Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania

by Joseph Doddridge, Narcissa Doddridge, William Thomas Lindsey

1912

To a person who has witnessed all the changes which have taken place in the western country, since its first settlement, its difficult to realize the features of that wilderness which was the abode of his infant days. The little cabin of his father no longer exists: the little field and truck patch, which gave him a scanty supply of coarse bread and vegetables, have been swallowed up in the extended meadow, orchid, or grain field. The rude fort, in which his people had resided so many painful summers, has vanished, and "Like the baseless fabric of a vision left not a wreck behind." Large farms, villages, and even cities, now occupy the scenes of his youthful sports, hunting or military excursions, in the place of forest trees or hawthorn bushes he sees the awful forum of justice, or the sacred temple with its glittering spire pointing to the heavens; and instead of the war whoop of savages or the howling of wolves he hears the swelling anthem or pealing organ.