Axmen.

European immigrants quickly realized that their lifestyles did not always prepare them for the wilderness. They had to adapt to the new environment in order to survive. The basic rudiments of life and society had to be constructed out of the materials of the wilderness. The ax was the most important tool for the first settlers and those who, as time passed, moved with the frontier. Made of iron fitted to a hickory or ash handle, the ax cleared the forest for planting, cut rails for fencing, split logs for the fireplace, and cleared the way for roads. Road building was often nothing more than cutting a path through the forest. In time it involved the use of surveying instruments, teams of oxen to drag away fallen trees, gunpowder to split boulders, and crushed rock to lay a roadbed. In low-lying areas...