NEWS: Old Wilderness Road, 1923, Bell Co. ------------------------- Submitted by Mary Lou Hudson Date: 12 July 03 ------------------------- ************************************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. ************************************************************************** Middlesboro Daily News, Middlesboro, KY - May 26, 1923 OLD WILDERNESS ROAD ONE BEST EARLY HIGHWAYS Ran From Holsten River, Virginia, Through Middlesboro And Cumberland Gap, to Mouth of Otter Creek OPENED JUST BEFORE BEGINNING OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR By Associated Press Frankfort, Ky., May 26 - The Wilderness Road, running from Tennessee and Virginia into Central Kentucky, was one of the hardest and longest highways known in the pioneer days of America, according to a system sketch of the early roads of Kentucky prepared by J.T. Madison, officer engineer of the department of state roads and highways. It led from a settlement on the Holston River, in Virginia, to the mouth of Otter Creek on the Kentucky River and was variously known as Boone's Trail, Virginia road, according to Mr. Madison. However, the Wilderness Road is the name by which it was most generally known. The Wilderness Road was opened just previous to the beginning of the Revolutionary War. An advance army of men, women and children traversed its rough course along Powell's Valley through Cumberland Gap thence to the place known as Crab Orchard. Mr. Madison stated in his sketch of the road. There were probably 25,000 persons who moved from settlements of Virginia over the highway into the edge of the Blue Grass region of Kentucky. "In the year 1763 the King of England issued a proclamation forbidding anyone to secure a title of land beyond the headwaters of stream flowing from the west and northwest and emptying into the Atlantic Ocean," Mr. Madison stated. The citizens of Virginia did not sit idly by, however, but sent an agent named Thomas Walker of Ft. Stanwix, now Rome, N.Y., to enter into a treaty with six nations of Indians for land that Lord Hillsboro, British Secretary for the Colonies, had contrived to keep them out of through the King's proclamation. Indians Battle in Kentucky The Indians of the northwest and those of the South were separated by the rolling sections of Central Kentucky. Tribes of both of these sections wanted the rolling lands of Kentucky and consequently many battles occurred over them. Mr. Madison stated "While Kentucky was still a county in the state of Virginia there was an act of legislature passed in 1835 (sic) providing for the opening of new roads through the state. After Kentucky was admitted to the union in 1792 its legislature re-enacted the law authorizing the opening of roads within its own boundaries. "While in 1793 three commissioners, Bennett Pemberton, Nathaniel Sanders and Daniel Weisiger were appointed under an act of legislature to receive subscriptions for a fund to be expended in clearing a wagon roads from Frankfort to Cincinnati. At that time it was considered that such a road was necessary and that a state fund was needed for clearing the timber, the grubbing and underbrush as the route traversed then was through an unsettled country, which could neither afford the funds nor furnish men for doing the work under county administration. A second act was passed on December 12, 1794 to clear a road starting in the neighborhood of Crab Orchard to Powell's Valley Tennessee. "A third act was passed on December 19, 1795 providing for a wagon road starting in the neighborhood of Crab Orchard and ending at the end of Cumberland Gap. The cost of opening the latter road was to be out of the state funds, which was apparently adequate, for it seems that during the summer of 1796 it was ready for traffic. Road Law in 1801 "On December 11, 1801 the state legislature enacted a law requiring all inter-county seat roads or those leading to other states to be at least 30 feet wide. If extra width was required in any county the responsibility of providing this developed in county courts. "The necessity of a road from central part of Kentucky leading toward Virginia was fit so that the state legislature on December 13, 1802 provided for an opening road from Paris to Mt. Sterling and then to the Big Sandy river. The funds for clearing the timber and grubbing stumps along this route were raised by subscription. "It seems that the appropriated subscription of $1,000 for road purposes was made in December 1, 1821 for the improvement of a state road leading from Lexington to Nashville, Tennessee. Because of the thinly populated conditions of the country through which the roads would pass, it was necessary for the state to participate with funds for opening it. This was designed to be the great highway leading from the northwest part of Ohio across Kentucky and Tennessee to the State of Alabama.