W.E. Smythe

William Ellsworth Smythe, known as W. E. Smythe (1861–1922), was a journalist, writer and founder of the Little Landers movement, which aimed to settle small suburban lots with people who would farm their own properties, live off the land and sell or trade the surplus for needed income. In 1908 he set up such a colony in the Tijuana River valley (now San Ysidro, California), and in 1913 he joined in developing a similar venture in Tujunga, California. Smythe described the basic structure of the Little Land philosophy as colonies that "would provide low priced land, a public irrigation system and a cooperative market for the colony's products."

Personal life

Smythe was born December 24, 1861, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to William Augustus Smythe, a wealthy shoe manufacturer, and Abbie Bailey Smythe. In 1882 he and Harriet Bridge were married. They had three children. Smythe died at the age of 61 on October 6, 1922, in his apartment on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Journalism

In high school he was editor of the school newspaper and later, in 1881, at the age of twenty, he tried to establish a printing business, but failed. Between 1888 and 1890 he published the Kearney Enterprise in Kearney, Nebraska. In 1889 a feisty Nebraska newspaper publisher named Edward Rosewater made Smythe the editor of the Omaha Bee. He spoke at public meetings and became chairman of the influential National Irrigation Congress. Eventually he traveled the breadth of the country to drive home his message. He founded a magazine, Irrigation Age, which he edited until 1896.

Little Landers

In 1908 he formed a corporation that bought 700 acres of the Belcher Ranch on the U.S. side of the Tijuana River, which is shared with Mexico, and immediately changed the name of the entire community to San Ysidro, after the patron saint of farmers in Spain.This was the first Little Landers colony, which attracted some 300 families to its promise. Smythe lived there from 1909 to 1911, overseeing a market that the farmers set up in San Diego to sell their produce. He opened a Little Landers colony called Runnymede.

The two men believed that anyone could be independent on a small acreage irrigated and lovingly farmed ... [They] joined together in their business ventures. Smythe was the idealist of the two and Hartrantf was the businessman who could make the ideas work.

Government service

After World War I, Smythe was appointed U.S. assistant secretary of the interior for veterans land settlement.