FROM PATH TO TURNPIKE
The first roads in New England are called in the early court-records
"trodden paths." They were narrow worn lines, scarce two feet wide,
lightly trodden over pine needles and fallen leaves among the tree trunks
by the soft moccasined foot of the tawny savages as they walked silently
in Indian file through the forests. These paths were soon deepened and
worn bare by the heavy hobnailed shoes of the white settlers, others were
formed by the slow tread of domestic cattle, the best of all path makers,
as they wound around the hillsides to pasture or drinking place. Then a
scarcely broader bridle-path for horses, perhaps with blazed trees as
guide-posts, widened slowly to travelled roads and uneven cart-ways. These
roads followed and still wind to-day in the very lines of the foot-path
and the cattle-track.
The early colonists walked as did their predecessors, the Indians, on
their own stout legs, when they travelled by land. We find even the
governors of the colonies walking off sturdily into the forests; crossing
the rivers and brooks on fallen trees; and sometimes being carried across
"pick-a-back" by vigorous Indian guides. We have one record of Governor
Winthrop in that dependent and rather un-governor-like attitude, and it is
well to think of this picture of him as affording a glimpse of one of the
human sides of his life, to balance the prevailing Chinese worship and
idealization of him and our other ancestors.
The earliest trail or path was the old Plymouth or Coast Path, which
connected the capitols of two colonies, Boston and Plymouth. It ran
through old Braintree, and its permanence was established by an action of
the General Court in 1639. The Old Connecticut Path started from
Cambridge, ran through Marlborough, Grafton, Oxford, and on to Springfield
and Albany. The New Connecticut Path or Road started also from Cambridge,
thence to Grafton, then to Worcester, Brookfield, and on to Albany. The
Providence Path ran through Narragansett and Providence Plantations. The
Nipmuck Trail was made from Norwich. The "Kennebunk Road by the Sea" was
ordered by the Massachusetts Commissioners in 1653, sufficient highway
"between towns and towns for horse and foot." Kittery and York were
enjoined to "make straight and convenient way along East for Man and
Horse."
The most famous of all these paths was the one known as the Bay Path. It
was in existence in 1673, and doubtless before. It left the Old
Connecticut Path at Wayland, Massachusetts, and ran through Marlborough to
Worcester, then to Oxford, Charlton, and Brookfield, where jutted off the
Hadley Path, to Ware, Belchertown, and Hadley, while the Bay Path
rejoined the Old Connecticut Path and thus on to Springfield. Holland
wrote of the Bay Path in his novel of that title:--
"It was marked by trees a portion of the distance and by slight
clearings of brush and thicket for the remainder. No stream was
bridged, no hill was graded, and no marsh drained. The path led
through woods which bore the mark of centuries, over barren hills
which had been licked by the Indian hounds of fire, and along the
banks of streams that the seine had never dragged. A powerful interest
was attached to the Bay Path. It was the channel through which laws
were communicated, through which flowed news from distant friends, and
through which came long, loving letters and messages. That rough
thread of soil, chipped by the blades of a hundred streams, was a
trail that radiated at each terminus into a thousand fibres of love,
and interest, and hope, and memory. Every rod had been prayed over by
friends on the journey and friends at home."
Born in a home almost by the wayside of the old Bay Path, I feel deeply
the inexplicable charm which attaches itself to these old paths or trails.
I have ridden hundreds of miles on these various Indian paths, and I ever
love to trace the roadway where it is now the broad, travelled road, and
where it turns aside in an overgrown and narrow lane which is to-day
almost as neglected and wild as the old path. There still seems to cling
to it something of the human interest ever found in a foot-path, the
intangible attraction which makes even the simplest foot-path across a
pasture, or up a wooded hill, full of charm, of suggestion, of sentiment.
It is interesting to see how quickly the colonists acquired horses. Before
John Winthrop died Massachusetts had a cavalry corps. Restrictive measures
were enjoined by the magistrates to improve the breed and limit the number
of horses. These horses were poor and scrubby and small, but before 1635 a
cargo of Flemish draft horses was imported. A characteristic American
breed, the Narragansett Pacers, was reared in Rhode Island. They were
famous saddle-horses, giving ease of motion to the rider, being
sure-footed and most tough and enduring. For a century they were raised in
large numbers and sold at good prices, but became little valued after
trotting-horses were bred and folk drove instead of riding horseback. I
saw the last of the Narragansett Pacers. She died about twenty years ago;
of an ugly sorrel color, with broad back and short legs and a curious
rocking pace, she seemed almost a caricature of a horse, but was,
nevertheless, a source of inordinate pride to her owner.
Women rode with as much ease and frequency as men. Young girls rode on
side saddles for long journeys. Older women rode behind men on pillions,
which were padded cushions which had a sort of platform stirrup. An
excellent representation of a pillion is here given in Mr. Henry's
charming picture, "Waiting at the Ferry," as well as of an old-time gig
used at the end of the eighteenth and in the early part of the nineteenth
century.
[Illustration: Waiting for the Ferry.]
Horseflesh was so plentiful that "no one walked save a vagabond or a
fool." Doubtless our national characteristic of never walking a step when
we can ride dates from the days "when we lived under the King." Driving
alone, that is, a man or woman driving for pleasure alone, without a
driver or post-boy, is an American fashion. It was carried back to Europe
by both the French and English officers who were here in Revolutionary
times. The custom was noted with approval by the French in their various
books and letters on this country. They also, La Rochefoucauld among them,
praised our roads.
Mr. Ernst, an authority upon transportation and postal matters, believes
that our roads in the northern provinces, on the whole, were excellent. He
says that the actual cost of the roads as contained in Massachusetts
records proves that the notion that our New England roads were wretched is
not founded on fact. He notes our great use of pleasure carriages as a
proof of good roads; in 1753 Massachusetts had about seven such carriages
to every thousand persons. The English carriages were very heavy. In
America we adopted the light-weight continental carriages--because our
roads were good.
The corduroy road was one of the common road improvements made to render
the roads passable by carts and stage-wagons. Marshy places and
chuck-holes were filled up with saplings and logs from the crowded
forests, and whole roads were made of logs which were cut in lengths about
ten or twelve feet long, and laid close to each other across the road.
Many corduroy roads still remain, and some are veritable antiques; in
Canada they still are built. A few years ago I rode many miles over one in
a miner's springless cart over the mountains of the Alexandrite range in
upper Canada, and I deem it the most trying ordeal I ever experienced.
As soon as there were roads, there were ferries and bridges. Out from
Boston to the main were ferries in 1639 to Chelsea and Charlestown. There
was a "cart-bridge" built by Boston and Roxbury over Muddy River in 1633.
There was a "foot-bridge" also at Scituate, and at Ipswich in 1635. In
1634 a "horse-bridge" was built at Neponset, and others soon followed.
These had a railing on one side only. It was a great step when the "Bay"
granted fifty pounds to Lynn for a cart-bridge where there had been only a
ferry. After King Philip's War, cart-bridges multiplied; there was one in
Scituate, one in Bristol, one in Cambridge.
These early bridges of provincial days were but insecure makeshifts in
many cases, miserable floating bridges being common across the wide
rivers. In England bridges were poor also. We were to be early in fine
bridge-building, and to excel in it as we have to this day. We were also
in advance of the mother country in laying macadamized roads, in the use
of mail-coaches, in modes of steam travel by water, just as we were in
using flintlock firearms, and other advanced means of warfare.
The Charles River between Boston and Charlestown was about as wide at the
point where the old ferry crossed as was the Thames at London Bridge, and
Americans were emulative of that structure. Much talking and planning was
done, but no bridge was built across the Charles till after the
Revolution. Then Lemuel Cox, a Medford shipwright, planned and built a
successful bridge in 1786. It was the longest bridge in the world, and
deemed a triumph of engineering. The following year he built the Malden
Bridge, then the fine Essex Bridge at Salem. In 1770 Cox went to Ireland
and built a bridge nine hundred feet long over the deep Foyle at
Londonderry, Ireland. This was another American victory, for the great
English engineer, Milne, had pronounced the deed impossible. This bridge
was of American oak and pine, and was built by Maine lumbermen and
carpenters.
According to the universal "Gust of the Age"--as Dr. Prince said--the aid
of the Muses was called in to celebrate the opening of the Charlestown
Bridge. This took place on the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill,
and a vast feast was given. Broadsides were distributed bearing "poems" as
long as the bridge. Here are a few specimen verses:--
"I sing the day in which the BRIDGE
Is finished and done.
Boston and Charlestown lads rejoice
And fire your cannon guns.
"The BRIDGE is finished now I say
Each other bridge outvies
For London Bridge compared with ours
Appears in dim disguise.
"Now Boston Charlestown nobly join
And roast a fatted Ox
On noted Bunker Hill combine
To toast our Patriot Cox.
"May North and South and Charlestown all
Agree with one consent
To love each one like Indian's rum
On publick good be bent."
A perfect epidemic of bridge-building broke out all over the states. In
our pride we wished to exhibit our superiority over the English
everywhere. Throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, and upper Virginia, fine
wooden and stone bridges were built. On all the turnpikes the bridges
equalled the roads. Many of those bridges still are in use. The oldest
suspension bridge in America, the "chain-bridge" at Newburyport,
Massachusetts, is still standing. A picture of it here is shown. It is a
graceful bridge, and its lovely surroundings add to its charm.
The traveller Melish noted specially, in 1812, the fine Trenton Bridge,
"very elegant, nine hundred and seventy feet long, with two carriage
ways"; the West Boston Bridge "three thousand feet long, with a causeway
three thousand more"; the Schuylkill Bridge, which cost over two hundred
thousand dollars.
So bad was the state of English roads at the end of the eighteenth century
that it took two days' and three nights' incessant travel to get from
Manchester to Glasgow. The crossroads were worse. In many cases when
mail-coaches had been granted, the roads were too poor to receive them.
The ruts, or rather trenches, were up to the axletrees. When a mail-coach
was put on the Holyhead Road in 1808, twenty-two townships were indicted
for having their roads in a dangerous condition. This road had vast
sums spent upon it; in the six years succeeding 1825 it had L83,700 for
"improvements," and repairs were paid by the tolls. Its condition now is
very mean, grass-grown in places, and in ill-repair.
[Illustration: Old Chain bridge, Newburyport, Massachusetts.]
The system of road-making known as macadamizing received its name from Mr.
Loudon McAdam, who came to England from America in 1783 at a time when
many new roads were being made in Scotland. These roads he studied and in
1816 became road surveyor in Bristol, where he was able to carry his
principles into practice. The leading feature of his system was setting a
limit in size and weight to the stones to be used on the roads, the weight
limit being six ounces; also to prohibit any mixture of clay, earth, or
chalk with the stone. Similar roads had been made in Pennsylvania long
before they were laid in England, and had been tested; and without doubt
McAdam simply followed methods he had seen successfully used in America.
Among others the Salem and Boston Turnpike, the Essex Turnpike (between
Salem and Andover), and the Newburyport Turnpike, all macadamized roads,
were in successful operation before Telford and McAdam had perfected their
systems.
McAdam's son, Sir James McAdam, was General Superintendent of Metropolitan
Roads in England when, as he expressed it, "the calamity of railways fell
upon us." This "calamity" brought these results: coaches ran less
frequently, and all horse-carriage decreased, toll receipts diminished,
many turnpike roads became bankrupt and passed into possession of towns
and parishes, and are kept in scarcely passable repair. Many English
macadamized roads are only kept in order in half, while the other part of
the road bears weeds and grass.
The first American turnpike was not in Pennsylvania, as is usually stated,
but in Virginia. It connected Alexandria (then supposed to be the rising
metropolis) with "Sniggers and Vesta's Gaps"--that is, the lower
Shenandoah. This turnpike was started in 1785-86, and Thomas Jefferson
pronounced it a success. In 1787 the Grand Jury of Baltimore reported the
state of the country roads as a public grievance, and the Frederick,
Reisterstown, and York roads were laid out anew by the county as turnpikes
with toll-gates. In 1804 these roads were granted to corporate companies.
Others soon followed, till all the main roads through Maryland were
turnpikes.
The most important early turnpike was the one known as the National Road
because it was made by the national government. It extended at first from
Cumberland to Wheeling, and was afterward carried farther. When first
opened it was a hundred and thirty miles long, and cost one and
three-quarters millions of dollars. Proposed in Congress in 1797, an act
providing for its construction was passed nine years later, and the first
mail-coach carrying the United States mail travelled over it in August,
1818. It was a splendid road, sixty feet wide, of stone broken to pass
through a three-inch ring, then covered with gravel and rolled down with
an iron roller. One who saw the constructive work on it wrote:--
"That great contractor, Mordecai Cochran, with his immortal Irish
brigade--a thousand strong, with their carts, wheelbarrows, picks,
shovels, and blasting-tools, graded the commons and climbed the
mountain side, leaving behind them a roadway good enough for an
emperor."
[Illustration: Bridge Toll-board.]
Over this National Road journeyed many congressmen to and from Washington;
and the mail contractors, anxious to make a good impression on these
senators and representatives, and thus gain fresh privileges and large
appropriations, ever kept up a splendid stage line. It was on this line
that the phrase "chalking his hat"--or the free pass system--originated.
Mr. Reeside, the agent of the road, occasionally tendered a free ride to
some member of Congress, and devised a hieroglyphic which he marked in
chalk on the representative's hat, in order that none of his drivers
should be imposed upon by forged passes.
The intent was to extend this road to St. Louis. From Cumberland to
Baltimore the cost of construction fell on certain banks in Maryland,
which were rechartered on condition that they completed the road. Instead
of being a burden to them, it became a lucrative property, yielding twenty
per cent profit for many years. Not only was this road excellently
macadamized, but stone bridges were built for it over rivers and creeks;
the distances were indexed by iron mileposts, and the toll-houses were
supplied with strong iron gates.
On other turnpikes throughout the country Irish laborers were employed to
dig the earth and break the stone. Until this time Irish immigration had
been slight in this country, and in many small communities where the new
turnpikes passed the first Irish immigrants were stared at as curiosities.
The story of the old Mohawk Turnpike is one of deep interest. After the
Revolution a great movement of removal to the West swept through New
England; in the winter of 1795, in three days twelve hundred sleighs
passed through Albany bearing sturdy New England people as settlers to the
Genesee Valley. Others came on horseback, prospecting,--farmers with
well-filled saddle bags and pocketbooks. Among those thrifty New
Englanders were two young men named Whetmore and Norton, from Litchfield,
Connecticut, who noted the bad roads over which all this travel passed;
and being surveyors, they planned and eventually carried out a turnpike.
The first charter, granted in 1797, was for the sixteen miles between
Albany and Schenectady. When that was finished, in 1800, the turnpike
from Schenectady to Utica, sixty-eight miles long, was begun. The public
readily subscribed to build these roads; the flow of settlers increased;
the price of land advanced; everywhere activity prevailed. The turnpike
was filled with great trading wagons; there was a tavern at every mile on
the road; fifty-two within fifty miles of Albany, but there were not
taverns enough to meet the demand caused by the great travel. Eighty or
one hundred horses would sometimes be stabled at a single tavern. All
teamsters desired stable-room for their horses; but so crowded were the
tavern sheds that many carried sheets of oilcloth to spread over their
horses at night in case they could not find shelter.
[Illustration: Megunticook Turnpike.]
Common wagons with narrow tires cut grooves in the macadamized road; so
the Turnpike Company passed free all wagons with tires six inches broad or
wider.
[Illustration]
These helped to roll down the road, and by law were not required to turn
aside on the road save for wagons with like width of tire.
The New York turnpikes were traversed by a steady procession of these
great wagons, marked often in great lettering with the magic words which
were in those days equivalent to Eldorado or Golconda--namely, "Ohio," or
"Genesee Valley." Freight rates from Albany to Utica were a dollar for a
hundred and twelve pounds.
In 1793 the old horse-path from Albany over the mountains to the
Connecticut River was made wide enough for the passage of a coach.
Westward from Albany a coach ran to Whitestone, Oneida County. In 1783 the
first regular mail was delivered at Schenectady, nearly a century after
its settlement. Soon the "mail-stages" ran as far as Whitestone. An
advertisement of one of these clumsy old mail-stages is here shown. We
need not wonder at the misspelling in this advertisement of the name of
the town, for in 1792 the Postmaster-general advertised for contracts to
carry the mail from "Connojorharrie to Kanandarqua."
There were twelve gates on the "pike" between Utica and Schenectady; at
Schenectady, Crane's Village, Caughnawaga (now Fonda), Schenck's Hollow,
east of Wagner's Hollow road, Garoga Creek, St. Johnsville, East Creek
Bridge, Fink's Ferry, Herkimer, Sterling, Utica. These gates did not swing
on hinges, but were portcullises; a custom in other countries referred to
in the beautiful passage in the Psalms, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates,"
etc.
On every toll-gate was a board with the rates of toll painted thereon. Mr.
Rufus A. Grider gives the list of rates on the Schenectady and Utica
Turnpike, a distance of sixty-eight miles. They seem to me exceedingly
high.
Cents
"Sheep, per score 8
Hogs, per score 8
Cattle, per score 18
Horses, per score 18
Mules, per score 18
Horse and Rider 5
Tied horses, each 5
Sulkies 12-1/2
Chairs 12-1/2
Chariots 25
Coaches 25
Coachers 25
Phaetons 25
Two horse Stages 12-1/2
Four horse Stages 18-1/2
One horse Wagons 9
Two horse Wagons 12-1/2
Three horse Wagons 15-1/2
Four horse Wagons tires under six inches 75
Five horse Wagons " " " " 87-1/2
Six horse Wagons " " " " 1.00
One horse cart 6
Two ox cart 6
Three ox cart 8
Four ox cart 10
Six ox cart 14
One horse sleigh 6
Two horse or ox sleigh 6
Three horse or ox sleigh 8
Four horse or ox sleigh 10
Five horse or ox sleigh 12
Six horse or ox sleigh 14"
The toll-board which hung for many years on a bridge over the Susquehanna
River at Sidney, New York, is shown on page 233.
Sometimes sign-boards were hung on bridges. One is shown on page 239 which
hung for many years on the wooden bridge at Washington's Crossing at
Taylorsville, Pennsylvania, on the Bucks County side. It was painted by
Benjamin Hicks, of Newtown, a copy of Trumbull's picture of Washington
crossing the Delaware. It was thrown in the garret of a store at
Taylorsville, and rescued by Mr. Mercer for the Bucks County Historical
Society.
[Illustration: Bridge Sign-board.]
The turnpike charters and toll-rates have revealed one thing to us, that
all single-horse carriages were two-wheeled, such as the sulky, chair,
chaise; while four-wheeled carriages always had at least two horses.
Citizens and travellers deeply resented these tolls, and ofttimes rose up
against the payment. A toll-keeper in Pelham, Massachusetts, awoke one
morning to find his gate gone. A scrawled bit of paper read:--
"The man who stopped the boy when going to the mill,
Will find his gate at the bottom of the hill."