140 years ago

november 22, 1878

We thank Mr. Bennet Dobbs for a mess of parsnips, brought to us last Saturday, one of which measured two feet in length. Who can beat it?

Corn is not all gathered yet. The quantity or quality is not as good as last year.

The first story of the Court House repairs is nearly finished. When the repairs are completed, the old building will look as strange and as handsome as an editor in a new suit.

Esquire B. Reay’s farm, in Branch township, Marion county, is a fine place from which to “view the landscape o’er.” One can stand at Mr. Reay’s residence and with the naked eye, on a clear day, count the window-panes in the school building at Newton, thirteen miles distant. From the same place, the school building at Marion Centre can be clearly seen, a distance of twenty-two miles; and the wind-mill at Sedgwick could be plainly seen, when it was in operation, twenty-eight miles away—all with the naked eye. These sights, which can be optically demonstrated to the satisfaction of the incredulous, speak volumes as the atmospheric purity of our clime.

The enrollment of our city school numbers over two hundred.