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History of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier
The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830
"This exhaustively researched and well-written book provides a comprehensive history of Ohio from 1720 to 1830."
--Journal of the Early Republic
Nowhere on the American frontier was the clash of cultures more violent than in the Ohio country. There, Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares, and other native peoples fought to preserve their land claims against an army that was incompetent at the beginning but highly trained and disciplined in the end.
Sales territory is worldwide
A History of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier
1996; 440 pages, 23 b&w photos, 7 maps, bibl. essay, index, 6 x 9
cloth 0-253-33210-9 $39.95 L / 28.50
paper 0-253-21212-X $19.95 t / 14.50
--Journal of the Early Republic
Nowhere on the American frontier was the clash of cultures more violent than in the Ohio country. There, Shawnees, Wyandots, Delawares, and other native peoples fought to preserve their land claims against an army that was incompetent at the beginning but highly trained and disciplined in the end.
Sales territory is worldwide
A History of the Trans-Appalachian Frontier
1996; 440 pages, 23 b&w photos, 7 maps, bibl. essay, index, 6 x 9
cloth 0-253-33210-9 $39.95 L / 28.50
paper 0-253-21212-X $19.95 t / 14.50
440 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
About the author
R. Douglas Hurt
37 books4 followersR. Douglas Hurt is Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Agricultural History and Rural Studies at Iowa State University in Ames. He is the author of numerous books, including Nathan Boone and the American Frontier and Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie, both available from the University of Missouri Press.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 4, 2011
I read this for research, not for pleasure. If you happen to be in the market for a one volume book that chronicles the Ohio Frontier period, with emphases on military adventures and settlements, this is your best and probably only option. It isn't exactly a page turner, but it has its moments. Very well researched.
November 21, 2021
I’m utterly flummoxed. I just read chapter two as part of the research for my master’s thesis, and based on my prior study of primary sources, I encountered several claims that I know are completely inaccurate. For example, he claims that Andrew Lewis crossed the Ohio River and attacked and burned several Shawnee villages after the Battle of Point Pleasant. Um, according to who exactly? I would normally check the footnotes to see what sources are being cited for his claims, yet this book inexplicably lacks them. I've read multiple first hand accounts of men who were actually present, and NO ONE mentioned such behavior. McDonald's expedition to Wakatomika? Yes, he burned homes. That was not the same leader, not the same army, and not even in the same month. (Note: I’m reading this via my university’s access to the JSTOR database, so it is theoretically possible that the print version may differ somehow, but given this is not typical of books on JSTOR and what I’m viewing is a pdf of the actual book pages, that is not likely.) I have not read later chapters as they don’t apply to my thesis, but I find it very hard to take a source seriously that fails to document, at the very least, the sources of direct quotes.
November 16, 2019
Read for research for Native American history paper.
Read for #nonfictionnovember
Review to Come
Read for #nonfictionnovember
Review to Come
August 12, 2019
I must admit this was not the most exciting book in the world to read. It was not written by someone who approached the subject of Ohio's relatively brief days as a frontier in gripping or compelling prose. Nonetheless, although this book was written in a somewhat plain fashion, it did tell an important story of how it was that Ohio was turned from a sparsely populated area that was fought over between various groups of tribes and traders and early pioneers to an area that is heavily populated and full of farms and cities that strikes many of us as quintessentially Midwestern in nature and not always the most interesting of places. I have myself lived in Ohio (although not for particularly long) and so I found myself having enough reason to cheer on the growth of cities and industry and the importance of property security in securing the growth of Ohio. And it must be admitted that Ohio grew a great deal as it ceased to be a frontier, demonstrating that areas with unsettled property rights and active conflicts did not particularly encourage a lot of settlement but that there were a lot of people willing to come in when land rights were secure.
This book is about 400 pages long and is divided into thirteen chapters. The book begins with the first settlers of various tribes (sadly not talking about the mound building culture) (1) and then moving on to discuss the clash of cultures that happened when various tribes and traders started fighting over the Ohio country in the 18th century (2). After that the author discussed the American Revolution in the Ohio country (3) as well as the immense violence that took place in the time immediately after the Revolution as America sought with small armies to bring the tribes of the area to the bargaining table to extinguish their claims to land that settlers wanted (4). After that the author discusses the Battle of Fallen Timber and its consequences (5) as well as the Ohio fever that led to a large amount of settlers moving in after that battle opened up settlement in most of the territory (6). The author then moves from a narrative history to discuss the early settlements in Ohio that provided places for trading and business activity (7) as well as the importance of farming to early settlers (8) and what they raised and grew. A discussion of the culture and ethnicity of the early settlers on the frontier (9) as well as a discussion of the religious complexity of Ohio follows (10). After that, the book concludes with a discussion about the period before and during the War of 1812 (11), the first and last farmers of the frontier period (12), and the settled community of Ohio that followed the closing of that part of the frontier as it moved further west (13) before a bibliographical essay and index close the book.
In a book like this one it is the details that are rather telling about how Ohio grew and how its politics proved to be intensely divisive to this day. Settled both by New Englanders as well as Virginians, the state had a pretty sharp divide between the politics and worldview of the two, making Ohio a classic "border" or "swing" region between America's own culture. Interestingly enough, Yankees and many Germans tended to settle far more strongly than the transient Southerners who quickly moved to other areas that required less effort to deal with and that offered quicker wealth. The business acumen of some Ohio settlers, especially those who were able to profit from the difference in prices between cows and other animals, as well as the struggle that Ohio farmers had in making money off of butter, is rather intriguing as well. This is a book that provides a lot of interesting detail about land prices and the struggle of political and civil leaders to deal with the requirements of representative democracy and the land speculation that was a fairly traditional part of American frontier expansion. And that is enough to make it well worth reading if frontier history is an interest of yours.
This book is about 400 pages long and is divided into thirteen chapters. The book begins with the first settlers of various tribes (sadly not talking about the mound building culture) (1) and then moving on to discuss the clash of cultures that happened when various tribes and traders started fighting over the Ohio country in the 18th century (2). After that the author discussed the American Revolution in the Ohio country (3) as well as the immense violence that took place in the time immediately after the Revolution as America sought with small armies to bring the tribes of the area to the bargaining table to extinguish their claims to land that settlers wanted (4). After that the author discusses the Battle of Fallen Timber and its consequences (5) as well as the Ohio fever that led to a large amount of settlers moving in after that battle opened up settlement in most of the territory (6). The author then moves from a narrative history to discuss the early settlements in Ohio that provided places for trading and business activity (7) as well as the importance of farming to early settlers (8) and what they raised and grew. A discussion of the culture and ethnicity of the early settlers on the frontier (9) as well as a discussion of the religious complexity of Ohio follows (10). After that, the book concludes with a discussion about the period before and during the War of 1812 (11), the first and last farmers of the frontier period (12), and the settled community of Ohio that followed the closing of that part of the frontier as it moved further west (13) before a bibliographical essay and index close the book.
In a book like this one it is the details that are rather telling about how Ohio grew and how its politics proved to be intensely divisive to this day. Settled both by New Englanders as well as Virginians, the state had a pretty sharp divide between the politics and worldview of the two, making Ohio a classic "border" or "swing" region between America's own culture. Interestingly enough, Yankees and many Germans tended to settle far more strongly than the transient Southerners who quickly moved to other areas that required less effort to deal with and that offered quicker wealth. The business acumen of some Ohio settlers, especially those who were able to profit from the difference in prices between cows and other animals, as well as the struggle that Ohio farmers had in making money off of butter, is rather intriguing as well. This is a book that provides a lot of interesting detail about land prices and the struggle of political and civil leaders to deal with the requirements of representative democracy and the land speculation that was a fairly traditional part of American frontier expansion. And that is enough to make it well worth reading if frontier history is an interest of yours.
June 25, 2026
This reads like someone's thesis. Nonetheless, I learned a lot about Ohio history.
November 16, 2019
Read for a history class
January 17, 2025
A fantastic overview of the often neglected but extremely interesting period in the adolescence of the nation. Highly recommended for anybody with a love and interest in the settlement of the Frontier and the struggles between the Indians, the Army, and the ruthless Squatters of Virginia and Kentucky who carved their own noble path to sow the seeds of their own brand of civilization, at the behest of everyone else.
May 9, 2026
Excellent work relating the history of the Ohio Frontier. Understanding the various periods of conflict between the French, British, Americans and the numerous Native tribes of Eastern Woodland Indians is made clearer once this work is read. Also covered is the process of land purchases which helped drive settlement of Ohio. And lastly the economics of how the new settlers made their livings in the new territory. I recommend this work to anyone studying early Ohio history.
July 5, 2022
Interesting material. However I wanted to find information about eastern Ohio, and this is more focused on the western half. Really not much new detail. Most of this content can be found in earlier histories.
May 10, 2022
Highly recommended for those of us the wish they had paid more attention in school to our Ohio History course when we were too young to appreciate it.
February 2, 2019
This history covers the frontier period of the Ohio territory. In my Ohio high school I learned some of the main events (French and Indian War, Fallen Timbers, 1803, War of 1812, etc) but nothing beyond that. This book filled in a lot of the gaps, providing context for those big events, and fleshing out the main players in the region. For instance, I did not know that the region was essentially uninhabited by any people as of the beginning of the 17th century, with American Indians tribes like the Delaware (Lenape) and Shawnee moving in from other regions. The author details the interests of the major European powers as well the various tribes (and even breaks within the tribes), and emphasizes the cultural misunderstandings between the two peoples that led to so much bloodshed during the late 18th century.
There were in my mind two major sections to the book: the first told of conflicts between the American Indians and French/British/Americans, all leading up to the Battle of Fallen Timbers. That battle and the treaty signed shortly afterwards ushered in the second major section in the book, the settlement of the territory, and later the state, ending with the building of the Ohio and Erie canal in the late 1820s. I found the second section more interesting, particularly the sections about agriculture, which makes sense given the expertise of the author (professor of Rural Studies). For instance, many early settlers could not ship corn to the eastern cities given the lack of any kind of road system for timely shipments, so instead they manufactured whiskey or used the corn to raise hogs to drive east over the Appalachians.
The one gripe I have with the book is that it doesn't seem to know what it is. It reads like an academic history, but it has no footnotes at all. The sources are covered in an essay at the end of the book, but it's difficult to figure out which particular source would be useful to read on a specific subject. Even so, the book is a useful introduction to a rarely covered period of history.
There were in my mind two major sections to the book: the first told of conflicts between the American Indians and French/British/Americans, all leading up to the Battle of Fallen Timbers. That battle and the treaty signed shortly afterwards ushered in the second major section in the book, the settlement of the territory, and later the state, ending with the building of the Ohio and Erie canal in the late 1820s. I found the second section more interesting, particularly the sections about agriculture, which makes sense given the expertise of the author (professor of Rural Studies). For instance, many early settlers could not ship corn to the eastern cities given the lack of any kind of road system for timely shipments, so instead they manufactured whiskey or used the corn to raise hogs to drive east over the Appalachians.
The one gripe I have with the book is that it doesn't seem to know what it is. It reads like an academic history, but it has no footnotes at all. The sources are covered in an essay at the end of the book, but it's difficult to figure out which particular source would be useful to read on a specific subject. Even so, the book is a useful introduction to a rarely covered period of history.
April 27, 2020
It was for a class but i quite enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews