Ernest Dollar, local historian, Chatham
ON THE
MAP THE ROADS, RIVERS AND RAILWAYS THAT BUILT OUR COUNTY BY MORGAN CARTIER WESTON IMAGES COURTESY OF CHATHAM COUNTY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
BY THE NUMBERS Chatham County contains:
38
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707 square miles.
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The geographic center of North Carolina, near the town of Gulf.
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The 14th lowest and 52nd highest elevations of our state’s 100 counties.
CHATHAM MAGAZINE
T
o say that a “quick trip to the store” looked a lot different 250 years ago would be an understatement. Three or four miles might not sound like much these days, but traveling any distance by horse, wagon or on foot was an ordeal at the time of Chatham County’s founding. In those days, roads were largely nonexistent, and there were few fencing and property maintenance regulations, meaning early Chathamites would have encountered a range of obstacles (think washed-out paths, difficult terrain and even neighbors’ livestock wandering the roadways). “Chatham County is home to some of the first roadways in America,” explains
FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021
native and executive director of the City of Raleigh Museum. Geography played a huge role in dictating how these roads were formed. Roads were dirt, which turned to mud for a large portion of the year and, if passable, were slow. The few improved roads that did exist were “corduroy roads,” which were as bumpy as they sound. These were built using a series of logs laid perpendicular to the road in muddy areas to make them more wagonfriendly. While corduroy roads made some areas more passable, they were inconsistently maintained and often dangerous, especially for horses. These roads were maintained by the counties, and able-bodied men were obligated to donate their labor to road work as needed unless they could afford to pay a tax to avoid it. Plank roads were constructed in the 1850s. These roads were made from heavy, sawed timber and made for a firm, smooth roadway, but decayed after only a few years and so were mostly toll roads to help with their upkeep. Most bridges at that time were built and maintained by land owners, who also charged a toll for passage through their property. This meant travelers had to keep spare change or goods on hand to pay their way across. Heavy summer rains and occasional hurricane flooding made things even more dangerous for early land travelers – but they also made rivers more navigable. Plus,