Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/132



122 S. H. TAYLOR

I know not whether there is a frame building in the city. Their stores and offices are all in little log buildings, that would be a disgrace to almost any Wisconsin farm, and would not be allowed to stand a week in any Wisconsin village. I have not seen a school house, nor a church, in the town, nor indeed have I in any other Mormon settlement. There is not in the city, a trace of taste, pride, enterprise or public spirit. Wherever the Mormons have established themselves in this country, you can see the clearest evidences that society is sinking rapidly downward.

The whole country from Lyons, on the Mississippi, to this city, is under the dominion of the Mormons and Hoosiers, and its condition is what would probably be expected by one acquainted with those settlers. You would hardly believe what I should tell you of it. A man accustomed to the state of things among the Yankees, would be unprepared to credit a true statement of the condition of things.

We have traveled 337 miles, across the state, through its capital and in its greatest thoroughfares, and we have not crossed a stream 60 feet wide or over, without paying toll; have not seen a stage coach nor any other public conveyance, nor a public house out of a village, nor indeed a village as large as Watertown. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the country, showing enterprise. Even at Iowa City, the capital, a village of 1200 inhabitants, where the Iowa is I should think not more than 15 rods wide at high water, they have a toll bridge and the people pay annually in toll one- fourth enough to build a fine bridge. A settlement of Yankees nine miles from the city, offered to give $3,000 if the city would give $1,500 to construct a free bridge, and it could not be raised. The city has nothing Yankee in its appearance neither gardens, orchards, nor many of what you would call even second rate houses. The capitol is a building little su- perior to the Jefferson 2 jail, and the public grounds around it are a mere common for the herding of cows and the storage of lumber.

2 Watertown, Wis., is located in Jefferson county.