SOLON ROBINSON, 1834 53 



informed me that there was a large tract of country 

 entirely unsettled, which was not only equally as fertile 

 as the Door Prairie, but in other respects better. I im- 

 mediately procured an Indian poney, furnished myself 

 with provision and a blanket, took notes and a plat of the 

 country from the surveyors, and in company with one 

 other person started out on an exploring tour. I soon 

 found the spots pointed out as first rate on my plat, and 

 upon one of them made my pitch — returned to Laporte 

 and procured hands to help build a cabin and moved my 

 family on directly some fifteen or twenty miles beyond 

 "the last house," and in one week after we camped upon 

 this spot, I had a comfortable log cabin 18 feet square as 

 well finished oft as could be expected thirty-five miles 

 from a saw mill. I came on to this Prairie the 1st of 

 November, at which time I could have said with the poet 

 of Juan Fernandes, 



"I am monarch of all I survey, 

 My right there is none to dispute," 



but now, there is about a dozen houses in sight, and nu- 

 merous claims made for others, though as yet I have but 

 one white neighbor within ten miles. This is an arm of 

 the "Grand Prairie," and is most beautifully interspersed 

 with groves of timber, which consist of white, black, 

 yellow, red and bur oak, and great quantities of shell 

 bark hickory and some other timber. Lakes, streams 

 and springs are also plenty. In the grove where I have 

 built there is an abundance of crab-apple, plum and 

 cherry trees — and above all, there are great number of 

 "Honey trees" in the country. The soil on this Prairie, 

 is composed of twelve to eighteen inches of dry black 

 vegetable matter on top, then from one to two feet loose 

 clayey loam, under which is a hard pan of limestone 

 pebbly clay. Stone is not plenty, though enough for the 

 most necessary purposes can be obtained easily. Soft 

 timber is scarce — rail and other timber abundant and 

 excellent, and fuel the best I ever saw — particularly oak, 



