Local Wagoners.-
Samuel Jackson, known in the early history of Cambridge as "General" Jackson, was the best known local wagoner. He came into Guernsey county when the National Road was being built, and assisted in the construction of the old wooden bridge across Wills creek, and the tone bridge that spans Crooked creek west of the city. Deciding to locate here, he built a log cabin south of the creek and began wagoning, a business he followed until the railroad came paralleling the National Road, affording a cheaper and quicker means of transportation.
The coming of the railroad brought death to long hauling on the National Road. The old wagoners, shorn of their patronage, regretfully retired from the business. This was not done, though, without an expression of bitterness, put thus by one in the form of doggerel verse:
- "Oh, it's once I made money by driving my team, But now all is hauled on the railroad by steam; May the devil catch the man that invented the plan, For it's ruined us poor wagoners and every other man."
- Isaiah Parlett, who lived near Middletown, was an old wagoner belonging to the class of regulars. He carried freight to Baltimore, a distance of several miles. An average drive was fifteen miles a day. It required nearly two months for him to take a load of tobacco to Baltimore and return with manufactured goods. Among the many other Guernsey county wagoners, some of whom hauled no farther than Wheeling, were William Moore, Andrew Moore, Thomas Dunn, William Dunn, Turner Brown, Jacob Holtz and Philip Cowgill.
- Now It Is the Motor Truck.-The wagoners of the National Road had their
- day. They gave way to the railroad. Now, much of the hauling is back on the
- old road again-but by motor trucks instead of Conestoga wagons. Over the
- same hills loads several times as great are carried at a speed ten times as great.
- What would the old wagoners think if they were here to see it?
- Drovers on the National Road
- Stagecoach drivers, wagoners and drovers-these were seen daily on the
- National Road before the advent of the railroad.
- Stock Was Plentiful.-Drovers bought stock from the farmers and took it
- afoot to the eastern markets. They often paid no more than two or three cents
- a pound for hogs and cattle and a dollar or two for fat sheep. Stock could be
- produced at little expense in the western country. The primitive soil yielded
- great crops of corn and grass. There was mast in the forests, upon which hogs
- fed. The stock was brought to a central point by the farmers and sold to the
- drovers. When a sufficient number of cattle, hogs or sheep had been collected
- the drover started on his eastward journey.
- It was not deemed profitable to drive herds of fewer than one hundred and
- most frequently the number was two hundred or more. Cattle and
- hogs were often driven together in order that the hogs might consume the
- corn wasted by the cattle at the feeding stands. Cattle driven alone moved at
- the rate of seven to nine miles a day; accompanied by hogs they traveled more
- slowly. To drive cattle from Guernsey county to Baltimore took six to eight
- weeks.
- Drovers took great risks because there could be many market fluctuations
- between their buying and selling. Cattle and hogs that were not fat and fit for
- the market upon their arrival were sold to the eastern farmers to be "fed out."
- Droving Crews.-A droving crew consisted of the "boss," who rode
- horseback, and a number of men on foot. The "boss" carried a blacksnake
- whip with a linen cracker on the end, which, when brandished by an expert,
- made a gun-like sound whose meaning the stock seemed to understand.
- Both the "boss" and the members of the crew exercised their voices
- considerably in urging the droves forward, sometimes in terms of coarse
- language that the stock may have understood.
- Members of a drover's crew received fifteen dollars per month, and their
- meals. They were required to walk back for which they were paid at the rate
- of fifty cents for each thirty-three miles, this being considered an average day's
- walk.
- Drove-Stands.-Stagecoaches had their taverns; and wagons, their wagon-
- stands. Drovers had their drove-stands at which were enclosures for the stock
- during the night. Here, too, the stock was fed. At many taverns
- accommodations were provided for stagecoach passengers, wagoners, drovers
- and stock.
- Even before the National Road was built stock was driven through Guernsey
- county over Zane's Trace. M. Cummings, an English traveler, published an
- account of his travels through the western country in 1807. He said he
- overtook a drove of cattle east of Cambridge, that was being taken from the
- neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky, to Baltimore. The cattle were being
- driven by a man named Johnson, and his assistants. Mr. Cummings said the
- drover and his crew stayed overnight at the Beymer tavern, which stood at
- the east foot of the Four-mile hill; that they built a fire and slept in the open
- in order to be near the cattle.
- Dirt Roads Sometimes Preferred.-Although much stock was driven over the
- National Road, many drovers preferred the dirt highways, such as the
- Steubenville road and the Clay pike, especially during the summer and fall
- seasons. The loose stone on the National Road injured the feet of the stock.
- On the other hand the feet of the stock damaged the dirt roads. Cattle in
- droves walked abreast of each other. With almost military precision they
- stepped into the tracks of the ones in front, cutting trenches across the road.
- Only with difficulty could wagons be taken over dirt roads in wet seasons, if
- cattle had preceded them.
- Much stock was driven over the Clay pike through Claysville, Hartford,
- Senecaville, Salesville and Millwood. An old resident of the Gottengen
- community in Richland township once said that he could remember when
- there were very few days that droves of cattle, hogs, sheep, horses or mules
- could not be seen winding around the hill on which he lived, at any time of
- the day he might look. Old residents along the Steubenville road used to tell
- about the many droves of stock that passed through over that highway. But
- all the stock was not driven through Guernsey county over these dirt roads.
- Much Stock Was Driven on National Road.-Drovers were required to pay toll if they traveled the National Road. To take stock through a toll gate in 1832, one had to pay five cents for each score of sheep or hogs, ten cents for each score of cattle, and three cents for each horse or mule in droves. Seth Adams was superintendent of the road between Zanesville and Wheeling. He reported that during the year 1832, toll was paid for the following: horses and mules in droves, 16,750; sheep, 24,410; hogs, 52,845; and cattle, 96,323.
- Like the stagecoach drivers and the wagoners, the stock drivers lost their jobs when the railroad came. Instead of drovers, a class of men known as stock buyers came on the scene. Cattle, hogs and sheep were loaded into stock cars and carried quickly through to the eastern markets. Now we see these animals passing through on the National Road again, not on foot, but in motor trucks especially built for their transportation.