The wagon-wheels had overrun the West before the wheels of steam began
the second conquest of the West. Wagons were first used on the Santa Fé
trail in 1824, but it was not until three years later that there was
begun the first of the Western iron trails.
There were grandfathers in Virginia now, grandfathers in New England.
The subdivided farms were not so large. There were more shops in the
villages. There was demand for expansion of the commerce of that day.
The little products must find their market, and that market might still
be American. The raw stuff might still be American, the producer of it
might still be American. So these busy, thrifty, ambitious men came
up and stood back of the vanguard that held the flexible frontier.
Silently men stole out yet farther into what West there was left; but
they always looked back over the shoulder at this new thing that had
come upon the land.
Thinking men knew, half a century ago, that there must be an iron way
across the United States, though they knew this only in general terms,
and were only guessing at the changes which such a road must bring to
the country at large.
This rapid development of the interior region of America which is a
matter of common knowledge to all of us to-day was not foreseen by the
wisest of the prophets of fifty years ago.