The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1904-07-07

The Eastern tourist to the Worlds
Fair over the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad will travel amid scenes
where history was made, and along
the route of the pioneers to the West
long before the days of railroads, for
the old National wagon road was but
the predecessor of the Baltimore and
Ohio steam route. Indeed. the wagon
route demonstrated to those Balti-
more pioneers of another generation
the absolute necessity of a steam
route to the West in order that Balti.
more might open up travel and trade
with the West. 1t was the steam
road, and The possibilities of wealth
which it, opened, that attracted to
Baltimore from their New England
homes. Peabody, Pratt and host of
others who have done so much to
build up the metropolis of Mary
land.
When a Marylander is whirled over
the b. & O. through the fertile lands
of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and
when he views the cities and thriv-
ing towns, and when he contemplates
the broad fields of waving wheat, he
little realizes how great part his
state played in the opening of those
Western states to settlement. 1t was
Maryland's representatives, in the con-
stitutional convention who stood out
against an acceptance of the docu-
ment framed by that body until the
vast unknown aud unexplored North
west, then a part of Virginia, had be-
come part of the national govern
ment, to be allotted to settlers, to
those who had borne the brunt of the
Revolutionary War and who had not
received compensation. All the
lands were not allotted. Thousands
upon thousands of acres were sold
To me it has always remained a
| mystery why Maryland has made no
concert and determined efforts to Sc
cure from the national government
her share of the proceeds of the sales
of these lands. amounting to over
! $10.000.0O0.
Almost within sight OF the Balti-
more and Ohio traveller from Harp
ers Ferry, to Cumberland is the old
trail which Braddock and his army
followed on their Inflated march to
Fort Du Quesne, now the site OF
Pittsburg, where they met the allied
Indians and were almost exterminat-
ed.
At Broadway and Wall streets, in
this city, the cobblestones of civiliza-
ton are the tombstones over the
grave of the great Indian chief Pom
tiac, who waged merciless war against
the British and who led the tribes in
their attack at Braddock's defeat.
| In the Southern hotel where the
| Maryland commissioners to the
Worlds Fair stopped, the visitor will
| view modern structure which stands
on the site of the stockade, the head
quarters in 1869 of st. Ange, the
French colonial governor of Louisiana
at that period. A tablet in the CORR
dor of the hotel marks the burial
place of Pontiac, chief of the Illinois.
James Fenimore Cooper in his tales
of the Prairie and the Pathfinder de-
scribes this great Indian nation.
1t was at Braddock's defeat that
the military genius of General Wash
ington, which wrested an empire from
England was first developed. 1t was
in the war against the Indians and
the French that the colonies became
acquainted with each other, and in
those wars were formed the friend
ships which paved the way to the
rebellion and to the organization OF
the armies which won independence
for the colonies.
In its route to the West the old Ma
tional road wound through valleys
and over hills and mountains. The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad follow
: ed the Valley of the Potomac to es-
cape the expensive grading which any
other route would have entailed.
| wish that | had had time to come
to st. Louis over that old National
road, of which the Frederick pike, be-
ginning at Baltimore, is part. 1t
was along this road that the early
immigrants slowly sought their way
to the Western wilds and prairies. 1t
was along its dusty path that Revo.
lutionary patriots and soldiers with
their families and household effects
! in WAGONS waa rilv nIo6dad THAR uya 4