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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

1640: Settlers Advance Westward

Donna Potter Phillips The Spoke

By 1640, New England’s best settlement areas were crowded and migration spread inland, following designated trails.

The Upper Post Road connected Boston and the New Haven colony. The Middle Post Road allowed Rev. Hooker to flee from Boston to Hartford and Windsor. The Lower Post Road helped Roger Williams escape to Providence Plantation, a refuge on Rogues Island, eventually known as Rhode Island.

Settlement continued along the Northern Coast: York, Maine, was founded in 1638, and Portsmouth, N.H., in 1635. For years, Native Americans hampered migration into inland New Hampshire and what would become Vermont; and New Hampshire and New York wrangled for years over territory that became Vermont. By 1670, the Connecticut and New Haven colonies combined into one; 20 years later the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Puritans) had gobbled up the Plymouth Colony (pilgrims).

Immigrants moved from New England along the post roads, up the rivers, west toward New York, where new lands opened up and land speculators did (ahem) a land-office business. Migration into central or western Pennsylvania, however, was hampered by Native Americans until the American Revolution.

At that time, the French presence in America consisted of fur trappers, hardy men who lived in the Canadian wilderness for nearly 200 years. In upstate New York they incited Native Americans to fight the British, escalating into the French and Indian Wars, fought against the British.

In New York, the Great Genessee Road became the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825 after eight years of digging. The canal afforded a quick and cheap way to middle America and the cost of immigrants’ passage often included a trip up the Hudson River, across New York on the Erie Canal and down into what became Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, etc.

Countryside that became Pennsylvania was first settled by fleeing Palatines, and then by William Penn and his friends.

By 1680, Europe’s 30-Years War ended, with many villagers along Germany’s Rhine River becoming Protestant. Winds of religious change, coupled with years of bad weather and the threat of Kaiser troops, caused many to flee to the New World, settling in Herkimer, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Also at this time, Quakers were persecuted in England, but William Penn was sympathetic and welcomed them to Pennsylvania. By 1730, thousands of Palatines and Quakers and others settled in Philadelphia, Burlington, Chester, Germantown and up the Schuylkill River.

In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Scots had taken over, brought in for settlement by the British, when, in the 1500s, they cleared the Irish off their land. These Scotch-Irish lived for several generations in Ireland. By the early 1700s, many native Irish had been pushed out and the potato famine of the mid-1800s set their destiny.

Thousands fled to the New World. Scotch-Irish, who disdained settled towns, wanting nothing to do with authority in any guise, cheerfully settled on the frontier, becoming an unofficial buffer between settled areas and the unhappy Native Americans.

Immigrants arrived in ports of Texas, Maine, California. But by 1850, New York was the primary port of call. Ellis Island operated from 1892 to 1957, its peak reached in 1910.

Continues next week.

, DataTimes MEMO: Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review

Donna Potter Phillips welcomes letters from readers. Write to her at The Spokesman-Review, Features Department, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. For a response, please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Donna Potter Phillips The Spokesman-Review