Free Kings Pinnacle by Robert Gourley Page B

had no kin to rely on, and he didn’t know anyone
who could help him get a start. So far, he hadn’t met many other
Scots, and none who knew him or his family. As soon as he had lost
his pursuers, he doubled back to the old, abandoned warehouse that
had been his temporary home and gathered up his few belongings. He
packed them in his rucksack and slung it over his shoulder. After
he gathered up his rifle and powder horn and slid his dirk into his
belt, he mentally said goodbye to Philadelphia and walked west
until he left the town behind him.
    Alex knew that the land that
was located closest to Philadelphia was already settled, and there
were plenty of people to do all the work that needed doing. He
thought that he might have better luck out west where all the land
wasn’t already claimed and where there weren’t so many people to do
all the work. He had heard talk on the docks and on the Ocean
Monarch about the frontier and the hearty pioneers who were
attempting to settle this wild land. So Alex lit out on The Great
Wagon Road toward the American frontier wilderness and into its
primeval forest.
    The Great Philadelphia Wagon
Road or just The Great Wagon Road, as the settlers and pioneers
called it, had started as a collection of old Indian and game
trails that the Iroquois tribesmen and their predecessor tribes
used for hunting and also for trading with the settlers around
Philadelphia. These same tribesmen also used these trails to make
war on the settlers from time to time.
    The initial segment of The
Great Wagon Road was a flat trail running west northwest from
Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. At Lancaster, the trail
turned slightly to the southwest towards York. It followed from
York to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and then wound through a valley to
cross the first Appalachian mountain range southwest of Gettysburg.
Then the trail led southwest to Hagerstown, Maryland, just across
the Pennsylvania/Maryland border. Southwest of Hagerstown, it
crossed the Potomac River at Williamsport, Maryland where the
Conococheague Creek flowed into the Potomac. An early settler named
Evan Watkins operated a ferry there for people and livestock to
cross the river. Thus, the ferry at Williamsport was called the
Watkins Ferry.
    From Watkins Ferry, The
Great Wagon Road followed valleys and river banks to Winchester,
Virginia and then onward to the southwest. Eventually it ended in
Augusta, Georgia. The entire trail covered a total distance of over
seven hundred miles. The treaty of Lancaster in 1744 and some
subsequent treaties between the settlers and the powerful Six
Nations of the Iroquois allowed the settlers to use The Great Wagon
Road. Thousands of English, Scots Irish, and Germanic settlers used
the access provided by this trail to enter the interior of the
continent and claim lands in the west.
    In the early 1770s, the
trail was almost always traveled on foot or horseback, with the
occasional small, two-wheeled wagon in tow. After the close of the
American Revolution, settlers normally would depart from
Philadelphia walking toward Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In Lancaster,
they would purchase a Conestoga wagon, named after the Conestoga
River or Conestoga Township, since the manufacture of these wagons
was the major industry in and around Lancaster. But during the
1770s, The Great Wagon Road was fit for small wagons only as far as
Winchester, Virginia. Beyond that point, it could only be traveled
by horseback or on foot.
    The trail west northwest
from Philadelphia to Lancaster, Pennsylvania was straight and wide
and Alex made good progress, since the walking was very easy on the
flat ground. He had plenty of powder and shot and was able to hunt
just off the trail to satisfy his hunger. Alex had planned on
trading the excess game he collected along the trail with other
travelers for the items that he needed for the trip.
    Late one evening after he
had traveled past Lancaster, Alex killed a small deer, which would
feed him for