Kendall's tavern in Leominster; also from Calvin Munn's tavern in Greenfield, through Montague to Athol. The road was to be four rods wide, and the path to be traveled not less than eighteen feet wide, in any place. The corporation was authorized to erect five turnpike gates, convenient for collecting the toll. One of these gates was near David Mayo's tavern, in Warwick; another near the tavern of Samuel Sweetser, in Athol; another near the line between Gardner and Westminster; another near the tavern of Jonas Kendall, in Leominster; there was another at such convenient place between Greenfield and Athol as the corporation should determine. The following were the rates of toll:— For every coach, phæton, chariot, or other four-wheel carriage drawn by two horses, twenty-five cents, and if drawn by more than two horses, an additional sum of four cents for each horse; for every cart or wagon, drawn by two oxen or horses, twelve and an half cents, and if drawn by more than two horses or oxen, an additional sum of three cents for each ox or horse; for every curricle, sixteen cents; for every chaise, chair or other carriage, drawn by one horse, twelve and an half cents; for every man and horse, five cents; for every sled or sleigh, drawn by two oxen or horses, nine cents, if drawn by more than two oxen or horses, an additional sum of three cents for each ox or horse; for each sled or sleigh, drawn by one horse, eight cents; for all horses, mules, oxen or neat cattle, led or driven, besides those in teams or carriages, one cent each; for all sheep or swine, at the rate of three cents for one dozen. If the corporation, or their toll-gatherers, or others in their employ, should unreasonably delay or hinder any traveler, at any of the gates, or should receive more toll than was established by the act of incorporation, the corporation should forfeit a sum not exceeding ten dollars nor less than two dollars, to be recovered before any justice of the peace of the county where the offence should be committed, by any person thus injured, delayed or defrauded. The corporation was liable for any damage which should arise from defective bridges, or want 1 of repairs, in said way. They were also indictable for not keeping the road in good repair. If any person should cut, break down, or otherwise destroy any turnpike gates, or dig up or carry away any earth, or in any manner damage the road, or should forcibly pass or attempt to pass the toll-gates, without having first paid the legal toll, he should pay a fine not exceeding fifty dollars nor less than ten dollars. If any person, with his team, cattle, or horse, should turn out of the road to pass by any of the turnpike gates, and again enter the road, with intent to evade the toll, he should pay three times as much as the legal toll would have been. Persons passing to or from public worship, also persons passing on military duty, were exempt from toll. The corporation were obliged to erect, and keep constantly exposed to view, at all places where toll was to be collected, a sign or board with rates of toll, of all the tollable articles, fairly and legibly written thereon in large or capital characters. This turnpike ran straight from Templeton through South Garduer, to Westminster, irrespective of hills or swamps. There was a toll-gate near the house of Elijah Foster, in Gardner, which was subsequently removed to a position near the store of S. W. A. Stevens, in South Gardner. This turnpike formed the most direct route from Brattleborough, Vt., to Boston, and was the old stage road between these points. In the history of these turnpikes, we begin to trace those improvements, in public travel, which have since grown into rapid railroad, and steamship conveyance. Let it not, however, be forgotten, that turnpikes were matters of great public interest, in those days. There was, among the projectors of these roads, laying them in a direct course, from point to point, as they did, something of that determination to annihilate time and space, of which so much is heard at the present time. Then too, those stages, with their four and six horses, dashing along the highways, with their heavy freight of passengers and luggage, were objects fitted to awaken admiration in all the dwellers along the route. With what a sense of self-importance did the driver sound his horn and crack his whip, as he approached the tavern where men and boys were the self-constituted committee of reception of the incoming stage. How they gazed upon the passengers and watched their movements, especially if they were from " down below." What jovial times those must have been at the taverns, when it was not thought immoral for everybody to assemble and talk over national affairs and drink the ever present draft of toddy, and crack the jokes that called forth the uproarious laughter. It is true, we are better accommodated, by the oft-coming and departing railroad trains, but these, creeping along through valleys and around upon hillsides and through dismal swamps, awaken no such admiration, as the old New England stage did, with its pompous driver and spirited six-in-hand, as they passed along the public highway or brought up, flecked with foam, at one of our old county taverns. But with all our improvements, in consequence of steam, it is a noticeable fact, that roads are coming to be more and more a matter of public attention, and more lavish expenditure. There is a more intelligent conviction in the public mind, that good roads have much to do with the economy of living, since it must always cost more to draw a load over a bad road, than over a good one. In England, at the period already referred to, in this chapter, Macaulay tells us that such was the execrable condition of the roads, that the expense of transmitting heavy goods, in wagons was enormous, costing about fifteen pence a ton, for every mile, or fifteen times more than is demanded by railroads. Such, indeed, was the expense of transportation, upon these highways that, coal for instance, was never seen in England, except in the districts where it was produced, or in districts where it could be carried by water. On by-roads, goods were carried on long trains of pack horses. But in this respect, England has very greatly improved since the time of which Macaulay writes, having now several thousand miles of the finest roads in the world, being made firm and hard by the gravel and broken stone with which they are ballasted. The same is true of the roads in Switzerland. These people have already learned, that which we are coming gradually, better to understand, that the best and most substantially built road, at whatever cost, is cheaper and more satisfactory in the long run, than that of poorer construction. Says Hon. Charles G. Davis of Plymouth, who has traveled extensively in England and on the Continent, "Go to the poorest canton in Switzerland, much poorer than any district in Massachusetts, and you will find roads, made always with even grades, never with a pitch or hollow to suit the natural surface of the country, but always upon even pitches up and down, sometimes bridging across dry valleys, the engineering and masonry of the most excellent character. These roads are constantly watched, as a mother watches her child, as the trackmen upon our railroads, tend the track that the engines pass over, watched day by day, and swept week by week." It is to be hoped that our roads will be yet made after models of this high character. Agricultural Report 1870-1871. B CHAPTER VI. RAILROADS. "Carriages without horses shall go, In the twinkling of an eye. In white, in black, in green. Fire and water shall wonders do, England shall at last admit a Jew." -Mother Shipton's Prophecy, A. D. 1488. EFORE entering upon a minute history of the railroads passing through this town, it is thought not inappropriate, to present, in the opening of this chapter, a brief sketch of public communications, a hundred years ago, and even at a much later day, that the reader may be able, to put events then, in contrast, with events now. The difficulties and perils of travel in the United States one hundred years ago, are graphically sketched, by Mr. Edward Abbott, in a little work, entitled |