In 1852, the North Carolina General Assembly chartered the Caswell Plank Road Company. Thomas Donoho Johnston, Abisha Slade, Dr. Allen Gunn, W. B. Bowe [probably William Bradley Bowe], and John Kerr were named directors and authorized to open books in Yanceyville and elsewhere to receive subscriptions not in excess of $50,000 for the construction of a plank road from Yanceyville to some point on the Virginia line where it would meet another road leading to Danville. Shares were $50 each. Under its charter the company had power to condemn land for the road, could enter into contracts, could erect toll gates, and do a variety of other things necessary for the performance of its work. The charter specified that profits were not to exceed 25 percent a year and that the road constructed were to be not less than sixty feet wide.
Newspaper Item: Richmond Dispatch, Tuesday, 16 August 1853.
J. S. Totten became president of the company, with Thomas Donoho Johnston secretary-treasurer. William Long became one of the most important stockholders, purchasing a number of shares at different times between 1853 and 1859.
By 1855, the plank road to Danville had been located and graded to Hogan's Creek, construction having begin at the Virginia line, with about one mile planked. The route also had been surveyed from Hogan's Creek to Yanceyville.
By June 1856, the Yanceyville to Danville Plank Road was open, being one of just two interstate plank roads with which North Carolinians were involved.
This plank road between Yanceyville and Danville apparently was a financial success, with its income realized from tolls charged.
What happened to the Yanceyville-Danville plank road during the Civil War is not known. However, while maintenance may have been deferred, the road was still operating in 1868. This is evidenced by a record showing that in March 1868 J. M. Rawlins petitioned the court for compensation for repairing the bridge across Moons Creek on the plank road near Samuel S. Harrison's property.
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Eventually, the plank road between Yanceyville and Danville apparently deteriorated and reverted to dirt. In 1905 a North Carolina state law observed that the roads of Caswell County were badly in need of repair and a referendum was authorized in May on a $40,000 bond issue. If approved, a highway commission of five men was to be elected by the county commissioners and under their supervision highways would be opened, graded, and improved. Provision also was made for rebuilding bridges. The proposal apparently failed.
A private law of 1909 incorporated the Caswell County Macadam Road Company to operate under the direction of S. G. Woods, B. S. Graves, F. W. Brown, R. L. Mitchelle, J. M. Hodges, and R. T. Wilson. Stock in the amount of $125,000 was authorized. The objective of the company was to construct a macadam road from Yanceyville to Danville (actually to the Virginia state line) to be operated as a toll road. B. S. Graves was president and J. P. Swanson secretary-treasurer. Some stock apparently was sold but no road built.
It may be that no Macadam road ever was built between Yanceyville and Danville, and that the next major improvement to "Old 86" came in 1926. The Caswell Messenger issue for March 4, 1926, reported that the contractors who were to build a concrete road from the Virginia line near Gatewood to Yanceyville recently had been in the county seat. Construction was expected to begin shortly, and supplies began arriving about ten days later. When this concrete road was completed is not known.
Source: Powell, William S. When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina 1777-1977. Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1977, pp. 491-493, 513-516.
Reference: North Carolina Plank Roads
In 1852, the North Carolina General Assembly chartered the Caswell Plank Road Company. Thomas Donoho Johnston, Abisha Slade, Dr. Allen Gunn, W. B. Bowe [probably William Bradley Bowe], and John Kerr were named directors and authorized to open books in Yanceyville and elsewhere to receive subscriptions not in excess of $50,000 for the construction of a plank road from Yanceyville to some point on the Virginia line where it would meet another road leading to Danville. Shares were $50 each. Under its charter the company had power to condemn land for the road, could enter into contracts, could erect toll gates, and do a variety of other things necessary for the performance of its work. The charter specified that profits were not to exceed 25 percent a year and that the road constructed were to be not less than sixty feet wide.
J. S. Totten became president of the company, with Thomas Donoho Johnston secretary-treasurer. William Long became one of the most important stockholders, purchasing a number of shares at different times between 1853 and 1859.
By 1855, the plank road to Danville had been located and graded to Hogans Creek, construction having begin at the Virginia line, with about one mile planked. The route also had been surveyed from Hogans Creek to Yanceyville.
By June 1856, the Yanceyville to Danville Plank Road was open, being one of just two interstate plank roads with which North Carolinians were involved.
This plank road between Yanceyville and Danville apparently was a financial success, with its income realized from tolls charged.
What happened to the Yanceyville-Danville plank road during the Civil War is not known. However, while maintenance may have been deferred, the road was still operating in 1868. This is evidenced by a record showing that in March 1868 J. M. Rawlins petitioned the court for compensation for repairing the bridge across Moons Creek on the plank road near Samuel S. Harrison's property.
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Eventually, the plank road between Yanceyville and Danville apparently deteriorated and reverted to dirt. In 1905 a North Carolina state law observed that the roads of Caswell County were badly in need of repair and a referendum was authorized in May on a $40,000 bond issue. If approved, a highway commission of five men was to be elected by the county commissioners and under their supervision highways would be opened, graded, and improved. Provision also was made for rebuilding bridges. The proposal apparently failed.
A private law of 1909 incorporated the Caswell County Macadam Road Company to operate under the direction of S. G. Woods, B. S. Graves, F. W. Brown, R. L. Mitchelle, J. M. Hodges, and R. T. Wilson. Stock in the amount of $125,000 was authorized. The objective of the company was to construct a macadam road from Yanceyville to Danville (actually to the Virginia state line) to be operated as a toll road. B. S. Graves was president and J. P. Swanson secretary-treasurer. Some stock apparently was sold but no road built.
It may be that no Macadam road ever was built between Yanceyville and Danville, and that the next major improvement to "Old 86" came in 1926. The Caswell Messenger issue for March 4, 1926, reported that the contractors who were to build a concrete road from the Virginia line near Gatewood to Yanceyville recently had been in the county seat. Construction was expected to begin shortly, and supplies began arriving about ten days later. When this concrete road was completed is not known.
Source: Powell, William S. "When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina 1777-1977." Durham: Moore Publishing Company, 1977, pp. 491-493, 513-516.
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North Carolina Is The Good Road State: https://www.ourstate.com/good-road-state/
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Before the advent of macadam roads, many North Carolina roadways were little more than wide clay paths. Rutted and dusty when dry and nearly impassable when wet, clay roads made travel very difficult and hindered the movement of goods to market and to rail stations. The macadam process helped to change all that because it required roadways to be graded so that they drained properly. More important, the graded roadway was covered with five to nine inches of crushed stone, creating a solid, stable base that was then rolled with a steam-powered roller, sprinkled with water, covered with dust, and rolled again. The addition of the dust served to repel water and helped to bind the stones together by filling the spaces between them. Later, a "bituminous" or liquid asphalt binder replaced the water binder. In many cases, macadam roads, covered with asphalt, became the foundations of new roadways.
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After a Black Friday lunch with my daughter Rachel and mother-in-law Doris in Danville, I decided to give Doris a little sight-seeing by taking the “traffic island turn” from US Hwy 86 onto its predecessor (Old US Hwy 86)in taking her back to her Yanceyville home. “Old 86” was the only road to Danville from Yanceyville when Doris came there in the 1940s. “New 86’s” once freshly-exposed, road-cut rock has since become gray-brown from years of staining by the ground water’s dissolved iron oxide.
The old path is more scenic than the newer, straighter one, so “the way the crow used to fly” is sometimes better!
The first mile was so sparsely populated that Doris commented: “It’s pretty thin here!” Barren kudzu vines filled massive trees (but we know full well life waits within to later provide “cover gone wild”!).
Random, sparsely scattered golden leaves remained doggedly attached to some branches to resemble mica and pyrite flecks in an afternoon sun minused “daylight saving time.” Their bright-yellow “mineralescence” spoke of the ease of foolishly mistaking some similarly-bright mineral for gold.
In the little community of Providence, I remembered Jim Millner Plumbing. When I was a social worker at Caswell County DSS, a single mother in my caseload had two sons who stole tools from Jim Millner’s truck. The family lived on Providence’s Easy Street ( but ease was something foreign to their lives).
We passed an old gym, once part of a private school named Piedmont Academy. A septuagenarian teacher there, Mrs. Ruby Hodges, annually requested me and my late wife Diane to perform in their annual Spring variety show. One year, Diane and I performed an old Carol Burnette Show skit in which I was Tim Conway’s character, Mr. Tudball, and Diane was “Mrs. a’ Whiggins.” Miss Ruby (“Miss,” a Southern thing, even though she had been most properly married, and widowed) always paid us with a freshly-made sweet potato pie. Since her death some years ago, no place exists on this side of the grave where the likes of Miss Ruby Hodges’ sweet potato pies can be found! Doris and I reminisced about mine and Diane’s variety show performance.
We passed Purley United Methodist Church where I was choir director in the late 1970s. Pastor Clay Smith prided himself on growing vegetables naturally (minus Sevin), giving me some one summer. My opinion of their deliciousness was corroborated by scores of miniscule, mandibular-shaped “nibblings” implying “others” found them delicious too!
We proceeded past the former home of Mrs. Pauline Hatchett. Everyone spoke of her late husband Hines’ true “gentlemanliness.” Although Hines wasn’t German (though his first name sounded like “Heinz”), the house epitomized “Teutonic” beauty in its furnishings of good, simple taste.
Then came the boarded up “W. D Pleasant’s Store.” The late Mr. Pleasant once displayed a renowned knife collection there, consisting of the kinds of knives carried by “country” men. I imagine it remains in the family.
Continuing, I saw the home of the late Bobbie Daniel, Purley Church’s organist when I was choir director there. She had an off-and-on-bout with cancer marked with alternating remissions. Tragically, Bobbie’s cancer was, overall more relentless than remiss in its dealings with her.
Next, John Miller Pleasant’s home (sometimes Southern men, like Southern women, use three-word names). John’s surname is a complement to (and compliment of) his personality. His wife, Mable passed away not long ago. John plans to have both hips replaced, but there’s no replacing Mable.
Doris then mentioned a stucco house she and her husband Hoyt had first lived in after marrying, saying it was in that area we were passing through, not far from where Old 86 connects up with New 86; but we never saw it, and she said it had probably been torn down.
Doris said the mail carrier along that route years ago was infamously known for “previewing” everyone’s mail, be it from family, friends, bill collectors, etc. You might say that even in those long-ago years, he could have gone “paperless,” after a “Mission Impossible-style” committing to memory of the contents of his mail sack (minus the “self-destruct” part), then imparting the information to everyone on his route in the long-passed, age-old tradition of “word of mouth!”
Turning back onto New 86, I realized that the little side trip into Doris’ memories had mostly become a “Robert Ballard-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute-type expedition” into mine.
After all, consider my life’s places of residence: Rowan 1951-74, Caswell 1974-2008, Danville 2008-present.
I guess I’m just a “Good ol’ Rowan-Caswell-Danville boy!”
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