Ohio History Journal

NATIONAL OLD TRAILS ROAD IN OHIO The Old Trails Chapter, Daughters of the American Colonists, Columbus, Ohio, unveiled a bronze tablet on the West Broad Street bridge, in Columbus, on October

5, 1927. Mrs. W. C. Moore, Regent of the Chapter, pre- sided and Mayor James J. Thomas made introductory remarks. Mrs. Lewis C. Laylin, of Columbus, State Historian of the Daughters of American Colonists, gave a short history of the road in Ohio, and Mrs. Frank C. Martin, State Regent, unveiled the tablet, which was (143)

• 1
 

144       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

accepted by Judge John King, on behalf of the city, and

by H. E. Barthman, chairman of the Board of County

Commissioners of Franklin County, on behalf of the

county. October 5, being the 102nd anniversary of the

locating of the road by surveyors in Columbus, was

chosen as the date for the ceremony. A luncheon by

the Chapter at the Neil House, the old stage-coach tav-

ern, preceded the ceremony.

On the occasion Mrs. Laylin spoke as follows:

On the 5th of October, 1825, Jonathan Knight, engaged in

locating the road from Zanesville westward, arrived in Columbus

at the head of a corps of engineers, among whom was Joseph E.

Johnston, afterward one of the most distinguished generals of

the Confederate Army. The Ohio State Journal of that date

announced that "Knight would return to Zanesville and divide

the line he had located into half-mile sections, and make esti-

mates of the probable cost of construction." The line was prac-

tically a straight one, going about seven miles south of Newark

and 14 miles north of Lancaster, and it was mostly level except

in the hilly country near Zanesville.

During the summer of 1826, Engineers Knight and Weaver,

with their assistants, completed the permanent location of the

road as far as Zanesville and made a preliminary survey of the

line from Columbus west to Indianapolis. As to this part of

the road, the Ohio State Journal says, "The adopted route leaves

Columbus at Broad Street and crosses the Scioto River at the end

of that street on the new wooden bridge erected in 1826. Thence

it passes through the village of Franklinton and across the low

grounds to the bluff which is surmounted at a depression formed

by a ravine at a point nearly in the prolongation of Broad Street.

Thence by a small angle to the bluffs of Darby Creek and thence

by nearly a straight line through Deer Creek barrens, across that

stream to the dividing grounds between the Scioto and Miami

Rivers, and thence down the valley to Beaver Creek."

The criticisms that arose in the choice of routes through

Licking and Franklin Counties caused considerable delay in the

progress of the work and seem to have assumed a political

aspect. In September, 1827, Mr. James Kilbourne, then a candi-

date for Congress, announced that "as to the location of the

National Road from Zanesville to Columbus, he was decidedly

in favor of the straight and direct route through the town of

• 2
 

National Old Trails Road in Ohio         145 Hebron." Efforts were made to have the General Assembly declare its preference for rival routes, but they failed. The controversy being settled, the Hebron route was chosen, and in July, 1830, the superintendent of construction gave notice that he would receive bids in Columbus for grubbing, cleaning and grading that part of the National Road from Columbus to Big Darby, a distance of twelve miles, and for constructing the

bridges, culverts and other necessary masonry for the above space, also the same for 26 sections of one mile each east of Columbus extending to the Ohio Canal." Fourteen miles of the road westward from Columbus were put under contract about the same time, the first three miles to be graveled. An act of Congress, passed June 24, 1834, appropriated $200,000 for continuing the road through Ohio, and the same amount for Indiana and Illinois. This Act further provided that, as soon as completed, the finished portions of the road Vol. XXXVII--10.

• 3
 

146       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

should be surrendered to state control and make no further claim

upon the United States Treasury. The total length of the road

in Ohio was 320 miles, but that portion between Springfield and

Indianapolis was uncompleted when it was surrendered to the

State.

". . .The National Road, when completed, appeared like a

white riband, meandering over the green hills and valleys. It

was surfaced with broken limestone, which, when compacted by

the pressure of heavy wagons, became smooth as a floor and,

after a rain, almost as clean. Wagons, stages, pedestrians, and

vast droves of cattle, sheep, horses and hogs crowded it con-

stantly, all pressing eagerly by the great arterial thoroughfare --

for there were no railways then -- to the markets of the East.

Westwardly, on foot and in wagons, traveled an interminable

caravan of emigrants or 'movers,' as they were commonly called,

whose gypsy fires illuminated at night the roadside woods and

meadows. For the heavy transportation, both east and west,

huge covered wagons were used, built with massive axles and

broad tires, and usually drawn by from four to six, and some-

times eight horses. The teamsters who conducted these 'moun-

tain ships,' as they were known in the Alleghanies, were a peculiar

class of men, rough, hearty, whiskered and sunburned, fond of

grog, voluble in their stories of adventure and shockingly pro-

fane. Their horses were sturdy roadsters, well-fed, shod and

curried, and heavily harnessed as became the enormous burdens

they had to draw. When on duty, each of the animals in the larger

teams bore upon its hames a chime of from three to six small bells,

which jingled musically and no doubt cheered the sweating toilers

at their task, while the groaning wain rolled slowly but steadily

up hill and down. . . .

The road was frequented by traders, hucksters, peddlers,

traveling musicians, small show-men, sharpers, tramps, beggars,

and odd characters, some of whom made periodical pilgrimages

and were familiar to the wayside dwellers from Columbus to

Cumberland."*

To Columbus, as to many other towns and cities along the

line, the opening of this great thoroughfare was an event of great

importance and a commercial revolution. To this splendid enter-

prise and to the statesmen who conceived it, Ohio and her capital

owe an incalculable debt both material and moral. The National

Road flourished until the railway era dawned and then began its

decay. On April 6, 1876, the General Assembly passed an act

surrendering the road to the care of the counties, and on Octo-

* Lee, Alfred E., History of the City of Columbus, Vol. I, p. 327.

• 4
 

National Old Trails Road in Ohio         147

 

ber 23 of the same year, the city of Columbus assumed the care

and control of it within its corporate limits.

The Ohio National Stage Company operated hundreds of

stages on the western division of the road with headquarters in

Columbus. Mr. William Neil was one of the magnates of this

company and the old "Neil House," named for him, was its

Columbus headquarters. The "Four-Mile House," west of Co-

lumbus, near Camp Chase of Civil War fame, was built on this

road later in the century. Mr. Frank C. Martin, of Columbus,

was born in this house.

"The first tavern built in Columbus was opened in 1813, and

in 1816 it bore the sign 'The Lion and the Eagle.' After 1817,

it was known as the 'Globe.' The 'Columbus Inn' and the

'White Horse Tavern' were other early Columbus hostelries.

'Pike's Tavern' was opened in 1822 and the 'Golden Lamb' in

1825. The Neil House was opened in the 'twenties'--and was

the best-known early tavern in the old coaching days in Ohio."*

The time required to go from Washington to Columbus was

451/2 hours and the fare seven dollars. The traveler will notice

still the mile-posts that mark the great road's successive steps.

Those on the eastern portion of the road are of iron, while those

on the west are mostly of sandstone and the markings on them

are still quite legible.

* Hulbert, A. B., Historic Highways, Vol. X, p. 163.

• 5