Historic Highways of America Volume X Part 5

COACH LINES

WINTER ARRANGEMENT

THE OLD STAGE LINES with all their different connections throughout the state, continue as heretofore.

THE MAIL PILOT LINE, leaves Columbus for Wheeling daily, at 6 A. M., reaching Zanesville at 1 P. M. and Wheeling at 6 A. M. next day, through in 24 hours, allowing five hours repose at St. Clairsville.

THE GOOD INTENT LINE, leaves Columbus for Wheeling, daily at 1 P. M., through in 20 hours, reaching Wheeling in time to connect with the stages for Baltimore and Philadelphia.

THE MAIL PILOT LINE, leaves Columbus daily, for Cincinnati at 8 A. M., through in 36 hours, allowing six hours repose at Springfield.

Extras furnished on the above routes at any hour when required.

THE EAGLE LINE, leaves Columbus every other day, for Cleveland, through in 40 hours, via Mt. Vernon and Wooster.

THE TELEGRAPH LINE leaves Columbus for Sandusky City, every other day at 5 A. M., through in two days, allowing rest at Marion, and connecting there with the line to Detroit, via Lower Sandusky.

THE PHOENIX LINE, leaves Columbus every other day, for Huron, via Mt.

Vernon and Norwalk, through in 48 hours.

THE DAILY LINE OF MAIL COACHES, leaves Columbus, for Chillicothe at 5 A.

M., connecting there with the line to Maysville, Ky., and Portsmouth.

For seats apply at the General Stage Office, next door to Col. n.o.ble's National Hotel.

T. C. ACHESON, _for the proprietor_.

The following advertis.e.m.e.nt of an opposition line, running in 1837, is an interesting suggestion of the intense spirit of rivalry which was felt as keenly, if not more so, as in our day of close compet.i.tion:

OPPOSITION!

DEFIANCE FAST LINE COACHES DAILY

FROM WHEELING, VA. to Cincinnati, O. via Zanesville, Columbus, Springfield and intermediate points.

Through in less time than any other line.

"_By opposition the people are well served._"

The Defiance Fast Line connects at Wheeling, Va. with Reside & Co.'s Two Superior daily lines to Baltimore, McNair and Co.'s Mail Coach line, via Bedford, Chambersburg and the Columbia and Harrisburg Rail Roads to Philadelphia, being the only direct line from Wheeling--: also with the only coach line from Wheeling to Pittsburg, via Was.h.i.+ngton, Pa., and with numerous cross lines in Ohio.

The proprietors having been released on the 1st inst. from burthen of carrying the great mail, (which will r.e.t.a.r.d any line) are now enabled to run through in a shorter time than any other line on the road. They will use every exertion to accommodate the traveling public. With stock infinitely superior to any on the road, they flatter themselves they will be able to give general satisfaction; and believe the public are aware, from past experience, that a liberal patronage to the above line will prevent impositions in high rates of fare by any stage monopoly.

The proprietors of the Defiance Fast Line are making the necessary arrangements to stock the Sandusky and Cleveland Routes also from Springfield to Dayton--which will be done during the month of July.

All baggage and parcels only received at the risk of the owners thereof.

JNO. W. WEAVER & CO., GEO. W. MANYPENNY, JNO. YONTZ, _From Wheeling to Columbus, Ohio_.

JAMES H. BACON, WILLIAM RIANHARD, F. M. WRIGHT, WILLIAM H. FIFE, _From Columbus to Cincinnati_.

There was always danger in riding at night, especially over the mountains, where sometimes a misstep would cost a life. The following item from a letter written in 1837 tells of such an incident:

"One of the Reliance line of stages, from Frederick to the West, pa.s.sed through here on its way to c.u.mberland. About ten o'clock the ill-fated coach reached a small spur of the mountain, running to the Potomac, and between this place and Hanc.o.c.k, termed Millstone Point, where the driver mistaking the track, reined his horses too near the edge of the precipice, and in the twinkling of an eye, coach, horses, driver, and pa.s.sengers were precipitated upward of thirty-five feet onto a bed of rock below--the coach was dashed to pieces, and two of the horses killed--literally smashed.

"A respectable elderly lady of the name of Clarke, of Louisville, Kentucky, and a negro child were crushed to death--and a man so dreadfully mangled that his life is flickering on his lips only. His face was beaten to a mummy. The other pa.s.sengers and the driver were woefully bruised, but it is supposed they are out of danger. There were seven in number.

"I cannot gather that any blame was attached to the driver. It is said that he was perfectly sober; but he and his horses were new to this road, and the night was foggy and very dark."

An act of the legislature of Ohio required that every stagecoach used for the conveyance of pa.s.sengers in the night should have two good lamps affixed in the usual manner, and subjected the owner to a fine of from ten to thirty dollars for every forty-eight hours the coach was not so provided. Drivers of coaches who should drive in the night when the track could not be distinctly seen without having the lamps lighted were subject to a forfeiture of from five to ten dollars for each offense.

The same act provided that drivers guilty of intoxication, so as to endanger the safety of pa.s.sengers, on written notice of a pa.s.senger on oath, to the owner or agent, should be forthwith discharged, and subjected the owner continuing to employ that driver more than three days after such notice to a forfeiture of fifty dollars a day.

Stage proprietors were required to keep a printed copy of the act posted up in their offices, under a penalty of five dollars.

Another act of the Ohio legislature subjected drivers who should leave their horses without being fastened, to a fine of not over twenty dollars.

As has been intimated, pa.s.sengers purchased their tickets of the stage company in whose stage they embarked, and the tolls were included in the price of the ticket. A paper resembling a waybill was made out by the agent of the line at the starting point. This paper was given to the driver and delivered by him to the landlord at each station upon the arrival of the coach. This paper contained the names and destinations of the pa.s.sengers carried, the sums paid as fare and the time of departure, and contained blank squares for registering time of arrival and departure from each station. The fares varied slightly but averaged about four cents a mile.

CHAPTER V

MAILS AND MAIL LINES

The most important official function of the c.u.mberland Road was to furnish means of transporting the United States mails. The strongest const.i.tutional argument of its advocates was the need of facilities for transporting troops and mails. The clause in the const.i.tution authorizing the establishment of post roads was interpreted by them to include any measure providing quick and safe transmission of the mails.

As has been seen, it was finally considered by many to include building and operating railways with funds appropriated for the c.u.mberland Road.

The great mails of seventy-five years ago were operated on very much the same principle on which mails are operated today. The Post Office Department at Was.h.i.+ngton contracted with the great stage lines for the transmission of the mails by yearly contracts, a given number of stages with a given number of horses to be run at given intervals, to stop at certain points, at a fixed yearly compensation, usually determined by the custom of advertising for bids and accepting the lowest offered.

When the system of mailcoach lines reached its highest perfection, the mails were handled as they are today. The great mails that pa.s.sed over the c.u.mberland Road were the Great Eastern and the Great Western mails out of St. Louis and Was.h.i.+ngton. A thousand lesser mail lines connected with the c.u.mberland Road at every step, princ.i.p.ally those from Cincinnati in Ohio, and from Pittsburg in Pennsylvania. There were through and way mails, also mails which carried letters only, newspapers going by separate stage. There was also an "Express Mail" corresponding to the present "fast mail."

It is probably not realized what rapid time was made by the old-time stage and express mails over the c.u.mberland Road to the Central West.

Even compared with the fast trains of today, the express mails of sixty years ago, when conditions were favorable, made marvelous time. In 1837 the Post Office Department required, in the contract for carrying the Great Western Express Mail from Was.h.i.+ngton over the c.u.mberland Road to Columbus and St. Louis, that the following time be made:

Wheeling, Virginia 30 hours.

Columbus, Ohio 45-1/2 "

Indianapolis, Indiana 65-1/2 "

Vandalia, Illinois 85-1/2 "

St. Louis, Missouri 94 "

At the same time the ordinary mail-coaches, which also served as pa.s.senger coaches, made very much slower time:

Wheeling, Virginia 2 days 11 hours.

Columbus, Ohio 3 " 16 "

Indianapolis, Indiana 6 " 20 "

Vandalia, Illinois 9 " 10 "

St. Louis, Missouri 10 " 4 "

Cities off the road were reached in the following time from Was.h.i.+ngton: