S.M. Hartman

Birth:  

Family Information:  

Description:  

Pre-Colony History:  

Home in Colony:  

Job in Colony: At the crate factory in the fall of 1928 he, Bingham and Maxwell were steadily making crate ends, while Roede was kept on the jump overseeing the crate work and repairing shoes and harness while he rested.

In July 1929 he was assisting John Aiton in the postoffice.

In November 1929 Comrade Atwood was head of the garden group and had Comrade Davis on the Hiatt team plowing; with Mardfin picking vegetables; Shutt, Hartman and Ruth hoeing; Miss Watson was picking green beans and Mrs. Garrett had a group of little folks picking beans out on the farm.

In February 1932 Dad Lloyd, Carl Bradshaw and Bickle were sorting peanut seed in the sweet potato kiln while L.C. Thomas, Louis Rohr and Comrade Hartman were sorting peanut seed in the south wing of the commissary building.  

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: February 25, 1928, September 1, 1928, July 20, 1929, November 16, 1929, February 27, 1932, May 13, 1933 (Story of Llano), May 20, 1933 (Story of Llano)