Atwood Colony, Atwood Colorado – 1891 – 1899
I am attempting to compile
several sources into these documents.
These include personal accounts, books, articles and other publications
listed at the end of this writing.
From Pioneers, Peddlers,
and Tsedakim by Ida Uchill:
Unfortunately the story of the Atwood Colony appears never
to have been recorded. As it is told here, it is pieced together from four,
frequently conflicting accounts by former colonists, and from the minutes of
the B.nai Brith lodge which became involved in the colony’s affairs. (U)
With the intensification of anti-Jewish feelings in many
parts of Russia, increasing numbers of immigrants found their way to Colorado.
(U)
In 1891, the National B’nai Brith requested the Denver lodge
to report a plan for the systematic distribution of Russian Jews throughout
Colorado. A proposal was made to the
lodge by T. C. Henry, a prominent irrigation man and land developer. Although
the lodge minutes do not reveal his plan, subsequent events indicate what his
suggestions were.
According to Mary Fine Fishman, who at sixteen was the
colony’s secretary, a group of sweatshop workers, tailors and small businessmen,
who had met at laandsmanshaft gatherings in Philadelphia had heard that there
was land in the far west suitable for farming. All of them were poor and had suffered greatly
in the Panic of 1893. They met together in 1894 to discuss what possibilities
there might be for them to form a colony and acquire land. Mrs. Fishman, relates that a member of the
group, a Mr. Silver, was sent to Baron de Hirsch with the idea of the
philanthropic financing a colony. Since the Baron had established the fund
named for him in New York in 1891. With the purpose of aiding immigrants in the
establishing themselves throughout the US, the delegate was surprised when the
Baron refused.
Thereupon , the group, most of whom could neither speak nor
write English adequately, sent Mary to her school teacher asking that she write
an advertisement to the effect that a
group of twenty-five families want to be settled on farmland. The price of the
land was to be about three or four dollars and acre which was enticing. The ad
brought responses from California and Colorado. The Colorado answer came from
T. C. Henry, who may have envisioned a project when he made his proposal. Silver, the delegate was sent to investigate
the Logan Valley in the area around Sterling, land Henry had under contract.
Together with Henry, the men outlined a plan in which Henry would allot cattle,
horses and lumber, and flour and potatoes for six months. Accounts did agree that at first Henry did
hold up his part of the agreement, but the demands soon proved too great.
Denver
Republican, March 16, 1896:
100 Russian Jews arrived in Galveston late on the night of
March 15, 1896 travelled on the Mallory Line steamship S. S. Concho from New
York. About 100 Russian Jews were aboard
and will be bound for Atwood, Colorado where they will settle. The tickets paid
for were 75 wholes and 18 halves. Many were children too young to pay
fares. These people were dispatched to
their destination [Atwood] via the
Houston & Texas Central [train] to Fort Worth, and then by Fort
Worth & Denver and the Union Pacific, Denver & the Gulf.
March 18,
1896 – Rocky Mountain News
The Henry Investment Company of Denver furnished land,
equipment and “everything” for the Denver Market. The Gulf train brought 100 “Russian-Hebrews”
to the Union station at 10:00 pm on March 17, 1896. $00 more are scheduled to follow in the next
few weeks. These passengers were
transferred to the Julesberg Line. There
were 75 adults and six children in this group. These Jews are a portion of that
agricultural Jewish population which was expelled from Russia along with some
Austrians who were also farmers. All of
them had spent the past few years in New York and Philadelphia and area
suburbs. They had sent a group ahead to the west, searching for an area where
they could once again be farmers. These men visited Denver and the Henry
Investment Company agreed to help them relocate to Atwood in the southern part
of Logan County. There they will each have 40 acres of land with perpetual
water rights. It will cost them$20.00 an acre. The Henry Company would also
erect houses for them and supply them with implements, tools, teams, and one
cow per family. The families do not have
to pay anything for this and will receive the land after 15 years at 6%
interest. The land is all fenced and
broken and some of it has had a crop of alfalfa. The property will be deeded to
the settlers, the company taking the mortgage.
At the request of the settlers themselves, the houses will be erected in
a compact little village, each house standing on a 2-acre lot. The settlers
coming were hand picked from their own group for their fitness. They are all
married and many speak English.
Should this experiment prove successful, there are 1,000
more families waiting in the East to join the colony.
For the first year, the members of the colony will farm
entirely under the direction of the Henry Investment company, since they know
nothing of irrigation.
After the first year ,it is believed that they will
understand irrigation system sufficiently
to proceed without direction.
Much of the land will be planted in a “market garden” the produce of
which will be disposed of in Denver. A special arrangement has been made with
the Gulf road by which advantageous rates for the marketing of this stuff will
be had. Broom corn will also be raised which the settlers will make into
manufactured articles. Contemplated are other forms of manufacturing which
include a creamery, a cannery, etc. The
idea is to have the land cultivated
entirely in small holdings with none of the larger crops like wheat, etc
that require large expenditures. The
first year, each man will be allowed to plant only enough alfalfa for his stock
with the rest of the land used for raising vegetables. Later fruits will be
grown. The company will furnish all of the seed. All the settlers are
responsible is providing the labor; the company using this labor to “good advantage”. Mr. T. C. Henry, president of the company
ensured that this project was well thought out after studying other countries
new settlements. He said, “There may be a flaw in it, but if there is we shall
remedy it as soon as discovered. There
are more than 2,000,000 acres of land under ditch in Colorado lying idle. It is
of no use to wait for people with capital to come in and buy this land for
homes. Times are so uncertain, profits so problematic that people with capital
will not farm. Only those people will farm who have to. It is because these [Russian immigrants] have
no capital that they wish to come. I am
convinced that in order to get their lands occupied the land companies of
Colorado have got to fairly exploit their lands.
March 26,
1896 – Denver Republican
The Atwood Colony is an experiment in colonization made by
the Henry Investment Company
This experiment was watched with interest because it was
thought that if successful, it would be followed by similar attempts to provide
homes for poor people and at the same time help populated some of the
agricultural valleys. .
In this experiment,
“the company sells the land on long-time contract, furnishes with all they
require in starting, including cattle, tools, houses and food”.
All of these amenities are to be paid by proceeds from the
farms. Apparently, the new citizens understand what a difficult undertaking
this will be but are grateful for the opportunity to secure homes of their own and become
independent.
These Jews are immigrants from Russia who were driven out of
that country by the tyranny of that government. Most of them originated from
Germany and although were living in Russia, German is their language.
It was thought that because they are from the peasant class,
they are used to hardship, poverty, and
hard labor and since they are used to
being frugal and working hard, they have the perseverance to succeed
under these harsh conditions. Many of them have already spent the past several
years in the Eastern United States. It
was thought that it was unlikely that those brought up in America would be less
likely to succeed. It was also thought
that Colorado would benefit from this experiment by bringing new people who
otherwise would not come, and it would help the undercultivated soil which
otherwise would remain unproductive for an indefinite time.
Related information:
Several canal companies
were formed and much surveying was done, with the view of building a ditch, but
all schemes failed until Mr. T.C. Henry, of Denver,
organized the Colorado Land and Water company, and constructed a fine large
canal at a cost of over $400,000. This canal was taken out of the river some
ten miles above Nepesta, in Pueblo county, and runs northeast to Horse creek,
covering more than 40,000 acres of the state land and as much more in the
northwestern part of the county. There are several large reservoirs in the
system. It enters Otero county north of the center of the west line, and runs
north of the Missouri Pacific railroad. The Arkansas River Land, Reservoir and
Canal company's ditch, T.C. Henry manager, starts at a point some three miles
west of La Junta on the north side of the river, and covers about 165,000 acres
in Otero, Bent and Prowers counties. It is nearly 120 miles in length, including
the Prince Reservoir lateral in Prowers county.
T.C. Henry envisioned
building a canal to transport irrigation water from
the Arkansas River near Boone to the Kansas line and irrigate a million acres
of land north of the Arkansas River. Mr. Henry started building the canal with
his own money, but quickly sold it to the Bradbury family, who in turn sold it
to the Colorado Canal Company. By 1891 the first water was released into the
canal, but the original goal of irrigating a million acres was in reality
irrigating 57,000 acres and the canal stopped in Crowley County. This
irrigation system brought a burst of growth in the population of the area, and
the dry prairie flourished.
Jewish Colony Broken Up – Logan County:
Experimenters Abandon Their Unstable Homes – Stranded in a Strange Land.
The unfortunate Immigrants from the tenement houses of New
York and Philadelphia make all sorts of charges against the management of the
colony. They are now living on the charity of co-religionists in the bottoms
but cannot do so much longer.
On last St. Patrick’s day, 76 families of Hebraic origin,
sailing from New York and Philadelphia, st foot on the block of unpaved and
ungraded street, with its eight-room hotel and five cottages, which comprises
the town of Edward. They had been led out of the far East, out of the tenement
houses and junk shops which were their first choices when they came to this
country from Russia and Poland, by the promise of T. C. Henry, prince of
Colorado Colonizers, that they would find a land flowing with milk and honey.
Sources:
Denver Republican,
March 16, 1896 p.1 publisher: Republican Publishing Co, Denver, CO 1879Denver Republican, March 18, 1896
Denver Republican,
March 26, 1896
Centennial History of
the Jews in Colorado by Allen Breck
Colorado Jewish
History by Jeanne Abrams
From Pioneers,
Peddlars, and Tsedakim by Ida Uchill:
Guide to the Jewish
Rockies by Amy Shapiro
State Historical
Society in Denver (DPL) Atwood Colony pp 156 -161
Whistlewind,
Publication of the Logan County Historical Society, Vol. 1 Issue: 3
Whistlewind,
Publication of the Logan County Historical Society Vol. 2 issue: 4
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