The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-20
OLD-TIME J0URNEYING.
How They Used to Travel Before the Day
OF Railroads. Down East

How They Used to Travel Before the Days
OF Railroads. Down East.
AS i was nearing Boston one dav on
the eastern division of the Boston &
Maine railroad, intent on a shopping
expedition, i thought OF an ancestress
who nearly two centuries ago used to
make a pilgrimage for the same pur-
pose We both started from the same
town. near the mouth of the Merrimac
river. but, while I was only an hour
making the trip, tradition says that she
mounted her horse ait her door and rode
for hours without alighting until she
reached NFinnisimmet Ferry (n0w Chel-
seal. a distance eli IS miles.
Then 7 thought Of another OF a later
day, VINO was taken to Boston when
girl Of is, on a pilion behind her father,
10 bug a gown " hieh was to last a life
time. 1T was rich red damasl1. She
had twin sisters two years to a day
younger than she, and when they were
10 years old they were taken on the
same journey to buy blue damask
gowns
From the earliest days, Boston has
been the Mecca to which the women Of
New England have iourneyed when they
had important shopping to do, though
the old seaport places. Salem, Nev bury
port and Portsmouth, were more for
midable rivals than they are now, and
each OF these towns had a very large
country trade
III the early days of the settlement,
travelling was mainly by foot or on
horseback, and for a century at least
after the first settlement the roads were
in very poor condition. The old rec
Ords speak of carts, which were proba-
bly, used to tranar goods. Before the
bridges were built, there were ferries
over the streams which were not fOrda-
bic. People who had no horses walked
long distances. There is a. tradition Of
a woman who wished to sell a frkin of
butter and took 1T on her head and
walked from New bury to Boston. but,
to her disgust she found the price was
less in Boston than at home, 50 she
walked back again, carrying her butter.
Sometimes journeys were made from
one coast town to another by water.
Judge Sewell,in his diary, makes fire.
Quent mention Of trips by boat to the
home of his parents in Newbury- Be
fore the close of the last century there
were public conveyancas from one large
town to another, which at first made
weekly trips and later on as many as
--AA Sc AL A--- fNC-+N 4-e-Alt III -1A1H ~sAA-
tury people began To build turnpilzes in
g direct line from poPulous towns to
Boston. These turnpilzes were consid-
cred great achievements. They were
bUit by private corporations, which ex-
acted toll OF all who drove over them.
unless the carriage in which one rode
was owned i'm the town where the toll
gates We're.
The stages which came into use were
quite imposing They often were
drawn by six horses with fine horse
man on the box to handle the ribbons
OFTEN passengers rode with him, the
better to enjoy the scenery. The huge
baggage wagons which used to trundle
along the highways are among the
memories of my childhood. Big as they
were, i suppose one ordinary train of
freight cars carries more than a dozen
of these wagons. They were seen only
occasionally. but in my young days pas
senger stages made daily trips to points
within so miles Of Boston, with some
what less frequent trips to more. distant
places
cur ancestors, of course, Travelled
much less than we who fly about the
world so quickly. but they were moved
to set forth on great occasions, such as
the buying of damask gown. for shop
ping had the same charm for our grand
mothers as it has for the later daughters
Of Eve.-Boston Commonwealth