David Shriver Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the Frederick County district | |
| In office 1807–1807 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Biggs, Thomas Hawkins, Henry Kuhn |
| Succeeded by | George Baer Jr., Francis Brown Sappington |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 14, 1769 Frederick County, Maryland, U.S. |
| Died | April 28, 1852 (aged 83) Cumberland, Maryland, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Eve Sherman (m. 1803) |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent |
|
| Relatives | Isaac Shriver (brother) Jacob Shriver (brother) Edward Shriver (nephew) |
| Occupation |
|
David Shriver Jr. (April 14, 1769 – April 28, 1852) was an American civil engineer, turnpike superintendent, and politician from Maryland. He represented Frederick County in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1807 and later became the first federal Superintendent of Construction for the Cumberland ("National") Road, overseeing the highway’s initial 123‑mile stretch across the Allegheny Mountains. Before that appointment, he directed two Maryland turnpikes that formed the eastern approach to the National Road, making him one of the most experienced road builders of the early republic. [1]
Early life and family
editDavid Shriver Jr. was born at Little Pipe Creek in what was then Frederick County, Maryland (later Carroll County, Maryland) on April 14, 1769. [2] He was the second son of Revolutionary‑era legislator David Shriver Sr. (1735–1826) and Rebecca Ferree.[1]: 115 Raised in a prosperous German‑immigrant milling family, Shriver learned practical mechanics and surveying while helping his elder brother Andrew build the water‑powered Union Mills complex in 1797.[3]
In February 1803, Shriver married Eve Sherman of Westminster; the couple had four children—Jacob Sherman, Elizabeth, William Wagoner, and George.[1]: 120
Early career in Maryland
editAfter withdrawing from active management of Union Mills, Shriver settled in Westminster and pursued public service. In 1807, he won election to the Maryland House of Delegates, where he promoted internal‑improvement legislation while continuing private surveying and engineering work.[2]
Turnpike career (1805–1811)
editIn 1805, the Maryland General Assembly chartered the Baltimore and Reisterstown Turnpike Road Company to improve the post road northwest from Baltimore. Company records and family correspondence show that Shriver was hired that year as superintendent of construction and directed grading, stone culvert work, and toll‑house placement along the Baltimore–Reisterstown–Westminster segment.[4]: 384–385
When the Westminster & Hagerstown Turnpike was chartered in 1808 to extend the corridor farther west, Shriver was again chosen as superintendent.[2] From 1809 to 1811, he simultaneously closed out contracts on the Reisterstown Road. He conducted preliminary surveys west of Westminster, effectively managing a continuous 75-mile route. His success on these state projects, together with his legislative reputation, brought him to the attention of Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin.
Superintendent of the Cumberland Road
editCongress authorized the federal Cumberland Road in 1806 to connect the Potomac headwaters at Cumberland with the Ohio River. Gallatin appointed Shriver Superintendent of Construction in March 1811. [5] Working from a field headquarters in Cumberland, he organized labor gangs, let contracts, and enforced specifications calling for stone arch bridges, carefully graded ascents, and a gravel macadam surface. By late 1813, the road was open to traffic as far as Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and construction presses were underway toward Wheeling.
Shriver’s meticulous record‑keeping produced some of the first federal cost‑control data for public works; excerpts of his monthly accounts appear in the 1860 American State Papers: Road and Canal Documents. [6]: 14645 In April 1823, he warned the Treasury that the Maryland section was already “in a ruinous condition” from a lack of maintenance funds, foreshadowing later debates over federal versus state responsibility for highway upkeep.[5]
Later life
editShriver remained associated with the National Road into the late 1820s while diversifying into local business. He reorganized the Cumberland Bank of Allegany County and served as its president. For several years, he also operated a Cumberland hotel that catered to road travelers.[1]: 127 He died at his Cumberland home on April 28, 1852, aged 83, and was remembered as “a most useful citizen, and an eminent patriot.”[1]: 128
Legacy
editMaryland’s internal-improvement era began with the issuance of four Baltimore-area turnpike charters on January 12, 1805.[7] Of those companies, only the Baltimore & Reisterstown Turnpike placed a salaried “superintendent of construction” on its payroll—David Shriver Jr. Minutes copied by Andrew Shriver in 1811 state that his brother “must attend the board in Baltimore in his capacity as superintendent.”[4]: 384 William Hollifield’s survey of company ledgers notes that the same job description does not appear in returns filed by the Baltimore & York, Baltimore & Frederick, or Falls turnpikes, whose directors relied instead on day-to-day foremen.[8]
Shriver completed the 37-mile Baltimore–Reisterstown–Westminster line (cost≈ \$638 000) by January 1810 and, starting in 1809, simultaneously surveyed the Westminster & Hagerstown Turnpike, pushing the corridor a further 38 miles west.[2] This eight-year stretch (1805-1813) of continuous management control over two companies “made him the most experienced practical road-builder then available,” according to Secretary Albert Gallatin’s March 1811 memorandum recommending Shriver for the new federal Superintendent of Construction, Cumberland Road. [9] As federal superintendent (1811-1816) Shriver directed contracts, masonry, and monthly cost reports on the first 123 miles of the National Road—accounts printed verbatim in *American State Papers: Road and Canal Documents* (pp. 14643-14648).[6] Later engineers cited those ledgers as the Treasury’s earliest systematic highway cost database.[10]
Because few private turnpikes employed resident engineers before West Point’s first graduating class (1802) entered public life, Shriver’s back-to-back turnpike superintendencies, followed immediately by a federal mega-project, gave him **hands-on authority over roughly 200 constructed miles**—a scope unmatched by any peer before the War of 1812.[11] Historian Billy Joe Peyton credits Shriver’s insistence on engineered grades and durable masonry with “setting the standard later applied to state and federal highways.”[12]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Shriver, Samuel S. (1888). The Shriver Family and Their Connections, 1684–1888. Baltimore: John D. Toy. pp. 115–130.
- ^ a b c d "David Shriver Jr. (1769–1852)". Maryland State Archives. Retrieved July 1, 2025.
- ^ "Union Mills Homestead & Shriver Family History". Union Mills Homestead. Retrieved July 1, 2025.
- ^ a b Kemp, Thomas W. (1940). "A Trip to Washington in 1811". Maryland Historical Magazine. 35 (4): 382–388.
- ^ a b Weingroff, Richard F. (2021). "The Nation's First Mega-Project: A Legislative History of the Cumberland Road" (PDF). Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved July 1, 2025.
- ^ a b American State Papers: Road and Canal Documents. Gales & Seaton. 1860. pp. 14643–14648.
- Pages 14643 to 14648 are the folio numbers for the Cumberland-Road correspondence in American State Papers: Road and Canal Documents (serial set volume covering the 18th and early-19th-century transportation papers). That six-page span contains:
- Shriver’s April 23, 1823, report on the deteriorated state of the Maryland section (pp. 14643 – 14645).
- Treasury Transmittal and Supporting Tables (pp. 14646–14648).
- Pages 14643 to 14648 are the folio numbers for the Cumberland-Road correspondence in American State Papers: Road and Canal Documents (serial set volume covering the 18th and early-19th-century transportation papers). That six-page span contains:
- ^ "List of turnpikes in Maryland". Wikipedia. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
- ^ Hollifield, William (1978). Difficulties Made Easy: History of the Turnpikes of Baltimore City and County. Cockeysville, MD: Baltimore County Historical Society. p. 42.
- ^ Gallatin, Albert (March 15, 1811). "Memorandum on appointments for the Cumberland Road". The Writings of Albert Gallatin, Vol. 1. J. B. Lippincott & Co. pp. 84–86. Retrieved July 3, 2025.
- ^ Historic Highway Bridges in Maryland: 1631-1960 — Historic Context Report (Report). Maryland State Highway Administration. 1995. p. 17.
- ^ Maryland Transportation Transformed, 1800–1900. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2001. p. 10.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Peytonwas invoked but never defined (see the help page).