USA > Illinois > Illinois in 1818, 2nd ed > Part 11
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"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."120 The follow- ing spring when Flower met Birkbeck, he led the party without hesitation or deviation, toward the prairies of his vision. Ro- mantic as it may appear, this longing of Flower's for the open prairies which he had never seen was to have a very practical
118Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois, 18-19.
119 The first edition of Imlay's Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America, was published in London in 1792.
120 Flower, English Settlement, 36, 38.
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effect on the development of Illinois. The American settlers had shunned the prairie partly because of their belief that the best land was to be found where the tallest timber grew and partly because of a number of real obstacles such as the lack of water, lack of wood for buildings, fences, fuel, and difficul- ties of transportation. These men, with their larger means, were able to overcome some of these difficulties and to demon- strate the value of prairie land for farming.
Knowing how his imagination had been stirred, one can share with Flower the adventure of his first sight of the prairies in reality. Having established the rest of the party temporarily at Princeton in Indiana, Birkbeck, Flower, and one of the for- mer's sons, "mounted again, determined to find these ever- receding prairies." Crossing the Wabash near New Harmony, they came first to "the settlement of the Big-Prairie. 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 aguish. Its verdure and open space was grateful to the eye, but it did not fulfil our ex- pectations." Inquiring "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," they were directed to follow a light trail through the woods, which they did "for seven mortal hours in doubt and difficulty.
"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 surface 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
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THE PIONEERS
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 hundred yards to the valley of the prairie, about a-quarter of a mile wide, ex- tending to the base of the 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 projected hills and slopes, covered with rich grass and decorated 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."
After spending several days exploring the prairies, they started on the return journey to Princeton. "Before leaving Illinois, night overtook us," continues Flower, "We halted by the side of a fallen log, at a point of timber that stretched into the prairie. A fire being kindled, we sat down on the grass, talked over and decided what was to be done. The result of our de- cision was this :- After clubbing together all the money we could then command, Mr. Birkbeck was to go to Shawneetown and enter all the woodland around the Boltenhouse Prairie. We had not money enough with us to purchase the whole prairie. I was to return to England to remit him money as soon as pos- sible, take with me and publish the manuscript of his book con- taining the record of our journey from Richmond to the prairies ; bring out my father's family; and spread the information; point out the road to it; and facilitate emigration generally. He was on the home department to purchase more land and make the necessary preparations in building. I on the foreign mission, to bring in the people. As will be seen hereafter, he did his duty and I did mine."121
The first purchase of land for the settlement was made at Shawneetown before Flower left for England; the tract bought consisted of about three thousand acres. During 1817 and 1818 Birkbeck entered forty-one and a quarter sections or 26,400
121 Flower, English Settlement, 60-74.
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acres in all; and Flower, after his return, also made addi- tional purchases. Not having sufficient funds available at first to enter all the land desired for the settlement, and fearing exten- sive purchases by speculators, which would defeat the purposes of the project, Birkbeck determined to apply to congress for a "grant by purchase" of a large tract of land in the unsurveyed district beyond the base line, which ran only six miles north of the first purchases. His memorial, dated November 20, 1817, set forth, "that a number of his Countrymen, chiefly Yeomen, Farmers, Farming labourers, and rural Mechanics are desirous of removing with their families And Capital into this Country, provided that, by having situations prepared for them, they might escape the wearisome & expensive travel in quest of a settlement which has broken the Spirits & drained the purses of many of their emigrant brethren, terminating too frequently in disappoint- ment." No reference was made in the memorial to amount of land or terms of purchase, but it appears from correspondence between Birkbeck and Nathaniel Pope, the territorial delegate, that what was desired was the privilege of purchasing so much as might be needed for the purpose "not exceeding twenty, thirty, or forty thousand acres," at the minimum price and with "such an extension of time of payment as might preclude embarrass- ment or disappointment." The proposition failed to meet with the approval of congress, however, for it was felt that such grants would be "liable to be abused by speculators," and that it was not desirable "to encourage the settlement of foreigners in distinct masses." The leaders were obliged to content them- selves, therefore, with making plans for the reception of their countrymen "on a contracted scale."122
In the spring of 1818 Birkbeck moved his family from Prince- ton to the new home on the prairie. His Notes on a Journey had been published in Philadelphia as well as in London, and coming to the hands of a number of English people already in this country, induced them to join him. By June the colony con- tained, according to Fordham, "between 40 and 50 persons, be-
122The chief authorities for the English settlement of Edwards county are Flower, English Settlement, Ogg, Fordham's Personal Narrative, Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois, and land office records, auditor's office, Springfield. The memorial is in Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois, 147-149.
3
MRS. GEORGE FLOWER [From original painting owned by Chicago Historical Society]
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sides American settlers in the neighbourhood;" and Birkbeck was having difficulty in getting cabins erected by the backwoods- men rapidly enough to supply the demand.
Flower started his first party from England in March, 1818. It consisted of "forty-four men and one married woman. The men were chiefly farm-laborers and mechanics from Surrey. Many of them had for years worked for Mr. Birkbeck, others were from his neighborhood, and were either personally ac- quainted or knew him by reputation. This party was under the especial care and leadership of Mr. Trimmer. Another party, of about equal number, composed of London mechanics, and tradesmen from various parts of England formed another party that sailed in the same ship. These were under the guidance and direction of Mr. James Lawrence, merchant tailor, of Hatton Garden, London. Neither Mr. Lawrence nor any one of his party had any personal acquaintance with either Mr. Birkbeck or my- self, but received their impulse from our published expositions." According to Flower's account these parties arrived at Shaw- neetown in August, but it must have been late in July for the names of both Trimmer and Lawrence appear in the schedule for the additional census of Gallatin county, which was closed July 28. Trimmer appears in the schedule as the head of a fam- ily of fifty, thirty of whom were entered as men over twenty-one. Only eight men are credited to Lawrence, which may indicate that some of the mechanics and tradesmen had remained in the east, although some of them may have been entered under their own names.
These first parties, says Flower, included only three women, but his own party of "three score and more" which sailed in April in a chartered ship, contained a number of families. All the spare room on the deck of the ship was occupied by Flower's "live-stock of cows, hogs, and sheep, of the choicest breeds of England." This was doubtless the party referred to in the fol- lowing item from a New York paper: "We learn that a gentle- man has lately arrived in this city from England, whose object is to settle in the Illinois territory-that his family and settlers brought over with him amount to fifty-one persons-that he has furnished himself with agricultural instruments, seeds of various
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kinds, some cows, sheep and hogs, for breeding, and about 100,000 pounds sterling in money."123
In October, Fordham wrote: "We have now 200 English on [sic] our Settlement. Many are discontented; but the strong- minded regret that they did not come out sooner." In August, when the first shipload arrived, "the village of Wanborough was laid off by Mr. Birkbeck in five-acre lots. On these were built cabins, rented by some, bought by others. A good ox-mill and blacksmith's-shop were soon after added to the village." Flower gives a graphic description of the development of the settlement and of the founding in October, of a village which grew into a town :124
"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 ex- periencing many of the inconveniences 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 inconveniences, privations, hardships, and sufferings that can not be avoided. My own family, one day, were so close run for pro- visions, 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 shipload, made their settlement in the Village Prairie, a beautiful and ex- tensive 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 horse- back, 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 petulence, 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
123Flower, English Settlement, 95-102; Niles' Weekly Register, 14:256.
124Ogg, Fordham's Personal Narrative, 236; Flower, English Settlement, 100, 124-126, 130.
THE PARK HOUSE, ALBION, THE FLOWER HOME BUILT IN 1819-1822 AND SAID IN ITS DAY TO BE THE FINEST RESIDENCE WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES [Original painting by George Flower. Made from copy in possession of Walter Colyer, Albion]
A PIONEER SCENE [From Ellis, Indian Wars of the United States, by courtesy of Sears, Roebuck and Company]
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employed, and in erecting a large farmyard, a hundred feet square, enclosed by log-buildings, two stories high; also in build- ing for my father's family a house of considerable size, and ap- pointed with somewhat more of comforts than is generally found in new settlements, to be ready for their reception on the following 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 measures that should be taken to form some village or town, as a centre for those useful arts nec- essary to agriculture. Every person wanted the services of a car- penter and blacksmith. But every farmer could not build work- shops 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 car- ried 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 woodland seemed to be the place. To the right of this spot, eastward, lay, about a mile distant, several prairies running north and south for many miles, and others east and west to the Bonpas Creek, from three to five miles distant. 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 de- cided 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 wanderings of our waking fancies."
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The English settlement in 1818 was too young and too much occupied with its own problems to exert any considerable in- fluence upon the affairs of the territory and state, but its influ- ence was destined to be very considerable in later years. The leaders were men of superior intelligence and education and took an active share in public life. Especially in the struggle over the admission of slavery in 1823 and 1824 their influence was to be felt on the side of freedom. The settlement was destined to pro- mote also the agricultural development of the state. The lead- ers were well instructed in the theory and practice of agriculture, and the farmers whom they brought over were "accustomed to continuous labor." Their capital enabled them to carry on opera- tions on a scale hitherto unknown upon the frontier, and the blooded stock which they introduced was a valuable asset to the community. The English settlement, moreover, was to give to Illinois unlimited advertising, not only in England, but on the continent and in the United States as well.
Eleven editions in English of Birkbeck's Notes on a Journey were issued during 1817, 1818, and 1819 in Philadelphia, Lon- don, Dublin, and Cork, while a German translation was pub- lished at Jena in 1818. His Letters from Illinois were published in seven editions in English in 1818, and the following year were translated into both French and German. Birkbeck wrote a number of other pamphlets containing advice to emigrants, and several of the other members of the settlement published ac- counts of their experiences. Nearly all the foreign travelers who made tours of the United States during the years 1818 to 1820 visited the settlement and published accounts of it in their books. Some of these were unfavorable, and an extensive literary contro- versy followed in which the leading English and American re- views participated.125 All this served to call attention not only to the settlement itself but to Illinois and the west as a whole, and undoubtedly helped to promote emigration both from abroad and from the eastern states.
125 See Buck, Travel and Description, 58-91, passim, for bibliographical notes on these publications.
CHAPTER V
THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
The industrial development of a region on the frontier has always depended to a very large extent on its facilities for trans- portation. In recent times the settlement of the western plains has followed the lines of the pioneer railroads, usually resisting every attempt to deflect it to regions not traversed by them. When the Mississippi valley was first settled, however, the rail- roads had not yet begun to play their part as a major economic factor; and accordingly it was the waterways, as offering an obvious and easy means of communication, which exerted the most decisive influence upon the early settlement and develop- ment of the middle west.
Illinois in particular owed much to her abundance of navigable streams. With an easy means of communication between the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois river and its tributaries, and in touch with the east by way of the Ohio, the Illinois country occupied a strategic position in rela- tion to the outside world. In the interior, the Illinois, the Wabash, and the Kaskaskia, with their numerous tributaries, afforded unusually good transportation facilities ; even such lesser streams as the Little Wabash, the Embarrass, the Big Muddy, and some of the so-called creeks could be navigated by the barges, flatboats, arks, and keel boats in use on the western waters. As has already been indicated, the first settlers naturally located along these waterways; had it not been for the consid- erable number of streams, the country could never have been . developed as rapidly as it was.
The era of the steamboat, destined to bring about a great in- crease in the speed and reduction in the cost of transportation,
(113)
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was just beginning at the time when Illinois became a state. The first steamboat trip down the Ohio and Mississippi was in 181I, but not until four years later was the first trip up the river to Louisville accomplished, while August 2, 1817, was the date of the first arrival at St. Louis. The following January, however, Morris Birkbeck reported: "Steam-boats already navigate the Wabash: a vessel of that description has this winter made its way up from New Orleans to within a few miles of our settle- ment. They are about building one at Harmony." Two months later he wrote to a prospective emigrant : "Your voyage up from New Orleans, by steam, will be about a month. Steam-boats are passing continually. A gentleman who is just come down the Ohio, saw ten new ones on the stocks at different ports of the river."126
Important as was river transportation, especially as regards connection with the outside world, the improvement of facilities for travel and transportation on land was also necessary for the development of the territory and state. Often the distance from point to point by water was several times as great as that by land, while much of the most desirable land lay in the interior be- tween the streams. From early territorial times travelers and emigrants had made their way overland from various points on the Ohio to the settlements on the Mississippi, and by 1818 a number of main lines of travel were clearly marked out. The earlier route from Fort Massac, a short distance below the mouth of the Tennessee, to Kaskaskia had been largely superseded by the roads leading from Golconda and Shawneetown to the cap- ital. From Kaskaskia northward an old road wound up the American bottom through Prairie du Rocher and Cahokia to Illinoistown opposite St. Louis and to the mouth of Wood river. The rapid growth of the country north of Kaskaskia, in St. Clair and Madison counties, led to the development of a direct route of travel. from Shawneetown through Carlyle to Edwardsville and Alton, to which was given the name "Goshen Road." From Vincennes to St. Louis ran another trail which joined the Goshen
126Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois, 55, 113; Preble, History of Steam Navi- gation, 66-72.
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road near Carlyle and coincided with it for a few miles; and a branch of this Vincennes road, leaving the main line near the center of the state, led southwestwardly to Kaskaskia. Other im- portant lines of travel were from Shawneetown northward through Carmi to the English settlement and from Kaskaskia by way of Belleville to Edwardsville.
Although there was considerable travel on these main routes during certain seasons of the year, they were in the main little more than trails worn by use. They were made, as George Flower expresses it "by one man on horseback 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 guessing at the direction, often riding at hazard for miles until you stumbled on the track again." To guide the traveler through the wilderness, "the tracks or roads from one settlement to an- other in the woods, are marked by one notch in the bark of the trees for a foot-path, two for a bridle-road, and three for a wag- gon route."127
The need of improvement was obvious, but efforts directed toward making better roads had many practical difficulties to overcome. At the very first session of the territorial legislature in December, 1812, congress was appealed to for an appropria- tion "to open a road from Shawneetown on the Ohio river to the Saline and from thence, the most direct way, to Kas- kaskia."128 Two years later an attempt was made in the lower house of the legislature to provide for the laying out of a number of main highways at the expense of the territory. Although the bill for this purpose was "postponed untill next Session of the Legislature" it is significant for the information which it contains as to prevailing conditions and as to the roads desired.129 It reads :
"Whereas it is essential to the prosperity of this Territory that
127 Flower, English Settlement, 120; Harris, Remarks made during a Tour, 139; see also Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 10:260.
128 James, Territorial Records, 119.
129 Original in "Miscellaneous Assembly Papers" in secretary of state's office.
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Roads should be laid out & established thro' the same in such di- rections as will tend most effectually to facilitate & render more safe the intercourse between the two populous extremes of the same.
"And whereas a Road from the Ohio Saline to Kaskaskia the nearest & best rout and one from this to begin at a point on the
GRAIN CRADLE [Original owned by W. O. Converse, Springfield]
West side of Little Muddy & to run the nearest and best rout to the Court-House of StClair County at Bellville & also one from Lusk's Ferry130 on the Ohio to intersect the Road leading from the Saline to Kaskaskia at a point to be ascertain'd & fix'd upon by the Viewers would be of the utmost importance to the Coun- try & greatly advantageous to the People of the Territory & those moving to & through the same.
"The many advantages resulting from this measure are obvious -Instead of a Wilderness of nearly one hundred Miles thro' which the present intercourse is carried-of the bad roads which in the wet season of the year are rendered impassable-Rafting or or [sic] swimming the several turbulent streams which often ex- tend some miles beyond their Beds-of being obliged to encamp
180 Golconda.
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for Weeks in woods, wanting often the necessary Sustenance for Man & Horse-these several established routs would ere long be found crouded with Farms on each side-Ferrys & Toll Bridges established-provisions for Travellers in abundance-& all the difficulties & obstacles greatly lessened or entirely removed and would render the conveyance of the mails-the marching of Troops from one populous extreme of the Terry to the other- the conveyance of Salt more safe easy & less expensive-To the end therefore that the best ground may be selected on or as near these several Routs as the ground will admit of & to the end also that these may be permanently established & opened either as Turnpikes or otherwise by the proper authority Be it Enacted that Philip Trammil Enock Moore & Thomas Jordan be and are hereby appointed viewers with Power & authority to pro- ceed to view & select the ground most suitable, & cause a survey to be made of the same & to note the obstacles that may present themselves on the several Routs which, together with their opinion of the probable sum necessary for opening the said Roads, the said viewers shall report to the Legislature at the Commencement of their next Session."
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