A New Guide for Emigrants to the West

by John Mason Peck

"The outlines which have already been given will afford some information to emigrants from other sections of the Union, or from Europe. We will now offer a few cautionary remarks, particularly intended for such as are about to settle, or have recently settled in this section of the United States.

"Of new comers, there are two tolerably distinct classes: the one comprising farmers, mechanics, and indeed all those who calculate on obtaining a subsistence by manual industry; the other is composed of professional men, tradesmen, and adventurers of every description. Towards the first class our attention is now directed, premising that throughout a great portion of the western country, except in large towns, almost every mechanic is almost necessarily a farmer; the population being in but few places sufficiently dense to support that designation of mechanical employments which is common in the eastern and middle states.

"For the industrious and temperate of this class, our country holds forth inducements which are not generally known or understood.

"The language of indiscriminate panegyric, which has been bestowed on its climate and soil, has conveyed little information, and is the source of many fears and suspicions in the minds of people at a distance. Other accounts have described the western country as uniformly sickly; but the habit of exaggeration in its favor has been most prevalent; neither need we wonder, when much of the information communicated, has been afforded by interested landholders, or speculators, and by travellers, whose views have been superficial, and whose journeys have been performed generally, either on the rivers or by post roads.

"The first inquiry of a substantial farmer, from one of the old settled states, is mostly, for good land in the vicinity of a market; and afterwards, whether the situation be healthy. It is true that there are many places in the western country, affording the qualities expressed in this description, but they are perhaps all occupied; and it would be, in several respects, more advisable for a farmer, possessing even a considerable sum of money in hand, to inquire first for a healthy situation, and then good land.

"The spirit of improvement throughout the United States, especially evidenced in canalling, and rail-roads, will, it is hoped, in a few years, open modes of communication, which as yet are wanting, with the markets.

"The same remarks will apply to the poorer class of emigrants. If they value their own health, and that of their families, the main object of their attention will be to secure, if possible, a situation remote from the fogs that hover over the channels of large rivers, which become partly dry in summer, and from the neighborhood of swamps, marshes, ponds, and small lakes.

"Every person, on coming from beyond the mountains, and especially from the eastern States, or Europe, will have to undergo some degree of change in his constitution, before it becomes naturalized to the climate; and all who move from a cold to a considerably warmer part of the western country will experience the same alteration; it will, therefore, be wisdom for the individual brought up in a more rigorous climate, that he seek a situation where the circulation of the air is unimpeded and free, and that he avoid those flat and marshy districts, which have been already described.

"Those who settle in new countries are almost universally exposed to inconveniences which have an unfavorable influence on health. They are seldom able for a length of time to erect comfortable places of residence; and indeed, many postpone this important object of attention, even after their circumstances will permit them to build comfortable dwelling houses.

"Wool is mostly a scarce article in new settlements, so that cotton and linen garments are too frequently worn in winter. There is another circumstance, which no doubt has an unfavorable influence on health, especially among the poorer class: it is the want, during the summer season particularly, of substantial food. This is sometimes owing to indolence or improvidence; but perhaps oftener, to the circumstances in which a few families are placed, at a distance from any established or opulent settlement.