The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1913-07-17

it crawled,
Through the forest prlmeval, DER hills
granite-walled,
On and up, up and on, till it conquered the
crest
OF the mountains and wound away into the
West.
Twas the Highway of Hope. and the pill
grims who trOd
1t were Lords of the Woodland and Sons of
the Sod;
And the Hope of their Hearts was to win an
abode
At the end-the far end of the National
road.
Up in Allegany county. and especially
around Frostburg and Grantsvllle, where
most of the work is now being done,
there is determined little band of men
who want that road opened. They want
it open because it's there, and because
the farmer wants to get out and let the
world in, and because Frostburg and
the mountains clamor for everything
they're entitled to in the way of init
mate communication with everyone
everywhere They want markets
opened, and they want to smell gasoline
and hear the chug-chug of motors
traversing the country, all in keeping
with the spirit of the times. This road
that made its way over giant hills and
up steep grades regardless of every
thing but the direct line may have to
have a few curves put in it to follow
lines of less resistance, but as it stands
it is a splendid base over a beautiful
route for a cross-country driveway.
Among the men who are urging
everything possible for the rehabilitation
of what was magnificent ruin, none is
more enthusiastic than W. E. Gladstone
Hitchins, of Frostburg, member of the
Road Directors for Allegany county.
He has spent his personal money in
pamphlets without end, researches and
Investigations; has talked and written
and dreamed of it until it is the one
absorbing ambition of his life to see
Maryland's part of the work finished.
The other members of the directors are
Clinton Uhl, of Mt. Savage chairman;
B. F. Middleton, of Twiggtown, and j.
Lydinger, of Cumberland. d. 7. Lee
Fevre is the road engineer.
Speaking of work on the National
road, Mr.. Hitchins said:
THE farmer suffers greatly because
of the bad condition of what should be
one of our best roads. The distance be-
tween Frostburg and Grantsville it IA
miles During the last 10 years six
miles west of Frostburg and half a
mile east of Grantsville have been
built, and two and a half miles east of
Grantsvile have been contracted for
this year and is now being resurfaced.
But even when all this work is done
five miles of bad road will remain.
Nobody knows, excepting we who
are close to the situation, what the i'm
provemeut of this road means to the
farmer, to say nothing of what 1t means
to the tremendous motor traffic of the
of the country. This Improvement will
completely change the conditions of
farming life, and will make existence
happier for the farmers family. Every
piece of good road laid spurs the farmer
to improvements on his own account.
He wants to keep pace, and he begins to
farm on an up-to-date plan. planting
only high-grade seed and raising a cor
respondingly higher grade of everything
he grows. 1t enables him to deliver
what he raises to the market in better
condition, and for that he receives a
better price, which means that his
children can have some pleasure instead
of only work He becomes a pros
porous citizen, bank depositor. on a
large scale contributor of more than
mere vegetables to the happiness of the
world at large.
The farmers are doing what they
can toward the rebuilding of the old
National road, but alone they can do
little. Some of us who believe that
main travelled roads should be improved
first are doing what we can to help
them and to help Frostburg."
G.. G. Townsend, of Frostburg, is an
other man deeply interested in the
IL FnY nc
road engineer for the State and county,
and is familiar with the history of
recent road work at that point. Of
the road and work he said:
This historic road has become of
great interest since the movement to re-
establish it began, and the recent re-
construction west of Frostburg show
what can be done A ride over the road
will give faint idea of the wealth of
beauty lying all through that mountain
Gus country. FrUstburg is a city of
5000 inhabitants, with 3, 600 more with
in a radius of mile, and is right on the
National road II miles from Cumber-
land. Its altitude of 2, 100 feet above
sea level gives delightful summer
climate; the coolest of waters pour
down from Big Savage Mountain; the
town has natural gas, electric lights,
good stores. numerous churches, two
railroads and trolley line, and when the
National road is put through the
interests of Frostburg will be immed-
ately better than doubted
What service Frostburg people are
doing in pushing this project, for the
general public, can best be appreciated
by examining the pictures taken before