, 1880-12-12


J public health, as effectively and as speedil,
} as possible.
RIRKBEcK's ILLINOIS sRrfLEMKHT.
The establishment Of the English colony al
Rugby, in Tennessee, urdar the leadership
OF Thomas Hughes bring, to mind another
English settlement, now almost forgotten
which was in Its day the most famous entsr-
prise Of the Kind in America. It was known
In the books and newspapers Of sixty years
ago as "Blrkbetk's Settlement in the LII
nois."
Morris Bfrkbeck was the son OF Quaker
preacher Of considerable repute, and in 1915
was prosperous tenant farmer, holding th8
hamlet OF Marlborough, in Surrey, England.
lie was widower, 50 years OF axe, with
! seven children, q scholar, man OF excellent
reputation, and much given to scientific In
vestigation OF the best and most profitable
modes Of farming. lie and q friend consid-
erably younger, George Flower by name,
travelled through France, mostly on foot, and
On their return Difkbeck published book
giving an account of their tour. In 1916 Ed
ward Coles, returning from diplomatic mis-
sion to Russia, met Birkbeck III London, and
|
Theacqna1ntanca thus formed no doubt had
Its Influence in the subsequent career OF
Birkbeck, and it resulted in his appointment
as Secretary OF State OF Illinois few years
later, when Coles had become its Governor:
The decade following the close OF the
| French wars of the First Napoleon was one OF
great hardship among the farmers and me-
| chanics Of England, and there was mlgra~
tion to America within those years such as
lad not been known since the first great
English colonization of America two centu-
| rfes before Thousands upon thousands
] came, mostly by reason Of the distress at
home; but the emigration fever affected all
classes, and many came from love Of ad-
venture or to escape from unpleasant
| domestic entanglements at home. Among
! these last was George Flower, who came
! over In 1916 with letter from Lafayette to
| Thomas Jefferson, in the neighborhood Of
] whose home in Virginia he bought 500 acres
OF land with view TO making his home
| there, but this plan was afterwards given up
by reason Of his friend Birkbeck's great re-
pugnance to the institution of slavery. Birk-
beck himself came over with his family early
in 1917. Flower met them at Norfolk, and
the two men set out together on journey OF
exploration to the Far West. DR.. Priestley's
English settlement at Sunbury, On the
Susquehanna, had already been estab-
lished: Father Rapp's cooperative re-
ligious colony was in full blast at
Harmony, On the Great Wabash, In Indiana;
and there WIS an English settlement In the
nofghborhood OF Princeton, Gibson County,
Ind. where Birkbeck and Flower made their
headquarters for that summer. They select
ed for themselves land In what was called
the Boltinghouso Prairie, afterwards known
as English Prairie, between the Great and
Little Wabash Rivers. which is now part
of Edwards County, Illinois, Each at first
entered l, 40 acres at the Land Ofice in Shaw
neetown, in adjoining tracts, and they then
conceived the scheme Of securing a township
or more Ut land in that region, and founding
another English settlement, more extensive
than any Of those already established. Blrk- |
beck brought into the enterprise, first and !
last, about s55ooo, and the Flower family |
about twice that sum. They tried to get |
from Congress special terms as to payment |
for land. to the end that they might secure
very extensive domain, and so shut out spec |
ulators; but failing In that, bought all they |
could afford on the usual terms, and held it |
for Immigrants at slightly advanced price. /
They built cabin, which Btrkbeck, with t
one Of his sons, occupied. Flower had In
the meantime married young lady who
came over with the Misses Birkbeck, and out
OF this marriage grew an estrangement
between the two men, the story OF
which is too long to tell here.
In the autumn Flower returned to
England, taking with him In duplicate the
manuscript OF Birkbeck's ''Notes on Jour
ney in America from the Coast OF Virginia
to the Territory OF Illinois," which was i'm
n1ediate1y published in Philadelphia and
London. After their parting at Princeton,
when Flower set out for the East, he and
Birkbeck never spoke together more than
once, although they lived within two or
three miles Of each other for many years.
Several Englsh families whom Birkbeck
knew had Joined him by this time, and more
were on the way; and in March, 1878, Flower
sent from Bristol party OF en1fgrants NUM-
hering about fifty, mostly mechanics and Ia
borers from Surrey, including many who
had worked for Bfrkbeek at his old home.
These reached the English Prairie in August,
and then was laid out on Birkbeck's land the
Village Of Marlborough in Illinois. Each
log cabin was to have little patch OF land
lnclosed for garden for tho mechanics and
laboters, while tha farmers were to settle on
their manifestations in the neiEhborhood of
the village Birkbeck had built for himself
comfortable range of cabins near by,
and had prepared one, which came
to be called 1.-THE barracks'' by rea-
s0n ct its SraDtY accommodations far
the reception Of his friends. When
they got there they were all hudiled In to-
gethet, with no comforts, nothing to do,
nothing to eat but corn-bread and pork, and
nothing to drink but bad water and Door
whisky. OF course they were dissatisfied,
1issusted, and homesick, and they naturally
blamed Birkbeck for having, as they thought,
lecelved both himself and them. A little I
ater in the season Flower arrived with his
athor's family and other friends, making
1alf a hundred or so in all, and in October
hey founded, on the Flower land, TWO miles
Tyta& /