass to the mountains by land make this town a place

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