Home  Publications Piedmont Papers The Roads Made the Town: The Approaches to Hillsborough in Pre-Modern Times |
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The Roads Made the Town: The Approaches to Hillsborough in Pre-Modern Times |
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Thursday, 27 October 2005 |
Hillsborough, North Carolina is a Trading Path town. That is, it came
into being because of its position on the Trading Path where it crosses
the Eno River. Good river crossings, fords, attracted permanent
residents to succor travellers who of necessity had to use the fords
over the Eno at Hillsborough. Resident ford keepers hosted stranded
travellers and assited with the passage of cargo across the fords.
The commercial attractiveness of a given ford determined how heavily it
was used and, therefore, how much value it might have for residents
near it. Around the point which became Hillsborough there were several
fords yielding easy access to good trails to important places. Owing to
its fords, the spot which became Hillsborough is a geopolitical
"chokepoint" through which much of the Southeastern Piedmonts
commercial traffic had to pass. This was why towns arose at the place
which became Hillsborough.
Thus, before there was either an Orange County or a Hillsborough, there
was a town where Hillsborough now claims fame. Maybe at one time it was
a little bit west of the current town, maybe at other times it was a
little bit north, but there is no doubt that over the centuries there
were numerous towns at the site which has become Hillsborough.
Under modern circumstances it is difficult to imagine pre-modern
conditions. So, it is easy to err, usually on the side of the romantic.
About Hillsborough at the time of the American Revolution one author,
noting that a down-east politician got lost on his way to Hillsborough,
has said that the eight roads leading into Hillsborough "were scarcely
more than bridle paths through impenetrable forests, marked only by
long blazes cut into the tree trunks."1 This inaccurately depicts Hillsborough at the time. It was but a captivating bit of poetic license.
Not only were the approaches to Hillsborough considerably more
established than mere bridle paths in 1776, they were well established,
major commercial arteries when Lord Granville's agent, William Churton,
originally laid out the town in 1754. In the Piedmont, Red, Black and
White traders broke and developed trails, and given the economics of
transport in the Piedmont's hide trade, they broke them for wagons well
before 1740.
By 1740 the Piedmont of North Carolina was a very settled place. It was
profoundly uncivilized, but it was thoroughly settled. The creation of
Hillsborough marks the arrival of civilization to the central Piedmont
but not the foundation of society. Though exact numbers will always
elude us, there is sufficient evidence at hand to assert that the
Piedmont around Hillsborough was completely if not densely occupied
when Lord Granville's agents came to town. So, if somebody got lost in
the Piedmont in 1776 it was because they either couldn't read the
blazes (road signs for the illiterate), or they were too foolish to ask
directions.2
Before the Bridges
Before bridges crossed the rivers of the Piedmont in the early
twentieth century there were at least two roads to every destination, a
high road and a low road; a short cut passable in dry weather, and a
way around in wet weather. With bridging, the shortest road to anyplace
became virtually the only road to that place. Numerous, perhaps fifty
percent of piedmont roads, disappeared from maps after bridging.3
It is difficult to imagine the maze of roads crisscrossing the country
before bridging, but it is important to try in order to better
understand the Piedmont, its people, and the origins of Hillsborough.
Today, driving down Highway 85 is a tedious business. On a modern
freeway, in a modern car, a/c blasting, cruise control engaged and some
decent sounds coming from the music system, you drive through the
country without ever being on it. Engineering verging on hubris levels
hills, fills valleys, bridges what can't be filled, tunnels what can't
be leveled and ensures a smooth delivery from point A to point B. On
modern Great Roads, nature only rises to consciousness at rest stops.
On the Great Roads of pre-modern time, though, one travelled on as well
as "through the land", and nature ruled supreme.
Hillsborough, before it became a seat of government, was a rest stop on
the Great Road of days gone by. In premodern times a long distance
traveller could make twenty miles a day and, every twenty miles or so,
"truckstop" settlements grew around the stopping points at the end of a
day's travel. Hillsborough is twenty miles from Mount Tirzah on the
Great Road from Petersburg, just as Graham is twenty miles from
Hillsborough and Greensboro twenty miles from Graham.
Hillsborough is, like most of the principle towns of the southeastern
piedmont, a river town. For, in this piedmont, rivers govern all
movement. Unlike other regions of the country where rivers are
commercial avenues, prior to bridging, the rivers of the southeastern
piedmont were barriers to movement. Movement therefore tended toward
river crossing points; what we call fords. At these crossings arose
settlements, for such crossings have intrinsic economic worth.4
As noted above, a second factor in determining the location of
settlements in pre-modern times has to do with how far a traveller
could go in a day. Prior to the introduction of the internal combustion
engine (and for a number of years thereafter), humankind and every
other beast of burden moved long distances at about two and a half
miles per hour or twenty miles per day. So, settlements, precolonial
and colonial were spaced about this far apart on any route when no
barrier intersected the path between them.5
When the agents of the Lords Proprietor determined to lodge a county
seat in the place that is now Hillsborough, that place was already
layered with previous settlements. Native Americans resided here for
thousands of years, and during the contact era, in the early days of
the European invasion of America, hybrid settlements of Indians,
Africans and Europeans arose on the fords at the bend in the Eno. All
settled here because the Eno River was easily crossed at Hillsborough.
There were a half dozen crossing points on the Eno at the great bend
where it slams into the Occaneechi Hills. Remnants of these fords,
though rapidly succumbing to development, can still be seen.
Northernmost is the crossing at Fawcett Mill. Below that there was
another where Highway 70 crosses the river west of Hillsborough.
Further downstream, each end of the great bend has a crossing point.
One is just at the west edge of Dimmock's Mill Road, and the other,
upstream, is just south of where Ben Johnson Road (old Highway 10)
crosses the river. Farther downstream, in Hillsborough, there was a
wagon ford just west from the Exchange Club Road bridge and there was a
foot and horse ford near the south end of Cameron Street. Finally,
there was an excellent ford east of Hillsborough (about three hundred
yards east of Highway 70) which, like the Great Road ford at Fawcett
Mill, bypassed Hillsborough altogether, much as do the interstate roads
today.
The Evolution of Fords
Foot fords, horse fords, and wagon fords each have different
characteristics reflecting the capabilities and limitation of each mode
of movement. So it will be useful to consider some technical realities
of pre-modern transport. This will help us put the approaches to
Hillsborough in an evolving context. For as the dominant mode of travel
changed so too did the relative value of different river crossings.
All fords share four common features: they are wet, they have slopes
for both entrance and exit, and they have bottoms of varying solidity.
Angle of entrance and exit, solidity of bottom, depth and speed of
water define fordability.
Cargo carrying Native American porters didn't want to soak their
moccasins if possible. Additionally, porters did not want to risk
losing their footing and soaking their cargo. Thus, Indian trails
tended to shallow water fords towards the heads of rivers. It is
likely, for this reason, that the ford at Fawcett Mill was the
principle Indian Trading Path crossing on the Eno River. Above the mill
can be seen a ford where stones could ensure dry feet and surest
footing.
Horses carried somewhat more cargo than can porters and could, without
undo risk, manage deeper water and more uncertain streambeds. Horses,
though, particularly burdened horses, cannot handle slopes as well as
could porters. A horse can climb beautifully, but they descend steep
slopes with less than elegance and, when burdened, a steep down-slope
can spell disaster for horses.
Wagons, on the other hand, can carry more cargo per unit of motive
power (horses and oxen generally) than can pack horses. Wagons have
wide wheelbases and, given a solid streambed, can ford in places
impossible to people and risky for pack animals. The depth of water
manageable by wagon was a function of its wheel size, and as we all
know from motion pictures, a well caulked Conestoga wagon could double
as a serviceable if unstable boat. But, owing to their load capacities,
wagons handle slopes even less well than do pack horses. In fact, at
least since Roman times, twelve percent of slope has been the nominal
maximum allowable slope on a wagon road (or modern highway). Anything
greater risks burning out brakes or overwhelming the braking power of
draft animals.6
Similar to the impact of changes in transportation modes, as Piedmont
economics changed, destinations changed and once important roads became
secondary or disappeared altogether, supplanted in importance by
previously inconsequential tracks. The end of the hide trade in the
Carolinas coincided with the arrival or government and the rise of
commercial farming in the Piedmont. Getting crops to market directed
traffic increasingly southward after government came to Hillsborough,
toward Cross Creek and Wilmington. Thus, while Corbin Town and early
Hillsborough were laid out to accommodate east-west traffic in hides
along King Street, cash crop farming gave first place in importance to
southbound roads and shifted traffice to north-south oriented Churton
Street. The difficult secondary ford at the end of Churton Street
replaced the natural dominant ford at Ben Johnson Road, just as the Ben
Johnson Road had dethroned Fawcett Mill when wagon-bourne commerce
supplanted pack trains.
In its earliest days, the Native American settlement at the bend in the
Eno, commercially hemmed in to the east by the Tuscarora, catered to
commerce flowing from southwest to northeast. In this trade the
approaches and departures from Hillsborough would have been governed by
possible crossings of the Roanoke/Dan River, the Haw River, the Little
and the Flat Rivers, and New Hope Creek. Traffic approaching
Hillsborough originated at the fords over these rivers. These streams
determined the commercial infrastructure imbedding Hillsborough at its
birth and continue to do so to this day.7
The Approaches to Hillsborough
From the south the principle crossing on the Haw was probably at
Woody's ford, downstream from Saxapahaw. The roadbed leading to this
crossing is no longer on our maps, but in colonial times it served
travellers coming from Cross Creek (Fayetteville) and Wilmington.
Earlier, though, traders used it to access the Native American towns
east of the Catawba, around Cheraw. This road crossed the Eno at
Dimmock's Mill.
From the west and southwest the low road and wagon road crossed the Haw
at Swepsonville, shown on the Collet (1770) and Mouzon (1775) maps as
"Armstrongs Mill", and went directly to the west end of the great bend
in the Eno. The nominal high road crossed at Haw River, and there were
at least two or three other shallow water crossings farther upstream.
These several shallow ford routes converged at a fork in the road about
half way between modern Mebane and the Haw River. At this point Lebanon
Road gathered these several tributaries, swelled to become the Great
Road and headed directly to the Fawcett Mill ford on the Eno. There
was, perhaps after the arrival of government in Hillsborough, also a
horse and wagon crossing at Mattock's Mill, later Hartford, upstream
from where Highway 70 crosses the Eno west of Hillsborough. It joined
with the Swepsonville Road a short ways west of the ford.
From the east, traffic coming from the Tuscarora and the Sounds
channeled between the Haw and the Neuse Basins. New Hope Creek
therefore dictated the approaches from the southeast and east. The high
road to the east probably bypassed New Hope Creek altogether and, after
paralleling the Eno until past New Hope Creek, turned down the trail
that became Cornwallis Road and the first course of North Carolina
Highway 10. With the advent of ferry's on the lower Neuse this became
the main road to Edenton and the road taken by Tryon when he marched
the militia to Hillsborough in 1771. Old Highway 86 crosses New Hope
high on that creek and, owing to marshy ground near the stream, was
probably impassable with even mild rain, but in the first years of
Hillsborough it was the low road to Pittsboro and Cross Creek.
From the Northeast, on the Flat River there is a low road or low water
ford now covered by Lake Michie. The road associated with this ford was
St. Mary's Road, otherwise known as the Oxford Road. The high road,
frequently referred to as The Great Road, came from the Harris Mill
ford in Rougement on the Flat River. This road, now Highway 57, forked
just a few hundred yards east of Mars Hill, northeast of Hillsborough.
The south fork went to Hillsborough passing Governor Burke's house and
entering town just east of the town cemetery while the north fork went
on to Fawcett Mill.
From the north the principle roads were dictated by crossings on the
Dan and Roanoke Rivers. Before Europeans developed ferries on the
Roanoke below Occaneechi Island (modern Clarksville,VA), the crossing
at that island and a low water crossing at modern Danville determined
the approaches to Hillsborough from the north. The Indian Trading Path
stuck to the ridges running south and southwest through Roxboro, and a
fork off this route at Prospect Hill brought the high road into
Hillsborough via Cedar Grove. A low road coming more directly from
Roxboro merged with the Cedar Grove Road north of Hillsborough. The
road from the Danville ford forked at what became Yanceyville to take
advantage of two fords over County Line Creek. The lower, eastern
crossing led to Pleasant Grove in Caswell County and thence to Prospect
Hill, and then Cedar Grove and Hillsborough.
The eight approaches to Hillsborough sketched above were clockwise from
the north: Old Cedar Grove Road (partially visible but no longer in
use); the Great Road or High Road to Rougemount; the Oxford Road,
currently called St. Mary's Road; the Halifax Road which probably
entered Hillsborough via the ford at the end of Cameron Street; the
Pittsboro/Cross Creek low Road, now called Old 86 which entered
Hillsborough via the ford upstream from Exchange Club Road Bridge; the
Woody's Ford Road which entered Hillsborough via King Street from the
Dimmock's Mill ford; the low wagon road of the Trading Path which
entered via the ford at the Great Bend in the Eno and also came into
Hillsborough via King Street; the horse and wagon ford at Mattocks
Mill, just north of the Highway 70 bridge west of Hillsborough; and
last, most important and oldest, the Indian Trading Path which crossed
the Eno at Fawcett Mill and entered Hillsborough via an offshoot of the
Great Road.
All these approaches undoubtedly served both precolonial Native
American populations and, after these people disappeared from sight,
Hillsborough's founders. When William Churton laid out Hillsborough
these were ancient roads and had been in heavy commercial use for
decades. They were not mere paths defined by blazed trees.
Saving the remnants of these ancient arteries of commerce should be a
priority for Hillsborough and Orange County for several good reasons.
First, because the fords were chokepoints they are likely to hoard high
concentrations of artifactual evidence; they have immense scholarly
value. Second, fords are monuments to a past but not altogether
forgotten way of life. They are landmarks in time to be neglected and
destroyed only at peril of destroying a part of ourselves. Third, owing
to the recent development of a number of government initiatives,
heritage remnants, like roadbeds and fords, have overwhelming economic
value when protected and presented as heritage tourism sites.
The Trading Path Preservation Association
The Trading Path Preservation Association is a non-profit organization
committed to preserving the remnants of the Piedmont Trading Path. By
the year 2007 the Association intends to have a network of inter-linked
heritage sites along the length of the Path, telling the story of the
Trading Path, the Piedmont and its peoples.
The Association, though, can not preserve the remnants itself. There
are too many sites for one organization to actively work, and
preservation is appropriately a local act. If a cultural resource is
not of value to local stewards it is likely of no interest to others
either. The Association will fund the study of local heritage sites, it
will encourage and help organize numerous local preservation efforts
into an effective whole, but preservation must be local. If
Hillsborough's past has value, Hillsborough must preserve it.
Within the past year what may have been Hillsborough's most valuable
single heritage asset has been destroyed. The owners of the Fawcett
Mill ford saw fit to backfill the Lebanon Road approach to the ford
with the soil of the surrounding hills, the location of the likeliest
archaeological trove. Thereby they've destroyed the best preserved,
most information rich road and ford complex, certainly in this area and
probably in the Piedmont.
On the west side of Hillsborough, at the end Kings Street where
pavement gives way to gravel and then gravel yields to red dirt, push
aside the weeds screening the line of sight and there will be found the
remnants of the original King Street. Walk down that remnant and at the
bottom of the hill you will find the intersection of the road from
Fawcett Mill. A bit further, over the creek and after passing under the
railroad trestle, to the right is the intersection of the Woody's ford
road to Wilmington, the wagon road to Armstong's Mill and
Hillsborough's own King street, all in their natural state and well
preserved. It it is more or less still intact and tells a tale.
Hillsborough has heritage to save beside fine old mansions. Find a way
to preserve and protect the remnants of Oxford Road that parallel St.
Mary's Road from Highway 70 almost all the way to town. Preserve the
Great Road extension to Hillsborough and in the process save the
remnants of the Revolutionary War gun foundry erected a stones throw
from Governor Burke's house. Save the last remnant of King's street.
There are thirty or more other terrain and landscape artifacts
illustrative of Hillsborough's origins and growth that need protection.
The Trading Path Preservation Association urges you to act now to
preserve all of them or that part of them Hillsborough deems worthy of
protection.
Notes
1. Hillsborough Historical Society Journal (1:1) July 1998: 26-27.Back to text
2. The contact period in the Piedmont is a particularly obscure moment
in American history. We know from documentary sources that slave and
indentured servants regularly made their way over the border from
Virginia from its very beginnings. We do not know how many or what
became of them. There is only a handful of works dealing with this
subject. The most scholarly of these is Hugo Prosper Leaming, Hidden
Americans: Maroons of Virginia and the Carolinas in Graham Hodges, ed.,
Studies in African American History and Culture (NY: Garland
Publishing, Inc., 1995.) The best description of the contact era in the
Piedmont may be James H. Merrell, "'Our bond of Peace': Patterns of
Intercultural Exchange in the Carolina Piedmont, 1650-1750" in Peter H.
Wood, Gregory A. Waselkov, and M. Thomas Hatley, eds., Powhatan's
Mantle: Indians in the Colonial Southeast (Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1989.)back to text
3. The unique nature of terrain in the Southeastern Piedmont results in
radical shifts in river volumns and speed. Violent spates follow even
light rainfalls and, between this feature and an environment which
consumes exposed wood in a matter of a few years, bridging was
economically and technically impractical in the Piedmont until the
development of an alternative bridging material. The Civil War raised
demand for steel production, and in the post-war years excess
production capacity drove down the prices and made possible a
nation-wide bridge building boom. Still, road and bridge development
languished in North Carolina until Federal intervention in the second
and third decade of the twentieth century. The most accessible source
on North Carolina roads is Capus Waynick, North Carolina Roads and
their Builders (Raleigh: Superior Stone Company, 1952.)back to text
4. In geopolitical terms, fords are "choke points", narrow passages
funneling traffic. Control of chokepoints confers wealth , prestige and
power on the possessor, and such control is invariably a necessary goal
of governments.back to text
5. See Donald W. Engels, Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the
Macedonian Army (Berkely: University of California Press, 1978) for
perhaps the only detailed analysis of the economics, capabilities and
limitations of premodern carriage.back to text
6. American Association of State Highway Officials, Public Roads of the
Past: 3500 B.C. to 1800 A.D. (Washington, DC: 1952) is hard to find but
contains numerous tidbits of premodern engineering lore not easily
found elsewhere.back to text
7. The village probably stretched discontinuously all the way from
Fawcett Mill to Hillsborough's Indian Field at the oxbow bend. This
village/hamlet arrangement is common in most pre-modern contexts. It
minimizes the impact of human concentration on the land by allowing
dispersal of waste while providing for a rapid concentration of
residents if needed. Typically, this village would have had a central
rallying point, and there is substantial evidence that the village
headquarters on the upper Eno was on the west side of the river at the
great bend. See James H. Merrell, The Indians' New World: Catawbas and
their Neighbors from European Contact through the Era of Removal
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 124-127 for a
description of the disbursed settlements on the Catawba River.back to
text
Copyright © 1999, Tom Magnuson. All Rights Reserved.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 October 2005 )
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