Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-11-27
BACK FROM GEORGIA..
Former Resident of This City
Says the Sunny South is IN
s, No Place for Him. 5ss

| Mr.. and Mrs. Asa Porter, who lelt
this city about one year ago for the
Old Soldiers colony at Fitzgerald.
Georgia, ret urned to this city Tues
day evening, and Mr.. Porter SAYS
that in his opinion there is nothing.
in the climate and other conditions
| of that locality to make 1T .iestr-
able place for anyone to live. Fltz-s
gerald is loca ted in Il cy press swamp
! and is brim full Of malaria. Ss Il
He arrived in Georgia last Febru-.
ary, and went there with the expec--s.
| tations of finding work. When ne.
| first arrived there the general run Or
wages for white lAhOrers was $ per.
day, but that was cut down as soon
as the not weather came to 80 cents
per day. RI d
Negroes can he got there to work
for 35 cents per day and furnish 1ei1fs thetrs
own hoard, and by renson Of their;
being acclimated they can do MUCH
more work than the white man, and
are conseq quently given the preferences
The soil in that locality. he snys,s
will raise nothing but few kinds
Of vegetables without ferti'izing. lt3
is sandy. Guano is used for fertiliz,$
ing md it is too expensive for Il per-
son with small means to buy In
sufficient quantities to make a farm,
of even ten acres productive.
Expecting to make his living by
day labor Mr.. Porter saw that Fitz-s
gerald was no place for him, and he
left there as soon rs lie could. he
| was there from February to June,s
and says that during April, May and
June the average temperature VAS
| lO6 degrees above in the shade. anG
the heat was SO oppressive that1tS
was simply impossible for him or
any Of the other men from the nurth,l
who werenot acclima,ed, to perform
manual labor however light. S
He says lie read the let ter writtei,a1y5
.'Uncle' Nate Richardson, in wltch
Mr.. Richa rtison referred 10 the, Ntz-'
gerald colony as being built largely
| upon old soldiers and wind. He IN
dorses the statement, and says thN
largest percen +age is wind. ~
Much is written about the saw
mills of that section and it's big
lum mbering industry. Mr.. Porter says
there are about thirty small saw
ga W mills in that section Of the state,
and the largest one cannot saw
II, 900 feet per day. They all employ
negro laborers at about so cents per
day. ."r
Everything that is used at Fitz-
gerald is shipped In and is.. cOnse.
quently high, and no laboring-man
can at present earn his living there.
He says he did not stay long enough
to go broke. but intimated that he
was badly bent when he left. He
drove from Fitzgerald to Mnncie.
Ind. by team, and worked on a
farm near that place for Several
months. 4
He and bis wife have recovered
their health, which was greatly i'm
paired during their residence in Geor-
gia, and says he is willing to- take
his chances in Minnesota In preference
to any southern state that lie had
passed through Oh this trip, and he
visited several, including Mississippi,
Alabama and Tennessee.
or the other Little Falls people
who went to Georgia he has not
heard much Of late. Chas. Weiser
left Fitzgerald and went to Abbey
vile, and r. Richard, he said, was
sick and un a BILE to do any work with
the brick yard which lie started up
at Fitzgerald. Mr.. POrter's IA ther,
Milo Porter, end his other two sons.
Thomas and Leslie, had bought u
farm OF 245 acres some distance from
Fitzgerald. Thirty-five aces Of the
farm were under cultivation and
they were doing fairly well. but did
not raise a. very good crop ON ac-
count Of the severe drOuth there last
season. -