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Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie
Follows the development of a rural Illinois community from its origins near the beginning of the nineteenth century, looks at community activity, and tells the stories of ordinary pioneers
280 pages, Hardcover
First published March 23, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 20, 2019
What the Lincoln museum did with Abraham Lincoln’s life, Sugar Creek does for Sangamon County in the 1800’s. Reading this book is like visiting a museum. There are too many words to absorb and process all at once, but you come away enriched and in possession of memorable tidbits. Your visit isn’t meant to be a one-time occurrence.
Panther Creek wasn’t always a subdivision in Chatham, but was the name of an actual creek vicinity inhabited by panthers!
The land, rich with maple trees, inspired the name “Sugar Creek”. The timespan between later February and early March marked the time when pioneers and Indians made a “holiday” of maple syrup production. This was a community-wide effort involving men, women, and children, and brought with it the hope and joyous end of the mid-western winter.
Malaria, cholera, and tuberculosis were common, and with its humid late-summers and disease-carrying mosquitos, people traveling through the state once nicknamed Illinois “the graveyard”.
Other highlights include in-depth looks into the lives of pioneer wives and mothers, as well as comparing and contrasting the fertility practices of the white women vs. the Indian women. I have noticed now in several pioneer histories I have read, an effort to include the role of women’s work, particularly on the farm and in caring for the family. Though I do believe women have been, throughout history, vulnerable to mistreatment, I’m finding that certain sufferings just make up “the woman’s lot”. It is not the result of evil or oppression, but the reminders, toils, and burdens of a sin-stained world. “A man works from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is...” and when her toils cease in the night, her prayers petition God’s protection over husbands and sons, that in the coming ‘morrow’s work the falling timbers might not crush them.
Panther Creek wasn’t always a subdivision in Chatham, but was the name of an actual creek vicinity inhabited by panthers!
The land, rich with maple trees, inspired the name “Sugar Creek”. The timespan between later February and early March marked the time when pioneers and Indians made a “holiday” of maple syrup production. This was a community-wide effort involving men, women, and children, and brought with it the hope and joyous end of the mid-western winter.
Malaria, cholera, and tuberculosis were common, and with its humid late-summers and disease-carrying mosquitos, people traveling through the state once nicknamed Illinois “the graveyard”.
Other highlights include in-depth looks into the lives of pioneer wives and mothers, as well as comparing and contrasting the fertility practices of the white women vs. the Indian women. I have noticed now in several pioneer histories I have read, an effort to include the role of women’s work, particularly on the farm and in caring for the family. Though I do believe women have been, throughout history, vulnerable to mistreatment, I’m finding that certain sufferings just make up “the woman’s lot”. It is not the result of evil or oppression, but the reminders, toils, and burdens of a sin-stained world. “A man works from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is...” and when her toils cease in the night, her prayers petition God’s protection over husbands and sons, that in the coming ‘morrow’s work the falling timbers might not crush them.
October 6, 2021
Read for history of American agriculture. This was quite possibly the most boring book I have ever read in my entire life. I was so bored I could retain nothing information wise. The first half was so brutal I had to give up and skim the second half in order to complete my reading guide for class.
July 9, 2016
Faragher's Sugar Creek is a fantastic example of the "new social history" and community studies of the 1970s and 80s. Unlike many of those histories set in New England or Virginia, Faragher examines the families and community(ies) around Sugar Creek, a region just east of Springfield, Illinois. His primary focus is the decades of first European settlement, approximately 1810-1860, but he includes valuable information on native peoples who used and inhabited the region in the previous decades. His first section, in fact, provides proof of how early European settlers followed in the footsteps of the Kickapoo Indians, both in their use of the land (for corn and maple sugar) and literally via their usage of long existent trails. Throughout, Faaragher traces the establishment, growth, continuities, and changes of the area's society, economy, politics, material culture, demography, and environment to provide a masterful and readable history of how "frontier" life actually happened. While Sugar Creek cannot stand in for how every Midwestern "frontier" evolved, Faragher's work probably does describe how many "frontier" communities began, continued, and changed in the first half of the nineteenth century. And certainly Faragher's work represents a model for historians to use when researching other communities.
Faragher divides his work into five parts, roughly tracing a chronological history of the region. Throughout, Faragher addresses two main questions: can we call the people of Sugar Creek a community, and if so why and how did they form community? and how did Sugar Creek change over time? These questions are tied to two long strands of historical inquiry and narrative. The first rests on Turner's "frontier thesis" that stresses individuality over community in "frontier" life and thus one might expect to not find much evidence of a strong community in Sugar Creek. The second regards a long debated shift from self-sufficiency to a market or capitalist economy.
Faragher certainly found a large number of individuals and families who did not stay long in Sugar Creek, but he also notes the persistence of many families. Indeed, many migrating families had kinship ties to Sugar Creek and kinship networks played strong social and economic roles. It was often these kinship ties that created a sense of community, even if families were often isolated or unable to visit kin in the region. At times, these kinship networks served as dividers, too, as kin groups disagreed over land, debts, or politics. Through things such as common pastures, bartering/trading goods, and social celebrations, Faragher refutes Turner's idea that frontier folk were anti-social.
This reality of kinship and communal bonds also challenges the theme of yeoman self-sufficiency. Faragher highlights instead a powerful idea of "conservative change." Central to this was that even though technological improvements made tasks easier for the farmer, it took a long time before farmers in Sugar Creek saw the benefit of them. Instead, farmers continued to hold the traditional logic that land was the most profitable commodity. What did change was that wealth (and land holding) became more concentrated in the hands of a few and those without land shifted from tenant farmers to wage laborers. Part of the reason for the second shift was changing sex ratios that leaned toward men and the increase in European immigration. Both had significant affects on the community, however, as they reduced kinship networks and created a new class divide. Still, as Faragher argues, the shifts towards more capitalistic production did not destroy the community, but the community helped Sugar Creek residents survive it and many cultural ideas of community, like religion and family structure, remained.
Finally, Faragher must be lauded for two themes he consistently includes throughout. The first is the environment which Faragher treats as not just something acted upon. It also appears throughout the book; it did not just undergo one change with first European settlement, but multiple changes as the community grew and technologies and uses of the environment changed. Secondly, Faragher pays equal attention to the work and role(s) of women in the community and economy. Even if they were not allowed to own land or be direct participants in politics, the work of women, from birthing and raising children to maintaining kin networks to sewing, churning butter, and other farm tasks, were as essential as the work of men. This is not just an insertion of women into the narrative, although he does not go that far with analyzing the power relationships between men and women.
In short, a fascinating read that should be required for most students of and persons interested in American history.
Faragher divides his work into five parts, roughly tracing a chronological history of the region. Throughout, Faragher addresses two main questions: can we call the people of Sugar Creek a community, and if so why and how did they form community? and how did Sugar Creek change over time? These questions are tied to two long strands of historical inquiry and narrative. The first rests on Turner's "frontier thesis" that stresses individuality over community in "frontier" life and thus one might expect to not find much evidence of a strong community in Sugar Creek. The second regards a long debated shift from self-sufficiency to a market or capitalist economy.
Faragher certainly found a large number of individuals and families who did not stay long in Sugar Creek, but he also notes the persistence of many families. Indeed, many migrating families had kinship ties to Sugar Creek and kinship networks played strong social and economic roles. It was often these kinship ties that created a sense of community, even if families were often isolated or unable to visit kin in the region. At times, these kinship networks served as dividers, too, as kin groups disagreed over land, debts, or politics. Through things such as common pastures, bartering/trading goods, and social celebrations, Faragher refutes Turner's idea that frontier folk were anti-social.
This reality of kinship and communal bonds also challenges the theme of yeoman self-sufficiency. Faragher highlights instead a powerful idea of "conservative change." Central to this was that even though technological improvements made tasks easier for the farmer, it took a long time before farmers in Sugar Creek saw the benefit of them. Instead, farmers continued to hold the traditional logic that land was the most profitable commodity. What did change was that wealth (and land holding) became more concentrated in the hands of a few and those without land shifted from tenant farmers to wage laborers. Part of the reason for the second shift was changing sex ratios that leaned toward men and the increase in European immigration. Both had significant affects on the community, however, as they reduced kinship networks and created a new class divide. Still, as Faragher argues, the shifts towards more capitalistic production did not destroy the community, but the community helped Sugar Creek residents survive it and many cultural ideas of community, like religion and family structure, remained.
Finally, Faragher must be lauded for two themes he consistently includes throughout. The first is the environment which Faragher treats as not just something acted upon. It also appears throughout the book; it did not just undergo one change with first European settlement, but multiple changes as the community grew and technologies and uses of the environment changed. Secondly, Faragher pays equal attention to the work and role(s) of women in the community and economy. Even if they were not allowed to own land or be direct participants in politics, the work of women, from birthing and raising children to maintaining kin networks to sewing, churning butter, and other farm tasks, were as essential as the work of men. This is not just an insertion of women into the narrative, although he does not go that far with analyzing the power relationships between men and women.
In short, a fascinating read that should be required for most students of and persons interested in American history.
November 13, 2013
I'm doing genealogy research on people who lived in Shelby County, Illinois in the mid-1800s, which is about seventy miles easy of Sugar Creek. I would, of course, have loved to have read a book with this level of detail about the place I was actually researching. But I figured it would give me a feel for the region and the time, and it did.
Most notably, I learned that I am so very glad I am not a woman in frontier Illinois.
Also, randomly, I learned that the a big part of the Donner Party left from Sugar Creek. It's rather disconcerting to be reading a fairly academic discussion of classroom management and discipline in one room school houses, then learn about a specific teacher who was universally loved and admired, and then learn that, "Oh, yes, by the way, she went on to die horribly on the way to California with her new husband."
In short: the 1800s were frequently a dark place. Fascinating to research, glad I don't live there.
Most notably, I learned that I am so very glad I am not a woman in frontier Illinois.
Also, randomly, I learned that the a big part of the Donner Party left from Sugar Creek. It's rather disconcerting to be reading a fairly academic discussion of classroom management and discipline in one room school houses, then learn about a specific teacher who was universally loved and admired, and then learn that, "Oh, yes, by the way, she went on to die horribly on the way to California with her new husband."
In short: the 1800s were frequently a dark place. Fascinating to research, glad I don't live there.
February 18, 2019
Very interesting and exploring the Sugar Creek that runs about 1 mile east of my home and under the Covered Bridge in Glenarm, feeding into Lake Springfield. Peg-Leg Pulliam and other legends of the time prove interesting, but not a lot of historical info to talk about for very long
Recommended for those who have an interest in the Settlement of So IL and the discoveries of creeks in the Sangamon County Area.
Recommended for those who have an interest in the Settlement of So IL and the discoveries of creeks in the Sangamon County Area.
October 12, 2012
Another required reading book for a class whose instructor insisted we could learn more about history through the diaries, journals and accounts of "the little people," villagers and farmers, than we could from examining economic development, political development, and moral changes, on the state and territory and national levels. So I read the book. It was a dry account of a comparatively unimportant village.I tried hard. I found a few interesting items that I thought was worth keeping in mind for my own writing. But I do not recommend this book. If it is the kind of reading you like, you will find it easily enough without me having to recommend it to you.
April 21, 2013
Great treatment of life on the Illinois prairie ca. 1800-1860. Does a good job of doing useful social history and contextualizing broadly while giving a flavor for life as lived on the antebellum frontier.
April 28, 2011
Rural settlement in the 19th century, text for Jeff and Jack Am Hist(Hist 5XX?)
October 25, 2014
Solid information, but deadly dull.
January 26, 2015
This was a interesting study of life on the prairie from Native American times through the Civil War. It centers on The Sugar Creek community in Illinois but would be true for so many settlers.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews