Grades 6-8 Lesson Plan - Prairie Settlement

Map 16 Main Page

Core Map: "Pictorial Map of the 130 Acre Farm of Jonathan Miller, on West half of section 36, Township 18, Range 6, Northwest suburbs of Athens, Menard Co., Illinois." In Illustrated Atlas of Menard County, Illinois (Edwardsville, IL: W. R. Brink & Co., 1874). Newberry Library call number: +F896565.43. (Printable PDF version of the Core Map)

Resources related to Map16.
Curator's Notes for Map 16.

Overview
This lesson focuses on reasons someone leaves an urban area to settle in a new region. Students make a decision for site selection for a farm during the 1840s in the Midwest.

Objectives
Students will:

1. analyze maps to evaluate what makes a good location for a farm.
2. build research and writing skills by recording the information used for analysis in a chart and as diary entries.

Materials
copies of the core map, Biography of Jonathan Miller; Map Packet Question Sheet; Map Packet: Sectional Map of Menard County, current map of Illinois showing the counties, historic maps showing growth of Illinois by county (see Resources); Why Athens, Illinois, Mr. Miller?; highlighter or colored pencils; chart paper and marker; paper for making a diary

Suggested Time
Two-three 45 minute periods

Key Terms
pioneer, currier, tanner, abode

Getting Started

1. Introduce the students to Jonathan Miller by reading the Biography of Jonathan Miller to them.

2. Help students to form a list of events in Miller's life. As a class, make a timeline about Miller's life, calculating his age or the year when the different events in his life occurred (birth, trade of currier and tanner, settled in Canton, settled in Athens, married to Susan Codner, first wife's death, second marriage to Elizabeth Claypool, birth of each daughter, tanner in Athens).

3. Have students speculate about the following events in Miller's life, using the sequence of events on the timeline. List the student responses on chart paper for later use.

   a. Why might he have left New Jersey to become a pioneer?

   b. Why did he move from Canton to Athens?

   c. Why would he need a farm if he was a tanner?

   d. What would he grow/raise on his farm?

   e. As he looked for a place to have a farm, what physical (land and water) features might he look for? What cultural (business, schools, churches, transportation links, etc.) features might he be interested in?

   f. Would he want to be near a city? Near a railroad?

4. Divide class into groups of 3-4 students each. Distribute a map packet (see Materials for contents) and a Map Packet Question Sheet to each group. Have students study the maps and answer the questions.

5. Locate the City of Athens on the Sectional Map of Menard County. Tell students that Mr. Miller decided to settle at the northwest edge of the City of Athens. It was here that he set up a tannery. Ask students why would this be a good location for his farm and tannery.

6. Distribute the core map. Orient the core map to the Sectional Map of Menard County. Note the difference between the pictorial map of the farm and the two picture insets of the farm. Find the location of the residence and of the crab apple grove on the map. Have students identify division of the farm. Refer to the list of what he would have on his farm from Getting Started step 3. How accurate were the predictions of the students? Discuss why he would need a meadow, a cornfield, pasture land. Why might he have woodland and a crab apple grove? What other features are on his property? Discuss how the prairie land would have been changed to become the farm.

7. Have students open the core map and zoom in on each farm division to see what would be found in that section of the farm.

8. Study the inset picture map of the residence. Ask the students if they think Mr. Miller was prosperous. What are the clues?

1. Have students complete the Why Athens, Illinois, Mr. Miller? handout.

2. Explain to students that they are going to write diary entries for Jonathan Miller. The dates of the entries should be 1830, 1837, 1840, 1852, 1855, 1867, 1874, and 1880. The diary should highlight the life and struggles of settling Illinois prairie. Students should use the text and any/all of the maps to add detail to their entries. Encourage students to use the timeline they created in Getting Started step 3 for including events in Miller's life and the maps to tell about his occupations and farm life. Have students refer to the completed Why Athens, Illinois, Mr. Miller handout to describe events in Jonathan Miller's life such as why he moved from Canton to Athens, how he chose the property for his farm, why he stopped being a currier in Athens, and why he stopped being a tanner. Remind students that diaries often contain small sketches or maps to help explain what is happening. Encourage students to be creative as they write in a first person narrative style.

For 3 points, the student writes five to six descriptive diary entries in the first person. The entries describe Jonathan Miller's occupations and farm life. The sentences are grammatically correct and the descriptions display creativity in writing in the first-person narrative style. Or, for 3 points, the student writes seven to eight entries but the entries contain a significant number grammatical errors and lack creative details that could have been included had the student made full use of the documents available to them.

For 2 points, the student writes three to four descriptive diary entries in the first person. The entries describe Jonathan Miller's occupation(s) and farm life. The sentences are grammatically correct and the descriptions display creativity in writing in the first-person narrative style. Or, for 2 points, the student writes five to six entries, but the entries contain a significant number of grammatical errors and lack creative details that could have been included had the student made full use of the documents available to them.

For 1 point, the student writes one or two descriptive diary entries in the first person. The entries describe Jonathan Miller's occupation(s) and farm life. The sentences are grammatically correct and the descriptions display creativity in writing in the first-person narrative style. Or, for 1 point, the student writes three to four entries, but the entries contain a significant number of grammatical errors and lack creative details that could have been included had the student made full use of the documents available to them.

Extensions

1. Have students add up the acreage of the Miller farm for the various parcels of property and make a graph of the land use of the farm.
2. Have students write a short story book or create a computer presentation (using Power Point or HyperStudio): "The Jonathan Miller Story."
3. Include Illinois and national events on the time line. For example, the moving of the state capitol to Springfield, Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln becoming president, the Civil War, Lincoln's assassination, etc.
4. Obtain a current land use map of Illinois and a current road map. Have students speculate about the Miller farm and Athens, Illinois today. Is the city thriving? Did it grow larger? Is the railroad still in use? Is the Miller farm still used as a cattle farm? Use the maps to help answer these questions.