Trego County, Kansas Land Records

TREGO COUNTY, KANSAS

LAND RECORDS

FIRST KANSAS LAND COMPANY

It may also be recorded in this connection that the Closes formed the first Kansas Land Company and bought about 100,000 acres in Trego County, Kansas. In a letter from London, dated November 30, 1921, William B. Close writes:

There had been rain for three years before we bought these lands, and we sold most of them off at double the price within a year; but unfortunately a period of drought set in and the lands, being sold on time, reverted to our Company. We also bought another 100,000 acres on the Atchison Road in Kansas, near Colorado, and another 100,000 of beautiful land in the Panhandle of Texas. But unfortunately a period of drought set in, coinciding with the period of financial depression in the United States, and for a number of years there was no demand for these lands, and heavy taxes were paid each year, so that when a demand began to spring up, our friends here urged us to sell, get what money we could back out of the investment, and stop paying taxes. Had these lands been held for a year longer when the secrets of dry farming were being discovered, there would have been a large fortune waiting for the investment instead of which we did not get the whole of our money back.

At Chicago it appears that Close Brothers and Company developed a large and very successful farm loan business, borrowing money in England at from four to five per cent in those days and realizing from six and one-half to seven per cent net on their loans in this country. They had other enterprises as well, including an irrigation project at Lamar, Colorado, and the building of the White Pass and Yukon Railway in Alaska, which they financed from London.

A brief biographical statement about the four brothers who did so much to promote the settlement and up-building of northwestern Iowa will not be out of place here. The tragic end of Frederick Brooks Close occurred on the polo grounds at Sioux City, in June, 1890. James Brooks Close died on July 31, 1910. John Brooks Close, who never entered the firm but supplied it with capital, died on March 20, 1914. William Brooks Close, the sole survivor of the original partnership, was still enjoying good health, except for the effects of an operation and influenza from which he was recovering in a London hospital, when he wrote on November 30, 1921

Source: "The British in Iowa"
By Jacob Van der Zee, State Historical Society of Iowa
Published by The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1922
Transcribed by K. Torp