Concluding
The condition of Osceola County in this year of our
Lord, 1892, is one of general prosperity. Pauperism does not
exist, and opportunities for labor, for securing homes, and for
establishing business are on every hand. There has been an
abundant harvest, and each year is an advancement in farming
interests and in all classes of business.
The last assessed valuation of the county was $1,726,582. The
indebtedness of the county has been, at it highest, about
$90,000. Its present indebtedness is $60, 500. The amount of
school money now loaned out, and under contract for loan by the
county on farm land, is $96,500.75. The amount paid out for
school purposes in 1891 was $29,040. This came from taxation
except $611, which was derived from the permanent school fund
interest. The running expenses of the county in 1891 required
$18, 568. The income to the county from taxation for 1891 was
$61,375.
The county has a substantial court house and every school
district has the required buildings for school purposes.
The people are thrifty, intelligent and law-abiding, and as a
class are comparable with those of any county in the state.
The County has changed in its inhabitants since the first
settlement, some coming and going, some remaining yet, and others
with the fate that must follow all of us, are lying in the
cemetery. Western people are given to changing their business
locations more than are the people of the East; here, if
anywhere, is the spirit of unrest, implanted seemingly in our
very nature on the first move, and with many it becomes a fixed
feeling and irresistible. Osceola County has had its share of
this tidal change, this flowing in and out of population, and of
the original settlers, those who came here in 1871,'72 and '73,
there are not a great many left.
We close this book with a poem that has fallen under our
observation without knowing to whom credit is due.
COMING TO OSCEOLA COUNTY
They are coming from the deserts of the dim and dusky East,
Where to raise a stunted turnip is the prospect of a feast;
Where the farms are made of gravel and they plow with dynamite,
Where the festive chattel mortgage sings its dirges day and night;
They are coming in their wagons, they are coming on the train,
They are coming from the regions where they struggled long in vain;
They are coming from the cabin, they are coming from the hall,
They are coming to Osceola County where there's plenty for them all.
They are coming from the South-land, they are coming from the North
From the valleys and the mountains they in droves are coming forth;
They are coming with their husbands, they are coming with their wives,
They are coming with their hammers, with their axes and their knives;
With their harrows, with their rakes, with their seeders and their guns,
They are coming with their fathers and their mothers and their sons;
They are coming stout and slender, they are coming short and tall,
They are coming to Osceola County, where there's plenty for them all.
Where the savage used to wander searching for a crop of hair,
The farmer takes his porker to the nearest county fair;
And the corn is daily growing where the grassy wigwams stood,
Where he burned the walling captive, now the poultry scratch for food;
And the people who are coming to this pleasantest of climes,
Show a happy knack of keeping with the progress of the times;
They will find a country beaming from the spring-time to the fall,
If they land here in Osceola County, where there's plenty for them all.