Transcriber's Note There were a number of spelling and typographical errors in the original text. The handling of each one is noted in the transcriber's note at the end of this text. Footnotes have been located at the end of the paragraphs where they appear. The underscore character indicates where the original is in _italics_. [Illustration: Yours truly T B. Searight] THE OLD PIKE. A HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL ROAD, WITH INCIDENTS, ACCIDENTS, AND ANECDOTES THEREON. ILLUSTRATED. BY THOMAS B. SEARIGHT. UNIONTOWN, PA: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1894. COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY T. B. SEARIGHT. PRESSES OF M. CULLATON & CO., RICHMOND, IND. LETTER FROM JAMES G. BLAINE. STANWOOD, BAR HARBOR, MAINE. } September 8th, 1892. } HON. T. B. SEARIGHT, UNIONTOWN, PA. MY DEAR FRIEND:-- I have received the sketches of the "Old Pike" regularly and have as regularly read them, some of them more than once, especially where you come near the Monongahela on either side of it, and thus strike the land of my birth and boyhood. I could trace you all the way to Washington, at Malden, at Centreville, at Billy Greenfield's in Beallsville, at Hillsboro (Billy Robinson was a familiar name), at Dutch Charley Miller's, at Ward's, at Pancake, and so on--familiar names, forever endeared to my memory. I cherish the desire of riding over the "Old Pike" with you, but I am afraid we shall contemplate it as a scheme never to be realized. Very sincerely, Your friend, JAMES G. BLAINE. [Illustration] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGES Inception of the Road--Author's Motive in Writing its History--No History of the Appian Way--A Popular Error Corrected--Henry Clay, Andrew Stewart, T. M. T. McKennan, General Beeson, Lewis Steenrod and Daniel Sturgeon--Their Services in Behalf of the Road, etc., etc. 13-19 CHAPTER II. Origin of the Fund for Making the Road--Acts for the Admission of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, etc., etc. 20-24 CHAPTER III.