History of Western Maryland. J. Thomas Scharf

as lie continued to clean his rifle, " Massa, you knows I's not afraid; where you go, I will go; where you fight, Nemesis will fight; but Nemesis will not come back." The colonel, feeling that he had wronged Nemesis, — for he was as brave a man as ever drew a trigger, — and touched also by the devotion of his servant to his person, said, " Nemesis, I did but joke; I know you are not afraid. You and I will keep together today; I will defend you with my life; and if I get into danger or difficulty, you will be by my side to aid me." With the morning light Cresap and his band of avengers were upon the Indians' trail. They pursued them over the Savage Mountain, and as far west as the next mountain, where they overtook them and had a severe battle, killing several of the Indians. Fighting bravely at his master's side. Nemesis was slain, and that mountain was named by his companions " Negro Mountain," and it is still known by that name. Nemacolin, an Indian who was strongly attached to the Cresap family, and was employed by Col. Thomas Cresap to mark the route from Cumberland to Redstone, now Brownsville, on the Monongahela, performed his work so well that Gen. Braddock, who afterwards traversed the mountains in 1756, followed the path marked out by Nemacolin, and the present location of the National road varies but little from it. Nemacolin, after lingering for several years behind his brethren who had gone towards the setting sun, making his home with Daniel Cresap, followed his tribe; but before leaving he placed his son George with Daniel Cresap, and left him behind. George lived with the family for years, going occasionally on " the hunt," but always returning to Cresap's. He died at the family residence, in old age, cared for by the family of Thomas, the youngest son of Daniel, who resided in the family mansion, a stone house afterwards occupied by Moses Rawlings. This house is situated twelve miles above Cumberland by rail. " Indian George" for years had his hunting camp in the valley which lies between Dan's and Savage Mountains. The valley is traversed by a small stream which takes its rise at Frostburg, and running south empties into the Potomac at Westernport, opposite the village of Piedmont. The stream has been called " George's Creek" from this circumstance from that time to the present. The valley of George's Creek is the center of the great coal region of Allegany County. The stream which takes its rise at the mines of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Company, east of Frostburg, and empties into Will's Creek immediately west of the point where Will's Creek finds a passage through the gorge of Will's Mountain, is called Braddock's Run, from the fact that Braddock's road passes along its banks during its whole course. The stream which rises north of Frostburg at the mines of the Frostburg Coal Company, and empties into Will's Creek four miles above Cumberland, was called "Jennings' Run" from the fact that a pioneer hunter by that name had his hunting station upon its banks. Thus we find that the mountains and the streams which flow at their base have received their names from the Indian or first white man who was known to have occupied or traversed them. The whole county from Town Creek, the stream dividing Allegany from Washington Counties, is traversed by mountains running from south to north from Town Hill to the " Big Back Bone," and geologically is a " transition formation," in which are usually found coal, iron, and lead. Coal and iron have long since been discovered in great abundance, but no lead has as yet been found, though there is a tradition, handed down from the earliest of the white settlers, that a very rich and productive lead-mine in the county or neighboring mountains of Virginia was known to the Indians. Out of this tradition a man named Paugh made some money by pretending to reveal the locality of the mine, as shown to him by Indian " George."

      The city of Cumberland, the county-seat, is six hundred and forty-two feet above tide-water, at the junction of Will's Creek with the Potomac. The highest point of the National road is on " Kyser's Ridge," thirty miles west of Cumberland, two thousand eight hundred and forty-eight feet above tide, the highest peaks of the Alleghanies in the county being about three thousand feet.

      Of the early settlers one of the most noteworthy was Michael Cresap, the third son of Col. Thomas Cresap. Jefferson, in his " Notes on Virginia," calls him " Col. Michael Cresap." He was the first captain commissioned by Maryland in the Revolutionary war, and marched from Frederick County to Boston, where he joined the army under Gen. Washington. His health gave way under the hardships of a camp-life. He endeavored to reach home, but died in New York on the 5th of October, 1775. He was a man of great bravery, and one to whom all who knew him or lived within his reach looked as a leader in time of danger. This is shown by the fact that when it was known on the Ohio, among the frontier settlers where Capt. Cresap had lived, that Maryland had appointed him a captain in the Maryland Line, twenty of those daring spirits at once crossed the Alleghanies, and joined his company and marched with him to Boston.'

      Early Roads. — Braddock's road was made in 1754, under the direction of the Ohio Company, aided by traders and Indians, and was the one that had been blazed by Nemacolin when he and Col. Cresap first chose a route over the mountains. It was subsequently followed by Braddock's army through the advice of Sir John St. Clair. It went from Will's Creek through the valley which is now Green Street. It was used as the only road to the West until 1818, when the National road was made, the latter crossing the former at various points. This old road is as visible to-day as a century ago, though in its bed in many places immense trees are growing. Just where the Cresaptown road leads off, about a hundred yards east of Mr. Steel's residence on the National road, the Braddock road bore a little to the north, and ran straight to almost the top of Will's Mountain at a steep grade, and then descended to the bed of the National pike at Sandy Gap. Here it crossed the valley of the present National road to the base of the hills. Near the " Five-Mile House" it crossed from the left to the right of the National road, and ran almost parallel with it to within two hundred yards of the " Six-Mile House." When Col. Bouquet proposed his expedition of 1758, Washington thought it would be made over the Braddock road. But the colonel announced his intention of building a new road from Raystown to the Ohio River, and of marching part of his army by that route, and the other portion by Braddock's road, the two bodies to form a junction on the Monongahela. He was induced to this course by the dispatches of Braddock, which led him to the belief that the old road was almost impassable, and by interested persons in Pennsylvania, who told him a new one with light grades could be easily made. Washington, who had used the old road in 1754 and 1755, wrote as follows to Bouquet:

       "Camp near Fort Cumberland, 25 July, 1758.

       " Dear Sir, — I shall most cheerfully work on any road, pursue any route, or enter upon any service that the general (Forbes) or yourself may think me usefully employed in or (Qualified for, and shall never have a will of my own when a duty is required of me. But since you desire me to speak my sentiments freely, permit me to observe that after having conversed with all the guides, and having been informed by others who have a knowledge of the country, I am convinced that a road to be compared with Genera! Braddock's road, or, indeed, that will be fit for transportation even by pack-horses, cannot be made. I have no predilection for the route you have in contemplation for me, not because difficulties appear therein, but because I doubt whether satisfaction can be given in the execution of the plan. I know not what reports you may have received from your reconnoitering parties, but I have been uniformly told that if you expect a tolerable road by Raystown you will be disappointed, for no movement can be made that way without destroying our horses."

      Gen. Forbes, however, determined upon the new route through Pennsylvania from Raystown.

      Washington wrote again from Fort Cumberland on Aug. 2, 1758, stating the advantages of Braddock's over the proposed new road. The new road was made, but the sequel proved that Washington was right, for in the march over the obstacles were nearly insurmountable, and the army's progress greatly retarded, while, if Braddock's road had been taken, not half the time would have been consumed nor so many horses lost.

      Road from Fort Frederick to Fort Cumberland. — In December, 1758, the General Assembly considered the state of the road between Fort Frederick and Fort Cumberland, with the object of constructing a shorter route between these two important forts which should be all in Maryland, and thus save the necessity of fording the Potomac River.

      Col. Thomas Cresap, Joseph Chapline, E. Dorsey, Josias Beall, Francis King, and Capt. Crabb were appointed a committee to inquire into the feasibility of clearing; up a new road between these points through the province of Maryland, and to estimate its cost. Their report was as follows:

       "Your

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