New Englanders on the Ohio frontier : migration and settlement of Worthington, Ohio / Virginia E. McCormick and Robert W. McCormick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCormick, Virginia E. (Virginia Evans), 1934-

Contributor:

McCormick, Robert W. (Robert William), 1921-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Frontier and pioneer life--Ohio.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Land settlement.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (356 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, c1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Travelers in Worthington, Ohio, might think they were in a New England town. Old brick buildings line the very edges of the sidewalk, and a picturesque village green is flanked by two church steeples. Like most frontier communities, it reflects the heritage of its founders. In New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier, Virginia and Robert McCormick examine the founding and development of Worthington to show how it reflects New England culture transplanted and reshaped by the western frontier. The founders of Worthington left a wealth of primary sources, which the McCormicks have mined to tell the town's story. Within nine months of Ohio statehood in 1803, the settlers surveyed the town, organized a subscription library and an Episcopal Church, provided temporary housing for one hundred settlers, and granted one the right to "keep a public house for the entertainment of travelers if any there should be." Within a few years Worthington had a newspaper advertising a farm for rent with a "tolerably comfortable cabin," a store offering "European and India Goods" in addition to domestic products, an academy offering students "Latin, Greek, or French" for $6.00 a term, and testimonials for the threshing machine, invented by a local farmer, that would "thrash forty-five sheaves in five minutes." Despite Indian alarms during the War of 1812, failure to secure the seat of the state capital, and the economic depression that followed the banking collapse of 1819, Worthington prospered and grew. This case study of one community provides a perspective from which historians can better understand the process of westward migration and frontier settlement.

Contents:

""Cover""; ""Copyright""; ""Contents""; ""List of Illustrations""; ""Acknowledgments""; ""Introduction""; ""Westward Migration, 1802-1804""; ""Chapter 1: A Company to Make Settlement Northwest of the Ohio""; ""Chapter 2: To Explore Said Territory and Report to the Company""; ""Chapter 3: A Place Most Favorable for Our First Improvement""; ""Chapter 4: If You Calculate for Smooth Roads Free from Hills You Will Be Disappointed""; ""Chapter 5: In Perfect Health and Much Pleased with Our Situation""; ""Wilderness Settlement, 1804-1812""; ""Chapter 6: A Just and Legal Land Division""

""Chapter 7: An Elderly Gentleman Passed Through with All His Posterity""""Chapter 8: A Tolerably Comfortable Cabin""; ""Chapter 9: Squires with Muskets and Rifles""; ""Chapter 10: Apprentice Wanted-Of Steady Deportment and Industrious Habits""; ""Boom and Bust, 1812-1821""; ""Chapter 11: If Elected I Shall Not Disappoint Your Confidence or Shame Your Favor""; ""Chapter 12: From Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic to Greek, Latin, and Moral Philosophy""; ""Chapter 13: All Kinds of Manufacturies which Experience May Advise""

""Chapter 14: Main Street Wide and Free of Mud and Many Buildings Handsomely Built with Brick""""Chapter 15: To the Dough Faces of the Last Congress""; ""A Pleasant and Thriving Post Town, 1821-1836""; ""Chapter 16: Runaway Negro Taken Near This Place and Set at Liberty""; ""Chapter 17: Leghorn Bonnets, Horn Sided Corsets, and German Silver Teaspoons""; ""Chapter 18: So Much Boast of Succession Handed Down from the Apostles""; ""Chapter 19: Correct Mental and Moral Habits and Amiable Manners""; ""Chapter 20: That Dead Animals or Nuisances of Any Kind Be Buried in Some Vacant Place""

""Epilogue""""Appendixes""; ""Appendix A: Land Ownership of Worthington Proprietors""; ""Appendix B: Scioto Company Extended-Family Networks""; ""Appendix C: Migration of Worthington Proprietors""; ""Notes""; ""Selected Bibliography""; ""Index""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-61277-235-8