CHAPTER XVII.

DANIEL BARCUS.

Otho and Daniel Barcus, brothers, were among the prominent wagoners of the road. They lived near Frostburg, Md. Otho died at Barton, Md., in 1883. Daniel is now living in retirement at Salisbury, Somerset county, Pa. In 1838 he engaged with John Hopkins, merchant at the foot of Light and Pratt streets, Baltimore, to haul a load of general merchandise, weighing 8,300 pounds, to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. “He delivered the goods in good condition” at the end of thirty days from the date of his departure from Baltimore. His route was over the National Road to Wheeling, thence by Zanesville and Jacktown, Ohio, thence thirty-two miles from the latter place to the point of destination, the whole distance being 397 miles. He received $4.25 per hundred for hauling the goods. At Mt. Vernon he loaded back with Ohio tobacco, 7,200 pounds in hogsheads, for which he received $2.75 per hundred. On the return trip he upset, between Mt. Vernon and Jacktown, without sustaining any damage, beyond the breaking of a bow of his wagon bed, and the loss caused by detention. The expense of getting in shape for pursuing his journey, was the price of a gallon of whisky. Mt. Vernon is not on the line of the road, and Mr. Barcus writes that “when he reachedthe National Road at Jacktown, he felt at home again.” Mr. Barcus also states in a letter to the writer of these pages, that the first lot of goods shipped over the Baltimore and Ohio railway, after its completion to Cumberland, destined for Wheeling, was consigned to Shriver and Dixon, commission merchants of Cumberland, and by that firm consigned to Forsythe and Son, of Wheeling. This lot of goods aggregated 6,143 pounds, an average load for a six-horse team, and Mr. Barcus contracted with Shriver and Dixon to haul it through to Wheeling in six days for fifty cents a hundred, which he accomplished. He further states that a delegation of wholesale and retail merchants of Wheeling met him at Steenrod’s tavern, east of Wheeling Hill, and escorted him to town, then a place of 4,000 or 5,000 inhabitants, and in the evening there was public rejoicing over the unprecedented event of goods reaching Wheeling from Baltimore in the short space of seven days. Mr. Barcus concludes his letter as follows: “I stayed many nights at Hopwood with Wilse Clement, and many with Natty Brownfield, in Uniontown. I often stayed with Arthur Wallace, five miles east of Brownsville. I remember one night at Wallace’s, after caring for my team, I accompanied his two fine and handsome daughters to a party about a mile distant in the country, where I danced all night, till broad daylight, and then walked home with the girls in the morning.”

John Grace was another old wagoner, who became wealthy. The old pike boys will remember him as the driver of a black team. He was a Maryland man. When the old road yielded its grasp on trade, to the iron railway, Grace settled in or near Zanesville, Ohio, where he still lives, or was living a few years ago, worth a hundred thousand dollars. He transported his family to Ohio in his big road wagon.

Jesse Franks, and his son Conrad, of High House, Fayette county, Pa., were old wagoners. Conrad’s team ran off near Cumberland, on one of his trips, overthrowing the wagon, and causing an ugly dislocation of Conrad’s thigh, from which he suffered great pain for many weeks.

John Manaway, late owner of the Spottsylvania House, Uniontown, drove a team on the road for many years, and no man enjoyed the business more than he.

There was an Ohio man of the name of Lucas, called Gov. Lucas, because a man of like name was an early Governor of Ohio, who was an old wagoner, and his team consisted of but five horses, yet he hauled the biggest loads on the road. He was the owner of the team he drove. In the year 1844, one of his loads weighed twelve thousand pounds—“one hundred and twenty hundred,” as the old wagoners termed it, and the biggest load ever hauled over the road up to that date.

William King, of Washington county, Pa., an old wagoner, was noted for his steady habits. On one of his trips over the road, and going down the eastern slope of Laurel Hill, when it was coveredwith ice, his wagon slipped from the road and fell over the bank near the old Price residence, dragging the team after it. Strange to say, the horses were uninjured and but little damage done to the wagon. The contents of the load were Ohio tobacco and bacon. After getting things restored, King drove to Jimmy Snyder’s, stayed all night, and the next morning proceeded on his journey to Baltimore. He was the owner of a farm in Washington county.

Joseph Thompson, an old wagoner on the road, is now and has been for many years in charge of the large and valuable coal farm belonging to the estate of the Hon. James G. Blaine, on the Monongahela river, near Pittsburg. A trusty old wagoner, he has approved himself the trusty agent of the great statesman.

Jacob Probasco was an old wagoner, and also kept a tavern at Jockey Hollow. He went west and founded a fortune.

Joseph Lawson, an old wagoner, kept tavern for many years in West Alexander, Washington county, Pa., and died the possessor of a valuable estate. The author of this book took dinner, in 1848, at Lawson’s tavern, in company with James G. Blaine, the late distinguished Secretary of State.

Matthias Fry, an old wagoner, kept the Searight House in 1840, and subsequently presided as landlord over several houses at different times in Hopwood. He was one of the best men on the road. His large and well proportioned form will be readily recalled by the old pike boys. He was a native of Old Virginia, and died in Hopwood.

David Hill was one of the most noted wagoners of the road. He was an active, bustling man, and given to witty sayings. He belonged to Washington county, Pa., and was the father of Dr. Hill, of Vanderbilt, and the father-in-law of the Rev. J. K. Melhorn, who preached for many years in the vicinity of McClellandtown, Fayette county, Pa.

Andrew Prentice, who died recently in Uniontown, the possessor of considerable money, drove a team on the old road in his early days.

Henry Clay Rush, a prominent citizen of Uniontown, and ex-jury commissioner, was once the proud driver of a big six-horse team. He drove through from Baltimore to Wheeling, and can recount incidents of every mile of the road to this day. None of the old pike boys enjoys with keener relish a recital of the stories of the old pike than Rush.

William Worthington, who died not long since in Dunbar township, Fayette county, Pa., aged upwards of ninety years, was one of the earliest wagoners on the road. When he made his first trip he was only thirteen years old, and the road was then recently opened for travel. He continued as a wagoner on the road for many years, and located in Dunbar township, where he purchased property, which subsequently became very valuable by reason of the coal development.

William Chenriewith, who recently, and probably at the present time, keeps a hotel near Bedford Springs, was an old wagoner of the National Road.

HENRY CLAY RUSH.

John Thomas, who kept a hotel and livery stable in Baltimore, was an old wagoner, and is well remembered along the road.

George Buttermore, father of Dr. Smith Buttermore, of Connellsville, was at one time a wagoner on the National Road.

John Orr, now a prosperous and well-known farmer of the vicinity of West Newton, Westmoreland county, Pa., was an old wagoner of the road.

James Murray, an old wagoner, is remembered for his extravagance of speech. One of his sayings was, that “he saw the wind blow so hard on Keyser’s Ridge, that it took six men to hold the hair on one man’s head.”

E. W. Clement, of Hopwood, was an old wagoner, and invariably used bells on his horses. He subsequently kept a tavern in Hopwood, and built the house there known as the “Shipley House.”

Robert Bell was an old wagoner with quaint ways. He was rich, and owned his team, which was the poorest equipped of any on the road. Horses in his team were not infrequently seen without bridles. He was a trader, and often bought the goods he hauled and sold them out to people along the road. His reputation for honesty was good, but he was called “Stingy Robert.”

George Widdle, an old wagoner of the age of eighty and upwards, still living in Wheeling, drew the single line and handled the Loudon whip over a six-horse team for many years, between Wheeling and Baltimore, and accounts the days of those years the happiest of his existence. He was also a stage driver for a time. Nothing affords him so much pleasure as a recital of the incidents of the road. He says there never were such taverns and tavern keepers as those of the National Road in the days of its glory, and of his vigorous manhood.

James Butler, like Bell, was a trader. Butler drove a “bell team,” as teams with bells were called. He was a Virginian, from the vicinity of Winchester. It was the tradition of the road that he had a slight infusion of negro blood in his veins, and this assigned him to the side table of the dining room. When he quit the road he returned to Winchester, started a store, and got rich.

Neither tradition or kindred evidence was necessary to prove the race status of Westley Strother. He showed up for himself. He was as black as black could be, and a stalwart in size and shape. He was well liked by all the old wagoners, and by every one who knew him. He was mild in manner, and honest in purpose. He had the strongest affection for the road, delighted in its stirring scenes, and when he saw the wagons and the wagoners, one after another, departing from the old highway, he repined and prematurely died at Uniontown.

Old Wagoners continued—Harrison Wiggins, Morris Mauler, James Mauler, John Marker, John Bradley, Robert Carter, R. D. Kerfoot, Jacob F. Longanecker, Ellis B. Woodward—Broad and Narrow Wheels—A peculiar Wagon—An experiment and a failure—Wagon Beds—Bell Teams.

Harrison Wiggins, widely known as a lover of fox hunting, and highly respected as a citizen, was one of the early wagoners. His career as a wagoner ceased long before the railroad reached Cumberland. He hauled goods from Baltimore to points west. His outfit, team and wagon, were owned by himself and his father, Cuthbert Wiggins. Harrison Wiggins was born in the old Gribble house, two miles east of Brownsville, on the 30th of April, 1812. About the year 1817 his father moved to Uniontown, and kept a tavern in a frame building which stood on the lot adjoining the residence of P. S. Morrow, Esq. He remained here until 1821, when he went to the stone house at the eastern base of Chalk Hill, and was its first occupant. His house at Uniontown numbered among its patrons, Hon. Nathaniel Ewing, Samuel Cleavenger, Mr. Bouvier, John A. Sangston, John Kennedy, John Lyon, and other eminent men of that period. In 1832 or ’33, Harrison Wiggins married a daughter of John Risler, a noted tavern keeper of the road, one of the very best, a talent which descended to his children. At the date of the marriage Mr. Risler was keeping the stone house at Braddock’s run, and the wedding occurred in that house. In 1839 Harrison Wiggins went to Iowa, with a view of locating in that State, but returned the next year and leased the property on which he now lives from Charles Griffith. In ten years thereafter he bought this property, and it has been his home for more than half a century. Under the careful and sagacious management of Mr. Wiggins, it has become one of the prettiest and most valuable properties in the mountains. It has been a long time since he was a wagoner, but he enjoys a recital of the stirring scenes he witnessed on the old road in the days of its glory.

HARRISON WIGGINS.

There is not a more familiar name among the old pike boys than that of Morris Mauler. He was an old wagoner, stage driver and tavern keeper. He was born in Uniontown in the year 1806. The house in which he first beheld the light of day, was a log building on the Skiles corner, kept as a tavern by his father. Before he reached the age of twenty-one he was on the road with a six-horse team anda big wagon, hauling goods from the city of Baltimore to points west. He continued a wagoner for many years, and afterward became a stage driver. He drove on Stockton’s line. From stage driving he went to tavern keeping. His first venture as a tavern keeper was at Mt. Washington, when the old tavern stand at that point was owned by the late Hon. Nathaniel Ewing. He subsequently and successively kept the old Probasco house at Jockey Hollow, the old Gaither house, the Yeast house, and a house in Hopwood. He always furnished good entertainment for strangers and travelers, as well as for friends and acquaintances, and as a consequence, was well patronized. He died about seven years ago at Fairchance, and when his light went out a shadow of sorrow passed over the hearts of all the old pike boys.

James Mauler, a son of Morris, above mentioned, is also an old wagoner. He went on the road with a team in the year 1830, and remained on it as long as he could obtain a load of goods to haul over it. He is still living and in robust health, at Brownfield station, four miles south of Uniontown.

JOHN MARKER.

John Marker, now residing in the east end of Uniontown, is an old wagoner. He was born at the Little Crossings in the State of Maryland, in the year 1816, and while yet a lad began to drive a team on the road for Joseph Plucker. In 1839 he quit the service of Plucker and came to Wharton township, Fayette county, Pa., and soon thereafter began driving again, first for Sebastian Rush and next for Nicholas McCartney. He is a near relative of the Shipley, McCollough and McCartney families, all of the old pike. Marker says he never suffered an “upset” himself, but saw a great many “upsets” on the road. He also states that he saw a stage driver killed near Little Crossings in 1835 by the “running off” of his team and the “upsetting” of the coach. The name of this unfortunate stage driver was James Rhodes, and he drove on Stockton’s line. John Marker, in his prime, was one of the stoutest men on the road, upwards of six feet in height, and rounded out in proportion, but, being of an amiable temperament, he never engaged in broils, realizing, no doubt, and acting upon the poetic sentiment that:

“It is excellent to have a giant’s strength,But tyrannous to use it as a giant.”

“It is excellent to have a giant’s strength,

But tyrannous to use it as a giant.”

He still clings to the old road, breaking stone to repair it, when his health will permit. He is in the 76th year of his age.

John Bradley, brother of Daniel, of Jockey Hollow, is an old wagoner. He drove a team for Benjamin Brownfield, Jr., now residing near Newark, Ohio., son of Col. Ben., the centennarian of South Union township, and grand marshal of Democratic processions of the olden time. John Bradley also worked on the construction of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 1839, near Oldtown, Md., fifteen miles east of Cumberland. His employer on this work was the late Zalmon Ludington, of Uniontown, who had a contract at the point mentioned. John Bradley is now living in the city of Pittsburg.

Robert Carter was a well known old wagoner, a native of Washington county, Pa., a “regular,” and a very energetic, persevering and keen sighted man. He took a prominent part in many of the festivities of the old road, but never lost his head. He was a money maker, and unlike most of that class, kind hearted and generous. He married the eldest daughter of Thomas Moxley, the old tavern keeper, whose house was three miles west of Uniontown. After his marriage he bought a small farm, known as the Solomon Colley farm, near Hatfield’s, in Redstone township, Fayette county, Pa., subsequently merged in the Hatfield estate. He operated this farm for a short time, but while engaged as a farmer, kept his team on the road in charge of a hired driver. He sold his farm and leased the Bar house in Bridgeport, and kept tavern there for some time. When business ceased on the road, he gave up his team and his tavern, and moved with his family to Iowa, where he engaged extensively in farming and stock raising.

R. D. Kerfoot, the well known miner and labor leader of Everson, was at one time a wagoner on the National Road. He was born in Lancaster county, Pa., and before reaching the full stature of manhood in point of age, went to Washington county, Md., where he engaged as a driver for one J. B. Bear, a farmer of that county and State, and was put in charge of a fine six-horse team, and a broad wheeled wagon, with which he hauled goods, wares and merchandise to and from Baltimore and Wheeling. He enjoyed the stirring scenes of the old road, and recalls with a keen relish the bounteous tables of the old taverns.

Jacob F. Longanecker, who served as county commissioner of Fayette county, Pa., from 1854 to 1857, was an old wagoner. He owned a farm in German township, and was a good practical farmer, but spent much of his time, for many years, on the road with his team. He enjoyed life on the road, and seemed loath to relinquish the occupation of a wagoner.

ELLIS B. WOODWARD.

Ellis B. Woodward, of Menallen township, Fayette county, Pa., is an old wagoner with experience hardly sufficient to entitle him to be classed as a “regular,” and yet almost enough to take him from the list of “sharp-shooters.” He kept his big road wagon on his farm for many years after the road ceased to be a profitable avenue of transportation, and felt a pride in exhibiting it as a reminder of his identification with the great highway, in the days of its prosperity. He still lives and warmly cherishes the memories of the old road.

The first wagons used on the National Road were made with narrow rimmed wheels, like those in use at the present day on farms and country roads. It was not long, however, after the opening of the road, until the broad wheeled, or “broad tread wagon,” as it was called, was introduced, and came into general use by the “regulars.” The “sharpshooters,” as a rule, retained the narrow tread, as their wagons were designed mainly for farm service. The width of the broad tread was about four inches, and lighter tolls were exacted atthe gates from broad than from narrow tread wagons for the obvious reason that narrow wheels cut deeper into the road than broad wheels.

A gentleman of Wheeling interested in the transportation business at one time, conceived the idea of constructing a wagon that would make so wide a track as to be allowed to pass over the road for a very low rate of toll, if not entirely exempt. His model was a wagon with the rear axle four inches shorter than the front one, so that a track was made of eight inches in width. To this wagon nine horses were attached—three abreast. It passed over the road several times, with Joseph Sopher as driver, attracting much attention, but turning out a failure as well in the matter of saving toll as in being an impracticable vehicle of transportation.

The bed of the regular road wagon was long and deep, bending upward at the bottom in front and rear. The lower broad side was painted blue, with a movable board inserted above, painted red. The covering was of white canvas stretched over broad wooden bows, so that the old road wagon, probably more as a matter of taste than design, disclosed the tri-colors of the American escutcheon, red, white and blue.

An average load was 6,000 pounds, but loads weighing 10,000 pounds, “a hundred hundred,” as all old wagoners boastfully put it, were frequently hauled over the road.

The reader who never saw the endless procession on the old pike, in the days of its glory, may have the impression that the bells used by some of the old wagoners on their teams were like sleigh bells, or those of the milk wagon of the present day, and in like manner strapped around the horses. But that was not the way of it. The bells of the old wagoners were cone shaped, with an open end, not unlike a small dinner bell, and were attached to a thin iron arch, sprung over the tops of the hames. The motion of the horses caused a quiver in the arch, and the bell teams moved majestically along the road attracting attention and eliciting admiration. The great majority of wagoners did not use bells.

Old Wagoners continued—John Deets—His story told by himself—David Church—John Snider loads up with Butter—Billy Ashton, John Bradfield, Frank Bradfield—An Escapade—William Hall, Henry Puffenberger and Jacob Breakiron—Collision between a “regular” and a “sharpshooter”—Joseph Lawson, Jeff. Manypenny, Joseph Arnold, The Sophers, Robert Beggs, Thomas Gore, and John Whetsel.

JOHN DEETS.

John Deets was a wagoner on the road as early as 1826, before the invention of the rubber, or at least before its application to wagons on the National Road. He had a brother, Michael, who preceded him as a wagoner on the road. John Deets located in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1835, whence he went from Menallen township, Fayette county, Pa. He is still living. The following from his own pen furnishes a graphic account of life on the road in his day:

Mr. Searight: I will try to give you as much information as I can at this time. My brother, Michael Deets, about four years older than myself, was among the first that wagoned on the pike. That was about the year 1822. He first drove his father’s team, and the first load of goods he hauled from Baltimore was to Uniontown for Isaac Beeson or Isaac Skiles, I am not certain which. After that he drove for Abram Beagle, who lived in the west end of Uniontown. After that he bought a team, and a few years after bought two more, so that he owned three teams at one time. He drove one of the teams himself and hired drivers for the other two. The team he drove himself was a bell team. One of his drivers was George Richards, and the other, Jesse Barnet, a colored man, who lived in the east end of Uniontown. When they took up the old bed of the road, and macadamized it, my brother took a contract and put his teams to hauling stones. After finishing his contract, he resumed the hauling of merchandise on the road and continued until about 1837, when he moved to Ohio, thence to Illinois, and thence to Missouri, where he died.

The pike boys had some hard times and they had some good times. They were generally very fond of sport, and mostly tried to put up where the landlord was a fiddler, so that they could take a hoe-down. Every one carried his own bed, and after they had all the sport they wanted they put their beds down on the floor in a circle, with their feet to the fire, and slept like a mouse in a mill. They were generally very sociable and friendly with each other, but I mustnote one thing just here: Two of the boys met at David Barnett’s, some three miles east of Hancock, and got into a dispute, which was not often the case. Elias Meek and Abner Benley were the two. Meek was for fight, Benley was for peace. But Meek pushed on Benley and Benley run, but Meek caught him. Then Benley knew he had to fight, and turned on Meek and gave him a wonderful thrashing, so that he was not able to drive his team for some time. And now with regard to getting up and down the hills. They had no trouble to get up, but the trouble was in getting down, for they had no rubbers then, and to tight lock would soon wear out their tires. They would cut a small pole about 10 or 11 feet long and tie it to the bed with the lock chain and then bend it against the hind wheel and tie it to the feed trough, or the hind part of the wagon bed, just tight enough to let the wheel turn slow. Sometimes one driver would wear out from 15 to 20 poles between Baltimore and Wheeling. Sometimes others would cut down a big tree and tie it to the hind end of the wagon and drop it at the foot of the hill. When there was ice, and there was much of it in winter, they had to use rough locks and cutters, and the wagon would sometimes be straight across the road, if not the hind end foremost. The snow was sometimes so deep that they had to go through fields, and shovel the drifts from the fences, and often had to get sleds to take their loads across Nigger Mountain, and on as far as Hopwood. Those of us who had to go through the fields were three days going nine miles. This was in the neighborhood of Frostburg, Md. There were no bridges then across the Monongahela or the Ohio rivers. Wagoners had to ferry across in small flat-boats, and sometimes to lay at the rivers for some days, until the ice would run out or the river freeze over. A small bridge across Dunlap’s creek, at Brownsville, broke down with one of the pike boys and did a great deal of damage. Sometimes a barrel of coffee would spring a leak and the coffee would be scattered along the road, and women would gather it up and be glad for such a prize. The writer has scattered some in his time. Some of the old citizens of Uniontown, no doubt, well remember the time, when scores of poor slaves were driven through that place, handcuffed and tied two and two to a rope that was extended some 40 or 50 feet, one on each side. And thousands of droves of hogs were driven through to Baltimore, some from Ohio. Sometimes they would have to lay by two or three days on account of the frozen road, which cut their feet and lamed them. While the writer was wagoning on the old pike, the canal was made from Cumberland to Harper’s Ferry. The pike boys were bitterly opposed to railroads and so were the tavern keepers. The writer heard an old tavern keeper say “he wished the railroad would sink to the lower regions.” That great phenomenon that occurred the 13th of November, 1833, or, as it is often called, the Shooting stars. That circumstance caused a great deal of excitement. Some became very much alarmed, and it was reported that some went crazy, and thought the world was coming to an end. The writer was at Hopwood that night with his team and wagon. The phenomenon was also seen in Ohio. It was reported in Ohio that there was a box of money hid on the old Gaddis farm, near the pike, about two miles west of Uniontown, supposed to have been hid there by Gen. Braddock. It was sought for but never found. The taverns we mostly put up at in Baltimore were the Maypole, on Paca street, south of Gen. Wayne, and at Thomas Elliott’s, near the Hill market; and where we mostly loaded our goods was at J. Taylor & Sons and at Chauncey Brook’s, on Baltimore and Howard streets. Our first day’s drive out of Baltimore was 19 miles, to Enoch Randall’s, or 20, to John Whalon’s. The second day to Frank Wathers—who could almost outswear the world. And one thing more: Before this writer became a pike boy he plowed many a day with a wooden mold-board plow, and after being engaged on the road for about ten years, he left the road and went to Ohio, and then made a public profession of religion and united with the Baptist church. In conclusion, will say to make as good a history as you possibly can, and I hope you shall be well rewarded for your labor, and above all never forget your Creator, as in Him we live, move and have our being.

David Church was an old wagoner, a native of Wheeling, and when the old pike ceased to ring with the clatter of travel and trade, he purchased a farm in Wharton township, near Farmington, Fayette county, Pa., took up his residence thereon, and died a mountain farmer. He was a large, fat man, of ruddy complexion and reddish hair. The leader in his team was of a dun color, and as it approached the old taverns and the big water-troughs, was recognized as the team of David Church by the color of the leader. Charley Rush often invited Church to take a chair and be seated when he visited the store at Farmington, but he invariably declined, remarking that he could rest as well standing as sitting. He felt like nearly all the old wagoners, that his occupation was gone when transportation ceased on the old road, and could never fully adapt himself to the new order of things.

JOHN SNIDER.

In the year 1842 John Snider hauled a load of butter from Wheeling to Washington, D. C. The owner of this butter was a man by the name of Oyster, a butter dealer of Wheeling. He could have shipped his butter from Cumberland to its destination by rail, as the Baltimore & Ohio road had just then been finished to Cumberland; but his animosity against railroads was so deep-seated that he engaged Snider to haul it all the way through with his big team. On his way to Washington with this load he struck off from the National Road at Frederick City, Maryland. He reached that city on Christmas night and “put up” at Miller’s tavern. The guests of that old tavern danced all of that night, and early in the morning of the day after Christmas, Snider “pulled out” on a strange road forthe city of Washington with his load of butter. He was three days on a mud road between Frederick and Washington, but, nevertheless, delivered his butter in “good condition” to the consignee. This butter was bought up in small quantities in the vicinity of Wheeling for ten cents per pound, and Snider got two dollars and fifty cents per hundred pounds for hauling it to Washington.

William Ashton, a well-known old wagoner, was an Englishman by birth. He was also an old tavern keeper. He was noted for his mental vivacity, and for his achievements as an athlete. At Petersburg he once bounded over the top of one of the big road wagons with the aid of a long pole. He kept a tavern at Funkstown, seventy miles west of Baltimore, and was largely patronized by wagoners. While keeping tavern he had two teams on the road in charge of hired drivers. This was as early as 1835. His drivers were Samuel Kelly and William Jones, and they hauled goods from Hagerstown, Maryland (then the terminus of the railroad), to Terre Haute, Indiana, and to Springfield, Illinois, involving a trip of four months duration, and the compensation was six dollars per hundred pounds.

John Bradfield was one of the most prominent old wagoners on the road. He was the general agent of the first transportation company on the road. He was also a tavern keeper. He kept the brick house west of, and a short distance from, Petersburg, and owned it. He was a native of Virginia.

Frank Bradfield, son of John, before mentioned, was also a wagoner. Fifty years ago, when but a boy, he drove one of his father’s teams to Baltimore, “pulled up” on the wagon yard of the old Maypole tavern, in that city, attended to his team, remained over night, and the next day mysteriously disappeared. Search was instituted, but he could not be found. He had enlisted as a soldier in the regular army. His friends thought he was dead. He served through the Mexican war, and yet his relatives knew not of his existence. When that war was over he stepped one morning from a steamboat to the wharf at Brownsville. Nobody recognized him. He took a seat in a coach at Brownsville, and in a few hours thereafter entered his father’s house, near Petersburg. He called for supper and lodging, and the person he addressed was his father, who did not recognize him, and to whom he did not make himself known. Supper was announced, and his father showed him to the dining room and withdrew. His mother, who was attending at the table, immediately after he was seated, recognized him, and fell fainting in his arms, and there was joy in that household, although inaugurated by a great shock. Frank Bradfield subsequently became a clerk in the Adams Express Company, and entered the Pittsburg office when it was first established in that city, and remained in its service until his death, a few years ago. He has a brother at this time in the office of the Adams Express Company at Pittsburg, where he has been employed for many years, and esteemed as a faithful and efficient clerk.

William Hall was a fine specimen of the old wagoner in thepalmy days of the road—a regular of regulars, zealous in his calling, and jealous of his rights. Robert Bell, the quaint old wagoner before referred to, was his uncle and his friend, who, it is said, rendered him substantial aid in securing a foothold on the great National highway. There was a certain kind ofesprit de corpsamong the old regular wagoners, and William Hall possessed it in a high degree. He was well attired, and clean in person and conversation. He was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, and his first appearance on the road was in the year 1838. He was a great admirer of Thomas Corwin, and was in Ohio with his team on the day that old-time statesman and orator was chosen Governor, a circumstance he frequently referred to in after years with feelings of pride and pleasure. He married a daughter of Aaron Wyatt, and granddaughter of Major Paul, old tavern keepers, and this formed a silken cord that bound him to the destinies of the old pike. In the declining years of the road he became a stage proprietor, and in conjunction with Redding Bunting (not a stranger to these pages), operated a line of coaches between Cumberland and Washington, Pennsylvania. This line had nothing of the whirl and dash of the older lines of coaches. When wagons and stages ceased to enliven the road, William Hall located in Cumberland, and is living there at this time, one of the leading citizens of that place. Soon after he cast his lot in Cumberland he was appointed Superintendent of the Maryland Division of the road by Governor Hicks, and served in that office for a number of years previous to the late war. He had a brother, Robert, who was also an old wagoner, and subsequently, and for several years, a postal clerk on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad between Cumberland and Pittsburg.

Henry Puffenberger, a “regular,” given to blustering, but not a vicious man, and Jacob Breakiron, a “sharpshooter” and a fat man, met one day on the road and indulged in a wrangle about the right of way. Strings of fresh broken stone on either side of the road, as was often the case, left but a narrow passage where the meeting occurred, and this led to the difficulty. “Old Puff,” as he was called, demanded of Breakiron, with an air of authority, that he should “turn out.” Breakiron declined to obey, and showed a determined spirit of resistance. After an exchange of angry words Puffenberger inquired of Breakiron his name, and he answered, “my name is Breakiron.” “That,” said Puffenberger, “is a hard name, but you look harder than your name.” “I am as hard as my name,” said Breakiron, “and what is your name?” “Puffenberger,” was the reply. “That,” said Breakiron, “is a windy name.” “Yes,” rejoined Puffenberger, “but there is thunder with it.” After this explosion of wit the contestants compromised, shook hands, and passed without colliding. Puffenberger was a Maryland man, became a Confederate soldier, and was killed in battle. Breakiron was a farmer of Georges township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and died on his farm a number of years ago.

WILLIAM HALL.

Turner Brown, brother of Henry, famous for the big loads he hauled, was an old wagoner. After a number of years’ experience as a wagoner he moved to Ohio and settled in Guernsey county, where he became wealthy and was elevated to the office of Probate Judge. Persons who remember him say he was “pompous” in manner, but honest in his dealings. He was a native of Fayette county, Pa., born and reared in the vicinity of Brownsville, and of the family of Browns prominently identified with the National Road in its early days. He had a number of sons, three of whom—Samuel, Turner and Levi—were Union soldiers in the late war. Another, Thomas, published for a timeThe Ohio Farmer, at Cleveland; and another, William, took to theology, and is engaged in missionary work in some remote quarter of the globe.

Joseph Lawson was, like his fellow teamster, John Galwix, considered a fancy wagoner. He took pride in his calling, and his team consisted of six stallions, well mated and of gigantic size. The gears he used were the very best of the John Morrow pattern, and his “outfit” attracted attention and evoked words of praise from the throngs that lined the road in that day. There was a regulation tread and an air about the old wagoner, especially of the regular line, that rose almost, if not altogether, to the standard of dignity.

Jeff. Manypenny was an old wagoner, and a son of the old tavern keeper of Uniontown, referred to in a subsequent chapter.

Joseph Arnold is said to have hauled the first “eighty hundred load” ever hauled on the road, and it gave him great fame. It was in 1837.

Joseph Sopher tried the experiment of using nine horses in his team, driven three abreast. It did not prove practicable or profitable, and he soon abandoned it and returned to the ordinary six-horse team. There were four Sophers on the road and they were brothers, viz: Joseph, Nimrod, Jack and William, and they were stage drivers as well as wagoners.

Robert Beggs, an old wagoner, prosecuted Jacob Probasco for perjury. The prosecution grew out of an affidavit made by Probasco alleging that Beggs, who was indebted to him, was about to remove his goods from the State with intent to defraud his creditors. This prosecution gave Probasco much trouble and involved him in considerable expense, and is said to have been the cause of his removal from Fayette county, Pennsylvania.

Thomas Gore was one of the first wagoners on the road, and a regular. He lived in Hopwood when that village was known as Woodstock. He drove a “bell team,” and owned it. He was well known all along the road, but it is so long ago that but few of the pike boys of this day remember him. He gave up wagoning long before business ceased on the road, and settled in Franklin township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he died thirty years ago. Robinson Addis, a well known and much esteemed citizen of Dunbar township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, married a daughter ofThomas Gore; and a grandson of the old wagoner, bearing the name Thomas Gore Addis, is one of the trusted and trustworthy superintendents of the H. Clay Frick Coke Company, with headquarters at Brownfield Station, on the Southwest Railway.

John Whetzel, called “Johnny,” a regular old wagoner, was small in stature, quiet in disposition, and of swarthy complexion. He talked but little, rarely using a word beyond the size of a monosyllable, and was well known and highly esteemed all along the road. When the career of the road as a great National highway ended, “Johnny” Whetzel retired to a farm in Saltlick township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he still lives, bending under the weight of many years, but enjoying the confidence and respect of all his neighbors.

JOHN WALLACE.

Old Wagoners continued—The Harness they Used—John Morrow a maker of Harness—Capt. Elias Gilmore encounters a Man Eater—Perry Gaddis, William G. Patterson, Alfred Bailes, the Scarboroughs and McLaughlins—Hill, who respected Sunday—James Riley and Oliver Pratt, Robert Carr, Robert Allison, David Herr, William Keefer, Abram Beagle, Samuel Youman, Robert Cosgrove, James Brownlee, John Collier, Darius Grimes, Fielding Montague, James Smith, Elisha Maxon, Jacob Marks, Thomas Starr, Thomas Hastings, Henry Foster, John Smasher, Maj. Jesse B. Gardner, McWilliams, Pixler, Riley and Hankins.

John Morrow, of Petersburg, mentioned herein before as a manufacturer of the wagoner’s whip, was likewise a saddle and harness maker, and had the reputation of making the best harness on the road. He was a man of thin visage and energetic habit.

Gears was the name old wagoners applied to harness. The gears used on the team of the regular wagoner were of immense proportions. The back bands were fifteen and the hip straps ten inches wide, and heavy black housing covered the horses’ shoulders down to the bottom of the hames. The traces used were iron chains with short and thick links. It required a strong man to throw these heavy gears on the back of a big horse. Heavy and broad as they were, these gears were not out of proportion to the large fat horses of the old teams, and looked well on their broad and shining backs. The wagoner’s saddle was unique. It was made over an ordinary wooden model, covered with thick, black leather, and had long and wide skirts or aprons, cut straight on the edges and ends. Daniel P. Gibson, the well known capitalist of Uniontown, learned the trade of saddle and harness making with John Morrow in Petersburg, and worked many a day on the big gears and odd saddle, above described.

Capt. Elias Gilmore was not strictly an old wagoner, but a pike boy to all intents and purposes, yet his home was not immediately on the road. He had a team which he employed for the most part in hauling stones for repairs on the road. He was a contractor, and an energetic one. He was an amiable man, in a general way, but given at times to pugilistic encounters, and it is said that no man along the road could outdo him in a fight. A stage driver once came upon the road who was called “the man eater.” He drove from Uniontown to Mt. Washington on the Good Intent line. Gilmore, hearing of this famous “man eater,” was desirous of meeting him, and calling one day at Mt. Washington, inquired where he was. Upon being introduced, Gilmore said to him: “You are a pretty stout looking man, but I can lick you,” and at it they went, without further ceremony, and Gilmore did lick him. At another time Gilmore was in Uniontown with a load of lumber, and stood his team across the street, which caused John P. Sturgis, who was constable then, to take him to task for obstructing the street, whereupon Gilmore fell upon Sturgis and gave him a tremendous beating, for which he was fined by the burgess. Gilmore was born in Wharton township, Fayette county, Pa., and owned and lived on a farm near “Sugar Loaf,” in the vicinity of Ohiopyle. His wife was a sister of Boss Rush, “the prince of landlords.” Captain Gilmore moved, with his family, to Illinois thirty years ago, and subsequently to York county, Nebraska, where he is still living in comfortable circumstances, a farmer and stock dealer. He long since abandoned the profitless pastime of sowing wild oats, and is esteemed as one of the most respectable and influential citizens of Nebraska. John Rush, a brother of Boss, and brother-in-law of Gilmore, an old wagoner and tavern keeper, went west with Gilmore, and lives near him now, in Nebraska.

Perry Gaddis, who died a few years ago at Dunbar, Pennsylvania, was an old wagoner. His first service on the road as driver was for Isaac Bailey, who kept a tavern near the old red house east of Brownsville, subsequently postmaster at Brownsville, and a member of the Fayette county, Pennsylvania, bar. Gaddis married a daughter of Robert Shaw, an old tavern keeper, and many years ago steward of the county home near Uniontown. She was a schoolmate of the author of these pages, as was also her sister, who became the wife of Robert S. McDowell, another well known pike boy. William D. Beggs, father-in-law of the late Dr. Smith Fuller, blessed be his memory, was our faithful old teacher. Mrs. Gaddis, Perry’s widow, is still living at Dunbar.

[C]William G. Patterson, of Jefferson township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, an old wagoner, has a record worthy of special mention. When on the road he was called “Devil Bill,” and this name followed him to his farm, and adhered to him for many years. To see him now at his ancestral home, bending beneath his four score years and more, gentle in manner and intelligent and entertaining in conversation, surrounded by all the needful comforts of this life, one wonders how he ever got the name of “Devil Bill.” His first appearance on the National Road as a driver was in the year 1820, when he assisted in driving a lot of hogs for his father to Baltimore. It required almost a month to drive a lot of hogs from the vicinity of Brownsville to the city of Baltimore. He made his first trip over the road as a wagoner in 1823, going clear through to Baltimore. The first team he drove was his father’s, but it was not long until he became the owner of a team himself. He was on the road many years as a wagoner. The farm on which he now resides descended from his grandfather to his father, and then to himself. His father died on this farm on Christmas day of the year 1827. His grandfather came out from Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, at an early day.

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