the settlements of Arkansas. The unsettled area found in southern Missouri, together with that in northwestern Arkansas, is due to the hilly and rugged nature of the country, and to the poverty of the soil, as compared with the rich prairie lands all around. In Arkansas the settlements remain sparse, and have spread widely away from the streams, covering much of the prairie parts of the state. There is, beside the area in northwestern Arkansas just mentioned, a large area in the northeastern part of the state, comprised almost entirely within the alluvial regions of the St. Francis river, and also one in the southern portion, extending over into northern Louisiana, which is entirely in the fertile prairie section. The fourth unsettled region lies in the southwest part of the state.

In the older states we note a gradual decrease in the unsettled areas, as in Maine and in New York. In northern Pennsylvania the unsettled section has entirely disappeared. A small portion of the unsettled patch on the Cumberland plateau still remains. In southern Georgia the Okeefenokee swamp and the pine barrens adjacent have thus far repelled settlement, although population has increased in Florida, passing entirely around this area to the south. The greater part of Florida, however, including nearly all the peninsula and several large areas along the Gulf coast, still remains without settlement. This is doubtless due, in part to the nature of the country, being alternately swamp and hummock, and in part to the hostility of the Seminole Indians, who still occupy nearly all of the peninsula.

The frontier line in 1840 has a length of 3,300 miles. This shrinking in its length is due to its rectification on the northwest and southwest, owing to the filling out of the entire interior. It incloses an area of 900,658 square miles, all lying between latitude 29° and 46° 30' north, and longitude 67° and 95° 30' west. The vacant tracts have, as noted above, decreased, although they are still quite considerable in Missouri and Arkansas. The total area of the vacant tracts is 95,516 square miles. The settled area outside the frontier line is notably small, and amounts, in the aggregate, to only 2,150 miles, making the entire settled area 807,292 square miles in 1840. The aggregate population being 17,069,453, the average density is 21.1 to the square mile.

1850

Between 1840 and 1850 the limits of our country have been further extended by the annexation of the state of Texas and of territory acquired from Mexico by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The states of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida have been admitted to the Union, and

the territories of Minnesota, Oregon, and New Mexico have been created. An examination of the maps shows that the frontier line has changed very little during this decade. At the western border of Arkansas the extension of settlement is peremptorily limited by the boundary of the Indian territory; but, curiously enough also, the western boundary of Missouri puts almost a complete stop to all settlement, notwithstanding that some of the most densely populated portions of the state lie directly on that boundary.

In Iowa settlements have made some advance, moving up the Missouri, the Des Moines, and other rivers. The settlements in Minnesota at and about St. Paul, which appeared in 1840, are greatly extended up and down the Mississippi river, while other scattering bodies of population appear in northern Wisconsin. In the southern part of the state settlement has made considerable advance, especially in a northeastern direction, toward Green bay. In Michigan the change has been very slight.

Turning to the southwest we find Texas, for the first time on the map of the United States, with a considerable extent of settlement; in general, however, it is very sparse, most of it lying in the eastern part of the state, and being largely dependent upon the grazing industry.

The included unsettled areas now are very small and few in number. There still remains one in southern Missouri, in the hilly country; a small one in northeastern Arkansas, in the swampy and alluvial region; and one in the similar country in the Yazoo bottom-lands. Along the coast of Florida are found two patches of considerable size, which are confined to the swampy coast regions. The same is the case along the coast of Louisiana. The sparse settlements of Texas are also interspersed with several patches devoid of settlement. In southern Georgia the large vacant space heretofore noted, extending also into northern Florida, has entirely disappeared, and the Florida settlements have already reached southward to a considerable distance in the peninsula, being now free to extend without fear of hostile Seminoles, the greater part of whom have been removed to the Indian territory.

The frontier line, which now extends around a considerable part of Texas and issues on the Gulf coast at the mouth of the Nueces river, is 4,500 miles in length. The aggregate area included by it is 1,005,213 square miles, from which deduction is to be made for vacant spaces, in all, 64,339 square miles. The isolated settlements lying outside this body in the western part of the country amount to 4,775 square

But it is no longer by a line drawn around from the St. Croix river to the Gulf of Mexico that we embrace all the population of the United States, excepting only a few outlying posts and small settlements. We may now, from the Pacific, run a line around 80,000 miners and adventurers, the pioneers of more than one state of the Union soon to arise on that coast. This body of settlement has been formed, in the main, since the acquisition of the territory by the United States, and, it might even be said, within the last year (1849-'50), dating from the discovery of gold in California. These settlements may be computed rudely at 33,600 square miles, making a total area of settlement at that date of 979,249 square miles, the aggregate population being 23,191,876, and the average density of settlement 23.7 to the square mile.

1860

Between 1850 and 1860 the territorial changes noted are as follows: The strip of Arizona and New Mexico south of the Gila river has been acquired from Mexico by the Gadsden purchase (1853); Minnesota territory has been admitted as a state; Kansas and Nebraska territories have been formed from parts of Missouri territory; California and Oregon have been admitted as states, while, in the unsettled parts of the Cordilleran region, two new territories (Utah and Washington) have been formed out of parts of that terra incognita which we bought from France as a part of Louisiana, and of that which we acquired by conquest from Mexico. At this date we note the first extension of settlements beyond the line of the Missouri river. The march of settlement up the slope of the great plains has begun. In Kansas and Nebraska population is now found beyond the 97th meridian. Texas has filled up even more rapidly, its extreme settlements reaching to the 100th meridian, while the gaps noted at the date of the last census have all been filled by population. The incipient settlements about St. Paul, in Minnesota, have grown like Jonah's gourd, spreading in all directions, and forming a broad band of union with the main body of settlement down the line of the Mississippi river. In Iowa settlements have crept steadily northwestward along the course of the drainage, until the state is nearly covered. Following up the Missouri, population has reached out into the southeastern corner of the present area of Dakota. In Wisconsin the settlements have moved at least one degree farther north, while in the lower peninsula of Michigan they have spread up the lake shores, nearly encircling it on the side next lake Michigan. On the upper peninsula the little settlements which appeared in 1850 in the copper region on Keeweenaw point

have extended and increased greatly in density as that mining interest has developed in value. In northern New York there is, apparently, no change in the unsettled area. In northern Maine we note, for the first time, a decided movement toward the settlement of its unoccupied territory, in the extension of the settlements on its eastern and northern border up the St. John river. The unsettled regions in southern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, and northwestern Mississippi have become sparsely covered by population. Along the Gulf coast there is little or no change. There is to be noted a slight extension of settlement southward in the peninsula of Florida.

The frontier line now measures 5,300 miles, and embraces 1,126,518 square miles, lying between latitude 28° 30′ and 47° 30′ north, and between longitude 67° and 99° 30' west. From this deduction should

be made on account of vacant spaces, amounting to 39,139 square miles, found mainly in New York and along the Gulf coast. The outlying settlements beyond the 100th meridian are now numerous. They include, among others, a strip extending far up the Rio Grande in Texas, embracing 7,475 square miles (a region given over to the raising of sheep), while the Pacific settlements, now comprising one sovereign state, are nearly three times as extensive as at 1850, embracing 99,900 square miles. The total area of settlement in 1860 is thus 1,194,754 square miles; the aggregate population is now 31,443,321, and the average density of settlement 26.3 to the square mile.

CHAPTER XII

INLAND COMMERCE AND INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS,

1816-1860

I. STAGECOACH TRAVEL

A. Traveling by Stagecoach in Virginia, 18351

Because of the generally bad state of the roads and of the incompetence of drivers, traveling by stagecoach was slow and tedious. During the rainy seasons of the year, the passengers were subjected to endless inconveniences, and often times their lives were endangered. A journey of a hundred miles consumed more time and was as expensive as a journey by railroad ten times that distance at the present time. No one part of the country had any distinct advantages in road improvement. The roads were likely to be cut in deep ruts, washed out, and even impassable. Travelers, especially those from England, complained about the conditions of stagecoach travel. In their many books of travel they compared conditions in the United States with those in England, to the decided disadvantage of the former.

One of the best known of these travelers, Charles Augustus Murray, has given interesting accounts of his experiences with stagecoach drivers; no doubt such experiences were common everyday occurrences in the lives of the American traveling public.

On leaving Fredericsburgh for Richmond, by the stage, I was warned of the bad state of the roads; but, encouraged by what I had already gone through in safety, I smiled at such perils; and confiding in the stout setting of my bones, resigned myself without fear to a vehicle, in which I formed the ninth passenger, and which promised to reach Richmond in twelve hours, the distance being about sixty or seventy miles. As we began the journey at two P. M., we hoped to conclude it about the same hour in the morning.

After jolting some eight miles in two hours, I began to doubt the calculation of speed; that of safety was placed agreeably beyond all doubt, by meeting the stage from Richmond, containing several passengers with their heads bandaged with blood-stained napkins. We

1 Travels in North America. By The Hon. Charles Augustus Murray (London, 1839), I, 155–6.