The Slower Road

In this second part, we learn about early travel by stage in Maryland. Again, the information is from the Maryland Geological Survey (1899).

A glimpse at the methods of transportation in Maryland towards the beginning of this [nineteenth] century, before the turnpikes had been completed, might go far to dispel any illusions as to the “good old times,” of which so much is often heard.

Stage-lines indeed there were, and had been, since 1765, in which year the first line of stage-vessels and wagons was set up to go once a week from Philadelphia to Baltimore by way of Christiana and French-town on [the] Elk river.* In 1785 the Maryland Legislature granted G. P. Van Home an exclusive right to keep stage-carriages “on the publick road from the river Susquehannah to the river Patowmack,” and five years later Robert Hodgson and James Thompson were granted the sole and exclusive permission to set up a stage-line from the Delaware boundary, via Chestertown, to Gresham College on the bayside in Kent county by the great public road on the Eastern Shore, and were also given a right, not exclusive, to run stages from North Point to Baltimore Town. This route seems to have been popular, though stress of weather often made delay in crossing the [Chesapeake] Bay unavoidable. These stages started regularly from Mr. Grant’s tavern in Baltimore every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning and at six o’clock on the same days from Mr. James Thompson’s at the Indian Queen, Fourth Street, Philadelphia.**

Another favorite route was by packet up the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, using land transportation only across the peninsula. This was a very old and popular route, perhaps because it took less time. It was not long before rival companies sprang up, one between Frenchtown and Newcastle, and the other from Cecil Court House to Newcastle.***

Very many other stage-lines were afterwards opened. In 1790 one was advertised between Baltimore and Annapolis. The trip was made three times a week, the price being 10s. during the summer season, including fourteen pounds of baggage.**** There were also many stage-lines from the western country.

The vehicle in which one ventured upon such a journey has been minutely described. The coach was a sort of wagon on springs, an open carriage, with a top to it made of boards; and on each side, and at the ends, curtains, to be let down, baize on the inside, and a sort of canvas on the outside, tied with leather ties to the supporters of the top, on the sides and at the bottom, catching on a sort of stud like that of a single-horse chaise apron. The coach has three seats within the carriage and one the coachman sits on before. Thus it carries twelve people, three on each seat, as two passengers ride by the side of the coachman; but the mail-coach carries only nine passengers, the mail lying in the inside of the coach.

* John F. Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia was published in 1830.

** This according to the newspapers of the period – The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser – July 22, 1791.

*** Also noted in the local newspapers (same as above), March 22, 1791.

**** And again from the same newspapers, April 1790.

Here (today and continuing through the weekend) is what I was researching yesterday, when I came across Mr. Parkinson and his information on the costs of waggons and carts.

All of this is information I found in a book called the Maryland Geological Survey, which was published in 1899.

In this first part, we read about the earliest days of horse-drawn travel in Maryland:

At the time of the French and Indian War [1754–1763], Governor Sharpe’s* coach-and-four was out of place upon any other than the main road through the province. In fact, before the Revolution carriages were few in number, and rarely used except in the finest weather. First-rate saddle-horses were much in demand, as the newspapers of the time plainly show. Fox-hunting and horse-racing were among the principal diversions, and the raising and importing of blooded horses received much attention. Members of the Assembly, lawyers, actors, and parsons, and indeed all to whom time was important and speed a necessity, preferred the activity of a Thoroughbred to the lumbering “chariot” of these early times.

In Annapolis the use of coaches grew apace. The family coach, with its trappings and outriders, was a matter of pride in which the society of Annapolis turned out to every horse-race, or drove to Marlboro to see the latest company of players. “They have light and elegant carriages which are drawn by fine horses,” is the comment of the Abbé Robin ** on this phase of Annapolitan life, while Eddis writes just before the Revolution: “Our races, just concluded, continued four days, … and surprising as it may appear, I assure you there are few meetings in England better attended or where more capital horses are exhibited.” ***

* Horatio Sharpe (1718–1790) was Maryland’s colonial governor from 1753 until 1769.

** Robin’s Nouveau Voyage dans l’Amerique Septentrionale was published in Philadelphia in 1782.

*** William Eddis’s Letters from America: Historical and Descriptive: Comprising Occurrences from 1769 to 1777 Inclusive was published in London in 1792.

Once again, I was doing research for one project and found other interesting things along the way.

At the end of the eighteenth century, an Englishman named Richard Parkinson lived near Baltimore, Maryland, for three years. He took detailed notes on his travels, American farming practices, the costs of things, and more. His findings were published (in 1805) in a book titled A Tour in America in 1798, 1799 and 1800: exhibiting Sketches of Society and Manners, and a Particular Account of the American System of Agriculture, with its Recent Improvements.

In Section XXVII, he gave an “Account of Waggons, Carts, Ploughs, Harrows: the Price, &c.”

Here’s the part that’s pertinent to our interest in the history of animal-drawn vehicles:

“The price of a waggon in America is one hundred dollars. It is nearly as light made as a coach, and particularly the wheels; for which reason the iron work is not heavy or expensive. The body is generally high on the sides, upright, tilted with bows all over it, and covered with white linen cloth, as they are chiefly intended for marketing [i.e., taking items to market]. The cover keeps the sun off in summer, the frost out in winter, and furnishes the farmer with a place of abode during the time he is on his journey to market; or, when in town, to breakfast, dine, sup, and sleep in. There are generally pumps for water, near to the place where the stands of waggons are; and as the farmer and his horses both drink and sleep in the streets, it is a very necessary duty for the mayor of a town to place pumps for their accommodation. The horses draw double, by a pole, in the same manner as the stage-coaches are drawn in England. There is a trough fixed behind the waggon when travelling; when in the cities it is put on the pole, which is held up like the pole of a curricle, and two horses are placed on each side, to feed. The waggon, being covered with a cloth extended by hoops, is set so as to form a shelter for the horses, as they remain in the streets day and night, during the most severe weather. The driver rides on the near-side hind horse, and has lines to the two leaders. I much approve both of the waggons, and the management of the horses, as the driver has good opportunity to keep every horse to his work. It is as common to see the driver ride on an ox as on a horse. A one-horse cart costs from thirty-four to forty dollars: it is made light, and tilted in the same manner as the waggon. The driver sits in the cart to drive. A two-horse cart costs from fifty-four to sixty dollars.”