as on the river bottoms, but they contain a great variety of trees;
viz. oak of many sorts, as, white, black, red, post, swamp, laurel,
pin, Spanish, and blackjack, and some others; three kinds of hiccory;
two of ash; two of elm; two of maple; black-walnut, cherry, sycamore,
persimon, gum, hack-berry, cotton-wood, mulberry, serve, honey-locust,
sassafras, dog-wood, crab, &c. On the creek bottoms, coffee-berry,
poplar, pecan, white walnut, &c. &c. The undergrowth {225} in the woods
is, hazel, spice-wood, red-bud, haws, sumach, plum, and brambles.
Willows grow on the water-courses.
The woods and prairies produce many fruits; some of them excellent,
others but indifferent: I will briefly describe them. The grape-vines
run over the tallest trees in a very extraordinary manner, sometimes
reaching from the ground to the boughs of trees forty or fifty feet
high, without touching the bodies of the trees. I suppose they must
have first fixed to the boughs when the trees were very young, and
continued growing with them; otherwise I cannot think how they could
reach so great a height without support. These vines are of so strong
a nature, that I have frequently seen them fixed on a high sweep to
draw water from wells, some of them 30 feet deep, and they seem to
answer as well as a rope. This method of drawing water is common
with the Americans near us, and is the same that is practised by the
market-gardeners in the neighbourhood of London. {226} There are
several sorts of grapes, but not in general very good; soon after our
arrival we found some, nearly dried to raisins, good eating, and we
used some for tarts and sweet-sauce. I suppose they would make wine,
with sugar; but I do not know that any one has tried the experiment.
Pomegranates grow on a vine much like a cucumber, the size of an orange
or rather larger: a beautiful fruit, of a yellow or orange colour,
of a most fragrant smell, but I have never tasted one; they are said
to be most delicious when preserved. There are many sorts of sweet
melons, and much difference of size in the various kinds. I have only
noticed musk, of a large size; and nutmeg, a smaller one; and a small
pale-coloured melon of a rich taste; but there are other sorts with
which I am unacquainted. Watermelons are also in great plenty, of
vast size; some, I suppose, weigh twenty pounds: they are more like
pumpkins, in outward appearance, than melons; they are round or oblong,
generally green, {227} or a green and whitish colour on the outside,
and white or pale on the inside, with many black seeds in them; very
juicy; in flavour, like a rich water; not sweet and mawkish, but cool
and pleasant. After people are accustomed to them, they generally
prefer them to sweet melons; they are considered extremely wholesome
in warm climates, as they quench thirst, and are not feverish.
Persimon is a fruit many people are fond of; it is something like a
medlar. Papaws, or pawpaws, grow in clusters of three or four on a
shrub 20 feet high; the fruit is three inches long and about an inch
thick; in shape something like a cucumber, of a yellow colour; in
flavour something like a pine, but not so rich. Strawberries nearly the
same as scarlets, excellent, and in some places in great abundance.
We one day gathered more than a peck of beautiful strawberries in my
orchard, and we got a great many at other times: they made excellent
pies. Raspberries are small and {228} dry. Cherries grow in bunches,
the same as currants, very small and bitter. May-apple is a yearly
plant, of only two leaves; the stalk one foot high; the fruit the
size of a small apple, of a straw-colour, with some small seeds; very
pleasant tasted. Plums are mostly small and sour; but there are some
whose flavour resembles that of a gooseberry. I have before remarked
on the excellence of the blackberries. The elderberries are fine, but
generally eaten by the birds as soon as coloured. Pecan is a sort of
walnut, said to be the finest nut in this country. White-walnut, or
butter-nut, and black-walnut, are not so good as the English walnut.
Hazel-nuts are in vast quantities; the shells hard, but the kernels
good. I have some earth-nuts growing in my garden; the green of them
something like clover, or rather lucern; they blow with a small yellow
blossom: I planted them in rows, and earthed them like potatoes; they
have two kernels inclosed in a husk, about one inch long, and as large
round.
{229} Fruit, and all other trees, are of much more rapid growth here
than in England. There are not many orchards yet planted, and none of
them yet come to bear much, as the oldest settlement round the prairies
has not been made more than four years. I planted, in March and April,
a hundred and twenty apple, twenty-five peach, and eight cherry trees;
the summer having been so dry, it has killed many of my apple and
cherry trees, but my peach-trees are all alive. I suppose, I have about
hundred live trees. I have some peach-trees, two years old, to put out
in the autumn.
Having thus fulfilled my promise, by a brief description of the animal
and vegetable productions, I will now mention a few particulars
respecting the land. The soil is a light vegetable mould, of no great
depth in general; the under soil is a fat loam or clay, of considerable
depth, that retains moisture, and prevents the land from burning. The
land is easy of culture, much more so than any I was ever accustomed
{230} to, and dry enough to plough in a day after heavy rain; this is
the case with most of the land round the prairies. Prairie land is
hard to break up the first time, and requires four horses to do it
effectually, it being so full of strong roots; in particular, one,
called red-root, that runs a great deal: and, in moist places, there
is a small shrub, named white-root, which must be grubbed up before
it can be ploughed; and sometimes there is a little brushwood, of
different sorts, to clear off. Land planted with corn is attended with
some trouble the first year of breaking it up, as the furrows are too
tough to work with a plough, but it is managed with a hoe. When it
has been thoroughly broken up, in a wet or dry season, it will work
well; but it is injurious to work it in very wet weather. The land
differs, in several particulars, from any I ever saw before: if used
with wheel-carriages, in wet weather, it retains no sign of ruts for
any length of time; and, although the soil is light, it is firm to walk
on; as it contains but {231} little sand, and that little of so fine a
grain, as scarce to be found to grit, if handled ever so closely.
The roads are all natural roads, yet always free from ruts, and
perfectly smooth when dry. I have heard the land round us is much like
some in Lincolnshire; but of this I cannot judge, as I never was there.
I never found any land in Surry that hoed or dug so light as this
does, when it has once been well broken up. The colour of it is rather
brown, but much blacker when wet; and in appearance it bears the most
resemblance to peat-mould, of any soil I ever saw in England.
Many of the people here have been extensive travellers; and to have
resided in three or four states, and several places in each state, is
not uncommon. A man, who boarded a short time at my house, said, he
was born in Old Virginia; that he removed, with his father, over the
mountains into New Virginia, but left his father before he was twenty;
that he married, and took up {232} his abode in the wild parts of South
Carolina, and built a cabin, the first in that part of Carolina. People
settling round him, he sold his land, and removed into Kentucky; and
on the land he disposed of in Carolina, a town soon sprang up of 300
houses and seven large stores. In Kentucky he staid some years; but
settlers arriving and seating themselves near him, he again moved off
into the wild part of Indiana, near Rockport, where he now resides; but
expressed a wish to come into the Illinois, as, he said, the country
round him was not healthy for cattle.
A person who lives in Birks' Prairie, who has been there four years,
and who has planted a small orchard, had a few apples last year, the
first he ever grew, although he had planted six orchards before the
present one. His wife says she has had twelve children, but never had
two born in one house; and does not remember how many houses they have
inhabited since they were married: yet they think they are now fixed
{233} for life; but several of their sons are gone to the Red River,
700 miles to the south-west. Since I have been here, I have travelled
more than I ever did in the same space of time in England. In a journey
I took to Palmyra, to record my own and my sons cattle-marks, I saw a
muster of Edwards' county militia, near Bonpas bridge. They amounted to
several hundred men, under the command of Colonel Jourdan; there were
five or six companies, but much the largest one was from our township,
under Captain Cadwalleder Jones. The militia, at this muster, did not
cut a very warlike appearance, being all drest in their customary
clothes, except some of the officers, who had uniforms. They all find
their own arms, mostly rifles; a few had fowling-pieces, and a very few
only sticks. There are four musters, besides this general yearly one,
of the whole county. Captain Jones's company mustered in the English
Prairie, on the 1st of April, upwards of one hundred strong, from a
township, where, {234} four years before, there were not six families
in the whole township.
I have been several times to Shawneetown, and in these journeys I have
lodged at the houses of a clergyman, a judge, a colonel, a justice, and
a captain. First, at the Reverend S. Slocum's, a clergyman and justice;
next, at Major Pomeroy's, late a judge in the state of Indiana; at
Captain, now Major Phillips's; and lastly, at Colonel Williams's, a
native of Wales, but he left it when an infant, with his father. He is
a colonel in the militia.
In February, accompanied by my wife and two gentlemen from the English
Prairie, I paid a visit to Harmonie. We set out late in the day, and
only reached Bonpas that night; here we found the waters of the Big
Wabash so much out we could not get to the ferry, but were told we
might go to another, 10 miles lower down the river. This we did, by
passing a slue, or bayou (that is, where the water breaks out over a
low place, and again enters the river several {235} miles lower down),
on a drift-wood bridge, formed of fallen trees and drifted together;
our horses swimming the bayou: two of the horses ran away, as soon as
they were over the bayou, and obliged our companions to walk three
or four miles before they could catch them. Mrs. W. and myself were
well loaded with their saddles, bridles, great coats, blankets, and
saddle-bags. We caught their horses near the ferry, and passed the Big
Wabash, in the ferry-boat, and had a watery road to Harmonie, which we
reached at dark. In passing some woods, we saw some sugar-maple trees
that were tapped, with the liquor then running into some troughs;
we dismounted, and had a good draught or two of the liquor; it was
pleasant-tasted.
Harmonie belongs to a society of Germans, here called Dutch, under the
direction of Mr. Rapp. This society first took its rise in Germany, but
being opposed by the Lutheran clergy, they emigrated to America, and
settled in Pennsylvania; but {236} removed to this place, in Indiana,
five or six years since. Here they have purchased some hundred acres of
land: much is now cleared, but a great deal still remains in a state of
nature. This society now consists of upwards of eight hundred members;
they carry on many branches of business; amongst which are carpenters,
wheelwrights, smiths, tanners, saddlers and harness-makers,
shoe-makers, linen and woollen manufacturers, curriers; distilleries,
malt and brew-houses, two water-mills, and one steam one.
They have planted a considerable number of acres with apple and peach
trees; and several acres of vineyards, from which they make a small
quantity of wine, not of the best quality. They have 2000 sheep, and
a large quantity of stock of every description. Their store-goods are
of very considerable value, and report estimates their property at
1,000,000 of dollars: this belongs to the society in general, as they
have all things in common, like the Apostles; {237} and their society
is said to be formed on that part of Scripture. Each lives at his own
house; but all dine at the same hour, and, I believe, all take their
meals in the same manner. Most of them only speak German, and divine
service is performed in that language: the Reverend George Rapp is
their priest; but their business is carried on in the name of his son
Mr. Frederick Rapp; all accompts being made in the name of F. Rapp
only. Many of the buildings are of logs; but there are some good brick
houses, and a neat frame-church painted white, with a large clock.
There are many brick-buildings going on; and the log-cabins are so
placed, that they will serve for outhouses to the new brick-houses.
Each cabin has a small garden to it; most of them are in good order,
much more so than American gardens generally are. I understand
brick-houses are built for those to whom the lot falls, without any
regard to persons; with the exception of Mr. Rapp, who has a {238}
large one. The tavern, stores, and a few others, are also brick.
The next day the tavern-keeper showed us the manufactories,
distilleries, malt and brew-houses, steam, corn, and fulling
mills; also a large barn, in which was a powerful eight-horse
threshing-machine, with a winnowing one attached to it, so that the
grain was cleaned at one operation. Many men were employed putting
up the wheat and taking away the straw. Near the barn there was a
capacious granary, that would contain some thousand quarters of grain.
We saw more than fifty women and girls breaking flax in the streets,
and all seemed fully employed. They are a most industrious people;
but the greater part of them are not very enlightened. We staid two
nights, and on the third morning set out for the prairies; one of the
gentlemen, who accompanied us to Harmonie, we left there; and on our
return a fine journey we had of it. As the water had risen much, we
could {239} not reach the ferry by the same road we went by, but were
forced to climb a steep hill much over-run by brush-wood; nor was the
descent on the other side much better. We reached and passed the ferry:
here we found the water had risen so much, as to have carried away the
drift-wood bridge we had crossed in our road out, so that we could not
proceed home that way. We then had the choice of returning to Harmonie,
and remaining there till the water abated, which might be a fortnight
or more; or agree with the ferryman to take us and our horses, nine
miles down the river, and land us on the side of a pond, below the
bayou, and just above another that there runs out of the river and
continues out some miles. For this the man demanded eight dollars, and
with this extravagant demand we were under the necessity of complying.
We proceeded briskly down the river, and soon reached the entrance of
the pond; where we found some large trees stumped down to keep back
the fish. It took us two hours {240} to move the trees before we could
enter the pond; but we at length got in, and rowed up above the bayou;
where we landed, and proceeded through a wild country for some miles.
We passed many small slues, and an hour after sunset reached the house
of Major Phillips, only five miles west of Harmonie; but, I think, we
made thirty miles of it, as we left Harmonie at eight o'clock in the
morning. Here we slept, and the next day reached home, having only
twenty-two miles to go. In March I visited it a second, and in May a
third time, when I took a nearer road; the water was now low; it was
not any where deep enough to swim my horse, but in two places nearly so.
The Wabash, at the ferry, is, I think, as wide as the Thames at London
Bridge. In my two journeys I saw a great number of wild-ducks and
pigeons on the banks of the Wabash; although a bad shot, I think if I
had had a gun, I could have killed a great many. I was much pleased
with the appearance of the gardens at this season, {241} at Harmonie.
They were in excellent order, and filled with a variety of vegetables
and fruit-trees; and some of them contained some beautiful flowers.
Among the fruit-trees, I observed wild plum-trees grafted with prunes.
In July, I went again, and crossed the Big Wabash, by a new ferry, near
the mouth of the Bonpas. The land on the Indiana side is extremely
low, and I went four miles through the woods, before I saw a house,
or any kind of cultivation. Some cane, an evergreen, grew the greater
part of the way; it is the only evergreen in this part of the State,
save mistletoe; but I have heard there are pines in the north of the
Illinois. I saw in these wilds numbers of turkeys. As I approached
Harmonie, I met their plow-teams, sixteen in number, just entering a
field of wheat-stubble; I was much pleased with their appearance, all
the horses looking well; nor did I see one blemish in the thirty-two
horses.
I took a look at their vineyards; part {242} of the vines were trained
on frames, and part tied up to small poles; there was a good show of
grapes on many of them. The vineyards are on a steep hill, and planted
round the hill, so as to have several different aspects. Trees are laid
to keep the earth from washing down. The paths between the trees are
sown with blue-grass.
As I returned from the vineyards to the town, I met their milch-cows
going out to field; I counted eighty-seven, most of them were but
indifferent cows, with a few good ones mixed with them. The dress of
the Harmonites is uncommonly plain, mostly of their own manufacturing.
The men wear jackets and pantaloons, with coarse hats. The women a kind
of jacket and petticoat, with a particular kind of skull-cap, and a
straw hat made peculiarly flat.
There is a hat-manufactory, both of fur and wool hats; they also make
their straw ones. As this society do not marry, I suppose they must
depend on emigration from Germany to keep up their number; as the {243}
Americans are not likely to join them, as most of them regard them with
jealousy, on account of their engrossing most of the business of this
part of the country.
I will now give a slight and very brief sketch of the American
character; but in speaking of our American neighbours, it must be
recollected, that the greater part of them are backwoodsmen. Mr.
Collins, of whom I bought some land, behaved in the most honourable
manner, for which I shall ever respect him. Mr. Anderson, of whom I
purchased my other farm, I never saw; Mr. Birkbeck transacting the
business while I was at Shawneetown. My family have several American
neighbours at Birks' Prairie, from whom they have received the most
friendly treatment; and those with whom I have had dealings, have been
uniformly civil and obliging. As we live at the entrance of Wanborough,
we have frequently the first offer of game and other provisions brought
for sale, and whether we buy or not, we never receive the {244}
slightest incivility from them. In selling, they always take care to
ask enough, as they can fall their price with a good grace; in short,
they are Jews in this respect, nor are they very punctual in their
payments.
Most of them are well acquainted with law, and fond of it on the most
trifling occasions: I have known a law-suit brought for a piggin or
pail, of the value of 25 cents. (1_s._ 1½_d._) Another failing in
their character is drunkenness; and they are extremely quarrelsome when
intoxicated. Many of them are sometimes truly industrious, and at other
times excessively idle. Numbers of them can turn their hands to many
things, having been accustomed to do for themselves in small societies.
They are a most determined set of republicans, well versed in politics,
and thoroughly independent. A man who has only half a shirt, and
without shoes and stockings, is as independent as the first man in
the States; and interests himself in the choice of men to serve his
country, as much as the {245} highest man in it, and often from as pure
motives,--the general good, without any private views of his own. Most
of them are from the south, from North and South Carolina, Georgia,
and Tennessee; and though now living in a free State, they retain many
of the prejudices they imbibed in infancy, and still hold negroes in
the utmost contempt; not allowing them to be of the same species of
themselves, but look on _negers_, as they call them, and Indians, as an
inferior race of beings, and treat them as such.
Those of whom I purchased my farms, and some others, are moved off to
the Red River, 700 miles to the south-west, and, as I have said before,
many of our neighbours are true backwoodsmen, always fond of moving:
there are others, who wish to sell their land, with its improvements,
to go to the Sagamond river, 150 miles towards the north-west. This
river runs into the Illinois river, and the country near it is highly
spoken of, as to soil, timber, and water. {246} They have but few
diversions amongst them except hunting and shooting, here both called
hunting; they use rifles, and many of them are excellent shots. In this
employment or amusement, they spend much of their time, and depend
partly on what they kill in making a livelihood.
I will now mention something of the religion of this part of the
United States. At Albion, there is a place of worship in part of the
market-house, in which divine service is performed every Sunday in the
forenoon; prayers and a sermon are read by one of the inhabitants. I
twice attended; the service was from the church of England, with some
variations: I think they style themselves Unitarians. At Wanborough,
a Baptist held meetings at his own house, but few of the inhabitants
attended them. An American of the Methodist persuasion, who resides
near Wanborough, holds meetings at his house; but none of the English,
and but few of the Americans ever frequent them. Many {247} people
wished for a place of worship; but being of different religions, it was
some time before there was one established; but in April 1820, it was
agreed to have public worship at Wanborough; and on Sunday, the 25th of
April, divine service was first held in a log-cabin, that was built for
a school-room. Prayers from the service of the church of England, with
a few omissions, were read by one of the inhabitants, and a sermon by
another. This meeting was well attended, and has been continued every
Sunday, in the forenoon, at eleven o'clock; and those of the church of
England and Quakers both frequent it. It was proposed to erect a brick
meetinghouse, and a subscription was set on foot, in May, but falling
short of the estimate, it was agreed to continue the use of the present
room, till a sufficient sum can be collected for a brick one. There is
a piece of ground set apart for a burial-ground, and several persons
have been interred in it; three since I have been here.
{248} There have been four or five weddings, and five or six births, so
that the English have rather increased, exclusive of new arrivals from
Europe.
At Albion there have been several marriages, births, and deaths.
The Americans most commonly bury their dead near the place where they
die, and erect a small pale fence round the grave, to prevent its being
disturbed. I believe it is seldom they have any service read over them,
except the Methodists, who have prayers at their funerals.
As there is no church established by law, of course there are no
tithes. I was much struck at Baltimore, to find in what harmony people
of different religions lived together, and I have since had no reason
to alter my opinion. I have had much conversation with Baptists,
Methodists, and Quakers. They all expressed much charity for those of
other sects, although most of them seemed to have a high opinion of
their own.
I will now give a few of my reasons for {249} my fixing in the
Illinois. I set out with the intention of visiting it, and had my
luggage with me. In my journey, from Baltimore to Wheeling, I saw but
few places I should like to settle at, till near Wheeling. I was much
pleased with the country a few miles above it, but that being in a
slave State, I could not think of settling there; besides, the land was
taken up: this was the case with many of the most desirable situations
on the Ohio river; and I had no opportunity of seeing the interior of
the States of Ohio and Indiana, but, I understood, much of the best
parts of them were occupied.