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Migrating to Ohio in the Early 1800s
Gerald W. McFarland
To some extent, Americans who left the settled areas of the East for the
uncertainties of the Western frontier shared a common outlook. This was true whether
they migrated in the 1760s, the 1800s, or the 1860s. Still, different social, economic, and
political conditions in the different periods often produced their own distinct patterns of
migration. This document is taken from a history f the transcontinental migrations of
four families between the mid 18th and early 20th centuries. Focusing on the period when
the families moved into Ohio, the selection illuminates some important differences
between the westward movement of the early 1800s and the movement prior to 1790.
Shortly after Ohio was admitted to the Union in 1803, representatives of three
families on the move migrated to the new state…
These decisions to go west were at once bold and conservative. It took courage to
leave the known for the unknown, to undertake the arduous journey, and to start anew in
a wilderness or semi wilderness. But all three families were fundamentally conservative
in their approach to westward migration. None of them went west until the threat of
Indian attack had been greatly reduced by diplomacy (Jay’s Treaty, 1794) and military
victories (Fallen Timbers, Ohio, 1794), until land development companies like the
Connecticut Land Company had been organized and had launched campaigns to promote
homesteading in the area, and until liberalized government land policies (the Land Act of
1800) and the establishment of federal land offices in Ohio had facilitated settlement
there.
… In the early decades of the 1800’s, tens of thousands of easterners took note of
the fact that the Indian threat was on the wane and that plenty of good land was now
available in the Buckeye State. The rush to capitalize on these conditions contributed to a
dramatic rise in Ohio’s population, from 45,365 in 1800 to 230,760 in 1810 and 581,434
in 1820. Moreover, Ohio’s swift growth was not unique. Indiana, the next state to the
west, had only 24,520 residents in 1810; ten years later the number had swollen to
147,178 (an increase of 500 percent). The surge in population of western territories led to
admission of state after Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama
(1819), and Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin still remained under territorial status in
1820. The trans-Appalachian frontier was well on the way to being settled.
A few heavily traveled roads bore the bulk of the Ohio-bound traffic. The future
route of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo, in however… took another well-trodden
path, the road through Pennsylvania from Harrisburg to Pittsburg. Residents of the Upper
South frequently used the so-called National Road, which ran from Cumberland,
Maryland, to Columbus, Ohio River into southern Ohio…
Although each group of migrants to the Paint Valley frontier had it’s own story to
tell, the many newcomers had much in common…. The great majority of the pioneers
were Virginians, and those who were not from Virginia came from neighboring states:
Kentucky, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. Of course, New Englanders… also moved to
Ohio in the early 1800’s but they nearly always headed for the state’s northern counties.
Indeed, so distinct were these North-South migration bands that crossovers from one to
the other were rarely found in the Paint Valley prior to 1830.
The adults who migrated to the Paint Valley frontier were mostly young peopleeither couples… or bachelors… The married couples often had small children in tow, “an
infant specimen of young America to carry on the knee.”… The older or grandparentaged pioneers
[It was] typical of Ohio’s early settlers that they traveled to the nuclear family. At
an even earlier date,… it had not been uncommon for hunters, men with no intention of
settling in Ohio, to travel alone or with only few companions, each bringing a horse, a
rifle, and little else. But… the great majority of Ohio-bound pioneers in 1805 and
afterward, were farmers with plans to clear the land and build homes. To do this they
brought teams, wagons, tools, and household items. The difficult task of moving these
possessions over miles of wilderness roads prompted them to migrate in groups from
which they could draw assistance….
The promise that drew most pioneers to Ohio was land. On this subject migrants
divided into two types, settlers and speculators, though the two categories were by no
means mutually exclusive….
A land of promise for many, the Ohio frontier was for all a place of hazards and
hardships…. The danger of Indian warfare was greatly diminished, though it revived,
briefly, during the War of 1812. Paint Valley militiamen were mobilized in 1812 in
response to fears that Britain’s Indian allies, ably led by the great Shawnee chief
Tecumseh, might go on a rampage. Few local men actually saw combat, however, and
most, like their fathers during the Revolution, served only briefly…. Other problems of
frontier life, such as the so-called squirrel invasion of 1807, during which hordes of
hungry squirrels stripped the settlers’ cornfields bare, posed no serious threat to the
pioneers’ survival, although many families spent the next winter on sparse diets of
cabbage and turnips….
A reciprocal relationship existed between the large and small investors in western
lands. Large speculators….were in a position akin to that of the owners of an automobile
franchise with large inventory…. Although the analogy is not precise- Mainly because
most western lands were uncleared and therefore not immediately usable, as a new car
would be-the comparison holds fairly well. Each party to the transaction received
something of value. The wealthy landholders reduced their inventories of Ohio land. The
smaller farmers received a reasonably good price for their old farms and the chance to
acquire a larger acreage by moving west.
What are some differences between the early westward movements of the 1700s and the
Ohio settlements of the early 1800s?
What do you think the lives of women and children on the frontier might have been
like during this time period?