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From: "Gerald Wilhite" <>
Subject: RE: [GERMANNA] LEFFLER OR MYERS who had migrated from Germany prior to 1790
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 11:08:31 -0500
I don't have much about Myers in the various spellings, and nothing about Leffler. But I have spent some time looking into early migration routes to the Ohio Valley.
I think you will find that the earliest settlers (around Revolutionary War time, and for many years later) traveled Southwest to the western tip of Virginia and crossed the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and east Tennessee. If they didn't settle there, they traveled the Wilderness Road (do some reading on Wilderness Road and Cumberland Gap and you will find the whole story) to central and northern Kentucky. There must have been some early river traffic from Pennesylvania, but Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio history textbooks don't mention much about early settlers traveling down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, the primary line of settlement was from the south.
Louisville was a natural crossroads for travel in all directions. There was, and still is, a rock formation across the Ohio River at Louisville, this was a natural crossing point. Visit Falls of the Ohio State Park on the Indiana side of the Ohio across from Louisville to get an idea of what the original falls were like. For thousands of years the buffalo crossed at this point, the buffalo left broad clear trails that had been stomped into the ground for centuries. The Buffalo Trace across Indiana and Kentucky was the nearest thing to a superhighway in 1800. After the War of 1812 the traffic picked up considerably.
I think the answer to your question is that the early settlers traveled by foot, horse and wagon across the Cumberland Gap and over the Wilderness Trail. (On a modern map, look at I-75 from Tennessee north to Lexington Kentucky to get a sense of the location) They may have taken the Buffalo Trace to the falls of the Ohio, across Indiana and beyond. (Again on a modern map, look at I-64 from Lexington to Louisville and across Indiana to get a general sense of the location). Some of them made their way to the Ohio River upriver from the falls where they build rafts and pirogues. Others traveled overland to the falls and got on the river from there.
They didn't confine their river travels to just the Ohio River either. Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois are dotted with early settlements at the confluence of smaller rivers into the Ohio. Early settlers were farmers who knew that there was good river valley land (that was less flood prone) to be found miles up the smaller rivers.
It is a comfortable day's drive on the interstates, it took a couple generations for the area to become sparsely settled.
Gerald Wilhite
-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 2:10 AM
To:
Subject: [GERMANNA] LEFFLER OR MYERS who had migrated from Germany prior
to 1790
This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.
Surnames: LEFFLER, LOEFLLER, LEFLER , MYERS, MEYER, MEIERS, MYRES
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/HCC.2ACI/221
Message Board Post:
Does anyone know of any Leffler (Loeffler, Lefler) or Myers(Meiers, Mires) who had Immigrated to the U.S from Germany prior to 1780 and who may have had sons who were about 25-30 yrs old when the 1790 census was taken??
And I am also trying to determine what route was most commonly used when "pioneers" were leaving PA, NC VA and going to settle in KY or the OHIO RIVER VALLEY. Did they travel by wagon, or raft down the length of the Ohio River?
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