The politics of Kentucky roads

(from home page)

   Kentucky history relates the attempts by state government to improve the commonwealth. As early as 1748, Virginia had passed legislation requiring all roads from each county courthouse and the public mills and ferries to be kept clear of obstructions. Roots of trees and bushes had to be “grubbed” up at least 30 feet wide in a roadway.
    By 1785 Kentucky had been settled but still remained part of Virginia. An act of the Virginia legislature decreed that new roads or changes in existing ones could be made by surveyors appointed by the courts. All male laborers 16 years or older had to work on the upkeep of their counties’ roadways. Only masters who owned two or more slaves could be exempted from this law. If a laborer did not comply with the road law, he could be fined seven shillings, six pence for each day he did not work. When Kentucky joined the Union on June 1, 1792, the new state’s legislature retained the Virginia road law and approved it again on Feb. 22, 1797.
    Roads meant commerce, and commerce meant wealth. The lawmakers of Kentucky knew if their new state has a system of roads, produce and goods could be readily sold to profitable markets. Merchants needed a viable road system to bring goods into the state. Although the Ohio, Mississippi Rivers provided a great means of transportation for Kentucky products, the interior of the commonwealth needed a means of transportation over land
    Under the road laws of Kentucky, surveyors had the right to impress the use of citizens’ wagons in building new roads. They also could take earth, stone and timber from landowners to facilitate the construction of roadways. The county retained funds for paying citizens for the items needed, but some Kentucky landowners resented being told they had to acquiesce to the surveyors. For the most part, however, Kentuckians willingly provided labor and goods for a better means of transportation.
    On Dec. 14, 1793, the Kentucky General Assembly appointed Bennett Pemberton, Nathaniel and Daniel Weisiger as commissioners to obtain funding for a road from Frankfort to Cincinnati. Since the route of the proposed road meandered through unsettled country, the legislators reasoned that the counties could not be relied upon to be solely responsible for such a large project.
    Other road projects soon followed. In December 1794, the legislature approved a road from Madison courthouse at Milford (Richmond had not become the county seat at this time) to “the Hazelpatch” on the road from Crab Orchard to Powell’s Valley. Funds had to be raised for this endeavor by the appointed commissioners. Before this road could be completed, Kentucky lawmakers decided in December 1795 to have a new wagon road from Crab Orchard to the “top of Cumberland Mountain, in the gap which the present road to Virginia passes.”
    Funding for the Crab Orchard-Cumberland Gap road came from the state treasury. The new roadway opened in 1796. The Milford-Crab Orchard Road did not open until the summer of 1797, after the legislature also decided to finance that route.
    At best, Kentucky roads left much to be desired. Often, travelers found themselves struggling along more of a pig path than a highway. In all seasons, storms felled huge trees and limbs across these roads, leaving them impassable. Heavy rains turned roads into deep mud pits that seemingly could swallow a horse and wagon. While travelers exaggerated some of the road conditions, wagons could easily bog down in the deep mire and could not be freed until another traveler happened upon his unfortunate predecessor.
    Within a few years of statehood, Kentuckians began to clamor for better roadways. As the commonwealth’s population grew, the need for better and safer ways to travel became more apparent. On March 1, 1797, the legislature appointed Joseph Crockett to establish a turnpike to meet the need for more accessible and better-maintained roads. Crockett could purchase up to two acres on the Crab Orchard-Cumberland Gap road for his turnpike toll-gate.
    Anyone traveling on that road would have to pay a fee for use of the road. The turnpike would be “farmed” out to the highest bidder. The successful bidder would have the right to charge tolls in the amount of “nine pence” for everyone “except post riders, expresses, women and children under the age of ten.” For every horse, mare or mule, the fee would be set at nine pence; two-wheeled carriages could pass along the road for three shillings; four-wheeled carriages six shillings; “and for every head of neat cattle going to eastward,” three pence. After the repairs and maintenance of these roads, surplus toll monies would be paid to the toll-gate keeper.
    Robert Craig offered the highest bid for the turnpike and became the state’s first turnpike proprietor. He maintained the road by keeping dirt from the sides of the roadway to fill the middle. This provided a rounded surface that still bogged down in wet weather, and engendered huge clouds of dust during droughts.
    One means of raising money for Kentucky roads came from a state lottery. On Jan. 31, 1811, the legislature approved a lottery fund of $5,000 to improve The Limestone Road between Maysville and the south end of Washington in Mason County. Soon turnpike companies began to proliferate throughout the more heavily populated sections of the commonwealth.
    Turnpike companies built roads from Louisville, Lexington, Maysville, Georgetown, Frankfort, Paris and Millersburg during the first phase of road construction. The new roads would have broken stone surfaces of about six ounces per stone. The stones would be laid at least nine to ten inches deep, and one to three inches deeper in the middle. The road had a width of 30 to 50 feet, and the stone covered about 16 to 20 feet of the width. The cost at that time amounted to as much as $5,000 to $7,000 per mile. The cost would be more than tripled in today’s currency.
    The cost for some of the larger roads in the state boggled the imagination of 19th century Kentuckians. The cost of the road from Louisville to the Tennessee line, through Bardstown, Glasgow and Scottsville, cost $970,000. The price for building a 64-mile turnpike between Lexington and Maysville came to more than $426,000. This turnpike had 13 toll gates and six covered bridges.   
    Kentucky roads did not have surfaces of crushed stone (macadamized surfaces) until 1829. As early as 1826, Gov. Joseph Desha called for state money to be set aside for the improvement of the state’s roads. The governor wanted better-built and more direct routes to major Kentucky towns. Even then, travelers reported that they barely survived the jostling of wagons and carriages over the uneven places along their path. Horses still broke their legs in the deep potholes that formed in the roadways. Coaches and wagons broke axels and often became hopelessly stuck in the mud.
    In Kentucky, roads have always been of primary importance. The state has been known for its dedication to excellent transportation. Although some rural areas of the commonwealth still lack adequate roads, most of the state has modern highways that have helped the commonwealth become one of the most visitor-friendly states in the Union.
    Budget cuts no doubt will affect the infrastructure of Kentucky, but a system of good roadways and bridges are paramount to the future prosperity of the commonwealth.
   
    Bryant’s Political Quote
   
    Let but the public mind become thoroughly corrupt, and all attempts to secure property, liberty, or life, by mere force of laws written on parchment, will be in vain as to put up printed notices in an orchard to keep off canker-worms.
Horace Mann, 1796-1859



Ron Bryant is a noted Kentucky historian, lecturer and author. He may be reached at ron.bryant@ky.gov.

Read more about Kentucky's vivid history at Friends of Kentucky History.