History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 59

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 59

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conntry produced, -limestone. The natural position of this stone is under the sandstone, and found only in the lowest valleys, often in the beds of creeks covered with several feet of earth, and distant from the line of the road. Through the mountain it is found in few positions. The expense of repairing the road with a good material, and the only one of this character found in the country, is far greater than an- ticipated before these facts were known. Another heavy item in the expense of repair is the condi- tion of the masonry; this having been exposed for a long time to the weather without coping to throw off the rain and snow, is in a dilapidated condi- tion, requiring a considerable portion to be renewed. road in such a condition as will justify toll being exacted is so far beyond that at first anticipated as to make it proper to draw the particular attention of Congress to the estimate for the year, based upon the facts herein stated. It will be perceived that the snm asked for the service of the year is to finish all that part lying between Cumberland and the Monon- gahela River and the Virginia line, and to finish the sixteen miles in Virginia, making the sum required to repair the whole road on the MeAdam plan not less than 8645,000, of which the resources of that re- gion of country will advantageously admit of $300,000 being expended during the year."

The above is from Capt. Delafield's report, sub- mitted in December, 1833, having reference to the

general repairs of the Cumberland road, commenced in 1832, and continued, under his supervision (assisted by Capt .- afterwards General-George W. Cass), to the 30th of September, 1833. The further appropria- tion which he recommends "for the service of the year" has reference to 1834. Congress took favor- and made the required appropriation by an act passed in June of that year. The parts of that act relative to the appropriation for repairs on the National road in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and to the cession of the road to those States when the proposed repairs should be completed, are here given, viz. :

"SECTION 4. That as soon as the sum by this act appropri- ated, or so much thereof as is necessary, shall be expended in the repair of said road, agreenbly to the provisions of this act, the same shall be surrendered to the States respectively through which said road passes, and the United States shall not there- after be subject to any expense for repairing said road."

Under these circumstances the cost of putting the able for renewing the work in the spring" of 1834.

Capt. Delafield, in his report,-or, as it is termed, " Memoir on the Progress of the Repairs of the Cum- berland Road East of the Ohio to the 30th of Sep- tember, 1834,"-says that the "nature and progress of the operations" of 1833 were continued to December of that year, "when, the available means being ab- sorbed, a cessation was put to the work, and all the stock and tools collected at points on the road favor- He continues that the spring proved very unfavorable, that the road was found to have been badly washed and damaged during the winter, that it had been hoped means would have been available to recom- mence work with the opening of the season, but that, " being disappointed in this particular, it became in- dispensable to dispose of all the stock and every arti- cle of property that would command cash or materials, and apply the limited means thus raised to the drain- age of the road ;" that "it was not until July of 1834 that funds were made available for continning the re- pairs," but that " by about the middle of August most of the contractors had commenced their operations," and that at the date of the report "the repair on the whole line of the road was in active progress," that

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quarries of good limestone, before unknown, had been discovered, that "the crops of the farmer were above mediocrity, laborers were more numerous than usual, owing to completion of parts of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad," and, finally, that " with the means now available the work on the road will in all probability be brought to a close (the bridges on the new location excepted) by the date fixed in the contracts, the 31st of December."

The work, however, was not completed at the speci- fied time. The division extending from a point five miles east of the borough of Washington westward to the Virginia line still lacked its macadamized covering, and was not finished until late in the fol- lowing year; but as all the work east of this division had been done, and as this western part was then under contract for completion without delay, it was considered that the United States government, by the passage of the act of Congress of June, 1834, and by providing for the thorough repair of the Cumber- land road in its entire length east of the Ohio River, nearly all of which had already been actually accom- plished, had complied with all the conditions imposed by the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Vir- ginia in their acts of 1831 and 1832. All that re- mained then to be done to complete the transfer of the road by the general government was its formal acceptance by the States, and this was done on the part of Pennsylvania by the passage by the General Assembly of " An Act for the preservation and re- pair of the Cumberland Road," approved April 1, 1835, the third section of which act provided and de- clared that " The surrender by the United States of so much of the Cumberland Road as lies within the State of Pennsylvania is hereby accepted by this State, and the commissioners to be appointed under this act are authorized to erect toll-gates on the whole or any part of said road, at such time as they may deem it expedient and proper to do so."

less (proportionate) rate of toll than was charged for narrow-wheeled wagons, which were far more de- structive to the road-bed. It was this discrimination which brought the broad wheels into extensive use on the Cumberland road. "I have frequently seen," says a former resident2 on the line of the Cumberland road, " from forty to fifty great Conestoga six-horse teams, carrying from five to six tons cach, picketed around over-night [at one of the roadside taverns] in the yards and on the commons, and all the other tav- erns about equally full at the same time. There were often two men with a team, who carried their own bedding, but all these men and horses had to be fed and cared for." Scarcely a day passed that did not see the main streets of the principal towns on the route crowded from end to end with these immense wagons, each of which had about one-half the carry- ing capacity of a modern railway-car. On the road between the towns they passed in almost continuous procession.3

There was, as early as 1835, an " Adams Express" running over the line of the Cumberland road, being started in the fall of that year by Alvin Adams (founder of the now omnipresent " Adams Express Company"), - Green, of Baltimore, and Maltby & Holt, oyster dealers of the same city. It was first known along the road as the "Oyster Line," being started with a main purpose of supplying the West with fresh oysters from Baltimore during the fall and winter of 1835-36. Soon afterwards it became a reg- ular express, not only continuing the oyster traffic, but carrying packages, and prosecuting a business similar to that of the express lines of the present day. They ran express-wagons, each drawn by four horses, and having relays of teams at stations ten or twelve miles apart, and the business was continued in this way on the road until the opening of the Pennsylva- nia Railroad.

" In 1837 a war with France was imminent, and the government at Washington, remembering the sympa- thy of Louisiana and New Orleans with France as the mother-country, with a lingering dread of a West- ern and alien combination, resolved to quicken the

The two commissioners appointed by the Governor under this act proceeded, in 1835, to erect toll-gates,1 as provided, and the collection of toll on the great road was commenced immediately. This had the ef- fect to clear the road almost entirely (except in the , mail service in that direction. Proposals were adver- mountain districts of the route) of the immense droves tised for to carry a light express mail-pouch, carrying short printed slips like telegrams, drafts, and paper money, on horseback through daily each way on the National road from Washington to St. Louis, and also from Dayton, Ohio, to New Orleans, at the net speed of ten miles an hour, and stopping only at prin- cipal offices. It was laid off in sections, and all the sections were taken for a term of three years. The section over the mountain from Cumberland to Union- town, Pa., was awarded to me' at five thousand dol- of horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs which had passed over it while it was a free thoroughfare. But through the mountains there was no other route, and so the drovers were compelled to use that part of the road and pay the tolls. The new system also brought into use upon this road very heavily built wagons, with wheels nine inches broad, drawn by six, and some- times by eight, horses. Wagons having wheels of this breadth of rim, and carrying loads not exceeding five tons' weight each, were allowed to pass on a much

1 Iron gates were first erected, but most of these were displaced many years ago by wooden ones. The mile posts along the line of the road were also of iron, and many of these are still standing.

" A. L. Littell, Esq., now of Cleveland, Ohio.

3 " Robert S. McDowell, of Dunbar, counted 133 six-horse teams pass- ing along the National road in one day in 1848, and took no notice of as many more teams of one, two, three, four, and five horses."

+ A. L, Littell, formerly of Uniontown.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

lars a year. I associated with me my father-in-law, continued for a considerable time, and until both William Morris, of Monroe, and we performed the work very successfully in 1837 and 1838, when the war emergency was passed, and the service was dis- continued, the government paying us eight hundred and thirty-three dollars extra for leave to quit. It re- quired a relay of nine horses on the road at once, and three boy riders. One boy left Cumberland at two o'clock in the morning, winter and summer, who rode three successive horses seven miles each, and so with the other two boys, performing the sixty-three miles in six hours and eighteen minutes. Going east they left Uniontown daily at one o'clock P.M., and rode the same horses back, and there was no office on this route where the mail was opened. At that time this express was the fastest overland mail in America, and it excited as much public interest as the arrival of a railroad train does now in a new town."

After the withdrawal of this express mail line of mounted messengers there were put upon the road a number of light mail-carriages to carry a through mail on fast time, making as few stops as possible. These formed what was known along the road as the "Monkey Box Line." Each carriage was furnished with a secure box for the mail, sometimes in the front and sometimes in the rear end, which was bal- anced by the weight of three passengers (none beyond that number being allowed to be taken), who paid an extra rate of fare in consideration of the faster time made, and the more comfortable accommodations afforded by the "Monkey Box" than by the regular mail-coach lines.

The passenger traffic over the route was immense and constantly on the increase until the business of the road received the death-blow by the opening of railroads across the Alleghenies. The stage-lines running when the road was surrendered to the States were those of Stockton & Co. (Lucius W. Stockton, of Uniontown, Daniel Moore, of Washington, Pa., and others) and J. E. Reeside,1 of Lancaster. The mails were carried by Stockton & Co., who in 1836 secured the contract for four years to carry the great Western mail over this road to Wheeling, at the speed of four miles per hour, receiving for the service | eighteen thousand passengers to and from the Monon- 863,000 per year. There was for a time intense rivalry between Reeside's "June Bug Line" and the "Peo- ple's Line" of Stockton & Co. The competition be- came so spirited that passengers were carried by both lines at rates that were merely nominal. This was

1 " Gen." Reeside, as he was often called, was in his day probably the most extensive stage-owner in the United States, having lines in operation in all parts of the country, both east and west of the Mis is- sippi. It was he who originated the phrase " chalk your hat," which in time came to be generally understood as meaning the giving of a free pass over a stage, steamboat, or railway line. Reeside gave no written passes, but instead would take the hat of the person on whom he wished to confer the favor, and mark upon it with chalk a cabalistic character which no one could counterfeit, and which would carry the wearer of the hat, free of expense, over any of Reeside's lines ; such, at least, is the story which is told of hin.

parties became nearly exhausted, when there came a cessation of hostilities, a return to the old prices, and a reorganization of the stage-lines, the Reeside line becoming the "Good Intent" (in the proprietorship of William Wurt, William Still, Alpheus Shriver, and others), and the other the " National Road" Line, by Dauiel Moore, L. W. Stockton, J. C. Acheson, and Howard Kennedy. The former prices were re-estab- lished and amity restored, as far as the proprietors of the two lines were concerned, both occupying the same offices at the two ends of the route. But at the towns and stations along the road the passengers by the two lines still dined and supped at different and rival hotels, and the old feeling of animosity was kept alive between the drivers and other subordinate ad- herents of the "Good Intent" and "National Road" companies.

Upon the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad as far west as Cumberland in 1844, the busi- ness of the National road, great as it had previously been, was very largely increased on account of the easy eastern connection thus formed. During the succeeding period of eight years it was frequently the case that twenty-five stages, each containing its full complement of nine inside and a number of outside passengers, "pulled out" at the same time from Wheeling, and the same was true of the eastern ter- minus at Cumberland. As many as sixteen coaches, fully laden with passengers, were sometimes seen in close and continuous procession crossing the Monon- gahela bridge between West Brownsville and Bridge- port. The lines ran daily each way, and it was sometimes the case that thirty stages, all fully loaded with passengers, stopped at one hotel in a single day.

The Monongahela Navigation Company completed its slack-water improvements to Brownsville in 1844, and from that time, during the season of navigation in each year, a large proportion of the passengers coming by stage westward from Cumberland left the road at the Monongahela and took passage by steamboat down the river from Brownsville. In the year 1850 the stage-lines on the National road carried over gahela River steamboats, and the number so carried had been considerably larger than this in each of the three preceding years. But the glory of the great thoroughfare was then nearing its final eclipse. An- other year of prosperity succeeded, but from the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Pittsburgh in 1852, and the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio line to Wheeling in December of the same year, the business of the Cumberland road suddenly and rapidly declined; travelers to and from the West were diverted to the new routes and easier mode of con- veyance, and extra passenger-coaches were no longer needed; finally, the Western mails were sent by the other routes, and the stages were withdrawn from this, the rumble of the broad-wheeled freight-wagons was

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gradually silenced along the rock-laid road-bed, and by rapid degrees the famous National highway lost its importance and became, as it is to-day, merely an avenue of local travel.

NAVIGATION.

The only navigable waters of Fayette County are the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers, and, in fact, the latter stream can hardly be regarded as navigable, or capable of being made so to any useful extent. Both these streams were made highways on the 15th of April, 1782, at which date the Assembly of Pennsylvania enacted "That the said rivers, so far up as they or either of them have been or can be made navigable for rafts, boats, and canoes, and within the bounds and limits of this State, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, public highways." At the time when this was done there was in progress an immense emigration to Kentucky and other South- western regions bordering the Ohio, and as a conse- quence the channel of the Monongahela might almost have been said to be crowded with Kentucky boats, keel-boats, flat-boats, and a multitude of every species of river-craft, laden with the families, household effects, and merchandise of the emigrants (who em- barked principally at Brownsville), and with produce from various points, all bound for the lower river. This kind of travel and transportation was kept up and increased for many years, until the days of steam- boating commenced, but it was constantly liable to interruption and total suspension for months at a time in the summer and autumn seasons when the river was low and without the artificial means of raising the water to a navigable stage by locks and dams.

In 1814 the Assembly passed an act (approved March 28th) which provided "That the Governor be and he is hereby authorized to appoint three com- petent and disinterested persons, citizens of this commonwealth, one of whom shall be a practical sur- veyor, to view and examine the river Monongahela from the junction of said river with the Allegheny River to the point where the southern boundary of this State crosses said river ; whose duty it shall be to repair to the borough of Pittsburgh, and to view and examine the aforesaid river from the point herein- before designated at the borough of Pittsburgh to the point in the southern boundary aforesaid, and take the courses and distances of the several meanders of the said river between the points aforesaid, and also an ac- curate observation and admeasurement of the distances between the different ripples, and the elevation in feet and parts of a foot of the said ripples progressively above the horizon of Pittsburgh," and "That the commissioners shall, as soon as may be, after they shall have made the view and examination as afore- said, present to the Governor at the next sitting of the Legislature an accurate plan of the same, with its several courses and distances, accompanied with

a written report of their proceedings, describing the distances between and elevations of the different rip- ples; also the number of dams1 already made, and the most suitable places for constructing other dams, locks, works, or devices necessary to be made to render said river navigable through the whole distance ;2 and shall make, according to the best of their knowledge and judgment, an estimate of the probable expense necessary for the purposes aforesaid."

The survey and examination of the river was not made as contemplated by this act, and on the 11th of March, 1815, another act was passed reviving that of 1814, and continuing it, with all its provisions, in force for the term of three years from the passage of the last act. Under this authority commissioners were appointed, who made an examination of the Monongahela, but nothing resulted from it in the way of improvement of the navigation of the river by the State.

In 1817 the Assembly passed an act (approved March 24th of that year) "to authorize the Governor to incorporate a company to make a lock navigation on the river Monongahela," to bear the name and style of "The President, Managers, and Company of the Monongahela Navigation Company." The act appointed Andrew Linn, Esq., and Hugh Ford, of Freeport; James Tomlinson, Elisha Hunt, George Dawson, William Hogg, Jacob Bowman, Basil Bra- shear, Joseph Thornton, and Israel Miller, of Browns- ville; James W. Nicholson and Thomas Williams, Esq., of New Geneva (all the above of Fayette County) ; Charles Bollman, Joel Butler, and James P. Stewart, of Williamsport (now Monongahela City) ; Henry P. Pearson and Joseph Alexander, of Fred- ericktown, in the county of Washington, with seven gentlemen of Allegheny County and two of Greene County, to be commissioners to open books for sub- scriptions to the stock of the company at Pittsburgh and other points along the river. The capital stock of the company was to be seventy-eight thousand dollars, in two thousand six hundred shares of thirty dollars each. As soon as five hundred shares should be subscribed the Governor was directed to issue the charter of the company, and it was enacted " that as soon as a com- pany shall have been incorporated by the Governor to make a lock navigation on the Monongahela River, he is hereby authorized and required to subscribe in

1 Meaning dams erected by individuals for mill purposes.

2 In " A History of the Monongahela Navigation Company," prepared by Hon. James Veech in 1873, he says, " The earliest known suggestion of an improvement of the navigation of the Monongahela by locks and dams was in a report of a survey made for the State by E. F. Gay, civil engineer, in 1828." It seems remarkable that Judge Veech (who was an original stockholder in the present Monongahela Navigation Com- pany) should have been unaware of the fact that an act of Assembly, passed in 1817, authorized the incorporation of a company of precisely the same name and style of the present one, and having the same ob- ject,-the improvement of the river by locks and dams; and also of the fact that as early as 1814 an act was passed (and another in 1815) pro- viding for a survey of the Monongahela with a view to its improvement by the construction of locks and dams.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

behalf of this commonwealth for one thousand shares of the stock of said company at thirty dollars for each share, to be paid upon warrants drawn by the Gov- ernor on the State Treasurer in favor of the President and Managers of said company."

first seetion-from Pittsburgh to the mouth of Dun- lap's Creek-in seven years thereafter, and to com- plete the second section-from Dunlap's Creek to the mouth of Cheat River-in twenty-five years from the passage of the act. These conditions were not com- By the terms of the act of incorporation, the com- pany was required, in making their improvements on the river, "to erect at Bogg's ripple a dam of the height of three feet six inches ; at Braddock's lower ripple, a dam of the height of three feet six inches : plied with, and forfeiture resulted in 1822. Beyond this fact, nothing has been found to show what was the extent of the operations of the old Monongahela Navigation Company during its existence, except that the books were opened in August, 1817 ; that the Gov- at Braddock's upper ripple, a dam of the height of . ernor of Pennsylvania subscribed on behalf of the Commonwealth for one thousand shares of the stock as required, subscriptions having previously been re- ceived from individuals sufficient in amount to author- ize the chartering and organization of the company under the act. It is evident that the amount of its capital stock, if fully subscribed and paid in, was in- sufficient for the purposes intended, and that even if the projected improvements had been completed, as specified in the act, they would have been wholly in- adequate to the requirements of navigation on the Monongahela.

three feet six inches; at Peter's Creek ripple, a dam of the height of four feet two inches; at Baldwin's ripple, a dam of the height of four feet three inches ; at Frye's ripple, a dam of the height of three feet ten inches ; at Forsyth's ripple, a dam of the height of three feet eight inches; at Brownsville ripple, a dam of the height of four feet six inches ; at Smith's rip- ple, a dam of the height of four feet eight and a half inches; at Heaton's ripple, a dam of the height of four feet five inches; at Muddy Creek ripple, a dam of the height of four feet five inches ; at Gilmore's ripple, a dam of the height of three feet ten inches; In the spring of 1822, a few days after the expira- tion of five years from the passage of the act author- izing the Monongahela Navigation Company, an act was passed by the Assembly (approved April 2d of the year named) taking the improvement of the Monon- gahela into the hands of the State, and providing "That Solomon Krepps and Joseph Enochs, of Fay- ette County, and William Leckey, of Pittsburgh, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, who shall have power, and it shall be their duty, to cause at Little Whitely ripple, a dam of the height of four feet four inches; at Geneva ripple, a dam of the height of three feet four inches; at Dunkard ripple, a dam of the height of three feet six inches; and at Cheat River ripple, a dam of the height of three feet three inches," with the privilege of raising any or all the dams not to exceed six inches above the speci- fied height, if it should be found necessary to do so. The company were empowered "to form, make, erect, and set up any dams, locks, or any other device what- : to be removed all obstructions which impede or injure soever which they shall think most fit and convenient the navigation of said river Monongahela, by making a slope or inclined navigation from the Virginia State line to its junetion with the Allegheny River, and said improvement to commence at the mouth of Dun- lap's Creek, in Fayette County, and for that purpose to employ suitable persons to perform said work ;" and "That ten thousand dollars of the stock subscribed by the Governor on behalf of this Commonwealth in the stock of the Monongahela Navigation Company be and is hereby appropriated to defray the expenses of removing the said obstructions. . .. " to make a complete slack-water navigation between the points aforesaid (Pittsburgh and the State line), so as to admit a safe and easy passage for loaded barges, boats, and other crafts up, as well as down, said river ;" and to use the water-power created by their dams for the propulsion of machinery, or to sell or lease such water-power, but not so as to injure, im- pede, or interrupt navigation on the river. It was provided by the act "that as soon as the eight first- named dams and locks shall be erected and com- pleted," and the Governor should have proper evidence that they had been so completed in a workmanlike manner, he should thereupon issue his license or per- mit to the company to collect tolls from boats passing that part of the river. Owners of dams which had been erected at certain points on the river for mill purposes prior to the passage of the act were required to raise such dams to the specified height (if they were not already up to it), and to keep them in re- pair ; and for so doing they were empowered to col- lect tolls from boats and other craft passing them.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 59

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