The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-09-20
FINISHING What JACKSON !.
BEGAN los YEARS AGO
Most Historic Highway to Connect
=, Great Lakes Region With
Central South.
(By Littell McClung)

Hshk .-
(By Littell McClung)
If the spirits Of those who have
passed on find any interest and satis-
faction in earthly progress and &C
complishment, then the soul Of Cen
eral Andrew jackson, "Old Hickory"
must glow in pride Of fulfillment--af-
ter long waiting on looking down
upon the new visible line Of communi-
cation between Chicago and New Or
leans. Nearing completion is the
jackson Highway, a road-building
project begun by General Jackson
more than a century ago.
t seems strange-among people
boasting rapid development that a
helpful, needed highway from the
Great Lakes to the Gulf region, the
southern reaches Of which were start
ed in 1861, should not be finished in
1922. But such is a fact. Yet all
along the 1,100-mile route interest has
been stimulated and work has pro-
gressed to point from which COM
pletion within the coming year is an
easy possibility. Bearing the name of
the patriot who projected it, and lead
ing to and through the scenes of his
efforts to develop virgin territory and
his vigorous and victorious exploits
first against the Indians and later
against q foreign foe--it will be The
most historic, and, mayhap, tbe most
useful highway in America.
The real! beginning Of the, jackson
Highway took place in 1906 by means
Of treaty between the United States
and the Cherokee Indians. In those
days of unsurveyed forests and dense
undcrgrowth traffic necessarily was
carried Oh the rivers; the streams
were the lines Of communication for
the delivery of supplies from estab-
lished white settlements to the more
precarious abodes of the pioneers who
had pushed farther south and south
west through the forests. The great
Tennessee River on the north and the
smaller Tombigbee in Mississippi and
Alabama to the southwest were two
such streams. And the Indian treaty
of 1905 resulted in blazing trail
from the Harpeth River, near Nash
vile, Tennessee, straight across the
Tennessee River and Valley and on to
the Tombigbee River at Columbus,
Mississippi. This direct from river
to-river route, through vast hardwood
forests and down almost into the
long leaf yellow pine region, was
opened in 1903. Along it went supplies
and troops for the Indian wars in
lower Alabama and Northern Florida.
Several years later General Jackson
wash pushing westward from Florida
to meet the British at Mobile and
New Orleans. The trail then proved
invaluable because ammunition and
equipment were carried to him down
the Tombigbee River from Columbus,
Mississippi.
Although known in history as an
intrepid fighter, General Jackson, at
heart and in fact, was a construction
ist, developer. Roads, bridges,
homes-he wanted to see them built
through the wilderness, and he help
ed to build them. And when he re-
turned from the Battle Of New Or
leans to his native Tennessee he ask
ed the War Department to construct
a permanent road over the Indian
Wars trail and to project it to within
reach Of New Orleans.
So in 1916 Congress appropriated
$4,000 to start the work. 1t was
"Old Hickory's" belief that soldiers,
when not engaged in fighting, should
be employed in useful work. And 80
this road-building was done largely |
by troops. 1t began in 1877 and was
complete in 1920. 1t was necessarily,
a crude, although direct, road from
Madisonville, Louisiana on Lake Pom
tchartrain north Of New Orleans, to |
Columbia, Tennessee. "a Road al
ready had been established between