American Geographical Society
The Nineteenth-Century Evolution of Local-Scale Roads in Kentucky's Bluegrass
Author(s): Karl Raitz and Nancy O'Malley
Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 94, No. 4 (Oct., 2004), pp. 415-439
Published by: American Geographical Society
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The
Review
Geographical
October 2oo04
VOLUME94
NUMBER4
THENINETEENTH-CENTURY
EVOLUTIONOF
ROADSIN KENTUCKY'S
LOCAL-SCALE
BLUEGRASS
KARLRAITZ and NANCY O'MALLEY
ABSTRACT. In the nineteenth century,local-scaleroads in centralKentuckywere built subject to local knowledgeand culturaltraditionbut within the context of legal authorityand
folk- or science-basedengineeringprecepts.This study demonstrateshow legal and engineering standards-though conceivedas transcendentand objective--werein fact contingent
on the region'sphysicalattributesas well as its culturaltraditionsand character.Thus local
road alignment and constructionhave been influenced by and contingent on local knowledge, dialogue, and debate since frontiertimes. Keywords:Kentucky,local roads,road engineering,roadhistory,roadlaw.
On
state transportationofficialsgatheredbeside U.S. Highway
3 December200oo3,
27-68 in Lexington,Kentucky,the county seat of FayetteCounty,to dedicate the
newly reconstructedfederalroad that links Lexingtonto Paris,the county seat of
adjoiningBourbon County.The highwayis 12.5 miles long and is locally known as
the "ParisPike."The ceremonymarkedthe culminationof a complex,thirty-sevenyear-longvetting process that included engineeringplans and proposals,protests
and lawsuitsby abuttinglandowners,public hearingsand debates,and finally intensive consultation between engineers and landowners before and during road
reconstruction.The remarkablyalteredroadwaycost morethan$93million,or about
$7.5million per mile, nearlydouble the cost of any comparableroad in the state.
Whathadbeen a narrow,shoulderless,two-laneasphalttracklaid atop a nineteenthcentury turnpike had been transformedinto a four-lane parkwaybuilt to interstate-highwayspecificationsand carefullyengineeredto preservehistoriclandscapes
(Figures1 and 2). Horse farms line long sections of the route, their road frontage
demarcatedby rock fences that required removal and reconstruction by expert
masons (Schneider 2003, 9-13).
The ParisPike reconstructionprocess illustratesvividly that legal statutesand
engineeringstandardsare not universallyapplicable-though conceived as objective and transcendent--butare subjectto local conditions and concerns;as David
Livingstoneaffirms,the authority of legal and "scientificknowledge is produced
S DR.RAITZ
is a professorof geographyat the Universityof Kentucky,Lexington,Kentucky40506,
where Ms. O'MALLEYis the assistantdirectorof the William S. WebbMuseum of Anthropology.
The Geographical Review 94 (4): 415-439, October 2004
Copyright c 2005 by the AmericanGeographicalSocietyof New York
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416
THE
GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
FIG.1--Thissection of the realignedU.S. Highway27-68, or the new ParisPike,runs just south of
Paris,Kentucky,in BourbonCounty.This is a view of the southboundlanes,with the more-than-loofoot-wide parkwaycenter strip to the left. Note the broad, compactedgrass shoulder on the right.
the new highwayhas won numerous design and engineeringawards.In some
Completed in 200oo3,
places,the new roadincorporatesshort sections of the originalalignment.Herethe southboundlanes
representa new grade, and the original road, now widened, serves as the northbound lanes (not
visible here) beyond the treed median. (Photographby KarlRaitz,February200oo4)
differentlyin differentspaces, [and] it is confronteddifferentlyin differentarenas"
(2oo4, 140). The process whereby local-scale road networks evolved, in the context
of mutuallycontingentlocal traditions,legal statutes,and engineeringprecepts,is
complex.How historicallocal-scaleroadswere establishedalong given alignments
and subsequentlyadjustedor otherwise modified is, for many places, either undocumentedor containedin fugitiverecords-difficultto find or a trialto decipher.
Consequently,historicallocal road building is often enigmatic,its rationalewistful
speculationat best. In his edifyingstudy of the evolution of the NiagaraPeninsula
road network,AndrewBurghardtfound in the historicalrecordsatisfactoryexplanations for the constructionof most primaryroads.But he was exasperatedby the
dearthof informationabout the local-scaleroads that webbed the region,many of
which were relict."Someunknownvalue of felt need is required,"he wrote,"before
a road is constructed,but once it is in existencethat roadwill remainin use"even if
it is not heavilytraveled(Burghardt1969, 439). In part,the documentaryopacityof
Burghardt's"unknownvalue of felt need' the rationalefor and method of road
establishment,is the basisfor CarlyleBuley'slamentthat a systematicstudy of road
developmenthas yet to be writtenbut that its sourceslikelylie not in federalor state
statute books but in county-level records (1950, 449).
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS IN KENTUCKY
417
FIG.2-The old ParisPike'soriginalalignmentin FayetteCounty,near Lexington,is shown here in
2002 before reconstructionbegan. The narrow,two-lane federalhighwayfollowed a turnpiketrack
surveyedin 1827to replacethe originalorganicMaysvilleRoadthat ran a mile or more to the right,or
southeast.During the 1930sthe road was widened and hard surfacedbut left shoulderless.The roadside rockfencesto the left and distantrightdate from the 1850s;the fence on the immediaterightwas
likelybuilt in the 1920s.(Photographby KarlRaitz,March2002)
Our purposehere is to demonstratethe form and extentof local contingencyin
the jurisdictionalapplicationof legal statutesand engineeringstandardsthrough a
case study of the evolution of local-scale roads in central Kentucky(Livingstone
10-11).We contend that, within the context of prescriptivelegal statutesand
2oo003,
engineeringstandards,road constructionhas been influenced,even shaped,by local contingencies-that is, local people acting in their best self-interest-since frontiertimes.Wealsobelievethatsimilarprocessesaffectedlocal-scaleroadconstruction
in manyAtlanticCoast and trans-Appalachianstates.
CENTRAL KENTUCKY ROADS IN CONTEXT
ParisPike is the modern incarnationof one of the oldest routes in trans-Appalachian America,and its historicaldevelopment, at least in general outline, is well
documented.It is the southernmostsection of the 67-mile-long LimestoneRoad
that linked Maysville-originallyLimestone-an Ohio River port in northeastern
Kentucky,to frontierLexington.Sinceits inception as "Smith'swaggonroad"in the
Road"
1780s,it hasalsobeenknownasthe "Lexington-Paris-Washington-Limestone
and the "Maysville,Washington,Paris,and LexingtonTurnpike"(Coleman [19351
1995, 27).
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418
THE GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
FIG.3-Jackstown Road traversesthe Inner Bluegrasstopographicsurfaceeast of Parisin Bourbon
County, Kentucky.Local relief rarelyexceeds too feet, although dissection near major streams can
yield steeper slopes. Beef-cattleand burley tobacco farms prosper on the fertile, limestone-derived
soils.The roadalignmentfollowsoriginalpropertyboundarieslaidout accordingto metes-and-bounds
surveys.(Photographby KarlRaitz,May 2004)
The road'searliestlandscapeexpressionwasprobablyas a skeinof looselybraided
tracks,not a single path. Eventuallya primary,albeit rudimentary,road evolved
thattraversedthe threephysiographicsubdivisionsthatconstitutecentralKentucky's
greaterBluegrassRegion-the OuterBluegrass,the Eden Shale,and the Inner Bluegrass.Each division is distinct;the transition from one to another is topographically emphatic (Figures3 and 4). The shale section'sfriablerocks readilysuccumb
to incising erosion that has sliced the surface into a dendritic maze of spatulate
ridges,steep-slopedvalleys,and localreliefthat exceeds200 feet-a challengingplace
to build low-gradientroads.The robust Ordovicianlimestones that undergirdthe
other two sections, except where dissected by Ohio River tributaries,are mildly
karsticwith gentlyrollingsurfaceswell suitedto surveyor-engineersintenton building straight-line,shortest-distanceroads.
An 1817legislativeact designatedthe LimestoneRoad as a turnpike,and, when
formallyincorporateda decadelater as the Maysville,Washington,Paris,and Lexington TurnpikeCompany,formalroadbuilding,supportedby toll collections,began in earnest.Companystockholdersunderwrotethe reconstructionof a 4-milelong section from Maysvillesouth to Washingtonwith a broken rock or macadam
surfacein 1830,the best rock-surfacedroad in the state prior to the Civil Warand
the firststageof roadpavingthat requiredseveralyearsto complete(KentuckyGeneral Assembly 1817,197;Coleman 1935,233). Kentucky began to provide state aid for
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS IN KENTUCKY
419
FIG. 4-The Eden Shale Hills, near Little Rock in southeast Bourbon County, Kentucky.Readily
erodableshales have been strongly dissected into a heavilyrolling topography.Most farmlandis in
beef-cattlepastureor trees.Earlyorganicroadsin the EdenShaletended to follow ridge tops or valley
bottoms. Realignmentsalong propertyboundariesoften resultedin very steep road gradients.(Photographby KarlRaitz,September1984)
road constructionin 1912, and in 1916 the federalgovernmentinaugurateda program of identifying and financiallysupporting federal roads (KentuckyDepartment of Public Roads 1912-1913). The Limestone Road became part of federal
highwaysU.S. 27 and U.S. 68 in 1926. During the 1920S, stateroad engineersbegan a
program of periodic road improvementstill in force today whereby they deploy
updated engineeringstandardsto straightenand widen roadwaysin order to increasesafety,efficiency,and carryingcapacityand to comply with changing state
and federalhighwayconstructionstandards.
Becauseprimaryroads are regional-scale,or even national-scale,trunk routes,
their rebuildingis often thoroughlycataloguedand understood,especiallyfor historic roads.The evolution of local-scaleroadsis less well documented,even though
they eventuallycomprisedthe high-mileageweb of local overlandroutes that connectedhinterlandneighborhoodsto one anotherand to theircounty seatsand provided multiple linkagesto the primarycross-countryroad network.
One might infer,by readingcounty-levelhighwaymaps, that local roads have
greatlongevity.Yetexaminationof local-scaleroad patternson historic maps will
revealthat road alignmentschange over time, often radically(Hewitt and Hewitt
1861;D. G. Beers & Company1877; Blanton 1934). Far from fixed or stable, localscale roadsare often historicallydynamic.Civil traditions,legal statutes,and engineering standardsall potentially shaped local knowledge of road surveying and
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420
THE GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
construction,andthey informedor directedthe localdiscussions,debates,and agreements that necessarilyaccompaniedroad surveysand construction.This disquisition saw cross-countrytracksreplacedby roadswith fixed coursesthat determined
which land parcelswould have direct accessand which would not, therebyhelping
to shape local landscapesand geographies.Roads activatedrural communities by
fosteringthe readymovement of people and farmproductsto marketsand linking
farmsteads,meetinghouses,mills,and othersocial and economic interactionnodes.
The tension betweenlocal knowledgeand culturaltradition,on one hand, and legal
statutes and engineering standards,on the other, suggests several questions that
relateto choice of route,how route options were evaluatedand weighted,rationales
and proceduresfor modifying routes, and the degree to which legal statutes and
engineeringstandardsinfluencedor directedroad constructionand maintenance.
Regionaldifferencesin American settlement history,in legal and engineering
traditions, and in physical landscapes provide varying contexts for the development of local-scaleroads.On lands platted accordingto systematicstate or federal
surveys,the unit grid often directedthe placementof local public roads,as was the
casewith the HollandLandCompanyof westernNew Yorkand the FederalRectangular Survey in the Midwest (Wyckoff 1988, 51, 78-79).
The FederalRectangularSurveywas introducedin Ohio and then carriedwestwardto the Pacificstates,and manystatesso surveyedrequiredthatlocal-scaleroads
follow each section line. A vast roadgrid spacedat 1-mileintervalsnorth-south and
east-west was the result (Thrower 1966, 86-1oo; Johnson 1976, 166-170). In areas
where unsystematicmetes-and-boundssurveysprevailed-all or large sections of
eighteen statesin the Eastfrom Maine to Georgia,as well as significantsections of
Ohio and East Texas-local-scale roads had to be establishedby local effort and
enterpriseand accordingto whateverlegal and construction traditions obtained.
Establishingroad alignmentson lands surveyedin metes and bounds was a substantiallydifferentundertakingfrom establishingthem on rectangularsurveylands,
although routes in some areaswith systematicsurveyswere establishedaccording
to the metes-and-boundstraditionif settlementprecededa formalsurvey(Newton
1970,136-138).Forexample,with elegantregularitya very high proportionof localscale roads in northwesternOhio, about 80 percent,follow township section lines
that are also the basis for propertyboundaries.In Ohio's metes-and-boundsVirginia MilitaryDistrict,on the other hand, only 8 percentof the roads follow original survey-unitboundaries(Thrower1966,92-93). If roadsdid not by legal default
follow survey or propertyboundary lines, accordingto what rationalewere they
established,and by what principlesor local contingencieswere they aligned?
Settlers on the American frontier established overland paths and tracks-or
"naturalroads,"as some termed them-concurrent with initial settlement (Blane
[1824] 1969, 104-105; Shaler 1896, 18; C. Brown 1929, 6-7; R. H. Brown 1948, 99-101;
Ferguson and O'Brian 1984, 164-168; Summerby-Murray 1992, 34-35; Peyton 1996,
124-127; Hofstra and Geier 200ooo,
53). They added habitation density to what had
been scatteredfarmsor "plantations"by claimingland grantsor purchasingprop-
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS IN KENTUCKY
421
erty outright. Open-country neighborhoods depended on local trade and milling.
If the soils were fertile and the climate benign, farmers could produce surplus commodities and livestock for town markets. Villages along primary roads grew apace;
those at crossroads or river connection points generally increased in size more rapidly than did open-country hamlets. The initial paths and tracks between farms and
villages soon formed a network of primitive wagon roads that persisted through
56). Indian paths or buffalo traces were
increasinguse (Hofstra and Geier 200ooo0,
adaptedas roadsif they led convenientlyin desireddirectionsor to frequenteddestinations (Shane 1928, 108). But these routes,or "ways,'as they were often termed,
remained "natural," unimproved and unsurveyed tracks "beaten" through grasslands, brush, and woodland by pack animals or wagon traffic and marked by
canaliculated ruts in dry weather and nearly impassible mires after rain (Michaux
1904, 38; Toulmin 1948, 69).
LOCAL ROADS IN BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Bourbon County is situatedcentrallyin Kentucky'sBluegrassRegion.In Paris,the
Road.The countywas formedin
countyseat,MainStreetis the Lexington-Limestone
1785,and the firstfederal census in 1790 tabulated its population at 7,837.Two decades
of rapid growth brought the 1810 population to 18,oo009.
Its pre-Civil War populace
in
but
the county subsequently lost population, so thatby 1860
peaked 1830at 18,435,
its total number of residents stood at 14,860 (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1850,1870).
Bourbon County provides a nearly ideal site for a case study of historic localscale roads. Although relatively small at 292 square miles-as most Kentucky counties are small-Bourbon County is situated primarily within the limestone-floored
Inner Bluegrass Subregion. About one-fifth of its lands lie in the Eden Shale, thereby
presenting a topographic contrast across which one can examine historic road development. Two streams flow northwestward across the county: Hinkston Creek
forms the county's northeastern border with Nicholas County and flows through
Millersburg, another Limestone Road town; the second, Stoner Creek, flows through
Paris, neatly bisecting the county. Though of comparatively low gradient, both
streams, and some of their larger tributaries, offered waterpower potential and sites
for gristmill and sawmill construction.
The county's native vegetation, springing from rich, phosphatic soils, was an
open savannah of grasses and cane punctuated by hardwood groves of ash, elm,
oak, hickory, and maple species. In the Shale section oak, beech, juniper, poplar,
and sycamore were more common. By the mid-eighteenth century, the area'sEdenic
largesse was known to and coveted by Virginians and others in the East who learned
of this trans-Appalachian country from early explorers, hunters, and surveyors. The
land rush to settle Kentucky, especially the Bluegrass lands, was under way by the
early 177os, fueled by liberal Virginia land-preemption policies and by military land
warrants awarded to Revolutionary War veterans. Conflicting land claims, many of
them based on superficial or incomplete metes-and-bounds surveys, were resolved,
in part, by a series of court decisions between 1789 and 1795. The courts ruled that
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THE GEOGRAPHICAL
422
REVIEW
BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
circa1785-1800
First-Generation
Routes
Inner Bluegrass
Eden Shale
Buffalo
Millersburg
Trace
SLexington-Maysville
Salt-lick
Road
,country
road
to LowerBlueLicks
Iron road
Millersburg
Probable iron road
icon
traine
harr
to LowerBlueLicks
buffio
cynthama
county
to
,Upper
Blue
Licks
scott
to
Upper
Blick
PARIS
cou nty
Paris
vounty
noren
middiacour
fay
/
Cost
cou nty
clark
*Bourbon
County
0
5
FIG.5-BourbonCounty,Kentuckyfirst-generation
Hewittand
routes,circa1785-18oo.Sources:
Hewitt 1861;Beers 1877;Blanton 1934;County Clerk'sOffice n.d.a, n.d.b. (Cartographyby Richard
and GeographicInformationLaboratory,
Gilbreath,
GyulaPauerCartographic
Universityof Kentucky)
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS
IN
KENTUCKY
423
land claims in dispute, and without clear and replicable boundaries, would be reconciled by configuring them as squares or parallelograms, even if one or more sides
of a claim fronted a meandering stream or had other irregular sections. Although
many properties retained their eccentric forms, this process yielded a substantial
number of farm boundaries that approximated squares or rectangles-a geometry
that would later influence local road alignments (Hammon 1980, 317-318).
An active trade in salt and iron-two critical frontier commodities-developed
in concert during the first decades of central Kentucky settlement. Early residents
produced salt from seven large brine springs, or salines, across the region. Three of
these lay just east and north of Bourbon County at Upper and Lower Blue Licks and
at Mays Lick (later abbreviated to Mayslick), the latter two linked to Paris and Lexington via the Limestone Road (Blanton 1934; Jakle 1969, 699-702). Several other
roads crossed Bourbon County to link rural neighborhoods directly to the salt
workings (Blanton 1934) (Figure 5).
Iron masters from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other eastern industrial areas
came into Kentucky by the 179os to work the extensive limonite iron deposits in
Kentucky's Hanging Rock Region-roughly from the Ohio River at Ashland in the
east to Bath County in the west. The Bourbon Furnace on Slate Creek near Owingsville in Bath County began operation by 1792, the same year Kentucky became a
state, and, with two forges in production,producedpig and bar iron for local and
regionalmarketsinto the mid-nineteenth century(Plaisted2004). At leasttwo "iron
roads" linked the Bourbon furnace to central Kentucky markets by way of Bourbon
County, although hauling may have been principally in the summer and autumn,
when roads offered the firmest surface (Lewis 1951,281). One of them, still known as
Iron Works Pike, ran to the Kentucky River near Frankfort, where iron equipmentespeciallyfor the Warof 1812-was put aboardriverboatsfor transportto Ohio and
Mississippi River destinations.
New counties formed adjoining Bourbon: Clark and Scott in 1792, Harrison in
1793,Montgomery in 1796, and Nicholas in 1799. Fayette County, established in 1780
as one of the three original counties in the western Virginia country, predated Bourbon County by only five years. The new counties emerged with boundaries that
formed a rough hexagonal lattice-many Kentucky counties have six sides and therefore six adjoining counties. Each had a county seat town roughly central to the county,
and primitive roads linked Bourbon County's seat at Paris with the other seat towns
early on. By the late 1790osthe main strands of the county's emerging road network-
primarywagon roads linking county seats, as well as salt and iron roads-were in
place. Residents also established local roads to connect their open-country farms
and neighborhoods to the primary roads and to stations (fortified houses), meeting
houses and churches, and mills (Figure 6).
THE CONTEXT OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE AND CONTINGENCY
Creating local roads was not an arbitrary process but the product of many intersecting interests and priorities and an ongoing dialogue between neighbors, mill-
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THE GEOGRAPHICAL
424
REVIEW
ers, distillers, county courts and their representatives,and, eventually,state and
regional engineersand legislators(Schein 1997,663). The dialogue included three
generalareasof local knowledge:social and political traditions,folk or formal engineeringprinciples,and legal statutes.How these seeminglyheterogeneousforms
of knowledgeinterlinkedand came to influence road construction is recorded,in
part, in the County Clerk'sOffice in Paris,in court petitions that specified the rationale for new and adjustedroads.The recordsalsoincludelarge-scale,hand-drawn
maps for most road petitions between 1818and 1885,imagesthat illustrateexisting
roads, proposed roads,propertyboundaries,and importantlandmarks.
EarlyBourbon County'swhite residentssharedmany social and political traditions and particularities.These includedfreeholdlandownership,an economy centeredon livestockgrazingand in partpredicatedon presumedrightsto open range,
resistanceto taxation, protection of property rights as expressedin legal statutes
pertaining to boundaries and trespass,a self-interestedwork ethic as evident in
ubiquitous resistanceto communal road-improvementwork, and a generalbelief
that politicalor social influenceshould be broughtto bearto realizeeconomic gain.
This latter condition was manifest in the 1797road law that prohibitedsurveyors,
on pain of imprisonment,from acceptingbribes from landownerswhose road petitions they were surveying (Littell and Smith 1809-1810, 1: 634).
Two state legal statutes influenced the establishmentof local roads either directly or tangentially:road law and trespass,or fence, law. The caveathere is that,
althoughlawis codifiedandthereforestrivesto establisha normativecondition,it
anddifferential
is not immutable.Roadlawwassubjectto localinterpretation
apthese
so
accumulated
in
the
context
of
local
traditions
and
plication
preferences,
contingenciesproducedroadlandscapesat variancewith whatone wouldexpect
had the statutesbeen rigidly and uniformly applied (Livingstone2003,
Schein
10-11,
182;
2003, 202-203).
Kentucky's1797roadlawwas a directadoptionof existingVirginiaroadlaw that
was, in turn, an adaptationof old Englishroadlaw (U.S.Departmentof Agriculture
1895,7). The statuteoutlined a procedurewherebyresidentscould petition county
courts to open new roadsor alterexistingroadsat the directionof citizensurveyors
and "viewers."The law specifiedthat roads could be opened for "the convenience
of travelingto [the] county court house, or to anypublic warehouse,landing,ferry,
mill, lead or ironworks, or the seat of government" (Littell and Smith 1809-181o, 1:
414). Furtherprovisions directedthe viewers to contact affectedlandowners,who
were requiredto "shewcause why such road should not be opened"and to recognize and provide monetarypaymentfor damagesto lands adjoiningthe new road
through issuanceof a writ of ad quoddamnum-Latin, meaning"to what damage"
(Garner1999,50). Court-appointedroad viewers then were, "to the best of their
skill and judgment, [to] view the landsthroughwhich the said road [was]proposed
to be conducted,and... takinginto estimationas well the use of the lands to be laid
open for such road as the additionalfencingwhich will be therebyrenderednecessary" (Littell and Smith 1809-1810, 1: 634).
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS
IN
KENTUCKY
425
Landowners who wished to avoid new road construction through their land
could petition the court for an inquest at which they could present their case. If the
court ruled in favor of the road petitioner, the cost of the inquest was borne by the
landowner, a rather powerful motivation for landowners to negotiate informal agreements on possible road alignments before submitting a petition to the court.
State road law also required counties to appoint precinct "surveyors" whose
task was to superintend roads; that is, to clear them and to maintain them in good
repair. This would be accomplished by a "militia" system of road labor outlined in
the law whereby all "male, laboring persons of the age of sixteen years or more,
except such as are masters of two or more male laboring slaves . . . shall be appointed by the court to work on some public road" and to arrive at roadwork assignments properly outfitted (Littell and Smith 18o9-181o, 1: 634-635). Road militias
were notoriously inefficient and profoundly ill equipped; they lacked training and
informed direction in the most elementary forms of roadwork. The First Biennial
Reportby the state'sDepartmentof PublicRoadsdecriedthe militia system,which
had proved to be "absolutely worthless and while some counties pretend to enforce the system there is usually more yarn spinning, tobacco chewing, and resting
done than work on roads[,]" a condition exacerbated by "an underpaid overseer
who understands absolutely nothing of the first principles of road building" (Kentucky Department of Public Roads 1912-1913,14-15). Though surficially objective
and normative, the state's road law was largely a qualitative document that permitted substantial latitude in interpretation by local petitioners and in application by
court representatives in the field. Although legal statutes were intended to exercise
control over the pattern and organization of roads, legal terms such as "convenience" had different meanings depending on one's place of residence, whether
one was a farmer or a miller, or if one owned property through which a new road
would or would not pass (Montgomery 2000, 2). On behalf of road users, the term
could refer to distance, to general alignment or direction, to topographic configurations, or to other road qualities. For landowners,"convenience" or "inconvenience
could refer to land fragmentation where a road split properties, to the need to provide additional roadside fencing, or to the responsibility to assist in maintaining the
road.
Trespasslaw also influenced road-construction decisions. Kentucky'sopen-range
grazing tradition placed the legal burden for preventing livestock from damaging
field crops and gardens not on the stock owner but on the farmer whose crops were
subject to predation. By statute, landowners who wished to avoid damage caused by
wandering livestock had to erect "lawful enclosures,' or fences, to protect their crops
(Littell and Smith 18o9-181o, 2: 27). If one's fences were ruled "legal" and livestock
nevertheless broke them down and entered a property, the court could then assess
severe penalties against the livestock owner. In recognition of their liability, farmers
erected fences along their property boundaries and along roads that traversed their
land. New roads would, perforce, cross property and field boundaries and so require new fence construction.
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THE
426
BOURBON
GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
KENTUCKY
COUNTY,
circa1825
Inner Bluegrass
7Eden
Shale
Nineteenth-century
mill sites
Urban area
Primary road
Millersburg
county
Frontier station
Riddle's Mill
Millersburgi
*Ruddle'4 Mill
Collins' I8iil
* Shaw's Mill1
4141sQN
4141sQN
Mill
Kn se2 county
Mill
oy
sooty
Goreowp
ii44~
Pike
Ford's
aM
ley
Paris
i~i !
o
Aee
7Srght;
Millg
.McCormic~
~0
~rlin
Walke
Mill
\)
"
7K-
pbell'
~
Mifh~
~>
aeno4~>' Mill
llIzo~rtls
NlisttlletoW4
K
0'-~
'7
Sawmill
Read's,
MillE
~-
?6lornbacl
Mill
Hume's
Hume's
S
Mill
-Bourbon
County
0
5
Miles
FIG. 6-Bourbon County,Kentuckyprimaryroads,circa1825. Sources:
Hewittand Hewitt 1861;Beers
1877;Blanton 1934.(Cartographyby RichardGilbreath,Gyula Pauer Cartographicand Geographic
InformationLaboratory,Universityof Kentucky)
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LOCAL-SCALE
BOURBON
ROADS
IN
COUNTY,
KENTUCKY
427
KENTUCKY
circa1877
Urban
area
Inner
Bluegrass
Eden
Shale
Mill
Millersburg
Meeting
house
Turnpike
>hi
\SO
\harr
a
PARI
cou nry
Paris
I
~;
CO
unyv
C'- ark'-
FIG.7-Bourbon County, Kentuckyturnpikes,circa 1877. Sources:Hewitt and Hewitt 1861;Beers
1877; Blanton 1934.(Cartographyby RichardGilbreath,Gyula Pauer Cartographicand Geographic
InformationLaboratory,Universityof Kentucky)
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428
THE
GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
Rudimentaryengineeringtechniques,howeverelementaryin the earlydecades,
were a thirdform of knowledgethat influencedroad constructionand enteredlocal
dialogue, initially as surveyor'sbearings that demarcatedroad alignments and in
the state'sturnpikelaws of the 182os. Early"natural"roads were not surveyedor
constructedper se but were simplyorganicearthtracks.The new roadscalledfor by
professionalengineerswere termed "artificial"roads, a designationgiven to those
alignmentsselectedto minimize gradientsby following a land surfaceexcavatedor
filled to createa well-drained,elevatedcross-section,often with a broken-stoneor
macadam surface.
Bourbon County's primary cross-county roads became toll-supported turnpikes and eventuallywere subjectto formal engineeringstandards(Figure7). The
road-engineeringpreceptsthatwould most influenceKentucky'sprimaryroadconstructionwere from Europe,wherethe most advancedroad engineering,in theory
and in practice,was initiallydeveloped in France.There,stone-surfacedroads had
been built since the early 17o00s,and engineers were trained in road building at
Napoleon's1cole Polytechniquein Paris.Frenchengineer-teachersrefinedhistoric
techniques into rigorous,science-basedbuilding methods that produced superior
roads and permitted expeditious carriageand wagon travel.Road engineering in
GreatBritain,derivedfrom Frenchpractice,advancedapacewith constructiontechniques developed by Thomas Telfordin Scotland and by John McAdam,whose
"artificial"broken-stone-surfacedroad design was of lighter and less resilientconstruction than the Telfordor Frenchdesigns, albeit less expensiveto build (Forbes
1958, 525-535; Hunter 1963, 200).
Frenchand Britishroad engineeringenteredthe Americaneducationalsystem
by way of the RensselaerPolytechnicInstitute,the MilitaryAcademyat West Point,
where the French engineer Claudius Crozet established a rigorous science-andmathematics-basedcurriculumand taught classes,Union College,and, eventually,
othercollegesand universities(Hunter1963,177; Dooley 1984, 452). Most roadsbuilt
in Kentuckypriorto 1835,be they primaryor local, were at best gradedand ditched
with the most elementarytools but not gradientadjustedor stone surfaced(U.S.
Departmentof Agriculture1895, 11). Decrying the state'spoor road conditions in
1836, the KentuckyBoard of InternalImprovementalso recognizedthat "the contemplatedimprovements,though entirelypracticable,and well understoodin other
countries, are, to most of us ..., altogether new, and... will have to be done through
... experienced and competent agents" (Owsley, Daviess, and Thompson 1836, 71).
To addressthe dearthof engineeringexpertisein the state,the board in 1836 hired
SylvesterWelch as chief engineer and H. I. Eastin as an assistantresponsible for
road engineering.Welchhad experiencein buildingthe ErieCanaland was at work
on the AlleghenyPortageRailroadsection of the Main Line Canalin centralPennsylvaniawhen he agreedto acceptKentucky'soffer.In 1838Welchpublisheddetailed
instructionsfor building and repairingturnpikeroadsand contracttemplatesto be
used by road-constructionsuperintendentsas they procuredbuildingmaterialsand
hired laborers.Henceforth,turnpikeroadswould be stone surfacedwith appropri-
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS IN KENTUCKY
429
ate culvertsfor drainage,and paid labor crews trained in road building would replace the (in)voluntary militia labor system (Morehead 1838, 99-104).
By the 1840sand 1850sknowledgeof advancedroad-engineeringtechniqueswas
availableacrossKentuckythrough professionalengineerssuch as Welchand Eastin
and in publishedmaterialssuch as William Gillespie'swidely circulatedManual of
the Principlesand Practiceof RoadMaking(1858).By the mid-nineteenth century,
then, road-buildingknowledge should have begun a transitionfrom the status of
folk custom to an increasinglyprecise and rigorousdialogue sharedby engineers,
surveyors,and road superintendents,knowledge that was progressivelyinformed
by the science of physicsand descriptivegeometry and the intent of which was to
transcendparochialtraditions(Livingstone2003,1-3). Our concerncenterson how
formalengineeringknowledgewas actuallyappliedin the field to local-scaleroads,
whetherengineeringprinciplesreachedlocal road builders,and, if so, whetherapplication was rigorousand ubiquitousor subjectto local interpretationand priority. If engineering standardswere subject to local interpretation,what were the
conditions and the limits of their plasticity?
LOCALROAD PETITIONS
Bourbon County'scourt recordsinclude road petitions couched in legal terminology derivedfrom the state's1797road law.Court-appointedviewersand surveyors
recordedentries in standardsurveyors'bearingsand poles (a pole equals1 rod, or
16.5feet) for existing tracksor roads,where they existed,and for new alignments.
Prior to the Welch era of formal engineering,surveyorspossessed the only standardized"engineering"language in the dialogue on roads. Road-petition entries
included the viewer'sjudgments on the convenienceor inconvenienceeach route
presented-qualifying legal terms.
Bourbon County's first local road petitions recorded early in the nineteenth
centurywere predicatedon concernsof alignment,gradient,and naturalroad-surface quality.Some petitioners requestedshort realignmentsof existing tracks to
avoid cutting through farms, especiallysmall properties.Others sought to avoid
contentious topography.One petition requestedthat a road be realignedbecause
"theold way crossesa bad gully and then immediatelycommencesthe ascentof an
extremelysteep bad stony hill which occupies the balanceof the old way"(County
Clerk'sOfficen.d.a, 7-8).
Some petitioners ambitiouslysought to link entire neighborhoodsto primary
roads, mills, and river shipping points. On 30 June 1818,court-appointedviewers
John Redman, John Honey, James McDowel [McDowell], and Alexander Ogle
markedout a new roadthatwould connect the Mt. GileadMeetingHouse on Limestone Roadto Ogle'sMill on StonerCreek(Figure8).' Althoughthe state road law
explicitlyenjoined road surveyorsfrom acceptingbribes, the map accompanying
this report suggeststhat at least two viewersowned land along the proposed road
and that another may have owned the mill. Whatevertheir provenance,the four
men reportedfavorablyon the proposedroad,noting in the basic binarylegal lan-
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THE GEOGRAPHICAL
430
REVIEW
PROPOSED ROAD
Ogle's
Mill
MT. GILEAD MEETING HOUSE
TO OGLE'S MILL
covered
bridge
BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
30 JUNE
I818
jaer.
jaer.
Existing Road
Proposed Road
Property Line
Surveyor'
Corners
Col.Jas. Garrard
Land
A
John Allen Land
Tho. Currentd'
Land ,,
ii
1od
John Grer Land ,
-JohnRedman Land
~
~e~S
;44
;44
;44
//
//
//
John Honeys Land
//
///
4xO%
Moore
]Jas.McCroryls 1
Land
Adam
Woods
Dec(eased)
Land
/
I
Alice Browns
Land
c
0C
Mt. Gilead
MeetingHouse
S~7
woo"
o
0C
5c
0
100
200 poles
Note: 1 pole = 16.5feet
FIG.8-Route of the proposedroadbetweenthe Mt. GileadMeetingHouse and Ogle'sMill in Bourbon County,Kentucky.Source:Adaptedfrom County Clerk'sOfficen.d.a, 85. (Cartographyby Richard
Gilbreath,GyulaPauerCartographicand GeographicInformationLaboratory,Universityof Kentucky)
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS IN KENTUCKY
431
guage of "convenient" and "inconvenient" that it provided a link between neighboring farms, a mill, a meeting house, and the Limestone Road. Any loss of land or
timber to the new right-of-way was clearly outweighed by the convenient access
provided (County Clerk's Office n.d.a, 85-87).
The proposed road was long, at 1,364 poles (22,506 feet, or 4.3 miles). Its complex alignment followed some property boundaries but included short, corner-cutting angle sections that-though intended to straighten the route and shorten the
distance-perforce fragmented other properties. Even though the road was established and figured in a proposed 1819road adjustment, it is in little evidence today,
other than as farm-field roads (County Clerk's Office n.d.a, 127-129).
Prior to formal surveys required by the 1797 Kentucky road law, open country
was traversed by tracks, or ways, that usually favored dry uplands and avoided steep
slopes and boggy bottomland. Such tracks were not "grandfathered"into existence
after 1797 unless those who used them formally petitioned the court. On 22 September 1820,court-appointed viewers marked a complex prelaw local road that linked
the Limestone Road to a gristmill on Hinkston Creek (Figure 9). The old track
followed the bank of Flat Run, crossing it at shallow fords three times before angling northward, tracing along property boundaries and across open farmland to a
horse mill owned by John Shaw. From there the track continued generally northwestward toward Hinkston Creek, fragmenting some properties while bordering
others along property lines. The entire route measured 1,732.5poles (28,586 feet or
5.4 miles). Recognizing the track's meandering character, the viewers included on
their map a straight survey line linking endpoints that measured 4 miles. The viewers acknowledged the road's length but argued that it would open a "certain and
easy route" between two important mills and the most favored landing on the navigable section of the Licking River.
The viewers could have argued that the old track was too long and crooked to
warrant formal approval, arguments that obtained in other petitions. Instead, they
supported the petition, noting that it offered neighborhood residents the advantage
of linking a water-powered mill and a horse mill, the latter being the only mill in the
county that could operate during dry periods when the creek flow was insufficient
to turn a water wheel. The new road would also prohibit individual landowners
from closing off the established track by fence and gate, as was their habit. (County
Clerk's Office n.d.a, 176-177). Hence, the neighborhood realized a greater good by
connecting to a principal road and established mills. In use for more than two decades before this petition was filed, the road appears in the court record again in
1835as Shaw's Horse Mill Road (County Clerk's Office n.d.a, 394). The route's southern section did not survive into the post-Civil War era, although remnants of old
sunken roadways still trace through woodland pastures in the area (D. G. Beers &
Company 1877).
The proposed Ogle's Mill and Ruddle's Mill roads crossed the Inner Bluegrass
plain along routes where topographic variation was comparatively benign. In southeastern Bourbon County, from North Middletown to the Montgomery County line,
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432
THE GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
the planar Inner Bluegrass gives way to abrupt ridges that demarcate the Eden Shale.
Some road petitions for new roads in the Shale acknowledged topographic realities,
but many did not (Figure lo). On 5 October 1818, three court-appointed viewers
surveyed an east-west track proposed to link the road to Mt. Sterling, the county
seat in adjoining Montgomery County, and to North Middletown and Seamon's
Mill on Stoner Creek. The Mt. Sterling Road was an old valley-bottom track that
followed Indian Creek westward and northward toward Paris, bypassing North
Middletown, a small hamlet with a post office and a few houses. The proposed
route was 155 poles (2,557 feet) longer than the existing route along Indian Creek.
Nevertheless, the viewers offered their opinion that the proposed road would be of
great advantage to the citizens of North Middletown while also noting that the proposed way would give direct road access to four prominent farmers who otherwise
were obligated to travel to town across one another's fields.
The transparent rationale for the new road, then, was to provide access to new
landowners. Although noting that the established road ran along Indian Creek, the
viewer's report is mute on the proposed road's topographic context. Today, Prescott
Road follows the proposed way of 1818.Just east of North Middletown the narrow,
entrenched road climbs a ridge, falls into a valley, and mounts a second, higher
ridge before dropping into the steep-sloped Plum Creek drainage that it follows
upstream to Indian Creek. The height of land between North Middletown and Plum
Creekis the drainagedivide between Stoner and Hinkston Creeks.Although surveyors for other roads chose to interpret the road law's term "convenience" to apply
to topographic character as well as distance and direction, the North Middletown
viewers chose to neutralize topography as a contextual factor in their report; never
mind that the grades on the proposed way were sufficiently steep to require that
farmers either partially load or double-team their wagons (Gillespie 1858, 33-34).
Mt. Sterling Road followed the low-gradient Indian Creek valley. The creek is not a
substantial stream; if traffic had to cross, its shallow, rock-floored bed and narrow
channel-less then 30 feet across in most places-would have offered little challenge
to fordingwagons unless it was in flood. The floodplainbroadens to one-quarter
mile or more near North Middletown and was the more direct and desirable route.
Today U.S. 460 follows the old Mt. Sterling Road alignment, and Prescott Road
diminishes into an unused farm track near Plum Creek.
Hinkston Creek slices a 300oo-foot-deepvalley into the Eden Shale in Bourbon
County's southeastern corner, and its tributaries-though comparatively shortreach the creek through steep, narrowly incised valleys. George Barnett erected a
mill on Hinkston Creek some time before 1820, and residents on the creek's west
side soon beat a roadacrossthe difficultterrainto the mill site (Figure11). An April
1820 court petition proposed a new road to the mill and vividly mapped and described the relationship between the road and the terrain. The old road to the mill
cut a crooked way through four farms yet followed solid ground. At the approach to
the creek, the road made a steep descent, a formidable impediment for heavily loaded
wagons during wet weather. In seeking a more salutary route, locals had changed
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ROADS IN KENTUCKY
LOCAL-SCALE
ToJohn Current'sMill
0t
433
PROPOSED ROAD
O"ee
LIMESTONE ROAD TO
0o
JOHN CURRENT'S MILL
0o
CoO
Tho.
A
ss
BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
22 SEPTEMBER I820
CoO
Existing road
I
SExisting track /proposed road
;5eA746,7;
Four Mile Survey Line
3
o
Property Line
ez
ez
0
Horse mill
t
t
125
250 poles
Note: 1 pole = 16.5feet
house
0John Shaw
1
SShaw'
1
/ IOCY
oc
Redmra
r(/
P
P
C
115J 115J
0
'('
C
'('
Zsyte
Zsyte
D. Turney/
L.Howard7
Pi
((74'hi
((74'hi
Roajoa
estone
FIG.9-Route of the proposedroadbetweenLimestoneRoadand JohnCurrent'sMill in Bourbon
County,Kentucky.Source:Adaptedfrom County Clerk'sOfficen.d.a, 174.(Cartographyby Richard
and GeographicInformationLaboratory,
Gilbreath,GyulaPauerCartographic
Universityof Kentucky)
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THE GEOGRAPHICAL
434
REVIEW
Road
Bridge
Rock
Road
Sterling
Mt.
Scott'sHouse
Indian
North
Middletown
Greek
PROPOSED ROAD
SEAMON'SMILL
TO MT. STERLINGROAD
BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
Poston's
Smith
Shop /
5 OCTOBER I8i8
Seamon
Existingroad
Mil
Proposedroad
0
50
100 poles
Note: 1 pole = 16.5feet
corners
Surveyor's
FIG. lo-Route of the proposed road between Seamon'sMill and Mt. SterlingRoad in Bourbon
County,Kentucky.Source:Adaptedfrom County Clerk'sOffice n.d.a, 93. (Cartographyby Richard
Gilbreath,GyulaPauerCartographicand GeographicInformationLaboratory,Universityof Kentucky)
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LOCAL-SCALE
North
Middletown
ROADS IN KENTUCKY
435
PROPOSEDROAD
Letton's
Fence
NORTH MIDDLETOWN
TO BARNETT'SMILL
BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY
APRIL, IBZO
Existing road
Proposedroad
Originaltrack
Surveyor'corners
Barnett's
Mill
0
25
50 poles
Note: 1 pole = 16.5feet
FIG.11--Routeof the proposed road between North Middletownand Barnett's
Mill in Bourbon County, Kentucky.Source:Adaptedfrom County Clerk'sOffice
n.d.a,163.(Cartographyby RichardGilbreath,GyulaPauerCartographicand GeographicInformationLaboratory,Universityof Kentucky)
the road'sdirectionwithout permissionof the court, an ancillaryproblemthat the
petitionerssought to remedy(County Clerk'sOffice n.d.a, 163-164).
The viewers made no mention of mill size, duration of operation, number of
customers,or other particularsthat would suggest frequencyand volume of road
use, althoughreferenceto difficultpassagein wet weathersuggeststhatpeoplemoved
their grain and flour by wagon ratherthan by packhorse(County Clerk'sOffice
n.d.b, 40). CentralKentucky's"muddy-roadseason"could extend for six months,
fromNovemberthroughMay.Meticulousweatherrecordskeptby Dr.SamuelMartin
of ClarkCounty--about15 miles south of Paris-during the 1860ssuggest a direct
relationshipbetween precipitationand dirt-roadquality.In February1865,for example, Martinobserved,"Februarywas a very disagreeablemonth, rain and snow
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THE
436
GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
melting have made the roads exceedinglybad. Verydifficulttravelingmud roads"
(1868,78). Wet Marchweathertwo years later resultedin similar road conditions.
"It rained some on (17) seventeen days and snowed on (lo) ten days. We hear of
great damage done by water during the month, bridges washed away; mills and
dams destroyed .... Roads have been almost impassible from the depth of the mud
in those that are not paved"(p. 134).To consummatethe irony,mills requiredsufficient creek-water flow for operation, which was assured only in wet weather.
A partial solution to the steep, muddy traverse on the Barnett's Mill road was to
cut a new route along a shallower grade. The new road would also pass across ground
that was "so very sidling that it will requirea considerable[amount] of labour by
digging to complete a road but the... ascent will be moderate [and] the road will be
firm. As to the inconveniences that will result to individuals we believe there is none
save the labour of making the road [and] that the public will be benefited instead of
meeting with inconveniences by having a shorter road to travel from North Middletown to Barnett's Mill, Carlisle, and the Lower Blue Licks" (County Clerk's Office
n.d.a, 164-165).
Although the court-appointed viewers emphasized road distance as the primary
rationale for realignment, the difference between the "present road" at 6,798 feet
and the "proposedroad"at 6,220 is a mere 578 feet, a very small portion of a trip
from North Middletown to the mill and beyond. More importantly, the new road
would eliminate a long, steep, and dangerous slope. The report downplays the cost
or "inconvenience" of such road construction, offering no negative comment other
than the requirement for labor to cut down the hill. The proposed road was built
and is known today as ConvictRoad.In 1915the state authorizedthe use of convict
labor on public roads, so the name may suggest road modifications made by prisoners after that date.
COURTS,
CONSTRUCTION,
AND
CONTINGENCY
After publication of new state road-engineering specifications in the mid-183os,
the Bourbon County road-petition entries do not acknowledge that new or adjusted local roads would conform to the new standards. Rather, the new principles
for road dimensions, gradients, and cross-section structures were applied to the
county's primary turnpike roads (Figure 7). Residents continued petitioning the
court to change and adjust local-scale roads, although the rationale presented by
petitioners and the court's viewers focused less on the interpretation of shortened
road distances as "conveniences" than on pragmatic solutions to road-induced
problems, such as straightening roads to defragment farms, changing alignments
to reduce fencing costs, and closing redundant roads to reduce road-upkeep expenses.
Roads that cut across farmland, instead of aligning along property boundaries,
requiredfencing along all frontagesif farmerswere to comply with Kentuckytrespass law. A road that cut an angle across a farm-property corner not only isolated
the land in the angle from the rest of the farm but also forced the farmer to fence
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LOCAL-SCALE
ROADS
IN
KENTUCKY
437
both sides of the road if they intended to use the orphanedland for crops or pasture. Farmersobtainedwood for their first-generationrail fences by clearingtrees
from their land, although many retained extensive woodland pastures that they
were loath to cut down (County Clerk'sOffice n.d.a, 418). An 1852 road petition
illustratesthe concern:"Inmakingsaid changeit will enablesaid JamesM. Thomas
to enclose all his land... and save two strings of fence nearly the whole length of the
presentway [1,633feet] which will be of considerablebenefit... as timber is scarce
and we think therewill be very little inconvenienceif anyto the TravellingCommunity" (County Clerk's Office n.d.b, 2-3).
Closing, or "vacating,"old roads was an increasingconcern after 1850and occurredin tandemwith increasingfarm size through land consolidation.Most petitioners were farmersrequestingpermission to fence off roads that were in poor
condition and infrequentlyused and to defragmenttheir farmland.Court consent
also advantagedthe landownerbecauseland occupied by a closed road revertedto
them, but it could disadvantagethe travelingpublicby denyingaccessto traditional
shortest-distance routes. Although deeply rankled by toll costs, the markedly improving turnpikes offered travelers some solace (County Clerk's Office n.d.b, 15-16,
57-58).
Old road tracks still lace the Bourbon County countryside. Some have reverted
to farmland and now appear as faint traces across pastures. Others continue to function as farm roads or are part of the modern county-road network. The oldest
"beaten"tracks usually follow narrow, entrenched alignments where large old trees
encroach on the roadbed. The improved, or "turnpiked" roads were adjusted for
gradient and paved with broken stone. Today, though superficially similar to old
natural roads, the turnpikes are different in cross-section-they are seldom deeply
entrenched, and their beds stand higher and are flanked by shallow ditches on both
sides.
The rationale for building Bourbon County's local roads did not conform to
Burghardt's "unknown value of felt need." Rather, establishing and changing localscale roads was a long-standing practice of adapting local need and contingency
through considered manipulation of state legal statutes. Modern engineering precepts were largely ignored at the local level and by the 1880s had not yet entered the
court's vocabulary for local roads. In nineteenth-century Kentucky, as the process
of local-road evolution demonstrates, legal statutes and engineering standards were
not transcendent conventions but mutable and subject to negotiation by local people
whose parochial traditions and priorities rendered statutes and standards geographically contingent, qualifiedby regional adjectives(Livingstone2003, 13).
NOTE
1. Our road-surveymaps were redraftedfrom the original maps (County Clerk'sOffice n.d.a,
n.d.b) for clarity.Many RoadRecordBookmaps were carefullyhand drawnto scale by the surveyors,
the viewers,or the county clerk,with detailson land-parcelboundaries,landowners'names,and even
building symbols representingmills or entire towns. The typefacewas chosen to suggest the cursive
letteringon the originals.The directionalarrowsare likewiseapproximationsof the originals.
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438
THE GEOGRAPHICAL
REVIEW
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