12O Singing Valleys 



sleeves, and a hat sunburned by long service in the cornfield, 

 and the Reverend Manesseh Cutler, like Moses and Aaron, 

 prepared to lead their brethren out of bondage to a stony soil 

 into a land of fruitful promise along the Ohio. 



Interest in the Ohio Valley was stirring in the country for 

 twenty years before the outbreak of the Revolution. Washing- 

 ton came back from his campaign against the French forts to 

 report the amazing fertility of the lands beyond the moun- 

 tains. A company was organized to explore the river valleys 

 and start settlements. Christopher Gist, who had led Wash- 

 ington down the Ohio, was directed to locate a large tract of 

 fertile land. He paddled down the Ohio to the Kentucky blue- 

 grass country. Then, leaving his canoe, he struck eastward 

 through central Kentucky, over the mountains into Giles 

 County, Virginia, and down Lucky Creek. From farm to farm 

 he went, stopping in country stores and at courthouses, spread- 

 ing the news of his find. The seven years of warfare had only 

 held back for a brief space the inevitable movement westward. 



The one hundred million acres of the Western Reserve 

 drew some of the most vigorous blood from New England's 

 veins. There is scarcely a colonial family that was not repre- 

 sented on the Ohio frontier. Many who had served in the 

 Revolution took land grants in lieu of pay. The Mound 

 Cemetery at Marietta, which was the first capital of Ohio, 

 holds the bodies of more Revolutionary officers than any other 

 acre of soil in the nation. On the headstones one reads the 

 New England names of Putnams, Danas, Cushings, Shaws, 

 Cutlers, Nyes, Buells. 



All these crossed the Alleghenies to plant corn. 



A generation earlier the young men of those families sought 

 their fortunes on the sea. In New England, farming meant 

 continuous hard work for a mere frugal existence. It meant 

 unequal chances against poor soil, drought, frost and blizzards. 

 There it had become the custom for the family numskull to 

 remain on the farm while his heartier brothers, who had more 

 of that prized New England quality of gumption, turned for 



