USA > Illinois > Edwards County > History of the English settlement in Edwards County, Illinois : founded in 1817 and 1818, by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower > Part 2
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The following notice by Dr. Barry, the then librarian of the Chicago Historical Society, and which appeared in the Chicago Tribune of March 22, 1862, is appropriately inserted in this Preface, as a just tribute to the character of George Flower :
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PREFACE.
A great and good man has recently passed from us. English by birth, American by choice, for near half a century he has lived among us -- so long that the tide of events and the rush of adventurers had buried from general notice the silver-haired veteran who once was known, esteemed, and loved in both hemispheres-the honored founder of a prosperous colony, the enterprising agriculturist, the philanthropist of large and noble aims, the strong, true-hearted, and upright man.
Born in Hertfordshire, England, in affluent circumstances, after gaining some distinction in his native land, by continental travel for the benefit of British husbandry, he came to America in 1817 (about thirty years of age) as the associate of Morris Birkbeck in founding the English Colony at Albion, Edwards County, in Illinois.
It was no mere sordid impulse that moved either of these noble-hearted men in their scheme of colonization. Republicans from deep-seated sentiment and conviction, the Great American Republic drew them hither as to a congenial home; and here they jointly established a thrifty and successful colony, transplant- ing on our virgin prairies the arts and improvements of the old mother-country. The large wealth possessed by Mr. Flower gave him a commanding, a responsible, and, we may add, a ) laborious position in the new Colony. His spacious mansion, of rare extent and furnish in a new settlement, was the scene of frank and elegant hospitality. Strangers of distinction sought it from afar. Improved husbandry, with the importation of the finest fleeces of England and Spain, followed the guiding hand of the master-mind. When the history of the Albion Colony is made known, it will form the truest and best eulogium of its founders.
The calm and philosophic wisdom of Mr. Flower, united with a rare benevolence, has left bright traces upon our Western history. In the eventful strife which accompanied the daring attempt in 1823 to legalize African slavery in Illinois, no one enlisted with a truer heroism than he. We, of the present day, and amidst the dire commotions of civil war, can but poorly comprehend the ferocity, and the gloomy portents of that strug- gle. So nearly balanced were the contending parties of the State, that the vote of the English Colony, ever true to the instincts of freedom, turned the scale-a handful of sturdy Britons being the forlorn hope to stay the triumph of wrong and oppression, whose success might have sealed forever the doom of republican and constitutional liberty in America.
The failure of that nefarious plot against our young and noble
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PREFACE.
State, led to an outburst of persecution and wrong against free negroes, and their humane protectors, transcending even the invidious hostility of our so-called Black Laws, and Constitutional Conventions. This wanton and vindictive display of inhumanity, it was, which gave birth to Mr. Flower's plan for the colonization of free negroes in Hayti, in which he had the confidence and cooperation of President Boyer, and which attracted an approv- ing notice throughout the Free-states of the North. Although but partially successful, its necessity being from the pressure of subsequent events less urgent, its conception and management reflect the highest honor upon its author, whose name will merit a place among the benefactors of mankind.
Mr. Flower was one of that class of men whose fine insight, large views, and calm force raised him above all claimants to popular favor. In his early maturity, he numbered among his friends and correspondents such personages as our American Jefferson, Lafayette and the Comte de Lasteyrie of France, Madame O'Connor (the daughter of Condorcet) of Ireland, and Cobbett of England. By these, and such as these, his superior tone of mind and character was held in true esteem. In the depths of our yet unfurrowed prairies, and amidst the struggle and hardship of a new settlement, a mind and heart like his might fail of a just appreciation by his cotemporaries. This sad realization he doubtless felt. But now that he has passed from the scenes of his voluntary exile, let it not be said that a true and gifted manhood was here, and we knew it not. There are those, now and to come, who will keep green his memory, and take pleasure in recovering the traces of a noble mind, that lived, thought, and acted only for human good.
Mr. Flower met with the reverses which are the prescribed lot of the colonizers of the world. The wealth and position which he commanded, amidst the financial changes and revolutions of a new country, were finally succeeded by pinching penury, which but served, however, to reveal his inward strength, and his unfal- tering faith. For many years he has lived in retirement in Indiana, or among his revering children in this State; and for the last few years has beguiled his age in preparing a history of the English Colony he assisted to found, which he lived to complete, at the request of the Historical Society of Chicago. We hope, for the gratification of the public, and in justice to the author, its publication may not be long delayed.
On the morning of 15th of January last, there lay, under the loving and sad watch of dear friends at Grayville, the sinking form of the aged man, whose worth we have poorly attempted to
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PREFACE.
set forth, and the partner of his long and chequered life. But a week before they had expressed the hope, often repeated, that, happily united in life, they might not be divided in their death. While the rays of the morning sun were gilding the room of the fond wife, she expired; and soon after the going down of the same day's sun, followed, to his last and welcome rest, the spirit of George Flower.
A touching letter, communicating the particulars of Mr. Flow- er's death, was read at. the meeting of the Chicago Historical Society, held on Tuesday last. The following appropriate and deserving tribute, passed by the Society, we have pleasure in placing in our columns :
WHEREAS, This Society has received from the family of the late George Flower, the painful tidings of his recent death, at an advanced age, thus closing a career which for near half-a-century has been honorably devoted to the welfare of this, his adopted State :
Resolved, That in the estimation of the members of this Society, the late George Flower, as an enlightened and munificent founder of the successful colony of English settlers at Albion, in Edwards County, in this State, founded in 1817; as an early and distin- guished advocate of African colonization; as an intelligent, high-minded, and patriotic citizen, ever loyal to his adopted country and its institutions, seeking the highest good of the State, and laboring for the best interests of mankind, to whose advance- ment he freely dedicated his superior talents and ample fortune, unambitious of office or preferment, and in loyal obedience to the promptings of a nobly-gifted nature, merits a distinguished place on the roll of the founders and benefactors of this State, whose institutions he assisted to shape, and whose gigantic growth and prosperity he was permitted by Divine Providence to live to witness.
Resolved, That the members of this Society entertain a grateful sense of the various and esteemed services rendered to its objects by their honored friend and associate, and especially in his finished and able memorials, recently prepared for this Society, of the English Colony at Albion, in whose foundation and growth he had so conspicuous a part.
Resolved, That this Society deem it due and fitting to express their high and admiring esteem of the personal character of the late Mr. Flower, ever marked by a high-toned integrity, and the qualities of a true manhood; adorning prosperity by a munificent bounty and hospitality, and irradiating adversity-the adversity
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PREFACE.
which too often befalls the founders of colonies and the benefac- tors of mankind-with the peace, constancy, and trust of an exalted faith.
Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of the above proceedings to the family and friends of the late Mr. Flower, with the expression of the heartfelt condolence of this Society with them in their most sad and painful bereavement.
As to the portraits illustrating the volume, that of Mr. Birkbeck is from an engraving in the possession of E. G. Mason, Esq., of Chicago, and that of Mr. Flower from an oil painting belonging to his family. This portrait, life-size, together with a life-size portrait of Mrs. Flower, painted at the same time, and by the same artist, have recently been presented to the Chicago Histori- cal Society, by the family of George Flower. That generous gift is fully appreciated by the Society, and the donors will not only receive the grateful thanks of its members, but of all persons inter- ested in the early history of our State and of the English Settle- ment in Edwards County. These interesting portraits will adorn the rooms of the Society.
The Chicago Historical Society and the public generally, are indebted to Levi Z. Leiter, Esq., of Chicago, for the publication of this volume. The Society, crippled by the disastrous fire of 1871, found itself unable to publish the History, and it was only after a recent examination of it by Mr. Leiter when that gentle- man, with a liberality only equalled by his interest in everything connected with the history of our State, generously offered to defray the entire expense of the publication.
365 DEARBORN AVENUE,
E. B. W.
CHICAGO, October 18, 1882.
THE HISTORY
OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY,
ILLINOIS.
CHAPTER I.
Prefatory Remarks-The Founders of the English Colony in Illinois, Morris Birkbeck and George Flower-Sketch of Morris Birkbeck -His Father a Quaker-His Education and Early Life in Eng- land-Travels of Birkbeck and Flower through France-Edward Coles visits Mr. Birkbeck and Family at Wanborough, England -- Coles afterward becomes Governor of Illinois, and Birkbeck his Secretary-of-State-Characteristics of Birkbeck-Embarks for the United States in April, 1817 - Richard Flower, father of George Flower-Reflections on the United States-George Flower in the United States a year before Birkbeck.
NARRATIVES of voyages and travels, from the incidents and accidents recorded, and new scenes developed at every step, have been found acceptable reading, especially to youth, at all times and in every age.
When given in plain style, and in simple language, by one who has witnessed what he relates, an interest is sometimes given, denied to fiction in its highest flights and brightest polish. ·
The history of the settlement of a distant people, leav-
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
ing a land of high civilization for a wilderness in another hemisphere, is an event of some interest at the time, both to actors and spectators. In after-times it may assume a deeper interest, perhaps as having given tone and charac- ter to a populous and powerful nation.
In succeeding generations, when the wilderness becomes peopled, and towns and cities are thickly strewn over its surface, all inhabited by a people speaking the same lan- guage, an observant traveler will find in different sections people of various habits and opinions. In communities sometimes proximate and sometimes remote from each other, there will exist distinctive features, mental and physical. Their opinions and intellectual power will differ, no less than their complexions, form, and feature. How to account for these differences will be an interesting problem to solve. Climate, soil, and position have their influences; but these are all subordinate to the hereditary bias. The opinions and habits, the physical, mental, and moral powers, handed down from father to son, are to be traced in distant generations. Thus we see that the religion, industry, and thrift of New England are to be traced to those qualities in the original band of its pilgrim fathers.
The open-handed hospitality of Virginia, its display, dilapidation, and loose living, all may be traced to the jovial and careless cavaliers of King Charles' time, who settled on her shores.
Pennsylvania, although largely intermixed with the Irish and German elements, yet preserves the characteristics and aspects of its first-citizens, the Quakers.
FOUNDERS MORRIS BIRKBECK AND GEO. FLOWER. 19
The straight-streeted City of Philadelphia, with its sub- stantial houses, and neat keeping, reflects the drab-colored mantle of William Penn.
Taking this view, the character, habits, and opinions of the first-founders and first-settlers of new colonies assume in after years an interest they would not otherwise possess.
A distinction should ever be made between the first- founders and first-settlers. They are classes of men dis- . tinguished from each other in mental tone and general · habit. Explorers and first-founders, sanguine, enterprising, and imaginative, are generally men of theory and specula- tion. The first-settlers are more commonly endowed with caution, prudence, and closer business habits. Each class maintains for a considerable time its relative position, in the planting and early progress of a new settlement.
The natural introduction to the history of the first- settlers will be a brief biographical sketch of its two first- founders, Morris Birkbeck and George Flower.
. The father of Morris Birkbeck, also named Morris, was an eminent Quaker preacher, whose good name was well known by Friends in America, as well as England. His teachings were held in much reverence at home and abroad, especially by the more orthodox members of the Society. Old Morris Birkbeck, as he was familiarly called, when his son arrived at manhood, although eminent as a preacher, was by no means so for his wealth or worldly possessions. But he gave to his son a much better educa- tion than generally falls to the lot of the children of poor Friends.
Morris Birkbeck, the younger, had a thorough knowl-
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
edge of Latin, and a slight knowledge of Greek. In after life, he mastered the French language, so as to read it with facility. Whilst a mere youth, he was appointed clerk to the Friends' meeting. The duties of this office made him a ready writer, and a systematic arranger of documents and papers of every kind. Very early in life, he was placed upon a farm. A farmer's boy occupies much the same place upon a farm as a cabin-boy does on board a ship. There it was that he learned by experience farming and farm-work. When a young man, he hired a farm, with no capital of his own, and with a very small borrowed . capital from a friend. He worked on the farm with great assiduity, not only with his own hands, but with such- labor as his limited means allowed him to command. He watched his own progress, or rather his position, with great solicitude. He has often told me, that many times when he took stock, after valuing everything he possessed, even his books and clothes, he found himself worse than nothing. But, by perseverance, he acquired a little. He afterward took, on a long lease, a much larger farm called Wanborough, containing about 1500 acres of land, near the town of Guilford, in the county of Surrey. This farm he worked with great perseverance and spirit, always adopt- ing improvements in husbandry, implements, and live- stock, that appeared of any practical value. Here he acquired a competence, and brought up a family of four sons and three daughters, to whom he gave a liberal edu- cation, and to whom he was a most kind and indulgent parent. The farm of Wanborough was a hamlet. A parish is a large organization. It has its church, parson,
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SKETCH OF MORRIS BIRKBECK.
vestrymen, church-wardens, and overseers of the poor. A hamlet is generally a small village or district, occupied, and often owned, by one person, who is required to pro- vide for the poor it may contain.
The owner of a hamlet is a potentate on a small scale, brought into immediate contact with its poor inhabitants, who, by the laws of England, he is bound to aid in sick- ness or want, by advice and material assistance.
When I first became acquainted with Mr. Birkbeck he was nearly fifty years of age, enjoying excellent health. Mental and bodily activity were combined with unim- pared habits. In person he was below middle stature -rather small, spare, not fleshy, but muscular and wiry. With a constitution not of the strongest, he was yet a strong and active man. His bodily frame was strength- ened and seasoned by early labor and horseback exercise in the open air, which, from the nature of his business, was necessary to its supervision. He was capable of under- going great fatigue, and of enduring fatigue without in- jury. His complexion was bronzed from exposure; face marked with many lines; rather sharp features, lighted by a quick twinkling eye; and rapid utterance. He was origi- nally of an irascible temper, which was subdued by his Quaker breeding, and kept under control by watchfulness and care. But eye, voice, and action would occasionally betray the spirit-work within. Mr. Birkbeck, when I first became acquainted with him, was a widower. When no friend was with him, he would sometimes sit for hours in the afternoon, by his fire in the dining-room, his only companions a long-stemmed clay-pipe and a glass of water on the table beside him.
1
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
.
The little artificial thirst, occasioned by smoking, when habitually allayed by mixed-liquors, or any thing stronger than water, he thought had betrayed into habits of intemperance, unsuspectingly, more individuals than any other single cause. A leisurely walk around the premises, an observation on any thing out of place, with directions for the coming labor of the morrow, generally closed the day's business with him. At tea, he again joined the family circle, enjoyed the exhilarating refresh- ment, and the abandonment of all business cares.
The American supper does not exactly correspond to the English tea; it is a more formal, substantial, and busi- ness-like meal, not differing from the breakfast and dinner that have gone before it. The men again return to their business, and the women to their household- cares. Not so in England. The English tea, a light refection in itself, is the reunion of the family party, after the various occu- pations of the day. The drudgery of business and its cares are then put aside for the day. A new set of ideas, more light, buoyant, and refreshing, come to fill up the evening, preparing mind and body for sound and refreshing sleep-a book, music, conversation; if the women do any needle-work, it is then of the lightest kind, neither inter- rupting conversation, nor disturbing any reader. This enjoyment is common to all classes in England, in a greater or less degree; and the loss of this habit is to an Englishman one of his greatest privations in his change of country.
If Mr. Birkbeck was absent from the family party in the drawing-room,-and sometimes he was so, even when his
23
BIRKBECK AND FLOWER VISIT FRANCE.
house was full of visitors-he was sure to be found in a small study, a little room peculiarly his own, trying some chemical experiment, or analyzing some earth or new fossil, that he picked up in his morning ramble in his chalk- quarries.
After the downfall of Napoleon the First, and the peace succeeding to a twenty-years' war, Mr. Birkbeck invited me to accompany him in a journey to France, to which I readily acceded. We traveled together three months in that country, avoiding the usual route of English travel. Passing from north to south, to the shores of the Mediter- ranean, skirting the Pyrenees, and returning through the heart of the country by a more easterly route to Paris, we saw more of the country and Frenchmen at home, than we otherwise should, if confined to any one of the popular routes of travel. In this journey we saw much of the peasantry and small proprietors of the soil; and here and there an institution, and a man of celebrity and fame. The Botanical Garden at Avignon, then kept by the cele- brated de Candolle, was an object of great interest .* In the hot-house was the tall aloe in its full size and beauty, in its centennial bloom. A little circumstance occurred that showed the extent to which art-culture existed in
* Augustin Pyrame de Candolle was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1778, and died in 1841. He was a celebrated botanist and naturalist, and the author of many works, which acquired for him a European reputation. He was educated in Paris, and graduated as a doctor in medicine, but afterward devoted himself mostly to the study of botany. In 1806, he was charged by the French Government to study the state of agriculture in France; and, in 1808, he accepted the chair of botany in the medical school at Montpelier. It must have been about this time that he kept the botanical garden at Avig- non, which Mr. Flower visited.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
France, among classes where it would not be expected to exist. An artist had just arrived with a portfolio of the flowers of Spain-some hundreds of specimens, which he had copied in life-like size and color, with a beauty and fidelity of execution seldom witnessed. De Candolle, wishing to retain copies, and the time being short, distrib- uted these pictures in twos and threes to the young women of Avignon, many of them in humble life, as seamstresses and the like. In three days the originals were returned without a blemish, and the full number of copies depicted with an accuracy truly astonishing. But I must leave France and Frenchmen, or I shall never get to the English settlement in Illinois. On our return, Mr. Birkbeck pub- lished his "Notes of a Journey through France." It had a wide circulation in England, and was well known in America. It was the first book I met with at Monticello, the residence of Thomas Jefferson.
About this time, Mr. Edward Coles, on his return from a diplomatic mission to Russia, spent some time in Eng- land. An introduction to Mr. Coles, in London, was succeeded by a visit to Mr. Birkbeck's house and family, at Wanborough. Here an intimacy and friendship was formed, in consequence of which Mr. Coles, when governor of Illinois, appointed Mr. Birkbeck his secretary-of-state .*
* Edward Coles was elected governor of Illinois in August, 1822. His election was followed by a contest which continued for eighteen months, and which, for bitterness and desperation, is without a parallel in the history of political struggles in the United States. It resulted from an attempt to change the free-state constitution of the State into a constitution tolerating slavery. Though Gov. Coles was a Virginian, and had been a slave-holder, he was the leader of the free-state men who fought out the great battle of freedom in that terrific conflict. By this time, the English Colony in
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GOVERNOR COLES AND MORRIS BIRKBECK.
Although neither at the time had any such thought, events were hurrying on to such a consummation. In less than two years from that time, they were both in Illinois, a little later, Mr. Coles as governor, Mr. Birkbeck as secretary-of-state. About this time, Mr. Birkbeck entertained vague notions of leaving England. The long lease of his farm was about expiring. He experienced, in common with other farmers, losses from the low price of farm produce, induced by the general peace after the long war. I was traveling at the time in America, dropping him an occasional letter; but not having a thought of his coming to this country. In fact, it was a crisis in his fate, which occurs in the life of every man at some period or other.
Mr. Birkbeck was of quick perception and lively conver- sation, often spiced with pungent remarks and amusing anecdotes. He was a general and rapid reader, and, not- withstanding his business occupations, showed a decided taste for scientific investigation, for which he always found time to indulge. For many years before leaving England, Mr. Birkbeck absented himself from Quaker meetings. His general and varied reading, and his more extended per-
Edwards County had become an important factor in the politics of the State. Morris Birkbeck, Gilbert T. Pell, his son-in-law, George Flower, and Richard Flower, his father, played an important part in this contest in opposition to the slavery propagandists. The vigorous and facile pen of Mr. Birkbeck was called into requisition, and his writings were widely read, and exercised a great influence on public opinion. In 1824, David Blackwell, then secretary- of-state, resigned his office, and Gov. Coles, recognizing the services of Mr. Birkbeck and his exceptional fitness for the position, appointed him in his place, in September, 1824. The nomination had to be confirmed by the Senate, and that body, having a pro-slavery majority, rejected him on January 15, IS25, he having held the office only three months.
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