Turnpikes and Toll Roads
Even before the canal craze that swept America in the wake of the Erie Canal’s opening in 1825, the young nation had developed an enthusiasm for building turnpikes across the land. Before the 1790’s all roads in America were built and maintained by local governments. As the country expanded westward after the War of Independence, pressure for improved roads brought about a radical new alternative: toll roads called turnpikes. In New York alone, during the first decade of the 19th century over 100 turnpikes were chartered. These new turnpikes were built for various reasons. Three turnpikes built in the early 1800’s through the Catskills illustrate the variety of uses that these early roads were put to.
The Ulster and Delaware Turnpike (also called the Jericho or Esopus Turnpike) was built in 1802. It ran from Kingston via Delhi to Bainbridge (then called Jericho) on the Susquehanna River. To the east it connected to the Salisbury and Canaan Turnpike in Connecticut via a section that crossed the Hudson at Rhinebeck. At about the same time the Catskill (or Susquehanna) Turnpike was built and ran due west from Catskill on the Hudson River to Bainbridge. At Bainbridge the two turnpikes joined. The Catskill Turnpike then continued westward to Ithaca and beyond. To the east it crossed the Hudson and proceeded across Columbia County to State Line, Massachusetts where it met the Boston and Albany Turnpike. Both the Ulster and Delaware and the Catskill turnpikes were originally constructed to carry settlers from New England to new lands in western New York.
The State of New York was eager to open up its western frontier to settlement and encouraged the building of turnpikes for this purpose. To this end, the state offered large parcels of land to anyone who would build a road. As soon as the Catskill Turnpike was opened to traffic settlers flooded into western New York from New England. One example is the town of Meredith, just north of Delhi on the Catskill Turnpike. Meredith became one of the most important towns in Delaware County and on the Catskill Turnpike due to the efforts of Judge Samuel A. Law who came from Cheshire, Connecticut in 1796. Judge Law helped influence a significant movement of people over both the Catskill and Ulster and Delaware Turnpikes from New England to Meredith. It’s said that this gave the town the character of a Connecticut town.
A few years after the Catskill Turnpike was put into use, the Cochecton – Newburgh Turnpike (the “Appian Way”) was completed in 1808. It connected the Hudson and the Delaware rivers and went from Newburgh on the Hudson, over the Shawangunk ridge at Bloomingburg and through the Catskill Mountains to Cochecton on the Delaware. Part of the route replaced Sackett’s Pike, a wagon road built in 1803 by Ananias Rogers Sackett to connect his water-powered sawmill west of Monticello, through the wilderness to Mamakating.
Newburgh was a significant market town on the Hudson River at the time and the Cochecton – Newburgh Turnpike was used to carry produce raised in Sullivan and Orange counties to Newburgh for shipment to New York City. The turnpike was also heavily used by raftsmen who used it to return to the woods from down river after their rafts of logs had been delivered. From the early days, the Delaware River had been used to float log rafts down the river to Trenton, New Jersey. After the Cochecton – Newburgh Turnpike had been built many rafters would go from Trenton to Philadelphia, board boats to New York City, travel up the Hudson by sloop or steamboat, and then walk or ride a stagecoach over the Turnpike back to where their journey down the Delaware had started.
Work on the Mount Hope – Lumberland Turnpike was started in 1812. Its route was from Mount Hope in Orange County, over the Shawangunk Mountain, past present day Cuddebackville and up the Oakland Valley corridor, ultimately reaching Narrowsburg on the Delaware River. At Mount Hope the road met the Minisink and Montgomery Turnpike. Eventually, the turnpike was extended across the Delaware all the way to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Originally built by a group of Goshen investors who owned woodlands in Sullivan County, its purpose was to carry the lumberjacks with their supplies to the investor’s wood lots. There the trees would be cut and then rafted down the Delaware to market. Unlike Sackett’s Pike which was built to support one man’s sawmill, the Mount Hope – Lumberland Turnpike was built to support the lumbering industry of southern Sullivan County.
One of the investors in the Mount Hope – Lumberland Turnpike was George Duncan Wickham, one of Orange County’s most powerful men. He well understood the importance of a robust transportation infrastructure and was an enthusiastic advocate for developing southern New York's turnpikes, canals and railways. Wickham was a shareholder in Orange County’s first turnpike, the Orange Turnpike, and was part owner of a stagecoach line with an exclusive right to operate between New York City and Goshen. He was active in chartering a number of turnpikes, among them the Minisink - Goshen Turnpike, the Mount Hope - Lumberland Turnpike, and the Newburgh - Cochecton Turnpike. In 1825, he was elected a director of the D&H Canal Company and in 1833 became one of the first directors of the newly organized New York and Erie Railroad.
The organizations that built the turnpikes were mostly stock corporations chartered by the state though a few were non-profit trusts. However, being a for-profit corporation didn’t mean that the enterprise would be a success or that the main reason for forming the corporation was to make a corporate profit. The state had a heavy hand in chartering turnpikes. Rates were regulated and many concessions to local travelers were mandated. In addition, “shunpiking” or bypassing toll gates was rampant. In this environment it’s not surprising that turnpike companies frequently failed. Nevertheless, many of the shareholders in the turnpike companies had a stake in their success beyond simple corporate profits. Turnpikes would allow them to move their products to market and would help them run their existing businesses more effectively. In this respect many of the stockholders would benefit though the turnpike was not a financial success. We can see this clearly when we consider Sackett’s Pike and the Mount Hope – Lumberland Turnpike and the benefits their owners received.
To learn more about the fascinating Delaware (Susquehanna) Turnpike Dorothy Kubik’s The Story of the Susquehanna Turnpike is a must read.
Copyright 2007 by Stephen Skye