Robert Ashley

Main Ideas

Despite general statements that describe large numbers of migrants from Europe to Illinois in the middle of the nineteenth century, it is important to recognize that each move was based on individual, family, or group decisions. Such decisions were not made lightly, for they meant an end to the ways of life to which people were accustomed in exchange for promises of something better. For each person who decided to venture into the new country, there were many who chose not to leave. One person's perception of extraordinary opportunities was not perceived the same way by another. Virgin farmland to one was a wilderness to another; freedom to one meant cutting ties to home and friends to another. Little wonder "American letters" and travelers' accounts of Illinois were so influential. Little wonder, too, that immigrants tended to move to those settlements that their countrymen had already established.

Students of migration recognize two sets of factors that influence decisions to move: "push" factors are those undesirable features that people want to escape; "pull" factors are desirable features that draw people to particular places. Illinois in 1850 was a land of great promise for many Europeans, as evidenced by the large proportion of immigrants in its population. However, Figure 2 in the narrative portion of this article shows that immigrants tended to concentrate in some areas and avoid others. Why? Furthermore, some counties had distinctive national "flavors" while others either had few immigrants or were mixed. Again, why?

Connection with the Curriculum
These materials could be used in lessons in Illinois and U.S. history, sociology, and geography.

Teaching Level
Grades 6-12

Materials for Each Student

• A copy of this article's narrative portion up to the section entitled "Making Foreign-Born Migration Field and Foreign Immigrant Region Maps"

• Copies of the reprinted written accounts of Illinois travelers

• Handout 2 - Base Map of Illinois Counties

• An Illinois highway map

Objectives for Each Student

• Understand the importance of "push" and "pull" factors in decisions to migrate.

• Recognize that perceptions about places differ, depending on points of view.

• Understand the importance of transportation to migration.

• Recognize that the relative locations of communities change as transportation connect them.

Opening the Lesson
• Describe one or more scenarios of undesirable social, economic, or political conditions, such as those that faced residents of mid-nineteenth-century Europe. Topics might include political turbulence, religious persecution, landlessness of farmers, unemployment, poverty, and Ireland's potato famine. Ask students to comment on alternatives available to the affected people. Explain that these and other undesirable conditions may be "push" factors that encourage people to move.

• Show students a transparency of Table 1 (Birthplaces of Foreign Adult Males in Illinois, 1850), and ask students to comment on why Germany, Ireland, and England were disproportionately represented. Students will be predisposed to respond by citing those push

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factors just mentioned. Be prepared to describe briefly those conditions that encouraged many to move. Explain that push factors encourage potential migrants to look for opportunities elsewhere. Illinois' cheap land and expanding economic opportunities were draws during that period of time. Ask students to predict those features that provided a "pull" to immigrants. Define the term "pull."

• Show an overhead transparency of Figure 1 (Foreign Migration Fields in Illinois, 1850). Point out clusters of national groups. Ask students to speculate why particular groups clustered.

• Distribute the narrative portion of this article up to the section entitled "Making Foreign-Born Migration Field and Foreign Immigrant Region Maps." Assign the section as homework. Be sure to discuss this section with the students in class. Instruct students to write in their notebooks examples of pull factors that applied generally to Illinois and specifically to particular locations.

Developing the Lesson
• Arrange students in small groups and instruct them to compare their lists of pull factors as described in the reading assignment. Discuss as a class. Emphasize that push and pull factors go hand-in-hand; discontent may encourage people to look for opportunities elsewhere.

• Show an overhead transparency of Figure 2 (Foreign Immigrant Regions in Illinois, 1850). Distribute to each student or pair of students an Illinois highway map. Instruct them to compare the two maps and select the city or cities which are the foci of the core areas. Plot and label responses on the transparency with a washable marker. Ask students to describe the feature or features common to all. (All are on navigable waterways.)

• The teacher should be prepared to describe the importance of navigable waterways to immigrants and to the development of cities. Some important considerations should include:

1. The French established the earliest European settlements in Illinois, with forts and villages along the Mississippi, Illinois, and Wabash rivers—outposts of an empire that stretched from Canada to New Orleans.

2. Early American settlers traveled down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi on flat-boats and keelboats. Flatboats also plied the waters of smaller streams, handling cargo and passengers. Many new settlers came overland from the Upland South states—particularly Kentucky and Tennessee—and crossed the Ohio into Illinois. By the time Illinois entered the Union (1818), most of its population was concentrated in southern Illinois.

3. The first steamboat reached St. Louis in 1817, and by 1848 the Illinois-Michigan Canal linked the Great Lakes with the Illinois-Mississippi.

4. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. Improvements in Chicago's port facilities and a lighthouse in 1832 supported the boom in Great Lakes schooner and steam transportation. Chicago grew from 150 persons when it was incorporated in 1833 to nearly 30,000 by mid-century.

5. River ports provide "breaks" in transportation, that is, points at which goods and passengers must be shifted from one type of carrier to another. Because of the need for laborers, warehousing, and services at such points, opportunities for employment developed. The concept "hinterland" may be introduced at this point and explored later in relation to the following passages: J. H. Buckingham's descriptions of Peoria, in which he refers to Peoria's "large extent of back country to supply;" and Chicago, in which he refers to Boston as the "Atlantic seaport of this great country." By this time, New York had surpassed Boston as the country's major seaport, owing in large part to the expansion of its hinterland by the construction of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the beginnings of the development of railroads. Indeed, Chicago was connected to the East by rail in 1852. The concept can be further explored as part of the description of Chicago's growth between 1830 and 1857. ("Hinterland" refers to that area surrounding a seaport city that is in that city's sphere of influence, dependent upon it for markets, jobs, goods, and services. "Umland" is properly used with inland cities. However, the term hinterland is commonly used for both.)

6. The relative location of a city changes as transportation systems link it to other places. As transportation time or cost is

reduced, a city may seem closer than it previously did. Additionally, the improved transportation of a city to its hinterland solidifies the city's importance as the region's center.

• Refer students to the passage by Morris Birkbeck (in narrative introduction) in which he promotes the colony he founded in southern Illinois. Read it aloud for emphasis. Note that while Birkbeck did not tell any untruths, he did not present a balanced picture.

• Distribute Handout 1 (Impressions of Illinois) written by European travelers to Illinois. Each set describes the same area, although not at the same time, and certainly not from the same perspective. Assign students to read the passages before the next class session. For each selection, students should write in their notebooks one statement to summarize the writer's perception of the place.

• Arrange students in groups of three or four. Direct them to use Impressions of Illinois and the review statement they wrote as homework to address the following questions:

1. What factors may have contributed to the different impressions the travelers had of the places they visited?

2. Which comments might serve as "pull" factors, and which would discourage immigration?

3. Did the different times at which they wrote influence their perceptions? Why or why not?

4. How did the writers who described Chicago differ in their assignments of the city's relative location? That is, how did they see the city relating to its surrounding area and to distant places?

   What were their reasons?

• Each group should appoint a recorder to take notes of the discussion and a spokesperson to present the group's ideas to the class. Provide time for discussion, then conduct a whole class discussion during which spokespersons report. Ask them to share their summary statements with the class, and point out on a wall map (or individual highway maps) the location of each as it is discussed. Encourage students to imagine the reactions these and other writings might have caused in potential immigrants, if they had the opportunity to read them.

It may be emphasized at this point that the combination of the geographic perspective—observing the spatial characteristics of a particular place—with the historic—focusing on a particular point in the past—can be mutually enhancing. The two studies are complementary.

Concluding the Lesson
• Ask students to recall why cities grew in particular locations. Review topics should include the following:

1. Cities grew at breaks in transportation, especially at sites on waterways. Land transportation facilities were primitive.

2. The population was largely agricultural, and people depended on local markets.

3. Most settlements were small service centers, providing goods, services, and markets for small hinterlands.

4. The total population was small; it was especially sparse on the prairies of east-central Illinois.

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• Display a transparency of Figure 4, Urban-Road Networks in Illinois, 1844. Point out Chicago and St. Louis as the regional nodes, and ask students to name the subregional nodes.

• Distribute to each student Handout 2 (Illinois and Its Counties, Base Map) and an Illinois highway map. Instruct students to copy interstate highways on the base map and plot the locations of those cities of 75,000 or more population. Include St. Louis and the Rock Island-Moline-Davenport-Bettendorf conurbation; combine Champaign and Urbana; combine Bloomington and Normal. Alternatively, prepare a transparency on which the interstate highway system has been plotted. Highlight the system with a colored marker. Superimpose it on Figures transparency.

• Ask students to compare the two maps and consider the following questions:

1. What are the focal points of the interstate highway system? How does the interstate system influence the relative locations of cities?

2. What changes have occurred in population distribution? Are the largest cities of 1844 still the largest cities of today? Why or why not?

3. Which of the subregional and lower level nodes were relatively more important in 1844? How did their locational advantages diminish?

4. Which cities are subregional nodes today? What are the locational advantages that encouraged their growth?

Extending the Lesson
Distribute base maps of Illinois (with counties drawn and labeled), an Illinois highway map, and the following list of towns/cities. Instruct students to plot and label Chicago, Cairo, and the other towns/cities on the base map, then connect all items with a single line. When they have completed the task, tell them that all the towns/cities were incorporated within the same twenty-year period. Ask them to describe what the communities have in common and to predict the twenty-year span. (All are located on the Chicago to Cairo route of the Illinois Central Railroad, completed in 1856. All were incorporated between 1855 and 1875.)

Plot and label: Chicago, Cairo, Anna, Arcola, Bourbonnais, Buckley, Carbondale, Central City, Centralia, Champaign, Chebanse, Clifton, Cobden, DuQuoin, Effingham, Farina, Oilman, Kankakee, Kinmundy, Loda, Mason, Mattoon, Monee, Neoga, Odin, Onarga, Paxton, Peotone, Rantoul, Richview, Sigel, Tamaroa, Tolono, and Tuscola.

Assessing the Lesson
Tell students that one-fifth of the U.S. population moves each year, making our people among the world's most mobile. Ask them to consider the following questions about modern-day migrations within the nation, state, and local community. Why do people move? What push and pull factors are involved? Did you move to the community where you now live, or do you know people who have? What were your (their) reasons? Did your (their) perception of the community change after the move? Direct students to write a one-page description of their community, explaining push and pull features.

The following are excerpts from Paul M. Angle, ed. and comp., Prairie State: Impressions of Illinois, 1673-1967, By Travelers and Other Observers (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968).

Peoria. Peoria in 1833 was two years away from incorporation; it grew as a village near Fort Clark and was platted in 1826. A ferry began operation and the first steamboat reached the community in 1830. By 1847, steamboats arrived frequently (more than 1,200 in 1850), and the city was connected to other cities by daily stagecoaches.

A. Patrick Shirreff, 1833
"The village exhibits marks of considerable age, but none of prosperity... There being nothing to attract attention at Peoria, I recrossed the ferry..." (p. 129)

B. J. H. Buckingham, 1847
"Peoria is a beautifully situated town on the right bank of the river, and is already the seat of a great business. It commands one of the most grand and interesting views in the world, and is built or laid out something in the New England style. It has a large extent of back country to supply, and has increased within a few years almost beyond what it would be considered reasonable for me to state." (p. 246)

Prairies. Prairies were poorly drained, and marshy areas were experienced frequently. Mosquitoes were plentiful; they carried malaria, known to the early settlers as "ague." Prairie soils were very difficult to plow until the mass production of the John Deere steel moleboard plow in 1847. Wood for building and fuel was scarce on the prairie. Most land travel was at best a bone-jarring experience. Roads were not paved, and wheeled vehicles followed the rutted wheel tracks of those left by earlier travelers. For these reasons, the prairies were among the last areas settled in Illinois.

A. Chandler R. Oilman, 1835.
"We passed over a continued plain, intersected every now and then with a soft spot of ground, where the wheels sank deeply into the soil. At the dawn of day we found ourselves on a wide prairie, with scarce a tree in sight. The appearance of the prairies disappointed me very much; the tall brown grass, coarse and scattered, gave to the whole a ragged appearance; the ground was low and marshy, and at short intervals we passed through what they here call slews. I thought, at first, that these slews were rivulets, whose streams were dried up by the long drought; but I believe their true character is long narrow ponds, or rather mud holes." (p. 155)

B. William Ferguson, 1855.
[We drove]"..out upon the great prairie. I do not fancy there exists in the old world such a sight as we beheld. From an eminence, as far as the eye could comprehend the scene, it traversed the richest undulating fields of grass, almost unbroken by fence, plough, or house. We walked some distance up to the knees in the luxuriant herbage ... The agricultural resources of this country are incredible." (p. 303)

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Chicago. Chicago was little more than a trading post until the 1830s, when it enjoyed rapid growth. Construction of the Erie Canal (1825) linked Chicago with east coast cities and transatlantic trade. By 1857, the city was the focus of major transportation systems: the Illinois and Michigan Canal linked the Great Lakes with the Illinois and Mississippi waterways, eleven rail lines converged there, and road systems continued to improve.

A. William H. Keating, 1823.
"The village presents no cheering prospect, as, notwithstanding its antiquity, it consists of but few huts, inhabited by a miserable race of men, scarcely equal to the Indians from whom they are descended. Their log or bark-houses are low, filthy and disgusting, displaying not the least trace of comfort... As a place of business, it offers no inducement to the settler..." (pp. 86-87)

B. J. H. Buckingham, 1847.
"The more I see of Chicago, the more I am impressed with the value of its increasing trade with Boston, -for Boston is the Atlantic sea-port of this great country. Everywhere one meets with something new to astonish and delight him ... I could write columns about Chicago, and give statistics upon statistics, to show that it is the greatest place of its age, and is destined to be still greater..." (p. 239)

C. Gustaf Unonius, 1857.
"Not only canals and numerous railroads have made Chicago one of the most important business centers of the Union, without a doubt the most important in the interior of the country. Its favorable location contributes fully as much if not more. Located at the extreme south end of Lake Michigan, the point of departure for all of the great watercourses, it is, one might say, the source of the extensive navigation maintained on those immense lakes and through the great navigable rivers connected with them. Thus it has direct communication by water with Canada and the Atlantic and even with transatlantic ports. Chicago is connected by the canal with the almost inexhaustible coalfields in southern Illinois and had easy access through the St. Mary's Canal to the mining regions around Lake Superior. These conditions will be important in promoting the future growth and prosperity of the city." (p. 293)

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