The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1876-08-10
NOTES ON JACKSON COUNTY.
BY D. MACELEY.

the exception of half a mile, between
Oak Hill and Portland, there is not an
inch of turnpike in the county.
There was an Indian trail between
Jackson and Chillicothe long before
white men settled i'm this county. At an
early day a stage road was opened down
Salt Greek to Richmondale, and thence
to Chillicothe Then this road was ex-
tended by way of Winchester, Centre
vile. Adamsville Rodney, etc, to CALI
polls, long before any of these interme-
date villages were laid out. road east,
to Berlin, Hamden, (then called Charles
TOM and thence to Macarthur, (then
called McArthurstown) was laid out
more than fifty years ago. A road west
known as the Portsmouth road, was laid
out at an early day. About fifty years
ago a State road was surveyed and open
ed from jackson to point opposite Guy
andotte Virginia. This road is in part
used to this day. but large portions of it
were never used, and i'm places, where it
had been abandoned, it was fenced up by
the farmers many years ago. This road
followed the Gallipolis road to the pres
ent residence of Peter Bum, opposite
the Infrmary, where it turned to the
| right, and was nearly straight in It's
course. 1t passed through the land OF
Joseph f. Cackley, then owned by Lewis
Adkins, and passing through the Flat
Woods, a mile east Of Oak Hill, entered
Gallia county near the old Haptonstall
mill, at the junction of the Black Fork
and Grassy Fork of Symmes Creek.
Soon after this State road had been
opened, county road was laid out, COM
mencing on the State road near where
Job Buckley now resides, in franklin
township, and running nearly due south,
past the residences of old Sammy Ste
phenson (then called Stinson,) old Jim
my Stephenson, old Joel Arthur, DR..
McNeel, Solomon Mackley, Jesse Kelly,
Moses Massie, Robert Massie, George
Crump, etc, and ending at the foot OF
one Of the steepest hills on Hales Creek,
at the line between Jackson and Law.
renee counties, and mile or two below
where Monroe Furnace is now located.
From the end of this road there was no
public road down Hales Creek for a dis
tance of three miles, until you struck the
line of Scioto county, where there was
a public road down the creek Except a
few squatters on Hales Creek, there were
/ M eattIars a, Tovraroa co,,pf,, for a lon q
distance, and no one to take interest
enough to have public road established
across this remote and unsettled corner
of the county; but necessity compelled
the people to keep open a road between
these points. have often thought Of
the peculiarities of this old road. Much
of it has been abandoned, although it was
used for many years. Some parts of il
have been changed to better ground. In
many places it was located on the north
and south lines between farms, and wai
nearly straight in all its length. DR.
McNeel, l think, surveyed it, / remem
Der once telling him that l thought the
viewers had commenced at the highes
point they could find, and then aimed
for the next highest point, and so on
He said that they supposed that I
straight line was the shortest distanc'
between two points, forgetting that thu
curved bail of pot or a bucket was o
exactly the same length, whether it b
raised over the top of the vessel, or laiC
down on its side.
All these original roads were opened
and kept in repair by the two days worl
required by law to be performed ever!
year, by every able bodied man betweeI
the ages of 81 and As years. (Now So.
The bridges were made by laying log
across the creeks, and cross laying thes
logs with puncheons, or logs split open
and notched down on the logs. with tn
split sides up. If the creek was wide,
three cornered pen was built OF logs II
the middle of the creek, with a sharl
point up stream, and this pen was fille'
with stones, to make it permanent, ant
the ends of the sills Of the bridge reste,
upon it.
The roads up and down these steel
hills soon began to wash in great gullies
when the roots of the trees had time t
rot. Every year the supervisor woul'
have his men fill these gullies with brush
and throw dirt upon it. Long before tn
time for work next year, this would al
be washed out.
There was not the necessity for goo,
roads in the early days that there is now
But very few farmers owned wagons, ant
there were no teamsters, who made haul
ing business. Every farmer had hi
sled, and did all his transportation will
it, where the horse and the packsaddl
did not answer his purpose. A sle'
wagon, among the stumps in a new road
and alongside OF the gullies and ditche
up and down the hillsides.
At the present day our roads are nu
merous, in every locality in the county
and are well arranged to aecommodat,
the public, without unnecessary injury t
individual property; but these roads arr
the ordinary mud roads and during tia,
early spring are most execrable. Their,
is no prospect Of turnpikes being made
during the present generation, and thu
heavy wagons used about the nineteer
furnaces in the county cut and destroy
the mud roads rapidly.
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Thieves are now pIowling about over Ia