Historic Highways of America Volume X Part 7

It is impossible to leave the study of the c.u.mberland 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 pa.s.s 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 c.u.mberland Road.

There is nothing like it in the United States. Leaping the Ohio at Wheeling, the c.u.mberland Road throws itself across Ohio and Indiana, straight as an arrow, like an ancient elevated pathway of the G.o.ds, chopping hills in twain at a blow, traversing the lowlands on high grades like a railroad bed, vaulting river and stream on ma.s.sive 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 advent.i.tious 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 pa.s.ses 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 n.o.ble 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 ma.s.sive 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 workmans.h.i.+p. 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 pa.s.sing 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 eclat July 4, 1818. Near the eastern end of the three fine arches is the following inscription: "Kinkead, Beck & Evans, builders, July 4, 1818."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CULVERT ON THE c.u.mBERLAND 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 "c.u.mberland" 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland Road pa.s.s 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 pa.s.senger 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-wors.h.i.+p. 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 c.u.mberland 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 cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s of drivers. As Thackeray said was true in England, the pa.s.sing 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 c.u.mberland Road, he is impressed with the interest taken in the coming and going of the more renowned guests of the old road. The pa.s.sage of a president-elect over the c.u.mberland 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 pa.s.sed in triumph over portions of the great road. The taverns at which they were feted 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 Ca.s.s, 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 pa.s.sed 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 c.u.mberland 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 n.o.ble 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland Road--the h.o.a.ry 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 c.u.mberland 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 surpa.s.sed. Its historic a.s.sociations 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland or a point on the northern bank of the river Potomac in the State of Maryland, between c.u.mberland 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 pa.s.ses, 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 princ.i.p.al points established on said road between c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 c.u.mberland 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 pa.s.s 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; a.s.sistant superintendent, $158.90; contractor, $252.13 $3,411.03

16. Act of March 25, 1826 (Military Service), appropriates for the continuation of the c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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 c.u.mberland 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