Crossroads: Descriptions of Western Pennsylvania 1720-1829

By John W. Harpster

Crossroads is a collection of thirty-seven colorful and perceptive writings left by early travelers and settlers who ventured west of the Allegheny Mountains. Traders, surveyors, soldiers, preachers, and immigrants, some of them well known and some obscure, tell of the loneliness, terror, and beauty of the frontier.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822960885
• ISBN13: 9780822960881
• Release Date: October 1960
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Early impressions of western Pennsylvania

This book collects 37 first-hand accounts of travelers across the western part of Pennsylvania in the years 1720-1829. Journal and diary excerpts of important personages - Conrad Weiser, Washington, Christian Post, Peter Muhlenberg, Joshua Gilpin, to name a few, as well as many obscure figures, are presented as they describe their travels - the difficulties in crossing the Allegheny Mountains, the roadside taverns, the merchants and fellow travelers encountered, the tiny settlements, Fort Pitt and later Pittsburgh - all giving a revealing glimpse of early life in western Pennsylvania. Each entry is introduced by Harpster, and he also includes a lengthy bibliography of travel and description in western Pennsylvania. The book is an excellent source book, with the accounts being well-chosen ones in terms of their interest and information. First published in 1938, the book is still an important collection of contemporary writing about early western Pennsylvania.