Subject: Re: [OHIO] Wagon Roads cont'd #5 From: glenys@sonic.net To: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman 73777,25 Date: 10-Nov-98 16:05 Thanks to so many, many of you who have sent me notes - I am so happy you are enjoying this little wander - I will resend #3, obviously it's floating around somewhere in cyberheaven. "Appeal of the Ohio Country" For twenty-five years after the Revolutionary War, the Ohio River was the primary destination of virtually all western migrations in the U.S. This is where the first public land sales were opened, unlike the South. Georgia did not cede its western lands until 1802, and these new public lands were encompassed into a new Mississippi Territory. Extensive Indian control of western Georgia delayed settlements there and migrations from the Atlantic regions into the Southwest did not happen until well after the Northwest Territory had opened for settlement. For example, the first land sales in Mississippi Territory did not begin until 1810. before that, the only real settlements in the South were located near the gulf seaports and the Mississippi River towns. As the first area opened for settlemtn, the appeal of the Ohio Country was for fresh farm land. The Ohio River was the main highway leading to settlements on the principal tributaries, such as the Muskingum, Scioto, Miami or Wabash Rivers. By floating downstream on a flatboat, the Ohio River provided access to fresh lands to be cleared for crop farming and where corn would grow so fast you could almost watch it rise. In addition, the soils between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River were well suited for wheat and other grains besides corn. Except for some open areas within the interior parts of the Northwest Territory, the river areas were densely covered with huge trees, some over a hundred feet in height. Due to the wide branches and closeness of the trees, little sunlight penetrated to the ground below. Visibility was limited to a couple of hundred feet in any direction, and there was an aura of darkness everywhere. However, with sparse underbrush below the towering trees, the trails were not nearly as difficult to follow as one would imagine. the improvement of older roads was to have an impact on migrations to the Ohio Country. ... travel on the Great Valley Road through the interior of Virginia continued the migration pattern established before the Rev. War. As an extension of the Great Valley Road, at Sapling Grove, VA (now Bristol) a wagon could head west through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, or continue south to Knoxville, Tennessee. Back in 1788 the Nashville Road had been built by the Militia, linking Knoxville to Nashville, a distance of some 180 miles west. (Tenn was not a state yet, and still part of North Carolina). The Nashville Road quickly became the primary route for East-West traffic through the interior of Tenn. Earlier travelers had found the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers as their main highways. With this link from Virginia to Knoxville, then on to Nashville, an important circle was completed. Nashville was the northern end of the Natchez Trace, an old Indian trail. By 1796, a road leading from Nashville connected settlements further north, all the way to Lexington, Kentucky. From there, a wagon road to the Ohio River linked overland travelers to Zane's Trace. It became possible to take a wagon from Natchez to Philadelphia - a trip that had prveiously been almost exclusively the opposite direction and mostly with the help of rivers. The Natchez Trace was first used as a return route for boatmen who had floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on flatboats to the ports of Natchez or New Orleans. (New Orleans was controlled by the French until 1803 - making Natchez the southern most U.S. river port). The children of the first settlers of Kentucky and Tenn. became attracted to the lands of the Ohio River as well. Settled well before the Rev. War, the green valleys of KY and TN were very rewarding for farmers. For the first few years, a farmer could watch his corn stalks jump out of the ground in great abundance. But the soil began to lose its fertility within seven or eight seasons. The crops would begin to decrease in size and consistency. Crop rotation and contour plowing for soil retention were techniques not used yet, and the application of fertilizer to the soil was only practiced by a few enlightened German farmers in Eastern Pennsylvania before 1790. Those with large tracts of land learned they had to constantly clear and plant new fields and leave older ones fallow for a number of years before .. a good crop again. But many farmers gave up on their depleting soil - it was easier for some of the next generation to relocate, and find virgin land to start anew. A young man with only a small farm and a growing family to support believed he had everything to gain by moving to the Ohio Country. The opening of roads to the Ohio River from several different starting points was also an incentive. the lure of the Ohio River settlements was for cheap land and once the land was cleared, farming could be easy again. There were only a couple of 'minor' problems: a few Indians resented the ... invasion into their hunting grounds, and it was not necessarily easy traveling to the Ohio River from anywhere. Next #6 "Enter the Turnpike" Glenys -- >>Glenys Rasmussen<< http://www.sonic.net/~glenys/ >>"My home lies wide a thousand miles, In the Never-Never Land." (Henry Lawson)<<