busy years. Contractors who early earned a reputation followed the road westward, taking up contract after contract as opportunity offered. Farmers who lived on the route of the road engaged in the work when not busy in their fields, and for their labor and the use of the teams received good pay. Thus not only in its heyday did the road prove a benefit to the country through which it passed, but at the very beginning it became such, and not a little of the money spent upon it by the Government went into the very pockets from which it came by the sale of land.
The great pride taken by the states in the Cumberland Road is brought out significantly in the laws passed concerning it. Pennsylvania and Ohio legislatures passed laws as early as 1828, and within three days of each other (Pennsylvania, April 7,[1] and Ohio, April 11[2]), looking toward the permanent repair and preservation of the road. There were penalties for breaking or defacing the milestones, culverts, parapet walls, and bridges. A person found guilty of
