Customer Reviews

Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (During the Years 1824, '25, '26, 1827)

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Gottfried Duden lived in Eastern Missouri in the 1820s. This book is his report to the people back home in Prussia on living conditions in Missouri. It influenced many Germans to emigrate. To us, it serves as a kind of time capsule.

He describes the journey from Baltimore to St. Louis, the lodging houses along the way, the availability of ferries where needed. No passport needed. No significant problems with police, snakes, indians, or robbers. The inns were passably clean and the journey was reasonably safe and even comfortable.

He gives advice on buying land in Missouri and detailed instructions on how to build a log house. Four or five persons could build a house in two to three weeks, he says. There were wolves and bears to contend with, but no bison or hares. Squirrels and mosquitoes were problematic. He describes the climate and warns against going too far south. He praises the fertility of the soil and the abundance of water. Letters home should be sent in duplicate, to insure their arrival.

This book is the genuine article, a candid and detailed account by one who was there. A how-to book on making a new life in Missouri in the nineteenth century.