Railroad Routes in the Alleghenies, Part II

(or how Oakland MD was founded by 1 vote in the Pennsylvania legislature)

Part 1 of Railroutes name-drops George Washington and Thomas Jefferson's father as men who shaped western Maryland history. Indeed, Washington's early career at Ft. Cumberland (which was on the very western-most frontier) had a profound effect on the forming of the United States (he also slept there). B&O's forced use of the mountainous West End route however had it roots in the actions of William Penn.

William Penn was the son of a rich English Admiral who had helped finance some of the perennial wars with France. Recall that in the mid-1600's the great invention of wage-earning and withholding at source had not been perfected. Kings and other powermongers had to depend on a feudal system of trading land and other favors for the loyalty and cannon fodder supplied by nobility. When Admiral Penn died, his royal debt accrued to his son, William. William was paid by an ill-defined land grant in the new world that was named Penn's Woods or Pennsylvania. Proprietor colonies seem incredibly generous today, however in the 1600's Penn probably preferred the cash. First of all was the minor fact that Lenni-Lenape, Shawanese, Susquehannock,etc. felt that they had dibs on the real estate. This was not much of a problem to most Anglos, who with the blessing of religion, savagely put down the savages. Penn, who had converted to a Quaker, genuinely treated the natives fairly. Penn was somewhat less benevolent to his southern neighbors however, the Marylanders. This was because of Penn's second problem, his colony was not well served by tidewater. In the New World, this was a major obstacle as almost all transportation was by the sea, even between the colonies.

Both the charter for Maryland and Pennsylvania designated 40 degrees latitude as the boundary between the states. To appreciate this boundary, take a look at a highway map of Pennsylvania to see what falls below the 40th parallel. Several fair-sized PA towns should have MD zip codes. One town in particular was Philadelphia. When Lord Baltimore protested this city of brotherly love being built in his colony, William Penn pointed out that his Quaker city had to have good tidewater which could not be found above the 40th parallel. Penn not only demanded Philadelphia, but he threw in 15 miles to the south of the southernmost house in the city for good measure. Penn used some vague Dutch and Swedish claims to the area and a problem with the 12 mile arc around New Castle piece to dispute the black and white language of the charters. He also claimed that the 40th parallel could not easily be determined (remember, he was the son of an admiral). Finally, he suggested that because the charters stated the the border was under the 40th parallel, this really meant that the 39th parallel was the boundary and said that Baltimore town belonged to Pennsylvania. Incredibly it is reported that Penn suggested to Lord Baltimore that Maryland steal a like amount of land from Virginia on the Eastern Shore to make up for any perceived loss. Lord Baltimore had the political disadvantgage of being a Catholic after Henry VIII changed England's religion to suit his need for a new wife. This and other unknown factors eventually forced his descendants to concede the large swath of prime land to the Penn descendants. The actual Maryland residents were not so inclined to give up their deeds and a minor civil war broke out. Here we find another person who seemed to be everywhere in colonial history, Colonel Thomas Cresap. Maryland encouraged this firebrand living in the Wright's Ferry neighborhood on the Susquehanna to defend Maryland's claim (Maryland had no problem in figuring out where the imaginary line of latitude was). At his blockhouse, Cresap vowed to fight to the death to defend the claim. His family and others were not as defiant and when the Lancaster County sheriff set fire to the structure they escaped up the chimney. Eventually Cresap was smoked out and was paraded through the streets of Philadelphia in chains. He is reported to have remarked that the town was the "best damned city in all of Maryland". Colonel Cresap eventually moved west where he singlehandedly kicked up wars with the Indians, settling squarely on one of their paths at Opessa's town (Oldtown, MD). He and his sons were involved to some extent in the Braddock expedition and other French and Indian War action (he lost his son Thomas on the flanks of Savage Mountain in a war-related raid). The senior Cresap lived to see the Revolution (his son Michael was killed and buried in New York City) and the formation of the United States, dying in his 90's at Oldtown.

The boundary between the states was subsequently formalized by the by Mason and Dixon survey. Years later the B&O would be blocked from using the Casselman and Youghiogheny to get west of the Alleghenies because the land was in Pennsylvania, when it should have been in Maryland. Bowest Junction is just south of the 40th parallel. Before leaving Wm. Penn it should be noted that he had outright bought the "lower counties" or Delaware colony which had plenty of bay and ocean access. For all of his excellent work in promoting his colonies, Penn was not rewarded financially and even spent time in debtors prison before he died.

Another boundary dispute existed between Pennsylvania and Virgina that was not settled until after the Revolutionary War. Virginia's ancient charter stated that Virginia extended to the western ocean by going "north to northwest up through the country". Virginia's claim in what is now Pennsylvania is sometimes mapped as the area west of the highest ridge of the Alleghenies (which they felt was Laurel Hill) and south of the Conemaugh and Ohio Rivers. Pennsylvania's charter extended Pennyslvania 5 degrees west of the Delaware, in the same country as the Virgina claim. Again, it can be argued that Virginia had the much better claim. In addition to having the much older charter, Virginia staunchly defended this area from the French and Indians with money and blood. From Washington's first trip to Fort LeBoeuf in 1749 to the Braddock's slaughter near the Forks of the Ohio, Virginia was actively involved in defense of the soil while the pacifist Quakers at first declined even to provide materiel. Reading the history of the Braddock campaign indicates that Ben Franklin had to personally intervene to get Pennsylvania to provide some wagons and beef that was reluctantly promised. Even then the beef had to be buried at Wills Creeks because it had not been properly salted (O'Meara blames Cresap for the beef situation). The list of notables involved in the remarkable Braddock expedition besides Washington includes men who would later lead armies on both sides of the Revolution and even D. Boone. Thoughout the colonial period, Washington was a strong proponent of the Virginia claim because of his land holdings in the area around Perryopolis. He further felt that transportation routes from the Potomac to the Ohio were superior to the Forbes Road route (probably again because of his land holding along the Braddock Road). All during the early colonial period, Virginians migrated to Ohio River country claim. During the latter years, Pennsylvanians finally started to cross the Alleghenies in mass and Bedford and Westmoreland County PA were formed. Virginia quickly reacted by forming the District of West Augusta with the counties of Yohogania, Monongalia and Ohio. Virginia established a court at Fort Pitt and captured their Pennsylvania counterparts. The Revolutionary War put this dispute on the back burner and when the war ended, Virginia gave up most of its claim in the name of national harmony. The Mason Dixon line was extended the 5 degrees west of New Castle and then the PA border went due north to Lake Erie. Virginia's claim left them with the curious northern pandhandle in which Wheeling is located. Pennsylvania also prevailed over Connecticut for the northern tier of the state after fighting the Yankee-Pennamite Wars that ended at the beginning of the 19th century. Pennsylvania had fulfilled its own small scale manifest destiny by winning every possible boundary dispute and becoming a large (for the northeastern US ) and commercially well situated state.

As can be expected with all of the stretching of her boundaries, Pennsylvania was very divided socially, economically and politically. For many years the Quakers and peaceful German sects living east of the Susquehanna held sway over the Scots-Irish, Connecticut Yankees and others living on the frontier. The Susquehanna was a boundary both physically and psychologically. After Braddocks defeat, Native Americans extracted revenge for past wrongs by wreaking havoc in all but the most civilized regions. The Scots-Irish, who normally wanted little government interference, how desparately needed help from a armed force. That the Quakers refused to act was mostly because of their religious beliefs, but some also felt it was because they were safely ensconced in and around Philadelphia. The Braddock defeat and the 1763 Pontiac uprising spelled the end of the Quakers politically and engendered a more lasting distrust of Philadelphia by Pennsylvanian living west of the Susquehanna. Then too, much of Pennsylvania's trade naturally flowed south into Maryland and Virginia. The Susquehanna, Cumberland Valley and western rivers and roads all pointed south rather than east. Early trade history is full of attempts by Maryland to figure out how to use the rocky Susquehanna as a transportation route and just as much work by Philadelphia to stifle such trade. Likewise, the Cumberland Valley traffic was prone to go south towards the B&O or the C&O canal, as these routes were developed. And, in the west, trade around Pittsburgh could travel down the Ohio or across the National Road easier than due east across hundreds of miles and all manner of physical obtstacles to Philadelphia. Indeed it was in the best interest of the fledgling United States to develop transportation routes to the eastern seaboard, otherwise the region west of the Alleghenies would be economically tied to New Orleans, still owned by the French. An early legitimacy test of the of the new government developed when western Pennsylvania farmers protested a tax on whiskey; making the concentrated grain product was the only way of economically shipping their product to the east. The United States had little money to fund any transportation systems. The first attempt (and only major federal project for years) was the National Road. It is curious that this route that hit the Ohio River high up at Wheeling was most supported by Henry Clay of Kentucky. This route followed Nemacolin's Path/Braddock Road from Uniontown, PA to Cumberland, MD. From Cumberland, a more or less complete series of state supported turnpikes (banks had to subscribe in these turnpikes' stock to get a bank charter) went to Baltimore, providing a good trade, especially in flour. Philadelphia, in the mean time, was fairly content with the trade flowing down the Schulkyll and from the rich farmland immediately to the west of the city. The Union Canal was in place from the Schulkyll to Middletown on the Susquehanna and Conestoga traffic was heavy over the Forbes Road route.

All of this changed with the opening of the Erie Canal. New York, which had a better situated harbor than either Philadelphia or Baltimore, now also had a more economical transportation system from a hinterland. Baltimore immediately recognized the danger and set about to protect its trade. Several options gelled before the city's merchants. The destination of a transportation system could be the fertile farm lands of mid-Maryland and central Pennsylvania or it could be the vast new territory beyond the Ohio River. The transportation method could be a time-tested canal system or maybe something better. Perhaps because the city had gotten a taste of the Midwest trade over the National Road, the primary destination chosen was the Ohio country. And, because maybe someone understood the topography of the Alleghenies, a canal was ruled out. The short-haul rail road system already in use for quarries and mines was adapted for a long haul common carrier. Although the rail road was not a new idea, the important concept of equated distances perhaps was original with the Baltimore engineers. Routes following rivers were ideal because the necessary low grades could be obtained, even high up into the watershed. For this reason, the B&O was founded and construction started up the Patasco toward Parr's Ridge and then down the Monocacy watershed towards the Potomac at Point of Rocks. That is when the B&O collided with the C&O Canal.

The C&O Canal and B&O Railroad broke ground the same day, July 4, 1828, not by coincidence. Early on the B&O regarded the canal project as competing for the same government funding and much the same real estate. The canal claims went back to the Potomack Canal company and earlier river improvement projects. The B&O knew the canal planned on using the Potomac Valley route, however they noted that every river has two banks and the choice of the river route was really the only feasible choice in a day before excavation equipment. Nevertheless, the B&O spent valuable time in the courts getting a right of way from Point of Rocks to Harpers Ferry. Perhaps this delay was the final straw in the B&O crossing the Potomac at Harpers Ferry and continuing almost to Cumberland on the Virginia side. The delay was fatal to the railroad getting to Pennsylvania before its charter expired in that state. Pittsburgh was a strong B&O supporter from the outset, most likely because of the western Pennsylvania distrust of Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania charter expired in 1843. When it came time for renewal, Philadelphia had awoke to the danger and the fight was on.

Before moving on, the route taken at Harper's Ferry is noteworthy in examining the long term thinking of the B&O. B&O's Virginia charter expired in 1838. Recall that Virginia had to be crossed to reach the Ohio, even north of the Mason-Dixon line. When that state renewed the B&O charter it stipulated that Virginia must be used by the railroad until within five or six miles of Cumberland. Another reason to cross the Potomac was to take advantage of the short cut across the Upper Shenadoah Valley, where Martinsburg would grow with the railroad. The B&O, although broke to the point of printing its own money, definitely had sights on the midwest and was not inclined to settle for intermediate destinations,even with the prospect of quicker revenues. Another route after passing South Mountain would have been to stay on the Maryland side. This would have been somewhat longer, but it would allowed a branch line to Hagerstown, already a sizable town. Hagerstown was an early supporter of the B&O but was left high and dry by detour into Virginia. Hagerstown's first railroad connection would be with the Franklin Railroad (which became part of the CVRR/PRR system going northeast) and after the Civil War with the Western Maryland. (Thaddeus Stevens, a Pennsylvania iron furnace owner and later prominent politician lobbied hard for an extention of pre PRR railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia to cross South Mountain and hook up with the B&O at Cherry Run in the 1830's. His Gettysburg Extention was shot down by the canal proponents who called the railroad the Tapeworm). Hagerstown became a gateway for traffic coming from the west traveling up the Cumberland Valley to New York and Boston. Indeed, much of this traffic was turned over to WM from the B&O at Cherry Run. The B&O would have had a lock on this bridge route if they had stayed in Maryland. Charles Roberts praises B&O's actions as keeping focused on their goal of reaching the Ohio country. Refusing a branch to Hagerstown can however also be viewed as pure obstinacy, this same trait probably precluded the B&O from meeting Pennyslvania's demands in order to use the much more favorable Sand Patch grade to the Allegheny summit. This decision was a factor in B&Os never ending constant financial straits as we will see later.

One has to pause here to reflect on Virginia's thinking at this point. With hindsight, one wonders if the Northern Neck Virginians were doing much thinking at all. They were supporting a canal scheme, which although dumping into the Georgetown/Alexandria area, was doomed for the reasons given above (Baltimore and most of the rest of the world certainly saw this by the late 1830's). The canal took up one side of the Potomac. What is amazing is that Virginia insisted that a Baltimore railroad take the other (their) side of the river. Perhaps they felt that water level railroutes were easy to come by, but they were wrong. Another railroute crossing the Alleghenies was not to be found until hundreds of miles to the south, with these roads terminating in Newport News/Norfolk et al. The Manassas Gap Railroad mapped out a route to Allegheny coal fields, but one wonders about the seriousness of their intention simply by taking a trip through the country they would cross: roughly the route from Springfield WV to Winchester via Points and Slanesville. Part of this route looks to be used by the Winchester and Western, but from Gore west the mountains get serious. A final irony on Virginia's insistence that the B&O use the south side of the Potomac is that the Union felt that the B&O could not fall into the hands of the Confederacy. When West Virginia was formed in the midst of the Civil War, the Eastern Panhandle (which was culturally more akin to Virginia counties to the east )was tacked on to WV because of the B&O traveling through these counties

But cross into Virginia was the B&O option. An immediate shipper, the federal arsenal, was to be had in Harpers Ferry (this factory was destroyed and not rebuilt in the Civil War)and also connection with the Shenandoah Valley and Potomac Railroad About 10 miles west, business would develop around the B&O in the Martinsburg area. After that, there were miles of near wilderness on the Virginia side to Cumberland (even today this is empty country along the Potomac). Branch lines would be developed at Hancock and Greensprings, but traffic potential was small. A comparison of the Pennsylvania Railroad in roughly the same section of their route included Harrisburg to Altoona and much more development in between. The Pennsylvania Railroad was started later in the 1850's. First Pennsylvania jumped into a fantastic government transportation project called the State Works. This monstrosity was some existing railroads and canals from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna and a canal to the Alleghenies using the Juniata River route. Then things really got wild, the Alleghenies were crossed with a series of inclined planes that carried parts of canal boats on flatcars (CBOFC). Finally another canal was built from Johnstown to Pittsburgh. If this wasn't enough, various branch line canals were built on political rather than commercial justification. Much of the financing was on the faith and credit of PA. When tolls did not pay the bonds, the state was on the verge of bankruptcy. A private enterprise solution came in the form the Pennyslvania Railroad. The state wanted the PRR to buy the State Works. The PRR refused and instead not only wanted the state to grant them a charter, but fairly typical of later practices, the PRR wanted Pennsylvania not to renew the expired B&O charter. A battle royale was fought in the state legislature in Harrisburg in 1846. Pittsburgh (B&O) interests fought Philadelphia (PRR) interests with much verbosity and probably plenty of bribes. In the end, the PRR got their charter and the B&O was shut out of Pennsylvania by the margin of one vote. As we will see, this decision put the B&O even further behind in the trunk line race and to this day causes trains to travel a somewhat illogical route. And, towns such as Oakland, Rowlesburg and maybe even Grafton were brought into existence.

So what where the route choices for climbing the Alleghenies? Whether B&O's western terminal preference was Pittsburgh or Wheeling, the by far best way to get to either was northwest out of Cumberland to hit the Flaugherty Creek watershed. This group of routes can be generalized as a Sand Patch grades as they all come together at Sand Patch, where Flaugherty Creek makes a gap through Meadow Mountain. Several routes had been scouted in the 1820's. The most obvious was to follow Wills Creek almost to its source and then steeply climb to the divide at the non descript location called Sand Patch. Wills Creek provides a lot of excavation work as it cleanly cuts through Allegheny Front and Savage Mountain. Another survey was to use Jennings Run (the valley used by the Cumberland and Pennsylvania to Mt. Savage)and the North Branch of Jennings Run (followings today's PA 160 from Barrelville through Wellersburg) to the top of Savage Mountain. This route seems impossibly steep and hits Savage Mountain at a high point. After gaining the top of the mountain, one direction on this route shows the railroad descending back into the deep Wills Creek Valley ( a route used later by a logging railroad). Another direction was to use somewhat the same route as the later WM to Sand Patch. The third possible route scouted by the B&O was actually later partially built by an independent shortline coal railroad. A fourth Sand Patch Route followed the North Branch Potomac and Savage River all the way to Cranberry Swamp, both a long and steep route. Wills Creek, the obvious and by far best route (for the time) could not be built because of Pennsylvania. Nor could any of the other 6 routes scouted in the early years. Eventually the West End was built up Crabtree, across the Garrett County "Glades" and down Cranberry Grade. In an apparent public relations ploy, the B&O management stated this grade was equally good to the Sand Patch grade, a mistruth that still appears in print to this day.

To Be Continued

© Dave Cathell

Continue to Part III

Part I	Part II	Map 1835
Cumberland West	No West End?	Pathfinders
PA Routes	Reserved	Reserved

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