ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 
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INCIDENTS OF A JOURNEY FROM 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA TO WISCONSIN 
 
 TERRITORY, IN 1837 
 
 Being the Journal of Gen. William Rudolph Smith, 
 
 U. S. Commissioner for Treaty with the Chippewa 
 
 Indians of the Upper Mississippi 
 
 To which are added 
 
 Gen. Smith's Autobiography, 1787-1808 
 
 Letters Relating to the Commission 
 
 Brief Biographical Sketch, 1787-1868 
 by 
 
 John Goadby Gregory 
 
 WRIGHT HOWES 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 1927 
 
Edition of 115 Copies on plain paper for sale. 
 No..£?^L 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 GENERAL WILLIAM RUDOLPH SMITH 
 
 BY 
 JOHN GOADBY GREGORY 
 
in. 
 
 GENERAL WILLIAM RUDOLPH SMITH. 
 
 1787-1868 
 
 William Rudolph Smith, lawyer, legislator, historian, first 
 president of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and for 
 many years a leading figure among the Freemasons of America, 
 was born at La Trappe, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
 August 31, 1787, and died at Quincy, Illinois, while on a visit 
 to one of his children, August 22, 1868. 
 
 William Smith, his grandfather, emigrated from Scotland 
 to this country in 1752 and two years later was made provost of 
 the College and Academy of Philadelphia, which became the 
 University of Pennsylvania in 1779. This William Smith, besides 
 figuring conspicuously in educational circles, won high reputa- 
 tion by his eloquence as a preacher, and was also known as a 
 student of science and a writer, receiving the degree of D. D. 
 from Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Oxford, as 
 well as from his alma mater at Aberdeen, and was one of the 
 organizers of the American Protestant Episcopal Church. His 
 biography by his great-grandson, Horace Wemyss Smith (Phila- 
 delphia, 1879-80), lists fifty-two of his works published between 
 1750 and 1803, indicating the importance of his contribution to 
 the literary history of the colonial and revolutionary eras and the 
 critical period immediately following. His best known book. 
 "Historical Account of Bouquet's Expedition Against the Ohio 
 Indians in the Year 1764," published at Philadelphia in 1765, and 
 reprinted at London in 1766, French translations of which ap- 
 peared at Paris and Amsterdam in 1769, was brought out at 
 Cincinnati in 1885 in a new edition with a preface by Francis 
 Parkman. 
 
 Part of the early education of William Rudolph Smith was 
 conducted by this grandfather, who lived until 1803. The father 
 of William Rudolph Smith was William Moore Smith, a leading 
 lawyer of Philadelphia. Appointed agent to settle claims 
 arising under the Jay Treaty, William Moore Smith visited 
 England in 1803, accompanied by his son, William Rudolph 
 Smith, as his private secretary. 
 
6 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 William Rudolph Smith studied law in the Middle Temple. 
 Returning to America at the end of two years, and completing 
 his legal studies with James Milnor, he was admitted to the 
 bar at Philadelphia in 1808, in the following year marrying 
 Miss Eliza Anthony, who died in 1821. In 1824 he married 
 Miss Mary Hamilton Van Dyke. In 1809 he became a resident 
 of Cambria County where he served as deputy attorney-general 
 and pursued the practice of the law for the next twenty years. 
 In 1830 he removed to a farm in Bedford county, but continued 
 to practice law. Taking an active interest in military matters, 
 he rose to the rank of major-general in the State militia, and 
 was appointed colonel of the Pennsylvania Reserves, command- 
 ing this regiment in support of the movement on Canada in the 
 War of 1812, and taking part in the battle of Lundy's Lane. 
 During the remainder of his residence in Pennsylvania he served 
 many terms in the House and Senate of the Legislature. In 
 1836 he was a Presidential Elector, casting his vote for Martin 
 Van Buren. 
 
 In 1837 he was appointed a commissioner to treat with the 
 Chippewa Indians for the cession of their pine lands in the north- 
 western portion of the then Territory of Wisconsin, now largely 
 within the boundaries of the present State of Minnesota. Hi^ 
 associate commissioner for the making of the treaty was Henry 
 Dodge, then Governor i)i Wisconsin Territory. The letters 
 herewith presented indicate the instructions by which the com- 
 missioners were to be guided in conducting their negotiations. 
 The Journal was kept by General Smith from the time when he 
 left Pennsylvania on this mission to the time when he reached 
 North Bend on his way back, and is a vivid narrative of river 
 travel in the United States in the era immediately preceding the 
 construction of railroads. 
 
 General Smith was so greatly charmed with the beauty of 
 the West, and so deeply impressed with the variety and richness 
 of its industrial resources, that in 1838 he removed with his 
 family to Mineral Point. Wisconsin, which was his residence 
 during the rest of his life. 
 
 The easy and lucid style of the Journal, showing the skill of 
 
The Life of William R. Smith 7 
 
 a practiced writer, is characteristic of everything that came 
 from its author's pen, and had been acquired by years of literary 
 labor during the time of his residence in Philadelphia, where he 
 was an intimate friend of Joseph Dennie, editor of the Portfolio. 
 known to the public of his day as "the Addison of America." 
 General Smith's father had devoted much time to literary pur- 
 suits, and as early as 1784 published in Philadelphia a volume of 
 poems which in 1786 was republished in London. Several other 
 members of the Smith family contributed to the preservation of 
 the literary traditions handed down by the noted provost. 
 
 For many years after his removal to Wisconsin General 
 Smith was an intimate associate of men who shaped the destinies 
 of the future Commonwealth. In 1839 he was appointed ad- 
 jutant general, which office he held for many years. In 1840 he 
 presided over the deliberations of the first Democratic conven- 
 tion in Wisconsin. In 1846 he was elected secretary of the 
 Legislative Council, and in the same year was elected to mem- 
 bership in the first Constitutional Convention. As a lawmaker, he 
 was the original champion of "homestead exemption," and of the 
 right of married women to dispose of their own earnings and 
 hold property beyond their husbands' control. In 1849 and 
 1850 he was chief clerk of the Senate, and in 1856 and 1857 was 
 attorney-general. In 1854 he was chosen president of the State 
 Historical Society, before which he had delivered the first annual 
 address after its organization in 1849. He was annually elected 
 to the presidency of this society until 1860. 
 
 General Smith was a member of the Masonic fraternity, in 
 which he held prominent official positions during the years be- 
 tween 1822 and 1858, when, on account of advancing age. he 
 declined further honors, after having been Grand Secretary of 
 the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, Grand Secretary of the Grand 
 Royal Arch Chapter and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. He 
 was a member of numerous scientific and literary societies of 
 this country and Europe. 
 
 Among General Smith's published writings well known to 
 collectors of Americana are "Observations on Wisconsin Ter- 
 ritory," published at Philadelphia in 1838. and a "History of 
 
8 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 Wisconsin, in Three Parts. Historical, Documentary and De- 
 scriptive. Compiled by Direction of the Legislature of the 
 State." Of the latter work, only Vols. I and III were issued, 
 bearing the date of 1854. The voluminous productions of his 
 early manhood in Philadelphia included contributions to The 
 Portofolio and other literary magazines, a great deal of fugitive 
 poetry, a dramatic monologue, which was "printed and per- 
 formed," a translation from the French of Sir William Jones's 
 "Essay on Oriental Poetry," which ran through many issues of 
 The Portofolio, and political papers innumerable. Though often 
 urged to collect his scattered works, he never made the attempt. 
 
 The following description of the personal characteristics of 
 General Smith is taken from a notice of his death which, over 
 the signature of "C." was published in a local newspaper soon 
 after he passed away : 
 
 "He was one of those rare natures that never grow old. 
 Although over threescore and ten years had drawn external line- 
 aments of age upon his person, yet within the brightness and 
 buoyancy of early youth sparkled and warmed : while the 
 wisdom of age. from the storehouse of a capacious memory, 
 added to the luster of learning and genius. His presence spread 
 a charm through all circles. The young sought his society and 
 found congeniality in his ready sympathy ; the learned found him 
 a valued compeer ; and the old looked with veneration upon one 
 in whom life's changes had made so little change." 
 
 J. G. G. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 WILLIAM R. SMITH 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL WILLIAM R. SMITH. 
 
 Dates and Incidents in My Life, Recorded for the Information 
 of My Children and Grandchildren. 
 
 (1787-1808) 
 
 My grandfather, the Rev. William Smith, D. D., was a 
 clergyman of the Episcopal Church. He was a native of Scot- 
 land, born about the year 1725, and having received a liberal 
 education, and honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
 by the University of Oxford and by Trinity College, Dublin, he 
 came to America about the year 1750, under the auspices of the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury and the English clergy, formed into a 
 body for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. The 
 first few years after his arrival in the colonies were spent in 
 Pennsylvania and New York, and were chiefly devoted to the 
 duties of his office as a Christian minister, the fostering of 
 general literature, and the establishment of a system of collegiate 
 and academical education. Aided by Dr. Franklin, William 
 Peters, and other influential men in those days, the College and 
 Academy of Philadelphia, since erected into the University of 
 Pennsylvania, was founded, and Dr. Smith was chosen the first 
 Provost, in which situation he continued with honor to himself 
 and success to the institution for a period of twenty-five years. 
 Dr. Smith was a man of rare natural endowments, a profound 
 and varied scholar, a writer of beauty and energy, whose pulpit 
 eloquence was in his time by many British critics and reviewers 
 favorably compared to the productions of Massillon and Bosseut. 
 His labors in conjunction with David Rittenhouse, the celebrated 
 astronomer, in observing the transit of Venus in 1769 have made 
 his name well known to the scientific world. (See American 
 Philosophical Society Transactions.) His knowledge of the fine 
 arts led him to perceive the dawning genius of the great painter, 
 Benjamin West, and the judicious manner in which the young 
 rustic was led by the Provost into such literary paths as were 
 suitable to the future artist have been gratefully acknowledged 
 by W r est. (See Gait's Life of West.) His various literary pro- 
 ductions, his funeral orations, by request of Congress on General 
 
12 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 Montgomery and by appointment of the American Philosophical 
 Society on Dr. Franklin, together with his patriotic sermons 
 during the Revolution, his many pious and eloquent discourses 
 in the church in Philadelphia and other places of which he was 
 Rector, and his devotion to the cause of education and literature 
 during a period of more than half a century, have given Dr. 
 Smith an honorable place in the history of his adopted country. 
 He died at Philadelphia in May, 1803, aged 78 years. 
 
 In 1758 Dr. Smith married Rebecca, daughter of Colonel 
 William Moore, of Moore Hall. Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
 and had issue several sons and daughters, of whom three sons 
 and one daughter survived him. namely : William Moore Smith, 
 Charles Smith. Richard Smith, and Rebecca, the wife of Samuel 
 Blodget. Another daughter, Williamina, was married to Charles 
 Goldsborough, of Maryland, from whom is descended a large 
 family on the Eastern Shore. 
 
 One of the daughters of Col. Moore was married to Thomas 
 Bond, of Philadelphia, and one of the daughters of this marriage 
 became the wife of Col. John Cadwallader of the Revolution. 
 His son was Gen. Thomas Cadwallader of the War of 1812. 
 whose son, now living, is Gen. George Cadwallader of the 
 Mexican War. One of the daughters of Col. John Cadwallader 
 was married to David Montague Erskine (son of Chancellor 
 Erskine) when he was Minister from Great Britain to the United 
 States, who since. I believe, has become Earl of Buchan. 
 
 Some years after Dr. Smith had become settled in Pennsyl- 
 vania, one of his half-brothers, Thomas Smith, who was edu- 
 cated for the law, emigrated from Scotland, and also settled in 
 Pennsylvania. During the Revolution he was entrusted by the 
 State and by Congress with various civil and military offices — 
 Judge of the District, member of the Legislature and of Con- 
 gress, and Lieutenant of the County of Bedford. At the adop- 
 tion of the Constitution. Col. Thomas Smith was appointed one 
 of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in which 
 office he continued until his death, at Philadelphia, about the 
 year 1810. Judge Smith left seven daughters and only one son, 
 George Washington Smith. Thus I do not know of any relation 
 
The Life of William K. Smith 13 
 
 named Smith in America that 1 have, however common the name 
 is, except the immediate descendants of the two brothers. Dr. 
 William Smith and Judge Thomas Smith. Neither Charles 
 Smith nor Richard Smith (sons of my grandfather) left male 
 descendants, but by the daughters of both there is a large 
 pr< >geny. 
 
 William Moore Smith, my father, the eldest son of Dr. 
 William Smith, was born in Philadelphia on June 4th. 1759. He 
 received a liberal education under the superintendence of the 
 Provost, and studied law in the office of William Lewis, of 
 Philadelphia. Like other young men of that day he sought 
 practice in the country, then rapidly increasing in population and 
 wealth, in a circuit of one hundred miles around the city, and he 
 opened his office at Easton, in Northhampton County. His 
 brother Charles was a student with him. I mention this cir- 
 cumstance because the Duke de Liancourt. in his Travels in 
 America (see Liancourt's Travels), in speaking of the society at 
 Easton, says with all the flippancy of a slight observer, "The son 
 of Mr. Smith, the lawyer, is a fine young man." The French- 
 man did not perceive that there was only six years' difference 
 in the ages of the two brothers. 
 
 In 1786 my father married Anne, the daughter of Captain 
 Jacob Rudolph, or Rudulf, as the original Swede family spelt the 
 name. This family came with the first Swedish colony that 
 settled in that part of the country, now comprising the State of 
 Delaware, and were located on various farms around the Head of 
 Elk, and up the Delaware as far as Darby and Kingsessing 
 within live miles of Philadelphia. My grandfather on my 
 mother's side was a partisan officer in the Revolutionary army, 
 and commanded a company of yeomanry raised in his own neigh- 
 borhood. After the battle of Brandy wine he was made prisoner, 
 and kept confined in Philadelphia during the time the British 
 had possession of the city. I have heard my mother relate, 
 among other of her Revolutionary recollections, that on the day 
 after the battle, whilst her mother and all the children (she her- 
 self being then only ten years old) were waiting in the most 
 agitating suspense for news of her father, who was known to 
 
14 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 have been in the battle, and from which stragglers of the de- 
 feated were hourly passing through Darby, he himself was seen 
 coming down the road. Their house was situated at the point 
 of junction of two roads, and when Captain Rudolph entered his 
 home by one door, and was about to embrace his wife and chil- 
 dren, he was instantly made prisoner by a party of British 
 soldiers who had entered by the door opening on the other road, 
 and immediately hurried away before he was even allowed to bid 
 farewell to his family. 
 
 Major Michael Rudolph, of the American army, was a cousin 
 of my grandfather. There is a mystery in regard to this officer 
 which is certainly very singular, and perhaps never will be de- 
 veloped. After the peace of 1783 Major Rudolph left Pennsyl- 
 vania and was understood to have gone first to one of the 
 Southern States, where he acquired property, married, and after- 
 wards removed to the West Indies. From that period his re- 
 lations in Delaware and Pennsylvania never heard of Michael 
 Rudolph until after the downfall of Bonaparte, when, on the 
 arrival of some of his generals in Philadelphia, an inquiry was 
 instituted by them as to the family and connections of Michael 
 Rudolph, coupled with a declaration that Marshal Ney and the 
 American Major were the same person. It is certain that one 
 of the generals went to the former places of residence of Michael 
 Rudolph in pursuit of his investigations, and a result was made 
 public, in the various newspapers and other sources of informa- 
 tion of that day which convinced many of the personal identity 
 of the two men. Even at this day, the inquiry and result men- 
 tioned above is believed in, and the public are entertained about 
 once a year with newspaper paragraphs on the subject. 
 
 About the year 1786, my father removed to Montgomery 
 Countv, having acquired property there, and I was born at La 
 Trappe in that county, on the 31st day of August, 1787. My 
 earliest recollections are of going to school at Norristown, the 
 county town of Montgomery. Norristown is now a large and 
 beautiful town, comprising manufactories of great capital and 
 extent. The waterpower of the Schuylkill is used to an almost 
 incalculable profit. In my infant days there was a small grist 
 
The Life of William K. Smith 15 
 
 mill on the river near the foot of Barbadoes Island. The Island 
 was covered with majestic forest trees, and was rendered famous 
 to us children by the great abundance of large shelbark nuts and 
 delicious pawpaws growing on it. It is now completely de- 
 nuded, and in its extent, a mile in length at least, does not exhibit 
 a vestige of a growing forest tree. The Norristown farm and 
 property around and in the village, including the island in the 
 Schuylkill and the mill, belonged to my father. He sold the 
 whole (340 acres) in a body to John Markley of Norristown. in 
 the- year 1803. 
 
 My recollections up to 1792 are of course few. Some are 
 very distinct — m\ loss of a pair of shoe buckles and shoes in 
 wading along the muddy shore of the mill dam. and a subsequent 
 whipping therefor; my regular going to church on the Sabbath, 
 walking to the Swede's ford, more than a mile below the village, 
 and crossing the river in a canoe to the church on the opposite 
 shore, my infant struggles to learn my primer, aided by the 
 tongue and the rod of the wooden-legged schoolmaster. The 
 horrors of the gaol on the hill, conjured Up by the view which 
 the children daily took in coming from school, of the big iron 
 d<»or and pondrous keys of the gaoler, kind old Stroud. One 
 remembrance i< vivid — the bonfire made by the boys of the 
 Whipping Post, which was cut down on the amelioration of the 
 Criminal Code of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Our family removed to Philadelphia in 1792, and 1 was 
 placed at school under the tuition of Mr. James Little and his 
 ushers, this being at that time the largest and best preparatory 
 school in the city. How many of the children of that school, 
 forming there an acquaintance which grew with their growth. 
 have long since departed from earth! Now many early friend- 
 ships has a lapse of sixty-seven years shrouded in the grave! 
 
 1 remember the alarms created in every family in Phila- 
 delphia by the dreaded yellow fever of 1793 The city then was 
 of so small an extent and population that a pestilence, as the 
 yellow fever was called, was as much feared and as much felt as 
 the cholera now is in many of our small Western villages. A 
 general removal of the citizens took place to residences at a 
 
16 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 distance from the city. I went with my mother to her relations 
 at Darby and Kingsessing ; my father went on his law circuit 
 among the upper counties of the State. 
 
 The insurrection of the western counties of the State in 
 1794 occasioned the calling out of an army for its suppression. 
 On the occasion of assembling and reviewing the volunteer 
 troops at Philadelphia, I first had the satisfaction of seeing our 
 venerated Washington. I had gone to the review ground, then 
 an open common between High Street and Chestnut, above 
 Eighth Street, now completely covered with streets and splendid 
 buildings, not only to see the soldiers as a pleased child, but also 
 to take what might be (as I was told) a last look at my father, 
 who was a volunteer in the 3d troop of City Light Horse, the 
 same troop of which in after days I was myself a member, and 
 in our parades and exercises I rode the same horse that served 
 my father on the Whisky Expedition, as that campaign was 
 called. Indeed, the faithful old animal was named Whisky by 
 all of our family. He passed the final years of his life in the 
 pasture field and the stable, resting from his early labors. He 
 died full of years an dhonors for past services in the tented field. 
 on the farm and the road, and with harness for all occasions, from 
 the anticipated fight to the pleasure carriage, the market or the 
 farm cart, ever fitted to his back, regretted by our family, al- 
 though not mourned by progeny, of which he had none. I relate 
 this matter as an instance of a horse continuing to be of actual 
 family service until 23 years old. 
 
 I have mentioned Washington. It has been my good 
 fortune (for so I deem it now) often to have seen our venerated 
 Chief. On returning from school each day, the boys whose 
 course lay in that direction would be sure to pass the Presidential 
 mansion in High Street, South Side, immediately east of Sixth 
 Street, and there pausing for a few minutes, would frequently be 
 gratified with a sight of the Beloved of All Ages. Often when 
 Washington was walking through the streets of the city, I have 
 seen the citizens bow, invariably with lifted hats, as they passed 
 him, and then stop and look back on him in a manner indicating 
 that each was giving a silent benediction to the Father of his 
 
The Life of William R. Smith 17 
 
 Country. 1 still have, even at this late day, his form and features 
 before me. 
 
 In 1794 I narrowly escaped with my life from an accident 
 of which I yet bear the deep and indelible mark. I was standing 
 with head uncovered, gazing upwards at a laborer ascending 
 with a hod of bricks on a ladder at a new building on the south 
 side of Chestnut Street Wharf, when I felt a severe blow, and 
 was prostrated, senseless. A brick had fallen on the left side of 
 my head, fracturing my skull, slightly, I suppose, because in 
 about a month's time I was at school again. A deep indentation 
 still remains in my head, the effect of this accident. This same 
 Chestnut Street Warf was a dangerous spot for me, as, some 
 years afterwards, in 1797, a few of us schoolboys, on a holiday 
 afternoon, were playing about the water, when we sprung into a 
 boat lying at the wharf, between two vessels, and I seized the 
 cable of one ship to draw the boat towards her, whilst the other 
 boys laid hold of the cable of the other ship with a like inten- 
 tion. We were at different ends of the boat, and each was 
 ignorant of the action of the other party. Consequently, the 
 boat was drawn from under me, and I remained suspended by a 
 small grasp of the hands to a large cable. My affrighted com- 
 panions scampered out of the boat, and gave the alarm when 
 they saw me lose my hold and plunge into the water. My 
 sensations were distinct but very unpleasant. I believed my 
 life was gone. I could not swim, and the last matter I recollect 
 was that I exerted myself to pull my hat down over my nose 
 and mouth, to exclude the water which I involuntarily was 
 gulping down. I knew no more until I was about to be led 
 home by my schoolfellows, with my fine new scarlet coatee torn 
 up the back from end to shoulder. Some kind-hearted person 
 had dived for me as I was sinking and had caught me by the 
 coat. I never knew who he was. God has rewarded him, if 
 only in the satisfaction of having saved a fellow-creature's life. 
 
 During my early years at Mr. Little's preparatory school, it 
 was the usage, on a particular day of the week, to have the news- 
 papers of a day or two previous laid on the desks of the reading 
 class. Each boy had his newspaper (the same publication) and 
 
18 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 read aloud a sentence from that part devoted to domestic oc- 
 currences and foreign news. When a period was reached, the 
 next boy pursued the subject, and so on, consecutively, until the 
 usher announced that the reading hour had closed. By this 
 course of reading, much information of the world was gained ; 
 but newspaper reading was confined to the larger boys. The 
 Bible and Scott's Lessons were the books of First readers in- 
 variably used. I distinctly recollect that by such reading I be- 
 came step by step acquainted at so early an age (in an inadequate 
 degree, of course) with the principal events of the French Revo- 
 lution. The names of Robespierre. Danton, Marat, Dumorier, 
 and many other Revolutionists, were familiar to the schoolboys, 
 and even the great name of after time, Bonaparte, had already 
 appeared, and was duly noticed. 
 
 Sundry matters crowd on my memory as peculiar to the 
 times. When the news of the beheading of the King of France 
 arrived, or perhaps not until after the beheading of the Queen, 
 as I can't fix the exact time, there was a public exhibition of the 
 guillotine and its manner of operating on subjects advertised to 
 be seen in Philadelphia, and doubtless the exhibition room was 
 frequently crowded. Every day and every night the boys could 
 be heard in the streets whistling and singing aloud the revolu- 
 tionary tunes of "Ca Ira" and "La Carmagnole," and at the 
 paradings of military companies the drum and fife resounded to 
 the same airs. 
 
 It was part of the amusement of growing boys to attend the 
 Congress Hall at leisure hours, and as the dwelling of my father 
 was at the corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, the breadth of 
 the street alone separated our house from "the State House 
 Yard," or Public Square, on which stand at this day as then the 
 Legislative and Judicial Halls and public offices of Philadelphia. 
 Congress Hall was the name given to the building at the corner 
 of Sixth and Chestnut Streets. The Senate met on the second 
 floor, the House of Representatives on the ground floor. It was 
 in my power daily to be in the Gallery of the Houses of Con- 
 gress, and every hour which I could spare from school, during 
 the sessions of Congress, was devoted by me to those Galleries, 
 
The Life of William R. Smith 19 
 
 as I had what might well be called a child's mania to see and 
 hear the great men of the country ; for the young American at 
 that day was taught to believe that there were no greater people 
 in the world than the President and Members of Congress. But 
 even a child's ideas of propriety were somewhat shocked one 
 day, as I happened to be present in the Gallery of the House of 
 Representatives when the disgraceful altercation took place be- 
 tween Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold. 
 
 During the time that the seat of the Federal Government 
 was located at Philadelphia, I had frequent opportunities of see- 
 ing the several members of the Cabinets of Washington and 
 John Adams the elder, together with Thomas Jefferson, Vice 
 President, and the prominent men in both Houses of Congress. 
 After the lapse of more than half a century, the recollection of 
 such apparently trivial matters is certainly pleasant, although 
 nearly unregarded when they occurred. 
 
 The Black Cockade riots in the city in 1799 ; the marching of 
 the volunteers, horse and foot, through the excited populace, and 
 the planting of cannon at various public places, stirred up even 
 the infantry, as well as the old politicians of the day, and the tri- 
 color cocade as well as the black, showed the politics, Federal 
 or Democratic, of the parents of the children who sported them 
 in their hats. 
 
 The melancholy news of the death of General Washington 
 reached Philadelphia in December, 1799, and I was present in 
 the German Lutheran Church, on Fourth Street, corner of 
 Cherry Street when the funeral oration was pronounced by 
 Major General Lee, by appointment of the House of Congress. 
 
 During this year I had been placed in the Latin School of 
 James McCrea, a learned Scots seceding clergyman, and in the 
 beginning of the year 1800 I was taken by my grandfather under 
 his own care to the old family residence (at this day, 1859, be- 
 longing to my son, Thomas Duncan Smith) at the Falls of 
 Schuylkill, and here I remained under a rigid course of instruc- 
 tion until April, 1803. In May, 1803, my grandfather died, but 
 I was then in England. 
 
 My father had for some years been the general agent for 
 
20 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 British claimants under the 6th article of Jay's treaty of 1794, 
 and in order to close his business he was obliged to go to 
 England in 1803, whither I accompanied him as his private sec- 
 retary. Whilst in England, we traveled much at various times 
 along the whole southern coast from Dover to Falmouth and in 
 the interior of the south and west, but only as far north as 
 Oxford University. In London our time was very happily 
 spent at the houses of many friends, and particularly at the 
 house of Charles Dilly (Queen's Square), so often mentioned 
 by Boswell in his life of Johnson. Here, at his hospitable 
 dinner parties, I had the pleasure of meeting with Richard 
 Cumberland, the venerable Pascal Paoli, a brother of James 
 Boswell, and many literary and other notorieties of the day. 
 Mr. Dilly took a satisfaction in showing to his guests the arm- 
 chair in which Dr. Johnson (fond of good eating) perhaps en- 
 joyed himself more than at any other house in London. At 
 this table he became reconciled to John Wilkes. I also had 
 much satisfaction in often visiting the house and picture gallery 
 of Benjamin West. Mr. West, in his attentions to my father 
 and myself, did not forget the obligations which in early life he 
 owed to my grandfather, Dr. Smith. He lived in Great Newman 
 Street. 
 
 In this year I commenced a preparatory course of study of 
 history (my father intending me for the bar), under the direc- 
 tion of Thomas Kearsley of the Middle Temple. In the autumn 
 of 1804 we returned to Philadelphia. 
 
 From this period until the autumn of 1808 I was, I believe, 
 a diligent student, the first two years under the direction of my 
 father, at his country residence on the old York Road, five miles 
 from the city, and the latter two in the office of James Milnor in 
 Philadelphia. Mr. Milnor afterwards resided in New York, 
 and, having taken orders, became a distinguished minister of the 
 Episcopal Church. I was admitted to the bar in September, 
 1808. My examiners were Richard Rush, Thomas Ross and 
 Peter A. Browne ; the Judge was Jacob Rush. 
 
 At the risk of being charged with overwhelming garrulity, 
 I cannot resist the occasion of speaking of my desultory reading. 
 
The Life of William R. Smith 21 
 
 for many years, lest I should incorrectly obtain the credit of 
 having been a close student during all of the time. In the course 
 of the year 1795, I distinctly remember to have felt a desire to 
 read such books as were rather of a more instructive nature 
 than the host of children's histories of Tom Thumb, Jack the 
 Giant Killer, the Siege of Troy, Seven Champions of Christen- 
 dom, Seven Wise Masters of Greece, and other toy books. I 
 recollect commencing with Hawkesworth's Telemachus, Gold- 
 smith's Rome, Greece and England, and "The Penitent of 
 Egypt," an epic poem which I have never met with since. I 
 also at the same time read "Arminius, or Germania Freed," an 
 epic poem now very scarce. In 1796 I read largely. My recol- 
 lections lead me to name Hobbes' Leviathan (which I could not 
 then understand), Fairfax's Tasso, Bell's British Theater (every 
 play most intently devoured), Shakespeare (slightly), Hurd's 
 Cowley (skimmingly), Biographia Britannica (a voluminous 
 work), Bell's British Poets (in a skip-page manner), and Dodsley 
 and Pearch's Collection of Poems. In 1797 I traveled over the 
 same ground, and read as many novels as I could lay my hands 
 on, and became completely tired of the trash contained in their 
 flowery, uninstructive pages. In 1798 I attempted to read 
 Shakespeare con amore, and by the help of Johnson's and 
 Stevens' notes I thought I understood my author! At least I felt 
 all his striking passages, and where his sentiment was deep I 
 concluded it was beautiful, not because I did not understand, but 
 because I was prepared to admire. In 1799 I read Cantemir's 
 Ottoman Empire and Claredon's History. I ran through all 
 the new plays and looked over Hakluyt's Voyages, Harris's Col- 
 lection, La Salle's Voyage and the travels of the Jesuits in North 
 America. In 1800 I commenced a regular course of reading (as 
 I thought) — began with the Universal History, but was soon 
 tired of the folios, and took again to poetry and plays ; read 
 Spenser's Faery Queen and Chaucer's Tales with much pleasure, 
 and Shenstone's poems, Gray's poems, Mason's poems, and 
 looked into Sir William Temple's works, and read a page or two 
 in Bacon's Essays. From 1800 to 1802 my reading was desul- 
 tory, and my leisure time, apart from my school studies, much 
 
22 The Life of William R. Smith 
 
 wasted in reading all the works of entertainment which I came 
 across. I must, however, except my reading all the works of 
 Smollett, Fielding, Miss Burney, Don Quixote, Gil Bias. La 
 Fontaine's Fables and Tales, and Le Diable Boiteux of Le Sage 
 (which I could now relish in the original), and some few of the" 
 novels in the very large collections of the Novelists' Magazine, 
 such as Tales of the Genii by Sir Charles Morell, and Marmon- 
 tel's Tales. I waded through the volumes of this publication, 
 and was tired of Pamela, Grandison, Clarissa, and Avellaneda's 
 Quixote. The Arabian Nights, Chinese Tales, Persian Tales. 
 Tartarian Tales, and a host of others, kept me, I say, employed 
 in idleness. In 1803 I went to England, and during eighteen 
 months' stay there I was an intimate friend of the circulating 
 library near our lodgings. My reading was without choice. I 
 grasped everything that I had not before seen. I jumbled King 
 James' Demonologia with Rabelais and Scarron. Madame Se- 
 vigne's letters and the Turkish Spy with Newgate Calendars. 
 Sully's Memoirs and the Icon Basilica of Charles I with the 
 Foundling Hospital for Wit. In short, I read without much 
 profit. In 1804 I resolutely determined to reach the end of the 
 British Classics, and the Tatler, Spectator, Guardian, World. Ob- 
 server, Mirror, Connoisseur, Lounger, Idler. Rambler, etc.. etc.. 
 etc., all passed through my hands. I next attacked the works 
 of Swift, and, after skipping his letters to his friends, which I 
 afterwards found contained more information than many others 
 of his works, I vanquished his volumes. During the year 1805 
 I commenced History in form — Hookes' Roman History. Fergu- 
 son's Republic. Gibbon's Roman Empire, Hume's England, Smol- 
 lett and Barlow's Continuation, and subsequently. Bissett's 
 George III, were all travelled over laboriously. The hours of re- 
 laxation w r ere filled with Ariosti, Tasso, Dante. Metastasio. Her- 
 vey's Works. Young's Works, Thomson's Works, Denon's Egypt. 
 Savary's Greece and Egypt, Bruee's Travels, Keysler's Travels. 
 Sir William Jones's Works, and all new plays, and old and new 
 poems (ever and anon). During this period, from 1805 to 1807. 
 I commenced the study of law. and in my hours of leisure I 
 translated Sir William Jones's History of Nadir Chah and his 
 
The Life of William R. Smith 23 
 
 Essay on the Oriental Poetry, which he had written in French 
 for the King- of Denmark. In 1808 I was admitted to the bar. 
 and since that time I have read all my old books with increased 
 pleasure, and I am always happy to have a judicious selection 
 of books around my table, as I feel that although I may have 
 swallowed much and digested little. I still have an insatiable 
 appetite for everything that issues from the teeming press, good 
 or bad. 
 
 I have copied the above from a memorandum of my desul- 
 tory reading, written at Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in 1819. 
 Forty years have passed by, and I now, in 1859, regard it as 
 truthful. 
 
 .Mineral Point. Dec. 1. 1859. 
 
JOURNAL 
 
 OF 
 
 GENERAL WILLIAM R. SMITH 
 
JOURNAL OF GENERAL WILLIAM R. SMITH. 
 
 The noble public improvements of Pennsylvania by canals 
 and railroads and the various turnpikes traversing the State 
 from east to west have of late years afforded such facilities of 
 communication between the Atlantic seaboard and the head of 
 the Ohio river, that Pittsburg has become the neighborhood of 
 Philadelphia. A distance of more than three hundred miles is 
 overcome in less than three days' time, with an ease and comfort 
 in traveling that invite the citizen and the stranger to visit that 
 city of industry, enterprise, manufactories, steam-power and coal 
 smoke, which is so beautifully and so eligibly situated at the 
 juncture of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. 
 
 Such visits have so frequently been made by the curious 
 traveler, the inquiring philosopher and the multitude of that 
 class who seek for amusement and pleasure in rapid traveling, 
 change of scene, mountain air, and all the good viands that an 
 epicure would choose to enumerate as desirable at his well- 
 spread board, that any description of Pittsburg is here super- 
 fluous. It would be at the present day as surprising for an 
 American not to know Pittsburg and its localities, its trade, its 
 manufactories and its importance, as it was a few years ago to 
 the foreign officer, who in examining the papers of an American 
 vessel firmly believed she was a pirate because she hailed from 
 the port of Pittsburg. The place was unknown to him, and 
 when pointed out on the map as being situated so many thousand 
 miles (by water) from the ocean, on a fresh-water river, certainly 
 the wonder was undiminished, although the belief was accorded 
 that the then little village of Fort Pitt was actually a com- 
 mercial sea-port of North America. 
 
 After taking leave of many friends. Dr. William A. Smith, 
 who accompanies me, called on board the steamboat "Pittsburg" 
 at six o'clock in the evening of the 20th of July, 1837. In a few 
 minutes all the other passengers and their luggage were safely on 
 board, and we dropped down the Monongahela passing thirty- 
 six steamboats moored along the quays of the western city, and 
 entered the broad Ohio at the point of the junction of the rivers. 
 
28 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 The two streams can be distinctly ascertained for some distance. 
 The Monongahela is turbid, the Allegheny clear and beautiful. 
 
 About a mile below the city, at the head of Brown's Island, 
 we were obliged to stop, on account of an ascending steamboat 
 meeting us in the narrow channel occasioned by a large sandbar' 
 between the island and the right bank of the river. When 
 again under weigh, the scenery on the river banks was delight- 
 ful — the numerous elegant country-seats on the right, the pre- 
 ciptous wood-clad hills on the left, the highly cultivated island, 
 with its numerous buildings scattered over it, in the center, the 
 Ohio, covered with the small boats of the fisher either for 
 pleasure or profit, the rafts of the lumber-dealer, and the steam- 
 boats of commerce, all presented a picture seen to be admired. 
 
 For several miles below Pittsburg the cultivation is gener- 
 ally confined to the left bank of the river. Here the table-land 
 is elevated about twenty feet above the water, whilst on the 
 right bank the steep hills, covered with their eternal forests of 
 oak and thickly grown underwood approach closely to the 
 river, leaving a public road at their foot, leading to Beaver and 
 other places down the river. 
 
 About fourteen miles below the city we passed a steam- 
 boat, ascending the river, with freight and passengers, but now, 
 unfortunately, aground. We could not render her any assist- 
 ance, and passed on ; but as the night approached, our pilot 
 and captain, after a consultation on the dangerous attempt of 
 passing several shoals and narrow channels near Beaver, in 
 the night-time, came to the conclusion to anchor until morning. 
 We accordingly let off steam and moored our boat within ten 
 feet of the left shore, opposite the little town of Economy. 
 
 After supper, whilst the passengers were reading, writing 
 and lounging about the decks and the cabin, an alarm of "Fire!" 
 was suddenly given by a lady. There was instantly a very 
 great rush towards the stateroom wherein was the danger. 
 When I got to the room I found one or two gentlemen em- 
 ployed in tearing out the bedclothing and curtains. A candle 
 had been imprudently left on a chair near the bed, and the 
 curtains had caught, communicating to the cotton sheets. If 
 
The Journal of William K. Smith 29 
 
 the fire had not been so immediately and providentially dis- 
 covered, a serious accident might have occurred. The ignition 
 of the cotton. materials surrounding the bedding of a steamboat 
 stateroom would quickly, like a train of gunpowder, seize on 
 the whole range of combustible matter in the cabin, and as- 
 suredly if this had taken place nothing could have saved the 
 boat. Fortunately the fire was immediately extinguished, at 
 an expense of one blistered finger, belonging to me, and some 
 three or four burnt hands of other passengers, and tranquility 
 was restored. We were lying within ten feet of shore, and no 
 danger could have been apprehended of loss of life, even if the 
 fire had been more serious. 
 
 21st July. This morning the fog is so thick that we cannot 
 see ten yards beyond the boat. We are obliged to wait until 
 the sun shall disperse it. We hear the village bell at Economy 
 calling the community to their daily labors. 
 
 After we had dispatched our breakfast and the sun had 
 dispelled the fog from the waters, we again got under steam. 
 The country on both sides of the river now opens considerably. 
 The hills are at such distance as to leave a finely cultivated 
 alluvial bottom, elevated about twenty-five feet, next to the 
 Ohio. The industry of the farmer is not confined to cultiva- 
 tion, for I noticed, at a small farm to which was appended a 
 sawmill on a small stream, that the enterprise of the owner had 
 placed on the stocks, and had finished, nearly ready for launch- 
 ing, a steamboat of the largest class. We passed the town of 
 Freedom, where two steamboats were being constructed, and 
 soon afterwards reached the mouth of Beaver river. 
 
 The country still continues to possess all the varieties of 
 the Ohio scenery. The river is alive with craft, from the cattle- 
 boat up to the mangnificent consumer of wood and vomiter of 
 smoke and steam. A few miles below Beaver we crossed the 
 Ohio line on the right bank, but still have old Pennsylvania on 
 the left. Several villages and clusters of buildings on the Ohio 
 shore were passed, particularly Liverpool and Wellsville, at 
 which latter place are two daily lines of steamboats to and 
 from Pittsburg. About eleven o'clock we reached Steubenville. 
 
30 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 Passing Wellsburg, we came in sight of the beautiful island 
 opposite Wheeling owned by Mr. Zane. It contains about two 
 hundred acres, in a fine state of cultivation. A city has been 
 laid out on it, as the country around Wheeling is too hilly for 
 any great extension of building lots. A new bridge connects 
 the island with the Ohio shore, but is not yet finished. The 
 ferry boats are taken over the river, with their lading, by means 
 of the current, operating on a "fleet" of small boats of peculiar 
 shape and construction, drawn up in an oblique line and con- 
 nected together by wire. We landed at Wheeling about three 
 o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 Twelve miles below Wheeling, on the Virginia side, is 
 situate the village of Elizabeth town. The site of the town is 
 remarkable for the number of mounds scattered over a consid- 
 erable area. One of these mounds is about . . feet high, cov- 
 ered with forest trees. The stream of water here takes its 
 name from this sepulpchre of the aborigines, and is called Grave 
 Creek. 
 
 Our course continued as usual, delighting the eyes with 
 fine and spendid island and shore scenery, and awakening the 
 heart to a sense of the beneficence of God in the contemplation 
 of the abundant harvests ripening under His merciful dispensa- 
 tion. W'hilst enjoying the cool breeze of the evening, in con- 
 verse with a fellow passenger, seated near the starboard wheel- 
 house, we were alarmed by an unusual noise in the revolution 
 of the wheel, and immediately the house was rent in a thousand 
 fragments, the boards crashing and flying in all directions. I 
 made my escape through the side door, being seated next the 
 wheel. When the accident occurred my companion retreated 
 along the hurricane deck to the ladies' cabin, and one gentle- 
 man, in his alarm, forced himself through one of the windows 
 of the dining room. The boat was immediately stopped, and it 
 was discovered that the accident was occasioned by the break- 
 ing of one of the arms of the wheel, and the broken parts having 
 been carried around committed all the destruction. A few 
 minutes before the accident, a gentleman and his three children 
 were standing on the wheelhouse, of course without considering 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 31 
 
 the danger of their situation. When this alarm had passed 
 over, the ladies cried out that some one had called "Fire!" On 
 enquiring below, we found that one of the deck passengers, a 
 German, had come in personal contact with the mate, who had 
 ordered him to assist in "wooding," which he refused to do, 
 saying he had paid his passage and would not work. The mate 
 being the stronger, the German, in his paucity of English words, 
 cried out "Fire" lustily, no doubt meaning to say "Murder!" 
 We retired to bed, but the day of adventures had not yet closed. 
 About midnight another quarrel took place between the mate 
 and another of the Germans, on the subject of loading the wood. 
 The German was struck on the face by the mate, with a billet, 
 and severely wounded. 
 
 July 22. We were obliged to lie by a great part of the night 
 on account of the fog. This morning we got under weigh and 
 passed the pretty little town of Marietta. 
 
 Dr. Smith was called to visit the man who was struck by the 
 mate. His face presented a dreadful appearance — one large 
 gash on his forehead, the bones of his nose broken ; a deep cut 
 from between the eyebrows down both sides of the nose, almost 
 separating it from the face, and both eyes black ; the whole face 
 swollen and bruised. His wounds were dressed by the doctor, 
 and the mate very justly appeared alarmed at his situation. 
 
 These matters require public correction. It appears that 
 the custom of the river trade is that the deck passengers are 
 always to assist in loading the wood at the different stations 
 where it is taken on. But surely this is an assumption of right, 
 and an imposition on the part of the conductor of boats. The 
 deck passenger pays his fare. He finds his own provisions. He 
 is entitled to his passage, to his natural rest and sleep at night. 
 If the labor of loading wood is beyond the ordinary help of the 
 boat-hands and the persons who sell the wood, the deck pas- 
 senger should be allowed a compensation for his labor, or a 
 reduction in the price of his boat-fare. There should be no com- 
 pulsion on the part of the captain or officers, founded, as it is, 
 on a convenient and profitable custom, thus established by them- 
 selves, with an unequal benefit, nay, a positive injury, to one 
 
32 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 of the parties. More particularly is this custom to be con- 
 demned when the officers of the boat invariably exact obedience 
 from the deck passengers at the expense to them, in case of re- 
 fusal, of violent beatings, the most abject treatment, broken 
 limbs, being put ashore without their baggage and without their 
 families, in a wild and unsettled part of the country — in fact, of 
 being regarded as the servants of the captain of the boat. It 
 is not to be wondered at that the passengers' resistance of op- 
 pression has sometimes proved fatal to the oppressor. One 
 instance a fellow passenger mentioned as being witnessed by 
 himself, when a deck passenger, being struck by the captain 
 for not working as he wished him, immediately felled him to 
 the deck with a stick of wood in his hand. The captain never 
 breathed again. I repeat that this custom requires reform 
 altogether. 
 
 The views on the river still continue in all the varied beauty 
 of alternate woodland scenery and cultivated farms, and every 
 tew miles a thriving village, on the right and left banks. We 
 passed Parkersburg, at the mouth of Little Kenhawa, and soon 
 after came to Blennerhassett's island, famous in the history of 
 the Presidency of Jefferson as the "locus in quo" Burr's conspir- 
 acy was developed in the first "overt act" of treason. If the 
 pen of William Wirt had not rendered this place memorable, 
 and if the misfortune of the wealthy, hospitable and accom- 
 plished family who resided there had not furnished a picture of 
 vicissitudes of life which is melancholy and deplorable, the 
 island would be passed as many others are, with a silent appro- 
 bation as to its situation, extent and quality of soil. But as 
 circumstances now are with regard to the island, the contrast is 
 distressing to reflect on. The once splendid mansion, the abode 
 of genius, beauty and taste, has been burnt to the ground. Not 
 one stone rests on another. The very cellars, once filled with 
 delicate wines chosen by wealth and luxury, are now filled up 
 with the rubbish of a palace, and the surface is covered with a 
 soil, even now as we passed by, laden with a crop of green and 
 waving corn. The gardens where Burr and his companions 
 were met at midnight by the lady of this little W T estern Paradise, 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 33 
 
 before the evil serpent crept in, and at the time that the seeds 
 of destruction were scattered, now constitute a grainfield. The 
 shrubbery is all destroyed and plowed up. 
 
 '*Xot one rose of the wilderness left on its stalk 
 To mark where a garden had been." 
 
 The present proprietor of the island has built his residence 
 far from the unfortunate Blenerhassett's ruined dwelling, of 
 which nothing now remains but the recollection of its location 
 with some few who have not known it in its prosperous days. 
 and when that memory is lost, its history and that of its former 
 inhabitant will only serve 
 
 "To point a moral or adorn a tale." 
 
 After passing the Little and Big Hocking Creeks and 
 several villages, we came to the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, 
 and a few miles lower passed Gallipolis. The country greatly 
 improves in extent of bottom lands and in cultivation on both 
 sides oi the river. During the whole of the passage down, thus 
 far, we have hourly been receiving and putting ashore way 
 passengers. There is no difficulty of approaching either shore. 
 The banks are so bold that the boat can lie in deep water five 
 feet from the land. We stopped about eleven o'clock, on ac- 
 count of the fog. 
 
 July 23d. Proceeding on our course, we passed Ports- 
 mouth, a thriving town at the mouth of the Ohio canal. This 
 place must become of vast importance in respect of local advan- 
 tages as to trade. The weather is pleasant, but there is a sen- 
 sible increase in the degree of temperature since we left Pennsyl- 
 vania. Not having a thermometer, I should judge that the heat 
 is about 89 or 91. The cornfields on the Kentucky side are 
 considerably larger than those which I have been accustomed to 
 see. Several fields have been passed from a half-mile to a mile 
 in extent along the river. We are constantly passing fine farms 
 on both banks. High hills are covered to their summits with 
 the beautiful green corn, already in tassel, and shaking its tufted 
 honors with every breeze. Villages now and then crown the 
 banks, and about three o'clock we find ourselves in Mavsville. a 
 
34 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 very handsome town, where we leave several passengers bound 
 for Lexington. On the Ohio side, Aberdeen is rising up in 
 rivalship to its opposite Kentucky neighbor. Let such rivalship, 
 constant as it is along the river, always exist. Trade, manu- 
 factures, agriculture, enterprise in the raising up of towns out 
 of the forest, ever thrive most when generous competition is 
 excited. In the evening, a violent storm of wind and rain arose, 
 directly in our teeth, and after half an hour's continuance sub- 
 sided in showers. We lost two chairs, which were blown over- 
 board in the gale. The town of Augusta, where there is a col- 
 lege, was passed without our stopping. The situation is very 
 handsome. Several fine public buildings have been erected and 
 the residences of the inhabitants have been tastefully improved 
 by the preservation of forest trees and the plantation of shrub- 
 bery. The houses are well built and neat, and indicate an air 
 of independence and comfort in the dwellers. About midnight 
 we arrived at Cincinnati. 
 
 July 24th. Much thunder during the night, and heavy rain, 
 accompanied with vivid lightning, has cooled the atmosphere, 
 notwithstanding which the weather is considerably warmer 
 than I have experienced this year. We are obliged to remain 
 here a great part of the day to unload. Having some acquaint- 
 ances here, I went ashore, and had much pleasure in viewing this 
 Queen of the West, deservedly so called. 
 
 The captain of the boat in which we came has determined 
 not to proceed any further down the river, and the passengers, 
 together with all his freight, are to be transferred to the steam- 
 boat Glasgow, bound for St. Louis. The Glasgow is certainly 
 a splendid boat, and the exchange cannot be in any way re- 
 gretted in regard to the table, the bedrooms, or any of the other 
 accommodations ; but the custom of transferring, like several 
 other river customs, has its origin in imposition, and in time 
 undoubtedly will be corrected. 
 
 A captain advertises in Pittsburg that he will take in pas- 
 sengers and freight for St. Louis, and will positively start his 
 boat at ten o'clock in the morning of the 20th of July. Pas- 
 sengers have their baggage sent on board punctually at the hour 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 35 
 
 — they are on board themselves, and after waiting until twelve or 
 two o'clock, they are informed that the boat will certainly drop 
 down the river by sundown. The passenger who is in a hurry 
 will be lucky if he finds himself out of Pittsburg on the following 
 morning. We will suppose him on his way, and the boat mak- 
 ing such speed as comes up to his wishes and also justifies the 
 promise of the captain that he shall reach his destination in a 
 given time, say six days, the time that the captain will engage 
 to carry him within, and not beyond. Suddenly the boat is 
 brought to at some little village, and a half-hour is lost in in- 
 quiring for some additional freight, or passenger. Way pas- 
 sengers are taken on and put out every hour. The whole day 
 is passed in alternate stoppings, and then the dangerous risk of 
 forced speed to overtake the lost time. If the traveler be "timid 
 of steam" his nervous system will be greatly shattered by the 
 reflection that "now the engineer is giving it to her." If he 
 escapes being blown up by the bursting of a boiler, or stopped 
 on the way by the breaking of one matter or other, occasioned 
 by making up for lost time, the traveler finds himself laid up for 
 a short space of six or eight hours at some noted place on the 
 route where, by chance, if the boat stays, some freight or addi- 
 tional passengers may arrive, which the captain certainly never 
 would forgive himself if he had lost. If the captain should de- 
 termine, when he arrives at some point five, six, seven or eight 
 hundred miles from his destination, that his freight and pas- 
 sengers will not pay his expenses and yield such profit as he 
 wishes to make by his trip, he at once tells his passengers that he 
 will go no further. If the whole passage money has been paid 
 to him from Pittsburg to St. Louis, he will refund as much as 
 he pleases, charging for the way travel what he pleases, and the 
 passenger must make a new bargain to proceed on his journey 
 if he can. It is true that if another boat is going to St. Louis, 
 the captain will transfer his passengers into her and make the 
 bargain, so that the passengers shall not be obliged to pay more 
 than they stipulated to pay when they left Pittsburg. But men 
 do not like such transfers. Ladies may not have proper accom- 
 modations in the new boat. There may be a choice of boats 
 
36 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 and of captains, and if the choice is made by some of the trans- 
 ferred passengers they are liable to be charged an enhanced 
 price for the passage. They are at the mercy of the second 
 captain at the next stopping-place, and, in place of proceeding on 
 his journey according to contract, whole days, nights, and often 
 two days at a time, are lost in this manner along the route, al- 
 though the original contract as to time and price of transporta- 
 tion was binding on both parties. These things should not be, 
 and it only requires legal steps to be taken to punish the authors 
 of such an imposition on the public. To put an end to it here- 
 after, such punishment should take place. 
 
 We arrived at Cincinnati at midnight last night. We have 
 been detained here all day. At seven in the evening we now 
 leave the city. 
 
 July 25th. During the night we have passed North Bend, 
 the farm of General Harrison, and, having crossed the state line, 
 we now have Indiana on one side and Kentucky on the other. At 
 eight o'clock this morning, the city of Louisville is in sight about 
 five miles from us. The approach is beautiful — the low shores 
 on both sides of the river, under luxuriant cultivation, the fine 
 sweep of the Ohio in front, terminating with the elegant build- 
 ings of Louisville on the left, and the town of Jeffersonville on 
 the right, together with the numerous steamboats and other 
 river craft, all form a most delightful picture. 
 
 We are here detained the whole of this day in taking in new 
 cargo and discharging old. The falls of Ohio are at certain 
 times impassable for large craft, and a canal has been cut on the 
 Kentucky side around the falls by a chartered company. This 
 canal is 80 feet on the surface, 10 feet deep, and two and a half 
 miles in length. It is, however, a poor concern, considering the 
 importance of a canal at this place. Two boats cannot pass in 
 it, and the rough material taken out of the canal, generally 
 large masses of limestone, is heaped up on the sloping banks, 
 so that the canal is daily receiving debris which will impede the 
 navigation. Add to this circumstance of there being no means 
 of draining or emptying the canal, and no guard at the entrance 
 of the Ohio to prevent the accumulation of deposition at times 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 37 
 
 of high water, this work may be considered a failure. Indeed, 
 it is difficult to avoid grounding every time a boat enters, and 
 when in, if she proceeds even half-way, and another boat is met, 
 one or the other must back out. Add to this the tortuous wind- 
 ing of the canal, and the danger a large boat is always in of 
 having injury done to her on account of the narrowness of the 
 passage, and the work may well be prouounced a complete 
 failure, The State should take charge of this work, and, whether 
 it is ever improved or not, a canal on the Indiana side would be 
 a profitable and desirable undertaking. 
 
 July 26th. We did not get off last night, and here, at nine 
 in the morning, our captain finds that his boat is the only one 
 descending, and that the passengers are at his mercy. He will 
 detain as long as there is a prospect of a box, a barrel, a board 
 or a passenger to go on board. However, we have told him that 
 if he does not start he will be sued by several of the passengers 
 for detention. At ten o'clock we are just entering the canal, 
 nearly sticking in the mud, proceeding a few rods, bumping 
 against the rocky sides, creeping on in consequence of the wind- 
 ings. We discover an ascending steamboat, and we are com- 
 pelled to back out; no signal, no telegraph, no information of a 
 boat being in the canal is thought necessary. We are delayed 
 an hour, and we again enter this most pitiful concern. About 
 half-way there is a splendid bridge of stone over the canal, with 
 an arch about 60 feet over the water. About noon we enter the 
 upper lock chamber. The stonework is splendid, and the whole 
 appointment of the three locks which we pass in immediate suc- 
 cession is creditable to the company. On getting into the Ohio 
 again, we find Shippingport a new village at the canal's mouth, 
 and several first-class steamboats laid up here. A short distance 
 below, Portland, Kentucky, and New Albany, Indiana, present 
 themselves. There are many sawmills on the river. The shores 
 begin to get lower every mile. The land is very rich — too much 
 so for oats. A stack was brought on board more than five feet 
 high — too much in straw. The cornfields are in fine condition. 
 The sight of fertility and plenty is greatly gratifying. After 
 passing the mouth of Salt river, the courthouse of Grandenburg, 
 
38 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 on the summit of a hill, and the town on another hill, offered a 
 pleasing view. In the evening a violent storm came up, with 
 much thunder and lightning. It was so dark that we were 
 obliged to lay by at nine o'clock. The company of ladies, with 
 their music on the piano, and the violin and flute accompani- 
 ments of the gentlemen, render our evening parties very pleas- 
 ant. About twelve o'clock the weather cleared and our boat 
 again got under weigh. 
 
 July 27th. When I arose we were opposite Troy, Indiana. 
 Several villages are passed on each side, and the land has all the 
 appearance of a rich and well-cultivated soil. Cornfields are 
 several miles in extent. The river increases in beauty. The 
 islands become more numerous, larger and more luxuriant in the 
 growth of timber, but they are generally overflowed and cannot 
 be cultivated. About midday we passed the mouth of (ireen 
 river, and a few miles below several passengers went on shore 
 at the town of Evansville, the contemplated termination of the 
 Indiana canal. 
 
 After dinner, we passed the wreck of a steamboat of the 
 largest class near Carthage. About sunset we approached 
 Wabash Island, about five miles in extent, and soon after passed 
 the mouth of the Wabash river, the boundary between Indiana 
 and Illinois. Below the mouth, a bar extends a considerable 
 distance across the Ohio and we observed that a large steam- 
 boat ascending was aground. We attempted to keep clear of 
 the shoal, but unfortunately got aground immediately on its 
 edge, and after two hours' labor got off, although our companion 
 in distress had been for sixty hours in that situation, and would 
 remain fast until her cargo was taken out by lighters, which was 
 being done when we left her. The lights of Shawneetown were 
 just visible when we went to bed — but not to sleep, as the night 
 was exceedingly warm and the mosquitoes were very trouble- 
 some. 
 
 July 28th. The boat having stopped near the shore from 
 midnight until near daylight, we were sorely annoyed by 
 myriads of mosquitoes. Having passed Shawneetown in the 
 night, we find at sunrise this morning that we are opposite the 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 39 
 
 town of Golconda, Illinois. Numerous islands present them- 
 selves to the eye never satiated with the delightful river scenery. 
 Steamboats are hourly met ascending the river. On the Ken- 
 tucky side, a few miles above the mouth of the Cumberland 
 river, I observed the cypress swamps for the first time. About 
 nine o'clock we stopped at Smithland, a place of considerable 
 business, situated at the junction of the Cumberland with the 
 Ohio. A dam has been erected in the Ohio by the government, 
 to improve the navigation. The waters of the Cumberland are 
 clear, and distinctly discernible for a good distance after their 
 entrance into the turbid Ohio. A number of steamboats are 
 lying at Smithland. The country up the Cumberland is an iron 
 region, and the manufacture of that metal in bars, pigs and 
 castings is most extensively carried on. Nashville, Tennessee, 
 is situate about 200 miles up the river, to which place steam- 
 boats trade regularly. About twelve miles below Smithland is 
 situate Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee river, a thriving 
 village. An old acquaintance is here editing a paper. About 
 three o'clock we are at the mouth of the Ohio river, in full view 
 of the States of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri. At the junc- 
 tion of the rivers, on the Illinois side, there is a very eligible site 
 for a great city, belonging to a New York company, but unfor- 
 tunately the ground sometimes is flooded, and expensive levees 
 must be constructed. A large island is situate in the Mississippi 
 immediately above the Ohio. The banks of the Ohio have been 
 gradually decreasing in height since we left the Tennessee, and 
 now that we are in the country has become nearly level with the 
 stream, or not more than five or six feet above it. and conse- 
 quently at many periods subject to inundation. The soil is 
 abundantly rich on both shores, producing corn in great crops, 
 with slight cultivation or care. The water of the Mississippi is 
 of a whitish yellow color, plainly distinguishable from that of the 
 Ohio. It is pleasant to the taste, and perferred, by those accus- 
 tomed to its use, to any other water. It is nearly as thick as 
 common whitewash, and the idea of a crust of mud being left in 
 my mouth was always present when I drank it. I could not 
 cease to wonder why the captains of steamboats did not procure 
 
40 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 filtering vessels, which can be had so cheap, which would not 
 only add to the comfort of the passengers, but would also be a 
 great saving of expense in the article of ice, as a filtering stone, 
 surrounded by ice will cool and keep cool more water, and for a 
 longer period, than a pitcher, into which a lump of ice must be 
 immersed every five minutes in order to render the liquid pala- 
 table, independent of the comfort of drinking the pellucid stream, 
 instead of the mud puddle, dipped in all its native, tangible 
 thickness from the heavy-rolling Mississippi. The color and 
 quality of the water are derived from the constant crumbling in 
 of the banks, and the state of suspension in which the earth is 
 held in the water. The Missouri gives the character to the Mis- 
 sissippi proper. The upper Mississippi, above its junction with 
 the Missouri, is much clearer, as the banks are higher, more 
 firmly based, and in many places rocky, whereas on the Missouri 
 the banks are generally low, crumbling and subject to frequent 
 inundations. The lenght of these astonishing rivers, when 
 united, is, from the Gulf of Mexico to the sources, upward of 
 4.500 miles: the length of the Missouri to its junction with the 
 Mississippi 3,200 miles: the length of the Mississippi proper to 
 its junction with the Missouri 1.600 miles. The low lands on 
 both sides of the river, from the mouth of the Ohio, are covered 
 with a thick growth of cottonwood trees, covered with green 
 vines which surround the trunk and the branches, presenting a 
 beautiful appearance of dense forest. Every mile or two are 
 found primitive settlements, where a sturdy and enterprising 
 settler has established himself in a hastily constructed cabin of 
 logs : an acre of corn and as much of the indispensable potato 
 has been reclaimed from the surrounding forest, and the range of 
 cordwood lining the river bank, for which a ready sale and 
 prompt pay daily and hourly is found from the frequent passing 
 of the steamboats, all give an assurance that his prosperity and 
 wealth are rapidly increasing. 
 
 July 29. At daylight we are about 70 miles up the river. 
 and 20 miles above Cape Girardeau. The land has become high 
 and rolling on the Missouri side. The river from the mouth 
 thus far is studded with islands. The width of the stream is 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 41 
 
 very difficult to be determined, as the numerous trendings and 
 the various great and small islands, formed and forming, render 
 the main channel known to the pilot only. The eye of the 
 traveler cannot distinguish the true shore of Illinois. Fine corn- 
 fields make their appearance in Missouri. Our course lies along 
 the shore of this State until we ascend as far as Grand Tower, 
 an isolated rock about 35 to 40 feet high, rising in a circular 
 form, and detached from the Missouri shore, where similar rocks 
 appear, about 150 feet. This rock doubtless once formed a part 
 of the shore, and has been separated from its brethren by the 
 action of the river. Immediately above Grand Tower, on the 
 Illinois side, a similar rock stands on a point of land, around 
 which the river makes a sudden turn. A farm house is situate 
 on a small flat of land between the rock and rocky banks behind 
 the house. The river can be seen across the little peninsula, and 
 in time, perhaps, the stream may sweep to destruction the house, 
 and, forming a new channel over the small strip of land, will 
 detach the towering rock from the shore of Illinois and give 
 another Grand Tower to the locality of that which gives name to 
 this part of the river. Around the turn, there is a highly culti- 
 vated farm on the Illinois side. Soon after leaving this place 
 we passed a sunken steamboat, being the same that had been 
 attacked by Black Hawk's warriors in the late Indian war. 
 Passed the mouth of Kaskaskia river, and about three o'clock we 
 approached St. Genevieve. The village is beautifully situated 
 on the borders of a rolling prairie, with high hills in the back- 
 ground. Several substantial farm houses and well-cultivated 
 farms are in sight, and the village, with its venerable church and 
 steeple, and the roofs of houses peeping out from amidst the sur- 
 rounding trees and shrubbery, presents a charming picture. 
 This town is now at some distance from the river, but in all prob- 
 ability the river once washed the base of the bank near the 
 town, and all the intermediate land has been made by gradual 
 accumulation of deposite. On a high hill above the town is an 
 unfinished building intended for a Jesuits' college, but for some 
 reason the design has been abandoned, and I have understood 
 that the property is now for sale. Above the village, and at the 
 
42 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 mouth of a ravine or bayou, through which the river once prob- 
 ably ran, is Pratt's Landing. A fine stone building and several 
 other detached houses are here. The soil of the country is of 
 a rich black mould. Judging from the river banks, which are 
 constantly crumbling in, the strata are alternate layers of silice- 
 ous earth and alluvial deposits, daily and hourly crumbling 
 down, mixing with the waters of the ceaselessly rolling Missis- 
 sippi, forming new islands, or adding to those already formed. 
 The process of island formation is apparent. Either on rocks 
 or shoals in the bed of the river, an accumulation of logs* and 
 timber, floating from the great sources of the Mississippi, takes 
 place in the annual and periodical floods. The constant wash- 
 ings and crumblings of the river banks, and the partial deposi- 
 tions of the water when stayed in its progress by the obstructing 
 logs and trees, soon form a resting-place for greater washings, 
 and heavier deposits of alluvium. In a few years, say two or 
 three at the extent, young willows and high grass, flags, and 
 other vegetable productions will cover the increasing soil. These 
 first signs of rapid vegetation are quickly followed by the young 
 cottonwood trees. The island increases by successive overflow- 
 ings, and deposits. Perchance it becomes fit for cultivation. 
 But more probably it remains for a brief period a green spot in 
 the wide waste of waters, until some overwhelming flood shall 
 remove its surface, with all its pride of young timber upon it, 
 carrying down the stream its soil and its product, to make a 
 new foundation for a new island in another place — leaving per- 
 haps a slight sandbar, or a bank barely rising to the surface of 
 the river, to mark where an island had once been. Such is the 
 general character of the Mississippi waters in regard to its island 
 formations and removals. Immediately above Pratt's Landing 
 is a large, well-built establishment. Several of the old French 
 buildings are still remaining, presenting an interesting contrast 
 with the modern stone warehouses and substantial dwellings. A 
 short distance from this place there is a furnace for smelting 
 lead. The lead is shipped from this place. The shore is now 
 become bold, high and rocky, forming a perpendicular wall 
 about thirty feet high, surrounded by a luxuriant growth of 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 43 
 
 wood, amongst which the hickory is in abundance. A few miles 
 above these palisades, on the Missouri side, the range rises about 
 90 or 100 feet in height, presenting a perpendicular face. On 
 the top of one of the hocks, projecting over, is built a framework 
 forming a shot-tower. The shot falls through the air, and is re- 
 ceived in a basin of water beneath, whence it is run along an 
 inclined wooden trough to a building wherein the necessary 
 processes of separation and cleansing are carried on. For sev- 
 eral miles up the river the rocky shore continues. Limestone is 
 the predominant quality in the strata formation. In many 
 places the rocks assume the appearance of some old fortress in 
 ruins, the towers apparently shooting up detached from the 
 land and from each other. Several islands as yet only covered 
 with grass and with young willows are forming in the river. 
 Some have made their appearance within a few weeks, according 
 to the testimony of persons who are acquainted along the river. 
 This day is exceedingly sultry. In the evening we had a severe 
 storm of thunder and lightning, accompanied with showers. A 
 large tree was shivered to the root, about a quarter of a mile 
 from our boat. Some remarkable caves are found in the pre- 
 cipitous rocks on the Missouri side, evidently formed by the 
 action of the water, although now nearly 100 feet above the 
 river. Another shot tower, similar to the one described, is 
 erected on the high rocks near Selma. The high bluffs still 
 continue on the Missouri side, whilst on the Illinois side the 
 lands are low, and covered with cottonwood trees. The settlers 
 are numerous on both banks, cutting and selling wood, which is 
 very lucrative, the price being from $2 to $2.50 per cord. Some 
 is sold as high as $3, and the daily consumption of a steamboat 
 is from 18 to 30 cords. We stopped at Selma, which is the land- 
 ing-place for Potosi. The lead mines are numerous a few miles 
 from this place. The property at Selma is owned by a Mr. 
 White. He has a beautiful and tastefully built dwelling of 
 white stone. A fine portico overlooks the river. Several sub- 
 stantial storehouses and other buildings are here, built all of the 
 same white stone material. About 300 tons of pig lead was on 
 the bank, ready for shipping. I went on shore and ascended a 
 
44 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 steep rock about 100 feet above the river, whence I had an ex- 
 tensive view of the back country. The low lands appear good — 
 excellent for meadow land. The road up the ravine leads to 
 Potosi. There is a good farm here and an excellent stock of 
 cattle. Two deserters from Jefferson Barracks were arrested 
 here by the officer sent in pursuit of them, and they were taken 
 on board to be returned whence they came. We shall not see 
 the barracks, as the night is approaching, and by morning we 
 shall be at St. Louis. The barracks are on the Missouri side, 
 about ten miles below St. Louis. The establishment, not only 
 as a building, but in its arrangement and conveniences, is a 
 credit to the country. 
 
 July 30th. This morning, at daylight, the various noises 
 near me. the tinkling of bells attached to horses' necks trotting 
 along with the milk carts, and the busy hum of population, have 
 awakened me to the knowledge that I am at St. Louis. I arise 
 and discover that we are anchored at the quay, alongside the 
 steamboat St. Louis, being the largest one that I have yet seen. 
 She is, I am informed. 250 feet in length. The appearance of 
 the city is striking. The town clock strikes six. I view num- 
 erous stores and warehouses built of fine dressed white lime- 
 stone. I see the wharves crowded with steamboats and some 
 small craft, the streets alive with a population, for, although it 
 is Sunday and so early in the morning, the wharves and ad- 
 jacent streets are already filled with people. The milk carts are 
 driving about. Several Indians in their native and acquired 
 costume, that is, naked except their blankets, or dyed and decor- 
 ated with the feathers and beads of their pride and vanity, are 
 straggling along the streets or gazing at the boats. Shops are 
 open. The itinerant vendor of street goods has his stall already 
 decorated, whilst the upper part of the town, where the citizen 
 has his quiet residence, removed from the stir and bustle of the 
 business part of the city, is still wrapt in sleep. After break- 
 fast I went on shore, and, as our chance of getting up the river 
 is slight, under a delay of twenty-four hours. I took lodgings at 
 the City Hotel. This day. in the course of my walks through 
 the city. I met many acquaintances from Pennsylvania. 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 45 
 
 July 31st. About noon today we left St. Louis in the steam- 
 boat, "Adventurer." We have on board the Indian chief, 
 Black Hawk, and about twenty-five or thirty others, men, 
 squaws and pappooses, Old Neema Manatoka, the great medi- 
 cine man, Necconokokok and his son W'apakesek ; the present 
 chief of the Sauks and the squaw of Black Hawk being the only 
 two who sat with Black Hawk at the cabin table. Black Hawk 
 has obtained more celebrity than he deserves. I have been in- 
 formed by those who know him best, and are qualified to judge 
 of his character, that he is not the brave man he has been repre- 
 sented to be. His emnity to the whites and his influence with 
 his band gave him a consequence in the late war that has been 
 magnified by his travels in the United States as a prisoner of 
 war. He has now been deposed from his chiefianship and 
 asserts that he will always remain at peace with the whites, and 
 as he has had experience of their strength, and has seen their 
 power and greatness in the States, and as he has lately felt the 
 pride of distinguishing himself from the other Indians by imitat- 
 ing our customs, in wearing a hat, walking with a cane, eating 
 with knife and fork, and sitting on a chair, in which latter 
 customs pertaining to the table he has initiated his squaw and 
 the new chief of the band, it is to be hoped that he will ever 
 hereafter remain peaceable, and that, as a deposed chieftain, his 
 influence with his braves may be exerted in the course which 
 he professes to pursue. His manners are grave and pleasing. 
 He speaks with deliberation and earnestness, evidently with a 
 knowledge of his subject. He uses little gesticulation, and on 
 the whole is a very respectable Indian. The whole band ap- 
 pears to pay him deference, even in his present situation. 
 
 Above St. Louis seventeen miles, we reach the mouth of the 
 Missouri. The waters do not mingle for some miles down the 
 river. The upper Mississippi is much clearer than the Missouri, 
 owing to the character of the country through which it passes. 
 An island is now being formed at the mouth of the Missouri. 
 An old Chippewa village is on the Illinois side. From this 
 place there is a fine view of Alton, about six miles distant. This 
 is a new and apparently thriving town, situate on the rise of a 
 
46 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 gently sloping hill. The country around is very hilly. The 
 new buildings are chiefly of a fine white limestone, of which 
 there are several quarries on the riverside. The churches, with 
 their spires, and one with a town clock, are handsomelv built. 
 The Illinois Penitentiary is now being built here, and is now 
 nearly finished — that is, as much of the building, being one wing 
 and the enclosing wall, as it is intended to complete at present. 
 At the north end of the town is a very high rocky bluff. The 
 town is laid out on several hills. The deep ravines between 
 them are about being filled up where the streets cross them. 
 Great enterprise is exhibited here, as the place is looked on by 
 its admirers, advocates and supporters as a powerful rival of 
 St. Louis. 
 
 Ascending the river, there are beautiful views. High rocky 
 bluffs and at intervals sloping hills fit for raising grain, on the 
 Illinois shore, and the low, rich alluvial bottoms on the Missouri 
 side, the numerous islands in the river, and the splendid sheet 
 of water, all combine in forming a charming picture. The 
 mosquitoes alone disturb the harmony of the scene. 
 
 August 1st. This morning we have a cool and pleasant air. 
 We are passing up a narrow channel between and among num- 
 erous islands, one on our right covered with cotton wood trees 
 of an amazing height and growth. The banks are covered with 
 willows. It is difficult to ascertain the main channel on account 
 of the many islands. At intervals there are small clearings and 
 corn patches on both shores. Two steamboats, descending the 
 river in the extreme distance, winding their way among and 
 around the islands, now appearing and again for a few minutes 
 disappearing, give a life and spirit to the vast yet beautiful 
 extent of waters and uncultivated wilds around us. The wild- 
 ness of the scenery is augmented and the flights of the imagina- 
 tion are realized on looking at the Indians in our boat. Some 
 are crouched in savage attitudes of indolence, wrapped in their 
 blankets ; others painting and adorning themselves ; some smok- 
 ing their calumets, and some conversing in their low, suppressed 
 and gutteral tones. The whole picture of savage nature. West- 
 ern wilderness, incipient improvements, and development of 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 47 
 
 science in the proud steamboat riding- through the great Father 
 of Waters, renders this scene remarkable and certainly very 
 extraordinary. We passed Clarksville, a well-built village on 
 the Missouri side. There arc several good brick school-houses. 
 It is situate on the slope of a hill, surrounded by a rolling 
 country, about 96 miles above St. Louis. A steam mill at the 
 foot of a high rocky bluff at the north end of the town is in 
 active operation. Twelve miles above this place is the town of 
 Louisiana,, where there are two steam mills. We passed Salt 
 River, and about dinner time stopped at Savertown to land a 
 passenger, with his wife, family, carriage, horses, etc., just from 
 Philadelphia. They reside here, and have returned from a visit 
 to the far East. This village is very well located, on the summit 
 of a gently rising bank, The land around is level, well timbered, 
 yet easily cleared. 1 observed on one of the stone houses the 
 large advertisement of a travelling menagerie — elephant, etc. 
 The weather has become extremely warm. Our Indians have 
 discarded their blankets, and the Red Man of the Forest appears 
 in his native and naked majesty. They diversify their painting- 
 each day. He whose face yesterday was covered with yellow 
 ochre, today has alternate red and black streaks from forehead 
 to chin. An aged man called Neemah Manatoka, one of the 
 Sacs, has decorated his eyes, his forehead and the top of his 
 head with brilliant vermillion, and as he professes to be the great 
 medicine man of his band, he carries constantly a medicine bag 
 made of the skin of some animal which resembles an ocelot. In 
 this is his purse also, the legs serving as separate apartments 
 for different coins. He is 95 years of age, according to his own 
 account, confirmed by Black Hawk, and is very active. He 
 carries with him certificates signed by several white settlers, of 
 his having always been a friendly Indian and an experienced 
 doctor, although he certainly is not much of a surgeon, as his 
 left arm is useless in consequence of a dislocation of the shoulder 
 which happened when he was only 25 years of age. He is fond 
 of ornaments, and is well supplied with various rings and 
 bracelets. He was greatly amused with a telescope, particularly 
 in looking through the reverse end. A few miles above Saver- 
 
48 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 ton a great slide of the mountain lias lately occurred, bringing 
 down with it trees and rocks, and opening a deep ravine in the 
 hills, whilst the debris forms a point of land projecting into the 
 river. This slide is in Missouri. The land is generally high 
 and well covered with timber. As far as the town of Hannibal, 
 which is a thriving village in Missouri, a wagon road runs at 
 the base of the hills along the river, for some miles above 
 Hannibal. We stopped at a warehouse on the river bank to 
 take in six hogsheads of bacon for the upper country. I went 
 into the warehouse. There were several thousand hams and 
 shoulders hanging up as in a smokehouse, all well cured and 
 ready for packing. Many hogsheads and barrels were already 
 packed. About 100 barrels of pickled pork and as many barrels 
 of salt were also here. A dwelling house and small clearing 
 were at the foot of a high hill. The singularity of the matter is 
 that there should be such a large quantity of bacon and pork 
 here, and no settlement near to afford the supplies, at least none 
 visible. The high hills now fall off as we approach Marion City. 
 The site of the city is the very worst that I have yet seen ; a 
 level plain, or prairie, of rich soil certainly, extends several 
 miles back into the country, scarcely elevated three feet above 
 the present state of the water — in some places not more than 
 one foot — the banks of crumbling sand and loose soil that will 
 hardly support the weight of a child near the water's edge, con- 
 tinually falling in. 1 nere are many buildings scattered over 
 the site of the city, many new buildings going up, three steam 
 sawmills erected. A levee or double ditch, with a raised bank 
 of more than a mile in extent, to keep out the water of the 
 Mississippi, which would at all times overflow the city, affords 
 a slight protection to the inhabitants. The prairie is about a 
 mile and a half in front, and about six miles back from the 
 river, bounded by high hills ; but notwithstanding the beauty of 
 situation this place must in all ordinary freshets be overflowed, 
 in part if not wholly. A few miles higher up. on the Illinois 
 side, Quincy appears, a splendid situation on a gently rising hill, 
 which continues for some miles bordering the river. The prin- 
 cipal part of the town is on the top of the hill, where the country 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 49 
 
 is level. The lower part of the town along the river is appro- 
 priated to storehouses. I walked up the hill, which is more 
 than 100 feet above the river, into the town. It is well built, 
 although from its extensive plan the houses are as yet much 
 scattered. The new courthouse, with its portico, pillars, cupola 
 and general architecture, is a neat building. Several gigs and 
 other carriages were at the tavern doors, indicating good roads 
 and a wealthy country around. This place is certainly destined 
 to be a thriving place of commerce, and as the surrounding 
 country eastward is as fine as any in the State of Illinois, it must 
 shortly be a place of importance. A large prairie is just dis- 
 cernible in the background. We shall pass it after night. It 
 is now sunset. We are in the midst of a prairie country on 
 both sides of the river. As we were retiring to bed we were 
 opposite the town of Le Grange. This day we have passed 
 many Indians, who are encamped on the Mississippi side. A 
 canoe passed down the river with eight persons in it — a frail 
 bark machine, like an eggshell on this great inland ocean, and 
 yet the Indians are as fearless of danger as if they occupied one 
 of our floating castles. 
 
 August 2d. There has been much rain accompanied with 
 thunder and lightning during the night. At daylight we are at 
 Warsaw. We soon passed Fort Edward, an old military post, 
 now abandoned, and sold to and occupied by Mr. Thompson. 
 This place is opposite the mouth of Des Moines river. We 
 observed several Indians on the river banks. At the village of 
 Keokuk we put some of our Indian passengers on shore, to join 
 several of their companions encamped here. We are now as- 
 cending the Des Moines rapids, and as a proof that our boat is 
 a fast sailer, we passed a steamboat ascending which had left 
 St. Louis three days before us and, considering that our captain 
 is making a sort of trading voyage, much to the annoyance of 
 those passengers who are anxious to proceed rapidly, as he is 
 sure to stop at every town on both sides of the river, we have 
 outstripped our companions on the water, unless they have had 
 business at every plantation in their ascending progress. The 
 
50 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 cultivation increases, and the scenery becomes more beautifully 
 interesting on both shores. The hills are covered with line 
 timber to the water's edge, whilst the prairie extends inward 
 from the river. After we pass Montebello the river is clear of 
 islands for several miles. The rapids are in extent about 
 twelve miles. On the Missouri side there is a large reservation 
 of land for the halfbreeds of the Sacs and Foxes, on which 
 many settlements of the whites are being made. Fort Des 
 Moines is now evacuated by our troops, as it is within the 
 Indian reservation. It is built on the borders of a hue and 
 large prairie. The houses are good. The barracks and stabling 
 have been put up at a considerable expense. The buildings arc 
 now occupied by a land company who have located themselves 
 here, in Uncle Sam's military establishment, making use of 
 Uncle Sam's hay, of which more than one hundred tons have 
 been left at the Fort, and they have opened a land office for the 
 disposal of the halfbreed lands, by what authority I could not 
 learn. Black Hawk and all the Indians who have remained 
 with us land here, as their wigwams are about five miles over 
 the prairie. Several chiefs are here waiting for their friends, 
 some splendidly dressed, on horseback, armed with bows and 
 arrows. The women have strapped their children on their 
 backs, and all, more or less laden with packages, have started 
 across the prairie. Opposite Fort Des Moines there is a line 
 tract of settled country, with good buildings, in Illinois. Several 
 excellent farms are in sight. The river is several feet higher 
 than at ordinary times, and we have passed the rapids in about 
 two hours without difficulty. A passenger informs me that he 
 was seven days in ascending them last summer. Above Fort 
 Des Moines there are several islands. A small town called 
 Commerce is on the Illinois side. We landed at a very good 
 stone building, three stories high, with piazzas and railing at 
 each story, the lower story supported by stone pillars, the whole 
 built of dressed and squared limestone, about 50 feet front. 
 Two fashionably dressed young women were in one of the 
 rooms. Five years since this country was the seat of savage 
 warfare. A few miles up the river is Fort Madison, a brisk vil- 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 51 
 
 lage m Wisconsin, built on a high bank, apparently much trade 
 and business going on. Shortly afterwards we passed a beauti- 
 ful settlement in [llinois — prairie ground in cultivation, very fine 
 buildings, splendid scenery, with wood-clad hills in the back- 
 ground. A few miles higher, there is an extensive prairie in 
 Wisconsin. There are man} islands. The land in Illinois is 
 low. very rich, and covered with fine timber. I went on shore at 
 a small settlement in Wisconsin. The land is about two feet 
 deep of a rich black mould — level country, covered with hickory, 
 walnut, shellbark, maple, etc. We landed at Burlington .the 
 present seat o\ government of Wisconsin, a neat town on a good 
 bank. Many building-, including a large one for the Legisla- 
 ture, are being erected. More than eighty houses have been 
 erected since April last. The country around Burlington is as 
 fine as any in the Iowa district. Met with an old friend here, 
 Cyrus S. Jacobs. A few miles above Burlington an extensive 
 prairie opens on the Illinois side, studded with groups of trees, 
 in all the beaut}- and variety of park scenery. In the background 
 rises a ridge of woods, fringing the lower prairie, whilst through 
 the openings are discovered other prairies on the second level. 
 The river soon presents an extensive sweep, free from islands, 
 and after proceeding some miles the whole river is again filled 
 with them, rendering the true channel difficult to be discovered. 
 About 18 miles from Burlington is another beautiful prairie, on 
 the Illinois -bore, spreading out for many miles to the eastward, 
 fringed with wooded hills, amongst which appear small prairies 
 at irregular intervals, presenting a prospect similar to that of a 
 well-settled and highly cultivated country. At the northern end 
 <»f the prairie the new town of Oquako is built. The houses are 
 erected in a handsome style, and are generally painted white. 
 One house, with a portico, and pillars to the roof, situated on a 
 gentle knoll, rising equally from all sides, in the center of the 
 town, surrounded by a neat paling and a cultivated garden, has 
 the appearance of the residence of a man of fortune and of taste. 
 Above the town the land rises about 40 feet from the river, and. 
 from the nature of the soil, is called the Yellow Banks. It is a 
 rich flat, covered with low oak timber. Just as we were about 
 
52 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 to retire to bed. we stopped at New Boston, opposite the mouth 
 of lower Iowa river. 
 
 August 3d. At sunrise we are opposite Salem, in Wisconsin, 
 a village of which the skeleton only appears. The tow T n is laid 
 out on a high bank, well wooded and sloping southerly. The 
 frameworks of several buildings are in the midst of the woods. 
 About a quarter of a mile from the townsite the prairie com- 
 mences. The river here for several miles trends to the east. 
 Our course is nearly east, to Rock Island. At the mouth of Pine 
 river there is a beautiful farm on which the City ni Iowa is 
 laid out. Idie prairie and uplands, all cleared by nature, are 
 fenced and divided into fields with corn. Small grain and gras^ 
 growing, cattle feeding, etc.. gave the idea that we were in the 
 heart of a settled country, instead of the wilds of the West, 
 where the Indian warrior only four years since roamed through 
 the prairie, armed with bow and arrow or deadly rifle, and 
 sought the life of the white man with as much eagerness as that 
 of the animal which furnished him with food. For many miles 
 the country i> prairie, interspersed with strips of woodland and 
 clumps of trees, as beautifully scattered and diversified as if 
 planted, by the hand of taste. Settlements progressing, houses 
 building, and fences being constructed. A settler has nothing 
 more to do than to build a house and break up the land. The 
 prairie comes to the water's edge. The boats anchor with their 
 bows and sides in the grass, the water at the shore being four 
 feet deep and descending to 20 and 30. 
 
 Buffalo is a new village on a most delightful sloping prair'e. 
 Thirteen new houses now building. The banks at the water 
 edge are of hard gravel — prairie still continues. Numerous 
 settlements. Rockingham is a considerable village, spread over 
 a large level flat. Many new houses building. This town is 
 opposite the mouth of Rock River. About three miles above we 
 come in sight of Stevenson (county seat). Illinois. Davenport 
 and Le Claire's houses. Wisconsin, and Fort Armstrong, on Rock 
 Island. Splendid scenery ; most delightful and beautiful coun- 
 try, forming a grand amphitheater, gradually rising from the 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 53 
 
 river to the wooded tops i^\ the surrounding hills. Prairie with 
 groups of trees, cultivated grounds and thriving villages. 
 
 On the point of the Island, the seene of Black Hawk's pro- 
 tracted defense in his war, stands the Fort and surrounding 
 buildings, surmounted by the Flag of our happy country. Mate 
 ducked a passenger in the river. LeClair's house a beautiful 
 cottage scene. Davenport's house a splendid villa, with all ap- 
 purtenances ; shrubbery, etc.. in good style ; his pleasure boat 
 moored at the beach in front of the lawn.... Passed through 
 the rapids of Rock river. About the midway of the river, near 
 the rapids, the steamboat Emerald was sunk last April. She 
 remains a beacon as long as she will last. She is stink up to her 
 lower deck, but is much warped and going to destruction. The 
 land on both sides is well covered with timber, and the settle- 
 ments are not so extensive as on the prairies. On opposite sides 
 of the river stand two sawmills turned by the current of the 
 Mississippi. Port Byron is at the head of the rapids on the 
 Illinois side. Parkhurst on the Wisconsin side. Extensive view 
 up the river. Sloping hills, covered with timber. 
 
 We now have numerous islands and extensive prairies with- 
 out trees on the high lands on the Illinois side. Beyond the 
 many small islands, we discover large low prairies in Wisconsin. 
 Passed the entrance of the Meridosia and two towns in Illinois — 
 Van Buren and Albany, adjoining, and Camanche, on the Wis- 
 consin side. The town of Camanche is on the edge of a high 
 rolling prairie, the most beautiful and extensive we have seen. 
 The views are magnificent — grass four or five feet high, waving 
 with the breeze, the distant hills, over which are scattered 
 clumps of trees in tasteful groups, the wide expanse of level 
 country to the southwest and northwest, and the rolling hills and 
 prairie westward ; all present such a picture of civilized and agri- 
 cultural life that one can scarcely be awakened from the illusion ; 
 and yet all is in a state of nature! Here would I wish to live. 
 o\ all places for beauty that I have yet seen. Stopped at Savanna 
 to wood. Several Indians here. Two brothers, half Winnebago, 
 half Sioux, one very intelligent; wanted to go up to the treaty 
 ground. 
 
54 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 August 4. At daylight find ourselves at the new town of 
 Belleville, Wisconsin. River crowded with small islands; lands 
 high ; remarkable hills here ; hill at the base, oblong, sloping on 
 each side and to top 300 feet long ; rocks protrude like small 
 houses on its sides. Had no time to examine it. but no doubt 
 plenty of stone could be procured, which is much wanted. For 
 two days past the weather is much cooler. It is now as cool as 
 in September in the morning and evening in central Pennsyl- 
 vania. Idle high hills and broken country in Illinois indicate 
 our approach to the mineral region. Stopped to wood at a fine 
 island below the mouth of Fevre river. Several families on it. 
 Good cultivated fields. Several islands at the mouth of Fevre 
 river. The Mississippi backwater renders the entrance difficult 
 to be perceived. The river is about 200 feet broad ; 10 to 15 
 deep; exceedingly tortuous in its course; seldom able to see 
 ahead. It winds through broken and irregular low hills, with 
 scattered trees on their tops. Several settlements on the banks, 
 as the land has been cleared by nature for the inhabitants. 
 About six miles up to Galena. The country is rocky. Two 
 smelting furnaces on the bank of the river. Galena is on the 
 right bank; a neat town, at the foot and on the side of a gentle 
 hill; houses neatly painted, generally of frame. Met with Col. 
 Slaughter. Secretary of Wisconsin; Col. Worth; Maj. Plympton. 
 of the Army, and his family. They are destined for St. Peters. 
 Had difficulty of procuring a means of conveyance to St. Peters. 
 Prevailed by money on the captain of our boat to proceed as 
 far as Prairie du Chien. After dinner left Galena. (Murderous 
 incident there.) Fevre river not navigable higher than this 
 point for steamboats. The depth of water is in a great measure 
 caused by the backwater of the Mississippi. Galena is two miles 
 and a half from the Mississippi, and by the courses of Fevre 
 river six miles. We are again in the Mississippi. The banks on 
 the west side are high, rocky, covered with timber; on the east, 
 low. Passed Dubuque's grave. A perpendicular rocky precipice, 
 sloping landwards into the general level of the country, projects 
 itself to the washings of the Mississippi. Catfish creek runs 
 along one side, and on the other a deep ravine, in which is situ- 
 
Thf Journal of William R. Smith 55 
 
 ated Riprow Furnace, separates it from the continuous high 
 ridges of the river. A splendid house adjoins the works at the 
 base of the hill. A son of Gen Gratiot lives in the house; owns 
 
 the works partly. On the summit of the precipiee a small maus- 
 oleum surmounted by a large wooden cross designates the nar- 
 row dwelling of Dubuque. This was erected by the Indian-, and 
 the body was buried, or rather enclosed, by them in the building. 
 About a mile and a half above you pass many small islands and 
 a smelting furnace. At the mouth of a ravine the town of 
 Dubuque is in sight, built on a flat at base of a range of mound- 
 like hills, separated by ravines. The hills contain galena. The 
 town, well built, contains about 1.200 inhabitants. Xew Catholic 
 church building. The undulating country above and around 
 Dubuque is beautiful. All that is wanting is fencing or any 
 division of fields to render it capable of a compari-on with the 
 best settled counties in Pennsylvania, and superior in all the 
 natural beauties of scenery — grand beyond description of the 
 pen. We pass for two or three miles above the town through 
 and among a number of small islands covered with willows. 
 Getting from amidst the islands, we pass on the right bank a 
 remarkable high rocky bluff. Passed -the mouth of the Mequo- 
 quito river, navigable at all times for about four miles to Peru, 
 in the Lead Region. Some miles above Dubuque the high rocky 
 bluffs continue. A small prairie presents itself on the right 
 bank, and the hills again extend their steep sides to the margin 
 of the river. Reached Cassville about 10 o'clock. 
 
 August 5th. At sunrise we are opposite Pike's Hill, about 
 a mile below the mouth of the Wisconsin river. Very high rocky 
 hills line both sides of the Mississippi at the mouth of the Wis- 
 consin. As we were sailing along under the steep rocks and 
 lofty oaks which cover Pike's Hill, we disturbed a large eagle 
 that was on the river bank seeking his breakfast. He soared 
 away to the north, much disturbed, no doubt, by the unusual 
 visitor in these secluded wilds. About two miles above, we enter 
 a cluster of islands, and soon have a splendid view of Fort Craw- 
 ford, the old works of Prairie du Chien, and the new town. As 
 we approach, the view increases in grandeur. The hills on both 
 
56 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 sides recede several miles from the river. The open prairie 
 extends to the southeast and east as far as the eye can reach. 
 The splendid military works, the old works and town on a level 
 extended point to the left, the low country reaching to the north, 
 where the view is hounded by the high hills and bluffs of the 
 Mississippi, 20 or 30 miles distant, and the new city on the right. 
 Indians, encamped all around us on the river, render the whole 
 scene worthy the pencil. 
 
 PRAIRIE DU CHIEX 
 
 The prairie here is about six miles l<mg and one mile and a 
 half broad at the broadest part. There are a few enclosed felds 
 near the bluffs in which corn, wheat, oats and field peas and 
 potatoes are raised, but the greatest part of the whole is a com- 
 mon, through which the horses and cattle of the inhabitants 
 roam at large. A town is laid out by a New York company, in 
 anticipation of its being a place of trade and deposit e for the 
 upper country. This is highly probable, as there is every ad- 
 vantage arising from the junction of the Wisconsin at this point, 
 the beauty oi situation, the trading establishment of the Amer- 
 ican Fur Company, there being no other spot on the river below 
 for 80 or 90 miles where so many advantages concur. All speak 
 in favor of the prosperity of the new city. Went over the slue 
 to the town. Gov. Dodge and the Secretary. Mr. Wan Antwerp 
 arrived this afternoon. The treaty is completed satisfactorily. 
 The purchase has been made. 
 
 Sunday. August 6th. I walked over the Prairie and up to 
 the top of the bluffs. Along the side o\ the bluffs evidence is 
 fully exhibited of the whole prairie having once been the bed of 
 the river, and the water between the hills has been sim^ar in it< 
 expansion to Lake Pepin. The regular range of rocks along the 
 bluffs shows the former bank of the river, and the slope below 
 indicates the bold shore. The same appearance of rocky line is 
 exhibited on all the course of the bluffs up the river, and it is 
 about 100 feet above the present river. 
 
 Walked to the garrison to see Gen. Brooke and the officers. 
 A mile south of the fort the new city is laid out. A number of 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 57 
 
 Indian mounds arc on the bank of the river. Some graves are 
 sunk in so as to discover bones and remnants of blankets. The 
 Winnebagoes bury im these mounds yet. .The remains of the 
 old French fort are near the mounds. The old fort of the Amer- 
 icans is on the bank of the Mississippi. It is now in ruins. The 
 magazine in still standing. A number of houses ; re here, also 
 the splendid and substantial stone warehouse of the American 
 Fur Company. A slue of the river separates this small prairie 
 from the new town and Fort Crawford. This is now crossed by 
 a ferry boat, as the water is high, but generally at this season it 
 can be traversed dry-shod. There are two stores and two inns 
 inj the new town. We are very comfortable at the Temperance 
 Hotel of Mr. Tainter. We went to church in the new court- 
 house, and heard an excellent moral lecture delivered by a Mr. 
 Lowry, an eloquent and sensible preacher, a Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian ; the congregation numerous and attentive, considering 
 we are on the borders of our civilized society. I was much 
 pleased with the number of ladies and children, and the degree 
 of propriety exhibited by the whole congregation. 
 
 Although this country is very large, and a number of public 
 roads intersect it. yet as they are chiefly over prairie ground. I 
 am told by the citizens that no assessment for road taxes has 
 ever been made. 
 
 Monday, August 7th. In consequence of information re- 
 ceived from Mr. Boyd, sub-agent of the Winnebagoes, Gov. 
 Dodge will hold a talk today with the chiefs. We dined at the 
 garrison with the officers. The table was luxuriously spread — 
 the best of provisions — vegetables, ice creams. West India pre- 
 serves, olives, pale and brown sherry, port, champagne, and 
 strong liquors. This and the ladies of the officers — all contri- 
 buted to erase the idea that we were on the frontiers of civiliza- 
 tion and surrounded by the wild children of the Mississippi. 
 Before dinner I rode over the prairie to the banks of the Wis- 
 consin. Visited several Indian lodges. The families appeared 
 to be prolific. Very many young children. A little sportive set 
 of about a dozen were up to their armpits in the water, shooting 
 their arrows some distance on the water and then diving under 
 
58 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 and swimming until they appeared above again where their ar- 
 rows had alighted. In the afternoon we went to the council 
 house. The Governor invited me to a seat beside him at the 
 
 upper end d\ the room. Around the room on three sides were 
 seated on the floor about forty chiefs. The principal chief, 
 Waccon le Carri, wore a beaver hat, green spectacles, on account 
 
 of his sore or weak eyes. He also wore a brue frock coat and 
 leggins. but hare above. He carried a staff of office, a highly 
 decorated spear. The others were generally naked except their 
 leggings, cloths and blankets — some highly painted, some with 
 feathered headdresses. Around the house were seated the 
 squaws and children, the windows crowded with the young men 
 not yet admitted to council. Several <^\ the chiefs were smoking. 
 The Calumet was lighted, first presented to the Governor, then 
 to the Agent, Gen. Street, then to myself, and afterwards passed 
 around to the whole number, beginning on the right and ending 
 with Waccon the chief, who sat on the extreme left. The Gov- 
 ernor then gave them a talk through young Pocquet, the stepson 
 ^\ the man who was lately murdered by the Winnebagoes at 
 Fort Winnebago, for which crime the murderer is now in prison 
 and will shortly be tried. The Governor's talk assured them of 
 protection, and asked them to express their wants. Waccon. in 
 reply, sto<ul up, and. laying- by his hat ami spear, made an ani- 
 mated discourse. At every interval oi interpretation of the Gov- 
 ernor'- speech the chiefs gave their assent of satisfaction by the 
 gutteral interjection. "Ugh!" The substance of the reply was 
 that the Winnebagoes wished a deputation to go on to Wash- 
 ington t<» communicate their wishes to the Great Father, the 
 President, relative to the disposal of their lands. They also de- 
 sired some provisions and tobacco, to feed themselves and their 
 squaws and pappooses. The Governor issued orders on the gar- 
 rison for -100 rations of pork, flour, etc., and a plug of tobacco to 
 each, having ascertained that such a number was required for 
 all. The Chief shook hands with us. and the Council broke up. 
 Before adjourning. Governor Dodge observed a young chief, 
 finely dressed with feathers, whom he recognized as one whose 
 life he saved in 1827 in battle. He was taken prisoner and about 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 59 
 
 t<> be shot, in consequence of having his gun cocked on his 
 shoulder. lie was on horseback, and surrounded. Gov. Dodge 
 rode up as a half-dozen rifles were leveled at him. He knew the 
 custom of the Winnebagoes in carrying their rifles cocked, and 
 took his gun from him, and by this means saved his life. He 
 afterwards, at the battle of Bad Axe, piloted the Indians, and 
 was shot through the arm, and when under our surgeon's care 
 he told that Gov. Dodge had saved his life five years before, 
 but it would have been better for him to have been killed then 
 than to bear the pain he now was suffering. He shook hands 
 with the Governor and me, but did not say anything. After ad- 
 journing, we went to the garrison to see the provisions distri- 
 buted. The pork and flour barrels were brought out in front of 
 the fort, where the whole body were seated, and an Indian was 
 appointed to distribute according to families. The utmost har- 
 mony was exhibited. Impartial and exact justice in distribution 
 apparently was observed, and they shouldered their packs and 
 dispersed to their different encampments. Whilst this was go- 
 ing on, news came that last week a hunting party of six W'inne- 
 bagos was murdered by the Chippewas. They had been absent 
 long, and a party went in search of them. Two men and one 
 woman were found killed. The three children have probably 
 been carried off prisoners, as they have not been found. The 
 Governor will see them again tomorrow on this business. Mr. 
 Van Antwerp, the Secretary .went down the river this day in a 
 canoe for Galena. The steamboat Science arrived this day from 
 Galena, and proceeded up the Wisconsin for Winnebago. 
 
 August 8th. Rain this morning. The report is untrue of 
 the murder, and 110 Council is held. The Indians acknowledge 
 to the Governor that the report is false. Quere as to the conduct 
 of the American Fur Company in its opposition to the views of 
 government. Winnoshek is the chief, Waccond de Carrie the 
 speaking chief. Winnoshek is the father of two sons, one called 
 the Sac, the other the Sioux, from the circumstance of their 
 spending their time with these tribes. The Sac is the one that the 
 Governor saved the life of, as stated above. Left the Prairie 
 
60 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 at one o'clock. Five travelers left at the same time on horse- 
 back for Cassville. Gov. Dodge, Lieut. Connor, Dr. Smith and 
 myself, with the Governor's servant and the driver, had an ex- 
 cellent open wagon and a pair of strong horses. All our baggage 
 was carried in the wagon. We crossed the prairie on the mili- 
 tary road which was laid out three years ago; 140 miles from 
 Winnebago to the Prairie. We passed some good farms, care- 
 lessly cultivated, and left the low grounds about two miles from 
 the fort. We ascended the high grounds and found for four 
 miles a most rich and fertile black mould. A rolling country, 
 interspersed with a few trees, not sufficient timber to fence the 
 land on it. But wherever the corn or wheat or oats .are culti- 
 vated, which are seen in ai few fields, the crops are most luxur- 
 iant. At six miles we descended to the Wisconsin, a noble river, 
 about as broad as the Ohio at Pittsburgh, and of a depth of 15 
 or 20 feet. A ferry is established here. We crossed, and on the 
 eastern bank there is a large flat of swampy land. Mosquitoes 
 very troublesome. A town laid out on the flat, which must be 
 overflowed often. Soon after crossing the flat we wind among 
 rocky hills in a general eastern direction, through a most excel- 
 lent narrow prairie, finely watered with many springs, a narrow 
 stream flowing through the whole extent of the meadow. At 
 various places the meadow diverges to the right or left among 
 the windings of the hills, forming delightful and fertile grass 
 grounds of from 15 to 30 acres, all connected with the main 
 prairie through which we travel. At the head of these diver- 
 sions, a skirt of wood at the foot of a surrounding hill, and the 
 low willows indicating the existence of the pure spring, all 
 present a delightful spot for man's residence. This must be a 
 fine grazing country in time. We ascend the hills at the head 
 of the prairie, about five miles from the river, and on the ridge 
 pass through a tolerably well wooded country for five miles 
 more, and emerge into an extensive rich upland prairie. We 
 stopped on the edge of this prairie at the farm house of Mr. 
 Hicklin, who has a fine farm, about 70 or 81- acres under fence, 
 most fertile black soil ,fine corn, wheat and oats. This farm is 
 about twenty miles from Cassville. The prairie is about six 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 61 
 
 miles broad, extending east and west. Several settlements are 
 on it. Mosquitoes very bad. 
 
 August 9th. Rain in the night. After breakfast we left 
 Hicklin's and rode through a most luxuriant rolling prairie of 
 the richest soil, with strips of timber bordering and scattered 
 over it. At Z7 miles' distance we stopped at two o'clock at 
 Parrish's farm for dinner. Here we have a fine view of the 
 blue (Platte) mounds about 18 miles south of us. Belmont is 
 situated at the foot of the eastern mound. The prairie here is 
 rolling, and eastward the eye cannot reach the extent ; but 
 southward the view is bounded by the wooded hills beyond the 
 blue (Platte) mounds. The best land on the prairie is to be 
 found after leaving the 31st milepost from Prairie du Chien. 
 At 35 miles we stopped for water at an old encampment of Gov. 
 Dodge. A beautiful and desirable farm. Many fine situations 
 near this place, east and west and on both sides of the military 
 road. We are now in the midst of the mining region. The dig- 
 gings are all around us, and although the galena is found imme- 
 diately below the surface, yet the best of soil, and most pro- 
 ductive, is found on the surface. The improvements of T. J. 
 Parrish are extensive. He has in one body 1,700 acres of- prairie 
 and wood land, a new smelting furnace, corn, wheat, oats, pota- 
 toes, an abundance of mineral, a number of fine springs, which 
 unite in a dell below his house and falling over a ledge of large 
 rocks about 16 feet perpendicular, give him an excellent water- 
 power with sufficient never-failing water. He has also abun- 
 dance of fine limestone, which not only makes good lime, but 
 blocks can be procured of any size, and will polish like the best 
 marble. He has been settled here since 1828. Mr. Parrish is 
 industrious. His teams of oxen hauling mineral, ten fine fat 
 animals in a team ; his comfortable log buildings, all his improve- 
 ments show that he will be a wealthy man. We were obliged to 
 stay half a day and until the next morning with him, as one of 
 our horses was foundered by drinking water on the prairie after 
 a long abstinence. Met with John Plumb, from Phillipsburg, 
 Pennsylvania, here. 
 
62 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 August 10th. Rain this morning. Wingville postoffice at 
 this place. A number of prairie hens yesterday. After breakfast 
 it cleared. Several gentlemen came, travelers. Said that three- 
 wolves had met them on the prairie and had faced them. They 
 were shot at and fled. At noon passed through the mineral 
 region. Pedlars' Creek — a number of miners' houses and gro- 
 ceries or taverns — quite a settlement. Passed Mr. Terry's settle- 
 ment, old smelting furnace, and, about a mile further. Col. Be- 
 quette's, the son-in-law of the Governor. Fine establishment, 
 wooded country, rich ore, elegant cupola furnace — 2) pigs in 24 
 hours, averaging 70 pounds; store and fine buildings. Dined 
 here. Family live in elegance and comfort. Passed several 
 other smelting establishments, and rode through a broken, hilly 
 country about 4 miles, crossing a branch of the Pecatonica, and 
 arrived at Mineral Point. Found many Pennsylvania acquaint- 
 ances here. 
 
 August 11th. Visited several diggings and a smelting fur- 
 nace, adjoining Mineral Point. Wood here is worth $6 a cord; 
 coal 12j^ cents per bushel. The yield of good mineral is 85^. 
 A good furnace will give 20 pigs per day of 70 pounds each. 
 A new bank of $200,000 capital was established here by law last 
 winter. Stock taken yesterday. The population of Mineral 
 Point is about 400. The town is situated on the side of a hill 
 and on its summit. The streets are irregular, as the building lots 
 are in conformity with the first houses, which were put up 
 without order by the early miners. A number of small hills, 
 separated by small hollows and ravines from one another, sur- 
 round the town. On the hills numerous diggings are worked 
 by the miners. Some are now abandoned, no doubt prematurely. 
 Labor and industry are not sufficiently exerted. The ease with 
 which mineral has been obtained near the surface ha^ given rise 
 to the numerous diggings over the wdiole district, and the shafts 
 or sinkings have not been sufficiently explored. Some wells or 
 shafts are from 80 to 100 and more feet deep. There is no doubt 
 that if lateral drifts were made into the hills, the advantages in 
 quantity and quality and ease of obtaining the mineral would be 
 immense. But capital is wanted very much in exploring the 
 
Tite Journal of William R. Smith 63 
 
 mines. Several new houses are going up. Timber is very scarce 
 and dear — $6 a thousand is no uncommon price. Pine boards 
 and shingles are here, brought from the Allegheny river, and 
 the new houses in contemplation will be built with lumber pro- 
 cured at Pittsburgh. The purchase of the Chippewa country 
 will greatly benefit the whole country in giving abundance and 
 lessening the price of lumber. 
 
 August 12th. Unwell today. 
 
 August 13th, Sunday. At Mineral Point. 
 
 August 14th, Monday. 
 
 August 15th. At Gov. Dodge's. (His dwelling, family and 
 improvements.) 
 
 August 16th. At Mr. Messersmith's. In afternoon went 
 through a delightful and romantic country to Helena, 12 miles 
 from Messersmith's. Hilly country. Splendid and diversified 
 views open on a wide bottom through which a large river once 
 ran down to the Wisconsin. Delightful cold springs in the 
 bottom land. Establishment at Helena. Mr. Webb agent of 
 the New York company. Wisconsin Shot company. The tower 
 is on the top of a high hill with a precipitous, rocky face, running 
 down to the creek. The tower is built of wood, rising from a 
 base or foundation on a ledge of the rock 80 feet to the top. 
 From this base the solid sandstone rock is perforated about eight 
 feet in diameter and 100 feet deep to the basin at the bottom, 
 which is seven feet deep. The water in the basin is supplied by 
 hand and emptied in the same way. This basin is situated within 
 the rock, 90 feet from the face. To this basin a horizontal drift 
 has been cut in the rock, about seven feet high and five or six feet 
 wide. An inclined plane is erected in the drift from the basin 
 to the finishing house which is on the bank of the creek at the 
 foot of the perpendicular rock. The^ shot is carried in cars into 
 the finishing house by a horsepower, which power is employed 
 at the same time by various machinery. in drying the shot in a 
 cylinder over an oven, and from the oven the shot is carried into 
 the polishing barrel, and thence the various sizes are passed over 
 
64 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 the several inclined floors for separation, and taken to the sep- 
 arating sieves, after which the several sizes are weighed, bagged 
 and put in kegs. A steamboat can lie at the doorof the finishing 
 house for the purpose of transporting the commodity to market. 
 Five thousand weight of shot is the usual quantity made by one 
 set, say six hands, per diem. Twice the quantity can be made 
 by doubling the hands. There is no want of the pigs of lead. 
 Hospitality of Mr. Webb. Stayed all night. Hot. Mosquitoes. 
 
 August 17th. Went to Mr. Messersmith's. His improve- 
 ment and farm. He is from Pennsylvania — Franklin county. 
 Has been here for ten years. Was one of the first settlers, along 
 with Gov. Dodge. His lead and iron mines. Copper. His fine 
 prairie land. Springs. Wood and limestone. The most eligible 
 station for a public house. Military road runs through his land ; 
 also road to Milwaukee by way of Madison and Four Fakes. 
 
 August 18th. Rode by blue mounds, twelve miles from 
 Messersmith's. Fine farms on the way. Six miles from the 
 mounds, passed several small mounds in direct line. Conjectures 
 concerning them. About half a mile south of the road, opposite 
 blue mounds, is the mound fort — two block houses and pickets. 
 At eight miles further we stopped on a branch of Sugar creek to 
 feed our horses and take some freshments. Fine prairie and 
 timber. Killed a number of moor fowl on the road. Passed 
 mounds resembling entrenchments — one in a line 200 yards long. 
 Four miles from Madison entered timber land. Splendid views 
 of the Fourth and Third lakes. Arrived at Madison. The public 
 square laid out. The State house and public buildings going up; 
 number of dwellings being built. Met several gentlemen here — 
 surveyors, etc. 
 
 August 19th. Went in a sailboat on the Fourth lake to visit 
 some Indian mounds. The lake is about six miles long and 
 four broad. My companions dug into the mound. Found some 
 flints and pottery, and finally the skeleton of a very large Indian. 
 The wind was in our teeth coming back, and we had to row for 
 about five miles. The lake is well stocked with perch, bass, cat- 
 fish, pike, muskelonge and other fish of a very large size. Mrs. 
 Peck's tavern. 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 65 
 
 August 20th. Left Madison and rode to Messersmith's. 
 Sunday. Stopped at the Blue Mounds at Air. Brigham's. Ex- 
 tensive view from his house over the prairie for 20 miles and 
 more in all directions. Beautiful country. Grave of Lieut. 
 Force, killed in sight of the fort in 1832. After our return to 
 Messersmith's we made several excursions around the country, 
 and returned to Mineral Point. 
 
 Since leaving Mr. Messersmith's we have been to Mineral 
 Point. 
 
 Saturday, Aug. 26th. Walked to Bracken's, about six miles 
 south, at the head of the Indian reserves. Saw two fine deer 
 and started a number of prairie fowl on the way. A delightful 
 country of wood and prairie, with extensive diggings for mineral. 
 The most hospitable reception was given by the two brothers, 
 Charles and John Bracken. Their residences are about half a 
 mile apart. They live at home in every sense of the word- 
 abundance and excellence. The only fault I find is that with 
 hundreds of acres of the very best lands in the country, they 
 havq been contented to remain miners and smelters. 
 
 Sunday, August 27th. I walked around the country — on 
 the branches of the Pekeetolica to some smelting furnaces, and 
 by the Willow Springs. The Pekeetolica near Mr. McKim's is 
 a large stream, navigable for keel boats. 
 
 Monday, August 28th. Went to Mineral Point over an ex- 
 tensive prairie, with a view of 25 miles, and beautifully inter- 
 spersed with timber on its western border. Saw two wolves on 
 our road, which were more frightened than ourselves. A heavy 
 shower of rain coming up. seven of us, together with two saddles, 
 three guns and one dog, found dry shelter under a projecting 
 rock which once served for a year's habitation for two miners 
 in this region. Found the Governor in town, who has returned 
 from Galena, having sent off the deputation of Sioux and part 
 of the Winnebagoes. 
 
 August 29th. Gov. Dodge sent in his carriage, and we ac- 
 companied Augustus, his son. to Belmont. This place is situated 
 on the prairie at the foot of the Platte mounds. These mounds 
 
66 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 are three in number, the distance between the east and west 
 being about two miles, a small mound lying- between the two. 
 The east and west mounds are well covered with timber. The 
 center mound is bare, excepting a few large straggling rocks. 
 The lands between the Pekeetolica after leaving Mineral Point 
 and Belmont, are well cultivated. Several fine farms and most 
 beautiful and rich situations. The town of Belmont contains 
 about half a dozen well-built frame houses, built at Pittsburg 
 and sent round in steamboats to Galena, painted white, with red 
 roofs; fronts built up with battlements. This place, since it has 
 lost the chance of being selected as the seat of government, is 
 going down. The Legislature sat here at its first session, last 
 winter. It cannot at present be supported as a town or place of 
 business, as the country is not sufficiently farmed. Mr. Mes- 
 sersmith is here with a carriage going to Galena with the family 
 of Rev. Mr. Schermerhorn. The east and west mounds are about 
 20 feet high. The center mound is elevated from the general 
 level of the surrounding prairie about 100 feet. It rises from 
 the plain with a gentle ascent about half a mile from its base, 
 until it assumes abruptly its conical form, and rises about 50 
 feet until its apex is completely a point. Around the second 
 base is a circular race course of a little more than a mile, well 
 laid out. Frequently races are run here. Two days since a race 
 was run for SI. 500 a side. From the top of the mound a person 
 can; see a dog run all around the course. The vieAV from this 
 mound, as well as from the flat near the summit of the eastern 
 mound, beggars all description. An ocean of prairie surrounds 
 the spectator, whose vision is not limited to less than 30 or 40 
 miles. This great sea of verdure is interspersed with delight- 
 fully varying undulations, like the vast waves of the ocean, and 
 everv here and there, sinking in the hollows or creating the 
 swell, appear spots of wood, large groves, extensive ranges of 
 timber, small groups of trees, as if planted by the hand of art 
 for the purpose of ornamenting this naturally splendid scene. 
 Over the extended view, in all directions, are scattered the in- 
 cipient farms of the settlers, with their luxuriant crops of wheat 
 and oats, whose vellow sheaves, alreadv cut, form a beautiful 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith 67 
 
 contrast with the waving green of the Indian corn and the 
 smooth, dark surface of the potato crop. Throughout the prairie 
 the most splendid variety of flowers are seen rising above the 
 thickly set grass, which has here and there in large and small 
 patches been mowed for hay. presenting a curious checkered ap- 
 pearance of the table beneath us. The prairie flowers are vari- 
 ous in hue, the dark purple masonic or mineral flower, the tall 
 bright purple and red feather, the prairie sunflower, the golden 
 rod, the several small and beautifully variegated flowers inter- 
 spersed amongst the grass, all render the scene indescribably 
 beautiful. To the north, the Wisconsin hills are seen, bounding 
 the view ; to the east, prairie and wood are limited by the hor- 
 izon, and the blue mounds form a background and a landmark. 
 To the south the view over the rolling country extends far into 
 the State of Illinois, and to the west the view is only bounded by 
 the Dubuque mound and the hills west of the Mississippi, distant 
 about thirty miles, and to the northwest high grounds through 
 which the river breaks its sweeping way close the view. Below 
 us, on the prairie, is the little village of Belmont, with its bright 
 painted dwellings. The brown lines in the general green carpet 
 indicate the roads public and private over the prairie. The graz- 
 ing cattle are scattered over the broad surface, looking like sheep 
 or dogs, whilst in the distance are seen traveling wagons of 
 emigrants, ox-teams hauling lumber, pleasure and traveling car- 
 riages whirling rapidly over the sward, as if the country had 
 been improved for a century past, instead of having been only 
 five years reclaimed from the savages. The picture is not exag- 
 gerated. It fails of the original beauty in the attempt to describe 
 that which is worth a journey of a thousand miles to contem- 
 plate in a summer day's calm sunset as I have viewed it. In the 
 evening it rained hard. 
 
 August 30th. Light showers this morning. The plowing 
 of the prairie is done with a heavily constructed plow with 
 wheels, drawn by eight or ten oxen, seldom by fewer. The share 
 and coulter are kept sharp by filing, so that they have an edge 
 as fine as a knife. There is no danger of stones to break the edge. 
 The furrows are turned from 18 to 20 inches. The off oxen 
 
68 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 walk in the furrow, so as to bring the wheel of the plow close 
 to the grass — the other of course rolls over the sod. Thus the 
 furrow is turned over, and lies flat, and not reclining on the pre- 
 ceding one. The whole sod is in this manner turned upside 
 down, and about two acres can be broken by four yoke of oxen; 
 2 l / 2 by five yoke, one boy to drive. The plow needs no guidance, 
 not even setting in when the lands are entered in turning at the 
 heads. The off oxen and the plow wheel guide all. When prairie 
 land is thus broken up in the spring, it may be harrowed the 
 lengthwise of the furrow, and a crop of wheat sown in the fall, 
 or if broken in the fall a crop of oats sown in the next spring 
 and 70 bushels raised to the acre. At all events, the first crop 
 will more than pay all expenses in fencing and breaking up. and 
 after the first crop two light horses will be sufficient for every 
 manner of cultivation. The soil is invariably about one foot and 
 a half or two feet, of black mould, loose, rich and sandy. Some- 
 times three feet and more of this black mould is found, then 
 yellow, loose, sandy clay, three feet and more, then limestone or 
 sandstone. Limestone is abundant all over the territory. Tt is 
 remarkable that in the mineral country the ground is rich and 
 productive, whilst the mineral may be found close to the surface. 
 It is true, the country is more broken and is not so rich as the 
 prairie country generally, though some ^\ the diggings are in 
 the very richest prairies. ( Generally speaking, the mining coun- 
 try is broken, but is adapted to all the purposes of cultivation. 
 
 ON THE RETURN HOME 
 Galena. September 24th. We left Galena in the steamboat 
 Missouri Fulton, passed down Fevre river and entered the Mis- 
 sissippi in the evening. Stopped at Belleview to wood. Rain in 
 the night. At early morning, 25th, found ourselves opposite 
 Parkhurst and Byron at the head of the Rapids. Here is a noble 
 sheet of water, one of the very few places where the whole of 
 the Mississippi is seen unobstructed by islands. The small 
 steamboat Gypsy which left Galena yesterday is lying here at 
 Parkhurst. We passed the wreck of the Emerald in the Rapids. 
 The water is at this time barely passable for a boat of our 
 burthen, drawing three feet of water. The eddies plainly show 
 
The Journal of William R. Smith .69 
 
 the slightly covered rocks. A small patch of rock and sand cov- 
 ered with verdure appears in the distance like a keel or flat- 
 bottomed boat. Our starboard wheelhouse was last night de- 
 stroyed by a log getting in and tearing up the roof. The naviga- 
 tion of the Rapids is difficult and dangerous. We struck several 
 times on rocks with great violence. At one period the iron stays 
 supporting the chimneys broke and the chimneys were thrown 
 down. We reached Rock Island at breakfast time, and stopped 
 at Stevenson to repair our chimneys. At dinner time we stopped 
 at Bloomington to wood. The Musquitine prairie here is the 
 most extensive on the river. Very beautiful, and very fertile 
 soil. We arrived at Burlington at 7 o'clock. The town has 
 much improved inj two months. The Statehouse is nearly fin- 
 ished. Before we came to Burlington we saw a very large flock 
 of swans resting on the river. At 10 o'clock we came to Fort 
 Madison and old Camp Des Moines. Proceeded to Montebello, 
 at the head of the Rapids, and lay by until morning. 
 
 September 26th. At daylight began to lighten the boat by 
 unloading pig lead into a keel boat as a lighter. The passengers, 
 about 100 in number, got on the keel boat, which was towed 
 alongside our steamer, and after a very difficult and dangerous 
 passage of about two hours we descended the Des Moines Rapids 
 and at breakfast time landed for a short period at Keokuk. Here 
 are many Indians along the shore looking at the bustle and busi- 
 ness of the place. The steamboat Bee is ascending the river. 
 The wreck of the Heroine has been brought to shore, and efforts 
 are being made to save materials. The Gypsy has now also 
 descended the Rapids. A mile below Keokuk, the Pearl, a 
 beautiful light boat, sitting like a graceful bird on the waters, 
 is ascending. We passed Fort Edward, and Warsaw, opposite 
 the» mouth of Des Moines river. 
 
 September 27th. At daylight we stopped at Alton, and soon 
 afterward passed the month of the Missouri. This river is now 
 unusually low. Last night we were in great danger of running 
 into the boat Ouincy. Our engine was stopped in time. We 
 rubbed together in passing. The boat St. Peters is now a beauti- 
 ful object on the widespread waters around us. She is ascending 
 
70 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 the river. Have caught the first glimpse of St. Louis in the dis- 
 tance, and at early breakfast time we are at the city. Thirty-one 
 steamboats are lying at the quays ; the "busy hum of men" and 
 rattling of drays over the pavement announce the growing im- 
 portance of this Western city. The great depot for the trade 
 of the upper Mississippi, the vast Missouri and its numerous 
 tributaries, and the middle point between New Orleans, the At- 
 lantic seaboard and the great West — all these circumstances, 
 combined with the energy and enterprise of its citizens, will in- 
 evitably render St. Louis in a few years one of the most import- 
 ant cities in our country. We remained here this day. Got our 
 baggage on board the Susquehanna, a beautiful and well ap- 
 pointed boat. Two other boats left here this day for Pittsburgh. 
 As soon as they had gone, our captain, notwithstanding his posi- 
 tive assurances, remains until tomorrow, to collect more freight 
 and passengers. This is always the case with the last boat. To 
 pass the evening, we went to the theater, a new and well fin- 
 ished building. Scenery finely painted; acting, with a few ex- 
 ceptions, barely tolerable. 
 
 September 28th. Left St. Louis about 9 o'clock. A few 
 miles below, passed an old French settlement, carondelet, or in 
 derision emphatically called vuide poche. At twelve miles' dis- 
 tance, came in view of Jefferson Barracks, the situation and 
 buildings fine and commodious. In two hours we stopped at 
 Herculaneum, opposite to Harrison, to land passengers, distance 
 32 miles from St. Louis. The land is high, rocky and bold in 
 Missouri; in Illinois, low flat and covered with cottonwood. A 
 large sandbar extends into the river here from the Missouri shore. 
 
 September 29th. At midnight we were about 12 miles above 
 the mouth of the Ohio river. We got aground with two severe 
 shocks. One passenger was thrown, by the second shock, 
 through his berth into the one below him, from which the occu- 
 pant had fortunately been cast by the first shock. At breakfast 
 time we are about twenty miles up the Ohio. Several steam- 
 boats are descending. About sundown we passed Cave-in-the- 
 Rock, in Illinois — a palisade limestone rock, about 60 feet per- 
 pendicular, with a remarkable cave in the face, approachable 
 
The Journal of William R Smith 71 
 
 only from the water side. At supper time passed the Swiss Boy 
 steamboat aground. She had taken out her lading, which was 
 strewn along the shore. The passengers had landed. Some 
 musicians in our boat played the air of "The Swiss Boy" on 
 their bugles and flutes to arouse the slumbering boat. As a 
 companion to her distress, a descending cattle boat was high and 
 dry on a sandbar. The boatmen were gaily playing on the fife, 
 and their lately washed clothing was hung out to dry on their 
 now useless oars. At night we passed a large Orleans steamer 
 aground. 
 
 September 30th. At daybreak we are at Evansville, Indi- 
 ana. Last night we were for some time fast on the sandbar at 
 the mouth of the Wabash, and in the night we passed several 
 boats aground. After having rubbed, scraped and bumped on 
 rocks and bars several times during the day's voyage, we are 
 at 10 o'cloek at night at Flint Island bar, which now may be 
 called steamboat village. Three of the largest class of boats are 
 here aground in a line. The whole being lighted up and crowded 
 with passengers, there is something like a village in the midst 
 of the broad Ohio. We struck on the bar in the rear of the 
 grounded range of boats, and, as it was impossible to pass them 
 in the night in safety, we soon backed out and moored our boat 
 two miles below them. 
 
 Sunday, October 1st. At breakfast time the fog is still 
 heavy. Our pilot has been out si nee daylight, sounding the river. 
 He has found a channel. We are endeavoring to pass up. An- 
 other boat is coming up behind us. We are feeling our way by 
 the lead, with caution, but we strike, and here we are — the Sul- 
 tana, Black Hawk, Shelby. Warsaw and Susquehanna, all at a 
 stand. When shall we move? Boats are out sounding the 
 channel, and five or six hundred human beings are within speak- 
 ing distance, in well appointed and splendid wooden palaces, 
 but not now floating. After some hours 'hard labor, with ex- 
 treme caution and ability, our Captain, John Wylie, has suc- 
 ceeded in warping his boat over the shoal, and we have passed 
 the grounded fleet. Our passengers gave a shout of three hearty 
 
72 The Journal of William R. Smith 
 
 cheers as we passed our companions in distress, no doubt to 
 their sorrow at not being able to join with us in our exultation. 
 We met several boats descending. 
 
 October 2nd. At daylight we are at Shippingport, the en- 
 trance of the canal at the Ohio Falls, after having been aground 
 with several other boats for some time on the Portland Bar. At 
 breakfast time we arrived at Louisville. Left it at 12 o'clock. 
 and in the evening we remained for two hours again aground. 
 
 October 3rd. At daybreak, we are opposite to North Bend. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 War Department. 
 
 Office of Indian Affairs. 
 
 May 13, 1837. 
 Gentlemen : 
 
 Having - accepted the commissions offered to yon by the 
 President of the United States, to hold a treaty with the Chip- 
 pewa Indians of the Mississippi, it becomes my duty to com- 
 municate to yon the particular objects of the government, and 
 its views as to the mode in which they will be accomplished. 
 
 The tract which it is considered desirable to procure from 
 these Indians is that part of their country which lies east of the 
 Mississippi river and south of the forty-sixth meridian of longi- 
 tude. It is under stood that this tract is valuable for the pine 
 woods which cover it, but is unfit for cultivation. Its acquisition 
 by the United States will be beneficial, to both parties. To the 
 United States by opening to its citizens an extensive woodland, 
 imporant especially from the rapidity with which settlements 
 are multiplying ; to the Indians, by giving them an ample con- 
 sideration in money, provisions, agricultural and mechanical 
 establishments, and other means of improvement. If the Indians 
 retain this land, experience has shown that they will part with 
 the most valuable of the timber to individuals, for at best very 
 inadequate remuneration. 
 
 You must judge, on a full consideration of all the circum- 
 stances, what amount should be paid for the tract designated. 
 There is no treaty,* I believe, which will be useful to you as a 
 precedent in forming a conclusion on this point. In the stipula- 
 tions respecting the manner in which it shall be paid to them, 
 you will endeavor to secure to them the greatest permanent 
 benefit. As large a provision as they will consent to should be 
 made for schools, farms, smiths' shops, mills, teachers, farmers, 
 smiths and millers, agricultural implements, stock, provisions, 
 tobacco, salt, etc., and the necessary accommodations of the 
 persons employed in the capacities here indicated. As large a 
 portion of the consideration as they can be induced to sanction 
 should be invested 1 in public stocks, the interest to be paid to 
 
76 Letters 
 
 them annually. A limited annuity, of as small an, amount as in 
 your judgment may be advisable, may be provided for. But, if 
 practicable, you will prevail upon them to agree to receive their 
 annuity and the interest on the stocks in goods instead of money, 
 to be delivered at certain points in their own country, at the ex- 
 pense of the United States. No mill privileges now claimed or 
 exercised will be recognized, nor will any new ones be granted. 
 No stipulations will be made for reservations to individuals. If 
 the Indians are particularly solicitous about it, but not otherwise, 
 you may admit an article providing for the payment of debts 
 and in favor of the half-breeds among them, with the restrictions 
 placed by the Senate on the similar provisions for the Meno- 
 monees in the ratification of the treaty of September 3, 1836. 
 
 During the pendency of this negotiation you are requested 
 to avail yourselves of all suitable opportunities to impress the 
 Chippewas with the absolute necessity of refraining- from aggres- 
 sions on the Sioux or on our citizens. You may say to them that 
 the Sioux chiefs who are coming to see the President will be 
 charged by him to remain at peace, and that their Great Father 
 will take strong measures to punish both them and the Sioux if 
 they continue their hostilities with each other. 
 
 You will also please to ascertain informally in what manner 
 they would receive a proposition to admit among them the Ot- 
 tawas and Chippewas in Michigan, who have manifested a re- 
 luctance to go west of the Mississippi, agreeably to the pro- 
 visions of the late treaty. 
 
 The preparatory arrangements for the treaty, convening the 
 Indians, procuring* provisions, employing commissaries and other 
 persons necessary, will be made under the direction of Governor 
 Dodge, who will be near the scene of operations. The appropri- 
 ation applicable to this object is $5,000, and the expenditures 
 must in no event exceed it. The amount will be remitted to 
 Governor Dodge, but for its disbursement you will both be held 
 accountable. Your accounts, with the usual vouchers, abstracts 
 of purchases and issues of provisions, certified by both, will be 
 transmitted to this office. 
 
 Verplanck Van Antwerp, Esqr., of Indiana, has accepted the 
 
Letters 77 
 
 appointment of secretary to the commission, and will report 
 himself to Governor Dodge, to learn when and where his services 
 will he required, and will carry into effect the instructions yon 
 may give him. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 His Kxcell'y Your obedient servant. 
 
 Henry Dodge, and C. A. Harris. Com'r. 
 
 Gen'l Win. R. Smith. 
 Comm'rs, etc. 
 
 The following - letter has no date : 
 
 Unofficial 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I return herewith Gen. Smith's letter. 
 
 Upon reference to his letter of appointment, dated Mar. 25, 
 he will perceive that he is requested to correspond with his col- 
 league. Gov. Dodge, and with him arrange the time and place 
 of meeting. Gov. Dodge was requested to do the same. It is 
 impracticable to arrange such matters here with any conveni- 
 ence to the parties. Gov. Dodge has not yet accepted the ap- 
 pointment, but as he this morning acknowledged the receipt of 
 letters of only three days' prior date to that of his appt. I pre- 
 sume we may expect to hear from him on this subject in a few 
 days. As soon as we do, the instructions will be forwarded to 
 both him and Gen. Smith. But even then the time and place of 
 meeting must be settled between themselves. 
 
 If Gen. S. has neither written to or heard from Gov. Dodge, 
 I think he would do well to address him immediately. His pres- 
 ent address is Mineral Point. Wisconsin. But that gentleman 
 will doubtless give Gen. S. his views at an early day. Should he 
 accept the appointment, I presume the same mail which brings 
 a notice of his acceptance will bring Gen. S. a letter. Should he 
 decline to accept, some other person will have to be selected, 
 and this will cause delay. 
 
 Mr. Kurt/ was in error when he wrote to Gen. S. that his 
 instructions would be forwarded as soon as I returned. It is ob- 
 
78 Letters 
 
 vious that instructions cannot be given till the commission is full. 
 
 Very respectfully yours. 
 
 C. A. Harris. 
 Hon. Geo. Wolf. 
 
 Comptroller Treas'y. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Since my note of this morning Gov. Dodge's acceptance has 
 been received by the Secretary of War. He remarks that he 
 will correspond with Gen. Smith. 
 
 Yours. 
 
 C. A. Harris. 
 
 Gov. Wolf. May 11th, 1837. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Since writing my note of this date 1 have received the above 
 from Mr. Harris, which 1 take pleasure in forwarding also. 
 
 Yours 
 Geo. Wolf. 
 
 General Smith. May 11th. 
 
 Superscription : 
 
 Gen'l William R. Smith. 
 
 U. S. Commissioner 
 
 For treaty with the Chippewa Indians, 
 
 Bedford, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Text of the letter : 
 
 Wisconsin Territory. 
 
 Mineral Point. 
 
 June 30. 1837. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I have the honor of acknowledging the receipt of your let- 
 ters under date of the 31st of March and 18th ult. Your first 
 letter came to hand on the 22d of April. In that communication 
 you stated you would probably leave Bedford. Pennsylvania, the 
 last week in April, unless previous to that time you received a 
 letter from' me informing you of the specific time and place of 
 
Letters 79 
 
 our meeting' to hold the treaty with the Chippewa Indians. 
 Knowing- a letter could not be received by you at your residence 
 before you would probably leave home, I deferred writing, be- 
 lieving you would arrive here early in May. Until the receipt 
 on this date of our joint instructions dated on the 13th ult. from 
 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington I was un- 
 acquainted with the views of the Government in relation to the 
 contemplated treaty. As the preparatory measures in convening 
 the Chippewas and furnishing them with the necessary supplies 
 during our negotiations with them devolve on me. 1 will as early 
 as possible send expresses to the different bands of Chippewas 
 on the upper Mississippi, as well to those who reside on the 
 Chippewa and St. Croix rivers, as well to Lapoint, on Lake 
 Superior. I will direct them to assemble at Fort Snelling on the 
 twentieth of July to hold the contemplated treaty. That is 1 
 think as early a period as these Indians can be convened, as they 
 are scattered over a large extent of country, and it is desirable 
 that as many of them should be present at the treaty as can be 
 collected, to satisfy the nation that no advantage has been 
 taken of them. 
 
 On your arrival at Galena, Illinois, if you will have the 
 goodness to address me at this place. I will meet you at Galena, 
 and we can then determine the best way of reaching our point 
 of destination. I will endeavor in the meantime to make the 
 best arrangements for our mutual accommodation. I would be 
 much gratified to meet you. and hope we will be able to carry 
 into effect our negotiations with the Chippewa Indians. Be as- 
 sured it will afford me great pleasure to facilitate your view as 
 far as it may be in my power to do so. 
 
 I have the Honor to be with the 
 greatest Respect, your Ob. Svt., 
 
 Henry Dodge. 
 Gen'l William R. Smith. 
 
 U. S. Com'r to treat with 
 the Chippewa Indians. 
 
80 Letters 
 
 Private Letter — Gen. Smith to his wife: 
 
 Mineral Point. 
 Wisconsin Territory. 
 September 6, 1837. 
 
 My dearest Mary : 
 
 My long- silence must be atoned for when I see you. as the 
 excuses which 1 would make require more explanation than a 
 letter can give. My journey up the Mississippi from St. Louis to 
 Prairie du Chien (600 miles) was delightful. At the Prairie I 
 understood from the officers at the Fort that the treatv was con- 
 cluded very unexpectedly, and that the Governor was descending 
 the river — in fact, he arrived in the evening of the day I got there. 
 
 After staying three days at Fort Crawford with Governor 
 Dodge, to arrange the business, we left the Prairie together, and 
 rode in an open wagon to this place, about 70 miles, through the 
 most lovely country that the sun ever shone upon. Imagine to 
 yourself a fine summer day. and that you are seated in a pleasure 
 carriage — for the total absence of hills, stones, ruts, stumps and 
 mud rendered a common wagon a pleasure carriage. — and that 
 you are driving at the rate of six miles an hour over a beautiful 
 level green, or lawn, interspersed with groups of trees, scattered 
 in the most tasteful variety, as if planted by the hand of art to 
 gratify the most luxuriant imagination. Then imagine that the 
 horizon only bounds your view, and no fence, no obstruction 
 whatever, impedes your progress. Even if you come into the 
 .strips of wood, you drive through as if in an orchard of fruit 
 trees. Look around, and the whole prairie is covered with yel- 
 low, purple and blue and brown flowers, rising above the wav- 
 ing grass, as if a garden had been planted expressly for your 
 gratification. Then the deer, the grouse or moorfowl are con- 
 stantly flitting across the landscape. 
 
 Conceive then that at intervals you can discover the com- 
 mencement of the settlers' farms, with their little cottages, scat- 
 tered over the vast sea of verdure, and you have a very faint 
 idea of Wisconsin. I cannot describe the country to you in 
 terms which will do it justice. Then the fruits — Gooseberries, 
 raspberries, blackberries, black currants, plums, cranberries, 
 crabapples. cherries — in fine, all the fruits of the East, except 
 
Letters 81 
 
 orchards of peaches, apples and pears, which come from culti- 
 vation. Strawberries cover the whole soil of the prairie. Low 
 hazelnut hushes loaded with fruit fill the woods, and the rider 
 or walker passes through them without any impediment. The 
 lands produce twice as much as in Pennsylvania. They require 
 no clearing, and are most delightfully watered by springs of the 
 purest water, and can be obtained from the government for one 
 dollar and a quarter per acre ! Earthly Paradise ! 
 
 With such advantages, and a ready market for everything 
 that can be raised, it is no wonder that I have found very many 
 acquaintances from Pennsylvania in the territory. Your old ac- 
 quaintance. Cyrus S. Jacobs, and his family, are here; and many 
 from Lancaster count}- — W. Clark Frazer, Dr. Beatty, and oth- 
 ers ; many from Huntington county — William Simpson's daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. Bracken; — some from Bedford, some from Pittsburgh, 
 etc., etc. William and myself have visited at Bracken's farm, 
 and were greatly pleased with his family and that of his brother, 
 who lives adjoining him. 
 
 I have been traveling very much through the country — on 
 horseback generally, on foot sometimes — and have taken a long 
 journey to the City of the Four Lakes in a carriage. We have 
 been very politely and hospitably treated by all. particularly by 
 the Governor and the numerous members of his family — sons 
 and daughters, married and unmarried. His carriage and horses 
 have been at our service whenever we? required them. He lives 
 about four miles from this place, near Dodge ville. 
 
 I have been so much delighted with all that I have seen and 
 all that 1 have learned with regard to the soil and productions 
 of the country that I have come to the conclusion that a more 
 desirable location can not be obtained than in this part of the 
 world, when present comfort and ultimate wealth are in consid- 
 eration. I am not sanguine with regard to any matters, but in 
 the two weeks that 1 have been here, and in the views I have 
 taken of this part of the new country, aided by the excellent in- 
 formation of (iovernor Dodge and many friends, I have mad? the 
 determination of purchasing a most beautiful situation, already 
 improved, near the Three Mounds, called Belmont. Of this more 
 
82 Letters 
 
 will be said when I return. The farm is bought, and I call it 
 Home. 
 
 Now, my dearest Mary, 1 feel as if I were conversing with 
 you ; but I have had only one letter from you since I left home. 
 However, I expect one when I reach Galena, which will be in a 
 few days, as we will leave this territory about the 10th of Sep- 
 tember. Of course you may expect me about the first week in 
 October. The Governor, William and I travel together. Gov- 
 ernor Dodge and myself proceed to Washington to conclude our 
 business. About fifty Indians — Sioux, Foxes, and Winnebagoes 
 — will be before us on the route to Washington. Major Talia- 
 ferro conducts the Sioux. They pass through Bedford — twenty- 
 five chiefs. 
 
The Collier Printing Co., Wooster, Ohio 
 
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