Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-12-12

Corn m uitics Of Foreign Families
Have Bought Them Up Through
Agentn-EFcct Of Recent Successes
In Wheat GrOwinE-R to the
Fore In Western Kansas.
A significant movement in settlement
is taking place in connection with the
development of prairie lands at the ex-
IRENE western part Of this state and
in Colorado, as well as in other parts
Of the western Mississippi valley,
where cheap land is to be obtained,
writes the special correspondent of the
New York Post at Abilene, Kan. This
is particularly true of colonies EIade
up generally of foreign descended fam
lilies, who are DESTROYS of forming set
Elements that shall be distinctly for
their own people. Agents of the Ger
man American settlements of Pennsyl-
vania and the similar population of
Ohio and western New York have
made many trips to the prairie states
to seek locations for the constantly
overflowing numbers that must 60 out
into the larger field and make homes.
A committee of Quakers has been
travelling up the Arkansas valley and
has just purchased for the use Of the
members Of that sect 5000 acres In
Prowers county, Colo, on which will
be located 1000 families. The lands
they have chosen are on one of the
large bitches where the level acres
stretch away for miles in every direc-
ton and where the sugar beet can be
raised In great abundance and rich
ness. The Quakers have located sew
eral colonies in the west in the last
few years, some of which have been
successful and some not. This attempt
is based on a more substantial basis
than some of the others. Only Quakers
will be admitted, and they will come
from Ohio. Illinois and Indiana. They
expect to pay $40 an acre for their
land, with an annual water assess
ment of 40 to so cents an acre. The
bitches that supply the lands are 265
miles long and are fed from the Ar
kansas river
Another colony just located is in
Greer county, Okla, where 1000 fami-
lies from Germany are to settle, each
family getting forty acres. This land
was bought through agents and is to
be owned at the outset in common.
In western Kansas there is growing
up large colony of Russians. who are
taking the wheat grounds and succeed
admirably in producing that cereal.
They began coming in the early eight
les, and of late years their numbers
have so increased that they are practi-
cally the possessOrs of two or three
counties. They build churches that cost
$4,000 each. The towns are closely
built. The neighboring lands have been
bought up by these people as fast as
they could find the money until the
prices have been raised to the highest
known in the western part of the state
since the boom times. Many are COM
ing from Europe at frequent intervals.
and their friends here are buying land
for them in advance of their arrival.
The Dunkards, or River Brethren,
who are all. "a to the Quakers without
being of their sect, are buying more
land steadily. taking, however. the
higher priced farms of central Kansas.
They are bringing many hundreds of
immigrants out from the east to eX
tend their colonies and are proving
valuable citizens in that they have no
paupers and scarcely n criminal.
The colonists who have moved into
Oklahoma during the last few months
have had some difficulty in securing
farms in body. They have been
more successful when buying up the
cheap lands in the western parts,
where the homesteadcrs are not so ca
ger to locate. In the northwest. where
the railroads have been behind the i'm
migration movement, whole ncighbOr
hoods in the middle states. such as H.
linois. Iowa and Wisconsin. have been
to new homes. 1t is esti
mated that 100000 people have settled
In the northwest since March ! through
the homeseekers' excursions. These
excursions are becoming notable for
the crowds they bring.
The wheat successes have been re-
sponsible for n great deal Of the pur-
chasing Of land. Hundreds of sales !
have been made for the purpose Of
speculation all through the wheat |
belt" which now extends into what |
was once thought only fit for grazing. |
The lands that eastern investors once |
oaned money on then took through |
'oreclosed mortgages and Cnally sold
'or trifle or abandoned to go to the
counties for the taxes are coming in the
market. One western Kansas county |
,eld $50 quarter section farms, 1G0
lcres each, that came to it in this way.
For three years 1t has been trying to
ell them for approximately $40 a quar-
er section under tax title. Recently,
wing to the demand for land. the
arms have been withdrawn from the