[CHAPTER XIX.]
Old Wagoners continued—The Harness they Used—John Morrow a maker of Harness—Capt. Elias Gilmore encounters a Man Eater—Perry Gaddis, William G. Patterson, Alfred Bailes, the Scarboroughs and McLaughlins—Hill, who respected Sunday—James Riley and Oliver Pratt, Robert Carr, Robert Allison, David Herr, William Keefer, Abram Beagle, Samuel Youman, Robert Cosgrove, James Brownlee, John Collier, Darius Grimes, Fielding Montague, James Smith, Elisha Maxon, Jacob Marks, Thomas Starr, Thomas Hastings, Henry Foster, John Smasher, Maj. Jesse B. Gardner, McWilliams, Pixler, Riley and Hankins.
John Morrow, of Petersburg, mentioned herein before as a manufacturer of the wagoner’s whip, was likewise a saddle and harness maker, and had the reputation of making the best harness on the road. He was a man of thin visage and energetic habit.
Gears was the name old wagoners applied to harness. The gears used on the team of the regular wagoner were of immense proportions. The back bands were fifteen and the hip straps ten inches wide, and heavy black housing covered the horses’ shoulders down to the bottom of the hames. The traces used were iron chains with short and thick links. It required a strong man to throw these heavy gears on the back of a big horse. Heavy and broad as they were, these gears were not out of proportion to the large fat horses of the old teams, and looked well on their broad and shining backs. The wagoner’s saddle was unique. It was made over an ordinary wooden model, covered with thick, black leather, and had long and wide skirts or aprons, cut straight on the edges and ends. Daniel P. Gibson, the well known capitalist of Uniontown, learned the trade of saddle and harness making with John Morrow in Petersburg, and worked many a day on the big gears and odd saddle, above described.
Capt. Elias Gilmore was not strictly an old wagoner, but a pike boy to all intents and purposes, yet his home was not immediately on the road. He had a team which he employed for the most part in hauling stones for repairs on the road. He was a contractor, and an energetic one. He was an amiable man, in a general way, but given at times to pugilistic encounters, and it is said that no man along the road could outdo him in a fight. A stage driver once came upon the road who was called “the man eater.” He drove from Uniontown to Mt. Washington on the Good Intent line. Gilmore, hearing of this famous “man eater,” was desirous of meeting him, and calling one day at Mt. Washington, inquired where he was. Upon being introduced, Gilmore said to him: “You are a pretty stout looking man, but I can lick you,” and at it they went, without further ceremony, and Gilmore did lick him. At another time Gilmore was in Uniontown with a load of lumber, and stood his team across the street, which caused John P. Sturgis, who was constable then, to take him to task for obstructing the street, whereupon Gilmore fell upon Sturgis and gave him a tremendous beating, for which he was fined by the burgess. Gilmore was born in Wharton township, Fayette county, Pa., and owned and lived on a farm near “Sugar Loaf,” in the vicinity of Ohiopyle. His wife was a sister of Boss Rush, “the prince of landlords.” Captain Gilmore moved, with his family, to Illinois thirty years ago, and subsequently to York county, Nebraska, where he is still living in comfortable circumstances, a farmer and stock dealer. He long since abandoned the profitless pastime of sowing wild oats, and is esteemed as one of the most respectable and influential citizens of Nebraska. John Rush, a brother of Boss, and brother-in-law of Gilmore, an old wagoner and tavern keeper, went west with Gilmore, and lives near him now, in Nebraska.
Perry Gaddis, who died a few years ago at Dunbar, Pennsylvania, was an old wagoner. His first service on the road as driver was for Isaac Bailey, who kept a tavern near the old red house east of Brownsville, subsequently postmaster at Brownsville, and a member of the Fayette county, Pennsylvania, bar. Gaddis married a daughter of Robert Shaw, an old tavern keeper, and many years ago steward of the county home near Uniontown. She was a schoolmate of the author of these pages, as was also her sister, who became the wife of Robert S. McDowell, another well known pike boy. William D. Beggs, father-in-law of the late Dr. Smith Fuller, blessed be his memory, was our faithful old teacher. Mrs. Gaddis, Perry’s widow, is still living at Dunbar.
[C]William G. Patterson, of Jefferson township, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, an old wagoner, has a record worthy of special mention. When on the road he was called “Devil Bill,” and this name followed him to his farm, and adhered to him for many years. To see him now at his ancestral home, bending beneath his four score years and more, gentle in manner and intelligent and entertaining in conversation, surrounded by all the needful comforts of this life, one wonders how he ever got the name of “Devil Bill.” His first appearance on the National Road as a driver was in the year 1820, when he assisted in driving a lot of hogs for his father to Baltimore. It required almost a month to drive a lot of hogs from the vicinity of Brownsville to the city of Baltimore. He made his first trip over the road as a wagoner in 1823, going clear through to Baltimore. The first team he drove was his father’s, but it was not long until he became the owner of a team himself. He was on the road many years as a wagoner. The farm on which he now resides descended from his grandfather to his father, and then to himself. His father died on this farm on Christmas day of the year 1827. His grandfather came out from Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, at an early day.