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ABSTRACT
Title of Thesis: A History of the Potomac Company and its Colonial
Predecessors, 1743-18?8
Douglas R. Littlefied, Master of Arts, 1979
Thesis directed by: Richard T. Farrell
Associate Professor
Dr
epartment of History
One of the earliest routes to the American interior was the
Potomac River. Although it was possible to reach the trans-Appalachian
west through any number of routes from South Carolina north to New York,
beginning in the colonial period, the Potomac was among the first to
be promoted for agricultural, commercial, speculative, and military
reasons. There were many who were willing to undertake the project of
improving the Potomac, some as a civic responsibility, others for reasons
of personal gain. These efforts were hampered, however, by the relative
thinness of inland settlement, inter-colonial conflicts, and the lack
of expertise and labor in America. When the Potomac Company was incor-
porated after the Revolution, similar problems continued to exist and
were exascerbated by additional complications of economic chaos and
sectional conflicts unique to the young United States. These problems
ultimately brought about the failure of the Potomac Company and the incor-
poration of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.
The Potomac Company may have failed to achieve its charter goals,
but the idea of using the Potomac as a transportation route was sound as
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and BalLiiiIur~e and Ohio Railroad ultimatcly
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