The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1904-06-24
SAYS SHERMAN A GREAT PLACE
T. e HALL SHOWS HOW A MAX CAE
''HAKE IT. IN NORTHWEST KANSAS.
Passed Up Southeast and Extreme West
. to Find Comfort and Riches in This
COunty-An Encouraging Xxx
ample TO Many Men

Mr.. R. E. Hall says in the Kansas
City Star:
first came to this country nearly
twenty years ago, when most of the land
was government land, "a vast expanse
Of prairie land, untouched by the hand
of man" There were no settlers at all,
except a few who were located along
the water courses and who depended
almost entirely on stock raising for a
livelihood. Then there came a great
rush and the whole country was filed
with settlers, each eager to secure a
piece of land, many of whom had
,arcely a cent upon their arrival and a
very few had any amount of capital
Under these conditions many hard
ships and failures were inevitable
Many of those who had small capital
to begin with met with sad disaPPOint-
ment and failure, owing to a lack of
knowledge of the conditions and ne
thods OF farming which are peculiarly
adapted to this climate and soil, and
the result was that large numbers
of settlers were compelled to abandon
their lands after having secured a loan
Of from $500 to $500 on each quarter
section. 1t seemed that a regular
mania for borrowing money on lands
became prevalent among the settlers,
and soon It was hard to find I6O acres
which was not mOrtgaged. This money
thus obtained was either exhausted in
improvements or living expenses, and
then the depreciation Of land values be
gan until It became hard'to find pur-
chaser at any price.
At that time there were no railroads
and everything had to be freighted long
distances by wagon, so that extremely
high prices prevailed on all kinds of
products. Common lumber sold for
$50 per thousand feet, barb wire from
So to 81 per hundred pounds; flour $50
per sack of fifty pounds; potatoes S1-OO
to S1.50 per bushel, and all other pro-
ducts consumed were IN proportion.
Hay sold as high as $50 per ton and
had to be hauled from twenty to thirty |
miles. All kinds of live stock were |
high, so that the poor settler had to pay
from $50 to $50 for a mich COW and SO !
to S12 for a sOw-shoat to begin his herd |
of swine with. Horses sold for from |
$500 to $500 per team. So it can be |
readily seen that with the few hundred |
dollars secured on This land the settler |
would not be able to fit himself out for |
farming, to begin with.
Under these conditions became dis
couraged and began to look about for, /,
as 1 thought, a better country. Hooked |
over the south and east, but prices were !
too high and unhealthful conditions |
prevailed in many of these regions.
Then I turned northwest to the Pacific |
coast in hope of finding the tabled Par |
adise on earth Through Wyoming
saw nothing which suited my fancy and |
Idaho seemed to me only a desolate |
waste of sand and sage-brush, with but
little grass or vegetation for animal life
to subsist on. Eastern Oregon was not
by any means what was looking for,
so I proceeded to the state of Washing
ton, where 1 found large crowds of emil
grants rushing in from all sections.
There were many Improvements and
buildings under construction there, but
there were many more laborers than
was needed and still more coming.
Property of all kinds swas selling at
fabulous prices without regard to its
real value. My few hundred dollars
which had labOred for for years I in
vested in what was called a snap in
city real estate and It certainly proved so |
to be, for it just snapped and snapped
in price until lost all my investment.
spent five years in that country, at
Spokane and Seattle, during which
time my wife and by working almost
day and night in the dairy and vege-
table business and with rigid economy,
Continued on fourth page.)