In several previous posts, comparisons of the capabilities of steamboats and trains have been discussed. This article will center on the different modes of travel in Beaver County roadways 200 years ago. About that time steamboats could move freight and passengers more than 250 miles per day down river and about half the distance against the current. By 1850 only 9,000 miles of railroads had been built. Usually, the lines were short linking two points. The Appalachian Mountains and river crossings were major obstacles for city to city connections. The major development of railroads to the west took place between 1850-1890.
On roadways before 1850, there were five general classes of traffic: drovers with their herds, freight wagons, stagecoaches, single riders on horseback, and people on foot.
Cattle, hogs and turkeys were driven about 5 miles daily. Then the animals were turned to pasture. Horses, generally tied four abreast, were driven in large number east much faster. Fields near taverns along the route would be filled with live stock. Today. it’ s hard to image the amount of livestock traffic that traveled over highways. The three primary destinations for the drovers were Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. A register book of the Union Hotel in Bedford, PA verifies the amount of traffic. According to the hotel register, on 8 Aug 1848, Henley, a drover from Ohio checked in with 125 head of cattle. The following day AW Bryson of Mahoning Co, OH had 148 head of cattle. On 22 Aug 1848, James Floyd of Beaver Co was “going east with six horses”. [1] The Union Hotel was one of many taverns and inns along the multiple routes east.
Freight wagons, often called Conestoga wagons because they were first built in Conestoga, Lancaster Co, PA, were huge and numerous on the turnpikes in PA. They could carry five or more tons of manufactured goods west. The large wagon returned east seldom empty often loaded with grains and other farm products and iron bars from the foundries. The Conestoga wagons were fitted with a high canvass roofs and wide metal rimmed wheels. Drawn by teams of four or six horses, a normal day’s travel was about fifteen miles. Each driver was proud of his team. Like packet deck hands, they were a rowdy group who made quite a scene at taverns with their blacksnake whips and vile oaths.
Stagecoaches could carry eight passengers inside and three seated on top with the drivers. On good roads the stages could travel eight to twelve miles per hour. The four horse teams were changed about every twelve to fifteen miles. On 31 Dec 1850, a news advertisement in the Bedford Enquirer listed a new stagecoach service from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. [2] The service had ten luxurious stages that would complete the route in three days.
A single rider on horseback without changing rides would average about twenty miles per day.
Often families on foot would be seen walking westward seeking friends or relatives and a place to start a life. A single man on foot could match the distance of horseback rider. Families moved much slower.
At this time steamboats could transport hundreds of passengers and hundreds of tons of freight hundreds of miles along the riverways.
Reference.
[1] Whisker, Vaughn E, Tales from the Allegheny Foothills, Vol IV. 1975.
[2] Whisker, Vaughn E, Tales from the Allegheny Foothills, Vol III. 1975
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