COUNTY RErORTS. 279 



The public schools and school-houses and public school money are all 

 in good condition. Our schools are conducted by teachers of a high 

 class of scholarship and learning. 



At the late election here in Caldwell county, all the county officers 

 elected were Republicans. There are very few, if any, saloons in the 

 county. There are many churches in the county of the different 

 religious denominations, viz. Methodists of the Northern and Southern 

 churches, Baptist, United Brethren and Christians ; all these churches 

 have good meeting-houses. Let us hope that our officers in high places 

 may be men of peace, and we hope that every citizen of our common 

 country may be inclined to strictly obey the laws thereof and do all 

 they can to help develop the great resources of our common country, 

 and all will be well with us as a people whose lots have been cast to 

 live in the greatest and best country on the face of the earth. 



Yours truly, 



William McCray. 



CHAEITON COUNTY 



Was originally a part of Howard county, one of the earliest settled 

 in North Missouri, and in the early settlement of the State was not 

 regarded as particularly healthy, owing to the wet bottom lands on the 

 rivers ; but for many years these low lands ha^e been drained and be- 

 come the fairest, healthiest, and most fertile parts of the State. It is 

 blessed with abundant rivers and is the Mesopotamia of Missouri coun- 

 ties. Three branches of the Chariton river known as the Mussel fork, 

 the Grand, Chariton and the East fork, find their way into the Missouri 

 just above Glasgow, near where Louis and Clark in 1804 describe them 

 as emptying into that stream by two mouths. Grand river, which is 

 navigable for small steamboats, is the boundary between this and Carroll 

 county. The Missouri river is the boundary between Chariton and 

 Saline. 



These streams in early times would occasionally overtiow ; they 

 still have that habit at rare intervals, but the years in which they do 

 not overflow are very fruitful. 



The face of the country is varied like its products. The valleys along 

 the rivers and streams having their source in the broken uplands, are 

 beautifully wooded and yield abundance of good timber. Hickory and 

 the various oaks, cottonwood and maple, with elm and pecan and wal- 

 nut, constitute the principal growth. The ridges between the streams 



