Life in prairie land / by Eliza W. Farnham ; introduction by John Hallwas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Farnham, Eliza W. (Eliza Wood), 1815-1864.

Series:

Prairie State books

Prairie State books.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Farnham, Eliza W. (Eliza Wood), 1815-1864.

Farnham, Eliza W.

Pioneers--Illinois--Biography.

Pioneers.

Women pioneers--Illinois--Biography.

Women pioneers.

Manners and customs.

Biography.

Illinois--Description and travel.

Illinois.

Illinois--Social life and customs.

Illinois--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxxv, 269 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [1988]

Summary:

A descriptive travel account, autobiography, and extended essay, Life in Prairie Land -- back in print in this new edition -- is a classic account of everyday life in early Illinois. Eliza Farnham, a New Yorker who would become one of the leading feminists of her time, describes the nearly five years she spent living in the frontier environment of Tazewell County, along the Illinois River. Life in Prairie Land is a complex portrait of the midwestern wilderness during the 1830s -- beautiful and ugly, beneficent and threatening. Farnham's vivid recreation of her experiences on the Illinois frontier offers a realistic depiction of pioneer life and a romantic view of an Edenic landscape. Life in Prairie Land portrays Farnham's encounters with early settlers and native Americans, reflects her eye-opening experiences with birth and death, describes the unspoiled landscape that surrounded her, and depicts the developing towns that she passed through. Farnham's years on the Illinois frontier showed her the possibilities of a less restrictive society and planted the seeds that would later grow into firmly held and eloquently expressed views on women's equality.

Contents:

Embarkation for the Illinois

Western steamboats in general

The Banner in particular

Her captain and crew

Hooshier bride and bridegroom

A walk in St. Louis

A horrible tale of lynching

Departure from St. Louis

The first night on board the Banner

The next morning

Speed of our boat

Junction of the Missouri and Mississippi

Landing at Alton

Unpardonable behavior of the boat under trying circumstances

Disaster to the captain

A specimen of Hooshier indignation

Leaving Alton we discover that Jersey is on board

A day on an island

Who Jersey is

Some of his experience during his travels

His political opinions

Peculiar style of expressing them

His notions on travel

Another night on the Banner

A conversation with our western bridegroom

His opinions on the woman question decidedly anti-Wollstonecraft

His reasons for entering into matrimony

How he would sympathize with his wife in sorrow, with a practical illustration

Her story and disposition to lighten the darker shades of his doctrines

Improved conduct of the boat

Politeness of her captain

Our style of conversation pantomimic on my part

Landing

Pokerton

Starting for our final destination

The country, the road, the slues

Their peculiar character demonstrated

Woodland and its principal inhabitants

Prairie Lodge

Our meeting

Sun-bonnets, veils, gloves, etc.

Environments of Prairie Lodge

Its neighbors

A horticultural curiosity

Preparing for tea

Partaking it

The evening

Who were present, and how we spent it

Prairie life begun

Rambles in the groves and over the prairies

Visits on horseback

An afternoon with a neighbor three miles distant

Amusing details of this visit, a fair specimen of the social visiting of the country 34

Commencement of Sucker life

Our next neighbor

The mother Meg Merrilies

The house; its architecture

The grounds; how laid out and adorned

The children; their pastimes

The father; his political and social position

Another house; the spirit which reigned in it

Beauty of order and purity in domestic life

Spring around Prairie Lodge

Showers

Thunderstorms at night

Their sublimity

Their effect on the landscape

Pleasures of the season

Strawberry

Quail

Scene from his domestic life

Grouse; his habits

Spring morning in the prairies

Bob-o-link

Woodpecker

Parroquet

Crow

Buzzard

Wild turkey

Cattle on the prairie

Hare

Deer

Whippoor-Will

The tale of sorrow

Sickness of strangers on first arriving in the country

Their claims to hospitality

The solitary man's settlement in the west

His wife; their love; their progress and prospects

A remarkable series of thunder-storms

The pestilence which followed

The husband and wife both prostrated

The death of the wife and infant

His grief

Their grave

The beauty of the spot

Reasons for the attachment of the prairie settler to his home

A rare opportunity for seeing the natives of our region

The menagerie; getting to it

Style of locomotion

Tyler; his peculiarities, ill luck, gait, &c.; his companion

Our arrival

Street dialogue

Discussion of the show

Entrance

Appearance of the crowd; their motley dress

A character; his garb

Another; her dress; stature; recognition

Her sensibility and comments on the performances

Her description of the male personage before introduced

His stories of the wars and himself

An invitation

The departure for home

Discussion of persons and things

Legal document

Close of the day

Delicate foot-print

Leaving Prairie Lodge

Difficulty of finding another home

What it proves when found

Its mistress

Her housekeeping

Committee on dress

A walk

What it decides

Resignation under desperate circumstances

A discovery

A cup of joy dashed before it is partaken

First night in the Sucker home

Room mates, furniture, &c.

Pony

Rebellion; how maintained

Sabbath

Next day; its deeds

The house; its decorations

The surprise anticipated

Comment of my neighbor

Settled

Toilet apparatus

Difficulty of retaining it

A new proposition rejected with some spirit at first

How acceded to finally

Our host; his origin, fortunes, opinions, &c.

His daughter Sidney and her husband

Their mode of life

Sidney's household affairs

Her culinary arts

How she was initiated into them

Fruit groves

Wanderings in them

Serpents

Caught in Boots

Western housekeeping

Another visit

Temperate meal

The consequence

Moonlight nights

Coeur de Lion and his suite

Their nocturnal ramblings

Shamefully terminated

Coeur de Lion's resignation

Better quarters completed

Disappointment

Housekeeping

Architecture of our dwelling

Grounds, &c., as described by Mr. F

My own picture of them

Our neighborhood

Interior of the house

The town

Our first night at home

Purchases; how disposed of

Our family

Susannah

Pony; her artlessness and patience

Deserved eulogium

Our town; its first settlement

Yankees as early settlers

Character of our population

Political and religious faith

Mrs. Esculapius; her remarkable gifts

Deacon Cantwyne; his piety, charity, &c.

Our village doctor; his wonderful gait

His partner Pomp

How they did business

The doctor's musical efforts

Fire on the prairie

Wood parties

The orchard

The parrighee of the moon

Sporting parties

Tragical termination of one

The grocery next door to us

Horrible event

Something more of my housekeeping

Making bread

My purveyor

My first dinner

Cook, lamb, &c.

Winter on the prairies

Sleigh rides

Cold houses

Fickleness of the climate

Deer-hunting in winter

Mode of building and style of dwellings

Winter evenings

Navigation suspended

Treacherous ice

Opening of spring

A spring night

Features and voice of nature

Wild fowl

Steamboats

Magnitude of streams

Speculation

New arrivals

Opening farms

Breaking prairie

Making fence

Planting trees

Removal

Return to Prairie Lodge

Painful apprehensions

How dispelled

Their return

Reminiscences of early life

The progress of the destroyer

The final scene

Another mission of death

Agonizing memories

Pestilence abroad

Drought

Character of the illness caused by it

Gloom and grief

Dawn of new light 165

Birds and animals of prairie land

The gopher; its curious habits

Prairie fox

Prairie dog

Prairie wolves

Red wolf harmless

Grey wolf ferocious

Danger of unarmed travelers in former years

Incidents in later years

Catamount and panther found in "bottom lands"

Grey wolf monarch of the prairie

Robs the tomb when famished

The burning of the prairie

A thrilling incident on the great northern and southern road, passing near Peoria, Illinois

The country around the spot

Its rare beauty

Account of an early settler here; his preparation for winter; journey to the nearest settlement for his cow and for winter supplies

Mother and children left alone

Visit from warrior Indians

Sleepless night and foreboding of evil

She watches the prairie

Faint light in the distance

Prairie on fire

Fearful progress of the flames, and the sublimity of the scene

Her terror and helplessness

Cabin in flames

The instinct of the dog saves the lives of mother and children

They sleep without shelter, and sustain life by a pittance of wild fruit

Desolation of the scene

A storm comes on

Children and mother hover around the smouldering ruins of the cabin

The mother sinks

Premature birth

The father arrives to hear from his wife the terrible story, to witness her dying hour, and to bury mother and child in one tomb

His bitter grief

Progress of the settlers

Habits

Views of labor

A journey

Love ring

The next tavern

Amusing incidents

Court

Lawyers

Dialogue with the driver

The stage-house

Hostess

The quandary

Indifference to the comforts of life; how induced

Dixonville, the Vicksburg of Illinois

Gang of thieves

Incidents there

Crimes of these men

The landlord

The night

Departure

Pleasant ride with the New England farmer

Arrival among friends

Three guests in one cabin

Fun

"Smudging" muskitos

Climate of the west

The new town in prospect

The eccentric man its founder

His removal to the west

The inhabitants of the town

The sea captain

Our host

His wife; a pattern of excellence

Our amusements and visits in the neighborhood

Early settlers

Emigrants

The emigrant supplants the Sucker; the reason

Their different views of life

Hospitality of the people of the prairie

Their daily food and method of preparing it 217

Morals of the people

Religious sects

The circuit preacher

Style of preaching

An amusing character

Happy effect of their ministry

Excursions

Visit to the burial grounds and council house of the Sauks

Reflections

A tour through the prairie country

Anecdotes and dialogues

Tour continued

Dialogues with the settlers

Cheerless hotel

Tour ended

Happy residence at Alton; its social aspect more like the eastern cities

Beauty of the country

The picnic

Delightful close of the day

Return to our former residence

Change in the place

Effect of these changes on the mind

A mournful tale

A visit to Prairie Lodge

Departure from the west

Story and legends of the Indian

The prospects of this country

Its future greatness.

Notes:

Reprint. Originally published: New York : Harper, 1846.

Bibliography: pages xxix-xxxv.

ISBN:

0252060393

OCLC:

17953799