116 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



of my northern residence. And I propose to note down 

 such things by the way, as will be most likely to be inter- 

 esting and useful to you.^ 



Being charged by friend Allen to "write short, practi- 

 cal articles," I shall be precluded from giving as much of 

 the descriptive character of the land I shall travel over, 

 as I would like to, and as I believe would be pleasing to 

 you. I shall, therefore, make an abrupt commencement 

 with a little account of my visit at Terre Haute — an old 

 French name that means high land. It is situated on a 

 most beautiful prairie, some five miles wide and fifteen 

 long, that lies high above all floods, along the bank of the 

 Wabash, which is only navigable in high water; and the 

 place being 120 miles from the Ohio, it suffers the evil of 

 being an inland town. The canal to Lake Erie will, how- 

 ever, open in the spring, and in a few years more, to the 

 Ohio. The rapids of the Wabash are also being improved, 

 and a railroad to Indianapolis, and thence to Bellfon- 

 taine, in Ohio, is now in progress.^ 



It is to be hoped when these channels are opened so as 

 to carry off the surplus produce, that the great staple 

 here, Indian corn, will be worth more than twelve to fif- 

 teen cents per bushel, the present price; and that the 

 farmers will not wear quite so much the appearance of 

 "hog and hominy," as many of them now do. Yet there 

 are some here who take a pride in cultivating and beau- 

 tifying the earth. Among these I must mention three of 



' Robinson made the trip as agent for the American Agricultur- 

 ist, with the additional purpose of obtaining orders for the agricul- 

 tural warehouse of A. B. Allen & Co., of New York, and Stephen 

 Franklin, of New Orleans. 



' The Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad, later the Terre Haute 

 and Indianapolis, and now a part of the Pennsylvania system, and 

 the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad, now a part of the Big 

 Four system, were chartered in 1847 and 1848 respectively. Esarey, 

 History of Indiana, 2:720-24. See also Murphy, Ared Maurice, 

 "The Big Four Railroad in Indiana," in Indiana Magazine of His- 

 tory, 21:111 ff. 



