Morris Birbeck 1818

Morris Birkbeck stopped in Madison on his way to Albion, Ill., where he had founded a community on the prairie that drew a number of travelers who left accounts of their journeys. While he does not describe Madison specifically, his description of Indiana, written while he was in Indiana, suggests that his observations came from his stay in the Madison area.

Birkbeck, Morris. Notes on a Journey in America from the coast of Virginia to the territory of Illinois. The Second Edition London. Printed by Severn & Co. 1 Skinner Street, Bishopsgate for James Ridgeway, Picadilly. 1818.

1818

July 6. We are now at the town of Madison, on our way through the State of Indiana toward Vincennes. This place is on the banks of the Ohio, about seventy-five miles from Cincinnati.

Our road has been mostly from three to six miles from the river, passing over fertile hills, and alluvial bottoms. The whole is appropriated; but although settlements multiply daily, many large intervals remain between the clearings.

Indiana is evidently newer than the state of Ohio; and if I mistake not, the character of the settlers is different, and superior to that of the first settlers in Ohio, who were generally very indigent people; those who are now fixing themselves in Indiana, bring with them habits of comfort, and the means of procuring the conveniences of life: I observe this in the construction of their cabins, and the neatness surrounding them, and especially in their well-stocked gardens, so frequent here, and so rare in the state of Ohio, where their earlier and longer settlement would have afforded them better opportunities of making this great provision for domestic comfort.

I have also had the pleasure of seeing; many families of healthy children; and from my own continued observation, confirmed by the testimony of every competent evidence that has fallen in my way, I repeated with still more confidence, that the diseases so alarming to all emigrants, and which have been fatal to so many, are not attached to the climate, but to local situation. Repetitions will be excused on this important subject. Hills on a dry soil are healthy, after some progress has been made in clearing; for deep and close woods are not salubrious either to new comers or old settlers. The neighbourhood of overflowing streams, and all wet, marshy soils, are productive of agues and bilious fevers in the autumn.

Such is the influx of strangers into this state, that the industry of the settlers is severely taxed to provide food for themselves, and a superfluity for newcomers; and thus it is probable there will be a market for all the spare produce; for a series of years, owing to the accession of strangers, as well as the rapid internal growth of population. This is a favourable condition of a new colony, which has not been calculated on by those who take a distinct view of the subject. This year Kentucky has sent a supply in aid of this hungry infant state.

July 7. I have good authority for contradicting a supposition that I have met in England, respecting the inhabitants of Indiana;--that they are lawless, semi-barbarous vagabonds, dangerous to live among. On the contrary, the laws are respected, and more effectual; and the manners of the people are kind and gentle, to each other, and to strangers.

An unsettled country, lying contiguous to one that is settled, is always a place for retreat for rude and even abandoned characters, who find the regulations of society intolerable; and such, no doubt, had taken up their unfixed abode in Indiana. These people retire, with the wolves, from the regular colonists, keeping always to the outside of civilized settlements. They rely for their subsistence on their rifle, and a scanty cultivation of corn, and live in great poverty and privation, a degree only short of the savage state of Indians.

As to the inhabitants of towns, the Americans are much alike, as far as we have had an opportunity of judging. We look, in vain, for any striking difference in the general deportment and appearance of the great bulk of Americans, from Norfolk on the eastern coast, to the town of Madison in Indiana. The same good-looking, well-dressed (not what we call gentlemanly) men appear everywhere. Nine out of ten, native Americans are tall and long-limbed, approaching, or even exceeding six feet; in pantalloons and Wellington boots, either marching up and down with their hands in their pockets or seated on chairs poised on the hid-feet, and the backs rested against the walls. If a hundred Americans of any class were to seat themselves, ninety-nine would shuffle their chairs to the true distance, and then throw themselves back against the nearest prop. The women exhibit a great similarity of tall relaxed forms, with consistent dress and demeanour; and are not remarkable for sprightliness of manners. Intellectual culture has not yet made much progress among the generality of either sex where I have traveled; but the men have greatly the advantage in the means of acquiring information, from their habits of traveling, and intercourse with strangers:--sources of improvement from which the other sex is unhappily too much secluded.