ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the lives of American woman Betsy Mix Cowles. Cowles had just celebrated her first birthday in the spring of 1811 when her family made the arduous four-week trek from Connecticut to Ohio. The move to the Western Reserve was not an obvious choice for Betsy's parents, Sally White Cowles and Giles Hooker Cowles, both of whom had deep roots in New England. Their colonial ancestors may have known each other; the Whites and the Cowles were among the first British settlers in Connecticut in the early seventeenth century. Austinburg had grown to include ten families by the time the Cowles family arrived. Adjusting to their new surroundings must have been a challenge for the older Cowles children. For many Austinburg families the spreading evangelical commotion reinforced their own spiritual convictions and helped fill the ranks of churches. Music became a central part of Betsy's life and a common link between her and her siblings.
