The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1870-08-06
himself. as he vs.A thereby expose himself to

The doctor arrived in time to administer the
necessary medicines, and Smelling soon had the
satisfaction of seeing his family recover.
Such 6 state OF things existed in many parts of
Missouri during the war, and out on the Kansas
Mr.. Smelling evaded the vigilance of his enemies
until peace was proclaimed, and has, to great
extent, got his farm in repair again.
The country around the village of Newark,
although well settled, is not very inviting. owing
to two causes, viz: The poor quality of the soil
war. The lay of the country is level, as gen.
eral thing, with once in a while body of timber.
The soil is stiff, clay one, cold and unproduc-
tive looking.
Newark is q village of about 200 inhabitants,
situated in the southeast corner of Knox county,
on Fabins river, which is nothing more than Q
good sized creek; but they call everything in the
line of running water river out here. New
ark is 20 miles from any railway, and is likely to
remain So The North Nc. r. Il. is west 20
miles, the Hannibal & St. 10. Is 20 miles south.
and the proposed road from Quincy, Ills, to
Nebraska, 20 miles north.
BETHEL
Is a German village, IL miles south of Newark,
in Shelby Co. Population about 200.
sHELBYvILLE,
The county seat of Shelby county, is town of
about 600 inhabitants. Here we crossed another
''river," the Sunset, similar to the Fabius.
BLOOMINGTON,
Macon Co., our next town, 80 miles west of
Shslbyville, is place of about 100 inhabitants.
Bloomington was at one time the county seat of
Macon Co. Spectators and day dreamers came
pouring IN and went to work to build city.
They had got fairly under Roadway, when the
Hannibal & St. 10 r: r. came along. It did not
o,me to Bloomington, as the town company as.
sured everybody it would, but missed by four
miles to the south. In the wake of the railroad
came towns, one of which was named Macon.
After while, thought it had better right to be
the county seat than Bloomington, Blooming.
ton said mo" Macon said they must "count
noses" which they did, and Bloomington woke
mp one morning to fad the county seat gone,
the town company swearing, real estate men
looking blue, and everybody getting ready to
leave. Several very good brick buildings stand
unoooupied and are rapidly going to ruin
The country between Shelbyvills and Bloom
ington is very billy and heavily tilnbered and
thinly settled, on which account We had much
difficulty in procuring feed for our tenn. and
provisions fer ourselves.
At Bloomington We laid in supply of pro-
visions which We intended should last until va
would reach
The county seat of Linn count, 80 miles west
Of Bloomington. The country. from four miles
west of Bloomington until within six miles
OF Linneus, is comprised of high, candy hills,
with sparse growth of grass and scrub oak. A
few deer we're quietly grazing in ono Of the hol-
lowe, and % orr white covered wagons came in
sight they reared their heads and started of
slowly, occasionally stopping to look back One
Of our party FASTENED around the hill, and com.
ing en- them before they were aware of it, brought
down one with his trusty rife. After circlinR
around their fallen companion moment they
started up over the hills and disappeared in q
twinkle. We travelled all the afternoon and till
late in the evening before We found suitable
place to camp, and az length found one in
thick patch Of woods, on the bank of nice, clear
tream. Our prize was young one, as was evi.
dent from the small antlers, and as soon as we
halted two of our party proceeded to prepare it
for use
The effect Of strong fire in the woods at night
is to give to surrounding space an appearance of
ebony blackness, against which dark ground the
gnarled stems and branches and pendent foliage
appear as if traced out in lovely colors which
are sutfused with rich, warm tone from the
blaze: 1t was really beautiful, and as we sat
there in the freight, with the carcass of the
deer lying before us, our mind wandered back
to the days of boyhood, when we read of the
hunters and pioneers of the west, and how we
had often wished to experience such life And
now our boyhood's dream would be realized il
we knew there was some dusky savage prowl-
ing around our camp fire, or expected to hear at
any moment his war hoop, or the deadly crack
of rifle, laying low one of our party. But the
day has long since passed when the wild Indian
chased the still wilder deer over over hills
and through the forests of Missouri, and as we
reflected, we wondered if the white man who
drove him hence did not have a tinge OF the say.
age in bis nature to choose SO wild and barren
country for his habtation,-a place better cal
cuated Tor the hunting ground OF the red man.
We were awakened from our reverie by the an.
nouncement that supper was ready How good