Page:Historic towns of the southern states (1900).djvu/431

 it may be called a pleasant, flourishing town." In another issue he adds: "Its present population is about six hundred."

There was a healthy demand for houses, as is shown by the advertisements in the news-*paper. One man offers a gun and a rifle in exchange for planks and shingles, and another a saddle-horse for bricks and mortar. A wholesome respect, at least, was shown for learning in the prompt establishment of schools, and in the advertised arrival of such sturdy books as Murray's Grammar, Webster's Speller, Watts's Psalms and Hymns, and (for lighter use) song and dream books. Town and country struggle amusingly in the ordinance that imposed a tax of fifty cents for every dog a family kept—''more than one''.

The Court-House stood in the centre of what is at present Court Square, and from it the houses extended mainly in two lines, one up what is now Dexter Avenue, toward Goat Hill, the other down Commerce Street toward the river. Perhaps a trace of the New England "Meeting-house" is to be found in the multifarious uses to which this building was put. Here law courts met with suggestive frequency during the week, and the congregation