History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
and there is no tavern in over forty miles. The isolation and wilderness of the region made it a favorite ground of the bushwhackers, where the Union soldiers suffered more than elsewhere during the late war. . . .
" It was intensely quiet and lonely on the mountain. A herd of tame deer browsed about the garden, and once or twice we heard the sound of a wild-cat in the dense wood surrounding. The old farmer talked about the 'pike.' ' The loss of it ain't very bad,' he said. ' When it was at its height all the people along here depended on it for a living, and now they are driv'n to farming, which is much better for them.'
" Cumberland profited largely by the 'pike,' especially when it was the western terminus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, and the point of transfer for passengers and freight going farther west or east.
" A paragraph in the local annals announces that ' the extent of passenger travel over the National road during 1849 was immense, and the reports of the agents show that from the 1st to the 20th of March the number of persons carried was 2586.' Four year later, in 1853. the same annals announce the completion of the railway to Wheeling. 'The effect was soon felt in Cumberland, as most of the stage lines were taken off, and the great business of transferring merchandise at this point was largely diminished.' But while Cumberland was the biggest depot on the ' pike,' when that route was suspended it continued to succeed through other resources, and it is now an active city.
" Among the old inhabitants is Samuel Luman, who was formerly one of the best-known drivers between Wheeling and Cumberland. One night, when he was coming through the 'Shades of Death,' he was attacked by highwaymen. He had an exciting quarter of an hour, which he will never forget, but he escaped without injury to himself or his passengers.
" West of Cumberland the National road proper extends to Wheeling, partly following the route of Gen. Braddock, who has left an interesting old mile-stone at Frostburg. The old iron gates have been despoiled, but the uniform toll-houses, the splendid bridges, and the iron distance-posts show how ample the equipment was. The coaches ceased running in 1853; the 'June Bug,' the 'Good Intent,' and the 'Landlord's,' as the various lines were called, sold their stock, and a brilliant era of travel was ended."
At what date coaches for the conveyance of travelers were introduced is not known, but it was somewhere about the year 1815. The institution, or whatever it may be called, in the beginning was very crude and imperfect. Coaches in those days were called " turtle-backs," on account of the roof resembling that reptile. They were very uncomfortable for travelers, but they were apace with the times. Stages were running between Cumberland and Baltimore some years before they commenced plying from Cumberland west.
The Troy and Concord coaches were very popular in after-times, and were called post-coaches. In their day they were thought to be as grand as Pullman's palace-cars.
The first coach of the Troy pattern was sent from Philadelphia, by James Reeside, in the winter of 1829. It had been won by the owner upon a bet on the Presidential election the previous year, and he intended President Jackson should be the first person to ride in it from Cumberland to Washington, to take his seat. Charles Howell, of Cumberland, was the driver. The President-elect came as far as Cumberland in his own private conveyance, and a poor one at that. No doubt he was pleased with the finest vehicle he had ever seen, but, " By the eternal!" he would not ride to Washington in a free conveyance, no matter how attractive and comfortable it might be. He would be under no obligations to anybody. So his old shabby two-horse carriage not only took him. to the seat of government but back to the Hermitage, eight years thereafter. However, Old Hickory bent so far as to permit a portion of his family to " christen" the coach which had been won on his own election. These fine vehicles were built at Troy, N. Y., and Concord, N. H., and cost about five to six hundred dollars. They were very strong and durable, neatly upholstered inside, with three cross-wise seats, accommodating nine passengers inside and one or two outside with the driver. The springs for years were quite a desideratum among coach-builders. Thomas Shriver, who was largely interested in staging, brought his genius into play and invented the elliptical spring, which was a decided improvement. L. B. Stockton and James Reeside were the pioneers in the business. Farther on came the late Thomas Shriver, then Alpheus Beall, now a resident of Cumberland, and some others of a later day. The fare was about equal to the oar-fare of the present time. There were opposition lines or companies at intervals, and the competition was quite spirited, riding almost free, — precisely like the railroad wars of our days.
In the traveling season it was not extraordinary for one hundred people to be sent west per day from Cumberland in these coaches. Stage-owners made money and grew rich.
The stage-drivers were a jolly set of men, proud of their situation, some of them of more importance in their own estimation than the congressman or cabinet minister riding in the coach below them. They were in some respects picked men, and their places much sought after, — politics no test, religion not expected; a reasonable amount of profanity and a sprinkle of " Piney Grove" no bar to employment. They were expected to be reliable, to possess a good share of knowledge in horse anatomy, and to use the long whip gracefully, but not too much. There are still a few of the veterans of the tin horn left. In addition to Howell we have Samuel Luman, the two Willisons, and Jacob Shuck, all respectable and successful in life, and also John Farrell, of Grantsville, now over eighty four years of age, hale and hearty. He retired from the " box" at least forty-five years ago, and has been a farmer ever since. Cass, Benton, Corwin, Douglas, Bell, and many other statesmen were familiar with this favorite high, way. Four of the eight Western Presidents passed over it in coaches or private conveyances, viz., Jackson, Harrison, Polk, and Taylor.
President Taylor and his party were in 1847 conveyed over the road under the marshalship of that most indefatigable Whig, Thomas Shriver, who with some other Cumberlanders proceeded to the Ohio River and met the Presidential party. Among the party were statesmen, politicians, and office-hunters, notably Col. Bullet, a brilliant editor from New Orleans, who was to occupy a relation to President Taylor something like that of Henry J. Raymond to Lincoln. The road was a perfect glare of ice, and everything above ground literally plated with sheeted frost. The scenery was beautiful; to native mountaineers too common to be of much interest, but to a Southerner like Gen. Taylor, who had never seen the like, it was a phenomenon. In going down a spur of Meadow Mountain the Presidential coach with the others danced and waltzed on the polished road, first on one side of the road and then on the other, with every sign of an immediate capsize, but the coaches were manned with the most expert of the whole corps of drivers. Shriver was in the rear and in the greatest trepidation for the safety of the President. He seemed to feel himself responsible for the security of the head of the nation. Down each hill and mountain his bare head could be seen protruding through the window of his coach to discover if the President's car was still upon wheels. The iron-gray head of the general could almost with the same frequency be seen outside of his window, not to see after anybody's safety, but to look upon what seemed to him an Arctic panorama. After a ride of many miles the last long slope was passed and everything was safe. At twilight the Narrows were reached, two miles west of Cumberland, one of the boldest and most sublime views on the Atlantic slope. Gen. Taylor assumed authority and ordered a halt, and out he got in the storm and snow and looked at the giddy heights on either side of Will's Creek until he had taken in the grandeur of the scenery. He had beheld nothing like it before, even in his campaigns in Northern Mexico. The President-elect was tendered a reception on his arrival at Cumberland, and the next morning he and his party left in the cars for Washington. Tolls were abolished on the National road in 1878. The last stage-coaches disappeared from it about 1870. The venerable Sandy Conner, a veteran stage-driver of forty-five years' experience, can daily be seen perched on his one-horse springwagon, carrying the mail from Frostburg to Grantsville, with an occasional passenger by his side.
From 1818 to 1820, Col. Henry Lewis, of Hagerstown, and Jacob Sides ran a line of stages from Cumberland to Uniontown, Pa. Mr. Sides afterwards became sole proprietor. In 1824, Reeside, Moore & Stockton organized a line of stages to run between Baltimore, Washington, and Wheeling. The stages left Baltimore and Washington at two o'clock in the morning on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and arrived in Wheeling in seventy-eight hours via Cumberland. A special stage left on Monday,