The departure of a goodly number of our best citizens for North Dakota on Monday of this week was the occasion for the assembling of nearly a thousand people at the railroad station in this place to bid them godspeed and wish them a prosperity and a safe journey to their far distant home. As per announcement in the TIMES of last week, the P. R. R. had a special train consisting of four fine passenger coaches and baggage car on the siding at an early hour, in charge of conductor W. S. Zeigler, flagman George Barnitz and baggage master, Frank Swope, and the throttle of engine 1000 was manipulated by Wm. Bailor with W. S. Stouffer fireman. The special was run as second section of Way Passenger and promptly at 10 o'clock the train moved off amid the mingling of tears and waiving [sic] of handkerchiefs by the immense crowd of friends present.
A like scene had not been witnessed in these parts since the days of the Civil War when Co. I of the 49th Pa. Vols. left this place for the seat of war. Places of business were closed for the time being and women folks left their domestic affairs, some the wash tub, to say farewell to their neighbors and friends who have gone west to erect new homes and better their condition in life. They carry with them the heartiest good wishes of their legion of friends for unbounded prosperity and the blessings of health. They will be sadly missed in the church and society, but our great loss will be North Dakota's gain. We append a list of colonists as far as we could ascertain their names.
Those who took the cars at Port Royal were as follows:
John S. McConnell, wife and seven children; Samuel S. Guss, wife and two sons; Charles M. Guss, wife and three children; Jackson B. Ritzman, wife and ten children; Joseph Y. Yoder, wife and three children; Geo. B. Hittle, wife and three children; George W. Fink, wife and daughter, Dessie; Walter R. Spies, wife and son; M. B., James and Sadie Miller; S. J. Kenepp; J. K. Graham; John Glase; Cloyd Kennedy; Oliver P. Strawser; Ed. Strawser; Charles Ritzman; A. J. Clark and wife; C. Z. Koons; Ella Guss; Harry Haines; John C. Bender; Sherman Weimer; Andrew Hartman and son.
The following persons got on the special train at Mifflin station: Solomon Dunn; Ora J. Guyer; W. A. Powell; J. O. Van Art; Wm. Fogleman; H. P. Clark; Wm. A. Stutts; Jacob Whitmer, wife and four children; A. Y. Noll; Henry Whitmer; S. F. Gordon.
Such was the notice in the Port Royal Times at the end of March 1899, concerning the largest "colony" of Juniata folks (82 by the paper's count) up to that time to emigrate to North Dakota along the route of the Great Northern Railroad. Some residents of Juniata County had moved to North Dakota before 1899, most of them into the northern part of that state, to land that was readily accessible primarily by the "High Line" - as the Great Northern came to be dubbed, which passed from Minnesota into North Dakota at Grand Forks, then proceeded to Devils Lake, Church's Ferry, Perth, Knox, Leeds, Rugby, and on to Minot and Williston in North Dakota.
On Monday afternoon of this week the train bearing the colony bound for North Dakota from this point was run as second section of Fast Line. An immense concourse of citizens assembled at the passenger station in this place at an early your in the afternoon to say farewell to the friends who were to bid adieu to the familiar scenes of childhood, youth and manhood as well as the loved ones who were left behind. They go out to seek new homes in the far west, and we trust their fondest expectations may be realized. They carry with them the very best wishes of those who remain at home. Fifty-nine tickets were sold at the Port Royal station, forty-eight full and eleven half tickets.
We append a list of the names of those who accompanied the excursion, several of whom only go on a sight seeing expedition:
Minot - B. F. Winters, W. H. Bair, Wm. Stewart, W. H. Winters, Frank Senden, W. I. Beale, Jennie Smith, E. S. Rhine, S. K. Groninger, S. M. Turbett, H. A. Ritzman.
Rugby - H. P. Clark, wife and six children, two Shuman children, C. W. Koons, Blanche Miller, James Miller, Lloyd Guss, Sadie E. Wharton and four children, T. A. Stewart, Maggie Yocum.
Church's Ferry - Wm. H. Bender, W. S. Weimer, E. M. Bailor, wife and six children, W. J. Culbertson, H. K. Wyble, I. N. Seiber and two children, Mrs. J. H. Wagner and two children, C. H. Groninger, wife and 2 children.
Bottineau - E. C. Culbertson, C. H. Hinckle, D. B. Reitz, John Glace, wife and five children, Harry Baker, Mason Zimmerman.
Knox - L. W. Robison, Cloyd Rice.
Perth - Albert Pyles
This article in the Port Royal Times in late March of 1900, told of the next-largest departure of a "North Dakota Colony" from Port Royal and Patterson. Most of the people who were listed in the colony of 1900 are additional to those named as leaving in 1899. The only repeated names in these two groups mentioned are John Glase (Glace), James Miller, and H. P. Clark. All told, in these two large groups, there are 131 different people mentioned as being on these special trains from Port Royal and Patterson. Of course, some of those going on the trip were, as noted, intending only to have a sight seeing trip and then return to Juniata County.
One of the most-asked questions concerning these emigrants from Juniata County to North Dakota is , "Why would they want to go to North Dakota?" As we shall see, the answer is rather simple - first and foremost was the availability of cheap land, in fact, practically free land under the Homestead Act. Secondly, wages were generally higher in "the west" than they were at home in Juniata County. The Homestead Act, which became law in 1862 and went into effect on 1 January 1863, made the acquisition of public land from the United States domain by its citizens much easier than it had been up to that time. Any person who was a citizen of the United States and who was the head of a household or had reached the age of 21 could, for a ten-dollar filing fee, go to the United State Land Office and file for as much as 160 acres (a "quarter-section"), and at the cost of residing on that land for three years, and of improvement and cultivation of the land, acquire a patent from the United States, which gave him ownership free and clear.
Immigrants who had filed for their "first papers" for citizenship were also eligible to file claims for up to 160 acres under the Homestead Act. A person filing for a Homestead claim could not own more than 160 acres of any other land in the United States at the time that he filed. The first district land office in North Dakota was opened at Pembina in 1870, and in the next year the railroad had crossed the Red River into the Dakota Territory. In 1872 the Soldiers' and Sailors' Additional Homestead Act allowed veterans of the Civil War to count their military service toward the five years required to gain title to a free homestead.
North Dakota experienced two separate "boom" periods of rapid settlement. The first of these occurred from 1878 to 1890, and the second from 1898 to about 1915. Settlement in the northern tier of North Dakota and Montana was primarily in the area served by the Great Northern Railroad. The "Pennsylvania Colony" should be considered a part of this second boom period of immigration to North Dakota, even though a very few people from Juniata County probably went to the Dakota Territory prior to 1890.
