The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-05-31

lHCy IOAlONGu lHlS SAINT lIdlI III
their hunting excursions and war
expeditions, retreating over it to
the West before the ever-advanc-
ing, relentless frontier of the white
man. Over this path came the
Anglo-Saxon hunter and trapper,
followed timidly and falteringly
by the home maker, until at last
the tide of immigration, taking
courage, poured i'll a deluge
through the mountain passes into
the land of promise.
To supply the trade demands of
this 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 head
waters of the Ohio, to be displaced
as increasing commerce and traffic
widened the trace into a road by
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 i'm
possible feat of climbing the noun
tains.
Every mile of the old Cumber-
land road is historic ground, con-
secrated by the bleeding feet of
heroic builders. Over il toiled the
young surveyor, Washington,
nursing dreams Of empire in his
prophetic vision. Later, over this
same route tramped the scarlet
coated British grenadiers, led by
the boastful Braddock whose grave
is still green beside the deep trail
cut by the ponderous army wagons
of his ill-starred expedition.
After the Colonies had achieved
their independence the Braddock
road was the pathway over which
the veterans Of the Revolution
plodded painfully to take up even
a greater work in the settlement of
Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana
Virginia's imperial gift 10 the in
FAINT Republic
Discomfort, deep seated and bit
ter, followed the rapid settlement
Of the trans-Appalachian country.
Despised, ridiculed and neglected
by the tidewater patricians in con,
troll of the Federal Government,
the settlers of the Western valleys
turned in almost iusti6iable trea-
son to the support Of the conspir-
aCy Of Burr, involving the pathetic
tragedy of Blennerhassett. An in
dependent republic, or a group of
republics, in the great Central
West seemed a certainty.
At this grave crisis in the affairs
of the young Republic far-sighted
statesmen united in a successful
demand for a great road that would
pierce the mountain barriers and
bind together forever the States Of
the Atlantic seaboard and the vast
empire of the Mississippi valley.
In 1902 President Jefferson signed
the bill for the survey of the ma
tional pike from Cumberland to
the headwaters of the Ohio. The
first contract was awarded in 1871,
and in 1918, the year of its COM
pletion, a flood Of traffic of unex-
pected proportions began to pour
over the new highway The ma
tons first great problem of seces-
sion had been met and solved. In
1925 began the extension of the
national pike from Wheeling to
St, Louis, through the seats Of
government of the States of Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois.
The reconstruction of the old
national road will resurrect in a
measure the vanished glories of
the famous 'stage-coach days when
John Bunting, Jim, Reynolds,
BILLY" Armour, Dave" Gordon,
Jim" Burr and host of other
forgotten heroes of the road han
died the lines over mettlesome
horses with the satisfying con-
seriousness that in popular estima-
ton they divided honors with men
whose names are now imperish-