>>1189643Professional 18thC military sciences historian here.
I present culprit #1. The entire genre of "leather stocking tales", and the self masturbatory nature of the early American literature in general, is used to glorify the short comings of our development as a culture.
To begin with, every man needed a close combat weapon by the various militia laws. Some had swords. Some had large knives. Most, for cost and utility, used belt hatchets. Cheap, common, decent at most camp chores, decent at killing a man, and not hard to come by. From here, the cultural mythology grew, and long after the average man lost practical connection with the tool, he still had the idea of the tool from stories... Basically, it became a meme.