idly in the landowning Hebrew. The Hebrew on the land is peaceable and law abiding, but he does not tamely submit to oppression and has a highly developed sense of personal rights, civil and economic. The rural Hebrew has shown his capacity for self-government, and no colonies were visited whose members voted less as a unit than those where rural Hebrews made up a material part of the electorate. The gravest charge against the Hebrew farmer as a class is that he is not strictly honest in business transactions, but these are charges. simply, and there is reason to believe that the settlement of Hebrews has raised the moral tone of more than one community. Crimes are almost entirely unknown in Hebrew rural communities and the sacredness in which the family relation is held has become proverbial. Despite these virtues, a. study of several settlements does not lead to the conclusion that the Hebrew is or is likely to be an important factor in American rural life. The business of agriculture is in too many instances incidental, the farm is too often a speculative venture rather than a home, and there is too little permanence in his proprietorship. More than all, the children love the land even less than native American young people, and from the Commission's inquiries it is apparent that very few intend to spend their lives in the country. That many mistakes have been made in methods of colonizing the Hebrews all who know the facts will readily admit, but it is questionable whether, after all, the source of failure does not lie in the fact that few of the Hebrews settled were adapted to agriculture. The Jewish Aid Society is doing everything in its knowledge to promote Hebrew agriculture, to make farm life agreeable and profitable, and to establish the race as a factor in farming in the United States. If the Hebrew on the farm can be made to enjoy the same prosperity as his brother in commerce or industry, this desirable result may be brought about. Without pronounced material prosperity, however, it is doubtful whether there will be any considerable and permanent movement toward rural life. CHAPTER II. CHESTERFIELD AND COLCHESTER, CONN., DAIRYING AND SUMMER BOARDER AGRICULTURE. INTRODUCTION. The Hebrew colonies in New England are for the most part confined to the State of Connecticut although there is one colony not far from Holliston, Mass. The largest colonies are located on what is perhaps the most unfruitful soil in Connecticut. There are few places more rough, broken, stony, and barren than the height of land that runs north and south through the State east of the Connecticut Valley and including the central portions of Tolland, the western part of New London, and the eastern sections of Middlesex counties. On the summits of the ridges, in New London County, where the natural drainage carries part of the water southeast to the Thames, part south into the Sound, some west and southwest into the Connecticut, and some by a northward course into smaller tributaries, is the Hebrew settlement at Chesterfield and Oakdale. This is the oldest, the largest, and perhaps the best known of the New England colonies. The means of ingress and egress for the colony is by wagon road to New London, some 12 miles southeast of the village of Chesterfield. This colony with its environs numbers about 90 families of Hebrews, owning approximately 80 farms devoted to general agriculture, dairying, and keeping summer boarders. Northwest of Chesterfield about 12 miles and 20 miles east of Middletown is Colchester, the center of a second settlement of Hebrews, scattered through two townships on some of the most stony, hilly, and worn-out farms in New England. In this colony there are 86 taxpayers on the tax lists, operating approximately 80 farms. The recent settlement at Ellington, Conn., is described elsewhere in this report." In the vicinity of Holliston, Millis, and Medway, Mass., in much more flourishing, accessible, and prosperous communities, some 40 families of Russian Hebrews pay taxes on real estate, live on farms, and carry on certain commercial and industrial enterprises that seem to be a combination of agriculture, stock buying, junk handling, and keeping summer boarders. All the colonies or settlements mentioned above were visited by the agents of the Commission, who interviewed 41 farmers on their farms. and gathered statistics from prominent Hebrews, town officers, business men, and others who were in a position to give information of value. In addition to the settlements visited there are two others in Massachusetts-one near Attleboro and a larger one in Berkshire County, and at least two in Connecticut, one of them in Fairfield County, near Stepney, where the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial See following chapter. Aid Society reports 50 families, and a small colony at Cornwall Bridge, in Litchfield County. The estimate of Hebrew farmers in New England made by the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society in their 1909 report is 748. The number of farmers actually listed on the (1909) tax rolls of the townships visited was just about 60 per cent of the society's estimate for those townships, and if that percentage holds good for the estimated 289 farmers in the townships not visited by the agents of the Commission, there are according to the tax lists, about 450 Hebrew persons who have a proprietary interest in about 410 farms in New England. There are several possible explanations of the discrepancies between the assessors' accounts and those of the Jewish society. In a number of cases the society made approximations only, while in instances it is probable that the grown-up sons and the father—all living on one farm-were listed as "farmers." The following table compares the number of Hebrew farmers reported by the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid Society, with the number of tax-paying farmers and farms assessed, in the various New England colonies included in the Commission's inquiry. TABLE 2.-Hebrew farmers in certain New England settlements. In addition to the settlements considered in the preceding table the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Society reports other groups of Hebrew farmers as follows: Near Hartford, 32; Stepney, Conn., 58; Cornwall Bridge, Conn., 20; Sandisfield, Mass., 68; others in New England, 111. None of these were included in the Commission's inquiry. HISTORICAL. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the founding of the Chesterfield rural community originated in three families of Hebrews who were assisted to settle as mill hands at New London and Norwich in 1891. They were assisted by the United Hebrew Charities of New York, and the account continues, "they succeeded so well that in a short time they were able to buy cheap farms of their own near Norwich." The date of the founding of the actual colony is given as 1892, when one Hayyim Pankin, a Russian Hebrew, succeeded in persuading 28 families of Hebrews from New York to come with him to Chesterfield (not far from Norwich), and by the aid of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, purchase farms and engage in dairying. Dairy farming required some outlay for cows and buildings, but there were old houses and barns on a good many farms-farms that had been abandoned or half abandoned years before-and in some cases "stock and tools were purchased with the land." The farms varied in size from 40 to more than 200 acres, but a large percentage of the area was rough and too stony to cultivate, and another large proportion was in woodland and wild pasture, overgrown with brush and covered with moss. Perhaps one-sixth of the land was cleared. The price paid was seldom more than $15 an acre, and a good deal of the land cost less than $10; some was purchased for as little as $6 in lots of 100 acres or more. It was paid for, one-half cash down and about one-half on 6 per cent mortgages. The money borrowed from the Baron de Hirsch Fund was secured by second mortgages." But it is evident from the information secured by the Commission that there were a number of Hebrew farmers in the vicinity before the Pankin group arrived. Of 24 farmers interviewed, 6 had bought or leased land in the vicinity of Colchester and Chesterfield in 1890 and 1891. In April, 1891, there were 19 farms (2,376 acres) operated by Hebrews. These farmers had all come from New York, but one or two of them had engaged in business in New London or as peddlers through the country adjacent. Few had ever been farmers before; some had been caught by newspaper advertisements of fine opportunities and cheap living on the old farms and just at a time when business was very dull and times very hard in the other cities. Inquiry of early settlers developed the information that there were Hebrew owners in Salem and Montville townships as early as 1887. But for all practical purposes the foundation of the settlement may be dated 1890. This first nucleus brought others, including the Pankin colony. The Jewish Encyclopedia states that in January, 1892, there were 52 farms, aggregating 7,843 acres (1,420 acres cleared land), operated by a total population of 491 Hebrew persons, or an average of 9.4 persons per farm, in Connecticut. This is an exceedingly high average household and is explained by the fact that frequently two families lived as one household, having bought the land in partnership. There was no lack of laborers, and each household was well able to do its own farm work. Indeed the problem of feeding these large families was of first concern. There were no outside industries by • See Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 260. American Jewish Yearbook. |