Vicksburg weekly herald., 1877-09-07

determined 10 give the country tAlr
trial anyhow, but I would have been
better off if | had come homo immedi'
ately. In few days the colony was
scattered ell over the county, every body |
looking out for himself and hunting
work and something 10 eat, Dan kel.
", here, and his wife aud three small
children, the youngest only eight
months old, myself, wife and two chill
dren, john Steel, William McCollom
and VIM. Tippen, all Twenty.seventh
Warders, started for Eagle Lake, town
OF about FIVE hundred inhabitants, In
Colorado county, about ten miles away.
Putting our families in boarding
house at twenty dollars q week, Kelly
and l went over to Gonzales county
to see Judge Ireland. We had q
letter of introduction 10 him,
and be told us he had been fighting
the railroad agents for swindling emil
grants, and advised Us, as the season
1 was so far advanced, 10 start in right
away and get q place and work 1t on
shares. We returned TO Eagle Lake,
and made arrangements with q Mr.
Benson, q large landowner, to take one
hundred acres Of land, he engaging 10
find all the implements and we to do
the work, and It being agreed that we
should divide the profits equally. He
furnished " one.story houses 10 live
10, pretty fair quarters, aud we rolled
up our sleeves and started In to work.
We plowed the one hundred acres and
planted fifty acres with corn and fifty
more with cotton. You must under
, stand that this was what is called the
: bottom, not railroad, lands running Up
from the Colorado river, and over
flowed once every seven years. In the
! old slavery days it was used to raist
! sugar cane. It is wonderfully rich anC
productive, and is now owned b!
! planters, who will not sell small tracts
preferring to work 1t on shares.
/ sIGHrSu FOE HOME.
at was February before we got fair
ly under way, and we worked harC
. every day from sunrise to sunset OF
the plantation, and then had to attent
to our little truck patches that supplies
= Us with vegetables. Beef was cheap
a only five cents q pound for sirloi
steaks-and st. Louis -four was wort
! Sll a barrel. We were getting alon
! pretty we'll, although, of course, "
a were living Off the money we brough
= with US until the first week in JUNE
+ Then was taken down with th
- = swamp fever, which laid me in bet
was out OF my head entirely. ha
to have the doctor, and that was o.
pensive. He charged two dollars
Is mile for day and four dollars a mil
q for night visits. He lived four milC
~ away, and his bill for three visits WI
" eighteen dollars. Ny wife and chi
j. dren were next attacked by the feve
st aud then Dan Kelly and his childrt
70 had to give up. The poor childr'
10 would lie around, and wouldn't a
0, swer you II you spoke to them all do
ga They were stupid, just as il they b
le taken opium. There were now on
lie three men left to work the plantatio
e and by the 4th OF July, suppose Il
'et day made US a little homesick, v
'te were all so thoroughly dlsheartene
er that we concluded to let the crops
te and come back home. Mr.. BensC
10 tried to get us to stay, but Kelly kne
IL that II his wife was taken down tn
es his little eight months old child mu
re die, and We made up our minds tn
home we must 60, crops or no croI
80 Kelly aud Steel started first, on Ju
IN IL, and came back by water. N
ct- wife aud l followed the next wee
70. She was 80 sick that l had to take
ut sleeping car right through. The othe
ey came back in a couple of weeks, o
nt- right glad, sir, were we all to be ba
ey In old Philadelphia.
sre "Yes, sir, l would have stayed
~ fall and tried Northwestern Tex
IN where they cay 1t Is healthy, but l
OF that we would all die before that til
iat and we would have made no mon
ne not more than 500 apiece in cash,
al, the years work out Of the plantatl'
no The landowners and store.keep
no swallow up all the profits.
~ "Many of the colonists came hoI
~ U before we did, and all that had NOR
~, ~ have come since. There were some
"a ~, sights out there. Mr.. Campbell brC
y; .n up his house aud went along. He l.
=, ~ his wife and two children by the few
-. ~ The wife was so sick that she could
;H an 90 to sec the children buried. Lei
he, buried his mother and one Of his cl
,.io u dren, and there may be more thai
ia didn't hear Of I don't believe q
'hS % Northern man can do the work in
s.S, part Of Texas we were in. They CT
! ~ stand It. Even the old inhabitants {
80 nlggers get the fever nearly ev
~ Spring and have the ague through
"a Fall. | didn't start away on Q picnic,G
'oro az would have stayed If had seen 4
- chance. find no fault with the p
;nS pie of Texas they are as good peo
~ ~ as ever l met. Nobody tried to get
ia best of Us In any way. They "
nSs U emigrants, but they are down on
oDS railroad agents; they say they
~ swindlers. Ny advice to everybOd.
~ shs to have nothing to do with coloni
,ar they are frauds. A man ought to
tsiv down and Gee for himself before
~ ~ takes hiO family. l am going to
.oSI home now. That trip cost nea
MIC $780,"