author

John Woods

d. 1829

An early British travel writer, he left one of the best firsthand accounts of the English Prairie settlement in Illinois and the rough, changing life of the American frontier. His book blends practical observation with the curiosity of a newcomer trying to understand a very different country.

1 Audiobook

Hulme's Journal, 1818-19; Flower's Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 1819; Flower's Letters from the Illinois, 1820-21; and Woods's Two Years' Residence, 1820-21

Hulme's Journal, 1818-19; Flower's Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 1819; Flower's Letters from the Illinois, 1820-21; and Woods's Two Years' Residence, 1820-21

by Thomas Hulme, Richard Flower, John Woods

About the author

John Woods was a British author remembered for Two Years' Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie, in the Illinois Country, United States, published in London in 1822. The book grew out of his time in the Illinois settlement and describes the landscape, farming, towns, wildlife, and everyday habits of frontier life.

His writing stands out because it is both personal and observant. Rather than offering only broad travel impressions, he paid attention to the details of migration, settlement, and ordinary work, giving later readers a vivid picture of the early nineteenth-century American Midwest.

Reliable biographical detail about his life beyond the book is limited in the sources I could confirm here. Even so, his account remains valuable as a firsthand record of a formative moment in Illinois history and of how emigrants experienced the western United States.