Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers

n the source of the Alleghany River--Descent to Pittsburgh--Valley of the Monongahela; its coal and iron--Descent

lage of Utica, where we arrived, I think, on the third day, the roads being heavy. The next day I proceeded to Vernon, the site of a busy and thriving village, where my father had recently engaged in the superintendency of extensive manufacturing operations. I was here within a few miles of Oneida Castle, then the residence of the ancient Oneida tribe of Iroquois. There was, also, in this town, a remnant of t

the area of the Genesee country, for the purpose of superintending a manufactory for a company incorporated by the State Legislature. Af

il were enacting, and our trade with Great Britain was cut off, an intense interest arose for manufactures of first necessity, needed by the country, particularly for that indispensable article of new settlements, window glass. In directing the foreign artisans emplo

n of similar works in Western New York and

es, ex academia, at Middlebury College. In conversation with President Davis, I learned that this was the highes

h England was no sooner closed than I made ready to share in the exploration of the FAR WEST. The wonderful accounts brought from the Mississippi valley--its fertility, extent, and resources--inspired a wish to see it for myself, and to this end I made some preliminary explorations in Western New York, in 1816 and

d by the raising of armies, and a harassing warfare both on the seaboard and the frontiers; and manufactures had been stimulated to an unnatural growth, only to be cru

the interests of agriculture in the Atlantic States, where a series of early and late

med to me that the war had not, in reality, been fought for "free trade and sailors' r

rael could scarcely have presented a more motley array of men and women, with their "kneading troughs" on

ration, to plough the Mississippi Valley from its head to its foot. The

es of some eighteen inches. Upon this was raised a structure of posts and boards about eight feet high, divided into rooms for cooking and sleeping, leaving a few feet space in front and rear, to row and steer. The whole was covered by a flat

eeable as possible to all. I had learned to row a skiff with dexterity during my residence on Lake Dunmore, and turned this art to account by taking the ladies ashore, as we floated on with our ark, and picked up specimens while they culled shrubs and flowers. In this way, and by lending a ready hand at the "sweeps" and at the oars whenever there was a pinch, I made myself agreeable. The worst thing we encountered was rain, again