YANKEE EXODUS: An Account of Migration from New England

Stewart Holbrook charges Connecticut people with ""prehensile qualities"", but by the time one finishes his study of the Yankee ramifications throughout the length and breadth of the land, the charge might equally be laid at the door of his own native Vermont and welinigh all of New England. Whether in organized groups or individual ventures, New Englanders poured forth in a stream to open up the middle and the far west. Settlers, religious fanatics, lawyers, medical men, educators, inventors, lumbermen, railroaders, politicians, promoters forth they went, and rarely returned. Ohio through the Connecticut Land Company, the Ohio Company of Associates, the Western Reserve, early bore the stamp of New England in her towns, her schools, her essential character. Seductive advertising of early realtors vied with homely persuasive letters to sell the idea of flat meadows and stoneless soil to the rookbound New Englanders. The Mormons, the Perfectionists, the Vegetarians, the Abolitionists- all rooted back to New England. Indiana was by-passed for Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin. Iowa was first settled by Southerners, gradually the Yankees ped in, California drew vastly on New England coast towns when the lure of gold and later the agricultural goal attracted settlers. To a Maine man goes credit for the seedless oranges Minnesota was settled by mavericks and families- not by organized groups, but Kansas supplied the abolitionists with incentive to launch the Emigrant Aid Company. The Rocky Mountain area had less appeal, and the southwest and southeast showed small evidence of Yankee penetration. But Oragon found them small in numbers while great in influence. A wide range of developmental factors bore the Yankee impress. In substance, a fascinating slant on America's development; in detail, perhaps too many names are marshalled to support the thesis, though this will sharpen regional interest. Some of Holbrook's best writing is in a memorable chapter, The Shadows Form, when Yankees left behind have their say, and in final tribute to New England, There She Stands.