Morris Birkbeck

Jennifer Goggins
Brookwood Junior High School, Glenwood

In the early 1800s many things were happening on the Illinois frontier. In 1809 the western part of Indiana, from Vincennes to Canada, was organized as the Illinois Territory with Kaskaskia as its capital. In 1812, nine years after Fort Dearborn was built, it was attacked by Indians. Illinois was also having other problems with Indians at that time, but those problems did not stop determined immigrants such as Morris Birkbeck and his friend and partner, George Flower. Although times were rough, they still managed to achieve their goals.

Before he moved to the United States, Morris Birkbeck lived in England with his children. In 1814, Birkbeck and his friend, George Flower, toured France together. It was during this tour that they made plans to move to America.

When Birkbeck arrived in America from England in May 1817, at age fifty-three, he had already made up his mind where he would live. He met with Flower, who had been traveling through the United States for a year, in Virginia, and the two set off.

The men's reason for leaving England varied. They were dissatisfied with economic conditions in England after the Napoleonic Wars, so they moved to the United States in hopes of establishing a colony that would provide better opportunities than those of the English working class. They searched Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois for a suitable site. They were not interested in the region far north because of its climate, and their hatred of slavery prevented them from settling further south. Finally, they selected the prairie between Bon Pas Creek and the Little Wabash River in Illinois.

While Birkbeck bought 26,400 acres of land in Edwards County with their pooled funds, Flower returned to England where he sold his holdings. During the course of his time in England, Flower organized many prospective colonists and sent them to the United States. In March 1818 Flower returned to America with agricultural implements, seeds, and animals for breeding, as well as about fifty-one people.

In 1817 and 1818 Morris Birkbeck wrote two books, Letters from Illinois, and Notes on a Journey from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory Illinois. The first was written to help sell land in Edwards Colony. Both books told of the glorious opportunities in Illinois. They were a bit overly optimistic, but they were effective. Each was widely read in the United States and abroad. They attracted many travelers and called attention both to the English settlements of Illinois and to the west as a whole.

Albion was founded in 1818, as the central settlement of the English colony organized by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower. It included what was probably the first library in the Illinois Territory.

In 1818 Illinois became a state. The population increased from 12,282 to 55,211 in just ten years. Part of that increase was due to Birkbeck and Flower's settlements.

In 1819 Morris Birkbeck organized the Agricultural Society of Illinois. The Society lasted until 1823, when the members tired of keeping up with their organization and disbanded. Birkbeck's colonists were the first scientific farmers in Illinois. They improved breeds of livestock and wrote tracts to advise settlers of ways to improve yields.

At age fifty-three, Birkbeck and Flower fell into disagreement. Birkbeck refused to talk to George Flower, age twenty-nine, for marrying the woman to which Birkbeck was planning to propose. All the men's business was carried on by third parties after their disagreement.

Birkbeck drowned on June 4, 1825, while attempting to swim his horse across the flooded Fox River. Not long after Birkbeck's death, George Flower went broke. He was able to save only his household furniture and moved from Albion to live with his children.

Morris Birkbeck was a very important figure in Illinois history. Without him and George Flower, the growth of the state of Illinois probably would have been slower.—[From John W. Allen, Legends and Lore of Southern Illinois; Solon J. Buck, Illinois in 1818; Carlyle R. Buley, The Old Northwest; Harry Hanson, Illinois; Robert P. Howard, Illinois; Robert M. Sutton, The Heartland.]

20 ILLINOIS HISTORY/ DECEMBER 2000