The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West (2017) by David McCullough

“The Pioneers: The heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west” traces the epic migration of hearty Americans who settled the Ohio River valley from the end of the American Revolution to the Civil War. Author David McCullough uses the obscure town of Marietta, Ohio as his focal point and uses the stories of some of the town’s pioneering leading citizens to tell his story. It may not be McCullough’s greatest work, but like all of his books, it is an informative and very satisfying read.

The story begins with the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that opened up 265,000 squares miles acquired from the British in the peace treaty of 1783. It was an area bigger than France and would eventually become five new US states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. McCullough writes that the Ordinance “would prove to be one of the most far-reaching acts of Congress in the history of the country.” The virgin land would be settled under three remarkable conditions: free universal education, freedom of religion, and the prohibition of slavery. It was as if Congress were trying to create a new land that more closely resembled the words of the Declaration of Independence. There was no shortage of willing settlers, despite the known privations and dangers. “West was opportunity,” McCullough writes. “West was the future.”

Part I (1787-1794) chronicles the hard early years of settlement along the Ohio River by the Ohio Company. The pioneers carved new towns like Marietta and Cincinnati out of the lush wilderness. Survival was precarious for several reasons: lack of food, disease, and hostile Native Americans. In November 1791, a ramshackle force of 1,500 under the command of the nearly invalid Arthur St. Clair were surprised by a mixed force of tribes at a place called Big Bottom. It was a catastrophe for the Americans. Over 1,000 men, women and children were butchered. It was, “a total disaster, worse than any suffered by the American army during the entire Revolution, and the greatest defeat of an Army at the hands of natives until then, including Braddock’s Defeat.” It was the source of the first Congressional investigation in American history. But the settlers were undeterred. A second force of some 2,000 regular soldiers under “Mad Anthony” Wayne would get their revenge at the battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794, quieting the frontier and allowing further settlement along the Ohio and its tributaries.

Part II (1795-1814) traces the explosive growth of the settlements along the Ohio as the population of the newest state jumped from 45,000 in 1800 to 230,000 by 1810 as the advent of Fulton’s steamboat transformed life along the river. All was not sunshine in the Ohio River Valley during this time, McCullough notes. The embargo of 1807 crippled the local economy and the following War of 1812 was bitterly opposed. Meanwhile, occasional epidemic fevers and floods wreaked havoc on daily life. McCullough also tells here the fascinating story of former vice president Aaron Burr’s conspiracy to detach the western states of the union to form a new empire. A leading co-conspirator was Harman Blennerhassatt, an independently wealthy and eccentric Irish immigrant living in a mansion on an island in the middle of the Ohio River. It’s a crazy story that I had heard before, but not with McCullough’s inimitable gift for crafting characters and building narratives.

Part III (1815-1863) focuses on the twilight years of Marietta’s founding fathers, most of whom were immigrants from New England, men such Manasseh Cutler, who negotiated the Northwest Ordinance with Congress, and his son, Ephraim, who played a leading political role in town and in the Ohio legislature where he was a tireless advocate for universal education and the prohibition of slavery. McCullough also writes extensively about the life of Dr. Samuel Hildreth, one of the town’s first physicians and a man of great learning, and Joseph Barker, the town’s leading builder and architect. These were the most prominent men of their time, but virtually forgotten by history. Through their remarkable life stories, McCullough recreates the pioneering experience of the early American northwest in all its color and vibrancy. Despite the explosive growth of the Ohio population to two million by 1850, Marietta remained a relatively small town of just 4,000, but it exemplified the best of the pioneering spirit and a commitment to an American ideal.

In closing “The Pioneers” is quite short by McCullough standards (just 250 pages) and can be easily read in just a few sittings. If you have an interest in the history of American westward expansion or just like to read about what life was like in times gone by this book is not to be missed.