>>To get a good comparison, it would be interesting if bees were found in Ohio before settlers came in. One interesting fact is the honeybee was called the "white man's fly. So did they precede the settlers or were they concurrent?

One of the books by James Fenimore Cooper - I think the title was Prairie - has a secondary character who is a young beekeeper hunting bees in Indian country on the frontier.  Perhaps not historically accurate but this reference indicates the swarms somewhat preceded the settlers.

Waldemar

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