With the new century more
objective action began to show in behalf of the provincial roads. Remember,
sundry roads had been in the process of making but in the passing of 12
to 15 years of meagre use and inattention what little had been initiated
had just as quickly fallen into disrepair and so this aspect of communication
came into the public urgency again.
Legislative grants began to flow as the following shows:
1802--A decision to "defray the expenses of a survey of the principle roads, and to ascertain costs to put them into a fit condition for travel. (Dougal Campbell was selected to make this survey and report the existing road conditions).
1803--£50 for repair of bridge across Dennes Stream in Charlotte County. £20 "for building a scow and providing a rope to cross the River Magaguadavic at Vernon's Farm".
1804--£5 "to assist in building a boat to be employed as a ferry from Waweig to Oak Point to facilitate communication between St. Andrews and St. Stephen".
1806--The road from St. Stephen to Oak Point had been constructed by this date.
1808--By this time we begin to pick up evidence of the presence of the old Fredericton-St. Andrews Road as settlers by this time were locating in the Pleasant Ridge area. (Also a road had been blazed through the woods to St. John in this year, 1808.)
1810--£100 "to build a bridge across the arm of the sea called "Buckabeck" and opening the road from thence to the Digdeguash River" and £25 to build a bridge across the Magaguadavic River".
1812--£50 "To open a road from the Digdeguash Settlement
to the settlement of Pleasant Ridge on the Fredericton Road". And "£25
to be granted. . . for the exploring of a road from Pleasant Ridge to the
settlement on the Oromocto; and a further sum of £75 to be
laid out in opening (of) such a road--if the report of commissioners shall
deem it advisable".
(Quotations on allocation of funds--"Records, Legislature".)
This brings us to the War
of 1812 when the Government must begin to direct its funding toward military
interests and the defence of areas bordering on the United States. However,
in 1814, £100 was ear-marked "to improve the Road from Oromocto
to the Blockhouse"; and £50 were authorized "for aid in establishing
a (courier) between Fredericton and St. Andrews", most certainly to facilitate
postal communication between the military H.Q. at Fredericton and their
lower or coastal fortifications. (Now we know there is a Great Road through
Charlotte County!) By 1817 this Great Road had come into more valued and
general use as settlements began to appear along its meandering path; and
by now with the War somewhat a matter of history, road budgets again were
made for this and one other road;
1817--£1,150 for further improvements of the Road from Fredericton to St. Andrews and that £1,150 also be allocated to improve the road from St. John to St. Andrews.
So, sometime between 1789,
when the idea was proposed for "Great Roads", and around 1802, the St.
Andrews-Fredericton Road began to take form section by section. Then neglected
somewhat for a few years until around 1808 or 1810, finding it necessary
to locate settlers along this trail, new attention was given to the "Fredericton-St.
Andrews Road". It must also be kept in mind that almost simultaneously
with the construction of the "Great Roads" lesser but complimentary roads
were also reaching out from (or toward) these main arteries of travel.
In fact, by 1817, roads
on both sides of the lower Digdeguash River were being extended northward,
and in need of improvements, and a road "from Second Falls up the Magaguadavic
River to the Fredericton Road" also needed attention. Many other Charlotte
Roads had come into being before 1817; also, with the arrivals of new settlers,
roads everywhere were reaching out.
Lumbering opportunities,
especially for pine logs from crown lands, also called for access roads
to useful rivers for river-driving and milling purposes. But any singular
need, therefore, for this Great Road began to diminish, although many portions
of it remained and do to this day, especially that section which passes
through the old Piskahegan village area. And so, by 1820-1825 St. Patrick
and St. George Parishes were receiving a spreading network of roads converging
upon, or branching out from, the old "Fredericton-St. Andrews Road".
I might enter a note at
this point as to distances. An old map dated 1 June, 1819, put the bridge
over the Digdeguash River (at Rolling Dam) as being slightly under 21 miles
from St. Andrews; and another chart showing the Piskahegan military settlement
as being 32 miles from St. Andrews and 43 miles from Fredericton, 75 miles
in all. (Many of these old maps had mileage marks on them.) Another observation
I would like to make is, there are many so-called "Fredericton Roads".
Understandably, every road going to the Capital city was thus called; this
accounts in part for sundry discussions over the "original" road (or roads)
as listed at the beginning of this study.
Written by permission of the Saint Croix Courier. Article found in 24 Oct. edition. Transcribed by Charlene Beney
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