HISTORICAL, DESCRIPTIVE, COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL BY GERTRUDE VAN DUYN SOUTHWORTH AUTHOR OF “BUILDERS OF OUR COUNTRY,” BOOKS I AND II, “THE STORY OF THE EMPIRE STATE,” AND “A FIRST BOOK IN AMERICAN HISTORY” AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT KRAMER ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, WASHINGTON, D.C. IROQUOIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc. SYRACUSE, NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GERTRUDE VAN DUYN SOUTHWORTH AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT KRAMER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 316.3...

Just as the history of a country is largely the history of its great men, so the geography of a country is largely the story of its great cities. How much more easily history is grasped and remembered when grouped around attractive biographies. With great cities as the centers of geography-study, what is generally considered a dry, matter-of-fact subject can be made to attract, to inspire, and to fix the things which should be remembered. This book, “Great Cities of the United States,” includes

INDIANS VISITING THE HALF MOON “Drop anchor!” rang out the command as the little Dutch vessel furled her sails. On every side were the shining waters of a widespread bay, while just ahead stretched the forest-covered shores of an island. All on board were filled with excitement, wondering what lay beyond. “Have we at last really found a waterway across this new land of America?” they asked. There was only one way to know—to go and see. So on once more, past the island, glided the Half Moon . Fro

“Chicago is wiped out.” “Chicago cannot rise again.” So said the newspapers all over the country, in October, 1871. And well they might think so, for the great fire of Chicago—one of the worst in the world's history—had laid low the city. The summer had been unusually dry. For months almost no rain had fallen. The ground was hot and parched, the whole city dry as kindling wood. Then about nine o'clock on a windy Sunday night, the fire broke out in a poor section of the West Side. It seemed as if

In early days, when there was no United States and our big America was a vast wilderness inhabited mostly by Indians, people who came here were thought very adventuresome and brave. At that time there lived in England a distinguished admiral who was a great friend of the royal family. The king owed him about $64,000, and at his death this claim was inherited by his son, William Penn. Now William Penn was an ardent Quaker, and because of the persecution of the Quakers in England he decided to fou

Soon after Thomas Jefferson became president of the United States, he bought from France the land known as Louisiana for $15,000,000. This sum seemed a great deal of money for a young nation to pay out, but the Louisiana Purchase covered nearly 900,000 square miles and extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. So when one stops to think that the United States secured the absolute control of the Mississippi and more than doubled its former a

Let us take a trip to New England and visit Boston. Boston is New England's chief city in size, in population, in historic interest, and in importance. It is the capital of Massachusetts and the fifth city in size in the United States. If we were going to visit some far-away cousins whom we had never seen, we should surely want to know something about their age, their appearance, and their habits. Would it not be just as interesting to find out these things about the city we are to see on our jo

In the days that followed the Revolution, Connecticut claimed certain lands south of Lake Erie. A large part of these she sold to the Connecticut Land Company, who wanted to colonize the country and establish New Connecticut. It was in 1796 that the Connecticut Land Company sent General Moses Cleaveland west, to survey the land and choose a site for a settlement. After surveying about sixty miles, Cleaveland fixed on a plateau just south of Lake Erie, where the Cuyahoga River runs into the lake.

Near the head of Chesapeake Bay stands Baltimore, the largest of our Southern cities and the seventh city in size in the United States. Because of her importance as a Southern railroad center and her excellent harbor on the largest bay of the Atlantic coast, Baltimore is called “The Gateway to the South.” Great ships from all parts of the world unload their cargoes at her docks and take in return products from nearly every section of the United States. The railroads bring to Baltimore vast quant

Pittsburgh and New Orleans—both of vast commercial importance—are connected by one of the greatest water highways in the world. Never were two cities more unlike. New Orleans, near the mouth of the Mississippi, with its French and its Southern population, might be termed the Paris of our country—this gay, fashionable town, with its fine opera houses, its noted restaurants, and its brilliant Mardi Gras pageants. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, at the head of the Ohio River, in the heart of a famou

In population, Detroit is the ninth city of the United States. In the value of its manufactured products, it is fifth. In the value of its exports, it is the leading port on the Canadian border. With these facts in mind it will be interesting to learn something of the history of Detroit; something of the goods it manufactures and the reasons for its growth and prosperity. During the years when the French governed Canada, manufacturing and agriculture played a very small part in their affairs. Th

About 1783 Cornelius Winne, a trader, built a little log store at the mouth of Buffalo River, which empties into Lake Erie. That was the beginning of Buffalo, the queen city of the lakes, the home to-day of more than four hundred thousand people. To understand the wonderful growth of this city we must go back to the days of the Revolution and see New York in those early times. Almost all the people of the United States then lived on the narrow strip of land lying between the Atlantic Ocean and t

The United States extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and just as New York is our leading seaport on the Atlantic, so San Francisco is the leading seaport on the Pacific. San Francisco's history is inseparably connected with the development of the resources of California. In 1769 Spain sent an expedition overland from Mexico to colonize the Pacific coast, and Don Gaspar de Portolá, at the head of these colonists, was the first white man known to have looked upon San Francisco Bay. Seven ye

The story of New Orleans, the Crescent City, reads like a wonderful romance or a tale from the Arabian Nights. As in a moving picture, one can see men making a clearing along the east bank of the Mississippi River, one hundred and ten miles from its mouth. It is 1718. The French Canadian Bienville has been made governor of the great tract of land called Louisiana, and he has decided to found a settlement near the river's mouth. At the end of three years the little French town, named for the duke

THE CAPITAL CITY Washington, the capital city of our nation, is the center of interest for the whole country. Every citizen of the United States thinks of the city of Washington as a place in which he has a personal pride. Here one may see in operation the work of governing a great nation. The representatives whom the people have chosen meet in the splendid Capitol to make laws for the whole country. The home of the president is here, and here are located the headquarters of the great department