Complex sentence: In 1816--17, after an ill-fated business venture and three years of crop failures, the Smith family moved to the western New York village of Palmyra, and eventually took a mortgage on a farm in the nearby town of Manchester.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1816--17, after an ill-fated business venture and three years of crop failures, the Smith family moved to the western New York village of Palmyra. They eventually took a mortgage on a farm in the nearby town of Manchester.