&lje farmer's iUcmtljin faisitor. 



I 



Uncle Ephraim asks, what is the vegetation of 

 that country ? Dear sir, 1 would be willing to 

 talk twenty-four hours with you if I could. The 

 different kinds of herbage or weeds are very nu- 



morons, and a great many I am an entire stranger 

 to ; hut such us 1 am acquainted with are, nettles, 

 brakes, spignard, geusang, solomon seal, two spe- 

 cies of the dragon turnip, row-cabbage, cohusli, 

 some thorotighwort, yellow and red percan, colts- 

 foot, angelica, maidenhair, &C. iScc. Hop vines 

 are to tie met with everywhere, and the woods 

 are also full of pea vines, — excellent for horses 

 and cattle. Here is also the bramble or green 

 briar, the black raspberry, and blackberry, the 

 Strawberry, plums, and crab apples. In the prai- 

 ries they are also numerous, abounding ill flowers 

 the summer through. There are live species of 

 weeds growing ill the prairies, possessing the 

 qualities of the pine, called here rosin weeds. 



Says Mr. Watson, 1 would like to know how 

 long uncle Eli was on his journey to that hand- 

 some country he has been telling us about, and 

 how much money it cost him on the way for bis 

 expenses 1 am very glad, uncle Joseph, that you 

 have mentioned that, for the cost scares many 

 from coming, and it being so far, it would take 

 the remaining part of their days to get there, as 

 they suppose. I would be glad in answering this, 

 to send a copy of a sort of a journal I made on 

 the rout. 



I started from Ellishurgh Feb. 14, 1825. I was 

 at Olean about one week, waiting to have my 

 boat built, which was eight feet wide and thirty 

 feet long, covered twenty leet in length, with a 

 fire place in one corner of the room. Washed, 

 brewed and baked all the way down in it; was 

 at home night and day. 1 started from Olean the 

 6th of March; arrived at St. Louis the 7th of 

 April ; was there about three weeks waiting fu- 

 my brother to come down with a boat, the letter 

 being detained by some means. You may guess 

 1 felt uneasy on expense in the city, being noted 

 for its unhealtbiness; hut since the French are 

 losing ground, it becomes clean and handsome, 

 and will become great. I landed at Lewislown 

 ihe 12th of May, not hardly three months on the 

 way, being detained three weeks. It cost me 

 somewhere about seventy-live dollars including 

 the mice of my boat, which was fifteen dollars 

 and fifty cents, fifty cents being extra work pitch- 

 ing the gunnels, and twenty dollars paid for pas- 

 sage in the steamboat Congress, from Trinity, 

 five or six miles from the mouth of the Ohio 

 river, to St. Louis ; hut 1 would advise families 

 to take steam at Shippingport at the falls of Ohio, 

 because it is sooner run, and the cost is no more, 

 as I afterwards found. I had excellent luck in 

 getting along ; ii seemed as if Providence was in 

 my favor, and 1 had ought to be thankful for the 

 many favors in my journey anil since my arrival, 

 by the Great Parent of the Universe. It' any of 

 you takes a ir.iud to try the western world, you 

 may calculate it will cost you one hundred dol- 

 lars, and 1 don't care bow much more ; and if 

 you save some when you reach here.so much the 

 better for you. 



Says uncle Alvin, you have told the greatest 

 part you are able to tell us, I think, by this time : 

 lint there is one thing that I think of, and you 

 must be able by this time to inform us, and that 

 1 believe must be all you can tell ; is it unhealthy 

 in that country? for some of us begin to I limit 

 about coming then', and 1 want to know the 

 truth. Dear sir, 1 would not deceive you for any 

 sum. and not tell you the truth. I believe it is 

 healthy in this purl of the .-'uie, away from the 

 river bottoms: it is generally, so called, near the 



large rivers. Doet. "Woman asks, what is the | 



dominant complaints in tltOse plan-. Agnes 

 and levers, the intermittent and bilious, Rheuma- 

 tism, &c. 



Hays ('apt. Doan,you have described the coun- 

 try as a handsome and a good country, hut i am 

 a little afraid you have exaggerated, in being taken 

 up so much with it yourself I think, sir, tins 

 you would be taken with it too, if you cool, I see 

 it. The land is as rich in ilie pruiriesasthe best 

 gardens or the barnyard* al the eastward, and is 

 good for grain and all vegetables that are applied 

 to the, ground. A great plane for melons, — some 

 of the largest will weigh Ibrty pounds apiece. 



Well, says the women, you have been telling 

 the men line stories to net them era/\ -brained to 

 move, and we never will s" where there are nil 

 tlesnakes and Indians. You can't come this sum 



mer, then, for there are enough of both Indians 

 and rattlesnakes yet; but we hope they will soon 

 be scarce: the red folks will soon have to go, and 

 the snakes begin to feel their heads bruised. 

 You can then come, and raise your indigo and 

 cotton, swi et potatoes and melons, peaches, pom- 

 egranates ami coffee-corn. That, says one, makes 

 me think about tea, and 1 am afraid there is none 

 there. Yes, madam, those that have money can 

 drink tea, by giving 81.50 per lb., (at St. Louis 

 §1.00); imperial tea $1.50 at St. Louis. 



Well, says Elder Averill, the country you have 

 been describing appears to me to be a place for 

 folks to live in if they are united ; and to live 

 united, is to have morality and religion in socie- 

 ty, and also good schools; and I would be glad 

 if you will inform me how it is in that respect. 

 The majority of the inhabitants of this country 

 may be called moral, and almost all friendly; hut 

 too many are like those of the eastern people 

 culled' vulgar; and amongst the people of this 

 newly settled country there are some professors 

 of Christianity, of different denominations; the 

 Methodists, I think, are the most numerous : there 

 are Presbyterians, Baptists and Christians: three 

 or four Methodist speakers; one Baptist preach- 

 er, by the name of Strickland, — he was ordained 

 lately; and one speaker of the Christian order. 

 The Methodists have a circuit peacher going his 

 round once in lour weeks. We have now a dis- 

 trict for a school formed agreeable to law, and 

 have hopes to soon have a school. In this neigh- 

 borhood about a year and a half ago there were 

 but two families, and now there are seventeen or 

 eighteen. 



Says one, you don't tell how you have been as 

 to health, and how you all are now. — My oldest 

 daughter had the typhus fever last summer, and 

 got very low. We have been very hearty gen- 

 erally, and are now. 



J think by this time you will wish me to close, 

 and I think it best myself; and if any of you 

 want information and cannot get it in tiny better 

 way, than by me, concerning this country, please 

 direct your letters to Levvistown, Fulton County, 

 State of Illinois, to your well-wishing friend and 

 servant, ELICHASE. 



Township 7, N. 4, E. Fultnn Co.. 



llluiuis. S. W. qua. Sec. 22, July 3d, 182G. 



LETTER II. 



Dear Sir: — 1 received your letter of the 27th 

 of August last, and unclosing the same I found 

 a one dollar hill; and in perusing the letter I 

 found that it was sent to me as a token of friend- 

 ship from your hand. Dear and kind sir, I re- 

 ceived it as such, not doubting your friendship; 

 but this token still confirms it, and for this token 

 of friendship I give yon thanks, and likewise my 

 acknowledgment. 



When I ponder over the social hours wild von 

 and me. as well as the rest of my friends, il 



brings a degn I' feeling in nn breast not easily 



expressed or eradicated. A friendly neighbor- 

 hood is what I wish for, and such an one is form- 

 ing here, if I am not deceived: it is easier 10 

 make friends than enemies,and much more agree- 

 able. 



You perhaps have wondered the delay of my 



writing to you ; hut at the time I r hired vour 



letter Setll and niyse'f were sick with lie' :>L r ue 

 and fever, and after I got well my business was 

 urgent ibat caused the delay ; ami die mail onlv 

 opens once in iwo weeks nt Canton, ('.niton 

 post-office is one mile and a quarter from ipy 

 place of abode. You will therefore please to di 

 rect your letters to that place, and not lid I to w rile. 

 Ii is still Fulton county, and sixteen miles from 

 Lewislown. 



Please give my compliments and also that of 

 Mrs. Chase m all of our neighbors, especially to 

 your honored father anil mother, and tell uncle 

 Luther I have 11.1t forgotten him ami never shall, 

 and that I want he should not forgot to write to 

 me. Any one that wauls to know any thing con- 

 cerning this country or lands in this military 

 tract, forward their letters to me, and I will give 

 ihfein all the information thai is in my power. 1 

 -loo't impute our sickness to the unheallhiness of 

 this country. I was exposed in warm weather 

 ifOssing rivers ami streams without bridges, and 

 came lii<*h to losing my life in one. The rest of 

 my family have been well the season thrnhgh. 

 airs. Chase has been more Well and hearty sine 



we came to ihie country. 



I could write many things, but you might think, 

 and with propriety, that I meant to Write once for 

 all, but I shall forbear and keep something for the 

 next, if requested. 



I think it not best for me to retaliate on you by 

 paying the postage on this. Taking this conclu- 

 sion, I shall venture to close by saying. 



1 am your friend and well-wisher, 



ELI CHASE. 

 Mr. A. E. Wood, 



Ellisburgh, Ji-ffirson Co., Stale o/Xew York. 



LETTER III. 



^ Fulton County, Illinois, 1828. 

 ( _ Canton, April [7th. 



Dear Sir: — I feel myself bound in dutv to 

 write to you, and with great willingness, giving 

 my acknowledgment for not writing sooner; but 

 1 think you will excuse me: my business has 

 been somewhat complicated, ami the mail does 

 not arrive only once in two weeks as yet. 



We remain in good health and are not disap- 

 pointed with the goodness of the country. Some 

 wheat turned forty and fifty bushels to the acre 

 last season. I had corn eighty bushels per acre, 

 and 200 lbs. of flax from half a bushel of seed, 

 sowed on half an acre of ground.— Weight of 

 four pumpkins on one vine: the first 50 lbs., sec- 

 ond 48 lbs. 12 oz., third 48 lbs., fourth 33 lbs. 12 

 oz., making in all)80 lbs. 8 oz. ; — they growed 

 iu my garden. Wheat looks well this spring, al- 

 though the weather is backward, as we com II - 



ly call it. Selh has been two winters trading 

 with the Indians, with Stephen S. Phelps, now 

 husband to Phehe. His father and brother trade 

 at Lewistown : they were formerly from Palmyra, 

 N. Y. We have a Bible Society, Tract Society, 

 a Juvenile Tract Society and Sunday schools in 

 this county. 



I will here propose to you or some other to 

 change a newspaper, if it meets your mind to 

 commence next fall: I think our mail will come 

 in every week by that lime. 1 can send the Illi- 

 nois Intelligencer, a paper edited at Vandalia, or 

 the St. Louis Republican, or the Western Lumi- 

 nary, a religious paper edited at Lexington, Ken- 

 tucky. The postage will be one and a half cent 

 per paper, and we can read both: ami if Elder 

 Averill should lake a mind to change, the postage 

 would come free without he is now taking what 

 the law allows him. Our Legislature will sit 

 next winter; it only sits once in two years, ex- 

 cept a special session. 



I was glad 10 hear of the improvements mak- 

 ing in Ellishurgh: hut lell unhappy to hear of 

 the deaths of our friends. We must ail die sooner 

 or later. 



I expect to start to-inorrnw for Galena or the 

 lead mines, a distance of one hundred and filiv 

 miles to tin: north of Ibis place. 



A neighbor of mine fenced almost two quarter 

 sections in one Meld and broke up about one quar- 

 ter last season, ibis spring making subdivisions. 

 The way they make lie' fences is. lie? rails ten 

 feet ill length, eighl rails high, slaked and double 

 ride red ; thai is the common way wiih all. Corn 

 is worth 25 cents, wheat ."ill cents, prime pork sal 

 per barrel. Cows ('mm $6 In $J0 ; working ent- 

 ile from $90 10 $40 : sheep $2 ami s:S, scarce. 



We have pot so ns to live tolerable comfortable 

 through Cod's blessing, although we have seen 

 some difficulties' Setb and myself being sick a 

 year ago last fill put us back about one year ; hut 

 we are in a ben, a- way 10 11 gain it. Selh and I 

 have been lately hunting for bee trees without 

 lining them : we have foil ml nine trees in a short 

 time, and have cut six and saved four out of PlJt 

 for stands to get n stock from. One of our neigh 

 bo'rs has found twenty-five bee irees ihis spring. 

 Honey is fifty cents per gallon, wax 25eenlK per 

 pound. I think this counlrv is the next 10 ihe 

 one that flowed wild milk ami honey. I should 

 be happy 10 have uncle Amos and his wife here 

 to nil some of our honey, crab apple preserve 

 and roasted turkey lie it I , . ■. >i| imied w iih 

 your father and mother, if possible: fur I think 

 the turkeys will not he gone: 1 oiien see forty or 



fifty in II gang, ami it is no 111 minon lliing 10 



see ten or twelve :. r wiin llieir flags hoisted, 

 inarching in Indian tile across the prairie like 

 cavalry in full pursuit ; ami also swans flying 

 over in the spring, sounding llieir htigles. 



The Indians hum altogether nr always on horse- 

 back in this country, being id! gujijuied il.ey 



