ENPage 2
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page 1st 1823
6 Mo 2d Parted with C Bentley and R Hatten, and set out
with our new caretaker George Wilson, accompanied by Jesse Wickersham,
Mary Farquhar, Thomas Leach, and Sarah Cook, on
our western journey. 12 miles of rough but safe road, brought
us over a handsome stream, call'd Mountain Creek, at Trents
Gap, Holly Forge, a large establishment, within an hour or
two, of casting Iron, but had no time to spare for the indulgence
of curiosity, my fears had by this time entirely subsided on
account of trying G Wilsons gay Horn _ rode 4 miles
and cross'd the most noted stream in the fertile valley, of vast
extent called Hagers Town Valley 50 miles below that Town
this stream is call'd Yellow Breeches, on which stand Mills
which supplied the inhabitants with bread thro'out a large
tract of Country during the last dry season. Came on a
few miles to Carlile a beautiful Town, situated on the
plains of the Valley, a fine stream running on the East side stream near, a few miles on
this side, we cross'd a noble Stream on an excellent Stone
Notes and Questions
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They appear to be traveling north along the Carlisle-Baltimore Pike where today one would cross Mountain Creek at Mount Holly Springs, PA and soon afterward cross Yellow Breeches Creek 5 miles south of Carlisle, PA. While not technically in the Hagerstown Valley (the Maryland part of the Great Appalachian Valley), the creeks are in the Cumberland Valley (the contiguous Pennsylvania part of the Great Appalachian Valley) and the creek crossings are about 50 miles from Hagerstown. The use of "below" Hagerstown likely reveals the authors belief that the valley runs down to the Susquehanna River from that town, but there is a Potomac-Susquehanna watershed divide somewhere in between.