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here at Benson has been of great service in directing his countrymen, but, of course he has his duties to attend to. and cannot spare time in traveling round with them. D. O’B.P. S. Since the above was written, I have visited the land^office at Litchfield and find that a telegram from the clerk of the district court does not secure claim, that the papers must arrive at the land office before the land is entered as taken, this being so, I cannot advise per sons, in cases where there is a rush for land, not to file anywhere but at a U. S land office. D. O’B.SOUTHWESTERN MINNESOTA.From St. James, in Watonwan county to Le Mars in Iowa, a distance of about 120 miles the St. Paul and Sioux City railroad company, has planted belts of timber to protect its road from snow drifts and also to set a good example in tree planting, to settlers on the prairies through which the road runs Some of the young plantations in the Minnesota division of the line have been greatly injured by the grasshoppers, but whereever demage has been done the trees will be renewedWe look upon the good work of th railroad companies in setting out trees along their lines of railroad,—the companies that have done so being the St. Paul and Sioux City and the St. Paul and Pacific,—as the policy from which we may date the wide spread public interest now evinced in tree planting ail over the state.And here, in passing we will say that above all others the state is indebted t° Geo. I.. Becker, for the young groves of timber now springing up and yearly increasing on our prairie3 and for L. B. Hedges, whom Mr. Becker selected to take charge of the trees.Mr. Hodges is an enthusiast on the subject ol tree planting, therefore he has succeeded in going ahead and draw us all alter him inspired, iu a measure, by his honest seal.‘Give fools thtir sold and knaves their power U-t fortunes bubbles rise and fall,Who sows a field or trains a flower.Or plants a tree is more than all.”There was uo place along the line ol the Sioux City road we were more anxious to visit than Mountain Lake, where is located a Mennonite colony of about 120 families. However these aro only the pioneers of the large settlement ol those people which will undoubtedly form here; one hundred and twenty more families are coming to the settlement this spring direct from Russia. A good proot that those who have already settled in Minnesota, are well salbfitd for the Mennonites are a cautious,system atic people, who do not move without knowing where they are going to.They are a robust, red-cheeked exceedingly amiable looking people. We did not see one bad countenanced man or woman among the Mennonites|at Mountain Lake and the old men are so mild and venerable looking that we would have been quite pleaded to have been able to converse with them in Ger man. As it was, we struggled iuto an acquaintance, assisted by an interpreter,house,bedrooms about the room with the furnace, also a shed, into which the door of the furnace opens, lrom this shed the furnace is fed, and as the straw or hay is well packed, it has only to be put twice a day intD the turnace. Ten tons of hay is quite sufficienior the winter fuel of one lamily.The Mennonites are never sick, never quarrel, never swear, therefore there is neither lawyer, doctor nor devil, among them. We think that it is very possible they will spread all over Cottonwood county, for coming with ready money they can always buy out American settlers.Mountain Lake^settlementjis 136 miles from St Paul, and half way between St. Paul and Sioux City.Four miles from Mountain Luke, and three thousand from the ocean on which he had sailed for thirty years, lives, on a good larm. Captain Morris Dunn who commanded a merchant vessel, sailing lrom Liverpool, lor twelve of the thirty-two years he was a sailor. His nephew, Louis Dunn, also a salt water sailor lives here and we felt surprised at finding two old sailors so far from the ocean, but, ; verv glad nevertheless to meet two good Irishmen whether on land or sea.The Mennonites speak i.ighly of the honorable,generous way they have been treated by the St. Paul and Sioux City railroad company. Those of them who bought land irom other parties, were treated with equal kindness and liberality, as those who bought from the company.From Mountain Lake we went to Win-dom the county seat of Cottonwood ouuty, 118 miles from St. Paul. It is located at the crossing of the Des Moins river, and has an excellent water-power; population of village 300. It has twelve stores, one ehurche, a school house costing f 1000, two hotels, blacksmith and h irnesss shop, one elevator, two grain houses, a lumber yard, kept by Captain Gilleland, a well knowu river captain. Windom is a trading point, not alone for the surrouuding counties but also for a portion of northern Iowa. But for the grasshoppers it would be now far on the road to prosperity.Of all the counties in the state, this fine county of Cottonwood has suffered most from *the grasshopper. In 1873, and 74, it lost portions of the crop, and almost the whole of the crop of 7 o.Up to the luth of last July the crops, all over the county looked so splendidly that the settlers were in the highest spirits calculating that the one fine return they looked torward to would com pensate them for the set backs ol the two former years; but at noon on the 10th of July the heavens were darkened with clouds of grasshoppers and befort night had set in the people realized tha the fruits lt;t their labor and industry lo a whole year was swept away. Fron the figures made by the county auditor it is estimated that last year the count lost two hundred and eighty thousand six hundred bushels of wheat, one hun dred and thirty-four thousand, lour hurwhom the Mennonites did notdred bushels ol corn.
Newspaper Details
Saint Paul Anti Monopolist
Saint Paul, Minnesota, US
Thu, Apr 06, 1876
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Jennifer P.
USA 28 Feb 2024
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