Pike To Durham
An American Farmer's Journal
by
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Early in the Nineteenth Century, settlers from England were drawn to Pike County Illinois. Many came from Durham County in the north of England, often by way of Canada, sailing down the Great Lakes and the Illinois River to Griggsville Landing, now Valley City. Five members of the Anderson family had arrived in Pike County by 1852. They invested their combined inheritance in farmland. The farming venture suited them well, but certain unsettled business matters drew Robert Anderson back to England in 1866. His diary of that trip is more than a travelogue, for it includes a taste of rural Illinois, the flavor of Nineteenth Century England, and significant events on both continents. The author's remarks and many footnotes further elucidate connections with residents of Pike County who had roots in Durham County England.
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About the Book
In this journal, written in 1866-67, Robert Anderson of Griggsville, Illinois records a trip to northern England and return. He and his family emigrated from Durham County, England, to Pike County, Illinois in 1850. They bought land in the Illinois River bottom just east of the town of Griggsville. Robert, John, and sister Jane returned to England in 1866 to transact business, and visit family. While Jane saved items for a scrapbook, John kept a terse farmer’s record of trips made and the prices of nearly everything they acquired or saw. But Robert was more expansive, writing a diary of their daily activities and his visit to the Paris Exposition. This diary is here presented with extensive footnotes linking past and present events to families, places, and situations in both countries. Included are pictures of the diary itself, Pike County locations, and a few photos, some taken on the journey and some of England in 1993.
About the Author
Betsy Byrns Kitch was born in Quincy, Illinois in 1932 during the Great Depression. She grew up in rural Illinois, with a brief stay in Arlington, Virginia while her father was with the Department of Agriculture in Washington DC. She is the only child on both sides of her family and thus the inheritor of many family stories and memorabilia. She still owns a sea chest brought from England in 1887 along with many personal items and pieces of Sunderland pottery. From the time she was ten years old, Betsy lived in the small town of Griggsville, Illinois, often spending time on the Anderson farmland. She rode a pony carrying water to the workmen and hiked on the property. As a teenager, she and her friends “camped out” in the original one room brick house the Andersons built when they first acquired the property, using the same nearby spring her ancestors used for their water. Betsy holds degrees from the University of Illinois and University of Dayton. Her husband, a retired Air Force officer and onetime faculty member at the Air Force Academy, has been a faithful editor and advisor. Together they published Woodmen Valley (Filter Press, Palmer Lake, CO, 1983), a brief study of the area between the Academy and Colorado Springs. Though they have traveled widely with the Air Force, Jack and Betsy admit they are true Midwesterners at heart. They now have settled down near Dayton Ohio.