The Republican., 1925-07-30
CENTURY OLD NATIONAL
HIGHWAY In OTHER DAYS
Continued from Page Two)


can people what the Rhine is to Ger
many or the Nile to Egypt.
All day long, caravans of cattle.
sheep, horses, mules, oxen and hogs
were visible, driven along its course
Travellers passed on foot and horses.
Now and then, slaves, linked, trudg-
ed by. Coaches dashed along and up
on occasions of national excitement.
candidates for Presidential honors. or
those elected to office, journeyed over
the old pike, leaving personal impress
sions and the echo of their voices as
legacy to rural inhabitants.
In springtime, the circus passed
that way and in midsummer gypsies
pitched their tents and decided" the
matrimonial ventures of men and of
maids by the telling of fortunes.
Statesmen Used Road.
Statesmen and Presidents of the
early period of the republic passed
over the National road-Andrew
Jackson and Clay.
One story beloved of travellers
along the road was of the OCCASION
when Henry Clay, being Spilled 20
the bed of the pike by accident, good
humoredly exclaimed that his driver
was trying to mix the clay of Ken
lucky with the limestone of Pennsyl-
vania.
1t was also said Of Henry Clay that
he could fiddle as well as any musi-
clan along the road.
Sam Houston, the famous Indian
fighter; Davy Crockett, the eccentric
hunter and backwoodsman; Jonathan
Chapman, of the Ohio frontier. pass
ed this way, the latter distributing ap-
ply seeds that won him the name of
receiving or asking any payment
other than food and a nights lodg-
ing.
Yearly lie made pilgrimage . jhe
East, returning with lis bag of ap-
pie seeds that won lin tn ename of
"Appleseed Johnnie and blossomy
orchards that line the old road from
the Ohio to the Mississippi, are his
fragrant and enduring monument.
Presidents Knew Route.
William Henry Harrison, Abraham
Lincoln, John C. Calhoun, Van Buran
Monroe, Polk and Tyler were ali ia
miliar with the old road and contrib
uted to its national fame. Crittenden.
Allen, Scott, Shelby and Butler knew
well the inns along the route.
Charles Dickens, Mrs. Trollop, and
the Emperor MaXimilIian, Of Mexico,
are among those whom tradition as
serts might have affixed their sigma
lures to the guest books of the old
taverns.
In time, points along the mountain
route acquired local names given
them chiefly by the wagoners-Tne
Narrows, The Shades Of Death, Big
Crossing, Piney Grove, Woodcocl, Hill,
Negro Mountain, Chalk Hill, Big Saw
age, Little Savage, Snake Hill, Key
ser's Ridge, Egg Nog Hill, The Tur-
keys Nest, Coon Island and wheeling
Hill.
BraddOck's Road.
The National road should not be
confused with Braddock's road, which
is said to be identical with the trail
blazed by the Delaware Indian Nema-
colin, who marked the way by hack
ing the trees for the military cam
paign into Ohio in 1850.
George Washington, commissioned
Major by Governor Dinwiddie Of Viz
ginia, widened the Indian trail to
transport his small army that defeat
ed the French at Jumonville anu
erected Fort Necessity.
Washington was familiar with this
road (after Braddock road) a year be-
fore General Braddock saw it, having
passed over it with the detachment of
Virginia troops; but Braddock widen
ed the road to twelve feet and then
suffered defeat and the loss of his life
because he ignored Washington's ad-
vice to follow frontier methods OF
fighting in the forest. His grave may
still be seen near Fort Necessity in
the neighborhood of Uniontown, and
is on the North side of the National
road, marked with a granite shaft set
amid a clump of pine trees. The IN
terment of the body of Gen. Braddock
was made in the presence of Washing
ton, who also read the burial service
Opposed Railroads.
The opening Of railroads west of
the Allegany Mountains in 1852,
struck CONSERVATION to the hearts of
those having commercial interests
concentrated in the old Pike, which
from 1918 had been the one great
highway over which passed the mails
East and West and the main trade
and travel.
Gen. Henry w. Beeson, Of Union
town, in opposing the introduction Of
steam traffic in competition with the
Pike, graphically pictured the loss en-
tailed upon those living along the