OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Lindsay Journal #3, PART 4
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Helen Silvey 
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http://jpaul.gwdi.com/silvey/
January 8, 1999
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Continued


     But our farmer, as well off as the generality of his neighbors, seemed to
be well contented with his Log Dwelling, for he had lived in it some 16 or 20
years without a loft or any intervening stone between his loose puncheon
flooor and the roof;---the cracks had something or other been carelessly
chincked, but now a second edition seemed to be called for, the corners of
the building had never been sawed off, & its stubling cut down, & probably to
remedy the neglect, or want of a window, the doors were hung with wooden
hinges arranged to swing open & shut on the outside.  and a matter which our
ill grained patient seemed rather to be displeased with, in his chilling &
shivering situation, the doors which were swung open during the day -- for
the double purpose of light & ventilation -- were still kept swung back until
bed time.  And then bed time and the beds, will long be remembered by our
testy variolid of the lancet for our landlord like most others of the
country, had no aparments or chambers, Kitchen and 3 kind of things called
beds were all in the same room, and during this 2d night of his sojourning
the landlady, Land Lord and seven or eight children, the eldest now a young
woman, for the sake of accomodating their sick Pillpedler and a brother in
law from the viscinity of Vicksburg that night there on a visit, all lodged
in two of the beds.  And liberally as our invalid was accomdated, he was so
unwell & wrestless that he could not sleep.  The Traveller of the N. Western
county, where the country is improved, who can almost at any farmhouse be
accomodated with a clean neat bed & fresh sheets and a separate room, will
the more readily be able to appreciate the feelings of our patient, who
himself was from the N. W. and had not yet been initiated or become
accustomed to the usages of the Rackensack.

     The 2d. night over, our guest having breakfasted, paid his bill, moderate
enough. & now feeling something better, took boarding in a little cabin near
the beach, where the Keelboat which contained his produce and freight was
cabled. & cabin as it was, it was new clean & neat, & our patient had clean
neat bed to himself.  The tenant of the cabin was a viriginian, and had
within a year or 15 months emigrated from Ohio, where he had resided several
years.  It was here for the first time since the chilling exacerbations of
our patient had been induced he had an opportunity of looking at an itching
kind of stye which he had felt coming on the left lower eyelid for some days
previous.  And his feelings were startld (sic) as he now for the first time
was awakened to his true situation, he now felt satisfyed that his 2 previous
days of indisposition, and the supposeed stye was noth(ing) less than the
varioloid, however he felt thankful that this was the only Pock produced, and
that, as he hoped, the worst stage of the disease had passed off so lightly.
and now as there had a fine rise taken place in the River was encouraged by
the expectation of a boat shortly arriving which would afford an opportunity
of geting up the River to Van buren & fort clark, the poarts he had shiped
for when he went on board the Tecumseh 4 days after this, which was about the
15th Jany.  The Steamboard Fox came along with Capt. M'Culley, of the
Tecumseh on board.  The Fox was commanded by Capt. Buckner. with whom
arrangements were made to ship all the freight which the Tecumseh had put out
at this point.  The whole night was consumed in geting the freight on board. 
This Boat was employed by government in taking the Cherokee & Chickasau
Indians from Memphis Tenn. to Webbers falls and Fort Gibson in the section of
country given these Indians, in exchange for their lands South of the
Mississippi.  The Fox had not more than got under weigh with our varioloid
subject & his freight, when, it was whispered thro' the boat. that he had
been Physician to Capt. Gunter, & that he now was laboring under the Small
Pox.  The news passed from one to another like electricity. but great as was
the panic among the whites. it was still ten fold worse among the Indians. 
Of the Indians there were 200 & upwards, and so soon as the Fox could reach
the shore they commenced landing & putting out into the woods. and there was
no other alternative our patient had to be put on the oposite shore.  Such
was the excitement that Capt. Buckner was apprehensive that our unfortunate
patient (invalid) was endangered in regard to his personal safety, the Capt.
ordered the mate to take him in the yall, into which the Capt. jumped
himself, and all three crossed over to the opposite side of the River, when
our hero was set on the shore to get up the River as best he might, or could.
 This our unfortunate patient, was yet quite feeble & debilitated, altho'
much better than was some 5 or 6 days previous.  However he set forward
determinded (sic) by traveling as he could stand it, to get up the River as
fast as the nature of things would admit. a distance of 100 MIles or upward. 
The first day he traveled about 12 miles, having been set on shore about 5
miles below Lewisburg the county see of Conway Co. Arks. so named after Gov.
Conway now the Gov. of the State.  The 2d. day he traveled upward of 20
miles.  The last 8 or 10 miles he was much fatigued, and his feet having
blistered the first day He now suffered very much from his feet, and soreness
of the feet & Legs, without stopping to dine, or take any refreshments, he
traveled on through a heavy shower of Rain; & just before Sundown, arrived at
the 5 miles house, after passing through a wilderness of this extent.  But
his disappointment may be better imagined than described when he arrived at
the door. and asked for the hospitalities of the house, behold a passenger 
had just arrived from the Fox, who recognised our pedestrian as being the
same individual who had been set a shore from the steamboat only the day
before on a charge of having small Pox.  He was indignantly forbid having any
refreshments or accomodations there, & ordered to leave the premises
immediately. & if he had carried with him Psandora's Box, or the volatile
deleterious properties of the upas Tree double distilled, he could not have
produced more terror than was depicted on the countenances of Major . . . . &
his family.  Our unfortunate pedestrian was under the necessity of continuing
his line of march being looked on as a moving pestilence.  At this time his
philosophy had well nigh forsaken him. and he left the house dejected,
fatigued, and weary.  It would have been useless and bad polacy to have
remonstrated with this Major or to have attempted to reason him out of his
fears.  so our slandered patient set out & pursued his way under a hope of
making, or arriving at some other house or hovel, of more humanity than the
Majors and at least where he would not be met by any one to slander him or
accuse him of small pox.  Our Itinerant had already traveled 5 miles too far,
and was under the necessity of resting himself by the road side at about the
end of every mile and on leaving the residence from which he had just been
forbid entering its threshold he felt as if he would have to give over, and
so thirsty that he would have been glad to have drank of the rain which had
this afternoon wet him to the skin, having two or three times sat himeself on
a log by the road side more dead than alive, for at each time it seemed as if
he could not proceed any farther, no opening improvement could be seen in any
direction on getting out of sight of the one he had just left.  It should not
be thought strange that he was now almost in dispair and that the fond
endearing recollections of friends & of home more than 1000 miles distant by
the route he had come should involuntary crowd themselves on his mind, and
the near approach of nightfall and the gloomy prospect of being compelled to
spend the night in the forest, without any refreshments, cold & chilled as he
was from his being drenched an hour two previously in the rain, without any
means of striking or kindling himself a fire; & if property should be worthy
of consideration when death was staring such an individual in the face he had
some $1500. at prime cost of frieght & produce on board the boat he had been
the day before so unserimoniosly & precipitately expelled. without even the
evidence of a receit for it from the Capt. or Clerk. and to have spent such a
chilling night in the situation he was now in debilitated by his previous
indisposition, I say to have spent such a night of the month of Jany. in the
wood, the atmosphere rendered highly chilly by the afternoons rain, would
undoubtedly have terminated his existence.  Having traveled as he afterwards
learned about three miles, for the distence to him seemed much greater, A
little after dark he arrived at a little cottage by the road side where our
traveler was received, and permited to remain for the night.

     The Major who had treated our invaled traveler so indgnantly, was reputed
wealthy, having a pretty extensive farm & a number of slaves.  Here where our
traveler was permited to lodge, the owner had just put it up as a kind of
makeshift, it was a Cotage with the ground for a floor, and just large
enought to clear of the door (which as a substitute had a blanket hung before
it inside) for a bed to stand, which contained his sick wife, her husband a
clever kind of good for nothing fellow had been cheering himself with
whiskey, while she was mourning the death of a child which they had lost a
few days previous.  But says our travelor "I was made as comfortable as it
was posable in the situation of their family to make me.  I was enabled to
dry my cloathes by a comfortable Fire, while the girl prepared by an out of
door fire, a kind of hotch potch dish of a kind of souse & Backbones which
had apparently once before been put under contribution & which, as a kind of
beverage to wash all down with, was accompanied by a dish which the girl
called Coffee. Our traveler was familiarly accosted by the good man of the
Cottage, who observed "you appear quite old to be traveling on foot."  which
being the first time he had passed for an old man, who in truth was only a
little turned of Forty, concluded he must look bad, as well as feel bad. and
that light as his varioloid had been, it had increased the wrinkles in his
face.

     But to give another quotation in his own words "Our good man of the <hut?>
had a log house in the front of this little dwelling just raised and covered
in. inside which I was accompanied to bed by a young Irishman who seemed to
be a boarder, and no doubt furnished our old man with whiskey in return, as I
learned on retiring for the night that he was keeping a Dogary at the next
town or vilage about a half mile distant (a county seat, I think of Pope, or
perhaps Johnson,) called the Dardanelle being at the junction of a stream
called the Dardanelle where it empties itself into the Arks.

     Our traveler when he reflected how narrowly he had escaped lodging in the
forest among the Panthers, wolves, & Bear, which were plenty enough in that
region of country to say nothing of the inclemency of the weather that night.
he felt truly thankful. and his nights fare. & entertaiment poor as it might
have been esteemed under other circumstances, now was quite acceptable.  He
set out the next morning before breakfast much refreshed by his nights rest.
however, before he took his leave of his kind host & hostess, to whom he
really felt very grateful, he disclosed to them his troubles, which he had
encountered on the two previous days.  On arriving at the vilage of the
Dardeneele, where he designed taking breakfast.  Whom did he recognise at the
Tavern door do you suppose?  Why no other than the same individual who had
persecuted him the evening before, and who again like an evil genius seemed
to haunt his path.  He was met some 10 or 15 yards from the Inn by the Land
lord, who accused him of Small Pox, and the matter of the Steam Boat Fox.

     says our pedestrain to give his own words, "I protested by innocense of
the crime of having Small Pox. and after I pulled out of my pocket a certificate
of character from Governor Noble with the official seal of state
countersigned by W. J. Brown Secty. of State of Indiana.  The Landlord looked
more gracious. and requested me to keep a respecful distance from the house
until my evil genius should have taken breakfast which was already on the
Table. saying that "he would send his servant to put him across the Arks.
River: (on which this Town is built) "and that then some breakfast should be
set for me on the Pizza."

     However, after his accusor had left, the Land Lord had our Pedestrian set
a smoking fine Breakfast of Pork, fresh venison, served up with excellent warm
Coffee, in the setting Room.  and the Land Lady, who, as well as her husband,
had once had Small Pox, waited on our traveler herself.  Here he spent the
day and night. and during the day 2 Gentleman, Col. Martin, a Lawyer, who was
a passenger on board the Tecumseh when Capt. Gunter died with Small Pox put
up at the same house.  Who was much pleased with meeting our Traveler and
took a lively interest in his welfare. proposing to serve him in anyway he
could in forwarding him in his business & journey up the river.

     This days rest was very refreshing, and agreeable to our traveling
invaled, The Land Lord & his Lady had been a few years from the East & Philadelphia,
were quite inteligent & affable and spared no pains to make our friend
comfortable, & to sooth him under his misfortunes.  Our Land Lord had been a
Merchant, but on coming to this Country (Arks). he invested in Lands which he
purchased the greater part at Government price, -- kept a wood yard, also the
only Ferry here across the River.  Magazine Mountain which forms the opposite
Bank of the River,  belonged to him which in its view gives a fine romantic
prospect from the Dardenelle, coming up bold some several hundred feet high.
and is valuable on account of its timber, besides, with the Land Lord,
possesions on its opposite side, secured to him an excellent Ferry.

     But to return to our patient.  This evening at the Dardenelle when night
came on, & he could no longer amuse himself by moving round the town, he
found himself almost stifened & unable to move; his legs quite painful and an
intense acheing of the bones generally, as well as of the Legs and thighs and
after he retired to bed it was still so troublesome that he could scarcely
sleep.  This, as he supposed, was the effects the great fatigue of the
previous day.  Which was the more severe from his being so weak, and
unaccustomed to walking.  The next morning he was considerably refreshed, and
after Breakfast, set forward on his journey.   This day he only traveled
about 12 miles. the last six of which found himself very tired. at Illinois
Biou a stre(a)m so called which he crossed in a ferry boat. (a few miles up
the stream, is the old Dwight mission ground, now removed some 25 or 30 miles
up the Arks. above Fort Smith, and within the cherrokee country, he was
overtaken by an adventurer from the State of Ohio. by the name of Huston, who
had also been the previous night at the Dardenelle vilage.  This young man
had put up at another house. during their conversation by the way, for they
traveled the same road as far as St. Martinsville where our friend spent the
night.  Mr. H. remarked that he was informed, at the public house where, as
just mentioned, he loged the previous night, that at the other house, meaning
the one at which our friend had spent the previous day, was a Physician said
to be laboring under Small Pox.  Some time afterwards, our invaled let him
know that the individual whom he had reference to, was no other than himself.
 Huston, it was evident was considerably alarmed, and seemed deficult to
satisfy that there was not some danger at least he had quite a suspicious
appearence, as much as to say, he was fearful the accused Physician in whose
company he had inadvertantly got into might be laboring under the disease his
explanations & protestations to the contrary notwithsthanding.  On reaching
the vilage of St. Martinsville our friend met with a Yankee Gentleman & Lady
who had been on Board the Tecumseh as passengers when Capt. Gunter decd. and
as the repoart of our Pedestrian and his Steam Boat expulsion had reached the
town in advance of him, his arrival attracted much attention.  and the scab
on his eyelid created here as in other places rather a suspision that all was
not right.  This scab, solatory as it was, had been the cause of much trouble
& suffering.

To be continued


Helen, Sacramento
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