The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-21
tOR'S OBSERVATIONS.
b. John 4 Thompson.

no Des Moines overland in the
AZ first stop was in Knoxville,
II was delightful drive, as
\ nd Ids were good. We travelled Is
,;.on n without throwing in low.
80 town Of Knoxville is the county
t,l;so "a Marion county. Here live
.hoX fifty colored people, but there
~ several hundred in mining camps
ca thin 4 few miles radius Of this town.
NJ RAY is one Of the well known and
s;ahIv respected citizens here. His
aan0hter. Miss Ora Warthal, is a
s-sssmaker and has all the work she
s.n 40. Rev. r. P. Palmer, the Bap-
t;st minister, lives here. He also
teaches at Andersonville, mining
camp about five miles from here, of
which shall write more. Mr.. Jacobs
ard folks still live here and Mr.. and
Mra ]. B. johnson all of whom are
highly respected citizens here. Mr..
John Cavil lives over at Flagler a
lining town at which about hun
dred or more colored people now live.
M. r. A. Crew is a farmer living
about a mile and half from town.
w. M. McCartey is also another farm
az who lives about three miles from
town and about one and one-half miles
from Andersonville. He owns nice
farm and is doing well. We visited
his farm and stopped few minutes.
From here we went into Anderson
vile, a mining camp that has been
here for several years, but which was
the first visit Ye Editor has made, it
being an inland town. Theer are
about $50 colored people living here
and all are doing nicely. They have
Baptist church, of which Rev. Palmer
of Knoxville is pastor. He breaches
there every other Sunday. I spent
Sunday night here and attended their
church services. They did not have
any preaching, but very religious
and enthusiastic praise meeting,
which carried out thoughts back to
the earlier period when our people
were Just released from bondage and
it is my belief that these people are
sincere followers of the lowly Nazar-
inc. Their prayers and songs had the
ring that would affect the hardest
sinner. It was indeed a unique meet
ing for me to attend and one that
thoroughly enjoyed. There are about
fourteen families here and we secured
about fourteen subscribers, which was
the best financial work done this year
in Iowa. We selected Mrs. H. Boy
son as our agent for both Anderson
vile and Knoxville The new sub
scribers who will read the only Iowa
colored paper are r. A. Crew, w. w.
McCarty, Mrs. H. Bayson, James Nc
Donald, j. H. Woody, Lee Medley,
VIM. Taylor, Mrs. Ella Douglas, Ar
thur Wilson, J. P. Mitchell and~Archie
McWhite.
The next morning bright and early
we continued our overland drive to
Buxton, a town that is famous by be-
ing one of the finest and best governed
mining camps in the United States.
Years ago there was a population Of
5000, 1000 Of which were colored,
but in later years, the mines having
been worked down and work for this
large number of miners was not suffi-
cient, a large number moved away
and most Of those who took their
places were white miners, until today
there are only about 1000 people liv-
ing in the camp, Of: which 1900 are
colored. It is true that many of the
colored miners, as well as the white,
have scattered to the neighboring min
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