The great prairies of Illinois were a magnificent sight - one vast sea of grass and flowers and most of them as level as a floor.  We passed very few farms.  Fifty years ago there were not many settlements in Illinois.  We crossed a number of prairies, where, as might be said, we were out of sight of land - not a house or a tree to be seen.  There was a great deal of sickness on our route.  We had to attend our own horse, and most of the time, sleep on the floor, with a blanket and a pillow for our bed.  Ten days and a half from the time we left Cincinnati, we forded Rock river and soon reached our future home.  At that time Stephenson, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, was a considerable town and a much older and more important place than Davenport.  Rock island contained no inhabitants except Colonel George Davenport and his family.  Old Fort Armstrong with its block houses, occupied the west end of the island. Mr. Owens and myself spent some three weeks in thoroughly examining the country.  One of the best settlements was in Pleasant Valley.  The Hydes, Captain Hawley, Moss & Bradley, Sam Hedges, C. Rowe, Adam Donaldson, the Henleys and Fennos were there.  There was a small sawmill on Duck creek, and a grist mill, containing one small run of stone on Crow creek.  Both these streams contained twice as much water then as now.  We drove back to Allens Grove, also to Walnut and Hickory Groves, where we found John Dunn, L. Lathrop, Dennis R. Fuller and the Carters, all of whom were hard at work making themselves homes.  Below Rockingham, Enoch Mead, David Sullivan, Captain James Murray, Foster Campbell, James E. Burnsides, Lewis W. Clark, and others, were busily engaged in laying the foundation of Scott county's future prosperity. After a thorough examination of the county and making the acquaintance of many of the settlers, we both determined to emigrate, and purchased the eighty acre tract west of and adjoining the town.  It was a squatter's claim.  We paid $450 for it and each wanted it, so we agreed to divide it and to draw cuts for the first choice.  I won, and chose the half next to the town, for which I paid $250, Mr. Owens taking the other half at $200.  We then concluded to lay claim to a section of land and selected section 17.  We divided it north and south, and, each again wanting the half adjoining the town, we drew cuts as before.  I won, and took the part I wanted.  Fearing we would have trouble to find our claim, we hired Strong Burnell, who was breaking prairie in the vicinity, to plow three furrows around the whole section, for which we paid $30 - $10 a furrow.  We proposed to plant this strip of plowed ground with locust trees. The next thing I did was to make arrangements to build a house on my forty acres.  I found a man in Davenport, a settler of that year, who had bought a lot and erected a frame on it, but who had become discouraged and wished to return east.  I bought the frame standing, paying $125 for it, and engaged B. F. Coates to take it to pieces and put it up on my land, leaving money with him with which to buy weather boarding, sheathing, etc., and it was agreed that I should bring the shingles, flooring, doors and windows with me in the spring from Cincinnati, which would be much cheaper and better. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L