Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/303

257 nmki'

Agricultural Colonies (Russia -United States)

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

257 fiinniiiir

tlicir ciiriiinirs

piiy,

Imt were coinpellpd to add to

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liuid

by

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Sonic of the orifiinal a small scale and liy tradinL'. settlers moved out of the colony during this period, and other Jewish families joined; but finding it im])ossible

to

support themselves by farming, they

sold their lioldings anil moved away (1842). The first agricultural colony of Russian Jews in the I'niled Slates .settled on Sicily Island, Catahoula jiarish, near Hayou I.ouis, J>ciuisianu. in the eastern part of the slate, not far from Louisiana. Ihe .Mississippi river. Il comprised fumilic'S from Kiev and So families from Eli zulicthgrad, and hail been partially organized When the colonists arrived in zVmerica in in IJussia. October. 1H81, they found that negotiatious for the

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energy, building fences and generally improving the land, when, early in the spring of 1882, the entire region was flooded owing to an overflow of the Mississippi river houses, cattle, im])lements, and crops being all swept away, and an expenditure estimated at over §20,000 was rendered nugatory. Some fif the colonists removed to 8an Antonio, Texas, and St. Louis, Mo., while others purchased isolated farms in Kansas and Missouri, where they are now successfully engaged in agriculture. In July, 1882, Herman Rosenthal, a Russian from Kiev, president of the Louisiana colony, headed a

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establishment of the colony in T,ouisiana ha<l been completed by H. liosenthal. A New York cununiltee consisting of M. S. Isaacs, Dr. Julius (Jnldman. M.l';ilinger,('liarles L.liernheim, and Henry S Hiiiry, acting as the represenlalives cd' the Alliance Israelite I'ruverselle of Paris. KraiKc. advanced the colonists Ihe sum of .?2.HII0, nominally as a loan and they jiostract of land, ses,sed about S2. 800 of their own. comprising about o.OOO acres, was purchased at $8 an acre. (»n their arrival at their future home, the colonists were lodgeil temporarily in three old liiiuses thai still stood on the properly, which before the Civil War hail been a plantation, and since Lumber (for the then had remained uncidlivaleil. niiniltee of Ihe Alliance, which, under ihe chairmanship of Julius Weiss, had tnken charge of the alTairs of the colony. The colonists, who numbered 173, were divided

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into tliree groups, so as to work most cfTectively on the land that had been purchased in three tracts. The grounction farms of 100 acres each, while some of the farms covered as much ,mong the .s«'ttlers as a sc|uare mile (t>40 acres). were se vend families that had joined the ill fated .settlement in Louisiana. Thecolonislsat Cremieux had means of their own. and the flrst year met with a fair measure of success. Oat.s, wheat, rye. and barley were .sown, and yielded pood crops, while especial In the secattention was paid to the raising of Max. on<l year wheat was more extensively cultivati'd but the wheal bug made its appeaninci', and a largi' part In addition to this, a proof he crop was destroyed. longe<l period of drought caused the death of many cattle In ilie lliird vear Ihunderslnrms « ire so de;

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