Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-12-18
ELLSWORTH, KANSAS,

Dec. 5th, 1873.
: MEssRs. EDITORS: / was requested
by many of my friends of Holmes coun-
ty, that after l had been in Kansas a
year or so, to write and give them my
opinion of the State of Kansas; so
thought the cheapest and most conve,
nient way would be to write to you: as
the most of them are readers of the
REPUBLICAN. We will be thankful for
the publication of it, if you can fad
space in your paper.
1 will commence by giving a brief
history of our own experience. We
left Holmes county one year ago last
April. Five of us came with team in
seven weeks. Had a very pleasant time
and only cost US SCI. Landed here in
first of June, and soon found place to
suit me. / have 1G0 acres of nice land
with everlasting water on it and all
tillable, and | think as good soil as
there is in the United States. We broke
some last year. land some this spring, in
all, twenty acres--farmed it this year,
and had n good crop. | planted 100
walnut, 400 box-elders, 30 cotton
woods and some elm and ash and null
berry, Is apple trees, so peach trees
and some grapes. All that planted
grew, but ) or 6 plants. We have had
better health since we came than we ever
had, and the people here are very heal
thy generally speaking. 1t is'my opin-
ion that it is much healthier here than
in Ohio We all like this State the best
of any place We ever lived. All that
worries us is that we labored so long i'm
proving other peoples land instead of
coming and improving farm for onr-
selves. l would strongly advise all
men that have no home that hey can
call their own to come here. There are
thousands upon thousands of farms
here ready for your plow and as nice
and as good as ever you saw. Just think
of it. There are men among you that
are buying several pieces of land and
laboring hard to make payments when
one hundred dollars would bring them
here and give them the ownership of
nicer farm than you can find in
Holmes Co., and on that farm you can
raise more grain with half the labor it
takes here. Spring wheat here went
above 20 bushels to the acre. Some
fields went 80. Oats 50; corn was as
good as l have ever seen it. l don't
know the average yield. One Mr.. Mill
er raised on one acre cabbage that
brought him three hundred dollars. Now
| would say here do not do as l did. /
kept counting the cost and putting it off
year after year thinking to have more
money. Now 1 find that we don't need
money here as bad as there. Money
would be very handy to have but if you
have only enough to bring you here,
and team, you are all right. One Mr..
Hudson came here six years ago with
out one dollar. Now he has over 100 |
head of cattle and quite number of
horses, and is living as Independent as
any farmer in Ohio. In fact there are
very few men here that had much money
when they came, and all that are indus
trious have good farms and plenty of
stock about them.
If you wish to go into stock raising
this State is much better than Ohio.
You can raise here with less expense
than in Ohio. There were thousands
of cattle and horses lived here all last
winter, and did not have shelter or feed,
only what they gathered on the plains
and came through as well as you gen.
orally see them in Ohio. By midsum-
mer the cattle were ready to ship. The
people here say that last win ter and
winter year were the hardest winters
they have had since they came and it
was the pleasantest winter that ever
saw.
Up to this time this winter we have
had no snow, pleasant weather most all
the time. l would advise all men that
have families to bring them here where
they can take farm and grow up with
the country. And you that have girls
fetch them here and bring all the girls
you can with you, and We can find them
good homes and husbands. Girls and
Democrats are the scarcest article we
have. The former we want, the latter
we do not want. There is plenty of
work here for men and women. A man
can have one dollar per day or S25 per
month. A good girl can have So per
week or have good husband, which
ever She chooses. L will close for this
time, and if you publish this 1 will
write again and give you some hints Oh
other matters. Yours,
WIUTran