The Dickinson press., 1885-02-07
BEYOND THE MISSOURI.
A Visit to the New Settlements in
Western Dakota.
R1cHARDToN, STARK COUNTY.

WVsNCAu DNhOlNs
RICHARDTON, STARK COUNTY.
Richardton might be called an as
sisted colony. The enterprising New
York managers of the HAMBURG
American Steamship Company. c. b.
Richards 4 Co.. planted it two years
ago and sent out the first settlers.
They were ambitious to found a sue.
cessful German colony that should
prove a nucleus to attract industrious
emigrants from the country with
which their business as ocean car
riers chiefly lay. So with great lib
erality they built a little town first
and then invited their fellow country.
men to come and occupy it and also
fill up the fine agricultural lands in
the vicinity. Mindful of the needs
of a new settlement, they erected a
school house, church us we'll as a
hotel, a number of stores and several
neat cottages. All the buildings
were bought ready-made, shipped out
in sections and set up Oh the town
site, so that the colonists found COM
Portable quarters ready for them
when they arrived. The ready-made
buildings, although much more at
tractive in appearance than the struc-
lures usually seen in new settlements.
did not prove satisfactory from an
economical point of view. The walls,
composed of two thilinesses of pine.
not OF the best quality, failed to keep
out the winter winds, and it was nee
essary to add third thickness.
which with the carpenters bills for
putting the buildings together. made
them more expensive than if they
had been constructed in the usual
way from lumber shipped out in car
load lots. The buildings are of uni
form green color and of pleasing
forms, and they make a very pretty
appearance on the prairie.
To some extent the emigrants from
Germany were assisted by loans from
the firm to make a start i'm their new
homes. This system has not, | hear.
worked satisfactorily. The settlers
were too much disposed to regard the
company as a good Providence OH
which they could always fall back in
case of need. Then the change of
conditions from the old communities
Of Germany to the open prairies of
the Dakota frontier was too abrupt
for many of the emigrants to take
root at once and thrive. The most
successful German settler in new
countries is not the man who has just
come from the old world but one who
has already become somewhat Ameri-
canized. However. the original colo
nists are getting on much better than
| expected to find, from reports had
heard before coming here. They
were fortunate in being joined by a
number of American settlers and IL
few German Americans. and lately
10y dozen families of Scandinavians,
so that now the community exhibits
that mixture of elements which is
the best condition of Western prog
ress. Settlements composed of one
nationality of immigrants only are
rarely as prosperous as those made up
of several, because they apt to run in
the old ruts they were accustomed to
in the old country. In a mixed COM
munity each clement contributes
some knowledge and experience of
value to the whole body of settlers
There are now eighty-eight voters
in the Richardton settlement. occu-
pying a territory of about ten miles
long by five broad. They probably
represent three hundred and fifty
souls. Ten times as many could find
homes and make good farms for
themselves on land within ten miles
of the village. "If we could only get
more settlers here" is almost the
first remark people make to me. All
speak we'll of the country as a gener-
al farming region. 1t is particularly
adapted, they say, for settlement by
men of small means who do most of
their own farm work. raise small
acreages of Indian corn and the small
grains and keep a few cattle, hogs
and sheep. The face of the country
presedts succession of small prHires
broken every few miles by ranges of
lows hills, and it is all covered with
a luxuriant growth of native grasses.
kind of blue grass predominating.
with a mixture Of bunch grass and
buffalo grass. In the breaks of the
hills considerable burr oak timber is
found. which is very valuable to the
farmers for building Straw.roOfed