Roads

Pages 84/85

Roads opened in 1805 were chiefly through New Market and Fairfield townships. The village of New Market being the county seat at this time, all county roads trended in that direction or to connect with roads passing to or through it.

When Hillsboro was founded and made the county seat in 1807 arrangements were made for locating public highways from Hillsboro. Road making was usually done in the spring or early autumn. It was paid for by the State and usually let out on private contract by the State Commissioners of roads fro that district.
The mode of travel was tediously slow. Often the traveler had to stop and clear the way or pry himself out of mud by means of a fence rail. Over these bumpy roads came the pack-horse mail carrier, the stagecoach driver, the emigrant, and the circuit minister. Their passing along the road were events and settlers hurried for their cabins and work to watch them pass, and to make themselves welcome should they choose to stop and rest. Wayside taverns did a big business.

Perphaps the “Whiskey Road,” State Route 126, was cut in the most unusual way of any road in Highland county. Leaving United States Route 62 south of New Market, it runs south thought Sugartree Ridge to Winchester and West Union in Adams county.

New Market distilleries did not supply adequately the wants of the settlers of New Market, but at Winchester there was a famous distillery operated by a Dutch settler from Virginia by the name of Hemphill. He manufactured whiskey claimed to be as good as the favorite Monogahela brand.

A procession of thirty men left George Barrere’s tavern at New Market, December 30, 1809, bound for the Winchester distillery. They were led by Barrere, who was Justice of the Peace and also Senator for Highland and Ross counties. He carried a compass and a staff. The rest of the party carried rifles and shot pouches.

A horse at the rear drew a crude vehicle, a sort of sled, make of two whiteoak poles for shafts which were sloped to run and slide on the ground, with inch pins two feet long in the upper side of each pole, three feet from the lower end. Holes were bored in the upper end and tugs were passed through and fastened to the hames on the horse. A barrel of whisky was supported by two pins on the slide and from the pins hung tin cups and a side of bacon.

Beside the horse, which has a meal bag filled with corn dodgers fastened under its mouth, walked a boy. The entire population of New Market had gathered to witness the departure.

They struck a southeasterly course, set the compass, and refreshed themselves with whisky from the barrel. Some were overcome by it, fell by the way, and did not get to complete the journey. They camped out the first night, and played and danced and consumed the rest of the whiskey. Obtaining a barrel of the coveted Hemphill whiskey, they retraced their steps, reaching home the next day with the barrel a little more than half full, but they had cut a permanent road.

Miss Minnie Vance says of her girlhood days at Harrisburg, near New Market, a settlement of Harris families, that when she was a girl living there, there was no road from their house into New Market, the trading center of that part of the county. They road horseback to the store and to the church. Now a road runs directly through the settlement and connects with the West Union Pike.