Morning journal and courier., 1891-01-06
NoRTH HAxEn ANrALs.

NORTH HAVEN ANNALS. About the Average Country Road- Its steady Call Upon Taxpayerss Poclkets-vexatiOns or Some 0f the Forefathers or the TDwn.A Word About Crossroads-Trials and Tr1b- ulattons.
 NUMBER 60.
 There is something ravenous, savage, about the, country road. If Augur, the son of Jakeh, had been Thigh way surveyor" on the highways aroundJeru- salem, he would have added to the ttfour things never satiafed,"a fifth, more in satiate than all; it cries 'tgive! givel" and it's appetite for repairs is never satiated. Money and material unstinted is fed into it's ever open throat and the result is still leanness.
 The country taxpayer knows this only too we'll Of all his works. that which he is the least in love with, and which ire quently he waxes the wrathiest about, is his highway system. It is the stock in trade for abuse from January to January. The postofice, the blacksmith shop, the grist mill, the store, the church, are never free from the echoes of some voice raised against it. The heighth of the wave is usually attained at the annual town meet ing. Tongues and tempers are here un- loosed, and criticisms are scattered with lavish hand. And whya Because something is expect ed for nothing. Given sandy soil and scanty superficial outlay upon it and there is but one result-an inferior highway. The magnificent roads of the older nations should teach us something concerning them. Their builders attended to the foundation, ours to the surface; they built for an age, we for day; their roads endured the traveller, our traveller endures the roads.
 More than two hundred years ago, or in 1886, trouble over these thoroughfares be- gan in North Haven. Surveyor John Crockett of New Haven had laid out about 1880 the first highway ever in the parish. This was upon the east side of East river and was surveyed from ''Frosfs farm to Dirty Point" Tt is supposed that mainly on this line the first settlers of Muddy river located.
 This most ancient of all the highways was half mile in length; it extended from near the Leverett Frost estate west ward to the meadows. It began and end ed, to use military phrase, "in the air, " that is, it connected with nothing at either end. Originally it was four rods wide and laid out exactly east and west, as it was intended all cross-r roads should be. It served as much to define and bound the settlers grants upon as anything else. Old MT. Brockett's theory was that the farms should conform to his surveyed lines and dwellings arrange themselves accordingly. The settlers practice was "to run ye high ways as might be most convenient" the convenience being, pitching down hut in any place and dragging the highway to it. Very few cross-routes in North Haven are now found as originally plotted. The rorth and south channels have changed but little. There were seven of these mail | avenues, all intended to be six rods wide Beginning upon the west side of East rivel they were arranged as follows:
 No. West side East river to Pine bridge. No. 2-The present main road running iron Fair Haven to Wallingford, but running mucl further west below North Haven Green" No. 3-The Pool road'' from Erie Bradley's tt south.
 No. Through 'Bogmire Swamp, coming ou by the 'tMarks Place. and extending south, as a present, across the Walford bridge.
 No. 5-From the Wallingford line, running nea
 
 the present road near Solomon Orcutt's thenc south as at present.
 boundary between North Haven and Walfing ford, with good circumstantial evidence that i held directly south from the Clintonville chapel No. 7-The road east of Muddy river in tn, Half Mile" though greatly changed at pres ent). :. The cross roads as has been said hay. | suffered the most distortion. Not nor, | than one or two probably in the entir, town conform to the original layout. Tn best instance is seen in the highway cross l ing, the main road near the old Samue Culver place and running to "Eaton' Point" Another instance, though nov practically discontinued, is the Dirt, Point" road previously mentioned. Thi latter had been laid out no more than hal a dozen years before some settler attempt ed to have it changed. There was so mucl controversy that special town meetin was called at New Haven to settle it. Sur veyor Crockett was appealed to and said "That there was highway allowed fror "Frost's Farm to Dirty Point and this wa Eye first laying out of ye lands. Whe Eye towne had heard this Reporte they o1 "dered that ye highway be continued Q) It is now but @ narrow lane close, with gates and bars. The town has moth ing to do with it's support.
 Ire next complaint came from the yves side of the river. It is strange that tn settler in his day should have found necessary to trespass upon the streets, bu in 1731 at town meeting in New Have it was voted "That the county surveyo with one committee for removing CT croachments go up and take care of tn highways near to Joseph Bradley's an other highways up that way" Tn I nat11ra nf fhaca anaroanhnoa ,fo !, guessed at when we read little late Q743) that at @ town meeting Gilbert was given to erect hogg penns in th streets for five shillings per rod annus rent" 2)
 Again in 1762 the authorities were con pelled to come up and ''remove a brio kiln which had been injudiciously locate in the highway"
 As roads multiplied trouble bega to be experienced with them all ove the state. Finally, as an experiment mol than anything else, the general assembl passed an act requiring the annual elet tion of two or more persons in each tow as surveyors of highways. They were t be sworn, and to oversee all the road within certain prescribed bounds. The were empowered to call out two days { least in the year all male persons betwee the ages of sixteen and sixty ''to mend , several highways" Gospel ministers, ma, istrates, ruling elders, allowed physicians school masters, millers, shepherds, we1 exempt from this summons. Three day notice must be served, and if the perso1 80 warned failed to respond forfeit ( fifty cents was declared, or, if warne with team, then a dollar Within for days after the appointed time to work tt surveyor was required to deliver to jul tice of the peace list of such persons had been defective in their duty. IT justice thereupon issued "distress wa rants," and in the event of no propert being found to satisfy the forfeit and 0: penses the body of the delinquent WI seized.
 Judging from long file of complain before the writer, the North Havener abo, the year 1900 entertained 8 very low est mate of his responsibility in this matte It looks as if the surveyors were about u only people who tried to do their dut Scarcely district in the town came an
 where near the standard of requiremen and the streets must have reached pitif condition.
 | Later came reaction. Men began
 zee that part of the value of their farr depended on easy access to them, and, flu
 ther, that the life of an OK or cart w
 considerably heightened by attention
 their conditions of working. To repai
 in measure, the neglect heretofore shov
 a certain per cent. of the town tax was 6