Colonia Leven

Spellings: Narciso Leven, Colonia Narciso Leven, Colonia Levin, Narcisse Leven, Narcisse Levin

Coordinates: 37° 39' S 63° 57' W

The colony Narcisse Leven was founded in 1909 by the Jewish Colonization Association, work of Baron Maurice de Hirsch.

It was located south-east of the Provincia de La Pampa, in the vicinity of the town of Bernasconi.

At its founding, the colony had an area of 46,466 hectares and were settled a total of 279 plots with a population of 1,374 people.

The colony had two roads in satisfactory condition and could be accessed by two railroads: the FC General Roca, for Bahia Blanca and F. C. Sarmiento, via Santa Rosa.

On the arrival of the Jewish settlers in 1909, there were already other colonies around, specially Villa Alba (now San Martín) had nearly a hundred Jewish families settled in the areas of landowner Stroeder, whose situation was solid.

The J.C.A. prepare for the new settlers, farms of 150 acres each, properly wired, zinc plated houses, which were of a mixture of mud and straw to keep out excessive heat in summer and winter of intense cold, a potable water well for each group of two settlers and later also installed a windmill, for each two neighbors, to facilitate the extraction of water. The J.C.A. also gave each settler the following implements: a two-disc plow, a wagon wheel guy, three tines, fifteen horses for field work and the strictly necessary implements saddles.

Later, and after insistent requests, the JCA also gave two cows to each settler for milk consumption.

Practically new settlers were gave all needed to start agricultural work and to prepare land for planting on the 1910-11 season, as the fields were generally covered by virgin groves and thorny bushes, with extremely strong roots.

Some settlers were able to work in the neighboring colony of Villa Alba, during the harvest of the fine crop of 1909-10, earning money and learning practices of farming.