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> CHESTER MeNALL . | 1 â€"Watchin J 9 3 i% . @ Waterford g i igh | Historical highway A tiny bridge, partly under the one which carries traffic through Bloomsburg on old highway 24 and pointed out to me by a member of the .Waterford~Townsend Historical Society, brought the question to mind as to how that particular bit of road which joins Waterford and | Simeoe came into existence in the first place, In all probability, it began as a trail, possibly followed by the Indians on their way to and from the lake, It twists and turns to follow the contours of the land and crosses creeks where they are easily forded. \ It seems that the first thenâ€"modern road joining Waterford and Simcoe originated in 1853 and was conâ€" ceived by Alfred Bowlby and James Hooker who owned a t grist and saw mill in the village. The two men very likely viewed such a road as a means of increasing business by > providing easier access to their establishments, A plank + road was decided upon because Such a road was conâ€" sidered superior to the gravel throughways and also, very probably, because planks were easily obtained, © The road began about a mile north of the village to the first toll booth at the edge of Bloomsburg and from there ; on to the second toll booth at Simcoe. Records show that _ | construction cost $16,900, a sum which was high for that time but which was justified by the need to build 6 bridges along the way. ( . _ Tolls charged were two cents per mile with special rates . for driving various kinds of livestock. For the first 10 years ‘ of its use, it paid the stockholders no dividends because all f revenue was used to liquidate the cost of the original j construction. After that, and until the road was replaced by another, an annual 3.5 per cent was paid on shares. Little or no maintenance work was done apparently and in March of 1879, the Waterford Star printed the following complaintâ€""This week the road is in it usual spring style and the collection of tolls thereon, is simply a mild type of highway robbery, and not very mild either. That the Directors of this road have no principle is an acknowledged fact; and if they have a conscience, it must be so small, that if it was put into a hummingbird‘s quill and blown into the eye of a mosquito, it would not make the ‘ little fellow wink. : In fact, by about 1880, repairs had become just too expensive. The cost of planking had gone to $10 per thousand board feet, about double the cost of when the road had been built. Then too, concession roads which charged no toll were as good or better than the Waterford to Simcoe plank road and so travellers chose to journey on these instead. & By the early 1880‘s, the company those to abandon those sections of the road within the limits of Waterford and Simcoe so as to avoid the cost of upkeep. The Waterford and Simeoe Gravel Road Company came to an end in 1884. Engineers ordered the road, for all practical purposes, reconstructed nor would they allow tolls to be collected until it was. The owners of the comâ€" pany went to court in an attempt to disprove the engineer‘s | report but were unsuccessful. Near the end of the same year, the municipalities of ‘ Simcoe, Windham and Townsend raised enough capital to purchase the road and make it free for public use and by > 1885, there was general rejoicing in the fact that toll gates had, at last, disappeared from the county. And now, to go back to the beginning, I wonder if that . | little stone bridge which remains partly hidden at â€" Bloomsburg is one of the six that were built along the } Waterford and Simeoe Plank Road over a century ago. _/ 4 1 us