For the Observer.

Messrs. Editors: Having a few leisure moments, I have resolved to give you a brief description of this town, 
the county-seat of Richmond County, as I have thought it might probably be acceptable to your readers. It is 
pleasantly situated between two creeks, on a bluff which gives a delightful view of the place. It is not a 
large town, (as you are aware,) but is what you might call a pretty snug little place.

There are several stores and mechanical manufactories in the town, two public houses, and one Church only.

In the centre of the town stands the large and beautiful "Sons of Temperance Hall." It is a two-story wooden 
building, beautifully painted, and is in every way a handsome building. Its meetings are attended by a large 
body of members, reflecting much credit on them as a people.

The public buildings (Court House and Jail) are of brick, nearly complete, and exhibit in a very forcible manner 
the taste and spirit of the people as a county.

The population of the place numbers about five hundred, with an increasing tendency. But when the Wilmington, 
Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad shall have been completed, the town will doubtless increase much faster in 
wealth and population than it does at present. I understand that several gentlemen, who have taken contracts 
near the town for the grading of the road, are busily engaged at work upon them, with full assurance of the 
road's completion at an early day.

About four or five hundred yards from the town stand the large Cotton Factory located at the foot of the falls 
in Falling Creek. It is a large four-story building, of brick, and is considered about as fine a factory as is 
to be seen in North Carolina.

The machinery of the Factory is turned by a large overshot wheel, about twenty-two feet in diameter and eight 
feet in width. Water, by which the machinery is turned, is let on to this wheel by means of a race or gutter 
connected with the falls. They are about twenty feet in height. 
					Yours, very respectfully, W.R.T. (perhaps this is William R. Terry)

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