, when roads and canals and
means of transportation were the great objects of desire; then the
marvelous development of railroads, followed by manufactures.
These changes, following in succession, are the most striking
features of the history of Ohio. I have already referred to the
pioneers who planted the first settlement, who bore the brunt of
Indian warfare, and firmly founded free institutions in Ohio.

After this period, and the organization of the state government,
the great migration to Ohio commenced which, within a century, was
destined to extend across the continent. The settler was generally
poor, bringing all his earthly possessions, with wife and children,
in a covered wagon, slowly traversing difficult roads to the new
and only land, then open to settlement. But the land was cheap,
the title clear, the soil good, and all were on the same footing,
willing to help each other. The task before him was discouraging.
He found his quarter-section in the unbroken forest, its boundary
blazed on the trees by the surveyor, and all around him a wilderness.
His first work was to erect a rough cabin of logs for a shelter;
his next to clear an opening for a crop. Every new settler was a
welcome neighbor, though miles away. The mail, the newspaper, the
doctor and the preacher were long in coming. In this solitary
contest with nature the settler had often to rely upon his gun for
food, upon simple remedies for new and strange diseases, and upon
the hope that his crop would be spared from destruction by wild
beasts.

This was the life of the early settler in every county in Ohio, as
each in its turn was organized and opened to settlement. A life
so hard, was yet so attractive that many pioneers, when a few
neighbors gathered around them, preferred to sell their clearings
and push further into the wilderness. In the meantime the older
settlements attracted newcomers. Mechanics and tradesmen came
along them. Then towns sprang up, and incipient cities, with corner
lots and hopeful speculators, tempted eastern capitalists to invest
their money in Ohio.

Ohio, in these early days, was the only outlet of the population
of the northern and middle states. Emigrants from the south,
following lines of latitude, went into Kentucky and Tennessee.
The great west, with its vast prairies and plains, was not then
accessible. Had it been so, the forests of Ohio might have been
left in solitude for many years to come. Duri