A New Guide For Emigrants To The West Part 8

"We read marvellous stories of the ferocity of western men. The name of Kentuckian is constantly a.s.sociated with the idea of fighting, dirking, and gouging. The people of whom we are now writing do not deserve this character. They live together in great harmony, with little contention and less litigation. The backwoodsmen are a generous and placable race.

They are bold and impetuous; and when differences do arise among them, they are more apt to give vent to their resentment at once, than to brood over their wrongs, or to seek legal redress. But this conduct is productive of harmony; for men are always more guarded in their deportment to each other, and more cautious of giving offence, when they know that the insult will be quickly felt, and instantly resented, than when the consequences of an offensive action are doubtful, and the retaliation distant. We have no evidence that the pioneers of Kentucky were quarrelsome or cruel; and an intimate acquaintance with the same race, at a later period, has led the writer to the conclusion, that they are a humane people; bold and daring, when opposed to an enemy, but amiable in their intercourse with each other and with strangers, and habitually inclined to peace."

In morals and the essential principles of religion, this cla.s.s of people are by no means so defective as many imagine. The writer has repeatedly been in settlements and districts beyond the pale of civil and criminal law, where the people are a "law unto themselves," where courts, lawyers, sheriffs, and constables existed not, and yet has seen as much quiet and order, and more honesty in paying just debts, than where legal restraints operated in all their force. The turpitude of vice and the majesty of virtue, were as apparent as in older settlements. Industry, in laboring or hunting, bravery in war, candor, honesty, and hospitality were rewarded with the confidence and honor of the people. Regulating parties would exist, and thieves, rogues and counterfeiters were sure to receive a striped Jacket "worked nineteen to the dozen," and by this mode of operation, induced to "clear out;" but truth, uprightness, honesty and sincerity are always respected. Many of the frontier cla.s.s are _illiterate_, but they are by no means _ignorant_. They are a shrewd, observing, thinking people. They may not have learned the black marks in books, but they have studied _men and things_, and have a quick insight into human nature. They are not inattentive to religion, though their opportunities of religious instruction are few, compared with old countries. They have prejudices and fears about many of the organized benevolent societies of the present age, yet there are no people more readily disposed to attend religious meetings, and whose hearts are more readily affected with the gospel than the backwoods people; and as large a proportion are orderly professors of religion as in any part of the Union. Ministers of the gospel and Missionaries, who can suit themselves to the circ.u.mstances and habits of frontier people,--who like Paul, can "become all things to all men,"--find pleasant and interesting fields of labor on all our frontiers. But let such persons show fastidiousness, affect superior intelligence and virtue, catechise the people for their plainness and simplicity of manners, and draw invidious comparisons, and they are sure to be "used up," or left without hearers, to deplore the "dark clouds" of ignorance and prejudice in the west.

_Hunters and Trappers._ Entirely beyond the boundaries of civilization are many hundreds of a unique cla.s.s, distinguished by the terms Hunters and Trappers. They are engaged in hunting buffalo and other wild game, and trapping for beaver. They are found upon the vast prairies of the West and Northwest,--in all the defiles and along the streams of the Rocky mountains, and in various parts of the Oregon Territory, to the peninsula of California. They are an enterprising and erratic race from almost every state, and are usually in the employ of persons of capital and enterprise, and who are concerned in the fur and peltry business.

Expeditions for one, two, or three years, are fitted out from St. Louis, or some commercial point, consisting of companies, who ascend the rivers to the regions of fur. The hunters and trappers, receive a proportion of the profits of the expedition. Some become so enamored with this wandering and exposed life as to lose all desire of returning to the abodes of civilization, and remain for the rest of their lives in the American deserts. There are individuals, who are graduates of colleges, and who once stood high in the circles of refinement and taste, that have pa.s.sed more than twenty years amongst the roaming tribes of the Rocky mountains, or on the western slope, till they have apparently lost all feelings towards civilized life. They have afforded an interesting but melancholy example of the tendencies of human nature towards the degraded state of savages. The improvement of the species is a slow and laborious process,--the deterioration is rapid, and requires only to be divested of restraint, and left to its own unaided tendencies. Many others have returned to the habits of civilization, and some with fortunes made from the woods and prairies.

_Boatmen._ These are the fresh water sailors of the West, with much of the light hearted, reckless character of the sons of the Ocean, including peculiar shades of their own. Before the introduction of Steamboats on the western waters, its immense commerce was carried on by means of _keel boats_, and _barges_. The former is much in the shape of a ca.n.a.l boat, long, slim-built, sharp at each end, and propelled by setting poles and the cordelle or long rope. The barge is longer, and has a bow and stern. Both are calculated to ascend streams but by a very slow process. Each boat would require from ten to thirty hands, according to its size. A number of these boats frequently sailed in company. The boatmen were proverbially lawless at every town and landing, and indulged without restraint in every species of dissipation, debauchery and excess. But this race has become reformed, or nearly extinct;--yes, reformed by the mighty power of steam. A steamboat, with half the crew of a barge or keel, will carry ten times the burden, and perform six or eight trips in the time it took a keel boat to make one voyage. Thousands of flat boats, or "broad horns," as they are called, pa.s.s _down_ the rivers with the produce of the country, which are managed by the farmers of the West, but never return up stream. They are sold for lumber, and the owners, after disposing of the cargo, return by steam. The number of boatmen on the western waters is not only greatly reduced, but those that remain are fast losing their original character.

CHAPTER V.

PUBLIC LANDS.

System of Surveys.--Meridian and Base Lines.--Townships.--Diagram of a township surveyed into Sections.--Land Districts and Offices.

--Pre-emption rights.--Military Bounty Lands.--Taxes.--Valuable Tracts of country unsettled.

In all the new states and territories, the lands which are owned by the general government, are surveyed and sold under one general system.

Several offices, each under the direction of a surveyor general, have been established by acts of Congress, and districts, embracing one or more states, a.s.signed them. The office for the surveys of all public lands in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and the Wisconsin country is located at Cincinnati. The one including the states of Illinois and Missouri, and the territory of Arkansas is at St. Louis. Deputy surveyors are employed to do the work at a stipulated rate per mile, generally from three to four dollars, who employ chain bearers, an axe, and flag man, and a camp-keeper. They are exposed to great fatigue and hardship, spending two or three months at a time in the woods and prairies, with slight, moveable camps for shelter.

In the surveys, "_meridian_" lines are first established, running north from the mouth of some noted river. These are intersected with "_base_"

lines.

There are five princ.i.p.al meridians in the land surveys in the west.

The "_First Princ.i.p.al Meridian_" is a line due north from the mouth of the Miami.

The "_Second Princ.i.p.al Meridian_" is a line due north from the mouth of Little Blue river, in Indiana.

The "_Third Princ.i.p.al Meridian_" is a line due north from the mouth of the Ohio.

The "_Fourth Princ.i.p.al Meridian_" is a line due north from the mouth of the Illinois.

The "_Fifth Princ.i.p.al Meridian_" is a line due north from the mouth of the Arkansas. Another Meridian is used for Michigan, which pa.s.ses through the central part of the state. Its base line extends from about the middle of lake St. Clair, across the state west to lake Michigan.

Each of these meridians has its own base line.

The surveys connected with the third and fourth meridians, and a small portion of the second, embrace the state of Illinois.

The base line for both the second and third princ.i.p.al meridians commences at Diamond Island, in Ohio, opposite Indiana, and runs due west till it strikes the Mississippi, a few miles below St. Louis.

All the _townships_ in Illinois, south and east of the Illinois river, are numbered from this base line either north or south.

The third princ.i.p.al meridian terminates with the northern boundary of the state.

The fourth princ.i.p.al meridian commences in in the centre of the channel, and at the mouth of the Illinois river, but immediately crosses to the _east_ sh.o.r.e, and pa.s.ses up on that side, (and at one place nearly fourteen miles distant) to a point in the channel of the river, seventy-two miles from its mouth. Here its base line commences and extends across the peninsula to the Mississippi, a short distance above Quincy. The fourth princ.i.p.al meridian is continued northward through the military tract, and across Rock river, to a curve in the Mississippi at the upper rapids, in township eighteen north, and about twelve or fifteen miles above Rock Island. It here crosses and pa.s.ses up the _west_ side of the Mississippi river fifty-three miles, and recrosses into Illinois, and pa.s.ses through the town of Galena to the northern boundary of the state. It is thence continued to the Wisconsin river and made the princ.i.p.al meridian for the surveys of the territory, while the northern boundary line of the state is const.i.tuted its base line for that region.

Having formed a princ.i.p.al meridian with its corresponding base line, for a district of country, the next operation of the surveyor is to divide this into tracts of six miles square, called "_townships_."

In numbering the townships _east_ or _west_ from a princ.i.p.al meridian, they are called "_ranges_," meaning a range of townships; but in numbering _north_ or _south_ from a base line, they are called "_townships_." Thus a tract of land is said to be situated in township four north in range three east, from the third princ.i.p.al meridian; or as the case may be.

Townships are subdivided into square miles, or tracts of 640 acres each, called "_sections_." If near timber, trees are marked and numbered with the section, township, and range, near each sectional corner. If in a large prairie, a mound is raised to designate the corner, and a billet of charred wood buried, if no rock is near. Sections are divided into halves by a line north and south, and into quarters by a transverse line. In sales under certain conditions, quarters are sold in equal subdivisions of forty acres each, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Any person, whether a native born citizen, or a foreigner, may purchase forty acres of the richest soil, and receive an indisputable t.i.tle, for fifty dollars.

_Ranges_ are townships counted either east or west from meridians.

_Townships_ are counted either north or south from their respective base lines.

_Fractions_, are parts of quarter sections intersected by streams or confirmed claims.

The parts of townships, sections, quarters, &c. made at the lines of either townships or meridians are called _excesses_ or _deficiencies_.

_Sections_, or miles square are numbered, beginning in the northeast corner of the township, progressively west to the range line, and then progressively east to the range line, alternately, terminating at the southeast corner of the township, from one to thirty-six, as in the following diagram:

+------+------+------+------+------+------+ 6 5 4 3 2 1 +------+------+------+------+------+------+ 7 8 9 10 11 12 +------+------+------+------+------+------+ 18 17 16[A] 15 14 13 +------+------+------+------+------+------+ 19 20 21 22 23 24 +------+------+------+------+------+------+ 30 29 28 27 26 25 +------+------+------+------+------+------+ 31 32 33 34 35 36 +------+------+------+------+------+------+ [A] Appropriated for schools in the township.

I have been thus particular in this account of the surveys of public lands, to exhibit the simplicity of a system, that to strangers, unacquainted with the method of numbering the sections, and the various subdivisions, appears perplexing and confused.

All the lands of Congress owned in Ohio have been surveyed, and with the exceptions of some Indian reservations, have been brought into market.

In Indiana, all the lands purchased of the Indians have been surveyed, and with the exception of about ninety townships and fractional townships, have been offered for sale. These, amounting to about two millions of acres, will be offered for sale the present year. In Michigan, nearly all the ceded lands have been surveyed and brought into market. The unsurveyed portion is situated in the neighborhood of Saginaw bay; a part of which may be ready for market within the current year.

In the Wisconsin Territory, west of lake Michigan, all the lands in the Wisconsin district, which lies between the state of Illinois and the Wisconsin river, have been surveyed; and in addition to the lands already offered for sale in the Green Bay district, about 65 townships, and fractional townships, have been surveyed and are ready for market.

The surveys of the whole country west of lake Michigan and south of the Wisconsin river, in Illinois and Wisconsin territory, will soon be surveyed and in market. Here are many millions of the finest lands on earth, lying along the Des Pleines, Fox, and Rock rivers, and their tributaries, well watered, rich soil, a healthy atmosphere, and facilities to market. A temporary scarcity of timber in some parts of this region will r.e.t.a.r.d settlements, for a time; but this difficulty will be obviated, by the rapidity with which prairie land turns to a timbered region, wherever, by contiguous settlements, the wild gra.s.s becomes subdued, and by the discovery of coal beds. Much of it is a mineral region. In Illinois, the surveys are now completed in the Danville district, and in the southern part of the Chicago district.

They are nearly completed along Rock river and the Mississippi. The unsurveyed portion is along Fox river, Des Pleines and the sh.o.r.e of lake Michigan, in the north-eastern part of the state. Emigrants, however, do not wait for surveys and sales. They are settling over this fine portion of the state, in antic.i.p.ation of purchases. In Missouri, besides the former surveys, the exterior lines of 138 townships, and the subdivision into sections and quarters, 30 townships in the northern part of the state, and contracts for running the exterior lines of 189 townships on the waters of the Osage and Grand rivers have been made. A large portion of this state is now surveyed and in market. Surveys are progressing in Arkansas, and large bodies of land are proclaimed for sale in that district.

I have no data before me that will enable me definitely to show the amount of public lands now remaining unsold, in each land office district. In another place I have already given an estimate of the amount of public lands, within the organized states and territories, remaining unsold, compared with the amount sold in past years.

The following table exhibits the number of acres sold in the districts embraced more immediately within the range of this Guide, for 1834, and the three first quarters of 1835, with the names of each district in each state. It is constructed from the Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the Treasury Department, December 5th, 1835. The sales of the last quarter of 1835, in Illinois, and probably in the other states, greatly exceeded either the other quarters, and which will be exhibited in the annual report of the Commissioner in December, 1836.

_Statement of the amount of Public Lands, sold at the several Land Offices in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Arkansas, in 1834._

=====================+============== _Acres and LAND OFFICES. hundredths_ ---------------------+-------------- OHIO.

Marietta district, 11,999.52 Zanesville do 33,877.23 Steubenville, do 4,349.19 Chillicothe, do 21,309.32 Cincinnati, do 27,369.52 Wooster, do 9,448.77 Wapaghkonetta do 125,417.13 Bucyrus do 245,078.56 ---------- Total for the State, 478,847.24

INDIANA.

Jeffersonville district. 67,826.11 Vincennes do 56,765.80 Indianopolis do 204,526.63 Crawfordsville do 161,477.87 Fort Wayne do 96,350.30 La Porte do 86,709.73 ---------- Total for the State, 673,656.44

ILLINOIS.

Shawneetown district. 6,904.24 Kaskaskia do 15,196.52 Edwardsville do 124,302.19 Vandalia do 20,207.61 Palestine do 22,135.69 Springfield do 66,804.25 Danville do 62,331.38 Quincy do 36,131.59 ---------- Total for the State, 354,013.47

MICHIGAN TERRITORY

Detroit district. 136,410.69 Monroe do 233,768.30 White Pigeon Prairie } Bronson do } 128,244.47 ---------- Total for the Territory 498,423.46