This is the oldest and doubtless best known of our colonies. The colony
lands commence 120 miles west of St. Paul and extend for 30 miles on
each side of the St. Paul and Pacific railroad. Within the bounds of the
colony are four railroad towns, one of them, Benson, being the county
seat; but the two colony towns proper, are De Graff and Clontarf, being
organized and run, as they say out West, by our own people.
In fact, Swift County Colony may very well be spoken of as two colonies,
for the present under one name, the Chippewa River dividing the colony
lands about in the center, having De Graff on the east and Clontarf on
the west. Each town too, has its own Catholic church, congregation and
resident priest--the Rev. F. J. Swift, pastor at De Graff, and the Rev.
A. Oster, pastor at Clontarf.
The colony lands on the east side of the Chippewa, stretch out from the
town of De Graff, 18 miles in length and 12 miles in width, and Clontarf
lands on the west side of the river, have equal proportions.
This division and explanation may be of service to correspondents, some
of whom frequently write to one or other of the resident priests, for
information, in preference to writing direct to the Catholic Bureau, in
St. Paul.
When Bishop Ireland in 1876, got control of the unsold railroad lands
within the present bounds of Swift County Colony, there was a large
quantity of Government lands lying beside these railroad lands, and open
for homestead and pre-emption entries, so that a great number of our
people were able to secure farms of 80 and 160 acres by merely paying
the fees of the U. S. Land Office.
Early settlers too, on the railroad lands, had an opportunity by paying
cash to get their farms much below the market value, for the St. Paul
and Pacific Railroad Company (the owner) having fallen behind hand in
paying the interest on its bonds held by foreign capitalists, these
bonds became depreciated in the market, but were, nevertheless, good for
their full amount, in payment of the lands belonging to the company.
In this way we were enabled in the first edition of our pamphlet for the
year 1877, to offer lands, much below, in some instances more than half
below, their average value; but as prices depend altogether on the
market value of the bonds, a value which is always fluctuating, we deem
it unwise to bind ourselves to arbitrary prices. The average railroad
price of lands in Swift County Colony is $6.50 per acre; the actual cash
price, by buying bonds and paying for the land with same, will be much
less than this, and we will, when called upon get the bonds for the
immigrant at their then value, but what the exact prices of the bonds
may be or how long they will remain in the market available for the
purchase of land, we cannot take upon ourselves to say.
In this connection we wish to point out to immigrants, that irrespective
of paying for land in bonds, for which they must pay cash, they can make
contracts, on long time, with the company, for their farms.
There are other ways too by which our people can make homes in this
well-settled colony. Non-Catholics who were settled in the county before
the colony was established, will be willing to sell out. Homesteaders,
too, who got their land free from the government, and made improvements,
are frequently anxious to realize a little capital by the sale of those
improved farms, and go still farther west. There is also a large
quantity of school and State lands in the county, which will be in the
market in 1879; so notwithstanding that the greater part of the colony
railroad lands have passed from the control of the Bureau into the
possession of settlers, and that all the government lands have been
taken up, we look forward, with pleasure, to see many more of our people
settling in Swift county next spring. They will find a goodly number of
their co-religionists settled before them and anxious to give them a
friendly welcome. There are very few of the New England or Middle States
that have not representatives in the colony.
From a communication received from the Register of the United States
Land Office at Benson, the county seat, we find that since the Bureau
opened this colony in 1876, 425 Catholic settlers have taken up
government land in the colony; of these, 300 families were Irish, the
remainder Germans, Poles and French. About an equal number of
Catholics--a large majority Irish--have taken railroad lands--80,000
acres of which have been sold; so that we can claim at least 800
Catholic settlers, with their families, in Swift County Colony at the
present writing. Driving west from De Graff to Clontarf, seventeen
miles, and still eleven miles farther west from Clontarf to the _Pomme
de Terre_ River, one is never out of sight of a settler's house; and
some of those farm houses would be a credit to a much older settlement,
for we have settlers who farm as much as five hundred acres, while
others again farm but eighty acres. The general quality of the soil is a
dark loam, slightly mixed with sand and with a clay sub-soil, admirably
adapted for wheat, oats, &c., &c., while the bountiful supply of good
water and the large quantity of natural meadow lands, scattered all over
the colony--there is scarcely a quarter section (160 acres) without its
patch of natural meadow--give the settler an opportunity to combine
stock raising and tillage on his farm.
The village or town of De Graff has a railroad depot and telegraph
office; a grain elevator, with steam power--which is the same as saying,
a cash market for all farm produce--six or seven stores, with the
general merchandise found in a country town; lumber yard, machine
warehouse, blacksmith, carpenter and wagon maker shops; an immigrant
house, where persons in search of land can lodge their families until
they are suited; a resident doctor, and resident priest, Rev. F. J.
Swift; a fine commodious church; a handsome school house and pastor's
residence. No saloon. The business men of the town are our own people,
and a Catholic fair, for the benefit of the new church, held last fall,
and patronized exclusively by the colonists, netted $1,000 clear.
Traveling along the railroad and passing through Benson, half way
between De Graff and Clontarf, we come to the latter, the youngest town
in this young settlement, but it has a very fine class of settlers
around it: west of the village the land is as fine as any in the State,
known as the Hancock Ridge.
Clontarf has two general stores, a grain elevator, an immigrant house, a
railroad depot, blacksmith shop, a large church and a very handsome
residence for the priest, the Rev. A. Oster. No part of the colony is
settling up more rapidly than the portion around Clontarf and several
new buildings will go up in the village next summer. Swift County Colony
is fast beginning to wear the features of a settled community. Many of
our farmers have harvested this year their second crop; our merchants
report that they are doing a lively business; bridges are being built,
roads laid out, plans of improvement discussed by the settlers; and we
challenge any part of the West to produce a more intelligent rural
class.
True to the memory of the old land and their love for their church, the
settlers have given familiar names to many of the townships in the
colony, such as Kildare, Cashel, Dublin, Clontarf, Tara, St. Michaels,
St. Josephs, St. Francis, &c., &c.
The St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, running through the whole length of
the colony, has, by its late extension, become one of the great railroad
thoroughfares of the northwest, and added much to the value of the
colony lands. Commencing at St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, it
crosses the Northern Pacific at Glyndon in this State and continues on
to St. Vincent, situated on the line separating the State of Minnesota
and the British Possessions in Manitoba. Here it connects with a
railroad just completed and running to Winnipeg, the capital of the
British province of Manitoba.