By David McCullough
It's hard to appreciate Western Expansion in the United States as well as its lasting cultural nuances without understanding the pioneers.
How this book came about:
The president of Ohio University invited David McCullough to deliver the commencement address at the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the institution. Intrigued by the oldest building on the campus, Cutler Hall, the eminent biographer dug deeper, discovering Cutler's profound impact on America and also "a cast of of real-life characters of historic accomplishment who were entirely unknown to most Americans" (259).
Why The Pioneers is a "must read":
It can be difficult for us, accustomed to miles of Interstate highways, electric cars, jet travel, and civilian space exploration to imagine that in 1786, west of the Ohio River, was"
"the back country," "the vast interior," "the howling wilderness," "the fair domain beyond the Ohio"...
There were no roads as yet anywhere in all this wilderness, no bridges, no towns, churches, schools, stores, or wayside taverns... there was as yet not one permanent legal settlement (7).
The Pioneers is as the subtitle states, "the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal West." McCullough introduces us to likes of Manasseh and Ephraim Cutler, General Putnam, early pioneer and architect Joseph Barker, the physician and naturalist Samuel P. Hildreth, as well as the gullible and somewhat eccentric Harman Blennerhassett, who was charged as co-conspirator with Aaron Burr's alleged conspiracy to lead the separation of Western from Atlantic states in 1806, just a short while after he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.
Burr makes his entrance into the West as does Steamboat traffic, and early University education. But the shinning star of that early constellation of pioneers was the Reverend Manasseh Cutler. Cutler represented The Ohio Company of Associates, the group that purchased 1,500,000 acres from the Federal government, surveyed it, and began the Western migration with the founding of the city of Marietta on the banks of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers.
McCullough helps us appreciate The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, a dusty document opaque to most, but one that significantly shaped who we are as a nation. In it, Congress guaranteed freedom of religion, the need for education, and declared that there would be no slavery in the Western territory. As McCullough notes, Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University would claim that the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is on par with the Magna Cara and the Declaration of Independence "as a bold assertion of the rights of the individual" (30).
There is so much to glean fromThe Pioneers: The Heroic Story Of The Settlers Who Brought The American Ideal West:
Life Lessons:
1. Pioneering demands joint efforts
Taming the west took farmers in great number and with them skilled carpenters, gunsmiths, saddlers, glassmakers, weavers, boot makers, and blacksmith. "Most importantly there were more women now (1790) to share in the endless work and hardships of life on the frontier. Pioneering demanded joint effort in just about everything (italics mine). In the words of an old folk song: Tis I can delve and plough, love -- And you can spin and sew -- And we'll settle on the banks -- Of the pleasant Ohio (71).
2. The necessity of generosity
"What saved the settlement [in the "Starving Year" (also called the "hungry year" 1789-90)] was generosity. To Barker it was a powerful lesson in life. 'Where poverty, improvidence,and scarcity meet,' he wrote, 'charity and benevolence only could give relief'" (80).
3. The importance of education
Article III of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 declared: "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." As McCullough notes, such state-supported schools did not exist outside of New England and even those were poorly operated. Here it would be different, the contract between the Board of the Treasury and the Ohio Company would state that a potion of each township be set aside for common schools and be "given perpetually to the use of an university" (29; See also 147, 200, 213, 216-17).
4. The power of God, the gospel, and liberty
God, the gospel, religious freedom and learning were all central to Reverend Cutler. The man who championed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 finally visited the area in 1788. Cutler preached a message to a group at the frontier outpost Campus Martius on Sunday, August 24, 1788. In that sermon he worked to calm those who feared this new frontier might lessen Christianity's impact on the country or enhance licentious and infidelity. In his sermon Cutler said, "But we may dismiss our fears, when we consider that truth can never be in real hazard, where there is a sufficiency of light and knowledge, and full liberty to vindicate it" (60).
5. Not all pioneers are settlers
Interestingly, Reverend Manasseh Cutler, who played such a central role in initiating the move West, visited the territory once and never returned again. Cutler was "immersed in his pastor duties, his school, [and] his numerous intellectual pursuits" back in New England (82). I think it is a good reminder that leadership includes "pioneers" and "settlers," and that some specialize in one aspect over the other. That is not only "okay" but preferable for the effectiveness of the project and the best stewardship of the leader's gifts and strengths.
6. Don't mess with mom!
In early 1791, after a group of settlers were massacred by Indians and then two rangers who were hired to keep watch were themselves caught by surprise attack (one shot and scalped), consternation broke out among the residents. Everyone made for the stockade and safety. Joseph Barker describes the event, of which I have only included a small portion. As people made their way to the fort carrying an array of valuables, Mr. William Moulton (70) and his daughter arrived with China teapot, cups and saucers. "Lydia brought the great Bible, but when all were in mother was missing. Where was mother? She must be killed. No, says Lydia, mother said she would not leave a house looking so, she would put things a little to rights, and then she would come" (95). Yep, that's mom! Also grandson of Sarah Cutler about going to his mothers room at night: "he found her down on her knees before her window praying" (24).
7. The necessity and beauty of civil sacrificial service
Ephraim Cutler, son of the famed Reverend Manasseh Cutler, was appointed as a judge for that area. "The judges received no per diem or travel expenses. In all the years Ephraim served in the Court of Common Pleas, he did not receive a cent. Often, coming and going, he had to camp in the wilderness. Yet he never failed attending a single session" (129). (Note: In 2021, link: federal judges make between $218,600 and $280,500, along with an array of benefits.)
8. Dads, bless your sons!
Despite the impact Manasseh Cutler made in this period of history (and perhaps it was the times), "the elder Cutler could not help but lodge his fatherly disapproval of certain of his son's failing, almost if Ephraim were still a boy. 'I cannot close this letter without suggesting some little inaccuracies in our letters which I wish you to attend to and which you must necessarily correct. I find in almost every one of your letters, you begin . . . on the wrong side of the sheet of paper. Look at my letters . . ." the father continues criticizing spelling, composition, and punctuation (see p.137). Ephraim was a grown man, a man of renown of his own right, and recognized for his unending hospitality to all, c.f. 182-183.
9. Some politicians were suspect and derided -- some things never change
"There is nowhere to be found knaves more designing than at a legislature, where designing scoundrels lurk and with specious words and demure looks they calculate to entrap the unwary and like blood-suckers leech and suck the public." Ephraim Cutler to Sally Cutler, December 29, 1819.
10. We need perspective
"On reaching Utica by a canal the net day, the boarded a train to Albany, traveling part of the way at an unimaginable 30 miles an hour (italics mine) 'or a mile in two minutes, a little like flying.'" Samuel Hildreth. Remember the journey from east to west had by by horse, foot, and river boat and had taken months. It seems rather easy for historical/cultural critics (often sitting in their comfy study) to denounce pioneers whose ways and means at times did lack the cultural respect and nuance those of us with 200 years of hindsight enjoy. Whether it is the "unimaginable 30 miles an hour" or the thought of your evening being interrupted by one who wants to remove your scalp, perspective does not change the past, but it does help us understand it and walk in the present with firmness of resolve and hopefully a little more grace for those who went before.
Notable Quotes:
1. On learning: "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas" "Fortunate is he who understands the cause of things." A favorite quote of Manasseh Cutler, polymath and person significantly responsible for securing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (6).
2. On Indian warfare: Beware of surprise! You know how the Indians fight us." George Washington (91).
3. Aaron Burr's biographer on Aaron Burr: "Glorious at the beginning, disastrous, if not disgraceful, at the close" (154). McCullough said he died in 1836, "eighty, unrepentant to the end" (164).
4. The heart of a healer: "Whoever pursues the healing art . . . is no longer master of his own time, nor of his own person, but his time and himself are at the call of another." The physician Samuel Hildreth, 1807. McCullough comments: "There was as well the further burden, the constant anxiety, felt by anyone with heart that went with the responsibility of lives" (174).
5. On education: "If ignorance could be banished from our land, a real millennium would commence." Ephraim Cutler (195, 219-20).
6. Johnny Appleseed: McCullough provides the historical background. "He was welcome everywhere among the settlers, and was treated with great kindness even by the Indians." Rufus Putnam's description, c.f. 150 for an interesting (surprising) description of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed.
7. Recognizing one's advancing age: "My sun is far past its meridian." The esteemed General Rufus Putnam (207).
8. Samuel Johnson on traveling: "The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are" (221).
9. Charles Dickens on slavery: "Where slavery sits brooding . . . there is an air of ruin and decay" (225).
10. On treatment of Native Americans: "If the American character may be judged by their conduct in this matter, they are most lamentable deficient of every feeling of honor and integrity." Frances Trollope (also felt by Charles Dickens) (230).
11. Honoring the people who took the first steps (and the necessity of pioneers): When Boston businessman Amasa Walker stopped in Marietta in 1839 he wrote, "This is the spot where the settlement of of Ohio commenced in 1788. Here, . . . General Rufus Putnam with his followers, landed, and began to clear and build, and not Ohio contains almost a million and a half inhabitants!" (239).
Summary and recommendation:
Readers familiar with McCullough, will probably not put The Pioneers on par with his Pulitzer winners John Adams or Truman, but it is a fascinating read in its own right, perhaps more akin to 1776 in its focus on a period of American history. That said, I appreciate The Pioneers for its historical perspective, a perspective which helps put matters of education, slavery, and Native American relations in an historical context that corrects some historical revisionism of our day. Additionally, it is a project McCullough "stumbled upon" that captured his attention and spurred his efforts despite having to set it aside for years before completing it. That intrigue and tenacity -- of such an esteemed biographer -- should be all one needs to explore these pages with the curiosity of McCullough and our early pioneers.