As settlement in the United States progressed beyond the Appalachians, establishment of cities became the focus of intense speculative activity. From the 1790s until the land had been settled there was a “city-mania” among Americans, contemporary observers noting that nearly every person in the Ohio-Mississippi Valley had in his pocket a grandiose plan for a city that he wanted to sell in whole or part. The claims for these newly established, proposed, or imagined cities were eloquent. All maintained the advantages of city life with its opportunities for education and social interaction. Some of these cities—Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, Pittsburgh—prospered. Others, such as the Town of America, New Lisbon, Port Lawrence, and Palermo, were not so fortunate.
