The
president, managers, and company of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike
road.
By Richard T. Gregg
Copyright ã International
Bond & Share Society 2001
The first English turnpike authority was
established by Act of Parliament in 1663 on a short section of the York-London
road, due to the inability of the local parish to maintain this busy
thoroughfare from its own resources. In the English Colony of Pennsylvania
attempts were made from 1714 to obtain a ‘King’s Highway’ between Philadelphia
and the Lancaster area. The road was completed only in 1741 and the quality of
this ‘King’s Highway’ can be imagined when it was reported, even in 1773, that
tree stumps remained therein !
In the early 18th century a trip
from Lancaster County to Philadelphia, less than 70 miles, took four days.
Following the Revolutionary War (1776-83) the Pennsylvania Legislature
attempted to find a solution. The stimulus was the fear that Baltimore,
Philadelphia’s perpetual rival, would take the lead in trade and shipping. The
old road between Philadelphia and Lancaster was notoriously bad, but, more
seriously to the point, farm produce from the Susquehanna Valley was being
shipped by water to Baltimore at the expense of Philadelphia.
Business corporations were little known at the
time. ‘The President, Managers, and Company of the Philadelphia and Lancaster
Turnpike Road’was initiated in 1791 and chartered on April 9 1792 by the
Governor of Pennsylvania under an Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature with the
right to erect toll gates every seven miles. This preceded by more than two
years any other turnpike charter in America. The Company was only the fourth
business corporation to be chartered by Pennsylvania. It was formally organized
on July 24, 1792. The first President and Manager was William Bingham, the
richest man in America and founder in 1781 of the Bank of North America. Tench
Francis, from a prominent mercantile family in the area, served as Treasurer.
In 1792, one thousand shares of stock were offered for sale at $300 each and were heavily over-subscribed, with 2,276 shares being subscribed for, reduced to 1,000 by lot. The share certificates were printed on paper and carried a naïve vignette of a four-horse passenger coach: the first vignetted American share. The wording on these shares implies they were issued part-paid. They were signed by William Bingham and Tench Francis.
Construction
By the end of 1792, the road track had been staked and purchases of materials commenced. The Lancaster Pike was the first major paved road in America, built with a roadbed of impacted crushed stone following a method developed by the Scottish engineer John MacAdam, and was the most costly public works project undertaken in the former Colonies up to that time. Though the road was considered at that time to be ‘macadamized’, the use of tar had not yet been developed. William Bingham started the construction programme by dividing the proposed road into five sections, each with a Superintendent in charge with extensive powers. Local materials were to be bought wherever possible, but each Superintendent was to buy materials, provisions for the labourers (largely from New England) as well as feed for horses and oxen, at the best possible prices but consistent with good quality.
Construction of the ‘Lancaster Pike’ as it was nicknamed, commenced in the
spring of 1793, and, though not fully complete, it was opened in 1794. Road
construction at that time cost approximately $5,000 to $10,000 per mile. The
farmers fought the construction of the Pike, protesting against the road
crossing their land, the payment of tolls and the restrictions on their
vehicles, and claiming toll roads to be ‘injurious to the rights of free men’.
When work could not be stopped, they resorted to demanding the road be rerouted
this or that way to suit their convenience. When the road opened, however, the
farmers reversed their position on finding that their vehicles could carry
twice the load, with eight horses rather than twelve to sixteen, and in less
time ! At the height of the summer season, some 1,000 Conestoga wagons
would use the Pike in a single day.
Shares on Vellum
A further two hundred shares were offered in March 1795, printed on vellum with a vignette of a tollgate and a four-horse freight wagon. At the same time it would appear that new vellum certificates were issued in exchange for the earlier paper certificates. It is believed that approximately 1,000 replacements and up to 200 new shares were issued in March 1795, signed by Bingham and Francis, and that about 300 of these certificates survive in scripophily collections. The 1792 paper certificate, apparently having been called in by the Company in 1795, is extremely rare; indeed it is thought to be unknown in collectors’ hands.
Construction continued through 1796, during which year it became necessary to raise additional capital. An advertisement was placed in the ‘Lancaster Journal’ dated February 5, 1796, offering 100 additional shares at $300 each, with $100 payable at subscription and $66 2/3rds at 30, 60, 90 days with interest. No one was allowed to subscribe for more than one share on the same day. These shares were signed by the new President Israel Whelen, who took over from William Bingham in this year, and by Tench Francis. As some of these 1796 shares have numbers below 1200, it would seem that the 1795 issue was not fully subscribed. Some $75,000 of toll revenue was also used to finance the construction costs. The road was built at a total cost of $465,000, equivalent to over $60 million in today’s money !
When completed, the Lancaster Pike was
sixty-nine miles long, starting on the west side of the Schuylkill opposite
Philadelphia at the Middle Ferry, being the present Market Street, west of the
Schuylkill River. It crossed the Brandywine River near Downington and entered
Lancaster at the east end of King Street. The Pike had a 68 ft. (20.7m) right
of way, a road 37 ft. wide overall, with a centre of crushed rock, 21 ft. wide, with ditching and drainage on each
side. A coach with ten passengers and luggage could leave Philadelphia at five
o’clock in the evening and reach Lancaster at five the next morning. The Pike
was graced with some sixty-one taverns along its length to provide rest and
comfort from the presumably still-jolting stagecoach ride – to say nothing of
the brimming tankards of ale consumed therein to soothe the continuing journey.
The taverns and inns charged twenty-five cents for lodging, the same for each
meal, and fifty cents per horse. The Turnpike was served by nine toll gates and
travelling the full length cost $2.25 or 25 cents a section, for a two-horse
coach or wagon.
Success, and After
The Lancaster Turnpike reduced the cost of
freighting by two-thirds and it remained for some forty years the best-built road
in the nation and one of the principal arteries of American commerce. However,
with the advent of railways in the 1830’s, travel on the Turnpike dwindled and
over the years various sections were disposed of. The Pike was more direct than
its descendants of today, largely Pennsylvania Route 30. The Penn Central
Railway, now Conrail, closely parallels the former Turnpike and actually
occupies its site in one or two places. None of the taverns exists today but
there are remnants of one or two toll-houses that were rebuilt into residences.
Investment in shares of the Lancaster Turnpike
was profitable: they paid an annual yield of 10%-15% or more for over a quarter
century. For example, in 1827 a dividend of $72 per share was paid. There was a
ready market in the shares. Transfers were noted on the certificates’ reverse,
as well as in the records of the Company. Most certificates show several
transfers through the 19th century, sometimes involving well known
business names such as the Biddles, and ending with a rubber-stamp transfer on
January 2 1900 to ‘A M Taylor, Trustee’. On February 25 1902, no longer having
any toll roads, the Company of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road
petitioned for its own dissolution.
I am most grateful to
Haley Garrison for his INITIAL research which formed the basis for this text,
and particularly for his enthusiasm for the collecting of antique securities,
which started me off ON this project. I also appreciated the generous
information and advice of Society member Ned Downing.
References
Alberts R C, The Golden Voyage : the life
and times of William Bingham, Houghton Mifflin 1969
McDonald F, E Pluribus Unum : the
Formation of the American Republic 1776-1790, 2nd ed. Liberty Press
Shumway G & Frey H C, Conestoga Wagon
1750-1850 3rd ed. 1968
Wood F J, The Turnpikes of New England,
Marshall Jones 1919
Copyright ã INTERNATIONAL BOND
& SHARE SOCIETY 2001
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