The Pioneers

Author: David McCullough
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2019
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that compromised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. 

In 1788 the first bad of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of the Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.

McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam, Cutler's son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. They and their families created a town in primeval wilderness, while coping with such frontier realities as floods, fires, wolves, and bears, no road or bridges, no guarantees of any sort, all the while negotiating a contentious and sometimes hostile relationship with the native people. Like so many of McCullough's subjects, they let no obstacle deter or defeat them.

Review: When I saw this was about pioneers, I assumed this would be a story of a trail, or the trails, westward. However, had I read the jacket, I would have realized this was about the settlement of the Northwest Territory, which is now in part, the state of Ohio, specifically the town of Marietta. 

Within the first 30 pages, I told my husband that we needed to plan a long weekend in Marietta, so clearly I was hooked. While this never really picked up momentum and became "unputdownable," it was interesting.