A Polish Colony in the Washington Woods

WHATCOM, Feb. 21.—Special.—Jerry Neferer, attorney of the Rapperswyl Colony Company, returned Sunday from the East, where he has been in consultation with Rev. Father Klawiter and others connected with the colony movement, which now bids fair to reach large proportions and prove of very great benefit to Whatcom county. Mr. Neferer says that in and about the cities of Duluth, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee and Chicago there are many hundreds of Poles and Swiss who are dissatisfied for various reasons, principally climatic, with their present surroundings, and are anxious to change their location. Strong efforts are being made to colonize them in Tennessee and Mississippi, and this is the principal influence that the leaders of the Rapperswyl colony movement here have to combat.

That is largely counterbalanced, however, by the great personal influence of Rev. Father Klawiter, who is said to be a man of national reputation in Poland, and one whom Poles generally regard with the utmost confidence and respect. He is at the head of the movement to establish a large colony on the south fork of the Nooksack river in this county at the place now called Acme.

The colony is to be called Rapperswyl, in honor of the town and colony of Rapperschwyl on the southeastern border of the canton of Zurich, in Switzerland, established upon invitation of the liberty-loving Swiss after the ruthless dismemberment of Poland by Russia, Prussia and Austria, and when the persistent persecution of the conquerors drove many thousand Poles to seek new homes in other countries. The Swiss colony flourished; a town of considerable importance sprang up; schools and churches were established, and the place is now said to be one of the richest and most substantial of its size in all Switzerland.

Peter Zobrist, the secretary of the colony company in this country, is a Swiss, and he expects that in course of time a good many Swiss people will join the Acme colony. The company has about 15,000 acres bonded on the south fork, and in addition has options on a large amount of fine land on the north fork and in the vicinity of Lake Terrell. The price of the land is very low and the terms of payment easy. No land is sold to any person except upon satisfactory evidence of ability to pay for it, and no person is encouraged to purchase unless he has sufficient means to make necessary improvements and live comfortably until some income can be derived from the sale of timber, stock and products of the soil.

The four men mentioned in the Post-Intelligencer Sunday as a committee sent out to examine the land in the interest of prospective colonists represent about fifty Polish families in or near Duluth. They were so well satisfied with the situation at Acme that they did not care to look at other lands, and three of them are now on their way back to Minnesota to report favorably and get their families, having already selected lands for themselves and some others whom they represent. The other member of the committee decided that it would not be necessary for him to return, and he has already secured his land and gone to work. Father Klawiter will be in Chicago in a week or two, and will not return here for about two months.