William Ashton, a well-known old wagoner, was an Englishman by birth. He was also an old tavern keeper. He was noted for his mental vivacity, and for his achievements as an athlete. At Petersburg he once bounded over the top of one of the big road wagons with the aid of a long pole. He kept a tavern at Funkstown, seventy miles west of Baltimore, and was largely patronized by wagoners. While keeping tavern he had two teams on the road in charge of hired drivers. This was as early as 1835. His drivers were Samuel Kelly and William Jones, and they hauled goods from Hagerstown, Maryland (then the terminus of the railroad), to Terre Haute, Indiana, and to Springfield, Illinois, involving a trip of four months duration, and the compensation was six dollars per hundred pounds.
John Bradfield was one of the most prominent old wagoners on the road. He was the general agent of the first transportation company on the road. He was also a tavern keeper. He kept the brick house west of, and a short distance from, Petersburg, and owned it. He was a native of Virginia.
Frank Bradfield, son of John, before mentioned, was also a wagoner. Fifty years ago, when but a boy, he drove one of his father’s teams to Baltimore, “pulled up” on the wagon yard of the old Maypole tavern, in that city, attended to his team, remained over night, and the next day mysteriously disappeared. Search was instituted, but he could not be found. He had enlisted as a soldier in the regular army. His friends thought he was dead. He served through the Mexican war, and yet his relatives knew not of his existence. When that war was over he stepped one morning from a steamboat to the wharf at Brownsville. Nobody recognized him. He took a seat in a coach at Brownsville, and in a few hours thereafter entered his father’s house, near Petersburg. He called for supper and lodging, and the person he addressed was his father, who did not recognize him, and to whom he did not make himself known. Supper was announced, and his father showed him to the dining room and withdrew. His mother, who was attending at the table, immediately after he was seated, recognized him, and fell fainting in his arms, and there was joy in that household, although inaugurated by a great shock. Frank Bradfield subsequently became a clerk in the Adams Express Company, and entered the Pittsburg office when it was first established in that city, and remained in its service until his death, a few years ago. He has a brother at this time in the office of the Adams Express Company at Pittsburg, where he has been employed for many years, and esteemed as a faithful and efficient clerk.
William Hall was a fine specimen of the old wagoner in the palmy days of the road—a regular of regulars, zealous in his calling, and jealous of his rights. Robert Bell, the quaint old wagoner before referred to, was his uncle and his friend, who, it is said, rendered him substantial aid in securing a foothold on the great National highway. There was a certain kind of esprit de corps among the old regular wagoners, and William Hall possessed it in a high degree. He was well attired, and clean in person and conversation. He was born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, and his first appearance on the road was in the year 1838. He was a great admirer of Thomas Corwin, and was in Ohio with his team on the day that old-time statesman and orator was chosen Governor, a circumstance he frequently referred to in after years with feelings of pride and pleasure. He married a daughter of Aaron Wyatt, and granddaughter of Major Paul, old tavern keepers, and this formed a silken cord that bound him to the destinies of the old pike. In the declining years of the road he became a stage proprietor, and in conjunction with Redding Bunting (not a stranger to these pages), operated a line of coaches between Cumberland and Washington, Pennsylvania. This line had nothing of the whirl and dash of the older lines of coaches. When wagons and stages ceased to enliven the road, William Hall located in Cumberland, and is living there at this time, one of the leading citizens of that place. Soon after he cast his lot in Cumberland he was appointed Superintendent of the Maryland Division of the road by Governor Hicks, and served in that office for a number of years previous to the late war. He had a brother, Robert, who was also an old wagoner, and subsequently, and for several years, a postal clerk on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad between Cumberland and Pittsburg.
Henry Puffenberger, a “regular,” given to blustering, but not a vicious man, and Jacob Breakiron, a “sharpshooter” and a fat man, met one day on the road and indulged in a wrangle about the right of way. Strings of fresh broken stone on either side of the road, as was often the case, left but a narrow passage where the meeting occurred, and this led to the difficulty. “Old Puff,” as he was called, demanded of Breakiron, with an air of authority, that he should “turn out.” Breakiron declined to obey, and showed a determined spirit of resistance. After an exchange of angry words Puffenberger inquired of Breakiron his name, and he answered, “my name is Breakiron.” “That,” said Puffenberger, “is a hard name, but you look harder than your name.” “I am as hard as my name,” said Breakiron, “and what is your name?” “Puffenberger,” was the reply. “That,” said Breakiron, “is a windy name.” “Yes,” rejoined Puffenberger, “but there is thunder with it.” After this explosion of wit the contestants compromised, shook hands, and passed without colliding. Puffenberger was a Maryland man, became a Confederate soldier, and was killed in battle. Breakiron was a farmer of Georges township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and died on his farm a number of years ago.
WILLIAM HALL.
Turner Brown, brother of Henry, famous for the big loads he hauled, was an old wagoner. After a number of years’ experience as a wagoner he moved to Ohio and settled in Guernsey county, where he became wealthy and was elevated to the office of Probate Judge. Persons who remember him say he was “pompous” in manner, but honest in his dealings. He was a native of Fayette county, Pa., born and reared in the vicinity of Brownsville, and of the family of Browns prominently identified with the National Road in its early days. He had a number of sons, three of whom—Samuel, Turner and Levi—were Union soldiers in the late war. Another, Thomas, published for a time The Ohio Farmer, at Cleveland; and another, William, took to theology, and is engaged in missionary work in some remote quarter of the globe.