PRE-RAILWAY TRIPS TO NORTHERN PENNSYL

VANIA.

BY HOWARD M. JENKINS.

Among the papers preserved by Cadwalader Foulke, of Gwynedd (d. 1830), is a brief diary of two rides northward over the mountains to the Bentley's Creek settlement, on the New York line, in Bradford County. As these trips were made, one in 1823, and the other in 1826, they just preceded the era of the railroads, and the memoranda which have been made afford us definite details, though meagre, as to the manner, expense, and rapidity of such travelling in that day, as well as aid in fixing localities, names of places, owners of hotels, etc.

Cadwalader Foulke was a great-grandson of Edward Foulke (a first settler at Gwynedd, 1698), and was born at Richland, Bucks County, in 1765. About 1805 he removed to Gwynedd, and added to his ordinary avocation of farming many engagements as a surveyor and conveyancer in the middle and lower townships of Montgomery County. His surveys were remarkably careful, and in the searches of land titles in that section his drafts are well known for their accuracy. These trips to Northern Pennsylvania he made in the interest of the estate of 'Squire John Roberts, of Montgomery (township), of which he was an executor. 'Squire John had purchased, in 1808, a tract of seven hundred and fifty-one acres of land located on Bentley's Creek, in Luzerne (subsequently and now Bradford) County. James Chapman, the grantor to Roberts, held under a Pennsylvania patent, but the lands were claimed by other parties, who were occupying them under the Connecticut claim, and a long and tedious series of suits of ejectment, with negotiations for compromise, etc., followed.

The journey from Gwynedd to Bentley's Creek makes a

distance of about one hundred and seventy-five miles by the best route, which is that of the present railway to the Lehigh River at Bethlehem, then northwestward over the mountains to Wilkes-Barre, and from there up the North Branch of the Susquehanna by Tunkhannock to Towanda. This is substantially the route of the first journey. Cadwalader was accompanied on it by his co-executor, William Foulke, of Gwynedd, and probably by Samuel Iden, of Richland. They rode in a wagon, and took seven days for the trip. Returning, they came in part by a different route, crossing southwardly the mountains, through what is now Sullivan County, into Columbia County, and striking the North Branch at Berwick; then bearing southeastward over the Nescopec and other ridges to Mauch Chunk, and so down the Lehigh to Bethlehem.

His second trip Cadwalader seems to have made alone, and from the charges for toll, which appear too low for any sort of vehicle, he was probably on horseback, though he was then nearly sixty-two years old. This time he went up through Berks County, spending the first night with his Quaker friend, Thomas Lee,' at Oley (or Maiden Creek), on the east bank of the Schuylkill, below Reading; thence by Hamburg and Catawissa to Bloomsburg, and thence northward through the Fishing Creek settlements into Sullivan County, and so to Bradford. His return was by Tunkhannock and Wilkes-Barre, then over the new turnpike towards Easton, by the Wind Gap to Bethlehem. This trip required six days only, going up, though the distance by this route, from Gwynedd to Sheppard's Tavern on the New York line, appears by Cadwalader's memoranda to be one hundred and eighty-three miles.

The charges to the traveller, at the hotels where he stopped, are of interest. At Sellersville, in Bucks County, Thomas Sellers charged him twenty-five cents for dinner, as

1 Thomas Lee had married Mary Boone, who was the daughter of James Boone (uncle to Daniel, the Kentucky pioneer) and Mary Foulke. Mary Lee was a second cousin of Cadwalader, but had recently died, at the age of eighty-six.

he went up, and the same sum, when he came back, for "two quarts of oats, a gill of wine bitters, and cakes." At several places the charges were eighteen and three-quarter cents for breakfast and fifty cents for supper and lodging.1 The memoranda of the first trip are as follows:

1823, August 28th.-[Left home.] To Jesse Iden's [Richland, Bucks County] 21 miles: expenses, 2 cents toll, and 25 cents at Seller's [tavern, now Sellersville].

29th.-Set off at past five; 13 miles to Butz's, 2 miles beyond Lehigh; thence, 13 miles to George Heller's [Wind Gap], and 4 miles to A. Shaffer's all night.

30th.-Set off at past 5; 10 miles to Sox's [Sach's] tavern [on Broad Mountain] to breakfast; 14 to Buck's; 141 to Wilkes-Barre,past 8 at night.

31st.-Set off at 8 o'clock; paid at Wilkes-Barre $2.81; paid at Wilson's, 9 miles, 12 cents, [and] toll 16; at Ayres's 31, toll 16; ferriage 40 and 25; 14 miles to the river at mouth of Tunkhannock [Creek], Col. Buckingham's, over night.

Sept. 1st.-6 miles to Isaac Osterhout's to breakfast, expenses .93; passing through a variegated country, soil chocolate colour; one valley of the greatest timber, mixed of almost all kinds. Welding wagon bolt at Meshoppen, 10 cents; 10 miles to Joshua Sturdivant's, Tuscarora Creek, 31 cents; to Wyalusing, 8 miles, 49 cents; 6 miles to Lefevre's over night, $1.44.

1 These charges, however, were not below the general custom of even a later day. Before the war (say thirty years ago,-1854), Jacob Quillman, at the Veranda House, Norristown, charged but twenty-five cents for dinner, abundant and good, though plain. Here is a bill of David Acuff, at the Gwynedd Hotel, a few years earlier :

The Board of Officers of Gwynedd Election District, October 10th, 1843,

2nd.-1 mile to J. W. Dininger's, 314 cents; 10 miles to Towanda, on the west side of the river; 6 miles to Henry Wilhelm's, night.

3d.-8 miles to Athens, crossing Chemung on a bridge at the town (Indian Narrows) 2 miles above Tioga, thence 4 miles to Isaac Sheppard's, up the Chemung; now in York State, an oak line tree about 30 perches in front of the tavExcellent road; ague.

ern.

[He was now occupied with the business on which he had come for five days. His return is thus noted:]

Sept. 9th.-Left Meansville [Towanda] at 8 o'clock; 31 miles to the turnpike1 at Towanda creek, at Wilcock's; 111 miles to Miller's, turnpike toll .52; to Amos Ellis's, 11 miles, over night.

10th.-12 miles to Joseph Watson's, at the middle gate, expenses, including toll, .62; to Koon'stown, 9 miles, 45 cents, toll 64; to Berwick, 12 miles, over night at John Jones'.

11th (5th day).-Bill, $2.75; 11 miles to Abm. Klatz's, expenses .37; over Niscopack mt. to Felix Bisel's, 13 miles; over the Buck and Spring mts. into Quakake Valley, 8 miles; Mauch Chunk, over night.

12th.-11 miles to Craig's, at the [Lehigh Water] Gap, 40 cts.; then 10 miles to Geo. Palmer's, toll 6; expense, mending bolt, 10 cts; 11 miles to Bethlehem, over night, expenses $2.00, toll .20, cakes 12.

13th.-At Jesse Iden's; settled all our joint expenses with Sam'l Iden; amount $17.29 each, which was also made even with William Foulke; then paid Jesse Iden 75 cents. 14th.-At Thos. Sellers' paid for 2 qts oats, gill of wine bitters, & cakes, 25 cents.

1 This was the Susquehanna and Tioga turnpike, extending from Berwick, on the North Branch of the Susquehanna, up into New York State. It was a very extensive public work, "projected," says Day (" Historical Collections of Pennsylvania," p. 136), "at the early settlement of Bradford County, about 1802-4, and driven through the then wilderness by the exertions of Philadelphians and others interested in the lands." (These dates, however, may be misleading. In Gordon's "Gazetteer," 1832, it is stated to have been chartered in 1818. The State subscribed $30,400 to its stock. Its completion was subsequent to 1820.)

Sept. 16th, 1823.-Be it remembered that the whole amount of moneys Expended & paid by Cadw'r Foulke, on the Journey to the mouth of Bently's Creek (Well's burg), for Traveling and other Expenses, and Including Attor's fees, Prothon's, and Recorder's fees is $27.73; the time spent was from August 28th to Septbr 14th, both dates Included, making 18 days.

Statement of a Journey & Expenses to Bradford county.1

May 24th, 1826.-To Abraham Everhart's [Skippackville], 10 miles, .12 cents; to Henry Krep's, 10 miles, .18c; to Thomas Lee's, over night, 14 miles.

25th.-To Benjamin Lightfoot's, 10 miles, 18c; to Hamburg; to Ben. Bensiner's, 17 miles, 11 cents; turnpike toll, 6 cents; to Raiver's tavern, over night, 10 miles, 48c.

26th.-To Fry's tavern, breakfast, 8 miles, 30 cents; to Boyer's tavern, 9 miles, 12c; to Catawissa Town, 14 miles, 11 cents; to Bloomsburg, over night, 4 miles, .73 cents.

27th.-To Jacob Shoemaker's, breakfast, 9 miles, 34 cents; to Seward,-Allegheny, 15 miles, 9 cents; to Amos Ellis's, over night, 12 miles, 75 cents; turnpike toll for 40 miles, 24 cents.

28th [Sabbath].—To Miller's, 9 miles, $1; to Meansville [Towanda], 15 miles.

29th.-Remained at Meansville, attending to and arranging business, and preparing for going to Wellsburg, Bentley Creek.

30th.-To Sheppard's tavern, in York State, dinner, 17 miles, 33 cents; to Wellsburg, over night, 12 miles, .37.

31st.-To James Covell's, & return; turnpike toll, 17 miles, 13 cents; to James Long's, Sugar Creek, over night, 12 miles, 56.

June 1st.-To Meansville [Towanda], bill $3.621; crackers & cheese .183.2

1 Cadwalader Foulke's notes on his second trip to Bentley's Creek. "Was this a "levy's" worth of crackers and a "fip's" worth of cheese, or the reverse of that?