Travels in the Interior of North America Part 8

[67] For Parkersburg, see Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p. 224, note 27. The other settlement should be Belpre, for which see our volume iv, p. 127, note 87.--ED.

[68] For points of historic interest connected with the Little Hockhocking (Hocking) River, see Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 131, note 99.

Shade Creek rises in Atkins County, flows southeast through Meigs County, and enters the Ohio about twenty-one miles below Blennerha.s.sett's Island.--ED.

[69] For Point Pleasant and Gallipolis, see respectively Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 132, note 101, and F. A. Michaux's _Travels_, volume iii, p. 185, note 34.--ED.

[70] Rac.o.o.n Creek, ninety miles in length, drains Vinton County, Ohio, flows through Gallia County, and joins the Ohio River seven miles below Gallipolis.

For Guyandotte River, see Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p. 229, note 33.--ED.

[71] Symmes Creek, which enters the Ohio five miles above Burlington, probably derived its name, like the village Symmes, from John Cleves Symmes, appointed judge in the Northwest Territory in 1787. In 1788 Judge Symmes received a federal grant of a million acres of public land, upon which was founded Cincinnati and North Bend.

Burlington, in the southwestern extremity of Ohio, was once the seat of Lawrence County.

Catlettsburg, here incorrectly written Cadetsburg, is the seat of Boyd County, Kentucky. See c.u.ming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, p. 155, note 103.

The Sandy, or the Big Sandy, River (not creek), formed by the junction of Tug and Levisa forks, flows north to the Ohio River, separating the states of Kentucky and West Virginia. It drains an area of four thousand square miles, and is navigable for small steamboats to a distance of a hundred miles.

Hanging Rock, named for a high sandstone escarpment, is on the right bank of the river, three miles below Ironton.

For Greenupsburg and Governor Greenup, see Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p. 229, note 34.

Concerning the historic importance of the Scioto River, see Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 134, note 102; and for the Ohio Ca.n.a.l, see Flint's _Letters_ in our volume ix, p. 96, note 44.

Rockville, Adams County, Ohio, was laid out in 1830.--ED.

[72] Adamsville, Muskingum County, Ohio, was laid out in 1832 by M.

Adams.

For the early history of Manchester, Ohio, and its founder, General Nathaniel Ma.s.sie, see c.u.ming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, p. 160, note 107.

Aberdeen, Brown County, Ohio, was laid out by Nathan Ellis in 1816.

For Ripley, see Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p. 233, note 41; for Vanceburg, see c.u.ming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, p. 165, note 111; for Maysville, see A. Michaux's _Travels_, in our volume iii, p. 35, note 23; and for Augusta, see Flint's _Letters_, in our volume ix, p. 148, note 69.

Neville, in Clermont County, Ohio, was settled by John Gregg in 1795.

The "Helen Mar" steamboat (88 tons) was built at Cincinnati in 1832; it was reported as being out of commission in 1837.

Moscow, Clermont County, Ohio, was laid out by Owen Davis (1816); and Point Pleasant, five miles farther down the river, in the same county, was platted in the same year by Joseph Jackson for its proprietor, Henry Ludlow.

For New Richmond, see Flint's _Letters_, in our volume ix, p. 148, note 70.--ED.

[73] For the founding of Cincinnati, see c.u.ming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, p. 256, note 166.--ED.

[74] For Big Bone Lick and the remains of the mammoth found there, see Croghan's _Journals_, in our volume i, p. 135, note 104.--ED.

[75] In Ferussac's "Bulletin des Sciences," 1831, there is a notice of a colossal animal, sixty feet long, lately discovered there, and the whole story was invented, merely to attract visitors. In Silliman's American Journal (Vol. xx. No. 2, July, 1831, page 370), there is a correct description of these bones, in refutation of the preceding statement.--MAXIMILIAN.

[76] On the early history of Louisville and the Falls of the Ohio, see Croghan's _Journals_ in our volume i, p. 136, note 106.--ED.

[77] Portland was laid out in 1814 for the proprietor, William Lytle; it was incorporated in 1834, and annexed to Louisville in 1837.

The "Water Witch" (120 tons) was built at Nashville in 1831, being sunk near Plaquemine, Louisiana, two years later.--ED.

[78] For New Albany, see Hulme's _Journal_, in our volume x, p. 44, note 15.--ED.

[79] Brandenburg is the seat of Meade County, Kentucky, forty miles below Louisville. It was incorporated in 1825, and named after Colonel Solomon Brandenburg, the proprietor.

Leavenworth, named for Messrs. S. M. and J. Leavenworth, is the seat of justice in Crawford County, Indiana. It was located in 1818.

Rome, Perry County, Indiana, was laid out (May, 1818) by one c.u.mmings, and named Washington; in the fall of the same year the name was changed to Franklin; when it was made the county seat in 1819, it was given its present name. See _History of Warrick, Spencer, and Perry Counties, Indiana_ (Chicago, 1885).

Stevensport was incorporated in 1825. Cloverport, originally Jossville, was established in 1828.--ED.

[80] For Rockport, see Woods's _English Prairie_, in our volume x, p.

251, note 58.

Owensboro (incorrectly written Owenburg) is the seat of justice for Daviess County, Kentucky. Originally called Rossborough, the name was later changed to that now used, being given in honor of Colonel Abraham Owen, killed in the battle of Tippecanoe. The town was incorporated February 3, 1817.--ED.

[81] An account of the founding of Evansville is given in Hulme's _Journal_, in our volume x, p. 45, note 16.

For Henderson, see c.u.ming's _Tour_, in our volume iv, p. 267, note 175.--ED.

[82] For Mount Vernon, see Flint's _Letters_, in our volume ix, p.

306, note 154. A short account of New Harmony is given in Hulme's _Journal_, in our volume x, p. 50, note 22.--ED.

CHAPTER VIII

DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY ABOUT NEW HARMONY IN INDIANA, AND WINTER RESIDENCE THERE FROM OCTOBER 19TH, 1832, TO MARCH 16TH, 1833

New Harmony on the Wabash--The Environs--Forests--Animals--Geological Formation--Climate--Aborigines--Remains of the former Population--The present Indians--The White Usurpers--Cultivation of the Country--Productions--Breed of Cattle--Buffaloes--The Naturalists at Harmony--Excursions--Fox River--Black River--Long Pond--The present sanitary State of the Country.

New Harmony was founded by Mr. Rapp, and his Swabian followers, in a wooded plain on the left or east bank of the Wabash, about fifteen or twenty miles distant from any other place. As Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar has already spoken on this subject, I need not give any further account of the history of this settlement; I will only add that Mr.

Owen, a Scotchman, bought the whole of Mr. Rapp, but afterwards disposed of it to Mr. William Maclure, President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.[83] At the time of our visit, Harmony had fallen into decay, and the people whom Mr. Maclure had settled there, were in part dispersed. Two sons of Mr. Owen were, however, still here, and also Mr. Thomas Say, and Mr. Lesueur; the first, well known as having accompanied Major Long in his two journeys into the interior, and the second, by his voyage round the world with Captain Baudin, and the celebrated Piron. Though Mr. Maclure did not appear to take any active part in the management of Harmony, because the climate did not agree with him, and he therefore resided in Mexico, he took care to furnish Mr. Say with a fine library of books on Natural History, which was constantly enriched with the most valuable new works published in Europe. He likewise had here a printing press, a copper-plate press, and an engraver. Mr. Maclure had purchased in France all the plates of Audebert and Vieillot's splendid ornithological works, which are preserved in the library.[84] Mr. Say has undertaken the superintendence of Mr. Maclure's property on the Wabash, but lives in a very retired manner, devoted to the study of natural history, and to literary pursuits.

[pg. 75] Harmony is now a large village, with about 600 inhabitants; the buildings, which are partly of brick, are detached from each other; the streets are at right angles, broad, and unpaved. The church built by Mr. Rapp has been transformed into an amateur theatre. The situation of Harmony is by no means unpleasant. The Wabash, a fine river, as broad as the Moselle, winds between banks which are now cultivated, but were lately covered with thick forests. A hilly tract, covered with woods, bounds the valley of the Wabash, which is frequently overflowed by the river, and thereby gains in fertility.

The place itself lies rather higher than the valley, surrounded by orchards, and is not exposed to inundations. The Wabash divides at Harmony into two arms, the eastern of which is called Cutoff River,[85] and further down into several branches, forming many wooded islands, the largest of which are inhabited.

New Harmony,[86] is surrounded on all sides by fields, which are from 600 to 800 paces in diameter; all around are lofty forests, where settlers have everywhere cultivated detached patches. These people are generally called backwoodsmen, who live like half savages, without any education or religious instruction. The forests which they inhabit are very extensive, and the soil extremely fertile: vegetation is much more luxuriant than to the east of the Alleghanys; and, therefore, a short description of the natural productions of the country will not be out of place here.

Some remarkable peculiarities strike the observer when he looks at the forests on the Wabash; one of these is the want of evergreens, if we except the _Visc.u.m flavescens_, _Pursh_, _Bignonia cruciata_, _Equisetum hyemale_, and _Miegia macrosperma_. The leaves of that bignonia, for the most part, remain green in the winter, as well as those of the miegia, and the stalks of the _Equisetum hyemale_, at least, in mild winters, which often grow to the height of eight or ten feet in the dry forests. The planes often attain an enormous size, and are then generally hollow, and divided into several colossal branches.

We measured several of these trees, and found one that was forty one feet five inches in circ.u.mference. The hollow inside was twelve feet in diameter, so that in our winter excursions we used to light a fire in it, where we sheltered from the wind. Tall tulip trees shoot up straight as masts, blossom, and bear seeds at their summits, unseen by human eye. Maples of great height and circ.u.mference, many species of oak, especially the mossy overcap oak (_Q. macrocarpa_), with its large acorns, which, at this time, lay on the ground, stand crowded together. A great many species of trees are mixed together; among them the _Gymnocladus Canadensis_, or _Guilandina Bonduc_, with its broad pods, the divers kinds of walnut trees, the _Gleditschia tricanthos_, with its formidable thorns; and many climbing plants twine round the trunks, and among them, the most beautiful of all, the _Bignonia radicans_.