Robert Allison, one of the best known of the old wagoners, was a fighting man. He did not seem to be quarrelsome, yet was often, as by some sort of untoward destiny, involved in pugilistic encounters along the road. In one of these at Fear’s tavern, on Keyser’s Ridge, he bit off the nose of a stage driver.
David Harr was a good fiddler, and William Keefer was a good dancer, and these two old wagoners warmed the bar room of many an old tavern between Baltimore and Wheeling, in the good old days when every mile of the National Road bristled with excitement.
Abram Beagle was a widely known old wagoner. He lived with David Moreland in Uniontown as early as 1820, and probably before that time, and subsequently became a tavern keeper. The house he kept was twelve miles east of Wheeling, and he married it. That is to say: The Widow Rhodes owned the tavern stand, and he married her. He kept a good house, and was largely patronized. Old citizens of Uniontown who remember Abram Beagle, and there are not many of them living, speak of him as a good and worthy citizen of the olden time.
GERMAN D. HAIR.
Samuel Youman, of Washington county, Pa., was an old wagoner, stage driver and tavern keeper. He drove stage from Hillsboro to Washington, and subsequently kept tavern in Hillsboro. He had the distinction of being next to the largest man on the road, “Old Mount” being admittedly the largest. Youman was a man full of zeal, as to all pursuits and interests relating to the National Road. He understood the art of driving horses to perfection, was kindly in disposition, and attracted attention by reason of his immense size. He had a son, Israel, who was also a stage driver and a lively fellow. Father and son are presumably both dead, but the marks they made on the memories of the old pike are indelible.
Poor old Robert Cosgrove, who once traversed the road with all the pride and pomp of a “regular,” finally succumbed to the adverse tides of life and time, and to avoid “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” took refuge in the “county home,” where he remains, indulging the memories of better days and awaiting the summons to rejoin the companionship of old wagoners who have passed over the dark river.
James Brownlee was one of the old wagoners who suffered the experience of a genuine “upset.” It occurred near Hagen’s tavern, east of Cumberland. He had a high load, and encountered a big snow drift which he thought he could overcome by pulling out and around, but he failed, and his wagon capsized. His main loss was in time, which was “made up” by the good cheer at Hagen’s old tavern.
John Collier, father of Daniel Collier, was a wagoner on the road when it was first opened up for travel. He had been a wagoner on the Braddock road for years before the National Road was made. He lived in Addison, Somerset county, Pa., as early as 1795, and was one of the foremost wagoners of his day. He was the grandfather of Mrs. Amos S. Bowlby, of Fayette street, Uniontown.