Settlers began to be interested in the Connell community in 1900 and a real land rush developed in 1901. It is difficult to know exactly who were the first settlers aside from Mr. Mottet, but we know that Mrs. Rosina Finkbeiner and her son, John, arrived in March 1900 and took up adjoining homesteads about four miles north of Connell. It must have been about the same time the Rev. Adam Buehler established his farm home a mile west of the Finkbeiners. It was he who named the district Paradise Flats and since he was a German Methodist he attracted a number of other German Methodists to the community. He also helped to establish a school district with the school house built across from his home. However, neither the Buehlers nor the Finkbeiners nor any of their neighbors had water. They hauled their water from Hatton. It was not until 1902 that the well drillers cam in and Mr. Buehler had the first well in the Paradise community. After that and for many months afterward all the farmers roundabout hauled their water from the Buehler well.

As a widow with two daughters and younger son besides her elder son, John, Mrs. Finkbeiner needed to make a living for her family. Although she maintained her home on the homestead she soon also had a good sized house built in Connell which she established as a combination hotel and boarding house. Her daughter who now lives in Portland and who was six years of age at the time that they arrived in the community, remembers that before her mother's hotel was built the only buildings in the town besides the railroad depot were the section house and the railroad water tank. We know that there had been other buildings at the time the town was active as a junction, but it seems that these had burned down in the meantime. However, after 1900, settlers soon came in very rapidly and other buildings were built. Many of the newcomers were single men. Mrs. Finkbeiner's daughter, now Mrs. R. F. Garrison in Portland, remembers that such men as the Sohm bothers, Ernest and Herman, boarded and roomed with her mother for $3.50 per week.

It is also difficult to determine who were the first settlers south of Connell. We know that one of the first homesteaders was John B. Love and he has been reported to have built the first house south of town between Kahlotus and Connell. His son, Alfred, homesteaded on what later became the Klindworth home. The first farmers south of Connell also had to do without water and had to buy and haul their water either from the railroad well in Connell or from Mottet Springs. In fact, the scarcity of water had probably been the greatest deterrent to the earlier settling of Northern Franklin County and it is indeed surprising that so many came before water became readily available and when it had to be purchased by the tank or barrel and often hauled many miles for both man and beast.

1901 must have been a very interesting and exciting year in the Connell community because it was during that year that most of the early settlers came. By the end of the year nearly all of the available farm land had been taken up either as homesteads or as land bought from the railroad or as school sections either bought or leased. In fact even some of the scab rock land fit only for grazing was taken up as homesteads.

It is interesting to speculate on how a district which had previously been almost completely without settlement could have been almost completely settled within the span of a little more than a year. A large part of the settlement doubtless was brought about by the railroad's advertising. They had been given every other section as land grants and as settlers streamed in this land was freely offered for sale at, I believe, prices in the neighborhood of from four to six dollars per acre. At the same time quarter sections were offered by the government as homesteads. For a time a branch government land office was established in Connell.

It seems that a good deal of the settlement must have been caused by work of mouth advertising. This is evident from the fact that good sized groups of settlers came from the same districts mainly in the Middle West or "the East" as it seemed to these far westerners. One considerable group came from Nebraska. This included the Finkbeiners', the Olds', the Janoskys', the Kludas', Havlinas' and others. The members of this group came from the same district in Nebraska and knew each other there. Under similar circumstances the Sohm brothers and Otto Ulrich came from Minnesota. The Loves were the forerunners of others who came from Tennessee and Missouri. John Schlomer, a relative of the Harders' of Kahlotus, established another sheep ranch west of Connell, probably even before 1900.

A retired Methodist minister by the name of Rudolph Fiegenbaum settled southeast of Connell, a mile west of the present Loeber ranch. As a sideline he became a real estate agent and advertised for other German Methodists. Other settlers were first attracted to the older settled regions as around Ritzville. When they found all the land already taken they moved farther south, especially after it was demonstrated that wheat could be successfully grown also in Franklin County.