Delving Into Yester~Year

Delving Into Yester~Year

Local historian and writer Paul Miner takes items from The Republican’s Yester-Year column to develop an interesting, informative and often humorous article.

To the Editor:

During route exploration spanning 1827-1828 for the eventual National Road (Cumberland Road) through Indiana, a federal commissioner detoured to Danville, “the Seat of Justice” for Hendricks County.

Danville was “an entirely new place, with a post office, but no court house.”

Danville, along with Greencastle, was too far north of a direct route between Indianapolis and Terre Haute and Richmond, and so it was bypassed.

Belleville was “handsomely situated” on the National Road, a prospectus put out by William H. Henton, Obadiah Harris and L.B. Wison declared in late 1829. It was “considered equal, if not superior, in point of beauty to any site in the country.”

It boasted “a wealthy and populous neighborhood.”

Melville McHaffie’s brick barn, on the Putnam County side of U.S. 40, west of Stilesville, is a relic of agricultural wealth that grew along the National Road. In 2012, the National Road Heritage Association placed an interpretive panel on the site as part of a project to highlight the history of the road.

The earliest county map I’ve seen, from 1833, shows only Danville and Belleville. I could not call Belleville wealthy today. The new railroad, Terre Haute & Indianapolis, passed too far away in 1852 to benefit the county’s former cultural and education center.

Congressman Oliver Hampton Smith of Indiana in December 1828 called for the road to be 80 feet wide by “cutting off the timber, removing the obstructions and making temporary bridges” to allow traffic to begin until turnpikes could be established. This was 22 years after Congress authorized the project. The Cumberland would be “the grand thoroughfare through which a great portion of emigration, as well as the merchandise” from the east would reach Indiana and the states beyond, Smith declared.

County history records the road across the county in 1830 “gave a great advantage to the southern part, this road being a highway for the tide of immigration to the far West.” Many travelers made their homes here. “. . . Practically every farmer kept open house; every home was a hotel, and many of the settlers became moderately wealthy by their hospitality.” One source claims 25 cents was charged for a bed and a meal. Intended to reach the Mississippi, the nation’s first highway ended at Vandalia, Illinois, when federal money ran out. A 1936 retrospective reported $7 million was spent during 25 years of construction.

Numerous Acts sought to preserve and repair the road. However, photographs hailing from the advent of the auto show vehicles buried to their axles in implacable mud.

Even before reaching Indiana, travelers encountered enormous rocks that “render(ed) the road almost impassable.” Ruts reportedly reached depths of 18-24 inches.

Indiana contracts in late 1829 were awarded “upon terms truly favorable” at $120.21 per mile.

Work began at Indianapolis in 1828, heading east and west to reach Richmond and Terre Haute. The state was spanned in 1834. U.S. 40 follows some of the original route.

I’ve no idea how much traffic Indiana’s portion of the road totaled, but Kentucky reported 1829’s figures at 4,214 horses, 2,005 mules, 51,041 hogs, 1,015 “stall fed cattle,” and 303 sheep, at an estimated value of $896,708. The total was “far short of last year, especially in the hog list.” Imagine the mud and manure mix spanning that state. Contracts for grading 12 miles of the road were let in Belleville in late July 1831 at an average of $3.65 per rod, “a considerable portion of which is deep excavation and embankment.” I figure that to be $1,168 per mile. Bridges and culverts were let at the same time. Stone masonry contracts ranged from

$6-$6.50, and brick masonry at $3.37-$4 “per perch.”

A perch is 16-1/2 feet (a rod); that goes back to the 9th Century, I understand, a time when English was horribly misspelled and one referred to “our Lord the King” when measurements were described. I must ask county engineer John Ayers how he words his bid documents.

A November 1834 call for 200 “good laboring hands” offered 70 cents per day, payable at month’s end, to build the Illinois section. Each had to provide their own axe, mattock and spade or shovel, and their own board. Tools could be purchased from the section.

Although no stumps over 15 inches high were stipulated, with those in the center rounded or trimmed to avoid carriage mishaps, Congress ordered all stumps grubbed out.

“The resulting holes and mounds made the road nearly impassable.” Old growth forest holes must have been immense.

Trees came in handy when roads were planked in 1850 through Hendricks, Marion, Hancock and Putnam Counties.

Paul Miner Lizton ________________________________________________________________

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