April 20, 1832. Went to Rushville. Fell in company with a man from Jacksonville, who is not a professor. Hundreds of non-professors live on the failings of professors. This shows the importance of professors living in accordance with their profession. Met a cordial welcome at brother Logan's. Conversed on the state of affairs, and the churches of the "Military Tract." The fields are truly white for the harvest.' Rushville, Schuyler co. Ill. I have been to Kaskaskia, and Waterloo the shire town of Monroe county, spent about a week in Edwardsville and Alton, and am now, as you see by the date of my letter, at Rushville, the county seat of Schuyler county. This is a fine country of land, and settling rapidly. The prairies are rich, the timber is good, the streams pure, with rocky beds. When I started from Edwardsville, I intended passing through Schuyler, Fulton, the lower part of Knox and Peoria counties, before I returned, but was unable to travel. "The Mormonites are making progress in this state, and numbers of deluded fanatics are joining them, and preparing to set off for their New Jerusalem, which they say lies in Jackson county, Missouri. They preached in the neighborhood where I have been teaching, and a number were favorably disposed to their doctrine. After they were gone, a certain individual, a Methodist exhorter, followed a number of miles, in order to join their sect in full by being baptized by them. He rode with such speed as to soon tire his horse, when he dismounted and ran on foot. He at last overtook them, was baptized and ordained a Mormonite preacher. On his return, he attempted to perform a miracle, by walking on the water of Silver creek, which was then very high. He arrived safe at the other shore. His ability to swim, however, not his faith, saved him. He became violently deranged; and on reaching home, commenced destroying his property. An elegant fancy clock was first demolished and committed to the flames. French bedsteads, tables, trunks, chairs, &c. followed in succession. And strange as it may appear, his wife, instead of attempting to hinder him, seemed actuated by the same spirit and joined in the work of destruction by burning a large stock of clothing, the fruits of her industry for years, and broke her tea sets and other ware. The neighbors arrived just as he commenced knocking off the roof and weather boarding of his house. He has been confined most of the time since. His language is dreadfully profane. His conduct and that of his wife blasted the hopes of Mormonism in this region for a season. 'April 26. At Beardstown made some inquiry with regard to Sunday schools, and felt somewhat stirred up on the subject. Determined to visit every professor in the place. Mr. Fink, a Methodist, entered deeply into the subject, and accompanied me in my visits to the remainder of the professors, all of whom we found favorable to Sunday schools. Ten met in the evening, and pledged themselves to use their influence and effort in the cause. Found 15 professors in the place. Edwardsville, Ill., June 24, 1832. 'Tell the Sunday school children that the children here are not as highly favored as they are. I was in a place a short time since on the Illinois river, where lived two little boys, one nine, the other eleven, who regularly on the Sabbath paddled across the Illinois and walked eight miles to a Sabbath school to learn. This was the only opportunity they had of learning to read, and this is better than some have. I was lately on an excursion to the "Military Tract." A minister, a Baptist preacher, the most efficient one on the Military Tract, and I had almost said, the only one; a man who, for his love of the souls of men, has sacrificed 900 or 1000 dollars; and who, unless he is helped more efficiently from abroad, will, by his exertions in the cause of Christ, reduce himself to absolute want; a man who in youth had no opportunity of education, who now thirsts for information, but has not the ability to procure books and other means; one who rents his little prairie farm of 40 acres, and travels over Schuyler, Fulton, Knox, McDonough, Adams, and Pike counties, preaching, constituting churches, baptizing, distributing tracts, advocating Sunday schools, temperance societies, and all the benevolent movements of the day. 'My feelings were strongly enlisted in favor of the Military Tract. I was better pleased with the natural situation of the country, than with any other part of Illinois that I have seen. 'I conform to all the unessential forms of the western people; in short, I have got to be a very good "Tucky Ho." I can eat bacon for breakfast, bacon for dinner, and bacon for supper. I can say, "I reckon," instead of "I guess, " "a heap," instead of "many" or "very much," "sort o'," instead of kind o';" but I have not adopted "caze," instead of "because," and some other words in the Kentucky vocabulary, which are yet lacking in my dialect. I am fond of "waffles" and "flitters" and "hoe cake" and "corn pone;" and can in meeting sing almost as loud as a Kentucky negro. This last in some places is an indispensable requisite. Thus you see that I have not been wholly without improvement, since coming to this country. The Seminary is to be located at Alton. 240 acres of land have been already entered for it. The trustees are to be appointed by the State Convention or Union Meeting, as it is called, and the Northern Baptist Education Society, in New England, half by each. A building is to be put up immediately. July 4, 1832. Independence. Rained hard in the morning. Sunday school met, formed a procession, and marched to the court house. Singing and addresses.' Mr. S. was one of the speakers. July 29. Attended the Sunday schools at Hump Ghent and Estabrooks. On the 13th of November, Mr. S. set off on a journey to the upper counties of Illinois, in hope thereby to recover his broken health. On the 20th he stopped at a Quaker tavern on the Mackinaw. In his journal he says, "Talk, talk, talk; yet very polite and obliging. Things in New England style more than I have seen before." Rushville, Schuyler co. Ill. Tazewell county in point of soil is much superior to the far famed Sangamo; but a great proportion of it is prairie, and most of the prairies very large. Where there is timber, it is better than in the counties below. Pekin, the present county seat, is on the river. I went considerably out of my way to see it; and whether it was owing to the reports I had heard of its unhealthiness, or the disagreeable weather of the day I visited it, or some other cause, I cannot tell, but from some cause, I was not at all pleased with the place. 'From Bureau I crossed southwest to the Galena road, part of the way on an Indian trail or path, and part of the way without any. 'Were I a farmer intending to settle in Illinois, if I could get a number of families of the right kind with me, I would settle on the extreme head of Spoon river. I have seen considerable of Illinois, and that which is called the handsomest and best, but I have seen none that I liked so well as the head of Spoon river. The prairie is beautiful and the timber excellent. I did not go through the timber, but was told by one who had been through it, that it was five or six miles broad. The growth is oak, hickory, black walnut, maple (here called sugar tree) and some others. One great obstacle to the prosperity of the Military Tract is, so much of the land being owned by speculators, who either cannot be found, or if known, hold the land so high that it cannot be purchased. This grove and prairie which I have mentioned is Congress land, and can be had at the price of public lands. It is about 12 miles from the Galena road, and will for a great length of time have an unbounded and excellent range for cattle. Cattle and provisions generally find a ready market at the mines. The greatest objection to this place at present would be its frontier situation, if the Indians should be troublesome. 'Knox and Peoria are liable to the same objections with Putnam and Tazewell; too much prairie. Fulton county is well watered and timbered. Canton and Lewiston, the latter of which is the county seat, are thriving little places. Schuyler is also well timbered. Rushville, which three years ago contained three or four log cabins, and from 25 to 30 souls, now has an elegant brick court house, brick school house, steam mill, three stores, many handsome frame and brick houses, and from four to five hundred inhabitants. |