AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultoral Warehoubb.) 



Tt>I.. XVTH.3 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 10, 1840. 



[NO. 49. 



N . E . FARMER. 



WANDERINGS IN THE WEST IN 1639. 



No. HI. 



[Continued from page 404.) 



Having purchased a Ijorse and wagon I left Rich- 

 mond in company witli my friend, and following the 

 Cumberland road, we crossod the river on a hand- 

 some stone bridge, and passed through Centreville, 

 Germantown, Cambridge city, (which is the county 

 seat,) and Dublin, all of tl.eni small towns, but con- 

 taining many good buildings and growing rapidly. 



After passing Dublin the land is more flat and 

 swampy, and there are fewer clearings, and the 

 road for the most part is extremely bad : a smart 

 shower in the at\ernoon caused us to seek shelter 

 at a public house. 



The weather being fine the ne.\t morning we 

 started early, and passing Lewisville, Ogdeii, and 

 Raysville, wo came to Greenfield, the seat of Han- 

 cock county, 20 miles from Indianapolis. 



The road we travelled over today was execrable. 

 At all the creeks there are steep precipitous banks 

 of hard clay, which are really dangerous. I was 

 twice thrown out of my wagon at these pitches, 

 and many places were so bad that I dared not ride 

 at all. Many of the streams are deep and muddy, 

 and most of them are entirely without bridges. 'i'ii,i 

 country is very flat and low, so that the water can- 

 not pass ofl^, but stands in pools, sometime.s for 

 miles on the sides of the road, until it is evapora- 

 ted. The water of the wells has a strong smell of 

 sulphur, and glasses soon become corroded ; our 

 horses refused to drink it unless very thirsty. 



Greenfield is a small town of about 30 houses, a 

 neat court house, two taverns, and several stores. 



We left early in the morning, and fiiund the road 

 similar to that we travelled over yesterday, until we 

 came within 2 or 3 miles of Indianapolis, when we 

 came to a district a little more rolling and dry. We 

 reached the metropolis e irly in the afternoon and 

 stopped over night. 



Indianapolis covers a large area, has a popula- 

 tion of about 4000, and contains some good build- 

 ings. The capitol is a good looking edifice, in the 

 Grecian style, built of brick and stuccoed in imi- 

 tation of marble. There are two utlier buildings 

 going up in the same style — one for the Parent 

 State Bank, the other for the Branch. 



The merchants have a custom which I never no- 

 ticed elsewhere, of hanging a festoon of red cloth, 

 generally flannel, over their doors to catch the eyes 

 of a passenger at a distance, and these are the first 

 objects that attract the notice of a stranger coming 

 into town. The business of the place is small and 

 particularly dull at this time, owing to the scarcity 

 of money and the suspension of the jjublic works. 

 Indianapolis is the focal centre of the splendid in- 

 ternal improv'.r.enis of the State; and when they 

 are completed according to the original plan, it 

 must become an inipirlant city. There is but lit- 

 tle attention pai<l to education, and the iijflux of 

 adventurers and fineigners attracted hither by the 

 public works in the vicinity, has exerted a delete- 



rious influence upon the morals of the people, gam- 

 bling and dissipation being too common, and petty 

 theft scarcely rebuked. 



.\bout 10 the next morning we left town, cross- 

 ing a noble bridge built at the expense of the U. 

 States, being in the route of the national road, and 

 travelled 16 1-2 miles to Little's, where we arrived 

 just in time to escape a tremendous tempest, which 

 lasted till dark. 



The next morning we started at 7 o'clock, found 

 the mad very muddy : the land not quite as flat as 

 it is east of the capital, but yet too low and level to 

 be healthy : there are short hills pretty steep, and 

 being composed of hard clay, the rain had made 

 them very slippery, and the travelling was very te- 

 dious. We passed several little straggling villa- 

 ges which are dignified with the name of towns, for 

 in this part of the country a petty tavern and gro- 

 cery makes a town, and if there be a blacksmith's 

 sliop and two or three log cabins beside, it is "a 

 right smart town." We stopped for tho night two 

 miles west of Belmont, a town of the latter class. 



According to my usual custom, I made particu- 

 lar inquiries about the country, and I learned that 

 it is generally unhealthy in tiio latter part of sum- 

 mer and autumn, when bilious fevers and ague pre- 

 vail. There are some public schools in which are 

 taught orthography, reading, writing and arithme- 

 tic, and the people seem to have no idea that any 

 other branches are necessary except for doctors and 

 lawyers. The farmers pay but little attention to 

 their cattle : they have good horses and abundance 

 of hogs. Corn and oats are their principal crops: 

 they raise, however, some wheat, flax and a few 

 potatoes : gardens are very rare : the soil is well 

 adaptod-for trees, and they have some good orchards. 

 Their living is plain and uniform — warm cakes, ba- 

 con and coffee, with eggs occasionally. 



The next morning we moved on through Put- 

 niimsville and forded a considerable river, but found 

 the roads so muddy that we concluded to stop at 

 Manhattan until the next day. Near Putnamsville 

 there is a quarry of the best building stone to be 

 found in the western country. It is a compact 

 limestone, and there are a good many men employ- 

 ed there. 



Leaving Manhattan we rode until noon, when 

 we were overtaken by a heavy rain and took refuge 

 in the cabin of a settler from " York State," whom 

 we found very communicative and tolerably intelli- 

 gent. This part of the State has been recently 

 settled and is very little improved. The land is j 

 mostly entered but is still cheap. There are at 

 present no public school.'^, and a few years since 

 the peoole had to go to Vincennes to mill, 40 miles, 

 in boats. The rain having slacked we started, but 

 had not gone far before the windows of heaven 

 were again opened upon us, and we had to ride in 

 the rain 14 miles to Cunningham's, where we found 

 a good stable for our horses, a rare thing in this 

 country, and excellent accommidations for our- 

 selves, which our drenclied situation made doubly 

 agreeable. 



Resuming our journey in the morning, we found 

 that the heavy rains yesterday had made the road 



very bad until we got to Harrison prairie. This 

 prairie is 3 miles wide and about 12 miles long, 

 and is nearly all fenced and nnder cultivation, and, 

 being what is called sand prairie, the water was 

 nearly all absorbed. 



i'erre llauto is delightfully situated on the wes- 

 tern edge of the prairie, and on the east bardt of 

 the Wabash, and is quite a handsome town. Its 

 high and dry situation would lead oni' to suppose 

 that it is heiilthy ; but like all other river towns in 

 the west, it is far otherwise. However it has a 

 good share of business and is fast gaining in im- 

 portance. 



Having mentioned tlie Cumberland or national 

 road, as it is called, upon which so much of the 

 public treasure has been lavished during more than 

 twenty years past, it will be proper to say a few 

 words about its present condition and the public 

 sentiment with regard to it. This road commen- 

 ces in Virginia, and is laid out in near'.y a straight 

 line across Ohio and Indiana, in a direction a little 

 south, of west, and will perhaps be continued to 

 the Mississippi river. .The road is macadamised 

 and finished in the most durable mant>er as far as 

 Columbus in Ohio. About four miles at Richmond, 

 Ind., a short piece at (.'ontreville, about six miles 

 at Indianapolis, and three miles at Terre Haute, 

 together with a few bridges are completed in the 

 same substaulial manner; the remainder of the 

 way the road has been graded, that is, the road bed 

 has been formed with earth, some of the hills have 

 been excavated, and valleys embanked, and in that 

 situation has been open to the public travel. In 

 wet weather holes will be made in which the water 

 settles and the continual passing soon wears into 

 cradle holes and gulleys which frequently become 

 impassable, then a few logs are tlirown in, often 

 by tra<;llers themselves, just sufficient to enable 

 fhe'm 1.C get over, thimgh not without peril. In this 

 w«y th- road has been cut up, and the labor that 

 hasb€en done nearly lost; yet this is the great 

 thoroughfare for western tniivel, and bad as it i.=, 

 perhaps iliere is none better in Indiana. The peo- 

 ple say tliat it is a national concern and that the 

 federal government is bound to complete it, and 

 Ihey will not meddle with it. In the mean time it 

 furnishes a fertilL: subject for party politicians to 

 quarrel about, and a stump speech would be deem- 

 ed incomplete without some flaming passages re- 

 specting the national road. 



VVe stopped only i:ne day at Terre Haute and 

 left in the afternoon of the noxt, and hearing that 

 the road was very bad on the other side, we went 

 7 miles up the river and crossed at Durkee's ferry. 

 The river here is 2-10 yards wide. Our road was 

 through timber for five miles, when learning that 

 there were no lavrns nor any houses for some dis- 

 tance ahead, we stopped at a farm house where we 

 were well accommodated. 



The next morning we resumed our journey over 

 a bad road, through timberand barrens, skirting the 

 grand prairie, and at 11 o'clock we reached Paris, 

 the seal of Edgar county, Illinois. This is a pretty 

 town, built in the form of a hollow square ; the 

 court house and other county buildings occupying 



