Diary of a Prairie Missionary       Part 2

9^th July.    We made an early start to cross and ascend a few miles the "Father of waters", which is here (at the narrows) nearly a mile wide.  We had two canoes lashed together, on which was taken two large boxes of  “plunder”, or household furniture.  Out of the six of us in company, two were afflicted with fever and ague, and two were unacquainted with the paddle and so took the time easy. The toil principally devolved upon another and myself.  We found it hard indeed to stem the current & only made about 10 miles by noon.. Mr. Parks then in company with Jas. Erwin, Esq. proceeded to cross the Ioway River to visit -Keeokuck town.  Finding I could not proceed (as I had to travel about 90 miles before Sabbath) I resolved to preach to the two or three families of our people on that side of the River. I had now to got the Mrs. of one family who was recovering from the fever into a canoe and with the assistance afforded by one of the sick men, one of those unacquainted with the paddle, I succeeded in conveying her to the other house a distance of two miles where at 6 P.M. I preached.  To form an idea of a Western dwelling, I would here say, that the one in which we met had for two corner posts two sugar trees, to the one of which the coffee mill was fastened.  The walls are formed by pieces of timer drove in the ground, and covered in the Western or, with rough long oak shingles. But,.reader, do not despice such a dwelling; this one is a dwelling of the righteous, and among the habitations of the just, and happy would it prove if the splendid mansion as regularly sent forth the voice of joy and melody as this cottage at the Bluffs of the Mississippi.  We had then to take the sick woman to the canoe and return to her dwelling I here received from Mr. Jno. Kennedy $5.00 for the Miss. fund. As we glided down the Muskateen, scores of large fish were seen leaping from the water, and thousands of “gallinippers" ( a species of a very large moschetto) were playing in the atmosphere. The Bluffs here are about an hundred feet high, covered partially with wood, while the prairie extends from them back towards the Ioway in some places 20 miles. We slept at night within five miles of Two Towns containing hundreds of Indians.

10^th  July.     I now began to retrace my steps, and after nearly four hours of hard paddling I reached New Boston, quite "as hungry as a hawks”, After breakfasting, I parted with Mr. Parks, who purposes to preach in the Jamieson settlement next Sabbath, and thence to proceed to Missouri. I then rode about 22 miles to Cedar Creek, and then with Mr. Hugh Martin set out for Canton in Fulton Co. We travelled about 15 miles that evening.

11^th.    After leaving Mr. A. Robeson’s, we continued our journey until 5 P.M. when we reached Canton a distance of 45 miles, and 80 miles from New Boston which I left yesterday at 10 A.M.  Our journey lay through a part of Knox Co. as well as Warren & Fulton. This tract of country is fertile and beautiful, and if it were not for the "Patents”, or soldiers claims, it must soon become densely populated wherever wood can be obtained. The Spoon River, tho’ large affords but little timber where we crossed near the remains of an old Indian Town. I forthwith intimated my intention of preaching tomorrow.  Application was made for the use of the Presbyterian Church a part of the day, which was obtained. As we approached the villiage our attention was arrested the destruction of trees fences and buildings caused by a whirlwind hurricane with which this villiage was visited on the 18th of June. By it five lives were lost, about thirty buildings demolished, and perhaps five hundred or more acres of the adjoining forest levelled nearly with the ground.  Goods from some stores were carried two miles or more, and one of the persons killed was carried perhaps twenty rods.  Most of the trees were torn up by the roots, many of them twisted like a with, and the remainder divested of their limbs.  It happened soon after dark, and passed in a few minutes.  The Methodist Chapel was unroofed and materially injured while the Pres. meeting house was comparatively uninjured.  The Presbyterian meetinghouse is the only place of worship, which I have seen in Illinois with a steeple and a bell.  The bell is said to have been presented by a Stephen B. Munn of N. York, who owns several thousand acres of land in the Military reserve.  The clergyman is of the New School order.