Agents of land companies
found eager crowds gathered to learn particulars. Whole neighborhoods
departed for America. In order to stop the exodus, the newspapers
dwelt upon the hardship of the voyage and the excesses of the
Americans. But, until Australia, New Zealand, and Canada began to
deflect migration, the stream to the United States from England,
Scotland, and Wales was constant and copious. Between 1820 and 1910
the number coming from Ireland was 4,212,169, from England 2,212,071,
from Scotland 488,749, and from Wales 59,540.
What proportion of this host found their way to the farms is not
known.[31] In the earlier years, the majority of the English and
Scotch sought the land. In western New York, in Ohio, Indiana,
Michigan, and contiguous States there were many Scotch and English
neighborhoods established before the Civil War. Since 1870, however,
the incoming British have provided large numbers of skilled mechanics
and miners, and the Welsh, also, have been drawn largely to the coal
mines.
The French Revolution drove many notables to exile in the United
States, and several attempts were made at colonization. The names
Gallipolis and Gallia County, Ohio, bear witness to their French
origin. Gallipolis was settled in 1790 by adventurers from Havre,
Bordeaux, Nantes, La Rochelle, and other French cities.
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