They were
not so pious as the New Englanders, though they were capable of
great religious enthusiasm, and their morals were probably not
inferior. Their houses were poorer; their villages were not so
well kept; their dress was more uncouth, and their ways rougher.
But they were a hardy folk--brave, industrious, hospitable, and
generous to a fault.
In the first days of westward migration the favorite gateway into
the Ohio Valley was Cumberland Gap, at the southeastern corner of
the present State of Kentucky. Thence the Virginians and
Carolinians passed easily to the Ohio in the region of Cincinnati
or Louisville. Later emigrants from more northern States found
other serviceable routes. Until the opening of the Erie Canal in
1825, New Englanders reached the West by three main avenues. Some
followed the Mohawk and Genesee turnpikes across central New York
to Lake Erie. This route led directly, of course, to the Western
Reserve. Some traveled along the Catskill turnpike from the
Hudson to the headwaters of the Allegheny, and thence descended
the Ohio.
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