OPERATION AND CONTROL
The Cumberland Road was built by the United States Government under the
supervision of the War Department. Of its builders, whose names will
ever live in the annals of the Middle West, Brigadier-general Gratiot,
Captains Delafield, McKee, Bliss, Bartlett Hartzell, Williams, Colquit,
and Cass, and Lieutenants Mansfield, Vance, and Pickell are best
remembered on the eastern division. Nearly all became heroes of the
Mexican or Civil Wars, McKee falling at Buena Vista, Williams at
Monterey, and Mansfield, then major-general, at Antietam.
Among the best known supervisors in the west were Commissioners C. W.
Weaver, G. Dutton, and Jonathan Knight.
The road had been built across the Ohio River but a short time when it
was realized that a revenue must be raised for its support from those
who traveled upon it. As we have seen, a law was passed in both houses
of Congress, in 1824, authorizing the Government to erect tollgates and
charge toll on the Cumberland Road as the states should surrender this
right.[18] This bill was vetoed by President Monroe, on grounds already
stated, and the road fell into a very bad condition. But what the
national Government could not do the individual states could do, and,
consequently, as fast as repairs were completed, the Government
surrendered the road to the states through which it passed. Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, accepted completed portions of the
road between 1831 and 1834.[19] The legislatures of Ohio and
Pennsylvania at once passed laws concerning the erection of tollgates,
Ohio authorizing one gate every twenty miles, February 4, 1831,[20] and
Pennsylvania authorizing the erection of six tollgates by an act passed
April 11, of the same year.[21]
The gates in Pennsylvania were located as follows: Gate No. 1 at the
east end of Petersburg, No. 2 near Mt. Washington, No. 3 near Searights,
No. 4 near Beallsville, No. 5 near Washington, and No. 6 near West
Alexander.
The Cumberland Road was under the control of commissioners appointed by
the President of the United States, the state legislatures, or
governors.[22] Upon these commissioners lay the task of repairing the
road, which included the making of contracts, reviewing the work done,
and rendering payment for the same. None of the work of building the
road fell on the state officials. Therefore, in Ohio, two great
departments were simultaneously in operation, the building of the road
by the government officials, and the work of operating and repairing the
road, under state officials. Two commissioners were appointed in
Pennsylvania, in 1847, one acting east, and the other west, of the
Monongahela River.[23] In 1836 Ohio placed all her works of internal
improvement under the supervision of a Board of Public Works, into whose
hands the Cumberland Road passed.[24] Special commissioners were
appointed from time to time by the state legislatures to perform special
duties, such as overseeing work being done, auditing accounts, or
settling disputes.[25] Two resident engineers were appointed over the
eastern and western divisions of the road in Ohio, thus doing away with
the continual employment and dismissal of the most important of all
officials. These engineers made quarterly reports concerning the road's
condition.[26]
The road was conveniently divided by the several states into
departments. East of the Ohio River, the Monongahela River was a
division line, the road being divided by it into two divisions.[27] West
of the Ohio the eighty-seventh mile post from Wheeling was, at one time,
a division line between two departments in Ohio.[28] Later, the road in
Ohio was cut up into as many divisions as counties through which it
passed.[29] The work of repairing was let by contract, for which bids
had been previously advertised. Contracts were usually let in one-mile
sections, sometimes for a longer space, notice of the length being given
in the advertisement for bids. Contractors were compelled to give
testimonials of good character and reliability; though one contract,
previously quoted, professed to be satisfied with "competent or
responsible individuals only." A time limit was usually named in the
contract, with penalties for failure to complete the work in time
assigned.
The building of the road was hailed with delight by hundreds of
contractors and thousands of laborers, who now had employment offered
them worthy of their best labor, and the work, when well done, stood as
a lasting monument to their skill. Old papers and letters speak
frequently of the enthusiasm awakened among the laboring classes by the
building of the great road, and of the lively scenes witnessed in those
busy years. Contractors who early earned a reputation followed the road
westward, taking up contract after contract as opportunity offered.
Farmers who lived on the route of the road engaged in the work when not
busy in their fields, and for their labor and the use of the teams
received good pay. Thus not only in its heyday did the road prove a
benefit to the country through which it passed, but at the very
beginning it became such, and not a little of the money spent upon it by
the Government went into the very pockets from which it came by the sale
of land.
The great pride taken by the states in the Cumberland Road is brought
out significantly in the laws passed concerning it. Pennsylvania and
Ohio legislatures passed laws as early as 1828, and within three days of
each other (Pennsylvania, April 7,[30] and Ohio, April 11[31]), looking
toward the permanent repair and preservation of the road. There were
penalties for breaking or defacing the milestones, culverts, parapet
walls, and bridges. A person found guilty of such act of vandalism was
"fined in a sum of not more than five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned
in a dungeon of the jail of the county, and be fed on bread and water
only, not exceeding thirty days, or both, at the discretion of the
court."[32] There were penalties for allowing the drains to become
obstructed, for premature traveling on unfinished portions of the
roadbed;[33] for permitting a wagon to stand over night on the roadbed,
and for locking wheels, except where ice made this necessary. Local
authorities were ordered to build suitable culverts wherever the roads
connected with the Cumberland Road. "Directors" were ordered to be set
up, to warn drivers to turn to the left when passing other teams.[34]
The rates of toll were ordered to be posted where the public could see
them.[35] "Beacons" were erected along the margin of the roadbed to keep
teams from turning aside. Laws were passed forbidding the removal of
these.[36]
The operation of the Cumberland Road included the establishment of the
toll system, which provided the revenue for keeping it in repair; and
from the tolls the most vital statistics concerning the old road are to
be obtained. Immediately upon the passing of the road into the control
of the individual states, tollgates were authorized, as previously
noted. Schedules of tariff were published by the various states. The
schedule of 1831 in Pennsylvania was as follows:
TOLLS ON THE CUMBERLAND ROAD IN PENNSYLVANIA (1831)
Score of sheep or hogs .06
Score of cattle .12
Led or driven horse .03
Horse and rider .04
Sleigh or sled, for each horse or pair of oxen drawing the same .03
Dearborn, sulky, chair or chaise with one horse .06
Chariot, coach, coachee, stage, wagon, phaeton, chaise, with two
horses and four wheels .12
Either of the carriages last mentioned with four horses .18
Every other carriage of pleasure, under whatever name it may
go, the like sum, according to the number of wheels, and
horses drawing the same.
Cart or wagon whose wheels shall exceed two and one-half inches
in breadth, and not exceeding four inches .04
Horse or pair of oxen drawing the same, and every other cart or
wagon, whose wheels shall exceed four inches, and not exceed
five inches in breadth .03
Horse or pair of oxen drawing the same, for every other cart or
wagon, whose wheels shall exceed six inches, and not more
than eight inches .02
Horse or pair of oxen drawing the same, all other carts or wagons
whose wheels shall exceed eight inches in breadth free
The tolls established the same year in Ohio (see table, pp. 103-104)
were higher than those charged in Pennsylvania.
The philosophy of the toll system is patent. Rates of toll were
determined by the wear on the road. Tolls were charged in order to keep
the road in repair, and, consequently, each animal or vehicle was taxed
in proportion as it damaged the roadbed. Cattle were taxed twice as
heavily as sheep or hogs, and, according to the tariff of 1845, hogs
were taxed twice as much as sheep. The tariff on vehicles was determined
by the width of the tires used, for the narrower the tire the more the
roadbed was cut up. Wide tires were encouraged, those over six inches
(later eight) went free, serving practically as rollers. The toll-rates
in Ohio are exhibited in the following table:
TOLLS ON THE CUMBERLAND ROAD IN OHIO (1831-1900)
1831 1832 1836 1837 1845[37] 1900
Score sheep or hogs .10 .05 .06-1/4 .06-1/4 {.05 .12
{.10
Score cattle .20 .10 .12-1/2 .12-1/2 .20 .25
Horse, mule, or ass, led or
driven .03 .01-1/2 .02 .03 .03 .05
Horse and rider .06-1/4 .04 .06-1/4 .06-1/4 .05 .06
Sled or sleigh drawn by one
horse or ox .12-1/2 .06-1/4 .08 .06 .05 .12
Horse in addition .06-1/4 .04 .04 .04 .05 .06
Dearborn, sulky, chair, or
chaise, one horse .12-1/2 .08 .12-1/2 .12-1/2 .10 .12
Horse in addition .06-1/4 .04 .06-1/4 .04 .05 .06
Chariot, coach, coachee,
horses .18-3/4 .12-1/2 .18-3/4 .18-3/4 ... .30
Horse in addition .06-1/4 .03 .06-1/4 .06-1/4 ... .12
Vehicle, wheels under two
and one-half inches in
breadth .12-1/2 ... .12-1/2 .10 ... ...
Vehicle, wheels under four
inches in breadth .06-1/4 .06-1/4 .08 .08 ... ...
Horse drawing same .03 .02 .04 .05 ... ...
Vehicle, wheels exceeding
four inches and not
exceeding five inches .04 ... ... ... ... ...
Vehicle, wheels exceeding
four inches and not
exceeding six inches ... .02 .04 .06-1/4 ... ...
Horse or ox drawing same .02 .02 .02 .05 ... ...
Vehicle, wheels exceeding
six inches ... ... ... .04 ... ...
Person occupying seat in
mail stage .04 .03 ... ... ... ...
Estimates differed in various states but averaged up quite evenly. To
the rising generation, to whom tollgates are almost unknown, a study of
the toll system affords novel entertainment, helping one to realize
something of one of the most serious questions of public economics of
two generations ago. Tollgates averaged one in eighteen or twenty miles
in Pennsylvania, and one in ten miles in Ohio, with tolls a little
higher than half the rate in Pennsylvania.
Tollgate-keepers were appointed by the governor in the early days in
Ohio,[38] but, later, by the commissioners. These keepers received a
salary which was deducted from their collections, the remainder being
turned over to the commissioners. The salary established in Ohio in 1832
was one hundred and eighty dollars per annum.[39] In 1836 it was
increased to two hundred dollars per annum, and tollgate-keepers were
also allowed to retain five per cent of all tolls received above one
thousand dollars.[40] In 1845 tollgate-keepers were ordered to make
returns on the first Monday in each month, and the allowance of their
per cent on receipts over one thousand dollars was cut off, leaving
their salary at two hundred dollars per annum.[41] Equally perplexing
with the question of just tolls was found to be the question of
determining what and who should have free use of the Cumberland Road.
This list was increased at various times, and, in most states, included
the following at one time or another: persons going to, or returning
from public worship, muster, common place of business on farm or
woodland, funeral, mill, place of election, common place of trading or
marketing within the county in which they resided. This included
persons, wagons, carriages, and horses or oxen drawing the same. No toll
was charged school children or clergymen, or for passage of stage and
horses carrying United States Mail, or any wagon or carriage laden with
United States property, or cavalry, troops, arms, or military stores of
the United States, or any single state, or for persons on duty in the
military service of the United States, or for the militia of any single
state. In Pennsylvania, a certain stage line made the attempt to carry
passengers by the tollgates free, taking advantage of the clauses
allowing free passage of the United States mail by putting a mail sack
on each passenger coach. The stage was halted and the matter taken into
court, where the case was decided against the stage company, and persons
traveling with mailcoaches were compelled to pay toll.[42] Ohio took
advantage of Pennsylvania's experience and passed a law that passengers
on stagecoaches be obliged to pay toll.[43] Pennsylvania exempted
persons hauling coal for home consumption from paying toll.[44] Many
varied and curious attempts to evade payment of tolls were made, and
laws were passed inflicting heavy fine upon all convicted of such
malefaction. In Ohio, tollgate-keepers were empowered to arrest those
suspected of such attempts, and, upon conviction, the fine went into
the road fund of the county wherein the offense occurred.[45]
Persons making long trips on the road could pay toll for the entire
distance and receive a certificate guaranteeing free passage to their
destination.[46] Compounding rates were early put in force, applying, in
Ohio, for persons residing within eight miles of the road,[47] the
radius being extended later to ten.[48] Passengers in the stages were
counted by the tollgate-keepers and the company operating the stage
charged with the toll. At the end of each month, stage companies settled
with the authorities. Thus it became possible for the stage drivers to
deceive the gate-keepers, and save their companies large sums of money.
Drivers were compelled to declare the number of passengers in their
stage, and in the event of failing to do so, gate-keepers were allowed
to charge the company for as many passengers as the stage could
contain.[49]
Stage lines were permitted to compound for yearly passage of stages over
the road and the large companies took advantage of the provision, though
the passengers were counted by the gate-keepers. It may be seen that
gate-keepers were in a position to embezzle large sums of money if they
were so minded, and it is undoubted that this was done in more than one
instance. Indeed, with a score and a half of gates, and a great many
traveling on special rates, it would have been remarkable if some
employed in all those years during which the toll system was in general
operation did not steal. But this is lifting the veil from the good old
days!
As will be seen later, the amounts handled by the gate-keepers were no
small sums. In the best days of the road the average amount handled by
tollgate-keepers in Pennsylvania was about eighteen hundred dollars per
annum. In Ohio, with gates every ten miles, the average (reported)
collection was about two thousand dollars in the best years. It is
difficult to reconcile the statement made by Mr. Searight concerning the
comparative amount of business done on various portions of the
Cumberland Road, with the figures he himself quotes. He says: "It is
estimated that two-fifths of the trade and travel of the road were
diverted at Brownsville, and fell into the channel furnished at that
point by the slackwater navigation of the Monongahela River, and a
similar proportion descended the Ohio from Wheeling, and the remaining
fifth continued on the road to Columbus, Ohio, and points further west.
The travel west of Wheeling was chiefly local, and the road presented
scarcely a tithe of the thrift, push, whirl and excitement which
characterized it east of that point."[50] On another page Mr. Searight
gives the account of the old-time superintendents of the road in
Pennsylvania in its most prosperous era, one dating from November 10,
1840 to November 10, 1841,[51] the other from May 1, 1843 to December
31, 1844.[52] In the first of these periods the amount of tolls received
from the eastern division of the road (east of the Monongahela) is two
thousand dollars less than the amount received from the western
division. Even after the amounts paid by the two great stage companies
are deducted, a balance of over a thousand dollars is left in favor of
the division west of the Monongahela River. In the second report,
$4,242.37 more was received on the western division of the road than on
the eastern, and even after the amounts received from the stage
companies are deducted, the receipts from the eastern division barely
exceed those of the western. How can it be that "two-fifths of the trade
and travel of the road were diverted at Brownsville?" And the further
west Mr. Searight goes, the more does he seem to err, for the road west
of the Ohio River, instead of showing "scarcely a tithe of the thrift,
push, whirl and excitement which characterized it east of that point,"
seems to have done a greater business than the eastern portion. For
instance, when the road was completed as many miles in Ohio as were
built in Pennsylvania, the return from the portion in Ohio (1833) was
$12,259.42-4 (in the very first year that the road was completed), while
in Pennsylvania the receipts in 1840 were only $18,429.25, after the
road had been used for twenty-two years. In the same year (1840) Ohio
collected $51,364.67 from her Cumberland Road tollgates--about three
times the amount collected in Pennsylvania. Again Mr. Searight gives a
Pennsylvania commissioner's receipts for the twenty months beginning May
1, 1843, as $37,109.11, while the receipts from the road in Ohio in only
the twelve months of 1843 were $32,157.02. At the same time the tolls
charged in Ohio were a trifle in excess of those imposed in
Pennsylvania, therefore, Ohio's advantage must be curtailed slightly. On
the other hand it should be taken into consideration that the Cumberland
Road in Pennsylvania was almost the only road across the portion of the
state through which it ran, while in Ohio other roads were used,
especially clay roads running parallel with the Cumberland Road, by
drivers of sheep and pigs, as an aged informant testifies. As Mr.
Searight has said, the travel of the road west of the Ohio may have been
chiefly of a local nature, yet his seeming error concerning the relative
amount of travel on the two divisions in his own state, makes his
statements less trustworthy in the matter. Still it can be readily
believed that a great deal of continental trade did pass down the
Monongahela after traversing the eastern division of the road and that
increased local trade on the western division rendered the toll receipts
of the two divisions quite equal. Local travel on the eastern division
may have been light, comparatively speaking. Mr. Searight undoubtedly
meant that two-fifths of the through trade stopped at Brownsville and
Wheeling and one-fifth only went on into Ohio. The total amount of tolls
received by Pennsylvania from all roads, canals, etc., in 1836 was about
$50,000, while Ohio received a greater sum than that in 1838 from tolls
on the Cumberland Road alone, and the road was not completed further
west than Springfield.
A study of the amounts of tolls taken in from the Cumberland Road by the
various states will show at once the volume of the business done. Ohio
received from the Cumberland Road in forty-seven years nearly a million
and a quarter dollars. An itemized list of this great revenue shows the
varying fortunes of the great road:
_Year_ _Tolls_ _Year_ _Tolls_
1831 $2,777 16 1856 $6,105 00
1832 9,067 99 1857 6,105 00
1833 12,259 42-4 1858 6,105 00
1834 12,693 65 1859 5,551 36
1835 16,442 26 1860 11,221 74
1836 27,455 13 1861 21,492 41
1837 39,843 35 1862 19,000 00
1838 50,413 17 1863 20,000 00
1839 62,496 10 1864 20,000 00
1840 51,364 67 1865 20,000 00
1841 36,951 33 1866 19,000 00
1842 44,656 18 1867 20,631 34
1843 32,157 02 1868 18,934 49
1844 30,801 13 1869 20,577 04
1845 31,439 38 1870 19,635 75
1846 28,946 21 1871 19,244 00
1847 42,614 59 1872 18,002 09
1848 49,025 66 1873 17,940 37
1849 46,253 38 1874 17,971 21
1850 37,060 11 1875 17,265 12
1851 44,063 65 1876 9,601 68
1852 36,727 26 1877 288 91
1853 35,354 40 ---------------
1854 18,154 59 Total $1,139,795 30-4
1855 6,105 00
About 1850 Ohio began leasing portions of the Cumberland Road to private
companies. In 1854 the entire distance from Springfield to the Ohio
River was leased for a term of ten years for $6,105 a year.
Commissioners were appointed to view the road continually and make the
lessees keep it in as good condition as when it came into their
hands.[53] Before the contract had half expired, the Board of Public
Works was ordered (April, 1859) to take the road to relieve the
lessees.[54] In 1870 the proper limits of the road were designated to be
"a space of eighty feet in width, and where the road passed over a
street in any city of the second class, the width should conform to the
width of that street," such cities to own it so long as it was kept in
repair.[55]
Finally, in 1876, the state of Ohio authorized commissioners of the
several counties to take so much of the road as lay in each county under
their control. It was stipulated that tollgates should not average more
than one in ten miles, and that no toll be collected between Columbus
and the Ohio Central Lunatic Asylum. The county commissioners were to
complete any unfinished portions of the road.[56]
Later (1877) the rates of toll were left to the discretion of the county
commissioners, with this provision:
"That when the consent of the Congress of the United States shall have
been obtained thereto, the county commissioners of any county having a
population under the last Federal census of more than fifteen thousand
six hundred and less than fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty shall
have the power when they deem it for the best interest of the road, or
when the people whom the road accommodates wish, to submit to the legal
voters of the county, at any regular or special election, the question,
'Shall the National Road be a free turnpike road?' And when the question
is so submitted, and a majority of all those voting on said question
shall vote yes, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to sell
gates, tollhouses and any other property belonging to the road to the
highest bidder, the proceeds of the sale to be applied to the repair of
the road, and declare so much of the road as lies within their county a
free turnpike road to be kept in repair in the way and manner provided
by law for the repair of free turnpikes."[57]
The receipts from the Franklin County, Ohio, tollgate for the year 1899
were as follows:
January $ 36 00
February 32 80
March 39 90
April 80 75
May 67 25
June 54 85
July 47 15
August 35 75
September 29 27
October 29 26
November 35 05
December 34 05
--------
Total $522 08
It will be noted that April was the heaviest month of the year. The
gate-keeper received a salary of thirty dollars per month.
It is hardly necessary to say that this great American highway was never
a self-supporting institution. The fact that it was estimated that the
yearly expense of repairing the Ohio division of the road was one
hundred thousand dollars, while the greatest amount of tolls collected
in its most prosperous year (1839) was a little more than half that
amount ($62,496.10) proves this conclusively. Investigation into the
records of other states shows the same condition. In the most prosperous
days of the road, the tolls in Maryland (1837) amounted to $9,953 and
the expenditures $9,660.51.[58] In 1839 a "balance" was recorded of
$1,509.08, but a like amount was charged up on the debtor side of the
account. The receipts reported each year in the auditor's reports of the
state of Ohio show that equal amounts were expended yearly upon the
road. As early as 1832 the governor of Ohio was authorized to borrow
money to repair the road in that state.[59]