West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1902-06-19

kcu ROAD from Wills creek to the
mouth of the Monongahela, now
Cumberland to Piitsburg. Col.
Cresap with his usual judgment
called in an Indian TO assist him.
old Nemacolin. Scharf. says-
"The work was so we'll done, and
the route so well chosen, that Gen.
Braddock with his army, afterward
pursued this route, which thence
forward was called 'Braddock's
road" Scharf adds-"Col. Cresap
was one of the earliest settlers OF
Maryland and without exaggeration,
was one of the most remarkable
men Of his day." 1t should have
been called "Cresap's road" but
perhaps the sad fate Of Gen. Brad
dock. it being the last road he ever
travelled, helped to fix his name
upon it. When the great Irrational
road" the wonder OF its day, was
built across the mountains, it too,
almost exactly followed Cresap's
road. How glad would Col. Gre
sap have been To have look ed upon
the magnificent arches of solid
masonry, across ravines and rivers,
which still testify to the splendid
quality Of the work done, over 60
years ago, and to have looked upon
the streams of travel and the relays
of coaches, changing every twelve
miles, coaches which carried our
earlier Presidents to Washington.
And then to have seen the railroads
with millions of traffic. In laying
out this road Col. Cresap was a
public benefactor, and worked for
posterity and his name for that
should never be forgotten.
Soon after the road was COM
pleted to Pittsburg, the Ohio Com.
pany made a settlement there, at
their own expense. Historians tell
us, the peace supposed to have
been assured by the ''treaty of
Utrecht 1913" was broken con-
stantly, If not consecutively. On
this side of the water, our poor
colonists realized that it was war
off and on, for nearly 100 years.
1t was called variously, "Old French
and Indian war;" King James,
King Williams, Queen Anne's
Braddock's and Dummore's war
but it was all horrid war. Our own
Sherman named it rightly "War
is hell" The sufferings that our
ancestors endured, that we might
enjoy our free, glorious country,
we can never rightly understand or
appreciate. France and England
were ever striving for supremacy.
France spared no efforts to crush
England, and claimed nearly every
thing-and to hold it enlisted the
savages as her allies, measure
which produced suffering unspeak-
able to our which would
make the blood run cold even in
this July weather to relate. This
We do know, England never would
have conquered France and wrested
from her the Csnadas but for the
colonies who Loyalty stood by her.
and enable her to hear the shou,
| they hy, they hy," at the scige
of Quebec.
England's grant, of 600, 600 acres
of land to the "Ohio Company
("on the south side of the Ohio
River, between the Monongahela
and Kanawha rivers, and west OF
the Alleghenies,,), reopened the
struggle. BY the charter the Ohio
Company was to select its lands
Immediately Soon after the Com
pany made its settlement at Pitts
burg, the French with 1000 men
fell upon the defenseless works and
took them, and called the place
Fort Duquesne. april 1880
Then they seized and pillaged the
trading posts of the Ohio Company
ali along the frontier, and reused
the savages against the English
colonist. 1t was then, that Gov.
Dinwiddic of Virginia, sent Wash
ington TO the "Commandant a,
Pittsburg to demonstrate with him
and TO demand the evacuation OF
the territory (Oct. 81, 1880 The
demands Of Virginia, delivered by
Washington were not granted.
Nothing was left but war.
Gov. Dinwiddie then summoned
together, the"House of Burgesses, -
and sent note to the British Sec.
rotary of State, Earl Of Holderness)
"stating the precarious, and dan
gerous condition of the western
frontier" as the western part OF
Maryland, Virginia and Penns,l.
vanis was then called. He also
issued circular letters to all the
English colonies, "to repel by force