Men Annually Commissioned To Work On County Roads

The development of roads has always played a vital role in the growth of any region.  Native Americans, early explorers, trappers, traders and settlers, those escaping the summer heat of lower elevations and the first industrialists all helped in various ways to build the road system Transylvania County has today.

The earliest paths were created by the buffalo, elk, deer and smaller game animals that made their homes in the mountains and valleys and along the rivers and streams.  Native Americans followed these same routes to hunt game, gather berries and nuts, and travel between villages.  As the first white men came into this area they widened and improved these paths into riding trails and wagon roads. 

By the late 1700s and early 1800s when the settlers were moving into the area the militia was used to construct roads.  In 1790 the Buncombe County Court ordered the local Militia Company to build a “wagon road” following near the Estatoe Path from the Swannanoa River to the Davidson River.  Two years later in 1792 Clayton’s Militia was ordered to join it with the Catawba Trail near Flat Rock through the Little River and Crab Creek valleys.  In April 1793 James Davidson, Moses Smith and Walter Hogshead were ordered to serve on a road jury to layout a road from the Estatoe Ford of Ben Davidson’s River to the middle fork of the French Broad River.

As the population of the state grew so did the demand for roads.  By the mid 1800s the North Carolina General Assembly held authority for the laying out of roads.  For example in 1854 they authorized the laying out and making of a turnpike road from the South Carolina line at or near the Sassafras Gap through the valleys of  the East Fork and French Broad Rivers to any point on the French Broad Turnpike Company’s Road.

During the Civil War road improvements in North Carolina ceased and the roads fell into disrepair. Following the Civil War the common means of road construction, improvement or repair was to require road duty from citizens.  Men were commissioned to work on the roads annually.  Each man must provide his own tools.  There were fines imposed on anyone who failed to appear or did not have tools.   The age requirement, service time and fines seemed to vary by county.

In September 1911 Transylvania County Commissioners voted to begin using convict labor for road work.  Previously local convicts had been hired out to Buncombe and Henderson counties.  By late 1912 convict labor was being used and the days of mandatory road duty ended.

The photograph seen here shows a work crew with convicts cutting a road along a Transylvania County mountainside in 1931.  Ed Comer has hiked along today’s Hwy 276 as well as the old Mill Hill Turnpike between Island Ford Rd. and Connestee Rd. in an effort to identify the location of this photograph.  Visit the NC Room Blog at nchistoryroom.blogspot.com for a current photograph of the area believed to be shown in the old picture and a topographic map marking the area.

Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library.  Visit the NC Room during regular library hours (Monday-Friday) to learn more about our history and see additional photographs.  For more information, comments or suggestions contact Marcy at marcy.thompson@transylvaniacounty.org or 828-884-3151 X242.

Transylvania County "chain gang" road construction, 1931.