National Road Traveler — Cambridge City, Indiana Thursday, August 21, 1941 page 1, column 1 –

 

National Road Facts and Figures (by Capt. C. B. Jackson in the Centerville Old Trails Echo)

“Capt. C. B. Jackson was born the 16th of April, 1830, on Jackson Hill, Wayne county, Ind. I still live where I was born and raised.  What a mighty change there has been in the last sixty years of my recollections.  I wee remember the laying out, surveying, grubbing and grading of the Cumberland road, then owned by the government, called The National Road.  In 1834, the government began the work of completing a macadamized road.  In 1835 the government abandoned the undertaking.  Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, came to the conclusion that the many internal improvements would break up the government.  Therefore he vetoed the appropriation, and all of the work was stopped at once, leaving a most wonderful unsightly and unhandy hole in the hill opposite our home.  I will give the names of those employed:

C.B. Jackson, overseer                                                                                                                                              John Morris         Isaac Adams        Noble Jenkins      Henry Miller           Enos Curtis     Robert Marvel           William Largin      Benja. Bond         John Beverlin        John Wood           Chas. Victory      John Harris               Lewis Smith         Joseph Discar       George McNeil    James Smith       Leroy Bristine      Owen Branson        Joseph Jackson    Norris Jones        Oliver Jones        Lewis Jones         Darius Shinn        Joshua Jackson         Ezra Reed            Wm. Edwards     James Hill            Abram Mash         William Moore

In 1835                                                                                                                                                                            C. B. Jackson, overseer                                                                                                                                            Burkett Jett           David Gentry     Jacob Beby    John Fipps        Isaac Wilkins Wise Brown         John Cook                Hans Wilkins         Elijah Sargen        John Jinkins Young Bristine    Abram Mash            John Griffith                  Seth DeLong       Gordon Reynolds Elijah Hood          Butler McCashlan    Solomon Wolfe       Robert Marvel      Wm. Edwards Isaac Tipton         Isaac Emmett           Edmund Bristine     Leroy Bristine        Barker Clark Joseph Jackson   Alfred York              Elliott Sumner          Abram Hurst           David Long  Wm. Ballard          Aug. Ballard            Wm. Wickersham   David Pile       Solomon Horney   Joseph Shank       David Pugh             Wm. Moore             Thomas Baldin Jacob Leonard  Wm. Eliason         Caleb Jackson        Thomas Moore       Brooks Bristine           John Nulton Burton Freeman       Rial Freeman       Pleasant Freeman   Burgess Wood, jr.            Spencer Pugh    Abedneago Hurst   Geo. Cornelius      John Hastings    John Leonard         Abner Williams    Bryson Sisk            Pitts Finch              James Witt         Joseph Parmer    Peter Webs       Everton Elliott          Hugh Sisk             Frederick Stinson   John Howard      David Discon   Stephen Legraves