Historic Highways of America Volume XI Part 6

[12] Florida Avenue is said to have been the first street laid out on the present site of Washington, D. C. As it is the most crooked of all the streets and avenues this is easy to believe.

[13] _Retrospect of Western Travel_, vol. i, pp. 88-89.

[14] Moore's notes are as follows:

On "ridges" (line 3): "What Mr. Weld [an English traveler in America]

says of the national necessity of balancing or tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the stage, in pa.s.sing over some of the wretched roads in America, is by no means exaggerated. 'The driver frequently had to call to the pa.s.sengers in the stage to lean out of the carriage, first on one side, then on the other, to prevent it from oversetting in the deep ruts, with which the road abounds. "Now, gentlemen, to the right!" upon which the pa.s.sengers all stretched their bodies half out of the carriage to balance on that side.

"Now, gentlemen, to the left!" and so on.'--_Weld's Travels._"

On "bridges" (line 4): "Before the stage can pa.s.s one of these bridges the driver is obliged to stop and arrange the loose planks, of which it is composed, in the manner that best suits his ideas of safety, and as the planks are again disturbed by the pa.s.sing of the coach, the next travelers who arrive have, of course, a new arrangement to make.

Mahomet, as Sale tells us, was at some pains to imagine a precarious kind of bridge for the entrance of paradise, in order to enhance the pleasures of arrival. A Virginia bridge, I think, would have answered his purpose completely."

[15] _Sketch of the Civil Engineering of North America_, pp. 132-133.

[16] "The Oldest Turnpike in Pennsylvania," by Edward B. Moore, in Philadelphia _Press_ or Delaware County _American_, June 22, 1901; and "The Old Turnpike," by A. E. Witmer in _Lancaster County Historical Society Papers_, vol. ii (November, 1897), pp. 67-86.

[17] Sherman Day, _Historical Collections of the State of Pennsylvania_ (Philadelphia, 1843).

[18] The rise of the Pennsylvania ca.n.a.l and railway system will be treated in chapter four of _Historic Highways of America_, vol. xiii.

[18*] For these and other facts concerning plank roads we are indebted to W. Kingsford's _History, Structure and Statistics of Plank Roads_ (1852).

[19] The frontispiece to this volume represents a mile-stone which was erected beside Braddock's old road, near Frostburg, Maryland, during the Revolutionary War. On the reverse side it bears the legend, "Our Countrys Rights We Will Defend." On the front these words can be traced: "[12 ?] Miles to Fort c.u.mberland 29 Miles to Capt Smith's Inn & Bridge by Crossings. [Smithfield, Pennsylvania] the Best Road to Redstone Old Fort 64 M." The stone was once taken away for building purposes and broken; the town authorities of Frostburg ordered it to be cemented, returned and set up on its old-time site.

[20] The Lancaster Turnpike.

[21] "In these stages," as Brissot [Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville, _New Travels in the United States_ (London, 1794)] observes, "you meet with men of all professions. The member of congress is placed by the side of the shoemaker who elected him; they fraternise together, and converse with familiarity. You see no person here take upon him those important airs which you too often meet with in England."--BAILY.

[22] It consists of several layers of large logs laid longitudinally, and parallel to each other, and covered at the top with earth.--BAILY.

[23] The sleighs not making any noise when in motion over the snow, the horses are obliged by law to have little bells fastened around their necks, to warn foot-pa.s.sengers of their approach.--BAILY.

[24] I was in company with a gentleman of the name of Heighway, who was going down to the northwestern settlement to form a plantation.--BAILY.

See p. 144.

[25] By D. Hewett's _American Traveller_, the princ.i.p.al points on the Washington-Pittsburg route are given as follows:

Distance.

Montgomery c. h. 14.

Clarksburg 13.

Monocasy River 8.

Fredericktown 7.

Hagerstown 27.

Pennsylvania State line 8.

M'Connell'stown 20.

Junietta River 17.

Bedford 14.

Stoyestown 27.

Summit of Laurel Hill 13.

Greensburg 26.

Pittsburg 32.

Total 226.

[26] Mr. Hewett gives this note of Montgomery C. H.: "This village is also called Rockville. There is an extremely bad turnpike from Washington to this place, so much so, that the man who keeps the toll house, _after_ having taken toll, recommends travellers to go the _ola road_."--p. 51.

[27] All the inns and public-houses on the road are called taverns.--BAILY.

[28] Clarksburg.

[29] Hagar's-town is ten miles from Boone's-town.--BAILY.

[30] McDowell's Mill.

[31] Mr. Heighway, an Englishman who settled now at Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio.--_History of Warren County, Ohio_ (Chicago, 1882), p. 412.

[32] _Historic Highways of America_, vol. ii, p. 109.

[33] The patriot-pioneer of Wheeling, the first settlement on the Ohio River below Pittsburg, which he founded in 1769, and where he lived until 1811. He was born in Virginia in 1747.

[34] The importance of the historic _entrepot_ Limestone Mason County, Kentucky (later named Maysville from one of its first inhabitants) has been suggested in Volume IX of this series (pp. 70, 89, 128). It was the most important entrance point into Kentucky on its northeastern river sh.o.r.e-line. What it was in earliest days, because of the buffalo trail into the interior, it remained down through the earlier and later pioneer era to the time of the building of the trunk railway lines.

[35] _United States Statutes at Large, Private Laws 1789-1845, inclusive_, p. 27.

[36] _American Pioneer_, vol. i, p. 158.

[37] An exaggerated statement, yet much in accord with the truth, as we have previously observed.

[38] County seat of Adams County, Ohio.

[39] Evans and Stivers, _History of Adams County, Ohio_, p. 125.

[40] Wilc.o.xon's clearing, Sinking Spring, Highland County, Ohio.--_Id._, p. 125.

[41] _Id._, p. 88.

[42] _Society and Solitude_, essay on "Civilization," pp. 25-26.

[43] See Graham's _History of Fairfield and Perry Counties, Ohio_, pp.

133-134.

[44] _Bills & Resolutions, House Reps., 1st Sess., 21st Cong., Part 2, 1829 & '30_, H. R., p. 285.

[45] Richardson's _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, vol. ii, pp.

451, 452.

[46] _Id._, pp. 483-493.