History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 99

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 99

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

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."

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 effect to clear the road almost entirely (except in the mountain districts of the route) of the immense droves 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 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 each, picketed around overnight [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 the modern railway-car. On the road between these towns they passed in almost continuous procession.

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 1835-36.8 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 mail service in that direction. Proposals were adver- 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 two sections, which were taken for a term of three years. The section from Cumberland to Uniontown was taken by A. L. Littell, and that from the last-named point to the Ohio by Benjamin L. Craven, of West Alexander. On each of these sections the service required a relay of nine horses on the road at once and three boy- riders. The time between Wheeling and Uniontown was six and a half hours; that on the eastern section a little less, the distance being a few miles shorter. At that time this express was the fastest overland mail in America, and it excited as much public in- terest as the arrival of a railroad train does now in a new town. Each of the contractors received about five thousand dollars per annum for the service. It was continued very successfully in 1837 and 1838, when the threatened war emergency was past, and the line was discontinued, each of the contractors receiving a considerable remuneration from the gov- ernment for canceling the contract.

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

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

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

$ Jacob Wolfe, of Canton township, Washington Co., was one of the first drivers of wagons of the Oyster Line on the Cumberland road from Wheeling in the fall of 1835.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

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, Daniel Moore,1 of Washington, Pa., and others) and J. E. Reeside,2 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 $63,000 per year. There was for a time intense rivalry between Ree- side's " June Bug Line" and the "People's Line" of Stockton & Co. The competition became so spirited that passengers were carried by both lines at rates that were merely nominal. This was continued for a considerable time, and until both parties became nearly exhausted, when there came a cessation of hostilities, a return to the old prices, and a reorgani- zation 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 Daniel Moore, L. W. Stockton, J. C. Acheson, and Howard Kennedy. The former prices were re-established 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

1 Daniel Moore was one of the earliest stage-owners in Washington, but was preceded in the business by John Scott, who was probably the first. In the assessment roll of Washington borough for 1810 he is men- tioned as a "stage-master," and in 1811 he had the contract for carrying the mails between Washington and Wheeling. Daniel Moore was at that time a merchant, and had no interest in stage lines until more than five years later. The first line of stages between Washington and Pitts- burgh was started by him.

In August, 1819, D. H. Blaine and James Kincaid advertised a “ New Accommodation Line" of coaches to run tri-weekly between Washing- ton and Pittsburgh, "leaving D. H. Blaine's in Washington on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at noon, and arrive at Pittsburgh at seven o'clock P.M. same day. The above arrangement will suit the present mail line from Wheeling, Va., to the city of Washington and Baltimore, the whole route to be performed in four days from Pittsburgh to either of the last-mentioned places. The fare in the coaches will be regulated by that of the mail line."

In the year following the opening of the entire line of the National road from Cumberland to Wheeling the starting of a new stage line was announced as follows :

" A hack stage will commence running from Washington to Wheeling once a week from about the middle of April, 1821. Leave Washington at five o'clock in the morning, and arrive at Wheeling at four in the afternoon. Return next day. John Ruth the driver.

" JOHN FLEMING, Innkeeper.

" WASHINGTON, March 21, 1821."

2 " Gen." Reeside, as he was often called, was in his day probably the most extensive stage-owner in the United States, having lines in opera- tion in all parts of the country, both east and west of the Mississippi. 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 him."

still dined and supped at different and rival hotels, and the old feeling of animosity was kept alive be- tween the drivers and other subordinate adherents 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 steam- boat down the river from Brownsville. This was a severe blow to the business of that part of the road between the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, but be- tween the Monongahela and Cumberland it was more prosperous than ever. In the year 1850 the stage- lines on the National road carried over eighteen thou- sand passengers to and from the Monongahela River steamboats, and the number so carried had been con- siderably larger than this in each of the three pre- ceding years. But the glory of the great thoroughfare was then nearing its final eclipse. Another 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 Wheel- ing 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 conveyance, 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 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.

Washington and Williamsport Turnpike Road. -The company by which this road was built from the borough of Washington to Williamsport (now Monon- gahela City) was chartered under " An Act authoriz- ing the Governor to incorporate four companies for making an artificial road in the town of Washington,

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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

in this State, to intersect the Harrisburg and Pitts- burgh road at or near the town of Bedford." By this act, which was passed March 18, 1816,1 it was pro- vided :

" That for the purpose of making an artificial road from the town of Washington, in this State, by way of Williamsport, Robbstown, Mount Pleasant, Somerset, and the White Horse tavern, on the top of the Alle- gheny mountain to intersect the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh turnpike road, at or near the town of Bedford, it shall and may be lawful for the governor to incorporate four companies on the terms and conditions hereinafter mentioned and provided; one company for making so much of the said road as may lie between the town of Washington and the bank of the Monongahela River at the town of Williamsport, to be known by the name and style of 'The Washington and Williamsport Turnpike Road Company ;' one company for making so much of the said road as may lie between the bank of the Monongahela river oppo- site the town of Williamsport and the town of Mount Pleasant, to be known by the name and style of ' The Robbstown and Mount Pleasant Turnpike Road Company ;' one company for making so much of the said road as may lie between the town of Mount Pleasant and the town of Somerset, to be called ' The Somerset and Mount Pleasant Turnpike Road Company ;' and one other company for making so much of the said road as may lie between the town of Somerset and the intersection of the same road with the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Road afuresaid, to be known by the name and style of ' The Somerset and Bedford Turn- pike Road Company.'"

The commissioners appointed to open books for sub- scriptions to the stock of the Washington and Wil- liamsport Turnpike Road Company were Alexander Murdoch, Joseph Pentecost, Thomas H. Baird, James Mitchell, David Hamilton, Alexander Reed, John Hill, Jacob Kintner, and Andrew Monroe, of the county of Washington, who were required to open books for the purpose on or before the first Monday of July next following, and when eight hundred shares or more, at fifty dollars each, should have been subscribed for, by at least forty different per- sons, and the fact certified to the Governor, he was empowered and directed to "create and erect the subscribers into a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of 'The President, Managers, and Company of the Washington and Williams- port Turnpike Road.'" The company was required to commence the road within five years, and to com- plete it within ten years from the passage of the act ; the road to be not less than fifty, nor more than sixty, feet in width; " twenty-one feet of it to be made an artificial road bedded with stone and gravel well com- pacted together."

The usual financial difficulties were encountered in the building of the road. On the 26th of March, 1821, an act was passed authorizing the Governor to subscribe for the State the sum of ten thousand dollars

to the stock of the road, viz., one-third the amount when five miles should have been completed, another third when five miles more should be finished, and the remainder upon the completion of the third sec- tion of five miles. Another State subscription was authorized by act of Feb. 18, 1836.

The road was commenced within the required time, but not being completed (and in fact comparatively little work having been done) at the end of the specified ten years, an extension of three years was granted by act of March 18, 1826. This being found insufficient, two subsequent extensions were granted, -March 19, 1829, and Feb. 7, 1831,-and the road was finally completed, the work having been done by contract by farmers and others living along the route. It was opened in sections of five miles; toll-gates being erected on each section as soon as com- pleted, in accordance with a provision to that effect in the incorporating act. The stock held by the State was sold by the State treasurer, under authority conferred by an act passed Feb. 10, 1859. The Wash- ington and Williamsport turnpike is still in existence as a toll-road, though it cannot be said that it is kept in excellent condition for travel.

Washington and Pittsburgh Turnpike Road,- This road was built by a company of the same name and style, which was chartered under an act of incor- poration passed March 25, 1817, which required the company to commence the road within three years, and to complete it within ten years from the passage of the act. Books were opened for subscription on the 16th of June in the same year. The route having been located and surveyed under direction of John Hoge and Col. George Morgan, of Washington County, and Judge William Baldwin and Mr. Cowan, of Pittsburgh, work was commenced and pushed with considerable vigor, but financial difficulties inter- vened, which were only slightly relieved by a State subscription of twelve thousand dollars to the stock, authorized by act of the Legislature passed March 26, 1821. By the report made to the State Depart- ment, dated March 23, 1822, it is shown that ten miles of the road was then completed, of the entire distance of twenty-five miles. Individual subscrip- tions had been received to the amount of fifty thou- sand dollars, and the State subscription of twelve thousand dollars.

At the expiration of the ten years allowed by the charter for completion, only seventeen of the twenty- five miles of road had been completed, viz., seven miles out from Pittsburgh, and ten miles northward from Washington. These sections were open for travel, and tolls were taken on them. To prevent a forfeiture of the charter, the company procured the passage of a supplemental act (March 20, 1827) ex- tending the time two years, and a further extension of two years was granted by an act passed March 19, 1829. This was found insufficient. Further exten- sions of time were obtained, and the road was finally

1 In the Washington Reporter of Aug. 17, 1812, is found the following mention :

" The location of the New State Road is finished from Washington to the Monongahela at Williamsport. It digresses northward from the old track, at Scott's smith-shop (212 miles from Washington), and passing by Capt. Little's, George Vanemon's, and on the south by James Kerr's place, enters the old road at Todd's old place, and thence pursuing nearly the old track with some material amendments, passes through Ginger Hill to the landing at Joseph Parkinson's. The distance precisely eigh- teen miles. The distance of the old road, according to the original sur- vey, was nineteen and three quarters; and from the numerous infringing improvements, exceeded twenty miles."

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

completed in 1835, by Maj. John H. Ewing, of Wash- ington, superintendent of construction. Meanwhile the State had made further subscriptions to the stock of the company, aggregating about forty thousand dollars, of which the last installment dated Feb. 18, 1836. In 1843 the stock owned by the State was sold to Judge Thomas H. Baird, of Washington, Judge William Wilkins, of Pittsburgh, and others. Soon after the completion of the road the property of the company was sequestrated, Maj. John Urie being ap- pointed sequestrator, and so remaining for many years. No dividends were ever paid on the stock, though the road was kept as a toll-road for many years. The building of the Chartiers Valley Rail- road destroyed all hope of more prosperous times for the turnpike, and it was finally surrendered to the townships on its route, except the seven miles between Washington and Canonsburg, which part is still a toll-road.

Pittsburgh and Steubenville Turnpike .- This road, crossing the northwest part of Washington County, was built by a company of the same name, which was chartered under an act of the Legislature passed March 3, 1818. The managers of the company were John Bailey, James McFarren, A. Scott, West Elliott, William McCreery, A. Donaldson, B. Miller, and Samuel E. Marks. On the 26th of March, 1821, an act was passed by the Legislature authorizing and directing the Governor to subscribe on behalf of the State $12,000 to the stock of the company, to be paid in three equal installments on sections of five miles, as completed. In a report of the managers, made March 23, 1822, it is mentioned that of the whole dis- tance of twenty-eight miles, one section of five miles was then completed ; that the individual subscriptions to the stock of the company amounted to $30,000; State subscription, $12,000. After much delay, arising from financial difficulties, the road was completed and opened, and was for some years the highway of a con- siderable amount of travel and traffic, which, almost as a matter of course, was diverted from it upon the opening of a railway connecting its termini.

Monongahela River Navigation,-The only navi- gable water of Washington County is the Mononga- hela River, which has been a public highway for more than a century. On the 15th of April, 1782, the Assembly of Pennsylvania enacted, with regard to this river and its principal tributary, the Youghio- gheny, "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 emi- gration to Kentucky and other Southwestern regions bordering the Ohio, and as a consequence the chan- nel 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 mer- chandise of the emigrants (who embarked 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 steamboating 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 navi- gable 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 com- monwealth, one of whom shall be a practical surveyor, 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 hereinbefore desig- nated 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 accu- rate 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

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 Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 99

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216