The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-07-23
THE EARLY SETTLERS
IN GARRETT COUNTY
By MRS. T. C. HINEBAUGH

"Flying Camp" in 1777, and was that
same year chosen governor of the
State, serving three years.
Thomas Johnson's wife was Anne,
daughter of Judge Jennings, of An
napolis. His son Joshua settled in Gar
rett county in 1886 on what is now the
johnson farm on the National High
way, east of Grantsville.
Baker Johnson, a brother of the
governor, commanded Maryland troops
during the Revolution.
Joshua johnson surveyed and pat
ented large tracts of land west of Fort
Cumberland.
Joshua johnson, another brother,
was father of Louisa c., who became
the wife of President John Quincy
Adams.
Indian Paths and Trails
l have said that the only means of
communicating with neighbors was
over trails by horseback or walking.
The Indians had many paths through
the woods. They were good, but only
two or three feet wide, and of course
streams had to be waded. Some of
these paths are famous in history.
The rivers soon had canoe-ferries.
Colonists in Virginia and Maryland
tried to build their homes on the
banks of rivers and bays where they
could travel by boats.
In Pennsylvania, Ohio and Western
Virginia pack horses were long used.
Five hundred were counted at one
time in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, going
towards the west. AS the roads were
somewhat better in Pennsylvania than
in other provinces, the use of wagons
increased.
Stage Coach Days
During the Revolutionary War
nearly all the horses and wagons used
by the army came from that colony.
There was developed in Pennsylvania
the Conestoga Wagon-"the finest
wagon the world has ever known"
They came into use about 176O. A
peculiar curve in the bottom made it
specially fitted for traversing noun
tain roads, and for long time was the
highest type of commodious freight
carrier in this or in any other coun-
try. The body was painted a bright
blue and the side boards a vivid red.
The wagon bodies were arched over
with six or eight bows Of which the
middle ones were the lowest; the others
rose gradually to the front and rear,
while over all was stretched a strong
white hempen cover. The horses, from
four to seven in number, were gen.
rally magnificent matched specimens.
Sometimes from twenty to hundred
of these wagons would follow in a
row.
On the old turnpikes great num-
bers were constantly passing. eve
grow retrospectively sentimental over
the delights, aesthetic and physical,
Of ancient stage-coach days."
The first stage coach ran from Phil
adelphia to New York in 1865, and
primitive as it was had been named
"the flying machine"
But the poetry of all travelling ex-
pedients lay in that beautiful and per-
feet expression of natural wild life,
the birch-bark canoe. AS Longfellow
expressed it
"The forests life was in it,
All its mystery and magic,
All the lightness of the birch tree,
All the toughness of the cedar,
All the larches supple sinews,
And it foated on the river
Like a yellow leaf in autumn"
The middle of the century saw the
beginning of the end of coaching days
in all the states that had been colonies,
and in order to exist at all, the old
stage coach had to lumber across the
plains and over the Rocky Mountains
to revivication in the far West.
Acknowledgment is made of the use