On the Trail of the Pioneers; Romance, Tragedy and Triumph of the Path of Empire

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1920. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... AND WHEELING GATEWAYS CROSSING THE ALLEGHENIES Now down the mountain's rugged western side, Descending slow, our lowly travelers hied. Deep in a narrow glen, within whose breast The rolling fragments of the mountains rest; Rocks tumbled on each other, by rude chance, Crowned with gay fern, and mosses, meet the glance, Through which a brawling river traced its way, Dashing among the rocks in foaming spray. Here, mid the fragments of a broken world, In wild and rough confusion, idly hurled, Where ne'er was heard the woodman's echoing stroke, Rose a huge forest of gigantic oak, With heads that towered half up the mountain side, And arms extending round them far and -wide, They looked coeval with old mother Earth, And seemed to claim with her an equal birth. --John K1rke Pauld1ng. I. BRADDOCK'S ROAD AND TrfE NATIONAL ROAD Then o'er the hills in legions, boys, Fair freedom's star Points to the sunset region, boys, Ha-ha! ha-ha 1 The movement of population westward through Pennsylvania was not well under way until thousands had trodden Boone's Wilderness Road. Up to a few years before the Revolution, Lancaster, sixty-six miles west of Philadelphia, was thought of as a backwoods settlement, and those who penetrated far beyond it were considered quite venturesome. The few travelers who found their way across the mountains at this early day had their choice of a route south to Baltimore, then up the Potomac river to Fort Cumberland, and from there by the Wills Creek road, or, as it was known after 1755, Braddock's Road. George Washington, when a colonel of the Virginia Militia, toiled along this road. Of the journey he wrote, The great difficulty and the labor that it requires to mend and alter the road prevent our marching above three or four miles a day. This road ...