Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of a letter written by John Buckley to Samuel Allen in 1838 describing life in Tremont, Illinois.
John Buckley was a man from Gorham, New York who travelled west to Illinois around 1838 to purchase land and start a farm with his family. He settled in Tremont, Illinois, a town in Tazewell County in central Illinois, just south of Peoria.
The collection is comprised of a letter written by John Buckley on November 3, 1838, in Tremont, Illinois, to Colonel Samuel Allen in Gorham, New York. It details life in Tremont, Illinois after Buckley and his family traveled there to settle and start a farm. It describes the journey from New York to Illinois by boat; the purchase of land in Tremont; crop production and livestock; the area's topography and landscape; and major transportation routes nearby, including a railway running from Pekin, Illinois to the Wabash River. Buckley also encouraged Allen to tell others in Gorham about opportunities for work in Illinois.
The Library purchased this item in 2019 with support from the Bruce C. Creamer Fund.