HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 525 part of the county is crossed by the St. Louis Southwestern sj^steni. The principal town is Silceston, on the 'Frisco and tlie Iron Mountain. It is one of the fastest growing towns in this part of the state, and now has a population of about 3,500. It is a center of unusually fine farm- ing country, and one of the principal indus- tries of the town is the manufacture of flour. There are two large flouring mills, and a high grade of flour is produced. Besides its flour- ing mills there are some woodworking plants which are using up the timber in the vicinity. Benton, one of the oldest towns in the county, is the county seat, situated about one-half mile from the St. Louis & Gulf. Commerce, on the Mississippi river, has a population of about 700, and is a freight shipping point, and has a flour mill and cooper plant. Oran, which is a railroad junction, is also an im- portant shipping point, especially for melons and wheat. Jlorley is the third town in size, having a population of 600; it is also a rail- road junction, and is the center of the canta- loupe country of the county. Besides these, there are some smaller towns, Diehlstadt, New Hamburg. Vanduser, Gray's Point and Kelso. The population of the coiuity is 22,372 and its total taxable wealth is $5,773,958. There is a good system of public schools, there be- ing 54 school districts, employing 103 teach- ers. A large part of the population of the coimty is American, though there are some settlements of Germans made before the M^ar. Stoddard coimty is one of the largest coun- ties in the state, having 840 square miles, or more than half a million acres. The middle part of the county, north to south, is hilly, being a part of Crowley's ridge, which swings in a broad curve from near Bell City through Ai-kansas to Helena. On the east edge of this ridge in Stoddard county the average height is about 100 feet, and the Cotton Belt railroad follows this ridge on the east side for a long distance. On the west the ridge .slopes gradually to the level of the Black river and St. Francois bottoms. The ridge land is about one-half of the area of the county. Its soil is yellow-red clay, mixed with sand, and it is underlaid with a gravelly clay. About fifteen per cent of this ridge land is still timbered, the greater part of it being in cultivation. East of the ridge is the lowland of Little river bottom, of which the very much greater part is not yet improved. Stoddard county is developing its swamp land very rapidly by a system of drainage. The soil thus reclaimed is alluvial soil of a high degree of fertility. West of Crowley's ridge is the swamp of Black river and St. Francois, which resembles in general char- acteristics that of Little river. The principal productions of the coimty are farm products, corn and wheat being the most important, and timber. At one time the timber interests were very extensive, and large quantities of staves and heading, as well as lumber, were manufactured at Bloom- field, Dexter and other points. Of late years, however, the timber is well cut out, except in the swamps. Even here, the best timber has been cut. About one-half of the area of the county is still timbered. Besides the staple crops mentioned, cotton is grown in the south part of the county, and is ginned at two or three points. Flour is manufac- tured, especially at Dexter and Bloomfield. A good grade of pottery clay is found near Bloomfield and there is an establishment for making pottery there. The manufactured
