Ohio History Journal

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NORRIS F

NORRIS F. SCHNEIDER

 

 

The National Road:

Main Street of America

 

 

 

 

A way to the West-where was the best route?

George Washington pondered that question anew in September 1784 as he sat in a

land agent's cabin near present-day Morgantown, West Virginia. Gathered about

him were settlers from that near-wilderness area on the Cheat River, who had come

at his request to offer their opinions on the best route for a portage between the up-

per waters of the Potomac and a tributary of the Ohio River.

Land speculator and visionary as well as victorious general, Washington had long

been concerned with easy access to the trans-Allegheny region. While inspecting

his western Pennsylvania land holdings, he had decided to traverse northwestern

Virginia (now northern West Virginia) to find a passage through the mountains that

would join the two river systems.

Now, while interrogating the Cheat River area settlers on the most satisfactory

land route, Washington was surprised to hear a bold young surveyor in the group

affirm one suggestion with, "There is the best crossing!" Washington frowned at

the interruption, but after concluding the interviews, he responded to the young

man, "You are right, sir."

The young surveyor, Albert Gallatin, was later to help realize Washington's

dream of a route westward, for, as Secretary of the Treasury under President

Thomas Jefferson twenty-two years hence, he administered the congressional legis-

lation for construction of the National Road, the first highway to the West.

It was Jefferson in 1784 who suggested that Washington look for a route to the

West, because both Virginians were apprehensive that New York would forge a link

with the Ohio Valley settlers and pull trade with them to the north.

Not only did Virginia and other seaboard states want this trade, but settlers al-

ready living in western Pennsylvania were demanding access to markets for their

surplus crops. At the same time, thousands of Revolutionary War veterans, who

had been paid for their military service partly in land warrants, were loudly implor-

ing the government to open the territory northwest of the Ohio River to settlement.

Their future produce would also require a route to reach eastern markets.

Washington, who frequently heard these complaints, wrote in his diary of the

1784 trip, "The Western Settlers-from my own observation-stand as it were on a

 

 

Mr. Schneider, longtime resident and teacher in Zanesville, has authored twenty-five books and

pamphlets on Zanesville and Muskingum County in the past forty years. The article was edited by Mari-

lyn G. Hood, editor of special publications at The Ohio Historical Society.