Fortescue Cuming (1 762-1828) was one of the many travellers who passed through Cumberland County in the half century after 1785, and was one of those who kept and published a full account of the journey. A native of County Tyrone, Ireland, he had come to America after 1784 and been a resident of Connecticut since 1792. In 1806 he purchased land in the western country of the United States and the following year set out to the Ohio and Mississippi to inspect it.
He began his long and often arduous journey (for he travelled on foot) at Philadelphia on January 8, 1807, passed through Lancaster, Middletown, and Harrisburg to Carlisle, where he arrived on the evening of January 24. Leaving Carlisle the next morning, he proceeded by the Walnut Bottom road to Shippensburg and Chambersburg, and thence to Strasburg, on his way to Pittsburgh. The account of his trip was published at Pittsburgh in 1810 as Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country, through the States of Ohio and Kentucky; a Voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and a Trip through the Mississippi Territory, and Part of West Florida. In addition to the narrative of his two-year journey, with its descriptions and observations of the country, the people, and their prospects, the work contained several informative appendices, many by other writers, on the land and its features, the towns, diseases, and Indian customs and artifacts such as their impressive mounds.
The extract printed here is from pages 20-36 of the Pittsburgh edition. Some minor changes in punctuation have been made for the purpose of clarity, and several long paragraphs have been divided.
SKETCHES OF A TOUR TO THE WESTERN COUNTY
This extract begins with Cuming's description of the view of the Susquehanna River from the "back piazza" of Mrs. Wentz' "excellent inn," The Sign of General Washington, at Middletown.
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