The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-09-29
souLLY's MISSOURI FARM:7=
Owns Over 10000 Acres There, All Guilt
waited by Tenants.

Lord Scully of London, England has
just completed the purchase of vast body
of land in Bates county, Mo-, says the St
Louis Republic He now owns outright
over 10000 acres of the choicest land in the
county for which he paid about $1,50O00O.
The purchase was simply an investment,
so his agents declare, for his son and his
widowed daughter-in-law. What effect
this heavy purchase will have on the val
ues in the community it is certain that the
merchants of Butler are beginning to feel
the effect of the change in ownership.
Whether Lord Scully is proposing to carry
out the ideas already fastened on England
i. e., the growth of land estates under one
ruler with tenantry to work the farms is
left for the future to decide. 1t is certain
that such a condition now exists on his
various farms in the county.
The first purchase of land in this county
was made by Lord Scullys agents in 1894.
Since then they have bought up from time
to time the best farms in the county. His
agents. the principal one of whom was F.
w. Kenohle of Springfield, H., took over
land trips through the county. When they
came to a piece of land that struck their
fancy it was bought without question as to
the price In this way many of the old
settlers of the county sold out their home
steads and were glad of the opportunity.
The land brought from $25 to $35 per acre
Most of it ranged at $50. 1t was months af-
ter the Scully agents began to buy farm
land before anyone suspected that such
big deals were on foot. Then the farmers
who had land to sell besieged the agents
xxri4l !,
The agents quit buying and disappeared
from Bates county. giving out that they
had all the land they wanted. For awhile
the farmers who had land for sale desisted
in their efforts and Lord Scully was for
gotten.
A year or so later they appeared again in
the county and for months they rode from
one end to the other. They would start
out from Butler every morning and return
in the evening. The receipts from the re-
cording fees placed that office at the top of
the list as the best-paying one. Instru-
ments by the page are recorded there, and
the fees are all paid by William Scully
In one week over $1,000 changed hands
through the Scully transactions.
Then the people of the county began to
inquire into the matter A bill preventing
an alien from owning more than 10000 acres
of land in any county in the state was in
PRODUCED and passed in the thirty-eighth
general assembly. This was introduced by
the representative of this county and di-
rected at Lord Scully The latter was too
wise to be caught mapping. He slipped
over from London and before the law went
into effect a telegram was sent out from
Washington that Lord Scully had become a
citizen of this country and had been
naturalized. Thus the law was evaded
and his agents continued to purchase land
in his name, which they kept up until a
few months ago. AT the present time his
farms are scattered all over Bates county
Those farms contain from 1900 to $4,000
acres, and the value is placed a more than
81 200 900 at the minimum.
The one feature which the citizens of the
county are so bitterly opposed to is the
fact that improvements are allowed to
wane and the farms, instead of being the
pride of their tenants, are running to
waste. At the present time they are all
placed under the tenant system. The rents
are not exorbitant. Only 81 to $3.50 per
acre is charged and so far, in case of a
crop failure, this has been refunded in
many instances. Three men who have
headquarters in Butler are constantly en-
gagged in looking after the Scully inter-
ests. They collect the rents and otherwise
look after the farms. Lord Sculy- pays
about one-tenth of the taxes of the county,
and the land he owns measures nearly
eight square miles if the farms were placed
side by side. Although there are more
than $4,000 acres of land in the county, the
Scully lands make big inroad on the valu-
able portions.