USA > Missouri > A History of Northeast Missouri, Volume I > Part 12
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Among other "old trails" roads in Northeast Missouri is the Hanni- hal and St. Joseph road, which is said to have been laid out by William Muldrow, the original of Mark Twain's "Col. Mulberry Sellers," and which is now practically the line of the Hannibal and St. Joe railroad.
Wetmore's Gazetteer also refers to a road prior to 1837 from Colum- bia to Liberty, thence to Fort Leavenworth, which passed through the following Northeast Missouri towns: Sexton's, Fayette, Glasgow, Chari- ton, Keytesville and Grand River, making over seventy iniles of it within its confines.
There was also a road from Marion City to Franklin and Boonville, running by Palmyra, Clinton, on the South river, Main Salt river, Paris, Mulligan's store, Fayette, New Franklin, to the Missouri river "and across the Missouri river to Boonville," making a total distance of one hundred and sixteen miles.
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There were also in 1836 post routes from Hannibal, by Florida, Paris and Huntsville, to Fayette, and from McMurty's in Callaway county, Thomas Harrison's, on the Grand Prairie, to Huntsville; from Bowl- ing Green, by Bondurant's and Cove Springs to Florida; from Monti- cello, in Lewis county westwardly to Sandy Hill.
As in other states, there was a toll-road day in road construction and maintenance in Missouri, and some of these old roads still exist in . Lincoln, Boone and Pike, and possibly other counties, but are not of suf- ficient length and importance to be treated, except as they may affect individual counties.
MISSOURI AVENUE
Missouri avenue, above referred to, is in a class by itself in Missouri roads, and for that reason will be given especial notice, and also as being a two-mile link in the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, connecting the two most famous and oldest "trails" of pioneer days, the Boon's Lick road and the Sante Fe trail.
Years ago, about 1787, the state of New York authorized the rais- ing of revenue for road purposes in a general way by lottery, but only once in this state was that done by legislative enactment and that was for the Missouri avenue, one hundred and twenty feet wide, connect- ing the two Northeast Missouri towns of New and Old Franklin, in Howard county.
While this road is only eighty years old, it is one of the most his- toric roads in the United States, known since 1833, when it was made a legal entity by the legislature as Missouri avenue, but even better known now as the famous "Lottery road."
As early as 1833 it was a self-evident fact that Old Franklin was a doomed town, the erosions of the Missouri river, on the north bank of which it was laid out in 1816, having then for years made daily encroach- ments upon its water front, until in 1828 but few houses remained.
On January 16, 1833, an act of the legislature was approved incor- porating the town of the present New Franklin, now practically the west terminus of the Boon's Lick road. Among the powers conferred upon the board of trustees was authority "to raise by lottery a sum of money not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars, for the construction of a railroad from the bank of the Missouri river to the town of New Franklin aforesaid; to provide for the construction and completion of said road, and the application of said fund to that specific object; to fix by ordinance the tolls that shall be paid for the use of said road, after the same shall have been constructed and finished, or for the transpor- tation of goods, wares and merchandise upon said road, and collect the same; to procure by contract the land upon which such road is to be constructed, and to keep the said road in repair."
On February 8, 1839, an act of the legislature was approved annul- ing the act of 1833, changing the railroad to a macadamized road and taking from the trustees the power to raise the money by lottery, and conferring the power on the governor in these words: "The governor may by proclamation authorize the board of trustees to raise by lottery such amount as may be necessary to complete the road." On Febru- ary 24, 1853 another act was approved repealing the authority to con- struct a macadam road and conferring the power to build a plank road. On December 5, 1855, still another act was approved conferring author- ity on the trustees to construct a plank road, instead of a railroad or a macadam road, as originally provided in the acts of 1833 and 1839.
Missouri avenue is still, however, a wide and straight earth road and this record of the acts of the legislature only shows that it was estab-
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lished by law as a connecting link between a point on the Boon's Lick road and Old Franklin, the acknowledged beginning of the Santa Fe trail, and is now a part of the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway running through Northeast Missouri.
OTHER STATE ROADS
Besides post roads or military roads, as they were sometimes called, surveyed by the war department of the national government, there was a period when state roads were surveyed, whether built in fact or in the engineer's note book.
Among this class of roads, in 1840 a state road was surveyed under the direction of three commissioners, from St. Charles to Mexico, the actual survey being made by F. W. Rowland, passing through Truxton and Middletown to Mexico, in Audrain county. Another state road ran from Old Franklin, north to Fayette, thence northwardly through Chariton county.
Between 1848 and 1856 there were plank roads built in Boone, Pike, Ralls, Howard and Marion counties, but they were soon worn out and abandoned, or were turned into gravel or toll roads. In about the same period, "corduroy" roads were tried, but naturally proved a "make shift" for a road and were only less of a permanent road than the plank road.
The principal post and stage roads in Northeast Missouri with any claims to antiquity, may be enumerated, with approximate dates, as follows :
In 1819, St. Louis to St. Charles; in 1821 and later, St. Louis, via St. Charles to Franklin, Howard county, one hundred and fifty-four miles; via Arrow Rock to Fort Osage; Franklin to Boonville; Alton to Louisiana, Pike county ; St. Charles, via Clark's Fort, Stout's Fort and Clarksburg to Louisiana; St. Louis to "the county seat of Lincoln county," which is now Troy; St. Charles to Fulton and Columbia; Col- umbia to Boonville; and via Thrall's to Fayette.
In 1833, St. Charles via Naylor's store, Hickory Grove, Lewiston and Jones' Tanyard to Fulton, ninety-five miles; Fayette, by Chariton, Grand Pass, Petite Osage Bluffs, Tabo, and on to Lexington and Inde- pendence; St. Charles to Dardenne, Femme Osage, Marthasville, Pinck- ney, Loutre. Island to Middleton, fifty-three miles. St. Charles via Wellsburg, Eagle Creek, Troy, Auburn, Buffalo Knob, Bowling Green, New London, Hannibal, Hydesburg to Palmyra, one hundred miles. From Auburn, by Waverly, Clarksville, Louisiana to Bowling Green, fifty miles. From New London, Florida, Monroe Court House, Middle- grove, Huntsville, Mt. Airy to Fayette, one hundred miles; Chariton, by Keytesville, Richmond and Liberty to Independence, one hundred miles; Palmyra, La Grange, Canton to Des Moines river, forty-nine miles; Bowling Green to Shamrock, Whetstone and Fulton, seventy miles; Troy, Pendleton, Pinckney, New Port to Union, fifty miles; Wellsville, Monroe, McQueen's to Clarksville, forty miles.
These were all mail routes both ways, the mail being contracted to be delivered from once to three times a week. In time they all became well traveled roads and are largely the lines of roadways sought to be improved through the state at this time. Their width was from forty to sixty feet, usually the former. This agitation of the road question took up much of the time of our legislature and continued until the advent of the railroads in the thirties, when it ceased and was largely turned over to the county courts, there to slumber, with little practical or scientific progress until the revived agitation of the last few years, which has attracted nation-wide attention.
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
IN THE COUNTIES
Adair county has always made liberal appropriations for its earth roads, their permanent improvement and maintenance, having inaugu- rated that move as early as 1903, and these being generously supple- mented by private subscriptions, the county has been foremost in afford- ing ample provision in the matter of transportation for its people and traffic for the products of the field and farm.
Audrain county has boasted one of the leading advantages offered by any county in its transportation facilities, and justly so, even to its efforts of today.
Mexico, its county seat, around which her interests center and from which her roads radiate, is on the north Missouri Cross-State Highway and her people are alive to the great advantages of the good roads agitation. This cross-state highway is identical with the Central Cross
ON THE PIKE
State Highway, or "Old Trails Route" of the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway from St. Louis until it reaches New Florence, in Montgomery county. At this point it bears to the northward and goes through Montgomery, Wellsville, Martinsburg, Mexico, two miles north of Centralia, Sturgeon, Clark, Moberly, Huntsville, Salisbury, Keytesville and Brunswick, where it leaves northeast Missouri, continuing on by Carrollton, Rich- mond, Excelsior Springs and Liberty to Kansas City. At Renick this road has a diverging branch by way of Higbee to Glasgow, where it crosses the Missouri river.
While there are no "old trails," so to speak, in this county, there are really old roads that we feel deserve mention, having been established by special acts of the legislature in our earlier history : The old Hanni- bal and Mexico; the old Louisiana and Mexico; the old Mexico and Dan- ville, and probably others of less importance, all tending, however, to interlace the county with a net work of good earth roads.
This county has also largely adopted the eight mile-square road district plan, from which it will reap immeasurable benefit.
Boone county is on the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway-the Old Trails Road-and that has naturally created a great interest in road matters, resulting already in a $120,000 bond issue for rock roads, $100,000 for the Columbia district and $20,000 for the Harg district.
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
The roads of the county are mostly earth roads at this time, but are as well maintained as any roads of that character and in this climate, which is unfortunately anti-good roads on account of the frequent freezing and thawing. As early as 1853 a plank road was built from the Missouri river landing at Providence to Columbia, where carriages met the students for the University, showing that the road improvement spirit prevailed there over half a century ago.
However, there are now six gravel roads leading out of Columbia, the pride of the county and the state.
One runs west from Columbia to Rocheport, fourteen miles; one southeast to Ashland, fifteen miles; one east to the county line, ten miles; one northwest to Hinton, nine miles; one north to Oakland church, six miles; and one northeastwardly six miles. Besides these two others are contemplated and surveyed and will be built ere this volume is at all dust-worn, one for a distance of five miles southwest and the other northeast for a distance of four and one-half miles.
Callaway county is also on the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway and the "Old Trails Road" across the central part of the state and has paid particular attention to the formation of special road districts, having formed and bonded such a district around Fulton, its county seat for $105,000 for rock roads. The Boon's Lick road passes through Williamsburg, Cal- wood, Fulton and Millersburg in this county. There is also a road that crosses the county north and south from North Jefferson, by way of Fulton, on to the northward through Mexico, following the general direction of the Chicago & Alton railroad.
. Chariton county shows the interest of her people in the good roads move that is attracting the attention of all progressive sections through- out the United States by having spent more on her roads in the twelve months of 1911 than they had spent in the twelve years prior to this.
The oldest road probably in this county is a road that was located shortly after Old Chariton was laid out in 1817 and ran to Keytesville and was known as the "Keytesville road," Keytesville, the county seat, being laid out in 1832. This road crossed the east fork of the Chariton river and the Muscle fork three miles from Keytesville, is now graded and is still kept in fine repair. From Keytesville it crosses the Palmer creek and continues to Brunswick.
Another old road runs from Keytesville to Salisbury, thence in a northeastwardly direction crossing the Middle fork at Switz's mill, thence to Roanoke and on through Randolph county.
Another main road runs into Chariton county from Huntsville, Ran- dolph county. This road was graded and put in good condition in 1905 and is kept in that condition all the year, as near as weather conditions will permit. The bridges are kept well painted and the culverts are constantly looked after. A grader, scraper and dragging system is well maintained in the county and her roads are made attractive to the traveler and tourist.
Another old road that had its objective point in this county was a road surveyed in 1823 and the early part of 1824 by Major A. S. Lang- ham, for the three commissioners, William Haines, Col. N. S. Burkhartt and James Logan. It started at the iron banks on the Mississippi river and ran through Benton, Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Jefferson City to Columbia and on to Fayette and Chariton on the Missouri river, a distance of three hundred miles.
Chariton is also crossed by the northern Cross-State Highway, which enters it near Clifton Hill, from Randolph county, and crosses the county from east to west, passing through Salisbury, Keytesville, Dalton and Brunswick, on thence to Kansas City.
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Clark county is the terminus of the Salt river road from St. Charles to the Des Moines river located in 1823 and elsewhere mentioned, but has no other old "trail" or road about which any information has been obtainable, other than those of local importance. The most prominent among those is the old "Alexandria and Bloomfield wagon road," or "main divide." This road started at the mouth of the Des Moines river, at Alexandria, and continued northwest through Bloomfield and on to Des Moines. Prior to the coming of the railroads it was used as a freight road and stockmen drove their cattle and hogs over it to the Mississippi river for shipment to St. Louis. It was also used as a mail and express route in an early day.
Howard county being the terminus of the Boon's Lick road and the beginning of the Santa Fe trail, and the location of the entire length of Missouri avenue, all three being fully described in the preface of the portion of the chapter given up to roadways, is probably pos- sessed of more historic road interest than any county in Northeast Mis- souri.
READY TO MAKE ROADS IN COLUMBIA SPECIAL DISTRICT
The three historic roads above referred to will be dismissed with only this reference, further than to say that the Boon's Lick road enters the county as it crosses the Moniteau creek at Rocheport and runs through the north edge of the present town of New Franklin and on west by way of Clark's chapel to the Boon's Lick Springs a few miles east of the Missouri river near Arrow Rock, where in all likelihood a branch of the Santa Fe trail crossed the river as a short route to the main "trail" running by that town, for freighters from the northern parts of Northeast Missouri.
This was doubtless the crossing used by Capt. William Becknell, with "pack horses" in one of his Indian trading trips, in 1821, the year before the actual "first expedition" over the Santa Fe trail, from Old Franklin started, that being given by the most authentic records and historians as 1822, such as Western Annals, Wetmore's Gazetteer, Campbell's Gazetteer and Johnson's Encyclopedia on the authority of Ex-Governor Donaciano Vigil, of New Mexico, who said, "In 1822 the first train of merchandise from the United States was brought into Fernandez de Taos by the five Robidoux brothers."
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
From a point on the Boon's Lick road, "the old trails route," about eight miles east of New Franklin, the Central Cross-State Highway con- tinues on by way of Fayette to Glasgow, where it crosses the Missouri river into Saline county and on thence to Kansas City.
At New Franklin another road, known as the "Old State Road," goes north to Fayette and thence on across the county in a northerly direction on the divide between the Bonne Femme and Salt fork of Bonne Femme to Huntsville in Randolph county.
In 1852, during the "plank road" period of Missouri road history, Major Robert Walker, the engineer of the Old North Missouri railroad, located and built what is still known as the "Plank Road" from Glasgow to Huntsville, in all likelihood to accommodate the great tobacco busi- ness of Glasgow in those days, serving northeast Missouri to the Iowa line. The road was first brought to an established grade, on which three and a half-inch thick white oak planks were laid.
It attracted a great deal of travel, but like all other plank or "cor- duroy roads" proved a distinct failure; the planks absorbing the mois- ture of the earth, on which crude foundation they were laid, soon assumed the most fantastic shapes from the twisting and warping of the various planks in divers directions, curves and cups. This road was built by Irish laborers, brought there for the purpose, but also proved a financial failure.
The old "St. Louis stage line road" also passed through this county, leaving it at Glasgow and extending northwest to the Platte Purchase. It was one of the various Santa Fe trails used by the "forty-niners" seeking the gold fields of California from and after the year 1849.
Knox county, keeping up with the progress of the times in the inter- ests of good roads, even as early as 1903 had a well-established system of earth roads, successfully and systematically maintained by dragging.
As in other counties, the roads of Knox radiate from Edina, its county seat, reaching in the northeast, Mill Port, Colony and Forest Springs; in the northwest, Baring, Greensburg and Hazel Springs; in the southeast, Hedge City, Plevna and Newark, and in the southwest, Locust Hill, Novelty and on into Macon county.
Lewis county has made a signal success in maintaining her earth roads by dragging, which is given much attention. It also has ten miles of pike roads out of Canton, its principal Mississippi river port, making easy access to such places as Monticello and other important or rail- road points in the different parts of the county.
Lincoln county is one of the most progressive good roads counties, and as early as 1903 had twenty-three miles of turnpike roads and today it has nearly eighty miles of rock roads and "toll roads," either built or being built.
This system of roads embraces : Elsberry to New Hope, five miles of first-class gravel toll roads; Silex, east, to Auburn, six miles of gravel toll road; Silex, west to Corso, eleven miles of gravel toll road; Silex, westwardly, to Olney, eleven miles of gravel toll road; Milford, south four and a half miles of free gravel road; Troy, north, to Hines, five miles of gravel toll road; Troy to Moscow, five miles of free gravel road; Hines to Pike county line, fourteen miles of gravel toll road; Auburn to New Hope, six miles of gravel road and from Elsberry to Smith Mill in Pike county, eight miles of gravel road.
Many other good graded roads radiate in each direction from Troy, but this enumeration shows the splendid road spirit and condition of the county.
Linn county is cut across its southern portion by the old Hannibal and St. Joseph Highway, elsewhere referred to. It enters the county
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near Bucklin, at the intersection of the Santa Fe railroad and the H. & St. J. railroad and passes almost due west through St. Catharine, Brook- field, Laclede on the B. & K. C. Railroad, Meadville and on through Chillicothe.
The other principal roads of the county radiate from and around Linneus. The county takes such care of its roads that it has two hun- dred or more steel bridges to accommodate the travel across its numer- ous streams. Its earth roads are constantly dragged, showing its up-to- date progress.
Macon county is crossed east and west a little south of its middle axis by the old Hannibal and St. Joseph Highway, elsewhere detailed. The cross-state road enters the county a few miles east of Anabel and passes through Macon City, Bevier, Callao and New Cambria, leaving the county a few miles east of Bucklin, in Linn county. This gives the county a good nucleus for road inspiration and road development which its people have been ready to take advantage of by building feeders to this well traveled old road to other parts of the county. The county employs a county highway engineer and is well abreast of the times on road matters.
Marion county, while the starting point of the old Hannibal and St. Joseph Highway is within her limits, enjoys its benefits over only a few miles of her territory, the old road leaving the county only a few miles southwest of Hannibal, where it enters Ralls county.
As early as 1903 Marion county reported over one hundred miles of gravel roads and has been a most progressive county in that respect, extending her improved roads rapidly and in all directions.
What is known as the "Indian road," from a supposition that the Indians had built this trail, is one of the oldest pack-horse trails in the state, having been cut out and located by a Frenchman, Mathurin Bouvet, in about 1795. He had a concession that year to a tract of land on which was a lick, which he called Le Bastion, to reach which he made this trail. A quarter of a century later the old "trail" was found and used by the settlers, who thought it an Indian path. It was afterwards known as the Bay Mill road, being used to reach a grist mill. a little north of Clear creek, in 1823.
The first road in the county, north of Salt river, was the earth road from New London, Ralls county, to Hannibal, located shortly after 1818, when the sectionalizing surveys were made by the government engi- neers. This also followed an old Indian trail and has been much improved in the gradients in late years.
In 1836 the Palmyra and Marion City Turnpike Company was incorporated by the legislature, amendments being made to the char- ter by each session of that body until 1844-45, and the road having a similar experience to that of Missouri avenue, in Howard county.
This county is today alive on the road question and pushes road matters.
Monroe county has the old Hannibal and St. Joseph Highway for only a few miles across its northeast corner, entering the county at Monroe City and leaving it at Hunnewell, Shelby county. With this exception, Monroe has no other old trail or cross-state highway within her borders and is therefore dependent on her own initiative and ener- gies for such progress as they have made in road development and improvement.
Montgomery county is one of the counties through which the Boon's Lick road passes. entering it near Jonesburg, thence through High Hill, New Florence, Danville and Mineola Springs, a few miles beyond which it enters Callaway county.
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HISTORY OF NORTHEAST MISSOURI
At New Florence the Northern Cross State Highway is detoured from the Boon's Lick road, running northwestwardly through Montgomery City and Wellsville, thence on into Audrain county. Middletown is another road center in this county, being connected on the southwest with the Northern Cross State Highway at Wellsville and to the south- east with the gravel roads of Lincoln county at Olney. This gives the county most promising good roads prospects.
Pike county has been such a progressive good roads county that her people have lived beyond their generation, having a system of "Turn- pikes" inaugurated and built nearly fifty years ago. They established a fixed toll-rate of one cent per mile per single team and one and a half cents per mile per double team, the elaborate and well-planned system connecting all important towns.
THE ONLY TUNNEL ON THE M. K. & T. RAILROAD AT ROCHEPORT
This county also had its expensive "plank road" experience. The original road from Louisiana, its principal river-front town, to Bow- ling Green, its county seat, was a plank road, eleven miles long. But, to quote a good authority, "when the ends of the boards commenced to curl up, they put gravel on the ends. Then when the boards rotted out, they were taken up and it became a gravel road."
As a companion to the plank road, the same authority refers to a road in the edge of Lincoln county, connecting with the Pike county roads, located and laid out by a competent civil engineer by the name of Little, over fifty years ago, from Prairieville in the edge of Pike to Eolia in Lincoln county,-"It was laid out like a railroad dump-high and dry-and it was not too wide. It was well drained and the top was built of rock. . . This road today, without any care since that time, is a very good road, and with but little work can be brought back to its original condition. This shows the great advantage of building a road right to begin with."
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