Sam Gerber

Birth:  

Family Information:  

Description:  

Pre-Colony History:  

Home in Colony:  

Job in Colony: In November 1927 the colony was selling their crates as fast as they could get them out. Shoemaker, Oberlitner, Tefteller, Aaby, Dixon and Maxwell were getting out materials for ends and putting them together while Shutt and Gerber were sawing logs into blocks for veneer.

In December 1927 Oberlitner and Gerber were sawing box and crate materials while Roede, Mardfin, Dixon and Maxwell were nailing up the last of the crate ends and putting them into bundles.  

Other Info: One of 42 colonists who signed a petition, dated January 10, 1928 and sent to the governor of Louisiana, which objected to the securing of a new charter being issued to the colony. Among other things, this petition claimed that affairs of the colony had been grossly and intentionally mismanaged and conduct of the management so flagrantly opposed to good morals that a receiver assigned by the District Court was necessary to handle affairs. It alleged that management had: 1. Used misleading propaganda which caused hundreds of people to invest their money in the colony, only to be disillusioned and have to leave with nothing to show for their investment. 2. Reduced the colony to a peon camp - these "peons" being poorly fed, clothed and housed. 3. Advocated "free-love", including promiscuous relations of the sexes and other practices contrary to good morals. 4. Expressed contempt for courts and authorities by taking it upon themselves to punish two boys for stealing from the colony store. 5. Prostituted colony schools by employing nondescript persons as teachers, while issuing fraudulent reports and drawing hundreds of dollars from the Parish School funds in the names of certified teachers and by exploiting child labor. The case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court but eventually was annulled and the plaintiff's demands rejected.  

Post-Colony History:  

Death:  

Sources: Llano Colonist: November 5, 1927, December 17, 1927, February 25, 1928, May 13, 1933 (Story of Llano), May 20, 1933 (Story ofLlano)