{290} "269. James Monroe, President of the United States of America,
"To whom these presents shall come, greeting.
"Know ye, that John Woods, assignee of Hugh Collins, of White county, Illinois, having deposited, at the general land office, a certificate of the register of the land office at Shawneetown; whereby it appears, that full payment has been made, for the south-east quarter of section nineteen; in township, two south; of range, ten east; containing 160 acres of the lands directed to be sold at Shawneetown, by the acts of Congress relative to the disposal of the public lands in Illinois. There is granted to the said John Woods, the quarter section of land above described; to have and to hold the said quarter section of land, with the appurtenances, unto the said John Woods, his heirs and assigns, for ever. In testimony whereof, I have caused these letters to be made patent, and the seal of the general land office to be hereunto {291} affixed. Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the eighteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, and of the independence of the United States, the forty-fourth.
[Seal.]
By the President,
James Monroe.
Josiah Meigs, Commissioner of the
General Land Office.
Recorded Vol. ii. page 445."
I received the above, from the land office of Shawneetown, free of all expence. By the number 269 at the beginning, is meant the number as it stands in the Shawneetown land-office books; and it is also mentioned where to find the entry of it in the general land office books, so that it is easy to find the title of any land that has been sold at any time by the United States' government.
We have had but few emigrants from England this summer; but there is a family or two on the Ohio coming on, and {292} some more are expected from the eastward. And several at the Prairies intend returning to England, during the winter, to bring back their families with them in the spring.
With regard to the language of this country, I have found no difficulty to understand any of the Americans I have met with, a few words only excepted. I have seen several from England, that came from a distant part from that in which I resided, that I have had far more trouble to understand. Yet the manner of discourse among the true Back-woods-men is rather uncouth to an English ear. I will attempt to give a specimen of it, in a conversation between two of them, who meet each other on the road; one an Esquire, the other a Judge.
Esq. Well, Judge, how do you do ? I hope you are well.
Judge. Well, Squire, I am tolerably bad. How do you do?
Esq. Well, I am a heap better than I was; but I have been powerfully sick lately.
{293} Judge. But, Squire, you have a powerful chance of plunder on your creature. What are you going to do with it?
Esq. Well, I am going to town with a tolerable chance of plunder, to get it carded at the mill.
Judge. Well, so you have got your wool to be carded; I could not calculate what truck you had got.
Esq. Well, I fancy you have been to town. How goes times there?
Judge. Times are dull; I calculated to sell my creature there, and then when I got home, to turn in and earn some money to get me another.
Esq. Well, as you could not trade away your creature, you must turn in and work as well as you can. I also must turn in, and build a cabin or two, to raise a little cash.
Judge. Well, Squire, have you done any hunting lately? I have followed it steadily for some time.
Esq. Well, Judge, I also have hunted {294} steadily; and I calculated to make a heap of money of my truck, but I have got none.
Judge. Well, what truck have you got, to trade away to make money?
Esq. I have got a few beefs, and a tolerable chance of corn.
Judge. Well, I also have got some beefs, and a powerful chance of corn, and some wool, that I must toat to town and trade away.
Esq. Well, Judge, I must go on and toat my truck to mill, and then get right strait home.
Judge. Well, I must also get on, as my woman is powerfully sick and weak, and I am fetching her some whiskey.
Esq. Well, but Judge, where did you get your creature? It is a powerfully fine looking one.
Judge. Well, Squire, mine is a great little horse, I bought him of our general; but I must be going; farewell.
Well begins most sentences. Plunder {295} and truck include almost every thing. A horse is generally called a creature. Beefs are cows. Toat means to carry any thing. Strait and turn in, are words they frequently use. Woman,—they always call their wives their women. Many of them, instead of saying yes, make a sort of noise, like "him, him," or rather like pronouncing "m, m," with the mouth shut.
In this remote part of America, judges, generals of militia, colonels, captains, and esquires, are not generally men of property or education; and it is usual to see them employed in any common kind of labour. Yet I have seen men among them that possess very good abilities; far from ignorant, and much better informed than could be expected from their appearance.
Oct. 2. This day was kept at Wanborough, as last year, instead of Catherine Hill fair; but as some of the young men were gone to a county court at Palmyra, there was no cricket-match, as was intended, only a game of trap-ball. There have been {296} several cricket-matches this summer, both at Wanborough and Birk Prairie; the Americans seem much pleased at the sight of the game, as it is new to them.
The acorns of the white-oak are now falling, and very fine indeed they are; but the weather is too hot and dry for the swine to thrive as well as usual. The acorns of the other sorts of oak not yet ripe, nor are they in so large quantities as the white-oak, except on the post-oak. The white-oak acorns are much larger than any I ever saw in England. The post-oak most resembles the English oak in growth, leaf, &c. The acorns of the other sorts of oaks, differ much from each other, in size and quality.
26th. I have finished sowing wheat this day. I have only sown six acres, after Indian corn, potatoes, and buck-wheat; but I intend to get ready a larger quantity of land another year. Wheat is always sown dry in this country, and I have never heard of any smut.
I was lately at an auction, of a little live {297} stock and household furniture, belonging to a person leaving this neighbourhood. The auctioneer was no less a person than a justice of the peace, and he was an excellent auctioneer. The terms of sale much the same as in England, except three months' credit on all purchases above three dollars, on giving bond and security. But the most striking contrast in this sale from an English one, was, the auctioneer held a bottle of whiskey in his hand, and frequently offered a dram to the next bidder. As I made some biddings, I was several times entitled to a sip out of the bottle. And though I much dislike the taste of whiskey, I took a sip for the novelty of the thing. But I found the auctioneer had taken good care to keep his company sober, by lowering his whiskey considerably with water. As I only purchased a small lot, under three dollars value, I had no need to give bond and security; nor did I stop to see their manner of giving it.
Nov. 15. The weather is much colder {298} now than at the same season last year, but it is extremely variable. One day lately, at noon, the thermometer stood at 65 degrees, and the next morning was down to 17 degrees; a difference of 48 degrees in less than 20 hours; almost as great a difference as you experience between July and December. These sudden changes are unpleasant, but I do not find them very unhealthy, as colds are much less frequent here than in England; and, with the Americans, chilblains seem to be unknown.
A short time since, near a dozen of the inhabitants of the Prairies went to a court at Palmyra, and a few days after their return, most of them were taken seriously ill, but none of them died; while those who remained at home continued in health.
Dec. 8. Most people are busy getting in their Indian corn; the crop much slighter than last year, as the dry weather injured the early, and the early frosts the late corn. I have housed mine, and shall not have more than 30 bushels per acre; not more than {299} half an average crop, on land of that quality. Nor is the corn so sound and fine as last year.
9th. As I shall have an opportunity to send this to-morrow, I must hasten to conclude, as quickly as possible, with a short statement of the present situation of affairs in this neighbourhood. I have hitherto avoided saying any thing on the disagreement between Mr. Birkbeck and Mr. Flowers. Reports are so contradictory, and I have heard so much on both sides of the question, that I am quite at a loss to judge of the merits of the quarrel. Nor do I think it is an easy thing to get at the true origin of it; and could I do so, I have no wish to become a party therein. This unfortunate dispute was the cause of two settlements near each other, and most of those who arrived for sometime either joined one side or the other, which increased the difference. But after a time, as more settlers arrived, they considered they had nothing to do with the quarrel between these two {300} gentlemen, and settled in the prairies round, and in the woods towards the mouth of the Bonpas. Thus this disagreement was the reason of scattering the English emigrants for some miles round. But if this had been the only effect, it had been of no consequence, as many of the settlers so dispersed, have procured as good situations as they would otherwise have done. But the evil of two villages so near each other has been great; for had they been united, there would have been better taverns, stores, &c. In point of situation and water, Wanborough, in my estimation, has the advantage; but Albion, at present, appears most likely to succeed best. Whatever was the origin of this quarrel, it has been the cause of a much worse name being given to the settlement, in the English Prairie, than it really deserves. For the land is in general pretty good, such as in England would be called rich; as it is capable of producing, in abundance, corn, hay, fruit, vegetables, &c. &c.; and the woods and prairies are pleasant and healthy.
{301} Bees are numerous in the woods, but mostly at a distance from us; honey is plentiful, and now sells for 75 cents a gallon. There are some bees kept in hives, the same as in England, and the same sort; and so are the wild ones; they are in hollow trees, and when a swarm is found, they cut down the tree to get at the honey, and sometimes a swarm has several gallons. The Americans often go a great distance in quest of bees, camping out for many nights together. Six weeks ago a party of sixteen, on horse-back, went through Wanborough, towards the north, and seven or eight days after, two of them came back in the morning, almost dead with cold, as there was a severe frost, and they had camped out. They had been about 40 miles, and had met but poor success, having only found four gallons between the two. They said, they lived on the Ohio river, upwards of 50 miles south-east of us. They had been out ten days, and during that time they had not seen a bed. But others frequently {302} succeed much better, and collect a large quantity of honey in these bee-hunting expeditions.
The fires in the fall of 1819 were much greater than usual, as every thing was so excessively dry, and much mischief was done to the woods and plantations; my rail fences caught fire, but the damage was trifling. For several days we could scarcely see the sun at noon-day, the air being so full of smoke, and people, whose eyes were weak, were much annoyed by it.
It was supposed, that these fires extended many hundred miles. This year, on the contrary, there has scarcely been any fires in the woods or prairies, as the weather of late has been much wetter than last year.
Although the last summer was drier than the preceding one, and the number of settlers greatly increased, and a much greater quantity of stock, than in 1819, yet as many more wells were dug, water was not so scarce; and I have every reason to expect, that, should the next, or any future {303} year, prove ever so dry, there will be much less want of water than there was this year.
I mentioned before, one of my son's neighbours had a thrashing-floor, and intended to add a barn to it, which he has now done; and, I believe, it is the only barn within some miles of us. I have not yet seen it, but my eldest son informed me, that it is 20 feet square on the inside, about 16 feet high to the roof. It is built of solid logs, and covered with cleft boards. There were between thirty and 40 people employed in raising the logs, as they were uncommonly large, and all lifted up by main strength, without aid from pullies, &c.
At Baltimore, I saw one old woman begging in the streets, and in our journey, of upwards of twelve hundred miles, from thence to the prairies, I also saw one old man apply for relief, and the manner of his treatment I have mentioned on the 28th of July. These two are the only beggars I have seen in America; from this I am led {304} to conclude, that there is much less misery in this country than I had been in the habit of seeing in England, at least as to beggars.
We have had some difficulty in getting some of our letters from England, from their being directed near Shawneetown or Princetown, as all letters are left at the post-office of the town where they are directed near. The best direction is, English Prairie, Edward's County, Illinois State, North America.
I would advise those who write to their friends in this remote country, to say but little of public affairs, (unless any thing of great consequence has just occurred,) as such news is always sure to reach us through the public prints; but to fill their letters with local intelligence, as it is extremely interesting to us to hear of our old friends and neighbours, and any little circumstance relating to them.