CONCLUSION
It is impossible to leave the study of the Cumberland Road without
gathering up into a single chapter a number of threads which have not
been woven into the preceding record. And first, the very appearance of
the old road as seen by travelers who pass over it today. One cannot go
a single mile over it without becoming deeply impressed with the
evidence of the age and the individuality of the old Cumberland Road.
There is nothing like it in the United States. Leaping the Ohio at
Wheeling, the Cumberland Road throws itself across Ohio and Indiana,
straight as an arrow, like an ancient elevated pathway of the gods,
chopping hills in twain at a blow, traversing the lowlands on high
grades like a railroad bed, vaulting river and stream on massive bridges
of unparalleled size. The farther one travels upon it, the more
impressed one must become, for there is, in the long grades and
stretches and ponderous bridges, that "masterful suggestion of a serious
purpose, speeding you along with a strange uplifting of the heart," of
which Kenneth Grahame speaks; "and even in its shedding off of bank and
hedgerow as it marched straight and full for the open downs, it seems to
declare its contempt for adventitious trappings to catch the
shallow-pated."[73] For long distances, this road "of the sterner sort"
will be, so far as its immediate surface is concerned, what the tender
mercies of the counties through which it passes will allow, but at
certain points, the traveler comes out unexpectedly upon the ancient
roadbed, for in many places the old macadamized bed is still doing noble
duty.
Nothing is more striking than the ponderous stone bridges which carry
the roadbed over the waterways. It is doubtful if there are on this
continent such monumental relics of the old stone bridge builders' art.
Not only such massive bridges as those at Big Crossings (Smithfield,
Pennsylvania) and the artistic "S" bridge near Claysville,
Pennsylvania, will attract the traveler's attention, but many of the
less pretentious bridges over brooks and rivulets will, upon
examination, be found to be ponderous pieces of workmanship. A pregnant
suggestion of the change which has come over the land can be read in
certain of these smaller bridges and culverts. When the great road was
built the land was covered with forests and many drains were necessary.
With the passing of the forests many large bridges, formerly of much
importance, are now of a size out of all proportion to the demand for
them, and hundreds of little bridges have fallen into disuse, some of
them being quite above the general level of the surrounding fields. The
ponderous bridge at Big Crossings was finished and dedicated with great
éclat July 4, 1818. Near the eastern end of the three fine arches is the
following inscription: "Kinkead, Beck & Evans, builders, July 4, 1818."
[Illustration: CULVERT ON THE CUMBERLAND ROAD IN OHIO]
The traveler will notice still the mileposts which mark the great road's
successive steps. Those on the eastern portion of the road are of
iron and were made at the foundries at Connellsville and Brownsville.
Major James Francis had the contract for making and delivering those
between Cumberland and Brownsville. John Snowdan had the contract for
those between Brownsville and Wheeling. They were hauled in six-horse
teams to their sites. Those between Brownsville and Cumberland have
recently been reset and repainted. The milestones west of the Ohio River
are mostly of sandstone, and are fast disappearing under the action of
the weather. Some are quite illegible though the word "Cumberland" at
the top can yet be read on almost all. In central Ohio, through the
Darby woods, or "Darby Cuttings," the mileposts have been greatly
mutilated by vandal woodchoppers, who knocked off large chips with which
to sharpen their axes.
The bed of the Cumberland Road was originally eighty feet in width. In
Ohio at least, property owners have encroached upon the road until, in
some places, ten feet of ground has been included within the fences.
This matter has been brought into notice where franchises for electric
railway lines have been granted. In Franklin County, west of Columbus,
Ohio, there is hardly room for a standard gauge track outside the
roadbed, where once the road occupied forty feet each side of its axis.
When the property owners were addressed with respect to the removal of
their fences, they demanded to be shown quitclaim deeds for the land,
which, it is unnecessary to say, were not forthcoming from the state.
Hundreds of contracts, calling for a width of eighty feet, can be given
as evidence of the original width of the road.[74] In days when it was
considered the most extraordinary good fortune to have the Cumberland
Road pass through one's farm, it was not considered necessary to obtain
quitclaim deeds for the land.
It is difficult to sufficiently emphasize the aristocracy which existed
among the old "pike boys," as those most intimately connected with the
road were called. This was particularly true of the drivers of the mail
and passenger stages, men who were as often noted for their quick wit
and large acquaintance with men as for their dexterous handling of two
hands full of reins. Their social and business position was the envy of
the youth of a nation, whose ambition to emulate them was begotten of
the best sort of hero-worship. Stage-drivers' foibles were their pet
themes, such as the use of peculiar kinds of whips and various modes of
driving. Of the latter there were three styles common to the Cumberland
Road, (1) The flat rein (English style), (2) Top and bottom
(Pennsylvania adaptation), (3) Side rein (Eastern style). The last mode
was in commonest use. Of drivers there were of course all kinds,
slovenly, cruel, careful. Of the best class, John Bunting, Jim Reynolds,
and Billy Armor were best known, after "Red" Bunting, in the east, and
David Gordon and James Burr, on the western division. No one was more
proud of the fine horses which did the work of the great road than the
better class of drivers. As Thackeray said was true in England, the
passing of the era of good roads and the mailstage has sounded the
knell of the rugged race of horses which once did service in the Central
West.
As one scans the old files of newspapers, or reads old-time letters and
memoirs of the age of the Cumberland Road, he is impressed with the
interest taken in the coming and going of the more renowned guests of
the old road. The passage of a president-elect over the Cumberland Road
was a triumphant procession. The stage companies made special stages, or
selected the best of their stock, in which to bear him. The best horses
were fed and groomed for the proud task. The most noted drivers were
appointed to the honorable station of Charioteer-to-the-President. The
thousands of homes along his route were decked in his honor, and
welcoming heralds rode out from the larger towns to escort their noted
guests to celebrations for which preparations had been making for days
in advance. The slow-moving presidential pageant through Ohio and
Pennsylvania was an educational and patriotic ceremony, of not
infrequent occurrence in the old coaching days--a worthy exhibition
which hardly has its counterpart in these days of steam. Jackson, Van
Buren, Monroe, Harrison, Polk, and Tyler passed in triumph over portions
of the great road. The taverns at which they were fêted are remembered
by the fact. Drivers who were chosen for the task of driving their coach
were ever after noted men. But there were other guests than
presidents-elect, though none received with more acclaim. Henry Clay,
the champion of the road, was a great favorite throughout its towns and
hamlets, one of which, Claysville, proudly perpetuates his name. Benton
and Cass, General Lafayette, General Santa Anna, Black Hawk, Jenny Lind,
P. T. Barnum, and John Quincy Adams are all mentioned in the records of
the stirring days of the old road. As has been suggested elsewhere,
politics entered largely into the consideration of the building and
maintenance of the road. Enemies of internal improvement were not
forgotten as they passed along the great road which they voted to
neglect, as even Martin Van Buren once realized when the axle of his
coach was sawed in two, breaking down where the mud was deepest. Many
episodes are remembered, indicating that all the political prejudice and
rancor known elsewhere was especially in evidence on this highway, which
owed its existence and future to the machinations of politicians.
But the greatest blessing of the Cumberland Road was the splendid era of
growth which it did its share toward hastening. Its best friends could
see in its decline and decay only evidences of unhappiest fortune, while
in reality the great road had done its noble work and was to be
superseded by better things which owed to it their coming. Historic
roads there had been, before this great highway of America was built,
but none in all the past had been the means of supplanting themselves by
greater and more efficient means of communication. The far-famed Appian
Way witnessed many triumphal processions of consuls and proconsuls, but
it never was the means of bringing into existence something to take its
place in a new and more progressive era. It helped to create no free
empire at its extremity, and they who traversed it in so much pride and
power would find it today nothing but a ponderous memorial of their
vanity. The Cumberland Road was built by the people and for the people,
and served well its high purpose. It became a highway for the products
of the factories, the fisheries and the commerce of the eastern states.
It made possible that interchange of the courtesies of social life
necessary in a republic of united states. It was one of the great
strands which bound the nation together in early days when there was
much to excite animosity and provoke disunion. It became the pride of
New England as well as of the West which it more immediately benefited;
"The state of which I am a citizen," said Edward Everett at Lexington,
Kentucky, in 1829, "has already paid between one and two thousand
dollars toward the construction and repair of that road; and I doubt not
she is prepared to contribute her proportion toward its extension to the
place of its destination."[75]
Hundreds of ancient but unpretentious monuments of the Cumberland
Road--the hoary milestones which line it--stand to perpetuate its name
in future days. But were they all gathered together--from Indiana and
Ohio and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Maryland--and cemented into a
monstrous pyramid, the pile would not be inappropriate to preserve the
name and fame of a highway which "carried thousands of population and
millions of wealth into the West; and more than any other material
structure in the land, served to harmonize and strengthen, if not save,
the Union."
What of the future? The dawning of the era of country living is in
sight. It is being hastened by the revolution in methods of locomotion.
The bicycle and automobile presage an era of good roads, and of an
unparalleled countryward movement of society. With this era is coming
the revival of inn and tavern life, the rejuvenation of a thousand
ancient highways and all the happy life that was ever known along their
dusty stretches. By its position with reference to the national capital,
and the military and commercial key of the Central West, Pittsburg, and
both of the great cities of Ohio, the Cumberland Road will become,
perhaps, the foremost of the great roadways of America. The bed is
capable of being made substantial at a comparatively small cost, as the
grading is quite perfect. Its course measures the shortest possible
route practicable for a roadway from tidewater to the Mississippi River.
As a trunk line its location cannot be surpassed. Its historic
associations will render the route of increasing interest to the
thousands who, in other days, will travel, in the genuine sense of the
word, over those portions of its length which long ago became hallowed
ground. The "Shades of Death" will again be filled with the echoing horn
which heralded the arrival of the old-time coaches, and Winding Ridge
again be crowded with the traffic of a nation. A hundred Cumberland Road
taverns will be opened, and bustling landlords welcome, as of yore, the
travel-stained visitor. Merry parties will again fill those tavern
halls, now long silent, with their laughter.
And all this will but mark a new and better era than its predecessor, an
era of outdoor living, which must come, and come quickly, if as a nation
we are to retain our present hold on the world's great affairs.
Appendixes
APPENDIX A
APPROPRIATIONS BY CONGRESS AT VARIOUS TIMES FOR MAKING, REPAIRING, AND
CONTINUING THE ROAD
1. Act of March 29, 1806, authorizes the President to appoint a
commission of three citizens to lay out a road four rods in width
"from Cumberland or a point on the northern bank of the river
Potomac in the State of Maryland, between Cumberland and the place
where the main road leading from Gwynn's to Winchester, in Virginia,
crosses the river, ... to strike the river Ohio at the most
convenient place between a point on its eastern bank, opposite the
northern boundary of Steubenville and the mouth of Grave creek,
which empties into the said river a little below Wheeling, in
Virginia." Provides for obtaining the consent of the states through
which the road passes, and appropriates for the expense, to be paid
from the reserve fund under the act of April 30, 1802, $30,000.00
2. Act of February 14, 1810, appropriates to be expended under the
direction of the President in making the road between Cumberland and
Brownsville, to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802, $60,000.00
3. Act of March 3, 1811, appropriates to be expended under the
direction of the President in making the road between Cumberland and
Brownsville, and authorizes the President to permit deviation from a
line established by the commissioners under the original act as may
be expedient; _Provided_, that no deviation shall be made from the
principal points established on said road between Cumberland and
Brownsville; to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802 $50,000.00
4. Act of February 26, 1812, appropriates balance of a former
appropriation not used, but carried to surplus fund, $3,786.60
5. Act of May 6, 1812, appropriates to be expended under direction
of the President, for making the road from Cumberland to
Brownsville, to be paid from fund act of April 30, 1802 $30,000.00
6. Act of March 3, 1813 (General Appropriation Bill), appropriates
for making the road from Cumberland to the state of Ohio, to be
paid from fund act of April 30, 1802 $140,000.00
7. Act of February 14, 1815, appropriates to be expended under
the direction of the President, for making the road between
Cumberland and Brownsville, to be paid from fund act of April 30,
1802, $100,000.00
8. Act of April 16, 1816 (General Appropriation Bill), appropriates
for making the road from Cumberland to the state of Ohio, to be paid
from the fund act April 30, 1802 $300,000.00
9. Act of April 14, 1818, appropriates to meet claims due and
unpaid $52,984.60
Demands under existing contracts $260,000.00
(From money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.)
10. Act of March 3, 1819, appropriates for existing claims and
contracts $250,000.00
Completing road $285,000.00
(To be paid from reserved funds, acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois.)
11. Act of May 15, 1820, appropriates for laying out the road
between Wheeling, Virginia, and a point on the left bank of the
Mississippi River, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois
River, road to be eighty feet wide and on a straight line, and
authorizes the President to appoint commissioners. To be paid out
of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated $10,000.00
12. Act of April 11, 1820, appropriates for completing contract for
road from Washington, Pennsylvania, to Wheeling, out of any money in
the treasury not otherwise appropriated $141,000.00
13. Act of February 28, 1823, appropriates for repairs between
Cumberland and Wheeling, and authorizes the President to appoint a
superintendent at a compensation of three dollars per day. To be
paid out of any money not otherwise appropriated $25,000.00
14. Act of March 3, 1825, appropriates for opening and making a road
from the town of Canton, in the state of Ohio, opposite Wheeling, to
Zanesville, and for the completion of the surveys of the road,
directed to be made by the act of May 15, 1820, and orders its
extension to the permanent seat of government of Missouri, and to
pass by the seats of government of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, said
road to commence at Zanesville, Ohio; also authorizes the
appointment of a superintendent by the President, at a salary of
fifteen hundred dollars per annum, who shall make all contracts,
receive and disburse all moneys, etc.; also authorizes the
appointment of one commissioner, who shall have power according to
provisions of the act of May 15, 1820; ten thousand dollars of the
money appropriated by this act is to be expended in completing the
survey mentioned. The whole sum appropriated to be advanced from
moneys not otherwise appropriated, and replaced from reserve
fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
Missouri $150,000.00
15. Act of March 14, 1826 (General Appropriation Bill), appropriates
for balance due to the superintendent, $3,000; assistant
superintendent, $158.90; contractor, $252.13 $3,411.03
16. Act of March 25, 1826 (Military Service), appropriates for the
continuation of the Cumberland Road during the year 1825 $110,749.00
17. Act of March 2, 1827 (Military Service), appropriates for
construction of road from Canton to Zanesville, and continuing and
completing the survey from Zanesville to the seat of government of
Missouri, to be paid from reserve fund, provided in acts admitting
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $170,000.00
For balance due superintendent, from moneys not otherwise
appropriated, $510.00
18. Act of March 2, 1827, appropriates for repairs between
Cumberland and Wheeling, and authorizes the appointment of a
superintendent of repairs, at a compensation to be fixed by the
President. To be paid from moneys not otherwise appropriated.
The language of this act is: "For repairing the public road
from Cumberland to Wheeling" $30,000.00
19. Act of May 19, 1828, appropriates for the completion of the road
to Zanesville, Ohio, to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $175,000.00
20. Act of March 2, 1829, appropriates for opening road westwardly,
from Zanesville, Ohio, to be paid from fund provided in acts
admitting Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri $100,000.00
21. Act of March 2, 1829, appropriates for opening road eighty feet
wide in Indiana, east and west from Indianapolis, and to appoint two
superintendents, at eight hundred dollars each per annum, to be paid
from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and
Missouri, $51,600.00
22. Act of March 3, 1829, appropriates for repairing bridges, etc.,
on road east of Wheeling $100,000.00
23. Act of May 31, 1830 (Internal Improvements), appropriates for
opening and grading road west of Zanesville, Ohio, $100,000; for
opening and grading road in Indiana, $60,000; commencing at
Indianapolis, and progressing with the work to the eastern and
western boundaries of said state; for opening, grading, etc., in
Illinois, $40,000, to be paid from reserve fund provided in acts
admitting Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri; for claims due
and remaining unpaid on account of road east of Wheeling,
$15,000; to be paid from moneys in the treasury not otherwise
appropriated $215,000.00
24. Act of March 2, 1831, appropriates $100,000 for opening,
grading, and so forth, west of Zanesville, Ohio; $950 for repairs
during the year 1830; $2,700 for work heretofore done east of
Zanesville; $265.85 for arrearages for the survey from Zanesville to
the capital of Missouri; and $75,000 for opening, grading, and so
forth, in the state of Indiana, including bridge over White River,
near Indianapolis, and progressing to eastern and western
boundaries; $66,000 for opening, grading and bridging in Illinois;
to be paid from the fund provided in acts admitting Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and Missouri $244,915.85
25. Act of July 3, 1832, appropriates $150,000 for repairs east of
the Ohio River; $100,000 for continuing the road west of Zanesville;
$100,000 for continuing the road in Indiana, including bridge over
east and west branch of White River; $70,000 for continuing road in
Illinois; to be paid from the fund provided in acts admitting Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois $420,000.00
26. Act of March 2, 1833, appropriates to carry on certain
improvements east of the Ohio River, $125,000; in Ohio, west of
Zanesville, $130,000; in Indiana, $100,000; in Illinois, $70,000;
and in Virginia, $34,440 $459,440.00
27. Act of June 24, 1834, appropriates $200,000 for continuing the
road in Ohio; $150,000 for continuing the road in Indiana; $100,000
for continuing the road in Illinois, and $300,000 for the entire
completion of repairs east of Ohio, to meet provisions of the acts
of Pennsylvania (April 4, 1831), Maryland (Jan. 23, 1832), and
Virginia (Feb. 7, 1832), accepting the road surrendered to the
states, the United States not thereafter to be subject to any
expense for repairs. Places engineer officer of army in control of
road through Indiana and Illinois, and in charge of all
appropriations; $300,000 to be paid out of any money in the Treasury
not otherwise appropriated, balance from that provided in acts
admitting Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, $750,000.00
28. Act of June 27, 1837 (General Appropriation), for arrearages due
to the contractors $1,609.36
29. Act of March 3, 1835, appropriates $200,000 for continuing the
road in the state of Ohio; $100,000 for continuing road in the
state of Indiana; to be out of fund provided in acts admitting Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, and $346,186.58 for the entire completion of
repairs in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; but before any part
of this sum can be expended east of the Ohio River, the road shall
be surrendered to and accepted by the states through which it
passes, and the United States shall not thereafter be subject to any
expense in relation to said road. Out of any money in the Treasury
not otherwise appropriated $646,186.58
30. Act of March 3, 1835 (Repair of Roads), appropriates to pay for
work heretofore done by Isaiah Frost on the Cumberland Road, $320;
to pay late superintendent of road a salary, $862.87 $1,182.87
31. Act of July 2, 1836, appropriates for continuing the road in
Ohio, $200,000; for continuing road in Indiana, $250,000, including
materials for a bridge over the Wabash River; $150,000 for
continuing the road in Illinois, provided that the appropriation for
Illinois shall be limited to grading and bridging, and shall not be
construed as pledging Congress to future appropriations for the
purpose of macadamizing the road, and the moneys herein appropriated
for said road in Ohio and Indiana must be expended in completing the
greatest possible continuous portion of said road in said states so
that said finished part thereof may be surrendered to the states
respectively; to be paid from fund provided in acts admitting Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri $600,000.00
32. Act of March 3, 1837, appropriates $190,000 for continuing the
road in Ohio; $100,000 for continuing the road in Indiana; $100,000
for continuing the road in Illinois, provided the road in Illinois
shall not be stoned or graveled, unless it can be done at a cost not
greater than the average cost of stoning and graveling the road in
Ohio and Indiana, and provided that in all cases where it can be
done the work to be laid off in sections and let to the lowest
substantial bidder. Sec. 2 of the act provides that Sec. 2 of act of
July 2, 1836, shall not be applicable to expenditures hereafter made
on the road, and $7,183.63 is appropriated by this act for repairs
east of the Ohio River; to be paid from fund provided in acts
admitting Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois $397,183.63
33. Act of May 25, 1838, appropriates for continuing the road in
Ohio, $150,000; for continuing it in Indiana, including bridges,
$150,000; for continuing it in Illinois, $9,000; for the completion
of a bridge over Dunlap's Creek at Brownsville; to be paid from
moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated and subject to
provisions and conditions of act of March 3, 1837 $459,000.00
34. Act of June 17, 1844 (Civil and Diplomatic), appropriates for
arrearages on account of survey to Jefferson, Missouri $1,359.81
Total $6,824,919.33
APPENDIX B
SPECIMEN ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS FOR REPAIRING CUMBERLAND ROAD IN OHIO
(1838)
Sealed proposals will be received at Toll-gate No. 4, until the 6th day
of March next, for repairing that part of the road lying between the
beginning of the 23rd and end of the 42nd mile, and if suitable bids are
obtained, and not otherwise, contracts will be made at Bradshaw's hotel
in Fairview, on the 8th. Those who desire contracts are expected to
attend in person, in order to sign their bonds. On this part of the road
three hundred rods or upwards (82-1/2 cubic feet each) will be required
on each mile, of the best quality of limestone, broken evenly into
blocks not exceeding four ounces in weight, each; and specimens of the
material proposed, must be furnished, in quantity not less than six
cubic inches, broken and neatly put up in a box, and accompanying each
bid; which will be returned and taken as the standard, both as regards
the quality of the material and the preparation of it at the time of
measurement and inspection.
The following conditions will be mutually understood as entering into,
and forming a part of the contract, namely: The 23, 24 and 25 miles to
be ready for measurement and inspection on the 25th of July; the 26, 27
and 28 miles on the 1st of August; the 29, 30 and 31 miles on the 15th
of August; the 32, 33 and 34 miles on the 1st of September; the 35, 36,
37 miles on the 15th of September; the 38, 39 and 40 miles on the 1st of
October; and the 41 and 42 miles, if let, will be examined at the same
time.
Any failure to be ready for inspection at the time above specified, will
incur a penalty of five per cent. for every two days' delay, until the
whole penalty shall amount to 25 per cent. on the contract paid. All the
piles must be neatly put up for measurement and no pile will be measured
on this part of the work containing less than five rods. Whenever a pile
is placed upon deceptive ground, whether discovered at the time of
measurement or afterward, half its contents shall in every case be
forfeited for the use of the road.
Proposals will also be received at the American Hotel in Columbus, on
the 15th of March for hauling broken materials from the penitentiary
east of Columbus. Bids are solicited on the 1, 2 and 3 miles counting
from a point near the Toll-gate towards the city. Bids will also be
received at the same time and place, for collecting and breaking all the
old stone that lies along the roadside, between Columbus and
Kirkersville, neatly put in piles of not less than two rods, and placed
on the outside of the ditches.
APPENDIX C
ADVERTISEMENT FOR PROPOSALS FOR BUILDING A CUMBERLAND ROAD BRIDGE AND
FOR TOLL HOUSES IN OHIO--1837
Proposals will also be received in Zanesville on Monday, the 1st day of
May next, at Roger's Tavern, for rebuilding the Bridge over Salt Creek,
nine miles east of Zanesville. The structure will be of wood, except
some stone work to repair the abutments. A plan of the Bridge, together
with a bill for the timber, &c., can be seen at the place of letting
after the 24th inst. Conditions with regard to proposals the same as
above.
At the same time and place, proposals will likewise be received, for
building three or four Toll-gates and Gate Houses between Hebron, east
of Columbus, and Jefferson, west of it. The house of frame with stone
foundations, and about 13 by 24 feet, one story high, and completely
finished. Bills of timber, stone, &c., will be furnished, and
particulars made known, by calling on the undersigned, at Rodger's
Tavern, in Zanesville after the 24th inst. In making bids, conditions
the same as above.
All letters must be post-paid, or no attention shall be given to them.
THOMAS M. DRAKE, _Superintendent_.
P. S.--Proposals will also be received at Columbus, on Monday, the 17th
of April, for repairing the National Road between Kirkersville and
Columbus--by William B. Vanhook, superintendent.
April 12.
WILLIAM WALL, _A. C. B. P. W._
APPENDIX D
ADVERTISEMENT OF CUMBERLAND ROAD TAVERN IN OHIO--1837
Tavern Stand for Sale or Rent.--A valuable Tavern Stand Sign of the
Harp, consisting of 25-1/2 acres of choice land partly improved, and a
dwelling house, together with three front lots. This eligible and
healthy situation lies 8 miles east of Columbus City, the capital of
Ohio, on the National Road leading to Zanesville, at Big Walnut Bridge.
The stand is well supplied with several elegant springs.
It is unnecessary to comment on the numerous advantages of this
interesting site. The thoroughfare is great, and the growing prospects
beyond calculation. For particulars inquire of
T. ARMSTRONG, Hibernia.
Dec. 4-14.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _United States Statutes at Large_, vol. ii, p. 173.
[2] _Senate Reports_, 9th Cong., 1st Sess., Rep. No. 195.
[3] Keyser's Ridge.
[4] The dates on which the three states gave their permission were:
Pennsylvania, April 9, 1807; Maryland, 1806; Ohio, 1824.
[5] Richardson (editor): _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, vol.
ii, p. 142.
[6] Harriet Martineau's _Society in America_, vol. ii, pp. 31-35.
[7] See Appropriation No. 27, in Appendix A.
[8] For specimen advertisement for repairs see Appendix B.
[9] The early official correspondence concerning the route of the road
shows plainly that it was really built for the benefit of the
Chillicothe and Cincinnati settlements, which embraced a large portion
of Ohio's population. The opening of river traffic in the first two
decades of the century, however, had the effect of throwing the line of
the road further northward through the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois. Zane's Trace, diverging from the Cumberland Road at
Zanesville, played an important part in the development of southwestern
Ohio, becoming the course of the Lancaster and Maysville Pike. See
_Historic Highways of America_, vol. xi.
[10] See Appropriation No. 14, in Appendix A.
[11] See Appropriations Nos. 20 and 21, in Appendix A.
[12] _Private Laws of the United States_, May 17, 1796.
[13] _Springfield Pioneer_, August 1837; also _Ohio State Journal_,
August 8, 1837.
[14] Harriet Martineau's _Society in America_, vol. i, p. 17.
[15] Wabash-Erie, Whitewater, and Indiana Central Canals and the Madison
and Indianapolis Railway. Cf. Atwater's _Tour_, p. 31.
[16] _Illinois in '37_, pp. 766-767. This was probably passenger and
freight traffic as the mails went overland from the very first, until
the building of railways.
[17] _Ohio State Journal_, January 8, 1836.
[18] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 500.
[19] See Appropriation No. 27, in Appendix A.
[20] _Laws of Ohio_, XXIX, p. 76. For specimen advertisement for bids
for erection of tollgates in Ohio see Appendix D.
[21] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 419.
[22] _Id._, p. 523.
[23] _Id._, p. 477.
[24] _Laws of Ohio_, XXXIV, p. 41; XXV, p. 7.
[25] _Id._, XXIII, p. 447.
[26] _Id._, XLIII, p. 89.
[27] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 477.
[28] _Laws of Ohio_, XLIII, p. 140.
[29] _Id._, LVIII, p. 140.
[30] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 500.
[31] _Laws of Ohio_, XXVI, p. 41.
[32] _Id._
[33] Concerning the celerity of opening the road after the completion of
contracts, Captain Weaver, Superintendent in Ohio, made the following
statement in his report of 1827:
"Upon the first, second and third divisions, with a cover of metal of
six inches in thickness, composed of stone reduced to particles of not
more than four ounces in weight, the travel was admitted in the month of
June last. Those divisions that lie eastward of the village of Fairview
together embrace a distance of very nearly twenty-eight and a half
miles, and were put under contract on the first of July, and first and
thirty-first of August, 1825. This portion of the road has been, in
pursuance of contracts made last fall and spring, covered with the third
stratum of metal of three inches in thickness, and similarly reduced. On
parts of this distance, say about five miles made up of detached pieces,
the travel was admitted at the commencement of the last winter and has
continued on to this time to render it compact and solid; it is very
firm, elastic and smooth. The effect has been to dissipate the
prejudices which existed very generally, in the minds of the citizens,
against the McAdam system, and to establish full confidence over the
former plan of constructing roads.
"On the first day of July, the travel was admitted upon the fourth and
fifth divisions, and upon the second, third, fourth, and fifth sections
of the sixth division of the road, in its graduated state. This part of
the line was put under contract on the eleventh day of September, 1826,
terminating at a point three miles west of Cambridge, and embraces a
distance of twenty-three and a half miles. On the twenty-first of July
the balance of the line to Zanesville, comprising a distance of a little
over twenty-one miles, was let."
[34] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 419.
[35] _Laws of Ohio_, XXVI, p. 41; _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p.
102.
[36] _Id._, XXVI, p. 41.
[37] Tolls for 1845 were based on number of horses, each additional
horse being taxed about .20. Tolls for 1900 (in Franklin County) were
practically identical with tolls of 1845.
[38] _Laws of Ohio_, XXX, p. 321.
[39] _Id._, XXX, p. 8.
[40] _Id._, XXXIV, p. 111.
[41] _Id._, XLIII, p. 89.
[42] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), pp. 534, 164, 430-431.
[43] _Laws of Ohio_, XXXV, p. 7.
[44] _Laws of Pennsylvania_ (pamphlet), p. 353.
[45] _Laws of Ohio_, XXX, p. 8.
[46] _Id._, XXIX, p. 76.
[47] _Id._, XXX, p. 8.
[48] _Id._, XXX, p. 7.
[49] _Id_., XXXII, p. 265; XXX, p. 7.
[50] Searight's _The Old Pike_, p. 298.
[51] _Id._, pp. 362-366.
[52] _Id._, pp. 367-370.
[53] _Laws of Ohio_, LII, p. 126.
[54] _Id._, LVI, p. 159.
[55] _Id._, LXX, p. 194.
[56] _Id._, LXXIII, p. 105.
[57] _Laws of Ohio_, LXXIV, p. 62.
[58] _Report of the Superintendent of the National Road, with Abstract
of Tolls for the fiscal year_ (1837).
[59] _Laws of Ohio_, XXX, p. 8.
[60] Thackeray's _The Newcomes_, vol. i, ch. x.
[61] In one instance a struggle between two stagecoach lines in Indiana
resulted in carrying passengers from Richmond to Cincinnati for fifty
cents. The regular price was five dollars.
[62] An old Ohio National Stage driver, Mr. Samuel B. Baker of
Kirkersville, Ohio, is authority for the statement that the Ohio
National Stage Company put a line of stages on the Wooster-Wheeling mail
and freight route and "ran out" the line which had been doing all the
business previously, after an eight months' bitter contest.
[63] The following appeared in the _Ohio State Journal_ of August 12,
1837: "A SPLENDID COACH--We have looked at a Coach now finishing off in
the shop of Messrs. Evans & Pinney of this city, for the Ohio Stage
Company, and intended we believe for the inspection of the Post-Master
General, who sometime since offered premiums for models of the most
approved construction, which is certainly one of the most perfect and
splendid specimens of workmanship in this line that we have ever beheld,
and would be a credit to any Coach Manufactory in the United States. It
is aimed, in its construction, to secure the mail in the safest manner
possible, under lock and key, and to accommodate three outside
passengers under a comfortable and complete protection from the weather.
It is worth going to see."
[64] Before the era of the Cumberland Road the price for hauling the
goods of emigrants over Braddock's Road was very high. One emigrant paid
$5.33 per hundred for hauling "women and goods" from Alexandria,
Virginia, to the Monongahela. Six dollars per hundredweight was charged
one emigrant from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Terre Haute, Indiana.
[65] _Ohio State Journal_, February 9, 1838. "The land mail between this
and Detroit crawls with snails pace."--_Cleveland Gazette_, August 31,
1837. Cf. _Historic Highways of America_, vol. i., p. 29.
[66] The northern and southern Ohio mails connected with the Great
Eastern and Great Western mails at Columbus. They were operated as
follows:
NORTHERN MAIL: Left Sandusky City 4 A. M., reached Delaware 8 P. M. Left
Delaware next day 3 A. M., reached Columbus 8 A. M. Left Columbus 8:30
A. M., reached Chillicothe 4 P. M. Left Chillicothe next day 4 A. M.,
reached Portsmouth 3 P. M.
SOUTHERN MAIL: Left Portsmouth 9 A. M., Chillicothe 5 P. M., Columbus 1
P. M., day following. Delaware 7 P. M., Sandusky City 7 P. M. day
following. A Cleveland mail left Cleveland daily for Columbus via
Wooster and Mt. Vernon at 3 A. M. and reached Columbus on the day
following at 5 P. M., returning the mail left Columbus at 4 A. M. and
reached Cleveland at 5 P. M. on the ensuing day.
[67] "The extreme irregularity which has attended the transmission of
newspapers from one place to another for several months past has been a
subject of general complaint with the editors of all parties. It was to
have been expected that, after the adjournment of Congress, the evil
would have ceased to exist. Such, however, is not the case. Although the
roads are now pretty good, and the mails arrive in due season, our
eastern exchange papers seem to reach us only by chance. On Tuesday
last, for instance, we received, among others, the following, viz., _The
New York Courier_ and _Enquirer_ of March 1, 5 and 19; the _Philadelphia
Times_ and _Saturday Evening Post_ of March 2; the _United States
Gazette_ of March 6; and the _New Jersey Journal_ of March 5 and 19. The
cause of this irregularity, we have reason to believe, does not
originate in this state."--_Ohio State Journal_, March 30, 1833.
[68] _Ohio State Journal_, August 9, 1837
[69] It may be found upon investigation that the portions of our country
most noted for hospitality are those where taverns gained the least hold
as a social institution. Cf. Allen's _The Blue Grass Region of
Kentucky_, p. 38.
[70] The Virginian House of Burgesses met in the old Raleigh Tavern at
Williamsburg, in 1773. (Woodrow Wilson's _George Washington_, p. 146.)
[71] For advertisement of sale of a Cumberland Road tavern see Appendix
D.
[72] Mr. Edward P. Pressey in _New England Magazine_, vol. xxii, no. 6
(August, 1900).
[73] Grahame's _The Golden Age_, p. 155.
[74] "The proper limits of the road are hereby defined to be a space of
eighty feet in width--forty feet on each side of the center of the
graded road-bed."--Law passed April 18, 1870, _Laws of Ohio_, LVIII, p.
140.
[75] Everett's _Speeches and Orations_, vol. i, p. 202.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
2. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected.
3. Footnotes have been moved to the end of the main text body.
4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest
paragraph break.
5. Certain words use an oe ligature in the original.