 After traveling to nearby Edwards County, Illinois, to see their prospective investment in Morris Birkbeck's community of Wanborough, George dropped the idea and instead spent the winter in John James Audubon's home in Henderson.Keats's experience may have served as a model for Charles Dickens' "Martin Chuzzlewit", who also decided he was unprepared for sod-busting.He invested many of his funds in an Audubon steamboat venture, The Henderson, which failed immediately.