Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1881-02-10
OUR PENNSYLVANIA LETTER.
An Old Fashioned Sleigh Ride and
What Came of it.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE HERALD.

| ICORRESPONDENCE OF IKE HERALD.
LATRoBE, Pa, January IL, 1881.
An account of a sleigh ride to most of the
readers of the HERALD, describing this COM
mon amusement in Montana, might be tame
and uninteresting, but if they will bear with
me for while, they may read of sleigh
ride in Western Pennsylvania that will do
they wish to do a big thing, or get their
moneys worth from that most delightful of
all winter recreations. 1t was only a few
days ago when the sleighing was elegant,
and when the uncommon spectacle OF the
noon-day sun was visible, the people Of La
trobe to the number of four score or more
were seen in busy preparation for ten-mile
sleigh ride to the town of Ligonier. At an
early hour the town and streets were enliY-
ened by the merry bells and quick move
ments of impatient horses and rapid drivers,
as they sped from door to door picking up
the neighbors for the jolly ride, which was q
'free to all" and go as you please" to all the
most prominent citizens of Latrobe. Being in
vited, with my better halt, to join in the merry
making, we were not the last to place our
cutter in the line Of procession, which by 10
o'clock had it's head somewhere in the foot
hills Of the Chestnut ridge, with very re-
spectacle following emerging from the var
ious streets of the town. The trip was one
never to be forgotten by those of the party
who seldom see sleigh ride under bright
sun, as we do in the Rocky Mountains. The
day was exceptionally fine, and the weather
mild and calm. The route lay over we'll
beaten track, through the productive farms
of Westmoreland county, where the large
barns and brick houses are as distinctive q
feature of the wealth and thrift of the people
as they are to-day in the counties of Lancas-
ter and Berks
But the ride is what l am coming to; that
was "fast and furious" but affording. time
enough to admire the lofty ridge and the
densely timber-covered approaches, which
with chestnut, hickory and oak, lined its
sides from the margin Of the beautiful Loyal
half the way lay over the grades along the
ridge, where only hundred years ago the
Delawares and Susquehannas trailed their
journeys from the East to the Ohio, and
where in later years our enterprising fore
fathers constructed "pike' for the pioneer
stage coach
THE herald of mighty world
With news from all nations numbering at its back"
The same route over which my own father
in 1885 to 1890, packed salt and sugar-ket
ties, little dreaming Of the saline deposits
that could then have been measured by the
feet Of his pack-horse from the Connemaugh
to the Monongahela, or that he was carrying
Goals to New Castle. The present road over
the Ridge was then the trail that led to the
De-un-daga (The Forks, where Pittsburg,
the great Iron City, (then Fort Duquesne)
was commenced at the forks of Monongahela
and Allegheny, and over which Washington
travelled in 1853, when he found Shingiss,
the King Of the Delawares and Shawanees,
at the mouth Of CHARTERS Creek, and Ali
HAPPe', odOA QuCOu aC tHC Hioull Vi tIlc
Yonghiogheny.
Continuing our sleigh ride under favorable
auspices, with the large party in the best of
good humor, we terminated our run by a
general roundup" at the Glassner House, a
celebrated mountain retreat, kept by Mr..
John H. Frank. The excitement and Jolly
good time occasioned by the unloading of this
huge party Of old and young under the gaze
and remark Of the good people of Ligonier
was no small source of enjoyment to us all,
while the good-natured proprietor, in an &C.
stasy of delight, invited the party to ralk in
up stairs, ladies' rooms to the right, gen.
tlemen to the left. Our great expectations"
heightened by word telegraphed ahead to
the proprietor by W. S. Head, Esq, that
"Latrobe had broken loose and to look out
for u.s." which meant turkeys, buckwheat |
cakes, hot punches, and "sich" like for the |
crowd, were more than realized as we gath
cred around the beautiful and inviting table
prepared for the "goodly companee." After
sumptuous meal, and being excused from
an after-dinner speech, your correspondent
took station outside Of the sign post" to in
terview the oldest inhabitant, who, although
a bachelor, found to be Alexander Glass
ner, Esq, from whom learned that Ligonier
valley, lying between the Blue Ridge on the
east and Chestnut Ridge on the west, eight
to ten miles wide, was indeed historic ground,
over which Colonel Bouquet, good and loyal
officer ofthe British Crown, marched an army
Of twenty-five thousand men against Fort
Duquesne (Pittsburg) in 1853, cutting his
way through the forests as he advanced to-
wards the Loyal Hanna. At this point Col.
Bouquet was attacked by large force of
French and Indians, whom he defeated, and
threw up an entrenchment to protect the
large amount of stores collected here This
earthwork took the name of Fort Ligonier,
named in honor of Viscount Ligonier of En-
son of French Huguenot Com
Chief of the land forces of Great
Britain. 1t was here that the early settlers