SOLON ROBINSON, 1847 75 



& improved — perhaps our children, when they lay us 

 there will make the same promise & keep it as well. 



This summer we made an exchange of resident preach- 

 ers at Crown Point, Mr. Warriner moved to Illinois & 

 Mr. Allman moved here from Michigan. He is of the 

 Episcopal Methodist & is a native of England. And what 

 is much to his credit, he did not come here to tax com- 

 munity with his support as a preacher, for he was soon 

 found to be a very good tailor who could fit us, the wolves 

 with sheeps clothing. The Presbyterian Church of Crown 

 Point was organised this year — Elias Bryant & Cyrus M. 

 Mason elected elders — Rev. Mr. Brown of Valparaiso 

 still officiating 1/3 the time as pastor. Two churches 

 were built in the county this year — the Methodist Church 

 of West Creek & the German Roman Catholic — but I 

 think neither of them are yet finished, the latter has a 

 bell. The Sale of canal lands lying in this county was 

 held at Delphi in Nov. of this year. 



Considerable number of sheep from Ohio were intro- 

 duced into the county this year, a business that has been 

 increasing ever since. The bounty upon the killing of 

 prairie wolves, having tended to thin off this pest of 

 sheep growing so that people begin to venture pretty 

 largely into the business. 



The average distance for the raisers of grain in this 

 county to haul it to market, being not less than 40 miles, 

 it is found that nothing but wheat will bear the expense 

 of hauling, and that at the best poorly pays the farmer 

 for his labor; for the average price in Chicago for a 

 series of years, does not exceed 60 cents a bushel. The 

 crop was nearly destroyed the past winter of '42-3 & 

 again in the summer of 1844 many fields were so injured 

 with rust as not to be worth cutting. 



In addition to the loss from rust, it was so wet in the 

 harvest of 1844, that teams could hardly get about in the 

 harvest field, on account of the softness of the ground, 

 occasioned by the great rains. 



But the summer was quite healthy, and the winter of 



