Eliza Andrews Flower [and George Flower], Park House, Albion, Illinois, to Henry Crabb Robinson, 2 Preston [sic] Buildings, Temple, London, 27 December 1834.  

Park House near Albion Illinois

North America

December 27th 1834

My dear Sir

       I receive with very great pleasure a joint Letter from yourself and Mrs Davy dated July 11th/34 by the last mail, Postmark “St Louis” decr 2nd put into that Office by your friend Mr Richmond who writes upon the outside of the Letter “Mr Richmond who forwards this is about spending the winter in Rushville Illinois and regrets his inability to visit Albion with an Introduction from Mr Robinson” – I regret it too for it would have given both Mr Flower and myself ^pleasure^ to have received him as your friend and heard from him all that he knew of yourself – and the little island you live in How very much I should like to see and converse with you once again! – when we parted I was scarcely a young woman – Now – I am an old woman with Grey Hair – and a House full of Children about me! but to set against this – I have the best Husband in the World – and Children, healthy Blooming and kindly! – and tho I often make a great scolding and rout because I am obliged to work so very hard – I feel that I am and ought to be the happiest woman that ever resided in the State of Illinois! – I love America! I like the People; -- I see great utility in the generality of the manners and customs of the Country – for this Country I have enjoy’d excellent Health – and live amidst abundance of the necessaries of life without anxiety for the ’morrow, and I daily feel that if we ^Mr F and myself^ were to die tomorrow, (such is the universal kindness of the American People towards Orphans and young People in general) – that our Children would instantly become the Public Care, and be quite as happy and quite as useful members of Society as if we were alive! – Can you say that in England? no! – I admire your bright Isle and think that in many points you are vastly our Superior –but take both the Countries all in all and depend upon it that we are the happiest People! – “There’s conceit” you will say in that poor ignorant Child whom I used to call “little Maulley” – very likely – but come and see us – you are a Man of Sense – and a man of Leisure  -- come to the West – my dear Husband remembers you well and would extremely enjoy your Society – and so should I! – I am just as cherful cheerful as ever I was and far far happier than I was in England, altho I was a happy Girl in England – and love the memory of my English friends to this moment! I should like to describe to you the Country we live in – the manners and the customs of the Inhabitants &c -- but I have no talent of that kind besides which Mr Flower is writing a Pamphlet for the Press – describing the Soil Climate Advantages – Disadvantages &c &c &c of this State and this as a general answer to the innumerable Letters we receive by almost every Mail, of enquiries from both English and French who wish to emigrate to the State of Illinois – and which from their number it is quite impossible for him ^Mr F^ to answer individually

      I thank you very much for your Letter and for your kind remembrance of me and mine I wish I could place before your Eyes – my Husband and our Children – of my Husband I can only tell that I would sooner dwell in the Fortress of Ham with him and be civilly dead – than Reign Empress of the World without him! – Our Eldest Daughter Emma so named after my dear friend Emma Davy – is in her sixteenth year – in her Person and Carriage she is like her Grandmama Flower – in her Face she is between her Father and me – Her understanding is good and sound – her disposition generous – cheerful and frank – Her Education for this Country – Good for England So, So! – she is just as competent to all the duties of a Housewife as myself altho at so early an age so soon do children arrive at maturity in this Western World – Rosemond our second daughter with Black Eyes and turn’d up nose can do just what she pleases good or bad and at present is the best child possible to her Father (upon whom she doats) and to me – altho a quarrelsome little Tyke amongst our the other Children Mary our youngest Girl is a sweet little fair Creature not to be described – Alfred our Eldest son – 12 years of age – is a Noble Boy he often reminds me of Joe Wedd in his Countenance – with all his Fathers mildness and truth – Camilus the next is the fac-simile of my uncle Rutt and I have no doubt but he will possess much of his Talent and Genius and be always just as carless [sic] and penniless! Two little Boys William and Richard who are at present only interesting to their Parents, with our Infant 5 months old named Benjamin who is more beautiful than the rising Sun and the darling of us all – makes up the number of our family now living! – You see I take it for granted that you wish to hear all about me tho’ you dont exactly say so – and I cannot write about any else until you know my family, because I love my Home better than all the World besides and yet I like the World vastly well – and tho it quarrel’d with me – I never quarrel’d with it! –

       We live on a beautiful Prairie – a beautiful Park – and our House is extremely comfortable and comodious [sic] – in the First Season we have abundance of Peaches, Apples, Peramiens Currants Strawberries Melons &c – Vegetables of the finest kinds in profusion Asparagus in quantities grown in large Beds and even in fields – Poultry by hundreds Game in great plenty during the Winter Season, the best of Beef Mutton, Pork, Veal, and Venison at 2 3 and 4 cents per # -- Flower of the best quality with Indian meal and Buck Wheat meal for Cakes – our Flower supply is amply with what our Farm [illegibile word] – and but that you must be your own Servant as well as Mistress of the House and Mother to a dozen Children, I would say that this was a Land of ease as well as of plenty and Liberty – but that I cannot say – the Females in Illinois are obliged to work very hard let their pecuniary circumstances be what they may – for Servants or Helps as they are call’d here – are not to be had but occasionally – at this present time we have no domestic either male or female my Children and myself do all the work and our family consists my Husband and Self our 8 Children.  Mr Flowers Mother (now a Widow) who resides with us – and is as fine and hearty an old Lady as you ever saw – two of her daughters (Mrs Renalds children the mother being now in England for the Recovery of her Health) two Nephews of my own lately imported from London and not worth twopence for this Country at present – and a Nephew of Mrs Flowers who is upon a visit to us for the Winter making Sixteen in family besides daily and constant Visitors – I cannot detail to you all the domestic economy of a Household like ours – suffice it to say that in England I should think it necessary to call in the aid of two or three Servants at least to perform the work which is here accomplished without the aid of one! – I am sorry to tell you that we in this House ^keep up^ too many of our old English ideas and Habits for our own good or the good of our Pockets, but we cannot help it – and altho I dont wish our Children to follow our example in these things in which we differ from the Natives – I believe that we of the old World are happier in doing as we do – I havent much time for reading Politics but I enjoy hearing Mr Flower read whilst I work – we take several good Papers both English and American – “Niles Political Register” – “New York Mercury” – “Atlas” (an English Paper) “Albion” do – republish’d at New York – “The Emigrant” and two or three Country papers – all good in their way – now and then a good new Novel but not very often – Some Reviews magazines &c &c – so that tho we appear to be buried in the Wilds of Western America we do from time to time learn something of what is going on in the old Vain World – You will please to deliver the enclosed to my dear friend Mrs D— as soon as possible – My Husband desires me to leave room for him to say a word – therefore dear Sir Good Night! and may every  good attend you, Write to us again but better still come and see us! You will find that change of Climate has not changed our Hearts My Baby cries! – Ridiculous that old Women should have Babies!

                        Believe me truly your obliged friend

                                                 Eliza Julia Flower

     Poh Poh nonsense about my wife’s gray hair, she has only a silver sprig or so to shew her raven locks to advantage – You hinted in your letter of possibly coming to the Eastern States – If you should do pray give us a call  It is quite a fashionable route now to peep at the Eastern Cities in the morning, glance at the falls of Niagara & Erie along the lakes in the Morning ^at noon,^ cross the State of Ohio & gallop over the Prairies of Illinois in the afternoon & rendevous the Mississippi & sup at New Orleans

       If you shd favour us with a visit be assured of a hearty welcome from myself & wife. We have nothing to interest you longer than three days. If you come come in fair warm weather it is a miserable Country for a townsman in Winter.  Mr Trollope & Mr Stewart taken together describe America well. A Mr Crawford of Raymond Buildings Lincolns Inn pass’d a very short time with us a year ago. He can give you a notion of how we live & what we look like. Space abundant, & a Country life is all we boast.

                                     G. F.

P.S. I found that I cannot enclose my letter to Mrs Davy in this but will send it by the next Post – therefore please to shew her this – with my most grateful thanks for her dear Letter – tell her she knows not how dear her remembrance has ever been to me and that my beloved earliest friend Emma I have written to her but do not like my letter! – Oh! I want to talk with her – but Ah! I fear I never shall

                                                 E J F

Pray present my kind & respectful Compts to Mrs Davy – our meeting at Brighton and at her own house is as fresh in my recollection as if it had occurd yesterday

                                                                         G. F.

Address: Henry Crabb Robinson Esqre / No 2 Preston Buildings / Temple / London – Gt Britain.  Postmark: Albion Illinois Jany 16; Endorsed: 27 Decr 1834 / Mrs Flower / Illinois   

Text: Crabb Robinson Correspondence, 1834-35, letter 77, Dr. Williams's Library, London.

Eliza Julia Andrews (1792-1861) was the daughter of the Rev. Mordecai Andrews and Elizabeth Rutt Andrews (Mordecai attended J. C. Ryland’s academy in Northampton in 1760; his wife attended Mrs. Trinder’s academy in Northampton from 1769 to 1771, the counterpart to Ryland’s male academy). Eliza Andrews married George Flower (1786-1862), son of Richard Flower of Hertford and nephew of Benjamin Flower, on their way to Illinois in 1818, even though he was still legally married to Jane Dawson, still residing in England. His marriage angered Morris Birkbeck, co-founder of Albion, who refused to speak to Flower after his arrival there in 1818. The marriage also angered HCR, who had been a close friend and admirer of Eliza Andrews (she appears often in his diary between 1811 and 1818). In his diary, he notes that he will not answer her letter because he still holds both of them guilty of violating marriage laws. The English settlement eventually split into two groups: Birkbeck’s at Wanborough, and George and Richard Flower’s at Albion. See Timothy Whelan, “John Ryland at School,” Baptist Quarterly  40 (2003), 108-09, 116; “The Rev. John Collet Ryland’s Scholars,” Northamptonshire Notes and Queries (1926), 23, 25; Mary Ann Salter, “George Flower Comes to the Illinois Country: A New Look at Motivations,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 69 (1976), 213-23; Salter, “Quarrelling in the English Settlement: The Flowers in Court,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 75 (1982), 101-14.