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The Old Boston Post Road E-Book

Stephen Jenkins

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Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
Sprache: Englisch

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Stephen Jenkins has chosen for the subject of this volume the oldest and most northerly of the post roads: that over which the first postrider went; which echoed to the war-whoop of the savage, saw the passage of soldiers during the French Wars; beheld the flocking of the minutemen upon the Lexington Alarm, later became the pathway of countless thousands of emigrants on their way to the rich valleys of the Mohawk and the Genesee, or to the fertile prairies of the Middle West. By this route, via New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, and Worcester, a monthly mail was established in 1673, "the first mail upon the continent of America," as the author declares. He traces these pioneer settlements to their present positions as mauufacturing towns and cities.

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Leseprobe

The Old Boston Post Road

STEPHEN JENKINS

The Old Boston Post Road, S. Jenkins

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

ISBN: 9783849651558

Cover Design: By Magicpiano - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53572999

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

PREFACE

IN the year 1673, the first mail upon the continent of America was dispatched from New York to Boston by way of New Haven, Hartford, Springfield, Brookfield, Worcester, Cambridge, and a few intermediate places. It is hard for us of this day and generation to realize that at that time these present flourishing towns and cities were small groups of houses huddled together for mutual protection; mere pioneer hamlets upon the frontiers of advancing civilization. The depredations of Indian foes, and the harassing raids of French rivals for supremacy upon the continent could not stay the progress of the indomitable Anglo-Saxon spirit; and gradually the frontier advanced farther and farther westward. Stern and repressive were the Puritan fathers in their religious ideas, and the same characteristics affected them in their government of civil affairs. Notwithstanding the misfortunes and vicissitudes of the new settlements, there was no thought of letting go; and the General Courts issued and enforced mandates against the desertion of these plantations in the wilderness.

Common dangers brought forth mutual appreciation and mutual help, then followed the Confederacy of the New England Colonies in 1643, the first step, practically, toward that greater union of the States which exists today. Though formed for military purposes, the Confederacy took a political cast, and the royal governors, for half a century, were engaged in combating the pretensions and independence of a league of scattered colonies, individually weak, but collectively strong. The seed of united action was too firmly planted to be eradicated; and when the oppressions of the home government began in 1765 with the Stamp Act, we find it blossoming into full flower. The home government was forced to submit, though asserting lamely that it had power to do as it pleased with the colonies.

Meanwhile, there had been material progress in agricultural lines. As long as the settlements were along the coast, communication and interchange of commodities were easy by means of vessels; but the settlements began to grow inland, and roads became necessary to maintain communication; and roads are great factors in development and civilization. Several such roads were developed from the Indian trails leading from Boston, so that in time there came to be two well-defined post roads from Boston to New York, and a third developed later in the days of the turnpikes.

I have chosen for the subject of this volume the oldest and most northerly of these post roads: that over which the first post-rider went; that which echoed to the war whoop of the savage; that which saw the passage of the soldiers to and from the seat of activities during the French wars; that which beheld the flocking of the minutemen upon the Lexington Alarm, or the rallying of the militia to the standard of Gates; that which served several times for the journeys of Washington, and that which later became the pathway of countless thousands of emigrants on their way to the rich valleys of the Mohawk and the Genesee, or to the fertile prairies of the Middle West.

I have tried to trace these pioneer settlements to their present positions as manufacturing towns and cities; and, above all, I have tried to emphasize the personalities of those men and women who have been chiefly instrumental in causing the progress of their towns and of the country in material wealth, or in literature, art, or education. This being a tale of a post road, it is natural that there will be a good deal about taverns and about means of transportation; for the former were of great importance in the early days, and the improvements in the latter culminating in the railroads of to-day have been, probably, the chief factor in the opening up of new country and its resources and in advancing its settlement and prosperity.

S.J.

Mt. Vernon, N. Y., September, 1913.

CHAPTER I. THE ERA OF THE POST-RIDER

IN August, 1668, the Honorable Francis Lovelace arrived in New York as successor to Colonel Nicolls in the governorship of New York. In accordance with his instructions to do all in his power to promote friendly intercourse with the other English colonies in America, and especially with those of New England, he and Colonel Nicolls visited Governor Winthrop of Connecticut. The establishment of a post was discussed between them, with the result that, in December, 1672, Lovelace wrote to Winthrop as follows:

I here present you with two rarities, a pacquett of the latest intelligence I could meet withal, and a Post. By the first, you will see what has been acted on the stage of Europe; by the latter you will meet with a monthly fresh supply; so that if it receive but the same ardent inclinations from you as at first it hath from myself, by our monthly advisoes all publique occurrences may be transmitted between us, together with severall other great conveniencys of publique importance, consonant to the commands laid upon us by His sacred Majestie, who strictly injoins all his American subjects to enter into a close correspondency with each other. This I look upon as the most compendious means to beget a mutual understanding; and that it may receive all the countenance from you for its future duration, I shall acquaint you with the model I have proposed; and if you please but to make an addition to it, or subtraction, or any other alteration, I shall be ready to comply with you. This person that has undertaken the imployment I conceaved most proper, being both active, stout and indefatigable. He is sworne as to his fidelity. I have affixt an annuall sallery on him, which, together with the advantage of his letters and other small portable packes, may afford him a handsome livelyhood. Hartford is the first stage I have designed him to change his horse, where constantly I expect he should have a fresh one lye. All the letters outward shall be delivered gratis, with a signification of Post Payd on the superscription; and reciprocally, we expect all to us free. Each first Monday of the month he sets out from New York, and is to return within the month from Boston to us againe. The mail has divers baggs, according to the townes the letters are designed to, which are all sealed up till their arrivement, with the seale of the Secretaire's Office, whose care it is on Saturday night to seale them up. Only by-letters are in the open bag, to dispense by the wayes. Thus you see the scheme I have drawn to promote a happy correspondence. I shall only beg of you your furtherance to so universall a good work; that is to afford him directions where and to whom to make his application to upon his arrival in Boston; as likewise to afford him what letters you can to establish him in that imployment there. It would be much advantagious to our designe, if in the intervall you discoursed with some of the most able woodmen, to make out the best and most facile way for a Post, which in process of tyme would be the King's best highway; as likewise passages and accommodations at Rivers, fords, or other necessary places.

In addition to being a sworn messenger, the post-rider was required to direct travelers, who might choose to accompany him, to the best roads and to the most commodious stopping places, and was to select the most convenient places for leaving letters and packets and for gathering up the same. It was designed by Governor Lovelace that the first mail should leave the fort at New York on January 1, 1673; but, owing to the failure of some Albany dispatches to reach New York in time, the post-rider did not make his departure until the twenty-second.

His route led him from the fort at the lower end of Broadway, north over that highway, through the land gate in the palisades at Wall Street, and thence over the cow-path to the Fields, the present City Hall Park. Here he turned east around the rectangular pasture land of the city into the Bowery Lane leading to the Bowery Village, and over the recently opened road to New Harlem. Perhaps he turned aside for a glass of beer for which the village was already famous, or, it may be, continued on to the ferry at Spuyten Duyvil; and, after chaffing the ferryman, Johannes Verveelen, put up at his tavern for the night, after a day's ride of fifteen miles. The short winter's day would not permit him to go farther, and his horse must be conserved until he reached Hartford.

Refreshed by his night's repose, he started on his ride across the country to Eastchester, following the old Indian trail to that place and crossing the Bronx River at Williamsbridge, not far from where the bridge has been for more than two centuries. At Eastchester, he pushed on over the Westchester Path, the ancient Indian trail by which the Mohicans of New York kept up communication with their kinsmen of the Connecticut valley, and over which the Connecticut English had found their way to the Vriedelandt of the Dutch and had settled, in 1642, at Throgg's Neck and, in 1654, on the banks of Westchester Creek. He stopped, probably, at Horseneck for the night, and the next day resumed his journey through the settlements along the shore of the Sound. Trails, slowly developing into wagon roads, connected these villages; for the indefatigable colonizers of New England had been for years spreading their settlements ever westward, encroaching on the lands of the Dutch, and arousing disputes in regard to ownership and boundaries that came down almost to our own times.

From New Haven to Hartford, his way was plain; and from the latter place to Springfield, it was plainer still. At Springfield, he crossed the Connecticut River and turned eastward over the Indian trail from Massachusetts Bay to the valley of the Connecticut, over which the first white men had found their way in 1633. Since then many thousands of feet had trodden the Old Bay and the Old Connecticut paths on their way to Springfield, Windsor, Holyoke, Hartford, Wethersfield, and other Connecticut River towns. Two weeks after his departure from New York, he rode through Roxbury into Boston over the narrow neck connecting the mainland with the tri-mountain peninsula, where he delivered his mails and received congratulations on the success of his journey.

Two days of rest, perhaps, and then the return journey began; for he must be back within the month. His westward trip was easier, for he knew the way, the ordinaries and houses at which to stop, and the distances between; nor had he to stop and blaze his way through the sometimes pathless forests — all this had been done on his outward trip. It was the winter time, and he was not delayed by the smaller streams, for they were frozen over; the larger ones he crossed by ferries. Within the month he rode into the fort at New York and turned his mail bags over to the Secretary. Once more he was ready to start on his eastward trip with the contents of the "locked box, " kept in the Secretary's office. His newly arrived mail was displayed in the Secretary's office — later, at the Exchange — where people came and helped themselves to what belonged to them.

Several trips were made by the post-riders, and all seemed going well, when a Dutch fleet appeared off New York in August, 1673, an d the city once more became Dutch. The newcomers did not desire communication with their eastern neighbors, and so the post -rider ceased his trips. When the fleet appeared, Governor Lovelace was in Hartford enjoying the hospitality of Governor Winthrop of that colony. Edward Palmes of New London sent word "post hast for his Majesties speciall service" to Governor Leverett of Massachusetts-Bay that "New Yorke was taken last Wednesday with the loss of one man on each side. "

In November, 1674, the Dutch gave up the city, and Major Andros restored the English authority. The year following, 1675, King Philip's War broke out, and the southern and western settlements of Massachusetts were devastated. Under such circumstances, the post was not resumed. After a year, the war ended with the death of Philip; but the post was not re-established until Governor Dongan revived it in 1685, setting up an office in New York and fixing the charge at three pence for distances not exceeding one hundred miles. In 1687, when Edmund Randolph had been named deputy-postmaster for New England under the lord-treasurer of England, Dongan appointed for his own province a notary public named William Bogardus. These appear to have been the first officials of the kind in the colonies. The post was not seriously interrupted from this time until the Revolution.

In November, 1639, the General Court of Massachusetts-Bay enacted:

For the preventing the miscarriage of letters, it is ordered, that notice bee given that Richard Fairbanks, his house in Boston, is the place appointed for all letters, which are brought from beyond seas or to be sent thither, are to be brought unto him, and he is to take care that they bee delivered or sent according to their directions; provided that no man shall be compelled to bring his letters thither except hee please.

This first post-office in the town of Boston was located on Washington Street, not far from the Merchants' Exchange near the head of State Street. On January 6, 1673, under the title, "Messengers to be sent post," there was enacted a rate of wages as follows:

3d per mile to the place to which he is sent, in money, as full sattisfaction for the expence of man & horse; and no inholder shall take of any such messenger or others travayling vpon public service more than two shillings p bushell for oates, and fower pence for hay, day & night.

In June, 1677, it was stated that "many times letters are thrown upon the exchange, that who will may take them up"; and the Court thereupon appointed Mr. John Hay ward, the scrivener, "to take in and convey letters according to their direction. " Hay ward was reappointed three years later to the same position. Previous to this action, the inhabitants had come and selected their own mail, or taken and delivered that belonging to their neighbors.

It was not until 1691 that a proper postal service was established in the colonies. On February seventeenth of that year, Thomas Neale received a royal patent for twenty-one years to control the colonial post-offices. Neale never came to America, but, in connection with the royal postmaster-general in London, he appointed Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia his deputy in America. Hamilton applied to each of the colonial legislatures

to ascertain and establish such rates and sums payable for the conveyance of postal matter, as, affording him sufficient compensation, should tend to the quicker maintenance of mutual correspondence amongst all the neighboring Colonies and Plantations, and that trade and commerce might be the better preserved.

In New York, under date of November 11, 1692, there was passed " An Act for the Encourageing a Post Office, " reciting that Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, having been appointed postmaster for all the colonies, is given power to appoint a postmaster in New York, who shall have the sole power "to prepare and provide horses and furniture to Let to hyre unto all through Posts' and Persons' Rideing in Post . . . and for the Post of Every Single Letter from Boston to New York . . . nine pence currant money aforesaid, and Soe in proportion as aforesaid." No person or corporation shall carry letters for hire, or furnish horses or "furniture for the horses of any through Posts' or Persons' Rideing Post with a guide and horn as is usuall in their Majties Realme of England," under penalty of one hundred pounds current money for every offence. This act was renewed and extended at intervals of three years for many years thereafter. The Act of September 18, 1708, fixes a rate of nine pence current money for one sheet from Boston to New York.

Duncan Campbell was appointed deputy postmaster-general in Boston. His receipts did not equal his outlay, so that the General Court made him an allowance of about £25 a year. He was so enterprising that he established a post to carry letters once a fortnight during the three winter months between New York and Boston, his carrier to go "alternately from Boston to Saybrook and Hartford, to exchange the mail of letters with the New York rider." This mail was known as the "western post, " a name that it bore until the end of the staging days.

On May I, 1693, Hamilton's scheme for the postal service went into effect with a weekly post from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Boston, Saybrook, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Five riders were engaged to cover each of the five stages twice a week in summer, and in winter, fortnightly. This scheme was well adapted to colonial needs, but, as late as 1705, no post-rider went east of Boston or south of Baltimore. In addition to other help, the New England colonies gave the post-riders free ferriage over the streams where ferries were located. The great offices of the country were Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Andrew Hamilton died in 1703, and his son John succeeded him.

In 1706, a statute of Queen Anne placed the American postal service under the immediate control of the crown, which, in 1707, purchased the good will of the postal service from Neale and continued John Hamilton as postmaster-general. Two years before the expiration of Neale's patent, in 1710, the House of Commons fixed higher rates of postage — one shilling for a single letter from New York to Boston. From this time until the Revolution, the postal service was under the crown, but it was not a revenue-producing part of colonial administration for many years.

In 1704, Governor Lord Bellomont of New York informed the home government that "the post that goes through this place goes eastward as far as Boston; but westward, he goes no further than Philadelphia; and there is no other post upon all this continent. " In 1708, Lord Cornbury states: "From Boston there is a Post, by which we hear once a week in summer, and once a fortnight in winter."

In the code of laws of the Connecticutt Colony, printed in 1702, we find "An Act for Encouraging the Post-Office. "

Whereas Their most Excellent Majesties King William, and Queen Mary, by their Letters, Pattents, have Granted a Post Office to be Set up in these Parts of New-England for the receiving and dispatching of Letters and Pacquets from one place to another, for Their Majesties Special Service, and the benefits of Their Majesties Subjects in these Parts; and this Court being willing to promote so good a work. It is Declared, etc.

Another act of 1702 speaks of the extravagant charges of "persons imployed by authority for conveyance of Letters and Pacquets of importance"; and a third act of 1702 fixes the post charges as follows: From May 15th to October 15th, for forty miles' travel out from home and back, eight shillings, and for a horse, five shillings; in all, thirteen shillings, and a proportional amount for lesser or greater journeys; from October 15th to May 15th, forty miles' travel from home and back for man and horse, fourteen shillings, and proportionate pay for greater or lesser distances. In May, 1712, an act was passed, "Because complaints are made about post wages," that postmen should receive from April 1st to November 1st, three pence outward per mile in money, and no more; and from November 1st to May 1st, three pence halfpenny money per mile outward, and no more. These wages are to include the post-rider's horse and the subsistence of both.

Madam Sarah Knight of Charlestown, Massachusetts, made a trip from Boston to New York and return, in order to attend to some business in which she was interested, and kept a journal of her experiences. She left Boston on Monday, October 2, 1704, at 3 p.m., and reached New Haven at 2 p.m. on Saturday, the sixth. She stayed in New Haven until December sixth, when she continued her journey to New York, arriving there on the ninth. She returned home after five months' absence. Later, she conducted a school in Boston, of which Benjamin Franklin was a pupil during the last year she held it. On a pane of glass in the Kemble house in Charlestown — the house of her father, destroyed in the fire of June, 1775— there were scratched these lines:

Through many toils and many frights

I have returned, poor Sarah Knights

Over great rocks and many stones

God has preserved from fractured bones.

This journal is one of the most valuable of our early colonial documents; and, as Madam Knight had a keen sense of the ridiculous and was prone to break into poetry upon occasion, it is also at times intensely funny. Notwithstanding her many experiences and the many times she was in danger, her sense of humor prevails. She accompanied the post-rider by way of Dedham, Providence, New London, and Say brook to New Haven — the Pequot Path, as it was called from the fact that it had formerly been an Indian trail leading to the villages of that tribe in Connecticut. She, of course, rode horseback. A few extracts from the journal will give some idea of the dangers that threatened the travelers of that day:

Tuesday, October ye third, about 8 in the morning, I with Post proceeded forward . . . and about 2, afternoon, arrived at the Post's second stage, where the western Post met him and exchanged letters . . . Having there discharged the Ordinary for self and guide, as I understood was the custom, about 3 afternoon, went on with my third guide, who rode very hard; and having crossed Providence fery , we come to a River w'ch thay Generally Ride thro'. But I dare not venture; so the Post got a Ladd and Cannoe to carry me to t'other side, and hee rid thro' and Led my hors . . . Rewarded my sculler, again mounted and made the best of my way Forward . . .But the Post told me wee had near 14 miles to ride to the next stage, where we were to Lodg. I asked him of the Rest of the Rode, foreseeing we must travel in the Night. Hee told me there was a bad River to Ride thro', w'ch was so very firce a hors could sometimes hardly stem it. I cannot express the concern of mind this relation sett me in; no thoughts but those of the dang'ros River could entertain my Imagination; and they were as formidable as varios, still Tormenting me with blackest Ideas of my Approching fate — Sometimes seeing myself drowning, otherwhiles drowned, and at the best like a holy Sister Just come out of a Spiritual Bath in dripping Garments.

She conducted me to a parlour in a little back Lento w'ch was almost fill'd w th the bedstead, w'ch was so high that I was forced to climb on a chair to gett up to ye wretched bed that lay on it; on w'ch having Stretcht my tired Limbs, and lay'd my head on a Sad-coloured pillow, I began to think on the transactions of ye past day.

Here we found great difficulty in Travailing, the way being very narrow, and on each side the Trees and bushes gave us very unpleasant welcomes w'th their Branches and bow's.

I on a suden was Rous'd from these pleasing Imaginations by the Post's sounding his horn, which assured me hee was arrived at the Stage, where we were to Lodg.

I then betook me to my Apartment, w'ch was a little Room parted from the Kitchen by a single bord partition . . .But I could get no sleepe, because of the Clamor of some of the Town tope-ers in next Room ... I heartily fretted, and wish't 'urn tongue tyed ... I sett my Candle on a chair by my bed side, and setting up, fell to my old way of composing my Resentments, in the following manner:

I ask thy Aid, O Potent Rum!

To Charm these wrangling Topers Dum.

Thou hast their Giddy Brains possest —

The man confounded w'th the Beast —

And I, poor I, can get no rest.

Intoxicate them with thy fumes:

O still their Tongues till morning comes!

And I know not but my wishe took effect; for the dispute soon ended w th 'tother Dram; and so Good night.

About four in the morning we set out . . . with a french Doctor in our company. Hee and ye Post put on very furiously, so that I could not keep up with them, only as now and then they 'd stop till they see mee. From hence we hasted towards Rye, walking and Leading our Horses neer a mile together, up a prodigios high Hill; and so Riding till about nine at night and there arrived and took up our Lodgings at an Ordinary w'ch a French family kept. Here being very hungry, I desired a fricasee, w'ch the Frenchman undertaking managed so contrary to my notion of Cookery, that I hastned to Bed superless . . . nevertheless being exceeding weary, down I laid my poor Carkes (never more tired) and found my Covering as scanty as my Bed was hard . . . and poor I made but one Grone, which was from the time I went to bed to the time I Riss, which was about three in the morning . . . and having discharged our ordinary w'ch was as dear as if we had had Better Fare — wee took our leave of Monsier and about seven in the morn came to New Rochell a french town, where we had a good Breakfast And in the strength of that about an how'r before sunsett got to York.

In order to bind the different parts of the Province and also to bind it with the other colonies, the Provincial Assembly of New York, on June 19, 1703, passed:

An Act for the better Laying out ascertaining and preserving the Publick Comon and General highways within this Colony . . . That there be laid out preserved and kept forever in good and sufficient Repair one Publick Comon & general highway to Extend from the now Scite of the City of New York thro' the City and County of New York and the County of West Chester of the breadth of four Rod English measure at the least, to be Continue and remain for ever the Publick Comon General Road and highway from the said City of New York to the adjacent Collony of Connecticoot.

Other clauses provide for the laying out of roads connecting contiguous villages; for fining any one, other than a road commissioner, for cutting down a living tree of four or more inches in diameter; for punishing encroachments on the public roads, and for the appointment of road commissioners with pay at the rate of six shillings a day. This act was revived over and over again, generally at intervals of three years, with various additions and emendations. The Act of October 30, 1708, establishes not more than six days' work on the roads by the inhabitants each year, or a payment of three shillings for each day neglected. Thus was established the system of working the roads, which, in the course of two centuries, produced a lot of rural roads that were — and in many places are still — a disgrace to any community calling itself civilized.

The village of Harlem had been established in 1658 "for the promotion of agriculture and as a place of amusement for the citizens of New Amsterdam." Lovelace had established a ferry to the mainland in 1669 and encouraged the building of a road to connect New York and Harlem; this was completed before his first postman started on his trip. An Act of October 23, 1713 reads:

Whereas the High-ways and Post-Road through Manhattans Island leading from the City of New York to Kings Bridge . . . are become very Ruinous, and almost impassible, very dangerous to all Persons that pass those Ways ... Be it Enacted . . . from the Limits of the Harlem Patent, to the Causeway of Kings-Bridge, shall be, from time to time hereafter, cleared, repaired and amended by the Inhabitants of Harlem Division, as hath been formerly done.

This is the first mention of the road as a post road. An interesting Act was that of October 20, 1764, which, among other things, authorizes road surveyors "to plant Trees at proper Distances along the sides thereof, " and provides for the punishment of those who shall destroy or injure these trees, or any already planted in the streets of the city.

An Act of March 9, 1774, is entitled "An Act to prevent the breaking or defacing the Mile Stones now or hereafter to be erected in this Colony. " The penalty for so doing was three pounds sterling; but if done by a slave, he is to be "Committed to the Common Gaol and to receive thirty-nine lashes on the bare Back unless the said Forfeiture of three Pounds be paid within six Days after such Conviction. " An Act of March 19, 1774, uses the expression "from the King's Highway, or road, leading from New York to King's Bridge."

In the colonial laws of Connecticut, we find a highway act in the first printed code of the laws, that of 1673. It was practically the same in its tenor as that of New York, and it received extensions and revisions in the codes published in 1702 and 1715. We do not find, however, that reference is made at any of these dates to a post road of any kind or description; though that there were post riders will be seen from the Act of 1702, already given.

In Massachusetts, in 1631, Endicott at Salem could not visit Winthrop at Boston because he was too feeble to do the wading; in the following year, Winthrop visited Plymouth, being carried over the streams on the backs of his Indian guides. In 1634/5, the only way of getting from place to place was by means of the "trodden paths," as the Indian trails were known.

In 1639, the first general highways act was passed, which is of the same general tenor as that of New York, including the pernicious provision of working the roads. The Plymouth Path connecting Boston and Plymouth was laid out as a road, the same year, and ferries were also established. Shortly afterward, the Old Connecticut Path, which had doubtless existed for centuries as an Indian path, was established as a permanent thoroughfare by the General Court. Many of the settlements took the matter of highways and ferries into their own hands before the General Court acted; thus Watertown opened a road to Sudbury and Concord in 1638. This ordinance to lay out highways and rectify old ones marks the transition when the government of the white settlers subdues these wild paths and converts them into wheel tracks and roads easy for their trained animals.

The ordinance creating highways did not enforce itself, so that the towns were fined for failure to do their duty. In 1641, the control of ferries was remitted to the localities in which they were situated. The bridges were, at first, horse bridges only, with a rail on one side. Cart bridges are sometimes mentioned as early as 1669; but, after King Philip's War, they are mentioned more often.

The roads connecting the older settlements along the shore were in much better shape than the inland ones. The General Court was informed that the interior line between Boston and Connecticut was very dangerous and was encumbered with fallen trees and other obstructions, especially between Worcester and Brookfield. The post riders were obliged to make their way by the old Pequot Path — later, the King's Highway, or the post road — through Providence and the Narragansett country on the south shore, the route of Madam Knight. The interior line was bettered after 1700.

The trodden paths of the Indians, over which they went softly with moccasined feet, hardly leaving a trace of their passage, were followed by the whites until their heavy boots had cut into the soil and left well defined pathways. The earlier travelers carried packs upon their shoulders, but this method of carrying freight soon gave way to the pack-horse, and the trails widened. Then came the cart, and true, though very bad and clumsy, roads began. That they were difficult of passage, even until a late day, we shall see in the next chapter; but, as Weeden says:

At last, a true economy of life, a solid social intercourse, was fairly instituted when roads were opened and smoothed, when bridges spanned the intervening torrents, and warm inns offered shelter by the way. The journeying travelers joined village to village, and enlightened the farms as they went. The comfort and genial hospitality of these little shelters in a partial wilderness, where man's ways are strange and nature is oppressive, must be felt to be comprehended. The road, bridge and inn denote a society where people of like desires and tastes live, travel, commingle, trade and cultivate that fellowship which must drive out savagery, and must bring in civilization. The inn was an institution, and not a mere incident of travel and wayfare.

As early as 1650, an effort to improve transportation appears in the act of the Connecticut Colony in providing that twelve horses shall be kept in five towns for public use at fixed rates; and, in 1717, the exclusive privilege of running a wagon from Hartford to New Haven was granted to one of the citizens for a term of seven years. Throughout the colonies in general, express and regular messengers were employed, and horses were kept in readiness to start at a minute's notice.

From this time forward, there was a gradual, though slow, improvement in the main roads and routes of travel. This is shown in 1775 by the quickness with which the militia and minute-men responded to the alarm at Lexington, which they could not have done had the roads been exceedingly bad.

In 1737, William Bradford of Philadelphia, the printer, who was deputy postmaster-general under Colonel Spottswood of Virginia, was removed from office, and Benjamin Franklin was appointed in his stead. Through his efforts the postal service became a national and commercial feature of colonial life. But it was not until 1753, when Colonel Spottswood died and Franklin and Colonel William Hunter of Virginia succeeded him in joint commission from the English postmaster-general, that the postal service was developed to its best capacity. At this date, there was a line of posts from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina. The two incumbents of the office were to receive between them £600 a year, provided they could raise that sum from the net proceeds of the office, a sum that it had never paid before.

In the summer of 1753, Franklin began visiting all the post-offices in the country, except that of Charleston; and, after four years of close attention, during which the two postmasters were out of pocket, his systematic work began to tell, and the returns from the service paid the postmasters' salaries and gave a revenue to the crown three times more than that paid by the Irish post-office. Among the improvements were: the delivery of letters by penny post; newspapers had to pay post,— before they had been carried free, — and each mail subscriber had to pay nine pence a year for fifty, and eighteen pence for one hundred, miles of postal carriage; the speed of the riders was increased; and, as the post was established weekly in winter between New York and Boston, a letter could leave Philadelphia on Monday morning and be delivered in Boston on Saturday night. The post roads were still, to a great extent, bridle paths; though this was not the case with the Boston Road. The positions of the milestones that formerly marked the Post Road — a few of which are to be found along the route, even in New York City — were determined by Franklin himself by means of an ingenious attachment to the wheel of his wagon, which showed each mile traveled. The spot was marked by a stake, and the stone post with its appropriate inscription was planted by the workmen. These milestones became favorite places for the location of taverns, and the tavern-keepers abreast of whose houses the milestones were placed considered themselves lucky.

There is a story of two modern sons of the Emerald Isle running across one of these ancient milestones marked "35 Miles from Boston." The first one who noticed it reverently removed his hat and said to his companion: "Tread softly, Mike; the dead lies here. His name is Miles, he's thirty-five years old, and he's from Boston. "

Franklin was summarily dismissed from his position in 1774, and the revenues of the crown at once fell off to a deficit. We do not have to seek far for the reason of his removal when we consider his patriotic and earnest efforts for the rights of America. In 1775, Congress made him postmaster-general, and he made his son-in-law, Richard Bache, his deputy, and he was equally kind to the other members of his family in the matter of postal appointments. Under the new administration, mail riders were appointed and stationed twenty-five miles apart, to deliver from one to the other and to return to their starting places, traveling both night and day. During Franklin's absence abroad, after 1776, Bache acted in his place.

In 1775, after Franklin's removal, an independent post-office was established in New York, with John Holt the printer as postmaster. It is believed the "Sons of Liberty" were back of this movement, as they at once began sending threatening letters to prominent Tories.

All through colonial days, and even through the first decade of the nineteenth century, the mail was carried by post -riders on all the main post roads; and it was still a number of years more before they ceased carrying it on the out-of-the-way roads. The pony express, a picture of which figures on many of the documents and papers of the post office department of to-day, carried the mails over the western plains until 1870 or later. Most travelers who could do so traveled on horseback, sometimes accompanying the post-rider, as did Madam Knight. The roads generally were poor and unsuited for vehicles. Water furnished the cheapest and readiest, though not always the quickest, means of transportation from place to place; and there were regular lines of sloops connecting the more important places. One such line ran from New York by way of Long Island Sound to Providence, where stages were taken for Boston — this seems to have been the ancestor of the Sound lines to Boston. Other sloops sailed the Hudson to Albany, and to other places. Sometimes the trip could be made to Providence in three days; sometimes it would take three weeks. As there were no lighthouses, the vessels were obliged to anchor every night.

Light two-wheeled vehicles — chairs, gigs, chaises — were the usual means of getting about the difficult roads. No one, either in this country or abroad, ever thought of carriage riding for pleasure; though the custom was first started here and was copied abroad by the English and French officers who were in this country at the time of the war. Some of the great merchants and landowners had coaches for town use and even for traveling; but even then they preferred horseback and saddlebags to the discomforts of the roads. The horses generally were good animals, and not expensive; and the colonies developed some fine breeds. A traveler could buy a horse in one town, make his journey, and sell the animal at his destination for about what he had paid for it, his only expense being its upkeep on the road.

The post-riders were hardy men, who not only carried the mails but who directed travelers who accompanied them to the most convenient taverns and routes. They had to be hardy, for they were abroad in all kinds of weathers and seasons; yet that the life was a healthy one is shown in the careers of two of the riders, Deacon Peet of Stratford, who was post-rider for thirty-two years, and Ebenezer Hurd of the same place, who was post rider from 1727 to 1775, a period of forty-eight years. It was the latter who carried to New York the news of the battle of Lexington. They had to be honest and reliable, for they were often entrusted with valuable packages. Courage was another necessity; for the roads were dangerous, though, singularly enough, they were not bothered by highwaymen, as were the English roads of this period; yet, the Americans were not more virtuous — though we like to believe they were — than their British relatives. One reason for this was the fact that in England travelers carried with them sums of gold, silver, and bank-notes, while in America, the larger sums were carried in drafts or letters of credit. For a description of conditions of travel during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the reader is referred to Chapter III of Macaulay's History of England. The whole chapter, but the latter half especially, is well worth reading; and, though the descriptions are of England, they apply with a great deal of truth to the colonies.

The average day's journey of the post-riders was supposed to be from thirty to fifty miles in summer and considerably less in winter. As a matter of fact, they took their time in going over their stage, and there is one case of a post-rider who used to while away the tedium of his trip by knitting as he rode — this could hardly allow a very great speed. All postage collected between the terminals of their stage went into their own pockets; it was only the sealed bags that went untouched. They used to do all sorts of trading on their routes, although the law restricted them to the carriage of the mail. Ebenezer Hurd, who is mentioned above, carried on a money exchange to his own profit, and pocketed all way-postage. He was discovered by the English post-office surveyor, or inspector, upon one occasion, calmly waiting for a team of oxen that he was going to transfer for a customer. The letters were delivered in some tavern or bar, where anyone could look them over, and help himself to his or to any one's letters, if he chose. Is it any wonder that complaints were made of the slowness and uncertainty of the mails?

CHAPTER II. THE ERA OF THE STAGE COACH

IN the New York Journal of June 25, 1772, there appears the following advertisement:

The

Stage Coach

BETWEEN

New York and Boston

Which for the first time sets out this day from Mr. Fowler's Tavern (formerly kept by Mr. Stout) at Fresh Water in New York will continue to go the Course between Boston and New York so as to be at each of those places once a fortnight, coming in on Saturday evening and setting out to return by way of Hartford on Monday Morning. The price to Passengers will be 4d New York or 3d lawful Money per Mile and Baggage at a reasonable price.

Gentlemen and Ladies who choose to encourage this useful, new and expensive Undertaking, may depend upon good Usage, and that the Coach will always put up at Houses on the Road where the best Entertainment is provided . . . If on Trial, the Subscribers find Encouragement they will perform the Stage once a week, only altering the Day of setting out from New York and Boston to Thursday instead of Monday Morning.

Jonathan and Nicholas Brown.

That the subscribers found the " Encouragement " they desired is shown in the fact that within a short time two and three trips a week were made between the two cities, and a stage three times a week was established to Rye in Westchester County. The stage wagons were boxes mounted on springs, usually containing four seats, which accommodated eleven passengers and the driver. Protection from the weather was furnished by a canvas or leather-covered top with side curtains which were let down in inclement and cold weather. There were no backs to the seats, and the rear seat of all was the one usually preferred on account of the passengers being able to lean against the back of the wagon. If there were women passengers, they were usually allowed to occupy this seat. There were no side entrances to the vehicle, so that anyone getting in late had to climb over the passengers who had pre-empted the front seats.

Fourteen pounds of baggage were all that were allowed to the passenger to be carried free; all over that had to pay the same price per mile as a traveler. The baggage was placed under the seats, and was generally left unguarded when the stage stopped at taverns for meals or for change of horses. The roads were poor, the stage uncomfortable, and the whole journey was tiring and distressing; but we must remember that the people of those days were accustomed to inconveniences that we would not submit to now, though we have our own troubles in the way of strap-hanging in street cars and crowded conditions in subway and elevated trains.

Stages were suspended during the Revolution, but were resumed after the return of peace. In Washington's administration, two stages and twelve horses sufficed to carry all the travelers and goods passing between New York and Boston, then the two great commercial centers of the country. Delays in land travel were due principally to the badness of the roads, in which the ruts were deep and the descents precipitous. On summer days, about forty miles were covered; in winter, rarely more than twenty-five. In summer, the traveler was oppressed by the heat and half choked with the dust; in cold weather, he nearly froze.

Levi Pease, of whom we shall have more to say when we reach Shrewsbury in Massachusetts, started a line of coaches in 1783. Josiah Quincy went to New York in one of them in 1784 and gives a far from alluring picture of coaches in their earliest days. He says:

I set out from Boston on the line of stage lately established by an enterprising Yankee, Pease by name, which at that day was considered a method of transportation of wonderful expedition. The journey to New York took up a week. The carriages were old and shackling and much of the harness was made of ropes. One pair of horses carried the stage eighteen miles. We generally reached our resting place for the night, if no accident intervened, at ten o'clock and after a frugal supper went to bed with a notice that we should be called at three the next morning, which generally proved to be half past two. Then, whether it snowed or rained, the traveler must rise and make ready by the help of a horn-lantern and a farthing candle, and proceed on his way over bad roads, sometimes with a driver showing no doubtful symptoms of drunkenness, which good-hearted passengers never fail to improve at every stopping place by urging upon him another glass of toddy. Thus we traveled eighteen miles a stage, sometimes obliged to get out and help the coachman lift the coach out of a quagmire or rut, and arrived at New York after a week's hard traveling, wondering at the ease as well as the expedition of our journey.

Though passengers usually alighted and helped relieve the coach when it was stuck in a rut or mud-hole, they would rebel occasionally. There is a story of such a case of rebellion. It was impossible for the horses to pull the coach out, so the driver asked his passengers to alight; which they refused to do. They were astonished to see him sit down by the roadside and calmly light his pipe. They made anxious, and probably profane, remarks about his peculiar course of action, whereupon he replied: " Since them hosses can't pull thet kerrige out o' thet mudhole, an' ye wo'nt help, I'm a-goin' to wait till ih y mudhole dries up" The passengers alighted at once and helped.

For freight transportation, the Conestoga wagon was used. This had been used as early as Braddock's disastrous campaign, and it gradually came to be the great freight carrier of the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. In this latter, it was the prairie schooner of the western pioneer in which he found his way over the plains of the great West. There is a story of one of them that proudly bore the motto, "Pike's Peak, or Bust," as it rolled through Leavenworth, or one of the other outposts of civilization. Several months later, it was found upon the prairie, a deserted wreck, with its bold motto changed to " Busted! by thunder!" The Union Pacific and other western railroads sealed the doom of the Conestoga.

The wagon had its origin in Pennsylvania near the section from which it received its name. It was a great boat mounted on wheels, and it carried from four to six tons of freight, drawn by four or six horses. These came to be in time a magnificent breed; and the teams were made up of matched horses covered with fine harness to which bells were attached. After the construction of the National Road, or Cumberland Pike, it was no unusual thing to see a string of from fifteen to twenty of these wagons in one column, the horses of one team with their noses against the cover of the cart ahead. The wagons were covered with great canvas canopies, which protected the goods from the weather. While we associate the Conestoga wagon with the western roads, there is no doubt that it was also used upon our seaboard highways. It was too convenient and capable a freight carrier to escape the shrewd Yankee.

After the British evacuated New York, letters were sent to Boston thrice a week in summer and twice a week in winter. Six days were passed on the road; but at New Year's, when the snow lay deep, the post-riders from New York seldom saw the spires of Boston until the close of the ninth day. It was many years before the bulk and weight of the mails exceeded the capacity of a pair of saddle-bags. There was no security or protection for mails carried a long distance, as the post-riders opened and read all the letters; and there was no protection until the letters became too many to read. As a result, we find that many of our statesmen, Burr, Jefferson, Randolph, and others, were obliged to use cipher codes in communicating with their political friends or with other government officials. Burr had enough to answer for; but some of his detractors have used this fact of code letters to show the secretiveness of his character.

The average day's journey of the post -rider was from thirty to fifty miles; and it was not until Jefferson had been some time Secretary of State that, in a letter under date of March 28, 1792, he suggests seriously the possibility of sending letters one hundred miles a day. On the day when a post -rider was due in a village, a day that was not known by its calendar name but which was called "post-day," half of the inhabitants assembled at the distribution of the mails at the village inn. The weather was no deterrent. There were few or no letters that were emptied from the mail -bag upon the bar; the mail consisted of newspapers and news-letters. The postman was then carried to some one's home for a meal; where, amid the silence of his auditors, he dispensed the latest news and gossip gathered along the way.

The New York post-office was at first in the fort, where a locked box was kept for the deposit of mail matter; later, when postmasters were appointed, the mails closed on Saturday night so that they could be dispatched on Monday morning. After the Federal Government was established, President Washington appointed Sebastien Ballman postmaster, and the office was kept in his house, — which was also the house of the Postmaster-General, Theodorus Bailey, — at the corner of William and Garden streets. For a long time, it seems, it was customary for the postmaster to keep the post-office at his house; for we run across advertisements calling attention to the fact, and the hours during which the office is open. When yellow fever visited New York on several occasions, the post-office was removed a safe distance from the danger zone. Thus, it occupied the Rotunda in City Hall Park after the great fire of 1835 and during an epidemic in 1849.

On July 4, 1817, the post-office was opened in the basement of the recently erected Merchants' Exchange in Wall Street. On January 1, 1845, the Middle Reformed Dutch Church, on Nassau Street between Cedar and Liberty, was opened by the United States with the New York post-office. The church had been erected in 1729 and was used by the British during the Revolution for a riding-hall; the building was restored in 1790; rented for the post-office in 1845; sold in 1861 to the United States, and torn down in 1882, the post-office having been removed to the City Hall Park in 1875.

In 1789, the first Congress under the Constitution established one main post road from Portland (Maine) to Savannah, Georgia, with certain cross, or divergent, lines as feeders to the main road, or as lines to the interior of the country away from the seaboard; and post-offices were established at the same time. According to Gaines's New York Pocket Almanac for that year, the post-offices on the Upper Post Road from Boston to New York were Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield.

The almanacs of those old days were almost encyclopedic in the information they gave. Besides an elaborate ephemeris and calendar for the year, they gave the sitting of the different courts, remedies for injuries, stanzas of poetry, anecdotes, extracts from classical writers, curious happenings, bits of history, and, what is of importance to us, stage routes, taverns, and times of starting. It is from them that we glean a great deal of information concerning the old stage routes, of which there were three main lines between New York and Boston, which were called the Upper, the Middle, and the Lower — the Upper Road was also called the Western Road.

From various almanacs, we get the route of the Middle Road to be from Boston via the following: Roxbury, Dedham, Medfield, Medway, Bellingham (Hollister), Milford, Mendon, Uxbridge, Douglas (all in Massachusetts), Thompson, Pomfret, Ashford, Wilmington, Mansfield, Coventry, Bolton, East Hartford, Hartford, and then by the above route to New Haven and New York.

From the same sources, we find the Lower Road (called the Old Post Road to Boston in Gaines's Almanac for 1773) to be from New York to New Haven as above, thence via Branford, Guilford, Killingworth, Saybrook, Chaplins, New London, Col. Williams's, Westerly (R. I.), Hill's, Tower Hill, Newport, Bristol, Warwick, Providence, Attleborough (Mass.), Wrentham, Dedham, Boston. This route would require the passage of the stage over the ferries to Jamestown and Newport. Another route was down the west side of Narrangansett Bay. This was the one taken by Madam Knight. The traveler could also take another route from Providence by way of Norwich, Connecticut, thence to New London and along the shore road to New Haven and New York.

A reference to the map accompanying this chapter will show the three routes given above with the changes made between Harlem and New Rochelle, and those made between North Haven and Hartford. The taverns patronized by those using the Lower Road were in some cases different from those given above between New Haven and New York. We find some spelling that is not the same as that we use to-day. Stratford Ferry appears as Stafford Ferry, on several lists; Kingsbridge appears as Kingsbury, Mamaroneck appears as Marrineck and Maroneck; New Rochelle, as New Rochel. Harlem Heights is changed on one list to Halfway House, at the foot of McGown's Pass in Central Park. Bridgeport does not appear at all.

One will also notice on the list of the Upper Road that the same name occurs more than once among the tavernkeepers. Either the same party conducted taverns in different places, or the taverns were carried on by members of the same family. The latter is more apt to be the case, as in the olden days the landlord came into personal communication with his guest, whom he looked after and for whose comfort and well-being he felt himself responsible. In fact, the personality of the landlord had a great deal to do with the success of the tavern which he conducted.

Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round,

Where'er his stages may have been,

May sigh to think that he has found

His warmest welcome at an inn.

Shenstone.

There is sufficient evidence from English, French and American travelers of the colonial period to show that the landlord was a person of considerable importance in the community. He was often the captain of the train band of his village or town, and also frequently held other positions of importance, besides being the postmaster. The name tavern had a different signification in those days from what it does now, when we associate with it one idea only, that of selling liquor. In the earliest days of the colonies, each town was empowered to select a good responsible person for the keeping of an ordinary for the entertainment of travelers; and the colonial laws were very strict in regard to the conduct of the ordinary, even regulating the strength and price of the beer that was sold, and making it obligatory upon the landlord in some cases to report to the authorities any sojourner who stayed for more than a few days.

The tavern was the most important place in town; it was the gathering place to learn the news, it was the business exchange for the neighborhood, the place where bargains were made and prices learned and quoted. It was at once the town-hall and assembly room, the courthouse and the show-room, the hotel and the exchange. Itinerant actors and showmen gave their exhibitions in its public room, strange animals and curiosities were displayed at the tavern; here were the bulletin boards containing the lists of jurors, the notices of vendues, legal notices, rewards for runaway slaves or servants, for lost animals or other property, and the farmer's advertisements of what he had to sell or of what he wanted to buy. The taverns of New England were famous at the beginning of the nineteenth century for their neatness, cleanliness, and comfort, and for the excellence of the food; and this at a time, too, when all foreign travelers were commenting upon the carelessness, the crowded conditions, the filthiness, and discomfort of the taverns on the roads to the rapidly developing West.

In 1773, the Thursday's post went by way of Hartford to Boston and the regular post stages went over the same route. During the Revolution, the stages were suspended. In 1789, they left the stage office kept by Charles Beekman in Cortlandt Street, New York on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and arrived there from Boston on the same days. That the post-riders still continued their work is shown by notice of the same year that the Eastern and Northern posts set out from New York, from November first to May first, on Wednesday evening at nine o'clock and on Sunday evening at eight o'clock, and return Wednesday and Saturday evenings at six o'clock. From May first to November first, they set out Tuesday and Thursday evenings at nine o'clock, and on Sunday at eight o'clock, and return on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings at seven o'clock.

In 1790, the Boston stage sets off from Mr. Isaac Norton's stage office, 160 Queen [Pearl] Street, every Monday and Wednesday morning at five o'clock, until May first, when the summer season begins, and the stages leave on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at four o'clock.

From the Boston end of the line, we get for 1800 that the mail stage by way of Worcester and Hartford sets out from Pease's stage office in State Street every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at ten A.M. during the summer season, and arrives in New York every Thursday, Saturday, and Tuesday at noon. It leaves New York the same days and hours that it does Boston. In the winter schedule, the stage arrives in Boston Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 10 a.m., " except when the traveling is good, it arrives in Boston Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings." There is also notice of the "Old Line Stage" leaving the same office on the intervening days, with the following postscript:

N. B. The roads from Boston to Newhaven, by way of Worcefter and Hartford, are the beft; and by late actual meafurement the diftance is 14 miles lefs than was formerly reckoned. The price of each paffenger in the Mail Stage is 6 cents and a quarter for each mile, and 5 and a half cents in the Old Line. The whole paffage from Newhaven to Boston, 155 miles. The price in the Mails 9 dols. and 87 cents; in the Old Line 8 dols. 75 cents; Toll Bridges and Turnpikes are paid by the proprietors.

This meant that the fast stage carrying the mail went direct from Hartford to Worcester, without passing through Springfield. The New York stage via Providence, called the "southern line," left from Exchange Tavern in State Street.

Samuel Breck of Boston and Philadelphia, writing of New York after his return from several years spent in France, says: