Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 1 Connecticut and the British Government, Part 32

Author: Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut. Committee on Historical Publications
Publication date: 1933
Publisher: New Haven] Published for the Tercentenary Commission by the Yale University Press
Number of Pages: 700

USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 1 Connecticut and the British Government > Part 32

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At the beginning of the eighteenth century, nearly seventy years after the founding of the colony you could count on the fingers of one hand the important "country roads." At that time only one of them formed a link in the intercolonial system, the so-called lower post road,

officially stated as passing through the coast towns. It followed the route of the Pequot Path, and was laid out as a result of the establishment of a regular post between Boston and New York. Yet it was not marked with suffi- cient clearness, in many places, to be easy to find or to follow. Travellers were forced to provide themselves with a guide or run the risk of losing their way.

The oldest road actually planned and formally laid out dates back to 1638 and connected Hartford with Windsor, its course being changed a number of times within a few years. From Hartford ran the so-called "Path" to New Haven, and two others to Farmington and Simsbury, the former continuing on to Waterbury. Woodbury was con- nected with Stratford and Norwich with New London. The interests of travel and the post largely determined their course. From 1700 to 1750, practically all the roads opened up were east of the Connecticut, their objective being better communication with the markets furnished by Norwich, Stonington, Providence, and Boston. After 1750, the most noticeable development took place in the west. Throughout the eighteenth century, trade, to an even greater degree than travel, seemed to be the motive behind the making of new and the improvement of old highways.

What later became the northern part of Windham county was known to the English in 1635, but it was not until 1686 that the first settlement was made at Wood- stock. Seven years after it was founded, a man by the name of Jabez Corbin established a store where he carried on a lucrative trade in deerskin, furs, turpentine, and produce, exchanging them for liquor, ammunition, and other necessities in Boston. His cart drawn by four oxen and four horses was their only means of communication with the outside world. He experienced great difficulty in

making the trip, as his heavily loaded wagon kept break- ing down on the rough road between Woodstock and Mendon. A few years later, because of this trade, a new highway was laid out from Enfield through Woodstock to Medfield, Massachusetts. As Providence was a more ac- cessible market than Boston, for this section, efforts were soon made to improve communication thither. In 1691 there was only a crude bridle path running through the forest by way of Killingly and Pomfret toward Provi- dence. Thirty years later it was widened into a cartway. The year it was finished the supervisor of the road used it to import a load of West India goods to his countrymen in Connecticut.

In 1714, the governments of Connecticut and Rhode Island cooperated in making a road from Plainfield to Providence through Coventry, Greenwich, and War- wick. It was to be four and eight rods wide in certain sec- tions for the convenience of loaded carts. Major William Crawford of Providence soon built up a flourishing trade in rum, sugar, molasses, salt, wool, tobacco, and grain, with the towns of northeastern Connecticut along this route. By 1752 it was described as "a great road for travel and trade." Many roads were also being made to Nor- wich from the towns in its vicinity. Stress was laid on the need of such highways, particularly to the landing place, because of "much carting and other travelling." By 1750 Norwich had become the market town of "several hun- dred loads in a year." The roads still needed a great deal of improvement, as it sometimes took eight oxen to draw an ordinary load over them.

Stonington too was a center of trade. In 1751 the in- habitants of Preston, Voluntown, and North Stonington petitioned for a road to the harbor, to facilitate the trans- portation of lumber and other lading. Another important

highway, established in this period, led from Hartford toward Boston through Coventry, Mansfield, Ashford, and Thompson. It was known as the "Middle Road" and much of the travel that had formerly come through Woodstock was deflected to this way. Still another such road wound its way through Killingly, Windham, Col- chester, Hebron, and Bolton to Hartford. Middletown was connected with Saybrook, and a way was improved from Durham to Middletown to facilitate the transpor- tation of horses and cattle to the West Indies.

Tucked away in the hills, the tiny settlements in the northwestern part of the colony remained for many years almost entirely isolated from the rest of the world. Ac- cording to a story current somewhat later, when Corn- wall asked to be the county seat, some one remarked jokingly, "Yes, go to Cornwall and you will have no need of a jail, for whoever gets in can never get out again." And Cornwall was the whole section in miniature. The unceasing attempts of the General Court to promote communication through this region after 1750 may be partly explained by the outbreak of the French and Indian War which necessitated the speedy transporta- tion of troops into New York. Yet trade, too, was an equally important factor.

The first highway that came into general use ran from Hartford through Farmington, Harwinton, Litchfield, Goshen, Cornwall, and Canaan and was popularly known as the "high road to Albany." In 1758 since this "road or way often travelled . . . was in many respects ill chosen and unfit for use," the inhabitants petitioned that a new one be made, "more direct and convenient not only for carriages and travelling and for the transportation of troops." The General Court granted their request and in 1761 the committee laid it out four rods wide, with mon-

uments, consisting of heaps of stones eighty rods apart at every single and occasional turn. Despite the com- plaints, and there were many of them, it was regarded as the wonder of the age, that a direct and practicable route could be found through the Greenwoods. It ran north of the other, through Simsbury, New Hartford, and Nor- folk. It was much travelled and proved of great benefit in the transporting of iron pigs from the Salisbury furnaces toward Hartford, yet this trade was hindered because of the poor condition of the road.

In the same year, a new one was granted between Tor- rington and Norfolk because the proprietors of the sur- rounding towns complained that the one the committee was contemplating was too far north. According to tradi- tion, this south road was so hard to travel, that the land- lord of a certain inn used to detain his guests until after morning worship, so that they might have the benefit of the prayers offered to help them up the "old dug way road west of the present town of Burrville."

"A direct road to New York" ran from Litchfield through New Milford, another, farther south, went from Newtown by way of Danbury. The highways leading to the Hudson were used to a great extent for hauling timber and produce which were to be floated down the river to New York, for sale there or reshipment abroad, a tedious and laborious journey, that diminished materially the profits anticipated. Two attempts to keep this trade with- in the colony were made in 1761, the first by building a new highway for carts between Canaan and Derby, and the second by petitioning the General Court for a lottery of £300 to free the Housatonic of obstructions as far as the Massachusetts line, so that it could be used for float- ing down pine logs and be navigable for a two ton load. They argued that it would be to the "unspeakable ease

and benefit of the inhabitants of the western part of the colony, and would increase and facilitate the commerce of the government," and would also "prevent the trade of the western towns being carried on at the Hudson's river, as for a long time it had been for want of removing said obstructions." Besides, it would be of "singular advan- tage to the towns bordering on the river" since it would "entirely turn the trade of said towns and save it amongst ourselves and be of public advantage to the government." A very potent argument in colonial times. The same com- mercial rivalry and jealousy existed between the colonies as prevail today among the nations of the world. The lottery was granted, but the scheme proved a failure, hence the trade of western Connecticut continued to go to the Hudson until the building of the Housatonic rail- road in the nineteenth century.

At the same time, a concerted movement was being made throughout the colony to straighten the ways that were crooked, re-lay those that were ill chosen, and widen those that had become unfit for use by reason of en- croachment. Yet, little was accomplished, and travel continued to be hard. Indeed, so bad was the reputation of the roads, that travellers from Boston who had no reason for visiting intervening settlements, frequently went by land as far as Newport or New London, where they took ship to Oyster Bay and thence through Long Island to New York, or they went all the way by water.

In a colony notorious for its poor roads, to the lower post road, should go, possibly, the unenviable distinction of being one of the worst. Certainly the accounts left by a long line of travellers tend to bear out such a contention. Madame Knight, in 1704, when she made her famous journey from Boston to New York, complained pic- turesquely of the "stony uneven" surface of the part

through Stonington and was duly thankful that she had a guide to show her the way. It showed little improvement, seventy years later, when Hugh Finley, surveyor of the post roads on the continent, came on a tour of inspec- tion, for he reported that from Stonington to New Lon- don it was "past all conception bad" so that from day- break to sunset he was able to make but thirty-three miles. As the road was one continuous bed of rocks, be- sides being very hilly, it was impossible to ride above four miles an hour and only at that speed, if the rider had a good horse. Finley did find, however, that some sections had been improved. The rocks and mountainous passages which Madame Knight notes, as encumbering the road between Saybrook and New London, no longer existed.

Every traveller, who left any comment concerning the highways, was impressed by the section from Fairfield to the New York border. James Birket in 1750, called it "a most intolerable bad" road, while the last three miles were the "most miserable" he had ever seen, and Hugh Finley agreed with him most heartily when he had fin- ished inspecting it. Even Brissot de Warville in 1788 wrote of the same part "I knew not which to admire most in the driver, his intrepidity or dexterity. I can not conceive how he avoided twenty times dashing the carriage to pieces and how his horses could retain themselves in de- scending the staircase of rocks ... One of these is called Horsenecks, a chain of rocks so steep that if a horse should slip the carriage would be thrown into a valley two or three hundred feet."

That the condition of the lower post road was not unique is shown by the following petition for a lottery presented in 1768 to the Rhode Island legislature, "The Great North road leading from Providence through

Plainfield into the internal parts of Connecticut, with which this colony hath great and beneficial intercourse, is very rough and greatly out of repair whereby travellers are fatigued and discouraged; and transportation of heavy goods and commodities from thence into this colo- ny is extremely difficult, to the great detriment of trade; that the legal methods for amending highways will prove insufficient for putting it into good order; it laying through a rugged and uneven country and the inhabi- tants being generally poor and scattered; if a lottery is granted Connecticut says she will take a great number of tickets and will use great influence to have the roads on their side repaired."

The other great road to Providence was not any better. In 1776 a traveller wrote, "In May, I went to Pomfret thirty six miles in a chaise; the road was so stony and rough, that I could not ride except at a slow walk but very little of the way. I was near two days in going, such was the general state of the roads at that time." Accord- ing to an interesting tradition of a road out of Killingly, a negro boy belonging to one, J. Danielson, having been sent to Boston with a load of produce made such little progress in a day that he went back home to spend the first night. Even the proverbially easy-going character of the negro would hardly account for such a record.

The same story can be told of the roads through the northwest. Dr. Samuel Holton in June, 1778, went from Boston to Philadelphia by way of Springfield and Hart- ford. The only road he found in Connecticut which he described as "very good," was the one from Springfield to Hartford. From Hartford to Litchfield the "roads were very bad," while from Litchfield to the New York line they were the "worst he ever saw." Returning by way of New Milford, Woodbury, Waterbury, and Southington,

he reported that all the highways were very bad with the exception of one five mile stretch.

One gets a vivid impression of the agility required of those travelling over some of these roads from a com- ment of Count Chastellux who went through this region in 1780. He remarked that the Litchfield highways were formed for the "roebuck rather than for laden horses and conveyances," and in going from Canaan to Norfolk "you mount four or five miles continually bounding from one large stone to another, which cross the road and give it a resemblance of stairs."

Most significant in its suggestion as to road conditions in Fairfield county even as late as the early nineteenth century is the statement of the Rev. Samuel Goodrich of Ridgefield, with regard to a proposal that potatoes be raised for sale. He said that "it was not expected the practice would be general since the distance from the market was so great." And the great distance referred to was fourteen miles!

Along the roads went the farmer, taking his produce to market, loaded on clumsy oxcarts, or driving his cattle and sheep before him, and along the same roads went the traveller, either plodding wearily on foot or riding on horseback-the method chosen, depending on the state of his pocketbook. Distance or lack of conveyance did not daunt him any more than it does the hitchhiker of today, yet, how different the reasons for their composure. The latter faces a two or three hundred mile journey with equanimity, because he does not expect to have to walk even one mile of the distance, whereas the former knew that if he were to reach his destination he must pace off every single step of the way.

In 1743, Roger Sherman, who at that time was poor, walked from Boston to New Milford, carrying his

shoemaking tools on his back. Whereas, the wealthy Ezra Stiles, went everywhere on his circuit on horseback. He even journeyed to Philadelphia in 1754 in the same fash- ion. It was not uncommon to see as many as four men with but one horse to carry all of them. They took turns riding, two at a time.

Madame Knight, who herself went on horseback from Boston to New York in 1704, describes in her usual amus- ing fashion the joys of such a mode of travel. On one stage of her journey she was accompanied by a man and his daughter who were both mounted on a "sorry lean jade" of a horse and as they jogged along the girl la- mented with loud groans, "Lawful heart father this bare mare hurts me dingeeily." "Poor child," says gaffer, "she use't to serve your mother so." Usually the man sat in the saddle, while the woman perched behind him on a pillion, her feet resting on a narrow wooden platform strapped to the horse-an arrangement designed more for comfort than speed.

There were no stagecoaches, as in Massachusetts and New Jersey, until after the Revolution, and apparently only a few private carriages. The nearest approach at any time to a public stagecoach was the wagon of Cap- tain J. Munson of New Haven. In 1717, the captain ob- tained the right from the General Court to transport passengers in his wagon, once a month, except in January, February, and March, between New Haven and Hart- ford. How many people availed themselves of the privi- lege and whether his venture was a success or not the records fail to reveal.

It was not until 1783 that the first regular line of stages was established between Hartford, Boston, and New Haven. It is interesting to note that when Levi Pease of Somers, earlier in the year, proposed the scheme to a friend

of his in Boston, the latter ridiculed him as a visionary saying "The time may come when the public will support a stage between Hartford and Boston, but not in your day or in mine."

There was probably very little travel in any of the colonies until well on in the eighteenth century. Distances seemed so long that people for the most part were content to stay at home. Madame Knight was regarded as having done something stupendous in going alone from Boston to New York in 1704. "Law for mee" exclaimed a young woman, at an inn where she stopped, "what in the world brings You here at this time of night? I never see a woman on the Rode so dreadful late, in all the days of my versall life. Who are You? Where are you going? I'm scared out of my wits."

It is amusing to read that in 1716 the inhabitants of Hartford expressed great dissatisfaction at the settle- ment of a collegiate school in New Haven because, as they said, it was "so remote, and the "transportation of anything by water so uncertain" and furthermore there was "but little communication between these colonies," that is, Hartford, New London, and New Haven.

The establishment of the regular post between New York and Boston tended to promote travel, as it was one of the duties of the postrider to act as a guide. From 1725 the increase is very marked. Where at the beginning of the century one boat at each ferry had been sufficient, often two and sometimes three became necessary fifty years later. Other improvements, such as the building of wharves for the better accommodation of those using the ferries, are among the strongest indications of the growing amount of communication in the colony. In 1750 there were twenty-six public ferries, an increase of seventeen over the number in 1702.

The addition to the list of rates for sheep, goats, swine, oxen, and neat cattle is also significant as indicating a greater volume in trade. Another proof of the steadily growing travel, particularly after 1740, is found in the large number of new bridges built or requested. Where ferries had sufficed before, bridges were now wanted. The reason, given by those requesting one over the Sau- gatuck River, was that it "would relieve and remedy so public an inconvenience, in so great a road to so great a market and where is so great connection."

Some of the travel that formerly went by the shore road was being diverted to the middle and upper roads, thus necessitating new ferries across the Connecticut. One was requested at Haddam in 1749, since, as the pe- titioners said, "of late years a great part of the travellers that used to go by the sea side or road about through the upriver towns have found the middle way ... to be so much shorter that they choose to use that road." A rather interesting bit of evidence as to travel in the northwest- ern section is found in a petition on behalf of a tavern keeper in Goshen dated February 13, 1758. Goshen was located on what was popularly known as the "high road to Albany." A certain Noah Waddam had been the regu- larly licensed innkeeper there for several years and ex- pected to continue to be several years longer, when, much to his astonishment, he learned that he had not been reappointed. The only reason the assembly gave for not doing so was that he had made enough by tavern keeping already. He appealed for a new license on the ground that there was still "great need of more public houses for entertainment in said town and said memorial- ist is therefore from day to day thronged and crowded with travellers to give them entertainment." The peti- tion was signed by one hundred and forty people of Con-

necticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. A possible explanation of the great number of people is the fact that the French and Indian War was going on, and . many of the troops went to Albany by this route. But if that were the cause why does he not mention the neces- sity of entertaining soldiers, as a reason for asking to be reappointed? It must be remembered also that his was not the only tavern in Goshen.

Another evidence of the growing volume of travel, which must not be overlooked, was the law passed by the General Court in 1767 ordering that milestones at least two feet high be set up by the selectmen of the towns "near the side of the common travelling roads" and on the post roads in every county, marking the distance to the county town.

Now, why was it that in spite of the increase in travel and the many attempts at improvement, the highways continued poor to the end of the colonial period? Why was it that nowhere in the colony was there a single stretch of road that could compare with the one running from Ipswich to Salem in Massachusetts which James Birket described in 1750 as "a Most excellent road made. of even, smooth, hard gravel"?

It is true, as we have seen, that the physical features presented unusual difficulties. Yet these in themselves were not sufficient to account for the situation. There were, undoubtedly, other contributing factors, and a very important one, it would seem, was the character of the Connecticut Yankees themselves. So strongly individu- alistic were they, that neither persons nor towns would cooperate in any enterprise which required the subordi- nation of their own particular rights to the general good of the community unless they could see some immediate benefit to themselves. Self-contained and independent,

they resented any supervision by a higher authority. When the General Court tried to force towns to look aft- er the highways and bridges, it had little success. The town authorities either ignored the orders entirely or carried them out so poorly, that the result was the same, the roads were in a sorry state. In fact just as Connecti- cut succeeded as a colony in evading more skillfully than any of the other thirteen, the orders of the British crown, so the towns had a like success in relation to the General Court, and nowhere was it greater than in connection with the roads. Hence bad roads discouraged intercourse, lack of intercourse increased isolation, isolation devel- oped independence and a lack of cooperation, which in turn caused the roads to suffer.

Certain powerful incentives to good roads were also conspicuously lacking, manufacturing on a considerable scale, a comfortable and easy means of travel, and finally a large population with plenty of money and leisure. As Connecticut did not possess any of these, having no stage- coaches, practically no manufacturing, and a population of only 242,000 in 1775, she had to wait until the twentieth century to become famous for her excellent highways.

Yo Kinderhook

To Springfield

To Boston

Somers

Union

To Hudson-

Woodstock I

Canaani

Stafford

Thompson

LIT

CHENXE

Simsbury

Winchester Backhamsted!

Ashford

Killingly

Goshen

Wind sor

Torninyfordy

New

wer

Pomfret

28 Providence

Sharon

Tarrington Hartford

HRA

Mansfield

Brooklyn

Harwinton.

Hartford

Windham

Canterbury

Kent

Litchfield

FOLL

NTY

Bristol

Farmington

Hebron

Plainfield

Wethersfield

tucket

Thepang

Norwich

To Hudson

Waterbury

Colchester

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Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 1 Connecticut and the British Government, Part 32

Author: Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut. Committee on Historical Publications Publication date: 1933 Publisher: New Haven] Published for the Tercentenary Commission by the Yale University Press Number of Pages: 700

Author: Tercentenary Commission of the State of Connecticut. Committee on Historical Publications
Publication date: 1933
Publisher: New Haven] Published for the Tercentenary Commission by the Yale University Press
Number of Pages: 700