There were wonderful things
to be seen, and every day brought novel experiences. But exposure
and illness, dread of Indian attacks, mishaps of every sort, and
the awful sense of isolation and of uncertainty of the future,
caused many a man's stout heart to quail, and brought anguish
unspeakable to brave women. Of such joys and sorrows, however, is
a frontier existence compounded; and of the growing thousands who
turned their faces toward the setting sun, comparatively few
yielded to discouragement and went back East. Those who did so
were usually the land speculators and people of weak, irresolute,
or shiftless character.
An English traveler, Morris Birkbeck, who passed over the
National Road through southwestern Pennsylvania in 1817, was
filled with amazement at the number, hardihood, and determination
of the emigrants whom he encountered.
"Old America seems to be breaking up [he wrote] and moving
westward. We are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand
track, towards the Ohio, of family groups, behind and before
us.... A small wagon (so light that you might almost carry it,
yet strong enough to bear a good load of bedding, utensils and
provisions, and a swarm of young citizens--and to sustain
marvelous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with
two small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all;
excepting a little store of hard-earned cash for the land office
of the district; where they may obtain a title for as many acres
as they possess half-dollars, being one fourth of the purchase
money.
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