My great grandparents, Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth (Leist) Collins, migrated to Franklin County, Kansas from Pickaway County, Ohio in 1868. They purchased a 165-acre farm there on a land grant. The farm was passed on to a son, who farmed it until his death in 1950. Farm land in Ohio must have been as tillable as farm land in Kansas, so I'm not sure what their motivation was, unless it had to do with the opportunity to purchase land cheaply, as opposed to available land in Ohio. Moving had to be a major undertaking in those days, so something must have seemed very attractive to them. They never got rich, by any means, but managed to support themselves through perseverance and hard work. Gary C.