Harrison County, Missouri - Chapter 2: Natural Resources, 1921

NATURAL ADVANTAGES - VARIETY OF SEASONS - DIVERSIFIED FARMING - STOCK RAISING - GRAIN PRODUCTION - ORCHARDS - CROP ROTATION - MODERN METHODS AND CONVENIENCES - GEOLOGICAL - VARIETY OF STONESAND - CEMENT - CLAY - COAL - UNDERLYING STRATA - MINERAL WATER - HEILBRON SANATORIUM.

Natural Advantages - The Garden of Eden might have been located in Harrison County. There is nothing that will not gi-ow within its borders and its fertile soil, equable climate, and beautiful natural scenery make it one of the most desirable portions of the globe.

It furnishes a variety of seasons unequalled by any plot of earth of similar size. Weather here gives expression to a variety of moods which are as numerous as are the sand grains of the seashore. From the cold and snow and ice of winter it is but a short step to the hot, dry, torrid conditions oftimes experienced in August. Yet these extremes are rare indeed. Taking all in all, the climate of Harrison County is ideally adapted to the arousing in man of those desires for activity which makes the temperate zone the place of civilization's greatest progress.

Diversified farming is practiced extensively. No one crop is counted on in any season. All grains, fruits and vegetables adapted to temperate regions have a natural habitat here. It has outdone Kentucky in the production of prize blue grass ; Kansas in the acre yield of wheat ; Illinois in the production of prize corn, and Iowa in the production of choice hogs.

Resplendent in opportunity, Harrison County has a veritable storehouse of wealth in her soil, and in her people - the best on earth - you will find a hospitality, a sympathy, an interest, that makes for a cordial relationship which makes life worth living.

Harrison County is the home of many prosperous farmers and stockmen. The soil, climate, and topography are especially adapted to the production of grain, hay and stock in abundance.

Years ago when land was cheap and much uninclosed range pasture existed, stock raising was pursued to a greater extent than today. Many farmers were feeders and bunched together cattle in large bunches and stall feeding for the markets - these being what we now call "big cattle," three and one-half years old, the smaller farmer raising and selling to the feeders young stock and corn - another reason for feeding "big cattle." I have heard it urged that the cattle of that day and time would not "feed" until that age - also that a small farmer with only a few stall fed cattle could not ship alone and would be at the mercy of the buyers and shippers. At all events today the cattle are of a quality to feed at any age there is a market for young beef, and each farm.er is enabled to independently produce grain or stock or dairy product in accordance with his inclination and the nature and adaptability of his land.

The soil of the county is well adapted for raising corn, oats, wheat, timothy, clover, alfalfa, bluegrass and all kinds of vegetables and garden products of our altitude. Many farmers have excellent farm orchards, and there ai'e mercantile orchards in the county. The method of cultivation has been much improved of late years. Cleaner farming, rotation of crops, analysis of the soil to ascertain what crop suitable and last but not least the young men attending agricultural colleges and adapting their learning to and combining it with dad's experience is enabling the land to return a worth while yield. In addition the improved roads, the rural mail delivery, the automobile and the stately residences and the commodious bams give to the farmer and his family a home of comfort and convenience and the schools and churches conveniently near make community centers which invite the boy to stay on the farm.

The principal stone is of the limestone variety. Along Big Creek and Pole Cat Creek stone of excellent quality for building pui'poses is found in abundance. About 1888 a fine quality of stone Vv-as found in Bethany which was capable of receiving a beautiful polish, resembling marble. The county jail building was erected of stone procured from a quarry on Pole Cat Creek about two miles southeast of Bethany. This stone can be procured in any desired size in inexhaustible quantities. They are easily dressed and stand exposure. The stones of the jail wall were dressed to weigh from one to two tons. They have been standing in those walls since 1862. Sand of excellent quality for plastering and cement is found in abundance in numerous places in the county. Good water is found in all parts of the county, thirty feet being an average depth.

nanv was organized, shafts sunk and a plant well equipped was established [hat produced son.; 800 or 900 tons daily, but the plant has now been abandoned At Melbourne a small plant exists that turns out a good qua^ty ofcoal. Coal has also cropped out in Trail Creek Township, 'in 1885 enterprising citizens of Bethany and vicinity entered mto a contract with the Diamond Dnll Company of ^^-^0 to ^o- for coal^m the vicinity of the town. The drill company was to bo e 500 fee d^ep unless coal in satisfactory quantity was sooner discovered. The hole was o be thre inches in diameter and a core was to be taken out and preserved one and one-fourth inches in diameter. The boring was done m the bottom on th^ east bank of Big Creek about one mile west of Bethany. The Heilb^n Sanitarium now stands on the height about one-eighth o a mile east of the boring The following is a record of the borirg kept at that time .

From this it will be observed that in going to the depth of 654 feet only five small veins of coal were passed, the thickest being only fifteen

In the above boring for coal at Bethany at the depth of about 200 feet a vein of water was struck which has continued to flow ever since. Upon examination this water was found to contain some valuable mineral properties. A gas pipe was sunk through the loam and clay about forty-five feet to the point where rock was struck and in this manner an opening has been preserved, securing the continual flow of water. The flow of water has continued about the same as when first discovered, being about five gallons per minute. This boring was upon the land of Thomas Monson, Sr.

In November, 1891, a coi'poration was formed named the Bethany Improvement Company which bought the farm of Thomas Monson, of 369 acres, which included the land upon which the flowing well was sit- 'jated. The incorporators were Thomas Monson, Sr., David J. Heaston, Daniel S. Alvord, Michael McCollum, Veazey Price, Edgar N. Cuddy, Arthur D. Shipley, Victor Dunn, Robert H. Wren, A. F. Woodruff, George W. Barlow, A. H. Vandweit and George W. Wanamaker. Monson's Addition and Heilbron Addition were laid out as additions to the city of Bethany and surveyed in lots and blocks. A principal street lunning east and west through this property is known as Park Avenue, eighty feet wide, the east end being just north of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Company depot and at the west end stands the Heilbron Sanitarium, erected by this company in 1897.

The large and beautiful fair grounds of the North Missouri District Fair Association with its many and substantial buildings and stock barns lies along Park Avenue and was carved out of these two additions.

The Heilbron Sanatorium is a large, handsome, commodious and modern structure with steam heat, electric lights and a system of bath rooms, including Turkish baths. It is a three story building with basement story, fourteen feet wide porches and has many rooma for patients. The name "Heilbron" was adopted from its signification, meaning "heahng waters," and the sanatorium erected on the heights just east of the valley of the flowing well is built on the solid bed-rock. It is surrounded by undulating wooded hills looking down over the city of Bethany. The sanatorium is now and ever since its opening has been under the management of Dr. Jerome A. Kintner, the noted heydropathist, who also administers thermo-electric treatment.