The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-04-02
DUNKARDS IN EXODUS
TWENTY COLONIES GO FROM
TIE EAST TO THE WEST.
Members Are from Six Different states
and They Pass Through Chicago on
Their Way to Dakota Britain TO Ncc'
ognizc Cubans
Seek New Homes.

Twenty colonies of Dunkards from SIN
different States passed through thicago
on their way to new homes in Nor'h Ia,
ko.a. The colonists. numbered LOU ana
they expect to settle along the line OF ihe
Great Northern Railroad in North Ia
kota.
The Dunkards arrived over the Baiti-
more and Ohio, Wabash, Nickel 1Ia'e'
Panhandle and Monon roads. 1hey
are from c~olonies in half a hundred towns
in Virginia. West Virginia, pennsylvania
Ohio. Indiana and Illinois. The special
trains were slow in arriving. AS last as
sufficient ears were on hand a new Tram
was made up in the Wisconsin Central
wards and started for the Northwest. In
order to carry all the emigrants Tour
trains were necessary. Tie composition
of these trains was twenty passenger
coaches and 102 freight cars.
In the freight cars were families hlo'-
ing their household goods. farm imple-
mcnts and live stock. In the coaches
were families having sold out most OF
their goods. thinking it cheaper to pay
cash for what will be needed in their new
homes than to pay freight rates on the
old. 4 number of women used the
coaches while their husbands md elder
sons looked after the goods in the freight
ears.
Their Second Exodus.
The present is the second exodus of
Dunkards from the East to North Da-
kota in the last three years. They come
from old-established colonies which have
been sending out members to the Vest
for half Il century. Often children grow
mp. have families Of their own. and leave
the parent colony much after the nature
of bees. which swarm when their quarters
become too crowded. Such is the case in
this instance. The fathers of large fam
lilies have left their Eastern homes, where
land is high. with Il view TO establishing
large family estates in the West. These
enigranis are not of the poorer class.
Many are well-to-do and all are ndus-
trious. desirable citizens.
For some time the elders of the church
have been investigating the desirability
for settlement ON North Dakota lands.
The reports have been favorable and the
present emigration is the result. The fate
of the present colonists will decide the
future action of several times as many
w iio ildNt Ut i'ii' ti' -
the venture with Il view to following
should it prove successful.
The one great object of the movement
is the desire to possess more land. In the
country where they are going there re-
mains Il large tract of Government land
open to settlement. This was not ready
for such purposes until recently, when
the Great Northern pushed its road
through what is known rs the Devils
Lake country. Within n few years many
small towns have sprung up along the
line and the country is rapidly being
broken up into farms.
Each head of a Dunkard family will
homestead on 1G0 acres of land. His sons
and sons-in-law over 81 years old will
take a like amount. In this way families
will absorb entire sections of land. Each
family will also be a nucleus around
which other Dunkards will settle. In a
few generations the big farms will be di-
vided and subdivided among the children.
until finally no more land will remain and
another exodus will be necessary.