The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes ThereonSearight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
History
The Old Pike: A History of the National Road, with Incidents, Accidents, and Anecdotes Thereon
Searight, Thomas B. (Thomas Brownfield)
Cumberland Road; Pennsylvania -- Biography
Harrison Wiggins, widely known as a lover of fox hunting, and highly
respected as a citizen, was one of the early wagoners. His career as a
wagoner ceased long before the railroad reached Cumberland. He hauled
goods from Baltimore to points west. His outfit, team and wagon, were
owned by himself and his father, Cuthbert Wiggins. Harrison Wiggins was
born in the old Gribble house, two miles east of Brownsville, on the
30th of April, 1812. About the year 1817 his father moved to Uniontown,
and kept a tavern in a frame building which stood on the lot adjoining
the residence of P. S. Morrow, Esq. He remained here until 1821, when he
went to the stone house at the eastern base of Chalk Hill, and was its
first occupant. His house at Uniontown numbered among its patrons, Hon.
Nathaniel Ewing, Samuel Cleavenger, Mr. Bouvier, John A. Sangston, John
Kennedy, John Lyon, and other eminent men of that period. In 1832 or
'33, Harrison Wiggins married a daughter of John Risler, a noted tavern
keeper of the road, one of the very best, a talent which descended to
his children. At the date of the marriage Mr. Risler was keeping the
stone house at Braddock's run, and the wedding occurred in that house.
In 1839 Harrison Wiggins went to Iowa, with a view of locating in that
State, but returned the next year and leased the property on which he
now lives from Charles Griffith. In ten years thereafter he bought this
property, and it has been his home for more than half a century. Under
the careful and sagacious management of Mr. Wiggins, it has become one
of the prettiest and most valuable properties in the mountains. It has
been a long time since he was a wagoner, but he enjoys a recital of the
stirring scenes he witnessed on the old road in the days of its glory.
[Illustration: HARRISON WIGGINS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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