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 24
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A little urchin on the floor seems out of place, and looks different from the others; traces of tears are on his dirty little face, he looks lost and wonderingly around. "What do you do here?" says the teacher, not unkindly. "Oh, sir," says his sister, "he cried so to come; mother said he might this once." Before the morning is out, he is seen trying to make marks on the dust of the floor, with his tiny finger, in imitation of his sister on the slate, and by-and-by laid away in a corner, fast asleep.
A little after school has begun, two tall, stout chaps enter, men grown, take their seats, and begin conning their lessons from their school-books, as the children are doing. Who are they? They are two of that class
342 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
brought up in the solitude of the wilderness without a chance of learning a letter. They are now endeavoring to regain their lost time at the first school-house within their reach, with equal diligence, but more painful effort, than is given by their young compeers.
Masters in our first country schools have often told me that they have had some scholars older than themselves. The school over, a general gambol ensues, and the child- ren, dividing into two or three groups, take their separate ways. Subdividing again, they follow the scarce percepti- ble tracks made by their little naked feet, and individually arrive at their distant homes. In this way it is that the first school-houses spring up; and as little neighborhoods are formed, so they arise all over the country.
The erecting of a little log school-house in a frontier settlement is to me a far more interesting object than a Girard College, with all its costly and elaborate domes and columns. They are the seed-beds of knowledge, giving permanence to the growth of our organized and complex system of society. The young children are redeemed from the dullness that must in some degree exist in isolated families, and are brought into social life. With many of their own age, they mingle with children older and younger, of various moods and tempers. An epitome of the world they are destined to live in. Their sympathies are awakened, their manners improved, and a thirst for knowledge is often engendered by the key to its treasures being placed in their hand. The amount of learning may not be much, but the avenues to knowledge are opened, never more to be closed to any, and by some
343
FIRST PUBLIC-SCHOOL HOUSE IN ALBION.
to be followed to the highest sources of light and intelli- gence. Small as the amount of learning may be, in the fertile soil on which it is sown it is all retained. For these little country children, full of health and strength, accept the little intellectual training in their airy school, as an agreeable occupation, and to some as a positive recreation. What a pleasing contrast this with the children of a crowded city school. There, many of them in feeble health, confined in a fætid atmosphere, with their attention far too severely taxed, their labors too long continued, return to their tasks with reluctance, and feel them as a hated toil.
It was in 1837 or 1838 that the first permanent school- house was erected in Albion. A good two-story brick - building. It has been carried on under various masters, and is now used as a free-school.
When the new country school has been in operation a single week, its influence is felt, both on parents and children. Occasionally will be seen a boy ten or twelve years old leaning against a door-post, intently gazing in upon the scholars at their lessons; after a time he slowly and moodily goes away. He does not look like the other children; his dress is less tidy, his hair uncombed, and perhaps his face and hands unwashed. Neither has he the bright and self-confident look of the scholars. He belongs, perhaps, to some farmer's family residing outside the radius of the one-mile school-circle, or what is more likely to some, backwood's hunter within the circle. The solitary boy feels his exclusion from some benefit enjoyed by all the other children, giving to them a bond of fellow-
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
ship. This feeling soon ripens into an intense desire to go to school, or to quit the neighborhood and go deeper into the wilderness, far away from an odious comparison. A crisis has now arrived in the fate of this backwoods family. All other influences of encroaching civilization it has withstood, but the influence of the school can no longer be resisted. To see all the children of his neigh- bors advancing in their own self-respect, and in the respect of others, whilst his own family are left on the dead level of ignorance, on which only a few days before they all rested together, creates a feeling he can not stand. He can no longer say, I am as good as you. He feels that he is a notch below them; and, if he decides to remain, he must send his children to school and join the ranks of civilization. The only other alternative, and the one most usually taken, is to dive deeper into the forest, and in its solitude regain his equanimity.
Thus it was for years that education struggled on. In a few more years the people demanded the distribution of the school-fund. This temporary expedient was soon found insufficient for any permanent good. Within these five years the whole system has been changed, and educa- tion is supported by State-and-county tax on property ; and this system of free-schools for all seems to have given a new impulse to education all over the State. Imperfect as this law confessedly is, under proper modifications, would reduce by one-half the thirty-five thousand officers now required for its administration; but the people having taken to it with such hearty good-will, the superintendent forbears to ask a hasty repeal of the law. "Scarcely two
345
SCHOOL SYSTEM IN ILLINOIS.
years have clapsed" says the report, "since the free-school system went into operation in this State, and in that brief period it has nearly swept the entire field of the thousands of private schools that then existed. Truly, those who still cling so tenaciously to the old feudal and anti-Ameri- can system of educating the rich alone, will soon have to abandon their ground for the only just principle, of making the property of the State educate the children of the State, has nearly taken entire possession of the public mind."
1 now make an extract from the "Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois for 1858," which gives the statistics of education in Edwards County, the smallest county in the State:
"Whole number of schools in the County, - 47
The average number of months taught, -
6
The number of male teachers, - - 36
The number of female teachers, - - 23
Average salaries of male teachers, - per month, $25
Average salaries of female teachers, per month, $15
Number of male scholars,
-
I166
Number of female scholars,
- 896
Number of new school-houses built during the year, 1 I
Number of school-houses, - - - 25
Number of white persons under twenty-one, - 3110 Number of white persons between five and twenty-one, - 1762 - Amount paid to teachers, - $3447 For building, repairing, and renting school-houses, $1454 Whole amount received for school purposes, - $4529
---
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Whole amount expended for school purposes, $5116 Whole number of colored persons in the County under twenty-one years of age, - 34
Whole number of colored persons in the County
between the ages of five and twenty-one, 21"
There is nothing more than the common-school educa- tion existing in the little county of Edwards. The num- ber of children attending school is large in proportion to the population.
There appears to be no mention of any colored scholars.
The very different deportment of the people at their assemblages now, when compared with their behavior at the gatherings on public occasions, mentioned in the early part of this history, chiefly induces me to mention the annual fair held at Albion, October, 1860, at which I was present. Edwards County was among the first, if not the very first county in the State, to institute a fair for the exhibition of live-stock and farm-produce. I think the first exhibition took place at Albion in the fall of 1838. The show of cattle, sheep, and hogs was then respecta- ble, including several animals of especial merit. A year or two afterward, specimens of the vegetables of the farm and flowers from the garden were added. For several years, it did not increase, and seemed to excite but little interest. It faded away and was discontinued.
In 1858, new life was infused, and a more regular organ- ization effected. A neat little fair-ground, enclosing a pleasant grove of six acres, was well prepared and en- closed, furnished with all the appliances necessary for the exhibition of live-stock, farm and garden products, and
347
THE EDWARDS COUNTY FAIR IN 1858.
specimens in various branches of industry and art. The arrangements for the comfort and refreshment of the spectators were also complete. The list of premiums was varied and numerous. It was immediately sustained by an excellent exhibition in every department, and met by the public with cheerful good-will, and a liberal patron- age.
This year, happening to be near, I went to the fair, and was much pleased with the neatness of all the arrangements, and with the spirit in which the whole thing was conducted. To my surprise, I found as good and commodious an amphitheatre, and as well filled with well-dressed ladies as is to be found in any fair in the country. A full band discoursed its music on a stand in front, during the interludes of exhibition. The vegeta- bles, fruits, and farm-productions were of a superior order. The bouquets were numerous, tasteful, and gay, and some living specimens of handsome flowers in pots. Cakes, bread, confectionery, pickles, preserves, and specimens of every household art were abundant, neat, and good. Needle-work, useful and ornamental embroidery, and a great variety of fancy work, equal to anything of the kind. Of penmanship and drawing, much better speci- mens than I expected the little county could produce. The supply and arrangements for refreshments were good; coffee, tea, cider, and lemonade in abundance. Dinners, hot and cold, served with an adjunct not always found in like places of more pretension, a clean table-cloth. There were some thousands of people, well mannered, well dressed, and good tempered, rationally enjoying
348 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
themselves, by encouraging and promoting a common good.
My memory was carried back to the time when whisky was the only cheer, and a rough-and-tumble fight the only excitement. The managers tell me, so well assured are they of countenance and support, that they shall double the area of the enclosed ground, and all other appliances for the fair in time for next year's exhibition.
CHAPTER XVII.
Success of the English Settlement-What Contributed to it-Absence of Land-Speculation-Happy Adaptation of the Country to Set- tlers-Prairie-Land a Source of National Wealth-Sterling Quali- ties of the English Laborers and Farmers-Solid Prosperity of the English Settlement in Illinois-The First Annoyances of the Early Settlers-The Prairie-Fires-First-Founders of Settle- ments rarely attain Material Advantages-What they are Com- pelled to Do-The Fate of William Penn-The Compensations -Striking Incidents in the History of the State-First - Settlers Accounted for-The Destiny which Befell the First-Founders- The Remains of Morris Birkbeck Repose in the Graveyard at New Harmony, Ind .- What became of his Children-The Pecun- iary Difficulties and Disasters of George Flower-Leaves Illinois with his Family in 1849, never to Return to Live-Cross the Great Wabash-Begin the World Anew in New Harmony- Removes to Mt. Vernon, Ind., in 1860-The Last Stage of Life's Journey-Ready to Lie Down to Sleep.
THE success of the English Settlement is not to be attributed to any single cause. The absence of land- speculation in the first-founders of the Settlement and the discouragement they gave to non-resident speculators, were the chief circumstances that preserved its healthy and progressive growth, and secured for many years the vacant lands around us to the class for which they were intended, the farm-laborers and farmers with small capital, who were to occupy the quarter-sections as soon as they purchased them.
350 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
As early as 1817, I was solicited to purchase land for persons living in the Eastern cities, and well-wishers to the Settlement. This I was reluctant to do, though regretting to disappoint some valued friends, to whom I owed much obligation. Then an inquiry was made as to whether land was secured (such was the phraseology) for those that might be expected the following year; accompanied by an offer of any amount of capital, and of giving personal service in recommending our Settlement, and in forward- ing newly-arrived emigrants from Europe, with money and without. I have reason to think that similar offers were made to Mr. Birkbeck, for I recollect a short letter of his published, declining to invest any money in land for non- residents. Thus protected, the little-farmer with his slender means, found the quarter-section preserved for his immediate possession, without being compelled to pay an enhanced price to a previous purchaser. A valuable experience was gained in the gradual taking up of land. Of course, the most inviting situations were first secured. The last land, left as refuse, was flat, wet prairie, that had not much thickness of hazle mould, so much sought after by the farmer. The surface wet, but aridly dry in summer, with a subsoil of whitish clay. The Americans said they could not get a living off such land. The English labor- ers, by a little judicious ditching, which made part of their fencing, found it to be the best soil for small grain and meadow in the country. Some of our best farms are to be found on such land. The character of the Settlement would have been changed if based upon land-speculation, and our characters too. No doubt, with influential
351
ABSENCE OF SPECULATION.
partners in the East, who would see every emigrant with capital, and every ship-load of poor emigrants, accredited with our name and the growing fame of our Settlement, a large and promiscuous emigration would have set toward us, and money might have been made by the speculation. But the gains so made would have been mingled with the tears of distress and the sighs of disappointment. The laborer must have remained a laborer for others many more years, before he could have saved enough to have paid the advance that would have satisfied us and our Eastern partners.
The little-farmer, with just money enough to buy land at the Government price and build a small cabin, must have either labored for hire on the Settlement or gone outside into the wilderness, and suffered the privations of a solitary settler. By declining this, as some thought, tempting offer, we may have been blamed by others, but never by ourselves. A considerable land-speculation was made just before we came into the country, by a Virgin- ian; but when there are no inhabitants it is difficult for a speculator to know where best to make a purchase, and this speculation was so widely scattered, extending into many counties, that it did but little harm. To this early policy, little appreciated, perhaps, because but little known, more than any other act of its founders, the Settlement owes its steady and progressive growth. It was the invisible Ægis, protecting labor and industry, in reaping their sure rewards.
Another favorable circumstance was the happy adapta-
352 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
tion of the country to the settlers. Had our European settlers been placed in a heavy-timbered country, they would have desponded, despaired, and died. The cost of denuding a heavy-wooded district of its timber and pre- paring it for cultivation, is not less than twelve dollars an acre. What a source of national wealth this item is to a state like Illinois with its thirty-six million acres of prairie land. Every individual, thus fortunately placed, is saved a generation of hard and unprofitable, labor. This circumstance is not sufficiently appreciated by a pioneer settler.
One element of success may be traced to a happy proportion among the settlers of men of money, men of intelligence, and men of toil. A settlement all of needy laborers would have suffered much, and would probably have dispersed,-as Mr. Slade's settlement did, and as many others have done. It was the men of property that sustained the weight of the Settlement for the first five years, not only by its first supply of food and the building of its first houses, but in hiring the laborers as they came from the old country. This gave to the poor, but hard- working man, some knowledge of the ways of the country, while he was laying up a little store of money for his own independent beginning. The sterling qualities found in the great bulk of the English laborers and little-farmers, is another element of success. Their general sobriety, persevering industry, and habitual hard work, carried them through periods of long discouragements to final success. The first-founders gave what they had of ability and
353
A FURIOUS STORM.
money to the very last. All these circumstances working together have given that solid prosperity, which is charac- teristic of the English Settlement in Illinois.
There are certain annoyances and losses to the first- settler not set down in the bill, and never thought of. In the first years of a settlement in a new country, the forces of nature are strong and the defences of man are weak. Soon after my first arrival in the Settlement in the month of August, the season proved very rainy-daily thunder- storms, with strong gusts of wind. The storms of wind and rain would drive through and through the unchinked and doorless cabin, drenching every thing within. The first prairie-fires come with terrific force, devouring all before them. I had made some progress in enclosing a thirty-acre field, and had cut a considerable stack of prairie-hay, which stood at the bottom of the field. A prairie-fire approached us from the south; it soon con- sumed the hay-stack, what there was completed of the fence, and all the timber prepared for it. It crossed the prairie, driven by a furious wind, when stopped by a ditch, which fortunately had been dug, running in front of my cabins, and about twenty-five feet from them, but the flames lashed over into the house, and suddenly went out in dense smoke, almost suffocating us. Although checked in front of the house, the fire continued its course, sweep- ing by on each flank, in two long columns of flame, consuming prairie and woodland all over the country. This description of losses and annoyances, once overcome,
23
354 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
are gone forever; but at a time when he is unprepared, they often inflict suffering and great loss of property.
It is an historical fact, that the discoverers of new coun- tries and the first-founders of settlements in new countries, rarely attain any material advantages. It is those who follow in the track they have beaten, who shelter under the defences they have made, that reap the more solid advantages. There are a run of expenses that the first- founders of settlements must incur. The expenses of their first voyages and journeys, their publications, their return for their own families and other settlers, are among the first of their expenses. Others follow, that for a long series of years can scarcely be avoided. One is called upon to stand first in subscription and personal exertion to promote measures of public benefit, although of doubt- ful attainment after long-continued exertion. If a school, or a library, or any other local institution is needed, he is expected to give his time for their advancement and his money for their support. Often at some distant hall of legislation he is induced to remain for weeks and months watching or aiding in the passage of some law that might benefit his place and people, or to ward off some enact- ment of an injurious character. From habit, as well as inclination, he yields to solicitations, although often abused and maligned for the part he has taken. The article of postage alone is a heavy charge, or rather was so, when letters were from twelve to twenty-five cents each. I have paid many hundred dollars in this way replying to inquir- ies, and giving information in which I was in no way to be
355
THE FIRST-FOUNDERS.
personally benefited. The entertainment of travelers and visitors is an incidental but often a heavy charge, and in many instances absorbs a considerable share of income, however large it may be. His attention otherwise direct- ed, his private business of course suffers. His settlement may be prosperous, but as an individual he must meet pecuniary ruin. The business of a first-founder's life is more of a public than a private character, but not of that description that gives him any pecuniary reward. The assistance he may have given to poor families is seldom, if ever, returned in money. From the unfortunate and dishonest he gets no repayment. From the honest, but poor, he has to take what they have alone to give, their labor, and that perhaps obliged to be taken at periods when not applicable to any beneficial purpose.
"Imprudent," say some; "served him right," say others; "why did not he take care of himself." Wherever prudence greatly prevails as an element of character no. explorers or first-founders of settlements will be found.
William Penn, one the most disinterested of men, could not escape the calumnies propagated against him, nor the pecuniary loss entailed on men of his stamp. If any man could have been shielded from the losses and embarass- ments of all those who found colonies, Penn's favorable position should have saved him. He was possessed of an income of four thousand pounds sterling per annum. His large territory came to him by grant from the crown, not by purchase. His colony was on the sea-shore. Himself and all who followed him escaped the labor, risk, and
356
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
expense of a thousand miles of interior travel, yet we see in his letter to his wife a recommendation to be careful of her expenses, by reason of his many debts. In reply to some who accused him of selfish motives, he says: "I am day and night spending my life, my time, my money, and am not sixpence enriched by this greatness. I am to the people of this place in travails, watchings, spendings, and to my servants, every way freely, not like a selfish man." He even found it necessary to return to England to rebut the charges of selfishness and peculation that were raised against him, which for a time checked emigration to Pennsylvania, and prevented personal well-wishers and friends from following him, with his damaged reputation. His enemies, fearing his influence, reported him dead, and that he died a Jesuit-a term of great opprobrium at that day-only to be confuted by his personal appearance in England.
But there are fortunately some compensations in store for those whom the world regards as visionary characters. Their actions have been unselfish. An unselfish life leaves few regrets and no repinings. The first explorer or founder of a settlement in a new and distant country, follows the instincts of his nature and the promptings of his early being. In early manhood the dreamy imagin- ings of his youth prompt to action. He takes journeys and voyages. He has intercourse with a variety of mem- bers of the great human family, living under institutions, language, climate, and a host of other circumstances, all different from his own. From a local and stationary being
357
THE RECOMPENSE.
he becomes a cosmopolite. He has intercourse with all classes, from the gifted, the intellectual, the educated, of every grade of mind and morals, to the lowest specimens of humanity, the dregs of civilization. His local habits become changed, many of his prejudices are swept away, opinions altered or modified, and his mental vision extended. He pierces through civilization, and stands in uninhabited regions. There he sees what none who come after him and fall into the routine of civilized life can ever see; nature in the plenitude of its perfection; its varied beauties, undisturbed and undistorted by art; the forest in its native grandeur, unscathed by the axe; the prairie, with its verdure and acres of brilliant flowers; the beauties of the prospect varying at every step, and limited in extent only by his power of vision. All these scenes, with their accompanying influences, exhibited under the varying aspects of light and shade, day and night, calm and storm, have surrounded him. His being has received the impress of them all in solitude and silence. Refreshed, strengthened, and purified, he feels, for a time at least, superior to the irritations and annoyances of an imperfect civilization; for there is in the changeful heart of man a deep response to the ever-changing aspects of nature.
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