Just from the title, I expected this book to be a more general study of early settlers into the Midwest. The subtitle is “The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West”. However, this book is laser focused on Ohio, and mostly on Marietta. Had I read the dust cover, I would have realized this. And while I was initially a little disappointed, I think this is a good thing. While I knew some of Ohio’s early history, this gave much more detail as to how, why, and especially who, was involved with the Northwest Territory and its transition to a state. While McCullough focuses on the “main players”, as it were, he also mentions a number of the other early settlers as well.
The story starts with a New England minister, who had the foresight to work toward opening the land to settlers, especially veterans of the Revolutionary War. He, and the people who came after him, worked hard to ensure that these settlers would enjoy freedom of religion, free universal education, and the prohibition of slavery. None of those goals, basic as they sound to us now, were easy to achieve. But the dedication of several of the individuals profiled ensured not only statehood for Ohio, but that it would be able to compare favorably with the Eastern states. Which makes sense, when you realize that the original settlers mostly came from those Eastern states. They wanted both the freedom of the western lands, along with what they saw as the benefits of the states they came from.
There were a lot of smaller stories blended in with the overarching story of Ohio statehood. Aaron Burr even gets mentioned. There were a few other “characters” I had never heard of, and quite a bit of discussion on day-to-day life for the settlers. Not only does McCullough describe life in Marietta, he also talks about happenings in the wider world, and their impact on the settlers. It’s easy sometimes to focus only on the detail, and forget how larger trends affected our ancestors. Sadly, this also included outbreaks of various diseases. And our ancestors were more directly impacted by the weather than we are today.
If this was your family, how would you research them? If you had family that was early into Ohio, you should read this book. Especially if they were in the Marietta area. If you can trace a line back to Manasseh or Ephraim Cutler, General Rufus Putnam, Joseph Barker, or Samuel Hildreth, you should definitely read this book. McCullough utilized the papers of General Putnam, Ephraim Cutler, and Samuel Hildreth, which are at Marietta College.