Distinguished Stage Proprietors, Lucius W. Stockton, James Reeside, Dr. Howard Kennedy, William H. Stelle—Old Stage Agents, Charley Rettig, John Risley, William Biddle, James Coudy, Redding Bunting, Edward Lane, Theodore Granger, Charles Danforth, Jacob Beck, Daniel Brown, “Billy” Scott, “Lem” Cross, and B. W. Earl—The Pony Express.

The most conspicuous of all the old stage proprietors of the National Road was Lucius Witham Stockton. James Reeside was probably an older stage man, and may have owned and operated more stage lines; but Mr. Stockton was longer and more prominently identified with the business on the National Road. He was born at Flemington, New Jersey, September 1, 1799. He was a son of Lucius Stockton, and a grandson of the Rev. Philip Stockton, known in his day and among his countrymen as “The Revolutionary Preacher,” who was a brother of Richard Stockton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from the colony of New Jersey. L. W. Stockton appeared in Uniontown as a stage proprietor previous to the year 1824, the exact date not ascertainable. He was twice married. His first marriage occurred on November 24, 1824, and at that date he was a resident of Uniontown, and had been previous thereto. His first wife was Rebecca Moore, a daughter of Daniel Moore, an old stage proprietor who lived in Washington, Pennsylvania. By his first marriage he had six children, viz: Richard C., Daniel Moore, Elizabeth C., Lucius Witham, Margaret, and Rebecca. Richard, Daniel, and Elizabeth, by the first marriage, are dead; the last named died in infancy. Lucius Witham is living in Philadelphia. He married Ellen, the youngest daughter of Dr. John Wishart, an old and distinguished physician of Washington, Pennsylvania, grandfather on the maternal line of Hon. Ernest F. Acheson, late Republican nominee for Congress in the Twenty-fourth district of Pennsylvania. Margaret Stockton became the wife of Dr. Thomas McKennan, a leading physician at this time of Washington, Pennsylvania, and a member of the old and distinguished McKennan family of that place. Rebecca Stockton became the wife of Capt. Alexander Wishart, and is living in Newark, New Jersey, where her husband is executive officer of the Law and Order League. Captain Wishart was a gallant soldier of the Union army in the war between the States.

Mr. Stockton’s second wife was Katharine Stockton, his first cousin. She is still living, making her home with her son-in-law, Gen. Leiper, of Philadelphia. By his second marriage Mr. Stockton had four children, as follows: Katharine, Richard C., Elias Boudinot and Henrietta Maria. Of these all are dead but Henrietta Maria. She is the wife of Gen. Leiper, with whom her mother lives, as before stated, in Philadelphia.

It is related as an incident in the early career of Mr. Stockton that he had a race with a horse and buggy against a locomotive, between the Relay House and Baltimore, in which he came out ahead. The horse he drove on that occasion was a favorite gray. He had a pair of “Winflower” mares, which he drove frequently from Uniontown to Wheeling between breakfast and tea time, tarrying two or three hours at mid-day in Washington. At the watering places he ordered a little whisky to be added to the water given these spirited and fleet animals, and they became so accustomed to it that, it is said, they refused to drink unless the water contained the stimulating element. He would also drive from Uniontown to Cumberland in a day, stopping at the stations to transact business, and from Cumberland to Hagerstown, sixty-six miles, was an ordinary day’s drive for him. His private carriage was a long open vehicle which he called “The Flying Dutchman.” Hanson Willison, who has a vivid recollection of Mr. Stockton and his lively trips over the road, says that the names of his sorrel mares (the “Winflowers”) were “Bet” and “Sal,” and that they once ran off. On that occasion Mr. Stockton was accompanied by his wife and a sister. Miss Stockton was much alarmed, and pulling the coat-tail of her brother cried out piteously, “Hold on, brother William, hold on, or we’ll all be killed!” But Mr. Stockton heeded not the cries of his sister, and having no fear of horses, soon regained control of the runaways without sustaining loss or injury.

Mr. Stockton died at Uniontown on April 25th, 1844, at “Ben Lomond,” the name he gave his residence, now the property of the widow and heirs of the late Judge Gilmore. A few years ago the remains of Mr. Stockton were removed from the old Methodist burying ground in Uniontown, under direction of his loving daughters, Mrs. Wishart and Mrs. Dr. McKennan, and deposited in the beautiful cemetery at Washington, Pa.

Mr. Stockton was of Episcopalian lineage, and active in establishing the services of the church in Uniontown. He brought out Bishop Stone, of Maryland, to baptize his daughter Rebecca, now Mrs. Wishart. He was a vestryman, and besides contributing liberally in money to support the church, donated to the parish of Uniontown the lot on which the new stone edifice of St. Peter’s now stands.

James Reeside, the second son of Edward Reeside and his wife, Janet Alexander, was born near Paisley, Renfrew, Scotland, and was brought, when an infant, to Baltimore county, Md., in 1789, where he was raised. His parents being in humble circumstances, toil was his first estate. Poor in book learning and in earthly goods, he possessed genius, energy, executive ability, and an ambition that fitted him to be a leader of men. Before the war of 1812 he was a wagoner, hauling merchandise from Baltimore and Philadelphia to Pittsburg and west to Zanesville and Columbus, Ohio. His promptness and sagacity soon enabled him to own his own teams, which were employed in hauling artillery to Canada. Commissioned a forage master under Gen. Winfield Scott, at Lundy’s Lane, his Scottish blood prompted him to seize a musket, as a volunteer, from which hard fought battle he carried honorable scars. On his return he settled at Hagerstown, Md., where, in 1816, he married Mary, the daughter of John Weis, a soldier of the Revolutionary war. Abandoning wagoning, he ran a stage line, in 1816 to 1818, from Hagerstown via Greencastle and Mercersburg to McConnellstown, there connecting with the stage line then in operation from Chambersburg to Pittsburg by Bedford, Somerset, and Mt. Pleasant. In 1818, in connection with Stockton & Stokes, of Baltimore; Joseph Boyd, of Hagerstown; Kincaid, Beck & Evans, of Uniontown; George Dawson, of Brownsville; Stephen Hill, of Hillsboro; and Simms & Pemberton, of Wheeling, he put on the first regular stage line, carrying the mail, between Baltimore and Wheeling, before the construction of the turnpikes between Hagerstown and Cumberland. This division of the route being from Hancock to Frostburg, he removed to Cumberland, where, in conjunction with his stage line, he kept the “McKinley Tavern,” at the corner of Baltimore and Mechanics streets, afterward kept by Jacob Fechtig, James Stoddard, John Edwards, and others, and now known as the “Elberon.” In 1820 he quit tavern keeping, and confined himself to mail contracting and the stage business. In 1827 John McLean, Postmaster General, afterward one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, prevailed on him to take the mail contract between Philadelphia and New York, and he moved from Cumberland to Philadelphia. In the first year he reduced the time for transporting the mail between the two cities from twenty-three to sixteen hours, and soon thereafter to twelve hours. He soon became the owner of most of the lines running out of Philadelphia and New York, and the largest mail contractor in the United States. He employed in this service more than one thousand horses and four hundred men. The wagoner soon became the “Land Admiral,” a title given him by the press in recognition of his energy and ability.

The Postoffice Department at that time having to rely on its own resources, and under Major W. T. Barry, then Postmaster-General, the service had so increased in thinly settled sections it became deeply in debt. Mr. Reeside raised, on his personal responsibility, large sums of money to relieve it. His efforts were appreciated, and he was the esteemed friend of Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and other distinguished men, without regard to politics, although he was a pronounced Democrat. Of massive frame, six feet five inches in height, yet spare in flesh, clear cut features, sparkling, clear blue-gray eyes, fair complexion, with dark, sandy, curly hair, he was a true Highlander in appearance, genial in disposition, with quick and ready wit. Fond of song and story, kind, yet strict, with all in his employment, and generous to a fault, no words can more appropriately describe him than those of his favorite poet and countryman, Robert Burns:

Controversies arising between Amos Kendall, the successor of Barry, and all the old mail contractors, their pay was suspended upon frivolous grounds, compelling them to bring suits, among the most celebrated of which were those of Reeside and Stockton & Stokes. The latter’s case was referred to Virgil Maxy, who found in their favor about $140,000. Mr. Reeside’s claim was tried before Justice Baldwin and a jury in 1841, and resulted in a verdict for plaintiff of $196,496.06, which, after seventeen years, was paid, with interest. As soon as his contracts under Kendall expired he quit the mail service, after putting the Philadelphia and New York mail on the Camden & Amboy railroad during the residue of his contract term.

In 1836 he bought the interest of John W. Weaver between Cumberland and Wheeling, then a tri-weekly line; increased it to a daily, then twice daily, and added another tri-weekly line, and named the lines “Good Intent,” which was the name he had previously given the fast mail line between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. In 1839 he sold his entire interest in the National Road lines, and gave his attention to his suit against the United States. His health being impaired, he spent the winter of 1842 in New Orleans. Returning in the ensuing spring, without benefit to his health, he died in Philadelphia on the 3d of September, 1842.

Mr. Reeside attracted attention by reason of the peculiar garb he appeared in. In the winter season he always wore a long drab overcoat and a fur cap. Once in passing along a street in Philadelphia in company with Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, Vice-President of the United States, some scarlet cloth was observed in a tailor’s window, which prompted Col. Johnson to say: “Reeside, as your coaches are all red, you ought to wear a red vest.” Mr. Reeside replied: “I will get one if you will.” “Agreed,” said Johnson, and straightway both ordered red vests and red neckties, and from that time as long as they lived continued to wear vests and neckties of scarlet colors. James Reeside aided in an early day to develop the mighty resources of our country, with such agencies as were then available, and his name and good work deserve to be perpetuated in history.

Dr. Howard Kennedy, an owner of stock in the National Road Stage Company, and for a brief period a trustee of the road under the provisions of a Pennsylvania law, enacted in 1848, repealed in 1856, was born in Washington county, Maryland, September 15th, 1809. His father was the Hon. Thomas Kennedy, an illustrious citizen, who figured conspicuously in the history of Maryland in the olden time. Dr. Kennedy was a graduate of the Medical University of Baltimore, and a thoroughly educated physician, but the practice of medicine not proving congenial to his tastes, he soon abandoned it and embarked in other pursuits. About the year 1840, or a little before that time, he was appointed a special, confidential agent of the general postoffice department, in which relation he achieved distinction by detecting numerous mail robberies, and bringing the perpetrators before the courts for trial and punishment. It was through the vigilance of Dr. Kennedy that the mail robberies of the Haldeman brothers, Pete and Abe, and Pate Sides, at Negro Mountain, were discovered, and the offenders apprehended and punished.

The Haldemans and Sides were stage drivers, and their calling through the dismal shades of death and other dark regions in the mountains with big, tempting, mail bags in their charge, no doubt turned their minds to what they considered a speedy, if not altogether a safe method of getting money. Whispers of suspicion growing out of the vigilance of Dr. Kennedy in pushing his investigations, reached the ears of the suspected ones, and they fled to Canada, but not to be thwarted in his purposes, Dr. Kennedy pursued them thither, had them arrested and brought back to Baltimore for trial. Abe Haldeman was acquitted, but Pete and Pate Sides were convicted and sent to the penitentiary. Dr. Kennedy was also the prime mover in bringing to light the noted mail robberies of Dr. John F. Braddee, of Uniontown, as will be seen by the following affidavits:

Pennsylvania, Fayette County, ss.:

The testimony of Dr. Howard Kennedy taken before N. Ewing, president judge of the 14th Judicial district of Pennsylvania, the 8th day of January, 1841, in reference to the amount of bail to be required of John F. Braddee, Peter Mills Strayer and William Purnell. The said Dr. Howard Kennedy being first by me duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith: “There will be difficulty in ascertaining the amount of money stolen from the mails. There have been six mail pouches or bags stolen, which would average twenty to thirty thousand dollars each. The whole would, I am satisfied, amount to one hundred thousand dollars. I saw the money alleged to have been found in the stable of John F. Braddee. The amount thus found was $10,098.60. The amount of cash stolen is probably about $50,000.

“HOWARD KENNEDY.”
Taken and subscribed before me, January 8th, 1841.
N. EWING,
P. Judge, 14th Judicial District.

Pittsburg, January 25, 1841.

“Howard Kennedy, special agent of the postoffice department, in addition to the testimony given by him before his Honor, Judge Ewing, further deposes that since that time he has received reports from various persons and places in the West of letters mailed at dates which would have, by due course of mail, been in the bags stolen, containing bank notes, scrip, certificates, drafts, and checks, amounting to $102,000 and upwards; that every mail brings him additional reports of losses, and that he believes the amounts reported will not constitute more than one-half of what has been lost in the mails between the 16th of November and the 18th of December, 1840, on the route from Wheeling to New York.

“HOWARD KENNEDY.”
“Special Agent Postoffice Department.”
Sworn and subscribed before me the 25th day of January, 1841.
T. IRWIN, District Judge.

As before stated, Dr. Kennedy was one of the owners of the line of coaches known as the National Road Stage Company. This was popularly known as the Stockton line, called “the old line,” because it was the oldest on the road. Dr. Kennedy managed all the business of this line relating to the transportation of the mails. He was also one of the original members of the Western Express Company, doing business between Cumberland and Wheeling and Pittsburg via the Monongahela river. L. W. Stockton dying in the spring of 1844, in the fall of that year Dr. Kennedy brought his family from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Uniontown, and established his residence in the old Stockton mansion, called “Ben Lomond,” now the home of Mrs. Judge Gilmore. Here Dr. Kennedy resided until the year 1851, when he returned to Hagerstown, where he died on the 12th of June, 1855. He was of medium height and delicate form, of pleasant address, and a gentleman by birth, education, association and aspiration; in religion an Episcopalian, and in politics a Democrat. His widow, a sister of the late Alfred Howell, of Uniontown, survives him. She is enjoying the sunset of a gentle life in Hagerstown, the central figure of a remnant of that polite and refined society which in the palmy days of the National Road distinguished all the old towns along its line.

William H. Stelle was born in New Jersey, and it will be noted that many of the stage owners, agents, and drivers came out from that State. Two of Mr. Stelle’s partners in the stage business, John A. Wirt and Mr. Hutchinson, were likewise Jersey men. It is related that Mr. Stelle and Mr. Acheson were both desirous of selling their interests in the stage lines, the former being an owner in the Good Intent, and the latter in the Stockton line. Mr. Stelle one day approached Mr. Acheson in Wheeling, and told him he would give him five hundred dollars, if he would sell or buy at a price to be mutually named. Mr. Acheson named a price which he would give or take, and Mr. Stelle elected to sell, and promptly paid Mr. Acheson five hundred dollars for acceding to his proposition. Mr. Stelle located in Wheeling about the year 1841, and died at Elm Grove, Ohio county, West Virginia, on the 26th of September, 1854, aged about fifty years. He left a son, William H., and a daughter, Mrs. Susan R. Hamilton, both living in Wheeling.

Agents of the stage lines possessed functions somewhat, but not altogether, like those of railroad conductors. Some agents passed constantly over the road, paying bills, providing horses and equipage, and giving general direction to the running of the lines. Others were stationary, attending to local business. These agents were prominent characters of the road, and popularly esteemed as men of high position. One of the earliest agents was Charles Rettig, who subsequently kept the tavern two and one-half miles east of Washington, and referred to in a chapter on taverns and tavern keepers. John Risly, of Frederic, Md., and William Biddle and James Coudy, of Hancock, were old agents of lines east of Cumberland. Redding Bunting, Edward Lane, Theodore Granger and Charles Danforth were agents of the Old line west of Cumberland, with authority extending to Wheeling. Bunting also kept the National House in Uniontown, and Lane kept the National House in Washington, which were headquarters at those points respectively for their line. Charles Danforth was a leading local agent of the Stockton line at Uniontown. He was a large, fine looking man, with florid complexion, heavy black whiskers, and possessed of popular manners. He was a native of New York State, and died at Bedford, Pa., in 1853. His remains were brought to Uniontown, and interred in the old Methodist cemetery, near Beeson’s old mill. His widow is living in Chicago. Edward Lane was a man of average size, of reddish complexion, energetic in motion, and affable in manner. His tavern in Washington, Pa., was one of the best eating houses on the road. Granger was a large, dark complexioned man, not well liked by the people, but a favorite of Mr. Stockton. After the stage lines were taken from the road, Granger went to Cincinnati, procured employment at a livery stable, and died in that city in indigent circumstances. Jacob Beck was an agent for Weaver’s line, which was on the road a short time, and went with that line to Ohio and Kentucky. He returned from the West, and was a bar-keeper for John N. Dagg, of Washington, Pa., and subsequently, as elsewhere stated, kept tavern at Rony’s Point, Va., and died there. He was an old stage driver, a good one, and esteemed as an honest man. Daniel Brown, mentioned among the old tavern keepers, was an agent of the Good Intent line, and a very competent one. He was a native of New Jersey, and his sad ending has been alluded to in another chapter. William Scott, familiarly called “Billy,” was a well-known agent of the Good Intent line. He had been a driver, and was promoted to an agency on account of his competency and fidelity. He was a master of his business, a man of small stature, dark hair and complexion, and a little given to brusqueness of manner, but on the whole rather a popular agent. He remained an agent of the Good Intent line until business ceased on the road, when he went to Iowa, and became an agent of a stage line in that State. From Iowa he went to Texas, and died at Jefferson in that State. It is said that he was descended from a good family on both sides, who were wealthy, and that he engaged in stage driving from choice, rather than necessity, and his friends were disappointed in his career. Lemuel Cross was an agent of the Old line. He also kept tavern at Piny Grove, as elsewhere stated, and is well remembered. His jurisdiction as agent was mainly on the mountain division of the road, and he thoroughly understood his business, and was familiar with all the haunts, hills, and hollows of the mountains. B. W. Earl was likewise an agent for a while of the Good Intent line. He commenced a driver, was advanced to an agency, and ended a tavern keeper. John Foster, Andrew Cable, William F. Cowdery, Levi Rose and William Terry were agents at Wheeling. The latter had charge in part of Neil, Moore & Company’s line in Ohio.

THE PONY EXPRESS.

In the year 1835 or 6, Amos Kendall, being Postmaster-General, placed on the road a line of couriers, called the “Pony Express.” It was intended to carry light mails with more speed than the general mail was carried by the coaches. The Pony Express was a single horse and a boy rider, with a leather mail pouch thrown over the horse’s back, something after the style of the old-fashioned saddlebags. The route for each horse covered a distance of about six miles on the average. The horse was put to his utmost speed, and the rider carried a tin horn which was vigorously blown when approaching a station. William Moore, Thomas Wooley, subsequently stage drivers, William Meredith, Frank Holly and James Neese were among the riders on the Pony Express east of Cumberland, and Sandy Conner, Pate Sides and Thomas A. Wiley, all three afterward stage drivers, and William Conn rode west of Cumberland. Wiley rode from Uniontown to Washington, Pennsylvania, and also between Washington and Wheeling. He went with the log cabin boys from Uniontown to Baltimore in 1840 as a driver of one of the stage teams employed on that occasion. He is still living, an employe of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company at Camden Station, Baltimore, in the service of which he has been employed since 1852. He was an attendant at the bedside of L. W. Stockton during that gentleman’s last illness. Calvin Morris, a son of William Morris, the old tavern keeper on the hill west of Monroe, and William Downer, a son of the old gentleman who lived at and maintained the big water trough on Laurel Hill, were also riders on the Pony Express. William Morris was one of the contractors for carrying this fast mail, and his house was one of the relays of the line. The relay next west was the old toll house near Searights. Luther Morris, a brother of Calvin, the Pony Express rider, went to Iowa previous to the civil war, and was elected State Treasurer on two or three occasions. John Gilfillan, now, or recently, of Parkersburg, West Virginia, was a rider on the Pony Express between West Alexander and Wheeling. Bryant and Craven, of West Alexander, were among the contractors of the Pony Express line. “The Pony Express” did not remain long on the road, but when it was on, old pike boys say “it kicked up a dust.”