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| A spring wagon. |
I’m not certain when my father-in-law (Mr. Burl to me)
penned the following, but if you will notice, he writes as though the railroads
were still operational, at least to a certain extent, and his reference to City
Hall is to the old City Hall building on Slate Avenue.
From the journals:
There are those
who believe that many of the old county roads were built on a cow path and
perhaps they are right! In the early days of public roads there were toll gates
and houses located at intervals along a roadway. Usually the toll gate keeper lived in the
house by the gate and did not miss any fee.
Roads were very narrow because there were no autos at the time. Many bridges were covered. The Sherburne covered bridge was the last one
in Bath County, and it was burned several years ago.
Buggies, hacks, spring
wagons and farm wagons were the means of land transportation other than the
railroads. The Chesapeake and Ohio
Railroad has maintained its line through the county for years. The Salt Lick and Preston depots were busy up
through the 1940’s, and then trucks began to take over much of the
transportation of goods. Bus lines began
to claim more and more of the transportation of people. The first bus line to be awarded a franchise
to transport through Bath County on U.S. 60 was the Blue Goose Bus Line. Their busses were “touring” cars with cloth
tops and side curtains.
A narrow gauge
railroad operated between Owingsville and Olympia, hence the name
“O&O.” This was the connector line
between Owingsville and the Chesapeake and Ohio lines. The O&O operated for several years but
has been defunct some seventy years. The
station in Owingsville was located in the ravine just below where City Hall now
stands.
Not that I’m encouraging anybody to go exploring, but
my husband, Don, says the old railroad tracks are still down in the ravine
behind the old City Hall building.
Also, the collecting of tolls was a cause of great discord, even in Bath County. Violence against toll gate keepers was commonplace. More about that next time but see the notice below for an example of a tollgate war in Versailles. - Ginger
Labels: transportation
