Part 5 (1/2)
Was.h.i.+ngton is a pretty, thriving town, which contains about two thousand five hundred inhabitants. It has a college, with about a hundred students; but, from the dirty condition of the schools, and the loitering habits of the young men, Mr. Birkbeck suspected it to be an ill-regulated inst.i.tution.
From Was.h.i.+ngton, Mr. Birkbeck and his family proceeded still westward, and, on entering the _State of Ohio_, they found themselves in a country beautiful and fertile, and affording, to a plain, industrious, and thriving population, all that nature has decreed for the comfort of man.
It contains rich land, good water, wholesome air; limestone, coal, mills, and navigation. It is also fully appropriated, and thickly settled; and land is worth from twenty to thirty dollars per acre: an advance of a thousand per cent. in about ten years!
A heavy fall of wet had rendered the roads muddy and unpleasant. On the 10th of June, the party arrived at _Wheeling_, a considerable but mean-looking town, of inns and stores, on the banks of the Ohio. Here they baited their horses, and took a repast of bread and milk. At this place the Ohio is divided into two channels, of five hundred yards each, by an island of three hundred acres.
Between Wheeling and St. Clairsville, they had sundry foaming creeks to ford; and sundry log-bridges to pa.s.s, which are a sort of commutation of danger. They had also a very muddy road, over hills of clay; and thunder and rain during nearly the whole of this their first stage: such thunder, and such rain, as they had heard of, but had seldom witnessed in England.
They were detained some days at _St. Clairsville_. This place consists of about one hundred and fifty houses; stores, taverns, doctors'-shops, and lawyers' offices, with the dwellings of sundry artisans; such as tailors, shoemakers, hatters, and smiths. Its chief street runs over one of the beautiful, round, and fertile hills which form this country. The court-house, a handsome brick edifice, on the summit, has a cheerful and a rather striking appearance. If the streets were paved, St. Clairsville would be a pleasant town, but, from the continued rains, they were, at this time, deep in mud.
The rich clay of this country is very favourable to gra.s.s, and the pastures are extremely fine. When the timber is destroyed, a beautiful turf takes immediate possession of the surface.
As they proceeded westward, towards Zanesville, the soil did not improve. It is here a yellow clay, well adapted for gra.s.s; but, when exhausted by repeated cropping, it will be unprofitable for tillage. In some places, the clay is over limestone, and exhibits marks of great and durable fertility.
During their journey, on the 13th of June, they met a group of nymphs, with their attendant swains, ten in number, on horseback: for no American walks who can obtain a horse; and there are few indeed who cannot. The young men were carrying umbrellas over the heads of their partners; and the appearance of the whole was very decent and respectable.
At the distance of eighteen miles east of Zanesville, whilst taking shelter from a thunder-storm, they were joined by four industrious pedestrians, who were returning eastward from a tour of observation through this state. These all agreed in one sentiment, that there is no part of the Union, either in the new settlements or in the old, where an industrious man need be at a loss for the comforts of a good livelihood.
The land continued of the same character as before, a weak yellow clay, under a thin covering of vegetable mould, profitable for cultivation merely because it is new. The timber is chiefly oak. Little farms, of from eight to one hundred and sixty acres, with simple erections, a cabin and a stable, may be purchased, at the rate of from five to twenty dollars per acre. This is a hilly and romantic country; and affords many pleasant situations. Sand-stone is common; limestone more rare; but clay-slate appears to be the common basis.
The inhabitants are friendly and homely, not to say coa.r.s.e; but they are well informed. This day the travellers pa.s.sed various groups of emigrants, proceeding westward: one waggon, in particular, was the moving habitation of twenty souls.
_Zanesville_ is a thriving town, on the beautiful _river Muskingum_, which is, at all times, navigable downward. The country around it is hilly and pleasant; not rich, but dry, and tolerably fertile. It abounds in coal and lime, and may, at some future period, become a grand station for manufactures.
At _Rushville_ Mr. Birkbeck, another gentleman, and three children, sat down to a breakfast, consisting of the following articles: coffee, rolls, biscuits, dry toast, waffles, (a kind of soft hot cake, of German extraction, covered with b.u.t.ter,) salted pickerell, (a fish from Lake Huron,) veal-cutlets, broiled ham, gooseberry-pie, stewed currants, preserved cranberries, b.u.t.ter, and cheese: and Mr. Birkbeck, for himself and three children, and four gallons of oats, and a sufficient quant.i.ty of hay for four horses, was charged only six s.h.i.+llings and ninepence sterling.
South-west of Zanesville, instead of steep hills of yellow clay, the country a.s.sumes a more gently undulating surface; but it is sufficiently varied both for health and ornament, and has an absorbent, gravelly, or sandy soil, of moderate fertility.
_Lancaster_ is on the edge of a marsh, or fen, which, at present, should seem to be a source of disease; though its bad effects, on the inhabitants of that town, are not by any means obvious.
The three towns, Zanesville, Lancaster, and _Chillicothe_, were founded by a sagacious man of the name of Zane, one of the earliest of the settlers. They are admirably placed, geographically, but with little regard to the health of their future inhabitants. The local advantages of Zanesville might have been equally secured, had the site of the town been on the higher, rather than the lower bank of the Muskingum: and the Sciota might have afforded equal facilities to the commerce of the inhabitants of Chillicothe, had they viewed it flowing beneath them, from those lovely eminences which adorn its opposite banks. Chillicothe is surrounded by the most charming elevations, but is itself in a bottom; and Lancaster is on the brink of an extensive marsh.
Seven miles north-west of Chillicothe the traveller enters on a tract of river bottom, the first rich land, for which this state, and indeed the whole western country, is so justly famous. It is agreeably varied in surface, occasionally rises into hills, and is never flat.
At Chillicothe there is an office for the several transactions regarding the disposal of the public lands of this district; and, on Mr.
Birkbeck's arrival, he repaired to this office, for the purpose of inspecting a map of the district; and he found a great quant.i.ty of unentered lands, comprehending many entire towns.h.i.+ps, of eight miles square, lying about twenty miles south of Chillicothe; and, in several parts, ab.u.t.ting on the Sciota. Though it appeared certain that substantial objections had deterred purchasers from this extensive tract, in a country so much settled, yet Mr. Birkbeck, accompanied by his son, determined to visit it. They rode over twenty miles of fertile country, on the bank of the Sciota, and crossed that river to _Pike Town_; not far from which place was the land they were seeking.
Near Pike Town was a small cultivated prairie, the first Mr. Birkbeck had seen. It contained about two hundred acres of rich land, and was divided by a road, which ran through the middle; and nearly the whole of it was covered by fine Indian corn, neatly cultivated. The surrounding hills were crowned with woods. Nothing that Mr. Birkbeck had before seen in America at all resembled this delightful spot; but, from its low situation near the Sciota, it was unhealthy.
Pike Town was laid out, and received its name, about the year 1815. When Mr. Birkbeck was here, it contained a tavern, a store, and about twenty other dwellings.
The land of which Mr. Birkbeck came in quest was, as he supposed, of inferior quality. But though he found it unfit for his purpose, he had been repaid his trouble by the pleasure of his ride, through a fine portion of country. In leaving Chillicothe, to proceed towards Cincinnati, he and his party travelled through about seven miles of rich alluvial land, and over fertile uplands. But, as they proceeded, the country became level, with a cold heavy soil, better adapted to gra.s.s than tillage. Much of this tract remained in an unimproved state. They had pa.s.sed some hills which were covered with the grandest white oak-timber imaginable. Within view from the road there were thousands of these magnificent trees, each of which measured fourteen or fifteen feet in circ.u.mference: their straight stems rising, without a branch, to the height of seventy or eighty feet, not tapering and slender, but surmounted by full, luxuriant heads.
For the s.p.a.ce of a mile in breadth, a hurricane, which had traversed the entire western country in a north-east direction, about seven years before Mr. Birkbeck was here, had opened itself a pa.s.sage through the forests, and had left a scene of extraordinary desolation. The trees lay tumbled over each other, like scattered stubble; some torn up by the roots, others broken off at different heights, or splintered only, and their tops bent over, and touching the ground. These hurricane tracts afford strong holes for game, and for all animals of savage kind.
As Mr. Birkbeck approached the _Little Miami River_, the country became more broken, much more fertile, and better settled than before. After crossing this rapid and clear stream, he had a pleasant ride to Lebanon, which is not a mountain of cedars, but a valley, so beautiful and fertile that, at its first opening on the view, it seemed rather a region of fancy than a real back-settlement scene.
_Lebanon_ is itself one of those wonders which are the natural growth of these back woods. In fourteen years, from two or three cabins of half-savage hunters, it has grown to be the residence of a thousand persons, with habits and looks in no respect differing from their brethren of the east. Before Mr. Birkbeck and his party entered the town, they heard the supper-bells of the taverns; and they arrived just in time to take their seats at one of the tables, together with travellers like themselves, and several store-keepers, lawyers, and doctors; men who regularly board at taverns, and make up a standing company for the daily public table.
Mr. Birkbeck and his family next pa.s.sed through _Cincinnati_, [a town which presents a scene of great life and activity. The market-house is an excellent building; and the market is under judicious regulations.
Provisions are here plentiful and cheap; but articles of clothing, house-rent, and journeymen's wages are all very high.