The earliest roads were Indian
trails,
constituting quite a network.
A principal Indian "trail to the
sea crossed
the County from Plum Point (presently the foot of Taylor's Lane,
Cinnaminson
Township) and followed the ridges of Moorestown and Mount Laurel in its
wandering course to the coast. Indians from across the Delaware, as
well
as those in New Jersey, favored this trail for an annual May journey to
the "King of Waters" where like many other non-Indians of a later day -
they feasted on oysters, bathed in the briny Atlantic, and sometimes
stayed
until August or September.
Another trail of ancient record
was the
Crossweeksung Trail, striking south from Crosswicks to connect with the
trails of the Rancocas Indians, near the siteofMount Holly. This trail
also connected with the ancient Mantas Trail, reaching east to Mathis
Island
and the site of Tuckerton.
Of importance to the history of
the County
was the Shamong Trail, following a route from the Indian crossing at
the
site of Burlington to pass many another site of towns to come: Mount
Holly,
Lumberton, Medford, Shamong, and Atsion - thereafter meandering south
to
Cape May Point. This was a land and portage trail, and very obviously
it
was a foundation trail for more than one familiar road of the present
day.
Another "trail to the sea"
crossed New
Jersey from the "Falls of Delaware" (Trenton) via the present
Wrightstown
to stretch directly east to the sea - this one a "dry trail" offering
advantages
to the foot traveler who had an aversion to getting wet.
All of these were in addition to
trails
flanking every Creek, and to another path flanking the River in a very
irregular pattern from the site of Burlington to Arwamus (Gloucester).
After the establishment of the
early government
at Burlington, the West Jersey Assembly in 1682 projected the earliest
provincial road, to connect that town with the only other lower-Jersey
town of the time. Ten men from each of the towns laid out the "Salem
Road"
- known at a later interval as the King's Highway - and on this
historic
road came such early towns as Moorestown and Charleston, with a ferry
in
between at Adam's Wharf.
Another historic road, spanning
the County
in an east-west direction, was the Lawrie Road. Named for an early
Quaker
colonizer, it connected Burlington with the East Jersey Capital, Perth
Amboy; with a boat connection at either end permitting the traveler to
journey from Philadelphia to New York in a matter of three to five days
"wind and weather permitting." This road was projected in 1684,
following
Indian trails, and was little more than a trail for many years. Not
until
"stage-waggons" began operation in 1706 did any "through schedules"
apply.
The early Townships named their
own Surveyors
of Roads, and many local roads were financed at the local level during
the
colonial period. From the time of the formation of the "Board of
Justices
and Freeholders" in 1713, the roads connecting more distant towns
became
a County responsibility. All of the early roads were of sand, plain
dirt,
or gravel, subjecting the traveler to mud and washouts in the wet
seasons
and to dust clouds in dry weather.
Earliest of the local roads was
the historic
Oxmead Road, its first stretch being laid out near Burlington in 1682.
Numerous old Indian trails were enlarged to become roads: "The Road to
Chester" following the line of the Pompeston Creek (now Riverton Road)
toward Moorestown in 1721; the Cinnaminson Road paralleling the
Pensauken,
surveyed in 1768; and primitive Creek roads on either side of the
Rancocas,
connecting the Creek farms as early as 1682 but not straightened by
survey
until 1775. The twisting sand roads that followed the course of the
upper
Rancocas and of the Mullica, Batsto, and Bass Rivers would not have
been
owned by any surveyor, but they traversed the pine region in the 1700's.
Before 1701 a road of sorts was
built
from Burlington to Mount Holly, and was extended prior to 1745 to
Taunton,
then known as "Read's Mill." By 1745 likewise came the old Springfield
Road, passing Jobstown, shifting southward to "Ong's Hat," and spanning
the long miles to Manahawkin. In 1796 a new "Monmouth Road," replacing
an earlier stage road, was surveyed "as straight as the nature of the
ground
and other circumstances will admit" from Monmouth Court House
(Freehold)
to the site of the then-new Court House at "Mount Holly in the County
of
Burlington."
"Waiting at the Ferry," from a
sketch
picturing a typical early ferry in Burlington County, prior to the
widespread
construction of bridges.
Authorized by the colonial
Assembly was
the "Great Road to Cooper's Ferries" of 1748. A century later this was
improved as a toll-road by a Turnpike Association, and another century
later the old road graduated into Rt. 130. Its early history points up
the fact that bridges were a rarity; in the 1750's the travelers on
this
road encountered no less than four ferries on a journey from Burlington
to Philadelphia.
Bridges were then built, in
1760, over
the Pensauken and Cooper's Creeks - however in early December, 1776,
the
Pensauken bridge was destroyed by farmers and militiamen on orders from
General Washington, to avert British approach to Philadelphia by this
route.
Picturesque must have been the
early ferry
operated across the Rancocas by John Buzby to service this road, from
1748
until the first bridge, a covered one, was built in 1793 at
"Bridgeboroughi
The old ferry's toll schedule tells something of the times and of the
colorful
passengers: Footman, 2 pence. Man and horse, 3 pence. Chaise, Chair, or
Sleigh, one horse 9 pence, two horses 1 shIlling. Waggon or Coach with
four horses, 18 pence. Cow, heifer, bull, ox, or steer, 3 pence. Sheep
or hog, 1 penny.
In 1838 the Board of Freeholders
replaced
the old covered bridge over the Rancocas with a new open bridge; which
was in turn replaced in 1927.
The historic ferries of the
1700's boasted
no such boats as the double-ended steam ferryboats remembered by
Jerseymen
today. The double-ended idea came only a little over a century ago, and
happened to originate with Edwin Stevens who was for several years a
resident
of Bordentown. The earlier ferries were open and rectangular, sometimes
horse-powered and more often pole-powered or sweep-oared, or pulled by
ropes from shore to shore - one ancient innovation being a moveable
gate
at the forward end, doubling as a gangplank.
Of this provincial type was the
Samuel
Clift Ferry of 1681, at Burlington, and - most historic of all - Dunk's
Ferry which operated from the Duncan Williamson tract on the opposite
shore
to the present site of Beverly.
