way. In 1796 this gentleman started upon a tour from Washington to Pittsburg. He mentions no other route than the one he traversed, and it is altogether probable that he pursued the most popular. On October 7 he left Washington, and, passing through Fredericktown, Hagerstown, and Chambersburg, met the Pennsylvania Road at McConnellstown, and traveled westward on it to Pittsburg.[1] That Mr. Baily pursued the main route westward there can be no doubt. An entry in his Journal for October 11 reads: "Chambersburg is . . a large and flourishing place, not inferior to Frederick's-town or Hagar's-town; being, like them, on the high road to the western country, it enjoys all the advantages which arise from such a continual body of people as are perpetually emigrating thither."
The celebrated Morris Birkbeck, founder of the English settlement in Illinois, journeyed from Washington, D. C., to Pittsburg, in 1817, by way of Frederickstown and Hagerstown and the Pennsylvania Road. At "McConnell's Town," under the date of
- ↑ Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America, London 1856, pp. 129–143.
