MIGRATIONS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 209 



followers, consisting of men and women whose natures were 

 attracted to his principles of thrift, absence of show, and non- 

 resistance. The germ plasm of his followers soon peopled 

 Penn's woods and it is not due solely to chance that Penn- 

 sylvania has the largest number of homes owned and free 

 from debt of any state and that the '^ powers that prey" 

 prowl here so unmolested. 



Thus the characteristics of each commonwealth were 

 early determined by the traits of the persons who were at- 

 tracted toward it. These traits still persist in their dwin- 

 dling descendants who strive to secure the preservation in 

 the state of the ideals inculcated by their forefathers. 



One common characteristic these early immigrants had, 

 which led them to leave family and friends, to undergo the 

 trials of the long sea voyage in small ships and to settle in a 

 rigorous climate among unreliable savages, and that was a 

 willingness to break with tradition, to exchange the old for 

 the new and better. This trait, that amounts in extreme 

 cases to a '^ Wanderlust,'' is illustrated by the history of 

 many a pioneer. For example, Simon Hoyt landed in Salem, 

 Mass., in 1628, went in the first company of settlers to Charles- 

 ton (1629); went to Dorchester (1630) with the first com- 

 pany of settlers there; joined the church at Scituate (1635) 

 and built a house there; then, probably in the spring of 1636, 

 migrated to Windsor, Connecticut colony, which he helped 

 found. In 1649 he was granted land at Fairfield and in 1657 

 he died at Stamford. Thus in the space of thirty years 

 Simon Hoyt lived in seven villages in America and was a 

 founder of at least three of them — a truly restless spirit like 

 many another settler, and the parent of a restless progeny. 



Still another example is that of Hans Jorst Heydt of 

 Strasburg. He fled to Holland when his native town was 

 seized by Louis XIV, married there Anna Maria DuBois, a 

 French Huguenot refugee from Wicres; came with her to 



