Old Cumberland Road
The two pages copied below about the Old Cumberland Road are from the 1906 "History of Bedford and Somerset Counties Pennsylvania", which was published by the Lewis Publishing Company. An early road is described that passed through the vicinity of present-day Wellersburg, and therefore would have been conveniently located for use by Michael Korn. This road may have been one of the keys to his prosperity, because it would have allowed him to take farm products southward to markets in Cumberland, and along what would be come the National Road.
The article says that "What is known as the old Cumberland road was a road that in some form or another, whether as a packer's trail, a bridle path or a wagon road, may be said to date back to the earliest days of the settlement of Somerset County. It is entirely within the bounds of possibility that it could have been an Indian trail long before the coming of the white man.". The article goes on to describe how the road was being reviewed in preparation for improvements in 1797, and references "what in those days was known as Korn's mill, in Southampton Township.". If accurate, this appears to be a very early reference to one of the Jacob Korn mills, but we do know that this area did not actually become Southampton Township until about 4 years later, and in 1797 was still a part of Bedford County.
