The Old Pike Part 36

Benjamin Paige, a New Englander, father of Ralph Paige, once a merchant on Main street, kept a tavern previous to 1830, at the corner originally owned by John C. Kibbey, an early inn-keeper, and known as Meek's corner, northeast of Main and Sixth (Marion).

Abraham Jeffries had a tavern on Gilbert's corner, which he kept a number of years, and was succeeded by Joseph Andrews, his brother-in-law, who died soon after taking charge.

The last westward tavern in Richmond was kept by Christian Buhl, who came from Germany, and his house was a three story stone structure where Minck's brewery now is.

At the west end of Richmond the road crosses Whitewater river over a handsome and expensive bridge. This bridge has seven arches, and is a combination truss and arch design, capable of sustaining an immense weight. On the west side timbers and wool sacks were sunk into a quicksand upon which to rest the foundations of the abutment.

Toll-gate No. 7 was erected at the fifth mile post west of Richmond and afterwards moved to a point near Earlham college. This gate was kept by William f.a.gan for twenty-three years, and afterwards by Mr. Gardener for nearly ten years. Mr. Gardener is a New York man and was one of the best gate-keepers on the road. His wife is a cousin of the late Hon. William B. Windom, who was Secretary of the Treasury in President Harrison's administration.

There was a tavern between gate No. 7 and gate No. 8, which was near the Center township line and East Clear creek. West of this point there is a curve in the road caused by the refusal of Thomas Croft to remove his house, which was on the surveyed line. He was offered $500 to remove his house and declined to take it. The road was then of necessity made around his house, and so near it as to loosen its foundations, and it toppled and fell down, causing him to lose his house, and the sum offered him as damages besides.

At the seventh mile stone, a little beyond West Clear Creek bridge, stood the shop of Jeremy Mansur, who manufactured the first axes made in the county of Wayne. When Martin Van Buren made his trip through Indiana, many persons denounced him as an enemy of the road, and some one in Richmond, to inflict chastis.e.m.e.nt upon the distinguished statesman for his supposed unfriendliness, sawed a double-tree of the coach in which he was traveling nearly through, and it broke near Mansur's ax-shop, causing Mr. Van Buren to walk to the top of a hill through thick mud. The author of this mishap to Mr. Van Buren subsequently boasted that he had put a mud polish on Gentleman Martin's boots to give him a realizing sense of the importance of good roads.

Near the ninth mile stone from Richmond were two celebrated taverns, Eliason's and Estepp's. Both were brick houses and well kept. Joshua Eliason was a man of medium size, jovial disposition, remarkably industrious, and a zealous member of the Christian church. His tavern was on the north side of the road, and, in connection with it, he maintained two one-story emigrant houses to accommodate families moving west. The emigrants carried and cooked their own provisions, and paid Eliason a certain sum for the use of his buildings. Drove yards were also a profitable feature of Eliason's tavern. He sold grain to the drovers, and after the cattle were turned out, put his own hogs in the vacated field to eat up the remnants and refuse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRIDGE OVER WHITEWATER, RICHMOND, IND.]

John Estepp's tavern was on the south side of the road, nearly opposite Eliason's. He had one emigrant house, and did an extensive business.

He was a man of the lean order, but always on the alert to turn an honest penny.

A short distance beyond Estepp's, Centerville comes in view, near where Daniel L. Lashley kept the princ.i.p.al tavern. He was a large man, and had a large patronage.

Centerville boasts of having been a nursery of great men. Here Oliver P.

Morton, when a young man, worked as a hatter, and Gen. A. E. Burnside pursued the humble trade of a tailor. Gen. Lew Wallace and Gen. n.o.ble went to school in Centerville, and possibly the germs of Ben Hur had their origin in this rural village. Hon. George W. Julian, of free soil notoriety, was at one time a resident of Centerville, and Judge Nimrod Johnson, of the State Supreme Court, and John S. Newman, ex-president of the Indiana Central Railroad Company, were among the noted personages who lived there. Centerville was for many years the county seat of Wayne county, and the removal of the offices and archives to Richmond produced a feeling of jealousy between the inhabitants of the places which lingers in a measure to this day, although Richmond has far outstripped her ancient rival in growth and improvements.

West of Centerville the road crosses Nolan's Fork, a small Indiana stream, and a short distance beyond, and near the Poor Farm, a toll-gate was established, and there was also a tavern at this point. One mile west of the Poor Farm, Crum Fork is crossed by means of a bridge, and between this stream and Germantown there was another toll-gate and also a tavern. There is a bridge over the stream between Germantown and Cambridge city. West of Cambridge City, and near Dublin, there was a toll-gate, and a short distance west of Dublin, the road pa.s.ses out of Wayne county.

The road forms the main street of Dublin and is called c.u.mberland street, by reason of this fact. The first tavern established in Dublin was by Samuel Schoolfield, an old Virginian, pleasantly remembered on account of his staunch patriotism. He displayed on his sign-board the motto: "Our country, right or wrong."

The railroad absorbed all pa.s.senger and freight traffic in the year 1852, after which date and to the close of the civil war, outside of home travel, the main vehicles on the Indiana division were "Prairie Schooners," or semi-circular bedded, white-covered emigrant wagons, used by parties moving from Virginia and the Carolinas to Illinois.

Indianapolis as before stated is on the line of the road, but her proportions as a city are the outgrowth of other agencies. In the early days of Indiana's capital the National Road was her only commercial artery, and her pioneer citizens regarded it as a great advantage to their aspiring town. The railway era dawned so soon after the road was located through Indianapolis that but few memories cl.u.s.ter about its history in that locality like those east of the Ohio river.

The last and only remaining large town of Indiana on the road is Terre Haute, a city like Indianapolis that has outgrown the memories of the road, and is probably little mindful of the time when her early inhabitants deemed it a matter of high importance to be located on its line. Though remote from the active centres of the historic road, Terre Haute is more or less a.s.sociated with its stirring scenes and former prestige.

There was a striking similarity in the habits, manners and pursuits of the old inhabitants of the towns along the National Road, notably between Baltimore and Wheeling. The road was a bond that drew them together and united them as neighbors. There are many persons still living who remember when Frederic, Hagerstown, c.u.mberland, Uniontown, Brownsville, Washington and Wheeling derived their main support from the road, and their chief distinction from their location on its line. This feature was also true of the towns on the Appian Way, on authority of the cla.s.sic author, Anthon.

Any one familiar with the National Road in its prosperous era, whose business or other engagements required a divergence from it, invariably returned to it with a sense of security and a feeling of rest and relief. This feeling was universal and profound. An ill.u.s.tration is furnished by Hon. William H. Playford, of Uniontown, who was born and reared on the road. After his college graduation he went South to teach, as did many other graduates of northern colleges. When his term as a teacher ended his heart of course yearned for home, and homeward he set his sails. He struck the National Road at Terre Haute, and the moment his eyes flashed upon its familiar surface he felt that he was among old friends and nearly home. It was the first object he had witnessed since his departure from the paternal roof that brought him in touch again with home.

Before the road was completed beyond the western boundary of the State of Indiana, the steam railway had become the chief agency of transportation and travel, and our grand old national highway was practically lost amid the primitive prairies of Illinois, so that whereas its splendor was favored by the rising, it was dispelled beneath the Setting Sun.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GEN. GEORGE W. Ca.s.s.]

CHAPTER XLII.

_Superintendents under National Control--Gen. Gratiot, Captains Delafield, McKee, Bliss, Hartzell, Williams, Colquit and Ca.s.s, and Lieuts. Mansfield, Vance and Pickell--The Old Mile Posts--Commissioners and Superintendents under State Control--William Searight, William Hopkins, and Earlier and Later Commissioners and Superintendents--A Pennsylvania Court Wipes Out a Section of the Road._

Down to the year 1834, as has been seen, the road was under the control and supervision of the War Department of the General Government.

Brig.-Gen. Gratiot was the chief officer in immediate charge. The town of Gratiot on the line of the road in Muskingum county, Ohio, was named in his honor. Captains Delafield, McKee, Bliss, Bartlett, Hartzell, Williams, Colquit and Ca.s.s, and Lieuts. Mansfield, Vance and Pickell, all graduates of West Point, were more or less identified with the construction, management and repairs of the road. These army officers were all well known to the people along the road sixty years ago. Gen.

Gratiot was probably dead before the beginning of the civil war, or too old for active service. Mansfield fell at Antietam, a major general of the Union forces. Williams was killed at the storming of Monterey in the Mexican war. McKee fell while gallantly leading a regiment in the hot fight at Buena Vista. Hartzell, promoted to the rank of major, fought through the Mexican war, and died soon after returning to his home in Lexington, Kentucky. Bliss and Delafield both died within the current decade. Colquit, a near relative of the Georgia Senator of that name, died in the Confederate service. Capt. Geo. W. Ca.s.s, while on the road as an engineer in charge of repairs, married a daughter of the late George Dawson, of Brownsville, located at that place, and transacted business there for a number of years. He subsequently went to Pittsburg as president of the Adams Express Company, and later became president of the Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne & Chicago Railway Company. He was prominent and influential in the politics of Pennsylvania, and on several occasions stood second in the ballotings for the Democratic nomination for Governor. He died in the city of New York. He was twice married. His widow surviving him, is a sister of his first wife.

The iron mile posts, so familiar to the traveler on the road, were turned out in foundries of Connellsville and Brownsville. Major James Francis had the contract for making and delivering those between c.u.mberland and Brownsville. His foundry was at Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Col. Alex. J. Hill, a well known and popular c.o.ke operator, and Democratic politician of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, is a son-in-law of Major Francis, the old foundryman. Those between Brownsville and Wheeling were made at Snowden's old foundry, in Brownsville, John Snowden, contractor. They were hauled along the road for distribution in wagons drawn by six horse teams. Within the last two years they were re-set and re-painted, between Brownsville and the Maryland State line, under the direction of Commissioner Ewing Searight, and stand erect in their original sites, silent witnesses of the great procession that pa.s.sed in front of them for so many years, and if they possessed the attributes of speech and memory, could narrate the story of a great highway, which in incident and interest is without a rival.

WILLIAM SEARIGHT was a commissioner of the road for a number of years in its prosperous era. His jurisdiction extended over the line within the limits of Pennsylvania. He was of Irish lineage, and Presbyterian faith.

His parents located in Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, about the year 1780. Upon reaching his majority he came to Fayette county to work out his destiny. He learned the trade of fulling and dyeing, and started in business on his own account at Hammond's old mill on Dunlap's creek, long since demolished and forgotten. He subsequently pursued the same business at Cook's mill, on Redstone creek. His education was such only as could be procured in his boyhood by persons of slender means, but his natural endowments were of the highest and best order. He was honest and industrious. On March 26th, 1826, he married Rachel, a daughter of Thomas Brownfield, proprietor of the old Swan tavern in Uniontown. At Searights, on the National Road, he laid the foundation of a considerable fortune, and died in the sixty-first year of his age. He was a leading Democratic politician of his day in Fayette county, and in 1827 rode on horseback from Searights to Harrisburg, to aid in nominating General Jackson for the presidency.

He was a trusted friend of the late Gen. Simon Cameron, when that unrivalled politician was a leader of the Democratic party in Pennsylvania. At the date of his death he was the nominee of his party for the important State office of Ca.n.a.l Commissioner, and would have been elected, had not death interposed and called him from the active duties of this life to the realities of another. William Hopkins, another old commissioner of the road, was nominated to the vacancy thus made, and elected by a large majority. The death of William Searight occurred at his home, near Searights, on August 12, 1852. He was a man of generous impulses and charitable disposition, ever ready to lend his counsel, his sympathies and his purse, to ameliorate the sufferings of his fellow men. Although death plucked him from the very threshold of earthly honors, it caused him no regret. His work was well done, and he was ready to go. The kingdom he was about to enter presented higher honors and purer enjoyments. In looking forward and upward he saw--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wm Searight]

"No midnight shade, no clouded sun, But sacred, high, eternal noon."

A more emphatic eulogy than pen could write, or tongue express, was furnished by the immense concourse that attended his funeral. The patriarchs and the youth of the country came to testify their appreciation of his worth. A few days after his death, a large meeting of citizens, irrespective of party, convened in the court house at Uniontown, to give expression to their sorrow for his death. Hon.

Nathaniel Ewing presided. Hon. Daniel Sturgeon, then a United States Senator, and Zalmon Ludington, esq., were the vice presidents, and Hon.

R. P. Flenniken and John B. Krepps, esq., secretaries. On motion of Hon.

James Veech, a committee was appointed to formulate the feeling of the meeting, which reported through its distinguished chairman (Mr. Veech) the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

"When a valuable citizen dies, it is meet that the community of which he was a member, mourn his loss. A public expression of their sorrow at such an event, is due as some solace to the grief of the bereaved family and friends, and as an incentive to others to earn for their death the same distinction. In the death of William Searight, this community has lost such a citizen. Such an event has called this public meeting, into which enter no schemes of political promotion, no partisan purposes of empty eulogy. Against all this, death has shut the door. While yet the tear hangs on the cheek of his stricken family, and the tidings of death are unread by many of his friends, we, his fellow citizens, neighbors, friends, of all parties, have a.s.sembled to speak to those who knew and loved him best, and to those who knew him not, the words of sorrow and truth, in sincerity and soberness. Therefore, as the sense of this meeting:

_Resolved_, That in the death of William Searight, Fayette county and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have lost one of their best and most useful citizens. The people at large may not realize their loss, but the community in which he lived, over whose comforts and interests were diffused the influence of his liberality and enterprise, feel it, while his friends of all cla.s.ses, parties and professions, to whom he clung, and who clung to him, mourn it.

_Resolved_, While we would withhold our steps from the sanctuary of domestic grief, we may be allowed to express to the afflicted widow and children of the deceased, our unfeigned sorrow and sympathy in their great bereavement, and to tender them our a.s.surance that while to their hearts the memory of the husband and father will ever be cherished, in ours will be kept the liveliest recollections of his virtues as a citizen and a friend.

_Resolved_, That among the elements that must enter into every truthful estimate of the character of William Searight, are a warm amenity of manner, combined with great dignity of deportment, which were not the less attractive by their plainness and lack of ostentation, elevated feelings more pure than pa.s.sionless, high purposes with untiring energy in their accomplishment, an enn.o.bling sense of honor and individual independence, which kept him always true to himself and to his engagements, unfaltering fidelity to his friends, a liberality which heeded no restraint, but means and merit; great promptness and fearlessness in the discharge of what he believed to be a duty, private or public, guided by a rigid integrity which stood all tests and scouted all temptations; honesty and truthfulness in word and deed, which no seductions could weaken, nor a.s.saults overthrow, in all respects the architect of his own fortune and fame. These with the minor virtues in full proportion, are some of the outlines of character which stamped the man whose death we mourn, as one much above the ordinary level of his race.

_Resolved_, That while we have here nothing to do or say as to the loss sustained by the political party to which he belonged, and whose candidate he was for an office of great honor and responsibility, we may be allowed to say that had he lived and been successful, with a heart so rigidly set as was his, with feelings so high and integrity so firm, and withal an amount of practical intelligence so ample as he possessed, his election could have been regretted by no citizen who knew him and who placed the public interests beyond selfish ends and party success. As a politician we knew him to hold to his principles and party predilections with a tenacious grasp, yet he was ever courteous and liberal in his intercourse with political opponents.

_Resolved_, That in the life and character of William Searight we see a most instructive and encouraging example. Starting the struggle of life with an humble business, poor and unbefriended, with an honest aim and a true heart, with high purposes and unflagging industry, he gained friends and means, which never forsook him. He thus won for himself and family ample wealth and attained a position among his fellow men which those who have had the best advantages our country affords might well envy. That wealth and that position he used with a just liberality and influence for the benefit of all around and dependent upon him.

Though dead he yet speaketh to every man in humble business: "Go thou and do likewise, and such shall be thy reward in life and in death."

[Ill.u.s.tration: COL. WILLIAM HOPKINS.]

WILLIAM HOPKINS was one of the best known of the old commissioners. He was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, September 17th, 1804. He was of Scotch origin, on the paternal line, and his mother was a native of Ireland, so that he was a genuine Scotch-Irishman. He figured conspicuously in the public affairs of Pennsylvania, for many years. At the age of twenty-three he was a justice of the peace, holding a commission signed by Governor Shultze, one of the early German governors of the State. In 1831 he was a county auditor. In 1834 he was elected to the State Legislature, and re-elected four times, consecutively. He was speaker of the House in 1838, 1839 and 1840. In 1842 he was secretary of the land office of Pennsylvania. During his first term as speaker, the public commotion occurred, known as the "Buckshot War." Troops surrounded the State house, and a b.l.o.o.d.y collision seemed inevitable.

Speaker Hopkins, on this trying occasion, behaved with distinguished wisdom and firmness, and he is credited with having averted the horrors of civil war. In 1852 Colonel Hopkins, as he was invariably called, was nominated and elected Ca.n.a.l Commissioner, as before stated. In this important office he fully sustained his high reputation for honesty and ability. In 1861 he was again elected to the State House of Representatives, and re-elected in 1862. In 1863 he was elected a State Senator. The experience of his previous legislative career gave him a great advantage over others less favored in this regard, and he became, by common consent, "the Nestor of the Senate." In 1872 he was elected a member of the convention to revise the Const.i.tution of the State. He was chairman of the committee to devise and report amendments to the bill of rights, and author of the preamble that reads thus: "We, the people of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, recognizing the sovereignty of G.o.d, and humbly invoking His guidance in our future destiny, ordain and establish this Const.i.tution for its government." If there was nothing else to his credit, this alone would immortalize him. While a member of the Const.i.tutional Convention, he made a visit to his home, and on the cars contracted a cold which developed into pneumonia, and terminated fatally, March 5th, 1873. His funeral was one of the largest and most impressive ever witnessed in Washington.

Rev. Doctor Brownson, the distinguished Presbyterian minister of Washington, grouped together the leading traits of Colonel Hopkins in the following terms: "Such a man could not but be extensively known and respected. In fact, his mental force, discriminating judgment, urbanity, integrity and kindness, joined with his facility as a writer and speaker, rising above the defects of early education, were a continual pledge of public favor and success. He was very firm in adhering to his own views, but considerate also of the feelings and opinions of others.

In co-operation or in opposition, he commanded respect. In private life, also, it was impossible not to realize the power of his politeness, and his delicate regard to the sensibilities of all about him. His fondness for children seemed to increase with his years, showing itself both in a desire for their enjoyment and their good. His fine business capacity was often taxed for the benefit of others, especially widows and orphans. In the hallowed circle of home, he was the central object of uncommon reverence and affection, answering to his own peculiar love and tenderness within his domestic relations. But, better than all, is the witness he leaves behind him, in his confession and life as a disciple of Christ, and in the repose of his heart upon the divine promise, when called down into the valley and shadow of death."

The late Judge Black, one of the most eminent men of his day, spoke of Colonel Hopkins as follows: "I do not underestimate the very high qualities of my a.s.sociates in this body (the Const.i.tutional Convention). I do not think, indeed, that any man here appreciates their various abilities and virtues more than I do; but I devoutly believe that there is no man in this Convention, that we could not have spared better than him who has gone. I do not propose to give an a.n.a.lysis of his character, and it is not necessary to repeat his history. I may say, for I know it, that he was in all respects the best balanced man that it was ever my good fortune to know. His moral and personal courage were often tested; he was one of the most fearless men that ever lived, yet all his measures were in favor of peace, and every one who knew him testifies to the gentleness and kindness of his manner."

Mr. Biddle, a Philadelphia member of the Convention, said: "I well recollect being struck with the commanding figure and strongly marked countenance, in the lineaments of which were unmistakably written simplicity and directness of purpose, integrity and unswerving firmness.

He has rounded off a life of great moral beauty, of great usefulness, of great dignity, by a fitting end, and he has fallen before decay had begun to impair his faculties."

One who stood very close and was very much endeared to Col. Hopkins, brings out his great character in form of metaphor, as follows: "There was a remark in your paper which has given me a great deal of mental exercise of a reminiscent character. The wheel of time turns only one way. At the moment I read this, and in the mult.i.tude of times it has since come into my head, my mind ran at once to a point in the revolution of that wheel which you never could guess. That point is marked with the year 1838. I had been turned up far enough out of the darkness of the wheel pit to get a view of the top of the wheel, where stood a group of men who have over since been 'the heroes I loved and the chiefs I admired.' In the center of this group, and the most heroic figure in it, stood WILLIAM HOPKINS. The various members of that group have gone down beyond sight, as the wheel of time kept turning steadily, but their virtues and their public services remain fresh in my memory.

They rendered Pennsylvania as great a service as Washington and his compeers rendered the United Colonies."