and dug them out of the snow. He then retraced his steps, depositing three of his horses in a neighboring stable, and with the other continued his journey determined as he said 'to deliver the mail safely at the hazard of his life.' When he arrived at the inn, his eyelashes were cemented together with ice-himself so benumbed that he could scarcely articulate, and his situation so precarious that the most active restoratives were found necessary for his recovery."

The era of transportation by wagon which developed into such large proportions, and in which so much individual capital was invested and required, and gave employment to so large a number of horses and men, may be said to have reached its height about 1830, and from the 18th day of October, 1832, when the first car was drawn over the Columbia Railroad, from Belmont to the West Chester Intersection, we may say that the transition from the Indian "Trail" to the "T-rail" of modern civilization was complete. As far as our vicinity was concerned the decline of the wagon calling was rapid, and as a natural result the patronage of what little travel remained on the turnpike after the railroad fairly got under way was soon absorbed by the more reputable hostelries.

Chairman Miller in his report on Internal Improvements made to the Legislature in 1834, thus sets forth the situation of affairs in this transition period:

The disposition of men to frequent long established marts, and to travel to them on the beaten path, is not suddenly overcome. Old habits are not readily abandoned; old associations not easily broken up; a sudden transition from one course to another can only be induced from powerfully interesting motives. The trader is frequently interested in the employment of the wagoner. The railroad system is not fully adapted to the demands of a trade, the

extent of which can only be determined by its own development. Delays occur, discontent ensues, the parts of the system are not in harmony with each other; the system is formed and completed, and moves harmoniously and hand in hand with the demands made upon it. The smaller asperities are smoothed down, gradually— the old disappears and the new takes its place, and as the keel boat has been displaced by the steamboat on the waters of the West, so will (but not to the same extent), the wagons disappear and be displaced by the railroad car on the line of the railroad.

The hardy wagoners got up a song upon the loss of their occupation, a verse of which ran:

"Oh, 'tis once I made money by driving my team,
But now all is hauled on the railroad by steam.
May the devil catch the man that invented the plan,
For its ruined us poor wagoners and every other man."

By the "every other man" were meant the inn keepers, blacksmiths, hostlers and such others who depended on the travel on the turnpike for a livelihood.

The following wail published about seventy years ago will form an appropriate close to this sketch:

"Not only have the Conestoga teams disappeared but the stage. Alas! the stage horn no longer is heard the bounding wheels no longer rattle over the white compact road.

"No more the weary stager dreads
The toil of the coming morn;
No more the bustling landlord runs
At the sound of the echoing horn,
The old turnpike is now left alone,

And the stagers have sought the plow.

We have circled the earth with an iron rail,

And the Steam King rules us now."

T

'N the early part of the eighteenth century while yet Anne reigned over England there arrived in the Delaware river a staunch ship, name of craft and master long forgotten, with a number of Welsh emigrants, who had been allured from their native shores by the fair and seductive promises of Wm. Penn and his agents. These people came to the new world in the hope of bettering their condition, supposing they were to have here a barony of their own; they possibly also expected like many of their fellows who had preceded them to these trackless wilds, to find kinsfolk in the Indians, who they were told by their local sagas and legends were descended from their countrymen, who were supposed to have settled two colonies in the western world as far back as the twelfth century, under the leadership of Prince Madog, the youngest son of

Owain Gwynedd, a King of Wales. This tradition was further strengthened by the supposed or fancied similarity between the language of the Leni Lenape and the ancient "British" tongue, which was the only language in use among the rural Welsh. Among these emigrants, who thus landed on our shores was a little family group, from "Merionethshire"; they were first cousins, and all of one family, forty-two in number. Our records unfortunately fail to inform us how many of this remarkable family were either left behind in Wales or died during the long voyage across the stormy Atlantic.

This family group soon after their arrival scattered themselves through the Welsh tract in Chester county, mainly in the great valley, others again settled on portions of what is known as Montgomery county, at that time, however, part of Philadelphia county. Their settlements can still be traced by the Welsh names given to their new homes at the purchase of the land.

These settlers brought little to this country in the way of worldly possessions; in many instances their entire fortune besides a few household goods, and the means to purchase a plantation, consisted solely in their rugged constitutions and their "Pedigree," which by the aid of the prefix "ap" they traced back to the original Adam of old.

One of the most prominent of this family group was one William Evans, who we find in 1719 purchased a plantation of five hundred acres in the upper portion of the "Welsh Tract" located on the south valley hill in the southwestern part of the township of Tre: yr: Dyffryn, signifying in their musical language "Stony Valley." William Evans was a blacksmith by trade and here started the first smithy in the vicinity. His shop and house, which was probably a rude log structure, was located near the

old bridle path to Conestoga which was the precursor of the old Lancaster road. From the earliest time he was a man of considerable importance in the infant settlement, and he appears as a vestryman together with his neighbor, Anthony Wain (Wayne) the immigrant, in the first regular vestry formed in 1725 at the old Welsh Church in the lower end of the Welsh Tract (St. David's, Radnor). His son, Joshua Evans, born 1732, was probably the builder of the oldest part of the present stone tavern, which at that time, though a small and unpretending structure, was destined to become famous and known far and near, and to have a name in history as long as the country shall last. It was the sign-board of this house which gave the name to the barbarous affair during the Revolution, on the night of September 21, 1777, although the massacre took place much nearer to the Admiral Warren than to the subject of our sketch. The name of "Paoli" is always associated with the unfortunate affair. This was really the result of the accidental naming and locating the house on the military map drawn just after the action by order of General Grey, and afterwards published in London during the following year.

The house at the time of the Revolution was a small unpretentious two-story affair, with small windows and low ceilings and, as near as can now be determined after the lapse of one hundred and thirty-five years, covered a space of about 42 x 30 feet. Remnants of the original building can still be seen. The house when built faced the ancient road leading from the Yellow Springs to Newtown Square and known as the Darby road. It is also said to have been a former Indian trail. This road crossed the old Lancaster road at an angle at this point. The house stood some distance north of the old Lancaster road, now