Grove, also one of the first settlers in the valley. . . I was more particular than I should ordinarily have been because this is about the last stage when reliable tradition can be had." Allen says: "This, of course, affords satisfactory proof of the former existence of the buffalo in the region of Lewisburg, which forms the most easterly point to which the buffalo has been positively traced." The valley referred to by Dr. Beck near the top of the preceding page was Buffalo valley, in Union county.

In Watson's Annals, published in 1857, it is stated that "the latest notice of buffaloes nearest to our region of country is mentioned in 1730, when a gentleman from the Shenandoah, Virginia, saw there a buffalo killed of 1,000 pounds, and several others came in a drove at the same time." As the Shenandoah valley is an extension of the Cumberland valley in Pennsylvania it is easily to be inferred that if buffaloes would come into one valley they would naturally invade the other. Hence it is altogether probable that the bones found by Professor Baird near Carlisle were what he supposed them to be, Carlisle being in the Cumberland valley.

The foregoing summary of facts relating to the buffalo abundantly proves its existence in Central Pennsylvania as well as in Western Pennsylvania down to a period cotemporaneous with the close of the Revolutionary war.

CHAPTER X.

EARLY TRANSPORTATION IN PENNSYLVANIA.

THE opening of means of communication between the different parts of Pennsylvania in the early days of its settlement was slow and often difficult. In the lowlands along the Delaware bridle paths followed the lines of Indian trails, while canoes, skiffs, and small boats were used on the streams and rivers. Afterwards wagon roads were cut through the forests to meet neighborhood wants, although for many years carts and sleds were more generally used on these roads than wagons. When they could not be forded streams and rivers were crossed by canoes, skiffs, and rafts, and later by ferries. A ferry over the Schuylkill at Market street, Philadelphia, was in operation in 1685. In time some of the roads were extended so that communication could be opened with the more or less remote parts of Pennsylvania and to connect with other roads leading to New York, Baltimore, and other places of importance, but there was no noteworthy movement to improve the condition of the roads for a hundred years. Ferries were established over the principal streams as the country was opened to settlement. Harris's ferry, which crossed the Susquehanna where Harrisburg now stands, and Wright's ferry, which crossed the same stream at Wrightsville, were established about 1735. One of the earliest ferries in Western Pennsylvania was Devore's ferry, on the Monongahela river, where Monongahela City now stands, which was established about 1770. The Belle Vernon ferry, on the Monongahela, was established between 1767 and 1769. Ferries at Pittsburgh date from 1779.

Bridges were not built over any of the large rivers of Pennsylvania until about the beginning of the last decade of the eighteenth century and in the next two decades, ferries having been mainly relied on previous to this period, and, of course, were continued as necessity required. The first bridge over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, at Market

street, was commenced in 1800 and it was opened for use in 1805. The second bridge over the Schuylkill, at Callowhill street, was completed in 1812. The first bridge over the Monongahela at Pittsburgh was the Smithfield street bridge, built in 1818, and the first bridge over the Allegheny at Pittsburgh was the St. Clair street bridge, completed in 1820. Ringwalt quotes from a report on roads. and bridges, which was read in the Senate of Pennsylvania in 1822, the following dates of the incorporation of some of the early bridge companies: "Bridge over the Susquehanna, four miles below Wrightsville, 1793; over the Delaware, at Easton, 1795; over the Lehigh, near Bethlehem, 1797; over the Delaware, at Trenton, 1798." A notable bridge over the Conemaugh, at Blairsville, was completed in 1821. It was a single-arch Wernwag bridge, 300 feet long.

For many years after wagon roads were opened in Eastern Pennsylvania bridle paths were in use in the central and western parts of the State, and along these paths the pioneers made their way on horseback and on foot and the necessaries of life were transported on packhorses. Rupp, writing in 1848, says that "sixty or seventy years ago five hundred pack-horses had been at one time in Carlisle, going thence to Shippensburg, Fort Loudon, and farther westward, loaded with merchandise, also salt, iron, etc." Day says that "Mercersburg, in Franklin county, was in early days an important point for trade with Indians and settlers on the western frontier. It was no uncommon event to see there 50 or 100 pack-horses in a row, taking on their loads of salt, iron, and other commodities for the Monongahela country." A pack-horse train has been described as follows: "A train of pack-horses consisted of from five to a dozen and even more, tethered by a hitching rope one behind the other. The master of the train rode before or followed after the horses and directed their movements by his voice. About fifteen miles per day were traveled in this manner, and each horse carried about 200 pounds' burden. The harness consisted of a pack-saddle and a halter, and the lead horse often had, in addition, a circling band of iron over his withers attached to the saddle and to which were hung several bells, whose

tinkling in a way relieved the monotony of the journey and kept the horses from going astray."

The pack-horse required the use of a pack-saddle. It is thus described by a writer in a Pittsburgh newspaper on early transportation in Western Pennsylvania: "It was made of four pieces of wood, two being notched, the notches fitting along the horse's back, with the front part resting upon the animal's withers. The other two were flat pieces about the length and breadth of a lap shingle, perhaps eighteen inches by five inches. They extended along the sides and were fastened to the ends of the notched pieces. Upon these saddles were placed all kinds of merchandise. Bars of iron were bent in the middle and hung across; large creels of wicker-work, containing babies, bedclothing, and farm implements, as well as kegs of powder, caddies of spice, bags of salt, sacks of charcoal, and boxes of glass, were thus carried over the mountains. Shopkeepers from Pittsburgh went to Philadelphia in squads of eight or ten to lay in their yearly supply of goods and brought them to this city in this manner."

In 1792 the turnpike era in the history of Pennsylvania had its beginning, when the construction of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was undertaken by a company. It was finished between the two cities in 1794, a distance of 62 miles, at a cost of $465,000, contributed entirely by stockholders in the company, a great financial achievement for that day. This turnpike was the first to be built in the United States. It gave a great impetus to western travel through Pennsylvania, as it was almost immediately followed by other turnpikes and by the improvement of old roads-all leading to Pittsburgh. Before its construction travelers from New England, New York, and New Jersey for the West through Pennsylvania passed through Easton and Reading to the Susquehanna, which they usually crossed at Harris's ferry.

Soon after the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike was built over a hundred other turnpikes were projected in Pennsylvania and many were built, the first three decades of the nineteenth century being prolific of turnpikes. Most of these enterprises were of only local interest, connecting

towns that were not far apart, usually county-seats, but others were longer and of commercial importance. The junction of two or more of these turnpikes afforded continuous turnpike communication between widely separated commercial centres. Turnpike roads connected Philadelphia with Pittsburgh by two distinct routes, which were generally known as the Northern and Southern turnpikes,, although each route embraced more than one turnpike. Nearly all the turnpike companies were aided by State appropriations. The Lancaster Turnpike was not so aided.

The Conestoga wagons and Conestoga horses of the German and Swiss farmers of Eastern Pennsylvania were famous before the building of the Lancaster Turnpike and its western connections, but after this turnpike was built they became objects of interest as far west as Pittsburgh. In 1789 Dr. Benjamin Rush described the Conestoga wagon and its horses in the following words: "A large strong wagon, (the ship of inland commerce,) covered with a linen cloth, is an essential part of the furniture of a German farm. In this wagon, drawn by four or five horses of a peculiar breed, they convey to market, over the roughest roads, 2,000 and 3,000 pounds' weight of the produce of their farms. In the months of September and October it is no uncommon thing, on the Lancaster and Reading roads, to meet in one day fifty or one hundred of these wagons on their way to Philadelphia, most of which belong to German farmers." Many Conestoga wagons and horses came from Lancaster county, which in Dr. Rush's day embraced a large part of Lebanon county. Afterwards they greatly increased in number and formed an important factor in the internal commerce of Pennsylvania down to almost the middle of the nineteenth century, when the canals and railroads of the State rendered their further use on a large scale unnecessary. It has been authoritatively stated that as early as 1790 ten thousand Conestoga wagons were needed for the traffic of Philadelphia.

Between 1830 and 1840 the era of turnpike building culminated. The people of Pennsylvania were then looking to canals and railroads for means of communication.