The summer and autumn of 1836 found Edmund Flagg, a teacher and journalist, traveling in Missouri and Illinois, and writing for the Louisville Journal. These letters became the basis for his first book, The Far West. He traveled from Louisville to St. Louis by way of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and then continued to the mouth of the Illinois and on to Peoria before returning to St. Louis. Next he "crossed the Mississippi and struck out on horseback across the Illinois prairies, visiting Edwardsville, Alton, Carlinsville, Hillsborough, Carlisle, Lebanon, Belleville, and the American Bottoms." After recrossing the Mississippi, "he visited in like manner St. Charles, Missouri, by way of Bellefontaine and Florissant; crossed the Mississippi near Portage des Sioux, and passed through the Illinois towns of Grafton, Carrollton, Manchester, Jacksonville, Springfield, across Grand Prairie to Shelbyville, Mount Vernon, Pinkneyville, and Chester, and returned to St. Louis by way of the old French settlements of Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia." His book shows the remarkable growth and development of the Western country, artistically describes the Ohio, Mississippi and Illinois rivers and gives an account of the steamboat traffic, showing the obstacles which confronted the merchants of that time.
Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.
(1906), 2007, CD-ROM, Graphic Images, Searchable, Adobe v6, PC or Mac, 370 pp.
ISBN: 9780788444005
101-CD4400
