Trip to the West and Texas: comprising a journey of eight thousand miles, through New-York, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas, in the autumn and winter of 1834-5.Parker, A. A. (Amos Andrew)
History
Trip to the West and Texas: comprising a journey of eight thousand miles, through New-York, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana and Texas, in the autumn and winter of 1834-5.
Parker, A. A. (Amos Andrew)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Mississippi River Valley; Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Mississippi River Valley -- Description and travel; Texas -- Description and travel; Texas -- History -- Revolution, 1835-1836
The man who had been here two years, had a hundred acres under fence;
raised a large crop of corn and wheat, and had sold at Chicago, only
thirty miles distant in a straight line, two hundred and twenty bushels
of potatoes for as many dollars. He had built a weir across the river
to catch fish, which I walked down to see. He took his boat, went out
to the pen, and dipped out with a small net half a boat load of fish.
This is a land of plenty sure enough; and if a man cannot here find
the luxuries of the city, he can obtain all the necessaries of life in
abundance.
Fox river is a clear stream of water, about twenty rods wide, having a
hard limestone bottom, from two to three feet deep, a brisk current,
and generally fordable. On its banks, and on some other streams, we
occasionally found ledges of limestone; but other than that, we found
no rocks in the State.
We here forded the river, and travelled all day on its western bank.
We found less timber on this side of the river. On the east side, it
is generally lined with timber to the depth of a mile or more; but the
west side is scarcely skirted with it. It is somewhat singular and
unaccountable, but we found it universally to be the fact, that the
east side of all the streams had much the largest portion of timber.
We passed a number of log houses, all of which had been built the
present season, and came at last to the upper house on the river. The
man told us, he had been here with his family only three days.--In
attempting to get at the head of population, we more than once thought
of the story of the Ohio pumpkin vine; and concluded if we accomplished
it, we should be obliged to run our horses. He said, in the morning,
his was the upper house on the river; but a man had made a location
above him, and perhaps had already built him a house.
We went a few miles above this, forded the river, passed through
the woods into the open prairie, and started down the east side. We
travelled on, until it became dark. We were in an open prairie, without
any road, a cloudy night, and had no means of directing our course. It
was a great oversight, but we had no fire works with us, and the wolves
began to howl around at a distance. We concluded, we should be obliged
to stay out that night, and without any fire. A man accustomed to the
new country, would probably have thought nothing of it; but to me, who
had never lodged out doors in my life, to be obliged to camp out in a
new country, and among the wolves, and such other wild animals as chose
to come along, it was not quite so pleasant. I confess I began to have
some misgivings in my own mind, whether this new world ought, in fact,
to be called a paradise.
We knew that if there were any houses in that region, they would be
near the woods; we accordingly obliqued to the right, and after some
time travelling saw a light, which led us to a house.
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