I assume the vast, vast majority of people did not go west by themselves or even as a couple at age 16. A family unit spanning various ages was probably moving together.
Lots of people did. You have to understand they were the children of people who went on a boat to move halfway across the planet, early America had a selection bias for the adventurous. It used to be a proper country.
Sorry, I am not buying it. I assume even the earliest settlers had some form of tribal relationship to each other, either via family or friend or even business networks.
The picture being painted above is one of lone wolves (at the age of 16) securing and developing an already populated land (meaning waging war) into a new country is ludicrous.
> In 1681, King Charles II granted a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to Penn to offset debts he owed Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. The land included the present-day states of Pennsylvania and Delaware.
