The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-09-08
NEGRO COLONlSTS.
Eager For Grecncr Fields and Newer Pas
lures.
Especial Correspondence


= Especial Correspondence
PITTSBURG, Sept. Cit is Il common
belief that tho American negro is not
much Of a pioneer, and yet very
casual inquiry and. research will dis
close the fact that, when the conditions
of his being in the country prior to the
war of the rebellion are considered. he
is as eager i'll the race after "greener
fields and pastures new as are any of
his follows of whatever race or nation
atty
After the war large numbers of freed
men followed the Union soldiers to the
north and west, increasing the negro
population of those sections to marked
extent. In 1866 some $50 men, women
and children settled in Grant county,
Wis, building the town of Grant, not
far from Lancaster, the county seat. In
1877 colony of them from Tennessee
and Kentucky settled in Graham coun-
ty, Kan, and founded the town of Nico-
demus, located OH the south fork of the
Solomon river. The town of Morton
City, i'll Hodgman county, Kan, was
founded by another colony in 1879. A
colony of negro veterans purchased "a
large tract of land i'll 1882 III the Mouse
river valley, Dakota, and built the town
Of Arnold Butler is the name of n
town about 13 miles south of Chicago.
Ill Which there is a large cotton factory,
the whole plant owned and operated by
colored men, On the opening of the Sac
and Fox Indian reservation for public
settlement i'll 1890 fully 1, 500 of them
secured claims i'll that portion of the In
dian Territory, and the town of Lang
ston was the result. In 1892, when the
Cherokee strip was opened up, hun
drcds of them were among the claim
gettcrs, and the town of Liberty was
founded
Mono Of these efforts was mushroom
III its nature, and while their fame
has been and may continue to be of the
"mutc, inglorious' kind they serve rs
complete refutation of the charge that
the negro is not a pioneer The agita-
ton to settle i'll Africa has also borne
some fruit, and every little while small
companies of them leave the country for
the far distant shores of Liberia Re
pcatcd efforts have been made TO COLOMBO
large numbers of them in the Mexican
states Of Sonora and chihuahua and in
Brazil, South America, but without
success.
The latest move is an attempt to set
tie a model colorcd colony" in Para
disc valley, Maricopa county, y. T.,
about If miles north OF Phcnix, the
capital of the territory Only self sus-
tanning colorcd men are invited to be
como members. The plan is called the
"Douglassville Colony and Farm Viii
lage.' and it embraces 1850 acres of
land under the canal system of the
Pennsylvania Irrigation company, di-
vidcd i'll tracts of 20 acres each, with Il
village site of 40 acres located in the
center of the plan. Each colonist will
have Il residence lot in the village 30 by
200 feet, on which he is expected to
erect his residence, barns etc, thus
creating at the start Il community of
ESQ people, and no farm will be more
than one mile from town The high al
titudc healthful climate and fertile soil
of south central Arizona, coupled with
the fact that statehood is yet to come to
the territory, with all the opportunities
to engage i'll industrial, commercial and
political pursuits which new country
offers, are held ont as Inducements Tho
plan Is receiving the hearty commenda-
ton of tho leading men of the race who
hail it as practical solution of per-
picking race problem. j. L. b.
Photographs of Lip Speech.