An automobile had reached Clarksburg in 1902, and that technology fostered further development. In 1928, U.S. Route 50 was paved through Clarksburg. U.S. Interstate 79 would open in 1979 and connect Clarksburg with Charleston as well as Pennsylvania. In 1924, Clarksburg hosted a parade for its "native son", John W. Davis, who had become the "dark horse" Democratic Presidential candidate (but lost) to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge. The following year, Republican and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Howard M. Gore, became Governor of West Virginia. During the 1920s, Clarksburg's Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) may have been the country's highest paid author, writing 17 novels including the characters of Randolph Mason and Uncle Abner and nominated for, but not winning, the Nobel Prize for literature.