 In 1896, after most pine was logged off in the town of Arthur, the Cypreanson Brothers of Eau Claire offered cut-over land for sale and hired Vincent Benish to advertise that land in Czech-language newspapers to immigrants in southwest Wisconsin.Many of these people had left their homeland unhappy with Habsburg rule and its links to the Catholic Church.As a result, many were skeptical of the church and open to Marxist ideas and the Freethought movement.