Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/162

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158
PIONEER ROADS

country is rough and of a high elevation.'

"In some reminiscences[1] which my father wrote in 1890, he described the scenes along this road that were familiar to him in boyhood at Kortright—1825 to 1835. The road was then in its most prosperous period. It was not uncommon for one of the hotels, which marked every few miles of the route, to entertain thirty or forty guests at a time. The freight wagons were huge in size, drawn by six and eight horses, and had wheels with wide tires. Stages drawn by four and six horses were continually in use. Not infrequently came families bound for Ohio, where they expected to settle—some of these Connecticut people, who helped to plant the Western Reserve settlements. This vast traffic brought easy prosperity to the people along the turnpike and built up towns and villages. My father records the success of the Rev. Mr. McAuley's church at Kortright—a place that has now retrograded so that it is only a small hamlet, just capa-

  1. "Reminiscences of Village Life and of Panama and California from 1840 to 1850," by Gains Leonard Halsey, M. D. Published at Unadilla.—Halsey.