Le Mars - An Iowa Colony of Englishmen
KERNAN
Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall (email)
Date: 5/22/2006 at 05:16:45
The Town of Le Mars.
An Iowa Colony of Englishmen Described by Kernan.
Striking Individuality of the Place. Teaching Aristocrats Farming at $600 a Year -- Days of Anarchy and Bloodshed -- Some Reminiscences
[Special Correspondence] New York, Jan 3 -I have lived in many communities in my time, but in none that possessed a more striking individuality than Le Mars, the English colony located in northwestern Iowa, twenty-five miles east of Sioux City. Picturesquely situated on the banks of the Floyd river, and surrounded by a seemingly limitless prairie, its spires and housetops can be seen for a distance of thirty miles on any of the bright, clear, wonderful days that make the climate of imperial Iowa the most pleasant in the world.
The Duke of Sutherland, traveling through the west when Le Mars was a nameless shanty settlement, saw the potentialities of the place, and bought 67,000 acres of land in the vicinity. A little later a London syndicate of fabulous wealth purchased great tracts of territory in the county, and advertised its advantages throughout England. The present colony was the result, a colony consisting of several full-fledged lords, a whole raft of the younger sons of British noblemen, and many representatives of the middle classes, with a small sprinkling of what is known as the peasantry.
The more substantial members of the colony bought farms of the syndicate, built handsome farm houses and undertook the cultivation of the soil. They certainly introduced new methods in that direction -- methods that made the average American look on with a curious smile. To illustrate: Captain the Honorable So-and-So advertised in the English papers that he would teach thirty young men the science of farming for the sum of £120 ($600) each a year. The result was that the farm of Captain the Honorable was soon supplied with aristocratic laborers. Wealthy young men from the middle classes also flocked over to take advantage of similar offers, until Le Mars had at least 800 agriculturists in its vicinity who couldn't tell a plow from a pumpkin.
Then the fun began. The boys would do little drills of work, and make up for it by coming to town and painting it a ripe, staring red. Many of them were spendthrifts; money flowed like water, and Le Mars began to boom. Fine business blocks sprung up as if by magic; immigration poured in , and the town became the center of commerce for a vast area of country.
But it had its dark days, with which to contend when the lawless element gained the upper hand. It was during this period of anarchy that thirty-one attempts were made, inside of a year, to lay the town in ashes. Who, was the firebug? Suspicion finally centered upon a member of one of the oldest families of the aristocracy -- a young man whose father at that time held a position second to that of no judge in England. The young man was arrested, tried, acquitted, and then distinguished himself by marrying a woman of the pave and becoming a well digger by profession.
Le Mars is celebrated for its horse races and other outdoor sports. It has its regular Derby week, when the english take complete possession of the town. Hundreds of men can be seen in jocky caps, flaming scarlet shirts and black knickerbockers, on high mettled horses. English ladies drive trough its streets in queer little carts, or, if on foot, they invariably carry canes, and are followed by a parcel of dogs, generally greyhounds. The English flag loats everywhere, English airs are tooted and drummed in all directions and the English accent is heard on every hand.
Will Hubbard Kernan.
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Atchison Daily Globe (Kansas), January 15, 1887
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