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EDITIO:
( AN IN~STITUTION OF COMMUNITY SERVICE SINCE 1909 )
Hertford County 1759-1959
The Herald 1909-1959
8 Pages—This Seciion
Ahoskie, N. C.
Milestone Year—1959
Isolation Ends for c People:
From Lost Provinces to Auto Age:
Pioneer Roadbuiiding in Hertford
“The Lost Provinces.” That is the way many people
characterized the Pvoanoke-Chowan and Hertford County
in the early years of the 20th century.
It was the truth.
For, with new means of transportation beginning to
knit the nation together, the counties of eastern North
Carolina—cut by many unbridged rivers and streams—
came more and more to realize that they were cut off
from the new age by a great lack of transportation
facilities.
Ancient ferries crossed the Chowan and Roanoke rivers
at scattered points. They had served for centuries to
carry the buggies, the carts, the wagons, that constituted
land transportation.
But, with the coming of the automobile, they were
inadequate, woefully.
The first autos showed up in the area in the first and
second decades of the 20th century, The high-bodied Tin
Lizzies navigated along roads that had served in the
horsedrawn past, but were completely inadequate in
the new age. Dusty in summer, seas of muddy ruts in
winter, they provided much reason for the many jokes
about road difficulties in these booming days.
Then, after the First World War, local people—and the
state government—took the transportation bull by the
horns.
The 1920’s were the great roadbuilding pioneer days.
In these years, local people banded together to provide
themselves with a transportation network. Set back by
the Depression of the early 1930’s, the roadbuilding pro
grams spurted ahead again in the middle part of the
decade when the state took over the job and continued
the task of laying hardtop roads, and of building bridges
to span the rivers.
As the Second World War approached, most of the
major highways had been paved, bridges had ended the
river-caused isolation.
But the farmer was still in the mud. Miles of rural
roads were still in essentially the same condition they had
been when the century began.
The war put off the next roadbuilding era.
Then, in 1949, a new Governor—W. Kerr Scott—took
over Tar Heel government. A new spirit gripped local
people.
In a great spurt of roadbuilding, the miles of rutted
rural roads became surfaced. “Scott Roads” opened a new
era for rural Hertford and other farm counties.
This is the story of the Age of Roads in Hertford
County:
How did Hertford County com
missioners react to the new ’‘good
roads” policy of Gov. Cameron
Morrison’s 1921 administration?
Not so good.
The first problem which faced
them was the decision on whether
to switch from having road work
supervised by the separate town
ships, or put under county direc
tion.
The Hertford County Herald
of January 28, 1921 reported:
‘‘County commissioners met but
took no action on changing road
work from townships to county.”
Ip. successive issues, The
Herald’s editorial stand urged
the commissioners lo join the
rest of the stale in this move.
When it finally came to vote on
February 11, 1921, The Herald
recorded the fact that two of the
six commissioners voted against
the change.
F. G. Tayloe of Ahoskie Town
ship and J. O. Askew .Harrells-
ville, were voted down, by a mar
gin of 4 to 2.
hiring a county superintendent
of roads, which they did.
Next move came on the state
level, when the General Assembly
was asked to approve a bill au
thorizing a bond issue for road
work, if approved by a referen
dum of voters.
Sen. W. H, S. Bui’gwyn of
Northampton County, with Sen.
Stanley Winborne and Rep. D. C.
Barnes of Hertford County, were
adamant in their opposition to
this “good roads bill.” But it
passed, nonetheless.
the proposed state bond issue,
State Highway Commissioner
Hart of Tarboro and Miss Hattie
Berry of Chapel Hill appeared at
a “good roads”‘ rally in Winton
June 15, 1921.
County Group
As a result, a county highway
commission was set up. to hold
monthly meetings in V/inlon, This
commi.ssion was re.sponsible for
Winton Bridge
On May 6, 1921, The Herald an
nounced that construction of a
bridge over the Chowan River
at Winton would be financed
from the $1,500,000 appropriated
to Hertford County out of the
state bond issue, if approved.
On June 10, 1921, the follow-
, ing road improvement.s were an-
jnounced as planned from the state
1 bond issue; A direct route from
■ Ahoskie to Aulander; from Ahos-
, kio to Murfreesboro; and a road
I for the section beyond St. John’s,
I where the Aulandcr-Rich Square
j road intCT.sected a Hertford Coun-
I ty road.
' To push for public approval of
"NEW" BRIDGE—I^'hen it was constructed in the late 1930’s,
Ahoskie’s Memorial Drive read and overpa^js was one of the
Koanokc Ciic'.vaii’^ most advanced transportation arteries. For
nearly a decade ai-.-r it was built, the road and the railroad
overpass were known as the “new bridge.” The road and bridge
wore n’ meet “Memorial Drive and Bridge” after the Second
World War. This photograph shows the ‘'new” bridge a few
days after ii was finished.
At this meeting, Hart said his
chief ambition was to have his
name on a bridge at Winton,
which he said “would redeem the
‘Lost Colony’ of North Carolina.”
referring to all the far northeast
ern counties beyond the Chowan.
Miss Berry appeared at another
rally in Ahoskie, with State High
way Commissioner Chaima i
Page, later that summer. T^icrJt
she said that the road materials
available in Hertford County
were unusually good for this part
of the state, and that drainage
should bo adequate and easy to
maintain.
So the slate went to the polls
in August, to vote on the propos
ed bond issue. It carried over
whelmingly in most counties.
In Hertford County, only
Ahoskie Township voted it down
by a margin of 23 more against
than for.
It was estimated that sand-and-
asphalt roads in this county would
cost $15,000 per mile to build.
Bridge Opened
In October. 1922, with appi'opri-
ate fanfare and a barbecue meant
for 58 person.s (150 were present)
the first ali-steel bridge in.Hert
ford County was opened.
This spanned the Wiccacon
River west of Harrellsville,' and
replaced a ferry known as “Boone
Harrell’s ferry” which had op
erated there at least as early as
the Revolutionary War,
The automobile wa.s here to
stay, and the roads had to keep
up with it.
In February, 1923, the contract
was let for a road from Aulander
to Winton, through Ahoskie.
Nelio Teer bid $73,573.50 for do
ing drainage, grading and gravel
ing. T. E, Galloway bid $35,983
to build the bridges on the road.
This news was greeted with
glad tidings from The Herald,
where the late J. Roy Parker
wrote: “A few of the faithful
Fords are still plodding the mud,
fording the streams and tearing
their entrails out trying to get
their chauffeurs from place to
place.”
But the gaiety wa,5 short-lived,
for when highway funds were al
located four years later, in 1927,
Hertford County got none.. In
fact, the road from Aulander to
Winton was the sum total of im
provements made until 1934.
In that year. Dr. T. E. Browne
of Murfreesboro, who -was then
director of vocational education
for the state, mentioned the “very
run-down condition” of second
ary roads in the state, in a speech
made in the county.
The county commissioners sec
onded his views, with a resolu
tion passed August 9, .1934.
In it, they called for paving of
highway 12 from the Virginia
lino through Murfreesboro, and
of highway 35 from Winton to
Harrellsville. For some reason,
this got results, and the con
tract was let to pave highway 12
on October 18, 1934.
But Ahoskie, the fastest grow
ing town in the county, was still
■‘in the mud.”
In December, 1934, a delega
tion went to Raleigh, where they
appeared before the state high
way commission ciiairman, Capus
Waynick. They asked for paving
of the highway from Ahoskie to
Poweilsville. The folks at Pow-
ellsville hoped either to have ac
cess to a main highway through
Colei'ain to Edenton, or through
Ahoskie to Norfolk.
SYMBOL OF A NEW ERA—The modern lines of a steel bridge
spanned Meherrin River at Murfreesboro in the late 1920’s, re
placing an old timber brid.ge which had served in the days of
the horse and buggy, The bridge joined a wooden causeway
(background) across low ground on the Maney’s Neck shore.
Timber from the old wooden bridge was used in houses built in
Murfreesboro during the period. The Meherrin steel bridge was
one of several major transportation facilities built in Hertford
County in this period when roadbuilding was opening a new
era of transportation and ending the isolation that had caused
the area to be called "The Lost Provinces” of North Carolina.
Winton Good Roads Meeting Signal
For Start in State Roads Program
BEFORE BRIDGES—Tin.' was Wintoji’s Chowan River cros.siag in the eaj'ly 19:10 For more than
200 years, iciTy liuU? operated across the river at this point, Note the Tin Lizzie automobile.
When it came, the e..',-- uf the ferry was doomed and the Roanoke-Chowan was lifted from its
transportation i.-ulation by (he construction of liridgos. The iiictiire was taken from the Winfon
shore as the cable ferrv rolled into dock.
A Hot Fight
This soon produced the hottest
fight seen in a long time. One
group, represented by Mayor
Lloyd J. Lawrence of Murfrees
boro, wanted a road from Cole-
rain to Harrellsville to Winton,
Another protested this would
cut Ahoskie off, and wanted the
route from Coierain to Powells-
vilie to Ahoskie.
Lawrence thundered that this
'wa.s a move which would lead to
moving the courthouse to Ahos
kie, dire thought!
The Herald in June, 1935, re
ported “several communities up
in arms and threatening Ahos
kie with trade boycotts in the
mad scramble for roads.”
But the highway commission
was at last swayed by the size of
Ahoskie and the determination of
the women’s leaders in Poweils
ville, and by fall of 1935, had an
nounced they would pave the
road by that route “within a
year.”
Meanwhile, the last promise
from the 1921 bond issue had
bogged down'in 1933.
A section of road from St.
John’.s to Mcnoli had been pavec
in 1931, but no funds were appro
priated in 1933 for that kind of
paving. By 1935. the St. John’,
residents were still waiting for
the rest of the connecting link
from Menoia to Woodland.
During the next decade, even
the Menola-Woodiand link was
completed, to finish the projects
started in 1921,
By the spring of 1949, however;
roads were in a bad way again ,
secondary roads, this time. Farm-!
ers were stuck on the back roads.'
unable to get to the main hard-!
surfaced routes. This wa.s the
theme of Kerr Scott’s campaign,
to be Governor, and it wa.s the
farnrors who voted him in, in
hopes of getting better secondary
roads. '
One of the most anticipated |
roads was that proposed to link I
See MIXED, Page 2 |
WINTON—“Three hundred and
sixteen-years before the coming
of Christ the Roman people had
good roads,” said Chairman Wal
ter Hart of the newly-appointed
State Highway Commission in his
speech in 1921, “but our people
today hav'e no means to transport
j iheir produce to market.”
I The occasion was a meeting of
i ciuzen.s at Winton interested in
the North Carolina Good Roads
I Association, urging the county to
! vote for issuance of $500,000 in
I bonds for road work. And roads,
I together with schools, were the
I major concern of Hertford County
I and the state in the post-World
' War I era.
i The plea for good roads in the
I twentieth century was only an
I echo of the sentiments that had
: prevailed long before the found-
I ing of Hetrford County, almost
. 200 years before. Anglican priests,
; forced to travel by Indian trails
I and paths through the wilderness
of North Carolina, had complain
ed to the Lords Proprietor as
early as 1679 that it was prae-
Lically impos.5ibIe to move about
I ovei'land.
I The Lord.s Proprietor, in turn,
I complained to the English govern-
I ment that colonial governors were
I not opening roads fast enough to
; encourage settlement south of Al-
, bemarle Sound.
The rich planters of the tide-
1 water areas not only needed
; means of transporting their tar,
■ pitch, cotton and corn to shipping
, points, but needed roads as a
means of fleeing possible Indian
attacks.
North Carolina laws of the first
quarter of the 18lh century re
flected the concern of the people
over the bad roads and wide ox-
pansc.s of unbridged waters.
New Bern was completed about
1722.
By some chance, Capus Way-
nick notes in his book “North
Carolina Roads and Their Build
ers,” North Carolina has started
strong road improvement drives
around the fifteenth year of each
century. The first such push occur
red about 1715, and the second
one exactly a century later.
In 1815, Archibald D. Murphey,
.state senator from Orange County,
offered the resolution in the Gen
eral Assembly that “it is expedi
ent to provide more efficiently for
the improvement of the inland
navigation of the state.”
This was shrewdly worded, both
to catch the support of eastern
legislators concerned with water
travel, and of western legislators
concerned more with road.s.
In his 1819 “Memoir on internal
improvements,” Murphey outlined
a comprehensive plan for a state
wide transportation system. He
insisted the state would not ad
vance without development of
marketing centers to which farm
ers could move- produce without
great difficulty.
Murphey wa.s named to -vs-hat
may be considered North Caro
lina’s first “highway commission.”
His group wa.s to proceed with an
engineering survey.
The chairman, Peter Browne,
was sent to England in 1818 to
find a competent engineer, and
accordingly hired Hamilton Ful
ton at a salary of 1200 pounds,
yearly. Within a short lime, how-'
ever, the legislature was manipu
lating members of the commission
to force Fulton out.
Fulton thought three pliases of
Murphey’s suggestions w’ere feasi
ble: a few main state roads; a net
work of roads for county control;
and a -feeder road system kept up
by private land owners.
The large eastern planters
would not support a plan so dem
ocratic, widespread and costly,
however, and what followed at
public expense was done by sub-
.sidizing navigation companies and
other private ventures.
Partly as a result of what might
be considered virtual civil war
in North Carolina before, the Rev
olutionary War, large numbers of
persons were emigrating west
ward over the mountains to Ten
nessee and Kentucky. Notice of
this continuing, weakening emi
gration was taken in Raleigh at
the “Internal Improvements Con
vention” held in December, 1838.
After making recommendations
about state participation in rail
roads and transportation compa
nies, the group asked: “Again, we
ask, can you hesitate? We tell you
the spirit of improvement ' is
abroad in the land- -to burst the
shackles of a jealous and short
sighted policy, to rise triumphant
over physical obstacles and the
still stronger mounds of local
prejudice, and by your action to
elevate our beloved state to her
proper rank as one of the political
members of this great confeder
acy, and lot her shine with a new
light amid the states of uur na
tional galaxy.”
Making a trip overland through
North Carutina continued to be
a major feat. Obser\'ani travelers
who did not allow the bad ruad.'t
lo di.scourage them from passing
through the .state', coinmeiited on
I valuable crops rotting in North
1 Carolina fields for lack of means
to move them to market.
In 1848, Gov. William A. Gra
ham suggested that use of “plank”
roads be studied. As a result, some
middle and western counties built
“turnpikes” of plank.s laid as a
foundation for topsoil. Interest
waned again, and not until 1879
did the modern movement for bet
ter public roads evidence itself in
the passage of the Mecklenburg
road law.
This law proyided for working
of public roads (at first in Meck
lenburg County only) partly by
taxing and partly by the old labor
system. The tax revenue was to
be not less than seven cents or
more than 20 cent.s on the $100
worth of property, and a labor as
sessment of four days for all able-
bodied citizens between the ages
of 18 and 45 was to be made, with
management in the h:tnds of
township authorities.
It was Februaiy. 1893, however,
j before the North Carolina Road
! Improvement Association was or-
jganized and the old Roman prin-
j ciples of drainage and construc-
ition were revived a.s suggestions.
'State Geologist Cain told the
group of the “importance of grad-
; ing and draining tire public roads
' properly, by rai.sing the roadbeds
above the water flow and putting
\ .stone di'ctins iiiicler them and
, alongside them."
! The type of road construction
, initialed by the Scotch engineer,
j MacAdam. met with great suc-
;cess in the United Slates during
, the latter half of the 19th century.
I I^ecause "nuicadam” roads used
See WINTON, Page 6
Cheshire Permil
A permit to keep a ferry over ,
the Meherrin River near its junc- i
tion with the Chowan River was
obtained by John Cheshire in.
1718, the expres.-; purpo.-^e of the |
utility being the convenience of
intercolonial lra\ t;l.
Rccau.sc the colonics were jeal-i
ous of their exports, each had;
high tariffs against produce com
ing from neighboring colonies.
Ferry keepers were assigned the;
duty of requiring passports for'
all persons carrying the colony's
borders. ;
dim,
The fir.'t interstate road prob- '
ably ran from the head of naviga '
tion on the Porquiman.s River to!
Suffolk. A second ran through '
Currituck towards Norfolk and aj
third connected the Roanoke Riv- ,
er with points in Virginia. A main i
road to the Governor’s office in i
-s--.-r!
STREET PAVING—Vila th-- -ra the automobile causing unprecedented demand lor road-
building, Hcrltoul County towns were also ready for the new eia. Street paving projects in mbst
communities began in the 1920’s, This view is of Ahoskie’s West Main Sired (looking Inward
midtown) as it was just before hardtop went down in 1925.