I. The Land and Indian Questions. 1790 to 1809.

A proclamation issued by Estevan Miro, Governor and Intendant of the Provinces of Louisiana and Florida in 1789, offered to immigrants a liberal donation of land, graduated according to the number of laborers in the family; freedom of religion and from payment of tithes, although no public worship except Catholic would be allowed; freedom from taxation; and a free market at New Orleans for produce or manufactures. All settlers must swear allegiance to Spain.146 This proclamation came at a time when the West was divided in opinion as to whether to make war upon Spain for her closure of the Mississippi or to secede from the United States and become a part of Spain.147 It tended to continue the emigration from the Illinois country to Spanish territory, for public land was not yet for sale in Illinois.

To the professional rover, the inability to secure a title to land was the cause of small concern, but the more substantial and desirable the settler, the more concerned was he about the matter. Settlement and improvements were retarded. Before the affairs of the Ohio Company had progressed far enough to permit sales of land to settlers, the little company at Marietta saw, with deep chagrin, thousands of settlers float by on their way to Kentucky, where land could be bought.148 Squatters in Illinois were constantly expecting that the public lands [pg 072] would soon be offered for sale. The natural result was petitions for the right of preëmption, because without such a right, the settler was in danger of losing whatever improvements he had made. In 1790, James Piggott and forty-five others petitioned for such a right. The petitioners stated that they had settled since 1783 and had suffered much from Indians. They could not cultivate their land except under guard. Seventeen families had no more tillable land than four could tend. The land on which they lived was the property of two individuals.149

Petitions from various classes of settlers, not provided for by the acts of June 20, August 28, and August 29, 1788, led Congress to pass the act of March 3, 1791. By this act, four hundred acres was to be given to each head of a family who, in 1783, was resident in the Illinois country or at Vincennes, and who had since moved from the one to the other. The same donation was to be made to all persons who had moved away, if they should return within five years. Such persons should also have confirmed to them the land they originally held. This was intended to bring back persons who had gone to the Spanish side of the Mississippi. Grants previously made by courts having no authority should be confirmed to persons who had made improvements, to an extent not exceeding four hundred acres to any one person. As these lands had in some cases been repeatedly sold, the parties making the improvements were frequently guiltless of any knowledge of fraud. The Cahokia commons were confirmed to that village. One hundred acres was to be granted to each militiaman enrolled on August 1, 1790, and who had received no other grant.150 This act throws considerable light on the causes of discontent then prevailing among [pg 073] the settlers and on the conditions to which immigrants came.

This same spring, about two hundred and fifty of the inhabitants of Vincennes had gone to settle at New Madrid.151 It is not strange that the act of March 3, 1791, made provisions intended to induce the Americans who had emigrated to the Spanish possessions to return. The history of the threatened Spanish aggression upon the western part of the United States is known in essence to anyone who has made the slightest special study of the period at which it was at its height. Morgan's scheme for a purchase of land in Illinois was not carried out, and he turned his attention to peopling his settlement at New Madrid. Down the Mississippi to New Orleans seemed the natural route for Illinois commerce. Slavery flourished unmolested west of the Mississippi. In 1794, Baron de Carondolet gave orders to the governor of Natchez to incite the Chickasaw Indians to expel the Americans from Fort Massac. The governor refused to obey the order, because Fort Massac had been occupied by the Americans in pursuance of a request by the Spanish representative at the capital of the United States that the president would put a stop to the proposed expedition of the French against the Spanish. The claim was advanced by Carondolet that the Americans had no right to the land on which the fort stood, but that the land belonged to the Chickasaws, who were independent allies of Spain. Two other reasons given for not obeying the order were that it would preclude the successful issue of the Spanish intrigue for the separation of Kentucky from the United States, and would hinder negotiations, then pending, for a commercial treaty between Spain and the United States.152 [pg 074] Carondolet regarded the Indians as Spain's best defence against the Americans,153 yet the whites prepared for defence, and in anticipation of the proposed French expedition of George Rogers Clark, a garrison of thirty men and an officer was placed at Ste. Genevieve, opposite Kaskaskia. Carondolet said: “This will suffice to prevent the smuggling carried on by the Americans of the settlement of Kaskaskias situated opposite, which increases daily.”154

Early in 1796, a petition was sent from Kaskaskia to Congress. The petitioners desired that they might be permitted to locate their donation of four hundred acres per family on Long Prairie, a few miles above Kaskaskia, on the Kaskaskia River, and that the expense of surveying the land might be paid by the United States. The act granting the donation-land had provided for its location between the Kaskaskia and the Mississippi. This land the petitioners declared to be private land and some of it was of poor quality.155 Confirmation of land claims directed to be made upon the Governor's visit in 1790 were delayed by the lack of a surveyor and the poverty of the inhabitants.156 The petition was signed by John Edgar, William Morrison, William St. Clair, and John Demoulin157 “for the inhabitants [pg 075] of the counties of St. Clair and Randolph”158—the Illinois counties. The petitioners ranked high in the mercantile and legal life of the Illinois settlements, but they must have been novices in the art of petitioning if they thought that a petition signed by four men from the Illinois country, with no sign of their being legally representative, would be regarded by Congress as an expression of the opinion of the Northwest Territory. The part of the petition relating to lands was granted, but the major part, which related to other subjects, was denied on the ground that the petitioners probably did not represent public sentiment.159 During this same year Congress denied a number of petitions for the right of preëmption in the Northwest Territory, because such a right would encourage illegal settling. It was also during this year that the first sales of public land in the Northwest Territory were authorized. The land to be sold was in what is now Ohio. No tract of less than four thousand acres could be purchased.160

In 1800, two hundred and sixty-eight inhabitants of Illinois, chiefly French, petitioned Congress that Indian titles to land in the southern part of Illinois might be extinguished and the land offered for sale; that tracts of land at the distance of a day's journey from each other, lying between Vincennes and the Illinois settlements, might be ceded to such persons as would keep taverns, and [pg 076] that one or two garrisons might be stationed in Illinois. The petitioners state that the Kaskaskia tribe of Indians numbered not more than fifteen members and that their title to land could be easily extinguished; that not enough land is open to settlement to admit a population sufficient to support ordinary county establishments; that roads are much needed, and that many of the inhabitants are crossing the Mississippi with their slaves. The petition was not considered.161

A new factor now appears in the forces affecting Illinois settlement. The Northwest Territory having advanced to the second grade of territorial government, in December, 1799, its delegate took his seat in Congress. The step was an important one for the struggling colony. Before this time such petitions as were prepared by inhabitants of the territory for the consideration of Congress had been subjected to all the vicissitudes of being addressed to some public officer or of being confided to some member of Congress who represented a different portion of the country. Up to this time the public lands could only be bought in tracts of four thousand acres. Largely through the influence of the delegate from the Northwest Territory, a bill was passed which authorized the sale of sections and half-sections. In consequence, emigration soon began to flow rapidly into Ohio. Land in Illinois was not yet offered for sale, but this bill is important because the policy of offering land in smaller tracts was to continue.162

The territorial delegate was also active in procuring the passage of a bill for the division of the Northwest Territory. While the bill was pending, a petition from Illinois, praying for the division and for the establishment of such [pg 077] a government in the western part as was provided for by the Ordinance of 1787, was presented. The act for division was signed by the President on May 7, 1800; it formed Indiana Territory, with Vincennes as its capital.163

The propositions made by a convention of representatives elected by the citizens of Indiana to prepare petitions to Congress, near the close of 1802, illustrate the needs of the time. It was desired that the Indian title to land lying in Southern Illinois and Southwestern Indiana might be extinguished and the land sold in smaller tracts and at a lower price;164 that a preëmption act might be passed; that a grant of seminary and school lands might be made; that land for taverns, twenty miles or less apart, might be granted along certain specified routes; that donation-lands might be chosen in separate tracts, instead of in three specified areas, in order to avoid “absolutely useless” prairies, and also lands claimed by ancient grants; and that the qualification of a freehold of fifty acres of land, prescribed for the electors of representatives to the territorial legislature, might be changed to manhood suffrage, because the freehold qualification was said to tend “to throw too great a weight in the scale of wealth.” The petition was considered in committees, but it led to no legislation.165

None of the above complaints was better founded than that concerning the restriction of the suffrage, and it is well to note subsequent proceedings in regard to it. No qualification less suitable to the time and place could well have been devised, and this is especially true of the Illinois portion of the territory, because there unsettled French claims were to delay the sales of public lands until 1814, and thus early settlers could neither buy land nor vote unless they owned it, unless indeed they purchased land claims from the needy and unbusiness-like French. An interesting petition of 1807 from the settlement on Richland Creek,166 for the right of preëmption, throws light upon conditions then obtaining. The petitioner inclosed a map of the settlement, with the following explanation: “Those persons whose names are enclosed in said plot, within surveyed lines, have confirmed and located rights, amounting to 3,775 acres; ... the residue of the said settlers, occupying about 6,000 acres of land, have, without any right, settled upon the public land.” The map shows that there were eleven owners and twenty-two squatters.167 As the law then stood, the twenty-two squatters, occupying more than three-fifths of the land, could not vote. The eleven land-owners must have secured their land either under the acts of 1788 or that of 1791, or by the purchase of French claims, a trade vigorously carried on. In 1808,168 Congress so far extended the suffrage in Indiana as to make the ownership of a town lot worth one hundred dollars an alternative qualification to the possession of a [pg 079] freehold of fifty acres. This was in advance of the law in some of the Eastern states.

After 1802, the land question can not be traced without reference to the Indian question in Illinois. That question became important as soon as American occupation was assured, and it remained important for fifty years after the Revolution. The desire of the American settlers for land was directly counter to the desire of the Indians to preserve their hunting-grounds. Before the close of the eighteenth century, the list of bloody deeds in Illinois had grown long.169 The United States Government appreciated the gravity of the situation and early made efforts to purchase the land from the Indians. That part of the treaty of Greenville, of 1795, which affected Illinois, extinguished the Indian title to a tract six miles square, at the mouth of Chicago River; one six miles square, at Peoria; one twelve miles square, near the mouth of the Illinois River; the post of Fort Massac, and the land in the possession of the whites.170 The treaty of Fort Wayne, in 1803, ceded four square miles or less, at the salt springs on Saline Creek, and some land west and southwest from Vincennes. This treaty, with another made in the following August, ceded three tracts of land, each one mile square, between Vincennes and Kaskaskia, to be sites for taverns.171 The treaty of Vincennes, of August, 1803, ceded land in Illinois bounded by the Ohio, the Mississippi, the Illinois, and the western watershed of the Wabash, except three hundred and fifty [pg 080] acres near Kaskaskia, and twelve hundred and eighty acres to be located. This last treaty was made with the depleted Kaskaskia tribe.172 As the claims of various tribes overlapped, an Indian treaty rarely signifies that all controversy in regard to the land ceded is at an end. Frequently one or more treaties must yet be made with other tribes, and frequently a tribe refuses to abide by its agreement.

Previous to 1804, no land was sold in the Northwest Territory west of the mouth of the Kentucky River. An act of March 26 of that year provided for the opening of a land-office at Detroit to sell lands north of Ohio; one at Vincennes to sell lands in its vicinity ceded by the treaty of Fort Wayne; and one at Kaskaskia to sell so much of the land ceded by the treaty of Vincennes (August, 1803) as was not claimed by any other tribe than those represented in the cession. The register and the receiver of public moneys of these respective districts were to be commissioners to settle private land claims. Evidences of claims should be filed before January 1, 1805, and after the adjustment of claims the public lands should be sold at auction to the highest bidder. Two dollars per acre was to be the minimum price; no land should be sold in less than quarter-sections, except fractional portions caused by irregularities in topography or survey, and lands unsold after the auction might be sold at private sale. Although this act provided for the sale of public lands in Illinois after private claims should have been satisfied, and directed that such claims should be filed not later than January 1, 1805, Congress repeatedly extended the time for the filing of claims, and ten years after the passage of this act there were still unsatisfied claims.173 Not until [pg 081] 1814 did sales of public land begin in Illinois. The delay retarded immigration of that class which would have made the most desirable citizens.

By the treaty of St. Louis, November 3, 1804, the Sauk and Foxes ceded that part of Illinois west of the Illinois and Fox rivers. Black Hawk, the principal chief of the Sauk, did not sign the treaty.174 By the treaty of Vincennes, 1805, the Piankashaws ceded a tract lying between the lower Wabash and its western watershed.175 No more Indian titles to land in Illinois were extinguished, and no public land was sold in Illinois until after that part of the country became a separate territory.

Early in 1806, there came to Congress from Illinois a petition which betrayed the anxiety of the French settlers, and of the Americans who had bought French claims, lest the peculiar shape of their holdings should be disturbed by the orderly system of government surveys. The petitioners asked that a line might be run from a point north of Cahokia to an unspecified river south of Kaskaskia, in such a manner as to include all settlements between the two points, and that the land so included be exempt from the mode of survey and terms of sale of other public lands of the United States. The petition was apparently not reported upon, but a detailed map of the region referred to shows that the holdings were left in their bewildering complexity.176

By the time Indiana Territory was divided some progress had been made in extinguishing Indian titles, and some [pg 082] also in investigating land claims of the French and their assignees; but the American immigrant had still the hard choice of buying a French claim with uncertain title or squatting on government land with the risk of losing whatever improvement he might make, and often the added risk of being killed by the suspicious, hostile, untrustworthy Indians. This was one class of hindrances to settlement. Another hindrance, next to be noticed, was the unstable governmental conditions following the anarchy already recited.

II. Government Succeeding the Period of Anarchy, 1790 to 1809.

When St. Clair County was formed, in 1790, it was made to include all the settlements of the Northwest Territory to the westward of Vincennes. On account of its geographical extent it was divided into three judicial districts, but it could not be made into three separate counties, because there were not enough men capable of holding office to furnish the necessary officials. The American settlers were few and a large proportion of them were unskilled in matters of government, while the French were totally unfit to govern. In 1795, St. Clair, when referring to conditions in 1790, wrote that since then the population of Illinois had decreased considerably.177 Combining this decrease with the fact that there were in the settlements in what is now Missouri 1491 inhabitants in 1785, 2093 in 1788, and 6028, including 883 slaves, in 1799,178 the conclusion [pg 083] is inevitable that emigration across the Mississippi was the immediate cause of the decrease in Illinois.

In 1795, notwithstanding the decreased population, and perhaps in the hope of checking the decrease, St. Clair County was divided by proclamation of Governor St. Clair. The division was by an east and west line running a little south of the settlement of New Design.179 St. Clair County lay to the north, Randolph County to the south of the line.180

The early laws of the Northwest Territory throw light upon the conditions existing upon the frontier. Minute provisions for establishing and maintaining ferries, with no mention of bridges, indicate the primitive methods of travel.181 Millers were required to use a prescribed set of measures and to grind for a prescribed toll, the toll for the use of a horse-mill being higher than that for a water-mill, unless the owner of the grain furnished the horses.182 Guide-posts were to be put up at the forks of every public road.183 No stray stock should be taken up between the first of April and the first of November, unless the stray should have broken into the inclosure of the taker-up.184 In those days stock was turned out and crops were fenced in. Prairies or cleared land were not to be fired except between December 1 and March 10, unless upon one's own land.185 The following rates of county taxation were prescribed:

A bounty, varying at different times between 1799 and 1810 from 50 cents to $2 per head, was given for killing wolves.187 Imprisonment for debt, a law antedating by many years similar laws in several of the other parts of the United States, was practically abolished.188 A frontier region does not have that social stratification which makes oppression of the debtor class easy. A county too poor to build a log jail without difficulty is not likely to be so senseless as to make a practice of confining and boarding its debtor class.

For the purpose of taxation land was to be listed in three classes according to value. No specification as to the value of the respective classes was prescribed. The tax was eighty-five, sixty, or twenty-five cents per one hundred acres, according as land was first, second, or third class. No unimproved land in Illinois was to be listed higher than second class.189

The laws above cited were enacted by the legislature of the Northwest Territory. In May, 1800, that territory was divided, the western part, including Illinois, becoming Indiana Territory. This made the Illinois country more distinctly frontier by again reducing it to the first grade of territorial government, Indiana Territory, as such, not being represented in Congress until December, 1805.190 Among the reasons advanced for dividing the Northwest Territory was the fact that in five years there had been but one court for criminal cases in the three western counties.191

Illinois soon sought admission to the second grade of territorial government. In April, 1801, John Edgar wrote from Kaskaskia to St. Clair: “During a few weeks past, we have put into circulation petitions addressed to Governor Harrison, for a General Assembly, and we have had the satisfaction to find that about nine-tenths of the inhabitants of the counties of St. Clair and Randolph approve of the measure, a great proportion of whom have already put their signatures to the petition.... I have no doubt but that the undertaking will meet with early success, so as to admit of the House of Representatives meeting in the fall.”192 The movement for advancement to the second grade was not, however, destined to such early success, and when it did take place such a change had occurred that Illinois was much enraged.

The Illinois country early became restive under the government of Indiana Territory. Much the same causes for discontent existed as had caused Kentucky to wish to separate from Virginia, Tennessee from North Carolina, and the country west of the Alleghanies from the United States. In each case a frontier minority saw its wishes, if not its rights, infringed by a more eastern majority. In each case the eastern people were themselves too weak to furnish sufficient succor to the struggling West. The conflict was natural and inevitable. The grave charge against Governor Harrison, who had large powers of patronage, was local favoritism. So discontented was Illinois, that in 1803 it had petitioned for annexation to the territory of Louisiana when such territory should be formed.193 Antagonism to the Indiana government became still more bitter when, in December, 1804, after an election which was so hurried that an outlying county did not get to vote, [pg 086] the territory entered the second grade of territorial government.194

In the summer of 1805, discontent in Illinois was again expressed in a memorial to Congress. About three hundred and fifty inhabitants of the region petitioned for a division of Indiana Territory, From the Illinois settlements to the capital, Vincennes, was said to be one hundred and eighty miles, “through a dreary and inhospitable wilderness, uninhabited, and which during one part of the year, can scarcely afford water sufficient to sustain nature, and that of the most indifferent quality, besides presenting other hardships equally severe, while in another it is part under water, and in places to the extent of some miles, by which the road is rendered almost impassable, and the traveler is not only subjected to the greatest difficulties, but his life placed in the most imminent danger.” It resulted that the attendance of Illinois inhabitants upon either the legislature or the supreme court was fraught with many inconveniences. Because of the extensive prairies between Illinois and Vincennes, “a communication between them and the settlements east of that river [the Wabash] can not in the common course of things, for centuries yet to come, be supported with the least benefit, or be of the least moment to either of them.” Illinois objected to having been precipitated into the second grade of government. In the election for that purpose, said the memorialists, only Knox county voted in the affirmative, and Wayne county did not vote, because the writs of election arrived too late. Since entering the second grade the County of Wayne (Michigan) had been struck off. It was believed that if the prayer for separation should be granted, the rage for emigration to Louisiana would, in great measure, cease, the value of public lands in Illinois [pg 087] would be increased, and their sale would also be more rapid, while an increased population would render Illinois flourishing and self-supporting rather than a claimant for governmental support.195

At the same time that Congress received the above memorial, it received a petition from a majority of the members of the respective houses of the Indiana legislature. This petition asked that the freehold qualification for electors be abolished; that Indiana Territory be not divided, and that the undivided territory be soon made a state. It was said that the people were too poor to support a divided government, and that as the general court met annually in each county it was slight hardship to the frontier to have the supreme court meet at Vincennes.196 It was probably true at this time, as it certainly was in 1807, that the general court met as above stated. Appeal by bill of exceptions was, however, allowed. The supreme court had no original, exclusive jurisdiction.197 Nothing daunted by this memorial from the legislature, Illinois, in a short time, prepared another memorial—this time with twenty signatures. This adds to the grievances recited in the previous memorial that the wealthy appeal cases against the Illinois poor to the supreme court at Vincennes; that landholders on the Wabash are interested in preventing the population of lands on the Mississippi; that preëmption is needed, and that it is hoped that the general government will not pass unnoticed the act of the last legislature authorizing the importation of slaves into the territory. It violates the Ordinance of 1787. The memorialists desired such importation, but it must be [pg 088] authorized by Congress to be legal. The population of Illinois was given as follows:

The truth of some of the complaints from Illinois is apparent. That a land company on the Wabash wished to hinder settlement on the Mississippi is probably true, for Matthew Lyon, of Kentucky, said in Congress, in the winter of 1805-6: “The price of lands is various. I know of two hundred thousand acres of land on the Wabash, which is offered for sale at twenty cents per acre.”199 It is to be presumed that the company making the offer could not give a secure title to the land.

In 1806, a congressional committee reported on the various memorials and petitions from Illinois, but the report led to no legislation and thus settled nothing, and in 1807 petitioning continued.200 Illinois again petitioned for separation from the remainder of Indiana Territory, this petition bearing seventeen signatures. An inclosed census is lost, but a population of five thousand is spoken of. A new and significant paragraph occurs: “When your Memorialists contemplate the probable movements which may arise out of an European peace, now apparently about to take place, they cannot but feel the importance of union, of energy, of population on this shore of the [pg 089] Mississippi—they cannot but shudder at the horrors which may arise from a disaffection in the West....” A government was needed, and that of Indiana Territory was not acceptable to the people of Illinois. One hundred and two inhabitants of Illinois sent a counter-petition, in which they said that Illinois had paid no taxes and needed no separate government, also that the committee that prepared the above petition was not legally chosen. Most of the signers of the petition were Americans, while most of the signers of the counter-petition were French, forty-two of the latter being illiterate.201 The report of a congressional committee on the petition was adverse,202 as was also a report on three petitions for division that came from Illinois in the spring of 1808.203 In the following December, the representative of Indiana Territory in Congress was appointed chairman of a committee to consider the expediency of dividing the territory, and to this committee petitions both for and against division were referred. This territorial delegate was in favor of division, and his committee presented a favorable report, in which the number of inhabitants of Indiana east of the Wabash was estimated to be seventeen thousand, and the number west of the Wabash to be eleven thousand—numbers thought to be sufficiently large to justify division, and an estimate which the census of 1810 proves to have been almost correct. In February, 1809, the bill providing for the division so ardently desired by Illinois was approved, the division to take place on the first of the next March. The western division was to be known as Illinois Territory and was to have for its eastern boundary a line due north from Vincennes to the Canadian line.204 In the debate in [pg 090] the House of Representatives, preceding the passage of the bill for division, the arguments in its favor were that the Wabash was a natural dividing line; that a wide extent of wilderness intervened between Vincennes and the western settlements; that the power of the executive was enervated by the dispersed condition of the settlements; that to render justice was almost impossible; that the United States would be more than compensated for the increased expense by the rise in value of the public lands. Opponents of the bill declared that the complaints made by Illinois were common to many parts of the country; that the number of officers would be needlessly increased by the proposed division; and that “a compliance with this petition would but serve to foster their factions, and produce more petitions.” No significant geographical division of the vote on the bill is apparent.205

III. Obstacles to Immigration. 1790 to 1809.

In addition to the inability to secure land titles on account of unsettled French claims, to the presence of Indians and to the discontent with the government of Indiana Territory, almost every cause which made settlement on the frontier difficult was found in the Illinois country in its most pronounced form, because Illinois was the far corner of the frontier. The census reports of the United Status give the following statistics of population:

These figures show how conspicuously small was the immigration to Illinois. Enough has already been said to show some of the reasons for this sluggish settlement. When, in 1793, Governor St. Clair wrote to Alexander Hamilton, “In compassion to a poor devil banished to another planet, tell me what is doing in yours, if you can snatch a moment from the weighty cares of your office,”206 he doubtless felt that the language was not too strong, and voiced a feeling of loneliness that was common to the settlers. Nor was there a lack of land in the East to make westward movement imperative. Massachusetts was much opposed to her people emigrating to Ohio, because she wished them to settle on her own eastern frontier (Maine), and Vermont and New York had vacant lands.207

One who settled in Illinois at this period came through danger to danger, for Indians lurked in the woods and malaria waited in the lowlands. The journey made by the immigrants was tedious and difficult, and was often rendered dangerous by precipitous and rough hills and swollen streams, if the journey was overland, or by snags, shoals and rapids, if by water. A large proportion of the settlers came from Maryland, Virginia, or the Carolinas. Those from Virginia and Maryland were induced to emigrate by the glowing descriptions of the Illinois country given by the soldiers of George Rogers Clark, and these soldiers sometimes led the first contingent. A typical Virginia settlement in Illinois was that called New [pg 092] Design, located in what is now Monroe county, between Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Founded about 1786 by a native of Berkeley county, the settlement received important additions in 1793, and four years later a party of more than one hundred and fifty arrived from near the headwaters of the south branch of the Potomac, this last contingent led by a Baptist minister, who had organized a church on a previous visit.208 In general, persons Scotch-Irish by birth were opposed to slavery, as were also the members of the Quaker church. This caused a considerable emigration from the Carolinas. Another motive for people from all sections was that expressed by settlers of Illinois, in 1806, when they said that they came west in order to secure “such an establishment in land as they despaired of ever being able to procure in the old settlements.”209 We have seen how long deferred was the fulfillment of their hope of getting a title to the coveted land. Although the East was not crowded, it is true that land there was more expensive than that of the same quality in the West. In 1806, three dollars per acre was the maximum price in even the settled parts of Indiana Territory, while fifty dollars per acre had been paid for choice Kentucky land.210

The greater number of immigrants came by water, but a family too poor to travel thus, or whose starting-point was not near a navigable stream, could come overland. Illinois was favored by having a number of large rivers leading toward it; the Ohio, Kentucky, Cumberland, Tennessee, and their tributaries were much used by emigrants. [pg 093] The chief route by land was the Wilderness Road, over which thousands of the inhabitants of Kentucky had come. Its existence helps to explain the wonderful growth of Kentucky—in 1774 the first cabin, in 1790 a population of 73,000. It crossed the mountains at Cumberland Gap, wound its way by the most convenient course to Crab Orchard, and was early extended to the Falls of the Ohio and later to Vincennes and St. Louis. The legislature of Kentucky provided, in 1795, that the road from Cumberland Gap to Crab Orchard should be made perfectly commodious and passable for wagons carrying a weight of one ton, and appropriated two thousand pounds for the work. Two years later five hundred dollars were appropriated for the repair of the road, and the highway was made a turnpike with prescribed toll, although it did not become such a road as the word turnpike suggests.211

A traveler of 1807 described the river craft of the period. The smallest kind in use was a simple log canoe. This was followed by the pirogue, which was a larger kind of canoe and sufficiently strong and capacious to carry from twelve to fifteen barrels of salt. Skiffs were built of all sizes, from five hundred to twenty thousand pounds burden, and batteaux were the same as the larger skiffs, being indifferently known by either name. Kentucky boats were strong frames of an oblong form, varying in size from twenty to fifty feet in length and from ten to fourteen in breadth, were sided and roofed, and guided by huge oars. New Orleans boats resembled Kentucky boats, but were larger and stronger and had arched roofs. The largest could carry four hundred and fifty barrels of flour. Keel boats were generally built from forty to eighty feet in length and from seven to nine feet in width. The largest [pg 094] required one man to steer and two to row in descending the Ohio, and would carry about one hundred barrels of salt; but to ascend the stream, at least six or eight men were required to make any considerable progress. A barge would carry from four thousand to sixty thousand pounds, and required four men, besides the helmsman, to descend the river, while to return with a load from eight to twelve men were required.212

Shipments of produce from Illinois were usually made in flat-bottomed boats of fifteen tons burden. Such a boat cost about one hundred dollars, the crew of five men was paid one hundred dollars each, the support of the crew was reckoned at one hundred dollars, and insurance at one hundred dollars, thus making a freightage cost of eight hundred dollars for fifteen tons. The boat was either set adrift or sold for the price of firewood at New Orleans. It was estimated that the use of boats of four hundred and fifty tons burden would save four dollars per barrel on shipping flour to New Orleans, where flour had often sold at less than three dollars per barrel, but such boats were not yet used in the West.213 Canoes cost an emigrant from one to three dollars; pirogues, five to twenty dollars; small skiffs, five to ten dollars; large skiffs or batteaux, twenty to fifty dollars; Kentucky and New Orleans boats, one dollar to one and one-half dollars per foot; keel boats, two dollars and a half to three dollars per foot; and barges, four to five dollars per foot.214

Horses, cattle, and household goods were carried on boats. Travel by either land or water was beset with difficulties. The river, without pilot or dredge, had dangers [pg 095] peculiar to itself. Sometimes, when traveling overland, a broken wheel or axle, or a horse lost or stolen by Indians, caused protracted and vexatious delays. It is well to notice, also, that to travel a given distance into the wilderness was more than twice as difficult as to travel one-half that distance, because of the constantly increasing separation between the traveler and what had previously been his base of supplies.215

Sometimes immigrants debarked at Fort Massac and completed their journey by land. Two roads led from Fort Massac, one called the lower road and the other the upper road, the former, practicable only in the dry season and then only for travel on foot or on horseback, was some eighty miles long, while the latter was one hundred and fifty miles long. Roads of a like character connected Kaskaskia and Cahokia.216

A party of more than one hundred and fifty, which came from Virginia to the New Design settlement in 1797, set out from the south branch of the Potomac. They came from Redstone (now Brownsville), on the Monongahela, to Fort Massac, on flat-boats, and then by land, in twenty-one days, to New Design. The summer was wet and hot, a malignant fever broke out among the newcomers, and one-half of them died before winter. The old settlers were not affected by the fever, but they were too few to properly care for so many immigrants.217

Commerce in Illinois was in its infancy. Some cattle, [pg 096] corn, pork, and various other commodities were sent at irregular intervals to New Orleans.218 The fur trade was carried on much as under the French régime. Salt was made at the salt springs on Saline Creek, the labor being performed chiefly by Kentucky and Tennessee slaves under the supervision of contractors who leased the works from the United States. The contractors agreed to sell no salt at the works for more than fifty cents per bushel, but by means of silent partners to whom the entire supply was sold, the price was sometimes raised as high as two dollars per bushel.219 The commerce of the West suffered from a lack of vessels going from New Orleans to Atlantic ports, and as a result corn sold in New Orleans at fifty cents per bushel in 1805, while in some of the Atlantic ports it sold for more than two dollars. At the same time the West had a good crop, and Kentucky alone could have spared five hundred thousand bushels of corn, if it could have been shipped.220

To secure laborers was difficult. A petition of 1796 said that farm laborers could not be secured for less than one dollar per day, exclusive of washing, lodging, and boarding; that every kind of tradesman was paid from one dollar and a half to two dollars per day, and that at these prices laborers were scarce. Labor was cheaper on the Spanish side of the Mississippi, because of the larger proportion of slaves.221 These wages were doubtless high in comparison with those paid in the East, just as the one dollar per day and board paid at the Galena lead mines in [pg 097] 1788 was more than double the wages then paid in New England,222 but an Illinois price list of 1795 shows that the wages of 1796 were by no means comparable to those of today in purchasing power. Making shoes was two dollars per pair; potatoes were one dollar per bushel; brandy, one dollar per quart; corn, one dollar per bushel.223

Among the early difficulties in the way of settlement, one of the most persistent was the presence of prairies. This is by no means far-fetched, although it sounds so to modern ears. In 1786, Monroe wrote to Jefferson concerning the Northwest Territory: “A great part of the territory is miserably poor, especially that near Lakes Michigan and Erie, and that upon the Mississippi and the Illinois consists of extensive plains which have not had, from appearances, and will not have, a single bush on them for ages. The districts, therefore, within which these fall will never contain a sufficient number of inhabitants to entitle them to membership in the confederacy.”224 Some of the most fertile of the Illinois prairies were not settled until far into the nineteenth century. The false prophets of the early days will be judged less harshly if we recall that wood was then a necessity, that no railroads and few roads existed, that wells now in use in prairie regions are much deeper than the early settlers could dig, and that the vast quantities of coal under the surface of Illinois were undiscovered.

As causes for the fact that more than a quarter of a century after the Revolution, Illinois had a population estimated at only eleven thousand, may be suggested the [pg 098] presence of hostile Indians; the inability of settlers to secure a title to their land; the unsettled condition of the slavery question; the great distance from the older portions of the United States and from any market; the fact that Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana had vast quantities of unoccupied land more accessible to emigrants than was Illinois; the danger and the cost of moving; privation incident to a scanty population, such as lack of roads, schools, churches and mills; the existence of large prairies in Illinois. To remove or mitigate these difficulties was still the problem of Illinois settlers. On some of them a beginning had been made before 1809, but none were yet removed.

I. The Land and Indian Questions.

Probably nothing affected settlement in Illinois from 1809 to 1818 more profoundly than did changes in the land question, for during this period Congress passed important acts relative to land sales, and this was also the period of the first sales of public lands in the territory. It seems strange that such sales should have been so long delayed, yet the settlement of French claims, although begun by the Governor of the Northwest Territory at an early day, and continued by commissioners authorized by Congress and appointed in 1804, was incomplete when Illinois became a separate territory, and the United States government adhered to its policy of selling no land in the territory until the claims were finally adjudicated. When a list of decisions reported by the commissioners to Congress late in 1809 was confirmed in the following May,225 and the next year a long list of rejected claims arising chiefly from the work of professional falsifiers, was reported,226 it seemed probable that the work was nearing completion, but a final settlement was still delayed, and the long-suffering Illinois squatters were bitterly disappointed when, in February, 1812, in accordance with a resolution presented by the Committee on Public Lands, Congress made provision for the appointment of a committee to revise the confirmations made by the Governor years before.227 The [pg 100] first legislature of Illinois met in the succeeding November, and adopted a memorial to Congress in which it was pointed out that the establishment of a land-office in the territory, several years before, had led to the opinion that the public land would soon be sold, and that because of this opinion those who constituted the majority of the inhabitants of the territory had been induced to settle, hoping that they would have an opportunity to purchase land before they should have made such improvements as would tempt the competition of avaricious speculators. The fulfillment of this hope having been long deferred, many squatters had now made valuable improvements which they were in danger of losing, either at the public sales of land or through the designs of the few speculators who had bought from the needy and unbusinesslike French most of the unlocated claims. For the relief of the squatters a law was desired that would permit actual settlers to enter the land on which their improvements stood, and requiring persons holding unlocated claims to locate them on unimproved lands lying in the region designated by Congress for that purpose. It was also hoped that as Congress had given one hundred acres of land to each regular soldier, as much would be granted to each member of the Illinois militia, since the militiaman had not only fought as bravely as the regular, but had also furnished his own supplies. If such a donation was not made it was hoped that a right of preëmption would be given to the militia, or failing even this, that they might be given the right, legally, to collect from anyone entering their land, the value of their improvements.228 In proof of the fact stated in the memorial, that speculators had bought many French claims, it may be noted that William Morrison [pg 101] had ninety-two of the claims granted at Kaskaskia, his affirmed claims comprising more than eighteen thousand acres, exclusive of a large number of claims measured in French units, while John Edgar received a satisfactory report on claims aggregating more than forty thousand acres, in addition to a number of claims previously affirmed to him.229

A few days after preparing the above memorial, the legislature prepared an address to Congress, in which reference was made to the arrangement made between Congress and Ohio by the Act of April 30, 1802, granting to Ohio two salt springs on condition that the state should agree not to tax such public lands as should be sold within her borders, until after five years from the date of sale. Illinois wished in similar fashion to gain control of the salt springs on Saline creek. The Illinois delegate in Congress was instructed that if the bargain could not be made, he should attempt to secure an appropriation for opening a road from Shawneetown to the Saline and thence to Kaskaskia. It was also desired that the Secretary of the Treasury should authorize the designation of the college township reserved by the Ordinance of 1787 and by the Act of 1804, and because “labor in this Territory is abundant, and laborers at this time extremely scarce,” it was hoped that slaves from Kentucky or elsewhere might be employed at the salines for a period of not more than three years, after which they should return to their masters.230 Each prayer of this address was granted. The enabling act and the Illinois constitution ceded the salt springs to the state and agreed that public lands sold in [pg 102] Illinois should be exempt from taxation for five years from date of sale; the Illinois Constitution provided for the employment of slaves at the salt works; an act provided for the location of the college township; and in 1816 the making of the desired road was authorized, although at the beginning of 1818 the route had been merely surveyed and mapped.231

The memorial which preceded the address was also in large measure successful. An act of February, 1813, granted to the squatters in Illinois the right of preëmpting a quarter section, each, of the lands they occupied, and of entering the land upon the payment of one-twentieth of the purchase money, as was then required in private sales.232 This act was of prime importance. For more than thirty years settlers in Illinois had improved their lands at the risk of losing them. Since the appointment, in 1804, of commissioners to settle the French land claims, the settlers had been expecting the public lands, including those they occupied, to be offered for sale; thus it was inevitable that anxiety concerning the right of preëmption should increase as the settlement of claims neared completion, and contemporaries record that the inability to secure land titles seriously retarded settlement;233 now, however, the granting of the right of preëmption, before any public lands in Illinois were offered for sale, ended the long suspense of the settlers. Years before this, Kentucky, now selling its public lands at twenty cents per acre, had passed liberal preëmption laws, and they were repeatedly renewed,234 facts which increased the anxiety of Illinois.

Year after year the settlement of land claims dragged on, thus delaying the sales of land.235 In an official report of December, 1813, it is stated that: “In the Territory of Illinois, two land-offices are directed by law to be opened; one at Kaskaskia, the other at Shawneetown, so soon as the private claims and donations are all located, and the lands surveyed, which are in great forwardness.”236 A tract of land was set apart in April, 1814, to satisfy the claims recommended by the commissioners for confirmation.237 A report of November, 1815, said that the commissioners hoped to open the land-office at Kaskaskia on May 15, 1816; and finally, in a report on the public lands sold from October 1, 1815, to September 30, 1816, we find that about thirty-four thousand acres have been sold at Shawneetown and somewhat less than thirteen thousand acres at Kaskaskia, the price at the latter place being precisely the two dollars per acre which was then the minimum, while that at Shawneetown was slightly higher,238 presumably due to the sale of town lots, which had been authorized in 1810, although no sales took place earlier than 1814.239

The long delay in opening the land-offices in Illinois was fatal to an early settlement of the region, because the old states had public lands which they offered for sale at low rates, thus depriving Illinois of a fair chance as a competitor. In 1779 Kentucky granted to each family which had settled before January 1, 1778, the right of preëmption—four hundred acres if no improvement had been made and one thousand acres if a hut had been built. The preëmptor, by a law of 1786, was to pay 13s. [pg 104] 4d. per one hundred acres.240 In 1781 the sheriffs of Lincoln, Fayette, and Jefferson counties, Virginia, were authorized to survey not more than four hundred acres for each poor family in Kentucky, for which twenty shillings per one hundred acres should be paid within two and one-half years.241 In 1791 more than three and one-half millions of acres were sold in New York at eight pence per acre, while many thousands of acres in addition were sold for less than four shillings per acre—many for less than two shillings.242 Pennsylvania offered homestead claims, in 1792, at seven pounds ten shillings per hundred acres.243

In December, 1796, Kentucky sheriffs were ordered to sell no more land for taxes until directed by the legislature to do so.244 In 1800, and again in 1812, Kentucky offered land at twenty cents per acre, and in 1820 at fifteen cents per acre,245 while during the interval preëmption acts were repeatedly passed.246 Land in Tennessee sold at from twelve and one-half to twenty-five cents per acre in 1814, and in 1819 at fifty cents.247

In 1816 various classes of claimants were given increased facilities and an extension of time for locating their claims in Illinois. The business of satisfying claims was to linger [pg 105] for years, but with the opening of the land-offices it ceased to be a potent factor in retarding settlement.248

One writer says of Illinois: “The public lands have rarely sold for more than five dollars per acre, at auction. Those sold at Edwardsville in October, 1816, averaged four dollars. Private sales at the land-office are fixed by law, at two dollars per acre. The old French locations command various prices, from one to fifty dollars. Titles derived from the United States government are always valid, and those from individuals rarely false.”249 At this time emigrants were going in large numbers to Missouri, and the Illinois river country, not yet relieved of its Indian title, was being explored.250

Reports concerning the sales of public lands give the quantity of land sold in Illinois toward the close of the territorial period, the figures for 1817 and 1818 being as follows:

The percentage of debt showed a marked increase in the first nine months of 1818. There were received in three-quarters of 1817 and 1818, respectively:

During this same period the receipts at Steubenville, Marietta, and Wooster, Ohio, decreased,253 showing that Illinois was beginning to surpass Ohio as an objective point for emigrants wishing to enter land.

The Indian question was interwoven with the land question during the territorial period. In 1809 the Indians relinquished their claim to some small tracts of land lying near the point where the Wabash ceases to be a state boundary line.254 No more cessions were made until after the war of 1812. Although the population of Illinois increased, during the territorial period, from some eleven thousand to about forty thousand, the increase before the war was slight, and thus it came about that during the war the few whites were kept busy defending themselves from the large and hostile Indian population. So well does the manner of defence in Illinois illustrate the frontier character of the region that a sketch of the same may be given. When, in 1811, the Indians became hostile and murdered a few whites, the condition of the settlers was precarious in the extreme. Today the term city would be almost a favor to a place containing no more inhabitants than were then to be found in the white settlements in Illinois. Moreover, few as were the whites, they were dispersed in a long half-oval extending from a point on the Mississippi near the present Alton southward to the Ohio, and thence up that river and the Wabash to a point considerably north of Vincennes. This fringe of settlement was but a few miles [pg 107] wide in some places, while so sparse was the population near the mouth of the Ohio that the communication between northern and southern Indians was unchecked. Carlyle was regarded as the extreme eastern boundary of settlements to the westward; a fort on Muddy River, near where the old Fort Massac trace crossed the stream, was considered as one of the most exposed situations; and Fort La Motte, on a creek of the same name above Vincennes, was a far northern point. The exposed outside was some hundreds of miles long, and the interior and north were occupied by ten times as many hostile savages as there were whites in the country, the savages being given counsel and ammunition by the British garrisons on the north.255 Under conditions then existing, aid from the United States could be expected only in the event of dire necessity. Stout frontiersmen were almost ready to seek refuge in flight, but no general exodus took place, although in February, 1812, Governor Edwards wrote to the Secretary of War: “The alarms and apprehensions of the people are becoming so universal, that really I should not be surprised if we should, in three months, lose more than one-half of our present population. In places, in my opinion, entirely out of danger, many are removing. In other parts, large settlements are about to be totally deserted. Even in my own neighborhood, several families have removed, and others are preparing to do so in a week or two. A few days past, a gentleman of respectability arrived here from Kentucky, and he informed me that he saw on the road, in one day, upwards of twenty wagons conveying families out of this Territory. Every effort to check the prevalence of such terror seems to be ineffectual, and although much of it is unreasonably indulged, yet it is very certain the Territory will very shortly be in considerable [pg 108] danger. Its physical force is very inconsiderable, and is growing weaker, while it presents numerous points of attack.”256

To the first feeling of fear succeeded a determination to hold the ground. Before the middle of 1812, Governor Edwards had established Fort Russell, a few miles northwest of the present Edwardsville, bringing to this place, which was to be his headquarters, the cannon which Louis XIV. had had placed in Fort Chartres;257 and two volunteer companies had been raised, and had “ranged to a great distance—principally between the Illinois and the Kaskaskia rivers, and sometimes between the Kaskaskia and the Wabash—always keeping their line of march never less than one and sometimes three days' journey outside of all the settlements”258—which incidentally shows what great unoccupied regions still existed even in the southern part of Illinois. As the rangers furnished their own supplies, the two companies went out alternately for periods of fifteen days. Sometimes the company on duty divided, one part marching in one direction and the other in the opposite, in order to produce the greatest possible effect upon the Indians. Settlers on the frontier—and that comprised a large proportion of the population—“forted themselves,” as it was then expressed. Where a few families lived near each other, one of the most substantial houses was fortified, and here the community staid at night, and in case of imminent danger in the daytime as well. Isolated outlying families left their homes and retired to the nearest fort. Such places of refuge were numerous and many were the attacks which they successfully withstood.

Rangers and frontier forts were used with much effect, but the great dispersion of settlement and the large numbers of Indians combined to make it wholly impossible to make such means of defence entirely adequate. In August, 1812, the Governor wrote to the Secretary of War: “The principal settlements of this Territory being on the Mississippi, are at least one hundred and fifty miles from those of Indiana, and immense prairies intervene between them. There can, therefore, be no concert of operations for the protection of their frontiers and ours.... No troops of any kind have yet arrived in this Territory, and I think you may count on hearing of a bloody stroke upon us very soon. I have been extremely reluctant to send my family away, but, unless I hear shortly of more assistance than a few rangers, I shall bury my papers in the ground, send my family off, and stand my ground as long as possible.”259 The “bloody stroke” predicted by the Governor fell on the garrison at Fort Dearborn, where Chicago now stands. Some regular troops were subsequently sent to the territory, but the war did not lose its frontier character. One of the most characteristic features was that troops sometimes set out on a campaign of considerable length, in an uninhabited region, without any baggage train and practically without pack horses, the men carrying their provisions on their horses, and the horses living on wild grass.260 Unflagging energy was shown by the settlers, several effective campaigns being carried on, and by the close of 1814 the war was closed in Illinois.261

Extinction of Indian titles to land was retarded by the war and also by the policy of the United States, which was expressed by Secretary of War Crawford, in 1816, as follows: [pg 110] “The determination to purchase land only when demanded for settlement will form the settled policy of the Government. Experience has sufficiently proven that our population will spread over any cession, however extensive, before it can be brought into market, and before there is any regular and steady demand for settlement, thereby increasing the difficulty of protection, embarrassing the Government by broils with the natives, and rendering the execution of the laws regulating intercourse with the Indian tribes utterly impracticable.”262 Some progress, however, was made in extinguishing Indian titles during the territorial period after the close of the war. In 1816, several tribes confirmed the cession of 1804 of land lying south of an east and west line passing through the southern point of Lake Michigan, and ceded a route for an Illinois-Michigan canal.263 At Edwardsville, on September 25, 1818, the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Michigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois ceded a tract comprising most of southern and much of central Illinois.264 The significance of this cession would have been immense had it not been that it was made by weak tribes, while the powerful Kickapoo still claimed and held all that part of the ceded tract lying north of the parallel of 39°—a little to the north of the mouth of the Illinois river. This Kickapoo claim included the fertile and already famous Sangamon country, in which the state capital was eventually to be located, and squatters were pressing hard upon the Indian [pg 111] frontier, yet the Indians still held the land when Illinois became a state.

During the territorial period, Illinois gained the long-sought right of preëmption; the French claims ceased to retard settlement; some progress was made in the extinction of Indian titles, and the sale of public land was begun. The new state was to find the Indian question a pressing one, and some changes in the land system were yet desired, but the crucial point was passed.

II. Territorial Government of Illinois. 1809 to 1818.

The act for the division of Indiana Territory provided that Illinois, during the first stage of its territorial existence, should have a government similar to that of the Northwest Territory under the Ordinance of 1787. In 1809 there were in Illinois two distinct and hostile parties, which had been formed on questions arising in Indiana Territory before division. It was with sound judgment, therefore, that the President, going outside of Illinois, appointed as Governor, Ninian Edwards of Kentucky, a native of Maryland, who successfully resisted all efforts to involve him in party quarrels.265

Laws for the government of the territory were to be chosen by the Governor and the judges from the laws of the states. The judges were Jesse B. Thomas and William Sprigg, natives of Maryland, and Alexander Stuart, a native of Virginia. It is worthy of note that of the twelve laws chosen before the meeting of the first territorial [pg 112] legislature, five were from Kentucky, three from Georgia, two from Virginia, one from South Carolina, and one from Pennsylvania.266 A people practically southern in origin was being governed by officials from the south under southern laws.

Illinois entered the second grade of territorial government in 1812, electing its first legislature in October.267 In the preceding May, Congress had passed an act making radical and most important extensions in the suffrage in Illinois, over that which had been prescribed by the Ordinance of 1787. The new provision was: “Every free white male person who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years, and who shall have paid a county or territorial tax, and who shall have resided one year in said Territory previous to any general election, and be at the time of any such election a resident thereof, shall be entitled to vote for members of the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of the said Territory.” Each county was to elect one member of the Legislative Council, to serve for four years. The territorial delegate to Congress was also made elective by the citizens.268 One has but to consider what a complete revolution this act brought about to appreciate its great significance. Previously the Legislative Council had been appointive by the President of the United States, from nominees of the territorial House of Representatives, the nominees being twice the number [pg 113] necessary; the delegate to Congress had not been chosen by popular vote; and a freehold qualification for the elective franchise had obtained. Early petitions show how much the people complained of a landed aristocracy,269 and letters written by Governor Edwards early in 1812 show how well founded was the complaint. No preëmption act had yet been passed, and of the more than twelve thousand inhabitants of Illinois some two hundred and twenty possessed a freehold of fifty acres, thus giving the balance of power, if the territory should enter the second grade under the old provision, to one hundred and eleven persons. Nearly one-third of the entire population lived either near the Ohio or between it and the Kaskaskia, and among them there were not more than three or four freeholders, and not one who possessed two hundred acres—the necessary qualification for a representative. With no public lands yet offered for sale, with no right of preëmption, with a freehold qualification for the suffrage, this law enfranchising squatters was of prime importance.270

The first legislature had few French members, and was apparently southern in nativity.271 After more than three [pg 114] years and a half of legislation by the Governor and judges, the inhabitants at last had an elective legislature. The journals of the two houses indicate that the belief that had been expressed in petitions to Congress some years before that such a body would provide an efficient government, was well founded. The laws passed were eminently practical for the frontier conditions under which they were to operate.272 A man contemplating settlement in Illinois could now be sure that he would be governed by Illinois men whom he had a share in electing.

The rude character of the facilities for transportation is indicated by the fact that the earlier laws of the territory deal with ferries only rarely and with bridges not at all, while as time progresses and population increases, ferries multiply and bridges begin to be constructed. By 1817-18 the desire for banks and for internal improvements, which was to be disastrous to the state at a later period, began to show itself. As examples, the Bank of Cairo and the Illinois Navigation Company will suffice. Nine men purchased the low peninsula lying near the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and were incorporated by “An Act to Incorporate the City and Bank of Cairo.” A site for a city comprising at least two thousand lots, with streets eighty feet wide, was to be laid out. The lots were to be sold at one hundred and fifty dollars each and were to be not less than one hundred and twenty by sixty-six feet in size. Of the purchase money, two-thirds should go into the stock of the Bank of Cairo, and one-third to a fund to build dykes to keep the city from being flooded.273 Considering the time and the location, the scheme was utterly impracticable. “An Act to Incorporate [pg 115] the Stockholders of the Illinois Navigation Company” authorized the formation of a company with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, for the purpose of cutting a canal through the peninsula between the Ohio and the Mississippi. Within twelve years a canal sufficiently large for the passage of a vessel of twenty tons burden should be completed. The company was given the right of eminent domain.274 Here again the character of the project was unsuited to existing conditions. Population was increasing rapidly at the time these laws were passed, but they required for their success an increase much more rapid. They were, however, pleasing to the settlers and the prospective settlers of the day.

On January 16, 1818, Mr. Pope, of Illinois, was appointed chairman of a select committee to consider a petition from the Illinois legislature praying for a state government. One week later the committee reported a bill to enable Illinois to form such a government, and to admit the state into the union. When the enabling act came up for discussion, Mr. Pope offered the amendment which changed the northern boundary of Illinois from a line due west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, as provided by the Ordinance of 1787, to a line running from that lake to the Mississippi on the parallel of 42° 30'. “The object of this amendment, Mr. Pope said, was to gain, for the proposed state, a coast on Lake Michigan. This would offer additional security to the perpetuity of the union, inasmuch as the state would thereby be connected with the states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, through the lakes. The facility of opening a canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, said Mr. Pope, is acknowledged by every one who has visited the place. Giving to the proposed state the port of Chicago [pg 116] (embraced in the proposed limits), will draw its attention to the opening of the communication between the Illinois River and that place, and the improvement of that harbor. It was believed, he said, upon good authority, that the line of separation between Indiana and Illinois would strike Lake Michigan south of Chicago, and not pass west of it, as had been supposed by some geographers....” Although an avowed violation of the Ordinance of 1787, the amendment was adopted without division or recorded debate. Mr. Pope also secured an amendment to the effect that the state's proportion of the proceeds of the sales of public lands, instead of being applied to the making of roads and canals in the state, should be used in making roads leading to the state, and for the encouragement of learning, two-fifths being applied to the former purpose. Pope pointed out that people would build roads as they needed them, much more readily than they would supply schools, and that waste school lands in a new country would produce slight revenue. Subsequent history of the state justified both statements. The enabling act met with little opposition and was signed by President Monroe on April 18, 1818.275

One of the provisions of the enabling act was that, in order to become a state, Illinois must have as many as forty thousand inhabitants. In anticipation of such a provision, the territorial legislature had passed a law in January, 1818, providing that a census of the territory should be taken between April 1 and June 1. A supplemental act provided that as a great increase in population might be expected between June 1 and December, census takers should continue to take the census in their districts [pg 117] of all who should remove into them between June 1 and December 1. The law as framed gave an opportunity to count not only immigrants, but to re-count all who moved from one county to another (such moving being common), and to count in each successive county persons passing through the state. There is no reasonable doubt that at the time the census was taken, the territory had fewer than forty thousand inhabitants. Dana gives a census of 1818, in which the number is given as thirty-four thousand six hundred and sixty-six, and adds: “Another enumeration having been taken a few months after, the amount of population returned was forty thousand one hundred and fifty-six, which exceeded the number entitling the territory to become a state.”276

In August, 1818, the Constitution of Illinois was completed. Its provisions most likely to influence settlement were those concerning the elective franchise and slavery. It provided that “In all elections, all white male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years, having resided in the state six months next preceding the election, shall enjoy the right of an elector; but no person shall be entitled to vote except in the county or district in which he shall actually reside at the time of the election.” Slaves could not hereafter be brought into the state, but existing slavery was not abolished, and existing indentures—and some were for ninety-nine years—should be carried out, although future indentures should not run for a longer term than one year. Male children of slaves or indentured servants should be free at the age of twenty-one, and females at eighteen. Slaves from other states could be employed only at the Saline Creek salt works, and there only until 1825.277

During the congressional debate on the acceptance of the Illinois Constitution, objection to admitting the state was made on the ground that the number of inhabitants was doubtful, and that slavery was not distinctly prohibited, Tallmadge, of New York, who later wished to restrict slavery in Missouri, being the chief objector. The state was admitted, however, and on December 4, 1818, the representatives and senators from Illinois took their seats in Congress.278

Between 1809 and 1818, Illinois passed from a non-representative territorial government to a liberal state government. The energy of the settlers had done much to hasten the change, and the change, in turn, did much to hasten settlement.

IV. Transportation and Settlement, 1809 to 1818.

At the close of the War of 1812, an unparalleled emigration to the frontiers of the United States began. Contemporary accounts speak of its great volume. “Through New York and down the Alleghany River is now the track of many emigrants from the east to the west. Two hundred and sixty waggons have passed a certain house on this route in nine days, besides many persons on horseback and on foot. The editor of the Gennessee [pg 119] Farmer observes, that he himself met on the road to Hamilton a cavalcade of upwards of twenty waggons, containing one company of one hundred and sixteen persons, on their way to Indiana, and all from one town in the district of Maine. So great is the emigration to Illinois and Missouri also, that it is apprehended that many must suffer for want of provisions the ensuing winter.”279 “Nothing more strongly proves the superiority of the western territory than the vast emigration to it from the eastern and southern states; during the eighteen months previous to April, 1816, fifteen thousand waggons passed over the bridge at Cayuga, containing emigrants to the western country.”280 “Old America seems to be breaking up, and moving westward.... The number of emigrants who passed this way [St. Clairsville, Ohio], was greater last year than in any preceding; and the present spring they are still more numerous than the last. Fourteen waggons yesterday, and thirteen today, have gone through this town. Myriads take their course down the Ohio. The waggons swarm with children. I heard today of three together, which contain forty-two of these young citizens.”281 From Hamilton, New York: “It is estimated, that there are now in this village and its vicinity, three hundred families, besides single travellers, amounting in all to fifteen hundred souls, waiting for a rise of water to embark for ‘the promised land.’ ”282 “The numerous companies of emigrants that flock to this country, might appear, to those who have not witnessed them, almost incredible. But there is scarce a day, except when the river is impeded with ice, but what there is a greater or less number of [pg 120] boats to be seen floating down its gentle current, to some place of destination. No less than five hundred families stopped at Cincinnati at one time, and many of them having come a great distance, and being of the poorer class of people, before they could provide for themselves, were in a suffering condition; but to the honor of the citizens of Cincinnati, they raised a donation and relieved their distress.”283 Of the remote districts, Missouri and Michigan were receiving crowds of immigrants.284

The changes in government and in the land question in Illinois were typical of changes in other frontier regions, but although worthy of note as helping to make a more attractive place for settlement, they are by no means sufficient to account for the great migration to the westward. Why that migration took place and how it was accomplished are interesting and important questions.

Emigration from New England resulted largely from financial and industrial disorganization caused by the close of the war, and a year of such continued cold weather as to produce a famine. This movement was interesting, dramatic, and large in volume, but its influence upon Illinois was slight, because the tide was stayed to the eastward of that state.285 Migration from the South was also large, and it was from this source that most of the immigrants [pg 121] to Illinois came. In 1816 there was a severe drought in eastern North Carolina, and many planters cut their immature corn for their cattle, while great numbers sold their property and joined the emigrants.286 Kentucky, still a favorite place for settlement, was in the midst of a land boom which reached such proportions as to cause a large volume of emigration to Illinois, Missouri, and the southwest. The buyer of Kentucky land was often a neighbor who wished to enlarge his farm and work on a larger scale, or some well-to-do immigrant who preferred the location to a more remote region. Land sold on credit and at fictitious prices, the seller in turn buying land for which he frequently could make only the first payment. Retribution did not come, however, until after 1820, and for some years it seemed as if Kentucky was to become a source of population, for it was to Illinois and Missouri, and to a lesser degree to Alabama, what New England was to Ohio.287 Probably chief among the reasons for migration from the South was the increase of slavery, with the resulting changes in industrial and social conditions. Early in the century the growing importance of the cotton crop began to hasten a stratification of opinion which was determined by physiographic areas. The western parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, the northern part of Georgia, and the eastern parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively, being hilly and less fertile than the coastal plain, became the center of the southern anti-slavery sentiment. On the plain settled the wealthy planters, and later the poorer Germans and Quakers settled in the uplands. Only when cotton-raising became very profitable was slavery to intrude upon the latter location.288

During the war the production of cotton in the United States had been almost constant in amount and less than in preceding years, but 1815 saw an increase of over forty-two per cent and 1816 an increase of twenty-four per cent,289 while in the latter year South Carolina, after an interval of thirteen years, resumed its slavery legislation by passing the first of a series of acts which show that the slavery problem was becoming increasingly difficult. Similar legislation took place in Tennessee, and to a lesser degree in Kentucky.290 Increased production of cotton was accompanied by an increase in price, middling upland cotton selling at New York at 15 cents per pound in 1814, at 21 cents in 1815, at 29-½ cents in 1816, at 26-½ cents in 1817, and at 34 cents in 1818, while South Carolina sea-island cotton sold at Charleston in 1816 at 55 cents a pound.291 An increase in cotton production meant an increase of the plantation system with its slaves, this meant an increased demand for large farms, and also a strengthening of the antagonism between pro-slavery and anti-slavery parties. Even in 1812, a man who wished to sell, lease, or rent his manufacturing establishment in the northwestern part of Virginia, Frederick county, lamented in his advertisement that “some good men of strict moral or religious principles should object against forming settled abodes in [pg 123] Virginia” or other slave states.292 Census reports show that the proportion of negroes to whites increased in the western counties of North Carolina during the decade 1810 to 1820 over the proportion in 1800 to 1810. Conditions above described naturally led to the emigration of at least four classes of people: those who were anti-slavery, those who did not wish to change from small farming to the plantation system, the poor whites who found themselves increasingly disgraced and who at the same time found that their land was in demand, the slave-holder who wished a large tract of virgin soil. It is very important to note that these forces were merely beginning to operate in the time from 1814 to 1818, and that they did not reach their maximum of influence until after 1830, yet as the population of Illinois increased less than twenty-eight thousand from 1810 to 1818, it is altogether probable that a considerable proportion were influenced by the causes suggested. It is also true that some pioneers moved merely from habit, without any well-defined cause.

Although it is true that the first steamboat that passed down the Ohio and Mississippi made its trip in the winter of 1811-12, and by 1816 an enterprising captain had made a successful experiment of running a steamboat with coal for fuel, also that the speed of steamboats in eastern waters was a matter for enthusiastic comment, yet it is also true that immigrants to Illinois did not usually arrive by steamer.293 The development of steamboat navigation in western waters was slow, the first steamboat reaching St. Louis on August 2, 1817.294 Peter Cartwright wrote of his trip from the West to the General Conference in Baltimore, in 1816: “We had no steamboats, railroad cars, or comfortable [pg 124] stages in those days. We had to travel from the extreme West on horseback. It generally took us near a month to go; a month was spent at General Conference, and nearly a month in returning to our fields of labor.”295

Some instances of the manner and cost of emigration may be given. A man with his wife and brother having arrived at Philadelphia from England, en route to Birkbeck's settlement296 in Illinois, the party was directed to Pittsburg, which they reached after a wearisome journey of over three hundred miles across the mountains. At Pittsburg they bought a little boat for six or seven dollars, and came down the Ohio to Shawneetown, whence they proceeded on foot.297 In the summer of 1818, a party of eighty-eight came over the same route in much the same manner, using flat-boats on the river.298 In 1817, John Mason Peck, with his wife and three children, went from Litchfield, Connecticut, to Shawneetown, Illinois, in a one-horse wagon. The journey was begun on July 25 and Shawneetown was reached on the sixth of November. “Nearly one month was occupied in passing from Philadelphia through the State of Pennsylvania over the Alleghany Mountains, till on the 10th of September he passed into Ohio. Three weeks he journeyed in that State, and on the 23d of October recrossed the Ohio River into the State of Kentucky ..., and on the 6th of November [pg 125] again crossed the Ohio River, into the then Territory of Illinois, at Shawneetown.”299 Here the family was delayed by floods which rendered the roads impassable. Leaving the horse and wagon at Shawneetown to be brought on by a friend, they proceeded to St. Louis in a keel-boat, paying twenty-five dollars fare, and arrived at their destination on the first of December.300

Shawneetown was a sort of center from which emigrants radiated to their destinations. It owed much to its location, being on the main route from the southern states to St. Louis and what was then called the Missouri, and being also the port for the salt works on Saline Creek. It was the seat of a land-office. The town thus had a business which was out of all proportion to the number of its permanent inhabitants. In 1817 it consisted of but about thirty log houses, a log bank, and a land-office. When a certain traveler came to the place from the South, in 1818, he found the number of wagons, horses, and passengers waiting to cross the Ohio, on the ferry, so great that he had to wait “a great part of the morning” for his turn.301

During the latter part of the territorial period freight charges from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, by land, were from seven to ten dollars per hundredweight;302 from Pittsburg to Shawneetown, one dollar; from Louisville to Shawneetown, thirty-seven cents; and from New Orleans to Shawneetown, four dollars and a half.303 The use of arks [pg 126] was common. These were flat-bottomed boats of a tonnage of from twenty-five to thirty tons, covered, square at the ends, of a uniform size of fifty feet in length and fourteen in breadth, usually sold for seventy-five dollars, and would carry three or four families. A common practice was to re-sell them at a somewhat reduced price to someone going further down the river. Two dollars was the charge for piloting an ark over the falls of the Ohio.304

There is much truth in the remarks made by a German traveler in 1818-19. He said: “The State of Illinois is from one thousand to twelve hundred miles distant from the sea ports. The journey thither is often as costly and tedious, for a man with a family, as the sea passage. Any father of a family, unless he is well-to-do, can certainly count on being impoverished upon his arrival in Illinois. At Williamsport, on the Susquehanna, I found a Swiss, who, with his wife and ten children, had spent one thousand French crown-dollars for their journey. In the village of Williamsport, an old German schoolmaster, who seems to have been formerly a merchant in Nassau, told me that the passage of himself and family had cost thirteen hundred dollars. For an adult the fare is seventy-five dollars—one dollar is equal to one thaler, ten groschen, Prussian—for children under twelve years, half so much, for children of two years, one-fourth so much, and only babes in arms go free.”305

It can now be understood why people emigrated to the West, and also why many went overland. A family too poor to go by water could go in a buggy or wagon, and if poorer still they might walk, as many actually did. The immigration to Illinois, which was but a small fraction of [pg 127] the great westward movement, was still largely southern in origin, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and even New York still staying, in large measure, the tide from New England. In New England it was the “Ohio fever” and not the Illinois fever which carried away the people, and the designation is geographically correct. The men prominent in Illinois politics at the close of the territorial period, and at the beginning of the state period, were natives of southern states, a fact hardly conceivable if New England had been largely represented in Illinois. Then, too, the natural routes from the South led to, or near to, Illinois, the great road from the South crossing the Ohio River at Shawneetown, and the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers being natural water routes. Another fact to be noticed is that much of the emigration was of relatives and friends to join those who had gone before, and as Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and even Georgia, had furnished a large number of early settlers to Illinois, this was a powerful inducement to continued emigration from the same sources. Similarly Ohio and Michigan had early received settlers from the East.

Immigration to Illinois was not large in comparison to that to neighboring states or territories. Indians still held the greater part of Illinois, and the inconveniences incident to frontier life were more pronounced as the distance from the East increased. Pro-slavery men, and anti-slavery men as well, were still in doubt as to the ultimate fate of slavery in Illinois. This had a deterrent effect upon immigration.

IV. Life of the Settlers.

According to the marshal's return the manufactures in Illinois, in 1810, were as follows:

This list incidentally indicates the average price of several manufactured articles. For the first six months of 1814, the internal revenue assessed in Illinois was:

Of this amount ($1392.74), $1047.37 had been paid by October 10, 1814.307 For the period from April 18, 1815, to February 22, 1816, the following were the internal duties:

This was the smallest sum listed in any part of the United States, except Michigan Territory.308 For 1818:

Of this amount, $1966.41 was paid, only Indiana and Missouri territories paying a smaller proportion of their assessment.309 The small proportion paid in these three territories may have been due to the poverty of their inhabitants.

Most of the manufactured articles were consumed within the territory. Both cotton and flax were raised and made into cloth; maple sugar was sometimes sold and exported, but a large proportion of the supply was used as a substitute for sugar, another substitute much used being wild honey. A certain Smith's Prairie was celebrated for the numerous plum and crabapple orchards that grew around its borders. The large red and yellow plums grew there in such abundance that people would come from long distances and haul them away by the wagon-loads, and would preserve them with honey or maple sugar, which was the only sweetening they had in pioneer times.310

Previous to the War of 1812, little commerce was carried on, although a few trips had been made to New Orleans with keel-boats or pirogues, and some goods were occasionally brought over the Alleghany Mountains by means of wagons. The round trip to New Orleans and back then required six months; the trip down was easy and required a comparatively short time, but the return trip [pg 130] was slow. It was entirely a barter trade, money being almost unknown. Furs, wild honey, and other commodities of Illinois, as well as lead from the Missouri mines, were carried down and exchanged for groceries, cloth, and other articles of a large value and small bulk. As a natural consequence of having to be transported up stream, goods of that nature were extremely dear, the common price of tea being sixteen dollars a pound, of coffee fifty cents, and of calico fifty cents per yard.311 To go up the Mississippi from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien, in 1815, required from twelve days to a month, while the return trip was made in from six to ten days.312

In the great American Bottom of the Mississippi, extending from the mouth of the Kaskaskia almost to the mouth of the Illinois, cattle raising was a leading industry, the cattle being driven to the Philadelphia or Baltimore markets.313 Towards the close of the period land could easily be secured by government entry. The fertility of the land was such as must have been new to those immigrants who came from the poorer parts of the older states. Land was subject to a tax of a little more that two cents per acre, the tax being about equally divided between the territory and the county.314 Public lands were not to be taxed by the state, after 1818, until five years from the date of their sale. Governor Edwards, who was a large landowner, offered to pay three dollars per acre for plowing.315 Prairies were not yet settled to any considerable extent, but it is worthy of note that a traveler of 1818-19 [pg 131] suggested what was eventually to be the solution of the question of prairie settlement. He wrote: “It will probably be some time before these vast prairies can be settled, owing to the inconvenience attending the want of timber. I know of no way, unless the plan is adopted of ditching and hedging, and the building of brick houses, and substituting the stone coal for fuel. It seems as if the bountiful hand of nature, where it has withheld one gift has always furnished another; for instance, where there is a scarcity of wood, there are coal mines.”316 The remedy suggested was the one adopted, except that brick houses did not become common.

Really good roads were entirely lacking. Most of the settlements were connected by roads that were practicable at most seasons for packers and travelers on horseback, but in times of flood the suspension of travel by land was practically complete. A post-road had been established between Vincennes and Cahokia in 1805, and in 1810 a route was established from Vincennes, by way of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia, to St. Louis. At this time and place, however, a post-route does not necessarily imply anything more than a bridle-path. Mail was received at irregular intervals, although the trips were regularly made in good weather. The post-office nearest Chicago was Fort Wayne, Indiana, whence a soldier on foot carried the mail once a month.317 A report for the first six months of 1814 shows, in Illinois, nine post-offices, three hundred and eighty-eight miles of post-roads, about $143 received for postage, and $1002 paid for transportation of mail—a balance [pg 132] of some $859 against the United States.318 At this time even Cleveland, Chillicothe, and Marietta received mail but twice per week.319

Books were very scarce,320 and no newspapers had been published in Illinois before its separate territorial organization. Between 1809 and 1818 there were founded the Illinois Herald and the Western Intelligencer, at Kaskaskia, the latter becoming the Illinois Intelligencer on May 27, 1818; and the Shawnee Chief, at Shawneetown.321 In 1816 the citizens of Shawneetown gave notice through the papers of Kaskaskia, Frankfort, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, that they would apply to the Legislature of Illinois for the establishment of a bank.322 This may indicate that the papers of the places named had a considerable circulation in Illinois.

The character of the immigrants left much to be desired. A good observer wrote: “After residing awhile in White County, Tennessee, I migrated in May, 1817, to the southern part of the then Territory of Illinois, and settled in Madison County, twenty-five miles east of St. Louis, which town then contained about five thousand inhabitants. The surrounding country, however, was quite sparsely settled, and destitute of any energy or enterprise among the people; their labors and attention being chiefly confined to the hunting of game, which then abounded, and tilling a small patch of corn for bread, relying on game for the [pg 133] remaining supplies of the table. The inhabitants were of the most generous and hospitable character, and were principally from the southern states; harmony and the utmost good feeling prevailed throughout the country.”323 Naturally this description was not of universal application, but the source of the population and the reasons for removing from the old homes make it probable that it was widely appropriate.

If it was difficult for an emigrant to reach Illinois, and if, after reaching it, he was inconvenienced by the poor facilities for commerce, the bad roads, the infrequency of mails, the scarcity of schools and churches, he at least found it easy to obtain a living, and to some of the immigrants of the territorial period it was worth something not to starve, even though living was reduced to its lowest terms. The poorest immigrant had access to land on the borders of settlement, because the laws against squatting were not enforced. This same class could procure game in abundance, while maple sugar, wild honey, persimmons, crabapples, nuts, pawpaws, wild grapes, wild plums, fish, mushrooms, “greens,” berries of several kinds, and other palatable natural products known to the Illinois frontiersman, were to be had in most, if not all, of the localities then settled. Hogs fattened on the mast. Log houses could be built without nails. The problem of clothing was probably more difficult at first than that of food, but although clothing could not be picked up in the woods, the materials for making it could be grown in the fields. Spinning, and the processes necessarily preceding and following it, involved a certain amount of labor. Taxes were not high, nor were tax laws rigidly enforced. It is thus easy to understand the reasoning that may have led a large proportion of the immigrants during this period to leave their old homes.

The Indian and Land Questions.

One of the most important cessions of land in Illinois ever made by the Indians was that made by the Kickapoo in 1819, of the vast region lying north of the parallel of 39—a little north of the mouth of the Illinois River, and southeast of the Illinois River.324 Settlement had been crowding hard upon this region and many squatters anxiously awaited the survey and sale of the land, especially of that in the famous Sangamon country. In northern Illinois settlement was still retarded by the presence of Indians. In 1825, the Menominee, Kaskaskia, Sauk and Fox, Potawatomi, and Chippewa tribes claimed over 5,314,000 acres of land in Illinois,325 and there was a licensed Indian trader at Sangamo, one at the saline near the present Danville, and two on Fever River.326 Two years later there were three such traders at Fever River, and two at Chicago,327 and in 1827-28 there was one at Fever River with a capital of about $2000.328 In February, 1829, there were Indian agents at Chicago, Fort Armstrong, Kaskaskia, and Peoria, as well as others near the borders of [pg 135] Illinois.329 At this time, the Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Kaskaskia, and Winnebago claimed land in the state, although only about 6000 of the more than 25,000 members of these tribes resided in the state. The eight members of the Kaskaskia tribe held a small reservation near the Kaskaskia River. Of the twenty-two hundred members of the Kickapoo tribe, which had relinquished all claim to land east of the Mississippi, about two hundred still lived on the Mackinaw River, but they were expected to move in a few weeks.330 By a treaty of July 29, 1829, the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi ceded their claims in northern Illinois.331 There still remained the Winnebago tribe, and not until 1833 was Illinois to be free from Indian claims.332

A war with the Winnebago tribe was imminent in 1827. Settlers in the northern part of the state either fled to the southward or collected at such points as Galena or Prairie du Chien. “This was a period of great suffering at Galena. The weather was inclement and two or three thousand persons driven suddenly in, with scant provisions, without ammunition or weapons encamped in the open air, or cloth tents which were but little better, were placed in a very disagreeable and critical position.”333 The prompt action of Governor Lewis Cass, of Michigan, averted what would in all probability have been a bloody war, if prompt action had not been taken.334

To September 30, 1819, the record of land sales in Illinois was as follows:

The balances unpaid by purchasers of public lands steadily increased from 1813 to 1819 until on September 30, 1819, there was due from purchasers of land in the area of the old Northwest Territory nearly ten million dollars.336 An increase would have resulted merely from an increased sale of public lands under the credit system, but it is also true that the difficulty of collecting the unpaid balances became so great that the government at last abolished the credit system, by the act of April 24, 1820. The act provided that after July 1, 1820, no credit whatever should be given to the purchasers of public lands; that land might be sold in either sections, half-sections, quarter-sections, or eighth-sections; that the minimum price should be reduced from two dollars to one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; and that reverted lands should be offered at auction before being offered at private sale.337 At least two of the provisions of this act had long been desired by Illinois in common with other frontier regions: the reduction of the minimum price and the sale in smaller tracts. Under the new law a man with one hundred dollars could buy eighty acres of land, while previously the same man would have had to pay eighty of his one hundred dollars as the first payment on one hundred and sixty acres, the smallest tract then sold. The great danger had been that the second, third, and fourth payments could not be made. In Illinois, [pg 137] before July 1, 1820, there had been sold 1,593,247.53 acres of the public land at an average price of about $2.02 per acre. Some of this reverted from non-payment.338

During the third quarter of 1820, all sales in Illinois were at the minimum price and a considerable proportion were of the minimum area. At the same time, some of the land in Ohio, and a very few tracts in Indiana, sold at a higher price, one tract in Ohio, but only one, selling for more than seven dollars per acre.339 To October 1, 1821, the land-offices in Illinois reported:

All land in the districts of Shawneetown and Kaskaskia had been surveyed, but the remaining districts were still indefinite on the north.340 At this time, Illinois money passed in the state at par, and the Bank of Illinois was among those whose notes were received in payment for public lands.341

As more and more land was opened to settlement, a new difficulty arose and became increasingly troublesome. All public land was to be entered at the same minimum price, and as a natural result, the poorest land was not taken [pg 138] up and settlement became widely dispersed on the best tracts of land. In December, 1824, the Illinois legislature sent a memorial to Congress portraying the evils of sparse settlement, and asking that land that had been offered for sale for five years or more might be sold at fifty cents per acre. Better roads, better markets, and better institutions were expected to result from such sales.342 Two years later, another memorial was sent. This asked that land be offered for sale at prices graduated according to the quality of the land, suggested that the poorest land might well be donated to settlers, and declared that settlement was retarded by the high minimum price of land.343 Governor Ninian Edwards pointed out that in 1790, Hamilton had recommended that public lands be sold at twenty cents per acre, which “was the price at which Kentucky, long afterward, sold her lands.”344 In 1828, the Committee on Public Lands recommended that public lands unsold at public sale be first offered at one dollar per acre, and if still unsold, that the price be reduced twenty-five cents per acre each two years until sold or reduced to twenty-five cents per acre; that eighty-acre homestead claims be given to such persons as would cultivate and occupy them for five years; and that lands unsold at twenty-five cents per acre be ceded to the states in which they lay, upon payment of the cost of survey and twenty-five cents per acre. At this time, there was in Illinois 1,403,482 acres surveyed and sold; 19,684,186 acres surveyed and unsold, of the 39,000,000 acres estimated to be in the State.345 Still another memorial from the legislature was sent to Congress in 1829. It [pg 139] pointed out, in strong terms, the inconvenience arising from the high price at which public land was offered for sale. Unsold public land could neither be taxed nor legally settled. It was stated that of the forty millions of acres in Illinois, little over one and one-half millions had been sold at public sales. A granting of the right of preemption, which implies the presence in the state of squatters, is suggested.346

The implication of the presence of squatters was well founded. When Peter Cartwright, in 1823, visited a settlement in the Sangamon country, he found it a community of squatters, on land which had been surveyed, but was not yet offered for sale. Money was hoarded up to enter land when Congress should order sales. Cartwright paid a squatter two hundred dollars for his improvement and his claim, bought some stock, and rented out the place, to which he was to remove from Kentucky the following year.347 This squatting on surveyed land, and even on unsurveyed land, was a regular procedure. It added much to the difficulty of governing the state—hence the memorials to Congress, and hence the great significance to Illinois of an act of May 29, 1830, which gave to all settlers who had cultivated land in 1829 the right to preempt not more than one hundred and sixty acres.348 This law was of general application. Even now the Illinois legislature sent another petition concerning preemption to Congress, because one of the provisions of the act of May, 1830, was that the plat of survey should have been filed [pg 140] in the land-office, and this provision debarred about one thousand Illinois squatters from the benefit of the act. A modification in their favor was desired.349

The land claims of the ancient settlers, as they are called in government documents, continued to occupy the attention of Congress, in a desultory way, throughout the period, but their influence upon settlement had practically ceased with the opening of the public land-offices.350

Among the obstacles to settlement was the holding of land by non-residents. Such lands were subject to a triple tax in case of delinquency, and when sold for taxes and costs frequently did not bring enough for that purpose, in which event they reverted to the state and the state paid the costs. Redemption, although possible, was rare.351 In 1823, about nine thousand quarter-sections of land in the Military Tract, lying between the Illinois and the Mississippi, were advertised for sale, because of the non-payment of taxes by non-resident landholders.352 At this time, two of the prominent men of the state who wished to dispose of a large amount of state paper, advertised that they would pay such delinquent taxes at twenty-five per cent discount.353 In 1826, thirty-eight pages of the Illinois Intelligencer were filled with a description, in double column, of lands owned by non-residents, the lands being for sale for taxes. In 1829, a similar list filled thirty-two pages.354 Much discontent was manifested in the state on account of the laws [pg 141] concerning the public lands, and Governor Edwards' message to the legislature, in 1830, elaborated a theory that all public lands belonged of right to the states in which they lay.355

Illinois early understood that an Illinois-Michigan canal would help to people her northern lands. This led to many efforts to secure such a waterway. In 1819 a favorable topographical report concerning the route for the proposed canal was made,356 and in 1822 the state was authorized to construct the canal, but no tangible aid was given.357 In 1825 the legislature petitioned Congress for a grant of the townships through which the canal would pass. A committee report of March, 1826, which was almost identical with another presented in February, 1825, pointed out that the cost of transporting a ton of merchandise from Philadelphia, New York, or Baltimore was about ninety dollars, and required from twenty to twenty-two days. The probable cost by the proposed canal, the Lakes, and the Erie Canal, from St. Louis to New York was from sixty-three to sixty-five dollars per ton, and the time from twelve to fifteen days. The canal would bind Illinois and Missouri to the North.358 Congress received a memorial from the legislature on the same subject in January, 1827, requesting the grant of “two entire townships, along the whole course of the canal,” and declaring that markets at New Orleans fluctuated because of speculators, and that grain and goods sent from the West to the Atlantic ports by way of New Orleans was exposed to the [pg 142] dangers of both the southern climate and the sea.359 A few weeks later the desired grant was made, the state being given one-half of five sections in width on each side of the canal, the United States reserving the alternate sections.360 The canal commissioners promptly platted the original town of Chicago and sold lots at from twenty to eighty dollars each, but no immediate settlement followed the land sale, and Chicago remained for some years longer an Indian town. The prospect of having a canal doubtless had some influence upon settlement, but at the close of 1830 the actual construction of the canal was still a thing of the future. By the close of 1828, Congress had donated to Illinois, for various purposes, chiefly for schools and internal improvements, 1,346,000 acres.361

The salt springs had been vested in the state of Illinois with the provision that no part of the reservations should be sold. Large reservations were made at the Saline River salt works and at the Vermilion saline near Danville, the object being to reserve a supply of wood for the making of salt. Upon the discovery of coal near the springs the state was permitted to sell not more than thirty thousand acres of the Saline River reservation.362

Illinois as a landowner sometimes mingled church and state. The original proprietors of Alton having donated one hundred lots, one-half for the support of the gospel, and one-half for the support of a public school, the state vested the donated lots in the trustees of the town, upon its incorporation in 1821. A similar donation made by the proprietors of Mt. Carmel was confirmed in the same [pg 143] manner.363 The Cumberland Presbyterians having built a church on a school section, the state provided that for ninety-nine years the building should be used as a schoolhouse also, the school being under the joint direction of the trustees of the township and the church society.364

The receipts for public lands in 1828 and 1829, respectively, were:

The receipts for 1828 were for 96,092.91 acres; of 1829, for 196,324.92 acres.366 From October 1, 1829, to September 30, 1830, sales, receipts, and prices were:

The northward movement of population in Illinois is well [pg 144] indicated by the figures for 1828 and 1829. The Indian barrier was being pushed back, and the Sangamon country, with its land-office at Springfield, was a favorite place for settlement. The rapid increase in the amount of land sold is also striking. As the third decade of the century closed Indiana was the favorite place for frontier settlement. The sales of public lands in Ohio were diminishing. A prophetic glance would have seen that as the ever-shifting frontier passed westward Illinois was to overtake and then to far surpass Indiana in number of settlers.

The period from 1818 to 1830 saw the Indian title to a great fertile tract of land in Illinois extinguished, the price of all public lands lowered and the land offered for sale in smaller tracts, the right of preemption granted to squatters who had settled before 1830, considerable grants of land made to the state for internal improvements, the great salt spring reservations reduced. These changes did much to make Illinois a more attractive place for settlement. When a committee of workingmen in Wheeling, Virginia, made a report, in October, 1830, on a method of escaping from the ills of workingmen, they presented an elaborate plan for buying land and forming a colony in Illinois.368 The experience of the squatter who settled with four or five sows for breeders and in four years or less drove forty-two fat hogs to market and sold them for $135, with which he bought eighty acres of land and paid his debts, was not a rare one.369

As 1830 closed there were still problems connected with the land to solve. The Indian question persisted, non-resident landholders were troublesome, and the state [pg 145] would still seek grants for internal improvements, but none of these was to be long a serious impediment to settlement.

The Government and Its Representatives, 1818 to 1830.

In some respects the character of the state government of Illinois shows the character of the settlers. The nativity of the governors and the congressmen of the state indicates that the South was the origin of a majority of the population. Before the end of 1830 there had been no northern-born representative of the state in the national House of Representatives; the first northern-born senator was chosen in the last month of 1825, and the first northern governor in 1830.370 Pierre Menard, a French Canadian, the first [pg 146] lieutenant-governor, came to Illinois in 1790, and can not fairly be cited as a type of the French descendants of the first white settlers of Illinois.371 As a matter of fact, the French element was not a political factor of importance. Nor is it true that all southerners were pro-slavery, for the most noted anti-slavery governor of Illinois, and her governor during the Civil War, were from the South, while her first northern senator was pro-slavery. The great influx of immigrants from New England and the rest of the North did not come until after 1830. It was retarded, after the opening of the Erie Canal (1825), by the Winnebago and Black Hawk wars, and did not reach its height until the latter war had closed and the Indian claims to land in northern Illinois had been extinguished. Immigration from the northern states increased proportionally, however, after 1820.

Illinois men in Congress give a number of indications of the feeling of the people on questions having a more or less intimate relation to settlement. Constant and insistent demands for more land-offices, more post-roads, more pensions, donations of land for poor settlers, grants of land for internal improvements, the right of preëmption for squatters, and the reduction of the price of public lands show that the frontier was in favor of a liberal governmental expenditure.372 Congressmen from Illinois, without exception, favored the tariff bills of 1824 and 1828.373 In 1828, the only senator from Illinois who voted on the [pg 147] question, voted for the bill abolishing imprisonment for debt on processes issuing from a United States court.374 Since Illinois early abolished such imprisonment, it is interesting to note that three hundred and thirty-eight persons were committed to the Essex county jail in New Jersey, for debt, in the year ending April 1, 1823, of whom one hundred and forty-one were in close confinement. The aggregate of debt was fifty-five thousand dollars.375

Within the state one of the phenomena which has characterized frontier regions appeared about the year 1821. A desperate gang of immigrants had robbed and plundered until, after a most notable robbery, “a public meeting was held, and among other things, a company was formed, consisting of ten law-abiding men of well-known courage, who bound themselves together, under the name of the Regulators of the Valley, to rid the country of horse thieves and robbers.... A regular constitution was drawn up and subscribed to.” After the leader of the desperadoes had been killed the remainder fled.376 A frontier condition is indicated also by the fact that when Sangamon county was formed, on January 30, 1821, a special law provided that housekeepers in the county should perform the duties and receive the privileges of freeholders. The same provision was made for Morgan county two years later. As land sales in the Sangamon country, in which these counties lay, did not begin until [pg 148] November, 1823, these laws probably resulted from the formation of counties whose entire population consisted of squatters.377 The persistence of wolf bounties bears testimony to continued wild surroundings.378 In 1829 alien Irish, and presumably all other aliens, could vote at all elections. An election law of this year provided that voting should be by the voter's approaching the bar, in the election room, and naming in an audible voice the persons for whom he voted, or, if the voter preferred, by delivering to the judges a ballot which should be read aloud by them, the alternative being for the benefit of illiterate voters. Voting had previously been by ballot.379

Although frontier conditions obtained, there were evidences of their gradual amelioration. A law of 1823 provided that counterfeiting, which, in the territorial period, had been punishable by death, should be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, whipping with not fewer than one hundred nor more than two hundred lashes, imprisonment for not more than twelve months, and being rendered forever infamous.380 The state established a system of common schools to be supported, in part, by the state, in 1825; but in 1829 the sections of the act which provided that two per cent of all money received into the state treasury, and five-sixths of the interest of the school fund, should be for the support of public schools, were repealed,381 taxation for such a purpose not being then in accord with public sentiment. A [pg 149] mechanic's lien law, passed in 1825, provided that in case of a contract between a landowner and a mechanic, the mechanic should have a lien upon the product of his labor for three months, after which the lien lapsed unless suit had been commenced. Three years later an unsuccessful attempt to secure such a law was made in New York.382

Two accounts on the records of the state are of sufficient interest to give at length. The first gives the amount of money received into the treasury during the two years ending December 27, 1822:

The balance in the treasury was $33,661.11, but Governor Edwards, in his message of December 2, 1828, reported a state indebtedness of $44,140.03 and taxes in Illinois as [pg 150] precisely eight times as high as those in Kentucky which were payable in the same kind of currency.383 The rage for internal improvements was partly responsible, and for this in turn the wide dispersion of the settlements in Illinois, caused by the fact that all public lands were offered at the same minimum price and that the prairies were in large measure shunned, furnishes a partial explanation.

The second account of the state, above referred to, shows that in 1822 it cost $151.82 to make a trip from Vandalia to Shawneetown and return, and one from Vandalia to Kaskaskia and return, to convey to the capital some money paid by the United States on the three per cent fund due the state. The former trip occupied fourteen days, the latter eight days.384

Governor Cass' protection of Galena during the Winnebago War of 1827 may have been influenced by its uncertain governmental status. In 1828 miners in what is now southwestern Wisconsin voted for members of Congress from Illinois, and in 1829 Galena was enumerated among the thriving towns of Huron or Ouisconsin Territory. November 29, 1828, one hundred and eighty-seven inhabitants of Galena and vicinity sent a memorial to Congress asking that a separate territory be formed, the territory to be bounded on the south by a line drawn due west from the southern point of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and by the northern boundary of Missouri. The memorial began: “The undersigned, inhabitants of that portion of the ‘Territory Northwest of the Ohio,’ lying north of a due east and west line drawn through the southernmost end of Lake Michigan, and west of that lake to the British possessions, comprehending the mining district, more generally known as the Fever River Lead [pg 151] Mines.” The petitioners referred to the violation of the Ordinance of 1787, and also stated that they were subject to two separate governments, each some hundreds of miles from them, and each unacquainted with their needs. The petition was read and tabled.385 It is true that the situation of Galena was peculiarly difficult. No mail could be carried along the rude trail from Peoria to Galena during the wet season, and when the Illinois legislature, seeking to give relief, passed a bill for laying out a road between the “Illinois settlements and Galena,” it was vetoed by the governor and council because the road would pass through lands of the United States and of the Indians. When the river was frozen provisions were very high, and mail was sent forward from Fort Edwards once a month. These conditions were more aggravating as the number of inhabitants increased, and in 1827, notwithstanding the trouble with the Winnebago Indians, there were about four thousand men at Galena, and they mined about fifteen times as much lead as had been mined in 1823. In January, 1828, a congressional committee reported favorably on a proposition to open a road to Galena.386 In a letter written one year later by the delegate from Michigan Territory, to the committee on territories, the suggestion is made that a new territory, to be called Huron, should be formed, because the region at Galena was said to have received hundreds of settlers during the preceding summer and to have at the time of writing ten thousand or more, and government in the lead region could not be properly carried on from Detroit, which was eight hundred or one [pg 152] thousand miles distant, by the routes commonly traveled. The legislature of Michigan was said to be compelled to meet in the summer in order to enable delegates to attend and that was the busy time at the mines.387 A congressional act of February, 1829, provided for the laying out of a village at Galena. The plat was not to exceed one section of land, no lot was to be larger than one-fourth of an acre, unimproved lots were to be sold at not less than five dollars, improved lots were to be graded, without reference to their improvements, into three grades, to sell at the rate of twenty-five, fifteen, and ten dollars, respectively, per acre, the occupants having the right of preëmption.388 Another mode of relief, which the inhabitants were working out for themselves, is described in a Galena paper of September 14, 1829: “Mr. Soulard's wagon and mule team returned, a few days since, from Chicago, near the southernmost bend of Lake Michigan; to which place it had been taken across the country, with a load of lead. This is the first wagon that has ever passed from the Mississippi River to Chicago. The route taken from the mines was, to Ogee's ferry, on Rock River, eighty miles; thence an east course sixty miles, to the Missionary establishment on the Fox River of the Illinois; and thence a north-easterly course sixty miles to Chicago, as travelled, two hundred miles. The wagon was loaded with one ton and a half of lead. The trip out was performed in eleven, and the return trip in eight days. The lead was taken, by water, from Chicago to Detroit. Should a road be surveyed and marked, on the best ground, and the shortest distance, a trip could be performed in much less time. And if salt could be obtained at Chicago, from the New [pg 153] York Salt Works, it would be a profitable and advantageous trade.”389

As the life history of an individual recapitulates the history of the development of a species, so does the history of Galena, in respect to the difficulties of its early settlers, recapitulate the history of the several parts of the United States in their early days. As Illinois had sent petitions for relief to the governments of the Northwest Territory, of Indiana Territory, and of the United States, so did Galena send similar petitions to the governments of Illinois, of Michigan Territory, and of the United States. In each case the prayers of the petitioners were but partially granted. In each case the difficulties from Indians, lack of facilities for commerce, distance from the seat of government, inability to secure lands, were gradually mitigated until the steady onward sweep of settlement engulfed the outlying region and it ceased to be the frontier, and turned its energies to other questions—different, although probably as difficult. Galena, even at the close of 1830, was a frontier region on the outskirts of Illinois settlement.

Transportation.

Transportation was long a difficult problem, although it became gradually less so. Travel by either water or land was slow and difficult. When a party of about one hundred men, conducted by Colonel R. M. Johnson, went, in six or eight boats, from St. Louis to the site of the present Galena, in 1819, to make an arrangement with the Indians which would permit the whites to mine lead, the upward voyage occupied some twenty days.390 Doubtless the journey of Edward Coles from Albemarle county, Virginia, to [pg 154] Illinois, in 1819, was typical of that of the better class of immigrants. At the Virginia homestead, slaves, horses and wagons were prepared for the long journey. A trusty slave was put in charge of the caravan of emigrant wagons and started out on the long journey over the Alleghanies to Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Coles started a few days later, overtook the party one day's journey from Brownsville, and upon arriving at that place bought two flat-bottomed boats, upon which negroes, horses and wagons, with their owner, were embarked. The drunken pilot was discharged at Pittsburg, and Coles acted as captain and pilot on the voyage of some six hundred miles down the Ohio to a point below Louisville, whence, the boats being sold, the journey was continued by land to Edwardsville, Illinois.391

April 5, 1823, a party of forty-three started from Cincinnati in a keel-boat, arriving at Galena, June 1, 1823. Twenty-two days were required to stem the flooded Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to St. Louis, and twenty of these were rainy days.392 In 1822 the English settlement in Edwards county sent several flat-boats loaded with corn, flour, beef, pork, sausage, etc., to New Orleans.393 Improvement of the Wabash was entrusted to an incorporated company in 1825, and several years earlier a canal across the peninsula at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi was contemplated.394

Many immigrants came overland. The following is typical: “In the year 1819 a party of six men, and families [pg 155] of three of them, started from Casey County, Kentucky, for Illinois.... The first three were young unmarried men, the last three had their wives and children with them. They came in an old-fashioned Tennessee wagon, that resembled a flat-boat on wheels. The younger readers of this sketch can form but a faint idea of the curious and awkward appearance of one of these old fashioned wagons, covered over with white sheeting, the front and rear bows set at an angle of forty-five degrees to correspond with the ends of the body, and then the enormous quantity of freight that could be stowed away in the hole would astonish even a modern omnibus driver! Women, children, beds, buckets, tubs, old fashioned chairs, including all the household furniture usually used by our log-cabin ancestors; a chicken coop, with ‘two or three hens and a jolly rooster for a start,’ tied on behind, while, under the wagon, trotted a full-blood, long-eared hound, fastened by a short rope to the hind axle. Without much effort on your part, you can, in imagination, see this party on the road, one of the men in the saddle on the near horse, driving; the other two, perhaps on horseback, slowly plodding along in the rear of the wagon, while the boys ‘walked ahead,’ with rifles on their shoulders ‘at half-mast,’ on the lookout for squirrels, turkey, deer, or ‘Injin.’ ”395 Muddy roads sometimes caused emigrants to make long detours in the hope of finding better ones, and if the roads became impassable water transportation might be resorted to when the locality permitted.396 The fear of breaking down was omnipresent and danger from professional bandits397 was not [pg 156] lacking. There was also danger of being lost on the enormous prairies in Illinois.398

The best road from North Carolina to Indiana, for loaded wagons, was that which crossed the Blue Ridge at Ward's Gap, in Western Virginia, led through East Tennessee and Kentucky, and reached the Ohio River at Cincinnati,399 and this was a part of the route for some of the Illinois immigrants. Illustrations of the moving instinct, the ever-present desire to go frontierward, were constantly appearing.400 Although the greater proportion of immigrants came by either wagon or boat, some came on horseback and some on foot.401 One pioneer wrote: “My mother was a delicate woman and in the hope of prolonging her life, my father, in 1830, broke up his home at Windsor, Connecticut, and started overland for Jacksonville, Illinois. Most of the household furniture was shipped by water, via New Orleans and did not reach its destination until a year afterwards, six months after our arrival. The wagon for my mother was made strong and wide, drawn by three horses, so that a bed could be put in it and most of the way she lay in this bed. Most of the time the drive was pleasant but over the mountains it was rough and over the national corduroy road of Indiana, it was perfectly horrible.”402 A journey was made in 1827 in about four weeks over the same route that it had taken the same traveler seven and a half weeks to cover in 1822.403

Within the state changes in facilities for transportation were constant. From Shawneetown to St. Louis, by way of Kaskaskia and Cahokia, passed the great western road. There was also a road from Shawneetown, by way of Carmi, to Birkbeck's settlement in Edwards county.404 Frontier roads to different places seem to have been designated by different numbers of notches cut in the trees along the wayside.405 New roads were in constant demand. In February, 1821, the legislature authorized the building of a turnpike road, one hundred feet wide, from the Mississippi, opposite St. Louis, across the American Bottom to the Bluffs. Toll was to be regulated by the county commissioners, but it must be not less than twelve and one-half cents for a man and horse, twenty-five cents for a one-horse wagon or carriage, six and one-fourth cents for each wheel and each horse of other wagons and carriages, six and one-fourth cents for each single horse or head of cattle, and two cents for each hog or sheep. If at any time the county should pay the cost of the road, plus six per cent, the county should become the owner.406 A traveler writing late in 1822 says that a public road had just been opened between Vandalia and Springfield.407 During the same year, Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, one of the most active of the agents of the American Fur Company in Illinois, established a direct path or track from Iroquois Post to Danville. In 1824 this path, which was known as “Hubbard's Trail,” was extended northward to Chicago, and southward to a point about one hundred and fifty miles southwest of Danville. Along this trail trading-posts were established at intervals of forty or fifty miles. [pg 158] The southern extremity of the trail was Blue Point, in Effingham county.408 This became the regularly traveled route between points connected by it.

Springfield was the northern terminus of the mail route early in 1823, and the next year Sangamon county, in which the village lay, was almost entirely without ferries, bridges, or roads.409 In 1830 mail was carried between Vincennes and St. Louis thrice a week; between Maysville and St. Louis, and between Belleville and St. Charles twice a week. No point in Illinois, not on one of these routes, received mail oftener than once a week. There was at this time a mail route from Peoria to Galena.410 The legislatures of Indiana and Illinois petitioned Congress for an appropriation to improve the mail route from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis, Missouri. The length of that part of the route which lay between Vincennes and St. Louis was one hundred and sixty miles, but a more direct route, recently surveyed by authority of the legislature of Illinois, reduced the distance to one hundred and forty-five miles. The distance between Vincennes and St. Louis was made up of about one-fourth of timber land and three-fourths of prairies, from five to twenty miles across. “The settlements are therefore scattered, and far between, and confined to the vicinity of the timbered land. More than nineteen-twentieths of the land, over which the road passes, is the property of the Federal Government. To make the necessary causeways and bridges, and to keep the road in a proper state of repair, is beyond the capacity of the people who reside upon it.” Another writer says of the [pg 159] route: “It must, for many years, be the channel of communication, through which the Government shall transmit, and receive, all its intelligence relative to the mines in the region of Galena, and Prairie Du Chien, the Military Posts of the Upper Mississippi, Missouri, and their tributary streams, and the whole northwestern Indian frontier.”411

Galena remained much isolated. A man who had horses and cattle, purchased in southern Illinois and driven to Galena, by way of Springfield and Peoria, in 1823, says that there was no settlement between Peoria and Fever River. A year before, a traveler who went from St. Louis to Galena, on horseback, arrived in time to assist in completing the second cabin in the place.412 Two travelers who walked from Upper Alton to Galena, in January and February, 1826, had to camp out several nights, because no residence was in reach. Much of the way no trail existed.413 About 1827 it was common for men to go with teams of four yoke of oxen, and strong canvas-covered wagons from southern Illinois to the lead regions. In those regions they spent the summer in hauling from the mines to the furnaces or from the furnaces to the place of shipment, usually Galena, and taking back to the mines a load of supplies. In the fall the teamsters returned to their homes, sometimes, in the early days, taking a load of lead to St. Louis. These men lived in their wagons, and cooked their own food. The oxen lived by browsing at night.414

Transportation rates can be only approximately given, [pg 160] because they varied with the condition of the weather or of the roads, and were frequently agreed upon by a special bargain. In 1817 steamboats are said to have descended the Ohio and the Mississippi at the rate of ten miles per hour, and to have charged passengers six cents per mile. Freight, by steamboat, from New Orleans to Shippingport (Falls of the Ohio), and thence by boats to Zanesville, was about $6.50 per 100 pounds.415 It took about one month to make the trip from New Orleans to Shawneetown—June 6 to July 10 in a specific case. Nine-tenths of the trade was still carried on in the old style—by flat-boats, barges, pirogues, etc.416 In December, 1817, freight from Shawneetown to Louisville was $1.12-½ per hundred weight; to New Orleans, $1.00; to Pittsburg, $3.50; to Shawneetown from Pittsburg, $1.00; from Louisville, $0.37-½; from New Orleans, $4.50. The great difference between the rates up stream and those down stream was due to the difficulty of going against the current.417 Cobbett estimated that Birkbeck's settlement, fifty miles north of Shawneetown, could be reached from the eastern seaboard for five pounds sterling per person.418 In 1819, the passenger rate, by steamboat, from New Orleans to Shawneetown, was $110; the freight rate $0.04-½ to $0.06 per pound, the high charges being attributed to a lack of competition, which the many new boats then building were expected to remedy.419 A party of nine people with somewhat more than six thousand pounds of luggage, wishing to start from Baltimore [pg 161] for Illinois, in July, 1819, learned that the water was so low that large boats could with difficulty pass from Pittsburg to Wheeling. They accordingly went from Baltimore to Wheeling, a distance of two hundred and eighty miles, by land. They had two wagons with six horses and a driver to each wagon. The price for transportation was three hundred and fifty dollars. At Wheeling a contract was made for transportation to Louisville, six hundred miles distance. For this, fifty dollars was paid, the passengers agreeing to help navigate the boat. At Louisville an ark was bought for twenty-five dollars, and two men were hired for eighteen dollars and their board, to take the party to Shawneetown, about three hundred miles distant. At Shawneetown the master of a keel-boat was engaged to take the luggage of six thousand pounds to a point about eleven miles from Birkbeck's settlement, for 37-½ cents per hundred pounds. The travelers proceeded on foot. The time occupied in the journey was: From Baltimore to Wheeling, sixteen days; from Wheeling to Shawneetown, thirty-eight days; from Shawneetown to the Birkbeck settlement, four days.420 A traveler in Illinois, in 1819, said that the usual price of land carriage was fifty cents per hundred pounds for each twenty miles; sometimes higher, never lower, and that it would not pay to have corn transported twenty miles.421 In 1820, the charge for carrying either baggage or persons from Baltimore to Wheeling was reported as from five to seven dollars per hundred weight. Persons wishing to travel cheaply had their luggage transported while they walked.422

In 1823 the following passenger rates, by steamboat, were quoted: From Cincinnati to New Orleans, $25.00; to [pg 162] Louisville, $4.00; to Pittsburg, $15.00; to Wheeling, $14.00; from New Orleans to Cincinnati, $50.00; from Louisville to Cincinnati, $6.00; from Pittsburg to Cincinnati, $12.00; from Wheeling to Cincinnati, $10.00. The time quoted for passage up stream was never less than twice that for passage down stream.423 Early in 1825 the Louisiana Gazette (presumably of New Orleans) reported that a steamboat had made the 2200 miles from Pittsburg in sixteen days,424 and a few weeks later another steamer arrived at Shippingport, at the Falls of the Ohio about two miles below Louisville, thirteen days from New Orleans, this time including three days detention from the breaking of a crank.425 Rates quoted in 1826, per one hundred pounds, were: From Pittsburg to St. Louis, in keel-boats, $1.62-½; to Nashville, $1.50; to Louisville, $0.75; to Cincinnati, $0.62-½; to Maysville, $0.50; to Marietta, $0.40; to Wheeling, $0.18-3/4; in wagons, from Pittsburg to Philadelphia, $1.00 to $1.12-½; from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, $3.00; from Philadelphia to Wheeling, $3.50.426 A Columbus, Ohio, editor declared that it required thirty days and cost $5.00 per hundred to transport goods from Philadelphia to Columbus, while it required but twenty days and $2.50 to transport from New York.427 No explanation was given, but the most probable one is the opening of the Erie Canal. Illinois buyers could, of course, take advantage of the cheaper rate as well as the inhabitants of Columbus. The freight schedule agreed upon by the owners, masters, and agents of steamboats in July, 1830, was, per 100 pounds, as follows: Pittsburg to Cincinnati, $0.45; Pittsburg to Louisville, [pg 163] $0.50; Wheeling to Cincinnati, $0.40; Wheeling to Louisville, $0.45; Cincinnati to Louisville, $0.12-½; in the reverse direction rates were the same, except that the rate from Louisville to Cincinnati was $0.16. Freight on pork, from Cincinnati to Louisville was $0.20 per barrel, and on flour and light (probably meaning empty) barrels, $0.15 per barrel. The schedule rates were not, however, generally adhered to, many boats carrying freight at from 2-½ to 5 cents lower than the quoted rate.428 At this time there were 213 steamboats in use in western waters—an increase of about three-fold since 1820.429 Improved transportation caused a better market price for produce in the West. In 1819, at Cincinnati, flour sold at $1.37-½ per barrel, corn at from $0.10 to $0.12 per bushel, and pork at $0.10-½ per pound,430 while in 1830, in the same market, flour from wagons sold at $2.65 per barrel, or from store at $3.00; corn at $0.18 to $0.20, and pork at $0.05 per pound ($10.00 to $10.50 per barrel).431 The influence of improved transportation on emigration is obvious. In regard to steamboat navigation it should be noted that in 1817 rates up-stream were more than three times as high as rates down-stream, in 1823 the former were less than twice the latter, and in 1830 the two were about equal. During the same period the time of up-stream passage was diminished more than one-half. Steamboats had not driven out the ruder crafts, but more and more use was being made of the more expeditious means of transportation, and its effect on the future economic activity of the West could already be seen.

Naturally the difference in price of the same commodity [pg 164] in two different markets was dependent in large measure on the ease or difficulty of transportation. In the latter part of 1817, corn was $0.24 to $0.30 and wheat $0.75, in Illinois, while corn was $0.50 and wheat $0.75 at Cincinnati.432 In 1825 wheat was worth hardly $0.25 per bushel, while it sold for $0.80 to $0.87-½ in Petersburg, Virginia, and flour was $6.00 per barrel at Charleston, South Carolina, and was scarce even at that price in Nashville, Tennessee. At the same time corn sold for from $0.08 to $0.10 in Illinois, and for $1.75 to $2.00 in Petersburg, Virginia.433 In 1826 wheat sold in Illinois at $0.37-½, and in England at $2.00 (nine shillings).434 In 1829 flour was scarce at Galena. A supply from the more southern settlements in Illinois sold at $8.00 per barrel, and the farmers were urged to bring more.435 This was in October. In November flour was quoted at Galena at $9.00 to $10.00 per barrel, while it sold at St. Louis for $4.50 to $5.50. In December, Cincinnati flour was from $10.00 to $10.50 and Illinois flour from $8.00 to $8.50, at Galena, whereas in the succeeding August they were $5.00 and $4.00, respectively. In November, 1829, the one article of food that was quoted as cheaper at Galena than at St. Louis was potatoes. They were $0.25 per bushel, at Galena, and from $0.37-½ to $0.50 at St. Louis. Butter was $0.25 to $0.37-½ at Galena, and $0.12-½ to $0.20 at St. Louis; corn, $0.50 at Galena, and $0.25 to $0.31 at St. Louis; beef, $0.03-½ to $0.04-½ at Galena, and $0.01-½ to $0.02 at St. Louis; whisky, $0.62-½ per gallon at Galena, and $0.30 to $0.33 at St. Louis.436

Life of the People.

Of the 13,635 persons who were following some occupation in Illinois in 1820, nearly 91 per cent (12,395) were engaged in agriculture.437 To this pursuit the state was naturally well adapted. One of the most observant of German travelers in America wrote that the meaning of “fertile land” was very different in this region from its meaning in Germany. In America fertile land of the first class required no fertilizer for the first century and was too rich for wheat during the first decade, while fertile land of the second class needed no fertilizer during the first twelve to twenty years of its cultivation. Bottom-lands belonged to the first class.438 The prairies remained unappreciated by the Americans, although some foreign farmers preferred to settle in Illinois, because there they could avoid having to clear land, and could raise a crop the first year, while coal could serve as fuel,439 and a ditch and bank fence, requiring little wood, could be constructed, or a hedge could be grown.440 A traveler of 1819 speaks of one of the largest prairies as not well adapted to cultivation, because of the scarcity of wood, and in the fall of 1825 there was [pg 166] but one house on the way from Paris to Springfield, leading across eighty miles of a prairie ninety miles in length.441

It was easy to obtain land. After 1820 it could be bought from the government of the United States at $1.25 per acre, it could be rented—sometimes for one peck of corn per acre per year442—, or the claim of a squatter could be purchased. When Peter Cartwright moved from Kentucky to Illinois in 1824, he gave as reasons for moving the fact that he had six children and but one hundred and fifty acres of land, and that Kentucky land was high and rising in value; the increase of a disposition in the South to justify slavery; the distinction in Kentucky between young people reared without working and those who worked; the danger that his four daughters might marry into slave families; and the need of preachers in the new country.443 The land being obtained, the first cultivation was difficult. Writers often give the idea that after a year or two the land which had been heavily timbered was left free from trees, stumps, or roots, but many a pioneer plowed for twenty years among the stumps. Stump fields are today no novelty in Illinois, and farming has not retrograded. Usually the settler's first need was a crop, and in order to hasten its production the trees were girdled, a process which might either precede or follow the planting, according to the time of year in which the immigrant arrived. If prairie land was plowed six horses, or their equivalent of power in oxen, were required for the first breaking, and a summer's fallow usually followed in order to allow the roots to decay. In 1819 five dollars per acre [pg 167] was paid for the first plowing of the prairie, and three or four dollars for the second.444

Agricultural products exhibited considerable variety, although corn was the chief article raised, because it furnished food for man and beast, it gave a large yield, and it was more easily harvested than wheat. Wheat was raised without any great degree of care as to its culture, being frequently sowed upon ground that was poorly prepared, and being threshed in a most wasteful manner. Both wheat and flour were exported. Flour-mills, often of a rude sort, were found at inconveniently long distances from each other. Ferdinand Ernst, traveling in 1819, found a turbine wheel at the mill of Mr. Jarrott, a few miles from St. Louis, and mentioned the fact as a peculiar feature.445 Some of the settlers in Sangamon county had to go sixty miles to mill in 1824.446 In 1830 the first flour mill in northern Illinois was erected on Fox River. It was operated by the same power that ran a saw-mill, and the millstones were boulders, laboriously dressed by hand.447 Tobacco of excellent quality was grown, and sometimes formed an article of export.448 Cotton was an important article for home consumption. In the early years of the state hopes were entertained that cotton might become an article of export, but it was found that the crop required so much labor as to make raising it in large quantities unprofitable. It was after 1830, however, that it ceased to be cultivated in the state. It was raised at least as far north as the present Danville, about one hundred and [pg 168] twenty-five miles south of Chicago.449 A woman whose parents moved to Sangamon county in 1819 says that when in that county they raised, picked, spun, and wove their own cotton. The children had to seed the cotton before the fire in the long winter evenings. The importance of cotton as a factor in inducing immigration may have been considerable.450 Large quantities of castor oil were made in the state from home-grown castor beans.451 Vegetables were large, although not always of good flavor.452 Peaches, apples, pears, quinces and cherries were cultivated successfully, while grapes, plums, crabapples, persimmons, mulberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries grew wild.453 An agricultural society was formed in 1819, a chief purpose being to rid the state of stagnant water.454

It is not easy to exaggerate the simplicity of the farming of pioneer times. When one reads that in 1817 a log cabin of two rooms could be built for from $50.00 to $70.00; a frame house, ten by fourteen feet, for $575.00 to $665.00; a log kitchen for $31.00 to $35.50; a log stable for $31.00 to $40.00; a barn for $80.00 to $97.75; a fence for $0.25 per rod, and a prairie ditch for $0.29 to $0.44 per rod; that a strong wagon cost $160.00; that a log house, eighteen by sixteen feet, was made by contract for $20, and ceiled and floored with sawn boards for $10 more; [pg 169] that a cow and calf cost $12.00 to $16.00, and a breeding sow, $2.00 or $3.00; that laborers received $0.75 per day without board, and a man and two horses $1.00 per day; and that various other useful articles could be procured at certain prices, care is needed in order to avoid the conclusion that an immigrant must have had several dollars, if not a few hundreds of them. This need for care is increased by the fact that the most detailed statistical data for early Illinois is given by Birkbeck or his visitors, and is applicable to the English settlement in Edwards county—a settlement with enough unique features to make the data almost more of an obstacle than a help. As a matter of fact, many immigrants before 1820 had only enough money to make the first payment on their land ($80.00), or after July 1, 1820, only enough to buy the minimum tract offered for sale ($100.00), while in both periods hundreds had not even as much money as $80.00 or $100.00, and had to become squatters. A log house, and practically all of the first houses were of logs, was usually built without the expenditure of one cent in cash, being erected by the family which was to occupy it, or, if neighbors were within reach, on the “frolic” system. Ceilings and floors were both rare, and if a floor existed it was usually made of puncheons. The number of pioneers who actually paid as much as $31.00 for a log stable must have been small indeed. First fences were often of brush, or brush and logs, and many times crops were raised unfenced. Territorial laws prohibited allowing stock to run at large during the crop season. An immigrant often brought his cow and sow, and if not he either did without, which in the latter case was small privation in a region almost crowded with game, or secured the desired animals by barter or by working for a few days. Men frequently traded work, but the payment of cash wages was rare, the cheapness of [pg 170] land and the ease of securing a living leaving small inducement to anyone to become a day laborer;455 while for the same reason those who were professional laborers were often of an undesirable type.456 Foreigners were sometimes shocked at the utter carelessness of Illinois farmers. A soil of great fertility, a region so abundantly supplied with game and wild products as to make it almost possible to live from the forest alone, combined with a lack of efficient means of transportation, made such a temptation to a life of idle ease as many pioneers did not resist. Be it remembered, also, that although towns, retail trade, and export trade had begun in Illinois by 1830, these changes were not simultaneous throughout the state. As 1830 closed Illinois still had squatters many miles from a mill, it still had Indians, it still had unbridged streams, it still had regions far from a market—in a word, it had still persisting in some part of its wide extent each of the ills that had at various times confronted it in respect to personal danger and lack of inducements to farmers. The minority of really progressive farmers overcame the difficulties confronting them by raising cattle or hogs and driving them to distant markets, the price received being almost clear profit, or by constructing their own boats and shipping their produce.457

Although the great majority of the population of Illinois was engaged in agriculture, there were salt works in the southeast and lead mines in the northwest. The salt industry was important. Far the greater part of the salt made in the state was made at the Gallatin county saline, near Shawneetown. In 1819 the indefinite statement was made that these springs furnished between 200,000 and [pg 171] 300,000 bushels of salt annually, the salt being sold at the works at from fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel.458 In 1822, the price of salt in Illinois was reported to have fallen from $1.25 to $0.50, because of the discovery of copious and strong salt wells.459 The next year a strong well was reported twenty miles east of Carlyle.460 In 1825, a visitor to the Vermilion county saline found twenty kettles in operation, producing about one hundred bushels of salt per week.461 In 1828, an official report of the superintendent of the Gallatin county saline stated that about 100,000 bushels of salt was made annually, and sold at from $0.30 to $0.50 per bushel. The lessees paid $2,160.50 rent during the year.462 In 1830, the salt works in Gallatin county had a capital of $50,000; a product of from 100,000 to 130,000 bushels, selling at from $0.40 to $0.50; and three hundred employees. The saline in Vermilion county had a capital of $3500; a product of 3000 to 4000 bushels, selling at $1.25 to $1.50 per bushel; and eight employees. The works in Jackson county produced 3000 to 4000 bushels, selling at $0.75 to $1.00; and had from six to eight employees. The difference in price is noteworthy as indicating what must have been the difficulty of transporting salt from Gallatin county to either Vermilion or Jackson counties. At the Gallatin county works fuel was becoming scarce and water had to be carried some distance in pipes, thus increasing the cost of production. At the springs in Indiana salt was $1.25 per bushel, and in Kentucky it was $0.50 to $1.00. The states of New York, Virginia, Massachusetts [pg 172] and Ohio, respectively, produced more salt than did Illinois.463

The lead industry at Galena was still in its infancy, notwithstanding the fact that the richness of the mines was early known.464 In 1822, a number of persons went to Galena from Sangamon county.465 For some years it was a common practice to go to the mines in the summer and return to the older settlements for the winter.466 The population of Galena was 74 in August, 1823;467 about 100 on July 1, 1825; 151 on December 31, 1825; 194 on March 31, 1826; 406 on June 30, 1826;468 and 1000 to 1500 in 1829.469 In 1826 a part of Lord Selkirk's French-Swiss colony on the Red River moved to Galena and became farmers in that region.470 The rush to the lead region began in 1826 and became intense in the next year.471 In 1827, a rude log hut, sixteen by twenty feet, rented for $35.00 per month. Galena had then about two hundred log houses,472 and in the same year the first framed house was raised.473 In July, 1828, five hundred lead miners were wanted at $17.00 to $25.00 and board per month.474

A pursuit that was once common and profitable is described by a lawyer who traveled the first Illinois circuit, consisting of the counties of Greene, Sangamon, Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Pike and Calhoun, in 1827, as follows: “On this circuit we found but little business in any of the counties—parties, jurymen and witnesses were reported in all the counties after Peoria, as being absent bee and deer hunting—a business that was then profitable, as well as necessary to the sustenance of families during the winter.”475

Not until after 1830 was a common school system with effective provision for its support established, although subscription schools existed some years before the close of the eighteenth century. Instruction given in the earliest schools was slight, and in 1818 a most competent observer declared that he believed that in Missouri “at least one-third of the schools were really a public nuisance, and did the people more harm than good; another third about balanced the account, by doing about as much harm as good; and perhaps one-third were advantageous to the community in various degrees. Not a few drunken, profane, worthless Irishmen were perambulating the country, and getting up schools; and yet they could neither speak, read, pronounce, spell, or write the English language.”476 These schools closely resembled those of Illinois. Schoolbooks were rare and children carried to school whatever book they chanced to have, the Old Testament with its long proper names sometimes serving in lieu of a chart or primer.477 In some schools pupils studied aloud. Reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic were the only branches commonly taught, although as early as 1806 surveying was [pg 174] taught in a “seminary” near the present Belleville.478 In 1827 Rock Spring Seminary, now Shortleff College, was opened by Baptists, and the following year instruction was begun in what was to become McKendree College (Methodist).479 The teacher of the first school in McLean county (1825) received $2.50 per pupil for the term of four months.480 The next year a teacher in Jacksonville was to be paid in cash or produce, or in pork, cattle, or hogs at cash prices, and to pay board in similar commodities at the rate of one dollar per week. This included washing, fuel and lights. School was open ten, and often twelve, hours per day.481

Religious societies were early organized, but the building of churches was not then common. In 1796 a Baptist society was organized, and previous to this time both Baptists and Methodists, without organized societies, had united in holding prayer-meetings in which the Bible and published sermons were read, prayers offered, and hymns sung.482 Before the close of the century the Methodists organized. The Presbyterians were prominent in the early years of statehood, but in 1818 they were just beginning their work in Illinois.483 Meetings were usually held in private houses until such time as the congregation felt that a church building should be erected, or at least until some one felt the need, for the first church was sometimes built by a few individuals.484 Ministers were of two types—those who devoted all of their time to religious work and traveled over large areas, and those who [pg 175] combined ministerial duties with farming, hunting, or some other frontier occupation. Neither class received much money. Peter Cartwright, one of the most famous pioneer preachers, received $40 one year (1824-25) and $60 the next—and this he considered good wages.485 Pioneer energy was displayed in the overcoming of difficulties. For more than ten years the Baptists held meetings on alternate months at two places thirty-six miles apart, and several families regularly traveled that distance to the two-days' meeting, even in unfavorable weather—and this, too, after Illinois had become a state.486 In 1829, the Presbyterians, true to their missionary spirit, occupied the extreme frontier at Galena.487 Catholicism increased but slowly.488 Divisions such as were found in the East or South reached Illinois, and at one time the Baptists were divided into three factions, which had about the same kind of fraternal relations as the Jews and the Samaritans. The chief questions for contention were whether or not missionaries should be sent out by the church and whether fellowship with slaveholders should be maintained.489 An association of anti-slavery Baptists was formed, as also Bible societies and temperance societies.490 Camp-meetings, with their well-known phenomena, were common in the early years of statehood, and it is no reflection upon their value to say that they were one of the chief diversions for the pioneers.

I. Sources.

American Historical Association, Annual Report of the. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Report for 1893, pp. 199-227, see Turner, Frederick Jackson; Report of 1896, Vol. I., pp. 930-1107, has “Selections from the Draper Collection in the possession of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, to elucidate the proposed French expedition under George Rogers Clark against Louisiana, in the years 1793-94.”

American monthly Magazine and critical Review. New York: H. Biglow, editor.

Volumes I.-III. (1817-18) give information of much value concerning European conditions inducing emigration. A few of the notices concern emigration from east to west in the United States.

American Register; or, Summary Review of History, Politics, and Literature. Philadelphia.

Volume II., 202, 203, 216 (1817), tells of improvements in steamboat navigation.

Americans as they are; described in a Tour through the Valley of the Mississippi. London: Hurst, Chance & Co., 1828. vi. + 218 pp.

Observations on Illinois are more suggestive than accurate.

Atwater, Caleb. Remarks made on a Tour to Prairie du Chien. Columbus, Ohio: Isaac N. Whiting, 1831. 296 pp.

The tour was from Circleville, Ohio, to Prairie du Chien, in 1829, and thence to Washington. The writer's remarks give valuable material for the history of the time.

—— Writings. Columbus, Ohio: Caleb Atwater, 1833. 408 pp.

The author was one of a commission to treat with the Indians at Prairie du Chien for the cession of the lead region. In 1829 he went from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien. He gives good descriptions of Quincy, Galena, and a few other places. The part of the Writings describing this journey was separately printed in 1831. The edition of 1833 is somewhat better than the previous one.

Balestier, Joseph N. Annals of Chicago: a Lecture delivered before the Chicago Lyceum, Jan. 21, 1840. Republished from the original Edition of 1840, with an Introduction, written by the Author in 1876. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1876. In Fergus historical Series, I., No. 1. 48 pp.

Contains a copy of Capt. Heald's letter of 1812, describing the massacre at Fort Dearborn.

Biggs, William. Narrative of William Biggs, while he was a Prisoner with the Kickepoo Indians ... on the west Bank of the Wabash River ... Printed for the author, June, 1826. 22 pp.

Biggs was captured on March 28, 1788, and remained a captive for several weeks. This very rare book gives valuable insight into the revolting customs of the Indians.

Birkbeck, Morris. Extracts from a supplementary Letter from the Illinois: an Address to British Emigrants, and a Reply to the Remarks of William Cobbett, Esq. 2d ed. London: James Ridgeway, 1819. 36 pp.

Birkbeck had issued an address to British emigrants, advertising the virtues of his English settlement in Illinois. William Cobbett declared that Birkbeck's account of the fertility and salubrity of Illinois was not true. Birkbeck issued a somewhat scathing reply, showing Cobbett's ignorance.

—— Letters from Illinois. Philadelphia: M. Carey & Son, 1818. 12mo. vii. + 154 pp.

Twenty-two letters written from November, 1817, to March, 1818, by Morris Birkbeck, from the English settlement in Edwards county, Ill., of which settlement he was the founder. Very valuable for notes concerning transportation and the manner of life of the early settlers of Illinois.

—— Notes on a Journey in America from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois. Philadelphia: Richardson, 1817.

Passed through several editions in England.

A graphic account of the journey of Birkbeck from 500 miles east of Cape Henry, Va. (April 26, 1817), to Shawneetown, Ill., where on August 2, 1817, he bought 1440 acres of land as a site for his English settlement. Very valuable for information concerning transportation and western conditions.

Blaney, Capt. An Excursion through the United States and [pg 215] Canada during the years 1822-23. By an English Gentleman. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1824. 16mo. 511 pp.

Pages 156-92 tell of the author's trip across Illinois. He visited Albion and then went to St. Louis overland. The descriptions of Birkbeck's settlement, the difficulties of prairie travel, and of the frontier life encountered are much above the average of travelers' reports.

Bonner, T. D. Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, and Chief of the Crow Nation of Indians. Written from his own Dictation. New York: Harper & Bros., 1858. 16mo. 535 pp.

The book deals almost entirely with the region west of the Mississippi, but in 1820 Beckwourth visited Galena. He went from St. Louis with a party led by Col. R. M. Johnson, the object of the party being to gain a mining concession from the Sauk Indians.

Brannan, John (Editor). Official Letters of the military and naval Officers of the United States, during the War with Great Britain in the Years 1812, 13, 14, & 15. Washington: Way & Gideon, 1823. 510 pp.

A valuable collection. Printed without comment. Pages 84-5 give Capt. Heald's official report of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812. The report is in a letter to Thos. H. Cushing, Adjutant General, written from Pittsburg, October 23, 1812.

Brodhead, Col. Daniel. A Letter from Brodhead to Gen. Washington referring to La Balme's Expedition.

In The olden Time, II., 390-91.

Butricke, George. Affairs at Fort Chartres, 1768-1781. Albany: J. Munsell, 1864. 10 pp.

Reprinted from Historical Magazine, VIII., No, 8. Valuable. Several letters written by Geo. Butricke, then stationed at Fort Chartres. Contains interesting notes on Indians, Spaniards, and British. Tells of epidemic.

Calendar of Virginia State Papers and other Manuscripts. Richmond, Va., 1875-1900. 9 vols.

The early volumes have documents of great value concerning the period when Illinois was a part of Virginia.

Cartwright, Peter, Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, the [pg 216] backwoods Preacher. Ed. by W. P. Strickland. New York: Carlton & Porter, 1857, 16mo. 525 pp.

The author was from 1803 to the time of writing his book (1856) one of the most famous circuit riders. His first work was in Kentucky. He came to Illinois in 1823. His views on slavery, which caused his removal, are interesting. A valuable work, especially for giving an insight into the social life of the time.

Chetlain, Gen. Augustus Louis. Recollections of seventy Years. Galena: The Gazette Pub. Co., 1899. 304 pp.

The author was one of the first settlers in Galena, and gives valuable information concerning that important region—1821 ff.

Chicago Historical Society's Collections. Chicago, 1882-90:—

Childs, Col. Ebenezer. Recollections of Wisconsin since 1820. In Wis. Hist. Coll., IV., 1859, 153-95.

The writer describes Chicago as it was in 1821, at which time he visited it.

Christian Spectator, V., 1823, 20-26. Remarks on the States of Illinois and Missouri, by Edward Hollister.

The author had recently completed a missionary tour in these states, and his remarks give an insight into the social conditions of the time.

Cobbett, William. A Years Residence, in the United States of America, 3d ed. London: William Cobbett, 1828. 370 pp.

Cobbett was in the United States in 1817-18. He declared that Birkbeck and Fearon had deceived the people of England by portraying America as better than it was. His book is unfair.

Coffin, Levi. Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the reputed President of the Underground Railroad.... Cincinnati: Western Tract Society [c. 1876]. 2d ed. with appendix. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1880. 732 pp.

Pages 89-99 describe the author's visit to a Quaker settlement in Sangamon county, Ill., in 1823. Lost on the prairies.

Collot, Victor. A Journey in North America, containing a Survey of the Countries watered by the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and other affluing Rivers ... Illustrated by 36 Maps, Plans, Views, and divers Cuts. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, 1826. 2 vols. and atlas in one. iv. + 310; v. + 272 pp.

The author traveled through Illinois in 1796. His observations were acute and are more helpful than would be expected from a soldier of fortune. The New Orleans Picayune of March 18, 1901, has a valuable article on the journey of Collot and its purpose. See his Map of the Country of the Illinois, in pocket.

Columbian Centinel. Boston, June-December, 1790; 1791-1801; 1802-1829.

The issue for June 16, 1790, has a note on the current experiments with steamboats. In Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Croghan, George. Journal, 1765. In Thwaites, Early western Travels, I., 126-73. Cleveland, Ohio: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904.

The Journal is of a trip to the West, and characterizes the early French settlers.

Cuming, Fortescue. Sketches of a Tour to the western Country,... commenced at Philadelphia in the Winter of 1807 and concluded in 1809. Pittsburg: Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum, 1810. 12mo. 504 pp.

Describes Shawneetown and gives some information in regard to routes. Very slight, however, in respect to Illinois. Criticism: The Inter Ocean, August 3, 1904.

Cutler, Julia Perkins. Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler. Prepared from his Journals and Correspondence. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1890. 353 pp.

Cutler early settled in Ohio. This work gives good examples of the difficulties of travel, between 1795 and 1809, on some of the Alleghany routes frequented by emigrants to Illinois. The driving of western cattle to market is also described.

Cutler, William Parker, and Cutler, Julia Perkins. Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, [pg 218] LL. D. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888. 2 vols. 9 + 524; 495 PP.

Considerable information concerning early eastern opposition to western settlement is given. Dr. Cutler kept a diary from 1765 to 1823, of which nine years are missing.

De Peyster, J. Watts, LL. D. Miscellanies, by an Officer [Colonel Arent Schuyler de Peyster, B. A.], 1774-1813. New York: A. E. Chasmar & Co., 1888. 80 pp., and an appendix of cci. pp.

Pages xxvi.-xxvii. contain a letter from Arent De Peyster to Capt. McKee describing an Illinois expedition against St. Josephs in 1780 or 1781. Letter dated Detroit, Feb. 1, 1781.

Draper Collection of Manuscripts.

This collection, made by Lyman C. Draper, is the property of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. It has been of more value to the writer than any other single source, being especially helpful for the hitherto obscure period immediately succeeding the expedition of George Rogers Clark, 1779-1790. Most important of all are the Harmar Papers, although the Illinois MSS., the Clark MSS., and Draper's Notes were much used. The Hinde MSS. have little historical value, consisting as they do, largely of religious musings of the writer's old age.

Duden, Gottfried. Bericht über eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika's and einen mehrjährigen Aufenthalt am Missouri (in den Jahren 1824-1827) in Bezug auf Auswanderung und Uebervölkerung. 1st ed. of 1500 copies. 2d ed. Bonn, In Commission bei Eduard Weber, 1834. lviii. + 404 pp.

Contains a prediction of Illinois future greatness. Gives valuable information concerning the cost and manner of transportation, and concerning social life. Comparison of American and European conditions.

Dunn, Jacob Piatt, Compiler. Slavery Petitions and Papers. In Indiana Hist. Soc. Pub., II., 443-529. Indianapolis: The Bowen-Merrill Company, 1894.

“The following papers are the petitions to Congress from Northwest and Indiana Territories for the suspension of the sixth article of compact of the Ordinance of 1787, and the admission of slavery to the Territory, together with the counter-petitions, the reports on them, and the accompanying documents,”—Compiler's introduction.

Edwardsville Spectator. Edwardsville, Ill.: Hooper Warren, pub., Apr. 18, 1820-Feb. 8, 1825, and 1820-22.

Material has been gleaned from the issues of Nov. 7, 1820; August 31, 1822; Nov. 30, 1822; Nov. 29, 1823; Jan. 27, 1824; and Oct 5, 1824. In Library of Chicago Historical Society.

Ernst, Ferdinand. Travels in Illinois in 1819. Translation from the German Original. In Pub. No. 8 of the Ill. Hist. Lib. pp. 150-65. Springfield, Ill.: Phillips Bros., 1904.

Ernst was the leader of a party of German immigrants who settled at Vandalia soon after his journey to Illinois. He gives a vivid picture of the rapidly settling Illinois with its squatters and its fertile and inviting land. He visited the Sangamo country and the Kickapoo United States treaty conference.

Faux, W. Memorable Days in America: being a Journal of a Tour to the United States, principally undertaken to ascertain, by positive Evidence, the Condition and probable Prospects of British Emigrants; including Accounts of Mr. Birkbeck's Settlement in the Illinois ... London: W. Simpkin & R. Marshall, 1823. 488 pp.

Sufficiently pessimistic to require cautious use. The journey was performed in 1819-20.

Fay, H. A. Collection of the official Accounts, in Detail, of all the Battles fought by Sea and Land, between the Navy and Army of the United States, and the Navy and Army of Great Britain, during the Years 1812, 13, 14, & 15. New York: E. Conrad, 1817. 295 pp.

Contains Capt. Heald's official report of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812, and Col. Russell's official report of Gov. Edwards' attack on the Indians near Peoria in 1812.

Fearon, Henry Bradshaw. Sketches of America. A Narrative of a Journey of five thousand Miles through the eastern and western States of America ... With Remarks on Mr. Birkbeck's “Notes” and “Letters.” 3d ed. London: Strahan and Spottiswoode, 1819. xv. + 454 pp.

The work gives a glimpse of Illinois through a foreigner's eye. Fearon [pg 220] paints in sober colors, but his values are fairly true. Of considerable value as a work on society in the U. S. in 1817-18.

Flint, James. Letters from America, containing Observations on the Climate and Agriculture of the western States, the Manners of the People, and the Prospects of Emigrants, &c., &c. Edinburgh: W. & C. Tait, 1822. 16mo. 330 pp.

The author probably did not reach Illinois, but his letters from Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky give interesting bits of information in regard to the manner and cost of travel—1818 to 1820.

Flower, George. History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois, founded in 1817 and 1818, by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1882. 16mo. 401 pp.

The work is volume I. of the Chicago Historical Society's Collections. The best book on this important episode in immigration to Illinois.

Flower, Richard. Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, containing a brief Account of the English Settlement in the latter Territory, and a Refutation of the Misrepresentations of Mr. Cobbett. London: J. Rigdway, 1819. iv. + 32 pp.

Two letters—one from Lexington and the other from New Albion, Ill. Highly colored.

Forsyth, Maj. Thomas, Indian Agent. Journal of a Voyage from St. Louis to the Falls of St. Anthony, in 1819. In Wis. Hist. Coll., VI., 188-215. Madison, Wis.: Atwood & Culver, State Printers, 1872.

Incidentally the writer gives an account of the atrocities committed in 1812 by Capt. Thomas E. Craig upon the inhabitants of Peoria. Forsyth was an eye-witness of the barbarities described.

Galena Advertiser. Galena, Ill. Pub. by H. Newhall, Philleo and Co., July 20, 1829-May 24, 1830, and July 20, 1829-May 10, 1830.

July 20, July 27, August 10, Sept. 14, Sept. 21, 1829, have been used. In Library of Chicago Historical Society.

Galena (Ill.) Weekly Gazette.

The issue for May 2, 1879, contains reminiscences of Mrs. Adile B. Gratiot, [pg 221] whose husband settled in Galena, Ill., in 1825. This account furnishes a valuable bit of reliable history. It describes Galena, northern Illinois, a Fourth of July celebration (1826), the coming of Lord Selkirk's colonists, and the trouble with the Sauk Indians (1827).

Gillespie, Hon. Joseph. Recollections of early Illinois and her noted Men. Fergus hist. Series, No. 13. 51 pp. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1880.

Valuable because of the author's direct knowledge of persons and events.

Goodrich, Samuel Griswold. Recollections of a Life Time; or, Men and Things I have seen: in a Series of Letters to a Friend, historical, biographical, anecdotal, and descriptive. New York: Miller, Orton & Co., 1857. 2 vols. 542, 563 pp.

Letter XXXIII. describes the emigration from East to West in 1816-17.

Gratiot, Mrs. Adile. In early Illinois (Towns).

A volume of newspaper clippings in the Library of the Chicago Historical Society. Mrs. Gratiot, who early lived in Galena, gives reminiscences of her life there. Describes the trouble with the Winnebago Indians.

Hall, James. Letters from the West; containing Sketches of Scenery, Manners, and Customs; and Anecdotes connected with the first Settlements of the western Sections of the United States. London: Henry Colburn, 1828. 16mo. 385 pp.

Verbose, but not without value. One of the twenty-two letters is from Shawneetown and describes the vicinity. Illinois is defended from her foreign detractors. Routes and manner of travel receive much attention.

Hamilton, Henry Edward. Incidents and Events in the Life of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, collected from personal Narrations and other Sources, and arranged by his Nephew, Henry E. Hamilton. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1888. 189 pp.

Very valuable for the history of northern and eastern Illinois from 1818 to the close of the Black Hawk war. Most of the work is autobiographical. Mr. Hubbard was an employee of the American Fur Company. Later he was in business in Danville and Chicago.

Harding, Benjamin. A Tour through the Western Country, A. D. 1818 & 1819. New London: Samuel Green, 1819. 8vo. 17 pp.

The inducements which Illinois offered to emigrants are described with a [pg 222] degree of sense rarely displayed in the period to which the work belongs by writers of advice to emigrants. The American Bottom and the prairies are described.

Harris, William Tell. Remarks made during a Tour through the United States of America, in the Years 1817, 1818, and 1819.

Describes Shawneetown (1818), and speaks of the great number of wagons, horses, and passengers which crossed the ferry there.

Hecke, J. Val. Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika in den Jahren 1818 und 1819. Nebst einer kurzen Uebersicht der neuesten Ereignisse auf dem Kriegs-Schauplatz in Sud-Amerika und West-Indien. Berlin: H. Ph. Petri, 1820-21. 2 vols. 16mo. I., 228; II., xvi. + 326. pp.

Interesting and incorrect. The author tells well both of what he knows and what he does not know. Tells foreigners how to reach Illinois.

Henry, William Wirt. Patrick Henry. Life, Correspondence, and Speeches. New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1891. 3 vols. I., 20 + 622; II., 652; III., 672 pp.

The third volume contains instructions issued by Gov. Henry to officers of the County of Illinois, and some correspondence of those officers.

Historical Register of the United States. Philadelphia: G. Palmer, 1814-1816.

II., 60-62 (second pagination) gives Capt. Heald's official report of the massacre at Fort Dearborn on August 15, 1812.

Hodgson, Adam. Remarks during a Journey through North America in the Years 1819-21, in a Series of Letters: with an Appendix, containing an Account of several of the Indian Tribes, and the principal missionary Stations, &c. New York: Samuel Whiting, 1823. 8vo. iv. + 335 pp.

The author did not visit Illinois, but he gives an interesting criticism of Mr. Birkbeck's venture in Illinois. He conversed with persons who had visited Birkbeck's settlement. Criticism rather unfavorable.

Holmes, Isaac. An Account of the United States of America, [1823] derived from actual Observation, during a Residence of four Years in that Republic: including original Communications. London: Caxton Press, 1823. 16mo. viii. + 476 pp.

Most of the author's remarks are general. He, however, mentions Birkbeck and advises emigrants to settle in the East rather than to go West as Birkbeck advised.

Hulme, Thomas. Journal. In Cobbett, “A Year's Residence in the United States of America,” 259-309. 3d ed. Andover: B. Bensley, 1828.

The Journal was of a journey through the West in 1817. Birkbeck's settlement and the manner of traveling were described. Some information in regard to prices was given.

Hutchins, Capt. Thomas. A topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina, comprehending the Rivers Ohio, Kenhawa, Sioto, Cherokee, Wabash, Illinois, Mississippi, etc.... With a Plan of the Rapids of the Ohio, a Plan of the several Villages in the Illinois Country ... and an Appendix containing Mr. Patrick Kennedy's Journal up the Illinois River. London: T. Hutchins, 1778. 8vo. 67 pp.

Valuable for its map of the Illinois country and a description of the settlements.

Illinois and Wabash Land Companies:—

An Account of the Proceedings of the Illinois and Ouabache Land Companies, in Pursuance of their Purchases made of the independent Natives, July 5th, 1773, and 18th October, 1775. Philadelphia: William Young, 1796. 55 pp.

Memorial of the Illinois and Wabash Land Company, 13th January, 1797. Referred to Mr. Jeremiah Smith, Mr. Kittera, and Mr. Baldwin. Published by Order of the House of Representatives. Philadelphia: Richard Folwell, [c. 1797.] 26 pp.

An Account of the Proceedings of the Illinois and Ouabache Land Companies, in Pursuance of their Purchases made of the independent Natives, July 5th, 1773, and 18th October, 1775. Philadelphia: William Duane, 1803. 74 pp.

Memorial of the Illinois and Ouabache Land Companies to the honorable Congress of the United States. Intended as a full Recapitulation and clear Statement of the former Addresses, Petitions, [pg 224] Memorials, &c., of the Company; and their short and final Prayer for Redress, without Delay: presented at the Sessions, 1802. 20 pp.

Memorial of the United Illinois and Wabash Land Companies, to the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. Baltimore: Joseph Robinson, 1816. 48 pp.

Illinois, House Journal, 1824-25. Vandalia, Ill.: Robert Blackwell & Co., 1824. 305 pp.

Contains items on slavery (pp. 13, 151-2), and tells of the election of a U. S. senator to succeed Ninian Edwards (pp. 38-9).

Illinois Intelligencer. Edwardsville, Ill.: Hooper Warren, ed., 1826-30.

In St. Louis Mercantile Library.

Illinois Laws, 1824-25. 190 pp.

Pages 50-51 give the text of an act to amend an act entitled “An act respecting free Negroes, Mulattoes, Servants, and Slaves,” approved 30th March, 1819.

Illinois monthly Magazine. Vandalia, Ill.: conducted by James Hall.

Notes on Illinois in Volumes I. and II. (1830-1832) and the History of St. Louis in Volume II. are of some service. The articles are, however, unsigned, and are of too popular a type to be wholly relied upon.

Illinois Revised Laws of 1833. Vandalia, Ill.: Greiner & Sherman, 1833. 677 pp. and index.

Contains the negro codes of 1819 and 1829, respectively.

Imlay, Gilbert. A topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America, containing a succinct Account of its Climate, natural History, Population, Agriculture, Manners and Customs. London: J. Debrett, 1792. 8vo. xv. + 247 pp. 3d ed., 1797, enlarged. More valuable.

The best early authority on the subject treated. Not very full in regard to Illinois. Predicts western state-making.

Keating, William H. Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, [pg 225] &c., &c., performed in the Year 1823 ... compiled from the Notes of Major Long, Messrs. Say, Keating, and Colhoun. Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1824. 2 vols. 8vo. I., xii. + 439; II., 459 pp. Same, London: Whittaker, 1825.

Contains an extremely interesting and important description of Chicago and its vicinity, and in less detail, of northern Illinois.

Kinzie, Mrs. John H. (Juliette A. McGill Kinzie). Wau-Bun, the “Early Day” in the North-West. New edition with an introduction and notes by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Chicago: The Caxton Club, 1901. xxvii. + 451 pp.

This work, which first appeared in 1856, has the best account, not by an eye-witness, of the massacre at Fort Dearborn in 1812. Mrs. Helm gives this account.

——Narrative of the Massacre at Chicago, August 15, 1812, and of some preceding Events. Chicago: Ellis & Fergus, 1844. 34 pp.

A valuable account, written by Mrs. Kinzie from the dictation of her mother-in-law, who was an eye-witness of the massacre. Incorporated almost verbatim in Mrs. Kinzie's “Wau-Bun.” The edition of 1844 was the first, not the second, as stated in the Chicago Magazine, I., 103, and repeated by Dr. Thwaites.

Laussat, Count. The military Title of Louisiana and the Territory of Illinois, dated New Orleans, Jan. 12, 1804, and signed by Count Laussat, Napoleon's Ambassador. It is also the order to Gen. De Lassus to deliver the Territory over to Capt. Amos Stoddard, of the U. S. Artillery.

Original manuscript letter, in French, in the Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Ill.

Loomis, Chester A. The Notes of a Journey to the Great West in 1825. 28 unnumbered pages, six chapters. Printed without place, name of publisher, or date.

The writer entered Illinois in the present Vermilion county, went south to the Wabash, west to Vandalia, then to Kaskaskia. His observations are acute and readable. Describes Vermilion county salines, Illinois farm products, pioneer homes, and the inconvenience attendant upon traveling on horseback. Bound with other pamphlets in the Champaign (Illinois) Public Library.

——A Journey on Horseback through the Great West, in 1825. Visiting Alleghany Towns, Olean, Warren, Franklin, Pittsburg, New Lisbon, Elyria, Norfolk, Columbus, Zanesville, Vermilion, Kaskaskia, Vandalia, Sandusky, and many other places. Bath, N. Y.; Plaindealer Press. 27 unnumbered pages.

The writer was from Rushville, Ontario county, N. Y. Same as the preceding. In library of State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

McLean County Historical Society, Transactions of the. Vol. II. Bloomington, Ill.: Pantagraph Printing and Stationery Co., 1903. 695 pages.

Some facts of interest concerning the first school in the county, and the early settlers and their manner of living, are given by those old settlers who were chief actors.

Mandements des Évêques de Québec. Québec: Imprimérie Générale A. Coté et Cie., 1887-88. I., (1659-1740), 588; II., (1741-1806), 566; III., (1806-1850), 635; IV., (1850-1870), 794 pp.

A valuable collection of manuscripts. They tell of a monopoly on sending missionaries to Illinois, and one letter (II., 205) gives a good idea of the worldliness of the Kaskaskians of 1767. The first two volumes alone concern us.

Mason, Edward G. (Editor). Early Chicago and Illinois. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1890. 521 pp.

This volume is the fourth of the collections of the Chicago Historical Society. It is one of the most valuable collections for the study of early Illinois history. Contains, among other things, Pierre Menard Papers, John Todd Papers, John Todd's Record-Book, Lists of Early Illinois Citizens, and Rocheblave Papers.

Meeker, Dr. Moses. Early History of the Lead Region of Wisconsin. In Wis. Hist. Coll., VI., 271-96. Madison, Wis.: Atwood & Culver, State Printers, 1872.

Very valuable. Dr. Meeker came to Galena in 1822 and settled there in 1823. The article gives the history of the settlement of the lead region to 1825.

Michigan pioneer and historical Collections. Lansing, Mich., 1877-1900. 29 vols.

Valuable for the French and British periods of Illinois history.

Mount Carmel, Articles of Association, for the City of. Chillicothe: John Bailhache, 1817. 4to. 22 pp.

Mt. Carmel was to be, and now is, on the west bank of the Wabash in what is now Wabash county, Illinois. The articles drawn up by the proprietors and their agent contain curious provisions in regard to the support of church and school. Some Puritanic rules are given. (In Ill. Local Hist. Pam., VII., in Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.)

Niles' weekly Register, Baltimore.

Of great value for the period 1811-1830. Its notices of foreign immigration are extensive.

Ogden, George W. Letters from the West. New-Bedford: Melcher & Rogers, 1823. 126 pp.

Describes several of the Illinois towns, and characterizes their inhabitants. A part of the work is plagiarized from Harding, Tour through the western Country. Reprinted in Thwaites, Early western Travels, XIX.

Olden Time, I., 1846, 403-15. George Croghan's Journal of his Route.

Interesting sketches of the French.

Owen, A. R. Ums Jahr 1819 und 1829. In Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter, Jahrgang 2, Heft 2, pp. 41-43. Chicago: April, 1902.

Not sufficiently definite, reliable, or extensive to be of much value.

Palmer, John. Journal of Travels in the United States of North America and in Lower Canada, performed in the year 1817. London: Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1818. vii. 456 pp.

Pages 411-20 are on Illinois. Too inaccurate to be of great value, although some information in regard to roads may be used. Tells of routes, methods, and cost of travel.

Palmer, John McCauley. Personal Recollections of John M. Palmer. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Co., 1901. 631 pp.

The writer came to Illinois in 1831, but he had previously lived in Kentucky, and he gives some facts concerning slavery that are of value.

Parkison, Col. Daniel M. Pioneer Life in Wisconsin. In Wis. Hist. Coll., II., 326-64. Madison, Wis.: Calkins & Proudfit, 1856.

The author came from Tennessee to Madison county, Illinois, in 1817; in 1819, to Sangamon county, Illinois; in 1827, to Galena, Illinois. Gives a valuable statement concerning the feeling of Yankees toward Southerners, tells of the first sermon in Sangamon county, and of the Winnebago war of 1827.

Peck, Rev. John Mason. A Guide for Emigrants (1831), containing Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the adjacent Parts. Boston: Lincoln & Edmands, 1831. 336 pp.

Contains a great amount of fairly accurate information. Its description of cities is especially useful. Page 184 gives an amusing and instructive illustration of the need of energy and work in even a frontier settlement (1829).

——Memoir of John Mason Peck, D. D., edited from his Journals and Correspondence. By Rufus Babcock. Philadelphia: Am. Baptist Pub. Soc., 1864. 12mo. 360 pp.

Not in good literary form. Throws much light upon the moral and religious life in Illinois and Missouri from 1817 to 1857.

——The Religion and Morals of Illinois prior to 1818. In Reynolds, Pioneer History of Illinois. Pp. 253-275.

The writer came to Illinois before 1818, and knew many of the persons of whom he wrote.

Pennsylvania Packet and daily Advertiser. Philadelphia, 1785-89; Apr., 1789; Mar., 1790; Apr.-Dec., 1790. In Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.

August 23, 1790, the expression of apprehension of the depopulation of the East by emigration to the West is said not to be well founded.

Peoria County, Illinois, Marriage Licences, 1825-1855. On file in the court house in Peoria, Ill.

The early names show the French origin of the inhabitants. The absence of clergymen is noticeable.

Pike, Lieut. Zebulon Montgomery. An Account of a Voyage up the Mississippi River, from St. Louis to its Source; made under the Orders of the War Department, by Lieut. Pike, of the U. S. Army, in the Years 1805 and 1806. Compiled from Mr. Pike's Journal. A 68 page pamphlet without place, publisher, or date.

Locates the largest Sauk village. These reports are of extreme importance. [pg 229] An edition including the trip of 1807 was issued in 1895 by Harper, F. P., New York. 3 vols. $10.00.

Pioneer of the Valley of the Mississippi, The. Rock Spring, Ill.: Rev. J. M. Peck, editor.

Issue of April 24, 1829, in St. Louis Mercantile Library.

Pittman, Capt. Philip. The present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi, with a geographical Description of that River; illustrated by Plans and Draughts. London: J. Nourse, 1770. viii. +99 pp. 8 maps.

Describes the settlements in Illinois and gives a map of the region. Of great value.

Criticism in Narrative and Critical History of America, VI., 702.

Regulators of the Valley.

Charles M. Eames, in his Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville (1885), says that a vigilance committee with the above title was formed in 1821, or thereabouts, to rid the country of horse-thieves and robbers. “A regular constitution was drawn up and subscribed to, and this paper is still in existence.” C. M. Eames, son of the now deceased author, in a letter of Oct. 7, 1903, said that he had made an unsuccessful search for the manuscript.

Reynolds, John, My own Times, embracing also, the History of my Life. Belleville, Ill., 1855. Reprinted, Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1879. iv.+395 pp. $7.50.

Verbose, but has much wheat among the chaff. Covers the period from 1800 to 1853. The first edition is now very rare.

Ross, Harvey Lee. The early Pioneers and pioneer Events of the State of Illinois. Chicago, 1899.

A medley of facts, written by a pioneer of 1820. The author was acquainted with both Cartwright and Lincoln, and speaks of them and of pioneer events with authority. Tells of a trip from New Jersey by wagons.

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe. Summary Narrative of an exploratory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820; resumed and completed, by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca Lake, in 1832. By authority of the United States. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co., 1855. 596 pp.

The book is chiefly of interest to us because of its description of Chicago.

——Travels in the central Portions of the Mississippi Valley: comprising Observations on its mineral Geography, internal Resources, and aboriginal Population. Performed under the Sanction of Government, in the Year 1821. New York: Collins & Hannay, 1825. 459 pp.

The writer descended the Wabash, the Ohio, and then ascended the Mississippi and the Illinois to Chicago. His descriptions of places, peoples and things are well written and are a chief historical source.

Schultz, Christian. Travels on an inland Voyage through the States of New-York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and through the Territories of Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and New-Orleans; performed in the Years 1807 and 1808. New York: Isaac Riley, 1810. 2 vols. I., xviii.+206; II., 224 pp.

Has an interesting description of Illinois settlements.

Smith, William Henry, Editor. The St. Clair Papers. The Life and public Services of Arthur St. Clair ... with his Correspondence and other Papers. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1882. 2 vols. I., viii.+609; II., 649 pp.

Much information concerning Illinois under the Ordinance of 1787. Criticisms: Nation, XXXIV., 383; New York Tribune, June 16, 1882.

Stories of the pioneer Mothers of Illinois. A collection of Manuscript Letters from the pioneer Women of the State, giving their early Experiences. Collected for the World's Columbian Exposition and afterward deposited in the Illinois State Historical Library.

Especially valuable for information on reasons for immigration and on methods of traveling.

Storrow, Samuel A. The North-West in 1817. In Wis. Hist. Coll., VI., pp. 154-87. Madison, Wis.: Atwood & Culver, State Printers, 1872.

The narrative, which is in the form of a letter to Maj.-Gen. Brown, was first published in pamphlet form. The letter is dated Dec. 1, 1817. It deals chiefly with the country to the north of Illinois, but the author visited Chicago, was entertained at Fort Dearborn, and wrote of the desirability of an Illinois-Michigan canal.

Tenney, H. A. Early Times in Wisconsin. In Wis. Hist. Coll., I., pp. 94-102. Madison, Wis.: Beriah Brown, 1855.

Written in 1849. Gives considerable information concerning the Galena region. Tells of the size of Galena and of Springfield, Ill., in 1822. Criticism: Draper MSS., Z 24.

Thomas, Judge William. Reminiscences. Printed in the Jacksonville, Ill., Weekly Journal, Apr. 18, 1877. Clipping bound in Ill. Local Hist. Pamphlets, V., in Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.

The article is of extreme interest to a student of early society in Illinois. The author settled in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1826. His observations were unusually acute. He was a lawyer and a teacher. He tells of Yankees vs. Southerners, of early lawlessness, and of early Galena.

——Winnebago Outbreak of 1827. In Chicago Tribune, Apr. 7, 1877. Reprinted from the Jacksonville (Ill.) Journal of Aug. 17, 1871.

The article is important because the writer was a volunteer in the campaign against the Winnebagoes.

Thwaites, Reuben Gold. Narrative of Morgan L. Martin. In an Interview with the Editor [Thwaites]. In Wis. Hist. Coll., XI., pp. 385-415. Madison, Wis.: Democrat Printing Co., State Printers, 1888.

Page 398 gives an estimate of the population of Galena, which Martin visited in 1829.

Tillson, Christiana Holmes. Reminiscences of early Life in Illinois. Privately printed—as late as 1870. iv.+138 pp.

A very rare book. Copy in the Chicago Historical Society Library. The best book I know of from which to secure a knowledge of life in Illinois from 1822 to 1827. The writer was observant, and her command of English is far superior to that of many old persons who write reminiscences. Of great value.

Van Zandt, Nicholas Biddle. A full Description of the Soil, Water, Timber, and Prairies of each Lot, or quarter Section of the Military Lands between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Washington City: P. Force, 1818. 8vo. 127 pp.

Rare and valuable. Pages 109-25 contain a venomous account of Birkbeck's settlement in Illinois. In Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Vermont. Records of the Council of Safety and Governor and Council of the State of Vermont, to which are prefixed the Records of the general Conventions from July, 1775, to December, 1777. Montpelier: J. & J. M. Poland, 1873-80. 8 vols.

Vol. VI., 431-2 contains remarks of Governor Galusha on the scarcity of food in 1816.

Virginia Patriot and Richmond mercantile Advertiser. Richmond, Va., Apr.-Dec., 1816. In Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Sept. 7, 11, 21, 1816, tell of the cold in New England and the drought in the South.

Volney, Constantin François Chasse-bœuf. A View of the Soil and Climate of the United States of America: with supplementary Remarks upon Florida; on the French Colonies on the Mississippi and Ohio, and in Canada; and on the aboriginal Tribes of America. Philadelphia, 1804. London, 1804. xxv. + 446 pp.

Translated by C. B. Brown. The author gives a moderately full description of the Illinois of the close of the 18th century. Valuable for characterization of the inhabitants.

Washburne, Elihu Benjamin. Sketch of Edward Coles, second Governor of Illinois, and of the slavery Struggle of 1823-4. Prepared for the Chicago Historical Society. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co., 1882. 253 pp.

Indispensable for a specialist in this period of Illinois history. Well written. Quotes many letters.

—— Editor. The Edwards Papers. (Volume II. of the Chicago Historical Society's Collections.) Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1884. 8 + xxviii. + 633 pp.

Pages 86-90 give Capt. Thos. E. Craig's official report to Governor Edwards of the attack on Peoria in 1812. The volume has a description of Peoria in 1827, and considerable information concerning the Indian troubles of that year.

Welby, Adlard, Esq. A Visit to North America and the English Settlements in Illinois, with a winter Residence at Philadelphia; [pg 233] solely to ascertain the actual Prospects of the emigrating Agriculturist, Mechanic, and Commercial Speculator. London: J. Drury, 1821. 16mo. xii.+224 pp.

Wheeling, Va. Report of a Meeting of Workingmen in the City of Wheeling, Virginia, on forming a Settlement in the State of Illinois. 12 pp.

The report is dated Oct. 4, 1830. Printed without place and publisher's name. In Library of Chicago Historical Society. Rare. It set forth a scheme for purchasing and settling a county in Illinois.

Williams, Samuel. Sketches of the War, between the United States and the British Isles: intended as a faithful History of all the material Events from the Time of the Declaration in 1812 to and including the Treaty of Peace in 1815. Rutland, Vt.: Fay & Davison, 1815. 496 pp.

Contains Capt. Heald's official account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812.

Woods, John. Two Years' Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie, in the Illinois Country, U. S. With an Account of its animal and vegetable Productions, Agriculture, &c. &c. A Description of the principal Towns, Villages, &c. &c. With the Habits and Customs of the Back-woodsmen. London: Longman & others, 1822. 310 pp.

Of great value. Unusually conservative as to Illinois advantages, but apparently truthful.

Wright, John S. Letters from the West; or, A Caution to Emigrants. Salem, N. Y.: Dodd & Stevenson, 1819. 72 pp.

A series of letters from one who traveled through the West in 1818-19. In a fair manner the discouragements which emigrants may expect to meet are portrayed. In Library of Chicago Historical Society.

II. Secondary Works.

Abbott, John Stevens Cabot. History of Maine from the earliest Discovery of the Region by the Northmen until the present Time. Boston: B. B. Russell, 1875. 556 pp.

Tells of the “Ohio fever,” which raged about the close of the war of 1812, and which furnished some settlers to Illinois.

Agnew, Hon. Daniel, LL. D. History of the Region of Pennsylvania north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny River ... also, an Account of the Division of the Territory for public Purposes, and of the Lands, Laws, Titles, Settlements, Controversies, and Litigation within this Region. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1887. 4+246 pp.

The work shows the price at which Pennsylvania public lands sold at the time Illinois was being settled.

Allen, J. A. American Bisons, living and extinct. Cambridge, Mass.: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 1876. ix.+246 pp. and 12 plates.

Carefully done. Tells of the great herds of buffalo early found in Illinois and of their extermination in that region.

Allen, William Francis. The Place of the North-West in general History. Pages 92-111 of the author's Essays and Monographs. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis, 1890. 392 pp. Found also in Papers of the Am. Hist. Ass'n., III., pp. 329-48.

Good for a view of our subject as connected with larger portions of the world's history.

Alton city Directory, 1858. Alton, Ill.: McEvoy & Bowron, 1858. 156 pp.

A short historical sketch of Alton is given. Its authority is on a par with that of county histories.

American historical Review. New York. Vol. IV., 623-35. See Boyd, Carl Evans, below.

Andreas, A. T. History of Chicago from the earliest Period to the present Time. Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884. I., 648; II., 780; III., 876 pp.

Only pages 31-111 of Volume I. concern the period before 1830. The narrative is written with considerable care, and the work is especially rich in copies of old maps, having not fewer than two dozen before 1830.

Asbury, Henry. Reminiscences of Quincy, Illinois, containing historical Events, Anecdotes, Matters concerning old Settlers and old Times, etc. Quincy, Ill.: D. Wilcox & Sons, 1882. 224 pp.

Tells of the first settlement of Adams county, under the congressional act of Jan. 13, 1825. The large number of New Englanders is suggestive of the increase of northern over southern immigration.

Atlantic Monthly. Boston and London. Vol. II., 579-95. (May, 1861.) See Clarke, S. C.

Barber, John Warner, and Howe, Henry. All the Western States and Territories, from the Alleghanies to the Pacific, and from the Lakes to the Gulf. Cincinnati: Howe's Subscription Book Concern, 1867. 16mo. 733 pp.

Pages 195-250 are on Illinois. Early settlement, Clark's campaign, and the Chicago Massacre of 1812 are described. The work is popular in character, yet its citation of sources makes it of some value.

Barry, Hon. P. T. The first Irish in Illinois. Reminiscent of Old Kaskaskia Days. In Trans. of the Ill. State Hist. Soc., 1902. Springfield, Ill.: Phillips Bros., State Printers, 1902. pp. 63-70.

Almost exclusively concerned with the period before 1830. Tells of the work of Chevalier Makarty, George Croghan, John Reynolds, and of the Irish soldiers under George Rogers Clark.

Barstow, George. The History of New Hampshire, from its Discovery, in 1614, to the Passage of the Toleration Act in 1819. 2d ed. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1853. 8vo. iv. +456 pp.

Gives a short account of the unusual cold of 1816-17, which affected western immigration. There is nothing to indicate that the second edition is not an exact reprint of the first. Copyright, 1842.

Beck, Lewis C. A Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri; containing a general View of each State, a general View of their Counties, and a particular Description of their Towns, Villages, Rivers, &c., &c. Albany: Charles R. and George Webster, 1823. 352 pp.

165 pages are devoted to Illinois. Much interesting material is given, but the nature of the publication makes caution in its use necessary.

Beckley, Hosea, A. M. The History of Vermont; with Descriptions, physical and topographical. Brattleboro: George H. Salisbury, 1846. 16mo. 396 pp.

Describes the effects of the unusual cold of 1816-17, which greatly affected western emigration.

Beckwith, Hiram Williams. Historic Notes on the North-west, gleaned from early Authors, old Maps and Manuscripts, private and official Correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way Sources. (In Hist. of Vermilion County, Ill. Chicago: H. H. Hill & Co., 1879. 11-304 pp).

Deals with the period before Illinois became a state (1818). “The authorities consulted show a large range of acquaintance with the very best sources of information extant”—Lyman C. Draper. Strong on French and Indians.

——A brief History of Danville, Illinois, with a concise Statement of its mining, manufacturing, and commercial Advantages. Danville, Ill.: Danville Printing Co., 1874. 11 pp. (unnumbered).

Slight, but tells of the beginnings of the city in the third decade of the 19th century.

Beckwith, Paul. Creoles of St. Louis. St. Louis: Nixon-Jones Printing Co., 1893. 169 pp.

The genealogy of the five branches of the Chouteau family is given. As many of this family were prominent in early Illinois the work is of some interest, although not wholly reliable.

Beggs, Rev. Stephen R. Pages from the early History of the West and North-West: embracing Reminiscences and Incidents of Settlement and Growth, and Sketches of the material and religious Progress of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, with especial Reference to the History of Methodism. Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern, 1868. 325 pp.

Good upon the beginnings of northern Illinois. Tells of the Chicago massacre (1812), of the work of Rev. Jesse Walker, and of early pioneer life. No clerical bias, in the bad sense.

Bernheim, G. D. History of the German Settlements and of [pg 237] the Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina, from the earliest Period of the Colonization of the Dutch, German and Swiss Settlers to the Close of the first Half of the present Century. Philadelphia: The Lutheran Book Store, 1872. ix.+557 pp.

Pages 471-3 tell of the North Carolina Synod sending a missionary to Illinois in 1827.

Birney, William. James G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis of the Republican Party with some Account of abolition Movements in the South before 1828. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1890. 24mo. x.+443 pp.

Chapter 12 is on abolition in the South before 1828. The work is helpful in learning the conditions from which southern emigrants moved.

Blanchard, Rufus. Discovery and Conquest of the Northwest, with the History of Chicago. Wheaton: R. Blanchard & Co., 1879. Chicago: Cushing, 1880. 768 pp. 8vo.

A well-written and valuable book for discovery and conquest, but of little value for a study of mere immigration before 1831. What it has of immigration is almost exclusively confined to immigration to the region of the present Chicago.

——History of Illinois, to accompany an historical Map of the State. Chicago: National School Furnishing Company, 1883. 128 pp.

The text is a disconnected symposium, and has in some cases been superseded by later research. The map is the most valuable part of the work. It is 27-½x42-½ inches in size, mounted on heavy cloth, and shows, with dates, Indian trails, routes of exploring and military expeditions, early stage and mail routes, historic sites, dates of settlement of the principal towns.

Bonham, Jeriah. Fifty Years' Recollections with Observations and Reflections on historical Events, giving Sketches of eminent Citizens—their Lives and public Services. Peoria: J. W. Franks & Sons, 1883. 536 pp.

The “fifty years” seem to have begun shortly after 1830. The biographical sketches, however, give several facts in regard to the origin and immigration of such early leaders as Coles, Edwards, Reynolds, Carlin, and others.

Boyd, Carl Evans. County of Illinois, The. Am. Hist. Rev., IV., 623-35. July, 1899.

A scholarly history of Virginia's ephemeral County of Illinois, although in error as to the dates of its beginning and ending, respectively.

Brackenridge, Henry Marie, Esq. History of the late War between the United States and Great Britain. Containing a minute Account of the various military and naval Operations. Baltimore: Cushing, 1817. 4th ed. Baltimore: Cushing & Jewett, 1818. xxiv.+348 pp. 6th ed. Philadelphia: James Kay, 1839. 298 pp.

Valuable. Several times translated. Impartial. Gives a short account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812.

Brown, Charles R. The Old Northwest Territory: its Missions, Forts, and trading Posts. Kalamazoo, Mich.: Brown, Moore & Quale, 1875. 32 pp.

The work consists of an historical and chronological map (14-½ x 15 inches), and notes upon the 94 sites located upon it. Eleven of the sites are in Illinois. Valuable and suggestive, although deficient in citation of authorities.

Brown, Henry. The History of Illinois from its first Discovery and Settlement to the present Time. New York: J. Winchester, 1844. vi.+492 pp.

The author confesses to having written in haste and to having borrowed stories from other states simply to amuse his readers. Worthless except to furnish a few topics which one may wish to verify. Criticism: Draper MSS., Z No. 2.

Brown, Samuel R. The Western Gazetteer; or, Emigrant's Directory, (1817) containing a geographical Description of the western States and Territories, viz., the States of Ky., Ind., La., O., Tenn., and Miss., and the Territories of Ill., Mo., Ala., Mich., and N. Western, with an Appendix containing Sketches of some of the western Counties of N. Y., Pa. and Va.; a description of the Gt. Northern Lakes; Indian Annuities, and Directions to Emigrants. Auburn, N. Y.: H. C. Southwick, 1817. 360 pp.

Pages 17-35 give an inaccurate description of Illinois' population and resources.

Brown, William Hubbard. An historical Sketch of the early Movement in Illinois for the Legalization of Slavery, read at the annual Meeting of the Chicago Historical Society, Dec. 5, 1864.

Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1876. 31 pp. Fergus hist. Series, No. 4. 8vo. 25 cents.

Especially valuable for the great struggle over slavery in Illinois in 1822-24. First printed in 1865, under the auspices of the Chicago Historical Society.

Buckley, James Monroe. A History of Methodists in the United States. (Volume V. of American Church History.) New York: The Christian Literature Co., 1896. xix.+714 pp.

Tells of the founding of Lebanon Seminary, later McKendree College, at Lebanon, Ill., in 1828.

Chicago City Directory, for the Year 1855-56, and Northern Illinois Gazetteer. Chicago: Robert Fergus, 1855. 150+xxxii.+208+128 pp.

Of slight value for our purpose, although the historical introductions to the directories of the various cities and towns have a few usable statements.

Chicago daily Democratic Press. Railroads, History and Commerce of Chicago, three Articles. 2d ed. Chicago: Democratic Press Job and Book Steam Print, 1854. 80 pp.

Of considerable interest, although many statements are of too late a date to be used.

Chicago Magazine. Chicago, Ill.

I., 103-16 (1857), gives an account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812, largely taken from the Kinzie narrative.

Chicago Sunday Tribune, Nov. 28, 1897.

New light thrown on Old Fort Dearborn. An account of the finding of important records in the archives of the U. S. government. The archives contained the original order for building a fort where Fort Dearborn later stood (order of 1803), and sketches of Fort Dearborn as early as January, 1808. The sketches are reproduced.

Clarke, S. C. Prairie State, The. (Atlantic Monthly, VII., 579-595, May, 1861.)

Well written and treats a large number of subjects.

Copeland, Louis Albert, B. L. The Cornish in southwest Wisconsin. Pages 301-334 of Wis. Hist. Coll., XIV. Madison, Wis.: Democrat Printing Co., State Printer, 1898.

Gives several facts concerning the early history of the Galena region. Most of the Cornish, however, came after 1830.

Dana, E. Geographical Sketches on the Western Country: designed for Emigrants and Settlers: being the Result of extensive Researches and Remarks. To which is added a Summary of all the most interesting Matters on the Subject, including a particular Description of the unsold public Lands, ... also, a List of the principal Roads. Cincinnati: Looker, Reynolds & Co., 1819. 312 pp.

Pages 133-156 are devoted to Illinois. A suggestion of the fraudulent count in the census of 1818 is given.

——A Description of the bounty Lands in the State of Illinois: also, the principal Roads and Routes, by Land and Water, through the Territory of the United States. Cincinnati: Looker, Reynolds & Co., 1819. 12mo. 108 pp.

Gives very few references to settlement and few descriptions of historic sites.

Davidson, Alexander, and Stuvé, Bernard. A complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873; embracing the physical Features of the Country; its early Explorations, aboriginal Inhabitants; French and British Occupation; Conquest by Virginia; territorial Condition and the subsequent civil, military and political Events of the State. Springfield, Ill.: Ill. Journal Co., 1874. 944 pp.

Crude, but no specialist in Illinois history should be without it. Not minute in treatment of immigration.

Decatur, Macon County, Illinois, History of. Decatur, Ill.: Compiled and published by Wiggins & Co., Cleveland, O., 1871. 51 pp.

A symposium without historical merit. Almost exclusively of a later period than 1830, but tells of the first settlement of the county in 1820.

Drake, Samuel Adams. The Making of the Ohio Valley States, 1660-1837. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. 16mo. 269 pp.

A very few pages are devoted to Illinois, and naturally the larger events alone are noted.

Drew, Benjamin. The Refugee; or, The Narratives of fugitive Slaves in Canada. Related by themselves, with an Account of the History and Condition of the colored Population of Upper Canada. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1856. 12mo. 387 pp.

A few of the refugees whose escapes are narrated passed through Illinois on the Underground Railroad.

Eames, Charles M. Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville. Jacksonville, Ill.: Daily Journal Steam Job Printing Office, 1885. 336 pp. In Library of Chicago Historical Society.

Of great interest because of its details concerning early methods of travel and concerning the beginnings in Morgan county. Deals with pioneer and slavery history.

Edwards, Ninian Wirt. History of Illinois, from 1778 to 1833; and Life and Times of Ninian Edwards. Springfield, Ill.: Ill. State Journal Co., 1870. 549 + iii. pp.

Written by the son of Gov. Ninian Edwards. Not in good form, but has much authentic material.

Family Magazine: or, Monthly Abstract of general Knowledge. New York, Boston, Cincinnati.

Volumes IV. (1837) and V. (1839) have short articles on Illinois, which are too light to be taken seriously.

Farmer, Silas. The History of Detroit and Michigan, or the Metropolis illustrated. A chronological Cyclopedia of the Past end Present, including a full Record of territorial Days in Michigan and the Annals of Wayne County. Detroit: Silas Farmer & Co., 1884. Revised and enlarged, 1890. 2 vols.

Valuable for information concerning Clark, Hamilton, Vigo, and La Balme.

Flagler, Major D. W. A History of the Rock Island Arsenal from its establishment in 1863 to December, 1876: and of the Island of Rock Island, the Site of the Arsenal, from 1804 to 1863. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1877. 483 pp. 13 plates, 2 pictures.

The first chapter of the book refers to the first white settlement in the region of Rock Island, about 1828.

Ford, Gov. Thomas. A History of Illinois, from its Commencement [pg 242] as a State in 1818 to 1847. Containing a full Account of the Black Hawk War, the Rise, Progress, and Fall of Mormonism, the Alton and Lovejoy Riots, and other important and interesting Events. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1854. 447 pp.

As the title indicates, the book is chiefly valuable for a period later than 1830. It is also largely political. The first one hundred and ten pages will be found useful and deal to some extent with the social life when the state was young. Criticism: Draper MSS., Z 13.

Gerhard, Fred. Illinois as it is; its History, Geography, Statistics, Constitution, Laws, Government, Finances, Climate, Soil, Plants, Animals, State of Health, Prairies, Agriculture, Cattle-breeding, Orcharding, Cultivation of the Grape, Timber-growing, Market-prices, Lands and Land-prices ... etc. Philadelphia: Charles Desilver, 1857. 451 pp.

Pages 13-137 are devoted to the history of Illinois. The author is conspicuously accurate and treats a large number of topics. A valuable secondary work.

Glimpses of the Monastery. Scenes from the History of the Ursulines of Quebec during two hundred Years, 1639-1839. By a Member of the Community. Second edition, completed by Reminiscences of the last fifty Years, 1839-1889. Quebec: L. J. Domers & Frère, 1897. ix.+418+184 pp.

Pages 84-93 of the first pagination give a suggestive discussion of the capability of the Indian for civilization.

Green, Thomas Marshall. Historic Families of Kentucky. (First Series.) Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1889. 304 pp.

Gives a few facts concerning John Todd and John Todd Stuart, who were active in Illinois. The latter was a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln and had much early influence upon Lincoln. The volume deals with McDowells, Logans, and Allens. Well written and valuable.

Haight, Walter C., B. L. The Ordinance of 1787. (pp. 343-402 of Pub. of the Mich. Pol. Sci. Ass'n. II.), 1896, 1897.

A discussion of the binding effect of the Ordinance of 1787. The question has a close connection with slavery in Illinois.

Hall, B. F. The early History of the North Western States, [pg 243] embracing New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, with their land Laws, etc., and an Appendix containing the Constitutions of those States. Buffalo: Geo. H. Derby & Co., 1849. Duodecimo. 477 pp.

Statements made in this book must be carefully verified. The rise of conflicting land titles is fairly well treated.

Harris, N. Dwight, Ph. D. The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois and of the slavery Agitation in that State 1719-1864. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1904. 276 pp.

An erudite work, compiled from many sources previously unused.

Hayes, A. A., Jr. The Metropolis of the Prairies. (Harper's New Monthly Mag., LXI., 711-730, Oct. 1880).

A readable popular article. Chiefly concerned with events later than 1830.

Heaton, John L. The Story of Vermont. Boston: D. Lothrop Co., 1889. 319 pp.

Has an interesting chapter of twenty pages on The Great West. More reliable than so popular a book usually is.

Henderson, John G. Early History of the “Sangamon Country,” being Notes on the first Settlements in the Territory now comprised within the Limits of Morgan, Scott and Cass Counties. Davenport, Iowa: Day, Egbert & Fidlar, 1873. 33 pp.

Of great interest for a study of early troubles with the Indians. Treats of East vs. South in Illinois and of Regulators. Deals almost exclusively with the period before 1830. Compiled largely from interviews with old settlers, hence not wholly reliable.

Hinsdale, Burke Aaron. The Old Northwest with a View of the thirteen Colonies as constituted by the royal Charters. New York: Townsend MacCoun, 1888. 8vo. 440 pp. 2d ed., rev. New York: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1899. $2.50.

In general only the boldest outlines of immigration to Illinois are sketched. The slavery struggle in Illinois (1822-24) is treated with comparative fullness. Criticism: Boston Herald, July 2, 1888.

Hoskins, Nathan. A History of the State of Vermont, from its Discovery and Settlement to the Close of the Year 1830. Vergennes: J. Shedd, 1831. 12 mo. 316 pp.

Tells of the unusually cold summer of 1816.

Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of the great West: containing Narratives of the most important and interesting Events in western History—remarkable individual Adventures—Sketches of frontier Life—Descriptions of natural Curiosities: to which is appended historical and descriptive Sketches of Oregon, New Mexico, Texas, Minnesota, Utah and California. Cincinnati: Henry Howe, 1853. 8vo. 440 pp.

Compiled from a large number of sources, largely secondary.

Hubbard, George D. A Case of geographic Influence upon human Affairs. Pages 145-157 of Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, XXXVI., No. 3, March, 1904. Pub. by the Society, New York.

A scientific discussion of the effect of glaciation upon the character of the people of different portions of Illinois.

Hulbert, Archer Butler. Red-Men's Roads. The Indian Thoroughfares of the central West. Columbus, Ohio: Fred J. Heer & Co., 1900. 37 pp.

The book has many maps and is a help toward an understanding of the ways by which early settlers reached Illinois.

Hynes, Rev. Thomas W. History of a Century. An Address delivered at Greenville, Bond Co., Ill., on July 4, 1876.

A newspaper clipping, bound, without the name of the paper from which it was taken, in Illinois Local History Pamphlets, V., in Library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. It contains a valuable historical letter from Mrs. Almira Morse, a resident as early as 1820.

Illinois. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois. Chicago and New York: Munsell Pub. Co., 1900. 608 pp.

Edited by Newton Bateman, LL. D., and Paul Selby, A. M. Much more reliable than many books of the same literary type.

International Monthly. Burlington, Vt., IV., 794-820. See Turner, Frederick Jackson.

James, Edmund Janes, and Loveless, Milo J. A Bibliography of Newspapers published in Illinois prior to 1860. Springfield, Ill., Phillips Bros., State Printers, 1899. 94 pp.

A very valuable work. An appendix gives a list of the Illinois and Missouri [pg 245] papers (1808-1897) in the St. Louis Mercantile Library, while a second appendix enumerates the county histories of Illinois and tells where they may be found.

Johnson, Eric and Peterson, C. F. Svenskarne i Illinois. Chicago: W. Williamson, 1880. 471 pp.

Chiefly valuable for a later period. The salient points of early Illinois history are canvassed.

Kingdom, William, Jr. America and the British Colonies, an abstract of all the most useful Information relative to the United States of America, and the British Colonies of Canada, the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Island. London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1820. 16mo. 359 pp.

Pages 61-73 describe Illinois and give some judicious advice to emigrants. Conservative, but not cynical. Entire pages are reprinted from other authors, notably Fearon, without the use of quotation marks.

Kingston, Hon. John T. Early Western Days. (In Wis. Hist. Coll., VII., 297-344). Madison, Wis.: E. B. Bolens, 1876.

Gives a short account of the slavery struggle in Illinois in 1822-24.

—— Slavery in Illinois. Necedah, Wis.: Necedah Republican. 6 pp. Reprinted, without date, in pamphlet form. In Library of State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

A very short sketch of slavery in Illinois from its introduction in 1719-20.

Kirkland, Joseph. The Story of Chicago. Chicago: Dibble Pub. Co., 1892. 470 pp.

The book makes large reference to authorities and is in consequence valuable for reference.

Körner, Gustav. Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, 1818-1848. Cincinnati: A. E. Wilde & Co., 1880. 16mo. 461 pp.

The 12th chapter (pp. 244-81) treats of German settlement in Illinois. Tells of the first German and Swiss settlements in the state. Naturally this chapter and the work as a whole is largely concerned with a period later than 1830.

Law, Judge John. Address delivered before the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society, February 22, 1839. Louisville, [pg 246] Ky.: Prentice & Weissinger, 1839. 48 pp. Enlarged and reprinted as The colonial History of Vincennes. Vincennes: Harvey, Mason & Co., 1858. 156 pp.

Of great value on account of its description of Clark's campaign, and its notes on Mermet, Gibault, Hamilton, Tecumseh, La Balme, and on the public lands.

Lawrence, John. The History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Dayton, Ohio: W. J. Shuey, 1868. 2 vols. I., vi.+416; II., vii.+431 pp.

The book contains many facts concerning early emigration and settlement. Its bearing on early Illinois history is, however, slight.

Leaton, Rev. James. History of Methodism in Illinois, from 1793 to 1832. Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe, 1883. 410 pp.

Very interesting notes on Peter Cartwright, Jesse Walker, and other pioneers.

Lee, Francis Bagley. New Jersey as a Colony and as a State. New York: The Publishing Soc. of New Jersey, 1902. 4 vols. I., 422; II., 456; III., 400; IV., 402 pp.

The work is superbly printed and illustrated and contains a vast amount of information, but is totally lacking in bibliography or references, except a few indications in the index to the illustrations.

Löher, Franz. Geschichte und Zustände der Deutschen in Amerika. Cincinnati: Eggers & Wulkop, 1847. v.+544 pp.

The chapters of especial interest to us are “Ausströmen der Yankees,” pp. 237-41; “Einwanderung von 1815 bis 1830,” pp. 253-58; “Die Wohnsitze” (Illinois and Missouri), pp. 337-40. The author cites many authorities, and his book is of very great value in the study of the assimilation of an expatriated people.

Lothrop, J. S. J. S. Lothrop's Champaign County (Ill.) Directory for 1870-1, with History of the same, and of each Township therein. Chicago: J. S. Lothrop, 1871.

Tells a great many things—several of which are false—concerning the early period of Illinois history.

Lusk, D. W. Eighty Years of Illinois Politics and Politicians, Anecdotes and Incidents. A succinct History of the State, 1809-1889. 3d ed. Revised and enlarged. Springfield, Ill.: H. W. Rokker, 1889. 609+109 pp.

The 609 pages are political. The 109 pages have a great interest, dealing as they do with the beginnings of Illinois. Secondary sources are largely quoted. Not exact enough for critical work, yet very suggestive.

M'Afee, Robert B. History of the late War in the Western Country, comprising a full Account of all the Transactions in that Quarter, from the Commencement of Hostilities at Tippecanoe, to the Termination of the Contest at New Orleans on the Return of Peace. Lexington, Ky.: Worsley & Smith, 1816. 8vo. 534 pp.

Very rare. In the Chicago Historical Society Library. A valuable book. Describes the attack on Fort Dearborn in 1812.

Mackenzie, E. An historical, topographical, and descriptive View of the United States of America, and of Upper and Lower Canada ... the present State of Mexico and South America, and also of the native Tribes of the New World. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Mackenzie & Dent, 1819. viii. + 432 pp.

The four pages devoted to Illinois are interesting and fairly reliable, though scarcely up to date. The author mentions eighteen works used in compiling his book.

McLaughlin, Andrew C. Lewis Cass. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1891. 363 pp. $1.25.

Describes the expedition of General Cass to northern Illinois during the Sauk outbreak of 1827. Criticism: Nation, LIII., 204.

Marietta, O. Report of the Commissioners of the National Centennial Celebration of the Early Settlement of the Territory North West of the Ohio River, ... held at Marietta, O., July 15-19, inclusive, 1888. Columbus, O.: The Westbote Company, State Printers, 1889. 292 pp.

Contains many speeches of varying historical accuracy and importance.

Mason, Edward Gay. Chapters from Illinois History. Chicago: Herbert S. Stone, 1901. 322 pp.

Scholarly and accurate, and rich in citation of sources. Tells of Old Fort Chartres, John Todd's Record-Book, the march of the Spaniards across Illinois, and the Chicago massacre.

—— March of the Spaniards across Illinois. (In his Chapters of Illinois History, Chicago, 1901; also in Mag. of Am. Hist. N. Y., XV., 457-469, 1886.)

Refers to a number of sources. The march is that of 1781 against St. Joseph.

Mather, Irwin F. The Making of Illinois. Chicago: A. Flanagan, 1900. 292 pp.

The work is strong in the number of subjects which it treats. The Illinois of our period is well covered. The bibliography cites many valuable sources, but no references are given in the body of the work. The date of the founding of the village of Kaskaskia is given as 1695—a confusion of the mission on the Illinois River with the later village of the same name.

Mayo, A. D. Western Emigration and Western Character. (Christian Examiner, N. Y., LXXXII., 265-82, 1867.)

The subject is well treated, but the value of the article for our purpose is not so great as it would have been if confined to the early period.

Meigs, William M. The Life of Thomas Hart Benton. Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1904. 535 pp.

The work throws much light upon the policy of the United States in regard to the sale of public lands, and the attitude of the West towards that policy.

Melish, John. A geographical Description of the United States, with the contiguous British and Spanish Possessions. Philadelphia: John Melish, 1816. 182 pp.

A trifle over one page is devoted to Illinois. Of interest only as showing what was presented to the East at the time concerning Illinois. Melish was a professional map and gazetteer maker. His work typifies that of the geographers of the time, who described the world with marvelous audacity.

—— A geographical Description of the United States, with the contiguous Countries, including Mexico and the West Indies. Philadelphia: John Melish, 1822. v.+491 pp.

Seven pages are devoted to Illinois. The description of several Illinois towns is useful. This was a second and much improved edition of the author's similar work of 1816.

—— Information and Advice to Emigrants to the United States: and from the Eastern to the Western States: illustrated by a Map of the United States and a Chart of the Atlantic Ocean. Philadelphia: John Melish, 1819. 12mo. v.+144 pp.

An entire chapter of twenty six pages is devoted to Birkbeck's settlement in Illinois. The map shows several routes in Illinois, but it must have been old. The book is a good type of its class.

Moore, Charles. The Northwest under three Flags, 1635-1796. New York: Harper & Bros., 1900. xxiii. + 402 pp.

Many facts concerning the Illinois of the period are given. This work is of considerable historical value. References to sources, although not abundant, are helpful.

Moses, John. Illinois, historical and statistical. Comprising the essential Facts of its Planting and Growth as a Province, County, Territory, and State. Derived from the most authentic Sources, including original Documents and Papers. Together with carefully prepared statistical Tables.... Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1889-93. 2 vols. 1316 pp.

The author was secretary and librarian of the Chicago Historical Society. His work is perhaps the best that has appeared.

Mowry, William Augustus. The territorial Growth of the United States. New York: Silver, Burdett & Co., 1902. 225 pp.

The chapter on the Northwest Territory tells of various cessions of land comprised in the present Illinois.

Murat, Achille. America and the Americans. New York: William H. Graham, 1849. Duodecimo. vii. + 260 pp.

Too late in date to be of much service, although some valuable suggestions as to the social and political development of the frontier can be obtained. The writer was an acute observer. He treats politics, slavery, society, religion, justice, etc. The book was written about 1829. Describes customs and extra legal proceedings in the West.

Nashville, Tennessee, History of, with full Outline of the natural Advantages.... Nashville, Tenn.: Pub. House of the M. E. Church, South, 1890. 656 pp.

Tells of passage of emigrants from North Carolina to Illinois in 1780, of French traders from Illinois to Tennessee in 1779, of Tennesseeans getting head rights from George Rogers Clark.

North American Review, Boston.

Volume LI., 92-140 (July, 1840) has an exhaustive review of Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois. The review is probably of much more historical interest than the Gazetteer.

Palmer, B. M. Slavery in Illinois. (Dubuque semi-weekly Telegraph, Tues., Sept. 19, 1899.)

Gives the bill of sale, taken from the county records of Jo Daviess County, Ill., and executed in that county in 1830, of a negro mother and child.

Patterson, Robert Wilson. Early Society in southern Illinois. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1879. Pp. 103-131 of Fergus historical Series No. 14.

A characterization, in general terms, of early Illinois society, its manners and its origin. This was a lecture read before the Chicago Historical Society, Oct. 19, 1880.

Peck, Rev. John Mason, Editor. “Father Clark” or the Pioneer Preacher. Sketches and Incidents of Rev. John Clark, by An Old Pioneer. New York: Sheldon, Lamport & Blakeman, 1855. 287 pp.

Gives considerable religious and Indian material for Illinois history from 1790 to 1833, but chiefly on the earlier part of that period.

—— An historical Sketch of the early American Settlements in Illinois, from 1780-1800. Read before the Ill. State Lyceum, at its anniversary, Aug. 16, 1832. (Western monthly Mag., I., 73-83. Feb. 1833.)

Popular, but of some value.

Post, Rev. T. M. [Author of pp. 93-102.] Contributions to the ecclesiastical History of Connecticut; prepared under the Direction of the General Association, to commemorate the Completion of one hundred and fifty Years since its first annual Assembly. New Haven: Wm. L. Kingsley, 1861. xiv. + 562 pp.

A symposium. The article by Rev. Mr. Post is on “The Mission of Congregationalism at the West.” It is suggestive on the moral effects of frontier life.

Powell, J. W., Director. Eighteenth annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896-97. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899. Part 2. Indian land Cessions in the United States compiled by Charles C. Royce, with an Introduction by Cyrus Thomas. 521-997 pp. and 67 plates.

Valuable. The work was used in preparing the outline maps of Indian cessions contained in this work.

Reid, Harvey. Biographical Sketch of Enoch Long, an Illinois Pioneer. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1884. 134 pp. This is Volume II. of the Chicago Historical Society's Collections.

Mr. Long visited St. Louis and resided at Alton and Galena before 1827. The book is of great interest on account of its notes on the methods of travel and the extent of Illinois settlements at that date.

Reynolds, John. Belleville in January, 1854. A 12-page pamphlet, printed without place, publisher, or date. In Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Tells of the laying out of the city in the cornfield of George Blair, in 1814.

—— A biographical Sketch. (Western Journal and Civilian, XV., 100-114).

Gives glimpses of early travel and of pioneer life.

—— The pioneer History of Illinois, containing the Discovery, in 1673, and the History of the Country to the Year 1818. Belleville, Ill.: N. A. Randall, 1852. 2d ed., with portrait, notes and index, Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1887. 459 pp.

Contains much valuable biographical material, and describes the life of the early settlers in a clear way. Criticism: Draper MSS., Z 13, 14.

Roosevelt, Theodore. The Winning of the West. New York: G. W. Putnam's Sons, 1889-96. Vols. I.-IV.. I., xiv. + 352: II., 427; III., 339: IV., 363 pp.

Valuable, although bearing marks of haste in preparation. Criticism: Am. Hist. Rev., II., 171.

Sanborn, Edwin David. History of New Hampshire, from its Discovery to the Year 1830. Manchester, N. H.: John B. Clarke, 1875. 422 pp.

Describes the unusually cold summer of 1816 and its effect upon western migration. The book is written in an extremely disconnected style, and is without index, references, or bibliography.

Sergeant, Thomas, Esq. View of the land Laws of Pennsylvania. With Notices of its early History and Legislation. Philadelphia: James Kay, Jr., and Brother. Pittsburgh: John I. Kay & Co., 1838. 13 + 203 pp.

Valuable for ascertaining the price at which Pennsylvania public lands, which competed with government lands in the West, were sold.

Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate. Kentucky. A pioneer Commonwealth. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1885. viii. + 433 pp.

Useful as giving an insight into the character of a neighboring state from which many of the early settlers of Illinois came. One of the best of the American Commonwealths series.

Shea, John Gilmary. History of the Catholic Church in the United States, 1808-1843. New York: John G. Shea, 1890. vii. + 731 pp.

References to Illinois are very few, but are important. The volume is the third in the author's four-volumed History of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Siebert, Wilbur Henry. The Underground Rail Road from Slavery to Freedom; with an Introduction by Albert Bushnell Hart. New York; The Macmillan Co., 1898. viii. + iii. + 478 pp.

Has notes of great interest on the U. G. R. R. in Illinois before 1830. Criticism: Am. Hist. Rev., IV., 557.

Smith, Theodore Clarke. The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1897. vii. + 351 pp. (Harvard Hist. Studies, VI.)

A well-written book, but only the first chapter concerns the period before 1830. This chapter is, however, well worth attention.

Steinhard, S. Deutschland und sein Volk. Gotha: Hugo Scheube, 1856-7. 2 vols. I., x. + 658; II., 826 pp.

Pages 28-46 of volume II. are on the Germans in the United States and contain a few important facts, including statistics, for our period. The Vandalia (Ill.) settlement of 1820 is mentioned.

Stevens, Abel, LL. D. History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1884. 4 vols. I., 423; II., 511; III., 510; IV., 522 pp.

The fourth volume of this history has interesting notes on Benjamin Young and Jesse Walker, respectively. These men came to Illinois as pioneer ministers; the former in 1804, the latter in 1806.

Strong, Moses M., A. M. History of the Territory of Wisconsin, from 1836 to 1848. Preceded by an Account of some Events [pg 253] during the Period in which it was under the Dominion of Kings, States or other Territories, previous to the Year 1836. Madison, Wis.: Democrat Printing Co., State Printers, 1885. 16mo. 637 pp.

A valuable book. Its chief interest for us is its sketches of early settlement in the Galena lead region.

Sulte, Benjamin. Histoire des Canadiens-Français, 1608-1880. Montreal: Wilson & Cie., 1882-4. 8 vols. 8vo. About 160 pp. per vol. Montreal: Granger Frères. 40 parts, paper, $10; 4 vols, cloth.

Gives only slight attention to the French of Illinois. A popular work, but quite useful for a study of social institutions.

Summers, Thomas O. Biographical Sketches of eminent itinerant Ministers distinguished, for the most Part, as Pioneers of Methodism within the Bounds of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Nashville, Tenn.: Southern Methodist Publishing House, 1859. 374 pp.

Pages 48-56 give a character sketch of Jesse Walker and an idea of the character of the men to whom he preached in Illinois in 1807.

Swayne, Wager. The Ordinance of 1787; and the War of 1861. An Address delivered before the N. Y. Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. New York: C. G. Burgoyne, [c. 1893]. 90 pp.

Contains interesting notes on George Rogers Clark and on slavery in Illinois.

Thomson, John Lewis. Historical Sketches of the late War between the United States and Great Britain. Philadelphia: Thos. Desilver, 1816. 359 pp. 5th ed., 1818.

Contains one of the earliest accounts of the massacre at Fort Dearborn, August 15, 1812. The account is short, but tolerably correct. The work was reprinted in 1887 [Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.], with a short account of the war with Mexico added. 656 pp.

Thompson, Zadock. History of the State of Vermont, from its earliest Settlement to the Close of the Year 1832. Burlington: Edward Smith, 1833. 12mo. 252 pp. Reprinted with natural Hist. of Vt. and Gazetteer of Vt. Burlington: Zadock Thompson, 1853. 8vo. 224+224+200+63 pp.

Describes the cold season of 1816-17.

Thwaites, Reuben Gold. Early Lead-mining in Illinois and Wisconsin. Pages 191-196 of Am. Hist. Ass'n. Rep't., 1893. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1894.

Contains several interesting statements concerning the early history of the Galena region.

Tucker, George. Progress of the United States in Population and Wealth in fifty Years, as exhibited by the decennial Census. Boston: Little & Brown, 1843. 12mo. 211 pp.

The fifty years were 1790-1840. Very useful for material concerning the relative growth of different sections of the country.

Turner, Frederick Jackson. Middle West, The. International Monthly, IV., 794-820 (1901).

The article has a few suggestions that are of value for our period.

—— The Significance of the Frontier in American History. Pages 199-227 of Rep't. of Am. Hist. Ass'n., 1893.

Contains a valuable characterization of the French as colonizers.

Varney, George Jones. A brief History of Maine. Portland, Me.: McLellan, Mosher & Co., 1888. 336 pp.

Tells of the intense cold of 1816-17 and of the great Western exodus. A “Young People's History.” Popular. Without references.

Walker, Edwin Sawyer. History of the Springfield (Illinois) Baptist Association. Springfield, Ill.: H. W. Rokker, 1881. 140 pp.

Tells of the organization of the United Baptist Church, of Springfield, on July 17, 1830, with eight members.

Wallace, Joseph. The History of Illinois and Louisiana under the French Rule, embracing a general View of the French Dominion in North America, with some Account of the English Occupation of Illinois. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1893. vi. + 433 pp.

Contains a great deal of material. Usually, though not always, correct.

Warden, David Baillie. A statistical, political and historical Account of the U. S. of N. A.; from the period of their first Colonization to the present Day. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable & Co., 1819. 3 vols. 16mo. I., lxiv. + 552; II., 571; III., 588 pp.

Pages 43-65 of Volume III. deal with Illinois exclusively. At the close of the chapter the author gives a bibliography for Illinois—five titles and two maps. A useful book.

Wentworth, Hon. John. Early Chicago. Two Lectures delivered April 11, 1875, and May 7, 1876, respectively. 48 and 56 pp. Nos. 8 and 7 of Fergus historical Series. Chicago: Fergus Printing Co., 1876.

The critical supplemental notes are of especial interest.

West, Mary Allen. A MS. Letter in the Illinois State Historical Library.

Tells the story of the coming of James Moore and his party from Virginia in 1781.

Western monthly Magazine. Conducted by James Hall. Cincinnati, I., 73-83. See Peck, Rev. John Mason.

White, Emma Siggins. Genealogy of the Descendants of John Walker of Wigton, Scotland, with Records and some fragmentary Notes pertaining to the History of Virginia, 1600-1902. Tiernan-Dart Printing Co., 1902. xxx. + 722 pp.

Valuable. Has original letters from Western emigrants. Suggests the great influx of people into Illinois in the third decade of the 19th century. Gives a good idea of the westward drift of population in the United States.

Whiton, John Milton. Sketches of the History of New-Hampshire, from its Settlement in 1623 to 1833. Concord: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1834. 222 pp.

Describes the great cold of 1816 and the great emigration to the West. An unimportant work, confessedly popular, and without references.

Wilbur, La Fayette. Early History of Vermont. Jericho, Vt.: Roscoe Printing House, 1899-1903. 4 vols. I., 362; II., 419; III., 397; IV., 463 pp.

Pages 162-3 of Volume III. tell of the unusual cold of 1816-17 and quote Governor Galusha's reference to the impending famine. No references are given.

Williams, George Washington. History of the Negro Race in America from 1619-1880. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882. 2 vols. I., X. + 481; II., 611 pp. The two volumes are also issued as one.

Gives some statistics concerning slaves in Illinois and notes on Illinois slavery legislation. The author was a negro.

Williamson, William Durkee. The History of the State of Maine: from its first Discovery, A. D. 1602, to the Separation, A. D. 1820. inclusive. Hallowell: Glazier, Masters & Co., 1832. 2 vols. I., iv. + 696; II., 729 pp.

Tells of the unusual cold of 1816-17 and of the great movement toward the West. Strong in citation of authorities. Much above the average of State histories of its time.

Wilson, Henry. History of the Rise and Fall of the slave Power in America. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1872-7. 3 vols. I., vii. + 670; II., 720: III., 774 pp. Houghton. 3 vols.

Valuable material on slavery in Illinois. A strong work.

Winsor, Justin. The westward Movement: the Colonies and the Republic west of the Alleghanies, 1673-98; with full cartographical Illustrations from contemporary Sources. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1897. 595 pp.

Criticism: Am. Hist. Rev., III., 556.

Withers, Alexander Scott. Chronicles of border Warfare, or A History of the Settlement by the Whites, of North-western Virginia: and of the Indian Wars and Massacres, in that Section of the State. Clarksburg, Va.: Joseph Israel, 1831. 319+iv. pp. Very rare. Same. New ed., edited and annotated by Reuben Gold Thwaites. Cincinnati: Clarke, 1895.

A few references are to events in Illinois. Criticism: Am. Hist. Rev., I., 170.

Young, William T. Life and public Services of General Lewis Cass. 2d ed. Detroit: Markham & Elwood, 1852. 420 pp.

Tells of Gen. Cass' expedition to Illinois during the trouble with the Sauk Indians in 1827.