A few weeks ago, I took a ride in the country, a
favorite pastime I inherited from both my mother and father. Ever since
retiring to southern Illinois, I have been putting the miles on the car just
driving around. As a history buff I’ve long noted Illinois was not settled from
Chicago and then southward, but in deep southern Illinois and then northward.
I set out for the town of Chester, Illinois in Randolph
County on the Mississippi River. It is home to a Popeye The Sailor museum (the
cartoon’s creator is from Chester). I also visited nearby Kaskaskia, named the territorial
capitol of Illinois in 1809). Then on a recent trip to my local library, I came
across a book titled Eight Months in Illinois by William Oliver. It is a
“how-to” book on immigrating from Britain and Scotland to the U.S. where the
Northwest territories had recently been opened up to settlement.
Oliver traveled to Illinois for his research and
published it in 1843 when he returned to Scotland. He was in Illinois for eight
months at Kaskaskia unable to travel further north because ice on the
Mississippi River blocked progress. He spent this time gathering first person
(settler/pioneer) narratives and observations on agricultural crops that did
well, hunting and fishing opportunities, the burgeoning development of social
and cultural institutions. It includes a fascinatingly detailed account of how
one bought land to settle on, how townships with future school districts set aside
were formed and how it all would be financed.
Recommendation:
Good stuff if you are a history buff.
Related posts:
The Ohio River and
the American Experience (1991)
https://tedrakebookblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/always-river-ohio-river-and-american.html
Afloat on the Ohio
(1897)
https://tedrakebookblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/afloat-on-ohio-1897-by-reuben-gold.html
