Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.djvu/65

36 COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES coming county, was built in 1828, and made a mail route at the same time. It bore its share of the traffic of the coaching era.

in 1856 the State Legislature made an appropriation for the construction of a road through the valley of Little Fishing Creek from Bloomsburg to Laporte, Sullivan county.

THE NATIONAL ROAD

This article would be incomplete without a description of the great National Road, or Cumberland Pike, as it was sometimes called. Passing as it does through a considerable portion 0f Pennsylvania, and built at the time of the commencement of the coaching era, it is of vast historical importance in the present age, when good roads are being demanded by all the parties and the people.

This road was proposed in Congress in 1797, an act for its construction was passed nine years later, and the first coach carrying the United States mail passed over it in August, 1818. It was a splendid road, sixty feet wide, built of broken stone over bedstones of enormous size, with a covering of gravel, rolled by an iron roller. Mordecai Cochran was the contractor for the section from Cumberland, Md., to Wheeling, W. Va., through the south¬ ern part of Pennsylvania, and he employed over a thousand Irishmen to build that route of 130 miles.

The intention was to build the road clear through to Alton, Ill., but it was completed only as far as Vandalia, Ill., although the route was laid out the rest of the way. Over this road passed most of the prominent persons of the days before the railroads, and for years there was a constant stream of vehicles of all kinds traveling along this fine route towards the West. Since the Highway Commission has been established in this State the National Road has been improved greatly. So well was the work of the original contractor done that in many places the old foundations are still in place.

Not only was this road macadamized, but stone bridges were built over the rivers and crocks, the distances indexed by iron mileposts, and the tollhouses supplied with strong iron gates.

THE “CONESTOGA" WAGON

The first appearance of this wagon in history was at the time of Brarldock's expedition ill 1755, when Benjamin Franklin issued an advertisement for 150 four-horse wagons and 1,300 saddle or pack horses for the army’s use. He agreed to pay fifteen shillings for the use of the wagons each day, and to compensate the owners if the wagons were lost or damaged. This offer later on was almost the cause of Franklin's bankruptcy, as the battle resulted in the capture by the English of almost all the wagons and stock.

At the lime of Braddock’s expedition the pack horse was the most common means of transporting goods, but after that date the roads were widened and the wagons entered the field, much to the disgust of the pack drivers, who fiercely resisted the invasion.

Pennsylvania may rightly be proud of the Dutchman who designed the Conestoga wagon, for even in this day it is the ideal wagon for the transportation of goods over the roads. It gained its name from the township in Lancaster county where the first vehicle of the kind was made. These wagons had a boatshaped body with a curved canoe-shaped bottom which fitted them especially for mountain use; for in them freight remained firmly in place at whatever angle the body might be. The body of the wagon was arched over with six or eight hickory bows, of which the center ones were the lowest, covered with a strong white hempen cloth, corded strongly down at the sides and ends. Underneath hung the tar-lodel or greasepot, and the water pail. At the rear was the great feed box, with a wooden cover, slanted to shed the rain. On the sides were the long tool box and storage box. The wheels had broad tires, often a foot wide, many of the turnpike companies giving rebates to the teamsters who had wide tires on their wagons.

Sleek, powerful horses to the number of six to ten drew these heavy wagons, which could be loaded to the top 01 the cover with a miscellaneous freight of from four to six tons. The horses were clad in handsome harness of fine leather, bore hells, and were driven mostly by word of mouth. The drivers rode sometimes on the “near wheeler," who bore a saddle, or on the "lazy board," a scat inserted on the left side, but it was more often the case that the driver walked alongside his team.

The number of these wagons on the main roads was vast. At one time Over 3,000 ran constantly out of Philadelphia to the surrounding towns. Most of the teamsters made freighting their regular vocation, and lived on the road with their teams. They carried their own “grub” as well as feed for the horses, and also a long mattress for their use in the taverns or on the road, sleeping usually on the