History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 46

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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About 1804 a through line of coaches from Phila- delphia to Pittsburgh, by way of Lancaster, Harris- burg, Carlisle, Shippensburg, Bedford, Somerset, and Greensburg was established, and the time occupied in going the entire distance, when it was in successful operation, was about seven days not counting the nights.

In the beginning of May, 1805, the first stage-coach started from Pittsburgh for Chambersburg. Quite a crowd of curiously-inclined idlers had collected to see it roll out from the front of the tavern stand, and under the crack of the whip swing, like a miniature ship, for the East.

After the turnpike was made, and in good condi- tion, the time was wonderfully shortened. Within one generation as much progress was made in the ex- peditiousness of travel as was made in the next gen- eration which saw the railroad. For some time before 1830 the time occupied by the coach lines in going from one of those cities to the other at either end of the road was from three and a half to four days and nights. The times had brought the necessity for the innovation, and enterprise had made travel by night safe and feasible. There were relays of horses and drivers at convenient distances, mostly not farther apart than about ten miles. About this time the price of passage in one of these coaches from one end of the road to the other was fromn eighteen and twenty dollars to twenty-two and twenty-three dollars. The freight charges in Conestoga wagons for the full length of'the line were from three to five cents per pound.

Then came a new want. The increasing numbers engaged in the carrying business and the augmenting squads of travelers must have frequent places to stop. Hence the wayside inns which were so prominent, not only in the villages, which were usually started by a public-house, but in the favoring points between. On the old State road did St. Clair, an old man, broken with the storms of state, and suffering from the un- kindness of his fellow-men, to supply the few wants of age for a few more short years, open a tavern on the most desolate part of Chestnut Ridge, between Youngstown and Ligonier, where he lodged teamsters and travelers. These public-houses did not, as a rule, however, bear any similarity to the spacious and well- attended taverns which a generation later were the boast of Western Pennsylvania.

From the accelerated progress of settlement, es- pecially after the domestic troubles of 1794, when the people, in consequence of the new invasion, were spreading out on all sides, the State was called upon to further assist by appropriating money and locating other roads. In 1805, on the representation that a road was needed from Somerset to Greensburg, and that, owing to the mountainous route, and to the

sparsity of people in the region through which the road must pass, the road could not be opened by the usual way, an act was passed appropriating eight hundred dollars, and authorizing the Governor to ap- point three persons to locate the road in the most practicable route between these points.' This road when finished was largely traveled. From the top of Laurel Hill to Greensburg it was known as the Fel- gar road, taking this name from a family who kept public-house on the summit of the Hill. Another well-traveled road from 1809 was the Jones' Mill road, which led from Somerset to Mount Pleasant and Con- nellsville. About 1811 fifteen hundred dollars was appropriated for the road from the White House tavern, Somerset County, to the " Federal or National road" by way of Connellsville.

But the great road of modern times in Westmore- land was the turnpike which runs through it along the line of the old villages, nearly through the mid- dle of the county east and west. This is the road known latterly as the Greensburg and Stoystown turnpike from Greensburg eastward, and the Pitts- burgh and Greensburg turnpike from Greensburg westward.

Much as we would now depreciate such works of internal improvement or talk slightingly of them when placed in comparison with the magnificent rail- ways, suspension bridges, and viaducts, we underrate them as works of utility. The turnpike, in a mechan- ical view, was as far from the old military road as the Pennsylvania Railroad is from the turnpike. The construction of the turnpike was, in its day, as great and as successful an undertaking as was the railroad in the middle of this century. For we must bring into account the notions then existing in reference to works of public advantage, the knowledge of engineer- ing skill to devise, the mechanical force to execute, and the capital necessary to carry it on. Through the mountains it had deep cuts and sideings, exten- sive fills across ravines, arched culverts over the wild

1 A committee appointed by the Legislature at their session of 1790 made a long and valuable report on 19th of February, 1791, and addi- tional reports later in the session, in which the resolutions of prior ex- aminations and reports were embodied. The members were of opinion, among other things, that a great and general system of internal improve- ment should be begun and carried on by the State, and, among others, that a turnpike should be made from Philadelphia through Lancaster to the Susquehanna, as well as other roads and canals throughout the State then and there mentioned. This system of internal improvement began under the administration of Governor Mifflin, the first Governor elected by the people, and it held the State In debt for a long time.

From a petition at the April sessions, 1782, for viewers to locate a road from the summit of Laurel Hill (which road had been partly open and in use at that time), " Beginning at Lant's Road, thence extending down the west side of the Laurel Hill to Captain Richard Williams' [ near Don- egal], thence over the Chestnut Ridge to intersect the Great Road lead- ing from Hannastown to Broadford on the Youghiogheny, at or uear Machlin's Mill," that the road was " then already opened to the west side of the Chestnut Ridge, and had been found by experience to be of great utility not only to the Petitioners, but to those persons who had occasion to travel on the Communication from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt, either with wagons or single horses, and was cak ulated to be of great advan- tage to the inhabitants of Bedford and Westmoreland Counties."

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TURNPIKES-CONESTOGA WAGONS-PIONEER INNS.

streams, and wooden bridges over all the creeks and runs. The body of the road was macadamized with hard stone, and there were water tables along the sides.

The history of the road begins on the 24th of February, 1806, when the Assembly authorized the Governor to incorporate a company for making an artificial road from the bank of the river Susque- hanna, opposite Harrisburg, to Pittsburgh. The style of the company was to be "The President and Managers of the Harrisburg and Pittsburgh Turn- pike Company." By a supplement to this act passed the 81st of March, 1807, a number of separate com- panies were to be incorporated in the several counties through which the road was to pass, and the route was fixed through Carlisle, Shippensburg, Chambers- burg, McConnellstown, Bedford, Somerset, Greens- burg, to Pittsburgh. When the road should be com- pleted the separate charters were to be surrendered and the companies to be consolidated into one, agree- able to the first act.

Another road of much importance was the old Frankstown road, which extended from Frankstown, on the North Branch of the Juniata, to Pittsburgh. ..

By act of Assembly 20th of March, 1787, " to es- tablish a road between the navigable waters of the Frankstown branch of the river Juniata and the river Conemaugh," commissioners were appointed to lay out a State highway between those two points, and the route was surveyed. It ran from Armagh to New Port, west of Blairsville, on the Indiana County side, and then it crossed the river into the Westmore- land side. The road was entered and confirmed by Council 18th December, 1787.1

Early in 1800 the road was somewhat changed in its courses, after a turnpike company had been char- tered, called the Harrisburg, Lewistown, Huntingdon, and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company. This was more familiarly known as the "Northern Turnpike," in distinction from the Greensburg turnpike. Its course was nearly over the old Frankstown road. In West- moreland it ran from the Conemaugh through New Alexandria, New Salem, Newlansburg, and Murrays- ville.

But the successful completion of both of these roads was impossible by an act of the Assembly which brought them in contact with each other. This act,? " for the construction of certain great and leading roads," authorized the Governor, as soon as one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars should be subscribed to the route which should be determined on, to sub- scribe three hundred thousand dollars in the stock of the company. Four commissioners appointed by the Governor, of whom Wilson McCandless and Adam- son Tannehill, of Pittsburgh, were two, were to go over the route and make their report in favor of either the northern or southern route. The commis-

sioners reported in favor of the southern route, and the time for commencing the construction of the road was extended to three years from the 2d of April, 1811. An advertisement appeared in the Greensburg Register May 20, 1812, signed by commissioners ap- pointed for that purpose, giving notice that the books for subscription to the stock would be opened at the house of Simon Drum, Sr., on Monday, June 3d, at ten o'clock. In March, 1816, an additional adver- tisement appeared, signed by the manager of the Greensburg and Pittsburgh Turnpike Company, offer- ing contracts of some of the sections. The install- ments subscribed were then being paid in.

This great work, which promised so much to those who subscribed to the capital stock, never paid them any dividend. It was ultimately put in sequestration, and since that time has been managed and controlled by a few who in each division hold the balance of power by having a majority of shares gathered to- gether at a nominal valuation. The road never filled its original corporate destiny.

Having said so much on the subject of roads, we shall touch upon one in every respect more agreeable, namely (as the scholastic would say), inns or taverns. The public-houses on the old Pennsylvania road, as adverted to, could lay no claim to superior comfort, nor could they offer extra inducements beyond what might be offered in many private houses. But as the roads became more and more traveled, and as the population along them increased, the public-houses became continually better. In all the bigger towns large hostelries were opened, and wherever it might be profitable commodious houses were built. The reason of this is apparent. There was a class of men who lived the better part of their time at public- houses, and this class was mostly made up of those engaged in the carrying business. The number of these was, in the winter season, augmented by the sons of the farmers, who, rigging out a team of horses, themselves took to the road. These usually at home loaded with flour or whiskey, and returned from Philadelphia or Baltimore with merchandise. They, as a set, were jovial fellows, and being free born de- manded good victual for their money. But it was of necessity that the tavern should be the home for at least six days in the week of that class which was made up of professional wagoners and coach-drivers. And it was from this that they enjoyed here as much con- venience and every comfort that any house could at that day afford. Nor was there much distinction then as to the parties served. The distinction often spoken of originated between the teamsters and the coach- drivers. The coaches got to stopping at houses which were furnished in better style and which charged higher prices. The wagon-houses adhered to the old homely style, in which abundance made up for deli- cacy, and common manners for conventional urbanity.

This greatest distin on was observed, perhaps, from 1825 to 1845, and during this time everything per-

1 For all these authorities see acts of Assembly and minutes of Council. 2 Act of April 2, 1811.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

taining to roads and houses had undergone great changes for the better. The low two-storied cabin- house with its four rooms and thatched sheds had given place to the large, rough stone, brick, or frame tavern, each with its suite of eight or a dozen rooms, its bar-room, sitting-room, dining-room, and large stables, barns, and wagon-yards attached. The scene then of a summer evening was like a picture, and truly American. The big Conestoga wagons on com- ing in took their places along the village street and in the yards. The long troughs which through the day hung at the end of the bed were then placed on the pole of the wagon for the horses to eat their feed . from. The wagoners themselves were busied ungear- ing, currying the horses, carrying bundles of hay or armfuls of straw, while the dogs chased the cattle from the purliens of the wagons. The scene was not unusually enlivened by a rough-and-tumble, heels- over-head fight at fisticuffs, in which the whole com- munity would abet. In the noise of the feeding horses, and in the long summer twilight, on benches outside sat the resting teamsters, while the scratching fiddle in the dining-room or bar-room was the prelude to the evening's fun.

There were places which had become famous as stopping-places, and where one could have plenty to eat and lots of amusement and enjoyment all night if wanted Such a place, and one of the most con- spicuous, was Youngstown in its pristine days, where the situation of the village made it a natural stopping- place, and the hospitality of its inhabitants an agree- able one. Its good cheer has been made famous by pens that glided more smoothly than our own blunt quill. Our marginal reference is to Bishop Hop- kins, D.C.L., Oxon., and to the historiographer of Prof. Donaldson.1 But it is a fact that wagoners would drive after-night to reach their old stand, and if a wheel was lost it was not considered inconvenient to trudge a mile or so to one of its first-rate inns.

The improvements which have been noticed were, as all improvements are, gradual,' but at all times, dating back to the beginning of the century, the reputation of the public-houses was good. The far- mers found a ready sale for their fruits, vegetables, and fowls to the tavern-keeper, who usually paid for them in ready cash. In some districts the bulk of the money in circulation went through the hands of

the landlord. As the product was abundant the table depended on the enterprise of the host. A good table was, therefore, the best thing to advertise by. Here roasted the ham and smoked the biscuit, and waffles in the morning swam in maple syrup. Here the way- farer got a big glass of old Monongahela or apple- jack for three cents; or if he took's meal for a levy, he got a dram to wash it down and a toby cigar .. Here were fiddlers always ready to play for a corn- row, and servant-girls ready to dance in a French four; here were large bar-rooms with big grate-fires, such as Johnson and Dryden loved; long low kitchens, with its ten-plated stoves, smoky rafters, as one sees in old German pictures, and small parlors, with the black-framed pictures decorated with ferns, and the fireplace in summer filled with evergreens and furze, in the fashion of the England of the early Georges, celebrated in the verse of Oliver Goldsmith and in the prose of Joseph Addison.

These taverns were known by some peculiar sign which designated them, sometimes by the name of the landlord himself, who gave reputation to the house. These signs which once graced the waysides of the public roads were peculiarities truly in them- selves. You may count on your fingers all the old- fashioned signs now in the county. These were of wood, and in size about four feet by six, and hung in a stout frame, and swung in every wind. On a weather-beaten one you might make out a daub once intended for a bear, a bull, a white horse, or a black ox. Like the signs of London made classic in the Spectator, there were green cows and blue stars, red lions couchant and yellow lions rampant, all the signs of the zodiac,-

"The he-goat, And the man with the watering-pot."

There were animals not classified by Buffon, and owls and fowls whose species would have puzzled Audubon. There was the black duck, the golden swan, the spread eagle, the cross-keys. There the painter had painted all the constellations which the sooty Vulcan had moulded in the forges of the im- mortals for the shield of Thetis' son, godlike Achilles,-

" There he wrought Earth, Sea, and Heaven, There he cet the unwearying Sun, And the waxing Moon, and stars that Crown the blue vault every one,- Pleiada, Hyades, strong Orion, Arctos, high to boot the Wain;

He upon Orion waiting, Only he of all the train, Shunning still the baths of Ocean, Wheels and wheels his round again.

There were Washington and Lafayette, Greene and Putnam, Indian chiefs and shaggy buffaloes. Some taverns were known by the name of the town, some by the name of the county, and many by the name of the host. If the host was a professional landlord and had a good reputation, he found this a capital adver- tisement and a good way of drawing custom. It was

1 We refer to the " Biography of Right Rev. John Hopkins," and to the newspaper accounts of the "balloon excursion" from Pittsburgh by Prof. Donaldson in the interest of Barnum's Hippodrome exhibition.

" The remarks of Hon. Alexander Ogle are so applicable here as re- flecting popular sentiment at that day in the matter of public improve- ment that we give them in part. They are from Alexander Ogle's 4th of July speech, 1854, at Somerset, Pa., as reported by Dr. Elder in a little work named " Periscopics," published in Philadelphia in 1854:

"Your grandmothers can tell you what a rumpus the same ninnies raised around the first wagon-road made over the mountains to Pitts- burgh. It would break up the pack-horse men forsooth, and the taveru- keepers and horse-breeders would be ruined when one wagon could carry as much salt, bar iron, and brandy from Baltimore as a whole caravan of half-starved mountain ponies. But I told them then that of all people in the world fools have the least sense."

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money in a man's pocket to have a name that sounded well on a sign-board. Frederick Rhorer, Sr., inn- keeper from Hagerstown, was the first of a reputable family whose praises have been told by many, and the Drums, the Markers, and the Lamars had names which were as well adapted to designate a house as that of Willard or Leland, being, as it were, like Gov- ernor Panza to the island, born to it.1

Around these wayside taverns of the old turnpike centred the interest and the excitement of the com- munity. Here daily either some of the coaches or some of the teams stopped for a meal or to change horses, and about the yards at night were the high white-canvassed wagons filled with merchandise. The wagoners were a class by themselves distinct, and had several marked characteristics. In winter the rooms of the inns were warmed by coal-fire in large open grates, and the kitchen by either open fireplaces or those huge stoves which burnt wood by the cord. Sometimes the kitchen and dining-room were in one. If this was so the room was spacious, and was the room of the most attraction. For the tired traveler, the coachman, or the teamster, exposed from four o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock at night to the biting cold, the mud and snow of our wintry hills, nothing could equal the comfort of this room. The fires leaped gayly and cheerily up the broad chimney ; the stout cooks, the landlord's daughters, and the hearty daughters of the small farmers round were busied in every preparation that could increase the inclination or satisfy the taste of the hungry. A poor tavern it was in which food was not furnished in abundance, and where the landlord and the land- lady did not show an obliging disposition. The house soon fell in repute and was deserted, and the more enterprising landlord carried business away. While the domestic arrangements were directly under the management of the women, the landlord himself was either enthroned in glory in the tap-room or carrying his portly body about the wagon-yard. From night to morn, from morn to dewy eve, was the door of the tap-room open. The common custom of drinking and the habit of association always drew a share of people to this part of the house with ever- increasing desires. Here collected songsters, and even

1 The following opinion of this worthy class of citizens was passed by a contemporary. It is from H. M. Brackenridge's " Recollections of the Went:"

. "I should be guilty of a glaring omission, even in this unshaded out- line of by-gone days, if I were to pass in silence that portion of my townemen who possess so much influence in a land of equality and free- dom. I allude to that class who furnish us with militia colonels and generala, and members of Congress, or who contribute most to make them, who do the honors of the town and keep up its reputation for hospitality, although not quite disinterested. I allnde to the publicans and sinners. The landlords or tavern-keepers are, in reality, the only lords we have in Pennsylvania; they possess a degree of intelligence and respectability of character which justly gives them an influence dans la chose publique, which very little corresponds with that of mine host in the country of John Bull, which may account for the good jokes of British travelers on our keepers of public-houses, in respect to their political and military importance."

poetasters, braggarts, bullies, and loafers. How po- tent the effect of these places and their influence we have abundance of testimony. The epigrams, the flashes of wit and merriment that were wont to set the table in a roar, the jests, the songs of the hard cider and coon campaigns, the tales of-the wayside inn are all now things of the past, and are a part and parcel of Vanity Fair.

Before the advent of railroads and speedy travel, which knelled out the old inn system, taverns were recognized as being the most desirable place to while away idle time and enjoy comfort. "Can I not take mine ease in my inn?" was the indignant question not admitting of answer of the ingenuous old boy Fal- staff, and no less were the ponderous Samuel and the dainty Pope frequenters of the London coffee-rooms. And to those old persons who constantly take advan- tage of the present by comparing it with the past, and who will never be happy till the old-fashioned stage- coach be again on the road and the cars are entirely done away with, to those it is a source of the utmost satisfaction to recall the times when these villages of the old turnpike were in their early glory ; when, as they declare, labor and pleasure went hand in hand; when every town had one place of amusement for both the stranger and the countryman ; when fiddling was an accomplishment; when everybody danced; where the story-teller had the best seat nearest the fire ; where even the scullions and stable-boys came in for a share of the fun, and were bountifully fed and well clothed; when, in short, in the language of a great historian, the rich did not grind the faces of the poor, and when the poor did not envy the splen- dor of the rich.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

THE LAST OF THE BORDER COMMOTIONS.

New Boundaries of the Purchase of 1784-Emigration of Westmore- landers-Harmar's Campaign-His Defeat-St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory-His Campaign and Defeat-Indians attack Fron- tier Settlers of Pennsylvania-Condition and Extent of the Frontier of Westmoreland and Allegheny-Uuprepared state of the Inhabit- ants-Westmoreland Militia-The Prominent Men of that Period- The State organizes Rifle Ranges-Appropriations for the Western Counties by Act of Assembly-Government of the United States called on for help-It responds and enlists Men-Correspondence from and between Officers and Military Men relative to the state of Affairs, and giving Statements at length of Indian Depredations-Particular Inci- dents-Capture of Charles Mitchell, murder of his Mother, and an account of his Captivity with the Cornplanters-The Episode of Capt. Sloan, Wallace, Hunt, and Knott, in their Tour of Observation in the Western County-Sloan in command of Fort Hamilton-His able and successful Defense of that Post-Presque Isle-The laying out of the Town and of the Road along the Allegheny River resisted by the Indians at the instance of the British in Canada-The State takes Active Measures to enforce the Lawa-Militia called out from West- moreland and the other Counties for this Service-Last of the Indian Troubles in Westmoreland.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 46

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: