The
oldest building dates from 1807, and others, of brick and still in
excellent preservation, bear the dates of 1810 and 1811. All the
buildings are in good order; and this society is among the most
prosperous in the order. Its families own a magnificent estate of four
thousand five hundred acres lying in the famous Miami bottom, a soil
much of which is so fertile that after sixty years of cropping it will
still yield from sixty to seventy bushels of corn to the acre, and
without manuring. They have also some outlying farms. They have no debt,
and one of the families has a fund at interest.
They let much of their land to tenants, having not less than forty thus
settled and working the soil on shares. Besides this, the different
families employ about thirty hired laborers. Their industries are
broom-making, raising garden seeds and medicinal herbs, and preparing
medicinal extracts. They also make a syrup of sarsaparilla, and one or
two other patent medicines: they have a saw and a grist mill; the women
make small fancy articles and baskets. But their most profitable
business is the growth of fine stock--thoroughbred Durham cattle
chiefly. They have, of course, shops in which they make and mend what
they need for themselves--tailor's, shoemaker's, blacksmith's,
wagon-maker's, etc.
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