The Conquest of the Old Southwest | Page 9

God or His Word." In one hand they bore the implement of agriculture,
in the other the book of the gospel of Jesus Christ. True faith shines
forth in the simply eloquent words: "We thanked our Saviour that he
had so graciously led us hither, and had helped us through all the hard
places, for no matter how dangerous it looked, nor how little we saw
how we could win through, everything always went better than seemed
possible." The promise of a new day--the dawn of the heroic age--rings
out in the pious carol of camaraderie at their journey's end:
We hold arrival Lovefeast here, In Carolina land, A company of

Brethren true, A little Pilgrim-Band, Called by the Lord to be of those
Who through the whole world go, To bear Him witness everywhere,
And nought but Jesus know.

Chapter II.
The Cradle of Westward Expansion
In the year 1746 I was up in the country that is now Anson, Orange and
Rowan Counties, there was not then above one hundred fighting men
there is now at least three thousand for the most part Irish Protestants
and Germans and dailey increasing.-- Matthew Rowan, President of the
North Carolina Council, to the Board of Trade, June 28, 1753.
The conquest of the West is usually attributed to the ready initiative,
the stern self-reliance, and the libertarian instinct of the expert
backwoodsmen. These bold, nomadic spirits were animated by an
unquenchable desire to plunge into the wilderness in search of an El
Dorado at the outer verge of civilization, free of taxation, quit-rents,
and the law's restraint. They longed to build homes for themselves and
their descendants in a limitless, free domain; or else to fare deeper and
deeper into the trackless forests in search of adventure. Yet one must
not overlook the fact that behind Boone and pioneers of his stamp were
men of conspicuous civil and military genius, constructive in purpose
and creative in imagination, who devoted their best gifts to actual
conquest and colonization. These men of large intellectual
mold-themselves surveyors, hunters, and pioneers--were inspired with
the larger vision of the expansionist. Whether colonizers, soldiers, or
speculators on the grand scale, they sought to open at one great stroke
the vast trans-Alleghany regions as a peaceful abode for mankind.
Two distinct classes of society were gradually drawing apart from each
other in North Carolina and later in Virginia--the pioneer democracy of
the back country and the upland, and the planter aristocracy of the
lowland and the tide-water region. From the frontier came the pioneer
explorers whose individual enterprise and initiative were such potent
factors in the exploitation of the wilderness. From the border counties
still in contact with the East came a number of leaders. Thus in the
heart of the Old Southwest the two determinative principles already
referred to, the inquisitive and the acquisitive instincts, found a

fortunate conjunction. The exploratory passion of the pioneer, directed
in the interest of commercial enterprise, prepared the way for the great
westward migration. The warlike disposition of the hardy
backwoodsman, controlled by the exercise of military strategy,
accomplished the conquest of the trans-Alleghany country.
Fleeing from the traditional bonds of caste and aristocracy in England
and Europe, from economic boycott and civil oppression, from
religious persecution and favoritism, many worthy members of society
in the first quarter of the eighteenth century sought a haven of refuge in
the "Quackerthal" of William Penn, with its trustworthy guarantees of
free tolerance in religious faith and the benefits of representative
self-government. From East Devonshire in England came George
Boone, the grandfather of the great pioneer, and from Wales came
Edward Morgan, whose daughter Sarah became the wife of Squire
Boone, Daniel's father. These were conspicuous representatives of the
Society of Friends, drawn thither by the roseate representations of the
great Quaker, William Penn, and by his advanced views on popular
government and religious toleration. Hither, too, from Ireland, whither
he had gone from Denmark, came Morgan Bryan, settling in Chester
County, prior to 1719; and his children, William, Joseph, James, and
Morgan, who more than half a century later gave the name to Bryan's
Station in Kentucky, were destined to play important roles in the drama
of westward migration. In September, 1734, Michael Finley from
County Armagh, Ireland, presumably accompanied by his brother
Archibald Finley, settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. According to
the best authorities, Archibald Finley was the father of John Finley, or
Findlay as he signed himself, Boone's guide and companion in his
exploration of Kentucky in 1769-71. To Pennsylvania also came
Mordecai Lincoln, great grandson of Samuel Lincoln, who had
emigrated from England to Hingham, Massachusetts, as early as 1637.
This Mordecai Lincoln, who in 1720 settled in Chester County,
Pennsylvania, the great-great-grandfather of President Lincoln, was the
father of Sarah