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Wagons Away!
The story of the United States is made up of the stories of many people-boys and girls and men and women who have helped make our country what it is. This book tells the story of young Benjamin Stone and his family. A hundred and fifty years ago the Stone family moved from Rutland, Massachusetts, to the new frontier town of Belpre, Ohio. The story of why and how they moved tells us of the ways of living of Americans just after the Revolutionary War. It tells us, too, of the early days of the westward movement, and of the difficulties and adventures of crossing the Alleghenies by ox wagon and of floating down the Ohio into Indian country.
While Benjamin Stone was riding westward in an ox wagon, and sometimes sleeping under the wagon at night with his older brother, George Washington was President of the new United States. When the "outfit" reached the Ohio River and saw the frontier town of Pittsburgh, there were no towns or cities to the west, Indians roamed the forests and plains. When Benjamin and his family floated down the Monongahela, there were no steamboats, no highways, no railroads, no automobiles, no airplanes. The journey which took them several weeks could now be made by automobile in less than two days.
But the trip today would be no more exciting for us than Benjamin's trip was for him long ago. As we read the story, we may share Benjamin's thrill when his friend Christopher Burlingame shouts "Wagons away!" and the oxen head west from Rutland. And as we travel with Benjamin, we may learn as he did of the pioneers, of their hard work, of their good times, of the lands and people they saw, and of their new homes in the West.
This book will be interesting to read. It will help you understand better the history and geography you are studying. And it will show you some of the qualities of the sturdy American citizens who have helped make our ways of living today.
HOWARD E. WILSON
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