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 3
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
sonal intercourse served to loosen him in some degree from the sect in which he was brought up. Neither did he in dress conform to the peculiar garb of the Society. These were matters of deep concern to the strict ones of the sect. He did not consider himself as belonging to the Society of Friends, although I am not aware that he was ever formally disowned. These were the general antece- dents of Mr. Birkbeck before he left England.
He embarked with his family from the port of London, · on board the ship America, Capt. Heth, in April, 1817, and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, in the month of June, of the same year.
Richard Flower,* the father of George Flower, resided for many years in Hertford, the county town of Hertford- shire, twenty miles northeast of London. There, for more than twenty years, he carried on rather an extensive brew- ery. Having obtained a competence, he retired from busi- ness, and lived upon a beautiful estate, called Marden, which he purchased, situated three miles from Hertford.
About this time, there was much uneasiness felt by all persons who had to do with agriculture in any way, whether as landlord, tenant, or laborer. The expenses of carrying on the long French war had introduced an artificial state of things. Heavy taxes, an inflated paper-currency, high price for farm produce, were circumstances with which the people of England had been so long familiar, that they felt as if this artificial system could never come to an end.
* Richard Flower, like all the members of the English colony, was a strong anti-slavery and anti-convention man, and the trusted friend and correspond- ent of Gov. Coles.
27
DEPRESSION OF AGRICULTURE IN EUROPE.
All this was changed at the peace. Tenants could not pay . their rents; landlords were straightened; farmers who had taken leases, under high prices of grain, were losing money by wholesale. Laborers' wages were diminished; some were wholly unemployed, and many had to receive paro- chial relief. The poor-rates increased another tax on the already-embarrassed farmer. This state of things, I have before said, produced great uneasiness; and many farmers and farm-laborers turned their eyes to other countries, to escape the pressure in their native land.
The colonies of Great Britain-Australia, Canada, and the Cape of Good Hope-had each their partisans, and emi- grant aid-societies. A regular line of emigration was thus established to each of these colonies. France had many attractions-a fine climate, an amiable and courteous peo- ple, and the distance of removal short. Land was cheap, and a market at hand; and just that deficiency in agricult- ural improvement to tempt an Englishman to introduce the rotation of green crops, which had so much improved the agriculture of Great Britain. The old crop-and-fallow system, which formerly existed in Great Britain, at that time extended all over France, where wheat was cultivated. Difference of language was one great objection; but, more than all, the number and influence of the military and the clergy were, to persons of our republican tendencies, deci- sive against a residence in France as civilians. The arbi- trary conduct of some of the governors rendered a resi- dence in distant colonies somewhat objectionable.
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To persons of fastidious political tastes, the United States of North America seemed to be the only country
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
left for emigration. What added much to the character of the United States, in the eyes of the people of Europe, was the judicious choice of her first ambassadors to the courts of Europe. What must not that nation be, that could send such men as Franklin and Jefferson to France, Adams and King to Great Britain. These eminent men were taken as samples of the talent and integrity of Americans, giving to the mass of the Republic a higher standard than it deserved. Men of reading read all that was written about the country. The Declaration of Inde- pendence, the Constitutions of the United States and of each State, were among their reading. In these, the prin- ciples of liberty and man's political equality are so dis- tinctly recognized, that they really supposed them to exist. They did not reflect that a perfect theory on paper might be very imperfectly rendered in practice. This sometimes happens in other things besides political constitutions, as the following truthful anecdote will show:
A celebrated agriculturalist gave a description in one of his published works of a new breed of pigs, which might be kept to great profit, at the same time giving a detailed account of their feeding and general treatment. A farmer from a midland county, in England, hastened to London, to acquire more precise information, and, if possible, some of the breed. His knock at the door was answered by the lady of the house, who inquired his business. "She was sorry he had taken the trouble to come so far, her husband kept no pigs; his were only pigs upon paper. He wrote to show what might be done." The farmer was left to reflect that theorists are not always practitioners.
29
EMIGRANTS IN AMERICA.
It must not be hinted that the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence are only pigs upon paper. But certain it is that the great principles professed are marred and controvened by the American people. But a real liberty is found in the coun- try, apart from all its political theories. The practical liberty of America is found in its great space and small population. Good land dog-cheap everywhere, and for nothing, if you will go far enough for it, gives as much elbow-room to every man as he chooses to take. Poor laborers, from every country in Europe, hear of this cheap land, are attracted toward it, perhaps without any political opinions. They come, they toil, they prosper. This is the real liberty of America. The people of America, north and south, have never had the nerve to carry the political principles on which their government was founded into practice, and probably never will.
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1
CHAPTER II.
Mr. Flower sails for America - Reflections on the Voyage Arrives in New York and visits Philadelphia-Invited to Monticello by Mr. Jefferson -Journey Westward-Visits Dr. Priestly, on the Susquehanna-Lost in the Journey to Pittsburgh-From thence to Cincinnati-The Town as he found it, and the People -- The Neave Family Crosses the Ohio River and visits Lexington, and also Gov. Shelby, in Lincoln County-Fording of Dick's River-Hears of the Illinois Prairies for the first time-Visits Nashville, Tenn. - Meets Gen. Jackson at a Horse -Race-Goes with Gen. Ripley in a Flat-boat to New Orleans-Returning East, visits Mr. Jefferson at Poplar Forest, South-western Vir- ginia-Description of his House and his Personal Appearance, Dress, etc. Visits Col. John Coles, father of Edward Coles, in Albemarle County-Passes the Winter with Mr. Jefferson at Monticello-At the Inauguration of Mr. Monroe, and meets Ed- ward Coles for the first time-Mr. Birkbeck and his Family arrive at Richmond, from England.
HAVING determined to visit America, I sailed from Liverpool in April, 1816, in the Ship Robert Burns, Capt. Parsons of New York. The experience of the Captain can not be doubted, for he had crossed the Atlantic seven- ty-five times without accident, saving the loss of a yard- armı. We arrived in New York fifty days after leaving Liverpool.
My emigration, or rather my jonrney-for it had not at that time taken the decided form of emigration-was undertaken from mixed motives; among others the dis- turbed condition of the farming interest, and my predelic- tion in favor of America and its Government.
31
THE JOURNEY AND FAREWELL.
Whoever has been brought up in the bosom of an affec- tionate family, enjoying a fair share of refinement and ease, possessing rather an enthusiastic and sensitive tem- perament, will find that to leave his home and native land, perhaps never to return, is an impressive and sorrowful event. Standing alone on the stern of the vessel, or sur- rounded by unsympathizing strangers; carried on by an irresistible power into the wide waste of waters, the land of his birth receding and sinking out of sight; desolation and gloom oppress the soul, relieved only by sea-sickness, substituting physical for mental suffering. How different the feelings of a family party! Kind friends accompany them to a loving farewell. The ship contains to them all that is cherished and dear. A ray of light and hope illu- minates their watery way. Landing on the far-distant shore, they revel in all the allusions of anticipated bliss. There were no steamers and clippers in those days. In so long a passage as fifty days, our little cabin-party-only four of us, two Englishmen and two Frenchmen-at first strangers, soon became as a little band of brotherhood. At landing, this new bond was broken. Each individual hastening to his family or friends (for the other three had been in the United States before), the solitary stranger for a moment stands alone. The ocean behind, and a vast continent before him, a sense of solitude is then experi- enced, that has never been before and never will again be felt. "Baggage, sir!" and "what hotel!" restores him to the world and all its busy doings.
From New York, I wrote to the late President Jefferson, to whom I had a letter of introduction from his old friend,
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
General LaFayette. A kind and courteous reply invited me to Monticello, an invitation I could not at that time accept. At Philadelphia, where I spent about six weeks, I became intimately acquainted with that most kind- hearted of men and active philanthropist, John Vaughan. The business of his life was to relieve the distressed, whether native born or foreign, and to give untiring assist- ance to the stranger, to aid him in carrying out his plans. To me he opened the institutions of the City, and intro- duced me to its best society.
It was with him, at one of Dr. Wistar's evening parties, that I made the acquaintance of Mr. LeSeur, the French naturalist. We little thought then how soon we were destined to become neighbors in the distant West. He at Harmony, on the great Wabash, a place then but a few months old, and I at Albion, in Illinois, a spot neither dis- covered nor inhabited. To Mr. Jeremiah Warder and family I am much indebted for their cordial hospitality and considerate kindness, which was extended to every member of my father's family after their arrival two years afterward.
In the first week of August, 1816, I was mounted on horseback, pursuing my journey westward. The first point of interest was the settlement of Dr. Priestly, on the Sus- quehanna, now known as Sunbury. A more romantically- beautiful situation can scarcely be imagined. At the time he made his settlement, that was the Far-West. From the after discovery of coal-mines, that whole district of coun- try has undergone such a change as to be scarcely recog- nizable. Far beyond, in the midst of wild forests, at a
33
DR. PRIESTLY'S SETTLEMENT.
settlement forming by Dr. Dewese and a Mr. Phillips, an Englishman, I spent an agreeable week in exploring the heavy-wooded district of hemlock and oak that bordered on the Mushanon Creek. Dr. Dewese had built an elegant mansion, appropriate as a suburban residence for a retired citizen, but out of place in a small clearing in one of the heaviest-timbered and wildest districts of Pennsylvania. But neither Dr. Dewese nor Mr.' Phillips were country-bred men. Their habits and tastes were formed in cities; and both, I believe, soon afterward returned to the city. From. thence I made my way to Pittsburgh, through the wildest and roughest country that I have ever seen on the Ameri- can Continent. I was lost all day in the wood, without road or path of any kind, and a most exciting, though soli- tary, day it was to me. I climbed the tallest pines, only to see an endless ocean of tree-tops, without sign of human life. Toward night, I was relieved by a happy incident. The distant tinkling of a small bell led me to the sight of a solitary black mare. Dismounting, and exercising all my horse-knowledge to give her confidence, I at length induced her to come and smell of my hand. Seizing and holding her firmly by the foretop with one hand, with the other I shifted the saddle and bridle from my horse to her. With a light halter (which I always carried round the neck of my riding-horse) in one hand, I mounted my estray, and gave her the rein; in half an hour she brought me to a small cabin buried in the forest, no other cabin being within ten miles, and no road leading to it. So ter- minated my first day's experience in backwoods forest-life. It was no small job to get out of this wild solitude.
3
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
It was noon the next day before I met a man. We greeted each other, we shook hands, we fraternized. Ah! poor man; I should have passed you in a street, or on a road, or, if to notice, only to shun. He was a poor Irish- man, with a coat so darned, patched, and tattered as to be quite a curiosity. He was one of a new settlement, a few miles off. How I cherished him. No angel's visit could have pleased me so well. He pointed me the course, and, what was more, shewed me into a path. I soon afterward passed the settlement of his poor countrymen. A more forlorn place could never be seen.
When at Pittsburgh, to Mr. Thomas Bakewell, and others, I was indebted for many civilities. Leaving the then town (now city) of Pittsburgh and its smoke, I passed in a north-western direction, to the almost - de- serted town of Harmony, built by Rapp and his associates. The large brick-buidings to be found in no other young American town, now almost uninhabited, looked very desolate. Rapp and his Society had removed, to form their new settlement of Harmony, on the Great Wabash. Further north, in the Barrens of Ohio, the settlement of Thomas Rotch (now Kendall) was just begun. Mr. and Mrs. Rotch, well-known members of the Society of Friends, were from Nantucket-the Rotches of Nantucket forming a large family connection, all extensively engaged in the whale-fishery. After spending two or three pleas- ant days with Mr. Rotch, I crossed the State of Ohio diagonally, in a south-west direction, passing through Cochocton and Chillicothe, to Cincinnati. This route led me through the then celebrated Pickaway Plains-
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PICKAWAY PLAINS-CINCINNATI.
so named from the Pickaway Indians, whose town and chief settlement was placed thereon. A level prairie, about seven miles long and three broad, bounded by lofty timber, and covered with verdure, must have presented a grateful prospect in Indian times. Occupied by the white man, covered with a heavy crop of ripe corn, disfigured by zigzag fences, it now gave no inviting appearance. A narrow road, in some places deep in mud, ran the length of the plain. The little town of Jefferson (so called) was nothing more than half-a-dozen log-cabins, interspersed with corn;cribs. Not a garden, nor a decent house, nor a sober man to be found in the place. Although I had made my sixty miles that day, and the sun was setting, I pushed on without dismounting six miles further, to Chillicothe, situated on the opposite bank of the Scioto River. In crossing the river that night, not being aware of its size, and not knowing the ford, my journey had well- nigh found a watery termination. Sometimes swimming and sometimes wading, I was long in great jeopardy. At length, arriving safely on the other shore, I was well prepared by sixteen hours of almost continuous riding, for supper and a sound night's rest.
Cincinnati, then a town of five or six thousand inhabi- tants, rapidly increasing and incumbered with materials for building, presented no very attractive appearance. In a small cabin, on the bank of the Ohio, about two miles above Cincinnati, were living two young men, brothers, with an aged and attached female who had been their nurse, and now kept their house. Mr. Donaldson, their father, had retired from the English bar, to a farm in
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Wales, his two sons and their faithful nurse had emigrated to America. I was requested, before leaving England, to see them if possible, and here I found them. With Dr. Drake, then a young man, afterward a celebrated physi- cian, I became acquainted; I had boarded with his sisters in Philadelphia. Mr. Jeremiah Neave, a friend of Mr. Birkbeck, was at the time a well-known citizen of Cincin- nati. We became acquainted. He gave me the hospi- talities of his house. Mr. Neave, although a Quaker, was most ultra in his politics. An English Democrat, born in the political hot-bed of the. French Revolution, he partook of the violent partizanship of those times. Against kings and priests he bore a sore grudge. The family of Mr. Neave have long since grown up, and are prominent and influential citizens of Cincinnati.
At this time I could learn nothing of the prairies; not a person that I saw knew anything about them. I had read of them in Imlay's work, and his vivid description had struck me forcibly. All the country that I had passed through was heavily timbered. I shrank from the idea of settling in the midst of a wood of heavy timber, to hack and hew my way to a little farm, ever bounded by a wall of gloomy forest.
Crossing the State of Kentucky to Lexington, I was much attracted by the beauty of the blue-grass farms. In my short stay at Lexington, I became acquainted with Dr. Short, Mr. Trotter, and Mr. Saunders, - the latter an earnest and enterprising speculator and spirited farmer and introducer of improved stock. From Lex- ington I went into Lincoln County, to see Governor
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SWIMMING DICK'S RIVER.
Shelby. Before reaching his residence I had to cross Dick's River. This was a peculiar stream, unlike any other that I had crossed. It ran over a bed of lime- stone boulders as rapidly as a mill-race, and the ford was a curve, to be traced only by the eye of the stranger, by the deeper boiling of the water over its rough and rocky bottom. I met a man, three miles from the ford, who gave me warning of its force, and of its deep and drowning water on either hand if I missed the ford. I hesitated, fearing for the steadiness of my nerves. My head swims in rapid water; and I can not tell whether I am going up stream or down. I cautiously entered, keep- ing rather a tight rein on my little nag ; a precaution unnecessary, perhaps; for to turn round was impossible when once in that rush of water. The water was soon over my saddle-bow, while the haunches of my horse were higher than his withers. Another step and the pomel of my saddle was dry, but the water was running over my crupper. In this way we slowly and hazardously went, the water beating hard against us the whole time. We came out safely it is true; but I confess to have felt more fear, and exhaustion from fear, than at any other period in all my journeyings. But the fording of streams great and small is among my most disagreeable experi- ences in American horseback-travel. It did impress me strongly no doubt ; for to this period of my life the dark and rushing water of Dick's River occasionally troubles me in my dreams.
Governor Shelby settled in the place he then occupied when it was a canebrake, and the buffalo all around him.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Old Governor Shelby was a decided character-an honest, hasty man, somewhat hot-headed. He commanded the Kentucky horse-volunteers during the War of 1812. Gen- eral Harrison was explaining to his officers the tactics to be observed at an approaching engagement. "I know nothing about your tactics," said old Shelby, "but show me the enemy, and my boys shall whip him." It was at Gov- ernor Shelby's house that I met the first person who con- firmed me in the existence of the prairies. It was Mr. Shelby's brother. He had just come from some point on the Mississippi, across the prairies of Illinois to the Ohio River, about Shawneetown.
This was enough; I felt assured of where they were, and that, when sought for, they could be found. It was then too late in the season for me to go to explore them. It was now the last week in October, and I could not expect to see them other than as a mass of burnt ground, or covered with snow. So I decided to proceed with my journey southward and eastward, and endeavor to reach Poplar Forest, a possession of Mr. Jefferson's, on the west- ern frontier of Virginia, before Christmas. A few days more and I was at Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. Before going to Nashville, I swerved to the right to get a peep at the Mammoth Cave, some of the wonders of which were just beginning to be talked about. The country about it was uninhabited and wild. Mr. Miller, the only small farmer near, went with me there with half-a-dozen candles in his hand. We had not traveled more than a hundred yards before I was satisfied with my exploration. I saw enough of the nature of the rock to understand the
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NASHVILLE-GEN. JACKSON.
possibility of its extent. I had no wish to disturb the millions of bats that were hanging over our heads, with our slender provisions for exploration. The accounts of its extent were not generally credited at that time in America; and, upon my return to England, I was asked by well- informed men whether Americans were not playing on the credulity of Europeans.
Approaching the town of Nashville, my horse showed unusual signs of sprightliness. With head and tail erect, he went with a bounding step, and seemed to recog- nize the spot. A negro boy rode up to my side, and said: "Sir, where did you get that horse?" "At Phila- delphia, a place a long way off. Do you know the horse ?" "Lors, yes." He belonged to Major some- body, I forget the name, who rode him East, the year before, and sold him. When at Nashville, some periodical race came off. I rode out with the crowd to the course. Generals Ripley and Jackson were pointed out to me; the former of fair complexion and light hair, rather a young man, carrying his head stiffly from a wound in the neck; the latter an older man, lean and lank, bronzed in com- plexion, deep-marked countenance, grizzly-gray hair, and a restless and fiery eye. Jackson had a horse on the course, which was beaten that day. General Jackson was a whole man in anything he undertook. He was a horse- racer that day, and thoroughly he played his part. The recklessness of his bets, his violent gesticulations and im- precations outdid all competition. If I had then been ' told that he was to be a future president of the United States, I should have thought it a very strange thing.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Years afterward, when I knew him an older and, I pre- sume, a wiser man, I often thought of the scenes in which my first impressions of him were made.
I was some days in doubt whether to accept the invita- tion of General Ripley to accompany him in his flat-boat, then prepared to take him and his staff to New Orleans. He proposed that, after reaching New Orleans, I should visit the prairies of Oppelousas, and that, should I return to Virginia, I should do so by way of the Choctaw 'and Chickasaw nations, in Mississippi and Alabama, over the tract that the Abbé Raynal had formerly traveled. The offer was tempting, but I decided to make my visit to Mr. Jefferson. A cold wind and a slight fall of snow warned me that there was no time to be lost in passing the Ten- nessee Mountains. I fell in with a party of four Virginia planters and a North-Carolina doctor, returning homeward from an excursion into Missouri. We traversed the State of Tennessee at a rapid rate from west to east, and entered the western part of Virginia the latter part of November. A part of the region we traveled was mountainous, and, in a great degree, peopled by a very poor and, a portion of them, a very bad description of people. But a few years previous, it was the resort of notorious robbers and cut- throats.
One fellow, I think named Harp, was the terror of the country. The governor offered fifty dollars for his head. After many ineffectual attempts at capture, in a death- struggle with a man as desperate as himself, Harp's foot slipped. He fell with his adversary upon him, who, taking advantage of his position, cut off his head with his butcher-
4I
THE JOURNEY-CRITICAL POSITION.
knife, put it into his saddle-bags, rode off with it to the governor, claimed and got his reward. Even at the time of my journey, a traveler was occasionally missed.
After our second day's journey, we stopped for the night at the foot of the mountains, at a place of very suspicious appearance. The men of the house had not the right look with them. There appeared to be no one ostensible land- lord. We observed four different men, who came in during the evening, eyeing us carefully and exchanging but few words. The wretched negroes were in rags, and their every movement indicated marked fear and dread. The white woman, so called, that poured out the coffee, in appearance and demeanor, seemed to occupy no higher position than the negroes. A stack of eight rifles, occupy- ing a corner of the room, were one by one withdrawn during the evening. The long shed-like room we occupied was left for travelers; the family or company of discredit- ables that occupied this establishment living apart in cabins at a distance from the travelers' room. I laid down in my clothes, doubling up my coat and putting it under my pillow, as my custom was, resolved to keep watch during the night. My companions (one or other of them) were awake until morning.
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