National Pike, Road of History, Romance

Tuesday, March 22, 1955 page 20 of The Washington Reporter, Washington, Pennsylvania by Earle R. Forrest

     After the close of the Pittsburgh run in 1871, Brigle drove for Sexton 
between Washington and Havelock, now McDonald, and when the railroad put 
that out of business he was on the run between Washington and Waynesburg 
until the completion of the Waynesburg and Washington Railroad in 
October, 1877. After his stage coaching days were over he went to Missouri and 
settled on a farm. In 1910 he returned to Washington to see old friends, but 
found that most of them were dead. He went back to his Missouri 
farm where 
he died in April, 1916.
     Alfred Mosebay, of Washington, was one of the few Negro stage drivers, 
possibly the only one; but old-timers said that he was an expert at this 
profession. I am not certain whether he ever drove on the National Pike, 
but if he did it was on local lines after through travel ceased. He was employed 
by Ed Sexton between Washington and Pittsburgh, and boasted that he hauled 
more returning soldiers into Washington after the close of the Civil War 
than any other driver on the road.
     He had the honor of driving the carriage or possibly a small coach, 
with four bay horses, that carried President Grant from Trinity Hall to 
lay the cornerstone of the Town Hall on September 18, 1869; and in later 
years he often said that the  President asked him to stop several 
times so that he could shake hands with children gathered on the street. 
     John Hoon, a native of Claysville, who drove for many years on the 
old pike, was once a circus performer for Dan Rice and other shows.  
After his circus days, he returned to Claysville and drove stages 
until through travel ceased. Among his passengers between Washington 
and Wheeling were President-elect James K. Polk and Henry Clay. He was born 
January 15, 1815, in what was later the village of Claysville, and on 
December 26, 1901, he and his wife celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary.
     David Bell, later proprietor of the famous Bell House at Claysville, 
drove stages on the road for years before he engaged in the tavern 
business. More will be said of him. 
     William Dickie, who spent his last few years in Washington, was a 
driver on the road when little more than a boy. One of his early exploits 
was carrying the President's message from here to Wheeling.  He was told 
by the local agent to make the run in the quickest time possible, 
and, in spite of his youth or perhaps because of it, he completed 
the run in two hours and twenty minutes, the fastest time ever made by 
stage coach between Washington and Wheeling. For all that he was a careful 
driver and never had an accident. 
     After travel ceased on the pike, Billy Evans, another noted driver, 
went to the Far West where he engaged in the only occupation he knew. In 
1865 a Washington man met him in Idaho where he was driving a stage 
between Boise and Fayette, that was the last heard of him.
     O. P. Jackman, another Washington County driver settled at Claysville, 
where he died February 24, 1889. 
     Frederick Lowry, after his driving days, settled on a farm at Coffey's 
Crossing, where he was killed by a freight train on September 24, 1894. 
During the Civil War he served in Company 1, 85th Pennsylvania Volunteer 
Infantry.
     Thomas Marshall drove a stage on the pike as early as 1824, but in 1832 
quit and settled on a farm near where he was born November 15, 1799, in 
Cross Creek Township. Among his passengers were Governor Deshay, of Kentucky; 
General William O. Butler, of Kentucky; Governor Worthington, of Ohio, and 
Henry Clay. His grandfather served in the Revolution and was present at 
Crawford's defeat in June, 1782; and his father fought in the Indian Wars 
of 1790 and 1792. On April 7, 1782, [1882] at the age of 83, this old 
stage driver rode horseback from his home to Washington, and reported 
that he had never seen the roads in worse condition. They must have been 
terrible. Marshall died October 29, 1889, aged 90.
     William McCleary, who spent his later years on a farm in East Finley 
Township, had an interesting career. As soon as he was 21 he left his 
home at Winchester Virginia, taught school, took trading vessels down the 
Ohio River, and then drove a stage between Washington and Bethany, 
Virginia. Several months later he got a job on the National Pike between 
Hillsborough and Claysville. Later he was transferred to the Washington-
Wheeling run, and then down to the Ohio division. He drove for 16 years. 
After his death on April 3, 1882, his son related some of his experiences 
as a stage driver.
     After his death on April 2, 1882, his son related some of his experiences 
as a stage driver, which his father had told him. This was published 
in The Reporter on May 17, 1882. 
     McCleary drove a mail coach, and the intense rivalry between the 
lines added to the excitement of the business. The drivers received 
orders to make time or kill the horses, and they often did just that, for 
stage coaching on the pike was a horse killing business. Each stage with 
four or six horses went as fast as the teams could run; but they changed 
every ten miles. If a horse stumbled and fell, and was unable to get up 
it was unhitched and left. Once his horses ran away from the Washington
post office and half way up Gallows Hill; but when they stopped McCleary 
forced them to run to the top and then back to the post office. By that 
time they were tired enough to behave themselves.
     On one occasion when driving from Triadelphia to Wheeling, he put 
the brake on when going down Wheeling Hill; but the blocks jumped out 
and the bar struck the off wheel horse. Instantly the horses leaped 
forward in a full flight. When the coach hit a culvert at the foot of 
the hill and turned over, McCleary was thrown into a bog wallow, and the 
passengers and mail were scattered over the road; but no one was injured. 
Two horses were killed, and the others kept on into Wheeling.  McCleary ran 
to the post office, had a postal wagon sent back for the mail, and got it 
to the office on time. If he had failed he would have lost his job. 
     After living in Claysville for six years he was appointed by Colonel 
William Hopkins, pike  commissioner, as keeper of the old brick toll house 
near West Alexander. Travel was heavy at that time, and tolls often 
amounted to $400 a month. Conestoga wagons drawn by six horses were 
always in sight, and it was not uncommon for 20 or more stage coaches 
to pass the gate at one time. After leaving the toll gate he purchased 
a farm in East Finley Township from George Enlow, where he died at the age 
of 77.
     John McElwee first drove stage east of the mountains; but in 1840 he 
came to Washington and worked on the pike until 1895, when the stage 
lines were put out of business by the "Raging  Hempfield" Railroad. 
In 1891, his daughter, Mrs. J. H. Hill, of Claysville still had the old 
whalebone whipstock with loaded end, which her father had used during all 
his stage driving years. 
     James Noble, a native of Taylorstown, drove both Conestoga wagons and 
stage coaches on the National Pike. After travel ceased he went west and 
settled at Lawrence, Kansas, where he probably drove a stage for a time. 
The Reporter of January 1, 1889, reports his death at Fort Scott, Kansas, 
on December 17, 1888. 
     The Reporter of February 28, 1877, gives the pathetic story 
of Alexander Scott, one of the first stage coach drivers on the National 
Pike. This story was related in 1877 by an old citizen of Washington,
who stated that it took place about 58 years before. Evidently this "old 
citizen" remembered the event. 
     The records in the Clerk of Courts' office show that on February 
10, 1817, Alexander Scott was indicted on charges of robbing the mail at 
Canonsburg of letters containing bank notes. Upon agreement between 
Charles Shaler on behalf of the United States, and Thomas H. Baird for 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and Scott's counsel, Thomas McGiffin 
and Parker Campbell, it was agreed that he would be tried in Washington. 
     When brought to trial before Judge Samuel Roberts in June, he entered 
a plea of not guilty. Letters from Kentucky and Washington, containing 
bank notes, had never reached the Pittsburgh post office. Details of 
the evidence were not found among the old court papers, but the jury returned 
verdicts of guilty on both charges. On the first count he was sentenced 
to three years in the penitentiary at Philadelphia, and to six years on 
the second, to begin at the expiration of the first sentence. Scott still 
maintained his innocence, and wrote that he would never go to the 
penitentiary and he never did. 
     The Examiner of June 25, 1817, contains the account of his death. He 
was to have been taken to the penitentiary on Monday, June 23, but between 
9 and 10 o'clock Saturday night he committed suicide by hanging himself 
with his handkerchief to the door of the room in which he was confined. 
     Whether he was innocent or guilty he paid a terrible price. His age 
was given as 23. He was confined in the old stone jail that stood until, 
1868, the key of which is now in the collection of the Washington 
County Historical Society. 
     William Sheets did not drive a stage in Washington County, but was on 
the run west of Cumberland. Because of an important historical event of 
his career, written by Thomas B. Searight at the time of his death and 
published in The Reporter of May 18, 1892. I am including him in this 
account. 
     Sheets was born in Berkeley County, Virginia, February 2, 1798, and 
started as a wagoner on the old Braddock Road when he was only 15. In 
1818, after the National Pike was completed west of Cumberland, he drove 
a stage for James Kinkaid, proprietor of the first stage line between 
Cumberland and Uniontown. Of special interest is that he drove the first 
mail coach that ever passed over the mountains west of Cumberland. 
Later he kept taverns at Little Crossings and on Negro Mountain, leaving 
the latter stand in 1855 to settle in Jefferson County, Iowa, where he 
died May 2, 1892, at the age of 94 years.
     Thomas  Waltz, of Washington, drove a hack on the pike between 
Washington and Uniontown. After through travel ceased, local hacks as 
they were called, took the place of the stage coaches of earlier days. The
hack, a much lighter vehicle, was a large spring wagon with two and three 
seats behind the driver and a surrey top equipped with curtains to be 
dropped and buttoned down in bad weather. They were equipped with steel 
springs front and rear in-stead of the heavy leather thorough-braces of 
the Concord. During the Civil War, Waltz served in Company L, 57th 
Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and while on picket duty before Petersburg 
in 1864 was shot in the back of the neck by a sharpshooter. He recovered 
but about 1885 became partly blind. This was attributed to the wound 
received 20 years before. He was a cigar maker for George W. Black, 
son of the inventor of the stogie, when he was compelled to quit work. He 
was the father of Frank and Charles Waltz, and the late Earnest Waltz, who 
inherited his father's nickname of "Chub."
     John Ritter, born at Mercersburg in 1794, had an eventful career as 
a soldier, wagoner and stage driver. While still living at Mercersburg 
he was drafted into the army in 1814, and sent to the Niagara  frontier, 
where he fought at the bloody battles of Lundy's Lane, Chippewa, and Fort 
Erie, all in Canada. The fighting at Fort Erie was the most sanguinary 
of the war. After his discharge he became a wagoner between Pittsburgh 
and Philadelphia; but when the Pennsylvania Canal made this occupation 
unprofitable, he turned to stage driving on the National Pike, and for 
many years drove between Washington and Brownsville. When he stage 
driving days were over he settled in Washington, living at the Valentine 
House until some time in 1878, when he took a room in the home of  Jacob 
Franzman, where he died on January 28, 1879, aged 85.
     The Reporter of January 29, 1879, gives an account of his life. He 
never married, and had one brother and two sisters from whom he separated 
when he entered the army, and never saw them again. He evidently had not 
communicated with his relatives, for when he died nothing was known of 
them. The account states that "he was rather peculiar" and had but few 
confidants "a lonely old man."
(To Be Continued)

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