Newspapers were, nevertheless, carried by express mailstages as far west as Ohio in 1837, as is proved by a newspaper account of a robbery committed on the Cumberland Road, the robbers holding up an express mailstage and finding nothing in it but newspapers.[1]
The mails on the Cumberland Road were always in danger of being assailed by robbers, especially on the mountainous portions of the road at night. Though by dint of lash and ready revolver the doughty drivers usually came off safely with their charge.
- ↑ Ohio State Journal, August 9, 1837
transmission of newspapers from one place to another for several months past has been a subject of general complaint with the editors of all parties. It was to have been expected that, after the adjournment of Congress, the evil would have ceased to exist. Such, however, is not the case. Although the roads are now pretty good, and the mails arrive in due season, our eastern exchange papers seem to reach us only by chance. On Tuesday last, for instance, we received, among others, the following, viz., The New York Courier and Enquirer of March 1, 5 and 19; the Philadelphia Times and Saturday Evening Post of March 2; the United States Gazette of March 6; and the New Jersey Journal of March 5 and 19. The cause of this irregularity, we have reason to believe, does not originate in this state."—Ohio State Journal, March 30, 1833.
