SOLON ROBINSON, 1842 335 



I reached home from the La Porte Fair on Saturday, 

 and on Monday I started again to attend the Fair of the 

 "Union Agricultural Society," of Northern Illinois, held 

 at a place called Aurora, on Fox River, 40 miles west of 

 Chicago, on the 19th and 20th of October. This "Union" 

 is formed out of nine of the northwestern 1 counties of the 

 state, almost the entire population of which, has been 

 made up of eastern emigrants since the time of the al- 

 most forgotten "Sack War," of 1832, when General Scott 

 struck terror to the Indians, and the cholera struck ter- 

 ror to his army. 



"What a change" in ten years! Those of the magic 

 lantern are scarcely more magical. Then the food of the 

 little army had to be brought from the lower lakes and 

 carried upon pack horses across the great desert between 

 Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. Then a steamboat 

 had never visited the little garrison and trading post of 

 Fort Dearborn, now the flourishing city of Chicago, 

 whose harbor is crowded with steamers, ships, and 

 schooners, full freighted up with emigrants and mer- 

 chandize, and down with wheat and other products of 

 the rich soil of the vast land of unsurpassed fertility, 

 lying around the head of Lake Michigan. 



Now every grove is surrounded with highly cultivated 

 farms. The streams abound with fine mills, manufac- 

 tories and villages. The country is intersected with 

 roads, and the streams are crossed with bridges, while 

 splendid stage coaches career over them in every direc- 

 tion. 



While addressing the audience at the late Fair, I 

 could not avoid drawing the comparrison between the 

 encampment of Indians upon the same ground ten years 

 ago, who never broke the soil in search of sustenance, 

 and the six thousand happy, healthy, smiling, intelligent 

 cultivators of the earth then gathered together to enjoy 

 the "farmers' holiday." 



1 The Union Agricultural Society was composed of counties from 

 the northeastern part of Illinois. 



