of the trans-Alleghany country.
Fleeing from the traditional bonds of caste and aristocracy in
England and Europe, from economic boycott and civil oppression,
from religious persecution and favoritism, many worthy members of
society in the first quarter of the eighteenth century sought a
haven of refuge in the "Quackerthal" of William Penn, with its
trustworthy guarantees of free tolerance in religious faith and
the benefits of representative self-government. From East
Devonshire in England came George Boone, the grandfather of the
great pioneer, and from Wales came Edward Morgan, whose daughter
Sarah became the wife of Squire Boone, Daniel's father. These
were conspicuous representatives of the Society of Friends, drawn
thither by the roseate representations of the great Quaker,
William Penn, and by his advanced views on popular government and
religious toleration. Hither, too, from Ireland, whither he had
gone from Denmark, came Morgan Bryan, settling in Chester County,
prior to 1719; and his children, William, Joseph, James, and
Morgan, who more than half a century later gave the name to
Bryan's Station in Kentucky, were destined to play important
roles in the drama of westward migration. In September, 1734,
Michael Finley from County Armagh, Ireland, presumably
accompanied by his brother Archibald Finley, settled in Bucks
County, Pennsylvania. According to the best authorities,
Archibald Finley was the father of John Finley, or Findlay as he
signed himself, Boone's guide and companion in his exploration of
Kentucky in 1769-71. To Pennsylvania also came Mordecai Lincoln,
great grandson of Samuel Lincoln, who had emigrated from England
to Hingham, Massachusetts, as early as 1637. This Mordecai
Lincoln, who in 1720 settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the
great-great-grandfather of President Lincoln, was the father of
Sarah Lincoln, who was wedded to William Boone, and of Abraham
Lincoln, who married Anne Boone, William's first cousin. Early
settlers in Pennsylvania were members of the Hanks family, one of
whom was the maternal grandfather of President Lincoln.
No one race or breed of men can lay claim to exclusive credit for
leadership in the hinterland movement and the conquest of the
West. Yet one particular stock of people, the Ulster Scots,
exhibited with most completeness and picturesqueness a group of
conspicuous qualities and attitudes which we now recognize to be
typical of the American character as
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