Margaret Van Horn Dwight

Margaret Van Horn Dwight was born on December 29, 1790. Her journal A Journey to Ohio in 1810 was written during a wagon trip from New Haven, Connecticut, to Warren, Ohio, when she was still a teenager. First published in 1912, the account is now valued for its firsthand picture of early American travel and everyday life on the road.

Available sources agree that she came from the prominent Dwight family, and that after her father died in 1796 she spent much of her youth with relatives. In 1811 she married William Bell in Ohio, and the couple later lived in Pittsburgh, where they raised a large family.

She died on October 9, 1834. Although only one work is closely associated with her name, that journal has lasted because of its wit, energy, and clear eye for the details of ordinary experience.