Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1901-05-10
CANTON. SOUTH DAKOTA. FRIDAY. MAY 10. -
RICH RUSSIANS.
South Dakota Came Near
Losing Them.

oOuIu DdkOId Nd1llc wear
Losing Them.
Coming up from Sioux City last
week the writer met an old friend,
Jacob Schnadt of Memo, now a men,
Der of the board of charities and cor
rections. We met him first in Yank-
ton in 1878, he, being one of the first
colonists to come to South
Dakota. A party Of four came to
Yankton early in that year to look for
land for q colony. I hunted
up Captain Jacob Branch, who could
talk German faster than any man in
the Territory, and got him 10 take
charge Of the colony land hunters.
Branch was an honest man and deem
ed honesty The best policy in dealing.
with the strangers. The Russian
Mennonites spoke the German lang
uage in its puresl form, hence Capt.
Brauch and his new friends got along
swinlnlingly. The advance guard and
those who came after learned to trust
Captain Branch. becarse he never mis-
represented anything, and he took
them aN over Yankton, Bon Homme
and Turner counties The country
snited shese men from the far away
shores OF ;the Black Sea- and they left
Yankton to report to the main colony
in Ohio. 1t had been generally under
stood in Nank'on that every man in
the colony had plenty Of money, and
Yankton:and the surrounding country
WAS very much in need of such people
There was hardly any immigration and
money cost 1S TO "a per cent. when you
borrowed any, hence the people of
Yankton were in a delightful frame
of mind when they learned of the gold
en- prospect All We're preparing for
the new comers who had to buy every
Thing needed, except clothing. They
bought farms, lots. houses, wagons,
cows and built homes in town and
" a
reached Tankton that the famous i'm
migraat train with nearly half mil
lion in money had been run over into
Nebraska by the able and cunning
agents Of 'the Union Pacific railroad
company. Yank,on was stunned. Visi-
GUS Of business and plenty of money
seemed gone forever. The writer. after
being satixied that The U. P. people
had captured uhe men bound for Yank.
ton, decided tOstop the steal and re-
capture the 'ursin load of people. I
went around among business men after
dark and coilec.ed $s4.OO, and at II p.
M, with H z. Ash as driver, started
out in the coaesry to hunt up Capt.
Brauch. We tonnd him about one
O'Clock in the nsorning and returned to
Yankton. I gave Brauch the money
and he started fnr Omaha to overhaul
the immigrants. The U P.agents and a
G. G-rman Preacher had the Mennonites
in charge aud were trying to locate
them on the u. P. land some two
hundred miles west Of Omaha. The
U P. agents told the strangers some
very tough yarns sbout>South Dakota,
aud among others that the land was
barren, and full of rocks, and that
snow covered the ground about six
months in the year. South Dako.a
got mighty bad reputation from the
Nebraska boomers and things looked
lark for while. Then Capt. Brauch
arrived, and those who knew him
know that when warmed up he could
,ut-talk anything on earth. Well,
Jake opened up on the Nebraska Sand
Hill boomers and in twenty.four hours
he had the train back in Omaha, and
,ver in Council Bluffs. The German
Preacher gave Brauch a heap of trouble
~ his false statements. but Brauch
won out and brought the entire train
Dad to Yankton including the German
Preacher. Once the colonists saw the
,ountry along the Jim river valley they
.ejoiced that Brauch had saved them.
The Preacher hung around for day
,r two, until Fritz Schnanber invited
him to go home if he valued his health
With unbroken bones. The Preacher
vent. That train load of immigrants
lad over half i million in money, and
t was stated as fact that not one of
hem had less than $4,000 in cash.
Jacob Max, Jacob Schnad,, Onruh,
Wenzlaff. Bender and Schamber were !
members of that colony. The new
spent money like princes, and
Yankton fourished. In discussing this
lncient history with Mr.. Schnadt last
week, he told how his people voted on
he train, and of the desperate efforts
If the U. P. crowd to defeat Branch
That train load of people was the rich
st that ever came west. Many of the
,lder men are dead and many of the
then-have filled posi-
ions of trust in this state.
Money to Loan
or ..lionts-S1OOO m or moro On fret |