Zanesville City (part 8 of 8)

National Aspects

Thus began in Ohio an enterprise destined not merely to build up a great state but also to weld together the Eastern and Western sections of the republic, to avert forever a danger that had threatened - the absorption of sections of the Mississippi basin by England, France or Spain - a basin containing 4,000,000 square miles of territory unsurpassed in those qualities of soil, climate and minerals upon which empires are builded.

Nearly 100 years have passed since Zanesville began to witness the development of traffic upon this great national highway. As in the case of Zane's Trace, the town profited quickly and enormously by the opening of the road. Its position at the Northern end of the road to Maysville made it a junction point of mark and value. The products of Muskingum's fields fed hundreds of travelers and

Other Vital Gains

Zanesville merchants sold goods to these hundreds; her tavernkeepers took heavy tolls for their entertainment; her coachmakers manufactured vehicles for the stage companies. In many other forms ,material profit came to ae community through the highway's constantly growing activities. `

And there was great enrichment on non-material sides. Citizens came in contact with the men of mark who went back and forth over the road. They saw if they did not meet the Henry Clays of the day. They read the Eastern newspapers which came daily by the stage and were in constant touch with the great outside world. Local life became richer and more color ful. Mental bounds were enlarged.

After the traffic's modest beginning there was rapid growth until at times twenty coaches were to be seen rolling along sections of the road in a single line. Often a hotel would entertain as many as seventy transient guests over night. The coaches were arresting objects, with their profusely decorated bodies and rich, plush-lined interiors.

Bells jingled from where they hung in arches over the hames of the harness; the blowing of stagehorns announced the coach's arrival; with a speed often averaging ten miles an hour, there was movement enough on the stage's part to quicken the pulse of observers. And the freight traffic and its accompaniments were little less attractive.