REESE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 I UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. | 
 
 Class 
 
FORDHAM'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE 
 1817-1818 
 
PERSONAL NARRATIVE 
 
 OF 
 
 Travels in Virginia ^ JUaryland^ 
 T^ennsylvaniay Ohioy Indiana^ 
 Exntucky'y and of a Residence in 
 the Illinois Territory: 1817-1818 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIAS PYM FORDHAM 
 
 With facsimiles of the author s sketches and plans 
 
 Edited by 
 FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, A. M. 
 
 Author of "The Opening of the Mississippi" 
 
 Cleveland 
 
 The Arthur H. Clark Company 
 
 1906 
 
^^ 
 
 tse 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY 
 THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Editor's Preface ii 
 
 Editor's Introduction 13 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative: 1817-1818 
 
 Original Preface 41 
 
 The ocean voyage — Ascent of the James — A Virginia land- 
 scape — Petersburg — The Virginia farmers — Voyage from 
 Norfolk to Baltimore — The coasts of the Chesapeake 43 
 
 II 
 
 Character of the Virginians — Unhealthful physical condi- 
 tions — Baltimore — Communications between Baltimore 
 and Pittsburg — The Marylanders — The Pennsylvanians — 
 The East and West as fields for settlement -55 
 
 III 
 
 Vices of the western Pennsylvanians — Slavery, and society 
 in the slave states — The Climate of the United States . 64 
 
 IV 
 
 Methods of earlier writers on the West — Pittsburg — In- 
 dustries of the vicinity — Flat-boats and keels on the Ohio 
 
 — The start down the river — Neville's Island — Logstown 
 
 — Beavertown — Wheeling — Fish Creek — A thunder- 
 storm — Marietta — The Muskingham [Muskingum] — Blen- 
 nerhassett's Island — Galliopagus [Gallipolis] — Portsmouth 
 
 — Manchester — Maysville — Augusta — Arrival at Cincin- 
 nati 70 
 
 Lack of time for writing — The trip across Indiana — Vin- 
 cennes — The Indians of the neighborhood — Princeton — 
 Prices of land 95 
 
 VI 
 
 The forests of Indiana — The Indiana Constitution — Char- 
 acter and prices of land — Emigration directed further west 
 — Commercial importance of the Mississippi — Unhealthy 
 conditions on the lower Mississippi — The Wabash — De- 
 scription of Princeton — Prospective visit to the Illinois 
 Territory 100 
 
 ir>i92i 
 
Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 VII 
 
 Physical character of southern Illinois — The English Prairie 
 
 — Three lines of communication with the Atlantic — Set- 
 tlers in and about the English Prairies — Rates of freightage 
 
 — Cost of travel — A tabular view of products — Fauna of 
 the region — Salt deposits — Cost of building — Advantages 
 of the backwoods settler — Profits of trade — Land the basis 
 of wealth — The Mississippi river system — Slaves and 
 bound persons — Classes of frontier settlers — Character of 
 the backwoodsman — Democratic manners — Signs of prog- 
 ress — How to take up land — Eastern ignorance of the 
 West — The climate — Size of the Illinois Territory — Op- 
 portunities for capital in Illinois — No prejudice against 
 liberal-minded Englishmen iii 
 
 VIII 
 
 A trip down the Patoka — Winter labors and amusements -r- 
 Christmas — Legislation against duelling — A journey to 
 Cincinnati — Lack of scenery — Difficulties of travel — A 
 frontier j udge — Fredericksburg — Albany — Louisville — 
 Shelbyville — Cost of lodgings — Frankfort — The Ken- 
 tuckians — Arrival at Cincinnati 136 
 
 IX 
 
 A trip across the Wabash in search of land — A night in the 
 woods — The people of Indiana — The Kentuckians . . 166 
 
 The Americanizing of emigrants — Attitude of Westerners 
 toward Englishmen — Prospective peace with the southern 
 Indians — Emigration to Missouri — Mr. Birkbeck's estate 
 
 — Fordham's farm — Opportunities for men with capital — 
 Respect for education and manners 170 
 
 XI 
 
 The people of Virginia — The Kentuckians — The winning 
 of Kentucky from the Indians — The work of Daniel Boone 
 
 — Sensations experienced in the wilderness — Nature of 
 Indian warfare — Cassidy's achievements — Manner of life 
 of a wealthy Kentucky farmer — Society inchoate in the Illi- 
 nois Country — The farming class — The hunters . . 176 
 
 XII 
 
 Dimensions of the Ohio — Its scenery — Velocity of the cur- 
 rent — La Salle on the Ohio — Early settlements in the 
 West — Struggle of frontiersmen and Indians — Population 
 of the western states — The growth of Cincinnati — Descrip- 
 tion of the city — Manners of the people — The negro popu- 
 lation — Story of the negro Anthony — Character of the 
 flatboatmen 183 
 
Contents 
 
 XIII 
 
 A record of temperatures — A hard winter — Life during 
 the cold weather — The cHmate and health — Reasons for 
 lack of longevity among the Westerners — A trip from 
 Princeton to the English Prairie — The hiring of laborers — 
 Entering more land — English manners to be preserved in 
 Mr. Birkbeck's settlement — Possibility of an Indian war — 
 The Rappites of Harmony — Their manners and character 
 — Religious services 19S 
 
 XIV 
 
 Rise of land values — The question of admitting slavery — 
 Lack of free laborers — Wages and expenses of laborers — 
 Land for every immigrant — Mr. Birkbeck's plan for the 
 settlement of his English laborers — Difficulties of estab- 
 lishing a settlement — Threatened incursion of Indians — 
 Kentucky hospitality — Mode of life of the Kentuckians 209 
 
 XV 
 
 Mr. Birkbeck's book — A journal of ten days — A fourth of 
 July celebration — The coming struggle over slavery in Illi- 
 nois — Acts of Congress regarding Illinois — A projected 
 trip up the Red River — Character of the backwoodsman — : 
 
 High regard for Englishmen — The life of the hunters on 
 the Wabash — The hunters on the Missouri — Men needed 
 to develop the wilderness 217 
 
 XVI 
 
 Opportunities for English settlers in the West — Sacrifices 
 and comforts of frontier life — Places of settlement recom- 
 mended for various classes of English emigrants — Expenses 
 of living — Servitude 226 
 
 XVII 
 
 The prevalence of intermittent fevers — The climate of Illi- 
 nois — Lung troubles almost unknown 230 
 
 XVIII 
 
 The town of Albion planned — Continued surveying — The 
 surrounding prairies — Prairie fires. Instructions for Emi- 
 grants : Capital required — Paying occupations — Clothing 
 to be brought — Blankets a good investment — Travelling in 
 the steerage — The journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg 
 — Down the Ohio to the Illinois Country .... 233 
 
 Selected List of Contemporary Travels . . 239 
 Index 243 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Plan of Pittsburg in i 817 . . . . 73 
 
 Ohio River Flatboat and Keelboat . . T7 
 
 English Prairie 113 
 
 Sketch Map of Fordham's Estate, English 
 
 Prairie (text cut) . . . • -173 
 
 Plan of Cincinnati in 181 8 . . . . 185 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE 
 
 For information regarding the personal history of 
 Elias Pym Fordham, author of the narrative here- 
 with pubHshed, the Editor is indebted to Dr. Hubert 
 de Laserre Spence, of Cleveland, Ohio, vi^ho has 
 supplied not only a statement of his own knowledge 
 of the enterprising young Englishman, but also a 
 memorandum by his aunt, Sophia Worthington, 
 and an interesting manuscript embodying the 
 recollections of Mary Spence, his mother. 
 
 The preparation of the notes has been facilitated 
 to such a degree by recent volumes of Early 
 Western Travels, 1748- 1846, edited by Dr. Reuben 
 Gold Thwaites, that special acknowledgment of 
 obligation ought to be made for use of material 
 in the early volumes of travel made accessible 
 in that valuable series. Full titles of the works 
 chiefly referred to will be found in the list of con- 
 temporary travels at the end of this volume. It is 
 hoped that the publication of the Fordham manu- 
 script may be of service to students of Western 
 history in general, and especially to those inter- 
 ested in the processes by which the composite popu- 
 lation of the Mississippi Valley was built up in the 
 great era of migration. 
 
 F. A. O. 
 
 Harvard University, January, 1906. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 The years immediately following the close of the 
 second war with Great Britain witnessed a remark- 
 able increase in the population of the Mississippi 
 Valley, particularly of the old Northwest Territory 
 and the remoter regions of Missouri and Arkansas. 
 Aside from the high birth-rate uniformly charac- 
 teristic of American frontier communities, this 
 increase was due to an unprecedented influx of 
 settlers from two sources : the seaboard states and 
 Europe, chiefly Great Britain and Germany. 
 
 Prior to about 1815 emigration from the East 
 to the West had been large in the aggregate, but 
 very unsteady. The westward movement had been 
 in the nature of successive waves separated by inter- 
 vals of comparative inactivity. Three important 
 epochs of migration since the establishment of 
 national independence can be distinguished: (i) the 
 years of uncertainty and distress between the end of 
 the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution ; 
 (2) the period including the "hard times" of 1800 
 and culminating in the acquisition of the Louisiana 
 Territory in 1803; and (3) the era of commercial 
 depression which began with the embargo of 1807 
 and continued until relieved by the succeeding war. 
 During each of these periods of unsettlement, thou- 
 sands of people in the older states abandoned con- 
 ditions which they found disadvantageous, or posi- 
 tively onerous, and yielded to the allurements of 
 
14 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 the far-famed West. As time went on, the numbers 
 increased and the movement tended steadily to 
 become more constant and less dependent upon 
 prosperity or the lack of it on the seaboard. 
 
 The outbreak of war in 1812, with the accom- 
 panying Indian uprisings in the West, checked the 
 flow of homeseekers temporarily ; but by the winter 
 of 1 8 14 the exodus from the East along the high- 
 ways of New York and Pennsylvania and down 
 the Ohio had come to be on such a scale as to call 
 forth astonished comment in all sections of the 
 country. By 1816 Ohio, which the census of 1810 
 showed to contain a population of 230,000, was 
 estimated to be the home of 400,000 whites. In 
 these six years the population of Indiana increased 
 from 24,000 to 70,000, enabling this territory in 
 1816 to become a member of the federal union. 
 From 406,000 to more than 500,000 was Kentucky's 
 growth in the same period. And Illinois was 
 brought from 13,000 or 14,000 almost to the attain- 
 ment of statehood. The frontier — technically de- 
 fined as the line of at least two settlers to the square 
 mile, though more properly to be regarded as a belt 
 or zone than as a line — was pushed back rapidly 
 and given long finger-like protrusions up the larger 
 water-courses, especially the Wabash, the Kaskas- 
 kia, the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Arkansas, 
 and the Red. 
 
 In the Eastern states, where there was a strong 
 disposition to lament the draining off of the sturdi- 
 est elements of the population, it was expected that 
 
Introduction 15 
 
 the end of the war and the restoration of commer- 
 cial prosperity (together with the rise of new and 
 profitable industries) would reduce emigration 
 across the Alleghenies to something like its earlier 
 volume. But this anticipation was not realized. 
 With each succeeding year after the Peace of Ghent 
 the number of emigrants rose to a higher figure, 
 and as a matter of fact the decade from 181 5 to 
 1825 became the period during which the central 
 Mississippi Valley attained its highest per cent of 
 increase in population in the century. Land-hunger, 
 dislike of overcrowding, discontent with economic 
 conditions, love of adventure and novelty — these 
 were the great forces which impelled men to for- 
 sake New England, New York, and Virginia for 
 the ruder but roomier prairies and river-valleys of 
 the West. The final suppression of the Indians, by 
 William Henry Harrison in the Northwest and 
 by Jackson in the South, relieved many prospective 
 emigrants of the fears which had hitherto been an 
 insuperable obstacle ; and the development of steam 
 navigation on the western lakes and rivers, which 
 began with the launching of the "New Orleans" 
 on the Ohio in 181 1, provided means of travel and 
 trade distinctively stimulative to migration and set- 
 tlement. 
 
 The peopling of the West, however, was not left 
 entirely to be accomplished by the migrations of 
 native Americans. The same decade which was 
 marked by so considerable a westward movement 
 from the seaboard states was likewise notable for 
 
i6 Fordham^s Personal Narrative 
 
 the unprecedented immigration of Europeans, part 
 of whom settled in the East and offset in a measure 
 the depopulation caused by the westward exodus, 
 but a very large proportion of whom pressed on 
 across the mountains in quest of homes in the fertile 
 and undeveloped interior. Prior to 1820 no records 
 of immigration were kept by the United States 
 Government, and hence we have nothing better than 
 unofficial estimates from which to judge the extent 
 of the settlement of Europeans in America during 
 the six important years following the Peace of 
 Ghent. Since the majority of immigrants in this 
 part of the century came from Great Britain, the 
 hostilities of 1811-1814 very naturally caused a 
 marked cessation in the movement. But about 
 1 81 7 the tide resumed with greater force than ever, 
 and in that year the total number of immigrants 
 arriving was estimated at over 20,0(X). The num- 
 ber the following year was probably about the same. 
 Congress saw in these figures a necessity for legis- 
 lation to regulate the transportation of immigrants 
 and to prevent the overcrowding of ships on which 
 they made the voyage to the United States; and 
 a law was enacted, March 2, 18 19, containing suit- 
 able provisions in this direction and prescribing 
 that an official count should begin to be kept the 
 following year. The first records obtained in con- 
 sequence of this legislation showed how overwhelm- 
 ingly our immigrants from the United Kingdom 
 outnumbered those from other European countries. 
 While from September, 18 19, to September, 1820, 
 
Introduction 17 
 
 the number of Germans coming to the United 
 States was but 948, of Frenchmen but 371, and 
 of Spaniards but 139, that of British and Irish was 
 6,000. ; 
 
 The close of the Napoleonic wars left Great ' 
 Britain in a condition, politically and economically, 
 exceedingly favorable to heavy emigration. The 
 nation had been engaged in a titanic conflict which 
 had lasted with little intermission for more than 
 twenty-two years and which had left the Govern- 
 ment staggering under a war debt of £831,000,000. 
 During this long period the movement for larger 
 popular liberty, which had grown to considerable 
 proportions during the years in which the seeds of 
 revolution were ripening in France, had been held 
 in abeyance; much had been lost in this time and 
 nothing gained by the cause of liberalism. The 
 Tory ministry, absorbed wholly in the conflict with 
 the ambitious Corsican, had shown itself quite indif- 
 ferent to domestic well-being and in the hour of 
 victory its proud and complacent attitude betokened 
 the period of political reaction through which Eng- 
 land was destined in the next decade to pass. 
 The establishment of a lasting peace cleared the 
 way for a revival of domestic problems, and a great 
 mass of discontented people who had been patriotic 
 enough to withhold their criticisms while the nation 
 was in danger, now became more insistent than 
 ever that numerous and far-reaching reforms in 
 governmental and industrial conditions be speedily 
 undertaken. T 
 
1 8 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Part of the evils complained of were political. 
 Owing to excessive property requirements for the 
 exercise of the franchise and the lack of adjust- 
 ment of representation to the distribution of popu- 
 lation, Parliament was very far from constituting 
 a true national assembly and its legislation was 
 felt to be that of a class for a class, regardless of 
 the interests of the masses of the people. The 
 multiplying of sinecure offices, created and main- 
 tained at heavy public expense for the benefit of 
 do-nothing aristocrats, was regarded as another 
 crying political abuse. Even more critical were 
 the evils of an economic character. England was 
 yet in the throes of the Industrial Revolution, and 
 thousands of men were being crowded out of em- 
 ployment, temporarily at least, by the introduction 
 of machinery and the establishment of the factory 
 system. Then the return of peace reduced the for- 
 eign demand for many kinds of manufactured 
 goods, resulting in a yet further over-supply of 
 labor. The Corn Law of 1815, enacted for the 
 express purpose of keeping up the price of food- 
 stuffs, in the interest of the aristocratic landlord 
 class, bore intolerably on the poverty-stricken ten- 
 ants, and indeed upon the entire laboring class of 
 the realm. The condition of the poor, in both city 
 and country, was worse, relatively if not absolutely, 
 in 181 5 than it had been thirty years before. Wages 
 which fell below the cost of bare subsistence coupled 
 with rising rents and famine prices for bread could 
 but stir up the spirit of insurrection; for eco- 
 
Introduction 19 
 
 nomic distress will frequently provoke men to 
 action when political disabilities call forth only 
 harmless complaint. 
 
 The result was a period of incessant agitation 
 for reform — for the liberalizing of the Government 
 so that laws might be made according to the de- 
 sires of the majority of the people, for the imme- 
 diate repeal of obnoxious class legislation like the 
 Corn Law, and for the cutting off of aristocratic 
 sinecures and every other excrescence which made 
 the burdens of the ordinary people harder to be 
 borne. Led by William Cobbett, editor of the 
 Weekly Political Register, Major John Cart- 
 wright, and others, the liberal element (organized 
 into the Radical Party in 1819) entered upon a 
 campaign which soon stirred the whole population 
 and caused the Government to take stern measures 
 to prevent the growth of the disaffection. Riots 
 and popular demonstrations of every character be- 
 came common and on several occasions — notably 
 the gathering at Spa Fields, London, in 1816, and 
 the Manchester Massacre (or ''battle of Peterloo") 
 in 1 8 19 — the assemblies of the people to protest 
 and organize against the existing state of things 
 were forcibly broken up. 
 
 Success was destined to reward the agitators, 
 but not until after many years and in many cases 
 in ways quite different from those they had mapped 
 out. In the meantime, during the period from about 
 1 81 5 to 1820, while the movement was yet young 
 and far from promising, many men became dis- 
 
20 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 couraged or impatient and sought the relief in emi- 
 gration which they could see little reason to hope 
 for if they remained in their old homes. "A nation," 
 declared one of these, "with half its population sup- 
 ported by alms, or poor-rates, and one fourth of its 
 income derived from taxes, many of which are dried 
 up in their sources, or speedily becoming so, must 
 teem with emigrants from one end to the other: 
 and, for such as myself, who have had 'nothing to 
 do with the laws but to obey them/ it is quite reason- 
 able and just to secure a timely retreat from the 
 approaching crisis — either of anarchy or despot- 
 ism." About 1817-18 the desire to emigrate spread 
 over the entire country and affected all classes of 
 people except the privileged aristocrats. The land 
 to which men looked for a new home, one which 
 would be free from the oppressions of an aristo- 
 cratic government and the distress occasioned by its 
 economic policies, was quite naturally the United 
 States. In the first place its population was made 
 up predominantly of English-speaking people, 
 bound to English people everywhere by numerous 
 ties of sentiment and interest. In the next place it 
 had at its disposal a superabundance of the choicest 
 of land, which it was ready to bestow at inconsider- 
 able cost. Even in the Eastern states land could be 
 had at reasonable rates, and beyond the Alleghenies, 
 especially in Indiana, Illinois, and to the westward, 
 it need only be entered according to legal process 
 and paid for wnthin four years at the rate of two 
 dollars an acre. Finally, the rapidly expanding 
 
Introduction 21 
 
 manufactures of the United States, created largely 
 during the war period, called for thousands of 
 skilled laborers, so that English mechanics and 
 artisans could expect to find profitable employment 
 without being compelled to resort to the unaccus- 
 tomed occupation of agriculture. 
 
 As a consequence of discouraging conditions at 
 home and liberal advertising of the opportunities 
 offered in America, emigration became easily the 
 most discussed subject of the times, aside from 
 the transcendent question of reform. That the 
 actual migration in the years after 181 5 was large 
 is abundantly attested, not only by fragmentary 
 evidences in contemporary American records, but 
 also by the files of all the important English news- 
 papers and magazines of the period. On the one 
 hand, accounts of popular meetings in the interest 
 of emigration to America are abundant, and on 
 the other innumerable editorials and articles bewail 
 the departure of the tillers of the soil, and also 
 of not a few capitalists, for an alien country. The 
 press made a united demand upon Parliament to 
 stop the "ruinous drain of the most useful part of 
 the population of the United Kingdom," and all 
 manner of arguments, including many palpable 
 falsehoods, were brought forth to dissuade men 
 from migrating. But it was to no avail. People 
 came from all parts of the kingdom, both country 
 and city, to the ports to take passage. We are told 
 that 229 English immigrants landed at New York 
 in a single week, and that in the week ending Au- 
 
22 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 gust 23, 1 81 7, 1500 arrived at the five ports of 
 New York, New London, Perth Amboy, Philadel- 
 phia, and Boston. Nor were the imniigrants all, 
 or even generally, of the poorest class. English law 
 forbade vessels to carry more than two passengers 
 for each ton, and this restriction was in itself suffi- 
 cient to keep passenger rates at a high figure and 
 to preclude the pauper class from taking passage. 
 This fact only increased the indignation of the 
 English press, since the people who migrated were 
 almost exclusively the fairly well-to-do who could 
 most ill be spared. In his Sketches of America, 
 published in London in 1819, Henry Bradshaw 
 Fearon tells us that by 1817, when he was deputed 
 by thirty-nine English families to visit the United 
 States and ascertain what portions of the country 
 were best adapted to settlement by Englishmen, 
 "Emigration had . . . assumed a totally new 
 character: it was no longer merely the poor, the 
 idle, the profligate, or the wildly speculative, who 
 were proposing to quit their native country; but 
 men also of capital, of industry, of sober habits and 
 regular pursuits, men of reflection who apprehended 
 approaching evils ; men of upright and conscientious 
 minds, to whose happiness civil and religious liberty 
 were essential; and men of domestic feehngs, who 
 wished to provide for the future support and pros- 
 perity of their offspring." 
 
 While the controversy regarding the expediency 
 of the settlement of Englishmen in America was 
 raging, an enterprise of large moment was under- 
 
Introduction 23 
 
 taken by two gentlemen of wealth and influence liv- 
 ing in the vicinity of London — Messrs. Morris 
 Birkbeck and George Flower. This was the estab- 
 lishment of an agricultural colony in southeastern 
 Illinois, in the portion of Edwards County which 
 afterwards came to be known as the English Prai- 
 rie. Morris Birkbeck (i 763-1825) was a successful 
 practical farmer of Quaker origin who very well 
 represents the type of well-to-do middle class Eng- 
 lishmen in this period who were dissatisfied with 
 conditions in England and saw little prospect of an 
 early improvement. Happening, in 181 6, to meet 
 the American diplomat, Edward Coles, who was 
 returning from a mission to Russia, he first got 
 from him an authoritative idea of the vast extent 
 of unoccupied lands in the Illinois country. After 
 some reflection he determined to sell his estate near 
 London, migrate to Illinois with his family, and 
 there prepare the way for the establishment of a 
 colony of discontented English country laborers. 
 Doubtless he expected to better his own fortunes, 
 but his project seems to have been shaped in no 
 small degree by philanthropic considerations. An- 
 other English farmer of similar station, George 
 Flower, was attracted by the scheme and decided 
 to join his old friend in it. In the summer of 181 6 
 Flower came out to America in advance to get a 
 personal knowledge of the land and its people. He 
 visited various sections of the country, including 
 the West, and, returning to Virginia in the autumn, 
 spent most of the winter with Thomas Jefferson at 
 
24 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Monticello. The following spring Birkbeck, with 
 his family, landed at City Point, Virginia, and with 
 Flower proceeded to the Illinois. A tract of 16,000 
 acres of unbroken prairie was in part purchased 
 outright and in part designated to be taken up later, 
 and on this it was planned to locate the prospective 
 colonists. The purchase lay in Edwards County, 
 which at that time embraced an immense area, ex- 
 tending almost from the Ohio to Upper Canada and 
 including a portion of the present state of Wis- 
 consin. The two promoters then began to build 
 log huts, import furniture, and make other prepara- 
 tions for the influx of settlers. Reports of the most 
 optimistic character were sent back to England, 
 with the result that a new stimulus was given to 
 emigration, though many of the persons thus at- 
 tracted found land that suited them without going 
 so far west as to the English Prairie. 
 
 In the same year in which the settlement was 
 begun Birkbeck pubHshed a book under the title 
 Notes on a Journey in America from the Coast of 
 Virginia to the Territory of Illinois, with Proposals 
 for the Establishment of a Colony of English (Phil- 
 adelphia, 181 7). The next year another book. Let- 
 ters from Illinois (London, 1818), appeared from 
 the same author. Both attracted widespread atten- 
 tion in England, and the English Prairie settlement 
 became the center about which was waged the whole 
 controversy over the expediency of emigration of 
 English people to America. Birkbeck's writings 
 represented emigration, particularly if directed to 
 
Introduction 25 
 
 his section of Illinois, as an enviable escape from 
 political oppression and economic ruin and a sure 
 road to good fortune and happiness. Some of those, 
 however, whom he induced to settle in the western 
 country were keenly disappointed, and, embittered 
 by ill-luck or the hardships of frontier life, sent 
 back reports denouncing Birkbeck in no uncertain 
 terms and asserting that, having been himself de- 
 ceived in the character of the American interior, 
 he was seeking to recoup himself by selling his 
 lands to unsuspecting emigrants. The letters of 
 the malcontents were seized upon and made use of 
 with avidity by those who were laboring to restrain 
 emigration, while on the other hand men who were 
 satisfied with the Western settlement or who had 
 interests involved in its prosperity, as warmly de- 
 fended Birkbeck's project. The result was a veri- 
 table war of the newspaper writers and pam- 
 phleteers — a war in the first instance between two 
 groups of English writers attacking and defending, 
 respectively, the policy of emigration; and in its 
 later phase between the English who satirized 
 American conditions and the Americans who re- 
 sented this procedure and declaimed vehemently 
 against it. While the literary belligerents talked 
 and wrote, the people continued to migrate. Ad- 
 lard Welby, a conservative Englishman who made a 
 tour of inspection in the West in 18 19, very fairly 
 summed up the situation when he said: "These 
 favorable accounts [the writings of Birkbeck], 
 aided by a period of real privation and discontent 
 
26 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 in Europe, caused emigration to increase ten-fold; 
 and though various reports of unfavorable nature 
 soon circulated, and many who had emigrated actu- 
 ally returned to their native land in disgust, yet 
 still the trading vessels were filled with passengers 
 of all ages and descriptions, full of hope, looking 
 forward to the West as to a land of liberty and 
 delight — a land flowing with milk and honey — a 
 second land of Canaan." 
 
 The ablest attack upon the English Prairie 
 scheme was made by William Cobbett, the noted 
 Radical leader and pamphleteer, who, in 1818, pub- 
 lished his Year's Residence in the United States of 
 America (New York, 1818), by way of a reply to 
 Mr. Birkbeck's books. Cobbett was not opposed 
 to emigration from England in itself, but he sav- 
 agely denounced Birkbeck and all others who 
 sought to induce the emigrant to go beyond the 
 Alleghenies in search of a home. His writing upon 
 this subject was done at a farm in Long Island 
 where he was living in virtual exile, with prosecu- 
 tion for political offenses hanging over him if he 
 returned to British jurisdiction. It cannot be known 
 definitely whether, as Birkbeck declared, he was 
 practically bought up by Eastern capitalists to ad- 
 vocate the settling of immigrants in the seaboard 
 states rather than on the western prairies, but in 
 any case this was the policy he urged with uncom- 
 promising fervor. For information as to what 
 really were the conditions at the English Prairie 
 Cobbett made use of Thomas Hulme*s Journal made 
 
Introduction 27 
 
 during a Tour in the Western Countries of Amer- 
 ica: Sept. ^o, 18 18 — August /, 18 1 p. Hulme was 
 an honest English farmer, strongly Radical in prin- 
 ciples and a follower of Cobbett. On the whole his 
 Journal, however, exhibits a favorable attitude 
 toward the Birkbeck enterprise, and it was only by 
 twisting its statements and utterly ignoring their 
 real import that the vilifying pamphleteer could 
 adapt them to his ends. Cobbett's attack, which was 
 renewed in successive editions of his book and in 
 other writings, brought the English Prairie settle- 
 ment its highest measure of notoriety, though 
 scarcely to its profit. Birkbeck kept up his side of 
 the controversy in similar new editions and inci- 
 dental effusions, and was not lacking in out-spoken 
 supporters. Chief among these was Richard 
 Flower, father of George Flower, who in 1818 
 sold his estate in Hertfordshire and joined his rela- 
 tives and former neighbors in Illinois. In 1819 he 
 published Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 
 containing a Brief Account of the English Settle- 
 ment in the Latter Territory, and a Refutation of 
 the Misrepresentations of Mr. Cobbett (London, 
 1819) ; and somewhat later Letters from the Illi- 
 nois, 1820, 182 1. Containing an Account of the 
 English Settlement at Albion and its Vicinity, and 
 a Refutation of Various Misrepresentations, Those 
 more particularly of Mr. Cobbett (London, 1822). 
 In 1 82 1 John Woods, a well-to-do, practical, and 
 observant English farmer who had but lately estab- 
 lished a home in the West, published Two Years' 
 
28 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie, 
 in the Illinois Country, United States. This, like 
 Flower's books, was a sane, honest description of 
 the settlement, which contrasted markedly in these 
 qualities with the glib criticisms of writers like 
 Cobbett, and showed that if conditions and pros- 
 pects were not quite so roseate as Birkbeck pictured 
 them they were at least immeasurably better than 
 the detractors would have people believe. 
 
 Other books of this period, written by English 
 travelers and settlers and containing noteworthy 
 descriptions of the English Prairie in particular or 
 of the Illinois country in general, are : ( i ) Henry 
 Bradshaw Fearon's Sketches of America. A Nar- 
 rative of a Journey of five thousand miles through 
 the Eastern and Western States of America; with 
 Remarks on Mr. Birkheck's "Notes" and "Letters" 
 (London, 1819) ; (2) Adlard Welby's Visit to 
 North America and the English Settlements in Illi- 
 nois, with a Winter Residence at Philadelphia (Lon- 
 don, 1821); (3) William Tell Harris's Remarks 
 made during a Tour through the United States 
 of America during the years 18 ly, 18 18, and 
 181Q (London, 1821); (4) James Flint's Letters 
 from America (Edinburgh, 1822) ; (5) George W. 
 Ogden's Letters from the West, comprising a Tour 
 through the Western Country, and a Residence of 
 two summers in the States of Ohio and Kentucky 
 (New Bedford, 1823); and (6) William Faux's 
 Memorable Days in America: being a Journal of 
 a Tour to the United States, principally undertaken 
 
Introduction 29 
 
 to ascertain, by positive evidence, the condition and 
 probable prospects of British Emigrants; including 
 accounts of Mr. Birkbeck's settlement in the Illinois 
 (London, 1823). Of these six writers it may be 
 added simply that Fearon was an agent sent out 
 by thirty-nine Enghsh famihes to ascertain what 
 parts of the United States were best adapted to set- 
 tlement; Welby was a conservative farmer of the 
 upper middle class, prone to display in his writings 
 a degree of insularity and prejudice even beyond 
 that displayed by the average English traveler of 
 the time; Harris was a fair-minded student of 
 agrarian questions who came to America "with a 
 view to estimating the advantages the United States 
 were represented to afford;" Flint was a Scotch 
 economist who emigrated primarily to study prices, 
 wages, land questions, and labor problems, but who 
 found pleasure in observing and recording his im- 
 pressions of all sorts of things having little connec- 
 tion with economics; Ogden was an agriculturist 
 and traveler of much the same type as Harris ; and 
 Faux was another farmer whose object in visiting 
 the United States was to investigate the advisabil- 
 ity of English migration thither — a writer who, 
 though of inferior grade, yet in his characteristic 
 blunt and inelegant manner supplies much valuable 
 information. 
 
 One of the party of nine which accompanied Birk- 
 beck to America in the spring of 181 7 was a young 
 Englishman by the name of Elias Pym Fordham, 
 author of the letters and journal herewith published. 
 
30 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The family to which Fordham belonged is among 
 the oldest in Eastern England. The claim is made 
 that its line of descent can be traced back with ease 
 as far as the time of King Stephen. For eight cen- 
 turies its ancestral estates in Hertfordshire and 
 Cambridgeshire have passed from generation to 
 generation, and they are today in the possession of 
 a branch of its vigorous descendants. Elias Ford- 
 ham, father of Elias Pym, was born in 1763, and 
 at the age of twenty-one married Mary Clapton, 
 one of the last descendants of an honorable old fam- 
 ily which, among other distinctions, had furnished 
 Elizabeth a lord chancellor. The elder Fordham 
 is described as a lively, bright, and happy man, 
 whose admirable character and gracious manner 
 won for him a multitude of friends. He was edu- 
 cated to be a Trinitarian minister and for some 
 years had charge of a congregation of that faith; 
 but, suffering an attack of throat trouble, he decided 
 after a time to abandon the ministry and to become 
 a brewer. In the new occupation he was doing well, 
 until one night while riding near his home his horse 
 stumbled over a tipsy man who, when aroused, man- 
 aged to mumble that "it was all along of Fordham's 
 fine ale." The incident troubled the conscientious 
 brewer and the upshot was that he gave over the 
 business, retired to Gannock where he had some 
 property and, renting a tract of land of his brother, 
 spent the rest of his life as a farmer. During his 
 later years he occupied much of his time with occa- 
 sional preaching, though diligent study of his Bible 
 
Introduction 31 
 
 had led him to reject the Trinitarian and to adopt 
 the hitherto despised Unitarian creed. In those 
 days Unitarianism was looked upon by people gen- 
 erally with horror; yet so exemplary and sincere 
 a man was Fordham that, rank dissenter though he 
 had become, the bishop of his diocese licensed the 
 kitchen of the worthy farmer's residence as a place 
 for public worship. s. 
 
 In 1808 Mrs. Fordham died, leaving two sons, 
 Elias Pym and Charles, and five daughters, Anne, 
 Maria, Catherine, Harriet, and Sophia. Elias Pym 
 became a pupil of George Stephenson and while yet 
 a young man developed into a capable and promis- 
 ing engineer. Despite his enviable prospects, how- 
 ever, he was seized with the fever for migration to 
 America which spread over England about 181 6 
 and instead of settling in the practice of his pro- 
 fession at home began to cast about for a chance to 
 try his fortunes in the New World. The opportu- 
 nity was speedily forthcoming. George Flower was 
 an uncle of his by marriage, and when Flower de- 
 cided to take part in Birkbeck's projected settlement 
 in the Illinois, Fordham, who was then twenty-nine 
 years of age, resolved to be one of the first members 
 of the new colony. As has already been related, 
 Flower came to America in 18 16, in advance of the 
 rest of the party. Fordham came with Birkbeck 
 and his family early the next year. The vessel on 
 which they took passage from Gravesend brought 
 them to the James River, in Virginia, whence the 
 Birkbecks continued their journey westward over 
 
32 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 the mountains to Pittsburg, traveling in a phaeton 
 and a light Jersey wagon, and thence went on horse- 
 back across southern Ohio to Cincinnati. Fordham 
 took charge of the equipment which was being 
 transported to the new settlement, consisting main- 
 ly of farming implements and household furniture, 
 and arranged for its transportation by water from 
 Norfolk to Baltimore, thence overland to Pittsburg 
 and down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, where the 
 party was reunited and from whence it proceeded 
 across southern Indiana to the site of the prospec- 
 tive colony. 
 
 One of the ladies who accompanied the expedition 
 was Fordham's sister Maria, who, being in ill- 
 health, had been sent to America in the hope that 
 the change would prove beneficial. In the Wabash 
 country she soon became acquainted with a French- 
 man, Charles de la Serre, who was descended from 
 a Huguenot family which had fled from France at 
 the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
 and settled in Guernsey. La Serre had abandoned 
 his English home for a life of travel and sport in 
 the American wilderness and, when discovered by 
 Flower, was spending his time with a band of In- 
 dians in the vicinity of the English Prairie. In a 
 short time he and Maria Fordham were married; 
 but the young wife was still an invalid and died a 
 few years later. A daughter, born in July, 1823, 
 was the mother of Dr. Hubert de Laserre Spence 
 of Cleveland, through whose good offices it has been 
 
Introduction 33 
 
 made possible to publish the documents contained 
 in this book. 
 
 Elias Pym Fordham made an entry of land in 
 the English Prairie, and, from the outset found 
 abundant labors to occupy his time in surveying, 
 investigating the quality of lands to be purchased, 
 and assisting in the preparation of buildings, mills, 
 etc., for the use of prospective settlers. William 
 Faux, v^ho visited the Prairie in November, 1819, 
 tells us in his Memorable Days in America that he 
 met Fordham and that the young emigrant "never 
 means to return to England, except rich, or to be 
 rich. If he fails here, he will turn hunter and live 
 by his rifle on the frontiers." Concerning his actual 
 fortunes in the new home we know little, but in any 
 event his residence in America was comparatively 
 brief. We hear of him while not yet a middle-aged 
 man once more in England following his favored 
 occupation of civil engineering. That he enjoyed a 
 high reputation for skill and integrity is evidenced 
 by his appointment as Engineer to the Cinque Ports 
 — a position in those days of no small trust and 
 responsibility. He is known also to have been em- 
 ployed by Stephenson in various technical under- 
 takings of national importance. 
 
 Late in 18 18 a member of the family in England 
 made a transcript of portions of the letters and 
 journals which Fordham had sent home during the 
 past eighteen months from Illinois. The collection 
 (which in recent years has come into the hands of 
 Dr. Spence) was given the title, Extracts from Let- 
 
34 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 ters written on a Journey to the Western parts of 
 the United States, and during a residence in the 
 Illinois Territory, By an English Farmer. Its 
 authorship has been positively identified and though 
 it does not appear in all cases to whom the individ- 
 ual letters were addressed this is not a matter of 
 much importance ; the names of the addressees were 
 omitted by the transcriber because they were re- 
 garded as of no consequence to the reading public, 
 and because the persons in question were still living 
 and did not desire the notoriety of appearing by 
 name if the letters were printed. As a matter of fact, 
 though it was evidently in the mind of the trans- 
 criber to publish the manuscript thus prepared, no 
 further steps, so far as we know, were ever taken 
 toward this end. 
 
 In adding another to the already long list of pub- 
 lished records of western travel in the early part of 
 the nineteenth century it may not be amiss to call 
 attention briefly to the character of the new ma- 
 terial and the degree of value it possesses for the 
 student of western history. The manuscript falls 
 naturally into three parts: (i) a series of seven 
 letters, written between May i8 and November 15, 
 1 81 7, from as many different places in the West and 
 on the way thither; (2) a journal of daily happen- 
 ings on and about the English Prairie from Decem- 
 ber 7, 18 1 7, to February 26, 1818; and (3) another 
 series of ten letters, written between February 3 
 and October 30, 1818, chiefly from Kentucky, Cin- 
 cinnati, English Prairie, and the Indiana settlements 
 
Introduction 35 
 
 at Princeton and New Harmony. Following 
 roughly the chronology of Fordham's experiences 
 during the first eighteen months of his sojourn in 
 America, the movements which he recounts and 
 the topics which he discusses, may be indicated 
 somewhat as follows : the land and people of Vir- 
 ginia, a voyage up the Chesapeake, a trip on the 
 Pennsylvania Road from Baltimore to Pittsburg, 
 the people of western Pennsylvania, the city of 
 Pittsburg, the descent of the Ohio to Cincinnati by 
 flat-boat, the land and people of southern Indiana, 
 establishing the settlement at the English Prairie, 
 hardships of the first winter, the surveying and 
 entering of public land, prices, wages, and labor in 
 the West, the classes of people on the frontiers, a 
 trip through Kentucky to Cincinnati, the character 
 of the Kentuckians, the city of Cincinnati, the Rap- 
 pite settlement at New Harmony, and the prospects 
 for English emigrants in the American interior. 
 
 As is explained in the Preface prepared by the 
 transcriber of the letters, the author wrote under 
 all the disadvantages incident to the life of the 
 frontier settler and explorer. He made no attempt 
 to relate his experiences or to describe the Western 
 people and country in a systematic and thorough- 
 going fashion. He probably had not the slightest 
 idea that the hurried letters which he despatched 
 to relatives and inquiring friends and the fragmen- 
 tary journals which he kept for their amusement 
 and instruction would ever be put in print — at least 
 without having undergone considerable revision. 
 
36 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 What we have in his writings is not a formal com- 
 pendium of information, like Fearon's Sketches or 
 Melish's Travels of an earlier date, but simply a 
 personal narrative of life as an English immigrant 
 found it, and learned to share it, in a favored region 
 of the growing West. The claim of the manuscript 
 to the dignity of source material for the study of 
 Western history arises from its author's superior 
 intelligence and training, his candor and utter art- 
 lessness, and his rather unusual opportunities for 
 observation. The scientific trend of mind which his 
 professional study had developed saved him from 
 numerous errors of other writers and led him to a 
 wholesome comprehension of the difficulty of de- 
 scribing a frontier people with entire fairness and 
 accuracy. *T find it no easy task," he acknowledges 
 frankly, "to write descriptions of manners and opin- 
 ions. If individual pictures only be drawn, the in- 
 ferences must be in part erroneous ; and sketches of 
 a more comprehensive nature are either loose and 
 incorrect, or tame and unreadable." In the main, 
 Fordham wrote cautiously and conservatively, con- 
 fining himself pretty closely to what he had himself 
 seen and giving the reader due notice when speak- 
 ing merely from hearsay. His only object was to 
 keep his relatives and friends informed concerning 
 his novel experiences and to give them such facts 
 as he felt to be of interest regarding the country 
 and its people. He had no ambition to be known 
 in London as the author of the latest book on 
 America. 
 
Introduction 
 
 37 
 
 As much cannot be affirmed of most English 
 visitors to the United States in this period, whose 
 writings we possess. For, as Dr. Thwaites has well 
 said, "Every English traveler hither, whether his 
 journey was that of a serious investigator or merely 
 of a tourist eager to behold strange lands and new 
 conditions, felt impelled to give his personal im- 
 pressions in volumes of varying merit, evincing 
 every shade of admiration and dislike." Many of 
 these books were mere collections of letters or 
 diaries ; only a very small number were in the nature 
 of systematic treatises. This was inevitable; but 
 the unfortunate thing, from the standpoint of the 
 historical student at least, is that most of these pub- 
 lications were composed with a definite purpose 
 either to promote or to discourage emigration. In 
 the one case, America was pictured in the most 
 extravagant manner as a land possessing every de- 
 sirable physical resource and condition, inhabited by 
 a people of rare enlightenment, and offering to 
 every newcomer all the delights of material pros- 
 perity, free institutions, and opportunity for un- 
 limited advancement; in the other, the country was 
 represented to be an unhealthy wilderness, defying 
 the substantial advance of civilization, and the peo- 
 ple to be the off-scourings of Europe, now retro- 
 graded almost to the level of savages. 
 
 Fordham represents the type of English emi- 
 grant, all too rare, who appreciated to the full the 
 manifold inconveniences and deprivations of life in 
 a new country but yet had the faith to believe that 
 
38 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 the difficulties were only temporary and that inces- 
 sant industry was all that was needed to transform 
 the crude backwoods settlements into flourishing 
 and enlightened commonwealths. Like other trav- 
 elers, he saw many things — slavery, intemperance, 
 ignorance, lack of manners — of which he could not 
 but heartily disapprove, but he did not allow these 
 to blind him to the fundamental facts of American 
 opportunity and achievement. Without in any sense 
 posing as a seer, he was able to forecast with re- 
 markable success the main lines along which the de- 
 velopment of the country took place during the two 
 formative decades after he wrote. A sane optimism, 
 a clear insight, an honest purpose — these were the 
 young engineer's best qualifications as a portrayer 
 of conditions and a chronicler of events in the Mid- 
 dle West of his day. 
 
 F. A. O. 
 
FORDHAM'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE 
 1817-1818 
 
ORIGINAL PREFACE 
 
 The following pages contain extracts from letters 
 written by a young man to his friends in England. 
 They were composed under every disadvantage: 
 sometimes when the writer was surrounded by the 
 noisy inhabitants of a smoky cabin, in his blanket 
 tent, or in the bar room or no less public dormitory 
 of a tavern. As he wrote to intimate and dear 
 friends, and without any thought of their being 
 presented to the world, the writer requests it may be 
 remembered that what was meant for the eye of 
 friendship alone is not a fair subject of criticism. 
 
 The author is now engaged in exploring the State 
 of Illinois, and, probably will have further and bet- 
 ter opportunities of describing this interesting coun- 
 try. Whether he will appear again before the pub- 
 lic will be determined by the degree of favor now 
 shown to him. 
 
 Nov. 2, 1818. 
 
FORDHAM'S PERSONAL NARRATIVE 
 
 The ocean voyage — Ascent of the James — A Virginia landscape — 
 Petersburg — The Virginia farmers — Voyage from Norfolk to 
 Baltimore — The coasts of the Chesapeake. 
 
 On board the Schooner George Whythe 
 Chesapeak Bay May i8th i8i/. 
 
 Our voyage was remarkably quick and, to those 
 who were in health, agreeable.^ We were only 30 
 days from Land to Land and 32 from the Downs 
 to Cape Henry, the entrance to the Chesapeak. In 
 the Gulf Stream we had stormy weather, but I 
 think it rather added to the spirits of the party, than 
 otherwise, for it afforded continual subject for con- 
 versation and admiration. I suppose you know that 
 the Gulf Stream is a current of water which flows 
 from the Gulf of Mexico round the point of Florida, 
 up the coast of the United States; then spreading 
 and turning gradually to the westward; less per- 
 ceptibly as it leaves the coast, deposits the mud of 
 the West Indies on the banks of Newfoundland, 
 then passes Eastward; and ultimately, flowing 
 Southward down the coast of Africa, is again car- 
 ried by the trade winds into the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 ^The "America" (Captain Heth), on which Fordham took pas- 
 sage, sailed from Gravesend, March 30, 1817, bound for Richmond, 
 Virginia. For a fuller account of the voyage than that here given 
 see Morris Birkbeck, Notes (London, 1817), pp. 5-11. Some other 
 interesting journals of voyages of Englishmen across the Atlantic 
 in this period are: John Woods, Two Years' Residence (Early 
 Western Travels, x, pp. 179-184) ; Adlard Welby, Visit to North 
 America (Early Western Travels, xii, pp. 151-163) ; and Will- 
 iam Faux, Memorable Days (Early Western Travels, xi, pp. 
 33-53). 
 
44 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 It becomes so feeble and indistinct after it reaches 
 the Azores that it loses its name. But westward 
 of the Banks it runs at one or two miles per hour 
 or even faster. Bad weather is always expected 
 within its current which varies from 200 to 60 miles 
 in width. If fear was felt at any time, no person 
 in the cabin expressed it, and I believe none felt it. 
 Indeed, a gale of wind comes on so gradually that 
 it is not nearly so formidable as one would suppose 
 it would be to a landsman. The wind rises — stud- 
 ding sails are taken in — the waves roughen — top 
 gallant sails are struck, and top-sails are reefed — 
 the sky looks dark and darker yet — the waves climb 
 the ship's sides and the spray rattles against the 
 cabin windows — the dead lights or shutters are put 
 in — the Captain and the officers are looking out to 
 windward — a squall is seen in the distance, upturn- 
 ing the billows and covering their crests with foam ; 
 — "Brail up the Mizen quick; bear up the helm a 
 weather;" — it comes — we are prepared; — the ves- 
 sel stoops before it, snorts through the waves, rises 
 again and bounds onward like a stag. One day 
 while we were at dinner M"". B. observed that the 
 ship snorted more than usual, when the first mate 
 came in and said "Captain, a heavy squall is com- 
 ing." The Captain left his knife and fork sticking 
 in the ham he was carving, and went out to give the 
 necessary orders. The ladies at the cabin door, the 
 gentlemen wrapped in boat cloaks and holding by 
 the shrouds, awaited its coming. It did come — the 
 waves dashed over us — the leeward ports sunk deep 
 
The Voyage 45 
 
 into the water; "Man the yards" — but, before a 
 man had reached a shroud, in one instant, the fore- 
 sail was spHt, rent from its yard, and carried in 
 tatters over the ship's side. After this we lay un- 
 der stormstay sails for 24 hours, but the heavy swell 
 that followed the gale sprung the bowsprit and 
 foretopmast. 
 
 We all liked our Captain exceedingly ; next to the 
 safety of the ship and the interest of the owners, the 
 comforts of his passengers was the object of his 
 attention. M"". B. drew up a letter of thanks for his 
 kindness to us, which we all signed, and presented 
 to him the day before we left the ship; he was so 
 affected by it that he could not restrain his tears. 
 
 We cast anchor in Hampton Roads on Saturday 
 night,^ and the next morning proceeded up James 
 River with a fair wind and a clear sky. The banks 
 of this noble stream are beautiful, but not very 
 healthy. Land is worth from 10 to 16 $ per acre. 
 After running up go miles in about 10 hours, we ar- 
 rived at a mud-bank, called Harrison's Bar. A 
 consultation took place between the Captain and 
 Pilot about crossing it; at high tide it was filled 
 with about 12 feet of water; our ship drew about 
 15. After searching for the softest places, the ship 
 was steered into it with all sails set; but the wind 
 at that moment died away and of course we all got 
 stuck fast.' 
 
 ^ May 2, 1817. 
 
 *"May 6. Harrison's Bar.— This is a shoal of mud, which greatly 
 impedes the navigation, and in which we must be contented to lie 
 until the next tide, and we may easily content ourselves, as it is 
 
46 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The next morning the Jolly boat was sent ashore 
 with part of the passengers, and the pinnace, deco- 
 rated and manned with eight of the smartest sailors, 
 took M". B., the ladies, and the Captain to M*". 
 
 H 's, who is an acquaintance of the Captain's. 
 
 M*". H. was not at home, but M'^^ H. received the 
 party with politeness. There was a great deal of 
 company there and everything in and about the 
 house was most elegant. After staying some time, 
 sweetmeats w^ere handed round by a train of black 
 servants and the party received pressing invitations 
 to return the next day. 
 
 I landed with the boys and young men on the 
 opposite shore, on a most beautiful and picturesque 
 bank which was covered with acacias in full blos- 
 som, almond trees covered with flowers of snowy 
 whiteness, cedars, weeping willows, mountain ashes, 
 laurestinas, ^ wild grape-vines, and almost every 
 Shrub that is to be seen in the Green house or Pleas- 
 ure grounds of an English gentleman. After pene- 
 trating this thicket, which edged the winding bank 
 for many a mile, we found ourselves among fields 
 of wheat and Indian corn, just springing out of the 
 ground. The landscape was composed of dark for- 
 ests crowning every hill, the sides partially cleared 
 
 a bend of the river, which is surrounded by all that is beautiful in 
 woodland scenerj'. in the gayest dress of spring. We are fixed 
 about the middle of the stream, which is four miles wide. Several 
 rich plantations and substantial dwellings are in view." — Morris 
 Birkbeck, Notes, p. 14. In more recent times Harrison's Bar has been 
 known as Harrison's Landing. It is about twenty miles up the 
 James from the mouth of the Chickahominy. 
 
 iThe laurestina {Viburnum tinus) is an evergreen shrub which 
 blooms during the winter months. It is a native of southern Europe. 
 
The Voyage 47 
 
 and cultivated, and narrow vallies or rather ravines, 
 clothed with shrubs which were beautiful beyond 
 description scented the air with delightful perfumes, 
 conducted streams of fresh water which were 
 oftener heard than seen in the dark recesses of the 
 thickets. Here, while a fervid sun rendered walk- 
 ing in the open fields painful, we enjoyed the most 
 refreshing coolness, and birds of most beautiful 
 plumage or of sweetest notes seemed to invite us 
 to stay. The Mocking-bird which is here, as the 
 Robin is in England, esteemed sacred, would 
 scarcely avoid us, and partridges, turtle-doves, and 
 hares started up at every step. 
 
 These delightful regions are cultivated by lazy 
 Slaves, who are fat and comfortable enough in their 
 general appearance, but who are never trusted out 
 of the sight of the Overseers: nor are they, I am 
 told, trustworthy. 
 
 After two days of excessive exertion, our ship 
 was dragged through 300 yards of mud, into which 
 she had sunk 3 feet. A few hours carried us to 
 City point,^ a poor village, situated on a beautiful, 
 but unhealthy, spot. From City point the gentle- 
 men went in gigs to Petersburg, about 12 miles 
 off, to get Cleared of the Custom house. These 
 
 'City Point is located at the mouth of the Appomattox, about 
 thirty miles below Richmond and ten northeast of Petersburg. It 
 has never grown to be a place of importance. 
 
 2 Petersburg is situated on the Appomattox River, about twenty- 
 two miles south of Richmond. Its site, as well as that of Rich- 
 mond, was selected by Colonel William Byrd, one of the most emi- 
 nent Virginians of the early eighteenth century. The town was 
 incorporated by the legislature of Virginia in 1748. During the 
 closing campaigns of the Revolution, Petersburg was brought into 
 
48 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 gigs were not quite equal to English ones. Having 
 been for some time an invalid, I was afraid of being 
 jolted, and tried to get a saddle-horse ; but that was 
 not to be obtained. The saddle hurt the horse — or, 
 I should hurt the horse — or, ride too fast; — at last 
 a light sulky was found for me, which, when the 
 horse trotted, shook my poor bones unmercifully. 
 Our road was through forests of pine, live oak, 
 acacias, and many ornamental trees. Spaces of 
 cleared land occurred at intervals, with shabby farm 
 houses, and now and then fields worn out, and aban- 
 doned to the growth of young pines and weeds. The 
 land is not very good here, but the scenery beauti- 
 ful. 
 
 Petersburg, a port and market town, was half 
 destroyed by fire two years ago. The old part con- 
 sists of wooden houses, surrounded by balconies and 
 supported by posts. The Shops are like wooden 
 booths. The new part, which already contains 300 
 handsome brick houses, would shame most of the 
 country towns of England. After finishing our 
 business, we went to dine at a tavern with about 60 
 
 prominence by being captured by the British from Baron Steuben 
 in 1781, and by serving as an important stopping-point of Comwal- 
 lis in the movement which culminated at Yorktown. When the Birk- 
 beck-Fordham party visited the place in 1817 to attest to the con- 
 tents of their baggage they found it the most flourishing in that 
 section of the state. " Petersburg." writes Birkbeck {Notes, pp. 
 15-16), "is growing into a place of importance, being the emporium 
 of export and import to a large district. Tobacco is the staple prod- 
 uce; and every article of British or German manufacture, the re- 
 turn. It is not quite two years since half the town was destroyed 
 by a fire, occasioned by some negroes playing at cards in a stable, 
 and it is already nearly rebuilt in the most substantial manner. 
 Two hundred capital brick houses were built last year. This vigor- 
 ous revival under a calamity so general is a strong proof of general 
 prosperity." 
 
The Voyage 49 
 
 farmers, who had just arrived from the race- 
 ground. A violent rain detained the whole party all 
 night, which gave us an opportunity of gaining 
 some information from the most intelligent and 
 communicative guests of the tavern. When I speak 
 of a Virginian farmer, at least, such as I have 
 hitherto seen, you must not imagine him to be a 
 plainly dressed, clownish man: nothing is more 
 unlike; he is usually a tall, pale, genteel looking 
 man ; his language is correct and good with no vul- 
 garisms in pronunciation. He has a free, inde- 
 pendent, look. His easy manners and loose long 
 dress remind you of a Frenchman, only that the 
 latter has most frequently something of a miHtary 
 appearance, which the Virginian has not. Their 
 manners are too familiar, though not coarse. They 
 used to be great duellists ; but since the laws against 
 duelling are enforced with rigour, the young men, 
 I am told, carry dirks and decide their quarrels upon 
 the spot. This, I am assured, is a common practice. 
 One young man was cut in the hand by a dirk at the 
 tavern we slept at, soon after we went to bed.^ 
 
 M*". B., having decided to go to the Ohio State as 
 soon as he could, enquiries were made as to the 
 most eligible mode of travelling. Indian corn being 
 
 ' Birkbeck (Notes, p. i6), recounting the impressions gained dur- 
 ing this enforced sojourn at the Petersburg tavern, writes: "A 
 Virginian planter is a republican in politics, and exhibits the high- 
 spirited independence of that character. But he is a slave-master, 
 irascible, and too often lax in morals. A dirk is said to be a com- 
 mon appendage to the dress of a planter in this part of Virginia. 
 I never saw in England an assemblage of countrymen who would 
 average so well as to dress and manners : none of them reached 
 anything like style; and very few descended to the shabby." 
 
 4 
 
50 Fordham*s Personal Narrative 
 
 two $ per bushel at Richmond, and as in the Moun- 
 tains it cannot be procured for any number of 
 horses, I agreed to go down the River to Norfolk^ 
 in the first vessel that would take the heavy luggage. 
 M"". B. and the rest of the party went to Richmond 
 last Friday week in the Steam boat;'^ — then with the 
 Phaeton and a light Jersey waggon they will pro- 
 ceed across the mountains westward.^ On Satur- 
 
 iThe next day (May 3) after the "America" anchored at Hamp- 
 ton Roads, Captain Heth went in the pilot-boat to Norfolk, four- 
 teen miles distant, to make entry of the ship at the Custom House. 
 He was accompanied by Birkbeck, who recorded in his Notes (p. 12) 
 that the town had not fewer than ten thousand inhabitants and that 
 " the streets are in right lines, sufficiently spacious, with wide paved 
 causeways before the houses, which are good-looking and cleanly." 
 
 2 This was May 9. In Birkbeck's Notes (pp. 19-20) there is an 
 interesting description of the Virginia capital, in part as follows : 
 "Richmond contains 13,000 inhabitants, nearly half of which are 
 negroes. The hill, on which stands the Capitol, a building of com- 
 manding aspect, is inhabited by the more opulent merchants, and 
 professional men, who have their offices in the lower town. Their 
 hoTises are handsome, and elegantly furnished, and their establish- 
 ments and style of living display much of the refinement of polished 
 society. The town is generally well built, and increasing rapidly, 
 whilst but little provision seems to be made in the country round 
 for the accommodation of its inhabitants. The market is badly 
 supplied; the common necessaries of life are excessively dear, 
 and, excepting the article of bread, of bad quality. . . It is 
 
 worse supplied and at a dearer rate than any other place of equal 
 size in the United States, or perhaps in the world. The town is 
 forced up by the stimulus of commerce, whilst the surrounding 
 country is groaning under the torpid influence of slavery : the 
 cultivators are said to be jealous of its rising prosperity, instead of 
 availing themselves, as they might, of the advantages it would af- 
 ford as a market for their produce. . . . The enterprizing peo- 
 ple are mostly strangers : Scotch, Irish, and especially New Eng- 
 land men, or Yankees, as they are called, who fill every house as 
 soon as it is finished." 
 
 3 Birkbeck and his nine companions left Richmond May 17, "in 
 two hacks, which are light coaches with two horses, and a Jersey 
 waggon and one horse for the baggage." (Notes, p. 26.) Their 
 route to the West was as follows : from Richmond by way of Fred- 
 ericksburg to the Potomac River; thence to Washington by steam- 
 boat ; thence by way of Fredericktown, Maryland, to McConnells- 
 town [present McConnellsburg] Pennsylvania; thence along the 
 
The Voyage 51 
 
 day I hailed a Schooner, bound to Norfolk, and 
 agreed with the master, a free Negro, to take me 
 for 30$. His miserable cabin contained Sailors, 
 negroes, and a half-bre[e]d indian woman and her 
 child. 
 
 At Norfolk I arrived on Monday morning. That 
 day and the next I was employed in looking out and 
 bargaining for a vessel to take me to Baltimore. 
 I got an introduction to an English merchant resid- 
 ing at Norfolk, who gave me much assistance. I 
 engaged a small bark to take the goods and myself 
 for 44$, and sailed on Tuesday evening. On board 
 this bark I am at this moment. It is a tight little 
 Schooner, commanded by a respectable young man, 
 only 22 years old, but he is married and has a fam- 
 ily. His crew consists of two boys and one man 
 younger than myself. Young as we all are I can 
 assure you we are very careful : in fact, M^ Dennis 
 is rather too much so for my patience ; for I want to 
 get round to Cincinnati in time to join M*". B. who 
 wishes me to go with him in his exploring journey. 
 
 I have now been six days out from Norfolk and 
 am yet 200 miles from Baltimore. The Schooner 
 though nearly full of our luggage, is yet so lightly 
 loaded, that she does not stand well against head 
 winds when they blow hard. We have run into har- 
 
 Pennsylvania State Road to Pittsburg ; thence on horseback through 
 Ohio to Cincinnati, by way of Canonsburg and Washington (Penn- 
 sylvania) Wheeling (Virginia), and St. Clairsville, Zanesville. 
 Somerset, Rushville, Lancaster, Chillicothe, Piketown, Greenfield, 
 Leesburg, and Lebanon (Ohio) ; from Cincinnati to the English 
 Prairie, in Edwards County. Illinois, by way of Madison, Lexing- 
 ton, Vincennes, Princeton, Harmony, and Mt. Vernon (Indiana), 
 and Shawneetown, Illinois. 
 
52 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 bour three times since we left Norfolk. The coasts 
 of the Chesapeak thus far are low. The farm 
 houses, which I have yet seen, are mean : the people 
 live in a plain way. Even in Norfolk, though there 
 -is some splendor, there is little Comfort — English 
 Comfort I mean. An air of lazy luxury pervades 
 everything. 
 
 From Baltimore I shall proceed over land to Pitts- 
 burg. I must hire waggons for the luggage, and, 
 if I am well enough, I shall walk with them. But, 
 if I feel too weak for that, I shall go by the stages 
 to Pittsburg, and thence down the Ohio to Cincin- 
 nati. My tour will be eleven or twelve hundred miles. ^ 
 
 ' The routes to the West from Baltimore and Philadelphia, as well 
 as the difficulties of the journey thither, were very well understood 
 in England by reason of the numerous letters and pamphlets pub- 
 lished by English travellers and settlers who had been over the 
 ground. In 1817, for example, appeared John Bradbury's Travels 
 in the Interior of America in the Years i8og, 18 10. and 181 1, in 
 which the course to be pursued by the newly arrived emigrant was 
 outlined as follows : " It shall be supposed that the design of the 
 emigrant is to proceed to the countries east of the Alleghanies, 
 therefore he ought not to stay more than' two or three days in the 
 city, which he can leave when he pleases, as great numbers of wag- 
 gons start from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, or from Baltimore to 
 Pittsburg or Wheeling, every day. The charge is by the hundred 
 weight, both for pas.sengers and their luggage, and the rate varies 
 from live to seven dollars per hundred ; but the men may go cheaper 
 if they chuse to walk over the mountains, which is recommended. 
 The waggoners travel with great economy : many of them carry 
 a small camp-kettle with them to cook their provisions, and some 
 have even a bed in their waggons, in which they sleep at night. A 
 traveller who chooses to adopt a similar mode, may travel very 
 cheap ; or, as there arc plenty of inns on the roads, he can be accom- 
 modated every night with beds, at a very reasonable rate. When 
 the emigrant arrives at Pittsburg or Wheeling, he will find that 
 numbers of Europeans and Americans are arriving there every day, 
 and the same causes that operated against them in the maritime 
 cities, as respects employment, will, in some degree, have an effect 
 here ; but as he will have occasion for information, it would be ad- 
 visable for him to stop a few days to make enquiries. If we find 
 
The Voyage C3 
 
 P. S. There is expected to be a great scarcity 
 of wheat. Flour at Norfolk is worth I4>^$ per bar- 
 rel. Indian Corn, which is the food for the horses 
 and blacks, and much eaten by poor people, is 2$ 
 per bushel. Corn bread, when new, is very pal- 
 atable, and, I believe, wholesome. I have eaten 
 scarcely any other. 
 
 When you consider I have been much engaged, 
 and that I am not quite in health, you will excuse 
 the negligent, loose, way, in which I have written 
 this letter. I have been afflicted with headaches ever 
 since the Seasickness left me, but 1 hope I shall re- 
 gain my strength, as I live very temperately. The 
 evening air is dangerous to new comers ; for after a 
 hot day, the dew falls like rain. I have a fire lighted 
 in our little Cabin every evening. Wood costs noth- 
 ing but the fetching. I have just been busying 
 myself in chopping up a fine deal board, which the 
 
 it necessary to descend the Ohio, the best mode of proceeding will 
 be to enquire for one or more families, who have intentions of go- 
 ing to the same neighbourhood as himself, who may join him in 
 the purchase of an ark, one of the kind of vessels in which fam- 
 ilies descend. These arks are built for sale, for the accommoda- 
 tion of families descending the river, and for the conveyance of 
 produce. They are flat-bottomed, and square at the ends, and are 
 all made of the same dimensions, being fifty feet in length, and 
 fourteen in breadth; which last is limited, because it often happens 
 that they must pass over the falls at Louisville, when the river is 
 at a low state, at which time they pass betwixt two rocks in the 
 Indian schute, only fifteen feet asunder. These arks are covered, 
 and are managed by a steering oar, which can be lifted out of the 
 water. The usual price is seventy-five dollars for each, which will 
 accommodate three or four families, as they carry from twenty- 
 five to thirty tons : and it frequently happens that the ark can be 
 sold for nearly what it cost, six or eight hundred miles lower down 
 the_ river." Early Western Travels, v, pp. 300-302. For other de- 
 scriptions of Ohio River craft see p. 79, note. 
 
54 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 boys found on the shore. It went against my con- 
 science to burn such a piece of wood, which had 
 scarcely a knot in it and would have made four or 
 five steps for a handsome Staircase. 
 
II 
 
 Character of the Virginians — Unhealthful physical conditions- 
 Baltimore — Communications between Baltimore and Pittsburg 
 — The Marylanders — The Pennsylvanians — The East and 
 West as fields for settlement. 
 
 Bedford^ in Bedford County 
 Pennsylvania, June ph, i8iy. 
 
 I THINK I gave you an account of my voyage up 
 the Chesapeak. That Httle trip made me more of a 
 Sailor than my passage across the Atlantic; and 
 I felt much more anxiety, as I had the charge of 
 goods worth at least a thousand pounds, which could 
 not be replaced. The whole crew of the little 
 Schooner were one night so fatigued that they fell 
 
 'The site of Bedford near the headwaters of the Juniata, was 
 first occupied in 1751, though the place was known for some time 
 as Raystown, from the name of its earliest settler. During his 
 campaign against Fort Duquesne in 1758, General Forbes selected 
 it as a location for a new fort, known as Fort Bedford, which in 
 the Indian wars that followed became a stronghold second in im- 
 portance only to Fort Pitt in the contested territory of western 
 Pennsylvania. The town of Bedford was incorporated by the Penn- 
 sylvania legislature in 1766. By the end of the century it had come 
 to be important as the chief halting place for travellers and emi- 
 grants going westward over the wagon roads from either Philadel- 
 phia or Baltimore to Pittsburg. Practically every foreigner who 
 visited the West and left a record of his experiences and observa- 
 tions had something to say about the inevitable sojourn at Bedford. 
 Among such accounts of the place may be mentioned Frangois 
 Andre Michaux, Travels (Early Western Travels, m. p. i45) ; 
 Fortescue Cuming, Sketches (Early Western Travels, iv, pp. OS- 
 es) ; John Melish, Travels, ii, pp. 36-37 ; and Thomas Nuttall, Jour- 
 nal (Early Western Travels, xiii, pp. 39-41 )• Cuming, m 1807, 
 speaks in high terms of both the appearance of the town and the 
 manners of its people. He says it then contained about eighty 
 houses, with a school and a church. Melish, in 181 1, says the 
 town was thriving and that it had 547 inhabitants. Visitors to the 
 town were generally struck with the beauty and healthfulness of 
 its location. On the development of this portion of Pennsylvania 
 Jones, History of the Juniata Valley (Philadelphia, 1856) may be 
 consulted to advantage. 
 
56 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 asleep repeatedly while the vessel's head was plung- 
 ing under every wave. I steered her four hours my- 
 self. 
 
 '" Of the Virginians I can say but little of my own 
 observations, but I hear from all quarters that they 
 ,are urbane, hospitable and generous. They have 
 very little commercial enterprise : they live much on 
 their own Plantations, which they cultivate with 
 little spirit. Almost all of them deplore the exist- 
 ence of Slavery; though they think it must be con- 
 tinued, now it is introduced. They were fond of 
 gaming and they were till lately great duellists, but 
 both practices are partially put a stop to by Laws 
 lately enacted. It seems there is something in the 
 influence of the fervid sun, under which they live, 
 or probably in their education; for now duelling is 
 prevented, they do not quarrel the less frequently; 
 but they (that is the young men) draw the dirks, 
 which they usually wear, and stab one another upon 
 ;ery slight provocations. 
 
 It is said they are peculiarly addicted to Swear- 
 ing : I do not think they are more so than the Mary- 
 landers and Pennsylvanians ; but all Swear a great 
 deal. They are a tall, elegantly shaped race of men. 
 The gentlemen are fairer than Englishmen, their 
 faces being always shaded by hats with extraordi- 
 narily broad brims. The poorer people and over- 
 seers are very swarthy: on the hills of the west- 
 ward, very healthy, but on the low shores of the 
 Chesapeak very much otherwise. 
 
Baltimore to Pittsburg 57 
 
 I landed very often ; and, sometimes rambled for 
 miles through the Pine woods with my gun. At 
 every opening where I saw a house I used to make 
 up to it, and always received an invitation to enter, 
 and sometimes to share a meal. 
 
 The Ague and Fever are very common here. I 
 gave away in these visits all my bark and laudanum. 
 They would send a negro five miles through the 
 woods, and as far with a canoe on the water, for 
 one or two doses. In return they always sent milk 
 or anything I wanted. The medical men in these 
 districts have not much reputation. I have no 
 doubt that, with an Edinburgh Dispensary, I could 
 gain a good income in any of these unhealthy dis- 
 tricts, if my conscience would allow me. The East- 
 ern shores of the Chesapeak are lower, if possible, 
 than the western, and more intersected with 
 marshes, which emit a most offensive effluvia. Such 
 is the quantity of decaying vegetable and animal 
 substances on these Shores that the stench arises 
 through the salt-water when touched by the keel 
 of a boat. There are some rich meadows here, 
 which cattle can scarcely keep down, however nu- 
 merous they may be. 
 
 From Annapolis,^ a beautiful little town seen 
 
 * The name Annapolis was given, in 1691, to the Protestant strong- 
 hold in Maryland which had formerly been known as Providence. 
 This was at the time when Maryland became a royal province and 
 the capital was taken away from the Catholic centre St. Mary's. 
 The town was located on the Severn River, about two miles from 
 its entrance to Chesapeake Bay. It grew very slowly and was a 
 place of little consequence well down into the nineteenth century. 
 There is a description of it as it was in 1807 in Melish, Travels, i, 
 pp. 189-190. 
 
58 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 from the water, to the Petapsco^ the country is hilly 
 and fine; thence to Baltimore is hilly, but bare of 
 trees. 
 
 Baltimore,^ except that it has not such Palaces 
 as Paris can boast of, nor Churches like St. Paul's 
 in London, nor is quite so picturesque as Rouen 
 nor so grand in itself or in situation, is the most 
 beautiful town I have ever seen. It has no bad 
 -streets; but all the liveliness, with scarcely any of 
 the dirt, of a seaport. It contains 60,000 inhabi- 
 tants. I lodged at the Fountain Inn, where at the 
 time M"". Munro, the president, has taken up his 
 abode. 
 
 Do you ask me how I like this Country? Upon 
 the whole very much. But there are many things 
 to disgust an Englishman. There is too much Lux- 
 
 -ury; too much slavery in Virginia and Maryland. 
 But, on the other hand, the country is beautiful, 
 
 -most of the people are well informed; some men 
 among the higher orders are very gentlemanly, ele- 
 gant in their manners and cultivated in their under- 
 standings. 
 
 I had several letters of introduction ; and the gen- 
 tlemen with whom I became acquainted gave me 
 
 * The Petapsco is a small stream flowing into Chesapeake Bay 
 about twenty miles north of Annapolis and a short distance south 
 of Baltimore. 
 
 2 For a description of Baltimore in 1806-07 see Melish, Travels, 
 \, pp. 184-185; in 1817, Fearon, Sketches, pp. 342-345; and in 1820, 
 Woods, Two Years' Residence (Early Western Travels, x, pp. 
 187-IQ6). Fearon's account is particularly interesting. He gives 60,- 
 000 as an estimate of the population of the city. 
 
Baltimore to Pittsburg 59 
 
 much good advice respecting my journey and 
 treated me with great kindness. 
 
 M'. A. joined me at Baltimore. 
 
 The distance from this place to Pittsburg is 240 
 miles, across four ridges of mountains. The mail is 
 six days going this distance — the waggons sixteen. 
 They travel at 12, 15 or 20 miles per day. They 
 avoid, as much as possible, the turnpike roads, & 
 scramble over hills and mountains, where English 
 waggons would be dashed to pieces ; but these light 
 carriages, built in a masterly way, & of the best 
 materials, seem to be indestructible. The waggoners 
 requested that we keep with them on the mountains ; 
 for the combined strength of several men is neces- 
 sary to keep the waggons from upsetting in descend- 
 ing the cliffs. The horses would in England be ad- 
 mirably adapted for the gig or coach.^ 
 
 Maryland, which I have now traversed from Bal- 
 timore to its Eastern extremity, is very hilly; and 
 westward, very mountainous. Even the plains be- 
 tween the ranges would be reckoned hilly in Eng- 
 land. They are in general very rich ; and, where this 
 
 ^In the earlier part of the great era of westward migration the 
 most important thoroughfare from the New England and Middle 
 states to the Ohio Valley was the Pennsylvania Road, or "Pitts- 
 burg Pike," built in 1785-87 by act of the Pennsylvania legislature. 
 It extended 197 miles from Carlisle to Pittsburg, along very nearly 
 the same route as the present highway between the two places. 
 Even after the construction of the Cumberland Road, in 1806-1818, 
 from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia (and subse- 
 quently as far westward as Vandalia, Illinois), the majority of trad- 
 ers and travellers from Baltimore and Washington, as well as from 
 more northern points, made use of this route, coming into it gen- 
 erally from the south at McConnellstown (present McConnells- 
 burg). 130 miles from Pittsburg. Travellers during the period fol- 
 lowing the War of 1812 were invariably astonished not only at the 
 
6o Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 is the case, the people are so too. A great many 
 Quakers among the Marylanders are Slave-holders. 
 They are not like the Virginians; being a mixture 
 of Dutch, German, Irish; boorish when poor, rather 
 reserved when rich; very inquisitive, but soon re- 
 pulsed. I have been but 15 or 16 days among them, 
 so you must take my observations as giving only a 
 hasty sketch. 
 
 As soon as I entered Pennsylvania, I remarked a 
 different people. Here are no slaves; white people 
 are seen working in the fields and roads. They are 
 cleaner than the Dutch, but the latter are not always 
 boorish. If Maryland be the land of hills, Pennsyl- 
 vania is the land of mountains. We have struggled 
 over four distinct ridges — the North Mountains — 
 the South Mountains — the Cove Mountains & the 
 Sidelong Hills. The two last are infested with ban- 
 ditti, after whom about 40 young men went with 
 their rifles about a week since. These men have 
 not yet attacked travellers, but they plunder farmers 
 
 difficulties with which the waggoners had to contend on their trips 
 along this wilderness highway, but also at the amount of traffic 
 actually carried on under such disadvantages. Writing at Bed- 
 ford in October, 1818, Thomas Nuttall says, in his Journal: "To 
 judge of the inland commerce carried on betwixt Philadelphia and 
 Pittsburg, a stranger has but to view this road at the present sea- 
 son. All day I have been brushing past waggons heavily loaded 
 with merchandise, each drawn by five and six horses ; the whole 
 road in fact appears like the cavalcade of a continued fair" (Early 
 Western Travels, xiii, p. 41). Birkbeck (Notes, p. 36), writing in 
 May, 1817, says that the money paid annually for the conveyance of 
 goods on the road from Philadelphia to Pittsburg exceeded £300,000 
 sterling. For contemporary descriptions of the traffic westward over 
 the Pennsylvania highways see Cuming, Sketches (Early Western 
 Travels, iv, pp. 25-76); Melish, Travels, ii, pp. 24-54; Fearon, 
 Sketches, pp. 183-189; and Woods, Two Years' Residence (Early 
 Western Travels, x, pp. 197-216). 
 
Baltimore to Pittsburg 6l 
 
 of their clothes and cattle. They have women with 
 them, and live in wigwam.s among the rocks. 
 
 My health having suffered from a severe cold, 
 which I could not attend to while I was travelling 
 with the waggons and as I could hear nothing of the 
 three hindermost, I stopped here yesterday at noon. 
 M*". A. went on with the first; to-day the last came 
 up. I shall proceed to-morrow by the Stage to the 
 foot of the Allegany mountains; and if I hear that 
 the roads over them are bad, I shall again march 
 with the foremost waggon which contains the Piano. 
 We have already saved it from being dashed to 
 pieces twice ; it is a high load, as the case would not 
 lie at the bottom of the waggon. If I hear a good 
 account of the road I shall go on in the Stage to 
 Pittsburg, which I shall then reach in three days. 
 At Pittsburg I hope to meet the ladies ; M"". B. and 
 
 I suppose are gone to explore the South 
 
 Western country. 
 
 I have visited to-day the mineral springs ; about 
 a mile and a quarter from this little town.^ I met 
 there two Philadelphians, amiable young men. It 
 was quite refreshing to converse with people of re- 
 fined and English manners, after having lived with 
 waggoners ten days. They tell me that land within 
 20 miles of Philadelphia is worth 50$ 100$ 150$ 
 
 'In writing of his visit to Bedford in 1807 Cuming {Sketches) 
 says that some chalybeate springs strongly impregnated with sulphur 
 had lately been discovered in the neighborhood of the town, to 
 which great medicinal virtues were attributed. (Early Western 
 Travels, iv, p. 65). Melish (Travels, n, p. 2,7)' in 181 1. remarks 
 that the Bedford springs had by that time become a notable water- 
 ing place and that he found there " a vast concourse of people col- 
 lected from different places, some of them very distant." 
 
62 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 p"". acre. Then it is one's own ; few taxes, no tythes, 
 good market, society, & European papers daily. 
 
 I am not sure that Enghsh elderly people would 
 do right to pass the mountains. The ocean is a mere 
 nothing; and if all I hear of Philadelphia and N. 
 York be true, an English family with moderate 
 property may fancy themselves in England im- 
 proved on a hired farm. For young men, everybody 
 agrees, that the Western territory will be the best 
 to settle in. But, alas, it is another world; not only 
 distant but distinct from Europe; more connected 
 with the Spanish Main, with the East Indies even, 
 than with England. The bright side of the prospect 
 is, that the further West (I quote Gen. Wilkinson)^ 
 the more honest, the more generous the people are. 
 The hunter of the Prairie, of St. Louis, or the woods 
 of Illinois or Tennessee, will divide his venison with 
 you ; he will rather strip his shirt off his back than 
 take a cent from you. These men retire from the 
 never ceasing Row of population ; with this comes a 
 
 ^ James Wilkinson was a Marylander who. after a rather dubious 
 career in the Revolution, went to Kentucky to engage in business 
 and repair his fortunes. In the decade of controversy between the 
 people of the south-western United States and the Spaniards of 
 Louisiana regarding the right of the former to the navigation of 
 the Mississippi River, Wilkinson followed the demagogic plan of 
 appearing to champion the interests of the Americans while at the 
 same time acting as the paid agent of the Spaniards to bring about 
 a revolt of the inhabitants of Kentucky and Tennessee and the dis- 
 memberment of the Union. Despite his intrigues, in 1796 he suc- 
 ceeded General Anthony Wayne as commander-in-chief of the 
 United States army. In 1805 he was appointed governor of Louis- 
 iana. While holding this important office he first co-operated with 
 Aaron Burr in his ambitious designs, then betrayed him. At the out- 
 break of the War of 1812 he was removed from his western post. 
 After an inglorious part in the conduct of that war he retired, in 
 1815, to an extensive estate which he possessed near the City of 
 Mexico, and there he died in 1825. 
 
Baltimore to Pittsburg 63 
 
 laborious, enterprising, set of men, mingled with 
 sharpers, desperadoes, &c. Then rise towns and 
 cities. 
 
 Give my kindest remembrances to all friends — I 
 cannot mention all the names that T value. Excuse 
 the incorrectness of this letter, for time is seldom at 
 my command — you have a better or truer descrip- 
 tion of what I see and feel than a more laboured one 
 would give. 
 
Ill 
 
 Vices of the western Pennsylvanians — Slavery, and society in the 
 slave states — The climate of the United States. 
 
 Pittsburg June ly. iSiy. 
 Though I have so long delayed, yet I have not 
 forgotten to write. Several times I have begun a 
 letter, which I wanted time to finish. I have put it 
 in my travelling trunk, seen more, and found that I 
 had written down first impressions, which upon 
 deeper insight I have discovered to be erronious. 
 
 Of this singular country nothing is known in 
 England: the Inhabitants of its cities even do not 
 know it, so various and contrasted are the materials 
 of which its population is composed, so strange is 
 the structure of society, so imperfectly is it cemented 
 by opinion. 
 
 Of the Inhabitants of the Northern States, or 
 Yankees, I have seen nothing : they have the repu- 
 tation of being very keen, shrewd, enterprising and 
 industrious. The Merchants of the Cities are like 
 the Merchants of England: indeed, most of them 
 finish their commercial education in England, 
 France, or Holland. 
 
 " But the inhabitants of the interior of Pennsyl- 
 vania are very different. Coarse in their manners, 
 inquisitive to a tormenting degree, careless of giv- 
 ing pain or offense, and obstinate in persisting in 
 their rudeness : these are the most common features 
 in their characters. They are chiefly of Dutch, Ger- 
 
Pittsburg 65 
 
 man, or Irish extraction; and in general seem to 
 have preserved all the vices of their forefathers, and 
 to have acquired a few others. Whisky is very cheap. 
 With the labour of an hour a man may purchase as 
 much as will make him ferocious, if not drunk; he 
 fights with the first drunkard he meets, and they 
 bite each other like dogs, or tear out each other's 
 eyes. Perhaps disgust has induced me to shade 
 the picture too darkly.^ Disappointment too has 
 deepened my dislike of the Pennsylvanians. Yet 
 this is the country of Penn — whose capital is called 
 the City of Brotherly Love. Travelling across a 
 mountainous track, which will never be thickly in- 
 habited, I have seen the worst of its population. 
 There are, however, bright exceptions — angels 
 among these Demons. I was taken ill at the house 
 
 ^The testimony of travellers generally in the first quarter of the 
 nineteenth century tends to bear out Fordham in his estimate of the 
 western Pennsylvanians. Frangois Andre Michaux tells in his 
 Travels of what he saw at Bedford in 1802 a^.iolkrtC'sT " The day of 
 our arrival was a day of rejoicing for the country people, who had 
 assembled together in this little town to celebrate the suppression 
 of the tax laid upon the whiskey distilleries ; rather an arbitrary 
 tax, that had disaffected the inhabitants of the interior against the 
 late president, Mr. .A.dams. The public houses, inns, and more espe- 
 cially the one where we lodged, were filled with the lower class 
 of people, who made the most dreadful riot, and committed such 
 horrible excesses, that is almost impossible to form the least idea 
 of. The rooms, stairs, and yard were strewed with drunken men ; 
 .-and those who had still the power of speech uttered nothing but 
 jfthe accents of rage and fury. A passion for spirituous liquors is 
 •Jone of the features that characterise the country people belonging 
 Vo the interior of the United States. This passion is so strong, that 
 they desert their homes every now and then to get drunk in public 
 houses ; in fact. I do not conceive there are ten out of a hundred 
 who have resolution enough to desist from it a moment provided 
 they had it by them, notwithstanding their usual beverage in sum- 
 mer is nothing but water, or sour milk" (Early Western Travels, 
 iii, p. 144). The tax to which Michaux refers was the excise on 
 whiskey which had led to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 and which 
 had been repealed by Congress, much to the delight of the Pennsyl- 
 5 
 
66 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 of a German in Bedford County — a tavern fre- 
 quented by waggoners ; if I had been a son, I could 
 not have been better treated. The landlady pre- 
 scribed for me and nursed me, the sons came to chat 
 to me at my bedside, and the old man never passed 
 my chamber door without enquiring how I was. 
 Books were borrowed for me in the Town, and I 
 read the Romances of M". Radcliflfe^ amidst scenery 
 scarcely less wild than the Vallies of the Appen- 
 nines, or the shores of the Adriatic. 
 
 In Maryland, a slave state, the people are more 
 mild and civilized. The Virginians, though dissi- 
 pated, are gentlemen. I am told by a person of this 
 town that I shall universally find a good society and 
 polished manners in Slave States, and the reverse 
 where slavery is not allowed. If this be the case, 
 how superior is England to America, as a place of 
 residence, to those who can afford to stay there! 
 
 vanians, in the spring of 1802. Cuming, writing at Bedford in Jan- 
 uaiy, 1807, says of the people of that vicinity : " So far do they 
 carry this mania for whiskey that to procure it, they in the most 
 niggardly manner deny themselves even the necessaries of life; 
 and, as I was informed by my landlord Fleming, an observing and 
 rational man, countrymen while attending the courts (for they are 
 generally involved in litigation, of which they are very fond) occupy 
 the bar rooms of the taverns in the country towns, for several days 
 together, making one meal serve them each day, and sometimes two, 
 and even three days — but drinking whiskey without bounds during 
 the same time" (Early Western Travels, iv, pp. 62-63). Melish 
 {Travels, ii, p. 51), in 1811, sought to explain, if not to disprove, the 
 excessive use of spirituous liquors in the back country by showing 
 that on the frontiers cider and malt liquors could not easily be had. 
 ^ Anne Radcliffe (1764-1823) was one of the most popular Eng- 
 lish writers of fiction in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. 
 Among her numerous romances may be mentioned The Castles of 
 Athlin and Dunbayne: a Highland Story; The Italian: or The Con- 
 fessional of the Black Penitents: The Mysteries of Udolpho; The 
 Romance of the Forest; and A Sicilian Romance. These stories, by 
 their appeal to the love of the wonderful and the supernatural, 
 marked a new departure in English novel-writing. 
 
Pittsburg 67 
 
 The Southern States, at least Georgia and the 
 Carolinas, must be cultivated by blacks or aban- 
 doned. The heat there is so excessive in August 
 that to v^alk a mile in the Sun would subject a 
 European to the most imminent danger. The landed 
 Proprietors of those States are hospitable and gen- 
 erous, but not so refined as the Virginians. They 
 make great profits from their plantations ; but they 
 are usually in debt, & are dissipated and indolent. 
 
 The climate of the United States, from the Lati- 
 tude of 39'' North, is very severe. Sleighs are seen 
 at every house. The Monongahela, which is rolling 
 its turbid waves beneath my window, is frozen 
 across every winter, and loaded waggons pass to the 
 opposite bank; yet now the Thermometer I think 
 would be as high as 90 in the shade. I could not 
 venture out in the Sun without suffering for my im- 
 prudence, now I am in ill health. When I recover I 
 shall be more hardy. When I crossed the Alle- 
 ganies the leaves on the Trees were frost bitten on 
 each side, and the weather here is as hot as it is 
 ever known to be in England. . . . 
 
 The baggage amounts to 9,000 lbs. weight, con- 
 tained in about 70 packages. I have sent off half 
 of it under the care of M^ A., in a keel boat. The 
 remainder is not come in, and if it does not arrive 
 tonight, I shall tomorrow take a horse and go in 
 search of it. M". B.'s Phaeton was left in Virginia. 
 The party travelled by the Stage as far as it was 
 safe from M'cConnal's town^ within 14 miles of this 
 
 'McConnellstown (the present McConnellsburg, in Fulton County, 
 
68 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 place. They walked 120 miles across the Moun- 
 tains, along roads of which you can have no 
 idea. . . . 
 
 If the Ladies should be left at Cincinnati, I believe 
 they will proceed with me by water to St. Louis, 
 Missouri Territory/ Kentucky or the Missouri 
 Territory, I am inclined to think, will be our choice. 
 I have sent a line of route which I obtained from 
 
 Gen. which strongly recommends the Prairies 
 
 of St. Louis. . . . 
 
 Pennsylvania), was the point at which the lines of travel from Bal- 
 timore and Washington toward Pittsburg merged with the Penn- 
 sylvania State Road. It is approximately one hundred miles from 
 Baltimore and 130 miles from Pittsburg. Its site was first occupied 
 by Fort Lyttleton, one of the chain of frontier posts built in 1756 
 for the protection of the western Pennsylvania border. Under date 
 of June 17, 1803, Thaddeus ]\I. Harris, a Massachusetts traveller, 
 writes of the town, in his Journal, as follows: "Passing the Side- 
 ling Hills, we reach McConnel's town, a delightful, well-watered vil- 
 lage in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, to dine. It is sitviated in 
 the valley, or, as it is called " the Cove." between Sideling and 
 North Mountains. It has been built eight years; contains about 
 eighty houses, several of them handsomely built with brick or stone, 
 a number of stores and shops, and a small Dutch meeting-house " 
 CEarly Western Travels, iii. p. 367V Melish (Travels, ii, pp. 34- 
 35), in 181 1, wrote that the place had eighty or ninety houses and 
 about five hundred inhabitants. Fearon (Sketches, pp. 187-191) gives 
 some interesting information about the place as he found it in Octo- 
 ber, 1817. 
 
 ^ St. Louis was founded in 1764 by Pierre Laclede Liguest and 
 a company of followers, representing a French fur company. The 
 town early gained a considerable population by reason of the fact 
 that France had but recently yielded the territory east of the Mis- 
 sissippi to England and at least a third of the inhabitants of the 
 ceded region at once withdrew to the new post on the western bank 
 of the river. The town was incorporated in 1809 and in the fol- 
 lowing year the census showed that it had a population of 1,000. 
 By 1818 it had 3,500 inhabitants, and by 182T, 5,600. On the history 
 of St. Louis see Elihu H. Shepard. The Early History of St. Louis 
 and Missouri (St. Louis, 1870) ; Frederic L. Billon, Annals of St. 
 Louis in its Early Davs under the French and Spanish Domina- 
 tions (St. Louis, 1886) ; and Thomas Scharf, History of Saint Louis 
 City and County (Philadelphia, 1883). Lewis C. Beck, Gazetteer of 
 the States of Illinois and Missouri (Albany, 1823), pp. 324-331, has 
 a good description of the city about 1822, with map. 
 
Pittsburg 69 
 
 Having said so much against the commonalty of 
 this RepubHc, I ought to say, that from the gentle- 
 men, and there are gentlemen here, I have met with 
 kindness, politeness and hospitality. M * * N * *, 
 DeG* * of N * * and some others, remind me of 
 those I most love and esteem in England. 
 
 Excuse this bad writing; having just been bled, 
 I cannot mend my pen, and the heat makes my head 
 ache. I shall not close the letter, 'till I leave this 
 place. 
 
 June iptJi : Since writing the above, I have been 
 in agreeable parties — a higher set. I have met with 
 women, whose Manners are quite English, and 
 whose personal appearance and attractions would 
 be admired anywhere. 
 
 I am informed that M'. B. has reached Cincin- 
 nati, and that he intends leaving the ladies there. 
 I am going to embark on a flat boat ; my provisions 
 are already on board. Cincinnati is 500 miles hence, 
 and I shall be 10 days on the voyage. 
 
IV 
 
 Methods of earlier writers on the West — Pittsburg — Industries 
 of the vicinity — Flat-boats and keels on the Ohio — The start 
 down the river — Neville's Island — Logstown — Beavertown 
 — Wheeling — Fish Creek — A thunder-storm — Marietta — 
 The Muskingham [Muskingum] — Blennerhassett's Island — 
 Galliopagus [Gallipolis] — Portsmouth — Manchester — Mays- 
 ville — Augusta — Arrival at Cincinnati. 
 
 On the Ohio River June 22. 
 . . . If it be observed that my letters con- 
 tain no information concerning the state of the 
 country, you may say in my defence, that I have but 
 httle opportunity to make correct observations; I 
 have something else to do. It is very easy to write 
 letters and books, too, as Mellish, Wild^ and others 
 have done. They go to a Tavern-keeper, pump from 
 
 ^ No trace is obtainable of any work on Western history or topog- 
 raphy by a writer of this name. In a letter to the Editor Dr. R. G. 
 Thwaites has suggested that Fordham intends here to mention Isaac 
 Weld, Jr., whose Travels through ike States of North America and 
 the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1795-97 (London, 
 1799) was well known in both England and America. This seerns 
 the most plausible explanation of the doubtful reference. 
 
 John Melish, Travels in the United States of America in the Years 
 1806 & 1807, and 1S09, 1810 & 1811 (Philadelphia, 1812). Melish was 
 a Scotchman who visited the United States for the first time in 
 1806, in the pursuit of commercial interests. During the next six 
 years most of his time was spent in this country. He tells us that 
 prior to his first visit he read all the "Travels in America" that 
 he could lay hold of, but found them uniformly unsatisfactory — in 
 some cases because of the ignorance and superficiality of the authors, 
 in others because the facts had been twisted or obscured with a 
 view to promoting or discouraging emigration. Hence he resolved 
 to utilize his opportunities for observation in the preparation of 
 a full and unprejudiced description of the country and the various 
 elements of its population. His earlier travels took him through 
 New England, the Middle States, and much of the South ; and in 
 1810-11, as the relations of Great Britain and the United States 
 became more strained he came to the conclusion that there would 
 be no profit in international trade for some time to come and that 
 the lull could be best occupied by him with a tour through the West. 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati Ji 
 
 him all he chooses to tell them, and set it down : nine 
 times in ten the information is very incorrect, some- 
 times purposely distorted. No dependence can be 
 placed on any representation but that of an intelH- 
 gent, honest man, long resident in the country, and 
 who is personally well disposed toward you. 
 
 When I arrived at Pittsburg I went to M*". B. of 
 that place with letters of introduction. As I was 
 very ill, I consulted M''^ B. about having Medi- 
 cal advice. She recommended m.e to D*". M. and to 
 him I went; — he was a sensible clever man & set 
 me up for 6$. I expected to have paid 20$. 
 
 Pittsburgh contains about 10,000 inhabitants, 
 
 Having carefully planned the places he desired to visit and the in- 
 quiries he desired to make as he went along, he set out from Balti- 
 more June 3, 181 1. It vi^as late autumn before he returned to the 
 East, and with him he carried a vast amount of information regard- 
 ing Kentucky, Ohio, and other parts of the western country, which 
 he proceeded to put in shape for publication. The result was the 
 two volumes published the next year, embodying his observations 
 on all sections of the United States — East, South, and West — 
 which he had been able to visit. The value of Melish's writings is 
 considerably greater than Fordham's remarks would lead one to 
 suppose. 
 
 ' In 1754, by command of Marquis Duquesne, governor of Canada, 
 Fort Duquesne was built in the angle of the Monongahela and Alle- 
 gheny rivers by a party of French under the leadership of M. de la 
 Jonquier. The site selected for the fortification was exactly that 
 of the later city of Pittsburg. For four years the French contrived 
 to hold the place against the hostile English, but in November, 1758, 
 when General Forbes undertook a well-planned campaign against it 
 longer tenure seemed impossible and the fort was evactiated and 
 burned by the commandant De Lignery. An English fort built 
 forthwith somewhat further up the Monongahela received the name 
 Fort Pitt, in honor of the Earl of Chatham; and by common con- 
 sent the town which in time began to grow up around the strong- 
 hold was known as Pittsburg. The location of this town at the 
 junction of the two leading rivers of western Pennsylvania and the 
 beginning of the Ohio made it easily the most important gateway 
 to the West. Some travellers, traders, and emigrants went west- 
 ward by a route further to the north along the hne of the lower 
 Great Lakes, and others went by a southern route through the Cum- 
 
72 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 mostly engaged in manufactures. The land around 
 is fertile, though too hilly. It is pretty well cleared 
 near the town, but lo miles off the country is an im- 
 mense forest, broken into and gapped by settlers. 
 The farmers live well and work rather hard. Their 
 servants are paid 75 cents per day and are boarded 
 — in the morning with meat and cofifee, hot meat 
 and whisky at dinner and coffee, cold meat, and veg- 
 etables for Supper. Farming is not reckoned very 
 
 berland Gap ; but travel from the entire eastern coast tended strongly 
 to converge upon Pittsburg, where the Ohio became the great ave- 
 nue for four or five hundred miles, in its lower course inviting set- 
 tlers to spread out again toward both north and south. Practically 
 all of the European elements that came into the West advanced 
 thither from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore by way of Pitts- 
 burg. The result was that nearly every emigrant or traveller who 
 wrote letters to friends at home, or published more pretentious ac- 
 counts of the new country, had a good deal to say about Pittsburg. 
 It may be of interest to cite a few of the most important of these 
 early descriptions of the place, including some by American writers. 
 Frangois Andre Michaux {Travels), in 1802, says that the town had 
 400 houses and was growing rapidly. He points out how the place 
 was losing its importance as a military post and acquiring signifi- 
 cance of a new sort as a medium of commerce between the East 
 and the West (Early Western Travels, iii, pp. 156-163). Cum- 
 ing, on the occasion of his visit in February, 1807, got a less favor- 
 able impression — of the town itself, if not of its people. He found 
 but a single paved street and was struck with the blackened appear- 
 ance of all out-door objects, due to the already considerable use 
 of coal. According. to him (Sketches), in March, 1808, there were 
 17 streets, 236 brick houses, 361 wooden ones, 50 stores, 24 taverns, 
 and several factories. He gives a very detailed classification of the 
 population industrially, and a careful statement of the prices of all 
 important commodities, concluding that " either as a trading or a 
 manufacturing town, Pittsburg for situation, is not excelled in the 
 United States, and it bids fair to become the emporium of the cen- 
 tre of the federal union" (Early Western Travels, iv, pp. 76-87, 
 242-255). Melish (Travels, ii, pp. 54-63), in 1811, says that the popu- 
 lation of the town the previous year was 4,768 and prophesies that 
 " it will become one of the largest towns in America and one of 
 the greatest manufacturing cities in the world " — its manufactures 
 being already valued at more than $1,000,000 annually. Thomas 
 Hulme (Journal) says of the city in 1818: "This place surpasses 
 even my expectations, both in natural resources and in extent of 
 manufactures. Here are the materials for every species of manu- 
 facture, nearly, and of excellent quality and in profusion ; and these 
 
n T] C/3 
 
 ;^i 
 
 ?c 
 
 - h— rt 
 
 
 s ^ 
 
 ■>N 
 
 
 .s ' '-- 
 
 X; t 
 
 !i i^.- 
 
 
 
 s:x,^- 
 
 
 l^'^ 
 
 K 
 
■y 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 75 
 
 profitable, but there are many able, that is rich, 
 farmers. A Saw Mill is very profitable. One on 
 a constant stream, costing 6 or 700$ will earn its 
 value in one year ; and sometimes a great deal more. 
 When worked by steam and connected with a Grist 
 Mill, it is an excellent business. It then requires a 
 capital of 13 or i40o£ sterling. Tradesmen at Pitts- 
 burg live well and save money ; but they complain of 
 hard times, because Peace has thrown the Ocean 
 trade into New Orleans, which they in War monopo- 
 lized.' 
 
 M*". Bakewell's glass works are admirable : he has 
 
 means have been taken advantage of by skilful and industrious arti- 
 sans md mechanics from all parts of the world. There is scarcely 
 a denomination of manufacture or manual profession that is not 
 carried on to a great extent, and, as far as I have been able to ex- 
 amine, in the best manner. The manufacture of iron in all the 
 diliferent branches, and the mills of all sorts, which I examined with 
 the most attention, are admirable" (Early Western Travels, x, 
 PP- 35-37)- Other descriptions by writers of the period are: Mor- 
 ris Birkbeck, Notes, pp. 40-48; Fearon, Sketches, pp. 199-216; Est- 
 wick Evans, Pedestrious Tour (Early Western Travels, viii, pp 
 247-255) ; James Flint, Letters (Early Western Travels, ix, pp 
 82-89) ; John Woods, Two Years' Residence (Early Western 
 Travels, x, pp. 217-218) ; Wm. Tell Harris, Remarks, pp. 89-90 
 Thomas Nuttall, Journal (Early Western Travels, xiii, pp. 44-45) 
 and George W. Ogden, Letters (Early Western Travels, xix, pp 
 26-28). An older popular history of Pittsburg is Neville B. Craig's 
 History of Pittsburg (Pittsburg, 1851) ; a recent book on the subject 
 is T. J. Chapman, Old Pittsburg Days (Pittsburg, 1900). 
 
 'Fearon in 1817, Estwick Evans in 1818, and Adlard Welby in 
 1819 agree that the trade of Pittsburg was, if not actually declining, 
 at least not making appreciable growth. As a matter of fact, while 
 the " hard times " of which Fordham speaks did not continue and 
 the commerce of Pittsburg expanded remarkably during the next 
 ten years, it was nevertheless true that the city had reached the 
 critical point in its history where the carrying trade must give place 
 to manufacturing as the staple industry and source of wealth; in- 
 deed the transition was already far progressed. The commercial re- 
 lations of Pittsburg and New Orleans before and during the war 
 are well described by Francois Andre Michaux as follows : " The 
 major part of the merchants settled at Pittsburgh, or in the environs, 
 are the partners, or else the factors, belonging to the houses at 
 
76 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 excellent artists, both French and English. His Cut 
 Glass equals the best I have seen in England.^ 
 
 Brewing succeeds well here, especially the Porter 
 Brewery. New Orleans is the principal market for 
 it. The Pottery business must be very profitable; 
 a plate, worth a i*^. in England, sells here for 6*^. 
 Distilling on a small scale answers well : many farm- 
 ers are distillers. 
 
 I met some Baltimore acquaintances here, 
 Mess'"'. E Sen'. & Jun". The old man took me 
 
 Philadelphia. Their brokers at New Orleans sell, as much as they 
 can, for ready money; or rather, take in exchange cottons, indigo, 
 raw sugar, the produce of Low Louisiana, which they send off by 
 sea to the houses at Philadelphia and Baltimore, and thus cover their 
 first advances. The barge-men return thus by sea to Philadelphia 
 or Baltimore, whence they go by land to Pittsburgh and the environs, 
 where the major part of them generally reside. Although the 
 passage from New Orleans to one of these two ports is twenty 
 or thirty days, and that they have to take a route by land of 
 three hundred miles to return to Pittsburgh, they prefer this way, 
 being not so difficult as the return by land from New Orleans to 
 Pittsburgh, this last distance being fourteen or fifteen hundred 
 miles. . . . The navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi is so 
 much improved of late that they can tell almost to a certainty the dis- 
 tance from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, which they compute to 
 be two thousand one hundred miles. The barges in the spring 
 season usually take forty or fifty days to make the passage, which 
 two or three persons in a pirogue make in five and twenty days." 
 Travels (Early Western Travels, iii, p. 159) • 
 
 ^The first glass factory west of the AUeghanies was built at 
 Pittsburg by General James O'Hara in 1797. That of Bakewell, 
 Pears and Company was established in 1808. Thomas Nuttall, 
 who visited Pittsburg in 1818 on his way to the Arkansas Ter- 
 ritory, writes : " The day after my arrival I went through the 
 flint-glass works of Mr. Bakewell, and was surprised to see the 
 beauty of this manufacture, in the interior of the United States, 
 in which the expensive decorations of cutting and engraving 
 (amidst every discouragement incident to a want of taste and 
 wealth) were carried to such perfection. The productions of 
 this manufacture find their way to New Orleans, and even to 
 some of the islands of the West Indies. The president, Monroe, 
 as a liberal encourager of domestic manufactures, had on his 
 visit to those works given orders for a service of glass, which 
 might indeed be exhibited as a superb specimen of this elegant 
 art." Journal (Early Western Travels, xiii, p. 45). 
 
sr.'^feii 
 
 :as 
 
 ^ '.ZS ''^ ~^^^^^ \^ 
 
 \> 
 
 -5 
 
 1 
 
 OHIO RIVER FLATBOAT (a), AND KEELBOAT (b) 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 79 
 
 to see his son's manufactory of Steam Engines and 
 his Foimdery. Seventy men were employed in the 
 different works. 
 
 I sent off the first load of baggage under the 
 care of M*". A., and when the remainder arrived I 
 hired freight on board a flat boat for 50 cents per 
 cwt. These flat boats or Orleans boats as they are 
 called in the Western Waters are from 12 to 25 feet 
 wide, and from 30 to 90 feet long. They are sold 
 when they arrive at their place of destination, and 
 broken up. Not a 100 nails are used in building 
 one, but they are stuck together with wooden pins. 
 They will carry 700 barrels of flour. They cost 1$ 
 p*". foot in length and sell for }4$. They are manned 
 by four men each, and a pratoon. In the Missis- 
 sippi double that number is necessary for the stream 
 runs eight miles an hour: and is full of Eddies. 
 Goods are brought up the river on keels or keel- 
 boats, which require 12 or 24 men to row and pole 
 them against the current. It was in such a boat 
 that Lewis and Clarke ascended the Missouri; it 
 was built at Pittsburg.^ 
 
 ^ The information here given regarding the various sorts of craft 
 navigating the Ohio about 18:7 may be supplemented by the fol- 
 lowing passage from Estwick Evans's Pedestrians Tour, published 
 in 1819 : " The boats which float upon the Ohio are various, — 
 from the ship of several hundred tons burthen, to the mere skiflf. 
 Very few if any very large vessels, however, are now built at 
 Pittsburgh, or indeed at any other place on the Ohio. They were 
 formerly built on this river, particularly at Pittsburgh and Ma- 
 rietta ; but the difficulties incident to getting them to the ocean, 
 have rendered such undertakings unfrequent. An almost innum- 
 erable number of steam-boats, barks, keels, and arks, are yearly 
 set afloat upon this river, and upon its tributary streams. The 
 barks are generally about one hundred tons burthen, have two 
 masts, and are rigged as schooners, and hermaphrodite brigs. The 
 keels have, frequently, covered decks, and sometimes carry one 
 
8o Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 On Thursday, at noon, I went on board my Ken- 
 tucky boat : there was another lashed to it. Having 
 bid my friends farewell, we pushed off into the 
 middle of the stream, which here runs at 3 miles an 
 hour/ The bank of the river on our left was high, 
 abrupt, and covered with trees. On our right it 
 was hilly, but not precipitous. Col. Killbuck's island 
 
 mast. These and also the barks are sometimes rowed and some- 
 times moved up the river by poling, and by drawing them along 
 shore with ropes. The flat-boat or ark is of a clumsy construc- 
 tion ; but very burthensome. Its foundation consists of sills like 
 those of a house, and to these is trunneled a floor of plank. The 
 sides are of boards loosely put together, and the top is covered 
 in the ?ame way. The bottom of the boat, and so much of the 
 sides as come in contact with the water, are caulked. Some of 
 this kind of boats will carry four or five hundred barrels of 
 flour, besides considerable quantities of bacon, cheese, and other 
 produce. On the deck of the ark are two large oars, moving 
 on pivots, and at the stern there is a large steering oar. The 
 progress of the ark is principally in floating with the current; 
 and the oars are seldom used excepting for the purpose of rowing 
 ashore. The business carried on by boats, on the Ohio and the 
 Mississippi, is immense. The freight of goods up and down these 
 rivers is high; and the freighting business here is exceedingly 
 profitable. No property pays so great an interest as that of steam- 
 boats on these rivers. A trip of a few weeks yields one hundred 
 per cent upon the capital employed. The arks, and, generally 
 speaking, the keels, when they reach New Orleans, seldom return 
 up the river again. The former are sold for lumber." (Early 
 Western Travels, viii, pp. 256-257.) Another description of an 
 Ohio River " ark " may be found in Thaddeus M. Harris's Jour- 
 nal (Early Western Travels, iii, p. 335). For the steamboat traf- 
 fic on the Ohio and Mississippi see, p. 106, note. There is an interest- 
 ing chapter on the evolution of river craft in Archer B. Hulbert 
 Waterways of Westward Expansion (Historic Highways of 
 America, ix, pp. 100-150). 
 
 ' Among other interesting narratives of the descent of the Ohio 
 by travellers and emigrants of this period may be mentioned: 
 Frangois Andre Michaux, Travels (Early Western Travels, iii, 
 p. 168, f¥.) ; Fortescue Cuming, Sketches (Early Western Travels, 
 iv, p. 87, ff.) ; John Melish, Travels (ii, p. 84, flf.) ; James Flint, Let- 
 ters from America (Early Western Travels, ix, p. 89, fif.) ; Thomas 
 Nuttall, Journal (Early Western Travels, xiii, p. 47, ff.) ; Thomas 
 Hulme, Journal (Early Western Travels, x, p. 38, ff.) ; William 
 Faux, Memorable Days (Early Western Travels, xi, p. 167, ff.) ; 
 William Tell Harris, Remarks, pp. 90-99; and John Woods, Two 
 Years' Residence (Early Western Travels, x, pp. 222-256.) 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 8 1 
 
 is well farmed by his tenants. This is not often the 
 case: very little land is rented here. 
 
 Chartier's creek,^ a pretty shaded stream, was the 
 first break in the coal-hill on the left. A romantic 
 wooden bridge spanned the river cliff. Gen\ Ne- 
 ville possesses an island at its mouth, which 
 stretches six miles down the Ohio and is a hand- 
 some farm.^ After passing four or five islands off 
 Indian's Logstown^ i8 miles from Pittsburg, a gen- 
 tleman from Salem and his lady with three chil- 
 dren, had put off an hour before us in a family 
 flat boat. As I had a boarding house acquaintance 
 with him, I rowed myself forward in our skiff, and 
 took coffee with him. As his boat was light, and 
 he had two men who pretended to know the river, 
 he said he should go on all night. The dangers of 
 the river are Planters, Sawyers and Wooden Isl- 
 
 ' Chartier's Creek flows into the Ohio three miles below Pitts- 
 burg. It received its name from a French-Shawnee half-breed 
 who was a man of influence in his tribe about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. An Indian village, known as Chartier's Town, 
 was situated at the mouth of the creek. 
 
 2General Neville's island was known commonly to Ohio navi- 
 gators as Long Island. It lay immediately below Cow Island. 
 Fortescue Cuming noted in 1807 that its soil was of the best qual- 
 ity and that it might be divided into several good farms. At 
 that time Major Isaac Craig of Pittsburg had part of it under 
 cultivation. After the close of the War of 1812 Major Craig 
 retired to the island, wh-^re he resided until his death in 1826. 
 
 SLogstown was situated on a high bluff on the north bank of the 
 Ohio, just below the site of the present town of Economy, Penn- 
 sylvania. During the middle of the eighteenth century it was the 
 most important Indian trading village on the Pennsylvania fron- 
 tier. Its population was a mixture of Iroquois, Mohican, and 
 Shawnee. Soon after the establishment of Fort Duquesne in 1754, 
 on the site of the later Pittsburg, the French built houses for the 
 village's inhabitants, but after the early substitution of English 
 for French supremacy in the region the place rapidly declined. 
 Cuming, in 1807, speaks of it as " a scattering hamlet of four or 
 five log cabins" (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 97). 
 
82 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 ands} A Planter is a tree rooted fast to the bottom 
 of the river, & rotted off level with the water, a 
 heavy boat striking one of them may be staved and 
 sunk. Sazvyers are trees less firmly rooted; they 
 rise and fall with the water; if they point up the 
 stream, they are dangerous, but not so much so 
 when they point down. Wooden Islands are logs 
 accumulated against planters or shoals. 
 
 On Friday the 20*'' we advanced 60 miles, passed 
 Big beaver Creek, 70 yards wide at the mouth. 
 Four miles up it has falls or rapids, which extend 
 three miles. On them are forging, fulling, and grist 
 mills; chiefly in the hands of Quakers. The river 
 here is very crooked, bounded by high, precipitous, 
 banks, which are covered with gigantic trees. In 
 some places bare rocks project into the Stream, 
 forming eddies and ripples. Beavertown,^ a mis- 
 
 * " Planters are large bodies of trees firmly fixed by their roots 
 in the bottom of the river, in a perpendicular manner, and ap- 
 pearing no more than about a foot above the surface of the water 
 in its middling state. So firmly are they rooted, that the largest 
 boat running against them, will not move them, but they fre- 
 quently injure the boat. 
 
 " Sawyers are likewise bodies of trees fixed less perpendicularly 
 in the river, and rather of a less size, yielding to the pressure of 
 the current, disappearing and appearing by turns above the wa- 
 ter, similar to the motion of a saw-mill saw, from which they 
 have taken their name. 
 
 "Wooden-Islands are places where by some cause or other large 
 quantities of driftwood have, through time, been arrested and mat- 
 ted together in different parts of the river." Zadoc Cramer, The 
 Ohio and Mississippi Navigator (Pittsburg, 1804), p. 11. This 
 little book, which passed through twelve editions, was the stand- 
 ard guide of navigators for more than a quarter of a century. 
 There is a description and synopsis of it in Archer B. Hulbert, 
 Water7vays of Westward Expansion (Historic Highways of 
 America, ix, pp. 73-99). 
 
 2 Big Beaver Creek, a stream about fifty yards wide at its mouth, 
 flows into the Ohio ten miles below Logstown. The Indian vil- 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 83 
 
 erable place, was almost the only break we saw 
 this day. It stands 200 feet above the river. The 
 rounded pebbles evince that the Ohio has been 200 
 feet higher here, than it is now. We passed two 
 or three log houses and taverns, with an acre or 
 two of cleared land attached to each, but the gen- 
 eral character of the river scenery is gloomy and 
 grand. My amusement was to row the skiff 
 through the eddies, to land and scramble up the 
 rocks and search for curious plants or squirrels. 
 This skiff is so light that I can with ease catch the 
 boats when they are 3 miles ahead. I find that I 
 have not forgotten the art of swimming, so that I 
 am under no apprehension when the skiff strikes a 
 log as it sometimes does. 
 
 I should have told you that I had a letter to Major 
 
 N , son of Gen. N . This gentleman has 
 
 shewn me much civility. His father was the rich- 
 est man in Pensylvania, and has signalized himself 
 
 lage which was situated at its jvinction with the larger stream in 
 the earlier part of the eighteenth century, where the town of 
 Beaver now stands, was variously known as King Beaver's, 
 Shinga's Old Town, or Sokhon. It was a noted station for the 
 fur trade and frequently served as a base of operations in the 
 border raids of the time. King Beaver, from whom the creek and 
 settlement took their names, was the supreme chief of the Dela- 
 wares — an ally of the English against the French until Braddock's 
 defeat, but after that catastrophe a dangerous neutral, and in the 
 end a leader in the Pontiac conspiracy. The present town of 
 Beaver was laid out in 1792. Cuming says of it in 1807 : " It 
 stands on a stony plain on the top of the high cliff which con- 
 ceals it from the river and contains about thirty indifferent houses, 
 much scattered, on three parallel streets" (Early Western 
 Travels, iv, p. 98). Flint, in 1818, says that within three miles of 
 the mouth of the Beaver he found three saw-mills, a grist-mill, 
 an iron furnace and forge, a fulling-mill, a carding-mill. and a 
 mill for bruising flax-seed (Early Western Travels, ix, p. 95). 
 These were the mills, of course, of which Fordham speaks. 
 
84 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 in the Indian Wars. In M"". N 's house I found 
 
 books of taste; Ariosto, the Enghsh poets, &c &c, 
 which was quite refreshing after a long journey 
 through the wilds of Pensylvania. Major N. has 
 given me a letter to his father the General. 
 
 The inhabitants of the western towns are not so 
 hospitable as they were formerly. The constant 
 stream of emigration would make such hospitality 
 enormously expensive. Besides there are so many 
 unworthy characters amongst these emigrants, that 
 the people are become shy of them. 
 
 Saturday 2f\ The hills are now rather lower, 
 and the woods a little more broken by settlements. 
 
 M*". and , my fellow passengers, landed 
 
 at Wheeling,^ which is the Court house town of 
 
 * The first building constructed on the site of Wheeling was 
 Fort Fincastle, a stockade erected during Lord Dunmore's war in 
 1774. The name of the structure was subsequently changed to 
 Fort Henry, in honor of Governor Patrick Henry of Virginia. 
 The first town lots at the place were laid out in 1783 by Colonel 
 Ebenezer Zane, who had taken up the land of the vicinity twenty- 
 three years before. In 1797 the town became the seat of Ohio 
 Countyj^ Virginia. At an early date Wheeling began to rival Pitts- 
 burg as a depot for westward commerce. Her advantage at first 
 lay simply in the fact that by shipping goods down the Ohio from 
 this point, rather than from Pittsburg, nearly a hundred miles 
 of the upper course of the river — the portion most difficult to 
 navigate in low water — were avoided. The only disadvantage was 
 that a day more was required to reach Wheeling from the East. 
 In 1818, when the Cumberland Road was completed to this place, 
 the obstacles of bad travel and delay were largely removed. The 
 new highway was the shortest route from Baltimore and Wash- 
 ington to the Ohio, and being in addition free from tolls until 
 it was ceded to the states in 1830-35, it became the great rival thor- 
 oughfare of the northern route by the Pennsylvania State Road. 
 Flint, in 1818, saj's that the carriage of goods was already cheaper 
 from Baltimore to Wheeling than from Philadelphia to Pitts- 
 burg (Early Western Travels, ix, p. 105). For descriptions of 
 Wheeling in the early part of the century see Frangois Andre 
 Michaux, Travels (Early Western Travels, iii, p. 171) ; Fortescue 
 Cuming, Sketches (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 113) ; Thaddeus 
 M. Harris, Journal (Early Western Travels, iii, p. 349) ; Thomas 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 85 
 
 Ohio (the County, Virginia) and contains 120 
 houses 1 1 stores and 2 inns. I bought a tin pot for 
 boiHng coffee for 62^ Cents. Several men were 
 drinking at the Tavern. At 9 A. M. this day it was 
 excessively hot. A shower fell, and the moisture 
 immediately rose off the plants in dense steam. We 
 moored at night below Fish Creek^ five miles from 
 Wheeling, after having advanced 40 miles in the 
 day. As we were passing Fish Creek, our pratoon 
 pointed out a boat moored in the mouth of it, which 
 
 he said was D*". B 's. The skiff was directly 
 
 sent off and I jumped in. My greatest exer- 
 tions could not prevent its being driven down 
 by the strength of the current about 100 yards, 
 as there was a counter current close in shore. 
 With some difficulty I got round the point into 
 the Creek. To my disappointment, it was not 
 the Doctor's boat. I then put off again; a bend 
 of the river was just taking the boats from my 
 sight, which were already a mile and a half 
 ahead. Evening was closing in — I rowed hard, 
 turned the bend, and the boats were out of sight. As 
 there were many islands, I was afraid of taking 
 the wrong current and passing the boats. The 
 darkness increased; I could not see either shore. 
 After shouting several times and rowing about half 
 
 Nuttall, Journal (Early Western Travels, xiii, p. 51) ; Adlard 
 Welby. Visit to North America (Early Western Travels, xii, 
 pp. 204-205) ; and John Woods, Two Years' Residence (Early 
 Western Travels, x, p. 221). 
 
 ' For the connection of the Fish Creek region with the early 
 life of George Rogers Clark, see Thwaites (Early Western 
 Travels, iii, p. 350, note 37). 
 
 6 
 
86 Fordham^s Personal Narrative 
 
 an hour, I heard voices in answer; and presently I 
 saw a light. It was kindled on the deck of one of the 
 boats, which was moored under the shade of some 
 gigantic Sycamores. The sultry dark night — the 
 croaking of the frogs — and the innumerable fire- 
 flies, which were flashing among the trees, all fore- 
 told a storm; which came on an hour after mid- 
 night. The lightning fell so near us, that we dis- 
 tinctly heard it whiz through the air. The trees, 
 rocks, and hills were at times distinctly visible in 
 the intense blaze, then lost in utter darkness ; while 
 the sky was rent by rattling thunder. The thunder- 
 storms in England are insignificant to those of 
 America. 
 
 Sunday the 22*. We made a short trip this day; 
 — not quite 40 miles. The banks of the river here 
 are exceedingly crooked, high, and crowned with 
 dark forests. 
 
 Monday 2^*. Landed at Marietta' at 9 A. M., a 
 
 ' Marietta is located at the junction of the Muskingum and the 
 Ohio, about sixty miles below Wheeling. The town dates from 
 1788 and. unlike most of the settlements of the Ohio Valley, had 
 its origin in migration from New England rather than from the 
 southern states. Tn 1786 a group of soldiers who were interested 
 in securing the bounty lands due them for service in the Revo- 
 lution organized at Boston what was known as the Ohio Com- 
 pany, with a view to getting possession of a considerable tract of 
 land in the territory northwest of the Ohio. As soon as the 
 Northwest Ordinance was enacted, in 1787. the company desig- 
 nated Dr. Manasseh Cutler to make the necessary contract with 
 Congress. The result was an arrangement for the purchase of 
 1,500,000 acres at 66 2-3 cents per acre. At a meeting of the com- 
 pany in Boston. August 30. 1787, it was voted that 5,760 acres 
 about the mouth of the Muskingum should be reserved for a town 
 and commons. In November of the same year twenty-two me- 
 chanics set out from Danvers. Massachusetts, to begin prepara- 
 tions for the new settlement, and within a twelvemonth a town 
 of considerable proportions had been laid out and given a very 
 respectable population. The site chosen was on the left bank of 
 the Muskingum, opposite Fort Harmar — a stronghold constructed 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 87 
 
 pretty town on the banks of the Muskingham, hav- 
 ing about 120 houses. This town is laid out on rath- 
 er a large scale, which will not be filled up for a 
 century or more. The streets are now green lanes, 
 bounded by worm fences. Where houses ought to 
 be, there are now groves or gardens. The land is 
 good, and pretty well cultivated. Here I found D*". 
 B,, whose men were going to leave him. He wished 
 me much to take the command of his boat, which 
 T declined, as I did not like to leave my luggage. 
 I, however, found and engaged two sailors for him. 
 The banks of the Ohio are now comparatively low 
 and fertile, both on the Ohio and Kentucky side, 
 but most so on that of the latter state. They are 
 not yet more than broken into by the axe of the cul- 
 tivator. The Muskingham is a fine river. It is 
 crossed by a ferry boat, attached to a cable stretched 
 high above the water, alternately at the head and 
 stern of the ferry boat it is carried over either 
 
 in 1785-86 by a detachment of troops under Major John Doughty 
 to afford protection to the Virginia frontiers. The name first 
 given the New England settlement was Adelphi, but this was soon 
 changed to Marietta, in honor of the queen of France, Marie An- 
 toinette, whose gracious reception of Franklin at court was just 
 then the subject of admiring comment throughout America. The 
 town did not grow as its founders hoped it would, chiefly be- 
 cause the rich interior of Ohio offered immigrants too many 
 counter attractions. For a description of the place in 1802 see 
 F. A. Michaux, Travels (Early Western Travels, iii. p. 177) ; in 
 1807, Cuming, Sketches (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 124) ; in 
 1811, Melish, Travels, ii, pp. T01-107; in 1818, Flint. Letters (Early 
 Western Travels, ix. p. 109), and Evans, Pedestrians Tour (Early 
 Western Travels, viii, p. 264) ; and in 1820, Woods, Two Years' 
 Residence (Early Western Travels, x. p. 223). Thomas J. Surn- 
 mers. History of Marietta (Marietta, 1903) is useful. There is 
 an interesting plan of Marietta in 1803 in Thaddeus M. Harris, 
 Journal, which is reproduced in Winsor, The Westward Movement, 
 p. 303. 
 
88 Fordham*s Personal Narrative 
 
 way by the force of the current.^ This evening M*". 
 
 P and I went forward in the skiff to examine a 
 
 cave near the mouth of Shade river ; but this river 
 is so concealed b}'- rocks and trees, that we passed 
 it without seeing it, and we were unable to row 
 back before the boats came down. 
 
 As the late rains have made the waters uncom- 
 monly high, our pratoon held on all night. On 
 Tuesday we passed Blannerhasset's Island. 2 The 
 Estate the proprietor forfeited on account of some 
 
 * This ferry was noted and described by almost every traveller 
 who visited Marietta, for example, by Thomas Hulme, Journal 
 (Early Western Travels, x, p. 40"). 
 
 2Blennerhassett's Island lies eighteen miles below Marietta and 
 two below the month of the Little Kanawha and the present city 
 of Parkersbnrg, West Virginia. It is three and a half miles in 
 length and contains abont 500 acres of very fertile land. Harman 
 Blennerhassett, from whom the island takes its name, was an 
 Irishman of wealth and refinement who migrated to the United 
 States out of admiration for American democratic government and 
 society. In 1798 he bought the island below the Little Kanawha 
 and there established his family in a home which soon became 
 noted as a centre of culture and good manners. In 1805 the 
 Blennerhassetts were visited by Aaron Burr, then on his way to 
 New Orleans, and unfortunately the gifted proprietor was so at- 
 tracted by the questionable schemes of the plotter that he com- 
 mitted himself unreservedly to them and staked his whole fortune 
 upon their success. In little more than a year the bubble had 
 burst. Burr was a refugee, and Blennerhassett had been himself 
 compelled to seek safety in flight. Both men were arrested and 
 tried for treason, but, on technical grounds, acquitted. In the 
 meantime the Blennerhassett estate was overrun by hungry credi- 
 tors and seriously impaired in value. In 181 1 the fine mansion, 
 with all the a*rt treasures and books it contained, w^as ruined by 
 an accidental fire, and thereafter little was left to tell of the 
 splendor of the place in its happier days. Blennerhassett him- 
 self eked out a pitiable existence as a virtual outlaw and exile 
 until his death, on the Island of Guernsey, in 1831. Cuming, 
 in his Sketches, gives a very interesting description of the Blen- 
 nerhassett estate as it appeared in 1807 (Early Western Travels, 
 iv, pp. 128-130") ; and Melish (Travels, ii, p. 109) describes it in its 
 deserted condition in 181 1. For an account of the island as it 
 is to-day see Thwaites, On the Storied Ohio, pp. 95-98. 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 89 
 
 attempt which he made to excite an insurrection 
 against the government of the United States. 
 
 GalHopagus^ was the next village, which struck 
 my fancy. It was founded by a hundred French 
 families, about 30 years ago, on the Ohio side. 
 Their title was a bad one, and all who were not 
 rich enough to purchase their estates a second time 
 were ejected. The place has not flourished since, 
 although its site is most beautiful. 
 
 On Wednesday we moored at Portsmouth^ 390 
 
 ^ The writer means Gallipolis. This town is on the right bank 
 of the Ohio, nearly opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha, 
 it is about one hundred miles below Marietta. The early history 
 of Gallipolis was extremely unfortunate, as Fordham suggests. 
 The Scioto Company, an off-shoot of the Ohio Company, pro- 
 posed to reap a harvest by disposing of its western lands to dis- 
 contented inhabitants of France, and in 1788 sent an agent to 
 Paris in the person of the poet Joel Barlow to advertize the 
 attractions of the American West and to stimulate emigration 
 thither. Barlow executed his commission faithfully, with the re- 
 sult that in 1790 about six hundred French people — of every type 
 but that adapted to frontier life — arrived en route at Alexandria, 
 Virginia. There the prospective settlers were compelled to tarry 
 fifteen months, to await the termination of Indian uprisings on 
 the Ohio and to secure new land titles as far as possible, in the 
 place of worthless ones which the Company had tricked them into 
 accepting. After the emigrants finally arrived on the Scioto they 
 proved totally unable to cope with the hardships of backwoods 
 existence. By granting them 20,000 acres of land between the 
 mouth of the Sandy and Scioto rivers Congress endeavored to 
 make amends for the Company's swindle, and the thirty families 
 who removed to this tract, settling at the mouth of the Great 
 Scioto, succeeded for a time fairly well. But Gallipolis was an 
 absolute failure, and, but for the coming in of American settlers, 
 would likely have been completely extinguished. There is to-day 
 almost no trace of the town's French origin. F. A. Michaux, 
 in his Travels, says that in 1807 the settlement was composed of 
 sixty log-houses, mostly uninhabited and falling to pieces, the re- 
 mainder occupied by Frenchmen " who breathe out a miserable 
 existence" (Early Western Travels, iii, p. 184). Melish {Travels, 
 ii, pp. 115-117) gives the place, in 181 1, a population of 300. See 
 " Centennial of Gallipolis," in Ohio Archaeological and Historical 
 Society Publications, iii. 
 
 2 Portsmouth, at the mouth of the Scioto, was laid out in 1803 
 by Henry Massie, taking its name from Portsmouth, Virginia, 
 
90 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 miles from Pittsburg. The men at the oars of the 
 second boat, Germans and Swiss, not understand- 
 ing the orders of the Pratoon, pulled it into a cur- 
 rent they were unable to stem, and it was driven 
 against a tree with a tremendous crash. It was 
 loaded with Iron, and had my luggage on board. 
 It got off with no material damage, except being 
 stripped of one of its roofs. Whilst the attention 
 of our people was called off to that boat, we were 
 drifting on a Planter, the point of which projected 
 about a foot above the water. Our Pratoon called 
 the men to their duty; but though the boat cleared 
 it, one oar, made of an entire tree, caught against 
 the stump. The men dropped down to save them- 
 selves; I had that moment, thrown myself on the 
 oar to assist them. Its recoil threw me into the 
 boat, with no injury but a slight contusion on the 
 thigh. 
 
 After we had moored at Portsmouth, Mess". 
 
 P C and myself went to the mouth of the 
 
 Scioto, and then into the skiff, to see the ancient 
 Indian fort opposite Alexandria.^ The Shawanees, 
 
 The surrounding region, being a noted rendezvous of the Shaw- 
 nees, had long been resorted to with frequency by French and 
 English fur-traders. Travellers generally speak well of the town 
 in its early years. Cuming {Sketches) tells us, in 1807, that 
 though it contained as yet but twenty houses it had a handsome 
 and healthy situation and, as the seat of Scioto County, was likely 
 to grow to be a place of some importance (Early Western 
 Travels, iv, p. 161). Flint (^Letters from America) says, in 1818, 
 that it w^as well-built and had a court house, a newspaper office, 
 a woollen factory, a number of stores, and several good taverns 
 (Early Western Travels, ix, p. 113). See Thwaites, On the 
 Storied Ohio, pp. 151-154. 
 
 ^ Alexandria is situated on the western bank of the Scioto, op- 
 posite Portsmouth. The town was founded by Major John Belli, 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 91 
 
 though not the first constructors of the fort, which 
 is a circular redoubt, were defeated here by Gen. 
 St. Clair^ 35 years ago, and have since descended 
 the Mississippi. After a charming ramble of an 
 hour, we attempted the arduous task of rowing, pol- 
 ing, and dragging the skift' up the stream about two 
 miles and a half. The flood had run in among the 
 trees, and the eddies and counter-currents helped 
 
 an Englishman who settled at Alexandria, Virginia, in 1783, and 
 who, after 1791, interested himself in the development of the Ohio 
 country. The site of Alexandria was occupied in the first half 
 of the eighteenth century by the chief town of the Shawnees — 
 the place at which, in March, 1751, Christopher Gist was warned 
 back while inspecting lands for the Ohio Company. In 1753 a flood 
 led the Shawnees to abandon the place. Some of them sought 
 new homes in regions further north, while others estabUshed a 
 new village across the Scioto, on the site of Portsmouth. Cum- 
 ing, returning from his western tour in 1807, visited Belli's new 
 town, subsequently recording in his Sketches: "This village . . . 
 is nicknamed Hardscramble, either from the hilly roads by which 
 one arrives at it, or from the difficulty experienced by the first 
 settlers to obtain a subsistence. It contains about a dozen houses 
 and cabins, a meeting house, and three taverns, but does not seem 
 to thrive" (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 237). The fort to 
 which Fordham refers was across the Ohio, on the Kentucky 
 shore, on the site of the present Springville. 
 
 ^ General Arthur St. Clair was a Scotchman who came to 
 America in 1755 with Admiral Boscowen. He served in Canada 
 under General Wolfe in 1759-60 and after the close of the war 
 was placed in command of Fort Ligonier in Pennsylvania. He 
 had an honorable career in the Revolution, rising to the rank of 
 major-general, and rendering Washington valued service in the 
 Yorktown campaign. In 1786 he was elected a member of the 
 Continental Congress from Pennsylvania, and the following year 
 he became president of that body, now about to expire. When 
 the Northwest Territory was organized under the Ordinance of 
 1787 he was made its first governor. In this office he remained 
 until 1802, when Ohio was on the point of being constituted a 
 state. In 1790 occurred one of the periodic movements of the 
 Indians of the West to expel the whites. General Harmar was 
 ordered to conduct the campaign against the redskins, but be- 
 ing at least partially defeated in the Maumee country, he was re- 
 placed after a few months by St. Clair. September 17, 1791, the 
 new commander set out from Fort Washington (on the site of 
 Cincinnati) for the country about Detroit; but on November 4 
 he was surprised and totally defeated on the banks of a small 
 
92 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 us, but so often was the skiff bumped against logs, 
 that M'. C. preferred walking on shore and drag- 
 ging the rope when he could. In two hours and a 
 half we got up the river, high enough to cross over 
 to Portsmouth. With two oars and two paddles, 
 we worked as hard as three young men in high 
 spirits could work. We dashed across in the midst 
 of floating logs and branches of trees, which the 
 river was bringing down in great abundance. 
 
 Thursday . A heavy thunderstorm and rain 
 
 kept us within this morning. Called at Manches- 
 ter,^ a village of 25 houses in the State of Ohio. 
 Here, as in all the Ohio towns, the people are rude 
 and half civilized, yet very sharp and inquisitive. 
 
 We reached at length the pleasant thriving town 
 of Maysville,'"' Adam's County, Kentucky. Here 
 
 tributary of the Wabash. St. Clair retired from command in 
 chagrin, popular sentiment generally holding him at fault. He 
 was succeeded by General Wayne, who defeated the Indians in 
 August, 1794, and concluded a lasting peace with them at Green- 
 ville, Ohio, a year later. After yielding the governorship of the 
 Northwest Territory in 1802, St. Clair lived in obscurity in Penn- 
 sylvania until his death in 1818. 
 
 ^Manchester is in Adams County, Ohio, twelve miles above 
 Maysville. It was laid out in 179T by Nathaniel Massie, a sur- 
 veyor of bounty lands, and was the pioneer Virginia settlement on 
 the north bank of the Ohio. The town's growth was very slow. 
 Cuming (Sketches) says that in 1807 it had only ten houses and 
 was not likely to thrive, owing to the proximity of Maysville, 
 Kentucky (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 167). 
 
 2 Maysville, in the earlier years of its history, was commonly 
 known as Limestone, from the quantity of rock of that variety 
 found in the neighborhood. The first building upon its site was 
 a blockhouse erected in 1783. The town may be said to have been 
 settled the following year, and in 1787 it was incorporated by the 
 Virginia legislature. F. A. Michaux (Travels) says, in 1802, 
 that it had thirty or forty houses of wood ; that it had long been 
 the place where all emigrants by way of Pittsburg and the Ohio 
 landed; and that it was still the staple for all sorts of mer- 
 
Pittsburg to Cincinnati 93 
 
 the tall, pale, well dressed men, and agreeable look- 
 ing women, reminded me of Virginia, of which 
 Kentucky is an offslip. There are a few slaves in 
 this place, comfortable, sleek looking fellows. We 
 entered the port in the afternoon, amid repeated 
 feux de joie from some small pieces of cannon. On 
 enquiring the cause, we learnt that a vessel from 
 Baltimore had just arrived with Gen. N. from New 
 Orleans, and several from Pittsburg, and on this 
 account they were firing. I smiled at the cause, yet 
 I could not but admire the effect of this cannonade. 
 The echoes rolled along the high banks like claps of 
 thunder. 
 
 The dislike of Slavery is becoming less violent. 
 There are more men of refined manners and culti- 
 vated minds in the slave states, than in those that 
 are more consistently democratic. This I learn 
 more from information than observation; yet both 
 more and more confirm me in this opinion. Behind 
 this town is a fine, rocky, eminence, up to which we 
 scrambled through a watercourse. On the top, we 
 were rewarded for our trouble by a birds-eye view 
 of the Town, and the river of Limestone Creek, as 
 
 chandise sent from Philadelphia and Baltimore to Kentucky (Early 
 Western Travels, iii, p. 195). The distance from Maysville to 
 Lexington was only sixty-five miles by the road running through 
 the present Mason, Fleming, Nicholas, Bourbon, and Fayette 
 counties, by way of Mayslick, Millersburg, and Paris. Cuming 
 (Sketches) says, in 1807, that the place was not growing and 
 existed merely on the traffic passing through it, but that it was 
 the greatest shipping port on the Ohio below Pittsburg — the port 
 for northeastern Kentucky as Louisville was for the southwestern 
 part of that state (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 169). Other 
 characterizations may be found in Flint, Letters (Early Western 
 Travels, ix, pp. 127-131) and in Welby, Visit to North America, 
 (Early Western Travels, xii, pp. 214-218). 
 
94 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 rich and beautiful as can be imagined. The top of 
 the hill is a rich, black, earth, producing abundant 
 crops of Indian corn and wheat : the latter is chang- 
 ing colour. . . . 
 
 In two days I shall see my friends in Cincinnati, 
 from whom I have been separated seven weeks to- 
 day; and I have travelled in that time 1200 miles. 
 
 Saturday. Left the pretty town of Augusta;^ 
 
 went to Gen. N 's villa with a letter from his 
 
 son. I spent great part of the day with this fine old 
 gentleman and his amiable family. . . . 
 
 We moored in the course of the day seven miles 
 from Cincinnati. If a thundergust had not oc- 
 curred, I should have gone thither in the skiff, but 
 it was not possible. So I rolled about in my blanket 
 all night, called the Pratoon before day, tugged at 
 the oar with the men, and got to Cincinnati ^ early 
 
 in the morning. I saw and the rest of the 
 
 party, who are all well and happy. 
 
 * Augusta, once the seat of justice of Bracken County, Kentucky, 
 is about twenty miles below Maysville and forty-two above Cin- 
 cinnati. It is important only as a shipping point for tobacco. 
 Woods {Two Years' Residence) tells us, in 1820, that the town 
 was established to rival Maysville in the back-country trade and 
 that "it appears a flourishing place" (Early Western Travels, 
 X, p. 233). 
 
 •On Cincinnati, see p. 183, note. 
 
Lack of time for writing — The trip across Indiana — Vincennes — 
 The Indians of the neighborhood — Princeton — Prices of 
 land. 
 
 St Vincennes State of Indiana 
 July 26. 18 17. 
 
 I WROTE to C as I descended the Ohio, and fin- 
 ished my letter at Cincinnati and sent it thence to 
 Philadelphia. I hope it has been received safe by 
 this time, for I had great pleasure in writing it, and 
 often pictured to myself your family circle, gath- 
 ered together in the garden parlour, listening to the 
 narrative of the journeyings of their poor wan- 
 derer. . . . 
 
 I cannot give you a journal of our march across 
 Indiana : many sheets of paper could not contain it ; 
 and I am too v/ell employed in business or too much 
 engaged in the pleasures of the chase, to devote 
 much time to writing. Do not take this confession 
 unkindly; if I am wrong, I have many excuses and 
 palliatives to offer; — but I know you will excuse 
 me. 
 
 We travelled on horseback, each person fur- 
 nished with an upper and under blanket, and sad- 
 dle-bags, and two pack horses with extra luggage 
 and bedding. Taverns on the road are bad and 
 "few and far between." Farmers have generally 
 a room appropriated to the reception of travellers, 
 for whose food they charge moderately. We were 
 furnished with guns and tomohawks, and all things 
 
96 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 necessary to encamp in the woods ; which M"". B. act- 
 ually did one night ; but the main body of the party 
 escaped that adventure. 
 
 Indiana is a vast forest, larger than England, just 
 penetrated in places, by the back-wood settlers, who 
 are half hunters, half farmers.^ 
 
 This old town, which was a settlement made by 
 the Indian traders, stands near the river on a beau- 
 tiful prairie, surrounded by woods and gently rising 
 hills. Its inhabitants are Canadian and European 
 French, Anglo Americans, Negroes, and a few half- 
 bre[e]d Indians. The French have given their tone 
 of manners to the place.^ 
 
 There are many Indians in the neighborhood, 
 Delawares, Miamies, and Kaskaskians. The for- 
 
 ^ Birkbeck gives a reasonably full account of the expedition of 
 his party (including Fordham) across southern Indiana. His ob- 
 servations on the people and resources of the state, if cursory, are 
 yet interesting. See Notes on a Journey in America, pp. 90-98. 
 
 2The founding of Vincennes has been assigned to various years 
 between 1702 and 1735. The most probable date is the latter, 
 though it appears that Frangois Morgan, Sieur de Vincennes, at 
 the command of Governor Perier of Louisiana, visited the site of 
 the future town as early as 1727 and erected a fort to counteract 
 the designs of the English on the Indian trade of the Wabash 
 Valley. But the first authenticated settlement of Frenchmen with 
 their families occurred in 1735. When George Croghan visited 
 the town thirty years later he found it to contain eighty or ninety 
 French families —"an idle, lazy people, a parcel of renegadoes 
 from Canada, much worse than the Indians." Tours into the 
 Western Country (Early Western Travels, i, pp. 141-142). Faux, 
 in 1819, says in his Memorable Days that although long the capi- 
 tal and mother-town of the state, Vincennes looked like an " old, 
 worn-out, dirty village of wooden frame houses, which a fire 
 might much improve" (Early Western Travels, xi, p. 207). 
 Welby {Visit to North America) gives an interesting account of 
 a sojourn at the place in 1819 (Early Western Travels, xii, pp. 236- 
 248). The generally unfavorable comments of the travellers may 
 be oflf-set and incidentally explained somewhat by the following 
 statement of Birkbeck {Notes, p. 105), in 1817: "There is nothing 
 in Vincennes, on its first appearance, to make a favourable im- 
 
Cincinnati to Vincennes 97 
 
 mer tribe contains about 1200 warriors, and are a 
 fierce, determined race of men. The Miamies and 
 Kaskaskians, though excellent warriors, are more 
 mild. They all hunt and fight with rifles, and are 
 good marksmen. I have seen a young Delaware 
 warrior present a heavy rifle, and hold it immova- 
 ble without a rest, for several minutes. Some of 
 the Miamies are very fine fellows; comparatively 
 rich. Their Tomohawks and guns are beautifully 
 ornamented. They ride blood ponies ; and some of 
 them have handsome saddles and bridles.^ 
 
 I have received an invitation to visit a camp of 
 Miamies, a few miles hence, and to join a hunting 
 party. I have declined it, not being master of suf- 
 ficient leisure, nor do I know enough of the Indian, 
 who invited me, to entrust myself with them. 
 
 We staid at St. Vincennes a week, then went 25 
 miles S. W. to a little new town, called Princetown,2 
 of about 20 houses, situated in the woods. We like 
 the place so much that a house is hired for 9 months 
 
 pression on a stranger; but it improves on acquaintance, for it 
 contains agreeable people: and there is a spirit of cleanliness, 
 and even neatness in their houses and manner of living: there 
 is also a strain of politeness, which marks the origin of this settle- 
 ment in a way very flattering to the French." The development of 
 Vincennes will be found well treated in the histories of Indiana 
 by Dillon. Dunn, and W^illiam H. Smith, and in Hubbard M. 
 Smith's Historical Sketches of Old Vincennes (Vincennes, 1902). 
 
 ' Birkbeck gives a valuable description of the Indians of the 
 Vincennes region in his Notes, pp. 99-100. 
 
 2 Princeton is situated about thirty miles south of Vincennes, 
 within two miles of the Patoka River and ten of the Wabash. The 
 first settlement in the vicinity was made as early as 1800. In 
 1813 Gibson County was erected and Princeton became its seat. 
 Town lots were first put on sale in 1814. The place received its 
 name from William Prince, an Indian agent located there in 
 1812, subsequently a member of Congress. Hulme (Journal) 
 
98 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 and there the ladies, servants, and myself are left, 
 while M*". B & go on to explore. 
 
 I have met with two agreeable men, of whom I 
 have heard excellent characters, and who have 
 
 shown me great civilities. M"". H and Col. 
 
 E a gentleman from Virginia. The latter, 
 
 especially, is a very engaging man; just after my 
 own heart. All I have heard of him has been favor- 
 able, and the best of it has been confirmed to me 
 by Gen. an old revolutionary officer. 
 
 Col. E and M*". H have proposed to form 
 
 a grand hunting party, as soon as I shall be at leis- 
 ure; and Judge P with several experienced 
 
 hunters are to go with us. We shall be out sev- 
 eral days. Our game will be deer, bears, and opos- 
 sums. 
 
 My health is good. I never sleep in a bed : usu- 
 ally my cloak and saddle-blanket, spread on the 
 floor, form my couch. The climate is so fine, that 
 sleeping in open balconies is a common practice. 
 
 I left Princetown yesterday, accompanied by 
 
 in order to copy a map of the Southern part of the 
 State of Indiana from the Maps of the Land Of- 
 fice. I shall most probably finish it, and return, 
 tomorrow. 
 
 speaks of it in 1818 as a very dull town and says it will never 
 be otherwise while all the inhabitants persist in attempting to be 
 keepers of stores and taverns (Early Western Travels, _x, p. 
 46). Faux {Memorable Days) gives an account of a sojourn 
 there a few years after Hulme's visit (Early Western Travels, 
 xi, pp. 214-224). For a noteworthy word-picture of the develop- 
 ment of little frontier towns of the type of Princeton, see Birk- 
 beck, Notes, pp. 104-105. The families of Birkbeck and Flower were 
 left at Princeton in the autumn of 1817, while the Illinois prairies 
 were being examined and places of habitation prepared. 
 
Cincinnati to Vincennes 99 
 
 M'. B., after he returns from the Illinois terri- 
 tory, wishes minutely to survey the banks of the 
 Ohio, from the Wabash to the Great Miami. 
 
 Best land is worth 6 or yoo£ sterling per section : 
 further from Market 35o£ or 40o£ — uncleared. 
 
 Let important letters have duplicates, and even 
 triplicates, sent by different ships, and with differ- 
 ent directions. 
 
VI 
 
 The forests of Indiana — The Indiana Constitution — Character and 
 prices of land — Emigration directed further west — Commer- 
 cial importance of the Mississippi — Unhealthy conditions on 
 the lower Mississippi — The Wabash — Description of Prince- 
 ton — Prospective visit to the Illinois Territory. 
 
 July SI. i8iy. 
 
 Princetown, Gibson County, Indiana. 
 
 . . . We left Cincinnati in the last week in June, 
 and crossed over the Great Miami River into Indi- 
 ana. Excepting on the banks of the Rivers Ohio and 
 Wabash, this state is one vast forest, intersected by 
 a few Blaze roads^ and two or three open roads. 
 There are a few new towns, and some settlements 
 on and near the state roads and rivers. These are 
 generally from one to three years old ; though there 
 are much older and more substantial improvements 
 on the Ohio ; and St Vincennes on the Wabash was 
 settled 30 years ago. Indiana has been a state only 
 Awo years. Its constitution seems to have exhausted 
 ] the wisdom of all ages and countries — so complete 
 [^ is it — and yet so simple. It has a Governor, who is 
 President in the Senate, and Commander in Chief 
 of its armies; a Lieutenant Governor; a Senate; a 
 Legislative body ; and is represented in Congress by 
 two members. Its Executive [sic] consists of Cir- 
 
 ^ Blaze roads are merely lines, marked through the forests by 
 slices of bark, like a blase, being chopped off the trees. When 
 a road is surveyed, the trees are cut down, and the stumps are 
 left to rot in the ground. The trees on each side are notched 
 at convenient distances, to distinguish the State road from pri- 
 vate ones to Plantations, and this is then called an open road. 
 
 — FoRDHAM. 
 
Indiana loi 
 
 cuit Courts, and a Supreme Court. Its civil code is 
 founded on the Common Law of England. Every 
 office, civil or military, is elective, and held only 
 during good behaviour. Every citizen is by law a 
 soldier, but he need not enter the regular army un- 
 less he choose it. Every Citizen may carry what 
 arms he please for the defence of his person or prop- 
 erty. Slavery is not allowed in this State. All re- 
 ligions are equally protected. The word ''tolerate" 
 is not to be found in the articles of their Constitu- 
 tion.* 
 
 The land near the Water Courses is excellent. 
 Some of the very first quality; but all that is quite 
 conveniently situated on the Ohio banks, that is, 
 
 ' There is a similar synopsis of the Indiana system of govern- 
 ment in William Tell Harris's Tour Through the United States, 
 pp. 136-137. The main steps in the organization of civil govern- 
 ment in Indiana may be indicated briefly. In 1800 Congress made 
 a division of the Northwest Territory, creating a separate Indiana 
 Territory which comprised practically all of the original except 
 Ohio. The capital was fixed at Vincennes. and William Henry 
 Harrison was appointed the first governor. In 1805 Congress at- 
 tached to Indiana the " District of Louisiana " — all possessions 
 west of the Mississippi and north of 33° ; but this great region 
 was detached again in the following year. In 1805. also, the 
 Michigan Territory was given a separate organization. The first 
 general assembly of the Indiana Territory met at Vincennes July 
 29. 1805. In 1809 the Territory was once more pared down, Illi- 
 nois being separated from it. By 1810 the population of Indiana 
 proper was 24,520. In 1813 the legislature moved the territorial 
 capital from Vincennes to Corydon, on the Ohio. In 1815 the 
 legislature petitioned Congress for the admission of Indiana as 
 a state, alleging that the Territory now had a population of nearly 
 67,000. In the enabling act which resulted, in 1816, Congress 
 granted the forthcoming state four sections of land to be acquired 
 from the Indians for a new seat of government. The legislature 
 appointed a commission to select a site, and after a time Indian- 
 apolis was chosen, though as yet the place was but a wilderness 
 more than sixty miles from so much as a store ; the capital was 
 not transferred thither until 1825. In pursuance of the enabling 
 act a convention of delegates met at Corydon, June 10, 1816, and 
 framed the constitution concerning whose features Fordham 
 speaks. 
 
 7 
 
102 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 high, dry, and rich, has been already entered. It 
 was bought at the auctions of the U. S. at high 
 prices, from lo to 15$ p'". acre. What was not then 
 sold may now be purchased at 2$ p'. acre at the 
 Land Offices ; but it is often better to give 6 or 7$ 
 per acre to the first settler for his chosen section 
 with an improvement upon it, than to go into the 
 woods, away from a navigable river and take land 
 at the Land Office price.^ You have not a bad 
 
 ' The earliest arrangements for tlie sale of public land were ef- 
 fected bv an ordinance of 1785, which established the quadrangular 
 section of 640 acres as the unit. During the next eleven years — 
 a period of great activity on the part of speculating land com- 
 panies — there remained no provision for the sale of land in small 
 quantities, and only after 1706 could a single section of 640 acres 
 be disposed of to a purchaser. Even this modification did not 
 open the public domain to the would-be land-holder who was 
 poor. In 1709 William Henry Harrison, who had been Secretary 
 of the Northwest Territory under the governorship of General 
 St. Clair, was elected by the general assembly of the Territory 
 to the office of delegate to Congress. Being appointed chairman 
 of the House committee on public lands, Harrison gave his atten- 
 tion to drafting and securing the passage of an act authorizing the 
 sale of public land in half-sections, or tracts of 320 acres. By this 
 act (1800) it was further provided that only one-fourth of the 
 purchase price need be paid down, while for the rest credit of 
 two. three and four years was to be given. This act was prop- 
 erly regarded as a great public boon, for its tendency was to open 
 the public domain to the worthy but poor emigrant — to give farms 
 to the many instead of plantations to the few. The process of 
 paring down the saleable units went on in after years, until in our 
 own day it has been possible to gain a title to as small an area as forty 
 acres. The method by which public land was divided and sold 
 in the period in which Fordham wrote is described with admirable 
 clearness by Flint, in his Letters from America, as follows: "In 
 the public land-offices, maps of the new lands are kept. Sections 
 of a square mile, and quarter sections of 160 acres, are laid down. 
 The squares entered are marked A. P. meaning advance paid. This 
 advance is half a dollar per acre, or one-fourth of the price. 
 Lands, when first put to sale, are offered by public auction, and 
 are set up at two dollars per acre. H no one offers that price, 
 they are exhibited on the land-office map, and may be sold at 
 that rate at any subsequent time. Besides the land-offices for 
 the sale of national property, there are agents who sell on ac- 
 count of individuals. I can mention Mr. Embree, of Cincinnati, 
 as a gentleman who does much business in this way, and with 
 
Indiana 103 
 
 chance, however, in this latter plan, for there is a 
 district as large as all England to be picked over 
 now. M'. and I have a great fancy to look 
 
 much reputation to himself. Lands entered at the public sales, 
 or at the Register's office, are payable, one fourth part of the 
 price at the time of purchase ; one fourth at the expiry of two 
 years; one fourth at three years, and the remaining fourth at 
 four years. By law, lands not fully paid at the end of five years, 
 are forfeited to the government, but examples are not wanting 
 of States petitioning Congress for indulgence on this point, and 
 obtaining it. ' For money paid in advance at the land office a dis- 
 count of eight per cent, per annum is allowed, till instalments to 
 the amount of the payment become due. For failures in the 
 payment of instalments, interest at six per cent, is taken till paid. 
 The most skilful speculators usually pay only a fourth part of the 
 price at entry, conceiving that they can derive a much greater 
 profit than eight per cent, per annum from the increasing value 
 of property, and occasionally from renting it out to others. Where 
 judicious selections are made, they calculate rightly. The land 
 system now adopted in the United States is admirable in regard 
 to ingenuity, sirnplicity. and liberality. A slight attention to 
 the map of the district, will enable any one to know at once the 
 relative situation of any section that he may afterwards hear 
 mentioned, and its direct distance in measured miles. There can 
 be no necessity for giving names to farms or estates, as the 
 designation of the particular township, and the number of the 
 section^ is sufficient, and has, besides, the singular convenience of 
 conveying accurate information as to where it is situated. By 
 the new arrangement the boundaries of possessions are most 
 securely fixed, and freed alike from the inconvenience of rivers 
 changing their course, and complexity of curved lines. Litigation 
 amongst neighbors as to their landmarks, is in a great measure 
 excluded. The title deed is printed on a piece of parchment of 
 the quarto size. The date, the locality of the purchase, and the 
 purchaser's name, are inserted in writing, and the instrument is 
 subscribed by the President of the United States, and the agent 
 of the general land office. It is delivered to the buyer free of all 
 expense, and may be transferred by him to another person without 
 using stamped paper, and without the intervention of a law prac- 
 titioner. The business of the land office proceeds on the most 
 moderate principles, and with the strictest regard to justice. The 
 proceeds are applied in defraying the expense of government, 
 and form a resource against taxation. The public lands are in 
 reality the property of the people. The stranger who would go 
 into the woods to make a selection of lands, ought to take with 
 him an extract from the land office map applying to the part of 
 the country he intends to visit. Without this, he cannot well 
 distinguish entered from unentered grounds. He should also 
 ptocure the names of the resident people, with the numbers and 
 quarters of the sections they live on, not neglecting to carry 
 
104 Fordham.*s Personal Narrative 
 
 at the Western side of the Illinois territory; and 
 
 since he and M^ B have left me here, I have 
 
 received an account of a tract of land on the left 
 bank of the Mississippi, reaching from Kaskaskia* 
 nearly to S*. Louis. It is called the American bot- 
 tom, and consists of rich Alluvium from 8 to 40 
 feet deep. There is a farm to be sold there of 1400 
 
 with him a pocket-compass, to enable him to follow the blazed 
 lines marked out by the surveyor. Blaze is a word signifying 
 a mark cut by a hatchet on the bark of a tree. It is the more 
 necessary for the explorer to be furnished thus, as he may expect 
 to meet with settlers who will not be willing to direct him, but, 
 on the contrary, tell him with the greatest effrontery, that every 
 neighbouring quarter section is already taken up. Squatters, a class 
 of men who take possession without purchasing, are afraid of 
 being turned out, or of having their pastures abridged by new 
 comers. Others, perhaps meditating an enlargement of their prop- 
 ertv, so soon as funds will permit, wish to hold the adjoining lands 
 in reserve for themselves, and not a few are jealous of the land- 
 dealer, who is not an actual settler, whose grounds lie waste, 
 waiting for that advance on the value of property, which arises 
 from an increasing population. The non-resident proprietor is 
 injurious to a neighbourhood, in respect of his not bearing any part 
 of the expense of making roads, while other people are frequently 
 under the necessity of making them through his lands for their 
 own convenience. On excursions of this kind, the prudent will 
 always be cautious of explaining their views, particularly as to the 
 spot chosen for nurchase and without loss of time they should re- 
 turn to the land-office and make entry" (Early Western 
 Travels, ix, pp. 175-181). Woods {Two Years' Residence), in 
 1820, has a good account, similar to Flint's (Early Western 
 Travels, x, pp. 330-334)- 
 
 ' Kaskaskia was situated on the east bank of the Kaskaskia 
 River, four miles east of the Mississippi. It was about 150 miles 
 distant from Vincenncs. The town owed its origin to the migra- 
 tion of French traders and missionaries thither about 1700, in- 
 duced by the removal of the Kaskaskia tribe of Indians to the 
 region at that time. It continued a straggling settlement of 
 courerrs des bois and Indians until taken possession of by the 
 English in 1765. In 1772, after the abandonment of Fort Chartres, 
 Kaskaskia became the " capital " of the Illinois country. In 1778 
 it was captured from the English by George Rogers Clark during 
 the course of his notable campaigns in the West. It remained 
 the capital of Illinois until 1821, when it was succeeded in that 
 dignity by the wilderness town of Vandalia. The village was all 
 but ruined by a flood in 1844, and in 1847 it ceased even to be the 
 seat of Randolph County. 
 
Indiana 105 
 
 acres, with house and buildings, for 5$ p^ acre; the 
 land, half prairie, half wood, and all richer than 
 your tame, English, imagination can conceive; at 
 least, if it be equal to the descriptions I have of it.^ 
 
 The wave of Emigration has already reached 200 
 miles up the Missouri. It is this thirst, this rapa- 
 cious desire, to obtain the very best land, that keeps 
 Indiana so thinly inhabited. 
 
 If the whole population of England were planted 
 in Indiana and Illinois, there would be good land 
 enough in the state and territory to make every 
 man an independent farmer. 
 
 Were the choice left to me, I would settle on 
 the Ohio banks below the falls, ^ or on the Missis- 
 
 ^ The American Bottom lay between a range of hills and the 
 Mississippi, extending from the Kaskaskia on the south to the 
 mouth of the Missouri on the north. Its length was about lOO 
 miles and its area something like 320,000 acres, embracing present 
 Monroe and St. Clair counties, with parts of Randolph and Mad- 
 ison. It is the most extended unbroken stretch of fertile prairie 
 in Illinois and had the reputation in the early nineteenth century 
 of being the richest agricultural land in the United States. It 
 contained the first white settlements in Illinois — the French posts 
 of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Prairie du Rocher. Its name was 
 given it when it constituted the western boundary of the United 
 States, before the acquisition of Louisiana. 
 
 2The " falls " of the Ohio comprise a stretch of rapids between 
 Louisville and the present suburb Shippingport, two and a half 
 miles down stream. A ledge of rocks extending across the river 
 produces in this distance a descent of about twenty-five feet, ren- 
 dering steam-boat navigation impossible except at high water and 
 the passage of other craft more or less hazardous at all times. 
 Until a canal was completed around the falls in 1830 it was gen- 
 erally necessary for the cargoes of all boats to be unloaded at one 
 end, transported by land to the other end, and there reloaded 
 for the remainder of the voyage. The local employment thus 
 afforded laborers, and the desirability of distributing goods thence 
 as far as possible without a second loading on the river craft, in- 
 evitably gave rise to a town, which in time grew into the city of 
 Louisville. The Ohio Falls were noted and described by nearly 
 every traveller in the West, beginning with Croghan in 1765. 
 
io6 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 sippi, — that "father of waters," as the Indians call 
 it, below its junction with the Missouri; because 
 that great river must be as much the high road of 
 Commerce as Main Street is in Philadelphia, or 
 Cheapside in London. Every kind of produce is 
 sent to New Orleans in the cheapest way — to 
 Europe if you please, or to the West Indies, for Sea 
 vessels are often built on the river, but flat boats are 
 the usual conveyances. For the conveyance of 
 goods up the river, keel boats are used which are 
 impelled by sails, oars and poles. Steam boats are 
 now beginning to supersede their use, and one of 
 400 tons burden has made several trips/ 
 
 Melish, in 181 1, has a good account, accompanied by an excellent 
 map of the vicinity, in his Travels, ii, pp. 149-152. Descriptions 
 by Nuttall {Journal) in 1818, Early Western Travels, xiii, p. 
 66; Hulme {Journal) in 1818, Early Western Travels, x, p. 43; 
 and Woods {Two Years' Residence) in 1820, Early Western 
 Travels, x, pp. 242-243, are of value. H. McMurtrie's Sketches of 
 Louisville and its Environs (Louisville, 1819) contains a good de- 
 scription and map. The long-discussed project of constructing a 
 canal around the falls was revived in 1804 and in that year a com- 
 pany to undertake the work was incorporated by the legislature of 
 Kentucky. Owing, however, to the indifference of Louisville (whose 
 prosperity was thought to depend largely on the continuance of 
 the rehandling of goods occasioned by the lack of a canal) and 
 other causes, nothing further was done until 1825. In that year 
 a new organization, the Louisville and Portland Canal Company, 
 was chartered, with a capital of $600,000. It was this company 
 which, during the next five years, pushed the project to comple- 
 tion. The canal was enlarged in 1872, and in 1874, by act of 
 Congress, it passed under the control of the United States. 
 
 ' The first steamboat to appear on the Ohio was the New Or- 
 leans (built by Nicholas J. Roosevelt in 1810) which in 181 1 de- 
 scended to the city from which she took her name. In 1815 the 
 Aetna led the way in stemming the current from New Orleans to 
 Louisville. Thereafter steamboat navigation on the Ohio and the 
 Mississippi developed steadily — to such a degree, in fact, that 
 within a few years Wheeling, Marietta, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and 
 Louisville came to number shipbuilding among their most im- 
 portant industries. In 1818 fourteen steamers were built in these 
 
Indiana 1 07 
 
 Again — the Mississippi banks below the Ohio 
 mouth are universally unhealthy, generally unin- 
 habitable, from the overflowing of the River and 
 the many Bayous which form inland swamps of 
 great extent. The perpendicular rise of the river 
 water is sometimes 200 feet, at such times the 
 whole valley of the Mississippi below the Ohio is 
 overflowed. Now this is not the case above the 
 Ohio. The Bluffs of Kaskaskia are always safe. 
 How valuable then must land be in such situations 
 in a few years, when the population above, and the 
 trade below, have increased, so that towns, like Cin- 
 cinnati and Pittsburg, shall be built on convenient 
 landing places. — The finest land in the world, on 
 the banks of the greatest river, with the market at 
 your gate. 
 
 The Wabash^ is 300 yards wide, and rolls its 
 
 cities, and in 1819, twenty-three. Estwick Evans, in his Pedestrious 
 Tour in 1819 writes : " In speaking of large vessels on the Ohio, 
 I may add that ships of large tonnage have been built on this 
 river, laden for the West Indies, and there sold, both vessel and 
 cargo. A person in Europe, unacquainted with the geography of 
 our western waters, would be astonished to see, in the Atlantic 
 Ocean, a large vessel, freighted with country produce, which was 
 built and laden at Pittsburg, between two and three thousand 
 miles from the Gulf of Mexico " (Early Western Travels, viii, 
 p. 269). Faux {Memorable Days) gives some valuable information 
 (Early Western Travels, xi, p. 198). A Hst of steamboats em- 
 ployed on western rivers between 1812 and 1819 may be found in 
 H. McMurtrie's Sketches of Louisville and its Environs (Louis- 
 ville, 1819), pp. 200-204. 
 
 ^The Wabash, or Ouabache as they called it, was regarded by 
 the French in early times as a very valuable highway between 
 Canada and Louisiana. Croghan, in 1765, wrote that " its course 
 runs through one of the finest countries in the world, the lands 
 being exceedingly rich and well-watered" (Early Western 
 Travels, i, p. 137). The river is about 400 miles in length. There 
 is a description of it, almost contemporary with Fordham's, in 
 Lewis C. Beck's Gazetteer of the States of Illinois and Missouri 
 (Albany, New York, 1823), pp. 16-17. 
 
io8 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 warm, transparent, waters over a bed of sand and 
 gravel. It is navigable for keels nine and for bat- 
 teaux and fiats twelve months in the year. It inter- 
 locks with the head waters of the Great Miami of 
 the Lakes. Its Eastern fork, the Missisipany, rises 
 in rich low ground, and so near to the springs of 
 St. Mary's, which is the principal branch of the 
 Miami of the lakes, that when the waters are high, 
 boats pass over the intervening land.^ Congress has 
 voted a piece of land to raise funds for making a 
 Canal here, which will connect the Lakes, the St. 
 Lawrence, and the Northern Ocean with the Mis- 
 sissippi and the Gulf of Mexico. There is some 
 fine land on the Wabash, both above and below St. 
 Vincennes. 
 
 Princetown, where we now reside, is situated 
 about ten miles from the Wabash, 12 from the 
 White River, 28 from the Ohio, and 30 South of 
 Vincennes. It stands on a range of hills in the 
 midst of woods. It was laid out 3 years ago, but 
 one cabin stood here 1 1 years ago. There are three 
 small brick, four or five frame, and seven or eight 
 log, houses, and about a dozen cabins in the town. 
 The stumps of the trees have not yet had time to 
 rot away in the streets, which are therefore dan- 
 gerous to walk in after dark. We have hired a 
 small frame house, with a log kitchen &c, adjoin- 
 ing a good garden and stable. 
 
 iThe sources of the eastern fork of the Wabash and of the 
 St. Mary's are in the vicinity of the present town of Selina, Ohio. 
 By the Miami of the Lakes is meant the Maumee. 
 
Indiana 109 
 
 The woods around us are inhabited by Indians, 
 bears, wolves, deer, opossums and racoons. We 
 hear the howhng of the wolves every evening, as 
 they are driven back from the farmyards by the 
 dogs, who flock together to repel the invaders. 
 
 In looking in the maps, I find I am wrong in 
 saying, that the Indians inhabit the neighborhood. 
 Their boundary line is thirty miles hence, but they 
 often hunt here. 
 
 August j''. II at night. I delayed finishing this 
 
 letter, because returned two days ago, and 
 
 M'". B this evening. I am going off tomorrow 
 
 by sunrise to the Illinois territory, to explore the 
 
 Little Wabash for a mill seat G will go 
 
 part of the way with me. 
 
 I am informed that the Illinois is a most beauti- 
 ful country; — quite unsettled in the interior, with 
 no accommodations for travellers but such as the 
 cabins of the hunter afford. In my next letter I 
 hope I shall be able to give you some important in- 
 formation. 
 
 . . . I wish you could see your brother mount 
 his horse to morrow morning. I will give you a 
 sketch. A broad brimmed straw hat, — long trous- 
 ers and moccasins, — shot pouch and powder horn 
 slung from a belt, — rifle at his back, in a sling, — 
 tomohawk in a holster at his saddle bow, — a pair 
 of saddle bags stuffed with shirts and gingerbread, 
 made by an old friend of yours, — Boat cloak and 
 Scotch tent buckled behind the saddle. . . . 
 Good bye. 
 
no Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 P. S. Tell and that I like them well 
 
 enough to wish them here. Bears eat neither cows, 
 hogs, nor sheep, till they have been accustomed to 
 see them two or three years ; by that time they are 
 hunted away. 
 
VII 
 
 Physical character of southern Illinois — The English Prairie — 
 Three lines of communication with the Atlantic — Settlers in 
 and about the English Prairies — Rates of freightage — Cost 
 of travel — A tabular view of products — Fauna of the region — 
 Salt deposits — Cost of building — Advantages of the back- 
 woods settler — Profits of trade — Land the basis of wealth — 
 The Mississippi river system — Slaves and bound persons — 
 Classes of frontier settlers — Character of the backwoodsman — 
 Democratic manners — Signs of progress — How to take up 
 land — Eastern ignorance of the West — The climate — Size of 
 the Illinois Territory — Opportunities for capital in Illinois — 
 No prejudice against liberal-minded Englishmen. 
 
 Shawanoe town^ Illinois Territory 
 Nov". 15. 1817. 
 
 I AM here resting from a journey through part 
 of the Wabash country, and I gladly seize this 
 opportunity of describing it. But I must first ex- 
 
 ^ Shawncetown, so named because of the identification in early 
 times of the Shawnee Indians with its locality, was laid out in 
 1808. It is situated in Gallatin County, Illinois, twelve miles 
 north of the junction of the Saline River with the Ohio. Cum- 
 ing tells us in his Sketches that already before the end of 1808 
 the town comprised twenty-four cabins and was a place of consid- 
 erable resort on account of the salt-works twelve miles distant [see 
 p. 120, note] (EIarly Western Travels, iv, p. 271). Nuttall, in 1818, 
 called the place a mere "handful of log cabins" (Early West- 
 ern Travels, xiii, p. 71). In the summer of the same year Will- 
 iam Tell Harris visited it, afterwards writing in his Remarks (p. 
 139): "From the situation of Shawneetown its inhabitants might 
 be supposed to partake of the nature of the wild duck, for every 
 year they expect to be driven, by the waters, to their upper stories, 
 as land high enough to avoid them is not to be found within a 
 mile of the place; the consequent unhealthiness of such a spot is 
 apparent in the sallow complexions of those who here deprive 
 themselves of many comforts, and risk both health and life, for the 
 sake of gain; considerable business being done here, as it is on the 
 road from the southern States to St. Louis, and the Missouri, and 
 the land office is here." This land-office was for the southeast dis- 
 trict of Illinois and had been established only a few months before 
 Harris wrote. Fearon, in his Sketches (p. 260), says the town had 
 still only about thirty log houses when he visited it in 1817. Its 
 chief importance lay in its situation respecting the chief routes 
 of trade, especially down the Ohio and from south central Illinois. 
 
112 F or dham's Personal Narrative 
 
 press my regret that I have not yet received a let- 
 ter from old England. . . . 
 "' That part of the Illinois Territory^ which lies 
 between the great and little Wabash rivers and 
 south of the latter to the Ohio, is about as hilly as 
 Hertfordshire. It is intersected with a vast num- 
 ber of streams or creeks, and interspersed with 
 prairies or natural meadows, containing from i,ooo 
 to 100,000 acres. They are very irregular in figure, 
 and are dotted and clumped with trees, like Eng- 
 lish parks. Some of the smallest are low, flat, and 
 swampy, but the greatest part are high, dry, and 
 rolling. The soil of the latter is generally light, 
 and very rich ; consisting of a due mixture of vege- 
 table mould, sand, and clay lying on sand rock. 
 
 ' The stages in the political evolution of the Illinois Territory 
 may be indicated briefly. December 12, 1778, after the conquest 
 by George Rogers Clark, the legislature of Virginia constituted 
 what was known as the County of Illinois. In 1784 the region 
 was ceded to the nation by Virginia, and it then became a part of 
 the Northwest Territory, definitely organized in 1787. By act of 
 May 7, 1800, Congress divided the Northwest Territory, giving 
 the name Indiana to all west of a line beginning on the Ohio op- 
 posite the mouth of the Kentucky River and continuing through 
 Fort Recovery to the northern limits of the United States [see 
 p. loi, note]. As the population of the Illinois country grew, a strong 
 demand was made for a separate territorial organization. The 
 result was that by act of February 23, 1809, the Territory of 
 Illinois was set aside from Indiana, with boundaries the same as 
 those of the present state, except that they extended northward 
 to Canada. Ninian Edwards was appointed first governor, and 
 Kaskaskia was made the capital. [For admission to statehood see 
 p. 174, note 2.] On the early history of Illinois the following works 
 will be found useful : John Reynolds, The Pioneer History of 
 Illinois (Chicago, 1887) ; Henry Brown, History of Illinois from 
 its first Discovery and Settlement (New York, 1844) ; Ninian 
 W. Edwards, History of Illinois from 1777 to 1783; and Life and 
 Times of Ninian Edwards (Springfield, 1870) ; Alexander David- 
 son and Bernard Stuve, Complete History of Illinois from 1673 
 to 1873 (Springfield, 1874) ; and John Moses, Illinois, Historical 
 and Statistical (Chicago, 1889). 
 
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 ENGLISH PRAIRIE 
 
 Every square is one mile, and contains 640 acres. Thirty-six miles 
 form a township. The squares are called sections and are sold entire or in 
 quarters, price 2^ in four annual installments. Discount for cash 6 
 p' cent. 
 
The Illinois Territory 115 
 
 Limestone has been found in the Piankeshaw vil- 
 lage prairie/ which is divided from the Boltonhouse^ 
 or Enghsh Prairie by only two miles of timbered 
 land. On the English Prairie very excellent brick 
 earth has been found by M''. Birkbeck. 
 
 The Enghsh Prairie^ lies in Latitude 38° 30' 
 North, and Longitude 88° west of London. It is 
 45^ miles long and 4 miles wide. It is high on the 
 North and East sides and has some beautiful situ- 
 ations for houses. A creek runs through it, and 
 there are a dozen branches which are filled by every 
 shower of rain. '^ 
 
 M^ Birkbeck's'' house will be on the spot marked 
 
 * A district west from Vincennes which took its name from 
 the Piankeshaw Indians, a branch of the Miamis, who had in- 
 habited it when it first became known to the whites. 
 
 2 "The English prairie was first called Boltinghouse prairie, from 
 a young man of that name, who was killed by the Indians a few 
 years ago." John Woods, Two Years' Residence (Early West- 
 ern Travels, x, p. 270). 
 
 3For Birkbeck's description of this prairie — the special field of his 
 colonizing operations — see his Notes, pp. 129-131. It lay almost due 
 north of the mouth of the Great Wabash, about forty-five miles 
 from its shipping port, Shawneetown. 
 
 4For facts regarding Birkbeck and his Illinois settlement see 
 Introduction, p. 23 et seq. A full account may be found in George 
 Flower's History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, 
 Illinois (Chicago, 1882), edited by Elihu B. Washburne, as Vol- 
 ume I of the Chicago Historical Society's Collections. Con- 
 temporary descriptions of the settlement are Woods. Two Years' 
 Residence (Early Western Travels, x, p. 271) ; Welby, Visit^ to 
 North America (Early Western Travels, xii, p. 248, fif.) ; William 
 Tell Harris, Remarks, pp. 137-139; and William Faux, Memorable 
 Days (Early Western Travels, xi, p. 252, ff.V The observations 
 made by these writers, with the exception of Woods, were gener- 
 ally unfavorable. Adam Hodgson, in his Letters from North 
 America (London, 1824), ii. pp. 64-77, gives a very discouraging re- 
 port of the enterprise, based, however, not on personal knowledge, 
 but merely on the complaints of discontented settlers who were 
 returning East from the Illinois country. A fairly useful essay 
 entitled " Morris Birkbeck and his Friends," by Daniel Barry, has 
 appeared in Publication No. 9 of the Illinois State Historical 
 Library (Springfield, 1904), PP- 259-273. 
 
1 16 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 +, and we have a hunting cabin on the spot marked 
 o; and there will probably be a range of cottages 
 on the dotted line 
 
 The little Wabash/ a fine mill stream, which de- 
 scends from the North 2 or 300 miles, is six miles 
 west of the Prairie. The big Wabash, a navigable 
 river, which interlocks with the Miami of the Lakes, 
 will probably be connected with it by a canal; at 
 present the portage is 8 miles. The Indian traders 
 ascend the Wabash, descend the Miami, and trav- 
 erse Lake Erie in 30 days. We have thus at our 
 very doors 3 lines of communication with the At- 
 lantic, chiefly, or entirely, by water. i^\ from 
 Baltimore, Pittsburg, and the Ohio. 2^. The Wa- 
 bash, the Lakes, and the S\ Lawrence. 3'^. The 
 Wabash, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. On all 
 these rivers there are large commercial towns. 
 
 The Steam boats descend the Ohio and the Mis- 
 sissippi so rapidly that I could be with you in Hert- 
 fordshire, via New Orleans, in two months. 
 
 The spaces on the map contained by the dark 
 lines are M^ Birkbeck's and M*". Flower's pur- 
 chases.- They have divided them by a meridian 
 
 ^ The Little Wabash rises near the source of the Kaskaskia, in 
 central Illinois, flows southward, and empties into the Great Wa- 
 bash in Gallatin County, Illinois. 
 
 2 For facts regarding the settlement of George Flower and sub- 
 sequently his father Richard, in Illinois, see Introduction, pp. 
 23-27. The best account of the whole Birkbeck-Flower enterprise 
 is the younger Flower's History of the English Settlement in 
 Edwards County, Illinois, referred to in note 4, p. 115. This book 
 was written during the author's later years, when, after suffering 
 financial reverses, he was living with his children in southern 
 Indiana and Illinois. The unfortunate quarrel which alienated the 
 
The Illinois Territory 117 
 
 line a.b. Besides this, they have made entry of 
 another prairie, near the Httle Wabash. The dots 
 are entries made by American Back- woodsmen. 
 
 All but six have been made since August. There 
 were none at that time in the Village Prairie, two 
 miles to the North of us : there are now 15. A M*". 
 DePugh made an entry of a quarter section in the 
 Village Prairie; a month afterwards, he wished 
 to sell in order to purchase close to our settlement, 
 and he has been bid 35^$ p*". acre for his land. 
 
 Let us go back to the means of access to our 
 settlement. It is on a ridge between the Great and 
 Little Wabash ; nearly equi-distant from both. The 
 former is always navigable; the latter two months 
 in the year; and two days ago, I signed a petition 
 to the Governor, requesting permission and au- 
 thority to form a Company, for the purpose of ren- 
 dering it permanently navigable. 
 
 M^ Birkbeck's and Flower's purchase in the 
 Brushy Prairie^ will then be greatly inhanced in 
 value, — for it lies within two miles of it. 
 
 The present rate of freightage is — from Shawnee 
 to Orleans 1$ per hundred lbs. — back 4^$ — to 
 Pittsburg 3^$ — from Pittsburg 1$ — from Louis- 
 ville, Kentucky, 373/2 cents — from Shawnee, or the 
 
 Birkbeck and Flower families soon after the settlement was estab- 
 lished is related in detail in Faux's Memorable Days (Early 
 Western Travels^ xi, p. 272, flf.)- 
 
 iThe Brushy Prairie lay on the east bank of the Little Wabash 
 (in Wayne County), seven miles southwest of Albion and eleven 
 east of Fairfield. 
 
1 18 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 mouth of the Wabash, to Carmi/ on the little Wa- 
 bash, 20 miles below us, 375^ cents — to the nearest 
 point of the Wabash to our settlement 50 cents — 
 down the stream to Shawnee 5 cents p*". hundred 
 lbs — from Vincennes on the Wabash to the Boon 
 pas ^ — 5 cents. 
 
 Passage in Stage and expenses of a journey from 
 Philadelphia to Pittsburg 50$ — Journey down the 
 Ohio 900 miles 10 to 15$ — To Orleans 30$ by 
 Steamboat and back again up the Mississippi 90$ 
 — To St. Louis, by the Steamboat, 20$ — by land 
 on horseback 8$. 
 
 The Illinois territory produces the finest crops of 
 corn and grain of any country in the world. 
 
 I will give you a rough estimate of produce per 
 acre and value.^ 
 
 
 $ Cents 
 
 Indian Corn — 50 to 80 bushels 
 
 .25 per bush. 
 
 Wheat — 25 to 30 
 
 •75 
 
 Barley — say 32 .... 
 
 •75 
 
 Oats — 50 
 
 .37H 
 
 Tobacco — 12 to 15 hundred lbs. 
 
 4.50 per hundred lbs. 
 
 Cotton for domestic manufacture 
 
 40.00 
 
 Pork — fatted in the woods 
 
 350 
 
 Do. — corn-fed .... 
 
 4.00 
 
 ^ Carmi, seat of White County, Illinois, is twenty miles above the 
 mouth of the Little Wabash. 
 
 2 The Bonpas is a small stream to the east of the English Prairie, 
 flowing southward and emptying into the Great Wabash about 
 forty-five miles below Vincennes. It forms the present eastern 
 boundary of Edwards County. On the creek, twelve miles distant 
 from Albion, w^as a little village known as Bonpas which served 
 as a "port" for the English settlement. Commodities were car- 
 ried back and forth between the settlement and this station on 
 horses or in wagons. The waterway from Bonpas to Shawnee- 
 town was about sixty miles in length. 
 
 'A table of prices, wages, etc. in Kentucky at about the same 
 time is given by Flint in his Letters from America (Early West- 
 ern Travels, ix, pp. 139-140) ; one for Ohio may be found in Hulme's 
 Journal {Easly Western Travels, x, pp. 74-75)- 
 
The Illinois Territory 
 
 119 
 
 Beef . 
 
 Hides . 
 
 Maple Sugar 
 
 Honey 
 
 A day's work . 
 
 A labourer's board 
 
 A horse and man, one day 
 
 Do. with a plough 
 A good horse . 
 A handsome saddle horse 
 A Cow .... 
 An Ox . . 
 A Sow with Pigs 
 Shop-goods — double what they are 
 
 500 
 
 12.00 pr. hundd. lbs. 
 3750 
 
 .75 per gallon. 
 
 .50 with board. 
 
 .\2y2 
 
 [without board. 
 
 60.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 20.00 
 
 12.00 
 
 6.00 
 
 in England. 
 
 In the Woods there are great quantities of 
 Grapes, Walnuts, Hickory Nuts, and Parsimins; 
 and, in low river bottoms, Pocoons, a species of thin 
 shelled walnut, and little pappaws. Raspberries and 
 strawberries grow wild ; as do also hops and indigo. 
 Hemp and flax are cultivated; and I have eaten in 
 these wilds as fine musk and water Melons, as I 
 have in France.^ 
 
 Game is as plentiful here as in other parts of the 
 U. S. east of the Mississippi. Bears, Deer, Racoons, 
 and Beavers, are chiefly valued by the hunters. 
 There are wolves, a very few panthers, and some 
 elk in remote situations; Also Turkeys, Pheasants, 
 American Partridges, prairie Hens, and innumer- 
 able Squirrels, which are delicious food. The rivers 
 abound with fish, somiC species of which weigh up- 
 wards of 100 Ibs.^ 
 
 There are many Salt ponds. Those at the Saline 
 
 * A full description of the plant life of the Illinois prairies is 
 given in Woods. Two Years' Residence (Early Western Travels, 
 X, pp. 292-309). 
 
 2 The fauna of the Illinois country is described by Woods, Two 
 Years' Residence (Early Western Travels, x, pp. 281-292). 
 
I20 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 river near Shawnee, yield 150,000 bushels of salt 
 annually at 75 Cents per bushel. The Wabash, 
 White River, Ohio, and Illinois rivers have coal 
 banks. I cannot enumerate all the natural produc- 
 ' tions of this fine country, which literally flows with 
 milk and honey. "Man is the only growth that's 
 wanted here:" and that want will soon be supplied. 
 Every log Cabin is swarming with half-naked chil- 
 dren. Boys of 18 build huts, marry, and raise hogs 
 and children at about the same expence. 
 
 A Cabin of rough logs, containing 2 rooms costs 
 50$ — Ditto, smoothed by the axe 60$. A brick 
 house containing 4 rooms 12 feet square with shin- 
 gled roof 600$. A Kitchen detached, log built 30$. 
 Smoke house 20$. Stable for 4 horses, with loft, 
 35$. Corn house 30$. Barn 100$. Fencing with 
 split-rails 25 Cents per rod. Ditching in the Prai- 
 ries 3ij4; one rail and stakes to do, with hedge 
 planted, perhaps, 123/^ Cents more. 
 
 Farming will not, perhaps, pay more per Cent 
 here than it does in England, if the farmers per- 
 sonal labour be deducted. There is an obvious rea- 
 son for this ; although we are here 1 500 miles from 
 the sea, yet the water communication is so expedi- 
 tious and cheap, that the prices in West Indian and 
 
 iThe salt-works on the Saline were about twelve miles from 
 Shawneetown. They supplied the settlers of all southern Illinois 
 and a large portion of those in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and in 
 the territories along the lower Mississippi. Woods tells us that 
 by 1820 they produced about 300,000 bushels annually. Prior to 
 1818 the salt-works were held as a government reservation, the 
 surrounding land being leased to the operators. When Illinois was 
 admitted to the Union the proprietorship of the salt fields was 
 given over to the new commonwealth. 
 
The Illinois Territory 121 
 
 European Markets affect the value of produce here, 
 so wonderfully and beautifully does the commerce 
 undisturbed by war connect men living in the most 
 distant regions, and equalize the profits of produc- 
 ing food. 
 
 But, still the advantage is greatly in favour of 
 the back settler in America : His table is profusely 
 furnished ; if he choose, with delicacies : He is lord 
 of the soil he cultivates : His land tax, on first rate 
 land, is i Cent per acre; on second rate ^ of a 
 Cent: And the lowest estimate of the annual rise 
 of the value of his Estate, even when unimproved 
 by cultivation and building, is 16 per Cent per 
 annum on first cost. / 
 
 Trade, from the general want of capital, and 
 other causes with which I am unacquainted, is ex- 
 ceedingly profitable. 75 to 100 per Cent is reck- 
 oned a good profit; 50 per cent is a living profit; 
 25 p*". cent, will not keep a man to his business, he 
 will look out for something else. A Tanner is now 
 in the room, who has quitted N. York and a busi- 
 ness which paid him 30 p"". Cent. He is going to 
 St. Louis to establish himself there with the expec- 
 tation of getting Cent per Cent. 
 
 I had the following account from a River Trader 
 
 Dr. 
 
 A boat of 36 tons burden 
 from Orleans to Louis- 
 ville $ 
 14 men at 75 $ . . . 1050 
 — board for 75 days . 525 
 — extra pay to Steersman 75 
 — wear of boat . . . 100 
 
 1750 
 
 C". 
 
 $ 
 Freight of 2)^ tons at 90$ 3240 
 Deduct expences . . . 1750 
 
 Clear profit remaining . 1490 
 
122 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Freighting down to Orleans will pay the expence 
 of going, and leave one or two hundred dollars 
 overplus. But if, besides 700 dollars, the price of 
 a new boat completely rigged, the owner has a cap- 
 ital of 1500 or 2000$, he may make the Voyage 
 down pay him from 500 to 1500 dollars. The whole 
 trip is completed in two or three months. Steam 
 boats pay better interest still, and are gradually 
 increasing in number and perfection of machin- 
 ery. . . . 
 
 Moreover, Land is the basis of wealth. The 
 possession of it is sure to enrich the purchaser, if 
 he has selected it with any judgment. The enhance- 
 ment of its value does not depend on contingent 
 circumstances, but on the never ceasing and pro- 
 gressive increase of the human race. We are here 
 on the most favorable spot for buying it; we have 
 headed the tide of Emigration. 
 
 My friends have made their election almost be- 
 fore a civilized being had set his foot upon this 
 ground, which a few months ago was traversed only 
 by the Savage or the hunter. From the contempla- 
 tion of an entire continent, they descended to the 
 examination of limited states. With minds unbi- 
 assed and intensely fixed upon its object they have 
 passed by every district that offered peculiar ad- 
 vantages, till they found one that contained an 
 aggregate of all: — the climate of Virginia, — the 
 fertility of Ohio, — a commercial communication 
 with the Ocean, — Prairies, like those of the Mis- 
 
The Illinois Territory 123 
 
 souri, — the Minerals from the North and East, — 
 and — freedom from slavery. 
 
 If you will look at any of the Maps constructed 
 since the Travels of Pike or Lewis and Clarke have 
 been published,^ and the surveys of the Land Offices 
 have been exhibited, you will see that Rivers, to 
 which the Thames is but an insignificant stream, 
 are from the North, the East, and the West, into 
 the Valley of the Mississippi, "the father of waters." 
 This again rolls the floods of half a Continent into 
 
 ^ The western explorations of Zebulon Pike and of Meriwether 
 Lewis and William Clark, between 1804 and 1807, had their origin 
 in the desire of President Jefferson to find out what sort of coun- 
 try it was that, under the name of Louisiana, had recently been 
 purchased from Napoleon. Pike made two exploring trips of im- 
 portance. The first was undertaken in 1805, under the immediate 
 direction of General James Wilkinson. It comprised an ascent 
 of the Mississippi from St. Louis for the purpose of selecting sites 
 for military posts, treating with the northern Indians, and ascer- 
 taining whether the British were in possession of any places on 
 the Canadian frontier properly belonging to the United States. 
 Cass Lake, at the mouth of Turtle River, was the limit of this 
 expedition. The second trip was longer and more important. It 
 was undertaken in 1806 and embraced an ascent of the Missouri 
 as far as the Osage, an overland passage through Kansas to the 
 Arkansas, an ascent of this river as far as Leadville, Colorado, 
 and a capture in 1807 by Spanish dragoons on the Rio Grande del 
 Norte, which afforded an unexpected opportunity to view the lands 
 and peoples of the Southwest. The first record of Pike's travels 
 given to the public was An Account of Expeditions to the Sources 
 of the Mississippi, and through the Western Parts of Louisiana, to 
 the Sources of the Arkansazv, etc. (Philadelphia, 1810). The book 
 went through numerous editions. The best for use to-day is Elliott 
 Coues (editor), The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike 
 to the Headwaters of the Mississippi River, through Louisiana Ter- 
 ritory, and in Nezv Spain, during the Years 1805-6-7 (New York, 
 1895). It appears that Jefferson planned some such expedition as 
 that later undertaken by Lewis and Clark while the Louisiana ter- 
 ritory was still a French possession and in the hands of the Span- 
 iards. After June, 1803, when the news of the purchase treaty 
 reached America, preparations which had been begun under cover 
 were rapidly pushed to completion. Captain Lewis, a Virginian and 
 the President's private secretary, was designated to head the enter- 
 prise,_ and by him another Virginian, Captain Clark, was selected 
 as chief associate. The Lewis and Clark party, twenty-nine in num- 
 
124 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 a Gulf, which seems to be designed by Nature to 
 be the very focus of Commerce — the centre of the 
 habitable world. 
 
 The Illinois territory is watered by five of the 
 most important of these streams. It is bounded by 
 no tract of land intended by Nature to be a desert. 
 Northward lies one inland Sea, and North East- 
 ward, it has water communication with another. 
 
 The ease with which property is acquired by the 
 industrious, produces an equality unknown in old 
 Countries. No white man or woman will bear being 
 called a servant, but they will gladly do your work. 
 
 ber, spent the winter of 1803-04 in camp at the mouth of the Mis- 
 souri ; the summer and autumn of 1804 in ascending the Missouri ; 
 the winter of 1804-05 in a stockade among the Mandan Indians 
 in North Dakota ; the summer and autumn of 1805 in pushing on 
 across the mountains to the Pacific coast ; the winter of 1805-06 in 
 camp at Fort Clatsop, studying the country and its resources ; and 
 the summer of 1806 in effecting the return journey to St. Louis. 
 The explorers, according to instructions, kept elaborate journals, 
 and in 1807 one of these — that of Patrick Gass — was published. In 
 the same year a Philadelphia house put out a prospectus announc- 
 ing the forthcoming publication of the journals kept by Lewis and 
 Clark. Lewis, however, was soon made governor of the Louisiana 
 Territory and Clark was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs 
 and brigadier-general of militia — positions which involved heavy 
 duties and .seriously delayed the preparation of the journals for 
 the press. In 1809 Lewis took up the work afresh, but met his 
 death before getting well started. Clark then secured the assist- 
 ance of an editor in the person of Nicholas Biddle of Philadelphia 
 and the manuscript was finally prepared — only to be rejected as a 
 publishing venture by every one to whom submitted until 1813. 
 The work was finally seen through the press by a Philadelphia 
 newspaper man by the name of Paul Allen. The Biddle-Allen edi- 
 tion of the journals was a mere paraphrase, made as readable as 
 possible by the omission of practically all of the scientific data, 
 which in fact gave the writings their chief claim to value. For- 
 tunately the original manuscripts were secured by Jefferson, being 
 placed for safe keeping in the archives of the American Philo- 
 sophical Society. Due to the enterprise of this organization we 
 have now a most excellent reprint of the journals, edited by Dr. 
 R. G. Thwaites under the title Original Journals of the Lewis and 
 Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 (New York, 1904), 7 volumes and 
 Atlas. 
 
The Illinois Territory 125 
 
 Your hirelings must be spoken to with Civility and 
 cheerfulness. Domestic services, perhaps, will be 
 obtained with difficulty. 
 
 Respectable families from Kentucky, who do not|| 
 distinguish between a Servant and a Slave, do all 
 their domestic work, except washing, with their 
 own hands; others indenture negroes for 10 or 15 
 years; but having been accustomed to treat their 
 Slaves with severity, they generally spoil the tem- 
 pers of their bound servants, whom they have not 
 so much under command. hU 
 
 The people who live on these frontiers may be 
 divided into four classes, — not perfectly distinct 
 yet easily distinguishable.^ 
 
 i'\ The hunters, a daring, hardy, race of men, 
 who live in miserable cabins, which they fortify in 
 times of War with the Indians, whom they hate but 
 much resemble in dress and manners. They are 
 unpolished, but hospitable, kind to Strangers, hon- 
 est and trustworthy. They raise a little Indian 
 corn, pumpkins, hogs, and sometimes have a Cow 
 
 'Fearon, in his Sketches of America (pp. 263-264) says: "The 
 inhabitants of Illinois may, perhaps, be ranked as follows : First, 
 the Indian hunters, who are neither different in character or pur- 
 suits from their ancestors in the days of Columbus. 2nd, The 
 ' Squatters,' who are half-civilized and half-savage. These are, in 
 character and habits, extremely wretched : indeed, I prefer the 
 genuine uncontaminated Indian. 3rd, A medley of land jobbers, 
 lawyers, doctors, and farmers, who traverse this immense continent, 
 founding settlements, and engaging in all kinds of speculation. 
 4th, Some old French settlers, possessed of considerable property, 
 and living in ease and comfort." Another attempt to classify the 
 population of the West will be found in Flint's Letters (Early 
 Western Travels, ix, pp. 232-236). Cuming, Sketches (Early 
 Western Travels, iv, pp. 135-140) and Bradbury, Travels (Early 
 Western Travels, v, pp. 281-287) have descriptions of value for a 
 somewhat earlier period. 
 
126 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 or two, and two or three horses belonging to each 
 family: But their rifle is their principal means of 
 support. They are the best marksmen in the world, 
 and such is their dexterity that they will shoot an 
 apple ofif the head of a companion. Some few use 
 the bow and arrow. I have spent 7 or 8 weeks 
 with these men, have had opportunities of trying 
 them, and believe they would sooner give me the 
 last shirt off their backs, than rob me of a charge 
 of powder. Their wars with the Indians have made 
 them vindictive. This class cannot be called first 
 Settlers, for they move every year or two. 
 
 2^. class. First settlers ; — a mixed set of hunters 
 and farmers. They possess more property and com- 
 forts than the first class: yet they are a half bar- 
 barous race. They follow the range pretty much; 
 selling out when the Country begins to be well set- 
 tled, and their cattle cannot be entirely kept in the 
 woods. 
 
 3*^. class. — is composed of enterprising men from 
 Kentucky and the Atlantic States. This class con- 
 sists of Young Doctors, Lawyers, Storekeepers, 
 farmers, mechanics &c, who found towns, trade, 
 speculate in land, and begin the fabric of Society. 
 There is in this class every gradation of intellectual 
 and moral character ; but the general tone of Social 
 manners is yet too much relaxed. There is too much 
 reliance upon personal prowess, and, the laws have- 
 not yet acquired sufficient energy to prevent vio- 
 lence. 
 
 Such are the Inhabitants of the Southern parts of 
 
The Illinois Territory 127 
 
 Indiana, and of Shawanoe town, St. Louis, St. Gene- 
 vieve,^ and the large settlements on the Mississippi. 
 
 4*\ class— old settlers, rich, independent, farm- 
 ers, wealthy merchants, possessing a good deal of 
 information, a knowledge of the world, and an 
 enterprising spirit. Such are the Ohio men. West- 
 ern Pennsylvanians, Kentuckians and Tenessee 
 men. The young men have a military taste, and 
 most of them have served in the late war. They 
 were great duellists, but now the laws against duel- 
 ling are more strictly enforced; they carry dirks, 
 and sometimes decide a dispute on the spot. Ir- 
 ritable and dissipated in youth, yet they are gener- 
 ally steady and active in Manhood. They under- 
 take with facility, and carry on with unconquerable 
 ardour, any business or speculation that promises 
 great profit, and sustain the greatest losses with a 
 firmness that resembles indifference. 
 
 You will perceive from this slight sketch, which 
 I have made as impartially as I am able, that the 
 Backwoods men, as they are called somewhat con- 
 temptuously by the Inhabitants of the Atlantic 
 States, are admirably adapted by Nature and edu- 
 cation for the scenes they live and act in. The 
 prominent feature of their character is power. The 
 young value themselves on their courage, the old 
 
 ' The original Ste. Genevieve was situated about three miles south 
 of the present town of the name, in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. 
 The date of its founding is uncertain; 1732 is not improbable. 
 In 1763, when the Louisiana territory east of the Mississippi was 
 transferred by France to England, Ste. Genevieve, being one of the 
 two French towns on the western bank of the Mississippi, received 
 a considerable influx of population from the ceded country. But 
 it never became a place of importance. 
 
128 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 on their shrewdness. The veriest villains have 
 something grand about them. They expect no 
 mercy and they shew no fear ; "every man's hand is 
 against them, and their hand is against every 
 man's." 
 
 As social Comforts are less under the protection 
 of the laws here, than in old countries, friendship 
 and good neighbourhood are more valued. A man 
 of good character is an acquisition; not that there 
 is a small proportion of such men, but because the 
 bad are as undisguisedly bad, as their opposites are 
 professedly good. This is not the land of Hypoc- 
 risy. It would not here have its reward. Religion 
 is not the road to worldly respectability, nor a pos- 
 session of it the cloak to immorality. 
 
 I wish I could give you a correct idea of the 
 .perfect equality that exists among these republi- 
 cans. A Judge leaves the Court house, shakes 
 hands with his fellow citizens and retires to his log- 
 house. The next day you will find him holding his 
 own plough. The Lawyer has the title of Captain, 
 and serves in his Military capacity under his neigh- 
 bour, who is a farmer and a Colonel. The shop 
 keeper sells a yard of tape, and sends shiploads of 
 produce to Orleans ; he travels 2000 miles in a year ; 
 he is a good hunter, and has been a soldier; he 
 dresses and talks as well as a London Merchant, 
 and probably has a more extensive range of ideas; 
 at least he has fewer prejudices. One prejudice, 
 however, nothing will induce him to give up — he 
 thinks the Americans in general, and particularly 
 
The Illinois Territory 129 
 
 those of his own state, are the best soldiers in the 
 world. Such is the native Shopkeeper: the East- 
 ern Emigrant is very different. 
 
 I have not seen an effeminate, or a feeble man, 
 in mind or body, belonging to these Western Coun- 
 tries. The most ignorant, compared with men of 
 the same standing in England, are well informed. 
 Their manners are coarse ; but they have amongst - 
 themselves a code of politeness, which they gener- 
 ally observe. Drinking whisky is the greatest pest, 
 the most fertile source of disorders, amongst them. 
 When intoxicated by it, they sometimes fight most 
 furiously. In this they resemble the Lower Irish. 
 
 There is an universal spirit of enquiry amongst- 
 all classes of people. In the state of Indiana, in 
 which there is but one town that is of six years 
 standing, there are several Book-clubs. News- 
 papers and Reviews from Philadelphia, Baltimore, 
 Kentucky, and S*. Louis, are received weekly. 
 When we arrived at Princetown, there was no Post- 
 office nearer than Vincennes ; now we have the Mail 
 once a fortnight, and shall soon have a Western 
 and a Southern mail every week. ..-- 
 
 M^ Birkbeck was known here by his writings, 
 before he came to America. His tour through 
 Erance has been read at S*. Louis.^ His settlement 
 
 'George Flower, in his History of the English Settlement in Ed- 
 wards County, Illinois (p. 23), tells of the writing of this book 
 as follows: "After the downfall of Napoleon the First, and the 
 peace succeeding to a twenty-years' war, Mr. Birkbeck invited me 
 to accompany him in a journey to France, to which I readily 
 acceded. We travelled together three months in that country, avoid- 
 ing the usual route of English travel. Passing from north to south, 
 to the shores of the Mediterranean, skirting the Pyrenees, and re- 
 
i3'o Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 has already attracted the attention of Land Specu- 
 lators and Farmers. W of Philadelphia 
 
 writes: "I have directed 120 Germans to you; they 
 are proceeding toward Ohio, and you will proba- 
 bly receive a deputation from them." 
 
 M"". J of Philadelphia wishes to send a num- 
 ber of families to our neighbourhood. I met him 
 at Cincinnati in September. He requested me to 
 select 5,000 acres for him; which I declined to do. 
 He wants 20,000 acres. 
 
 I think of entering some land about Sections 12 
 and 13. The land is high, soil light, and tolerably 
 rich. Timber — good ; not standing thick, but pretty 
 large; it is black oak, hickory, walnut, with some 
 white oak. A Stream winds through a narrow val- 
 ley between the hills, and the house if placed on 
 the mark # would command a view of the whole 
 prairie, and have a southern and western aspect. 
 
 If any persons in England would like to possess 
 a small stake in this Country, I could procure it for 
 them thus. A.B. in England advances the first and 
 second installments of ^2$ per acre per annum. I 
 pay the third and fourth, and have the option of 
 holding the land as a partner, or of selling it by 
 auction. If I should fail in making my payments, 
 the land is secured to us for five years. It would 
 
 turning through the heart of the country by a more easterly route 
 to Paris, we saw more of the country and Frenchmen at home, 
 than we otherwise should, if confined to any one of the popular routes 
 of travel. . . . On our return Mr. Birkbeck published his 'Notes 
 of a Journey through France' [London: W. Phillips, 1814]. It 
 had a wide circulation in England, and was well known in Amer- 
 ica. It was the first book I met with at Monticello, the residence of 
 Thomas Jefferson." 
 
The Illinois Territory 131 
 
 then be sold by the U. S. and the overplus of 2$ 
 would revert to the original purchasers. To a share 
 of this overplus I should then relinquish all claim, 
 and return it entire to my partner A.B. But, if 
 I pay my installments, I should be an equal sharer 
 with A.B., putting my knowledge of land acquired 
 by travelling, and studying the subject on the spot, 
 and also my trouble, against the credit of i dollar 
 
 per acre for two years. This is the plan M". E 
 
 acts upon. - 
 
 Were you to ask me, "Do you think the Illinois 
 Territory would be the best place in the U. S. for 
 me to emigrate to, supposing that I could with pro- 
 priety and prudence leave England?" I should hesi- 
 tate in giving an affirmative to this question. You 
 want the society that is to be found near old estab- 
 lished towns, comforts ready made to your hands. 
 You ought to enjoy them at your time of life. Easy 
 and constant intercourse with Europe, a quiet and 
 respectable neighbourhood, religious institutions, 
 and access to large libraries, are advantages you 
 would probably not like to forego. The vicinity of 
 Philadelphia, the Jerseys, many parts of the State 
 of New York, present them all to you. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Eastern ports know no^ 
 more about this country, than you do in England. 
 Some are afraid to cross the Mountains : so many 
 terrible stories of it are in circulation. Kentucky, 
 or Bloody Ground, as it used to be called, seems 
 to them to be the verge of the habitable world. 
 These prejudices are, however, disappearing. The 
 
I3'2 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 rising, and already important, commerce of the 
 West is becoming an object of their jealousy. The 
 poorer and more enterprising of the farmers leave 
 the inhospitable climates of the North, and find here 
 fertile lands and short winters. 
 
 The hottest weather of July and August did not 
 injure my health; yet the thermometer was fre- 
 quently as high as 90, generally at 80 at noon. I 
 enjoyed that weather very much. This Autumn 
 more rain has fallen than has ever been remem- 
 bered at this season of the year. It has at length 
 ceased, and we have now fine sunshiny days and 
 slightly frosty nights. Heavy freezing, I am told, 
 sets in at Christmas, and lasts from three to six 
 weeks. Then the snow melts, and Spring comes 
 on rapidly. I have been writing all day with the 
 door open to the road, and this is the 24*''. day of 
 November. 
 
 Farmers are now gathering their Indian corn, 
 which they pick from the stalks. Their wheat was 
 cut in June, and housed in July. They will begin 
 soon to kill their pork for the Orleans market. 
 
 I have written a long letter of heterogeneous ob- 
 servations just as they have arisen in my mind. 
 You will perceive that I have taken care to state 
 every thing exactly as the impressions I have felt 
 were left upon me. So rapid is improvement in this 
 Country, that by the time you read them, circum- 
 stances will be altered, and many statements will be 
 incorrect. 
 
 I must add a word or two more. The Illinois 
 
The Illinois Territory 133' 
 
 Territory has but a small proportion of Indian 
 Lands. In this it has greatly the advantage of In- 
 diana, in which state the Indians possess two thirds 
 of the soil.^ vSo that, in the improbable event of 
 another war, there will be no fighting near the Eng- 
 lish settlement. We shall of course be called upon, 
 and be ready, I hope, to defend our neighbours; for 
 here every man is a soldier. 
 
 Illinois is 300 miles long and 200 broad; it con- 
 tains 50,000 square miles, or 32 millions of acres. 
 It is supposed to contain 30,000 inhabitants, who 
 are scattered about, chiefly on the banks of rivers. 
 
 There is so much to be done and such a field for 
 exertion, that no one need be discouraged from 
 
 * The lands comprising the present state of Indiana Were acquired 
 from the Indians by means of a long series of treaties and agree- 
 ments between 1795 and 1840. By the treaty of Greenville, nego- 
 tiated by General Wayne in 1795, the work was begun by the ac- 
 quisition of large tracts, mainly in Ohio, but including lands in the 
 future Indiana Territory on the Wabash and at the junction of 
 the St. Mary and St. Joseph, and George Rogers Clark's grant on 
 the Ohio. When, in 1800, William Henry Harrison was made 
 governor of the newly organized Territory, he was invested with 
 general powers to conclude treaties with the natives relating to the 
 proprietorship of lands. In this work he was active and success- 
 ful. By five successive treaties, between 1802 and 1805, he acquired 
 for the United States a title to all the Indian lands along the Ohio 
 River, from the mouth of the Wabash to the western boundary of 
 the state of Ohio. In i8og, by the treaty of Fort Wayne, he se- 
 cured the cession of about 3,000,000 acres on the Wabash in the 
 region of present Parke County, though Tecumseh and his brother, 
 the Prophet, refused to recognize the new arrangement. This was 
 the status when Fordham wrote, in 1817. Thereafter a prolonged 
 series of cessions was arranged, until in 1840 the last Indian title 
 to extensive lands within the bounds of the state was extinguished. 
 By most of the final treaties small " reservations " were set aside, but 
 these have now generally passed out of Indian possession. A few 
 descendants of the Miamis still live in Wabash and Miami counties. 
 For an elaborate account of the Indian cessions of land in Indiana, 
 with an excellent map illustrating the subject, see William Henry 
 Smith, History of the State of Indiana (Indianapolis, 1897), i. 
 pp. 221-239. 
 
I3'4 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 coming here, by the fear of wanting Markets for 
 produce, or for his labour. A capital of £50,000 
 could be as easily employed here as in England, 
 and with great advantage to the country and to 
 the capitalist. This is not a random guess : I could 
 prove it, and calculate results. A man may fall into 
 poverty here, as well as elsewhere; but the propor- 
 tion of those who succeed is greater here, than in 
 any place I have ever been in. Every thing and 
 every body is in motion : no standing still, and liv- 
 ing upon interest of capital : but every man has his 
 business or employment. . . . 
 
 P. S. Rough and democratic as these back- 
 woodsmen are, they shew great respect to talent, 
 to superior knowledge, to age, and to wealth. There 
 is no danger to an European who possesses these 
 advantages, of being jostled, or of not being of 
 consequence among his neighbours. The respect 
 that is shewn to M'. B. is even more marked than 
 that he commanded in England from his labourers. 
 Lord Selkirk^ and suite were at Vincennes the other 
 
 ^ Thomas Diindas. fifth earl of Selkirk, was born in Kirkcud- 
 brightshire, Scotland, in 1771. He was educated at the Univer- 
 sity of Edinburgh and in 1799 succeeded to the title and property 
 of his father. His life was devoted largely to the promotion of 
 emigration to British America. As early as 1802 he put forth con- 
 siderable effort to influence the British Government to provide for 
 the transportation of discontented and impoverished Scottish peas- 
 ants to the New- World. In 181 1 he secured from the Hudson Bay 
 Company a large tract of fertile land in the valleys of the Assini- 
 boin and Red River of the North, where, late in the same year, 
 his first band of colonists was established. Many difficulties were 
 encountered, arising chiefly from the opposition of the Northwest 
 traders to the enterprise, and in 1816-17 the settlement was broken 
 up. It was soon restored, however, under Selkirk's personal super- 
 vision, and the conflict was transferred to the courts, where the 
 energetic promoter at length secured judgment in favor of his 
 
The Illinois Territory 13^ 
 
 day at a dinner and ball, and received the most 
 marked attentions. But worth and talent, without 
 Rank, will command respect. Indeed, no rank is 
 known here, but military rank, and that is obtained 
 by tavern-keepers and farmers. 
 
 English Aristocrats could not live here. But 
 such men as you would be judges. Magistrates, and 
 respected Citizens. 
 
 avowed rights. In 1816 Selkirk published A Sketch of the British 
 Fur Trade, and in the next year The Red River Settlement. He 
 died in 1820. 
 
VIII 
 
 A trip down the Patoka — Winter labors and amusements — Christ- 
 mas — Legislation against duelling — A journey to Cincinnati — 
 Lack of scenery — Difficulties of travel — A frontier judge — 
 Fredericksburg — Albany — Louisville — Shelbyville — Cost of 
 lodgings — Frankfort — The Kentuckians — Arrival at Cincin- 
 nati. 
 
 Princeton, Indiana. Dec'', y, i8iy. As it will be 
 agreeable to myself, and, perhaps, amusing to my 
 relations in England, to review the occurrences and 
 difficulties of settling the Bolton-house, or English, 
 Prairie, and as I shall have an opportunity of seeing 
 ab initio an English settlement in the wilderness of 
 the Illinois, I will keep a record of our transactions. 
 
 The prairie is line, dry, light land, and rolling. 
 It contains about i6 square miles, and lies about 6 
 miles from each of the Wabashes. The country 
 around is healthy, although at a distance there are 
 swampy places. 
 
 A few weeks ago, two carpenters (and the wife 
 of one of them) arrived uninvited from England. 
 
 Yesterday I purchased a batteau on Mill Pond, 
 for 3$ and Isaac P repaired it. 
 
 This morning I sent Isaac to Harmony on horse- 
 back to buy saws, with directions to proceed across 
 the Wabash to Carmi ; there to get provisions and 
 necessaries, which he is to get hauled to the Eng- 
 lish Prairie. 
 
 Jacob P and his wife, B d B., and myself 
 
 are going down the Patoka^ in the batteau, for the 
 
 ^ The Patoka is a small stream flowing westward through Dubois, 
 Pike, and Gibson counties, Indiana, and emptying into the Great 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 137 
 
 swamp between this town and Coffee Island^ has 
 been rendered impassable by the late unprecedented 
 rains. For a week past we have had hard frost; 
 the Thermometer nightly down to 18°. and even to 
 12°. ; to-day, fine balmy weather like the Indian sum- 
 mer. We shall take with us blankets and pro- 
 visions, as we shall probably have to encamp on 
 the unsettled banks of the Patoka. 
 
 Monday Dec''. f'\ — Put the batteau on the car- 
 riage of a waggon, and sent it off to the Patoka 
 
 with J. P , who is directed to make oars &c, 
 
 and to launch the boat. Yesterday 8 men on foot 
 armed with pistols and rifles came into the town 
 from Harmony. They had been in pursuit of an 
 absconded debtor from Vincennes. 
 
 Dec''. 8-'\ B d, P 's wife, and myself went 
 
 on horseback to T 's on the Patoka, where we 
 
 breakfasted. Loaded the batteau ; which was found 
 to be much too small to carry us, our tools, and the 
 various "impedimenta" which were stowed in it. 
 Besides being too small, it was weak and very leaky. 
 We borrowed a canoe in exchange for the skiff; 
 but that was so ticklish that we did not like to 
 venture in it heavily loaded. At last we determined 
 to take both batteau and canoe. 
 
 The Patoka crosses Indiana from East to West. 
 It is a deep, but narrow stream, and exceedingly 
 crooked throughout its whole course. Its length 
 
 Wabash at Mt. Carmel, Illinois. There is a brief description of the 
 valley of the Patoka in William Tell Harris's Remarks, p. 133. 
 
 ^ Coffee Island is located in the Great Wabash a small distance 
 below Mt. Carmel. 
 
I3'8 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 in a right line is about 200 miles. Where we em- 
 barked it was about 20 yards wide. 
 
 We have been much impeded by fallen trees, some 
 of which lie quite across the river; one we have 
 been obliged to cut through. 
 
 I hunted for an hour without success; missed 
 some ducks, my gun being loaded with Buck shot. 
 
 B d took his turn. He saw a large herd of deer, 
 
 but killed nothing but a parroquet.^ 
 
 Encamped at night on the Northern shore. Soil, 
 rich. Timber, — Poplar, Sycamore, Hickory, & 
 Spice. Weather warm, but squally. 
 
 Made 15 miles this day. 
 
 Dec\ p^'\ Morning rainy. Caulked the batteau. 
 Weather cleared at 9. Launched our craft. We 
 had not started an hour, before we had a thunder 
 storm and hard rain. 
 
 This day the trees Avere more across the river 
 than yesterday. Nearly lost the batteau on a rapid, 
 which was incumbered by fallen trees. I leaped 
 out with an axe and cut through some branches, 
 and we passed under the trunks. The canoe soon 
 after got again entangled under a fallen tree. Cur- 
 rents very rapid. The axe was employed all day. 
 
 Towards evening I left P and B d to 
 
 dig a channel for the boats round the butt end of 
 
 ^Paroquets (a variety of small parrot), which according to re- 
 ports of travelers were abundant in the Ohio Valley a hundred 
 years ago, are now found only in latitudes much further south. 
 Cuming, in 1807, writing from the mouth of the Scioto, says : " We 
 observed here vast numbers of beautiful, large, green paroquets, 
 which our landlord, squire Brown, informed ns abound all over the 
 country. They keep in flocks, and when they alight on a tree, they 
 are not distinguishable from the foliage, from their colour" (Early 
 Western Travels, iv, p. 161). 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 139 
 
 a fallen tree; and 1 walked across a neck of land 
 to find a camping ground. Had great difficulty in 
 lighting a fire; the wood was so wet. 
 
 The Timber and soil nearly the same as yester- 
 day. 
 
 — Pappaws and Cane — 
 
 The stream was so crooked, that we went towards 
 every point of the compass, and only once had a 
 view down it of 300 yards. 
 
 The meal and bread got wet. We shall be on 
 short allowance in two days. Mem™. — To get a 
 tobacco pouch, with a compartment for matches; 
 for not being able to get logwod bark, I burnt al- 
 most all my tow in kindling a fire. ' Advanced 18 
 miles. 
 
 Dec''. io^'\ Morning rainy. Waited till nine and 
 started in a drizzling shower, which soon increased 
 to a heavy rain, which lasted all day. Arrived at 
 Coffee Island at night thoroughly soaked. 
 
 The banks of the Patoka clayey, and covered gen- 
 erally with cane. The Timber — Hickory, the soil 
 — thin. 
 
 The banks of the Wabash low and swampy. The 
 Sycamore is the most common tree on the shore, 
 which spreads its white crooked arms over the 
 stream. The Wabash at Coffee Island is 1,100 
 yards wide. 
 
 Advanced to-day, down the Patoka 15 miles 
 
 down the Wabash 9 
 
 24. 
 
 Slept at M 's house. 
 
140 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Dec\ ii"\ We were discouraged from proceed- 
 ing further by water, and enquired for waggons. 
 There were but two wheeled carriages in the settle- 
 ment ; one was broken and the other rotten. After 
 some delay we engaged a Frenchman to take our 
 plunder^ on a two horse sleigh, and packed the bed- 
 ding on a horse, — on which the woman rode. We 
 got to the Boonpas an hour before sun-set. Car- 
 ried the plunder and the sleigh across in a canoe, 
 and swam the horses. We should have staid, but 
 the Boonpas was rising so fast, — 6 feet in 24 
 hours, — that we were afraid that the creek at the 
 Deer's lick would be banked up. As it was, we were 
 just in time to cross without difficulty. 
 
 In crossing the Cypress creek," before we reached 
 the Boonpas, the bedding got wet. The prairies 
 were half leg deep in water. 
 
 No rain to-day, but the weather rather cold. The 
 snow is now drifting into the camp, which we have 
 pitched one mile beyond the crossing. 
 
 DuG is a complete hunter and an entertain- 
 ing companion. 
 
 Marched to-day 10 miles. 
 
 Dec'', if'. Saturday. Breakfasted before sun- 
 rise and struck our camp. The long prairie is an 
 entire swamp, \^^aded through several creeks. At 
 9 a. m. it began to snow, and continued all day. 
 
 ^ A frontier provincialism for " baggage." 
 
 2 Cypress Creek is a sluggish stream in Gallatin County, Illinois, 
 between Equality and Shawneetown. It flows southward into the 
 Saline River. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 141 
 
 At 10 entered our own prairie, and met Isaac P. 
 with the waggon. The water was running rapidly 
 off through the creeks, which were nearly full. 
 Passing the second, the waggon was stuck in the 
 
 mud, and the sprig tailed mare, upon which B d 
 
 and J. P were crossing, fell with them into the 
 
 water. 
 
 I left the baggage, and went on to light a fire in 
 the cabin,^ which we all reached in safety at 3^ past 
 12., though most frozen. 
 
 Spent the afternoon in fixing ourselves as well as 
 we could in our cabin. 
 
 DuG and the waggons left us to return to 
 
 their respective homes. 
 
 The snow is now (9 p. m.) 5 inches deep. We 
 shall sleep in our blankets on Clapboards with our 
 feet to the fire. 
 
 Dec''. I4*'\ Sunday. Sent the two P s to 
 
 W 's, about three miles off for the Yager Rifle, 
 
 and the Wallet, containing my blanket and plunder, 
 and the spade. 
 
 We have now a complete set of Sawyer's and 
 
 Carpenter's tools. B d went to E 's and 
 
 brought back a kettle of honey. 
 
 While the men were gone, W and another 
 
 man, who had heard of our arrival, came to call on 
 us. W promises to come tomorrow to begin 
 
 ^ This I had built 2 months ago of round logs, chunked and 
 mudded. It had nothing but the bare earth for the floor at this time, 
 and that trod to mud directly. — Fordham. 
 
142 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 the other cabin. I hear that another Enghsh Emi- 
 grant has arrived at Princeton, and is coming out 
 to us with his family. 
 
 I searched for a good place to make a saw pit. 
 Made a tent in the house to keep off the snow, which 
 drifts through the roof. Snow to-day a foot deep. 
 
 P unpacked his base viol and has played sev- 
 eral psalm tunes and the evening hymn — the lat- 
 ter recalled England to my mind. 
 
 Dec''. 15*''. The P 's are making a sawpit. 
 
 B d went on the mare to A and W , 
 
 and bought a hog weighing 200 lbs for 7$. I went 
 surveying. The weather very cold — the snow 14 
 inches deep. 
 
 The soil where the sawpit is dug is rich mould, 
 but thin: next to it lies a hazle mould: beneath 
 lies a fine grey clay, mixed with ochry substances. 
 
 Dec''. i6''\ The P 's still preparing for saw- 
 ing. E called to ask me to follow a bear, whose 
 
 track, freshly made, was within 200 yards of our 
 cabin. As I could not go, he returned home. 
 
 A came with W and agreed to build two 
 
 cabins 12 feet by 14 inside, — standing 16 feet apart, 
 and the roof to be continued over the intermediate 
 space ; they are to be chunked, doors to be cut out ; 
 joists and sleepers laid: the whole for 25$. 
 
 Went with B d to get a grape vine as a sub- 
 stitute for a chain. After dinner surveyed till dark. 
 
 The weather is more mild to-day — some snow, 
 but a Southwest wind has driven away all the 
 clouds. The night is calm and beautiful. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 143' 
 
 I found to-day a beautiful prisimon tree, about 
 fifty feet high, and a great quantity of fruit upon 
 it, — which are now dehcious. They taste hke rai- 
 sins dipped in honey. I have kept some seeds to 
 send to M . 
 
 Dec''. if'\ Wednesday. Surveying. Saw some 
 prairie hawks, blue bodies, ash coloured belly and 
 wings, tipped with black. 
 
 Came home over the middle creek, into which I 
 fell through the Ice. 
 
 Dec'. i8'\ Bought a deer of B for $1.50. 
 
 He promises to bring in some Turkeys. 
 
 W brought in a hog, which A shot 
 
 for us. 
 
 I planted about a peck of peach stones. Bid 
 W good bye. 
 
 The settlers are all glad we are going to have a 
 mill built; they have now to pack their meal 25 
 
 miles. A has been pounding corn for us, and 
 
 it makes good bread. 
 
 Weather still very cold — 7 degrees below 
 zero. . . . 
 
 I rather dread my voyage up the Patoka, as we 
 shall have logs, and, perhaps, ice to impede us. 
 
 S has told me how to rig the canoe to the best 
 
 advantage. 
 
 Sawing goes on very slowly: the tools are all 
 new; and the black oak very hard. Every body 
 says that the mill will be carried away by the first 
 hurricane. But, as Smeaton has erected a tower, 
 which withstands the zvinds and waves of the Ocean, 
 
144 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 there is certainly a possibility, that another may be 
 made to stand fast against wind alone/ It will be 
 the first wind-mill built on this side of the Ohio. 
 
 The P s have been a little disheartened by 
 
 the difficulty of getting provisions, but now that 
 they have 300 lbs of meat hanging against the wall, 
 they are quite chearful. 
 
 B d and I cut ofif two ribs from the Buck, 
 
 spitted them on a sharp pointed stick, and roasted 
 them for our dinner ; they were delicious. 
 
 Walked to W s and slept there. We could 
 
 not take our pack horse across the Boonpas, be- 
 cause of the Ice. We were therefore obliged to 
 leave him tied to a tree, with a blanket over him, 
 which was more merciful than to swim him through 
 freezing water. 
 
 Dec'', ip*^. Walked to DuG 's, where we 
 
 were told that the Wabash was impassible because 
 the Ice was floating down in such great quantities. 
 
 Sent Isaac back with the packhorse and walked 
 on to the river. The masses of ice filled the cur- 
 rent of the stream, and broke against the shore, 
 like harsh and distant Thunder. 
 
 20*'\ 2i'\ Dec''. At the cottage of the ferryman. 
 This cabin contains but one room 12 feet square. 
 The owner is a Canadian Frenchman, and he and 
 
 'John Smeaton (1724-1792) was an English civil engineer who 
 made notable experiments on the power of water and air to turn 
 mills and other machinery requiring a circular motion. His chief 
 fame came from his rebuilding of the Eddystone lighthouse after 
 its destruction by fire in 1755. This is the achievement to which 
 Fordham refers. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 145 
 
 his wife are very civil to us. We have two blankets 
 and a buffalo robe on which we sleep with our feet 
 to the fire. 
 
 Three men on the opposite shore, have, at the 
 risk of their lives, crossed over amidst the ice. They 
 were nearly two hours making unsuccessful efforts. 
 They relanded, and lighted a fire. In the afternoon 
 they tried again and dashed across. Their Canoe 
 was nearly bored through, and half filled with Ice, 
 which broke over them. They described the grind- 
 ing of the Ice terrible. 
 
 I believe I should try, but my guns are valuable; 
 and though B d and myself might save our- 
 selves, we should inevitably lose them if the Canoe 
 should upset. _t^ 
 
 There is more genuine kindness and politeness 
 among these backwoodsmen, than among any set 
 of people, I have yet seen in America. They know 
 so well the value of good neighbourhood, and feel 
 so independent of the laws and restraints of every 
 kind. Each man has a consciousness of power to 
 do good or evil. Thus he is polite, for the same 
 reason that the most powerful animals are gentle. . 
 
 Canadian French Words 
 Freit, s. cold 
 
 Mui, me 
 
 orea, s. ear 
 
 bain. ad. good 
 
 The river upon which Detroit is built is thickly 
 settled for 60 leagues.^ 
 
 ' Detroit is located on a broad stream of the same name connect- 
 ing Lakes Huron and Erie. Its site was regarded as strategic by 
 the earhest French explorers, as La Salle, but a permanent post 
 
 aussite 
 
 
 likewise 
 
 icite 
 
 for 
 
 ICl 
 
 L'isle. s. 
 
 for 
 
 I'oeil 
 
146 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The Hurons and Iroquois are Catholics. 
 
 Mocassins are sewed with the sinews of the Deer. 
 
 There are a few Indian slaves in Detroit. 
 
 2f. Crossed the Wabash in the afternoon in a 
 Canoe amidst the Ice. Walked to the Swamp; but 
 it was too dark for us to find the way across, and 
 the Ice was rapidly thawing. After making three 
 attempts we held a Council, whether it would be 
 best to camp out upon a neck of land running into 
 the Swamp, or to go back some miles to the only 
 hut on that side the Swamp. We decided on the 
 latter, as the melting snow would have made it im- 
 possible to light a fire, and it was then raining hard. 
 The whistling of the wind and the howling of the 
 wolves, all seemed to promise a stormy night. After 
 cutting up my gun case to cover my thin Mocas- 
 sins, which did not sufficiently protect my feet, we 
 
 slowly retraced our steps, and reached M*". A 's 
 
 cabin at 10. Found all the inhabitants abed, but 
 not asleep. The room was so full of children, hunt- 
 ers, hogdrivers, and dogs, that it was with diffi- 
 culty we could stretch our bodies upon the floor. 
 There on our wet great coats, with our own wet 
 blankets laid over us, we slept as soundly as ever 
 I have slept on a featherbed. 
 
 was not established there until 1701, when Fort Pontchartrain was 
 constructed bj' De la Mothe Cadillac. A settlement of French and 
 Indians was begun, and by 1750 the place had a population of five 
 hundred, with fully two thousand Indians living in the immediate 
 neighborhood. Between 1760, when it passed under English control, 
 and 1813. when it was finally reclaimed from British possession after 
 Hull's surrender, the town had a history whose interest and sig- 
 nificance it would be difficult to exaggerate. The story is told in 
 many places, among them being Farmer's History of Detroit and 
 Michigan (Detroit, 1884). 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 147 
 
 Next morning, proceeded at day break in a pelt- 
 ing shower to the swamp, with a man who was 
 going the same way. Found a Canoe half full of 
 Ice, and brimfull of water. Bailed it dry with our 
 hands, and with difficulty launched it. After work- 
 ing hard in breaking the ice, and having our bodies 
 completely drenched in perspiration, though our 
 feet were very cold, we left the canoe, trusting our- 
 selves to the Ice, and reached M'. C 's house, 
 
 where we breakfasted and hired two horses, to take 
 us to Princeton at Christmas Eve. 
 
 It was not expected we should have crossed the 
 Wabash. 
 
 Christmas Day — This day was spent by one 
 set of the religionists in hearing a sermon and 
 prayers which lasted from breakfast till nightfall. 
 
 Another set of people were busy in cooking wild 
 turkeys, and dancing in the evening. 
 
 The young men had their rifles out, and were 
 firing feux de joi almost all the preceding night, 
 all the day till late into the evening. It reminded 
 me of Byron's description of the Moslems firing at 
 the feast of the Ramadan in Constantinople:^ — but 
 we backwoodsmen never fire a gun loaded with hall 
 into the town, — only from all parts of it, out 
 towards the woods. 
 
 2&^\ — The Ball — There were about 20 cou- 
 ples: most of them genteelly dressed. We had 
 Judge there wath his daughter, with whom I 
 
 ' The reference is obscure. The poem entitled The Giaour contains 
 a passage which may have been in the writer's mind. 
 
148 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 danced. There were no thin shoes to be obtained 
 in the town, so we young men agreed to dance in 
 Mocassins; some of which, made by the Indians, 
 gaily embroidered and hung with Httle tassels of 
 hair dyed red looked very smart. 
 2f' & 28"\ — Planning the Mill. 
 
 January 18*''. 18 18. I have been making a model 
 of a Windmill, which is now nearly completed. The 
 weather has been cold, but the air clear and chear- 
 f ul. The Thermometer once down to 8 below zero ; 
 but afterwards the air gradually became milder, 
 till yesterday at noon it rose to 57°., and at night 
 was 48°. 
 
 Several families have passed through the town 
 for the Illinois, and every thing is going on so 
 favorably, that all are chearful. 
 
 A repeal of the old law against duelling has been 
 obtained, and a new one enacted which subjects de- 
 linquents to corporal punishments, in addition to 
 the other penalties of fine and disability to hold 
 public offices. Col. E. drew up this bill. 
 
 This bill was thrown out at the third reading. 
 The subject is involved in more difficulty, than it is 
 in Europe. Every State has attempted to put a 
 stop to duelling, and some have nearly effected it; 
 but the manners and dispositions have not become 
 more moderate or more mild. There are a number 
 of dissipated and desperate characters, from all 
 parts of the world, assembled in these Western 
 States; and these, of course, are overbearing and 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 149 
 
 insolent. It is nearly impossible for a man to be 
 so circumspect, as to avoid giving offence to these 
 irritable spirits ; who, in fact, do not always wait for 
 provocation to be insolent. The Kentuckians on 
 these occasions use their dirks, and the Ohio men 
 are abusive. Men of education and manners, will, 
 if they can, fight with weapons ; and the vulgar bite, 
 kick, and gouge each other. 
 
 A new County has been made South of us; and 
 Evansville, it is expected, will be the County Seat.^ 
 
 There are Pelicans on the Wabash. 
 
 Rode this afternoon with Mess'■^ H and 
 
 S through the Seminary Township,^ which will 
 
 ^ This was Vanderburgh County, separated from Warrick by the 
 state legislature early in 1818. In 1812 Hugh McGary. of Ken- 
 tucky, built a log-house on the site of the future Evansville, which 
 was the first dwelling erected by a white man in this section of the 
 Indiana Territory. In 1816 General Robert M. Evans and James 
 W. Jones purchased the land lying north of the present Main Street 
 and laid out a town. Three years later the place had a hundred 
 inhabitants, but thereafter it grew slowly (as late as 1830 having a 
 population of only five hundred) until about the time of its in- 
 corporation in 1847, when it began a steady development which has 
 made it second in size only to Indianapolis among the cities of the 
 st^te. General Evans, the founder, was a Virginian who in 1803 
 settled at Paris, Kentucky, and two years later removed to a farm 
 two miles north of the present town of Princeton, Indiana. From 
 1809 to 181 1 he kept a hotel at Vincennes, but with the exception 
 of these two years and 1824-25, which were spent at Evansville, he 
 remained the rest of his life at his Gibson County location. 
 
 2In 1804 Congress bestowed upon the Territory of Indiana a 
 township of land to be used for the establishment of a seminary of 
 learning. Two years later Albert Gallatin, then Secretary of the 
 Treasury, selected for this purpose a township, comprising 23,040 
 acres, in what is now Gibson County, and in 1807 the Territorial 
 Legislature passed an act incorporating an institution " to be called 
 or known by the name or style of the Vincennes University " and 
 to be supported by lotteries and by the sale of land in the " sem- 
 inary township." About 4,000 acres of the land were sold, a brick 
 building was erected, and in 1810 the " university " was opened. 
 Funds soon ran low, however, and in 1823 the school was forced to 
 close its doors. In the following year it was declared extinct by the 
 
150 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 be probably sold in a year or two. The land we 
 crossed was excellent. Sugar tree, Elm, Oak, Hick- 
 ory, and Sassafras mixed together. The Surface 
 • — rolling — and several fine eminences for houses. 
 
 H has proposed to me to go to the South with 
 
 him to join Gen. Gaines,^ who is fighting with the 
 
 legislature. jMeanwhile, in 1816, in the enabling act of Congress 
 authorizing the formation of a state government for Indiana, the 
 commonwealth was given another township, to be designated by the 
 President of the United States, for the maintenance of a seminary. 
 The township selected by President Monroe lay in what is now 
 Monroe County and was later named Perry Township. In Jan- 
 uary, 1820, the Indiana legislature passed an act to establish a 
 State Seminary. The site selected by the trustees of the prospective 
 institution was the town of Bloomington, situated on the northern 
 edge of the new " seminary township." In 1824 the Seminary was 
 opened under the direction of Rev. Baynard R. Hall, who for three 
 years was the only instructor. In January, 1828, the legislature 
 raised the institution to the rank of a college and the presidency 
 was vested in Dr. Andrew Wylie, then President of Washington 
 College, Pennsylvania. By act of February 25, 1838, Indiana Col- 
 lege was converted into Indiana University. In 1822 the legislature 
 passed an act authorizing the sale of the remainder of the seminary 
 township in Gibson County and providing for the application of the 
 proceeds to the support of the Seminary created two years before. 
 This act was defended on the ground that the trustees of the Vin- 
 cennes University had sold a portion of their land in an illegal man- 
 ner and had suffered their organization to lapse. It was keenly 
 resented, however, by the friends of the defunct college and after 
 the resurrection of the school in 1840 its new trustees brought suit 
 against the purchasers of the Gibson County land to recover pos- 
 session. In 1846 the legislature, recognizing the injustice of allow- 
 ing the burden of defense of titles to rest on the purchasers, au- 
 thorized the university to bring suit against the state. The out- 
 come was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States 
 six years later in favor of the university; whereupon the state 
 made due compensation for the lands thus virtually adjudged to have 
 been confiscated. Vincennes University still exists as a minor col- 
 lege, though its persistent demands to be recognized as an insti- 
 tution having a just claim upon the state for support have been 
 uniformly ineffective. 
 
 ' In 1816-17 General Edmund P. Gaines was occupied on the Flor- 
 ida frontier with the difficult task of preserving order and checking 
 the depredations of runaway negro slaves, Spanish and English 
 filibusters, and various groups of hostile Indians. There ensued 
 a period of border warfare, which culminated in the Seminole War 
 of 1818, marked by the dashing operations of General Andrew 
 Jackson. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 151 
 
 Creek Indians. I declined the honour, and I be- 
 lieve he has relinquished his design. 
 
 Jafi^. ip^'\ Thermometer 54°. The morning 
 opened with a thunderstorm. The day has been 
 darker than any we have had this winter. I have 
 yet seen no mists, except on the great rivers. 
 
 Jan^. 2^^. Commenced my journey to Cincinnati. 
 Slept at Vincennes. 
 
 24'^. — Sunday. — Slept at W\ H's. Killed 
 
 an Opossum on the ro^d. Weather cold and rainy. 
 
 ^5"'. — Monday — Slept at Bar's between the 
 
 forks of White River.^ Road dreadfully bad. The 
 Prairie, or rather barren, for it is covered with 
 shrubs, is pretty good land lying on clay, which 
 gets so soft in wet weather, that the Horse's foot 
 sinks deep into it. Once my horse sunk in the 
 plain up to his chest, and rolled over. 
 
 Snow in evening. 
 
 2&^\ Crossed the East fork of White River and 
 slept at D*". A 's. . . . 
 
 I made myself very comfortable here, and slept, 
 for the first time in many months, between a pair 
 of sheets. These are, however, no luxuries, com- 
 pared with a clean and rather fine blanket. 
 
 A few miles from D*". A 's a river gushes from 
 
 the ridge of rocky hills to the North, at once in its 
 full size. Seventeen miles further North, a stream 
 apparently as large, sinks into the hills. These are 
 
 ^ The East Fork of White River rises in Rush County, in south- 
 eastern Indiana, and the West Fork in Madison County, in the 
 central part of the same state. The two unite near the town of 
 Petersburg, about eighteen miles south-east of Vincennes. 
 1 
 
152 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 probably one and the same. Last summer I rode 
 
 with over that ridge, and missed both rivers. 
 
 We passed some wildernesses, which seemed to be 
 the abode of nothing but wild beasts; yet there 
 while I was thinking of camping out, being quite 
 lost, I found a habitation and a welcome. 
 
 It is reported that 250 warriors are assembled on 
 the head waters of the White River, to avenge the 
 deaths of some men, who have been murdered near 
 this place. 
 
 Judge of overtaking me, informed 
 
 me that the road to Cincinnati through Indiana 
 was too bad to be travelled with safety. 
 
 I then changed my route, and set off with him. 
 We swam Cane Creek and another little rapid 
 stream. My mare swam by jerks, and dipped me 
 waist deep. It was freezing hard, so that our 
 clothes soon became stiff, and our horses were 
 bearded with icicles. 
 
 Our road then lay over some high, rocky hills, 
 which afforded distant prospects. We passed the 
 mouths of some caverns, out of which rushed some 
 mountain torrents. 
 
 America, however, is not the land of prospects. 
 There is too much wood; and, when on the barren 
 peak of some rocky hill, you catch a distant view, 
 it generally is nothing but an undulating surface 
 of impenetrable forests. The very views which are 
 admired by the few Americans who have taste 
 proves to me that North America is not generally 
 picturesque. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 153" 
 
 Perhaps some parts of the mountains of Virginia 
 and Kentucky would present exceptions; and the 
 great rivers during the summer season. 
 
 The footsteps of man, in spite of all the nonsense 
 that has been written and said to the contrary, 
 leave behind them beauty and delight. When the 
 forests recede from the valleys, and verdure clothes 
 the hills, and villages are scattered through wastes. 
 North America will become a beautiful and pic- 
 turesque country. 
 
 It is seldom that a view of 200 yards in extent, 
 can be caught in Indiana. The woods west of the 
 Mountains are not, as M'■^ W. says in the wrongs 
 of woman, "clustering forests of small trees." It 
 is a long time before an English eye becomes accus- 
 tomed to their size and grandeur. The live poplar, 
 or tulip-bearing tree, of which canoes are made, the 
 sycamore, the walnut, and the white oak, grow to 
 a prodigious size. 
 
 Four miles from Cane Creek we struck into a 
 new path, which led over the tops of one of these 
 knobs, which was composed chiefly of sandstone, 
 with some argillaceous schist. The trees were cov- 
 ered with ice, so transparent and so brilliant, that 
 the boughs looked like glasswork, and threw on 
 the eye a confused splendour, which was bounded 
 only by the distant hills. The boughs and fretwork 
 of ice, that intercepted the rays of the sun, were 
 faintly tinged with prismatic colours. At our feet 
 were rapid torrents, which gushed from the cav- 
 
154 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 erns above us, sparkled in light, and then leaped 
 into the darkness of the abysses below. 
 
 Another hour brought us to French-lick creek,^ 
 where we dressed and warmed ourselves, and hired 
 a guide to take us to a fordable crossing. We car- 
 ried our blankets and saddle bags in our arms, and 
 walked over a fallen tree, which tottered high in 
 air above the flood, and our guide drove our horses 
 after us through the river. This young man was 
 a cripple, and the second I have seen in the West- 
 ern Country. Deformity is as rare among the 
 Backwoodsmen, as it is among the Indians. 
 
 We slept at M*". H 's on Creek, a sub- 
 stantial Indiana farmer. He came home while we 
 were at supper, with three of his neighbours, who 
 were completely armed. They had been to take 
 some men to Paoli gaol, for robbing a store on 
 Little Blue river. ^ They informed us that there 
 were a gang of brigands on that river, who lived 
 by passing forged notes, stealing horses &c., and 
 hunting. They had a strong rock house among 
 
 ^ The sulphurous saline springs at French Lick became at an 
 early date one of the best known features of southern Indiana. 
 They are located in Orange County, about forty-five miles north- 
 west of New Albany. Hulme, who visited them in 1818. says in his 
 Journal: "On our way [from Princeton to New Albany], pass 
 French Lick, a strong spring of water impregnated with salt and 
 sulphur, and called Lick from its being resorted to by cattle for the 
 salt; close by this spring is another still larger, of fine clear lime- 
 stone water, running fast enough to turn a mill" (Early Western 
 Trav'ELS, X, p. 62). The stream thus originated is the creek to 
 v/hich Fordham refers. The French Lick and neighboring West 
 Baden springs are now health resorts of considerable note. 
 
 2 Paoli, the seat of Orange County, Indiana, is forty miles north- 
 west of New Albany. 
 
 3 Little Blue River is a small stream in southern Indiana, flowing 
 into the Ohio at a point about seventy-five miles below Louisville. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 155 
 
 the hills, and it was said they had three or four 
 
 guns apiece. One of MT. H 's guests wanted to 
 
 raise the whole force of the settlement that night, 
 and to make an attack on the rock house before 
 daylight. But more prudent councils prevailed. 
 
 My companion Judge is a lively, entertain- 
 ing young man; 24 years old. He is an associate 
 Judge and sits on the bench with the circuit or law 
 judge; but gives his opinion only on the equity of 
 a case. He is a merchant and a store keeper. He 
 rides a good horse with silver studded bridle, and 
 his saddle is ornamented with silver, and scarlet 
 housings. He carried a pair of pistols at his saddle 
 bow; and altogether looks more like a Dragoon 
 Officer in plain clothes, than a Judge. At least, 
 he is not at all like Lords Mansfield or EUenbor- 
 ough. 
 
 2f^\ Breakfasted at M'. C. 's — another sub- 
 stantial farmer. He was at Corydon ;^ being a rep- 
 resentative of his fellow citizens in the Legislature. 
 His wife and sister soon cooked us an excellent - 
 breakfast of Venison, Fowls, ham and bacon, hot 
 johnney cakes, waffles &c. We had likewise tea 
 and cofifee, and a dram of whiskey, to keep the cold 
 off our stomachs. Our horses had 2 gallons of 
 oats. For all of which we paid 375^ Cents. -^ 
 
 The country is still hilly, though not so broken 
 as that we crossed yesterday. 
 
 ^ Corydon, seat of Harrison County, became the capital of Indiana 
 in 1813. Twelve years later, and nine after the Territory had be- 
 come a state, the capital was transferred to Indianapolis. See p. loi, 
 note. 
 
156 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Soil — third rate, — except in the bottoms. We 
 crossed the Little Blue River at Fredericksburg, a 
 miserable village, in a mud hole. The river is 50 
 yards wide, deep, and has a rapid current. It is 
 called blue from the tint of the waters, which are 
 clear and flow over a slaty bottom. 
 
 The land around Fredericksburg is high, and 
 some of it sandy. It is inconceivable that the Amer- 
 icans should be so stupid as to plant their towns 
 in the dirtiest puddles they can find. But they have 
 such a dread of a little trouble, that they must be 
 near a creek, that they may dip for water at their 
 Cabin doors; for wells won't dig themselves, and 
 the swing pole and bucket are for ever out of order. 
 Pumps are out of all question with a backwoods 
 man. 
 
 Ascending the hill from the forks of the Little 
 Blue, we entered a high rolling country of sandy 
 barrens. When we had passed these, we got en- 
 tangled in a flat swampy tract of White oak land, 
 which we were two hours crossing. At Sunset 
 passed another little village of hewn log Cabins, 
 and arrived at M^ D 's just as it got dark. . . . 
 
 Here we overtook a Capt". B from the upper 
 
 parts of Kentucky, who joined Company with us. 
 
 28*^. — About 8 miles from D 's we ascended 
 
 a high ridge, which gave us a view of the Ohio 
 with its Silver waves gleaming in the Sun. Louis- 
 ville^ on the opposite banks 6 miles N. E. and the 
 
 ^ The first plot for a settlement on the site of Louisville was pre- 
 pared in 1773 by Captain Thomas Bullitt, an agent sent out by the 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 157 
 
 hills of Kentucky, formed a waving outline of dark 
 forests, and around and beneath us were steep banks 
 thinly covered with timber. 
 
 Two hours brought us to Albany,^ on the Ohio. 
 
 College of William and Mary to approve western surveys. Two 
 years later the place was occupied, though the beginnings of the 
 present city are really to be traced only to the pioneers who went 
 to "the Falls" with George Rogers Clark in 1778 and eventually 
 settled there (see note i below). By 1784 the town comprised a 
 hundred houses and thanks to the growing traffic up and down 
 the Ohio and to the rapids which compelled a portage near its site, 
 was well on the road to prosperity (on the Falls, see p. 105, note 
 2). Cuming, in his Sketches, written in 1808, describes the place 
 as follows: "Louisville consists of one principal and very hand- 
 some street, about half a mile long, tolerably compactly built, and 
 the houses generally superior to any I have seen in the western coun- 
 try with the exception of Lexington. Most are of handsome brick, 
 and some are three stories, with a parapet wall on the top in the 
 modern European taste, which in front gives them the appearance 
 of having flat roofs. I had thought Cincinnati one of the most 
 beautiful towns I had seen in America, but Louisville, which is 
 almost as large, equals it in beauty, and in the opinion of many 
 excells it" (Early Western Travels, iv, pp. 259-260). Melish tells 
 us, in 181 1, that the town had a population of 1307, including 484 
 negro slaves {Travels, ii, pp. 149-150). By 1820 the population had 
 increased to over 4000. and by 1826 to over 7000. Travellers were 
 generally very favorably impressed with the location of the town 
 and with the character of its people. Among interesting accounts 
 may be mentioned Fearon, Sketches, pp. 245-255 ; Woods, Two 
 Years' Residence (Early Western Travels, x, pp. 242-244) ; William 
 Tell Harris, Remarks, pp. 129-130, 143-145 ; Faux, Memorable Days 
 (Early Western Travels, xi, p. 196) ; Welby, Visit to North Amer- 
 ica (Early Western Tr.wels, xii, pp. 226-227) ; and Ogden, Let- 
 ters from the West (Early Western Travels, xix, pp. 40-41). 
 On the history of Louisville see Reuben Thomas Durrett, The Cen- 
 tenary of Louisinllc, Filson Club Publications No. 8 (Louisville, 
 1893) ; H. McMurtrie, Sketches of Louisville and its Environs 
 (Louisville, 1819) ; and Ben Casseday, History of Lo'uisz'ille from its 
 Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852 (Louisville, 1852). 
 
 ^ Albany, now known as New Albany, is the seat of Floyd County, 
 Indiana. The history of the town begins in a sense with the grant 
 of 150,000 acres of land in its vicinity to the officers and soldiers 
 of George Rogers Clark's Illinois regiment, made by the legislature 
 of Virginia in 1783. Clarksville, across the Ohio from Shipping- 
 port and a little above the mouth of Silver Creek, was established 
 in pursuance of this grant. The site selected was not a healthful 
 one, however, and for various reasons the settlement did not pros- 
 per; in 1819 It contained fewer than one hundred people. The 
 place is now a suburb of New Albany. The latter town proper was 
 
158 Fordham^s Personal Narrative 
 
 Its Main Street is a broad ditch of mud. We crossed 
 
 the Ohio here, and took leave of Judge . Capt". 
 
 B and myself went on to Louisville. 
 
 We put up at the Washington Hall, a handsome 
 hotel; supplied apparently with the usual luxuries 
 of European Inns, except clean floors. There were 
 a great many well-dressed gentlemen in the read- 
 ing and bar room, whose attention was caught by 
 my appearance. I had on a decent suit of clothes, 
 though past their best, and a pair of Kentucky leg- 
 gings, but over my great coat I wore a blanket, 
 pinned under the chin in the Indian fashion, and 
 confined to the waist by a leather belt ; to which was 
 suspended a large hunting or scalping Knife. Fif- 
 teen years ago, this was a common dress in Ken- 
 tucky, as it is now on the frontiers of Indiana and 
 in the Illinois Territory. But the early Settlers of 
 Kentucky are dead, or moved farther west ; or have 
 become rich and luxurious, and Mercantile adven- 
 turers have introduced the fashions of London and 
 Paris. Perhaps there is a greater proportion of 
 well dressed men in Louisville than in any Eu- 
 ropean Commercial city. 
 
 We remounted our horses again at 4 p. m., and 
 at dark we reached the habitation of Mons*". N., 
 who keeps a house of private entertainment, that is 
 to say, an Inn ; in which travellers are received, but 
 neighbours are not allowed to drink. 
 
 laid out by Messrs. vScribner, its proprietors, in 1814. Being lo- 
 cated on the second bank of the river, it was found satisfactory from 
 the standpoint of healthfulness, and within half a dozen years it 
 had come to have a population of one thousand. Thereafter its 
 growth was slow but steady. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 159 
 
 These houses are more comfortable than Inns, 
 and are generally a little cheaper. You take your 
 Meals with the family, — retire into the strangers* 
 room, as soon as the meal is over, — and generally 
 the master of the house follows to chat with you. 
 You are not expected to call for liquors; which, 
 indeed, are not often kept in the house. . . } 
 
 To avoid sleeping with a bedfellow in a small 
 bed, I wrapped myself up in my blanket and laid 
 on my great coat and Saddle bags before the fire. 
 This arrangement disconcerted two Negro slaves, 
 who had chosen that place for themselves. I 
 obliged them to sleep at some distance. 
 
 Negroes are never supplied with more bedding 
 than a blanket and the Kitchen or dining room floor. 
 This too in Kentucky; which is the Paradise of 
 slaves, compared with the Southern States. 
 
 Janr'. jo*'\ — We passed through a fertile country, 
 well settled, but with miserably bad roads by Mid- 
 dleton,^ to the flourishing little town of Shelbyville, 
 in Shelby County.^ 
 
 Here we met, at a good Inn, a large party of rich 
 farmers and Merchants, all busy talking politics. 
 
 ' "A page of the Journal here has been lost. The next day the 
 Author and his companion proceeded on their journey and arrived 
 at night at another house of entertainment." — Transcriber. 
 
 2Middleton is situated on the headwaters of Bear Grass Creek, 
 twelve miles east of Louisville and twenty west of Shelbyville. 
 
 3 Shelbyville and Shelby County take their names from Isaac 
 Shelby, first governor of the state of Kentucky and one of the 
 most notable personages in early Western history. Shelbyville is 
 thirty miles east of Louisville and twenty west of Frankfort. Melish, 
 in 181 1, gives it a population of 424 {Travels, ii, p. 179). Faux, 
 in 1818, describes it as a "good-looking, youthful town" (Early 
 Western Travels, xi, p. 195). 
 
i6o Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The Landlord, finding I was an Englishman, in- 
 vited me to spend the evening with his wife and 
 daughters. I found them handsome and agreeable 
 women. Our charge for Supper, breakfast, and 
 horsefeed was $I,75""'^ Hostler & boots got, 
 25*". Dearer travelling than in Indiana, where a 
 dollar per day will pay all the expences. 
 They may be stated thus: 
 
 In Indiana 
 
 In Kentucky 
 
 
 Cents 
 
 Cents 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 . I2>4 
 
 . . 25 
 
 Horsefeed 
 
 . 1214 
 
 . I2>4 
 
 D°. at noon 
 
 . I2>4 
 
 . I2>4 
 
 Supper & horsefeed 
 
 . 62>4 
 
 . 1,00 
 
 
 $1,00 
 
 $1,50 
 
 The above are the charges at houses of private 
 entertainment. At good taverns the charges are 
 at least 50 p"". Cent higher. If the badness of the 
 roads, in the Winter, is taken into consideration, 
 travelling at this Season is dearer than in England; 
 for you cannot get half the distance in the same 
 time. 
 
 In Summer the roads are, in general, good for 
 travelling on horseback. 
 
 lan^. J/^^ Started for Frankfort.^ Passed 
 
 ' The site of Frankfort was first surveyed in 1773 for the McAfee 
 brothers. In October, 1786, it was purchased by James Wilkinson 
 (see p. 62, note), who had secured the passage of a bill in the 
 Virginia Assembly to erect a town upon it. The place was selected 
 in 1793 to be the capital of the new state. Cuming visited it in 
 1807 and found a town of ninety houses, including a state-house, 
 a jail, a court-house, a state penitentiary, a market-house, a gov- 
 
Indiana and Kentucky i6i 
 
 through a fine rolHng country; cleared enough to 
 present something hke views ; though none of them 
 of any extent. 
 
 Frankfort is a smart Httle town, on the Kentucky 
 river. It is the seat of Government ; and the Legis- 
 lature is now sitting. 
 
 It was Sunday, and a few smartly dressed young 
 men were picking their way through the half frozen 
 mud in the streets. Like others it is hid in a mud 
 hole, with fine commanding situations around it. 
 They have begun to pave the Main Street — in a 
 way that would make a London Paviour laugh. 
 
 The Kentucky River pours a noble stream over 
 a bed of Limestone. It is crossed by a wooden 
 bridge supported by four stone piers. ^ There is a 
 good view from the Eastern bank, which rises 
 abruptly, perhaps lOO feet, above the bed of the 
 river. Its circuitous course winds among steep 
 blufifs, south of the Town. In the plain above are 
 several smart houses, pleasantly situated. They 
 look like the places of Summer retreat, in which 
 the Citizens of London indulge themselves on Sun- 
 days. 
 
 ernment house, and four inns which in size, accommodations, and 
 business he declares were not surpassed in the United States (Early 
 Western Travels, iv, pp. T91-196). Travellers generally compared 
 Frankfort with Lexington, favorably as a rule to the former except 
 in the matter of commercial facilities. See Faux, Memorable Days 
 (Early Western Travels^ xi, p. 174) and Welby, Visit to North 
 America (Early Western Travels, xii, pp. 222-225). 
 
 ^ Cuming, in 1807, says : " The erection of a permanent wooden 
 bridge over the Kentucky has been lately commenced, which will be 
 about one hundred and forty yards long frotn bank to bank, the 
 surface of which is about fifty feet above low water mark. The 
 present bridge of boats is about sixty-five yards between the abut- 
 ments, and the river now at low water is eighty-seven yards wide " 
 (Early Western Travels, iv, p. 193). 
 
1 62 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Five miles further, we put up at M*". B- 
 
 house. A respectable and venerable man, who has 
 been thirty four years in Kentucky. His lady was 
 complaining bitterly of the Mal-practices of their 
 State Legislature, of their taxes &c, though the 
 latter are nothing more than County rates. 
 
 Monday Feh^. 2^. Took leave of Capf". B 
 
 who was going to Lexington,^ crossing Elk horn 
 creek, ^ and struck N.W. among the Eagle creek 
 hills. ^ I soon left the fertile plains of Kentucky. 
 
 ^The traditional story of the origin of Lexington (as told, for 
 example, in Melish's Traz'els, ii, p. 187, and accepted in Winsor's 
 Westward Movement, p. 85) to the effect that the first log cabins at 
 the place were built in 1775 and given the name Lexington in 
 honor of the battle lately fought between the Americans and British, 
 can hardly be regarded as true. It appears that there was no per- 
 manent settlement on the site of the present city before 1779. In 
 1780 the new town was made the seat of Fayette County and two 
 years later, it was incorporated by the legislature of Virginia. Fran- 
 gois Andre Michaux has a good description of the place in 1802 
 (Early Western Travels, iii, pp. 199-206). Cuming, in 1807, 
 writes a very full account (Early Western Travels, iv, pp. 181- 
 189). He estimates the town's population at three thousand and 
 has nothing but praise for its schools (including Transylvania Uni- 
 versity), churches, stores, and manufacturing enterprises. Melish, 
 in 181 1, gives some interesting information {Travels, ii, pp. 185- 
 190). Two visitors in the year 1818 record the most contrary 
 impressions : Faux declares that every public building in the city, 
 save that of the University, was filthy, neglected, and falling into 
 ruins, and that though the place still contained the cream of Ken- 
 tucky society it was thought to be retrograding (Early W^estern 
 Travels, xi, p. 188) ; but William Tell Harris was charmed with 
 all that he saw, and wrote that Lexington was " a spot so much 
 more pleasant, as well as more central, that it appears difficult to 
 conceive what could have induced the transfer of the legislative priv- 
 ilege to Frankfort, unless it be a supposed advantage in its being 
 washed by the waters of the Kentucky" {Remarks, pp. 145-146). 
 George W. Ranck's History of Lexington (Lexington, 1872) is a 
 fairly good work of its kind. 
 
 2Elkhorn Creek, on a branch of which Lexington is situated, flows 
 mto the Kentucky River in Franklin County, about eight miles 
 north of Frankfort. 
 
 3 Eagle Creek Hills are in the region north of Shelbyville and 
 twenty to thirty miles west of Frankfort. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 163' 
 
 The roads have been so bad, that my horse has 
 been for two days much fatigued. Today he gave 
 out, and I with difficulty got him through the wil- 
 derness. I arrived at the house I am now writing 
 in, and as the people seem to be civil and courteous, 
 I shall rest tomorrow. 
 
 A Traveller, who has been four or five months 
 in the wildernesses of the Illinois Territory, or the 
 gloomy forests of Indiana, is delighted with the 
 fine clearings of the Kentucky farms. Yet these 
 seldom extend half a mile from the road, and that 
 the most public one from Louisville to Lexington. 
 Hence there are seldom any views that can be called 
 picturesque in that tract of country which lies with- 
 in 50 miles of Ohio. There are some that are 
 grand and solemn among the hills, but in the rich 
 country, the stumps of trees in the fields, the worm 
 rail-fences running in straight lines, and even the 
 forests, with their rigid outlines as left by the axe, 
 have little of beauty and still less of the picturesque. 
 It is the feeling that he is surrounded by the dwell- 
 ings of man, that cheers the lonely traveller. 
 
 The Kentuckians^ have the character of being 
 the best warriors of the United States. As far as 
 courage without conduct can make them soldiers, 
 they are deserving of this praise. 
 
 ^ Other accounts of the life and society of Kentucky in the early 
 part of the last century are F. A. Michaux, Travels (Early Western 
 Travels, iii, p. 222, fif.) ; Cuming, Sketches (Early Western 
 Travels,, iv, p. 165, ff.) ; Melish, Travels, ii, pp. 202-208; Fearon, 
 Sketches, pp. 237-255; Flint, Letters (Early Western Travels, 
 IX, p. 132, ff.) ; Faux. Memorable Days (Early Western Travels, 
 xi, p. 188, ff.) ; and Ogden, Letters from the West (Early Western 
 Travels, xix, pp. 94-102). Cf., pp. 177-181 and 214-216 of this volume. 
 
164 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 They pride themselves on their veracity and 
 honour. 
 
 In their persons they are large, and generally 
 handsome, but are too much inclined to corpulency. 
 
 Tuesday and Wednesday. My horse being un- 
 able to proceed, I staid two days at M"". T 's, 
 
 a Kentucky farmer of the middle class. He works 
 himself and employs two Negroes. Every thing 
 around him bespoke comfort and moderate wealth. 
 Yet he has ctiltivated his own land among these 
 hills only 10 years. His farm is productive, though 
 far from being so rich as the level plains. 
 
 He talks of moving out to the Illinois Territory. 
 
 Feb', f. Thursday. Rode to W. H 's Tav- 
 ern, with whom I spent a most agreeable evening. 
 He rents a farm for which he pays one third of the 
 produce. He talked of mechanics, and is going to 
 erect a carding machine. 
 
 Feb". &\ Friday. Rode to W. G 's. At 
 
 this house I met M^ S , a member of the Sen- 
 ate, and other interesting gentlemen. 
 
 The bridge of Frankfort cost 40,000$. One is 
 projected over the mouth of Licking at Newport,^ 
 which will cost as much. Another is talked of to be 
 thrown over the Ohio, at the expense of 300,000$. 
 
 ' The Licking River rises in south-eastern Kentucky, near the 
 sources of the Cumberland and Kentucky. It flows through a course 
 of some two hundred miles, but is of slight value for navigation 
 during all but two months of the year. Newport, the seat of Camp- 
 bell County, was platted in 1791 by General James Taylor, a re- 
 cent emigrant from Caroline County, Virginia. It was incorporated 
 and made seat of justice in 1795, and in 1803 the Government se- 
 lected it as a location for an arsenal. Covington, on the west bank 
 of the Licking, opposite Newport, was founded in 1815. 
 
Indiana and Kentucky 165 
 
 Feh^. f^\ Crossed the Ohio and arrived at Cin- 
 cinnati.^ Called on my friend . Told him 
 
 my wish to obtain private lodgings; which he got 
 for me in a most respectable quaker family. He 
 offered me too, his interest in the Library of Cin- 
 cinnati. 
 
 Feh^. 27l^. The City Guards, who are a uniform 
 company of volunteers, are parading the town in 
 celebration of the birthday of Washington, which 
 fell yesterday on Sunday. 
 
 A grand ball will be given tonight, to which I 
 shall not go, as I do not choose the risk of being 
 insulted by any vulgar Ohioans. . . . 
 
 I send you a map of the Illinois territory. It is 
 tolerably correct, being taken from the Office Map. 
 
 Feh^. 2&^\ We have had a launch of a Steam 
 boat today of 150 Tons burthen. It was a beauti- 
 ful sight; she plunged bows under, as the bilge 
 way was at the lowest end eight feet above the 
 water. 
 
 1 On Cincinnati, see p. 183, note. 
 
IX 
 
 A trip across the Wabash in search of land — A night in the woods 
 — The people of Indiana — The Kentuckians. 
 
 At a farm house among the Eagle Creek Hills; 
 50 miles West from Frankfort, Kentucky. 
 
 Feb\ 3. 1818. 
 
 As general descriptions of Countries give always 
 vague and unsatisfactory ideas, I will fill up this 
 sheet with extracts from [my] Journal, which I 
 hope will be amusing. You will keep in mind, the 
 truth of a picture depends much upon the slightest 
 touches, and that resemblance cannot be produced 
 but by attention to minutiee. 
 
 Soon after my return from Cincinnati in Sep- 
 tember, I went across the Wabash to seek some 
 good timbered land. I went alone on horseback, 
 carrying my American Rifle, which is a long gun, 
 weighing 10 lbs, and shoots a bullet of ^ oz 
 weight. I had a clean shirt and stockings in my 
 saddle bags, and provisions for four days ; a bag of 
 Indian corn for my horse, a blanket, a cloak, and 
 tin cup; a pocket compass, a map of the country, 
 a large hunting Knife, and a hatchet. 
 
 The first day's ride brought me to a swampy, flat 
 prairie, which I crossed just as the sun went down. 
 I turned into a thick wood, where the trees were 
 small and close together. I was then a poor woods- 
 man, or I should have chosen a better place. I 
 lighted a fire with brush wood, and then began cut- 
 ting down some small trees. 
 
Notes in Kentucky 167 
 
 I had nearly finished the second, when my hatchet 
 flew off the handle. During the time I spent in 
 looking in vain for it, the fire went out and it got 
 quite dark. 
 
 I was in a bad £x, as they say in the back woods. 
 However, I made the best of it; fed my horse, eat 
 my supper, and wrapped myself up warm, hugging 
 my gun in my blanket. I lay listening a good 
 while, and had fallen into a doze, when my horse 
 snorted, and my dog jumped up, and I heard some- 
 thing rush through the woods at, perhaps, 100 
 yards distance. All was still again, — but the winds 
 whistling through the trees, and now and then a 
 wolf howling afar off. I lay down again, and soon 
 fell asleep. 
 
 The next morning I struck a path which led to 
 a Cabin where I breakfasted on hominy and honey, 
 and proceeded across the Boon-pas, up the long 
 Prairie 2 miles. I then took the woods, and, after 
 struggling five hours among grape vines and 
 creeks, I found some Whiteoak timbered land near 
 our prairie. I ran the section line, then crossed the 
 
 prairie to the North end, and reached M*". E. 
 
 at dark. 
 
 The next day I found still better land, well tim- 
 bered. Found the section line and started off for 
 Shawnee town, which I reached in two days. 
 
 Here I entered land; and soon after went again 
 to the Prairie to get a cabin built, and returned to 
 Shawnee. . . . 
 
 I hope you will not think this letter is filled with 
 
1 68 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 matter unworthy of being sent across the Atlantic. 
 These minute descriptions alone can give you an 
 idea of these wildernesses. 
 
 The farmers of Indiana generally arrive in the 
 country very poor, but somehow they get a great 
 deal of property very soon. They all work, and 
 there are not half so many labourers for hire, as 
 there are farmers. The former live with their em- 
 ployers, and are their equals, if they are men of 
 good character ; which is not always the case. The 
 hunters have more politeness, and I think more of 
 virtue and hospitality than the farmers. The worse 
 set are boatmen, and petty traders in horses and 
 whisky, who live on the banks of rivers. Some of 
 these are connected with horse stealers and forg- 
 ers, and are the pests of a rising society. The new 
 towns on the frontiers generally are inhabited by 
 these men, till they rise into importance; when the 
 scamps move off. Though we have rascals even 
 here, yet the tone of morals is higher on the fron- 
 tiers, than among men of the same station in Eng- 
 land. They are either very good or openly bad in 
 these back woods. 
 
 I do not think much can be said in praise of the 
 daughters of Indiana; they are completely desti- 
 tute of education. Not so, the Kentucky women. 
 From the little I have seen and the much I have 
 heard, I judge they are the most spirited women in 
 the world. They are exceedingly fond of dress, 
 and are generally very handsome. But Kentucky 
 
Notes in Kentucky 169 
 
 is growing very rich, and the people are becoming 
 very proud. 
 
 I shall reserve my observations on Kentucky for 
 a future letter, and likewise a geographical and 
 statistical sketch of the South Eastern section of 
 the Illinois Territory.^ 
 
 Either Kentucky or Illinois must be the abode 
 of an English farmer. In the one he will find an 
 agreeable society, in the other there is none, and 
 he will give to it, as it rises, a tint of his own man- 
 ners. 
 
 Cincinnati. Feb^. I4*'\ . . . Land has been 
 sold near this town for 200$ per acre. — 45f. The 
 people cannot be poor who buy or sell such land. 
 Yet twenty-two years ago, this land was the prop- 
 erty of the Indians, and the few white men who 
 lived here, dared not leave their fort. Still if it 
 were not for Slavery, Kentucky or Virginia would 
 be the countries for English Gentlemen. A Ken- 
 tuckian is an Englishman with a little more pride. 
 
 ^ For the promised observations on Kentucky see pp. 177-181, 
 and pp. 214-216. There does not appear in the manuscript any sys- 
 tematic sketch of the Illinois Territory, but much valuable informa- 
 tion and comment is given incidentally here and there. 
 
X 
 
 The Americanizing of emigrants — Attitude of Westerners toward 
 Englishmen — Prospective peace with the southern Indians — 
 Emigration to Missouri — Mr. Birkbeck's estate — Fordham's 
 farm — Opportunities for men with capital — Respect for edu- 
 cation and manners. 
 
 Cincinnati Feb^. i8. 1818. 
 I TAKE a hasty opportunity of sending you a few 
 lines by a gentleman who is going to Scotland from 
 this place. He will start tomorrow morning early; 
 and I have to give a dozen orders to Engineer, 
 Smiths and founders in the course of the day; so 
 you will excuse a very hastily written scrawl. 
 '" We are all in good health and spirits, and are 
 more accustomed to American manners; — there- 
 fore more comfortable. It is useless for Emigrants 
 to think of retaining English manners or English 
 feelings, in this country of liberty and equality. 
 But, to do the Americans justice, they respect the 
 love, which every man of generous feeling has for 
 his native country, and they are pretty in express- 
 ing their contempt of a Renegado. There are too 
 many of this character ; and I have been more hurt 
 by their conduct, than by all the rudeness of the 
 Ohioans, or the pride and haughtiness of Kentuck- 
 ians. 
 
 The Western Americans generally feel great 
 hostility to the British Government, but towards 
 the English Emigrants, they are, with few excep- 
 tions, kind and hospitable. They are in most re- 
 spects dififerent from their brethren in the East, for 
 
Settlement in the West 171 
 
 whom they do not entertain much respect or affec- 
 tion. 
 
 Mihtary courage is here considered to be the 
 prince of all the virtues. Even quakers talk like 
 soldiers, and frequently the younger members turn 
 out with their fellow citizens, -*-" 
 
 The Indians in the South, who were making a 
 great head against Gen. Gaines, have now proposed 
 a friendly talk, and, probably, peace will be con- 
 cluded before this reaches you. I am glad of this, 
 because there was some danger of the spirit of hos- 
 tility spreading among the tribes who live on the 
 Western banks of the Mississippi, and the North- 
 ern tribes. In that case we must have fortified our 
 dwellings; and we young men, though not called 
 upon by law, should have looked small if we had 
 not volunteered. 
 
 The prophet chief, brother of Tecumseh,^ is still 
 living beyond the Missouri. The Missouri Terri- 
 tory is peopling so fast, that very soon our country 
 
 ' The Prophet was a Shawnee warrior, known in early life as 
 Lawlewasikaw, but after assuming the prophetic role in 1805 as 
 Pemsquatawah. With this change of name and profession he began 
 to make himself conspicuous by declaiming against witchcraft, the 
 use of intoxicating liquors, intermarriage with the whites, and the 
 selling of Indian lands to the United States. Late in 1805, or early 
 in 1806, he and his brother Tecumseh removed from the Delaware 
 villages on the west fork of White River (in present Delaware 
 County, Indiana) to Greenville, Ohio; and in the spring of 1808 
 they gained permission of the Pottawattamies and Kickapoos to settle 
 on the Wabash near the mouth of the Tippecanoe, at a place which 
 afterwards bore the name of the Prophet's Town. While the 
 Prophet's fame and influence grew among the tribes of northwestern 
 Indiana, Tecumseh busied himself with efiforts to unite these tribes 
 in one great confederacy on the basis of a common resistance to the 
 encroachments of the whites. Relations between the Indian leaders 
 and the representatives of the national government, chiefly Governor 
 William Plenry Harrison, became more and more strained, until in 
 
172 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 will be backed up on that side. The banks of the 
 Okaw^ and the Little Muddy/ about 80 miles west- 
 ward of us, are entering very fast, though unluck- 
 ily by Speculators, as well as settlers. We have as 
 yet, however, been fortunate enough to keep the 
 former away from our immediate neighbourhood. 
 
 An English gentleman of fortune, a M*". Q , 
 
 is gone down the river with his family, with the 
 intention of buying land close to us. 
 
 M*". Birkbeck is laying out a farm of 1600 acres 
 in the midst of his Estate of 4000 acres. He has 
 entered the whole of the Bolton house prairie ; with 
 the exception of three quarters on the South ^yest 
 side, and one quarter on the North side of M^ 
 Flower's land, which I have entered for myself. 
 
 My little Estate lies on and between two small 
 hills, from which descend several small streams, 
 that unite in the valley and flow on through the 
 prairie. An arm of the prairie runs up this valley 
 and extends itself on the heights somewhat in this 
 shape.^ I suppose I have about 100 acres of meadow 
 and 60 of timber land. The timber is white oak, 
 
 181 1 the crisis came in the noted battle of Tippecanoe in which the 
 Indians were defeated and the confederacy shattered. Tecumseh 
 joined the British the following year and was killed in the battle 
 of the Thames, October 5, 1813. The Prophet removed to the 
 Indian country on the western side of the Mississippi, where he 
 died in 1834. A good account of the careers of these rather re- 
 markable redskins will be found in John B. Dillon's History of 
 Indiana (Indianapolis, 1859), pp. 423-553 passim. 
 
 ' The Okaw is a small tributary of the Kaskaskia, in Washing- 
 ton County, Illinois. 
 
 2 The Little Muddy flows into the Big Muddy in the eastern part 
 of Jackson County, Illinois. The Big Muddy enters the Mississippi 
 in northwestern Union County. 
 
 3 See sketch on opposite page. 
 
Settlement in the West 173 
 
 walnut, and Hickory. 
 
 ^ C<i There are some Per- 
 
 ^ Simmons, a most de- 
 
 % i2t^J> ^^^^°"^ ^'*^"^' growing 
 t^2r on straight and rather 
 
 <i^ lofty trees, a good 
 
 many grapes and 
 hazels. 
 
 I am getting the iron work for a wind-mill, and 
 other machinery. Iron costs 12^/2 c*^ per lb, and 
 the working is charged at 12^ c'^ more. I have 
 bought anvils, bellows, and all the tools of a Black- 
 smith's, Millwright's, and Carpenter's shop. I can 
 get work done here as well as in London at from 
 50 to 100 per Cent advance upon London prices. 
 
 I am going down the river in a boat of which I 
 shall take the command. I went down last Au- 
 tumn in two boats, in one of which I had two 
 horses. To confess the truth I nearly lost the 
 boats and all the property would have been gone, 
 if my lads had not made uncommon exertions. It 
 was in the night and a most tremendous thunder 
 storm came on. The intervals between the flashes 
 of lightning were so dark that we could not see 
 some rocks, which we ran foul of, and hung to all 
 night. 
 
 I am boarding in a very respectable quaker fam- 
 ily, who do not in general take in boarders. But I 
 was recommended by a gentleman of this town, 
 with whom I had travelled, and to whom we are all 
 well known. Introductions into respectable fami- 
 
174 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 lies are as necessary in this country as in any other ; 
 and as much is thought of steadiness of conduct, 
 though more latitude is given to speech. 
 
 I have consciously avoided giving to my young 
 friends in England coloured descriptions of this 
 country: but I must beg leave to assure you — that 
 you cannot do a greater favour to any young man, 
 v/ho possesses from 8oo£ to 5,ooo£, with a proper 
 degree of spirit, than by sending him out here. But 
 if he has no money, if he knows no mechanical 
 trade, and if he cannot work, — he had better stay 
 in a Counting house in England. 
 
 Any young man, who wishes to marry, but dare 
 not enter into business and the expences of a family 
 in England, if he can command looof, may choose 
 his trade here. If he is a plain working farmer, 
 50o£ will make him more independent than an Eng- 
 lish gentleman with iooo£ per annum. 
 
 An Emigrant who is rich, may settle near a large 
 town ; find society, libraries, and a great many com- 
 forts. If he does not object to holding Slaves, Ken- 
 tucky oilers him great advantages. But if he is 
 not rich, or is ambitious, — the Illinois and Missouri 
 Territory, and, from what I have heard, I may say, 
 the Alabama Country, will hold out advantages 
 that will pay him for all sacrifices.^ 
 
 A bill is in Congress for making a State of the 
 Illinois Territory." We shall be Citizens as soon 
 as it passes, and eligible I believe to any office. 
 
 ^ For more extended observations on the various regions which 
 held out inducements to European emigrants see pp. 227-228. 
 2 In January, 1818, the legislature of Illinois, through Nathaniel 
 
Settlement in the West 175 
 
 Men of Education and Manners are much re- 
 spected; and there is a large proportion of the peo- 
 ple, who have a great deal of information; which 
 though acquired more by conversation and obser- 
 vation, than by reading, makes them good judges of 
 character, and enables them to value literary and 
 scientific acquirements. 
 
 I have had interest offered me to procure an elec- 
 tion to a command in a Militia regiment in In- 
 diana; but I have declined the offer. . . . 
 
 Pope, the territorial delegate, petitioned Congress for admission 
 to the Union. On the following eighteenth of April Congress 
 passed the desired act enabling the people of the territory to frame 
 a constitution and establish a state government. A noteworthy 
 feature of this act was the provision that the northern boundary of 
 the new state should be the line 40° 30' N. Lat. — a provision se- 
 cured by the efforts of Pope, who saw that if a line drawn through 
 the southernmost point of Lake Michigan were made the boundary, 
 as it had been assumed would be the case, the valuable port of 
 Chicago would be lost to some state yet to be constituted on the 
 north. The new line is about forty miles further north than the 
 old one and the fourteen Illinois counties lying wholly or in part 
 between the two were regarded by not a few Wisconsin people of a 
 generation ago as wrongfully attached to the commonwealth on the 
 south. August 26. 1818, a convention met at the capital, Kaskaskia, 
 and framed a constitution, which was duly ratified. Shadrach Bond, 
 a Marylander who had settled in Illinois at an early date, was elected 
 first governor of the state. He assumed the duties of the office in 
 October, 1818. In this same month the legislature had its first 
 session and Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas were elected to the 
 United States Senate. During an adjourned session, in the winter 
 of 1818-19, a code of laws (borrowed in the main from the codes 
 of Virginia and Kentucky) was adopted and commissioners were 
 appointed to select a site for a new capital. The result of the 
 latter act was the choice of Vandalia, occupied in 1821 (see p. 104, 
 note i). 
 
XI 
 
 The people of Virginia — The Kentnckians — The winning of Ken- 
 tucky from the Indians — The work of Daniel Boone — Sensa- 
 tions experienced in the wilderness — Nature of Indian war- 
 fare — Cassidy's achievements — Manner of life of a wealthy 
 Kentucky farmer — Society inchoate in the Illinois Country — 
 The farming class — The hunters. 
 
 Cincinnati Feb^'. 26. 1818. 
 Having an opportunity of sending a letter by a 
 private conveyance, I seize it with avidity, because 
 I have great hope you will receive it safe. The 
 post offices of this Western Country are so ill con- 
 ducted that it is quite discouraging. 
 
 I need not tell you what we are doing, for M^ 
 Birkbeck's book^ has told you already. We are 
 proceeding steadily, though slowly. . . . 
 
 Now I will tell vou a little of what I have seen 
 and learnt; and that I may give you my ideas un- 
 disturbed, and fresh from my mind, I will not affect 
 any sort of arrangement. 
 
 I have seen but little of Virginia. The men of 
 education and wealth are much like English Coun- 
 try gentlemen, about as refined and nearly as proud. 
 The young men are irascible but goodnatured. 
 They are, however, rude and greedy in their man- 
 ners at public tables to a most shameful degree. 
 
 The women are pretty, languishing, made-up 
 misses. Their chief pleasures seem to be in dress- 
 ing well and in combing their long fair hair. They 
 
 ^ Fordham here refers to Birkbeck's Notes on a Journey, in Amer- 
 ica from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois (Phil- 
 adelphia, 1817). 
 
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana 177 
 
 have most beautiful hair, and are generally much 
 fairer than English women. Like the men, they 
 are tall and thin; but they have not the intelligent 
 look of the former. 
 
 Kentucky, which is the daughter of Virginia, ■ 
 has fewer men of literary tastes and habits, but 
 more men of enterprise, both commercial and mili- 
 tary. Their military enthusiasm scarcely knows 
 any limit. They are, without doubt, very brave, 
 but the men of other States say they are not steady. 
 It is certain that they have in the late war been at 
 times most unaccountably panic-struck. 
 
 Kentucky, or "bloody field," was won inch by 
 inch from the Indians; — by a few enterprising 
 men, unaided by governments, unorganized, for the 
 most part poor, and connected merely by mutual 
 wants and interests. It was not the property of 
 any particular tribe of Savages, but the disputed 
 hunting ground of many. It was the theatre of 
 their wars ; — and was won from them by Boon and 
 his associates contending with them in their own 
 way. 
 
 Daniel Boon^ first crossed the mountains on a 
 hunting expedition in 1769, accompanied by 5 men. 
 In 1772 his force did not amount to 100 men, and 
 
 ^ Daniel Boone was born in 1734 in the valley of the Schuylkill in 
 Pennsylvania. In 1757 his family moved to Buffalo Lick, on the 
 north fork of the Yadkin, in North Carolina. There he grew to 
 manhood, becoming a hunter and backwoodsman of the most strenu- 
 ous type. In 1769, with five companions, he pushed westward 
 through Cumberland Gap and began the notable career in Kentucky 
 which Fordham outlines. His later years were spent in the Mis- 
 souri Territory, which became more attractive to him than Ken- 
 tucky, owing to the rapidity with which the latter was increasing in 
 
178 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 in the interval between these years he had been 
 Hving 18 months in the wilderness alone, clad in 
 bear skins, and often fearing to light a fire. He 
 had sent away his Companions for his family and 
 for powder. 
 
 You will never have a correct idea of what a 
 wilderness is till you come to visit me. It is no 
 more like a great wood, than a battle is like a re- 
 view. Whatever limits it may have on the map, 
 however quickly the eye may traverse the chart, 
 or the imagination may skim over the fancied des- 
 ert, — the traveller and hunter find impediments, 
 which give to him notions of extension. 
 
 To be at an unknown distance from the dwell- 
 ings of man; to have pathless forests of trees 
 around you; and intervening rivers, across which 
 you must swim on your horse or on a raft, what- 
 ever be the temperature of the water or the air; — 
 the whispering breeze among the leaves, the spring 
 of the deer, or the flap of the Eagle's wing are the 
 only sounds you hear during the day; and then to 
 lie at night in a blanket, with your feet to a fire, 
 your rifle hugged in your arms, listening to the 
 howling wolves, and starting at the shriek of the 
 terrible panther: This it is to be in a Wilderness 
 alone. 
 
 To return to Daniel Boon, — and Kentucky — He 
 was twice taken prisoner by the Indians and 
 
 population. The removal to Missouri seems to have been made in 
 the spring of 1799. The best biography of Boone is Thwaites, 
 Daniel Boone (Nev^r York, 1902). William Harvey Miner's Daniel 
 Boone: Contribution toward a Bibliography of Writings concern- 
 ing Daniel Boone (New York, 1901) is useful. 
 
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana 179 
 
 French, and once marched to Canada. He had 
 been spared by the Indians because they admired 
 his bravery. He escaped alone, and returned to 
 his fort on Kentucky river. His wife and daugh- 
 ters, having been left by their husband, who had 
 been surprised in the woods, had likewise left the 
 fort desolate. Boon pushed on across the Moun- 
 tains to N. Carolina, and found his family at a rela- 
 tion's house. 
 
 Battles with the Indians are a series of duels; 
 it was so then, and is so now. A brave man kills 
 the greatest number, and it is nothing to him, 
 whether ten are engaged or a hundred. He only 
 looks to do his own duty, and to get as many scalps 
 as he can. The Kentuckians have adopted the In- 
 dian custom of scalping the dead. 
 
 Cassidy, an Irishman, — a smaller man, it is said, 
 by people who know him, than I am, — is the next 
 on the list of fame.^ He has killed more men than 
 Boon has, and most of them in single fights, or In- 
 dian hunting, as it is called. I believe he is alive 
 yet. Boon has a settlement 280 miles west of us, 
 has got a new rifle this season, — and is gone out 
 to kill another bear before he dies: — he is 80 years 
 old. 
 
 ' Captain Michael Cassidy was a native of Ireland who migrated 
 to the United States in his youth and won no small distinction as a 
 soldier in the Revolution. At the close of the war he removed to 
 Kentucky and settled at Cassidy's Station, in Fleming County. He 
 was one of the most noted frontiersmen of his time. In connection 
 with his diminutive stature, to which Fordham alludes, it may be said 
 that numerous amusing stories are told regarding his encounters 
 with Indians, who thought him to be a mere boy and treated him 
 with corresponding condescension. 
 
i8o Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 A wealthy Kentucky farmer has 20 or 30 slaves, 
 whom he treats rather like children than servants, 
 — 2 or 3000 acres of land, 500 acres of which are 
 cleared and in cultivation. He lives in a bad house, 
 keeps a plentiful table, which is covered three times 
 a day with a great many dishes. Brandy, Whisky, 
 and Rum are always standing at a side table. He 
 is hospitable, but rather ostentatious, plain in his 
 manners, and rather grave; a great politician, 
 rather apt to censure than to praise, and a rather 
 bigoted republican. It is said by enemies, that 
 were a person to travel through Kentucky and 
 openly approve of Monarchical principles, he would 
 be stabbed. This is not true; but it is true that 
 they are irascible, to a great degree, and it would 
 not be wise for any man to preach up even federal, 
 that is, tory, principles in this State. 
 
 Nothing is more common than for men in Ken- 
 tucky to quarrel about politics, and the pistol used 
 to be the universal resort. But as almost every 
 duel was fatal, the legislature took effectual means 
 to prevent duelling. The dirk is now generally 
 worn, and not unfrequently used in the lower parts 
 near the Tennessee line. 
 
 I, however, like Kentucky : — there is much to in- 
 terest me in its inhabitants, though there is much 
 to disapprove. 
 
 You have heard of the Mammoth Cave^ — I have 
 
 ' Mammoth Cave is in Edmonson County, Kentucky, about ninety- 
 five miles southvi'est of Louisville. It was discovered accidentally 
 by a hunter in 1809. 
 
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana i8i 
 
 seen the skull of a Mammoth found in White River 
 in Indiana — it is a tremendous head-piece. 
 
 In the IlHnois Country, Society is yet unborn, — 
 but it will be soon. The western parts toward St. 
 Louis are thickest settled, and with very dissipated 
 characters. French and Indian traders, Cana- 
 dians, &c, gamblers, horsestealers, and bankrupts. 
 Near us there are only a few farmers and hunters. 
 Farmers, who till their own land, shear their own 
 sheep, grow their own cotton and tobacco, the for- 
 mer of which their wives manufacture into cloth- 
 ing through every process. They tan the hides of 
 their cattle and deer skins, and make them up into 
 shoes and harness. They are hospitable according 
 to their means; but, if they live near roads, expect 
 payment for food and lodging, which is rather de- 
 manded by travellers than accepted as a favour. 
 
 The hunters live rather worse, but are more en- 
 tertaining and interesting companions. Clothed in 
 dressed not tanned buckskins : — a home-made, 
 homespun hunting shirt outside; — belted to his 
 waist with a broad belt, to which is appended a 
 knife with a blade a foot long: a tomohawk, or 
 powder horn, in the belt of which is sometimes a 
 smaller knife to cut the patch of the bullet ; a bullet- 
 pouch ; mocassins on his feet ; a blanket on his sad- 
 dle ; and a loaf of Indian Corn. Thus equipped and 
 accoutered he enters the trackless woods, without 
 a compass, or a guide, but what appears a kind of 
 instinct. He is fearless of every thing, attacks 
 every thing that comes in his way, and thinks him- 
 
182 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 self the happiest and noblest being in the world. 
 These men have kindly feelings. I should expect 
 to receive more sympathy from them in real dis- 
 tress, such as they could understand, than from 
 more enlightened, and more civilized men. They 
 never swear. Their women never sit at table with 
 them; at least, I have never seen them.^ I cannot 
 speak in high terms of the manners or of the virtue 
 of their squaws and daughters. Their houses con- 
 tain but one room, and that used as a sleeping room 
 as well by strangers as by the men of the family, 
 they lose all feminine delicacy, and hold their vir- 
 tue cheap. 
 
XII 
 
 Dimensions of the Ohio — Its scenery — Velocity of the current — 
 La Salle on the Ohio — Early settlements in the West — Strug- 
 gle of frontiersmen and Indians — Population of the western 
 states — The growth of Cincinnati — Description of the city — 
 Manners of the people — The negro population — Story of the 
 negro Anthony — Character of the fiatboatmen. 
 
 Cincinnati March 6. 1818. 
 I WISH you could see this town/ one of the most 
 prosperous in the west. I will give you a sketch 
 of it, its situation, and its early settlement. 
 
 ' The site of Cincinnati was first occupied in 1780 when George 
 Rogers Clark, in the course of his campaign against the allied 
 British and Indian invaders of Ohio, gathered there about a thou- 
 sand riflemen and built a blockhouse. In 1787, after the organiza- 
 tion of the Northwest Territory, Judge John Cleves Symmes of 
 New Jersey applied to Congress for a grant of a million acres of 
 land lying north of the Ohio and between the Great and Little 
 Miami rivers. The grant was obtained, though the tract was found 
 eventually to contain not more than 600,000 acres, and in 1788 
 Symmes removed thither with his family and about fifty associates. 
 His settlement was established on a site opposite the mouth of the 
 Licking, receiving, at the suggestion of the Kentucky schoolmaster 
 John Filson, the awkward name Lostantiville — the town (ville) 
 opposite (anti) the mouth (os) of the Licking (L). When St. Clair, 
 governor of the Northwest Territory, arrived in 1790 he very sen- 
 sibly ruled that the town should be called Cincinnati, in honor of 
 the military society of that name. Symmes was one of the first three 
 judges associated with St. Clair in the management of Northwestern 
 affairs. Cincinnati grew slowly at first, being for some time consid- 
 erably more important as a stockade than as a town. In 1792 its 
 first school and church were built and by 1800 it had a population of 
 about seven hundred and fifty. It was the seat of government of the 
 new state of Ohio until 1806, when the capital was transferred to 
 Chillicothe. The census of 1810 gave it a population of 2,320, and in 
 the following year Melish describes it as, next to Pittsburg, the 
 greatest manufacturing town on the Ohio and a place rapidly in- 
 creasing in size and advantages {Travels, ii. pp. 126-131). Its 
 growth after this time was rapid, as is indicated by the fact that its 
 population in 1813 was 4,000; in 1815. 6,000; in 1819, 10,283; and 
 in 1826, 16,230. Travellers in the period 1816-1830 were generally 
 surprised by the industrial and commercial activity of the place, 
 as well as by the high state of society in it. The following visitors 
 have good descriptions of the town: Fearon, Sketches, pp. 226-237; 
 12 
 
184 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The Ohio river is 1,000 miles long; join it with 
 the Alleghany it is 1,300. Its width at Cincinnati, 
 which is nearly equidistant from Pittsburgh and 
 its confluence with the Mississippi, is 534 yards; 
 which may be assumed, says D*". Drake,^ as its 
 mean breadth. He is wrong ; — I have gone down 
 900 miles, and have made by estimated angles above 
 50 measurements, and its average breadth cannot 
 
 Birkbeck, Notes, pp. 81-89; Hulme, Journal (Early Western 
 Travels, x, pp. 41-42) ; Nuttall, Journal (Early Western Travels, 
 xiii, p. 62) ; Flint. Letters (Early Western Travels, ix, pp. 149- 
 156); William Tell Harris, Remarks, p. 99; Woods, Tzuo Years' 
 Residence (Early Western Travels, x, pp. 235-237) ; and Ogden, 
 Letters (Early Western Travels, xix, pp. 35-38). A very valuable 
 work on early Cincinnati is Daniel Drake's Natural and Statistical 
 View or Picture of Cincinnati and the Miami Country (Cincinnati, 
 1815), for which see note i, below. Two very good popular 
 accounts are Francis W. Miller's Cincinnati's Beginnings (Cincm- 
 nati, 1880) and Ford and Ford, Historv of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, 
 1881). 
 
 'Daniel Drake was born in Kentucky in 1785-. At the age of 
 fifteen he became a student of medicine at Cincinnati, where he 
 settled permanently in the practice of his chosen profession in 1807, 
 soon becoming one of the foremost physicians of the West. He es- 
 tablished the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati (opened in 
 1820) and in 1827 was selected to be editor of the IVesfern Medical 
 and Physical Journal. In 1810 he published a pamphlet entitled 
 Notices concerning Cincinnati, which constitutes the first authorita- 
 tive description of the place of any length that we have. Five years 
 later his larger work, the Natural and Statistical View or Picture of 
 Cincinnati and the Miami Country, appeared — a book which served 
 a very useful purpose in promoting the prosperity of the city and 
 region described in it. It is this volume (pp. 13-17) that contains 
 the statements regarding the Ohio to which Fordham takes ex- 
 ception. Drake also published History, Character, and Prospects of 
 the West: a Discourse (Cincinnati, 1834) ; and by all odds his 
 greatest work was On the Principal Diseases of the Interior Val- 
 ley of North America, published in 1850, two years before the 
 author's death. Further information will be found in Charles D. 
 Drake [ed.]. Pioneer Life in Kentucky: a Series of Reminiscential 
 Letters from Daniel Drake, M.D., of Cincinnati to his Children 
 (Cincinnati, 1870) ; Charles D. Meigs, A Biographical Notice of 
 Daniel Drake, M.I)., of Cincinnati (Philadelphia, 1853) ; and Ed- 
 ward Deering Mansfield, Memoirs of the Life and Serznces of Daniel 
 Drake, with Notices of the Early Settlement of Cincinnati and 
 some of its Pioneer Citizens (Cincinnati, 1855). 
 

 |i f^ f^ fe ::!t^ 7^ pi ^ ~ . 
 
 ^;-'^- 
 
Cincinnati 187 
 
 be less than 700 yards. Its annual range from high 
 to low water is 50 feet — its extreme range 7 feet 
 more. It may be forded in many places above 
 Louisville when the water is at the lowest stage; 
 but between these bars, which form slight rapids, 
 there are basins of deep water many miles long. 
 
 It is frozen over at Pittsburg almost every win- 
 ter — sometimes at Cincinnati — I believe never at 
 Shawanoe. Generally navigation is stopt by float- 
 ing ice 8 or 10 weeks. ^ 
 
 The Ohio river is not generally a picturesque ob- 
 ject. It addresses itself powerfully to the imagina- 
 tion, but not to the senses. Its banks are clothed 
 with dark forests. Here and there a small cabin 
 peeps from the trees. Sometimes the rocks rise 
 around you in solemnity and gloom — but at one 
 place only, at the falls, do your eyes glance over any 
 expanse of country. 
 
 Nevertheless, I am more happy, more self-satis- 
 fied, on the banks of the Ohio, than ever I could 
 have been on the fair plains of Old England. The 
 forests of Indiana, the mountains of Kentucky, the 
 wilds of the Illinois, if they are not so beautiful, yet 
 their grandeur calls forth deeper, more sublime, 
 emotions. They are the fields of enterprise, the 
 cradle of freedom, the land of rest to the weary, 
 the place of refuge to the oppressed. Every sound 
 that issues from the woods, from the crashing tor- 
 nado which rushes across entire regions, clothed 
 in sheets of fire and shaking the hills to their foun- 
 dations, — to the soft low murmur of an autumnal 
 
1 88 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 breeze, — all excites the most profound sentiments 
 of adoration for the divine author of Nature, — all 
 recall to man the uncertain duration of his exist- 
 ence; but these thoughts are unmixed with aught 
 that can debase his worth or circumscribe his 
 powers. These wildernesses are given to him 
 alone : in them he is free ; owning no master but his 
 God, and no authority but that of reason and truth. 
 
 "And sovereign man scarce condescends to see 
 "A nation's laws more sovereign still than he." 
 
 To go back to the Ohio River. The velocity of 
 its current is estimated at 3 miles per hour. When 
 the waters are high and rising, it is equal to 4 and 
 5. But the progress of a boat must be estimated 
 at less, because the filament of the current always 
 inclines towards, and is generally very near, the 
 concave shore; thus making the course of a boat 
 longer than the length of the middle of the river: 
 And there is generally a light breeze on the surface 
 of the water, blowing upwards against it. 
 
 Mons'". de la Salle, a frenchman, in an inland voy- 
 age from Quebec to the Mississippi in 1680, de- 
 scended the Ohio. Probably he was the first white 
 man who ever navigated it ; and his adventure was 
 imitated by his countrymen exclusively for 70 
 years.^ Vincennes, on the Wabash was founded 
 
 * On the achievements of La Salle, Fordham is badly confused. 
 If La Salle ever descended the Ohio at all it must have been in 
 1670 or 1671. The claim is made, on the basis mainly of some 
 questionable documents in Margry's Decouvertes ct Etablisscments 
 dcs Frangais dans I'Ouest et dans le Sud de I'Amcrique Septen- 
 trionale, i, pp. 103-166, that the noted explorer, in the course of a 
 western expedition from La Chine in 1670 discovered the Ohio and, 
 following its course to the Mississippi, became also the French 
 
Cincinnati 189 
 
 in 1735;^ and in 1753 Fort DuQuesne, at the con- 
 fluence of the Monongahela and Alleghany. In 
 1788, the first settlement was made in the State of 
 Ohio, at Marietta by New Englanders/ In the au- 
 tumn of the same year, a party of New Jersey men 
 settled at the North Bend, just above the mouth 
 of the Great Miami;'* Fort Washington was built 
 opposite the mouth of Licking, where Cincinnati 
 now stands;^ and the settlement of Columbia, just 
 below the Little Miami, was undertaken.^ 
 
 A dreadful War was waged by the Indians 
 against the New Comers, who appear to have been 
 well furnished with arms, and with nothing else. 
 They used to steal out singly at night, and watch 
 the deer come to the creeks to drink; and when 
 
 discoverer of this latter river. It is possible, as Parkman thought, 
 that the Ohio was reached at this time and descended perhaps as far 
 as to the site of Louisville, but that this was the case cannot be 
 proved ; that in any event no more than this was accomplished is 
 practically beyond dispute. La Salle's expedition to the Mississippi 
 in 1680 was made by way of the Great Lakes and the Illinois River. 
 
 1 See p. 96. note 2. 
 
 2 See p. 71, note. The date should be 1754. 
 
 3 See p. 86, note. 
 
 4 The town at North Bend, some miles west of Cincinnati, was es- 
 tablished by Judge John Cleves Symmes in the hope that event- 
 ually it would be made the capital of the Northwest Territory. See 
 p. 183, note. 
 
 sport Washington was established by Major Doughty in 1787 
 as a frontier protection against the Indians. Being no longer needed, 
 it was demolished in 1808. Its site is marked at present by Fort 
 Washington Monument, in Third Street, erected in 1901. See Rob- 
 ert Ralston Jones, Fort Washington at Cincinnati, Ohio (Cincinnati, 
 1902). 
 
 6 In 1787 a block-house was built on the site of Columbia by Major 
 Stiles, of Brownsville, Pennsylvania, and twenty-five associates. 
 Like the slightly later settlement at North Bend (see note 4, 
 above), Columbia was for a time a rival of Cincinnati for the 
 dignity of capital of the Northwest Territory. 
 
190 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 they had shot one, they were obHged to He hid for 
 some time to discover if any Indians were roused 
 by the report of the gun; then the poor hunter 
 would take the whole carcase on his back, and carry 
 it perhaps 5 and 6 miles. They had seldom any 
 bread, and sometimes no salt to eat with their Ven- 
 ison. In process of time they drove back the In- 
 dians, built their huts, made themselves farms, and 
 married. Their children grew hardy and chubby 
 by paddling in the mud, rolling in the sand, and 
 eating hominy. 
 
 I copy the following table from D*". Drake's 
 book.^ 
 
 Tenessee settled in 1775 had in 1791 .... in 1800. in 1810 
 
 35691 inhabitants 105602 261727 
 
 Kentucky settled in 1775 . . 1790 .... in 1800. in 1810 
 
 72,677 inh. 220690 406511 
 
 Ohio settled in 1788 1790 1800. . 1810 
 
 3000 inh. 42156 230670 
 
 The proportion 
 of males 
 to females. . . 
 
 Ohio 100 to 86 
 Kentucky 100 to 91 
 -in Tenessee 100 to 93 in 
 Mexico 100 to 95 
 Rhode Isl'd 100 to 105 
 
 North'n States 100 to loi 
 Middle States 100 to 95 
 South'n States 100 to 95 
 
 I shall tire you with dates and numbers. Let us 
 see what Cincinnati is now. It stands on the first 
 and second banks of the Ohio. The second is 40 
 feet higher than the first. The two banks are both 
 plains nearly parallel with the horizon. At the dis- 
 tance of a mile from the river you come to steep 
 hills above 300 feet high. 
 
 In 1810 Cincinnati contained 2,320 Inhabitants; 
 
 * Daniel Drake, Natural and Statistical View of Cincinnati, p. 28. 
 See ante, p. 184, note. 
 
Cincinnati 191 
 
 in 1 8 14, 4,000, in 181 5, 6,000; at the present time 
 the lowest estimation is 8,000, hving in 800 houses. 
 There are 6 places of worship; 2 presbyterian, 2 
 methodist, i baptist and i qiiaker ; no Roman Cath- 
 olic Chapel, though there are Catholics; a unitarian 
 has preached here, and they talk of getting a Chapel 
 built. 
 
 It is a Corporation town, governed by a Mayor, 
 and twelve councilmen. 
 
 It has a Court house and gaol, a public seminary 
 on Lancaster's plan, and a Theatre fallen into dis- 
 repute, and in a state of dilapidation. The Steam 
 Mill cost 130,000$. 
 
 M"". Greene's foundery is a flourishing establish- 
 ment. He has workmen equal to do any thing in 
 Machinery. 
 
 There are four Banks. They issue notes as low 
 as dollars. There are tickets in circulation of as 
 small value as 6^ Cents — about 4 pence. This is 
 the smallest division of money, and is valued about 
 as much as a halfpenny is in England. 
 
 There is a United States' Land Office here, and 
 M^ Jesse Embree has established a Land agency 
 office, at which emigrants may procure informa- 
 tion, that might otherwise cost them many hundred 
 miles travelling to obtain. 
 
 The houses of the principal streets are built of 
 brick, and are handsome without and convenient 
 within. The upper part of the Town is not yet 
 much built upon, and is chiefly encumbered by mean 
 paltry wooden houses; though there are some 
 
192 Ford ham' 5 Personal Narrative 
 
 dwellings with their proud porticos, that look too 
 aristocratic by half for the State of Ohio. Around 
 the town are scattered a few good and many indif- 
 ferent villas and ornamented Cottages; like, but 
 unequal to those near London. 
 
 The river, which is now rising, and open, dis- 
 plays a gay and busy scene. Boats and barges, 
 some of which are schooner-rigged, are taking in 
 or discharging cargoes. Flour is shipped here, 
 which you possibly may eat in London, and Eng- 
 lish goods block up the path along the shore. Some 
 of these boats are manned by Sailors, and their 
 cheerful shouts and yo-hoing make me forget I am 
 1,500 miles from the Ocean. 
 
 Of the manners of the Citizens of Cincinnati I 
 ought to say but little, for my acquaintance has 
 been confined to the Quakers. Servants are so dif- 
 ficult to be obtained that the wives and daughters 
 of the middle classes do nearly all the household 
 work themselves, and a negro, unless you hire him 
 by the month to clean your boots will charge you 
 each time 12^ Cents. This, however, is not the 
 case with the very rich, who live in plenty and even 
 splendour, that would excite the envy of an Eng- 
 lish Shopkeeper. There are several carriages and 
 some one-horse chaises, but Jersey waggons are 
 more common and more useful. 
 
 The western Americans are not so domestic as 
 the English. Business and politics engross the 
 thoughts of the men. They live in their Stores and 
 Counting houses, and associate with their wives 
 
Cincinnati 193 
 
 as little as may be. The latter are generally infe-^ 
 rior in information and talents of conversation to 
 English women of the same station in life. They 
 are good managers in their houses, but are fond of 
 dress, in which they have but little taste. The Ohio 
 women are pretty, but not interesting. We some- 
 times meet with one who is above the common 
 standard, but she is, ten to one, an Emigrant from 
 the East. 
 
 But, however, there is no standard of manners, 
 no classification of these people, who have come 
 perhaps from the Mountains of Vermont or the 
 barren sands of Nantucket, from Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut and from every State in the Union, 
 from the frozen regions of Canada, from every 
 Country in Europe. 
 
 There are a few white servants, chiefly inden- 
 tured girls, who are allowed indulgencies which 
 would astonish an English housekeeper. They are 
 treated rather as poor relations, or as children, than 
 as menials. Black servants will take Hberties that 
 are not granted. 
 
 There are a few Negroes here; perhaps 200 in 
 the whole town. More dissipated, vile, insolent 
 beings there cannot be. I have been on the point 
 of knocking my Shoeblack down twice. I changed 
 him; — and but little for the better. It will not do 
 to speak to a Negro as 3^ou must to a white man; 
 he assumes upon it immediately. Yet I know Ne- 
 groes who are most excellent servants. M*". J 
 
 has one — his story is worth relating. 
 
194 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Anthony was brought into Indiana by a man 
 named Hopkins, who became Sheriff, and went 
 with the Mihtia to Tippecanoe. He took Anthony 
 with him as a waggoner. In that fiercely fought 
 battle the Americans nearly yielded to the onset of 
 the Indians. Anthony, who was safe amidst the 
 baggage, rushed into the thickest of the fight, 
 snatched a rifle from a dying soldier, and fought by 
 the side of his Master. When Indiana became a 
 state, slavery was abolished and Anthony was free.^ 
 He said to his Master, "You bought me but a little 
 while ago for a great deal of money; you will lose 
 it, if I leave you now. I will indenture myself for 
 10 years." His offer was accepted by Hopkins, 
 who afterwards sold him as a slave for life to some 
 Orleans traders, who wanted to take him by force 
 down to Louisiana, where he would have been 
 worked, starved, and flogged into feebleness and 
 submission. Anthony, who is as strong as an Ath- 
 
 * The provision of the Ordinance of 1787 that there should be 
 " neither slavery nor involuntary servitude " in the Northwest 
 Territory was understood by the people of the Territory to mean 
 simply that free negroes could not legally be enslaved and that 
 slaves could not be brought in from outside sources. It was as- 
 sumed that the ordinance was not retroactive and did not affect the 
 status of slaves already held at the time of its promulgation; and this 
 assumption was proved well founded when the question was tested 
 subsequently in the courts The population of southern Indiana 
 and Illinois was largely of southern origin. It included many resi- 
 dents who were slave-holders in 1787 and many others who came 
 in after that date, bringing their slaves with them and holding them 
 on sufferance. An elaborate system of indented servitude also pre- 
 vailed, and it was not until the adoption of the constitution of the 
 state of Indiana in 1816 that slavery, or its practical equivalent, was 
 finally and absolutely abolished in that portion of the old Territory. 
 On the great struggle over slavery which went on in Indiana during 
 the period 1800-1812 see John D. Dillon, History of Indiana, chapter 
 xxxi, and Jacob P. Dunn, Indiana, chapter vi. 
 
Cincinnati 195 
 
 lete, broke from them and ran into Princeton, 
 
 where his part was taken by my friend M"". J , 
 
 who bought his time and treats him as a friend 
 rather than a servant. In three years he will be 
 free, and he talks of going to his father, who lives 
 among the Chickasaws, but I tell him I shall want 
 him. As I always pay him the respect due to his 
 virtues and almost heroic character, he is very 
 much attached to me. He is learning to read of 
 M*". Birkbeck's servant. 
 
 This man Anthony is as well made as any white. 
 His colour is deep black. There is a quickness and 
 cheerfulness about him, which makes him an ex- 
 cellent servant. 
 
 The whites here hold themselves above the 
 blacks, be they bondsmen or free. The blacks are 
 the Helots of this modern Sparta. 
 
 Workmen of every class are upon an equality 
 with every man. I am now surrounded by those of 
 M*". Green's Shops, whose address is equal to that 
 of many an Englishman who farms his thousand 
 acres; they expect civility and they generally re- 
 turn it. 
 
 The boatmen who used to be my aversion, are 
 not nearly so much so now. There are some in- 
 corrigible scoundrels among them; and their con- 
 versation and manners are only to be equalled in 
 the sinks of London ; but should you take a respect- 
 able young woman on board a boat, especially if it 
 be your own, you wnll not hear a word to offend 
 you. — But I would advise all travellers going alone 
 
196 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 down the river, to get one man at least that they 
 can depend upon, and to wear a dagger or a brace 
 of pistols; for there are no desperadoes more sav- 
 age in their anger than these men. Give them your 
 hand, — accost them with a bold air, — taste their 
 whisky, — and you win their hearts. But a Httle 
 too much reserve or haughtiness offends them in- 
 stantly, and draws upon you torrents of abuse, if 
 not a personal assault. They are a dauntless, hardy 
 set; thoughtless, and short lived from intemper- 
 ance. I must say for them, that, since I have un- 
 derstood their characters, I have never received a 
 saucy word from any of them. 
 
 I write in a desultory manner, which I hope you 
 will excuse; and I hope you will never imagine 
 things to be worse than I represent them. I give 
 the darker shade to every vice, the full, broad, out- 
 line to all I dislike in this Country. So pray do 
 not let your imagination dwell on the ills, which 
 follow the footsteps of man wherever he goes. 
 
 The family I am in are from Nantucket. In the 
 Pennsylvanian farmer's letter by Hector S'. John, 
 there is a pretty description of that little island, 
 and it is correct, I am told, in all respects, but one 
 in which he mentions the general use of opjum.^ 
 
 The Nantucketers are most like the good, old 
 fashioned English, of any Americans I have seen. 
 To me, now I am becoming an American, they seem 
 to be absolutely English. Perhaps there may be 
 
 ^ Two more recent descriptions of the island are R. H. Cook's 
 Historical Notes on the Island of Nantucket (Nantucket, 1871) 
 and William R. Bliss's Quaint Nantucket (Boston, 1896). 
 
Cincinnati I97 
 
 some differences, but they are not very obvious. I 
 am treated by this family with great kindness, as 
 much so as if I were a. Son of it. I should say that 
 part of the family is from New Jersey, who are 
 next akin to English. New Yorkers, perhaps, come 
 next. 
 
XIII 
 
 A record of temperatures — A hard winter — Life during the cold 
 weather — The cHmate and health — Reasons for lack of 
 longevity among the Westerners — A trip from Princeton to the 
 English Prairie — The hiring of laborers — Entering more land 
 
 — English manners to be preserved in Mr. Birkbeck's settlement 
 
 — Possibility of an Indian war — The Rappites of Harmony — 
 Their manners and character — Religious services. 
 
 English Prairie May 5. 1818. 
 
 I SHALL attend to your desire to have a meteoro- 
 logical diary kept : it is the only way of obtaining a 
 correct knowledge of the temperature of the cli- 
 mate. 
 
 M"". B. has noted in his almanack the variations 
 of the Thermometer till he left Princeton 3 weeks 
 ago. — I will give you now from memory a sketch 
 of the changes since July 181 7. 
 
 July. Therm, at noon 75°. to 85°. — at 
 
 night, perhaps, 50°. to 55°. — Thun- 
 derstorm once in 10 days — no fogs 
 or hazy weather. 
 
 August. 75°. to 90°. Thunderstorms, frequent 
 — clear weather and warm nights. 
 
 Sepf. 70°. to 85°. Thunderstorms and hard 
 
 rain two or three days, nights warm. 
 
 October. 40°. to 80°. Cold winds and rains the 
 latter part of the month. 
 
English Prairie 
 
 199 
 
 November. 
 
 December. 
 
 January. 
 
 February. 
 
 March. 
 
 April. 
 May. 5*^ 
 
 40°. to 70°. A few days of hazy 
 weather, succeeded by the Indian 
 Summer, during which the sky was 
 always obscured as if by smoke. The 
 weather warm and pleasant. The sun 
 looked red, and the clouds yellowish. 
 This was succeeded by rain and after 
 by cool weather — It was still pleasant 
 sleeping in the woods. 
 Therm: varied a good deal. Some- 
 times we sat out of doors in the even- 
 ing. The month closed with hard 
 frosts, which broke up after 10 days 
 duration — say for this month — 
 I'*, week 40°. to 55°. at noon. 
 
 2'- 35°. to 50°. 
 
 Z^- at night 8°. below o. at noon 
 
 10° and 15°. above. 
 
 4*^ The frost broke up with cold 
 
 rain. 
 Pleasant weather; generally 50°. at 
 noon. 
 
 Freezing hard and thawing again. 
 Weather changing every week. 
 Cold winds, — quite English March 
 weather. 
 
 English April weather. 
 Trees are putting forth leaves, grass 
 beginning to grow, and woods gay 
 with blossoms. 
 
200 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The oldest Indian traders say that there has been 
 more rain, and that it has been altogether severer, 
 this winter, than they have known for thirty years. 
 Some very old men say at the first settling of S*. 
 Vincennes 60 years ago, there were two or three 
 such winters. Much credit cannot be given to such 
 long recollections. The waters of the Wabash this 
 winter rose to some very old water marks, which 
 evidently had not been touched for many years. 
 
 When the Thermometer is 10°. below Zero, it is 
 impossible to warm a boarded frame house. A 
 good log or plastered one may be made warm. Men 
 never think of working in this weather, but every 
 body crowds round the tavern fires to talk politics. 
 The bear hunters, however, choose this weather, 
 and go out g or 10 days without returning home. 
 They make blanket tents, open towards the fire, 
 which is an oblong pyramid of logs 10 feet by 3 or 
 4 at the base. 
 
 The coldest weather is cheerful : fogs are almost 
 unknown, except on large bodies of water. On the 
 Ohio I have known it so dark at 10 a. m. that I 
 could not see 30 yards. 
 
 This spring is later than any ever remembered. 
 There is, upon the whole, a superiority in the Cli- 
 mate of the western Country to that of England; 
 though not so great as I at first imagined, or as 
 you would expect from the latitude. Consumptions 
 are almost unknown here. Bilious fevers are rather 
 prevalent, but not dangerous when early attended 
 to. Women have not such good health as the men 
 
English Prairie 201 
 
 have; but that is to be attributed to their mode of 
 Hfe, — being always in the house, usually without 
 shoes and stockings, and roasting themselves over 
 large fires. 
 
 People are not so long-lived here as in England, 
 and they look old sooner. This I think may be 
 justly attributed to 
 
 i^\ The universal use of spirituous liquors. 
 
 2diy 'pj^g disregard of personal comfort and 
 cleanliness, exposure to bad air near swamps &c, 
 and want of good Clothing. 
 
 ^diy -pj^g great stimulus and excitement of the 
 mental passions, which adventurers and first set- 
 tlers are, by their situation, subject to. 
 
 ^thiy (Perhaps) violent religious enthusiasm. 
 
 5*'''^. In some instances, very early marriages. 
 
 I find it no easy task to write descriptions of man- 
 ners and opinions. If individual pictures only be 
 drawn, the inferences must be in part erroneous; 
 and sketches of a more comprehensive nature are 
 either loose and incorrect, or tame and unreadable. 
 
 Harmonie on the W abash — May 6. 
 
 Robert W arrived at Princeton on Sunday, 
 
 while I was taking a walk in the woods with M*". 
 
 S . As we returned into the town, a woman 
 
 poked her head out of a hole, called a window, in 
 the side of a log cabin, and screamed out "An Eng- 
 lishman is come." 
 
 I ran home, and found whole packets of letters. 
 You do not know what it is to have letters from a 
 
 13 
 
202 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 long left native land. — I did not sleep that night. 
 
 The next morning Robert and I started for the 
 Prairie. I took him the shortest road, or rather 
 through Woods and Swamps where there w^as no 
 road at all. He had been wearied by his journey 
 and discouraged. I talked, laughed, galloped and 
 splashed along, to his great astonishment, who 
 could not imagine that a civilized Englishman could 
 like such a dismal Country. 
 
 We came to the Wabash: Even ''the handsome 
 river," with its silver waves, excited in the Lon- 
 doner no admiration. At Coffee Settlement^ there 
 w^as daylight, but no inhabitants but Canadian 
 French and Creoles. - 
 
 Eight miles more of woods and wet prairies 
 
 brought us to Bonpas, and my friends the W 's, 
 
 fine specimens of backwoodsmen. Their hospi- 
 table, not to say, courteous manners, frank and in- 
 trepid look, and the pleasure they expressed at see- 
 ing me, pleased Robert : here he felt a little better. 
 
 We then travelled through some rough, brushy 
 woods, broken by ravines ; then through part of the 
 Long Prairie and a narrow strip of wood ; and the 
 English Prairie, with all its swelling hills, mean- 
 dering brooks, and dark surrounding forests, 
 opened at once upon our sight. A strong North- 
 
 ' Coffee Creek is a little stream flowing into the Wabash six 
 miles below Mount Carmel, in Wabash County, Illinois. The set- 
 tlement lo which Fordham refers was on this creek, eight miles 
 from Bonpas. See p. ii8, note 2. — Editor. 
 
 This word is pronounced in the back woods " saitelmeant." 
 
 — Fordham. 
 
 2 Half or quarter bred Indians. — Fx)rdham. 
 
English Prairie 203 
 
 westerly wind swept off the clouds over the South- 
 ern ridges, and the sun shone forth in the clear sky 
 of a Southern climate, throwing alternate light and 
 shade on the wood-clothed hills, which rise above 
 each other in long succession till they are lost in the 
 blue horizon. Robert exclaimed, "This is grand!" 
 and I was shaking hands with him to welcome him 
 to our territory, when four deer springing from a 
 thicket startled our horses; and his ran away with 
 him across the Prairie. We reached the settlement 
 at sun down; and that night Robert shared my 
 blanket on the floor of a new Cabin. 
 
 Yesterday I left the English Prairie with , 
 
 and came here to engage hands to take a keel boat 
 to Shawnee. I must go then to enter land, and 
 shall return immediately on horseback to superin- 
 tend the building of houses to receive 's and 
 
 my people. Mine will be French Canadians. 
 
 I have hired one man, his wife and three boys, 
 great and small, for I5v$ per month, and I am to 
 find them food. The woman is to cook and wash 
 
 for me. DuG has offered me his eldest son, 15 
 
 years old, a very nice boy, on trial. I have sent to 
 Vincennes for 3 more men ; besides which I want to 
 contract with Americans to build four houses, and 
 to make two miles of fence railing, and one mile 
 of ditching. 
 
 I have surveyed the land next behind mine, and 
 only one quarter section is good. There are some 
 hills of thin timber, such as will lie unoccupied, per- 
 haps five or six years. But I think I can find some 
 
204 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 good land for you near the Brushy Prairie. The 
 EngHsh Prairie is entirely taken up by our party, 
 except 3 quarter sections at the bottom, which I 
 have no doubt will be bought by some of us. 
 
 I shall enter one quarter more north of my own, 
 v/hich will make my farm 480 acres, of which 200 
 acres will be good prairie, and the remaining 280 
 acres, white oak, post oak, shell-bark hickory and 
 walnut land, that is pretty good second rate land, 
 such as will grow fine wheat crops, and about 50 
 bushels of Maize per acre. The timber is very 
 thrifty, apparently of about 40 or 50 years growth. 
 
 I will not enter inferior land for you for the 
 sake of proximity. The country is filling up fast; 
 so it will answer better to buy good land further 
 oflf. 
 
 I am obliged to you for remembering me. I can 
 assure you, I often think of you in this land of dirt, 
 bad cooking, and discomfort of every kind. 
 
 But I am not, thanks to the very nice family I am 
 with, either discouraged, or yet quite a hottentot. I 
 still prefer sweet butter to grease, milk fresh from 
 the cow to sour and rancid swill; although, I like 
 corn or hoe cakes, hominy (that is boiled corn) and 
 mush (hasty pudding made of Indian meal) and 
 stewed pumpkins very well. I change my shirt, 
 when it is convenient, twice a week, and sometimes 
 take my clothes off when I go to bed. My hands, 
 though rougher by far, are not quite so dark as 
 an Indian's; and moreover I am grown very stout. 
 
English Prairie 205 
 
 M*". Birkbeck does not mean to introduce more 
 American customs in our Colony than will be neces- 
 sary. English ideas and manners will be preserved 
 as much as possible ; and already we begin to be re- 
 spected. Some of the wildest fellows want to re- 
 move, but other respectable men wish to get near 
 us. So in many respects the desert will soon begin 
 to smile. 
 
 When we first came out there was no population 
 to withstand an incursion of Indians, if a war 
 had been excited by the violent and cruel hunters. 
 Our houses were planned to be easily converted into 
 forts, and bastions erected at the angles. These pre- 
 cautions will be unnecessary now; though M^ B., 
 who never pronounces the word fear, and Judge H., 
 a cidevant Soldier, both thought them to be pru- 
 dential measures a few months ago. 
 
 However, should a war break out on our fron- 
 tiers, I hope there is not nor will be, a young Eng- 
 lishman among us, who would hesitate to turn out 
 with his gun and blanket. There is much less 
 Indian Territory in Illinois than in Indiana. 
 
 I am at Harmonic,^ where I am now well ac- 
 
 ' The town of Harmony, properly New Harmony, in Posey Coun- 
 ty, Indiana, was established in 1815 by a company of Germans under 
 the leadership of George Rapp. The settlement, which was one of 
 the most unique in the history of the West, was the ultimate out- 
 growth of a migration from the German state of Wiirttemberg a 
 decade earlier. In Wiirttemberg at the beginning of the century 
 the Lutheran creed was being imposed relentlessly upon all the 
 inhabitants and it was felt by many that the principles of religion 
 were being employed by the government merely as convenient tools 
 of despotism. One man of influence holding this opinion was 
 George Rapp (1757-1847) who proceeded to get together at Iptingen 
 a group of persons of similar mind and to form them into a society 
 to live after what he conceived to be the ideal plan of the New 
 
2o6 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 qiiainted both with the leaders Mess''^ Rapp Sen^ 
 and Jun*". and with the people. I am treated here 
 with great kindness. 
 
 Their monastic way of life is, which I once 
 doubted, the result of religious conviction. I have 
 talked with some of them on their religious Princi- 
 ples. The Tavern is conducted in the most orderly 
 and cleanly manner that a tavern can be in Amer- 
 ica, where men spit every where, and, almost on 
 every thing. Now they know my habits are Euro- 
 pean, they put me in a clean bed, give me clean 
 towels, and pay me more respect than they do any 
 American. 
 
 Testament. The speedy incurring of fines and imprisonment at the 
 hands of the authorities prompted Rapp and his associates to decide 
 to emigrate to the United States. In 1803 Rapp and a few com- 
 panions came out as agents of the society to select a site for the 
 future settlement. The location chosen was on Conequenessing 
 Creek, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, about thirty miles north- 
 west of Pittsburg. In 1804 the society embarked at Amsterdam and 
 in the following year a town was laid out on the proposed site and 
 given the name Harmony. Within twelve months the colony had 
 come to comprise ninety families. A tract of nine thousand acres was 
 bought, mills and factories were erected, and the thrift and frugality 
 of the settlers soon brought material prosperity. In 181 1 the society 
 had eight hundred members. In the course of a few years the region 
 around Harmony became so thickly settled that land rose to a high 
 value and the Germans saw an opportunity to increase their capital 
 by selling their original tract and moving to another farther 
 West. In 1813 Rapp purchased for the use of his colony thirty 
 thousand acres in the south-western corner of Indiana and there, 
 two years later, the town of New Harmony was laid out. In 1824 
 this location was purchased in turn by George Flower for Robert 
 Owen, of New Lanark, Scotland, who desired to use it in experi- 
 menting with his communistic projects. The year following Rapp 
 led his colony back to Pennsylvania and settled it in the new town 
 of Economy, in Beaver County, seventeen miles northwest of Pitts- 
 burg. After some years of interesting but on the whole not en- 
 couraging efforts at New Harmony, Owen gave up his enterprise 
 and returned to Scotland. Because of its location and its unique 
 character the New Harmony settlement, especially under Rapp's 
 occupancy, was visited by virtually every traveller who came at all 
 near it and as a consequence a number of valuable descriptions were 
 
English Prairie 207 
 
 Their cooking-, their dress, is exactly the same 
 as it was on the banks of the Rhine. Their lan- 
 guage is German. They are orderly, civil people, 
 and their town is already very neat. The houses, 
 log-built, are placed at regular distances, and are 
 each surrounded by a neat kitchen and flower gar- 
 den, paled in. The footpath is divided from the 
 road by rows of lombardy poplars. M"". Rapp's 
 house is a handsome brick building, by far the 
 best in Indiana. 
 
 The Harmonists have, to each family a cov/, 
 which comes to its owner's gate every morning and 
 evening. In the woods they are kept by herdsmen. 
 They have public ovens, public stores, and every 
 thing in common. They brew beer and make wine: 
 the latter is kept for the sick and to sell. They 
 all dress alike: — M"". Rapp as the meanest labour- 
 er; — except when he goes out of town. 
 
 They are great musicians, and many of them 
 study music as a Science. Once a week they have 
 a concert at M"". Rapp's, to which I am invited. 
 
 Their church is a neat wooden building, painted 
 white. It has a tower, a bell, and a clock. The 
 
 left on record, such as that which Fordham here gives. Other con- 
 temporary accounts are Birkbeck, Notes, pp. 135-142; Hulme, 
 Journal (Early Western Travels, x, pp. 53-61) ; Bradbury, Travels 
 (Early Western Travels, v, pp. 314-316) ; Woods. Tivo Years' 
 Residence (Early Western Travels, x. pp. 312-315) ; Welby, 
 Visit to North America (Early Western Travels, xii, p. 260, ff.) ; 
 and Faux. Memorable Days (Early Western Travels, xi, p. 248, 
 ff.). George B. Lockwood's The Neze/ Harmony Communities 
 (Marion, Indiana, 1902) is the best general history of the Rapp 
 settlement, though Hinds, American Communities (Chicago, 1902) 
 contains a fair account. For the history of the Rappites themselves 
 Sachse's German Sectarians of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1900) 
 is useful. 
 
2o8 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 men sit at one end of the church and the women at 
 the other ; and M^ Rapp sits while he preaches in a 
 chair placed on a stage, about one yard high, with 
 a table before him. When I heard him one week 
 day evening, he wore a linsey woolsey coat and a 
 blue worsted night cap. In praying the Harmon- 
 ists do not rise up nor kneel down, but bend their 
 bodies forward, almost to their knees. Their sing- 
 ing is very good. 
 
 The country people hate the Harmonists very 
 much, because they permit no drunkenness in their 
 taverns. 
 
 When I make severe remarks on the Americans, 
 you must understand I always except a consider- 
 able number; some of whom would be ornaments 
 
 to any Country. Judge H , S , and B • 
 
 (though quite a youth) are of this number. . . . 
 
XIV 
 
 Rise of land values — The question of admitting slavery — Lack of 
 free laborers — Wages and expenses of laborers — Land for 
 every immigrant — Mr. Birkbeck's plan for the settlement of 
 his English laborers — Difficulties of establishing a settlement 
 — Threatened incursion of Indians — Kentucky hospitality — 
 Mode of life of the Kentuckians. 
 
 Princeton June 20. 18 18. 
 Kentuckian Speculators are very busy in every 
 direction around us, and I expect that land on the 
 Wabash, the Ohio, the Illinois, and the Mississippi, 
 will be very shortly worth from 5$ to 30$ per acre. 
 Perhaps in two or three years ; and as far inland as 
 the beneficial effects of navigation can be felt. The 
 rise of the value of land will be modified by the cir- 
 cumstances of local situation, quantity and quality 
 of timber, water, and, — more than all, — by the de- 
 cision of the Convention, now about to be elected, 
 upon the grand question of Slavery.^ If Slavery 
 be admitted, it is the opinion of many that well- 
 
 ^ The constitution framed by the convention of 1818 and subse- 
 quently adopted contained a provision (Art. VI, §1) which was 
 interpreted as prohibiting the further introduction of slaves into the 
 new state but not as liberating those already held there or abolish- 
 ing slavery as an institution. These latter ends were not achieved 
 until the second constitution was adopted in 1848. The census of 
 1820 showed that Illinois contained 917 slaves, and that of 1830, 
 746. The years 1822-1825 were marked by a bitter struggle between 
 the pro-slavo and free-state elements, resulting from an attempt to 
 change the constitution so that it would give positive rather than 
 mere negative protection to slavery. The leader of the free-state 
 party was Edward Coles, who had been elected governor of the 
 commonwealth in August, 1822. Coles was a Virginian and had 
 been a slave-holder, but he was strongly opposed to the conversion 
 of nominally free into avowedly slave soil. In the fight which he 
 waged with the pro-slave party after his election his most active 
 supoorters were the inhabitants of the English Settlement in Ed- 
 wards County, notably Morris Birkbeck, George and Richard Flower, 
 
2IO Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 chosen land will double in value in one day ; and no 
 good and well-situated land will be worth less than 
 io$ per acre. In fact, some land is worth io$ per 
 acre at this moment, and a section at the mouth of 
 Bon pas is valued by the owner at 15$ per acre. I 
 believe M*". B. will purchase it. 
 
 I would not have upon my conscience the moral 
 guilt of extending Slavery over countries now free 
 from it, for the whole North Western Territory. 
 But, if it should take place, I do not see why I 
 should not make use of it. If I do not have serv- 
 ants I cannot farm ; and there are no free labourers 
 here, except a few so worthless, and yet so haughty, 
 that an English Gentleman can do nothing with 
 them. 
 
 A man used to work will earn in one day what 
 will suffice for the simple wants of a 'Backwoods- 
 man a whole week. If he be sober and industrious, 
 in two years he can enter a quarter section of land, 
 buy a horse, a plough, and tools. The lowest price 
 for labour now is 13$ per month with board and 
 
 and Gilbert Pell ; and that the balance was finally turned in favor of 
 freedom and against slavery was due in no small measure to the 
 efforts of these men. Birkbeck, in fact, was Coles's main reliance 
 in the southern, pro-slave section of the state. In October, 1824, 
 when David Blackwell, Secretary of State, resigned his office, Coles 
 gave the place to Birkbeck in recognition of his services and his fit- 
 ness for it. The nomination required confirmation by the Senate, 
 however, and that body, having a pro-slave majority, voted on Jan- 
 uary 15, 1825, to reject the appointee. Birkbeck was thus forced to 
 retire after having served three months. On the slavery struggle 
 of this period see William H. Brown, An Historical Sketch of the 
 Early Movement in Illinois for the Legalization of Slavery (Chicago, 
 1865) ; Elihu B. Washburne, Sketch of Edzuard Coles, second gov- 
 ernor of Illinois, and of the Slavery Struggle of 182S-4 (Chicago, 
 1882) ; and George Flower, History of the English Settlement in Ed- 
 wards County, Illinois (Chicago, 1882). 
 
Industrial Conditions 211 
 
 lodging. I will give two years net proceeds in fig- 
 ures. 
 
 $ $ 
 
 12 months at 13$ . . . 156$ Clothing for two years — 
 
 12 months at 13 ... 156 say 100 
 
 %2)\2 One quarter of land ... 80 
 One horse and harness and 
 
 plough 100 
 
 Axe grubbing hoe &c . . 10 
 
 Gun and powder &c . . . 15 
 
 "$305 
 
 After putting in his crop of maize, he can sup- 
 ply himself with meat and some money by hunting, 
 or he can earn $i per day in splitting rails for his 
 neighbours. Many men begin as independent 
 farmers with half the above mentioned sum, but 
 they are thorough Backwoodsmen. 
 
 Now, is it not evident that while land can be 
 bought, no matter how far from navigable rivers, 
 at $2 per acre, and when there are tracts they may 
 ''squat'' upon for nothing, that labour will be for 
 many years limited in price only by the ability of 
 those who want it, to pay for it. It is indeed the 
 only expence ; but is so overwhelming that I would 
 rather farm in old England with a capital of 2 or 
 300o£ than on the North West of the Ohio. If we 
 consider the immense territory to the North West 
 of us, and the roving spirit of the Americans, we 
 may wonder that any work can be hired. The truth 
 is, none are to be hired but Emigrants from the 
 Eastern States, who intend to be land owners in 
 one, two, or three years. And these are few in num- 
 ber : for the steady and prudent earn the money at 
 home and bring it with them. — 
 
212 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 M"". Birkbeck's object is to settle his old servants 
 around him, and, while they earn money to enable 
 them to be independent farmers, he will get his 
 Estate greatly improved. It will be raised in value 
 by the industrious population around improving the 
 land he sells. Thus his speculation will succeed; 
 and he will be gratified by his being looked up to 
 as the chief of the Colony: but for immediate, or 
 even distant, profit in money, he does not expect. 
 His English labourers have already caught the de- 
 sire to be land owners, but they rely on his promise 
 to let them have land when they can pay for it at 
 2$ per acre. They feel gratified for this generosity, 
 which is in fact a wise and liberal policy. 
 
 Our colony now contains between 40 and 50 per- 
 sons, besides American settlers in the neighbour- 
 hood. M^ B. with great difficulty gets Cabins 
 erected by the Backwoodsmen; and not nearly fast 
 enough for the demand. His own people finish 
 them, make fences &c. I cannot convey to you any 
 idea of the difficulties one meets with at every step 
 in founding a colony ; especially when food is to be 
 carried on horses, or a waggon, and a road to be 
 made 12 miles to a river, where it is to be unloaded 
 from boats on to land the property of a stranger, 
 and which is unsettled. Then every article must be 
 slightly covered in a Camp, and guarded, or ex- 
 posed to the cupidity of the boatmen or hunters. 
 Horses are to be broken in to work together ; wag- 
 gons, carts, and ploughs to be made, or brought sev- 
 eral days journey. Even when they are ordered, 
 
Industrial Conditions 213 
 
 there is no certainty of the order being executed: 
 for the Smith has no iron ; you buy it, then he has 
 no coal. The Wheelwright is gone a hunting, or 
 is drunk, or attending a lawsuit. The Sadler and 
 collar maker will sell the articles you have ordered 
 to the first comer. — You are sure of nothing; not 
 even when you go for it yourself; except at Har- 
 monic where business is done, when they have time, 
 with great regularity. 
 
 M*". Birkbeck has fifty acres fenced. He has sunk 
 two wells 20 or 30 feet, and found coal instead of 
 water. He must try elsewhere. I Have one cabin 
 covered in, and one house of hewn logs nearly done 
 for . There is a small spring near his house. 
 
 Some of M*". Birkbeck's men are sick. I have all 
 mine, except a frenchman, engaged by the job ; and 
 they are all well. I expect an additional force from 
 Harmonic of 3 men and 2 women, just arrived from 
 Switzerland. They are good looking people, and 
 one speaks a little french.^ . . . 
 
 A message from the prairie informs me, that 8 
 backwoodsmen are gone to drive off some Indians 
 from a creek near my line. They have killed 20 
 does in one day. If the Indians resist they will be 
 murdered. 
 
 'The most notable settlement of Swiss people in the West was 
 that at Vevay, Indiana. In 1802 John James Du Four obtained from 
 Congress a grant of two thousand five hundred acres of land on 
 the Ohio for the purpose of establishing an experimental colony for 
 the culture of the vine. A considerable number of settlers were 
 brought over from the Swiss district of Vevay, and in 1813 the Indi- 
 ana town of Vevay, in Switzerland County, was laid out. Descend- 
 ants of these original settlers own most of the land about the town 
 today. William Tell Harris, in 1817, gives a good characterization 
 of the settlement {Remarks, pp. 126-127). 
 
214 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 I have been here two days since my return from 
 Kentucky, ill from riding in the sun. But I shall 
 go to the Prairie tomorrow or Robert W. will be 
 uneasy. He lives in my cabin and takes care of 
 the provisions and stores. I shall put it into a de- 
 fensible state, if any mischief has been done; but I 
 shall be under no personal apprehensions; for be- 
 sides being known to a great many Indians, I can 
 bring down deer, birds and squirrels at every shot 
 with my rifle. I have done harm to none, and I 
 have not the least fear that any will do harm to 
 me. 
 
 In my late visit to Kentucky I have become ac- 
 quainted with several respectable families, M*". A. 
 received us with great kindness and hospitality. I 
 will describe our reception, and it will answer for 
 all the rest of our visits. We alighted at the Inn at 
 
 Henderson^ and sent for M^ B . M*". A, came 
 
 with him and took us to his house, a neatly fur- 
 nished cabin-built cottage. We then sent for our 
 
 horses. M'"^ A ordered a second dinner. 
 
 Toddy, ice and fruit were handed about. A foot- 
 man shewed me to my room, and then acted as valet 
 de chambre. 
 
 ' Henderson, as well as the county in which the town is situated, 
 took its name from Colonel Richard Henderson, a Virginian who 
 had an important part in the early settlement of Kentucky. It was 
 also known as Red Banks, and sometimes as Hendersonville. 
 Audubon, the famous naturalist, having failed as a merchant in 
 Louisville, took up his residence at Henderson in 1812, though he 
 did not become known to the outside world until fourteen or fifteen 
 j'ears later. Woods {Two Years' Residence) records that in 1820 
 the town contained about a hundred dwellings, together with a 
 court-house, a jail, a steam mill, and several tobacco warehouses 
 (Early Western Travels, x, p. 252). 
 
Industrial Conditions 215 
 
 My dirty shirt, cravat, &c, was taken possession 
 of by the laundress. At dinner, every thing in pro- 
 fusion ; — but no imported luxuries. Ice was placed 
 on the butter and on the water and in the water 
 jug. Whisky and Toddy instead of Wine. Supper 
 — much the same, with the addition of tea and cof- 
 fee, — the only imported luxuries in the house; M"". 
 A.'s garden and icehouse furnished all the rest. My 
 bed was delightfully adapted for a warm climate; 
 sheets like gauze, and gauze mosquito curtains 
 around it. 
 
 We visited Judge T , M^ H , M^ A s 
 
 and Gen. H , members of Congress. Not one of 
 
 these gentlemen live in so good a house as that of 
 
 our baker at in England. Gen, H has 
 
 160 negroes, who live in cottages on the skirts of 
 the farm of 500 acres, which is cut out of immense 
 and dark forests. In the centre of this clearing 
 are the old rotten cabins which are occupied by the 
 General and his genteelly dressed daughters ; to each 
 of whom he gives 10 negroes and a farm, for a 
 marriage portion. 
 
 Many gentlemen live just as well as the General, 
 who have only 70 or 80 acres of productive land. 
 
 The Kentuckians are so hospitable that they will 
 stop you on the road, and oblige you to go to their 
 houses, if they have ever seen you in respectable 
 society. 
 
 This has happened to me, and I have not been 
 suffered to pursue my journey till I had promised 
 to call again and sleep. 
 
2l6 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Though the houses near Henderson are bad, there 
 are good gardens and icehouses; and cleanHness, 
 which strongly contrasts with the dirty Ohio houses, 
 and the Indiana and Ilhnois pigsties, in which men 
 women and children wallow in promiscuous filth. 
 But the Kentuckians have servants; and whatever 
 may be the future consequences of Slavery, the 
 present effects are in these respects most agreeable 
 and beneficial. A Kentuckian farmer has the man- 
 ners of a gentleman; he is more or less refined ac- 
 cording to his education, but there is generally a 
 grave, severe, dignity of deportment in the men of 
 middle age, which prepossesses, and commands re- 
 spect. . . . 
 
 I thought I was Mosquito proof last year ; but in 
 sleeping at the mouth of the Bon pas 3 weeks ago, 
 I was terribly bitten. I have been exposed to their 
 attacks once since, and my body is covered with 
 swellings, which itch intolerably. After the skin 
 is once inoculated and saturated with the poison 
 of these insects, their bites have but little ef- 
 fect. . . . 
 
 I am not at present very well. The weather is 
 very hot. — Therm: 90°. — the sky clear: — if a 
 cloud passes once a week, a thunder gust drives it 
 off. We have had a slight shock of an Earthquake. 
 
 A Prussian Baron B , who was five years 
 
 Minister at the Court of Louis 15, is coming to 
 visit me. 
 
XV 
 
 Mr. Birkbeck's book — A journal of ten days — A fourth of July 
 celebration — The coming struggle over slavery in Illinois — 
 Acts of Congress regarding Illinois — A projected trip up the 
 Red River — Character of the backwoodsman — High regard 
 for Englishmen — The life of the hunters on the Wabash — 
 The hunters on the Missouri — Men needed to develop the 
 wilderness. 
 
 Princeton July &^. 1818. 
 You have read M"". Birkbeck's book/ — It is correct 
 as far as it goes; but it is the sketch of a traveller, 
 who tells the truth when he finds it. But, Truth, 
 grotto loving Goddess, is not often to be seen, ex- 
 cept by glimpses, by a Traveller. M"". B. could now 
 write a better book if he would; but, in describing 
 this country, all he would say of the manners of the 
 people, would be tinctured by his preconceived no- 
 tions. Sketches in general have hitherto been too 
 sunny. 
 
 I will give you my journal of the last ten days. 
 
 June 26*^\ — Went with M"". R , just arrived 
 
 from England, to our settlement. Before we left 
 Princeton filled our pockets with biscuits, and car- 
 ried two sacks of corn (maize) for our horses. At 
 
 Coffee Island Swamp M*". R was astonished 
 
 that I left the road and all visible track, to go 
 through a part that was not so deep a bog. He of- 
 fered me his compass, which I, a little vain of my 
 hunting instincts, declined using. — We came out 2 
 miles from the place we entered exactly where the 
 road passes between the two ponds. 
 
 * See p. 176, note. 
 
 14 
 
2i8 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 2f\ Hunting land with M'. R . Did not 
 
 find any that quite pleased us. Crossed the Pianke- 
 shaw Prairie at noon — Sun — burning hot. 
 
 Reached IVF. Q 's Cabin just at dinner time 
 
 — it is floored and carpetted. It is made of Hickory 
 logs, and is ornamented with large mirrors in 
 gilded frames, a handsome four post bedstead &c. 
 It looked like a fairy bower in the wilderness. 
 
 28^^\ Started alone at daybreak from my own 
 
 humble cabin and went to B of Burke's prairie.^ 
 
 Taking my departure from thence I plunged into 
 the trackless woods, having my surveying compass 
 
 and maps with me. Ran the lines through 's 
 
 Prairie; and noted some fine land to be bought 
 for him. Returned at night weary and hungry to 
 Burke's Cabin ; where I found nothing but a hearty 
 welcome to corn cake and some sweet milk, which 
 
 M". B said she had kept szveet because I liked 
 
 it so, better than sour. 
 
 2p'''. B accompanied me to the Banks of 
 
 the Little Wabash. He went fishing while I swam 
 across the river. Not liking the growth of timber 
 there, I returned, and he took me a few miles up the 
 stream, to a rich bottom, where I took notes of 480 
 
 acres of land to be entered for my uncle K . 
 
 B shewed me this day how to entice does by 
 
 bleating. But though he could bring the beautiful 
 
 ' Properly, Birks's Prairie. This prairie was a long, narrow belt 
 comprising about four thousand acres of excellent land and situated 
 three miles west of the English Prairie. It took its name from its 
 earliest resident, Jeremiah Birks, a Kentuckian who, after the in- 
 flux of English settlers in the vicinity, moved on across the Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
Journal at Princeton 219 
 
 affectionate looking creatures within twenty steps, 
 and leveled his unerring rifle several times, he 
 would not shoot one. Yet there was no meat in 
 his cabin and we lived this day on squirrels. We 
 saw fresh signs of Bears in many places, but could 
 not put one up. Chased a wolf half a mile without 
 success. Returned well pleased with my day's work. 
 
 July 2^. Went to Princeton (40 miles) for let- 
 ters. Met Mess". and , English visitors 
 
 to our Prairie. -a- 
 
 July 4^^. Anniversary of independance. Last 
 night I assisted in raising the flag of liberty in the 
 public square, which this morning waved proudly 
 over the group of young citizens assembled there 
 to celebrate the day with festal games. The young 
 men of the more respectable class gave a ball to 
 all the damsels of the village and the vicinity. It 
 commenced at three o'clock. 
 
 Some few of the girls were really handsome, and 
 all were well dressed and appeared to be very happy. 
 English country dances, or sets as they are called 
 were attempted without success. In reels and cotil- 
 lions they were quite at home. 
 
 In this land of equality it is very diflicult to keep 
 improper persons out of a public or even a private 
 party. This evening some of the young men armed 
 themselves with Dirks (poignards worn under the 
 clothes) to resist the intrusion of the Militia, as the 
 vulgar are contemptuously called. Unluckily one of 
 our party was electioneering, and treated some hunt- 
 ers in the bar room with rum. 
 
220 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 We supped in the open air at 7, and afterwards 
 continued the dance till ten. After supper several 
 attempts were made by some shabby looking fel- 
 lows to come in, but they were prevented by the 
 bar-keeper. The dancers kept it up most indefati- 
 gably, in spite of heat almost equal to that of the 
 West Indies. In going away some of the gentle- 
 men were insulted by the rabble, but the rumour 
 that they were armed with dirks and pistols pre- 
 vented serious mischief. In the night a large win- 
 dow was smashed to pieces, and the frame driven 
 into the house. 
 
 - The female part of the Company were all well 
 dressed, but their birth and education as different as 
 possible. The daughter of a proud and poor Vir- 
 ginian stood next the heiress of a bricklayer's for- 
 tune : An English adventurer danced with the wife 
 of a member of the legislature; the maker of 
 laws with the daughter of a lawless hunter: and a 
 major of militia led out the only female servant in 
 the inn, and who was obliged to leave the party to 
 help, not her mistress but the tavern-keeper's wife, 
 to set out the supper table. 
 •■ July 5"'. This day being Sunday was spent by 
 the young men in visiting their mistresses and talk- 
 ing politics. 
 
 I am going tomorrow across the Wabash, and, 
 probably, the next day I shall cross the Little Wa- 
 bash to "hunt land." 
 
 Today the people of the Illinois meet to choose 
 members of a convention to frame a constitution. 
 
Journal at Princeton 221 
 
 There will be a grand struggle between those who 
 are for, and those who are against Slavery. Num- 
 bers are nearly balanced ; but the advocates of Slave- 
 holding gain strength daily. 
 
 Congress has granted to the people of the Illi- 
 nois power to form a constitution, although there 
 are but 35,000 inhabitants scattered over a tract 
 400 miles long and 200 miles wide. Congress has 
 enlarged the limits of the state northwardly, so as 
 to embrace 60 miles of the shore on the western 
 side of Lake Michigan, and has given up the advan- 
 tages to be drawn from its Salt works, which are 
 the best in the United States. With these conces- 
 sions it has forbidden Slavery, according to its Or- 
 dinance for the Government of the North Western 
 Territory. But the people here are utterly regard- 
 less of ordinances, and will take the subject into 
 their own hands, and say they will make a treaty 
 with Congress as an independent State. 
 
 Liberty is the watchword of the popular or dem- 
 ocratic party, and in their vocabulary it means any 
 thing and ever}^ thing. It has no limits but the 
 weakness of man, no boundary but that of his de- 
 sires. To right oneself by violence, to oppose force 
 to force, is reckoned a virtue here; and woe to the 
 man who is suspected of cowardice. 
 
 If particular circumstances had not happened I 
 should probably have gone up the Natchitoches or 
 Red River on a trading expedition to the Osage 
 Nation.^ An honest little doctor of Princeton was 
 
 * Thomas Nuttall, during the course of his travels in the Arkan- 
 
222 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 out last winter 600 miles up the Red River, and 
 made a profitable trip of it. He likes the Country 
 so well that he is going to take his young wife and 
 infant, l;iis father in law, and his wife's brothers 
 and sister, with him, to settle on that remote fron- 
 tier, 300 miles above the town of Natchitoches. I 
 had almost engaged to go with an expert hunter 
 and Indian trader, a second Drewyer or Clarke, 
 
 when D"". P told me of his plan. This seemed 
 
 to add safety to enterprise ; and we reckoned on en- 
 gaging a large boat's crew to carry with us arms, 
 beaver traps and Indian goods, and to make it a 
 trading expeditfon on my part, a hunting one on 
 
 J 's, and to facilitate D^ P to settle with 
 
 his family. If I liked the adventure, I should return 
 in the ensuing fall of the year, and buy the furs 
 
 which J and P would by hunting and by 
 
 barter be able to procure. 
 
 Our market would have been New Orleans or 
 New York, according to circumstances. If New 
 York, I should go there by sea from N. Orleans, 
 purchase Indian fittings, take them by land to Pitts- 
 burg, thence down the Ohio, and the Mississippi, 
 and up the Red River to our station on Pocoon 
 point. . . 
 
 Lax morals ; few principles, but those deeply im- 
 pressed on the mind ; a careless haughtiness of man- 
 ner, without any aflFectation, or consequential airs; 
 and a quick perception of the ridiculous — these are 
 
 sas territory in 1819, visited the Red River country and the lands 
 of the Osages. A good account may be found in his Journal (Early 
 Western Travels, xiii, pp. 235-240, 245-262). 
 
Journal at Princeton 223' 
 
 some of the characteristics of a man born and raised 
 in the backwoods. The fondness for ridicule is re- 
 markable in the Kentuckians, as well as their pa- 
 tience in taking- a joke. But try to offend, and a 
 knife or a dirk is drawn and aimed in an instant. 
 
 M"". S wears one, when among strangers, ten 
 
 inches long in the blade. He is so avowedly fond of 
 ridiculing unworthiness, that he confesses it is one 
 of the greatest pleasures of his life, to laugh at and 
 despise a scoundrel. — There is plenty of food for 
 his spleen in this country. 
 
 Some of our Englishmen have won the Kindness 
 
 of the Americans almost by surprise. G and 
 
 M*". B have both become favorites in a few 
 
 days. A Kentuckian suspects nobody but a Yan- 
 kee, whom he considers as a sort of Jesuit. An Eng- 
 lishman is one of that nation with whom he is proud 
 to contend in the field of battle. Comes he as a 
 visitor? he is received courteously; as a settler? — 
 with frank hospitality and kindness. But if he 
 thinks to flatter them by declaiming against his old 
 country, he will be listened to with suspicion and 
 contempt. You please them by openly avowing 
 your affection and even your prejudice in favour 
 of Old England, if you admit at the same time that 
 you do not approve of all the acts of the British 
 Government. 
 
 I fear you will find this a dull letter, but I am so 
 
 racked with anxiety to see that I can attend 
 
 to nothing. I must take my rifle and my horse 
 and bury myself for another week in the forests 
 
224 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 with B . He is a fine fellow. There are traits 
 
 of kindness in his character, which soften down 
 the sterner features of a ranger. Three Indians 
 with their wives were killed at the South end of 
 
 the English prairie 15 months ago. B had 
 
 moved them off his hunting ground, but would not 
 kill them, in pity of their wives. Three others 25 
 miles further off came after them, killed all six, and 
 
 buried them in our Prairie. B said his hand 
 
 should never be stained with woman's blood. 
 
 I have been at these hunters' cabins, and found 
 them almost without food of any kind. A deer or 
 a turkey has been brought in at nightfall ; each has 
 cut oft" the part he liked best, stuck it on a sharpened 
 stick which he has inserted between the logs of the 
 chimney, and so roasted it. The best skins and 
 blankets have been chosen for me. The broken fid- 
 dle, and a cup of metheglin made of wild honey, 
 have been produced; and dances, songs and mirth 
 have lasted till past midnight. I have been obliged 
 to get up and dance with them, such has been the 
 intolerable noise. Living all together in one room, 
 they have no notion that silence is necessary to a 
 sleepy man : and, having no society and no regular 
 engagements, night and day are alike to them. 
 
 The hunters on the Missouri are, I am told, a 
 more abandoned set than those on the Wabash. 
 They live entirely under the shelter of a blanket or 
 the bark of trees, and are never nearer to each 
 other than 9 or 10 miles, and moving every week 
 or two. They trap a great many beavers and by 
 
Journal at Princeton 225 
 
 this are enabled to buy spirits. They are more Hke 
 the amphibious race on the banks of the Ohio, who 
 are by turns hunters, boatmen, and farmers, and 
 to whom robbing, violence and even murder, are 
 familiar. 
 
 Instead of being more virtuous, as he is less re- 
 fined, I am inclined to think that man's virtues 
 are like the fruits of the earth, only excellent when 
 subjected to culture. The force of this simile you 
 will never feel, till you ride in these woods over wild 
 strawberries, which die your horse's fetlocks like 
 blood yet are insipid in flavour; till you have seen 
 w^aggon loads of grapes, choked by the bramble 
 and the poisonous vine ; till you find peaches, taste- 
 less as a turnip, and roses throwing their leaves of 
 every shade upon the winds, with scarcely a scent 
 upon them. Tis the hand of man that makes the 
 w^ilderness shine. His footsteps must be found in 
 the scene that is supremely & lastingly beautiful. 
 
XVI 
 
 Opportunities for English settlers in the West — Sacrifices and 
 comforts of frontier life — Places of settlement recommended 
 for various classes of English emigrants — Expenses of living — 
 Servitude. 
 
 Princeton August 24. 1818. 
 You ask me, can a farmer with a capital of £250 
 live comfortably in this country? — Certainly much 
 more comfortably than he can in England, if he has 
 only £250, and no friends to lend him £2,000 in ad- 
 dition to it, or his friends are unwilling to help 
 him. It is only a matter of choice then between 
 servitude and independance. But there is no com- 
 fort here for the poor man beyond coarse food in 
 plenty, coarse clothing, log huts, and the pleasure 
 of repose earned by hard work. If the industrious 
 farmer invest his capital in Land and Hogs in the 
 Illinois, these will pay him 50 per cent, and that 
 25 per cent, per ann. for several succeeding years. 
 But perhaps he must carry his horse-load of wheat 
 30 miles to the mill, — and his wife, if he have one, 
 must make biscuits of it on his return. This is 
 not consistent with English notions of comfort, but 
 it is certain the backsettler is happier than the 
 wretch, who is condemned to crouch to haughty 
 landlords, to dread the oft repeated visit of the 
 tytheman, the taxgatherer, and the overseer. 
 
 If a man can live within his income without 
 losing his rank in society, and without being forced 
 to borrow of those who think they oblige by lend- 
 
-i 
 
 The English Emigrant 227 
 
 ing; if he can pay the overwhehiiing taxes, which 
 the Enghsh Ministry have so thoughtlessly squan- 
 dered in making the English name hated to the 
 uttermost parts of the earth : there are in England 
 comforts, nay, sources of happiness, which will for 
 ages be denied to these half savage countries, good 
 houses, good roads, a mild and healthy climate, 
 healthy, because the country is old, society, the arts 
 of life carried almost to perfection, and Laws well 
 administered. 
 
 " Blest he, — who dwells secure 
 " Where Man, by Nature fierce, has laid aside 
 "His fierceness; having learnt, though slow to learn, 
 " The Manners and the Arts of civil life." 
 
 I will loosely classify English Emigrants, and 
 point out the sections of country, in which each 
 will find the greatest number of advantages.^ 
 
 The English Country Gentleman, — may settle in 
 Virginia, district of Columbia, Maryland, New Jer- 
 sey, and the lower part of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The genteel farmer — in Kentucky. 
 
 The rich yeoman — in Kentucky, Missouri, Ten- 
 essee, and Appalachicola." 
 
 ^ Flint, in his Letters from America, gives an estimate of the com- 
 parative advantages offered to English emigrants by the several 
 sections of the United States (Early Western Travels, ix, pp. i8i- 
 194). Fearon, m his Sketches (pp. 445-449), has an interesting 
 discussion of the classes of people whose betterment in America 
 could be reasonably assured, and who, therefore, should be en- 
 couraged to emigrate. These classes were (i) the extremely poor, 
 who could immediately change their state from that of paupers to 
 that of independent laborers; (2) mechanics whose income was 
 small and uncertain ; and (3) small farmers having families to 
 support. 
 
 2 By Appalachicola Fordham means the region in general about 
 the river of that name, between the southern boundary of Tennes- 
 see and the Gulf. 
 
 -4 
 
228 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The poor farmer — with a capital of £300 & up- 
 wards, — in IlHnois and Indiana. 
 
 Ditto, — if unmarried, — in Missouri, the lower 
 parts of Kentucky and Appalouchia ;^ because in 
 these countries he can have servants. 
 
 Mechanics, — if masters of the most useful trade, 
 and capitalists, — always in the most settled parts 
 of the Western Country, and generally in the Slave 
 States. 
 
 Ditto — inferior workmen, — or without money, 
 — in the new towns on the frontiers. 
 
 Engineers, smiths, founders, millwrights, and 
 turners, may find employment in the larger towns 
 on the Ohio. 
 
 Shopkeepers, and makers and dealers of articles 
 of luxury, should never cross the mountains. 
 
 I cannot think that any elderly man, especially 
 if he have a family delicately brought up, would 
 live comfortably in a free state. In a slave State, 
 if he have wealth, say, 500o£ and upwards, he may 
 raise upon his own farm all the food and raiment, 
 the latter manufactured at home, necessary to sup- 
 ply the wants of his own family. 
 
 This has been, till lately, the universal economy 
 of the first Kentucky families. Thus, without liv- 
 ing more expensively than in a free state, a family 
 may have the comforts of domestic services, and yet 
 find plenty of employment within doors ; not sordid 
 slavery that wears out the health, and depresses the 
 
 ^ Appalouchia was a name sometimes used in the early part of the 
 last century to designate in a loose way the- region now comprised 
 in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and eastern Texas. 
 
The English Emigrant 229 
 
 spirits of Ohio, but useful yet light labours, that 
 may be remitted and resumed at pleasure. 
 
 There is more difference between the manners of 
 the female sex on the East and West sides of the 
 Ohio River than on the East and West shores of 
 the Atlantic Ocean. Servitude in any form is an 
 evil, but the structure of civilized society is raised 
 upon it. If the minds of women are left unim- 
 proved, their morals will be at the mercy of any 
 man. It is much worse where there is no superior 
 rank to influence them by example, or to awe them 
 by disapprobation. I am conscious that I repeat 
 again and again the same arguments — or rather I 
 state similar facts; but it is an important subject. 
 
 Society may suffer more by the abjectness of 
 Slaves than by the want of servants, and a father 
 of a family would prefer to live where there are 
 good free servants as in Europe, or where slaves 
 have more liberty of action than servants, as in 
 Kentucky. The question in these wildernesses is 
 this: Shall we have civilization and refinement, 
 or sordid manners and semi-barbarism, till time 
 shall produce so much inequality of condition that 
 the poor man must serve the rich man for his daily 
 bread? 
 
 Mess'■^ F. and W. R arrived here yesterday. 
 
 I go with them to-day to the prairies. . . . 
 
XVII 
 
 The prevalence of intermittent fevers — The climate of Illinois — 
 Lung troubles almost unknown. 
 
 Shawnee Oct. i/. 1818. 
 
 Soon after 's arrival at the prairie I fell sick, 
 
 and indeed throughout the Settlement there were 
 more sick than well. G had brought no medi- 
 cines with him and mine were almost all used or 
 given away, and the nearest Physician was thirty 
 miles ofif. My fever reduced me to a state of ex- 
 treme weakness, but my nurse, by constantly sup- 
 plying me with corn meal gruel and chicken broth 
 prevented me from sinking under the violence of 
 my disorder. 
 
 The fever soon became a regular intermittent, 
 of which I was soon cured by bark and laudanum. 
 
 These intermittent fevers are the Scourges of 
 new Settlements in the Western Country. They 
 are seldom dangerous and are much under the pow- 
 er of medicine, but ought to be considered by Emi- 
 grants as unavoidable. When provided for, they 
 are slight and of little consequence. 
 
 The first year may be passed by a careful or ro- 
 bust person without receiving any injury from the 
 climate, but in the second the system becomes re- 
 laxed by heat. I cannot explain how, but I can 
 state the fact as related to me, and confirmed by 
 my own experience, that those who come from 
 Northern and healthy climates will in these South- 
 
Climate and Health 231 
 
 ern latitudes suffer a change of constitution, and 
 that this change will be produced or accomplished 
 by a fit of sickness. This is not to be wondered 
 at, when we consider that for some weeks in the 
 year the air is a perfect hot bath, and, for another 
 period of equal duration the cold causes the quick- 
 silver to sink 8°. below zero in Fahrenheit's Ther- 
 mometer, 
 
 The Western Americans, especially the poorer 
 class, are likewise very subject to febrile diseases. 
 Their irregular way of living, their intemperance, 
 the great mental excitement which to them is pleas- 
 ure, produced by gambling, racing, fighting and 
 moving, wear their constitutions. Their lean car- 
 casses, their pale and eager countenances, early in 
 life marked with wrinkles, and their reckless air, 
 shew them to be adventurers, to whom anything is 
 more welcome than plodding industry; to whom 
 risk and danger is the preferable road to wealth, 
 and the only path to honour. . . . 
 
 The leaves are now falling. We have fine de- 
 lightful weather with frosty nights. The woods are 
 beautifully^ The Ohio is low. I have crossed it 
 twice this morning, and never saw it look so calmly 
 beautiful. The canoe scarcely left a ripple behind 
 it and seemed to glide without impulse through the 
 transparent stream. 
 
 The climate of the Illinois is more agreeable than 
 that of England. The sky is brighter, the air more 
 transparent, but at present, less healthy. The coun- 
 
 1 The sentence stands thus incomplete in the manuscript. 
 
232 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 try is intersected with innumerable streams whose 
 overflowings produce swamps, which partially dry 
 up in the summer, filling the air with mosquitoes and 
 noxious efiiuvia. There are situations elevated and 
 remote from stagnant waters, such as the English 
 Prairie. But even here English Emigrants ought 
 to expect to suffer a seasoning, before they can be 
 inured to the changes of the weather. These 
 changes are less sudden with us than in the state of 
 Ohio, and become less and less so as we advance 
 southward and southwestward, till in Appalouchie 
 500 miles west of the Mississippi, a climate is found 
 of medium temperature; the summers being cooled 
 by the breezes from the snowy mountains of Mex- 
 ico, and the northern winds are tempered by pass- 
 ing over the Prairies of the Missouri. 
 
 You will take into consideration, that disorders 
 of the lungs are here almost unknown, and that 
 those who are already invalids are quite as likely to 
 improve as to injure their constitutions by remov- 
 ing to this Country. I am more strong and healthy 
 than I was in England, and I should probably have 
 escaped the seasoning sickness, if the summer had 
 not been uncommonly hot and wet. When good 
 houses are erected, roads opened, and mills built, 
 the health of the people will be much better. . . . 
 
XVIII 
 
 The town of Albion planned — Continued surveying — The sur- 
 rounding prairies — Prairie fires — Instructions for Emigrants : 
 Capital required — Paying occupations — Clothing to be brought 
 — Blankets a good investment — Travelling in the steerage — 
 The journey from Philadelphia to Pittsburg — Down the Ohio 
 to the Illinois Country. 
 
 English Prairie Oct. 50. 1818. 
 I AM laying off a new town to be called Albion.^ 
 It will consist of 8 streets and a public square. Most 
 likely it will be the County Town, and if so, there 
 will be a Court house and a gaol, as well as a Mar- 
 ket house and a Chapel, which last will be built 
 whether it be the seat of justice or not. I wished 
 to have sent you a plan of this town, but I cannot 
 spare the time. I have never been more busily em- 
 ployed in my life than I am now. 
 
 As soon as I have laid out this town, and the 
 winter is well set in, I intend entering some more 
 land, as the waters are up, and you may know what 
 
 ^ Albion became the town center of the English settlements and 
 in 1821 it was made the seat of Albion County. It was situated 
 in the northern portion of Flower's tract, two and a half miles 
 east of Wanborough. the home of the Birkbecks. Welby, who vis- 
 ited the English Prairie in 1819, says of the town : " Notwithstand- 
 ing the miserably unprovided state in which I foimd it, much had 
 certainly been done, and more was rapidly doing towards rendering 
 the place habitable. Among other well-judged resolutions, they 
 had determined that in future all the houses should be substantially 
 built of bricks, for the manufacture of which they have, as I under- 
 stood, plenty of good clay in the neighborhood. A neat covered 
 market, and place of worship . . . had been finished and opened 
 to the public; to which I have to add that a roomy boarding house 
 and tavern were half up; a store (shop) pretty well supplied was 
 opened" (Early Western Travels, xii, p. 256). Woods {Two 
 Years' Residence) tells us that in 1820 the town contained about 
 twenty cabins in addition to the structures mentioned by Welby 
 (Early Western Travels, x, p. 272). Fordham himself kept a 
 store in Albion for some time before his return to England. There 
 is an interesting account of the founding of the town in Flower's 
 History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois, pp. 
 127-142. 
 
 15 
 
234 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 places are acceptible or not, or what lands are too 
 wet for cultivation or healthfulness ; in short, you 
 are sure not to be deceived by the apparent beauty 
 of the situation. 
 
 I was yesterday taken from the New Town Sur- 
 vey to explore, and run the section lines over, the 
 
 Long Prairie^ and the Bon pas Prairie,^ G not 
 
 being able to make out the corner trees, and being 
 besides too busy to leave home two days in succes- 
 sion. 
 
 I had never before crossed them so high from 
 the mouth of the river, and was delighted with the 
 beauty and variety of these meadows. The Bon 
 Pas Prairie extends itself like a vast lake of ver- 
 dure. The soil is rich, but lies rather too low. 
 
 The Northern arm of the Long Prairie is more 
 like an immense river, studded with islands of wood, 
 and bounded by dark forests, whose irregular out- 
 lines present to the eye fresh views at almost every 
 step. The surface of this Prairie is gently undulat- 
 ing, completely free from brushwood, and its soil 
 is still more rich than that of the Bon Pas Prairie. 
 I have noted down some sections to enter for 
 friends. . . . 
 
 Since I began to write this letter I have been in- 
 terrupted by a tremendous fire in the Prairie, which 
 driven by a strong South wind threatened our hab- 
 itations. By the exertions of about 40 Americans 
 
 1 The Long Prairie lay in Edwards County, about two miles east 
 from the English Prairie. It was a strip nine miles in length (from 
 north to south) and from one to one and a half in width. 
 
 2 The Bonpas Prairie lay in Edwards County, four miles north- 
 east of Albion. It was about two miles in diameter. 
 
Albion 27 c 
 
 we saved every thing but a hay stack of G 's. 
 
 It was the most glorious and most awful sight I 
 ever beheld. A thousand acres of Prairie were in 
 flames at once ; — the sun was obscured, and the day 
 was dark before the night came. The moon rose, 
 and looked dim and red through the smoke, and the 
 stars were hidden entirely. Yet it was still light 
 upon the earth, which appeared covered with fire. 
 The flames reached the forests, and rushed like tor- 
 rents through. Some of the trees fell immediately, 
 others stood like pillars of fire, casting forth sparkles 
 of light. Their branches are strewed in smoking 
 ruins around them. 
 
 While I was with G 's people, burning a 
 
 trough round his house, I saw the fire approach my 
 own. It almost had surrounded it. I ran with my 
 utmost speed, and found I could not get round the 
 fire. A small opening appeared in one part, and I 
 dashed through, though not without singing my 
 hunting shirt and scorching my mocassins with the 
 glowing ashes. 
 
 A small creek near my house stopped the fire; 
 which, however, would not have reached it, as the 
 grass had been eaten down and trodden to pieces by 
 my horses. The way to stop the fire is to light 
 smaller fires, which are kept from spreading by beat- 
 ing the grass with Clapboards or poles. This can 
 only be effectual where the grass is short, or much 
 trodden. 
 
 There are five large fires visible tonight, some 
 many miles off. 
 
236 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 The prairies are fired by the hunters to drive out 
 the deer. Two or three years after a place is set- 
 tled, the grass is eaten down and will not burn. 
 
 We have now 200 English on our Settlement.^ 
 Many are discontented; but the strong-minded re- 
 gret that they did not come out sooner. . . . 
 
 [The following directions w^ere given by the author 
 to young men of small fortune in England who 
 might feel inclined to emigrate.^] 
 
 If you are tired of a state of dependency, or if 
 you are not in a good line of business, come out if 
 you can raise 30o£. 
 
 You need not work at any laborious employment, 
 but you must not mind a little rough living at first. 
 I would advise you to learn to butcher a hog, to cut 
 it up, and to salt it down properly; likewise a bul- 
 lock. For the most profitable trade is salting pork 
 and beef for home consumption, or for New Or- 
 leans. 
 
 Dealing in corn, grain, and flour, pays extremely 
 
 * This was in October. 1818. Under date of August 16, 1819, 
 Richard Flower wrote in his Letters that in a tract between the Great 
 and Little Wabash seventeen miles from east to west and from four 
 to six from north to south, where a year and a half before there 
 had been but a few hunters' cabins, there were about 60 English 
 families, comprising 400 souls, and 150 American families, aggregat- 
 ing 700 inhabitants (Early Western Travels, x, p. 104). 
 
 2 A similar body of instructions was appended by Fearon to his 
 Sketches of America (pp. 453-462). He gives advice regarding the 
 choice of a vessel for the passage across the Atlantic, provisions to 
 be carried by cabin and steerage passengers, clothing and other 
 articles to be brought, and means of reaching the interior from 
 the seaboard. His suggestions agree essentially with those here 
 offered by Fordham. 
 
Instructions for Emigrants 237 
 
 well. There are indeed many things you could do 
 here, and your choice would be puzzled with the 
 variety. 
 
 Bring three good coats, cloth waistcoats and 
 trowsers, for Breeches are never worn here, except 
 by a few English; three or four pair of light linen 
 trowsers; two suits of fustian coats and trowsers; 
 and several pair of worsted and cotton socks, but no 
 stockings. Bring no shooting jacket, unless you 
 have it by you. 
 
 Let your chest be made of seasoned deal, and the 
 lid should have a groove in three sides, and the 
 box have a slip or tongue to fit into it. The back 
 part should have a rule joint, like a table. Such a 
 box would be air tight. 
 
 The only article of merchandise I can recommend 
 you to bring is blankets ; some tolerably good, others 
 coarse. These will pay you Cent per Cent. Invest 
 £50 in this article. 
 
 Come in the steerage, if there are but few steer- 
 age passengers, but don't venture among a great 
 many; and by all means, take your passage in an 
 American ship. If you can meet with two or three 
 respectable young men, board yourselves, and you 
 may live a little better than on ship provisions. 
 
 Do not bring with you any English rifles, or in- 
 deed any firearms but a pair of pistols. A good 
 rifle gunlock would be valuable. 
 
 I will suppose you come by way of New York 
 to Philadelphia. Bring with you, if you can pro- 
 cure them, letters of introduction; and at the latter 
 
238 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 city enter your intention of becoming a citizen of 
 the United States. 
 
 Engage a waggoner to carry your box and bed; 
 but not yourself. The inside of the waggon is al- 
 ways filled, so that you cannot ride with any com- 
 fort. Your ship mattress and blankets are the best 
 things you can bring to sleep on. You may wrap 
 them in a horse-rug, rolled up and fastened with 
 two stirrup leathers. By sleeping on your own bed, 
 you will save from 12^ to 25 cents per night, and 
 avoid catching anything disagreeable. 
 
 You may perhaps meet with an intelligent, well- 
 behaved, waggoner ; this will add much to the com- 
 fort of your journey, and you may, by rendering 
 him a little assistance now and then, make him your 
 friend. 
 
 Americanise your appearance as much as you 
 can; you will be treated better. You may pick up 
 companions on the road, but beware lest you asso- 
 ciate yourself with a scoundrel. 
 
 Address your luggage to some merchant at Pitts- 
 burg, and get a letter of credit sent forward to him. 
 Otherwise, should you fall sick, or not choose to 
 keep up with the waggon, you will then be under no 
 uneasiness respecting it. One small trunk or port- 
 manteau you should have with you to contain a 
 change of linen. 
 
 Arrived at Pittsburg, you would take your pas- 
 sage to Cincinnati in a flat boat, or buy a skiff. 
 Land at Evansville, leave your baggage there, and 
 proceed to Princeton. 
 
SELECTED LIST OF CONTEMPORARY 
 TRAVELS 
 
 The following volumes are frequently cited in 
 the introduction and notes by short titles. Com- 
 plete titles are given below for the sake of refer- 
 ence. 
 
 Birkbeck (Morris), Notes on a Journey in America 
 from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of 
 Illinois, with Proposals for the Establishment of 
 a Colony of English (Philadelphia, 1817). 
 
 Birkbeck (Morris), Letters from Illinois (London, 
 1818). 
 
 Bradbury (John), Travels in the Interior of Amer- 
 ica in the Years i8og, 18 10, and 18 11 (London, 
 1 819). Reprinted in Thwaites, Early Western 
 Travels, 1/48-1846: A series of annotated Re- 
 prints of some of the best and rarest contem- 
 porary volumes of travel descriptive of the ab- 
 origines and social and economic conditions in 
 the middle and far West, during the period of 
 early American settlement (Cleveland, 1904) ; v. 
 
 Bullock (William), Sketch of a Journey through 
 the Western States of North America. With a 
 description of Cincinnati, by B. Drake and E. D. 
 MansHeld (London, 1827). Thwaites, Early 
 Western Travels, xix. 
 
240 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Buttrick (Tilly, Jr.), Voyages, Travels, and Dis- 
 coveries (Boston, 1831). Thwaites, Early 
 Western Travels, viii. 
 
 Cobbett (William), A Year's Residence in the 
 United States of America (London, 181 8). 
 
 Cuming (Fortescue), Sketches of a Tour to the 
 Western Country, through the States of Ohio 
 and Kentucky (Pittsburg, 1810). Thwaites, 
 Early Western Travels, iv. 
 
 Evans (Estwick), Pedestrious Tour of Four Thou- 
 sand Miles, through the Western States and Ter- 
 ritories (Concord, N. H., 1819). Thwaites, 
 Early Western Travels, viii. 
 
 Faux (William), Memorable Days in America: be- 
 ing 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, 
 1823). Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xi- 
 xii. 
 
 Fearon (Henry Bradshaw), Sketches of America. 
 A Narrative of a Journey of five thousand miles 
 through the Eastern and Western States of 
 America (London, 1818). 
 
 Flint (James), Letters from America (Edinburgh, 
 1822). Thwaites, Early Western Travels, ix. 
 
 Flower (Richard), Letters from Lexington and the 
 Illinois, containing a Brief Account of the Eng- 
 lish Settlement in the Latter Territory, and a 
 Refutation of the Misrepresentations of Mr. Cob- 
 
Contemporary Travels 241 
 
 bett (London, 1819). Thwaites, Early Western 
 Travels, x. 
 
 Flower (Richard), Letters from the Illinois, 1820, 
 1821. Containing an Account of the English Set- 
 tlement at Albion and its Vicinity, and a Refuta- 
 tion of Various Misrepresentations : Those more 
 particularly of Mr. Cobbett (London, 1822). 
 Thwaites, Early Western Travels, x. 
 
 Harris (Thaddeus M.), Journal of a Tour into the 
 Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains, made in the Spring of the Year 180^ (Bos- 
 ton, 1805). Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 
 iii. 
 
 Harris (William Tell), Remarks made during a 
 Tour through the United States of America dur- 
 ing the Years 18 17, 18 18, andi8ip (London, 
 1821). 
 
 Hulme (Thomas), Journal made during a Tour in 
 the Western Countries of America: September 
 50, 1818-August /, i8ig. Thwaites, Early West- 
 ern Travels, x. 
 
 Melish (John), Travels in the United States of 
 America in the Years 1806 & 18 oy and i8op, 
 1810&1811 (Philadelphia, 1812). Two vols. 
 
 Michaux (Francois Andre), Voyage a I'ouest des 
 Monts Alleghanys, dans les Etats de I'Ohio, et 
 du Kentucky, et du Tennessee, et retour a 
 Charleston par les Hautes-Carolines (Paris, 
 1804). English edition (London, 1805). 
 Thwaites, Early Western Travels, iii. 
 
 Nuttall (Thomas), Journal of Travels into the Ar- 
 
242 Ford ham's Personal Narrative 
 
 kansa Territory, during the Year i8ip, with Oc- 
 casional Observations on the Manners of the Ab- 
 origines (Philadelphia, 1821). Thwaites, Early 
 Western Travels, xiii. 
 
 Ogden (George W.), Letters from the West, com- 
 prising a Tour through the Western Country, 
 and a Residence of Tzvo Summers in the States 
 of Ohio and Kentucky (New Bedford, 1823). 
 Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xix. 
 
 Welby (Adlard), Visit to North America and the 
 English Settlements in Illinois, with a Winter 
 Residence at Philadelphia (London, 1821). 
 Thwaites, Early Western Travels, xii. 
 
 Woods (John), Two Years' Residence in the Set- 
 tlement of the English Prairie, in the Illinois 
 Country, United States (London, 1822), 
 Thwaites, Early Western Travels, x. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ALBION, laid out by Ford- 
 ham, 233; growth of, 233. 
 
 Alexandria (Ohio), Fordham 
 at, 90. 
 
 "America," voyage of, 43. 
 
 American Bottom, fertility of, 
 104. 
 
 Annapolis, early history of, 
 57; Fordham at, 58. 
 
 Appalachicola, 227. 
 
 Appalouchia, 228". 
 
 Arks, in use on the Ohio, 53; 
 described by Evans, 80. 
 
 Audubon, John W., at Hen- 
 derson, Kentucky, 214. 
 
 BACKWOODSMEN, character 
 of, 127, 134, 145, 170, 222; 
 inquisitiveness, 129; atti- 
 tude toward the English, 
 170, 223; why short-lived, 
 201, 231. 
 Baltimore, described, 58; the 
 route to Pittsburg from, 
 59. 
 Barlow, Joel, 89. 
 Beavertown, history of, 82. 
 Bedford, Fort, 55. 
 Bedford (Pennsylvania), ear- 
 ly history of 55; chalybeate 
 springs near, 61; Michaux's 
 experiences at, 65. 
 Belli, Major John, 90. 
 Big Beaver Creek, passed by 
 Fordham, 82 ; settlements 
 in the vicinity of, 83. 
 Big Muddy River, 172. 
 Birkbeck, Morris, acquaint- 
 ance with Edward Coles, 
 23; decides to migrate to 
 Illinois, 23; arrives in the 
 United States, 24; publishes 
 two books on the West, 24; 
 stimulates emigration from 
 England, 25; opposed by 
 Cobbett, 26; defended by 
 Richard Flower, 27; de- 
 scribes the town of Peters- 
 burg, 48-49; at Richmond, 
 50; plans for the English 
 Prairie colony, 212. 
 Birk's Prairie, 218. 
 
 Blennerhassett's Island, Ford- 
 ham at, 88; Aaron Burr's 
 connection with, 88. 
 
 Bloomington, (Indiana), se- 
 lected as site for the Indi- 
 ana Seminary, 150. 
 
 Bond, Shadroch, governor of 
 Illinois, 175. 
 
 Bonpas Creek, 118". 
 
 Bonpas Prairie, 234. 
 
 Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 
 177-179. 
 
 Boston, Ohio Company organ- 
 ized at, 86. 
 
 Bradbury, John, describes 
 conditions of westward 
 travel, 52-53. 
 
 Brushy Prairie, 117. 
 
 Buffalo Lick, (North Caro- 
 lina), 177. 
 
 Bullitt, Captain Thomas, 156. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, relations with 
 James Wilkinson, 62; deal- 
 ings with Blennerhassett, 
 88. 
 
 Byrd. Colonel William, 47. 
 
 CANE Creek, 153. 
 
 Cartwright, John, 19. 
 
 Cassidy, Michael, in Kentuc- 
 ky, 179. 
 
 Cassidy 's Station, 179. 
 
 Chartier's Creek, 81. 
 
 Chartres, Fort, 104. 
 
 Chesapeake Bay, Fordham's 
 voyage on, 55; shores of 
 described, 57. 
 
 Chillicothe, becomes capital 
 of Ohio, 183. 
 
 Christmas Day, celebrated at 
 Princeton, 147. 
 
 Cincinnati, Fordham's arrival 
 at, 165; founding of, 183; 
 described, 190-194; plan of, 
 185; population, 191; build- 
 ings, 191; trade, 192; slav- 
 ery in, 193. 
 
 City Point (Virginia), Blrk- 
 beck's party at, 47. 
 
 Clapton, Mary, mother of 
 Ellas Pym Fordham, 30; 
 death of. 31. 
 
244 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Clarksville (Indiana), estab- 
 lished, 157. 
 
 Clatsop, Fort, 124. 
 
 Oobbett, William, prominent 
 in reform agitation, 19; op- 
 poses Birkbeck's coloniza- 
 tion sclieme, 26; misuses 
 Hulme's Journal, 27; at- 
 tacked by Richard Flower, 
 27. 
 
 Ck)ffee Creek, 202. 
 
 Coffee Island, 137. 
 
 Coles, Edward, acquaintance 
 with Birkbeck, 23; leader of 
 anti-slavery party in Illi- 
 nois, 209. 
 
 Congress, legislates on immi- 
 gration, 16. 
 
 Corn Law, enacted, 18; de- 
 mand for repeal of, 19. 
 
 Corydon, Fordham at, 155. 
 
 CoTington (Kentucky), found- 
 ed, 164. 
 
 Craig, Major Isaac, 81. 
 
 Croghan, George, at Vincen- 
 nes, 96; describes the Wa- 
 bash, 107. 
 
 Cumberland Gap, passed by 
 Daniel Boone, 177. 
 
 Cumberland Road, used by 
 travellers to the West, 59; 
 traffic on, 60. 
 
 Cutler, Manasseh, agent for 
 the Ohio Company, 86. 
 
 Cypress Creek, 140. 
 
 DEBT. British in 1815, 17. 
 
 Detroit, founding of, 145. 
 
 Doughty, Major John, 87. 
 
 Drake, Daniel, historical writ- 
 ings of, 184; quoted by 
 Fordham, 190. 
 
 Duelling, once common in Vir- 
 ginia, 56; efforts to sup- 
 press in the West, 148. 
 
 Duquesne, Fort, 55, 71. 
 
 Duquesne, Marquis, 71. 
 
 EAGLE Creek Hills (Ken- 
 tucky), 162. 
 
 Edwards County (Illinois), 
 Birkbeck settlement in, 24. 
 
 Edwards, Ninian, first gover- 
 nor of Illinois Territory, 
 112; elected to the United 
 States Senate, 175. 
 
 Elkhorn Creek, crossed by 
 Fordham, 162. 
 
 Embree, Jesse, land agent at 
 Cincinnati, 191. 
 
 Emigration, from the East to 
 the West, 13-15; from Eu- 
 rope to America after the 
 War of 1812, 16; from Great 
 Britain, 19-23; advocated in 
 Morris Birkbeck's books, 
 25; under what conditions 
 desirable, 174; classes of 
 emigrants, 227. 
 
 English Prairie, settled by 
 Birkbeck and Flower, 24; 
 controversies concerning, 
 24-29 ; Fordham's sketch of, 
 113; location, 115; possible 
 lines of trade from, 116; 
 Birkbeck's plans for settle- 
 ment of, 212. 
 
 Evans, Estwick, describes 
 craft on the Ohio, 7S-8'0. 
 
 Evans, General Robert, found- 
 er of Evansville, 149. 
 
 Evansville, early history of, 
 149; seat of Vanderburgh 
 county, 149. 
 
 FAUX, William, author of 
 Memorable Days in Ameri- 
 ca, 28; visits the English 
 Prairie, 33. 
 
 Fearon, Henry Bradshaw, on 
 the character of English 
 emigration, 22. 
 
 Fincastle, Fort, 84. 
 
 Fish Creek, 85. 
 
 Flatboats, sketched by Ford- 
 ham, 77; described, 79; in 
 use on the Mississippi, 106. 
 
 Flint, James, publishes his 
 Letters, 28; describes the 
 method of acquiring public 
 land, 102-104. 
 
Index 
 
 245 
 
 Flower, George, cooperates in 
 Birkbeck's colonization en- 
 terprise, 23; visit to the 
 West in 1816, 23; goes with 
 Birkbeck to Illinois, 24; 
 writes a history of the Eng- 
 lish settlement, 116. 
 
 Flower, Richard, publishes his 
 Letters, 27. 
 
 Fordham, Elias, character of, 
 30. 
 
 Fordham, Elias Pym, ances- 
 try, 30; a pupil of Stephen- 
 son, 31; migrates to Amer- 
 ica with Birkbeck, 31; life 
 at the English Prairie, 33; 
 returns to England, 33; let- 
 ters to English friends and 
 relatives, 34; arrives in Am- 
 erica with Birkbeck's party, 
 45; at Petersburg, Virginia, 
 48; at Norfolk, 51; voyage 
 up Chesapeake Bay, 51-52; 
 at Annapolis, 58; at Balti- 
 more, 58; at Pittsburg, 71; 
 descends the Ohio, 80; at 
 Wheeling, 85; at Marietta, 
 86; at Blennerhassett's Is- 
 land, 88; at Gallipolis, 89; 
 at Portsmouth and Alexan- 
 dria, 8'9-91; at Maysville, 
 92; journey across Indiana, 
 95; at Vincennes, 96; at 
 Princeton, 97; at Shawnee- 
 town, 111; descends the Pa- 
 toka and Wabash, 138-140; 
 trip across Indiana, 157; at 
 French Lick, 154; at Cory- 
 don, 155; at New Albany, 
 157; at Louisville, 158; at 
 Shelbyville, 159; at Prank- 
 fort, 160; at Cincinnati, 
 165; searching for land, 
 166; farm located, 172; 
 surveying, 203, 218; life in 
 the West, 204 ; at Harmony, 
 205; at Henderson, 214; 
 lays out Albion, 233; gives 
 directions for emigration, 
 236. 
 
 Fordham, Maria, marriage to 
 Charles de la Serre, 32. 
 
 Fort Wayne, treaty of, 133. 
 
 Fourth of July, celebrated at 
 Princeton, 219. 
 
 Frankfort (Kentucky), early 
 history of, 160; Fordham 
 at, 160. 
 
 Fredericksburg (Indiana), de- 
 scribed, 156. 
 
 French Lick, Fordham at, 154. 
 
 GAINES, Edmund P., cam- 
 paigns on the Florida fron- 
 tier, 150. 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, selects the 
 "seminary township" in 
 Indiana, 14'9. 
 
 Gallipolis (Ohio), Fordham 
 at, 89; early history of, 89. 
 
 Gass, Patrick, journal pub- 
 lished, 124. 
 
 Ghent, Peace of, 15. 
 
 Gist, Christopher, 91. 
 
 Gravesend, the "America" 
 sails from, 43. 
 
 Great Britain, condition of at 
 the close of the Napoleonic 
 Wars, 17-19; agitation for 
 reform, 19-20; emigration 
 from to America, 20-22. 
 
 Greenville, treaty of, 133. 
 
 Gulf Stream, nature of, 43. 
 
 HALL, Baynard R., instruc- 
 tor in Indiana Seminary, 
 150. 
 
 Hampton Roads, Birkbeck's 
 party arrives at, 45. 
 
 Harmar, Fort, 86. 
 
 Harmar, General Josiah, de- 
 feated by the Indians, 91. 
 
 Harris, William Tell, pub- 
 lishes his Remarks, 28. 
 
 Harrison's Bar, Birkbeck's 
 party at, 45; location of, 
 46. 
 
 Harrison, William Henry, 
 suppresses the Indians, 15; 
 public land bill, 102; treat- 
 ies with the Indians, 133. 
 
246 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Henderson (Kentucky), Ford- 
 ham at, 214. 
 
 Henry, Fort, 84. 
 
 Hiilme, Thomas, Journal used 
 by Cobbett, 27. 
 
 ILLINOIS, increase in pop- 
 ulation of, 14; physical fea- 
 tures, 112; political devel- 
 opment, 112; products and 
 prices, 118; fauna and flora, 
 119; ease of acquiring prop- 
 erty in, 124; classes of in- 
 habitants, 125-127; complete 
 democracy, 128; advantages 
 and drawbacks of life in, 
 131; climate, 132; extent 
 and population, 133; gains 
 statehood, 175; inchoate 
 condition of society, 181; 
 contest over slavery, 209- 
 210, 221; opportunities for 
 settlers, 226; sanitary con- 
 ditions, 230-232. 
 
 Immigration, after the War 
 of 1812, 16; from Great Bri- 
 tain, 16; legislation con- 
 cerning, 10. 
 
 Indiana, increase in popula- 
 tion of, 14; Fordham's jour- 
 ney across, to Illinois, 95; 
 a forest region, 100; consti- 
 tution and government of, 
 100-101; classes of inhabi- 
 tants, 125-127; democracy 
 in, 128; lands acquired from 
 the Indians, 133; seminary 
 township, 149; higher edu- 
 cation in. 150; Fordham's 
 trip across, to Kentucky, 
 151-155; character of popu- 
 lation, 168. 
 
 Indiana University, establish- 
 ed, 150. 
 
 Industrial Revolution, effects 
 of, n 
 
 JEFFERSON, Thomas, visit- 
 ed by George Flower, 23. 
 
 Jones, James W., a founder 
 of Evansville, 149. 
 
 KASKASKIA, early history 
 of, 104. 
 
 Keelboats, sketched by Ford- 
 ham, 77. 
 
 Kentucky, increase in popula- 
 tion of, 14; Fordham's jour- 
 ney through, 158-165; prices 
 in, 160; people of, 163, 177, 
 ISO, 215; Daniel Boone in, 
 177-179; Michael Cassidy in, 
 179. 
 
 Kentucky River, described, 
 161. 
 
 LAND, prices of near Phila- 
 delphia, 61; value of in In- 
 diana, 99. 102; methods of 
 acquiring described by 
 Flint, 102-104; the basis of 
 wealth, 122; ceded by In- 
 dians in Indiana, 133; 
 prices about Cincinnati, 
 169; value of influenced by 
 slavery, 210. 
 
 La Serre, Charles de, 320. 
 
 Lewis and Clark, western 
 travels of, 123. 
 
 Lexington (Kentucky), early 
 history of, 162. 
 
 Ligonier, Fort, 91. 
 
 Liguest, Pierre Laclfede foun- 
 der of St. Louis, 68. 
 
 Limestone fMaysville], 92. 
 
 Little Blue River, 154. 
 
 Little Muddy River, 172. 
 
 Little Wabash River, 116. 
 
 Logstown, passed by Ford- 
 ham, 81. 
 
 Long Prairie, 234. 
 
 Louisiana, District of, 101. 
 
 Louisville, early history of, 
 157; Fordham at. 158. 
 
 Lyttleton, Fort, 68. 
 
 McConnellstown, visited by 
 travellers to the West, 68. 
 
 McGary, Hugh, occupies site 
 of Evansville, 149. 
 
 Mammoth Cave, 180. 
 
 Manchester massacre, 19. 
 
 Marie Antoinette, 87. 
 
Index 
 
 247 
 
 Marietta, Fordham at, 86; 
 early history of, 86-87. 
 
 Maryland, physical features 
 of, 59; inhabitants of, 60. 
 
 Massie, Henry, 89. 
 
 Massie, Nathaniel, 92. 
 
 Maysville (Kentucky), Ford- 
 ham at, 92; described by 
 travellers, 92. 
 
 Melish, John, investigations 
 in America, 70; publishes 
 his Travels, 70. 
 
 Michigan, Territory of, 101. 
 
 Middle "West, early emigra- 
 
 • tion to, 14-17; routes of 
 travel to, 52; classes of in- 
 habitants, 124-127; Eastern 
 prejudice against, 131. 
 
 Missouri River, hunters on, 
 224. 
 
 Monroe, James, designates a 
 "seminary township" in 
 Indiana, 150. 
 
 NANTUCKET, people of de- 
 scribed, 196. 
 
 New Albany, founding of, 
 157; Fordham at, 158. 
 
 New Harmony, Fordham at, 
 205; establishment of, 205; 
 life of inhabitants, 206-208"; 
 religious services, 208. 
 
 New Orleans, trade from 
 Pittsburg to, 75-76. 
 
 "New Orleans," launched, 15. 
 
 Newport (Kentucky), found- 
 ing of, 164. 
 
 New York, arrival of British 
 immigrants at, 21. 
 
 Norfolk, Fordham at, 51. 
 
 Northwest Ordinance, enact- 
 ed, 86. 
 
 Northwest Territory, divided 
 by Congress, 112; slavery 
 in, 194. 
 
 Nuttall, Thomas, visit to 
 Pittsburg, 76. 
 
 OGDEN, George W., publish- 
 es his Letters, 28. 
 O'Hara, General James, 76. 
 
 Ohio Company, organization 
 of, 86. 
 
 Ohio, increase in population 
 of, 14. 
 
 Ohio River, methods of navi- 
 gating, 53; craft described 
 by Evans, 79-80; narratives 
 of navigation, 80; descent 
 of by Fordham, 81; the 
 "falls" of, 105; aspects of, 
 184, 187-188; La Salle on, 
 188. 
 
 Owen, Robert, at New Har- 
 mony, 206. 
 
 PARLIAMENT, demand for 
 reform of, 18; enacts the 
 Corn Law, 18". 
 
 Paroquets, abundant in the 
 Ohio Valley, 138. 
 
 Patoka River, described, 137; 
 Fordham descends, 138-139. 
 
 Pell, Gilbert, anti-slavery 
 leader in Illinois, 210. 
 
 Pennsylvania, the people of, 
 60, 64-66. 
 
 Pennsylvania Road, 59. 
 
 Petapsco River, 58. 
 
 Petersburg (Virginia), des- 
 cribed by Fordham and by 
 Birkbeck, 48. 
 
 Piankeshaw Indians, 115. 
 
 Pike, Zebulon, western trav- 
 els of, 123. 
 
 Pitt, Fort, 55, 73. 
 
 Pittsburg, plan of drawn by 
 Fordham, 74; early history 
 of, 71; described by trav- 
 ellers, 72; commercial con- 
 ditions at, 75; dependence 
 on the Ohio River trade, 76. 
 
 Pittsburg Pike, 59. 
 
 Pontchartrain, Fort, 146. 
 
 Pope, Nathaniel, territorial 
 delegate of Illinois, 175. 
 
 Population, increase of, in 
 Middle West, 14. 
 
 Portsmouth (Ohio), Fordham 
 at, 90. 
 
248 
 
 Fordham's Personal Narrative 
 
 Prince, William, 97. 
 
 Princeton, Fordham, at, 97; 
 described, 97-98, 108; cele- 
 bration of Christmas at, 
 147; Fourth of July at, 219. 
 
 RADCLIFFE, Anne, 66. 
 
 Radical Party, organized, 19. 
 
 Rapp, George, founder of New 
 Harmony, 205. 
 
 Recovery, Fort, 112. 
 
 Richmond, described by Birk- 
 beck, 50. 
 
 Roosevelt, Nicholas J., build- 
 er of the "New Orleans," 
 106. 
 
 ST. CLAIR, Arthur, career 
 of, 91. 
 
 St. Louis, early history of, 68. 
 
 Saline River, salt works on, 
 120. 
 
 Scenery, lack of in America, 
 152, 163. 
 
 Scioto Company, 89. 
 
 Selkirk, Lord, at Vincennes, 
 134; operations in the 
 Northwest, 134. 
 
 Seminary Township, history 
 of, 149-150. 
 
 Shade River, 88. 
 
 Shawneetown, early history 
 of, 111. 
 
 Shelby, Isaac, governor of 
 
 Kentucky, 159. 
 Shelbyville( Kentucky), Ford- 
 ham at, 159. 
 Shippingport (Kentucky), 
 105. 
 
 Slavery, deplored by Virgin- 
 ians, 56; essential in the 
 far South, 67; at Cincinna- 
 ti, 193; story of the slave 
 Anthony, 194; contest in Il- 
 linois, 209-210, 221; influ- 
 ence on value of land, 210. 
 
 Smeaton, John, engineering 
 
 exploits of, 144. 
 Spa Fields, meeting at, 19. 
 Spence, Dr. Hubert de La- 
 serre, possessor of the Ford- 
 ham manuscript, 11, 32. 
 
 Steamboats, early use on wes- 
 tern rivers, 106. 
 
 Stephenson, George, 31. 
 
 Symmes, John Cleves, obtains 
 grant on the Ohio, 183. 
 
 TAYLOR, General James, 164. 
 Temperatures, record of, 198- 
 
 200. 
 Thomas, Jesse B., elected to 
 
 the United States Senate, 
 
 175. 
 Tbwaites, Reuben Gold, editor 
 
 of Early Western Travels, 
 
 11; quoted, 37. 
 
 VANDERBURGH County (In- 
 diana), created, 149. 
 
 Vevay (Indiana), Swiss set- 
 tlement at, 213. 
 
 Vincennes, early history of, 
 96; population of, 96; In- 
 dians in the neighborhood 
 of, 97. 
 
 Vincennes University, estab- 
 lished, 149; later history, 
 150. 
 
 Virginia, people of, 49, 56, 66, 
 176. 
 
 WABASH River, described, 
 108; traffic on, 116. 
 
 Washington, Fort, 91, 189. 
 
 Wayne, General Anthony, ne- 
 gotiates treaty of Green- 
 ville, 133. 
 
 Weekly Political Register, 19. 
 
 Welby, Adlard, visits the Eng- 
 lish Prairie, 25. 
 
 WTieeling, Fordham at, 84; 
 growth in commerce, 84. 
 
 Wilkinson, James, career of 
 62. 
 
 Woods, John, publishes his 
 Two Years' Residence, 28. 
 
 Wylie, Andrew, President of 
 Indiana College, 150. 
 
 ZANE. Colonel Ebenezer, 84. 
 
Important 
 Historical Publications 
 
 OF 
 
 The Arthur H, Clark Company 
 
 Full descriptive circulars will be mailed 
 on application 
 
AUDUBON'S WESTERN 
 JOURNAL: 1849-1850 
 
 Being the MS. record of a trip from New York to 
 
 Texas, and an overland journey through Mexico 
 
 and Arizona to the gold-fields of California 
 
 By 
 
 JOHN fF. AUDUBON 
 
 With biographical memoir by his daughter 
 MARIA R. AUDUBON 
 
 Edited by 
 
 FRANK HEYWOOD HODDER 
 
 Professor of American History.University of Kansas 
 
 JVith folded mapy portrait ^ and original drawings 
 
 ^OHN W. AUDUBON, son of the famous 
 ornithologist, was a member of Colonel 
 Webb's California Expedition which 
 started from New York City for the gold- 
 fields in February, 1849. The Journal 
 consists of careful notes which Audubon 
 made en route. It was written with a view 
 to publication, accompanied by a series of sketches made 
 at intervals during the journey; but owing to Audubon's 
 pre-occupation with other affairs, the plan of publication 
 was never realized. 
 
 The Journal is, therefore, here published for the first 
 time, and is illustrated by the author's original sketches, 
 carefully reproduced. It gives a vivid first-hand picture 
 of the difficulties of an overland journey to California, and 
 of the excitements, dangers, and privations of life in the 
 
c^UDVEO^S WESTERN JOURNAL 
 
 gold-fields. An additional interest attaches to this account 
 from the fact that Colonel Webb deserted his party, which 
 consisted of nearly a hundred men, when the expedition 
 reached Roma, and the command then by unanimous 
 choice of the party devolved upon Audubon. This situa- 
 tion, as modestly related by the author, displays his 
 sympathetic nature, as well as his keenness and ability as 
 a leader. 
 
 Besides being a fascinating story of adventure, the Jour- 
 nal throws much light on the interesting years immediately 
 following the discovery of gold in California. John W. 
 Audubon was (with his brother Victor G. Audubon) the 
 assistant of his father, and executed much of the artistic 
 work on the famous "Quadrupeds of North America." 
 His pictures of the spreading of the gold craze in the East, 
 the journey through Mexico, and the social conditions 
 after reaching California, show him to be a keen and 
 faithful observer. 
 
 The Editor, Professor F. H. Hodder, of the University 
 of Kansas, has supplied complete annotation explaining 
 matters of topography, natural science, and historical and 
 personal allusions. Professor Hodder in his editorial work 
 has drawn liberally upon his special knowledge of the his- 
 tory and geography of the West and Southwest. A bio- 
 graphical memoir has been written by Miss Maria R. 
 Audubon. Being the daughter of the author, she has 
 availed herself of a large amount of auxiliary material not 
 accessible to any other biographer. 
 
 Printed direct from type on Dickinson's deckle-edged 
 paper, and illustrated with folded map, portrait, and plates, 
 in one volume, 8vo, about 225 pages, cloth, uncut. 
 
 Price I3.00 net. 
 
 The Arthur H. Clark Company 
 
 TWBLISHEliS CLEVELAND, OHIO 
 
 17 
 
*'AN AUTHORITY OF THE HIGHEST IMPORTANCE''— "^insOT 
 
 THE 
 
 PRESENT STATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS 
 
 ON T H E 
 
 M I S S I S I P P Ij 
 
 WITH 
 
 A Cbocr APiiiCA L DEscRifTiON of that River. 
 
 ILLUSTRATtD BY 
 
 PLANS AND DRAUGHTS. 
 
 B7 Cipuin PHILIP PITTMAN. 
 
 London. 
 
 PiiDted foi J. NouRSE, BooVrdler 10 Hn MAJESTY. 
 
 MDCCLXX 
 
 Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Index, by 
 
 FRANK HEYWOOD HODDER 
 
 Professor of American History, University of Kansas 
 
 THIS exceedingly rare work was issued in London, in 1770, and 
 has been so much in demand by historical students and collectors 
 of Americana that even imperfect copies of the original are now almost 
 impossible to obtain at any price. Our text is from a perfect copy of 
 the original with all the folding maps and plans carefully reproduced. 
 
 *Only two copies have been offered for sale during the past five years ; one copy sold 
 at $95.00, and the other is now offered by a reliable firm of booksellers at $105.00. 
 
PITTMAN'S MISSISSIPPI SETTLEMENTS 
 
 Pittman's Mississippi Settlements contains much valuable original ma- 
 A J I J terial for the study of the French and Spanish 
 
 yi ValUaOle settlements of old Louisiana, West Florida, and 
 SOUVCB work ^^^ Illinois country. The author, Captain Philip 
 Pittman, was a British military engineer, and 
 gives an accurate general view of the Mississippi Settlements just after 
 the English came into possession of the eastern half of the valley by 
 the Peace of 1763. His account, written from personal observation, 
 is rich in allusions to the political, social, and military readjustments 
 resulting from this change of possession. "A comprehensive account 
 of the Illinois country and its inhabitants, with sketches in detail of 
 the several French posts and villages situated therein, as personally 
 viewed by him in 1 766-67. ... It contains, in a compact form, much 
 useful and reliable information (nowhere else to be found) concern- 
 ing the Mississippi Valley and its people at that transition period." 
 — Wallace : Illinois and Louisiana under French Rule. 
 
 Dr. William F. Poole in Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of 
 ffl /• . America says: "It is the earliest English 
 
 1 flC eUrLieSt account of those settlements, and, as an 
 
 English account ^"'^'■"y ^" ""'^>^ ^"S"" f^"""^' n °^ '^^ 
 
 o highest importance. He [nttmanj was a 
 
 military engineer, and for five years was employed in surveying the 
 Mississippi River and exploring the western country. The excellent 
 plans which accompany the work, artistically engraved on copper, 
 add greatly to its value." 
 
 An introduction, notes, and index have been supplied by Professor 
 
 ^ . 7 Frank Heywood Hodder, who has made a 
 
 yiflflOtClttOTl Oy special study of American historical geo- 
 
 Pfof^SSOr HoddcT^^^^^^y' '^ value of the reprint is thus 
 -^ enhanced by annotation embodying the re- 
 
 sults of the latest researches in this field of American history. 
 
 The edition is limited to 500 copies, each numbered. It is hand- 
 somely printed in large Caslon type on Dickinson's deckle-edged 
 paper. With folding maps and plans. Large 8vo, cloth, uncut, gilt top. 
 
 Price ;^3.oo net. 
 
 THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY 
 
 VVBLISHET^S CLEVELAND, OHIO 
 
The First (Circumnavigation of the Qlobe 
 
 MAGELLAN'S VOYAGE 
 AROUND THE WORLD 
 
 By ANTONIO PIGAFETTA 
 
 The original and complete text of the oldest and best MS. 
 (the Ambrosian MS. of Milan, of the early XVI cen- 
 tury). The Italian text with page-for-page English trans- 
 lation. Translated, edited, and annotated by James A. 
 Robertson, of the editorial staff of "The Jesuit Rela- 
 tions and Allied Documents" and co-editor of "The 
 Philippine Islands: 1493-1898." With numerous maps, 
 plates, and facsimiles. 
 
 "By far the best and fullest account of the expedition." — (juillemard. 
 
 IGAFETTA'S ACCOUNT, the fullest 
 and best authority for the famous Voyage 
 of Magellan, is here completely present- 
 ed in English for the first time. Piga- 
 fetta was an Italian of noble family, 
 interested in navigation and fond of 
 travel. Happening to be in Spain vi^hen 
 Magellan was about to sail, he secured permission to 
 accompany the expedition. Pigafetta kept a detailed 
 account of the incidents of the voyage and faithfully 
 recorded his observations on the geography, climate, 
 and resources of the numerous strange countries vis- 
 ited or described to him. Of especial value are his 
 remarks on the customs, physical character, and lan- 
 guages of the various peoples of South America, and 
 the Ladrones, Philippines and other Asiatic Islands. 
 Pigafetta's Account, notwithstanding its great im- 
 
portance to students, has never been adequately pub- 
 lished. Stanley, in his translation for the Hakluyt 
 Society, omits many passages relating to the manners 
 and customs of native peoples, mis-translates other 
 passages; and furthermore does not translate from 
 the original Italian, but in part from a defective 
 French MS. of later date, and in part fromAmoretti's 
 garbled printed edition of the Ambrosian MS. 
 
 The MS. which we use is the oldest in existence 
 and is conserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana at 
 Milan. This MS. was purported to have been pub- 
 lished in I 800 by Amoretti, but his publication was 
 what the Italians call a refacwiento, in which the 
 order is entirely changed at times to say nothing of 
 the meaning. To insure a correct version of the text, 
 the editor, Mr. Robertson, visited Milan and under- 
 took the transcription personally. 
 
 The numerous charts of the original are carefully 
 reproduced, together with a rare early map, showing 
 Magellan's discoveries in the Far East. To preserve 
 the archaic forms and peculiar letters of the old 
 Italian, type has been specially designed and cut for 
 many peculiar characters. The editing and annota- 
 tion are elaborate and exhaustive; an Index and a 
 complete Bibliography are added, making this the 
 
 BEST EDITION OF PIGAFETTA IN ANY LANGUAGE 
 
 Issued in a limited edition of 350 copies only. 
 Printed direct from type on Dickinson's deckle- 
 edged paper. Two volumes, large 8vo, cloth, uncut, 
 gilt top. Price $7.50 net. 
 
 The Arthur H. Clark Company 
 
 "^VBLISHE^S CLEVELAND, OHIO 
 
Early Western Travels 
 
 === 1 748 - 1 846 ===== 
 
 A SERIES of Annotated Reprints of some of the best 
 and rarest contemporary volumes of travel, descrip- 
 tive of the Aborigines and Social and Economic Condi- 
 tions in the Middle and Far West, during the Period of 
 Early American Settlement. 
 
 Edited with Historical, Geographical, Ethnological, and Bibliographical 
 Notes, and Introdudlions and Index, by 
 
 Reuben Gold Thwaites, ll. d. 
 
 With facsimiles of the original title-pages, maps, portraits, 
 views, etc. 3 1 volumes, large 8vo, cloth, uncut, gilt tops. 
 Price I4.00 net per volume (except the Maximilien Atlas, 
 which is 1 1 5.00 net). The edition is limited to 750 com- 
 plete sets, each numbered and signed; but in addition there- 
 to, a limited number of the volumes will be sold separately. 
 
 An Elaborate Analytical Index to the Whole 
 
 " This new series of historical and geographical works ly the scholarly 
 editor of' The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,^ promises to be 
 particularly valuable and of more than usual popular interest. All the 
 hooks are rare, some of them exceedingly so, no copy being found in the 
 largest collections on this side of the Atlantic, or in many abroad. They 
 are copiously explained and illustrated by introductions and notes, bio- 
 graphical sketches of the authors, bibliographical data, etc. The series 
 
 should, of course, be in every public, collegiate, and insti- 
 tutional library, to say nothing of private collections of 
 respectable rank. The works included naturally vary in literary 
 merit and attractiveness, but many of them will compare favor ah ly 
 with the better class of modern books of travel, while some are as fas- 
 cinating as the best fiction.'''' — The Cridc. 
 
 The Arthur H. Clark Company 
 
 TVBLISHETiS CLEVELAND, OHIO 
 
Extracts from a few of the reviews 
 
 American Historical Review: "The books are handsomely bound and print- 
 ed. The editing by Dr. Thwaites seems to have been done with his 
 customary cure and knowledge. There is no want of helpful annotations. 
 
 The books therefore are likely to be of more real value than the 
 early prints from which they are taken." 
 
 The Independent: "The editor's annotations make the present series worth 
 possessing, even if one already owns the originals." 
 
 7he Literary Digest: <'It is next to impossible, at this late date, 
 even to a well-endowed public library, to amass a consider- 
 able collection of these early travels, so essential to an adequate 
 understanding of the hfe and manners of the aborigines, and the social and 
 economic conditions in the middle and far West, during the period of 
 early American settlement. The making of a judicious and competent 
 selection of the best and rarest of these writings has become an inevit- 
 able requirement ; and the patient company of historians, Hbrarians, 
 and scholars will be quick to congratulate each other that the great task 
 has fallen to the hands of so well-equipped an editor as Dr. Thwaites, 
 eminent as an authority on all questions pertaining to the exploration and 
 development of our great Western domain." 
 
 The Forum: "A most helpful contribution to the study of the America of a 
 century or so ago. ' ' 
 
 The Athenaeum: ". . . A series of permanent historical value . . . It ought 
 to find a place in every geographical or historical library." 
 
 Public Opinion: "The century that sets the bounds of this work is the most 
 important and interesting in the history of the 'winning of the West;' . . 
 it is comprehensive, and the materials at the disposal of the editor assure a 
 
 collection that will be indispensable to every well-equipped public 
 or private library." 
 
 The Nation: "A stately series, octavo in size, typographically very open and 
 handsome. The annotations are abundant and highly valuable. * ' 
 
 New York Times Saturday Review : "An invaluable series of reprints of 
 rare sources of American history." 
 
 The Dial: <*An undertaking of great interest to every student of 
 Western history. Exhaustive notes and introductions are by Dr. 
 Thwaites, the foremost authority on Western history, who is also to sup- 
 ply an elaborate analytical index, under one alphabet, to the complete 
 series. This latter is an especially valuable feature, as almost all the rare 
 originals are without indexes. ' ' 
 
" VVc cannot thoroughly understand our own history, local or National, without some knowledge 
 of these routes of trade and war." — The Outlook. 
 
 The Historic Highways of America 
 
 by Archer Butler Hulbert 
 
 A series of monographs on the History of America as portrayed in the evo- 
 lution of its highways of War, Commerce, and Social Expansion. 
 
 Comprising the following volumes : 
 
 I — Paths of the Mound-Building Indians and Crreat Game Animals. 
 II — Indian Thoroughfares. 
 
 Ill — Washington's Road: The First Chapter of the Old French War. 
 IV— Braddock's Road, 
 V— The Old Glade (Forbes's) Road. 
 VI — Boone's Wilderness Road. 
 VII — Portage Paths: The Keys of the Continent. 
 VIII — Military Roads of the Mississippi Basin. 
 IX — Waterways of Westward Expansion. 
 X — The Cumberland Road. 
 XI, XII — Pioneer Roads of America, two volumes. 
 XIII, XIV— The Great American Canals, two volumes. 
 XV — The Future of Road- Making in America. 
 XVI— Index. 
 
 Sixteen volumes, crown 8vo, cloth, uncut, gilt tops. A limited edition 
 only printed direct from type, and the type distributed. Each volume hand- 
 somely printed in large type on Dickinson's hand-made paper, and illustra- 
 ted with mapSj plates, and facsimiles. 
 
 Published a volume each two months, beginning September, 1902. 
 
 Price, volumes i and 2, $2.00 net each ; volumes 3 to 16, $2.50 net 
 each. 
 
 Fifty sets printed on large paper, each numbered and signed by the 
 author. Bound in cloth, v\ath paper label, uncut, gilt tops. Price, ^5.00 
 net per volume. 
 
 "The fruit not only of the study of original historical sources in documents found here and in 
 England, but of patient and enthusiastic topographical studies, in the course of which every foot ol 
 these old historic highways has been traced and traversed." — The Living Age. 
 
 "The volumes already issued show Mr. Hulbert to be an earnest and enthusiastic student, and a 
 reliable guide." — Out West. 
 
 " A look through these volumes shows most conclusively that a new source of history is being 
 developed— a source which deals with the operation of the most effective causes influencing human 
 affairs." — Iowa Journal of History and Politics. 
 
 " The successive volumes in the series may certainly be awaited with great interest, for they 
 promise to deal with the most romantic phases of the awakening of America at the dawn of occi- 
 dental civilization." — Boston Transcript. 
 
 " The publishers have done their part toward putting forth with proper dignity this important 
 woric. It is issued on handsome paper and is illustrated with many maps, diagrams, and old 
 prints." -CA/ca^o Evening Pes'. 
 
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