Forbes Road: The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost speaks nothing of disgust when discussing the Road not Taken. But Colonel George Washington could certainly tell you of his frustration and disgust.
There was already a road.
This Forbes Expedition is looking at building a new road.
All of this is taking forever.
Most of the Cherokee allies don't have forever to wait.
Nor does the Virginia Regiment. The House of Burgesses put a sunset on term of service for December 1st.
In the mean many spy parties were sent to look at the French Fort Duquesne. So they have some picture of their target.
Let's start on the road already taken, our Colonel George Washington urges.
To be fair, Bouquet and Forbes had their doubts on both that road and the new one they were building.
The memory of the fate of that Braddock Expedition could certainly affect the men at the moment of battle.
But building the road through the Pennsylvania mountains was closer to the horses and wagons to be supplied by that more industrious colony. And they were going to build camps and forts every 40 miles. Each camp will need those supplies. Such supplies were of better quality and closer in distance than Virginia ever could provide.
Everyone who knows about this war knows of the many letters GW wrote.
They know of the many risks GW took to irritate his superiors, pushing the already built Braddock Road over the new road.
From George Washington
to Henry Bouquet,
28 August 1758
To Henry Bouquet Camp at Fort Cumberland 28th Augt 1758.
Dear Sir
Your favour by Mr Hoops has in some measure revivd a hope that was almost extinguishd—of doing something this Campaign1—We must doubtless expect to encounter many difficulties in opening a new Road thrô bad Grounds in a Woody Country of which the Enemy are possest but since you hope our point may be carried I woud feign expect the Surmounting these obstacles—’tis a melancholy reflection thô to find there is even a doubt of Success when so much is depending—& when in all Human probability we might have been in full possession of the Ohio by Now, if rather than running ourselves into the difficulties and Expence of cutting an entire new Road the distance we have first & last Braddock’s had been adopted.
Every one knows what coud have been done the old Road—few can guess what will be the new, their being not only the difficulties of the Road to encounter, but the chance of a French Re-inforcement also. but it is useless to add on this head—I shoud rather Apologize for what I have said.2
All the Waggon’s at this place fit for Service, comes to you under the Escort orderd for Mr Hoops.
Any Troops not of Virginia, shall be forwarded to you according to Order—and I coud wish most sincerely that our Rout was fixd that we might be in Motion, for we are all of Us most heartily tird, & Sick of Inactivity. Colo. Byrd in particular is really Ill.
Frazer having left this with the Convoy must be with you e’er now. I am very glad to hear that your Artillery pass the Alligany with so much ease.
A Letter which Colo. Byrd reced from the Genl of the 19th Instt gives room to imagine that the destination of the Virginia Troops will be fixd upon so soon as he arrives at Rays Town, as he then expresses a desire of seeing Colo. Byrd and I there immediately.3
Mr Walker was a long time as he informd me, under doubtful Orders in regard to his purchase of Cattle; so that he was obligd at last to pick up what he coud get at a short warning; which is I believe, the real Reason of the Cattle not being so good as they otherwise might be.4
I am Sir Yr Most Obedt Hble Servt Go: Washington
ALS, British Museum: Add. MSS 21641 (Bouquet Papers); LB (original), DLC:GW; LB (recopied), DLC:GW. This is the second of four letters in the original letter book not in GW’s but a clerk’s hand. It is signed by GW.
Founders Online Footnotes:
1. In his letter of 26 Aug., Bouquet promised to inform GW of the disposition of his troops “immediately.”
2. This tactless rehash of what he wrote at such length on 2 Aug. betrays the strength of GW’s commitment to Braddock’s road.
3. In the original letter-book copy, this paragraph comes before the preceding one and the last paragraph of the letter does not appear. William Byrd answered Forbes’s letter of 19 Aug. on 24 Aug. (Scottish Record Office: Dalhousie Muniments).
Source:
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 8/26/2022, 12/11/2022
Forbes Road Notes
updated 12/11/2022
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NOTES AND DOCUMENTS
ASFORBES TRAILEDTHROUGH 1
nHiking has become recognized in recent years as an educational as well as a healthful pastime and is enjoyed by an increasing number of people who love the open. Those who are interested inhistory can find scores of roads and trails in central and western Pennsylvania over which to tramp, inimitation of the Indians, the early traders, and the colonial military forces. One of the earlier hiking squads was that of the John Pomroy Historical Club of the Derry Township High School, Westmoreland County, which began its tramps during 1930. The club had been organized and sponsored by the history teachers in the school, and history programs were carried out at regular intervals. Out of this practice grew the custom of visiting near-by frontier fort sites, Indian battlefields, old canal beds, and historic buildings and museums. In1934 Derry Township purchased five modern school busses for the transportation of its students to and from high school, and itvery properly named them, much after the manner of naming Pullman cars, for the five frontier forts used by the pioneers in Derry Township, Fort Wallace, Fort Barr, Fort Pomroy, Fort Elder, and Fort Sloan. These busses are now also being used to transport large groups onlonger historical motor tours, when the distance is too great to hike. The itinerary of the first trip, which took place one Saturday and was participated in by thirty-five students, included the following historic points in Westmoreland County: the intersection of the Forbes Road and Four MileRun; Pleasant Grove (Old Donegal) Presbyterian Church and cemetery; the South Pennsylvania Railroad bed near Donegal; the Indian Creek Reservoir; Ohiopyle Falls; Fort Necessity; Braddock's grave ;Jumonville's grave ;Fort Gaddis; Gist's Plantation; and Colonel WilliamCrawford's monument inConnellsville. This type of hiking has engaged the attention of an older group, who have set out to collect records, published and unpublished; sift out tradi1The second part of this article willappear in a later number of this magazine. Ed,
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JUN* tions; examine the scars that remain; and walk the Indian trails and the military roads of Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna River. The plan is to traverse these routes inseries of short hikes on Saturdays, whenever the weather permits. The initialhike, over the oldForbes Road, began on October 19, 1935, with a meeting in the quaint colonial court room of the courthouse at Bedford, the real starting point of that historic road. The attainment of the greatest possible degree of historical accuracy was one of the aims of the group, and a connected draft of all the lands patented between Fort Bedford and Fort Pitt was first made from the surveys and applications filed with the Pennsylvania Provincial Council after the purchases of land from the Indians in 1754 and 1768. While most of the patents were taken out after Bedford County was erected out of Cumberland in 177 1, and Westmoreland County out of Bedford in 1773, inmany instances the surveys and the applications for the warrants show the location of the Forbes Road. Insome cases there is a hiatus, to be sure, but the lines can be pretty accurately laid down with the aid of the scars that remain on the ground. Court records in the four western counties along the trail,Bedford, Somerset, Westmoreland, and Allegheny, were resorted to by the historical hikers, and copies of the United States geologicalsurvey quadrangles aided in determining grades. One of the outstandingcharacteristics of the Forbes Road was its traversing of dividing ridges of the Allegheny Mountains. At one point along the way the present-day hiker may view the waters of the Juniata and the Kiskiminetas rivers, at another the waters of the Loyalhanna and Millcreeks, at a third the waters of Crabtree Run and Sewickley Creek, and at a fourth those of the Allegheny River and Turtle Creek. Some markers now erected at points alleged tobe on the road are not on the famed military highway at all,for a number of the earlier historians, although they may have been well meaning in their endeavors, were illinformed. To check up on all these matters and seek the correct road was one of the inducements of the hike. "Provincial Hikers" was the name adopted by the group as itgathered for the first trek. Captain Edward J. Braden of Bradenville was selected as the titular head because of his age, eighty-four years, and hiskeen interest inhistory. He is a part of the history of the oldPennsylvania canals, for
I936 AS FORBES TRAILED THROUGH 137
he ran boats on the Beaver and Lake Erie Canal, via Hartstown, before the days ofrailroads inthat section. Captain Braden is a second cousin of General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in the World War, and both are descendants of Frederick Pershing, early Westmoreland frontier ranger. Moving and stillpicture operations were allotted to Dr.David W.Rial, vice principal of Frick Training School, Pittsburgh. Colonel William J. Laughner was placed in charge of traditions, family letters, and the gathering of data along the way.John M.Deeds, a sergeant inCompany M, 11oth Infantry, during the World War, was made official ranger in charge of the trail, and the writer supervised the state and county records, maps, and surveys. After the visit to the Bedford County Courthouse, the hikers really began their tour twoblocks away at the site of the Raystown encampment. The site is now occupied by business buildings. Two well-worded markers are to be observed on either side of the Lincoln Highway through Bedford: one was erected by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission to indicate the location of the depot of supplies at Fort Bedford and the starting point of the Forbes expedition; the other was provided by the Bedford chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the building used by President George Washington as his headquarters on October 19 and 20, 1794, when he was inBedford incharge of the United States army, which was en route to quell the Whiskey Insurrection in western Pennsylvania. The Forbes Road follows pretty generally the present line of the Lincoln Highway westwardly to Wolfsburg, which is close to an Indian village referred to as Old Town at the time of the cutting through of the James Burd road in1755. The old covered bridge, the quaint milllatterly operated byDr.Cofelt, and the old tavern building now occupied by John A.Henderson were of absorbing interest as relics of a time later than the Forbes expedition. The traditions about Wolfsburg seem to confirm early roaps that show that the routes of the Indian trail and of Burd's road Were on slightly different lines. Captain Robert Callender, who was in command of the Seventh Company of the First Battalion, Pennsylvania Provincials, like many other officers who came through with Forbes, re-
138 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS Juki turned inlater years and secured a patent for over six hundred acres of land, one side of which extended along the base of Wills Mountain, according toland records inthe Pennsylvania department of internal affairs. His land included the William Todd mansion on the present Lincoln Highway to the northward, and itis easy to believe, because the Lincoln Highway is there, that the Forbes Road also went there. The best research and examination of the trails about Wolfsburg indicate that the old Traders' Path utilized by the advance battalions of Forbes extended a short distance up the easterly bank of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River, then crossed over this stream, and, as a pronounced scar through the farm of Samuel Stuckey reveals, extended to the forks, where Forbes's soldiers left the Burd road and cut their way over TulTs Hillto the Shawnee Cabins. Many of the early traders and scouts estimated the distance from Raystown toShawnee Cabins as eight miles. John Harris, in his account of the road toLogstown in 1754, gives the distance from Raystown to Shawnee Cabins as eight miles; 2 and James Dunning, the guide who served withMajorGeorge Armstrong, gives the following estimates, which Major Armstrong considered "pretty true": From Raystown to water (OldTown), three miles; toSmith's Run, two miles; to Nelson's, four miles; to Dunning's Sleeping Place, three miles; and to the foot of Allegheny Hill,three miles. The site of Shawnee Cabins is thus named byDunning as "Nelson's," and itis easily located at a spot along the stream, for Thomas Nelson made his application on July 1, 1762, for two hundred acres of land, "including an improvement made by his father, Joseph Nelson, at a, place called Shawanese Cabins on the Great Road about eight miles Westward from Bedford in the County of Cumberland." 3 Itwas easy to visualize the movement of the Forbes expedition up the valley between the waters of Kegg's Run and Shawnee Cabins Creek, past the Hillegas School in Juniata Township. The teacher and pupils of this school, who were at recess as the hikers trailed along, had not previously known that the illustrious George Washington had led his Virgini2 Pennsylvania Archives, first series, 2:135. 3 Land office records in the Pennsylvania department of internal affairs.
1936
AS FORBES TRAILED THROUGH I39
ans within fiftyfeet of their schoolhouse, but they were quick to answer questions about Lexington and Ticonderoga. A good grade led up the valley to the foot of the Allegheny Mountains, which were in their fall colors on the sunny Armistice Day when the party of twenty-one historical enthusiasts climbed the trail. The Indian Traders' Path led up the southerly spur of the mountain below Grandview; the Forbes engineers cut the military road up the gap to the northwest, close to what is called the "Shot Tower." Captain Harry Gordon, engineer of both the Braddock and Forbes expeditions, planned this route, and Ensign Harry Rohr cut the road through. After the cutting Sir John St. Clair wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet at Raystown on August 12, 1758, and designated it as "diabolical" and "immense." Captain AllenMacLean had been left at Shawnee Cabins to build a redoubt, and Sir John St.Clair summoned him to the top of the Allegheny Mountain to build Fort Duart, the remains of which compose one of the best scars of the whole itinerary. The Armistice Day hike ended at Fort Duart on a beautiful fall evening, and the succeeding one began in a snow flurrya week later.Itwas strenuous trailing for the first twomiles towards Fields's encampment, but the sun came out and a fine view was afforded down Shade Creek some twenty-five miles to the Sang Hollow Gap, west of Johnstown. Colonel Bouquet, after admiring this view, wrote to General Forbes on August 20> 1758: "Yesterday Iwent toreconnoiter this terrible mountain ... in mounting upon the second height which is nothing atall,Iobserved as far as the sight can reach and saw distinctly the whole course ofLaurel Hill. There is a large gap, bearing N.by W. of us, about 20 miles N.of our Road, which cuts the mountain from top to bottom, and Iam told itis the Passage of the Kiskiminetas. Irequested Sir John to have itreconnoitered to see ifthere is an Indian Path."
4 The scars of the road, plainly visible with the aid of the snow and the absence of leaves, led through Fields's encampment, one-half mile north °f the present Reel's Corners, then through the "Shades of Death," and oyer the hills to Edmund's Swamp. At that point, near the farmstead of
4The letter is in the Bouquet Papers in the British Museum, Additional Manuscripts, 2lfyo:147. The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania has a transcript.
140 NOTES AND DOCUMENTS
Juki A.Park Lohr, was the famous trading post of Edmund Cartlidge, one of the earliest traders to go through to the Allegheny River. After climbing the hillthe trailleads down the higher ground three miles to the site of Fort Belle Air,on Oven Run. Here John C. Cassiday, a teacher in the schools of Shade Township, Somerset County, pointed out the remains of the oven, used by the Forbes army bakers, for which the stream was named. Three miles farther along the hikers came toStony Creek, where the fort of that name was later erected and strengthened. There were no rumblings of the terrific quarrel that Colonel John St. Clair and Major Adam Stephens engaged in, but it was plainly evident that Ensign Harry Rohr was the real factor in engineering the road there. The trail northwestward up the hill above Stoyestown took the hikers, after the three-mile tramp, to the Quemahoning Dam. The hike for that day ended at the easterly side of that beautiful body of water, five miles long, and the tourists could but visualize the site of old Chief Kickenapawling's Indian Town, as itwas located on land now covered by the water above the dam inQuemahoning Creek. Some beautiful moving and panoramic pictures were taken there. The next hike began on the western bank of Quemahoning Creek, proceeded by a gentle grade through a beautiful second growth of hemlock, and rounded the hill above the orchard on the farm of the late David Berkey. On the eminence the hikers got a fine view to the eastward as far as the second risingof the Allegheny Mountains at Rohr's Gap and Fort Duart, where the hike had ended on Armistice Day. To the westward there was a clear view of the new Lincoln Highway ascending the eastern slope ofLaurel Hill;to the north of it was the gap that leads up from Fort Dudgeon to Ligonier. West of this point the hikers passed through the old village ofPilltown,where was located the famous spring of Major George Armstrong on the old Forbes Road. After crossing Roaring Run the trail went westward over fairlylevel land, historically known as the Clearfields, and thence to Fort Dudgeon. Fort Dudgeon was on the old Traders' Path, but was not used very long, for Captain Shelby was given instructions to lay out a road lw® Fort Stony Creek to Laurel Hill,which he designated as "four m3eS 1936 AS FORBES TRAILED THROUGH 141 shorter and eight trifles better" than the difficult way through the Shades of Death and across Edmund's Swamp. Itwas on this new Shelby road that the later Tomahawk Camp waslocated, at which General Forbes, on the return trip, nearly died because his "chimney" had not been clayed. The hikers examined the sites of both Fort Dudgeon and Tomahawk Camp, the latter near the picturesque old Kline's mill,before proceeding up the eastern slope of Laurel Hill.Up to that point the motor cars could be relayed along fairly good roads, but on the day the group tramped over Laurel Hillto Irwin's Block House all cars were parked at Kline's mill and gone after by the drivers inthe evening. The trail was nicely scarred over Laurel Hilland down into Ligonier, although at many places it passed through a second growth of timber and across fields. At Ligonier the records obtained from the land office at Harrisburg were fitted neatly together and showed that the marking of the road conformed to the physical character of the high ground between the streams. TwoMile Spring on the Singer farm is a landmark two miles east of the "Camp at Loyal Hannon," and the road keeps the high ground from that point into Ligonier. The cutting of the first fiftymiles of the road severely tested the ability, patience, and endurance of the motley army that General Forbes commanded. Itwas also the training ground on which the army acquired its ability to cut the road so much more quickly over the second fiftymiles west of the Loyalhannon encampment. Eight days of hiking were consumed in reaching Two Mile Run, which is two miles westerly from Ligonier, and a total distance of fiftytwomiles was covered in that time. There was considerable cross-hiking between Bedford and the beautiful Schellsburg farmstead of Chancellor John G.Bowman of the University of Pittsburgh because of two erroneously placed markers of the Historical Commission of Pennsylvania, and the hikers added four extra miles on the oldroad by Quemahoning Dam. The average day's hiking was eight miles, although there were but fiftytwomiles of direct distance. The hikes permitted of many fall and winter nature studies of both plants and game. The study ofthe topography of the trail was fascinating, as Was the evidence of engineering that, considering the wooded and
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June rocky areas through which the Forbes army passed, was wellordered and skillful.The companionship of the hikers, whether the days were sunshiny or blustery, was delightful.
The first fifty miles of hiking ended in a March thundershower, but an oyster supper at beautiful Ligonier and the showing,
in the American Legion Hall,of moving pictures and slides of views along the eastern portion of the road compensated fully for the slight inclemency of the weather.
Greensburgy Pennsylvania
Lewis C. Walkinshaw 5 5
Mr. Walkinshaw is an attorney at law practicing in Westmoreland County
he is the historian of the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the American Revolution. Ed.
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