SOLON ROBINSON, 1841 213 



journey, or requiring business done on the route, will be 

 attended to. I shall also be glad to communicate with 

 the friends of agricultural improvement at the following 

 places, and I shall call upon the following named persons, 

 with whom any information for me may be left, viz: 

 Friend Willets, 1 Editor of Indiana Farmer, Indianapolis ; 

 Hon. John Sering, 2 Madison, la.; Thos. B. Stevenson, 

 Esq., Editor Kentucky Farmer, Frankfort; Messrs. Af- 

 fleck 3 & Hopper, 4 Editors Farmer and Gardener, Cin- 

 cinnatti, 0. ; Hon. H. L. Ellsworth, 5 Commissioner Patent 

 Office, Washington; James M. Garnett, Essex co., Va. ; 



1 See post, 244-45. Jacob S. Willets, coeditor with J. W. 

 Osborn, and later editor, of the Indiana Farmer, Indianapolis, 1837- 

 1841 ; thereafter general agent in Indiana for the Cincinnati West- 

 ern Farmer and Gardener. Corresponding secretary, Indiana Horti- 

 cultural Society. See Western Farmer and Gardener, 2:168 

 (April, 1841) ; letter to John B. Niles, March 24, 1841, in Niles 

 Papers, Indiana State Library. In 1840 Willets opened a school 

 for girls and small boys at his home in Indianapolis. Indiana 

 Farmer, n. s. 1:86 (June, 1840). 



1 John Sering settled in Madison in 1810 or 1811. Proprietor of 

 one of the first stores, and owner of first cotton mill. Postmaster, 

 1818-1843. Cashier of Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank. Agent for 

 state, for a time, on Madison and Indianapolis Railroad. In Indi- 

 ana senate, 1828-29 to 1831-32. Indiana Magazine of History, 

 6:145, 147; 12:224, 229; 16:318; "Hoosier Listening Post," in 

 Indianapolis Star, February 28, 1928. 



'Thomas Affleck, born July 13, 1812, in Dumfries, Scotland; 

 died December 30, 1868. Editor of Cincinnati Western Farmer 

 and Gardener, and other agricultural papers. Prominent planter 

 in Mississippi and Texas. Operated the first sawmill and grist- 

 mill in Texas. Interested in meat packing. See Dictionary of 

 American Biography, 1:110-11. 



4 Edward James Hooper, editor of the Western Farmer and 

 Gardener, 1839-1840, 1844-1845. Horticulturist and author of 

 Hooper's Western Fruit Book (Cincinnati, 1857). 



5 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, born November 10, 1791, in Windsor, 

 Connecticut; died December 27, 1858. Lawyer, agriculturist, busi- 

 nessman, and politician. First United States commissioner of pat- 

 ents. See Dictionary of American Biography, 6:110-11. A de- 

 scription of his Indiana farm will appear in volume 2 under the 

 heading "Western Agriculture — Corn Cobs," July, 1847. 



