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Newspaper
The Abilene Reflector
Location
Abilene, Kansas, United States of America
Date
Apr 21, 1887
Page
2
A lyrical reflection praising Kansas abundance. The poem extols corn, wheat, onions, potatoes, cabbage, beets, tomatoes, peas, beans, parsnips, pumpkins, melons, grapes, apples, and pears. It emphasizes vast harvests and rich produce across the land, celebrating agricultural plenty.
The Great American Correspondent reviews Kansas progress from the governor's new report. It notes Kansas rising from its Bleeding Kansas nickname to a steady growth, with a population exceeding 1,500,000 as the census is annually updated, and compares this with other states.
A vigorous portrait extols Kansas as a thriving, rainfed farming paradise. It highlights its fertile soils, rivers, coal and minerals, robust schools, and free education. The piece crowds in numeric growth, population comparisons, and a Republican temperance note tied to moral leadership and state progress.
Railroads record a nationwide surge in 1886 with 8 003 miles built across 40 states and territories. Kansas led all states, completing 1 520 miles, more than the combined totals of two states and three times Missouri’s output, signaling an era of rapid rail construction.
Abilene's first school began as a subscription effort by Miss Carr in 1862 in a log building. By 1875 the town boasted multiple brick schools, expanding from a log cabin era to four and six room facilities, with wards and new teachers, marking rapid growth.
In a keynote response to the Kansas excursion toast, F. D. Coburn extols Kansas as a vast, cultivated region once deemed a desert. He cites farmland, fences, school growth, orchard expansion, and livestock wealth, noting railroads, stock yards, coal beds, and vast agricultural abundance across the 52,000,000 acres, with enduring optimism for the state’s future.
An Illinois man writes to his home paper praising Kansas. He cites rich soil, pure atmosphere, dry air, winds from Colorado, absence of swamps and miasmas, no aches, brisk blood flow, strong appetite, and quick mornings as reasons he likes Kansas.
Kansas hosts 2,671 church groups and 1,690 edifices with about 200,000 members. Protestant and Catholic totals are 135,000 and 65,000, respectively, with other denominations reporting communicants only. Church property valued at 4,750,000 dollars. The Kansas farmer is praised for turning rich soil into millions of bushels of grain feeding the world.
A travel sketch praises Kansas as a fertile, enterprising commonwealth with strong schools and normal institutions. It notes wheat and corn riches, large cattle herds, and robust rail commerce reaching Kansas City, highlighting land prices from five to seventy five dollars per acre and a future boom as railroads arrive.
Description of Dr L M Raub's elegant suburban residence on Buckeye Avenue with thirty acres of lawn trees fruit and out-buildings. Notes on sale price and praise from Milt Reynolds Kansas editors and optimistic forecasts for Kansas growth education railroads and real estate gains with population expected to reach three million and property values rising.
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