Chapter VII: Successful Frontiersmen

The character of the men who succeed in gaining the favor of those among whom they live indicates the character of those whose favor has been gained. Preachers, land dealers, lawyers, town builders, and politicians can not thrive in a hostile community. It is worth while in studying Illinois in its frontier stage to notice some of the chief traits of its leaders.

No better type of the pioneer preacher need be sought than the Rev. Dr. Peter Cartwright. He preached in the West for nearly seventy years, during which time he delivered some eighteen thousand sermons, baptized some fifteen thousand persons, received into the church nearly twelve thousand members, and licensed preachers enough to make a whole conference. He was for fifty years a presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal church. His home was in Illinois from 1824 until his death in 1872. Aside from his ministerial duties he twice represented Sangamon county in the Illinois House of Representatives; was a candidate for congressman against Abraham Lincoln in 1846; and was a member of an historical society founded as early as 1827.

Cartwright had a number of traits that attracted frontiersmen. In person he was about five feet ten inches high, and of square build, having a powerful physical frame and weighing nearly two hundred pounds. “The roughs and bruisers at camp-meetings and elsewhere stood in awe of his brawny arm, and many anecdotes are told of his courage and daring that sent terror to their ranks. He felt that he was one of the Lord’s breaking plows, and that he had to drive his way through all kinds of roots and stubborn soil.... His gesticulation, his manner of listening, his walk, and his laugh were peculiar, and would command attention in a crowd of a thousand. There was something undefinable about the whole man that was attractive to the majority of the people, and made them linger in his presence and want to see him again.” He had a remarkable power to read men, his first impressions being quickly made and almost always correct. He was often gay, but never frivolous; often eccentric, but never silly. A Cumberland Presbyterian, after attending a communion service administered by Cartwright and at which the Baptist, Rev. John M. Peck, was present, wrote: “After meeting, I invited these two men to spend the night with me, which they did; and such a night!—of all Western anecdotes and manners, flow of soul and out-spoken brotherhood—we had never seen, and never expect to enjoy again. These were, then [1824 c.], the two strongest men of mark in the ministry, in this State [Illinois].” Cartwright’s vitality was remarkable. In the sixty-sixth year of his ministry, and the eighty-sixth of his life, he dedicated eight churches, preached at seventy-seven funerals, addressed eight schools, baptized twenty adults and fifty children, married five couples, received fifteen into the church on probation and twenty-five into full connection, raised twenty-five dollars missionary money, donated twenty dollars for new churches, wrote one hundred and twelve letters, delivered many lectures, and sold two hundred dollars worth of books. Many frontier preachers of the time were lacking in common sense, but they were not popular. This is the testimony of a contemporary (1828) writer whose analysis of western character has rarely been excelled.(546)

John Edgar, a native of Ireland, was one of the largest landholders who ever lived in Illinois. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he was a British officer living at Detroit, but becoming implicated in the efforts of his American wife to aid British soldiers in deserting, he was imprisoned. He escaped, and in 1784 settled in Kaskaskia, where his wife joined him two years later, having saved from confiscation some twelve thousand dollars. This made Edgar the rich man of the community. “In very early times, he erected, at great expense, a fine flouring mill on the same site where M. Paget had built one sixty years before. This mill was a great benefit to the public and also profitable to the proprietor. Before the year 1800, this mill manufactured great quantities of flour for the New Orleans market which would compare well with the Atlantic flour.” Edgar built a splendid mansion in Kaskaskia and entertained royally. At a time when hospitality was common he improved upon it. His home was the fashionable resort for almost half a century. It was here that Lafayette was entertained. In addition to his flour mill, which attracted settlers to its vicinity near Kaskaskia and which for many years did most of the merchant business in flour in the country, Edgar owned and operated salt works near the Mississippi, northwest of Kaskaskia, and also invested largely in land. Before the commissioners appointed to settle land claims he claimed thirty-six thousand acres in one claim as the assignee of ninety donation-rights, while he and John Murry St. Clair claimed 13,986 acres which proved upon survey to cover almost thirty thousand acres. In territorial times Edgar paid more taxes than any one else in the territory. In 1790 Edgar was appointed chief justice of the Kaskaskia district of St. Clair county; in 1800 he was “Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the First Regiment of Militia of the County of Randolph”; in 1802 he was commissioned an associate judge of the Criminal Court of Randolph county, by Governor Harrison. He had never studied law “but common sense, a good education, and experience in business with perfect honesty made him a very respectable officer.” Edgar’s correspondence with Clark and Hamtramck show him to have been a leader in Illinois during its period of anarchy preceding the establishment of government in 1790. He offered to board a garrison on the credit of the United States, if a garrison should be sent to protect Illinois. At a time when slaveholding was regarded as eminently respectable by the people of Illinois, Edgar held slaves, and in 1796 he was one of four who petitioned Congress to introduce slavery into the territory. He was a member of the legislature of the Northwest Territory, was worshipful master of the first Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Illinois, constituted at Kaskaskia in 1806, and was major-general of militia, in which capacity he presided at reviews with much dignity. In person Gen. Edgar was large and portly. He was definitely charged with forgery by the commissioners to settle land titles at Kaskaskia. In one case a letter signed in a fair hand by one who had made his mark to a deed was produced by Edgar. The letter was an offer of the illiterate owner to sell his land to Edgar. There is no indication that this conduct of the hospitable and popular man changed the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries.(547)

John Rice Jones, the first lawyer in Illinois, was eminently successful. He was born in Wales in 1759, received a collegiate education at Oxford, England, and afterward took regular courses in both medicine and law. In 1783 he was a lawyer in London and owned property in Wales. The next year he came to Philadelphia where he practiced law and became acquainted with Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, Myers Fisher, and other distinguished men. In 1786 he came to Kentucky and joined Clark’s troops against the Wabash Indians. A garrison was irregularly established at Vincennes and Jones was made commissary-general. He sold seized Spanish goods to partially indemnify those whose goods had been seized by the Spanish. In 1790 Jones removed to Kaskaskia, bringing to his residence on the frontier a mind well trained by education and experience. He early became a large landowner, in 1808 paying taxes on 16,400 acres in Monroe county alone. The list of offices held by Jones shows him to have been prominent wherever he went. He was attorney-general of the Northwest Territory, a member and president of the legislative council of the same, joint-revisor with John Johnson, of the laws of Indiana Territory, one of the first trustees, as well as a chief promoter, of Vincennes University, official interpreter and translator of French for the commissioners appointed to settle land claims at Kaskaskia, and after his removal to Missouri, about 1810, a member of the Missouri Constitutional Convention of 1820, and, upon the admission of the state, justice of its Supreme Court until his death in February, 1824. In Missouri he engaged in lead mining and smelting with Moses Austin and later with Austin’s sons. He made an exhaustive report on the lead mines of Missouri in 1816. Jones was well versed in English, French and Spanish law, especially in regard to land titles. He was an excellent mathematician, and had also a thorough acquaintance with the Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, English, and Welsh languages. The pioneers recognized his peculiar fitness for a legal career on the frontier. Governor Reynolds, a fellow-townsman of Jones, says: “Judge Jones lived a life of great activity and was conspicuous and prominent in all the important transactions of the country ... His integrity, honor, and honesty were always above doubt or suspicion. He was exemplary in his moral habits, and lived a temperate and orderly man in all things.”(548)

The founding of the towns of Mt. Carmel, Alton and Springfield illustrates the work of successful town building on the frontier. Mt. Carmel was laid out in 1817, Alton in 1818, and the land where Springfield now stands was entered in 1823.

The town of Mt. Carmel was founded by three ministers, Thomas S. Hinde, William McDowell and William Beauchamp, the first two being proprietors and the last agent and surveyor. McDowell probably never settled in Illinois. Hinde and Beauchamp were men of more than ordinary ability. The former was a son of the well-known Dr. Hinde, of Virginia, who was a surgeon in the British navy during the French and Indian war. Dr. Hinde moved to Kentucky and there the boy Thomas grew up. At one time he was a neighbor of Daniel Boone, and later of Simon Kenton. He was in the office of the Superior Court of Kentucky for some time, during which he became well acquainted with Governor Madison and his nephew, John Madison, kinsmen of President James Madison. He was well informed as to some of the obscure movements of Aaron Burr. This led him to send copies of the _Fredonian_, which he published in order to oppose Burr, to Henry Clay, then secretary of state, although the copies later unaccountably disappeared; and, in 1829, to write to James Madison, who was reported as contemplating the writing of a political history, offering to furnish information which he possessed at first hand concerning the conspiracy. Madison denied any intention of writing a history, but asked Hinde to furnish an account of Burr’s transactions to be filed with Madison’s papers. This was done. In 1806, Hinde moved to Ohio to get away from slavery.

William Beauchamp was born in Kent county, Delaware, in 1772. He became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794, but located in 1801 on account of ill health. His ministry had been markedly successful and he had been stationed in New York and Boston. In 1807 he settled on the Little Kanawha River in Virginia, and in 1815 moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he acted as editor of the _Western Christian Monitor_, Hinde being a contributor. Beauchamp knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, was a writer of considerable ability, and was well fitted to be editor. In 1816, however, the General Conference decided to establish a magazine, and in the following year Beauchamp retired from the editorship of the _Monitor_, having successfully established the first Methodist magazine in America. Beauchamp, Hinde and McDowell were now fellow-townsmen. They resolved to establish a town where their ideas of rectitude might be applied.

The site chosen for the town was a point on the west bank of the Wabash opposite the mouth of the White River, and twenty-four miles southwest of Vincennes. This point was selected because of the available water power and of the likelihood that main roads from east to west would pass here. The town became a railroad and manufacturing center and justified the wisdom of its founders. An elaborate circular, called the “Articles of Association, for the City of Mount Carmel,” was issued at Chillicothe in 1817. The purpose of the association was announced to be “to build a city on liberal and advantageous principles, and to constitute funds for the establishment of seminaries of learning and for religious purposes.” The proprietors reserved for themselves one-fourth of the lots, these being called “proprietors’ lots;” one-fourth were called “public donation lots;” and one-half were called “private donation lots.” The plan of survey and sale was described as follows: “The front street is 132 feet wide; the others 99. The in-lots are six poles in front, and eleven and a half back; containing each sixty-eight perches, nearly half an acre. The most of the out-lots contain four acres and eight square poles; some of them more, (five and six acres on the back range); and a few of them less. There are 748 in-lots, and 331 out-lots—1079 in the whole.

“The lots are offered at private sale, at the following prices:

In-Lots On Front Street.

Corners, $150 each
Not corners, 100

The Rest Of The In-Lots.

Corners, $120 each
Not corners, 80
The out-lots, $100 each

“The payments are to be made in four annual instalments; the first
at the time of sale.

“A bank is to be constituted by the sale of the lots.

“One-fourth of the lots are appropriated to the use of schools and
religious purposes.

“One-half of the lots are to be given away to those who will
improve them according to the articles of association. A person
may have as many gift, or private donation out-lots, as he has
such in-lots; the out-lots not required to be improved. The gift
lots are to be disposed of on the following terms: the persons
receiving them pay the prices above stated, and receive for the
money thus paid, stock in the aforesaid bank. They are to improve
the in-lots thus given to them, by building one dwelling-house for
every such in-lot; one-half of the houses to be built within five
years, and the other half within ten years, from the sale of said
lots. The houses to be framed, brick, or stone, and to contain two
rooms, and two fire-places each.”

The bank referred to was “The Bank of Mount Carmel.” Its shares were ten dollars each. The proprietors might put into the stock one-half of the money received from the sale of proprietors’ lots; all the money received for public donation lots was to be divided into three equal parts, one part to be funded in the bank in the name of the trustees (to be appointed) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the proceeds to be applied to the building of “Methodist Episcopal meeting houses in the city of Mount Carmel, and to other religious purposes,” not including ministers’ salary; the second part to be funded in the name of the trustees (to be appointed) of a male academy; the third part to be similarly funded for a female academy; the money from private donation lots to be funded in the name of the purchasers, after deducting ten per cent for expenses, which ten per cent should remain in the bank as permanent stock. The articles of association were elaborate. The 18th article became known as the “Blue Laws.” It read as follows: “ART. 18. No theatre or play-house shall ever be built within the bounds of this city. No person who shall be guilty of drunkenness, profane swearing or cursing, Sabbath breaking, or who shall keep a disorderly house, shall gamble, or suffer gambling in his house, or raise a riot, or break the peace within the city, or be guilty of any other crime of greater magnitude in guilt than those here mentioned, and shall be convicted thereof before the mayor, council, or any other court having cognizance of such crime or crimes, shall be eligible to any office of the city of Mount Carmel or its bank, or be entitled to vote for any such officer, within three years after such conviction, notwithstanding anything in these articles to the contrary.”

The plan for a town was successful. Beauchamp was surveyor, pastor, teacher, and lawyer in the beginning of settlement. By 1819 a school was established; four or five years later a school-house was built; by 1820 Mt. Carmel circuit of the M. E. church had been formed; in 1825 a brick church was erected; the same year the town was incorporated by the state on the plan laid down in the articles of association; in 1827 the annual conference of the Illinois Conference was held at Mt. Carmel.

Beauchamp’s health having improved he reëntered the ministry in 1822, and at the General Conference two years later he lacked but two votes of being chosen bishop. He died in 1824.

Hinde, in 1825, was a member of the Wabash Navigation Company, consisting of seventeen prominent Indiana and Illinois men, and having a capital stock of one million dollars. He was one of the nine directors for the first year. He continued to be a contributor to periodical literature and became the biographer of his friend Beauchamp. In a letter from Mt. Carmel, of May 6, 1842, Hinde says: “I have just returned from the East, having visited the Atlantic cities generally for the first time, after forty-five years pioneering in the wilderness of the West. I have been three times a citizen of Kentucky, twice of Ohio, and twice of Illinois.” Hinde died in 1846 and was buried at Mt. Carmel. Among his writings is found one of the most acute analyses of frontier character that has appeared. The writer points out that eastern ministers have often been unsuccessful and eastern immigrants unpopular, because they have underrated the people of the West, among whom there are many people of culture. They prefer “the _useful_ to the shining or showy talent.” In the West the best work has been done by westerners. The English spoken in the West is the purest to be found, because the various provincialisms of the immigrants are mutually corrective. The Virginian, who retained his unbounded hospitality, was the most prominent character in the West. “If we expect to find on crossing the mountains a people either illiterate or ignorant as a body, we will assuredly, in many instances, be happily disappointed. It too often happens, that one puffed up with self importance, and possessing a conceited and heated imagination, will form wild conjectures as to men and things. We have been amused at the bewildered minds of such, with the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’; and one of the most ridiculous whims of some, is to endeavour to press every thing into their own _mould_; and shape it, be it what it may, if possible, after their own manner, custom, or operation, forgetting that ‘we have to take the world as it is, and not as we would have it to be.’ The fact is, an emigrant should come forth as an inquirer, and set himself down to learn at the threshold of experience. On this rock thousands have been injured, and none have suffered more than the English emigrants. Oh! with what poignant grief have I heard the English emigrant exclaim with the bitterest invectives on his own course and conduct, as to this particular. Conceiving that he knew every thing, when he came here to test his experience, he soon found that he ‘knew nothing.’ This circumstance I have found too to have its bearings upon American emigrants from different states; upon families, upon individuals, and upon preachers also. How often have I heard the old settler complaining, (who having himself learned by _experience_) of the impertinent conduct of an emigrant, who sometimes carries his local policy through all the ramifications of his life, and often into the religious society, as well as elsewhere; he wishing every thing done, as he saw it done in Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and very often ‘Old England’ and ‘Ireland!’ as if men who have to act, and reflect upon the circumstances of the case, different from any ever before presented except among themselves, are to be governed by acts and doings of people in the moon!”(549) A man who thus knew the frontier was fitted to be the founder of a western town.

Rufus Easton was the founder of the town of Alton. Like Hinde, he brought to his work a fund of experience gained on the frontier and in public affairs. Easton was born at Washington, Litchfield county, Connecticut, in 1774. He descended from pioneers, being a direct descendant of Joseph Easton, who came from England to Newtowne, now Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 1633, and was later one of Rev. Thos. Hooker’s colony which founded Hartford, Connecticut, of which Easton was an original proprietor. In 1792 Rufus Easton’s father, a Tory, obtained a large grant of land near Wolford, now Easton Corners, Ontario. Rufus received a good education before studying law. In 1798 he was practicing law in Rome, New York, then a frontier town. November, 1801, Easton, with thirteen other prominent men, held a banquet to celebrate the election of Thos. Jefferson as President. The prominence of the young lawyer at this time is shown by the fact that he was consulted in regard to federal appointments, and that he was in 1803 a confidential correspondent of De Witt Clinton. The winter of 1803-4 Easton spent in Washington, where he became a friend of Aaron Burr, Postmaster-General Granger, and others. In the spring of 1804 he started for New Orleans. Aaron Burr gave him a letter of introduction to Abm. R. Ellery, Esq., of New Orleans, in which he said: “You will certainly be greatly amused to converse with a man who has passed the whole winter in this city—who has had free intercourse with the officers of Govt. & members of Congress—who has discernment to see beyond the surface, and frankness and independence enough to speak his own sentiments.” Easton did not, however, go to New Orleans. He stopped for a short time at Vincennes and then located at St. Louis. He was appointed by Jefferson judge of the Territory of Louisiana and first postmaster of St. Louis. In September, 1805, Burr, Wilkinson and Easton had a conference at St. Louis. Easton turned a deaf ear to Burr’s questionable proposals and from this time Wilkinson was hostile to Easton. Easton corresponded with Jefferson and Granger concerning the Burr conspiracy. Jefferson appointed him United States attorney, 1814-18 he was delegate to Congress from Missouri, 1821-26 he was attorney-general of Missouri. Easton was very prominent, entertaining almost all visitors of note. Edward Bates, Lincoln’s attorney-general, read law in Easton’s office.

Soon after coming to St. Louis, Easton began to buy up claims to land in Missouri and Illinois. When seeking to find a suitable place for a town in Illinois, he selected a point on the east bank of the Mississippi, twenty-five miles north of St. Louis and twenty miles south of the mouth of the Illinois. There was here a good landing place for boats, and also extensive beds of coal and limestone. The town was named Alton in honor of the founder’s son. One hundred lots in the new town were donated to the support of the gospel and public schools, one-half of the proceeds to be devoted to each. This provision was confirmed by the act of incorporation of January 30, 1821, and the trustees were given the right to tax undonated lots for the support of schools. This latter provision was in advance of public sentiment and two years later it was repealed. Alton, like Mt. Carmel and to a much greater extent, proved the wisdom of its location. It has long been noted for its manufactures and is a thriving modern city.(550)

The town of Springfield, since 1839 the capital of Illinois, was laid out in 1822, before the land upon which it stood was offered for sale. When the land was sold in November, 1823, the section upon which the town stood was bought by Elijah Iles, Pascal Paoli Enos, Thomas Cox, and Daniel P. Cook, each purchasing one quarter, but the title being vested by agreement in Iles and Enos. Cook, like McDowell in the founding of Mt. Carmel, seems to have been a non-resident proprietor.

Elijah Iles was a child of the wilderness. He was born in Kentucky in 1796, and died at Springfield, Illinois, in 1883, leaving valuable reminiscences of his long experience on the frontier. His mother was Elizabeth Crockett Iles, a relative of David Crockett. Elijah attended school two winters and taught two winters. In 1812, although but sixteen years of age, he acted as deputy for his father, who was sheriff of Bath county, Kentucky. Some three years later his father gave him three hundred dollars, with which he bought one hundred head of yearling cattle. For three years he herded these cattle among the mountains of Kentucky, about twenty miles from civilization, having as his only companions his horse, dog, gun, milk cow, and the cattle. His meals usually consisted of a stew made of bear meat, venison, or turkey, and a piece of fat bacon. At the end of the three years the cattle were sold for about ten dollars a head, and the youthful dealer having attained his majority went to Missouri and became a land agent for eastern speculators, and soon began to speculate for himself. In 1821, concluding that Missouri was too far from a market, he sold some of his land and resolved to move to Illinois. At that time the site upon which Springfield was to stand had been chosen as the temporary county seat of Sangamon county, because eight men, some of whom had families, lived within a radius of two miles from the site, and at no other place in the county could the lawyers and judge secure board and lodging. Iles quickly discerned the advantages of the Sangamon country as a place of settlement, and straightway built a log store sixteen feet square, went to St. Louis and bought fifteen hundred dollars worth of goods, which he loaded on a keel-boat and had towed up the Mississippi and the Illinois by six men, whom he paid seventy-five dollars for their services. When the land was offered for sale, in 1823, Iles bought a quarter-section.

Another quarter-section of the town site was bought by Pascal Paoli Enos. The fact that the frontier is a great social leveler is well illustrated by the combination of Enos and Iles as joint owners of a town site. The Enos family had come from England in 1648, and Pascal Paoli Enos, son of Major-General Roger Enos, was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1770. He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1794, studied law, was a member of the Vermont legislature in 1804, married in Vermont and moved to Cincinnati in 1815, later to St. Charles, Missouri, then to St. Louis, then to Madison county, Illinois, and in 1823 was appointed by President Monroe receiver of public moneys for the land-office in the District of Sangamo. Thus the elderly scholar joined the shrewd but youthful frontiersman.

Col. Thomas Cox was the third of the trio of the resident proprietors of Springfield. He had signed a petition for the division of Randolph county in 1812, represented Union county as a senator in the first general assembly of Illinois, and in 1820 was appointed register of the land-office at Vandalia. In 1823 he came to Springfield as register of the land-office at that place. Col. Cox was six feet tall, weighed two hundred and forty pounds, and was a drunkard within a short time after the founding of Springfield.

The most important thing about the founding of the town is the heterogeneous character of its founders. A few incidents in their subsequent history will emphasize this, and also show how well they worked together when surrounded by the same conditions. When the commissioners came to locate a permanent county seat Springfield, then called Calhoun, had a formidable rival for the honor. Iles and Enos managed to have a mutual friend engaged as guide to the commissioners. The guide conducted them to the rival settlement by a long and rough route and upon being requested to take them back over a shorter route he took a course more difficult still. The commissioners decided that the rival settlement was inaccessible. Iles was twice state senator, major in the Winnebago war, and captain in the Black Hawk war, in which he served with Zachary Taylor, Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln, John T. Stuart, Robt. Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame, and others. Iles was also a large stock dealer, selling hogs and cattle in St. Louis and mules in Kentucky, until 1838, in which year he lost ten thousand dollars on hogs packed at Alton. In 1838-9 he built the American House in Springfield. This was then the largest hotel in the state and its erection created a great sensation. He was four times state senator, and was an officer of the Bank of Edwardsville. Enos held his position as receiver until removed for political reasons by Jackson in 1829. Cox had an eventful career. He was removed from his position of register, under charges of misconduct, early in 1827; the next year he was keeping a hotel in Springfield; later he removed to Iowa, then Wisconsin, having secured a contract for the survey of public lands. He was three times a member of the Iowa territorial House of Representatives and twice a member of the territorial Council. A band of murderers, horsethieves, counterfeiters, and blacklegs, having gained possession of the town of Bellevue, on the Mississippi, in Jackson county, Iowa, Col. Cox led the citizens in a successful attack in which seven men were killed outright and some ten or fifteen wounded. At this time Cox was recognized as a pronounced drunkard, but his undoubted courage, ability to command, and strong physique secured him a following.(551)

Shadrach Bond, the first governor of Illinois, and Pierre Menard, the first lieutenant-governor, were both poorly educated, but they had a good knowledge of men and a large fund of information concerning practical affairs.(552) Edward Coles, the second governor of the state, is a good example of the polished, well-educated gentleman succeeding with a rude constituency. Coles was born in 1786, in Albemarle county, Virginia, fitted for college by private tutors, educated at Hampden Sidney and later at William and Mary College. His father’s home was visited by Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, the Randolphs, Tazwell, Wirt, and others. For six years Coles was the private secretary of President Madison, and during this time he became an intimate friend of Nicholas Biddle. In 1815 he visited Illinois in what must have seemed at that time great state, for he traveled not only with a horse and buggy, but with a servant and a saddle-horse as well. In 1816-17 he was sent as a special messenger to Russia, stopping at Paris on his return, meeting Louis XVIII. of France and becoming a friend of Lafayette. In 1819 he came to Edwardsville, Illinois, emancipated his slaves, and assumed his duties as register of the land-office. The rough pioneers were very anxious to get a title to their lands. “When the settler reached Edwardsville, dressed in jeans and wearing moccasins, with his money in his belt, having traveled on foot or on horseback long distances, and first presented himself to the Register of the Land Office, there he found Edward Coles, who had recently emigrated into the State from Virginia. It was known to some of them that he had been the private secretary for President Madison, and had been on an important mission to Europe.

“They found him a young man of handsome, but somewhat awkward personal appearance, genteelly dressed, and of kind and agreeable manners. The anxious settler was at once put at ease by the suavity of his address, the interest he appeared to feel in aiding him, and the thoroughly intelligent manner in which he discharged his duty. No man went away who was not delighted with his intercourse with the ‘Register.’ And herein is illustrated the great mistake so often made by politicians and candidates for popular favor. Too many candidates for the suffrage of the people in our early political contests thought it necessary, in order to make themselves popular, to affect slovenly and unclean dress and vulgar manners in their campaigns. There was never a greater mistake. However rough, ill-clothed and unintelligent the voter might be, he always preferred to vote for the man who was dressed and acted like a gentleman to the one who dressed like and acted like himself.”(553) Coles was always dignified, always gentlemanly, and always respected. His brief residence in Illinois affected its history for all time to come. Like Coles in several respects was his successor as governor, Ninian Edwards. Born in Maryland in 1775, educated by the celebrated William Wirt, and later graduating from Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, at nineteen years of age he came to Kentucky. Here he served two terms in the Kentucky legislature, was presiding judge of the general court, circuit judge, and chief-justice of the court of appeals. Henry Clay gave as Edwards’ marked characteristics, good understanding, weight of character, and conciliatory manners. In his campaign for governor of Illinois, Edwards presented himself as the highest type of a polished and well-dressed gentleman, always riding in his own carriage and driven by his negro servant, and dressing in all the style of an old-fashioned gentleman with broad-cloth coat, ruffled shirt, and high-topped boots. The people were not repelled by such a display, but considered it an honor to vote for such a man. The egotistical Adolphus Frederick Hubbard, who was one of the two opponents of Edwards, intermingled bad grammar and poor attempts at wit in his electioneering speeches, and received less than one-tenth of the number of votes cast for either of the two other candidates.(554)

WORKS CONSULTED.

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 __ 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 __ 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:—

I. History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois,
by George Flower, 1882. 408 pp.

II. Sketch of Enoch Long, by Harvey Reid, 1884. 112 pp.

III. The Edwards Papers, edited by E. B. Washburne, 1884. 632 pp.

IV. Early Chicago and Illinois, 1889. 400 pp. Of great value.

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_, 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 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, 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.