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General Braddock did not live to realize all the evil consequences

which his defeat brought upon the frontiers. The road which he had

opened from the Potomac to within seven miles of Fort Duquesne be-

came again an Indian warpath. In the three years following this battle

it was used by a few small parties of French and many bands of Indians

as an open road to the Potomac, whence they ravaged the English set-

tlements in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. General Braddock's

expedition was a failure. The road which he left through the wilder-

ness proved throughout the war a benefit to the enemy and an injury

to his own countrymen; but in later years as a route for immigrants

coming to settle in the Upper Ohio Valley and afterwards as a com-

munication between the Potomac and the Monongahela, it proved to be

this unfortunate man's most useful and most lasting work.

 

 

Professor C. L. Martzolff, of Ohio University, Athens,

Ohio, gave a most interesting account of the History of "Zane's

Trace." As Mr. Martzolff gave his address without manuscript

we are unable to reproduce it here, but for the benefit of our

readers, we refer them to the article on this subject by Professor

Martzolff published in the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Publications Vol. XIII, pgs 287-331^.

 

 

 

THE OLD MAYSVILLE ROAD.

 

SAMUEL M. WILSON.

Lexington, Ky.

In this paper we shall deal exclusively with that part of the ex-

tension of Zane's Trace which is known in history, as it is commonly

known to this day, as the Maysville Road or Maysville Pike.

In its main outlines the story of the old Maysville Road has been

frequently told, and the present writer, with somewhat limited time for

investigation, can hardly hope to do more than embellish with a few mat-

ters of detail the somewhat scanty record.

This Kentucky division of the Maysville and Zanesville turnpike,

leading from Maysville on the Ohio River through Washington, Paris

and Lexington, became famous in that it was made a test case to deter-

mine whether or not the government had the right to assist in the build-

ing of purely state and local roads by taking shares of stock in local turn-

pike companies. Congress, in 1830, passed an Act authorizing a sub-

scription to its capital stock, but President Jackson promptly vetoed the

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measure. This veto put an end to all thought of national aid in the pro-

motion of this desired improvement, and its completion was left to private

enterprise, and to State and County aid alone.

The opening of Zane's Trace from Wheeling, in Western Virginia,

through Southeastern Ohio to Limestone or Maysville on the Kentucky

shore of the Ohio, was expressly authorized by an Act of Congress which

became a law on the 17th of May, 1796. Its route lay through Zanes-

ville, Lancaster, Chillicothe, and Aberdeen, Ohio, while its termini were

Wheeling in Virginia and Limestone in Kentucky. Besides furnishing

better and more dependable facilities for the transmission of the mails,

Zane's trace was designed primarily to afford a landward route of travel

from Kentucky to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the other middle and

north Atlantic States. Prior to the construction of this pioneer pathway,

the principal avenue for travel to and from Kentucky was Boone's

Blazed Trail through Cumberland Gap, later known as the Wilderness

Road, and still later as the Wilderness Turnpike Road, while the water

route by way of the Ohio, with the cessation of Indian warfare, was daily

growing in importance. Added to the dangers from attacks of hostile

Indians, there was throughout much of the year an embarrassing un-

certainty in the stage of the water in the Ohio, the upstream journey

was a serious undertaking at best, and then as now the travel up and

down the river was seriously impeded by protracted drouths in the sum-

mer time, which made navigation difficult and sometimes impossible.

The pioneer road which connected Maysville and Lexington followed

in a general sort of way the old buffalo trail which led into the interior

from or near the mouth of Limestone Creek on the Ohio River, across

the Licking, at or near the Lower Blue Licks, and thence crossing North

Elkhorn Creek at a point afterwards known as Bryan's Station, on

through Lexington, to the Kentucky River and beyond. Maysville. al-

though incorporated as a town by that name in 1787, was, until after 1800,

generally known as "Limestone", and in the region immediately around

the town, was often called "The Point". The old wagon road, which

followed more or less closely the buffalo trail above mentioned from

Limestone to Lexington, was frequently spoken of in 1784-1785, as

"Smith's Wagon Road" because in the summer of 1783 and earlier, one

Smith of Lexington was the first that traveled it with a wagon. There

can be little doubt that the Indians and their British-Canadian allies

and leaders, who attacked the Fort at Boonesboro and laid siege to Bryan

Station and triumphed in the bloody disaster at the Blue Licks, followed,

to some extent, at least, this primitive roadway.

Collins informs us that Simon Kenton, together with Edward Wal-

ler, John Waller and George Lewis, erected a block house at Limestone

(now Maysville), in February, 1784, and that the road from this place,

by way of the Lower Blue Licks, to Lexington became the favorite

avenue for immigration.

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The attention of Kentucky, after becoming a State, was first di-

rected toward the care and improvement of the Wilderness Road, which

gave access to Kentucky through Cumberland Gap, and until well into

the nineteenth century was the route most commonly traveled by immi-

grants to Kentucky, and for that reason was best known to the first

settlers of the State. The first general Act passed by the Kentucky

Legislature concerning public roads was approved February 25, 1797. In

his prelection to this Act, William Littell, who compiled a valuable col-

lection of the early statute laws of Kentucky, explains that this general

law was "little more than a transcript of an Act of Virginia of 1785;

that an antecedent Act of 1748 (which was not repealed by the Act of

1785) required that all roads passing to or from the Court-house of

every County, and all public mills and ferries then made or thereafter

to be made, should, at all times, be kept well cleared from woods,

bushes and other obstructions, and all roots well grubbed up thirty feet

wide."

This Act of February, 1797, provided for the opening of new

roads and the alteration of former roads under surveyors appointed by

the County Courts. By it, all male laboring persons, sixteen years old

or more, were required to work the roads except those who were masters

of two or more male slaves over said age. or, failing to do so, to pay a fine

of seven shillings, sixpence, equivalent to $1.25 of United States cur-

rency. A curious provision of the law required mill dams to be built,

where there were no bridges, at least twelve feet wide for the passage of

public roads, with bridges over the pier head and flood gates.

The Fayette County Court, by an order entered April 12, 1803,

established "the Limestone Road from Lexington to the Bourbon line

forty feet wide," to pass over "the same ground where they run at pres-

ent." The same Court, by an order entered July 10, 1809, directed certain

persons, appointed Commisisoners, to "contract with some fit person

to causeway with stone across David's Fork on the Limestone Road to be

paid for out of the next County levy." An order of the same Court,

under date of August 14, 1809, calls the road the "Limestone or Bourbon

Road."

Littell's Laws give an Act approved Jan. 31, 1811, "authorizing a

Lottery to improve the Limestone Road from Maysville to the south end

of Washington in Mason County." It was provided that the "drawing

of said Lottery shall be done at the town of Washington in the County

of Mason." A sum not exceeding five thousand dollars was, by the pro-

visions of the Act, to be raised and applied to the improvement of the

road leading from Limestone, in Mason County, through the town of

Washington, as followeth, to-wit: One-half of the profits of said Lot-

tery to be applied exclusively to the improvement of that part of the

road which lies between Maysville and the top of Limestone hill; and the

other half of said profits to be applied to the improvement of such part

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Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association.    445

 

of said road from the top of the Limestone Hill to the south end of the

town of Washington, and in such manner as to the said managers, or

a majority, shall seem most expedient.

Littell's Laws again give an Act approved February 4, 1817, "to

incorporate the Lexington and Louisville Turnpike Road Company, and

to incorporate the Lexington and Maysville Turnpike Road Company."

The preamble to this act recites--"Whereas, in all countries the foster-

ing care of government has been extended to the internal improvement

thereof, and particularly to their public roads; and in no country is

that particular part of internal improvement more desirable than in a

country where the government is of the people; the Legislature of Ken-

tucky being impressed with the public utility as well as the private ad-

vantage to the citizens of this Commonwealth from the formation of

artificial roads, and being willing to aid all in their power to effect so

great and desirable an object; and whereas this legislature, with anxious

anticipation, looks forward to the time when the great national turnpike

road from the east of the general government will reach the boundaries

of Kentucky, and that she may be ready to meet this great national im-

provement; therefore

"Be it enacted, etc. (Sec. 31) That a company shall be formed un-

der the name, style and title to the 'Maysville and Lexington Turnpike

Road Company,' for the purpose of forming an artificial road from Mays-

ville through Washington and Paris, and thence to Lexington. The

Capital Stock of said Company shall be three hundred and fifty thousand

($350,000) dollars, divided into three thousand five hundred (3,500)

shares of $100.00 each," etc., of which (it was further provided) five

hundred (500) shares shall be reserved for the use and on behalf of the

State. This capital might be increased "to such an extent as shall be

deemed sufficient to accomplish the work," should it be found on trial

that the amount provided was insufficient to complete the road according

to the intent of the Act.

Books for subscriptions to stock were to be opened at Maysville,

Washington, Mayslick, Carlisle, Millersburg, Paris and Lexington.

The old road seems to have passed through, or very near, each of

these points, with the exception of Carlisle, which did not come directly

into the main line of travel until the Maysville Turnpike Road was finally

built.

Although no lasting organization was affected, and no work appears

to have been done in pursuance of this Act, its provisions are interesting

as shedding some light on the conditions of travel, and the stage to which

the science and art of road-building had advanced. It was proposed to

construct "an artificial road by the best and nearest route from Maysville,

through Washington and Paris to Lexington," and the Commissioners

designated in the Act were enjoined to "combine shortness of distance

with the most practicable ground." The use of the word "artificial" in

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this connection is not without significance.  It implies that theretofore

dependence had been placed rather largely on the "natural" ways, the

sometimes aimless, ready-made ways of the Indian and the Buffalo, and

other denizens of the forest. These first pathways, whether trace or

trail, generally followed the line of least resistance, while holding loosely

to the objective points sighted by instinct, or the bearings of the crude

compasses provided by nature in the appearance and movement of the

heavenly bodies, the growth of the forest vegetation, the trend of moun-

tain and stream, and the other more prominent features of the landscape.

Such a crude and primitive affair had been the "Old Limestone

Road" in its beginnings, though there is evidence that wagons passed

over it as early as 1783.

The officers and managers of the Company were authorized and

directed to employ such number of surveyors, engineers, "artists" and

chain-bearers as might be necessary to make surveys, etc. They were

also empowered to condemn quarries, to erect permanent bridges wher-

ever necessary over the creeks and waters crossed by the new "route

or track," to build a road fifty feet in width by said route from the

town of Maysville to the town of Lexington, and of said fifty feet to

make "an artificial road at least twenty feet in width, of firm, compact

and substantial materials, composed of gravel, pounded stone or other

small, hard substances, in such manner as to secure a good foundation

and an even surface, so far as the nature of the country and the materials

will admit, in the whole extent of the said road, whenever it shall be

necessary and the natural surface require it, so as to fulfill the duties

of the said Company toward the public, and shall forever maintain and

keep the same in good repair." It was further provided that "the ground

over which the contemplated road passes, shall be so dug down and

leveled, that when completed the elevation thereof shall not exceed five

degrees."

On completing as much as ten miles of the way, and for every

five miles additional, the company was to be empowered, by license from

the Governor, to erect gates or turnpikes, at which tolls might be col-

lected from persons using the road.

We get some idea of the varied assortment of quaint vehicles then

in use from the references, in prescribing the rates of toll, to sulkies,

chairs, coaches, chaises, phaetons, stages, carts, wagons, coachees or

light wagons, sleighs, sleds, or "other carriage of burthen or pleasure,

under whatever name it may go." "And when any such carriage as

aforesaid," says the Act, "shall be drawn by oxen or mules, in whole

or in part, two oxen shall be estimated as equal to one horse, and every

mule as equal to one horse, in charging the aforesaid tolls."

With reference to mile-posts or milestones, and the tariffs on travel,

the Act provided that "the said Company shall cause posts to be erected

at the intersection of every road falling into and leading out of the

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said turnpike road, with boards and an index hand pointing to the direc-

tion of such road, on both sides whereof shall be inscribed, in legible

characters, the name of the town or place to which such road leads, and

the distance thereof in measured or computed miles; and shall also

cause milestones to be placed on the side of the said turnpike road, to

designate the distances to and from the principal places thereof; and

also shall cause to be affixed on the gates to be erected, for the informa-

tion of travelers and others using said road, a printed list of the rates

of toll, which, from time to time, may be lawfully demanded."

Other details of construction, maintenance and management were

carefully set out, but enough has been given to show the comprehensive

nature of the charter. In their leading features, all the subsequent Acts

of the Kentucky Legislature incorporating turnpike road companies are

modeled after this initial Act of February, 1817.

The powers conferred by this original charter having lapsed for

the want of compliance with its terms, ten years later, by an Act ap-

proved January 22, 1827, the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road

Company was reincorporated, with a capital stock of three hundred and

twenty thousand ($320,000.00) dollars, of which, at any time within three

years after complete organization, the United States government was

authorized to subscribe one hundred thousand ($100,000.00) dollars and

the State of Kentucky a like sum.

Collins, to whom we arelargely indebted for items of information

embodied in this paper, tells us that General Thomas Metcalfe, after-

wards Governor of Kentucky, then a Representative in Congress from the

Maysville District, brought before Congress the subject of an appropria-

tion for the proposed turnpike, but too late in the winter session of

1826-27 for immediate success. This action was doubtless prompted by

a resolution addressed to Congress and adopted by the Kentucky Legis-

lature on the 25th day of January, 1827, in which the co-operation and

assistance of the general government were earnestly solicited. An Act

passed on the same date, supplemental to the original Act incorporating

the Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, required the

proposed turnpike to pass through Paris, Millersburg, Carlisle, Lower

Blue Licks, Mayslick and Washington, provided, however, that it should

not run through the town of Carlisle, unless a majority of the Com-

missioners, having the matter in charge, should deem it expedient.

General Metcalfe's labors were not entirely in vain, for he suc-

ceeded in inducing the Secretary of War to order a survey for the

location of a great leading mail road from Zanesville, in Ohio, through

Maysville and Lexington, in Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee, on to

Florence, Alabama, and thence to New Orleans. On May 12, 1827, pur-

suant to this order, Col. Long, and Lieut. Trimble, of the United States

Engineering Department, began the survey at Maysville.

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In the meantime, if we may take the records of the Fayette County

Court as a sample, the Courts of the several counties through which it

passed were having constant trouble with the old Limestone Road. One

of the main obstructions to travel on this road, in Fayette County, was

a body of water known as "Wright's Pond." On July 9, 1827, the Fay-

ette County Court ordered that "William Burkley and William Smith be

summoned to appear here at next Court to show cause, if any they can,

why the Limestone Road shall not be altered so as to pass around

Wright's Pond and over their land, said pond being impassable, and

said road having to pass through it."

Again on January 16, 1828, the Order Book of the Court recites

that "it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the bridge now

building across Wright's Pond on the Limestone Road will not, as now

let by the Commissioners, be as high as high water mark, it is there-

fore ordered that Clifton Thompson, Will Pollock and James Rogers be

appointed Commissioners to let out to the lowest bidder the raising of

said bridge twelve inches higher than it is now contracted for, if they

think it necessary."

On June 9, 1828, the following interesting item  appears on the

Fayette County records. We give this instance as illustrative of the

work that was doubtless done from time to time all along the route in

all the counties through which this historic highway passed.

The record reads: "The report of the Commissioners appointed to

review the pond on the Limestone road known by the name of Wright's

pond, was this day returned to Court and on examining of the same, it

is ordered that the same be received and concurred in; Whereupon it

is ordered that Clifton Thomson, James Rogers and Beverly A. Hicks

be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to let the building of

the bridge agreeable to said report, and that they, in letting said bridge,

do not exceed the sum of five hundred dollars, including the appropria-

tions already made for said bridge and that said Commissioners be

authorized to draw upon the Sheriff for the appropriation or appropria-

tions already made. The said Commissioners are directed to have the

bridge built as follows, viz: with two stone walls built on a good founda-

tion two and a half feet or more thick, raised above high water mark,

at least twenty-one feet apart from side to side, and said walls to be

filled up with earth within one foot of the top of said walls, and one

foot to be filled up with stone hammered fine, with all necessary timbers

to make a safe passway for travelers, with hand rails, the timbers of

black locust or good white oak, the stone and timbers of the old bridge

to be used for the benefit of the undertaker of the proposed bridge; also

with an arch in the walls to admit the water to pass through, and that

said Commissioners take from the contractor a contract or bond with

sufficient penalty and good security for the performance of his or their

contract."

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This bridge was built by Samuel Patterson according to specifica-

tions, and was duly accepted on October 31, 1829.

A permanent bridge over David's Fork of North Elkhorn, at the

point where crossed by the Limestone Road, was also contemplated at

the same time. This bridge, as later records show, was erected by

Robert Wickliffe, who, for a number of years, maintained a mill at the

same point.

That the situation of this road as a public highway was growing

somewhat desperate may be inferred from the fact that the Legislature

of Kentucky, by resolution adopted on February 13, 1828, seconding the

initiative taken by General Metcalfe, recommended Congress to extend

a branch of the National Road from Zanesville, Ohio, to Maysville, Ken-

tucky, and thence through the State of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama

and Mississippi, to New Orleans, and instructed the Kentucky Senators

and requested the Kentucky Representatives in Congress to use their

utmost exertions to effect this object. A bill with an appropriation for

this very purpose, we are told, passed the United State House of Repre-

sentatives, but its effect was defeated in the United States Senate by the

vote of one of the Senators from Kentucky, the Hon. John Rowan. Its

passage at that time, in the spring of 1828, when President John Quincy

Adams was ready and willing to approve the bill, would almost certainly

have secured the prompt completion of the road by national and state

aid.

That for several years prior to this application to Congress there

had existed a great central thoroughfare leading southward from Ohio

to New Orleans is apparent from the language of an Act of the Kentucky

Legislature approved December 21, 1821, providing for the improvement

of "the road leading from Lexington to Nashville, in Tennessee," etc.

The preamble and first section of this act read as follows:-

"Whereas it is represented to the present General Assembly that

the great highway leading from the northwest of the Ohio and upper

settlements of this state, to the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Orleans

country, is much out of repair, and particularly at Muldrough's Hill,

near the Rolling Fork; and that owing to the quantity of labor requisite

to put the said road in repair, and the thinness of the population in the

neighborhood, the said road cannot be put in repair with the ordinary

labor of the overseers and hands allotted to work on the said road:

Therefore,

"Sec. 1, Be it Enacted by the General Assembly of the Common-

wealth of Kentucky, That the sum of one thousand dollars be, and the

same is, hereby appropriated for the purpose of opening and improving

the said road, across the said hill," etc.

This great interstate highway did not await the introduction of

macadam or the helping hand of the national government to come into

Vol. XVIII-29.

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existence and use. What Kentucky sought so persistently was aid in

improving and extending the rough rudimentary road already established

and long the most eligible avenue of approach to the inviting regions of

the South and Southwest.

While action by the federal government was thus delayed, those

interested in the enlargement and improvement of the road were not

idle. By an Act of the Legislature, approved January 24, 1829, "for

widening the road from Lexington to Maysville," the County Courts of

Fayette, Bourbon, Nicholas, Fleming and Mason, were required to appoint

Commissioners, together with a surveyor duly qualified, to examine "the

great road leading from Lexington through Paris, Millersburg, Lower

Blue Licks, Mayslick and Washington to Maysville," and to lay off a strip

or strips of ground, "through its whole length," sufficient to increase its

width to sixty feet, "and they shall report to the County Court of their

several Counties, as soon as may be, a plat and proper description of the

addition thus made * * * and it shall be the duty of the said several

county courts to cause to be recorded by their Clerk a plat and descrip-

tion of so much of said road as is within their respective counties, as

the same shall be enlarged and established under the provisions of this

Act." Pursuant to this Act, on March 9, 1829, the Fayette County Court

appointed Commissioners to widen and straighten the Limestone Road

from Lexington to the Bourbon County line. These Commissioners pro-

ceeded to execute their duties promptly and faithfully, and made a very

full and comprehensive report to the Court on November 9, 1829, said

report being forthwith approved and recorded.

Some idea of the importance of maintaining taverns along the route

for the accommodation of travelers may be gathered from the fact that

the Act carefully provides "that no such new way shall be established,

if it shall pass over a different side of, or at a greater distance than

the present road does, from any house now occupied as a tavern on the

present road, unless with the concurrence of two-thirds of the justices

present in Court. or with the consent of the proprietor of such house."

After being established and opened in accordance with the directions

of the Act, it was made the duty of the several surveyors of the road,

"to keep it open, smooth and in good repair." With this improvement

completed we, doubtless, see the old "Limestone Road" at its very

best. Gradually thenceforward, the Maysville Turnpike was to supersede

the famous route, growing more and more important as the importance

of the earlier road dwindled. Strong proof of the importance of the old

Limestone Road is to be found in the tenacity with which those living

along the route and at its termini, Maysville and Lexington, clung to

the old name. In Fayette, and doubtless in the other counties through

which it passed, not only did the old road retain its name and continue

to do service as a public road, but the new macadamized thoroughfare

constructed by the "Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road Company,"

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and properly known as the Maysville Road or Maysville Pike was, until

quite recent times, frequently spoken of by persons of the older genera-

tion, as the "Limestone Road", though, in strictness, the Limestone Road

throughout nearly its entire length must have followed an entirely differ-

ent route, at no great distance, however, from the more modern road

and substantially parallelling its course.

Five days after the passage of the last mentioned Act "for widen-

ing the road from Lexington to Maysville," by the same Legislature the

"Maysville and Washington Turnpike Road Company" was incorporated

for the purpose of forming an "artificial road" from Maysville to the

south end of Washington, in Mason County. This road was required to be

located on as direct a line as the toilsome grade would admit, and

from the north end of the main street of Washington to the top of

Limestone Hill. But it was to be "so leveled and graded that when

completed the elevation thereof shall not exceed four degrees and a half."

This Act is illustrative of the notable public spirit which at that

time animated the little town of Maysville, which could only boast of

a population of less than two thousand. The capital stock of twenty

thousand ($20,000) dollars was subscribed by local friends of the en-

terprise by April 18, 1829, and the first shovel of dirt was thrown on

July 4, 1829, and this short stretch of "high-way"-for a high-way it

literally was,-was completed in November, 1830. This four miles of

roadway was the first macadamized road ever built in the State of Ken-

tucky, although the introduction of McAdam's invention was the signal

for immediate and widespread interest in the subject of so improving

the public roads of the State.

From an enginering standpoint this part of the route offered by far

the most difficult problem to be solved. The accomplished litterateur

Dr. Thomas E. Pickett, has kindly furnished the writer of this paper a

very striking picture of Maysville as viewed from the top of the over-

hanging Limestone hill. This picture brings out with great effect the

beautiful and artistic construction of the winding roadway which leads

from the valley below to  the crest of the frowning hill. Dr. Pickett

accompanied this picture with the following observations-

"In your first letter you asked me to give you a helping hand at

this end of the line. It occurred to me that nothing could give you more

help at the outset than a picture of the 'Maysville End,' showing the

great river with which the old commercial entrepot connects, and giving

some conception of the prodigious 'lift' required to reach the fertile, far-

reaching plateau. As it was with St. Denis, so it was with us;- so it was

the first step that cost."

"The moving spirit in the enterprise was John Armstrong, one of

our early commercial pioneers, and a man of wonderful energy, sagacity

and tact, who had the full confidence of the community and means of

finding helpful associates in the work. The picture shows you that

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the work was well done. Years afterwards, when his son, an eminent

banker of Paris, familiarly known to this day as 'Baron Armstrong',

was toiling up the broad macadamized road that rises from the city of

Fontainebleau to the Forest at the summit, he is said to have remarked

-'Well, Father made a better grade than this for the Maysville Hill.'"

Think of a road that, rising from the humble conditions of 'Smith's

Wagon Road" (1783) to the dignity and importance of a thoroughfare

that 'fills a nation with its renown,' has been traveled by princes, war-

riors, statesmen, pleasure seekers, 'night riders', patrollers and mounted

police, and carried for many years in its great white 'waggons' the com-

merce of many states! What a theme! How I envy you the privilege

and opportunity of exploiting it. Do not stop with a single 'paper'. Write

a book!"

By an Act of the Kentucky Legislature approved January 22, 1830,

the Act of January 29, 1829, creating the Maysville and Washington

Turnpike Road Company was amended so that the name of the Com-

pany was changed to "Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turn-

pike Road Company," and it was authorized to extend its road to Lex-

ington. The capital stock was increased $300,000.00 in addition to that

previously authorized, and by the terms of this Act the elevation was

not to exceed four degrees, and its width was not to exceed sixty (60)

feet. This Act, like its forerunner of January 22, 1827, made a direct

appeal to the general government for a subscription to its capital stock,

fifteen hundred shares of the par value of $150,000.00 being the amount

which the general government was desired to subscribe and pay for.

Immediately following the passage of this act, and in order to aid the

enterprise which it contemplated, the State of Kentucky, on January 29,

1830, authorized its first appropriation to an "artificial or macadamized

road, this appropriation, however, of $25,000.00 to stock in the company,

being conditioned upon the subscription and payment by other stock-

holders of at least three times the amount so subscribed. While this

beginning of great things in the future was thus vigorously inaugurated,

the cause of internal improvement, especially as it affected the State of

Kentucky, was being earnestly pressed before Congress. In that body

a bill passed the House of Representatives, April 29, 1830, by one hun-

dred and two yeas to eighty-four nays, "authorizing and directing the

Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of

the United States, for fifteen hundred (1,500) shares of the capital stock

of the Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road Com-

pany," to be paid for in the same installments as by the stockholders

generally except that not more than one-third should be demanded during

the year 1830. This Bill passed the United States Senate, May 15, 1830,

by a vote of twenty-four to eighteen, George M. Bibb, of Kentucky

voting against it, and his colleague, John Rowan, of Kentucky, voting for

it only under the compulsion of "instructions."

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"But President Andrew Jackson," says Collins, "dashed forever the

hopes of national aid to works of internal improvement in Kentucky by

vetoing the bill twelve days after its passage on May 27, 1830." This

extraordinary action of the President (which by many was ascribed to

his intense antipathy to Henry Clay, an able and indefatigable advocate

of all measures having to do with the internal improvements of a state

or national character,) gave to the road a fame as broad as the Union,

but of no avail towards its completion, unless it may have stimulated

somewhat or aroused afresh the enthusiasm excited the year before by

the spirited and independent course of the brave little city of Maysville,

by whose name the road has always since been best known.

The lively interest taken by Henry Clay in the matter is apparent

from his correspondence. Writing from   Ashland, on May 9th, 1830,

Mr. Clay said:

"I am rejoiced at the passage, in the House of Representa-

tives, of the bill for the Maysville road. I sincerely hope you are

correct in your anticipation of the concurrence of the Senate. The

South will, of course, be opposed to it. * * * The road, consid-

ered as a section of one extending from the Muskingum or Scioto,

through Kentucky and Tennessee, to the Gulf of Mexico, is really

of national importance."

Writing, a month later, from the same place, to Adam Beatty, of

Maysville, he said:

"We are all shocked and mortified by the rejection of the

Maysville road and other events occurring at the close of the late

session. Meetings of the people are contemplated in several counties

in this quarter, to give expression to public sentiment and feelings.

At those meetings it has been suggested that the public sentiment

may be expressed in terms of strong disapprobation of the act of

the President. * * * Will you have a meeting in Mason? If

you do, it will have beneficial consequences that there should be as

many meetings as practicable in adjoining counties."

The nature of the proceedings proposed to be had at these indigna-

tion meetings is further outlined in a letter of Mr. Clay's, dated at Ash-

land, June 16, 1830, in which he says:

"Great sensation has been produced in this quarter about the

President's course relative to Internal Improvements. Public meet-

ings of the people, in various places, are about to be had, at which

spirited resolves, etc., will be passed. They mean to attack the

Veto, by proposing an amendment of the Constitution, requiring

only a majority of all elected to each branch of Congress, instead

of two-thirds of a house, to pass a returned bill."

But all of these protests and appeals and others of similar import

fell upon deaf ears and obdurate hearts and were utterly unavailing.

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454        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

"Old Hickory," in spite of bitter opposition and plenty of severe abuse,

not all of which was wholly undeserved, continued for the time to have

his own unrestrained, autocratic way in the matter of the Bank of the

United States and in the matter of Internal Improvements.

In addition to the state aid referred to above, during the month of

April, 1830, $30,500.00 was subscribed at Paris, $13,000.00 at Lexington,

$5,200.00 at Millersburg, $8,000.00 in Nicholas County, $10,300.00 at Mays-

ville, in addition to what the last named town had already done in build-

ing the road from the river as far as Washington. Other efforts, soon

afterwards, increased the subscription, and thirty-one miles of the road

were promptly put under contract. The Legislature, by an Act approved

January 15, 1831, authorized the Governor, on behalf of the Common-

wealth, to subscribe $50,000.00 for five hundred additional shares of

stock in the company, and during the next five years made other appro-

priations in behalf of the road until the whole amount of State aid and

stock was $213,200.00, or exactly one-half of the entire cost of the road.

The turnpike road appears to have been completed throughout its entire

length of sixty-four miles from Maysville to Lexington by the year 1835.

Its total cost was $426,400.00, including thirteen toll houses and six

covered bridges. The cost per mile, including the toll houses and bridges,

was $6,662.50 or nearly one-third the cost of building a first-class rail-

road. Not only was the Maysville Road the first macadamized road in

the State, but because of its importance, it was made one of the best

roads ever built in the State. It is said that Mr. Lewis V. Wernwag

built the bridges, which were single-span arches of wood, braced by a

trussed frame, and they were good bridges for many years. On the

Lexington and Danville Turnpike, which was but a link in the extension

of the "Old Maysville Road," he built a bridge over the Kentucky River

about 220 feet long, with a double track. This bridge, built in 1838, is

still there--seventy years after--in good shape. This is a long life

for any ordinary wooden bridge. This same capable bridge builder (it

may be added, in passing,) afterwards built the Schuylkill Bridge at

Philadelphia, three hundred and forty (340) feet long, which was for

a long time the longest wooden bridge in the world.

Referring again to the records of the Fayette County Court, a few

stray items relating to the road may be considered worthy of mention.

On October 13, 1834, a levy was authorized to raise $150.00 to pay the

interest on the installment for stock due the Maysville and Lexington

Turnpike Road Company in 1835. The payments on the stock in the

company subscribed for by Fayette County appear to have been antici

pated, for under date of December 8, 1834, the last installment of

$2,650.00 was directed to be paid and a certificate for stock due the

county to be obtained therefor. Following this entry on December 14,

1835, the records show that Oliver Keen, late Presiding Justice of the

Court, returned to the Court the certificate of stock in the Maysville,

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Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association.       455

 

Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, for 100 shares,

numbers 1525-1624 inclusive, dated December 14, 1834, signed by John

Armstrong, President, and William Huston, Treasurer. The jealousy

with which the County Courts looked upon any interference with their

authority over the county roads is most emphatically shown in two

entries, one under date of August 12, 1834, and the other under date

of September 8, 1834. By these orders, the Acts of the Kentucky Legis-

lature of the 22nd and 30th of January, 1830, seeking to deprive the

County Courts of their jurisdiction over the public roads, and to confer

such jurisdiction on special Road Commissioners, were boldly declared

unconstitutional and void, and the Court announced that it would not

regard them, but "will continue to act under the road laws as if said

above recited Acts had never passed." The first mention we find of any

dividend paid to the County on its stock appears during the years 1838

and 1839.

Supplanted as it was by the more modern Maysville Turnpike Road,

the old original road is now frequently spoken of in the records as "the

Old Limestone Road," still in use, it is true, but eclipsed by the splendor

and superiority of the macadamized turnpike road. It remained a County

Road under the name of the Limestone Road until near the beginning

of the Civil War. This old Limestone Road, in Fayette County, pur-

sued an entirely different route from that adopted by its successor, the

Maysville and Lexington Turnpike Road, though the general direction

of the two was the same.

The condition of the parent road, throughout much of its history

until macadamized but especially during the years of its infancy, and

under the stress of inclement weather, was simply atrocious. The records

of that day but echo the execrations of the toil-worn travelers and the

letters which have survived are filled at times with complaints about its

dreadful condition and with warnings to those about to visit the West

not to venture on so treacherous and forbidding a route. It was a Ken-

tuckian, I believe, who said he did not mind walking when he had paid

to ride in the stage, but he did not like to walk and "pack" a rail to

help pry the stage coach out of the mudholes which frequently punctu-

ated the customary line of travel. This was true, however, not only of

the Maysville Road but of Zane's Trace and of the Cumberland Road as

well. There were frequent changes and alterations in the roadway, gen-

erally to avoid a troublesome hill or to skirt standing water or miry

ground, and owing to these numerous and irregular changes, the way

became devious as well as difficult. The orders of the County Court of

Fayette, during the first half-century of the road's existence, are taken

up with the establishment of road precincts and the appointment of over-

seers and surveyors, as the road superintendents were then called. In

this we have striking evidence of the constant and increasing attention

demanded by the unsatisfactory condition of the road. At certain sea-

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456        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

sons, however, the Maysville Road and its connecting routes to the

East were not only endurable but offered the only sure passage to and

from the sea-board. This is made plain in another letter of Henry

Clay's, written from Washington on February 10, 1837, where he says:

"In the month of March, the Cumberland route offers ad-

vantages so superior to any other, that I must follow it to Ken-

tucky."

Elsewhere he expresses the same opinion in these words--

"At the season of the year when we shall return to Kentucky,

that is, about the 10th of March, we have no alternative but to pro-

ceed to Wheeling or Pittsburg. The roads on every other route

will then be almost impassable."

A passage in the Autobiography of Judge Robertson shows that,

when a member of Congress in 1817-1819, he traveled over this road in

journeying to and from Washington, and at least two of his colleagues,

Col. Richard M. Johnson and Hon. John J. Crittenden, did the same,

Col. Johnson in a Jersey wagon and the others on horseback. We give

the account of his first trip in his own words.

"When I received the certificate of my election," says Judge

Robertson, "I was not twenty-six years old; but I did not take

my seat until I was about ten days over twenty-seven. The best

mode of traveling then was on horseback; and I thus went to Wash-

ington in November, 1817, and also in 1818, and consumed nineteen

days in the first, and seventeen days in the latter trip. Members of

Congress then earned their allowance of three dollars for every

twenty miles of travel, which was comparatively tedious, toilsome

and expensive. And I will here mention an incident in my first trip

to Washington, which may be as useful as it is incredible: I

bought a blooded three-year old horse for my first journey to the

National Capital. He had never been shod. An old friend in Gar-

rard (Elijah Hyatt), who was famous for both skill anl care in

the management of horses, took my young horse and prepared him

for the work before him. The day before I started for my desti-

nation, he selected the iron and the shoes, saw the shoes put on and

every nail made and driven; and when he brought the horse to me,

he said, 'Now, George, all's right; your horse will carry you over

the long and rocky road to Washington without breaking a shoe

or loosening a nail.' And so it turned out. Several gentlemen

who accompanied me frequently had their horses' shoes removed

or repaired, and mine reached Washington with his shoes appa-

rently as sound and firm as when I started. I sent him to the

country to be kept during the session, which continued about seven

months. He was brought in to me the day I left for home, and the

keeper told me he had used him as his saddle horse, and never had

touched his shoes, which appeared as good as ever. Being impa-

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Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association.      457

 

tient to start, I did not have them examined, but rode him as he was

to Wheeling, brought him to Maysville on a flatboat or ark, and

rode him thence to Lancaster; and when I reached home his hoofs

and shoes seemed to be in good condition!"

Henry Clay was familiar with the entire length of the road, of

which (as we have seen) he was always a staunch friend and champion,

and frequent allusions to it may be found in his speeches and correspond-

ence. Writing to his wife from Maysville, on November 19, 1835, while

en route to Washington City, he gives this glimpse of the hospitable

home of another distinguished Kentucky statesman, whose services and

whose name are closely associated with the history of the Maysville Road.

Says Mr. Clay-

"I got to Governor Metcalfe's last night in good time, and

reached here today at two o'clock. The weather has been very fine,

and my ride was a very good one. They tell me that a steamboat

will be here this evening, in which, when it arrives, I shall embark.

I have directed Aaron to go to Governor Metcalfe's tomorrow night,

and the next day home."

This home of Governor Thomas Metcalfe's, known as "Forest Re-

treat," was in Nicholas County, of which for many years he was the

most prominent citizen. An interesting picture of the residence, which

was a landmark on the old Maysville Road, is given by Collins (Hist.

Ky., Vol. II., p. 653,) as it appeared in 1846, and of the eminent man

himself, who was strong enough in a close race to beat the gifted William

Taylor Barry for the governorship of Kentucky, the historian says -

"He was an eloquent man, social, hospitable, fond to the last of song,

frolic and fun."

Doubtless a search of the papers and writings of our other early

statesmen would disclose a like intimate acquaintance and similar interest-

ing associations with this well-traveled highway.

Luckily our researches have unearthed an early map of the "Road

from Limestone to Frankfort in Kentucky," which was published in the

year 1826. It will be found in a collection of maps and drawings made by

a Frenchman, Victor Collot (Georges Henri Victor Collot), printed in

Paris as an Atlas in 1826. The title of the book, which may be seen in

the Map Department of the Congressional Library at Washington, is

"Voyage dans l'Amerique Septentrionale, feu par le General Collot, Ex-

Gouverneur de la Guadeloupe, Atlas, Paris, Arthur Bertrand, Libraire,

1826." The Map of the Maysville Road (designated as the "Road from

Limestone to Frankfort in the State of Kentucky") is drawn to a scale

of about four miles to the inch and is Plate 22 in the collection. The

places named on the map are as follows "Limestone, Washington, (Road

to Bracken" leading thence to the West,) Northern branch of the Lick-

ing, Lee's Cr., Mazeleak (Mayslick), Johnston-Fork. Blue Licks and

Salt Works, Licking R., Barren Rocks, Farm road, Millerburgh, Hugs-

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458        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

ton (Hinkston) Cr., Bourbon ou Paris, Southern Branch of the Licking,

Huston Cr., Mills, Lexington, ("Road to Georgetown" leading away

Northwest.) -Hunter's hut, Old Fort (some dist. N. of road on 'Elk.

Riv.' i. e. Elkhorn Creek.) Tavern, Frankfort, Kentucky River." It will

be seen that this list includes many names that are not only familiar but

are in actual use to this day. The drawing of the road itself is ex-

ceedingly well done and is highly interesting. The fact that this ad-

venturous foreigner thought it worth while to make and publish a map

of the Old Limestone Road in his ambitious collection speaks volumes for

the relative importance of the route among the historic highways of that

early time. The place-names here given are copied just as they appear

on the map.

A contemporary of the amiable Frenchman, whose name has also

some connection with the Limestone Road and with Lexington, its

Southern terminus, was "Dominie" Samuel Wilson, who, in all probability,

owed his life and learning to the rugged heath of Bonnie Scotland. The

identity of names must not lead anyone to infer a relationship between

the worthy 'Dominie' and the author of this paper. While we should be

most happy to claim such a relationship, there is no reason to suppose

that it exists. In the Legislative Acts of 1826-'27, at page 165, Chapter

142, is an Act, approved January 25, 1827, which bears the title-"An Act

for the benefit of Nicholas Seminary, and to establish Wilson Seminary,

at the Lower Blue Licks." This act recites-

"WHEREAS, Samuel Wilson, A. M., a gentleman of learning

and extensive literary attainments, whose whole life has been de-

voted to the instruction of youth, the promotion of science, and the

cause of education, and the advancement of useful knowledge among

the people, proposes to found a seminary of learning at the Lower

Blue Licks, in Nicholas County, therefore,

"Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That a seminary of learning

be and the same is hereby established at the Lower Blue Licks, in

said county, to be called and know by the name of 'Wilson Sem-

inary'; and that Ariss Throckmorton, Jonathan W. Tanner, Daniel

Ballingal, Sen., Thomas Throckmorton, and Solomon Bedlinger, be

and they are hereby, appointed trustees of said seminary, and are

hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, and to be known

by the name and style of 'the Trustees of Wilson Seminary'; and

by that name shall have perpetual succession, and a common seal;"

etc., etc.

While designed, as the Act recites, to have "perpetual succession",

Wilson Seminary, painful to relate, has disappeared along with its book-

loving founder, the scholarly Scotsman, and has left "not a wrack behind."

But as if to vindicate his learning and his unselfish devotion to the cause

of culture, in the Boston Public Library may be found a curious little

tome of 23 pages, bearing this quaint title in more or less classical Latin

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Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association.       459

 

-"Chelys Hesperia, carmina quaedam anniversaria, et alia, numeris La-

tinis Sapphicis modulata, continens, cum notis aliquot adjectis", "by Sam-

uel Wilson, of Kentucky, Lexingtonia, typis T. Smith, 1825." Rendering

this composite Anglo-Latin title into "more or less classical" English, we

make out that this frail octavo, with its twenty-three pages of Latin

verses, is described by the genial poet as "The Western Harp, containing

certain poems, composed for anniversary and other occasions, in Latin

Sapphie verse, together with some added notes, by Samuel Wilson, of

Kentucky; printed at Lexington, by T. Smith, 1825. The tuneful harp

is silent, the poet's voice is mute, but in token of our respect for the

aspiring pioneer schoolmaster and his noble work, we breathe this passing

word of tribute to his memory, and wonder if it can be possible that the

Ohio Valley Historical Association or any of its members can boast a

copy of this rare volume among their treasures!

In the Journal of the Kentucky Senate for the years 1841-42, there

is a table showing the weight carried by four and six-horse teams from

Maysville to Lexington, the number of days it took to perform the trip,

and the price per hundred pounds, from March 19th to September 1830.

This table also shows that the construction of the macadamized turn-

pike road occupied the years 1831. 1832, 1833 and 1834. In the years 1835

to 1836, from six to seven thousand pounds was the usual load throughout

the year for a six-horse team, and four thousand pounds for a four-

horse team.

In 1835, the year the turnpike was finished, the time to make the

trip from Maysville to Lexington was four days, and this time was

allowed the teamsters in their settlements, but after the road was com-

pleted, three and a half days was the usual allowance; the price for haul-

ing, from 1835 to the present time, has generally been 62 1/2 cents per hun-

dred-weight for dry goods, and 50 cents per hundred-weight for heavier

articles, such as salt, iron, nails, groceries, etc. The time allowed to

make the trip to Lexington and back in the winter and spring months,

previous to the construction of the turnpike road, was from fourteen to

fifteen days, including the days consumed in loading and unloading. In

the summer and fall it generally took ten days to make the trip. After

the turnpike road was completed, nine to ten days were considered a

sufficient allowance to make the trip from Maysville to Lexington and back

the year 'round, including the time required for loading and unloading.

Shortly after the reconstruction of the road with macadam became

an accomplished fact, it was brought once more into prominence through

a sharp controversy between the corporate managers of the Road and

the local contractor for transporting the mails between Maysville and

Lexington. The dispute involved a federal question almost as far-reach-

ing in its consequences as that which underlay the agitation over In-

ternal Improvements. The case is reported in 7 Dana 113, under the

style of Dickey versus The Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington

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460        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

Turnpike Road Company, and the opinion, delivered on June 22, 1838,

and covering some twenty-six pages of closely printed matter, is one

of the ablest of the earlier opinions handed down by Chief Justice Rob-

ertson for the Court of Appeals. Speaking for the Court, Judge Robert-

son summed up the case and the final conclusion of the Court in these

concise words:

"The only question presented for consideration in this case is

whether Milus W. Dickey, as the contractor for carrying the United

States Mail from Maysville to Lexington, in this State, has the

right, in execution of his engagement, to transport the mail in stage

coaches on the turnpike road between those termini, without paying,

to the use of the Turnpike Company, the rate of tollage exacted by

it, under the authority of its charter, from other persons for the

transit of their horses and carriages.

"Can the carrier of the United States mail have a right, either

legal or moral, to use the bridge of a private person, or of an in-

corporated company, without paying pontage, or the ferry of a

grantee of such franchise without paying ferriage? That he would

have no such right is, in our judgment, indisputable."

"We, therefore, conclude * * * that, even if the Lexington

and Maysville turnpike should be deemed a public State road in all

respects, and if Dickey, as mail contractor, has a right to transport

the mail on any public road he may prefer or choose to adopt be-

tween Lexington and Maysville, he cannot do so, nor had Congress

power to authorize him to do so, without paying for the use, if

demanded, a just compensation, and that is-prima facie, at least,

-what other persons are required to pay for a similar use of it.

"After refusing, as it did, by the President's veto to contrib-

ute anything to the construction of the Maysville and Lexington

turnpike, the general government could not, with any semblance of

consistency, justice, or grace, claim the right to use and impair it.

by carrying the mail upon it, in coaches, without paying to those

who did make it with their own private means, as much for the

use and dilapidation of it as they have a legal right to exact and

do receive, without objection, from all others who enjoy the use

of it, by traveling upon it in carriages.

"Wherefore, as in every view we have taken of this case, no

power of the general government has been either exercised, or re-

sisted, or defied - it is clearly our opinion that Dickey, as mail con-

tractor, can, as a matter of right, use the Lexington and Maysville

turnpike road only as others have a right to use it; and that, there-

fore, he may be, justly and constitutionally, compelled to pay the

prescribed toll for such use as he shall elect to make of it for his

own advantage and convenience."

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Annual Meeting Ohio Valley Historical Association.      461

 

One notable thing about this interesting road, so far as it relates

to Kentucky, is the fact that it was built entirely by State and private

aid, and had no aid whatever from the national government. The same

thing is said to have been true of the national road in Maryland, which,

though treated and used as an integral part of the National or Cumber-

land Road, was built entirely by State and local aid, and without any

contributions whatever from the general government. Lines applied to

the latter road by one who lamented its fading glories may be appro-

priately recalled here -

"We hear no more the clanging hoof,

And the stage coach, rattling by;

For the Steam King rules the traveled world,

And the 'Old Pike' 's left to die!"

A few of the old tavern-keepers or "Lords of the Road," whose

names have been preserved, are as follows: William Bickley, Corbin

Gallegher, Amos Butter, George Harrington, at Washington; George

Payne at Fairview; Landlord Holliday and "Doggetts" at the Blue Licks;

"Governor" Herndon at Mayslick; Talbott at Paris, and Rankin's, Throck-

morton's and Edward Martin's hospitable houses of entertainment, which

helped to enliven the tedium of travel and to mitigate the hardships of

the way. If we could have a full and graphic description of these old

taverns in the early and middle years of the last century, it would cer-

tainly give us a lively conception of the social life of the road at that

period, and, as Dr. Pickett has suggested, "If one, for example, might,

by great good luck, recover the details of the interview between that

gentle Boniface, John Throckmorton, and General Santa Anna, en route,

what a find it would be!"

About 1854-55, what was known as the Bryan Station Turnpike

Road Company was incorporated, and inasmuch as the Old Limestone

Road ran from Lexington directly by the historic spot known as Bryan

Station, with its rugged hill-sides resting on the low receding banks of

North Elkhorn Creek, and watered at the base by the cool out-pourings

of the memorable Spring, and as the bed of that old road was adopted

as the road along which the Bryan Station Turnpike - Company was to

construct its macadamized road, as soon as the old roadway had been

macadamized, the old name, still redolent with historic suggestion and

endeared by many associations and many cherished memories, finally dis-

appeared, and thenceforward down to the present time, the Old Limestone

Road in Fayette County has been known as the Bryan Station Turnpike.

But the name "Limestone," still clings, like a vanishing echo, to that

street by which the old road entered the city of Lexington. The records

show that five continuous miles of the Bryan Station Turnpike Road

were completed and a toll-gate authorized to be erected in consequence

on February 6, 1860. Some years after the war a subsidiary company

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462       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

was incorporated for the purpose of extending the Bryan Station Turn-

pike about two miles further from its original terminus near Bryan Sta-

tion. This work in time was duly completed.

A detailed account of the later history of the Maysville Road will

have to be reserved for a future paper. In its later years, before this

road, in common with nearly all the other macadamized turnpike roads

in Kentucky, was made free and thrown open to the public, Col. W. W.

Baldwin, of Maysville, was long the Superintendent and owner of a con-

trolling interest in the road. He was widely known in Kentucky and

elsewhere as the "Turnpike King," and we understand that, at his request,

some one conversant with the facts prepared, a number of years ago,

an interesting sketch of the road, with special reference to its history

as a macadamized road, but a thorough search has failed to reveal the

existence or whereabouts of this paper. It may yet be found, as we

hope, in some fugitive issue of the Maysville "Eagle." With the aid of

such a paper, it would have been possible for us to furnish a much more

extended and, we doubt not, a far more interesting, account of the road

than has been presented here.

About the year 1875, the owners of the road became involved in

litigation, and for a time its management and direction were in the hands

of a receiver. This litigation, as we are informed, eventuated favorably

to the Company, and has left no blot on the fair name and fame of the

old road.

Before closing this paper, just a word about the steam railroads

which succeeded the macadamized turnpike roads, just as the macada-

mized turnpike roads had followed the old dirt roads, and these in turn

had followed the traces and trails of the Indians and buffalo.

In 1830, Joseph Brunn, a public-spirited business man of Lexington,

exhibited at Frankfort, a locomotive and train of cars of his own in-

vention, and between 1830 and 1850, while Kentucky was very active in

building turnpikes and improving its rivers by locks and dams, the Lex-

ington and Frankfort Railroad was the only railroad in the State, and,

for a long time, the only one west of the Alleghany mountains. The line

from Louisville to Frankfort was completed in 1851. Following this came

a period of railroad building, in the course of which the Kentucky

Central Railroad was built from Covington to Lexington, the Lexington

and Danville Railroad from Lexington to Nicholasville, and the Louis-

ville and Nashville, and its Memphis branch and the Lebanon branch

running out from Louisville as far as Lebanon, Kentucky.

The railroad from Lexington to Covington, as originally designed,

was intended to run from Lexington to Maysville, via Paris. It was

built, however, only as far as Paris, and then the construction work

stopped. The route was then diverted to Covington. The work on this

road was completed before the Civil War, and the extension of the road

to Maysville, in conformity to the original design, was not completed

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Annual Meeting Ohio     alley Historical Association.  463

 

until along in the eighties. This was made possible, just as the comple-

tion of the turnpike roads had been rendered possible, by means of county

subscriptions, and for a long time the railroad was operated in the in-

terest of the counties through which it passed and which had contributed

to its construction.

A new chapter in the development of transportation and inter-

course between the two towns which have so long stood as terminal

stations of the "Old Maysville Road," has been opened within our State,

as elsewhere, by the construction and operation for several years past

of the electric car-line service between Lexington and Paris. If the use

of air-ships and aeroplanes does not outrun the growth of the trolley-car,

it is only a question of a short time until Maysville and Lexington, ever

reaching out for each other's friendly hand-clasp and ever cultivating

closer relations, shall be bound into a more perfect and a happier union

by an electric railway system extending on a virtual air-line from town

to town.

In conclusion, we may say of the "Old Maysville Road" and its

predecessor, the "Old Limestone Road," what Dr. Archer Butler Hulbert,

in one of his interesting volumes on "Historic Highways of America,"

has said of Zane's Trace:

"The little road here under consideration is unique among

American highways in its origin and in its history. It was demanded

not by war, but by civilization; not by exploration and settlement,

but by settlements that were already made and in need of com-

munion and commerce. * * * And finally it was on the subject

of the Maysville Turnpike that the question of internal improvement

by the national government was at last decided when, in 1830.

President Jackson signed that veto which made the name of Mays-

ville a household word throughout the United States."

 

 

 

CONSTITUTION OF THE OHIO VALLEY HISTORICAL

ASSOCIATION.

 

1. The name of this organization shall be THE OHIO VALLEY HIS-

TORICAL ASSOCIATION.

2. Its object shall be to promote the general historical interests of

the Ohio Valley and especially to encourage the study and teaching of

its local history.

3. Membership in the Association shall consist of the following

classes: (1) Individual members; (2) Organizations interested in its

objects, such organizations shall be represented by not less than two nor

more than seven of their members, but other members of said organiza-

tion are eligible to become individual members of the Association; (3)

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