Author Margaret Dwight (1790-1834) was the daughter of a physician and the niece of a President of Yale College. Her father died in 1796 and her mother later remarried, so Margaret lived with other family members. In 1810, at the age of 19, she traveled from New Haven, CT. to Warren, OH. by wagon to live with cousins. She had promised one cousin that that she would keep a journal of her trip, and sent her this account immediately afterward. Margaret Dwight would go on to marry William Bell in 1811 in Ohio. They moved to Pittsburgh and raised a family of thirteen children.