When Ohio was “the West” -- Washington, Jefferson, Harrison and How They Launched the Western Movement

In this lecture, Stark will focus on the push of the infant United States from the East Coast, over the Appalachians and into the Ohio Valley -- the earliest days of the Western Movement. Both President Washington and President Jefferson were instrumental in this earliest Western push. William Henry Harrison, son of a Founding Father, was Indiana Territorial Governor from 1801-1812 and played a central role as a young man -- and one that is not widely recognized -- in launching the Western Movement by taking Indian land rights and selling them to “little guy” settlers instead of big investors. (Much later he became U.S. president.)



The talk will also touch on the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition and on John Jacob Astor's first American settlement on the Pacific. The lecture will end with a reflection on how the War of 1812 did not change much on the East Coast, but dramatically altered geopolitics on the Ohio Valley frontier and the West Coast.

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A brief reception and book signing will follow. Copies of Stark’s last three books will be available for sale by the Montana Book Company.



Events at the Library are always free and open to the public.