TRAVEL IN THE 1830's
By ROBERT PRICE
Leisurely trips of today have too much
hurry--hurried trips
of a past century had too much leisure!
If Mr. William Fitch
of Schodack, Rensselaer County, New
York, on a business expe-
dition to Licking County, Ohio, in May
and June, 1836, could
have had access to automobile and
macadam, he might have made
the journey and back in four days with
time to spare. Instead,
being forced to utilize canal boat, lake
steamer, stage, carriage,
horse and wagon, packet, ferry and
railroad--all eight--he had
to spend about four weeks. He was
traveling with dispatch too,
for his errand was to purchase a farm,
and he was anxious to get
back at once to set about moving his
family and his effects. His
expense account of the trip, preserved
in the Alexandria, Licking
County, local history records, now
offers an interesting sampling
of characteristic travel routine in Ohio
during the 1830's.1
The first leg of Mr. Fitch's journey
took him from the Hud-
son Valley via Erie Canal and the lake
to Cleveland. His memo-
randum reads:
$16.70 Erie Canal
.50 Breakfast at Buffaloe
10.00 Steam Boat
.75 Breakfast at Cleveland
Having reached the edge of the West, he
planned a few
explorations into the hinterland using Cleveland
as a base, his
object being to locate a purchasable
farm. His first sally took him
down the Ohio Canal a few miles, over to
Hudson, to Shalersville,
to Windham, to Ellsworth, and then back
to Cleveland:
1.00 passage to H. Livingstone
1.00 paid H. Livingstone
1.00 expenses at Hudson
1 Original memorandum in Bryant Papers
(local history records of the Alexandria
Community Council).
(40)
TRAVEL IN THE 1830's 41
2.00 expenses at Shalersville
2.00 for carriage to Windham
3.00 do. do. to Ellsworth
.75 Breakfast at Hudson on road from
Ellsworth
1.50 expenses at Cleveland
Next he traveled west, taking a steamer
to Huron, then the
stage to Norwalk and Sandusky, then back
to Cleveland:
2.00 Steam Boat to Huron
1.00 expenses at Huron
1.25 passage from Huron to Norwalk
1.50 Expenses at Norwalk
3.00 passage from Norwalk to Sandusky
.75 Breakfast at Sandusky
3.50 Expenses at Sandusky
3.00 passage back to Norwalk
.75 Breakfast on road
2.00 Bill at Norwalk
1.00 Paid for team to go to see farm
1.50 Stage fare to Florence
.75 Paid for dinner
1.65 Expenses at Florence
1.87 Stage fare to Elyria
3.00 Bill at Elyria
2.50 Stage fare to Cleveland
1.50 Bill at Cleveland.
Next he took a little time out to visit
relatives in Painesville:
2.50 Stage fare to Painesville
4.00 Bill at Painesville
2.50 Stage fare Back
1.25 Bill at Cleveland
Now he was ready for a long passage into
the interior. The
Ohio Canal was the main thoroughfare to
the heart of Ohio. Mr.
Fitch bought a ticket to Newark. As this
fare included bed and
board on the boat, the only new items to
list for the next few
days occurred at Akron:
14.08 Ohio Canal
.50 Bill at Akron
1.00 Paid for horse & waggon to see
farm
2.00 at Webbsport
42
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Webbsport, where he disembarked, was in
what is now West
Newark. The next farm which he wished to
view, lay along the
Newark-Delaware Road in the rich Raccoon
Creek bottom just
east of the six-year old settlement of
Alexandria. This farm he
purchased, with the following incidental
expenditures:
1.00 for conveyance to Granville from
Newark
.50 for Breakfast at Newark
4.00 Bill at Granville
1.00 for passage Back to Newark
1.75 fees for recording 2 Deeds
.12 Auditors fees for making transfer
The tract he had bought comprised one
hundred ninety-four
and three quarters acres. The two deeds
on which Mr. Fitch paid
the recorder's fees, June 8, 1836,
transferred the property first
from Ira and Betsy Atwood to Ralph and
Hannah Granger, for
a consideration of $2,500, as of July
28, 1835, and then from
the Grangers to William Fitch, for $3,000,
as of June 7, 1836.2
Another owner of the same farm,
twenty-seven years earlier,
had also been involved in a problem of
transportation. One of
Mr. Fitch's predecessors had been so
eager to flee the Ohio wilder-
ness and get back to eastern
civilization, says Joseph M.
Scott's historical sketch of this
neighborhood, that he sold this
farm
to Joshua Lobdell of McConnelstown, Pennsylvania, for a
much smaller price than that paid by
either Mr. Atwood or Mr.
Fitch.3 Lobdell came to the
township in the spring of 1808.
Says Scott:
His settlement in our midst, as well as
his location, was accidental, as
the farm was traded for before they had
even visited the county, by the
wife in the absence of the husband,
under the following circumstances;
a tired, weary, foot-sore traveler came
along who had been to the West,
and not liking the country, offered the
farm for a horse, saddle and bridle,
and the family thinking of removing
West, the wife accepted the offer
and the farm became theirs.
Mr. Fitch in 1836 was no less eager, the
expense accounts
show, to return home as quickly as
possible. The items listed
2 Original deeds in Bryant Papers (local
history records of the Alexandria Com-
munity Council).
3 Joseph M. Scott, Our Early Times: Historical Sketch of
St. Albans Township
(Newark, O., 1873), 4-5.
TRAVEL IN THE 1830's 43
indicate a pressing desire to increase
the tempo of his travel, as
he shifted successively from stage,
wagon and canal, to steamer,
packet and railroad. Already he had
spent $111.42 since leaving
Schodack. He started back overland:
2.50 Stage fare to Mount Vernon
1.25 Bill at Newark
1.50 Bill at Mount Vernon
1.19 Bill on road
.75 Bill at Worcester [Wooster] Breakfast
2.00 for waggon
.25 Dinner on road
.75 Supper & Lodging at Worcester
.50 Supper at Portage
4.00 Canal
.75 Breakfast at Cleveland
5.00 Steam Boat
.75 Tea at Buffalo.
He bought canal passage this time only
as far as Utica, hop-
ing, apparently, to catch a packet boat
at that port. Failing in
this, however, he next paid fare to Little
Falls and there at last
was able to transfer to the faster
packet. But even this much
more efficient craft wasn't speedy
enough, and at Schenectady he
boarded a train:
3.00 Erie Canal
8.00 on Canal from B. to Utica
1.25 To Little Falls
5.00 Packet to Schenectady
.75 Dinner
1.25 Rail Road
.06 Ferry
.50 for Porter carrying Trunks
The entire trip had cost him $149.92 and
at least a month's
time.
In the autumn of the following year,
young Edward Jacques
came out from New York to visit the Fitches
in their new Ohio
home. The fact that pleasure rather than
business seems to have
prompted the trip may account for the
variety of adventures which
relieved the tedium of the journey.
Following the visit, Jacques
44
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
on December 2, 1837, wrote a letter from
Painesville to the Fitches
in St. Albans Township, Licking County,
which, in spite of its
obvious exuberance, is a revealing
record of a traveler's vicis-
situdes in the 30's.4
On the afternoon of November 17, young
Jacques had bade
the Fitches farewell and had set out on
foot for the National
Road. His account follows:
I walked leisurely along until I arrived
at the National Road, coming
directly into the centre of a village,
called Luray, consisting of a Tavern
and a Blacksmith Shop. I went into the
Tavern. A woman--a very delicate
little woman of about three feet in the
belt--tended bar. I ascertained from
her that no Stage would pass west till
in the night, or as you Buckeyes say
"after night".
I took a kind of luncheon and walked 8
miles that afternoon, through
a beautiful and rich country, and over
the best of roads, passing through
the village of Kirkersville, and on to
Etna where I ate supper and went to
bed, with a promise from the Landlord
that he would call me when the mail
Stage should come in. At 5 o'clock the
Stage came, the Landlord could
not change a Bank bill, and so let me go
without paying a Tavern Bill.
We traveled from here to Columbus at the
rate of 10 1/2 miles an hour, over
the best of roads, and through a
beautiful country.
Well, arrived at Columbus, trouble
began, among the four or five dif-
ferent kinds of money, which I had the
Stage agent would take none, my
fare was a dollar and ought to have been
paid when I got in. He directed
me to an Exchange office, but the
occupant was absent, and upon enquiry I
found he had closed and left the city. I
could hear of, nor find any other.
Then I made several unsuccessful
attempts at getting money changed at
several of the Taverns, and finally gave
up in despair.
I went back to the Stage office and told
my tale of woe, but all of no
avail, he remained unmoved and
immovable, and thus perplexed and to tell
the truth rather exasperated, I took my
watch from my pocket and offered
it to the highest bidder (payment to be
made in Specie) and three dollars
was all I got for it. I then paid my
fare, and resolved to return to
Painesville.
After spending an hour or two in
Columbus I found a man who was
going with his team 14 or 15 miles
north, on the road to Mt. Vernon, and
I got in with him and rode on. At about
3 o'clock he turned off and I
walked a short distance, but feeling
tired and hungry (having had no
dinner) I determined to make an effort
to procure something to sustain
sinking nature, and as there were no
taverns within 5 miles, I stopped at
a respectable looking house, and told
them I must have something to eat.
4 Original letter, Edward Jacques to
Misses A. and F. Fitch, Bryant Papers (local
history records of the Alexandria Community Council).
TRAVEL IN THE 1830's 45
The old lady assured me, in the kindest
possible manner, that my
wants should be supplied and a young
lady entering from another room
volunteered her services to assist me in
getting off my overcoat which
was wet and muddy (it having rained fast
for the last half hour).
Judge now of my utter astonishment when
I, an entire stranger,
trudging on through rain and wind, like
some straggling vagabond, was
ushered by "damsel fair" into
a neat and well furnished apartment, filled
with a large company of smiling, wedding
guests, celebrating the nuptials
of a newly married pair!!! You may well
imagine that in this situation
my drooping spirits must revive, and so
indeed they did. I forgot the
troubles and vexation of the morning,
and cheerfully joined in the sprightly
and frivolous conversation, usual on
such occasions. Soon dinner was an-
nounced, and a sumptuous feast we
had--fish, flesh & fowl in ever variety
formed the substantial part of
the meal, and the usual et ceteras that con-
stitute the dessert, in equal variety,
abundance, and richness.
After finishing the repast, the company
retired and I offered to pay
for the meal I had eaten, but no pay
would be received, and I was earnestly
solicited to remain until morning, but
this I declined doing, because I sup-
posed they already had as many invited
guests as they could conveniently
accommodate. So I left, and after
walking about a mile, it beginning to
grow dark, I stopped and obtained
supper, lodgings and breakfast at the
house of a minister of the Gospel, a
friendly, loquacious Massachusetts man,
with a pretty, kind, and obliging
"help meet".
In the morning, I walked 4 or 5 miles to
Sunbury in Deleware [sic]
Co.--stopped at the Stage House and
found here also they would take
nothing but Ohio money for Stage fare,
but the agent said I could go to
Cleveland and pay there, so I ate dinner
and about four o'clock the Stage
came along. I got in not knowing how I
should pay when I got to Cleve-
land, but this I thought I could manage
for I had enough Michigan money
and knew that to be current at Cleveland
when I passed through there
before, but I did not know what I should
do for victuals, as tavern keepers
would not, in this vicinity, take
Canada, Michigan or Pennsylvania money.
But fortune turned in my favor, for at
the next change of horses, the
Stage Agent said he would take a ten
dollar Bill on the Lumberman's Bank
of Pennsylvania, which I considered the
most worthless shin plasters I
had. So he took six dollars out for fare
and gave me current Ohio Bills
in change. Then I thought better times
were dawning on me, and I en-
joyed a pretty comfortable, though
sleepless night.
Suffice it to say, that young Jacques
from then on "got along
quite comfortably, ate voraciously,
drank immoderately, and slept
none at all" until he arrived at
Painesville, safe and sound in
"wind and limb" on the
twenty-second of November at 2 o'clock
in the morning.