In the wake of the man with a rifle came the seekers of permanent homes. In the Northwest. and usually in the Southwest. the leader in this next phase of occupation was the man with the plow. or. to speak more correctly. the family with established habits of domestic economythe farming group who understood and loved the steady and sober industry of the field. the housewife who was a mistress of the thousand arts that created comfort. security. and refinement. Immigrants of this type soon substituted wellconstructed frame or brick dwellings for their first log cabins. They cleared broad acres of welltilled land. and combined with their neighbors to open roads through the woods. fling rude bridges across the streams. and build churches and schoolhouses. Often. before the first generation of pioneers was ready to surrender to their children. little settlements had grown into thriving villages where. as a traveler through the Ohio country in 1836 declared. "broadcloths. silks. leghorns. crapes. and all the refinements. luxuries. elegancies. frivolities and fashions are in vogue." A few of the more ingenious men developed into manufacturers and millers on a small scale. business enterprise with all its implications commenced. Thus rapidly advanced civilization. The next step in the forward movement came with the expansion of industrialism. Say the Beards: Another important element in the changing economic and social order of the middle period was the women who flocked from their native homesteads and from the immigrant ships to the mills. offices. schoolrooms. and stores. Women had laid the foundation of the textile business in colonial America. at their wheels and looms they had nourished it throughout the handicraft age. When at length the steam engine drew the industry away from firesides to factories. they naturally followed it. their labor remaining the basis of that industry.
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