The SOUTHERN STATES is an exponent of the Immigration and Real Estate
Interests and general advancement of the South, and a journal of
accurate and comprehensive information about Southern resources and
progress.
Its purpose is to set forth accurately and conservatively from month to
month the reasons why the South is, for the farmer, the settler, the
home seeker, the investor, incomparably the most attractive section of
this country.
An Opportunity for Capital.
In the general discussion of the various agencies to be depended on to
bring about an enlarged and accelerated Southern immigration movement,
there seems to have been little thought given to private enterprises as
one of them.
A great deal has been said about the duty and self interest of
railroads in the matter, and much has been spoken and written in
advocacy of aggressive measures on the part of the States. It is quite
true that the railroads should pursue the most liberal policy in
fostering and developing immigration. Every farmer who settles in the
territory of any road becomes a permanent producer of traffic for that
road, and whether the railroad company be the owner of lands or not,
the most profitable expenditures it can make are such as will help to
populate and build up the country tributary to its lines. It is also
true that every Southern State should have an immigration department
or bureau, conducted not by small politicians, but by the most capable
men to be had, and not supported by niggardly appropriations, but amply
supplied with sufficient money to make possible the most progressive
and comprehensive methods.
But, unfortunately, the ideal is not going to be reached as to either
the railroads or the States. Both will in the aggregate come very far
short of what ought to be done, and this will be more pronouncedly and
lamentably true of the State governments.
Outside of these agencies, then, how is the cause of immigration to be
advanced? The question and the conditions giving rise to it suggest
an opportunity for capital and enterprise. In almost any part of the
South very large areas of land may be gotten together at very low
prices. With money enough to buy and properly develop farm lands, and
with judicious management, there is hardly any limit to the profitable
business that could be done by immigration or colonization companies.
For example, a company that could buy say 10,000 to 20,000 or more
acres of land in a body, or make up this acreage by consolidating a
number of farms bought from different owners, and then divide this up
into small farms of twenty, forty, eighty or more acres, construct
roads throughout the entire area, drain the whole of it, put it all in
the best shape for the most advanced farming or gardening operations,
building houses, &c., and then direct themselves to the work of
colonizing it or selling to individual settlers, such a company, with
sufficient capital and properly managed, could quickly settle up almost
any area of land and make enormous profits for its stockholders.
Besides the tracts sold as small farms, there would necessarily be one
or more centrally located village sites which would become immediately
valuable as town property. There is nothing easier than getting
Northern farmers to go South. The conditions of farming and of life at
the South are so incomparably superior to those at the North that they
need only to be pressed upon the attention of Northern farmers to be
availed of. In its millions of acres of cheap lands the South has the
advantage of an entirely new and undeveloped country, and has with this
all the advantages and comforts and attractions of an established and
advanced civilization. The South is in the main more healthful than any
other part of the United States, its range of farm and garden products
is greater, it offers better opportunities for profitable agriculture,
and it is in all respects a section where life can be lived in greater
comfort than at the North. Convinced of these facts, hundreds of
thousands of substantial and well-to-do farmers in other parts of the
country would quickly move to the South. In fact, there is even now,
all over the North and Northwest a disposition to go South. As was
stated in a letter published in the January number of the SOUTHERN
STATES, “there are thousands who would move South if somebody would
start the ball rolling.” These are the conditions. Properly utilized,
they can be made to furnish a wide and rich field for some of the
millions now lying idle and non-productive in the financial centres.
The Virginia Legislature and Immigration.
The legislature of Virginia, in its very proper and commendable desire
to promote immigration to the State, is discussing the enactment of
some extraordinary legislation. A bill now before the senate provides
for the appointment of a commissioner of immigration, who shall keep
on file in his office a description of any lands submitted to him by
any owner or real-estate agent, and shall receive a commission of
not more than 5 per cent. upon the sale of any such lands in lieu of
salary. Evidently, to the mind of the author of this bill, the benefits
of an increase in the population of the State terminate with the sale
of lands, and are confined to owners of such lands. The narrowness of
a measure that would impose upon any one class of people the expense
of an immigration department is manifest. The innumerable and widely
ramifying benefits resulting from judicious immigration effort are
shared by everybody, and the expense should be borne by everybody.
Aside from this inequity, there are many objections to the plan of
giving the proposed commissioner an interest in the sale of lands. As
an officer of the State he should be free from any possibility of bias
as to any part of the State or any specific properties.
Let a commissioner of immigration be appointed by all means, and let
an adequate fund be set apart for the expenses of his department, but
let this come out of the receipts from taxes, and thus be equitably
apportioned among all classes.
Florida’s Obligation to Mr. Disston.
To say that no other State owes as much to any one man as Florida owes
to Hamilton Disston, of Philadelphia, is a comprehensive statement, but
it is probably true. About fifteen years ago some Northern capitalists
were induced to consider the idea of building railroads in Florida.
It was found on investigation that the State could not grant any of
its lands to railroad companies, since all the lands of the State were
covered by a general mortgage which had been made to secure the State
bonds. Without this inducement nobody was willing to put a dollar into
railroad building in Florida, for the reason that the early returns
from traffic could not be expected to be such as would justify it. In
this emergency Mr. Disston came to the rescue of the State. He bought
4,000,000 acres of Florida land, paying for it enough to discharge the
entire State debt, thereby releasing the lands owned by the State,
and placing it in a position to make grants to railroads. Immediately
following this, contracts were made with New York capitalists,
and Florida entered upon an era of railroad building and general
development.
Of course it is beyond question that the enormous resources and
capabilities of Florida would in time have brought railroads, with the
development that accompanies them, but it is also true that but for
this timely intervention and help from Mr. Disston, the beginning of
this period of growth and prosperity would have been delayed, possibly
many years.
Following this timely succor, Mr. Disston has now put the State under
further obligation to him for one of the most stupendous and one of the
most successful works of general improvement ever undertaken in this
country. As was briefly told in the February number of the SOUTHERN
STATES, he has reclaimed for the State many millions of acres of land
that but for his enterprise would have been permanently a waste. True,
he has himself reaped large rewards, as it is proper that he should
have done, but this does not lessen the benefits the State receives,
and moreover, the risk has been all his own, since the only return
the State was to make to him for the millions of dollars spent in his
drainage works was a share of the lands reclaimed from overflow.
The value of the services that Mr. Disston has rendered Florida are
beyond estimate.
How to Do It.
The News, of Birmingham, Ala., very correctly maintains that reduced
railroad rates will not accomplish much in the way of inducing
immigration, unless the measure be accompanied by liberal advertising.
The News says:
Ten good settlers can be brought down from the effects of good
advertising, without any half rates, where one can be brought
down from the mere effects of half rates, and as a rule those
who come solely on account of low rates never become settlers,
but combined, the two do good service, reaching the better
class.
The SOUTHERN STATES is the channel through which to reach the attention
of the North and Northwest. It is the only Southern immigration
journal; the only publication that can be looked to for information
about the soil, climate, agricultural capabilities, etc., of the whole
South. It is alone in this field. There has never been a time when
there was such eagerness for facts about the South. From New England,
the Middle States, the West, and notably from the Northwest, requests
for sample copies and letters of inquiry about the South are pouring in
upon us.
Advertisements in the SOUTHERN STATES will be read every month by many
thousands of people all over the North and Northwest, who are eagerly
seeking such information as will enable them to determine what part of
the South is most likely to suit them.
No Such Danger.
The Boston Herald, in an editorial on the work of the SOUTHERN STATES,
says: “The reports are extremely favorable in regard to richness
and variety of crops, and the chief danger seems to be that the
speculators in Southern lands, as well as many of the railroads, hold
their lands at such prices as to dissuade the poorer but industrious
class of immigrants from taking them up.” The danger apprehended by
the Herald does not at all exist. There are many millions of acres of
the best land in the South that can be had for prices that are merely
nominal. The trouble is not that there is any fault to be found with
the land, but there are not people enough in the South to cultivate
more than a small part of the land, and the surplus is, therefore, in
a sense valueless, no matter how rich and productive it may be. There
are a good many millions of acres of railroad land, and in some of
the States State land, that can be had for such prices and upon such
terms as nobody can find fault with. And as to the private holdings of
individuals, there is too much land in every part of the South unused,
and therefore too many owners anxious to sell a part of what they own,
to make possible any speculative putting up of prices.
How to Reach Prospective Immigrants.
That North Carolina needs immigrants of the right kind is too
universally admitted to call for proof; and that all efforts
heretofore made in this direction have been practically
a failure seems also clear. It seems equally clear that
circulars, handbooks and the State press fail of their purpose
in this respect, because they never reach the class we desire
to influence.--The Gazette, Washington, N. C.
The Gazette is right. Many thousands of dollars are wasted in printing
books and pamphlets that nobody ever reads. There is a way, however, to
reach the class it is desired to influence. It can be done through the
SOUTHERN STATES. The SOUTHERN STATES is a journal of information about
the South. It is engaged in the work of making known the resources in
soil, climate and agricultural capabilities, of the Southern States.
And such is the desire for accurate and comprehensive information about
this section that although the magazine has been in existence only
a year it goes into every part of New England, the Middle States,
the West and the Northwest, and is read by thousands of farmers and
business men who are seeking to inform themselves as to the most
attractive localities in the South.
The SOUTHERN STATES furnishes a channel through which to reach
effectively the class of possible immigrants needed in the South.
Work of Southern Railroads in Promoting Immigration.
In the general and very proper demand for railroad aid to the cause
of Southern immigration, it should not be forgotten that many of the
Southern roads have been for years giving conspicuous and liberal
attention to this work. Through the efforts of such roads, for
example, as the Mobile & Ohio, the Illinois Central, the Baltimore &
Ohio, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas, the St. Louis Southwestern and others, hundreds of thousands
of substantial farmers, artisans and business men have been induced
to move to the South, and all of those roads are constantly enlarging
their immigration work. A notable instance of broad and progressive
management in furtherance of immigration is furnished by the Georgia
Southern & Florida road, whose methods were made the subject of an
article published in the January number of the SOUTHERN STATES.
Other Southern roads are becoming roused on this subject. The Seaboard
Air Line system, which has a management as progressive and liberal as
any road in the country, is preparing to inaugurate a comprehensive
immigration policy, and the Richmond & Danville road is also adopting
measures to induce Northern farmers to settle along its lines. The
Louisville & Nashville and the Central Railroad of Georgia systems are
also taking advanced steps in the same direction.
* * * * *
The introduction of artesian water in some of the Southern towns,
notably Albany and Brunswick, Ga., has revolutionized the health of
those places; the two localities named, which were formerly noted for
the prevalence of malarial and other disorders, being now equally noted
as health resorts. The last Georgia town to enter the artesian well
procession is Quitman, Ga. The April number of the SOUTHERN STATES will
contain an exhaustive article by Mr. James R. Randall, on drinking
water. Mr. Randall has for many years been making investigations on
this subject, and his article will be a revelation, not only to the
general public, but to most physicians and hygienists as well.
* * * * *
The Augusta Chronicle, quoting the sage remark of a man who had amassed
much wealth, who when asked how he had made his money, said that he
always bought when everybody wanted to sell, and sold when everybody
wanted to buy, urges that the present is the time for people with money
to make investments. Prices of every sort have reached a minimum, and
in view of the assured early reaction and the inevitable rebound to
very high prices that will follow the long term of depression, this
would seem to be as the Chronicle suggests, the time to buy things.
* * * * *
No sooner is Atlanta well under way with its great International
Exposition project for 1895 than Macon comes to the front with an
exposition enterprise of its own. A movement has been started to hold
an exposition in the fall of 1894. These Georgia towns are great
hustlers.
* * * * *
In Mr. Clark Bell’s article, published elsewhere, there is this
statement:
“Austin Corbin, one of our greatest railroad workers,
transports free over his railways every pound of material
an actual settler puts on his land in improvements. I would
advocate free transportation of the household goods of every
actual Northern settler by your great railway lines.”
This is commended to the attention of Southern railroad managers.
* * * * *
The Legislature of Virginia seems to have some spite against real
estate agents. Not satisfied with the present burdensome and wholly
unjust tax imposed upon real estate dealers in the State, it is
proposed now to make the real estate agents bear the expense of a State
immigration commission.
* * * * *
Mr. John T. Patrick, of Southern Pines, N. C., secretary of the
Southern Bureau of Information, deserves much commendation for his
enterprise and public spirit in having arranged for an excursion
through the South of the editors of a number of leading Northern
medical journals. This undertaking of Mr. Patrick’s is in furtherance
of an effort to correct the impression that still exists in the minds
of a great many Northern people that the South is an unhealthful
section.
* * * * *
At the last meeting of the Commercial & Industrial association, of
Montgomery, Ala., the president said in his monthly report: “The
association should advertise the city and hold forth its advantages in
every way possible which will attract capital and cause enterprising
citizens to locate here. A new era of growth and enterprise will come
apace and Montgomery should be prepared to reap the rewards that
flow from it.” This admonishment may be heeded with profit by every
community in the South.
* * * * *
Mr. Clark Bell, the writer of the article on the fruit growing
possibilities of the South Atlantic seaboard, is a New York lawyer,
and editor of the Medico-Legal journal of New York. He has had a quite
extensive practical experience in fruit growing, and his judgment as to
the capabilities of the South for this branch of agriculture is that of
a competent expert. Mr. Bell was one of the party of editors of medical
journals who recently made a tour of the South Atlantic States under
the auspices of the Southern Bureau of Information, located at Southern
Pines, N. C.
* * * * *
It seems incomprehensible to a Southern man that there should be any
doubt in the minds of Northern people as to whether Northern settlers
will be well received in the South or not. Mr. Clark Bell, in an
article in this number, says: “Northern settlers would, strange as it
may sound to you, need to be assured in these respects,” and he thinks
it necessary to quote the assurances on this point that he had from
distinguished Southern gentlemen. Not only will Northern farmers and
business men be well received in the South, but they will find awaiting
them a most eager welcome. The newspaper utterances all over the South,
the statements of public men, the personal letters to the newspapers
from farmers and merchants, the actions of commercial bodies, indicate
not only a welcome to the Northern settler, but a keen appreciation of
the value to the South of immigration from the North, and a most eager
desire for this immigration. No Northern man, who is respectable enough
to have standing in his own community at home, need have any fear but
that he will find in the South the utmost consideration and good will.
* * * * *
The superior train service on the Chesapeake & Ohio is well known to
all patrons of that system. During the month of January train No. 1
made the run between Washington, D. C., and Cincinnati, twenty-nine
days, exactly on time, and on the other two days lost but twenty
minutes. Train No. 2 made every trip between the cities on time, and
the “Fast Flying Virginian,” one of the finest express trains in the
country, reached Cincinnati thirty out of thirty-one trips on time,
although it was an hour late out of Washington on seven trips, caused
by waiting for connections. This is a month’s record that the operating
department can be proud of.
Immigration News.
The Yazoo Delta.
The assistant land commissioner of the Illinois Central Railroad, Major
G. W. McGinnis, in a recent interview on the subject of immigration to
the Yazoo Delta, spoke as follows:
“I believe that the time has now come for the introduction of white
labor. Our road, besides having agents all over the Northwest, have men
in Germany and also in Holland, gathering families together to settle
up our land. There are many residents of Dakota and other Northwestern
States who want a milder and a better climate, with a soil more fertile
than that of the Northwest. All these advantages are possessed by the
Delta.
“The greatest interest is manifested in the movement. Scarcely a day
passes but what we receive from fifty to seventy-five letters of
inquiry.
“The colonists who have already taken advantage of our offers and
settled along the Delta, are making money hand over fist. They are
raising cotton, corn, vegetables, stock and fruit. The largest peaches
I ever saw in my life came from the Delta.
“When our work is done we will see every man his own landlord, and by
the way, these foreigners are apt to steer clear of that condition, so
prevalent in the South, of being land poor. They want no more land than
they can cultivate with the aid of their families, say forty acres. In
fact, some of them buy no more than twenty. They make up the greatest
population for agricultural districts possible to imagine. They have
made the Northwest what it is.
“When the movement is once fairly started there will be no stopping the
rush of immigration. Northern people all move in bodies. When one comes
all come.”
Alabama Farmers Invite Settlers From the North.
The following resolutions were adopted at a meeting of the State
Agricultural Society of Alabama, held at Birmingham, February 23:
_Resolved_, By the State Agricultural Society of Alabama, that we
invite to Alabama all honest and industrious farmers that should be
desirous of changing their home, and extend to them a cordial welcome,
assuring them that the right hand of fellowship will be extended to
them, and that feeling that is always accorded one good citizen from
another will be extended to them by the farmers of the State.
_Resolved_ (2), That we will cordially indorse and sustain our
honorable commissioner of agriculture and his excellency, the governor
of Alabama, in a vigorous and continuous effort for immigration made
through the Department of Agriculture under existing law. At the same
meeting, Mr. Chappell Cory, editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, read
by invitation a paper in advocacy of efforts to induce immigration from
the North.
The Railroads and Immigration.
The organization of land companies for the purpose of inducing
immigration to West Tennessee is most commendable, especially when
these companies are conducted upon the plan of that one which proposes
to open up the territory along the line of the Paducah, Tennessee &
Alabama railroad. The capital of the company is very small, and there
is little profit in the enterprise for those who have formed the
company. They intend merely to direct the attention of immigrants to
the advantages which this heaven-blest region holds for the thrifty
and hard-working farmer. The road is a new one, but it runs through a
most fertile region, especially adapted to small farming. The Illinois
Central railroad has done much to attract settlers to Mississippi, and
every railroad in this section should be equally alert. It was the
railroad agent who made States out of Territories in the Northwest,
and it is a most assuring sign that he is now taking hold of the
Southern country. The railroad company is the best of all immigration
or colonization societies. It can accomplish more at less expense
than any other. The example set, therefore, by the officials of the
Paducah, Tennessee & Alabama, is commendable in the highest degree. The
prosperity of a railroad depends upon the population of the country
through which it runs, and the more rapidly the country is built up the
sooner will the stockholders realize upon their investment. The public
has a profound interest in such enterprises. The Appeal-Avalanche has
no support to give to purely speculative and boom schemes, but it is
in favor of all enterprises the object of which is to put forward the
advantages of soil, climate and distributing facilities which Tennessee
and other Southern States enjoy to such an exceptional degree.--Memphis
Appeal-Avalanche.
The Louisville & Nashville is Pushing Immigration Work.
Col. C. P. Atmore, the general passenger agent of the Louisville &
Nashville railroad, is pushing the matter of immigration to the South
with great vigor. When approached on the subject recently he said that
the Louisville & Nashville road had several agents in the Northwest and
in Europe, who were sending families down rapidly. It is the intention
of the road to put between 200 and 300 families on its line between
Paris and Memphis.
The Louisville & Nashville is now running home-seekers’ excursions
from points at a rate of one fare for the round trip, with a view to
encouraging the movement. It owns many thousand acres of land between
New Orleans and Flomaton, Ala., and also between Pensacola and River
Junction.
On the Nashville, Sheffield and Florence branch of the line in question
there is a Norwegian colony of about 200 families. This colony has done
remarkably well, and the road is much pleased with its venture.
The Texas Coast Section Filling Up.
At Velasco, Texas, recently several carloads of fine draft stock
belonging to newly arrived farmers from Nebraska were received, and the
next day several carloads of household goods for another colony from
Kansas, who had bought farms in Brazoria county, were unloading. M. M.
Miller, of the Velasco National Bank, and others have received letters
from parties who are coming with families and stock from both of these
States and from New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.
At the present rate Brazoria county’s population, it is said, will
be doubled by the end of the present year; at least 90 per cent. of
increase began coming in less than two years ago.
Colonization Plans for Florida.
Mr. O. J. Johnson, excursion, land and colonization agent, of
Minneapolis, has been prospecting in Florida for a site for settling
immigrants from the North and Northwest.
Mr. Johnson will take a good many hundred people South, he says, if
he has the right encouragement. He was the immigration agent of the
Northern Pacific railroad for nine years.
Four business men of Minneapolis are interested with Mr. Johnson. They
are Mr. N. C. Westerfield, Dr. William E. Wheelock, Messrs. P. S. McKay
and C. E. Channel. Their idea is to purchase a tract of land of from
10,000 acres upward, divide it into smaller farms and lots and then
sell these lots to such settlers as they want.
“I’ve had a deal of experience in this line,” said Mr. Johnson, “and
know what is to be done. I am well satisfied with Florida’s climate and
attractions, and know that we can settle many hundreds of good people.
We have a large number of inquiries already, and I am satisfied we can
place all the people we want to handle. The farmers of Dakota and other
points in the Northwest are dissatisfied, and hundreds and hundreds of
them will come the moment they are assured that this State promises
them a fair living with the work they have to devote now to a mere
existence.”
A Fruit-Growing Association to Locate in Texas.
Officers of the Rock Island Fruit Growers’ and Improvement Association
are in Texas inspecting lands. It is the purpose of the association to
acquire a large tract of land in the Gulf coast region of Texas, in
the centre of which to lay out a town site, giving to each member of
the association a town lot. A maximum and minimum ownership of land is
restricted by the by-laws of the association. Reservations are made for
school, church, town hall, park and cemetery purposes. No lands can be
held in unimproved state for speculation; a certain portion of each
owner’s land must be improved during the first year by planting fruit,
vegetables or other horticultural products, and at least two acres
additional each succeeding year until each owner’s lands are under
cultivation. When the products are ready to ship the shipments will be
made in car lots to the most advantageous markets of the country.
The association expects to number 100 families, composed of persons
who will go into the Texas coast region and make their homes, their
previous occupations having been fruit growers, gardeners, mechanics
from the government works on the island of Rock Island, clerks,
artisans, etc. While their fruit trees are developing the members of
the association will raise garden truck for shipment. The officers of
the association propose visiting the most advantageous sections of
the Gulf coast, from Houston to Corpus Christi, and will devote about
four weeks time to that purpose. The originator of the enterprise is
Mr. I. E. Whistler, whose attention was directed to Texas as a fruit
growing country by seeing and testing some fine specimens of peaches
shipped from Tyler, Texas, last June to New York City, which rivaled
the best California peaches in size, and far surpassed them in flavor.
The officers of the association making this tour are I. E. Whistler,
president; J. O. Logan, vice-president, and W. E. Hilton, trustee.
The Great Work of the Mobile & Ohio.
Although the Mobile & Ohio Railroad only traverses a few miles
of Alabama, yet it has done probably more in the way of inducing
immigration to the State since 1890 than any other line, through
extensive advertising, combined with excellent folders and maps, which
have been extensively distributed through Michigan, Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, etc. They also pursue the
same liberal policy with local land agents and all engaged in promoting
immigration along their road, distributing their advertising matter,
and granting to them courtesies which are necessary to insure local
parties to endeavor to give them the benefit of their work in securing
immigrants. Alabama wants 10,000 families from the North to settle
within her borders in the next twelve months, and only by hard combined
work of the people and railways can it be accomplished, and now is the
time to organize and keep the ball rolling. Let us get a move on us in
this matter, and we can accomplish our object.--The News, Birmingham,
Ala.
Farmers to Organise an Immigration Society.
The farmers around Augusta, Ga., are becoming interested in a proposed
plan to organize an immigration society, and many have expressed a
desire to take an active part in perfecting a permanent organization
of that kind.
A prominent merchant farmer from Wilkes county stated recently that the
people of his section of the country were very much enthused over the
organization of an immigration society in Augusta.
“You would be greatly surprised,” he said, “to know how many of our
merchants and planters have taken up the idea, and how anxious they
are to see such an organization established at Augusta. Our people are
willing to help in every way possible, for they realize that they are
to reap the benefits, and consequently are desirous of sharing the
labors.
“You see, the farmers are generally land poor throughout the entire
country, and what they want to do is to get some one who will work, and
take some of it off their hands.”
Immigration Bill Before the Virginia Legislature.
The legislature of Virginia is trying to devise some method to promote
immigration to the State. A bill has been introduced in the Senate,
creating the office of Commissioner of Immigration of Virginia, and
providing for the election of such an officer, who shall properly
advertise the advantages of the State and shall, at the request of any
real estate agent or owner of land, keep on file a list of lands for
sale and shall refer all contemplating purchasers impartially to the
various sections of the State, according to their requirements.
It is provided that the commissioner shall receive a commission of
not more than 5 per cent. upon the sale of any lands sold through his
department. Any owner of land situate in Virginia shall have the right
to list for sale the same with the Commissioner of Immigration, who
shall advertise, without cost to the owner, the fact that such lands
are offered for sale.
The bill concludes by providing that the expenses attached to such
an office shall be paid out of the fund arising from the tax on
manufacturers of fertilizers.
* * * * *
Colonel E. S. Jemison, president; M. G. Howe, general manager; Major
Tom Cronin, superintendent, and General John M. Claiborne, immigration
agent of the Houston East and West Texas railway, are trying to
interest the people along their line in some plan whereby immigration
can be brought to that section of the State.
* * * * *
Mr. J. T. Merry, of Harlem county, Nebraska, writes from Velasco,
Texas, to his home paper as follows:
“Here we are in Velasco, Texas, the land of sunshine and flowers.
Surely this is destined to be a large city; within three miles of the
mouth of the Brazos river, and a large, deep harbor, where ships come
and go at pleasure, and load right here in this city heavier than
at any point on the Gulf coast. Of course the country is new, but
vegetables and fruit trees of all kinds are growing nicely. Good fruit
and vegetable land can be bought from $4 to $12 per acre. The country
all around, except on the Gulf side, is a gentle undulated plain, which
is being settled with people from the Northern part of the State and
from the Dakotas and Nebraska in the main, and Iowa, though some are
from Missouri and other points.”
* * * * *
A Swedish gentleman who has had considerable experience in establishing
colonies of his countrymen in the United States, has been conferring
with Mr. John M. Lee, of Shreveport, La., representing the land
department of the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co., and
looking over the ground, and says he can locate several hundred
families if the conditions are favorable.
* * * * *
Mr. W. E. Pabor, founder of the Pabor Lake colony, near Fort Meade,
Fla., has recently been visiting his old home, Denver, Col., and has
induced a number of families to move to Florida.
* * * * *
There is more land open to settlement in Arkansas than there was in the
Cherokee Strip. The Little Rock Democrat wisely says: “Counting all
kinds of our public lands in Arkansas, government, State and railroad,
we have nearly 7,000,000 acres. If we could divide these lands into
homestead tracts, advertise them extensively and donate them at stated
periods to actual settlers, what an impetus would be given to the
State. What the State needs is not money for her lands, but active
and enterprising home builders, who would become wealth producers
and tax builders. A liberal land policy on the part of the State and
the railroads would soon result in a vast increase in our wealth and
population.”
* * * * *
One of the largest excursion parties of land-seekers that ever went
South over the Mobile & Ohio railroad arrived at Mobile lately in
charge of Mr. F. W. Greene, general agent of the Mobile & Ohio
railroad, at St. Louis. The party consisted of all classes of
home-seekers and investors, who have become interested in that section
of country through the efforts of the passenger department of the
Mobile & Ohio railroad. Over 200 people made up the excursion, some
stopping off at places in Mississippi and Alabama. They went from
Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Indiana and Ohio.
* * * * *
Further developments regarding the steamship line to be established
between Galveston and Denmark indicate that it will be of great
importance to the Southwest. It is intended to use the vessels in
transporting immigrants from Norway, Sweden and Northern Europe direct
to Texas and the West by way of Galveston. Heretofore these passengers
have been sent to New York, and from that point reached their future
home by rail. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce has become interested
in the project and heartily approves it. Vice-Consul Thygge Sogart, of
Denmark, now located in Kansas City, is a promoter of the line.
* * * * *
Mr. Hamilton Disston says that Mr. Schulzen, a prominent Scandinavian,
will establish a Scandinavian colony near Kissimmee. Mr. Disston met
Mr. Schulzen at the Columbian Exposition, and impressed him with the
fertility of the soil of Southern Florida, and advised him to try it.
This he did, and became so satisfied with the prolific growth of sugar
and peaches that arrangements have been made to settle Scandinavians on
the South Florida railway, between Runnymede and Kissimmee, at once.
Mr. Schulzen’s father and brother are now North disposing of their
farms preparatory to settling in Florida.
* * * * *
The last monthly report of the president of the Commercial Industrial
Association, of Montgomery, Ala., contained this paragraph:
“There is now a general interest in the subject of immigration to the
South. The marked falling off in railroad earnings, with prospects for
continued small returns, has aroused the great lines in the South to
the necessity of making well directed efforts to induce Northern and
Western people to visit the South and invest along the various roads.
Some of the leading lines have called conventions of their agents to
discuss ways and means to promote an increase of traffic and business.
This association, with the other commercial bodies of the State, will
assist in every laudable effort to induce desirable people to build up
the waste places of the State, increase the population and promote the
general prosperity.”
* * * * *
The North Alabama Immigration Company is an organization formed at
Florence, Ala., for the purpose of bringing immigrants to Lauderdale
county and surrounding sections. The officers are J. Overton Ewin,
president; R. G. Banks, general manager; R. T. Simpson, Jr., attorney,
and John Rather Jones, secretary and treasurer. The company expects
to take several excursion parties to that section of Alabama from the
Northwest. Dr. N. A. Nelson is the Northwestern agent at Dawson, Minn.
* * * * *
The section of the valley of Virginia around Lexington has attracted
some attention from prospective purchasers from the North, West and
Northwest, who are going to locate at some point in the Shenandoah
Valley. Additional inquiries are being made for homes and farms, and
the prospects are that as soon as the weather opens a number of these
parties will pay that section a visit to look over the country.
* * * * *
The immigration movement to Southwest Texas is progressing at a lively
rate. The new settlers are mostly from Kansas and Nebraska.
* * * * *
C. R. Camp, a home-seekers’ traveling agent, expects to take an
excursion of Northwestern farmers to points in the South some time
in March. His plan is to inaugurate a series of monthly excursions,
beginning about March 1 and continuing twelve months. He says the class
of people he will bring South are among the best citizens of the North
and Northwest, farmers who are hard working and practical, who want
good farming land, and are making the change on account of the climate.
* * * * *
A large number of farmers from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Kansas,
have settled in the neighborhood of Port Lavaca, Texas. It is here that
the Phillips Land Co., of Kansas City, Mo., has bought some 6000 acres
of land, and divided it up into small farms for German colonists.
* * * * *
On February 16th a party of sixty persons from Iowa and Nebraska
reached Fort Worth, Texas, on the way to the Gulf Coast to investigate
the fruit-growing capabilities of that region. Most of the party are
descendants of the people who built up Nebraska, and made that State
take a front rank among the wealth-producing States of the Union. While
most of them are doing well at home, they are anxious to live in a more
congenial climate, and have had their eyes on Texas for a long time.
* * * * *
In consequence of numerous inquiries from the Northwestern States, Mr.
M. V. Richards, of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co., has arranged
a number of special rate land excursions, as they are called, from
Chicago and points west of the Ohio river to Baltimore & Ohio points
in the Shenandoah Valley, in order to induce settlers to come to
this region. Mr. Richards intends to make the most of the reduction
in rates allowed by the Southern Passenger Association on certain
dates in February, March and April for the purpose of aiding Southern
immigration.
* * * * *
A large number of land seekers recently visited Crowley, La., and
most of them bought property. Indiana and Nebraska were among the
States represented. The visitors report great dissatisfaction among
the farmers of their States, and say that Louisiana will receive many
immigrants this year.
* * * * *
Messrs. Sappington & Howell, Little Rock, Ark., are working on a
plan to combine the State and railway lands in Arkansas, aggregating
7,000,000 acres, and offer them for sale at nominal prices on an
opening day, to be fixed.
* * * * *
A dispatch from Rockford, Ill., says that quite a company of Rockford’s
Swedish population are planning to move down to Mississippi this spring.
* * * * *
The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville, Ala., is in receipt of many
letters from the West asking about farm lands in the neighborhood.
Huntsville is one of the most delightful towns in the South. It is
surrounded by a splendid farming country.
* * * * *
Norwegian prospectors are going into Lawrence county, Tenn., every day
and the majority of them buy homes. There are over 100 families here.
They are good farmers and make good citizens.
* * * * *
A movement is on foot to locate upon the rich prairie and timbered
lands adjacent to and just west of Charlotte Harbor, Fla., a colony of
Bohemian agriculturists.
* * * * *
It is reported that a tract of land aggregating about 12,500 acres, at
Wilson Station, Ala., on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, has been
bought for a German colony. The first settlement will be named “Milton
Grove,” in honor of Mr. Milton H. Smith, president of the Louisville &
Nashville railroad.
* * * * *
A recent settler at North LeRoy, Fla., is so much delighted with
the country that he has persuaded seventeen families of his former
neighbors in Missouri to move to Florida.
* * * * *
The business men of Baton Rouge, La., are organizing a development
club, to further the interest in securing immigration, etc.
* * * * *
A party of twenty Illinois capitalists, including Mr. A. L. Klank, a
nurseryman of Champaign, Ill., has been looking over Arkansas with a
view to making large investments in fruit farms.
* * * * *
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railway recently took 200
home-seekers to Texas from Kansas and Nebraska, and 400 more were to
follow.
* * * * *
It is said that a transaction is now under way by which 3000 families,
representing a population of 15,000, are to be located in the Yazoo
Delta.
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