The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

On the Wing,

You inquire, August 22, 1873.

The Mennonites—An Effort Made Under Gov. Stevenson's Administration to Attract Them to West Virginia.

Commenting on a recent remark of ours that we had not heard of any effort on the part of the West Virginia authorities to attract the Mennonite immigrants in this direction, the Parkersburg Times says:

"We are able to inform our cotemporary that an effort to attract the Mennonite immigration to West Virginia, was made as early as October, 1869, by J. H. Diss Debar, then Commissioner of Immigration.

This officer, having learned of the agitation of the question of immigration among the various Mennonite communities of Russia and Germany, corresponded with their executive leaders in Wurtemberg, Stettin, and Odessa, and sent them several hundred pamphlets in the German language, descriptive of our State. In addition to this, His Excellency, W. E. Stevenson, then Governor of West Virginia, at the suggestion of our Commissioner sent an autograph letter of invitation, endorsing the printed information upon the resources of the State, and extending to the expected immigrants a most cordial welcome. In response to this, the Commissioner received an invitation to meet a special Mennonite committee in Prussia, in the spring of 1870, but the Legislature declining to make any further appropriations for the uses of his office, this enterprise, as well as one or two others of the same nature, was left to take care of itself. As it will require the widely scattered Mennonite colonies in Europe several years to get ready for emigration, and they all appear to act independently of each other in the selection of their points of destination on this side, we suppose it is not yet too late for West Virginia to offer her inducements, if any disposition to do so really exists."