Show STAGE COACH TALES by E C TAYL TAYLOR OR I 1 zachary taylor skids P RE ZACHARY TAYLOR old zach 11 who had bod led the american army that chased santa anna through northern mexico tico in the war with mexico ignored the dangers 0 of travel by stage coach over the old national pike while he reveled in the beauties of the scenery with a party of statesmen politicians and bince seekers president taylor rode over the road in 1849 1840 between cumberland and the ohio river the party rode in many specially chartered coaches the identity of their drivers has never been clearly established but they were nere the pick of the drivers then operating on the road west of cumberland and probably included such famous rellis men as henry farwell aichle mcnell and alfred wolf the presidential party was under the of thomas shriver of cumberland that ardent whig whiff included in the party was colonel bullet famous editor of new orleans who was the colonel house of the taylor tailor administration the road was a glare of ice everything above ground was has heavily coated with sleet that had been falling for hours before president taylor and his party left cumberland to a southerner like president taylor who had never seen the like it was a phenomenon going down a spur of the road from meadow mountain the presidential conch coach along with all the others lanced and waltzed on tile tie polished road first to one side and then to the other every moment threatening to overturn but it remained upright under ull der the capable handling of the driver shriver was in one of 0 the rear coaches and was greatly in fear tor for the safety of the president As the coaches careened down each hill and a nd mountain ills his bare head could be seen protruding through the window of his coach to discover if the presidents coach was still upon Us its wheels the iron gray head of zachary taylor or with almost the same frequency could be seen outside the window of the presidential coach but zachary taylor was not trying to see after any blodys safety ue ile was enjoying what seemed to him an arctic panama after tile the party had bad skidded and lurched along many hills and down many slopes and everything was safe they finally reached the narrows two miles west of Cum cumberland borland at twilight at tile narrows la Is one of the most sublime views along the atlantic coast there zachary taylor tailor assumed command and ordered a halt lie ile got out in tile the snow and sleet and looked and looked at the giddy heights on both sides of wills creek every twig of vegetation and every inch of gro ground u nd covered with glistening ice lie ile had bad beheld nothing like it tn in his life before not even in the beautiful beamut ifal moun mountains bains of northern mexico when he was on the trail of the elusive santa anna it was more than an hour before the president would permit shriver ILI and d the rest of tile the frightened party to proceed on their journey it was known along the road that the president and his retinue of dig starles 11 were making the trip and great alarm was felt when they failed to reach cumberland at the time they were due every precaution had been taken of course to insure the presidents safety but the people of cumberland stood about awaiting old zach with many misgivings when president taylor and hla his party finally pulled into cumberland they were tendered a huge reception and the unperturbed general and hla his shaken companies dined rested and set out the next morning to continue their journey to washington president taylor was only one ona of the nat nations lorts leaders who traveled over the famous old pike before the railroads had pushed across tho the alle Bh gh enles jackson van buren monroe harrlson polk and tyler were other chief executives exec who rode the stage coaches over the old national road others were henry clay champion of the road in congress and a great fa favorite with all the stags stage coach dri drivers V ers benton and cass lafayette the general santa anna the indian chief black hawk john quincy adams P T barnum and jenny lind who returned from her first tour of the west by stage coaches from tho the ohio river to the east 0 1831 1031 west nv N v union |