'I give theft Biiohi \-fcT.: Olr founding cf_ a. CoUegt in this Coloi^Ji BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE PERKINS FUND 190-^/. HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA VOLUME 11 A Milestone on braddock's road \.Sef pagf /OJ, rio/g iq] HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA VOLUJWE 11 Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travelers (Volume I) BY Archer Butler Hulbert With Illustrations THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY CLEVELAND, OHIO 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY The Arthur H. Clark Company ALL RIGHTS RESERVED II CONTENTS PAGE Preface , , , , . n I, The Evolution OF Highways: from Indian Trail to Turnpike , 15 II. A Pilgrim on the Pennsylvania Road ,.,,,, 106 III, Zane's Trace and the Maysville Pike , , , , , . 151 IV, Pioneer Travel in Kentucky , 175 illustrations I. A Milestone on Braddock's Road Frontispiece II, Indian Travail . . -19 III. Old Conestoga Freighter . . 50 IV. Earliest Style of Log Tavern . 87 V, Widow McMurran's Tavern (Scrub Ridge, Pennsylvania Road) . 134 VI. Bridge on which Zane's Trace Crossed the Muskingum River AT Zanesville, Ohio , . 162 VII, Pioneer View of Houses at Fort Cumberland, Maryland , . 191 PREFACE THE first chapter of this volume pre sents an introduction to the two volumes of this series devoted to Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travel ers. The evolution of American highways from Indian trail to macadamized road is described; the Lancaster Turnpike, the first macadamized road in the United States, being taken as typical of roads of the lat ter sort. An experience of a noted traveler, Francis Baily, the eminent British astrono mer, is presented in chapter two. The third chapter is devoted to the story of Zane's Trace from Virginia to Kentucky across Ohio, and its terminal, the famous Maysville Pike. It was this highway which precipitated President Jack son's veto of the Internal Improvement Bill of 1830, one of the epoch-making vetoes in our economic history. 12 PREFACE The last chapter is the vivid picture of Kentucky travel drawn by Judge James Hall in his description of " The Emi grants," in Legends of the West. The illustrations in this volume have been selected to show styles of pioneer architecture and means of locomotion, including types of earliest taverns, bridges, and vehicles, A, B. H. Marietta, Ohio, December 30, 1903. Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travelers (Volume I) CHAPTER I THE EVOLUTION OF HIGHWAYS: FROM IN DIAN TRAIL TO TURNPIKE WE have considered in this series of monographs the opening of a num ber of Historic Roads and the part they played in the development of the most important phases of early American history. But our attitude has been that of one asking, Why? — we have not at proper length considered all that would be contained in the question, How? It will be greatly to our purpose now to inquire into the methods of road-making, and out line, briefly, the evolution of the first trod den paths to the great highways of civiliza tion. From one aspect, and an instructive one, the question is one of width ; few, if any, of our roads are longer than those old " threads of soil " — as Holland called the Indian trails; Braddock's Road was not 16 PIONEER ROADS longer than the trail he followed ; even the Cumberland Road could probably have been followed its entire length by a parallel Indian path or a buffalo trace. But Brad dock's Road was, in its day, a huge, broad track, twelve feet wide; and the Cumber land Road exceeded it in breadth nearly fifty feet. So our study may be pursued from the interesting standpoint of a widen ing vista ; the belt of blue above our heads grows broader as we study the widening of the trail of the Indian. To one who has not followed the trails of the West or the Northland, the experi ence is always delightful. It is much the same delight as that felt in traversing a winding woodland road, intensified many fold. The incessant change of scenery, the continued surprises, the objects passed unseen yet not unguessed, those half-seen through a leafy vista amid the shimmering green; the pathway just in front very plain, but twenty feet beyond as absolutely hidden from your eyes as though it were a thousand miles away — such is the romance of following a trail. One's mind keeps as active as when looking at Niagara, and it FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 17 is lulled by the lapsing of those leaves as if by the roar of that cataract. Yet the old trail, unlike our most modern ' roads, kept to the high ground; even in low places it seemed to attempt a double- bow knot in keeping to the points of highest altitude. But when once on the hills, the vista presented varied only with the altitude, save where hidden by the foliage. We do not choose the old " ridge roads " today for the view to be obtained, and we look continually up while the old- time traveler so often looked down. As we have hinted, elsewhere, many of our pioneer battles — those old battles of the trails — will be better understood when the position of the attacking armies is under stood to have been on lower levels, the rifles shooting upward, the enemy often silhouetted against the very sky-line. But the one characteristic to which, ordinarily, there was no exception, was the narrowness of these ancient routes. The Indian did not travel in single file because there was advantage in that form ation ; it was because his only routes were trails which he never widened or improved ;' 18 PIONEER ROADS and these would, ordinarily, admit only of one such person as broke them open. True, the Indians did have broader trails ; but they were very local in character and led to maple-sugar orchards or salt wells. From such points to the Indian villages there ran what seemed not unlike our ' ' ribbon roads ' ' — the two tracks made by the " travail" — the two poles with cross bar that dragged on the ground behind the Indian ponies, upon which a little freight could be loaded. In certain instances such roads as these were to be found running be tween Indian villages and between villages and hunting grounds. They were the roads of times of peace. The war-time trails were always narrow and usually hard — the times of peace came few and far between. As we have stated, so narrow was the trail, that the traveler was drenched with water from the bushes on either hand. And so ' ' blind " — to use a common pioneer word — were trails when overgrown, that they were difficult to find and more difiicult to follow. Though an individual Indian fre quently marked his way through the forest, for the benefit of others who were to follow INDIAN TRAVAIL FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 21 him or for his own guidance in returning, the Indian trails in native state were never blazed. Thus, very narrow, exceed ingly crooked, often overgrown, wom a foot or more into the ground, lay the routes on which white men built roads which have become historic. Let us note the first steps toward road-building, chrono logically. The first phase of road-making (if it be dignified by such a title) was the broaden ing of the Indian path by the mere passing of wider loads over it. The beginning of the pack-horse era was announced by the need of greater quantities of merchandise and provisions in the West to which these paths led. The heavier the freight tied on either side of the pack-horse, the more were the bushes bruised and worn away, and the more the bed of the trail was tracked and trampled. The increasing of the fur-trade with the East at the begin ning of the last half of the eighteenth century necessitated heavier loads for the trading ponies both ' ' going in ' ' and ' ' com ing out " — as the pioneers were wont to say. Up to this time, so far as the present 22 PIONEER ROADS writer's knowledge goes, the Indian never lifted a finger to make his paths better in any one respect; it seems probable that, oftentimes, when a stream was to be crossed, which could not be forded, the Indian bent his steps to the first fallen tree whose trunk made a natural bridge across the water. That an Indian never felled such a tree, it is impossible to say ; but no such incident has come within my reading. It seems that this must have happened and perhaps was of frequent occurrence. Our first picture, then, of a "blind" trail is succeeded by one of a trail made rougher and a little wider merely by use ; a trail over which perhaps the agents of a Croghan or a Gist pushed westward with more and more heavily-loaded pack-horses than had been customarily seen on the trails thither. Of course such trails as began now to have some appearance of roads were very few. As was true of the local paths in Massachusetts and Connecti cut and Virginia, so of the long trails into the interior of the continent, very few answered all purposes. Probably by 1750 FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 23 three routes, running through southwestern Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, and central New York, were worn deep and broad. By broad of course we mean that, in many places, pack-horses could meet and pass without serious danger to their loads. But there were, probably, only these three which at this time answered this description. And the wider and the harder they became, the narrower and the softer grew scores of lesser trails which heretofore had been somewhat traversed. It is not surprising that we find the daring missionary Zeisberger going to the Alle gheny River like a beast on all fours through overgrown trails, or that Washing ton, floundering in the fall of 1784 along the upper Monongahela and Cheat Rivers, was compelled to give up returning to the South Branch (of the Potomac) by way of the ancient path from Dunkards Bottom. ' ' As the path it is said is very blind & exceedingly grown up with briers," wrote Washington, September 25, 1784, in his Journal, " I resolved to try the other Rout, along the New Road to Sandy Creek ; . . " This offers a signal instance in which an 24 PIONEER ROADS ancient route had become obsolete. Yet the one Washington pursued was not an Appian Way : " . . we started at dawn ing of day, and passing along a small path much enclosed with weeds and bushes, loaded with Water from the overnights rain & the showers which were continu ally falling, we had an uncomfortable travel. . . " ^ Such was the ' ' New Road," The two great roads opened westward by the armies of Washington, Braddock, and Forbes, whose history has been dealt with at length in this series, were opened along the line of trails partially widened by the pack-horses of the Ohio Company's agents (this course having been first marked out by Thomas Cresap) and those of the Pennsylvania traders. Another route led up the Mohawk, along the wide Iroquois Trail, and down the Onondaga to the present Oswego ; this was a waterway route primarily, the two rivers (with the portage at Rome) offering more or less facilities for shipping the heavy baggage by batteauJC It was a portage path from ^ Diary of George Washington, Sept. z to Oct. 4, 1784. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 25 the Hudson to Lake Ontario ; the old land ward trail to Niagara not being opened by an army.^ Yet Braddock's Road, cut in 1755, was quite filled up with undergrowth in 1758 as we have noted. It was "a brush wood, by the sprouts from the old stumps."^ In those primeval forests a road narrowed very fast, and quickly became impassable if not constantly cared for. The storms of a single fall or spring month and the heavy clouds of snow on the trees in winter' kept the ground beneath well littered with broken limbs and branches. Here and there great trees were thrown by the winds across the traveled ways. And so a mili tary road over which thousands may have passed would become, if left untouched, quite as impassable as the blindest trail in a short time. Other Indian trails which armies never traversed became slightly widened by agents of land companies, as in the case of Boone blazing his way through Cumber- 'Cf. "Journal of Lieut. Robert Parker," The Penn sylvania Magazine, vol. xxvii, No. 108, "pp. 404-420. ' Historic Highways of America, vol, v, p, 93, 26 PIONEER ROADS land Gap for Richard Henderson. For a considerable distance the path was widened, either by Boone or Martin himself, to Cap tain Joseph Martin's " station " in Powell's Valley. Thousands of traces were widened by early explorers and settlers who branched off from main traveled ways, or pushed ahead on an old buffalo trail ; the path just mentioned, which Washington followed, was a buffalo trail, but had received the name of an early pioneer and was known as "McCuUoch's Path." But our second picture holds good through many years — that trail, even though armies had passed over it, was still but a widened trail far down into the early pioneer days. Though wagons went west ward with Braddock and Forbes, they were not seen again in the Alleghenies for more than twenty-five years. These were the days of the widened trails, the days of the long strings of jingling ponies bearing patiently westward salt and powder, bars of bended iron, and even mill-stones, and bringing back to the East furs and ginseng. Of this pack-saddle era — this age of the widened trail — very little has been writ- FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 27 ten, and it cannot be passed here without a brief description. In Doddridge's Notes we read : ' ' The acquisition of the indispen sable articles of salt, iron, steel and castings presented great difficulties to the first set tlers of the western country. They had no stores of any kind, no salt, iron, nor iron works ; nor had they money to make pur chases where these articles could be obtained. Peltry and furs were their only resources before they had time to raise cat tle and horses for sale in the Atlantic states. Every family collected what peltry and fur they could obtain throughout the year for the purpose of sending them over the mountains for barter. In the fall of the year, after seeding time, every family formed an association with some of their neighbors, for starting the little caravan. A master driver was to be selected from among them, who was to be assisted by one or more young men and sometimes a boy or two. The horses were fitted out with pack-saddles, to the latter part of which was fastened a pair of hobbles made of hickory withes — a bell and collar orna mented their necks. The bags provided 28 PIONEER ROADS for the conveyance of the salt were filled with feed for the horses ; on the journey a part of this feed was left at convenient stages on the way down, to support the retum of the caravan. Large wallets well filled with bread, jerk, boiled ham, and cheese furnished provision for the drivers. At night, after feeding, the horses, whether put in pasture or turned out into the woods, were hobbled and the bells were opened [unstuffed]. . . Each horse carried [back] two bushels of alum salt, weighing eighty-four pounds to the bushel." Another writer adds : ' ' The caravan route from the Ohio river to Frederick [Mary land] crossed the stupendous ranges of the . . mountains, . , The path, scarcely two feet wide, and travelled by horses in single file, roamed over hill and dale, through mountain defile, over craggy steeps, beneath impending rocks, and around points of dizzy heights, where one false step might hurl horse and rider into the abyss below. To prevent such acci dents, the bulky baggage was removed in passing the dangerous defiles, to secure the horse from being thrown from his FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 29 scanty foothold. . . The horses, with their packs, were marched along in single file, the foremost led by the leader of the caravan, while each successive horse was tethered to the pack-saddle of the horse before him. A driver followed behind, to keep an eye upon the proper adjustment of the packs." The Pennsylvania historian Rupp informs us that in the Revolutionary period ' ' five hundred pack-horses had been at one time in Carlisle [Pennsylvania], going thence to Shippensburg, Fort Lou don, and further westward, loaded with merchandise, also salt, iron, &c. The pack-horses used to carry bars of iron on their backs, crooked over and around their bodies; barrels or kegs were hung on each side of these. Colonel Snyder, of Cham- bersburg, in a conversation with the writer in August, 1 845 , said that he cleared many a day from $6 to $8 in crooking or bending iron and shoeing horses for western carriers at the time he was carrying on a black smith shop in the town of Chambersburg. The pack-horses were generally led in divisions of 1 2 or 1 5 horses, carrying about two hundred weight each . ; when the 30 PIONEER ROADS bridle road passed along declivities or over hills, the path was in some places washed out so deep that the packs or burdens came in contact with the ground or other im pending obstacles, and were frequently displaced." Though we have been specifically notic ing the Alleghenies we have at the same time described typical conditions that apply everywhere. The widened trail was the same in New England as in Kentucky or Pennsylvania — in fact the same, at one time, in old England as in New England. Travelers between Glasgow and London as late as 1739 found no turnpike till within a hundred miles of the metropolis. Else where they traversed narrow causeways with an unmade, soft road on each side. Strings of pack-horses were occasionally passed, thirty or forty in a train. The foremost horse carried a bell so that travel ers in advance would be warned to step aside and make room. The widened pack- horse routes were the main traveled ways of Scotland until a comparatively recent period, " When Lord Herward was sent, in 1760, from Ayrshire to the college at FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 31 Edinburgh, the road was in such a state that servants were frequently sent forward with poles to sound the depths of the mosses and bogs which lay in their way. The mail was regularly dispatched between Edinburgh and London, on horseback, and went in the course of five or six days." In the sixteenth century carts without springs could not be taken into the country from London ; it took Queen Henrietta four days to traverse Watling Street to Dover. Of one of Queen Elizabeth's journeys it is said : " It was marvelous for ease and ex pedition, for such is the perfect evenness of the new highway that Her Majesty left the coach only once, while the hinds and the folk of baser sort lifted it on their poles ! " A traveler in an English coach of 1663 said : " This travel hath soe indisposed mee, yt I am resolved never to ride up againe in ye coatch." Thus the widened trail or bridle-path, as it was commonly known in some parts, was the universal predecessor of the highway. It needs to be observed, however, that winter travel in regions where much snow fell greatly influenced land travel. The 82 PIONEER ROADS buffalo and Indian did not travel in the winter, but white men in early days found it perhaps easier to make a journey on sleds in the snow than at any other time. In such seasons the bridle-paths were, of course, largely followed, especially in the forests; yet in the open, with the snow a foot and more in depth, many short cuts were made along the zig-zag paths and in numerous instances these short cuts became the regular routes thereafter for all time. An interesting instance is found in the "Narrative of Andrew J. Vieau, Sr. :" " This path between Green Bay [Wiscon sin] and Milwaukee was originally an Indian trail, and very crooked; but the whites would straighten it by cutting across lots each winter with their jumpers [rude boxes on runners], wearing bare streaks through the thin covering [of snow], to be followed in the summer by foot and horse back travel along the shortened path." * This form of traveling was, of course, unknown save only where snow fell and remained upon the ground for a consider able time. Throughout New York State * Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol, xi, p. 230, PROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 33 travel on snow was common and in the central portion of the state, where there was much wet ground in the olden time, it was easier to move heavy freight in the winter than in summer when the soft ground was treacherous. Even as late as the building of the Erie Canal in the second and third decades of the nineteenth cen tury — long after the building of the Genesee Road — freight was hauled in the winter in preference to summer. In the annual report of the comissioners of the Erie Canal, dated January 25, 18 19, we read that the roads were so wretched between Utica and Syracuse in the sum mer season that contractors who needed to lay up a supply of tools, provisions, etc., for their men, at interior points, pur chased them in the winter before and sent the loads onward to their destinations in sleighs.^ One of the reasons given by the Erie Canal commissioners for delays and increased expenses in the work on the canal in 18 19, in their report delivered to the legislature February 18, 1820, was that ''Public Documents Relating to the New York Canals (New York, 1821), p, 312. 34 PIONEER ROADS the absence of snow in central New York in the winter of i8 18-19 prevented the hand ling of heavy freight on solid roads ; "no hard snow path could be found." ^ The soft roads of the summer time were useless so far as heavy loads of lumber, stone, lime, and tools were concerned. No winter pic ture of early America is so vivid as that presented by the eccentric Evans of New Hampshire, who, dressed in his Esquimau suit, made a midwinter pilgrimage through out the country lying south of the Great Lakes from Albany to Detroit in 1818.'' His experiences in moving across the Mid dle West with the blinding storms, the mountainous drifts of snow, the great icy cascades, the hurrying rivers, buried out of sight in their banks of ice and snow, and the far scattered little settlements lost to the world, helps one realize what traveling in winter meant in the days of the pioneer. The real work of opening roads in America began, of course, on the bridle paths in the Atlantic slope. In 1639 a measure was passed in the Massachusetts •/rf., pp. 352-353- M Pedestrious Tour, by Estwick Evans. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 35 Bay Colony reading : ' ' Whereas the high ways in this jurisdiction have not been laid out with such conveniency for travellers as were fit, nor as was intended by this court, but that in some places they are felt too straight, and in other places travelers are forced to go far about, it is therefore, ordered, that all highways shall be laid out before the next general court, so as may be with most ease and safety for travelers ; and for this end every town shall choose two or three men, who shall join with two or three of the next town, and these shall have power to lay out the highways in each town where they may be most convenient ; and those which are so deputed shall have power to lay out the highways where they may be most convenient, notwithstanding any man's propriety, or any corne ground, so as it occasion not the pulling down of any man's house, or laying open any garden or orchard; and in common [public] grounds, or where the soil is wet or miry, they shall lay out the ways the wider, as six, or eight, or ten rods, or more in com mon grounds." With the establishment of the government in the province of New 36 PIONEER ROADS York in 1664 the following regulation for road-making was established, which also obtained in Pennsylvania until William Penn's reign began: " In all public works for the safety and defence of the govern ment, or the necessary convenlencies of bridges, highways, and common passen gers, the governor or deputy governor and council shall send warrents to any justice, and the justices to the constable of the next town, or any other town within that jurisdiction, to send so many laborers and artificers as the warrent shall direct, which the constable and two others or more of the overseers shall forthwith execute, and the constable, and overseers shall have power to give such wages as they shall judge the work to deserve, provided that no ordinary laborer shall be compelled to work from home above one week together. No man shall be compelled to do any public work or service unless the press [impressment] be grounded upon some known law of this government, or an act of the governor and council signifying the necessity thereof, in both which cases a reasonable allowance shall be made," A later amendment indi- FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 37 cates the rudeness of these early roads: " The highways to be cleared as followeth, viz. , the way to be made clear of standing and lying trees, at least ten feet broad ; all stumps and shrubs to be cut close by the ground. The trees marked yearly on both sides — sufficient bridges to be made and kept over all marshy, swampy, and diificult dirty places, and whatever else shall be thought more necessary about the high ways aforesaid." in Pennsylvania, under Penn, the grand jury laid out the roads, and the courts ap pointed overseers and fence-viewers, but in 1692 the townships were given the control of the roads. Eight years later the county roads were put in the hands of the county justices, and king's highways in the hands of the governor and his council. Each county was ordered to erect railed bridges at its expense over rivers, and to appoint its own overseers and fence-viewers. Even the slightest mention of these laws and regulations misrepresents the exact situation. Up to the time of the Revolu tionary War it can almost be said that noth ing had been done toward what we today 38 PIONEER ROADS know as road-building. Many routes were cleared of " standing and lying trees " and " stumps and shrubs " were cut " close by the ground" — but this only widened the path of the Indian and was only a faint beginning in road-building. The skiff, batteau, and horse attached to a sleigh or sled in winter, were the only common means of conveying freight or passengers in the colonies at this period. We have spoken of the path across the Alleghenies in 1750 as being but a winding trace; save for the roughness of the territory traversed it was a fair road for its day, seek where the traveler might. In this case, as in so many others, the history of the postal service in the United States affords us most accurate and reliable information concern ing our economic development. In the year mentioned, 1750, the mail between New York and Philadelphia was carried only once a week in summer and twice a month in winter. Forty years later there were only eighteen hundred odd miles of post roads in the whole United States. At that time (1790) only five mails a week passed between New York and Philadelphia. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 39 It may be said, loosely, that the widened trail became a road when wheeled vehicles began to pass over it. Carts and wagons were common in the Atlantic seaboard states as early and earlier than the Revolution. It was at the close of that war that wagons began to cross the Alleghenies into' the Mississippi Basin. This first road was a road in "the state of nature." Nothing had been done to it but clearing it of trees and stumps. Yet what a tremendous piece of work was this. It is more or less difficult for us to realize just how densely wooded a country this was from the crest of the Alle ghenies to the seaboard on the east, and from the mountains to central Indiana and Kentucky on the west. The pioneers fought their way westward through wood, like a bullet crushing through a board. Every step was retarded by a live, a dying, or a dead branch. The very trees, as if dreading the savage attack of the white man on the splendid forests of the interior, held out their bony arms and fingers, catching here a jacket and there a foot, in the attempt to stay the invasion of their 40 PIONEER ROADS silent haunts. These forests were very heavy overhead. The boughs were closely matted, in a life-and-death struggle for light and air. The forest vines bound them yet more inextricably together, until it was almost impossible to fell a tree with out first severing the huge arms which were bound fast to its neighbors. This dense overgrowth had an important infiu ence over the pioneer traveler. It made the space beneath dark; the gloom of a real forest is never forgotten by the ' ' ten derfoot " lumberman. The dense covering overhead made the forests extremely hot in the dog days of summer ; no one ¦ can appreciate what ' ' hot weather ' ' means in a forest where the wind cannot descend through the trees save those who know our oldest forests. What made the forests hot in summer, on the other hand, tended to protect them from winter winds in cold weather. Yet, as a rule, there was little pioneer traveling in the Allegheny forests in winter. From May until November came the months of heaviest traffic on the first widened trails through these gloomy, heated forest aisles. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 41 It can be believed there was little tree- cutting on these first pioneer roads. Save in the laurel regions of the Allegheny and Cumberland Mountains, where the forest trees were supplanted" by these smaller growths, there was little undergrowth ; the absence of sunlight occasioned this, and rendered the old forest more easily trav ersed than one would suppose after reading many accounts of pioneer life. The prin cipal interruption of travelers on the old trails was in the form of fallen trees and dead wood which had been brought to the ground by the storms. With the exception of the live trees which were blown over, these forms of impediment to travel were not especially menacing ; the dead branches crumbled before an ax. The trees which were broken down or uprooted by the winds, however, were obstructions difficult to remove, and tended to make pioneer roads crooked, as often perhaps as standing trees. We can form some practical notion of the dangerous nature of falling trees by studying certain of the great improvements which were early projected in these woods. The Allegheny Portage Railway over the 42 PIONEER ROADS mountains of Huntingdon County, Pennsyl vania, and the Erie Canal in central New York, both offer illustrations to the point. The portage track was sent through an unbroken, uninhabited forest wilderness from Hollidaysburg to Johnstown in the twenties. In order to render the inclines safe from falling trees and breaking branches, a swath through the woods was cut one hundred and twenty feet wide.^ The narrow trellis of the inclines scaled the mountain in the center of this avenue ; wide as it was, a tree fifty feet long could have swept it away like paper. The Erie Canal was to be forty feet in width ; a clean sixty foot aisle was opened through the forests before the digging could begin. Of course nothing like this could be done for pioneer highways; when the states began to appropriate money for state roads, then the pioneer routes were straightened by cutting some trees. It was all the scat tered communities could do before this period to keep the falling trees and branches from blocking the old roads. Travelers wound in and out on one of the ^Historic Highways of America, vol. xiii, ch. 4. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 43 many tracks, stumbling, slipping, grind ing on the roots, going around great trees that had not been removed , and keeping to the high ground when possible, for there the forest growth was less dense. The question immediately arises, What sort of vehicle could weather such roads? First in the van came the great clumsy cart, having immensely high and solid wooden wheels. These were obtained either by taking a thin slice from the butt of the greatest log that could be found in good condition, or by being built piece meal by rude carpenters. These great wheels would go safely wherever oxen could draw them, many of their hubs being three feet from the ground. Thus the body of the cart would clear any ordinary brook and river at any ford which horses or oxen could cross. No rocks could severely injure such a massy vehicle, at the rate it usually moved, and no mere rut could disturb its stolid dignity. Like the oxen attached to it, the pioneer cart went on its lumbering way despising everything but bogs, great tree boles and precipices. These creaking carts could proceed, therefore, nearly on the 44 PIONEER ROADS ancient bridle-path of the pack-horse age. On the greater routes westward the intro duction of wheeled vehicles necessitated some changes; now and then the deep- worn passage-way was impassable, and detours were made which, at a later day, became the main course. Here, where the widened trail climbed a steeper "hog-back" than usual, the cart-drivers made a round about road which was used in dry weather. There, where the old trail wound about a marshy piece of ground .in all weathers, the cart-drivers would push on in a straight line during dry seasons. Thus the typical pioneer road even before the day of wagons was a many-track road and should most frequently be called a route — a word we have so frequently used in this series of monographs. Each of the few great historic roads was a route which could have been tumed into a three, four, and five track course in very much the same way as railways become double- tracked by uniting a vast number of side tracks. The most important reason for variation of routes was the wet and dry seasons ; in the wet season advantage had FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 45 to be taken of every practicable altitude. The Indian or foot traveler could easily gain the highest eminence at hand; the pack-horse could reach many but not all; the " travail " and cart could reach many, while the later wagon could climb only a few. In dry weather the low ground offered the easiest and quickest route. As a consequence every great route had what might almost be called its "wet" and ' ' dry ' ' roadways. In one of the early laws quoted we have seen that in wet or miry ground the roads should be laid out " six, eight, or ten rods [wide]," though else where ten or twelve feet was considered a fair width for an early road. As a conse quence, even before the day of wagons, the old routes of travel were often very wide, especially in wet places; in wet weather they were broader here than ever. But until the day of wagons the track-beds were not so frequently ruined. Of this it is now time to speak. By 1785 we may believe the great freight traffic by means of wagons had fully begun across the Alleghenies at many points. It is doubtful if anywhere else in the United 46 PIONEER ROADS States did " wagoning " and " wagoners " become so common or do such a thriving trade as on three or four trans- Allegheny routes between 1785 and 1850. The Atlan tic Ocean and the rivers had been the arteries of trade between the colonies from the earliest times. The freight traffic by land in the seaboard states had amounted to little save in local cases, compared with the great industry of " freighting" which, about 1785, arose in Baltimore and Phila delphia and concerned the then Central West. This study, like that of our postal history, throws great light on the subject in hand. Road-building, in the abstract, began at the centers of population and spread slowly with the growth of popula tion. For instance, in Revolutionary days Philadelphia was, as it were, a hub and from it a number of important roads, like spokes, struck out in all directions. Com paratively, these were few in number and exceedingly poor, yet they were enough and sufficiently easy to traverse to give Washington a deal of trouble in trying to prevent the avaricious country people from treacherously feeding the British invaders. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 47 These roads out from Philadelphia, for instance, were used by wagons longer dis tances each year. Beginning back at the middle of the eighteenth century it may be said that the wagon roads grew longer and the pack-horse routes or bridle-paths grew shorter each year. The freight was brought from the seaboard cities in wagons to the end of the wagon roads and there trans ferred to the pack-saddles. Referring to this era we have already quoted a passage in which it is said that five hundred pack- horses have been seen at one time at Car lisle, Pennsylvania. For a longer period than was perhaps true elsewhere, Carlisle was the end of the wagon road westward. A dozen bridle-paths converged here. Here all freight was transferred to the strings of patient ponies. Loudon, Penn sylvania, was another peculiar borderland depot later on. It will be remembered that when Richard Henderson and party advanced to Kentucky in 1775 they were able to use wagons as far as Captain Joseph Martin's "station" in Powell's Valley. At that point all freight had to be trans ferred to the backs of ponies for the climb 48 PIONEER ROADS over the Cumberlands. In the days of Marcus Whitman , who opened the first road across the Rocky Mountains, Fort Laramie, Wyoming, was the terminus of wagon travel in the far West. Thus pioneer roads unfolded, as it were, joint by joint, the rapidity depending on the volume of traffic, increase of population, and topography. The first improvement on these greater routes, after the necessary widening, was to enable wagons to avoid high ground. Here and there wagons pushed on beyond the established limit, and, finding the way not more desperate than much of the preceding "road," had gone on and on, until at last wagons came down the western slopes of the Alleghenies, and wagon traffic began to be considered possible — much to the chagrin of the cursing pack- horse men. No sooner was this fact accom plished than some attention was paid to the road. The wagons could not go every where the ponies or even the heavy carts had gone. They could not climb the steep knolls and remain on the rocky ridges. The lower grounds were, therefore, pur sued and the wet grounds were made passa- OLD CONESTOGA FREIGHTER FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 51 ble by ' ' corduroying ' ' — laying logs closely together to form a solid roadbed. So far as I can learn this work was done by every body in particular and nobody in general. Those who were in charge of wagons were, of course, the most interested in keeping them from sinking out of sight in the mud- holes. When possible, such places were skirted; when high or impassable ground prevented this, the way was " corduroyed." We have spoken of the width of old-time bridle-paths; with the advent of the heavy freighter these wide routes were doubled and trebled in width. And, so long as the roadbeds remained in a " state of nature," the heavier the wagon traffic, the wider the roads became. We have described certain great tracks, like that of Braddock's Road, which can be followed today even in the open by the lasting marks those plunging freighters made in the soft ground. They suggest in their deep outline what the old wagon roads must have been ; yet it must be remembered that only what we may call the main road is visible today — the in numerable side-tracks being obliterated because not so deeply worn. In a number 62 PIONEER ROADS of instances on Braddock's Road plain evi dence remains of these side-tracks. Judg ing then from this evidence, and from accounts which have come down to us, the introduction of the freighter with its heavier loads and narrower wheels turned the wide, deeply worn bridle-paths and cart tracks into far wider and far deeper courses. The corduroy road had a tendency to con tract the route, but even here, where the ground was softest, it became desperate traveling. Where one wagon had gone, leaving great black ruts behind it, another wagon would pass with greater difficulty leaving behind it yet deeper and yet more treacherous tracks. Heavy rains would fill each cavity with water, making the road nothing less than what in Illinois was known as a "sloo." The next wagoner would, therefore, push his unwilling horses into a veritable slough, perhaps having explored it with a pole to see if there was a bottom to be found there. In some in stances the bottoms ' ' fell out, ' ' and many a reckless driver has lost his load in push ing heedlessly into a bottomless pit. In case a bottom could be found the driver FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 63 pushes on ; if not, he finds a way about ; if this is not possible he throws logs into the hole and makes an artificial bottom over which he proceeds. We can hardly imagine what it meant to get stalled on one of the old ' ' hog wallow ' ' roads on the frontier. True, many of our country roads today offer bogs quite as wide and deep as any ever known in west ern Virginia or Pennsylvania; and it is equally true that roads were but little bet ter in the pioneer era on the outskirts of Philadelphia and Baltimore than far away in the mountains. It remains yet for the present writer to find a sufficiently bar barous incident to parallel one which occurred on the Old York (New York) Road just out of Philadelphia, in which half a horse's head was pulled off in at tempting to haul a wagon from a hole in the road. " Jonathan Tyson, a farmer of 68 years of age [in 1844], of Abington, saw, at 16 years of age, much difficulty in going to the city [Philadelphia on York Road] : a dreadful mire of blackish mud rested near the present Rising Sun village. . . He saw there the team of Mr. Nickum, of 54 PIONEER ROADS Chestnut hill, stalled; and in endeavoring to draw out the forehorse with an iron chain to his head, it slipped and tore off the lower jaw, and the horse died on the spot. There was a very bad piece of road nearer to the city, along the front of the Norris estate. It was frequent to see there 'horses struggling in mire to their knees. Mr, Tyson has seen thirteen lime wagons at a time stopped on the York road, near Logan's hill, to give one another assist ance to draw through the mire; and the drivers could be seen with their trowsers rolled up, and joining team to team to draw out; at other times they set up a stake in the middle of the road to warn off wagons from the quicksand pits. Some times they tore down fences, and made new roads through the fields. ' ' ^ If such was the case almost within the city limits of Philadelphia, it is not diffi cult to realize what must have been the conditions which obtained far out on the continental routes. It became a serious problem to get stalled in the mountains late in the day ; assistance was not always ' Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, vol. i, p. 257. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 55 at hand — indeed the settlements were many miles apart in the early days. Many a driver, however, has been compelled to wade in, unhitch his horses, and spend the night by the bog into which his freight was settling lower and lower each hour. Fortunate he was if early day brought assistance. Sometimes it was necessary to unload wholly or in part, before a heavy wagon, once fairly " set," could be hauled out. Around such treacherous places ran a vast number of routes some of which were as dangerous — because used once too often — as the central track. In some places detours of miles in length could be made. A pilot was needed by every inex perienced person, and many blundering wiseacres lost their entire stock of worldly possessions in the old bogs and "sloos" and swamps of the " West." A town in Indiana was ' ' very appropri ately" named Mudholes, a name that would have been the most common in the country a century ago if only descriptive names had been allowed.^" The condition ¦» See " Hulme's Joumal" in W. Cobbett's ^ Year's Residence in the United States (1819), p. 490. 56 PIONEER ROADS of pioneer roads did, undoubtedly, influ ence the beginnings of towns and cities. On the longer routes it will be found that the steep hills almost invariably became the sites of villages because of physical conditions. " Long-a-coming," a New Jersey village, bore a very appropriate name." The girls of Sussex, England, were said to be exceedingly long-limbed, and a facetious wag affirmed the reason to be that the Sussex mud was so deep and sticky that in drawing out the foot ' ' by the strength of the ancle ' ' the muscles, and then the bones, of the leg were lengthened ! In 1708 when Prince George of Denmark went to meet Charles the Seventh of Spain traveling by coach, he traveled at the rate of nine miles in six hours — a tribute to the strength of Sussex mud. Charles Augustus Murray, in his Travels in North America, leaves us a humorous account of the mud-holes in the road from the Poto mac to Fredericksburg, Maryland, and his experience upon it : " On the 27th of March I quitted Wash- " D. Hewett's American Traveller (1825), p. 222. PROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 57 ington, to make a short tour in the districts of Virginia adjacent to the James River; comprising Richmond, the present capital, Williamsburgh, the former seat of colonial government, Norfolk, and other towns. " The first part of the journey is by steam-boat, descending the Potomac about sixty miles. The banks of this river, after passing Mount Vernon, are uninteresting, and I did not regret the speed of the Champion, which performed that distance in somewhat less than five hours ; but this rate of travelling was amply neutralized by the movement of the stage which conveyed me from the landing-place to Frederics- burgh. I was informed that the distance was only twelve miles, and I was weak enough (in spite of my previous experience) to imagine that two hours would bring me thither, especially as the stage was drawn by six good nags, and driven by a lively cheerful fellow ; but the road bade defiance to all these advantages — it was, indeed, such as to compel me to laugh out-right, notwithstanding the constant and severe bumping to which it subjected both the in tellectual and sedentary parts of my person. 58 PIONEER ROADS " I had before tasted the sweets of mud- holes, huge stones, and remnants of pine- trees standing and cut down ; but here was something new, namely, a bed of reddish- coloured clay, from one to two feet deep, so adhesive that the wheels were at times literally not visible in any one spot from the box to the tire, and the poor horses' feet sounded, when they drew them out (as a fellow-traveller observed), like the report of a pistol. I am sorry that I was not sufficiently acquainted with chemistry or mineralogy to analyze that wonderful clay and state its constituent parts ; but if I were now called upon to give a receipt for a mess most nearly resembling it, I would write, ' Recipe — (nay, I must write the ingredi ents in English, for fear of taxing my Latin learning too severely) — Ordinary clay . . . i lb. Do. Pitch , . . . I lb. Bird-lime . . , . 6 oz. Putty . . . . . 6 oz. Glue I lb. Red lead, or colouring matter 6 oz. Fiat haustus — segrot. terq, qua- terq. quatiend.' PROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 59 ' ' Whether the foregoing, with a proper admixture of hills, holes, stumps, and rocks, made a satisfactory draught or not, I will refer to the unfortunate team — I, alas ! can answer for the effectual application of the second part of the prescription, accord ing to the Joe Miller version of ' When taken, to be well shaken ! ' " I arrived, however, without accident or serious bodily injury, at Fredericsburgh, having been only three hours and a half in getting over the said twelve miles ; and, in justice to the driver, I must say that I very much doubt whether any crack London whip could have driven those horses over that ground in the same time : there is not a sound that can emanate from human lungs, nor an argument of persuasion that can touch the feelings of a horse, that he did not employ, with a perseverance and success which commanded my admiration." Fancy these wild, rough routes which, combined, often covered half an acre, and sometimes spread out to a mile in total width, in freezing weather when every hub and tuft was as solid as ice. How many an anxious wagoner has pushed his 60 PIONEER ROADS horses to the bitter edge of exhaustion to gain his destination ere a freeze would stall him as completely as if his wagon-bed lay on the surface of a " quicksand pit. ' ' A heavy load could not be sent over a frozen pioneer road without wrecking the vehicle. Yet in some parts the freight traffic had to go on in the winter, as the hauling of cot- J ton to market in the southern states. Such was the frightful condition of the old roads that four and five yoke of oxen conveyed only a ton of cotton so slowly that motion was almost imperceptible ; and in the win ter and spring, it has been said, with per haps some tinge of truthfulness, that one could walk on dead oxen from Jackson to Vicksburg. The Bull-skin Road of pioneer days leading from the Pickaway Plains in Ohio to Detroit was so named from the large number of cattle which died on the long, rough route, their hides, to exagger ate again, lining the way. In our study of the Ohio River as a highway it was possible to emphasize the fact that the evolution of river craft indi cated with great significance the evolution of social conditions in the region under FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 61 review; the keel-boat meant more than canoe or pirogue, the barge or fiat-boat more than the keel-boat, the brig and schooner more than the barge, and the steamboat far more than all preceding species. We affirmed that the change of craft on our rivers was more rapid than on land, because of the earlier adaptation of steam to vessels than to vehicles. But it is in point here to observe that, slow as were the changes on land, they were equally significant. The day of the freighter and the corduroy road was a brighter day for the expanding nation than that of the pack-horse and the bridle-path. The cost of shipping freight by pack-horses was tremendous. In 1794, during the Whiskey Insurrection in western Pennsyl vania, the cost of shipping goods to Pitts burg by wagon ranged from five to ten dollars per hundred pounds; salt sold for five dollars a bushel, and iron and steel from fifteen to twenty cents per pound in Pittsburg. What must have been the price when one horse carried only from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty pounds? The freighter represented a 62 PIONEER ROADS growing population and the growing needs of the new empire in the West, The advent of the stagecoach marked a new era as much in advance of the old as was the day of the steamboat in advance of that of the barge and brig of early days. The social disturbance caused by the in troduction of coaches on the pioneer roads of America gives us a glimpse of road condi tions at this distant day to be gained no other way. A score of local histories give incidents showing the anger of those who had established the more important pack- horse lines across the continent at the com ing of the stage. Coaches were overturned and passengers were maltreated; horses were injured, drivers were chastised and personal property ruined. Even while the Cumberland Road was being built the early coaches were in danger of assault by the workmen building the road, incited, no doubt, by the angry pack-horse men whose profession had been eclipsed. It is inter esting in this connection to look again back to the mother-country and note the unrest which was occasioned by the introduc tion of stagecoaches on the bridle-paths of PROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 63 England. Early coaching there was de scribed as destructive to trade, prejudicial to landed interests, destructive to the breed of horses,"* and as an interference with public resources. It was urged that travel ers in coaches got listless, ' ' not being able to endure frost, snow or rain, or to lodge in the fields! " Riding in coaches injured trade since " most gentlemen, before they travelled in coaches, used to ride with swords, belts, pistols, holsters, portman teaus, and hat-cases, which, in these coaches, they have little or no occasion for: for, when they rode on horseback, they rode in one suit and carried another to wear when they came to their journey's end, or lay by the way ; but in coaches a silk suit and an Indian gown, with a sash, silk stockings, and beaver hats, men ride in and carry no other with them , because they escape the wet and dirt, which on horseback they cannot avoid; whereas in "* It is curious to note that while the introduction of coaches is said here to be injurious to the breed of horses, Macaulay, a century or so later, decried the passing of the coach and the old coaching days because this, too, meant the destruction of the breed of horses ! — See Historic Highways of America, vol, x, p. 122. 64 PIONEER ROADS two or three journeys on horseback, these clothes and hats were wont to be spoiled ; which done, they were forced to have new very often, and that increased the consump tion of the manufacturers ; which travelling in coaches doth in no way do." If the pack-horse man's side of the question was not advocated with equally marvelous argu ments in America we can be sure there was no lack of debate on the question whether the stagecoach was a sign of advancement or of deterioration. For instance, the mails could not be carried so rapidly by coach as by a horseman ; and when messages were of importance in later days they were always sent by an express rider. The advent of the wagon and coach promised to throw hundreds of men out of employment. Business was vastly facilitated when the freighter and coach entered the field, but fewer "hands" were necessary. Again, the horses which formerly carried the freight of America on their backs were not of proper build and strength to draw heavy loads on either coach or wagon. They were ponies ; they could carry a few score pounds with great skill over blind and FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 65 ragged paths, but they could not draw the heavy wagons. Accordingly hundreds of owners of pack-horses were doomed to see an alarming deterioration in the value of their property when great, fine coach horses were shipped from distant parts to carry the freight and passenger loads of the stagecoach day. The change in form of American ve hicles was small but their numbers in creased within a few years prodigiously. Nominally this era must be termed that of the macadamized road, or roads made of layers of broken stone like the Cumberland Road. These roads were wider than any single track of any of the routes they fol lowed, though thirty feet was the average maximum breadth. To a greater degree than would be surmised, the courses of the old roads were followed. It has been said that the Cumberland Road, though paral leling Braddock's Road from Cumberland to Laurel Hill, was not built on its bed more than a mile in the aggregate. After studying the ground I believe this is more or less incorrect ; for what we should call Braddock's route was composed of many 66 PIONEER ROADS roads and tracks. One of these was a cen tral road ; the Cumberland Road may have been built on the bed of this central track only a short distance, but on one of the almost innumerable side-tracks, detours, and cut-offs, for many miles. At Great Meadows, for instance, it would seem that the Cumberland Road was separated from Braddock's by the width of the valley; yet as you move westward you cross the central track of Braddock's Road just before reach ing Braddock's Grave. May not an old route have led from Great Meadows thither on the same hillside where we find the Cumberland Road today? The crook edness of these first stable roads, like many of the older streets in our cities,^ indicates that the old corduroy road served in part as a guide for the later road-makers. It is a common thing in the mountains, either on the Cumberland or Pennsylvania state roads, to hear people say that had the older routes been even more strictly adhered to " Florida Avenue is said to have been the first street laid out on the present site of Washington, D. C. As it is the most crooked of all the streets and avenues this is easy to believe. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 67 better grades would have been the result. A remarkable and truthful instance of this (for there cannot, in truth, be many) is the splendid way Braddock's old road sweeps to the top of Laurel Hill by gaining that strategic ridge which divides the heads of certain branches of the Youghiogheny on the one hand and Cheat River on the other near Washington's Rock. The Cumber land Road in the valley gains the same height (Laurel Hill) by a longer and far more difficult route. The stagecoach heralded the new age of road-building, but these new macadamized roads were few and far between; many roadways were widened and graded by states or counties, but they remained dirt roads ; a few plank roads were built. The vast number of roads of better grade were built by one of the host of road and turn pike companies which sprang up in the first half of the nineteenth century. Specific mention of certain of these will be made later. Confining our view here to general con ditions, we now see the Indian trail at its broadest. While the roads, in number, 68 PIONEER ROADS kept up with the vast increase of popula tion, in quality they remained, as a rule, unchanged. Traveling by stage, except on the half dozen good roads then in exist ence, was, in 1825, far more uncomfortable than on the bridle-path on horseback half a century previous. It would be the same today if we could find a vehicle as inconve nient as an old-time stagecoach. In our ' ' Experiences of Travelers ' ' we shall give pictures of actual life on these pioneer roads of early days. A glimpse or two at these roads will not be out of place here. The route from Philadelphia to Balti more is thus described by the American Annual Register for 1796: " The roads from Philadelphia to Baltimore exhibit, for the greater part of the way, an aspect of savage desolation. Chasms to the depth of six, eight, or ten feet occur at numerous intervals. A stagecoach which left Phila delphia on the 5 th of February, 1796, took five days to go to Baltimore. [Twenty miles a day]. The weather for the first four days was good. The roads are in a fearful condition. Coaches are overturned, passengers killed, and horses destroyed by FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 69 the overwork put upon them. In winter sometimes no stage sets out for two weeks." Little wonder that in 1800, when President and Mrs, Adams tried to get to Washing ton from Baltimore, they got lost in the Maryland woods ! Harriet Martineau, with her usual cleverness, thus touches upon our early roads: " . . corduroy roads ap pear to have made a deep impression on the imaginations of the English, who seem to suppose that American roads are all corduroy. I can assure them that there is a large variety in American roads. There are the excellent limestone roads . . . from Nashville, Tennessee, and some like them in Kentucky. . . There is quite another sort of limestone road in Virginia, in traversing which the stage is dragged up from shelf [catch-water] to shelf, some of the shelves sloping so as to throw the passengers on one another, on either side alternately. Then there are the rich mud roads of Ohio, through whose deep red sloughs the stage goes slowly sousing after rain, and gently upsetting when the rut on one or the other side proves to be of a greater depth than was anticipated. 70 PIONEER ROADS Then there are the sandy roads of the pine barrens . . the ridge road, run ning parallel with a part of Lake On tario. . \ Lastly there is the corduroy road, happily of rare occurrence, where, if the driver is merciful to his passengers, he drives them so as to give them the association of being on the way to a funeral, their involuntary sobs on each jolt helping the resemblance; or, if he be in a hurry, he shakes them like pills in a pill-box. I was never upset in a stage but once . ; and the worse the roads were, the more I was amused at the variety of devices by which we got on, through difficulties which appeared insurmountable, and the more I was edified at the gentleness with which our drivers treated female fears and fret- fulness," ^^ Perhaps it was of the Virginian roads here mentioned that Thomas Moore wrote : " Dear George! though every bone is aching, After the shaking I've had this week, over ruts and ridges, And bridges, Made of a few uneasy planks, In open ranks '3 Retrospect of Western Travel, vol. i, pp. 88-89. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 71 Over rivers of mud, whose names alone Would make the knees of stoutest man knock." " David Stevenson, an English civil engi neer, leaves this record of a corduroy road from Lake Erie to Pittsburg: " On the road leading from Pittsburg on the Ohio to the town of Erie on the lake of that name, I saw all the varieties of forest '¦•Moore's notes are as follows: On " ridges " (line 3): " What Mr. Weld [an English traveler in America] says of the national necessity of balancing or trimming the stage, in passing over some of the wretched roads in America, is by no means exag gerated.] ' The driver frequently had to call to the pas sengers in the stage to lean out of the carriage, first on one side, then on the other, to prevent it from over setting in the deep ruts, with which the road abounds, " Now, gentlenlen, to the right! " upon which the pas sengers all stretched their bodies half out of the carriage to balance on that side. " Now, gentlemen, to the left!" and so on.' — Weld's Travels." \ On 'Abridges" (line 4): ''Before the stage can pass one of these bridges the driver is obliged to stop and arrange the loose planks, of which it is composed, in the manner that best suits his [ideas of safety, and as the planks are again disturbed by the passing of the coach, the next travelers who arrive have, of course, a new ar rangement to make, Mahomet, as Sale tells us, was at some pains to imagine a precarious kind of bridge for the entrance of paradise, in order to enhance the pleasures of arrival. A Virginia bridge, I think, would have answered his purpose completely. " ' / 72 PIONEER ROADS road-making in great perfection. Some times our way lay for miles through exten sive marshes, which we crossed by cordu roy roads, . . ; at others the coach stuck fast in the mud, from which it could be extricated only by the combined efforts of the coachman and passengers; and at one place we travelled for upwards of a quarter of a mile through a forest flooded with water, which stood to the height of several feet on many of the trees, and occasionally covered the naves of the coach- wheels. The distance of the route from Pittsburg to Erie is 128 miles, which was accomplished in forty-six hours ... al though the conveyance . . carried the mail, and stopped only for breakfast, din ner, and tea, but there was considerable delay caused by the coach being once upset and several times mired." ^^ "The horrible corduroy roads again made tlieir appearance," records Captain Basil Hall, " in a more formidable shape, by the addition of deep, inky holes, which almost swallowed up the fore wheels of the wagon " Sketch of the Civil Engineering of North America, pp, 132-133. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 73 and bathed its hinder axle-tree. The jog ging and plunging to which we were now exposed, and occasionally the bang when the vehicle reached the bottom of one of these abysses, were so new and remarkable that we tried to make a good joke of them. . i I shall not compare this even ing's drive to trotting up or down a pair of stairs, for, in that case, there would be some kind of regularity in the development of the bumps, but with us there was no wavering, no pause, and when we least expected a jolt, down we went, smack! dash! crash! forging, like a ship in a head-sea, right into a hole half a yard deep. At other times, when an ominous break in the road seemed to indicate the coming mischief, and we clung, grinning like grim death, to the railing at the sides of the wagon, expecting a concussion which in the next instant was to dislocate half the joints in our bodies, down we sank into a bed of mud, as softly as if the bot tom and sides had been padded for our express accommodation." J The first and most interesting macadam- 74 PIONEER ROADS ized road in the United States was the old Lancaster Turnpike, running from Phila delphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Its position among American roads is such that it deserves more than a mere mention. It has had several historians, as it well deserves, to whose accounts we are largely indebted for much of our information.^^ The charter name of this road was ' ' The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company;" it was granted April 9, 1792, and the work of building immediately began. The road was completed in 1794 at a cost of four hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. When the subscription books were opened there was a tremendous rush to take the stock. The money raised for constructing and equipping this ancient highway with toll houses and bridges, as well as grading and macadamizing it, was by this sale of stock. In the Lancaster fournal of Friday, February 5, 1796, the following notice appeared : 16" The Oldest Turnpike in Pennsylvania," by Ed ward B. Moore, in Philadelphia Press or Delaware County American, June aa, 1901 ; and " The Old Turn pike," by A. E. Witraer in Lancaster County Historical Society Papers, vol. ii (November, 1897), pp, 67-86. FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 76 " That agreeable to a by-law of stock holders, subscriptions will be opened at the Company's office in Philadelphia on Wed nesday, the tenth of February next, for one hundred additional shares of capital stock in said company. The sum to be demanded for each share will be $300, with interest at six per cent, on the different instalments from the time they are sever ally called for, to be paid by original stock holders ; one hundred dollars thereof to be paid at time of subscribing, and the re mainder in three qual payments, at 30, 60 and 90 days, no person to be admitted to subscribe more than one share on the same day. By order of the Board. William Govett, Secretary." " When location was fully determined upon," writes Mr. Witmer, "as you will observe, today, a more direct line could scarcely have been selected. Many of the curves which are found at the present time did not exist at that day, for it has been crowded and twisted by various improve ments along its borders so that the original 76 PIONEER ROADS constructors are not responsible. So straight, indeed, was it from initial to terminal point that it was remarked by one of the engineers of the state railroad, con structed in 1834 (and now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad), that it was with the greatest difficulty that they kept their line off of the turnpike, and the subsequent experiences of the engineers of the same company verify the fact, as you will see. Today there is a tendency, wherever the line is straightened, to draw nearer to this old highway, paralleling it in many places for quite a distance, and as it approaches the city of Philadelphia, in one or two instances they have occupied the old road bed entirely, quietly crowding its old rival to a side, and crossing and recrossing it in many places. ' ' You will often wonder as you pass over this highway, remembering the often- stated fact by some ancient wagoner or stage-driver (who today is scarcely to be found, most of them having thrown down the reins and put up for the night), that at that time there were almost continuous lines of Conestoga wagons, with their FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 77 feed troughs suspended at the rear and the tar can swinging underneath, toiling up the long hills (for you will observe there was very little grading done when that roadway was constructed), and you wonder how it was possible to accommodate so much traffic as there was, in addition to stagecoaches and private conveyances, winding in and out among these long lines of wagons. But you must bear in mind that the roadway was very different then from what it is at the present time. " The narrow, macadamized surface, with its long grassy slope (the delight of the tramp and itinerant merchant, especially when a neighboring tree casts a cooling shadow over its surface), which same slope becomes a menace to belated and unfamiliar travelers on a dark night, threatening them with an overturn into what of more recent times is known as the Summer road, did not exist at that time, but the road had a regular slope from side ditch to center, as all good roads should have, and convey ances could pass anywhere from side to side. The macadam was carefully broken and no stone was allowed to be placed on 78 PIONEER ROADS the road that would not pass through a two-inch ring. A test was made which can be seen today about six miles east of Lancaster, where the roadway was regularly paved for a distance of one hundred feet from side to side, with a view of construct ing the entire line in that way. But it proved too expensive, and was abandoned. Day, in his history, published in 1843," makes mention of the whole roadway hav ing been so constructed, but I think that must have been an error, as this is the only point where there is any appearance of this having been attempted, and can be seen at the present time when the upper surface has been worn off by the passing and repassing over it." The placing of tollgates on the Lancas ter Pike is thus announced in the Lancas ter Journal, previously mentioned, where the following notice appears : " The public are hereby informed that the President and Managers of the Phila delphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road hav ing perfected the very arduous and import- " Sherman Day, Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1843). FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 79 ant work entrusted by the stockholders to their direction, have established toll gates at the following places on said road, and have appointed a toll gatherer at each gate, and that the rates of toll to be collected at the several gates are by resolution of the Board and agreeable to Act of Assembly fixed and established as below. The total distance from Lancaster to Philadelphia is 62 miles. Gate No. I — 2 miles W from Schuylkill, collect smiles Gate No, 2 — 5 miles W from Schuylkill, collect smiles Gate No. 3 — 10 miles W from Schuylkill, collect 7miles Gate No. 4 — 20 miles W from Schuylkill, collect 10 miles Gate No. 5 — 29 J^ miles W from SchuylkiU.coUect 10 miles Gate No, 6 — 40 miles W from Schuylkill, collect 10 miles Gate No, 7 — 495^ miles W from SchuylkiU.coUect 10 miles Gate No. 8 — 58^ miles W from SchuylkiU.coUect 5 miles Gate No. 9 — Witmer's Bridge, collect 61 miles." There is also in the same journal, bearing date January 22, 1796, the following notice: " Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, by authority of aforesaid, that no wagon or other carriage with wheels the breadth of whose wheels shall not be four inches, shall be driven along said road between the first day of December and the first day of May following in any year or years, with 80 PIONEER ROADS a greater weight thereon than two and a half tons, or with more than three tons during the rest of the year ; that no such carriage, the breadth of whose wheels shall not be seven inches, or being six inches or more shall roll at least ten inches, shall be drawn along said road between the said day of December and May with more than five tons, or with more than five and a half tons during the rest of the year ; that no carriage or cart with two wheels, the breadth of whose wheels shall not be four inches, shall be drawn along said road with a greater weight thereon than one and a quarter tons between the said first days of December and May, or with more than one and a half tons during the rest of the year ; no such carriage, whose wheels shall be of the breadth of seven inches shall be driven along the said road with more than two and one half tons between the first days of December and May, or more 'than three tons during the rest of the year; that no such carriage whose wheels shall not be ten inches in width shall be drawn along the said road between the first days of Decem- FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 81 ber and May with more than three and a half tons, or with more than four tons the rest of the year; that no cart, wagon or carriage of burden whatever, whose wheels shall not be the breadth of nine inches at least, shall be drawn or pass in or over the said road or any part thereof with more than six horses, nor shall more than eight horses be attached to any carriage whatso ever used on said road, and if any wagon or other carriage shall be drawn along said road by a greater number of horses or with a greater weight than is hereby permitted, one of the horses attached thereto shall be forfeited to the use of said company, to be seized and taken by any of their officers or servants, who shall have the privilege to choose which of the said horses they may think proper, excepting the shaft or wheel horse or horses, provided always that it shall and may be lawful for said company by their by-laws to alter any and all of the regulations here contained respecting bur dens or carriages to be drawn over the said road and substituting other regulations, if on experience such alterations should be found conducive of public good." 82 PIONEER ROADS There were regular warehouses or freight stations in the various towns through which the Lancaster Pike passed, Mr. Witmer leaves record, where experienced loaders or packers were to be found who attended to filling these great curving wagons, which were elevated at each end and de pressed in the centre ; and it was quite an art to be able to so pack them with the various kinds of merchandise that they would carry safely, and at the same time to economize all the room necessary; and when fully loaded and ready for the journey it was no unusual case for the driver to be appealed to by some one who wished to follow Horace Greeley's advice and " go west," for permission to accompany him and earn a seat on the load, as well as share his mattress on the barroom floor at night by tending the lock or brake. Mr. Witmer was told by one of the largest and wealthiest iron masters of Pittsburg that his first advent to the Smoky City was on a load of salt in that capacity. " In regard to the freight or transporta tion companies," continues the annalist, " the Line Wagon Company was the most FROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 83 prominent. Stationed along this highway at designated points were drivers and horses, and it was their duty to be ready as soon as a wagon was delivered at the beginning of their section to use all despatch in for warding it to the next one, thereby losing no time required to rest horses and driver, which would be required when the same driver and horses took charge of it all the way through. But, like many similar schemes, what appeared practical in theory did not work well in practice. Soon the wagons were neglected, each section caring only to deliver it to the one succeeding, caring little as to its condition, and soon the roadside was encumbered with wrecks and breakdowns and the driver and horses passed to and fro without any wagon or freight from terminal points of their sec tions, leaving the wagons and freight to be cared for by others more anxious for its removal than those directly in charge. So it was deemed best to return to the old sys tem of making each driver responsible for his own wagon and outfit. " A wagoner, next to a stagecoach- driver, was a man of immense importance, 84 PIONEER ROADS and they were inclined to be clannish. They would not hesitate to unite against landlord, stage-driver or coachman who might cross their path, as in a case when a wedding party was on its way to Philadel phia, which consisted of several gigs. These were two-wheeled conveyances, very similar to our road-carts of the present day, except that they were much higher and had large loop springs in the rear just back of the seat ; they were the fashionable conveyance of that day. When one of the gentlemen drivers, the foremost one (pos sibly the groom), was paying more attention to his fair companion than his horses, he drove against the leaders of one of the numerous wagons that were passing on in the same direction. It was an unpardon able offense and nothing short of an encoun ter in the stable yard or in front of the hotel could atone for such a breach of high way ethics. At a point where the party stopped to rest before continuing their journey the wagoners overtook them and they immediately called on the gentleman for redress. But seeing a friend in the party they claimed they would excuse the PROM TRAIL TO TURNPIKE 86 culprit on his friend's account; the offend ing party would not have it so, and said no friend of his should excuse him from getting a beating if he deserved it, and I have no doubt he prided himself on his muscular abilities also. However it was peaceably arranged and each pursued his way without any blood being shed or bones broken. That was one of the many simi lar occurrences which happened daily, many not ending so harmlessly. " The stage lines were not only the means of conveying the mails and passen gers, but of also disseminating the news of great events along the line as they passed. The writer remembers hearing it stated that the stage came through from Philadel phia with a wide band of white muslin bound around the top, and in large letters was the announcement that peace had been declared, which was the closing of the second war with Great Britain, known as the War of 1812. What rejoicing it caused along the way as it passed ! ' ' The taverns of this old turnpike were typical. Of them Mr. Moore writes : " Independent of the heavy freighting, 86 PIONEER ROADS numerous stage lines were organized for carrying passengers. As a result of this immense traffic, hotels sprung up all along the road, where relays of horses were kept, and where passengers were supplied with meals. Here, too, the teamsters found lodging and their animals were housed and cared for over night. The names of these hotels were characteristic of the times. Many were called after men who had borne conspicuous parts in the Revolutionary War that had just closed — such as Wash ington, Warren, Lafayette, and Wayne, while others represented the White and Black Horse, the Lion, Swan, Cross Keys, ^/ Ship, etc. They became favorite resorts for citizens of their respective neighbor hoods, who wished at times to escape from the drudge and ennui of their rural homes and gaze upon the world as represented by the dashing stages and long lines of Cones- toga wagons. Here neighbor met neigh bor — it was the little sphere in which they all moved, lived and had their being. They sipped their whisky toddies together, which were dispensed at the rate of three cents a single glass, or for a finer quality, X m> 70 rmViH COH -< O Tlr-ooH th October, hav ing gone, during our route, about 297 miles from Philadelphia. The accommodations we met with were, upon the whole, toler ably good ; at least, such as a person (con sidering the country he was travelling in) might bear with : charges rather high. It cost us, together with our horses, two dollars a day each. The common charges on the eastern side of the mountains were : — For breakfast, dinner, and supper, I dollar each; oats, 12 cents, per gallon. On the western side, dinner and supper were charged sometimes 2S., sometimes 2s. 6d., and breakfasts, i8d., (Pennsyl vania currency). For breakfast we gener ally used to have coffee, and buck-wheat cakes, and some fried venison or broiled 144 PIONEER ROADS chicken, meat being inseparable from an American breakfast; and whatever travel lers happened to stop at the same place, sat down at the same table, and partook of the same dishes, whether they were poor, or whether they were rich ; no distinction of persons being made in this part of the country. . . " The waggons which come over the Allegany mountains from the Atlantic states, (bringing dry goods and foreign manufactures for the use of the back-coun try men,) return from this plage generally empty ; though sometimes they are laden with deer and bear skins and beaver furs, which are brought in by the hunters, and sometimes by the Indians, and exchanged at the stores for such articles as they may stand in need of." Passing down the Ohio River Mr. Baily proceeded with a pioneer party the leader of which, Mr. Heighway, was about to found a town on the banks of the Little Miami River in Ohio. Leaving the river at the newly located village of Columbia, Ohio, the party pushed on northward. Mr. PENNSYLVANIA ROAD 146 Baily accompanied them out of curiosity, and his record is of utmost interest. " Saturday, March \th, 1797, — the two waggons started, accompanied with a guide to conduct them through the wilderness, and three or four pioneers to clear the road of trees where there might be occasion; and on ^^ Monday, March 6th, — Dr. Bean and myself started about noon, accompanied by several others in the neighbourhood; some of whom were tempted by curiosity, and others with a prospect of settling there. We were mounted on horses, and had each a gun ; and across our saddles we had slung a large bag, containing some corn for our horses, and provision for ourselves, as also our blankets : the former was necessary, as the grass had not yet made its appearance in the woods. We kept the road as long as we could; and when that would not assist us any farther, we struck out into the woods; and towards sundown found our selves about twenty miles from Columbia. Here, having spied a little brook running at the bottom of a hill, we made a halt, 146 PIONEER ROADS and kindling a fire, we fixed up our blankets into the form of a tent, and having fed both ourselves and our horses, we laid our selves down to rest ; one of us, by turns, keeping watch, lest the Indians should come and steal our horses. The next morning, — ' ' Tuesday, March Jth, — as soon as it was light, we continued our journey, and to wards the middle of the day overtook our friend H.,^^ almost worn out with fatigue. The ground was so moist and swampy, and he had been obliged to come through such almost impassable ways, that it was with difficulty the horses could proceed; they were almost knocked up ; his waggons had been over- turned twice or thrice ; — in fact, he related to us such a dismal story of the trials both of patience and of mind which he had undergone, and I verily believe if the distance had been much greater, he would either have sunk under it, or have formed his settlement on the spot. We en couraged him with the prospect of a speedy '¦ Mr. Heighway, an Englishman who settled now at Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio. — History of War ren County, Ohio (Chicago, 1882), p. 412. PENNSYLVANIA ROAD 147 termination, and the hopes of better ground to pass over ; and with this his spirits seemed to be somewhat raised. We all encamped together this night, and made ourselves as happy and as comfortable as possible. My friend H. seemed also to put on the new man; and from this, and from his being naturally of a lively turn, we found that it was a great deal the want of society which had rendered him so desponding, and so out of spirits; for after we had cooked what little refreshment we had brought with us, and finished our repast, he sang us two or three good songs, (which he was capable of doing in a masterly style,) and seemed to take a pleasure in delaying as long as he could that time which we ought to have devoted to rest. As to my own part, I regarded the whole enterprise in a more philosophic point of view ; and I may say with the Spectator, I considered myself as a silent observer of all that passed before me ; and could not but fancy that I saw in this little society before me the counter part of the primitive ages, when men used to wander about in the woods with all their substance, in the manner that the present 148 PIONEER ROADS race of Tartars do at this day. I could not but think that I saw in miniature the pere grinations of Abraham, or.i^neas, &c., &c. ' ' The next morning, Wednesday, March Ztk, by day-light, our cavalcade was in motion; and some of the party rode on first to discover the spot, for we were travelling without any other guide than what little knowledge of the country the men had acquired by hunting over it. I could not but with pleasure behold with what expedition the pioneers in front cleared the way for the waggon; there were but three or four of them, and they got the road clear as fast as the waggon could proceed. Whilst we were continuing on at this rate, we observed at some dis tance before us, a human being dart into the woods, and endeavour to flee from us. Ignorant what this might mean, we delayed the waggons, and some of us went into the woods and tracked the footsteps of a man for some little distance, when suddenly a negro made his appearance from behind some bushes, and hastily inquired whether there were any Indians in our party, or whether we had met with any. The PENNSYLVANIA ROAD 149 hideousness of the man's countenance, (which was painted with large red spots upon a black ground,) and his sudden ap pearance, startled us at first; but soon guessing his situation, we put him beyond all apprehension, and informed him he was perfectly safe. He then began to inform us that he had been a prisoner among the Indians ever since the close of the last American war ; and that he had meditated his escape ever since he had been in their hands, but that never, till now, had he been able to accomplish it. . . ' ' We could not but look upon the man with an eye of pity and compassion, and after giving him something to pursue his journey with, and desiring him to follow our track to Columbia, we separated. At about three or four o'clock the same after noon, we had the satisfaction of seeing the Little Miami river. Here we halted, (for it was on the banks of this river that the town was laid out,) and we were soon joined by our other companions, who had proceeded on first, and who informed us that they had recognized the spot about half a mile higher up the river. We 160 PIONEER ROADS accordingly went on, and got the goods all out of the waggons that night, so that they might return again as soon as they thought proper. And here we could not but con gratulate our friend H. upon his arrival at the seat of his new colony. ' ' CHAPTER III ZANE'S TRACE AND THE MAYSVILLE PIKE IN the Study of the Ohio River as a high way of immigration and commerce it was emphasized that in earliest pioneer days the ascent of the river was a serious and difficult problem. This was true, indeed, not on the Ohio alone, but on almost every river of importance in the United States. Of course brawny arms could force a canoe through flood-tides and rapids; but, as a general proposition, the floods of winter, with ice floating fast amid-stream and clinging in ragged blocks and floes along the shore, and the droughts of summer which left, even in the Ohio, great bars exposed so far to the light that the river could be forded here and there by children, made even canoe navigation well-nigh impossible. For other craft than light canoes navigation was utterly out of the question in the dry seasons and 152 PIONEER ROADS exceedingly dangerous on the icy winter floods at night — when the shore could not be approached. Such conditions as these gave origin to many of our land highways. Where pioneer homes were built beside a navig able river it was highly important to have a land thoroughfare leading back to the ' ' old settlements ' ' which could be travers ed at all seasons. Many of our * ' river roads " came into existence, not because the valleys offered the easiest courses for land travel, but because pioneer settlements were made on river banks, and, as the rivers were often worthy of the common French name " Embarras," land courses were necessary. In the greater rivers this " homeward track," so to speak, frequently abandoned the winding valley and struck straight across the interior on the shortest available route. The founding of Kentucky in the lower Ohio Valley offers a specific instance to illustrate these generalizations, and brings us to the subject of a thoroughfare which was of commanding importance in the old West. We have elsewhere dealt at length ZANE'S TRACE 153 with the first settlement of Kentucky, making clear the fact that the great road blazed by Boone through Cumberland Gap was the most important route in Kentucky's early history. The growth of the import ance of the Ohio River as a thoroughfare and its final tremendous importance to Kentucky and the entire West has also been reviewed. But, despite this import ance, the droughts of summer and the ice- torrents of winter made a landward route from Kentucky to Pennsylvania and the East an absolute necessity. Even when the river was navigable, the larger part of the craft which sailed it before 1820 were not capable of going up-stream. Heavy freight could be " poled " and " cordelled " up in the keel-boat and barge, but for all other return traffic, both freight and passenger, the land routes from Kentucky north and east were preferable. For many years the most available messenger and mail route from Cincinnati, Vincennes, and Louisville was over Boone's Wilderness Road through Cumberland Gap. But, as the eighteenth century neared its close, the large popula tion of western Pennsylvania and north- 164 PIONEER ROADS western Virginia made necessary better routes from the upper Ohio Valley across the Alleghenies; in turn, the new con ditions demanded a route up the Ohio Valley from Kentucky to Pennsylvania. In our survey of Indian Thoroughfares, a slight path known as the Mingo Trail is mentioned as leading across eastern Ohio from Mingo Bottom near the present Steubenville, on the Ohio River, to the neighborhood of Zanesville on the Mus kingum River. ^^ Mingo Bottom was a well-known Indian camping-place; the name is preserved in the railway junction thereabouts, Mingo Junction. A distinct watershed offers thoroughfare southwest erly across to the Muskingum, and on this lay the old trail. The termini of this earliest known route were near two early settlements of whites ; Mingo Bottom lies eight or nine miles north of Wheeling, one of the important stations in the days of border warfare. The Mingo Trail, swing ing southward a little, became the route of white hunters and travelers who wished to ^'^ Historic Highways of America, vol. ii, p. 109. ZANE'S TRACE 156 cross what is now eastern Ohio. The Mus kingum River terminus of the trail was Wills Town, as far down the Muskingum from Zanesville as Mingo Bottom was above Wheeling on the Ohio. It is alto gether probable that a slight trace left the Wills Town trail and crossed the Muskin gum at the mouth of Licking River — the present site of Zanesville. If a trail led thence westwardly toward the famed Picka way Plains, it is recorded on none of our maps. We know, therefore, of only the Mingo Trail, running, let us say loosely, from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Zanes ville, Ohio, which could have played any part in forming what soon became known as the first post road in all the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio. With the close of the Indian War and the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, the American possession of the Northwest was placed beyond question. A flood of emigrants at once left the eastern states for the Central West, and the return traffic, especially in the form of travelers and private mail packets, from Kentucky and Cincinnati, began at once to assume 156 PIONEER ROADS significant proportions, and Congress was compelled to facilitate travel by opening a post route two hundred and twenty-six miles in length from the upper to the lower Ohio. Accordingly, the following act: " An Act to authorize Ebenezer Zane^ to locate certain lands in the territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio ' ' was passed by Congress and approved May 17, 1796: ' ' Be it enacted, &c. , That, upon the con ditions hereinafter mentioned, there shall be granted to Ebenezer Zane three tracts of land, not exceeding one mile square each, one on the Muskingum river, one on Hock- hocking river, and one other on the north bank of Scioto river, and in such situations as shall best promote the utility of a road to be opened by him on the most eligible route between Wheeling and Limestone,^ 33 The patriot-pioneer of Wheeling, the first settle ment on the Ohio River below Pittsburg, which he founded in 1769, and where he lived until 1811. He was bom in Virginia in 1747. '^ The importance of the historic entrepdt Limestonei Mason County, Kentucky (later named Maysville from one of its first inhabitants) has been suggested in Volume IX of this series (pp. 70, 83, 128). It was the ZANE'S TRACE 167 to be approved by the President of the United States, or such person as he shall appoint for that purpose; Provided, Such tracts shall not interfere with any existing claim, location, or survey; nor include any salt spring, nor the lands on either side of the river Hockhocking at the falls thereof. " Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That upon the said Zane's procuring, at his own expense, the said tracts to be surveyed, in such a way and manner as the President of the United States shall approve, and return ing into the treasury of the United States plats thereof, together with warrents granted by the United States for military land bounties, to the amount of the num ber of acres contained in the said three tracts; and also, producing satisfactory proof, by the first day of January next, that the aforesaid road is opened, and fer ries established upon the rivers aforesaid, for the accommodation of travellers, and giving security that such ferries shall be most important entrance point into Kentucky on its northeastern river shore-line. What it was in earliest days, because of the buffalo trail into the interior, it remained down through the earlier and later pioneer era to the time of the building of the trunk railway lines. 168 PIONEER ROADS maintained during the pleasure of Con gress; the President of the United States shall be, and he hereby is, authorized and empowered to issue letters patent, in the name and under the seal of the United States, thereby granting and conveying to the said Zane, and his heirs, the said tracts of land located and surveyed as aforesaid ; which patents shall be countersigned by the secretary of state, and recorded in his office: Provided always, That the rates of ferriage, at such ferries, shall, from time to time, be ascertained [inspected] by any two of the judges of the territory north west of the river Ohio, or such other authority as shall be appointed for that purpose. " Approved May 17, 1796."^^ Zane evidently went at once to work opening the road to Kentucky, his brother Jonathan, and son-in-law John Mclntire, assisting largely in the work. The path was only made fit for horsemen, particu larly mail-carriers. It is probable that the ^^ United States Statutes at Large, Private Laws jj8g-i84S, inclusive, p, 27. ZANE'S TRACE 169 task was not more difficult than to cut away small trees on an Indian trace. It is sure that for a greater part of the distance from the Ohio to the Muskingum the Mingo Trail was followed, passing near the center of Belmont, Guernsey and Muskingum Counties. The route to the southwest from that point through Perry, Fairfield, Pickaway, Ross, Richland, Adams, and Brown Counties may or may not have fol lowed the path of an Indian trace. No proof to the contrary being in existence, it is most reasonable to suppose that this, like most other pioneer routes, did follow a more or less plainly outlined Indian path. The new road crossed the Muskingum at the present site of the town well named Zanesville, the Hocking at Lancaster, the Scioto at Chillicothe, and the Ohio at Aber deen, Ohio, opposite the old-time Lime stone, Kentucky. One George Sample was an early traveler on this National Road ; paying a visit from the East to the Ohio country in 1797, he returned homeward by way of Zane's Trace or the Maysville Road, as the route was variously known. After purchasing a 160 PIONEER ROADS farm on Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, and locating a homeless emigrant on it, Mr. Sample " started back to Pennsylvania on horseback ' ' according to his recorded recollections written in 1842;^" "as there was no getting up the river at that day.^ In our homeward trip we had very rough fare when we had any at all ; but having calculated on hardships, we were not dis appointed. There was one house (Treiber' s) on Lick branch, five miles from where West Union ^ now is. ' ' Trebar — according to modern spelling — opened a tavern on his clearing in 1798 or 1799, but at the time of Sample's trip his house was not more public than the usual pioneer's home where the latch-string was always out.^^ " The next house," continues Mr. Sample, " was where Sinking spring or Middle- town is now.*" The next was at Chilli- "American Pioneer, vol. i, p. 158. '^ An exaggerated statement, yet much in accord with the truth, as we have previously observed. «• County seat of Adams County, Ohi o 3* Evans and Stivers, History of Adams County, Ohio, p. 125. *" Wilcoxon's clearing, Sinking Spring, Highland County, Ohio, — Id., p. 125. BRIDGE ON WHICH ZANE'S TRACE CROSSED THE MUSKINGUM RiVER AT ZANESVILLE, OHIO ZANE'S TRACE 163 cothe, which was just then commenced. We encamped one night at Massie's run, say two or three miles from the falls of Paint creek, where the trace then crossed that stream. From Chillicothe to Lancas ter the trace then went through the Picka way plains. There was a cabin some three or four miles below the plains, and another at their eastern edge, and one or two more between that and Lancaster. Here we staid the third night. From Lancaster we went next day to Zanesville, passing several small beginnings. I recollect no improvement between Zanesville and Wheeling, except a small one at the mouth of Indian Wheeling creek, opposite to Wheeling. In this space we camped another night. From Wheeling we went home pretty well." The matter of ferriage was a most im portant item on pioneer roads as indicated by the Act of Congress quoted. The Court of General Quarter Sessions met at Adamsville, Adams County, December 12, 1797, and made the following the legal rates of ferriage across the Scioto and Ohio Rivers, both of which Zane's Trace crossed: 164 PIONEER ROADS Scioto River : Man and horse . , , i2j^ cents. Single . e% " Wagon and team . 7S " Horned cattle (each) . 6% " Ohio River : Man and horse , , i8^ " Single . 9ji " Wagon and team $1 [.15 Horned cattle . . 9H "« No sooner was Zane's Trace opened than the Government established a mail route between Wheeling and Maysville and Lex ington. For the real terminus of the trace was not by any means at little Maysville; an ancient buffalo route and well-worn white man's road led into the interior of Kentucky from Maysville, known in history as the Maysville Road and Maysville Pike. On the Ohio side this mail route from Wheeling and Lexington was known by many titles in many years; it was the Limestone Road, the Maysville Pike, the Limestone and Chillicothe Road, and the Zanesville Pike; the Maysville and Zanes- "Id., p. 88, ZANE'S TRACE 165 ville Turnpike was constructed between Zanesville and the Ohio River. At Zanes ville the road today is familiarly known as the Maysville Pike while in Kentucky it is commonly called the Zanesville Pike. " When the Indian trail gets widened, graded and bridged to a good road," wrote Emerson, " there is a benefactor, there is a missionary, a pacificator, a wealth- bringer, a maker of markets, a vent for industry. ' ' *^ The little road here under consideration is unique among American highways in its origin and in its history. It was demanded, not by war, but by civilization, not for exploration and set tlement but by settlements that were already made and in need of communion and com merce. It was created by an act of Con gress as truly as the Cumberland Road, which soon should, in part, supersede it. And finally it was on the subject of the Maysville Turnpike that the question of internal improvement by the national gov ernment was at last decided when, in 1830, President Jackson signed that veto which *^ Society and Solitude, essay on " Civilization, " pp. 25-26. 166 PIONEER ROADS made the name of Maysville a household word throughout the United States. In 1825, after a delay which created great suspense in the West, the Cumberland Road at last leaped the Ohio River at Wheeling. Zane's Trace, now a wide, much-traveled avenue, offered a route west ward to Zanesville which could be but little improved upon. The blazed tree gave way to the mile-stone and the pannier and saddle-bag to the rumbling stagecoach and the chaise. It is all a pretty, quiet picture and its story is totally unlike that of Boone's rough path over the Cumberlands. For settlements sprang up rapidly in this land of plenty; we have seen that there were beginnings at Chillicothe and Zanes ville when Sample passed this way in 1797. By 1800, Zane's lots at the crossing of the Hockhocking (first known as New Lancas ter, and later as Lancaster — from the town of that name in Pennsylvania) were selling ; his terms and inducements to settlers, especially mechanics, are particularly in teresting.'*^ "See Graham's History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio, pp. 133-134. ZANE'S TRACE 167 As intimated, the Kentucky division of the Maysville Pike — leading from the Ohio River through Washington, Paris, and Lexington — became famous in that it was made a test case to determine whether or not the Government had the right to assist in the building of purely state (local) roads by taking shares in local turnpike com panies. This much-mooted question was settled once for all by President Andrew Jackson's veto of " A Bill Authorizing a subscription of stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Com pany," which was passed by the House February 24, 1830. It read:** ''Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa tives of the United States of America in Con gress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United States, for fifteen hundred shares of the capital stock of the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexing ton Turnpike Road Company, and to pay ^ Bills Q)^ Resolutions, House Reps., tst Ses s., 21st Cong., Part g, iSzg (^^ '30, H. R., p.^285. 168 PIONEER ROADS for the same at such times, and in such proportions, as shall be required of, and paid by, the stockholders generally, by the rules and regulations of the aforesaid com pany, to be paid out of any money in the Treasury, not otherwise appropriated: Pro vided, That not more than one-third part of the sum, so subscribed for the use of the United States, shall be demanded in the present year, nor shall any greater sum be paid on the shares so subscribed for, than shall be proportioned to assess ments made on individual or corporate stockholders. " Sec 2. And be it further enacted. That the said Secretary of the Treasury shall vote for the President and Directors of the aforesaid company, according to such num ber of shares as the United States may, at any time, hold in the stock thereof, and shall receive upon the said stock the pro portion of the tolls which shall, from time to time, be due to the United States for the shares aforesaid, and shall have and enjoy, in behalf of the United States, every other right of stockholder in said Company." ZANE'S TRACE 169 In his first annual message to Congress, dated December 8, 1829, President Jackson stated plainly his attitude to the great ques tion of internal improvements. "As . . the period approaches when the application of the revenue to the payment of [national] debt will cease, the disposition of the sur plus will present a subject for the serious deliberation of Congress. . . Considered in connection with the difficulties which have heretofore attended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and with those which this experience tells us will certainly arise whenever power over such subjects may be exercised by the General Government, it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some plan which will recon cile the diversified interests of the States and strengthen the bonds which unite them. . . To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and federal disposition which could be made of the sur plus revenue would be its apportionment among the several States according to their ratio of representation, and should this measure not be found warranted by the Constitution that it would be expedient to 170 PIONEER ROADS propose to the States an amendment authorizing it."*^ In his veto of the Maysville Road bill President Jackson quoted the above para graphs from his annual message, and, after citing both Madison's and Monroe's posi tions as to internal improvements of pure local character, continues : " The bill before me does not call for a more definate opinion upon the particular circumstances which will warrent appro priations of money by Congress to aid works of internal improvement, for although the extention of the power to apply money beyond that of carrying into effect the object for which it is appropriated has, as we have seen, been long claimed and exercised by the Federal Government, yet such grants have always been professedly under the control of the general principle that the works which might be thus aided should be ' of a general, not local, national, not State, ' character. A disregard of this distinction would of necessity lead to the subversion of the federal system. That " Richardson's Messages and Papers of the Presi dents, vol. ii, pp. 451, 452. ZANE'S TRACE 171 even this is an unsafe one, arbitrary in its nature, and liable, consequently, to great abuses, is too obvious to require the con firmation of experience. It is, however, sufficiently definate and imperative to my mind to forbid my approbation of any bill having the character of the one under con sideration. I have given to its provi sions . . reflection . . but I am not able to view it in any other light than as a measure of purely local character ; or, if it can be considered national, that no further distinction between the appropriate duties of the General and State Governments need be attempted, for there can be no local interest that may not with equal propriety be denominated national. It has no connection with any established system of improvements ; is exclusively within the limits of a State, starting at a point on the Ohio River and running out 60 miles to an interior town, and even as far as the State is interested conferring partial instead of general advantages. " Considering the magnitude and import ance of the power, and the embarrassments to which, from the very nature of the 172 PIONEER ROADS thing, its exercise must necessarily be sub jected, the real friends of intemal improve ment ought not to be willing to confide it to accident and chance. What is properly national in its character or otherwise is an inquiry J which is often extremely difficult of solution. . . "If it be the wish of the people that the construction of roads and canals should be conducted by the Federal Government, it is not only highly expedient, but indispensably necessary, that a previous amendment of the Consti tution, delegating the necessary power and defining and restricting its exercise with reference to the sovereignty of the States, should be made. The right to exercise as much jurisdiction as is necessary to pre serve the works and to raise funds by the collection of tolls to keep them in repair can not be dispensed with. The Cumber land Road should be an instructive admoni tion of the consequences of acting without this right. Year after year contests are witnessed, growing out of efforts to obtain the necessary appropriations for completing and repairing this useful work. Whilst ZANE'S TRACE 173 one Congress may claim and exercise the power, a succeeding one may deny it; and this fluctuation of opinion must be una voidably fatal to any scheme which from its extent would promote the interests and ele vate the character of the country. . . " That a constitutional adjustment of this power upon equitable principles is in the highest degree desirable can scarcely be doubted, nor can it fail to be promoted by every sincere friend to the success of our political institutions." *^ The effect of Jackson's veto was far- reaching. It not only put an end to all thought of national aid to such local im provements as the Maysville Turnpike, but deprived such genuinely national promo tions as the Baltimore and Ohio Railway of all hope of national aid. " President Jack son had strongly expressed his opposition to aiding state enterprises and schemes of internal improvement by appropriations from the central government," records a historian of that great enterprise ; ' ' from whatever source the opposition may have come, the [Baltimore and Ohio Railway] *'/