USA > Connecticut > The trade of Revolutionary Connecticut > Part 4
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Seymour Dunbar, History of Travel in America (Indianapolis, 1916), 1, 41, 42.
2Isabel S. Mitchell, Reads and Rea in Colonial. Connostiout, (Publications of the Teroentenary Commis Commectiont, Ko. 16), pp. 31-32. 1 .. ff.
Dunbar, I, 2.
a law of 1843.4 Bence repair of old roads and construction of now'dnes was decided upon at to meetings. " If the selection rejected a petition for a mei road, appeal could be made to the county court, and eventually to the general assembly. This process applied only to "public town ways" used for the benefit of the commity. Another type, "privato town ways" made at the request of individuals for personal use, was handled :''la exclusively by tara selectmen with no appeal possible.' In time goad. "privato tomy way" could be made a "publio" road, " (!) , wir.'.nr. e.d : - The layout of the typical Connecticut tam, with its"groen about 7 which clustered the meeting house, tavern(s), and store(s), in itself produced local transport difficulties for the later settlers, whose - hemnes of'ten were Located two to sight idles away with no road and @ 10. 9 neighbor's property separating them. One had to get to church and to the local store occasionally too, but the town road system rarely had been planned to mest these neods.
The towns were given the job also of building the inter-town roads- the "Cemtry Roads". er "King's Highways." Sturdily independent, the :.* 92 towas largely side-stepped the job, to the detriment of the roade. " In 1702 the management was transferred to the county court. "Actual laying out of mush roads was done by a jury appointed by the sheriff or his deputy while the general assembly possessed a reviewing function. It also appointed a committee -to survey roads between towns in different oomties 8
C. R. 1, 91. This was in Connecticut and not in New Haven Colony. .
5 Mitchell, p. 8. In 1771 legislation made possible appeal.
Pp. 8-9.3.
A comprehensive. road act of May, 1773, gave to the county courts wido powers in laying out public highways, and in hearing appeals act against towns by individuals over public and private highways.". ",
. The average road was incredibly crude and rough-usually simply a wide swath hewed cut of the woods. Ko attempt was made to uproot treo stumps or large rocks, or to create a hard smooth surface. The middle often was lower than the sides, so that water streamed down the road. Impassable quagmires developed, especially in late fall, winter, and . spring. The one redeeming feature was great width-anywhere from fifty 1 to three hundred feet, but usually about eighty or ninety feet. 8
In theory, the reads were maintained by the requirement of. two days' work from each able-bodied man of sixteen to sixty years. In 1679 the legislature ordered the towns to donate one day's work upon the - "King's Highway" within their boundaries. The law became practically a dead letter because most people paid a fine in preference to doing the hard, dirty work on the roads."
Hot content with bad roads, people frequently piled logs and firewood on the road, fenced off sections, and even pastured sheep and other animals there. 10 In January, 1774, for example, the legislature took cognisance of the fact that it was customary in some towns "to turn large flooks of sheep on the highways with a keeper, and thereby cat up and destroy the herbage therein, to the great detriment of the poor
C. R. XIV, 80-82.
Mitchell. p. 10 .:
Ibid., pp. 11-12. 10x 1. 1. 20. Ibid., pp. 12-15.
4
46.
inhabitants of such towns s'is This practice, therefore, was forbidden under penalty of twenty shillings for every offence." Il A similar act to prevent obstructions on the highways had been passed in October; ; in 1713. Weeat= Casaen & unfit for Din," Sow ene better roads on a more dirent ro:4 Fe:s newrad. The pomaral assembly organized a committee ; Expansion of the Road System tuck. 15 Thoy recommended
The opening up of through roads proceeded slowly. By 1700 only one linked up with the intercolonial system, the lower post road, on the
13 i Boston-New York route.
The first half of the eighteenth century saw the laying out of @ considerable mmber of roads, mostly east of the Connecticut River, with r the special object of providing better communication with the markets at
Norwich, Providence, Stonington, and Boston.
-14
From 1750 to 1775 the chief now road development occurred . in western Connecticut. The rapid settling of the northern part of that area
- necessitated an expansion of the road system. The first important road through the northwest ran from Hartford through Farmington, Harwinton, Litchfield, Goshen, Cornwall, and Canaan, and on to Albany. 15 -
- 11 C. R. XIV, 216-217.
12 1ª
C. R. V, 402. -
-
13 Mitchell, pp. 19-20 This had approximately the route of the present New York-Boston "Post Road."
14 Ibid .. Seo C. R. V, 278, 336 (Glastonbury), 351 (Plainfield, XII, 210, 239 (East Windsor), 375, 397 (Newington), 398 (Glastonbury), 392 (Windham to Norwich ).
15 Mitchell, p. 20.
cho
47.
"x : - In 1758 the general assembly was advised that the road. "often - Traveled in from and Thre yº. . Tons of Simsbury. ; For Hartford & Norfolk to and thre yo Northwestern parts of Canaan toward Albany is in many Respects ill Chesen & unfit for use."" How and better roads on a more direct route were needed. The general assembly organized a committee of four mon to go over the terrain and report back.10 They recommended a new route, 17 and the towns involved were empowered to lovy a tax. Much more study and agitatien ensued before the road, four rods wide, was constructed through Simsbury, New Hartford, and Herfolk. In 1766 the maintenance problem raised its head as no tor semed to be
responsible for samo sections. 1 18
Other new roads in the West included one from Litohfield to Canaan, n.19 and mother from Litchfield, through How Milford into New York. The ٤ $ . chief through east-west routes to the Colony of New York mmbered fours (1) the northernmost route via Korfolk, already described; (2) one from Hartford through Farmington, Harwinton, Litchfield, and the northern part of New Milferd to the Hudson; (3) one from Wallingford via Newtown and , 7 Danbury to Fishkill on the Eudson-an important supply route in the 3 Revolution,20 and (4) the Fost Road frem Boston via How London, New Haven,
Arch., Travel and Highweys, II, Des. 34. This was the so-called "Green Woods" road.
---
17 ma., Deos. 36, 37. 4
.
18Ibid., Doos. 38-57.
.
Sao Romans' map faning p. 1 for details of this and other routes described. Though this is the best available contemporary map, it is not always strictly soourate en roads, so that it must be need with caution. * 20This route is shown in a map drama by Claude Joseph Smuthier for Governor Tryon and found in E. B. O'Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New York (Albany, 1849), I, facing p. 774.
48.
Fairfield, Norwalk, and Groomich to New York City. The last, incidentally, seems to have been one of the worst in Commectiont. 21 : 4174140₺ .
Trade rather than convenience for travel appears to have been the:f
most important motive for the opening of new highways and repair of old ones, 22
.
Mileages and Taverns on the Main Roads 1
Much information about the main post roads can be gleaned from contemporary almanacs. Anes' Almanac for 1774, for example, described the "Upper Pest Road" from Boston to Hartford and New Haven with recommended taverns at each point listed first.
Willington, Watertown
9 [miles]
Rice, Ditto
Bremer, Walthan 1
Cutler, Western
Gleeson, Ditte 1
Scott or Graves, Falmer
Baldwin, or Smith, Weston 4
Colton, Wilbraham ·
Baker, Sudbury
Chapin, Springfield Plains
5
Williams, Ditto
4
Kibbe, Eafield
Martin, Northbors
5
Elsworth, Windsor
7
Cushing, Shrewsbury 5
Bissell, Ditto
Cartis, Worcester 2
Perter, Ditto
S
Woodburn, Brown, Ditto 3
· Benjamin, East Hartford
Stearns or Jones, Ditto 3 Jenes, Ditta 5
Kultura er Stilmen, Wethersfield Shayler or Fonno, Middletam
1
Capt. Bond, Mitto
4
Doolittle or Cook, Wallingford
.
Whittsmore, Spencer Brat, Ditte ' ' 1
Mansfield, North Haven
Wait, Brookfield 4
Killyer Beere, How Haven
١
-
Mitchell, p. 24. George M. Duteher, George Washington
Commecticut in War and Peace (Publications of the Teroentenary Commission of Connecticut, No. 8), map opp. p. 36.
Mitchell, p. 20.
1
. Parsons, Springfield Colton, Long lieador
10 4 4
How, Ditto
Bow, Marlboro 2
Bull or Butler, Hartford
4 2 5
Serjeant, Leicester 2 1 Camp, Durban
49.
This route gives a mileage of 123 miles from Boston to Hartford and 164 miles from Boston to New Haven, Father Abraham's New England Almanaok -
for 1780 lists more briefly the same route to Hartford, and a mileage of 122.25 The same almanac presents an alternative Boston-Hartford route vis Amos, Medway, Uxbridge, Ashford, Mansfield, Coventry, Bolton, and East Hartford.
Weatherwiso's Almanac for 1782 describes the road from Boston to Providence, Norwich, Now London, and New Haven. The Connecticut portion was as follows: . .
Coventry, Knox
4 [from Taylor's in Soituato]
Volen, Derano
4
Plainfield, Eaton
4
Eevent, Burns [ham] Norwich, Lathrop Mohegan, Houghton New London, Douglas Rope Ferry, Durby Lydia, Ander agu
8
7
7
1
6
Ditto, Parsons
3
Saybrook, Saipmar 4 Ditto, Leigh Killingworth, Merrill 5
Guildford, Stone
10
Bradford, Baldwin 11
New Haven, Beers 9
Overall mileage for the trip from Boston to New York by the "Middle Road" to Hartford and New Haven was given as 242. From Boston to Norwich and Esw London via Worcester and Pomfret totalled 114 miles. From Hartford to New York the main route was much the same as today, 1 ... , through "Wethersfield (4), Worthington (7), Meriden (9), Wallingford (7), Worth Eaven (5), New Haven (8), Milford (10), Stratford
Today's mileage on approximately the same route is 117 miles for Boston to Hartford; 159, to New Haven.
61.
14
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----
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61.
(4), Fairfield (8), Norwalk (12), Stamford (10), Horse-Nook (7), Rye : L 1 (6), "New Roohel" (5), East Chester (4), Kingsbridge (6), New York (15),"
for an aggregate of 127 miles. 24
Quality of the Roads street (Ruse.
":" How good were the roads of Connecticut? Very bad, apparently!
.
Chastellux reported. en the eastern approaches very vividly. "From this. place [Soitunte] to Voluntown the road is execrable; one is perpetually. mounting and descending, and always on the most rugged reads."25 "After passing Canterbury, we enter the woods, and a chain of hills, which must be passed by very rugged and difficult reads. Six or seven miles farther, the country begins to open, and we descend agreeably to Windhami, #26 . 2 )
" The best roads of Connecticut were in the vicinity of Hartford. .. .. " Several traveler's verified this situation. De Chosen, one "of/ [ ...... Rochambeau's aides, declared that on the route from Plainfield to East Hartford the very bad reads farther cast wore replaced by "very good" ones. 27 Arriving from the East, Blanchard found the road Fine. 28.
From Hartford the other radiating roads also ranked mong-the best
in Connecticut. From Windsor to Middletown ran the finest road in the -
er Abraham's New Rugland Almenao for 1782.
25 Marquis François Jean do Chastellux, Travels in North America in the Years 1780-01-82 (New York, 1827), p. 20.
26 Ibsd .;. p .: 26.3- 34.
27. Stephen: Bonsal, When the French Were Here (Garden City, Now. York, 1945), p. 91.
28. Blanchard, p.109, 112,. .
1
:62.
Stato. , 29 The Hartford-Farmington highway also was fairly good according
. 35 both to Chastellux and to De Chosen.3.
Although the main roads to and from Hartford wore good, the tem
itself was neted for disgraceful theroughfares. In the 1760's the main .. street (Queen St. ) was described in a petition as the worst road in the
4 colony; and even in the 1780's the streets were still terrible. 31
In the western part of the State the reads, if anything, surpassed the eastern ones in frightfulness. Ono leeks vainly for a complimentary
1 : reference to any one of them. Du Bourg, another French traveler,
mentioned the "stoney reads and the endless mountains" of the Waterbury- .
Southbury area. 32 Dr. Samuel Holton in June, 1778 said that the roads
1 from Hartford to Litchfield were "very bad," and from Litchfield to the 1 New York line, the "werst he ever saw. ,33 Blanchard noted that "Breakneck" en the read from Waterbury to Southbury was most appropriately namod! While at Newtown on a Sunday in June, 1780 he observed that "in the
1 . ! neighborhood of Boston, they come in carriages; but here the country is . ..
mountainous and the horse is more suitable."54 Near the Naugatuck
/salle the
. . ..... .
29. Mitchell, p. 1; * ! ";
30 Chastellux, p. 31. Also, Allan Forbes and Paul F. Cadman, France and New England (Besten, 1925), I, 166.
-Charles W. Burpes, History of Hartford County (Chicago, 1928); 1, 220. See also Alexander Johnsten, Connecticut (Boston, 1887), pp. 125-126, and Clark, p. 253.
-- :470132 Bensal, pp. 93-94.
38
.
Mitchell, pp. 26-27.
1
Blanchard, pp. 111-112.
-
. .
53.
Miver, Chastellux compared the road to stairs. His sledge bogged down in mud, or got stuck on "stones two or three feet high" near Canaan. 35
Despite the extreme badness of the roads, it would be unfair to conclude that no efforts were being made to improve them. The Colonial and the State Records of the revolutionary era abound with actions taken . ' .
to repair roads and lay out new ones. In 1775 alone, Plainfield, Coventry, Sharon, Bolton, Voluntown, Willington, New Haven, and Colchester woro among the towns asking and receiving permission to levy taxes for roads. 36
Many factors played a hand in causing the poorness of Connecticut roads. Difficulties of terrain and lack of engineering proficiency Were involved. Lack of largo-scale manufacturing, of comfortable
. methods of travel, 37 and of money and leisure, all contributed to the : D A unhappy result. In the final analysis, the determining factor perhaps ₹. was the extreme individualism of the people which manifested itself, . especially at the town level, in a lack of cooperation with other toms, : 2 and in willful and able evasion of the orders and intentions of the
general assembly. 38
----.
Despite the darkness of the picture, Commeotiout probably had . .n !.
road system roughly on a par with that of her neighbors and of the more
distant colonies. 39 Travelers damned the roads of every other colony
........
35 Chastellux, p. 202.
86c. R. XV, 76f, 161f, 167, 209f, 211, 212, 216, 219, 275f, 351f, 367, 391f, 394f, 445f. :
37 Coaches were virtually unknown in Connecticut until after the Revolution .. .. . ,
Mitchell, pp. 31-32.
George M. Dutcher, Connecticut's Tercentenary: A Retrospect of Three Centuries of Self-Government and Steady Habits (Publications of the Teroentenary Commission of Connecticut, No. 29), p. 15. Europe too at this time had roads which were perhaps no better on the average.
with the .sans fervency.
Å veriaty of i mes ef larger lesta wa
and in the Sound. :: - Water Transportation
Transportation by water then played a much more important role than today. The very badness of roads was a standing encouragement to go by : --
1 water whenever possible. Fortunately Commecticut, as we have seen, had three large river systems plus inmmerable mmaller streams, navigable
1 in the mall boats then used.
All types of craft were used on Commeotiout waters. Coe of the most significant was the so-called "Connecticut River flatboat".
long, shallor, draft freighter, of which there were two types. One was - called the polo-boat, usually made of pine planks, twenty to thirty foot .
. long, three to five, wide, and two to three, deep. It was pointed 5 both ends, and had a flat bottom. It would float loaded in one foot of . ... -
-
-
4 water. Downstream travel was easy, but four to eight men toiled painfully with long ash or hickory poles to push it upstream. A second type of flatboat was also made, practically the same as the first, but twice as long and wide, and equipped with a mast and sails. The freight mus .: 40 piled up about the central mast. " The flatboat was developed because larger craft were generally too expensive for carrying the low-value merchandise commonly carried, or time was lacking to build the larger
Also, some of the flat boats could go over Eafield Falla
ne
Seymour Dunbar, 1, 38-40.
Edwin M, Bacon, The Corectiout River (New York, 1906), p. 808. was
Marguerite Allis, The
Commectiout River (New York, 1939), p. 33.
the Connectiont. H. the frequente river flus's constantly crafted we Lo"A variety of types of larger boats were built and used on the rivers and in the Sound, The min types were ich the same as elsewhere in Imezidai - (1) the sloop-a email, one-wasted veigel; " (2) the schooner- a tiro-mested ship developed first'in Massachusetts; 44 (3) the brix type which included the brigantine, hermaphrodite brig, and the mor, all . two masted chips; (4) the bark (barque), a handsome three-masted ships and its square-rigged cousin, the barkantine, semitimes with more" than three máits,45 The larger ships were employed mostly in the Sound, "on the lower reaches of the larger rivers, and in foreign trade.
Many navigational problemis were encountered en the Connecticut River, and they locmed large due to its economic pro-eminence. "Sea-going vessels needed more water. 'Saybrook lar was especially dangertas, but" other bad send bare were found, especially at Glastonbury. In 1774 the water on these bars was only five and ens-half foot at low tide. 48 : The - 1 51 ship Two Brothers of Rocky Hill en mne trip spent several' days aground. on Glastonbury bar, and the leg cemented pointedly, "Damm yo place."47
T. D. Less Love, "Karigatien of the Connecticut River," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, AV,. 402.
"It could have three marts, but this was raro .. until
4: Carl C. Cutler, Important Types of Merchant Sailing Craft; pp. 3-7. There was great variety in nomenclature frem town to town, and colony to colony. A tro-masked ship called the "kotoh," usually square-rigged, but sometimes fere-and-aft rigged en mainsail, was popular in Cennootiout.
". Do Less Love, loc. cit., pp. 594-395. The map by Abner Parker of "Saybrook Barr" in C. E. IIII, facing 503, gives eight foot as the minimum depth and three fathoms es maximum. However, this very likely was the figure for high tide.
Roger N. Grimmeld, "First Sailing Vessels and Merchant Marines on the Connsotiout River," Commeticut Marasino, I, 467.
1
To complicate things, the frequent river floods constantly shiftod. tho loestion of the bars, tro. ferry loemsi large in Greenportation asd
.... There were sporadio attempts to despen the River's chamel. fa Ostober, 1764 Joseph Talcott, Samuel Talcott, Jolm Ledyard and Willia Pitkin, Jr., petitioned the general assembly for permission to collect funds, and impese a toll on ships between Rocky Hill and Hartford to remove the bars enough to create a seven-foot chamel in the summer. The legislature reacted favorably, but there is no indication of any ! actual dredging being done. The peor navigation in this area helped. Fortian!) retard Hartford's trade and gave Middletown and other lower river towns .. a definite advantage in foreign trade. 49 comowant Forthead )
A "Say-Broek Bar Lottery" resulted from a petition of 1770. The petitioners, Mathew Talcott, George Philips, and others, were authorized to raise a sum of 2537 by a lottery for "buoys and water marks" on the bars and shoals." The affair dragged on for years. In December, 1776
: 51 :17 nothing had yet been done beyond raising part of the money;"> nor was anything dens during the Revolution, "2
privilege gossrally aha viacar; fer a fired tarm of wars-
Ferries and Bridges
ir. Colorer, :729 . * **
No bridge was built across the Commeotiout River until long after
C. R. XII, 318-320.
on the till sher riding on publie tusinent,
Love, leo. cit., p. 398.
..
612,
MC1èrec County
C. R. XIV, 96-97.
er RrE,
1, 71. B2C. R. I, 139-140. 6. 2. VII, 78-79.
Lave, 200. cit., pp. 395-596. c.
$7.
the Revolution; nor'were there many other streams bridged except the smaller enos. : Honoe; the ferry lommed large in transportation andas a
tiv:The Connectiont! Biver affords .a good case study in the gradual., expansion of forrying facilities :: The principal ferry rights granted - wers'as' follows: LAopted'specifying manipunitt, site of. losd ind.
praference; end too only persors viver pric -: ty la passar mere publio 1641 - Windsor (Windsor-to East Windsor
officials , >:1662- 8aybroek Ferry (Saybrook to Lymo)
1694 - Chapman's Ferry (Enddam to East Haddam) .: @ ty ;- 1724 -'Brockway's "Ferry ( Essex to Worth Lyme)">, the raft, 1726 - Middletown (Middletown to prosent Portland)
the ontin 1735 - Knerles -Lending (Soon abandoned ) fferent, tikuz, >3 1741 - Bast Faddan (Haddam to East Eaddam; very occasional)
Crastoilux - 1769 - Upper Houses (Present Cremvoll to prosent: Portland): 1763 - Higgenum (Haddan to East Eaddam)
.1739 - Warmer's (Chestor to Badlyms): 5."60
The general assembly in giving its permission to operate a ferry usually
specified the faros to be charged. For example, the fare to be charged
at Middleton by Igrahish Wettmere was set at sixpence for a man, horse
and lead, and three ponos for a single man and horse." The ferry
Perding privilege generally was granted for a fixed term of years -- ten years in the Middletown casa.
In October, 1729 the legislature observed that ferry privileges
were "a growing end profitable state", and tax omupt. Therefore,, the 32
post riders, the Governor, Assistants and Representatives, and judges
were exempted from the tells when riding on publio business; 55 Fre alto
1
Based upon David Field, Statistical Account of leser County
A (Middletown, 1819), p. 131; History iddlesax County (New York, 1884), p. 56; C. R. I, 71 .....
54 C. R. VII, 78-79. 60. 58 hnetelinx. p. $5. - C. R. 2VII, 257.
.
.
1
61 Regulation of ferries had began at an early dato. Fares wars ! established for the principal ferries by ma act of October; . 1695 result of travelers'reemplaints.
passengers, especially at Saybrook, so' that act was passed in May.
57 : Otheriøring 16931imposing ia twenty-shilling fing-foren
regulations wore adopted.specifying equipment,
"sise of lead mndi, high,
proforaneo; and the only persona : given priority. in passage were publie officials, physicians cad midwives."" "vor unethey brière was greeted Tr. liThe typeief bont used in the ferries varied. : 229 cane9, the raft,
. the chain ferry and the flat beat were employed at different times.5? Chastelluz- declared about the Hartford ferry: " "We pass this ferry, like all the others in America, in a flat beat with ours. "60 120 font long An" When one recalls that ferries wore-Isosted upon svery Important 43 road in Commestiout, their important place in the story of transportation and communication is obvious.of this tridge is xx , 1. 11lurtrates in .. potità for bridges' spanned some of the rivers. "Chastellur spoke of
Grossing the Houbatonio on'a wooden bridge, and also) of fording.
enstor.C. R. IV, 158-156 .;- to ssid Yerwich tandior very considermble
Thia .; p. 248. Bugh Finlay found the' Saybrook forry' "well"perly attended" and the beats geod when he eressed the River in November, 1773, Finley, Journal, p."
.. ........ ·Singe 58 Mitchell, pp. 18-20. Employees of the postal service were also szempt frem the tall. Finlay noted that the forryan" crumbled at being obliged to carry the Fest over when it is dark, or when it rains. or blews," but they feared the consequences. of not Finlay, p. 34, If. one flood s: 183 ?.
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