Of this amount, $1966.41 was paid, only Indiana and Missouri territories paying a smaller proportion of their assessment.309 The small proportion paid in these three territories may have been due to the poverty of their inhabitants.

Most of the manufactured articles were consumed within the territory. Both cotton and flax were raised and made into cloth; maple sugar was sometimes sold and exported, but a large proportion of the supply was used as a substitute for sugar, another substitute much used being wild honey. A certain Smith's Prairie was celebrated for the numerous plum and crabapple orchards that grew around its borders. The large red and yellow plums grew there in such abundance that people would come from long distances and haul them away by the wagon-loads, and would preserve them with honey or maple sugar, which was the only sweetening they had in pioneer times.310

Previous to the War of 1812, little commerce was carried on, although a few trips had been made to New Orleans with keel-boats or pirogues, and some goods were occasionally brought over the Alleghany Mountains by means of wagons. The round trip to New Orleans and back then required six months; the trip down was easy and required a comparatively short time, but the return trip [pg 130] was slow. It was entirely a barter trade, money being almost unknown. Furs, wild honey, and other commodities of Illinois, as well as lead from the Missouri mines, were carried down and exchanged for groceries, cloth, and other articles of a large value and small bulk. As a natural consequence of having to be transported up stream, goods of that nature were extremely dear, the common price of tea being sixteen dollars a pound, of coffee fifty cents, and of calico fifty cents per yard.311 To go up the Mississippi from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien, in 1815, required from twelve days to a month, while the return trip was made in from six to ten days.312

In the great American Bottom of the Mississippi, extending from the mouth of the Kaskaskia almost to the mouth of the Illinois, cattle raising was a leading industry, the cattle being driven to the Philadelphia or Baltimore markets.313 Towards the close of the period land could easily be secured by government entry. The fertility of the land was such as must have been new to those immigrants who came from the poorer parts of the older states. Land was subject to a tax of a little more that two cents per acre, the tax being about equally divided between the territory and the county.314 Public lands were not to be taxed by the state, after 1818, until five years from the date of their sale. Governor Edwards, who was a large landowner, offered to pay three dollars per acre for plowing.315 Prairies were not yet settled to any considerable extent, but it is worthy of note that a traveler of 1818-19 [pg 131] suggested what was eventually to be the solution of the question of prairie settlement. He wrote: “It will probably be some time before these vast prairies can be settled, owing to the inconvenience attending the want of timber. I know of no way, unless the plan is adopted of ditching and hedging, and the building of brick houses, and substituting the stone coal for fuel. It seems as if the bountiful hand of nature, where it has withheld one gift has always furnished another; for instance, where there is a scarcity of wood, there are coal mines.”316 The remedy suggested was the one adopted, except that brick houses did not become common.

Really good roads were entirely lacking. Most of the settlements were connected by roads that were practicable at most seasons for packers and travelers on horseback, but in times of flood the suspension of travel by land was practically complete. A post-road had been established between Vincennes and Cahokia in 1805, and in 1810 a route was established from Vincennes, by way of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia, to St. Louis. At this time and place, however, a post-route does not necessarily imply anything more than a bridle-path. Mail was received at irregular intervals, although the trips were regularly made in good weather. The post-office nearest Chicago was Fort Wayne, Indiana, whence a soldier on foot carried the mail once a month.317 A report for the first six months of 1814 shows, in Illinois, nine post-offices, three hundred and eighty-eight miles of post-roads, about $143 received for postage, and $1002 paid for transportation of mail—a balance [pg 132] of some $859 against the United States.318 At this time even Cleveland, Chillicothe, and Marietta received mail but twice per week.319

Books were very scarce,320 and no newspapers had been published in Illinois before its separate territorial organization. Between 1809 and 1818 there were founded the Illinois Herald and the Western Intelligencer, at Kaskaskia, the latter becoming the Illinois Intelligencer on May 27, 1818; and the Shawnee Chief, at Shawneetown.321 In 1816 the citizens of Shawneetown gave notice through the papers of Kaskaskia, Frankfort, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, that they would apply to the Legislature of Illinois for the establishment of a bank.322 This may indicate that the papers of the places named had a considerable circulation in Illinois.

The character of the immigrants left much to be desired. A good observer wrote: “After residing awhile in White County, Tennessee, I migrated in May, 1817, to the southern part of the then Territory of Illinois, and settled in Madison County, twenty-five miles east of St. Louis, which town then contained about five thousand inhabitants. The surrounding country, however, was quite sparsely settled, and destitute of any energy or enterprise among the people; their labors and attention being chiefly confined to the hunting of game, which then abounded, and tilling a small patch of corn for bread, relying on game for the [pg 133] remaining supplies of the table. The inhabitants were of the most generous and hospitable character, and were principally from the southern states; harmony and the utmost good feeling prevailed throughout the country.”323 Naturally this description was not of universal application, but the source of the population and the reasons for removing from the old homes make it probable that it was widely appropriate.

If it was difficult for an emigrant to reach Illinois, and if, after reaching it, he was inconvenienced by the poor facilities for commerce, the bad roads, the infrequency of mails, the scarcity of schools and churches, he at least found it easy to obtain a living, and to some of the immigrants of the territorial period it was worth something not to starve, even though living was reduced to its lowest terms. The poorest immigrant had access to land on the borders of settlement, because the laws against squatting were not enforced. This same class could procure game in abundance, while maple sugar, wild honey, persimmons, crabapples, nuts, pawpaws, wild grapes, wild plums, fish, mushrooms, “greens,” berries of several kinds, and other palatable natural products known to the Illinois frontiersman, were to be had in most, if not all, of the localities then settled. Hogs fattened on the mast. Log houses could be built without nails. The problem of clothing was probably more difficult at first than that of food, but although clothing could not be picked up in the woods, the materials for making it could be grown in the fields. Spinning, and the processes necessarily preceding and following it, involved a certain amount of labor. Taxes were not high, nor were tax laws rigidly enforced. It is thus easy to understand the reasoning that may have led a large proportion of the immigrants during this period to leave their old homes.