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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGoderich Signal Star, 2017-03-01, Page 7Wednesday, March 1, 2017 • Signal Star 7 The Northern Grave The Northern Gravel Road was the only privately owned road in Huron County's history. It stretched 22 miles from the Maitland Bridge Goderich Market Square down Hamilton Street to Dunlop Cor- ners before turning east to Smith's Hill (Carlow) and then north to Lucknow. Another four -mile branch of the road extended further east from Carlow to Manches- ter Bridge (Auburn). For nearly 20 years, the Northern Gravel Road became one of the most controversial issues in the county's history. In 1853, the county council passed a bylaw to borrow $400,000for the construction of county gravel roads: In May 1857, a joint-stock company, the Northern Gravel Road Company, was formed to build the gravel road from Goder- ich to Lucknow as a thoroughfare from Bruce County to the Buffalo, Brantford and Lake Huron Railway depot in Goderich then under construction. Although Goderich con- tinued to pay its road levy, the county removed the Northern • Gravel Road from its road scheme in June 1857. However, "to pro- mote the interests of Goderich and sur- rounding area," the Goderich town council supported the road's construction. Huron History David Yates Both the county and Northern Gravel Road Company placed tollgates on their respective roads. Rather than put the full tax burden on property taxes, travellers would have to pay a toll, or fee, to drive their team on a gravelled road. By 1872, the Northern Gravel Company operated six tollgates on the road. Each tollgate was. • auctioned annually to the highest bidder who paid rent and collected the tolls. The collected tolls were to be invested back into the road works, pay the tollkeepers and show a profit for its- shareholders. Unfortunately, the Northern Gravel Road Company could not build, let alone main- tain, the 26 miles of roadwithin its jurisdic- tion.The Town of Goderich was forced to loan $60,000 to the Northern Gravel Com- pany to finish the road's construction. In turn, the town became the largest shareholder in the company. The Goderich council objected to having to expend so much money outside the town limits and pay the county levy at the same time on a • road that the county would have had to maintain anyway. It was obvious the Northern Gravel Road Company could not meet its contractual obligations. In Septem- ber 1866, a judge asked the county engineer to investigate complaints about the road's condi- tion. The engineer reported that Northern Gravel Road "was in the worst possible condi- tion" and that culverts were "so damaged and broken as to render them quite unsafe." The engineer further reported that the com- pany had not made any attempt to complete the ordered repairs. The engineer concluded the road was nearly "impassable." In April 1867, a letter by "One Who Suffers" was printed in the Huron Signal questioning the legality of the company collecting the toll while the roads were in such terrible condition. The Gravel Road Company replied that it spent more on maintenance than it had received in revenue from rentals and tolls. • On November 14, 1870, a countywide ref- erendum to abolish the hated tollgate system and.purchase the North- ern Gravel Road for $40,000 was rejected. Ratepayers may not have been ready to raise property taxes for the sake of freeways, but they really resented pay- ing the higher tolls on the Northern Gravel 1 Road Road that were charged by the private company. By 1871, the Northern Gravel Road Company was in arrears of their debt repayment to the town. The town was forced to take over the company's assets and try to maintain the expensive road until arrangements could be made with the county. The town, with its greater resources, went to work repairing the road. The Iluron Signal reported in October 1871 that nine teams and 20 men were at work on the Northern Gravel Road trying to get the bridges and culvers "safe and passable" and claimed that "travellers along the road are already feeling the benefit of the change of owners" Paying tolls on the Northern Gravel Road became a major source of contention among travellers. Pedestrians travelled free (as did . clergymen, Indians, and drivers taking fresh milk to cheese factories, wedding parties and funeral processions) but everyone else had to pay a toll at each gate. Gavin Green in The Old Log School recalled that "the toll was: dou- ble team of horses or oxen, 10 cents one way, return same day 15 cents; single, 5 cents; man on horseback, 2 cents." According to Green's rates which dif- fer from the 1 866 county' rates, a man on horse- back would have had to pay 12 cents to ride one-way from Goderich to Lucknow. Evading tolls was con- sidered a noble act of defiance. Colborne Con- nection' (1986) recalled 'hat "teamsters would leave Lucknow at mid- 'light, reach Carlo in time for breakfast. There they would feed and rest their horses, -proceed to Goderich with their load and be back in Carlow before starting another night trip to Lucknow" in order "to avoid paying the many tolls between Goderich and Luc - know." Gavin Green. recalled that tollkeepers "had to be a husky piece of humanity" to collect the toll from the "wild lot of boys and big men" who "did not think the Goderich Northern Gravel Road Company had any right to make them pay toll to get into Goderich." Hostility to the North - em Gravel Road's tolls boiled over into mob action. In the fall of 1870, a tollgate at the Nile was smashed. A tollhouse built to watch the Nile gate was torn down in August 1871 by unknown marauders. The Signal reported that Sheriff Mac- donald was "after the depredators, but they will be hard to find" because "all the people are death on tolls." A more seriousinci-- dent occurred at the Nile when the second house built Was besieged one night in September 1871 by over 20 armed men with "blackened faces, coats turned inside out and disguised voices.." The two men, one woman and several children were holed up inside equipped with muskets and revolver. The Signal said that the "garrison" could have "died hard" but "clingingwoman- hood" forced them to surrender. The mob instructed them to remove their furniture before destroying the tollgate and house. In October 1871, an inquest was held in Dun- gannon into the burning of the Lucknow tollgate and house by seven or eight men. As in the Sep- tember attack, the occu- pants were told to remove their belongings before the gate and house were torched. Const. Barnard Trainer found govern- ment -issued ammunition around the tollhouse, indicating the assailants were militiamen. Despite gruelling questioning, "not much was elicited" from witnesses. Clearly, it was'becom- ing too dangerous to operate tollgates on the Northern Gravel Road, In December 1872, county council voted to assume responsibility for the Northern Gravel Road and dismantle all toll- gates in the county as of January 1, 1873. In 1874, the county agreed to pay the Town of Goderich $20,000 for its share of maintenance on what should have been a county road in the first place. What if one company could solve all your business needs? itt * '* rp] POSTMEDIA We can connect all the pieces in more ways than ever before. For morn information, visit postmodia.com/adv