Caleb Atwater 1829

Caleb Atwater's description of Madison at the end of the 1820s was similar to other accounts of the period which remarked on the city's brick houses.

Writings of Caleb Atwater. A description of the antiquities discovered in the western country.--Remarks on a tour to Prairie du Chien; thence to Washington City, in 1829. Atwater, Caleb, 1778-1867. Columbus [Ohio] Published by the author, printed by Scott and Wright, 1833. The first paper was originally published in 1820 in Archæologia americana. Transactions and collections of the American Antiquarian Society. v. 1; the second, separately, at Columbus, Ohio, 1831.

“Leaving Louisville the next day after my arrival, in a steam boat, I arrived at Cincinnati the same day, and gladly set my feet on the soil of Ohio once more. This was on the 24th day of September, 1829. Between Louisville and Cincinnati, fifty miles above the former and a hundred below the latter, stands the beautiful town of Madison, on the north side of the river. It contains more than a hundred beautiful brick houses, a suitable number of stores and taverns, and is a very thriving town. Vevay, with its beautiful vineyards, is higher up the river, on the same side with Madison. The Indiana side of the river is fast improving.”