Turnpike Roads Of Boyle County, Kentucky  Michael J Denis, PO Box 125, Parksville, KY 40464

John McAdam & British Turnpikes  His process called “macadamisation”  Road surface needed to be raised  Built with layered, increasingly small rocks and gravel  Center higher than the sides for rain runoff  His roads were 30 feet wide  Built beginning 1816  Method copied here, with the “National Road”

Early American Turnpikes  National Road, connecting Cumberland, MD and Vandalia, IL  Completed 1839  Now parallels much of I-68, and US-40  First “interstate” road built with Federal money  “Metal” refers to paving with stone.  “Metalled” roads were stone-covered roads.  Many early charters used the term, or a variant.

Turnpikes in Kentucky  First one, chartered in 1797, was to run from Crab Orchard to Cumberland Gap  First “modern” turnpike, 1818, from Louisville to Maysville through Lexington  Cost of shipping goods dropped  Travel time decreased, Louisville to Nashville down to 2 days

Turnpikes in Kentucky  By 1835, finished miles completed:  13 miles in Anderson  10 miles in Mercer  28 miles from Springfield to Danville  25 miles from Danville to Lexington  12 miles from Lexington to Perryville  Seemed like a good investment for KY  BUT, most roads ranged from 0.09% to 4.02% return  By 1850, KY cut investments, but now burden fell to counties and cities.

Turnpike Rates and Rules  1850, first road rules  Keep to right  Pass on left  Tolls often based on width of tire  Narrow tires, higher tolls because narrow tires did more damage to the road  Horse, mule, rider 5c  Head of cattle,2c ea  Hogs, 1/2c  Pleasure vehicles, 25c  Union armies charged half toll, by 1862 US stopped payment – troops were “defending Kentucky”

Turnpike Rates and Rules  1868, county courts allowed to invest  1870, people going to and from church or attending funerals were exempted  Many other local exemptions – scholars going to school, etc.  By 1870s, roads were often not profitable  Danville & Perryville income was $2096, expenses $1856, didn’t leave much for road improvement  1886 – New York Times commented on good quality of KY roads

Effects of the Turnpikes on KY  From Liberty to Stanford, to Elizabethtown, to Louisville, to Maysville and Newport, much of KY was covered with good roads.  Property values increased  Some county seats had from 5 to 12 macadamized roads  Some passed through gates at night when they were open  Some went through fields around gates or took parallel roads (shunpiking)

The “Turnpike Wars”  James Marrs, editor of Kentucky Advocate of Danville, as early as 1884, suggested the state take over the turnpikes  Began Sep 1896, in Washington County  People thought tolls were too high  NY Times, 7 Dec mob chopping down 6 gates in Harrodsburg  300 Gates destroyed since September 1896  Shootings in Perryville, 22 Mar 1898, 75 raiders  By 1900, violence had worked. Not a good omen for Kentucky’s future

End of the Turnpike Era  By 1910, Boyle owned 120 miles of turnpikes  By 1908, only good roads were turnpikes  Local roads still forced men to work on the roads  Boston Evening Transcript, 7 Jan 1914, said people evaded tolls - “shunpiking”, taking parallel roads.  1912, state began to take over highways  1916 and 1921 allowed state to use gas taxes and license fees for road construction  Resurgence 1956 on – KY Turnpike (now I-65, Louisville-E’town), and 631 miles of toll parkways

Tunpikes in Boyle County  Many roads were chartered but not built  Many were absorbed by other companies  Much duplication of routes causes confusion  Much overlapping due to differing charters  Frankfort to Crab Orchard, 1834  Danville, Lancaster & Nicholasville, 1834  Springfield, Perryville & Danville 1836  Danville & Hustonville, 1844  Clarks Run & Salt River (Lebanon Pike), 1847

2 – Danville, Lancaster & Nicholasville 6 – Danville & Hustonville 8 – Clarks Run & Salt River (Lebanon) 14 – Knob Lick 16 – Danville & Pleasant Hill 24 – Lincoln & Boyle 29 – Danville & Harrodsburg 30 – Danville & Stanford Turnpikes of Eastern Boyle County

3 – Kentucky & Green River 4 – Nicholasville, Harrodsburg & Perryville 5 – Danville & Springfield 7 – Springfield, Perryville & Danville 8 – Clarks Run & Salt River (Lebanon) 9 – Danville & Perryville 10 – Perryville & Springfield 11 – Perryville & Taylorsville 12 – Springfield, Maxville & Perryville 13 – Perryville & Lebanon 15 – Perryville & Union Meeting 19 – Perryville & Maxville 20 – Perryville & Mitchellsburg 21 – Perryville & Steam Mill 23 – Parksville (Crosspike) 25 – Pine Knob (Alum Springs CP) 26 – Quirks Run & Nevada 28 – Chaplin & Quirks Run Turnpikes of Western Boyle County

Toll Houses in Western Boyle

Toll Houses in Eastern Boyle