USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 41
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STATE AID-The next step was the entrance of the State govern- ment in the matter of aid for roads. Road building in the early days was not in general considered an important undertaking, nor did it require especially trained constructors. Local experience was thought to be satisfactory for the purpose. In most cases, as has been shown, road construction consisted of a little grading and surfacing with the most readily available local material. The roads thus built were known as natural roads. When surfacing materials from outside the locality were used, the road was called an artificial road. The natural roads served their period of usefulness and were even improved somewhat in a few instances during the turnpike era, but these roads eventually proved incapable of meeting the growing demand for better trans- portation facilities, a demand which became marked in the New Eng- land States in the 1880's.
The lack of good roads was in part due to the fact that road construction and maintenance were carried out in the main by the cities and towns, and the mileage constructed was more or less limited to local needs, as there was neither sufficient interest on the part of the authorities nor the means requisite for the construction of through routes. The whole road building activity was a decentralized affair. The modern conception of a good road has been evolved from several
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decades of study, design, and experimentation. The hard-surfaced road of today would, in the parlance of earlier days, have been called an artificial road. Although we think of it as the "real" road, it is a highly specialized product created for modern traffic conditions.
The first State aid in the construction and maintenance of high- ways in Essex County, and indeed in New England, was provided by enactment of the Massachusetts Legislature in 1892. At the outset the intent was to provide some supervision of road construction as well as to afford financial assistance, and the work of the early years was largely demonstrative of types and methods thought to be the most desirable. The Massachusetts Highway Commission in 1893 was authorized under certain conditions to take over, lay out, and maintain roads to be designated State highways. The other New England States gradually came to acquire the same power, so that today all these states are actively engaged in the construction, main- tenance, and control of certain mileages of highways, New Hamp- shire, in 1903, being the last to receive such authorization. The total mileage of rural highways in Massachusetts at the end of 1930 was 18,802, of which 1,624 miles were State highways.
The factors entering into the routing, construction, and mainte- nance of our roads are myriad. Aside from geological considera- tions in construction, the factor of climate limits the length of the construction season to about eight months. Freezing weather halts concrete construction, and a certain minimum temperature stops the laying of bituminous macadam by the penetration method.
SNOW REMOVAL-The period of snowfall necessitates the employ- ment of great fleets of snowplows and other units for keeping open to travel the main through routes, particularly in the parts of New England that are becoming more and more dependent on motor vehicles for commutation and for the transportation of goods. Snow removal from the principal routes of travel in Massachusetts is an important modern development of the State's activities. Cities and towns have always been responsible for keeping their highways passa- ble in winter, but the methods formerly used were neither speedy nor extensive enough to go far beyond the more important built-up centers.
In order that the investment of industries and transportation agencies in motor equipment may be utilized during the whole year, owners of such equipment, private as well as commercial, have real-
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ized that snow removal is one of the first needs in highway operation. For motor vehicles the ideal condition is that all the snow be removed from the surface, but this does not satisfy traffic on runners. The tendency, however, is toward an increasing use of the motor vehicle, and no doubt the completely cleared road will give general satisfac- tion in the near future.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Works is empowered by the Legislature to remove snow from State highways on routes which it considers of sufficient importance, at the expense of the Commonwealth, and to assist towns in their work of removing snow from town roads constituting parts of these same routes. The department controls one hundred and two trucks, nearly all of which are equipped with blade plows, which are used for patrol work, and hires as many more trucks as may be required. All trucks work in tandem, starting with the storm. Twenty-three five and ten-ton tractors equiped with "V" plows are stationed at central points, and used in emergencies, and to widen the road if required. Recently, a number of the larger trucks have been equipped with rotary plows, and others with "V" plows with wings. It has come to be considered essential in this State that the snow be removed as promptly as pos- sible, not only to keep the roads open, but to prevent as far as possible the formation of any ice from snow that has been packed down by passing machines. Sand mixed with calcium chloride is located in piles at convenient places along the roadside, and all icy areas that may develop on the highways are sanded as promptly as possible. Special attention is given to curves, hills, and intersections. Mechani- cal spreaders are now used to supplement hand labor. All snow removal equipment is stored and repaired during the summer months at the central shop and garage in Boston, and such equipment is used for no other purpose than to remove snow.
TRAFFIC PROBLEMS-Traffic volume increases are developing so rapidly that at some points congestion of traffic on the roads is of no little consequence, particularly in and near the municipal centers. Some of this trouble, extremely annoying to motorists, is caused by the actual physical layout of streets, which may be constricted and therefore insufficient. Some of the difficulty, however, is capable of correction by the intelligent and logical control and direction of traf- fic in these particular centers. A number of instances of such condi-
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tions have been greatly improved by the local authorities after a study of the situation jointly with the State Department of Public Works, the measures bringing relief, including the prohibition of parking in certain areas and the re-routing of traffic movements.
NEW TYPES OF HIGHWAYS-Traffic conditions of recent years have created a general demand for wider highways, and also for the construction of "super-highways" designed for high speed and great volumes of traffic. Massachusetts has been among the leaders in the adoption of wider pavements. It is believed that this State first changed the standard width of fifteen feet to eighteen, and then, suc- cessively, to twenty, twenty-four, thirty, and most recently to forty feet. Essex County has an abundance of stone materials for road building. There are gravel and sand aggregates of good quality, and some excellent sources of trap rock. The consequence of this is that many miles, in fact nearly eighty per cent. of the annual highway construction, is now being built of the so-called high type bituminous macadam. This type of pavement, moreover, can be built with less equipment than either the cement concrete or bituminous concrete, and when properly built on suitable foundations, it will carry an almost unlimited volume of pleasure travel as well as a large volume of heavy trucking. In hilly country the bituminous macadam is a very desirable pavement, since it provides a non-skid surface that is com- paratively safe in all kinds of weather. For the primary routes in the county, however, reinforced concrete is generally employed and undoubtedly is the best of the types of road surface in use. Its cost is somewhat higher than that of other types, except in a few localities.
MODERN TRAFFIC CONTROL-The control of traffic movement is becoming one of the important phases of highway development. In the past, and to a great extent at present, the procedure has been to construct a road, then open it wide for traffic to use at its pleasure, provided certain laws of the road are observed. Police enforcement of regulations for safety, however, has become increasingly necessary, and with it further regulation of the use of highways with a view to the greatest efficiency. Three-lane roads have been constructed in Essex County in the belief that they not only provide flexibility of traffic flow but are relatively inexpensive. Undoubtedly there may be some difference of opinion in regard to the value of the three-lane
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route as compared with the four-lane route. Yet as an intermediate step it would appear that the former has some advantage, particu- larly in cases where the movement of traffic is predominantly in one direction at one period and in the opposite direction at another. Another feature of traffic control is in the designation of certain main arteries as through ways, requiring vehicles entering from the side streets or roads to stop before entering. This is intended as a safety regulation but does not give exclusive right of way to vehicles on the through way except only under certain conditions.
Uniformity in highway numbering and designation in accordance with Federal regulations has been an accomplished fact for New England State highways for several years; but the traffic regulations and traffic signals and control on local ways not parts of the State highways lacked uniformity. The confusion arising from such con- ditions was remedied in Massachusetts by legislation passed in 1928, which placed the control of such matters under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works. A standard signal code was pro- mulgated, conforming to national standards, and this code is now followed by all cities and towns of the State. In its diversity of products and of community development, Essex County presents many and varied opportunities; and these are impelling reasons for the construction of even more adequate routes for transportation than those of the present day.
A RECORD IN BRIDGE BUILDING -- Of interest in connection with modern highway construction in Essex County is the engineering feat which was accomplished in July, 1921, when a 400-foot section of the Point of Pines bridge, over the Saugus River, which had been almost totally destroyed by fire, was rebuilt in the record time of fourteen days. Major credit for both the inception and the execution of the plan was due Henry S. Baldwin, department engineer of the Lynn plant of the General Electric Company. Working night and day, Mr. Baldwin and a large crew of experienced workers, using the most modern power-driven tools, dismantled the wrecked bridge in three days, drove new piles, capped and cross-braced them, and eleven days later had bolted into place the last plank, whereupon the new bridge was opened to traffic. In all, 270,000 board feet of lumber were used, at a cost of $14,200 for labor and $20,000 for materials and supervision.
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VII-THE STORY OF THE POSTAL SERVICE
The story of the postal service of Essex County is, in its essen- tials, the story of that service throughout the eastern seaboard from earliest colonial days. But it was in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that many of the postal reforms originated which were to become standard in the several colonies, and as early as 1696 Essex County formed an important link in the first post line established under the authority of the Crown between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Philadelphia. In Essex County there was the same need for safe transportation of the mails, both private and official; there were the same limitations as to facilities ; and in the early days, at least, there were the same hazards to which all who undertook to transport the mails were exposed. We are given a hint of the usual state of affairs in this excerpt from a letter written in 1652 by Samuel Symonds, of Ipswich, to a friend: "I cannot say but its beside my intentions that I write not more frequently unto you; I can onely plead this for my excuse (so farr as it will goe)-the uncertainty when and how to convey letters." Indeed, such uncertainty will appear wholly justi- fied when one understands that for several decades after the first settlement of New England the only "postmen" were servants, acquaintances, merchants, peddlers, friendly Indians, and ship cap- tains, some of whom charged for their services, while many carried letters as a friendly accommodation. Provision for transportation of the mails by authority of the government was as yet unthought of, the first step in that direction not being taken until 1673, when the Massachusetts Colonial Assembly passed an act which, recognizing the need of such a service, fixed a fee for post-riders of threepence per mile, to be paid from the public treasury, forbade innkeepers to charge the post more than twopence per bushel for oats and four- pence for hay, and provided that riders should pay no fees at the fer- ries, the "ferridge" being charged to the Colony. This law, however, referred only to official letters, not to those of the public, and the latter continued to be carried as informally and haphazardly as before. Some of the favorite private messengers of the time were friendly Indians; they were intelligent, faithful, swift, had great powers of endurance, and knew the country better than most trav- elers. Many continued to employ Indians in this capacity long after a regular mail service was set up.
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NEALE'S MONOPOLY-In 1684 the Crown was petitioned to establish a chain of post offices which should extend from Nova Scotia to the Carolinas, but this plan fell through when opponents of the scheme convinced the government that there would not be enough business to support such a system. In 1692, however, the first step toward a unified colonial postal system was taken when the Crown granted a court favorite, one Thomas Neale, exclusive right to set up and operate a mail service in America for a period of twenty-one years. Neale was given a monopoly of the carriage of letters for profit, but merchants and others were not forbidden to send letters by servants or private hands, supposedly free, and the precedent of evading postal charges which this established was to prove a serious evil in the public system which came later.
Neale never came to America, but instead he appointed a deputy, Andrew Hamilton, a prominent merchant living in New Jersey, who wisely petitioned the several Colonial Assemblies to set up uniform postal rates, thus paving the way for the intercolonial post line which he then proceeded to set up from the mouth of the Piscataqua (now Portsmouth, New Hampshire) to New Castle, Delaware. The pos- tal law passed by the Massachusetts Assembly in response to Hamil- ton's petition was the first in America to require that all letters be stamped with a postmark showing the date of receipt at the office. Portsmouth at that time was a prominent seaport for England, offer- ing the only regular transatlantic sailings north of Virginia, via the mast fleet, and as a consequence a large share of the mails destined for the home country was routed through Essex County.
In 1707 the British Post Office purchased the American postal concession from Hamilton and an associate, who had fallen heir to Neale's patent at the latter's death in 1699, and appointed Hamil- ton's son Postmaster-General for America. At that time the total population of the colonies probably did not exceed 275,000, of which there were about 100,000 in New England and only 20,000 in New York. A weekly postal service had been established from Ports- mouth via Essex County to Boston, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York to Philadelphia, but for years this service could not pay its own way, largely because of the general evasion of postal charges through the employment of private carriers for both private and official letters. One serious loophole in the law which encouraged
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evasion of postal charges was the provision which exempted from carriage by official post-riders "such letters as shall respectively con- cern goods sent by common known carriers of goods by carts, wag- gons, or pack-horses, and shall be delivered with the goods which such letters do concern, without hire or reward or other profit or advan- tage for receiving or delivering such letters." As a consequence, every letter carried by ship captain, coachman, private carrier, ped- dler, or even government postman for his own profit was alleged to refer specifically to some parcel or other accompanying it and there- fore not subject to government postage.
DISADVANTAGES OF THE COLONIAL SYSTEM-Posting and receiv- ing a letter in those days involved no little trouble, most post offices refusing to send a letter by a certain post unless it was brought in at least an hour before the time of departure, and it being customary for the postman to collect all postage fees from the addressee when delivering the letter to him. The post-riders did all sorts of errands for their clients along the way, this means of deriving extra income being considered, in fact, a perquisite of the job. Not only parcels of every description were delivered in this way, but even live stock, including a team of horses, was known to have changed hands "c/o the post," and on one occasion an extraordinarily late arrival of the mail was explained when the post-rider hove in view driving before him a yoke of oxen. As population increased, and faster and better serv- ice was required, these sidelines of the post-riders became a great nuisance and were eventually forbidden by the authorities; but the practice of entrusting assorted parcels to the unofficial care of rural postmen is not unknown to this very day. The old-time post-riders have been much criticized, and it must be admitted that some of them shirked or otherwise evaded their responsibilities, but the fact remains that as a class they deserved great credit for their courageous con- duct under adverse and often dangerous conditions.
When Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster at Philadel- phia since 1737, was appointed Postmaster-General in 1753, the American postal service was in a distinctly unsatisfactory condition. Evasion of the postal laws was apparently the rule rather than the exception. There were not a few postmen like the one from Boston to Portsmouth, of whom it was said that he seldom had in his bag more than four or five letters that had come through the post office,
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but a "tableful" which he was handling privately. Riders and post- masters often charged exorbitant postage rates; an extreme case occurred in Falmouth, Maine, in 1766, when a man was known to have paid eight pounds postage on three letters to Boston! Between Portsmouth and Boston one Stavers had for several years been oper- ating a stage line, and he carried many letters without regard to the law. His drivers "were so artful that the postmaster could not detect them," so the authorities decided to take Stavers into the employ of the post office, an idea which worked out very well, for the additional postage thus collected on Stavers' letters more than paid his annual salary. That the general run of citizens of New England were not guiltless of connivance in these matters of postage evasion seems to be clear; this was but one manifestation of the temper of the times which was so inevitably to lead to a crisis in the relations between the colonies and Great Britain. Commenting on the com- plaint of the postmaster at Salem that most letters went privately and few by the post to or from that office, Hugh Finlay, on an official inspection tour of the posts, remarked, in 1773: "If an information were lodged (but an informer would get tarred and feathered) no jury would find the fact." He added significantly: "It is deemed necessary to hinder all acts of Parliament from taking effect in America. They say that they are to be governed by laws of their own framing and no other."
THE REVOLUTIONARY POSTAL SERVICE-The famous fight at Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 severed Colonial dependence upon the British Post Office. The Committee of Safety at Boston at once recommended the establishment of an independent postal system, and the Continental Congress appointed a committee with Franklin at its head to perfect the organization. A new list of patriotic post offices, published in May, 1775, shows one in every large town from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Williamsburg, Virginia. The constitutional post rapidly took possession of all the mail lines. Some of the old postmen simply continued their routes, affirming an allegiance to the new cause which had long been in their hearts. Those suspected of Toryism were promptly replaced. In July the Continental Congress passed its Post Office Act, establishing a line of posts from Falmouth, Maine, to Savannah, Georgia. Frank- lin was made the new Postmaster-General, and under his experienced
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direction the new system did remarkably well; its main problem, which was ably met, was in keeping up fast communication between Congress and the armies in the field. But the recepits did not even pay the salaries of the post-riders, largely because there was too much franking. All mail sent or received by members of Congress went free, as did that of the army officers and, later, even of the private soldiers. And after Franklin resigned late in 1776 to go to France as agent of the Colonies, post office matters went from bad to worse; the postal system showed a deficit every year, one reason being the new government's habit of printing paper money with no backing for it. John Adams wrote to Jefferson, in 1777, in defense of the system :
"A committee on the post office have found a thousand difficulties. The post is now extremely regular from north to south, though it comes but once a week. It is very difficult to get faithful riders to go oftener. And the expense is very high, and the profits-so dear is everything and so little cor- respondence is carried on except in franked letters-will not support the office."
The following picture of a post-rider of that day may not be typical, but it is nonetheless interesting :
"Mr. Martin was an old man who carried the mail, and was called 'The Post.' He used to wear a blue coat with yel- low buttons, a scarlet waistcoat, leathern small clothes, blue yarn stockings, and a red wig and cocked hat, which gave him a sort of military appearance. He usually traveled in a sulky, but sometimes in a chaise or on horseback, according to the season of the year or the size and weight of the mail bag. Mr. Martin also contrived to employ himself in knit- ting coarse yarn stockings while seated on his saddle-bags on horseback. He certainly did not ride 'post,' according to the present meaning of the term, but he was an excellent, honest old man."
The post-riders often went unpaid, and some, disregarding the law, carried letters for their own profit. The condition of the roads was growing worse, and in some remote places letters lay in offices for months because there was no money to carry them on their way.
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THE FIRST MAIL STAGES-Ebenezer Hazard was made Post- master-General in 1782, and under his vigorous direction the service was slowly improved. He made extensive trial of stagecoaches for mail service; by the end of 1785 he had the mails traveling by that means over most of the "great post road" from Portsmouth to Savan- nah, as well as from New York to Albany. Over these routes mail went three times a week in summer and twice a week in winter. The law allowed a stop of fifteen minutes at small towns and two hours at the larger ones. McMaster, the historian, gives us the following scene, typical of a New England "post day":
"On the day when the post-rider was due, half the village assembled to be present at the distribution of the mail, which in good and bad weather alike, took place at the inn. The package for the whole village was generally made up of a roll of newspapers a week old, and a few bundles of drugs for the doctor. It was a great day whereon, in addition to the usual post, a half-dozen letters were given out. Then, as the townsmen pressed around the inn door to make arrange- ment for borrowing the 'newsprint' or to hear the contents of it read aloud by the minister or landlord, the postman was carried home by one of the throng to share the next repast, at which, as the listeners preserved an admiring silence, he dis- pensed the news and gossip collected along the way."
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