[CHAPTER XLIII.]
Old Contractors—Cost of the Road—Contractors for Repairs—Stone Breakers—An Old Stone Breaker Convicted of Murder—The Measuring Ring—The Napping Hammer—An Old Stone Breaking Machine—A Second Table Showing Heights of Mountains and Hills.
The first contracts in sections for the first ten miles of the road west of Cumberland were signed April 16th and May 8th, 1811, and were finished in the fall of 1812. The next letting was in August, 1812, of eleven miles, extending west as far as Tomlinson’s, and these contracts were completed early in 1815. The work was let from Tomlinson’s to Smithfield, eighteen miles, in August, 1813, and completed in 1817. The delay was caused by the scarcity of laborers during the war, war prices, and apprehension of failure of some of the contractors. The next letting was in September, 1815, embracing the work six miles and a half westward from Smithfield. This was awarded in sections to John Hagen, Doherty, McLaughlin and Bradley, and Charles McKinney. In May, 1817, the work was let to Uniontown, the successful bidders being Hagan and McCann, Mordecai and James Cochran, Thompson McKean, and Thomas and Matthew Blakely. From Uniontown to Brownsville, portions were let in September, 1815, to Kinkead, Beck & Evans, who soon thereafter undertook the residue to Brubaker’s. This firm sub-let many sections of the work. Bond and Gormley had the contract from Brubaker’s to Brownsville, and their work was completed in 1818. George Dawson had the contract for the heavy stone walls in Brownsville. John Miller and John Kennedy, of Uniontown, took contracts in the mountains. Miller was a son-in-law of Jacob Beeson, one of the founders of Uniontown. Mr. Kennedy was the grandfather of Hon. John K. Ewing, of Uniontown, and after his experience as a contractor, one of the justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The whole line of the road, for purposes of construction, was laid off in two divisions, called Eastern and Western. David Shriver was superintendent of the eastern, and Josias Thompson of the western division. The dividing line between the two divisions was Brubaker’s, near, and east of, Brownsville. Mr. Shriver lived in Cumberland, and was the father-in-law of Hon. Andrew Stewart. Mr. Thompson was a Virginian.
In March, 1817, the greater part of the work, from a point two miles east of Washington to the Virginia line, was let to Thomas McGiffin, Thomas H. Baird and Parker Campbell, the latter one of the foremost lawyers of his time. In 1819 the same gentlemen contracted to do the work, from the point first above named, to a point two miles west of Brownsville. The work east of Hillsboro was turned over by the contractors above named, to William and John H. Ewing, who were returned to the authorities at Washington City as original contractors, and they finished the work for $6,000 per mile. The remainder of the work west of Hillsboro was sub-let by McGiffin, Baird and Campbell, to a number of small contractors.
The road was completed from Cumberland to Uniontown at a cost, including all expenses of survey and location, salaries, bridges, and some repairs, of $9,745 per mile. The average cost of the entire road to Wheeling was nearly $13,000 per mile, showing the Eastern division much less costly than the Western. This was charged to some prodigality of work and too liberal contracts, for which Superintendent Thompson was “investigated” and superseded.
Daniel Steenrod, the old tavern keeper, and Col. Moses Shepherd, were extensive contractors for construction on the Virginia line of the road. Colonel Shepherd built Feay’s bridge, near Wheeling, one of the best on the road, and also the bridge over Wheeling creek, near Mrs. Gooding’s old tavern. Capt. Valentine Giesey, a veteran of Brownsville, who is well remembered by the old citizens of that place, was a large contractor on the work of taking up the original road bed.
The foregoing were all contractors for work on the original construction of the road. Among the contractors for repairs, after the road was completed, and during its prosperous era, the following familiar names are recalled: Abram Beagle, James McIntyre, William Hastings, John Whitmire, James Dennison, Henry Masterson, Hiram Freeman, Thomas Egan, John Robinson, William Paull, Charles Stillwagon, Jacob Stillwagon, Jacob Dougherty, Anthony Rentz, Henry Murray, James Thompson, Thomas D. Miller, Daniel Canon, Hugh Graham, Morris Whalen, Perry White, Anthony Yarnell, John Whollery, Thomas McKean, John Risler, Isaac Nixon, Robert Brown, Thomas McGrath, Matthew McNeil, Edward Kerven, John Bennington, William H. Graham, Henry Showalter, John Dickey, John McDonough, Morris Purcell, Daniel Ward, Daniel Valentine, Jacob Probasco, John Bradfield, William Reynolds, Thomas Brownfield, Peter Lenhart, James Marlow, John W. McCollough, Nicholas McCartney, John W. McDowell, Robert McDowell, James Snyder, Lewis M. Snyder, Samuel Shipley, Elias Gilmore, Samuel Rush, German D. Hair, Jackson Brown, William C. Stevens, John Gadd, Robert S. Henderson, Joseph Lawson, Michael Thomas, Charles Rush, Nicholas Bradley, John Bradley, Daniel Bradley, Henry Show, William Griffin, Robert McDowell, esq., Adam Speers, James Speers, William Hatfield, Thomas Brown, Thomas Moxley, Hiram Miller, Matthias Fry, John Wallace, John Hardin, William Hardin, John G. Burnworth, Henry Sampey, Henry Clay Rush, Alex. McDowell, Benjamin Miller, Jefferson Miller, John Worthington, E. W. Clement, John Snider, Hiram Mitchell, John Mitchell, William Endsley, Daniel Augustine, John M. Oliver, and many others, some of whose names appear in the accounts of the old Commissioners in the Appendix to this volume.