The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-07-20
FIRST SAND CLAY ROAD.
Supervisor Watson Tells How He
Was Indicted for Building the
First Road i'm Marion Cn,,nt,,

was lnd1cted Tor Building the
First Road in Marion County.
L claim the unique honor of be-
ing the first man in South Carroll
ma and, L believe, the first man in
the world, to build a sand-clay road,
Tor which service l was indicted in
the criminal court, tried and con-
v1cted. The people whom it served
Marion county, S. c., twenty years
ago did not think highly of my
road and were slow to accept it. To-
day Marion county has bonded it
self for 100000 to build sand
clay roads. The United States gov
ernment is sending it's experts all
over the nation, teaching the peo-
pie how to build cheap sand clay
roads. The method is destined to
prevail all over the country. 1t
was only ten years ago that the
government got on to the advan-
tages of the earth road and at
that time the leading road author
ltles OF the country gave it as their
opinion that work on earth roads
was worthless and was money
thrown away. All that is away. All
that is changed. But, to my ex-
perlences as a pioneer.
more than twenty years ago |
ouilt the first sand-clay road in
Marion county, S. c. 1t was called
9ahu-clay because L dug up the
clay and hauled sand to build the
1lrst road of this kind in the coun-
ty. The road was built on very
Doggy place which was almost i'm
passable; 1t was kept just bare
iy passable by digging long bitches,
owing to the lay of the land, had
TO be very long, emptying into a
creek considerable distance away.
Inc road was then corduroyed with
ralls, poles and puncheons, with
turf, mud and whatever could be
FOUND packed in between. 1t was
noted as the worst piece of road
In Marion county, hardest to keep
up and most unsatisfactory all
round. In the campaign before the
election | had started on every
stump in the county that | could
build a good sand-clay road wher-
ever l could get a good quality of
sahd and clay. l had discovered
the method myself and felt sure
mat 1t would work anywhere, be-
cause 1t was sound in principle
The election came off and | won
Ih1s particular bad stretch of road
was selected for the trial and the
sano-clay method, and a worse sub
1ect Tor treatment could not have
been found in the world. 1t was
considered an impossible" place
and there was much open scoffinr
ana skeptlcism- l tackled this road
however confident that l would
win out and began by pulling out
al! the poles, rails, puncheons and
other corduroy material. Then. by
throwing up clay from the sides of
the road l got the road in shape.
properly, and began hauling sand
TO put over the clay. l worked il
In and then hauled still more, thus
raising the road high in the mid
ole. The foundation, owing to
the Doggy condition of the locality,
was wet, spring clay. When the
first rain came trouble came right
along with it, and worlds of it. My
road from one end to the other be-
came perfect mortar bed. The
road had been well nigh impossible
before and it was completely so
now
Then came the Indictment. The
cltlzens who had the misfortune to
pe compelled to travel that road
were up in arms. A more indig-
nant set of people never appealed
10 the courts of South Carolina for
redress. The grand jury met and
returned a true bill against me.
charging that by improper methods
OF load building that 1 had de-
stroyed one OF the public highways
OF the county, against the peace
and dignity of the State and the
statute therein made and provided -
My case came on and everything
went against me. The juddment of
the court was that | must put the
road back like it was before and it
was so ordered. In the opinion Of
the court, 1t was best to choose the
lesser of the two evils. The old
road was bad and the new one
was much worse. Another feature
of the judgment of the court was
that l should put the road back as
l found it at my own expense.
But | never did a thing to that
road. Fair weather came and it
drled off and was in fine condi-
ton. There has been no necessity
TO do anything to it since and /
nave photograph OF it now show
ing it to be in fine condition after
twenty years of continuous service
Just before another court came
round the people petitioned the
court to not have the road | had
built changed and to allow me to
make another demonstration of the
same kind. In their petition they
stated that the road was in better
shape than it had been before.
The judge in granting the peti-
t1on, said that 1 was the first man
to be brought before him for work
ing on the road, though many had
been brought before him for not
working the road and he said that
i should certainly be allowed to
+s<pT&ld other roads of the same kind.
Understand, that / did not pitch
in and do this road building along
such new and radical lines off
hand. 1t had ali been carefully
planned and worked out and / had
experimental carefully for years.
/ knew what / was about and even
when things seemed to be breaking