T HE tide of emigration westward started into the Northwest Territory with the settlement of Marietta in 1788. After the treaty of Greenville in 1795 had allayed all fears of Indian outbreaks, the stream of immigration into Ohio became steady and ever increasing. This emigration was not permitted to go on without opposition from New England, from whence most of the early settlers came. Judge Timothy Walker, one of the pioneer lawyers of Cincinnati, gives his experience on this phase of the opposition to settlement in the Ohio Country. In an address delivered before the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society at Columbus, December 23, 1837, he thus refers to this attempt to prevent immigration: "I can well remember when, in Massachusetts, the rage for moving to Ohio was so great, that resort was had to counteracting fictions, in order to discourage it; and this region was represented as cold, sterile, sickly and full of all sorts of monsters. Nor was this all. The powerful engine of caricature was set in motion. I have a distinct recollection of a picture, which I saw in boyhood, prefixed to a penny, anti-moving-to-Ohio pamphlet, in which a stout, ruddy, well dressed man, on a sleek, fat horse, with a label, 'I am going to Ohio,' meets a pale, and ghastly skeleton of a man, scarcely half dressed, on the wreck of what was once a horse, already bespoken by the more politic crows, with a label, 'I have been to Ohio.' But neither falsehood nor ridicule could deter the enterprising from seeking a new home. Hither they came in crowds." Referring to the character of the early settlers he pictures from his own experience and observation the kind and nature of men that they were. While they did not bring affluence with them, they brought bold hearts and strong hands, which are infinitely better to reclaim a wilderness. He declared "that a population made up of immigrants, will contain the hardy and vigorous elements of character, in a far greater proportion, than the same number of the persons, born upon soil, brought up at home, and accustomed to tread in the footsteps of their fathers." The reason for this is apparent; it is only the men resolute and energetic that can nerve themselves to the severing of local, social and family ties, which is the first requisite in a pioneer. Following the emigration, the arrival in a new country compels them to think, act and originate for themselves. There are no familiar customs to follow, no' alliances of family or neighborhood, in which one leans upon another, and each helps all. On the contrary, immigrants meet as strangers, unknowing and unknown, and they must depend upon their own resources. Like soldiers of fortune, who, staking all upon the sword, have thrown away the scabbard, they know that they must either "do or die." These conditions built up a free, resolute and independent citizenship-the very kind of manhood upon which to lay deep and strong the foundations of a state. Prior to the Marietta settlement, from the region. south of the Ohio River, straggling bodies of trappers, hunters and early explorers, typified by Boone and Kenton, strayed into Kentucky and set about driving out the Indians and settling the wilderness. These men were unlike the later Ohio settlers. They were a law unto themselves, and were but a step in advance of the Indian trapper and trader who had for many years braved the solitary woods in search of furs or peltries. These hunters and trappers were the first white men in Ohio, and were compelled to lead rough lives. Their dress differed but little from the Indian's -a coon skin instead of feathers for a headdress, and a blue linsey blouse with yellow fringe sometimes took the place of the Indian one of deer skin. Often alone, he became the companion of the Indian when he dared to have a truce with him. Generally, however, alert to danger, he preferred the solitude of the forest. There in an improvised lean-to hut, with occasionally a faithful dog, he sought security. His trusty gun and precious ammunition, worth more than gold to him, supplied him not only with a sure means of defense, but with meat to eat, skins to wear, and the furs and peltries of the bear, buffalo, beaver, elk and deer, as an income. By day he wandered with stealthy steps, by night he crept to secret coverts for repose, ever practicing the arts of savage warfare and border stratagem for protection. Never greatly excited he met the greatest dangers with equanimity. Unlike the pioneer of later days, the hunter sought the wilderness because he loved the solemn shades. The restraints of society were vexatious to him, and as they approached, he plunged deeper into the woods. His whole life was a succession of adventures, dangers and vicissitudes spent midst the towering forests, its birds, its beasts, and its savage men, whose natures, to him, were as an open book. His widest horizon was a clearing in the stately and gloomy forest, where the sun, the sky or the stars must have been a welcome canopy. Mayhap at times he rested by some quiet stream or rushing river, whose waters were to him a gleam of light upon which he feasted with a delight inconceivable. The ranks of these hunters and trappers contributed little to the future career of Ohio. In a few instances they ceased their wild roving and became valued members of the early surveying parties and ultimately distinguished citizens of Ohio. A type of these was General Duncan McArthur. His career was varied and remarkable, and indicative of what a man could become in those days. From first to last he was a packer across the Alleghenies,-a private soldier,—a salt boiler, a hunter and trapper, a frontier spy,-a chain carrier,-a surveyor,-a member of the Ohio legislature, a colonel,-a general,-a member of Congress and lastly governor of Ohio. -- The first and roughest phases of pioneer life followed upon the heels of the life of the hunter. It differed radically from it. The true pioneer was a settler and not a rover, yet many of the fierce dangers that confronted the hunter kept the early Ohio settler on the alert to maintain his life and property. In the early settlements the first thing built was a blockhouse, around which the cabins were grouped. Indeed it was essential to have a garrisoned fort not far distant, for the fierce Indian was ever lurking in the forest ready to scalp or kill the white man with whom he was at war. The howling of the wolves could ever be heard, and the bear and the panther were |