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Show CASH SALES, 1840-1862 215 remembered, however, that those who did not move up were not able to pay for their inclusion in such books and their record of failure is not as apparent as is the record of those who succeeded. The scattered bits of information we have on tenancy before 1880 suggests that in the fifties it was regarded as a transitional stage in which few expected to remain for long, that tenants were acquiring some livestock and equipment and, if they could not gain title to the land they were improving, they would not tarry many years on it but would strike out for free or cheaper lands farther west. 90 After learning the rudiments of prairie agriculture in Illinois or Iowa in the fifties and sixties, pioneers were conditioned for the harsher struggle on the Great Plains in Nebraska or Dakota. They could adapt themselves the more easily because they were already accustomed to the wide-open spaces, the absence of timber for fuel, construction and fencing, the tough prairie sod, and methods of drawing water from the subsoil. The role of the speculator in promoting and directing settlement to the areas in which his land lay was important. He advertised extensively in local newspapers and the larger investors inserted regular advertisements in eastern papers. Those operating on a sufficiently large scale prepared brochures describing their lands, others laid out towns, perhaps erected flour mills, set up stores and offices-for land agencies sold their land on credit, thereby enabling purchasers to invest most of their resources in improvements. Even absentee speculators on occasion showed a willingness to invest in improvements to make their land salable.91 90 The fact that some Iowa speculators were not interested in renting to tenants but preferred to turn over their investment through sale does not vitiate the argument that their activities had raised the cost of farm making and contributed to tenancy. Cf. Swierenga, pp. 334-35. 91 John W. Taylor's Descriptive Pamphlet No. I. The West, Description of Iowa. Information for Those Seeking New Homes or Profitable Investments (July, 1860); Catalogue of Lands in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc., for Sale by Cook & Sargent, Davenport, Iowa; Cook, Sar- Canals, river improvements, railroads, even wagon roads promised to do much for new communities. It was easy for most inhabitants to favor liberal grants of public lands to make their construction possible. But the West could never have gained such aid for these much desired improvements if easterners like Daniel Webster, Congressman John A. Rockwell from Connecticut, Senator Henry Hub-bard from New Hampshire, and many others with investments in the West had not come to its assistance. To the four states of Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin 16 million acres were given for transportation improvements. With rare exceptions the owners or managers of these enterprises were anxious to settle their lands. Traffic would assure profitable operations of the lines and to provide that traffic they had to settle farm makers on their land and on the alternate reserved sections held by the government. At the same time they hoped to sell their lands at prices that would substantially contribute to construction costs. Withholding the lands from market did nothing but harm. Consequently, every effort was made to get purchasers who would create farms or promote towns. Over and over the companies reiterated their disinclination to sell to mere speculators although sometimes their officers, in a desire to make their annual reports show rapid progress, did sell large blocks of land to purchasers of this description. Railroad Land Sales What individual speculators did on a relatively modest scale in advertising their lands, the railroads did on a magnificent scale. The Illinois Central, the first of all the land grant railroads and in one respect the most successful-it recovered from land sales the full cost of building its 705 miles of aided mileage- gent & Downey, Iowa City, Iowa; Cook, Sargent & Cook, Des Moines, Iowa; Cook, Sargent & Parker, Florence, Nebraska (Davenport, Iowa, 1858); Northern Iowa. Containing Hints and Information of Value to Emigrants (Dubuque, 1858). |