Catholic Colonization in Minnesota Part 11

Here is another case, which occurred a few months after Swift Colony was opened and while the country around looked still wild and lonely.

Two men arrived here from Philadelphia. They went on to the Catholic colony in Swift County, and in a day or two returned, saying that they had made up their minds to go back to Philadelphia. Why? Did they not find everything as it was reported to them? "Oh, yes, the land was good, and there was a good chance for a poor man to make a home on it, if he could content himself, but it was too lonely for them."

Lonely, to be sure it was; with the noise of the city still ringing in their ears, with its crowds and its gaslights still in their eyes, these men found the prairie lonely, and without pausing to consider all the circ.u.mstances, they turned their back upon it.

They were both decent, intelligent men, and, had they remained, taken land, gone to work, opened a farm, and seen their first crop ripening, you could no more have got them back to Philadelphia than you could get them into the penitentiary.

Now, we say to those for whose benefit this pamphlet has been written, if you come here you must come fully prepared to feel the effects of a great change. If you come from a city, you will, doubtless, feel lonely for a while, until you get accustomed to prairie life; you will miss many immediate comforts; you will have to put up with discomforts, with disappointments, with trials. The man who feels he can stand up against all such difficulties in the present, and look bravely to the future for his reward, let him come to Minnesota. The man who feels within him no such strength, who is easily disheartened and inclined to listen to the idle talk of every man whom he meets, let him stop away and listen; better to listen now, where you are, than after going to the expense of coming here.

To the family man we say: We would much prefer that you should come on here in the spring and see for yourself before breaking up your present home and bringing on your family.

If you settle down, you can send or go for your family; if you are not pleased with the change, there will not be much harm done.

Another very important piece of advice we give to you: If your wife is very much opposed to going upon land, do not come out. A discontented wife on a new farm is far worse than the Colorado beetle. But if she urges you to come, if, in this matter, she thinks of your welfare and that of her children, rather than of the society of the gossips she will leave behind her; if she says to you, "we will have the children out of harm's way anyhow," then come with a brave heart and the smile of the true wife and mother shall be as a sunbeam in your prairie home.

HOW TO SECURE GOVERNMENT LAND.

Although we cannot promise government land in any of our colonies, still we give the following synopsis of the laws affecting such land, as likely to be of benefit to those who wish to secure homes in this way.

HOMESTEADS.

1. _Who may enter._--First, every head of a family; second, every single person, male or female, over the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States, or have declared their intentions to become such.

2. _Quant.i.ty that may be entered._--80 acres within ten miles on each side of a land-grant railroad, and 160 acres without.

3. _Cost of entry._--Fourteen dollars.

4. _Time for settlement._--After making his entry the settler has six months within which to remove upon his land.

5. _Length of settlement._--The settler must live upon and cultivate his entry for five years. At any time after five, and within seven years, he makes proof of residence and cultivation.

6. _Proof required._--His own affidavit and the testimony of two witnesses.

7. _Residence._--Single, as well as married men, are required to live upon their homesteads.

8. _Soldiers' Homesteads._--Every honorable discharged soldier, sailor or marine, who served for ninety days, can enter 160 acres within railroad limits, upon payment of eighteen dollars. The time spent in the service will be deducted from the five years' residence required.

TIMBER CULTURE ENTRY.

1. _Who may enter._--The same qualifications are required as in a homestead entry.

2. _Quant.i.ty that may be entered._--40, 80, or 160 acres.

3. _Limitations._--But one-fourth of any section can be entered.

4. _Requirements._--No settlement is required. By the amended law only ten acres need be broken and set out in trees on 160 acres, (quarter section.)

First year, break five acres.

Second year, break five acres and cultivate in crop first year's breaking.

Third year, set out trees in first five acres broken and crop second five acres.

Fourth year, set out trees in latest five acres broken.

N. B.--Seed or cuttings can be put in in place of trees.

If the timber entry be but 80 acres, one-half the quant.i.ty before given is planted; if 40 acres, one-fourth.

5. _Proof required._--Affidavit of party, and testimony of two witnesses.

6. _Cost of entry._--Fourteen dollars for any entry, without regard to quant.i.ty.

A man making a Homestead entry, is also ent.i.tled to make a Timber-culture entry. This would give him, outside of the ten miles railroad grant, half a section of land; a son or daughter, twenty-one years of age, can also enter under the Homestead and Timber-claim acts, half a section; and thus one family can secure a whole section of land.

PRE-EMPTION ACT.

Under this act, a man can enter 80 acres of government land, inside the ten miles railroad limits, price $2.50 per acre; or 160 acres, outside the railroad grant, for which he will have to pay, getting two years time $1.25, government price.

If he wishes, he can pay up in six months, on proof of actual residence, having made the improvements on the land required by the law, which are easily done, and get his t.i.tle; having secured this, he can then enter 80 or 160 acres more, under the Homestead act. He cannot Pre-empt and Homestead at the same time.

None of the government conditions for securing land are at all burdensome to the actual settler; whether required by law or not, to be a farmer, a man must live upon his land and cultivate it.