History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 58

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 58

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" That it is the sincere wish of the President to obtain all the necessary information in order that the road should pursue the fonte which will be of the greatest public utility no doubt can exist. So far as relates to myself, after having with much difficulty obtained the creation of a fund for opening a great western road & the act pointing out its general direction, it is sufficiently evident from the spot on the Monongahela which the road strikes that if there was any subsequent interference on my part it was not of a selfish nature. But the fact is that in the exe- cution of the law I thought myself an improper person, from the situa- tion of my property, to take the direction which would naturally have been placed in my hands, & requested the President to undertake the general superintendence himself.

" Accept the assurance of friendly remembrance & of my sincere wishes for your welfare & happiness.

"Your obedt. servt.,

" ALBERT GALLATIN."

From this letter it appears that the action of the commissioners, prior to the correspondence between Mr. Acheson and Mr. Gallatin, was nufa- vorable to the claims of Washington, and that President Jefferson on receipt of Mr. Acheson's letter had promptly interfered in order to have the ronte surveyed which was finally adopted, his specific instructions to the commissioners favoring Washington as an intermediate point, and Wheeling thus became the point of intersection with the Ohio River.

and the other through the south part of Washington County, leaving the town of Washington several miles to the northward. The topography of the country rendered the last-named route the more favorable of the two, and it was so regarded by the engineer and the commissioners ; but the influence of Washington Borough again prevailed (as it had done seven years before in causing President Jefferson to order an examination of the route by way of the town), and President Madison, after carefully considering the commissioners' report on the survey, decided in favor of the northern route by way of Washington. His decision was communicated to the commissioners in a letter written by Mr. Dallas, under direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, as follows :

"TREASURY DEPARTMENT, June 2, 1816. "GENTLEMEN,-The President has confirmed the road surveyed and returned by you,-1st, so far as it runs from Cumberland through Uniontown to Brownsville, in Pennsylvania, with certain devia- tions which have been made by Mr. Shriver, the superintendent, and approved by the President; and 2d, so far as it runs from the 113th mile on your survey to Wheeling, on the river Ohio. He has also determined that the route of the road shall run from Brownsville through Washington and Alexandria to intersect the course of your survey at the 113th mile, continning thence to Wheeling. I am therefore in- structed by the President to request that you will proceed, as soon as you conveniently can, with the assistance authorized by law, to explore, lay out, and report for his consideration, upon the principles of the act of the 29th of March, 1806, the course for the road from Brownsville to the 113th mile, as above stated, and also the course of the deviations from the original route proposed by the commissioners which have been made or are contemplated to be made be- tween Cumberland and Uniontown. It is the Presi- dent's object to obtain a return of the entire course of the road to constitute a record, and to perpetuate the claim of the United States to the ground over which it runs. To avoid delay the attendance of any two or more of you is deemed sufficient for the pres- ent object. You will be so good as to give notice to Mr. Shriver, the superintendent, of the time of your entering upon the survey, and he will be instructed to give you all the information and assistance in his power. As Mr. Parker Campbell and Mr. [Thomas H.] Baird, of Washington, have made proposals to construct the road from Brownsville to Washington, I wish you also to notify them of your commence- ment and progress in the survey.

"I am, very respectfully, " Gentlemen, " Your obedient servant,

" A. J. DALLAS. "To Messrs. Eli Williams, Thomas Moore, > Commissioners." Joseph Kerr,

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

The one hundred and thirteenth mile of the com- missioners' survey (meaning the route laid through the southern part of Washington County, and not that passing by Washington Borough) was near the Virginia line, west of the village of West Alexan- der 1 (mentioned in the above letter as " Alexandria"). Thus, by the decision of President Madison, as com- municated by Mr. Dallas to the commissioners, the entire route of the road from Cumberland to the Ohio was fixed as to prominent points, and only lacked the final survey of that part lying between Brownsville and the point indicated west of West Alexander. This final survey was made under direction of the commissioners, immediately after receipt of their in- structions to that effect, and being returned to the President, was by him approved and adopted.

The route of the road was divided for construction into an eastern and a western division, the former (which was to be first completed) extending from Cumberland through Uniontown to a point about one mile east of Brownsville, and the western division extending from that point through the town of Washington to the Ohio at Wheeling. The super- intendent appointed for the eastern division was David Shriver, of Cumberland, Md. The western division was in June, 1816, placed in charge of Col. Eli Williams, one of the commissioners, who acted as "agent of the United States" for that division until the appointment of Josias Thompson (previously en- gineer of the division ) as superintendent, in May, 1817.

hela (which was sub-let to George Dawson), and be- tween that river and the town of Washington.

Through Washington County, from a point two miles west of the Monongahela and extending thence to the Virginia line, the construction of the roadway was contracted to Messrs. Thomas McGiffin, Thomas H. Baird, and Parker Campbell, of the borough of Washington ; the contract for that part extending from a point two miles east of Washington westward to the State line being awarded to them in March, 1817, by Col. Williams, as agent for the United States, and the part extending eastward from the eastern end of their first contract to within two miles of the Mo- nongahela being let to them in 1819, by David Shriver, who had superseded Josias Thompson as superintend- ent of the western division. A part of MeGiffin, Baird, and Campbell's contract, viz., all that part east of the town of Hillsborough, in Washington County, was turned over by them to William and John H. Ewing, who were thereupon considered as distinct, original contractors with the government.

The eastern portion of the road, on which work was first commenced, was pushed so vigorously that it was open for travel, with scarcely a break, westward to the Youghiogheny River in the summer of 1817. On the 1st of August in 1818 the first stage-coach from Cumberland, carrying the United States mail for the West, left that place by the National road, and passing over the completed part of the eastern di- vision to Fayette County, Pa., and also over other completed parts of the western division, between the town of Washington and the Virginia line, arrived in dne time at Wheeling, on the Ohio. In the Union- town newspaper, the Genius of Liberty, of Angust 8, 1818, it was announced that "the stages have com- menced running from Frederick Town, Md., to Wheel- ing, in Virginia, following the course of the National road westward of Cumberland. This great road, truly an honor to the United States, will be finished from Cumberland to this place in a few months, and from Brownsville to Wheeling, it is expected, in the course of next summer, leaving ouly a distance of twelve miles between Uniontown and Brownsville."

The contract for building the road from Cumber- land to Uniontown was awarded, as has been men- tioned, to a number of contractors, by whom the work was prosecuted with extraordinary energy. With re- gard to the rapid building of the road by these con- tractors, A. L. Littell, Esq., a former resident of Fay- ette County, but now of Cleveland, Ohio, writes : " I was there to see it located, and the stakes stuck down the mountain, across the old commons south of Wood- stock [afterwards Monroe], and so on west, before there was a shovelful of earth displaced, and also to see that great contractor, Mordecai Cochran, its builder, with his immortal Irish brigade, a thousand strong, with their carts, wheel-barrows, picks, shovels, In the fall of the same year the road was announced as completed to Uniontown, though some of the heavy masonry east of the town was not at that time finished. For some reason which is not wholly appar- ent, the work had not been contracted for from Union- town to the west end of the eastern division (a point one mile and ninety-six rods east from the Mononga- hela at Brownsville ), though the section extending from the Monongahela (including a large amount of heavy work on the approaches to the river," particularly on and blasting-tools, grading those commons and climb- ing the long mountain-side up to Point Lookout, like a well-trained army, and leaving behind them as they went a roadway good enough for an emperor to travel over." The firm of Kincaid & Co. (composed of James Kincaid, James Beck, Gabriel Evans, John Kennedy, and John Miller, the last two named being residents of Uniontown) afterwards contracted with . this latter point to another point about two miles west of Superintendent Shriver for the construction of the road from Uniontown to the western end of the east- ern division, and also for masonry at the Mononga-

1 The one hundred and thirteenth mile of the route, which was after- wards surveyed, and over which the National road was actually huilt, is about two miles east of West Alexander, the route through Washing- too Borough being considerably longer than the other.

2 The government did not bridge the Monongahela for the passage of the National road. The bridge which was built across that river, sears after the completion of the road, for the accommodation of the intense travel which it brought, was built by au incorporated company, orention of which will be found in the history of the borough of Bridgeport.

256

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the east side of it) had been let by Col. Eli Williams, as agent for the I'nited States, in March, 1817, the same time when he contracted with McGiffin, Baird, and Campbell for the work west from Washington. On the 15th of May, 1819, David Shriver, superin- tendent, advertised for proposals to build the road west from Uniontown to the vicinity of Washington, excepting the short section on both sides of the Mo- nongahela. The work from Uniontown to the west end of the eastern division was let by him to Kincaid & Co., while MeGiffin, Baird, and Campbell, as before mentioned, took the work in Washington County, ex- tending from the river section westward to their pre- vions contract.

These contracts were the last to be let on the road between Cumberland and the Ohio. The work was commenced without delay, and vigorously prose- cuted during the remainder of 1819 and the spring and summer of 1820, the road being finished and made ready for use in its entire length in the fall of the latter year. An announcement of the fact, dated Dec. 19, 1820, is found in the Uniontown Genius of Liberty of that time, as follows: "The commissioner appointed by the government of the United States, Thomas MeGiffin, Esq., has been engaged for a week or two past in examining the United States turnpike, made under contract with government by James Kin- caid & Co., between this place and Washington, who has approved of it, and ordered the same to be given up by the contractors for public use. The National turnpike is now completed and in the use of the public from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to Wheel- ing, in the State of Virginia, a distance of about one hundred and thirty miles."

faced roller four feet in length and made to bear three tons' weight. The acclivity and declivity of the banks at the side of the road not to exceed thirty degrees."

It was to be expected that the opening of such an excellent road-a main thoroughfare between the East and the West, easy, direct, and free to the use of any and all, without cost or charge-would attract to it an immense amount of travel; but all the expectations which could have been previously entertained of the vast volume of travel and traffic which would pass over the National road between the Ohio and the Po- tomac were trebly verified by the result. There were the stage-coaches, carrying the mail and passengers, loaded to their utmost capacity from the first, and con- stantly increasing in number from that time until the opening of the railroads banished them forever. By

these conveyances, all the prominent public men of the West, and many of those from the South,-Presi- dents-elect from Tennessee, Ohio, and Louisiana, on their way to inauguration ; Presidents in office, pass- ing to and fro between the city of Washington and their Southwestern homes; ex-Presidents, on their way to the shades of private life; Senators, members of Congress, and numberless officials of lesser grade, all making the National road their highway to and from the national capital. Then there were the long, almost interminable lines of Conestoga wagons, laden on their eastward trips with flour, whisky, bacon, and other produce, and returning west with loads of iron, salt, and every kind of merchandise, their numbers being swelled on the return to the West by the addition of equally numerous trains of the same kind of wagons, freighted with the families and house-

The National road to the Ohio, when completed, ' hold effects of emigrants from the East, bound to new had cost the United States government nearly one homes beyond the Ohio. Besides these, the road was crowded with various other descriptions and kinds of wagons, laden and unladen, with horsemen and pri- vate carriages innumerable. "But the passengers on foot outnumbered and out-ate them all. The long lines of hogs, cattle, sheep, and horses working their way on the hoof by the month to an Eastern market was almost endless and countless. They were gath- ered in from the Wabash, the Scioto, the Muskingum, and the Ohio Valleys, and the men, all tired and dry and hungry, had to be cared for at a great cost, for it was like feeding an army every day and night." million seven hundred thousand dollars, and it was one of the best and most substantial turnpike roads ever built in this country. Its width, grades, and the manner of its construction are shown by the specifi-> cations of the work required from the contractors, among which were included the following, viz. : "The natural surface of the ground to be cleared of trees and other wooden growth, and also of logs and brush, the whole width of sixty-six feet, the bed of the road to be made even thirty-two feet in width, the trees and stumps to be grubbed out, the graduation not to ex- ceed five degrees in elevation and depression, and to To furnish food and other accommodations for all | this vast throng of travelers, brute and human, a great number of public-houses were needed, and these sprang up immediately along the road. The stage- houses, for the entertainment of passengers by the coaches, were located in Washington, Uniontown, Brownsville, and other towns on the route, and at stated points between the villages where these were distant from each other. Then there were houses which did scarcely any business other than the sell- ing of whisky to thirsty wayfarers. And there were along the route numerous taverns which made no be straight from point to point, as laid off and directed by the superintendent of the work. Twenty feet in width of the graduated part to be covered with stone, eighteen inches in depth at the centre, tapering to twelve inches at the edges, which are to be supported by good and solid shoulders of earth or curbstone, the upper six inches of stone to be broken so as to pass through a ring of three inches in diameter, and the lower stratum of stone to be broken so as to pass through a seven-inch ring. The stone part to be well covered with gravel, and rolled with an iron-

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

specialty, other than to give fair and decent enter- tainment for man and beast. These had no patronage either from the stage passengers or wagoners upon the road. The latter with the drovers always clustered together at houses having capacious wagon-yards, and kept especially for that class of customers. The number of public-houses of all kinds which the National road brought into existence was fully equal to one for each two miles of its entire length from mountain portion of the route the average was one to every mile, but in the part west of the Laurel Hill they were less frequent. The keepers of these houses, like the wagoners and the drivers of stages, and, in fact, like the greater part of the people living along the route, looked upon the Cumberland Road as being among the chiefest of earthly blessings, and would have regarded with affright the idea that it would ever be abandoned or superseded by other avenues and modes of travel.

President of the United States, and the principles of the Democratic party became the rule of public policy. The States Rights doctrine of that party demanded the transfer of the National road from the general gov- ernment to the States through which its route was laid. It was proposed that the road from Cumberland to Wheeling be surrendered to the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The people of the sections contiguous to the road were in dread that the United Cumberland to the Ohio. It was said that in the States would abandon the making of repairs and suffer the road to fall into disuse, but if turned over to the States its continuance and preservation would be assured, because, while the United States could not erect toll-gates and collect tolls upon the road, the States would have the power to do so, and thus secure a revenue from the road, to keep it in preservation and repair. Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia . would accept the road from the United States on cer- tain conditions, among which was this, that Congress should first make an appropriation sufficient in amount to put it in good condition by macadamizing the road- way in nearly its entire length, from Cumberland to the Ohio.

It was a general belief that the substantially built National road, with its firm foundation of packed stone, would remain smooth and serviceable for at least a quarter of a century, while some thought it would last for double that length of time, but the re- sult proved the fallacy of this belief. In five years from the time of its opening the ceaseless beating of hoofs and the never-ending roll and crunch of heavy wheels had worn out its solid bed, so that in many places it was almost impassable. This was particu- larly the case in the vicinity of the Monongahela River, and also in the mountain region of the route, where much of the roadbed had been formed of soft sandstone. An appropriation was made by Congress, and extensive repairs were made on the road, putting the worst parts of it in good condition. But it was of short duration.1 From that time frequent appro- priations were called for, and continually repairs on the road were necessary.

It became evident that the road would be a per- petual and ever-increasing expense to the United States, without producing any income to pay for re- pairs. It had been built for the purpose of satisfying Ohio and the West generally, and thus preventing that section from fostering projects of secession from the Union. But that danger was now past, and the National road had become a heavy burden upon the government. In 1829, Gen. Jackson was inaugurated

In 1831 the Assembly of Pennsylvania passed "an act for the preservation and repair of the Cumberland road," approved April 4th in that year, reciting in its preamble that " Whereas, that part of the Cumber- land road lying within the State of Pennsylvania is in many parts in bad condition for want of repairs, and as doubts have been entertained whether the United States have authority to erect toll-gates on said road and collect toll, and as a large proportion of the people of this commonwealth are interested in said road and its constant continuance and preserva- tion ; Therefore" [it proceeded to declare and enact] "that as soon as the consent of the government of the United States shall have been obtained, as here- inafter provided, William F. Coplan, David Downer, of Fayette County, Stephen Hill, Benjamin Ander- son, of Washington County, and Thomas Endsley, of Smithfield, Somerset Co., shall be and they are hereby appointed commissioners .. . to build toll- houses and erect toll-gates at suitable distances on so much of the Cumberland road as lies within the State of Pennsylvania. .. . That this act shall not have any force or effect until the Congress of the United States shall assent to the same, and until so much of the said road as passes through the State of Pennsyl- vania he first put in a good state of repair, and ap- propriation made by Congress for erecting toll-houses and toll-gates thereon, to be expended under the au- thority of the commissioners appointed by this act." Acts similar to this in effect, with regard to the accept- ance of the National road, were passed by the Legis- latures of Maryland and Virginia, respectively on the 23d of January and 7th of February, 1832.

These acts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- ginia caused a decision by the government in July, 1832, to repair the road effectually from end to end,

1 " In February of 1826 it was estimated that the sum of $278,988 would be sufficient to repair the whole road on the McAdam plan, and in May, 1827, a period of sixteen months, the superstratum or cover of reduced stone had been worn and washed away to an extent almost in- credible, and proved that too great a reliance was placed upon the layer of large stone, as there were not many of them of as good a quality as was first supposed. To have effected ths repair in 1827, as was conten- plated in 1826, would have required an additional sum of $50,000, making $328,988 necessary to rejmir the road upon the best information to be obtained at that period. The utter destruction of the road was foreseen at that time unless measures were taken to repair it thoroughly, it being then in a most wretched condition."-Report of Richard Delufi il, capt in U. S. Engineers, lui befine Congress in December, 1833.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and then to.cede it to the three States, after which the repairs were to be met by the tolls collected upon it. " The system adopted," said Capt. Richard Delafield, the engineer who had charge of the work of repair, "was that extensively used in England, and known by the name of its inventor, McAdam. The condi- tion of the road at this period made very exten- | able action on the recommendation of the engineer, sive repairs necessary, commencing from the grade, there being neither side drains, ditches, nor culverts for draining the water, presenting no better condition for the basis of repairs on the MeAdam system than what is called a 'rough grade,' with the large bridges. Rather than make a partial repair by distributing the sum appropriated over the whole line of one hundred and thirty-two miles, the parts through the mountains, "SECTION 3. That for the entire completion of repairs of the Cumberland road east of the Ohio River, and other Deelful im- provements on said road, to carry into effect the provisions of an act of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, entitled ' An act for the preservation of the Cumberland road,' passed the fourth day of April, 1831, and of an act of the General Assem- hly of the State of Maryland, entitled ' An act for the preserva- tion and repair of that part of the United States road within the limits of the State of Maryland,' passed the 23d day of Jan- uary, 1832, also an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, entitled ' An act concerning the Cumberland road,' passed Fch- ruary the 7th, 1832, the sum of three hundred thousand dollars he and the same is hereby appropriated, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to he cx- pended under the direction of the Secretary of War, the money to be drawn ont of the treasury in such suins and at such times being in the worst condition, and from the face of the country most difficult to travel, were first com- menced. The supposition of finding good stone in the bed of the road wherewith to make macadamized metal proved fallacious: not a perch was found through the whole mountain district, the bed being composed of soft sandstone. This when broken to four-ounce pieces and used for a covering is in the course of three months reduced to sand and washed away by the heavy rains from the road into the ditches and drains, making it worse than useless to depend upon any of the varieties of sandstone. Un- der these circumstances but one course was left, and that was to procure the only suitable material the | as may be required for the performance of the work.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 58

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314