The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1918-10-04

raw TO MI. Scion, virginia, and ad-
dressed to their Paw Paw friends
through the columns of The True
NOrtherner.
Dear Paw Paw friends.
So many of you have asked us to
write, that it is next to impossible to
write each one a descriptive letter, so
through the True Northerner we will
try to tell of our delightful trip to
old Virginia.
We started from Paw Paw, Monday
morning September 16, going through
Schoolcraft where we found all kinds
of bad roads on our way to White
Pigeon. Here we had dinner with
friends and at three o'clock we start
ed for Fort Wayne via. Sturgis. At
this time rain was falling fast and
evening found us at Huntertown, Ind,
ten miles north of Fort Wayne, max
ing 104 miles for our first day.
Tuesday morning we had good roads
We followed the Lincoln Highway
for a number of miles, but finally
came upon workmen repairing the
road We had to detour, and as it is
hard to follow such roads without a
guide, we simply got lost. We sure
ly must have been misdirected for we
got into mud that almost covered the
axles. Nothing to do but wade in the
mud to put on chains. We finally
pulled out with whole car and spent
the night in Bellefontaine, Ohio.
We reached Columbus about noon
Wednesday. From here we had the
cold National Road" a maccadam
road connecting Columbus and Wash
ington D. c. 1t is one of the oldest
Federal Highways in the country and
was built to connect Washington and
Baltimore with the Ohio River. 1t is
considered the most historic highway
of its length in the v. S. and was
built along the general course of the
original Nemacalin Trail. This road
was travelled by George Washington
and General Braddock in the French
war of 1855. In retreating General
Braddock was killed and hastily
buried in the middle Of the road near
Cumberland. Washington reading a
brief service. His remains were re-
moved a short distance from the pike
and the grave is now marked. by an
| imposing monument.
We found many hills in Eastern
Ohio and Wheeling is sure a "City of
the Hills. We planned to spend
| Thursday night in Uniontown, Pa,
but when we learned of a tourist
hotel six miles out on the National
Road we decided to live in the noun
tains over night. We travelled 5.8
miles to the top of Chestnut Ridge
where Summit Hotel is situated. This
is surely a grand scene. Imagine our
disappointment Friday morning on
finding it raining and such heavy
fog that we could barely see from one
telephone pole to another. We were
brave however, and left the hotel with
lights in order to safely go down the
mountain. AS the day wore on the
fog cleared away but had showers all
day. 1t is impossible to describe this
day in the mountains. The roads
were double track and like a floor,
and all we did was climb one ridge
coast down and climb another. Our
highest elevation was 1900 feet at the
Summit of Negro mountain. The
roads were we'll graded and it seemed
we were always going around a
curve. One had to keep to the right
all the time for sometimes we could
see only few. feet ahead.
The steepest grades on this route
are those over Sideling Hill, east of
Cumberland. There are higher ele-
vations on some other ridges but no.
where on the entire route is there an
ascent of 495 feet in single mile as
on the western slope or a decent of
760 feet in mile and half as on the
eastern side.
Cumberland is the most beautiful
city that we saw. 1t is situated in
the mountains and we entered the city
through Cumberland Narrows. Here
the road is between two rocky noun
tains and is most picturesque.
\ We followed the National Road
from Columbus to Hagerstown, dis
tance of 331 miles. At Hagerstown