Ohio History Journal

542       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

small colleges, and that some of our best citizenship

found its inspiration in these institutions. All of these

colleges have had men and women of more than usual

rank and standing in our commonwealth, and I am proud

to recognize their contribution to Ohio citizenship. They

have not been very exclusive in this, because they have

always exported their best to other colleges. We have

present Professor Beverly W. Bond, Jr., from the Uni-

versity of Cincinnati. He is a southerner but camou-

flages himself as an easterner. He will speak to you on

the subject of 'The Old Northwest Territory in Eastern

Eyes'."

 

"THE OLD NORTHWEST TO EASTERN EYES"

Dr. Bond delivered the following address:

The rush into the fertile spaces of the Old Northwest came

as an inevitable aftermath of the Revolution and the removal of

the barriers set up by British proclamations. The Revolutionary

veteran, the Yankee farmer, weary of tilling a scanty soil, the

young man seeking his fortune, all flocked to the promised land.

The wide range of motives that led on this pioneer multitude is

revealed in striking fashion in the newspapers, the almanacs and

the books of travel that circulated in the Atlantic states at this

time. Based upon these varied sources, this paper will be limited

to the early period, before the Land Act of 1800 smoothed the

way for the bulk of the westward migration. During this period

migration to the Old Northwest was chiefly carried on under the

stimulus of stock companies and land speculators. The Ohio

Purchase and the Western Reserve attracted mainly emigrants

from New England, the Miami Purchase those from New Jersey

and the Middle States, and the Virginia Military District naturally

interested the people of the Old Dominion. There was little, if

any, organized migration to Indiana or Illinois before 1800.

 

(NOTE: This paper is founded upon an extensive research in early

newspapers, almanacs and other publications of the Seaboard States, chiefly

during the period 1788-1800. Most of them were used in the Rare Book

Department of the Library of Congress.)

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The movement to the Old Northwest during the last two

decades of the Eighteenth Century was but a phase of a general

migration that centered in New England, New Jersey and Vir-

ginia. There was keen competition for settlers with lands in

western New York and Pennsylvania, in the blue grass region

of Kentucky and even in the fertile valleys of distant Tennessee.

But with the aid of the land bounties offered Revolutionary vet-

erans, and the opportunity to realize upon the government cer-

tificates, the Old Northwest was more than able to hold its own.

The uncertain economic situation under the Confederation and the

distressed plight of many a Revolutionary veteran must also be

reckoned with. An excellent representative of the latter class

was Manasseh Cutler, pastor of the church at Ipswich, Massa-

chusetts, and a leader in the Ohio Company. In simple language

he pictured his situation: "I had suffered exceedingly in ye war,

and after it was over, by paper money and ye high price of arti-

cles of living. My salary small and family large, for several

years I thought ye people had not done me justice, and I med-

itated leaving them. Purchasing lands in a new community ap-

peared to be ye only thing I could do to secure a living to myself

and family in that unsettled state of public affairs." It was for-

tunate indeed for the Old Northwest that veterans of the Revo-

lution of the type of Manasseh Cutler took so large a part in the

early settlement. At Marietta, for example, in a list of thirty-

three of the most prominent pioneers, twenty-three had seen active

service during the Revolution, and of the remainder, all but four,

and one of them a clergyman, had been too young to enlist. These

veterans in the prime of life laid well the foundation of enduring

commonwealths.

Even before the first emigrants started for Marietta in 1788,

glowing reports from the Western country had actually aroused

the enthusiasm of the cold-blooded Yankees. A typical letter in

1786 described the Muskingum region as a veritable paradise,

and a particularly healthy one. An enthusiastic surveyor con-

sidered this country "superior to anything one can conceive of,"

with "the deepest and richest garden mould" in the bottoms. As

proof he cited a remarkable cornfield near Fort Harmar, in which

the stalks grew fourteen feet high. Equally astounding reports

came from the early settlers at Marietta, and indeed imagination

ran riot throughout this earliest phase of New England settlement

in Ohio. A single family in one year, so it was said, had raised

1,000 bushels of corn, and wintered 60 to 70 horses and cattle, an

achievement, the writer pointedly noted, in strong contrast to the

usual experience of emigrants to Vermont. Another Marietta

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Minutes of the Annual Meeting           545

 

pioneer prophesied with poetic effusion the destiny of the new

settlement, as not only "the glory of America, but the envy of the

world." More to the point were the comments of a rather prac-

tical individual who pointed out the possibilities of an extensive

trade, as settlement increased in the Western country.

The many travelers to the Ohio Purchase brought back re-

ports that must have greatly stimulated emigration. Among them

was Colonel John May of Boston, who returned from Marietta in

1788 with a diary stuffed full of information he had jotted down.

Upon a seven-acre farm near Little Beaver, he recorded, the

owner had raised 700 bushels of corn. Nor was Marietta wholly

lacking in the comforts of life, and as evidence he cited a dinner

he enjoyed with General Harmar, where there was "as elegant a

table as any in Boston. Amongst the solids were bacon gammon,

venison, tongues, roast and boiled lamb, barbecued and a la mode

beef, perch and catfish, lobster and oysters. *                     *     *       For veg-

etables: green peas, radishes and salads. *                            *              *                                For drink:

spirits, excellent wine, brandy and beer." Another traveler in the

West, Thaddeus M. Harris of Dorchester, was likewise im-

pressed with the possibilities of the Marietta colony. The full-

rigged ships sailing down the Ohio aroused his admiration, along

with the thrift, the neat fences, and the well-tilled farms of the

New England settlers, which were in strong contrast to the gen-

eral neglect on the Virginia side of the Ohio, where slave labor

was customary.

In its homely counsel to intending emigrants, an article en-

titled "Advice to American Farmers" gave a vivid picture of the

privations and the rewards that came to the settler who ventured

into the Western country. The author advised emigrants to avoid

the Niagara and Kentucky regions, and to choose lands that were

directly under the control of the Federal government, avoiding

regions especially where slavery was allowed. All luxuries they

must eschew, but the Bible should go with them, and those of the

same faith should settle together, "in order to secure the sooner a

minister and a schoolmaster." This homely advice concluded with

an alluring picture of a family, depressed by poverty, "which,

moving into a new country, would there replace the woods with

fields, the weeds with gardens, and the beasts of prey with domes-

tic animals," creating new forces for independence and affluence.

The correspondents of the New England newspapers were by

no means unanimous in praise of the Western country, and occa-

sionally they derisively countered the flowery statements of the

enthusiasts. With true New England sarcasm, Robinson Crusoe

scornfully called attention to the exaggerated accounts and the

Vol. XXXVIII--35.

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546       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

pretentious names of public improvements at Marietta. In similar

ironic vein, a wag published "An Ohio Story of a Vermont Pump-

kin Vine" that was of marvellous length, with stupendous fruit.

The effect of such criticism was evident in the more moderate tone

of the advertisements and other notices at the beginning of the

movement to the Western Reserve, the second notable migration

from New England. To be sure, the speculators in these lands ex-

tolled the fertile soil and the healthy climate of New Connecticut.

But they laid greater stress upon such substantial facts as the in-

creasing settlements, the convenient mills and the existence of

churches and schools. Probably too, this change in emphasis was

largely due to the disillusionment that must have come to so many

pioneers of the earlier migration.

In New Jersey also, there was marked interest in the Western

country, especially in the Miami Purchase, to which so many emi-

grants went from this state. Like the proprietors of the Western

Reserve, Judge Symmes was quite moderate in the circulars he

issued in 1787 and 1788, to induce the public to come to his new

colony. Calling attention to the excellent soil, he noted also the

abundance of navigable streams, and the accessibility of the pro-

posed settlements to Kentucky and the Atlantic states.  He

stressed also the mildness of the climate and the wide range of

products, including in the latter, with considerable exaggeration,

indigo and cotton. In similarly moderate tone, the New Jersey

newspapers called attention to the merits of farming lands in the

Miami Purchase, one writer in particular pointing out their great

superiority over the "broken" country in the Muskingum Valley.

Similar in tone were the few comments in the Virginia newspapers

upon the lands in the Virginia Military District. One correspon-

dent ranged the Scioto Valley alongside Kentucky as the best

land "in the world." Other articles recounted in great detail the

extensive resources and the varied products of the Western coun-

try, and occasionally there were touches that were reminiscent of

the earlier exaggerations of New England. Such was a descrip-

tion of a wonderful sycamore tree in the Scioto Valley that was

more than sixty feet in circumference, with a cavity so large that

it sheltered thirteen persons on horseback, with room for two

more.

The New York and Pennsylvania newspapers gave only oc-

casional notices of the sort that were likely to attract immigrants

to the Western country. But the numerous books of travel show

the keen interest taken in this region. Nor were these publications

altogether without influence upon the emigrant. Notable among

them was Thomas Hutchins' Map and Topographical Description

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Minutes of the Annual Meeting           547

of the "interior parts" of North America. An advertisement in

1788 praised this work, as showing especially the possibilities of

the Illinois country, a land where hemp "grew spontaneously,"

and one that abounded in agricultural products, in game, iron,

copper, lead and salt springs, "in short, everything a reasonable

mind can desire is to be found, or may, with little pains, be

produced there."

The beginning of the actual colonization in the Old Northwest

naturally aroused interest in the Eastern states. In New Eng-

land the plans of the Ohio Company had already been received

with much enthusiasm, and the newspapers had printed detailed

reports of its proceedings. The New England press gave an im-

portant place to the details of the first actual migration to the

Old Northwest, recording the departure from Providence, early

in 1788, of a wagon loaded with artificers, tools, etc., and attended

by a number of persons who proposed to settle in the Ohio coun-

try. A few months later a New York paper announced that an-

other wagon had left Providence, this one carrying six gentlemen

destined for "that second land of promise where Nature smiles in

all her glory, and where a most luxuriant soil and happy climate

will abundantly reward the husbandman's labour." About the

same time the New England papers noted that six additional

wagons, holding about thirty women and children, had left Wor-

cester for the Western country. An interesting side-light upon

these evidences of migration to the Western country was an ad-

vertisement by Stephen Bayard of Elizabethtown on the Monon-

gahela, who built "Kentuckee Boats."

The extent of the early migration to the Old Northwest from

Massachusetts may be gauged partially by the sales of land in

Worcester and its vicinity at this time, for it was from this

neighborhood that so many of the shareholders of the Ohio Com-

pany came. In 1788 many persons in this region offered their

farms for sale, among them Rufus Putnam, who offered to re-

ceive in exchange the military land warrants and the Federal cer-

tificates which could be used to purchase Western lands. The

list of farms for sale in and around Worcester showed a steady

increase. In 1790 eight farms and two dwellings were adver-

tised in a single issue of the Massachusetts Spy, fourteen in 1794

and fifteen in 1795. Often the owners of these farms invested

the proceeds of their sales in shares of the Ohio Company, in

order to take up land in the West. A typical case was that of

Captain Jonathan Stone, a Revolutionary veteran, who sold his

farm at Brookfield, Massachusetts, and with the proceeds bought

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548       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

two shares of stock in the Ohio Company which he used to take

up land near Belpre.

Interest in the second important Westward movement from

New England to the Western Reserve was naturally greatest in

Connecticut. The newspapers of the state contained frequent no-

tices of these Ohio lands, especially after Moses Cleaveland re-

turned from his surveying expedition in 1796 with an exceed-

ingly favorable report of the fertile, rolling land in New Connecti-

cut, and of the possibilities for trade on Lake Erie and by the

Cuyahoga to the interior of Ohio. The people of Connecticut

were greatly interested, too, in the proceedings of the Connecticut

Company. The chief problem of this organization apparently was

to divide the land among the stockholders, and especially to collect

the large assessments that were needed to pay the taxes and meet

other obligations. There were occasional notices, also, of meet-

ings of the proprietors of the Sufferers' or Firelands, west of the

Cuyahoga.

The lands of the Connecticut Company were divided in 1795

among the shareholders, and they in turn sold them directly, or

else through speculators, to the actual settlers. The usual pro-

cedure of either shareholders or speculators was to pay a part of

the purchase money owed the state, and then to offer the lands in

exchange for salable farms in Connecticut, or for other considera-

tions of value. Numerous advertisements of these lands for sale

appear in the newspaper columns. Thus, Ephraim Root of Hart-

ford, a shareholder in the Connecticut Company, and his partner,

Uriel Holmes, advertised widely in 1801 their desirable lands in

New Connecticut, calling the attention of all "industrious and en-

terprising" persons to the "pleasing prospects for the future."

From the long list of Connecticut farms they offered for sale, it

is evident that Root and Holmes were quite successful. The firm

soon dissolved, but Ephraim Root offered 100,000 acres in New

Connecticut on his own account, in exchange for land in the

mother state. At the same time he advertised nine farms for sale

which he had doubtless received in exchange for his Western

lands. His former partner, Uriel Holmes, also appears to have

found speculation in Western lands a profitable business. Another

large speculator in Western Reserve lands was Lemuel Storrs of

Middletown, who in 1805 offered 110,000 acres "to the Industri-

ous Public." In payment he was willing to accept cash, to extend

liberal credit, or else to take in exchange "good farms" in Con-

necticut. In common with other speculators he would take in par-

tial payment security for a large part of the purchase money that

was still due to the State of Connecticut. Also like other specu-

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Minutes of the Annual Meeting           549

 

lators, Storrs had his agents in Ohio to take care of settlers on

the spot.

Like the various New England schemes for colonization, the

Miami Purchase attracted the greatest attention in its home state,

New Jersey. Following a number of similar local projects for

Western colonies, Judge Symmes' new settlement received con-

siderable attention from the New Jersey papers, although he him-

self depended chiefly upon hand-bills and circulars to advertise

his lands. Another effective aid in attracting settlers was an ex-

tensive correspondence between the early pioneers in the Miami

Purchase and their friends at home. Occasional advertisements

give hints of the very considerable speculations that were carried

on in New Jersey in these lands. For example, Benjamin Stelle

in 1789 offered 20,000 acres for sale, and many similar advertise-

ments appeared from time to time. There is much other evidence

in the New Jersey papers of the extent of the local migration to

Judge Symmes' colony. Many advertisers offered to buy the pub-

lic certificates which could be used to pay for these lands, and

equally significant was the large number of farms for sale. In

1789 fourteen small farms were advertised at one time, in and

around Elizabethtown, and in 1799 a single issue of a New Jersey

paper offered thirteen tracts of agricultural land around Trenton,

with fourteen separate parcels in or near New Brunswick, and

five lots in nearby Princeton. These advertisements of lands for

sale continued, and in 1807, for example, one paper offered a grist

and saw mill, twelve farms and several wood-lots near Trenton.

It is reasonable to suppose that a large percentage of the owners

of these tracts migrated to the Miami Purchase.

Strange to say, there are few, if any, notices of Judge Sym-

mes' lands in either the New York or the Philadelphia papers,

although there were emigrants from  both these towns to the

Miami Purchase. In the New England papers, however, a num-

ber of notices called attention to these lands. Even before any

settlement had been made, Thomas Stanley published a rather

flamboyant advertisement in the Connecticut Courant, which as-

serted that any description of this Miami country must "fall short

of its goodness." A similarly glowing description in a Virginia

paper showed how widespread was the interest in Judge Symmes'

settlement.

Little attention was shown the remaining important land

scheme of the early period, the Virginia Military District, until

after peace with the Indians had made settlement there possible.

Occasionally the leading Virginia papers had noticed the lands be-

tween the Scioto and the Little Miami that had been allotted to

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550       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

the state's Revolutionary veterans. But with the interest aroused

by Wayne's campaign, and especially as the resources of the

Scioto Valley became known, there was a decided change, and the

Revolutionary veterans of Virginia became anxious to realize

some returns from their land warrants. Usually they sold these

claims to speculators, who in turn disposed of them to actual set-

tlers who came chiefly from Kentucky. Thus, in frequent notices

Hicks and Campbell and other Virginia real estate dealers offered

to pay the highest price for Virginia military land warrants, or

else to buy "military lands" outright.

The vicissitudes of a speculator in Virginia military lands

may be followed in the correspondence of General Duncan Mc-

Arthur. As agent on the spot at Chillicothe, he located many land

warrants for residents of Virginia, sold tracts to incoming settlers,

and paid taxes for absentee landlords. His clients were scattered

through Virginia, in Richmond, Fauquier Courthouse (Warren-

ton), and other important towns. The chief speculator whom he

represented was Robert Means of Richmond. Influenced by glow-

ing reports of these Western lands, Means plunged to the utmost

of his ability, buying up military warrants which he sent Mc-

Arthur to be located. As taxes accumulated on vacant holdings,

Means found it was almost impossible to meet his obligations.

Time and again he appealed to McArthur to send him cash for at

least a part of his holdings. But in vain, for specie was scarce

in the Western country, and it was easy to secure the public cer-

tificates and land warrants that could be exchanged for public

lands. Under these circumstances cash sales to. intending settlers

were few and far between. Means, undaunted, even exchanged

valuable property at Richmond for land warrants, and for a

time he seems to have enjoyed a virtual monopoly of this business.

Soon competition appeared, prices rose, and still it was almost im-

possible to secure cash for his lands. The prices he paid were

still low, averaging only twenty-three cents per acre on one lot of

warrants in 1808 for 5,349 acres, but, like most land speculators,

Means found that his immediate returns were far from satis-

factory.

Despite the discouraging experience of Robert Means, the

Revolutionary veterans of Virginia continued to find speculators

who vied with one another in offers for land warrants to be filled

in the Virginia Military District. Among the numerous evidences

of this widespread speculation, was an advertisement in 1810 by

Carter Drew, who proposed to visit the Western country, including

Ohio. There he expected to act as general agent, exploring lands,

investigating titles and the like. Another important figure in these

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Minutes of the Annual Meeting           551

 

land transactions was James Taylor, who was quite active at Rich-

mond in buying up land warrants. His dealings were extensive,

and he even offered 20,000 acres of "valuable military land" in

Ohio to the people of New Jersey.

While such schemes for colonization as-the Ohio Company

and Judge Symmes' project attracted the greatest attention, the

newspapers of the East did not wholly ignore the public lands in

the Old Northwest, which were gradually opening up to settle-

ment. Of special significance in this connection were the numer-

ous offers to pay cash for the United States military warrants and

the Federal certificates that could be used in exchange for these

public lands. Part of these military warrants were probably used

to purchase lands in the Ohio and Miami Purchases, but other

warrants were undoubtedly bought in response to the frequent

notices that called attention, as early as 1789, to the provisions to

satisfy these obligations, first in the Military Reserve west of the

Seven Ranges, and next from lands between the Wabash and the

Mississippi. In 1799 the Eastern newspapers printed an official

list of all the tracts in the Old Northwest that were then available

for settlement. After the passage of the Land Act of 1796 they

also published notices of public sales of these lands. The exten-

sive holdings of many residents of the Atlantic states in these

Western lands is well illustrated by an advertisement of two sur-

veyors, John Matthews and Zachariah Briggs, who offered to

locate military warrants and other claims, for a fee of one-tenth

of the land. They proposed to accumulate warrants for smaller

tracts until they had altogether 4,000 acres, a sufficient amount to

locate an entire quarter-township. But in all these varied notices

of the possibilities of these Western lands there is no evidence of

any appreciable interest in or migration to either Indiana or Iili-

nois, during this early period. The dangers from Indians were too

great and the lands too remote; only comparatively small areas

were open to emigrants, and settlers evidently preferred the nearer

and safer lands of the Ohio country.

A striking testimony to the great interest taken in the Western

country is found in the many news items from these settlements

that were given a prominent place in the Eastern newspapers.

Although relations with the Indians and the different frontier

struggles took up much space, the newspapers did not neglect the

less picturesque record of daily happenings of importance among

the New England pioneers. Especially was this true of New

England, where the stay-at-homes were alert for news of their

relatives and friends who had ventured into the Western wilder-

ness. These news items were all the more welcome in view of the

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expense and uncertainties of the postal service from these distant

parts, although there seems to have been constant communication

between the settlers and their former homes in New England.

The newspapers printed frequent letters from their correspondents

at Marietta, at Cincinnati, at Chillicothe, and later in the Western

Reserve. Much of this news recorded the progress of the terri-

torial government, the official actions of St. Clair and the Judges,

and later the important measures adopted by the state govern-

ment of Ohio. Marked attention was paid also to the adventures

of Aaron Burr in the West.

Together with the reports of public affairs, frequent accounts

of everyday happenings appeared in the New England papers.

The opening of a ferry across the Muskingum, or the launching of

an ocean-going vessel at Marietta were typical items that were

recorded with evident enthusiasm. The establishment of a packet

line between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh was warmly commended

as an evidence of progress in this "enchanting country." Another

item of a different type announced the first ball that was held in

Marietta, in December, 1788. It was attended, according to the

writer, by fifteen ladies, "as well accomplished in the manners of

polite circles as any in the old States." There was much favorable

comment also upon the superior advantages of the Ohio coun-

try, where incidentally so many New Englanders had settled, over

other sections in the West.

As a case in point, the Providence Journal, cited the example

of Colonel Arthur Shreve of New Jersey. Proposing at first to

lead a party of emigrants to New Madrid, in Louisiana, he was

discouraged by the floods. Then as he found the greater part of

the desirable land in Kentucky already taken up, he finally decided

upon Marietta. The wide range of this interest of New England

in the Western country is strikingly illustrated by a letter that

called special attention to the amazing growth of the Virginia

Military District and pointed out the advantages this section of-

fered to the "middling class," and especially to "mechanics of

the common trades." Another proof of the close relations between

New England and the Western country is to be found in the

columns of the popular Massachusetts Magazine. Many death

and marriage notices were printed from the Ohio settlements,

along with much news of the campaigns against the Indians. The

Domestic Chronicle, a monthly feature of the Magazine, also

contains many articles upon interesting features of the West, such

as descriptions of Marietta and the outlying districts, and of the

customs and manners of the Indians. In this connection it is in-

teresting to note that none of the New England almanacs that

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Minutes of the Annual Meeting          553

 

have been examined pay the slightest attention to the Western

country, the migration there, or even the Indian troubles. This

omission is all the more noticeable since the annual almanac was

virtually a second Bible in the eyes of the New England farmer.

Even though Westward migration from the Middle States

and Maryland was so limited, there is abundant evidence of the

lively interest in the movement in this section of the seaboard.

In contrast to the New England almanacs, those published in the

Middle States and Maryland contain frequent notices of the

Western country, including detailed descriptions of the most

usual routes there from the principal cities. For example, Hutch-

ins' Almanack, published in New York, printed annually a table

of the roads with the distances between intermediate points, from

Louisburg through Quebec to Presque Isle, the Falls of the Ohio,

and the mouth of the Mississippi. In like fashion, Father Abra-

ham's Almanack, popular in Philadelphia, gave at first only the

usual Westward route from Philadelphia, via York, Winchester,

Staunton, and through the Wilderness to Crab Orchard, Bard's

Town and the Falls of the Ohio. Later, as travel down the river

became safer, this almanac gave full details of the route to Pitts-

burgh, and then down the Ohio and the Mississippi. The American

Museum, which occupied in Pennsylvania a position very similar

to that of the Massachusetts Magazine in New England, also

contained many notices of political events in the West, as well as

numerous articles on the manners and customs of the Indians,

with especial attention to the numerous mounds in the Muskingum

Valley.

In the newspaper files also of the Middle States and Mary-

land, there is much news from the Western settlements. But these

items were quite irregular and illustrated very clearly the delays

and uncertainties of communication with the Old Northwest. Even

in New Jersey, the state from which so many emigrants came, the

papers seldom had regular correspondents in the West. Aside

from occasional letters from Marietta, the Miami Purchase, and

the Virginia Military District, the Western news came to the Mid-

dle States and Maryland by indirect and often irregular chan-

nels, by traders, by returning travelers, or by expresses direct to

the government in Philadelphia or Washington. Other news came

second-hand through Kentucky, or perhaps from Winchester,

Pittsburgh, or even Albany. Coming through such channels, this

information was frequently much garbled, but the very fact it was

printed was a proof of the widespread interest in the Western

country. Official news, and especially the movements of the Gov-

ernor and the Judges, occupied much space, but occasionally there

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554       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

were notices of local political controversies, as the quarrel between

Sargent and the Judges in Hamilton County.

In the Virginia papers there were only occasional direct com-

munications from the West. This was to be expected, since emi-

grants from Virginia stopped on the way in Western Virginia or

else in Kentucky, and then made their way into the Old North-

west. Nevertheless, considerable news from this region filtered

into the Old Dominion through Kentucky, or else from Winches-

ter where the road to the Wilderness crossed the one up the Po-

tomac Valley to Fort Cumberland. Much information came to

Virginia also through Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In Virginia

as elsewhere, the problem of swifter transportation to the West

was a pressing one, and news was often weeks old before it drifted

through across the mountains. The tedium of the usual route

from Virginia to the Ohio country, or vice versa, was forcibly

illustrated by the plans proposed in 1792 to carry the mails between

Alexandria, Virginia, and Danville, Kentucky. Leaving Alexan-

dria Thursday at noon, the carrier rode through Winchester, and

arrived at Staunton the following Wednesday. Leaving Staunton

the next morning, he would reach Danville in Kentucky two weeks

later; that is, the regular mail schedule between Alexandria and

Danville in either direction was three weeks. Such a situation

amply explains the keen interest that the people of Virginia dis-

played in the different projects to improve the Wilderness Road,

although they seem to have had little faith that much would

actually be accomplished. An impressive commentary on the con-

dition of the roads to the westward ,was the omission from the

Virginia Almanac, up to 1810, of any roads west of Sweet Springs.

When this popular almanac did give details of a route across the

mountain, it selected one from Richmond to Kentucky, by Staun-

ton and the Wilderness Trail.

While there was no general alarm apparent in the Eastern

states during this early period over the rapid growth of the

Western country, already there were scattered evidences of the

hostile attitude that was later to become so marked. Just upon

the eve of the migration to the Ohio Purchase, a correspondent

of a Philadelphia paper called attention to the superior merits of

vacant lands in Pennsylvania, where the roads were better, the

land was more accessible to market, and the farmer was not

obliged to sell his wheat for two shillings per bushel, and then pay

$2.00 for a pair of shoes. Three years later, another cor-

respondent, this one in a New York paper, called attention to the

"rage for removing into the back parts," and accented the ad-

vantages of a small farm, well cultivated and convenient to mar-

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Minutes of the Annual Meeting          555

kets, over large tracts of uncultivated lands in the "back parts."

These latter, he asserted, could only be regarded as a "provision

for posterity," awaiting "easy transportation and nearby markets

to assure their value." Very similar in tone was a rather long-

winded article about the same time in a Massachusetts paper, in

which the author rejoiced over the "subsidence" of the "mad-

ness" of emigration to the Western country. "Old-fashioned

industry and economy," he considered, were of more real benefit

than building castles in the air in the region of the Genesee and

other remote uncultivated sections. But these evidences of an-

tagonism toward the Western settlements were rare before 1815,

and played little if any part in holding back intending emigrants.

This brief survey of the vast mass of early newspapers and

publications gives at least a hint of the varying motives that

brought the stream of emigrants into the Old Northwest from

New England, from New Jersey, and a few from Virginia and

the Middle States. Many were induced to go by the advantages

offered by such systematic schemes of colonization as the Ohio

Purchase controlled by the Ohio Company, or the Miami Purchase

under John Cleves Symmes. Others were attracted by the in-

ducements offered by speculators of the type of Lemuel Storrs, the

hard-headed Connecticut Yankee, who willingly exchanged un-

cleared lands in the wilderness for the solid values of cultivated

farms in Connecticut. Or perhaps the settler bought his lands

from the agents of such speculators as the visionary Robert

Means, the Virginian who staked his entire fortune upon the

future value of Western lands. Intensely human were the mo-

tives of these emigrants who thronged to the Old Northwest;

the veterans of the Revolution, the adventurers, the young men

seeking their fortunes, all of them willing to brave the hardships

of the long journey westward, and the subsequent life of a

pioneer community in order to follow an intensely American urge,

and to seek a larger and better life in a new environment. The

less adventurous stay-at-homes followed with intense interest the

fortunes of those wandering sons, and often the letters and other

reports from the new settlements drew others to follow. In the

columns of the newspapers and the other publications of the

Atlantic states were mirrored the aspirations, and the entire

gamut of human motives that inspired this great American trek

across the Appalachians toward the land of the setting sun.

President Johnson: Professor Bond was a little

alarmed, fearing perhaps his paper might be too long,

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556       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

but I am sure we are all indebted to him for coming and

reading to us this very, very interesting historical docu-

ment. At this time I wish to extend to Mr. George

Smith, of Dayton, an opportunity to make a presenta-

tion to the Society from a group he represents:

Mr. George Smith rose and spoke as follows:

Mr. President, Doctor Thompson, Members and Guests: I

think most of you are familiar with what is known as the Miamis-

burg Mound, located a mile southeast of Miamisburg, in Mont-

gomery county, and usually referred to as the largest of all

mounds. A question is sometimes raised about that. At any rate,

it now stands sixty-eight feet high, the apex having been removed

a great many years ago. The mound is almost perfect, conical in

shape, a little over eight hundred feet around the base, and is

rather heavily wooded with old, and some younger, trees. The

farm upon which the mound stands was purchased, some ten

years ago, by Mr. Charles F. Kettering, of Dayton. Mr. Ketter-

ing is vice-president of the General Motors Corporation, and

president of the General Motor Research Corporation. His duties

keep him, most of the time, in Detroit, Michigan. When Mr.

Kettering purchased this farm it was his purpose to have the

mound cleaned up, the top made accessible, and in some manner to

provide for its future life, we will say--at any rate to provide for

its care and preservation. Just a short time ago the whole tract

around the mound was cleaned up, trees trimmed, dead trees re-

moved, and all the brush and vines cleaned out. The old building

that marred the landscape was removed by fire, accidentally, and

other buildings torn down. I have the pleasure, Mr. President

and Members, of presenting to you and the Association, a deed

from Mr. Kettering for the land, four and twenty-eight hun-

dredths acres, containing the mound, the title passing from him, or

rather from the corporation of which he happens to be president.

I am the treasurer of the C. F. Kettering, Incorporated, and I

therefore have pleasure in presenting to this Society a warranty

deed for four and twenty-eight hundredths acres containing the

mound known as the Miamisburg Mound, located near the little

city of Miamisburg, Montgomery county. (Applause.)

President Johnson: It goes without saying, Mr.

Smith, that the Society appreciates, beyond its power

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