Railroad Routes in the Alleghenies, Part V

The Pathfinders

Stephen Harriman Long 1784-1864

Christopher Gist Employee of the Ohio Company of Virginia, Gist took a huge jaunt from Wills Creek to the Falls of the Ohio, back through the Kanawha Valley and up the Allegheny ridge valleys back to Cumberland, at a time when no official English group had been west of the Blue Ridge. His purpose was to scout and claim the Ohio Valley for the stock company that included George Washington as an investor. When Gist made his journey, he was in danger from both Indians and the French. His dairy reports that his cargo of 'milk' (code for rum) was to ease the way with the Indians. See Christopher Gist's Journal (you need Acrobat)

Nemacolin Shawnee chief who is credited with blazing the Nemacolin Trail with Gist, some think that the trail was named in his honor with other braves actually marking out the trail. The trail became Braddock's Road from Cumberland to Redstone and roughly the National Road

George Washington Surveyor for Fairfax, Virginia military commander at Wills Creek. Washington's earlier perilous trip to Fort LeBoeuf in the early 1750's to warn the French to abandon the Ohio Valley gives one even more respect for this amazing man. One of Washington's traits was to record his travels in a journal. From them we see a multifaceted man with skills honed from farming and surveying. One of his abilities was judging the fertility of the soil by the type of trees predominating. In a trip to view his holdings west of the Alleghenies in 1784, Washington took time to try to find a water route between the Monongahela and the Potomac using the Cheat River. Some speculate he was in the wild region north of present day Albright. Washington reported he met men with packhorses of ginseng heading for markets "below" and that all reported that the country was rough and a "good way was not found".

Colonel Stephen H.Long Army Topograhical Engineer-earlier in his career he led the 3rd expedition of the West (after Lewis & Clark and Zebulon Pike). His expedition was by steamboat ending far up the Missouri in Yellowstone country. The steamboat was built to resemble a dragon to impress the Indians. Accounts of another overland expedition to the Rockies was used as inspiration for Cooper's Prairie.. Long was later involved in surveys of "national roads". In the First Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Pennyslvania Rail-Road Company (1848), J Edgar Thompson list S.H. Long as the discoverer of Sugar Run Gap, the route ultimately chosen by the PRR to cross the spine of Allegheny Mountain. In Long's report on a DC to Buffalo road, Long first espoused his theory of Equated Distances. In its essense, the theory said it was better to go longer for a lower grade, with a mathematical way to determine the equated distance of a grade. This simple but important concept allows mile-long trains to use the grades laid out in the 1820's. No better man could be in the employee of the B&O to find its way across the Alleghenies.

Isaac Ridgeway Trimble Army Engineer and amateur writer, Trimble's gave vivid descriptions of the wild Alleghenies.Isaac Ridgeway Trimble was born in Culpeper , Virginia, on May 15, 1802. Graduating from West Point in 1822, he served in ordnance and topographical duties until 1832, when he resigned. Trimble spent the next 29 years as chief engineer and superintendent for several railroads in the East and South. By 1863, Trimble was a Major General in the Army of Northern Virginia, and the highest ranking Marylander in the Confederacy. When Robert E. Lee led his army into Pennsylvania in June of 1863, Trimble was in command of a brigade of about fifteen hundred men. But because General Dorsey Pender was wounded on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Trimble took command of Pender's division of four thousand men in time to take part in Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863. General Trimble was badly wounded and captured by the Union army at Gettysburg. He survived the war, however, and when it was over, returned to Baltimore and his civilian career as an engineer.

David Shriver Allegany County pioneer and amateur surveyor- Shriver was in the Glades before the official surveys looking for a way west. The second son of David Shriver, Sr., was born at Little Pipe Creek, Md. He was married to Eve, daughter of Jacob Sherman of Westminster, Md. At the commencement of his business career he was associated with his brother Andrew in the improvement of the property at Union Mills. He relinquished his interest in the business therein order to accept the appointment of superintendent of the location and construction of the Reisterstown turnpike. Upon the completion of this work he was appointed by the Government to superintend the location and construction of the National road from Cumberland, Md., to Wheeling, W. Va. In this connection he was charged with the disbursement of the money expended in the construction of the road. After this, he was commissioned by Government to make the surveys for the extension of the National turnpike beyond Wheeling to St. Louis, Mo. This office he subsequently resigned; and was then appointed by the president, with General Bernard and Colonel McCrea, Commissioner of Public Works; in this relation he continued for some time in Government service. On retiring from this office he changed his residence from Wheeling to Cumberland, where he engaged in business; and was mainly instrumental in the re-establishment of the Cumberland Bank, of which he was made president, serving in this capacity until the time of his death.

Jonathan Knight National Road and B&O Engineer

Benjamin Latrobe B&O Engineer

William Swann Army Surveyor

William Gibbs McNeill Army Surveyor He graduated from the USMA, West Point, NY in 1817, and served on topographical duty in the engineer corps from 1817 to 1823. He was promoted 2nd lieutenant of artillery on 1 March 1818, 1st lieutenant in 1819, and 1st lieutenant in the 1st Artillery on the reorganization of the army in 1821. He served on the survey of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 1824-26; the Kanawha, James and Roanoke rivers in Virginia in 1827; the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 1827 and was a member of the board of civil engineers during the construction of the road, 1827-30. In November 1828, with George W. Whistler and Jonathan Knight, he was sent by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to study the railroad system in Great Britain. He was chief engineer of many railroads including Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad, 1830-36, Paterson and Hudson River railroad, NJ, 1831-34; and Boston and Providence railroad, 1832-35; Providence and Stonington, 1832-37. He was brevetted Major in 1833, but resigned from the US army in 1837, to become chief engineer of the state of Georgia, and he surveyed the route for a railroad from Charleston, SC, to Louisville, KY, and thence to Cincinnati, Ohio, 1837-40. He was president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company, 1842-43. He was chief-engineer of the Brooklyn navy yard dry dock, 1842-45. He was made a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of London, 4 May 1852; the first American to be so honoured.

Henry Gassaway Davis WVC&P RR founder. Born near Woodstock, Howard County, Md., November 16, 1823. Davis recalls in his autobiography sitting on a relative's shoulders and watching the the historic laying of the B&O cornerstone. Davis started life in a comfortable setting and was able to attend country schools. This was to change with the death of his father. His father was a contractor for the very early B&O railroad who co-signed some notes for other contractors. When those contractors defaulted, the elder Davis was ruined financially and the stress was a factor in his early death. The seeds of a love/hate realtionship with the B&O was sown in the younger Davis. He had to quit school to help support his family by working on a nearby farm unitl he was 20. Davis then began a fourteen year career as brakeman and conductor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. As a conducter,he recommended and was responsible for the first nighttime passenger train. Davis reached the zenith of his B&O career as agent at Piedmont, Virginia which included being in charge of the Piedmont terminal and shops.
It was in Piedmont that he commenced his independent banking business and the coal mining pursuits in 1858. The B&O left the North Branch of the Potomac at Piedmont to climb up to the Eastern Continental Divide via Savage River and Crabtree Creek. The remainder of the North Branch to its source at Fairfax Stone was wild, unexplored country. As agent, Davis was responsible for getting business to the B&O. He did this by building a railroad and opening the remote river valley to mines and sawmills. Meshach Browning, the famed Garrett County hunter considered the high plateau around the Fairfax Stone to be true wilderness- this coming from someone hunting for bears, mountain lions and wolves in the immediate area around his home. With no government help, Davis starting building his West Virginia Central and Pittsburg to Elk Garden and its 14 foot seam of coal. By this time, Davis had entered the new state of West Virginia's politics and eventually he would use every political connection possible to finance his road. Gorman, Bayard and Elkins were all US Senators that would have stations named after them. The last named man, Stephen Elkins was also to become Davis' son-in-law and business partner.
Besides being a West Virginia resident, Davis also built a home on a farm in Garrett County. From the farm Davis built a mule-powered tram road deep into the hemlock forest around Swallow Falls and Deep Creek. This early logging road predated the later large logging operations in Garrett County by decades. His relationship with the B&O was such that he pursuaded President Garrett to develop the area around Davis' farm as Deer Park, the railroads premier resort. In it heyday, Deer Park was the destination for the rich and famous, including Presidents (railroad and otherwise). Henry Gassaway Davis was probably Garrett County most prominent historical figure, however many people from that locale probably never heard of him. Mr. Caulderwood related to the author the respect that the people around Deer Park had for this amazing man.
From the mountain top towns of Thomas and Davis, West Virginia, Davis headed his railroad down the rugged Blackwater Canyon. As the railroad proceeded to new timber and coal mining area, Davis eventually relocated to another town he founded, Elkins, West Virginia. Later in life, Davis built the Coal & Coke Railway of West Virginia, 200 miles from Elkins to Charleston, which some felt was his undoing. Davis' West Virginia Central and Pittsburg was sold to George Gould in 1902 in a grand scheme to build a truly transcontinental railroad. The well known story of the Pennsylvania Railroad shafting Gould resulted in Davis' road being blended into the restructured Western Maryland Railway. The Coal & Coke went to the B&O. Davis died in 1916 and was buried in Elkins.

Political career-elected to the house of delegates of West Virginia in 1865; member, State senate 1868, 1870; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1871; reelected in 1877 and served from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1883; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1882; chairman, Committee on Appropriations (Forty-sixth Congress); settled in Elkins, Randolph County, W.Va., where he resumed his banking and coal mining interests; represented the United States at the Pan American conferences of 1889 and 1901; unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1904; chairman of the permanent Pan American Railway Committee 1901-1916.

Davis Coal and Coke-Businessman and politician, Henry Gassaway Davis was largely responsible for the boom experienced in the area beginning in 1883. Tucker County was a vast wilderness until Davis, with help of his brothers, began pursuing the rich coal resources on the banks of the North Fork of the Blackwater River. The brothers realized that the coal and timber resources could only be developed with technology. Davis brought the railroad from Elkins through Thomas in 1884.(ed.note-the railroad actually was built from Thomas to Elkins) Coal from the first deep mine was ready to be loaded by the time the track was completed. By 1892, Davis Coal and Coke Company was among the largest and best known coal companies in the world.
An experiment with two coke ovens in 1887 determined that the coal was excellent for coking. Coke is the purest of coal byproducts and was the most valuable at the time. Two years following the experiment the company had constructed over 500 “beehive” coke ovens along the mile and a half rail line between Thomas and Douglas. The ovens were fed by horse-drawn cars on tracks that lead from the mine tipples. The ovens burned 250 days a year and produced 200,000 tons of coke in a single year.
Davis Coal and Coke Company, headquartered in Coketon, reached peak production in 1910. The company controlled 135,000 acres, employed 1600 men of 16 nationalities, operated two power plants, and worked over 1000 coke ovens and 9 mines within one square mile of the central office. The town of Thomas boasted the grandest railway station between Cumberland, Maryland and Elkins, West Virginia. The Buxton and Landstreet Store in Coketon was considered the finest building in all the county. It had white tile bricks, ornamental ceilings, graceful columns, and many electric lights. Front Street in Thomas was laid with brick to become the first paved street in the county. From Northfork History Page

...

© Dave Cathell

Part I Part II Map 1835

Cumberland West No West End? Pathfinders

PA Routes Railroute Photos Reserved

To be continued....

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Christopher Gist	Employee of the Ohio Company of Virginia, Gist took a huge jaunt from Wills Creek to the Falls of the Ohio, back through the Kanawha Valley and up the Allegheny ridge valleys back to Cumberland, at a time when no official English group had been west of the Blue Ridge. His purpose was to scout and claim the Ohio Valley for the stock company that included George Washington as an investor. When Gist made his journey, he was in danger from both Indians and the French. His dairy reports that his cargo of 'milk' (code for rum) was to ease the way with the Indians. See Christopher Gist's Journal (you need Acrobat)
Nemacolin	Shawnee chief who is credited with blazing the Nemacolin Trail with Gist, some think that the trail was named in his honor with other braves actually marking out the trail. The trail became Braddock's Road from Cumberland to Redstone and roughly the National Road
George Washington	Surveyor for Fairfax, Virginia military commander at Wills Creek. Washington's earlier perilous trip to Fort LeBoeuf in the early 1750's to warn the French to abandon the Ohio Valley gives one even more respect for this amazing man. One of Washington's traits was to record his travels in a journal. From them we see a multifaceted man with skills honed from farming and surveying. One of his abilities was judging the fertility of the soil by the type of trees predominating. In a trip to view his holdings west of the Alleghenies in 1784, Washington took time to try to find a water route between the Monongahela and the Potomac using the Cheat River. Some speculate he was in the wild region north of present day Albright. Washington reported he met men with packhorses of ginseng heading for markets "below" and that all reported that the country was rough and a "good way was not found".
Colonel Stephen H.Long	Army Topograhical Engineer-earlier in his career he led the 3rd expedition of the West (after Lewis & Clark and Zebulon Pike). His expedition was by steamboat ending far up the Missouri in Yellowstone country. The steamboat was built to resemble a dragon to impress the Indians. Accounts of another overland expedition to the Rockies was used as inspiration for Cooper's *Prairie.. Long was later involved in surveys of "national roads". In the First Annual Report of the Chief Engineer of the Pennyslvania Rail-Road Company (1848), J Edgar Thompson list S.H. Long as the discoverer of Sugar Run Gap, the route ultimately chosen by the PRR to cross the spine of Allegheny Mountain. In Long's report on a DC to Buffalo road, Long first espoused his theory of Equated Distances*. In its essense, the theory said it was better to go longer for a lower grade, with a mathematical way to determine the equated distance of a grade. This simple but important concept allows mile-long trains to use the grades laid out in the 1820's. No better man could be in the employee of the B&O to find its way across the Alleghenies.
Isaac Ridgeway Trimble	Army Engineer and amateur writer, Trimble's gave vivid descriptions of the wild Alleghenies.Isaac Ridgeway Trimble was born in Culpeper , Virginia, on May 15, 1802. Graduating from West Point in 1822, he served in ordnance and topographical duties until 1832, when he resigned. Trimble spent the next 29 years as chief engineer and superintendent for several railroads in the East and South. By 1863, Trimble was a Major General in the Army of Northern Virginia, and the highest ranking Marylander in the Confederacy. When Robert E. Lee led his army into Pennsylvania in June of 1863, Trimble was in command of a brigade of about fifteen hundred men. But because General Dorsey Pender was wounded on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Trimble took command of Pender's division of four thousand men in time to take part in Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863. General Trimble was badly wounded and captured by the Union army at Gettysburg. He survived the war, however, and when it was over, returned to Baltimore and his civilian career as an engineer.
David Shriver	Allegany County pioneer and amateur surveyor- Shriver was in the Glades before the official surveys looking for a way west. The second son of David Shriver, Sr., was born at Little Pipe Creek, Md. He was married to Eve, daughter of Jacob Sherman of Westminster, Md. At the commencement of his business career he was associated with his brother Andrew in the improvement of the property at Union Mills. He relinquished his interest in the business therein order to accept the appointment of superintendent of the location and construction of the Reisterstown turnpike. Upon the completion of this work he was appointed by the Government to superintend the location and construction of the National road from Cumberland, Md., to Wheeling, W. Va. In this connection he was charged with the disbursement of the money expended in the construction of the road. After this, he was commissioned by Government to make the surveys for the extension of the National turnpike beyond Wheeling to St. Louis, Mo. This office he subsequently resigned; and was then appointed by the president, with General Bernard and Colonel McCrea, Commissioner of Public Works; in this relation he continued for some time in Government service. On retiring from this office he changed his residence from Wheeling to Cumberland, where he engaged in business; and was mainly instrumental in the re-establishment of the Cumberland Bank, of which he was made president, serving in this capacity until the time of his death.
Jonathan Knight	National Road and B&O Engineer
Benjamin Latrobe	B&O Engineer
William Swann	Army Surveyor
William Gibbs McNeill	Army Surveyor He graduated from the USMA, West Point, NY in 1817, and served on topographical duty in the engineer corps from 1817 to 1823. He was promoted 2nd lieutenant of artillery on 1 March 1818, 1st lieutenant in 1819, and 1st lieutenant in the 1st Artillery on the reorganization of the army in 1821. He served on the survey of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, 1824-26; the Kanawha, James and Roanoke rivers in Virginia in 1827; the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in 1827 and was a member of the board of civil engineers during the construction of the road, 1827-30. In November 1828, with George W. Whistler and Jonathan Knight, he was sent by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company to study the railroad system in Great Britain. He was chief engineer of many railroads including Baltimore and Susquehanna railroad, 1830-36, Paterson and Hudson River railroad, NJ, 1831-34; and Boston and Providence railroad, 1832-35; Providence and Stonington, 1832-37. He was brevetted Major in 1833, but resigned from the US army in 1837, to become chief engineer of the state of Georgia, and he surveyed the route for a railroad from Charleston, SC, to Louisville, KY, and thence to Cincinnati, Ohio, 1837-40. He was president of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company, 1842-43. He was chief-engineer of the Brooklyn navy yard dry dock, 1842-45. He was made a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of London, 4 May 1852; the first American to be so honoured.
Henry Gassaway Davis	WVC&P RR founder. Born near Woodstock, Howard County, Md., November 16, 1823. Davis recalls in his autobiography sitting on a relative's shoulders and watching the the historic laying of the B&O cornerstone. Davis started life in a comfortable setting and was able to attend country schools. This was to change with the death of his father. His father was a contractor for the very early B&O railroad who co-signed some notes for other contractors. When those contractors defaulted, the elder Davis was ruined financially and the stress was a factor in his early death. The seeds of a love/hate realtionship with the B&O was sown in the younger Davis. He had to quit school to help support his family by working on a nearby farm unitl he was 20. Davis then began a fourteen year career as brakeman and conductor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. As a conducter,he recommended and was responsible for the first nighttime passenger train. Davis reached the zenith of his B&O career as agent at Piedmont, Virginia which included being in charge of the Piedmont terminal and shops. It was in Piedmont that he commenced his independent banking business and the coal mining pursuits in 1858. The B&O left the North Branch of the Potomac at Piedmont to climb up to the Eastern Continental Divide via Savage River and Crabtree Creek. The remainder of the North Branch to its source at Fairfax Stone was wild, unexplored country. As agent, Davis was responsible for getting business to the B&O. He did this by building a railroad and opening the remote river valley to mines and sawmills. Meshach Browning, the famed Garrett County hunter considered the high plateau around the Fairfax Stone to be true wilderness- this coming from someone hunting for bears, mountain lions and wolves in the immediate area around his home. With no government help, Davis starting building his West Virginia Central and Pittsburg to Elk Garden and its 14 foot seam of coal. By this time, Davis had entered the new state of West Virginia's politics and eventually he would use every political connection possible to finance his road. Gorman, Bayard and Elkins were all US Senators that would have stations named after them. The last named man, Stephen Elkins was also to become Davis' son-in-law and business partner. Besides being a West Virginia resident, Davis also built a home on a farm in Garrett County. From the farm Davis built a mule-powered tram road deep into the hemlock forest around Swallow Falls and Deep Creek. This early logging road predated the later large logging operations in Garrett County by decades. His relationship with the B&O was such that he pursuaded President Garrett to develop the area around Davis' farm as Deer Park, the railroads premier resort. In it heyday, Deer Park was the destination for the rich and famous, including Presidents (railroad and otherwise). Henry Gassaway Davis was probably Garrett County most prominent historical figure, however many people from that locale probably never heard of him. Mr. Caulderwood related to the author the respect that the people around Deer Park had for this amazing man. From the mountain top towns of Thomas and Davis, West Virginia, Davis headed his railroad down the rugged Blackwater Canyon. As the railroad proceeded to new timber and coal mining area, Davis eventually relocated to another town he founded, Elkins, West Virginia. Later in life, Davis built the Coal & Coke Railway of West Virginia, 200 miles from Elkins to Charleston, which some felt was his undoing. Davis' West Virginia Central and Pittsburg was sold to George Gould in 1902 in a grand scheme to build a truly transcontinental railroad. The well known story of the Pennsylvania Railroad shafting Gould resulted in Davis' road being blended into the restructured Western Maryland Railway. The Coal & Coke went to the B&O. Davis died in 1916 and was buried in Elkins. Political career-elected to the house of delegates of West Virginia in 1865; member, State senate 1868, 1870; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1871; reelected in 1877 and served from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1883; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1882; chairman, Committee on Appropriations (Forty-sixth Congress); settled in Elkins, Randolph County, W.Va., where he resumed his banking and coal mining interests; represented the United States at the Pan American conferences of 1889 and 1901; unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1904; chairman of the permanent Pan American Railway Committee 1901-1916. Davis Coal and Coke-Businessman and politician, Henry Gassaway Davis was largely responsible for the boom experienced in the area beginning in 1883. Tucker County was a vast wilderness until Davis, with help of his brothers, began pursuing the rich coal resources on the banks of the North Fork of the Blackwater River. The brothers realized that the coal and timber resources could only be developed with technology. Davis brought the railroad from Elkins through Thomas in 1884.(ed.note-the railroad actually was built from Thomas to Elkins) Coal from the first deep mine was ready to be loaded by the time the track was completed. By 1892, Davis Coal and Coke Company was among the largest and best known coal companies in the world. An experiment with two coke ovens in 1887 determined that the coal was excellent for coking. Coke is the purest of coal byproducts and was the most valuable at the time. Two years following the experiment the company had constructed over 500 “beehive” coke ovens along the mile and a half rail line between Thomas and Douglas. The ovens were fed by horse-drawn cars on tracks that lead from the mine tipples. The ovens burned 250 days a year and produced 200,000 tons of coke in a single year. Davis Coal and Coke Company, headquartered in Coketon, reached peak production in 1910. The company controlled 135,000 acres, employed 1600 men of 16 nationalities, operated two power plants, and worked over 1000 coke ovens and 9 mines within one square mile of the central office. The town of Thomas boasted the grandest railway station between Cumberland, Maryland and Elkins, West Virginia. The Buxton and Landstreet Store in Coketon was considered the finest building in all the county. It had white tile bricks, ornamental ceilings, graceful columns, and many electric lights. Front Street in Thomas was laid with brick to become the first paved street in the county. From Northfork History Page

Part I	Part II	Map 1835
Cumberland West	No West End?	Pathfinders
PA Routes	Railroute Photos	Reserved

Railroad Routes in the Alleghenies, Part V The Pathfinders

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Railroad Routes in the Alleghenies, Part V

The Pathfinders