W. L. McNeil, of Wheeling, when a young man, had a brief experience as a wagoner. He drove several trips for Thomas Darkly, who was a merchant with stores in Baltimore and Wheeling, and is well remembered by old pike boys. McNeil “put up” at Natty Brownfield’s, in Uniontown, when driving Drake’s team, a half a century and longer ago, and has never forgotten the good entertainment he enjoyed at that old tavern.
The old tavern keepers of the National Road were a remarkable body of men. In many instances they were free holders, men well posted in current affairs, and influential in their respective neighbourhoods. They were honorable in their dealings, and believed that every man’s word should be as good as his bond. As caterers they made no display. They had no bills of fare, printed on gilt edged paper, or fine linen, and it is doubtful if any one of them ever heard the modern word Menu, yet the spreads of their generous boards would almost kindle exhilaration in the heart of a misanthrope. The thought may be attributable to change of time or circumstance, or taste, or all together, but there is an immovable conviction in the mind of the writer of these pages, that the viands of modern hotels, lack the savouriness of those of the old taverns of the National Road.
[CHAPTER XLI.]
West of Wheeling—Old Stage Lines Beyond the Ohio River—William Neil—Gen. N. P. Flamage—Stage Stations—Old Taverns and Tavern Keepers—Rev. Doctor Cinnabar and “Sunset” Cox were old Pike Boys—Lively Times in Guernsey—Crossing another State line—Sycamore Valley—Old Taverns in Richmond—A link out—Centerville—Dublin—Through Indiana—The Road Disappears among the Prairies of Illinois.
It is estimated that two-fifths of the trade and travel of the road were diverted at Brownsville, and fell into the channel furnished at that point by the slack water improvement of the Monongahela river, and a like proportion descended the Ohio from Wheeling, and the remaining fifth continued on the road to Columbus, Ohio, and points further west. The travel west of Wheeling was chiefly local, and the road presented scarcely a tithe of the thrift, push, whirl and excitement which characterized it, east of that point; and there was a corresponding lack of incident, accident and anecdote on the extreme western division. The distance from Wheeling to Columbus is one hundred and twenty-nine miles, and the road enters the capital of Ohio by way of High street. Before the era of railroads Columbus derived its chief business from the National Road.
Neil, Moore & Co. operated a line of stage coaches between Wheeling and Columbus prior to, and for some time after, the year 1840, and their line extended west as far as Springfield. Daniel Moore, of Washington, Pennsylvania, and his son Henry, composed the Moore end of this old Ohio Stage Company. Henry Moore subsequently located in Baltimore, and died there. His father died in Washington, Pennsylvania, more than half a century ago. John Scott, of Washington, Pennsylvania, antedates Daniel Moore as a stage proprietor. He ran a line of coaches between Washington and Wheeling as early as the year 1810, on an old road between those points, which was used previous to the construction of the National Road, and had the contract for carrying the United States mails.
William Neil, the old stage proprietor, was the projector and owner of the Neil House, the leading hotel of Columbus. He was the possessor of large means, enhanced by holdings of large tracts of fertile land near Columbus, which he acquired at low figures in an early day. It is said his manners were not of the suave order, but he was noted for energy and shrewdness. One who knew him says of him, that “he was honest in his dealings, somewhat rough in his ways, but an energetic, pushing man, who made things move.” This description fits many of the old pike boys.
Gen. N. P. Flamage, of whom further mention is made hereafter, owned and operated a line of coaches also between Wheeling and Columbus, and made things lively along the road. He called his line the “Good Intent.”