Kim M. Gruenwald. River of Enterprise: The Commercial Origins of Regional Identity in the Ohio Valley, 1790-1850. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. xvi + 214 pp. $39.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-253-34132-7.
Reviewed by Richard F. Nation
Published on H-Indiana (January, 2003)
Networking in the Ohio Valley bridge father and son. Gruenwald's argument is Kim Gruenwald's River of Enterprise makes substantiated by short examples from other mer‐ an important addition to our knowledge of mer‐ chants in the Western Country, illustrating that cantile activity in the early nineteenth-century the story of the Woodbridges and Marietta was Midwest, or, as she astutely notes, what was once not unique. But the central fgure in the narrative called the Western Country and subsequently the is not the Woodbridges as much as it is the Ohio Old Northwest. Her larger arguments about re‐ River, which initially knits the Western Country gional identity, however, seem speculative in a together with its ease of transportation and only study that focuses on Marietta, Ohio, but that later becomes a border separating North and speculation does not detract from the larger mer‐ South. its of the study, which will demand the attention The story begins with the Woodbridges' 1789 of every serious scholar of the region. move to the Ohio Company's main settlement at Gruenwald's River of Enterprise is extraordi‐ Marietta, on the Ohio River. The elder Wood‐ nary in its presentation of the mercantile net‐ bridge was drawn to the commercial possibilities works of the early Ohio Valley. Focusing on Dud‐ of the region, and he quickly set up shop. While ley Woodbridge and his son, Dudley Woodbridge, the father was more than just a shopkeeper, it Jr., Gruenwald reveals the broad dimensions of was Dudley Jr. who held a broader vision than his these networks and details their slow shifts. The father of what a merchant could and should do. historical legwork itself is stunning, drawing on a Nevertheless, Dudley Jr. had the advantage of his variety of archives from Marietta itself to Morgan‐ father's wide circle of friends and acquaintances town, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Detroit, in Ohio and back East. When the younger Wood‐ Harvard University, and Connecticut (where the bridge ascended to prominence in Marietta's mer‐ Woodbridges originated) as well as printed cantile community, he built on his father's net‐ sources, to piece together the businesses of Wood‐ works in the East and extended relationships H-Net Reviews throughout the Ohio Valley with producers of the Burr conspiracy, and Dudley Jr. would testify goods, helping to build the common Western at his trial, a tantalizing episode that enlivens this Country through the buying and selling of goods narrative. Over time, though, those on the Vir‐ produced in the region. ginia side of the river interacted less with Mariet‐ The younger Woodbridge's Marietta store was ta, and, unless I missed one, none of Woodbridge not his sole business activity (nor was it his fa‐ son's branch stores was on the Virginia side. This ther's), and it was not the place where all the shift is emblematic to Gruenwald of the shifting goods he purchased were to be sold. Dudley Jr. role of the Ohio, which by mid-century would be‐ opened branch stores in the hinterlands of Mari‐ come a border between North and South. etta and he sold goods to other shopkeepers in Gruenwald's book leaves little doubt that ear‐ those hinterlands, becoming a middleman. These ly in the nineteenth century, the Ohio Valley held eforts lead Gruenwald to argue that Woodbridge a common regional identity (although I am skepti‐ helped make Marietta a subregional hub, the mid‐ cal that it was synonymous with the Western dle order of towns in the three part scheme she Country--Tennessean Andrew Jackson rose to the borrows from Edward K. Muller.[1] In this Presidency as a "westerner," and Carolyn Kirk‐ scheme, the frst order of towns were small com‐ land subtitled one of her narratives of life in early munities with just a general store. Subregional Michigan "Glimpses of Western Life"[2]). Like‐ hubs like Marietta supplied the goods to these wise, there is little doubt that by mid-century, the general stores, serving as a middleman between Ohio River had become more of a border. Gruen‐ them and the producers of these goods. The third wald moreover is certainly correct to place the order of towns--or rather cities--were the "entre‐ emphasis on the Transportation Revolution. Yet pots" of the region, whose merchants "supplied the story may be more complicated than her book settlers with what they needed as they made the puts forth. The most important paradox in the sto‐ last leg of the journey to their new homes" (p. 42). ry of regional identity that Gruenwald reveals but This last defnition seems most problematic, since might explore in greater depth is how the rise of clearly such towns--Louisville, Pittsburgh, and state identity led to identifcation with a more Cincinnati--served as both manufacturing and broadly conceived North. Those on the North mercantile centers serving the sub-regional hubs, bank of the Ohio River turned toward a narrower but merchants in those hubs such as Woodbridge defnition of their identity in becoming "Buck‐ often bypassed them, buying many of their goods eyes," while at the same time they embraced a directly from eastern sources. One of the most en‐ common identity with other non-slaveholding lightening points for me in Gruenwald's book is states. the extent to which Woodbridge father and son According to Gruenwald, the Transportation depended on Philadelphia merchants for many of Revolution helped to create the identity as Buck‐ their wares from the beginning. eyes through the agency of the Ohio canal system. Reinforcing Gruenwald's argument that the The canals helped to speed the development of Ohio River united the region is the evidence that the interior of the state, and they served to tie the in the early days of settlement, the Ohio provided state together. Moreover, the canal system linked Virginia residents with easy access to Marietta the state more closely to Lake Erie, thus the Erie and Woodbridge's store. Both Woodbridges were Canal, and thus the East, connecting Ohioans to partners with Harman Blennerhasset, a slave‐ other non-slaveholding states. Marietta served as holder who lived on an island ofcially in Vir‐ a terminus for one of the legs of the canal--actual‐ ginia. Blennerhasset would be a co-conspirator in ly just improvements to the Muskingum River--
2 H-Net Reviews but this leg was a later addition and the fow of points like Marietta lost importance, as goods commerce had gone elsewhere. could interchange (well, once standardization of I am uncomfortable giving too much transfor‐ gauge took place) on boxcars without merchants mative power to the Ohio canals. While they cer‐ to oversee their transfer. tainly played a role in the development of Ohio, With railroads, Gruenwald's broad picture far more so than in Indiana, their record was not seems on target--the integrative role of the rail‐ the sterling success of the Erie Canal's in New roads--but the specifc story for Marietta is more York.[3] The Indiana counterexample is useful: complex and later than her book implies. The Bal‐ even though few modern internal improvements timore and Ohio Railroad arrived in Parkersburg reached the central third of the state until the lat‐ in 1857; although it was an obvious route, politics ter half of the 1840s, the region was well devel‐ insured that the frst Baltimore and Ohio line end‐ oped by 1850, with about 15 percent greater popu‐ ed at Wheeling.[4] Parkersburg had risen in im‐ lation than the earlier-settled southern third. Ma‐ portance before the railroad, thanks to the com‐ rietta could have been a jumping-of point for en‐ pletion of two turnpikes connecting it to Winches‐ try into the central portion of Ohio, but the Musk‐ ter and Staunton.[5] On the Ohio side, Marietta ingum River was not the most direct route. Both made eforts to integrate itself into the Baltimore the Great Miami and the Scioto Valleys ofered and Ohio system. Led by William P. Cutler, grand‐ more development possibilities along their routes, son of Marietta founder Manasseh Cutler (and son whereas the Muskingum did not lead through or of Ephraim Cutler, credited by local legend as the into particularly fertile territories. (As Gruenwald 1806 founder of the Underground Railroad in the notes, the hinterlands of Marietta had limited region[6]), Marietta supported the building of the agricultural potential (p. 141), and this limitation Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad to link with the alone may explain much about why Marietta stag‐ Baltimore and Ohio at Parkersburg. The Marietta nated.) Another reason that many chose not to en‐ and Cincinnati was also completed in 1857, leav‐ ter the central part of the state via Marietta was ing thirteen miles of the Ohio River between Mari‐ that there was a simpler route, the National Road etta and Parkersburg that was traversed in good west from Wheeling. It was the National Road as weather by ferries. The situation was improved much as anything that helped develop central In‐ with a line being built to Belpre, opposite Parkers‐ diana. burg, but that solution took Marietta out of the Better roads may be more important than east-west fow of goods, a fate sealed when the canals, or for that matter, railroads. The Wood‐ Baltimore and Ohio built a bridge across the Ohio bridges' goods were brought west over roads, the in the early 1870s, with a cut-of to Athens, Ohio. National Road helped open the interior of Ohio [7] Several other railroads would be built into Ma‐ and Indiana, and better roads developed earlier rietta after the Civil War, but none had the prom‐ than canals and certainly railroads. The Baltimore ise of the Marietta and Cincinnati of keeping Ma‐ and Ohio and Pennsylvania railroad lines across rietta a mercantile center; most probably just in‐ the mountains were only completed in the early terchanged their cars with the Baltimore and 1850s, after many of the shifts in regional identity Ohio at Belpre, requiring few hands and no mer‐ had taken place. Railroads had already been built cantile structure. in the Old Northwest, but they still depended on Even when it ended at Parkersburg, the Balti‐ some form of water transportation to get products more and Ohio had served the good people of to distant markets. It was with the opening of the western Virginia with a link to the East, thus repli‐ trans-Appalachian rail lines that transshipment cating the eforts of men like the Woodbridges on
3 H-Net Reviews the north bank. And before the Transportation ject of a book that can guide us to a fresh under‐ Revolution, Woodbridge father and son used their standing of Indiana life in the nineteenth century. mercantile activity to tie Marietta to the East. Notes What really changed with the coming of better [1]. Edward K. Muller, "Selective Urban modes of transportation? Perhaps it was the di‐ Growth in the Middle Ohio Valley, 1800-1860," Ge‐ rection of outbound goods, which no longer all ographical Review 66 (April 1976). went down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Or‐ leans, but some of which headed directly east. [2]. Caroline M. Kirkland, A New Home-- Tracing the changes in how the surplus produce Who'll Follow? or, Glimpses of Western Life, by of the Ohio Valley was marketed might be a good Mrs. Mary Clavers [pseud.] (New York: C. S. Fran‐ place to fnish this story, but the Woodbridges cis, 1839). might not be the best source for such insight; as [3]. Harry Scheiber, Ohio Canal Era: A Case Gruenwald notes, Dudley Jr. did not do much bar‐ Study of Government and the Economy, tering (p. 100). I am, though, uncertain about ar‐ 1820-1861, (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1968). guing for a change in the direction of the fow of [4]. L. Diane Barnes, "Booster Ethos: Commu‐ goods. In southern Indiana, most goods, or at least nity, Image, and Proft in Early Clarksburg," West those marketed directly by farmers, still went Virginia History 56 (1997), available at
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Citation: Richard F. Nation. Review of Gruenwald, Kim M. River of Enterprise: The Commercial Origins of Regional Identity in the Ohio Valley, 1790-1850. H-Indiana, H-Net Reviews. January, 2003.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=7117
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