In 1882, the first Jewish agricultural colony in Kansas was established when about 60 recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia, sponsored by the Hebrew Union Agricultural Society, settled northeast of here along Pawnee Creek. Named for the ancient city of Beersheba, the colony stretched over several sections of land, with each family homesteading 150 acres. The settlers built dugouts and sod houses for homes, a synagogue, and a school, used cow chips for fuel, dug wells, and plowed and planted the native prairie. Within the first few months, a wedding took place, a baby was born, and the first death occurred. Farming proved unprofitable, and severe winters brought hardship. To supplement their meager incomes, the colonists sold their equipment and livestock, took railroad jobs, mortgaged their land, and established businesses in nearby Ravanna and Eminence. After both towns died out in the 1890s following a bitter county seat battle that neither won, the colonists sold or abandoned their homesteads. A decade after the colony was established, none of the colonists remained, and the land had reverted to prairie.