OLD HOMESTEAD 



A large part of the public travel which now goes over the 

 Rome and Watertown railroad, and part of that of the Black 

 River road, was accommodated by these stages. They were usu- 

 ally crowded inside and out, with twelve or fifteen passengers 

 each, with trunks strapped on behind and on top. Relays of 

 horses were furnished at least every ten miles, and good time 

 was made. The horses were seldom allowed to walk, even up 

 the steepest hills. 



There was a tavern of more or less pretensions nearly every 

 two or three miles. For instance, leaving Adams, in the town of 

 Lorraine was the Deacon Brown Tavern, at Allendale; the John 

 Alger House and the Chester Gillman House, at the ''Huddle;" 

 Lem Hunt's Tavern, at the Corners; the old Risley House, on 

 the Abram Calkins Corners; the Hesketh Place and the Dick 

 Hart House, near the Boylston line — all taverns of standing 

 and reputation — within seven or eight miles. 



As the travel increased, many people who were not pretend- 

 ing to keep a regular public house accommodated travelers and 

 teamsters. The travel by private conveyance by far exceeded 

 that by stage, and this old State Road was a busy thoroughfare 

 from 1814 to 1850. Uncle Dan Beals once told me that he had 

 slept and fed seventy-five people in one night at the old log 

 tavern in the middle of the woods, now Greenboro. They did 

 not have spring mattresses nor fine furnishings, but covered the 

 floors of the whole house, travelers using their own blankets and 

 buffalo-robes for bedding. 



In addition to stage passengers and general travelers, there 

 was a stream of teamsters hauling goods both ways, as the freight 

 to and from Rome, Utica, Albany and New York was taken over 

 this road. 



As often as possible I went to the State Road to see the 



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