Armée du salut

What Others Think of the Salvation Army Colony at Amity Prowers Count Colorado. Being a Few Letters from Neighbors Friends and Visitors

1904 · 20638 — 1904. 31 pp with illustrations from photographs in original wrappers. Spine covered with archival tape line in ink on the margin of one page otherwise clean and sound. In 1898 the Salvation Army undertook a project intended to relocate urban working poor people to rural areas and enable them to become productive farmers. The idea for the project came from Salvation Army founder William Booth who described the concept in his book In Darkest England and the Way Out 1890. General Booth's daughter Emma and son-in-law Fredrick St. George de Lautour Booth-Tucker took charge of the Salvation Army in the United States in 1896 and they took it upon themselves to put General Booth's plan into action. The plan was characterized by Frederick Booth-Tucker as an experiment in "domiculture" or the cultivation of families on family farms. The Booth-Tuckers appointed Col. Thomas Holland as the National Colonization Secretary and together they chose sites in California Colorado and Ohio for the colonies. Source: Schemp Fort Amity An Experiment in Domiculture 2011. The Amity colony was settled by thirty families from Chicago and Iowa each of whom received ten acres of land livestock and tools. By 1903 the colony had 450 residents. In 1904 when this collection of testimonials was produced--presumably as both a fundraising tool and a response to naysayers--the project still seemed like it might succeed. That it did not closing in 1909 was apparently not due to any failure in selecting worthy colonists but because the Salvation Army officials had purchased land that was so alkaline that sustainable farming was impossible. Three copies located in OCLC. unknown books