x INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



gave him much attention. A. F. Knotts, former mayor of 

 Hammond, has also emphasized his importance. Outside 

 the Calumet region, however, Robinson has been less 

 known in Indiana than in other states where there has 

 been more interest in agricultural history. After a short, 

 but varied, career at Madison and at his projected town 

 of Solon, he settled in the northwestern part of the state, 

 and played an important part in the early development 

 of the region near Lake Michigan. The experiences of 

 Solon Robinson as a pioneer settler — a squatter, in fact — 

 in Lake County, were typical of early life in northwest- 

 ern Indiana. The history of settlement on the prairie 

 land is quite different from that of settlement in the 

 forests of the central and southern part of the state. 

 No one was better qualified than he to describe it. He 

 was also the founder of Crown Point. His writings are 

 a memorial, therefore, to both the rural and town fore- 

 runners of the present great industrial development 

 along the southern bend of Lake Michigan. 



Solon Robinson was a man of varied talents. He wrote 

 on many subjects and sometimes used the vehicles of 

 fiction and poetry. The collection herewith presented is 

 necessarily a selection made from a far larger body of 

 writings. It is hoped, however, that the result will give 

 the reader a satisfactory insight into the diversified ac- 

 tivities of Robinson, as well as a knowledge of agricul- 

 tural conditions and improvements urged before the 

 Civil War. The period covered in these two volumes 

 ends with Robinson's departure from Indiana and the 

 beginning of his career as an agricultural editor. His 

 later writings are more accessible, and it is hoped that 

 they may be published under other auspices. The grow- 

 ing interest in agricultural history — one of the many 

 foundations for permanent agricultural improvement in 

 the United States — leads one to expect a general use of 

 the work of this pioneer agriculturist. 



Christopher B. Coleman, 

 Director of the Historical Bureau 



