HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
VOLUME 12
HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
VOLUME 12
Pioneer Roads and
Experiences of Travelers
(Volume II)
BY
ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT
_With Maps_
[Illustration]
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
CLEVELAND, OHIO
1904
COPYRIGHT, 1904
BY
THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE 9
I. THE OLD NORTHWESTERN TURNPIKE 13
II. A JOURNEY IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA 43
III. A PILGRIM ON BRADDOCK'S ROAD 64
IV. THE GENESEE ROAD 95
V. A TRAVELER ON THE GENESEE ROAD 117
VI. THE CATSKILL TURNPIKE 143
VII. WITH DICKENS ALONG PIONEER ROADS 164
ILLUSTRATIONS
I. PART OF A "MAP OF THE ROUTE BETWEEN ALBANY AND OSWEGO"
(drawn about 1756; from original in British Museum) 97
II. PART OF A "MAP OF THE GRAND PASS FROM NEW YORK TO
MONTREAL ... BY THOMAS POWNALL" (drawn about 1756;
from original in the British Museum) 113
III. WESTERN NEW YORK IN 1809 123
PREFACE
This volume is devoted to two great lines of pioneer movement, one
through northern Virginia and the other through central New York. In the
former case the Old Northwestern Turnpike is the key to the situation,
and in the latter the famous Genesee Road, running westward from Utica,
was of momentous importance.
A chapter is given to the Northwestern Turnpike, showing the movement
which demanded a highway, and the legislative history which created it.
Then follow two chapters of travelers' experiences in the region
covered. One of these is given to the _Journal of Thomas Wallcutt_
(1790) through northern Virginia and central Pennsylvania. Another
chapter presents no less vivid descriptions from quite unknown travelers
on the Virginian roads.
The Genesee Road is presented in chapter four as a legislative
creation; the whole history of this famous avenue would be practically a
history of central New York. To give the more vivid impression of
personal experience a chapter is devoted to a portion of Thomas
Bigelow's _Tour to Niagara Falls 1805_ over the Genesee Road in its
earliest years, when the beautiful cities which now lie like a string of
precious gems across this route were just springing into existence. For
a chapter on the important "Catskill Turnpike," which gives much
information of road-building in central New York, we are indebted to
Francis Whiting Halsey's _The Old New York Frontier_.
The final chapter of the volume includes a number of selections from the
spicy, brilliant descriptions of pioneer traveling in America which
Dickens left in his _American Notes_, and a few pages describing an
early journey on Indian trails in Missouri from Charles Augustus
Murray's _Travels in North America_.
A. B. H.
MARIETTA, OHIO, January 26, 1904.
Pioneer Roads and Experiences of Travelers
(Volume II)
CHAPTER I
THE OLD NORTHWESTERN TURNPIKE
We have treated of three historic highways in this series of monographs
which found a way through the Appalachian uplift into the Mississippi
Basin--Braddock's, Forbes's, and Boone's roads and their successors.
There were other means of access into that region. One, of which
particular mention is to be made in this volume, dodged the mountains
and ran around to the lakes by way of the Mohawk River and the Genesee
country. Various minor routes passed westward from the heads of the
Susquehanna--one of them becoming famous as a railway route, but none
becoming celebrated as roadways. From central and southern Virginia,
routes, likewise to be followed by trunk railway lines, led onward
toward the Mississippi Basin, but none, save only Boone's track, became
of prime importance.
But while scanning carefully this mountain barrier, which for so long a
period held back civilization on the Atlantic seaboard, there is found
another route that was historic and deserves mention as influencing the
westward movement of America. It was that roadway so well known
three-fourths of a century ago as the Old Northwestern Turnpike, leading
from Winchester, Virginia, to the Ohio River at Parkersburg, Virginia,
now West Virginia, at the mouth of the Little Kanawha.
The earliest history of this route is of far more interest than
importance, for the subject takes us back once more to Washington's
early exploits and we feel again the fever of his wide dreams of
internal communications which should make the Virginia waterways the
inlet and outlet of all the trade of the rising West. It has been
elsewhere outlined how the Cumberland Road was the actual resultant of
Washington's hopes and plans. But it is in place in a sketch of the Old
Northwestern Turnpike to state that Washington's actual plan of making
the Potomac River all that the Erie Canal and the Cumberland Road
became was never even faintly realized. His great object was
attained--but not by means of his partisan plans.
It is very difficult to catch the exact old-time spirit of rivalry which
existed among the American colonies and which always meant jealousy and
sometimes bloodshed. In the fight between Virginia officers in Forbes's
army in 1758 over the building of a new road through Pennsylvania to
Fort Duquesne, instead of following Braddock's old road, is an historic
example of this intense rivalry. A noted example, more easily explained,
was the conflict and perennial quarrel between the Connecticut and
Pennsylvania pioneers within the western extremity of the former
colony's technical boundaries. That Washington was a Virginian is made
very plain in a thousand instances in his life; and many times it is
emphasized in such a way as must seem odd to all modern Americans. At a
stroke of a pen he shows himself to be the broadest of Americans in his
classic Letter to Benjamin Harrison, 1784; in the next sentence he is
urging Virginia to look well to her laurels lest New York, through the
Hudson and Mohawk, and Pennsylvania, through the Susquehanna and
Juniata, do what Virginia ought to do through her Potomac.
The powerful appeal made in this letter was the result of a journey of
Washington's in the West which has not received all the attention from
historians it perhaps deserves. This was a tour made in 1784 in the
tangled mountainous region between the heads of the branches of the
Potomac and those of the Monongahela.[1] Starting on his journey
September 1, Washington intended visiting his western lands and
returning home by way of the Great Kanawha and New Rivers, in order to
view the connection which could be made there between the James and
Great Kanawha Valleys. Indian hostilities, however, made it unwise for
him to proceed even to the Great Kanawha, and the month was spent in
northwestern Virginia.
On the second, Washington reached Leesburg, and on the third, Berkeley;
here, at his brother's (Colonel Charles Washington's) he met a number
of persons including General Morgan. "... one object of my journey
being," his _Journal_ reads, "to obtain information of the nearest and
best communication between the Eastern & Western Waters; & to facilitate
as much as in me lay the Inland Navigation of the Potomack; I conversed
a good deal with Gen^l. Morgan on this subject, who said, a plan was in
contemplation to extend a Road from Winchester to the Western Waters, to
avoid if possible an interference with any other State." It is to be
observed that this was a polite way of saying that the road in
contemplation must be wholly in Virginia, which was the only state to be
"interfered" with or be benefited. "But I could not discover,"
Washington adds, "that Either himself, or others, were able to point it
out with precision. He [Morgan] seemed to have no doubt but that the
Counties of Freder^k., Berkeley & Hampshire would contribute freely
towards the extension of the Navigation of Potomack; as well as towards
opening a Road from East to West."
It should be observed that the only route across the mountains from
northwestern Virginia to the Ohio River was Braddock's Road; for this
road Washington was a champion in 1758, as against the central route
Forbes built straight west from Bedford to Fort Duquesne.[2] Then,
however, Braddock's Road, and even Fort Duquesne, was supposed to lie in
Virginia. But when the Pennsylvania boundaries were fully outlined it
was found that Braddock's Road lay in Pennsylvania. Washington now was
seeking a new route to the West which would lie wholly in Virginia. The
problem, historically, presents several interesting points which cannot
be expanded here. Suffice it to say that Washington was the valiant
champion of Braddock's Road until he found it lay wholly in Maryland and
Pennsylvania.
Gaining no satisfaction from his friends at Berkeley, Washington pushed
on to one Captain Stroad's, out fourteen odd miles on the road to Bath.
"I held much conversation with him," the traveler records of his visit
at Stroad's, "the result ... was,--that there are two Glades which go
under the denomination of the Great glades--one, on the Waters of
Yohiogany, the other on those of Cheat River; & distinguished by the
name of the Sandy Creek Glades.--that the Road to the first goes by the
head of Patterson's Creek[3]--that from the acc^{ts}. he has had of it,
it is rough; the distance he knows not.--that there is a way to the
Sandy Creek Glades from the great crossing of Yohiogany (or Braddocks
Road) [Smithfield, Pennsylvania] & a very good one; ..." At the town of
Bath Washington met one Colonel Bruce who had traversed the country
between the North Branch (as that tributary of the Potomac was widely
known) and the Monongahela. "From Col^o. Bruce ... I was informed that
he had travelled from the North Branch of Potomack to the Waters of
Yaughiogany, and Monongahela--that the Potom^k. where it may be made
Navigable--for instance where McCulloughs path crosses it, 40 Miles
above the old fort [Cumberland], is but about 6 Miles to a pretty large
branch of the Yohiogany ...--that the Waters of Sandy Creek which is a
branch of cheat River, which is a branch of Monongahela, interlocks with
these; and the Country between, flat--that he thinks (in order to ev^d.
[evade] passing through the State of Pennsylvania) this would be an
eligible Road using the ten Miles C^k. with a portage to the Navigable
Waters of the little Kanhawa; ..."
This was the basis of Washington's plan of internal communication from
Potomac; he now pressed forward to find if it were possible to connect
the Youghiogheny and North Branch of the Potomac, the Youghiogheny and
Monongahela, and the Monongahela and Little Kanawha. Of course the plan
was impossible, but the patient man floundered on through the foothills
and mountains over what was approximately the course mentioned, the
"McCullough's Path" and Sandy Creek route from the Potomac to the
Monongahela. In his explorations he found and traversed one of the
earliest routes westward through this broken country immediately south
of the well known resorts, Oakland and Deer Park, on the Baltimore and
Ohio Railway. This was the "McCullough's" Path already mentioned. Having
ascended the Monongahela River from near Brownsville, Pennsylvania,
Washington, on September 24, arrived at a surveyor's office (the home of
one Pierpoint) eight miles southward along the dividing ridge between
the Monongahela and Cheat Rivers.[4] On the twenty-fifth--after a
meeting with various inhabitants of the vicinity--he went plunging
eastward toward the North Branch of the Potomac "along the New Road
[which intersected Braddock's Road east of Winding Ridge] to Sandy
Creek; & thence by McCullochs path to Logstons [on the North Branch of
the Potomac] and accordingly set of [off] before Sunrise. Within 3 Miles
I came to the river Cheat ab^t. 7 Miles from its Mouth--.... The Road
from Morgan Town or Monongahela C^t. House, is said to be good to this
ferry [Ice's]--distance ab^{t}. 6 Miles[5] ... from the ferry the
Laurel Hill[6] is assended ... along the top of it the Road
continues.... After crossing this hill the road is very good to the ford
of Sandy Creek at one James Spurgeons,[7] ... ab^t. 15 Miles from Ice's
ferry. At the crossing of this Creek McCullocks path, which owes its
origen to Buffaloes, being no other than their tracks from one lick to
another & consequently crooked & not well chosen, strikes off from the
New Road.... From Spurgeon's to one Lemons, which is a little to the
right of McCullochs path, is reckoned 9 Miles, and the way not bad; but
from Lemons to the entrance of the Yohiogany glades[8] which is
estimated 9 Miles more thro' a deep rich Soil ... and what is called the
briery Mountain.[9] ... At the entrance of the above glades I lodged
this night, with no other shelter or cover than my cloak. & was unlucky
enough to have a heavy shower of Rain.... 26^{th}.... passing along a
small path ... loaded with Water ... we had an uncomfortable travel to
one Charles friends[10] about 10 Miles.... A Mile before I came to
Friends, I crossed the great Branch of Yohiogany.... Friend ... is a
great Hunter.... From Friends I passed by a spring (distant 3 Miles)
called Archy's from a Man of that name--crossed the backbone[11] &
descended into Ryans glade.[12]--Thence by Tho^s. Logston's ... to the
foot of the backbone, about 5 Miles ... across the Ridge to Ryans glade
one mile and half ...--to Joseph Logstons 1-1/2 Miles ...--to the N^o.
Branch at McCullochs path 2 Miles[13]--infamous road--and to Tho^s.
Logstons 4 more.... 27th. I left M^r. Logston's ...--at ten Miles I
had ... gained the summit of the Alligany Mountain[14] and began to
desend it where it is very steep and bad to the Waters of Pattersons
Creek ... along the heads of these [tributaries], & crossing the Main
[Patterson's] Creek & Mountain bearing the same name[15] (on the top of
which at one Snails I dined) I came to Col^o. Abrah^m. Hites at Fort
pleasant on the South Branch[16] about 35 Miles from Logstons a little
before the Suns setting. My intention, when I set out from Logstons, was
to take the Road to Rumney [Romney] by one Parkers but learning from my
guide (Joseph Logston) when I came to the parting paths at the foot of
the Alligany[17] (ab^t. 12 Miles) that it was very little further to go
by Fort pleasant, I resolved to take that Rout ... to get
information...."
This extract from Washington's journal gives us the most complete
information obtainable of a region of country concerning which it is
difficult to secure even present-day information. The drift of the
pioneer tide had been on north and south lines here; the first-comers
into these mountains wandered up the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers
and their tributaries. Even as early as the Old French War a few bold
companies of men had sifted into the dark valleys of the Cheat and
Youghiogheny.[18] That it was a difficult country to reach is proved by
the fact that certain early adventurers in this region were deserters
from Fort Pitt. They were safe here! A similar movement up the two
branches of the Potomac had created a number of settlements there--far
up where the waters ran clear and swift amid the mountain fogs. But
there had been less communication on east and west lines. It is easy to
assume that McCulloch's path was the most important route across the
ragged ridges, from one glade and valley to another. It is entirely
probable that the New Road, to which Washington refers, was built for
some distance on the buffalo trace which (though the earlier route)
branched from the New Road. An old path ran eastward from Dunkard's
Bottom of which Washington says: "... being ... discouraged ... from
attempting to return [to the Potomac] by the way of Dunkars Bottom, as
the path it is said is very blind & exceedingly grown up with briers, I
resolved to try the other Rout, along the New Road ..." as quoted on
page 21. The growth of such towns as Cumberland and Morgantown had made
a demand for more northerly routes. The whole road-building idea in
these parts in the last quarter of the eighteenth century was to connect
the towns that were then springing into existence, especially Morgantown
and Clarksburg with Cumberland. Washington's dream of a connected
waterway was, of course, hopelessly chimerical, and after him no one
pushed the subject of a highway of any kind between the East and the
West through Virginia. Washington's own plans materialized in the
Potomac Navigation Company, and his highway, that should be a strong
link in the chain of Federal Union between the improved Potomac and the
Ohio, became the Cumberland Road; and it ran just where he did not care
to see it--through Maryland and Pennsylvania. Yet it accomplished his
first high purpose of welding the Union together, and was a fruit of
that patriotic letter to Governor Harrison written a few days after
Washington pushed his way through the wet paths of the Cheat and
Youghiogheny Valleys in 1784.
These first routes across the mountains south of the Cumberland Road--in
Virginia--were, as noted, largely those of wild beasts. "It has been
observed before," wrote Washington in recapitulation, "to what
fortuitous circumstances the paths of this Country owe their being, &
how much the ways may be better chosen by a proper investigation of
it; ..." In many instances the new roads built hereabouts in later days
were shorter than the earlier courses; however it remains true here, as
elsewhere, that the strategic geographical positions were found by the
buffalo and Indian, and white men have followed them there unwaveringly
with turnpike and railway.
When Washington crossed the North Branch of the Potomac on the 26th of
October, 1784 at "McCullochs crossing," he was on the track of what
should be, a generation later, the Virginian highway across the
Appalachian system into the Ohio Basin. Oddly enough Virginia had done
everything, it may truthfully be said, toward building Braddock's Road
to the Ohio in 1755, and, in 1758, had done as much as any colony toward
building Forbes's Road. All told, Virginia had accomplished more in the
way of road-building into the old Central West by 1760 than all other
colonies put together. Yet, as it turned out, not one inch of either of
these great thoroughfares lay in Virginia territory when independence
was secured and the individual states began their struggle for existence
in those "critical" after-hours. These buffalo paths through her western
mountains were her only routes; they coursed through what was largely
an uninhabited region, and which remains such today. Yet it was
inevitable that a way should be hewn here through Virginia to the Ohio;
the call from the West, the hosts of pioneers, the need of a state way
of communication, all these and more, made it sure that a Virginia
Turnpike should cross the mountains.
Before that day arrived the Cumberland Road was proposed, built, and
completed, not only to the Ohio River, but almost to the western
boundary of the state of Ohio; its famous successor of another
generation, the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, was undertaken in 1825.
These movements stirred northern Virginians to action and on the
twenty-seventh of February, 1827, the General Assembly passed an act "to
incorporate the North-western Road Company."
Sections 1, 3, 4, and 5 of this Act are as follows:
"1. _Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia_, That books
shall be opened at the town of Winchester, in Frederick county, under
the direction of Josiah Lockhart, William Wood, George S. Lane, Abraham
Miller, and Charles Brent, or any two of them; at Romney, in Hampshire
county, under the direction of William Naylor, William Donaldson, John
M'Dowell, Robert Sherrard, and Thomas Slane, or any two of them; at
Moorfield, in Hardy county, under the direction of Isaac Van Meter,
Daniel M'Neil, Benjamin Fawcett, Samuel M'Machen, and John G. Harness,
or any two of them; at Beverly, in Randolph county, under the direction
of Eli Butcher, Squire Bosworth, Jonas Crane, Andrew Crawford, and
William Cooper, or any two of them; at Kingwood, in Preston county,
under the direction of William Sigler, William Johnson, William Price,
Charles Byrne, and Thomas Brown, or any two of them; at Pruntytown, in
Harrison county, under the direction of Abraham Smith, Frederick
Burdett, Thomas Gethrop, Cornelius Reynolds, and Stephen Neill, or any
two of them; at Clarksburg, in Harrison county, under the direction of
John L. Sehon, John Sommerville, John Webster, Jacob Stealy, and Phineas
Chapin, or any two of them; and at Parkersburg, in Wood county, under
the direction of Jonas Beason, Joseph Tomlinson, Tillinghast Cook,
James H. Neal, and Abraham Samuels, or any two of them, for purpose of
receiving subscriptions to a capital stock of seventy-five thousand
dollars, in shares of twenty dollars, to be appropriated to the making
of a road from Winchester to some proper place on the Ohio river,
between the mouths of Muskingum, and Little Kanawha rivers, according to
the provisions of this act....
"3. The proceedings of the first general meeting of the stockholders,
shall be preserved with subsequent proceedings of the company, all of
which shall be entered of record in well bound books to be kept for that
purpose: And from and after the first appointment of directors, the said
responsible subscribers, their heirs and assigns, shall be, and they are
hereby declared to be, a body politic and corporate, by the name of 'The
North western Road Company;' ...
"4. It shall be the duty of the Principal Engineer of the State, as soon
as existing engagements will permit, to prescribe such plans or schemes
for making the whole road, or the several parts or sections thereof, as
he shall think best calculated to further its most proper and speedy
completion, and to locate and graduate the same, or part or parts
thereof, from time to time, make estimates of the probable cost of
making each five miles, (or any shorter sections,) so located and
graduated, and to make report thereof to the Board of Public Works at
such time or times as shall be convenient.
"5. The said president and directors shall, from time to time, make all
contracts necessary for the completion of the said road, and shall
require from subscribers equal advances and payments on their shares,
and they shall have power to compel payments by the sale of delinquent
shares, in such a manner as shall be prescribed by their by-laws, and
transfer the same to purchasers: _Provided_, That if any subscriber
shall at any time be a contractor for making any part of the said road,
or in any other manner become a creditor of the company, he shall be
entitled to a proper set-off in the payment of his stock, or any
requisition made thereon...."[19]
A mistake which doomed these plans to failure was in arbitrarily
outlining a road by way of the important towns without due consideration
of the nature of the country between them. The mountains were not to be
thus mocked; even the buffalo had not found an east and west path here
easily. As noted, the towns where subscriptions were opened were
Winchester, Romney, Moorefield, Beverly, Kingwood, Pruntytown,
Clarksburg, and Parkersburg. When the engineers got through Hampshire
County by way of Mill Creek Gap in Mill Creek Mountain and on into
Preston County, insurmountable obstacles were encountered and it was
reported that the road would never reach Kingwood. From that moment the
North-western Road Company stock began to languish; only the
intervention of the state saved the enterprise. However, in 1831, a new
and very remarkable act was passed by the Virginia Assembly organizing a
road company that stands unique in a road-building age. This was "An act
to provide for the construction of a turnpike road from Winchester to
some point on the Ohio river." The governor was made president of the
company and he with the treasurer, attorney-general, and second auditor
constituted the board of directors. The 1st, 2d, and 4th sections of
this interesting law are as follows:
"1. _Be it enacted by the general assembly_, That the governor,
treasurer, attorney general, and second auditor of the commonwealth for
the time being, and their successors, are hereby constituted a body
politic and corporate, under the denomination of 'The President and
Directors of the North-Western Turnpike Road,' with power to sue and be
sued, plead and be impleaded, and to hold lands and tenements, goods and
chattels, and the same to sell, dispose of, or improve, in trust for the
commonwealth, for the purposes hereinafter mentioned. And three of the
said commissioners shall constitute a board for the transaction of
such business as is hereby entrusted to them; of which board, when
present, the governor shall be president: And they shall have power to
appoint a clerk from without their own body, and make such distribution
of their duties among themselves respectively, and such rules and
regulations ... as to them may seem necessary....
"2. _Be it further enacted_, That the said president and directors of
the North-Western turnpike road be, and they are hereby empowered as
soon as may be necessary for the purposes herein declared, to borrow on
the credit of the state, a sum or sums of money not exceeding one
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and at a rate of interest not
exceeding six per centum per annum....
"4. _Be it further enacted_, That the said president and directors, out
of the money hereby authorized to be borrowed, shall cause to be
constructed a road from the town of Winchester, in the county of
Frederick, to some point on the Ohio river, to be selected by the
principal engineer. And for the purpose aforesaid, the principal
engineer, as soon as may be after the passage of this act, shall proceed
to lay out and locate the said road from the points above designated. He
shall graduate the said road in such manner that the acclivity or
declivity thereof shall in no case exceed five degrees. The width of the
said road may be varied, so that it shall not exceed eighteen feet, nor
be less than twelve feet. Through level ground it shall be raised in the
middle one-twenty-fourth part of its breadth, but in passing along
declivities it may be flat. Bridges, side ditches, gutters, and an
artificial bed of stone or gravel, shall be dispensed with, except in
such instances as the said principal engineer may deem them
necessary...."[20]
Other sections stipulated that the state had the right to survey any and
all routes the engineers desired to examine, and that persons suffering
by loss of land or otherwise could, if proper application was made
within one year, secure justice in the superior or county courts; that
the company appoint a superintendent who should have in charge the
letting of contracts after such were approved by the company; that, as
each stretch of twenty miles was completed, toll gates could be erected
thereon, where usual tolls could be collected by the company's agents,
the total sum collected to be paid into the state treasury; that the
company had the right to erect bridges, or in case a ferry was in
operation, to make the ferryman keep his banks and boats in good
condition; that the company make annual reports to the State Board of
Public Works; and that the road be forever a public highway.
The roadway was now soon built. Not dependent upon the stock that might
be taken in the larger towns, the road made peace with the mountains and
was built through the southern part of Preston County in 1832, leaving
Kingwood some miles to the north. Evansville was located in 1833, and
owes its rise to the great road. The route of the road is through
Hampshire, Mineral, Grant, Garrett, Preston, Taylor, Harrison,
Doddridge, Ritchie, and Wood Counties, all West Virginia save Garrett
which is in Maryland. Important as the route became to the rough,
beautiful country which it crossed, it never became of national
importance. Being started so late in the century, the Baltimore and Ohio
Railway, which was completed to Cumberland in 1845, stopped in large
part the busy scenes of the Old Northwestern Turnpike.
Yet to the historic inquirer the old turnpike, so long forgotten by the
outside world, lies where it was built; and can fairly be said to be a
monument of the last of those stirring days when Virginia planned to
hold the West in fee. Hundreds of residents along this road recall the
old days with intense delight. True, the vast amount of money spent on
the Cumberland Road was not spent on its less renowned rival to the
south, but the Cumberland Road was given over to the states through
which it ran; and, in many instances, was so neglected that it was as
poor a road as some of its less pretentious rivals. A great deal of
business of a national character was done on the Northwestern Turnpike.
Parkersburg became one of the important entrepôts in the Ohio Valley; as
early as 1796, we shall soon see, a pioneer traversing the country
through which the Northwestern Turnpike's predecessor coursed, speaks of
an awakening in the Monongahela Valley that cannot be considered less
than marvelous. Taking it through the years, few roads have remained of
such constant benefit to the territory into which they ran, and today
you will be told that no railway has benefited that mountainous district
so much as this great thoroughfare.
But in a larger sense than any merely local one, Virginia counted on the
Northwestern Turnpike to bind the state and connect its eastern
metropolis with the great Ohio Valley. Virginia had given up, on demand,
her great county of Kentucky when the wisdom of that movement was plain;
at the call of the Nation, she had surrendered the title her soldiers
had given her to Illinois and the beautifully fertile Scioto Valley in
Ohio. But after these great cessions she did not lose the rich
Monongahela country. It had been explored by her adventurers, settled by
her pioneers--and Virginia held dear to her heart her possessions along
the upper Ohio. In the days when the Northwestern Turnpike was created
by legislative act, canals were not an assured success, and railways
were only being dreamed of. And the promoters of canals and railways
were considered insane when they hinted that the mountains could be
conquered by these means of transportation. With all the vast need for
improvements, the genius of mankind had never created anything better
than the road and the cart; what hope was there that now suddenly
America should surprise the world by overthrowing the axioms of the
centuries past?
And so, in the correct historical analysis, the Northwestern Turnpike
must be considered Virginia's attempt to compete successfully with
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York, in securing for herself a
commanding portion of the trade of the West. In all the legislative
history of the origin of the Northwestern Turnpike, it is continually
clear that its origin was of more than local character. It was actually
the last roadway built from the seaboard to the West in the hope of
securing commercial superiority; and its decline and decay marks the end
of pioneer road-building across the first great American "divide." In a
moment the completion of the Erie Canal assured the nation that freight
could be transported for long distances at one-tenth the cost that had
prevailed on the old land highways. Soon after, the completion of the
Pennsylvania Canal proved that the canal could successfully mount great
heights--and Virginia forgot her roads in her interest in canals.