Mr. Ensley, before quoted, furnishes his juvenile opinion of stages and stage drivers, which was shared in by all the boys of the road, as follows:
“My earliest recollections are intimately associated with coaches, teams and drivers, and like most boys raised in an old stage tavern, I longed to be a man when I could aspire to the greatness and dignity of a professional stage driver. In my boyish eyes no position in life had so many attractions as that of driving a stage team. A Judge, a Congressman, even Henry Clay or President Jackson, did not measure up to the character of John Mills and Charley Howell, in my juvenile fancy.”
The picture of the stage coach era herein drawn may be lacking in vigor and perspicuity of style, but it contains no exaggeration. Much more could be written concerning it, and the story would still be incomplete. It is sad to think that nearly all the old drivers, so full of life and hope and promise when pursuing their favorite calling on the nation’s great highway, have answered the summons that awaits the whole human family, and of the vast multitude that witnessed and admired the dashing exploits of the old drivers, but few remain to relate the story. When the old pike was superseded by the railroad, many of the stage drivers went west and continued their calling on stage lines occupying ground in advance of the approaching railway. Others lingered on the confines of the familiar road, and fell into various pursuits of common life. Of these, some achieved success. As drivers they had opportunity for making acquaintances and friends. Hanson Willison was eminently successful as a local politician, and achieved the distinction of being twice elected sheriff of Alleghany county, Maryland.
[CHAPTER XXV.]
Distinguished Stage Proprietors, Lucius W. Stockton, James Reeside, Dr. Howard Kennedy, William H. Stelle—Old Stage Agents, Charley Rettig, John Risley, William Biddle, James Coudy, Redding Bunting, Edward Lane, Theodore Granger, Charles Danforth, Jacob Beck, Daniel Brown, “Billy” Scott, “Lem” Cross, and B. W. Earl—The Pony Express.
The most conspicuous of all the old stage proprietors of the National Road was Lucius Witham Stockton. James Reeside was probably an older stage man, and may have owned and operated more stage lines; but Mr. Stockton was longer and more prominently identified with the business on the National Road. He was born at Flemington, New Jersey, September 1, 1799. He was a son of Lucius Stockton, and a grandson of the Rev. Philip Stockton, known in his day and among his countrymen as “The Revolutionary Preacher,” who was a brother of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from the colony of New Jersey. L. W. Stockton appeared in Uniontown as a stage proprietor previous to the year 1824, the exact date not ascertainable. He was twice married. His first marriage occurred on November 24, 1824, and at that date he was a resident of Uniontown, and had been previous thereto. His first wife was Rebecca Moore, a daughter of Daniel Moore, an old stage proprietor who lived in Washington, Pennsylvania. By his first marriage he had six children, viz: Richard C., Daniel Moore, Elizabeth C., Lucius Witham, Margaret, and Rebecca. Richard, Daniel, and Elizabeth, by the first marriage, are dead; the last named died in infancy. Lucius Witham is living in Philadelphia. He married Ellen, the youngest daughter of Dr. John Wishart, an old and distinguished physician of Washington, Pennsylvania, grandfather on the maternal line of Hon. Ernest F. Acheson, late Republican nominee for Congress in the Twenty-fourth district of Pennsylvania. Margaret Stockton became the wife of Dr. Thomas McKennan, a leading physician at this time of Washington, Pennsylvania, and a member of the old and distinguished McKennan family of that place. Rebecca Stockton became the wife of Capt. Alexander Wishart, and is living in Newark, New Jersey, where her husband is executive officer of the Law and Order League. Captain Wishart was a gallant soldier of the Union army in the war between the States.
