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Explosive growth in settlement took place in the Northwest Territory following the end of the War of 1812. Settlers came from the American seaboard and from Europe, especially England, which lost many of its middle-class farmers and artisans. One such settlement was the agricultural colony called the English Prairie, in southeastern Illinois in what is now Edwards County. Among its first settlers was a young engineer, Elias Pym Fordham, who kept journals which he sent back to England with his letters to his family. Those writings are here collected into a fascinating description of frontier life in the new republic. As the editor states in the introduction, Fordham describes "the land and people of Virginia, a voyage up the Chesapeake, a trip on the Pennsylvania Road from Baltimore to Pittsburg, the people of western Pennsylvania, the city of Pittsburg, the descent of the Ohio to Cincinnati by flat-boat, the land and people of southern Indiana, establishing the settlement at English Prairie, hardships of the first winter, the surveying and entering of public land, prices, wages, and labor in the West, the classes of people on the frontiers, a trip through Kentucky to Cincinnati, the Rappite settlement at New Harmony, and prospects for English emigrants in the American interior." An index to full-names, places and subjects augments the narrative.

These volumes contain a complete, verbatim transcription of the town records of Plymouth, Massachusetts for the years 1636 to 1783. They record all the formal business of the town, such as town meetings, elections, laying out of roads, and land grants by the town; vital records were kept in separate books and are not included here. These records begin early in the life of the town and continue down through the end of the American Revolution. They provide a quite detailed picture of life at the time. Here you will find the local residents registering their cattle marks, being elected hog-reeve, or to some other minor town post, receiving permission to set up fishing stages or erect a fence, listed as voting at the town meeting, receiving a grant of land or cattle, assisting in the care of widows and orphans, having a road laid out past their property, and all manner of other interesting things. These records can be very helpful because they name a great many people, some of whom probably do not show up in many other records. There is a complete index in each volume.

These volumes contain a complete, verbatim transcription of the town records of Plymouth, Massachusetts for the years 1636 to 1783. They record all the formal business of the town, such as town meetings, elections, laying out of roads, and land grants by the town; vital records were kept in separate books and are not included here. These records begin early in the life of the town and continue down through the end of the American Revolution. They provide a quite detailed picture of life at the time. Here you will find the local residents registering their cattle marks, being elected hog-reeve, or to some other minor town post, receiving permission to set up fishing stages or erect a fence, listed as voting at the town meeting, receiving a grant of land or cattle, assisting in the care of widows and orphans, having a road laid out past their property, and all manner of other interesting things. These records can be very helpful because they name a great many people, some of whom probably do not show up in many other records. There is a complete index in each volume.

The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers were major thoroughfares for the Underground Railroad which had waystations in Illinois. Although Illinois was admitted to the Union as a free state (1818), it passed laws which made it risky for a runaway slave to be found within its borders. Advertisements were placed in Illinois newspapers by owners from Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia in search of runaways, as well as by Illinois residents who had found runaways that they wanted claimed. While the slaves were black, the advertisers were predominently white, so both races are about equally represented in this volume. The notices usually give the name, age, and physical description of the runaways, and the name and addresses of the advertiser. The notices in this major new work were abstracted from fourteen Illinois newspapers for the years 1816 through 1850.

Loren P. Waldo originally read his address on the early history of Tolland before the Tolland County Historical Society and many of his listeners expressed a strong desire to see his address in print. As the society proposed to have it published, the author revised his work and prepared it for publication. His purpose was "to speak of the early history of the town of Tolland, and to gather up and preserve some mementos of the persons who first peopled its territory." The author's passion for Tolland's heritage is evident in his writing. "The territory now called Tolland, prior to the year 1700, formed a part of the vast wilderness that covered the western continent before the track of civilization ever visited these shores, and was inhabited only by wild beasts or wilder men." A wide range of topics are covered, including detailed descriptions of seventeen lots of land (with lists of petitioners and grantees), meeting houses, ministers, military (with lists of volunteers, rolls, payrolls, pension applicants and more), burying grounds, the post office, town clerks (with a list of names and dates of service), census of Tolland, members of the House of Representatives (which lists representatives in the General Assembly spanning October 1748 to May 1861), justices of the peace (with a list of names and dates of service from settlement to 1861), and selectmen (with a chronological list of names, 1717-1860). Family records with varying amounts of genealogical information augment most of the chapters. A full-name index has been added to this work.

The Order of Red Men takes pride in preserving "the history, the customs, and the virtues of the original American people,-a people conceded by the early travellers and writers to have been intelligent, brave, and free, loyal in its friendships, generous in its hospitalities, and with many traits of character worthy of emulation..." "The primary objects of our Order are to promote among men the exercise and practice of the true principles of benevolence and charity, the care and protection of the widows and orphans of its members, and the cultivation of friendly relations with those who have entered its circle. The democratic influences which attended its birth, the idea that all men are equal, are the tenets of the Order; and what a man is, not what he possesses, constitutes his claim for recognition among the brotherhood. Friendship, fraternity, and hospitality are exemplified as cardinal virtues, and nowhere are hearts brought closer together than around the council fires of the Red Men...Our Order is a brotherhood of individuals whose personal characteristics are not sacrificed, but whose common interests are maintained and strengthened as the members harmonize around our council fires." Chapters include: Outline of Subject; Primitive Red Men, Their Characteristics and Customs; Patriotic Societies at and prior to 1776; Societies of Red Men from 1812 to 1834; Organization of the Improved Order of Red Men at Baltimore, Md.; The Great Council of the United States: its Origin, Powers, and Laws (1847 to date of publication); State Great Councils; Biographies of Prominent Members; Digest of the Decisions, Laws, Rulings, etc., of the Great Council of the United States; Legislation, Constitutions, etc.; Degree of Pocahontas; Chieftains' League; The Degrees of the Order; and, Nomenclature of the Order and Calendar. Numerous illustrations enhance the text. A subject, place and every-name index makes access to information easy for the researcher.