Manifest Destiny
In the 1600's, European emigrants came to this continent for many reasons. Many were trying to escape the political oppression of a monarchy style of government and many were escaping persecution because of their religious beliefs. Early settlers began organizing this new land and they began to understand that they had the opportunity to create a new world. A world which valued such virtues as democracy and freedom of religion. Thomas Paine wrote in Common Sense, "We have the power to begin the world over again.."
There began a push to settle the west so that the United States might stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many believed that because of the idea of freedom, God sanctioned this westward movement and that the United States was destined to cover the continent. Soon the phrase "Manifest Destiny" came into use. Land in the great lakes area, the "west," was offered to those who were willing to do the work of settling it.
Britain, against this growth, began offering support to the American Indians in order to repress the western movement. The War of 1812 was fought against Britain, with the United States the victor. Our ancestor (my ggg-grand father), Asa Chapman, fought in this war. His gravestone indicates his service.
During the War of 1812, while a young soldier named John Greenwood fought with Commodore Perry in the battle of Erie Harbor, his wife gave birth to a baby girl named Lavinia. Lavinia eventually married William Bassett (brother of my gg grandmother) and with the Bassett family helped to settle the Western Reserve which is now the state of Ohio.
There began a push to settle the west so that the United States might stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Many believed that because of the idea of freedom, God sanctioned this westward movement and that the United States was destined to cover the continent. Soon the phrase "Manifest Destiny" came into use. Land in the great lakes area, the "west," was offered to those who were willing to do the work of settling it.
Britain, against this growth, began offering support to the American Indians in order to repress the western movement. The War of 1812 was fought against Britain, with the United States the victor. Our ancestor (my ggg-grand father), Asa Chapman, fought in this war. His gravestone indicates his service.
During the War of 1812, while a young soldier named John Greenwood fought with Commodore Perry in the battle of Erie Harbor, his wife gave birth to a baby girl named Lavinia. Lavinia eventually married William Bassett (brother of my gg grandmother) and with the Bassett family helped to settle the Western Reserve which is now the state of Ohio.
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Some of Livinia's obituary is typed here:
"Tears dimmed many aged eyes at Dorset Astabula county Friday when almost all the pioneer men and women of that part of the country gathered at the Baptist church for the funeral of Mrs. LaVinia Bassett, widow of William C. Bassett.
Since the earliest days of its white settlers in that part of the Western Reserve Mr. and Mrs. Bassett had been known and remembered among the pioneers. Mr. Bassett cut a home for himself and his wife and children from the primeval forest and lived almost his whole life in Plymouth and Dorset................In the days of the early pioneers Lavinia braved with her husband and her daughters the dangers of the wilderness.
Tears on the cheeks of aged friends of the pioneer days who gathered at her funeral told of the love she had won from them by the willing work of her helpful hands in the days when help was difficult to find in sickness and death..........."
Julia Bassett
Life on the Western Reserve was dangerous and difficult but there were certainly happy moments. The following excerpt describes the wedding of Julia Bassett to Daniel Cornell. (Julia was sister-in-law to Lavinia, and mother to the Sarah Miller seen in an earlier post, sitting on the steps of her farmhouse)
"A story told of a wedding in 1832 when Julia Bassett became Mrs. Daniel Cornell. The wedding supper was laid upon a door of the cabin placed on a cherry table brought from Massachusetts. The neighbors were all invited, but some friends of the groom thought to have some sport by stealing the bride to pawn for whiskey. It did not succeed, but made things lively. The floor was a puncheon* one. Her sister Mary E. became Mrs. Marshall Conant of Dorset, Esther K., Mrs. Sumner Conant and Emma J., Mrs. Elijah Clark, all good true women."
*A puncheon floor is one made from logs which have been flattened on one side. Much nicer than a dirt floor!
