The Old Pike Part 45

As an erroneous location would be an irreparable evil, it is better that the contracts for the ensuing twenty miles should be delayed, than to make them before you have had time to take a complete view of the ground. Examine it well before you decide and make your first report.

This is more important because it is probable that I will be absent when that report is made, and that it will be decisive, as the acting secretary, to whom the subject will be new and the localities unknown, cannot have time to investigate it critically, and will probably adopt it on your responsibility. If a decisive advantage should arise from an alteration in the last sections already contracted for, and the contractors a.s.sent to it, you may, in your report, propose such an alteration. You are authorized for the purpose of facilitating your review of the road, without neglecting the duties of general superintendence, to employ John S. Shriver, or some other able a.s.sistant, with a reasonable compensation. You have not stated what this should be, but it is presumed that you will not, in that respect, exceed what is necessary for obtaining the services of a well qualified person.

You are authorized to draw for a further sum of twenty thousand dollars; whenever this is nearly exhausted you will apply for a new credit.

With respect to details, they are left at your discretion. You are sensible of the great confidence placed in your abilities and integrity, and I am sure you will not disappoint our expectations.

With perfect consideration and sincere wishes for your welfare, I have the honor to be, sir,

Your obedient servant, ALBERT GALLATIN.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 20th, 1813.

_Sir_: You are authorized to employ a surveyor to view the most proper road from Brownsville to Was.h.i.+ngton in Pennsylvania, and thence to examine the routes to Charlestown, Steubenville, mouth of Short Creek and Wheeling, and report a correct statement of distance and ground on each. If the county road as now established from Brownsville to Was.h.i.+ngton is not objectionable, it would be eligible to prefer it to any other which might be subst.i.tuted. The surveyor thus employed will meet with every facility by applying to the gentlemen at Was.h.i.+ngton who have this alteration in the western road much at heart.

I am respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

ALBERT GALLATIN.

D. SHRIVER, JR., c.u.mberland, Md.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 23rd, 1811.

_Sir_: Mr. Cochran has signed his contract and bonds for the third and fourth sections of the road at the price agreed on, that is to say, at the rate of twenty-two dollars and fifty cents per rod for the third section, and of sixteen dollars and fifty cents per rod for the fourth section.

I now enclose the contracts and bonds for the first and second sections; that for the first in the name of Henry McKinley, and at the rate of twenty-one dollars and twenty-five cents per rod. The proposal of Mr.

Reade was at the rate of thirteen dollars for a road covered with a stratum of stones twelve inches thick, all the stones to pa.s.s through a three-inch ring. He did not stay here or return here to complete the business and was not present when the road was altered to a stratum of stones fifteen inches thick. The same additional price, viz: one dollar and a half per rod, is allowed him for that alteration which was by agreement given to all the other contractors, making fourteen dollars and a half as set down in the contract, instead of thirteen. The contracts and bonds are in every respect (the names of sections and difference of price only excepted) verbatim the same as both those signed by Mr. Cochran, and they were as you will perceive all executed by me, and signed by the President. After they shall have been signed by the contractors respectively, they will each keep a copy of their own contracts, and you will return the other copy, together with the bond (both being signed by the contractors respectively) to this office.

If either of the contractors should for any reason whatever refuse to sign the contract, you will return the same to this office, notify the person thus refusing that he is not considered as a contractor, forbid his doing any work, and immediately advertise in c.u.mberland that you will receive proposals for making the section of the road thus not contracted for. You will afterward transmit the proposals which may accordingly be made.

I also enclose a copy of the contracts for your own use in order that you may in every case be able to secure the additions agreed on.

I have the honor to be with consideration, sir,

Your obedient servant, ALBERT GALLATIN.

The dates were the only blanks left in the contracts and bonds and must be filled at the time of signing, by the contractors.

A. G.

MR. DAVID SHRIVER, JR., c.u.mberland, Md.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 30th, 1811.

_Sir_: Your letter of the 22d inst. has been received. The President has confirmed the alteration in the first section of the road. It will be proper to have a short endors.e.m.e.nt to that effect entered on the contract with Mr. McKinley, and signed by him and yourself.

You are authorized to contract for the bridges and mason work on the terms mentioned in your letter, with the exception of the bridges across Clinton's Fork of Braddock's Run, which may perhaps be avoided by the alteration which you contemplate, and which, if necessary, we may, perhaps, considering other expenses, be obliged to contract of cheaper materials. It is left to your discretion to contract for the other mason work as above stated, either with Mr. Kinkead or with the road contractors.

If you shall find it necessary to employ a temporary a.s.sistant, you are authorized to do it, provided he shall be employed and paid only when actually necessary. I should think that one dollar and twenty-five, or at most, fifty cents, a day, would in that part of the country be ample compensation.

Respecting side walls no decisive opinion can be given until you shall have matured your ideas on the subject, and formed some estimate of the extent to which they must be adopted and of the expense.

I have the honor to be respectfully, sir,

Your obedient servant, ALBERT GALLATIN.

MR. DAVID SHRIVER, JR., Superintendent of the c.u.mberland Road, c.u.mberland, Md.

LETTER FROM EBENEZER FINLEY.

RELEASE, September 1, 1891.

HON. T. B. SEARIGHT,

_My much respected friend_: In our conversation the other day, I spoke from memory entirely, as I had no statistics from which to quote. Your father bought the stone tavern house at Searights from Joseph Frost. It was unfinished when your father bought it. I knew Joseph Frost, but have no recollection of the family he came from. Your father was a single man, when he bought the house, but married shortly after.

In relation to Mr. Stewart's and Mr. Benton's colloquy about the National Road, Mr. Stewart said that "hay stacks and corn shocks would walk over it." Mr. Benton replied that "he could not conceive how hay stacks and corn shocks could walk over this bowling green road." "Ah!"

rejoined Mr. Stewart, "I do not expect to see them walk in the shape of stacks and shocks, but in the shape of fat cattle, hogs, horses and mules from the Western and Southern States." This was in a discussion in Congress, over an appropriation bill for repairing the road. Another conversation with you at some time, would be very much enjoyed by your unworthy scribbler.

P. S. Now, Colonel, since writing the above, many things have come crowding on my memory, and I will mention some of the princ.i.p.al hotels with which I was more or less acquainted. I frequently traveled over the National Road in my younger days. I went often to c.u.mberland and occasionally to Baltimore. I will begin at Big Crossings (Somerfield).

Coming this way, Thomas Brown kept a tavern on the hillside. Next Daniel Collier, then Inks, and next Widow Tantlinger (Boss Rush's place). Next James Sampey at Mt. Was.h.i.+ngton, then several stopping places before reaching the Stewart stone house, a hotel that was not largely patronized by travelers on the road. Next the Chalk Hill house and then Jimmy Snyder's. Next the first house to the left as you come to Monroe, built by Mr. Deford. Then several other hotels before you come to Uniontown. In Uniontown, the Walker House (now Feather's) was well patronized. Then James Seaton's and Thomas Brownfield's wagon stands.

Next the Cuthbert Wiggins wagon stand (later Moxley's), and next the Searight house. Over the hill, next was a house kept by Samuel Woolverton and Hugh Thompson. Then the Robert Johnson (later Hatfield) stone house. Next old Peter Colley, father of Abel, Solomon and John Colley. Then the Bowman house, kept by John Gribble, and next the Brubaker house. Then the first house to the left as you go into Brownsville, kept by Darra Auld, and next the Workman House. But I presume you have all these.

Respectfully, EB. FINLEY.

LETTER FROM THOMAS A. WILEY, A NATIVE OF UNIONTOWN, WHO RODE THE PONY EXPRESS.

BALTIMORE AND OHIO R. R. CO., GEN. TICKET AGENT'S OFFICE, BALTIMORE, July 16, 1892.

T. B. SEARIGHT, ESQ.--_Dear Sir_:--I have been receiving from some one the _Jeffersonian Democrat_, a paper published in my old favorite Uniontown, and have read with great pleasure your publication of things that transpired along the National Road. I knew a great many of the old wagoners, stage drivers and tavern keepers you mention. When I was working for the stage company the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was only completed to Frederic, Maryland, and I used to travel the old pike very often. I hope to be able to come once more to Uniontown before I go hence, where nearly all the rest have gone, and would delight in a long talk with you about old times on the road. In looking over the paper you sent me I scarcely see any names that I used to know in Uniontown. When last in Uniontown I met William Wilson, Ewing Brownfield and Greenberry Crossland, and did not get a chance to see my old friend and shop-mate, Philip Bogardus. He and I worked for the Stockton stage company. The shops were on Morgantown street. I understand that since I was out my old friend, Bogardus, has pa.s.sed away. I recollect the lady he married was a Miss Lincoln, and I also recollect his boy, Winfield Scott. I have been with the Baltimore and Ohio company since October 10th, 1852, and am still in its service. Again thanking you for the paper you sent me, I close, in the hope that G.o.d will bless you and spare your life and mine, that we may meet in old time-honored Uniontown, and talk over the glories of the old pike.

Yours most respectfully, THOMAS A. WILEY.

PROPOSALS FOR CARRYING THE MAILS.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON CITY, September 26, 1831.

We will agree to convey the mail on route No. 1,031, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, daily in four-horse post coaches, agreeable to advertis.e.m.e.nt, for the yearly compensation of seven thousand dollars.

Or we will make the following improvements: To convey two daily mails from Philadelphia to Pittsburg: First mail to leave Philadelphia at two o'clock A. M. and arrive at Pittsburg in two days and five hours, so as to arrive in Pittsburg at seven o'clock A. M., and extend the route to Wheeling so as to arrive, including route 1,170, at Wheeling the third day by nine o'clock P. M., from the first of April to first of December, and, from first of December to first of April, to Pittsburg in three and Wheeling in four days; and return from Wheeling by Was.h.i.+ngton, Pittsburg, and Chambersburg, to Philadelphia within the same time; changing the mail as follows: at Lancaster, Harrisburg, Chambersburg, Bedford, Somerset, Mount Pleasant, and at any other office that is or may be established on the route. The second mail to leave Philadelphia at seven A. M., or immediately after the arrival of the New York mail, and reach Pittsburg in three days and five hours, so as to arrive in Pittsburg by noon, changing the mail at all way offices.

We will agree to carry the mail on route No. 1,198, from Bedford to Was.h.i.+ngton, Pa., via White House, Somerset, Donegal, Mount Pleasant, McKean's, Old Stand, Robbstown, Gambles, and Parkinson's Ferry, to Was.h.i.+ngton, Pa., as advertised, for the yearly compensation of twenty-nine hundred dollars.

We do agree to carry the mail on route No. 1,230, from Bedford, Pa., to c.u.mberland, Md., three times a week in coaches, from the first of April to the first of October, and once a week on horseback from the first of October to the first of April, so as to connect with the Winchester mail at c.u.mberland, and the Great Eastern and Western mail at Bedford, which is much wanted during the summer season, for the yearly compensation of thirteen hundred dollars.