Hello Madaline,

I have a couple of comments.  First, my understanding is that a "drover" was
the English term for one who drove sheep, cattle, ducks (yes I heard they did
this to London from outside) over drover trails to market.   While there were
undoubtedly supply wagons involved, the drovers themselves walked.

Second, if the wagon and horses were indeed the tools of his occupation and
thus his livelihood, then he was probably a wagonner, or early teamster, a term
which according to Merriam-Webster, came into use as early as 1777
(www.merriam-webster.com).

Finally, with respect to route choices and I-50, based on the route that
friends and others told me was the fastest way to drive from Alexandria, Virginia
to the Ozarks of Missouri, the recommendation was indeed to go way north to
hit Interstate 70 which goes through Pennsylvania and then west.  (FYI, I chose
not to go this way.  In part because I hate driving any route that is a truck
route, and also because this was my first trip through almost any of these
places and I wanted it to be pretty, so I drove west on I-66 past Front Royal,
south on 81 through the Shenandoah Valley (the Great Wagon Road), and turned
west on I-64 at Lexington, and had a grand time enoying the fruits of Senator
William Byrd being on the Apropriation Committee. The roads deteriorated
immediately the moment I crossed the Kentucky line, then even more in Indiana.  My
different route probably added at least five or six hours.  For a person for whom
time spent on the road equalled money, this would make a big difference.

But the point is that if you go up to where I-70 is now, you hit or
approximate what was the "National Road" (see map:
http://www.byways.org/browse/byways/2278/travel.html).   And, the terrain is flatter, etc., etc.  I have been
told that by 1838, this may have been the route my Baugh/Wash 2g grandparents
took to the Ozarks from Amelia Co. VA.

Those are my 2 cents.

Best Regards,
Janet Hunter

In a message dated 12/8/2003 9:50:01 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


>
> In 1802 I have an ancestor in Frederick Co, VA who borrowed
> money using the following items as collateral: " a wagon and
> team consisting of four horses with geers consisting of five
> pair and a fifth chair (or pair), Bearskins, also, a
> jackscrew and tent (or ten) bags" for four hundred and fifty
> dollars."
>
> A researcher on another list says this means he was a drover
> and probably "drove" up the valley and into PA and then west
> to Ohio.  (It seems to me if this pioneer who lived west of
> Winchester...is driving anything... would have taken the
> route that is now Rt. 50 over to Ohio.  It is a lot shorter.)
>
> My feelings are...drover or not, in this time frame he
> probably would have used his team and wagon to take valley
> products to points east thru MD...the points being
> Alexandria or perhaps Baltimore.
>
> In the 1850 census his grandson's occupation is listed as
> an "waggoner".
>
> Can anyone give us some background on drovers and waggoners
> in the early to mid 1800s in the Shenandoah Valley?
> Thanks,
> Mitzie
>
> Madaline H. Preston
>
>



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