THE BOOM
This valuable tract of land comprising about fifty thousand acres had
been entered after the opening, by settlers, and lay about as near to
Kirk as it did to Megory, hence its trade was sought by both towns, but
with Kirk getting the larger part until Megory established a mill, which
paid two cents more for wheat, and the farmers took advantage by hauling
most of their produce to the former town. This included another strip of
rich territory to the north of Megory and west of Landing Creek, where
the soil is a rich gumbo, and the township thickly settled so it is
readily seen that Megory was advantageously situated to draw from all
directions. This soon brought such a volume of business into the town as
to make the most fastidious envy it, and the Megoryites were well aware
of their enviable position. The town continued to grow in a sound,
substantial way.
Nicholson Brothers began leading booster trade excursions to the north,
south, and east, with Ernest at the head in a big "Packard" making
clever speeches and inviting all the farmers to come to Calias, where a
meal at the best hotel was given free. A good, live, and effective
commercial club was organized, which guaranteed to pay all a hog, cow,
or calf would bring on the Omaha market, minus the freight and expenses.
Ernest would explain with deep sincerity which impressed the farmers of
the valley, as well as the settlers on the Little Crow, that Calias
wanted a share of their business, and was willing to sacrifice profit
for two years in order to have the farmers come to the town and get
acquainted, to see what the merchants, bankers and real estate dealers
had to offer. In making this offer the people of Calias had the
advantage over Megory, in that it derived profits from other sources,
chiefly from great numbers of transients who were beginning to fill the
hotels, restaurants, saloons, and boarding houses of the town. Being the
end of the road and the place where practically every settler coming to
Tipp County must stay at least one night, it stood to reason they could
make such an inducement and stick to it.
However, this was countered immediately by Megoryites who promptly
organized a commercial club and began the same kind of bid for trade.
Thus the small ranchmen of the valley found themselves an object of much
importance and began to awaken a little.
Now the land of the reservation had taken on a boom such as had never
been realized, or dreamed of. Land in the states of Iowa, Minnesota,
Illinois, and Nebraska had doubled in valuation in the previous ten
years, and was still on the increase in value. Crops had been good and
money was plentiful; with a number of years of unbroken prosperity, the
farmers had paid off mortgages and had a good surplus in the bank. Their
sons and daughters were looking for newer fields. Retired farmers with
their land to rent now, instead of the customary one-third delivered,
demanded and received from two-fifths to one-half, or cash, from three
to five and six dollars per acre. And with the prices in these states
ranging from ninety to one hundred and fifty dollars per acre, which
meant from fifteen to twenty-five thousand dollars to buy a quarter
section, which the renters felt was too high to ever be paid for by
farming it. Therefore, western lands held an attraction, where with a
few thousand dollars, some stock, and machinery a man could establish a
good home. As this land in southern South Dakota is in the Corn Belt,
the erstwhile investor and home-seeker found a haven.
There is always more or less gossip as regards insufficient moisture in
a new country. The only thing to kill this bogy is to have plenty of
rain, and plenty of rain had fallen on the Little Crow, too much at
times. Large crops of everything had been harvested, but if the first
three years had been wet, this fourth was one of almost continual
rainfall.
In the eastern states the corn crop had been badly drowned out on the
low lands, and rust had cut the yield of small grain considerably, while
on the rolling land of the Little Crow the season was just right and
everything grew so rank, thick and green that it gave the country, a raw
prairie until less than four years before, the appearance of an old
settled country. It looked good to the buyers and they bought. Farms
were sold as soon as they were listed. The price at the beginning of the
year had been from twenty-five to forty dollars per acre, some places
more, but after the first six months of the year it began to climb to
forty-five and then to fifty dollars per acre. Those who owned Little
Crow farms became objects of much importance. If they desired to sell
they had only to let it be known, and a buyer was soon on hand.
The atmosphere seemed charged with drunken enthusiasm. Everybody had it.
There was nothing to fear. Little Crow land was the best property to be
had, better, they would declare, than government bonds, for its value
was increasing in leaps and bounds. Choice farms close to town, if
bought at fifty dollars per acre, could be sold at a good profit in a
short time.
This was done, and good old eastern capital continued to be paid for the
land.
The spirit of unrest that seem to pervade the atmosphere of the
community was not altogether the desire to have and to hold, but more,
to buy and to sell. Homesteads were sold in Megory county and the
proceeds were immediately reinvested in Tipp, where considerable dead
Indian land could be purchased at half the price.
At about that time the auto fever began to infect the restless and
over-prosperous settlers, and business men alike. That was the day of
the many two-cylinder cars. They made a dreadful noise but they moved
and moved faster than horses. They sailed over the country, the exhaust
of the engine making a cracking noise. The motion, added to the speed,
seemed to thrill and enthuse the investor until he bought whether he
cared to or not.
In previous years, when capital was not so plentiful, and when land was
much cheaper and slower to sell, the agent drove the buyer over the land
from corner to corner, cross-wise and angling, and the buyer would get
out here and there and with a spade dig into the ground, and be
convinced as to the quality of the soil. He then pondered the matter
over for days, weeks, and sometimes months. Then maybe he would go back
and bring "the woman." The land dealers seriously object to buyers
bringing "the woman" along, especially if the farm he has to sell has
any serious drawbacks, such, for instance, as a lack of water. There
were numerous farms on the high lands of the Little Crow where water
could not be found, but they were invariably perfect in every other
respect. The perfection in the laying of the land and quality of the
soil was severely offset by the inability to get water. While on the
rougher and less desirable farms water can be easily obtained in the
draws and the hills. But the high lands were the more attractive and
were sold at higher prices and much quicker, regardless of the obvious
defects.
Now if "the woman" was brought to look it over one of the first inquires
she made would be, "Now is there plenty of water?" furthermore she was
liable to steal a march on the dealer by having her husband hire a
livery team, and with the eastern farmer and his wife drive out to the
place and look the farm over without the agent to steer them clear of
the bad places. They not only looked it over, but make inquiries of the
neighbors as to its merits. Now country people have the unpardonable
habit of gossip, and have complicated many deals of the real-estate men
by this weakness, even caused many to fall through, until, the land
sharks are usually careful to prevent a buyer from having a conversation
with "Si."
In my case, however, this was quite different. I was known as "a
booster", and since my land was located between the Monca and
Megory--this was considered the cream of the county as to location soil,
and other advantages--instead of being nervous over meeting me, the
dealers would drive into the yard or into the fields, and as I liked to
talk, introduce the prospective buyers to me and we would engage in a
long conversation at times. I might add that exaggerated tales were
current, which related how I had run as P----n porter, saved my money,
come to the Little Crow, bought a half section, and was getting rich.
The most of the buyers from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska were
unused to seeing colored farmers, and my presence all alone on the
former reserve added to their interest. In my favor was the fact that my
service in the employ of the P----n Company had taken me through nearly
every county in the central states and therefore, always given to
observation, I could talk with them concerning the counties they had
come from.
Land prices continued to soar. Higher and higher they went and to boost
them still higher, as well as to substantiate the values, the bogy
concerning insufficient moisture was drowned in the excessive rainfall.
From April until August it poured, and the effect on the growing crops
in the east became greater still in the way of drowned out corn-fields
and over-rank stems of small grain that grew to abnormal heights and
with the least winds lodged and then fell to the ground. The crops on
the reservation could not have been better and prices were high.