Prentis, Noble Lovely. "History of Kansas". Winfield, KS: E. P. Greer, 1899.
One of seven attempts to start a Jewish agricultural colony in Kansas was in Hodgeman, then Garfield, County. Beersheba was the first and probably the most successful of the colonies, even though it lasted only a few years.
The Jews who came to Kansas were Russian refugees, and they were not really accepted by the Jews who were already in the United States. The United States Jews felt embarrassed by these refugees who spoke Yiddish. "The United Jewish Charities of Rochester denounced them as a 'bane to the country and a curse to the Jews.' The Rochester UJC continued that they had 'earned an enviable reputation in the United States, but this has been undermined by the influx of thousands who are not ripe for the enjoyment of liberty and equal rights and all who mean well for the Jewish name should prevent them (as) much as possible from coming to America.'"
Two men who were East European Jewish immigrants came to southwest Kansas in June 1882 to look for land on which to begin a colony. Julius Cohen and a Mr. Goldfarb claimed a homestead about 22 miles from Cimarron, and they were the ones who took care of all legal matters for the colony.
The colony of Beersheba was located north of Cimarron and a few miles northeast of Kalvesta. Located on Pawnee Creek, there was no lumber available and the settlers arrived to find sod buildings.
The Hebrew Union Agricultural Society was formed by sympathizers to the cause. Rabbi Isaac M. Wise appealed to the Cincinnati community to provide funds to send the Jewish refugees to Beersheba. Once the funds were raised, Charles K. Davis and Leo Wise, the rabbi's son, led the contingent of settlers to Kansas. Twenty-four Jewish families left Cincinnati on July 26, 1882, to begin a new life in Kansas. When they arrived in Kansas City by train, the merchants, hotels, and railroad agents took advantage of the group's situation. They were charged more for their rooms and food, as well as supplies. By August 6, 1882, the colonists were in Cimarron, and on the 11th, they left for Beersheba with their supplies.
By January 1883, there were 80 people who had settled in the area. A synagogue and a schoolhouse, both made of sod, had been built so that they could continue to worship and to educate their children.
These settlers had never been farmers, and the colony did not do as well as it had been hoped. The Hebrew Union Agricultural Society sent a man named Joseph Baum to Beersheba to supervise the colony in the fall of 1882. Baum, with his experience as a farmer, was to advise the colonists in the ways of farming, but he was also able to take items away if the farmer didn't do well.
The colonists did not get along with Baum and by 1884, many of them had given up farming and started working for the railroad. Those that remained farmers leased parts of their land to a company that was promoting cattle trails. The HUAS was very angry that the farmers did this, and Baum was ordered to take away all the farming implements. The settlers, who had thought the implements had been given to them permanently, found out that they were given to them on a loan basis.
By 1890, the experiment of a Jewish agricultural colony had failed. Many of the colonists left Beersheba to become merchants in the nearby towns of Ravanna and Eminence. Others returned to Kansas City and St. Louis.
Sources
Harris, L. David. "Lest We Forget Beersheba". The Wichitan, February 1981.
Fitzgerald, Daniel. "Ghost Towns of Kansas". Vol. 3. Daniel Fitzgerald. 1982.
Hodgeman County was created in 1868 by an act of the Kansas Legislature; it was organized eleven years later in 1879. The county was named for a Seventh Cavalry officer, Captain Amos Hodgman. Notice that there is no E in the last name. The county's name came about because of a typographical error in which someone added the E on the piece of legislation naming the boundaries.
Settlers began arriving in the 1870's with most of them homesteading in the eastern part of the county. By 1879, the population was 1500.
An election for the county seat took place on November 4, 1879. The towns competing for the right to be the county seat were Marena, Fordham (later Orwell), Hodgeman Center (temporary county seat) and Buckner. The election was won by Buckner by a majority of forty-four votes. Buckner later became Jetmore in 1882.
A colony of African-Americans from Kentucky arrived in Hodgeman County in 1878. They settled northeast of Buckner and most of them stayed through the 1890's. Beersheba, which had been a part of Garfield County (now part of Finney County), was a Jewish Agricultural colony founded in 1882.
Sources
Raser, Margaret Haun and Ina Rumford. "A History of Hodgeman County". Hodgeman County Centennial Committee, 1961.
Marena, located on the northern edge of the present day town of Hanston, was founded by the Shook family. It was one of the contestants for the county seat in 1879. The Hann family gave some land for a town site after the railroad announced it was going to build tracks through the area. This town was to be named Hanston.
The two towns were side by side with a store, a blacksmith shop and a school in Marena, and another store and a lumber yard in Hanston. Amidst the rivalry of the two towns, the post office was named Marena when Kansas had a Republican governor (the Shooks were Republican), and when there was a Democratic governor (the Hanns were Democrats), it was named Hanston. The railroad, not wanting to be involved in the controversy, named the depot Olney. Eventually Hanston absorbed Marena, but the depot remained Olney.
The ethnicity of its settlers is unknown.
Sources
Raser, Margaret Haun and Ina Rumford. "A History of Hodgeman County". Hodgeman County Centennial Committee, 1961.