312 Percy Wells Bidwell 



As a result, the work, if we can call it work, was most inefficiently 

 done. It was not until about 1775 that this system began to be 

 abolished in Connecticut and provision was made for laying taxes 

 in certain towns for the repair of their roads.^ 



How the Roads Were Laid Out. 



The roads first laid out were those serving the inhabitants of the 

 town in passing from farm to farm and in going to and from the 

 center of the town where stood the meeting house and country store. 



are most needed, but that which is most convenient for himself and his brother 

 farmers, after their spring work is done, or after harvesting, and notifies every 

 person assessed to come and work out his tax. As the citizens in town meet- 

 ing fix the price to be allowed for the labor of men and animals in thus working 

 out the taxes, it is usually fixed at the highest prices which the best men and teams 

 could command, and often much higher, every voter who intends to 'work out 

 his tax' having a direct interest to fix a high price, and they constitute a large 

 majority in town meeting. The time appointed 'for working out the highway 

 tax,' as it is rightly termed, arrives, and at eight o'clock a.m. a motley assemblage 

 gathers, of decrepit old men, each with a garden hoe on his shoulder; of pale, thin 

 mechanics from their shoe shops, armed with worn-out shovels; half-grown boys, 

 sent by their mothers, who, perhaps, are widows; with perhaps the doctor, the 

 lawyer, and even the minister, all of whom understand that 'working on the 

 road' does not mean hard labor, even for soft hands. The farmers bring their 

 steers, great and small, with the old mare in the lead, with a cart; and the Irish- 

 man drives up with his rickety horse-cart and the mortal remains of a worn-out 

 railroad horse, to do his part. The only effective force on the ground consists of 

 two or three yokes of oxen and a half-dozen men hired by the surveyor with money 

 paid by non-residents, or men whose time is of too much value to themselves 

 to be wasted on the road. Here is the surveyor, who never held the office be- 

 fore, and who knows nothing of road-making or of directing a gang of hands. 

 The work must go on in some way. The roads are soft and full of ruts, or rough 

 with protruding stones. The stones must be covered, and the road rounded up 

 into shape. The cattle are all put to the big town plough, which is set in at the 

 side of the road; the boys ride on the beam, and the drivers put on the lash, and 

 the gutters, half filled with the sand and soil and leaves of a dozen seasons, are 

 ploughed up, the shovel and hoe men waiting very patiently for their turn to 

 work. The teams then stand idle; and this mixture, more fit for the compost 

 heap than anything else, is thrown upon the road, and finally leveled and smoothed 

 by the old men with their hoes; and thus the road is mended. This is not an 

 exaggerated picture of 'working on the road' in many small towns. The occasion 

 is regarded rather as a frolic than as serious labor; the old men tell stories to an 

 audience always ready to lean on their tools and listen. The youngsters amuse 

 themselves by all sorts of practical jokes, among which is the favorite one of over- 

 loading the carts, when any carts are used, so as to stick the teams." 



' The privilege of imposing such taxes was granted by the legislature In Con- 

 necticut. Thirty-one towns received this privilege in the years 1774-1780. See 

 Public Records of the State of Connecticut, Vols. XIV-XVIII. 



