Chapter II: Transportation Development in the United States; Early Trails and Roads (2)

Naturally so much traffic induced men to make packing a means of livelihood. They became so numerous and strong that when wagons began to take over the business of freighting they considered it an infringement upon their vested rights. But as goods could be transported more easily and cheaply by wagon the old had to make way for the new. Wagon roads and at first two-wheeled then four-wheeled vehicles began to appear. This created a demand for better roads. At first that consisted in merely widening the packtrain trails. But about the beginning of the nineteenth century, Tresaguet in France, and Macadam and Telford, in Great Britain, were building broken-stone roads which greatly changed and augmented the internal commerce and the industry of those countries. The most populous and wealthy of the colonies likewise began to consider the road question. A few military roads, such as Braddock’s, had been constructed; there was a road along the coast of Massachusetts, and some roads and bridges in the interior, there were roads connecting the larger cities as from Boston to New York and from New York to Philadelphia. The cities in order to retain and extend their trade needed highways of commerce.

=Turnpike Roads.=--The construction of turnpike roads many of which were stoned was encouraged by a number of the states, especially by Pennsylvania. The Lancaster turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster was “stoned” in 1792 by throwing on it stones of all sizes. These were afterwards removed and stones “passing a 2-inch ring” substituted. This is said to have been the first scientifically built hard surfaced road in America. In 1800 Pennsylvania fostered the construction of a system of turnpikes (toll roads), by granting franchises and subscribing stock, which was eventually to cover the state and control the western market. By 1828 there had been 3110 miles of chartered turnpike in Pennsylvania costing over $8,000,000. These thousands of miles of fine turnpike roads including many good bridges placed Pennsylvania in the lead for internal improvements. But other states were similarly employed. New York and New England by 1811 had chartered 317 turnpikes.[39] Virginia appropriated funds “to be used exclusively for river improvements, canals and public highways,” in 1816. South Carolina voted a million dollars, in 1818, to be raised in four annual levies for similar purposes.

During these years the states were opening public roads but the only good roads were those built by the turnpike companies, which erected gates and collected tolls every few miles. This resulted in a higher cost of transportation than was liked by the public who clamored for free roads and canals. They were wanted by both the producer and the merchant. The turnpikes were opposed to anything which would tend to reduce their control of transportation.

=Wagon Road Desuetude.=--The introduction of the steam railway with its quicker, better, and cheaper form of transportation put out of existence the freighting and coaching business of the turnpikes, in fact of all wagon roads. Roads which had had a thriving trade found their toll boxes scarcely held enough to maintain the gate keeper. As there was no adequate system of maintenance, although many of them had been macadamized, they gradually fell into a state of disrepair. Freighters and coachers gravitated westward or took shorter runs as feeders to the railroads. Turnpikes, built as private or semi-private enterprises, were gradually being taken over by the public and maintained by local road overseers. The old practice of calling on the freeholders to work out their road tax annually was in vogue and is still in use in places. By it no road was ever kept at a high state of efficiency. Even the National highway, the Cumberland Road, which had been constructed to Vandalia, Illinois, and surfaced with stone to Columbus, Ohio, at an expense to the nation of nearly seven millions of dollars, had lost its ardent supporters. Jackson’s theory that national money should only be spent for roads in territories, and the states’ right idea that each state should be the unit of government and look after all its own internal affairs, seemed to prevail. As a result wagon road building further than to make a mere way for crop marketing at odd seasons of the year stood still until bicycle enthusiasts began an agitation for better roads about 1890. However, a real awakening to the advantages of good roads came only after the advent of the automobile about 1900.

=National Participation.=--The Revolutionary War had shown the need of roadways for quick intercourse between the seaboard and the trans-Alleghany regions. The efforts of the different states, still retaining their colonial jealousies, to secure the control of the trade of these regions emphasized the need of a unifying influence which would bring harmony. The debate proceeded in a desultory fashion for a number of years. Strict constitutionalists did not believe the national government has the authority to construct roads at all. States’ rights men argued that road construction is the province of the states and the National Government has jurisdiction only in the territories. On March 29, 1806, President Thomas Jefferson approved a bill to survey and construct a road from a point on the Potomac near Cumberland to the Ohio River near Steubenville popularly known as the Cumberland or National road, and appropriated therefor $30,000. This was in the minds of friends of government control to be the beginning; there was increasing need of travel and traffic facilities from the Hudson to the Great Lakes, from the Delaware to the Ohio; from Virginia and the Carolinas to Kentucky and Tennessee, to say nothing of north and south routes, which unfortunately did not mature in time to prevent the great Civil War a half-century later.

Alfred Gallatin and Henry Clay sponsored the Cumberland Road. The former in compliance with the wish of Congress (1808) drew up a scheme for a national system of internal improvements by roads and canals at an annual expense of $2,000,000 for ten years. But its opponents were able to stay it off and the war of 1812 coming on caused financial troubles and the entire scheme was indefinitely postponed.

The first appropriation for the Cumberland Road had been made, not from the general funds of the government, but from the proceeds of the sales of land, a fiction, of course, for the benefit of the strict constitutionalists. Gradually, however, Congress came to accept the doctrine of “implied powers.” Madison in his last message invited the attention of Congress “to the expediency of exercising their existing powers and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals, such as will have the effect of drawing more closely together every part of the country, by promoting intercourse and improvements and by increasing the share of every part of the common stock of national prosperity.”[40]

Up to this time there had been completed only 23 miles of the road. In 1816, $300,000 was appropriated for its completion; two years later $260,000 was voted; but a proposal to appropriate $600,000 for internal improvements failed in 1817, as did also a bill providing for the extension of the Cumberland Road. But as a result of the labor of Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, Thomas Jefferson, President James Madison, and other friends of cheap and rapid transit, by 1820 the total of Congressional appropriations for the Cumberland Road amounted to more than $1,500,000; in 1844 the thirty-fourth appropriation made a total of nearly $7,000,000.[41] The growth of the road was slow: the first contract was let in 1811 for 10 miles; contracts for short sections were let from year to year and the road by 1817 had crawled, following approximately the Nemacolin Path, with the Potomac through the Cumberland gateway over the Alleghany range by way of Negro Mountain at an elevation of 2325 feet, down to the Youghiogheny, past the scene of Braddock’s defeat and the cairn which marks his resting place, through the Laurel Hill Range over to Brownsville within reach of Pittsburgh, thence westward slightly north through Washington (Pennsylvania), to Wheeling (West Virginia) on the Ohio River.

Thus had the old Indian trail developed into a route for Washington and his band to Fort Necessity; into Braddock’s road to Great Meadows; into a pack train trail trampled by thousands of caravan hoofs; and, finally, into a finished paved highway cleared to 66 feet in width, having no grade above 5 per cent which Washington and Jefferson and Madison had visions would be the means of binding together with the strong bands of commerce the cis- and trans-Alleghanian countries.

=Extension of the Cumberland Highway.=--The road immediately proved its worth. The mail coaches were placed upon it; great freight lines were established having their own stage houses and depots in towns along its way; inns and hotels thrived; apparently the “pulse of the nation beat to the steady throb of trade along its highway.”[42] Like the Appian Way it became noted the world over. The _National_, _Good Intent_, _June Bug_, and _Pioneer_ stage coach lines were common names as are the _Pennsylvania_, _New York Central_, _Burlington_, and _Union Pacific_ railroad lines of to-day. The coming to town of these coaches, which had developed from the plain square box, through the oval type to the finished Concord painted in brilliant colors, perhaps bearing the name of some prominent personage, drawn by four and six horses, with the proud and arrogant driver often better known than the eminent patrons whose names now grace the pages of history, was an important event in the work of the day. Hardly had the stage stopped before the hostlers were busy changing the horses, taking the tired animals to rub-down, rest, and feed, bringing on fresh high-stepping spirited ones, champing their bits, apparently very anxious for a galloping start toward the next post; the passengers were alighting to stretch their legs, rest and refresh themselves at nearby food “emporiums” or select an inn from among the claims of numerous barkers; agents were transferring and recording baggage, mail, and express; and the curiosity loungers constituted most of the remaining populace. The stage driver, Westover, made a record of forty-five minutes for the 20 miles between Uniontown and Brownsville, while “Red” Bunting’s drive of 131 miles, with the declaration of war against Mexico, in twelve hours remains, like Paul Revere’s ride, a part of the nation’s history.

The amount of traffic over the National road was tremendous. The annual traffic was probably not less than 3000 wagons.[43] One firm in Wheeling is said to have, during the first five years of its existence, done a business of over 5000 wagons carrying 2 tons each.[44] A view of the road must have been interesting, for the Conestoga wagons with their sway-backed canvas covers were said to have been “visible all day long,[45] at every point, making the highway look more like a leading avenue of a great city than a road through rural districts.... I have staid over night with William Cheets on Nigger (Negro) Mountain when there were about thirty six-horse teams in a wagon yard, a hundred Kentucky mules in an adjoining lot, a thousand hogs in their enclosures, and as many fat cattle in adjoining fields. The music made by this large number of hogs eating corn on a frosty night I shall never forget. After supper and attention to the teams, the waggoners would gather in the bar-room and listen to the music on the violin furnished by one of their fellows, have a Virginia hoe-down, sing songs, tell anecdotes, and hear the experience of drivers and drovers from all points of the road, and, when it was over, unroll their beds, lay them down on the floor before the bar room fire side by side, and sleep with their feet near the blaze as soundly as under a parental roof.”

Ah! where is the poet whose facile pen will engrave upon the tablets of literature the tales of these men as has Longfellow the “Tales of a Wayside Inn” in Sudbury Town so alike, where:

... from the parlor of the inn
A pleasant murmur smote the ear,
Like water rushing through a weir;
Oft interrupted by the din
Of laughter and of loud applause;
And, in each intervening pause,
The music of a violin.

The success of the Cumberland Road to the Ohio created demands for its extension. In conformity to this demand $10,000 was appropriated in 1820 to lay out a road from Wheeling to the Mississippi River near St. Louis. This continuation was for a road 80 feet wide and in spite of much congressional objection and occasional presidential vetoes, the road was pushed on; the last appropriation being made for a portion west of the Ohio, May 25, 1838. The exact total of all appropriations amounted to $6,824,919.33. The road proper reached southern Illinois.

_Courtesy of Prof. P. K. Slaymaker_

WAY BILL USED ON SLAYMAKER STAGE LINE FROM LANCASTER TO PHILADELPHIA, 1815]

States wanted appropriations for other roads, but these were pretty generally vetoed. One important case was the veto, 1830, by Jackson of the bill authorizing a subscription by the United States for stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Road Company. The company was incorporated in Kentucky to build a road from the Cumberland Road at Tanesville, Ohio, to Florence, Alabama, on the Tennessee River, which had been surveyed by U. S. engineers in 1827. Maysville, through which the road was to pass, was on the south side of the Ohio River, and did considerable trade in Kentucky and Tennessee. A census was taken of the existing road, admitted to be in bad condition, showing an average daily traffic of 351 persons, 33 carriages and 51 wagons. The $150,000 to be subscribed by the government was not to be paid until an equal amount had been subscribed in equal parts by the State of Kentucky and private individuals. Other bills of a similar character were before Congress, one for a road from Buffalo to New Orleans having been laid on the table, and opponents of the bill insisted any road anywhere could be as well regarded to be a national road as could be the Maysville road. The Washington Turnpike Company bill of a similar tenor was vetoed.[46] Jackson evidently doubted the constitutional right of the government to enter into internal projects of this character. In his message to Congress he had conceded that “every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland navigation and the construction of highways in the several states,” he noted the opposition to methods heretofore adopted as unconstitutional and inexpedient. He therefore proposed an amendment to the constitution, to be submitted if it could not otherwise be done, whereby the surplus revenue might be appropriated to the several states in proportion to their representation in Congress for the purpose of internal improvements. State sovereignty was always to be maintained.

In 1838 when the road had reached Southern Illinois a new element entered the industrial world. The railroads were proving their ability to compete most successfully with other forms of transportation. The building of national highways ceased; canal and river transportation were practically put out of business with the entrance of this new leviathan.

SELECTED REFERENCES

ADAMS, HENRY, “Life of Albert Gallatin,” Edited by Henry Adams,
Vol. I, pp. 78, 79, 305, 309, 370, 395. J. B. Lippincott & Co.,
Philadelphia.

BOONE, DANIEL, “Autobiography,” dictated to John Filson, 1784, is
given also as an appendix to Hartley’s “Life of Daniel Boone.”

CALK, WILLIAM, “Diary of” in Filson Club publications.

DODDRIDGE, JOSEPH, “Notes on the Settlement of Indian Wars.” Chaps.
I, XIII, XVIII, XXIV; First publication, 1824, Third--Rittenour &
Linsey, Pittsburgh, 1912.

DUNBAR, SEYMOUR, “A History of Travel in America,” 4 volumes, 1915,
Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis.

EARLY, ALICE MORSE, “Stage Coach and Tavern Days.”

CHANNING, EDWARD, “The Jefferson System,” Vol. XII, The American
Nation Series, Harper & Brothers, New York.

FARRAND, L., “Bases of American History,” Vol. II of the American
Nation Series, Harper & Brothers, New York.

HARTLEY, CECIL B., “Life of Daniel Boone,” 1865, Porter & Coates,
Philadelphia.

HOWARD, GEORGE E., “Preliminaries of the Revolution,” Vol. VIII of
the American Nation Series, Harper & Brothers, New York.

HOWE, HENRY, “History of the West.”

HURLBERT, A. B., “Historic Highways of America,” 16 volumes, 1902-05,
A. H. Clark Company, Cleveland, O.

HURLBERT, A. B., “The Paths of Inland Commerce,” Chronicles of
America Series, Vol. 21, New Haven, 1920.

IRVING, WASHINGTON, “Astoria,” Irving’s Works, Vol. I, G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, New York.

LONGFELLOW, HENRY W., “Poetical Works,” Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

MCMASTER, JOHN BACH, “History of the United States,” Vol. V, Chap.
XLIV, D. Appleton & Company, New York.

MONETTE, JOHN W., “History of the Valley of the Mississippi,” Vol.
II, Chap. II, pp. 52-58, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1846.

“Register of Debates in Congress,” Vol. VI, pp. 433-435, 806, and
820. Published by order of Congress, 13 Vol. Washington, 1825-37.

RICHARDSON, JAMES D., “Messages and Papers of the Presidents.” 8
volumes, Government Print, Washington.

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, “Winning of the West,” Vols. I, II and IV. G. P.
Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1889.

SPEED, THOMAS, “The Wilderness Road,” No. 2 of the Filson Club
publications, Louisville, 1886.

TURNER, FREDERICK J., “Rise of the New West,” Vol. XIV of the
American Nation Series, Harper & Brothers, New York.

TYLER, L. G., “England in America,” Vol. IV of the American Nation
Series, Harper & Brothers, New York.

U. S. Census review of “Agencies of Transportation,” 1880.

WATKINS, ALBERT, “The Oregon Trail,” Nebraska State Historical
Society Collections, Vol. XVI, p. 26 et seq.

FOOTNOTES

[16] “A History of Travel,” by Seymour Dunbar.

[17] “The American Nation,” “England in America,” by L. G. Tyler.
Vol. IV, p. 322.

[18] “American Nation,” Vol. VIII, p. 15.

[19] Cf. “Historic Highways of America,” by A. B. Hurlbert, and
“Basis of American History” (Vol. II of “The American Nation”), by L.
Farrand.

[20] Ramsey’s “Annals of Tennessee.”

[21] “Historic Highways of America,” by A. B. Hurlbert, 16 volumes,
1902-05, A. H. Clark Company, Cleveland. A series of annotated
reprints of some of the best contemporary volumes of travel in
America, compiled by Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1904-07, 32 volumes, A. H.
Clark Co., Cleveland.

“A History of Travel in America,” by Seymour Dunbar, 4 volumes, 1915,
Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Ind.

“Basis of American History,” Chapter II, “Routes of Travel,” Vol. II
of the American Nation Series, by Livingston Farrand, 1907, Harper &
Brothers, New York. There is good bibliography in this volume.

[22] Cecil B. Hartley in his “Life of Daniel Boone,” gives the name
of the head of this company as Colonel Richard Henderson.

[23] “The Winning of the West,” Vol. II, by Theodore Roosevelt.

[24] Dunbar’s “History of Travel,” Vol. I. Roosevelt’s “Winning of
the West,” Vol. II.

[25] “The Wilderness Road.”

[26] “A History of Travel in America.”

[27] “Winning of the West.”

[28] Henry Howe.

[29] A pirogue proper is a canoe dug out of a single log. These may
have been and probably were keel boats built of timber and the name
pirogue extended to them colloquially.

[30] “The Winning of the West,” Vol. VI, by Theodore Roosevelt.

[31] Cf. “Winning of the West,” Vol. VI, p. 259; and “The American
Nation,” Vol. XII, p. 94.

[32]

------------+-------+----------+----------
| |Admitted a|Admitted a
State |Settled|Territory | State
------------+-------+----------+----------
Missouri | 1755 | 1812 | 1821
Arkansas | 1685 | 1819 | 1836
Kansas | 1854 | 1854 | 1861
Nebraska | 1847 | 1854 | 1867
North Dakota| 1812 | 1861 | 1889
South Dakota| 1859 | 1861 | 1889
Wyoming | 1834 | 1868 | 1890
Colorado | 1859 | 1861 | 1876
Idaho | 1852 | 1863 | 1890
Montana | 1861 | 1864 | 1889
Iowa | 1833 | 1838 | 1846
Minnesota | 1846 | 1849 | 1858
------------+-------+----------+----------

[33] Reports for 1920 show that New York has exceeded St. Louis in
manufactured furs but St. Louis seems still to be the largest market
for raw furs.

[34] Albert Watkins in “Collections of the Nebraska State Historical
Society.” Vol. XVI, p. 22.

[35] Washington Irving’s “Astoria.”

[36] Cf. p. 230, Ibid.

[37] Dunbar’s “History of Travel.”

[38] Doddridge’s “Notes on the Settlement of Indian Wars.” Monette’s
“History of the Valley of the Mississippi.”

[39] Cf. Gallatin’s report for a scheme of national roads and
pavements (Adams’ Gallatin, p. 350 et seq.).

[40] Richardson, “Messages and Papers.”

[41] Hurlbert, “Cumberland Road.”

[42] Hulbert, “The Paths of Inland Commerce.”

[43] “American Nation,” Vol. XIV, p. 100.

[44] Hurlbert, “The Paths of Inland Commerce,” p. 121.

[45] Searight, quoted by Hurlbert.

[46] Debates of Congress VI, 433-435, 806, 820.