cattle, and even flocks of sheep, were occasionally
driven ahead or behind by some member of the family.

In the years of heaviest migration the highways converging on Pittsburgh
and Wheeling were fairly crowded with westward-flowing traffic. As a
rule several families, perhaps from the same neighborhood in the old
home, traveled together; and in any case the chance acquaintances of the
road and of the wayside inns broke the loneliness of the journey.
There were wonderful things to be seen, and every day brought novel
experiences. But exposure and illness, dread of Indian attacks, mishaps
of every sort, and the awful sense of isolation and of uncertainty
of the future, caused many a man's stout heart to quail, and brought
anguish unspeakable to brave women. Of such joys and sorrows, however,
is a frontier existence compounded; and of the growing thousands who
turned their faces toward the setting sun, comparatively few yielded
to discouragement and went back East. Those who did so were usually the
land speculators and people of weak, irresolute, or shiftless character.

An English traveler, Morris Birkbeck, who passed over the National Road
through southwestern Pennsylvania in 1817, was filled with amazement
at the number, hardihood, and determination of the emigrants whom he
encountered.

"Old America seems to be breaking up [he wrote] and moving westward. We
are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, towards the
Ohio, of family groups, behind and before us.... A small wagon (so light
that you might almost carry it, yet strong enough to bear a good load of
bedding, utensils and provisions, and a swarm of young citizens--and to
sustain marvelous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with
two small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all; excepting
a little store of hard-earned cash for the land office of the district;
where they may obtain a title for as many acres as they possess
half-dollars, being one fourth of the purchase money. The wagon has a
tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or perhaps a blanket. The family are
seen before, behind, or within the vehicle, according to the road or the
weather, or perhaps the spirits of the party.... A cart and single
horse frequently affords the means of transfer, sometimes a horse and
pack-saddle. Often the back of the poor pilgrim bears all his effects,
and his wife follows, naked-footed, bending under the hopes of the
family." *

* Q