Disadvantages Of The American Colony Plan Pros And Cons

The idea of the colony plan was an old one, first adopted by the English, Dutch and Huguenots in founding settlements on the Atlantic coast. It gave the average settler many advantages which only wealthy individual land owners had in the past. A hundred settlers, each with $1000, could do as much on a tract of land as a capitalist with $100,000. In many cases they did even more since they were working for themselves, rather than a landlord. There were also social advantages in this form of settlement. From the beginning the settlers felt they were among friends. As soon as they planted their land they erected a school, lecture hall and church, and formed the nucleus of a public library and literary society. All of this was done on the section

There was a tremendous land boom in Southern California when the new transcontinental Santa Fe railroad was completed in 1885. A price war developed between the Santa Fe and the older Southern Pacific with tickets falling from $52.50 in 1883 to $4 in 1886. Thousands moved to the Southland, many of them to Willmore City. Many years later when Willmore returned to the town he had founded, he was bitter. Members of the Long Beach Land and Water Company, several of whom were original investors in the American Colony Association, had managed to recoup their original investment and more due to the 1886 land boom. Willmore, however, the one who had dreamed the dream of a seaside city, was living in abject poverty while others he had worked with had grown rich. Perhaps the greatest blow of all was changing the name of the

Told they would have to form their own city if they wanted a separate depot and post office, the citizens of South Clearwater agreed. When they petitioned Congress for a post office, however, they were told the Post Office Department would not establish a branch unless a shorter name was chosen for South Clearwater. At this time the railroad manager was S. B. Hynes. Residents, including Epping, decided to name the new town after Hynes hoping that by appealing to his ego they would get a station. However, Hynes didn’t take the bait. It took more than a name change to get the depot. It wasn’t until the area grew and the railroad changed hands that a station was put in at Hynes. Through the years, as the boundaries of the two towns moved closer and closer, they became known as Clearwater-Hynes. In 1948 the two cities merged and a new name, Paramount was adopted. Paramount Boulevard, named for the movie company, was the main street through both Clearwater and Hynes. Both towns agreed it was as good a name as any for the newly created