Ohio History Journal

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442 Ohio Arch

442        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

General Braddock did not live to realize all the evil consequences

which his defeat brought upon the frontiers. The road which he had

opened from the Potomac to within seven miles of Fort Duquesne be-

came again an Indian warpath. In the three years following this battle

it was used by a few small parties of French and many bands of Indians

as an open road to the Potomac, whence they ravaged the English set-

tlements in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. General Braddock's

expedition was a failure. The road which he left through the wilder-

ness proved throughout the war a benefit to the enemy and an injury

to his own countrymen; but in later years as a route for immigrants

coming to settle in the Upper Ohio Valley and afterwards as a com-

munication between the Potomac and the Monongahela, it proved to be

this unfortunate man's most useful and most lasting work.

 

 

Professor C. L. Martzolff, of Ohio University, Athens,

Ohio, gave a most interesting account of the History of "Zane's

Trace." As Mr. Martzolff gave his address without manuscript

we are unable to reproduce it here, but for the benefit of our

readers, we refer them to the article on this subject by Professor

Martzolff published in the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Publications Vol. XIII, pgs 287-331.

 

 

 

THE OLD MAYSVILLE ROAD.

 

SAMUEL M. WILSON.

Lexington, Ky.

In this paper we shall deal exclusively with that part of the ex-

tension of Zane's Trace which is known in history, as it is commonly

known to this day, as the Maysville Road or Maysville Pike.

In its main outlines the story of the old Maysville Road has been

frequently told, and the present writer, with somewhat limited time for

investigation, can hardly hope to do more than embellish with a few mat-

ters of detail the somewhat scanty record.

This Kentucky division of the Maysville and Zanesville turnpike,

leading from Maysville on the Ohio River through Washington, Paris

and Lexington, became famous in that it was made a test case to deter-

mine whether or not the government had the right to assist in the build-

ing of purely state and local roads by taking shares of stock in local turn-

pike companies. Congress, in 1830, passed an Act authorizing a sub-

scription to its capital stock, but President Jackson promptly vetoed the