138 



^[}c Xavmcv's iHoiitl)lij bisitor. 



known than we had known. Tlio failed calf was 

 not then there to he killed ; hut the nearest 

 cousindaujihter with her husband (a very intelli- 

 gent, res(.ectul)le and pious !,'entlenian, by the 

 name of HIcIMastei,) was instantly sent for, at 

 wiiose arrival the well iMJ|irinled family resein- 

 hlance at once was recognized. Iff this sinjile 

 branch there was a " wheel within a wheel,," 

 >;rown-n|) daughters, young ladies down to chil- 

 dren, hiiIi a son of twenty-one years helping the 

 father in the work of an easy (aim, came along, 

 witii the new acquaintance. To be short, there 

 were four daughters of this uncle who had been 

 all married, and liarl families : two of these hud 

 died, leaving children whose husbands were able 

 /or their support and education. The only son, 

 six years younger than either daughter, had gone 

 back and settled in Massachusetts. From a re- 

 ception so cordial, we felt bomid and obliged to 

 extend the call of an hour to a visit of the new 

 generation, enjbracinga part of three days. The 

 resitlence of the eldest of the living daughters 

 near to the line of Georgia, brought us to the 

 Bight of Grand Isle and tlie lake. Greatly tempt- 

 ed were we to extend our journey thither, for 

 the sake of seeing farms of garden fertility, which 

 to this distance had been often verb.ally repoit- 

 ed. We were unable to leave one of cur new 

 acquaintance and relations without an escort. 

 From the family of one we posted round about 

 through the town of Fletcher to the house of the 

 husband of another deceased, and from thence 

 hack to the town of Cambridge, now presented 

 under an entirely new aspect, ajqiroacbing on the 

 south p:utof the town, almost to the foot of the 

 Mansfield mountain. Here two brothers, young 

 luen by the names of Hiram B. and Porter F 

 Dickerson, mainly from their own earnings, liave 

 become owners of adjacent farms in |)artnership. 

 One of them niairi>;d the y.iuiigest daughter of 

 the UHclo John Russell : this lady, active and ac 

 coniplished, in all the spirit of the grandmother 

 of the Kussell fanjily, conducts the grand busi 

 ness of a dairy of forty-two cows, making two 

 large cheeses of a day in summer. One hundred 

 and thirly-two cheeses in the dairy house, weigh- 

 ing h'oin forty to one hundred pounds each, all 

 of the present summer's product, all made ol 

 iVesli new milk, wore counted upon the shelves I 

 Was not this finding a new cousin to some pur- 

 pose .' We never remember, not even among 

 our friends the Shakers, ever to have seen in one 

 body forty-two cows so uniforitdy handsome as 

 the Diokersons' upon the Candiridge highlands. 

 These cows were all driven in from a neru- iias- 

 ture to- he milked soon .-dicr day-break in the 

 inorniiig— then driven for the day to a pasture 

 more distant, from which they were rclnrned at 

 fii'c in the afternoon — again milked, and turned 

 afterwards where they could feed at night. The 

 calculation was, besides some butter (or family 

 use and sale, this dairy would produce this year 

 seven tons of the best cheese fijr market. 



The Pbairie Farmer, published at Chicago, 

 Illinoi.s, with n subscription list embracing three 

 thousand pages, is a paper after our own heart : 

 the iMlluence of such a monthly periodical must 

 be salutary in pievenliug the tillers of an exu- 

 berant soil from rmmini; out their lands by shal- 

 low cultivation. This paper, pj-inted on a single 

 sheet, is like the Southern Cultivator, double our 

 price. The editor, having mentioned the fact 

 that he had looked in vain for any of the tribe 

 during his residence there, corrects bis state- 

 ment, "there are no toads here," by announcing 

 the arrival at his office of a " true living and 

 kicking toad, neatly boxed and labelled," with 

 a note from its micertain donor, stating that the 

 aifimal was found within a nfde of Chicago. The 

 old fellow has been transferred to the editor's 

 garden, to take care and dispose of "flies, hugs, 

 and other creeping nuisances." 



One of the editors of the Boston Courier visit- 

 ing Chicago the present summer, " impressed 

 with the value of its increasing trade with Bos- 

 ton, anticipates that Chicago, at no very distant 

 day, will be one of the largest cities of the Union." 

 .' This (he says) is a great place for the pork trade, 

 in which article it is desiined to rival Cincin- 

 nati ; and its beef is said to be the finest in the 

 world. Our steamer is now taking on board, as 

 freight, two hundred casks — hogsheads of hams, 

 which are to go throtigh the Erie canal to Troy ; 

 and perhaps to IJoston. Hundreds of barrels of 

 beef and pork are also going on board, all bound 

 east. Even at this season of the year the store- 

 bouses are filled with i_)roduce : I this morning 

 went into one where there were stored 28,000 

 barrels of wheal." 



05^ When the completion of the Ogdensburg 

 railroad, contimfnig through Canada West by 

 lake Htnon, and shortening the distance several 

 hundreil miles from the Eiie route, shall bring 

 Boston nearer to Chicago than New-York now 

 is — then may be seen vast trains of cars with the 

 dead and living produce of the West, travelling 

 with almost lightning speed over double tracks 

 of railways through Vermont and New-Hamp- 

 shire. This may be set down as a certain an- 

 ticipation wiiliin the next ten years. Our own 

 harbor of Portsmouth, nearer to Europe than 

 Boston, with all the facililies of wharf-room and 

 an open road-stead in mid-winter, may be easily 

 and gmely made the great entrepot of commerce, 

 equal, according to its extent, with any port upon 

 the Atlantic seaboanl. 



Fall River, Massachusetts. 



The situation' of this enterprising villiiirr, now 

 grown into the si/,.- of a city, on the southern 

 bor<ler of Massachusetts, adjacent to Rhode- 

 Island, is truly unique. A never-niiling pond 

 supplies the water power, througb a stream 

 which gives the place- iis nauie, of the extent of 

 oidy two miles : in one half mile the lidl of this 

 stream is more than one hundred and thirty feet. 

 The area of the pond or ponds above, supplying 

 this stream, is from five to seven thousand acres. 

 For most of the distance the river runs over a 

 granite bed, enclosed by high granite banks. A 

 distinguishing feature of this stream is, that 

 while it furnishes n imifonn and almost constant 

 supply of water, it is never subject to excess: an 

 injury from a freshet was never known. The 

 full is occupied by lurge manuliicluriug establish- 

 ments, generally each occupying a separate dam; 

 and so rapiilly do they succeed fiicb other, that 

 there is scarcely leO helween the buildings room 

 suOicieiit fur liglil and air. Most of the wiiecls 



are placed directly in the bed of the river across 

 the stream, and yet there is no danger to be ap- 

 prehended. 



The population of Full River, in 1840, was 

 six thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight : in 

 the year 184G, the |>opulation is nearly doubleil. 

 This great increa-e has taken place notivith- 

 staiiding one of those untoward evants which 

 sometimes occur to mar, if not entirely to pros- 

 trate, places of the greatest enterprise and wealth 

 in a day, an hour. On Sumlay, July 2, 1813, the 

 village of Fall River was visiteil by one of llie 

 most destructive fires which has ever occurreil 

 in this country. It commenced in the afternoon, 

 just when the people hud assembled for wor- 

 ship: there had been no rain for several weeks, 

 and the wind blew a gale. For a time all hu- 

 man efforts to check its progress were complete- 

 ly bullied. Some two hundred bilihlings were 

 burned, and the loss of pro|)erty was more than 

 half a million of dollars. Not only has the burnt 

 district been built over since lliat lime, but its . 

 area has been much extended. 



All of this village on one side of the river 

 comes within the limils of the town of Tiverton 

 in the State of Rhode-Island : the population on 

 that side is about equal to the whole population 

 of the town in Massachusetts without the vil- 

 lage, making the village contain about the same 

 number as the town itself. This town was for- 

 merly a part of Freetown : it was set ofT about 

 forty years ago as a separate town corporation, 

 by the name of Troy — the name was altered^ to 

 Fall River some ten years ago. The harbor of 

 the town is at the mouth of the Taunton river, in 

 its widened part composing a part of the Narra- 

 ganset bay. It is seventeen miles south from 

 Tuunlon, fourteen west from New-Bedford, eigb- 

 tenn north-east from Providence ; by railroad it 

 is fifty-two miles south from Bostsn. 



Leaving Boston at five o'clock in the aflernoon 

 of a summer day, before sundown we had passed 

 over that part of the Old Colony of iMassacbii- 

 selts near the sen, between the capital and Rliodo- 

 Islund, and mide the cxcbunge from the wharf 

 at Fall River from the cars to the noble Bay State 

 steamer of seventeen limidred ton.'; burden, the 

 largest, most capacious, and most elegant speci- 

 men of a water palace wc had ever seen. — 

 Straight as an arrow, the wake of the noble ves- 

 sel might be seen on the back truck while cross- 

 ing the bay towards Rliode-Island, which ex- 

 londs ai the left on the way some dozen miles 

 near the southerly or ocean limit of wliieb is 

 situated the harbor and town of Newport, upon 

 a crescent just within the point of hind, the nar- 

 row channel of which wilhoul the town is pro- 

 tected by one of the strongest fortifications of 

 ihe United Slates, recently cojiipleted by the 

 government. Leaving the land of Mussachii- 

 setts, the town of Fall River gives the distant 

 view of a " city set upon a hill :" the spires of its 

 dozen churches, its elevateil brick steam towers, 

 its massive stone, brick and wood factory build- 

 ings, its cupucious wburf storage houses, siir- 

 mounti'd by beautiful painted dwelling-boii.ses 

 glistening in the disiunce, make ilio approach 

 from the wulcr one of the most beauiilid. The 

 harbor has a suflicient depth of water for ships 

 of the largest class ; and to its nianiifuctiiring 

 enterprise has been added that of several ships 

 cngagiMl in the whule lisbi?ry. Miuy vessels en- 

 gaged ill the coasting business — many to bring 

 lumber, iron and coal, and to carry nwny its 

 manufactures, are owned here. The Bay Stale 



