Alexander County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter XXX Extracts From Other Sources 1910 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 20, 2007, 5:04 pm Book Title: A History Of The City Of Cairo Illiniois CHAPTER XXX EXTRACTS FROM BOOKS, PAMPHLETS AND LETTERS THERE has never been, in all probability, a time since the year 1750 when there was not a small settlement of some kind here, a house or cabin or two or three of them and now and then more of them. They were erected, of course, on timbers high enough to be above the spring floods. Trees of all kinds and suitable for every purpose were near by, and to the hardy woodsmen it was easy enough to construct suitable cabins to shelter their families and the few strangers who called at the point on their voyages up and down the rivers. There were no doubt small cleared patches of ground where were grown a few vegetables for their use; and it is not quite out of the question to suppose that some of them threw up small embankments to protect their possessions from the usual high water which they well knew must be expected at almost any time in the early part of the year. We must not forget that in those very early days there were adventurers enough, considering the state of the country. We must not suppose that there were none except those who kept accounts or journals of their travels. For every one who kept a diary or journal and preserved it for the use of himself and others, there were five or ten who scarcely thought of posterity or how they might hand their names down to coming generations. Even some of the voyagers of high degree and standing seem to have noted very few of the wonders they saw. We read their very meager accounts, and get just enough to cause us to want more. But it was the new world and everything was wild and strange, and there were few and slight chances to examine carefully and write fully about what they saw or heard in the ever changing scenes the rivers afforded. We may speak of a single instance: General Clark's letter, found elsewhere, of September 23, 1778, tells of his having to keep an armed boat at the point to watch both the English and the Spanish. His men were no doubt encamped on the point, and near by them were very probably woodsmen, hunters and others, although Clark said the ground was too low for the establishment of a secure and permanent fort. The travelers were almost always voyagers, and most of them were upon the Ohio, in the later times. The river reached into the Alleganies and near the regions of settled habitations. The landing on the Ohio side here was always good. There was no trouble with low water and seldom with high water, except for a month or two in the spring time. The current was always near to this shore, and whatever kind of boat or vessel was used, it naturally came closer to the landing on the Ohio side bewteen [sic] the two rivers. The little cutting of the banks here has always been on our side, and for a hundred years or more none at all has been known on the Kentucky shore just opposite our city. Can we in any better way use a reasonable number of pages than by giving a page or two from the travelers and writers who passed along the rivers as well before as after there was a settlement here? From Fortesque Comings "Sketches of a Tour of the Western Country"; 1807-1809.- Of this Englishman, Thwaites speaks in his preface as follows in "Early Western Travels," Vol. IV, pages 9-10: "In plain dispassionate style he has given us a picture of American life in the west, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, that for clear-cut outlines and fidelity of representation has the effect of a series of photographic representations. In this consists the value of the book for students of American history. We miss entirely those evidences of amused tolerance and superficial criticisms that characterize so many English books of his day, recounting travels in the United States- a state of mind sometimes developing into strong prejudice and evident distaste, which has made Dickens' 'American Notes' a caricature of conditions in the new country." He and a friend left Pittsburg July 18, 1807, in a "battau or flat bottomed skiff, twenty feet long, very light, and the stern sheets roofted with very thin boards, high enough to sit under with ease and long enough to shelter them when extended on the benches for repose, should they be benighted occasionally on the river, with a side curtain of tow cloth as a screen for either the sun or the night air." They spent many months at different points along the river and did not reach this part of the country until the month of May, 1808. The following is from pages 226-278 of Vol. IV: " May 22nd, at day break we gladly cast off, and at a mile below Wilkinsonville, turned to the left into a long reach in a S. W. and S. direction, where in .nine miles farther, the river gradually narrows to a half a mile wide, and the current is one fourth stronger than above. Three miles lower we saw a cabin and small clearing on the right shore, apparently abandoned, five miles below which we landed in the skiff, and purchased some fowls, eggs, and milk, at a solitary but pleasant settlement on the right just below Cash Island. It is occupied by one Petit with his family, who stopped here to make a crop or two previous to his descending the Mississippi, according to his intentions on some future day. "Two miles and a half from hence, we left Cash River, a fine harbor for boats, about thirty yards wide at its mouth, on the right, and from hence we had a pleasant and cheerful view down the river, and a S. S. E. direction five miles to the Mississippi. "First on the right just below the mouth of Cash River, M'Mullin's pleasant settlement, and a little lower a cabin occupied by a tenant who labored for him. A ship at anchor close to the right shore, three miles lower down, enlivened the view, which was closed below by Colonel Bird's flourishing settlement on the south bank of the Mississippi. "We soon passed and spoke the ship, which was the Rufus King, Captain Clarke, receiving a cargo of tobacco, &c, by boats down the river from Kentucky, and intended to proceed in about a week, on a voyage to Baltimore. It was now a year since she was built at Marietta, and she had got no further yet. "At noon we entered the Mississippi flowing from east above, to east by south below the conflux of the Ohio, which differs considerably from its general course of from north to south. "We had thought the water very turbid, but it was clear in comparison of the Mississippi, and the two rivers being distinctly marked three or four miles afterv their junction. The Ohio carried us out almost into the middle of the Mississippi, so that I was almost deceived into thinking that the latter river ran to the westward instead of to the eastward; by the time, however, that we were near mid-channel the Mississippi had gained the ascendancy, and we were forced to eastward with increased velocity, its current being more rapid than that of the Ohio. We soon lost sight of the labyrinth of waters formed by the conflux of the two rivers, and quickly got into a single channel, assuming gradually its usual southerly direction. We* now began to look for Fort Jefferson, marked in Mr. Cramer's Navigator as just above Mayfield Creek on the left, but not seeing either we supposed they were concealed by island No. I acting as a screen to them." In the "Recollections, of the Last Ten Years in the Valley of the Mississippi" by the Rev. Thomas Flint, which is a collection of letters by the author to the Rev. James Flint, we find in letter twelve, pp. 85 and 86, the following: "The 28th of April, 1816, we came in sight of what had long been the subject of our conversation, our inquiries and curiosity, the far-famed Mississippi . . . turning the point, and your eye catches the vast Mississippi rolling down her mass of turbid waters, which seem, compared with the limpid and greenish colored waters of the Ohio, to be almost a milky whiteness. . . . A speculation was gotten up to form a great city at the Delta, and in fact they raised a few houses upon piles of wood. The houses were inundated and when we were there, 'they kept the town,' as the boatmen phrase it, in a vast flat boat, a hundred feet in length, in which there were families, liquor shops, drunken men and women and all the miserable appendages to such a place. To render the solitude of the pathless forest on the opposite shore more dismal, there is one gloomy looking house there." Longs Expedition to the Rocky Mountains; 1819.- This expedition was sent out by the Hon. John C. Calhoun, the Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson. The men who went were Major S. H. Long, of the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers, John Riddle and William Baldwin, both of Pennsylvania, Thomas Say, Augustus E. Jessup, Titian Ramsey Beale, James D. Graham, of Virginia, and William H. Swift, of Massachusetts. They were well equipped and had delayed their start somewhat for better preparation. In this respect, they were in better condition than were Lewis and Clark, fourteen years before. Calhoun's instructions to them showed he had in mind the honor and success which came to Jefferson in sending out the expedition he did to the Oregon coast. They left Pittsburg on the steamboat Western Engineer, May 3, 1819, and reached the mouth of the Ohio River the afternoon of May 30. Edwin James, botanist and geologist of the expedition, wrote the account of the journey and of the work accomplished, and the same makes four volumes of Thwaites' "Early Western Travels," beginning with Vol. XIV. Major Stephen Harriman Long, whose name was given to one of the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Long's Peak; 14,000 feet high, was the father of Henry C. Long, who was for many years the chief engineer of the Cairo City Property management and also an engineer here for the Illinois Central Railroad Company. He prepared the very valuable topographical map of Cairo, dated July 2, 1850, which shows the whole face of the point as it existed when the Holbrook people turned over the abandoned city to the Trustees of the Cairo City Property. This was almost a year before Col. Samuel Staats Taylor came here, which was April 15, 1851. A photograph copy of Long's topographical map, made from the original now on file in the War Department at Washington, is found on another page. Major S. H. Long had become Col. Long before the year 1850, and we find that in that year he caused a very full and complete survey to be made of this place and its immediate vicinity. The work was done under his direction and supervision but by his son, Henry C. Long, who addressed his report to "Col. Long, U. S. Top'l Engineer, Supt. Western R. Improvements, &c, Louisville, Kentucky." The report is dated at Louisville, September 2, 1850, and Col. Long submitted the same to Messrs. Davis and Taylor, Trustees of the Cairo City Property, City of New York, by a letter dated at Louisville, September 4, 1850. A part of the report is found in Chapter VIII. James describes fully their journey down the Ohio. Nearly every city, town, village and hamlet comes in for its proper share of attention, getting just about what eveiy one would suppose it ought to have. On pages 84 and 85, we read as follows: "On the 30th, we arrived at a point a little above the mouth of Cash river, where a town has been laid out, called America. It is on the north bank of the Ohio, about eleven miles from the Mississippi, and occupies the first heights on the former, secure from an inundation of both rivers, (If we except a small area three and a half miles below, where there are three Indian mounds, situated on a tract containing about half an acre above high-water mark.) The land on both sides of the Ohio, below this place, is subject to be overflowed to various depth, from six to fourteen feet in time of floods; and on the south side, the fiat lands extend four or five miles above. The aspect of the country, in and about the town, is rolling or moderately hilly, being the commencement of the high lands between the two rivers; but below it, however, the land is flat, having the character of the low bottoms of the Ohio. The growth is principally cottonwood, sycamore, walnut, hickory, maple, oak, &c. The soil is first-rate, and well suited to cultivation. Here follows quite an account of America and the adjacent country, in which it is said, 'This position may be considered as the head of constant navigation for the Mississippi.')" . . . "In the afternoon of the 30th (May, 1819), we arrived at the mouth of the Ohio river. "This beautiful river has a course of one thousand and thirty-three miles, through a country surpassed in fertility of soil by none in the United States. Except in high floods, its water is transparent, its current gentle and nearly uniform. For more than half of its course, its banks are high and its bed gravelly. "The confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi is in latitude 37° 22' 9" north, according to the observations of Mr. Ellicott, and in longitude 88° 50' 42" west, from Greenwich. The lands about the junction of these two great rivers are low, consisting of recent alluvion, and covered with dense forests. At the time of our journey, the spring floods having subsided in the Ohio, this quiet and gentle river seemed to be at once swallowed up, and lost in the rapid and turbulent current of the Mississippi. Floods of the Mississippi, happening when the Ohio is low, occasion a reflux of the waters of the latter, perceptible at Fort Massac, more than thirty miles above. It is also asserted, that the floods in the Ohio occasion a retardation in the current of the Mississippi, as far up as the Little Chain, ten miles below Cape Girardeau. The navigation of the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio, also that of the Ohio, is usually obstructed for a part of the winter by large masses of floating ice. The boatmen observe that soon after the ice from the Ohio enters the Mississippi, it becomes so much heavier by arresting the sands, always mixed with the waters of that river, that it soon sinks to the bottom. After ascending the Mississippi about two miles, we came to an anchor, and went on shore on the eastern side. The forests here are deep and gloomy, swarming with innumerable mosquitoes, and the ground overgrown with enormous nettles. There is no point near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi from which a distant prospect can be had. Standing in view of the junction of these magnificent rivers, meeting almost from opposite extremities of the continent, and each impressed with the peculiar character of the regions from which it descends, we seem to imagine ourselves capable of comprehending at one view all that vast region between the summits of the Alleghanies and of the Rocky Mountains, and feel a degree of impatience at finding all our prospects limited by an inconsiderable extent of low muddy bottom lands, and the unrelieved, unvaried gloom of the forest. "Finding it necessary to renew the packing of the piston in the steam-engine, which operation would require some time, most of the gentlemen of the party were dispersed on shore in pursuit of their respective objects, or engaged in hunting. Deer, turkeys, and beaver are still found in plenty in the low grounds, along both sides of the Mississippi; but the annoyance of the mosquitoes and nettles preventing the necessary caution and silence in approaching the haunts of these animals, our hunting was without success. "We were gratified to observe many interesting plants, and among them several of the beautiful family of the orchidae, particularly the orchis spectabile, so common in the mountainous parts of New England. "The progress of our boat against the heavy current of the Mississippi, was of necessity somewhat slow. Steam-boats in ascending are kept as near the shore as the depth of water will admit; and ours often approached so closely as to give such of the party as wished, an opportunity to jump on shore. On the first of June, several gentlemen of the party went on shore, six miles below the settlement of Tyawapatia bottom, and walked up to that place through the woods. They passed several Indian encampments, which appeared to have been recently tenanted. Under one of the wigwams they saw pieces of honeycomb, and several sharpened sticks that had been used to roast meat upon; on a small tree near by was suspended the lower jaw-bone of a bear. Soon after leaving these they came to another similar camp, where they found a Shawanee Indian and his squaw, with four children, the youngest lashed to a piece of board, and leaned against a tree. "The Indian had recently killed a deer, which they purchased of him for one dollar and fifty cents- one-third more than is usually paid to white hunters. They afterwards met with another encampment, where were several families. These Indians have very little acquaintance with the English language, and appeared reluctant to use the few words they knew. The squaws wore great numbers of trinkets, such as silver arm-bands and large ear-rings. Some of the boys had pieces of lead tied in various parts of the hair. They were encamped near the Mississippi, for the purpose of hunting on the islands. Their village is on Apple Creek, ten miles from Cape Girardeau. "June 2d. As it was only ten miles to Cape Girardeau, and the progress of the boat extremely tedious, several of the party, taking a small supply of provisions, went on shore, intending to walk to that place. "About the settlement of Tyawapatia, and near Cape a la Bruche, is a ledge of rocks, stretching across the Mississippi, in a direct line, and in low water forming a serious obstacle to the navigation. These rocks are of limestone, and mark the commencement of the hilly country on the Mississippi. Here the landscape begins to have something of the charm of distant perspective. We seem released from the imprisonment of the deep monotonous forest, and can occasionally overlook the broad hills of Apple Creek, and the Au Vaise, or Muddy river of Illinois, diversified with a few scattered plantations, and some small natural meadows. "About five miles above Cape Girardeau we found the steam-boat Jefferson, destined for the Missouri. She had been detained some time waiting for castings which were on board the Western Engineer. Several other steam-boats, with stores for the troops about to ascend the Missouri, had entered that river, and were waiting to be overtaken by the Jefferson and the Calhoun, which last we had left at the rapids of the Ohio. On the 3d of June we passed that insular rock in the middle of the Mississippi, called the Grand Tower. It is about one hundred and fifty feet high, and two hundred and fifty in diameter. Between it and the right shore is a channel of about one hundred and fifty yards in width, with a deep and rapid current." "The Grand Tower, from its form and situation, strongly suggests the idea of a work of art. It is not impossible that a bridge may be constructed here, for which this rock shall serve as a pier. The shores, on both sides, are of substantial and permanent rocks, which undoubtedly extend across, forming the bed of the river. It is probable, however, that the ledge of rocks called the Two Chains, extending down to Cape a la Bruche, presents greater facilities for the construction of a bridge than this point, as the high lands there approach nearer the river, and are less broken than in the neighborhood of the Grand Tower. The Ohio would also admit of a bridge at the Chains, which appear to be a continuation of the range of rocks here mentioned, crossing that river fifteen miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. We look forward to the time when these great works will be completed." Alexander Phillip Maximilian, prince of Wied-Neuwied, made a journey down the Ohio from Pittsburg in the years 1831 and 1832. The following is what he says of his trip from Smithland at the mouth of the Cumberland to the mouth of the Ohio, which he reached March 20, 1832. (Thwaites' "Early Western Travels," Vol. XXII, pp. 200-204.) "At this place the Paragon took in wood and provisions. Not far from Smithland is the mouth of the Tennessee River, which is said to be more considerable than the Cumberland, and to have a course of 1,200 miles. The little village, Paduca, on the left bank of the Ohio, appeared to have much traffic, and a number of new shops had been built. The Western Pilot of the year 1829 does not mention this place- a proof of its recent origin. From hence we came to the spot where Fort Massac formerly stood, stones of which are still found. We lay to some hundred paces below to take in wood, of which our vessel consumed twelve cords daily. The grass on the banks was already of a bright green colour, and a race of large, long-legged sheep were grazing on it. We lay to for the night. "Early in the morning of the 20th of March we approached the mouth of the Ohio, where it falls into the Mississippi, 959 miles from Pittsburg, and 129 3-4 miles from St. Louis. The tongue of land on the right, which separates the two rivers, was, like the whole of the country, covered with rich woods, which were partly cleared, and a few houses erected, with an inn and store, and the dwelling of a planter, where we took in wood. In this store we saw, among heaps of skins, that of a black bear, lately killed, of which one of the three cubs, a very comical little beast, had been kept alive. This young bear had on his breast a semicircle of white hair. The settlement, at which we were now, has no other name than Mouth of the Ohio. We now entered the Mississippi, and ascended it, keeping to the left or eastern bank." The following is from the diary of Mr. Caleb B. Crumb, furnished me by his son, Mr. D. S. Crumb, of St. Louis, through Mr. Robert P. Bates, of Chicago. It is one of the most interesting papers to be found anywhere relating to the early history of this locality. In a letter of October 15, 1909, to Mr. Bates, accompanying the extract, Mr. Crumb says of his father, "That on the trip spoken of, he met, by accident, a Mr. Sanford, the recorder of deeds and the clerk of the Circuit Court at Jackson, the county seat of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, who became interested in the young fellow, evidently in rather rough company on the raft, and offered him, off hand, a position in his office, and that on his return up the river he stopped over and did some work in his office, and that he then returned home, but that twenty-two years later, after some reverses at Morris and Chicago, he went to Jackson on the invitation of Mr. Sanford; and from that time dates the establishment of the Crumb family in Missouri." "Mouth of the Ohio River, May 29, 1836. "I am a raftsman now and can much more skillfully wield the oar than the pen. At this time I ardently desire language to suitably describe this neglected place, which evidently awaits a high destiny. " While I stand in this southwest corner of the State of Illinois on a beautiful point of land commanding a full view of the majestic 'Father of Waters' on the right and the limpid Ohio on the left, I seem to see in the place of the two houses which at present constitute this un-named village, a noble and flourishing city, containing thousands of inhabitants, enjoying the unparalleled advantages of an unbounded expanse of fertile country around it and a water communication alike uninterrupted by the parching heat of summer or the fettering cold of winter. I confidently believe that this almost desert point of land is susceptible of greater improvement than any other equal portion of land in America. "Mr. Bird's is the only family residing here at present. The Union Hotel is a fine building as also the store which is set up about ten feet above the ground on wooden piles. Both buildings are of wood." From "Eight Months in Illinois" by William Oliver, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1843: "Before arriving at the mouth, we looked out anxiously for the Father of Waters; but could not, even after we were told he was in sight, distinguish him, until we came very near, and then it was more from the quantity of ice floating on his surface than from any local feature, that we became aware of his presence. This results from the Ohio gradually bending, particularly on the left shore, in the direction of the course of the Mississippi. One might readily suppose it only a bend in the river. The place of junction has the appearance of a large lake; and from the landing-place, at Bird's Point (Cairo), there is a view of seven or eight miles down the Mississippi, and of nearly as much up the Ohio. The Mississippi is here one mile and the Ohio one mile and three quarters, wide. "As the boat was bound for New Orleans, and I intended to ascend the Mississippi, I was set ashore to wait for some boat which should pass for St. Louis. The appearance of the rivers was grand, but the adjuncts were anything but agreeable. The place had a bad name, and certainly did not seem very captivating or safe, from the number of idle, vagabond-looking boatmen who were strolling about its desolate shores. These were some of the crews of a great number of flat boats or scows, which lined the shores of the Ohio, and who durst not, with such unwieldy things, venture into the ice on the Mississippi. Fortunately, there were five of us travelling the same route, and as we had become in some measure acquainted during our voyage down the Ohio, we felt the more confident. Whilst one watched the luggage, the rest went about to see if they could procure accommodation at any place besides the inn, as it had anything but a good character. We might have saved ourselves the trouble, however, as there was no other dwelling, except a log hut, full of the choppers of wood for the steamers. We walked about the bank till near dark, in the expectation of a boat for St. Louis, or some other town up the Mississippi; but night approached without any boat appearing, and we reluctantly had our things carried to the house, which aspired to the distinction of hotel. Two of our party, however, found one of the owners of a flat boat whom they knew, and got themselves huddled into his boat, amongst a cargo of horses, fowls, Yankee bedposts, &c. I looked down into their den, and how they contrived to stow themselves away at night along with four or five people belonging to the boat, I do not pretend to guess. On going into the bar-room of the inn, I was somewhat surprised to find it very much like the bars of other inns; there were, to be sure, two or three strange outlandish-looking gentry sitting around the stove; but such visions are very frequently met with in all the taverns and boats on those rivers. "The prospect had now become rather dreary. The ice on the Mississippi was so dense, that it was very doubtful if any boat would venture into it; it was certain that no boat, except one of the strongest and most powerful, would make the attempt, and equally certain that there would be some danger and risk of losing the boat. There was no road from the point in any direction; no such thing dreamed of as a stage, nor so much as a wagon for love or money. Taking it on foot, with the chance of bivouacking in the woods for two or three nights, was the only chance of getting away. To be sure, the landlord had a horse, which he very politely offered us for three times its value, but when he 'obnoxiously made his approaches,' we declined the proffered favour. "All went on very well till a short time after supper, when, as we were sitting in the bar-room, two men, Kentucks, came in; one of them desiring to write a letter, the other, as ugly a looking fellow as I ever saw, standing by. The scribe had scarcely commenced, when the landlord went up to him, and enquired if he was not the person who had lately insulted him at the wood-yard. The Kentuck denied that he had done anything to insult him. 'Do you not reckon it an insult, sir,' said the landlord, a tall, thin fellow, with an agueish look, and a dreadful cough, 'to moor your flat boat at my wood-yard, where you have no right to bring it, and when I merely mentioned it to you, and cautioned you that you might get your boat staved by some of the steamers which came to the yard for firewood, do you call it no insult to threaten to put a bullet through me? If it had not been that I was alone, sir, I would have pitched you into the river.' 'Well, sir- now, sir,' edged in the little Kentuck, 'hear me, sir, will you, sir, give us the usage of a gentleman, sir- speak to us as one gentleman ought to speak to another, sir.' 'Yes, sir, treat us like gentlemen, sir- treat us genteelly, &c, &c.,' said the tall, ugly Kentuck. After an immense deal of palaver, and the most horrible swearing on both sides, for about a quarter of an hour, the writer tore his letter to pieces, saying he found this was no place for gentlemen, that he would disdain to stay in it any longer, and that he would report the landlord's behaviour, and do all in his power to injure his custom. The brawl had now come to such a height, and there was so much gesticulation, that I looked every moment for the long knives, which are very generally carried, and had serious apprehensions that the fray would end in bloodshed. The Kentucks had been gradually retreating towards the door, on attaining which, they said somewhat I did not hear, but which so enraged our landlord that he rushed after them in the dark, and such a shrieking and shouting arose, that I thought some of them had got stabbed, particularly when one cried murder. There had been no harm done, however, but the affair did not look much better when the landlord came into the bar-room, took up his rifle and carefully examined the priming, and the bar-keeper and he began hastily to load two or three other guns and some pistols. The Kentucks, having been joined by their companions at the boat, now commenced shouting and firing guns in bravado, to see, as I understood, if they could induce their opponents to come out and have a regular battle; our landlord, however, merely went to the door and fired off a pistol, to let them know that he was prepared for them. Nothing more took place, and in a short time all was quiet. "Next morning (it was Sunday) when I awoke, the sun was just rising over the forest of Kentucky, and through two windows on opposite sides of the room I could lie in my bed and look out on the two mighty rivers, the Ohio glittering in the rays of the sun, and studded with immense quantities of driftwood, and the Father of Waters covered with an almost entire mass of ice. moving steadily along with a sort of mysterious hurtling noise, the dense, dark forest lining the distant shore of each. There was the stillness of death, save that sound proceeding from the ice-clad river, and now and then the report of a gun, rolling on till lost in the woods. "The boatmen of the numerous flat boats were mostly provided with guns, and shot ducks on the river, or went to the woods to shoot deer, which were in great abundance, particularly on the Kentucky side of the Ohio. After breakfast, the whole forest far and near seemed to be alive with men, cracking and shooting in all directions; its being Sunday, not seeming to influence in the slightest degree these almost lawless denizens of the western wilderness. "There was, on this day, an occurrence at Bird's Point (Cairo), which I was inclined to suspect would not be frequent. A priest, of what persuasion I know not, happened to be amongst us, who, having intimated a desire to preach, was permitted by the landlord to occupy a room in the hotel. A considerable number, I think about thirty, attended, and it was strange to look round on the rough, weather beaten, and, in some instances, savage-looking faces of the hearers. The preacher delivered a very appropriate and sensible discourse. "Another day passed in tedious expectation. The frost having become less intense, and the influence of the sun being very considerable, so much so, indeed, that some of the people walked about through the day with their coats off, the ice had grown somewhat thinner. It takes a severe frost to preserve the ice from being thawed before it reaches this latitude, 37° north. This day two boats came down the Mississippi from St. Louis, and their report of the difficulty and danger of coming down made our case almost hopeless. The boats had come in company all the way, the one in the wake of the other, and that which had sailed foremost had not a board left on her paddle wheels. When there was such difficulty in getting down, it may easily be conceived that there would be still greater difficulty in ascending against a current of five or six miles an hour. "A boat came up the river from New Orleans, for Cincinnati, whose report rather revived us again, as she had been able, though with considerable difficulty, to make way against the ice, which, however, was thinner below than above the junction of the rivers. There was no ice on the Ohio. This boat told us of one which we might expect in a few hours, on her way to St. Louis; but night came and no boat. "This must be a very unhealthy place, as it lies so low, that when the Mississippi rises in June, from the melting of the snow on the Rocky Mountains, it overflows almost every foot of land, all around far into the forest, and on the Mississippi, at frequent intervals, for about 30 miles up the river. The inn is set upon posts of seven or eight feet high, and is placed on the highest point of ground in the neighborhood, and a sort of gangway, also raised on posts, and cross logs, connects the house and store, at which is the landing place for passengers and goods, when the water is high. The landing is on the Ohio, the Mississippi being nearly a quarter of a mile from the inn. "To those who do not know the locality, it may appear singular that there is no town on this point- a fact, however, of itself sufficient to indicate the impracticability of such an undertaking. No doubt a town might be built, but the whole point is composed of an alluvion so very friable, that if the Mississippi, in one of his ordinary freaks, were to change his course, the whole affair might be swept away in a few days. Some may think of embankments, but that is a dream, the baseless fabric of a vision. For a long way up the river there is no shore, but a perpendicular mud bank, which is constantly being undermined and tumbled into the river; besides, the whole point is liable to periodical inundation. "On the afternoon of next day (Christmas) the long-looked-for boat arrived, and we were gratified to hear her captain say he was determined to proceed. So much time, however, was put off in fixing some trees to the bows of the boat, to ward off the ice, that night approached, and the captain thought proper not to venture into the ice till next morning. "Early next morning we started. A considerable number of people had collected on the extreme point to witness the attempt. It certainly was with some anxiety that we saw the bows of the boat enter the ice, and the shaking and agitation caused by the striking of the paddles on the large pieces, were very considerable; we found, however, that the boat could make way, though slowly, and in a short time nobody seemed to care much about it." In January, 1849, Col. Henry L. Webb, of Trinity, at the mouth of Cache River, or possibly at that time of Cairo, was making up a company for a trip to California by way of New Orleans, Brownsville, Mexico and Arizona, and John Woodhouse Audubon, a son of John James Audubon, the great ornithologist, arranged to join Col. Webb with a large number of men and to proceed from Cairo on their journey. They came down the Ohio from Pittsburg and reached Cairo about February 12th, and New Orleans February 18th. He speaks of Col. Webb and his wife and son, the latter of whom was H. Watson Webb, we suppose. Here is an account of his arrival and short stay at Cairo: "Large flocks of geese and ducks were seen by us as we made the mouth of the Ohio, and the numbers increased about Cairo. The ice in the Mississippi was running so thick that the 'J. Q. Adams' returned after a fruitless effort to ascend the river. All Cairo was under water, the wharf boat we were put on, an old steamer, could only accommodate thirty-five of our party, so that the other thirty had to be sent to another boat of the same class; the weather was extremely cold, with squalls of snow from the north with a keen wind. There was no plank from our boat to the levee of Cairo, the only part of the city out of water. Will it be wondered at that a slight depression of spirits should for an instant assail me? But when a man has said he will do a thing it must be done if life permits, and in an hour we found ourselves by a red hot stove, the men provided with good berths for the place, cheerfulness restored, and after an hour's chat, while listening to the ever increasing gale outside, we parted for the night to wake cold, but with good appetities even for the horrible fare we had, and as young Kearney Rodgers said, as we looked at the continents of coffee stains, and islands of grease here and there, with lumps of tallow and peaks of frozen butter on our once white table cloth, 'Is it not wonderful what hunger will bring us to?' "Here we found Col. Webb with his wife and son. I was much pleased with the dignified and ladylike appearance of Mrs. Webb; once she had been very beautiful, now she was greatly worn, and had a melancholy expression, under the circumstances more appropriate than any other, for her husband and only son were about to leave her for certainly eighteen months, and perhaps she was parting with them for the last time. We chatted together in rather a forced conversation, until the 'General Scott' for New Orleans came by, and then went on board, paying eight dollars for each man and five dollars each for Col. Webb's three horses. So much for Cairo; I don't care ever to see it again." The flood of which Audubon here speaks was the same one written about by Editor Sanders in his "Cairo Delta," of March 20, 1849. It was the same flood that broke through the Mississippi levees, the crevasse in which is seen on the large map of July, 1850. Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Cunynghame, in his "Glimpse of the Great Western Republic," London, 1851, says, on pp. 2 and 3: "My absence from Montreal was to be seven weeks, and I proposed, in the first instance, to travel about a thousand miles west, and to strike the Mississippi well to the northward, in the State of Iowa, to enjoy a few days' grouse shooting; thence to travel about fifteen hundred miles down the Mississippi to New Orleans, visiting any places worthy of attention on the way; passing through the Southern States, to Savannah, Charleston, and returning to Montreal through the most flourishing cities of the Union- Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. . . . . . . . . . . . . " On the evening of the 26th, (October, 1850) we at length arrived at Cairo. Here I found several steamboats, bound both up and down the river, waiting for cargo, and for passengers. I was particularly struck with the neat and cleanly appearance of the 'Lexington,' and as she was advertised to sail on the following day for New Orleans, and her draught of water was considerably less than that of the 'Atlantic,' of which I was by this time heartily tired, I determined to engage a berth on board her. The owner of the 'Atlantic' was exceedingly unwilling that I should do so, assuring me that the 'Lexington' would not leave Cairo for some days, whereas the clerk of that vessel stated that she would certainly depart the following morning. Amongst all these contradictory assertions I was somewhat puzzled, but determined to abandon the 'Altantic' [sic]; I therefore sacrificed a few dollars, and obtained an exceedingly good stateroom in my new boat. "The site of the town of Cairo was purchased many years since by an English company, of which, I understand, the Rothschilds were to be the principal shareholders. Geographically speaking, there is perhaps no position in the whole of the United States which would promise better for the site of a large city than that of Cairo. It is situated at the fork of the Ohio and Mississippi. The navigation for large boats during a low state of water commences here. The mid-winter navigation when the upper waters of both these rivers are choked with ice, is free to this point; from its position, it would naturally be the spot where the great railroads from north to south of the western parts of the United States would traverse. These advantages have, however, been as yet paralyzed by the fearful floods which annually lay all this country under water, frequently rising much above an embankment, here called a levee,' which some years since has been thrown around the site of the intended city. The enterprise of the west, however, has now grown to such a pitch, as to overcome all natural obstacles where any chance of gain exists; and this winter the whole site of Cairo city is to be placed in the market, the company having determined, as an inducement to purchasers, to build a dike around it that will bid defiance even to this mighty stream. No doubt, on the subsiding of the waters, that is, during the summer, an unhealthy miasma will invade its precincts. Yet this will not deter thousands from occupying this position, nor will there be any want of persons to supply the places of those who may succumb to its effects; for a species of Californian yellow fever, which rages in parts of the United States, never abates in consequence of the innovations of any other; and thus Cairo, though now insignificant, may in a few years excel, both in wealth and in size, as it speedily will in intelligence, its older namesake, Cairo on the Nile, whose propensities to overflow her banks are the same as the Mississippi. Another cause, I was informed, which has retarded Cairo, was that the company, following the English custom, declined to sell the lots, and were only willing to let them on long leases. When so much land and city lots are in the market, property under these restrictions will rarely attract purchasers; but now that they are to be for bona fide sale, no doubt they will find purchasers." From "Guide Americain" by Jules Rouby, Park, 1859.- There is some error in the date, but the reference is to the Halliday Hotel. The Illinois Central, however, was completed about three or four years before the hotel. The translation is sufficiently literal to show its French origin. " Cairo, five and a half miles below, in the State of Illinois, is the site of Eden, according to the celebrated English novelist, Charles Dickens. This insignificant village, which comprises as yet only two hundred and fifty to three hundred inhabitants, and whose beginning goes back several years, occupies from the commercial point of view, a situation almost unrivaled in the entire world; thus no mediocre ambition is there cherished. Seated at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi, at the apex of the delta formed by those two powerful watercourses, it aspires to become some day an eminent city, a colossal center of progress and of business; in a word, to become the key of all the commerce of the south, west, and northwest of the United States. It is true that this enterprise presents unimaginable difficulties for its realization, and that up to the present time, the town of Cairo has marked its ambitious pretensions only by superhuman efforts to arise from a small estate and to defend its alluvial flats against the two streams which constantly threaten it with inundation and unhealthfulness. These two streams are not, however, invincible, and it is entirely probable that American ability will in the end triumph over them by means of perseverance, labor, and expenditure of money. The results, howsoever obtained by this intrepid ability, permit one to dream for Cairo the brilliant destiny that its incomparable geographical situation promises, and that the indefatigable activity of its populace is preparing. Let us note, in passing, that this tiny village gives itself, as much as possible, anticipatory airs of a great city. Already there are to be seen several buildings for business purposes of a monumental aspect, and an hotel which would honor the finest city of both worlds. "Cairo will soon become the terminus of the Illinois Central Railway, now in course of construction, and at this point must occur some future day the welding of a continuous transportation route on the perimeter of the great federal republic." Additional Comments: Extracted from: A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF CAIRO ILLINOIS BY JOHN M. LANSDEN WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS CHICAGO R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 1910 COPYRIGHTED, 1910 BY JOHN M. LANSDEN The Lakeside Press R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/alexander/history/1910/ahistory/chapterx144gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 45.6 Kb