The Old Glade (Forbes's) Road (Pennsylvania State Road)

When, in the middle of the eighteenth century, intelligent white men were beginning to cross the Allegheny Mountains and enter the Ohio basin, one of the most practicable routes was found to be an old trading path which ran almost directly west from Philadelphia to the present site of Pittsburg. According to the Indians it was the easiest route from the Atlantic slope through the dense laurel wildernesses to the Ohio.[1] The course of this path is best described by the route of the old state road of Pennsylvania to Pittsburg built in the first half-decade succeeding the Revolutionary War. This road passed through Shippensburg, Carlisle, Bedford, Ligonier, and Greensburg; the Old Trading Path passed, in general, through the same points. Comparing this path, which became Forbes's Road, with Nemacolin's path which ran parallel with it, converging on the same point on the Ohio, one might say that the former was the overland path, and the latter, strictly speaking, a portage path. The Old Trading Path offered no portage between streams, as Nemacolin's path did between the Potomac and Monongahela. It kept on higher, dryer ground and crossed no river of importance. This made it the easiest and surest course; in the wintry season, when the Youghiogheny and Monongahela and their tributaries were out of banks, the Old Trading Path must have been by far the safest route to the Ohio; it kept to the high ground between the Monongahela and Allegheny. It was the high ground over which this path ran that the unfortunate Braddock attempted to reach after crossing the Youghiogheny at Stewart's Crossing. The deep ravines drove him back. There is little doubt he would have been successful had he reached this watershed and proceeded to Fort Duquesne upon the Old Trading Path.

As is true of so many great western routes, so of this path--the bold Christopher Gist was the first white man of importance to leave reliable record of it. In 1750 he was employed to go westward for the Ohio Company. His outward route, only, is of importance here.[2] On Wednesday, October 31, he departed from Colonel Cresap's near Cumberland, Maryland and proceeded "along an old old Indian Path N 30 E about 11 Miles."[3] This led him along the foot of the Great Warrior Mountain, through the Flintstone district of Allegheny County, Maryland. The path ran onward into Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and through Warrior's Gap to the Juniata River. Here, near the old settlement Bloody Run, now Everett, the path joined the well-worn thoroughfare running westward familiarly known as the "Old Trading Path." Eight miles westward of this junction, near the present site of Bedford, a well-known trail to the Allegheny valley left the Old Trading Path and passed through the Indian Frank's Town and northwest to the French Venango--Franklin, Pennsylvania. Leaving this on his right, Gist pushed on west over the Old Trading Path. "Snow and such bad Weather" made his progress slow; from the fifth to the ninth he spent between what are now Everett in Bedford County and Stoyestown in Somerset County.[4] On the eleventh he crossed the north and east Forks of Quemahoning--often called "Cowamahony" in early records.[5] On the twelfth he "crossed a great Laurel Mountain"--Laurel Hill. On the fourteenth he "set out N 45 W 6 M to Loylhannan an old Indian Town on a Creek of Ohio called Kiscominatis, then N 1 M NW 1 M to an Indian's Camp on the said Creek."[6] The present town of Ligonier, Westmoreland County, occupies the site of this Indian settlement. "Laurel-hanne, signifying the middle stream in the Delaware tongue. The stream here is half way between the Juniata at Bedford and the Ohio [Pittsburg]."[7] Between here and the Ohio, Gist mentions no proper names. The path ran northwest from the present site of Ligonier, through Chestnut Ridge "at the Miller's Run Gap, and reached the creek again at the Big Bottom below the present town of Latrobe on the Pennsylvania Central Railway; there the trail forked ... the main trail [traveled by Gist], led directly westward to Shannopin's Town, by a course parallel with and a few miles north of the Pennsylvania Railway."[8]

The following table of distances from Carlisle to Pittsburg was presented to the Pennsylvania Council March 2, 1754:

MILES From Carlisle to Major Montour's 10 From Montour's to Jacob Pyatt's 25 From Pyatt's to George Croghan's at Aucquick Old Town[9] 15 From Croghan's to the Three Springs 10 From the Three Springs to Sideling Hill 7 From Sideling Hill to Contz's Harbour 8 From Contz's Harbour to the top of Ray's Hill 1 From Ray's Hill to the 1 crossing of Juniata[10] 10 From 1 crossing of Juniata to Allaquapy's Gap[11] 6 From Allaquapy's Gap to Ray's town[12] 5 From Ray's town to the Shawonese Cabbin[13] 8 From Shawonese Cabbins to the Top of Allegheny Mountain 8 From Allegheny Mountain to Edmund's Swamp[14] 8 From Edmund's Swamp to Cowamahony Creek[15] 6 From Cowamahony to Kackanapaulins 5 From Kackanapaulins To Loyal Hanin[16] foot Ray's Hill 18 From Loyal Hanin to Shanoppin's Town[17] 50

By this early measurement the total distance between Carlisle to Pittsburg by the Indian path was one hundred and ninety miles; ninety-seven miles from Carlisle to Raystown and ninety-three miles from Raystown to Pittsburg.[18] When it is remembered that this was the original Indian track totally uninfluenced by the white man's attention it is interesting to note that the great state road of Pennsylvania from Carlisle to Pittsburg, laid out in 1785, so nearly followed the Indian route that its length between those points (in 1819) was just one hundred and ninety-seven miles--seven miles longer[19] than that of the prehistoric trace of Indian and buffalo. Perhaps there is no more significant instance of the practicability of Indian routes in the United States than this. The very fact that the Indian path was not very much shorter than the first state road shows that it was distinctively a utilitarian course. One interested in this significant comparison will be glad to compare the courses of the old path and that of the state road as given by the compass.[20]

Other references to the Old Trading Path are made by such traders as George Croghan and John Harris. Croghan wrote to Richard Peters, March 23, 1754: "The road we now travel ... from Laurel Hill to Shanopens (near the forks of the Ohio), is but 46 miles, as the road now goes, which I suppose may be 30 odd miles on a straight line."[21] In an "Account of the Road to Loggs Town on Allegheny River, taken by John Harris, 1754" this itinerary is given:

"From Ray's Town to the Shawana Cabbins 8 M To Edmund's Swamp 8 M To Stoney Creek 6 M To Kickener Paulin's House, (Indian) 6 M To the Clear Fields 7 M To the other side of the Laurel Hill 5 M To Loyal Haning 6 M To the Big Bottom 8 M To the Chestnut Ridge 8 M To the parting of the Road[22] 4 M Thence one Road leads to Shannopin's Town the other to Kisscomenettes, old Town."[23]

So much for the Old Trading Path before the memorable year of 1755. It is significant that the route had already been "surveyed"; Pennsylvania herself desired a share of the Indian trade which Virginia hoped to monopolize through her Ohio Company, which already had storehouses built at Wills Creek on the Cumberland and at Redstone Old Fort on the Monongahela. But with the beginning of hostilities with the French, precipitated by Washington and his Virginians in 1754, the Indian trade was now completely at a standstill.

General Braddock and his army which was destined to march westward and capture Fort Duquesne arrived at Alexandria, Virginia, February 20, 1755. Already Braddock's deputy quartermaster-general, Sir John St. Clair, had passed through Maryland and Virginia and had decided upon the route of the army to Fort Cumberland, the point of rendezvous. Four days after Braddock reached Alexandria, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania received a letter from St. Clair asking him to "open a road toward the head of Youghheagang or any other way that is nearer the French forts," in order that the stores to be supplied by the northern colonies might take a shorter course than by way of the roads then being opened through Maryland and Virginia.[24] Morris immediately replied "... there is no Waggon Road from Carlisle West through the Mountains but only a Horse Path, by which the Indian Traders used to carry their Goods and Skins to and from the Ohio while that Trade remained open."[25] Though Morris usually made requests of the assembly in vain, the request concerning this road was granted, and Morris was empowered, in the middle of March, to open a road "through Carlisle and Shippensburg to the Yoijogain, and to the camp at Will Creek."[26] He immediately appointed George Croghan, John Armstrong, James Burd, William Buchannan, and Adam Hoops to find a road to the three forks of the Youghiogheny--or "Turkey Foot" as the spot was familiarly known on the frontier. On April 29 Burd reported as follows to Morris: "... We have viewed and layed out the Roads leading from hence to the Yohiogain and the camp at Will's Creek, and enclosed You have the Draughts thereof.... We have dispersed our Advertisements through the Counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, to encourage Labourers to come to Work, and We intend to set off to begin to clear up on Monday first."[27] Thus, slowly, the Old Trading Path was widened into a rough roadway westward from Carlisle. On May 26, John Armstrong wrote Governor Morris that there were over a hundred choppers at work.[28] Five days later Burd wrote Richard Peters that there were one hundred and fifty at work; but he adds, ominously: "The People are all anxious to have arms, and if You can procure me arms I would not trouble the General for a cover; but if you can't they will not be willing to go past Ray's Town without a guard."[29] Little wonder: the van of Braddock's army had struck westward into the Alleghenies the day before this was written, and already the woods were full of spies sent out by the French, and many massacres had been reported. The horses and wagons which Franklin had secured for Braddock comprised almost his whole equipment. These had gone to Fort Cumberland by the old "Monocasy Road" and Watkins Ferry.[30]

On the twelfth of June Allison and Maxwell wrote Richard Peters that "Sideling Hill," sixty-seven miles west of Carlisle, and thirty miles east of Raystown, "is cut very artificially, nay more so than We ever saw any; the first waggon that carried a Load up it took fifteen Hundred without ever stopping;" there were, however, many discouragements--"for four Days the Labourers had not one Glass of Liquor!"[31] On June 15 William Buchannan reported that the road was cleared to Raystown.[32] But some of the wagons were "pretty much damnified." On the seventeenth Edward Shippen wrote Morris from Lancaster: "I understand Mr. Burd has cut the Road 5 Miles beyond Ray's Town, which is 90 Miles from Shippensburg."[33] On the twenty-first General Braddock wrote as follows to Governor Morris from Bear Camp (seven miles west of Little Crossings): "As it is perfectly understood here in what Part the Road making in your Province is to communicate w^{th} that thro' w^{ch} I am now proceeding to Fort Du Quesne, I must beg that you and Mr Peters will immediately settle it, and send an express on Purpose after me with the most exact Description of it, that there may be no Mistake in a Matter of so much Importance."[34] On July 3 Morris wrote Burd, who was in command of the working party, concerning this request of Braddock's. He takes it "for granted ... that the Road must pass the Turkey Foot ... and that there cou'd be no Road got to the Northward." Under such circumstances he affirmed that the nearest course to Braddock's Road would be a straight line from Turkey Foot (Confluence, Pennsylvania) to the Great Crossings of the Youghiogheny (Smithfield, Pennsylvania). He asked Burd to settle this point and send his decision immediately to Braddock.[35]