place, mostly of log-houses. From near Trap town, to the Potomac river,
it still continued rocky. We passed 2 or 3 miles, up the side of the
river, along a very sandy road, the river to our left, and some very
high rocks on our right; many of which had, at different times, rolled
down into the river. On the south side of the river, was a high ridge
of rocky hills, and the sun shining on them; and, as we were passing
through a deep sandy road, the heat was more intense than I had ever
felt it before. The Potomac river is upwards of 250 yards wide, but
shallow at the time we passed it, and full of large rocks. We saw some
people fishing, in canoes, but what kind of fish they were fishing
for, we did not learn. Many papaw trees on the banks of the river: as
we approached near to Harper's Ferry, the rocks on our right rose to
an immense height; we passed close under one, much larger and higher
than St. Paul's church, London. {39} We were told it was a quarter of
a mile high; but this, I think, was an exaggeration. Some small pines
and cedars grew on these rocks; the cedars, on the highest points of
them. We crossed the Potomac at Harper's Ferry,[78] in a ferry-boat;
one waggon and its horses passed over at a time, the river was so full
of rocks, it was difficult for the ferryman to find a passage for their
boat. The river, at the ferry, was about 200 yards wide; we passed it
just above its junction with the Shadanoak.[79] We had now entered
the State of Virginia; hitherto we had been travelling in Maryland.
We saw many large birds on the river, but of what sort we did not
learn, but supposed them to be fish-eagles. At Harper's Ferry, there
is a manufactory of fire-arms, at which many of our countrymen were
employed. I saw eight or ten of them, and they informed me there were
about sixty men, women, and children; but as it was Sunday, they were
most of them walking out. Four miles from this place, we stopped {40}
for the night, at Brick Mill tavern; here was a mill of five stories
high, but short of water in a dry season, and this was the case when we
were there. We passed a mill two days before, seven stories high, with
more than fifty sash windows, the water-wheels more than twenty feet
high, said to be well supplied with water at all seasons of the year.
This day we travelled 19 miles.
[78] For a brief account of Harper's Ferry, consult A. Michaux's
_Travels_, note 69.--ED.
[79] The Shenandoah River.--ED.
26th. We proceeded 4 miles, through a hilly country, to Charles
town,[80] Virginia, a long place of eighty or a hundred houses,
mostly of wood, but some good brick ones. A small creek, at the end
of the town, then nearly dry; the land tolerably good. Here I saw a
small piece of flax; it was the first I saw; but we had passed three
or four small pieces of tobacco, very well cultivated, being planted
in squares, at eighteen or twenty inches apart. At noon, we stopped
at Cook's tavern, during a storm of thunder and rain, and afterwards
proceeded up a rocky hill, of good limestone land, {41} on which there
were the best farmhouses and out-buildings, and the most manure we
had hitherto seen. Dung, in this country, is but little attended to
in general; indeed, they seem to try who shall get rid of it with the
least trouble. At Brick Mill, the stable was placed over the mill
stream, the horses standing on a plank floor; indeed, where there
are stables, the horses stand on plank floors, without litter; but
generally, through the country we passed, they tied them up in the open
air in a road, or any other place. As this hill lies high, the corn on
it was rather backward; the wheat and rye were cut, but not harvested;
the former, as fine as any I ever saw. The road from Harper's Ferry is
situated high, and we were now on what is called the South, or Blue
Mountains.[81] Leaving the hill, we passed some woods down a road more
rocky, if possible, than ever, to a small clear river, about twenty
yards wide, and eighteen inches deep. There were some fine springs
where we passed the river; {42} then, for two miles, through a country
uncommonly sterile, covered with scrubby pines, to a new tavern, where
we intended to sleep. But some words arising between one of our drivers
and the mistress of the tavern, we went forward half a mile to another;
this tavern miserably dirty, and the accommodations uncommonly bad.
On some of our party complaining, the landlord told us, he was sorry
we came to his house, as he liked people to be satisfied or stay away.
This was, by far, the most filthy tavern we ever met with; in fact,
it was but little preferable to an English pig-sty. This day we only
travelled 15 or 16 miles.
[80] See A. Michaux's _Travels_, note 68, for the early history of
Charlestown.--ED.
[81] The Blue Ridge Mountains.--ED.
27th. We provided the greater part of our breakfast, not much wishing
to partake of the landlord's accommodations. We then went forward,
through a poor country, till we passed some woods, and then into some
good limestone land, but much encumbered with large rocks; some of
them upwards of 100 yards long, many yards wide, and {43} some feet
above the surface of the earth. What with these rocks, and the stumps
of trees, full one-fourth part of the land could not be cultivated.
A great deal of very stout wheat and rye cut, but remaining on the
ground; it was cut very high from the ground, in a very slovenly
manner, and set up in large heaps, almost without form. We had seen but
few oats, and no barley, since we left Baltimore; the oats not good.
Indian corn in general slight, owing to the drought. The after-crop of
clover short, but well set, the first cut had been mostly stout and
very ripe; the meadow grass now cutting, and also very ripe. The hay
ricks, we had passed, extremely small, with little or no covering.
Small ricks are most convenient to the Americans, as they do not cut
their hay, but begin at the top, and so continue taking off till the
rick is gone, a little waste not being much regarded. We passed a
little fallow land, but it is not common to make fallows for wheat,
as by keeping the Indian corn {44} ploughed between, it is left in a
good state for wheat or rye. A negro was ploughing for turnips, on some
land, where a slight crop of flax had grown this summer; the land very
kind for once ploughing. This negro said, some very _elegant_ potatoes
grew on this land last year. They plough with a light swing-plough,
and use two horses, except when ploughing between their Indian corn,
and then they only use one. They do not generally use harrows, but
when they do, they are made with wooden teeth; nor have I any where in
America seen iron tined ones, except in the English Prairie. They use
a large hoe to cover in their corn: I have not seen a roller in this
country.
Near this, we saw some mulberry and plum-trees. We then passed a creek,
and afterwards some hilly pine woods; soil very barren till near Pew's
town, a small place, mostly log houses. Here we saw some buck wheat
just come up; we had seen some before equally backward, and {45} we
were told, it was common to sow it after a crop of wheat or rye was
taken off the ground. The gardens here better kept than most we had
seen, but these were far from neat. In the afternoon, we met two droves
of fat beasts, from the south branch of the Potomac river, going to
Baltimore. The first, a drove of handsome fat oxen and heifers; the
other, a larger one, all oxen, young and handsome, but not so fat as
the first, some of which were too fat for the hot weather. These beasts
only travel mornings and evenings, often stopping to graze, and going
but a short distance in a day; they do not lose so much flesh as might
be expected in so long a journey. Just as we had passed the last drove,
we had a heavy storm of thunder and rain, so that we got wet through,
but our clothes were nearly dry by the evening, when we stopped at
Mr. Dent's tavern, at a place called, "the Pine Hills." Here our
accommodations were excellent; our progress {46} this day was 16 miles;
the weather warm in the morning, but colder after the rain.
28. Early in the morning I looked over Mr. Dent's garden. It was pretty
good land, though most that lay round it was very barren. This garden
was kept in tolerable good order, and had a little manure bestowed
on it. There was some fine water-melons, nearly ripe, a few small
horse-beans; I had not seen any before, and these were very weak; but
there were some turnips, just come up, that looked well.
The evening before, a poor old man begged for a lodging. Mr. Dent
ordered him into the house, and gave him a hot supper, and provided a
bed for him; and on his going off early in the morning, Mr. Dent seemed
to blame himself for not giving him a dram before he started. This was
the second beggar we saw in America. After breakfast, we paid 3 dollars
31¼ cents, and left the tavern well pleased with our accommodations
and our landlord; {47} and then proceeded through a sterile mountainous
country. There were pines and cedars on the hills, and large oaks and
chesnuts in the valleys. We afterwards went down a long rocky valley,
with a small stream of water running in it, which we crossed ten or
twelve times in our progress down. We then came to a more open country,
and the stream was lost in a larger one, thirty or forty yards wide;
very shallow at that time, and the bed of it full of rocks. In the
afternoon, we met a drove of 120 oxen, from the State of Kentucky, for
the Baltimore and Philadelphia markets. They were large kind beasts,
mostly young, not over fat, except two or three, which were very fat
indeed; one was equal to any beast I ever saw, and might weigh upwards
of 1200 lbs. weight. But most of them would weigh from 600 to 800 lbs.;
they were chiefly red and white, but not all of one breed.
We saw a partridge fly from a tree, the first game we saw, though
we had now advanced {48} 120 miles into the country. We were told
pheasants, turkeys, and deer, were plentiful in many places, but we had
not seen any. We saw many huckleberries, and some fern; this was the
first fern we saw, but we afterwards saw much of it on the mountains:
some of this fern had stalks of a bright mahogany colour. The fern on
the east of the mountains, grew like the English, on poor land; but
in the State of Illinois, at least, where I have been, it generally
denotes a good soil; and the same may be said of beech trees, on the
banks of the Ohio, the richer spots are often covered with a heavy
growth of them; and in the western country, beech land is called
excellent. In the evening, we reached Mr. Vannosdeln's tavern, in a
poor high country; his garden was in a much better state than any we
had seen before. He gave us a fine water-melon, but none of us relished
it much, as it was the first we had ever tasted, nor was it quite ripe.
29th. We paid at Mr. Vannosdeln's {49} excellent tavern, 3 dollars
33 cents.; and went on to Springfield town,[82] through a barren
country, called the South Branch Mountain. We passed the south branch
of the Potomac river, forty yards wide, shallow when we crossed it,
but sometimes it rises to a great height. After passing the river,
we went up its bank close under a ridge of hills, and many fragments
of the rocks had rolled down into the river, and large masses hung
over our heads that threatened to bury us as we passed. Some large
sycamore-trees lined the banks of the river; these trees always grow
on land liable to be overflowed, and are the same that are called
plane-trees in England. The red or water-maple most resembles the
sycamore of England, but scarcely any tree or plant is exactly the
same. Cedars and pines grow mostly on the tops of rocky hills; the
latter are of several sorts, pitch, spruce, and white; the first a
little like the Scotch fir; the last, much resembles the Weymouth pine;
but the spruce bore but little {50} similarity to any I had ever seen.
There was a large sort of berry that our drivers called gooseberries,
but totally unlike the fruit of that name I had been accustomed to; but
as they were not ripe, we did not taste them. Leaving the banks of the
river, we passed a small mill, and followed the course of its stream up
a valley till we reached Springfield town, a place of forty log-houses,
and stopped at Mr. Piper's tavern. The weather being extremely hot, the
country hilly, and the roads bad, we only travelled 16 or 17 miles.
[82] Springfield, in Hampshire County, West Virginia, about sixty miles
west of Harper's Ferry was established by law (1790), and named after
Springfield, Massachusetts.--ED.
30th. Early in the morning I walked round the town, and went into a
tan-yard; the owner was an old man, 48 years since from Ireland. He
told me he was not troubled with excisemen. He bought his bark mostly
by the cord, but sometimes by the hundred pounds weight, price half
a dollar. Only the body and the large limbs are barked. The bark is
shaved, but not chopped, before it is sold to the tanners; it is ground
in a kind of coffee-mill.
{51} At this place, I saw a few sheep of the Leicestershire breed, very
poor. Mr. Piper's tavern was a neat log-house, lined with pine boards,
and ceiled with the same. We left this place for Frankfort, a small
place of near forty log-houses. We then passed Patterson's Creek,[83]
thirty yards wide, but not deep. The land near it much overrun with
pennyroyal, of which we had seen much during our journey, and also a
great deal of mint; in many of the small streams which we passed, it
grew in a very luxuriant manner; we frequently gathered some of the
latter, and put it into the water we drank, to take off its rawness,
and found it far more palatable for so doing. Most of the briers we had
passed were of the scented kind, and they continued from Baltimore to
the Allegany Mountains, a distance of more than 150 miles; but on the
mountains, and on the west side of them to Wheeling, and from thence
to the Prairies, a distance of 1100 miles, I did not see one scented
one, but {52} many that were not. From Patterson's Creek, a short
distance, to Crisepsburg's town, a very small place of log-houses;[84]
and soon afterwards reached the north branch of the Potomac river, 200
yards wide, rocky, and not deep. The land, on the banks of the river,
much better than any we had seen of late. Having crossed the river, we
were again in the State of Maryland. The country between this place
and Harper's Ferry, which we passed on the 25th, all in the State of
Virginia. From the north branch of the Potomac river, we passed a
very hilly country, to a new road, called the National Turnpike.[85]
This road is to extend from Cumberland on the Potomac, to Wheeling on
the Ohio, a distance of more than 120 miles; the first 62 miles, from
Cumberland to Union town, on the west side of the Allegany Mountains,
was just finished, and is a good road, though hilly. The road west
from Union town to Wheeling, was begun in many places, and many men
were employed on {53} it when we passed along it. This grand national
road is intended to connect all the western country with the seat of
government, as there is water communication from Cumberland to the
city of Washington, on the east by the Potomac, and from Wheeling on
the Ohio, with the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and all the western
country, by the means of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Cumberland,
Tennessee, and other rivers. This national road is free, as there are
no gates on it; for as it was made by the nation, so it is to be kept
in repair by it. We entered this road, five miles west of Cumberland,
and soon after stopped at Mr. Carter's tavern, called "the Travellers'
Rest," at the foot of the Allegany Mountains.
[83] Patterson's Creek rises in Grant County, West Virginia, and
flowing parallel to the south branch of the Potomac, empties into the
north branch a few miles west of Cresapburg.--ED.
[84] Cresapburg is the oldest town in Allegany County, Maryland, a
frontier post having been established there by Colonel Thomas Cresap
in 1741, and named Skipton, after his native town in Yorkshire.
For further details concerning the life of Cresap, see Croghan's
_Journals_, volume i of our series, note 56.--ED.
[85] For the early history of the National Road, see Harris's
_Journal_, volume iii of our series, note 45.--ED.
We had lately seen fewer fruit-trees, and much less fruit on
them, except on the apple-trees, these being generally well hung.
Blackberries had been very plentiful all the way, and so they continued
over the mountains. {54} I ate large quantities of them, liking them
much better than I did the cherries, of which we often had plenty given
us: these blackberries were much better than any I had before tasted.
We saw but few birds on our journey; woodpeckers of several sorts, a
handsome yellow bird, something like a goldfinch, a few crows, and some
small birds, much like tom-tits. As my youngest daughter was carrying
some flowers in her hand, a humming bird settled on them, it made her
start, thinking it was a large insect; it was not larger than a chafer,
but a beautiful bird.
The country, from Harper's Ferry, mostly rocky to the mountains,
generally of slate, but some limestone, free stone, and coarse marble.
Most of the valleys had streams of water and good springs. The soil,
chiefly poor, but well watered. But little cultivated land, and much
of that only partly cleared of trees. They grub up the underwood, and
most of the small {55} trees; they then either cut down the large ones,
within three feet of the ground, and leave the stumps standing, or else
chop them round the stems, and take off a small strip of bark, which
kills them, leaving them to decay, and fall down of themselves. It is
common to see eight or ten acres of land, in cultivation, with some
hundreds of dead trees standing in it. They collect the small trees,
underwood, and roots, into heaps, and then burn them; and thus the
fire often communicates itself to the standing trees, running up to
the top of the highest of them, leaving them half burnt. These trees
have a very dismal appearance at first, but people get reconciled to
it in time. It is much the quickest method of clearing land for corn,
as it enables a man to begin with very little strength of money, men,
and horses. The hogs, on the mountains, were not so handsome as those
nearer Baltimore, being in general badly kept.
In our journey thus far, we had seen but {56} few gardens, and those
indifferently kept; they contained a few peas, parsnips, carrots,
onions, shalots, sweet, and other potatoes, lettuce, and a large flat
sort of cabbage, with a few sorts of herbs. Our landlord, Mr. Carter,
had a farm of 700 acres; 100 cleared, the rest in a state of nature.
31st. We proceeded, by the turnpike road, up a valley of the mountains;
the road good. As we ascended, we found vegetation much later; the
blackberries not ripe, a little rye not cut, oats quite green, no wheat
or Indian corn to be seen. A few gooseberry-bushes, no fruit on them;
some strawberry-plants; I had noticed a few raspberry-bushes, the fruit
small and hard, of a dark red colour. A great variety of wild flowers,
almost all new to me. Much timber in the hollows of the mountains, oak,
chesnut, and pine; the pines of an immense height. I measured one that
was cut in making the turnpike; it was 102 feet to the broken top, and
there it was seven inches in diameter. {57} Some that were standing
appeared much longer; I thought the highest, at least, 140 feet high.
The oaks and chesnuts were also very high, but they grew too close
together to be very large, but many of them might contain from 50 to
150 feet of solid timber. Many thousands of trees, that were cut for
making the turnpike, lay rotting by the sides of it, besides the vast
quantities of dead trees in the woods. This day only, we passed some
thousand loads of timber, thus decaying. I believe I have seen more
timber in this wasting state, than all the growing timber I ever saw in
my life in England. We saw no heath on the mountains, nor have I ever
seen or heard of any in America.
In the forenoon, we passed a village of good houses, most part of them
lately built: a flour and saw mill, and a noble tavern, the Globe; it
equalled many English inns in outward appearance. We stopped to dinner
at a poor log-tavern, but the landlord was building a new log one,
on a large scale. Here we saw a poor little negro {58} boy, he was
a cripple; the landlord had bought him some months before, out of a
_drove_ of negroes going westward for sale. The landlord treated him
with great humanity, and the child seemed as much attached to him,
as he could have been to his own relations. I was much pleased to
see a poor negro child so well treated, but as to buying or selling
human beings, I utterly abhor it. In the evening, we arrived at Mr.
Kimberley's tavern; here we took our supper, our provisions being now
exhausted. In the forenoon, it was extremely hot; in the afternoon,
a little thunder and rain, and afterwards much colder: we travelled
seventeen miles, mostly up hill, the road good, but rough, the stones
being laid on rather large.
August 1st. Having breakfasted, and paid five dollars, we set out and
crossed the little Yougany or Cressing river,[86] by a new stone bridge
of one arch of 76 feet span, and very high. We passed many ridges and
small valleys; but little cultivated land, a small quantity of rye cut;
only one piece {59} of wheat, nearly ripe. Oats here form the chief
crop, some nearly ripe, others just coming out in haw. A little Indian
corn, but we were told the summers on the mountains were too short for
it to ripen; and, therefore, they only planted a little to cut green.
Some healthy-looking apple trees in the valleys, but with little fruit
on them, owing to the spring frosts being later than usual. Some new
land bringing into cultivation, potatoes or fallows first. The oats and
potatoes, much better on the mountains, than those seen between them
and Baltimore; indeed, the land in the hollows of the mountains was
much better than a great deal of that we had passed before we arrived
at the foot of them, but backward, the winters being severe, and the
springs late.
[86] Little Crossing was the name given to the place where the road
crossed Castleman's Creek, a small branch of the Youghiogheny, and at
this point about fifteen miles distant from the crossing of the latter,
or Big Crossing.--ED.
We called at a cabin, to get some bread, where we found a woman with
six small children; she said her husband worked 40 miles off, and only
came home once in two or three weeks; they lived in this place {60}
before the turnpike was begun, four years since; no stores nearer than
six or seven miles. They procured most of their tea, coffee, whiskey,
and other necessaries from the waggons, that traded to, and from
Baltimore, to the westward. She said, she had never been molested in
this lonely situation. She was born in the state of Jersey, but near
Philadelphia. Her great grandfather of the name of Wood, emigrated from
England, being oppressed with tithes, he being a Quaker; he founded a
small town in the state of Jersey, and called it Woodbury, after his
own name, and the place he left in England, which was Bury. But whether
it was a town, village, or farm, she did not know, only, that it was in
Gloucestershire.
Sixteen miles from the Little Cressing or Yougany, we came to the Big
Cressing, and the small town of Smithfield, placed in a very romantic
situation.[87] It had three taverns, viz. a stone house, the Globe;
a frame one, the Rising Sun; and a good {61} log one, the Yougany;
and about twenty other houses, mostly of logs. A noble stone bridge
over the river, the centre arch ninety feet span, said to be the
largest in the United States. The Yougany is one of the head streams
of the Monongahela. Leaving the river, we followed the course of a
small stream, to the Elephant tavern, kept by Major Paul, (late in
the American service), where we slept. This town is noted as a waggon
house; there were eight stopped there at the time we were there, mostly
drawn by six horses each, and none less than five.
[87] This crossing-place of the Youghiogheny River is the present
Smithfield, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The old name was "Big
Crossings," and from this account, might have been contracted to
Cressing. Applying the name to the river was probably a tourist's
error.--ED.
At noon this day, we passed the line between the states of
Pennsylvania and Maryland,[88] and found ourselves in a state where
slavery is not admitted; but still negroes were treated with much
contempt, as we witnessed at Major Paul's. A negro drove one of the
waggons, that stopped for the night; he was not allowed to sit at table
with any one, but had a table to himself: I believe he was a free
negro, but of this I am not certain. We had come seventeen {62} miles,
weather very hot, with much thunder at a distance, but no rain. Mr.
Paul's house was surrounded by some of the best meadows we had then
seen in America;[89] the hills inclosed them on both sides, and the
valleys were narrow.
[88] On the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, consult A.
Michaux's _Travels_, note 73.--ED.
[89] Great Meadows was near Farmington, Fayette County, Pennsylvania,
and was the site of Washington's Fort Necessity, raised in the campaign
of 1754 against Fort Duquesne. These rich meadows became one of
Washington's first land possessions in the West.--ED.