Hebron Colony Records

"Encouraged by the example of the society just discussed, other Evangelical Germans banded themselves together to found a similar organization under the title of German Evangelical Colonization Association of Chicago, Illinois.  This body perfected its organization on October 16, 1884.  Its purpose, too, was that of settling in the Northwest and of transplanting the Evangelical church into that region.  They, too, sent out a deputation to locate a suitable site for settlement.  After extensive wanderings the site of the present town of Hebron was decided upon as a nucleus of the proposed colony.  They had the benefit of the experience of the New Salem colony and in many ways followed its example.  One measure which the officers of the younger organization constantly insisted upon was this, that only such men as were able bodied and willing to battle with the wilderness, and who had at least $500.00 in cash, should venture to go to the settlement.  Due, no doubt, to such precautionary measures, the Hebron colony was spared certain unpleasant experiences which a better mutual understanding might have avoided at New Salem.  Early in April, 1885, the first allotment of settlers arrived at the present site of Hebron, then a vast unimproved prairie country. The centralizing factor in these two settlements was and is, even today, the German Evangelical Church." Source: "Some Facts Concerning the Germans of North Dakota"  by Dr. William G. Bek in The Quarterly Journal of the University of North Dakota.  vol. 5 (1915): p. 338.

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