USA > Ohio > History of the Upper Ohio Valley, with family history and biographical sketches, a statement of its resources, industrial growth and commercial advantages, Vol. I > Part 24
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Sixty odd years ago, mails and travelers from New York, Philadel- phia, Baltimore, and the Ohio river, at Pittsburgh and Wheeling, were carried by stage lines largely owned and managed by James Reeside, popularly known and designated as the "Land Admiral." The first line of stages run by him was from Hagerstown, Md., to McConnells- town, Penn., in 1814, and in a few years afterward be became one of the largest mail contractors in the United States. He possessed a grand physique, being six feet four and a half inches high, without any surplus flesh, measuring fifty-three inches about the chest, and kicked the beam at two hundred and twenty pounds. He was a per- son of great enterprise, remarkable executive ability, strict integrity, frank in speech and open-handed in his generosity. He was an inti- mate friend of Gen. Jackson, and the associate of Clay, Crittenden, Benton, McLean, and other distinguished men of that period. Shortly after the war of 1812, Mr. Reeside was concerned in estab- lishing a daily line of stages across the Allegheny mountains. At this period there were no turnpikes from Hagerstown west to Wheel- ing. The first through stage line between Baltimore and the Ohio river was organized in relays. These relays lodged the first night at Hagerstown, the second at Cumberland, the third at Uniontown, and the fourth at Wheeling. The stages were of the old fashioned kind, somewhat similar to the modern ambulance, open in front and having a rack behind to hold one or two trunks. Persons rarely traveled in those days with a trunk. The passengers all faced the team on a level with the driver. Saddle-bags, then the usual baggage of travel- ers, were slung around the standards which supported the roof. It was the custom at night when they reached the lodging place, to give
" From the Life and Times of Patrick Gass, by J. G. Jacob, Esq.
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their saddle-bags into the custody of the landlord, whose wife put them under her bed, and delivered them to the travelers in the morn- ing. Travelers often carried large sums in this way.
It was not until the year 1827 that any coaches running day and night crossed the Allegheny mountains. At about this time Mr. Reeside became the contractor for carrying the mails between Balti- more and Wheeling, via Hagerstown and the National road, and from Philadelphia via Harrisburg, Chambersburg and Bedford to Pitts- burgh, upon which routes previous to this, no mails had been carried at night. The system of running day and night was introduced by him between Philadelphia and Baltimore and the west, reducing the time from four days to fifty-two hours, and thereby earned the sobriquet of "Land Admiral," bestowed upon him by a Philadelphia editor, who, in giving him that title said " that he could leave Philadelphia with a hot johnnie cake in his pocket, and reach Pittsburgh before it would grow cold." When Reeside was contractor for the mails going out of Philadelphia to Baltimore, Wheeling, Pittsburgh, etc., a robbery of the mails was committed which was the sensation of the time. The mail for Kimberton, a short line running out of Philadelphia, was robbed. A few days subsequent the important mail for Reading and Pottsville was robbed near the point where Girard college now stands. The driver of the coach was a man of the name of Charles Wilhower. There were nine passengers in the coach. It was stopped by three men, named respectively, Porter, Poteet and Wilson, at about 2 o'clock in the morning. They forced the passengers to get out and stood them in line. Wilson and Poteet watched the team and driver, while Porter robbed the passengers. After rifling the mail they allowed the coach to proceed. Porter and Wilson were arrested at Reeside; Poteet by a policeman in Philadelphia. Poteet was remanded to the Maryland penitentiary, from which he had escaped, to serve out the remainder of a sentence of eleven years; he died, however, before the expiration of his sentence. Wilson turned state's evidence and Porter was hanged. It is said that Gen. Jackson was influenced to commute the sentence of Wilson to a few years' imprisonment be- cause of a service rendered to him many years previous on a race course in Tennessee.
During the time of the excitement about nullification in South Car- olina, Gen. Jackson's proclamation was expressed through to New York. The son of Mr. Reeside related the following incident concern- ing it: "On its arrival at Philadelphia, owing to the injuries sustained by the express rider regularly employed, I, on my way home from school, was substituted to carry it on to New York. I left Philadel- phia at 5 o'clock in the evening and reached Jersey City at 9:26 P. M., four hours and twenty-six minutes. I was taken across the river in the yawl by Mr. Dodd, and delivered the proclamation to Mr. Gouv- erneur, at the postoffice. The relays of horses used by me in making the run were from three to five miles apart. It was a very dark night, several of the bridges over which I had to pass had draws. But there was no time to stop to think whether they were open or closed. I
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had to take my chances of jumping them, if they happened to be open. Fortunately, however, they were all closed."
In 1835 there were two competing lines between Frederick, Md., and Wheeling, viz .: the Good Intent Stage company and the Stoke & Stockton or National road line. The coachesand stock of the former east of Cumberland were owned by Messrs. Alpheus Beall and Thomas Shriver, of Cumberland, John A. Wirt and j. A. Hutchinson, of New Jersey, and William H. Steele, formerly of New Jersey, and afterward a resident of Wheeling; James Reeside owned the stock between Cumberland and Wheeling. The ownership of the National Road Stage company was vested in L. W. Stockton, Moor N. Falls and Daniel Moore.
While the two were running opposition, three daily lines were started from Wheeling, and frequently they were supplemented by a large number of chartered and extra coaches, as many as twenty be- ing dispatched in one morning. During the California fever there was an unusually large number of passengers to be carried.
When President Zachary Taylor and his party were on their way to Washington city, they were caught at Moundsville by the ice and their boat was frozen in. A driver of the Good Intent Stage company was called upon to help forward the presidential party, and drove for eighteen hours with only such delays as were necessary to change his teams. The stage companies being intent on making the best pos- sible time bought up the best stock within their reach, the Consul and Mayduke horses having the preference. They were. usually about sixteen hands high, rather leggy, but having good body and action. On one occasion two of the horses jumped over the wall, near to the spot known as McColloch's leap, just east of Wheeling, and being suspended by the wheelers and the coach until they were choked and had ceased to struggle, they were cut loose and allowed to fall a dis- tance of nearly twelve feet, when they were again harnessed and completed their trip without experiencing any damage.
After the lapse of some years, Reeside dissolved with his partners in the Good Intent line and started a line of his own from Wheeling to Frederick. At this time then there were three competing lines, and the result was that the competition cut down fares from $8 and $io to the nominal fare of 50 cents. This, however, could not long continue, and after losing a large amount of money the other two lines bought Reeside out, and thenceforward the two survivors, al- though continuing as separate organizations, divided way-bills and kept up rates. Two more attempts were made to start opposition lines over the same route, the Henderson company of Pittsburgh, which put on a daily line, and two sons of Reeside, who started a fancy line called the "Junebug." The Henderson line, however, was soon bought off and the "Junebug" line broke up. The two original companies held the field until the completion of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad to Wheeling in 1852 deprived them of their occupation.
The following interesting communication from A. Allen Howell, Esq., of Wheeling, was furnished to the writer at his request, Mr.
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Howell was connected with one of the companies just mentioned, and therefore speaks by the card. It is as follows:
"In 1841, the year I became connected with the National Road Stage company, there were two separate lines running between Frederick City, Md., and Wheeling, Va .- the National Road Stage company and the Good Intent Stage company. The two lines were running the road in complete harmony-each line doing the same amount of work, and dividing gross receipts each quarter. The only rivalry was the laudable one of excelling in good coaches, teams and drivers, and in making the best time on the road. The office at this end of the line (Wheeling) was occupied jointly by the companies. In 1843 or 44, Mr. L. W. Stockton died, and the National Road Stage company became the property of Mr. Daniel Moore, Henry Moore, J. C. Ache- son, M. W. Falls and Dr. Howard Kennedy. The National Road Stage company had the contract for carrying the United States mail, and it is within the knowledge of our older citizens how well and loyally the service was performed. An incident may not be out of place, showing the spirit governing the proprietors in regard to fail- ures of the mail. In the year 1842 I was agent of the N. R. S. Co., at Uniontown, Penn. The mail was due at that place at 5:30 P. M., and at Wheeling at 8 A. M. Owing to a snow storm in the mountains east of Uniontown, the mail was behind time. Mr. Stockton re- mained at the office until near midnight, determined to save the mail if possible. Not having arrived at 12 o'clock, he left for bed, giving me orders to save the mail if it reached Uniontown by 2 o'clock A. M. The mail arrived twenty minutes before 2 o'clock, and I had it trans- ferred to the inside of a small six-passenger coach, and at ten minutes to 2 o'clock I started it for Wheeling with no one on the coach but the driver and Mr. Buntering, the road agent. The mail reached the postoffice in Wheeling just as the clock struck 8 A. M., thus saving the mail and making the trip from Uniontown to Wheeling (sixty- eight miles) in six hours and ten minutes, including changes of horses on the route. Three horses were killed and at least a dozen more were placed " hors de combat " (no pun intended), and the expense of that fast trip could not have been less than $1,000 from injury to stock, etc.
" The fine for failure of a mail was only $50 in case no good excuse could be offered. In this case the company had a valid and sufficient excuse for the delay and no fine would have been exacted by the de- partment, but Mr. Stockton had so high a sense of honor and pride as connected with his service that he did not regret the loss sustained. I may add that the team I started from Uniontown on this trip, had his private carria se horses in the lead, he having ordered me to place them there. When the nature of the road from Uniontown to Wheel- ing is considered, this was a remarkable trip. The message of the president of the United States was carried by relays of horses in very short time (under six hours I think), and so far as I remember, without compensation.
"During the palmy days of staging it was a pleasant sight to view
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the long string of coaches -of both lines-sometimes they would be in close order, and after the coaches starting from Brownsville joined the string, it resembled a caravan in its proportions. On one occasion I think there were twenty-four coaches from Wheeling and Browns- ville at one time on the road going east, and as they were in close order the sight was interesting. The taverns on the road were gen- erally good-notably the Frostburg House and Bass Rush's, National House and McClelland's (Uniontown), etc. The drivers on both lines were a class of men, suigeneris. They have nearly all passed away. As a rule they were first-class in everything pertaining to their occupation - honest, trustworthy, sober and polite. They took much pride in their teams, and it was a rare occurrence that an old hand was discharged for misconduct. Mr. John Foster, better known as 'Pap Foster' was the office agent for the two companies in Wheel- ing. No more faithful man was ever employed by any company. He always slept at the office and was well-known to the traveling public. In 1852 the Baltimore & Ohio railroad was finished to Wheeling, and then the wheels of the coaches stopped. The horses were sold and the drivers scattered."
The National road was indeed the Appian Way of the republic. It was in its palmy days more like the grand avenue of some proud city than a road through rural districts.
A writer * in speaking of it says,-" It was the great route between the east and the west; many of the southern and all of the western statesmen of the olden times traveled upon it from their homes to Washington and back. As many assixteen two-horse coaches have been counted in continuous procession at one time passing along the old pike, and large broad-wheeled wagons covered with white canvass, laden with merchandise and drawn by six Conestoga horses, have lined it from sunrise to sunset without intermissiom, besides innumer- able caravans of horses, mules, cattle, hogs and sheep.
The road was famous for the number and excellence of its inns or taverns. On the mountain division they averaged probably one for every mile of road. All were provided with commodious wagon yards. The sign boards with their golden letters winking in the sun ogled the passer-by from the hot road-bed, and gave promise of good cheer, while the big horse-trough full of clear fresh water, and the ground below it sprinkled with droppings of fragrant peppermint, lent a charm to the surroundings that was at once irresistible. Men who drove teams on the old pike were invariably called wagoners- not teamsters, as is the modern word. They carried their beds in the forepart of the wagon, rolled up, and spread them out before the big bar-room fire, when they retired for the night. Some of the bar- room grates would hold as much as seven bushels of coal. Teams were rarely ever stabled, but almost invariably stood upon the wagon yard, no matter how inclement the weather might by. There were
* Col. Searight.
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two classes of wagoners, the "regular " and the " sharpshooter."* The former were engaged in the business from year's end to year's end, and did nothing else. The latter were composed for the most part of farmers, who put their teams on the road when freights were high, and took them off when they declined. The "regular," drove his team on an average about fifteen miles a day, while the " sharpshoot- ers" would make twenty, or twenty-five miles. There was naturally much jealously between the classes.
Twenty-five cents was the uniform price of warm meals at the old taverns, and a drink of whisky thrown in. A cold check was set out in the middle of the day for 1212 cents, a "levy," in the old phrase, and a drink thrown in. The "regulars" were very hostile to en- croachments of railroads, and regarded them as the invention of the evil one. They had an old song among them that ran something after this fashion:
Come all ye jolly wagoners, Turn out man for man, Who's opposed to the railroad Or any such a plan. When we go down to Baltimore, And ask for a load, They'll very soon tell you, It's gone by railroad.
There was a line of these wagons belonging to a voluntary com- pany, called the "Continental line," which had its headquarters at Wheeling, of which J. B. Ford was agent, as well as for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, at Cumberland, Md., and J. A. Rowe was agent at the former place. Several of our old-time citizens were interested in this line. The late Joseph Caldwell, Esq., had three or four teams in this line, which were under the control of one Newlove, who kept a wagon yard where the freight depot of the Baltimore & Ohio rail- road now stands. Abner Charnock also had one or two teams in the same line, and others whose names we cannot now recall. The line only went to Cumberland. A team carried from 7,500 to 10,000 pounds, and this was drawn by six horses. The length of time it took to make the trip from Wheeling to Cumberland was nine days and the same number of days returning. So far as we are aware there are now living in Ohio county but three of these knights of the whip. The rest have driven over the bridge which spans between time and eternity. Their names are Charles Prettyman, George Weddel and William Tracy.
Alas, the old-fashioned stage-coach with its experience and associa- tions as well as the old Conestoga wagon, with its white cover and its, belled horses and their driver have become relics of the past, pushed aside by the progressive spirit of the age. The toot of the horn is no longer heard in our midst, and the graceful flourish of the long whip is seen no longer as the lumbering coach rattles along at break-neck speed as it draws up at the place of its destination. But now instead
* These latter were also called the "militia." -- G. L. C.
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is heard the weird shriek of the rushing train, as with swift wings it flies along the ringing rail. The gayly decorated coach, drawn by a spanking team of four matched horses, driven by a knight of the whip, swelling with pride, and handling the "ribbons" with the skill of a master, is but a fast fleeting memory.
" We mourn, bereft of the post-horn deft, Blown by that famous driver, For we only hear when the cars draw near, A screech down by the river."
CHAPTER XII.
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.
ASON AND DIXON'S LINE was based upon an agreement entered into on the 4th of July, 1760, between " Lord Baltimore, of the province of Maryland, and Thomas Richard Penn, of the province of Pennsylvania, and the three lower counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, on the Delaware-on account of the very long litigations and contests which had subsisted between these provinces from the year 1683. These parties mutually agreed, among other things, to appoint a sufficient number of discreet and proper persons, not more than seven on each side, to be their respective commissioners, with full power to the said seven persons, or any three or more of them, for the actual running, marking and laying out of the said part of the circle (as mentioned in the charter from Charles II. to William Penn), and the said before mentioned lines, The commissioners were to fix upon their time of commencing said line not later than the following October, and proceed with all fairness, candor and dispatch; marking said line with stones and posts on both sides, and complete the same before the 25th of December, 1763, so that no disputes may hereafter arise concerning the same. James Hamilton (governor), Richard Peters, Rev. Dr. John Ewing, William Allen (chief justice), William Coleman, Thomas Willing and Benjamin Chew, were appointed commissioners on the part of the .Penns. Horatio Sharpe (governor), J. Ridout, John Leeds, John Bar- clay, George Stewart, Dan of St. Thomas Janifer, and J. Beale Boardley. on behalf of Lord Baltimore. The board of commissioners met at New Castle, in November, 1760, and each province selected its own
surveyors. The Pennsylvania surveyors were John Lukens and Archibald McClain. Those of Maryland were John F. A. Priggs and Jonathan Hall. The commissioners and surveyors agreed that the peninsular lines from Henlopen to the Chesapeake, made under a
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decree of Lord Hardwicke in 1750, was correct, hence if they fixed the court house at New Castle as the center of the circle, and the sur- veyors proceeded on this data to measure and mark the lines, James Veach, Esq., in his history of Mason and Dixon's line, says:
"Three years were diligently devoted to finding the bearings of the western line of Delaware, so as to make it a tangent to the circle, at the end of a twelve mile radius. The instruments and appliances employed seem to have been those commonly used by surveyors. The proprietors residing in or near London, grew weary of this slow progress, which, perhaps, they set down to the incompetency of the artists. To this groundless suspicion we owe the supercedure and the introduction of the new Mason and Dixon, who have immortalized their memory in the name of the principal line which had yet to be run."
In August, 1763, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, of London, England, were selected by Lord Baltimore and the Penns to com- plete their lines, as per agreement, made on the 4th of July, 1760, and arrived at Philadelphia in November, for that purpose, furnished, says Mr. Veech, with instruction and the most approved instruments, among them a four foot zenith sector. They go to work at once, erect an observatory on Cedar street, Philadelphia, to facilitate the ascertainment of its latitude, which building they used by January, 1764, and it has been pronounced the first building erected in Amer- ica for astronomical observations. They then go to New Castle, adopt the radius as measured by their predecessors, and after num- erous tracings of the tangent line, adopt also this tangent point, from which they say they could not make the tangent line pass one inch to the eastward or westward. They therefore cause that line and point to be marked, and adjourn to Philadelphia to find the southern limit of Cedar or South street. This they make to be 39 56' 29", while the latitude of the state has been marked as 39º 56' 29", they then proceed to extend that latitude sufficiently far to the west to be due north of the tangent point, thence they measure down south fifteen miles to the latitude of the great due west line, and run its parallel for a short distance, then they go to the tangent point and run due north to that latitude, and at the point of intersection, in a deep ravine, near a spring, they cause to be planted the corner-stone, at which begins the celebrated " Mason and Dixon's line.
The graphic description of Mr. Veech continues: "Having ascer- tained the latitude of this line to be 39° 43' 32" (although more accur- ate observations make it 39° 43' 26". 8, consequently it is a little over nineteen miles south 40° as now located) they, under instructions, run it parallel to the Susquehanna, twenty-three miles; and having veri- fied the latitude there, they return to the tangent point, from which they run the north line to the fifteen mile corner and that part of the circle which it cuts off to the west, and which by agreement was to go to New Castle county. This little bow or arc is about a mile and a half long and its middle width 116 feet. From the upper end where the three states join, to the fifteen mile point where
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the great Mason and Dixon's line begins, is a little over three and a half miles, and from the fifteen mile corner due west to the circle is a little over three quarters of a mile. This was the only part of the circle which Mason and Dixon run, Lord Baltimore having no con- cern in the residue; Penn, however, had it run and marked with "four good notches," by Isaac Taylor and Thomas Pierson in 1700 and 1701. Where it cuts the circle is the corner of three dominions, an import- ant point, and therefore they cause it to be well ascertained and well marked. This brings them to the end of 1764."
They resumed their labors in June, 1765. If to extend this parallel did not require so great skill as did the nice adjustments of the other lines and instructions, it summoned its performers to greater endur- ance. A tented army penetrates the forest, but their purposes are peaceful and they move merrily. Besides the surveyors and their as- sistants, there are claim-bearers, rod-men, axe-men, commissioners, cooks and baggage carriers, with numerous servants and laborers. By the 27th of October they came to the North (Cove or Kittatiny) Mountain, ninety-five miles from the Susquehanna, and where the temporary line of 1739 terminated. After taking Capt. Shelby with them to its summit, to show them the course of the Potomac, and point out the Allegheny mountains, the surveyors returned to the settle- ments to pass the winter and to get their appointment renewed.
Early in 1768 they are again at their posts, and by the 4th of June they are on the top of the Little Allegheny mountain, the first west of Will's creek. They have now carried the line 160 miles from the beginning. The Indians into whose ungranted territory they had deeply penetrated, grew restive and threatening. They forbid any further advance, and they had to be obeyed. The agents of the pro- prietors now find that there are other lords of the soil whose favor must be propitiated. The Six Indian nations were the lords para- mount of the territory yet to be traversed. To obtain their consent to the consummation of the line, the governors of Pennsylvania and Maryland, in the winter of 1766-7, at an expense of more than £500, procured, under the agency of Sir William Johnston, a convocation of the tribes of that powerful confederacy. The application was suc- cessful, and early in June, 1767, an escort of fourteen warriors, with an interpreter and chief deputed by the Iroquois council, met the sur- veyors and their camp at the summit of the great Allegheny to escort them down into the valley of the Ohio.
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