Excerpt from Centennial Celebration: Of the First Presbyterian Church, St. Clairsville, Ohio, June 15th, 1898 Into this region they came to begin a mighty undertaking, to clear away the for ests that thickly covered these fertile hills and valleys, to prepare their humble homes, and to endure the hardships with which we are altogether unacquainted. The lines of travel for these early settlers were directly westward, in about the same latitude, with little change of climate from that to which they had been accustomed; and thus they pressed into this great region of Eastern Ohio, as soon as the way was open to them, from Eastern and Western Pennsylvania, and from Delaware and Maryland. For the most part they were of that hardy stock of people to whose intelligence and courage, and heroism and piety, this country owes so much in securing her independence and informing her government. No historian has ever yet brought out fully the blessed ih fluence of the Scotch and the scotch-irish people on this continent. It will be written up some day, and their work will be appreciated more than ever it has been. This was the kind of people who came pouring into this wilderness country an hundred years ago, to take possession of it, and to make a home in it for themselves and their children. The Indian was just disappearing over the hill tops to the west, yielding up his birthright to advancing civilization, and these early settlers came and took posses sion. They deprived themselves of many of the comforts of life when they crossed the mountains and crossed the Ohio river and came to this untrodden wilderness. They came not in Palace cars, drawn by swift going trains, rapidly transporting them and their household goods; but in wagons drawn usually by oxen and horses, bringing with them little more than the bare necessities of life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.