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 20
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RAPP'S COMMUNITY.
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This singular community of Germans had little or no communication with the people of the surrounding coun- try, excepting through the miller, store-keeper, tavern- keeper, and their secular head, Frederick Rapp, the adopted son of old George Rapp, their spiritual leader, and founder of the society. All who went to Harmony, with surprise, observed with what facility the necessaries and the comforts of life were acquired and enjoyed by every member of Rapp's community. When compared with the privations and discomforts to which individual settlers were exposed in their backwood's experiences, the contrast was very striking. The poor hunter that brought a bushel of corn to be ground, perhaps from a distance of ten miles, saw, with wonder, the people, as poor as himself, inhabiting good houses, surrounded by pleasant gardens, completely clothed in garments of the best quality, supplied regularly with meal, meat, and fuel, without any apparent individual exertion. He could not fail to contrast the comforts and conveniences surround- ing the dwellings of the Harmonites with the dirt, deso- lation, and discomforts of his own log-hut. It opened to his mind a new train of thought. One of them said to me, in his own simple language, "I studies and I studies on it"-an expression that depicts the feelings of every person that obtained a sight of Rapp's German commu- nity at Harmony. Rapp-his people and their language -departed; Mr. Owen, now the sole proprietor of all the possessions of its former owners, spoke to the people in a language they could understand.
Nothing could be more opposite than the systems pur-
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
sued by the two distinguished leaders, on the same field of operation. Whatever might be the merits of Rapp's community, an avoidance of intercourse between the mass of its members and all outside barbarians was strictly maintained; and dissimilarity of language presented a complete bar to prying curiosity from without.
Mr. Owen proposed his plans and gave his lectures and discourses, not only to those of his own opinions, but to all that chose to come and hear him. Mr. Owen, who was very powerful in colloquy, seldom lost an opportunity of explaining, what was then called, his new system of socie- ty. Discussion would arise; his system, doctrines, and their probable consequences were all discussed, fully criti- cised, and often warmly opposed. Mr. Owen possessed so steady a temper, that no attack, however violent and per- sonal, could disturb it. The equanimity of his deportment, the quiet flow of argument, the steady and unaltered tone of his voice, I never knew to be ruffled by the most violent language and the sometimes hasty imputations of his opponent. Mr. Owen made a short visit to me and to my father, and took a brief view of our Settlement. During the evenings large numbers of settlers would call in to see and converse with him. It was about Christmas time, and the season was unusually warm and fine. On Christmas day, 1824, Mr. Owen delivered an extended and extempo- raneous address to the citizens of Albion, assembled in the open air on the public-square of the town. For the accom- modation of the people, chairs and benches were arranged in a semicircle. These discussions produced some effect, and some of our citizens went to Harmony, in the hope of
283
NEW HARMONY UNDER ROBERT OWEN.
realizing some portion of the happier future predicted by Mr. Owen. Some came back, and are prosperous citizens in the vicinity of Albion; some remained, and are prosper- ous citizens of Harmony.
We need not be surprised at the care with which Rapp tried to keep his community from general intercourse. Notwithstanding their strong religious bond, it is very doubtful if Rapp's society could have been kept together if they had spoken English. During this visit, Mr. Fred- erick Rapp came to see Mr. Owen, and in my house the bargain which transferred the property was consummated. On this occasion, Frederick Rapp was accompanied by his niece, Gertrude Rapp, then a young lady of some seventeen years, in the full bloom of health and youthful beauty, now I believe Miss Rapp is the only representative of the family of Rapp living at Economy.
Among the endless variety of people that flocked around Mr. Owen were some eminent in art, literature, and sci- ence. This gave to Harmony a pre-eminence in character and attractions to many neighboring towns.
That the material wants of man can be procured in profusion without anxiety or injurious labor, has been satisfactorily proved by Rapp's community, by the Shak- ers, Moravians, and other well-organized communities. Following this idea, Mr. Owen argued, that if the mentla powers of man, well trained and developed from his earliest infancy, were also organized for the public weal, all the evils existing in our present form of society would vanish, as completely as destitution and want have vanished from the communities above named. Whether this happy con- summation is ever to be attained is yet doubtful.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Although Mr. Owen failed to make his community, the doctrines he taught and the opinions he promulgated spread far and wide. Accepted by some with fervor, opposed and denounced by more, they nevertheless were in a fragmentary way accepted by a vast many. This we saw in after years, when indiscriminate opposition to all that Mr. Owen said had ceased. The halls of legislation, the courts of law, and the family government have been modified and influenced by the opinions promulgated by Mr. Robert Owen in the early days of his Harmony com- munity, followed up by the after-efforts of his son, Mr. Robert Dale Owen, in the State legislature.
A father of a family, a religious man, opposed to most of Mr. Owen's opinions, said to me: "Well, in one thing I think he is right-in the treatment of children-and I shall leave off whipping."
Mr. Owen wished to carry on this first successful step of Rapp's a step or two farther. He argued, that when peo- ple were relieved from anxiety and toils, now often endured by parents in the support of a family, every child might receive the best education and training. If all the evils now inflicted on society from want, suffering, neglected education, and bad training were removed, there could not be much left to complain of; and there would be no longer any necessity for enduring that formidable power called Government-under all its forms a combination of re- straint, tyranny, and corruption, now found necessary to suppress, by its superior force of combination, the numer- ous individual crimes engendered in our present organiza- tion of society ; that if the community would only go on
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RAPP'S SYSTEM-OWEN'S SYSTEM.
and apply its powerful combination to supply man's intellectual wants, as it had already supplied most of his physical wants, all the great evils of which we complain would cease.
Rapp appeared to be content in supplying physical necessities, so far as house, clothing, food, and fuel, and in checking those moral evils which arise from their want, or an indiscriminate scramble to obtain them. Other evils he thought must be endured, and compensation looked for in another world. There were some in Rapp's society, it was said, who had higher aspirations. But Rapp was content with what they had already gained, and discouraged inno- vation; probably from a fear of losing what they had already obtained. "In effect," he said, "the plan can not be improved; be content with what you have got, go on as you are going on-do you do all the working and I will do all the praying." As to children, he told them they had better not have any. Rapp was probably right, to a soci- ety of such moderate aspirations, and who were so well schooled in resignation to a certain class of evils. The plan could not be improved; it was perfect as far as it went.
Owen said-"Go on. You have banished many incon- veniences and evils already, and this should encourage you to proceed; apply the same power of combination and do more. Have children, as many as you can bring up, edu- cate, and properly train. Attend to their health, and make them strong men; to their intellect, and make them wise men; to the supplying all their wants, and make them happy men. You will find that temperance in all gratifi-
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286 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
cation attains the maximum of enjoyment. Be as happy as you can here, and the better qualified will you be for happiness hereafter." So, in effect, said Owen; but his views were not carried out in the way he desired them to be. The materials that gathered around him were proba- bly too dissimilar and heterogeneous to be formed into a community of any kind.
From Mr. Owens' addresses and publications we learned his opinions and intentions. We knew the Harmonites from our dealings at their store, and what we saw in our frequent visits to the town. In business they were punc- tual and honest. Industry and order were apparent every- where.
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CHAPTER XIII.
The Emigration to the Settlement Recommences-The Character of the New Emigrants-The Crackles Brothers-Mr. Joseph Apple- gath-The Good Farms about Albion-The Courts at Albion- Attended by Eminent Men-Judge Wilson, Edwin B. Webb, Col. Wm. H. Davidson, Gen. John M. Robinson, John McLean, and Henry Eddy-Their Visits to Mr. Flower-"A Good Supper and a Bowl of Punch"-Dreary Travel to Vandalia-Bear-Meat and Venison-An Enormous Elk, the Patriarch of the Prairies- The Wrestling - Match between Indians and White Men-The Indians "Down" the Pale Faces.
AFTER the check given to emigration, from causes before mentioned, the tide began to flow again. Individu- als and families were frequently arriving, and occasionally a party of thirty and forty. A fresh cause induced this tide of emigration. It arose from the private correspond- ence of the first poor men who came. Having done well themselves, and by a few years of hard labor acquired more wealth than they ever expected to obtain, they wrote home to friend or relative an account of their success. These letters handed round in the remote villages of Eng- land, in which many of them lived, reached individuals in a class to whom information in a book form was wholly inaccessible. Each letter had its scores of readers, and, passing from hand to hand, traversed its scores of miles. The writer, known at home as a poor man, earning perhaps a scanty subsistence by his daily labor, telling of the wages
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
he received, his bountiful living, of his own farm and the number of his live-stock, produced a greater impression in the limited circle of its readers than a printed publication had the power of doing. His fellow-laborer who heard these accounts, and feeling that he was no better off than when his fellow-laborer left him for America, now exerted every nerve. to come and do likewise. Among the many that came, induced by this sort of information, were three brothers, Thomas, Kelsey, and Joseph Crackles, three Lincolnshire men-a fine specimen of English farm-labor- ers, well skilled in every description of farm-labor, and particularly in the draining of land. They lived with me for three years after their arrival. They soon got good farms of their own; or, I should rather say, made good farms for themselves. I heard an American neighbor remark, on the first farm they bought, that nobody could ever raise a crop or get a living from it. It had not been in their possession two years, before it became noted for its excellent cultivation and abundant crops. In this way we have given to Illinois a valuable population, men that are a great acquisition to the Country. It was observed that these emigrants who came in the second emigration, from five to ten years after the first settlement, complained more of the hardships of the country than those who came first. These would complain of a leaky roof, or a broken fence, and all such inconveniences. The first-comers had no cabins or fences to complain of; with them it was conquer or die. And thus emigrants came dropping in from year to year.
We received a valuable settler in the person of Mr.
289
JOSEPH APPLEGATH.
Joseph Applegath. Mr. Applegath was a bookseller in London, a man of good education and general informa- tion. He came out with the intention of joining Mr. Owen's community at Harmony. That failing, he took his apprenticeship in country life in our Settlement. He was a striking instance with what comparative ease a well- informed and cultivated man can change his occupation and even his habits of life. From knowing nothing of farming or country life of any kind, for several years he followed it energetically and successfully, acquiring the habit of labor, which in general seems to go so hard with those unaccustomed to toil. One secret of this was, he had nothing to unlearn, and no prejudices on that subject to eradicate. He looked over the fence of his neighbor to see how he did a piece of work, and copied after him. In a few years he retired from habitual labor, but not from active employment; he frequently gave familiar lectures to young people in Albion, on useful or scientific subjects, made easy to their comprehension by his simple language and arrangement.
But it was the class of farm-laborers and small-farmers, of whom I have before spoken, that furnished the bone and sinew of the Settlement. Well instructed in all agri- cultural labor, as plowmen, seedsmen, and drainers of land, habituated to follow these occupations with continuous industry, the result was certain success. Their course was a uniform progress and advance. Many of them without money, and some in debt for their passage, they at first hired out at the then usual price of fifty cents a-day with- out board, and seventy-five cents for hay-time and harvest.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS .COUNTY.
In two or three years they became tenants, or bought a piece of unimproved Congress-land at a dollar and a-quar- ter an acre, and gradually made their own farms. Several of them, now the wealthiest farmers of the county, earned their first money on my farm at Park House. It is chiefly the labor of these men, extending over twenty, thirty, and even forty years, that has given to the Settlement the many fine farms to be seen around Albion.
Among the advantages of the meetings of the courts of law in Albion, not the least were the periodical visits of intelligent and educated men of the legal profession. Hon. William Wilson, a native of Martinsburgh, Va., was, when appointed to his office of circuit-judge, a very young man. He possessed great amiability and good sense, and was extensively known through the State; a good lawyer respected and beloved wherever known. Between him and myself a lasting friendship existed until his death, which occurred in 1857. He settled near Carmi, in White Co., thirty miles south of Albion. Carmi was the home of Edwin B. Webb, Esq., so many years the represen- tative of White County in the legislature. Mr. Webb was one of our best lawyers, and was always relied on as such. He had a greater hold on the affections of his many friends and neighbors, by exerting the influence of his position in healing all breaches, and allaying those irrita-
* Edwin B. Webb of Carmi, White County, was one of the best-known and most influential Whig politicians of his day, in south-eastern Illinois. He was first elected to the lower branch of the legislature from White County in 1834, and reelected in 1836, 1838, 1840. In 1844, he was elected to the senate, from White County, and reelected in 1846, and finally closing his
WEBB, DAVIDSON, ROBINSON, MCLEAN, EDDY. 291
tions which so frequently accompany legal disputation.
Col. William H. Davidson, for many years in the State senate, and often its presiding-officer, was much beloved for the amenity of his manners in public and in private life. Gen. John M. Robinson, then a young lawyer riding the circuit, and afterward, for many years, our senator in Congress-these two were Carmi men.
John McLean, a good lawyer, a loud speaker, of sterling good sense, and blunt and somewhat boisterous manners, was the most popular lawyer in the earliest days of the State. A native of Kentucky, he was afterward sent to Congress .* Henry Eddy, long the editor of the Shawnce- town Gasette, was a good lawyer, and a most kind-hearted
legislative service in 1848, which was continuous from 1834 to 1848, with the exception of two years, from 1842 to 1844. I knew Mr. Webb well. He was a well-known figure in Springfield for many years. He was a little under the middling height, always dressing genteelly, and of pleasant and agree- able manners. A native of Kentucky, he was a devoted friend of Henry Clay, and was the Whig candidate for Governor of Illinois in 1852. At the break- ing up of the old Whig party, Mr. Webb declined entering into the Republi- can party, and joined the Democrats. He was always called " Bat " Webb, from his middle name, Bathurst. He died at his home in Carmi, in the fall of 1858, universally beloved and regretted.
* John McLean was, undoubtedly, the ablest and most influential man in Illinois at the time of his death. Ile was elected United States senator in 1825, to succeed Ninian Edwards, who had resigned to accept the position of minister to Mexico. Having served out the term of Gov. Edwards, of only a few months, Elias Kent Kane was elected his successor for the long term. In 1829, Mr. McLean was elected for six years, to succeed Jesse B. Thomas. He died, however, shortly after the commencement of his term of service, in 1830. Had he lived, he would have left an indelible impress upon the history of the State.
Mr. McLean was a member of the House of Representatives from Gallatin County from 1820,to 1822, and of which he was made speaker. He was also a member from 1826 to 1828, and from 1828 to 1830. He was speaker of the House both sessions, and elected senator while holding the office in 1829.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
and benevolent man, universally respected and beloved .* Judge Hall (afterward known as the editor of the Illinois . Monthly Magazine) was also a practising lawyer, with a ' reputation for literary talent. Judge Thomas C. Browne was associated with Judge Wilson, on the bench of the supreme court. These were all residents of Shawneetown, and usually made the tour of our circuit.
The law business, being small in those days, allowed of an early adjournment of court, giving time for friendly intercourse. They generally favored our family with a visit. Those of them that were farmers, as well as law- yers, would generally spend a day with me, in looking at live-stock and crops, discussing farming matters generally. In the evening, several other friends would join the party; the conversation, unrestrained, was generally free and good- humored. The hilarity was by no means checked by a good supper and a bowl of punch. After tales of adven- · ture in their wild and widely-extended circuit, varied con- versation, anecdote, and song, the party would retire, at a late hour generally, to meet again six months afterward.
The opening of the legislature at Vandalia, and the ses-
* Henry Eddy of Shawneetown, was one of the ablest and most prominent lawyers of his time in the State. I can not recall that he was ever in politi- cal life, except being a member of the House of Representatives from Galla- tin County from 1820 to 1822, when he was the colleague of John McLean. He was an anti-convention man in the great struggle in 1823-4, and the editor of the Shawneetown Spectator. Like Mr. Webb of Carmi, he was one of the prominent Whig politicians in the south-eastern part of the State. A man of education and intelligence, he was distinguished by his courteous manners and gentlemanly bearing. He was elected judge of the third circuit in January, 1835, but resigned the next month. No county in this State ever had two abler men in the Legislature, at the same time, than when Henry Eddy and John McLean represented Gallatin in 1820 and IS22.
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DREARY JOURNEYS.
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sion of the supreme court, about the 8th of December, occasioned long and dreary journeys to those obliged to attend from the southern part of the State. The lawyers from Shawneetown, joining those at Carmi, would proceed to some point west of the Little Wabash, generally at Ramsey's station, and wait a little for any that might join them from Albion. I occasionally made one of the party. The distance from cabin to cabin was often from twenty to thirty miles. The host, on these occasions, was usually one of the earliest pioneers, who had pushed in among the red men and brown bears of the wilderness. After a supper of bear-meat and venison, the large log in the ten- foot chimney was set blazing afresh with brushwood. A large circle was formed in front, and we heard from our host some of his exciting or amusing adventures with wild men and wild beasts.
At the house of one of these men, a noted character of that day-John Lewis of the trace-said that he had seen, in his hunts, the tracks of an enormous elk. For months of search, he had failed to get sight of the gigantic animal that had made these tracks of such unusual size. The fortunate day came at last. Himself concealed by a point of wood, the huge animal appeared in full view, grazing in the open prairie. Mustering all his wood-craft for con- cealment and approach, he succeeded in bringing down the animal at the first shot. He produced the horns; when set on their prongs, a tall man could walk under them without touching. This patriarch of the prairies met his death in 1818 or 1819.
Upon another occasion, at the same house, a party of
294 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Indians, accompanied by their agent, arrived. They were from some tribe far distant in the interior, on their way to Washington. They were regarded with some curiosity, and much admired as a fine specimen of their race-tall, thin, muscular men, of delicate features, with small hands and feet. There happened to be present, a party of back- woods-hunters, men of strong-set frames, used to fights of every description, and noted good wrestlers. Their num- ber being equal to that of the Indians, some one expressed the wish to see a friendly combat or trial of strength in a wrestling-match, to see who could throw the other. With the consent of the agent, who explained to the Indians the nature of the proposal, the arrangement was soon made. Weapons being carefully removed from both par- ties, they met man to man. To the astonishment of the spectators, the Indians threw all their antagonists, again and again, and with such dexterity and apparent ease, that the white men could never get an opportunity to close with them.
In journeying alone or in company, great risks were run from floods, loss of way, and sudden change of tempera- ture, especially in the winter season. Judge Wilson, Mr. S. D. Lockwood, and Mr. Henry Eddy of Shawneetown, undertook to reach Vandalia from one of the counties on the Wabash, a little north of us. The distance by section lines was about sixty miles, across the country, through prairie and timber, without road or track of any kind-no kind of habitation, not even the humblest cabin in the way.
Wilson took the lead, as the best woodsman. They
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A TERRIBLE NIGHT IN THE PRAIRIE.
continued 'to ride the whole of a fine winter's day without seeing man or his abode. Toward evening, the weather changed; it became very cold, with the wind blowing in their faces a heavy fall of snow. In this predicament, without food or fire, there was but one alternative when night came on. Each man seated himself on his saddle, placed on the ground, with the saddle-blanket over his head and shoulders, holding by the bridles their naked and shivering horses. It continued to snow for hours. For a long time they sat in this condition, thinking they should all freeze to death before morning. They afterward tied their horses, and spread a blanket on the ground near a fallen tree, and then squatted down close together- Lockwood in the middle-and thus they spent the long and dismal night.
In the morning, they proceeded as they best could; before noon, reached the east bank of the Kaskaskia River, then booming full, at flood water. They all had to swim their horses across, Wilson again taking the lead. Dripping wet, all three rode into Vandalia, in the midst of the frost and snow of mid-winter. Lockwood, a confirmed invalid of some chronic disease, resigned himself to cer- tain death. Extraordinary to relate, the disease from that time left him, and he lived to be, and is, I believe, yet living, a sound and healthy man.
When I look back at the inconveniences and perils of our journeys in the early days of our residence in Illinois, I wonder that any of us are alive to relate them.
Apart from accidents, a journey then required the ex- penditure of all our strength. Horseback was the only
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