410 - HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.
CHAPTER XIII.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS,
ROADS.
THE early settlers of the county had no roads other than the Indian trails or the bridle paths through the heavy forest, and
even when they began the work of road-making it was in a crude manner, not to be compared with the methods at present
resorted to. The first highway of any importance constructed in the county was what is still known as the "Post road," laid
out in 1812, across the southern portion of the county. The continuation of Main street north from Marysville, now called
the "Old Sandusky road," was formerly known as be "Portland road." An old plat, bearing date of June 10, 1829, made at
Marysville for Josiah Westlake, by Silas G. Strong, shows this road, which crossed the southeast corner of Lot No. 4, north
of Mill Creek. Mr. Strong at that time was agent for the sale of "15,000 acres of good land in Union County."
In the early spring of 1844. an act was passed by the Legislature, authorizing the construction of a free turnpike road from
Columbus, in the county of Franklin. to Bellefontaine, in the county of Logan, to pass via Marysville, Union County. The
Commissioners appointed from Union, to act with those from he other counties in laying out the road, were John Cassil and
Norman Chipman.
HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY. - 411
The Commissioners were to form a corporation known as the "Trustees of the Columbus, Marysville & Bellefontaine Free
Turnpike Road." The first annual report of said Trustees, dated January 20, 1845, showed that donations and taxes had been
received to the amount of $1,371,578, which had been expended in implements and labor; the costs and expenses of laying
and establishing the road were $230,125.
February 24, 1853, the Marysville & Essex Plank Road Company was organized, to build a plank road between the two.
points named, by way of Pharisburg. The capital stock was $30,000, in shares of $25 each, and the incorporators were: J. S.
Alexander, J. W. Evans, P. Snider, C. S. Hamilton, G. A. Cassil, W. T. Brophy, Joseph Saxton, W. W. Woods, J. Marshall,
Samuel McBratney and J. G. Sprague. Books were open for subscriptions of stock on the 2d of April following, at
Marysville, Pharisburg, Richmond and Essex. All the incorporators resided at or near Marysville. Considerable stock was
subscribed, but no immediate steps were taken toward the construction of the road.. May 7, 1853, the company was fully
organized at Pharisburg by the election of the following Directors: G. A. Cassil, W. T. Brophy, S. McBratney, C. S.
Hamilton, of Marysville; O. Jewet, S. G. Kirk, of Leesburg Township; Daniel Kinney, of Claibourne Township. Although
the project was set on foot in a spirit of earnestness, the road was never constructed, nor was a plank road ever laid in the
county of Union, though the swampy places were Sometimes corduroyed.
GRAVEL ROADS.
Union County in 1882-83 is one of the foremost in the State in point of excellent roadways, and, although the expense has
been very great, the improvement has been of almost incalculable benefit. In an article entitled "Gravel Roads in Union
County: What they cost and the advantages derived from them," Col. W. L. Curry, Auditor of said county, wrote as follows
in April, 1882, in response to inquiries on the subject from the neighboring county, of Knox:
"Union County is one of the 'pioneer counties' of Ohio, in the matter of road improvements, and our roads are all built
under what is known as the 'two-mile assessment law.' The law was enacted March 29, 1867, and the first pike was
constructed in this county during that year, and we have been building pikes every year since that time. We have now
constructed in this county 110 gravel roads aggregating about 400 miles, and not a toll-gate in the county, and we think as
good roads as any in the State. We have thirteen roads leading out from Marysville, and every one piked, and our farmers
can market their grain and produce as easily and readily in December and January as they could under the old system of
mud roads in August or September, thus having the opportunity of taking advantage of the best markets all the year. All the
main roads in the county are now graveled, and the roads that are being improved this year are usually short cross roads.
"Since the 1st of January, this year, fifty pike petitions have been filed in my office, and of forty-eight petitions that have
been heard, forty-five have been granted, leaving two yet to be heard by the Commissioners. These forty-five roads are all
advertised, and will be sold out during the month of May, those granted aggregating 102 miles. Our Commissioners and
engineers have learned by many years' experience that the first requisite is to make a good grade and good drainage, and
this part of the work is very closely guarded by the Superintendent and engineer, and I will here insert some extracts from
our specifications that will give a better idea of our manner of constructing pikes :
"' The road to be cleared of all obstruction to the width of fifty feet, trees and stumps within the area required for the
construction of the road-bed and ditches shall be grubbed and removed therefrom; except in fills, where they may be cut off
level with the natural surface of the ground. All material naturally belonging within twenty-five feet of the center line of
said road may be used for the construction of the same, unless otherwise reserved by the Superintendent
412 - HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.
Contractors will be required to preserve all monuments and corners to land found in the road-bed, and will be held
responsible if the same are destroyed.
THE GRADE.
The road-bed to be smooth and evenly graded (in roads of two tracks on the side to be used for dirt track; leave no sinks or
low places in the surface of the grade liable to contain or hold water) to a width of twelve feet on each side of and crowning
eight inches to the. center line. The sides of all cuts, fills or ditches over three feet in depth or height, to receive a side slope
of one and one-half horizontal to one perpendicular, with side ditches not less than five feet wide at the bottom, and to be
not less than one foot below the edge of the grade on the high grounds or water divides, and not less than three feet below
the edge of the grade at the culverts or outlets, unobstructed and continuous with bottoms graded straight and smooth,
leaving no ponds or pools by the roadside. The banks of all ditches three feet deep and less to receive a side slope of one
foot horizontal to one foot perpendicular. All culverts, ditches, or small bridges must have outlets or side ditches cut from
the road sufficient to drain them thoroughly, except those which am marked on the profiles, which are not included in the
contract. These ditches to be one foot wide in the bottom, and to have their banks sloped one and one-half to one foot and
to be cut to a grade of 12-100 of a foot to each 100 feet until a good and sufficient outlet is made. The whole grading to be
done in a neat and workmanlike manner.
"'Contractors will be required to remove any and all earth, rubbish or other matter liable to obstruct the water way between
the abutments of any bridges built by either the county or contractors, to a depth deemed by the engineer sufficient for the
necessary water way.
GRAVEL.
"'The gravel to be spread uniformly upon the center of the road-bed as above prepared twelve feet wide, fourteen inches
deep in the center, and eight at the sides when completed.'
"I only give you above the outlines of the specifications of a small gravel .road, and it would not be of interest to the
general reader seeking information to go into the long and minute details of the specifications furnished by our engineers,
"We usually put on about seven cubic yards of gravel to the rod, but cross roads that are not largely used for heavy teaming
can be made to answer all purposes of usual travel with a less amount of gravel. Many of our roads are constructed on what
we call the 'double track plan;' that is, one track of gravel and one of dirt, the dirt road being used in the spring, summer
and fall, and the gravel track in the winter, thus saving the gravel track, which will last many years longer. As there is little
difference in the cost of constructing the single and double track roads, the matter is always left to the choice of the
petitioners, some preferring single and others double track roads.
"The expense of constructing gravel roads depends largely on the distance the gravel has to be hauled and the bridging, but
under the law the county makes all culverts and bridges, and this is not a matter to be considered by the hand owners taxed
for the construction of gravel roads, as the bridge fund is collected on the grand duplicate of the county, and bridges must
be built for the accommodation of the general travel on all roads, whether they are gravel or mud.
"Our roads now cost from $1,200 to $1,800 per mile exclusive of bridging, all governed by the distance gravel has to be
hauled We can usually purchase gravel in the pit at an average of $125 per mile. Our wagon beds for hauling gravel are
constructed to hold just one cubic yard of gravel, and gravel teams will make an average of from twenty-four to thirty miles
per day, so that a road that is one mile from gravel a team will make from twelve to fourteen loads, or two rods of gravel
spread on the road each day to the team, and $3 per day for team and driver, and this work is largely done by the taxpayers
along the line of the roads, thus making some of the money out of the construction of the road to pay
HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY. - 413
their taxes, and this year many of our roads will be contracted entire to the taxpayers, as there are too many roads for
regular contractors to handle. In counties that have no gravel but have lime stone, roads can be constructed of crushed stone
at a cost but little above that of gravel.
"Two of our contractors during last year completed three gravel roads of crushed stone, of their own choice, having
contracted to construct the roads of gravel, and although the taxpayers along the line of the road were at first strongly
opposed to the stone, they are now much pleased and express a decided preference for the. stone at the advanced cost of
construction, as they are satisfied after testing them thoroughly the past soft winter that they will be more durable.
"I will give you a closely figured estimate of the cost of a road made from crushed limestone: Ordinary limestone, average
quarry, No. 1 rotary crushed 10-horse power engine, including all costs for stone and labor loaded on wagon, 80 cents per
cubic yard, and a No. 1 crusher will crush 60 cubic yards per day. On the usual gravel roads, we put 7 cubic yards of gravel
to the rod, but of the crushed stone we use about 4 1/2 cubic yards to the rod, which makes a very material difference in the
expense of hauling and spreading. The pikes in this county have cost more than $1,000,000, but the land owners have been
repaid with large interest by the increase in the value of real estate. For $1,000,000 expended for pikes, the value of real
estate has been increased $2,000,000, without taking into consideration the luxury of having good roads.
"Lands that were worth $40 and $50 per acre on mud roads now sell readily at $60 and $70 and upward per acre, and many
citizens of old and richer counties are coming in and purchasing farms in this county, their reasons being that they wish to
own land in a county blessed with good roads. It makes a good system of drainage for low lands, and many farms are
largely drained by tiling into these side ditches; fences are improved along the line of these roads, new dwellings are built,
barns are painted, and the whole country is improved and beautified wherever you see good pikes.
"When the gravel road question was first agitated in this county, the enterprise was bitterly opposed by some of our
heaviest taxpayers and best citizens. as they argued (and honestly, too) that first, I there was no gravel in the county to build
the roads, and second, if there was material it would bankrupt the county to build them.' But fifteen years' experience has
demonstrated the fallacy of their argument, as we have built 400 miles of pikes and paid for them, and the county is much
richer today than fifteen years ago, and we seem to have an abundance of material left, and old I Mother Earth' gives forth
her stores bountifully, and her abundance cannot be exhausted by building a few miles of gravel road.
"To illustrate: About sixteen or seventeen years ago, the citizens of Marysville, shipped by railroad fifteen miles distant,
from another county, gravel to put on our streets; and since that time they have learned that the whole town is underlaid
with a superior article of gravel to that shipped, and so you may find in your county an abundance of material where you
least expect it. Now those who were the strongest opponents of gravel roads in the beginning, are their most enthusiastic
advocates, and I have never yet found an opponent of gravel roads that once he has a good pike past his farm would part
with it for three times the amount of tax he paid.
"The citizens of this county are well satisfied with the money they have expended for road improvements. The farmers are
well paid by the increase in the value of their lands, the merchants are well pleased that they have at their counters, in
winter season as well as in summer, customers who live fifteen and twenty miles from the county seat, and the
carriage-makers are well pleased that they now sell twenty buggies and carriages where under the mud road system they
sold one, and altogether we seem to be a very happy, industrious, honest, temperate and religious sort of people, and our
advice to, our neighboring counties is to build gravel roads and you will be correspondingly happy with us. We pay our
contractors in six per cent bonds that are anxiously sought and sell as readily as United States bonds.
414 - HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.
GRAVEL ROADS IN UNION COUNTY.
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