Source: NMHS Newsletter, May 1995
Early Highways of Commerce
Information for the following article was taken from
Helm's History of Wabash County published in 1884 as
well as from a Journal article.
After Manchester had been located and a regular trading
post established, every year brought new families to the
settlement in considerable numbers, and by the year 1844
all the available Government land in the vicinity of Eel
River was taken up by actual settlers. There were no
roads or other public highways, if we except the Indian
"trails" leading from Eel River to Logansport, and from
Eel River to Fort Wayne. Families newly arrived would
cut their way through the timber to the lands which they
had selected for homes, and in a short time these paths
would again become overgrown and traces of them lost.
These were the first roads; but they served only a
temporary purpose and never became public highways.
Scarcely more interest is now manifested in a
prospective railroad than was evinced when it was noised
about that the settlement on Eel River was to be
connected with LaGro, on the Wabash, by a public
highway. The initiatory steps in this matter were taken
some time in 1838 or 1839. A road for a mail route was
to be opened through the woods from LaGro to Liberty
Mills.
Volunteers started from opposite end of the proposed
route, and taking the section lines for their guide, cut
away the timber on each side of the road, until the
party advancing southward from Liberty Mills and
Manchester met the party working northward from LaGro,
and the road was open and ready for travel. The
principal object in opening this road was to make a
highway for the transportation of the mail, which was
carried on horseback from LaGro to Liberty Mills. It was
called the "Mail Trace," and was long known by that
name.
In earlier times, all the surplus products of this
locality were taken by wagon to LaGro, which town
enjoyed the advantage of being located upon the Wabash &
Erie Canal, the great commercial thoroughfare of its
time. ""It was a hard day's drive" says the JOURNAL'S
correspondent, "to take twenty bushels of wheat to La
Gro (a distance of twelve miles); but the increasing
demands of trade made better means of intercourse with
commercial centers a prime necessity, and the
consequence was a plank road was built to LaGro about
the year 1850, which so much facilitated the
transportation of commercial products, that one team
could do the work of four under the old state of
affairs. Great as was this improvement at the time, with
the opening of railroad communication it sank into
insignificance, and today is practically abandoned as a
commercial highway between the two towns."
EARLY ROADS
“The Mail Trace” in Weesner,
History of Wabash County, 376:
After North Manchester and Liberty
Mills had been located and the two settlements commenced
to vie with each other in the founding of mills and
business houses, the fame of the Eel River country in
that part of the county began to draw a steady stream of
new comers. The necessity for decent highways of travel
thus became apparent. If we except the Indian trails
leading from Eel River to Logansport and Fort Wayne,
there were no roads penetrating that region from the
Valley of the Wabash prior to the late ‘30s.
Largely through the exertions of
Mr. Comstock, in 1838 and 1839, a road for a mail route
was opened through the woods from the big “canal town,”
La Gro, to Liberty Mills and North Manchester. A party
from La Gro worked north, and others from the northern
towns worked southward, and so the road, crude though it
was, came to be. The principal object in opening it was
to make a highway for the transportation of mail from La
Gro to Liberty Mills. It was long called the Mail Trace,
although it was generally used by travelers cutting
across from the Wabash to the Eel River Valley.
“Plank Road Between La Gro and
North Manchester” in Weesner, History of Wabash County,
228:
A more important line was the La
Gro & North Manchester Plank Road covering the twelve
miles between these important points. In the early ‘50s,
when it completed, La Gro was one of the busiest places
on the Wabash & Erie Canal. It was recognized as a
commercial center for the shipment of farm products and
offered, through the agency of the plank road, more than
ordinary facilities to North Manchester, Liberty Mills
and vicinity for safe and convenient trade exchanges.
This was a great improvement over the old dirt road
between the two places. As stated years afterward by a
North Manchester newspaper man: “It was a hard day’s
drive to take twenty bushels of wheat to La Gro; but the
increasing demands of trade made better means of
intercourse with commercial centers a prime necessity,
and the consequence was a plank road built to La Gro,
about the year 1850, which so facilitated the
transportation of commercial products that one team
could do the work of four under the old state of
affairs.”
“Liberty Mills and Huntington
Joined” in Weesner, History of Wabash County, 229:
Largely through the enterprise of
Judge Comstock, a substantial plank road was built
between Liberty Mills and Huntington in 1850-51. It was
called the Huntington & Liberty Mills Plank Road
and
opened up quite a territory for the products of the
Comstock mills—flour, saw, woolen, etc. The controlling
company was capitalized at $25,000, most of the stock
being taken in Huntington County. The road continued to
successful operation for many years, and the major
portion of its bed was finally appropriated by the
Huntington & Liberty Mills Gravel Road Company.
Source: North Manchester
Journal, April 26, 1888
Tuesday last John C. Summerland, David T. Krisher and
Eli Lautzenhiser, appointed to view a certain piece of
road known as the Liberty Mills and Huntington
plank road across section 26, Chester township,
and report the feasibility or otherwise of vacating the
same, petitioned for by Jacob Ruse and others, made
their report advising the closing of the same.
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