The Portland daily press., 1869-06-01

Penobscot. ...SILAS @. HATCH.
Piscataquis .........A. G. LEBROKE.
Sagadahoc. Jos. M. HAYES.
Somerset ....JAMES BELL.
wasb9nstcn waiSG s. 1. K MidI.kEN Mill KEN
York..............J e. BUTLER.
Republican State Committee.
Letter from the Northwest.
ST.. PAUL, MINI, May, 25, 1869.
10 The Editor ofthe Press
A few weeks since / met with two men di-
rect from your State, one from Damariscotta
and the other from some town in Somerset
county, both of whom had made their first
entry into the Gopher State" within the
then last few days; and from the motives
which prompted them to leave the east and
come here was able to Judge something of
the extent to which portion of your people
are deluded in relation to the facilities for set
tlement, and the advantages after settlement,
of fpersons coming into this State. One of
them said, 81 have come to Minnesota to Sc
cure better school privileges than my chill
dren could enjoy in Maine" while the other
said he was tired of working at his trade of
blacksmith, and intended to farm it. Both
had brought their families, and were bound
out upon the frontier to take up each his
quarter section Zone hundred and sixty acres)
either as free homestead or at the govern
mert price of one dollar and quarter per
acre. They had no idea of paying for other
mems improvements, but proposed to 60
little beyond present settlements, and in
few years find themselves surrounded by set
tiers, and their farms worth large price
When learned to what locality they were
bound, and told them it was a perfectly naked,
treeless country, fifteen or twenty miles from
timber they were by no means disconcert-
ed, but said they "couldn't be put Off with
mere prairie farm; that they shosld select
lots half prairie and half timber, well watered
and pleasantly located, and then they had no
concern for the result.
Now nothing will more readily excite the
mirth of person conversant with the face of
this country than to hear newcomers talk
thus, or more clearly exhibit their total igno-
rance Of facts. The Irishman who on land
ing in America scorned to pick Up the little
sixpence in the street, because at his jour
neys end he would find the ground covered
with dollars, was not more ignorant of what
was before him than are the people who
break up their comfortable homes in the east
with such expectations as those revealed by
the two friends to whom have referred
While their impressions were strong and i'm
perious as though produced by holy writ. to
my mind they afforded only evidence of the
care with which they had read, and the avid
ity with which they had believed, the state
ments of some real estate circular, sent out
by interested parties, or of some pamphlet OF
newspaper article written for the special pur-
pose of reaching and influencing just such
minds as they had exhibited.
I subsequently saw and conversed with my
blacksmith friend, ,after he had visited the Gel
dorado" of his fancy, and he frankly confess
ed that he had been "humbugged," that the
region to which his attention had been turn
ed proved anything but inviting, and that.
concluding to stick awhile longer to his anvil
and leathern apron, he had made temporary
arrangements to that end some eighty miles
up the Mississippi above this point.
For the information of such persons as con-
template removal from Maine to Minnesota,
for farming purposes, win state, that no
good lands can be taken up as homesteads
without going to the utmost veige of settle
ment, and at distances by no means always
convenient to railroads already constructed
or even projected. The railroads are all sub
sidized by large land grants, lying along the
line of the track and extending each side
from six to ten miles, and if alternate sec
tions are not thus conveyed to the railroad
corporation, they are invariably held at high
prices, and such sections as well as other con-
tiguous lands are sure to be gobbled up by
spectators as soon as opportunity offers for
so doing. Where stations are to be built or
centres of business are likely to develop, the
corporation or its favorites who are in the
"ring," are sure to own about all the lands
likely to be affected in price by such fact.
If the settler does 60 to the verge of settle
ment, beyond all others, he may, it is true,
not only get his land for small price, but in
five or ten years find himself surrounded by
settlers, the lands all taken up and occupied,
but in nine cases out Of ten, perhaps nine
teen out of twenty, those lands will be taken
y foreigners, freshly arrived from the old
country-Norwegians Swedes, Germans, &C.,
who, however prosperous they may prove
as farmers, cannot speak his language nor
can he understand theirs, and will not be
likely to become sufficiently Americanized in
his lifetime to make his social surroundings
and relations with them pleasant. How well
contented family from Maine, especially
one accustomed to the advantages of society
and comfortably situated, would be when thus
isolated in the midst of foreigners, all speak
ing different tongue from their own, where
business signs would be in characters that
they could neither pronounce nor understand,
and whose newspapers they could not read,
Ileave for the intelligent and pleasantly stu
ated sons and daughters of Maine farmers to
judge.
would advise, in all cases, where families
from Maine, or other portions of New Eng
land, contemplate removal to the West for
ocItiSiueul on SUCH lduuS as can De ODtalneQ
either for free homesteads or at the govern
ment price of one dollar and quarter an
acre, to come in colonies, if possible of dozen
or more families,-the more the better for
those who come,--and take up lands in
compact body, so that each can have all the
rest for neighbors, and all surround them
selves with old friends, those who can under
stond their language, appreciate their situa-
ton and sympathize in their struggles and
deprivations, and thus they may bear one
another's burdens, which Heaven knows are
heavy enough in all new counties, Minnesota
not excepted.
OF one false impression it may be well to
disabuse their minds in the start, to witt
That lands half wooded and halt prairie are
to be picked up without difficulty. Such op-
portunities are like angels visits, and while
l would not deny that such lands may be
found, am safe in the assertion that it is
quite as common to find farms in Maine hay-