CHAPTER III
OPERATION AND CONTROL
The Cumberland Road was built by the United States Government under the supervision of the War Department. Of its builders, whose names will ever live in the annals of the Middle West, Brigadier-general Gratiot, Captains Delafield, McKee, Bliss, Bartlett Hartzell, Williams, Colquit, and Cass, and Lieutenants Mansfield, Vance, and Pickell are best remembered on the eastern division. Nearly all became heroes of the Mexican or Civil Wars, McKee falling at Buena Vista, Williams at Monterey, and Mansfield, then major-general, at Antietam.
Among the best known supervisors in the west were Commissioners C. W. Weaver, G. Dutton, and Jonathan Knight.
The road had been built across the Ohio River but a short time when it was realized that a revenue must be raised for its support from those who traveled upon it. As we have seen, a law was passed in both houses of Congress, in 1824, authorizing the Government to erect tollgates and charge toll on the Cumberland Road as the states should surrender this right.[18] This bill was vetoed by President Monroe, on grounds already stated, and the road fell into a very bad condition. But what the national Government could not do the individual states could do, and, consequently, as fast as repairs were completed, the Government surrendered the road to the states through which it passed. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, accepted completed portions of the road between 1831 and 1834.[19] The legislatures of Ohio and Pennsylvania at once passed laws concerning the erection of tollgates, Ohio authorizing one gate every twenty miles, February 4, 1831,[20] and Pennsylvania authorizing the erection of six tollgates by an act passed April 11, of the same year.[21]
The gates in Pennsylvania were located as follows: Gate No. 1 at the east end of Petersburg, No. 2 near Mt. Washington, No. 3 near Searights, No. 4 near Beallsville, No. 5 near Washington, and No. 6 near West Alexander.
The Cumberland Road was under the control of commissioners appointed by the President of the United States, the state legislatures, or governors.[22] Upon these commissioners lay the task of repairing the road, which included the making of contracts, reviewing the work done, and rendering payment for the same. None of the work of building the road fell on the state officials. Therefore, in Ohio, two great departments were simultaneously in operation, the building of the road by the government officials, and the work of operating and repairing the road, under state officials. Two commissioners were appointed in Pennsylvania, in 1847, one acting east, and the other west, of the Monongahela River.[23] In 1836 Ohio placed all her works of internal improvement under the supervision of a Board of Public Works, into whose hands the Cumberland Road passed.[24] Special commissioners were appointed from time to time by the state legislatures to perform special duties, such as overseeing work being done, auditing accounts, or settling disputes.[25] Two resident engineers were appointed over the eastern and western divisions of the road in Ohio, thus doing away with the continual employment and dismissal of the most important of all officials. These engineers made quarterly reports concerning the road’s condition.[26]
The road was conveniently divided by the several states into departments. East of the Ohio River, the Monongahela River was a division line, the road being divided by it into two divisions.[27] West of the Ohio the eighty-seventh mile post from Wheeling was, at one time, a division line between two departments in Ohio.[28] Later, the road in Ohio was cut up into as many divisions as counties through which it passed.[29] The work of repairing was let by contract, for which bids had been previously advertised. Contracts were usually let in one-mile sections, sometimes for a longer space, notice of the length being given in the advertisement for bids. Contractors were compelled to give testimonials of good character and reliability; though one contract, previously quoted, professed to be satisfied with “competent or responsible individuals only.” A time limit was usually named in the contract, with penalties for failure to complete the work in time assigned.
The building of the road was hailed with delight by hundreds of contractors and thousands of laborers, who now had employment offered them worthy of their best labor, and the work, when well done, stood as a lasting monument to their skill. Old papers and letters speak frequently of the enthusiasm awakened among the laboring classes by the building of the great road, and of the lively scenes witnessed in those busy years. Contractors who early earned a reputation followed the road westward, taking up contract after contract as opportunity offered. Farmers who lived on the route of the road engaged in the work when not busy in their fields, and for their labor and the use of the teams received good pay. Thus not only in its heyday did the road prove a benefit to the country through which it passed, but at the very beginning it became such, and not a little of the money spent upon it by the Government went into the very pockets from which it came by the sale of land.