McCullough - The pioneers: the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal West

A LSO BY D AVID McC ULLOUGH

The American Spirit

The Wright Brothers

The Greater Journey

1776

John Adams

Truman

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Mornings on Horseback

The Path Between the Seas

The Great Bridge

The Johnstown Flood

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Copyright 2019 by David McCullough

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition May 2019

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Interior design by Joy OMeara

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McCullough, David G., author.

Title: The pioneers: the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west / by David McCullough.

Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019. | Simon & Schuster nonfiction original hardcover. | includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018057066 | ISBN 9781501168680 | ISBN 1501168681 | ISBN 9781501168697 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Ohio River ValleyHistoryTo 1795. | PioneersOhio River ValleyBiography.

Classification: LCC F483.M48 2019 | DDC 977dc23 LC record available at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A_lccn.loc.gov_2018057066&d=DwlFAg&c=jGUuvAdBXp_VqQ6t0yah2g&r=zKAnnLSQltsYNuYGOgjF6SYJylpwsS1CuoJqVbpsc2Q&m=Rm0RCSMcBQxc-xg3LzrGHXN0EiUAAW40bHj0llo_yx0&s=h7kYaXnGsU-_hy2bdSilili8AS0L2WDOZU4ZjlsaMEl&e=

ISBN 978-1-5011-6868-0

ISBN 978-1-5011-6869-7 (ebook)

For Rosalee

The character ought to be known of these bold pioneers.... From whence did they spring?... For what causes, under what circumstances, and for what objects were difficulties met and overcome?

EPHRAIM CUTLER

CHAPTER ONE

The Ohio is the grand artery of that portion of America which lies beyond the mountains.... I consider therefore the settlement of the country watered by this great river as one of the greatest enterprises ever presented to man.

J. HECTOR ST. JOHN DE CRVECOEUR, 1782

N ever before, as he knew, had any of his countrymen set off to accomplish anything like what he had agreed to undertakea mission that, should he succeed, could change the course of history in innumerable ways and to the long-lasting benefit of countless Americans.

That he had had no prior experience in such a venture and was heading off alone in his own one-horse shay appears to have been of little concern. If he was as yet unknown to those with whom he would be dealing, he carried with him letters of introduction from the governor of Massachusetts, the president of Harvard College, and some forty others. The day of his departure was Sunday, June 24, 1787.

Manasseh Cutler was forty-five years old and pastor of the First Congregational Church of Ipswich Hamlet, a tiny Massachusetts village not far from the sea, thirty miles north of Boston. He had been born and raised on a hilltop farm in Killingly, Connecticut, and given the biblical name of Manasseh after the oldest son of Joseph. Like most New Englanders, he was a descendant of those strong-minded English Puritans who had landed in America in the seventeenth century and proliferated ever since. James Cutler, the first of the family to arrive, had fathered twelve children. The Reverend Cutler himself was one of five and the father of eight.

He had attended Yale College, with classmates mainly from New England among whom a biblical name such as he had was by no means uncommon. He was distinguished for diligence and proficiency, and finished with honors in 1765.

In less than a year he married Mary Balch of Dedham, Massachusetts, a small trim blonde said to have had a no less amiable disposition than he. Her father, the Reverend Thomas Balch, performed the wedding ceremony. When offered the chance to run a chandlerya ship supply storein Edgartown on the island of Marthas Vineyard, bride and groom moved immediately to the island and there remained for three years, time enough for two sons, Ephraim and Jervis, to be born, and for Manasseh to conclude that a mercantile life was not for him.

He resolved to enter the ministry under the tutelage of his father-in-law back in Dedham. His studies continued for nearly two years, during which he started preaching in one town or another. Prosecuted my study, he wrote in his diary. Began to make sermons. May God grant me his blessing and assistance in so important an undertaking, and make me serviceable to the cause of religion, and the souls of my fellow men.

He was offered the pulpit at Ipswich Hamlet. The day of his ordination, at age twenty-nine, the Meeting House was thronged so exceedingly that not more than half the people were able to attend.

A bit above average in height, stout but well-proportioned, the Reverend Cutler had a ruddy, healthy look, and dressed always in ministerial blackblack velvet coat and breeches, black silk stockings. He would be described as a gentleman of the old style, country type. But stiff-necked and somber he was not, any more than were most Puritans, contrary to latter-day misconceptions. Puritans were as capable as any mortals of exuding an affable enjoyment of life, as was he. Like many a Puritan he loved good food, good wine, a good story, and good cheer. His black clerical attire, a professional requirement, by no means represented disapproval of bright colors in clothing or furniture or decoration. It was said he could out-talk anyone, and from numerous of his diary entries, it is obvious, too, that he had an eye for attractive women. But here again that was no violation of Puritan rules.

He had as well great love for his large family, his wife and children, and was ever attentive to their needs for as long as he lived.

In addition to all this, and importantly, Manasseh Cutler was endowed with boundless intellectual curiosity. It may be said he was a university unto himself, ranking high among the notable polymaths of the time, those of great and varied excellence who took an interest in nearly everything.