The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-09-18
ITS DEPARTED GLORY.
Suggestion That the National Road
Be Taken In Hand By the
Government
MADE BY CHIEF OF ROAD BUREAU.
If This Is Done the Old Highway Will
Again Assume Her Place As the Best
Constructed Road In the World and
Her Usefulness Re-established.

sam contained the following editorial
which will be read with interest by
everyone in this section of the coun-
try:
THE Good Roads Convention held
at Cumberland recently and the sug-
gestion there made by the Chief of
the United States Road Bureau that
the old National road should again
be taken in hand by the Federal
Government recalls the history of the
most interesting highway in the
United States. Its glory has long
since departed, and the service for
which it was constructed is now per-
formed by a number of railways. That
service was to provide an avenue for
travel and traffic between the Eastern
seaboard and the Valley of the Missis-
sippi. The original design was to
build the road from Cumberland to
Wheeling At Wheeling the traffic
was transferred to boats on the Ohio
river. East from Cumberland the
road was building by series of cor
porations chartered by the State of
Maryland, with money subscribed
mainly by the State banks. Each
bank as it received it's charter was
obliged as condition to invest GER
tain per cent. of it's capital in the
stock of the turnpike companies, and
for this reason the road was some
times called the 'bank road"
For many years a great stream of
travel and traffic passed over the road
from Wheeling to Baltimore. AS
many as 16 coaches, carrying each
from to 16 passengers, passed each
way daily. There were rival lines
and relays of horses at short intervals
and the speed was as great as 10 or 70
miles an hour, day and night. Many
private carriages and many persons
on horseback were in the ever chang
ing procession. Some of the great
figures in our history passed to and
from on this celebrated highway.
Henry Clay, the father of the road,
and Andrew Jackson, who cut short
its career, went over it from their
homes to Washington and were al
was received wherever they stopped
by throngs of admirers. Those were
the days of hero worship. Over this
road came the famous Indian chief
tain, Black Hawk, on his visit to the
Great Father" Don Antonio Lopez
de Santa Ana rode all the way from
Wheeling to Baltimore in a coach
named Texas His conqueror, Sam
Houston, was also at times passen-
ger, as was Zachary Taylor, William
Henry Harrison and Davy Crockett.
All these statesmen had to be prepar-
ed to receive delegations and to make
speeches whenever they put up for
the night at tavern. The freight
over the road consisted mainly of ba-
con and flour brought east to Balti-
more in cline wagons" ponderous
fculClCS Will hlhll "hCClo ~ 1OCu LIS
and drawn by four or six horses. They
returned with loads of dry goods,
groceries and other commodities for
the stores of the Western States. All
these vehicles and the fiocks of oxen
and sheep which followed each other
in quick succession over the road
caused great demand for accommo-
dations for man and beast, for pro-
visions and forage. The farmers
along the route never lacked a mar
ket for what they raised, and every
few miles there was tavern where a
meal might be had for quarter and
drink of pure corn or rye whiskey
for a ''fip.n AS the Baltimore and
Ohio railroad was pushed westward
the terminus of this traffic shifted
from town to town until the railroad
reached Wheeling, in January 1858,
and the national road ceased to be
anything more than local highway.
SIN his address at Cumberland Mr..
Martin Dodge spoke approVlngly OF
the idea of a transcontinental wagon
road. AS the building of the national
road progressed there was design to
extend it to st. Louis, and it would
probably have reached that city be-
fore the advent of the railroad but
for President Jackson's veto of the
Maysville Turnpike bill, in May 1880,
That veto carried CONSERVATION
throughout the land and blasted
many hopes. The bill provided that
the United States should subscribe to
the stock of a company chartered to
build turnpike road from Maysville
to Lexington, KY, and it's veto was
the announcement that the policy Of