Note 57 — LETTERS, &c.

Captain Jeremiah Birk shared with Daniel Boone and many other pioneers in the Western wilderness, the feeling that life in a settlement was too crowded. Emigrating from Tennessee, he lived with his family alone on the prairies until the arrival of the English settlers. He obtained his title of captain by commanding a company of scouts along the Canadian frontier during the War of 1812-15. Illinois becoming too thickly settled to please him, he soon moved across the Mississippi River.—Ed.