USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 27
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The location of mills brought about petitions for roads to them. Many of the early road petitions set forth that the proposed road is necessary to reach a permanently located mill, etc. Arthur St. Clair built, we think, the first permanent mill in the present Westmoreland county in about 1772. It was located on Mill Creek, near where Hermitage Furnace site, about one and a quarter miles north of Ligonier. A notice of it may be seen in the quarter sessions docket.
Dennison's mill, on the Loyalhanna, and Saxman's mill, below Latrobe, on the same strcam, were built about the close of the Revolution. Jones' mill, on Indiana Creek, and Irwin's mill, on Brush Creek, were built about that time, but we cannot determine the date. The farmer or his boy took a bag of wheat to the mill and waited till it was ground. Sometimes when water was plenty the mill ran all night, and the miller entertained his cus- tomers from long distances till the grist was ground. Water mills on small streams could not run all year because of the low water. In the winter, moreover, the ice clogged the water-wheels, and the grinding again had to stop. Some of the mills had horse-power attachments, and, in times of low water, men who wanted grain ground had to furnish horses to propel the mill, and to pay toll also, for from time immemorial grain was ground for a part of the flour.
The reader can have but little doubt that our county owed its first settle- ment to the roads cut through it by Braddock and Forbes. We are always slow to acknowledge what we, as a community, really owe to good roads, to speedy methods of travel and transportation of goods. Forbes' road traversed the county from east to west, and was long known as the "Great Road." Brad- dock's was not so directly across the county. Each was about twelve feet wide, and in an early day was arched nearly all the way with overhanging
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branches. Close by the side of the road stood the tall trees of the original for- ests. The road was made for heavy army wagons and mounted guns, but after a few years, owing to the undergrowth of the forests and the wash of period- ical floods, they were almost impassable. Bouquet, it will be remembered, in passing over the Forbes road five years after it was constructed, was compelled to leave his heavy wagons at Ligonier in order to facilitate his journey to Fort Pitt. This was mainly because of the roughness of the road, and Dunmore's troops were fortunately handicapped in the same way.
One of the first of the many petitions presented to our first court, in March, 1773, was from men living along the Forbes road, asking the court to appoint viewers to report the condition of the road with a view of having it repaired. They represented that because of washouts, fallen timber and undergrowth, it was impossible in some places to pass along it. Of course, the roads in a new country, with comparatively few settlers, could not be kept in good condition. There was no broken stone in the road-bed. It was, moreover, shaded all the year, and therefore very slow to become dry and hard. Over the swamps, bridges of corduroy were thrown, but there were no bridges built across the streams. All streams were forded. There were no fences to speak of, and but few cleared fields on the western section of the road. The traveler fre- quently saw a bear crossing the road in front of him, a deer bounding away from a stream as he approached. Sprouts grew rapidly from the stumps of the trees felled to make the road, and it is possible that the roads generally were not better than those that are now made hurriedly through our mountains to remove ties and bark from the central parts of the forests.
The reader will understand that travel on these roads by wagons was out of the question, even if our early settlers had possessed such vehicles. Goods were carried long distances by pack-horses only. Wagons did not come in use for long hauls till several years after the Revolution, when the State road. which will be considered later, was constructed. Men journeyed on horseback when traveling either on pleasure or business. This was much more speedy, much safer and more comfortable than being jolted over a rough road in a carriage or wagon. By horseback remained the popular way of travel long after it ceased to be the only means of going about.
English writers of an early period, notably Smollett in his "Adventures of Roderick Random," and Shakespeare in "Henry the Fourth," have spoken of pack-horses traveling thirty miles per day. If well laden, on our rough roads this was impossible. Twenty miles was a good day's journey, and with a bur- den of three or four hundred pounds, it required an extraordinary horse to make that much. The pack-horse train became a regular business. They made much better time than a wagon train could have made, and perhaps transported nearly as much weight per horse as the early wagoners. They carried one hundred weight by regular contract from Philadelphia or Baltimore to Pittsburgh, for from ten to twelve dollars, depending somewhat on the char- acter of the goods. Pack-horses were driven in trains, and one driver, who
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rode on another horse, managed from eight to twelve of them. All were tied by halters to a rope which was fastened to a breast strap or other similar de- vice on the front horse, and all walked in single file. The horses soon learned to walk along quietly under their heavy burdens, following the one in front, which carried also an iron band across his shoulders, on which was fastened several bright sounding bells. They made the trip from Philadelphia to Pitts- burgh in about two weeks, and did not travel on Sunday, as a rule, for at June sessions of our court, in 1785, Michael Huffnagle receipted to George Nixon and Philip Bradley for six pounds for "breaking Sunday" by driving pack-horses through Hannastown.
A pack-saddle was made of wood, and except that it was wider and longer it did not differ otherwise from a modern cavalry saddle. Upon it a skillful packer could load a great variety of goods if necessary. To make a saddle fit the horse and not injure his back, required a skillful tradesman, and there was a regular pack-saddle maker in Pittsburgh and one in Greensburg. Pieces of cloth or old blankets were put under the saddle to prevent it from galling the horse. These saddles, with the addition of stirrups, were used for horseback riding also, though they were not so well adapted to it as the regular saddle. Upon the pack-saddle were often tied baskets which contained babies, the chil- dren of emigrants to the west, bars of iron, clothing, webs of dry goods, tools of all kinds, kegs of powder, salt, glass, skins and furs, whisky and even ten- plate stoves.
Merchants for safety generally rode to Baltimore or Philadelphia, when on their annual or semi-annual trips to purchase goods, in companies of from four to a dozen, and trains of pack-horses brought back the goods they purchased. Members of Congress and of the Assembly went east at the first of the session and remained till its close. They generally went in companies of from eight to ten, and had pack-horses to follow with such clothes or other articles as they might need there. Lawyers and judges rode from the west to the east on busi- ness, or from one county seat to another, to attend court. A good riding horse would carry a man from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in about eight days, and sometimes in less than that. At night they stopped at the wayside tavern, and :sat around old-fashioned log fires in the evening, telling stories.
CHAPTER XVI
Indian Trails Across Westmoreland .- Braddock's Road .- Forbes' Road .- State Road .- Felgar .- Post Road .- The Main Turnpike From Pittsburgh to the East.
The old roads of Westmoreland county were in reality marked out by the Indians long before the first white man came here. There seems to be an instinct in man to follow the setting sun in his journeys, and the Red men were no exception to mankind in general in this matter. They had well defined foot- paths and trails which they traveled in going from one hunting or fishing ground to another, to other neighboring tribes, to their council meetings, or to other posts, and back to their homes. As far as possible these journeys were made to lead along streams, but far enough away to avoid the low marshy grounds. Frequently these paths took an undeviating line which had evidently been directed by the unerring sun. Sometimes unchanging landmarks were used to guide them back and forth. Later in their history their paths diverged to take advantage of unfrequented localities, but until the advent of the white race there was no necessity for this.
In their long journeys they always followed each other, "Indian fashion," as it has been designated. They did not walk erect but rather stooping for- ward, as a hunter naturally does when in pursuit of game. Their walk was a peculiar swing, somewhat more rapid than our ideas of walking are, but not so fast as a run. This gait they seemed able to keep up almost tirelessly for days and days when necessary. There were three principal paths, each distinctly marked, which crossed our county. One of these led from the Allegheny river by the Kiskiminetas and Juniata rivers to the Susquehanna. Another was a path from the Allegheny across Laurel Hill. Then there was another path, greater and more important than either of these, called Nemacolin's path. This name was probably given to it by Washington, for an Indian named Nemacolin® guided him over it on his first visit to western Pennsylvania, when he was sent out in the interests of the Ohio company. Nemacolin was a bright, active Del- aware Indian. When Washington passed over it in 1753, it was a reasonably well broken path, almost good enough for a wagon or a train of pack-horses_
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
When Washington came to pilot Braddock to Fort Duquesne, he selected this path, and the latter improved it and called it Braddock's road.
All these paths, it will be seen, led to the forks of the Ohio. This was, from time immemorial, a meeting place for the Indians. Those from the. north came down the Allegheny on a regular path. The paths leading north and south were not so well known generally. The Indians had paths extending all the way from Florida, through South and North Carolina and Virginia, into Pennsylvania, terminating at the headwaters of the Ohio. Another came from Tennessee and Kentucky into Pennsylvania, and, passing Uniontown,. crossed the Youghiogheny river where Braddock crossed it, thence passed through Ligonier valley, crossing the Conemaugh river and passing the head- waters of the Susquehanna, led the travelers to western New York, where the "Six Nations" often met in holding council-fires. Along these trails the In- dians traveled either visiting or hunting, and they were all well marked when the first real road making began with the advent of the white settler. These trails were known to the white men as well, and by watching them many cap- tures were avoided. The first settlers and explorers, such as George Crogan, Christopher Gist, Post and others, often saw them moving rapidly along these paths unconscious that their movements were being watched. Long afterward, along these routes were the ashes of the pioneer's log cabin, or the mutilated remains of its owner.
The Indians who inhabited Westmoreland county originally were the Del- awares and the Shawnees. The depredations committed were only in part by these races, for along these old trails came more hostile tribes than either of these, from New York, northern Pennsylvania and the west. Generally the Delawares were more friendly or more nearly friendly than any other tribe. There was a trail which left the Allegheny river a short distance above the Forks at Shannopinstown, and passed southeastward across Westmoreland county to Ligonier valley, where it intersected the main trail through the val- ley, going north and south, which latter crossed the Conemaugh near where New Florence now stands.
The Indians had had many towns and camps on these trials within the pres- ent limits of the county. This is evidenced by the discovery of curious pieces of pottery, implements of stone, weapons of war, club-heads, arrow-heads, darts, spear-headed flints, etc., and these being found in some sections in abund- ance, indicates that the race which made and used them tarried long at these places. Along these trails, too, have been found Indian graves and burying- places, these in greater numbers along them than in any other places west of the Allegheny mountains.
Christopher Gist was, so far as we can learn, the first explorer who crossed our county. He was a Virginia surveyor, and a woodsman of high ability. On November 14, 1750, he arrived at "an old Indian town called Loyalhanna, on a creek of the Ohio called Kiscominetas." This was eight years before Forbes' army built a fort there. The town stood where the fort was built, that
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
is, where the town of Ligonier now stands. The Indian chief at Loyalhanna .could speak English to some extent, and directed Gist to Shannopinstown.
None of our Indian villages were of any great magnitude like they had in New York and later in the west. They were of such a character that the in- habitants could remove at any time if hunting or fishing were better elsewhere. It must further be remembered that the Indians never occupied permanently any part of our territory after the Fort Stanwix Treaty of 1768. Into these main trails ran smaller ones, but only the leading ones are known to us. These Indians had selected good routes over which to travel, for some of our best roads were located on the trails made by the Indians. The National Pike through southwestern Pennsylvania took a path made by the Delawares a cen- tury before it was constructed. Braddock's road, as we have said, took an- other, while Forbes' road was practically the same general route of the Indian trail from Shannopinstown to Loyalhanna. The Old State road, and after it the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia turnpike, took the same general direction all the way from Pittsburgh to Bedford. Of these later roads we shall now speak.
There was scarcely a session of court up to 1790 that there were not several petitions for public roads. They were, however, often to accommodate, per- haps at the time they were laid out, but one or two people, or perhaps for the benefit of a mill of some kind. At that time the county, even from its limited exchequer, assisted in making and maintaining some of these early roads. One of these petitions, dated June 20, 1789, is headed, "The Worshipful Bench at Greensburg," and also asks for a road from "Crooked Creek to Col. Charles Campbell's." Another petition filed at April sessions, 1789, asks for a road to begin at a "May-pole in Greensburg, etc." In still another, Greensburg is styled the "Metropolis." All these roads then laid out were to be twenty-five feet wide.
On September 25, 1785, the legislature passed an act providing for the con- struction of a road, the eastern end or Westmoreland part of which, when built, was known as the State road. The act appropriated $2000 to open this road from the western part of Cumberland county to Pittsburgh, a distance of over one hundred miles, or less than twenty dollars per mile. It also author- ized the council to appoint a commission to lay it out, and provided that it should be made as straight and direct a line as the hills and mountains would admit. It was to be sixty feet wide. The council had unlimited authority to refuse all locations determined on by the commission. It was surveyed and laid out at once, and the report of the commission for that part of it lying east of Bedford was confirmed November 24, 1787. The part from Bedford to Pittsburgh was refused a confirmation, and a resurvey was ordered. The west- ern section of Pennsylvania, particularly Westmoreland and Allegheny coun- ties, was greatly in need of the road. It may be asked why a new road was needed from Bedford to Pittsburgh when the Forbes road traversed that very locality. The explanation is very simple. The Forbes road was a military road purely. It was, moreover, made for the sole purpose of transporting an
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
army through a wilderness infested with a stealthy and barbarous enemy. As. such, a precursory glance at the topography of the country will show that it was very wisely laid out. What Forbes endeavored most to do was to avoid the possibility of ambuscades or surprises on the part of the Indians, and to do this most effectually, he kept on the highest ground possible. To illustrate, he crossed Laurel Hill at a high, though not at its highest point, and crossed the Ligonier valley by keeping on high ground, and as far as convenient from the narrow bottom of the Loyalhanna. Except when necessary for them to do so, the route did not come near the low ground skirting the Loyalhanna; even in going to Fort Ligonier, which was perhaps necessarily built on its banks, they kept on high ground. But for this desire to keep on high grounds he could have gone down the Loyalhanna water-gap through the Chestnut Ridge on al- most level but low ground. After leaving the Loyalhanna he kept on the high- est possible ground, that is, on the dividing ridge between the tributaries of the Loyalhanna and Kiskiminetas rivers on the north, and those of the Sewickley and Youghiogheny on the south. So his road, often called in those days the "King's road," was not suited for a public road in many places in times of peace. It was so steep in sections of it that wagoners tied trees to their rear axle which, by dragging on the ground, let them down slowly. Braddock's road was laid out according to the same principle in engineering. No other consideration than to protect his army from being surprised while in a narrow valley, by Indians on higher ground, would have prompted them to cross the Monongahela river twice in four miles when approaching Fort Duquesne.
The western end of the Old State road was finally approved after several surveys, on May 26, 1790, and was very soon opened up for public travel. It entered the county east of Laughlintown, and passed through that village, crossing the Loyalhanna and then passed a mile south of the present location of Ligonier, and passed over the Chestnut Ridge to the west of the Loyalhanna gap, and thence down the western slope of the Ridge to Youngstown. It was on this old road that General St. Clair resided in his declining years. The road then passed through Greensburg and Adamsburg, leaving Irwin a short distance to the north, and thence out of the county directly towards Turtle Creek. When it was laid out in 1791, none of the above places had an existence at all as villages, except Greensburg. It had been the county-seat for five years, and had a growing population. Villages and tavern stands sprung up all along the route. Near the tavern a blacksmith and a wagonmaker located and soon others came. The location of the Old State Road is more nearly the location of the present turnpike, which came much later. It was over the Old State road that transportation by pack-horses reached its highest point. Strong wagons, with now and then a carriage, also passed over it, but from the limited amount of money expended upon it we may be assured that it was never a complete- highway even for that day. It served its purpose, however, and over it came- many new settlers both for this section and the boundless west. A mail route-
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
was established and finally carried over it regularly by express riders on horse- back. Mail was often sent by private individuals who chanced to be passing over the road. Many a letter now important to us as indicating the early con- ·dition of our people, was carried across the mountains in the pocket of a casual passerby on this road to the east. Prior to the completion of this road, that is about 1784, the people tried by private subscriptions to have mail carried regu- larly between Pittsburgh and the east, but it failed. In 1786 James Brison was authorized by the national government to establish a post route from Philadel- phia to Pittsburgh. This was, of course, on the Forbes road as far east as Bed- ford, but it was not a regularly kept up mail route for many years after that. The Greensburg and Indiana Register of November 12, 1812, seems to hail with great joy the fact that a regular mail route was then recently established be- tween Bedford and Greensburg. The rider, as was proposed, left Greensburg every Saturday morning, and passed through Youngstown, Laughlintown, Stoystown, etc., etc., reaching Bedford on Sunday evening. He also carried mail to patrons on the way, somewhat after the manner of our present rural carriers, and for this he received extra compensation.
It was the custom then, as now, for the postmaster to advertise unclaimed letters. The following is a list that appeared in the Greensburg Register Oc- tober I, 1798, and shows the method of addressing letters when we had but few postoffices :
"Hugh Abbercrombery, Blacklick Settlement, Armstrong township."
"Michael Berry, three miles from Greensburg, near Brush Creek, care of Mr. Clark in Greensburg."
"Rev. Matthew Henderson, at the Forks of the Yongh, care of John Kirk- patrick, Greensburg."
"James Welsh, Judge, Quemahoning township, near Laurel Hill, care of Col. Rudgers Taylor, Greensburg."
Quemahoning township is in Somerset county, about thirty miles from Creensburg. The Forks of the Yough is most nearly represented by the pres- . ent location of Mckeesport.
Colonel Morgan, an Indian agent appointed by Congress, is generally re- garded as the first man who crossed the Allegheny mountains in a carriage, but he did not traverse our county. That honor is due to Dr. Schoep, who was a German physician and naturalist. He crossed over the mountains on the Forbes road in 1783. After returning to Germany he published an account of his trip, which was printed in 1788 and has been translated. From it we learn that his carriage was a great curiosity all the way westward. As he passed the lonely cabins in the wilderness, the women and children came to look with won- der and admiration at this new and peculiar method of travel. When he ar- rived in Pittsburgh his carriage was for days the chief object of interest in the village. He says that "Many well dressed gentlemen and highly adorned ladies · came to his tavern to see it."
All wagons and carriages in that early period were necessarily clumsy af-
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fairs. The tires on the wheels were put on in sections, each section being about the one-eighth of a circle, and they were bolted to the felloe, or wooden part of the wheel, which alone necessitated great heavy wheels, and all other parts were made in proportion.
The first line of coaches was put on the road by the way of Lancaster, Har- risburg, Carlisle, Bedford, Stoystown, Somerset, Greensburg and Pittsburgh, in about 1804, but it was neither successful nor regular. The trip took about seven days, and the roughness of the roads precluded the possibility of driving at night. In 1805 a mail coach was put on the road, to go east as far as Cham- bersburg, for from that place east the mail facilities were much better. Its coming was widely heralded and the citizens collected to see it. Doubtless they, like we, wondered if the next generation would witness such vast improve- ments as the past had wrought. But the same generation, when yet young, saw the present turnpike completed and could ride from Pittsburgh to Philadel- phia in two and a half days by riding at night.
There was then no road between Somerset and Greensburg, and a petition was presented to the legislature for state aid in the construction of such a high- way. They represented that two chains of mountains with but few settlers in- tervened between the two places, and that the travel was very great. The sum of $800 was appropriated for this road, and it was constructed at once. The Westmoreland part of this road was known as the Felgar road, it taking its name from a man who kept a tavern on the top of Laurel Mountain. In 1809 a road was projected from Somerset to Jones' mills, Mount Pleasant and Con- nellsville.
The great road in Westmoreland county was the turnpike, which passes nearly through its center, running east and west. It had two corporate names in our county. The western section was known as the Pittsburgh and Greens- burg Turnpike Company, and the eastern section as the Greensburg and Stoys- town Turnpike Company. Its history dates back to February 24, 1806, when the legislature authorized the governor of Pennsylvania to incorporate a com- pany to build a turnpike from the west bank of the Susquehanna at Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The act provided that the road should be called the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company. But, by an act passed March 31, 1897, supplementing the act of 1806, it was arranged that it should be built in sec- tions, and that each section should be a complete company or corporation. The second act also fixed the route through Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambersburg, McConnellsburg, Bedford, Stoystown, and Greensburg.
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