Travel In America In The 1840s (1957)

oh [Music] my story of traveling begins in a little village in Eastern New York state it was a peaceful little town in the early 1840s I was working as a blacksmith's Apprentice then and not a very good one either I'm afraid but my grandfather The Village Smithy had given me the job when my family moved West and he was doing his best to teach me the day my travel Adventure began the stage coach came very slowly into the village it had lost a rim from one of its rear wheels and the driver pulled up before our Smithy to get repairs the stage coach connected our village to the rest of the country it brought us mail and goods and passengers so when it was in trouble grandfather and I dropped our work to get the coach on the road again it's hard to remember now how important coaches were in our country's development but we know that even way back in colonial days the coaches and horses brought men together at ins where much of our history was [Music] made because of coaches roads were built all over the East until by the time when Washington was President he could travel to all 13 states by land though it was very slow the wagon wheels I used to bring in when I was a boy for my grandfather to repair helped the farmers take their goods to T yes those wooden Wheels with metal rims built our country even before I was a boy and my grandfather like any good Smithy knew how to repair them he had that coach wheel ready in short order and I helped him put it on of course some of the passengers thought we took too long but the Smithy was too important a man to be rushed he was repairman Builder and chief mechanic in those days time was important to Travelers a stage coach could average almost 8 mil an hour by hard driving and the passengers and Driver were anxious to be on their way then just as he was about to start the driver stopped called me and handed me a letter he'd brought from the West the letter was from me and that letter launched my travel Adventure it was from my family out west in Illinois and it told me to start West and join them before winter if my grandfather could spare me when he read the letter my grandfather just said go I tried not to show how excited I was but I think he knew in my room that night I planned my trip the shortest way was across the mountains and then on through Ohio what I wasn't sure about crossing the mountains at all they were rugged and high and if I were to go alone I'd need to be sure of my way or I'd have to find a family headed west that I could join many people had traveled that way when my father was a boy and I'd heard of boys younger than I was who had crossed the mountains alone but to me it seemed too hard and dangerous farther south was the National Road across the mountains the National Road was clearly marked and easy to follow but it was much too far out of my way if I were to go north I'd come to the Mohawk Valley a broad Gap in the mountains through it ran the Erie Canal connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie I decided to follow the canal West to Buffalo I could leave the next day I would ask the coach driver how to get to the canal the next morning the driver let me ride with him a ways perched on the coach rolling and swaying along this was the way I began my [Music] trip when we had traveled about half a day the driver stopped the coach to let me off the canal was 7 m away across country and I started [Music] out as I walked I thought about those new trains and wished I had money enough to ride one of them at least part of the way by the time I got to the canal I was hot and tired it was quiet and lonely and I decided to rest before starting West as I was lying there beside the Erie Canal I heard something coming I looked come on Bill hey up and around the band appeared a big barge towed by a pair of mules as I went to meet it I saw the mules were being driven by the barge Captain he had lost his mule boy and he offered me the job I figured I might as well work while I walked it wasn't hard for the barge floated along easily and the mules just followed the tow path along the bank sometimes the barge passed ERS would ride on top to see the sights and I'd call out if I saw something ahead I remember the first locks we went through the lock tender partially opened the upper gates to let water into the lower level where our barge was the water Rose bringing our barge up with it when the water in the lock was as high as in the canal above the upper Gates were opened all the way then our barge could move on into the canal beyond the lock and slowly the big barge moved through the narrow locks and out into the canal during the trip I made on the old eie Canal we went through 83 of those locks I walked a long way on that Toe Path but I was earning my board and keep when we reached Buffalo the old Captain came to shake my hand and say good journey I still had nearly 600 miles to go west and he would soon be heading east again I had seen pictures of Buffalo a busy port on Lake Erie with tall masts marking where sailing vessels lay at anchor along the Waterfront I found Lake Steamers on the waterfront to two one of them I Came Upon was loading for a voyage West to Detroit I asked the captain the price of the passage but it was too expensive the boat carried people and cargo cargo from as far away as China to be delivered to the Inland country I asked the captain to let me work my way taking that steamer to Detroit would leave me only a few hundred miles to Illinois and riding beneath those Smoke Stacks looked exciting I was waiting on the gang plank when the captain decided he needed me as a fireman's helper as I went below the captain signaled to the pilot ready to start the big moing rope was cast off the signal was given and slowly the Piston began to move slowly and smoothly the little Lake steamer pulled away from the dock Below in the boiler room I kept the fire hot stirring it or adding wood every few minutes to keep up the [Music] steam once on my time off the captain let me go over the maps he used he showed me how the boat kept to the southern coast of Lake Erie stopping at Erie Cleveland sanduski Toledo and Detroit at these points River traffic brought goods and passengers to the lake all this Inland country depended on water transportation some of it went North to the Lakes other Goods went South to the big Ohio and on to the Mississippi on these Rivers huge Steamers were were used Steamers big and powerful enough to move with or against the strong river currents smaller Steamers were used on the great lakes and ours was small even for a lake steamer because it was small we could stay close to Shore and pick up Goods or passengers just about anywhere and staying close to shore had other advantages for often we had to land load wood for our boilers it took a lot of wood and a lot of work to keep the fire hot enough to make Steam in it drive the Piston but by working as a fireman's helper I earned enough money to ride the last part of my journey as I wanted by steam train a Pioneer in the travel system that one day would tie our nation together that was the way I got to Illinois in the 1840s yes I remember well my travel Adventure that began the day we repaired the stage coach it tells much of how Americans were traveling our vast continent When I Was A Boy by stage coaches Canal barges pulled by mules or horses small Steamers on the Great Lakes big steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and as other Americans move still farther west long wagon trains were taking them as far as the Pacific this was travel in our land when I was a boy in the 1840s [Music]