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Their Trials, Privations, and
Hardships - Amusements and Successes
Begin at the old house
in Connecticut, about the opening of the present century.
On a farm of forty acres, of uncertain productiveness, lives a
large family. The father is a strong, resolute, determined
man, whose courage was fully tested twenty years before in the
Revolution, and whose body bears the scars of battle. The
mother's strong impulse is devotion to her family.
Accustomed to share her husband's toil, her life and destiny is
inseparably linked with his, and her hopes are swallowed up in
solicitude for her children, who are fast growing to maturity.
How to give them a start in life is a prevailing subject of
anxious thought and conversation. The mail brings a
pamphlet giving a map and graphic description of the Western
Reserve, which, when nightfall has driven all within the plainly
furnished cottage, is read aloud. The romantic,
unrestrained life it suggests is vividly
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impressed upon the imagination of the young people, while an
idea of accumulation and gain haunts the minds of parents.
The pamphlet is read and re-read, and its most picturesque and
sanguine paragraphs dwelt upon until they become real pictures.
It is finally resolved to emigrate. The old farm is
disposed of the old furniture sold, except so much as is needed
for the journey, and a great canvas-covered wagon is purchased.
As the time for starting appreaches mingled feelings of doubt,
regret, and anticipation burden the overworked mother's mind.
The father's preparations consume his thinking, and the
children, buoyant with hope, are impatient for the day of
starting.
A few articles of furniture, necessary cooking
utensils, a month's supply of provisions and a jug of old New
England rum were packed into the covered wagon, where the family
took their places, with four horses to the wagon and several
head of cattle, started on ahead, the long dreary journey was
commenced. The mountains offered the greatest obstacle,
roads were as yet unimproved, and winding, dangerous tracks,
through passes and over steep ridges were slowly followed day
after day until at last the valleys of the Ohio's tributaries
were reached. The road from Pennsylvania into Ohio then
lay along the Mahoning as far as Youngstown. By this time
other immigrant families had been joined and the procession of
white covered wagons moved beneath green trees through a belt of
solitary wilderness which separated the Reserve from
Pennsylvania settlements. Youngstown was finally reached.
This was the place to which nearly all who owned land or desired
to own land came. It was the center and mustering ground
for the early settlers and proprietors of the Western Reserve,
the place at which they rested and from which they branched off
into the wilderness, following and guided by township lines
marked by blazed trees, to the tracts purchased from the Land
company.
It is not to be inferred that the circumstances of
Western emigration were the same in every instance. We
have given one instance some what typical of all. In many
cases grown up children urged their parents to leave the homes
in which they were contented, and comfortable; ambitious young
wives, willing to meet any hardships in the race for fortune,
urged their husbands to emigrate, some being willing to share
with him his toils from the start, others remaining till a house
and lot had been provided. But among the ambitious,
generous, and worthy minded, there were a few who came to escape
the restraints of rigid laws or social unhappiness. Neither were
all the pioneers from Connecticut, although most of the first
ones were. Some came across the mountains from
Pennsylvania, a few from New York, and fewer still from
Virginia. The primitive Reserve presented a great variety
of soil and scenery. A green robe of tightly matted forest,
broken only here and there by a stream or Indian clearing,
protected the virgin soil from the rays of the sun.
Streams were all larger then than now, not because the
annual fall of water was greater, but because nearly all that
did fall was poured into the channels which nature provided.
Deep umbrage chilled the surface and destroyed the conditions of
evaporation. In addition a compact, unstirred vegetable
soil prevented the water from penetrating the earth. When
the country came to be cleared up and stirred up, courses were
opened, by the plow and decaying roots, to coarse, porous
formations beneath the surface, which now freely admit and carry
off a large proportion of rainfall. In a previous chapter
we gave the surveyor's measurements of the Mahoning and Shenango
rivers and Pymatuning creek. From their statements it is
safe to estimate that all these streams were twice their present
volume. In 1806 the Ohio Legislature declared the Mahoning
a navigable stream as far up as Holliday's mill, in Newton
township. By 1829 this stream had so far decreased in
volume that Warren was declared the head of navigation.
Batteaux and even flat boats, at an early period of the
settlement, were paddled from Beaver falls to Warren without
difficulty at all seasons of the year, excepting at two or three
shoals where slight lifting was required. The
commissioners were at one time empowered by the Legislature to
declare Musquito creek a public highway, but no record of action
in the matter exists.
When the first settlers arrived the flat lands were wet
and swampy, and were consequently neglected by those seeking
locations for homes. There was an ample choice for those
who came with the idea of purchasing, for nearly every
stockholder was anxious to dispose of part of his
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