History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf
Friday, and Saturday, and made the time by daylight in four days. On March 10, 1825, Capt. John S. Dugan, proprietor of the Wheeling and Zanesville (Ohio) stage-line, was killed by the upsetting of the stage four miles east of Cumberland. In 1825 the mail stages departed from Cumberland eastward on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at six o'clock in the morning and westward at four in the afternoon, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The fare rates were:
From Baltimore to Frederick $2.00
" Frederick to Hagerstown 2.00
" Hagerstown to Cumberland 5.00
" Cumberland to Uniontown, Pa. 4.00
" Uniontown. Pa., to Washington, Pa. 2.25
" Washington, Pa., to Wheeling, Va. 2.00
Through fare $17.25
April 1, 1839, Thomas Shriver, Daniel Hutchinson, John A. Woert, Alpheus Beall, and William H. Still purchased from James Reeside & Co. all the stage stock running on the National road, and known as the Good Intent and the Pilot lines of coaches. In August the firm adopted the name of T. Shriver & Co.
In 1843, the increasing travel from the east to the west over the National road, from Cumberland to Wheeling and other points, brought out the greatest enterprise in the supply of stages for public conveyance. The different lines were The National Road Stage Company of Stockton & Stokes; Good Intent Stage Company, owned by William H. Still, John A. Woert, Alpheus Beall, and Thomas Shriver; June Bug Line, of Reeside & Sons; Landlord's Line, owned by the tavern-keepers along the line, of whom John W. Weaver, William Willis, Joseph Dilley, and Samuel Luman were prominent stage-men; and the Pioneer Line, between Wheeling and Hagerstown, of Peters, Moore & Co., which was also a favorite line. So great was the cutting of rates that the June Bug Line was forced off the road, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad gave the two old companies an advantage of two dollars per passenger over the Landlord's Line. This led to great excitement and discussions in the press, and finally the two old companies bought out the Landlord's Line, and for the next ten years the National and the Good Intent made large sums of money. The following from the Cumberland Gazette explains the stage competition:
"Delay in Traveling.
"Travelers from Baltimore to Pittsburg should be careful to obtain the best and most convenient route; at least to avoid being detained for non-payment of turnpike tolls, as the gatekeeper at Uniontown refused to open the gate to let the Good Intent and National Road Lines pass for non-payment of dues. The Express Line, in which I was a passenger, being behind, was consequently detained, the keeper refusing to open the gate, and was prevented thereby from arriving at its regular time. Eventually the tolls were paid, and we all passed on. "When a line of stages cannot pay their toll, how is it that passengers are to get on? I should advise all persons traveling this route to take the Express Line from either the city of Pittsburgh or Baltimore. Many passengers can attest the truth of this statement.
" J. Colder, a Passenger.
" Pittsburgh, May 13, 1843."
In July, 1850, a daily line of stages were put on the road from Cumberland to Bedford, Pa. In 1842 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed to Cumberland, in consequence of which the stage business was greatly injured between Cumberland and Baltimore. In 1852 the lines began lessening their facilities, and soon there was no connection by stage with any cities, though stages were sent to neighboring towns, for the purpose of carrying the United States mails and passengers, and until about 1872 they were not entirely suspended. In 1877 the last of the old-line coaches was brought out by some young men to run between Cumberland and the fair-grounds at the time of the exhibition. Dingy, musty, shaky, its ancient symmetry, beauty, and strength could scarcely be traced beneath the moldering hand of time, and in its creaking and groaning, as it went tottering through the streets, one could almost fancy the original of Dickens' admirable ghost story was before him. Mails are still carried to and from Flintstone by hack twice a week, but that has nothing to do with the old lines. In the days of staging two coaches were sent regularly every day from Cumberland by each company, and as many arrived. After the completion of the National road between Cumberland and Baltimore, the old " war road" was abandoned, and as the road was made west of Cumberland, coaches followed it up. Before the present road to Bedford was made, the road that led in that direction look its course over Shriver's Hill. Traces of it are yet visible on the hill-sides at the head of Bedford Street. Another road led through a wild, dismal country to Petersburg, Va., and the drivers and passengers were often startled in the night by the howling of wolves and the cries of panthers. Regular communication was kept up by coaches with Somerset, Uniontown, and Pittsburgh, and at Uniontown a coach-factory was operated for many years. The principal offices of the stage lines were in Baltimore, Frederick, Hagerstown, Cumberland, and Wheeling. The offices in Cumberland were at the National Hotel, corner of Mechanic and Baltimore Streets, and later at Barnum's House (now Weir's Hotel), and the United States Hotel (now the St. Nicholas). The stables of the Good Intent Line were situated on the east side of Center Street, a short distance north of where Harrison Street now is, and just below there Thomas Shriver carried on the business of coach-making in a large factory that he had erected. He furnished the Good Intent Line with all their coaches, but the other companies generally got their supplies from the East. The stables of the other companies were located a little to the southeast of the corner of Baltimore and Center Streets. The establishment of the first line between Cumberland and Wheeling took place in 1842. The time occupied in going from Cumberland to Baltimore, or Wheeling, was about eighteen hours. The horses were changed at the end of every ten or twelve miles, and the drivers relieved at the end of every thirty miles. The coaches were required to leave stations at a certain hour, though they often failed to make their time in bad weather. The Henry Clay (or National) road was kept up west of Cumberland by the government, and east of it, during a portion of the time, the road was maintained by a company.
Among the prominent persons who passed through Cumberland by stage were Henry Clay, Gen. Jackson, Gen. Harrison, Gen. Cass, James K. Polk, and the celebrated Indian chief Black Hawk, who was captured by Gen. Atkinson in a battle near the mouth of the Upper Iowa, in 1832. These were all carried by Samuel Luman. There was but one man employed on the stage-coaches of this section, and he was the driver. The drivers were all provided with a horn (which they blew on arriving at or departing from a station), and were armed with whatever weapons they chose to carry, and they generally chose to carry the best weapons they could get, as it sometimes happened that highwaymen attacked them, and on various occasions the mails were robbed. On Aug. 6, 1834, the United States " express mail," which was in charge of Samuel Luman, was attacked by highwaymen in the heavy pine-forest known by the name of the " Shades of Death," about seven miles west of Frostburg. The highwaymen had built a brush fence across the road, and had then withdrawn from it a short distance. When the coach came up, and as soon as it got between them and the brush, the robbers called for its surrender, but the veteran Luman, lashing his horses, drove safely over the obstruction and escaped. During the whole of the year 1841 two men, named Brady and McCormack, kept up a systematic robbery of the mails carried by the coaches, but they were finally captured, and, McCormack turning State's evidence, Brady was convicted and sent to the penitentiary, where he died.
The appropriation made by Congress for the construction of the National road was a matter of great moment to the people of Allegany County, and perhaps none more highly appreciated its importance than the citizens of Cumberland, as will appear from the following quaint account from a contemporary journal:
"The citizens of the town, on the 21st of May, 1832, in demonstration of their great joy, growing out of the appropriation made by the national government for the repair of the Cumberland road, made arrangements for the celebration of that event. In pursuance of that arrangement, Samuel Slicer, Esq., illuminated his large and splendid hotel, which patriotic example was followed by James Black, Esq. In addition to the illumination, Mr. Bunton, agent of L. W. Stockton, Esq., ordered out a coach drawn by four large gray steeds, driven by Mr. George Shuck. The stage was beautifully illuminated, which presented to the generous citizens of this place a novelty calculated to impress upon the minds of all who witnessed