The Louisville Herald In these latter days of freight trains,
automobile trucks and airplanes, it is difficult to realize the
hardships of the early Kentuckians in managing their commercial
affairs. If they went to market in New Orleans, they had to walk
back; and if they carried their goods east, they had to cross
the mountains. Yet, they did both and were so far from
complaining of the difficulties that they even boasted about the
ease of transportation. All the imports into pioneer Kentucky
came from the East, and this meant the two cities of Baltimore
and Philadelphia. The goods, of all kinds and descriptions, but
always including a large percentage of copper stills, were
hauled on wagons from the Coast to the Ohio River, at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, or Wheeling, West Virginia; and thence
sent on flatboats to Maysville, Kentucky, for transportation
into Central Kentucky. For these goods, the Kentuckians paid in
such fashion as they could. After 1795, Spanish silver dollars
came in from New Orleans over th