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Goderich Signal Star, 2017-01-04, Page 8Wednesday, January 4, 2017 • Signal Star 7 The Huron Road ohn Galt, the Canada Company's field supervisor, under- stood that cutting a trail through the Huron Tract's primal forests and swamps was neces- sary for settlement. In early 1827, Galt con- tracted the building of what became known as the Huron Road, which became the pathway for thousand of settlers into the county. Galt's scheme to blaze a trail through the Huron Tract's 1 million acres of virgin forest seemed obvious to eve- ryone but the Canada Company's directors. They believed that set- tlers could enter into the Huron Tract by the lake. Road building, the directors argued, could come after settlement. Eventually, the directors did allowed Galt 3,000 pounds to construct the road but made only one- third payable to workers in cash. From the start, Galt knew that it would be difficult to find labour- ers willing to work under these conditions on what he called the 'Colo- nists' Road: However, sometime in 1827, Galt encountered 'Colonel' Anthony VanEgmond, a 52 -year-old Dutch immigrant who claimed an exaggerated aristo- cratic pedigree and mili- tary_--,( ord. Most impor- tantly, , - Egmond 'impressed it with his claim to have road building experience in Pennsylvania. As the Lizars sisters wrote in 'The Days of the Canada Company,' VanEgmond 'was a pushing clever man' whom Galt thought was up to the Herculean task of build- ing the Huron Road from Wilmot Township through Perth County Huron History David Yates west towards Goderich. It was stipulated that the 55 -mile stretch of road that VanEgmond was responsible for building be four rods, or one chain length wide .(66 feet) with every stump less than a foot in diameter removed from the roadbed.• Construction of the Huron Road began almost immediately in the summer of 1827. The Canada Company pro- vided a surveyor, John McDonald to shoot line through the woods; blazers followed him to mark trees. The main workforce of road build- ers, lumberers and grub- bers followed to clear the roadbed. Behind them, wagon teams car- rying supplies rounded out the road building party. The rest of the work force was largely Ger- man or Irishmen were a rugged, stalwart lot. On one of the first days of construction, 45 men came down ill with the ague. The Canada Com- pany refused to employ a doctor so Galt hired a clerk who happened to be a doctor and paid him as such. The roadbuilders bat- tled mosquito clouds, felled giant trees, bridged swamps with corduroy logs and at the end of the day sat around the campfire and made what the Lizars sisters called "a fusion of inharmonious sounds." On cold winter nights, they slept 'spoon style' where each man lay on one side snuggled into the backside of his neighbour to keep warm. When the end man shouted 'spoon; the entire line turned over at the same time. Incredibly, the Huron Road was opened to Goderich by December 1828. It was more of a 'sleigh track' than a road but it was a barely pass- able access way into the Huron Tract to accom- modate the influx of set- tlers expected into the area. As historian W. E. Johnston wrote the road "was not very safe but useful." Poor drainage meant that heavily laden carts sank up to their axles in mud; cross - planked bridges thrown across rivers and streams shuddered and creaked under the set- tlers' heavy load. Major Samuel Strickland, a Canada Company officer living in Goderich, recalled the perilous journey his wife and infant child had while travelling on the Huron Road in 1829. Their wagon overturned twice on the road. Mrs. Strick- land carried her baby whose "tender flesh" was ravaged by mosqui- toes for most of the journey. VanEgmond had good reason to rush the road's completion. In order to get workers, VanEgmond offered to pay his work- ers in cash in exchange for their land credit. With the Canada Com- pany's cash nearly run- ning out, VanEgmond was eager to complete the road. By 1832, VanEgmond's thousands .of acres of land made hitt), on paper, the wealthiest man in Huron County. Later, VanEg- mond's dispute with the Canada Company over payment for building the Huron Road was one of Photo by David Yates King's Highway #8 Monument to the Opening of the Huron Tract in Goderich. the factors that drove him to rebellion in 1837. VanEgmond estab- lished three 'Houses of Entertainment' along the way to provide food and shelter for incoming immigrants. According to historian W. B. Kerr's article 'The Pioneers in Huron,' the Helmer,'Fry- fogel, and Seebach inns were set up along the Huron Road's Perth County segment. VanEg- mond set up his own farm and tavern on the Huron Road south east of Clinton. Kerr claims that VanEgmond was Huron County's first 'bona fide farmer.' However, these 'houses of entertain- ment' were more like 'shanties' according to Strickland. In 1828, after a hard day's trek through deep snow, Strickland stopped at Seebach's inn anticipating a 'capital supper: Instead, he was served 'a piece of dirty looking Indian meal bread, and a large cake of beef tallow, and, to wash down this elegant repast, a dish of crust coffee without either milk or sugar.' It was the best his hostess could do under the circumstances while her husband was away getting supplies. The inns' guests may have slept on boards, in drafty and dirty rooms but none of the hun- dreds of apprehensive families who found shel- ter in them on their journey into the Huron Tract complained about the their hosts hospitality. As Kerr observes, VanEgmond 'had ful- filled his contract faithfully and well' in building the Huron Road. VanEgmond and his five sons, worked on improving the road so that by 1832, it was pass- able for wagons. Later, the road was turnpiked, meaning that the road itself was built up in the centre from earth dug from ditches dug at the roadsides. These ditches also provided much needed drainage along the roadway. Yet, as late as 1888, W. H. Bre- ithaupt in 'The Huron Road' related that one traveller who said that two thirds of the Huron Road was still corduroy where logs or wood planks were laid across the roadway. The travel- ler noted that large trees were still left standing in the middle of the road making it barely passible with 'roots projecting from the stumps in a slanting direction' which 'kept the wheels and axles of the wagons moving up and down like the beam of a steam engine: Yet, despite its rough, crude construction, the I luron Road was the gateway into the Huron Tract for thousands of settlers. In 1858, the Buf- falo to Lake Huron branch of the Grand Trunk Railroad ran par- allel to the Huron Road. King's Highway #8, for the most part, follows the original Huron Road from Goderich to Guelph. John Galt, in his autobiography, recalled of his brief time with the Canada Company that 'of one thing I do not hesitate to say I was proud, and with good reason, too. I caused a road to be opened • through the forest of the Huron Tract: