Part 3 — Part III. Occupation and Development
Reading edition
The bibliography of this section would include all that has come before, and much from pamphlets, historical society publications, local histories, and records of anniversary celebrations, which would make too long a list of sources. There are no general works on this phase of the life of the Great Lakes. Archer B. Hulbert’s Historic Highways of America (16 vols.) contains much that is of interest about roads to the lakes, especially in volumes 1, 2, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 14. J. F. Rhodes’ History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 (7 vols.) has in its earlier volumes valuable references and accounts of happenings in its period. In general, however, one must turn to the local records and state histories.
L. P. Powell has gathered and edited two volumes entitled Historic Towns of the Middle States, and Historic Towns of the Western States. Seven suggestive books are: Parker’s Rochester, A Story Historical, and H. O’Reilly’s Sketches of Rochester; The Niagara Book, by W. D. Howells, N. S. Shaler, and others, and F. H. Severance’s Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier; Urann’s Centennial History of Cleveland; W. P. Strickland’s Old Mackinaw, 1860; and A. T. Andreas’ History of Chicago (3 vols.).
The Buffalo Historical Collections have much material about the Erie Canal, as has W. W. Campbell’s Life and Writings of De Witt Clinton. J. L. Barton’s Commerce of the Lakes and the Erie Canal, William Norris’ Map of the Railroads and Canals in the United States and Canada, August, 1834, Early Chicago Railroads, 1838, and W. K. Ackerman’s Early Illinois Railroads, in Fergus Historical Series, No. 23, pp. 3–62, and a little book, Instructions for Running Railroads, 1862, are all good for the years of rapid development about the lakes. Two other books on railroads should be included: F. H. Spearman’s The Strategy of Great Railroads and Mott’s Between Ocean and Lakes.
There are two contemporary lives of Stephen A. Douglas, one by J. W. Sheahan, published in 1860 for campaign purposes, and another, The Life and Speeches of Stephen A. Douglas, by a “Member of the Western Bar.” Allen Johnson has recently brought out a valuable life of this Illinois statesman. Nicolay and Hay’s Abraham Lincoln, A History (10 vols.) is the standard work on Lincoln. J. W. Headley has written on Confederate Operations in Canada and New York, giving an intimate account of events in which he played an active part. F. J. Turner is the authority on the fur trade, which he has described in The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin, Johns Hopkins Studies, Vol. IX.
Gazetteers and Travels
In the numerous guide-books and records of travellers of the past one hundred and twenty-five years is written most vividly the story of the Great Lakes. Each one of those we mention contributes something to the account of the region.
Travels. J. Carver’s Travels through the Interior Parts of North America in 1766, 1767, 1768; I. Weld’s Travels, 1795–1797; J. Harriott’s Struggles through Life, etc., 1796, ii, 97–149; Sutcliff’s Travels, 1804, 1805, 1806; John Melish’s Travels in the United States in 1806 and 1807 and 1809, 1810, 1811 (2 vols.); Schultz’ Travels on an Inland Voyage, 1807 and 1808; F. Hall’s Travels in 1816 and 1817; J. M. Duncan’s Travels, ii, 3–120; Views of Society and Manners in America, 1818–1820, pp. 125–181; H. R. Schoolcraft’s Narrative Journal of Travels from Detroit Northwest in 1820, which gives an official account of the Cass expedition; William Dalton’s Travels, 1821; P. Stansbury’s Pedestrian Tour in 1821, giving an account of a trip from Albany to Niagara; C. H. Wilson’s The Wanderer in America, 1823; T. L. McKenney’s Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, which is very valuable; Basil Hall’s Travels in North America in 1827 and 1828, treating in vol. i of this region; Anne Royall’s Black Book, vol. i; John Fowler’s Journal of a Tour in the State of New York in 1830–1831. We come now to a set of travels which tell of the western lakes in particular and give a picture of their towns: A Winter in the West, by a New Yorker (2 vols.), 1835; Life on the Lakes, telling of a Lake Superior trip in 1836 by the author of “Legends of a Log Cabin”; Bela Hubbard’s Memorials of Half a Century, also of a voyage to Lake Superior. J. L. Peyton’s Over the Alleghanies and Across the Prairies, 1848, and Captain Mackinnon’s Atlantic and Trans-Atlantic Sketches, i, 141–233, give vivid pictures of lake travel. Lillian Foster was in Chicago in 1860, and tells in Wayside Glimpses, pp. 200–224, her impressions of Douglas and the political situation. Margaret Fuller spent a Summer on the Lakes in 1843; Charles Dickens went to Niagara, which he describes in his American Notes, 1842, and Harriet Martineau wrote a Retrospect of Western Travel (3 vols.), 1838, in which she devotes seventy pages of the first volume to a trip from Albany to Niagara. Two accounts of travel in Minnesota are E. S. Seymour’s Sketches of Minnesota, 1850, and C. C. Andrews’ Minnesota and Dacotah, 1857.
Gazetteers and Guides (arranged alphabetically). S. R. Brown’s The Western Gazetteer, 1817; E. Dana’s Description of the Bounty Lands of Illinois in 1819, and Geographical Sketches on the Western Country, 1819; William Darby’s Emigrants’ Guide to the Western and Southwestern States and Territories, 1818; G. M. Davison’s The Fashionable Tour, with several successive editions under the title, The Traveller’s Guide, 1830–1840; J. Disturnell’s The Western Traveller, 1844, and A Trip through the Lakes of North America, 1857; T. Dwight’s The Northern Traveller; A. D. Jones’ Illinois and the West, 1838, which is especially good on pioneer conditions; John Melish’s Geographical Description of the United States, Information and Advice to Emigrants, and Traveller’s Directory, 1815–1826; S. A. Mitchell’s Illinois in 1837; J. M. Peck’s Gazetteer of Illinois, Guide for Emigrants, and New Guide for Emigrants to the West, 1831–1848; J. C. Smith’s The Western Tourist, 1840, and Steele’s Western Guide-Books, 1830–1840; H. Spofford’s Pocket Guide of the State of New York, 1824; H. S. Tanner’s The American Traveller (8th ed., 1842); and George Temple’s The American Tourist’s Pocket Companion, 1812.