CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

It is impossible to leave the study of the Cumberland Road without gathering up into a single chapter a number of threads which have not been woven into the preceding record. And first, the very appearance of the old road as seen by travelers who pass over it today. One cannot go a single mile over it without becoming deeply impressed with the evidence of the age and the individuality of the old Cumberland Road. There is nothing like it in the United States. Leaping the Ohio at Wheeling, the Cumberland Road throws itself across Ohio and Indiana, straight as an arrow, like an ancient elevated pathway of the gods, chopping hills in twain at a blow, traversing the lowlands on high grades like a railroad bed, vaulting river and stream on massive bridges of unparalleled size. The farther one travels upon it, the more impressed one must become, for there is, in the long grades and stretches and ponderous bridges, that "masterful suggestion of a serious purpose, speeding you along with a strange uplifting of the heart," of which Kenneth Grahame speaks; "and even in its shedding off of bank and hedgerow as it marched straight and full for the open downs, it seems to declare its contempt for adventitious trappings to catch the shallow-pated."[73] For long distances, this road "of the sterner sort" will be, so far as its immediate surface is concerned, what the tender mercies of the counties through which it passes will allow, but at certain points, the traveler comes out unexpectedly upon the ancient roadbed, for in many places the old macadamized bed is still doing noble duty.

Nothing is more striking than the ponderous stone bridges which carry the roadbed over the waterways. It is doubtful if there are on this continent such monumental relics of the old stone bridge builders' art. Not only such massive bridges as those at Big Crossings (Smithfield, Pennsylvania) and the artistic "S" bridge near Claysville, Pennsylvania, will attract the traveler's attention, but many of the less pretentious bridges over brooks and rivulets will, upon examination, be found to be ponderous pieces of workmanship. A pregnant suggestion of the change which has come over the land can be read in certain of these smaller bridges and culverts. When the great road was built the land was covered with forests and many drains were necessary. With the passing of the forests many large bridges, formerly of much importance, are now of a size out of all proportion to the demand for them, and hundreds of little bridges have fallen into disuse, some of them being quite above the general level of the surrounding fields. The ponderous bridge at Big Crossings was finished and dedicated with great éclat July 4, 1818. Near the eastern end of the three fine arches is the following inscription: "Kinkead, Beck & Evans, builders, July 4, 1818."

The traveler will notice still the mileposts which mark the great road's successive steps. Those on the eastern portion of the road are of iron and were made at the foundries at Connellsville and Brownsville. Major James Francis had the contract for making and delivering those between Cumberland and Brownsville. John Snowdan had the contract for those between Brownsville and Wheeling. They were hauled in six-horse teams to their sites. Those between Brownsville and Cumberland have recently been reset and repainted. The milestones west of the Ohio River are mostly of sandstone, and are fast disappearing under the action of the weather. Some are quite illegible though the word "Cumberland" at the top can yet be read on almost all. In central Ohio, through the Darby woods, or "Darby Cuttings," the mileposts have been greatly mutilated by vandal woodchoppers, who knocked off large chips with which to sharpen their axes.

The bed of the Cumberland Road was originally eighty feet in width. In Ohio at least, property owners have encroached upon the road until, in some places, ten feet of ground has been included within the fences. This matter has been brought into notice where franchises for electric railway lines have been granted. In Franklin County, west of Columbus, Ohio, there is hardly room for a standard gauge track outside the roadbed, where once the road occupied forty feet each side of its axis. When the property owners were addressed with respect to the removal of their fences, they demanded to be shown quitclaim deeds for the land, which, it is unnecessary to say, were not forthcoming from the state. Hundreds of contracts, calling for a width of eighty feet, can be given as evidence of the original width of the road.[74] In days when it was considered the most extraordinary good fortune to have the Cumberland Road pass through one's farm, it was not considered necessary to obtain quitclaim deeds for the land.

It is difficult to sufficiently emphasize the aristocracy which existed among the old "pike boys," as those most intimately connected with the road were called. This was particularly true of the drivers of the mail and passenger stages, men who were as often noted for their quick wit and large acquaintance with men as for their dexterous handling of two hands full of reins. Their social and business position was the envy of the youth of a nation, whose ambition to emulate them was begotten of the best sort of hero-worship. Stage-drivers' foibles were their pet themes, such as the use of peculiar kinds of whips and various modes of driving. Of the latter there were three styles common to the Cumberland Road, (1) The flat rein (English style), (2) Top and bottom (Pennsylvania adaptation), (3) Side rein (Eastern style). The last mode was in commonest use. Of drivers there were of course all kinds, slovenly, cruel, careful. Of the best class, John Bunting, Jim Reynolds, and Billy Armor were best known, after "Red" Bunting, in the east, and David Gordon and James Burr, on the western division. No one was more proud of the fine horses which did the work of the great road than the better class of drivers. As Thackeray said was true in England, the passing of the era of good roads and the mailstage has sounded the knell of the rugged race of horses which once did service in the Central West.

As one scans the old files of newspapers, or reads old-time letters and memoirs of the age of the Cumberland Road, he is impressed with the interest taken in the coming and going of the more renowned guests of the old road. The passage of a president-elect over the Cumberland Road was a triumphant procession. The stage companies made special stages, or selected the best of their stock, in which to bear him. The best horses were fed and groomed for the proud task. The most noted drivers were appointed to the honorable station of Charioteer-to-the-President. The thousands of homes along his route were decked in his honor, and welcoming heralds rode out from the larger towns to escort their noted guests to celebrations for which preparations had been making for days in advance. The slow-moving presidential pageant through Ohio and Pennsylvania was an educational and patriotic ceremony, of not infrequent occurrence in the old coaching days--a worthy exhibition which hardly has its counterpart in these days of steam. Jackson, Van Buren, Monroe, Harrison, Polk, and Tyler passed in triumph over portions of the great road. The taverns at which they were fêted are remembered by the fact. Drivers who were chosen for the task of driving their coach were ever after noted men. But there were other guests than presidents-elect, though none received with more acclaim. Henry Clay, the champion of the road, was a great favorite throughout its towns and hamlets, one of which, Claysville, proudly perpetuates his name. Benton and Cass, General Lafayette, General Santa Anna, Black Hawk, Jenny Lind, P. T. Barnum, and John Quincy Adams are all mentioned in the records of the stirring days of the old road. As has been suggested elsewhere, politics entered largely into the consideration of the building and maintenance of the road. Enemies of internal improvement were not forgotten as they passed along the great road which they voted to neglect, as even Martin Van Buren once realized when the axle of his coach was sawed in two, breaking down where the mud was deepest. Many episodes are remembered, indicating that all the political prejudice and rancor known elsewhere was especially in evidence on this highway, which owed its existence and future to the machinations of politicians.

But the greatest blessing of the Cumberland Road was the splendid era of growth which it did its share toward hastening. Its best friends could see in its decline and decay only evidences of unhappiest fortune, while in reality the great road had done its noble work and was to be superseded by better things which owed to it their coming. Historic roads there had been, before this great highway of America was built, but none in all the past had been the means of supplanting themselves by greater and more efficient means of communication. The far-famed Appian Way witnessed many triumphal processions of consuls and proconsuls, but it never was the means of bringing into existence something to take its place in a new and more progressive era. It helped to create no free empire at its extremity, and they who traversed it in so much pride and power would find it today nothing but a ponderous memorial of their vanity. The Cumberland Road was built by the people and for the people, and served well its high purpose. It became a highway for the products of the factories, the fisheries and the commerce of the eastern states. It made possible that interchange of the courtesies of social life necessary in a republic of united states. It was one of the great strands which bound the nation together in early days when there was much to excite animosity and provoke disunion. It became the pride of New England as well as of the West which it more immediately benefited; "The state of which I am a citizen," said Edward Everett at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1829, "has already paid between one and two thousand dollars toward the construction and repair of that road; and I doubt not she is prepared to contribute her proportion toward its extension to the place of its destination."[75]

Hundreds of ancient but unpretentious monuments of the Cumberland Road--the hoary milestones which line it--stand to perpetuate its name in future days. But were they all gathered together--from Indiana and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Maryland--and cemented into a monstrous pyramid, the pile would not be inappropriate to preserve the name and fame of a highway which "carried thousands of population and millions of wealth into the West; and more than any other material structure in the land, served to harmonize and strengthen, if not save, the Union."

What of the future? The dawning of the era of country living is in sight. It is being hastened by the revolution in methods of locomotion. The bicycle and automobile presage an era of good roads, and of an unparalleled countryward movement of society. With this era is coming the revival of inn and tavern life, the rejuvenation of a thousand ancient highways and all the happy life that was ever known along their dusty stretches. By its position with reference to the national capital, and the military and commercial key of the Central West, Pittsburg, and both of the great cities of Ohio, the Cumberland Road will become, perhaps, the foremost of the great roadways of America. The bed is capable of being made substantial at a comparatively small cost, as the grading is quite perfect. Its course measures the shortest possible route practicable for a roadway from tidewater to the Mississippi River. As a trunk line its location cannot be surpassed. Its historic associations will render the route of increasing interest to the thousands who, in other days, will travel, in the genuine sense of the word, over those portions of its length which long ago became hallowed ground. The "Shades of Death" will again be filled with the echoing horn which heralded the arrival of the old-time coaches, and Winding Ridge again be crowded with the traffic of a nation. A hundred Cumberland Road taverns will be opened, and bustling landlords welcome, as of yore, the travel-stained visitor. Merry parties will again fill those tavern halls, now long silent, with their laughter.

And all this will but mark a new and better era than its predecessor, an era of outdoor living, which must come, and come quickly, if as a nation we are to retain our present hold on the world's great affairs.

Appendixes

APPENDIX A

APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS AT VARIOUS TIMES FOR MAKING, REPAIRING, AND CONTINUING THE ROAD

1. Act of March 29, 1806, authorizes the President to appoint a commission of three citizens to lay out a road four rods in width "from Cumberland or a point on the northern bank of the river Potomac in the State of Maryland, between Cumberland and the place where the main road leading from Gwynn's to Winchester, in Virginia, crosses the river, ... to strike the river Ohio at the most convenient place between a point on its eastern bank, opposite the northern boundary of Steubenville and the mouth of Grave creek, which empties into the said river a little below Wheeling, in Virginia." Provides for obtaining the consent of the states through which the road passes, and appropriates for the expense, to be paid from the reserve fund under the act of April 30, 1802, $30,000.00

2. Act of February 14, 1810, appropriates to be expended under the direction of the President in making the road between Cumberland and Brownsville, to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802, $60,000.00

3. Act of March 3, 1811, appropriates to be expended under the direction of the President in making the road between Cumberland and Brownsville, and authorizes the President to permit deviation from a line established by the commissioners under the original act as may be expedient; _Provided_, that no deviation shall be made from the principal points established on said road between Cumberland and Brownsville; to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802 $50,000.00

4. Act of February 26, 1812, appropriates balance of a former appropriation not used, but carried to surplus fund, $3,786.60

5. Act of May 6, 1812, appropriates to be expended under direction of the President, for making the road from Cumberland to Brownsville, to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802 $30,000.00

6. Act of March 3, 1813 (General Appropriation Bill), appropriates for making the road from Cumberland to the state of Ohio, to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802 $140,000.00

7. Act of February 14, 1815, appropriates to be expended under the direction of the President, for making the road between Cumberland and Brownsville, to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802, $100,000.00

8. Act of April 16, 1816 (General Appropriation Bill), appropriates for making the road from Cumberland to the state of Ohio, to be paid from the fund act April 30, 1802 $300,000.00

9. Act of April 14, 1818, appropriates to meet claims due and unpaid $52,984.60

Demands under existing contracts $260,000.00

(From money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.)

10. Act of March 3, 1819, appropriates for existing claims and contracts $250,000.00

Completing road $285,000.00

(To be paid from reserved funds, acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.)

11. Act of May 15, 1820, appropriates for laying out the road between Wheeling, Virginia, and a point on the left bank of the Mississippi River, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois River, road to be eighty feet wide and on a straight line, and authorizes the President to appoint commissioners. To be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated $10,000.00

12. Act of April 11, 1820, appropriates for completing contract for road from Washington, Pennsylvania, to Wheeling, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated $141,000.00

13. Act of February 28, 1823, appropriates for repairs between Cumberland and Wheeling, and authorizes the President to appoint a superintendent at a compensation of three dollars per day. To be paid out of any money not otherwise appropriated $25,000.00

14. Act of March 3, 1825, appropriates for opening and making a road from the town of Canton, in the state of Ohio, opposite Wheeling, to Zanesville, and for the completion of the surveys of the road, directed to be made by the act of May 15, 1820, and orders its extension to the permanent seat of government of Missouri, and to pass by the seats of government of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, said road to commence at Zanesville, Ohio; also authorizes the appointment of a superintendent by the President, at a salary of fifteen hundred dollars per annum, who shall make all contracts, receive and disburse all moneys, etc.; also authorizes the appointment of one commissioner, who shall have power according to provisions of the act of May 15, 1820; ten thousand dollars of the money appropriated by this act is to be expended in completing the survey mentioned. The whole sum appropriated to be advanced from moneys not otherwise appropriated, and replaced from reserve fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $150,000.00

15. Act of March 14, 1826 (General Appropriation Bill), appropriates for balance due to the superintendent, $3,000; assistant superintendent, $158.90; contractor, $252.13 $3,411.03

16. Act of March 25, 1826 (Military Service), appropriates for the continuation of the Cumberland Road during the year 1825 $110,749.00

17. Act of March 2, 1827 (Military Service), appropriates for construction of road from Canton to Zanesville, and continuing and completing the survey from Zanesville to the seat of government of Missouri, to be paid from reserve fund, provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $170,000.00

For balance due superintendent, from moneys not otherwise appropriated, $510.00

18. Act of March 2, 1827, appropriates for repairs between Cumberland and Wheeling, and authorizes the appointment of a superintendent of repairs, at a compensation to be fixed by the President. To be paid from moneys not otherwise appropriated. The language of this act is: "For repairing the public road from Cumberland to Wheeling" $30,000.00

19. Act of May 19, 1828, appropriates for the completion of the road to Zanesville, Ohio, to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $175,000.00

20. Act of March 2, 1829, appropriates for opening road westwardly, from Zanesville, Ohio, to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri $100,000.00

21. Act of March 2, 1829, appropriates for opening road eighty feet wide in Indiana, east and west from Indianapolis, and to appoint two superintendents, at eight hundred dollars each per annum, to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, $51,600.00

22. Act of March 3, 1829, appropriates for repairing bridges, etc., on road east of Wheeling $100,000.00

23. Act of May 31, 1830 (Internal Improvements), appropriates for opening and grading road west of Zanesville, Ohio, $100,000; for opening and grading road in Indiana, $60,000; commencing at Indianapolis, and progressing with the work to the eastern and western boundaries of said state; for opening, grading, etc., in Illinois, $40,000, to be paid from reserve fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri; for claims due and remaining unpaid on account of road east of Wheeling, $15,000; to be paid from moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated $215,000.00

24. Act of March 2, 1831, appropriates $100,000 for opening, grading, and so forth, west of Zanesville, Ohio; $950 for repairs during the year 1830; $2,700 for work heretofore done east of Zanesville; $265.85 for arrearages for the survey from Zanesville to the capital of Missouri; and $75,000 for opening, grading, and so forth, in the state of Indiana, including bridge over White River, near Indianapolis, and progressing to eastern and western boundaries; $66,000 for opening, grading and bridging in Illinois; to be paid from the fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $244,915.85

25. Act of July 3, 1832, appropriates $150,000 for repairs east of the Ohio River; $100,000 for continuing the road west of Zanesville; $100,000 for continuing the road in Indiana, including bridge over east and west branch of White River; $70,000 for continuing road in Illinois; to be paid from the fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois $420,000.00

26. Act of March 2, 1833, appropriates to carry on certain improvements east of the Ohio River, $125,000; in Ohio, west of Zanesville, $130,000; in Indiana, $100,000; in Illinois, $70,000; and in Virginia, $34,440 $459,440.00

27. Act of June 24, 1834, appropriates $200,000 for continuing the road in Ohio; $150,000 for continuing the road in Indiana; $100,000 for continuing the road in Illinois, and $300,000 for the entire completion of repairs east of Ohio, to meet provisions of the acts of Pennsylvania (April 4, 1831), Maryland (Jan. 23, 1832), and Virginia (Feb. 7, 1832), accepting the road surrendered to the states, the United States not thereafter to be subject to any expense for repairs. Places engineer officer of army in control of road through Indiana and Illinois, and in charge of all appropriations; $300,000 to be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, balance from that provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, $750,000.00

28. Act of June 27, 1837 (General Appropriation), for arrearages due to the contractors $1,609.36

29. Act of March 3, 1835, appropriates $200,000 for continuing the road in the state of Ohio; $100,000 for continuing road in the state of Indiana; to be out of fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and $346,186.58 for the entire completion of repairs in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; but before any part of this sum can be expended east of the Ohio River, the road shall be surrendered to and accepted by the states through which it passes, and the United States shall not thereafter be subject to any expense in relation to said road. Out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated $646,186.58

30. Act of March 3, 1835 (Repair of Roads), appropriates to pay for work heretofore done by Isaiah Frost on the Cumberland Road, $320; to pay late superintendent of road a salary, $862.87 $1,182.87

31. Act of July 2, 1836, appropriates for continuing the road in Ohio, $200,000; for continuing road in Indiana, $250,000, including materials for a bridge over the Wabash River; $150,000 for continuing the road in Illinois, provided that the appropriation for Illinois shall be limited to grading and bridging, and shall not be construed as pledging Congress to future appropriations for the purpose of macadamizing the road, and the moneys herein appropriated for said road in Ohio and Indiana must be expended in completing the greatest possible continuous portion of said road in said states so that said finished part thereof may be surrendered to the states respectively; to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $600,000.00

32. Act of March 3, 1837, appropriates $190,000 for continuing the road in Ohio; $100,000 for continuing the road in Indiana; $100,000 for continuing the road in Illinois, provided the road in Illinois shall not be stoned or graveled, unless it can be done at a cost not greater than the average cost of stoning and graveling the road in Ohio and Indiana, and provided that in all cases where it can be done the work to be laid off in sections and let to the lowest substantial bidder. Sec. 2 of the act provides that Sec. 2 of act of July 2, 1836, shall not be applicable to expenditures hereafter made on the road, and $7,183.63 is appropriated by this act for repairs east of the Ohio River; to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois $397,183.63

33. Act of May 25, 1838, appropriates for continuing the road in Ohio, $150,000; for continuing it in Indiana, including bridges, $150,000; for continuing it in Illinois, $9,000; for the completion of a bridge over Dunlap's Creek at Brownsville; to be paid from moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated and subject to provisions and conditions of act of March 3, 1837 $459,000.00

34. Act of June 17, 1844 (Civil and Diplomatic), appropriates for arrearages on account of survey to Jefferson, Missouri $1,359.81

Total $6,824,919.33

APPENDIX B

SPECIMEN ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS FOR REPAIRING CUMBERLAND ROAD IN OHIO (1838)

Sealed proposals will be received at Toll-gate No. 4, until the 6th day of March next, for repairing that part of the road lying between the beginning of the 23rd and end of the 42nd mile, and if suitable bids are obtained, and not otherwise, contracts will be made at Bradshaw's hotel in Fairview, on the 8th. Those who desire contracts are expected to attend in person, in order to sign their bonds. On this part of the road three hundred rods or upwards (82-1/2 cubic feet each) will be required on each mile, of the best quality of limestone, broken evenly into blocks not exceeding four ounces in weight, each; and specimens of the material proposed, must be furnished, in quantity not less than six cubic inches, broken and neatly put up in a box, and accompanying each bid; which will be returned and taken as the standard, both as regards the quality of the material and the preparation of it at the time of measurement and inspection.

The following conditions will be mutually understood as entering into, and forming a part of the contract, namely: The 23, 24 and 25 miles to be ready for measurement and inspection on the 25th of July; the 26, 27 and 28 miles on the 1st of August; the 29, 30 and 31 miles on the 15th of August; the 32, 33 and 34 miles on the 1st of September; the 35, 36, 37 miles on the 15th of September; the 38, 39 and 40 miles on the 1st of October; and the 41 and 42 miles, if let, will be examined at the same time.

Any failure to be ready for inspection at the time above specified, will incur a penalty of five per cent. for every two days' delay, until the whole penalty shall amount to 25 per cent. on the contract paid. All the piles must be neatly put up for measurement and no pile will be measured on this part of the work containing less than five rods. Whenever a pile is placed upon deceptive ground, whether discovered at the time of measurement or afterward, half its contents shall in every case be forfeited for the use of the road.

Proposals will also be received at the American Hotel in Columbus, on the 15th of March for hauling broken materials from the penitentiary east of Columbus. Bids are solicited on the 1, 2 and 3 miles counting from a point near the Toll-gate towards the city. Bids will also be received at the same time and place, for collecting and breaking all the old stone that lies along the roadside, between Columbus and Kirkersville, neatly put in piles of not less than two rods, and placed on the outside of the ditches.

APPENDIX C

ADVERTISEMENT FOR PROPOSALS FOR BUILDING A CUMBERLAND ROAD BRIDGE AND FOR TOLL HOUSES IN OHIO--1837

Proposals will also be received in Zanesville on Monday, the 1st day of May next, at Roger's Tavern, for rebuilding the Bridge over Salt Creek, nine miles east of Zanesville. The structure will be of wood, except some stone work to repair the abutments. A plan of the Bridge, together with a bill for the timber, &c., can be seen at the place of letting after the 24th inst. Conditions with regard to proposals the same as above.

At the same time and place, proposals will likewise be received, for building three or four Toll-gates and Gate Houses between Hebron, east of Columbus, and Jefferson, west of it. The house of frame with stone foundations, and about 13 by 24 feet, one story high, and completely finished. Bills of timber, stone, &c., will be furnished, and particulars made known, by calling on the undersigned, at Rodger's Tavern, in Zanesville after the 24th inst. In making bids, conditions the same as above.

All letters must be post-paid, or no attention shall be given to them.

THOMAS M. DRAKE, _Superintendent_.

P. S.--Proposals will also be received at Columbus, on Monday, the 17th of April, for repairing the National Road between Kirkersville and Columbus--by William B. Vanhook, superintendent.

April 12. WILLIAM WALL, _A. C. B. P. W._

APPENDIX D

ADVERTISEMENT OF CUMBERLAND ROAD TAVERN IN OHIO--1837

Tavern Stand for Sale or Rent.--A valuable Tavern Stand Sign of the Harp, consisting of 25-1/2 acres of choice land partly improved, and a dwelling house, together with three front lots. This eligible and healthy situation lies 8 miles east of Columbus City, the capital of Ohio, on the National Road leading to Zanesville, at Big Walnut Bridge. The stand is well supplied with several elegant springs.

It is unnecessary to comment on the numerous advantages of this interesting site. The thoroughfare is great, and the growing prospects beyond calculation. For particulars inquire of

T. ARMSTRONG, Hibernia. Dec. 4-14.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _United States Statutes at Large_, vol. ii, p. 173.

[2] _Senate Reports_, 9th Cong., 1st Sess., Rep. No. 195.

[3] Keyser's Ridge.

[4] The dates on which the three states gave their permission were: Pennsylvania, April 9, 1807; Maryland, 1806; Ohio, 1824.

[5] Richardson (editor): _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, vol. ii, p. 142.

[6] Harriet Martineau's _Society in America_, vol. ii, pp. 31-35.

[7] See Appropriation No. 27, in Appendix A.

[8] For specimen advertisement for repairs see Appendix B.

[9] The early official correspondence concerning the route of the road shows plainly that it was really built for the benefit of the Chillicothe and Cincinnati settlements, which embraced a large portion of Ohio's population. The opening of river traffic in the first two decades of the century, however, had the effect of throwing the line of the road further northward through the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Zane's Trace, diverging from the Cumberland Road at Zanesville, played an important part in the development of southwestern Ohio, becoming the course of the Lancaster and Maysville Pike. See _Historic Highways of America_, vol. xi.

[10] See Appropriation No. 14, in Appendix A.

[11] See Appropriations Nos. 20 and 21, in Appendix A.

[12] _Private Laws of the United States_, May 17, 1796.

[13] _Springfield Pioneer_, August 1837; also _Ohio State Journal_, August 8, 1837.

[14] Harriet Martineau's _Society in America_, vol. i, p. 17.

[15] Wabash-Erie, Whitewater, and Indiana Central Canals and the Madison and Indianapolis Railway. Cf. Atwater's _Tour_, p. 31.

[16] _Illinois in '37_, pp. 766-767. This was probably passenger and freight traffic as the mails went overland from the very first, until the building of railways.

[17] _Ohio State Journal_, January 8, 1836.

[18] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 500.

[19] See Appropriation No. 27, in Appendix A.

[20] _Laws of Ohio_, XXIX, p. 76. For specimen advertisement for bids for erection of tollgates in Ohio see Appendix D.

[21] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 419.

[22] _Id._, p. 523.

[23] _Id._, p. 477.

[24] _Laws of Ohio_, XXXIV, p. 41; XXV, p. 7.

[25] _Id._, XXIII, p. 447.

[26] _Id._, XLIII, p. 89.

[27] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 477.

[28] _Laws of Ohio_, XLIII, p. 140.

[29] _Id._, LVIII, p. 140.

[30] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 500.

[31] _Laws of Ohio_, XXVI, p. 41.

[32] _Id._

[33] Concerning the celerity of opening the road after the completion of contracts, Captain Weaver, Superintendent in Ohio, made the following statement in his report of 1827:

"Upon the first, second and third divisions, with a cover of metal of six inches in thickness, composed of stone reduced to particles of not more than four ounces in weight, the travel was admitted in the month of June last. Those divisions that lie eastward of the village of Fairview together embrace a distance of very nearly twenty-eight and a half miles, and were put under contract on the first of July, and first and thirty-first of August, 1825. This portion of the road has been, in pursuance of contracts made last fall and spring, covered with the third stratum of metal of three inches in thickness, and similarly reduced. On parts of this distance, say about five miles made up of detached pieces, the travel was admitted at the commencement of the last winter and has continued on to this time to render it compact and solid; it is very firm, elastic and smooth. The effect has been to dissipate the prejudices which existed very generally, in the minds of the citizens, against the McAdam system, and to establish full confidence over the former plan of constructing roads.

"On the first day of July, the travel was admitted upon the fourth and fifth divisions, and upon the second, third, fourth, and fifth sections of the sixth division of the road, in its graduated state. This part of the line was put under contract on the eleventh day of September, 1826, terminating at a point three miles west of Cambridge, and embraces a distance of twenty-three and a half miles. On the twenty-first of July the balance of the line to Zanesville, comprising a distance of a little over twenty-one miles, was let."

[34] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 419.

[35] _Laws of Ohio_, XXVI, p. 41; _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 102.

[36] _Id._, XXVI, p. 41.

[37] Tolls for 1845 were based on number of horses, each additional horse being taxed about .20. Tolls for 1900 (in Franklin County) were practically identical with tolls of 1845.

[38] _Laws of Ohio_, XXX, p. 321.

[39] _Id._, XXX, p. 8.

[40] _Id._, XXXIV, p. 111.

[41] _Id._, XLIII, p. 89.

[42] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), pp. 534, 164, 430-431.

[43] _Laws of Ohio_, XXXV, p. 7.

[44] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 353.

[45] _Laws of Ohio_, XXX, p. 8.

[46] _Id._, XXIX, p. 76.

[47] _Id._, XXX, p. 8.

[48] _Id._, XXX, p. 7.

[49] _Id_., XXXII, p. 265; XXX, p. 7.

[50] Searight's _The Old Pike_, p. 298.

[51] _Id._, pp. 362-366.

[52] _Id._, pp. 367-370.

[53] _Laws of Ohio_, LII, p. 126.

[54] _Id._, LVI, p. 159.

[55] _Id._, LXX, p. 194.

[56] _Id._, LXXIII, p. 105.

[57] _Laws of Ohio_, LXXIV, p. 62.

[58] _Report of the Superintendent of the National Road, with Abstract of Tolls for the fiscal year_ (1837).

[59] _Laws of Ohio_, XXX, p. 8.

[60] Thackeray's _The Newcomes_, vol. i, ch. x.

[61] In one instance a struggle between two stagecoach lines in Indiana resulted in carrying passengers from Richmond to Cincinnati for fifty cents. The regular price was five dollars.

[62] An old Ohio National Stage driver, Mr. Samuel B. Baker of Kirkersville, Ohio, is authority for the statement that the Ohio National Stage Company put a line of stages on the Wooster-Wheeling mail and freight route and "ran out" the line which had been doing all the business previously, after an eight months' bitter contest.

[63] The following appeared in the _Ohio State Journal_ of August 12, 1837: "A SPLENDID COACH--We have looked at a Coach now finishing off in the shop of Messrs. Evans & Pinney of this city, for the Ohio Stage Company, and intended we believe for the inspection of the Post-Master General, who sometime since offered premiums for models of the most approved construction, which is certainly one of the most perfect and splendid specimens of workmanship in this line that we have ever beheld, and would be a credit to any Coach Manufactory in the United States. It is aimed, in its construction, to secure the mail in the safest manner possible, under lock and key, and to accommodate three outside passengers under a comfortable and complete protection from the weather. It is worth going to see."

[64] Before the era of the Cumberland Road the price for hauling the goods of emigrants over Braddock's Road was very high. One emigrant paid $5.33 per hundred for hauling "women and goods" from Alexandria, Virginia, to the Monongahela. Six dollars per hundredweight was charged one emigrant from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Terre Haute, Indiana.

[65] _Ohio State Journal_, February 9, 1838. "The land mail between this and Detroit crawls with snails pace."--_Cleveland Gazette_, August 31, 1837. Cf. _Historic Highways of America_, vol. i., p. 29.

[66] The northern and southern Ohio mails connected with the Great Eastern and Great Western mails at Columbus. They were operated as follows:

NORTHERN MAIL: Left Sandusky City 4 A. M., reached Delaware 8 P. M. Left Delaware next day 3 A. M., reached Columbus 8 A. M. Left Columbus 8:30 A. M., reached Chillicothe 4 P. M. Left Chillicothe next day 4 A. M., reached Portsmouth 3 P. M.

SOUTHERN MAIL: Left Portsmouth 9 A. M., Chillicothe 5 P. M., Columbus 1 P. M., day following. Delaware 7 P. M., Sandusky City 7 P. M. day following. A Cleveland mail left Cleveland daily for Columbus via Wooster and Mt. Vernon at 3 A. M. and reached Columbus on the day following at 5 P. M., returning the mail left Columbus at 4 A. M. and reached Cleveland at 5 P. M. on the ensuing day.

[67] "The extreme irregularity which has attended the transmission of newspapers from one place to another for several months past has been a subject of general complaint with the editors of all parties. It was to have been expected that, after the adjournment of Congress, the evil would have ceased to exist. Such, however, is not the case. Although the roads are now pretty good, and the mails arrive in due season, our eastern exchange papers seem to reach us only by chance. On Tuesday last, for instance, we received, among others, the following, viz., _The New York Courier_ and _Enquirer_ of March 1, 5 and 19; the _Philadelphia Times_ and _Saturday Evening Post_ of March 2; the _United States Gazette_ of March 6; and the _New Jersey Journal_ of March 5 and 19. The cause of this irregularity, we have reason to believe, does not originate in this state."--_Ohio State Journal_, March 30, 1833.

[68] _Ohio State Journal_, August 9, 1837

[69] It may be found upon investigation that the portions of our country most noted for hospitality are those where taverns gained the least hold as a social institution. Cf. Allen's _The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky_, p. 38.

[70] The Virginian House of Burgesses met in the old Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg, in 1773. (Woodrow Wilson's _George Washington_, p. 146.)

[71] For advertisement of sale of a Cumberland Road tavern see Appendix D.

[72] Mr. Edward P. Pressey in _New England Magazine_, vol. xxii, no. 6 (August, 1900).

[73] Grahame's _The Golden Age_, p. 155.

[74] "The proper limits of the road are hereby defined to be a space of eighty feet in width--forty feet on each side of the center of the graded road-bed."--Law passed April 18, 1870, _Laws of Ohio_, LVIII, p. 140.

[75] Everett's _Speeches and Orations_, vol. i, p. 202.

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Transcriber's Notes:

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.

2. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected.

3. Footnotes have been moved to the end of the main text body.

4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break.

5. Certain words use an oe ligature in the original.