IMPORTANT ADJOINING ROADS - MARYLAND [2]

The Cumberland, MD to Somerset, PA Turnpike - The Plank Road
While reading Thomas Searight's "The Old Pike"  I ran across the following passage:

The Good Intent and Stockton lines were taken from the National Road in 1851 and placed on the plank road from Cumberland (MD) to West Newton (PA). From the latter point passengers were conveyed by steamboat to Pittsburgh by way of the Youghiogheny River, which was made navigable at that date by a system of locks and dams like that of the Monongahela.

Upon the withdrawal of the lines mentioned, a line was put on the National Road by Redding Bunting and Joshua Marshe, and ran as far west as Washington, Pennsylvania. William Hall subsequently purchased the interest of Mr. Marshe in this line, which was kept on the road until about the close of the year 1852, when the era of four-horse coaches ended.

Having never heard of the Plank Road, my curiosity got the better of me:

From The History of Bedford and Somerset Counties Pennsylvania, Vol.II by Howard Blackburn & William Welfley, 1906 (From: www.korns.org):

The Somerset and Cumberland Turnpike
In the year 1832 a charter was granted for the incorporating of the Somerset and Cumberland Turnpike Company. The commissioners were Charles Ogle, George Chorpening, Frederick Gebhart, George Weller, Jacob G. Miller, John Brubaker, Jabob Kennell, James Platt and Henry Fuller. The patent was to issue when twenty or more persons would subscribe for two hundred shares of the stock. The road was to be not less than forty and not more than fifty feet wide, with a twenty foot bed. It was to be two feet high in the centre, well ditched, and constructed of substantial material- wood, gravel, slate, stone or other hard substances. This turnpike was speedily constructed, and it passed form Somerset, through Berlin and Wellersburg, reaching the National Road about three miles west of Cumberland. It had the usual fortune of such improvements.

Wellersburg and West Newton Plank Road
About 1850 many people took to the notion that the making of good roads by macadamizing with stone was a mistake. At that period many parts of Somerset county were still covered with dense forests of the best of white pine timber. About the only market for lumber, aside for the limited local demand was to be found at Cumberland. The owner of a county sawmill was glad to haul his product to Cumberland, some twenty or more miles away, and sell it for a dollar, or perhaps less, per hundred feet. The question was asked, why not used this cheap lumber in making a first-class road? By laying of plank a solid and smooth roadway would be secured.

It was proposed to convert the road the entire distance form Cumberland to West Newton, in Westmoreland county, into a plank road. Gen. Thomas Shiver, of Cumberland, Maryland became interested, and, taking up the project, handled it so successfully that it was carried through. Among a lot of other plank road legislation, a sort of an omnibus bill of the session of 1850, there was a section for the incorporation of the Wellersburg & West Newton Plank Road Company, with Joseph Markle, John Lansold, James W. Jones, Henry Baker, David Lavan, Andrew J. Ogle, Isaac Ankeny, John Brubaker, David Lepley, George Klingaman, James Gardner, John C. Plummer, Rudolph Boose, John R. Brenham, Thomas Benford, Soloman Baer, Michael A. Sanner, Henry Little, William Colvin, C.P. Markle, William Hitchman, Dr. John Cover and Samuel Philson, or any five of them, as incorporators. There was to be four thousand shares of stock of the par value of twenty-five dollars each. The road was to be commenced within three years and completed in four years. It was to be laid on the beds of the existing roads from Wellersburg to West Newton.

The two old turnpike companies still held their franchises and occupied the route. The question was, how to dispossess them. There were smart people in those days, as well as in these later days of our own time. There always are such, and the promoters of this scheme were equal to the occasion. Like many people, these old turnpike companies had managed to get into debt. A section has been smuggled into the act of incorporation permitting any one to whom they happened to owe anything to obtain judgment and have them sold out by the sheriff. We presume this was done. At any rate, they were made give way, and the plank road was speedily built. As a general thing, the planks were only eight or nine feet long, and were laid close together on the ground, a level bed having been prepared for them. This made a good road for the time being, but it soon wore out. In most places it was only a trifle more than a single track, and the wheels of all wagons having to run pretty much over the same part of the road, the plank soon wore thin. Then too, some plank wore away sooner than others, and it speedily became a very rough road, as any one yet living who ever drove over it can testify to. While the middle of the plank were still good, it became the custom, whenever it was possible to do so, to drive with one wheel in the middle of the track and the other on the outside. This prolonged the life of the road for some years.

Financially, the road proved a disappointment, and it never brought in enough in the way of tolls to keep it in anything like decent repair. Yet, as Johnstown on the north, and Cumberland on the east, were the only two railroad points that the people of Somerset county could reach, this road enjoyed a considerable amount of local traffic, which continued up to the time of the completion of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville railroad, in 1871. After that, it's existence was a very sickly one, and in a few years it was abandoned, and has become a township road.
(Thanks to Lannie Dietle/Korn.org for corrections)

The route of original plank road still exists today. The old turnpike begins at MD Route 36 were it connects with the National Highway at the west end of the Narrows. It travels to Corriganville (MD) and then meets MD Route 47 at Barrellville (MD). MD 47 becomes PA Route 160 (Cumberland Hwy) at the MD/PA line and travels through Wellersburg (PA) to Berlin (PA). In Berlin, the road goes west on Main St. and then turns north on PA Rt. 219 (Berlin Plank Rd.) to Somerset (PA). In Somerset, Rt. 219 connects with PA Rt. 31 west (Glade Pike) and travels to Mt. Pleasant and then West Newton. ( Current Maps: Cumberland to Somerset, and Somerset to West Newton)
~ Steve

Rumsey Collection: Pennsylvania 1859