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 9
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There was that sense of justice in Mr. Birkbeck that prompted him to repair an injury inflicted from errone- ous impressions or heat of temper. Seven years after our short meeting and parting, Mr. Birkbeck went to Har- mony, and solicited Mr. Robert Owen to use his influence for a reconciliation between us; but from that journey he never returned .*
I must anticipate a period of eight years to close the history of Mr. Birkbeck's family with myself and with the Settlement. Some time after the death of Mr. Birk- beck, a circumstance occurred which brought me once more into personal intercourse with the members of his
* On his return to Wanborough from New Harmony, Ind., June 4, 1825, Morris Birkbeck was drowned while crossing Fox River. His body, taken two days afterward to New Harmony, was buried with every mark of respect and affection. Thus perished Morris Birkbeck, one of the ablest and most cultivated men of his time in Illinois, whose influence, wielded in the cause of freedom and humanity, should always be gratefully remembered.
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116 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
family, then living in Wanborough,* his two daughters, Mrs. Pell and Mrs. Hanks, neither of whom I had seen since our parting at Princeton, eight years before. Mr. Francis Hanks, eldest son of an Irish gentleman, and the only member of that family now remaining in Wanbor- ough, married Miss Prudence, the second daughter of Mr. Birkbeck, by whom he had three daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Hanks had for some time lived apart. Mrs. Hanks and her children lived with her sister, Mrs. Pell, to whom she was ardently attached, and by whom she was much be- loved. Mr. Hanks and myself had always been on friendly terms. From the peculiar position of my own and his father-in-law's family, we had never conversed on his family affairs. Mr. Hanks now thought it his duty to take his children under his own care. He called on me to ask the loan of my carriage to bring his children and their little effects from Mr. Pell's to his own house. This led to further conversation then, and to more the next day. I questioned the wisdom of his intention in taking his daughters from the custody of their mother, and bring- ing them to a house without a housekeeper or female domestic, and in a country where a governess was scarcely to be procured.
He listened to my suggestions, and, at his request, I went to see Mrs. Hanks on the subject. Mr. Pell met
* Wanborough was laid out as a town by Mr. Birkbeck in five-acre lots, a mile or two west of where Albion is located, and there he had his own residence. A few other families settled there, but the town had no future. Everything went to Albion, and, at the present day, Wanborough has no existence, even in name.
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AN EMBARRASSING INTERVIEW.
me at the hall-door, with some surprise, for I had never been there before. I briefly explained the object of my visit. He invited me in, and opened the door of the parlor, which I entered. There stood my two former friends, Eliza and Prudence, pale and motionless. Pru- dence soon became tremulous, her nervous temperament scarcely allowed her to stand, but she could not move. Her sister, with slight motion, invited me to a seat, which I for a few moments could not take. All the past was passing through our 'minds, we were scarcely conscious of existence. I asked Mrs. Hanks if she would like to retain her children, and received her almost inaudible assent and thanks. Mr. Pell came in, to our relief; we all made an effort, and spoke aloud, as if to dissipate the impression of some unhappy dream that had long oppressed us.
Mr. Pell sat down to table to draw up an agreement, all of us sitting, participating in what was being written. I soon returned with Mr. Hanks' signature. Dinner was now ready. I was pressed to stay. I sat at the right-hand of Mrs. Pell, Mrs. Hanks opposite, Mr. Pell at the bot- tom, and three or four children near him. Mrs. Hanks never completely recovered her self-possession. Mrs. Pell, calm, conversable, and cheerful. The conversation became general. Yet it was evident that there were different parties at the table; feeling a different existence, and living in different worlds. Three of us saw all the happy days of the past, and the darker hours of separation and regret to which the husband could get but faint glimpses. The children knew no other world than they were enjoying, and the play to which they soon returned. At leaving,
118 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
Mr. Pell requested a moment's stay at the hall-door: "Mr. Flower, there has been an estrangement between our families, may we hope that it is now at an end, and that all may be forgotten." As in the evening of a dark and dreary day, the clouds lighted up with a bright streak of sunlight in the western horizon, showing that the storms are past, giving promise of a fair and tranquil morrow. So one gleam of sincere, but melancholy, friendship closed our dark day, but for us there was no morrow. Mrs. Hanks soon after went to Mexico, with her daughters, to join her brothers, who had gone to that country after their father's death. Not long after her arrival in Mexico, on an evening promenade, she was attacked with the cholera and died. Her children, adopted by her bother Bradford, have been kindly cared for. A little later, I met Mrs. Pell, for the last time, at a friend's house in Albion. She was going, the next day, to New York with her children. At parting, she came forward, extending her hand with frankness, and with her own sweet smile, gave me a cor- dial farewell. This estimable lady was, I believe, the sole instructor, as well as care-taker, of her children, and this she was from the circumstances of her situation. Mr. Pell was a public man, twice in the Legislature, and was often for long periods abroad." A wife of ability and industry, everywhere valuable, is in western America a treasure of priceless worth. In the performance of her maternal
* Gilbert T. Pell, who married the daughter of Mr. Birkbeck, was a mem- ber of the "Convention Legislature," as it was called, from Edwards County, in 1822-4. He was a strong anti-slavery man, and voted against the resolu- tion to call a convention to change the Constitution of the State so as to toler- ale slavery. He was also a member from the same county for 1828-30.
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DIGGING THE WELL.
duties, and in every sacrifice for the welfare of her chil- dren, Mrs. Pell found refreshment and strength. She now took them the journey to New York and the voyage to England. For their sake, she went to the antipodes of the globe, encountering the world of water that lies be- tween England and Australia, where she now is watch- ing the peaceful progress of her children to wealth and station, as rewards for the virtues impressed upon them by her care and love.
I should willingly have avoided these personal inci- dents, but our histories are so interwoven with the history of the Settlement that I could not entirely omit them.
On my return from the short interview with Mr. Birk- beck, I saw that I could receive no benefit or aid from any previous preparation, and had only myself to rely upon. No water near, a well was of the first necessity. Two laborers, one English and one American, were set at work, and struck a solid sandstone rock three feet from the surface. The nearest forge was where the town of Carmi now stands, thirty miles distant. About every other day, I sent to Carmi to have tools sharpened. Two sawyers set to work with a pit-saw, broke the iron han- dle of the saw. I sent a man on horseback to Harmony, twenty-five miles, to get it mended. He left the saw, and then rode off with horse, saddle, and bridle. I never saw him more.
My old friend Birk gave me a call to say "howd'ye," bringing a haunch of venison, for which I paid him thirty- seven and a-half cents, about eighteen pence sterling. Think of that, ye aldermen of London! Our money was
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
not decimally divided then. It was the Spanish coin: dollar, half, quarter, twelve-and-a-half and six-and-a-fourth cents, all in separate silver coins, no copper passing.
"Birk, I want a smoke-house, well roofed, scutched in- side, and well chinked. How much?" "Ten dollars," said he. "Find yourself ( that is, feed yourself ), haul your own logs. When?" "Tomorrow." The house was built; money paid; whisky given; man rode home; drunk and happy; all in a quiet friendly way. So the Settle- ment was planted in two parts, side by side, about two miles distant from each other.
For a moment let us glance at the situation of these settlers, a thousand miles inland, at the heels of the retreat- ing Indians. A forest from the Atlantic shore behind them, but thinly settled with small villages, far apart from each other. To the west, one vast uninhabited wilder- ness of prairie, interspersed with timber, extending two thousand miles to the Pacific Ocean. Excepting St. Louis, on the Mississippi, then a small place, and Kaskaskia, yet smaller, there were no inhabitants west of us. About the same time, one or two small American settlements were forming a few miles east of the Mississippi, as we were planting ourselves a few miles west of the Wabash. The first member of Congress had to ride an intervening space of a hundred and fifty miles of wilderness between the little settlements of his constituents, lying in the west and east of the State. There were no roads on land, no steam-boats on the waters. The road, so- called, leading to Vandalia (then composed of about a dozen log-houses), was made by one man on horse-
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121
A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL.
back following in the track of another, every rider making the way a little easier to find, until you came to some slush, or swampy place, where all trace was lost, and you got through as others had done, by guess- ing at the direction, often riding at hazard for miles until you stumbled on the track again. And of these blind traces there were but three of four in the southern half of the State. No roads were worked, no watercourses bridged. Before getting to Vandalia, there was a low piece of timbered bottom-land, wet and swampy, and often covered with water, through which every traveler had to make his way as he best could, often at the risk of his life. Such was the state of the country. No man could feel sure that he was within the limits of the State, but from knowing that he was west of the Wabash and east of the Mississippi. We had some difficulties, pecu- liar to ourselves, as a foreign people. The Americans, by pushing onward and onward for almost two genera- tions, had a training in handling the axe and opening farms, and, from experience, bestowing their labor in the most appropriate manner, which we, from our inexperi- ence, often did not. Fresh from an old country, teeming with the conveniences of civilized life, at once in a wilder- ness with all our inexperience, our losses were large from misplaced labor. Many were discouraged, and some re- turned, but the mass of the settlers stayed, and, by gradual experience, corrected their first errors, thus overcoming difficulties which had wellnigh overcome them. The future success of the Settlement was obtained by individ- ual toil and industry. Of the first inconveniences and sufferings, my family had its full share.
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122 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
The summer had been very hot and latterly wet. Thun- der showers of daily occurrence sent mosquitoes in swarms. My cabin, recently built, of course, of green logs, unfur- nished, with rank vegetation growing all around it and up to its very sides, was in its situation and in itself a sufficient cause of disease. My shepherd and his family came, bringing a few choice sheep and an English high- bred cow. His whole family, in a few days, all fell sick, lying in a small cabin just built about a hundred yards from my own. Mr. White, carpenter, from London, wife, and two children, occupied a two-horse wagon and a sol- dier's tent. There was no house for him; they all fell sick. My two sons were speedily taken with fever and ague, to us then a new disease. Miss Fordham, who shared our cabin, was attacked with the same disease. My constitution, strong and good, yielding from exposure to heat and rain, took another form of disease. Boils and irritable sores broke out on both my legs, from knee to ankle, incapacitating me, for a time, from walking. Thus we were situated for two or three weeks, without the slightest assistance from any source, or supplies other than from my own wagons, as they slowly arrived from Shawneetown, giving us sufficient bedding with flour and bacon. All the other merchandise and furniture did but add to our present embarrassment, in attempts to protect them from the weather, and in endeavoring to dry what was wet.
We were carried through this period of trial by the unremitting labor and self-sacrifice of my wife .* She alone
* Mrs. Flower was a woman of rare intelligence and excellent education, to
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CHARACTER OF MRS. FLOWER.
prepared all our food and bedding, and attended to the wants of the sick and the suffering by night and day. To all this was added a fatigue that a strong man might have shrunk from, in bringing water from that distant well. Sustained in her unremitting labors by unbounded devotion to her family, and a high sense of duty to all within her reach, her spirit and her power seemed to rise above the manifold trials by which she was surrounded. And thus we were saved from probable death or certain dispersion. The incessant labor of the mother told on the infant at the breast; it sickened and died. With returning health we worked our way unaided through our difficulties.
To our former friends and those that sustained them in withholding the slightest assistance in our hour of trial, is it strange that we should accept the separation, and feel in our hearts that it must be forever? We, for some time, experienced the inconveniences of population in ad- vance of necessary food and shelter.
which she united an energetic character and a courageous spirit. An affec- tionate wife, a devoted mother, a kind friend, and a good neighbor, she proved herself in all the relations of life a true and noble woman. When misfortune and poverty came to her family in the later years, she met the changed circum- stances with a cheerful spirit and unsubdued courage. She was of the best type of an English countrywoman, and preserved, to the end of her days, the characteristics of her nationality. The sad day arriving when, in pursuit of occupation to support his family, Mr. Flower was obliged to leave the Colony he had helped to found, and with which he had been so conspicuously identi- fied for so many years, he removed to Mt. Vernon, Ind., on the Ohio River, to take charge of an hotel. Advanced years and impaired health made it im- possible for Mr. Flower to give much attention to the business, and the brunt fell upon his wife. With her high shell-comb and her tasteful turban, no weary guest will ever forget her cheery welcome, or the satisfactory and kindly manner in which he was entertained.
124 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
The buildings necessary to secure our horses and our goods, now daily arriving, were built by the backwoods- men of whom I have before spoken, among them was my old friend Birk. These men worked well in the morning, slackened toward noon, as the drams of whisky (which they would not work without) told upon them, and in- dulged in imprecations, brawls, and rough-and-tumble fights, toward evening.
Emigrants were continually flowing in. They first visited Mr. Birkbeck, who had but small accommodations; then came to me, who, at that time, had still less. At this stage, we were experiencing many of the inconveni- ences of a population in the wilderness, in advance of necessary food and shelter. Do as you will, if you are the very first in the wilderness, there are many inconveni- ences, privations, hardships, and sufferings that can not be avoided. My own family, one day, were so close run for provisions, that a dish of the tenderest buds and shoots of the hazle was our only resort.
Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Trimmer, who led the first ship- load, made their settlement in the Village Prairie, a beau- tiful and extensive prairie, so-called from the Piankeshaw Indians, there formerly located. It was situated due north of my cabin in the Boltenhouse Prairie, about three miles, the intervening space covered by timber and underbrush, untouched by the hand of man. Emigrants kept coming in, some on foot, some on horseback, and some in wagons. Some sought employment, and took up with such labor as they could find. Others struck out and made small beginnings for themselves. Some, with feelings of petu-
125
A · NIGHT DISCUSSION.
lence, went farther and fared worse; others dropped back into the towns and settlements in Indiana. At first, I had as much as I could do to build a few cabins for the workmen I then employed, and in erecting a large farm- yard, a hundred feet square, enclosed by log-buildings, two stories high; also in building for my father's family a house of considerable size, and appointed with some- what more of comforts than is generally found in new settlements, to be ready for their reception on the follow- ing summer. I had as yet done nothing in erecting build- ings for the public in general, as there had been no time. One evening, Mr. Lawrence, Mr. Ronalds, and I think, Mr. Fordham, called at my cabin, and, after their horses were cared for and supper over, we discussed the meas- ures that should be taken to form some village or town, as a centre for those useful arts necessary to agriculture. Every person wanted the services of a carpenter and blacksmith. But every farmer could not build workshops at his own door. Daylight ceased, darkness followed. We had no candles, nor any means of making artificial light. On a pallet, mattress, or blanket, each one took to his couch, and carried on the discussion. After much talk, we decided that what we did do should be done in order, and with a view to the future settlement, as well as our own present convenience. The tract of forest lying between Mr. Lawrence's settlement in the Village Prairie, on its southern border, and mine at the north of the Boltenhouse Prairie, was about three-and-a-half miles through. Somewhere in the centre of, this tract of wood- land seemed to be the place. To the right of this spot,
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
eastward, lay, about a mile distant, several prairies run- ning north and south for many miles, and others east and west to the Bonpas Creek, from three to five miles dis- tant. North-eastward from Mr. Lawrence's cabin, prairies of every form and size continued on indefinitely. About two miles west, and beyond Wanborough, were numerous small and fertile prairies, extending to the Little Wabash, from six to ten miles distant. On the south was my own beautiful prairie. Thus the spot for our town in a central situation was decided upon. Now for a name. We were long at fault. At last we did what almost all emigrants do, pitched on a name that had its association with the land of our birth. Albion was then and there located, built, and peopled in imagination. We dropped off, one by one, to sleep, to confirm in dreams the wan- derings of our waking fancies.
CHAPTER VI.
Albion Founded-Town Surveyed and Laid Off-First Double Cabin -Benjamin Grutt- Albion a fixed Fact-The Log - Cabin and Blacksmith-Shop- Rowdyism-Wanborough springs into Exis- tence in 1818-Efforts to obtain Water-Visit to Lexington, Ky. - Death of William Flower- Building in Albion-Old Park-House The Sunday Dinner-Brick-Kilns-Market-House-New Roads Brick-Tavern, built by Richard Flower-Kept by Mr. and Mrs. Lewis-The Mill-The first Store-keepers in Albion-Other early Settlers -Albion made the County-Seat-Erection of a Court- House and Jail-Pardon of Perry by Gov. Coles- Disappoint- ment of the People in not seeing him Hung-Consoling them- selves with Whisky and a score of Fights-Thirty-nine Lashes for a Poor Frenchman-Hon. William Wilson.
ONE day was only suffered to elapse between our decision and the execution of our purpose. Before dis- persing the next morning, it was agreed that Mr. Ford- ham and myself should start north from my dwelling. Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Ronalds were to go south from the Village Prairie at a given hour on the following morn- ing. We met the next day in the woods, according to appointment. The spot seemed suitable, The woods were rather open, and the ground level. "Here shall be the centre of our town," we said. The spot of our meet- ing is now the public square in the centre of Albion, on which the school-house, the court-house, and the jail now stand. The surveying and laying of the town was en- trusted to Mr. Fordham, who forthwith went to work, and
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ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
completed the survey and the plat. One of our number went to Shawneetown, and entered the section of six hundred and forty acres, which was all laid off in town lots. The public-square was in the middle. The blocks immediately around, and in the main street, were divided into quarter-acre lots. The blocks outside were divided into half-acres. As the distance increased from the cen- tre, the lots increased in size, until the outer belt of allot- ments were five and seven acres.
The first double-cabin built, was designated for a tavern, and a single one for its stable. This was occupied by Mr. John Pitcher, who, with his family, came out with Mr. Lawrence. He was an excellent mechanic, and a man of more than ordinary intelligence. Unsuccessful in England, he came to the Settlement almost without a dollar. About two years afterward, he went to Vincennes (leaving his family at Albion), and undertook contracting for building on a large scale. He was pursuing his business successfully, when he was suddenly cut off by a virulent epidemic, much resembling the yellow fever. He was visited in his last moments by Mr. Benjamin Grutt, who was then at Vincennes and accidentally heard of his ill- ness. Too weak to articulate, with a significant pressure of the hand and a kindly smile, he took leave of his visitor, indicating that the little differences which had arisen between them had all passed away, and were then forgiven. This reminiscence, Mr. Grutt always spoke of as one of the most pleasing incidents of his life. His son Henry, then a boy, is now, I am happy to record, a gentleman of large property, now residing at St. Louis,
ALBION BEGUN. 129
acquired, I believe, in the city by his own industry and intelligence. Such opportunities does this country afford for those who have the ability or good fortune to lay hold of them.
Another and second double and single cabin were occu- pied as dwelling and shop by a blacksmith. I had brought bellows, anvils, tools, and appliances for three or four black- smith - shops, from the City of Birmingham, England .- There were three brothers that came with Mr. Charles Trimmer, all excellent mechanics, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Penfold. Jacob, the blacksmith, was immediately installed, and went to work. There stood Albion, no longer a myth, but a reality, a fixed fact. A log-tavern . and a blacksmith-shop.
Two germs of civilization were now planted-one of the useful arts, the other a necessary institution of present civilization. Any man could now get his horse shod and get drunk in Albion, privileges which were soon enjoyed, the latter especially.
The town-proprietors, at first four, afterward increased to eight (each share five hundred dollars), went to work vigorously. They put up cabin after cabin, which were occupied as soon as put up, by emigrants coming in. The builders of these were the backwoodsmen, some . from twenty to thirty miles distant. Attracted by our good money and good whisky, these men gathered in. The work was generally done by contract or piece-work -the price twenty-five to thirty dollars for single cabins, 16 by 18; from forty to fifty for double cabins. The builders generally worked hard by day. In the evening,
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130 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT IN EDWARDS COUNTY.
they gathered around the whisky-barrel, as bees around a favorite flower. As the evening advanced, in succession were heard the sounds of mirth and jollity, threats, loud oathis, and imprecations. Rough-and-tumble fights suc- ceeded, and silence was only restored by the exhaustion of the mutilated combatants. The birth of our infant town was heralded by all the scenes of riot and debauch incident to such occasions.
In August, 1818, the village of Wanborough sprang into existence for the accommodation of the first-ship's party, on Mr. Birkbeck's property, and under his immediate direc- tion. In October, of the same year, Albion was founded under my more immediate superintendence. It has main- tained a slow, progressive, solid growth from that time to this, now more than forty years.
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