Indiana, 1817

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From Personal Narrative of Travels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky; and of a Residence in the Illinois Territory: 1817-1818 by Elias Pym Fordham.

July 31. 1817.

Princetown, Gibson County, Indiana.

...We left Cincinnati in the last week in June, and crossed over the Great Miami River into Indiana. Excepting on the banks of the Rivers Ohio and Wabash, this state is one vast forest, intersected by a few Blaze roads and two or three open roads. There are a few new towns, and some settlements on and near the state roads and rivers. These are generally from one to three years old; though there are much older and more substantial improvements on the Ohio; and St Vincennes on the Wabash was settled 30 years ago.

Indiana has been a state only two years. Its constitution seems to have exhausted the wisdom of all ages and countries—so complete is it—and yet so simple. It has a Governor, who is President in the Senate, and Commander in Chief of its armies; a Lieutenant Governor; a Senate; a Legislative body; and is represented in Congress by two members. Its Executive [sic] consists of Circuit Courts, and a Supreme Court. Its civil code is founded on the Common Law of England. Every office, civil or military, is elective, and held only during good behaviour. Every citizen is by law a soldier, but he need not enter the regular army unless he choose it. Every Citizen may carry what arms he please for the defence of his person or property. Slavery is not allowed in this State. All religions are equally protected. The word ''tolerate" is not to be found in the articles of their Constitution.

The land near the Water Courses is excellent. Some of the very first quality; but all that is quite conveniently situated on the Ohio banks, that is, high, dry, and rich, has been already entered. It was bought at the auctions of the U. S. at high prices, from 19 to 15$ pr. acre. What was not then sold may now be purchased at 2$ pr. acre at the Land Offices; but it is often better to give 6 or 7$ per acre to the first settler for his chosen section with an improvement upon it, than to go into the woods, away from a navigable river and take land at the Land Office price. You have not a bad chance, however, in this latter plan, for there is a district as large as all England to be picked over now. Mr. — and I have a great fancy to look at the Western side of the Illinois territory; and since he and Mr. B— have left me here, I have received an account of a tract of land on the left bank of the Mississippi, reaching from Kaskaskia nearly to St. Louis. It is called the American bottom, and consists of rich Alluvium from 8 to 40 feet deep. There is a farm to be sold there of 1400 acres, with house and buildings, for 5$ pr. acre; the land, half prairie, half wood, and all richer than your tame, English, imagination can conceive; at least, if it be equal to the descriptions I have of it.

The wave of Emigration has already reached 200 miles up the Missouri. It is this thirst, this rapacious desire, to obtain the very best land, that keeps Indiana so thinly inhabited.

If the whole population of England were planted in Indiana and Illinois, there would be good land enough in the state and territory to make every man an independent farmer.

Were the choice left to me, I would settle on the Ohio banks below the falls, or on the Mississippi,—that "father of waters," as the Indians call it, below its junction with the Missouri; because that great river must be as much the high road of Commerce as Main Street is in Philadelphia, or Cheapside in London. Every kind of produce is sent to New Orleans in the cheapest way—to Europe if you please, or to the West Indies, for Sea vessels are often built on the river, but flat boats are the usual conveyances. For the conveyance of goods up the river, keel boats are used which are impelled by sails, oars and poles. Steam boats are now beginning to supersede their use, and one of 400 tons burden has made several trips.

Again—the Mississippi banks below the Ohio mouth are universally unhealthy, generally uninhabitable, from the overflowing of the River and the many Bayous which form inland swamps of great extent. The perpendicular rise of the river water is sometimes 200 feet, at such times the whole valley of the Mississippi below the Ohio is overflowed. Now this is not the case above the Ohio. The Bluffs of Kaskaskia are always safe. How valuable then must land be in such situations in a few years, when the population above, and the trade below, have increased, so that towns, like Cincinnati and Pittsburg, shall be built on convenient landing places.—The finest land in the world, on the banks of the greatest river, with the market at your gate.

The Wabash is 300 yards wide, and rolls its warm, transparent, waters over a bed of sand and gravel. It is navigable for keels nine and for batteaux and flats twelve months in the year. It interlocks with the head waters of the Great Miami of the Lakes. Its Eastern fork, the Missisipany, rises in rich low ground, and so near to the springs of St. Mary's, which is the principal branch of the Miami of the lakes, that when the waters are high, boats pass over the intervening land. Congress has voted a piece of land to raise funds for making a Canal here, which will connect the Lakes, the St. Lawrence, and the Northern Ocean with the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. There is some fine land on the Wabash, both above and below St. Vincennes.

Princetown, where we now reside, is situated about ten miles from the Wabash, 12 from the White River, 28 from the Ohio, and 30 South of Vincennes. It stands on a range of hills in the midst of woods. It was laid out 3 years ago, but one cabin stood here 11 years ago. There are three small brick, four or five frame, and seven or eight log, houses, and about a dozen cabins in the town. The stumps of the trees have not yet had time to rot away in the streets, which are therefore dangerous to walk in after dark. We have hired a small frame house, with a log kitchen &c, adjoining a good garden and stable.

The woods around us are inhabited by Indians, bears, wolves, deer, opossums and racoons. We hear the howling of the wolves every evening, as they are driven back from the farmyards by the dogs, who flock together to repel the invaders.

In looking in the maps, I find I am wrong in saying, that the Indians inhabit the neighborhood. Their boundary line is thirty miles hence, but they often hunt here.

August 3d. 11 at night. I delayed finishing this letter, because — returned two days ago, and Mr. B— this evening. I am going off tomorrow by sunrise to the Illinois territory, to explore the Little Wabash for a mill seat G will go part of the way with me.

I am informed that the Illinois is a most beautiful country;—quite unsettled in the interior, with no accommodations for travellers but such as the cabins of the hunter afford. In my next letter I hope I shall be able to give you some important information.

...I wish you could see your brother mount his horse to morrow morning. I will give you a sketch. A broad brimmed straw hat,—long trousers and moccasins,—shot pouch and powder horn slung from a belt,—rifle at his back, in a sling,—tomohawk in a holster at his saddle bow,—a pair of saddle bags stuffed with shirts and gingerbread, made by an old friend of yours,—Boat cloak and Scotch tent buckled behind the saddle.... Good bye.

P. S. Tell — and — that I like them well enough to wish them here. Bears eat neither cows, hogs, nor sheep, till they have been accustomed to see them two or three years; by that time they are hunted away.

Fordham, Elias Pym. Personal Narrative of Travels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky; and of a Residence in the Illinois Territory: 1817-1818. Edited by Frederic Austin Ogg, Arthur H. Clark Co., 1906.

Elias Pym Fordham

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