History of the English settlement in Edwards County, Illinois

The completed manuscript of this history of the English Settlement, written by the founders, was presented by Flowers to the Chicago Historical Society in 1860. Flowers was a wealthy Englishman who bought some 26,000 acres (40 sq. miles) in the vicinity of present-day Albion, Illinois, and brought about 200 English settlers to farm upon it. Birkbeck and Flowers went on to play important roles in preventing Illinois from becoming a pro-slavery state in 1824.