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 5
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We immediately made arrangements for prosecuting the final portion of our journey into that part of Illinois recommended by Mr. Sloo. We agreed to establish the family at Princeton, the county-town of Gibson County, thirty miles south of Vincennes. For this purpose, Mr. Birkbeck and his family immediately went there, and my wife and I were to join him in a few days.
After breakfast, Mrs. Flower and I mounted our nags and rode to the village and settlement of the Shakers, some twenty-five miles north. Few people then came to Vincennes without making a visit to the Shaker Settle- ment.
57
SHAKER SETTLEMENT AT BUSRO.
Besides a special interest pertaining to a sect or associa- tion of peculiar tenets or opinions, there is a general inter- est attached to all associations formed with a view of avoiding some of the evils of life but too common in gene- ral society.
Arriving at Busro, the Sisters took charge of Mrs. Flower, the Brothers took care of me. When brought to dinner the attending brother placed me on one side of a long table (on which was spread a most excellent meal), the attentive Sisters bringing in Mrs. Flower, placed her exactly opposite to me. We kept a grave face in our novel situation, as became us in so grave and orderly a place. Busro had the good cultivation, neatness, and thrift usually found in Shaker settlements. Any society of bachelors and spinsters, without the expense, care, or trouble of children, and discarding all personal love, may well be orderly, neat, and rich, and generally are so. If they are satisfied under that arrangement, let nobody gainsay them. I was told that a few backwoods families occasionally joined them. The parents seldom perma- nently, the children frequently remained. This suited all parties. The old people of confirmed old-world habits, and not always the best of them, usually left. The chil- dren finding good food, good clothes, and good treatment, to all of which perhaps they had been strangers, more willingly remained, and the Shakers found it easier to impress the minds of children with their peculiar views.
Whatever may be thought of the tenets of the Shakers, they are peaceable, sober, and industrious; but they were occasionally badly treated. During the War of 1812, the
58
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Kentucky volunteers, on their way north, made Busro their camping-ground. They burnt fences and fruit trees for firewood, killed many cattle, insulted and reviled the inhabitants, and by force drove one or two of the members of the Society before them, and kept them as slaves doing menial service during the campaign. When they returned they encamped in the same place, doing more mischief, indulging in their barbarous sport of roasting alive a fat hog,
To a well-worded and temperate petition from the people of Busro, asking some compensation for the de- struction of property by troops in the pay of the United States, Congress turned a deaf ear. There is but one species of property-property in man, that the United States Government will exert itself to preserve; in that it is vigilant enough.
Passing on our way to Princeton, about two miles from Vincennes, stands the village of Cattinet, differing in its houses, fences, implements of husbandry, vehicles, inhabi- tants, and domestic animals from any other American village. Its houses are built of thick slabs, or puncheons set on end. The roofs covered with elm bark, in wide and long pieces, reaching from ridge to eaves. The garden fences are pickets or long posts, pointed at the top and firmly planted in the ground, close to each other, side by side. Their one-horse carts, or those drawn by oxen, were made without a particle of iron; the harness without leather or iron, excepting the bit that goes in the animal's mouth. A shuck collar, two pieces of wood for a cart- saddle, rawhide for traces, and for strings and straps, hick-
59
CATTINET-HALF-BREEDS AND INDIANS.
ory bark. When drawn by oxen, the load is pulled by a little yoke fastened to the head of the cattle, as in France. The inhabitants are half-breeds between French and Ind- ian. Some of them catching the bad points of both par- ents are disagreeable to behold. A few exhibit a style of beauty peculiarly their own. The men lived chiefly by hunting in Illinois, formerly the buffalo, elk, and beaver; at the time I speak of, deer, turkey, raccoon, and opposum. They cultivated corn enough to keep a horse or a pair of oxen. They live chiefly upon an excellent Indian dish called succotash, composed of corn and beans. They are of the complexion of the "Bois-brule" of the Far-West. The lank curs, half-dog half-wolf, lurk with thief-like look about the door. Here the wild and the domestic cat live together in harmony with pet 'possum, coon, and squirrel.
There is a vital spirit in Cattinet. As it was in the beginning so it is now. It is as old as Philadelphia. An American village would long ago run to ruin, or grown into a town or city. Riding on the road in front of the houses, I saw a matronly woman somewhat better dressed, walking with a composed and dignified step. Her complexion and features told me whence she came. She had the peculiar saffron color which I have noticed in the aged women in the south of France, who have been exposed to the weather. Saluting with my hat, I asked, in her own language, "Are you from France, madam?" She replied in her native tongue, "And who are you, sir, that are so inquisitive?" "An Englishman, madam." "Ah," said she, "then there are two of us;" meaning that we were the only two of unmixed blood in the village.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
At Princeton, we first boarded at a tavern kept by Basil Brown. The party being large, ten persons and eleven horses, we soon found, even at the moderate charge of two dollars a week for each person, and the same for each horse, that the amount could be reduced and more comfort obtained by keeping house, and by sending our spare horses into the country, to rest and grow fat on green corn and pumpkins.
Princeton, surrounded by heavy timber and rich land, the delight of Americans and dread of Europeans, who are incapable of clearing off timber to advantage, but ten miles from the ferries on the Wabash, and twenty-five from Har- mony, suited us well for a temporary home. By the time we arrived there, Mr. Birkbeck had already agreed to rent a house of sufficient capacity, and my wife, as senior, was soon installed as housekeeper to the large family, which post she maintained whilst Mr. Birkbeck and myself were on journeys of exploration in Illinois, and up to the time when it became necessary for me to go to England.
Mr. Birkbeck, myself, and his son Bradford mounted again, determined to find these ever-receding prairies. We went yet thirty miles south to Harmony, where three hun- dred organized laborers from Harmony, Pa.,, were in their third year of toil and improvement, clearing the heavy timber off the low and rich lands of the Wabash valley. It was surprising to see the extent of clearing accom- plished, and the number of buildings erected by this band of organized laborers; and equally surprising and pleasing to see the neatness, order, plenty, and apparent content that reigned. The long rows of neat cabins, each with a
61
NEW HARMONY, INDIANA.
small, well-fenced garden in front, perfect in its vegetable culture and gay with flowers; the women in their quaint costume, well made of plain and strong materials of their own manufacture, neat and clean, altogether presented a striking contrast to the discomforts of many of the individ- ual first-settlers, detached and scattered far apart, where nature seemed to overpower the first puny efforts of her individual invaders. Contrasted with the cabins of the people, stood the large brick-mansion of George Rapp, completed, fenced, furnished, and occupied .*
Opposite to Harmony, on the Wabash bottom, on the Illinois side of the river, a tract of about five miles wide was occupied by a full and heavy growth of cane. Across this bottom and through this cane the Harmonites had cut a road to the high lands of Illinois, to unite with roads and settlements made and to be made. Passing along this road, the traveler had on either hand a wall of impenetra- ble verdure, in many places, and for a long distance, full
Though situated in different States, and twenty-five miles apart, the Eng- lish Colony and New Harmony had, in the earlier days, much in common. The settlement at New Harmony, or, as it was first called, Harmonie, pre- ceded some years the settlement of Albion. The colony that founded Har- monie was made up of German Lutherans, from the kingdom of Wiirtemburg, having at their head a schismatic preacher, named George Rapp, a man of great will, determination, and energy, accompanied by a sort of religious enthusiasm, and holding an absolute mastery over his followers. The colony first settled in Pennsylvania in 1804, but, in 1813, Rapp purchased thirty thousand acres of government land on the Wabash, and on a part of which New Harmony was built. Contrary to the general idea, Rapp's colony was a great success, so far as the accumulation of property was concerned, and when Kapp sold out, in 1825, it was said that the wealth per capita was ten times greater than the average wealth throughout the United States. The people lived together like "Shakers." In 1824, Rapp had become fatigued with his charge, and desired to sell out. It was then he visited Albion, to consult with Richard Flower, whom he commissioned to go to Europe to offer the entire
62
ENGLISHI SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
twenty feet in height. Cane, whatever may be its size or height, makes its growth in one season. At its first com- ing up it is almost as tender as asparagus, and in that state is rapidly destroyed by domestic animals, especially hogs. It bears its seed not annually but periodically, at long intervals, a quarter or half a century apart, and then dies. The seed resembles the wild oat, and is said to be nutri- tious to man and beast. I saw it in its full size and vigor of growth. I have seen it bear its profuse crop of seed and die. In the same spot where I saw it in its full and perfect growth, it is now scarcely so large as my little fin- ger, and from knee to shoulder high. Thus dwarfed and annually dwindling in size it may continue for many years, but the day of its utter extinction is near at hand. The Harmonites had entered a large tract of this cane, and fenced in three or four hundred acres, on which their nu- merous cattle and sheep subsisted during the winter season in the first and second year of their settlement.
New - Harmony property for sale. Mr. Flower effected a sale to Robert Owen, a rich manufacturer of New Lanark, Scotland, a reformer and philan- thropist, who had made himself well known in Great Britain, particularly in respect of his views in regard to the labor question. He came to New Har- mony in the autumn of 1824, and completed the purchase of the Rapp village and twenty thousand acres of land, for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The Rappites soon left, and Owen then formed the colony of New Harmony on a new basis; a colony that has challenged more attention and criticism than any like colony ever established in this Country. When Robert Owen finally returned to Scotland, the colony fell under the direction of his three sons, William, Robert Dale, and David Dale Owen. The two last named have left their impress upon the country as reformers and thinkers, as scholars and writers, and men of large accomplishments. This is not the occasion for a disquisition on New Harmony, which, in competent hands, would be a sub- ject of the greatest interest. This brief allusion to the colony is made here because of the intimate relations which had sprung up between Mr. Birkbeck, Mr. Flower, and many persons of Edwards County, with Mr. Owen.
63
ENTER ILLINOIS TERRITORY.
Even here we could not learn anything of the prairies. Crossing a ferry a few miles south of Harmony, we entered the Territory of Illinois, and, in an hour's ride, we were in the settlement of the Big-Prairie. This was the first prairie in the south-eastern part of Illinois, and distant from the Ohio at Shawneetown about thirty miles through woodland. It was being settled exclusively by small corn- farmers from the slave-states. This prairie, not more than six miles long and two broad, was level, rather pondy, and agueislı. Its verdure and open space was grateful to the eye, but it did not fulfil our expectations.
Following the directions given to us by Mr. Sloo, we inquired the way to the Boltenhouse Prairie, so-called from the name of a man who had built a small cabin on its edge, near the spot where his brother had been killed by the Indians the year before. By side of the road we were following, was a small log-house, our last chance for infor- mation or direction. Our informant, stepping from his hut, indicated with his arm the direction we were to take, across the forest without road or path of any kind.
"Keep a wagon-track in your eye if you can, and you will find the prairie." A wagon-track, or two ruts on the open ground made by wagon wheels, can be followed with some degree of certainty. But this was quite a differ- ent affair. A light-loaded wagon had passed a fortnight before, through the woods and high underbrush, leaving no mark on the hard ground, and only here and there a bruised leaf or broken stem to indicate its passage. For seven mortal hours did we ride and toil in doubt and difficulty.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Bruised by the brushwood and exhausted by the extreme heat we almost despaired, when a small cabin and a low fence greeted our eyes. A few steps more, and a beautiful prairie suddenly opened to our view. At first, we only received the impressions of its general beauty. With longer gaze, all its distinctive features were revealed, lying in profound repose under the warm light of an afternoon's summer sun. Its indented and irregular outline of wood, its varied sur- face interspersed with clumps of oaks of centuries' growth, its tall grass, with seed stalks from six to ten feet high, like tall and slender reeds waving in a gentle breeze, the whole presenting a magnificence of park-scenery, complete from the hand of Nature, and unrivalled by the same sort of scenery by European art. For once, the reality came up to the picture of imagination. Our station was in the wood, on rising ground; from it, a descent of about a hun- dred yards to the valley of the prairie, about a-quarter of a mile wide, extending to the base of a majestic slope, rising upward for a full half-mile, crowned by groves of noble oaks. A little to the left, the eye wandered up a long stretch of prairie for three miles, into which pro- jected hills and slopes, covered with rich grass and decora- ted with compact clumps of full-grown trees, from four to eight in each clump. From beneath the broken shade of the wood, with our arms raised above our brows, we gazed long and steadily, drinking in the beauties of the scene which had been so long the object of our search.
We had left Harmony that morning soon after daylight, went south a few miles to Williams' ferry, then, crossing over, came to the Big-Prairie as before stated, and drank a
.
INTENSE HEAT-PRAIRIE FLIES. 65
cup of water from Mr. Williams' well. This was all the refreshment we had taken during the day. We must have traveled more than forty miles in that rough country in one of the hottest days of summer. Our clothing had for hours been wet through with profuse sweat, which trickled down our faces and dropped on our bodies. We felt wellnigh exhausted when we came in sight of our goal. There we stood. We felt no hunger, thirst, or fatigue. We determined to saddle up again, encounter the prairie and its flies, and finish our day's work by push- ing into Birk's Prairie, which, by the route we took, must have been seven miles farther. We passed the spot where Wanborough stands, and laid us down for the night near where Henry Huston first made his camp; the strongest day's fatigue I ever went through, and without refresh- ment, from the rising to the setting of the sun.
Immediately on entering the prairie, the quietude of our ride was interrupted by the restless and refractory actions of our horses. They stamped with their feet, started to a rough trot, and then broke into a gallop. It was from the sting of the prairie-fly, a large insect, with brown body, green head, and transparent wings. These prairie-flies have a peculiar liking for light and sunshine. They attack both horses and cattle, and sting them dread- fully in the open prairie, but will not follow them into the ordinary shade of a wood or forest. They rarely, if ever, attack men. This induces the grazing animals to feed in the prairies by night, and retire to the woods by day. This annoyance induces travelers, crossing the large prairies, to travel by night and rest by day. 5
66
ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Early as we were in the occupancy of these prairies, after the Indians had left, there was a class in before us. Not numerous, but of characteristics so peculiar as to deserve a passing notice. They belong to neither savage nor civilized life, but keep their station between the two; following up the Indians as they retreat, and moving away from the farmers as they advance. There were about six of these families scattered over a distance of fifty miles.
Our first experiences in prairie life were not very com- fortable. Camping for the night near a pool of stagnant water, we lay down to rest, turning our horses loose to graze. In the morning our horses were missing. We wan -. dered all day in vain search. I had separated myself from my companions in my rovings. The second night found me in a small prairie, about three miles west of the one we first entered. I lay down in the open prairie with- out fire or supper, my umbrella, a walking-stick by day, at night a house for my head. In the morning, somewhat - stiff and cold, I again began my search, and soon became as wet as if I had walked through a river, from the dew on the tall grass. For once, I felt glad of the hot sun, to warm and dry me. As a resource in an emergency, I car- ried a small bag of ground parched-cornmeal, mixed with some sugar and a little ground ginger. A tablespoon of this, with water, in some shell or the hollow of your hand, is very grateful, prevents extreme hunger, and gives reason- able nutrition. On this I subsisted for a couple of days.
In my wanderings, the thought struck me of finding out a Captain Birk, mentioned to me by my old friend Sloo, as living hereabout, the oldest settler in these parts; he
67
BIRK, THE BACKWOODSMAN.
had been here almost a year. Going in the direction in which I thought he lived, I espied a trail, made by the dragging of a log. Following this, I came suddenly to a worm-fence, inclosing a small field of fine corn, but could see no dwelling. I wished to see Birk, but felt a little diffidence in appearing before the captain in my deshabille. After several day's travel, and two night's camping out, my toilette was considerably compromised. Looking closely, I observed, between two rows of corn, a narrow . path. This I followed until I came suddenly in sight of a small cabin, within twenty steps of me, a little lower than the surrounding corn. Looking in the direction of a voice, calling back a savage dog that had rushed out to attack me, I saw a naked man, quietly fanning himself with a branch of a tree.
My first surprise over, finding his name was Birk, I told him who I was and my errand, at which he did not seem at all pleased. These original backwoodsmen look upon all new-comers as obtruders on their especial manorial rights. The old hunters' rule is: when you hear the sound of a neighbor's gun, it is time to move away.
What surprised me was the calm self-possession of the man. No surprise, no flutter, no hasty movements. He quietly said that he had just come from mill at Princeton, thirty miles distant, and was cooling himself a bit. Well, I thought he was cool. I afterward found all of this class of men, who live in solitude and commune so much with nature, relying on their own efforts to support them- selves and their families, to be calm, deliberate, and self- possessed whenever they are sober. The best breeding in
.
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
society could not impart to them more self-possession or give them greater ease of manner or more dignified and courteous bearing. Birk's cabin, fourteen feet long, twelve broad, and seven high, with earth for a floor, contained a four-post bedstead, said posts, driven into the ground by an ax, were sprouting, with buds, branches, and leaves.
The rim of an old wire-sieve, furnished with a piece of deerskin, punched with holes, for sifting cornmeal, a skillet, and a coffee-pot were all the culinary apparatus for a family of seven. A small three-legged stool and a rickety clap-board table the only furniture. An ax lay at the door, a rifle stood against the wall. Himself and boys were dressed in buckskin, his wife and three daughters in flimsy calico from the store, sufficiently soiled and not without rents. Mrs. Birk, a dame of some thirty years, was square-built and squat, sallow, and smoke-dried, with bare legs and feet. Her pride was in her hair, which, in two long well-braided black and shining tails, hung far down her back.
Birk got his title as commander of a company of men like himself, employed as outlying scouts to the American army on the Canada frontier. The cabin-door was made of two strong puncheons, to withstand an Indian attack. You might always find in the behavior of the females, of this class of people, the degree of estimation or aversion in which you were held. Mrs. Birk was sour and silent, omnious indications. The British and Indians, having fought together against the Americans, were held by these people in the same category as natural enemies. To such an extent was this feeling exhibited, that, at a future time,
69
HATRED TO THE "BRITISH."
quite a respectable farmer in the Big Prairie apologized to Mrs. Flower for the non-appearance of his wife, by saying she had lost a brother at the battle of the River Raisin, and that she always went out of the house into the woods : whenever an English person entered, and remained there as long as he or she stayed. Besides, we came with the intention of settling and bringing other settlers. All this was distasteful to them. They came to enjoy the solitude of the forest and the prairie. They wished to be far from that species of civilization whose temptations could not be withstood by them, and which made the weaknesses of its victims augment its own gains. No wonder we were met by no cordial greetings. Our success would be their defeat, and the growth of our colony the signal for their removal. A few dollars liberally given for information and pilotage, and a dram of whisky whenever we had it to bestow, would modify the hostile feeling, and we soon became on friendly terms.
Two or three slices from a half-smoked haunch, a few pommes of coarse corn-bread, seasoned by hunger, the best of sauce, gave us a relishing supper. How sleeping was to be managed, I felt at a loss. As night advanced, Birk reached his long arm up to a few clapboards over the joist, and pulled down a dried hog's-skin for my especial comfort and repose during the night.
Father, mother, sons, and daughters all lay on the one bed. I, as in duty bound, lay my hog's-skin on the floor, and myself upon it. But I soon found that
" Big fleas and little fleas,
And less fleas to bite 'em,
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
These again had lesser fleas, And so on ad infinitum."
I removed my not over-luxurious couch outside the house, to a spot of earth free from vegetation, and there I lay until break-of-day; glad enough to run to the fire for a little warmth as soon as it was kindled.
Cold is never more felt than at daybreak, after lying on the ground without covering, even in the summer season. Our horses which had strayed, were brought back to us by John Anderson, one of those outlying hunters who for a liberal reward acted with efficiency on the occasion. Under- standing the instinct of the horse, Anderson took a straight course toward Princeton, until he reached the Great Wa- bash, at La Vallett's ferry. There he found the fugitives, arrested by the broad stream, from immediately attempt- ing a crossing.
Having again joined my companions, we once again mounted, and proceeded to look at the prairies west of the Little Wabash. We were advised by Birk to call on a man named Harris, who lived about twelve miles west of the Little Wabash. To find a little cabin through fifteen miles of forest and prairie, without road or even path, is no small job. But it is astonishing how necessity sharpens the wits, and how soon signs, before unnoticed and unknown, be- come recognized. We found him in a small cabin, shel- tered by a little grove, but no field or cultivation of any kind about his humble dwelling. He lived in the same style as Birk and in the same destitution. One article of luxury only excepted. This was a fiddle with two strings. We found the prairies desirable as to size, soil, and prox-
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