mi \m\s HISTORIC^ survey; in Song And Story FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY John M. Carmody, Administrator WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION P. C. Harrington, Commissioner Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner Carl Watson, State Administrator Printed in U. S. A. THE NATIONAL ROAD in song and story Compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Ohio Sponsored by The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society Copyright. 1940 c/^cknowlcdgmcnts CT'HE basic research for this book was prc- -*■ pared mainly by workers in the district supervised by Emerson Hansel. Research for the verse and the section, "The Milestones," was in the care of Alfred Bath; the poetry resulted from copy submitted by Robert A. Griffith and Walter Richardson. The illustrations were drawn by Arthur Griffith of the Ohio Art Project, supervised in the State by Charlotte Gowing Cooper. For sponsorship of this book and for much assistance and cooperation, the Ohio Writers' Project thanks the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, particularly E. C. Zepp, William D. Overman, and Harlow L. Lindley. Harry Graff, State Supervisor The Ohio Writers' Project ^ /UV,^:'>T. C3 cr- cop- a Foreword THE year 1940 marks the centennial of the completion of "The Main Street of America" — the "Old National Road." It was this historic artery that afforded to the Eastern colonics access to the vast domain lying west of the Alleghenies, and which came to constitute the life line tying together the far flung components of the American republic. The genesis of what was affectionately termed the "National Pike" was concurrent with the birth of the Ohio Commonwealth, and its completion a century ago was an epochal event. For a while it was "time's noblest offspring" but, as the course of empire took its way, it gradually shared importance with the canals and other means of travel and trans- portation. And now, the clumsy ox-drawn vehicle, the stage coach, and the horse and buggy, convoying the humble and the great, are but memories. And so, too, are the canal systems. The canals are gone, perhaps forever. But not so the National Pike. With the advent of automotive transportation, it has assumed foremost importance and, as U. S. Route 40, it may be traversed from Atlantic tidewater to Pacific shoals. Credit for research, compilation and preparation of the manuscript of this booklet devolves upon the Ohio Writers' Project. The illustrations were supplied by the Ohio Art Project. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and numerous local civic organizations have made possible its distribution. The Old National Road is symbolic of the beginnings, the development and the coming of age of our Nation and our State. It is hoped that this booklet will crystallize this senti- ment in the minds of those who may read it. H. C. Shetrone, Director, The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. The National Road The ^oad CT'HE NATIONAL ROAD is one of several highways that cross the Nation. It is not the Lincoln Highway, with new fame; it has the long tradition of the first national road, the path that brought the Colonics across the Ap/palachians and spread democratic union. It was driven west from the Colonics after the Revolution, when men through exuberance or necessity took up again the western journey that had begun in Europe. As a rule, men do not build roads in order to settle a country. They use whatever means arc at hand — waterways or animal paths — and make their way forward. But when they settle and raise their families and want civilization, they build roads from the old homestead to the new and to their neighbors. The National Road did not begin settlement of the trans- Appalachian country. Explorers, traders, missionaries — these people had traveled the Great Lakes and the rivers and the forests, and founded towns in the Old Northwest. After the Ordinance of 1787 opened the Ohio country to general settle- ment, a small, but important, migration began, founding towns, cutting farms into the wilderness. As settlement was made, the pioneer families started to produce foodstuffs and handmade goods. When they had surpluses, they looked around for markets. Good roads were desirable, but rare, and commerce lagged. In 1796 Congress authorized Ebcnezcr Zane to open a road across Ohio that would connect Wheeling, West Virginia, with Limestone, Kentucky. Zanc's Trace resulted; completed The National Road in 1798, it went west to Zancsvillc, then southwest through Lancaster and Chillicothe to the Ohio River. During the years in which the State of Ohio was being formed, plans for a road through it westward were being discussed here and in the East. In 1806 Congress provided for the building of a road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, West Virginia. Work went forward with few difficulties until the road reached the Ohio River. TTicn peti- tions were drawn up that the road be extended west. Argument and Congressional debate and Presidential veto delayed the project until 1825, when Congress consented to the exten- sion. On July 4, 1825, amid speeches and fire-crackers and refreshments, ground for the road in Ohio was broken at St. Clairsville. The road crept west section by section; it reached Zanes- ville in 1826, Columbus in 1833, and Springfield in 1838. The stretch from Springfield to the Indiana line was cleared in 1840, but it was not an improved road until many decades later. The State of Ohio was now neatly bisected — and conven- iently tied together — East to West. The National Road did not, however, stop at the Indiana boundary ; later additions brought it across the Indiana and Illinois plains to the Mississippi. As U. S. 40 it continued west across the great prairie States, crossed the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, struck north to Salt Lake City, then west through Nevada, over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to San Francisco. Traffic in Ohio did not, of course, await total completion of the road within the State. Almost from the day it was first begun at St. Clairsville, the road became an important local artery connecting with the East. It was significant as the first The National Road great thrust of the United States over the Appalachians; and as it was extended west, it became the great national highway for Western migration. Taverns, mile markers, a few museum pieces, and possibly several other traces remain of the life on the National Road during its heyday from about 1830 to the Civil War. Many people important still — men like Henry Clay, women like Jenny Lind — traveled the road and stopped at the taverns. And there are many stories about them — for example, the one about William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren, who happened to be campaigning in the same locality, just west of Columbus, in 1840. "Old Tippecanoe" turned up at a tavern, his arm in a sling from too much handshaking, and ordered drinks for the house; while Van Buren made the rounds for tea in the politest society. The people who lived along the pike were envied, chiefly for the news they gathered from the most colorful characters on the National Road — the teamsters with pack trains, the wagoners with the great Conestoga freight ships, the stage drivers with the gaudy coaches. Each had distinct habits and moved in separate circles of road society. The wagoners, for example, drove long distances and stopped at wagon houses, set back from the road to allow room for parking the wagons and tying up the horses; whereas the stagecoach drivers were relieved at frequent intervals and stayed at the handsome inns along with the passengers. The wagoners, and to some extent the muleteers, were like the keelboatmen en the rivers — tough, boisterous, hard-drinking, full-blooded. They ate and drank and argued and brawled with the full vigor stimulated by a hard, healthy life. Great men, such as Tom Corwin, rose from the ranks of the wagoners. The National Road The stage coach drivers were chosen for their driving skill, weight and strength, and sociability. Their reputations were about like those of today's movie heroes; traveling celebrities often selected their drivers and were themslvcs honored by the asscKiation. They rode in gay coaches named for Presidents and explorers and Indian chiefs and other famous people — on stage coach lines called the Oyster, the June Bug, the Good Intent, and other peculiar things. Those were not the only people on the move. Whole families came along the National Road in their own small canvas-covered wagons; individuals on foot and horseback frequently ambled by. These travelers encamped near the taverns so that they could mingle with the fun-lovers without going to the expense of lodging in the building. After the Civil War, when the railroad began to supersede other modes of transportation, travel on the National Road declined. North of the road, cities were enlarging with new heavy industries; south of it, the old centers of skilled industry, such as Cincinnati, adapted themselves more slowly to the new machine age. Then interurban electric railways drove tracks along the road, and people traveled for pleasure — a trend stimu- lated sharply when the automobile became practical. Within recent years a vast volume of freight has been carried on the road. Such, briefly, is the pageant of travel on the National Road. It is hard to overestimate the importance of the road in spreading the products and people of the United States and at the same time integrating the country. The National Road has been the migratory, exchange, and unifying medium of a new Nation, and it is still the carrier of a huge interstate traffic that continues its historic functions. The National Road The Song "Poet: Hear, Traveler! The road, slipping between hillsides, grows garrulous with age, wishes to speak. Traveler, listen: This road US-40, Ohio, is important, the Rational %o2id. with a history. This road takes rank with the Oregon Trail, the Sante Je Trail, the i^orthwcst Tassage (still undiscovered) , and the golden road to Samarkand. This road, I say, is important, the first travelers' way through the forest. Where dust rose from the horses' hooves, where whips cracked and drivers' curses, where iron rims of the wagons jolted, the smooth purr of the auto pours cloud-easy motion. 10 The National Road IA[ow, Traveler — the <^oad. %oad: It was long, the completion — section after section layer after layer rippling westward — it was long ... it took years. . . . Up in the mountains, holding their sides, bending to valleys, through night and day and weather, time forwards I have wondered, longing for completion; and in the hot grasses, hiding and sleeping, in the soft grass lengths, leaning with wind, I dreamed of meeting the mighty ^Mississippi. Ration: It was a hard job, fighting the rock ribs of the mountains. cAnd at first you were merely a blaze in the forest, but soon became a track for mules with serpentine trains. Like a tendril of ivy, you clung to the mountains, vine-grasping the roughness, at times growing swiftly — Jonah's gourd swiftness — a tentacle seeking the heart of a continent. The National Road 11 c/fnd I remembered you as a buffalo trace, where the hooves of the hump-beasts pounded the earth to a pavement. 'Jioad: The buffalo! I remember their trampling; they built mc with music of thunder, shook by feet asunder, I knew them well: liquid eyes in massive heads, shaggy-haired, low legs racing the path they bared from the saline shore of 'Baltimore to Ohio's fertile land; beyond the dense and thick-shrubbed forests their dust-clad thunder ran, and rolled oflf into quiet with the coming-in of man. They b^at my pattern hard on the slippery river fords, the soft tangle of the canebrakes, the bare solid on the ridges. 'ly' / /y/ Ration: Others came: the people of the mounds; the Indian with his singing marking his way on saplings like that one, now a crooked tree pattern on the Rational 'Road. names for rivers, 12 The National Road ^oef; Such trails as these had interlaced the land God blessed the most ; and trails the hunting Indian traced became the highway for a host. The strands were caught up and entwined, twisted towards the setting sun, and the national motto's well designed to fit the road: "From many, one." 'lioad: cAnd I can tell how all this came to be, how all these paths were joined in me. Jrom Cumberland to Wheeling first I trailed, across the cv^ppalachian fountains sailed, against the c/^llegheny uplands fought, into the valley travelers brought, turned in sweeping spirals west, joining paths that were thought best, steadily through the valleys swept, where silence and a wildness slept. iJ^>Gi'». O and those lands through which I sped were beautiful, though full of dread and stained where men were dead from violence. The land was savage then (claws and wings) where farmers are at peace with soil and man and hoe the corn for bread. The National Road 13 I was the slow course of empire, barely preceding it. e//long the barren fiastern rocks where the (polonies chafed, between mountains and sea, the small, torn trails of bridle-paths linked stream to stream and town to town. ^n franklin, loyal servant to the king, for trade was westward seeking. In the year 1744 the English, westward sneaking for land, sought the Iroquois. *T'hrough the wild, bushy stand of this virgin timber land (tree on aged tree) Then came a band of men who had been hired when the King had named his plan "Ohio C^mpuny." They had to cut and widen out a one-man trail made before by i^emacolin, whose Indian eye and hand had marked a sinuous trail along his people's paths. In this small group was Washington, young surveyor 14 The National Road £cLUA,i«*- We came with guns ready, with listening ear; who knew when the warwhoop would strike us a-near? We came with the rifle preceding the axe, our cattle urged forward by smarting whipcracks. We knew not the glamor of the frontier romance — books sold by the thousand in Cngland and prance. The National Road 21 Our life was held close in rough, calloused hands toiling darkness to darkness on thorn-bearing lands. The lands farther west were those full of gold, which Spaniards through finding and force could still hold. 'But we, we had cabins, had children and farms, and we couldn't listen to gold's siren-song charms. cAnd though we dreamed fondly of making that quest, we had traveled our distance. . . . Our sons took the West. %oad: Those were the first settlers, (after explorers and trappers) clearing land for cabins -r- tree-rich land of Ohio and mellow flood plains — before I was builded. Ohio: They built business and commerce and had much to sell. *iBut roads to the £ast were rutty enough to hold a horse. 22 The National Road The wisdom of the men who gave me statehood had provided for a sinking fund; money saved till 1806 was found enough to start the |A(ational <7^oad. lioad: The work began in 1808; I first reached out in Ohio at St. C^airsville, July fourth, 1825. Statesmen spaded the earth; there was clamor of fire-works and spouting of words, liberal drinking and raising of glasses. That was good. Then came excitement and fever-straining men, hammers thumping, picks pinging, great, strong bodies making a highway. 6very soul that traveled ten miles of my length The National Road 23 paid toll, life blood, my renewal. farrow-rimmed wheels that cut my surface sometimes to the binding — these I charged most; so wheels were broad. The sharp hooves of cattle, the iron horse -shoes, even the slow, heavy-shod oxen dug deep through the limestone, and everything paid me toll. . . . ■^.^^-:^l0. c/^nd in the winter (if you were behind the wagoner) you could see him cut the ice with a gadget like a sled hcK)ked under the sliding hind- wheels, or with a chain or a thing like a plow somehow stuck upon the rear. Ohio: There were men of the road hauling freight like the keelboatmcn on rivers. The hearty wagoners loved food and whiskey and songs, old stories, lusty jokes, and deep laughter. -/tt^rysi/itte ENGLEWOOD SPRINGFIELD ^°4ial21iS. j„,6A0"«"»^' 26 The National Road cAt night they lay in a large half-circle, at the vast fireplace. Their horses, never stabled, wore a blanket, from a feed trough ate at the rear of the freight. cAnd a wagon house yard on many a night held many tired horses by the side of many heavy wagons, while inside many swarthy drivers acted as described. "Poet: In summer they slept by campfirc light under slim breezes and the starry night, their bulky sweat-flecked horses right near the wagoner's snores. "Road: cA coachman's life was gentler strife of dash and whirl and whoa! then off again with a freshened team to another "^iddap, let's go." There was dust galore and rickety-rock noise of wriggling door and creaking floor and the driver's voice The National Road 27 and the coach's horns as it madly tore past well-stocked barns. Then the coachman's roar as faster, faster still it gave its passengers a thrill or chill (or spill, though rare) . The swaying top on its leather springs took up again its rhythmic swing past the crunch, crunch, of a freighter string, with a galloping rush rolled into a ring of excited folk, where the tavern king filled his hands to bring the welcome of the house. (v^nd then, the meal! Ration: What game and fish and crops and fellowship were made for aught but a coach stop? "Road: It took skill of great order to keep the coach to the border, as the charioteer the coach would veer 28 The National Road past rock-spincd ledges down sharp hill-cdgcs, hands tense, feet braced. c/fround and away dived the horses, their manes and their forces tightly strained, to the valley to the roadside to the relay post, where the harness was stripped and fresh horses departed. cAnd once there came down the road one of the stages, hard-driven, careening; it made a bad turn, spilling Henry C^zy from the Concord (7oach. "Kentucky C^slJ'" he muttered, "meeting Ohio limestone." "Poet: Those old Concord coaches! (in museums now) When you sat on the driver's seat you could sec all around — up to the motionless blue above and down to the whizzing ground over and past the forest greens, across their rolling tops, far to the front and to left and right The National Road 29 to where the horizon drops. •But those hills and colors, those sights and streams, that sky and clouds, they're all gone now and are merely the stuff which the dreamer sees. Ohio: cAnd laws were passed to care for the road — a dungeon and bread and water or a fine of 500 for those who'd dare deface the Rational ^^^oad. c/^nd I compelled each person to contribute two days towards your repair annually. So great was the traffic, so large the number of people who traveled and tons of freight, that towns laid stones, a misleading line, to lure the profit off the ftA(ational <^oad. %oad: The year was 1840, a lazy date with history, when I reached the level plains of Indiana. 30 The National Road Traveler: Then did you stop and rest, content to grow old, wrinkling undisturbed? %oad: eA(o! the restless energy of the lA^ation pushed me further into the newness and rawness rough with challenge. cAnd afterwards along that stretch came trail blazers anxious to leave, anxious to trammel new forest. I followed their lead. Let me tell you, what man has felt I've felt. I've known the rhythmic, ceaseless fall of hammers, I've known the breathless, sweatful afternoons when there was no wind springing up among the hills that cling to the streams like timid lovers. I strove to reach the prairie, in a westward push that brought the Ration to the princely 'Rockies (pile on pile of tiring, heavy stone) The National Road 31 and beyond. cAnd all that time I was alive, beating with traffic. I left behind the many-tongued taverns, the relay stations for stages, the tollgates clustering the woodpiles cluttering the roadway, fringed thickly with farms quietly watching the pageant. . . . and I leaped West! 1 leaped west with the hungerers, the never- tired dreamers! I ran across the prairies with fire-speed I slunk through brown foothills I splashed through the rivers I clattered a wild way toward the mountains, the god- forsaken "Rockies geyser-rilling with triumphant westward-singing people — the course, not of empire, but of emperors who cried, "We'll cross the Continent!" "Poet: cAnd those stay-at-homes, those farmers, what did they think and say? %oad: They spoke of all the restless men that came in here and left again; they spoke of all the fabulous lands awaiting those same nervous hands along the west, where £1 'Dorado and all the rich dream lands of shadow ,pir.ir5^5><^=^' 32 The National Road the solid world has ever known vanish under the falling sun. They spoke of all these roamers' crimes, deplored the passing of good old times; they preached to their sons that home was best, while their eyes were hungry with looking west. Ration: Came a chug of smoke and a little black bug, with a big, spouting funnel, rolling thin-spoked wheels on threads called steel over the hills and through in tunnels. cAnd he grew and he grew and he pulled and he pulled till he stretched from sea to sea. ^oet: Years of slackened motion on the .Rational <^oad while the Ration reached the other ocean. %oad: Then a spark gave power, and cars click-clicked along the tracks that flanked me. cA thread of light lay on the way; a thin horn moaned. The cattle bellowed, the horses jumped, the farmer cussed, and pulled his shay aside. The National Road 33 H^ation: c/fbout 1908 a growl-chug voice, four turning legs, changed the transportation and the ways of living in a Ration. %oad: I have to wear ^%Sp^f ^<< a stiff front shirt made out of cement and work at night through hours (spent by former drivers sound in bed) now filled with rumbling tire-tread. H^ation: ^rom coast to coast the longest stretch of paved road in the world! Ohio: Engineering improvements and features of note I might here mention arc part of the road. e^o more quick bumps as you ride on cement wherever is placed a steel bar, instead of the former black tar; here is a new kind of joint, "^on-extruding expansion." The point is comfort, ease-floating. 34 The National Road c/^nother wrinkle in a new road's life is the clover leaf, a way designed to lessen time and traffic strife. I have had great trouble. •Between railroads and tollroads, the canal and the river, (railroads running steel through the river, life line of the valley) there was clamor and uproar, nowhere peace in the valley. Where the boat-horn had made sweet music the steam-whistle screamed out its signals. cAnd people began telling time, not by clocks or by watches, but by dumber four's whistle at the local grade crossing. "She's on time," they'd say, or "She's two minutes late." "Road: cAnd now your commerce wheels a mighty tide along; there's not a soul but feels the fervor of the song sung by leviathans, with wheels of juggernaut; where horses used to prance, they move like soul-seared thought. Their eyes split up the darkness; they need no other light. I am your pride, O Ration, symbolic of your might. The N a tional Road 35 ^ahum, the prophet, foretold thousands of years ago: The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches. they shall run like the lightnings. Ration: ^rom coast to coast the longest stretch of paved road in the world ! Stiff with pride and hard cement, the road lies between stately rows of wire-draped poles — jnonotonous throng of people's voices. *Poef: ^one the loud color of drivers, with their great noises! "The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the creaking wheels, of the thudding of the prancing horses. ..." ^oad: *But there are other noises: the snicker of tire treads on the concrete, 36 The National Road the feverish, strident blast of the klaxon (out-stcntoring Stentor!) the labored throb of trucks straining against the hill slopes. ^o more the great, dark forests! their depths and secrecies no morel Ohio: Those depths and secrecies were danger. See the a^adonna: a woman, with a man's courage. her breath caught up in fear, an arm for a babe an arm for a rifle against danger. •pain and hard work and women to endure them and bear the sons for a growing Ration: ". . . we came with brave women . . . consecrated to . . . making ten tall sons . . . where . . . only one savage had been." That was the stuflf of roadways, *Poef; tSp more the glad, brave nights of sleepless stars, no more the rough-hewn friendliness of tavern bars. H^ation: ^cver again, and better so! It took hard men to sleep outside — skin, a blanket, then frost — and the barroom fights were murders. The National Road 37 |7\(ow there arc tourist cabins, row on neat row, water inside or just outside the door. Health and cleanliness and well-cooked food and no waiting for the seasons. futile contriver of dreams! Only the road-seekers know the road! Ohio: Only the road-seekers! they know the marvelous sweep of sunrise colors topping the forward hill; know greys, pastels, grey mornings when the mist is damp with rain; know the thundering beat of raindrops, the blistering of the sun. They hear the turtle dove mourning, the acrid crow gloating, the majestic wheeling of the buzzard, and the sumac's torch upon the hills, the red and yellow and gold and haze of Indian summer, and the strange delight of far new places! 38 The National Road %oad: Only they know the lure of changing skyline. Only they know my proud triumph over rivers, over mountains, my speed over the plains, my weltering in the cities, my proud contemplation of two brave seas! Only they know the sleepiness of farms, the sharp whiteness of my winter glittering, the drip of tree blossoms, trees arched on the road, the long aisles of trees, the majestic monotone of telegraph poles, my sharp turns and sudden surprises! Sing, contriver of dreams, sing of the glad days to come on the Rational *^oad, of my path to the seas, my road to the sun! !»&■> The National Road 39 The .Milestones 1749 A Group of Virginians received a grant of land in the Ohio country from King George II, of England, and formed the first Ohio Company. 1750 Christopher Gist was employed by the first Ohio Company to blaze a roadway from Cumberland, Mary- land, to the Ohio River, via Pittsburgh, and to report on land values in the Ohio country. 1752 Gist arranged with Nemacolin, a Delaware Indian, to mark out a path for this roadway. 1755 General Braddock constructed a military road along the path laid out by Christopher Gist, going west from Cumberland to Laurel Hill, Pennsylvania, then north- west to Fort Duqucsne. General Braddock was defeated near Fort Duquesne, July 19, and died at Great Meadows four days later. 1784 General Washington and Albert Gallatin discussed possibility of a road through Pennsylvania. 1796 Colonel Ebenezer Zane received permission from the Continental Congress on March 25 to open a road from Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), to Limestone (now MaysvUle) , Kentucky. 1799 John McIntire erected a tavern at Zanesville, Ohio. 1802 Jacob Haltz opened a tavern at St. Clairsville, Ohio. Congress appropriated $30,000 to defray expense of laying out and making a national road, April 14. The Enabling Act granting a State Government for Ohio was passed by Congress on April 30. 1803 Ohio was admitted into the Union as a State, March 1. A Compact Was Made between Ohio and the Federal Government agreeing on a two percent levy on all Con- gress land sales in the State, to be set aside for national road purposes. 1805 Robert Taylor opened in Zanesville a tavern called the Orange Tree. On September 30 it was reported to Congress that the Ohio Congress land sales from July 1802 to September 40 The National Road 1804 amounted to $636,040.27, two percent of which ($12,652.00) was to be allotted to construction of the National Road. On December 19 a Senate committee made its report to Congress; it suggested various routes to the West, but recommended the road from Baltimore to Cumberland westward. 1806 On March 29, President Jefferson signed the Congres- sional act establishing a national highway — to reach from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Mississippi, and to pass through the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Zanesville was only city mentioned by name in the document. Jefferson on March 29 approved the act empowering him to appoint three commissioners for the National Road. 1808 On January 1, the commissioners submitted a report to the President covering a survey made and recom- mending a straight line to the Ohio River. The report also suggested the straightening and widening of the old Braddock Road between Cumberland and Laurel Hill. President Jefferson reported to Congress approval of the course charted for the National Road. It was to go from Cumberland to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, deviating to pass through Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Contracts were let for clearing the surveyed route of the National Road west of Cumberland. Surveying was completed to Wheeling. 1810 Since Zanesville was at this time the capital of Ohio, the State Legislature met in the Orange Tree Tavern. 1811 On March 3, Congress authorized the President to permit the National Road to deviate from the straight line approved, so that it could reach several towns, pro- vided that the road did not miss the towns mentioned in the law (Wheeling and the capitals of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois) . President Madison directed, on March 3, that $50,000 be paid from the General Fund to the builders of the National Road, Cumberland to Brownsville. On April 6 a contract was let for building the first 10 miles of the National Road west of Cumberland. The National Road 41 President Madison directed that $30,000 be paid from the General Fund for the road between Cumber- land and Brownsville, on May 6. A Contract was let for the second section ( 1 1 miles) of the National Road west of Cumberland, in August. First 10 Miles of the road west of Cumberland were completed in September, according to the engineers. 1813 President Madison directed that $140,000 be paid from the General Fund for the road. A Contract was let for the third section (13 miles) of the road west of Cumberland, in August. In September a contract was let for the fourth section (6>^ miles) of the National Road west of Cumberland. 1815 President Madison directed that $100,000 be paid from the General Fund for the road west of Cumber- land, on February 14. The Second Section of 11 miles was finished, reported the engineers. 1816 President Monroe directed that $300,000 be paid from the General Fund for work on the National Road west of Cumberland. 1817 Jesse Young opened the Eagle Tavern at Main Street and Putnam Bridge, Zanesville. Engineers announced the third section of 13 miles and the fourth section of 6j^ miles of the National Road west of Cumberland had been completed. A Contract was let for the fifth section (22 miles) west of Cumberland. 1818 The Road was completed from Cumberland to Wheeling, said the engineers. Benjamin Harding opened a tavern at the corner of Sixth and Main Streets, Zanesville, in September. Stage Mail Coaches started operations over the road from Washington, D. C, to Wheeling. 1819 Cost of Completing the road from Cumberland to Wheeling reached $285,000. 42 The National Road President Monroe directed that payment be made from the General Funds provided by the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 1820 On April 11, President Monroe ordered that the bal- ance of $141,000 for completing the National Road between Washington, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling be paid out of any money in the United States Treasury not otherwise appropriated. On May 15, Congress appropriated $10,000 to lay out a road 80 feet wide from Wheeling to the Mississippi; the President was authorized to expend for the purpose any monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. 1822 President Monroe vetoed an act to provide for preser- vation and repairs of the road and to establish toll gates along the road. 1823 Congress Authorized payment of $25,000 for road repairs between Cumberland and Wheeling. President Monroe appointed a superintendent of repairs to be paid at the rate of $3.00 per day. 1824 President Monroe signed the appropriation bill for the National Road. The Ohio Legislature conceded to the United States power to extend the National Road through Ohio. 1825 President Monroe appropriated $150,000 for build- ing the National Road from Wheeling to the capital of Missouri — the Federal Government to survey, remove trees, grade the road, and build all bridges; the States to surface the road with at least nine inches of crushed rock. Ground Was Broken, on July 4, for the road west of Wheeling, in front of the courthouse at St. Clairs- ville, Ohio. U. S. Commissioner Jonathan Knight reported to President Monroe in October that the road between Zanesville and Columbus was but one mile longer than if it were in a perfectly straight line, and that no grade in the road exceeded three degrees except in the 14-mile hilly section just west of Zanesville. 1826 On March 25 there was appropriated through the Military Service $110,749 for continuation of the Cumberland (National) Road. The National Road 43 In June Road Superintendents Weaver and Knight were authorized by the War Department to make a perma- nent location of the National Road between Fairview (Guernsey County) and Zanesville (Muskingum County) . The Engineers Reported (in July) having com- pleted five bridges between the Ohio River and Fairview without loss of time or disability of workmen. 1827 Road Superintendent Knight made his report on the location of the National Road, between Zanesville and Columbus, to Congress on January 25. On March 2, Congress appropriated, from the General Fund, the sum of $170,000 for construction of the road between Bridgeport and Zanesville and for continuing the survey from Zanesville to St. Louis. On March 2, Congress appropriated the sum of $510 due the road superintendent west of Wheeling and also $30,000 for repairs on the road between Cumberland and Wheeling. In June the road was completed from Bridgeport to St. Clairsville. In July the road was completed from St. Clairsville to Fairview and Cambridge. Contracts were let, on July 21, for constructing 21 miles of the road east of Zanesville. A Plea was made to Congress in March to lead the National Road through Dayton and Eaton, Ohio. The National Road between Bridgeport and Cam- bridge was opened to the public in July; at this time the road was paved to Fairview and graded the rest of the way to Cambridge. 1828 Stumping Senator McDuffie of South Carolina predicted that if Andrew Jackson were elected to the Presidency, instead of John Quincy Adams, the road would stop at Zanesville. Ohio Passed a Law, on April 1 1 , assuming responsi- bility for permanent repair of the road. Congress Directed, on May 19, the appropriation of $175,000 for completion of the road to Zanesville, the 44 The National Road money to be taken from the land sale fund of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The Secretary of War relieved the President of the duties of directing the construction of the road. 1829 On March 2. Congress authorized the appropriation of $100,000 for opening the National Road west of Zanesville. A contract was let for building the road from Zanesville to Columbus. Congress on March 2 appropriated $51,600 for laying out the National Road to a width of 80 feet east and west of Indianapolis. At the same time Congress authorized the hiring of a road superintendent at $800 a year. Congress appropriated, on March 3, $100,000 for repairing bridges on that section of the road between Cumberland and Wheeling. Construction of the road between Zanesville and Columbus was begun. 1830 Aaron L. Hunt opened a tavern in Springfield beside the route of the National Road on January 1. John Watson opened the Watson Hotel, a stop for all stage coaches in the heart of Columbus, April 2. James Robinson opened Robinson's Tavern in Colum- bus during April. The United States Government conveyed all fin- ished sections of the National Road to the States through which it passed. Congress appropriated $215,000, mainly for opening and grading the National Road west of Zanesville, and in Indiana and Illinois, May 31. In July bids were advertised for building the road west of Columbus. The National Road, reported the engineers, was com- pleted to Zanesville. Difficulties were met in keeping traffic on the road because of damage to hooves of horses and cattle. (Only stage coach horses were shod.) The National Road 45 A Contract was let for building the road from Colum- bus to Springfield. 1831 On February 4 the Ohio Legislature authorized the erection of toll gates at 20-mile intervals (and one to a county) on the National Road. Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania imposed tolls on the National Road. Toll Gates were established on the road in Ohio. The Secretary of War superseded the President in the disbursing of funds for the road. 1832 Zanesville'S Seth Adams, tollkeepcr, reported the year's National Road traffic east of Zanesville as follows: 35,310 men on horseback, 16,750 horses and mules driven, 24,410 sheep driven, 52,845 hogs driven, 96,323 cattle driven, 14,907 one-horse carriages, 11,613 two-horse carriages and wagons, 2,357 wagons with three horses. John Noble opened the National Hotel and Ohio Stage Line office in Columbus. Henry Clay, United States Senator from Ken- tucky, traveled the National Road frequently. When a stage overturned, he declared to the driver: "This, sir, is mixing Kentucky Clay with Ohio limestone." 1833 William Neil, Columbus, was refused permission, by a State legislative vote of 18 to 17, to operate seven steam carriages over the road. J. Robinson ^ Sons opened a tavern in Columbus along the road, on December 14. The National Road was completed from Zanesville to Columbus, according to the engineers. Toll Charges on the National Road for the year netted the State of Ohio $12,259.42. 1834 A Report noted there were two taverns to every mile of the road in Ohio between the Ohio River and Zanes- ville. Four Stage Lines were put into operation on the National Road in Ohio — Ohio State Company, Citizens Line, Peoples Line, and Good Intent Line. 46 The National Road On March 3 an act passed by Congress directed the Secretary of War to survey the possibility of having the road from Springfield, Ohio, to Richmond, Indiana, go via Dayton and Eaton. The National Road Committee of the United States Senate, on April 5, debated continuation of the National Road through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The United States Congress considered a bill, on May 1 7, proposing that, after appropriations for the road were expended, the Federal Government transfer to the States all obligations for the National Road. Appropriations of $652,130 were approved the same day. Field Superintendence of the National Road was placed in the hands of the Topographical Bureau of the War Department. 1835 Through an Act Congress approved the decision of the President, made after the War Department review, to maintain the original straight course of the road. 1836 The Superintendent of Repairs of the National Road in Ohio was instructed, on March 1, to report to the House of Representatives the length of time stage coaches had run on the road since the erection of toll gates, the amount of toll paid to December 31, 1835. the number of coaches operated by each line, and the average amount paid quarterly by such stage lines. A Bill Appropriating $600,000 for the National Road in Ohio was passed by the House and the Senate. The Ohio Legislature passed a law placing all works of internal improvement under the supervision of the Board of Public Works. 1837 C. F. Dresbach ^ Co. opened a tavern on High Street, Columbus, opposite the State House, on March 3, and established a reputation for comfort and entertainment. Bids Were Invited for building the National Road west of Springfield, in August. Contract was let for building the road west of Spring- field. The Post Office Department of the United States contracted with the Great Western Express and Mail The National Road 47 Line for carrying mails over the National Road from Washington to St. Louis, Missouri. Engineers' Report to the United States Government showed the cost of the National Road to date: for the section east of the Ohio River, $2,000,881.23; for repairs throughout, $960,503.08; for the section west of the Ohio River, $3,863,335.02 — a total of $6,824,919.33. 1838 Congress on May 25 made the last of a scries of appropriations from the fund of land sales in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Its total appropriation amounted to seven million dollars, of which two million were spent in Ohio. The Road was completed to Springfield. Three Miles of the road were finished west of Spring- field, western terminus for Congressional appropriation. The Dayton ^ Springfield Turnpike Co. was organized by private capital stock sold to the public, and road building contracts were let immediately. The road in every detail matched the National Road, even to the extent of mile markers showing distance from Cumber- land, Maryland. After its completion, it was often mistaken for the National Road. 1839 The Road Superintendent in Ohio reported tolls collected on the National Road as $40,000 for the year 1837 and $52,870.78 for the year 1838. The National Road was graded from Springfield to Englewood. 1840 The Road Superintendent in Ohio reported tolls collected on the National Road for the year 1839 amounted to $51,364.67. The National Road was graded to the Indiana State Line. 1846 Redding Hunting, who drove the mail coach from Washington to Wheeling, made a record run to carry President Polk's proclamation that a state of war existed between the United States and Mexico. 1854 The National Road from the Ohio River to Spring- field, Ohio, was leased to private concerns. 48 The National Road 1859 The Board of Public Works of the State of Ohio resumed control of the National Road to prevent bank- ruptcy of the lessees, 1876 The Ohio State Legislature authorized the county commissioners of several counties to assume control of the National Road. 1877 New Rates of Toll were left to the discretion of the various county commissioners. 1901 The Columbus and Buckeye Lake Electric Railway was put into operation ; this new mode of transportation, flanking the road from Columbus to Hebron, brought new interest and life cast of Columbus. 1906 The Indiana, Columbus K Eastern Electric Rail- way Company started operation, reviving interest in the road west of Columbus; the line flanked the road from Columbus to Springfield. 1914 Increased Automobile Traffic (122,500 registra- tions this year) brought the need for sturdier road surfaces. The First Water-Bound Macadam, the first brick, and the first concrete was used as paving material on the road in Ohio. 1932 The First Asphalt Mixture was applied to the surface of the road on the theory that it would not only have better resiliency, but also provide a dark road for the protection of the motorists' eyes. 1939 The Last Electric Line, the Cincinnati ^ Lake Eric Traction Company, successor to the Ohio Electric Rail- way Company, was abandoned. 1940 Traffic Flow Records show that 6,346 motor vehicles pass a given point (near the city of Columbus) every 24 hours. Of this amount 23.6 percent is inter- state traffic. The Amount of Money expended on the road through Ohio, for maintenance only, for a period of 25 years dating back from this year, was $11,000,000. ■tomeman Press, Columbus, okic UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 0112 050746947