1876 PIONEER PAPERS GERSHOM FLAGG ILLINOIS FRONTIER LETTERS SIGNED ALTON IL RARE For Sale

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Nineteenth-century gathering of newspaper clippings from the Alton Weekly Telegraph, preserving the 1876 "Pioneer Papers" series titled "Early Letters of an Early Settler," in which the paper printed Gershom Flagg's vivid frontier letters from 1816–1825 about Ohio, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Madison County, Illinois. Long narrow columns of newsprint have been carefully pasted down in sequence on large backing sheets, creating a handmade booklet that reads straight through from the introductory notice dated Thursday, April 27, 1876 into the final piece headed "An Illinois Farmer's Inventory in 1825."

The front wrapper is a plain heavy paper cover that appears to have been custom-made for these clippings and bears an ink presentation reading "From Hon. W. C. Flagg, Moro, Illinois," which matches the name, place, and period hand of Willard Cutting Flagg, the only son of Madison County pioneer Gershom Flagg and an influential Illinois farmer, horticulturalist, and state senator. Inside, the first column introduces Gershom Flagg (1792–1857), recounts his New England origins and westward journey, and lists the nine letters in the series under headings such as "Ohio in 1816," "Ohio in 1817," "Ohio and Cincinnati in 1817," "St. Louis in 1817–18," and successive sketches of Madison County from 1818 through 1825.

Across the pasted columns Flagg describes in remarkable detail early travel routes and stage roads, river crossings and keelboats, the look and layout of Cincinnati and St. Louis when they were small but rapidly growing towns, the first steamboats on the Mississippi, and his impressions of soil, climate, and health in the new country. Later letters focus on Madison County, Illinois: timber and prairie land, prices for wheat, corn, stock, and town lots, the perils of "milk sickness" and crop failures, wild game, advantages for transportation, the character of the inhabitants, the progress of agriculture, and the bitter Illinois slavery controversy of the early 1820s. The closing "Illinois Farmer's Inventory in 1825" reads almost like a balance sheet of acres, orchards, crops, livestock, tools, and household goods, making this run of clippings a rich primary source for both local history and family or land-title research.

Physical condition is good overall for a fragile, roughly 150-year-old group of newspaper clippings, but it does show the expected age and handling wear throughout. The oversized outer wrapper is uniformly toned and darkened, with scattered stains and tide marks, soft creases, edge nicks, and small chips at the corners and along the top and bottom margins. The spine fold shows a vertical line of wear with a series of old transparent tape reinforcements and small closed splits; additional pieces of aged tape reinforce corners and short edge tears on both the wrapper and several inner backing sheets. The newsprint columns themselves are clean overall, showing light waviness, scattered foxing, and some water staining toward the upper and outer margins; a few pasted clippings show tiny losses at extreme corners, and there are occasional short closed tears at the edges, but the printed text remains legible and the sequence of letters appears intact. The paper is delicate but still holding together as a unit, and the booklet can be handled and read carefully if supported in both hands.

Make sure to see the photos above for complete details.

Measures approximately 6 1/4 inches tall by 6 1/4 inches wide.

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