Vol. XV JUNE, 1919 No. 2 
 
 INDIANA 
 MAGAZINE 
 OF HISTORY 
 
 
 CONTENl ^ 
 
 
 Page 
 
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 1 HE Coming of the English to Indiana in 1817 and 
 
 
 Their Neighbors — John E, Iglehart.-- 89 
 
 
 The American Marines at Verdun, Chateau 
 
 
 Thierry, Bouresches and Belleau Wood^— 
 
 
 Harrison Cole 179 
 
 
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 INDIANA 
 MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 
 
 Vol. XV JUNE, 1919 No. 2 
 
 The Coming of the English to Indiana 
 
 in 1817 and Their Hoosier 
 
 Neighbors 
 
 By John E. Iglehart, Evansville, Ind. 
 Introduction 
 
 (Copyright 1919, by John E. Iglehart) 
 
 In 1916, at the request of the mayor of the city of 
 Evansville, the writer undertook the organization and direc- 
 tion of the work of a Historical Commission of the Evansville 
 Centennial for 1917. With a view to qualify himself better 
 for the work he sought the literature of the early western 
 travelers, as well as other writers, and began a search in the 
 early records of the city and county of Vanderburgh, as well 
 as of Warrick and Knox counties, out of which Vanderburgh 
 county had been created. 
 
 The travels of William Faux in the west in the fall and 
 winter of 1819 resulted from his intimacy with the Ingle 
 family in Somersham, Huntingdonshire, England, where both 
 families lived, and a promise made by Faux to Rev. John 
 Ingle, a Baptist minister, that the former would visit the son 
 of the latter at Saundersville in Vanderburgh county. The 
 diary of Faux during five weeks he spent in John Ingle's 
 cabin is the only record in existence of the first British set- 
 tlement in Indiana. While local histories have recorded the 
 
 S^9/Z
 
 90 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 lives of many mmebers of that settlement and their descend- 
 ants, including many of the leading men of the community, 
 and in southwestern Indiana for one hundred years, no men- 
 tion is made in any of them of the colony as Faux describes it. 
 
 When the war came on in 1917 the Historical Commission 
 ceased its labors. The writer, as a descendant of John Ingle 
 of Somersham and as a representative of three pioneer fam- 
 ilies of that settlement, felt a call to restore the fading pic- 
 ture, and to trace the work and lives of the emigrants and 
 their descendants as town builders and commonwealth build- 
 ers, which seemed to him worthy to be recorded. 
 
 The chief qualifications of the writer for the work lay in 
 the fact that he had personally known some of the original 
 emigrants of the first generation and many of their children, 
 who had been born in England, among whom was his mother. 
 He liad more or less a knowledge of the history of the leaders 
 of the settlement, as well as a large number of the one hun- 
 dred or more families who came into the settlement in the 
 first decade. In a law practice of about fifty years in Evans- 
 ville, where he has lived a still longer time, he was in a man- 
 ner familiar with the early history of the people of the city 
 and county. So that in handling the records and files of the 
 city and county from the beginning as late as 1830, the wTiter 
 was able, so to speak, to become acquainted with the people 
 of the town and county, their character and their work in the 
 first decade, and to interpret many of the old records more 
 fully than could have been done by a stranger. In tracing the 
 histoiy of the beginnings of the early British settlement, the 
 personal knowledge of Mr. Edward Maidlow, still living in 
 excellent health, and James Erskine, recently deceased, who 
 were born in it in 1831, were of great assistance, as has been 
 Mrs. Samuel G. Evans, a granddaughter of Saunders Horn- 
 brook, Sr., who has permitted the writer to examine the fani- 
 ily correspondence of the early time. 
 
 As will appear in this sketch, the movement represented 
 in the Indiana colony was part of a greater one and a clear 
 presentation of the whole was necessaiy to a history of the 
 part. No attempt has been made to repeat the histor>' of the 
 Birkbeck-Flower movement, so fully presented in the writings
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 91 
 
 of those two men. The correctness of Prof. Edwin Erie 
 Sparks' statement as to the final outcome of the Illinois colony, 
 was challenjred by Mr. Walter Colyer, and the writer was glad 
 to avail himself of the opportunity to invite Mr. Colyer to 
 state the facts upon the other side of the matter, which are 
 presented by him probably as well and as fully as can be done, 
 and they will probably be the last word on that subject. 
 
 The fmal success of each of these colonies is not to be 
 sought at this time, in outward evidence of distinguishing 
 British life, manners, or customs in any form, as Professor 
 Sparks seems to imply. The emigrants, though of English, 
 Irish and Scotch birth, became immediately American and 
 their descendant's are as distinctly such today in every re- 
 spect, as any portion of the American people. 
 
 The Hoosier neighbors of the colonists in southera Indi- 
 ana are traced with some care, both the native leaders and the 
 body of the people with whom they lived as citizens and neigh- 
 bors. Morris Birkbeck's descriptions in his Notes and Letters 
 will always remain a valuable contribution to the history of 
 the time. His description of the people of Princeton, quoted 
 in the Edinburgh Review, is truthful, as the writer has every 
 reason to believe, and he has practiced law in Princeton and 
 on the circuit for almost fifty years and has a fair general 
 knowledge of the people of Gibson county. While the influ- 
 ence of the early English and other foreigners and the native 
 eastern people has been felt in southern Indiana, there is no 
 doubt that the great body of the people of the southern portion 
 of the State are of southern descent. 
 
 In dealing with the status of those people in the early 
 history of the State, any fair critic must realize that alto- 
 gether undue emphasis has to this time been placed in public 
 opinion east of Indiana upon descriptions by early writers, 
 who have not fairly interpreted the people, but who have 
 taken the bottom layer to represent the whole people, or have 
 been, correctly or not, so interpreted. In presenting Birk- 
 beck's picture of these people, as a fair type of the plain peo- 
 ple, who were much similar to the body of the people in all 
 of the counties of southern Indiana, the writer may seem to 
 have dealt with the subject as an advocate and a partisan. He
 
 92 Itidimui Magazine of History 
 
 has eliminated as irrelevant to a truthful picture of the better 
 class of Hoosiers, The Hoosier School Master entire, and 
 much of the New Purchase, and has presented his facts and 
 reasons. 
 
 Both the chapter on the Men of the Western Waters by 
 Roosevelt and the new and splendid interpretation of frontier 
 life in the Old North West by Frederick G. Turner, relate to 
 the people, the location and the time of which we are writing 
 and are germane to the description of the Hoosier neighbors 
 of the British colonists, who included the family of Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 The references to Abraham Lincoln are intended chiefly 
 to call attention to him as a Hoosier neighbor of the British 
 colony during its first decade and longer, and the influence 
 upon his character of a life among the pioneer farmers of 
 southwestern Indiana, and to point out avenues of oppor- 
 tunity and information which existed within his reach, dur- 
 ing his residence in Indiana, up to the time he was twenty-one 
 years of age and which furnish facts relevant in the history 
 of the main theme. That he had more opportunities and read 
 more books than his historians are able to trace is conceded 
 by them. 
 
 The writer had prepared biographical data, with illustra- 
 tions, of a number of the original settlers and their descend- 
 ants, among the latter a number of the representative men 
 and women in this section of the State, as well as elsewhere, 
 as a most complete verification of his statements, but the 
 limitations of a magazine article properly exclude them. 
 
 The First English Settlers 
 
 In the summer of 1817, Saunders Hornbrook, Sr., of 
 Tavistock, Devonshire, England, perfected arrangements for 
 his son, Saunders Hornbrook, Jr., to come to America with 
 his two sisters, and furnished him money to purchase land, 
 build temporary improvements and prepare accommodations 
 for the rest of the family, in the wilderness of the far west. 
 He intended to follow when the accommodations were ready. 
 His wife, a woman of unusual ability, was to remain behind a
 
 lyUhart: Cominy of the English to Indiana 93 
 
 couple of years with the two smaller children and settle up 
 the business. The senior Hornbrook operated large manufac- 
 tories (for the time), woolen mills and an iron foundry. He 
 was an educated man, as were his ancestors for several gen- 
 erations before him, and came of good stock. 
 
 The first week in October, 1817, the junior Hornbrook, 
 with his sisters, arrived at Pigeon creek, "a place merely for 
 loading and discharging vessels for the western part of Indi- 
 ana State." Evansville, located half a mile above the mouth 
 of Pigeon creek, then consisted of thirteen log houses. A 
 road ran out to the river through the blul!" bank at a point 
 now the foot of Main street. He proceeded without delay to 
 Princeton, twenty-seven miles due north, where Birkbeck and 
 Flower had established temporary quarters, while arrange- 
 ments for the accommodations of the Prairie settlement 
 across the Wabash river were in progress. Both Flower and 
 Birkbeck were well known in England, and Hornbrook, Sr., 
 had planned to join their settlement and purchase about 1,000 
 acres of land on which to settle with his family. Their scheme 
 of land speculation, however, limited the amount of the pur- 
 chase of one farmer to one-half section of land, 320 acres, 
 required the purchaser to take it where it was assigned him, 
 and the nearest to the proposed village centre where Horn- 
 brook could buy was about twenty miles distant. He was re- 
 quired to pay a price per acre greater than that for which 
 equally good or better land, much nearer in the government 
 domain, could be bought. 
 
 These terms young Hornbrook indignantly refused. He 
 returned to Princeton, "and after fourteen days constant fag, 
 sometimes one and sometimes two meals a day, sleeping in a 
 barn or cabin at night, he fixed on a spot of one and one-half 
 sections," nine hundred and sixty acres, about ten miles from 
 the Ohio river, and seventeen miles from Princeton, which he 
 immediately entered at the land otlice at Vincennes.' 
 
 Hornbrook came by the Red Banks trail from Princeton, 
 and located just east of it. This trail was one of the earliest 
 routes located by the Indiana and extended from the river 
 
 • I'rlvat*- Utter of Siiunder« Hornbrook. Sr. dated Jan. 7. 1818. at Tavlfltock.
 
 94 ImUa)ui Magazine of H {■story 
 
 north to Princeton, Vincenncs and Terre Haute and beyond 
 to the Indian \ iUajres at a very early day.- The survey of this 
 line by Jacob Fowler in 1806 shows it terminates at the Ohio 
 river about five miles below the mouth of Pigeon creek in 
 section 3, town 7, S. R. 11 W. about seven miles north of Hen- 
 derson (Red Banks). Here local history says the channel 
 was very narrow on account of sand bars on both sides of the 
 river and in low water was crossed by whites and Indians 
 without boats.'' (Wilson's map places the ford at Red Banks 
 about seven miles lower down the river.) This testimony is 
 corroborated, by descriptions in deeds, referring to this trail, 
 which are not found south of this ford.^ 
 
 "Evaiis\llle rlRht side. Above the mouth of Pig»on creek. This is a very 
 thrivinK town, sitiiaHnl in the bend of tho river, fifty-four miles south of Vln- 
 cennes. It is tlie sent of Justice for VanderburRh county. Indiana : chann«l nearest 
 rigrht shore, round a high bar at the loft hand point, opposite Pigeon creek. Two 
 miles below Pigeon creek there is a hard bar on the right : channel near the left 
 shore, and when you approach the left hand point below, keep over in the bend 
 on the right, to avoid a large bar on the left, round the point ; when past the 
 latter, keep well over to the left again, to avoid the large bar on the right." 
 
 This location by Hornbrook was in October or November, 
 1817. When the senior Hornbrook came over in the following 
 summer. 1818, he met Edward Maidlow. with his family, at 
 Wheeling, bound for the Prairie settlement. They bought 
 and fitted up an ark and came by water to Evansville together, 
 and Maidlow located adjoining Hornbrook, entering about the 
 same quantity of land as Hornbrook. 
 
 In April, the same year, George Flower, on his second trip 
 to America, sailed from England in the ship Anna Maria, 
 chartered by him, with a band of emigrants for his colony, 
 with the deck of the ship covered with a selection of fine 
 stock, preceded by a ship similarly loaded.' Among the pas- 
 sengers who came with them, named by Flower in his history 
 of the settlement, was John Ingle, his wife, five young chil- 
 
 ' George R. Wilson, Earhi Indian Trails and fturvrf/s. Map 394, 360, .161. 
 
 ' Seb.i8tlan Henrich. the veteran Abstractor, procured this testimony a gen- 
 eration ago from reli.ible sources. 
 
 ♦The following extract from The Western Pilot, by S;imuel Cummings. pub- 
 lished in 1825. which furnishes also in 20 maps the course of the Ohio river from 
 Pittsburgh to the Misnisiiippi river, shows the s.ind bars mentioned at the ter- 
 minus of the Red Banks trail as located in Fowler's survey ; 
 
 'George Flowers. Hiatory of the English Settlement in Edwards Count}/, til. 
 100.
 
 Ifflchart: Cojiihig of the Enrjlish tn Indiana 95 
 
 dren and maid, who came to Princeton and remained a short 
 time with Injrie's friend, Jiid^re WilMam Prince, after whom 
 Princeton, then four years old. was named. There can be no 
 doubt that it was the arrival of Georg^e Flower's ship, which 
 sailed in April. 1S18, thus mentioned:"' 
 
 A Nrw Vork jkiikt S41.vk: Wi* li'iirii tliiit n (;<'Utl('iiiaii Iuih liitHy iirrlvcd 
 in tlilxflty frtmi Kujilmul \vhos«« oltJtMt is t<> M-ttlo in tlie Illinois territ*)ry — 
 that Ills f.iiiiily iiiul st'ltlt-rs. liron^'lit over with liini. iiniouiit to tifty-one 
 iKTst^ns - (lijit lu» liJiK fnrnislit'tl lilms<'lf witli imrhultuiiil Iniiilcnimts. S4>04lfl 
 of v:irions ivintis. sonu* cows. sliiH-p iind jiIks for bri'ttlinj;, and aibonl lUO.OOO 
 |K>nn<Is sterling in money. 
 
 'I'liis Is iloln;: Imsint'ss to a >:i-pat national as well as individual profit; 
 and if ;:c:itk>iiu'n of fortnnc anil oiitci -prise will eniii:i-:it<> in tlit> same man- 
 ner, our Western .""^tates will shortly he the ni«tst tiourishln;; part of the 
 world. 
 
 The amount of cash in the party was probably over-stated, 
 although there were a number of well-to-do individuals in 
 the party. 
 
 After a survey of the situation, Ingle, instead of going as 
 he had intended to the Illinois settlement, bought a section of 
 land near Hornbrook, about the time that ^laidlow purchased. 
 Hornbrook and Maidlow were men of middle age with good 
 sized families of grown children, a number of whom later in- 
 termarried. Maidlow was "a most intelligent and respectable 
 Hampshire farmer, who brought considerable capital and 
 English habits and feelings the best in the world."' He pre- 
 ferred to remain a farmer and hold his land for its increase. 
 Ingle outlived Hornbrook and Maidlow. He was for many 
 years an active leader in public matters and, like Hornbrook 
 and Maidlow, remained on his farm all his life. All of them 
 were strong men and natural leaders, who became and re- 
 mained during their lives the center of a large circle in the 
 Saundersville community, exercising wide and permanent 
 influence. 
 
 The McJohnstons and Hillyards, Irish, who came in 1818. 
 and the Wheelers. English, and the Erskines, Scotch-Irish 
 emigrant's, who came in 1819, all located a few miles east of 
 Saundersville. They were people of the same type, all men 
 
 * sues' Wetklu Reffiater. June 6. 1818. XIV. 256. 
 'ThwaltfB. Early Weatrm Traveta, XI. 234.
 
 96 Indiatia Magazine of History 
 
 of liiirh purposes and cliaracter. With, or following soon after 
 all of those men. came followers, relatives or friends. This 
 was the beginning of the British settlement in Indiana which, 
 in November, 1819, Faux describes as containing fifty-three 
 families in possession of 12,800 acres of land entered, having 
 capital to the amount of eighty thousand dollars.'^ Within two 
 years after that date there were in the settlement over one 
 hundred families, represening probably from five hundred to 
 seven hundred and fifty people. 
 
 The panic then existing in America, perhaps with im- 
 proved conditions of the people in England, possibly bettered 
 as the effect of wholesale expatriation in this general move- 
 ment, checked the rapid growth of the Indiana colony for 
 some years. But emigration never wholly ceased. Later in 
 the forties and early fifties renewed emigration in large num- 
 bers set in fiom Great Britain. These later emigrants were 
 attracted largely by relatives, friends or acquaintances of the 
 British settlers and their descendants, who by that time were 
 among the foremost leaders and town builders in the rapidly 
 growing town of Evansville. That town was platted in 1817, 
 was chartered a year later, and was now located near the 
 southern boundary of the settlement, which had extended 
 toward Evansville. 
 
 To the writer it seemed a matter of more than local interest 
 to trace the influence of these pioneers and their associates of 
 the first decade of the settlement, to trace their struggles with 
 adverse elements peculiar to the locality, in their stand for 
 law, order, morality and high Christian civilization in south- 
 western Indiana, at the beginning of societj' itself, and when 
 the influences of organized government were first authori- 
 tatively felt here. 
 
 The relation of the settlement to the new town of Evans- 
 ville was most intimate. A few miles distance between them 
 in that day was counted slight obstacle to such intimacy. 
 They grew from beginnings at the same time and were soon 
 
 •ThwaltPS, Early Western Travris. XI. :;40. Aaron Woods. Sketrhrs. \3. men- 
 tions English settlements In Drarbom and Kranklln counties as well as In Van- 
 derburgh county. W.' ttnd a short reference to the settlement In Dearborn county. 
 Archibald Shaw. //Uf. of Dearborn, 212-214. but no reference to the one In 
 Franklin county.
 
 lylchart: Coming of the E^f/^w/i to Indiana 97 
 
 almost united by the Mechanicsville (or Strin^own) ridge, 
 which was from the beginning settled by the better class of 
 pioneers and on which were scattered early a few of the 
 British colony. The British settlement became an integral 
 part of the foundation, growth and expansion of the city of 
 Evansville, which was destined to become a large city, in 
 which members of the settlement had an opportunity not 
 ofVered to the other purely agi'icultural British settlements 
 of the time. 
 
 Some of the descendants of these British pioneers, includ- 
 ing some of the younger generation born in England, such as 
 John Ingle, Jr., and Philip Hornbrook, were among the lead- 
 ing citizens of Evansville in its early growth and formative 
 period. The influence generally of the whole settlement on 
 the agricultural community, its intelligence, morality and so- 
 ciety was also marked. More than any other single element, 
 the influence from the source mentioned aided in the estab- 
 lishment of high standards of social and political life and 
 institutions. 
 
 Before the days of railroads and the telegraph, repre- 
 sentatives of the British settlement were leaders in the town 
 of Evansville. They were leaders in the building of the first 
 canal, the first railroad and the first telegraph line in south- 
 western Indiana, and in the promoting of the first coal mine, 
 and river craft attachment to furnish fuel to steamboats on 
 the river and the people of Evansville at its wharf. They 
 were leaders, in the beginning, of the educational institutions 
 of the city of Evansville at the time of the creation of the 
 public school system of Indiana. They were leaders in the 
 organization and support of the first agricultural society in 
 the county"*, and the early agricultural reports of the State 
 contain the names of one of the younger leaders in the settle- 
 ment as among the first contributors to the literature of sci- 
 entific agriculture." In pioneer work in the religious insti- 
 
 •• Philip Hornbrook waa'Becr<>tar>' ot the nr»t a«rieultur:il society In Viuidor- 
 bufKh county and so continued during his life. When he died the society aban- 
 doned Its meetlnsa 
 
 " Int.reBilnK articles on sclentldc agriculture by Andrew Ersklno, Indiana 
 Agricultural Reports, 1866. 387. 392; 1859, 60. 119.
 
 98 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 tutions of the entire county they were first, as the records 
 show. 
 
 From 1819, when the Wheeler brothers and Robert Par- 
 rett came into the settlement, and for twelve or fifteen years 
 afterwards, while the community was too poor to build a 
 church or support a preacher, the town of Evansville itself, 
 as well as the rural districts, relied almost entirely upon them 
 — excepting? an occasional visit of a Presbyterian missionary, 
 or the Methodist circuit rider — for an educated ministry. 
 
 The names of Hornbrook. Ingle, IMaidlow. Parrett, Hill- 
 yard. Wheeler, Erskine and others were early well known in 
 Vincennes, New Harmony, Albion, Princeton, Evansville, and 
 surrounding country, and for one hundred years, through 
 several generations, those names have stood for truth, hon- 
 esty, and justice in dealing with others. The large repre- 
 sentation of those families among the prominent citizens of 
 Evansville, as well as some well known in wider fields, is due 
 in no small degree to this fact. Among the latter, now living, 
 will appear names known throughout the countiy in litera- 
 ture and great moral refonn and when the United States, in 
 November, 1918, assumed government control of all telegraph 
 as well as telephone lines in the countiy, a grandson of Rob- 
 ert Parrett, Union Bethell, was placed in charge of them all. 
 
 Before entering more fully into these details, it will be 
 appropriate to give an outline of the wider movement recog- 
 nized at the time l)y leading authority in Great Britain and 
 America, as of world-wide importance, and of which the Indi- 
 ana colony was a part. 
 
 Usually the significance of local histoiy is that it is part 
 of a greater whole. The right and vital sort of local history is 
 the sort which may l)e written with lifted eyes — the sort 
 which has a horizon and an outlook upon the world.'-' 
 
 English Emigration to America After 1815 
 
 The four British colonies in America were parts of a 
 single movement, resulting from the same causes. Professor 
 Sparks, in an excellent short summarj' of the movement, says : 
 
 " Wood row Wilson. The Course of American History, 216.
 
 I git hart: Coming of the Etiglish to Indiana 99 
 
 KUKli^b cttlnnlfs wiTf pliiiiti'*! Ill iMstt-ru iVunsylvHiilii, iiloiiK tUe Sus- 
 quotiaiia river; in I^jujc IkIjiiuI, New York; lii tin* Huutlii'rn iH)rtloii of the 
 State of Indiana, and in Mouttjeasteni IIlinoiH. • • • The luoveiueut 
 develoiKHl at tlie time of the riHonstriK'tion jn'rlml of KuroiK'an iilstor)', 
 wlii'U the nations were atteniptiiiK to resiinie tlieir normal e<."onouilc reia- 
 tiouH, after twenty years of almost oMitiniious war. • • • The iHH)ple 
 blauuHl all their niiserieK upon the Kovernruent.is 
 
 William Cobbet. in his dedication to Thomas Hulme's 
 Journal of a tour of the far west in 1818, ascribes the activity 
 of the latter to his zeal aj?ainst the twin monsters, tyranny 
 and priestcraft, and a desire to assist in providing a retreat 
 for the oppressed. He speaks of the great numlxjrs of immi- 
 grants flocking to the western countries, the newest of the 
 New World, toward which the writings of Morris Birkbeck 
 had called their pointed attention. Especially, were so at- 
 tracted those Englishmen, "who having something left to be 
 robbed of, and wishing to preserve it, were looking towards 
 America as a place of refuge from the borougliinongers and 
 the Holy Alliance."' ^ 
 
 Hulmc says he saw that the incomes of his childi*en were 
 all pawned to pay the debts of the borough or seat owners. 
 That of whatever he might be able to give his children, which 
 was a very substantial sum, as well as of what they might be 
 able to earn, more than one-half would be taken away to feed 
 pensioned lords and ladies, "soldiers to shoot at us, parsons 
 to persecute us, and fundholders, who had lent their money to 
 be applied to purposes of enslaving us.'^ 
 
 Richard Flower said in his letter of August 20, 1821, that 
 the grand reason for emigration was to escape that over- 
 whelming system of taxation, which had diminished the prop- 
 erty of the emigrants, and threatened, if they staid much 
 longer, to swallow up th*^ whole. He adds: 
 
 How many of my brother farmers have lost their allV H<»w many have 
 been added to the list of |Min|ters. sin<e we left our lK>love«l roiiiitry, news- 
 paiKMs and private letters, aurkiiltnral nut'tiufrs and parliamentary pro- 
 ceetlinys re|Hirts sutli<-i(>ntly de*-lare."i 
 
 " Erie Hp<irkB. KngliaH Settlement in the llhuois. introduction. 
 "TliwalKn, Early Weatrrn Truvrls, X 19-21. 
 »»Thwalte». Ktirly Western Travtia, X 23. 
 »• Id. 146.
 
 100 InilUinu Magazine of History 
 
 Rev. John Ingle, of Somersham, so often mentioned by 
 Faux in his Travels, thus writes to his son, John Ingle, of 
 Saundersville, eighteen months after the emigration of the 
 hUter to the Indiana colony: 
 
 I U)ost slucori'ly cougratiilate you on your choice nnd successful remov- 
 ing from your niitive country: you have privations, ynu have calculated 
 uiK)n, and from your a«counts, fewer than you expected. Had you stopped 
 bere, you would have llve<l somehow, but you could not have continued in 
 the society you have been used to. Here the smaller stations of property 
 appear prndually wearing to ])auperlsm and the prospect before us Is un- 
 promising indeed ; agriculture dark, commercial and maimfacluring sta- 
 tions no less so. Prices are low. markets are falling, corn traders stopping, 
 laborers out of employ, and money so scarce as in a great measure, what 
 can be omittiMl, iM>ssibly. is umitted. Poor rates are enormous and api>ear- 
 ances seem to tell us they will still increase. 
 
 Faux gives as the reason of James Maidlow for emi- 
 grating, that after a fair trial, with a large farm, he found 
 it impossible to fann, without losing money. 
 
 Payton Wheeler, a tradesman from Chelsea, told Faux 
 that having a wife and eight children, he was determined on 
 emigration by soberly looking into his affairs and finding 
 that he had an increasing family, and decreasing property, 
 having lost during his last year, among his tradsemen, 1,500 
 pounds. Birkbeck, in his Notes, is thus quoted in the Edin- 
 burgh Review: 
 
 A Nation, with half its jiopulation supportetl by alms, or poor-rates, 
 and one-fourth of its income derive<l from taxes, many of which are dried 
 up in their sources, or siiee<lily becoming so, must teem with emigrants from 
 one end to the other, and. for such as myself, who have had "mtthing to 
 do with the laws but obey them." it is quite reasonable and just to secure 
 a timely retreat from the approaching crisis — either of anarchy or 
 despotism. 
 
 An Knglish farmer, tu which il.iss I had the Imnitr to belong, is in 
 possession of the .same rights and privileges with the villeins of old time, 
 and exhibits for the most part, a suitable political character. He has no 
 voice In the api>ointmeut of the legislature, unless he hapi>en to possess a 
 freehold of forty shillings a year, and he is then expected to vote In the 
 Interest of his lamllord. He has no concern with public affairs, excepting 
 as a tax-payer, a jiarish officer, or a militiaman. He has no right to appear 
 at a county meeting, unless the word Inhabitant .should find its way into the 
 sheriflTs invitation: in this case he may show his face among the nobility, 
 clergy, and f reeh»>lders ; a felicity which once occurred to my.self, when the
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 101 
 
 inhultiUiuts of Surrey were luvlted to atMittt ibe geutry ia crying dowu 
 the lui'ome Tax. 
 
 Thus, having no eltH-tlve franrUlse, an KnKll^h fanner can scarcely be 
 said to have a |>oUtlcal exlstemH*; aud i>ollUcal duties he has none, except 
 such as, under existing clrrunistances, would Inevitably consign blm to the 
 special guardlanshl|) of the Secretary of State for the home department. 
 
 Following: this, the Revieiv. concedes that "whoever pre- 
 fers his own to any other country, as a place of residence, 
 must be content to pay an enormous price for the g-ratification 
 of his wish."'" The Rerieiv reproves the writers of works of 
 travel and the magazines which manifested hatred of Amer- 
 ica, and things American, and it shows an appreciation of 
 American growth and coming greatness, prophetic of what 
 the world concedes today. 
 
 Confirming the experience of Hulme and others, as to re- 
 lig-ious persecution, Saunders Hombrook, Sr., the father of 
 the British settlement in Indiana, whose mother, Barbara, 
 was the daughter of Rev S. Richards, of Calstock, in Devon- 
 shire, a Unitarian minister, gave as his reason for emigration, 
 in addition to business depression, the fact that he was fined 
 a shilling for attendance at the Unitarian chapel of each 
 member of his family and household. 
 
 As early as the end of 1816 the problem of emigration 
 from Great Britain to America had become a serious on6, 
 both to the British government, and to the people of America. 
 In New York alone nearly 2,000 such emigrants who, accord- 
 ing to John Bradbur>', foolishly remained about the cities till 
 their money gave out, were stranded and appealed to their 
 home government for aid. Competition among laborers was 
 great, as emigrants were arriving from all of the nations of 
 Europe. In February, 1817, the British consul in New York, 
 by newspaper advertisement, announced "the important priv- 
 ilege to such English emigrants, to settle in upper Canada or 
 Nova Scotia." This indicated the scheme of a British colony, 
 charged in the American press to be the result of the work 
 of a British spy. Colonies west of the mountains were then 
 urged on account of a temperate climate better adapted to 
 
 " KdJnburifh Review. 1818. Vol. -\XX. 123.
 
 102 I)i<fiana Magazine of History 
 
 settlers, than the rigorous weather of upper Canada and Nova 
 Scotia. 
 
 An ambitious plan of western colonization on a large scale 
 to provide for such emigrants as preferred to remain in the 
 United States, was outlined in detail in an American maga- 
 zine in July, 1817.'^ Bradbury's Travels in 1809, 1810 and 
 1811 published in August. 1817, gave a most favorable de- 
 scription of the scattered people of the west and recommended 
 colonies for mutual protection of emigrants, which practice, 
 he says, was not confined to newcomers only, but was fre- 
 quently adopted among old settlers. Referring to the latter, 
 he says : 
 
 Witli whom it is a continn:!! bond of .unity niul social iiitorooursp, and 
 in no part of the world is >:ood ni>iKhl)orsliij» found in greater i>erfectiou 
 tiian iu the western territory or in America peuerally. 
 
 Morris Birkbeck's Notes came out in Philadelphia, in the 
 fall of 1817, before they were published in England. William 
 Darby's Enii^graoits' Guide, giving full directions to emi- 
 grants, was published in America about the same time. In 
 the May number, 1818, of the AnaUctic Review, appeared a 
 review of both of these works, in which the writer refers ap- 
 provingly to Birkbeck's scheme and says that his "plans in 
 the State of Indiana, bid fair to bring about the realization of 
 our more flattering hopes." Birkbeck's colony was in Illinois, 
 on the edge of the prairie beyond the heavy timber belt in 
 Indiana, which extended to the Wabash river. His temporary 
 headquarters were, however, in Indiana and he refers to the 
 people of the latter State in his work. 
 
 When the movement among the better class of British emi- 
 grants followed that of the more shiftless or unfortunate 
 class mentioned, the former sent out agents to western Amer- 
 ica to look at the country and make recommendations. Such 
 an agent was William Bradshaw Fearon, a London physician, 
 who was unfairly denounced as untruthful by Cobbett, of the 
 Long Island colony, and as an agent of the British govern- 
 ment by George Flower. Referring to the character of men 
 and women, who were a correct type of the leaders of the 
 
 " Analectic Review, Phila. X. 52.
 
 Igh'hart: Coniing of the English to Indiana 103 
 
 first English settlement in Indiana, as well as, we have reason 
 to believe, the Illinois settlement, Mr. Fearon says, in sub- 
 stance.'" 
 
 At the time of his appointment as the agent of thirty- 
 nine English families to investigate and report upon the sub- 
 ject of a location in the west, emigration had assumed a 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 and regular pursuits; men of reflection, who appre- 
 hended approaching evils; men of upright and conscientious 
 minds, to whose happiness civil and religious liberty were es- 
 sential. And men of domestic feeling, who wished to provide 
 for the future support and prosperity of their offspring. 
 
 The design of emigrating by colony to Illinois was formed 
 by Morris Birkbeck, who in 1817, in Philadelphia and in 1818 
 in London, published his Notes of his journey and described 
 his plans, his location, in the small prairies of Illinois adjoin- 
 ing timber land, and its advantages. His appeal to the 
 British people met with a response of approval so general as 
 to alarm the partisans of the goverimient, and to provoke 
 from them attacks upon America and things American ; trav- 
 elers like Fearon and Faux were biased with this spirit. It 
 was said of him by Faux that "no man since Columbus, had 
 done so much toward peopling America, as Morris Birbeck." 
 
 To Birkbeck more than all others, was due the first leader- 
 ship of the colony, in the prairie of Illinois, as well as of other 
 emigrants in the far west, at this time, who did not join his 
 colony. He was a highly educated man. a large and successful 
 tenant farmer, of 1,500 acres, called Wanborough, near Guil- 
 ford, in the county of Surrey. He had accumulated property 
 which he converted into about 55,000 dollars cash, which he 
 invested in his scheme of emigration. A large number of his 
 employees and former tenants joined him and became tenants 
 or small purchasers of land from him. Some returned to 
 England. Flleven editions in English of Birkbeck's Notes 
 
 •» Fearon 'b Hketchra of America, Introduction. "Almoat eviry vessel from 
 EnRlancI brlriRH iiiorv or less paaBenRcrti — the iiirrfiit of IminiKrutlon la steady, 
 and of very r»j«p«ctable character." S'iUa' Jtigiater, May 17, 1817, V. XII, p. 185.
 
 104 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 were published during 1817, 1818 and 1819, in Philadelphia, 
 London. Dublin and Cork, and a German translation was 
 published in Jena in 1818.-" His Letters from Illinois were 
 pul)lished in seven editions in P^nglish in 1818, and in 1819 
 were translated into French and German, 
 
 George Flower was the son of Richard Flower, who was 
 a large brewer at Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, 
 who had retired from business after acquiring a competence, 
 and lived upon a beautiful estate called Marden. He was the 
 head of a prominent family, still influential in England. He 
 placed a large sum at the disposal of his son, George, then 29 
 years of age, and personally joined him in promoting the suc- 
 cess of the colony where he lived the remainder of his life. 
 
 Birkbeck and Flower sought to buy an entire township of 
 alxnit 40,000 acres, but this required an act of congress to 
 make an exception to the government method of selling land, 
 and that plan failed. The scheme outlined in Birkbeck's 
 Notes was therefore modified and Birkbeck and Flower 
 bought 16,000 acres in one body and other tracts were from 
 time to time added by them and by individual purchases. It 
 is not unlikely that Birkbeck and Flower might have obtained 
 the privilege of buying one or more townships of land in a 
 body without its offer at public sale, if the Hibernian soci- 
 eties of New York. Philadelphia and Baltimore had not at 
 the same time petitioned congress for large concessions to the 
 Irish emigrants for colonization in bodies in the west. The 
 House of Representatives, by a decisive vote, adopted a com- 
 mittee report adverse to these petitions, and which called at- 
 tention to others without naming them, doubtless including 
 that of Birkbeck and Flower.'-' An unfortunate breach be- 
 tween the two men at the very beginning of their plans pre- 
 vented them ever meeting or acting together and the two men 
 organized rival towns, Birkbeck at Wanboro and Flower at 
 Albion, only a few miles apart. Birkl)eck died in 1825 and 
 Wanboro later disappeared, Albion became the county seat 
 and absorbed the business of the former town. Birkbeck was 
 the practical farmer. Before his emigration, he enjoyed a 
 
 ""Solon Justii.s Buck. lUinoia in ISM. 112. 
 "Silea- Weekly Repister. 1818, XR', 256 and 280.
 
 Jglehati: Comhw of the English in Indiana 105 
 
 widespread celebrity as being one of the first practical as well 
 as theoretical fanners of tlie kingdom. His premature and 
 early death by drowning in 1825 cut short his plans, and the 
 loss of Flower in Birkbeck's alienation and death, just at the 
 time of an expected reconciliation, was very great, equally to 
 their original scheme and to George Flower personally. 
 
 Flower was not raised a farmer and when he built Park 
 House in the winter of 1818-19 for his father, later occupied 
 by himself, it was for years maintained much as a great 
 county estate in England. It was said when built to be the 
 finest house west of the Allegheny mountains. 
 
 To Morris Birkbeck belongs the credit of the conception of 
 the English colony in the prairie of Illinois, a publication of 
 the description of the country, and a presentation of states- 
 manlike view of the advantages of the far west to the inhab- 
 itants of the old world, then considering emigration. This 
 exerted an extraordinary influence upon the British people. 
 While in America, his son in England fitted out a ship, char- 
 tered by him, which brought a ship load of emigrants and 
 supplies in April, 1818. He was nominated secretary of state 
 ad interim of the new State of Ilfinois and on political 
 grounds, only, the senate refused to confirm his appointment. 
 His intimacy with Governor Edward Coles, while the latter 
 was on a diplomatic mission abroad, before he became gov- 
 ernor, is believed to have influenced his selection of Illinois, 
 as a field for his emigration scheme. He is recognized by the 
 best authority as among the first men of the State, in defeating 
 the attempt to impose slavery on the Stiite by a new constitu- 
 tion.-'- Richard Flower was so recognized by Governor Coles, 
 who appealed to him personally for aid in that crisis.-''. Birk- 
 beck's descendants in America and Australia, have been and 
 are highly respectable and successful people, some of them of 
 much prominence. 
 
 To George Flower belongs the credit of co-operation with 
 Birkbeck, the puI)lication of Birkbeck's Notes, one copy of 
 which he carried to Philadelphia and one to London, the 
 
 ^ Wilwiiljurn, Sketch of Edward Colea. 188; Dwiglit Hurrls. Negro Servitudt 
 in lllinoit, 44. 
 
 " Wunhburn'e Sketchea of Edicard Colea, 145.
 
 106 Indiana Magazine of Hii^tnnj 
 
 chartering of ships, the creation of Albion as a going con- 
 cern and the devotion of his Hfe to the work in which Richard 
 Flower, his father, joined and invested a large fortune for 
 that time. 
 
 Richard Flower, in 1824, was commissioned by George 
 Rapp. the head of the New Harmony settlement, to sell out 
 the property of the Rappite colony and Flower visited Scot- 
 land and interested Robert Owen, who made the purchase In 
 that year. It appears that Flower found Owen as the pur- 
 chaser.-^ 
 
 George Flower was a man of commanding presence, and 
 of large natural ability. His descendants have almost, with- 
 out exception, been remarkable people intellectually. His 
 grandson. Rev. George F. Pentecost, D. D., still living in Phil- 
 adelphia, in the active ministry in a great church at 75, has 
 been and remains one of the most eloquent, able and remark- 
 able men in the American pulpit. 
 
 Enormous sums of motley were spent in many ways veiy 
 early by the Flowers for the betterment and improvement of 
 the colony and its inhabitants and to attract emigrants. They, 
 with Birkbeck, were broad, liberal and philanthropic. Their 
 money so lavishly spent, was not a wise financial investment 
 in the primitive state of society and economic development of 
 the country, then just commencing. The final success of the 
 prairie agricultural colony was to be from the labor of the 
 individual farmer and his family, acting independently. Large 
 sums invested so far in advance of the times in the wilder- 
 ness, were never returned and George Flower and his wife 
 lived to endure "pinching penury" in the neighborhood of his 
 former grandeur. He and his wife died the same day at 
 Grayville. Illinois. January 15, 1862. 
 
 The Illinois Settlement 
 
 It i.^ not our purpose to repeat the story of the founding 
 of the Illinois settlement and its gradual evolution into an 
 intelligent and successful agricultural community with the 
 
 ** George Flower. Hiatory of the Enghih Settlement in Edicarda Count]/, 61, 
 note.
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 107 
 
 attractive and cultured county seat of Albion. Birkbeck's 
 and Flower's works conUiin a full account of the details. 
 Professor Sparks' English ScttlcmetU in Illinois is merely a 
 reprint of interestinjf letters of Richard Flower, and Morris 
 Birkl>eck. descriptive of the times and country in their rela- 
 tionship to this emiyrration. He did not claim to have before 
 him all the facts in relation to the progress of that settlement, 
 nor any acquaintance with the community necessary for a de- 
 termination of the question of the success of the Illinois colony 
 of which he speaks in unfavorable terms. His statement that 
 a very few descendants of the English settlers are yet to be 
 found in Edwards county would seem to be a misappre- 
 hension. 
 
 The purpose of all of these English emigrants in Illinois 
 and Indiana was not to form English colonies in America, 
 with English customs or laws, "or with a separate or inde- 
 pendent existence. This was the opposite of Birkbeck's scheme 
 outlined in his Notes. It was rather their movement together 
 into a new country for the betterment of men and women of 
 common hopes and aims. It was to become pioneers and 
 citizens of a democratic republic, where the oppressive bur- 
 den of rents, tithes, poor rates and taxes from which they fled, 
 practically had no existence. They came, too, like the Pilgrims 
 of old, to seek freedom from oppression, including freedom to 
 worship God. All of the Americans were emigrants or de- 
 scendants of emigrants. The English settlers ceased to be 
 foreigners, they became Americans, with all others. 
 
 The success, in a sense, of an English settlement in the 
 beginning of a community like this, lay in its perfect union 
 with all the better elements of population as then came into 
 the country, and they came rapidly. Its highest success lay 
 in the extent of its contributions to the building of character 
 among the people, to the elevation of ideals, to the establish- 
 ment of public opinion, based on correct stiindards of right 
 and wrong, leadership in establishing public imprownonts, 
 churches, school houses, introducing good stock, in creating 
 improved farms, early roads, bridges and mills, and later, 
 canals, railroads, telegraph and a system of public education.
 
 108 Indiana Maijazinc of Hu^tory 
 
 as well as everythinir enterinjr into the make-up of good 
 society. 
 
 Many of these things were introduced by Birkbeck and 
 Flower in the very beginning at enonnous expense never re- 
 turned to them, and with the aid of the influence of the Eng- 
 lish settlers most of them came sooner than they would have 
 come without that aid. Such was distinctly the result in 
 southwestern Indiana of the permanent location of the Eng- 
 lish settlers in Vanderburgh county. 
 
 Mr. Walter Colyer, of Albion, himself a descendant of one 
 of the English settlers, was for nearly twenty years editor 
 of the Albion Journal, during which period he gathered much 
 material relating to tlie Illinois settlement, with a view to 
 utilizing it in various ways. During the past fifteen years, 
 since quitting the newspaper field, his stock of material has 
 increased. He has written and published a number of ar- 
 ticles upon the subject, a number for the Illinois Historical 
 Society, of which for many years he has been a director. He 
 has an invaluable collection of books and pamphlets on the 
 subject which have been of much value to the writer in ex- 
 tending his investigation to the Illinois settlement. He is 
 best qualified of any person living to answer the inquiry as 
 to what impress the English settlement in Edwards county 
 has left today upon the community in which it was located. 
 Answering that question put to him, he gives, in a letter, the 
 following relevant facts: 
 
 As uiany as seven huiidreil English iie<ii»le found a iH»rnianent settle- 
 ment nnd home In Edwards county In the early years of the colony, to say 
 nothinp of the hundro<ls of others who continued to migrate from England 
 to the En;:lish settlement, f<>r Hfty years afterwards. 
 
 The great majority of those people diiMl here in Edwards county, and 
 the day you were In .Mblon many hundre<ls of their desi-endants were on 
 the fairgrounds to attend the Centennial Celebration. I have no means of 
 knowine how ninny of those desceJidants wore pres<Mit. but it is tjuite likely 
 that tliey <'omiiri.>Je<l from one-third to on^-lialf of the total attendance. 
 
 Pklwnrds Is a county in which approximately nineteen-twentieths of the 
 farmers reside on their own farms, and farm mortgages are the exception 
 nnd not the rule. The delinquent tax list, published once a year, has nu- 
 merous times been i)rlnt«l in less than one column of .space in a local 
 new.si>aper. There has not be<'n a saloon in Albion, the county seat, for 
 more than forty-five years, and none In the entire county for that period
 
 lijhhart: Coming of the English to Indiatia 109 
 
 with the exception uf one for a brief time at Browim Aoiiie fifteen yearg ago. 
 Thert' are but two" trrins of cln-nlt court In tlu' county n year, am! It ban 
 Huuiet 1 uies ba|i|K*iit><l court bas ailjouruttl witbout a Jury trial or tbi* return 
 of an indictuient. In a butidreti yearM tbere bave tM>eu but fuurti*en bunii- 
 ddes an<l in but tbrec InstantvH was tbe IcilliuK done for any caune but 
 self <h'fens«v 
 
 Kilwards is a county in wlildi practically every farmer owns a tele- 
 pbone. subs*«rlbeK for a Io«'al newspain-r ami reads tbe fbtcajjo. St. I>ouiM or 
 Rvansville dallies. It bas been eonipiit«>4l tliat Kdwards county bas a greater 
 number of automobiles In pro|Mirtion to |>opulatlon tban any otber <-ounty. 
 save one. In Illinois. Tlie jK'r capltji of wealtb Is >rreati>r and tbe standard 
 of Intelligence bibber tlian In most of tbe counties of soutbern Illinois. 
 Two-tbirds of tbe farmers bave a .substantial balance to tbelr credit in a 
 local bank. 
 
 Tbe «\)nnty Is famous for tbe fact tbat Its <'ounty Jail, as well as the 
 county alnjshouse. is often unoccupie<l for montbs at a time, and tbe Jailer 
 niak(>s bis living by other means. It can also be sjild with truth tliat Ed- 
 wards is a county In which high school, college or university graduates, 
 can be foimd sprlnkle^l about on alnxist every .sjH-tlou of land. 
 
 Tbo.«e who were born, renretl and trainetl In Kdwards county, have 
 carrltnl the Indelible impress of their early environment to other States or 
 countries, have In the great majority of Instances prospered and done honor 
 to the pbu'e of tbcir birth. Many of tbem bave become fanu><l as e<lltors. 
 lawyers, statesmen, doctors, mi.ssloniries. preachers, lecturers, e^lucators, 
 engineers, scientists, travellers, and successful men in various lines of 
 industry. One became tbe owner of a lariie FIJI Island and amassed a 
 great fortune. 
 
 Of Albion, tbe county seat of Fklwards county, tbe town founded by 
 George Flower a bundretl years .-igo. it may be intere.><ting to note that It 
 contains itractic.-illy twice as many pianos .-is dogs, and that it has more 
 miles of brick pavtnl streets than any otber city of its population In soutbern 
 Illinois. It may 1k' worth observing tbat tbe «-ity c.-ilaboose is o<X'upled 
 warcely once a year. 
 
 It appeals that the settlements of the Enprlish and Irish, 
 with a few Scotch, in the west, were destined, both in Illinios 
 and in Indiana, to give color and tone to the society, manners 
 and customs of the people with whom they mingled. 
 
 The Indiana Settlement 
 
 The facts which led IIorn!)i-ook to refuse the terms oflFered 
 him by the promoters of the Illinois colony and to select a 
 location in the southern Indiana wilderness, which imme- 
 diately became a nucleus for a British colony in Indiana, do
 
 110 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 not all lie upon the surface, or fully appear in the reasons 
 already given for that step. 
 
 There was something in the headship of one or two per- 
 sons over others, especially strong men, in the direction and 
 domination of the most important step, in the change of home 
 and country, that was tolerated in England, but wholly for- 
 eign to American soil and life. It appears that Birkbeck and 
 Flower could not agree and organized rival towns. Whatever 
 the cause assigned for the quarrel, it was true, then as now, 
 that there could be but one leader to a single movement. 
 
 The natives called Birkbeck the Czar of the prairies. 
 Flower, as stated, lived in the finest house west of the Alle- 
 gheny mountains, and in an unusual degree brought into the 
 far west English life and comforts at a great expense. Both 
 these men saw the future of the country and that empires 
 were to be established in the new western States. 
 
 The power of organization, leadership and money had its 
 limits, and the success of the farmer lay in the products of 
 the soil, only to be obtained by a life of hard labor. Hired 
 labor could not be obtained to accomplish that result. ^len 
 would not work for others when their work for themselves 
 would pay for their farm. 
 
 There was another circumstance which exerted some in- 
 fluence upon the members of the Indiana colony. A number 
 of the leaders of the emigrants in the Indiana colony were 
 men of Puritan faith and principles, which moulded their 
 lives and characters. They believed implicitly in God's provi- 
 dence in the affairs of men, and that moral forces rule the 
 world. The moral and religious supremacy of the Indiana 
 settlement was early one of its distinguishing features. Its 
 ministers and many of its leaders believed in positive and 
 demonstrative Christianity as opposed to mere forms. They 
 were not. however, subject to the criticism made against the 
 backwoodsmen, where public worship was very, often directed 
 and controlled by ignorant and uncouth native ministers. 
 
 George Flower says:-" 
 
 Rivjjls of the settlement, ejist of the uiount.iins f»et on foot every 
 disimrajrinK report ns to health, success, provisions, uiomls and reliRion. 
 "Sparks. History of Enfflish Settlement in Edicards Counti/, 166.
 
 lylchart: Coming of the English to Iiidiana 111 
 
 Upon i\n c'lniirraiiL reiusir.g to land at Shawneetown on one 
 occasion, on account of the absence of chuich services in the 
 prairie settlement, arrany:einents were made for a shoemaker, 
 Mr. Crown, to read printed seimons at Wanboro, in a little 
 cabin, and another layman read the Episcopal service in the 
 public library at Albion. On the arrival of Richard Flower 
 in 1819, he "preached" regularly every Sunday, the dissenters 
 service without church organization. 
 
 The slaveholders who attacked liirkbeck, denounced him 
 unfairly, as an infidel. He had, in one of his letters (No. 20), 
 admitted writing a preacher who offered to come to his colony 
 to fight infidelity and bigotry saying he had not a word to say 
 to that offer "dissuasive or encouraging" and that bigotry "is 
 a disease for which I think no remedy is so effective as letting 
 alone." The preacher did not come. The press attacked him 
 for his alleged irreligion in other utterances. 
 
 The Eclectic Review of 1818 denounced as a profane jest 
 his motto on the title page of his letters, "Vox clamantis e 
 deserto." The same motto is used in a similar manner in the 
 Xew Pi'.rvhase, Chap. X, by a prominent Presbyterian divine 
 in a description of pioneer life in Indiana, with seeming 
 propriety. 
 
 No doubt there was unfair criticism of the "theology" of 
 these promoters, but the absence of ministers, with a prac- 
 tical rebuff to one who desired to come to the Wanboro set- 
 tlement, had its effect upon some of the" deeply spiritual and 
 religious men among the emigrants. Father Parrett and 
 Father Wheeler, who settled in the Indiana colony in 1819, 
 were educated Wosleyan ministers and for a generation ex- 
 ercised great influence among the people with whom religion 
 
 was a matter of the first importance. 
 
 How far the personal equation figured in the creation of 
 two colonies instead of one, one in Illinois and one in Indiana, 
 cannot now be determined. Flower's book was written at the 
 end of a long life, after he had ceased to be a part of it, giv- 
 ing many interesting details of the founding of the Illinois 
 colony. He outlines fully the world-wide importance of 
 the step. He omits to give credit to many others for the
 
 112 ImUana Magazine of History 
 
 work of establishing the colony on a practical basis, claiming, 
 it is said, undue credit for himself and Birkbeck.-- 
 
 Elias P. Fordham is described by Colyer as "the main 
 stay of the Eng-lish settlement," who was the leader in many 
 practical affairs of vital importance. The records of Ed- 
 wards county show he collected his surveyor's fees for sur- 
 veying Albion by a judgment in court against Richard Flower. 
 Not long afterwards Fordham left the settlement and re- 
 turned to England. 
 
 In Hartt's Centennial History of Hliyiois-'^ there is a strong 
 implication that James Lawrence, an English tailor, a pic- 
 turesque character, had been overlooked by the historians of 
 the Illinois settlement. 
 
 Nowhere in Flower's book is any reference made to the 
 British settlement in Pennsylvania, nor to the publication of 
 Dr. C. B. Johnson in 1819-1820, containing a prospectus of 
 that settlement as a preface to his Letters from the British 
 Settlement in Pennsylvania. In this book, Johnson followed 
 the line of Birkbeck's letters and attracted much attention in 
 England and America. Dr. Johnson, besides attacking the 
 promoters of the prairie colony, when in New York, later 
 became an active promoter of the Pennsylvania colony, urged 
 as containing greater advantages than a colony so far west, 
 either in "Illinois or Indiana." The Pennsylvania colony was 
 organized in 1819 at a meeting of a number of Englishmen 
 who had been attracted by Birkbeck's Notes and had come to 
 America intending to join his colony. Its short history is 
 interesting and sheds light on the present inquiiy. 
 
 On reaching New York. Dr. C. B. Johnson, on his way to 
 Illinois, met Cobbett. who placed before him the advantages 
 of settling east of the mountains, and the hardships, ill 
 health and suffering in the far west, and poisoned his mind 
 both against Birkbeck and George Flower personally, upon 
 which Johnson attacked the western settlement and person- 
 ally attacked George Flower and P>irkl>eck.-'-' Similar at- 
 tacks were made in England about the same time. 
 
 ~ Adflr'^fs of W.'iltfr Colyrr nn tlie Konlhanis and La SerrfS of the English 
 settlement In Edwards County: in. State His. Soc. Prof. 1911, p. 4S. 
 
 »Chlc.TKo Sunday Tribune, Dec 1. 1918. 
 
 " GoorKe Flower. History of the English Settlement in Edwards County, 
 Illinois. 195.
 
 lyUhart: Comin(j of the English to Indiana 113 
 
 As one of a conimilteo of five he made a contract with Dr. 
 Robert H. Rose for an option to buy a maximum amount of 
 forty thousand acres in Susquehanna county, or any smaller 
 amount, for an Knjrlish colony. Ro.se held one hundred thou- 
 sand acres in a body extending into eight townships. He 
 had, several years previously, advertised substantially the 
 same scheme of a colony and had established a settlement 
 of New England farmers on the tract. Although his terms 
 were easy, between April, ISl.*], and September, 1815, over 
 one hundred suits had been brought against New England 
 settlers unable to pay the price of three dollars per acre. 
 
 In 1818 Rose advertised still easier terms to settlers, 
 bought out the small improvements of the New England set- 
 tlers who had made small clearings and sold them to the 
 English, who undertook to carry on the scheme which had 
 been abandoned by the New Englanders. The English re- 
 mained only three or four years and the settlement failed.-"^ 
 
 A third colony, of negroes, was established by Rose and 
 proved a still greater failure. Finally the location was set- 
 tled by Irish laborers, who were stranded in the country on 
 the failure in the construction of a canal. 
 
 To Dr. Johnson's volume as a preface was prefixed a pros- 
 pectus by the Philadelphia committee, stating with detail the 
 scheme of the Pennsylvania colony, and showing that the 
 amount of additional cost of an emigrant going to the far 
 west would buy 120 acres of land in the new settlement. 
 The book urged the unhealthy conditions in Indiana and Illi- 
 nois, danger from Indians in case of war, the absence of 
 markets, the privations and extreme hardships from which 
 a number of disappointed emigrants had turned back, and 
 presented the many advantages of markets and location so 
 near to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.-" It showed 
 that success by the individual emigrant could be had in north- 
 eastern Penn.sylvania easier and with less privations than in 
 
 ••Emily C. Blitckman, History of Suaquehanna County, Penn., 453. Stocker, 
 Suaquehanna County Centennial History, 602 
 
 "C. B. Johnson, Letters from the British Settlement in Pennsylvania, 1819, 
 Plilla. & I^jnJon.
 
 114 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 the west, which was probably true, with land equally produc- 
 tive. But it was a settlement in the wilderness where success 
 demanded a life of sacrifice and hard labor which the settlers 
 were unwillinp to devote and from which escape was veiy 
 easy. 
 
 Dr. Johnson was an educated man who seemed honest in 
 his account, which is a valuable record and description 
 of details of American backwoods life of that time, both east 
 and west of the mountains. 
 
 F>irkbeck*s Notes and Letters give an optimistic, yet sub- 
 stantially truthful account of the prospects of an English 
 settler in the far west. 
 
 Dr. Johnson's Letters present all of the facts against 
 them by a competitor. After three or four years he moved 
 to Binghamton, New York, where he died in 1845 at the age 
 of 65. Of him, the historian of the Pennsylvania settle- 
 ment say.s: 
 
 More thiin one KiiRlish emigrant beiiioaneil tbe day he read Johtunon's 
 Lcttertt, and hea|)«l upon the author accusations born of »lisai>iiointment. 
 "Too rose coh>re<l.'" his (lescri|)tions may have been: but so. also, were the 
 notions (if town-l)r<il |>eople resi)e<'tin>r their own caiiacity to endure the 
 inevitalile ills attendant upon pioneer life.32 
 
 The Pennsylvania settlement had underlying it the ele- 
 ment of speculation by the original proprietor of the land, 
 not dissimilar to that of Birkbeck's and Flower's schemes, 
 and the land was hilly and it seems not very productive. 
 Hornbrook, Ingle, Maidlow and other leaders of the Indiana 
 colony were men of strong character who preferred entire 
 independence of promoters. They issued no prospectus, pub- 
 lished no advertisements. All settlers and land owners 
 bought from the government and were on perfect equality. 
 They realized the necessities of their position and devoted 
 their lives to their work. 
 
 The reflected light from the literature and history of the 
 Pennsylvania. Indiana and Illinois settlement shows in a 
 measure the obstacles which deterred the more timid and less 
 resolute. These obstacles were far greater in the wilderness 
 
 "Blackmail, History of Suaquehanna Countv. Penn., 645.
 
 lyU'hart: Coming of the English to Indiana 115 
 
 of the far west than those east of the mountiiins to which the 
 Pennsylvania colony succumbed. 
 
 Of the Enjrlish settlement in Indiana and its relative im- 
 portance in 1820, John Woods, who lived two years in the 
 Illinois prairie settlement, and was not biased against the 
 Indiana colony, says:-'-' 
 
 TUi'iv in an Kiii:llsli s«^ttU>iiu>nt in IihUmiiii iil)out ten miles l)aek of 
 Evjinsvllle, I liave lie.inl, better \vatero<l, and nearer markets than we; 
 but it is in the uikkIs and tlie land is inferior to ours. Tliis is tlie arcnunt 
 I have rwelve<i of it. hut I kimw iiotliinj; oidy from tlie rei)f)rt of those 
 who have iio Interest in either settlement. 
 
 I have no |>ersonal knowledjre of Mr. Hornhrook or Mr. Maldlow. the 
 beads of tliat settlement ; and sliould any irtsou see my account of thi.s 
 part of the country and come to America. I would advi.se him to see both 
 settlements before he ti.xed in either. 
 
 Faux's travels west of the Alleghenies. a round trip of 
 over 1.600 miles, were made to visit an old friend, John Ingle, 
 of Saundersville, upon a compact made between him and 
 John Ingle, of Somersham, who agreed to look after Faux's 
 affairs during his absence, if the latter would visit his son in 
 America. Faux spent five weeks in John Ingle's cabin, the 
 picture of which is the frontispiece of his book. 
 
 With John Ingle, he visited New Harmony and Albion 
 and Wanboro and was by Ingle introduced to George Flower 
 and Birkbeck. Faux talked with both these men, as well as 
 the third party connected with their (juarrel. and his ap- 
 parently confidential conversations with all of them are pub- 
 lished by him, though of no public interest. 
 
 Faux's descriptions are without any literary merit, and 
 so described in the English leviews of the time, and are only 
 valuable as a record of facts which he saw, as he was doubt- 
 less honest. His sensibilities were so shocked by the sim- 
 plicity, .sacrifices and hardships of a life in the wilderness, 
 of men and women raised in the old country, with its con- 
 veniences and comforts, that he was unable to describe them 
 in anything but terms of impatience and coarse abuse. 
 
 It should be said that when he visited the settlement in 
 
 • Woo.lw, KngUah I'rairie, Z'o\ , Tliwalti-8. Early Weatern Travcla, X, 3J1.
 
 116 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 November, 1S19, it was in its infancy, so to speak, in the 
 agonies of birth, and things were at their worst. In a short 
 time many of the conditions I>aux describes improved and 
 most of his dire predictions were never venfied. His narra- 
 tion deals with events of trilling importance in the daily life 
 of the people without sense of propriety or proportions of 
 most of them. The privacy of the lives of the people was no 
 shield from his attacks. The Saundersville settlement, with 
 its people and its surroundings, occupies a greater portion of 
 the diar>' of which his volume is composed than any other 
 single subject in the book. It is particularly valuable, how- 
 ever, as it is the only published record of the early time, 
 other than Woods' reference above set ont, in which any 
 information whatever is given of the settlement in Indiana. 
 George Flower, who wrote his book forty years later, 
 mentions Honibrook, Ingle and Maidlow. He knew them 
 all well, and knew that they all had intended to join his set- 
 tlement, that Ingle came over in his ship with him, and that 
 Honibrook was the father of the Indiana settlement, so 
 called by Woods and Faux, and he had ground to believe that 
 Hornbrook did not like him. He goes out of his way, and of 
 the facts, to avoid mentioning the Indiana colony, nowhere 
 mentioned in his book, when in speaking only once of Horn- 
 brook, he says: 3* 
 
 It wns In ISIS or 1S10 that Mr. Hornlmink of Devizes. Devonshire, 
 calletl on me. as he eanie to see the settlement ; but having made previous 
 decision to remain at IMpeon Creek, Imliana. where EvansviUe now stands. 
 
 For the latter statement no foundation existed. Horn- 
 brook located at once where he remained, as already stated. 
 
 The British view of the importance of the emigration 
 movement so vividly described in Birkbeck's Notes is thus 
 given in the Edinburgh Rcvicic:^-' 
 
 The si»o<tn<'le jiresontwl hy America dnrinfr tlie lust tiiirty or forty 
 years — ever since her emnncipation l)epan to pro<luce its full effect, and 
 since she fairly entered the lists as an indei>endent nation with a com- 
 pletely popular povemment. has been, beyond everything formerly known 
 
 »« Hxatorv of the English Settlement in Edwards County, 162. 
 "Bdlnburgh Relieve, June, 1818, XXX 121.
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 117 
 
 In the lilKtory of maukiud. luiiKisiut: and lustriu-tiviv In order to couteiu- 
 plate Its woiulen* wltb coiuplett' advantuKe. an obnerviT ought to Lave 
 vlsltetl the New World twice lu the course of a few yearn. A sIhkIo view 
 Is liisullU-leiit to exhibit this proKress lu the States already settleil ; for 
 there, ijuk-kly as the chauges are k«)Iiik on, the prt»c-es« of creatWui Is uot 
 actually seen at oiR*e, or dlsclosetl, as It were, to the eye; some Interval 
 of time must l>e allowed, and the eomiMirlson then shows the extent of the 
 wonderful ehange. Hut the ('Xtraordlnary state of things lu the western 
 part of the I'lilon. <levelo|H.nl by Mr. Hlrkbei-k, shows us the process both 
 of colonization and increase at one glance. We see exjwsed to the naked 
 ej*e, the whole mystery of the generation as well as the growth of nations; 
 w« at once behold In what manner the settled parts of America are Increas- 
 ing with unparalleltHl rajiidity; and how new and extensive communities 
 are daily create*! in the plains and the forests of the west, by the super- 
 fluous iM)pulation of the eastern settlements. Those settlements assume 
 a novel and a striking asitei-t. 
 
 Predicting the future of the settlements in Illinois and 
 Indiana, the Review adds: 
 
 A frugal and Industrious people here established is morally certain of 
 rising to the rank of a great state in the course of a few generations. 
 
 In closing the article, the Review addsi^s 
 
 It Is lmi)ossible to close this Interesting volume, without casting our 
 eyes ui>on the man-elous empire of which Mr. Blrkbeck paints the growth 
 in colours far more .striking than any heretofore used In portraying It. 
 Where is this prodigious increase of numbers, this vast extension of do- 
 minion to end? What bounds has nature .set to the progress of this mighty 
 nation? Let our jealou.sy burn as it may, let our intolerance of America 
 be as unreasonably violent as we please; still It Is plain, that she Is a 
 power In si)lte of us, rapidly rising to supremacy; or. at least, that each 
 year so mightily augments her strength, as to overtake, by a most sensible 
 distance, even the most formidable of her comiK?tltors. 
 
 George Flower, who had l>een the guest of Thomas Jef- 
 ferson the previous winter, wrote the latter, asking his aid 
 in the effort to get an act of congress for the purchase of 
 40.000 acres in one body. Mr. Jefferson answered the letter, 
 promising his aid.-'" 
 
 Not on the selfish principle of Increasing our population at the exinjnse 
 of other nations, for the additions are but as a drop In a bucket to those 
 
 "Edinburgh Review, XXX. 137. 
 
 •'George l•^owe^. Engliah Settlement in Edwards Countu, 178.
 
 118 Indiana Ma(jazine of Histoid 
 
 by n.ittiral iirocroatlon. but to oonso<Tnte ii sjinctnarj- for those whom the 
 inisnilf of Kuropo iiuiy compel to s(H'k happiuoss In other climes, this refuge, 
 once known, will iinxhue reaction, even to those there, by warninjj their 
 task-masters that when tlic evils of Kp>-ptian ojipression become heavier 
 than those of abamlonment of country, another Cannan Is oi)oned. where 
 their snbjei'ts will be r(H'eiv«^1 as brothers jind se<urr*l ft"um like op])re»- 
 NJnn l>y a iwirticipatlon in the riirhts of self-frovernment. 
 
 After eloquently setting forth the advantages and bless- 
 ings of good government, a motive, he continues in his letter: 
 
 You have set your country a Kood exam])le, by showing them a prac- 
 ticable mode (^f rediKiuK their rulers to the necessity of beoominp more 
 wise, more moderate, and more honest, .'ind I sincerely pray that the exam- 
 ple may work for the beuetit of those who cannot follow It, us it will for 
 your own. 
 
 Organization of Local Government 
 
 The organization of county and township government in 
 Vanderburgh county began in 1818, contemporaneously with 
 the coming of the British emigrants. These were not treated 
 as foreigners and regarded themselves a part of the body of 
 the county, owners of the soil and ready to take an active 
 part in all civic duties. While members of the settlement in 
 the beginning were located very closely together, with Saun- 
 dersville as the village center, it was never a separate com- 
 muntiy, so far as sympathies with American ideals and sur- 
 roundings were concerned. 
 
 Treating the members of the British settlement as a 
 separate source of influence, with ideals and culture trans- 
 planted from the old world into the wilderness of the new, 
 there may be said to have been at the beginning two other 
 classes of people in Vanderburgh county, the influence of 
 which may be for the time separately traced. These were 
 best represented by the southern backwoodsmen and their 
 leaders, men of strong personality, and a few men fiom New 
 England, New York and other Atlantic coast States. 
 
 At this period in the union of all these elements, was the 
 beginning of a new and composite social and political order 
 in this locality, less homogeneous in some respects than its 
 surroundings, including the population south of the river, 
 but more cosmopolitan as the result of such a union.
 
 Ifjhhai't: Coming of the English to Indiana 119 
 
 Warrick county had been the parent county, which from 
 1814 to 1818 had furnished local government in a most 
 primitive manner, over large territory-, mostly a wilderness. 
 Previous to that time, Vincennes, the territorial county seat 
 of Knox county, had been the nearest seat of justice, too far 
 distant to be of much service to the few scattered settler;. 
 By an unwritten law, the right of self-defense and the doc- 
 trine of immediate personal responsibility for a violation of 
 individual rights, among the natives, maintained order, sutli- 
 cient for the time. 
 
 Vincennes was the capital of the territory and the mother 
 city of the northwest during this period. Princeton was in- 
 corporated in 1814 and was a thriving village described by 
 Faux in 1819-'^ as containing 105 houses, 19 streets, one 
 prison and one meeting house. Henderson, Kentucky, then 
 known as Red Banks, was near the western boundary of im- 
 migration in Kentucky in 1803 and earlier, and was early an 
 organized community of commercial influence, with a church 
 and school, including an excellent Female Seminary. In this 
 town the first Evansville merchants bought much of their 
 stocks. The route of travel across the river from Kentucky 
 into Indiana through Vanderburgh county, was over the 
 ferry at the mouth of Green river, the ferry opposite 
 Evansville, and the ferry at Red Banks, between which point 
 and Vincennes there was considerable travel. In low water 
 the Indian trail crossed the Ohio river at a ford already 
 described. 
 
 In the first decade of the last centuiy, the immigrants 
 from Kentucky, who were practical woodsmen and familiar 
 with the nature of the soil, passed by the high land of central 
 and north Vanderburgh county, which was not so produc- 
 tive as the lands in Gib.son and Posey counties. A majority 
 of these immigrants from Kentucky settled in what later be- 
 came Gibson county on the north, in preference to the locality 
 of Vanderburgh county. 
 
 Before the English came, there were already upon the 
 ground several leading men born in England, who had omi- 
 
 *» ThvoiteB Early WtBtem Travels, XI, 224.
 
 120 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 grated tx) the Atlantic coast States, and who had come west- 
 ward with the tide of emijrration through Virginia and Ken- 
 tucky into Indiana. Samuel Scott, Everton Kennerly, 
 Richard Carlisle, the Prichetts and some of the Fairchilds 
 though of English birth, were as distinctly American as were 
 any of the natives among whom they intermingled. 
 
 These men immediately identified themselves with mem- 
 bers of the English settlement, and on the other hand, the 
 latter became identified with all matters of public interest 
 equally with the natives. The act of the legislature creating 
 Vanderburgh county named the house of Samuel Scott — the 
 center of the settlement to be — as the place of meeting of the 
 commissioners named in the act, to select the county seat, 
 and Evansville was thus chosen. 
 
 Richard Carlisle had been a justice of peace in Warrick, 
 before Vanderburgh county was formed. He was a black- 
 smith, and the only man, shown by the records, who held his 
 own in personal encounter with the turbulent Hugh McGary, 
 the younger. 
 
 Everton Kennedy, like Carlisle, of English birth, a 
 brother-in-law of Samuel Scott, was a natudal leader and one 
 of the most active and useful public men in the township, 
 town and county for many years. 
 
 Elisha Harrison, a second cousin of William Henry Har- 
 rison, foiTner territorial governor of Indiana, and later Pres- 
 ident of the United States, lived, when the county was 
 formed, on a farm west of Samuel Scott, and represented 
 Warrick county in the legislature when Vanderburgh was 
 created, when he moved to Evansville. He was a native, of 
 Virginia Revolutionar\^ stock, and the first state senator 
 elected from Vanderburgh county. He was an able man. -^^ 
 many excellent traits, public spirited, well educated and until 
 his death in 1825 or 1826, was in the front of every public 
 movement, and freely invested his fortune in public enter- 
 prises, more perhaps than any man of his time. He estab- 
 lished and maintained the Evansville Weekly Gazette at a 
 loss for about four and one-half years. ^" With a mechanic 
 
 ■The Evajisvllle Gazette had a contract for publishing the laws of conffreae. 
 and the state department saved about three and one-half years Issue of the paper.
 
 Iglehai-t: Cominy of the Englitfh to Indiana 121 
 
 as a partner, he built the first courthouse in the county. The 
 owner of the ferry on the Ohio at Evansville was indicted for 
 neglect of this pubUc duty. Harrison bought his equipment, 
 erected or purchased a tavern on a Water street lot, took out 
 a license for the ferry in his own name and maintained it 
 opposite "Chutes" Tavern. When salt works were the most 
 desirable addition to the town then hoped for, Harrison, at 
 much expense, with his partner in general merchandise, 
 James W. Jones, sank a well on Pigeon creek and found salt 
 water at 463 feet, which event was announced with great ex- 
 pectations, and furnished the occasion for a short but valu- 
 able sketch of Evansville in 1824.^" He was brigadier gen- 
 eral in the militia.^' 
 
 RatlifF Boone, born in Georgia, a grandson of Israel 
 Boone, brother of Daniel Boone, lived in Boonville, Warrick 
 county, was lieutenant governor and governor of Indiana, 
 and for many years congressman of this district. 
 
 Robert M. Evans, a man of much prominence, and James 
 W. Jones, both of Princeton, came to Evansville about 1819. 
 Evans came to Knox county in 1805. When Gibson county 
 was organized in 1814 he became and remained county clerk 
 for over four years. Col. William M. Cockrum, whose father 
 lived a few miles east of Evans, says he was during that time 
 the leading man in the county and managed its business 
 affairs. ^- 
 
 David Hart, son of one of the Hart brothers, of Richard 
 Henderson & Co., in pioneer Kentucky, was first circuit judge 
 of Vanderburgh county, and lived in Princeton. 
 
 James R. E. Goodlett, born in Virginia, was for more 
 than ten years his successor as circuit judge, and lived in 
 Vanderburgh county. 
 
 Hugh McGary, the elder, with his family came out of 
 North Carolina with Daniel Boone in 1775, was an Indian 
 
 now In thf ConKrenHl<in:iI I.i>)rary, tlie only copy in txistence. It has escaped Uie 
 historian. 
 
 •' Kvanifvine Cdzitti, Sept. 9, 1824. 
 
 "/d.. May 7. 1823. 
 
 " Ex-Governor Jowph Imhv Rive« to Evans and RatlifT Boone a place of 
 prominence amons the men of the State. History of Vanderburgh Countj/ (B. 
 ft F.). 102.
 
 122 Indiana Maf/azinc of HLstonj 
 
 fighter of undisputed bravery, and a figure of the heroic age 
 in the west. In his old age, he settled in Knox county about 
 1804 and died there in 1806 near where Princeton was later 
 located. The McGarys lived in that locality when in 1812 
 Hugh McGray, the younger, entered fractional section 30, 
 upon which Evansville was later located. As such original 
 proprietor he became a local celebrity in Evansville, concern- 
 ing whom a number of historical facts exist in the records, 
 some of which have been incorrectly recorded in local history. 
 
 James W. Jones was from Kentucky and was clerk of 
 Vanderburgh county for many years and was the head of a 
 family of influence. His son, James Gerard Jones, was first 
 mayor of the city of Evansville and in 1859 was attorney 
 general of Indiana. He was probably related to John G. 
 Jones, the first chairman of the Committee of Safety in the 
 county of Kentucky, before it became a state. John G. Jones 
 was murdered by Indians December 25. 1776. John G. Jones 
 was succeeded as such chairman by Hugh McGary, the elder, 
 upon whom the women and children in Kentucky much de- 
 ponded for safety in the Indian wars. Jones. Evans and 
 McGary platted Evansville as it was permanently located 
 in 1817. 
 
 Joseph Lane,'- born in Kentucky, became a citizen of 
 \'anderburgh county when his farm on two sides was made 
 the lino between that county and Warrick. Boone legislated 
 Lane out of his county, as the latter was a man of great pop- 
 ularity. This fact accounts for the irregular eastern line of 
 Vanderburgh county.^' He defeated Evans in the race for 
 the legislature in Vanderburgh county, of which Evans gives 
 an amusing explanation in the Evansville Gazette. Lane be- 
 came governor of and United States senator from Oregon 
 and was an unsuccessful candidate before the people of the 
 Ignited States on the Breckenridge and Lane Presidential 
 ticket in 1860. 
 
 General Washington Johnston, the earliest member of the 
 Vincennes bar, came there from Virginia in 1792. He was 
 
 ♦» An adequate sketch of Gernral Joseph Lane is found In Woolen's Sketchet 
 of F.arl]f Indiana Lenders. 
 
   Warrick and Its Prominent People, Fortune. 73. note.
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 123 
 
 before the public in many forms during his life.^' He was 
 a revolutionary soldier.^" In 18iy when the panic affected 
 the country so that the jcniin rotted in the fields and \'in- 
 cennes lost one-half of its population^", Johnston came to 
 
 In 18^4 half tlu* houma In Kvunsvlllc weru viiouit. mild to have been the 
 n-Bult uf slokmtui In the locality, but It In {iruhablu the panic 8till exlatlng had 
 much to do with It. AuioblDunipliv i)f J(i.>*ph Taiklniitun. ay. 
 
 Evansville, where he lived not over a year, but during 1819, 
 the record shows that he was deputy county clerk. He specu- 
 lated in land in all the neighboring counties, as their deed 
 records show, but he returned to Vincennes. 
 
 George \V. Lindsay, another attorney of the Vincennes 
 bar, came at the same time with Johnston, was prosecuting 
 attorney of Vanderburgh county, one term of court in 1819. 
 He became the first probate judge in Vanderburgh county 
 in 1829, served many years, and died here. His wife and 
 two daughters moved to Posey county. 
 
 Levi Igleheart, Sr., from Tidewater, Maryland, settled in 
 Kentucky in 1815. where his sons, Asa and Levi, Jr., were 
 born and in 1823 he settled in Warrick county, Indiana, on 
 the eastern boundary of the English settlement, where his 
 son William was born; near this point, then and later, a 
 dozen English families including the Lockyears, settled. 
 Two of his sons married daughters and one a niece of John 
 Ingle, of Saundersville, all granddaughters of John Ingle, of 
 Somersham. One of his daughters married Mark Wheeler, 
 and one John Erskine. 
 
 These men were all from Kentucky or came from Vir- 
 ginia or more southerly states through Kentucky. They w^ere 
 chief among the native leaders of the earliest settlers with 
 whom the English emigrants mingled upon their arrival ( r 
 soon afterwards. There were a number of other intelligen:, 
 successful and influential people from the south and east, as 
 well as from Great Britain, who lived in and near Evansville 
 during this period, but it is beyond the scope of th»s aitidr 
 to write a history of early Evansville, or even to furnish a 
 
 ** I»uiin. History of Indiana. 3.15. 
 
 «• /nd(«Fia Mdffatine of Hintori/, Juno, 19H, p. 54. 
 
 •' Eaan-y. HIatori/ of Indiana, Vol. 1. p. 280 and note.
 
 124 Imliaufi Magazine of HLstonj 
 
 list of the names of its leading citizens. The scattered set- 
 tlers in the counties bordering on the north side of the Ohio 
 river were chielly from the south and brought with ihem 
 southern ideals. These leaders from the south represented 
 the great body of the scattered backwoodsmen when the Eng- 
 lish came, who, with those from New York and New Eng- 
 land and the leaders of the British settlement, 
 
 wrrc nil stern iiicii with i;iii]iiri's in tlu'ir lirains. 
 
 The definite and prompt protection of individual rights, 
 under the enforcement of law, had been uncertain in the 
 backwoods of the west. Public opinion sometimes justified 
 methods in private life, which in the older communities were 
 regarded as lawless, and turbulent spirits, under the influ- 
 ence of liquor, sometimes defied the law^ 
 
 Complaint was made by Faux, Fearon and other travel- 
 ers, as well as by Cobbett and by Dr. Johnson (both of whom 
 were biased in their judgments), in the war of pamphlets be- 
 tween the British colonies east and west of the Alleghenies, 
 that such a condition existed in this section at the time of 
 which we write. In speaking of this subject. Dr. Johnson, 
 who had never been west of the mountains, wrote :*^ 
 
 I liiid fdrnu"*! :in erroneous oitinion of a wotMlsnian. I e.\i>ec'to<l to find 
 riide manners; l)nt the jieople here liehave with preat oivility and proprii^ty. 
 I have not heard a sinjile instance of i)rofane lanpnape. or inde<ent ex- 
 pression, in thi.s settlement. An ;iir of comfort i)ervades the habitations 
 of the humblest kind : and in general, the demeanour of the wife shows 
 her to h.ive her full sh:ire of the family control. These pc^iple iire almost all 
 from the New Knul.ind St.ites; t»y which name is desijinattHl the s<Htion 
 of country north and enst of New York, which has always been remarked 
 for the enterpri.se and good moral conduct of Its citizens. To the inhab- 
 itants of this se<tion of the rnit<><l States, who sire also distlneiilsheil by 
 their slirewdness, the term Yankee is ajiplitMl; and not. as it is underst(HKl 
 In Knpl.'ind. to all the States. A Yankee, therefore, means a native of New 
 Knpland. The civility of disfiosition in which they are e<lucnte<l at home, 
 is taken abroad with fhenr. and they are said to form a class of settlers 
 far sufH>rior to those who endprate from the southern States to the western 
 wilderness. 
 
 Flower intimates that Johnson was a land speculator and 
 the history of the Pennsylvania settlement adds color to that 
 
 "C. B. Johnson. M P. Letters from the Brittah Settlement in Penn., 111.
 
 lylthai-t: Cuming of the English to Indiana 125 
 
 suspicion. The latter had not lived among the woodsmen 
 and allowance should be made for a strong bias against the 
 far west. 
 
 If the proper allowance be made for the lapse of time, re- 
 quired in the successive waves of emigration from the At- 
 lantic coast frontier to the frontier in the wilderness along 
 the Ohio and the Wabash rivers in 1818, it will appear that 
 the men on the frontier first mentioned, in 1750 and later, 
 had much the same "boisterous tastes and dangerous amuse- 
 ments of frontiersmen" as those on the latter "from the 
 south," as Johnson reports, quoting the very guarded admis- 
 sion of a distinguished New England Historian.^" 
 
 The North Atlantic coast States had their share of bond 
 servants and redemptioners as well as the southern States.'" 
 As late as 1820, the rabid anti-American reviews in England 
 were quoting Dr. Johnson's remark "that the Americans are 
 a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we 
 allow them short or hanging.""*' 
 
 The effect and necessities of the institution of slavery had 
 prevented the emigration of independent foreign labor into 
 the south to any considerable extent. The southern people 
 were a homogeneous people and so remained. The English 
 people were hostile to slavery. Those emigrants who pre- 
 ferred slave labor passed on to Missouri, in large numbers. 
 The institution of slavery and its necessities in molding the 
 law, public opinion, and customs of the people, were objec- 
 tionable to anti-slavery Englishmen and to anti-slavery peo- 
 ple in America. 
 
 In fact, the original location for the English settlement, 
 later made in the Illinois prairie, by Birkl^eck and Flower, 
 of which the Indiana settlement was a part would probably 
 have been in Virginia, but for the existence of slavery in 
 that State. George Flower spent his first winter with 
 Thomas Jefferson (as a distinguished guest) at his home in 
 
 ••Albert Bushnell Hart. Formution of the rnion, 18. 
 
 *• John R. CommonB. Induatrtul Utatory of the U. 8., 42. Commons estimates 
 that prohiibly on<-half of all the liimiltrrants landcil In th<* colonial p<'rloil as 
 lnd<-ntun-<l wrvantn. The Plymouth settli-rs broiijcht with them "borul servants." 
 Moorf's Industrial History of the American People, 109 
 
 *i Electic Re\-ifu\ .May. 1820. 401.
 
 126 huliayic Magazine of History 
 
 Virginia, and seriously considered establishinj^ his colony 
 there. Birkbeck vetoed the plan on account of slaver>'.''- 
 
 On the north side of the Ohio river, new conditions ex- 
 isted. A fierce struggle for the control of Indiana by slave 
 owners, from the time of estal)lis]iment of the territory until 
 the admission of the State in 1816, for a while practically 
 maintained slaveiy in form in the territory'-' ; but it was for- 
 bidden on the admission of the State to the Union. 
 
 It cannot be denied that among the intellectual and lead- 
 ing men in this community of that time, who came from 
 Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina, the English and 
 New England, idea of maintenance of public order by law, 
 without the doctrine of personal responsibility for a personal 
 alfront. did not have always the fullest support. 
 
 Faux himself, indulging in one of his inconsistent moods, 
 gave a very plausible reason why fear of instant punishment 
 for an insult was often a preventive more effective than the 
 fear of possible punishment by law in the distant -future. 
 He also gave an excuse for carrying side-arms in Kentucky, 
 as necessary to protection of law-abiding citizens from the 
 gouging and nose-biting rowdies, when in liquor. Judge 
 David Hart resigned as judge soon after his election or ap- 
 pointment, on account of a challenge he had given.' ' Judge 
 J. R. E. Goodlett. of the circuit court, was indicted by the 
 grand jur>' for provoke and assault in drawing a sword cane. 
 His two associate judges, both laymen, quashed the indict- 
 ment on the ground, as the record shows, that the law on 
 which the indictment was based was unnmstitntional. 
 While on the bench he had a newspaper controversy with 
 Robert M. Evans, started by the latter, resulting in recrimi- 
 nations, and Colonel Cockrum is authority for the statement 
 that a duel to the death i)etween them was avoided only by 
 the severest measures of mutual friends. After Goodlett 
 retired from the bench, he assaulted Judge Samuel Hall, his 
 successor, while presiding in court on the bench and was im- 
 
 "Thwaitf, Fnrly Wrstrru Trnxris. XI. 240. 
 
 *• Dunn, History of Indiana, Chaptfrs VI and IX. 
 
 **Thwalte. Earlv Weatern Travels, XI. 216.
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 127 
 
 prisoned for contenij)!. The members of the bar of the cir- 
 cuit published u statement condemning him.'"' 
 
 Robert M. Evans, Klisha Harrison, Hugh McGary and 
 all of his brothers, State Senator, laU^-r Governor liatlifF 
 Boone, and others were indicted and tried for misdemeanors, 
 generally assault and battery. Some well-known persons 
 were indicted for more serious offenses. I)oul)tless it was 
 true that resort was had to the grand jury in a number of 
 cases then, which to us now seem trivial. Probal)ly the ex- 
 cuses for sucii very strict and frequent use of the law existed 
 in the fact that there was in the beginning a vicious, lawless 
 and dangerous element in the lower classes, which without 
 the fear of the law, stopped at nothing. It did not hesitate 
 to defy the law at the beginning, and until the supremacy of 
 the law was fully vindicated, which , as will appear, was soon 
 done. It needs no argument to make clear that even the law- 
 less element of that period, as they appear to us now, became 
 such in part at least, as the result of the great sarcifice made 
 by them and their ancestors in performing their work, of 
 conquering and holding the land west of the mountains from 
 the Indians. For several generations they had been sentinels 
 on the border of civilization. But for this work also, in occu- 
 pying the land conquered by George Rogers Clark, the treaty 
 between Great Britain and the Colonies at the close of the 
 Revolutionary war would have left the territory north of the 
 Ohio river part of Canada, as England then regarded it.'"' 
 
 The historian, after describing the rugged frontiersmen 
 and backwoodsmen of the "up country," says: 
 
 Had the settloment of Kentucky (h'pt'uiUil on the achievement of Tide- 
 water Virginians, it would be at this moment a lilnKdoui of rc^l Indians and 
 a pasture for wild buCFaloes.'-' 
 
 But the issue was now to be settled in the new State of 
 Indiana, between law and order on the one hand and lawless- 
 ness on the other. John Law, a young lawyer of Vincennes, 
 a native of Connecticut, had just begun the practice of law in 
 
 ** History of Potey County (ChlwUfO. 1SS6), 432. * 
 
 •«0«(jrK.' KllUitt Howard, I'rrHminarita of the Revolution, 241. C. H. Van 
 Tyne. The Av\cric<in Utvulution, 2'\-2Hi. 
 
 •'Cotterlll, History of Pioneer Kentucky. 26.
 
 128 hidiana Magazine of Histoi^y 
 
 Vincennes, when he was appointed prosecuting attorney for 
 Vanderburgh county. He served as the first prosecutor, be- 
 ginning with the March term, 1818, and continued for more 
 than two years, wlien he resigned. He was an ellicient prose- 
 cutor, as the records which have been preserved show, but 
 the order lx)ok records of the circuit court of the county for 
 1818 and 1819 are not preserved.'^ Some years later he 
 moved to Evansville. 
 
 For many years following John Law as prosecutor, Amos 
 Clark was the prosecuting attorney. He came from New 
 York State when first Evansville was made the county seat. 
 He was an educated man and a very able laNsyer. He was 
 upon one side or the other of practically all of the cases, and 
 sole attorney in veiy many cases which did not require ad- 
 verse representation of counsel in court. He was a man of 
 high moral character, had high ideals, and was fearless in 
 the administration of the law. He prosecuted some of the 
 leading men of the community and their relatives, as already 
 stated. Several men of prominence in the beginning of 
 Evansville were lawless spirits and attempted to defy the 
 law and public opinion. With these men Amos Clark meas- 
 ured, and within four or five years the records show he had 
 vindicated the law and thoroughly broken up all attempts to 
 defy it. The community owes more to Amos Clark than is 
 known. 
 
 Charles I. Battell, a ^Massachusetts la\\yer, was for a 
 short time the prosecuting attoniey, and later, in the 30's, 
 judge of the circuit court. Alanson Warner was from Con- 
 necticut, was the second man elected to the office of sheriff 
 and was a tactful, useful, and influential man in the com- 
 munity for a generation.'' 
 
 In this enforcement of the law, the grand juries were the 
 source of power, and much of the time the leading and domi- 
 nating men upon the grand jury were from the British set- 
 
 " Life of John Laxc. by Charles Denby. Indiana Historical Soc. Pub V I 
 No. 7. 
 
 •• His shrewd character may b*- ee^n In an advertisement m the Gazette 
 warning tax payers to pay, but offering to take produce at his tavern from 
 farmers as credit on their taxes — a real accommodation to the people In an 
 almost moneyless age. Evansville Qazette. May 31, 1824.
 
 Igkhart: Coming of the Englu^^h to Indiana 129 
 
 tlement, and at all times there were representatives of that 
 settlement upon the jrrand jury. In like manner this ele- 
 ment was prominent in the trial of cases on the rejfular panel 
 of the jury of the court, which tried men indicted for of- 
 fenses against the law. In matters of public opinion in sup- 
 port of the law, there were a numlx?r of men in the settle- 
 ment who were very influential and of great value in sup- 
 porting the administration of justice. Particularly among 
 these were Robert Parrett and Joseph Wheeler, ministers of 
 the gospel, whose careers formed a verj- important part of 
 the development of this community for a period of thirty 
 years. 
 
 The Early Hoosiers 
 
 It may be interesting at this point to speak of the body of 
 Hoosier settlers, with whom the English came in contact, 
 who were not so prominent as the leaders mentioned. For 
 the reason already given, the rich country around where 
 Princeton is now located had been settled a number of years 
 earlier than Vanderburgh county. Upon the coming of the 
 English. Princeton, then two years old, was chosen as head- 
 quarters by Birkbeck, Flower and Fordham, where they 
 lived before the settlement in the prairie in Illinois was pre- 
 pared for them. All of these persons frequently mention 
 Princeton and its people. 
 
 John Ingle, one of the leaders of the Indiana colony, lived 
 one season in Princeton before coming to the Saundersville 
 settlement. So the travelers of the time, who all visited New 
 Harmony, usually came or went by Princeton and Vincennes, 
 on account of good accommodations for travelers in roads 
 and taverns and Princeton is frequently mentioned in the 
 literature of the time. The subsequent historj' of Princeton 
 and Gibson county establishes the fact that the body of the 
 people of this town were a fair type of the people in the 
 countr>', in no substantial degree different, and were of the 
 same origin, already referred to. They were a fair type of 
 Hoosier pioneers, who located in Indiana from 1801 to 1818.«o 
 
 •• Autobioffraphu of Rev. Joseph Tarkinfftoii. A ropresontativo native pioru'er, 
 bom In 1800 In Ti-nnesaee, of poor but rcaptctablo North Carolina parentage.
 
 VAO In/fia)ia Mayazine of History 
 
 The fairest description of the common people of southern 
 Indiana in 1817 and 1818, which we have seen, was written 
 by Morris Birkbeck, who sought to discover all that was good 
 in them, but who stated both sides in his descriptions. In the 
 article alieady cited, from the t^dinburgh Review of June, 
 1818, so fully reviewing Birkbeck's Notes on Ameinca, oc- 
 curs the following:''' 
 
 The nipldity with whidi new s<4tlpnu>iils ,in> foniuMl in this luauner, is 
 illustriitCMl ii.v Mr. I5irl<ln><k's wiinlc Itnnii; luit iinthiiiK toiKls more cleiiriy 
 to siidw if tliiui till' st:it«' tif s4Mi(>ty \vlii( li lie foiiiid at rriiii'i'fon, where be 
 tool; up iiis alKide while iiis iaml was jtreiiarinK t<» receive him. Tliis is a 
 small town, plactnl at the further iiniit of In<li:ina. and founded only two 
 years before our author's arrival. It containwl fifty houses; was the 
 county town t)f the district: and contaiiUNl (sjiys Mr. H) as many "well 
 lufornitHl. >;ent(H*l people, in pntiK>rtion ti> the lunnhor of inhabitants, as 
 any county town I am acquainted with." "I thinit." he adds, "there are 
 half as many individuals who are entitled to that distinction as there are 
 hous«'s: .ind not one decidedly vicious character, nor one that Is not able 
 and wiUins to maintain himself." 
 
 His notes and letters contain many other descriptions of 
 the plain people. One of the best descriptions of the country 
 and the people in Indiana and Ohio at a period earlier than 
 that described by Birkbeck is found in the Travels of John 
 Bradbun.' in 1809-1811, published by him in 1819, with com- 
 ments of that later time, reviewing and discriminating un- 
 friendly criticism of travelers who rapidly passed through 
 the county, similar to those already mentioned. In regard 
 to the manners of the people west of the Alleghenies. he says, 
 on account of the mixture of so many races and elements, it 
 would be absurd to expect that a general character could 
 then be formed, or that it would be for many years to come. 
 After referring to the entire absence of feeling existing l^e- 
 
 came with his p.arent8 In 181.5 to P.itok.o. In Gibson county, Indiana, to live in a. 
 frw t'-rrltory. I>fiter the family settled In Monroo county. Ho was converted in 
 that county, sprnt n short time In the Indlan.a Semlnarj- under H.ill, princlrwl, 
 was persuaded by the circuit riders to enter the Methodist ministry and later 
 travelled the Vevay circuit In which EjfKloston lived. He lived over seventy-five 
 years In Indiana. His simple account of pioneer life as real history Is worth 
 more than the novels of any writer of fiction, either dialectic, or other^^'lse. He 
 was the father of the lato John S Tarklnjfton. n. prominent citizen of Indianapolis, 
 and Kmndfather of Booth Tarkinpton, the author. 
 « Edinburgh Review, XXX. 136.
 
 IgU'hart: Cominy of the English to Imiiana 131 
 
 tween classes, as in Europe, and the eciuality in natural 
 rights asserted by and conceded to the luimblest citizen, 
 Bradbury says;"- 
 
 TniVfUTs from Kuniju*. in passiiif: throuKb tin* western country or 
 indeeil any jmrt ot the I'nitwl Stiites, ouKht to be previously iicquaiiited 
 with this part of the Anierlcun ehanuter. ami more particularly if tliey 
 have iM-t'ii in the hahlt of freatlng with conteiupt. or irritating with aliuse, 
 thos*' whom awidental chvumstances may liave plafe<l In a situation to 
 administer to their wants. I^t no one here ln<lulne himself In abuslUK the 
 waiter or hostler ;it tiic inn: tii;it waiter or hostler Is probably a citi- 
 zen, and does not, nor can he, comcive that :i situation in which he dis- 
 charges a duty to society, not In itself dishonorable, should subject him to 
 Insult, but this ftH'linp, so far as I have exi)erlenced. Is entirely defensive. 
 
 1 have travelled uear ten thousiind ndles in the United States and 
 never received the least incivility or .iflfront. 
 
 There is nothing: in Birkbeck's description of the people 
 of Princeton with whom he and Flower and Fordham, with 
 their families, mingled, when they lived there, inconsistent 
 with the descriptions of Edward Eggleston's novel. The 
 Hoosiir School Master, nor those of Baynard Rush Hall in 
 the New Purchase. The difference is in the view point. 
 
 Consistent with all Birkbeck says, had he been searching 
 for material for a dialect story of low Hoosier life, he would 
 probably have found it in Princeton. 
 
 This was the purpose of Eggleston, who found what he 
 sought.'-' As a correct description of Hoosier dialect in low 
 life, the writer can testify that practically all of his dialect 
 phrases and words are true to life and as such a dialect study 
 the work is a classic. But while the author never made any 
 claim that the book contains any description of the better 
 class of Hoosiers who lived in southern Indiana at the begin- 
 ning of the State, or the time of which he writes, he fails to 
 guard that cla.ss against the opinion so generally formed out 
 of the State that he was de.scribing its people. 
 
 Dr. F^ggleston knew the interpretation the literary world 
 put upon the Hoosier School Master, as a portrayal of early 
 Hoosier life. He found it necessary to vindicate his own 
 
 "T»iwalt<i!, Eurhj »'»-«f«rn travrlx, V. 'I'^'l. 
 
 " K(lwar<l EKKlMiton, llooaier Schoulm<utfr, An to dialect In Southern In- 
 diana, «K'<' alHO The Uouaiera, by Meredith Nicholson, 4 5.
 
 132 Imfiaua Magazine of Hist&ry 
 
 origin from the suspicion of common birth and low associa- 
 tions.'-^ In 1890 he pubHshed an autobiographical sketch, a 
 delightful article, the chief purpose of which seems to be to 
 clear his memory and that of his ancestors.®^ 
 
 Among the many of such unfriendly interpretations was 
 one by the Atlantic Monthly, in reviewing one of his novels, 
 which he says in his introduction to his biography, sympa- 
 thetically remarked on the hardship it must have been to a 
 "highly organized man" to be born in southern Indiana, in 
 an age of hard-cider campaigns. In resenting this, and 
 praising Vevay, his birthplace, he confines his defense or 
 eulog>' to the beauty of its location and of the natural scenery 
 surrounding it — "one of the loveliest villages on the Ohio 
 river," but there is nothing in defense of the much misunder- 
 stood Hoosiers who lived tliere. The following sentence 
 seems significant at this point: ' 
 
 I changed to tlic larger Imliaua tcwiis, alonj; the Ohio river, where 
 there was n seuii-iirban life of considerable refinement. 
 
 Only speaking of his own family he says he was "born in an 
 intellectual atmosphere." While he vindicated himself and 
 his family, he left it to time and to others, to do full justice 
 to the better class of early Hoosier people. It cannot be 
 doubted that this silence on the author's part, upon the in- 
 terpretation thus widely given to this work, the most popular 
 of all his books, was intentional on his part and that he had a 
 motive in not "meddling" with the subject. 
 
 Two years later in 1892 — he published a Library Edition 
 of the book with a long and elaborate preface, which he calls 
 a biography of the book, dealing with the history and char- 
 acter of the work, its wonderful success, and declares it to 
 be the file leader of American dialect novels. His discussion 
 along that line is novel and very interesting. He says: 
 
 Tills initial novel, the favorite of the larger public, has beoouie in- 
 separably as.s<M latc^l with my name. I could not write In this vein now, 
 if I would, and twenty-one years have made so many change.* in me that 
 I dare not make any but minor rhanijes in this icork. The author of the 
 
 ** Introduction to Library Edition Hoosier Schoolmaster, 26. 
 ^Ihe Forum, Nov., 1890, p. 290.
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 133 
 
 Hoo*i«r School tiuu-< I cr is distinctly not 1 ; 1 am but hi.s heir and exec-utor; 
 and 8im-e be Ih a muiv |>oputir writer than I. trhy ahould I meddle icith 
 hit ic<jrk. 
 
 No one knows »«o well iis I the fiiultH of Inimntiirlty iiml Inexjierlence 
 that eharaeterlze this bi>ok. luit jHThapH the pubic is rinht In preferrluK an 
 author's first hook. etc. 
 
 Here seems to be an explanation why the author had de- 
 termined to keep "hands ofT" the book. Without discus.sing 
 that subject, it seems clear that as a dialect novel of low life 
 only, it is irrelevant, and should be excluded as a histor>' of 
 the better class of Hoosiers of that time. The writer has 
 always reg:arded Dr. Eggleston as one of the leading Amer- 
 ican men of letters, of whom the Hoosiers should be justly 
 proud. In his sketch of his life mentioned, he traces his an- 
 cestry on one side to the old Virginia aristocracy, and his 
 short characterization of that people as they appeared to 
 him, is a masterpiece, worthy of reproduction here. After 
 stating that at sixteen, after his father's death, he was sent 
 to live for a year in Virginia, he says: 
 
 The change from a free to a slave state, not yet entirely out of Its 
 pioneer cruditie.s to a society so fixed and conservative as that of the Old 
 Dominion, was as Kreat as the I'uite*! States aCForded at that time. 
 
 The old Virginia country-gentleinan life had a fascination not i>o9- 
 sesKed by any other society in the new world. 
 
 With its unboundetl hosiiitality to all comers, its enormous family 
 pride, its sharp line of distinction between the well-born and the plebeian, 
 its social refinement, its narrow ItM-al prejudices, its chivalrous and ro- 
 mantic sentiment toward ladies, and a certain laxity of morals growing 
 out of the existence of a slave class, it could not fail to excite a profound 
 Interest in the mind of one who had been bred in a simpler and less digni- 
 fied sot^'iety, in which projirleties were less regardtxl, and moralities sttme- 
 what more rigidly enforced. According to the Virginia method of reck- 
 oning. I was cousin to a large fraction of the i)oi)ulation of the State; and 
 I found myself a member of a powerful clan, at once domesticated, and 
 given singular oi)portuiiitles for knowing a life, whi<'h. in the new world 
 and In the middle years of the ninetiHMith century was a curious 
 anHchronism. 
 
 The Virginians themselves I found a most lovable people, and admir- 
 able In their generosity and high s«'nse of honor in public and private 
 ufTairs. Kven If their n^-klessness of danger and disregard of human life, 
 where family or personal jirlde was involve*!, were Iwirbarlsms. they were 
 at least barbarisms of the nobler sort. • • • Though I saw slavery
 
 134 ludiana Mof/azhie of History 
 
 In its iiiililost forms ainoiifr my roI:itl(>ns 1 <i>uhl not hv blliul to the mnnl- 
 fi)Ul liijii!<tkt> iiiul tln» uniivdidaltU' cnieUies of the system. 
 
 Between the lines of this charming description may be 
 observed a reserve, as though the author was addressing the 
 American cosmopolitan woi-ld. which many believe centers 
 east of the Alleghenies and north of the Potomac. At the 
 same time his description seems to be full of sympathy. It is 
 the conception of a man born in the north, of good southern 
 stock, with northern education, rearing and ideals. 
 
 Had Eggleston remained west, in that deep sympathy 
 with western life found in the character sketches of Judge 
 James Hall,''' of the same class of people described in Eg- 
 gleston's work generally, it may be questioned whether his 
 method of treatment would have been the same. Or, if so, 
 whether he would not at least have made a reasonable effort 
 to anticipate the unfriendly effect which his work was des- 
 tined to produce upon the reputation of the early Hoosier pi- 
 oneers, outside of the State. It is to be regretted that he 
 neglected at this last opportunity to say a word on the 
 subject. 
 
 Had Baynard Hall sought to find the coarse exhibitions 
 of uncultured and ignorant people in Princeton, such as he 
 described in the Neiv Purchase, no doubt he could have found 
 them. Many counterparts of his caricatures of offensive 
 habits of common people could probably then and later have 
 been found in New Jersey had he hunted for them there as 
 he did in Indiana. His book is written anonymously and in- 
 dividuals are attacked under assumed names so that a key to 
 the book is required. One future governor of the State, 
 James Whitcomb. was grossly caricatured, if not libeled^ 
 Upon the character of Joseph A. Wright, later governor, 
 United States senator and United States minister to Prussia, 
 was put a wholly uncalled for imputation. Hall's criticisms 
 against the camp-meetings are severe. They are caricatured 
 in a relentless manner \\ith no expressions of sympathy with 
 the people, nor their religious emotion, to mitigate the bit- 
 terness. His style is not unlike that of a theological con- 
 
 •• See note 70.
 
 lylihart: Coming of the English to Indiana 135 
 
 troversialist of that age. Roosevelt truthfully describes in a 
 sympathetic manner all of the scenes and conduct carica- 
 tured by Hall, but in a kindly spirit: 
 
 Mut though ttiis iiii^lit sociii (liHtasti'ful to an oltscrvor of (Niut-atioit tiiul 
 self-n'straiiit. it thrillinJ tlu» lirart i>f fhi' riuK' ami sliuiiU- liackwixKisiiiHii 
 and reaclnnl him as he could not iK>s»sil>ly have Ikm'U reached In any other 
 manner. On the whole there was an immense pain for good. The i^eople 
 received a new llj:ht and were plven a s<Mise of moral re.'q)onsll)illty such 
 as they had not itrcvltPiisiy iMPSscss«'d.«" 
 
 Against such unfair treatment of irresponsible critics, 
 Roosevelt's virtues: 
 
 riead like annels trunipet-tonjruetl 
 
 with the descendants of the men of the "Western Waters." 
 The descriptions of early life and events in Indiana in 
 the New Purchase are many of them ver>' delightful. The 
 daily life and experiences of men and women in their work, 
 in the woods, their travels, and in their home life, described 
 by Hall as he saw it, will always remain an interesting and 
 truthful picture of the pioneer age of Indiana that has passed. 
 It cannot be denied, however, that his view point of the peo- 
 ple is that of a leading actor in the play of Hoosier life, where 
 he failed to succeed, and he makes no effort to disguise his 
 bitterness as a bad loser. 
 
 Strictures in these pages upon the man east of the Alle- 
 ghenies and north of the Potomac are only intended for that 
 class of people who have shown contempt for western people 
 and western manners. The westerners have been misunder- 
 stood by such.''"^ There were from the beginning tactful and 
 liberal-minded Yankees and New Yorkers who adjusted per- 
 fectly to pioneer life and were among the most useful citi- 
 zens. Some of them are mentioned among the early leaders 
 with whom the English mingled on their arrival in the wil- 
 derness. Some of them have furnished the best record now 
 existing of the Hoosier pioneers. Until after the public 
 
 •» Winning of the Wfat (The- Men of thf W«Btem WnterB), IV, 249. 
 
 "Croth«rH mak<n thiH <l«-iir in JiIh comments on this clasH, ItuludliiK no leas 
 a person than Janx-N Rujutfll I>owcll, wlio calls the Wf«jtimer "The Western 
 Goth" — The Fardoncra Wallet — Land of the free and charitable air — lit.
 
 136 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 school system of Indiana was established, this class was the 
 chief reliance of the city of Evansville for teachers. 
 
 Hall was wrecked on the shoals which even today con- 
 fronts ever>' eastern man who for the first time comes west 
 as a minister or teacher among western people — shoals which 
 a tactless and narrowminded man cannot successfully 
 navigate. 
 
 Roosevelt truly says : 
 
 Till' opinion of liny nioro passer tliroujrli a country is alwiiy.s less 
 valual>l(> than of an intelligent man who dwells and works among the 
 people and who [assesses hoth insipht and sympathy. «» 
 
 Such a writer was Judge James Hall, a Philadelphian, 
 educated to the bar, who served in the army, settled at Shaw- 
 neetown, Illinois, in 1820, He was circuit judge during which 
 he spent half his time on horseback traveling the circuit 
 across the State and was in close touch with the whole people. 
 Later he was treasurer of the State of Illinois, edited a maga- 
 zine and wrote a number of interesting books on western 
 life.*'^ He was a leading man in the State, of his time. With 
 a knowledge of these people among whom he spent his life 
 and succeeded, he has given a fair, truthful and charming 
 sketch of their character, free from the blemish of caricatur- 
 ists, who have done so much to prejudice the people east of 
 Indiana against the early Hoosiers. Frequently his descrip- 
 tion of the rustic class is just as vivid as is that found in the 
 New Purchase or The Hoosier School Master, but it is given 
 in a kindly spirit. 
 
 Isaac Reid, a Presbyterian missionary*, was pastor for a 
 year of a New Albany church in 1818, and for about ten years 
 later lived in southern Indiana and had every opportunity of 
 knowing and knew the people as well as any man of his time. 
 His impartial and manifestly truthful descriptions of the in- 
 telligent and cultured class of Hoosiers, places them on an 
 equality with those of any section in the old Northwest.'* 
 
 Birkbeck and George Flower lived among and studied 
 
 • Winning of the West. Pt. 4. Ch. 1. 29. 
 
 ™ His best descriptions of people of this section are found in his Romance of 
 Weatrrn Uiatnr)/ or Skctrhea of Hiatorjj, Life and ^fannera of the Wett. 
 
 " Indiana aa aeen bj/ Earlxt Travelrra — Lindley. 473-497. See also Caleb 
 Atwater Id. 530. and Charles E. Coffin. Id. 533.
 
 Iglihart: Coming of the English to Indiana 137 
 
 these sturdy pioneers of the wilderness and with other 
 friendly travelers and writers of that time, ^\\e many illus- 
 trations of the high traits of manhood, intelligence, inde- 
 pendence, and good qualities shown by them under circum- 
 stances of the severe hardships of their lives. They place 
 them above the common people of Europe and to some extent 
 foretell the character of the coming natives of the west. 
 
 All this was accessible to Eggleston and Baynard Rush 
 Hall. It is not believed that it was intentionally suppressed 
 by them, but it was not to their purpose nor within their 
 viewpoint. Under the guise of fiction or fictitious surround- 
 ings, writers without restraint, or any seeming sen.se of re- 
 sponsibility for consequences, have taJven unfair liberties 
 with society, sometimes with an intent inconsistent with fair- 
 ness and justice, with sarcasm and ridicule without proper 
 and fair discrimination in favor of the best. We refer to 
 moral responsibility. The doctrine of legal responsibility for 
 libel protects individuals from attacks of this kind whether 
 open or covert. 
 
 Very recently a leading western publishing house, which 
 issued a novel, was surprised with a libel suit in New York, 
 upon the charge that under a fictitious name the author had 
 lampooned a New York judge against whom he had a griev- 
 ance, and on a trial the jury gave the plaintiff a verdict of 
 thirty-five thousand dollars damages against the publisher. 
 
 Such material has been misleading and has furnished the 
 man of the east the opportunity of exercising the undue and 
 offensive familiarity of the elder to the younger brother in 
 the west. There should be yet those, while a few of the chil- 
 dren of those pioneers live, who have spent their youth among 
 them, and who were in sympathy with them during their 
 lives, who shall describe them, in truth and justice and kind- 
 ness, without the intrusion of descriptions of a lower and 
 disgu.sting class of humanity, to unfairly detract from a 
 truthful picture. An excellent foundation for this is found 
 in a recent magazine article, entitled "The Pioneer Aris- 
 tocracy.""- It is not fiction, it deals with facts. Very many 
 
 "Dr. Logan Ewiry. Indiuna Mngutine of History, Sept. 1918.
 
 138 Indi(nia Ma(jazine of History 
 
 of them, furnishing a truthful picture of the life of the 
 Hoosier pioneer. It is a normal and sane-minded description 
 of a society which deserves the fairest and best treatment. 
 
 It is of the greatest importance that among the young 
 people of Indiana there should be fostered a State pride, al- 
 ready existing with many people, not inferior to that to be 
 found in any American commonwealth. They should be 
 taught the beautiful, the true and the good in its history of 
 which there is so much, rather than so great over-emphasis 
 of the husks that are to be found in the history of the pioneers 
 of any of the States. 
 
 Roosevelt's chapters on the Backwoodsmen of the Alle- 
 ghenies and on the Men of the Western Waters contain a 
 wealth of historical facts and descriptions of the traits of the 
 native pioneer. His appreciative sympathy with the fron- 
 tiersman has enabled him to furnish this as no other man has 
 done. This has been supplemented by the work of Dr. Fred- 
 erick Turner, who has been concerned with the reactive in- 
 fluences of the central west upon the east, with the develop- 
 ment of institutions, and the later histoiy of events in which 
 he has been the best interpreter of the life of the people of 
 this section of the time of which we write. 
 
 There were also men, a few of whom have been men- 
 tioned, living on the north side of the river at that time ca- 
 pable of giving fair, friendly and discriminating sketches of 
 the men and women with whom they lived and who knew the 
 sources of population out of which that composite society was 
 formed, and who have left such a record. 
 
 These, with other writers, with the testimony of people 
 still living who personally knew many of the men and women 
 who were pioneers in the period mentioned, furnish a key 
 to a fair and impartial history of the life and character of 
 the Hoosier aristocracy yet to be written. 
 
 Neighbors of Lincoln 
 
 It is a coincidence that when Abraham Lincoln came to 
 Indiana in the summer of 1816, a boy of seven years of age, 
 he located in Perry county, then less than a mile from the line
 
 lyU'hcrt: Comiiuj of the English to Indiana 139 
 
 of Warrick county, in which was then Hvinp Joseph Lane, 
 who came from Kentucky in 1S16."-' P'ourteen years hiter, 
 Lincohi. then twenty-one years old, moved to Illinois. Still 
 later. .Josei)ii Lane moved to Orejfon. in isr)(), when the Lin- 
 coln and Hamlin Presidential ticket was elected, Jo.seph 
 Lane was a candidate for \'ice-President on the opposing; 
 ticket of Preckenrid^o and Lane."' It is generally a.ssunied 
 that Lincoln first came to Spencer county, a river county, 
 which adjoins Warrick county on the ea.st, l)ut Spencer county 
 was not created until the act of the legislature of January 
 10. 1818, was passed,"' Warrick county, when created out 
 of Knox county, March 9, 1813, extended from the Wabash 
 river to Harrison county."" Nicolay and Hay" show an inti- 
 macy, with intermarriages, between the Boones and Lincolns 
 of an early time, and that the grandfather of President Lin- 
 coln followed Daniel Boone to Kentucky. It is also true that 
 the Lincolns. uncle and cousins of Abraham Lincoln, followed 
 Squire Boone, brother of Daniel Boone, to Harrison county. 
 Indiana.'"^ and Thomas Lincoln, while following his brother 
 to Indiana, settled within twenty miles of Ratliff Boone, of 
 Boonville, Warrick county, w^ho had lived in Indiana terri- 
 tory since 1809 and who represented Spencer county in con- 
 grress, while the Lincolns lived there. Mr. J. Ed. Murr was 
 reared near the Lincolns as neighbors in Harrison county. 
 
 " Fortune, Warrick ami its Prominent People, 76. 
 
 '♦ See note 43. 
 
 " History of Warrick, Spencer and Perry Counties, 277. 
 
 w/d.. 3«. 
 
 " lAfe of Lincoln, V. I. p. 4. 
 
 "Squire Boone settled in Harrison county In 1802 .and there Daniel Boone 
 frequently visited and hunted. Wm. H. Roose, Indiana's lUrthplace — History of 
 Harrison County, p. 7. FUitliff Boone, congressman of the Lincolns, as well as 
 of the people of the EhKllsh settlement, when Abraham Lincoln was twenty and 
 twenty-one years old and earlier, was a man of considerable education, but moved 
 to Missouri late in the 30*8 and dlttl there In the 40".s. He was undoubtedly very 
 familiar with his constituents, the W'heelers, Hlllyards, Hornbrooks. Ingles, Maid- 
 lows and others, who had brought IkkjUs from EnKhind. as well as the Lincolns 
 and It la probable that Abraham Lincoln learned of the fact : whether he availed 
 himself of the opportunity to rend any of such books, history Is silent. The 
 ■WheeW-rs. Hilly.'irds, Hornbrooks, Maidlows and InKles w«'re not living when the 
 coiiiiiaratlsfly limited UuiulrleH at a late date were made amoiiK Lincoln's ac- 
 quaintances In Sp<'ncer county. A few of them, only, lived until Lincoln became 
 President, and if any of the persons mentioneii ever referred to his n'sidcnce In 
 Bouthwestvni Indiana ao close to the 8<-ltlcinent there la no one now llvinjf who 
 hcanl and remembers It.
 
 140 I)i/fiana Magazine of Histoid 
 
 When Saunders Hornbrook, the original pioneer of the 
 English settlement, located upon his choice in the wilderness 
 in October or November, 1817, it was forty miles west of the 
 farm of Thomas Lincoln, the location now occupied by Lin- 
 coln City in Spencer county. 
 
 In 1825, one of the pioneers elsewhere mentioned, in the 
 eastern border of the settlement in Campl^ell township, War- 
 rick county, about twenty miles west of where Lincoln lived, 
 was a magistrate and later a lay judge and many years 
 county commissioner in Warrick county. 
 
 Luke Grant, one of the settlement, built a mill at Millers- 
 burgh in 1825'" still nearer the Lincoln farm, and it is not 
 unlikely that Lincoln, who was born February 12, 1809, and 
 was then between 16 and 17 years of age, had dealings with 
 or knew some of these settlers. Certain it is that Lincoln 
 acquired the habit of attending court at Boonville, then and 
 now the county seat of Warrick county.^'' 
 
 The leaders of the Saundersville and Blue Grass locations 
 (the latter about thirty miles west of Lincoln City), from the 
 period of 1818 to 1830, when Lincoln, twenty-one years old, 
 left Indiana, had a nwmber of volumes of the classics of Eng- 
 lish poetry and prose, and enjoyed the music and culture of 
 old English life. There are still living descendants of the 
 English, old people, who learned their childhood speech from 
 men and women born in England, more than one hundred 
 years ago, from those who spoke the language of England 
 in its purity, and who preserved in the wilderness its litera- 
 ture, music, culture and religion, and delivered them to their 
 children and children's children. These old people, even yet 
 in their childhood memories, treasure the nurser>' rhymes, 
 humor and family traditions of England, the plaintive poetry 
 of Tom Moore, Thomas Campbell and others, commemorat- 
 ing the martyrs of the Irish Rel^ellion and deploring the loss 
 of Iri.sh liberty, .set to a sad music, as well as the martial 
 strains of Scott and Burns.''' These conditions mentioned in 
 
 •» K<>rtvm»', Wnrrirk CoUMt]/ Prominrnt Proplr, 36. 
 
 ••J. Kd. Murr. History of Lincoln, Indiana Magazine of History, June 1S18 — 
 150-154-1.S9-160 ; Lnmon'a Life of Lincoln, 67. 
 
 ** King Atcohol Dethroned, by Rev. F. C. Iglehart. D. D.. 71. This .author, 
 who refers to thtse memories, is a representative of three of the pioneer families
 
 Iglehart: Comhuj of the FtKjlush to Indiana 141 
 
 the British settlement were probably nearer to the Lincoln 
 location than any similar opportunity in the wilderness. Lin- 
 coln's nature craved books. He traveled on foot long dis- 
 tances to get them. He was a frequent visitor of the Breck- 
 enridge home near Boonville to read and borrow law books.**- 
 The Evansville Weekly Gazette was published at Evan.s- 
 ville from 1821 to 1825, inclusive, and it pul^lished legal and 
 other court notices for Spencer, Warrick and all adjoining 
 counties. It was the only newspaper in the section outside of 
 Vincennes and New Harmony, and contained much news of 
 public interest and matters local in the congressional district, 
 which included Spencer county, where Lincoln lived at the 
 age of 16 and over. Its election returns were gathered and 
 published with noteworthy enterprise and embraced out- 
 side counties. 
 
 There were published in 1820 to 1830 weekly newspapers 
 in Evansville,^' New Harmony, ^^ Vincennes,**'' and Cory- 
 don"*', the files of which are now accessible, perhaps for other 
 periods, though complete files are not preserved. During all 
 that period Spencer county was in the same congressional 
 district with Evansville, Princeton and New Harmony, much 
 of the time represented in congress by Ratlilf Boone, who 
 
 In the tirst British sc-ttk-im-nt In Indiana, and was born in the eastern edge of it 
 in 1845. His mother was born in Somershani, the town where Faux lived, and 
 as a child five years old. came with her widowed mother to her uncle John Ingle 
 of Saundersville. His fatljer was born in Kentucity. Both )»is father's parents 
 were Tidewater Marylanders. He was one of tlie native Hoosier ministers, not 
 mentioned among the names elsewliere referred to as of an earlier period. But 
 the same influences which created the first effective native ministry In south- 
 western Indiana under Parrett and Wheeler, undoubtedly reached him in his 
 home life. He knew and lieard preach l)Otli Parrett and Wheeler in tlieir later 
 life. He was chosen as a platform orator and temperance debater, from among 
 the New York ministers, after a dranuitic and successful answer to Mr. Jerome, 
 attorney for the brewers and liquor dealers in a hearing before the Temperance 
 Committee of the New York legislature in a large hall In Albany and for over 
 ten years acted :ls superintendent of tlie Anti-Saloon League of greater New York. 
 Few, if any, have pt.-rformed greater 8er\'ice in that cause. At the close of a long 
 and succesBful career as minister, lecturer, writer and temperance leader, ho 
 publlshe<l. under a prophetic title, at the opp<jrtune moment, the book referre<l to, 
 which 1b authority ui><)n the facts In tlje history of tlie liquor trafllc. 
 
 " Murr's Mncolii, Ind. .V«y. //i»f.. June, iyi8, p. 159. 
 
   Kvansvllle dasette \^Z\ to 18J5 Inclusive. 
 
 •*New Harmony Uaxette 1825 to 1828; N. H. DUaeminator 1828-1829; N. H. 
 and Nashoba (.asette 1828-1831. 
 
 • H'rafrm Sun <( Beneral Adverliaer 1819 to 1830 and later. 
 
 -Indiana Sentinel and Adverfiaer 1820-1821.
 
 142 luffiana Marjazine of History 
 
 lived only about twenty miles from Lincoln. Boone was Lin- 
 coln's congressman the last two years the latter lived in Indi- 
 ana as well as formerly. There was a direct i)uhiic road from 
 Piinceton to New Harmony, one from Evansville to Boon- 
 ville and from Kvansville throuph Saundersville to Princeton 
 and Vincennes. also to New Harmony, and one from Boon- 
 ville through Saundersville to New Harmony. The latter 
 town, as its newspapers show, was the center of literary cul- 
 ture of respectable character compared with the best culture 
 of that age, anywhere. Very early a road ran from Corydon 
 to Evansville, passing by Lincoln's farm through what is now 
 known as Gentryville.'^^ 
 
 Easy and frequent communication by river existed from 
 all the points named (except Princeton and Corydon) to and 
 from Troy, Rockport and Anderson creek, where the Lincolns 
 are frequently found during this period. A stage line run- 
 ning on schedule time between Evansville. Pi'inceton and 
 Vincennes. making one trip a week, was established and first 
 put in operation in the summer of 1824.**^ This continued till 
 a railroad was put in operation nearly thii'ty years later. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, once a yeai- or oftener, went to Prince- 
 ton to Col. James Evans for carding of wool. Evans' brother, 
 Gen. Robert ]\L Evans, was for several years a tavern 
 keeper and assistant postmaster at New Harmony in the year 
 1827 and later.^-' General Evans was an interesting charac- 
 ter and figured much in the newspapers in Evansville. New 
 Harmony and Vincennes. and it is altogether prol^able that 
 his brother, the wool carder at Princeton, had the newspapers 
 of the day, for so eager an inquirer for "news" and a cus- 
 tomer as Lincoln is shown during that period to have been."" 
 Evans was enterprising enough to advertise his wool card- 
 ing machine in the Evansville Gazctte,^*^ which, no doubt, cir- 
 culated in the Lincoln neighl)orhood. 
 
 Corydon, from 1816 to 1825, the capital of the State, about 
 
 "^ Lamon's Lincoln. 24. 
 
 "Evansville Uatette, July 14. 1824. Full details of this interesting event are 
 advertised. 
 
 •New Harmony Gtuette. Feb. 14. 1827. 
 
 •• Murr's "History of Lincoln." Indiana Ungatinc of History. 
 
 « E\•ans^•iUe Oatette, Juno 20. 1823.
 
 Ighha)-i: Cominu of the Knglish to Indiana 14.'J 
 
 fifty-five miles distant from the lincoln farm, was near the 
 center of the large family of Lincoln uncles and cousins."- 
 The few details preserved of Lincoln's early life, up to man- 
 hood, and his character as the world later knew him, show 
 him to have been too aggressive and earnest in search for 
 knowledge of the outside world to have been ignorant of all 
 of these sources of information, which for that age were 
 fairly easy of access to him, without doubt. Many of the 
 interesting facts of his life in Indiana have been wholly lost 
 to history. That no record is preserved of his knowledge ob- 
 tained from any of these sources may be accounted for in the 
 death of the people of that time, capable of appreciating its 
 importance, before Lincoln became famous, or that the facts 
 involved may have escaped inquiry later, or that many of the 
 illiterate of his neighbors may not have known or remem- 
 bered such facts. 
 
 It is easier to believe this than that Abraham Lincoln re- 
 mained ignorant of all these avenues of information till after 
 he was 21 years old. Miss Robey, to whom Lincoln paid spe- 
 cial attention as a young woman, who later married Allen 
 Gentry, said of Lincoln : "He was better read than the world 
 knows or is likely to know exactly."'' At 19, Lincoln read 
 every book he could find.'" Tarbell gives the usual short 
 list of books which the scant information of his life in Indi- 
 ana furnishes, and says : "These are the chief ones we know 
 about.* * * beside these he borrowed many other books. 
 * * * He once told a friend that he read through every 
 book he had ever heard of in that country, for a circuit of 
 fifty miles.""'' John T. Richards, president of the Chicago 
 Bar Association, reviews the scant evidence on this subject 
 from a lawyer's standpoint, and says that it is unfortunate 
 that l)eyond a general statement that while a youth in Indi- 
 ana, Lincoln read the Bible, Shakespeare, Pilgrint's Progress 
 and Weems' Life of Washington and such other books as he 
 could borrow, there is no evidence available as to the 
 
 " Murr'B "History of Lincoln." Ind. May. of Uiatury, Doc. 1917, p. 307. 
 "Ward H. I^mon. Life of Lincoln 70, Ilmtdon, Vol. I, 39. 
 ** Nlcolay & Hay. V. I. p. 41'. 
 •• Life of Lincoln, V. I, p. 29.
 
 144 Indiana Magazine of Histary 
 
 books which aided in the development of his mind up to the 
 time when he removed to Illinois; and in referring: to Lincoln 
 as an educated man, says that his early speeches and writ- 
 ings show a marked familiarity with history and knowledge 
 of the English language.'"- Arnold says Lincoln read Burns' 
 poems and other books till he was familiar with them.''" One 
 of the children of the first generation born in the English set- 
 tlement speaks of Burns' Po( nus as among his childhood 
 memories, heirlooms from English homelife, "the voice of 
 Burns across tlie sea."**** 
 
 The Spirit of the Ohio Valley 
 
 Our national history has for the most part been written 
 by New England men. but from a sectional viewpoint, which 
 over-estimated Puritan influence in the development of na- 
 tional character.''"* When we sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" 
 the country that is visualized is very small. The author of 
 the hymn was a New England clerg>'man and naturally 
 enough described New England and called it America. It is 
 a land of rocks and rills and woods, and the hills are templed 
 in Puritan fashion by while meeting houses; for the early 
 New Englander, like erring Israel of old, loved to worship 
 on the high places. Over it all is one great tradition : "It 
 is the land of the Pilgrim's pride."'"" 
 
 The American spirit — the traits that have come to be rec- 
 ognized as the mo.st characteristic — was developed in the new 
 commonwealths that sprang into life beyond the seaboard."" 
 
 ** Abrahttm Linmln. Lawyer oiftd Statesihan, P. 1-3: 
 
 •^ Life of Lincoln 21. 
 
 "See note 81. An editorial obitii.iry notice of the Evansvlllo Courier fuly 
 2S, 18S2. of the cUuth of Mrs. Ann Cowlo iRlchart. wifo of As.'i lKl«^hart. CT^nnd- 
 dauKhtiT of John Inple of Som'Tsham. says: "The f:imlly of which Mrs. lKlt'h.irt 
 came w»to not lackinK In lltt-mry tasto, .ind In th.at •■;irly day, when a b(ic»k w.aa 
 unknown to most of the homvs of th.at neighborhood, th<.> family of Mark Wheeler. 
 |»er stepfather, was supplied with a library. The children of tho family, con- 
 trary to th<- other familios of that tim-, spent their long winter evenings reading 
 stan«lard EnRlLsh works."' 
 
 •• Wood row Wilson. Thr courar of Amrriran Ilistnrxj (men- literautro), 218. 
 
 »•• .«!amuel McChord Crothers, The Pardoners Wallet — The land of the large 
 and charitable air. 14S. This brilliant writer Mas actually found a true American 
 instinct in old MIrandy Means, who. he says, "formulatfd thf wisdom of the 
 pioneer" who pre-emptfd more land than he could cxjltlvatp. Id. 171. 
 
 •"Frederick Turner. Rise of the Jfew West (1820-1830). 68.
 
 Iglihart: Coming of the English to Indiana 145 
 
 The Atlantic frontier had to work upon European germs. 
 Moving westward each new frontier was more and more 
 American at the start ; and soon the older communities were 
 reacted upon wholesomely by the simplicity and democracy 
 of the west. These considerations give the key to the mean- 
 ing of the west in American history.'"- Says Frederick G. 
 
 '"^William Mason West. Hiatorn of the American People, 270. 
 
 Turner: 
 
 Aiuorimn s<»ci;il tU'veloimiont has lui-ii Odiitlnually beginning over 
 again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American 
 life, this expansion westward with its new opiM>rtunltie8, this contnuous 
 toufh with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces domi- 
 nating American character. • •   The frontier is the line of most 
 rapid an«l eflfiHtlve Americanization. 
 
 The west at bottom is a form of society rather than area. 
 The problem of the west is nothing less than the problem of 
 American development. Today the old Northwest is the key- 
 stone to the American commonwealth. ^''-^ 
 
 Mr. West states that Dr. Turner is the first true inter- 
 preter of the frontier in our history.'"^ This author (Tur- 
 ner), with the advantage of the most complete collection of 
 materials upon the west which has ever been brought to- 
 gether — The Library^ of the Wisconsin State Historical So- 
 cietyi"^, has in his recent writings given to the people of the 
 States of the central west, embracing the location and period 
 we are here considering, their ance.stry, emigration and the 
 establishment by them of the true non-sectional American 
 Democracy, a dignity and importance never recognized 
 before.'"" 
 
 Mr. Murr's Histor>% in the fullest detail, discusses the 
 frontier life of Abraham Lincoln in Indiana, from the age 
 of 7 to 21, from 1816 to 1830, during which period he lived in 
 
 •"Turner. Atlantic Monthly, V. 78. p. 289. V. 79. p. 433. 
 
 '•* Wf8t. History of the American People, 270 — note. 
 
 "•Albtrt BuHhntll Hart, Editorial Prefa*-.- to Turn<r"ii Rise of the Sew West. 
 
 »^ Krt-d trick O. Turnt-r. "The Slgnlflcanco of tho Frontier." In American 
 History Report 1893, American Hlirtorlcul Auociation 199. "Contributions of the 
 West to Amirlcjui Dcmoonlcy." Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 91, p. 83. "The Middle 
 W<irt." International Monthly, IV. 794. "Prolilem of the West," Atlantic 
 Monthly, Vol. 'X, p. 283. "Dominant Korcoa In Wowtern IJf«>." Atlantic 79. 488. 
 Rise of th« New We$t (The American Nation History), ©ditcd A. B. Hart.
 
 14{j Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 Indiana, and justly claims that his character was moulded 
 and developed by his Hoosier surroundings. He claims that 
 the boy was father to the man. In an address to an Indiana 
 regiment of Civil war soldiers. President Lincoln said: "I 
 was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and now live in 
 Illinois." 
 
 Edward Eygleston, in iiis biograjihy elsewhere mentioned, 
 gives the greatest importance to the "formative influences" 
 of his youth wliile living in Southern Indiana, on his career 
 as an author, in which he says he was only drawing on the 
 resources which the very peculiar circumstances of his lif^ 
 had put at his disposal. He adds: "Is it Herder who says, 
 my whole life is but the interpretation of the oracles of my 
 childhood?"'"" 
 
 The Lincoln type, in figure, movement, features, facial 
 make-up, simplicity of speech and thought, gravity of coun- 
 tenance, and integrity and truthfulness of life, as it stands 
 accredited by the vast number of writers on Lincoln, is in a 
 substantial degree a Hoosier type in southern Indiana today. 
 It may be still found in the judge on the bench, the lawyer 
 at the bar, the preacher in the pulpit, and others descended 
 from pioneer stock who are forceful and intelligent leaders 
 of the common people. '"« It should be remembered that pre- 
 vious to 1830 the population of the farmer pioneers of south- 
 ern Indiana who did not come from Kentucky and the south, 
 were the exceptions. Turner correctly says that it is the 
 southern element today which differentiates Indiana from 
 Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, her sister states of 
 the old Northwest. The central west, like the southwest, took 
 its early impress from the central Atlantic coast States of 
 New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Until the inven- 
 tion of the cotton gin, when cotton plantations made slave 
 
 '•f /••onoM. X, 290. 
 
 '°" An okl Civil war soldier livinR In Illinois knew Lincoln as a surveyor In 
 Illinois and hoard the Lincoln -Doujf las debate at Freeport. After he.aring Rev. 
 J. E. Miirr deliver an address on Lincoln, he came to him and fiaid : "I hope you 
 won't mind my saying that you. of all men I ever n»et, remind me most of Lin- 
 coln at 3". to 40. Your st.'iture is not as (freat but your face, manner and speech 
 and the little ways you have curry me back to Lincoln." Mr. Murr was bom In 
 Corjdon, of Kentucky parentage, and is now pastor of Bayard Park M. B. 
 Church, a prominent church In EvansvlUe.
 
 Iglfhart: Cominy of the English to Imliana 147 
 
 labor very profitable, the west, lyinj? north of the Ohio river, 
 and southwest were much alike,'"'' and the resemblance 
 and sympathy between the people of those sections are 
 strontr today. 
 
 It was only after the institution of slavery settled firmly 
 and generally upon the south that the people of the country 
 north of the Ohio river became distinctly separate. Lincoln 
 came to Indiana in 181G, the year of its admission as a State, 
 with a provision in its constitution a^^ain.st slavery. No one 
 can doubt the influence upon Lincoln, the child and youn^? 
 man. in his life upon the free soil of Indiana. Eggleston 
 gives strong testimony on this point in his biographical 
 sketch"" when he describes slavery in its mildest form among 
 his father people's people in Virginia, and after a year's resi- 
 dence there at the age of 16, on his return to Indiana, he 
 later says : 
 
 From the time of uiy visit t<» Virginia I couiitiHl myself nu Almlltionist. 
 
 The influence and necessities of slavery in the south re- 
 quired control of the press and in a degree the freedom of 
 speech. Brander Mathews has shown, upon no less authority 
 than Thomas Nelson Page and Prof. William P. Trent, in his 
 biography of William Gilmore Sims, that this restraint was 
 one of the chief causes which prevented the growth of a 
 southern literature before the Civil war."' Free land and 
 free institutions were the hope of the poor as well as more 
 thrifty white people, which brought them across* the Ohio 
 river. After Kentucky had become well settled, land was 
 more expensive and slavery had become a permanent in- 
 stitution. 
 
 It was destined that the Apostle of Freedom was to come 
 of this class, and to be removed from the heavy weight with 
 which slavery bore upon the poor whites. Out of the spirit of 
 American democracy came the ideal now to direct the des- 
 
 •"Allien Biiiihnill Hart, EJdltorlal introduction to Turner's Rise of the New 
 M'rsi, XIV. Id. p. 75-91.', i'j : V. C Turner. "Dominant Forc«'8 in Wtstcrn LiK-," 
 Atlantic. 79. 43S ; "The SiBnlcanci- of tli« frontier in Aim-rlcan Hiiilory," Am. 
 Hist. Aaan. R. 1893. p. 220; RooBt-velt, Winyting tht- Wvat, Ch. Mt-n of the Wful- 
 ern Waters. 
 
 "• Forum, X. 288. 
 
 •"Brander Mathews. Aspects of Fiction — Two Studieg of the South.
 
 148 hidiana Magazine of History 
 
 tinies of the new British settlers and their Hoosier neighbors, 
 one of whom was Abraham Lincoln. The general British 
 emigration, of which the Illinois and Indiana colonies were 
 part, began when Indiana became a State in 1816 with a con- 
 stitution prohibiting slavery. It was no accident that in that 
 year Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, with the boy Abra- 
 ham, came from a slave State to the free soil and free institu- 
 tions of Indiana and settled in the wilderness of southwest- 
 ern Indiana. The ideals operating on Lincoln in his youth 
 while he was a southern Indiana Hoosier at the time in the 
 location we are considering, as compared with those then 
 existing in slave territory, are thus stated by Turner :''- 
 
 The tiiitunil deiuocTiitlc tendencies tbat had earlier shown themselves 
 in the Gulf States were destroyed, however, by the spread of cotton cul- 
 ture and tJio dovelopuient of preat plantations in that repion. What had 
 been typical of the democracy of the Itcvolution.iry frontier and of the 
 frontier of Andrew Jackson was now to he seen in the States between the 
 Ohio and the Mississip|)i. As Andrew .7ack.'*on is the typical democrat of 
 the former region, so Abraham IJncoln is the very embodiment of the 
 pioneer period of the old Tiorthwpst. Indofnl. ho is the embodiment of the 
 democracy of the west. 
 
 The pioneer life from which Lincoln came diflfere<l in important re- 
 si)ects from the frontier democracy tjTiitiwl by Andrew Jack.son. J.-ickson's 
 democracy was contentious, individualistic, and it sought tlio i<leal of local 
 self-povornment and oxi»ansion. Lincoln represents rather the jiioneer 
 folk who enteretl the forest of the great northwest to chop out a home, 
 to build up their fortunes in the midst of a continually ascending indus- 
 trial movement. In the democracy of the southwest, industrial develop- 
 ment and city life were only minor factors, but to the democracy of the 
 northwest they were its very life. To widen the area of the clearing, to 
 contend with one another for the mastery of the industrial resources of 
 
 '""Contributions of the West to American Democracy," Atlantic Sfonthly, 
 XCI, 89. 
 
 De.vrlptlona of life In southern Indlan.i by many of the blopraphers of 
 Lincoln, Including T.arbell. I, p. 47, Nicolay & Hay, I. Ch. 2. arc given as the back- 
 ground to the picture of a great character, of world-wide Interest, and are too 
 comprehensive and open too wide .a field for the present Inquiry : however, a field 
 well worthy of study in connection with an lnquir>- into the ch.T.racter of the early 
 farmer pioneers In the wild<-me.'«s. John Hay was born at S.ilem. Ind.. Oct. 8, 
 1838, less than a year after the birth of Edward Kggleston at Vevay. Dec. 10, 
 1837, not over 60 miles distant. None of these writers have Interpreted the mean- 
 ing of life in the old Northwest with the vision of Dr. Turner, whose works deal 
 with the period during which Lincoln lived In southwestern Indiana, from 1S16 
 to 1830. which covers the time as well as the territory embraced in the present 
 Inquiry.
 
 Iglehaft: Coyning of the English to In^Iiami 149 
 
 the rich proTlm't's, itt struggle for a place In the Hs^eiulluK luovfuii-ul uf 
 ■oclety, to tniiisiult tt» one's offsprlnK the chance for education, for ludu»- 
 trlal hetteriuent, for the rise lu life which the hardshlpn of the pioneer 
 existence tleiiitsl to tlic pioneer Iiliiiself, these were some (»f the IdeulH of 
 the region to which Lincoln came. The men were commonwealth huilderx. 
 Industry hullders. Whereas the type of hero In the southwest was mili- 
 tant, in the northwest h«' was industrial. It was in the midst of these 
 "plain iuMtjile." as he 1ov»h1 to call them, that Lincoln urew to uianhood. 
 As Knjerson says: "He is the true history of the American iKHjple in his 
 time." The years of his early life were the years when the (lemocra«-y of 
 the northwest came Into struggle with the institution of slavery that threat- 
 ene«l to forhid the expansion of the democratic pioneer life in the west. 
 
 The ideal of the west was its emphasis upon the worth 
 and possibilities of the common man, of its belief in the right 
 of every man to rise to the full measure of his owti nature, 
 under conditions of social mobility. Western democracy was 
 no theorist's dream. It came stark and strong and full of life 
 from the American forest."-' The westerner has been the 
 type and master of our national life.''* The comparatively 
 recent publication and reprint with notes by Dr. Thwaites 
 of the writings of early western travelers in thirty-odd vol- 
 umes are treated by Dr. Turner in a review""- as a sign of 
 the interest that is aroused in western history, and an indi- 
 cation that the region this side of the Allegheny mountains 
 has reached the stage that comes to every people, when in the 
 pride of achievement it turns to survey the records of its past. 
 
 The Hoosier has come into his own. He demands a fair 
 interpretation of those records, and is proud of them. He has 
 no patience with apologists at home, who have been misled 
 by unfair interpretation, nor with the condescending criti- 
 cisms of certain people of other States. No intelligent and 
 fair-minded person will judge the character of a whole people 
 in pioneer Indiana at the beginning of the State by the care- 
 less or malicious sketches of the lowest class of people cor- 
 rectly de.scribed by Dr. Turner as "the scum that the waves of 
 advancing civilization bore before them.""" 
 
 •»* Fnd.rick G. Turner. Rise of the New West. 1S19-1S29. 86. 
 "♦ Woodrow Wilson. The Course of American IJiatori/ (mere literatur0), 218. 
 •»» The Dial. XXXVII. :'98. 
 
 •""The .Slgnlflcanct- of tho Frontier In American History," American UiMtory 
 Anociation R., 1893, 223 note.
 
 150 In/iiana Magazine of Histoi-y 
 
 Pionp:er Life 
 
 The severity of pioneer life, with its hard labor, the isola- 
 tion of families, want of g-ood roads in winter, the limited 
 opportunity for gathering together of people at public enter- 
 tainments and Sunday religious services, made social life and 
 entertainment at a very early day, especially for women and 
 children, very limited. In this respect the life of the settlers 
 of the English settlement was much in common with the life 
 of the native pioneers with whom they mingled. Visiting 
 was common among young people and relatives. For 
 a young man to call upon a young lady meant often for him 
 to ride horseback five or ten miles, even farther. Saturday 
 afternoons were generally recognized as a time for recrea- 
 tion. At the neighborhood store of evenings and particularly 
 Saturday afternoons, the men, young and old, gathered in 
 groups for sociability and to barter ; money was scarce and 
 most of the trade, and purchases as well, were exchanges of 
 goods at market prices. 
 
 At these gatherings stories were told and jokes perpe- 
 trated. Rifle practice, testing the best skill of the hunter, was 
 a popular entertainment. When men or boys went to the 
 store or visiting, they usually carried a gun, on the proba- 
 bility of seeing a deer or other game or wild animal. 
 
 At corn shuckings and log rollings a general good time, 
 with feasting, dancing and drinking, followed. If a neighbor 
 was sick and unable to cut his firewood, or a widow had no 
 one to do that work for her, neighbors would gather with 
 their axes and cut a good pile of wood and carry or haul it 
 to the house. Such an occasion was generally followed by a 
 general social entertainment. The drinking habit, while 
 abused here as elsewhere by persons who indulged to excess, 
 was a very common one, and public opinion was tolerant of 
 it. Faux expresses throughout his book the highest Chris- 
 tion sentiment, no doubt sincerely. He is merciless in his 
 criticisms generally, and especially of the poor lodging ac- 
 commodations for travelers at taverns and in private houses. 
 He occasionally mentions in mitigation of the many faults 
 that good whiskey or brandy was produced. Mr. Hornbrook
 
 Iglehart: Cominy of the English to hutiatm 151 
 
 records the well-known fact that when on occasions the 
 preacher arrived at the house to conduct relij^ious services 
 there, and was tired and needed a stimulant, he did not hesi- 
 tate to set out the decanter of brandy, which was welcome. 
 As a rule, people drank in moderation. The Erskines tried 
 to raise a log cabin without free whiskey, but most reluc- 
 tantly were compelled to yield the point. Whiskey was five 
 cents a glass, and a glass full at the store was often divided 
 up among a number of persons. Fifteen or twenty cents 
 would buy a small jug full. E.xcitable or quarrelsome per- 
 sons under the influence of whiskey sometimes engaged in 
 brawls. 
 
 If a fight reached the danger point in the matter of public 
 peace or example or safety, the grand jury frequently in- 
 dicted one or both of the parties, who had to plead guilty or 
 stand a jury trial in the circuit court. The record of these 
 court trials, as well as of civil suits, where the names of the 
 principals involved, as well as the names of by-standers and 
 witnesses, are endorsed upon the indictment or found in the 
 summons and subpoenas, has been one of the aids in refresh- 
 ing the memories of the oldest inhabitants, particularly Ed- 
 ward Maidlow and James Erskine, who have assisted in re- 
 storing the faded pictures of these early times. 
 
 Negley's mill was a rendezvous for people of all classes 
 from different neighborhoods, who came to mill. There stood 
 a substantial frame steam saw mill and steam flour, corn 
 and grist mill. Nearby the family lived, in a substantial and 
 commodious farm house. The Negley mill, which had been 
 established and owned by James Anthony (not Jonathan 
 Anthony, as the historians record), was the best equipped 
 mill of its kind in southwestern Indiana for many years, and 
 changed hands when Negley bought it, about 1819, at a very 
 considerable price. At the earliest date animal power, alone, 
 in a log hou.se, was used, and the mill supjilied the country 
 for many miles around. In a local history is given an inter- 
 esting description of the old days at Negley's mill and the 
 social life and entertainments there, which continued down 
 for a generation. A trip to the mill was often an excuse for 
 young people of both sexes to go to the business and social
 
 152 liidiaiw. Magazine of History 
 
 center. The list of patrons from the records of the owners 
 of the mill includes many names from the English set- 
 tlement."" 
 
 In 1825 Saunders Hornbrook, Sr., wrote to a friend in 
 England that they were compelled to manufacture their 
 clothing, because of the scarcity of specie, the women some- 
 times carding the cotton and wool, then spinning, weaving 
 and fashioning the cloth into garments. Little time was left 
 for sociability, with the labors which the women had then to 
 perform, and this was substantially the condition in all the 
 families of the settlement. 
 
 In the Evansville Gazette of June 29, 1825, are two no- 
 tices of local interest, showing the patriotic spirit of the 
 people. One is a publication of a notice signed by a com- 
 mittee on arrangements, in Evansville, informing the public 
 of a procession from the house of Daniel Chute on the Fourth 
 of July, to march to the courthouse and hear the address of 
 Dr. William P. Foster; after which the procession was to re- 
 turn to Mr. Chute's house, where a dinner was to be "pre- 
 pared for those who were disposed to partake of it." Imme- 
 diately following this notice, of the same date, is the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 rriJLIC IHNNKli 
 .V riil)lio Dinner will bo provide*! at the House of .*^:inuiel Scott in the 
 English Settlement to celebrate with be<'ouilnR spirit the gorious inde- 
 pendence of Amfri<"!i. We ulve this i)nbli<' notice as many of onr neigh- 
 bors comi)iained last year they liatl not an oi)portunlty of attending, for 
 want of timely information. It will l)e condiu'ted on the Siime principles 
 as that of last year. Subscriptions will be recelveil at Samuel Scott's. 
 Tlie dinner will be on the table at one o'cbx-k. 
 
 R. Carlisle. 
 
 S. Scott. 
 
 .T. Ingle. 
 
 C rotts. 
 
 J. Cawson. 
 
 S. Mans«-l].ii« 
 
 This scrap shows that the "English Settlement" was well 
 known to the readers of the paper; that it aspired equally 
 
 ^" Elliott. History nf Vandrrburgh Countv. 98. 96. 
 
 "•Evansville (iazette, June 18, 1825. Local news was so rare that the editor 
 In such matters u.iually used his editorial column.
 
 lylehart: Coming of the English to Indiana 153 
 
 with the villapre of Evansville to recoj^mize the Fourth of July 
 with "becoming spirit"; and that Samuel Scott and Richard 
 Carlisle, prominent men, who were on the ijround before 
 Hornbrook, the "Father of the Settlement," came, and who 
 came from Enjjrland by way of Virginia, were recognized &s 
 leaders in the settlement. 
 
 In 1822 Hornbrook, for social and mutual benefits, called 
 the men of the neighborhood together to meet at his house 
 every Saturday afternoon, when they had one or two papers 
 on the subject of agi'iculture or any other topic of general 
 interest, which were followed by discussion. He writes that 
 "it was the intention to hold more general meetings the next 
 year, for the county, to a greater extent." Of course, there 
 was no benefit or sociability for the women in these meet- 
 ings, but there had "come into the settlement a number of 
 good respectable English families within three miles, which 
 to some extent supplied that need." 
 
 Hornbrook had been a manufacturer and contractor and 
 business man of considerable experience in the old country 
 and as long as he lived, engaged in business and matters of 
 general interest in trade and manufacture in the set- 
 tlement. 
 
 Describing the situation of his family, which was much 
 similar to those of John Ingle, and the Maidlows, near neigh- 
 bors, as well as of the Wheelers, Joseph and Mark, the Ers- 
 kines, Hillyards and others, six miles or farther distant east- 
 wardly, Hornbrook, in 1822, writes: 
 
 y>>r the first few yt'.ir.s in our new Ikhik" iiiy f;iiiiily hoinn l!ir;ro (ton 
 cblldreii), we did not foci the hmeliiiess wiiich siiiiiller f;iiiillies exiK-rieiKinJ 
 in this new country, where one couhl not .see farther tliiiu ii (jmirter <>f a 
 mile, l)e(-auKe of the dense woods in all directions. In a sliort time tlie 
 older ones married and M'ttled near us. building: tlieir <al»liis and clearing 
 the land and extending: our social neinls. 
 
 He writes his old English friends: 
 
 Our society here cannot be st» select us with you, hut we have as much 
 sincerity and friendship, hut there Is no time for vIsltlnK or idle chit- 
 chat. I'rohahly after a few y«>ars we may have some leisure, tliougli there 
 are no Kervants to relieve the women of labor, tm no tlm«' for live o'chnk 
 tea with the ladies, as In Old KnKland. but we have no taxes nu tithe* 
 — no excise lawH — and |»erfiH't fn^Hlom of thouf;ht an«l worslilp.
 
 151 huliana Magazine of History 
 
 The better element in the English settlement depended 
 much on each other for their social life and for aid in sick- 
 ness and need, thouph scattered throughout the country and 
 in the new town of Evansville were a number of well-to-do 
 people among the better class of natives from Kentucky, 
 Pennsylvania, ^Maryland, New York, and other Atlantic coast 
 States. Ten or twenty miles, even, did not prevent intimacy 
 between congenial neighbors. 
 
 The Ingles, Maidlows, Hornbrooks, Wheelers, Erskines, 
 Hillyards, McJohnsons, and others were the center of the 
 circle of the settlement, and were the nucleus of a social com- 
 munity, drawing to it others more remote, representing in 
 the generation then young, large families of men and women 
 who spoke the English language in its purity and preserved 
 the best traditions of the social, intellectual and moral life 
 of England. 
 
 Faux says at the beginning there were no schools in the 
 settlement, and recommends to the English teachers a good 
 opportunity at a good salary for that time. The first adver- 
 tisement in the Evansville Gazette of a teacher for pupils 
 was by Andrew Erskine,"' in which he stated his terms and 
 the character of his school. He was an educated man, and 
 a leading citizen in the county. A description of educational 
 opportunities in the twenties and the resorts of ambitious 
 people to overcome obstacles in that direction is later fur- 
 nished by a member of one of the pioneer families, then a 
 youth :'=" 
 
 III that now country. wIut*' tluTe \ven» m» l>«»oks. ,nnl uewsp.ipora were 
 very mre. oiiportiiiilHes for o<1u(':itioii wore very |K>or iii(U'«Hl ; Imt father 
 jind mother. esiKM-ially the latter, were anxious for the pn>niotion ami edu- 
 cation of their diildren. Stiniuliited l)y lier preivitt. we all early ac<mlred 
 a taste for hooks. We snbs<Tilte(l for wivkly ]mi»ers very early, and sup- 
 plie<l onrs<'lves with what few s<liooI hooks could l>e obtaine<l, and went to 
 Hcbool. a few months each wintiT in tlie iiiiprovis4>d rude c.ihins. which 
 were called .school-houses in tho.so rude days. But, In fact, our education 
 was ohtaine<l more at home, from the s<'anty supply of lM>oks we had. and 
 from our ai)plication. and by stimulatiug each other. One of the sources of 
 
 "• E^•an9^■^le Oasetle. March 11. 1823. 
 
 *» Hiator]/ of Yanderburffh County (B. & F.), 355.
 
 Igh'hart: Coming of the Knylish to Indiana 155 
 
 education and Ktiinuhitiiiii was tlu- early Mi'tluHllst |.rt>u.li«Th. win. found 
 thflr way a« wi-ll to tlic wild w«hh!s of \Varri<k county, as fVfrywlifrf in 
 this rountry wliioli Iuih lK?f*n rwK-biHl liy civilization. Tlu*y were tttMicnilly 
 bt'tter wlunitttl tiian most of tin* iKtiplc in the country then were, und they 
 stiniulatiHl us to stH*k for iH'ttcr «slufation:il o|ii»ortunitics ; and though 
 none of us ever went to colle>re we obtained all the eiltication which wa« 
 attainable in those early days without roIiik to college. 
 
 Gradually schools were established, but the terms were 
 short : sometimes, not always, competent teachers were 
 found ; among the leaders of the English settlement, in the 
 families of which were some older children who had received 
 some education in England, and where the parents were 
 educated people, there was a good supply of English books 
 and especial care was taken to furnish the best substitute 
 in the home for schools before they became effective else- 
 where. 
 
 As there had been no church built in this settlement, 
 various leading settlers, including Hornbrook, Ingle, Ers- 
 kine, the Hillyards, and others, would invite a minister whom 
 any of them could get, to come to his house to hold services 
 on Sunday, If he could not get anyone to come, as they were, 
 other than the Wheelers, Joseph and Richard, and Parrett, 
 few and far between, he would himself read a sermon from 
 some English book of sermons, and the reading was followed 
 by prayer and song service. There were at that early period 
 eight or ten Unitarian families in the neighborhood, who 
 were sometimes called Schismatics or Christians. 
 
 True to frontier life west of the mountains as it existed 
 at the time of which we write, especially religious influences 
 and development in this section, is the account of Peter Cart- 
 wTight,'-' a Methodist preacher of national reputation, in 
 later life. He was a striking character. He was without cflu- 
 cation, but gifted with natural power of oratory, of un- 
 doubted sincerity and piety, with qualities of leadership, in- 
 cluding the element of fearless courage, which a leader of the 
 time required. Humorous incidents are told of his policing 
 his public religious meetings in Kentucky to prevent rowdies 
 from breaking them up. He had personally, as a member of 
 
 *^ Autobioffraphy of Peter Cartxcright.
 
 156 Indiana Muijazine of Histoi-y 
 
 the Green River district of the Tennessee conference, estab- 
 lished the St. Vincennes circuit in 1808.'-- This circuit in- 
 cluded southwestern Indiana. 
 
 Rev. John Schrader, the circuit rider, as early as 1815'-'' 
 traveled that circuit, embracing the entire Patoka river val- 
 ley south of the present line of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, 
 and extending from the Wabash river eastwardly to and per- 
 haps including Harrison county. 
 
 Rev. Joseph Wheeler and Robert Parrett knew Cart- 
 wright well. In their training and education in England they 
 were free from the narrow limitations which the spirit of the 
 age in the frontier west then imposed upon the natives, and 
 upon many of the leaders born and reared among them. It 
 seems now almost like fiction to read the serious lament of 
 Peter Cartwright,'-^ when in his old age, a unique and cele- 
 brated character, with a long and successful career behind 
 him, he criticises an educated ministry, literary institutions 
 and theological institutes. He says: 
 
 The rreshyterians and other Cnlvanistio branches of the Protestant 
 ihnrch use«l to <-onten(l for an e<UK'ated ministry, for pews, for instru- 
 mental music, for a con>.'r('pitioiml or stated sjilaried ministry: the illit- 
 (•rate Metlio«list prea<-hers actually set the world on tire (the American 
 world at least), while they were 1i;:htinp their matches. 
 
 He condemns the Wesleyans in England for the same rea- 
 sons, insisting that such practices were a departure from the 
 teachings of John Wesley. 
 
 Parrett and the Wheelers, who were Wesleyans in Eng- 
 land, had none of this spirit. Neither had the leaders of the 
 settlement any of the narrow or bigoted or rowdy spirit 
 which to some extent prevailed in various quarters among 
 the natives of this section. 
 
 For half a century in southern Indiana many of the pio- 
 neer preachers struggled in a tragic and losing fight against 
 the spirit of the age, which has at last succeeded in that de- 
 nomination, in its demand for an educated ministry.'-' 
 
 '^ AutDhiOfjraphj/ of prtrr Cnrturtght (lxr.6), 131. 141-167. 
 »= //isforj/ of Warrick Countu (188r>). p. 124. 
 '»* Hiopraphu of I'rter Cnrtirright, p. 79. 
 
 '* For an Illustration of that flght. upon the entrance Into the Infliana Con- 
 ference of the M. E. Church, of the first gra'Jvjate of the first Methodist college of
 
 Iglehart: ComiiKj of the En^jlish to Indiana 157 
 
 A thrilling flight of natural oratory was heard by the 
 writer in an address by Hayden Hays, an old, white-haired, 
 superannuated preacher on the floor of the Indiana confer- 
 ence nearly fifty years ago, discussing the transfers of min- 
 isters from other conferences into the best pulpits of the con- 
 ference, thus to some extent shutting out of those pulpits the 
 old leaders who had heroically spent their lives in building up 
 the civilization of the State. 
 
 It was by the Rev. John Schrader, the circuit rider, that 
 the first regular, organized religious public .services, of which 
 local history has any record, were held, in what is now kno\s'Ti 
 as Vanderburgh county, in Hugh McGary's double log ware- 
 house. By him, in 1819, arrangement was made at that 
 meeting with the Wheelers and Parrett, Methodist ministers, 
 who resided in the settlement, to preach regularly, in his ab- 
 sence, in Evansville.'-" 
 
 John Ingle, of Saundersville, though not a minister, like 
 Hornbrook, led services in his own house, and Faux records 
 his reading a sermon and leading in prayer at service on 
 Sunday, attended by sixteen people.^'-' Also the Wheelers, 
 Erskines, Hillyards, Igleharts, and others did the same. The 
 following extract is taken from the minutes of the church 
 board of Hillyard Methodist Episcopal church: 
 
 III the early piirt of tlie iiiuetinMitb oeiitiiry. whon the surroiimlins 
 (t)imtry w:is beiuK oix'iietl up ami .»<ettleii by pioneer settlers from tbe 
 mother country and the east, came tbe desire to have .some place to wor- 
 ship (IikI. according to their religious belief. So it was agn»ed by these 
 early pi«)neers to hold their meetings at the home of old F.ither Charles 
 Mi-.Iobnson. whenever a preacher might be passing through the country. 
 The first who preached there was Jos«>ph Tarkingtou,'-** who usjtl the 
 text. "They shall go In and out and lind pa.sture." These meetings were 
 held here otvaslonally until the spring of 1S24. 
 
 With the spring of isi.'4 came the organization of the so-calb"*! Hlue 
 (Irass s<K'lety at tbe home of Mark Wlnvler. who was for a time class 
 
 111.- State. Bee Introduction to tli.- Autobiogrtiphy of Rtv. Joseph Tarkitiffton by 
 Rev. Thomaii A. (Joodwin. I>. D. Wiillo In form an introduction. It Is In sub- 
 Bt:inc<- an autobloKTuphy of Dr. Goodwin. «upi>lem<'ntln(f that of Mr. Turklnifton. 
 with moBt Intt-rt-BtlnK and amusing descriptions of ploneor times and jMoplt- In 
 •outhem Indiana. 
 
 ^Hutory uf Vanderbtirph County ( B. & P.). 278. 
 
 '"Thwaltes. Karly Weateru Truvela. XI. 239. 285. 
 
 '* S«e note 60.
 
 158 In<iiana Magazine of Histoi-y 
 
 leader and at whoso home the inet'tliiKs of the ehiss aixl iirea<-hinK services 
 were held. At this time the territory was In the Illinois conference. Wa- 
 bash district. I'aloka circuit. This dnuit had thirty-two aii|K>lntnu'nts 
 and was serve«I hy two preaihers Ihin;; at rriiiceton. lOach made a round 
 everj- four weeks. The class niet>tinKs in those days were held Invariably 
 after i>reaclilnp s*»rvices. 
 
 In isiM", three years after the organization, the mef'tin;: place of the 
 f^H-iety was transferre<l to the home of William Ilillyard. .^r.. and con- 
 tinue<l at this i>lace until the year \s:U. when the society built a hewed 
 log house 1N> X 1.'4 feet anil coveretl it with clapboards. The first seats 
 were nunid |>oles. after a thne theH> were replacnl with improved seats 
 m.ide by .sjilittin;: small logs in the center, shaving off the splinters with a 
 drawing knife, boring boles in the bark side, inst^rting shari)en«nl jiUves of 
 timbers into these holes. These seats were known as l)enches. This church 
 had five windows, two on each side, and one behind the pulpit. This building 
 stood on a rise of grouixl near the cemetery. The .society ci»ntinu(Ml to 
 worship in Ibis inde structure until IS.M. when the set-ond house, which Is 
 still usoil. was built on ground one-half mile south of the cemetery. 
 
 The first class leader was M.-irk Wheeler. There were eighteen per- 
 sons belonging to this <las.s. Orher cl.iss leaders, who h.id done estimable 
 service, were .Tosepli Harrison. Alexander Hillyard. Sr.. William Crisp, 
 Henry Harrison and Thon)as Hillyard. 
 
 From the best Information that can be gained, the first Sunday School 
 was organi/.e<1 in is;{.s in the ohl log cliunb. There were twenty niendiers 
 Itelonging to this s.-hool. Alexan«ler llillyanl. Sr.. was the first superin- 
 tendent. Tlie Smiday School in those days memorized a great amount of 
 Scripture. 
 
 The McJohnson ^lethodist Episcopal chapel was located 
 at McCutchanville, about three miles south of Hillyard 
 church, at an early date, and these two churches have for 
 many years sustained a stationed minister in a church par- 
 sonage located at McCutchanville. A Methodi.st church was 
 erected near Saundersville at a point where the church ceme- 
 tery now known as the Inple cemetery is located, but the 
 church building was later removed. 
 
 The Episcopalians had a church in the settlement, and as 
 late as 1850 one was known as Faux's chapel. Whether 
 named in honor of William Faux, the early historian of the 
 settlement, or one of his de.scendants, history does not state. 
 It has di.'^appeared. 
 
 There were among the various settlers representatives of 
 many religious denominations. The Established church of 
 England had a good representation. Whatever the former
 
 Iglehaii: Coming of the English to Indiana 159 
 
 religious attlliations of the settlers had been in the old coun- 
 try, Wesleyanism, through the Hillyards, McJohnsons, 
 Wheelers, Parretts, Erskinos, and other members of the settle- 
 ment, as well as the circuit rider, who passed throu^^h the set- 
 tlement at stated periods, firmly established Methodism in the 
 beginning of Vanderburgh county's existence. For years that 
 church very largely pre-empted the soil and the people with 
 it, in the north half of the county. The burial ground at 
 McCutchanville church, one at Hillyard church, one near 
 Saundersville, now known as the Ingle cemetery, the Episco- 
 pal cemetery, and the Camp Ground cemetery, e.stablished 
 later than the others, ranked in the above order, first of the 
 earliest cemeteries in the county in the number of graves of 
 the pioneers of the first decade of the settlement of the county. 
 
 Among the incidents preserved which show the close 
 touch of some of the immigrants with John Wesley during 
 his ministry in England and Ireland are the following: 
 Elizabeth Wheeler (1781-1870), wife of Rev. Joseph Wheeler, 
 was born at Witney, Oxfordshire, England, daughter of John 
 and Elizabeth Early, of Witney. John Wesley was a regular 
 visitor at her mother's home in Witney. When but a small 
 child, she sat on Mr. Wesley's knee and recited one of the 
 longest psalms. Elizabeth Hillyard (1760-1845), widow of 
 John Hillyard, of Longford, Ireland, was left by her husband 
 at his death a retail store in Longford, which she continued 
 for some years. When the youngest of her four sons, James, 
 William, John and Alexander, was about grown, she came in 
 1818 with them to America and this was the original Hill- 
 yard family of the Blue Grass neighborhood. Her husband, 
 John Hillyard, was one of the first Wesleyan class leaders in 
 Longford. Both she and her husband knew John Wesley. 
 On one occasion as a girl she wore to church a bow of bright 
 ribbon on her bonnet, and Mr. Wesley remarked, "It is a bow 
 upon Bessie?" This was understood by all to be a reproof 
 to the young lady for undue gaiety in dress. 
 
 Reference is el.sewhere made to Rev. Joseph Wheeler and 
 Rev. Robert Parrett, two men cast in the same mold, whose 
 influence for good in the new settlement and for a much wider 
 territory, was very great. Their influence upon the young
 
 ino Indiatia Magazine of History 
 
 men of the settlement was very marked. To their influence, 
 especially the former, in a threat degree may be traced the 
 education of a number of young men in the families men- 
 tioned, to the ministry. Among these native ministers were 
 James and William Ingle, sons, and John Cowle, nephew, of 
 John Ingle, of Saundersville, and William and Henry 
 Wheeler, sons of Mark Wheeler; James, son of John Hillyard, 
 and Thomas Walker and John Harrison. John W. Parrett, 
 eldest son of Rev. Robert Parrett, was an active minister. 
 All of these were Methodists except Thomas Walker, who was 
 resident pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church at 
 Owcnsville, Indiana, for a generation. So that before these 
 older ministers had passed their vigor, there arose among 
 these families a native ministry, the earliest in that section. 
 Some of them remained in the settlement, rendering good 
 service to the community in furnishing public service at a 
 time when it was much needed. Some of them dedicated their 
 lives wholly to the ministry and passed out into the wider 
 world. None of them are now living. 
 
 Economic Conditions 
 
 One of the criticisms made against emigration to this 
 immediate section was that the country was wet, undrained, 
 malarial and subject to fevers. The picture by Faux of 
 Evansville, at the time he visited it in November, 1819, is an 
 unfavorable one. On that subject he says:'-'-' 
 
 VIsltetl Kvnnsvllle ou the bliiflfs of the Ohio. lU-hiiul it is an almost 
 Im|ias.><4ible road throuub a sickly swamp, none of which uear the road Is 
 yet cnltivat«Ml. It s<H'ms t<Kj wet. Here I met a few Kn^llsh me<-liauic-s 
 re>;rctliii.c tiiey had left Kn^laiid. where tliey tliink tliey coui<l do l)etter. 
 
 The Evansville Gazette^'-'" contains an editorial statement 
 on the subject of the health of Evansville, to the effect that 
 it was "tolerably healthful." Between the lines may be seen 
 that the writer felt that there had perhaps been some foun- 
 dation at least, at some time, for the charge of unhealthy 
 location. 
 
 »»Thwalt08. Early Western Travets, I. 292. 
 »»• Issue of Sopt. 9. 1824.
 
 Igh'hart: Coming of the Englii^h to Indiana 161 
 
 At the time of the discovery of the "Salt Wells," on 
 Pigeon creek near Evansville, the Gazette issued an editorial 
 prospectus of the town, claiming almost perfect health 
 in it.'^'i 
 
 But Evansville itself, located about half a mile east of 
 the mouth of Pigeon creek, lay on very high ground, and 
 above the highest water, even up to the present time ; but on 
 all three sides away from the river, the ground retreated until 
 it was low, and at the time mentioned, it was entirely un- 
 drained. The same may be said of what is now Knight town- 
 ship on the east, as well as Union and Perry townships on the 
 west and south. These lowlands, which have since become 
 drained and are healthy for residence probably as much as 
 the higher ground, were at the time standing in water much 
 of the year. 
 
 Naturally the most inviting location for a settler, health 
 considered, was the high ground beginning on what was 
 afterwards the state road, which started in Evansville, ex- 
 tended northwardly across Pigeon creek near Anthony or 
 Negley's mill, to Princeton and Vincennes. Fron Pigeon 
 creek, near the present northern boundary of Evansville, 
 north for the whole distance to the north line of the settle- 
 ment, the ground was well drained and rolling, and the view 
 was picturesque, especially the backbone of hills occupied by 
 Mechanicsville (Stringtown), near the southern line of the 
 settlement. This was at the beginning occupied by early 
 settlers, some of English birth, including the Walkers, some 
 of English ancestry, all with English sympathies, which 
 united them in many ways with members of the settlement 
 itself. 
 
 The tracts selected by the Hornbrooks, Maidlows and 
 Ingle were located close together, and a great majority of 
 the fifty-six families mentioned by Faux in his book written 
 in November, 1819, were located so closely to the land so se- 
 lected that the settlement was very compact. There were, 
 however, at the same time and immediately afterwards other 
 settlers properly included within the colony who settled over 
 
 >« E\an«\ille Gatette, Aug. 27, 1823.
 
 1G2 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 i\w line in Gibson county on the north, Posey on the west, and 
 Warrick on the east, all, however, within a radius of ten or 
 fifteen miles, most of it much nearer. 
 
 In Aujrust. 1819, three months before Faux's visit to John 
 Tnple, Richard Flower wrote a letter'-'- from the Illinois set- 
 tlement, jriving some definite idea of its extent and numbers, 
 in which he says: 
 
 On ;i inut of liiiul troiii tlu> i.ittit' Wiilmsli to tlit> Hoiip.-is on the 
 Grent W;ib;isb. iibout sovoiite<»ii iiiilrs in wUltli. nntl four to six from north 
 to st»uth. there were but .1 few IniuttTs' r.ibins. :i ye.ir .•iiul a hiilf Hlnce. and 
 now there Jire }ilM)ut sixty Kujilish fliiuilies. rontainiutf nearly four hun- 
 (lre<l sotils; and one humlred ami tifty Auieriiaii. containing: about s<'ven 
 hundred souls, who like the English for their neighbors, and manjr of 
 whom are good neighbours to ua 
 
 The central part of the English and Irish location, some six 
 miles east of Saundersville, included the Wheelers, Hillyards, 
 Erskines and McJohnsons, who settled there early. The Hill- 
 yards and McJohnsons were there before Faux arrived. The 
 Erskines arrived at Evansville by an ark Christmas day, 
 1819, just as Faux was preparing to leave the country. Faux 
 did not meet any of these persons, and his observations are 
 confined substantially to those persons whom he met in the 
 immediate neighborhood of John Ingle's residence, and in 
 Evansville, where he visited a short time. He speaks, how- 
 ever, of the people in the settlement as the "British, "'•''•' thus 
 recognizing what was the fact, that the settlement properly 
 embraced not only the English, but the Irish and a few 
 Scotch, who came about the same time, and were for all pra«- 
 tical purposes one with the English. 
 
 The soil upon which the central settlement was made was 
 not of the best. In fact, the timber upon it would have indi- 
 cated that fact to a farmer familiar with judging soil cov- 
 ered with timber. This criticism was made by Judge Mc- 
 Creary, as.sociate judge of the circuit court, to Mr. Faux, who 
 quotes him in a talk he had with Hornbrook himself, which, 
 the judge said, Hornbrook did not relish. 
 
 The location of the Indiana settlement, with Saundersville 
 
 "> Spark.o. Enplish Settlement in the Illinois, letter 2. p. 24. 
 •"Thwaltts. Early Wr.tlrrn Travrl.i. XI. '.'9."
 
 Iglehart: Cominu of the English to Indiana 163 
 
 as its center, shows that the ^reat body of the settlement oc- 
 cupied less space than that given by Richard Flower for the 
 Illinois settlement. The great body of the settlers were in a 
 circle of not over one-half the radius of the larger circle de- 
 scribed. Its borders were e.xtended so as to include the Par- 
 rett location across the county line in Posey county on the 
 west, and the extension into Campbell township, Warrick 
 county on the east, and to Warrenton, in Gibson county, on 
 the north, and to include Mechanicsville on the south as far 
 as Negley's mill, at the foot of the hill and ridge on which 
 Mechanicsville is located and where the extreme southern 
 boundary of the settlement terminated. Here the Walkers 
 and others lived. 
 
 The Kentucky backwoodsmen were inclined by preference 
 to select the lower lands in what is now Knight township and 
 Union township, which at the present time are the finest 
 agricultural lands in the county. The same preference was 
 given by the same class of farmers to the lands in Gibson 
 county and Posey county, much of which is the finest agricul- 
 tural soil in this section, and one of the finest agricultural 
 sections in the central west. 
 
 Cobbett'-'* describes the land of the New Harmony settle- 
 ment in Posey county as being as rich as a dung hill. One ex- 
 ception to the other Englishmen in selecting the location for 
 the settlement was Robert Parrett, who came about the same 
 time as the other leaders mentioned, but who stopped a year 
 or two in New Jersey before coming to Indiana. He settled 
 at or near what is now Blairsville, in Posey county, in 1819, 
 and about ten miles distant from Saundersville, where the 
 soil was of a superior character. Here he remained some five 
 or six years and here some of his children, including the late 
 William F. Parrett, circuit judge and member of congress, 
 were born. In 1825 he moved with his family to his location 
 of the Parrett home.stead, embracing a hundred and sixty 
 acres of land, then adjoining Evansville on the south and 
 southeast, which is now a solidly built up portion of the city, 
 including one of the finest residence streets. Much of this he 
 
 •** l^lndly, Indiana as nem fci/ Early Trnx'eters, 514.
 
 164 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 retained till his death, leaving to his children a large estate, 
 in the land alone. 
 
 The English settlement had no definite limits, but extended 
 as its settlers moved around, and from the beginning its mem- 
 bers drifted towards Evansville, along the high and rolling 
 ground in the general neighborhood of the state road, located 
 previous to 1819. 
 
 When the state road in Vanderburgh county was im- 
 proved, the stations, of two miles in length each, embraced 
 in separate descriptions for clearing timber and road build- 
 ing, were identified in their termini by stakes in the fields 
 of the English settlers from Pigeon creek to the Gibson 
 county line.i^'' 
 
 The road back of Evansville to Pigeon creek was, in 1819, 
 when Faux described it, low and swampy, or at least un- 
 drained of standing water, and much of the land through 
 which it ran was untenable for healthy residence. So, in- 
 deed, was much of the best land in the county. The de- 
 scription by early travelers, including* Fearon, Faux and 
 others, lays great stress upon the matter of health and the 
 neighborhood of extensive undrained lands, which properly 
 disqualified it for residence of men and their families, who 
 were entering a new life of supreme hardships. In this fact, 
 greater than any other, may be found the explanation why 
 the Hornbrooks, Ingle, Maidlows, Scott, Kennerly, Hillyards, 
 Wheelers, Erskines and later comers, settled land not of the 
 best soil. It compares unfavorably with the land lying lower, 
 especially now when all of it is drained and in cultivation. 
 
 Faux visited Evansville for a day in November, 1819, 
 meeting several of the prominent citizens who called upon 
 him. As already mentioned, he says Judge McCreary com- 
 plained greatly of the choice of land made by the British here. 
 He wonders they could not better inform themselves, because 
 when they came there was plenty of good land to be had and 
 if not in bodies, yet in sections and in half sections. "The 
 soil," he said, "is as thin as a clap-board or bear-skin. I 
 would not give one of my quarter sections for all of the neigh- 
 
 »» E\-anrvme Oasette, July 13. 1822, Advt. for proposals.
 
 Iglehart: Cominy of the English tu Indiana 165 
 
 borhood of the barrens." (The term "barrens," as then used, 
 did not apply to arid soil, but rather to land which was not 
 covered by tall timber.) "They must have been deceived by 
 speculators, but all the English must herd together."'^" 
 
 In this Judge McCreary was wrong. As stated, the orig- 
 inal location was made in this section by Saunders Horn- 
 brook, Jr., who came into the wilderness alone, and made his 
 selection, probably without much knowledge of the nature of 
 the soil, as he had not been a farmer in the old country. 
 
 It is true that Samuel Scott lived in this neighborhood 
 before Hornbrook came. At Scott's house were held all the 
 elections in that township, during his life, and they continued 
 to be held there at the house of his widow, after his death, 
 about 1825 or 182G. 
 
 Carlisle and Kennerly were on the ground, Kennerly at 
 the north end of Mechanicsville, Carlisle farther north, 
 toward the settlement, as afterwards located, and while he 
 does not refer to the fact, it is not unlikely that Saunders 
 Hornbrook, Jr., was influenced in some degree by these men, 
 who were rugged, intelligent Englishmen, and as stated else- 
 where, afterwards became part of the settlement. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that the Saundersville settle- 
 ment was not located in the most fertile section, and that 
 health of the location had much to do with its selection, a 
 hundred years of cultivation and good farming have made 
 the original location of the English settlement a location of 
 good farms at the present time. 
 
 The first high ground north of Evansville on the line of 
 travel to Princeton and Vincennes begins across Pigeon 
 creek ; here it rises abruptly so high and steep that the road 
 from Pigeon creek near Negley's mill up to Mechanicsville at 
 the top of the hill was over one-half mile long and .so steep the 
 entire distance that in the old time of dirt roads, it was an 
 object of much solicitude to travelers. Northwardly extends 
 the backbone of the ridge, furnishing a beautiful view of the 
 hills and valleys for many miles, and on this ridge was lo- 
 cated Mechanicsville, over a mile in length. Along this high 
 
 •"Thwaltes, Early Western Travels, XI, 1:95.
 
 166 Imluuia Mauazinc of History 
 
 ground the state road, after it was located, was changed to go 
 through the Saundersville settlement, forking at the north 
 end of Mechanicsville easterly in the Petersburg road. This 
 road went through the McCutchanville, Earles, Hillyard 
 church and the Wheeler settlements, where, as in the case of 
 the state road, the English and Irish settlers had blazed the 
 way. 
 
 From the beginning, contemporaneously with the settle- 
 ment of Evansville on the one side, and the Saundersville, 
 McCutchanville and Hillyard settlements on the other, on ac- 
 count of its superior location for health, its proximity to the 
 perennial Pigeon creek, and its nearness to the Ohio river, 
 and itself lying on the direct road to Princeton and Vincennes 
 from the river, Mechanicsville was an important center of 
 activity and population. It was, so to speak, a connecting 
 link between Evansville and the English settlement. 
 
 Here was one of the first meeting-houses for religious and 
 educational uses built in the county (1832). It is still stand- 
 ing and in use, as the village church, in excellent condition, 
 though eighty-seven years old, and now the oldest church 
 building in the county. 
 
 At the south end and part of Mechanicsville, opposite 
 Negley's mill, was a small village which has wholly disap- 
 peared.' •'" 
 
 Mechanicsville was a competitor with Evansville for the 
 county seat of Vanderburgh county in 1818. It is stated that 
 in the 30's, the citizens of Evansville had to go to Mechanics- 
 ville for first class blacksmithing and wagon-making. Here, 
 in the early 30's, John Ingle, Jr., learned his trade as a cab- 
 inet-maker. Here later settled Dr. Lindley, one of the leading 
 men of the county, also the Whittlesey family, long promi- 
 nent citizens of the county, as well as of the city of Evans- 
 ville : still later the McGhees, Olmsteads, Woods and others. 
 Mechanicsville has always been and still is a well-.settled 
 community, and today is thickly settled with well-built 
 houses, and in addition, on account of its superb location, has 
 become a popular place of suburban residences of Evansville 
 people. 
 
 '« Elliott. History of randerbtirgh Count}/, 94.
 
 IgU'hart: Comituj of the Kiiglish to Indiana 167 
 
 The subject of water was then of ^^reat importance to a 
 settler seeking a farm location. A running stream upon the 
 land was regarded as of threat value. The elder Hornbrook 
 calls attention to this advantajre of the location of the settle- 
 ment, in one of his letters. Faux's description of the dilliculty 
 of some of the farmers in getting water for their families 
 and stock is both amusing and tragic' '"^ George Flower's 
 history of the Prairie settlement in Illinois, mentions the fact 
 of the difficulty of procuring water at one time, when repre- 
 sentatives of much of the village stood in line with buckets 
 for two hours at night, being supplied from a well which he 
 had dug.'^i* 
 
 The extreme eastern line of the settlement was from Pigeon 
 creek, a point selected by the elder Igleheart and others in- 
 cluding the Lockyears as a water supply. This creek runs 
 north through Campbell township in Warrick county, some 
 fifteen miles east of Saundersville ; so that he was on the east- 
 ern edge of the settlement around which, however, a dozen 
 English families, including the Lockyears, then and later 
 settled. All of his three sons, and two of his four daughters 
 married members of the British settlement. Christopher 
 Lockyear, a brother-in-law of the senior Maidlow, came over 
 with him in 1818. In 1918, at a reunion of his descendants in 
 Evansville, one hundred of them were present. 
 
 Pigeon creek, as the source of unfailing water supply, was 
 at the beginning regarded as one of great importance. Saun- 
 ders Hornbrook, Sr., in the letter referred to, speaks of the 
 landing of his son at Pigeon creek, rather than at Evansville. 
 A number of the travelers, in referring to the location, give 
 importance to the existence of Pigeon creek as a well-knowTi 
 stream of water. As late as 1835 it is said the most serious 
 inconvenience that people of Evans\nlle suffered was the 
 want of good water, and that the Ohio river water was all 
 that could be obtained till that time. The first cistern was 
 then built by Ira French, who had bought the patent right 
 to build cisterns in Vanderburgh county.*-"' 
 
 •■ThwaltfB. Harly Wtatern Travels, XI. 266. 
 
 »*• George V. Flower, History of Kdwiirda County. III., 131. 
 
 •*• Rlley, History of Walnut Street Church. Evanaville. 26.
 
 168 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 An examination of the records of the county commission- 
 ers of Vanderburgh county, which had jurisdiction in the es- 
 tablishment, maintenance and repair of roads, shows very 
 clearly that there was universal interest among the first set- 
 tlers in the establishment of roads in this part of the wilder- 
 ness. Roads, when established, were for a long period not 
 much more than blazed trails, and the best that could be done 
 in the way of laying out and improving a road was cutting 
 off the heavy timber, which usually left stumps around which 
 the road was compelled to run. So long as the adjoining 
 forest was uncleared, good drainage was impossible, and it 
 was many years before good wagon or carriage roads were 
 established. 
 
 The cost of hauling was so great as to be prohibitive of 
 transportation of heavy material. Faux says that fifty cents 
 was the usual price of carriage for one hundred pounds of 
 corn for over twenty miles, sometimes higher, never lower. 
 One bushel of corn weighed from fifty to fifty-six pounds, so 
 that if it was hauled by weight, it would not pay the carriage 
 for twenty miles. He says that Ferrel, a man of experience 
 and discernment, stated that he would not fetch corn from 
 Princeton, twenty miles off, as a gift, if he could grow it, nor 
 would he carr\' it to the Ohio for sale, because it would not 
 pay carriage and expenses. When, if ever, they will have 
 surplus produce, he will give it to the pigs and cattle, which 
 will walk to market. ^^' Again he says: 
 
 Yesterday a settler passed our door (In;;Io's) with a bushel of com- 
 inoal on his hack, for \vhl<'h ho had travele<l twenty miles on foot to the 
 nearest horse-mill, and carried it ten ndles. paying .seventy-tive cents for It. 
 
 Almost the first acts of organized government of Vander- 
 burgh county were the receiving of petitions for the opening 
 of public roads, appointing viewers to pass upon the question 
 of public utility, and to investigate and lay them out, and 
 making orders establishing roads. After a road was estab- 
 lished in the country districts, the question of its mainte- 
 nance became important ; a road supervisor was appointed 
 and assigned to a specified portion or length of road. Some- 
 
 "' ThwRlte*. Early WfBtrrn Travrl.t, XI. 291.
 
 Igh'haH: Cominy of the English to Indiami 169 
 
 times one road in the county, of lenj?th, would be embraced 
 within the jurisdiction of several supervisors. To the super- 
 visor was assigned the inhabitants sometimes by name, some- 
 times by a general description of locality, living within the 
 territory of his district, near the particular highway which 
 they, by law, were required to work. It was the duty of the 
 supervisor to call upon all the able-bodied inhabitants to work 
 the roads, and, in case of their failure to do so, to collect from 
 them sufficient cash to hire a substitute. 
 
 So great was the interest of everyone in the proper mainte- 
 nance of these highways of travel, that the leading citizens 
 of the county, without exception, were willing to accept the 
 appointment of road supervisor. This was true of all of the 
 leading men named. This was in some respects the most im- 
 portant public position and nearest to the real interests of the 
 community, although the pay was trifling. The proportion of 
 county busine.ss embraced within this routine of work was 
 so great for the first ten years as to indicate that it was of the 
 greatest importance to the people and to the county commis- 
 sioners, who had charge of it. There is no more reliable 
 record of the names of citizens in particular localities, at a 
 particular time, than is to be found in the enumeration of 
 inhabitants for working roads in the particular road districts. 
 
 More voluminous, however, were the "Estray notices." 
 The stock law was severe to protect stock from thieves. When 
 a settler took up a horse, cow or hog, the law required him 
 to go before the nearest justice with two neighbors and 
 make an appraisement and give notice before the justice, who 
 transmitted the paper, usually a single small sheet, to the 
 clerk's office. 
 
 In preparing the list of English families in this settle- 
 ment at fixed dates, this mass of contemporary record, each 
 paper containing four names, with the date and the township 
 located, enabled the writer, with his own knowledge and the 
 aid of James Maidlow and James Erskine, to make out, with 
 other aids, a sub.stantially correct record. 
 
 The relative importance of the English .settlement to other 
 parts of the county during its first decade may in .some meas- 
 ure be estimated by the amount of time and records devoted
 
 170 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 by the county commissioners to the roads of that portion of 
 the county, as compared to other portions. Upon such a com- 
 parison it appears that the northern part of the county, in 
 which this settlement was located, was much farther ad- 
 vanced in the opening, existence and improvements of high- 
 ways than the other parts of the county. That part of the 
 county was more thickly settled than was the southern part. 
 Saundersvillc was located in a central part of the settlement. 
 It is described as *'a nourishing post town in Vanderburgh 
 county in 1826.'^'- In 1833 the same authority described it 
 as **a small post village in Vanderburgh county ten miles 
 north of Evansville." Soon afterwards it ceased to exist. 
 It had, in the early twenties, among other interests, several 
 stores, a mill, a warehouse and a number of houses occupied 
 as residences. There is now no trace of it to be seen in the 
 cultivated field where its location was formerly, and the exact 
 spot of its location cannot be pointed out by any one. The 
 recorded plat of the "town" unfortunately contains no refer- 
 ence to the section or part of section or other description, on 
 which the town was located. 
 
 The road records of the county show that August 9, 1819, 
 the State Road or Evansville and Princeton road was changed 
 to run "through the Main Street of Saundersville," and this 
 very definite north and .south line of the landmark remains 
 still the same. The New Harmony and Boonville road, built 
 in 1820 and 1821, was ordered in two sections, one from 
 "Man.sell's mill, Saundersville," to the Warrick county line, 
 to meet the proposed road to Boonville through Warrick 
 county, one from "the town of Saundersville to New Har- 
 mony, to strike the Posey county line," etc., at a point, etc. 
 If the road from Boonville to New Harmony has not been 
 changed, then the east and west landmark is also fixed, lo- 
 cating Saundersville in the .south part of Section 8. It is not 
 impossible that the variation of a quarter of a mile, more or 
 less, might in those times have been regarded as of little im- 
 portance in descriptions. In fact, roads were not usually sur- 
 veyed, but located by the judgment of road viewers who 
 chose the "best route" between the termini. 
 
 •♦^ Scott. The Indiana Gazeteer, 103.
 
 Iglehart: Coming of the Ryigliah to Indiana 171 
 
 Vanderburgh county at the time of the English settle- 
 ment was located in a dense wilderness, the trees were of 
 enormous height and size. For half a century Evansville has 
 been called the hardwood lumber market of the world, result- 
 ing from the extent of the forests and size of trees, tropical 
 in size, in this section, where the grain of the wood gives the 
 lumber a finer quality than in timber grown south of the tem- 
 perate zone. Clearings by the settlers were often as little as 
 six or seven acres the first year, and gradually increased. 
 John Ingle, at the end of the first year, when Faux visited 
 him, had cleared seventeen acres, and was continuing the 
 work, doing much of his own work in person. 
 
 Hogs were raised, half wild, in the woods on mast, with 
 little expense, and pork was always in demand, one of the 
 most available articles for use in exchange and barter, a sub- 
 stitute for money.'^-' Saunders Hornbrook, Sr., established 
 a pork house for cutting and curing the meat, the earliest in 
 the settlement, and like many others, made one or more trips 
 by flat boat to New Orleans, 
 
 Bears and wolves, when very hungry, would eat the hogs 
 alive, and it was not uncommon for a hog to come home with 
 the loss of a pound or two of flesh bitten from it. Cattle, 
 hogs and sheep could only be certainly raised successfully by 
 keeping them in an enclosure at night, Mrs. Crawford Bell, 
 daughter of David Negley, described an exciting scene in her 
 youth, when a gang of wolves in daylight chased two cows 
 past her, when she and her sister w^ere riding horseback, 
 making her horse run aw^ay, fortunately not throwing its 
 riders among the wolves. Before aid could be given, the 
 wolves had overtaken, killed and partly eaten the cows.**-* 
 One of the early settlers is quoted in a local history as stating 
 that wolves were so bad in the 20's that settlers could not 
 raise pigs enough to furnish their pork, and could not keep 
 sheep at all.'^' Faux records that during the few days he, in 
 
 '"John N. True»d«*ll in ii notlcv dated S«*pt. _', piihllahed Oft. 28. advertised 
 that between the 15th and 2 5th of November, 1822, lie would exchange aalt for 
 p<jrk at Jones and Harrison's store In Evansville. Kvansville Gatette, Oct. 28, 
 1822. 
 
 '"GilUrt. Ilistoru of Vandtrbur<jh Cuunty. I. 54. 
 
 »• (B. ft F.). History of Vanderburffh County, 355.
 
 172 Indiana Ma(jazine of History 
 
 company with John Injirle, visited the Birkbeck and Flower 
 Prairie settlement in Illinois, in November, 1819, a Rang of 
 wolves in daylight attacked a large llock of sheep which was 
 guarded by a shepherd, killing fifty before they could be 
 driven off.'"'- He also records a visit of one day and night to 
 "Evansville on the bluffs of Ohio," and remarks "the wolves 
 last night howled horribly and prowled into town."'^' Wild 
 cats and panthers were very common and fierce and an enemy 
 to any stock, and were known to follow persons in the woods, 
 when visiting, from one house to another. Bears were very 
 common and easily killed with the rifle, and their meat was 
 very highly valued. At Faux's first meal in the settlement, at 
 the house of John Ingle, bear meat was served to him, and by 
 him very highly appreciated.' •*'^ Deer meat was most plen- 
 tiful and the meat was highly valued. Venison was taken by 
 the merchants in payment of debts due them, and for goods 
 sold by them.!-*" 
 
 The native hunters, as a rule, took only the hide and hind 
 quarters of the deer, leaving the remainder in the woods to 
 be devoured quickly by wolves and other wild beasts. Forty 
 years later, deer were still to be found in the woods in all the 
 counties in southern Indiana. From White river to the Ohio 
 river along the Wabash was a strip of wilderness in Gibson 
 and Posey counties, where they were to be found much later 
 and are still occasionally seen and easily killed when driven 
 out of the river bottoms by the high water floods. 
 
 Faux paid $4.00 for a bear skin in 1819, worth, he said, 
 four pounds in England, and the fine hair of one he carried 
 back to England to be converted into wigs for his friend, 
 Rev. John Ingle, the patriarch of Somersham.'''" 
 
 There were in the settlement native hunters always ready 
 to hunt up stock which frequently strayed off and was lost; 
 such a one would take his rifle and sometimes be gone sev- 
 eral days, generally bringing back the lost stock. The Lock- 
 year brothers, whose father came from England with the 
 
 '•• Thw.-iltos, Early Western Travel*. XI, 268. 
 
 »" Id. 292. 
 
 '"/d., 225. 
 
 '• Evansvlllo (;nzettr, J,^n. H. 1S24. 
 
 "•Thwaltes. Earlu Western Travels, XI. 292.
 
 lijli'hart: Comituj of the En(jli,^li to In/liana 173 
 
 Maidlows, were, like many of their neighbors, good hunters 
 as well as farmers. 
 
 The controlling idea in the structure of the houses in 
 which most of these first settlers in the wilderness lived, as 
 well as its furnishings, was perfect economy of money, which 
 at times was almost unknown. Gold and silver were a great 
 rarity, seldom .seen, and paper money, also scarce, was very 
 unreliable in its rating, and in the purchase of the necessaries 
 of life people learned to do without money. So it was in 
 house building. Birkbeck's first log house cost him $20.00. 
 Iron, lead, glass, .salt, and rifles could not be made in this .sec- 
 tion, and were very costly. Houses were built often without 
 nails or windows, and made of logs fitted by the axes and 
 raised by the settlers at hou.se raisings, which were great 
 social occasions. Faux thus de.scribes the log house of John 
 Ingle, of Saundersville, a picture of which "drawn from Ingle 
 Refuge, State of Indiana, U. S., by W. Faux," is the frontis- 
 piece in his book:^'' 
 
 My frieud's log bouse a.s a first oue is the best I have seen, buving one 
 large room ami a chamber over it. to which you climintl Ijy a ladder. It 
 has at present no windows, but when the doors are shut the crevices 
 between the rough logs admit light and air enough above and below. 
 It is tive yards square and twenty feet high. At a little di-stance 
 stands a stable for two horses, a corn crib, pig sty Jind a store; for .store 
 kiH'ping is his intention, and it is a gdod one. Two beds in tlie room bt'iow 
 and line above lodge us.i"'- 
 
 Both wooden chimneys in the hou.se caught fire during 
 Faux's visit and threatened destruction of the house. The 
 house was heated by fireplaces large enough to hold large logs 
 and nearly a quarter of a cord of wood. The cabins were 
 sometimes built with opposite doors so that a horse could 
 haul the back log into the house in front of the fireplace. An 
 early settler describes the hou.ses in the entire .settlement in 
 his youth, in the 20's, from five to ten years after the time of 
 Faux's description, as follows: 
 
 The country was wiUl, ind»>i>d. 'riuTc were no mads, mere paths, no 
 wagon roads, no wagons to run in them, uud no bouses, but log cabins. 
 
 "' TliwaJtt's. Earlu Western TraveU. XI. 20. 
 »»'/d., 226.
 
 174 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 Thprp wore not more thiin one or two franip hotjscs in W.irrick connty. 
 Tlu' wh<>U> country \v:is a wildfrncss.'''^ 
 
 The furnishings of the houses were in many cases very 
 primitive and showed the same ingenuity without money as 
 in building the houses, in devising tables, chairs, bedsteads, 
 and more often substitutes, formed by fastening boards or 
 timbers in the floor or walls. P^aux says: 
 
 I wont one niilo iuul a half to Inirrow fnun Mrs. m«lij:lit Williams six 
 tunil)Iors f(tr tin* us4« of onr <-oniin); Christinas party. Tliis stop was nec- 
 essary or our friends, the I>ons of the sottlenient, must drink out of tin 
 cupa or i»ots. Mrs. Williams is the widow of the whippt^l Yankee, whose 
 story I have related. [This Incident o<'cure<l in the Illinois Prairie settle- 
 ment. Williams was whipited on strong suspicion of being a thief. He died 
 In Kvansvllle later of his injuries reclevecl at the hands of repnlators.] 
 She lives in a house without a chimney. h;ivinp only a hole in the roof to 
 let oiit the smoke, a tiro l)einp made in any part. She was rather unwilling 
 fo lend those tumblers boiauso tboy came from Kngland and money could 
 not replace them If broken. She should e.xpect five dollars, though in i:ng- 
 Innd one dollar bought slx.i54 
 
 The records of Vanderburgh county show an indictment 
 against two young men of an English family for robbery of 
 the house of James Cawson, a neighbor. Cawson and his 
 wife were wealthy. They were one of the thirty-nine families 
 who sent Fearon to America. They brought from England 
 with them many of the household conveniences, practically 
 imknown in the wilderness of Indiana. And these, it was 
 charged, tempted the young men who broke into Cawson's 
 house and stole them. The items are described with much 
 detail in the indictment. It is interesting to note some of the 
 sequels of this affair. The defendants were acquitted of rob- 
 ber}', but their father was indicted, but later acquitted for 
 perjury in testifying at their trial. Cawson was indicted for 
 compounding a felony, whereby he got his goods back and 
 ceased to be interested in the prosecution. While an agree- 
 ment not to prosecute under these circumstances is prohibited 
 as against the policy of the law, it is believed, even in this 
 age, that police aid is more often sought to recover stolen 
 goods than to vindicate the majesty of the broken laws. 
 
 '-^ Historti of Vnudrrburfjh County (B. & F.), 355. 
 »"Thwait«8. Early Western Travels. XI, 300.
 
 Igliliaii: Coming of the Englit^h to Indiana 175 
 
 When Cawson was placed upon his trial before a jury in the 
 Vanderburgh circuit court, he challen^^ed the whole array of 
 jurors and claimed the rij^ht to be tried by a jury de mediatate 
 liiiguar, that is to be tried as a foreij^ner, by a jury half 
 natives and half foreigners. This practice is rare and at the 
 present time practically unknown in Indiana. The court sus- 
 tained his challenjre and directed a jury to be empaneled, 
 half English and half natives, the former being taken from 
 the English settlement, among his neighbors, and Cawson 
 was acquitted. The names of the foreigners on the jury 
 were Alanson Baldwin, Saunders Hornbrook, Sr., Edmund 
 Maidlow, George Potts, William Mills, James Maidlow. 
 These individuals, including Cawson himself, all became citi- 
 zens, however, as soon as eligible, under the law at that time, 
 which required several years previous residence. 
 
 Nothing more clearly appears at this time than that suc- 
 cess by farmers in the wilderness, such as these men became, 
 required an adjustment to the conditions of frontier life. 
 These pioneers performed household and farm labor without 
 hired help, a life of closest economy and continued sacrifice. 
 The native laborers were, as a rule, more or less shiftless and 
 unreliable. Good land could be bought from the United 
 States at $2.00 per acre, later at $1.25 per acre, on payment 
 of one-fourth cash, the remainder on long time; so that a 
 thrifty and industrious man could easily make upon the land 
 the money to buy it, as the purchase price became due. 
 Therefore, with such opportunities, capable workers nat- 
 urally preferred by their labor to own their own land, instead 
 of working in service for others. Faux narrates an incident 
 when John Ingle hired a native preacher to do a job of car- 
 penter work of some magnitude at that time, and, trusting to 
 his cloth, paid him forty dollars in advance, but the man 
 refused to begin or do the work, but kept the money, while 
 his employer had no recourse, as the ■•preacher was irre- 
 sponsible at law, and he lost his money. It was exceptional 
 that there was any profit in hired labor on the farm under 
 the conditions as they existed at the beginning. 
 
 Women house servants became ipso facto members of the 
 family, on terms of equality or privileges with members of
 
 176 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 the family, and in a country where women were scarce, 
 chances of marriajre were plentiful and interfered with long 
 employments. 
 
 The life of these pioneers in the wilderness was, there- 
 fore, one of the hardest labor, involving the greatest sacri- 
 fice of convenience, comfort and pleasure. It was the severing 
 of ties of relationship and friendship, leaving organized so- 
 ciety and civilization behind them. To these men and women 
 who came from Great Britain, where orderly society and re- 
 strains of convention, as v%ell as of law, were properly es- 
 tablished, the change was a severe test. 
 
 The panic of 1818, already referred to, lasted for many 
 years, and checked the growth of Evansville for more than a 
 decade, checked also active emigration to the British settle- 
 ment. The reduction of the price of congress land from ^2.00 
 to .$1.25 per acre immediately destroyed land values and 
 ruined many people. The financial effect upon the country 
 was universal. New Orleans, which was practically the out- 
 let for the surplus product of this section, which could only 
 be carried by water, was affected by the panic, and had no 
 surplus money; from it this section had derived its specie. 
 
 The town of Saundersville, which had considerable life 
 during the first fev/ years of the settlement, disappeared and 
 before 1840 not an inhabitant lived in it.''"' Such was the 
 fate of many other platted towns. The town scheme of John 
 Ingle and his associates and the British settlement were en- 
 tirely different matters. The latter was a natural and suc- 
 cessful early settlement in Indiana, and the foundation of 
 much wider growth and influence. During the panic the 
 people did not suffer. They had plenty to eat, the women 
 made the clothing, houses were built when necessary, with- 
 out iron, glass or money. Wooden hinges even were not un- 
 common within the memory of persons now living. 
 
 Emigration to this settlement and to Evansville as well, 
 never wholly ceased. The English settlers moved from 
 Evansville into the country, but more often from the country 
 into Evansville, and mixed as one people. In the 40*s and 
 
 »»»Thwalte8. Earlu Western Travels. X. 251.
 
 lylthart: Coming of the Ehiylish to Itidiana 111 
 
 50's, when the greater tide of emigration better filled up the 
 unoccupied lands in this section, English people came in large 
 numbers with those from other lands. All the time communi- 
 cation had been kept up by correspondence and an occasional 
 visit between the English in the settlement and their ac- 
 quaintances, friends and relatives in the old country. This 
 resulted in large numbers of British emigrants coming into 
 this settlement and other parts of the county, including the 
 city of Evansville. 
 
 Before the middle of the last century, John Ingle, Jr., 
 had established in Evansville a primitive bureau of immigra- 
 tion, one of the important duties of which was to send money 
 through John Ross, Banker, Chatteris, England, from the 
 English here to their friends and relatives in the old coun- 
 try, to enable them to come over as well as to divide the 
 profits of a successful life in America with the old people and 
 needy relatives in England, and not infrequently collect 
 legacies in England for people here. This continued for 
 many years. 
 
 Through influences such as these, there came from Eng- 
 land to Vanderburgh county, and to the city of Evansville 
 while it was still small, a number of young and vigorous men, 
 who soon became leaders in their various fields. Among 
 these were leading farmers, builders and contractors in wood, 
 brick and stone, who in the last generation were, at the least, 
 equally, if not more prominent and capable than any other 
 element, in the building in Evansville, and other towns and 
 cities in this section, of churches, schools, sewers and other 
 large structures, requiring ability, capital and public con- 
 fidence. A number of these acquired wealth and position, 
 and some of them are still living. There was for many years 
 a section in the center of Evansville below Main street called 
 Little Chatteris. It is not the purpose of this inquiry to 
 attempt to deal with the careers of these later emigrants, or 
 even to mention the names of prominent people among them; 
 rather to deal with emigrants who came previous to 1830. 
 
 In these investigations, upon which much time and labor 
 have been spent, a personal knowledge of some of the pioneers 
 mentioned and of most of their children, and of facts and
 
 178 
 
 Indiana Magazine of History 
 
 circumstances narrated, aided by family history, have been 
 of material service to the writer. The success and import- 
 ance of the first British settlement in Indiana lies much in 
 its beinjr a vital part of the beginning of organized society 
 and government in this section, and its impress of Anglo- 
 Saxon ideals at the beginning, out of which and upon which 
 in a substantial degree were established the present condi- 
 tions in this community, including the city of Evansville. _ 
 
 So perfect was the assimilation that the history of the 
 settlement is not the tracing of a separate element, and but 
 for a careful record of these details there would be preserved 
 now no dividing line between the British element and other 
 elements in the early settlement of this part of Indiana.
 
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