PREFACE
For material used in this volume the author is largely in the debt of the librarians of the State Libraries of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. From the Honorable C. B. Galbreath, of the Ohio State Library, he has received much assistance covering an extended period. To the late Thomas B. Searight’s valuable collection of biographical and colloquial sketches, The Old Pike, the author wishes to express his great indebtedness. As Mr. Searight gave special attention to the road in Pennsylvania, the present monograph deals at large with the story of the road west of the Ohio River, especially in the state of Ohio.
The Cumberland Road was best known in some parts as the “United States” or “National” Road. Its legal name has been selected as the most appropriate for the present monograph which is revised from a study of the subject The Old National Road formerly published by the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society.
A. B. H.
Marietta, Ohio, May 15, 1903.
The Cumberland Road
It is a monument of a past age; but like all other monuments, it is interesting as well as venerable. It carried thousands of population and millions of wealth into the West; and more than any other material structure in the land, served to harmonize and strengthen, if not to save, the Union.—Veech.