Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-06-26
Pack Pony Trains.


growing western population in the
early days, long trains of pack ponies
picked their way to and fro over the
old Cumberland trail from the Potomac
to the headwaterS of the Ohio, to be
displaced as increasing commerce and
traffic widened the trace into a road
by the great Conestoga freight wagons
and speeding mail coaches of the early
days of the century, in turn to vanish
when the steam railroad accomplished
the supposedly impossible feat of
climbing the mountains.
Every mile of the old Cumberland
road is historic ground, consecrated by
the bleeding feet of heroic nation build
ers. Over it toiled tie young surveyor,
Washington, nursing dreams of empire
in his prophetic vision. Later, over the
same route, tramped the scarlet-coated
British grenadiers, led by the boastfuI
Braddock, whose grave is still green
beside the deep trail cut by the pom
derous army wagons of his ill-starred
expedition. After the colonies had
achieved their independence, the Brad
dock road was the pathway over which
the veterans of the revolution plodded
painfully to take up even greater
work in the settlement of Ohio, Ken
lucky and Indiana-Virginia's imperial
gift to the infant republic.
Discomfort, deep-seated and bitter.
followed the rapid settlement of the
trans-Appalachian country. Despised.
ridiculed and neglected by the tide
water patricians in control of the Fed
eral government the settlers of the
western valleys turned in almost justi-
fable treason to the support of the
conspiracy Of Burr, involving the pa
thetc tragedy Of Blennerhassett An
independent republic, a group of re-
publics, in the great central west
seemed a certainty. At this grave
crisis in the affairs Of the young repub
lie farsighted statesmen united in A
successful demand for a great road
that would pierce the mountain barrier
and bind together forever the States
of the Atlantic seaboard and the vast
empire Of the Mississippi valley
Scattered along the old road at fire.
quent intervals were the taverns, the
nerve centers of the highway. Many
of them were famous hostelr.es in their
day, but their glory has long departed.
Only few remain. quaint and moss
covered Monuments of the past.
Before the advent of the railroad.
twenty speeding coacnes in a single line
was a familiar spectacle. and the cara
van of huge frelghters, each wagon con-
tanning 6,o00 to 5000 pounds, some
times numbered close to 100
But the time that the life Of the old
highway throbbed in its greatest in
tensity was when a President or a
President-elect passed in triumphant
procession over its dusty stretches. 1t
was the gala day Of the pike boys"
All the taverns and houses along the
route were bedecked in the welcome.
and cheering crowds from miles around
thronged the stopping places and cross
roads. The finest horses and the most
gorgeous coach procurable were as
signed TO the task. and the proud posi-
ton Of "charioteer to the President
was given to the pick of the jehus on
the line. who ever afterw5rd were
marked and noted. Jackson. Van Blu
rem. Monroe. Harrison, Polk and Tyler
passed over portions of the old road
in dignffied Presidential pageant
1t pays to advertise IL this paper.